North Dakota’s smallest incorporated city was on the verge of dissolving after the death of its longtime mayor. But now it’s rebounding, with expectations to double its population — from two residents to four. The McLean County community of Ruso was on the verge of disincorporation when its population dropped… Read More

The late Aretha Franklin’s family said Monday that it found an Atlanta pastor’s eulogy delivered at the Queen of Soul’s funeral last week to be offensive and distasteful. The eulogist, the Rev. Jasper Williams Jr., was criticized for a political address that described children being in a home without a… Read More

Shirley Paley’s life before Hurricane Harvey was already a struggle: The 61-year-old former postal worker was raising her 17-year-old autistic grandson while dealing with a workplace injury that left her legally blind, on disability and in need of three cornea transplants. Harvey’s torrential rainfall flooded Paley’s modest home near Kashmere… Read More

A lost Mick Jagger duet with Carly Simon has been found more than 45 years after it was first recorded. The song, apparently never heard in public, appears to have been recorded in 1972 and was found recently on a tape owned by Rolling Stones collector Matt Lee. Believed to… Read More

Ask 12-time Emmy Award winner Carl Reiner how it feels to be nominated again, and he fires back a wisecrack. “I’m impressed with myself,” says the droll, 96-year-old creator (or “96 and a half,” per his exacting count) of the TV classic “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Is he excited… Read More

Scientists say they’ve found the remains of a prehistoric female whose mother was a Neanderthal and whose father belonged to another extinct group of human relatives known as Denisovans. The 90,000-year-old bone fragment found in southern Siberia marks the first time a direct offspring of these two groups has been… Read More

George Clooney can raise a glass, even if he’s not starring in any hit movies. The 57-year-old tops the 2018 Forbes’ list of highest-paid actors with $239 million in pretax earnings. Forbes credits up to $1 billion that a British conglomerate said it would pay for Casamigos Tequila, which Clooney… Read More

Fireflies flash not just for sex, but survival, a new study suggests. Scientists wanted to find out if there’s more to the lightning bug’s signature blinking glow than finding a mate. Some experts had speculated it was a glaring signal to predators, like bats, that fireflies taste bad. To test… Read More

A version of Alexa won’t tell kids where babies come from or spill the beans about Santa. It also won’t explain some things kids might have heard on the news — like what Stormy Daniels does for a living. Amazon updated its voice assistant with a feature that can make… Read More