(NEXSTAR) – Looking up at the night sky, you might not see anything special this weekend. But use your phone camera, and it could be a whole different scene. In a Friday media briefing on the incoming powerful solar storm, space weather experts said auroras – also called the northern lights – may be visible as far south as Alabama and Northern California Friday and Saturday nights. The further north you are, the better your chances are of seeing the colorful phenomenon. But people further south aren't totally out of luck. If the skies are clear, try pointing your phone camera up, suggested Mic ..read more

(The Hill) — Fewer Americans believe former President Trump’s New York hush money trial will end in a conviction, according to a YouGov/Economist survey released Thursday.  The dip, seen from respondents from both sides of the aisle, is in comparison to a similar poll last month.  Around 39 percent of Democrats said in late April that Trump would be convicted. Now, the number stands at 34 percent. With independents, 21 percent believed in the conviction late last month; it is at 17 percent in new survey. With GOP voters, that belief dropped from 17 percent to 14 percent.  ..read more

LAKE WALES, Fla. (WFLA) — When Jennifer Williams got to her Lake Wales, Florida, school Thursday morning, it was not a pretty sight. The agriculture instructor and Future Farmers of America (FFA) advisor said what she saw looked like "a massacre." “There were just dead rabbits everywhere, dead chickens everywhere," said the Bok Academy North teacher. "It was unreal ..read more

The above video shows hail falling in Johnson City, Texas, on May 9, 2024. AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) – After two large supercell thunderstorms wreaked havoc across multiple Central Texas counties on Thursday, viewers of Nexstar's KXAN began sending in videos and photos of the extreme weather they experienced this week. Some of the photos showed fist-sized balls of hail that had torn through roofs, windshields and metal siding ..read more

(NEXSTAR) – For the first time since 2005, Earth is bracing to be hit by a powerful, G4 geomagnetic storm. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) expects the arrival of at least five coronal mass ejections — or CMEs — as soon as Friday evening. The SWPC rates the strength of solar storms on a G scale, from G1 to G5. There have been a few weak G4s already this year (which have created stunning aurora borealis displays), but the last time a "significant" G4 happened was in January 2005. "Severe levels is pretty extraordinary," Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at SWPC, said in a m ..read more

(NEXSTAR) – Cold Stone Creamery’s pistachio-flavored ice cream is at the center of a proposed class-action lawsuit which alleges that the flavor’s description is misleading — as it contains no actual pistachio. Cold Stone’s parent company, Kahala, had previously filed a motion to dismiss, though the request was denied by a judge in the Eastern District of New York last week. “[This case] raises a deceptively complex question about the reasonable expectations of plaintiff and like-minded ice cream aficionados,” wrote Judge Gary R. Brown in his May 2 decision. The plaintiff, according to court d ..read more

DENVER (KDVR) – A man who tried to sexually assault a woman at a park in Fort Collins, Colorado, was bit on the face by a dog, with authorities later arresting him, according to police. Police said a woman was "crying and telling a male to get off of her" when she called 911 Sunday evening, according to a release from Fort Collins Police Services ..read more

(WTNH) -- A Connecticut dog recovery organization has issued a warning to pet owners: Missing dogs are being found with altered appearances. "It didn't even look like the same dog," said Melanie Heltke, with the Connecticut Dog Gone Recovery Volunteer Network. "There was a white dog that was completely shaved, so you didn't even know it was the same dog." Inside a makeshift shelter saving hundreds of dogs from floods in southern Brazil Heltke, a volunteer with the group, said there have been several incidents across the state in recent weeks in which missing dogs have been found with thei ..read more

(NEXSTAR) – A new name has cracked into the top 10 list of the most popular baby names in the U.S. The Social Security Administration released its annual list of most popular names Friday using 2023 data. The agency tracks names dating back to 1880, gathering the names from applications for Social Security cards. 2023's top contenders don't look all that different from last year — Liam and Olivia still reign supreme for boys and girls, respectively — but there is one newcomer to the list: Mateo moved up five spots to become the sixth most popular boy name in 2023 ..read more

(NEXSTAR) — Just like some will get an extra paycheck in May, some Social Security recipients will get two checks this month. It’s all because of a quirk in the Social Security Administration’s payment schedule. A few times a year, two Supplemental Security Income (SSI) checks will go out in a month instead of the usual one. May happens to be the first of three double-payment months of 2024. The first SSI check went out on May 1, according to the agency’s calendar. The final check will go out on May 31.  This doesn’t mean recipients are flush with extra funds. Because of May’s double paym ..read more