John Glenn, a war hero who became the first American to orbit the Earth and later served four terms in the U.S. Senate, has died in his home state of Ohio. He was 95.
Glenn’s death was announced Thursday by officials at Ohio State University, where he was being treated at James Cancer Hospital. Glenn had experienced a number of health problems in recent years, including a stroke he suffered two years ago after having had heart valve replacement surgery.
“We are saddened by the loss of Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. A true American hero,” NASA said. “Godspeed, John Glenn. Ad astra [to the stars].”
The author Tom Wolfe wrote that Glenn, once a small-town American, became “the last true national hero America has ever made.”
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John Glenn worked as a payload specialist aboard the shuttle Discovery from Oct. 29 to Nov. 7, 1998. REX/Shutterstock / Shutterstock
The first arctic blast of the season has hit — blanketing parts of the Rockies and Plains with subzero temperatures early Thursday and heralding a bitter freeze that will affect more than 200 million people.
But meteorologists are warning about a second, perhaps even colder chill that could spread into the East Coast and possibly portions of the South late next week. A shift in a weather system known as the Polar Vortex may be partially to blame, according to The Weather Channel.
For now, parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and the Dakotas were bearing the worst of it, with temperatures as low as minus-14 overnight Wednesday. Heavy snow was also falling around the Great Lakes region, and parts of Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York could see up to 2 feet of snow.
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Before dawn, Rick Velasquez shovels fresh snow during a winter storm in Boulder, Colorado on Dec. 7, 2016. Brennan Linsley / AP
Dateline NBC’s social and digital series ‘Missing in America’ began on December 5, 2013, following a question the night before to our Facebook community, “Do you know anyone who has simply vanished?” The response was overwhelming. Since that first post, every Monday, we have featured the story of a different missing person brought to our attention from a member of our online communities.
On this third anniversary of the series, more than a third of those we have featured are still missing. Several have had someone charged in connection with their cases. In others, a person has been convicted of their murder. But they still have not been brought home.
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This map shows all the locations across the country where those part of our Dateline Missing in America remain missing from.
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Click link belowfor article and photos with stories of persons still missing:
The California warehouse where at least 36 people died last week has been on regulators’ radar for almost two decades, according to government records.
A habitability investigation of the Oakland warehouse — which had been converted without permits into a hive-like artists’ collective known as the “Ghost Ship” — was still pending when the building erupted in flames Friday night during a regular weekly party, according to government records.
The records show that the city was looking into a complaint alleging an “illegal interior building structure” at the warehouse, a two-story, 86-year-old building taking up almost 10,000 square feet.
It’s just one of at least 10 complaints that have been recorded against the site, which includes an adjoining vacant lot, since the Ng family began purchasing the properties in 1997, according to Oakland and Alameda County records.
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This 2014 photo shows the interior of a portion of the ‘Ghost Ship’ warehouse, taken while he was on a tour as a potential tenant of the Oakland, Calif., building. Ajesh Shah / AP
It was dark as the car sped along a small road on the outskirts of the embattled Iraqi city of Mosul. The car was driving fast, but not so fast as to draw attention. That was essential. The lives of the two men in the front seat depended on their ability to keep a low profile and pass through undetected.
In the passenger seat, Khaleel Al-Dhaki was focused on the secret mission he was leading to rescue a Yazidi woman and her child, both of whom were taken by ISIS and dragged into Mosul.
“This kind of operation can’t be done during daytime,” he later told NBC News. “We are basically going in there to kidnap them back from ISIS.”
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The night of her rescue from ISIS Leila reunited with some of her and her husband’s relatives who had also been previously rescued from ISIS captivity. Marc Smith / NBC News
President-elect Donald Trump will nominate “tough” former Republican primary rival Ben Carson as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the transition team announced Monday.
A statement described Carson as a “distinguished national leader who overcame his troubled youth in the inner city of Detroit to become a renowned neurosurgeon.”
In the announcement, Trump said he was “thrilled” to nominate Carson, who dropped out of the campaign race in March after a string of disappointing primary finishes on Super Tuesday.
The secretary of the Army Corps of Engineers has turned down a permit for a controversial pipeline project running through North Dakota, in a victory for Native Americans and climate activists.
A celebration erupted following the Sunday announcement at the main protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others have been protesting against the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline for months.
However it may prove to be a short-lived victory because President-elect Donald Trump has said he supports the project and policy experts believe he could reverse the decision if he wanted to.
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Dakota Access Pipeline to be rerouted, in victory for protesters
A Georgia father convicted of murder after leaving his toddler son in a hot car two summers ago was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Monday.
Jurors last month convicted Justin Ross Harris of malice murder and other charges in the June 18, 2014, death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper, who was left in a Hyundai Tucson for seven hours in sweltering heat. Jurors believed Harris left the little boy to die on purpose.
Harris, 35, was also convicted of eight counts of malice murder, felony murder, cruelty to children in the first and second degree, sexual exploitation of and dissemination of harmful material to minors.
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Justin Ross Harris and his son Cooper. Facebook via WXIA
Anxious families were awaiting word Saturday on whether their loved ones had escaped a raging inferno in Oakland, California, after at least nine people were killed during a late-night party at a converted warehouse.
At least two dozen people remained unaccounted for, officials said. “We expect the number of deceased to go up,” said Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly. “This is a very, very sensitive time.”
Emergency responders have had to delicately trudge through the rubble in the search for more victims, Kelly said. He described a twisted mass of beams, wires, and wood that he called a “maze.”
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Feral Pines is among those missing after a warehouse fire in Oakland, California. Courtesy of family
An unexpected dissenting voice came out Friday against a Trump administration brokered deal to keep a Carrier plant in Indiana and save around 1,000 jobs.
Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in an op-ed for the Young Conservatives website called the deal, which was reportedly negotiated by Vice President-elect Mike Pence, an example of government intervention that could lead to “crony capitalism.”
Palin said in the op-ed “I am ecstatic for Carrier employees!” But she wrote that while she didn’t yet know the full terms of the deal, the negotiation could signal an abandonment of fiscal conservatism and stimulus packages that, if pursued, would mean the country is “doomed.”
Carrier Corp. had planned to move a factory in Indianapolis to Mexico, taking 1,400 jobs with it.
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Sarah Palin speaks during a panel discussion before a preview of the film “Climate Hustle” on Capitol Hill April 14, 2016, in Washington. AP
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.
John Glenn worked as a payload specialist aboard the shuttle Discovery from Oct. 29 to Nov. 7, 1998. REX/Shutterstock / Shutterstock
James' World 2 