Rachel Tudor, a transgender professor whose tenure and promotion was denied at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, was awarded $1.1 million by a federal jury on Monday in a landmark Title VII case.
Tudor was hired by the university in 2004 as a tenure-track assistant professor in the English department and presented as male at the time. She began transitioning in 2007, becoming the university’s first openly transgender professor.
According to the lawsuit, after notifying the university that she would be presenting as a woman at work for the 2007-2008 academic year, Tudor received a phone call from an unnamed human resources staffer who told her the school’s vice president for academic affairs, Douglas McMillan, had inquired about firing her because her identity as a transgender woman offended his religious beliefs.
The Keystone XL pipeline cleared a major hurdle on Monday after a Nebraska regulator approved an alternate route for the $8 billion project.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission voted to approve TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline in a 3-2 decision that cleared a regulatory hurdle for the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline that would link Canada’s Alberta oil sands to U.S. refineries.
Nebraska was the only state that had yet to approve the pipeline’s route, and Monday’s decision appeared to pass that final regulatory challenge. But the move could still be challenged in court.
The five-member commission rejected TransCanada’s preferred route and opted for one of the alternative routes that moves the pipeline farther east.
. A TransCanada Keystone Pipeline pump station operates outside Steele City, Nebraska March 10, 2014. Lane Hickenbottom / Reuters file
The Keystone pipeline running from Canada across the Great Plains leaked Thursday morning, spilling about 5,000 barrels of oil — or 210,000 gallons — southeast of the small town of Amherst in northeast South Dakota.
The spill comes just days before a crucial decision next Monday by the Public Service Commission in Nebraska over whether to grant a permit for a new, long-delayed sister pipeline called Keystone XL, which has been mired in controversy for several years. Both are owned by Calgary-based TransCanada.
Della Reese, who segued from pop and jazz singing stardom in the 1950s and ’60s to a long career as a popular TV actress on “Touched by an Angel” and other shows, died Sunday night at her home in California. She was 86.
“She was an incredible wife, mother, grandmother, friend, and pastor, as well as an award-winning actress and singer. Through her life and work she touched and inspired the lives of millions of people,” Reese’s family said in a statement. “She was a mother to me and I had the privilege of working with her side by side for so many years on ‘Touched by an Angel.’ I know heaven has a brand new angel this day. Della Reese will be forever in our hearts.”
Reared in gospel, Reese became a seductive, big-voiced secular music star with her No. 1 R&B and No. 2 pop hit “Don’t You Know” in 1959. The 45, her first single on RCA Records, was a ballad drawn from an aria from Puccini’s opera “La Boheme.”
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Della Reese sings during the Detroit 300 festival on July 20, 2001 in Detroit. Paul Warner / AP
Cassini disintegrated in the skies above Saturn early on Friday, following a remarkable journey of 20 years.
21 Photos
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Signs of Life?
Saturn’s sixth largest moon, Enceladus, has loomed large in the minds of astrobiologists since 2005, when Cassini first spotted geysers of water ice erupting from “tiger stripe” fissures near its south pole.
Scientists think these geysers are blasting material from a sizable ocean buried beneath the satellite’s ice shell, indicating that Enceladus has liquid water, one of the key ingredients required for life.
Cassini space probe offers a never-before-seen perspective on Saturn’s intricate rings just weeks before its mission-ending plunge into the planet.
Talk about ringside seats!
We’ve known about Saturn’s rings since 1610, when Galileo turned his telescope skyward and took a close look at the sixth planet from the sun. But never before have we had a view of the rings like this: a dazzling new movie made from photos snapped by the Cassini space probe show the rings from the inside out — that is, looking outward from the narrow gap between the rings and the planet itself.
The 21 photos were taken over a span of four minutes on Aug. 20 as Cassini dove through the gap. At the time, the school bus-sized craft was about 1,100 miles above the cloud tops that mark Saturn’s uppermost layer (the gas giant planet has no surface) and about the same distance from the innermost ring.
A day after a former model said George Takei had sexually assaulted him 36 years ago, the “Star Trek” actor strongly denied any wrongdoing, saying that he was “shocked and bewildered” by the claims.
On Friday, Scott R. Brunton recounted in detail the night of the alleged assault, saying that he woke up to find Takei groping him without his consent.
Takei responded to Brunton, whom he claims not to remember, in a string of tweets posted Saturday morning.
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Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic via Getty Images
George Takei denies a claim that he sexually assaulted another man 36 years ago.
Malcolm Young, who founded the Australian rock band AC/DC along with his brother Angus, has died at age 64 after suffering from dementia for several years, the band said on its Facebook page on Saturday.
Malcolm Young was a songwriter, backing vocalist and rhythm guitarist for AC/DC, a hard rock and heavy metal band that was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. Their hits included “Highway to Hell” from 1979 and “Back in Black” and “You Shook Me All Night Long” from 1980.
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EMPICS Entertainment
Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, Angus Young and Brian Johnson of AC/DC.
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.
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Keystone pipeline spill
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Saturn’s rings from the inside looking out
