Mark Memmott

Stephen "Stippo" Rakes, who claimed that notorious Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger forced him — at gunpoint — to sell a liquor store in 1984, was found dead Wednesday in Lincoln, Mass.

According to the Middlesex (Mass.) District Attorney's office, "there were no obvious signs of trauma. ...

Newspapers have done it.

Magazines too.

Now there's another very symbolic sign of how numbered the days seem to be for much of the "print" media:

The University of Maryland's American Journalism Review "will end production of its print edition and launch a redesigned ...

"Senators have reached a bipartisan deal to restore lower interest rates on student borrowers," The Associated Press reports, citing "Republican and Democratic aides who insist on anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the ongoing negotiations by name."

According to the wire service, "the breakthrough came Wednesday, ...

If you've seen stories in the past few days about Cleveland's Charles Ramsey supposedly being out of work, broke and homeless, then you'll want to read this update that has word from the man himself:

"Charles Ramsey, the man who helped to rescue Amanda Berry, Gina ...

One day after his two years in limbo ended and he was confirmed by the Senate as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray told NPR that though political bickering held up his nomination he now believes he has bipartisan support for the bureau's work.

"It ...

The Proceedings of the Royal Society politely refers to it as a "short-snouted horned dinosaur."

National Geographic is less reserved and gets right to the obvious point: "Paleontologists have discovered a new dinosaur, a Triceratops relative with a supersize schnoz that once roamed present-day Utah."

Part I of the news from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday was Chairman Ben Bernanke's signal to the financial markets that the central bank won't be shifting away from its "easy money" policy just yet.

Part II was just released. In its latest "Beige Book" review ...

"It is with a heavy heart that we share with all of you that Talia has earned her wings at 11:22am."

That was the sad news Tuesday on the Angels for Talia Facebook page, where those touched by 13-year-old Talia Joy Castellano could follow her story.

The Los ...

This will only take a minute and it just may make you smile.

Check the latest in a series of videos from a Japanese tinkerer who likes to make little robots do some crazy gymnastics. As CNET says, Hinamitetu (the robot in the latest clip) "may be the ...

Two envelopes filled with cash. A hidden camera. The office of a high-profile politician.

Sounds like a John Grisham novel.

The end result? Maybe not so dramatic.

As NPR's Tamara Keith tells us:

A now-former staffer for Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has been arrested for allegedly stealing cash ...

An autopsy shows that actor Cory Monteith was killed by "a mixed drug toxicity ... heroin, primarily, and also alcohol," the British Columbia coroner's office announced Tuesday afternoon.

Coroner Barbara McLintock released that conclusion in a short video her office posted on YouTube.

As we wrote ...

Liz Cheney, the elder of former Vice President Dick Cheney's two daughters, a former State Department official and a conservative commentator who's often on Fox, is going to challenge Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi in next year's Republican primary.

According to The Associated Press, Cheney, 46, confirmed what had ...

Saying that "it's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods," Attorney Gen. Eric Holder on Tuesday called for a reexamination of so-called stand your ground laws.

It was just such a law that hovered over the trial of

There are obviously more provocative things being written and said about the death of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of George Zimmerman than we could ever hope to keep up with.

For instance, today there's been Richard Cohen's Washington Post opinion piece, which he ...

We've all read stories about languages that are dying.

Here's a completely different tale: University of Michigan linguistics professor Carmel O'Shannessy says she's found a language that was born just a few decades ago.

It's "Light Warlpiri," which as our colleagues at Michigan Radio ...

One of the odder stories of the day is that of 61-year-old Michael Boatwright, "a Florida man who awoke speaking only Swedish, with no memory of his past, after he was found unconscious four months ago at a Southern California motel," as The Associated Press writes.

Now,

(Most recent update: 9:40 p.m ET.)

The microphones are ready. The cameras are in position. The reporters are poised.

As The Associated Press says, with "a showdown looming," Republicans and Democrats are meeting Monday evening to see if they can reach a compromise over stalled White ...

While on vacation Monday at Florida's Seagrove Beach, east of Pensacola, NPR's Russell Lewis snapped a photo that's been picking up quite a few retweets. It wasn't "Sharknado II," but does seem to have caught folks' interest. He sent us this dispatch about his ...

Looking ahead after the not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin — a case that reignited the national discussion about race relations:

-- No Federal Case? "Former federal prosecutors are telling me that they don't expect ...

Imagine:

You're a huge Dave Matthews fan. As you're going to his band's show Saturday in Hershey, Pa., you see a guy standing by the side of the road next to a bike with a flat tire.

Do you stop to help?

Well, when you see that it's Dave himself, ...