In the news
Jeffrey Williams, 58, a NASA astronaut now in orbit as commander of the International Space Station, has set a U.S. record for total days spent in space, 521 days over four flights, surpassing the 520-day record set earlier this year by Scott Kelly.
Brandy Young, a second-grade teacher in Godley, Texas, notified parents that she won’t be assigning homework this year, saying research has yet to show homework improves student performance, and instead urged families to spend quality time together.
Tonya Couch of Fort Worth, whose teenage son used an “affluenza” defense after killing four people in a 2013 drunken-driving crash, has been released from home confinement as she awaits trial on charges that she helped him flee to Mexico to avoid a probation-violation count.
Scott Bardsley, spokesman for Canada’s public-safety minister, said Muslim women in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are being allowed to wear a specially designed headscarf while in uniform to reflect Canada’s diversity and to encourage more Muslim women to join the force.
Charles Rollins of Whitwell, Tenn., was working at a North Carolina construction site when he stopped at a New Bern convenience store and bought a $30 Ultimate Millions scratch ticket that turned out to be a $1 million winner.
John Maguire, an American Airlines co-pilot grounded before takeoff at a Detroit-area airport, said he hopes to fly again after pleading no contest to operating under the influence of alcohol, resulting in a sentence of 12 months of probation, community service and commitment to a treatment program.
Efren Andaluz, 29, an artist in Huntington, N.Y., has painted all 151 original Pokemon characters on a 25-foot high wall outside his Long Island studio, taking 10 days and 125 spray cans to finish the mural.
Amos Melo, a police lieutenant in New Bedford, Mass., said a thief who stole 15 bottles of laundry detergent worth about $250, but nothing else, can easily sell the detergent to buy drugs, observing, “Everybody can use laundry detergent.”
Dragan Maric, 61, and his wife, Dragica, 65, had about 200 people attend their pretend funeral in Pojezdina, Bosnia, that turned into an all-night party, with Dragan Maric saying the two “had to organize a proper funeral for ourselves before we die,” because they never had children.