The U.S. government has reinforced media restrictions at hospitals, reducing the flow of disturbing images of the pandemic.

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — A gunman opened fire inside an Illinois bowling alley, killing three people and injuring three others Saturday night in what authorities believe was a random attack.

Rabbi Yehuda HaKohen is someone who brings hope to refugees from the liberal consensus, whether they’ve run to the right or to the left. He’s what appears when the center crumbles.

A white high school student withdrew from her chosen college after a three-second video caused an uproar online. The classmate who shared it publicly has no regrets.

Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the record-setting electoral shellacking he received in November have been both increasingly brazen, and increasingly desperate — so much so that the very real dangers posed by an unstable autocrat doing his best...

Evidence from bones found at one of the world’s most important fossil sites suggests that our hominid predecessors may have dealt with extreme cold hundreds of thousands of years ago by sleeping through the winter. The scientists argue that lesions and other signs of damage in fossilised bones of early humans are the same as those left in the bones of other animals that hibernate. These suggest that our predecessors coped with the ferocious winters at that time by slowing down their metabolisms and sleeping for months.

AT A GLANCE it looks like a semi-pleasing printing error. Or a photo taken by mistake, filled with claustrophobic depth of field, shadows and murk – like so many accidental 'closeups' of the inside of a camera bag. But to those who know what they are seeing, this image bears a distinctive visual fingerprint shared only by a relative handful of others. And its makers believe this could be the most remarkable example of all. The lines climbing the image are a recording of the sun’s path across the sky, rising and falling with the seasons. Eight full cycles of them, in fact – exposed through a pinhole aperture onto a piece of photographic paper inside a cider can, which almost a decade ago was pointed at the horizon and attached to a dome at University of Hertfordshire’s Bayfordbury Observatory. Then forgotten about. The camera was rediscovered in September this year by a technician, and the image inside successfully retrieved. Now, it's believed that at eight years and one month, it could be the longest photographic exposure ever made.

One of the government’s most egregious powers is civil forfeiture, which lets police confiscate—and even keep—private property without ever charging the owner with a crime. But in 2015, New Mexico completely (and unanimously) abolished the practice and replaced it with criminal forfeiture, which requires a criminal conviction to forfeit property. Just as important, New Mexico banned agencies from padding their budgets with forfeiture revenue, and instead directed all proceeds to the general fund. Law enforcement was apoplectic and warned of dire consequences. The New Mexico Department of Public Safety feared that the bill would have “a negative impact on public safety,” and could trigger a “reduction in criminal investigations.” “This bill directly jeopardizes the most basic and fundamental key to successful narcotics investigations,” the department claimed in a 2015 bill analysis. The chair of the New Mexico Sheriff’s Association was even more blunt, warning that without civil forfeiture, “You’ll get less law enforcement.” “The end result of this is the cartels are going to ramp up their money laundering and cash exchanges in the state of New Mexico tenfold,” he predicted. Thankfully, those predictions haven’t come true. Five years later, reality is quite different. A new study from the Institute for Justice, Policing for Profit, “detected no significant increase in crime rates that could be attributed to the reforms, indicating the reforms had no negative effect on public safety—and strongly suggesting civil forfeiture is not an essential crime-fighting tool.”

Adrian Tam, a 28-year-old gay Asian American son of immigrants, defeated a leader of the Hawaii chapter of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, to become the only openly LGBTQ person in Hawaii’s Legislature. Tam, a first-time candidate, took 63 percent of the vote against Nicholas Ochs. “It feels really good to know that someone who is openly LGBT can win,” Tam told NBC Asian America. “There was a time when people like me could not win. I’m glad that I can bring that representation to the capital.” Tam described what was a nerve-wracking election season, from trying to connect with voters amid coronavirus, to narrowly taking down longtime incumbent Tom Brower in the August Democratic primary, to facing an overwhelming amount of hate from Ochs and his supporters in the general election. “It’s almost to a harassment level,” Tam said, noting that Ochs' supporters bombarded his campaign’s social media to the point where the messages from his own voters were drowned out. Ochs told NBC News he also faced harassing messages from Tam's supporters and that he was disappointed the two didn't get a chance to debate. He said that he is not racist. Ochs’ campaign page was removed by Facebook in September for posts that violated the platform’s terms of service and community standards, local station KITV reported. He has been criticized in the past for offensive posts toward Black, Jewish and LGBT communities. Facebook did not respond to NBC News' request for comment.

Robert Logan once said: "China created what was probably the most sophisticated system of nonabstract science the world has known.” There is a deep connection to nature and a key to an almost physical way of thinking in the composition of Chinese characters, which then reveals itself in language so vivid and direct those who experience it for the same time will feel a jolt, before being taken to a wholly difference mode of experience. For example, the old Imperial Academy may be referred to by this abstract term, but the name in Chinese is "Forest of Pencils." Or: a mouth and a dog means “bark” (吠). 口+犬. The word for "mountains" and the word for “rivers” make the word for "landscape" (山水). You never lose track of these original meanings, the way we have long ago lost track of the origins, for example, of the word “sincerity” (without wax).

With theaters and concert halls shuttered, unemployment in the arts has cut deeper than in restaurants and other hard-hit industries.

Former students say the latest fired executive was an inspiring mentor. ... This time, Curley’s accusations about the company were even broader. Curley alleged on Twitter that during her time at Google she was denied multiple promotions, put on performance improvement plans, had her compensation reduced, was yelled at, excluded from meetings, denied leadership roles and harassed by managers, including being told that her Baltimore accent was a disability that she needed to disclose to colleagues. Curley further alleged that she was once asked by another manager “which of my teammates I would sleep with,” she wrote on Twitter.

Let’s talk about the long, slow death of a whole-ass planet

When it comes to historic moments, though, 2020 will be remembered as the year of LGBTQ pro wrestling. From Nyla Rose’s AEW Women’s World championship victory to Billy Dixon invoking Marsha P. Johnson’s name before vanquishing Darius Carter at Paris Is Bumping, images LGBTQ people only hoped would materialize when they discovered pro wrestling became tangible. Butch vs. Gore, EFFY’s Big Gay Brunch and MV Young’s Polyam Cult Party proved to wide audiences that LGBTQ pro wrestlers were more than novelties. Paris Is Bumping, Uncanny Attractions and Pride Championship Wrestling showed that LGBTQ culture belongs in the wrestling industry. And new companies like Pride Pro Wrestling and the revamped Butch vs. Gore brand are ready to help carry those messages into 2021 and beyond.

Without federal intervention, as many as 40 million people could be displaced amid an ongoing and still worsening pandemic.

The RV at the center of Christmas morning explosion in downtown Nashville played a warning before the blast, witness and police say.

Police say an explosion in downtown Nashville early Christmas morning that shattered storefronts and left at least three people hospitalized with noncritical injuries appears to have been “an intentional act.” Supervisory Special Agent Joel E. Siskovic said the FBI is leading the investigation, working with state and local authorities. He declined to say whether there were any suspects. “The main thing right now is public safety to make sure that everyone in the surrounding area is accounted for and, at the same time, ensuring that the city itself is safe from any other potential incident,” said Michael Knight, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Nashville, which is also probing the incident. Investigators are working to create a timeline of events both before and after the explosion, Knight said. Authorities responded to the area around 6 a.m. local time after a report of shots fired on Second Avenue North, Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said at a morning news briefing. When they arrived, Aaron said, they didn’t see any immediate evidence of gunshots but encountered a “suspicious” RV parked near an AT&T building and called a bomb squad to assist. Officers went door to door, telling residents to evacuate, even turning around one man who was out walking his dog, Aaron said. Moments later, around 6:30 a.m., the RV detonated near the intersection of Second Avenue North and Commerce Street, smashing windows, signs and garage doors in the city’s Arts District and sending a ball of bright orange flames into the sky.

"It’s easier to learn bad behavior than good."

A bodybuilder who wed his sex doll has revealed she has tragically been broken just before Christmas. He says it has ruined their plans for a first Christmas together as a married couple. Yuri Tolochko, from Kazakhstan, now faces a tense wait to see if all of her bits can be repaired back to good working order in time for the festive day. He said her safe return would be "a gift for both" of them, reports the Daily Star. Yuri tied the knot with Margo at a ceremony attended by dozens of guests in November. He first met her at a nightclub, and the pair were due to get married in March this year before the coronavirus pandemic threw the world into turmoil.

Roughly 500 employees failed the test, which claimed they would receive a $650 bonus in lieu of a holiday party. Sent by Happyholiday@Godaddy.com, tucked underneath a glittering banner of a snowflake and stamped with the words “GoDaddy Holiday Party,” the Dec. 14 email to hundreds of GoDaddy employees promised some welcome financial relief during an otherwise stressful year. “Though we cannot celebrate together during our annual Holiday Party, we want to show our appreciation and share a $650 one-time Holiday bonus!” the email read. “To ensure that you receive your one-time bonus in time for the Holidays, please select your location and fill in the details by Friday, December 18th.” But, two days later, the company sent another email. “You’re getting this email because you failed our recent phishing test,” the company’s chief security officer Demetrius Comes wrote. “You will need to retake the Security Awareness Social Engineering training.”