Tuesday, January 7

News

12 Salisbury Univ. students charged with hate crimes for allegedly beating man over his sexual orientation, police say
News

12 Salisbury Univ. students charged with hate crimes for allegedly beating man over his sexual orientation, police say

Twelve students at Salisbury University in Maryland have been charged with hate crimes after they allegedly targeted a man over his sexual orientation by inviting him to an off-campus apartment where they beat him and used derogatory names, police said. The students, aged 18 to 21, have been charged with first-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and associated hate crime charges, the Salisbury Police Department said in a news release Thursday. They are: Ryder Baker, 20; Bennan Aird, 18; Riley Brister, 20; Cruz Cespedes, 19; Dylan Earp, 20; Elijah Johnson, 19; Zachary Leinemann, 18; Cameron Guy, 18; Jacob Howard, 19; Eric Sinclair, 21; Patrick Gutierrez, 19; and Dylan Pietuszka, 20. All are from Maryland, except Aird, who is from Delaware. Police said t...
Illinois judge found dead outside of home, wife charged with murder in his fatal shooting
News

Illinois judge found dead outside of home, wife charged with murder in his fatal shooting

The wife of an Illinois judge was arrested and charged with fatally shooting her husband, according to Illinois State Police. Megan Valentine, 44 of Albion, was arrested Tuesday after the body of Illinois Second Judicial Circuit Court Judge Michael J. Valentine was found outside of a home, per a news release from police. She was charged with first degree murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated domestic battery, according to court documents filed in Edwards County Thursday. The Edwards County Sheriff's Office responded to a home in Albion Tuesday at around 12:14 p.m. "Upon arrival, an ECSO deputy observed the body of Michael Valentine laying outside the residence," police said, adding Megan Valentine was then taken into custody...
Judge hits pause on Trump’s election interference criminal case
News

Judge hits pause on Trump’s election interference criminal case

WASHINGTON — The judge overseeing Donald Trump's federal election interference case has granted a request from special counsel Jack Smith to hit pause on the process and give him a month to formally request how to move forward — likely the first step in ending the prosecution. In a filing on Friday, Smith said that "as a result of the election" the prosecution "respectfully requests that the Court vacate the remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule to afford the Government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance." "By December 2, 2024, the Government will file a status report or otherwise inform the Court of the result of its deliberations," the filing said, adding that Trump's attorneys do not object to the request. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan granted the m...
Tesla surpasses $1 trillion in valuation in the wake of Trump’s victory
News

Tesla surpasses $1 trillion in valuation in the wake of Trump’s victory

Tesla returned to the $1 trillion club Friday, after its stock surged in the days following Donald Trump's presidential election victory. Shares in the electric automaker have soared approximately 23% since Wednesday — a sharp turnaround from a year in which its stock price had otherwise been moving sideways. The new valuation also increases Tesla CEO Elon Musk's net worth to some $300 billion, according to Forbes — increasing his net worth as the world's richest person by more than $30 billion. Musk campaigned aggressively for Trump, who has signaled he intends to appoint the Tesla chief to a role tasked with increasing government "efficiency" that would cut programs deemed wasteful. Through his rocket company SpaceX, Musk has been the beneficiary of billions in government con...
Ridley Scott says Joaquin Phoenix got cold feet on ‘Gladiator,’ Russell Crowe called it ‘unprofessional’
News

Ridley Scott says Joaquin Phoenix got cold feet on ‘Gladiator,’ Russell Crowe called it ‘unprofessional’

“ Gladiator ” director Ridley Scott recently told The New York Times that Russell Crowe said Joaquin Phoenix was being “terribly unprofessional” on set when Phoenix was getting cold feet and had to be convinced to stay on the movie. Crowe headlined “Gladiator” as Maximus, with Phoenix starring as the villainous Commodus. Both actors earned Oscar nominations, with Crowe winning the best actor prize. “[Joaquin] was in his prince’s outfit saying, ‘I can’t do it,’” Scott recalled, “I said, ‘What?’ And Russell said, ‘This is terribly unprofessional.’” When asked how he convinced Phoenix to stay on the film, Scott asked: “I can act as a big brother or dad. But I’m quite a friend of Joaquin’s. ‘Gladiator’ was a baptism of fire for both of us in the begi...
5 dead, including 2 juveniles, after quadruple murder-suicide at 2 homes in Minnesota
News

5 dead, including 2 juveniles, after quadruple murder-suicide at 2 homes in Minnesota

Five people, including two juveniles, were found dead in Minnesota, in what appears to be a quadruple murder-suicide spread across two homes. Officers responded to a welfare check at a home on the 6000 block of Tacony Street in Duluth shortly after 2 p.m., the Duluth Police Department said in a release. An employee with the city of Superior was concerned that a coworker had not shown up for work, police said. They found two people, 47-year-old Erin Abramson and her son, 15-year-old Jacob Nephew, dead from apparent gunshot wounds. Police said they identified a suspect, 46-year-old Anthony Nephew, and set up surveillance at his residence, located about a mile northeast of the initial shooting scene. Officers made entry with drones and found two more victims, 45-year-old Kathryn N...
Grammy Awards 2025: List of nominees
News

Grammy Awards 2025: List of nominees

Beyoncé made Grammys history Friday by becoming the most nominated artist. The music icon, who released her debut country album, "Cowboy Carter," this year, received 11 nods, bringing her career total to 99. From Sabrina Carpenter to Chappell Roan, female artists behind some of this year's biggest hits also received industrywide recognition from the Recording Academy, which announced its nominees for the 67th Grammy Awards during a livestream. Carpenter and Roan snagged nominations in the best new artist category. Each has reached major breakthroughs this year, drawing huge festival crowds and inching up various Billboard charts . Taylor Swift, who broke the record for most wins for album of the year, also received a handful of nods for " The Tortured P...
5 Best computer speakers of 2024 for your home office
News

5 Best computer speakers of 2024 for your home office

For laptops , MacBooks and desktop PCs , good audio can often seem like an afterthought. It’s hard to get quality sound from built-in speakers, which have to be crammed inside a hyper-thin chassis alongside the keyboard, battery and processors that make up a personal computer. That’s where the best computer speakers come in handy. By using an external accessory to ramp up your audio output, you can get louder, higher-quality sound for whatever you’re listening to. Good computer speakers can be the difference between hearing a colleague clearly and missing crucial information during a Zoom call, while others may want a better computer speaker setup so that games, music and movies sound better. For a good audio solution read on for the best computer speakers in 2024. ...
Trump says there’s ‘no price tag’ for his mass deportation plan
News

Trump says there’s ‘no price tag’ for his mass deportation plan

President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News on Thursday that one of his first priorities upon taking office in January would be to make the border “strong and powerful.” When questioned about his campaign promise of mass deportations , Trump said his administration would have “no choice” but to carry them out. Trump said he considers his sweeping victory over Vice President Kamala Harris a mandate "to bring common sense" to the country. "We obviously have to make the border strong and powerful and, and we have to — at the same time, we want people to come into our country," he said. "And you know, I’m not somebody that says, 'No, you can’t come in.' We want people to come in." As a candidate, Trump had repeatedly vowed to carry out the "largest deportation ...
Prince William says year has been ‘brutal’ amid King Charles’ and Princess Kate’s cancer diagnoses
News

Prince William says year has been ‘brutal’ amid King Charles’ and Princess Kate’s cancer diagnoses

Prince William said the past year has been “brutal” as his wife and father announced their diagnoses with cancer. "It's been dreadful. It's probably been the hardest year in my life," William told NBC News' international partner, Sky News, at the end of a weeklong tour in Cape Town, South Africa, for the fourth annual Earthshot Prize. King Charles III announced his cancer diagnosis in February following a procedure for benign prostate enlargement. During the procedure, "a separate issue of concern was noted," and further testing confirmed the presence of cancer, Buckingham Palace said at the time. He resumed public duties as king in April after progress was made in his treatment. In a video address released in March , Kate, the Princess of Wales, shared tha...