Full Story at WorldNews.msnbc.msn.com
LAGOS, Nigeria — Soldiers have barricaded key roads in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos as the president offered a concession to halt fuel price protests that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy.Troops and police also blocked entrances to protest venues in Nigeria’s second-largest city of Kano on Monday, including a park near a university and a square in the city center.
Full Story at globalpublicsquare.blogsCNN.com
The next time you pay $3.50 dollars for a gallon of gas, stop and think about a basic rule of economics. When demand is low and supply is strong, prices should fall. Right?Now apply that to oil. People drive less in the winter. The American economy is slow. The Euro Zone has stalled. China and India are slowing down. So demand for oil worldwide is low. So why is oil trading high at $113 a barrel, more than twice the price it was trading at five years ago when the global economy was booming? What in the world is going on?
Grizzlies are high profile this year.A lingering winter and late berry crop kept bears in proximity to humans longer than normal, perhaps contributing to a stream of headlines about grizzlies killing people and people killing grizzlies.
Meanwhile, a young lady on a big horse charged out of the pack of grizzly stories near Glacier National Park. In a cloud of dust, the 25-year-old wrangler likely saved a boy’s life while demonstrating that skill, quick-thinking and guts sometimes are the best weapons against a head-on charging grizzly.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Coca-Cola Co. acknowledged Thursday it was the company that alerted federal regulators about low levels of fungicide in its own orange juice and in competitors’ juice, prompting juice prices to rise and increased government testing for the residue.The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have said orange juice is safe to drink and the levels found are below levels of concern.
FORT WAYNE, INDIANA – A frustrated mom has given her wayward teenage son the ultimate punishment: public humiliation.The 14-year-old was forced to stand on a busy street for two hours with a massive sign hanging around his neck, which read, “I lie, I steal, I sell drugs, I don’t follow the law.”
Dynesha Lax, of Fort Wayne, said the punishments handed out to her unruly son weren’t strong enough to get him to stop so she had no choice but to take this drastic action.
“I decided he broke the law and they only gave him a few hours community service so I decided that we were going to wear a sign that says you looking for attention, we’re going to get you attention,” Lax told KLTV.
Full Story at Bites.today.msnbc.msn.com
Colin Hagendorf is a venerable slice expert. The Brooklyn native recently completed his quest to eat at every pizza slice joint in Manhattan, chronicling his 370-plus slice binge on his blog Slice Harvester. In honor of National Pizza Week, Hagendorf, 28, offers his tips for finding pizza nirvana.“All of your senses are part of the experience,” Hagendorf told TODAY.com. “You don’t hold your nose or wear gloves when eating pizza.”
Smell: The smell of the pizza should pull you out from the street and into the door. Everyone knows what the perfect slice smells like, even if they can’t describe it.
Full Story at America hits the brakes on health care spending – Health – Health care – msnbc.com
WASHINGTON — U.S. healthcare spending barely rose in 2010 from record-low recession levels, as high unemployment and the loss of private health insurance forced many Americans to delay or forego medical treatment, government officials said on Monday.Spending edged up 3.9 percent, bringing the total size of the U.S.
healthcare system to $2.6 trillion, or $8,402 per person, according to a
report released by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
or CMS, and published in the journal Health Affairs.Growth in 2010 was only a slim 0.1 percentage point higher than the
3.8 percent recorded in 2009, which was the lowest rate recorded in half
a century. Per capita health spending in the United States is still the
highest worldwide.
KODIAK, Alaska — As the holiday season comes to a close, Aaron Cooper has many things to be thankful for, most importantly his life.Four years ago in Fairbanks, Alaska, Cooper, a 2007 Kodiak High School graduate, was involved in a life-threatening snowmachine accident.
The veteran rider was practicing freestyle tricks when things turned for the worse. While doing a jump, Cooper lost control of his sled and had to abort.
He jumped, and when he came back down to earth he broke his back, causing bone fragments to tear through his nerve sac and shatter his nerve system.
(CBS) Memory loss might start a lot sooner than originally thought, a new study suggests. The study found signs of age-related cognitive decline in men and women who were only 45 years old.PICTURES: Alzheimer’s disease: 7 things that raise your risk
For the study, researchers tracked nearly 5,200 men and 2,200 women for 10 years beginning in 1997. All were civil servants between the ages of 45 and 70 who lived in the U.K.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Russian tanker carrying fuel for an iced-in Alaska city that without a delivery could run out of crucial supplies before winter’s end encountered ice early Friday in the eastern Bering Sea.The ice was not a surprise. The 370-foot tanker Renda will have to go through more than 300 miles of sea ice to get to Nome, a city of about 3,500 people on the western Alaska coastline that did not get its last pre-winter fuel delivery because of a massive storm.
If the delivery of diesel fuel and unleaded gasoline is not made, the city likely will run short of fuel supplies before another barge delivery can be made in spring.
Full Story at Itineraries.msnbc.msn.com
For Elvis Presley fans, 2012 promises to be a good year. There are exhibits, tours, special events, concerts, promotions and celebratory cruises in the works to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the King’s death, who would have celebrated his birthday on Jan. 8.And a new museum housing a large private collection of memorabilia opened to the public last month in Düsseldorf, Germany. The Elvis Presley Museum Düsseldorf is possibly one of the largest such collections outside of the United States, according to the museum.
WESTBY, Wis. — Bekkum Family Farms LLC of Westby, Wis., is recalling shredded cheese due to a possible bacterial contamination.The state agriculture department said Wednesday the cheese is labeled “Grumpy Goat Shreds” under the Nordic Creamery brand name.
Full Story at USNews.msnbc.msn.com
When the price of Powerball lottery tickets increases from $1 to $2 on Jan. 15, Chris Taranto says, he will still buy them.So will a lot of other lottery players, he told phillyburbs.com. And their chances of winning will improve.
“People like to dream in this country,” the Delran, N.J., resident said as he purchased tickets for the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries at the Hartford Deli on Tuesday. “The only true dream left is the lottery.”
With the price increase, the Powerball jackpot will grow from a minimum of $20 million to $40 million, and that could grow to the hundreds of millions if it takes several weeks to get a winner.
Full Story at USNews.msnbc.msn.com
A 15-year-old who a witness says jumped in front of a Staten Island bus was carrying a suicide note when she was struck, distraught because she was the target of bullying at her school, according to a relative.Amanda Diane Cummings, a sophomore at Staten Island’s New Dorp High School, was hit by a city bus on Dec. 27 and died Monday from her injuries. A police spokesman told The Staten Island Advance that Amanda had a suicide note with her when a witness saw her jump in front of the bus at about 7:30 p.m., but authorities did not disclose the contents of the note.
The man suspected of killing a ranger at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State is believed to have been found dead, according to police.Authorities located a body face-down in the snow without any identification, but believe it to be Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, the sole suspect in Sunday’s shooting, according to a Twitter posting from Washington State Patrol spokesman Guy Gill.
Barnes was being tracked by ground and aerial search crews for the shooting death of 34-year-old ranger Margaret Anderson, who tried to block his path when Barnes sped past a checkpoint in the park Sunday morning. Barnes fired shots at Anderson and another ranger before fleeing into the park’s wilderness. The other ranger was not injured.
NEW YORK (AP) — Revelers erupted in cheers amid a confetti-filled celebration in New York’s Times Square to welcome in the new year, part of star-studded festivities and glittering fireworks displays around the world to usher in 2012.From New Zealand to New York, the world eagerly welcomed a new year Sunday and hoped for a better future, saying goodbye to a year of hurricanes, tsunamis and economic turmoil that many would rather forget.
In New York, hundreds of thousands gathered at the crossroads of the world to witness a crystal ball with more than 30,000 lights that descended at midnight. Lady Gaga and Mayor Michael Bloomberg led the crowd in the final-minute countdown of the famed crystal-paneled ball drop.
Full Story at Itineraries.msnbc.msn.com
When it comes to celebrating New Year’s Eve with the kids, family-friendly events may be a little difficult to come by during a celebration that seems to revolve around champagne. Boston led the way for First Night celebrations with the very first First Night held in 1976. The New Year’s Eve event banned alcohol, ensuring the countdown to midnight was family friendly. By 2006, more than a million attended the city’s First Night Celebration. Today, First Night in Boston features fireworks at midnight over Boston Harbor, among citywide attractions. Other notable First Night cities include historic Old Town Alexandria, Va., Pittsburgh, Pa., Providence, R.I., and Bethlehem, Pa.
Full Story at huffingtonpost.com
Winning the $200,000 PowerBall prize will enable Donny Jones to pay off his bills, but the Idaho native won’t be leaving his cooking job anytime soon, CBS3Springfield.com reports.“I love my job,” Donny Jones told the news outlet. “I love my bosses and everybody I work with here.”
Jones lives with a disability and has been working at the Hometown Kitchen in Idaho Falls for 16 years, where he first started out as a dishwasher. He says he considers his co-workers family and knows that they’ll help him manage his winnings.
“I was in shock,” Donny Jones told the news outlet. “I’m still in shock.”
Full Story at OverheadBin.msnbc.msn.com
Let it snow: words that skiers and employees of resorts around the country are fervently repeating as flakes resist falling on slopes from California to New England.“It’s been a slow start for us,” said Ethan Austin, spokesman at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine, the largest ski area east of the Rockies. The resort had little snowfall in December, so they’ve been relying on snow-making equipment to keep their slopes open, Austin said.
“Right now we don’t have a whole lot in terms of natural snow, around 25 to 30 inches,” he said. “That’s quite a bit below average.” The resort currently has 28 trails open; 65 to 70 open trails is typical for this time of year.
Across the country, at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in California, the snowmakers are on as well, said spokeswoman Joani Lynch. “We are, safe to say, off to a slow start.”
Full Story at BottomLine.msnbc.msn.com
Ford is hoping history can repeat itself with the upcoming launch of the next-generation Fusion four-door.It’s been more than a quarter century since the maker revolutionized automotive design with the original Taurus sedan. Its windswept styling helped Ford dominate the huge midsize market segment, and led most competitors to migrate to more aerodynamic designs. The new Fusion, which makes its debut at the Detroit Auto Show next month, will borrow many of the visual cues of the recent Ford Evos concept car and, if early reviews are any indication, could help the maker topple the imports that have dominated the midsize segment over the last two decades.
