Erin H

I can practically hear you groan -- more Pluto photos? Well, these are kind of special: they're the sharpest pictures the New Horizons probe took during its closest flyby in July, and NASA believes these may be the best snapshots of the dwarf planet...

• Chicago police are investigating a video that apparently shows a toddler smoking marijuana.
  
  In the recording, a young child sitting in a chair seems to be smoking a blunt — a marijuana wrapped in a cigar — while a man’s voice off-camera encourages the toddler to inhale the smoke and pass the blunt.
  
  Anti-violence activist Andrew Holmes said a nervous-looking woman approached him on a sidewalk in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side on Wednesday night and said she needed to show him something.

RadioShack filed for bankruptcy a while back but, thanks to the deep pockets of the folks over at Standard General, a few stores will remain open. The retailer is trying to rebrand itself and its latest move is appointing TV personality Nick Cannon a...

Fans of Kesha have launched a petition in response to her legal clash with Sony, which is preventing the pop star from releasing new music during her lawsuit against Dr. Luke. A protest is also being planned for January at her trial in New York.

Read more...

While birth announcements are common on Facebook, founder Mark Zuckerberg's post is a little different than most of the new parent pics in your newsfeed. That's because along with welcoming daughter Maxima to the family, he and his wife Priscilla Cha...

One might argue that Thanksgiving—a notorious day of gluttony—would not be the ideal time for Weight Watchers to initiate an application upgrade. But upgrade they did, and as a result, the app has been almost impossible to use ever since.

Read more...

The families and girlfriends of two Australian surfers feared dead after their burned-out van was found in Mexico have traveled to the country in an attempt to "get some answers."

It might not be mission-critical equipment for your home, but a good label maker is a nice gadget to keep around, and Amazon’s top seller is only $10 for Black Friday. At that price, why not? [Brother Compact Label Maker, $10]

Read more...

Y’know. Just robbing a Dairy Queen with a sword. As one does.

Read more...

The Abbey Pub is canceling its main stage concerts this weekend after a fire broke out in the Irving Park venue early Tuesday morning. [ more › ]

Everyone's favorite bowtie-wearing cook, Christopher Kimball, is leaving America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated, reports the Boston Globe, due to a contract dispute.

READ MORE »

A 19-year-old Uptown woman, Mubashra Uddin, has been charged with first-degree murder for dropping her newborn daughter from an eighth-story window, police say. [ more › ]

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, one of the attackers who detonated a suicide bomb outside of the Stade de France during last night’s France-Germany friendly had a ticket to the match and attempted to enter the stadium, when stadium security discovered his bomb vest. From the report:

Read more...

Because having “EATCAKE” as your license plate on your BMW SUV would be too on the nose.

Also, I need to clean my car windows.

Delta’s In2ition line recently took home the title of your favorite shower head , and the entire line is on sale today in Amazon’s Gold Box.

Read more...

Marie Wilcox, an octogenarian Native American woman from the San Joaquin Valley in California, was born on Thanksgiving in 1933; she grew up in a one-room house with the grandmother who delivered her and spoke her native Wukchumni, and I believe this video will assure you—Marie is better than you or I will ever be.

Read more...

Welcome back to Behind Closed Ovens, where we take a look at the best and strangest stories from inside the food industry. As a special Weekend BCO, we’ve got stories of celebrities in restaurants—the good, the bad, and the Colonel Sanders. As always, these are real e-mails from real readers.

Read more...

Darren L. Paden is a father, as well as a former volunteer fire chief and deployed member of the military. He’s also a confessed child molester who sexually assaulted a girl for over six years, raping her between 200-300 times starting when she was a toddler. But even though he’s admitted to his crimes, not all the people who reside in the small town of Dearborn, Missouri are condemning him; many are speaking out against his victim because she’s ruining a good man’s life.

Read more...

Another one bites the dust as the neighborhood continues to push out the businesses that helped make it popular. [ more › ]

Patrick Kane's accuser told authorities that "the high-profile investigation has caused tremendous stress for her and her family, and that she no longer wishes to participate." [ more › ]

A soldier, apparently wearing a suicide bomber costume for Halloween, spurred an emergency response at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Friday night.

This August, Harris Faulkner (the woman) sued Hasbro for $5 million because she and her lawyers thought Harris Faulkner (a toy hamster) had used her name and likeness without permission. Monday, Hasbro filed back and was like, “Excuse me, Harris Faulkner (the woman), you’re being absolutely ridiculous and we have no time for any of this.”

Read more...

Does the real estate adage location, location, location apply to Wrigleyville? [ more › ]

Roman Atwood is a popular YouTube personality famous for pulling pranks. His girlfriend, a repeated victim of Atwood’s hoaxes, was tricked again when he pretended their three-year-old son was killed in a fiery explosion. Is it really necessary?

Read more...

13-year-old Carrie Ann Jopek died in 1982. For over 30 years, her murder has remained unsolved, although the Wisconsin police did have suspicions that 17-year-old Jose Ferreira had killed her. Now, Ferreira has finally confessed, but not by going to the police: he called a local TV station to let them know that he’d pushed Jopek to her death.

Read more...

All mere mortals who can withstand the electricity of Lupita Nyong’o’s fleshly presence should make their way to Broadway when her production of Eclipsed hits the stage in February.

Read more...

It's looking too late to limit the spread of the deadly emerald ash borer beetle in Illinois. [ more › ]

Chrissy Teigen shared a perfectly mundane photo of her “baby bump.” Though “baby bump” is a phrase that I deeply despise, it’s really the best way to describe the genre of photo Teigen shared—the mirror-reflected selfie meant to document the shifting contours of a pregnant woman’s body. It’s the kind of photograph that we’re all familiar with and, unsurprisingly, Teigen looks great.

Read more...