Disaster

NASA engineers declare Kepler space telescope ‘stable’ a few days after the spacecraft slipped into Emergency Mode (EM). Scientists were surprised when the planet-hunting probe went into EM last week, putting the next phase of its mission to study the Milky Way into jeopardy. NPR reports: Kepler, which is currently nearly 75 million miles away from Earth, placed itself into Emergency Mode sometime in the middle of last week. But it wasn’t until a scheduled contact on Thursday that mission engineers discovered the problem.

A prank caller pretending to be from the fire department persuaded Burger King employees in Minnesota and Oklahoma to smash up their restaurants to stop the buildings from exploding. Mail Online reports: Posing as a fire department official, the caller convinced two outlets – one in Shawnee, OK, on Thursday; one in Coon Rapids, MN, on Friday – that there were perilously high levels of carbon monoxide filling up the buildings. The only way to save the place from exploding, they said, was to smash all the windows as quickly as possible.

Some people are taking issue with a very peculiar thing that may or may not be a coincidence. Just one day after the now infamous Panama Papers were released, the IRS headquarters caught on fire. Now it is closed all week for repairs. Was the IRS trying to hide something? The AP writes: The agency said in a news release Tuesday that Monday afternoon’s fire affected the air handling system. No one was hurt in the fire. The IRS says telework-ready employees are expected to telework from their approved location.

Just two days after the Panama Papers were leaked to the press the IRS headquarters in Washington announced that they will remain closed for one week following a fire in the basement.  Ap.org reports: IRS headquarters in Washington will remain closed for the rest of the week while repairs are made after a basement fire in the building. The agency said in a news release Tuesday that Monday afternoon’s fire affected the air handling system. No one was hurt in the fire. The IRS says telework-ready employees are expected to telework from their approved location.

A teenager drove her blue Honda through a stop sign killing two in a horror car crash and then goes on home later to boast about it on Facebook. The 18-year-old posted “im all over the news bad car crash 2 died,” on her Facebook page. The Telegraph reports: Brianna Longoria of Lancaster, California, was driving her blue Honda on Thursday afternoon with two friends as passengers. According to a KTLA report, Longoria was traveling at speed when she failed to stop at a junction and drove into another car carrying two men.