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At least 32 innocent people are dead. Two shooters were killed and one is in custody. A food festival in Gilroy, California. A busy Walmart in El Paso, Texas. A popular entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio. All three were sites of deadly mass shootings in the past week. The carnage never seems to end and it’s left many in America grappling with how to react, how to heal and how to change things for the better. Celebrities and other public figures echoed many of these sentiments on social media. ✔@lizzo Just got off the phone w/ fam in Dayton… it was a close call for them but that’s not the case for 9 other families, between this & the terrorist attack in El Paso & recent other shootings I feel completely helpless.. make noise & bring awareness.. vote.. don’t normalize this. ✔@jelani9 Fell asleep watching news reports about 20 people killed in #elpaso. Slept for four hours. Awoke to find that the news was talking about 9 killed #dayton Ohio — exactly half a night’s sleep between 29 lost lives. #America. ✔@RepSeanMaloney. Only a week after a mass shooting in California, we’re seeing yet another in Texas. This is an epidemic in America & it needs to end. I stand with El Paso & all the folks in America who want their government to act to keep families safe. ✔@ABC ABC NEWS SPECIAL REPORT: At least 18 people killed during mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. https://www.pscp.tv/w/cBXSgjM3Mzg2fDF5Tnhhdk5kT2dFS2oKcwFzowKEN_amw0qidkEBMzG6XH2T2j80jwV-cLyPGg== … ✔@blink182. Following today’s terrible tragedy in El Paso we are postponing our Sunday, August 4th show at the UTEP Don Haskins Arena in solidarity with the community. Please stay tuned for further updates coming soon. Sending our love to the entire community of El Paso. ✔@jfreewright From online terrorist manifesto described by El Paso Police Chief as the “nexus to a potential hate crime”: “This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas…I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.” ✔@tim_cook I’m heartbroken about what’s happening in my country. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. It’s time for good people with different views to stop finger pointing and come together to address this violence for the good of our country.

At least nine people were killed and 27 injured in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday morning, officials said ― the second horrific slaughter in America in less than 24 hours. At least 22 people were killed in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, and police are investigating whether the suspected gunman, who was arrested at the scene, posted a racist manifesto on social media. The two shootings occurred less than a week after a gunman opened fire at a garlic festival in Northern California, killing three people, including two children. CNN’s Brooke Baldwin became visibly emotional as she processed last weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. “This has been a horrible week for America,” Baldwin said on Friday’s broadcast of “Newsroom.” “I never thought in my 20 years in journalism that I would get a call last Sunday morning from my boss asking me to go cover a mass shooting and I actually had to ask the question, ‘Which one?’” Baldwin recalled standing in Dayton for three days “on a street where blood was still splattered on the sidewalk” while co-anchoring with colleagues in El Paso. “That was a first for me,” she noted. “And I am worried that it might not be the last unless there is real change in Washington. Pope Francis, during his Sunday message and blessing at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City in Italy, condemned the attacks on “defenseless people” in three U.S. states. He offered a “Hail Mary” prayer for the victims.

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The whale, believed to be a calf, was found on Friday on the Brazilian island of Marajo. It was about 50 feet from the ocean, according to Newsweek. Researchers are having a whale of a time trying to figure out how the humpback whale wound up in the Amazon rain forest. Darlene Silva, a spokeswoman for Brazil’s Department of Health, Sanitation and Environment, told reporters the animal was found in a mangrove swamp only after researchers noticed vultures circling in the sky, according to the Express. A team from the Municipal Secretariat of Health, Sanitation and Environment found the carcass had no visible injuries and theorized that the whale died at sea. Biologists from the Bicho D’água Institute said the animal was about 26 feet long, though local officials said it was closer to 36 feet long, according to Storyful.

HuffPost reached out to the Bicho D’água Institute, which did not immediately respond but said in a Facebook post that the animal was “not as big as it looks in the images.” Renata Emin, the institute’s project leader, told reporters that researchers don’t know how the animal washed up so far from the beach, but they guessed that the creature was floating close to the shore and was carried inland by a storm, according to the Independent Researchers are collecting carcass samples, but Silva said there will be no attempts to remove it from its final resting spot.
“It’s very difficult to get there and there’s no way we can send a bulldozer because it would not get through,” she said, according to the Independent. “There is no way to remove it. To get there, we need to cross the swamp.”

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“I think this country hasn’t dealt well with the issues of race,” the lawmaker told NBC’s Chuck Todd. “We have a president who’s a racist.” When it came to addressing President Donald Trump’s history of racism, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) didn’t mince words in a “Meet the Press” interview Sunday. Noting Brown’s frank description of Trump, Todd paused for a moment, asking him to explain. “I know that he built his political career knowing what he was doing on questioning the legitimacy and the birth place of the president of the United States,” Brown said, referring to the birther conspiracy theory Trump promoted staring in 2011, using it in an effort to undermine Barack Obama’s credibility. Brown also pointed to housing discrimination in the Trump real estate empire, adding that violence at the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, told the country even more about the president’s beliefs on race, appearing to be alluding to Trump’s weak response to the chaos when he had initially skirted around denouncing neo-Nazis.

Most recently, Brown, who is considering a run for president, has called for the resignation of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam following the Democrat’s admission that he had once worn blackface in a dance contest in which he impersonated Michael Jackson. Controversy has brewed steadily over the governor since last week, when a photo of a man in blackface next to another individual dressed in a Ku Klux Klan uniform surfaced from Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook. While Northam has indicated he has no plans to step down, Brown called on him to resign and consider participating in discussions on race “as a private citizen.” “Charlottesville was only a symptom and a more public viewing and outing, if you will, of president Trump’s views about race, and racism” Brown said.

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According to the Layton Utah Police Department a blindfolded teenage driver crashed into another car for obvious reasons on Monday. The police tweeted on Friday, along with a photo of two mangled cars on Layton Parkway surrounded by snow-covered sidewalks. “Bird Box Challenge while driving… this will be the predictable result,” Police wrote, “Luckily there were no injuries,” One truck appears to have its passenger-side bumper bent inward, while the entire driver’s side of a Honda HR-V is smashed. The side airbags of the HR-V appear to be deployed.
“Can’t believe we have to say this, Netflix warned its viewers against the “Bird Box” challenge, earlier this month. PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE,” the company tweeted on Jan. 2nd. At the time of the crash, Layton Police spokesman Lt. Travis Lyman told CBS News that a 17-year-old girl was driving with a 16-year-old passenger.

The “Bird Box” challenge, which has gone viral on social media, is inspired by the Netflix movie “Bird Box,” starring Sandra Bullock. In the movie, characters have to move about the outside world wearing blindfolds to avoid looking at an unseen monster that forces people to kill themselves. In the viral challenge, participants attempt to do ordinary things while blindfolded, which, again, is dangerous for obvious reasons “We shouldn’t have to say this, but we’re gonna: Don’t drive blindfolded.” a Colorado State Patrol officer said in a video message. Law enforcement in Colorado predicted last week that someone might attempt the “Bird Box” challenge while driving and also warned people against it. The challenge “really hasn’t been that dangerous, but inevitably somebody’s going to do the monumentally stupid thing that is driving while blindfolded.”

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The renowned theoretical physicists hosts “Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places,” a new short film available on the streaming service Curiosity Stream. The film follows Hawking around the universe as he “travels” in a computer-generated imagery spacecraft, giving the audience a peek into simulations of a black hole and Gliese 832c, an earth-like planet outside our solar system that scientists believe may be able to support life. Stephen Hawking has said it before and he’ll say it again: If extraterrestrials call, do not answer ― at least, not without careful consideration. And Gliese 832c isn’t even the closet possible second-Earth. In August, scientists announced that Proxima b, a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri — the nearest known star to our sun — has a temperature that could allow liquid water and is possibly habitable.

But if we ever get a signal from any of these places, Hawking warns that we shouldn’t be too eager to say hello. It’s an idea Hawking has expressed numerous times before — typically using human beings as an example of why we shouldn’t trust other intelligent life. “We should be wary of answering back,” he says in the film, according to USAToday. “Meeting an advanced civilization could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus — that didn’t turn out so well.” “I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.” It’s an idea Hawking has expressed numerous times before — typically using human beings as an example of why we shouldn’t trust other intelligent life. “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet,” he told The Times of London in 2010. Well, we’re convinced. NASA, we really hope you’re listening.

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Congress is on the verge of officially legalizing industrial hemp, with a measure that would create a legal distinction between the popular crop and other, intoxicating strains of marijuana. In a statement Thursday, leaders of the U.S. Senate and House agricultural committees reported that they’d reached a tentative agreement on the 2018 Farm Bill. Included in that larger piece of legislation are a number of provisions that would allow for the commercial cultivation, research and development of industrial hemp. A vote is expected by the end of the year. Under the new farm bill, hemp would be defined as any part of a marijuana plant with a THC concentration of 0.3 percent or less. Hemp is a variety of cannabis that contains very low amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana. While strains of cannabis with higher THC can get people high, hemp does not. There are a few remaining procedural hurdles that could threaten the legislation, but for the moment, the broader farm bill and its hemp measures look likely to pass, said Eric Steenstra, president of Vote Hemp, an advocacy group. “We’ve had five years and what we’ve seen is that there are a lot of people who are wanting to grow this crop..

It is typically grown for use in food, fuel, textiles and other applications. Since 1970, however, federal law has classified all cannabis plants as Schedule I substances, alongside drugs like heroin, LSD and a number of deadly synthetic opioids. “The hemp part of the bill has never really been in dispute,” said Steenstra. “I feel very optimistic about this.” In 2014, Congress passed a farm bill renewal that allowed for pilot programs and research on hemp. Over the past few years, hemp has begun to develop into its own thriving industry. Cultivation operations quickly sprouted up across the U.S., and in 2018, more than 3,500 licenses were issued in 23 states, leading to over 77,000 acres of hemp being planted, according to Vote Hemp. In 2015, just 9,650 acres of hemp had been planted in 15 states, Steenstra added. That explosive growth has helped convince skeptical lawmakers that the longstanding prohibition on hemp is no longer defensible. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), once a vocal opponent of hemp legalization, has since become a leading advocate for the initiative.

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“We had an unexpected visitor last night at the facility,” California Highway Patrol’s Donner Pass division wrote on Facebook on Nov. 18. Police in California got a surprise when a bear stood up on two legs, opened the door to a facility and then wandered in as if it worked there. The footage shows the bear step into the commercial vehicle enforcement facility in Truckee, near Lake Tahoe, then drop down to all fours. It wanders past some vending machines and out of camera range. A few moments later, the bear casually strolls back out. Two police officers follow.  “Our bear friend made a return visit,” the department wrote. On Saturday, the bear was back, caught on camera in the facility’s parking lot. Bears will seek to avoid confrontation with humans. If encountered, always leave them an escape route.

 Bears in the area are searching for food for up to 20 hours per day as they prepare for hibernation, the United States Forest Service noted on its website. Bears often hibernate in large hollow trees 40 to 50 feet off the ground. Because bears (and other animals) are attracted to anything edible or scented, improper storage of human food and other scented items and improper disposal of refuse is a leading cause of human-bear conflict. Store food in bear-proof canisters or bear-proof lockers if provided. Bears are omnivores. A typical wild bear diet consists of berries, plants, nuts, roots, honey, honeycomb, insects, larvae, carrion and small mammals. As winter approaches, bears will forage for food storing enough fat to sustain them through hibernation. Bears that are accustomed to people can become too bold and lose their fear of humans. To avoid this behavior, do not let bears become habituated to human sources of food. U.S. Forest Service
Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit
Forest Supervisor’s Office
35 College Drive
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

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Cannabis industry insiders are predicting a sales “high” as pot smokers stock up on supplies before the Thanksgiving holiday. Thursday is supposed to be all about turkey, but Wednesday is apparently all about THC. “We expect this year’s holiday week to be awesome since so many Americans are becoming more open to cannabis consumption across the USA, particularly in California since legalization in January.” “Last year, Eaze saw a 98 percent increase in deliveries on Green Wednesday compared to a typical Wednesday in 2017,” Shriavi told HuffPost. Shiran Shiravi, the director of consumer communications at Eaze, a company that delivers cannabis products in California, expects to handle nearly double the doobie deliveries of a typical Wednesday, based on past results. That spike comes with a risk of shortages in states like Massachusetts, which on Tuesday will become the first state east of the Mississippi where pot is legal, according to the Boston Globe. “Obviously there is an immense demand, and we’ve been preparing for a while to help meet this. Sam Barber of Cultivate, a dispensary in Leicester, told WCVB TV it’s possible that demand will initially outpace the supply. We can’t make any guarantees about how long our supplies will last.

Jessie Gibson, the co-founder and VP of Marketing for Greenery Map, a cannabis search engine and app, says shortages are a fact of life in his business for the short term. Some industry insiders say shortages and long lines at dispensaries are possible even in states like California where marijuana has been legally available since the first of the year.  “I think that the extent of the shortages will continue, but it will be market specific. Somewhere that is recently legal doesn’t have the same supply as let’s say California, but the demand will be very high. “We are seeing shortages every day these days as the interest continues to grow, and as cannabis sheds its stigma.” Others like Hannah Davis of Mammoth Distribution, which distributes cannabis products all over California, believes retailers are prepared for the lift in sales. “We expect sales to double this week, but we’re seeing our retailers stocking up so, hopefully, it’s not an issue,” she said. “I imagine that we will see these shortages for a number of years while the producers catch up with the ever-growing demand.” “I do expect people to make larger purchases to share with friends.” And The real question is, with a rise in cannabis sales for Thanksgiving, will we see a decrease in leftovers?”

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Anna Tew was planning to be a zombie for the haunting holiday and spent $3 on a pair of fake teeth for the costume. The zombie teeth attached to her regular chompers with adhesive, but she became unglued when she realized the fake teeth were stuck. It’s not Halloween yet, but one Alabama woman has already had the fright of her life. I was trying to remove them then because they were just tight,” Tew told WKRG TV. “They wouldn’t budge. I even took a pair of wire clippers and cut the tips off of those.” Tew couldn’t eat or drink because of the fake teeth but tried drinking hot coffee hoping the heat would loosen the glue. Spoiler alert: It didn’t work. I drooled hot coffee, I guess you could say,” she told McClatchy News. “They wouldn’t budge. I’m panicking. Of course I’d had a few panic attacks by this point. I tried to sleep, wasn’t no sleeping.”

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American Airlines: An airline employee “inadvertently fell asleep” in the forward cargo hold of a plane, and remained there for the duration of a flight from Kansas City to Chicago. “The flight subsequently took off with the team member in the cargo hold, which was heated and pressurized,” American Airlines said in a statement. The individual, a male employee of Piedmont Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Airlines Group, was working an American Airlines flight on Oct. 27 when he apparently fell asleep in the forward cargo hold of a Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The flight landed “safely” at the Chicago O’Hare International airport at approximately 7 a.m., when the employee was discovered upon arrival to the gate. A spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department (CPD) told HuffPost, The Piedmont employee, whose name wasn’t released, allegedly indicated to Chicago police that he had consumed “several alcoholic beverages.

“Our top priority is ensuring the well-being of the Piedmont employee,” the airline stated. “He did not request any medical attention upon arrival in Chicago, and we are grateful that he did not sustain any injuries.” CPD said they questioned the employee, identified as a 27-year-old man, at the airport before arrangements were made for him to return to Kansas City. American Airlines confirmed in an email to HuffPost that the individual is a ramp employee for Piedmont Airlines and that his job duties include “loading and unloading bags.” He was not injured and not charged in the incident, police say. At the time of the incident, the employee was staffing the forward cargo hold, which did not contain cargo for that flight since there were only 80 passengers of the 160 available seats present, American said. The American team is very concerned about this serious situation, and we are reviewing what transpired with our Piedmont and Kansas City colleagues,” the company stated.

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