Andrew Blake

Investigators release personal writings of Florida teen accused of murder, cannibalism

A Florida teenager accused of murdering a married couple and then attempting to eat one of his victims wrote about being bullied and other personal problems prior to the grisly altercation, according to new documents released this week.

November 26, 2016

Black Friday gunfire results in deaths, injuries following shopping mall shootings in several states

Three people were killed and at least six others injured Friday after gunfire erupted outside of shopping centers across the United States during one of retail's busiest days of the year.

November 26, 2016

Fidel Castro’s death brings about mixed reactions from world leaders

As American lawmakers by and large reflected on Fidel Castro's passing Friday by recalling the negative impact of his decades-long dictatorship, internationally his death has prompted mournful reactions from foreign officials who hold drastically different opinions of the longtime Cuban leader.

November 26, 2016

U.S. lawmakers of both parties with Cuban roots reflect on Fidel Castro’s death

As thousands rallied on the streets of Miami early Saturday to celebrate Fidel Castro's passing, Cuban-American politicos with roots under his regime offered sobering reflections of the dictator's rule and what his death could mean for generations to come.

November 26, 2016

Steven Seagal given Russian passport by Putin

Steven Seagal, the Michigan-born martial artist best known for producing and starring in dozens of action movies since his Hollywood debut in the late 1980s, was given a Russian passport Friday during a meeting in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin.

November 25, 2016

Group plans to protest Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s AG pick, over anti-marijuana stance

Marijuana advocates in Washington, D.C., plan to spend Monday afternoon on Capitol Hill conducting the first of five scheduled protests organized in response to President-elect Donald Trump's appointment of Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, as the nation's next attorney general.

November 25, 2016

Jeff Gillenkirk, author, dies after diagnosing himself with ‘Post-Trump Stress Disorder’

Acclaimed author Jeff Gillenkirk died of a heart attack this week, two days after publication of his final article, "The New PTSD: Post-Trump Stress Disorder."

November 25, 2016

Steve Huffman, Reddit CEO, admits editing posts, targeting pro-Trump administrators

Reddit users found themselves inadvertently hurling insults towards moderators of one of the largest pro-Donald Trump communities on the internet this week as the result of a prank pulled off by none other than the website's own CEO.

November 25, 2016

Southern Poverty Law Center’s tax-exempt status challenged by watchdog group over partisanship

A group favoring limits on immigration said this week it will ask the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the Southern Poverty Law Center and strip the hate-watchdog's tax-exempt status over what it described as illegal political activity undertaken before the Nov. 8 presidential election.

November 24, 2016

D.C. police charge vice president’s neighbor with dealing marijuana

An illegal marijuana operation was discovered a stone's throw from the vice president's residence in Washington, D.C., police said Tuesday.

November 23, 2016

U.S and Russia compete over fate of suspected LinkedIn hacker

A Russian national accused of hacking LinkedIn and other internet companies could manage to avoid facing federal charges in the United States pending the decision of a Prague court, Czech authorities indicated this week.

November 23, 2016

Tila Tequila suspended from Twitter after sharing Nazi salute

Tila Tequila, a Vietnamese-American model who gained fame more than a decade ago due largely to her social media presence, has been suspended from Twitter after making waves over the weekend during an alt-right conference in Washington, D.C.

November 23, 2016

Immigration reform group asks IRS to strip tax-exempt status from civil rights watchdog

An immigration reform group this week said it will ask the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the Southern Poverty Law Center and strip the civil rights watchdog of its tax exempt status over what it described as illegal political activity undertaken prior to the Nov. 8 presidential election.

November 23, 2016

University of Kansas disciplines cheerleaders over ‘KKK Go Trump’ photograph

The University of Kansas has launched an investigation after one of its cheerleaders posted a photograph on social media this weekend evoking both the Ku Klux Klan and President-elect Donald Trump.

November 23, 2016

Last-ditch fight emerges over likely expansion of government’s hacking powers

The Justice Department defended plans to broadly expand the federal government's computer hacking powers on Monday as critics launched a last-minute attempt to have Congress intervene.

November 22, 2016

Civil liberties groups press Obama for surveillance reform before Trump takes office

Thirty civil liberties groups on Monday presented President Obama with a laundry list of recommendations they want him to make before Donald Trump's inauguration, a last-ditch attempt to prevent the president from passing down certain policies that risk being preserved indefinitely.

November 22, 2016

NSA chief downplays DNC hack’s effect on White House race

The hacking campaign that exposed the inner workings of the Democratic Party in the months leading up to the presidential election failed to significantly impact the outcome of the 2016 White House race, the head of the National Security Agency said Sunday.

November 22, 2016

Viktor Bout, convicted Russian arms smuggler, asks Trump to intervene after losing appeal bid

A Russian arms smuggler currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States dared President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to help send him home upon taking office.

November 22, 2016

Ed Spires, elderly gay veteran, sues Air Force over ‘undesirable’ discharge in 1948

An elderly Air Force veteran asked a federal judge on Friday to make the military reconsider the undesirable discharge status he was given nearly 70 years earlier for being gay.

November 19, 2016

#BoycottHamilton tops Twitter’s trends list after Mike Pence’s eventful Broadway outing

Twitter users propelled "#BoycottHamilton" to the top of the social network's list of trending topics in the United States on Saturday less than 24 hours after the cast of the Broadway musical addressed Vice President-elect Mike Pence at the end of Friday evening's performance.

November 19, 2016