Students swim through hell and high water to honor veterans

A small boatload of graduate students endured seasickness, hypothermia and huge swells in a 16-hour swim across the English Channel to raise money for veterans on the 65th anniversary of D-Day. They didn’t make it to the shores of France, but the physical and psychological anguish was enough to remind them of the soldiers their journey was meant to commemorate. “I recognize that I have not done anything

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New Jersey police officer pounds man on tape

Surveillance video shows a Passaic, New Jersey, police officer beating a 49-year-old man standing idly on a street corner. Surveillance tape from Lawrence’s Grill and Bar in Passaic on May 29 shows a police car pull up to Ronnie Holloway, who is standing still on the curb outside the restaurant

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Obama in Dresden, Germany: the Non-Controversy Controversy

Sometimes location is everything. Other times, it’s just a convenient place to spend the night. On both sides of the Atlantic, much has been made of Barack Obama’s decision to spend Thursday night in Dresden, the German city known primarily as the site of a horrific bombing campaign by U.S.

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Bryant-inspired Lakers trounce Magic

Kobe Bryant inspired the Los Angeles Lakers to a dominant 100-75 home win over Orlando Magic in the first game of the 2009 NBA Finals. The All-Star guard contributed 40 points, nine rebounds and eight assists to power his side to victory in front of a sell out crowd at the Staples Center in his sixth appearance in the finals. Firepower was also provided by Pau Gasol, who chipped in with 16 points, and Lamar Odom who scored 11 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the Lakers as the Magic were left adrift.

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Tiananmen Square a watershed story for CNN

For CNN, Tiananmen Square was a watershed story — a seminal moment in the network’s history. Only nine years old in 1989, CNN was the only 24-hour news station on the air at the time. But staffers say the network suffered an inferiority complex when comparing itself to the major players in American television, who had dismissed the new upstart for years as “Chicken Noodle News.” Enter Tiananmen Square

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O’Brien takes over ‘The Tonight Show’

Conan O’Brien kicked off his new gig on "The Tonight Show" with a mad cross-country dash from New York to Los Angeles, seemingly forgetting the last item on his check list — "Move to LA." So started the latest round of silliness for the fifth host of NBC’s venerable late night television franchise. “I’ve timed this moment perfectly,” O’Brien deadpanned in his opening monologue. “I’m on a last-place network, I moved to a state that’s bankrupt, and tonight’s show is sponsored by General Motors.” This version of “The Tonight Show” harkens back a generation in style and appearance to Johnny Carson’s version

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How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?

Sleep is one of the richest topics in science today: why we need it, why it can be hard to get, and how that affects everything from our athletic performance to our income. Daniel Kripke, co-director of research at the Scripps Clinic Sleep Center in La Jolla, Calif., has looked at the most important question of all. In 2002, he compared death rates among more than 1 million American adults who, as part of a study on cancer prevention, reported their average nightly amount of sleep.

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Box Office Weekend: Pixar’s Formula Delivers Again As Up Flies High

To win a summer weekend, a movie usually needs a star name or an action-film punch, or to be a sequel to or the remake of a blockbuster. Except, that is, for any new Pixar release. Rising on the propulsion of a brand name known for quality entertainment, the studio’s tenth animated feature, Up, surpassed most predictions by earning $68.2 million this weekend, according to official projections.

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Jay Leno leaves ‘Tonight’ behind

You’d think someone who lasted 17 years as host of a television program in this day and age — particularly a show as venerable as NBC’s "Tonight Show" — would be receiving praise and honor. Not so Jay Leno, whose final “Tonight Show” is Friday. “Without fail, Leno’s show fills an hour and kills an hour,” wrote The Associated Press’ Frazier Moore in a recent column on Leno’s “Tonight” legacy.

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