(Newser) – Nicki Minaj has long described herself as "Barbie." The rapper has released songs including "Barbie Dreams" and "Barbie Tingz," and her fans are known as the "Barbz." But the rapper's association with the iconic doll has finally ruffled the feathers of Barbie maker Mattel, which turned Minaj into a one-off Barbie doll for charity in 2011. In a lawsuit obtained by Reuters, the company takes aim at Rap Snacks, which partnered with Minaj on bags of "Barbie-Que" Honey Truffle Potato Chips released this summer.

https://www.newser.com/story/324240/mattel-fumes-over-nicki-minaj-barbie-que-chips.html

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(Newser) – Like many places, Scotland is experiencing a severe cost-of-living crisis. But unlike anywhere else, local authorities are now legally required to provide tampons and other period products free of charge to anybody who needs them. The Period Products Act, which passed the Scottish Parliament in a unanimous vote in 2020, came into force on Monday, CNN reports. The act says the products should be available in public buildings and obtaining them should not be "complex nor bureaucratic." The law says people should be able to access the products "reasonably easily," with no questions asked or forms to fill in.

https://www.newser.com/story/324210/new-scottish-law-makes-period-products-free.html

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(Newser) – There's no one perfect state in the US to live in, but you can likely find the perfect state for you. WalletHub looked at all 50 of them, examining more than four dozen metrics in five main categories: affordability, including home prices, taxes, and cost of living; economy (e.g., unemployment rate, job opportunities, and median debt); education and health, covering everything from high school graduation rate and quality of schools to life expectancy and premature death rate); quality of life (think commuting time, traffic, and bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues per capita); and safety, which looks at the rate of violent and property crimes, as well as traffic-tied fatalities.

https://www.newser.com/story/324192/here-are-the-10-best-worst-states-to-live-in.html

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(Newser) – A group exploring a cave in southeastern Missouri made an unexpected find about 500 feet below the surface: a dog, appearing lethargic, sitting on a mud floor. "She didn't look real good," Gerry Keene said. "I mean, she had 11 people walk by her with lights and she just basically lifted her head, but she wouldn't move at all." He started going to nearby houses to try to find the dog's owner, NPR reports. Keene had no luck, but word spread, and a man came to the entrance of the cave near Perryville and identified a photo.

https://www.newser.com/story/324171/rescuers-save-missing-dog-500-feet-into-missouri-cave.html

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(Newser) – An airplane bumped into another plane while backing up at Logan International Airport in Boston, prompting an investigation. No one was injured when the Delta Air Lines plane hit another at low speed on Friday night, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which said it is investigating. The Delta plane struck was empty and parked at an adjacent gate at the time, the AP reports. The FAA said the left winglet of the moving plane clipped the horizontal stabilizer of the other. A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Port Authority described the accident as minor, but added it had the ability to cause damage that could keep planes out of service.

https://www.newser.com/story/324151/plane-bumps-another-at-airport.html

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(Newser) – It was Duane Ketterman's lucky day—and then it was his lucky day again, just five weeks later. CNN reports that the man from Millsboro, Del., won the lottery in neighboring Maryland not once but twice in about a month's time, taking home nearly $50,000 in the process. Per the Maryland Lottery, Ketterman, a power-line tech who crosses over daily into Maryland for work, often picks up lottery tickets while he's there. And in early July, he found out he won $18,000 playing Racetrax, a win "I couldn't believe," he told lottery officials.

https://www.newser.com/story/324142/delaware-man-has-unusual-luck-with-maryland-lottery.html

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(Newser) – If you missed Tommy Lee's full-frontal display on social media earlier this week, no worries—he's now sharing a painting of the photo instead. Meanwhile, some are wondering why Lee's original nude pic was able to stay up online for as long as it did in the first place, spurring a debate over censorship and double standards, reports USA Today. The commotion started early Thursday, when the 59-year-old Motley Crue drummer uploaded to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter a photo of himself sitting on the edge of a tub in the buff and showing .

https://www.newser.com/story/324102/after-hubbub-over-nude-pic-tommy-lee-posts-painting-of-it.html

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(Newser) – The search for Harmony Montgomery, a New Hampshire girl who disappeared in 2019 at age 5 but was not reported missing until late last year, is now considered a homicide investigation, authorities said Thursday. Investigators have concluded that Harmony was murdered, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said at a news conference. Police first became aware that Harmony might be missing when they received a call from the girl's mother, Crystal Sorey, in November. She had been unsuccessfully trying to locate the girl for months, police said.

https://www.newser.com/story/324089/missing-girls-case-is-now-a-homicide-investigation.html

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(Newser) – Inflation is going to add over $1 billion to the US Postal Service budget, necessitating a request for another rate increase in January, but Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says the service is ready for the November election. The Postal Service has already delivered about 40 million ballots to and from voters along with a total of 550 million COVID-19 test kits, DeJoy said Tuesday, the AP reports. "Americans should be confident that the United States Postal Service is well prepared and will provide extraordinary services in these coming November elections," he told the Board of Governors.

https://www.newser.com/story/324000/voters-should-have-confidence-in-postal-service-dejoy-says.html

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(Newser) – Stocks closed at three-month highs on Wall Street Wednesday as investors cheered a report showing inflation cooled more than expected in July. The S&P 500 jumped 2.1% to 4,210.24 Wednesday on expectations that slower inflation will mean the Federal Reserve won't hike interest rates as much as feared. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 535.10 points, or 1.63%, to 33,309.51, and the Nasdaq jumped 360.88 points, or 2.89%, to 12,854.81. Technology stocks, cryptocurrencies, and other investments among the year's biggest losers due to the Fed's aggressive rate hikes led the way, the AP reports.

https://www.newser.com/story/324039/wall-street-hits-3-month-high-as-inflation-cools.html

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(Newser) – Stocks closed lower on Wall Street Tuesday as disappointing earnings reports weighed on technology and travel companies. The S&P 500 fell 17.59 points, or 0.4%, to 4,122.47. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 58.13 points, or 0.2%, to 32,774.41. The Nasdaq fell 150.53 points, or 1.2%, to 12,493.93. Norwegian Cruise Line plunged 10.6% for the biggest drop in the S&P 500 after reporting disappointing financial results and giving investors a weak revenue forecast, the AP reports. The weak results weighed down travel-related stocks.

https://www.newser.com/story/323995/tech-travel-stocks-drag-down-indexes.html

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(Newser) – From kindergarten to college, all teachers have their rituals when it comes to preparing for the first day of school. As Beth Ann Fennelly writes in a guest essay for the New York Times, those rituals can be considered in three categories: the practical (e.g., arranging desks and supplies); the psychological (priming oneself to convince college students of the 'transformative power of literature'); and, nowadays, the tactical (identifying 'hard corners' and escape routes). One thing Fennelly—teacher, writer, and former poet laureate of Mississippi—will certainly not do to prepare for the new year is register for FASTER Saves Lives firearms training.

https://www.newser.com/story/323926/teacher-no-i-wont-be-arming-myself-this-year.html

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(Newser) – Cops in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are asking the public to keep a lookout for a car they think may be tied to the murder of four Muslim men in the city over the past nine months. Per CBS News, police asked anyone in the area who's seen a dark gray or dark silver four-door Volkswagen sedan with tinted windows, possibly damaged, to contact them "as soon as possible." Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said police have indicated the vehicle may have been involved in the most recent fatal shooting on Friday night.

https://www.newser.com/story/323911/cops-help-us-find-this-car-after-albuquerque-murders.html

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(Newser) – Democrats pushed their election-year economic package to Senate passage Sunday, a hard-fought compromise less sweeping than President Biden's original domestic vision but one that still meets deep-rooted party goals of slowing global warming, moderating pharmaceutical costs, and taxing immense corporations. The estimated $740 billion package heads next to the House, where lawmakers are positioned to deliver on Biden's priorities, a stunning turnaround of what had seemed a lost and doomed effort that suddenly roared back to political life.

https://www.newser.com/story/323895/democrats-bill-passes-senate-on-harris-tiebreaker.html

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(Newser) – The maker of Snickers candy bars apologized to China for implying Taiwan is a country, then apologized again. Some in China still aren't satisfied, the Wall Street Journal reports. The reference was in a video posted on social media that seemed to be promoting an online event with BTS, a South Korean boy band. The video said the event was open to people of certain nations, and it included a flag of Taiwan. The island is ruled by its own government, but China considers Taiwan its territory, saying the two will be reunited.

https://www.newser.com/story/323869/theres-only-1-china-maker-of-snickers-says-in-apology.html

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(Newser) – What appears to be an accidental death at a Kenny Chesney concert in Denver on Saturday has left the singer "devastated." The Denver Police Department said in a tweet that a woman fell from the escalator railing she had been sitting on at Empower Field at Mile High and landed on the concourse below. The fall occurred around 10:52pm, just as the concert was ending, reports the Denver Post. The woman's name and age have not yet been released, and the death is being probed as an accidental one, reports NBC News.

https://www.newser.com/story/323751/death-at-kenny-chesney-concert-likely-accidental.html

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(Newser) – For journalist Fred Kaplan, the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri stands out not so much for the event itself. Al-Qaeda "is far from the potent global force that it was a decade ago," writes Kaplan at Slate, and while al-Zawahri certainly had a key role in planning 9/11 and other terror attacks, he had kept so quiet in recent years that some figured he was already dead. No, the killing stands out for what it reveals, argues Kaplan: a worrisome apparent alliance. That al-Zawahri was killed at the hands of the US in a drone strike on a safe house in the Afghan capital is "a bigger deal than it sounds like" because it indicates the Taliban knew he was there and were OK with it.

https://www.newser.com/story/323693/al-zawahris-killing-reveals-a-worrisome-alliance.html

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(Newser) – The Miami Dolphins won't need to worry so much about who to pick in the first round of the 2023 draft. Nor should they expect to see owner Stephen Ross at team facilities for a couple months. Per USA Today, these and other penalties were handed down Tuesday after a six-month investigation that uncovered "tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity," according to a statement by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Led by former US Attorney and SEC Chair Mary Jo White, investigators found the Dolphins conducted "impermissible communications" with Tom Brady on three occasions between 2019 and 2021, Fox News reports.

https://www.newser.com/story/323706/nfl-hits-dolphins-hard-for-tampering-with-tom-brady.html

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(Newser) – Anybody who wants to know what's in Prince Philip's will should adopt an extremely healthy lifestyle, because its contents are not going to be made public until 2111 at the earliest. A judge ruled last year that the will should remain sealed for at least 90 years to protect the privacy of Queen Elizabeth II, and the Guardian reports that its own legal challenge to the secrecy surrounding that decision has been dismissed by three appeal judges. They ruled that the judge acted correctly when he held the hearing on the will in private, with the media not notified that it was taking place.

https://www.newser.com/story/323648/prince-philips-will-is-staying-sealed-until-2111.html

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(Newser) – Bill Russell, the NBA Hall of Famer considered by many the greatest player in the history of team sports and a towering figure in the struggle for civil rights, died Sunday at 88. A tweet by his family statement said only that his wife, Jeannine, was at his side. Russell won 11 NBA championships with the Boston Celtics, the final two as head coach after becoming the first Black person to hold that job in a major US professional sport, CBS News reports. He was the league's most valuable player five times.

https://www.newser.com/story/323623/bill-russell-dominated-the-nba.html

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(Newser) – Supply shortages and high prices since the start of the pandemic have forced many Americans to alter their spending and consumption habits. Those same economic forces also hit communities in the remote Alaskan Bush, but that's nothing new up there. According to Bree Kessler, writing for Eater, people in the 'city' of Bettles (pop. 63) know how to keep food on the table, not only by stocking freezers and ordering supplies weeks in advance but also by pooling resources. Generally, to qualify as 'Bush,' a town lacks a direct connection to the national highway network.

https://www.newser.com/story/323366/in-this-remote-part-of-us-amazon-prime-is-a-food-tool.html

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(Newser) – British musician Sting interrupted a concert in Warsaw on Saturday evening to warn his audience that democracy is under attack worldwide and to denounce the war in Ukraine as "an absurdity based upon a lie." He asked a popular Polish actor, Maciej Stuhr, to come onstage to translate his warning that democracy is "in grave danger of being lost unless we defend it," the AP reports. "The alternative to democracy is a prison, a prison of the mind. The alternative to democracy is violence, oppression, imprisonment, and silence.

https://www.newser.com/story/323620/sting-pauses-warsaw-concert-for-a-warning.html

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(Newser) – Stocks closed lower on Wall Street Wednesday, led by drops in big technology companies and erasing the S&P 500's gains for the week. The S&P 500 fell 31.16 points, or 0.7%, to 4.274.14. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 171.69 points, or 0.5%, to 33,980.32, and the Nasdaq fell 164.43 points, or 1.3% to 12,938.12. Small-company stocks fell more than the rest of the market. he Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 33.22 points, or 1.6%, to 1,987.31. Wall Street was absorbing a mix of retail updates that showed inflation pressure continues to affect businesses and consumers, but spending remains strong, the AP reports.

https://www.newser.com/story/324335/sp-500s-gains-for-the-week-wiped-out.html

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(Newser) – A Tennessee woman who allegedly gave an inmate a kiss of death during a visit to a state prison earlier this year has been charged with murder. The Tennessee Department of Correction says Rachal Dollard was seen passing drugs to inmate Joshua Brown as they kissed during a visitation at the Turney Center Industrial Complex in February. Brown "swallowed a balloon pellet containing half an ounce of methamphetamine" and died of an overdose at a local hospital, the TDOC says. The TDOC says Dollard was taken into custody over the weekend by its special agents and the Dickson County Sheriff's Department.

https://www.newser.com/story/324322/woman-who-kissed-inmate-arrested-after-overdose-death.html

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(Newser) – Somewhere in Australia, someone named "Jenny" feels avenged, and someone named "Steve" feels ashamed. Also, a small-town newspaper has garnered some global attention. Per People, "Jenny" took out a full-page, 'premium placement' ad in a local newspaper with the following message in all-caps: "Dear Steve, I hope you're happy with her. Now the whole town will know what a filthy cheater you are." The ad was signed "From Jenny," with a postscript: "I bought this ad using your credit card." The newspaper, Mackay and Whitsunday Life—based in Flemington, near Melbourne—was "inundated with calls from the community" soon after the Friday edition hit newsstands.

https://www.newser.com/story/324250/woman-uses-full-page-ad-to-shame-filthy-cheater.html

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(Newser) – Stocks ended mostly higher on Wall Street Tuesday after another bumpy day as investors cautiously reviewed mostly encouraging financial results from major retailers. The S&P 500 rose 8.06 points, or 0.2%, to 4,305.20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 239.57 points, or 0.7%, to 34,152.01. The Nasdaq fell 25.50 points, or 0.2%, to 13,102.55. Walmart, the nation's largest retailer jumped 5.1% after reporting strong results that easily topped analysts' forecasts. Home Depot rose 4.1% after also reporting better-than-expected results.

https://www.newser.com/story/324279/dow-rises-240-points-after-retail-giants-report-strong-results.html

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(Newser) – A 10-year-old who was snorkeling with his family in the Florida Keys on Saturday has lost the lower part of one of his legs after being attacked by a shark. Click Orlando reports Jameson Reeder Jr. was at Looe Key Reef around 4:30pm when what was suspected to be an 8-foot bull shark bit him. Jameson managed to stay afloat using a pool noodle and was placed in his family's boat, where a makeshift tourniquet was applied. A passing boat with a nurse on board came to their aid, reports NBC News; when the family made it to shore, Jameson was airlifted to a children's hospital.

https://www.newser.com/story/324262/boy-snorkeling-in-florida-keys-loses-lower-leg-to-shark-bite.html

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(Newser) – Refusing to wear a condom during sex after being asked to by a partner could be a crime, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled. In a unanimous decision, the court said pretending to use a condom or taking one off before sex without the partner's consent, sometimes called stealthing, could be a violation of the legal conditions for consensual sex, the CBC reports. That can be grounds for a sexual assault conviction, the court said, finding that consenting to sex with a condom does not confer consent for sex without a condom.

https://www.newser.com/story/323585/canadian-court-not-wearing-a-condom-can-be-a-crime.html

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(Newser) – What will become of Rep. Liz Cheney on Tuesday when Wyomingites vote in the primary for the state's sole congressional seat? If polls are any indication, she will be trounced by Trump-backed Harriet Hageman. Then again, according to Washington Post's Paul Kane, this Wyoming primary may prove to be unlike any other. That's because Cheney's only path to victory lies in the remote hope that tens of thousands of Democrats will cross over and vote in the GOP primary. Many Democrats have done exactly that, and the dynamic has made for some surreal political gatherings, like one recent high-profile Cheney fundraiser where Democrats outnumbered Republicans.

https://www.newser.com/story/324205/cheney-likely-to-lose-primary-but-not-her-political-future.html

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(Newser) – Prince Harry probably never wants to hear again about his wild night in Vegas 10 years ago, when he got fully naked during a round of strip billiards in his VIP suite, with photos circulating to prove it. The UK royal may have to relive that night for another month or so, however, as the black underwear he was supposedly wearing that night (before he took it off) is now on the auction block, with big bids already coming in. TMZ reports that the bidding Thursday started at $10,000, then shot up to $16,000—and then suddenly to $250,000, thanks to a San Diego strip club owner named Dino who apparently really wants Harry's skivvies.

https://www.newser.com/story/324189/you-still-have-time-to-bid-on-harrys-party-night-undies.html

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