NEW YORK (AP) — Across the country, there’s a silent frustration brewing about an age-old practice that many say is getting out of hand: tipping. Some fed-up consumers are posting rants on social media complaining about tip requests at drive-thrus, while others say they’re tired of being asked to leave a gratuity for a muffin or a simple cup of coffee at their neighborhood bakery.

Fred la marmotte, the province's famous furry oracle in Val-d'Espoir, Que., was found dead overnight Thursday, hours before he had been expected to predict whether it would be an early or late spring.

The United States is expanding its presence in the Philippines amid rising concerns about China’s influence in the Pacific. On Thursday, the U.S. secured access to four more military camps in the Philippines and improved its existing five camps.

Sixteen million households will see an average reduction of about $82 per person in food benefits.

After a college student finally found a treatment that worked, the insurance giant decided it wouldn’t pay for the costly drugs. His fight to get coverage exposed the insurer’s hidden procedures for rejecting claims. Insurers have wide discretion in crafting what is covered by their policies, beyond some basic services mandated by federal and state law. They often deny claims for services that they deem not “medically necessary.” When United refused to pay for McNaughton's treatment for that reason, his family did something unusual. They fought back with a lawsuit, which uncovered a trove of materials, including internal emails and tape-recorded exchanges among company employees. Those records offer an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at how one of America's leading health care insurers relentlessly fought to reduce spending on care, even as its profits rose to record levels. As United reviewed McNaughton’s treatment, he and his family were often in the dark about what was happening or their rights. Meanwhile, United employees misrepresented critical findings and ignored warnings from doctors about the risks of altering McNaughton’s drug plan.

Bitcoin's sudden stability is “very suspicious” says John Griffin, finance professor at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business. “The same mechanism we saw in 2017 could be at play now in the still unreal Bitcoin market.”

A few days ago, on the little-discussed internet-based idle thought broadcasting system run by a reclusive billionaire known as Twitter, there appeared a picture of a BMW i4’s center-stack screen. The screen was filled with text under the heading of REMOTE SOFTWARE UPGRADE, indicating that some sort of over-the-air update was happening, but below the heading and version information was a really peculiar error message, stating that “The road is too steep to start the installation.” What?

Sasquatch sightings may come down to this simple formula. (ed. - So if I'm reading this right, Bigfoot owns a bear costume. Pretty clever, big guy.)

Momo the gibbon was kept in a cage by herself in a Japanese zoo. But life found a way. … But that still left one burning question unanswered—if she never had direct contact with Itoh, how did she get pregnant in the first place? The zoo has no hard evidence like surveillance footage, but Yamano said the apes’ point of contact was probably a hole in the wall measuring nine millimeters in diameter.

How messy does spacetime get if we take our shuttle up to warp speed like in Star Trek? Is everything suddenly in multiple places at once?

The cases were thrown out in scores. In the Bronx, 349 convictions were tossed, along with more than 100 in Manhattan. In Brooklyn, 90 were overturned. After Joseph Franco was charged in 2019 with perjury and other crimes related to his decades as a New York Police Department narcotics detective, prosecutors lined up to dismiss cases in which he had been involved. But on Tuesday, one more prosecution was tossed: that of Mr. Franco himself. A New York State judge, Robert M. Mandelbaum, found that prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office had failed to turn over evidence to the detective’s lawyers on three occasions, a major ethical violation, and dismissed the charges. “As you have heard,” Justice Mandelbaum told jurors, “to date there have been two different occasions that you have heard about where the prosecution failed to disclose certain evidence.” “It now turns out that the prosecution failed to disclose additional evidence only learned about today,” he added. The prosecutor handling the case, Stephanie Minogue, was immediately removed as deputy chief of the Police Accountability Unit, which reports directly to the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg.

The Mobile Police Department (MPD) responded to a call Monday that male genitalia had been found at an Alabama gas station, the department told the Daily Caller. Witnesses found the human penis in the parking lot of a gas station located at the corner of Navco Road and McVay Drive after 6:00 am, local news outlet Lagniappe reported.

A new bill would allow prisoners to get time off their sentence if they donate their organs or bone marrow.

The company’s policy forbids employees from working with “obvious missing, broken, or badly discolored teeth” unrelated to a disability.

I’d have come in through the airport, myself.

Employers are using heavy-handed tactics to prevent workers from organizing, and US labor union density is falling as a result The number of unfair labor practice charges filed with NLRB field offices increased by 23% in fiscal year 2022, the largest single-year percentage increase in decades, revealing how widespread employer opposition is to unionization efforts. US employers spend an estimated $340m annually on hiring union avoidance consultants to oppose unionization efforts and employers are charged with violating federal labor law in 41.5% of all union elections, according to a 2019 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. Labor experts have highlighted the disparity between support for labor unions and decreasing union density as revealing a need for public policy reforms to protect workers’ rights to organize and enact meaningful penalties on employers for violating labor laws. They also say the NLRB needs more funding as workers face long delays for charges to be reviewed and adjudicated.

Two provinces and eight states agreed to limit water transfers around the Great Lakes basin. But the Ford government’s plans for development in York Region include moving a lot more wastewater south to Lake Ontario

The “everything store” has gotten junkier and more chaotic. But, for the company, it’s only good business.

Dubious forensic techniques have spread throughout the criminal justice system for decades. Here’s what ProPublica has learned about junk forensic science techniques and how they proliferate.

HARVEY, Ill. — The food service director for an impoverished south suburban school district is accused of stealing $1.5M worth of food – mainly chicken wings – according to court documents re…