CNN Business reports: Sears Hometown Stores Inc., a franchise-owned unit of Sears, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Sears spun off Sears Hometown in 2012 to give the parent company a much-needed infusion of cash. The average Sears Hometown store is only 8,000 to 10,000 square feet, a fraction of the size of the average full Sears, which is …

STAT News reports: This Wednesday will mark two years since nurse Sandra Lindsay became the first person in the U.S. to receive a Covid-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial. A study released Tuesday by the Commonwealth Fund shows that in those two years, the Covid vaccines have averted over 3 million deaths in the U.S. The CDC estimates that …

Via email from hate group leader Brian Brown: For the past decade, our opponents have constantly declared themselves the victor in this gigantic struggle between what is good and right, God’s plan for marriage and humanity, and what has become culturally popular, the remaking of humanity to fit an entirely secular and false ideology. There have been many battles along …

USA Today reports: Republican support for Donald Trump’s presidential bid in 2024 has cratered, an exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds, as the former president is beleaguered by midterm losses and courtroom setbacks. By 2-1, GOP and GOP-leaning voters now say they want Trump’s policies but a different standard-bearer to carry them. While 31% want the former president to run, 61% prefer some other …

The Guardian reports: Fanatical supporters of Brazil’s outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, have torched cars and buses and tried to storm the federal police headquarters in the country’s capital in what one commentator called a botched attempt to spark a January 6-style turmoil. The violence erupted on Monday evening after the leftwing politician who defeated Bolsonaro in October’s historic election – …

PolitiFact reports: Ukraine wasn’t being led by neo-Nazis and it wasn’t committing genocide. Putin employed those lies to co-opt Russian citizens whose family members would be sent to fight a war, kill others and possibly die themselves. The lies have permeated the assault. When hundreds of bodies were discovered lying in the streets and homes of Bucha after weeks of …

Pink News reports: On Monday, 12 December, the High Court of Barbados further undid its colonial-era homosexuality laws by scrapping Sections 9 and 12 of the Barbados Sexual Offences Act. Also known as “buggery” and “serious indecency” laws, which criminalised consensual same-sex intimacy, punishment ranged from life imprisonment under Section 9, and up to 10 years in jail under Section …

The Daily Beast reports: Four European Union leaders have been charged with participation in a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption, tied to alleged bribes from FIFA World Cup host Qatar. Raids on diplomats’ homes in Brussels and Strasbourg, where the E.U. parliament meets, uncovered “bags of money.” Greek EU vice president Eva Kaili—who is languishing in a Belgium jail …

Axios reports: Increasingly sophisticated drone show technology — which enables massive swarms of tiny lit-up drones to fly in sync with one another displaying well-known logos, characters and so on — is pushing “skyvertising” to new heights. The company behind popular mobile game Candy Crush recently launched 500 drones from New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from downtown Manhattan, …

The Seattle Times reports: A Puyallup couple have been charged with illegally entering the U.S. Capitol and engaging in disruptive behavior during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in Washington, D.C. Scott Roy Christensen, 49, and his wife, Holly Dionne Christensen, 44, are named in charges unsealed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia late last month. They have …

Via press release from the SEC: The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Samuel Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), the crypto trading platform of which he was the CEO and co-founder. Investigations as to other securities law violations and into other entities and persons relating to the alleged misconduct are ongoing. …

Denver’s Fox affiliate reports: Freedom Caucus firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo, has won her bid for re-election against Democrat Adam Frisch, an automatic recount confirmed Monday. The race was decided by 546 votes, fitting a pattern in the 2022 midterm elections when strong supporters of former President Trump finished with closer-than-expected margins or lost elections in swing districts. Secretary of …

NPR reports: President Biden will sign into law Tuesday a bipartisan bill that will codify same-sex and interracial marriages with a large celebration on the South Lawn of the White House. “Today, Congress took a critical step to ensure that Americans have the right to marry the person they love,” Biden said in a statement Thursday after the House passed …

Phoenix’s CBS affiliate reports: Phoenix police officer Christian Goggans is facing an internal investigation, according to the department. Multiple sources told Arizona’s Family Goggans was making and distributing pornography while he was assigned to work from home and on the clock. Our sources have confirmed it is officer Christian Goggans in extremely graphic porn videos he had been uploading to …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Jeremy Brown, a former U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant linked to the Jan. 6 insurrection, was found guilty Monday on six of 10 federal criminal charges related to weapons and classified information that authorities found in his Tampa home. After a weeklong trial, a jury of six men and six women deliberated about five …

The Washington Post reports: Twitter on Monday night abruptly dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, the latest sign that Elon Musk is unraveling years of work and institutions created to make the social network safer and more civil. Members of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council received an email with the subject line, “Thank You,” that informed them the council was …

As you’ve seen, Disqus has “upgraded” the comments system: Today, after weeks of listening to and incorporating tons of awesome feedback from our awesome community of commenters and publishers, we’re taking a huge step forward in fully deploying the new comment section across our entire network. It’s a very exciting day! We’ve taken a very intentional approach to our redesign. …

ABC News reports: Sam Bankman-Fried, the embattled former CEO of cryptocurrency giant FTX and trading firm Alameda Research, has been arrested in the Bahamas on criminal charges, the Bahamas Attorney General’s Office announced Monday. The arrest “followed receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against SBF and is likely to request his extradition,” …

Talking Points Memo reports: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows exchanged text messages with at least 34 Republican members of Congress as they plotted to overturn President Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. Those messages are being fully, publicly documented here for the first time. One message identified as coming from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) to Meadows on January 17, …

CNN Business reports:   Twitter’s former head of trust and safety has fled his home due to an escalation in threats resulting from Elon Musk’s campaign of criticism against him, a person familiar with the matter told CNN on Monday. Yoel Roth, who resigned from the social media company in November, has in recent weeks faced a storm of attacks …