Air Force reserves have been drafted in to help thousands of firefighters battling a raging wildfire in California that jumped a highway which had served as a containment line.
Officials said that more than 9,000 firefighters were on the front lines fighting more than 21 active wildfires. Some crews were igniting controlled burns in a bid to contain the blazes.
Two giant C-130 Hercules planes from the Air Force Reserves joined more than a dozen other air tankers and helicopters on Monday battling the flames, according to NBC Bay Area.
The Democratic and Republican parties certainly don’t agree on how to run the country, but they are in sync when it comes to capitalizing on a new law letting them raise eight times as much money from rich donors than before.
The new money technically must be used only for specific purposes, such as legal expenses and improvements to party headquarters. The limits are, however, murkier than they seem, with some lawyers saying the money could legally pay for some election-related costs such as opposition research and data mining.
And the Federal Election Commission, tasked with regulating and enforcing federal campaign finance laws, is at an impasse over whether and how to issue rules governing the new party accounts. As a result, decisions about spending are pretty much up to the parties and their lawyers.
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Many of the donors that have given big to the party committees also have a history of writing big checks to super PACs. YURIKO NAKAO / Reuters, file
NASA on Thursday announced the discovery of Kepler-452b, the most Earth-like planet ever found. Located 1,400 light-years from our planet, NASA called it “Earth 2.0,” because it’s the first small, rocky planet discovered in the habitable zone of a G star similar to our sun.
“We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon Earth’s evolving environment,” said Jon Jenkins, the Kepler data analysis lead at NASA’s Ames Research Center.
The planet is 5 percent farther away from its star than Earth is to the sun, making for a slightly longer year of 385 days, but gets similar light because its sun is 20 percent brighter than our own.
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An artist’s concept compares Earth (left) to the new planet, called Kepler-452b, which is about 60 percent larger in diameter. NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
Bobbi Kristina Brown, 22, the only daughter of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, died Sunday, nearly six months after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub of her home, her family said.
Brown has been unresponsive in hospitals and hospice care since she was found in her Roswell, Georgia, home on Jan. 31. Her family said she suffered irreversible brain damage.
“She is finally at peace in the arms of God,” her family told NBC News in a statement. “We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and support during these last few months.”
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Bobbi Kristina Brown dies at age 22
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A Michigan oncologist who inflicted excessive and painful cancer treatments on hundreds of patients — many of whom didn’t have the disease in the first place — sobbed as he was sentenced Friday to spend what will likely be the rest of his life in prison, capping an emotional week in which a procession of victims told a federal judge how the scams had ravaged their bodies.
Farid Fata, who operated the racket from an empire of upscale clinics in the Detroit suburbs, began weeping before the punishment was even handed down.
Speaking publicly for the first time since his August 2013 arrest, Fata blamed greed and a “self-destructive” thirst for power.
The threat of severe thunderstorms loomed over parts of the Midwest and Southeast on Monday, after a pregnant woman and two of her children were killed in floodwaters in Ohio.
Victoria Kennerd, 32, was six months pregnant. Her 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter were also killed, but her husband and her other two children survived when the family’s mobile home was swept away by the surging Red Oak Creek in Ripley, Ohio, NBC station WLWT reported.
The deaths came as heavy rain pounded much of the Eastern U.S. on Saturday and Sunday. Ripley was one of the worst hit areas, with four inches of rain falling in an hour. Dramatic images showed a flipped-over car, buckled garage doors and a torn-up roadway.
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Pregnant Woman and Two Children Swept Away in Floods
Hollywood actor Omar Sharif who rose to fame for his roles in “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago” has died. He was 83.
He passed away in Cairo on Friday afternoon after suffering a heart attack, his agent told NBC News.
He was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. His best friend, Egypt’s former Antiquities Minister, Zahi Hawass, described how the illness had taken hold in recent years.
Serena Williams slugged her way to a sixth Wimbledon singles title Saturday morning, completing her second so-called “Serena Slam” and positioning herself for tennis history.
The 33-year-old American defeated Garbine Muguruza of Spain, 6-4, 6-4, to win her fourth consecutive Grand Slam tournament, beginning with last year’s U.S. Open and including this year’s Australian and French open titles. She accomplished a similar sweep in 2002-2003.
The Wimbledon win is also Williams’ 21st Grand Slam title.
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Serena Williams celebrates after winning the women’s singles final at Wimbledon,in London on July 11. Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP
Around one-third of the Great Wall of China has been destroyed by vandalism and exposure to the elements, according to Chinese state-run media.
While human behavior — like the use of the wall’s stones for home-building or sale on the — has contributed to the deterioration, overgrown plants also have endangered the structure, Xinhua reported. As a result, whole sections of the UNESCO World Heritage site have large gaping holes and are crumbling — particularly in rural areas east of Beijing, it added in a report over the weekend.
“The destruction of the Great Wall has natural and human causes,” Dong Yaohui, vice chairman of the nonprofit Great Wall Society, told NBC News on Tuesday, calling for the creation of a systematic conservation plan. “The urgent task is to protect what is left.”
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Visitors walk on a section of the Great Wall of China in 2014 in Mutianyu, near Beijing, China. Kevin Frayer / Getty Images file
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.