News

The Washington Post reports: A preliminary magnitude 5.1 earthquake occurred near Sparta, in northwestern North Carolina at 8:07 a.m. on Sunday morning, very near the Virginia border. The quake rattled the Carolina Piedmont, but was reportedly felt as far away as Atlanta, part of Tennessee, Washington D.C., and Ohio. It appears to be the strongest North Carolina quake in more …

Reuters reports: Authorities in Belarus on Saturday detained Maria Kolesnikova, a prominent member of the opposition campaign challenging President Alexander Lukashenko in a presidential election, the campaign team said. Human rights groups say more than 1,300 people have been detained in a crackdown ahead of Sunday’s election in an attempt to clamp down on street protests that pose the biggest …

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: They gathered on a summer weekend in the small northwestern Minnesota town of Lake Park to pay their respects to 78-year-old Francis Perreault and share their grief and memories of the good times. They hugged. They cried. They held hands and prayed and honored a man who was described by his daughter as “wonderful.” Yet despite …

NBC New York reports: A massive power outage struck Friday morning in the upper part of Manhattan, knocking out not only lights but also cellphone service, and a short time later power went out in a large chunk of Queens as well. At one point it was pitch black as far as the eye could see along Broadway north of …

The Moscow Times reports: Nearly 3,000 tons of a highly explosive fertilizer that caused Tuesday’s devastating blast in Beirut came from a ship owned by a Russian businessman, the Mediazona news website reported Wednesday, citing Lebanese television and members of the ship’s crew. Lebanese authorities in 2014 confiscated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate from a Moldovan ship called the Rhosus, …

Al Jazeera reports: Lebanese President Michel Aoun called for an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday and said a two-week state of emergency should be declared following a massive explosion in Beirut that killed at least 100 people and injured 4,000 others. The explosion on Tuesday sent shockwaves across the city, causing widespread damage as far as the outskirts of the …

Forbes reports: Voters in Republican-leaning Missouri supported a ballot measure to extend Medicaid benefits to more than 200,000 low-income adults in the latest vote testing the popularity of the Affordable Care Act during the Covid-19 pandemic. The vote by a narrow margin of Missourians to expand Medicaid under the ACA is a political blow to Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who …

The BBC reports: Spain’s former King Juan Carlos has left the country for an unknown destination, weeks after he was linked to an inquiry into alleged corruption. Juan Carlos, 82, announced the move on Monday in a letter to his son, Felipe, to whom he handed power six years ago. He said he would be available if prosecutors needed to …

USA Today reports: Isaias is forecast to make landfall as a hurricane in the Carolinas on Monday night and will bring dangerous storm surge and flash flooding to most of the Eastern Seaboard over the next few days, the National Weather Service said. The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning from South Santee River, South Carolina, to Surf City, …

CBS News reports: Crew Dragon astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken enjoyed wakeup messages from their young sons early Sunday before readying their ship for a fiery plunge back to Earth and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola to close out a 64-day test flight. Hurley and Behnken, launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on May 30, …

The Associated Press reports: Hurricane Isaias ripped shingles off roofs and blew over trees as it carved its way through the Bahamas early Saturday and headed toward the Florida coast, where officials in Miami said they were closing beaches, marinas and parks. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez said Friday that 20 evacuation centers were on standby that could be set up …

Orlando’s NBC News affiliate reports: Isaias is now a hurricane and the Bahamas are bracing as the storm bears down en route toward Florida and the U.S. East Coast. As of 8 a.m., the storm had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and was centered about 15 miles northwest of Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas. It was moving at …

The New York Times reports: The final launch of the summer of Mars missions is nearly underway. On Thursday, NASA hopes to send a robotic rover and a small experimental helicopter on a journey of six and a half months to the red planet. It follows two earlier launches by the United Arab Emirates and China. NASA was originally scheduled …

Open Vallejo reports: They call it, “The Badge of Honor.” For a generation, a secretive clique within the Vallejo Police Department has commemorated fatal shootings with beers, backyard barbecues, and by bending the points of their badges each time they kill in the line of duty, an investigation by Open Vallejo has found. The custom was so exclusive, some officers …

Axios reports: Nearly half of Americans say they’ve established social “bubbles” of people they can trust to follow the rules for minimizing the risk of spreading the coronavirus, according to the latest installment of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index. The trend isn’t particularly partisan. It is most common in the suburbs and among women, older adults and people with college educations. …

USA Today reports: It was on sale for only 24 hours, but it broke company records. The Topps NOW limited edition baseball trading card featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, set an all-time print record run for the franchise, selling 51,512 cards, the company said. “We’re excited by the popularity of Dr. …

CBS News reports: Tropical Storm Hanna was upgraded to a hurricane Saturday, moving toward the Texas coast and threatening to bring heavy rain, storm surge and possible tornadoes. Hanna is now the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, according to the National Hurricane Center. Maximum sustained winds increased to 75 mph, the hurricane center said in a Saturday …

Wilmington’s Port City Daily reports: Records from the New Hanover County 911 center show that a friend of Mike Adams called after not seeing him for several days, telling a dispatcher that the UNCW professor had been ‘erratic’ for several weeks and ‘under a lot of stress.’ Dispatch records also indicate the cause of death was likely a gunshot wound. …

Phoenix’s NBC News affiliate reports:  The headquarters of the Arizona Democratic Party in Phoenix caught on fire early Friday. The Phoenix Fire Department said firefighters were dispatched to the building near Central Avenue and Thomas Road around 1 a.m. for reports of smoke coming from the building. When crews arrived, they found heavy smoke and fire coming from the building. …

The New York Times reports: New species are thriving in the Metropolitan area, while those more associated with New England are slowly vanishing. This is because of rising temperatures, which are largely the result of human activity, including emissions from fossil fuels, according to the National Climate Assessment. New York City, after years of being considered a humid continental climate, …