Since the Great Recession struck several years ago, nearly a quarter of Americans have been laid off themselves, and another 50% of Americans have seen a friend or family member lose their job. Each week, we bring you true stories of unemployment, straight from the unemployed. This is what's happening out there.
Three people, including the gunman, are dead following a shootout at a Delaware courthouse Monday morning. It happened just after 8:00 a.m., when a man walked into the New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington and opened fire. Police have not identified the shooter or his victims, both women, though WCAU is reporting the man's name was David T. Matusiewicz.
Florida has a reputation for being the black sheep of the country, but it's really undeserved.
After flirting with Twitter last year, it seems that Madonna has decided to give herself over to Instagram. On Saturday, she posted an image of herself peering over a martini glass with the caption "Cheers motherfuckers! I'm on instagram." She looks severe and soul-hungry, like Mr. Burns in a blonde wig with bangs.
Major Garrett, CBS News' chief White House correspondent, sure is mad at someone! This tweet flickered briefly across our screens this morning before Garrett noticed and deleted it; it was likely intended as a DM for some unfortunate soul—another reporter? A source? National Journal's Jim O'Sullivan, who tweeted this directly before Garrett flew off the handle:
The fallout from the low-budget Innocence of Muslims YouTube video continues, incredibly. Egyptian judge Hassouna Tawfiq has just ordered that YouTube be blocked for 30 days in Egypt over the video, which was directed by a softcore porn director and portrayed Muhammed as a murderous child molester. The Egyptian courts sentenced seven people to death over the film last year, including filmmaker Mark Basseley Youssef. It's fair to say this Innocence of Muslims is now the most disastrous viral video in all of history, surpassing even "Friday."
Functional adult Taylor Swift took a few seconds out of her nationally televised Grammy performance to embarrass the teenager she recently stopped dating.
Don't say Honey Boo Boo never did anything for anyone. Last night's Here Comes Honey Boo Boo Christmas special devoted a lot of its time to the family's charity work, chiefly collecting a massive amount of toys for Wilco Luvs Kids, a local organization that helps distribute Christmas toys to needy families. Mama June's explanation of her own time of need was moving, as was her haul. I have only found these people endearing, but I imagine that it's getting harder and harder to hate them. They're good people. They treat each other kindly and they do nice things for strangers.
It's been too many months since Zach Galifianakis last took a seat between two ferns and proceeded to make famous people feel extremely uncomfortable, but the man-child comedian has still got it.
The Navy SEAL who killed Osama Bin Laden in the 2011 nighttime raid on the Al Qaeda leader's compound in Abbottabad has finally broken his silence. In an Esquire article published today, the Center for Investigative Reporting's Phil Bronstein writes about the guy—who's remaining anonymous—and his attempts to form a post-Osama life. The upshot: with no assistance from the Navy or the government, he's been left with no insurance, no job, and no security. But he's got a lot of good stories.
More than two decades of The War on Drugs has proven definitively that locking people in jail is a terrible way to solve the drug problem. It has given us the world's highest incarceration rate—an incarceration problem that is worse than the problems that the mass incarceration was supposed to solve. Now, perhaps, the pendulum has begun to swing back towards sanity.
Students, parents, and at least one teacher at Sullivan High School in Sullivan, Indiana, have come together in support for a "traditional prom" that prohibits gays from attending.
Well-meaning but inept New York Times columnist Frank Bruni is living proof that being a newspaper columnist is harder than it looks. As a normal newspaper writer and food critic, he seemed like a smart, erudite guy; as a columnist, he has proven to be remarkably free of insight or interesting ideas of any sort. Say, did you catch Frank Bruni's column Sunday entitle "The Land of the Binge?" If not, allow us to sum it up for you.
If we learned anything from the Grammys last night it was that Taylor Swift had the best time and Jay-Z didn't really give a shit. But not everyone could identify with one of those two extremes. In fact, one might say emotional investment at the Grammys existed on more of a spectrum. So in between your Taylors Swifts and your Jay-Zs you had your gum-chewing Adeles and your eye-rolling Lena Dunhams. But in the words of LL Cool J, "hashtag the Grammys hashtag equals hashtag music" and music brings people together. So despite the very different levels of enjoyment, at least everyone kind-of-sort-of danced to Bruno Mars last night.
Pope Benedict XVI announced on Monday that he will resign the Papacy, effective February 28th, citing his declining health. "I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me," Benedict wrote in a statement. He is the first pope since 1415 to resign, and the office wil remain vacant until a successor is chosen by the traditional conclave of cardinals.
There are only two true approaches to being in the audience at a major televised awards show, forever in conflict: full, 100-percent commitment to having the time of your life, and full, 100-percent commitment to not giving a shit. On Sunday night at the Grammys, Taylor Swift took the first path, and Jay-Z took the second, and those of us watching at home were far better for it.
