Author: kenzie Lauren

Former Supreme Court justice David Souter, the intellectual New Englander who disappointed Republicans and delighted liberals by slowing a conservative transformation of the high court, died May 8 at his home in New Hampshire. He was 85. The high court announced his death but did not cite a cause. Justice Souter, who supplied a key vote to uphold abortion rights in his early years on the court, was a little-known New Hampshire judge dubbed the “stealth candidate” when President George H.W. Bush nominated him in 1990 to replace justice William J. Brennan Jr., then the anchor of an eroding liberal majority. John H. Sununu,…

On Sunday morning, as Holly LaFavers was preparing to go to church, a delivery worker dropped off a 25-pound box of lollipops in front of her apartment building in Lexington, Ky. And another. And then another. Soon, 22 boxes of 50,600 lollipops were stacked five boxes high in two walls of Dum-Dums. That was when Ms. LaFavers heard what no parent wants to hear: Her child had unwittingly placed a massive online order. “Mom, my suckers are here!” said her son, Liam, who had gone outside to ride his scooter. “I panicked,” Ms. LaFavers, 46, said. “I was hysterical.” Ms.…

VATICAN CITY — As the cardinals prepare to enter the Sistine Chapel in procession Wednesday for the start of the conclave to pick the next pope, talk is swirling that the throne of St. Peter could go to a first pontiff from the United States. Just as many voices herald the chances of three Italians and a come-from-behind Spaniard serving in Morocco. A Filipino, a Frenchman, a Congolese and a long-monastic Swede are talks of the town too. Yet as all eyes wait for the billowing white smoke that signals Habemus Papam — “We have a pope” — the wisest watchers…

They buried him. They mourned him. And they have gathered to pick his successor. But it’s still all about Pope Francis. More than two weeks after Francis died, the cardinals who will begin voting in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday to pick the next pope have been signaling whether they want to follow Francis’ lead, turn back or find some compromise between the two. In homilies, public and private conversations, and most of all in remarks to their fellow cardinals in daily meetings behind the Vatican walls, the people who will choose the next pope have been holding what amounts…

SAN FRANCISCO — ChatGPT maker OpenAI will remain under the control of its founding nonprofit board after abandoning a plan to split off its commercial operations as a for-profit company. Former employees and Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI who later split with its leaders, had criticized the restructuring plan, saying it would remove crucial oversight of its artificial intelligence technology. Musk filed a lawsuit seeking to block the move; the suit is ongoing. OpenAI’s new plan seeks a compromise between allegations it was set toabandon its original mission of benefiting humanity and the claims of company leaders that it must raise more money…

Skipper co-founded Meadowlark in 2021 alongside radio host Dan Le Batard with a goal of bringing his show to digital platforms. Skipper, the former president of ESPN, subsequently pushed Meadowlark to develop documentary and unscripted fare, inking a first-look deal with Apple TV+, and developed a franchise called Sports Explains the World that would encompass both anthology series and podcasts. In a statement posted to his social media accounts, Le Batard indicated that the company will continue to produce documentary fare, and that Skipper would remain involved providing “leadership and guidance” to the company. “Thankful to John Skipper for his friendship and look forward to his continued leadership and guidance…

Two people have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to detonate explosives at a free Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro, in what authorities believe was an attempt to target Brazil’s LGBTQ community. The Rio event on Saturday was the biggest show of the pop star’s career. It attracted an estimated 2.1 million fans to Copacabana beach and had crowds screaming and dancing along. “They were clearly saying that they were planning an attack at Lady Gaga’s concert motivated by sexual orientation,” Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio police, told a press conference on Sunday. The Rio police chief,…

Patrick Schwarzenegger is hoping to take a stab at a choice role that happens to bear his first name.  Schwarzenegger, who has made no secret over the years of his affinity for American Psycho, is continuing to publicly voice his interest in lead character Patrick Bateman in director Luca Guadagnino‘s planned feature adaptation of author Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 best-selling novel. Christian Bale played the investment banker harboring murderous fantasies in director Mary Harron’s cult-favorite film version that hit theaters in 2000 from Lionsgate. In response to an X (formerly Twitter) user posting Wednesday that playing Bateman could be Schwarzenegger’s “breakout role,” the actor replied, “I’d love nothing…

Warren E. Buffett has been at the forefront of American capitalism for decades as the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate he built into a $1.1 trillion colossus. By the end of the year, he is preparing to give up that role. Mr. Buffett said at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday that he plans to ask the company’s board to approve making Gregory Abel, his heir apparent, the chief executive by the end of the year. Mr. Abel would have “the final word” when it comes to the company’s operations, how it invests and more, Mr. Buffett, 94,…

While campaigning in Maine’s U.S. Senate primary in 1972, Robert Monks asked about a smell overnight that was so noxious his eyes teared up. That, Mr. Monks was told, was a paper mill’s nightly discharge of “junk” — machine oil and solvents — into the Penobscot River. Mr. Monks quickly drew connections to his own life of privilege and wealth as a scion to a moneyed New England lineage. His holdings included a coal and oil company. “Some of that ‘junk’ was my oil,” he later wrote in an unpublished memoir. Mr. Monks lost in the Republican primary — and…