June 25, 2000 - No human had worked here for 40 years, but Ricky Mote felt ready. He layered on four sets of safety boots and three pairs of gloves and squeezed the rest of his body into two airtight moon suits. Just in case, an ambulance waited. Mote expected some danger while digging up 171 drums of uranium from a trench at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. What he didn't expect, though, was exploding green goo. In one of the first jobs of the $7.7 billion Rocky Flats cleanup - the most massive public-works project in the history of Colorado and the first of its kind on Earth - Mote motioned a co-worker in a backhoe, Jeff Herring, to scoop out an unmarked barrel. The black drum was rotted, and some lime-green sludge, loaded with uranium, oozed out. Mote edged closer for a look. Suddenly: Fire! Mote leapt backward from the blue flash and waved for help. Joe Fanning, another worker in a moon suit, jumped ahead with his brass shovel. One dump of sand and the uranium fire was out. But the crew was shaken. "I just about pooped myself," Mote said of the August 1998 flash fire. At Rocky Flats, it was one drum down, 1,099,956 to go.

n the wake of this summer’s massive civil-rights protests, two Republicans in the Ohio House have filed a bill that imposes harsh new penalties on certain protest-related activities. The bill even goes so far as to allow people to kill protesters if they feel threatened by them. The sponsors of the legislation say it isn’t aimed at curtailing people’s right to protest. Instead, they say, it would protect the public while simultaneously protecting the First Amendment right to free speech. “Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are important cornerstones of our democracy,” one sponsor, Rep. Cindy Abrams, R-Harrison, said in a statement. “This legislation embraces the right of all Americans to peacefully assemble and make their voice heard in the public arena while supporting first responders, law enforcement, small businesses and law-abiding Ohioans.”

The higher prices, approved Thursday, take effect March 1 and are expected to boost the bills of PG&E's residential customers by an average of $13.44 a month.

This way of understanding what it means to be a guy, the particular masculine code and set of virtues it espouses, the heroes it holds up for emulation and admiration: none of this appeared in a vacuum. All of it is deeply rooted in the past couple of decades of American history, in everything from the constant imperial wars overseas and their long-term effects to the rising gap between those with college degrees and those without. There are longer-term precedents and archetypes at play as well, and I’ll talk about them, but this all crystallized in the very recent past. It’s a genuinely 21st-century American development, and I want to explore what it means.

On Thursday evening, I sat in the lobby of a Marriott hotel in Terre Haute, Ind., as Shawn Nolan and Victor Abreu tried to save a man’s life. Both wore bluejeans, button-down shirts and a day or more of scruff — Mr. Nolan’s salt-and-pepper, Mr. Abreu’s black. We shared a bottle of red wine in plastic cups as the two men, public defenders whose caseloads are strictly death penalty appeals, discussed the merits of pleading with the Supreme Court for a stay of execution.

The suit focuses on the advertisements that generate a vast majority of the company’s profits.

And yet Hunter Biden was not anywhere nearby.

Silver Lake and Thoma Bravo offloaded 5% stake to one of Canada’s biggest pension funds

On the heels of his announcement that he is running for president, documents reveal that billionaire Kanye West’s fashion company Yeezy received more than $2 million through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) — he owns 100% of the company which Forbes estimates brought in close to $1.3 billion in 2019.

There’s a phrase coined, likely by some old white guy, that goes “winners write the history books.” In the case of Major League Baseball, not only do they write the history books, but apparently they decide when everyone else’s histories are legitimate, too. On Wednesday, MLB announced that the records and statistics from the seven operations that we now classify as the Negro Leagues will be recognized as part of Major League Baseball’s history, presumably paving the way for the posthumous enshrinement of various players into Cooperstown, New York. “The perceived deficiencies of the Negro Leagues’ structure and scheduling were born of MLB’s exclusionary practices,” John Thorn, the Official Historian for Major League Baseball said in a press release. “And denying them Major League status has been a double penalty, much like that exacted of Hall of Fame candidates prior to Satchel Paige’s induction in 1971. Granting MLB status to the Negro Leagues a century after their founding is profoundly gratifying.” Of all the nonsense that the most duplicitously conservative sports league in the history of the United States of America has ever pulled, this might be the most ridiculous piece of soft supremacy we’ve ever seen. This announcement says: Be grateful, we now view you as whole. News flash: That’s the problem. Not the solution.

A week ago, a small earthquake struck the tiny town of Robbinston, Maine, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. But conspiracy theorists say it was actually the U.S. military dropping a bunker-buster bomb on a hidden horde of Chinese troops.

As has become customary here, where you are, there are too many wonderful records being released every year to be contained in one measly list. And since opinion is a fungible concept, who can even say "that was the best", and be certain that actually was the "best" the next day? The next hour? So, as is also custom, I offer this disclaimer that all the records highlighted on this. and subsequent lists are goddamn incredible, and they are all "the best". If you agree (and c'mon...don't you sorta?) please use the handy DL link under each to go and purchase the music you love.

Though many privately agree, it undercuts Biden's unity message and gives Republicans ammunition.

President Donald Trump may not be willing to accept his term is ending, but as the clock ticks down on his time in office, hundreds of his allies -- including some of his closest business associates and many high-profile criminals -- are ramping up their efforts to squeeze out the final ounces of his presidential power. Since Trump lost the election six weeks ago, calls and emails have been flooding into the West Wing from people looking to benefit from the President's powers of clemency. So inundated is Trump's staff with requests for pardons or commutations that a spreadsheet has been created to keep track of the requests directed to Trump's close aides.

Workers who catered the company Christmas party of Tennessee-based personal financial guru Dave Ramsey were instructed not to wear gloves and masks to the event — even though hundreds were expected to attend and coronavirus cases in the state have been steadily rising in recent weeks, according to a complaint obtained by NBC affiliate WSMV. The complaint, which was filed Dec. 12 with the city of Franklin, Tenn. — where Ramsey’s company, Ramsey Solutions, is based — was confirmed Monday by city administrator Eric Stuckey. The vendor who filed the complaint, whose name was redacted by WSMV, said Ramsey Solutions told workers to ditch the protective gear so as not to "scare those in attendance.” Between 700 and 900 people were expected to attend the Dec. 12 party, according to the complaint.

A man has been arrested after entering a McDonald’s establishment and stealing food before chasing employees with a chainsaw.

The game was pulled from Steam shortly after its release date — and now blocked from GOG before it even got there

On Dec. 5, an account that said it was Vice President Mike Pence’s “Official Profile” on the conservative social network Parler posted a link to a Trump Challenge Coin giveaway. “Own A Piece Of History With President Trump’s Commemorative Medallion!” said @MikePenceVicePresident, directing people to a website where they could order a free Trump commemorative coin if they paid for shipping. The post attracted over 170,000 views. Days later, the Pence account reshared a message from a “Team Trump” Parler account that promoted a CBD oil that falsely claimed to be endorsed by first lady Melania Trump. Pence’s office confirmed that the account, which attracted hundreds of thousands of views, is fake. So are roughly 50 other Parler accounts that masqueraded as prominent Republicans, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump Jr., and former Trump attorney Sidney Powell to shill sketchy products to Parler’s pro-Trump user base.

It is a good time to be condo shopping in San Francisco — if you happen to be rich. From the Embarcadero to Yerba Buena Island to Nob Hill to South of Market, the wave of deluxe condo offerings washing over the city will test the upper reaches of one of the nation’s priciest housing markets.

A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a "herd immunity" approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, according to internal emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee and shared with POLITICO. “There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD," then-science adviser Paul Alexander wrote on July 4 to his boss, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo, and six other senior officials.