A gunfight between an Alaska police officer and a pedestrian who suddenly opened fire may have stopped a serial killer dead in his tracks.
According to Anchorage police, Officer Arn Salao was responding to a theft complaint early Saturday when he spotted 40-year-old James Dale Ritchie walking down a city street. When Salao pulled up next to Ritchie to ask if he had seen the crime, Ritchie ignored the question and continued walking, prompting the officer to ask again over the public-address loudspeaker in his patrol car. It was at that moment, police said, that Ritchie turned and opened fire on the officer, hitting him at least four times.
Salao “immediately returned gunfire and physically fought off his assailant,” Anchorage Chief Chris Tolley said at a Tuesday press conference. “At the same time, as this is occurring, a second officer who’s in the area rolled up on the incident and Sgt. Marc Patzke of our K9 Unit charged and returned fire. … Together they were able to stop this individual.”
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Anchorage Police Department
James Ritchie looks eerily similar to the suspect sketch. He stood 6 feet four inches tall and was wearing a camouflage jacket when he was shot and killed Saturday police said.
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President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday he was aware of reports that some of his supporters may be harassing Latinos, Muslims and members of other minority groups — a development he said must stop immediately.
In an extensive interview broadcast on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said that such behavior represented only “a very small amount” of his support but that any was unacceptable.
“Don’t do it,” the president-elect said. “That’s terrible, because I’m going to bring this country together.”
To reinforce the point, Trump looked directly at the camera and demanded: “Stop it.”
For Americans who have loudly expressed fear about his impending presidency, Trump was reassuring, saying: “I would tell them, ‘Don’t be afraid, absolutely. … Don’t be afraid. We are going to bring our country back. But certainly, don’t be afraid.'”
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President-elect Donald Trump with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus last week. Trump on Sunday named Priebus as his White House chief of staff. Evan Vucci / AP
Pioneering television news anchor Gwen Ifill died Monday after a battle with cancer. She was 61.
One of the nation’s most prominent black journalists and a longtime newscaster at PBS who previously worked at NBC News, Ifill was in hospice care when she passed away.
“Gwen was a standard bearer for courage, fairness and integrity in an industry going through seismic change,” Sara Just, PBS News Hour’s executive producer, said in a statement.
“She was a mentor to so many across the industry and her professionalism was respected across the political spectrum. She was a journalist’s journalist and set an example for all around her.”
Ifill was the host of PBS’ Washington Week and co-host of PBS NewsHour. She covered seven presidential campaigns and moderated the vice presidential debates in 2004 and 2008. She was also the author of “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama,” which was published on inauguration day 2009.
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Gwen Ifill of PBS watches a clip of “Saturday Night Live” during a live taping of “Meet the Press” from NBC October 5, 2008 in Washington, DC. Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images
Leon Russell, the songwriter behind some of rock music’s top hits like “A Song For You” and “Delta Lady,” has died. He was 74.
Russell’s official website confirmed that the musician “passed away in his sleep” in Nashville on Sunday.
Though an official cause of death has not been released, Russell underwent surgery after suffering a heart attack this past July and was reportedly still in recovery, according to The Associated Press. In 2010, he was also treated for heart failure and underwent surgery for a brain fluid leak.
The AP noted that Russell had planned to continue touring in January, citing a representative for the musician.
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Jeff Daly/Invision/AP
Leon Russell performs at the Sunshine Music and Blues Festival at the Mizner Park Amphitheater on January 18, 2014, in Boca Raton, Florida.
A search for a man suspected of killing a California deputy at close range Sunday morning has ended after an hourslong manhunt, authorities announced.
David Machado, 36, was taken into custody in Tulare County, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office announced on social media around 1 p.m. local time.
Stanislaus Deputy Dennis Wallace, 53, was responding to a call about a suspicious car and person around 8:30 a.m. when he was shot twice in the head, Sheriff Adam Christianson had said at an earlier press conference.
The 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department had just enough time to request backup after finding the suspect’s stolen vehicle before he was killed, Christianson said.
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Stanislaus County Sheriffs Department
David Machado, 36, was wanted for the shooting death of a California deputy Sunday morning.
For the last six months, Republican leaders walked a careful line supporting Donald Trump. They supported his campaign and loved his running mate, Mike Pence, but they didn’t agree with his positions on banning Muslims or mass deportations, or with the far-right figures who backed them.
That line was easy enough to maintain when it was just campaign rhetoric. But now Trump is signaling that the far right wing of the party will be going with him to the White House, where it will have a chance to influence policy, as well.
Steve Bannon, former president of the incendiary Breitbart News and more recently chief executive of Trump’s campaign, is taking on a role as “chief strategist and senior counselor.” Bannon’s ascension is the clearest sign yet that Trump will maintain his ties to the populist white nationalism that helped propel him to the White House against overwhelming opposition from party leaders and traditional media.
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Steve Bannon – Presidential Campaign Brings the Alt-Right Out of Shadows
If you’ve ever found yourself overcome with frustration because your can opener broke and you’re really jonesing for some SpaghettiOs, this video is for you.
YouTube user Dave Hax posted this instructional clip on how to open a can of food with a spoon on Friday, and it was trending by the next day.
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How You Open A Can Of Food Using Only A Spoon
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Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who in July correctly predicted Donald Trump would win the White House, now says the president-elect’s first term will end in either his resignation or impeachment.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, this is why we’re not going to have to suffer through four years of Donald J. Trump, because he has no ideology except the ideology of Donald J. Trump,” Moore said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And when you have a narcissist like that, who’s so narcissistic where it’s all about him, he will, maybe unintentionally, break laws. He will break laws because he’s only thinking about what’s best for him.”
When host Mika Brzezinski asked Moore if he were now wishing ill on Trump, Moore replied, “He is ill.”
“He is racist,” Moore said. “He is a misogynist. He is an authoritarian.”
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Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters
Trump will be impeached or resign, Moore argues.
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A protest in Portland, Oregon, against President-elect Donald Trump boiled over into what police described as a “riot” overnight Thursday after some demonstrators armed with bats smashed stores and cars, and others lit fires.
Police arrested 26 people and responded with pepper spray and rubber bullets, labeling the 1,500-strong demonstration an “unlawful assembly” and a “riot” — a class-C felony.
According to Portland police, many in the crowd were trying to stop those responsible from vandalizing property and spray-painting messages such as “Dump Trump” and “F— Trump.”
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Police detain a demonstrator during an anti-Trump protest in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday. STEVE DIPAOLA / Reuters
Early in this election campaign, we began appending an editor’s note to our coverage of Donald Trump, highlighting his racism, misogyny and xenophobia.
He made no secret of any of it, and he was elected president anyway. That doesn’t make it any less true.
But throughout the entire administration of BarackObama, a segment of the Republican coalition, led by Trump, questioned the very legitimacy of his presidency, breaking from a long-held American tradition.
We’re not going to do the same. Whether we like it or not ― and let’s continue to be honest, we don’t ― he won the election. It was a win that was at once foreseeable ― yet one we failed badly to see.
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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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James' World 2 