Nearly 7 million people have signed up for private insurance plans under President Barack Obama’s beleaguered health care law, reflecting a crush of enrollments just days before Monday’s deadline, the Chicago Tribune reports. The surge comes even after federal officials announced Tuesday evening that all consumers who have begun to apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov,…

A 35-year-old homeless Arizona mother who was arrested last week on felony child abuse charges after leaving her young children in a hot car while she went to a job interview, is receiving an outpouring of social media and financial support. Shanesha Taylor was arrested Thursday in Scottsdale, Ariz., after police said she left the…

Last week, the nation heard about 18-year-old Chad Thomas, a senior at Booker T. Washington Senior High in Miami, who received 150 scholarship offers for his prowess on the football field and ability to play nine instruments. This week brings Avery Coffey, a senior at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, D.C., who applied…

Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice married his longtime fiancee, Janay Palmer, Friday, just a day after he was indicted on third-degree assault charges for reportedly knocking her unconscious during an incident last month, the Baltimore Sun reports. The two have been receiving counseling and therapy, say Ravens officials, who have stayed in contact with…

A judge on Friday sentenced a former Florida A&M band member to one year in jail for his role in the brutal hazing death of Robert Champion, a drum major, the Associated Press reports. Circuit Court Judge Marc Lubet sentenced 22-year-old Jessie Baskin, to 51 weeks in county jail, five years’ probation and 300 hours of…

A project led by South African chemical giant SASOL threatens to erase the small community of Mossville, La., which was founded in 1790 by Jim Moss, a freed slave, Mother Jones reports. Over the past half-century, the small, predominantly African American unincorporated enclave on the outskirts of Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish, La., has been…

Police continued to search a sprawling park in Washington, D.C., for 8-year-old Relisha Tenau Rudd, saying they could not rule any possibility in the investigation that is now focused on a possible abductor wanted for the murder of his wife, CNN reports. Detectives began searching the aquatic gardens area of Kenilworth Park on Thursday after…

Seventeen-year-old Gregory Vied says he was suspended for flying a Confederate flag on his pickup truck, which was parked in a student lot at Steinert High School in Hamilton Township, N.J., Fox News reports. Vied told News12 he was suspended after many warnings from school administrators to remove it. He said that although he understands the history…

Some residents and business owners in New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood are still struggling to recover in the aftermath of a gas explosion that left eight people dead and flattened two 5-story apartment buildings about two weeks ago. At least 100 people were left homeless after the morning blast on Wed., March 12. And…