Death Toll in Italy Earthquake Hits 241
A massive earthquake that struck near Amatrice, Italy, on Wednesday has killed at least 241 people, and rescuers are continuing to search through the rubble in hopes of finding more survivors. Luigi D’Angelo of the country’s Civil Protection Department said past cases have shown that people can still be rescued alive after two days, “so we want to continue.” [CNN]
A Small Town Known for Its Signature Pasta Dish Is Now Rubble
Amatrice, where the classic pasta all’amatriciana was created, is “no more." Few buildings still stand, but the one of them is the 13th-century clock tower, frozen at 3:36 a.m. when the earthquake hit. [Washington Post]
Hope Solo Suspended For ‘Cowards’ Remarks at Olympics
U.S. Soccer terminated the contract of goalie Hope Solo and suspended her for six months after she called the Swedish women’s soccer team “a bunch of cowards” during the Rio Olympics. The federation’s president Sunil Gulati called the comments “unacceptable.”
“I could not be the player I am without being the person I am,” Solo responded.
The U.S. team was eliminated from the tournament after it lost to Sweden in the quarterfinals of the Rio Olympics on Aug. 12. [NPR and New York Times]
Orlando Hospitals Will Not Bill Pulse Nightclub Shooting Victims
Orlando hospitals that treated victims of the horrific Pulse nightclub massacre will not bill the patients, instead writing off an estimated $5.5 million or more in care. [Orlando Sentinel]
Hasidic Community Turns to Psychiatric and Hormone Drugs to Treat Adulterers, Masturbators and Homosexual Tendencies
Jewish doctors are relying on antidepressants or antipsychotics for teens who masturbate and people thinking of leaving their spouses in New York’s tight-knit religious Hasidic community, where strict rules of modesty are followed and marriages are often orchestrated. Narrative.ly follows the story of one man who had fallen in love with a Hasidic woman outside of his marriage. He was deemed a sexaholic and prescribed him with hormone shots. [Narrative.ly]
Few Shelter Workers Are Trained to Administer Opiate ‘Antidote’
Naloxone, also known as Narcan, the drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, is now legally sold in New York pharmacies, a move that advocates say will save countless lives. But in the city’s homeless shelters, where 30 percent of all deaths in fiscal year 2015 were from overdoses, few staffers have been trained to administer the lifesaving shot. [New York Times]
'How Guilty Should I Feel?'
As Gawker is shutting down, a deputy editor reflects on her sometimes uncomfortable relationship with journalism — a career, she says, that can “sometimes feel a whole lot like tattling.” [Gawker]
Pippa the Dog Lives to Fetch the Mail
An Australian postal worker has an unusual friendship with a dog in one of the neighborhoods he delivers to. Pippa the dog waits for him every day to grab the mail, and when there’s nothing to deliver, he quickly improvises by giving her a postage slip. The man took a photograph of one such day — he wrote “Mail for Pippa” and drew hearts on the slip. She was thrilled. [Huffington Post]
This column was compiled by DNAinfo reporters Gwynne Hogan, Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska, Eddie Small, Nikhita Venugopal, Shaye Weaver, Noah Hurowitz, Allegra Hobbs and Irene Plagianos.
