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this mystery object may be our first visitor from another solar system   - cnn

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This mystery object may be our first visitor from another solar system

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NASA doesn't know where A/2017 U1 came from, but it's not behaving like the local space rocks.

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An object that is around a quarter mile in diameter is passing through our solar system at 15.8 mi/sec, but isn't showing behaviors of something from our solar system. Astronomers say this would be the first interstellar object we've ever observed.

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this mystery object may be our first visitor from another solar system   - cnn

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This mystery object may be our first visitor from another solar system

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NASA doesn't know where A/2017 U1 came from, but it's not behaving like the local space rocks.

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A 45 year-old unexpectedly gave birth to her third child.  She began to feel excruciating pain and suspected it was kidney stones, but when she went into the hospital she was told she was told she was about to give birth. She had no idea that she was pregnant until the day when she gave birth to him.

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When 45-year-old Beth Clay began experiencing excruciating abdominal pains earlier this month, she suspected she had kidney stones. Instead, after arriving at a hospital emergency room, the Venice woman discovered she was about to give birth to her third child.

Clay told KTLA in an interview Wednesday that she had no idea she was pregnant until Liam Ryder Clay entered the world 10 days ago.

"The shock is just amazing," she said.

For the past nine months, she maintained an active and healthy lifestyle, exercising daily and even going for a long bike ride on the boardwalk just days before the delivery.

She also kept to a strict diet that led her to lose 15 pounds during her pregnancy.

Her husband was equally stunned that he's once again a new father.

"I was like, That just can't be real.' It's all contrived, never could happen. You would know if there was a baby in your belly, but we're living proof," Scott Clay said. Beth Clay added that she never even felt the baby kick.

Clay said doctors have a theory as to why she never knew she was expecting a child until she went into labor.

"The doctor feels sure that he was behind everything, behind my kidneys behind my liver," she said. "I was in tiptop shape, and then the next three days, here's this little rascal."

Liam spent a few days in the intensive care unit but is now healthy and thriving.

The Clays, who already have two adult children, never imagined they'd be on diaper duty at this stage of their life, but say they are thrilled once again to be parents to a newborn.

"We waited a whole day before we told any of our family," Beth Clay said. "Just so we could absorb what was actually happening, it's huge."

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Venice Woman, 45, Unexpectedly Gives Birth After Not Realizing She Was Pregnant

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When 45-year-old Beth Clay began experiencing excruciating abdominal pains earlier this month, she suspected she had kidney stones. Instead, after arriving at a hospital emergency room, the Venice woman discovered she was about to give birth to her third child.

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There is a planet that snows sunscreen.

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It might sound like something from science fiction, but NASA scientists have just found a blisteringly hot planet where it actually 'snows' suncream.

The Hubble telescope was scanning exoplanet Kepler-13Ab, located outside of our solar system, when they found the vicious storms of titanium dioxide - the active ingredient in sunscreen - raining down.

But sadly visitors wouldn't be able to bottle it up to defend themselves against the 5000-degree daytime temperatures on Kepler 13-Ab, because it only falls on the side of the planet permanently kept in darkness away from the parent star. T ypical.

The team of astronomers at Penn State didn't go looking for the titanium dioxide but were studying Kepler-13Ab as it is one of the hottest known exoplanets and so is able to provide insight into the complexity of weather and atmospheric conditions.

And may someday be useful for gauging the habitability of earth-sized planets.

Lead author Thomas Beatty said: "In many ways, the atmospheric studies we're doing now on these gaseous 'hot Jupiter' kind of planets are test beds for how we're going to do atmospheric studies of terrestrial, Earth-like planets."

During their exploration they found that the planet's atmosphere is cooler at higher altitudes, which was surprising because it is the complete opposite of what happens on other hot Jupiters.

They concluded there must be something at play causing this to happen, and made the first detections of this "snow-out" process ever recorded.

Working as a cold-trap, the team speculated that instead of absorbing light and re-radiating it as heat (as is seen on other planets) Kepler-13Ab's titanium oxide is missing from the daytime side.

And as a result the lack of titanium oxide gas to absorb incoming starlight means the atmospheric temperature there grows colder with increasing altitude.

The reason it is missing in the first place is because powerful winds carry it around, condensing it into crystalline flakes that form clouds.

Jason Wright, study co-author, explained why it is so important to understand these exoplanet conditions, saying: " Understanding what sets the climates of other worlds has been one of the big puzzles of the last decade, seeing this cold-trap process in action provides us with a long sought and important piece of that puzzle."

The team's observations also support the idea that this happens on other planets too, of a similar size, but you just can't see it.

"Presumably, this precipitation process is happening on most of the observed hot Jupiters, but those gas giants all have lower surface gravities than Kepler-13Ab.

"The titanium oxide snow doesn't fall far enough in those atmospheres, and then it gets swept back to the hotter dayside, revaporizes, and returns to a gaseous state," said Beatty.

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Hubble Discovers A Giant Boiling Planet Where It Quite Literally 'Snows' Sunscreen

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It might sound like something from science fiction, but NASA scientists have just found a blisteringly hot planet where it actually 'snows' suncream. The Hubble telescope was scanning exoplanet Kepler-13Ab, located outside of our solar system, when they found the vicious storms of titanium dioxide - the active ingredient in sunscreen - raining down.

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Missouri lawyers wife gunned down outside of their home.

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The wife of a Missouri lawyer who was mysteriously gunned down in front of his home says her children are scared to go outside as police have yet to identify a suspect.

Thomas Pickert, a 39-year-old personal injury lawyer, was killed Wednesday in the upscale Brookside area of Kansas City. Police said Pickert's wife heard a gunshot and then found her husband fatally injured outside.

"She said...'I want to tell Tom's story. I want everyone to know the kind of person that he was and what he means to our family,' but she said 'I just don't have the capacity to do it now,'" Jill Chadwick, a spokesperson with the University of Kansas Health System, where Pickert's wife Emily Riegel worked, told FOX4 KC on Thursday.

Riegel, a palliative care doctor, said her children were still scared to go outside. Pickert was shot in the front yard of the home moments after he walked his children to school, The Associated Press reported.

Investigators had interviewed a man who owns a white van seen in the neighborhood at the time of the shooting. Media reports indicated Pickert recently won a $5.75 million judgment against that man. But police spokeswoman Kari Thompson said Thursday the man is not a suspect in Pickert's death.

Thompson provided no other details about the investigation, according to The Associated Press.

"It is shocking. It's very sad and it's a tremendous loss. I think it's a reminder for all of us that we need to be thinking about the quality of the lives that we live, what we can do to make our communities better and safer and to think more broadly about the kind of crime that's impacting the community right now all over the place," Dan Cranshaw, who attended a two-year leadership academy with Pickert through the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, told FOX4 KC.

The family is still arranging a funeral and neighbors are shaken over the shooting.

"I was just shocked. I was stunned," Deborah Carlton told KMBC. "We can't be afraid, but we also have to get the information and find out if there was a connection to something."

Added neighbor David Wesley: "I really feel for them as neighbors. I trust and hope this community here will embrace them and gather around them right now."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Slain Kansas City attorney's wife says children afraid to go outside

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The wife of a Missouri lawyer who was mysteriously gunned down in front of his home says her children are scared to go outside as police have yet to identify a suspect. Thomas Pickert, a 39-year-old personal injury lawyer, was killed Wednesday in the upscale Brookside area of Kansas City.

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Astronomers around the world are trying to track down a small, fast-moving object that is zipping through our solar system. Rob Weryk, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, states "This object came from outside our solar system."

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this mystery object may be our first visitor from another solar system   - cnn

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This mystery object may be our first visitor from another solar system

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NASA doesn't know where A/2017 U1 came from, but it's not behaving like the local space rocks.

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A cafe in Long Beach, California, called Sweet Dixie Kitchen, makes southern comfort food. The owner says most of the food is made from scratch but the fried chicken is from Popeyes

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cafe busted for serving popeyes - cnn video

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Cafe busted for serving Popeyes - CNN Video

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A cafe in Long Beach, California, called Sweet Dixie Kitchen, makes southern comfort food. The owner says most of the food is made from scratch but the fried chicken is from Popeyes. CNN's Anderson Cooper explains on the RidicuList.

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two women and their dogs were rescued from their boat after being stranded out in the pacific ocean for nearly five months.

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two women rescued after 5 months adrift in the pacific  - cnn

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Two women rescued after 5 months adrift in Pacific

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Two women from Hawaii who were lost at sea for nearly five months have been rescued by the US Navy.

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Nobody in the DNC has any idea how 9 million dollars somehow got in the hands of Fusion. Or who anybody who works with them even is.

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The confusion surrounding who pulled the strings on the Democrat-funded research resulting in the controversial Trump dossier has only emboldened Republicans looking to cut through the fog, amid signs the connections between the project and its overseers were murky by design.

Even the head of the Democratic Party admitted as much during a forum at the University of Chicago earlier this week.

While defending the Fusion GPS dossier as standard opposition research, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez maintained he only learned about the dossier "a few days ago" - before explaining how his predecessors at the DNC could have set up such a project.

"You hire a lawyer - and we hire lawyers all the time who hire third-party vendors to do their work - and so we knew that we were paying for opposition research at the DNC, but we didn't ask questions about who they're hiring in the context of doing their research," Perez told The Washington Post's Karen Tumulty, when asked to explained how he could have been in the dark.

Perez, who was not at the DNC at the time, went on to defend the party's efforts, saying "we had very strong reason to believe that Donald Trump and the Donald Trump campaign and the Russians were potentially conspiring to affect the election."

The controversial dossier contained unverified and lurid allegations about dirt the Russians had on then-candidate Donald Trump and his campaign's possible connections to Moscow.

The Washington Post reported this earlier week - and Fox News confirmed - that the political consulting firm Fusion GPS was retained last year by Marc E. Elias, an attorney representing the DNC and the Clinton campaign. The firm then hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to write the now-infamous dossier.
DEMS' DOSSIER DENIALS PILE UP
According to the report, the Clinton campaign and DNC paid more than $9 million to Elias' firm Perkins Coie that, in turn, retained the political consultants who commissioned the research. Before that, the research was backed by an unknown Republican client.

But it's unclear how much of that $9 million went toward the dossier. And it's unclear who exactly at the Clinton campaign and DNC might have known how it was being spent.

Perez and then-DNC leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz have denied knowledge. So have Hillary Clinton's former campaign chairman John Podesta and spokesman Brian Fallon. And while Clinton herself has not spoken publicly on the matter, sources have sought to distance her from the dossier in news reports.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told Fox News' "Outnumbered Overtime" that the careful distance between the research and the political entities that helped fund it only underscores the need to "connect the dots."

"There were so many in-between groups used to sort of shield direct control that it's very clear that people on the one end, Russia, and on the other end, the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign - they obviously wanted to create the inability to connect the dots. And when somebody goes through so many efforts through so many surrogates to keep that from happening, you have a special reason to want to connect the dots."

To what extent Russia might have been involved is unclear.

But more details could emerge soon, as Fusion GPS fights in court to keep its bank records on lockdown.

Wall Street Journal editorial board member Kimberley Strassel wrote that the disclosure of the DNC-Clinton connection suggests "there's something Fusion cares about keeping secret even more" in those records.

"If the House wins, don't be surprised if those records include money connected to Russians. In the past Fusion has worked with Russians, including lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who happened to show up last year in Donald Trump Jr.'s office," Strassel wrote.

President Trump has reveled in the recent revelations - including renewed scrutiny of a 2010 Obama-era uranium deal involving a Russian firm - using them to fuel his claims that the investigations into Russian collusion with his campaign are baseless.

"It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump. Was collusion with HC!" Trump tweeted Friday.

In another twist, CNN reported that former Clinton campaign chairman Podesta privately denied any knowledge of the payment arrangement in recent interviews with congressional investigators. According to the report, sitting next to Podesta during that September interview was Marc Elias - the attorney who retained Fusion.

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'We didn't ask questions': Fusion GPS link to Dems murky by design

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The confusion surrounding who pulled the strings on the Democrat-funded research resulting in the controversial Trump dossier has only emboldened Republicans looking to cut through the fog, amid signs the connections between the project and its overseers were murky by design.

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Syria is responsible for a sarin attack that killed 80 people.

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Three UN diplomats confirmed the report's finding.

"The panel is confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin at Khan Sheikhun on 4 April 2017," the report says, one diplomat told CNN.

The April attack prompted US President Donald Trump to order the US military to launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase.

"‎Time and again, we see independent confirmation of chemical weapons use by the Assad regime. And in spite of these independent reports, we still see some countries trying to protect the regime. That must end now," Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement.

Horrifying images and videos emerged after the incident showing civilians, including children, struggling to breathe with foam coming from their mouths.

Syria has repeatedly denied it had anything to do with the attack and also denies it has any chemical weapons. Damascus has said an airstrike hit a chemical weapons depot in the rebel-held area.

The report issued Thursday was compiled by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations' Joint Investigative Mechanism, the investigative panel probing the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The report was sent to the Security Council.

On Tuesday, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution to extend the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism.

Russia says the group is biased against the Assad government. The mandate of the JIM, as it is known, expires in three weeks.

When the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons made a statement about its findings in June, Syrian ally Russia slammed that news as politically motivated and based on "doubtful data."

Russia is Syria's most powerful ally and has bankrolled much of the six-year conflict, carrying out regular airstrikes in Syria to prop up Assad's regime.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Thursday that Russia was not following through on its promise to ensure Syria abandoned chemical weapons.

He criticized Russia's veto of the JIM mandate and other vetoes at the United Nations.

"This behavior can only undermine the global consensus against the use of chemical weapons," he said. "I call on Russia to stop covering up for its abhorrent ally and keep its own commitment to ensure that chemical weapons are never used again."

Haley called on the UN Security Council to "send a clear message that the use of chemical weapons by anyone will not be tolerated."

Stockpiles of sarin may exist in Syria, despite the OPCW overseeing the destruction of the country's chemical weapon supply in 2013, after an attack in the Ghouta area of Damascus. Activists said that attack killed 1,400 people.

Sarin is an extremely volatile nerve agent because of its ability to change from liquid to gas. People are exposed to sarin through skin contact, eye contact, or by breathing it. Severely exposed people are not likely to survive.

A leading human rights group said the United Nations must act.

"This is the fourth attack where the UN-appointed inquiry has found that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in blatant violation of international humanitarian law. The question now is whether Security Council and OPCW members, including Russia, will move to protect a key international rule and hold Syrian authorities accountable as they said they would," said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch.

The joint report also blamed ISIS for using sulfur mustard in Syria in September.

CNN's Richard Roth reported from New York and Steve Almasy wrote in Atlanta.

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sarin attack that prompted us missile strikes was work of syria

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UN: Syria responsible for sarin attack that killed scores

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The sarin attack earlier this year on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed more than 80 people was the work of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a joint report from the United Nations and international chemical weapons inspectors finds.

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New York could be facing 500 year floods every five years as sea levels rise and their flood risk increases.

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Story highlights

In the coming years, New York City might look less like a concrete jungle and more like a concrete swamp.

The Big Apple could see a surge in significant floods every five years between 2030 and 2045 as an impact of climate change, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study suggests that as global sea levels rise and as a warming atmosphere drives tropical storms, the combination could leave the city facing more frequent and more dangerous flood events.

"We know that storm surge flooding tends to be the deadliest aspect of many tropical cyclones," said Andra Garner, a climate researcher at Rutgers University and lead author of the study.

"It is very important that we take action to mitigate future warming in order to avoid the worst-case scenarios of future sea-level rise, which would help to limit the increases we see in future flood risk," she said. "This work emphasizes the need for adaptation planning for the New York region in order to protect the city's coastal infrastructure in both the near future and in centuries to come."

Garner and her colleagues pointed in their study to Hurricane Sandy, which spawned devastating floods in New York City in 2012, as an example of extreme weather events the city could face.

Forecast models show that a big storm could hit the Northeast on Sunday - the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy's US landfall - and into Monday morning. The storm could bring flooding rains from the mid-Atlantic through New England.

However, the storm system is not forecast to be as strong as Sandy, which was directly responsible for about 147 deaths in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, according to the National Hurricane Center.

For the new study, scientists used computer models to project probable sea level rise and storm surges in New York City from the preindustrial era before 1800 to 2300.

The scientists took a close look at the frequency of troublesome flood heights of 2.25 meters, or 7.38 feet, above the average tidal level for the region; in contrast, Hurricane Sandy had a storm surge of 2.8 meters, 9.19 feet, above the mean tidal level, according to the study.

The models projected that flood heights of 2.25 meters above the mean tidal level will become more frequent over time.

During the preindustrial era, such flooding occurred only about every 500 years, the researchers found. By the modern period, such flooding occurred about every 25 years, and it could occur every five years in the future.

Some of the same researchers previously found that global sea levels rose faster in the 20th century than during any of the 27 previous centuries, according to a separate study published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

That study also suggests that less than about half of the observed rise in sea levels in the 20th century would have occurred in the absence of global warming.

New York, for instance, has experienced at least a foot of sea level rise since 1900, mostly due to the expansion of warming ocean waters, according to the state's Department of Environmental Conservation.

Additionally, scientists argue that the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels and warmer oceans, recently made Hurricanes Irma and Harvey more powerful than they otherwise would have been.

In the new study, even though the climate models showed more frequent flooding, they also projected that tropical cyclones could shift farther east and farther out to sea, the researchers found.

"The track shift was really not something we expected to find in this work and not something we had originally set out to investigate," Garner said. "The finding reveals the need for additional research into the way that future storm tracks may behave in the Atlantic basin, and it's something that we hope to look into more."

Even with a possible track shift, Kim Knowlton, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City who was not involved in the study, highlighted that rising sea levels would still have a significant impact on flooding in the future and public health, which "is an area of big concern," she said.

"It's quite likely that we're going to see that sea level contribution to coastal floods for some time, that we're going to have to contend with this," said Knowlton, who is also an assistant clinical professor at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Frequent flooding, such as what was projected in the new study, could influence public health by posing the direct risk of potential drowning and injury, as well as other health consequences associated with evacuation efforts and power outages, and mental health impacts, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.

There are numerous public health concerns related to flooding beyond the most obvious risks of drowning and trauma, said Jonathan Patz, a professor and director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the new study.

"These range from contaminated drinking water and risk of infectious diseases simply from wading in floodwaters, to asthma and other respiratory illness from exposure to mold and fungus during post-event cleanup when people return to their homes," Patz said.

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Patz added that prolonged power outages can further delay access to clean water and cause heat-related deaths due to a lack of air conditioning.

"The most important thing that we can do to avoid such devastating floods is to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases by pursuing a clean energy economy," he said. "That pursuit in itself offers enormous and immediate health benefits, from improved air quality from clean energy, and improved fitness levels from urban design to enhance walking or biking opportunities."

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500-year floods could strike NYC every five years, climate study says | CNN

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In the coming years, New York City might look less like a concrete jungle and more like a concrete swamp. The Big Apple could see a surge in significant floods every five years between 2030 and 2045 as an impact of climate change, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Today, Tubbs is Stockton's 27-year-old mayor. Last week, he announced the launch of an experimental program that will give people like his mom about $500 a month, with no strings attached.

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As a kid growing up in Stockton, California, a little extra money would've meant the world to Michael Tubbs' family.

Tubbs' mother worked long hours as a cashier at a Discovery Zone and still had to borrow from check cashing places to get by. "If we had $300 a month, life would be less stressful, or we could move into another neighborhood," Tubbs says. "Maybe she would've been able to go back to school and get her BA, or pursue a passion."

Today, Tubbs is Stockton's 27-year-old mayor. Last week, he announced the launch of an experimental program that will give people like his mom about $500 a month, with no strings attached.

Stockton will likely become the first city in the nation to test out a version of universal basic income, an economic system that would regularly provide all residents enough money to cover basic expenses, with no conditions or restrictions.

Stockton hopes to launch its program next year and enroll several hundred of the city's residents for at least a couple of years, depending on the availability of funding.

The concept of universal basic income - or UBI - has been around for decades. Martin Luther King advocated for it in 1967 to create a minimum standard of living. Up until recently, it has mostly been a subject of discussion among academics. But universal basic income has started to gain traction as poverty has grown and fears of automation killing jobs have mounted.

Large-scale trials began this year in Finland and Canada to test whether the program improves outcomes like health and employment.

Related: Mark Zuckerberg supports universal basic income. What is that?

In the U.S., the movement's epicenter is Silicon Valley, where inequality is stark and labor-saving technologies like self-driving cars seem just around the corner. Tech leaders, from Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to Tesla's Elon Musk, have endorsed the idea as insurance against a jobless future.

Now, some of them are putting serious money behind it. YCombinator, the tech incubator known for minting high-profile startups, is hosting academics who'll research the idea using a control group and a random selection of approximately 3,000 participants in Oakland, California starting next year.

Meanwhile, a recently launched non-profit called the Economic Security Project has committed $1 million to the Stockton effort, with funding from donors that include Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.

"There was not significant money in the space before" these groups got involved,says longtime advocate Jim Pugh, a robotics PhD who runs a tech and analytics firm that serves progressive causes. "It was definitely a significant uptick."

Rather than a research paper,Stockton is planning a media campaign featuring program participants talking about their experiences. "Alongside the data, we need stories," says Natalie Foster, a co-founder of the Economic Security Project.

Backers hope larger cities and states will eventually adopt universal basic income programs, much like they've passed higher minimum wages and paid family leave laws while federal action has stalled. The hope is that, pressure would build to take the program nationwide.

There are some wrinkles in this plan, however.

In its purest form, every American would receive a basic income, which some estimates peg at about $10,000 per year. In the aggregate, that would add trillions to the budget annually.

Policymakers could lighten the burden by scrapping the rest of the U.S.'s targeted anti-poverty programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (known as food stamps) and Medicare.

Related: Global unemployment to hit 200 million as wages stagnate

That approach has attracted support from libertarians, who see a single-payment safety net as less bureaucratic and more market-friendly than the current alphabet soup of governmentprograms. Conservative political scientist Charles Murray, known for his "bell curve" theory about the relationship between intelligence and income, is among UBI's leading proponents.

But many on the left see the idea as a Trojan horse for eliminating benefits that currently lift millions of people out of poverty.

"The risk is high that under any UBI that could conceivably gain traction politically, tens of millions of poor people would likely end up worse off," wrote Robert Greenstein, the president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in a blog post last month.

Left-leaning supporters insist that universal basic income should be an add-on to the existing safety net, not a replacement. But that assurance hasn't firmed up support across the aisle.

Joe Biden, former Obama Council of Economic Advisors chair Jason Furman, and Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden have all opposed the idea for another reason: They say giving people enough money to live on will drive them out of the workforce, and that having a job is essential for emotional health and social status.

Basic income proponents disagree.

"That seems to rest on a thin theory of how one develops a work ethic - that it takes either hunger or suffering or poverty or fear," says political scientist and Economic Security Project co-founder Dorian Warren. A recent review of decades of research on basic income-like programs in the U.S. and Canada found that, in most cases, participants reduce their work hours only slightly.

Within a couple of years, the Stockton experiment may shed more light on that question. Tubbs thinks that participants might use the extra income to take a break from work in order to advance their careers through education, or invest in their kids.

"My constituents in Stockton are incredibly resourceful, intelligent and hardworking," he says. "And oftentimes all they need is an opportunity."

CNNMoney (New York) First published October 27, 2017: 6:47 AM ET

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Stockton's mayor wants to give residents $500 a month, no strings attached

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Tubbs' mother worked long hours as a cashier at a Discovery Zone and still had to borrow from check cashing places to get by. "If we had $300 a month, life would be less stressful, or we could move into another neighborhood," Tubbs says.

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Catalan parliament declares independence as Spanish government imposes direct ruleCatalonia’s regional parliament declared its independence from Spain in a disputed vote Friday, triggering the central government to activate its direct rule over the region.

In an acrimonious vote, separatist lawmakers approved a motion saying they are establishing an independent Catalan Republic with 70 votes in favor, 10 against and two blank ballots.

By Lucia I. Suarez Sang | Fox News

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Catalonia's regional parliament declared its independence from Spain in a disputed vote Friday, triggering the central government to activate its direct rule over the region.

In an acrimonious vote, separatist lawmakers approved a motion saying they are establishing an independent Catalan Republic with 70 votes in favor, 10 against and 2 blank ballots.

Soon after, Spain's Senate votes to trigger Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution that gave the central government the power to impose direct rule over the prosperous northeastern region.

The vote at the Catalan parliament was boycotted by opposition lawmakers who left the chamber in protest. Outside, thousands of pro-independence Catalans cheered as the results were announced.

The motion calls for beginning an independence process that includes drafting Catalonia's new top laws and opening negotiations "on equal footing" with Spanish authorities to establish cooperation.

In a tweet soon after the results were announced, Spanish Prime Minister called for "tranquility" in the Catalan region and promised "the rule of law will restore legality." He then called an emergency cabinet meeting.

Spain's central government opposes the independence bid and it is readying measures to take over control of the northeastern region. No country has expressed support for the secession big.

Earlier on Friday, Rajoy urged the country's Senate to grant special constitutional measures that would allow his government to take control of Catalonia's autonomous powers.

Rajoy, who received rapturous applause before and after his speech in the Senate in Madrid, told the chamber Spain was facing a challenge not seen in its recent history.

What is happening in Catalonia is "a clear violation of the laws, of democracy, of the rights of all, and that has consequences," he said.

It will be the first time in four decades of democratic rule that the Madrid-based national government would directly run the affairs of one of Spain's 17 semi-autonomous regions, a move that will likely fan the flames of the Catalan revolt.

Catalonia represents a fifth of Spain's gross domestic product. Polls show its 7.5 million inhabitants are roughly evenly divided over independence.
Lucia I. Suarez Sang is a Reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow her on Twitter @luciasuarezsang

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Catalan parliament declares independence as Spanish government imposes direct rule

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Catalonia's regional parliament declared its independence from Spain in a disputed vote Friday, triggering the central government to activate its direct rule over the region. In an acrimonious vote, separatist lawmakers approved a motion saying they are establishing an independent Catalan Republic with 70 votes in favor, 10 against and 2 blank ballots.

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A semi-truck driver was grazed by a bullet when another driver with road rage fired multiple shots at him today.

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FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A semi-truck driver was grazed by a bullet when another driver with road rage fired multiple shots at him Friday morning at I-435 and Bannister Road.

The victim is not from the area and is going to be okay.

He told police that the other driver in a gold GMC pickup at first threw a water bottle at him after the semi driver changed lanes in the area known as the Grandview Triangle on the flyover ramp, trying to move over to westbound I-435.

The GMC pickup driver then fired four or five shots at him, with the bullets going through the passenger-side window into the driver side window.

The driver told officers that the bullets literally 'whizzed by his head'.

Because he's not from the area, officers have taken him back on his route to try to pinpoint where it all unfolded. They say the gunshots were fired near Bannister and I-435 and he was able to pull over at State Line Road.

Police believe other drivers witnessed the violence and ask them to call 816-474-TIPS with information about what they saw.

Be sure to download our apps for alerts on this and other developing stories and follow us on Facebook. Fox4kc news apps: iPhone and Android

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'Bullets whizzed by my head'- Semi driver on I-435 spared his life when driver with road rage opens fire

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A semi-truck driver was grazed by a bullet when another driver with road rage fired multiple shots at him Friday morning at I-435 and Bannister Road. The victim is not from the area and is going to be okay.

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Aaron Rogers says that Anthony Barr taunted him after the hit that broke his Collarbone.

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Adam Bettcher/Getty Images
Appearing on the "Clueless Gamer" segment of Conan on Thursday, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said Minnesota Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr taunted him after the hit that broke his collarbone in Week 6.

As seen in the following video, Rodgers described the scene after the hit:

"I looked over at him as I walked off the field, the cameras caught me saying something to him, but what they missed was him: finger, 'suck it' sign," Rodgers told Conan O'Brien.

Rodgers also said during the segment that he had 13 screws inserted into his clavicle as part of the surgery he underwent.

The two-time NFL MVP is currently on injured reserve, and it hasn't yet been announced if he will return this season.

With regard to accusations that his hit on Rodgers was dirty, Barr insisted he wasn't trying to cause an injury, per ESPN.com's Courtney Cronin:
"By no means was I trying to injure or take out Aaron Rodgers. He's one of, if not, the best player in this league. I'm not a dirty player. I don't play dirty. We don't preach that around here. It's unfortunate, the injury. I hate to see anybody get hurt. It's a gift and a privilege to be able to play on the field each week, so I would never try and take that away from anybody, let alone one of the best players in our game."
Prior to his injury, Rodgers was enjoying an MVP-caliber season. He was 4-2, while passing for 1,385 yards, 13 touchdowns and three interceptions.

Brett Hundley has stepped in as Green Bay's starting quarterback, losing his first start last week to the New Orleans Saints.

The Vikings enter their Week 8 game against the Cleveland Browns in London with a one-game lead over the Pack in the NFC North at 5-2.

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Aaron Rodgers Says Anthony Barr Taunted Him After Hit That Broke Collarbone

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Adam Bettcher/Getty Images Appearing on the "Clueless Gamer" segment of Conan on Thursday, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said Minnesota Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr taunted him after the hit that broke his collarbone in Week 6.

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Sherri Papini disappeared on November 2, 2016 while she was out for a run near her home.
The Shasta County sheriff’s department said that investigators collected male DNA from the clothing that she was wearing when she was found. Female DNA also was discovered on Papini’s body. The samples have not been identified.

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Investigators have released new details in the mysterious case of a young mother in Northern California who vanished for three weeks last year - including the discovery of male DNA on her clothing, even though the so-called "super mom" claimed her kidnappers were women.

Sherri Papini disappeared on November 2, 2016 while she was out for a run near her home.

The Shasta County sheriff's department said that investigators collected male DNA from the clothing that she was wearing when she was found. Female DNA also was discovered on Papini's body. The samples have not been identified.

Days before Papini's disappearance, police said she was texting with a man in Michigan, and the two tried to meet up while he was in California. Investigators later interviewed the man, and determined he was not involved in Papini's disappearance.

The mother of two disappeared in Shasta County, about 215 miles north of San Francisco. Her phone, with headphones attached, was found alongside the rural road where she lived in the little community of Mountain Gate, north of Redding, according to The Mercury News. Papini was found alongside Interstate 5 in Yolo County, about 100 miles from her home on Thanksgiving.

No ransom demand was ever received, and neither the Papinis nor their families are wealthy, Sheriff Tom Bosenko said. She is a stay-at-home mom and he is a Best Buy store employee.

The FBI on Wednesday also released sketches of two women who Papini said abducted her.

The first woman was described by Papini as Hispanic, between 20 and 30 years old, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, with coarse, curly dark hair, thin eyebrows and pierced ears, FBI officials said.

The second woman was described as Hispanic, between 40 and 50 years old, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, with long, straight black hair with some gray in it. She had thick eyebrows and pierced ears, the FBI said.

In a newly released 911 call, according to Fox 2, her husband Keith reported that his wife had not picked up their children from their daycare provider and that he didn't know her whereabouts. In the call, he described the last time he heard from her and what she was wearing.

"I'm, like, totally freaking out thinking, like, somebody grabbed her," he said.

According to the Shasta County sheriff's department, her husband said he had found her phone - with strands of ripped-out hair - on the road after activating the Find My Phone feature.

Authorities said they conducted a polygraph exam of Keith and "excluded him from involvement" in his wife's disappearance.

"This has been an extraordinarily difficult time for our entire family," he said in a written statement Wednesday. "We ask that the media please respect our need for privacy as Sherri continues to heal and we work towards putting our lives back together."

Papini and her husband are believed to still live in Redding, Calif.

Sgt. Brian Jackson told The Sacramento Bee that there was no particular reason for the timing of the new information, other than detectives hoped it would generate new leads.

"It has taken time for Sherri to recover to a point to be able to provide accurate details to the sketch artist," the Shasta County Sheriff's Office said in a news release, noting FBI artists are being released 10 months after her disappearance because of Papini's difficulty in recalling what her abductors looked like. "The sketches then needed to be finalized and approved for release by the FBI."

Papini also told investigators the women were driving a dark-colored SUV with a "large rear side window."

"Sherri continues to look at photographs of various makes and models of SUV's in an effort to provide a more detailed description," the sheriff's office said.

The sheriff's office also gave additional details on Papini's physical condition when she was found.

Her nose was broken, and she was wearing a chain restraint around her waist. Her blonde hair had been cut to shoulder length, and she had a brand burned into her right shoulder.

"The Sheriff's Office continues to examine the brand and its possible meaning, but details of the brand remain confidential as part of the on-going investigation," police said.

The sheriff's office added, "Sherri, however, stated she had not been sexually assaulted, and there is no physical evidence to indicate otherwise."

Officials said they have received over 600 tips from around the world as part of their investigation, and continue to review all tips they receive.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the identification of the two women.

Anyone with information about the Papini investigation or the two captors is urged to call the FBI at 916-746-7000.
Click for more from Fox 2. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sherri Papini case: DNA evidence triggers new questions over 'super mom' kidnapping claim

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Authorities have released new details in the mysterious case of a young mother in Northern California who was missing for three weeks last year - including a 911 call made by her husband and also that male DNA was found on her clothing, even though her alleged kidnappers were women.

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Amazon thinks that it's safe to allow delivery drivers inside your house even if you're not there.
The service is called Amazon Key and launches November 8 for Prime members. The kit starts at $249.99

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Alexa, is it a good idea to let strangers into my house?

Amazon thinks so. The company says it has a safe way for you to allow delivery drivers inside your home, even when you're not there.

The service is called Amazon Key and launches November 8 for Prime members.

You buy a kit that includes an Amazon security camera, the Cloud Cam, and a compatible smart lock. The kit starts at $249.99.

You order something for delivery and click the "in-home" shipping option. When the delivery driver arrives, Amazon verifies the address and delivery time and allows him or her into your home. You can watch from your phone as the camera records the whole thing.

Related: Cool or creepy? Walmart to deliver food and put it in fridge

Amazon says the delivery driver will not be given an access code or key.

The service isn't just for deliveries. Amazon says you can also use it to let family and friends into your house when you're not home. And it will work for certain services like home cleaners, pet sitters and dog walkers.

Amazon Key will be available in 37 U.S. cities to start, and Amazon says it will add more.

It's not the first major retailer to experiment with remote delivery access.

Last month, Walmart announced that it was testing a service that allows a delivery driver from the startup Deliv into your home, mostly for groceries. It will even give the delivery person access to your refrigerator.

In the Walmart service, the driver gets a one-time passcode for a smart lock, and you can watch the delivery on security cameras.

CNNMoney (New York) First published October 25, 2017: 8:48 AM ET

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Amazon Key will let delivery people inside your house

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Amazon thinks so. The company says it has a safe way for you to allow delivery drivers inside your home, even when you're not there. The service is called Amazon Key and launches November 8 for Prime members. You buy a kit that includes an Amazon security camera, the Cloud Cam, and a compatible smart lock.

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Simon Cowell was rushed to the hospital this morning after falling down the stairs at his London home. Cowell did not suffer any life threatening injuries.

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Simon Cowell Rushed to Hospital After 'Scary' Accident at His London Home

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Simon Cowell was taken to a hospital Friday morning after falling down the stairs at his London home, PEOPLE confirms. The 58-year-old X Factor UK and Americaâ€™s Got Talent judge was seen wearing a neck brace as he was loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher between 7:30 a.m.

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The Catalan Parliament voted overwhelmingly to declare independence from Spain on Friday, prompting the Spanish Senate to grant Madrid unprecedented powers to seize control of the autonomous region.

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Spain dismissed Catalonia's president and Cabinet, and dissolved its Parliament on Friday hours after lawmakers in the autonomous region defied Madrid and voted to declare independence.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called new elections and fired the Catalan police chief, as part of an unprecedented package of measures to seize control of the renegade administration in Barcelona.

He said the moves were needed to restore legality, after a political and constitutional crisis that has gripped the country for months.

"In this moment, we need to be serene and careful, but we also need to have confidence that the state has the tools, backed by the law and reason, [to] peacefully and reasonably go back to legality and take away threats to democracy," he said.

Rajoy spoke hours after the Catalan Parliament voted by 70 to 10 to "form the Catalan Republic as an independent and sovereign state."

The day's dramatic and fast-moving events pushed Spain into uncharted territory, testing the limits of the constitution drawn up after the restoration of democracy in the 1970s.

Dramatic scenes in Barcelona

The stage was set when separatists in the Catalan Parliament tabled a motion to declare independence from Spain, arguing that a disputed referendum on October 1 gave them a mandate to split from Madrid.

After a heated debate, opposition parties walked outof the 135-seat chamber before the vote, some leaving Catalan and Spanish flags on their empty seats.

Pro-independence crowds massed outside the Parliament cheered, jumped up and down, and waved flags, including the Catalan separatist "Estelada" flag, as the independence result was announced.

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Less than an hour later, the Spanish Senate granted the Madrid government powers under Article 155 of the Constitution to sack the Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his ministers.

Rajoy, who has pledged to quash the separatists, called a Cabinet meeting to agree on the measures he would take."Spain is a serious country, a great nation and we will not allow some people to blow up our Constitution," Rajoy told journalists in Madrid.

Urging Spanish citizens to remain calm, he announced that Puigdemont and his ministers would be dismissed, and new elections in Catalonia would be held on December 21.

The office of Spain's prosecutor general meanwhile confirmed it would file a lawsuit for rebellion against Puigdemont, the Catalan government and the members of the parliament board who voted in favor of independence.

It was unclear on Friday how the Spanish government would enforce the measures announced by Rajoy. A tough crackdown could risk a repeat of the violent scenes that played out in Catalonia on October 1, the day of the referendum.

But it seemed unlikely that members of the Catalan government who have fought so hard for independence for years would simply acquiesce to Spanish government forces. Another question was how the local Catalan police force would react if national forces were deployed to the streets of Barcelona.

Puigdemont: 'Stay strong'

Speaking in the Catalan Parliament building after the landmark vote, Puigdemont said legitimately elected lawmakers had cast their ballots according to a mandate earned in the October 1 referendum.

But he acknowledged that the path ahead would not be easy. "We are facing a period in which we will need to stay strong and in peace, dignified and civil as we have always been, and I'm sure we will keep being so," he said.

"The institutions and the people together built nations, societies, and a nation cannot be built without one of these elements."

Supporters followed his words with applause and repeated chants of "freedom, freedom."

International reaction

The European Union has backed Madrid in its handling of the crisis, which Rajoy has insisted is an internal matter.

For EU nothing changes. Spain remains our only interlocutor. I hope the Spanish government favours force of argument, not argument of force.
- Charles Michel (@eucopresident) October 27, 2017

Following the Catalan Parliament's vote, European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted: "For EU nothing changes. Spain remains our only interlocutor. I hope the Spanish government favours force of argument, not argument of force."

Puigdemont responded via Twitter: "Catalans always favour the force of arguments."

The UK and Germany, through government spokesmen, said they would not recognize Catalonia's independence declaration.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said his nation does not recognize the declaration of independence.

"France wishes Spain to be strong and united. It only maintains one partner, which is the Madrid government. The constitution of Spain must be respected," Le Drian said in a statement.

The United States also voiced its support for the Madrid government.

"Catalonia is an integral part of Spain, and the United States supports the Spanish government's constitutional measures to keep Spain strong and united," US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

How did we get here?

Several times during its history, Catalonia has found itself caught between the rivalries of France and Spain.

The region industrialized before the rest of Spain and had strong anarchist, socialist and communist movements that all fought against Gen. Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.

The current dispute goes back to that conflict. Franco repressed Catalonia's earlier limited autonomy, and in the early years of the dictatorship at least, expressions of Catalan language and culture. Four years after Franco's 1975 death, the region regained some of that autonomy.

In 2006, Madrid backed Catalonia's calls for even greater powers, granting it "nation" status and financial control. But four years later, the Constitutional Court rescinded that status, ruling that while Catalan is a "nationality," Catalonia itself is not a nation.

One of Spain's 17 autonomous provinces, Catalonia has had its own regional government with considerable powers over health care, education and tax collection. But it pays taxes to Madrid, and pro-independence politicians argue that complex mechanisms for redistributing tax revenue are unfair to wealthier areas, something that has helped stoke resentment.

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Catalonia government dissolved after declaring independence from Spain | CNN

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Spain dismissed Catalonia's president and Cabinet, and dissolved its Parliament on Friday hours after lawmakers in the autonomous region defied Madrid and voted to declare independence. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called new elections and fired the Catalan police chief, as part of an unprecedented package of measures to seize control of the renegade administration in Barcelona.

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After being in the Pacific for 5 months, two women and their dogs are rescued. They were found 900 miles southeast of Japan.

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two women rescued after 5 months adrift in the pacific  - cnn

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Two women rescued after 5 months adrift in Pacific

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Two women from Hawaii who were lost at sea for nearly five months have been rescued by the US Navy.

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Last night, the Miami Dolphins were defeated by the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 40-0. Also, Ravens QB Joe Flacco was hit hard in the head by a Miami LB and was concussed.

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Miami Dolphins Football - Dolphins News, Scores, Stats, Rumors & More - ESPN

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Get the latest Miami Dolphins news, scores, stats, standings, rumors, and more from ESPN.

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Spain to impose direct rule over Catalonia after region declares independence

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The Washington Post 58 mins ago William Booth, Pamela Rolfe

BARCELONA - The Spanish Senate gave the central government in Madrid unprecedented powers over Catalonia on Friday, just minutes after the breakaway region declared independence, sharply escalating a constitutional crisis in the center of western Europe.

The two votes - one for independence, one to restore constitutional rule - came in dueling sessions of parliaments in Barcelona and Madrid.

The central government easily won permission to take over control of Catalonia. Meanwhile, secessionists in Catalonia faced bitter recriminations from Catalan foes who called the move for nationhood a coup and a historical blunder, a month after a referendum that backed a split from Spain.

The widening impasse has left little middle ground in Spain for possible compromises and has spilled over to the European Union, whose leaders fear another internal crisis after major upheavals such as Britain's exit from the bloc and the financial meltdown in Greece.

Immediately after the vote for independence, European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted: "For EU nothing changes. Spain remains our only interlocutor. I hope the Spanish government favours force of argument, not argument of force."

Tusk's remark mirrors fears in Catalonia that the Spanish government will employ police and harsh tactics to take back control of the region.

After the day's votes, the State Department made clear where Washington stands: "Catalonia is an integral part of Spain, and the United States supports the Spanish government's constitutional measures to keep Spain strong and united."

What happens now is unclear, though the newly declared republic will struggle to assert itself. Spain's Constitutional Court will almost certainly declare it illegal, the central government will try to take over the Catalan regional ministries, and few countries in Europe have shown any willingness so far to recognize an independent Catalonia.

The final ballot was 70 to 10 in favor of the declaration of independence in the Catalan Parliament, where 55 deputies declined to vote, showing the deep divisions.

"We have won the freedom to build a new country," Catalonia's regional vice president, Oriol Junqueras, tweeted.

After the Senate invoked the never-before-used Article 155 of Spain's 1978 constitution, the central government could move swiftly to remove the Catalan regional president, suspend his ministers and assume authority over the region's public media, police and finances.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told the Senate that his government had repeatedly tried to rein in the secessionists in Catalonia. He scoffed at Catalan President Carles Puigdemont's repeated offers of "dialogue" to end the impasse.

"The word dialogue is a lovely word. It creates good feelings," Rajoy said. "But dialogue has two enemies: those who abuse, ignore and forget the laws, and those who only want to listen to themselves, who do not want to understand the other party."

Rajoy urged the Senate to approve Article 155 "to prevent Catalonia from being abused."

"Catalans must be protected from an intolerant minority that is awarding itself ownership of Catalonia, and is trying to subject all Catalans to the yoke of its own doctrine," the prime minister said.

In Barcelona, shouts of "Independence!" and "Democracy!" rose from an antechamber where hundreds of onlookers, including dozens of regional mayors, had gathered.

The eruption was answered by disdain from anti-secessionists in the chamber. A member of the Catalan Socialist Party, Daniel Fernández, asked: "What is this? The storming of the Bastille?"

Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the left-wing national party Podemos, who defended Catalonia's right to vote, added his voice to those criticizing Catalonia's separatists.

"We are against the declaration of independence, not just because it is illegal, but because it is illegitimate," he said. The Oct. 1 referendum was important "but doesn't give them the right to declare independence," Iglesias told journalists.

As for the invocation of Article 155, Iglesias said its coming implementation "will break one of the pillars of our living together."

Carlos Carrizosa of the Citizens party decried the prospect of a declaration of independence, comparing it to a coup. He pointed at Puigdemont and said: "You, president, have been pro-independence your whole life. This whole plan was already laid out."

"This movement is textbook populism, full of magical thinking, that reality has destroyed. You are willing to sacrifice all, for your pure fanaticism," said Alejandro Fernández, a Catalan lawmaker whose Popular Party is also running the central government.

On Thursday, facing a looming deadline to act, Puigdemont appeared in the government palace in Barcelona and denounced what he described as heavy-handed negotiation tactics by the central government in Madrid.

"I have considered the possibility of calling elections," Puigdemont said. But he ruled it out because "there are not enough guarantees" from the central government not to seize control of the region. He ultimately left the decision to the regional parliament.

Puigdemont reportedly sought a promise from Rajoy that the Spanish Senate would not vote on Article 155.

More than 2 million people cast ballots earlier this month for independence, though the turnout for the referendum was around 40 percent of eligible voters.

During the vote, Spanish national police and Guardia Civil paramilitary officers used harsh tactics, in some cases beating voters with rubber batons and dragging people away from the ballot boxes.

The president of Spain's Basque region, Inigo Urkullu, a key intermediary between Rajoy and Puigdemont, told journalists that the situation is Catalonia "was very worrying" and required "responsibility" on the part of the two sides."

Rolfe reported from Madrid. Raul Gallego Abellan contributed to this report.
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Spain to impose direct rule over Catalonia after region declares independence

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The Washington Post 58 mins ago William Booth, Pamela Rolfe BARCELONA - The Spanish Senate gave the central government in Madrid unprecedented powers over Catalonia on Friday, just minutes after the breakaway region declared independence, sharply escalating a constitutional crisis in the center of western Europe.