TV News LIES

The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded two weeks ago, killing 14 people and injuring about 200, was a repeat target of theft by intruders who tampered with tanks and caused the release of toxic chemicals, police records reviewed by Reuters show.

Police responded to at least 11 reports of burglaries and five separate ammonia leaks at West Fertilizer Co over the past 12 years, according to 911 dispatch logs and criminal offense reports Reuters obtained from the McLennan County Sheriff's office in Waco, Texas through an Open Records Request.

The Pentagon has beefed up its biggest "bunker buster" bomb so it can destroy Iran's most heavily armed and protected nuclear site, U.S. officials said.

The administration believes the enhanced Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the Pentagon's largest conventional bomb, will decrease the chances Israel will launch a unilateral bombing campaign against Iran, at least for this year and maybe next year too, the officials told The Wall Street Journal.

Rhode Island became the 10th U.S. state to embrace marriage equality, following a procedural vote in the House of Representatives and independent governor Lincoln Chafee's signature on the Marriage Equality Act today.

Chafee had a message for LGBT Rhode Islanders in a speech on the steps of the State Capitol in Providence, where he signed the bill: "At long last, you are free to marry the person you love."

The sheriff in this county of beaches and spaceships has launched a very visible anti-crime campaign that civil-rights activists are questioning.

For the past few weeks, a small band of convicted inmates from Brevard County Jail has been working on a chain gang. First-year Sheriff Wayne Ivey says he launched the project as a sort of living and breathing public service announcement, choosing black-and-white striped costumes harkening to a bygone era; black boots with chains around the ankles; and bold, bright signage aimed at making the chain gang as visible as possible.

California plans to confiscate guns from 20,000 people who bought them legally but have since been disqualified because of criminal or psychiatric problems, boosting the state's relatively tough approach to gun control.

Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation on Wednesday allocating $24m – generated by fees taken from gun buyers at the time of purchase – to the crackdown, the first in a series of gun control bills following the Sandy Hook massacre.

A bill abolishing Maryland's death penalty was signed by Governor Martin O'Malley on Thursday, making the U.S. state the 18th to abolish state-sanctioned executions, a spokeswoman said.

O'Malley, a Democrat, had pledged to sign the bill, which was passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature in March. The law replaces capital punishment with a sentence of life without parole.