Apple has agreed to pay Italy 318 million euros (about $350 million) in taxes for several past years, prosecutors said last week, part of a broader European effort to make multinationals pay what they owe in each country where they do business. Italy has already brought several cases against global… Read More
End of an era? NYC to ditch thousands of payphones
Operator, won’t you help me replace this call? A 9-foot-tall, narrow structure installed this past week on a Manhattan sidewalk is signaling a plan to turn payphones into what’s billed as the world’s biggest and fastest municipal Wi-Fi network. The first of at least 7,500 planned hot spots are due… Read More
Trump to environmentalists: You’re messing up my hair!
Donald Trump has a personal beef with one of the efforts aimed at protecting the environment — it’s messing with his hair. Trump told supporters in South Carolina last week that he’s not impressed by replacements for old aerosol hairsprays that contained ozone-eating chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. “You can’t… Read More
Bare-knuckle brawl breaks out at anti-violence rally
An anti-violence demonstration in Newark, New Jersey, devolved into a physical altercation between two activists. NJ.com reports the small crowd began arguing on the steps of Newark City Hall last week about the city’s attempts to curb violence. The demonstration was organized by two anti-violence groups. They say they wanted to… Read More
Tropical vacation lands cop in hot water
A vacation in Hawaii not only cost a former Connecticut police officer his job, but also led to criminal charges being brought against him. The Stamford Advocate reports Donald Chen was granted two weeks off from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15 by the Stamford police department so he could report for… Read More
San Francisco throws birthday party… for a rhino!
The San Francisco Zoo this weekend celebrated the 45th birthday of the oldest black rhinoceros in North America with a special cake of rolled oats and molasses. The exact date of Elly’s birth isn’t known, as she was born in the wild. But she has lived at the zoo since April… Read More
Mike Tyson knocked out… by a hoverboard?
Looks like former heavyweight boxing champion, ear biter and convicted felon Mike Tyson got a new hoverboard for Christmas. Tyson ignored his daughter’s warning that the hoverboard was dangerous and hopped on — and it delivered him a knockout that would have had Evander Holyfield smiling from ear to deformed ear…. Read More
Utah woman survives 320-foot fall off a cliff
Sarah Crenshaw was edging along a familiar mountain road in Utah when her SUV hit a patch of black ice and slid over a precipice. “I started praying, ‘Don’t let me die on Christmas,’” she later told the Standard-Examiner. Crenshaw, 48, survived the 320-foot tumble into a ravine on the… Read More
Whoops! Health insurer calls thousands of seniors at 3 a.m.
A Massachusetts health insurer is apologizing after sending automated phone calls to as many as 10,000 senior citizens in the wee hours of the morning. Tufts Health Plan accidentally sent the robocall between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Tuesday to remind patients to get their flu shots. A spokeswoman for… Read More
All-time football great dies at 85
Doug Atkins, a defensive lineman who earned induction into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame, has died. He was 85. Robert Shelton, a co-owner of Shelton-Hunt Funeral Home in Humboldt, Tennessee, said that Atkins died Wednesday morning of natural causes at Fort Sanders… Read More