Shortly after USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy issued a public statement saying he wanted to "avoid even the appearance" that any of his policies would slow down election mail, USPS instructed all maintenance managers around the country not to reconnect or reinstall any mail sorting machines they had already disconnected, according to emails obtained by Motherboard. "Please message out to your respective Maintenance Managers tonight. They are not to reconnect / reinstall machines that have previously been disconnected without approval from HQ Maintenance, no matter what direction they are getting from their plant manager," wrote Kevin Couch, Director of Maintenance Operations. "Please have them flow that request through you then on to me for a direction." A subsequent email sent to individual maintenance managers across various regions forwarded that request along with a single sentence: "We are not to reconnect any machines that have previously been disconnected."

When a 17-year-old employee at Sesame Place, a Sesame Street theme park near Philadelphia, spotted two guests without masks last week, the teen asked the man and woman to cover their faces. Instead, the man punched the teen in the face, sending him crashing to the ground and then to the hospital, police said. On Wednesday, the U.S. Marshals Service and New York Police Department arrested the man suspected in the Aug. 9 assault at his home in the Bronx, Middletown Township police said. Troy McCoy, 39, faces aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and other charges in the attack. His roommate, Shakerra Bonds, 31, has also been charged with simple assault and criminal conspiracy and has arranged to turn herself in, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

If you have a spare fifteen whole minutes, you could do worse than check out the new short film John was trying to contact aliens on Netflix about John Shepherd, a guy who has spent 30 years beaming out obscure music to aliens, constructing a homemade SETI project based at—and taking over—his grandparents home in rural Michigan. We shot the breeze with director Matt Killip.

In July, Jennifer McLeggan hung a sign on her door that said, “I live in FEAR for my life at home.” Now her neighbors have been arrested.

As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivered her Democratic National Convention speech, viewers noticed "BLM" spelled out in toy letters.

Sweden recorded its highest death tally in 150 years for the first half of 2020, according to the country's official statistics office.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former White House adviser Steve Bannon was arrested Thursday on charges that he and three others ripped off donors to an online fundraising scheme “We Build The Wall.” The...

NO PEEKING There is no reason to open the door of the cremator while it is running. If you aren’t good at estimating the total time for a case and always feel like the case is complete before the timer finishes, shorten your time on the next case. You can always add time if you need to. Most modern equipment is designed to regulate the air to perfection. Opening the door could add more air at the wrong time and create a reaction where the rate of combustion becomes too fast for the system to handle. Repositioning the body mid-way through the cremation is also not a good reason to open the door. It is both undignified for the deceased and unnecessary with modern equipment. If parts of the bottom of the casket are not complete at the end of cremation, you can reposition the cremated remains at that time. This is far different than repositioning a body mid-way through the process, and far more dignified.

Archaeologists excavating a cave in the mountains of central Mexico have unearthed evidence that people occupied the area more than 30,000 years ago — suggesting that humans arrived in North America at least 15,000 years earlier than thought. The discovery, which includes hundreds of ancient stone tools, is backed up by a fresh statistical analysis that incorporates data from other sites. But the conclusion has stirred controversy among some researchers. “When I see a claim being made that is so dramatic, then the evidence has to be there to substantiate the claim,” says archaeologist Kurt Rademaker at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Reds broadcaster Thom Brennaman used a gay slur during the broadcast of Cincinnati's game against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday.

If Amazon brought its second headquarters to Louisville, city officials pitched the company, it could settle its employees on a riverfront campus spanning both sides of the Ohio River, retire to a "Camp Alexa" retreat location at General Butler State Park and enjoy $2.5 billion in incentives over 20 years "based on the sharing of future revenues." The 137-page bid for Amazon's "HQ2" project, which Mayor Greg Fischer's administration has refused to release for two years, offers city-owned land and facilities downtown for an urban headquarters and sells the city's affordability, spirit of "exploration" and ability to serve as a regional talent magnet...

Airbnb is moving ahead with plans to go public just months after the pandemic upended the travel industry and forced the startup to lay off a quarter of its workforce. On Wednesday, Airbnb announced it had submitted confidential paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. Founded in 2008, Airbnb upended the hotel industry by allowing individuals to rent out rooms in their homes for travelers. It became one of the most valuable private startups in the world, reaching a valuation of $31 billion at one point. Airbnb previously said it was profitable in 2017 and 2018, setting it apart from many other unicorn companies who have bled money before and after going public. The company reportedly started losing money in 2019. But the global pandemic rattled its business and many of the hosts who power it. In May, CEO Brian Chesky wrote in a letter to employees that its business had been "hit hard" and revenue for the year was expected to be less than half of what the company earned in 2019. He also announced that Airbnb would let go nearly 1,900 employees worldwide.

I am now reeling with the fact I have spent thousands of dollars on an education that I cannot use in a practical way to make a living. I have spent (wasted) hundreds of hours in a classroom, teaching and preaching in a church sanctuary, witnessing to some and condemning others with great joy at the time I might add, and for what? For what? Madness.

Dramatic new footage has emerged of the altercation between Toronto Raptors' president, Masai Ujiri, and a San Francisco Bay Area police officer, following the Canadian team's decisive game 6 victory in the NBA Finals last year. The video, obtained by CNN, raises questions about a claim by the officer -- Sherriff's Deputy Alan Strickland -- that Ujiri was the aggressor in the exchange. The body camera footage shows the incident from Strickland's perspective. In it, Ujiri is seen attempting to gain access to the court to celebrate with his team. As Ujiri reaches into his jacket to show his all access credentials, Strickland twice shoves him away, grabbing him by the suit jacket and telling him to "back the f*** off." Ujriri then shoves the officer back.

Schools and universities across the United States are split on whether to open for the fall semester, thanks to the ongoing pandemic. Albion College, a small liberal arts school in Michigan, said in June it would allow its nearly 1,500 students to return to campus starting in August for the new academic year. Lectures would be limited in size and the semester would finish by Thanksgiving rather than December. The school said it would test both staff and students upon their arrival to campus and throughout the academic year. But less than two weeks before students began arriving on campus, the school announced it would require them to download and install a contact-tracing app called Aura, which it says will help it tackle any coronavirus outbreak on campus. There’s a catch. The app is designed to track students’ real-time locations around the clock, and there is no way to opt out. The Aura app lets the school know when a student tests positive for COVID-19. It also comes with a contact-tracing feature that alerts students when they have come into close proximity with a person who tested positive for the virus. But the feature requires constant access to the student’s real-time location, which the college says is necessary to track the spread of any exposure. The school’s mandatory use of the app sparked privacy concerns and prompted parents to launch a petition to make using the app optional. Worse, the app had at least two security vulnerabilities only discovered after the app was rolled out. One of the vulnerabilities allowed access to the app’s back-end servers. The other allowed us to infer a student’s COVID-19 test results. The vulnerabilities were fixed. But students are still expected to use the app or face suspension.

On a small Toronto beach, tucked away near an industrial area, COVID-19 conspiracy theorists bump and grind each other every Saturday night. This past weekend, thanks to a viral video showing men with chainsaws threatening the crowd, their months-long routine—protesting masks and COVID-19 regulations in downtown Toronto during the day and going to Cherry Beach to dance without masks or social distancing—was shaken up. Now they were forced to dance under bright lights put up by the city to kill the vibe. Around the dancers, Toronto police officers, bylaw officers, and security guards hired by the organizer patrolled the beach.

As California enters another dangerous fire season, the COVID-19 pandemic has depleted the ranks of inmate fire crews that are a key component of the state’s efforts to battle out-of-control wildfires This week, state prison officials announced they had placed 12 of the state’s 43 inmate fire camps on lockdown due to a massive outbreak at a Northern California prison in Lassen County that serves as the training center for fire crews. Until the lockdown lifts, only 30 of the state’s 77 inmate crews are available to fight a wildfire in the north state, prison officials said.

Retailers have been hammered by the coronavirus, forcing hundreds of iconic brands to close up shop and sell their company for parts to pay off debts. In the age of e-commerce, a brick-and-mortar company’s hard-won and fiercely protected client list has suddenly gained enormous value. Where bankruptcies loom, a crop of firms hoping to win a retailer’s customer data is willing to pay sky-high prices to buy that brand’s relationship with its former customers. “Knowing somebody has bought my product and knowing what they bought and knowing when and why they bought it puts me in a better position to sell them more products,” Ramez Toubassy, brands president with Gordon Brothers, which acquired Laura Ashley in April, told NBC News. “That is incredibly valuable information.”

It took Apple 42 years to reach $1 trillion in value. It took it just two more years to get to $2 trillion. Even more stunning: All of Apple’s second $1 trillion came in the past 21 weeks, while the global economy shrank faster than ever before in the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, Apple became the first U.S. company to hit a $2 trillion valuation when its shares climbed 1.2 percent to $467.78 in morning trading. It was another milestone for the maker of iPhones, Mac computers and Apple Watches, cementing its title as the world’s most valuable public company and punctuating how the pandemic has been a bonanza for the tech giants. As recently as mid-March, Apple’s value was under $1 trillion after the stock market plunged over fears of the coronavirus. On March 23, the stock market’s nadir this year, the Federal Reserve announced aggressive new measures to calm investors. Since then, the stock market — and particularly the stocks of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook — has largely soared, with the S&P 500 hitting a new high on Tuesday.

As all these prominent people out themselves as scolds and squares, I can’t stop thinking about how much their personalities have squared their storytelling. How thinking that rules should be followed, selfishness repressed, and bars avoided is such a stupid rubric to adhere to. I stop short of imagining wanting to save this world or anyone in it.