News

Scientists at Caltech believe they have confirmed the existence of a massive and icy ninth planet in our solar system. The planet was first speculated upon in 2014 paper which the Caltech team had set out to disprove. Via the Washington Post: They have inferred its existence from the motion of recently discovered dwarf planets and other small objects in …

Environmentalists are rallying in Tallahassee today after the Florida Senate advanced GOP Sen. Garrett Richter’s bill that would override any local laws against fracking and oil exploration. Under Garrett’s proposed bill, all energy-related regulations would be placed in the hands of a Republican-run state agency. From the Guardian: Opponents fear that removing the rights of cities and counties to prohibit …

Via the Los Angeles Times: British lawmakers on Monday debated whether Donald Trump should be banned from Britain, after an online petition calling for him to be denied entry for making controversial anti-Muslim comments amassed more than 570,000 votes. “His words are not comical. His words are not funny. His words are poisonous,” said the Labor Party’s Tulip Siddiq. “They …

Entertainment Weekly reports: Cher is pitching in to help out Flint, Michigan, during the city’s ongoing water crisis. As part of a partnership with Icelandic Glacial, Cher is donating 181,440 bottles of water to Flint after the discovery of lead contamination in the city’s drinking water. According to a press release, the bottles will be shipped out on Monday and …

Via USA Today: President Obama has weighed on the hottest Internet debate since the blue-or-gold dress. Dogs should wear their pants on two hind legs, not on all four. That presidential declaration came Friday during a series of interviews with YouTube stars in the East Room of the White House. Adande Thorne, also known as sWooZie, asked the president about …

The Los Angeles Times reports: Actor Dan Haggerty of “Grizzly Adams” fame died early Friday of cancer, said his longtime friend and manager Terry Bomar. He was 73. Haggerty learned he had cancer of the spine in August and died at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Bomar said. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Haggerty was a product …

CBS News reports: “There is this myth about the visit that we made, my colleagues and I with El Chapo, that it was — as the Attorney General of Mexico is quoted — ‘essential’ to his capture,” Penn said. “We had met with him many weeks earlier…on October 2nd, in a place nowhere near where he was captured.” “So as …

USA Today reports: Al Jazeera America, the American cable news outlet owned by Qatar-based Al Jazeera, plans to shut down less than three years after its much-ballyhooed launch, unable to overcome low ratings, operational problems and a lack of advertisers. The cable news network will be phased out by April 30, according to a memo that was e-mailed to staffers …

A few days ago we learned that the MTA is planning the complete closure of 30 subway stations for renovations that will (allegedly) take up to a full year. Today we get more much dire news about the L train, known to many here as the “hipster express” as its first Brooklyn stop is in Williamsburg. Via Gothamist: Like the …

After President Obama finished his final State Of The Union address, he lingered at the exit to the US House chamber, saying, “Let me look at this thing one last time.” The president’s last look was brief as moments later he was swarmed by well-wishers. Watch below.

Big news in sportsball last night. Via the Washington Post: The NFL made its long-awaited return to Los Angeles Tuesday after an absence of more than two decades. Owners of the teams voted to allow the Rams to move from St. Louis to Inglewood, Calif., and gave the Chargers the option to join them there by relocating from San Diego. …

Really unfortunate timing with the SOTU only hours away. NBC News reports: Iranian military forces seized two U.S. Navy boats Tuesday and are detaining them on Iran’s Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf, senior U.S. officials told NBC News. The 10 American sailors were on a training mission around noon ET when one of the boats may have experienced mechanical …

Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards was sworn in yesterday and as Bobby Jindal hits the exit things will immediately get better for the state’s impoverished families. Via Daily News Bin: Edwards says that he’s signing off on Medicaid expansion this Tuesday. That means at least 100,000 low-income residents of Louisiana will gain access to health care immediately. The Affordable …

“In God We Trust” first appeared on US coins in 1864 and was added to paper currency in 1957 during the height of the red scare. Atheist activist Michael Newdow is trying again to put an end to it, but this time he’s using the Hobby Lobby tactic. Hemant Mehta reports at Friendly Atheist: The federal lawsuit, which was filed …

The Frankfort Courier-Journal reports: Following through on a campaign pledge, Gov. Matt Bevin has notified federal authorities he plans to dismantle kynect, Kentucky’s health insurance exchange created under the Affordable Care Act. The decision drew immediate fire from health care advocates, including Bill Wagner, executive director of the Family Health Centers, a network of public health clinics in Louisville. “It’s …

Rupert Murdoch, Mick Jagger – what’s the difference? USA Today reports: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress and former supermodel Jerry Hall announced their engagement Tuesday. The news was revealed in the births, marriages and deaths section of the Times of London, which is owned by Murdoch’s News Corporation media group. It reads: “Mr Rupert Murdoch, father of Prudence, Elisabeth, …

JMG reader Alan tips us to this sorta bear-related story from Business Insider: Idaho resident Mike Wolfe had always been embarrassed by his back hair, but at age 35 he decided to turn it into profitable works of art. Wolfe recruited his friend and artist Tyler Harding to shave an American flag into his back. From there, the duo decided …

Business Insider, shockingly, says this a terrible strategy. They write: On Monday morning, liberal media watchdog group Media Matters tweeted a screenshot from a Saturday Fox and Friends segment advising a simple strategy for maximizing your chances of winning the lottery: Buy as many tickets as you can afford. This is technically true. Buying more lottery tickets does increase your …

The Associated Press reports: Acting Army Secretary Eric Fanning is stepping aside, at least temporarily, because Senate hasn’t confirmed his nomination, officials said Monday. The Army’s undersecretary, Patrick Murphy, was confirmed last week, so he will oversee the Army. Fanning is expected to step down and move into another Pentagon post for now. He would return to the Army leadership …

The Hill reports: Airline passengers in five states and a U.S. territory will be unable to present their current driver’s licenses at airport checkpoints after Jan. 22, 2018, under new rules announced on Friday by the Department of Homeland Security. The Homeland Security department, which overseas the TSA, said it would begin enforcing a post-Sept. 11 law that directs federal …