Peanut Butter News

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(CNN) — Four men died after horsing around in a boat on a southern Idaho reservoir, authorities said late Monday.

The bodies of four men were found Monday evening in the American Falls Reservoir in the same area where the men had fallen into the water a day earlier, said Cpl. Leilani Morgan of the the Power County Sheriff’s Department.

The search began Sunday for the four boaters after authorities received a 911 call from a child on their boat, said Power County, Idaho, Sheriff Jim Jeffries. The four men were “horsing around,” he said. One man was standing up in the front of the boat and another man pushed him into the water as a joke, not realizing he could not swim, he said.

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(CNN) — Authorities in Rimrock, Arizona, were searching Monday for a 2-year-old boy who went missing over the weekend while camping with a family that was preparing to adopt him, a spokesman for the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said.

Syler Newton was last seen shortly after midnight Saturday, sleeping in a tent with the family at the Beaver Creek Campgrounds. About 1:45 a.m. Sunday, the family noticed that he was missing from his sleeping bag.

Full Story at msnbc.com

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Firefighters in aircraft and on the ground battled the second serious wildfire to threaten the Flagstaff area in two days Sunday, prompting officials to urge hundreds of residents to flee as flames crept within 500 yards of some homes.

Officials said the fast-spreading fire erupted in this forested city’s northern outskirts Sunday morning and burned across 7 square miles of forest land by evening, sending a huge plume of smoke over parts of the region.

Full Story at msnbc.com

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took over a foreclosed home roughly every 90 seconds during the first three months of the year. They owned 163,828 houses at the end of March, a virtual city with more houses than Seattle. The mortgage finance companies, created by Congress to help Americans buy homes, have become two of the nation’s largest landlords.

Bill Bridwell, a real estate agent in the desert south of Phoenix, is among the thousands of agents hired nationwide by the companies to sell those foreclosures, recouping some of the money that borrowers failed to repay.

Full Story at CNN.com

Venice, Louisiana (CNN) — The Gulf of Mexico undersea gusher has already spilled more oil than the Exxon Valdez disaster — possibly more than twice as much, making it the largest oil spill in U.S. history — government scientists said Thursday.

Scientists observed 130,000 to 270,000 barrels of oil on the water’s surface on May 17, and think a similar amount had already been burned, skimmed, dispersed or evaporated.

That would mean 260,000 to 520,000 barrels had been leaked as of 10 days ago. The Exxon Valdez leaked about 250,000 barrels into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989.

Full Story at msnbc.com

Kansas City, Mo., plans to close nearly half its public schools by fall. Illinois’ governor wants to raise state income taxes by 1 percent to continue funding schools and prevent the layoffs of thousands of teachers. Hawaii, President Barack Obama’s home state, has whacked 17 days from the school year and says it’s not done with educational cost-cutting.

From Maine to Wisconsin, Florida to California, school districts across the country are taking drastic measures to deal with school budget cuts made severe by the recession and its aftermath. Msnbc.com asked readers how their school district is coping, and one clear lesson emerged — cuts in education make no one happy.

Full Story at NBCSports.com

It’s almost game time. You’ve read thousands of words on Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, heard how elated the city of New Orleans is to be in the Super Bowl for the first time and received hundreds of updates on Dwight Freeney’s ankle.

Consider all that your introduction into the game.

Here’s your main course: 13 ways how the Saints can win, and 13 ways how the Colts can win.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — A tanker ship loaded with oil in the Port of Port Arthur, Texas, collided with two barges being towed by a tug boat, resulting in a spill of about 450,000 gallons of crude, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

No injuries were reported, but a 50-block area around the port was evacuated out of caution, as the tanker was carrying a type of oil containing sulfide.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — An Arizona couple who wanted to adopt a woman’s baby know more than they’re saying about the 8-month-old boy’s disappearance, police say.

Gabriel Johnson hasn’t been seen since December 26, police said, and his mother was arrested last week in Miami Beach, Florida, after not reporting for a December 28 child custody hearing in Arizona.

“We have some good indications at this point with our investigation that Tammi and Jack Smith do know more information than they have provided to us that could possibly lead us to Gabriel,” Sgt. Steve Carbajal, spokesman for the Tempe (Arizona) Police Department, told HLN’s Nancy Grace on Thursday.