Guns overtake cars as leading cause of death for US youth. ‘I just didn’t think it would occur so quickly’
For decades, the biggest threat kids faced growing up came from the automobiles they happily hopped into every day for a trip to school, the store or soccer practice.
Now, it’s gunfire.
As the country mourns its latest school shooting victims in Uvalde, Texas, it also has reached a grim milestone: Guns now kill more kids and teens in the U.S. than auto accidents do.
The trend has been building in recent years as automobile deaths have fallen with improved safety measures, while gun violence among the young has taken a growing toll. Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that in 2020, the most recent year available, firearms passed motor vehicles as the leading killer of those ages 1-19.
—The Mercury News
Owner wants to give away his small-town Minnesota newspaper
MINNEAPOLIS — Lee Zion is heading to Ukraine to fight against Russian invaders.
But before he goes, he's got one task to complete: giving away the weekly newspaper he owns in Lafayette, Minnesota, a town of about 500 residents in Nicollet County near New Ulm.
That's right. Zion is offering to make a gift of the Lafayette Nicollet Ledger. With about 500 subscribers, the paper is profitable, Zion said, and has no debt. It sounds like a sweet deal, but it's no gravy train, he cautioned.
"To put out a good newspaper, they have to do what I do," Zion said. "And that is, do everything myself with only a handful of (freelancers), and work seven days a week and never take time off."
After decades in journalism, Zion, 54, bought the Ledger four years ago for $35,000. The Brooklyn, New York, native had worked at newspapers from coast to coast, rarely staying in one job for more than a few years because, he said, "I have an abrasive personality."
—Star Tribune
Did NASA find Hell? Scientists brace for first glimpse of world that constantly burns
Mankind’s first look at conditions on a “super-Earth” 50 light years away is expected in coming weeks via the James Webb Space Telescope, and NASA is bracing to see the stuff of nightmares.
The planet, called 55 Cancri e, orbits so close to “its Sun-like star” that surface conditions could literally be like the Hell of biblical description: a dimension in a constant state of burning.
Data show 55 Cancri e is less than 1.5 million miles from its star — 1/25 the distance super hot Mercury is from our sun, NASA says.
“With surface temperatures far above the melting point of typical rock-forming minerals, the day side of the planet is thought to be covered in oceans of lava,” NASA reported last week.
—The Charlotte Observer
Top Gun's Maverick risks China's anger with Taiwan flag on jacket
Tom Cruise isn’t simply taking on what appears to be Russian-made fighter jets in his update to the 1986 classic “Top Gun”: He’s also angering China.
The sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” features Cruise’s character wearing a bomber jacket with the Taiwanese flag, something considered an independence symbol by authorities in Beijing, who view the island as part of its territory. The government of President Tsai Ing-wen asserts Taiwan is already a de facto independent nation in need of wider international recognition.
The flag was either missing or couldn’t be seen properly in a trailer for the film in 2019, prompting some people to wonder whether it had been removed to satisfy demands from China’s censors. But when the full movie recently hit theaters, keen observers noted that the flags had made a comeback. Similarly, the Japanese flag was reinstated.
During an advanced screening in Taiwan, audiences cheered upon seeing Taiwan’s flag appear on Cruise’s jacket and applauded several times throughout the film, according to a report by local online media outlet SETN.
—Bloomberg News
