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Concentrating on Rehab, FBI Says Homicide Rate Soared Tiger Woods Says his Over 30% Last Year Immediate Goal is to Walk

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Minor League Baseball Spacecraft Lands on Mars - 300 million mile journey

Team’s Logo Goes Viral A NASA spacecraft designed to burrow beneath the surface of Mars landed on Minor league the red planet Monday after a six-month, baseball teams 300 million-mile journey and a perilous, occasionally get a six-minute descent through the roselittle cheeky, but hued atmosphere. Flight controllers at a new Alabama NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in team is seeing Pasadena, California, leaped out of their merchandise seats and erupted in screams, applause, fly out the door after it decided to talk and laughter as the news came in. a little trash. Meet the Madison-based “Touchdown confirmed!” a flight controller announced. The three-legged InSight Rocket City Trash Pandas, which spacecraft reached the surface after being slowed by a parachute and braking unveiled their logo on Saturday—a engines, the space agency said. Updates were coming in via radio signals that take raccoon lifting off in a trash-can like more than eight minutes to cross the nearly 100 million miles between Mars and rocket. "The name has gone viral," Earth. What you need to know, per the AP: managing partner Ralph Nelson said. "We eclipsed over $100,000 worth of The plan called for the spacecraft to go from 12,300mph to zero in six minutes flat merchandise in the first couple of days. as it pierced the Martian atmosphere and settled on the surface. Everybody and their brother is writing that they want merchandise."Official “Landing on Mars is one of the hardest single jobs that people have to do in team colors are "Space Black, Rocket planetary exploration,” said InSight’s lead scientist, Bruce Banerdt. “It’s such a Red, Sky Blue and Trashcan Gray." difficult thing, it’s such a dangerous thing that there’s always a fairly uncomfortably large chance that something could go wrong.”

Life expectancy has fallen for a 3rd year Mars has been the graveyard for a multitude of space missions. Up to now, the in a row in US success rate at the red planet has been only 40%, counting every attempted flyby, orbital flight and landing by the US, Russia, and other countries since 1960. The In 1918, the double whammy of World US, however, has pulled off seven successful Mars landings in the past four deWar I and the worldwide flu pandemic cades, not counting InSight, with only one failed touchdown. No other country drove down American life expectancy has managed to set and operate a spacecraft on the dusty red surface. for a third year in a row. A century later, another triple-year decline has InSight was shooting for Elysium Planitia, a plain near the Martian equator that been recorded—and this time, suicide the InSight team hopes is as flat as a parking lot in Kansas with few, if any, rocks. and drug overdoses are major causes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual report, US life expectancy dropped to 78 years This is no rock-collecting expedition. Instead, the stationary 800-pound lander will use its 6-foot robotic arm to place a mechanical mole and seismometer on the ground. The self-hammering mole will burrow 16 feet down to measure the planet’s internal heat, while the seismometer listens for possible quakes.and 7 months in 2017, down around a month from the year before, the AP Nothing like this has been attempted before on Mars, where no lander has dug reports. Men could expect to live 76.1 deeper than several inches, and no seismometer has ever worked. By examining years, and women 81.1. Public health the interior of Mars, scientists hope to understand how our solar system’s rocky experts called the statistics alarming, planets formed 4.5 billion years ago and why they turned out so different—Mars noting that early deaths among middle- cold and dry, Venus and Mercury burning hot, and Earth hospitable to life. aged people did the most to bring life expectancy down After 22 consecutivew InSight has no life-detecting capability, however. That will be left to future rovers. years of steady rises. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, for instance, will collect rocks that will eventually be brought back to Earth and analyzed for evidence of ancient life.

As the second anniversary of Prince’s death passed his heirs have yet to collect a dollar of his estimated $200 million estate. Bankers, lawyers, and consultants have earned millions from it. The long saga to settle the estate provides a cautionary tale about dying withThe survivor of a Hawaii shark attack has had run-ins with some of nature’s fiercest predators before. Specificalout a will, as Prince did when he died of an accidental overdose at his suburban Minneapolis studio ly, Dylan McWilliams has previously suffered bites from both a bear and a venomous snake, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The 20-yearold was reportedly bitten by a 6- to 8-foot tiger shark in the waters off Kauai while treating himself to some much-deserved boogie boarding after days of helping out the island’s victims of recent historic flooding. Just months earlier, McWilliams had to get nine staples in his neck after he was woken up by an angry 280-pound black bear while sleeping outdoors at a Colorado summer camp. That shocking encounter alone was enough to land McWilliams in national news—he told People he had to fight off the bear as it dragged him some 12 feet. McWilliams said he used a similar tactic with the shark, which he gave a swift kick before swimming for his life back to shore. However, it’s probably for the best that McWilliams didn’t try that with the pygmy faded rattlesnake that bit him three years ago while on a hike in Utah. McWilliams walked away from what was luckily just a “dry bite,” with only enough venom to make him sick for a couple days. So what’s this guy’s deal with run-ins and terrifying animals? “I’m either really lucky or really unlucky,” he told the Star-Advertiser.

Athletes are usually known for their strength and speed, but three big names can also add “politeness” to their CVs. The National League ShopInRI 5

What you may know: U2’s new album, Songs of Experience, came out in early December. What you may not know: Bono apparently almost died while making it. That’s per a new interview with Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner in which the U2 frontman doesn’t reveal exactly what happened, but notes he considers it an “extinction event.” He explains that such a happening for people “could be psychological or it could be physical,” and for him it was physical. He says it was in sync with the “political apocalypse” going on in the US and abroad and that “you get warning signs, and then you realize that you are not a tank.” Bono also talks about how this neardeath experience shaped the album. But what has raised more than a few eyebrows is his assessment in the interview of the current state of the industry for male musicians and the “rage” that should be at the

10 Most Polite Stars of 2017 center of rock music. “I think music has gotten very girly,” Bono notes. “And there are some good things about that, but hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment—and that’s not good.” That remark has spurred online eyerolling, with Rebecca Fishbein noting at Jezebel that white of Junior Cotillions, a group that trains kids male musicians are “relegated only in ballroom dancing (as well as to “act and to releasing their rage at being the learn to treat others with honor, dignity, least oppressed members of sociand respect for better relationships,” per its ety via mediums like film, televiwebsite), has released its annual list of the sion, national lawmaking, company “best-mannered” celebrities in 2017. The CEOing, and Twitter-threading.” person who would most earn Miss Manners’ And for the Independent, Roisin nod of approval: pro golfer Rickie Fowler, O’Connor says Bono’s remarks who showed “consistently well-mannered “reduce hip-hop to the laziest posconduct both on and off the golf course,” the sible stereotype of ‘aggressive’ black NLJC said in a statement to USA Today. masculinity,” while his “pejorative” “We believe this year’s student nominations use of the word “girly” seems to ig(and our ultimate winners) are a reminder nore that some of U2’s biggest hits that, whether you are a celebrity, athlete, mu- have been romantic ballads. “Rock sician, or politician, America’s young people music never was, and never should are watching and they do value character.” be, simply a place to channel male Last year’s top spot went to gymnast Sim- anger,” O’Connor writes. one Biles. Rounding out the top 10 this year, in addition to Fowler: Game of Thrones fans are going to Aly Raisman, Gymnast have to wait a while for the final season—and it’s only going to be six epiDeshaun Watson, Houston Texans QB sodes long. HBO has confirmed that the final instalment of its biggest-ever Joanna Gaines, Fixer Upper star and soon-to-be mom of five hit won’t be released until some time in 2019. It will be shorter than previous series, though some episodes may Sadie Robertson, Duck Dynasty star be extra-long. Production of Season 8 began in October and is expected to David Beckham, Former pro soccer player wrap up in mid-2018. Producers say multiple endings will be filmed to Selena Gomez, Singer avoid leaks The move gives George RR Martin more time to finish the next Thomas Rhett, Country music performer book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, though the HBO series is still Matt Kuchar, Pro Golfer expected to reveal the end of the saga before his final book is released. MarMeghan Markle, actress and soon-towife of Prince Harry be tin is also involved with five Game of Thrones prequels now in development, reports Entertainment Weekly.

Hawaii Shark Attack Victim Also Had Bear, Rattlesnake Run-Ins

“Game of Thrones” Won’t Return Until 2019... Final Season Will Only Have Six Episodes

Prince's $200M Estate

Remains Untouched on April 21, 2016, and the heirs can’t quit squabbling. Here’s a look at where things stand: Even though it’s been nearly two years since Prince died, the executor of the estate, Comerica Bank and Trust, can’t split the money among Prince’s six surviving siblings until the Internal Revenue Service and executor agree on the estate’s value when Prince died. It’s not clear when that might happen. The IRS and state of Minnesota are entitled to collect about half, though the estate can stretch out the payments over time. Court filings several months after Prince’s death suggested that it was worth around $200 million before taxes. The actual value remains one of the biggest secrets in the case, hidden in sealed and redacted documents. The actual valuation could have gone up or down since then. That’s because the various attorneys, accountants, and industry experts at that point had not yet finished appraisals and deals for the use of his music, videos, and assets including his Paisley Park studio. An eastern Minnesota teen who asked her celebrity crush Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to prom got a huge surprise when he actually responded, per the AP. Stillwater Area High School senior Katie Kelzenberg asked the actor to "Rock" it with her at the school's May 5 prom in a Twitter video posted last week, the Pioneer Press reports. The self-proclaimed fan was dressed like The Rock in the video, sporting a black turtleneck, jeans, a gold necklace, and fanny pack. She also showed off her collection of Johnson-related merchandise, including a pillow, T-shirts, and an action figure. Johnson's recorded response was played over the school intercom Friday. A Warner Bros. repre-

'The Rock' Couldn't Make

Teen's Prom But Still sentative contacted school officials ThursCame Up Big day about the surprise message, says a spokeswoman for the district. Johnson said he admires Kelzenberg's courage but that he won't be able to attend prom because he'll be in Hawaii filming Jungle Cruise. Instead, Johnson rented out a nearby movie theater on Saturday for Kelzenberg and more than 230 friends and family to watch his latest movie, Rampage. Johnson even covered the cost of snacks and drinks for the theater. "I couldn't believe it. I was so surprised," Kelzenberg says. "I just kept thinking, 'He saw me! He knows who I am!'" Kelzenberg says she became a fan of Johnson's five years ago. Her favorite movies of his include Central Intelligence and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. 4 Shop In RI

on April 21, 2016, and the heirs can’t quit squabbling. Here’s a look at where things stand: Even though it’s been nearly two years since Prince died, the executor of the The possibility of playing golf seems estate, Comerica Bank and Trust, can’t split the money among Prince’s six surviving siblings until the Internal Revenue Service and executor agree on the estate’s value distant, and Tiger Woods doesn’t want to when Prince died. say whether that’s his long-term goal. But It’s not clear when that might happen. The IRS and state of Minnesota are entitled after his horrific auto accident in February, to collect about half, though the estate can stretch out the payments over time. Court the star golfer says he’s “focused on my No. filings several months after Prince’s death suggested that it was worth around $200 million before taxes. The actual value remains one of the biggest secrets in the case, 1 goal right now: walking on my own.” hidden in sealed and redacted documents. The actual valuation could have gone up He made the comments in an interview or down since then. That’s because the various attorneys, accountants, and industry experts at that point had not yet finished appraisals and deals for the use of his music, with Golf Digest in which he discussed his videos, and assets including his Paisley Park studio. progress since the accident. Woods works daily to strengthen his right leg, in which tibia and fibula bones were fractured. He sentative contacted school officials Thursday about the surprise message, says a spokeswoman for the district. sometimes takes time out to encourage a golfer in the middle of a tournament, Johnson said he admires Kelzenberg's courage but that he won't be able to attend such as Justin Thomas, who heard from Woods during the Players Championship prom because he'll be in Hawaii filming Jungle Cruise. Instead, Johnson rented out a nearby movie theater on Saturday for in March. “If you would have told us when we were 15, 20 years old that Tiger Woods Kelzenberg and more than 230 friends and family to watch his latest movie, Rampage. Johnson even covered the cost of snacks was texting us the night before we have a chance to win the tournament trying to and drinks for the theater. "I couldn't believe it. I was so surprised," Kelzenberg says. "I just kept thinking, 'He saw me! He inspire us, that’s pretty cool,” Thomas said. knows who I am!'" Kelzenberg says she became a fan of Johnson's five years ago. Her favorite movies of his include Central Woods has been through rehab many Intelligence and Jumanji: Welcome to the times; he’s had five operations on his left Jungle. knee and five on his back, for example. “This has been an entirely different animal,” Woods, 45, said of the current recovery. “I understand more of the rehab processes because of my past injuries, but this was more painful than anything I have ever experienced.” Support “from people both inside and outside of golf” has helped, he said, per Golf Digest. And he found Phil Mickelson’s historic PGA Championship at age 50 to be inspirational, which Woods told him in a post. He spotted an advantage to his new routine in an Instagram post, noting that in the photo, “the crutches definitely make my shoulders look big!” Or it could be the workouts, he said. Either way, “it’s been nice having the ability to still stay strong and work out my upper body.” As Gold Bars Arrived at LAX, Workers Allegedly Got Greedy The theft of four gold bars from a shipment sent to Los Angeles International Airport could send two cargo handlers to prison for up to 15 years. South Los Angeles residents Marlon Moody, 38, and Brian Benson, 35, were arrested Tuesday by the FBI on charges of conspiracy Last year was exceptionally deadly in more ways than one. According to the latest statistics from the FBI, the homicide rate soared almost 30% in 2020, the biggest and theft of interstate and foreign shipment after allegedly stealing four gold bars from a shipment of 2,000. The shipment, which arrived at LAX on a Singapore Airlines flight on April 22, 2020, year-on-year increase since the agency en route from Australia to New York, had been arranged by a bank in Toronto, started keeping national records in the reports NBC News. Employees from a cargo company had secured the shipment 1960s. The overall violent crime rate was outside the airport before a box of 25 gold bars was found to be missing, according up 5.6%, while property crimes were down to the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Moody claimed to almost 8% from 2019, marking the 18th have found it near the airline’s cargo warehouse the following day. consecutive year-on-year drop, according to an FBI release. The FBI says there were Prosecutors say the employee of private cargo handling company Alliance Ground more than 21,500 murders last year, up International took the box to a location where he removed four of the bars, each nearly 5,000 from 2019. worth $56,000. He was then picked up by a coworker. They allegedly exchanged text messages about the gold while other employees were riding in the same That’s the highest total since the mid- vehicle. Prosecutors say Moody later gave Benson one bar, buried two others in his 1990s, though the US population has backyard, and gave the fourth to a relative, telling them to exchange it for cash or increased significantly since then and the a car. Other cargo handlers found the infiltrated box of 21 gold bars on April 23, 2020 murder rate of 6.5 per 100,000 people prompting an investigation. Within two weeks, the FBI had recovered all four gold is still around 40% below the rates seen bars, including the one Benson allegedly stashed in a bedroom. Moody and Benson in the 1980s and 1990s. Almost 77% of homicides in 2020 involved firearms—the first time the figure has been above 75%. each face a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison if convicted as charged. The FBI says its Uniform Crime Reporting NASA Orders Way Off-Road Vehicles program received data from 15,897 of the 18,619 federal, state, county, city, university and college, and tribal agencies General Motors is teaming up with Lockheed Martin to produce the ultimate GM-Lockheed collaboration to design rugged, faster electric rovers eligible to participate. The FBI’s figures off-road, self-driving, electric vehicles—for the moon. The project announced include estimates for the agencies that did Wednesday is still in the early stages and has yet to score any NASA money, not submit data. the AP reports. But the goal is to design light yet rugged vehicles that will travel farther and faster than the lunar rovers that carried NASA’s Apollo astronauts in the Data consultant Jeff Asher said that the early 1970s, the companies said. ”Mobility is really going to open up the moon for FBI report shows that the problem is now us,” said Kirk Shireman, a former NASA manager who is now Lockheed Martin’s more of a nationwide issue than it was in vice president for lunar exploration. The rovers used by the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 the ‘90s, when New York and Los Angeles moonwalkers ventured no more than 4½ miles from their landers. GM also helped accounted for 13.5% of the nation’s design those vehicles. homicides. The figure is now under 4%. Asher says the FBI figures show that the NASA, which aims to return astronauts to the moon by 2024, last year put out a murder rate rose more in in cities with a population between 10,000 and 25,000 than in cities with a population of 250,000 to 1 million. “It was up over 30% in both, so neither was good, but it was worse slightly, percentage-wise in smaller cities,” he says. “It was bad everywhere. There’s not a good murder takeaway there.” call for industry ideas on lunar rovers. The initial rovers will be designed to carry two astronauts at a time, company officials said. A brief video showed a large, open rover speeding over lunar slopes, with more headlights in the distance. By operating autonomously when needed, Shireman noted, the rovers can keep astronauts safely away from dangerous spots like the permanently shadowed craters at the moon’s South Pole. Frozen water gathered from these dark corners could be used for drinking, growing plants, and creating rocket fuel.

Hunter Takes Shortcut, Finds Body of Missing Hunter Who Vanished in 1968

After Raymond Jones disappeared while bowhunting for mountain goats in eastern Idaho 53 years ago, more than 70 people joined the search and his brothers hired a helicopter, but no trace of the 39-year-old was found— until now. Authorities say another man bowhunting for mountain goats in Lemhi County found Jones’ remains when he tried taking a shortcut from one hunting area to another. “It’s a real rocky, cliffy area, and we are not really sure what happened,” Lemhi County Sheriff Steven Penner said. Jones “was in goat country, and that can be pretty perilous.” It’s pretty wild, ain’t it? You have another bowhunter looking for a shortcut who stumbled upon a bowhunter from 53 years ago,” the sheriff said. The sheriff’s office says deputies found a wallet with Jones’ ID in it. Jones, a resident of county seat Salmon, was last seen heading to the Hayden Creek area on Sept. 7, 1968. The search began the next day after he failed to return to his camp, but it was hampered by severe snowy weather. Jones’ wife is still alive and the sheriff’s office says family members have been notified. “It is still pretty fresh, so they probably need a little bit of time to figure things out,” the sheriff said. Instagram is putting a hold on the development of Instagram Kids, geared toward children under 13, so it can address concerns about the vulnerability of younger users. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, wrote in a blog post that a delay will give the company time to “work with parents, experts, policymakers, and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today.” The announcement follows a withering series by the Wall Street Journal, which reported that Facebook was aware that the use of Instagram by some teenage girls led to mental health issues and anxiety. “Critics of ‘Instagram Kids’ will see this as an acknowledgement that the project is a bad idea,” writes Mosseri. “That’s not the case. The reality is that kids are already online, and we believe that developing ageappropriate experiences designed

Facebook Pauses Instagram Kids Amid Criticism specifically for them is far better for parents than where we are today.” He emphasized that Instagram Kids was always intended to be for children ages 10 to 12 but no younger. “It will require parental permission to join, it won’t have ads, and it will have ageappropriate content and features,” he adds. Facebook announced the development of Instagram for kids in March, saying at the time that it was “exploring a parent-controlled experience.” The pushback was almost immediate and in May, a bipartisan group of 44 attorney generals wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to abandon the project. They cited increased cyberbullying, possible vulnerability to online predators, and what they called Facebook’s “checkered record” in protecting children on its platforms. While work is being paused on Instagram Kids, the company will be expanding opt-in parental supervision tools to teen accounts of those 13 and older.