(CNN)A Christmas morning explosion that rocked downtown Nashville, injuring at least three people and damaging dozens of buildings, is believed to be an intentional act, authorities said.
According to police, officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department were responding to a call of shots fired around 5:30 a.m. CT Friday when they came upon an RV parked in front of an AT&T transmission building at 166 2nd Avenue North.
The RV was playing a recorded message that indicated a bomb would explode in 15 minutes, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said during a news conference Friday.
Officers saw no immediate evidence of shots fired but they requested the department’s hazardous devices unit and started to evacuate neighborhood residents, police said.
The bomb squad was responding when the RV exploded at 6:30 a.m. CT, police spokesman Don Aaron said.
The Senate on Monday night approved a $2.3 trillion COVID-19 relief bill and sent it to President Trump for his signature.
The legislation — which follows passage in the House — authorizes $600 stimulus checks for people who earn less than $75,000 per year and an extra $600 payment per child.
The bill contains a weekly unemployment insurance supplement of $300 and also has $284.4 billion in Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loans for small businesses.
It allocates $82 billion for schools and colleges, $40 billion for vaccine distribution and virus testing, $25 billion in rental assistance and $15 billion for live entertainment venues.
A potential House vote on who will be seated in an ongoing Iowa House congressional race could have far-reaching political ramifications for another Iowan.
Democrat Rita Hart said she’ll petition the U.S. House of Representatives to ultimately decide who won her congressional contest against Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. It was the closest House race in the nation, with Iowa certifying Miller-Meeks as the winner with a margin of just six votes.
If the Democratic-led House decides to hear Hart’s case, then that could kick off a scenario where all members of Congress would have to cast a vote on whether Hart should be seated as the official representative in the 2nd District.
It’s happened before. House Democrats voted in 1985 to seat a fellow Democrat who initially lost an Indiana House race by 418 votes under the state-certified results. But Indiana Democratic incumbent Frank McCloskey petitioned the House and a months-long congressional investigation and recount determined that McCloskey won the election by four votes.
Now Democrats — holding a razor-thin majority in the House — could be faced with a tough political predicament of deciding whether to let the Iowa results stand or vote to overturn them if a congressional recount comes out in favor of Hart.
A new poll of likely voters found that a potential vote could have electoral ramifications for Iowa Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne of the neighboring 3rd Congressional District.
It has been nearly five years since New York City has seen more than a foot of snow in one storm, when Central Park recorded its biggest snowstorm on record with 27.5 inches in January 2016. That streak may come to an end by the middle of this week, with the New York metro area in — or near — the bullseye for more than a foot of snow.
And it won’t be just New York. Much of the densely populated parts of the Northeast stand to see a walloping of heavy snow as a major nor’easter takes aim. Some cities may pick up more than a half a season’s worth of snow in 24 hours.
For cities like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York, a major nor’easter seems long overdue. That’s because many of these cities saw historically low amounts of snow last winter. The Big Apple only measured 4.8 inches last season — its fourth least snowiest season on record. The least amount of snow ever recorded in New York City came in the 1972-73 season, when the city saw only 2.8 inches.
For perspective, in a normal year, Central Park tallies around 25 inches of snow, and the snowiest season of 1995-96 delivered a whopping 75.6 inches.
A storm will bring heavy snow to parts of the southern Plains and into the South starting Sunday, while a major nor’easter is expected to hit the East Coast later this week, according to forecasters.
“A storm tracking across the southern U.S. Sunday will continue heavy snow over a portion of the southern Plains with heavy rain and thunderstorms further East into Monday,” the National Weather Service tweeted late Saturday.
The Weather Service said a Pacific cold front will sweep into the Northwest Sunday “with more rain and mountain snow.”
In 1872 the U.S. economy was growing as the young nation industrialized and expanded westward. Then in the autumn, a sudden shock paralyzed social and economic life. It was an energy crisis of sorts, but not a shortage of fossil fuels. Rather, the cause was a virus that spread among horses and mules from Canada to Central America.
For centuries horses had provided essential energy to build and operate cities. Now the equine flu made clear just how important that partnership was. When infected horses stopped working, nothing worked without them. The pandemic triggered a social and economic paralysis comparable to what would happen today if gas pumps ran dry or the electric grid went down.
The equine influenza first appeared in late September in horses pastured outside of Toronto. Within days most animals in the city’s crowded stables caught the virus. The U.S. government tried to ban Canadian horses, but acted too late. Within a month border towns were infected, and the “Canadian horse disease” became a North American epidemic.
Conductors and passengers pulling a streetcar in Boston during the equine influenza outbreak. Getty Images
By December the virus reached the U.S. Gulf Coast, and in early 1873 outbreaks occurred in West Coast cities.The flu’s symptoms were unmistakable. Horses developed a rasping cough and fever; ears drooping, they staggered and sometimes dropped from exhaustion. By one estimate, it killed 2% of an estimated 8 million horses in North America. Many more animals suffered symptoms that took weeks to clear.
SpaceX launched its latest Starship prototype on a flight test to about 40,000 feet altitude on Wednesday.
SpaceX launched its latest Starship prototype on a flight to about 40,000 feet altitude on Wednesday.
The test was successful until the very last moment, when the Starship rocket exploded on impact as it attempted to land.
Despite the explosive ending, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk quickly shared his enthusiasm for the overall results of the flight test: “Successful ascent, switchover to header tanks & precise flap control to landing point!”
On Monday, America commemorates the 79th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Here are the facts surrounding that fateful day—and how to pay tribute.
“December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously proclaimed.
Americans on Monday will honor the 79th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
The surprise raid on the major U.S. Navy base near Honolulu killed more than 2,400 Americans and left another 1,100 injured. In short, the strike signaled the entry of the United States into World War II.
According to the National Park Service, Congress designated Dec. 7 as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in August 1994. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, a small, intimate gathering of veterans will be held at Pearl Harbor Visitor Center — though it is closed to the public.
Here are some facts surrounding that fateful day in U.S. history:
Just before 8 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese planes made the surprise raid on Pearl Harbor. During the attack, which was launched from aircraft carriers, nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, were damaged or destroyed, as well as more than 300 aircraft, according to the History Channel.
How many were killed at Pearl Harbor?
The official American death toll was 2,403, according to the Pearl Harbor Visitors Bureau, including 2,008 Navy personnel, 109 Marines, 218 Army service members and 68 civilians. Of the dead, 1,177 were from the USS Arizona, the wreckage of which now serves as the main memorial to the incident. Fifty-five Japanese soldiers also were killed.
There was a time when Black-owned farms were booming — before those farmers were stripped of tens of thousands of acres because of racist policies.
Now, most rural land in the U.S. is owned by white people. But now, finally, a new piece of legislation could help African Americans reclaim some of that acreage.
The Justice for Black Farmers Act, introduced earlier this month by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., would allow Black farmers to reclaim up to 160 acres each, at no charge, through a Department of Agriculture system of land grants.
Kamal Bell, a 29-year-old farmer in Durham, North Carolina, said that such legislation is just the beginning of efforts necessary for certain farms to become sustainable and generate revenue.
“I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction … but we need to create pipelines for African Americans to be educated on a 21st-century farm,” Bell told ABC News. “The production aspect of how to stay in business isn’t taught to you. … We learned this on our own and from other Black farmers we ended up meeting.”
Bell is CEO of Sankofa Farms, a family farm that he purchased while saving up money in college. It aims to serve as a sustainable food source in urban communities, particularly so-called food deserts with few available options for fresh produce.
Curious tourists have tracked down a mysterious metal monolith that was discovered in a remote area of the Utah desert on November 18. A similar structure appeared in Seattle in 2001.
Curious tourists have tracked down a mysterious metal monolith that was discovered in a remote area of the Utah desert earlier this month, as it’s revealed a similar version appeared nearly 20 years ago on New Years Day in Seattle.
Across the globe UFO spotters and conspiracy theorists have become obsessed with the shiny, triangular pillar that was discovered by baffled local officials counting bighorn sheep from the air last Wednesday in southeastern Utah.
Several adventurous hikers successfully located the monolith on Tuesday and gleefully climbed the mystifying object and snapped photos with it, even though officials didn’t disclose its exact location for fear people would get lost searching for it.
The 41-year-old actor was eliminated Monday from season 29 of Dancing With The Stars after performing a tango with pro partner Sharna Burgess, 35, during ’80s Night.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecast that combines the data from dozens of independent models predicts US deaths from Covid-19 could reach 233,000 by the end of the month.
Computer systems for Universal Health Services, which has more than 400 locations, primarily in the U.S., began to fail over the weekend, and some hospitals have had to resort to filing patient information with pen and paper, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.
Ginsburg was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Her older sister died when she was a baby, and her mother died shortly before Ginsburg graduated from high school. She then earned her bachelor’s degree at Cornell University and became a wife to Martin D. Ginsburg and mother before starting law school at Harvard, where she was one of the few women in her class. Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School, where she graduated tied for first in her class. Following law school, Ginsburg entered into academia. She was a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field.
Ginsburg spent a considerable part of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement of gender equality and women’s rights, winning multiple arguments before the Supreme Court. She advocated as a volunteer attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and was a member of its board of directors and one of its general counsels in the 1970s. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served until her appointment to the Supreme Court. Ginsburg received attention in American popular culture for her fiery liberal dissents and refusal to step down, leading to her being dubbed “The Notorious R.B.G.”, a play on the name of rapper The Notorious B.I.G.[2]
A preliminary 4.5-magnitude earthquake jolted the Southern California area late Friday night.
It hit at 11:39 p.m. local time two miles west of El Monte and 10 miles from Los Angeles, the US Geological Survey reported.
The earthquake shook buildings and rattled windows, and was felt in San Diego, Valencia and the San Fernando Valley areas. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, and the Los Angeles Fire Department warned residents to prepare for aftershocks.
“If inside, when shaking starts, drop cover, hold on. Protect your head + neck while taking cover under sturdy furniture or near a sturdy interior wall, away from windows and doorways until shaking stops,” the LAFD tweeted.
The earthquake was also felt at the Los Angeles International Airport, where crews are checking the airfield and terminals for any signs of damage, the airport tweeted.
Lucy Jones, a seismologist with the California Institute of Technology, said the earthquake produced “a pretty good jolt” in Pasadena, where she was. It was “almost the same location as the M5.9 Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987,” she tweeted. That earthquake hit on October 1 that year and caused $360 million in damage.
A “high intensity” bird migration event is expected to cross the Pittsburgh area Monday, with the possibility of more than 50,000 birds per square mile flying south.
SNETTISHAM, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 24: A flock of waders, (predominantly knot) swirl above the Wash Estuary as the tide recedes revealing mudflat below on November 24, 2018 in Snettisham, United Kingdom. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
According to BirdCast, a collaboration between the EPA, the National Audubon Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and other institutions, the birds will be in the sky above Pittsburgh around 7 p.m. Over Philadelphia, there could be more than 41,000 birds and over Harrisburg, there could be more than 50,000.
The Los Angeles Police Department tweeted that the temperature reached 121 degrees at about 1:30 p.m. at the official recording site at Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood looked like a ghost town and was still 100 degrees at 7:30 p.m.
High temperatures in the San Fernando Valley are not unusual during the late summer months, but the Labor Day weekend heatwave has prompted the California Independent System Operator to declare a Stage 2 Emergency.
As the world battles the coronavirus crisis, researchers are warning of a potentially active Atlantic Ocean hurricane season, which kicks off June 1 through the end of November.
Specifically, the team forecasts 16 named tropical systems; 12 is the average. Eight of those named systems are forecast to reach hurricane status, with winds greater than 74 mph; Six is the usual amount per year. CSU is also forecasting more major hurricanes than is typical per year: four as opposed to the average of 2.7.
At least eight of the 16 named tropical storms that are forecast will reach hurricane status with winds greater than 74 mph, according to Colorado State University.
Tom’s Drive In in Appleton, Wisconsin, made the decision after groups of youngsters repeatedly treated staff poorly and disrespected the restaurant by vandalizing booths and leaving mess.
Tom’s Drive In in Appleton, Wisconsin, made the decision after groups of youngsters repeatedly treated staff poorly and disrespected the restaurant by vandalizing booths and leaving large messes.
While many say the reaction was justified, others have complained that they are punishing the masses for the bad actions of a few.
The restaurant has a sign on its front door which reads: ‘Due to mistreatment of Tom’s Drive In’s property, guests and staff, you are no longer allowed inside of the building without parental supervision.
CVS Health is closing 46 of its stores, saying the locations were “underperforming” as the drugstore chain continues to shift more of its retail presence toward health care services.
The move cost CVS about $135 million as a “store rationalization charge” in its first-quarter earnings report.
The cuts represent fewer than 1% of the about 9,600 CVS Pharmacy stores nationwide.
A U.S. Army veteran discussed online his desire to avenge the New Zealand mosque attacks and professed to be inspired by martyrdom. He allegedly intended to strike a planned white supremacist rally.
A 5-year-old boy who authorities say was thrown from a third-floor balcony at Mall of America is showing “real signs of recovery,” a lawyer for boy’s family told CBS Minnesota on Friday. Police said the suspect, Emmanuel Aranda, told them he went to the mall “looking for someone to kill” and chose the boy at random.
“We have good news to share with you on this Good Friday. Our miracle child is showing real signs of recovery. New test results have been positive, though he remains in intensive care with a long road ahead,” attorney Stephen Tillitt said Friday on behalf of the boy’s family.
Surveillance video at the mall shows Aranda walking in the mall on the third floor, looking over the balcony several times, before approaching the victim and his mother, CBS Minnesota reports.
It’s time to pour one out, because BlackBerry Messenger is shutting down.
It was announced today that the consumer version of BBM is closing on May 31st, 2019. After that date, the BBM app will stop working. Emtek, who licensed the BBM consumer business from BlackBerry in 2016, says that BBM stickers and BBMoji can’t be exported out of the app, so you won’t be able to use them after the shutdown. You can issue refunds of your in-app purchases for stickers that you’ve bought, though.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will introduce legislation to raise the federal minimum age to buy tobacco to 21 from 18.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will introduce legislation to raise the federal minimum age to buy tobacco to 21 from 18, he announced Thursday.
McConnell will introduce the legislation, called the McConnell bill, in May, he said. The bill will cover all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. McConnell’s backing marks the strongest support yet in Congress for what’s been dubbed “T21.”
“For some time, I’ve been hearing from the parents who are seeing an unprecedented spike in vaping among their teenage children,” McConnell said in a statement. “In addition, we all know people who started smoking at a young age and who struggled to quit as adults. Unfortunately it’s reaching epidemic levels around the country.”
(CNN)Wildfires have killed one person and forced the evacuation of four towns in Oklahoma, authorities said Friday.
The state chief medical examiner’s office reported a 61-year-old man died Thursday in Roger MIlls County as a result of injuries sustained in a fire that began southeast of Leedey, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said.
A 54-year-old hunter reported missing in the large Dewey County fire was found alive, Oklahoma Forestry Services Fire Chief Scott Huff said. The man was flown to an area hospital Friday, but his condition was unknown.
Officials said the man was one of three hunters who got caught in the wildfire. The two others were found Thursday.
About 1,000 people evacuated Vici, more than 100 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, Dewey County Sheriff Clay Sander said.
Police made at least four arrests during the six-hour rally that included more than 100 protesters, including members of the far-right Patriot Prayer.
For cities like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York, a major nor’easter seems long overdue. That’s because many of these cities saw historically low amounts of snow last winter. The Big Apple only measured 4.8 inches last season — its fourth least snowiest season on record. The least amount of snow ever recorded in New York City came in the 1972-73 season, when the city saw only 2.8 inches.
SpaceX launched its latest Starship prototype on a flight test to about 40,000 feet altitude on Wednesday.
On Monday, America commemorates the 79th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Here are the facts surrounding that fateful day—and how to pay tribute.
Curious tourists have tracked down a mysterious metal monolith that was discovered in a remote area of the Utah desert on November 18. A similar structure appeared in Seattle in 2001.
The 41-year-old actor was eliminated Monday from season 29 of Dancing With The Stars after performing a tango with pro partner Sharna Burgess, 35, during ’80s Night.
By Saturday morning, Delta had been downgraded to a tropical storm and was expected to make its way to Mississippi and into the Tennessee Valley.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecast that combines the data from dozens of independent models predicts US deaths from Covid-19 could reach 233,000 by the end of the month.
We take Ginsburg’s successes for granted now, but she was the one who brought to the Supreme Court the perspective of women’s rights.
A preliminary 4.5-magnitude earthquake jolted the Southern California area late Friday night.
It hit at 11:39 p.m. local time two miles west of El Monte and 10 miles from Los Angeles, the US Geological Survey reported.The earthquake shook buildings and rattled windows, and was felt in San Diego, Valencia and the San Fernando Valley areas. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, and the Los Angeles Fire Department warned residents to prepare for aftershocks.“If inside, when shaking starts, drop cover, hold on. Protect your head + neck while taking cover under sturdy furniture or near a sturdy interior wall, away from windows and doorways until shaking stops,” the LAFD tweeted.The earthquake was also felt at the Los Angeles International Airport, where crews are checking the airfield and terminals for any signs of damage, the airport tweeted.Lucy Jones, a seismologist with the California Institute of Technology, said the earthquake produced “a pretty good jolt” in Pasadena, where she was. It was “almost the same location as the M5.9 Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987,” she tweeted. That earthquake hit on October 1 that year and caused $360 million in damage.
The Los Angeles Police Department tweeted that the temperature reached 121 degrees at about 1:30 p.m. at the official recording site at Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood looked like a ghost town and was still 100 degrees at 7:30 p.m.
Tom’s Drive In in Appleton, Wisconsin, made the decision after groups of youngsters repeatedly treated staff poorly and disrespected the restaurant by vandalizing booths and leaving mess.
A U.S. Army veteran discussed online his desire to avenge the New Zealand mosque attacks and professed to be inspired by martyrdom. He allegedly intended to strike a planned white supremacist rally.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will introduce legislation to raise the federal minimum age to buy tobacco to 21 from 18.
Wildfires have killed one person and forced the evacuation of four towns in Oklahoma, authorities said Friday.
