Новости за 21.01.2016

Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw was sentenced Thursday to a full 263 years in prison for a series of rapes and sexual assaults against black women. Holtzclaw was charged in December on 18 separate counts of rape, sexual battery, forcible sodomy, and procuring lewd exposure; 13 different women, all black, came forward as accusers.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has been called to testify on the Flint water crisis on Feb. 3, U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) said Thursday. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing will mark the first congressional inquiry into the government's response to Flint's high levels of lead in its drinking water.

Pennsylvania chiropractor Jeffrey H. Cohen, D.C., passed away unexpectedly at the age of 70, but left behind an unusual request for mourners attending his funeral: "In lieu of flowers, please do not vote for Donald Trump."

The GED Testing Service announced Wednesday that states can lower the minimum score required for students to pass the high school equivalency exam from 150 to 145. The move comes two years after a revamp made the GED more challenging, which caused pass rates to drop significantly. The adjustment is also an acknowledgement that some GED students who passed the tougher test did better in college than regular high-school students.

U.S. Airport security found 2,653 firearms in carry-on bags last year, an entire 20 percent more than were discovered in 2014. Of those guns, 83 percent were loaded, The Los Angeles Times reports.

What was supposed to be a simple preschool field trip to the Greater Des Moines botanical garden apparently ended with students sitting beneath a massive photo of a fetus at Carly Fiorina's anti-abortion rally. The Guardian reports that parents are accusing the Republican presidential candidate of "ambushing" their children during their field trip and forcing them to participate in a "right to life" forum:

Internal NSA emails obtained by BuzzFeed News show the surveillance agency was not a fan of 1998's Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith. Though some employees were excited to see the movie before it was released, that enthusiasm turned to irritation after viewing.

President Obama has said there is absolutely no chance of him speaking at his daughter Malia's high school graduation ceremony this spring. When the school approached him about it, Obama promptly shut them down, ABC News reports.

Joe Biden joked that he might want a job with Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs after his term is up this time next year. The vice president was speaking at a dinner hosted by the bank in advance of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.

President Obama's motorcade was no exception to D.C.'s traffic gridlock Wednesday night after one inch of snow dusted the nation's capital. The president's motorcade, which was en route from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland back to the White House, reportedly "slipped and skidded" on the snow-covered roads and even hit the curbs multiple times, NBC reports. The typically 25-minute trip took Obama an hour and 14 minutes.

Astrobiologists from the Australian National University Research School of Earth Sciences suggest that the reason why we haven't encountered alien life is because all the aliens are extinct, the university reported Thursday. In studying how life might develop on other planets, the scientists realized that early critters likely had a hard time quickly evolving to their heating or cooling planets and did not survive.

The one thing that's certain about David Bowie's persona is that it was always shifting. And now, a recently unearthed recording provides another fascinating and candid look at Bowie's talent as a musical chameleon. During a 1985 recording session for the Absolute Beginners soundtrack, producer Mark Saunders was in the studio when Bowie decided to spoof some of his contemporaries — including Bruce Springsteen, Iggy Pop, Neil Young, and Lou Reed — for a few bars at a time.

Stephen Colbert was thrilled to welcome 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin back to the campaign trail on The Late Show Wednesday night. "God, I have missed you," Colbert said, referencing Palin's recent return to the spotlight — which included a jovial yet bizarre speech Tuesday endorsing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. "It's like a magical eagle made a wish on a flag pin and it came to life — which is great for me. Because while Trump, admittedly, has given me so much material to make jokes about... Читать дальше...

There are all sorts of strange wonders to behold in Donald Trump's Twitter feed, and he added to the collection Wednesday morning when he tweeted out an altered image of Ted Cruz's book, A Time for Truth, unsubtly re-titled A Time to Lie:

There is no somber doomsday talk in Bernie Sanders' latest video ad, nor clips of his opponents' gaffes. Instead, Sanders is hitting Iowa with a powerful video in which the only words at all are the lyrics of "America," sung by Simon and Garfunkel:

The GOP establishment has lost faith in Marco Rubio — at least according to Ted Cruz. The Texas senator says that since Rubio's chances at winning the nomination seem to be waning, the "Washington establishment" is "abandoning" Rubio in favor of Donald Trump. "They're making the assessment that Marco can't win this race, and the Washington establishment is rushing over to support Donald Trump," Cruz said. "We're seeing that every day. And Mr. Trump is welcoming the support of the Washington establishment."

Saudi Arabia's highest official of religious law has ruled that chess encourages gambling and is "a waste of time and money and a cause for hatred and enmity between players," effectively making the game forbidden in Islam.

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U.S. stocks took another sharp dive on Wednesday after a six-percent drop in oil prices stoked fears of a global economic slowdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly dropped more than 550 points — or more than 3 percent — before bouncing back and finishing down about 250 points, or 1.6 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell by 1.2 percent, near its lowest point since 204. before regaining some lost ground in afternoon trading. Oil prices have fallen by more than 20 percent this year. Читать дальше...

Former K.G.B. officer turned British MI6 spy Alexander V. Litvinenko was poisoned in 2006, an action British investigators are now saying was "probably approved" by Vladimir Putin himself, The New York Times reports. Litvinenko died 22 days after drinking green tea laced with the rare isotope polonium 210 in the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel in London; Litvinenko was in the company of Russian associates Andrei K. Lugovoi and Dmitri V. Kovtun, both of whom deny the accusations. Lugovoi and Kovtun... Читать дальше...

For months, the press and the Republican establishment alike have been expecting the Trump bubble to implode. Now that it's clear Trump isn't going anywhere, we're seeing stories about a long slog of a campaign or even a brokered convention. But there's a very real possibility that, far from those kinds of days of reckoning, Donald Trump could actually "run the table." Ironically, Trump not only could win — he could win more decisively than any non-incumbent Republican contestant for the nomination... Читать дальше...

In 1974, corporate behemoth GE moved its headquarters from Manhattan to the suburban Fairfield, Connecticut. Last week, it announced that it was leaving Fairfield for Boston's waterfront district. And as GE goes, it has people wondering whether the suburbs are going to lose their economic lifeblood.

The crash in oil prices has come to Wall Street.

Like any other business, energy companies operate on a complex dance between revenues, borrowing, and investment. They make money by pumping oil out the ground and selling it. But before they can do that, they have to hire the workforce, build the oil platform, establish the infrastructure, and do the drilling. That means a lot of up-front costs, financed by investment and borrowing. It's worthwhile because ultimately you can pay off your debt obligations once the oil revenue comes in. Читать дальше...

The Democratic presidential primary offers a clear choice. On one side there's Hillary Clinton, a battle-scarred pragmatist who has learned from long experience that governing is difficult and big dreams lead only to big losses. She's been in the White House, she's served in the Senate, and she has no illusions about how the sausage gets made. On the other side there's Bernie Sanders, an idealist with a sweeping vision, unafraid to call himself a democratic socialist, willing to advocate for what... Читать дальше...

Anyone who believes in all-controlling, airtight government conspiracies should reflect on this latest presidential primary.

Bernie Sanders' biggest obstacle to victory over Hillary Clinton is likely her strong support among African-Americans. That made it a bit of a blow to the campaign when Ta-Nehisi Coates, perhaps the most famous and respected black writer in America, took him to task for failing to support reparations for slavery.