Teen star of YouTube’s Bratayley family dies at age 13

By Daina Beth Solomon LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Teen YouTube star Caleb Logan LeBlanc, part of the popular “Bratayley” family on YouTube known for posting humorous, wholesome daily videos, has died suddenly at age 13, his family and police said. LeBlanc died on Thursday in Maryland following a “medical emergency,” the Anne Arundel County Police Department said in a statement on Monday. “Responding officers arrived and observed a juvenile male patient suffering from an unknown medical emergency

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Minnesota dentist who killed Zimbabwe lion draws threats, protests

By David Bailey MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – Police in Minnesota are investigating reports of a threat against a dentist who killed Zimbabwe’s most famous lion just outside a national wildlife preserve, sparking a global firestorm of hate messages on social media. Demonstrators were gathering on Wednesday afternoon outside the suburban Minneapolis office of Walter Palmer, 55, an avid big game hunter, who said in a statement he regrets killing the huge cat known as Cecil on July 1. As of Tuesday, Palmer had temporarily closed his office, River Bluff Dental, in Bloomington, Minnesota, amid wishes for his death and widespread criticism of his hunting on social media and under business reviews on Google and Yelp.

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Facebook profit falls 9 percent as costs soar

Facebook Inc reported quarterly revenue that beat forecasts but its profit fell 9 percent as the social media company sharply increased spending to boost mobile revenue and future growth. “We're investing in the next set of services and what will be future investments like Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus,” Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said in an interview on Wednesday after the earnings report. Messenger has more than 700 million users, and the app has been downloaded more than 1 billion times on Android, Google Inc's mobile operating system, Facebook said

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Yelp needs help, and buyout may be the answer

Yelp, owner of consumer review website Yelp.com, reported a second-quarter loss on Tuesday and forecast revenue for the current quarter that was far below expectations. As of Tuesday's close, Yelp – now valued at about $1.8 billion – had already lost 39 percent of its value this year. Unless Yelp can come up with a strategy to boost its financial performance, the San Francisco-based company should consider selling itself, several analysts said.

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Penn State president says campus fraternity system may need ‘re-evaluation’

(Reuters) – Penn State University’s president says a re-evaluation of the school’s fraternity system may be needed after a fraternity was suspended for posting online photographs of nude women, some of them apparently unconscious. In a statement on Penn State’s website, President Eric Barron said he was “shocked and angered by the apparent disregard for not only the law, but also human dignity.” Barron called the images showing the women naked or partially clothed “highly inappropriate and disturbing.” The Kappa Delta Rho fraternity was suspended as of March 3, accused of hosting private Facebook pages and posting pictures that members took of mostly undressed women who were passed out or sleeping. “This evidence, which is still being gathered by the State College Police, is appalling, offensive and inconsistent with our community’s values

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‘Hot Mugshot Guy’ from California gets 27 months in prison

By Michael Fleeman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Jeremy Meeks, the California man whose mugshot became a sensation among Web users admiring his male-model good looks, has been sentenced to more than two years in prison on a gun charge, federal prosecutors said on Friday. Meeks, 30, was arrested last June in a gang crackdown in Stockton, California, and pleaded guilty in November to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to U.S

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California policeman who threatened protesters on Twitter put on leave

By Sharon Bernstein (Reuters) – A San Jose police officer who tweeted threatening messages to demonstrators protesting the police killings of unarmed black men has been placed on administrative leave, a spokeswoman for the department said Monday. The action comes amid ongoing protests nationwide over the deaths of Michael Brown, an unarmed teen shot to death by police in Missouri, and Eric Garner, who died after a New York officer placed him in a chokehold. …

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