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Fireworks explode during the closing ceremony for the Summer Olympics at Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian) Shaking to samba and sharing reflections in uniquely Brazilian ways, Olympians and fans said goodbye to the Rio Games with one last big bash that was both revelatory and a sigh of relief. The Rio Games, the first in South America, were a 16-day spectacle that combined numerous highlight reel moments with ugly and even bizarre episodes that sometimes overshadowed the competitions. And Rio residents, known as Cariocas, were not about to let sporadic rains and strong wind gusts get in the way of a final hurrah. "These were marve...

Four of the students, shown here at federal court where they are suing the Lancaster (Pa.) school district. A group of refugees is suing a Central Pesylvania school district, saying the academy they were put in after their arduous jouey to America is not up to snuff. Represented by the Pesylvania branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, the six refugees sued Lancaster schools in federal court, saying they were dumped in a disciplinary school and are being denied access to a quality education. The students range in age from 17 to 21, and hail from Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burma. “[The] Plaintiffs are refugees who have fled war, violence, and persecution from t...

Aug, 13, 2016: United States' Michael Phelps leaves the pool deck after his team won gold in the men's 4 x 100-meter medley relay final during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) Michael Phelps and the United States swim team closed out their Rio Olympics in the only way imaginable. Gold. Phelps put the United States ahead to stay on the butterfly leg of the men's 4x100 medley relay before Nathan Adrian finished the race off, giving the most decorated athlete in Olympic history his 23rd career gold medal. If that was the end, and Phelps insists it is, what a way to go out. He would finish his career with 28 medals overal...

Aug, 13, 2016: United States' Michael Phelps leaves the pool deck after his team won gold in the men's 4 x 100-meter medley relay final during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) Michael Phelps and the United States swim team closed out their Rio Olympics in the only way imaginable. Gold. Phelps put the United States ahead to stay on the butterfly leg of the men's 4x100 medley relay before Nathan Adrian finished the race off, giving the most decorated athlete in Olympic history his 23rd career gold medal. If that was the end, and Phelps insists it is, what a way to go out. He would finish his career with 28 medals overal...

A former Marine court-martialed in part for refusing to remove abiblical phrase from her workspace lost her appeal on Wednesday, when a federal court concluded the orders from her superiors did not constitute a "substantial burden" on her First Amendment rights. Monifa Sterling, who was a lance corporal stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was court-martialed for various offenses relating to separate incidents – including disrespecting a superior officer, disobeying lawful orders, and failing to report to an assigned duty. But the part of the case that fueled her court challenge involved orders to remove a personalized version of the biblical phrase from Isiah 54:17: "No weapon formed agai...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (AP, File) Iran's former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter on Monday to President Barack Obama, asking him to "quickly fix" a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing families of people killed in attacks linked to Iran to collect damages from some $2 billion in frozen assets. While writing that his letter "is by no means of (a) political nature," Ahmadinejad's message to Obama arrives amid swirling speculation that the hard-line politician may ...

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey's state-run news agency says the ruling party has instructed its local branches and municipalities to purge themselves of followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric FethullahGulen, who is accused by the govement of being behind the country's failed July 15 coup. Gulenhas denied any responsibility for or prior knowledge of the attempted coup. The Anadolu Agency says the Justice and Development Party, founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, issued a circular Friday asking members to "immediately start efforts to purge those linked to the (Gulenmovement) or who gave support to the reprehensible coup." It also called on local branches to avoid "agitation and gossip" d...

Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen speaks to members of the media at his compound, Sunday, July 17, 2016, in Saylorsburg, Pa. Turkish officials have blamed a failed coup attempt on Gulen, who denies the accusation. (AP Photo/Chris Post) (The Associated Press) ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey's state-run news agency says the ruling party has instructed its local branches and municipalities to purge themselves of followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric FethullahGulen, who is accused by the govement of being behind the country's failed July 15 coup. Gulenhas denied any responsibility for or prior knowledge of the attempted coup. The Anadolu Agency says the Justice and Development Party, founded by Preside...

July 25, 2016: Skydiver Luke Aikins jumps from a helicopter during his training in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP) July 25, 2016: Cranes stand on the ground as production crew members set up a net about one-third the size of a football field and 20 stories high ahead of skydiver Luke Aikins' landing attempt without a parachute or wing suit in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP) Previous Next He's made 18,000 parachute jumps, helped train some of the world's most elite skydivers, done some of the stunts for "Ironman 3." But the plunge Luke Aikins knows he'll be remembered for is the one he's making without a parachute. Or a wingsuit. Or anything, really, other than the clothes he'll be wearing w...

(AP) Javier Chavez loved his job at Macy’s. The devout Roman Catholic was hired in 1990 as a door guard. A few years later he was promoted to store detective – and he eventually became a senior store detective at the department store’s location in Flushing, Queens. But after more than 26 years on the job, Mr. Chavez was fired – allegedly over an incident involving a man who identifies as a woman using the ladies room. Click here to join Todd’s American Dispatch: a must-read for conservatives! Mr. Chavez has filed an official complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights claiming he was terminated because of his religious beliefs. Here’s the back story: In May, Mr. Chavez res...

FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2015 file photo, Gavin Grimm poses on his front porch during an interview at his home in Gloucester, Va. (AP) A Virginia school board asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to block a transgender male from using the boys restroom when he comes back to school in September until the high court decides whether to review the case. The Gloucester County School Board filed an emergency appeal with Chief Justice John Roberts in an attempt to prevent Gavin Grimm from using the bathroom that aligns with his gender identity when school resumes in fall, saying it will “put parents’ constitutional rights in jeopardy.” "Depriving parents of any say over whether their children sh...

FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2015 file photo, Gavin Grimm poses on his front porch during an interview at his home in Gloucester, Va. (AP) A Virginia school board asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to block a transgender male from using the boys restroom when he comes back to school in September until the high court decides whether to review the case. The Gloucester County School Board filed an emergency appeal with Chief Justice John Roberts in an attempt to prevent Gavin Grimm from using the bathroom that aligns with his gender identity when school resumes in fall, saying it will “put parents’ constitutional rights in jeopardy.” "Depriving parents of any say over whether their children sh...

FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2015 file photo, Gavin Grimm poses on his front porch during an interview at his home in Gloucester, Va. (AP) A Virginia school board asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to block a transgender male from using the boys restroom when he comes back to school in September until the high court decides whether to review the case. The Gloucester County School Board filed an emergency appeal with Chief Justice John Roberts in an attempt to prevent Gavin Grimm from using the bathroom that aligns with his gender identity when school resumes in fall, saying it will “put parents’ constitutional rights in jeopardy.” "Depriving parents of any say over whether their children sh...

A new federal court ruling could make sharing your passwords for subscription services -- covering everything from Netflix to HBO GO -- a federal crime punishable by prison time, according to a judge who opposed the decision. The ruling, issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, pertained to a trade-secrets case and found that certain instances of sharing passwords are prosecutable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) – legislation predominantly conceed with hacking. The case involved David Nosal, a headhunter who left his former company Ko/Ferry and then used the password of an employee to access the company’s database and use that information at his new firm. A...

China’s military plans exercises in the disputed South China Sea this week, adding to tensions ahead of an inteational tribunal’s ruling that is expected to challenge Beijing’s maritime claims in the area. The drills, aounced in a brief online statement Sunday, are scheduled to stretch over seven days starting Tuesday and ending July 11, the day before the United Nations-backed tribunal in The Hague is expected to issue its ruling. Beijing has repeatedly said it will ignore the verdict despite pressure from the U.S. and its allies to comply. U.S. Navy ships have conducted exercises around the South China Sea in recent weeks and on Friday the Navy said an aircraft-carrier strike group w...

The Supreme Court on Monday is poised to once again enter the fray on the abortion issue, an already divisive subject complicated by election-year politics and a split bench that may lack the votes to rule definitively. The high court will wrap up its work for the summer by issuing a judgment on how far Texas can go to regulate abortion clinics in the state, and whether those provisions have the effect of limiting first-trimester abortions guaranteed by the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.Texas reproductive clinics are asking the justices to keep their facilities open in the face of the state restriction. Activists on both sides of the issue are expected to rally outside the court when the...

The Supreme Court on Monday is poised to once again enter the fray on the abortion issue, an already divisive subject complicated by election-year politics and a split bench that may lack the votes to rule definitively. The high court will wrap up its work for the summer by issuing a judgment on how far Texas can go to regulate abortion clinics in the state, and whether those provisions have the effect of limiting first-trimester abortions guaranteed by the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.Texas reproductive clinics are asking the justices to keep their facilities open in the face of the state restriction. Activists on both sides of the issue are expected to rally outside the court when the...

Russian President VladimirPutinhas condemned as unfair Friday's decision by the IAAF to uphold a ban on competition for Russian track and field athletes. Speaking to foreign media at a late evening round-table on Friday,Putinsaid the IAAF meted out "collective" punishment that has hurt clean athletes. In an unprecedented ruling loaded with geopolitical ramifications, the IAAF on Friday upheld its ban on Russia's track and field federation, saying the country had made some progress in cleaning up but failed to meet the requirements for reinstatement and would be barred from sending its athletes to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro that begin in 50 days. "Russian athletes could not credibly...

Russian President VladimirPutinhas condemned as unfair Friday's decision by the IAAF to uphold a ban on competition for Russian track and field athletes. Speaking to foreign media at a late evening round-table on Friday,Putinsaid the IAAF meted out "collective" punishment that has hurt clean athletes. In an unprecedented ruling loaded with geopolitical ramifications, the IAAF on Friday upheld its ban on Russia's track and field federation, saying the country had made some progress in cleaning up but failed to meet the requirements for reinstatement and would be barred from sending its athletes to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro that begin in 50 days. "Russian athletes could not credibly...

An Oregon judge ruled Friday that a transgender individual can legally change their sex to “non-binary” rather than male or female in what is believed to be an unprecedented ruling. The Oregonian reported that Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Amy Holmes Hehn legally changed Jamie Shupe’s, 52, sex from female to non-binary. The co-executive director for Basic Rights Oregon Nancy Haque said the ruling was a “momentous day for genderqueer Oregonians.” "It's really exciting for the courts to actually recognize what we know to be true: gender is a spectrum," Haque told the paper. "Some people don't identify as male or female." Shupe is an Army veteran who retired in 2000 a sergeant first cla...