News

The New York Times reports: Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who was long dogged by accusations of sexual abuse of girls and who was able to cultivate a stream of high-profile friends despite his lurid lifestyle, killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell. Mr. Epstein hanged himself, the officials said. He was found at roughly 6:30 a.m. Saturday at the Metropolitan …

The Hill reports: New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) led public calls Saturday demanding answers after disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell due to an apparent suicide. “We need answers. Lots of them,” Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, tweeted. Many immediately began questioning the details surrounding his death after …

USA Today reports: USA TODAY’s headquarters in McLean, Virginia was being evacuated Wednesday amid a heavy police presence after police reported a man with a weapon at the suburban Washington building. Alarms sounded at the building as police squad cars converged on the scene. Law enforcement officers with rifles and body armor were patrolling the area and a helicopter hovered …

NBC News reports: In Times Square Tuesday night, video captured people running for safety from the tourist attraction, but the NYPD’s Midtown North district tweeted that the sounds was from motorcycles. “Motorcycles backfiring while passing through sounded like gun shots,” the NYPD said, adding that it received multiple 911 calls. “Please don’t panic. The Times Square area is very safe!” …

The Los Angeles Times reports: Federal authorities have launched a domestic terrorism investigation into the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting that left three dead after officials discovered the gunman had a list of other potential targets, authorities said at a news conference Tuesday. John F. Bennett, FBI special agent in charge, said the target list included religious institutions, courthouses and political …

Bloomberg reports: McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen Corp. have proposed paying $10 billion to settle claims they helped to fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic — the first sign of progress in resolving state lawsuits against the drug distributors, according to people familiar with negotiations. The companies, which deliver the majority of prescription medications to U.S. pharmacies, made the verbal …

Vulture reports: The celebrated novelist Toni Morrison died Monday night, according to a source at her publisher, Knopf. She was 88 years old. The cause of death is not yet known. Born Chloe Ardella Wofford, Morrison was best known for her critically acclaimed and best-selling novel Beloved, which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Among her other memorable and …

CNBC reports: Barneys New York, an icon of New York retail, filed for bankruptcy early Tuesday morning, with a plan to significantly reduce its footprint, as it looks for a buyer to stave off liquidation. The retailer said it will focus on running only 5 of its more than 10 namesake stores: on New York’s Madison Avenue, in downtown Manhattan, …

Dayton’s ABC News affiliate reports: The deadly Oregon District shooting that left nine people and the shooter dead “is a day we all dread happening,” Mayor Nan Whaley said at a news conference. She began the news conference by passing along information that the shooter was wearing body armor, used a .223-caliber, high-capacity magazine and had additional magazines on his …

The Washington Post reports: July was Earth’s hottest month ever recorded, “on a par with, and possibly marginally higher” than the previous warmest month, which was July 2016, according to provisional data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service. This European climate agency will have a full report for all of July on Monday, but a spokesperson said enough data (through …

The Washington Post reports: An extraordinary melt event that began earlier this week continues on Thursday on the Greenland ice sheet, and there are signs that about 60 percent of the expansive ice cover has seen detectable surface melting, including at higher elevations that only rarely see temperatures climb above freezing. July 31 was the biggest melt day since at …

The Associated Press reports: The ousted Iowa Department of Human Services director will pursue a wrongful termination lawsuit, alleging he was let go after objecting to a pay arrangement for the governor’s deputy chief of staff, his lawyer said Wednesday. Jerry Foxhoven, a 67-year-old legal scholar known for his frequent workplace praise of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, will file …

The International Monetary Fund reports: A curious thing recently happened in US currency: in 2017 the $100 bill overtook the ubiquitous $1 bill in circulation volume, for the first time in history. In other words, the most valuable US banknote became the most widely circulated. (The $20 bill is in third place.) According to the Federal Reserve, there are more …

The New York Times reports: Hal Prince, the Broadway royal who was its most prolific Tony winner, the producer or director, or both, of many of the theater’s most enduring musicals, including “Damn Yankees,” “West Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cabaret,” and “Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history, died on Wednesday. He was 91. Mr. …

The Hill reports: House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) blasted a U.S. District Court ruling that restored Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears, arguing the decision was based on “excessive litigation by radical environmentalists” instead of data. The Wyoming Republican said she’ll work to remove the protections for the species, adding the bears’ population numbers have made a …

The Associated Press reports: The fight to save the seas from plastic waste may mean the end for mini bottles of shampoo and other toiletries that hotel guests love to stuff into their luggage. The owner of Holiday Inn and InterContinental Hotels says Tuesday that its nearly 843,000 guest rooms are switching to bulk-size bathroom amenities as part of an …

The Albany Times-Union reports: Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation Monday that further decriminalizes marijuana use in New York. The bill was introduced by Democrats in the waning hours of the recent legislative session after it became clear that full legalization of recreational use would not happen this year. It was seen as a compromise between parties who were opposed to …

CBS News reports: At least four are dead, 15 are injured and hundreds of others were sent scrambling for safety Sunday after at least one gunman opened fire in Christmas Hill Park during the last day of the Gilroy Garlic Festival, according to officials. A suspected gunman is dead. Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said the suspect gained entry into …

The New York Times reports: While campaigning for president last year, Mr. Bolsonaro declared that Brazil’s vast protected lands were an obstacle to economic growth and promised to open them up to commercial exploitation. Seven months into his term, that is already happening. Brazil’s part of the Amazon has lost more than 1,330 square miles of forest cover since Mr. …

The Washington Post reports: Alan Duffy was confused. On Thursday, the astronomer’s phone was suddenly flooded with calls from reporters wanting to know about a large asteroid that had just whizzed past Earth, and he couldn’t figure out “why everyone was so alarmed.” “I thought everyone was getting worried about something we knew was coming,” Duffy, who is lead scientist …