6+ min ago (392+ words) More than a thousand mourners packed a Long Island funeral home Sunday to remember Emily Finn " many wearing pink to honor the bubbly teen killed in a senseless botched murder-suicide. On display inside the Raynor & D'Andrea Funeral Home in West Sayville were Emily's pink ballet slippers, a poster of the smiling teen with her flute from the high school marching band and reminders of the 18-year-old's many academic achievements before she was shot dead, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend. Her devastated mom, Cliantha, wore a pink sweater " part of the family's wish to display the girl's favorite color, which saw dozens of pink ribbons, bandanas, boots, jackets and bows at the funeral home. "She just had that special spark," said Heather, a friend of the slain teen. "She was so full of life, and she loved her family and her brother…...

17+ min ago (461+ words) A Jewish deli in Beverly Hills set the stage for a reunion worthy of a double take." ESPN and Sirius XM behemoth Stephen A. Smith caught up with former "First Take" co-star Skip Bayless at Nate'n Al's deli on Saturday night." Social media user George "Riley" Panagakis posted a selfie with the pair on X, capturing them sitting in a booth alongside Bayless' wife, Ernestine. For a duo that used to clash daily on national television, meet-ups between Smith and Bayless have become sparse " though they have slowly picked up in the last year. Smith made a guest appearance on Bayless' podcast in March, marking their first show together since 2016, when the latter departed ESPN for FS1." It was a bold decision for Smith, as Bayless was then entangled in sexual misconduct allegations emanating from a lawsuit filed by a former FS1 hairdresser,…...

20+ min ago (555+ words) A graduate assistant was removed from her position amid investigations into a contested discrimination report filed by a disgruntled student who repeatedly referenced the Bible in an essay response to an article about gender stereotypes " for a course taught by a transgender instructor. In her essay, which was supposed to cover "how people are perceived based on societal expectations of gender," University of Oklahoma student Samantha Fulnecky presented a Biblically-fueled tirade against the notion that there are multiple genders. The psychology course's professor, graduate student Mel Curth, who uses "she/they" pronouns, failed Fulnecky on the grounds that she neglected to address the prompt and relied more on "personal ideology" than "empirical evidence," according to a bombshell thread shared by the university's Turning Point USA chapter. In the essay, Fulnecky repeats ad nauseam that she doesn't take issue with gender…...

21+ min ago (476+ words) More Americans are wising up to the fact that higher education has become a raw deal for all too many young people. A new NBC News poll finds that a full 63% of voters believe a four-year college degree now isn't worth it, since many students graduate with "a large amount of debt" but no "specific job skills." That's up markedly from 2013, when a majority took the opposite view, as 53% called a degree "worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more money over their lifetime." That was the case for generations of Americans, who saw college as a key step to higher-paying jobs and a better life: "Upwardly mobile" was almost entirely synonymous with "college educated." But over the last few decades, the dynamic has shifted: Far too many college degrees guarantee…...

27+ min ago (417+ words) Exactly what Team Trump intends to do with (or to) Venezuela is far from clear, but it clearly wants the Maduro regime gone ASAP, and with excellent reason. Operation Southern Spear has sunk roughly two dozen drug-cartel boats in recent weeks, while the Pentagon has now built up the largest US military presence in the region in more than three decades " with Marines as well as Navy and Air Force assets deployed not just to US territory in the region, but in allied nations such as the Dominican Republic as well as Trinidad and Tobago. President Donald Trump even warned Saturday on Truth Social that airlines and criminals should "consider" Venezuelan airspace "closed," though he evidently hasn't ordered US forces to make that happen, since flights continued through at least Sunday afternoon. Critics fume that US forces can't know the…...

29+ min ago (554+ words) New York nurses leaders are blasting the city's hospital system for quietly rolling out artificial intelligence tools they claim are threatening their jobs " and patient safety. Hospital administrators and health care have already shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to launch language models with little input from those on the frontlines, nurses said at a recent meeting of the "State of Nursing" Committee on Hospitals. "What do we do? What if the machines stop working? How do we go back to monitor that patient?" Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association, said at the Nov. 18 meeting. "A lot of time, the hospitals want to come out with everything, with those AI, but we're not part of the decision making," added Hagans, who has worked at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn for over 30 years. "And we need…...

37+ min ago (294+ words) The Panthers were playing on a short week after an embarrassing Monday night loss to the 49ers that dropped them to .500. The Rams had won six straight games, five by at least two touchdowns, and had looked like the class of an NFL that otherwise is defined by parity. And so of course the Panthers pulled off one of the bigger stunners of the season in an upset that likely will have playoff implications. Carolina forced three turnovers of Matthew Stafford, including a pick-six, to surprise the Rams, 31-28, Sunday at Bank of America Stadium. The Panthers won because their quarterback made several clutch plays. Bryce Young (15-of-20 for 206 yards) threw for three touchdowns, two of which came on fourth-down plays. The Panthers won because their defense continually took the ball away from Stafford. The Panthers " perhaps the most confusing team in…...

50+ min ago (499+ words) More than 10 US warships, including the country's largest carrier, the USS Gerald F. Ford, are bearing down on the Caribbean amid escalating tensions between President Trump and Venezuela. A Marine Expeditionary Unit capable of an amphibious land invasion has also been deployed as part of efforts to stem the flow of drugs into the US from the socialist country. "The military's job is to defend the homeland," Secretary of the Navy John Phelan told Fox News on Saturday night. "That's exactly what we're doing, and we're using our best assets to defend the homeland. "Drugs kill more Americans than we've ever lost in wars," he said. "So I think at the end of the day, the president has correctly identified this as an attack on the country, which it is." Venezuela's socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, is being blamed for allowing narco…...

56+ min ago (361+ words) Eli Manning had some fun with the messy college coaching drama involving Lane Kiffin. Taking to X on Sunday, the same day Kiffin announced his Ole Miss departure for LSU, the Giants and Rebels legend responded to a post shared the night before by the parody account 247Sport that read: "JUST IN: Ole Miss has announced that if Lane Kiffin departs for LSU, former Rebels QB and NFL legend Eli Manning will take over as head coach." "Coach Manning" has a night ring to it," Manning wrote in a cheeky reply. The two-time Super Bowl winner played for Ole Miss from 2000 to 2003. Despite the humorous report, Manning, 44, won"t be the one tasked with leading the No. 7-ranked Rebels into the College Football Playoff. Ole Miss has officially elevated defensive coordinator Pete Golding to the team"s permanent head coach, the…...

1+ hour, 2+ min ago (464+ words) Venezuelan President Nicol's Maduro has received little support from long-time allies Russia and China as President Trump ramps up military pressure against Caracas. Beijing and Moscow, Maduro's two most powerful allies, have previously provided Venezuela with military equipment, financial aid, and army training in the face of American aggression " but both nations have strayed from their usual tactics as they face their own military and economic woes. While Russia previously deployed two nuclear-capable bombers to Venezuela as a united show of force against the US in 2018, Moscow's generosity has apparently dried up as it approaches its fourth year of war in Ukraine. So far, Russia has only provided two oil tankers to help Caracas' pump its own crude oil for export to China, Vladimir Rouvinski, an international relations professor at Icesi University, told the Wall Street Journal. "These are small…...