Alan Greenblatt

This post was updated at 9 p.m. ET.

A U.S. judge says an order she gave late Monday to impound a tanker full of Kurdish oil off the coast of Galveston, Texas, cannot be enforced, Reuters reports. The tanker, carrying $100 million worth of oil from Iraq, was in ...

A probate judge has ruled that Donald Sterling cannot block the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Shelly Sterling, his estranged wife, had arranged in May to sell the NBA franchise to former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer for a record $2 billion.

Donald Sterling sued to block the ...

The House voted Monday to allow airlines to advertise lower prices for their routes.

The Transparent Airfares Act, which was approved with minimal debate, would overturn a 2012 rule that requires airlines to post the full price of tickets, including taxes and fees.

Shoppers are smart enough to ...

For the second time this summer, a federal appellate court has voted to strike down a ban on same-sex marriage.

A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a district court judge's decision that Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

"We do ...

Vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Nick Waterhouse has been called "the young man who makes old R&B" (LA Weekly). His first single, "Some Place," was recorded in an all-analog studio and released on vinyl. Although his records recall the sound of the 1950s, his style is all his own.

On this ...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday dismissed international calls for an immediate cease-fire in the country's conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

"We need to be prepared for a long operation until our mission is accomplished," Netanyahu said in televised remarks.

He defined that mission the same way Israeli officials ...

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Monday that it intends to fine Southwest Airlines $12 million for flying Boeing 737 airplanes without making proper repairs.

Beginning in 2006, Southwest began "extreme makeover" alterations to address cracking of aluminum skin on 44 jetliners, the FAA said in a news release.

...

For our World Cafe: Next this week we are featuring the music of Sam Morrow's debut album, Ephemeral. Morrow is from the South. He's in his early 20s. His songs are almost all influenced by his recent struggle with addiction and the insights of its aftermath. But by no means ...

A story that ran last Sunday on All Things Considered about a sixth-grader's science fair project has elicited not just criticism but controversy.

Since the student's project built on the work of scientists, she's been accused this week of being a "plagiarist" who "ripped off" earlier ...

Kevin Cooper was convicted of murdering a married couple and two children, and was sentenced to die.

That was back in 1985. Cooper is still awaiting execution on California's death row.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos, who is handling the case, blames the long delay on Cooper's multiple ...

Flowers may grow so incredibly high, as the Beatles once sang, but trees — not so much.

Actually, a pine tree planted in Los Angeles a decade ago to honor former Beatle George Harrison reached a height of 12 feet before succumbing recently.

To an infestation. Of beetles.

"No one ...

It used to be that if you were a public employee, you knew your pension benefits could not be touched.

That's no longer the case.

Pensions have been under political attack in recent years, with some politicians arguing they can't afford to fund generous retirements at the same time they're ...

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tells NPR the nation can't "absorb" all migrants fleeing violence and must secure its own border first. He dismissed potential 2016 rival Hillary Clinton as old news.

Alice Coachman Davis never entered the pantheon of breakthrough African-American sports heroes, like Jesse Owens or Wilma Rudolph. But she was a pioneer nonetheless.

In 1948, competing as Alice Coachman, she became the first African-American woman to win Olympic gold, breaking the U.S. and Olympic records in the high jump.

...

The U.S. Sentencing Commission on Friday voted unanimously to reduce terms for drug traffickers already in prison.

More than 46,000 drug offenders will be eligible for early release, unless Congress makes a move to stop the plan by Nov. 1.

On average, sentences could be reduced by more than ...

The BBC’s David Stern is in Eastern Ukraine and reports on how the Ukrainian government is responding to the downing of the jet.

He joins Here & Now’s Meghnan Chakrabarti with an update.

Guest

• David Stern, reporter for the BBC. He tweets @loydstern.

The strongest typhoon to hit China in years battered the island of Hainan on Friday.

Typhoon Rammasun killed 54 people as it passed across parts of the Philippines Wednesday and gained strength as it crossed the South China Sea.

It was categorized as a super typhoon by China ...

Amazon launched a new subscription service for e-books and audiobooks on Friday called Kindle Unlimited.

The service, which will cost subscribers $9.99 per month after a free initial 30-day trial, offers access to more than 600,000 e-books and about 2,000 audiobooks. The reading and listening experiences can be linked through ...

As part of World Cafe's Sense of Place: Iceland series, we were invited into the rehearsal space of the band Of Monsters and Men, which has been writing songs in preparation for a forthcoming album. During our time there, the group members spoke about the success of their 2012 ...

Pateros, a town of about 650 residents in north central Washington, emptied out Thursday night as wildfires continued to grow. One resident described it as looking like "the caldron of hell."