Summer officially began at 12:24 a.m. ET Wednesday, but as the Southwestern United States bakes in a heat wave, the season may already feel like a long and sweltering slog there. The mercury hit 119 degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix on Tuesday, 117 in Las Vegas and 121 degrees in Palm Springs, Calif. And while forecasters say the heat was expected to peak on Tuesday, excessive heat warnings remain in effect through Sunday evening in parts of Arizona, Nevada and California. The National Weather Service is telling residents to take the heat seriously, with a somber warning on its website : "If you don't take precautions immediately when conditions are extreme, you may become seriously ill or even die." The advice is straightforward: Drink lots of water, limit outdoor activities and wear loose and light-colored clothing. Check in on the sick, elderly and those who don't have air conditioning. And never leave children or pets alone in a vehicle — no matter how briefly. In Tempe, Ariz.,
Summer's Just Begun, But The Southwestern U.S. Is Already Baking
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What To Know About Saudi Arabia's New Crown Prince And The Issues He Will Face
Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the United States, is not known for surprises. But in a sudden shift in power, the 31-year-old son of the 81-year-old Saudi king moved one step closer to the throne on Wednesday. King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud promoted Mohammed bin Salman, his youngest son, to crown prince. At the same time, the king ended the career of his nephew, 57-year-old Mohammed bin Nayef, the previous crown prince, who had served as interior minister since 2015. Mohammed bin Salman, who will take on Nayef's old job as interior minister, was relatively unknown in the kingdom when his father came to power 2 1/2 years ago. He has since amassed vast powers, serving as defense minister, overseeing the state oil monopoly and working to overhaul the Saudi economy in the face of a dramatic drop in oil prices. Young Saudis eager for change see the new crown prince as a modernizer and celebrated the surprise announcement on social media. For an older generation, Saudi television coverage
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Legislative Management committee starts potential legal action over Governor's vetoes
The Legislative Management Committee is preparing to take Gov. Doug Burgum to court. The issue is whether or not Burgum can veto conditions placed on certain appropriations without vetoing the expenditure. In a few of the bills he used his line-item veto on, Burgum took out some language – and left the money in the bill. The Committee vote was unanimous. "We are going to proceed with litigation over a couple of issues that strike right at the core of teh ability of the Legislature to do its job," said Sen. Ray Holmberg (R-Grand Forks), the chairman of the Management Committee. "They relate to the vetoes, but they are bigger issues than whether or not he (Burgum) removed $300,000 from a budget, etcetera.' House Majority Leader Al Carlson (R-Fargo) said it is the Legislature's job to spend money and craft laws. "When the Executive Branch is allowed to selectively pick words and change meanings of legislation, then he is legislating from his branch (of government)," Carlson said. "That is
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FBI Investigating Flint Airport Stabbing As Possible Act Of Terrorism
Updated at 8:15 p.m. ET The FBI is investigating Wednesday's stabbing of a police officer at the Flint, Mich., international airport as a possible act of terrorism, the agency says. The assailant has been identified as Amor M. Ftouhi of Quebec. He allegedly stabbed a uniformed police officer in the neck Wednesday morning at Bishop International Airport, prompting an evacuation and shutdown of the airport. Lt. Jeff Neville was in satisfactory condition after being upgraded from critical, airport police chief Chris Miller said at a late afternoon news conference. Neville is with the Bishop Airport Authority. Ftouhi, 49, referenced killings in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and yelled "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," before attacking Neville, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan. FBI Special Agent in Charge David Gelios said that while the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism, officials have no information about a"wider
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Spillover Beasts: Which Animals Pose The Biggest Viral Risk?
Eye-popping. That's the word that comes to mind when you hear how many viruses are likely hiding out around the world in animals. "We expect there are hundreds of thousands of mammalian viruses out there," says Kevin Olival , a disease ecologist at EcoHealth Alliance, who led the study. Really? Hundreds of thousands? "Yes, it's likely," Olival says. "Any given mammal species is likely to have 20, 30 or even 100 viruses. When you add that up around the planet, you get a big number." A really big number. The good news is that not all those viruses can infect humans. We have only detected a fraction of them. And only a tiny, tiny fraction are likely ever to be a public health problem. So how do you know which ones are harmless and which ones we should be concerned about? Olival and his colleagues have taken a few steps to start answering that question. In the journal Nature , the team offers the most comprehensive view to date of where viruses are hiding around the globe and which species
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Democrats Play Blame Game With Pelosi After Georgia Election — To GOP's Glee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dby318yFqU Democratic finger-pointing has begun after the party's loss in Tuesday's closely watched special election in Georgia, and for some members, the blame partly belongs to their House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi. The California Democrat has long been a boogeywoman Republicans have used to motivate their base and to woo independents as the personification of liberal values and a reminder of why even if they may like their individual member or candidate, a vote for that Democrat would be a step toward putting Pelosi back in the speaker's chair. In Atlanta, ads from the Congressional Leadership Fund that tied Democrat Jon Ossoff to Pelosi blanketed the airwaves. And after Republican Karen Handel pulled out the win, the leadership-backed superPAC said using the Democratic leader prominently was one of its most effective tactics. "When asked, over 60 percent of voters preferred a congressman who would work with Paul Ryan, while only 28 percent chose
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Rep. Steve Scalise's Condition Upgraded To 'Fair' After Baseball Field Shooting
A week after he was shot in the hip during a Republican baseball team practice, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise is now in fair condition, according to MedStar Washington Hospital Center. He "is beginning an extended period of healing and rehabilitation," the hospital said in a statement Wednesday. It is a dramatic turnaround for the 51-year-old representative from Louisiana, who was in critical condition and at "imminent risk of death" when first admitted to the hospital, according to Dr. Jack Sava, MedStar's director of trauma. The American Hospital Association says a person is in fair condition when the vital signs are stable and within normal limits; the patient is conscious, but may be uncomfortable; and indicators are favorable." It was early on the morning of June 14 when James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill., opened fire with a rifle on a group of Republicans practicing for an annual congressional baseball game. Hodgkinson shot four people before U.S. Capitol Police officers
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Americans Agree On Some Gun Restrictions, Pew Survey Finds
Mass shootings in Orlando, Fla. , Alexandria, Va. , and San Francisco during the first two weeks of June — two of them on the same day — have once again put America's complicated relationship with guns in the spotlight. Americans have remained fairly evenly divided between a desire to strengthen gun control measures and to protect gun rights during the past eight years, a Pew Research Center survey taken before the June shootings finds. In the latest poll, 51 percent of respondents said it is more important to control gun ownership, whereas 47 percent said it's more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns. But the divide between Republicans and Democrats who say it's important to protect the right of Americans to own guns has widened since 2000 — from an 18-percentage-point gap to a 54-point gap. This gap is underscored by reactions to the shooting at a congressional baseball practice that sent five people to the hospital earlier this month. Hours after the shooting, U
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FCC Moves To Streamline Emergency 'Blue Alerts' For Threats To Law Enforcement
In May 2015, then-President Barack Obama signed into law legislation that created a new kind of public emergency notification — the Blue Alert. It's similar to the well-known Amber Alert for abducted children, but is meant to help catch people who credibly threaten or actually harm law enforcement officials. The law was named after two New York Police Department officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, who were killed in an ambush attack by a man who hours earlier had shot a woman near Baltimore. The Department of Justice has since launched the National Blue Alert Network, and states can already set plans for how or when to issue such alerts. But now it's asking to FCC for an easy and consistent way to transmit Blue Alerts around the U.S. The Federal Communications Commission oversees the nation's broadcast airwaves and the technical operation of the Emergency Alert System, a nationwide system for alerts that get transmitted on radio and TV. At the request of the Justice Department, the
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Trump: 'I Did Not Make, And Do Not Have' Recordings Of Comey
Updated at 1:59 p.m. ET President Trump gave a straight answer on Thursday about whether he has recordings of his private conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey — No. The question of the existence of tapes arose on May 12, when shortly after firing Comey, Trump tweeted that the former FBI director "better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations." That tweet appeared to come in response to a New York Times article that said that during a private dinner at the White House, Trump asked Comey for "loyalty." Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he told the president he would be "honestly loyal" and that the conversation made him "uneasy." He also said he orchestrated a leak of information from memos he wrote about his recollections of private conversations with the president to trigger the naming of a special counsel, which did follow. At one point during his Senate testimony on June 8, Comey memorably said, "Lordy, I hope there are tapes." He
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'Pizzagate' Gunman Sentenced To 4 Years In Prison
A North Carolina man who fired an AR-15 rifle inside a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C., last year as he was "investigating" a baseless conspiracy theory has been sentenced to four years in prison. Edgar Maddison Welch pleaded guilty in March to federal charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and transporting a firearm over state lines. The case is seen as a clear example of the potential real-world consequences of fake news stories. During the sentencing hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson stressed that Welch's actions "literally left psychological wreckage," The Associated Press reported. The unfounded "Pizzagate" Internet rumor at the center of this case accused the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria of being the home of a Satanic child sex abuse ring involving top Democrats such as Hillary Clinton. "Speculation and fabrications tied to the bizarre conspiracy theory have been relentlessly circulated by politically motivated fringe sites," as The Two-Way has
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How Do Eggs Get Their Shapes? Scientists Think They've Cracked It
One of nature's most efficient life-support systems is the egg. Eggs evolved over 300 million years ago as vertebrate animals adapted to living on land. And since then, they've taken on numerous shapes, especially among birds. Biologists have long wondered why there are so many shapes, and what determines each one. Hummingbirds, for example, have eggs like Tic Tacs. Birds called murres produce eggs shaped like big teardrops. Some eggs are more like pingpong balls. Now, an international team of scientists believes it has solved the mystery of the eggs. Biologist Mary Caswell Stoddard of Princeton University led the team. She had heard the shape theories: Cone-shape eggs don't roll away, they roll in a tight circle so maybe that's good for birds that nest on cliffs. Or elliptical eggs, like slightly flattened spheres, might stack closer in nests and incubate better. Stoddard looked at nearly 50,000 eggs and cross-checked them with 1,400 bird species. "We are able to look at the egg in
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Canadian Sniper Hit A Target More Than 2 Miles Away, Military Confirms
A sniper with Canada's elite special forces is being credited with making a world record shot, after the military confirmed Thursday that he hit a target from nearly 2.2 miles away during a recent operation in Iraq. Military sources tell Canada's The Globe and Mail newspaper that the sniper killed an ISIS insurgent during an attack on Iraqi security forces. "The Canadian Special Operations Command can confirm that a member of the Joint Task Force 2 successfully hit a target from 3,540 meters," the force said in an email to NPR. "For operational security reasons and to preserve the safety of our personnel and our Coalition partners, we will not discuss precise details on when and how this incident took place." The sniper reportedly fired from an elevated position; for the shot to be accurate, many factors — from wind and gravity to the Earth's curvature — would have to be taken into account. The shot easily surpasses the previous record for the longest confirmed sniper shot of 2,474
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CHART: Who Wins, Who Loses With Senate Health Care Bill
Republicans in the Senate on Thursday unveiled their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare. The long-awaited plan marks a big step towards achieving one of the Republican party's major goals. The Senate proposal is broadly similar to the bill passed by House Republicans last month, with a few notable differences. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been criticized for drafting the bill in secret with just a dozen Republican Senate colleagues, says the proposal — which he calls a discussion draft — will stabilize insurance markets, strengthen Medicaid and cut costs to consumers. "We agreed on the need to free Americans from Obamacare's mandates. And policies contained in the discussion draft will repeal the individual mandates so Americans are no longer forced to buy insurance they don't need or can't afford," McConnell said. The plan gets rid of those mandates. Instead, it entices people to voluntarily buy a policy by offering them tax
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Farmers Take Out Millions In Loans To Raise Chickens For Big-Box Retailers
Tim Mueller has raised corn and soybeans on 530 acres near Columbus, Neb., for decades, but now he is planning to take a huge gamble. The big-box retailer Costco is building a new chicken-processing plant in Fremont, Neb., about an hour away from Mueller's farm. The company plans to slaughter 2 million birds per week. To raise all those chickens, Costco is recruiting about 120 farmers to sign on as contract poultry farmers. Mueller wants in. But to do that, he plans to take out a massive $2 million loan to finance the construction of four chicken barns. As pork and poultry production grows in the U.S., this is an increasingly common arrangement. Farmers sign multi-million dollar deals to do business with big corporations. The company provides animals and feed. The farmer builds the barns and cares for the animals. It requires a major investment from the farmers who enter into the agreement. About 50 yards down a gravel driveway of Mueller's home is a cornfield speckled with young,
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Senate Health Care Bill Could Be In Jeopardy As Conservatives Announce Opposition
Updated at 4:15 p.m. ET Senate Republicans' health care bill may already be on life support, with four key lawmakers announcing their opposition just hours after the GOP's latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act was released. "Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor," Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Mike Lee, R-Utah; and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said in a statement Thursday afternoon. With Republicans in the Senate holding only a 52-48 seat edge, they can afford only two defections to get to a 50-50 tie, allowing Vice President Pence to then presumably break any logjam. However, the four senators do appear open to negotiations and amendments that could turn their "no" to a "yes." "There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current healthcare system but it does not appear this draft as written will
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Funeral Held For Former North Korean Prisoner Otto Warmbier
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After 42 Years, Yellowstone Grizzly Will Be Taken Off Endangered Species List
For the first time in more than four decades, the Yellowstone grizzly bear is set to lose its federal protections under the Endangered Species Act. Citing a rebound in the bear's population, the U.S. Department of Interior announced its intention Thursday to end these protections and return oversight of the animal's status to the state level. The agency says the rule to remove the grizzly from the endangered species list will be published "in coming days" and "will take effect 30 days after publication." "This achievement stands as one of America's great conservation successes; the culmination of decades of hard work and dedication on the part of the state, tribal, federal and private partners," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement. "As a Montanan, I'm proud of what we've achieved together." Since those federal protections were instituted in 1975, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear population has climbed from 136 to roughly 700, according to the National Park
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OB-GYNs Give Women More Say In When They Have Mammograms
Women in their 40s at average risk for breast cancer should talk to their health care provider about the risks and benefits of mammography before starting regular screening at that age, according to guidelines released Thursday by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The group had previously recommended annual mammograms starting at age 40. But the advice has changed to better incorporate input from the woman being screened, says physician Christopher Zahn , vice president of practice activities at ACOG. "A patient's preferences and values need to be an important part" of the decision, he says. Now the group says providers should offer the test when a woman enters her 40s, and that after a discussion, she may opt to start screening. If she doesn't, she should start by age 50, ACOG says. Zahn says the guidance intentionally encompasses advice from other major groups. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says women should start regular mammograms at 50 , and that
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Norwegian Heritage ~ "Prairie Daughters" Exhibit ~ Chef Rosey on Cloudberries
Kari Tauring is a Minneapolis-based Nordic folk musician, dancer, and storyteller. She’s one of the many people participating in the Scandinavian Hjemkomst and Midwest Viking Festival this week in Moorhead. ~~~ Also at the Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center is an exhibit called “ Prairie Daughters: The Art and Lives of Annie Stein and Orabel Thortvedt .” In this feature prepared for the Prairie Pulse television show, we hear about these two historic women artists from Mark Piehl and Markus Krueger with the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County. ~~~ Coal states are trying to figure out how to capture carbon dioxide and whether they can turn those emissions into a moneymaker. Our Amy Sisk has the story for Inside Energy . ~~~ Chef Tim Rosendahl of Rosey’s Bistro is here with this week’s food topic, cloudberries. ~~~ Doug and Ashley have our What’s Happening calendar of events.
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