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(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Julia Meyers-Manor, Ripon College and Emily Sanford, Johns Hopkins University (THE CONVERSATION) From Lassie to Balto, pop culture...

The Washington County animal shelter is not often the first line of defense against suicide. But over the span of three months, shelter staff intervened with seven people who planned to kill themselves. Most people who are considering suicide will...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A stray bullet crushed Iraly Yanez's aspirations of becoming a professional dancer eight years ago as it ruptured two of her vertebrae and left her paraplegic. But now the young Venezuelan dancer is pursuing her lifelong p...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that parts of the federal government will stay closed until Democrats agree to put up more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border to deter criminal elements. He said he's open to calling the wall s...

SUMUR, Indonesia (AP) — Panicked residents, police and soldiers in this remote fishing village clobbered by a devastating weekend tsunami ran to higher ground Tuesday, shouting "Water is coming! Water is coming!" and reciting verses from the Quran a...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Once a year, hundreds of horseback riders gather on an island in Utah's Great Salt Lake to nudge bison toward holding pens in a roundup of one of America's largest and oldest public herds. Bison have occupied Antelope Island, ab...

MIDDLESEX, Vt. (AP) — One Vermont community is celebrating the holidays and the winter solstice with a massive bonfire and what they hope will be the world's largest s'more. The Winter S'morestice takes place Saturday at Camp Meade in Middlesex a...

COCOA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The waves of red in the waters off Florida's Space Coast weren't the dreaded red tide algae but rather hundreds of surfers dressed as Jolly Old St. Nick. Hundreds of surfers in Santa suits jumped on their boards off the b...

HOUSTON (AP) — An 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died in government custody in New Mexico early Tuesday, U.S. immigration authorities said, marking the second death of an immigrant child in detention this month. The death came during an ongoing d...

HOUSTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's claims over Christmas that he had awarded 115 miles of new border wall construction in Texas appear to confuse work that's already funded and underway. Trump tweeted on Monday, "I am in the Oval Office & just g...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday wished U.S. troops stationed around the country and the globe a merry Christmas. "I know it's a great sacrifice for you to be away from your families, but I want you to know that every American fami...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he has confidence in Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (mih-NOO'-shin), calling him a "very talented guy" and a "very smart person." Trump reiterated his view that the Federal Reserve is raising i...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German police say 20 people were injured, two of them seriously, when two horse-drawn carriages collided during a Christmas Day outing. The dpa news agency quoted police in southern Bavaria as saying the two carriages, e...

Sports contributed plenty of the same old agita this year — bad bets, empty boasts, taunts, tiffs and scuffles, plus the occasional riot — but its fair share of wry smiles, too. There were courageous losers, random acts of kindness and a handful of...

Oklahoma bucked expectations as enrollment on the federal health-care marketplace climbed to a record level for the upcoming year. Federal data released Wednesday showed about 150,000 Oklahomans signed up for health care coverage during the 45-day Af...

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) is accepting applications online for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The federally funded program helps income-eligible families with their winter heating b...

OKLAHOMA CITY – Almost $2 million in lost life insurance policies and annuities has been matched to Oklahomans in the last 12 months. The policies were found through the Life Insurance Policy Locator, a free nationwide database. The Oklahoma I...

The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) encourages the public to take safety precautions for upcoming winter weather. Proper planning can reduce the risk of injury and illness while also ensuring a family is prepared for a major winter...

DALLAS (AP) — Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables began his coaching career at Kansas State in the mid-1990s, trying to come up with ways to stop Nebraska's power option. The Cornhuskers were predictable, but often darn near unstoppable. S...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Oklahoma's Kyler Murray and Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa have struck up a friendship over the past several weeks, which shouldn't be surprising considering how much time the quarterbacks have spent alongside one another in t...

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A new program in Oklahoma that uses automatic license plate scanning technology to search for uninsured vehicles has identified about 2,100 possible violators in its first weeks of deployment. The program, which is the first of i...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Oklahoma quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray has missed his scheduled media availability at the Orange Bowl on Wednesday because of what the team says is an illness. Murray was able to go through p...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Gov. Jeff Colyer has declared a state of disaster in anticipation of a winter storm that's expected to hit western Kansas. Colyer's Wednesday declaration authorizes the use of state resources and workers to help affected a...

Happy Birthday To Dec. 27: George Leist Dec. 28: Mindy Snow, Bub McIver, Maria Fraire Dec. 29: Ethan West, Kevin Wares, Bill Burkhart, Paula Bradt, Donna Vogt, JoAnna Smith Dec. 30: Chris Stansberry, DeAnna Benn, Marie Hughes, Lauren Ledford Dec....