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Taylor Swift explains her hand injury
Insert either a "Shake It Off" or "Bad Blood" play on words for this this story. While performing during the recent Houston stop for her "Eras Tour," Taylor Swift cut her hand and bled.
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'Do something!' We Need an Emmett Till Moment
“Do something” was the plea from Dr. Jason Smith whose medical team treated eight injured in the first of two mass shootings in Louisville, Kentucky in one week. The surgeon’s remarks about an April 10 incident which also left five dead were directed at policy makers on the local, state and national levels.
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2 cheerleaders were shot in a Texas supermarket parking lot after one opened the door to the wrong vehicle. A suspect is under arrest
Two teenage cheerleaders were shot after one said she mistook the suspect's vehicle for her own in a supermarket parking lot near Texas' capital -- one of at least four incidents this week in which young people who'd made an apparent mistake were met with gunfire.
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SpaceX's Starship rocket lifts off for inaugural test flight, but explodes midair
Originally Published: 20 APR 23 09:45 ET Updated: 20 APR 23 10:51 ET By Jackie Wattles and Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) -- SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, took off from a launch pad on the coast of South Texas on Thursday at 9:28 a.m. ET, but exploded midair before stage separation. Thursday's launch marked the vehicle's historic first test flight. "As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation," SpaceX tweeted. The massive Super Heavy rocket booster, which houses 33 engines, lifted off and sent a massive boom across the coastal landscape as it fired to life. The Starship spacecraft, riding atop the booster, soared out over the Gulf of Mexico. About two and a half minutes after takeoff, the Super Heavy rocket booster was scheduled to expend most of its fuel and separate from the Starship spacecraft, leaving the booster to be discarded in the ocean. The Starship was meant to use its own engines, blazing for more than six minutes, to propel itself to nearly orbital speeds. The flight reached its highest point 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) above the ground and the explosion occurred about four minutes after liftoff, according to SpaceX. SpaceX said that "teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test." Defining success for Starship Although it ended in an explosion, Thursday's test met several of the company's objectives for the vehicle. Clearing the launch pad was a major milestone for Starship. In the lead-up to Thursday's liftoff, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sought to temper expectations, saying, "success is not what should be expected...That would be insane." "With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary," SpaceX tweeted after the explosion. Musk congratulated the team on "an exciting test launch" in a post-launch tweet and said they "learned a lot for next test launch in a few months." SpaceX will need a new launch license from the FAA to make another attempt, but the company does not expect the process to be as laborious as securing the license for Thursday's launch. NASA administrator Bill Nelson took to Twitter to share his congratulations on the flight test. "Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward. Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test —and beyond." The test flight comes after years of explosive tests, regulatory hurdles and public hyping from Musk. The company has been known to embrace fiery mishaps during the rocket development process. SpaceX maintains that such accidents are the quickest and most efficient way of gathering data, an approach that sets the company apart from its close partner NASA, which prefers slow, methodical testing over dramatic flare-ups. Musk has talked about Starship — making elaborate presentations about its design and purpose — for years, and he frequently harps on its potential for carrying cargo and humans to Mars, though NASA also plans to use the vehicle to put its astronauts on the moon. He's even said that his sole purpose for founding SpaceX was to develop a vehicle like Starship that could establish a human settlement on the Red Planet. Throngs of spectators lined local beaches to catch a glimpse of Starship's takeoff, pouring onto beaches with fold-out chairs, children and dogs in tow. It echoed the turnout on Monday, at the company's first launch attempt, which was ultimately left grounded as engineers worked to troubleshoot an issue with a valve on the Super heavy booster. In the area surrounding Starbase — SpaceX's name for the Starship development site that lies on Texas' southernmost tip — many locals have greeted the rocket with fervid enthusiasm. Throughout the area, there are signs of Starship permeating the local culture: a model Starship in a front yard, a "Rocket Ranch" camping ground filled with diehard enthusiasts, and a billboard advertising Martian beer. What to know about this rocket Development of Starship has been based at SpaceX's privately held spaceport about 40 minutes outside Brownsville, Texas, on the US-Mexico border. Testing began years ago with brief "hop tests" of early spacecraft prototypes. The company started with brief flights that lifted a few dozen feet off the ground before evolving to high-altitude flights, most of which resulted in dramatic explosions as the company attempted to land the prototypes upright. One suborbital flight test in May 2021, however, ended in success. Since then, SpaceX has also been working to get its Super Heavy booster prepared for flight. The gargantuan, 230-foot-tall (69-meter-tall) cylinder is packed with 33 of the company's Raptor engines. Fully stacked, Starship and Super Heavy stand about 400 feet (120 meters) tall.
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Biden's trip to Ireland is part homecoming, part diplomacy and part politics
When President Joe Biden was isolating with Covid in the White House last summer, atop the stack of books on his desk was a 320-page paperback: "JFK in Ireland."
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Gwyneth Paltrow accuser testifies in ski trial: 'I've never been hit that hard'
The Utah civil trial involving actress Gwyneth Paltrow and a man who is accusing her of wrongdoing in relation to a 2016 ski collision resumed Monday for its second week of proceedings.
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NASA and Axiom unveil spacesuits astronauts will wear on the moon
NASA and Texas-based company Axiom Space have revealed a new spacesuit design — and it could be these very suits that are eventually worn by the first woman and person of color to walk on the moon.
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Former UGA football star Jalen Carter sentenced to probation in crash that killed teammate and team staffer, his attorney says
Former University of Georgia football standout Jalen Carter was sentenced to probation on Thursday for his role in the January crash that killed his teammate and a team staffer, his attorney told CNN.
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A Historic Vote and the Tools It Gave Us
Vice President Kamala Harris is sure to be remembered every March in Women’s History Month as the first woman and the first person of color to serve our nation in that position. As notable as those two facts are, she may grow to be known just as much for a single vote in the Senate that helped save the planet.
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All adults should be screened for hepatitis B at least once, CDC says
A new recommendation from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says all adults should be screened at least once in their lifetime for hepatitis B, an illness that's linked to liver disease and cancer.
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Selma's Mirror
The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, is famed as the site of Bloody Sunday, the violent 1965 police riot that sparked a national outrage powerful enough to drive the Voting Rights Act through the Congress. This past weekend, my son Jonathan and I joined with President Biden, political leaders, ministers and veterans of that march to commemorate that terrible day.
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Elizabeth Holmes gave birth to her second child and wants to delay her prison sentence
Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos convicted of defrauding investors, is seeking to delay the start of her 11-year prison sentence because she has "two very young children" to be with.
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Michigan AG says she was among those targeted in threat to kill Jewish members of state government
A Michigan man allegedly threatened on social media to kill Jewish members of the Michigan government, the FBI said, and state Attorney General Dana Nessel says she was among those targeted.
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UGA star Jalen Carter responds after police say he was racing another car that crashed. The other driver and a teammate were killed
University of Georgia star defensive lineman Jalen Carter -- projected as a top pick in the NFL draft next month -- faces charges of reckless driving and racing in connection with a crash that killed teammate Devin Willock and team employee Chandler LeCroy, Athens-Clarke County police said.
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Physician reassures sufferers of chronic COVID symptoms that relief is possible
Your system may just need a reboot. Here are some things to try.
Loss or distorted sense of taste and/or smell. Brain fog. Tinnitus. Fatigue. Digestive issues. For millions of COVID survivors, some of the most life-disrupting symptoms didn’t go away after they tested negative. Worse, many are told by their doctors that they’ll never fully recover. However, physician Robert Groysman, MD reassures these COVID long-haulers (AKA long COVID) there are treatments available that are effective 70 to 80 percent of the time, or more.
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Only 5.7% of US doctors are Black, and experts warn the shortage harms public health
When being truly honest with herself, Seun Adebagbo says, she can describe what drove her to go to medical school in a single word: self-preservation.
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What to know about J.K. Rowling's new podcast and history of anti-trans comments
For years, J.K. Rowling, one of the best-selling authors of all time, has made inflammatory comments about transgender people, particularly trans women, using dehumanizing language and baselessly accusing them of harming cisgender women. Her words have disappointed legions of "Harry Potter" fans and even the stars who brought Rowling's books to life.
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Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.® TCAC District Convention
Over the weekend Houston played host to the men of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.® …
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California's heavy rains deliver hope of a lifeline for one devastated industry -- rice
The fierce storms and heavy rain that have pounded California in recent weeks could be the lifeline that one industry -- and the communities that rely on it for their own survival -- desperately needs.
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Wife receives liver transplant from husband ahead of Valentine's Day
A married couple on Long Island will soon have a Valentine's Day that they will forever cherish, after the husband donated part of his liver to his wife, saving her life.
