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Texas state Rep. Jake Ellzey will win the special election runoff in Texas' 6th Congressional District, CNN projects cnn.it/3l5egbY
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Joey Jordison, former Slipknot drummer and one of the band's founders, dies at 46 cnn.it/3rFbkEf
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RT @CNNPolitics: NEW: President Biden is expected to announce a requirement that all federal employees and contractors be vaccinated agains…
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President Biden says requiring Covid vaccinations for all federal employees is "under consideration" cnn.it/3y9Ewpn
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New CDC recommendations will say everyone in K-12 schools should wear a mask, regardless of their vaccination status cnn.it/2TC503F
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Robert Aaron Long, the man accused of fatally shooting eight people at Atlanta-area spas in March, pleads guilty toâ€twitter.com/i/web/status/1…fy
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Updated CDC guidance will urge vaccinated people in certain areas of the US to resume wearing masks cnn.it/3zD6cDp
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Skier killed in avalanche in British Columbia
A skier died Friday in an avalanche outside controlled-area boundaries of Revelstoke Mountain Resort in British Columbia, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told CNN.
Two other skiers, who were buried in the avalanche, were rescued by members of their party, said Cpl. Dan Moskaluk.
The incident, which was witnessed by resort staff members, occurred between 1 p.m (4 p.m. ET) and 1:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. ET), Moskaluk said in a telephone interview. A search-and-rescue team was planning to search Saturday for the body.
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Obama DOJ weighs in on marriage law
In a preview of a major constitutional showdown at the Supreme Court over same-sex marriage, the Obama administration said Friday that a federal law denying financial benefits to legally wed gay and lesbian couples is unconstitutional.
The Justice Department filed the first of a series of briefs in a pair of cases dealing with the multi-layered issue, outlining the executive branch's positions.
The high court will hear oral arguments next month on the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 congressional law that says, for federal purposes, marriage is defined only as between one man and one woman.
FULL STORYMississippi leader urges Connecticut gunmakers to relocate
Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn has invited gunmakers such as Colt to relocate to his state from Connecticut, where firearms have been a controversial issue since last December's elementary school shooting left 20 students and six adults dead there.
The gun industry in Connecticut is being attacked and "demonized" because of national politics, Gunn said in a letter this week to Colt's Manufacturing Company CEO Dennis Veilleux.
He also invited gunmaker Magpul Industries Corp. of Colorado to relocate to Mississippi.
Gunn, a Republican, said firearm manufacturers are "under attack in anti-Second Amendment states."
FULL STORYMicrosoft: Computers hacked as at Apple and Facebook
Microsoft was hacked much like Facebook and Apple, the technology company announced today on its security blog.
Microsoft said that its investigators "found a small number of computers, including some in our Mac business unit ... were infected by malicious software using techniques similar to those documented by other organizations."
Apple said Tuesday that some of its employees' computers were compromised, and Facebook revealed a similar breach weeks earlier.
Suspect in Ridgeway killing to be tried
Austin Sigg must face trial on 18 of 20 counts relating to the killing of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway and an attack on a jogger last year, a spokesman for Colorado’s courts said Friday in a Tweet.
Rob McCallum made the announcement after Sigg appeared before Jefferson County Judge Stephen Munsinger in a preliminary hearing. The arraignment is set for March 12; Sigg remains on no-bond hold.
Pinterest content-sharing site is hacked
Pinterest said Friday in an e-mail to its users that the pinboard-style photosharing social network site was breached via its vendor Zendesk.
"We recently learned that the vendor we use to answer support requests and other emails (Zendesk) experienced a security breach," said the content-sharing service. Users "pin" images and videos to their pinboards.
"We're sending you this e-mail because we received or answered a message from you using Zendesk. Unfortunately your name, email address and subject line of your message were improperly accessed during their security breach."
Report: Eastern European gang hacked Apple, Facebook, Twitter
Security experts: Times hacking story a wake-up call
FULL STORYSyrian group, citing 'shameful' international stance, says no to upcoming conference
The Syrian National Coalition, the country's principal opposition group, says it is suspending its participation in the upcoming Friends of Syria conference in Rome "in protest of the shameful international position."
After a missile shelling that killed dozens in Aleppo on Friday, the group said on its Facebook page that it "considers the international silence toward the crimes committed every day against our people is, in effect, participation in the ongoing slaughter for the last two years."
Police hunt suspects after Vegas shooting
Police are on an "intense" and "extremely focused" nationwide manhunt for the occupants of a black Range Rover at the center of a shooting on the Las Vegas Strip that claimed three lives.
The incident involved a Maserati that was shot at and subsequently crashed into a taxi, which caught fire.
The driver of the Maserati, whom family identified as Kenneth Cherry Jr., died at a hospital. The taxi driver and a passenger also died.
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Globovision excluded from broadcasting system
The television broadcaster Globovision, long critical of the Venezuelan government, has been excluded from government plans to switch broadcast formats from analog to digital, Reporters Without Borders said Friday.
Globovision, which is Venezuela's sole national television broadcaster that routinely criticizes the government, "has been excluded from a new system of Open Digital Television (TDA), which the government launched on February 20 in a televised announcement that all the broadcast media had to carry," the advocacy group reported.
"Under the TDA system, all TV stations currently broadcasting by means of an analogue signal will eventually have to switch to a digitally processed signal in order to continue operating," it said.
FULL STORYProbe of K.C. restaurant explosion completed
The investigation into Tuesday's explosion that killed one person at a restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, has been completed and a full report will be issued next week, a Kansas City fire spokesman said Friday.
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U.S. military grounds F-35 fighter jets
The Pentagon's most expensive weapons system is going to spend some time on the bench.
The U.S. military on Friday grounded the F-35 fighter jet due to a crack in an engine component that was discovered during a routine inspection in California. The fighter is currently being tested.
The Pentagon said in a statement that it was too early to assess the impact on the nearly $400 billion fleet of jets designed for use by the Navy, Air Force and Marines.
The program has been beset by cost overruns and various technical problems during development.
Currently, there are 51 planes in the F-35 fleet.
Justice Department joins Armstrong suit
The U.S. Department of Justice has joined a whistle-blower lawsuit against cyclist Lance Armstrong that was originally filed by a former teammate, an attorney for Armstrong said Friday.
Former Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after failing a drug test, filed a suit in 2010 against their former team, which was sponsored the U.S. Postal Service.
The lawsuit accused the team's former management of defrauding the government of millions of dollars because the team management knew about team members' drug use and didn't do anything.
FULL STORYLaHood: Flight delays if forced cuts happen
We're just days away from automatic federal spending cuts, and another government official is warning what the effects will be if lawmakers don't come up with a way to avoid them.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said minutes ago that the cuts will, if they take effect, heavily impact the Federal Aviation Administration and likely trigger flight delays nationwide and air traffic control tower closures at some small airports as soon as April.
Mandatory, government-wide budget cuts are due to begin on March 1 absent congressional action on deficit-reduction to avert them. The cuts are mandated by a 2011 agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling.
Opinion: Forced budget cuts a disaster for the military
Pentagon: Furloughs for civilian workers if forced cuts happen
FULL STORYReport: Plane skids off Cleveland runway
A plane landing at Cleveland's international airport skidded off the runway on Friday, CNN affiliate WJW reported.
This comes as snow and rain have slammed the East and Midwest.
No injuries were reported.
Pope's Twitter account to end when he leaves
This will be one short-lived Twitter feed.
When Pope Benedict XVI leaves office on February 28, his Twitter presence as @Pontifex will also come to an end, according to Vatican Radio.
Benedict has been active on Twitter for only about two and a half months, but more than 2 million people have chosen to follow his tweets in nine languages.
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Oscar Pistorius granted bail
- Bail for Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius set at 1 million South African rand (about $112,000).
- Magistrate: State failed to show Pistorius is a flight risk, or that he would be a danger to society, or that his release would cause a public disturbance.
- Pistorius charged with premeditated murder in February 14 shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, 29. Pistorius claims he thought she was an intruder.
- Live updates below. Also, read the full story.
[Updated 10:40 a.m. ET] So, that's about it from the Pretoria courtroom. To sum up: A magistrate granted bail to Pistorius after giving a roughly 90-minute speech in which he covered the history and law of South African bail, summarized the case, criticized the police investigation and expressed skepticism about Pistorius' account.
Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair said the former chief investigator in the case, Hilton Botha, had made "several errors and concessions" during his testimony this week, and said prosecutors had failed to prove that Pistorius was a flight risk or had a propensity toward violence.
Pistorius will be free pending trial, as long as he meets the conditions listed below.
[Updated 10:35 a.m. ET] Pistorius' uncle, Arnold Pistorius, has told reporters the following on the behalf of the Pistorius family:
"We are in mourning over the death of Reeva, with her family. We also grateful for the ... magistrate to come to the conclusion, and for our legal team that has delivered extremely professional and legal (services) that led to the decision to give him bail today.
"As a family we know that Oscar’s version of what happened at that tragic night, and we know that that is the truth, and that will prevail in the coming court cases."
Friday's live events
$85 billion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts could happen if President Obama and Congress don't reach a deal by March 1. Watch CNN.com Live for continuing coverage on this story.
Today's programming highlights...
The Jodi Arias murder trial is in recess until Monday.
11:20 am ET - White House briefing - Spending cuts, immigration and gun control will likely dominate Press Secretary Jay Carney's briefing with the White House press corps.
India probes twin blasts that killed 16
Two bomb blasts killed at least 16 people and wounded 117 others, the nation's home minister said Friday, raising the toll from the explosion at a busy marketplace a day earlier.
Vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice, Sushil Kumar Shinde told parliament that federal and state investigators are working together to probe Thursday's bombings in Hyderabad.
Terror involvement is a possibility, police commissioner Anurag Sharma said. He declined to name a particular group.
The two bombs were planted on bicycles parked in a crowded spot, the commissioner said.
They were improvised explosive devices, and could have been triggered by a timer.
FULL STORYBlinding, icy snow buries Midwest
Duke the English bulldog has given new meaning to the word "dogsled."
His owner, Karen Blue, shot a video of the 75-pound pooch barreling down a slope near Kansas City, Missouri, on a bright red sled, barking all the way. He appeared to enjoy himself, and Blue got a warm chuckle out of it.
"He is obsessed with his sled," Blue wrote, when she posted the video to CNN's iReport on Thursday.
Bystanders let out whoops and cheers, as the stocky fellow stepped off the sled when the ride was up. A man shouted: "He wants more!"
Kansas probably doesn't.
The state got the brunt of the snow as a winter storm moved past, heading toward the northeast.
Wichita saw its second-highest storm snowfall total on record with 14.2 inches over two days, the weather service said.
Rapper among dead after Las Vegas shooting, crash
A shooting and a fiery crash left three people dead in the neon heart of the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday, and police scrambled to find out who triggered the carnage.
The bloodshed closed the Strip for about a block and a half around some of its biggest draws, leaving tourists gaping at a wrecked Maserati, a burned-out taxi and four other vehicles.
"First time in Vegas, and then, like, the whole thing, what you know from movies only - I was shocked," Christine Gerstenberger, who was visiting the desert gambling mecca from Germany, said Thursday afternoon. She and her brothers debated going back to the hotel "because I'm totally scared," but "We're too curious," she said.
One of those killed was Kenneth Cherry Jr. - a rapper also known as Kenny Clutch - his attorney Vicki Greco said. According to his Facebook page, Cherry is from Oakland, California, and lived in Las Vegas.
FULL STORY
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