Bill Chappell

Criminal background checks and assurances that a person "is competent to be a journalist" are among the requirements put forth by State Rep. Mike Pitts in a new bill in South Carolina's Legislature. The bill would also create a responsible journalism registry.

Titled the South Carolina Responsible Journalism Registry ...

It's not rare for a year to break record temperatures. But it's now happened two years in a row — and 2015 was "very, very clearly the warmest year by a long chalk," says Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

NASA is presenting the annual ...

Five days after two Marine Super Stallion helicopters crashed off of Oahu's North Shore, Coast Guard officials in Hawaii have called off an unsuccessful search for survivors. Search teams found only wreckage; they've now begun a salvage and recovery mission.

Capt. Jim Jenkins, chief of staff and acting commander of ...

A fire that engulfed a 63-story hotel in Dubai on New Year's Eve was started by an electrical short-circuit, police forensic experts say. The blaze turned The Address Downtown Dubai hotel, in the United Arab Emirates, into a spectacle that rivaled the city's fireworks display.

No deaths were caused ...

Security forces are now in control of a university in Pakistan, hours after militants stormed the campus firing on students and teachers. Officials are still tallying the casualties; so far, at least 20 people are reported dead.

The four attackers died in the gun battle that followed the attack, according ...

"This is all still surreal," says Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine who's one of four Americans released by Iran this past weekend. Freed after more than four years of imprisonment, Hekmati says he feels like he's been born again.

Speaking from Landstuhl, Germany, Hekmati also thanked those who ...

"I am an academy member and it doesn't reflect me," actor David Oyelowo said last night, rebuking the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for again failing to nominate black performers.

Speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award Gala in Los Angeles, Oyelowo asked those present to ...

For more than two hours Tuesday, Twitter was largely unavailable, with users around the world unable to log in to the service. Some of those problems have now been resolved. The company hasn't provided details about what went wrong; some features were still presenting problems Tuesday morning.

Service seemed to ...

Not since China faced international sanctions over the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has its economy grown at such a slow pace: just below 7 percent last year. Investors had expected the results, and now they're looking to Chinese policymakers to enact a stimulus plan.

China's growth dipped to 6.8 percent ...

In Hawaii, the Coast Guard is leading a large search for 12 service members who were believed to be aboard two Marine heavy-lift helicopters that collided overnight. The incident occurred off the coast of Oahu.

So far, there's no word of any potential surivors. We'll update this post with news ...

Citing concerns over pricing and pollution, the Obama administration on Friday unveiled a moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands. The change won't affect existing leases, which generated nearly $1.3 billion for the government last year.

The Department of the Interior says it wants to make sure the money ...

Police carried out raids and made several arrests in Indonesia on Friday, as the country tried to find anyone who helped five terrorists carry out Thursday's deadly attack in downtown Jakarta. State police say they suspect an Indonesian man allied with ISIS planned the attack from Syria.

"Police raided several ...

One day after the West Africa region that suffered a two-year Ebola epidemic was declared free of the deadly disease, Sierra Leone has confirmed another death from Ebola. The World Health Organization says there's still a risk of more flare-ups.

Officials are now trying to trace any contacts the person ...

The competitors in the 2016 Oscars race were announced Thursday, in an event that was live-streamed from California. The winners will be announced on Feb. 28.

The most nominations went to The Revenant, with 12, followed by Mad Max: Fury Road, with 10. The Martian was cited seven times, and ...

British actor Alan Rickman, a veteran of dozens of films, has died at age 69. Recently, Rickman was most well-known for portraying the complicated villain Severus Snape in the films based on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books.

"Rickman had been suffering from cancer," The Guardian reports.

Rickman appeared in ...

Attackers set off explosions inside or near a Starbucks in a busy shopping area in Indonesia's capital city Thursday, killing at least seven people — including five attackers — and injuring more than a dozen others, according to police and officials. In the hours since the assault, people in Jakarta ...

News that the NFL's owners approved a plan to move the St. Louis Rams back to Los Angeles next season is causing excitement in California — and bitter dismay in St. Louis, where fans and officials alike say they feel betrayed.

As Laura reported for the Two-Way last night, ...

Jérôme Valcke, a longtime ally to suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter, has been dismissed from his post as the secretary general of soccer's world governing body.

Valcke was initially suspended from his post by FIFA's ethics committee last fall, following allegations that he was involved in a scheme to ...

Less than 24 hours after reports of their detention emerged, 10 U.S. Navy personnel have been freed by Iran. The sailors left an Iranian naval base on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday morning, along with the boats they were operating when they were taken into custody.

"There ...

The California Air Resources Board has rejected Volkswagen's plan to recall cars with 2-liter diesel engines that trick emissions tests, saying the company's plan is incomplete. The Environmental Protection Agency says it concurs.

The move comes one week after the EPA filed a civil complaint against VW in federal ...