House Democrats sank a Republican-backed constitutional amendment that would have permanently capped the Supreme Court at nine seats, a vote GOP leaders staged to force every lawmaker on the record weeks before the midterm elections. The measure failed 212-206 on Wednesday, far short of the two-thirds supermajority the House requires to advance a constitutional amendment. […] The post House Democrats vote down amendment to cap Supreme Court at nine justices appeared first on American Almanac .
House Democrats sank a Republican-backed constitutional amendment that would have permanently capped the Supreme Court at nine seats, a vote GOP leaders staged to force every lawmaker on the record weeks before the midterm elections. The measure failed 212-206 on Wednesday, far short of the two-thirds supermajority the House requires to advance a constitutional amendment. Every Democrat who voted opposed it. Speaker Mike Johnson had fast-tracked the resolution under a procedure known as "suspension of the rules," which limits debate but raises the passage threshold from a simple majority to two-thirds, a bar Republicans knew they could not clear without significant Democratic support. The result was never really in doubt. Republicans…Open
Antonella Barba, the former American Idol contestant who served nearly four years in federal prison for fentanyl trafficking, now faces shoplifting charges at a New Jersey Target store. Police responded to the Target at Seaview Square Shopping Center in Ocean Township, New Jersey, on August 10 after Barba, 39, allegedly concealed items in a bag […] The post Former American Idol finalist Antonella Barba arrested again, this time for shoplifting from Target appeared first on American Almanac .
Antonella Barba, the former American Idol contestant who served nearly four years in federal prison for fentanyl trafficking, now faces shoplifting charges at a New Jersey Target store. Police responded to the Target at Seaview Square Shopping Center in Ocean Township, New Jersey, on August 10 after Barba, 39, allegedly concealed items in a bag while moving between a fitting room and a restroom, then walked out of the store. Officers approached her outside and found stolen merchandise in the bag , according to the report. The items were valued at less than $200. Barba pleaded not guilty. She is scheduled to appear in Ocean Township Municipal Court on November 18. The charge itself, petty theft under $200, is minor on paper. But for a…Open
A Cedartown, Georgia, police officer tased and then fatally shot a young pet donkey named HeeHaw on a private farm during a nighttime search, and the animal's owner says the donkey was just doing what donkeys do. Officers from the Cedartown Police Department and Polk County Police Department entered Elsberry Riding and Farm in Rockmart, […] The post Georgia officer shoots and kills pet donkey during nighttime search on private farm appeared first on American Almanac .
A Cedartown, Georgia, police officer tased and then fatally shot a young pet donkey named HeeHaw on a private farm during a nighttime search, and the animal's owner says the donkey was just doing what donkeys do. Officers from the Cedartown Police Department and Polk County Police Department entered Elsberry Riding and Farm in Rockmart, Georgia, at roughly 12:45 a.m. Sunday while searching for a missing child. Within minutes, one Cedartown officer had tased and then shot the small donkey in its own pasture, killing it. The child was later found unharmed at a nearby church, nowhere near the farm where HeeHaw died. The City of Cedartown confirmed the shooting in a statement but offered few details. The officer has been placed on paid…Open
A safari Jeep carrying four Swiss tourists lost control and plunged nose-first into the crocodile-infested Mara River in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, and every passenger walked away unharmed. The vehicle was racing along rough terrain in the Kogatende area of the park on Sunday afternoon when the driver lost control. Eyewitnesses in a nearby safari […] The post Safari vehicle packed with tourists plunges into crocodile-filled river in Tanzania appeared first on American Almanac .
A safari Jeep carrying four Swiss tourists lost control and plunged nose-first into the crocodile-infested Mara River in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, and every passenger walked away unharmed. The vehicle was racing along rough terrain in the Kogatende area of the park on Sunday afternoon when the driver lost control. Eyewitnesses in a nearby safari vehicle watched the Jeep sway to one side before it careened off a cliff and dropped into the river below. Multiple tourists fell from the vehicle before it hit the water. All four Swiss nationals and the driver survived. Tanzania's national park authority confirmed no one was injured, though the incident raised immediate questions about reckless driving by safari operators during one…Open
A massive overnight rock fall has buried the entrance to one of Cornwall's most beloved landmarks, a sea cave featured in the BBC's Poldark series, and locals say the loss is permanent. Hundreds of tons of rock and debris crashed down onto Holywell Cave on Holywell Bay near Newquay, Cornwall, sometime during the night of […] The post Cornwall's famed Poldark cave sealed permanently after massive cliff collapse appeared first on American Almanac .
A massive overnight rock fall has buried the entrance to one of Cornwall's most beloved landmarks, a sea cave featured in the BBC's Poldark series, and locals say the loss is permanent. Hundreds of tons of rock and debris crashed down onto Holywell Cave on Holywell Bay near Newquay, Cornwall, sometime during the night of Sunday, August 30, sealing off a site that had drawn pilgrims, tourists, and film crews for centuries. No injuries were reported, but the Newquay Coastguard search and rescue team warned the surrounding cliff face remains unstable and urged the public to stay away. The collapse wiped out access to a cave also known as St Cuthbert's Cave, a low-tide destination famous for its vividly colored interior rock and a freshwater…Open
Freddie Mercury's former fiancée and lifelong confidante Mary Austin has published a 318-page book built around the Queen frontman's handwritten lyrics, manuscripts she discovered hidden inside a piano stool at the West London home he left her when he died of AIDS in 1991. Austin, who has rarely spoken publicly about Mercury in the thirty-five […] The post Mary Austin breaks decades of silence on Freddie Mercury in new book of handwritten lyrics appeared first on American Almanac .
Freddie Mercury's former fiancée and lifelong confidante Mary Austin has published a 318-page book built around the Queen frontman's handwritten lyrics, manuscripts she discovered hidden inside a piano stool at the West London home he left her when he died of AIDS in 1991. Austin, who has rarely spoken publicly about Mercury in the thirty-five years since his death, sat for an exclusive interview with USA TODAY from her home in London to discuss *A Life in Lyrics: The Official Creative Legacy of Freddie Mercury*, published by HarperCollins. The book pairs dozens of pages of Mercury's lyrics, written in small, cursive penmanship on British Midland airline notepads, with Austin's own contextualizing text, personal photos, and art…Open
A Republican congressional staffer survived a lightning strike just feet from his parked car on a Staten Island street, collapsing to the pavement before a neighbor rushed to help, and he was back home the next day. Thomas Fahmy, a staffer in Rep. Nicole Malliotakis's Staten Island office, was walking to a dentist appointment on […] The post GOP congressional staffer struck by lightning on Staten Island sidewalk — and walked away appeared first on American Almanac .
A Republican congressional staffer survived a lightning strike just feet from his parked car on a Staten Island street, collapsing to the pavement before a neighbor rushed to help, and he was back home the next day. Thomas Fahmy, a staffer in Rep. Nicole Malliotakis's Staten Island office, was walking to a dentist appointment on Todt Avenue during a thunderstorm when a bolt of lightning hit him. CCTV footage captured the moment: Fahmy, umbrella in hand, passed a white picket fence and dropped to the ground. He estimated he was roughly 15 to 20 feet from his car when the strike landed. Fahmy survived. He spent one night at Northwell Staten Island University Hospital for evaluation and walked out the following day with no burns and no…Open
Tom Cruise visited Daytona International Speedway ahead of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 and paused at an empty chair bearing Kyle Busch's name, a small, wordless gesture that spoke to the NASCAR community's lasting grief. Cruise, 64, attended the drivers' meeting at the iconic Florida track before Saturday's race. During the session, he spotted the […] The post Tom Cruise pays quiet tribute to the late Kyle Busch at Daytona drivers' meeting appeared first on American Almanac .
Tom Cruise visited Daytona International Speedway ahead of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 and paused at an empty chair bearing Kyle Busch's name, a small, wordless gesture that spoke to the NASCAR community's lasting grief. Cruise, 64, attended the drivers' meeting at the iconic Florida track before Saturday's race. During the session, he spotted the chair set aside for Busch, the two-time Cup Series champion who died on May 21 at age 41. Cruise looked down at the seat, then gently patted it with his hand. The Sun published photographs of the moment, and the images drew an immediate response from fans online. One fan wrote: "That's respect, thank you Tom Cruise." No grand speech. No press conference. Just a hand on an empty chair, and a…Open
Dolly Parton's family chose to shield the public from her cancer battle because the 80-year-old singer "never wanted to worry anybody", a decision her niece says left even close relatives in shock when the end came. Jada Star, Parton's niece and the daughter of Parton's sister Frieda, sat down with Extra in an interview published […] The post Dolly Parton's niece reveals why the country icon kept her cancer diagnosis secret appeared first on American Almanac .
Dolly Parton's family chose to shield the public from her cancer battle because the 80-year-old singer "never wanted to worry anybody", a decision her niece says left even close relatives in shock when the end came. Jada Star, Parton's niece and the daughter of Parton's sister Frieda, sat down with Extra in an interview published September 1 to describe the private grief behind one of the most public losses in American music. Parton died August 25 at a Nashville medical center, surrounded by loved ones, after what her representatives called a brief battle with cancer. The specific type of cancer has not been disclosed. The interview offered the first extended family account of why Parton, a woman who built a career on openness,…Open
Pennsylvania's largest school district partnered with a self-described "revolutionary" organization to run mandatory "liberation" workshops for students, led in part by a convicted felon with a record of antisemitic statements. The School District of Philadelphia hosted a series of symposia between 2025 and 2026 organized through a partnership between a 10th-grade history teacher and the […] The post Philadelphia schools brought a convicted felon and prison abolition group into classrooms for mandatory student workshops appeared first on American Almanac .
Pennsylvania's largest school district partnered with a self-described "revolutionary" organization to run mandatory "liberation" workshops for students, led in part by a convicted felon with a record of antisemitic statements. The School District of Philadelphia hosted a series of symposia between 2025 and 2026 organized through a partnership between a 10th-grade history teacher and the W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition and Reconstruction, an outfit that openly describes itself as a "political education program for aspiring revolutionaries." Among the facilitators who led sessions for children as young as seventh grade: Anthony Smith, who pleaded guilty to a felony for his role in torching a police car during the riots…Open