Gunman kills self and hostage in Texas NASA building
Friday, April 20, 2007 Around 1:40 p.m. CDT, NASA employees reported that two shots were fired in the NASA Building 44 in the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. A SWAT team later reported that Bill Phillips, a contract engineer with Jacobs Engineering, had killed David Beverly as well as himself, leaving a female hostage physically unharmed. Phillips entered a conference room with gun drawn and ordered all but one person out. Phillips barricaded himself on the second floor of the two-story building, with David Beverly and another female hostage. The building was evacuated and police were summoned. NASA security, Houston police and a SWAT team were on the scene. Houston news reported at 5:22 p.m. CDT that Bill Phillips, the gunman, and David Beverly, the hostage, were both dead. Police reported that the SWAT team heard one shot and decided to engage, but before they reached the room they…
Fur fans flock to Toronto’s Furnal Equinox 2019
Monday, March 25, 2019 From March 15 to 17, the Canadian city of Toronto played host to the tenth Furnal Equinox, an annual event dedicated to the “furry fandom.” Wikinews attended. Programming ranged from music to gender, science to art, covering dozens of aspects of the varied subculture. The event’s featured guests were visual artists Moth Monarch and Cat-Monk Shiro, as well as the co-owners of US fursuit costume builders Don’t Hug Cacti. The event raised nearly CDN$11,000 for Pet Patrol, a non-profit rescue organization in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, run by volunteers. This exceeded their goal of $10,000, the funds needed to finish a rural sanctuary. The furry community is well-known for their charitable efforts. Along with direct donations, the funds were raised through a charity auction offering original artwork, and a fursuit design by guests of honour “Don’t Hug Cacti.” Last year, Furnal Equinox raised funds for a farm animal…
Canadian annual seal hunt begins amid controversy
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 The Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, opened the Canadian seal hunt amid protests by animal rights groups, at a time when bans on seal product imports are becoming more prevalent internationally. Seal hunters along the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence are allowed to catch a maximum of 270,000 Harp Seal pups from a total estimated population of 5.5 million. 8,200 is the allowable catch of Hooded seals from an estimated population of 600,000, and seal hunters may catch 50,000 grey seals from an approximate population of 300,000. The Harp seal pups may be killed as soon as they have molted their white pelts, which occurs 10 to 21 days after birth. It is reported that Russia has shut down the seal hunt on its shores. The United States, Netherlands, and Belgium ban the import of seal products.…
City to sue owner of partially collapsed 19th century livery in Buffalo, New York
Tuesday, June 24, 2008 Buffalo, New York —Two weeks after a 19th century stable and livery on Jersey Street partially collapsed and caused 15 homes to be evacuated in Buffalo, New York, residents still do not have answers from the city despite a court order to work with them and come to an agreement on a way to save some or all of the building, Wikinews has learned. Despite the frustration from residents, the city is planning on suing the building’s owner. A rally was held at the stable’s site where residents are hoping to bring more awareness to the situation and gain more support to save the building. On June 11, a significant portion of the stable’s right side wall collapsed into the yard of a resident’s home. Authorities, including the Buffalo Fire Department were called to the scene to evaluate the collapse and evacuate 15 homes of residents…
Atlanta Thrashers sold to True North Sports and Entertainment, moving to Winnipeg
Thursday, June 2, 2011 Fifteen years after the Winnipeg Jets left the province of Manitoba, Canada, an announcement on Tuesday made official what ice hockey fans have been anticipating: The National Hockey League’s (NHL) Atlanta Thrashers are moving to Winnipeg. The Thrashers, who have been a target for relocation rumors amid the ownership struggles and financial losses, will leave Atlanta after eleven seasons there in the highest-level professional ice hockey league in North America. The deal, which was finalized early in the morning Tuesday, has just one step to climb: a vote by the NHL’s Board of Governors, which will take up the matter at their June 21 meeting. Atlanta Spirit Group, LLC. (ASG), who owned the Thrashers—and continues to own both the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association, as well as Philips Arena, the arena both teams occupied—completed the sale to Winnipeg investor group True North Sports &…
Former ‘Top Model’ contestant Whitney Cunningham defends plus size models, celebrates the “regular woman”
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Once you get a chance to talk to West Palm Beach, Florida native Whitney Cunningham, who placed seventh on the eighth cycle of the popular reality TV series America’s Next Top Model, you begin to understand what host Tyra Banks meant when she described her as the “full package.” First of all, she is confident and headstrong, which is a must on these kinds of shows, almost as much as it is to take a beautiful modelesque picture. Second, she turns that confidence into drive. She has been receiving steady work as a model since leaving the show, and still believes that her goal of being the first woman to wear a size ten dress on the cover of Vogue is in reach. Third, and probably most important to television viewers, she obliterates the age-old model stereotype that to be pretty and photograph well, one must…
Victoria Wyndham on Another World and another life
Thursday, December 13, 2007 Victoria Wyndham was one of the most seasoned and accomplished actresses in daytime soap opera television. She played Rachel Cory, the maven of Another World‘s fictional town, Bay City, from 1972 to 1999 when the show went off the air. Wyndham talks about how she was seen as the anchor of a show, and the political infighting to keep it on the air as NBC wanted to wrest control of the long-running soap from Procter & Gamble. Wyndham fought to keep it on the air, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable. She discusses life on the soap opera, and the seven years she spent wandering “in the woods” of Los Angeles seeking direction, now divorced from a character who had come to define her professional career. Happy, healthy and with a family she is proud of, Wyndham has found life after the death of Another World…
Ross on Wye Friends win gold for garden
This page is no longer current and/or valid. It is kept for historical record or interest. Do not assume content on this page is still technically correct.If the information contained within this page becomes timely again, please remove this tag. Friday, July 22, 2005 The weather forecast on Wednesday 27th July was poor which was unfortunate for Ross-on-Wye citizens, many of whom were dressed in historical costumes to greet the judges for the Heart of England in Bloom visit. Friends faithfully turned up – women in their Quaker grey and white bonnets, and the Meeting House and burial ground were a hive of activity throughout the day. We welcomed Nelson and his lady, the Town Crier and John Kyrle, a well-known local benefactor from the 16th century as well as representatives from the Elizabethan, Victorian and Edwardian times right up to the world war two era. After some initial hesitation,…
Wikinews Shorts: April 6, 2007
A compilation of brief news reports for Friday, April 6, 2007. In Ramadi, Iraq, a truck loaded with explosives and chlorine gas exploded when an apparent suicide bomber drove the truck toward a checkpoint. The police opended fire and the truck veered toward a residential complex where it detonated. At least 20 people were killed and scores more injured. It is the sixth chlorine bomb in the Anbar region in the last two months. Sources Kirk Semple and Jon Elsen. “Chlorine Attack in Iraq Kills 20” — New York Times, April 6, 2007 Bassem Mroue. “Chlorine Truck Bomber Kills 27 in Ramadi” — Guardian Unlimited, April 6, 2007 Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged in a press conference that the Afghan government has been in talks with Taliban militants about a peaceful reconciliation for the war-striken country. Karzai also ruled out any further deals with the Taliban to free Afghans or foreigners kidnapped by…
Fiery collision between prison van and truck kills seven in Alabama, US
Saturday, October 4, 2008 Six applicants to join the Alabama Department of Corrections and their driver have been killed after the prison van they were traveling in collided with an 18-wheeled truck. Both vehicles burned at the scene. Andrew David Carter, who was driving the Lewis Trucking Company truck with a cargo of treated lumber, escaped the wreck without serious injury. He was briefly hospitalised and released. The deceased have been identified as driver Rodney Kelley, and applicants Julius Erving Douier, Lionel Michael Moore, John Henry Foye Jr., Brandon Jamaal Anglin, Henry Louis Simmons, and Derrick Lamar Ivey. The oldest victim was 45 and the youngest nearly 19. The wreck occurred on Alabama’s Route 82 near Bullock County, having left Bullock Correctional Facility to travel to Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore County for mental and physical fitness tests on the passengers before employment with the state. The road was closed…