The suspected serial bomber who terrorized Austin with a string of exploding packages died early Wednesday after detonating an explosive device in his vehicle as police closed in on him, authorities said.
Austin police and the FBI tracked him to a hotel parking lot in Round Rock, about 18 miles north of Austin, where they found him inside his vehicle, Interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said. Officers wanted to wait for tactical units to arrive before engaging the suspect, but he started to drive away.
The man stopped on the side of the Interstate 35 frontage road, and as Austin SWAT officers approached, he detonated a bomb, knocking one of the officers backward and injuring him, Manley said.
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Austin Police confirmed the suspect in the multiple package explosions killed himself with an explosive device on March 21.(Patrick Martin, Amber Ferguson, Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)
British physicist Stephen Hawking died at the age of 76. He was known as one of the world’s greatest minds. Here are just some of his biggest contributions to the science community.
Former FBI deputy Director Andrew McCabe wrote memos detailing his interactions with President Donald Trump, as well as on some interactions between the president and former FBI Director James Comey, a person with knowledge of the matter told HuffPost.
He has also turned hard copies of the memos over to special counsel Robert Mueller, the source said. The number of memos and their contents are not yet known.
McCabe was set to retire on Sunday, after more than two decades at the FBI. But Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired him late Friday, a decision that could significantly affect McCabe’s pension.
In a lengthy statement, McCabe said he was fired because his memos could corroborate Comey’s accounts of interactions with the president. Comey wrote similar memos documenting Trump’s behavior before he was fired in May 2017.
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Andrew McCabe testifying before a House subcommittee on June 21, 2017. He worked at the FBI for over two decades and was fired on Friday.
Jairus Lyles couldn’t suppress a smile, knowing that a school known more for chess than hoops had finally made it happen — a 16 ousting a 1 in March Madness.
The University of Maryland-Baltimore County stunned the sports world by pulling off the most shocking upset in college basketball history, hammering Virginia 74-54 on Friday night to become the first No. 16 seed ever to beat a No. 1 seed in the men’s NCAA Tournament.
BOX SCORE: UMBC 74, VIRGINIA 54
RELATED: Men’s NCAA Tournament bracket
UMBC secured its underdog legacy in sports lore, alongside Buster Douglas, the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team, Appalachian State football and Joe Namath’s Jets.
Virginia entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed after going 31-2 in the regular season, including 20-1 in ACC competition.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday night fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire — a move that McCabe alleged was an attempt to slander him and undermine the ongoing special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign.
Sessions announced the decision in a statement just before 10 p.m., noting that both the Justice Department inspector general and the FBI office that handles discipline had found “that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”
He said based on those findings and the recommendation of the department’s senior career official, “I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.”
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on March 16, shortly before McCabe was set to retire.(Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)
Stephen Hawking died Wednesday after complications due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease. He was 76.
The world-renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist was best known for his work on black holes. Hawking theorized that, contrary to the prevailing scientific belief that black holes were inescapable for all forms of matter and energy, they actually emitted a form of radiation ― now known as Hawking radiation. He also played a key role in the mathematical effort to unify Einstein’s general theory of relativity with the emergent field of quantum physics.
Hawking used his position as one of the world’s most famous scientists as a platform to discuss a wide range of issues, from the existence of extraterrestrial life to the nature of philosophy. He skyrocketed to public prominence in 1988, when he published his first general-audience book, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. The cosmology treatise has sold approximately 10 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling science books of all time.
In 1963, when he was just 21 years old, Hawking was famously diagnosed with the debilitating motor neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Though 80 percent of those with ALS die within five years of diagnosis, and Hawking’s own doctors gave him roughly two years to live, he survived for decades, perhaps longer than any other patient with the disease in medical history. Hawking used a wheelchair to move around and a sophisticated computer system to speak for much of his time as a public figure.
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Stephen Hawking, Jane Wilde Hawking and family attend the British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House on Feb. 8, 2015 in London.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the Trump administration’s appeal of a federal judge’s ruling that requires the government to keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program going.
Under a lower court order that remains in effect, the Department of Homeland Security must continue to accept renewal applications from the roughly 700,000 young people who are currently enrolled in the program, known as DACA. The administration had intended to shut the program down by March 5, but that deadline is now largely meaningless.
In a brief order, the court said simply, “It is assumed the court of appeals will act expeditiously to decide this case.”
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Immigration activists march in front of the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 7, 2018 in Washington. A coalition of activists from across the U.S. demonstrated to pressure Congress to pass legislation protecting “Dreamers” as part of federal budget negotiations.John Moore / Getty Images file
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket successfully completed its long-awaited maiden flight on Tuesday, roaring into the blue skies over Kennedy Space Center to usher in a new era of spaceflight.
The gigantic booster, which lifted off at 3:45 p.m. ET, could one day take astronauts to the moon and Mars. The rocket rose over the Atlantic Ocean before its two expended solid rocket boosters fell back to Earth and landed upright, just as planned. The third booster failed to make a landing on a robotic drone ship at sea.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he felt “quite giddy” before the launch. “What I find strange about this flight is normally I feel superstressed out the day before,” he told reporters in a press briefing on Monday. “This time I don’t.”
Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn has been accused of a decades-long pattern of sexual harassment and abuse toward workers at his casinos, according to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.
Dozens of current and former employees at Wynn’s gambling establishments told the Journal they had experienced or witnessed chronic abuse by the billionaire, who was named finance chairman for the Republican National Convention last year.
The allegations range from lewd comments and inappropriate touching to soliciting sex acts from women who worked as manicurists and massage therapists at Wynn’s Las Vegas casinos.
One former employee at Wynn Las Vegas said the mogul pressured her into having unwanted sex with him after she gave him a manicure in 2005. Wynn later agreed to pay the woman a $7.5 million settlement after she filed a report.
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President Donald Trump has called Steve Wynn, seen here in March 2016, a “great friend.”
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.