In 1971, a man named Gregory Harris was murdered. Richard Phillips, an autoworker, was convicted of the crime and spent the next 45 years in prison. The problem? Phillips was innocent. Instead, it was the star witness during the trial who framed Phillips, and it took his alleged partner-in-crime, Richard Polombo, decades to admit that…

The post He Spent 45 Years in Prison for Crime He Didn’t Commit, Turned to Art as His Escape appeared first on The Western Journal.

The mainstream media is still a powerful entity in America, even as its influence wanes in favor of social media. The evidence of this has come again in recent polls that show Republican Gov. Rob DeSantis’ slipping poll numbers in Florida versus Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s rising numbers in New York. And the curious part…

The post Media Lies at Work: As NY Deaths Go Up, So Do Cuomo’s Polls – As FL Deaths Go Down, So Do DeSantis’ Polls appeared first on The Western Journal.

An evangelical church network in California will ignore Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive prohibitions this month, opening sanctuary doors for communal worship despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to Fox News, California Church United, representing roughly 3,000 churches and 2.5 million congregants statewide, announced Thursday that it will return to conducting in-person services by Pentecost…

The post Huge Group of California Churches Announces Plan To Defy Governor Newsom’s Order appeared first on The Western Journal.

A stray cat from Las Vegas has lived to see another day thanks to kindhearted police officers who paused to remove a soup can wedged firmly onto the cat’s head. The lure of a salty, potent-smelling soup can was likely too tempting to resist for the cat who was hooked at the first taste. As…

The post Watch: Cops Save Helpless Stray Cat Found with Head Stuck in Soup Can appeared first on The Western Journal.

The health expert who helped shaped Britain’s lockdown policies in response to the coronavirus has resigned after admitting he broke his own rules by having his married lover visit him at his home. Professor Neil Ferguson, 51, of Imperial College in London was a prominent member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. The Telegraph…

The post Scientist Behind Social Distancing Breaks Own Rules To Cheat with Married Woman, Resigns appeared first on The Western Journal.

Conservatives had this Common Core thing all wrong, it was said. We’d be proven wrong by history. Common Core, pushed by President Barack Obama, was going to work. It wasn’t like all the other liberal education plans. A new study by the Pioneer Institute reveals that, no, we were right all along. The study, released…

The post New Study Confirms We Were Right: Reading, Math Scores Have Collapsed Thanks to Obama, Common Core appeared first on The Western Journal.

Everybody wanted to get to the shore last weekend when the state of Florida reopened its beaches. But one of the beachgoers who came in for some extra attention was a six-foot-long bull shark caught near Navarre Beach, according to WKRG-TV. Video shot by Shelley Goudy of Fort Walton showed several men gathered around the…

The post Florida Fishermen Nab 6-Foot Bull Shark During First Weekend of Reopened Beaches appeared first on The Western Journal.

When jokes are so horrible, so obvious, so corny that they make your eyes roll, it’s a good chance that they’re what many call “dad jokes.” Bordering on lame, and all the more hilarious because of it, these jokes are so bad and yet fathers seem to get such joy from trotting out the perfect…

The post Man Posts Hilarious ‘Bad Dad Jokes’ Daily on Sign in Front Lawn To Spread Cheer to Neighbors appeared first on The Western Journal.

Between having had more than enough of the not-so-great indoors and realizing that the grocery store might not always have meat, Americans are increasingly looking to feed themselves by hunting. “People are thinking about where they get their food and how they get their food,” Land Tawney, president of the advocacy group Backcountry Hunters and…

The post Facing Concerns of Meat Shortages, More Americans Turn to Hunting appeared first on The Western Journal.

It’s not good for people to be alone. Quarantining has been difficult for many people who have gotten used to socializing daily, and because of that, some have found ways to follow the rules but feel a little less isolated. Some neighborhoods have decided to be social while maintaining the suggested distance apart, whether that’s…

The post ‘The Voice’ Contestant Alexa Cappelli Treats Neighbors to Weekly Performance in Her Cul-de-Sac appeared first on The Western Journal.

Celebrity Deaths in April 2020 Here’s a look at some of the famous faces we lost in the month of April. Ellis Marsalis Jr. Ellis Marsalis, 1934 – 2020 He went out the way he lived: embracing reality pic.twitter.com/sPyYUuBoIG — Wynton Marsalis (@wyntonmarsalis) April 2, 2020 New Orleans jazz legend Ellis Marsalis Jr., 85, died on…

The post Famous Faces Who Passed Away in April 2020 appeared first on The Western Journal.

If you’re a big business and you abused the Small Business Association’s new Paycheck Protection Program, you’re getting very close to the deadline for you to pay the government back. If you don’t, that means the government is going to be coming after you — and you can definitely be ready for an audit. That’s…

The post Big Businesses That Abused Paycheck Protection Program Should Get Ready for an Audit appeared first on The Western Journal.

Eleven members of the Secret Service have tested positive for COVID-19, according a new report. Yahoo News reported Friday it has seen Department of Homeland Security documents which show that 11 individuals currently have the virus and that 23 members of the Secret Service have recovered from the disease. Another 60 employees of the agency…

The post Report: Secret Service Discovers Nearly a Dozen Coronavirus Cases in Its Own Ranks appeared first on The Western Journal.

Sen. Ted Cruz was apparently about to get into mullet territory. He hadn’t had a haircut in three months. Things were looking grim for the Texas senator. Thankfully, Shelley Luther is able to do something about that. Luther is both famous and free after a viral clip of her standing up to a judge who…

The post Ted Cruz Stops by Shelly Luther’s Salon for a Trim, ‘True Authenticity’ Leaves Her Sobbing appeared first on The Western Journal.

Some House Democrats have decided that the COVID-19 pandemic is an appropriate time to implement a key plank of the campaign of former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — who make up the…

The post ‘The Squad’ Pushes for Huge Student Loan Cancellation in Next Relief Bill appeared first on The Western Journal.

A new year brings another run at my annual predictions: For 17 years now, I’ve taken a few hours to imagine what might happen over the course of the coming twelve months. And my goodness did I swing for the fences last year — and I pretty much whiffed. Batting .300 is great in the majors, but it … Continue reading "Predictions 2020: Facebook Caves, Google Zags, Netflix Sells Out, and Data Policy Gets Sexy"

Andrew Yang has dropped out, which means the presidential campaign just got a lot less fun (you must watch this appreciation from The Recount, embedded above). The race also lost a credible and important voice on issues related to the impact of technology on our society.  The fact that Yang’s campaign didn’t make it past … Continue reading "For Now, America Just Doesn’t Want to Think That Hard"

“Outbreaks have sparked riots and propelled public-health innovations, prefigured revolutions and redrawn maps.” – The New Yorker, April 2020 “Nothing will be the same.”  That’s the overwhelming takeaway I’ve heard from dozens of conversations I’ve had with C-suite leaders, physicians, policy experts and media professionals these past few weeks.  When it comes to the business … Continue reading "An Open Letter To American Corporations: It’s Good Business (and Smart Marketing) To Support Quality Journalism"

As the coronavirus crisis built to pandemic levels in early March, a relatively unknown tech company confronted a defining opportunity. Zoom Video Communications, a fast-growing enterprise videoconferencing platform with roots in both Silicon Valley and China, had already seen its market cap grow from under $10 billion to nearly double that. As the coronavirus began … Continue reading "New Research Shows Why and How Zoom Could Become an Advertising Driven Business"

By easing distancing measures, the Greater Montreal area could experience a substantial increase in the number of deaths per day due to the coronavirus, according to a new document published by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) in collaboration with experts from Laval University.

CTVNews.ca asked Canadians to share how they were using their CERB payments and got a flood of responses. Most said they were covering the basics -- housing, groceries, transportation and medicine.

Changes to a program designed to reunite refugees with family in the U.S. have slowed -- and in some cases outright denied -- legitimate entries into the country.

"We're writing off too many people," Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) says in "Immigration Battle," a feature film presentation from FRONTLINE and Independent Lens that airs tonight on PBS.

The Defense Department's Inspector General has opened an investigation into whether U.S. troops were discouraged from reporting the rape and sexual abuse of children by their Afghan allies.

At least 65,116 individuals have been "forcibly disappeared" by the Syrian government, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

Just days after the attack in Paris, America’s top intelligence official suggested that recent leaks about classified surveillance programs were partially responsible.

Western powers are in a bind, analysts say, as ISIS is likely to continue pursuing attacks abroad in retaliation to the loss of territory in Iraq and Syria.

BEST DEALS ON GAMING LAPTOPS:

• MSI - Modern 15 15.6" Laptop — $749

• ASUS - ROG G531GT 15.6" Gaming Laptop — $999.99

• Dell - G3 15.6" Gaming Laptop — $999.99

It's time to level up.

If you didn't already know, PC gamers take great pride in the way they play. These are the folks who delight in the fact that PC gaming is just so much better than playing on a console, and if this Reddit thread is any indication — this way of thinking isn't going away any time soon.

While it can take a year or two for gaming consoles to adapt to updated technology, PCs see that improvement hit almost instantly. New rigs and laptops hit the market faster, as opposed to consoles that make you wait for months until their release.  Read more...

BEST DEALS ON GAMING LAPTOPS:

• MSI - Modern 15 15.6" Laptop — $749

• ASUS - ROG G531GT 15.6" Gaming Laptop — $999.99

• Dell - G3 15.6" Gaming Laptop — $999.99

My first gaming laptop cost $1,500 more than 10 years ago, and that was considered affordable. It wasn't a top-of-the-line model, but it wasn't a slouch either, sporting one of the better mid-tier graphics cards and a reliable processor/RAM combination.  

But my, how things have changed.

Today, you can go on Amazon and find plenty of laptops for less than $1,000 that would have been at least $1,500 a few years ago, thus opening doors to people who want to try out PC gaming for themselves. (And if it's Prime Day or Black Friday or Cyber Monday, you can expect deal prices to dip even lower.) But sorting through all of the options and deciding which is best presents its own unique challenge. Read more...

BEST DEALS ON SEX TOYS:

• Ella Paradis — Get up to 80% off

• Lovehoney Jessica Rabbit 10 Function Silver Rabbit Vibrator — $39.99

• Lelo Sona Cruise — $99 (save $40)

If Instagram is to be believed, then self care for women basically amounts to face masks and daily affirmation apps.

Hot take: Sex toys are the ultimate self-care purchase.

Orgasms release oxytocin, the anti-stress hormone that gets you warm and fuzzy when cuddling, while dopamine, a neurotransmitter that regulates sleep, also makes an appearance. It stands to reason, then, that "I need to get laid" is a thing that actually makes sense to say when you're having a rough week. Read more...

BEST FITNESS TRACKER DEALS:

• Fitbit - Charge 3 Activity Tracker + Heart Rate — $99.95 (save $30)

• Garmin - Forerunner 645 Music GPS Heart Rate Monitor Running Watch — $449.99

• 3Plus - HR Activity Tracker + Heart Rate — $49.99

Wellness is a buzzy word lately. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a surge in all things health, wellness, and spirituality. Juice bars are popping up, boutique studios are becoming more accessible, and essential oils are chilling us out. Self-care is becoming more of the norm too, but amidst all this hype, it can be challenging to find the right routine that promotes good exercise, sleep, vitals, and mindset.  Read more...

BEST PILLOW DEALS:

• Sealy - Essentials Molded Bed Pillow — $19.99

• Beautyrest Latex Pillow with Removable Cover —  $39.88

• Samsonite - Long Memory Foam Pillow — $24.99

Achieving a good night’s sleep isn’t always easy. Busy schedules, frequent stress, and bad rest environments can be culprits for sleep troubles. And it’s more common than you think. 

According to the American Sleep Association, 50 to 70 million U.S. adults have a sleep disorder. If your sleepless nights are taking a toll on your health, it might be time for you to buy a new pillow. 

BEST DEALS ON HEADPHONES:

• Jaybird - RUN XT Sport True Wireless In-Ear Headphones — $179.99

• Plantronics - Backbeat FIT 3150 True Wireless Sport Headphones — $99.99 (save $50)

• Bose - SoundSport Free True Wireless Headphones — $149.99 (save $50)

The only thing more important to runners than their sneakers is a quality pair of headphones and a killer playlist. Running without music is like some form of medieval torture: it sucks. And cheap, crappy headphones just aren't going to cut it.

When shopping for a quality pair of headphones to wear while running, you'll want to look at a few key factors: Are they sweatproof/waterproof? Will they stay in your ears? Are the volume controls easily accessible? If you answer no to any of these questions, then you know the headphones aren't going to work. Read more...

'Hollywood' actor Samara Weaving lets us in on all of the movies and television she's been watching during quarantine.   Read more...

Apple, dear reader, has been missing you — and it's banking on the fact that you've been missing the opportunity to touch its products before you buy them, too. 

In an effort to ease this assuredly mutual feeling of longing, the company confirmed on Friday plans to begin reopening some of its U.S. stores as early as MondayApple had been aiming for a May reopening for some time, but now it's official. 

So reports CNBC, which notes that the openings are, for now, limited to stores in four states: Idaho, South Carolina, Alabama, and Alaska.

"We've missed our customers and look forward to offering our support," an Apple spokesperson told CNN Business.  Read more...

Americans have been receiving contradictory information about the coronavirus pandemic, so much so that it's become a joke. One example is face masks: In March, the World Health Organization advised people to not wear masks if they aren't sick or caretakers of the sick. 

But given that some coronavirus patients are asymptomatic, opinions of masks from top officials have shifted. The CDC and the media now advise you to wear a damn mask. And a new study may provide more evidence that masks can help beat the outbreak.

According to this study, if 80 percent of Americans wore masks, coronavirus infections would plummet, Vanity Fair reports. The title of the study makes the researchers' view clear: Universal Masking is Urgent in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Read more...

Guy Fieri — one of the most popular celebrity chefs— has spent nearly 15 years starring in and hosting entertaining culinary shows. But one of Fieri's favorite things to watch on television isn't food-focused. It's the workplace comedy, The Office.

That's right, the Mayor of Flavortown is obsessed with the employees of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch. And much to his delight, he recently got to team up with one of the show's former stars, John Krasinski, to help lift spirits and raise money for restaurant workers in need.

Fieri guest starred on the potluck episode of Some Good News, in which Krasinski invited famous chefs to cook viewer-submitted recipes on video chat. Fieri made a "Dynamite," which has Big Sloppy Joe Energy. And then Krasnski surprised him by announcing a $3 million PepsiCo donation to his Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, which provides financial assistance to restaurant workers impacted coronavirus. Read more...

Work(out) From Home is a weekly column where we review smart fitness machines and apps in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Thanks to technology, there are still plenty of ways to exercise if your gym is closed. Read more...

The internet is a scary enough place as it is, and now with the added misinformation and panic surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, it's even scarier. Thanks to the United Nations and dozens of artists, however, the internet just got a little more beautiful. 

In late March, the UN put a call out to artists to help combat the spread of COVID-19. They sought creatives to create content around six areas of WHO and UN priority actions: personal hygiene, social distancing, knowing the symptoms, spreading kindness, myth-busting, and doing more/donating. Tens of thousands of artists answered the call in two weeks, and now the COVID-19 Response Creative Content Hub is available for browsing.  Read more...

With all the stress in the world — you know, a deadly, terrifying global pandemic — Spotify dropped a new service: a daily, personalized aimed at wellness. Fittingly, it's called Daily Wellness and I gave it a try. 

OK, first, let me drop my biases: I can be a cynical person and I'm pretty high energy — like hyper hyper — which has made meditation difficult for me. I can get both mentally and physically uncomfortable while trying anything resembling meditation or therapy or sincere reflection.

That being said, amid the pandemic — and battling some, let's say, serious anxiety — I've been taking active steps to try to improve my mental health. Therapy, meditation, exercise, whatever else, it all seemed like a good idea to help me get through the day. Read more...

Zoom has become a way of life for some people as of late (despite, uh, some safety concerns), especially when it comes to work meetings. Whether it's a company-wide all hands or a team check-in, it's likely that if you're working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, you've had to see your coworkers' shining faces in a video call. 

Actor, writer, and Groundlings comedian Caitlin Reilly perfectly encapsulated that one co-worker you just can't stand during these video meetings:

It's so relevant it hurts. Who hasn't heard the phrase "to piggyback off of" during one of these calls?

The inspiration behind the 'tok was experiences Reilly had sitting in Zoom meetings on behalf of her boss. "I had actually never been in a zoom meeting before, so it was funny for me to see all the different 'personality' types in a situation like that," Reilly told Mashable. "And so it popped in my head one day and I just made the video." Read more...

Rita J. King, co-director and EVP for business development at Science House, recently conducted a series of interviews with business leaders, exploring the challenges and hurdles companies face in evolving business landscapes. In this interview, King chats with James Jorasch, founding CEO of Science House, about the importance of innovation and how to inspire and […]

Rita J. King, co-director and EVP for business development at Science House, recently conducted a series of interviews with business leaders, exploring the challenges and hurdles companies face in evolving business landscapes. In this interview, King chats with Jen Bruno, SVP of culture and human capital at LPL Financial, about mobilizing a change-ready workforce, leadership […]

I interviewed four business leaders in late 2019 to get their perspectives on the biggest obstacles and opportunities organizations are facing. Craig Lemasters was the president and CEO of Assurant Solutions. Under his leadership, Assurant Solutions doubled in size to $4B, underwent a digital transformation to expand an offering of risk management solutions in the […]