- NewsYahoo NewsChicago activists: Justice Department report confirms what we already knew about police violence
The Justice Department’s scathing report on the Chicago Police Department’s excessive use of force and other issues offered few surprises for local activists who’ve long demanded action against police misconduct. Among the findings included in the 164-page report, released Friday, is evidence of improper training, insufficient oversight and systemic racism that has made black and Latino Chicagoans the victims of 10 times more police violence than the city’s white residents. The report reflected the findings of a 13-month investigation into Chicago police practices that was launched in the wake of citywide protests after the release of a video that showed a white Chicago police officer fatally shooting black teen Laquan McDonald 16 times.
- PoliticsYahoo NewsDemocratic lawmakers are boycotting Trump’s inauguration
About a dozen Democratic lawmakers have announced their intention to skip Donald Trump’s inauguration next week as a protest of the president-elect’s plans for the country. The boycotters make up a small fraction of the 535 House and Senate members, but their decision to protest represents a break with tradition that they say is warranted by Trump’s agenda, which they see as extreme. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., told Yahoo News she decided she couldn’t celebrate Trump’s inauguration because of his comments during the campaign about temporarily barring Muslims from entering the country and his vow to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
NewsAssociated PressUS policy change on Cuban migrants leaves many strandedIt took three months for Gabriel Marin and his wife, Yansiel, to make it from their home in eastern Cuba to this migrant shelter in Panama's capital. The goal was the United States and now the door that spurred their odyssey has slammed shut. Hundreds of people like Marin were stranded in transit in South and Central America on Thursday when President Barack Obama ended the so-called "wet foot, dry foot" policy that since 1995 has created a path to legal residency for thousands of Cubans who touched U.S. soil.
- NewsInternational Business TimesUC Davis Cancels Milo Yiannopoulos, Martin Shkreli Event
An event featuring conservative blogger and far-right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos and former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli was canceled Friday night by the University of California, Davis, after protesters blocked access to the venue. Campus police barricaded the doors to the event in a bid to control protesters, who demanded that the program be shut down. “I am deeply disappointed with the events of this evening,” UC Davis Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter, said in a statement.
- HealthLiveScience.comHow the Stress in Your Head Affects the Health of Your Heart
The mind-body connection is more than just a catchphrase: A new study finds that increased levels of stress are indeed linked to greater risk of a heart attack or stroke. Researchers found that the people in the study who had more activity in an area of the brain that regulates the body's response to stress and fear, called the amygdala, were more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than those with less activity in the amygdala, according to the study. "This study identifies, for the first time in animal models or humans, the region of the brain that links stress to the risk of heart attack or stroke," lead study author Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said in a statement.
- U.S.Yahoo News Photo StaffWild horse border patrol
Prisoners participating in the Wild Horse Inmate Program train mustangs that will eventually be adopted by the U.S. Border Patrol, providing the agency with inexpensive but agile horses, and inmates with skills and insights they hope to one day carry with them from prison. The horses are critical for patrolling the rugged and remote stretches of the Mexican border to detect illegal crossings by migrants and drug trafficking.
BusinessAFPJapan's Takata pleads guilty, to pay $1 bn in airbag scandal with USJapan's Takata Corporation, one of the world's biggest suppliers of auto safety equipment, agreed to plead guilty to fraud and pay $1 billion to settle its faulty airbag scandal, US officials announced Friday. The United States also has indicted three former Takata executives in the case, bringing the first criminal charges in a scandal over exploding airbags that caused the largest US auto safety recall. The individuals, who left the company in 2015, were charged with fraud for hiding the flaws in the airbags, so far blamed for 16 deaths and 100 injuries worldwide, according to documents filed in federal court in Michigan and made public on Friday.
WorldAssociated PressConservative German lawmaker is quitting Merkel's partyA lawmaker who has long been critical of Chancellor Angela Merkel's policies says she is leaving the German leader's conservative party, citing discontent over Merkel's approach to migrants. Erika Steinbach, 73, has been a lawmaker for Merkel's Christian Democratic Union since 1990. Steinbach has criticized the most recent Greek bailout and Merkel's welcoming approach to migrants in 2015.
- ScienceMashableStriking images capture the majestic beauty of seadragons
Researchers in Australia finally caught on camera what they were looking for: a new species of seadragon in its natural habitat. Footage released this week in Marine Biodiversity Records shows the elusive "Ruby Seadragon" in the waters off Australia'
- WorldForeign Policy MagazineIs Tillerson Willing to Go to War Over the South China Sea?
Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon chief, didn’t get where he is by being nice to China. ExxonMobil is still there, drilling on a Vietnamese license in waters also claimed by China. Is Tillerson about to do the same on behalf of the United States?
PoliticsReutersU.S. House backs waiver allowing Mattis to serve as defense secretaryBy Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday cleared the way for quick confirmation of James Mattis to serve as President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of defense, backing a waiver that will allow him to serve less than seven years after retiring from active duty as a Marine General in 2013. The House voted 268 to 151, largely along party lines, for a one-time waiver of a provision of a law on civilian control of the U.S. military that requires a seven-year wait after retirement before active-duty military can lead the Department of Defense. The waiver, which must still be signed by the president to become law, clears the way for Mattis to lead the Pentagon if he is confirmed, as expected, by the Senate.
- WorldAssociated PressZhou Youguang, father of Chinese Romanization, dies at 111
Zhou Youguang, a linguist considered the father of modern China's Pinyin Romanization system, died Saturday at the age of 111. Born in 1906 during China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing, Zhou died at his home in Beijing, one day after celebrating his birthday, according to state broadcaster Chinese Central Television and other official media outlets. After receiving a Western-style education at Shanghai's St. John's University, Zhou moved to the United States and for a time worked as a banker on Wall Street.
- WorldInternational Business TimesDuterte Tells Forces To Bomb Kidnappers And Their Captives
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has advised possible victims of kidnappings at sea to avoid getting abducted. Duterte’s comments were in response to series of kidnappings at sea — mostly by the local militant group Abu Sayyaf that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Duterte’s statement comes at a time when Abu Sayyaf threat in southwestern Philippines is increasing.
- NewsInside EditionPenny Dreadful: Man Pays $3,000 in DMV Fees With 5 Wheelbarrows Filled With One Cent Pieces
A man took revenge on his local Department of Motor Vehicles by paying a hefty bill using five wheelbarrows filled with 300,000 pennies. Nick Stafford used the change to pay an auto sales tax bill for $2,987.45. Employees at the DMV office in Lebanon, Virginia were forced to count each penny by hand to confirm they totaled the right amount, which they did.
- BusinessABC News VideosAetna CEO Says He Was Shocked By How Little Some Employees Were Paid: Part 6
Mark Bertolini's company Aetna raised salaries to at least $16 an hour, among other improvements for employees. Reporter: Last November, a group called just capital announced a bold idea. They were going to rank companies not by profits, but other qualities
WorldAFPTurkey arrests two Uighurs over nightclub attackTurkey has arrested two Chinese nationals of Uighur origin in connection with a mass shooting in a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year's Eve claimed by the Islamic State group, media reports said. The suspects, named as Omar Asim and Abuliezi Abuduhamiti, were arrested on charges of "being members of a terrorist organisation", of "purchasing unlicensed firearms" and "being accomplices to the murder of 39 people", state-run Anadolu Agency cited a prosecutor as saying. Uighurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims from the restive Xinjiang region of far-western China.
NewsAssociated PressGOP lawmaker says Capitol pig painting coming downA GOP congressman reported Friday that a painting stirring controversy on Capitol Hill will be taken down Tuesday after the agency responsible for maintaining the Capitol complex determined it violated rules for a student arts competition. The painting depicts Ferguson, Missouri, with a pig in a police uniform aiming a gun at a protester. The painting was among hundreds completed by high school students that are featured in a tunnel leading to the Capitol.
WorldAFPTrudeau says Canada's oil sands must be phased outCanada must "phase out" Alberta's oil sands and end the country's dependence on hydrocarbons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. "We can't shut down the oil sands tomorrow. Upgrading them will increase Canada's export capacity by nearly a million barrels a day.
- NewsThe AtlanticLosing Hope in Obama
It was a clear indicator that Obama was going to continue the well-established D.C. tradition of quid pro quo cronyism. Appointing Geithner to Treasury Secretary was even worse: a betrayal of Obama’s stated principals. “Keep Hope Alive” worked for me after Bush II. But as a former banker who lived through Reagan’s dismantling of consumer protection regulations that led to the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999, Obama lost me when he failed to channel the nation’s outrage at the 2008 crash to reinstate a New Deal style regulatory scheme.
WorldReutersMove to lift Sudan sanctions came after Trump approval, months of talksThe Obama administration's preliminary decision to ease sanctions on Sudan came with the full approval of the incoming Trump administration and after months of secret meetings, Sudan's foreign minister said on Saturday. The United States said on Friday it would lift a 20-year-old trade embargo against Sudan, unfreeze assets and remove financial sanctions as a response to Khartoum's cooperation in fighting Islamic State and other groups. The move will be delayed by 180 days to see whether Sudan acts further to improve its human rights record and resolve political and military conflicts, including in Darfur.
- ScienceChristian Science MonitorWas D.B. Cooper a Boeing worker?
Leave it to a group that calls itself the Citizen Sleuths to uncover a new lead in the 45-year hunt for D.B. Cooper. The three amateur scientists have found rare-Earth elements on the JCPenney tie the infamous skyjacker left behind when he jumped out of a commercial airplane on a blistering night in 1971, with $200,000 in unmarked bills, a parachute, and a raincoat. The sleuths say the elements could indicate Cooper was an engineer or manager in the aerospace industry.
PoliticsInternational Business TimesMarijuana Dabbing, Not To Be Confused With Latest Dance CrazeHouse Speaker Paul Ryan let the nation know that he was, in fact, well aware what dabbing was during his town hall interview with CNN Thursday. The 46-year-old even demonstrated the popular dance move and referenced NFL star Cam Newton's particular style of dabbing. Sometimes called honey oil, budder, shatter, wax, honeycomb or butane hash oil, dabs are mostly made by heating marijuana soaked solvents like butane or carbon dioxide, resulting in its sticky brownish-green candle-wax like texture.
NewsAssociated PressThe bald and the bold: Eagles' resurgence comes at a priceThe eagle has landed — on chickens and rare birds, with talons at the ready. The resurgence of the bald eagle is one of America's greatest conservation success stories. Federal protections mean farmers can do little to keep them away, said Ken Klippen, a poultry scientist and former farmer who heads the National Association of Egg Farmers.
- TechnologyTech Media Network (Tom's Guide)How to Make Your Own Two-Factor Authentication Key
WASHINGTON — You don't need to spend $40 or $50 to get a two-factor authentication (2FA) USB key to help you log into web accounts. Instead, you can build one yourself, or, failing that, buy one for $8 on Amazon. The U2F Zero key. Credit: Conor Patrick
WorldReutersCafe attack suspect arrested in BangladeshBangladesh police said on Saturday they had arrested one of the men behind a militant attack on a Dhaka cafe last year that killed 22 people, mostly foreigners. Jahangir Alam was detained late on Friday during a raid in Tangail, about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital, the head of the counter-terrorism police, Monirul Islam, told reporters. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the July 1 assault, when gunmen charged into the cafe in the diplomatic quarter.
