First Run News

With Amazon buying the high-end grocery chain Whole Foods, something retail analysts have known for years is now apparent to everyone: The online retailer is on a collision course with Walmart to try to be the predominant seller of pretty much everything you buy. Each one i

Shares of Walmart, Target, Kroger and Costco, the largest grocery retailers, all tumbled on Friday. And no wonder. Grocery stores have spent the last several years fighting against online and overseas entrants.

The Google Home personal assistant, a voice-activated speaker powered by Google Assistant, arrived in stores in November with some neat tricks for travelers: the ability to suggest nearby restaurants, translate foreign words, convert currency, track flight status and answer fact-based queries such as, “How much does Global Entry cost?” Roughly six months later, it’s doing things it couldn’t before, like tracking flight prices, giving directions and providi

The age-old questions. Is light a particle or a wave? Is Certs a breath mint or a candy mint? Is bridge a sport or a game? And now add this one: Is stand-up paddleboarding more like canoeing or more like surfing? This question, at least, is headed to mediation with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In stand-up paddle, athletes stand on a long, flat board.

Representative Steve Scalise, wounded by a gunman on a baseball field on Wednesday, is likely to endure multiple operations as surgeons try to stanch bleeding and repair the damage to his internal organs. Officials at MedStar Washington Hospital Center said that the bullet, fired from a rifle, entered Mr. Scalise’s left hip and tore across his pelvis, cracking bones and injuring internal organs. On Thursday, he underwent a second surgery for internal injuries and a broken leg.

WASHINGTON — The gunman who targeted Republican congressmen this week at a baseball field in suburban Washington was carrying a list with the names of at least three lawmakers, and had pictures of the ballpark stored on his cellphone, two law enforcement officials said on Friday. One of the officials said there were no explicit threats written on the list that was found on the body of Ja

TAUNTON, Mass. — For a case that had played out in thousands of text messages, what made Michelle Carter’s behavior a crime, a judge concluded, came in a single phone call. Just as her friend Conrad Roy III stepped out of the truck he had filled with lethal fumes, Ms. Carter told him over the phone to get back in the cab and then listened to him die without trying to help him. That command, and Ms.

TAUNTON, Mass. — For a case that had played out in thousands of text messages, what made Michelle Carter’s behavior a crime, a judge concluded, came in a single phone call. Just as her friend Conrad Roy III stepped out of the truck he had filled with lethal fumes, Ms. Carter told him over the phone to get back in the cab and then listened to him die without trying to help him. That command, and Ms.

ST. PAUL — The images had transfixed people around the world: A woman live-streaming the aftermath of a police shooting of her boyfriend, Philando Castile, and narrating the searing, bloody scene that was unfolding around her. On Friday, a jury here acquitted the Minnesota police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, of all charges in shooting, which happened in July 2016 and left Mr. Castile dead, raising the national debate over police conduct toward black people. Officer Yanez, an officer for the suburb of St.

ST. PAUL — The images had transfixed people around the world: A woman live-streaming the aftermath of a police shooting of her boyfriend, Philando Castile, and narrating the searing, bloody scene that was unfolding around her. On Friday, a jury here acquitted the Minnesota police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, of all charges in shooting, which happened in July 2016 and left Mr. Castile dead, raising the national debate over police conduct toward black people. Officer Yanez, an officer for the suburb of St.