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On 18 February 2021, the Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero Crater on Mars. Since then, Perseverance has been exploring the region in search for evidence of past (and possibly present) life – much like its cousin, the Curiosity rover. This includes obtaining samples that will be placed in a cache and retrieved by a future ESA/NASA sample-return mission. These will be the first directly-retrieved samples of Martian rock and soil that will be analyzed in a laboratory on Earth, which are expected to reveal some tantalizing bits about the history of the red planet. But it appears that we don't need to wait on the sample-return mission since the Perseverance rover is already sending some surprising data back to Earth. According to a new study by a research team led by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Oslo, Perseverance's ground-penetrating radar detected that the rock layers beneath the crater are strangely inclined. These strange section...

A 25-year-old Beverly Hills man who paid a dark web group $13,000 in Bitcoin to murder a woman he briefly dated is to spend five years in federal prison for a scheme the victim said “will haunt me for the rest of my life.” Scott Quinn Berkett refused to leave the woman alone after she broke up him, then joined an internet group that advertised itself as a murder-for-hire service but instead provided his messages and other information to “members of an investigative media organization” who contacted the FBI, prosecutors said in court filings. “His words leave little doubt as to his desire and intent to see his ex-girlfriend murdered,” they wrote, adding in a sentencing memorandum that Berkett’s crime “was not a momentary lapse in judgment, but a premeditated plot to kill the Victim because she rejected his advances.” An Eagle Scout who briefly attended Washington State University, Berkett was working as a part-time software technician when federal agents arrested him in May 2021 after h...

A mother duped doctors and medical professionals into believing her daughter was suffering from debilitating illnesses before the child died. According to reports, she almost got away with murder after she allegedly orchestrated the 7-year-old’s death. That’s when the little girl spoke from the grave. Kelly Turner was arrested in connection to the death of her daughter Olivia Gant, whom Turner claimed suffered from several diseases, including a seizure disorder and a buildup of fluid in cavities within her brain, according to the indictment. At the time of her death, it was believed Olivia had succumbed to her alleged condition. The official cause of death was ruled intestinal failure. Sadly, that wasn’t the case at all. The 7-year-old endured more than 1,000 doctor visits and dozens of unnecessary surgeries before Turner allegedly put a “do not resuscitate” order in place and withdrew her daughter’s feeding tube and IVs. Withdrawing those treatments, which provided Olivia with nutrien...

Tyler Wesley, 19, was arrested after he allegedly broke into a room inside his own house and stole his roommate Monica's hookah. However, the case turned on its head when the teen's parents claimed they'd never seen a hookah in the house and blamed Monica for stealing their own fourt-feet-tall speaker. A Florida man was arrested after he allegedly broke into a room inside his own house to steal a hookah from his roommate, the Lee County Sheriff’s office said. The man identified as Tyler Wesley , 19, was arrested Saturday evening in Fort Myers city of the US after his roommate, Monica , dialled 911 to report him. Security camera footage from inside her room shows the teen trying to cover the camera with a cloth before dropping it and running away. The incident is only the latest in a series of conflicts to which deputies have responded at the house owned by Wesley’s parents after Monica moved in. “She is the sister of one of my ex-friends. She paid rent for like two month...

APPLETON - A Neenah teenager who shot and killed his grandparents at their home in Grand Chute in 2019 will serve at least 40 years of a life sentence. Alexander M. Kraus, now 20, showed little emotion in court Friday as Outagamie County Judge Mitchell Metropulos sentenced him to life in prison and ordered that he serve at least 40 years, minus the 3½ years he's already been in custody, before he can petition for supervised release. "Obviously, the severity of the offense is significant," Metropulos said, "as horrible of a crime as we have. Mr. Kraus killed his grandparents, and he killed both, one right after the other, and it was without mercy, and it was with intent, and it was well planned out." Kraus previously pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of Dennis Kraus, 74, and Letha Kraus, 73. "I loved my grandparents," Kraus told the court before sentencing. "I'm so sorry." The mandatory penalty...

As a brutal heat wave cooks the West in the run-up to Labor Day, California’s power grid manager is calling on electric vehicle owners to avoid charging at peak times. The request is part of a broader effort to keep the state’s grid up and running, while locals crank their air conditioners to outlast a streak of blazing-hot days. Through at least September 2 , the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) is asking residents to conserve energy by “setting thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, if health permits, avoiding use of major appliances and turning off unnecessary lights” from 4 to 9 p.m. Pacific. “They should also avoid charging electric vehicles” during that time frame, added the nonprofit, which oversees California’s grid and energy market. CAISO cautioned in a separate note that it may issue further calls to safeguard electricity “through the Labor Day weekend,” in response to triple-digit forecasts. The warning came as Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an emergency proclamatio...