News

Since the start of 2025, over 27 million egg-laying hens — 9 percent of the entire national flock — have died from the bird flu or have been (horrifically) killed to slow the spread. It’s led to egg shortages and price spikes, with a carton of a dozen eggs today costing double what it did in early 2022, when this latest bird flu outbreak began. But each year, whether there’s a bird flu outbreak or not, far more chickens are brutally killed. The egg industry hatches around 650 million birds annually, but because half of them — the males — can’t lay eggs, egg companies kill them the day they’re born. They’re typically shredded alive or gassed with carbon dioxide! But here’s the good news: Technology to end this grisly practice is finally coming to the US. Known as “in-ovo sexing” (“in-o...

The crafts retailer is closing all 800 of its stores and laying off 19,000 employees. The news comes after the retailer’s restructuring plans failed and a liquidator opted to purchase its assets. Joann is far from the only retailer in its death throes. Recent data shows that the number of retail-store closures is expected to double during 2025, to roughly 15,000 from the 7,300 or so in 2024, including companies such as Red Lobster, Big Lots, and Party City, which have each announced plans to either completely close up shop or enact big restructuring in recent months. And a commonality between many of them? Private equity firms are playing a large role. Critics say that private equity, often simply referred to as PE, tends to come in and strip a company for parts and eventually kill it...

“Anchoring “NBC Nightly News” is a profound honor and one that carries tremendous responsibility,” Llamas said in a news release. “I look forward to working with the world class journalists at ‘Nightly News’ and ’Top Story′ to bring viewers the most important stories every night.” Llamas called Holt, who is stepping down to go full time at NBC’s “Dateline,” a “great man” and “one of the most trusted broadcasters.” Llamas said he will be “devoted” to viewers and “dedicated to the truth,” “just like” Holt. Llamas began his career with NBC News 25 years ago. He rejoined NBC News in 2021 as a senior national correspondent. He is a regular fill-in anchor on “NBC Nightly News” and a reporter on “Today.” Previously, he worked as ABC’s chief national affairs correspondent and anchored the wee...

Authorities found actor Gene Hackman dead alongside his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa, and their dog at their New Mexico home. Deputies found the 95-year-old actor and Arakawa deceased on Wednesday, February 26 at around 1:45 p.m. Gene Hackman may not have realized his wife, Betsy Arakawa Hackman, was dead during his final weeks due to his advanced Alzheimer’s, according to forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden.  The legendary actor died due to hypertensive atherosclerosis cardiovascular disease, with Alzheimer's disease as a significant contributing factor, New Mexico officials confirmed Friday. Hackman likely survived alone in the home for about a week.

ChatGPT brought artificial intelligence into the mainstream. It's one of the fastest-growing apps of all time, and has led the way for millions of other AI products to emerge. AI has fundamentally changed the way we search online, with Google's lucrative top front page real estate now dedicated to the AI Overview -- and people are even using ChatGPT to answer their queries instead of Google. AI chatbots like ChatGPT will continue to transform how we consume, create and communicate online. While AI innovation is progressing quickly, it's important to understand the fundamentals of how ChatGPT works to navigate the ecosystem of tools. With that in mind, here's your ChatGPT 101 class. 

Millions of retired teachers, firefighters, police officers and others with public pensions will be reaping the benefits of the recently passed Social Security Fairness Act sooner than first projected, federal officials announced. The Social Security Administration (SSA) said it was immediately beginning to pay retroactive benefits and will increase monthly payments starting in April to the more than 3.2 million people affected by a law signed in January by former President Biden, who said it would mean an average monthly increase of $360 for more than 2.5 million Social Security recipients. Decades in the making, the Social Security Fairness Act expanded benefits for millions by eliminating two federal policies that barred employees with a public pension from collecting their full be...

Flack was one of the top music stars of the '70s, with three No. 1 singles in the span of two years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love." In 1969, she released her debut album, First Take, but it wasn't until 1972, after Clint Eastwood plucked "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" from the LP for his film Play Misty for Me, that her career took off. Flack released her version in January 1973 where it stayed in the No. 1 position for five weeks. Flack continued to gain fame throughout the '70s with her hit No. 1 singles "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love." She was the first, and remains the only, solo artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year for two consecutive years.

Daylight saving time will kick off in March, requiring Americans to dreadfully lose an hour of sleep as time shifts ahead by one hour. On the bright side, the time change will delay the moment day becomes night for those hoping to walk their dogs outside before it gets dark. Twice-annual time changes have been practiced since daylight saving time's adoption in 1918. Yet many Americans have expressed frustration with the constant time shifts with the exception of the two states that don't participate in the human-invented phenomenon. Here's what to know about the state of daylight saving time, including the efforts to make it year-round or remove it altogether.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a nasal spray flu vaccine, called FluMist, for people ages 2 to 49 that can be ordered from an online pharmacy and administered at home. Doctors and public health experts are hopeful the at-home option, which should be available for the 2025–26 flu season, will help boost declining vaccination rates and protect more Americans from the common but sometimes deadly illness. Less than half of U.S. adults (45 percent) got a flu shot last year, and only 38 percent plan to get a flu vaccine this year, a new report from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases finds.