Kamala Harris is gearing up to put her gaffes, missteps and cackling laugh behind her as the vice president’s aides try to relaunch her image.
A new report from Politico claims the veep is “in a better place” after the 2022 midterm elections and ready to hit the road to show off the new and improved version of herself.
“She says she’s in a better place. A better place than where? Because I don’t know where she is,” Greg Gutfeld said Wednesday on “The Five.”
Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, of California, smiles as she formally launches her presidential campaign at a rally in her hometown of Oakland, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. ((AP Photo/Tony Avelar))
“Historic first now is an obsession every time the Dems are in power because they use it as a cudgel against Republicans,” Gutfeld said. “Like if you want to vote for a Republican, then clearly you don’t want to be part of this historic first. You must be a racist. You must be, you know, a bigot of some kind.”
He also highlighted a list of historical firsts but also “historical failures” in the Biden administration, such as Sam Brinton, the first openly non-binary senior administration official who was fired after allegedly stealing luggage from two different airports.
Brinton’s official government portrait. (Department of Energy)
“Rachel Levine, Kamala, KJP, Lori Lightfoot. Pete Buttigieg. Even Joe Biden’s a historical first and a failure. He is the first president with no brain connectivity,” Gutfeld quipped.
Co-host Harold Ford Jr. pushed back, saying Harris has shown she can be successful in electoral politics because she was elected to be district attorney, attorney general and senator for California.
However, he argued the vice president “needs a reset.” “The president and the country could use her being a more reliable and effective partner for the president.”
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Ford said if Harris could find a better way to tackle border security, it would go a long way in helping President Biden and the country.
“She has more experience than anybody in this administration to deal with crime. She was a DA and she was an AG of the biggest and most populous state in the country,’ he explained.
“Can you imagine if she went around the country collecting best practices, ideas, [and] things that are working? Police officers acting with communities, police officers being funded?”
Ashley Carnahan is a production assistant at Fox News Digital.
“These warrants and associated applications were sealed, due to the sensitive nature of the investigation at that time. Since then, an extensive probable cause affidavit has been unsealed in Latah County, Idaho, which has alleviated the need for sealing of the Return of Service here in Washington,” the court documents say.
Kohberger faces four counts of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20.
The suspect was a graduate student at Washington State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology and lived in Pullman, Washington, at the time of his arrest last month.
Items retrieved from his residence included “a collection of dark red,” cuttings from a pillow of reddish-brown stain, and part of a mattress cover with stains.
Other items listed include a nitrate-type black glove, store receipts and a Dickies tag, several hair strands, dust from a vacuum, a Fire TV stick and a computer tower, among other things.
There is no mention of potential items retrieved from the suspect’s office. It is not yet clear if anything was retrieved, or if information surrounding the execution of that search warrant is still under seal.
The victims were found murdered in an off-campus home November 13, killed with what investigators believe was a knife.
Investigators linked Kohberger to the crime scene after DNA on a tan leather knife sheath found lying next to one of the victims was linked to DNA on trash recovered from Kohberger’s family home, according to the probable-cause affidavit that led to his arrest.
Law enforcement also traced the ownership of a white Hyundai Elantra seen in the area of the killings to Kohberger, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.
A judge last week scheduled a preliminary probable cause hearing to begin June 26 after Kohberger waived his right to a speedy hearing. He has been held without bail in the Latah County jail in Idaho since his extradition from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested almost seven weeks after the murders.
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Climate change threatens the breeding success of songbirds, a new study shows.
Spring is normally the sweet spot for breeding songbirds in California’s Central Valley—not too hot, not too wet. But climate change models indicate the region will experience more rainfall during the breeding season, and days of extreme heat are expected to increase. Both changes are bad for songbird breeding.
While centered in the Central Valley, the study serves as a warning for other Mediterranean ecosystems.
“The changes happening in California’s Central Valley—increasing temperatures, wetter springs, greater variability—those impacts are happening across Mediterranean landscapes,” says lead author Jason Riggio, a postdoctoral scholar with the University of California, Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology. “In spaces where birds are already in an extremely variable climate, small changes will make a big difference.”
The study also offers signs that some birds adapt to modified systems. For example, western bluebirds and tree swallows are finding as much reproductive success in orchards near Putah Creek as in their natural habitat.
For these species, the orchards are not the ecological traps researchers initially expected them to be. Other species prefer to build their homes in riparian forest and grassland habitats.
Pockets of songbird breeding success
Climate models predict that regional precipitation is expected to decrease from October to January and to increase from February to April—pushing into the birds’ breeding season. Also, an estimated 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) increase in average maximum temperature by 2100 will challenge species already at their temperature limits.
To study the impacts of these changes on songbirds, the researchers analyzed 11 years-worth of data collected by Nestbox Highway project staff and its cadre of undergraduate interns from the Museum of Fish and Wildlife. This included 2,305 nesting attempts and more than 7,100 nestlings across four species of cavity-nesting songbirds—western bluebirds, house wrens, tree swallows, and ash-throated flycatchers.
They found that bird fitness declined amid extreme precipitation or temperatures. Wetter nesting periods lowered reproductive success and nestling weight in house wrens, tree swallows, and western bluebirds. Higher temperatures during the breeding season also resulted in lower reproductive success and nestling weight for all four species.
“Across these results, it appears the effects of climate change in California’s Central Valley—and in Mediterranean systems globally—are likely to have broad and mostly negative impacts on cavity-nesting songbird reproduction,” Riggio says.
He adds that there are still pockets of songbirds doing well in both natural and modified habitats, and that protecting the fragments of habitat left can benefit species confronting environmental changes.
The Nestbox Highway
Study coauthor Melanie Truan, a research ecologist with the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, began the Nestbox Highway in 2000 as a graduate student in an effort to bring songbirds back to Putah Creek.
Many native cavity-nesting songbirds had lost their nesting opportunities as non-native birds increased and as large trees with the holes they favored were replaced by agricultural and other land uses. Western bluebirds, once abundant in the region, had become largely non-existent in the area.
Researchers installed 100 nestboxes that first year, attracting a family of bluebirds, among other birds. Now, more than 200 boxes draw hundreds of bluebirds—and several other bird species—to Putah Creek and the surrounding region. Staff and undergraduate interns check the boxes weekly to record the progress of nesting attempts, eggs, and nestlings. Before fledging, all nestlings are measured and banded.
“The Nestbox Highway project is the most uplifting and encouraging part of what I do,” says Truan. “I’m so happy this project that started as a let’s-see-what-happens conservation and education project is turning into something that can provide data for research.”
The study also highlights the importance of long-term data sets to help unravel the impacts of climate and land-use change on birds and other species.
The Solano County Water Agency funded the work. It would not have been possible without the support of participating landowners and land managers, and the interns and staff of the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology.
A routine traffic stop near the border city of Del Rio, Texas, last week turned into a high-speed pursuit after three illegal immigrants were seen bailing out of a vehicle.
A Texas Department of Public Safety officer attempted to stop a Jeep SUV for a traffic violation on US 277 in Val Verde County on Jan. 1, 2023. Texas DPS said the driver refused to stop a and a high-speed chase ensued.
Texas DPS says all subjects who bailed out of the vehicle are illegal immigrants. (Texas DPS)
Footage of the encounter released by Texas DPS shows the SUV briefly pulling over to the side of the road. Three people can be seen bailing out of the vehicle and running towards the brush.
The driver plows ahead, evading the trooper while driving into the city limits of Del Rio. At one point, the driver blows a red light, nearly causing a collision, before stopping in front of a neighborhood residence.
The driver and passenger bailed out of the vehicle and fled on foot, but were apprehended by the trooper.
The high-speed pursuit happened in the border town of Del Rio, Texas. (Fox News)
Texas DPS says the driver was 16 years old and charged with smuggling of persons and evading arrest. The passenger, 17-years-old, was charged with smuggling of persons and evading arrest and transported to Val Verde County Jail. Both are from Del Rio, Texas DPS says.
A woman and boy were killed by a polar bear that had been chasing residents in a tiny, remote community in Alaska, state troopers said Tuesday.
The bear had chased residents after entering the western Alaska town of Wales before attacking the woman and boy, an Alaska State Troopers dispatch report said.
The bear was shot and killed by another resident as it attacked the two victims, according to the report.
The victims have been identified as Summer Myomick, 24, and her 1-year-old son, Clyde Ongtowasruk, Austin McDaniel, communications director for the Alaska Department of Public Safety, said in a statement Wednesday.
Troopers and Alaska Department of Fish and Game personnel have been working to travel to Wales following the attack, but have been waylaid by weather.
“Poor weather conditions in the region and the lack of runway lights in Wales prevented Troopers and Alaska Department of Fish and Game personnel from making it to Wales,” McDaniel said Wednesday. “Troopers are continuing to make efforts to fly to Wales today.”
Wales is on the coast of western Alaska and has a population of 168, according to the US Census.
Reports of polar bear attacks on humans are extremely rare, a 2017 study published by The Wildlife Society found. “From 1870-2014, we documented 73 attacks by wild polar bears, distributed among the 5 polar bear Range States (Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia, and United States), which resulted in 20 human fatalities and 63 human injuries,” it found.
But melting ice due to climate change has led to a corresponding change in bear behavior and made human encounters with bears more likely, CNN previously reported.
Residents of Churchill in northern Manitoba, Canada, sometimes called the “polar bear capital of the world,” told CNN in 2021 that bear encounters were becoming more common. Thousands of tourists visit each fall in hopes of catching a glimpse of a bear.
Bear season in the area peaks in October and November, just before Hudson Bay refreezes and bears begin migrating north and congregating near the shore.
In recent decades, bear season has been lasting longer because of climate change, residents say. The ice is melting sooner and freezing later, keeping the bears on land longer.
But attacks on humans remain rare. The last one was in 2013, according to the Reuters news agency, and there hadn’t been a fatal attack since the early 1980s, CNN reported in 2021.
Severe storm threats across the central and southern U.S. on Wednesday (Credit; Fox News)
Unseasonably warm temperatures will help fuel strong thunderstorms across the South and Southeast, bringing the potential of large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.
Potential record high temperatures across the southern U.S. on Wednesday (Credit; Fox News)
Janice Dean joined FOX News Channel (FNC) in January 2004 where she currently serves as senior meteorologist for the network. In addition, she is the morning meteorologist for FNC’s signature morning show, FOX & Friends (weekdays 6-9AM/ET) as well as contributes to FOX Weather, FOX News Media’s free ad-supported streaming television (“FAST”) weather service. Click here to listen to “The Janice Dean Podcast.“
If you frequently find yourself stuck in a procrastination loop, there’s a good chance you’re not lazy – but rather, a perfectionist. Oftentimes, perfectionists avoid starting tasks due to a fear of failure or criticism, experts say. You can challenge those beliefs by avoiding all-or-nothing thinking and by setting achievable standards on a daily basis.
Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.
(You can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)
Ukraine’s interior minister is among at least 16 people killed after a helicopter crashed in a Kyiv suburb today, police said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the crash in Brovary “a terrible tragedy” and ordered officials to “find out all the circumstances” of the incident. This comes as more than 9,000 civilians, including 453 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began last February, a senior Kyiv official said. On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that the fastest way to end the war is “to give Ukraine a strong hand on the battlefield,” which is what the US is doing, he said. The White House also teased that an additional aid package for Ukraine could be announced “as soon as the end of this week.”
Senior House Republicans are preparing to hold hearings on the problems at the southern border, which they say could serve as a prelude to an impeachment inquiry against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It’s exceedingly rare for a Cabinet secretary to be impeached as it has only happened once in US history in 1876. Meanwhile, House committees are forming and some of the awarded seats have drawn the ire of several Democrats. Embattled Rep. George Santos has been awarded seats on two low-level committees, though he is facing growing calls to resign for extensively lying about his resume. Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar also received their committee assignments for the new Congress, after being booted from their committees by Democrats and some Republicans for their incendiary remarks.
Military veterans can now receive free emergency mental health care, according to an announcement by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The new policy, which went into effect Tuesday, provides inpatient care for “veterans in suicidal crisis” for up to 30 days and outpatient care for up to 90 days at no cost. “This expansion of care will save Veterans’ lives, and there’s nothing more important than that,” VA Secretary for Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough said. The policy will also allow the VA to make “appropriate referrals” after a period of emergency suicide care, determine veterans’ eligibility for other services and benefits from the VA, and refer veterans who received emergency care to other VA programs and benefits.
Covid-19 has killed more than 1 million people in the US since the start of the pandemic, and life expectancy has been cut by nearly 2.5 years since 2020. While data from 2022 suggests that there were significantly fewer Covid-19 deaths in the third year of the pandemic than there were in the first two, experts say the virus will likely remain the third leading cause of death in the US in 2022 for the third year in a row, behind heart disease and cancer. CDC officials have said they are actively working to better develop and deploy rapid response measures to combat the spread of disease outbreaks. A new report, however, argues that the CDC is in “a moment of peril” and a significant reset is necessary to build a “strong, effective, and more accountable” agency.
Microsoft is set to announce thousands of job cuts today, according to multiple news reports, potentially becoming the latest tech company to shrink its workforce. Sources say the reported layoffs could affect roughly 5% of the company’s workforce and largely impact the company’s engineering divisions. Microsoft employs 221,000 people around the world, including 122,000 in the US. Multiple tech companies have made deep cuts to their workforces since the start of the year, as inflation weighs on consumer spending and rising interest rates squeeze funding. The demand for digital services during the pandemic has also waned as more people return to their offline lives.
Brian Walshe, charged with murdering his wife, is expected to appear in court today
Brian Walshe is expected to be arraigned in court today after being charged with murdering his wife Ana Walshe, a Massachusetts mother and corporate real estate manager. The case has captured widespread attention since she was reported missing by her employer at the start of the year. Brian Walshe told police he last saw his wife the morning of January 1 when she left for a work trip. However, searches have uncovered several pieces of potential evidence linking him to the alleged crime, law enforcement sources told CNN. The couple’s three children, all between the ages of 2 and 6, are now in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.
Documents show employer reported Ana Walshe missing, not her husband
Madonna’s star-studded tour announcement
Get ready for decades worth of Madonna’s hits and more shocking outfits, of course! The singer will stop in these cities for her upcoming global tour.
French nun Sister André, the world’s oldest known person, died on Tuesday in the southern city of Toulon, France, her spokesperson announced. She was 118. Born as Lucile Randon on February 11, 1904, Sister André dedicated most of her life to religious service and was the oldest nun to ever live, according to the Guinness World Records.
$20 million
That’s how much ousted Disney CEO Bob Chapek will receive in exit pay following a tumultuous two-year stint at the company, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. The hefty payout is in addition to the $24 million he made last year – his $2.5 million base salary plus millions in stock options and awards. Chapek was replaced by his predecessor, Bob Iger, who retired in 2020 and returned in 2022 to retake the reins.
“This type of radicalism is a threat to our nation.”
– Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, after a former Republican candidate for New Mexico’s legislature was arrested in connection with shootings at the homes of Democratic leaders. Solomon Peña, who lost a 2022 run for state House District 14, is accused of paying and conspiring with four men to shoot at the homes of two state legislators and two county commissioners, and trying to participate in at least one of the shootings himself, police said. He was arrested by a police SWAT team Monday.
Take a virtual browse through the Museum of Illusions in New York City. Your brain may be tricked by some of the interactive exhibits! (Click here to view)
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A new study provides a glimpse into dinosaur and bird diversity in Patagonia during the Late Cretaceous, just before the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.
Fossils researchers have discovered represent the first record of theropods—a dinosaur group that includes both modern birds and their closest non-avian dinosaur relatives—from the Chilean portion of Patagonia.
The finds include giant megaraptors with large sickle-like claws and birds from the group that also includes today’s modern species.
“The fauna of Patagonia leading up to the mass extinction was really diverse,” says lead author Sarah Davis, who completed the work as part of her doctoral studies with Julia Clarke, professor at the University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences geological sciences department. “You’ve got your large theropod carnivores and smaller carnivores as well as these bird groups coexisting alongside other reptiles and small mammals.”
Since 2017, members of the Clarke lab, including graduate and undergraduate students, have joined scientific collaborators from Chile in Patagonia to collect fossils and build a record of ancient life from the region. Over the years, researchers have found abundant plant and animal fossils from before the asteroid strike that killed off the dinosaurs.
The new study focuses specifically on theropods, with the fossils dating from 66 to 75 million years ago.
Non-avian theropod dinosaurs were mostly carnivorous, and include the top predators in the food chain. This study shows that in prehistoric Patagonia, these predators included dinosaurs from two groups—megaraptors and unenlagiines.
Reaching over 25 feet long, megaraptors were among the larger theropod dinosaurs in South America during the Late Cretaceous. The unenlagiines—a group with members that ranged from chicken-sized to over 10 feet tall—were probably covered with feathers, just like their close relative the velociraptor. The unenlagiinae fossils described in the study are the southernmost known instance of this dinosaur group.
The bird fossils were also from two groups—enantiornithines and ornithurines. Although now extinct, enantiornithines were the most diverse and abundant birds millions of years ago. These resembled sparrows—but with beaks lined with teeth. The group ornithurae includes all modern birds living today. The ones living in ancient Patagonia may have resembled a goose or duck, though the fossils are too fragmentary to tell for sure.
The researchers identified the theropods from small fossil fragments; the dinosaurs mostly from teeth and toes, the birds from small bone pieces. The enamel glinting on the dinosaur teeth helped with spotting them among the rocky terrain, Davis says.
Some researchers have suggested that the Southern Hemisphere faced less extreme or more gradual climatic changes than the Northern Hemisphere after the asteroid strike. This may have made Patagonia, and other places in the Southern Hemisphere, a refuge for birds and mammals and other life that survived the extinction.
Davis says that this study can aid in investigating this theory by building up a record of ancient life before and after the extinction event.
These past records are key to understanding life as it exists today, says coauthor Marcelo Leppe, the director of the Antarctic Institute of Chile.
“We still need to know how life made its way in that apocalyptic scenario and gave rise to our southern environments in South America, New Zealand, and Australia,” he says. “Here theropods are still present—no longer as dinosaurs as imposing as megaraptorids—but as the diverse array of birds found in the forests, swamps and marshes of Patagonia, and in Antarctica and Australia.”
Additional coauthors are from the University of Chile, Major University, the University of Concepción, and the Chilean National Museum of Natural History.
When I listen to voicemail messages, it feels more natural and convenient to play them on the speaker of my iPhone. Sometimes I am so caught up in the routine of catching up to calls that I don’t notice how people around me are able to hear every detail of sometimes sensitive voicemail messages intended for me and not snoops.
I’ve got the solution that helps me keep my private voicemail messages private. The trick is available to iPhone owners though many don’t know about. It allows you to skip listening to your inbox full of voicemails altogether.
If I don’t listen to my voicemail, how will I know what the message said?
This iPhone feature has been around for quite some time, yet many people still don’t even realize it exists. With the Visual Voicemail feature, every voicemail left in your inbox comes with audio transcription.
When a person leaves a voicemail for you, your iPhone will automatically transcribe the message they’ve left you so that you can still know what they said without having to spend time listening to the message.
You also will always know when you have a new voicemail, as the visual voicemail feature will show a blue dot next to any voicemail message that has yet to be opened.
How do I look at a voicemail transcription?
Open your Phone app
Tap on the Voicemail tab
Click on one of the messages left in your inbox
If your voicemail transcription feature is turned on, you should see a transcription of the message you selected
This is the iPhone’s voicemail transcription feature. (CyberGuy.com)
Something important is that your iPhone must have at least iOS10 or later and must be the model 6s and above to have this feature work.
Why are there spaces or incorrect words in my transcription?
Sometimes when reading a voicemail audio transcription, you will notice that were are a few words that don’t make sense or some blank spaces with no words at all.
This is because although the voicemail transcription feature does its best to transcribe the message exactly, it cannot guarantee 100% accuracy. If the person who left you the message has unclear speech, poor cellphone service, or speaks a language that your phone is not set to recognize, there may be a few incorrect or missing words in there.
I usually have no trouble piecing together the whole message even when some parts get misunderstood at times. You should too be able to get a general sense of the message without having to listen to the entire thing.
Is this a feature that you have found helpful? We’d love to hear from you.
For more of my tips, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by clicking the “Free newsletter” link at the top of my website.
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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.