* Oregon may be the driest state in the country, with 70% of the state in extreme drought. * California is currently experiencing its largest forest fire, which has burned through 160 square miles of the San Joaquin Valley. * Six brush fires alone were sparked by lightning in LA County yesterday. * EU
* Freddie Gray's family to receive a $6.4 million wrongful-death settlement from the city of Baltimore. * The Freddie Gray settlement is more than the $5.7 million Baltimore paid in total from 2011 to 2014 in police brutality lawsuits. * Some experts believe taking misconduct settlements out of
* Following the entry of 20,000 migrants into Germany, Merkel implores EU to accept its fair share of asylum seekers. * The child of a "guest worker" in Germany in the '90s knows how short-lived the goodwill can be. * As Europe struggles with one of its largest
* Families are stranded in a Budapest train station as Europe and Hungary accuse each other of a humanitarian crisis. * The dangerous symbiosis between smugglers, migrants, and saviors plays out in the drama of a rescue on the Mediterranean. * Hungary: This is "not a European problem. This is a German
* Barbara Mikulski's support pushed Obama's Iran deal over the top, the culminating step in a well-laid plan. * Republicans are eyeing how to delay implementation of the Iran Deal, or use it as a wedge issue against Democrats in 2016. * China celebrates Japan's WWII
* Dennis Hale from "The Gales of November" died today—nearly 49 years after surviving the next-to-last Great Lakes shipwreck. * The migrant crisis: Germany welcomes with water and documentation; Budapest overwhelmed, closes train station. * Which European nations are letting in refugees. * Unpaid political ads—e.g., Trump&
* To catch up to Russia in the Arctic, Obama proposes Coast Guard icebreakers to operate year-round. * An interview with Goosebumps creator RL Stine. * After years of decline, murders are up in US cities; cited reasons include rivalries, more guns, and unaggressive policing. * Doctors rebuke police after patient is shot
* Concerned it might break anti-terrorism laws, the British Library passes on Taliban documents. * French court orders disability allowance for electromagnetism sufferer whose symptoms are blamed on gadgets. * Seeking parole, jailed New York fortunetellers say the psychic industry is a scam. * Obama officially changes the name of America's
* Sixty years ago today, two white men killed Emmett Till—and the Civil Rights Movement began. * "They used to say that the little LA (Louisiana) had a direct line to the big LA (Los Angeles)." * Two extra days in jail is all it takes to turn a petty
* China is investigating 23 people it says are responsible for the Tianjin explosions. * To save New Orleans, the Mississippi River mouth must be abandoned, say engineering and design teams. * New in German vernacular: "Merkeln," which means "to do nothing, make no decisions, issue no statements." * To
