During his 2008 presidential campaign, President Obama stopped and spoke at an Ohio factory. The factory has since shut down and has remained that way. So, the Romney campaign thought it the perfect setting for a speech Thursday. Romney blamed President Obama's economic policies for the factory's demise (even though it closed while George W. Bush was still in office) and argued that the fact that it hadn't reopened "underscores the failure of the president's policies to get this country working today."

The lawyer for Trayvon Martin’s family announced Thursday that they turned down a personal meeting with George Zimmerman proposed by his lawyer, Mark O’Mara. Natalie Jackson, the lawyer, said that she received a phone call from Mr. O’Mara but the family opted out, deciding to only discuss the case with officials and the media. Zimmerman could be out of jail as early as Friday if Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. grants his bail request. Zimmerman’s attorneys are expected to argue that the shooter is neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community, even though he was arrested for assaulting an officer in 2005.

As many as four U.S. service members may have died in a helicopter crash in southwestern Afghanistan Thursday. In the official announcement, the American military command in Kabul said that there were no confirmed reports of deaths “at this time,” but two U.S. defense officials said that the Black Hawk helicopter was carrying four U.S. troops and that they “don’t expect” that any of them survived. Weather may have played a role in the crash, though enemy action has not been ruled out.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday the Obama administration has confidence in Mark Sullivan, the director of the Secret Service, even though 11 agents are under investigation for consorting with prostitutes while on official business in Colombia last week. Carney added that the president’s security was never in jeopardy in Cartagena. Three agents have left the service–one resigned, one was fired, and one retired–but the episode has been an embarrassing spell for the otherwise well-regarded Secret Service institution.

The FBI and the NYPD on Thursday searched a basement of a New York City apartment building in search of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who went missing in 1979 and captivated the nation. Patz disappeared after leaving his home on May 25, 1979, and has never been found. The basement is about 200 feet from where the Patz family lived, and NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said while the basement has been searched before, there is drywall there that wasn’t there in 1979. Two law-enforcement officials told NBC New York that there is a possible new suspect in the case.

His goal, apparently, was to kill everyone on the island. In the ongoing trial—or, as some critics would call it, “pulpit”—for Norway shooter Anders Behring Breivik, the confessed killer revealed that he wanted to capture former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland during the Utøya island massacre. Breivik said he was going to film himself cutting off her head and post the video on the Internet. Fortunately, Brundtland had left the island before the shooting.

During a campaign fundraiser on Wednesday at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, President Obama boarded the historic bus where Rosa Parks famously stood up for civil rights. Speaking to reporters at another fundraiser in Detroit, the president said he took a moment to reflect on the “courage and tenacity that is part of our very recent history.” He added that the bus is also a monument to other people who didn’t necessarily “make the history books” but who never lost sight of the American Dream. He stressed that it takes “ordinary citizens to bring about change…and keep inching this country closer to our highest ideals.”

Penn State has paid $5.7 million to Joe Paterno’s estate, honoring terms of a contract that had been agreed to in August 2011. Despite terminating Paterno as a coach in November, the board of trustees intended to honor his contract as if he had retired at the end of the 2011 season. The benefits and payments totaled $5.76 million, which have now been paid to his estate. “That contract recognized coach Paterno’s decades-long contributions to our football program and to the entire university,” a Penn State spokesman said.

Measles in the United States reached a 15-year high in 2011, with 222 reported cases, a study by the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases stated Thursday. Ninety percent of the cases could be tracked to other countries. Until last year, there had been only about 60 cases per year between 2001 and 2010. Last year had the highest number since 1996, when there were 508 cases. The NCIRD director said: “We don’t have to have this much measles. Measles is preventable. Unvaccinated people put themselves and other people at risk for measles and its complications.”

Francis Lawrence, director of I Am Legend, has been tapped as the director of the second installment of The Hunger Games, replacing Gary Ross, who is reportedly busy with another film. Multiple reports today speculated that the race was down to Lawrence and Bennett Miller, who did Moneyball, but a source involved with the negotiations says definitively that the job has gone to Lawrence.

A small Cessna crashed into the Gulf of Mexico Thursday after two F-15 fighter jets tried to make contact with it. The military pilots said the Cessna’s windshield was iced over and the pilot was unresponsive. The FAA lost contact with the aircraft, which was flying from Louisiana to Florida’s west coast Thursday morning. Only one person was believed to be aboard the aircraft, and there were no signs that the pilot survived the crash even though the plane was intact and floating right-side-up in the water.

The Vatican is not happy with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest and most influential group of Catholic nuns in the United States. Among the problematic behavior: challenging church teaching on homosexuality and male-only priesthood, promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith,” opposing the bishops by supporting President Obama’s health-care overhaul, and focusing too much on poverty and economic injustice. The Vatican has appointed an American bishop to take charge of the conference.

Jonathan Frid, the actor who played the vampire Barnabas Collins on ABC’s Dark Shadows from 1966 through 1971 died last Friday of natural causes, USA Today reports. Frid, who was 87, also starred in other 1970s horror films, and has a cameo in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows remake—his final acting credit—which hits theaters May 4 and stars Johnny Depp as Collins. Kathryn Leigh Scott paid tribute to her Dark Shadows costar and friend of “more than 40 years” on her website, crediting him for being the “whole reason why kids ran home from school to watch Dark Shadows.”

She belted out hits at a cancer benefit in Beverly Hills last night, but Rihanna’s lips remain sealed over the controversial photo she tweeted yesterday that shows her “cutting up” a white powdery substance on top of a man’s head at the Coachella music festival. Rihanna tweeted two pictures of herself on a man’s shoulders and a third close-up shot of the white powder on his head with a caption that read, “Memories don’t live like people do #coachella." Her fans immediately reacted to the suggestive image, with some discussing on a fan site whether she was doing cocaine. Rihanna later tweeted, “I’m crazy and I don’t pretend to be anything else.”

A Canadian man accused of posing as Justin Bieber and coercing a 12-year-old girl from New Jersey to perform sex acts online may have victims in up to five countries, ABC News reports. Lee Moir, 34, was nabbed when an undercover Toronto officer pretending to be a young girl arranged to meet him. Prosecutors say Moir, who is already facing child-pornography charges, started an online relationship with the New Jersey girl, demanded she perform lewd acts on camera, and then threatened her and her family by saying he would post the videos on porn websites. Investigators say Moir may have been in contact with girls in Canada, Australia, France, and the Philippines.

Ted Nugent is set to meet with the Secret Service Thursday, and if his outspoken ways of recent past are any indicator, he will have a lot to say. Nugent made eyebrow-raising comments at last weekend’s NRA gathering, saying if Obama was elected in November, Nugent would be “either dead or in jail by this time next year.” The comments sparked online outrage and caught the attention of the Secret Service, which scheduled a meeting with the musician. Nugent defended his actions Wednesday, saying: “I’ve never threatened anybody’s life in my life. I’ve never threatened. I don’t waste breath threatening.”

Better known as the JetBlue pilot who freaked out during a five-hour cross country flight last month, Clayton Osbon will be pleading insanity at his upcoming trial. His lawyer, Dean Roper, filed federal court documents indicating that Osbon was insane at the time of the Mar. 27 incident. Osbon was piloting an Airbus 320 en route from New York to Las Vegas when he announced on the PA system that "things just don't matter" and "we're not going to Vegas!" He left the cockpit and began running up and down the aisle, but was subdued by passengers before he could return to the controls.

The judge overseeing the Trayvon Martin case has stepped aside at the request of George Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark O’Mara. O’Mara requested Monday that Judge Jessica Recksiedler recuse herself because a law partner of her husband’s will be analyzing the case for CNN. Last week Recksiedler disclosed that Zimmerman had asked her husband’s partner to take the case. He recommended O’Mara instead. Zimmerman has remained in jail since his arrest and has a bail hearing scheduled for Friday.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Syria has agreed to rules governing U.N. monitors, and an agreement is expected to be signed in Damascus. Earlier, Annan accused the nation of failing to keep to the U.N. peace plan. After a brief lull, violence is once again escalating. He also criticized Syria for not releasing detainees, not negotiating humanitarian access, and not allowing U.N. observers into Homs.The agreement calls for more observers, an increase in the current team of 30 to 300.

Democrats were up in arms Wednesday night in the state of Ohio as they claim that the Republican party there has made a move to block funding for Planned Parenthood in that state. State Sen. Nina Turner took to the steps of the state capitol to claim that language used in a budget-review bill is an effort to cut off “poor urban and rural areas” from accessing Planned Parenthood. But the bill’s author disagrees, countering that the language doesn’t mention Planned Parenthood, but instead funnels federal dollars to stand-alone, local agencies. 


New Year's Eve will never be the same again. Longtime host of New Year's Rockin’ Eve, Dick Clark, died this morning, outlets are reporting, after suffering what was said to be a “massive heart attack.” Clark, who was 82, suffered a stroke in 2004, forcing him off the famous show he created in 1972. He has been a cohost of the show ever since. Clark had revealed in 2004, prior to his stroke, that he had Type 2 diabetes.

C’est McBaguette. McDonald’s rolled out a new hamburger sandwich called the McBaguette in France on Thursday in an appeal to the famous French tastes. It’s a French twist on the iconic McDonald’s hamburger: two hamburger patties, some lettuce, and French mustard, but in a roll that looks like the classic French baguette. Although the French are lining up to try it, traditional baguette bakers are wary about the McBaguette, saying it could threaten their industry.

India launched a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday morning local time. The missile, which can reach points as far away as China and Europe, is able to carry a nuclear warhead. Defense officials in India had delayed the missile’s Wednesday launch because of lightning, setting it for the next morning. The Agni-V missile has a range of 3,100 miles and is a “quantum leap in India’s strategic capability,” a Indian defense department spokesman said. The government confirmed that the launch was a success.

Would Condi and Mitt make a good team? Republicans and conservative independents seem to think so, according to a new CNN poll released Wednesday in which former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice earned the most votes for preferred vice president (26 percent). Rick Santorum was second choice with 21 percent of the vote, while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tied for third with 14 percent. Thirty-six percent of voters who didn’t consider themselves Tea Partiers voted for Rice, who has repeatedly said she’s not interested in the job.

British police nabbed The Sun’s royal editor and two other people in a dawn raid. The editor, Duncan Larcombe, was arrested on suspicion of paying a public official for information. Scotland Yard says the arrests were based on information obtained from News Corporation’s management-standards committee, which Rupert Murdoch set up after the hacking scandal at News of the World. The Sun is one of Murdoch’s remaining British papers. With the new arrests, more than 50 people have been arrested in the investigation into phone hacking, computer hacking, and payments to public officials.

There could be a lot more drone strikes in Yemen soon, if the CIA has its way. The agency is requesting permission to strike targets in the country based only on suspicious behavior, such as surveillance showing militants gathering at al Qaeda compounds or unloading explosives. The problem, say critics, is that al Qaeda is closely linked to the antigovernment opposition fighters, and it’s hard to tell the difference. If the CIA gets it wrong, the U.S. could be seen as taking sides in a civil war.

At least 30 people were killed and more than 100 injured Thursday in 12 bombings in Baghdad and other northern Iraq cities, officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but a Baghdad military spokesman said al Qaeda was behind them. In the wake of the first major attacks in Iraq in more than a month, many worried that insurgents are on a campaign to undermine the Shiite-led government. Sunni lawmakers blamed Iraq’s political wrangling for the deteriorating security, and a Kurdish regional leader has called Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government a dictatorship.

Regarding this news brief, we apologize in advance to those who have been sucking down Starbucks’s strawberry frappuccinos. The world’s largest coffee chain announced Wednesday that it will discontinue its use of cochineal extract, derived from beetles, to color its drinks and pastries after more than 6,500 people signed a petition requesting Starbucks stop using insects in their ingredients, arguing that it’s not vegan (for soy versions) and that consumers “don’t want crushed bugs in their designer drinks.” The company’s U.S. president, Cliff Burrows, said the bug extract will be replaced with a tomato-based extract in its strawberry drinks and red-colored pastries by June. 

At least three Secret Service members are being shown the door over the Colombia scandal—and the Secret Service director said Thursday that more resignations are expected. The agency announced that one will be fired, another will retire, and a third has been recommended for firing but will be allowed to appeal. Eight others have been placed on administrative leave and had their security clearances revoked. Eleven Secret Service employees and 10 military personnel are under investigation for soliciting prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, two days before President Obama arrived for a summit. One ousted agent may be filing a lawsuit.

Hunter Moore, one of the most hated people on the Internet, is apparently trying to use his high profile for good. The founder of the “revenge porn” site Is Anyone Up? announced today that his privacy-invading site is down for good. In a letter posted on BullyVille, the site to which isanyoneup.com now links, Moore explained that he couldn’t take “all the legal drama” and had come to realize “the damage that online bullying can cause.” He now plans to use his “talents in the programming and social networking world” in a “positive” way, namely by organizing wild parties that benefit charities.

The Band’s singer and drummer Levon Helm died Thursday at the age of 71, his former bandmate has confirmed. Helm had been battling throat cancer since the late ‘90s and had recently canceled his upcoming shows due to the progressing illness. Born in Arkansas in 1940, Helm joined a backup band of Ronnie Hawkins, and met a group of musicians that would eventually form The Band. The musicians broke from Hawkins and formed their own group, and their association with Bob Dylan helped capitulate them to fame. Diagnosed with throat cancer in the early 1990s, Helm underwent 28 radiation treatments and eventually recovered his voice.

The woman believed to be at the center of the Secret Service Colombian sex scandal appears to have moved out of her apartment. Neighbors believe she was the woman who got into a heated argument with one of the agents at a Cartagena hotel over payment for sex, prompting police to intervene. Eleven agents and 10 military members are now under investigation for their involvement. The woman, who has been described as a 24-year-old Colombian, took her son with her but sent a neighbor to pick up her dog.

The Afghan government has condemned the photos of U.S. soldiers posing with the mangled remains of Afghan suicide bombers, with President Karzai denouncing the images in a statement as “inhuman” and “disgusting” and calling for a swift transition from NATO to Afghan security to prevent “any bad actions by foreign troops.” The pictures have drawn attention to a perceived breakdown in leadership and discipline during the war and heightened tensions between the U.S. and Afghanistan as the Obama administration pushes to sign a strategic deal with Karzai on foreign presence in the country. Meanwhile, the Taliban has vowed to seek revenge against U.S. troops in the country. 

George Zimmerman could be freed on Friday. He has been in jail for the murder of Trayvon Marin, but his lawyer said he could be freed after tomorrow’s bond hearing. “[To keep him in jail] the state would need to establish that the defendant is both a flight risk and a danger to the community—and there is little or no evidence to support such allegations,” one expert said. Bond is likely to be $1,000 or more, and Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara added, “I just hope we can get my client out to some place safely. There have been threats on his life.” Meanwhile, a task force was formed by the Florida governor to review the Stand Your Ground law that has been brought to light because of the case.

That didn’t take too long. The Secret Service announced yesterday that three agents had left the agency in different ways following a prostitution scandal in Colombia but did not reveal their names. CBS News is now reporting that supervisor David Chaney was allowed to retire, and supervisor Greg Stokes was fired, though he has the option to appeal that decision. The third agent resigned, and his name has not been made public. The incident, which is being investigated, embroiled 11 agents and 10 military members in total.