The “Great Recession” is the name that has stuck for the economic decline that began in late 2007. But there’s some reason to think that using the word recession is being kind.

The U.S. gross domestic product has shrunk 3.9 percent in the past year, the worst drop since the Great Depression. Plenty of observers are willing to say that this recession is much deeper than anything we’ve seen since the 1930s–including the big dip in the early 1980s, generally accepted as the other candidate for the worst recession since the Great Depression. “I think it’s way worse today,” says Ridgely Evers of Tapit Partners, a longtime entrepreneur and venture capitalist who founded the software company Netbooks (now known as WorkingPoint). In the recession of 1981 and 1982, “people recognized it as a dip. [Today,] nobody thinks we are going to come back out in relatively short order.” This recession seems to have dragged on longer. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the U.S. economy was in recession from July 1981 to November 1982–16 months. But the current recession started in December 2007, says the NBER, so it’s already longer than the last big one. Read more…

Astronomers have found what appears to be a gigantic suicidal planet.

The odd, fiery planet is so close to its star and so large that it is triggering tremendous plasma tides on the star. Those powerful tides are in turn warping the planet’s zippy less-than-a-day orbit around its star.

The result: an ever-closer tango of death, with the planet eventually spiraling into the star.

It’s a slow death. The planet WASP-18b has maybe a million years to live, said planet discoverer Coel Hellier, a professor of astrophysics at the Keele University in England. Hellier’s report on the suicidal planet is in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.

“It’s causing its own destruction by creating these tides,” Hellier said.

The star is called WASP-18 and the planet is WASP-18b because of the Wide Angle Search for Planets team that found them.

The planet circles a star that is in the constellation Phoenix and is about 325 light-years away from Earth, which means it is in our galactic neighborhood. A light-year is about 5.8 trillion miles.

The planet is 1.9 million miles from its star, 1/50th of the distance between Earth and the sun, our star. And because of that the temperature is about 3,800 degrees.

Its size — 10 times bigger than Jupiter — and its proximity to its star make it likely to die, Hellier said.

Think of how the distant moon pulls Earth’s oceans to form twice-daily tides. The effect the odd planet has on its star is thousands of times stronger, Hellier said. The star’s tidal bulge of plasma may extend hundreds of miles, he said.

Like most planets outside our solar system, this planet was not seen directly by a telescope. Astronomers found it by seeing dips in light from the star every time the planet came between the star and Earth.

So far astronomers have found more than 370 planets outside the solar system. This one is “yet another weird one in the exoplanet menagerie,” said planet specialist Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

It’s so unusual to find a suicidal planet that University of Maryland astronomer Douglas Hamilton questioned whether there was another explanation. While it is likely that this is a suicidal planet, Hamilton said it is also possible that some basic physics calculations that all astronomers rely on could be dead wrong.

The answer will become apparent in less than a decade if the planet seems to be further in a death spiral, he said.

A little girl snatched on her way to school was kept hidden from the world behind a series of fences, sheds and tents for nearly two decades, even giving birth to her suspected abductor’s children in the suburban backyard compound less than 200 miles from the home where she was taken.

Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 when she was abducted from a South Lake Tahoe street in 1991, was taken directly to the house and sheltered from the world in a secret, leafy backyard, investigators said Thursday.

Her abductor, investigators said, raped her and fathered two children with her, the first when Jaycee was about 14. Those children, both girls now 11 and 15, also were kept hidden away in the backyard compound behind the Antioch home.

“None of the children have ever been to school, they’ve never been to a doctor,” El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said. “They were kept in complete isolation in this compound.” Read more…

All eyes were on Michael Vick — for all of six plays.

Playing his first NFL game since his release from prison, the Eagles quarterback got a standing ovation, avoided any ugly protests and completed four passes for 19 yards.

“It’s been a long journey for me,” Vick said. “I just want to do it right this time around.”

Though his minutes were limited Thursday night, Vick was ready to take on any assignment. He played quarterback, ran the wildcat formation, even lined up at wide receiver and completed a pass right-handed.

Philadelphia even won the game, beating the Jacksonville Jaguars 33-32 on David Akers’ 34-yard field goal in the final minute. Vick’s return overshadowed a somewhat sloppy effort by an Eagles team that has Super Bowl aspirations.

It was Vick and only Vick who captured fans’ attention — whether he was on the field, on the sideline or sitting on the bench.

“Everything he was asked to do, he did it well,” Donovan McNabb said.

Philadelphia coach Andy Reid didn’t wait long to use Vick. The three-time Pro Bowl quarterback jogged onto the field for the second play from scrimmage, lining up as a wide receiver, and got a hearty welcome from the notoriously tough Philly fans.

“When I was running out onto the field I was listening to see what the reaction was going to be,” Vick said. “I was very pleased. I really didn’t expect that reaction, but I was very thankful.” Read more…

Overwhelmed by a positive reaction, Michael Vick tried too hard to please the fans.

Playing his first NFL game since his release from prison, the Eagles quarterback got a standing ovation in a half-empty stadium, avoided any ugly protests and completed four passes for 19 yards in Philadelphia’s 33-32 preseason win over Jacksonville on Thursday night.

“It was unbelievable the way I was embraced and the warm welcome I received,” Vick said. “It actually made me screw up one of my reads. I wanted to please the crowd and I actually made a bad play.”

Though his minutes were limited, Vick showcased his versatility. He played quarterback, ran the wildcat formation, even lined up at wide receiver and completed a pass right-handed.

Philadelphia won on David Akers’ 34-yard field goal in the final minute, but it was Vick’s return that overshadowed a sloppy effort by an Eagles team that has Super Bowl aspirations.

It was Vick and only Vick who captured fans’ attention — whether he was on the field, on the sideline or sitting on the bench.

“It looked like he did a couple of good things,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said.

Reid didn’t wait long to use Vick. The three-time Pro Bowl quarterback jogged onto the field for the second play from scrimmage and got a hearty welcome from the notoriously tough Philly fans.

“I was proud of everybody. It was nice to see,” Reid said.

So much for all those protesters and anti-Vick factions. Some fans even chanted “We want Vick!” after he left the game.

Vick was on the field for six plays — all in the opening 18 minutes — and completed all four of his passes, ran for 1 yard and lined up in the slot for one play.

“I just want to help this football team win, whatever I have to do,” Vick said.

Vick acknowledged he’s still working on his fitness, saying he was at about 70 percent.

“Once I get myself into tiptop shape, the sky’s the limit,” he said. “When I was younger I did it all. I can do it all now. Down the road, I’ll be back at the quarterback position full time. As of right now, I have to do what I can to win.” Read more…

President Richard Nixon considered Ted Kennedy such a threat that he tried to catch Kennedy cheating on his wife, even ordering aides to recruit Secret Service agents to spill secrets on the senator’s behavior.

“Do you have anybody in the Secret Service that you can get to?” Nixon asked his aide John Ehrlichman in a stark series of Oval Office conversations about Kennedy before the 1972 election. “Yeah, yeah,” Ehrlichman replied.

“Plant one,” Nixon said. “Plant two guys on him. This could be very useful.”

Nixon made clear that the Secret Service protection afforded Kennedy before the 1972 election would be rescinded after. Then, said the president, “If he gets shot, it’s too damn bad.” His aides disdainfully referred to Kennedy supporters as “super swinger jet set types.”

Tape recordings from the Nixon White House betray a preoccupation with the Kennedy mystique and how that might be used against the Republican president by the last surviving brother, who died Tuesday at age 77. Nixon wanted a sharp and private eye kept on Ted Kennedy’s movements after the Chappaquiddick scandal, hoping to expose another misstep with a woman other than his wife, Joan.

Nixon’s men had investigators tail Ted Kennedy on a Hawaii vacation and when he was at his Martha’s Vineyard haunts. Read more…

Police said Thursday they found blood and evidence of a violent struggle inside a car belonging to an ex-model whose brutal slaying prompted a manhunt for a reality TV contestant that ended in his suicide.

Spatters and swirls of blood “like finger-painting” were on the passenger seat, back seat and rear windshield of Jasmine Fiore’s white Mercedes-Benz, Buena Park police Sgt. Roger Powell said at an evening news conference. Fiore’s car was found abandoned in a parking lot in West Hollywood on Wednesday, about a mile from the penthouse she shared with wealthy real estate investor Ryan Jenkins.

Detectives also found blood stains on the patio of their room at a luxury boutique hotel in San Diego, and mud stains, weeds and twigs on the undercarriage of Fiore’s car, Powell said.

In addition, they found a letter in the car’s glovebox that was written from Jenkins to Fiore, Powell said. He said the letter was written some time ago but was “more evidence to believe … there was a whole lot of jealousy on his part,” Powell said.

Fiore’s nude body was found Aug. 15 stuffed in a bloodstained suitcase and tossed into a Buena Park trash bin. Her nose had been broken, and her fingers and teeth had been removed — presumably to prevent police from identifying her.

Investigators eventually learned her name by tracking the serial number on her breast implants. Fragments of her teeth were found inside the suitcase, police Sgt. Frank Nunes said. Read more…

After two-plus hours of practice, Pleasure Ridge Park football coach David Jason Stinson had seen enough of players goofing off.

Stinson, a first-year head coach at the suburban Louisville high school, ordered the group of about 100 players to run a series of sprints, known as “gassers,” until someone quit the team.

The players started running. Five got sick and left the field, two eventually quit the team and, as practice finished on Aug. 20, 2008, 15-year-old sophomore offensive lineman Max Gilpin collapsed. He died three days later at a Louisville hospital.

Accounts of that day reveal a football practice where most players didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary — until the end.

Stinson is scheduled to go on trial Monday on a charge of reckless homicide, in a case that many observers say could be the first time a coach has faced criminal charges in a player’s on-field death. On Aug. 11, a grand jury added a charge of first-degree wanton endangerment against the coach. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges, which will be part of the same trial.

Stinson’s attorneys will be defending against two accusations — that he should have foreseen the practice could have resulted in a death, and that the way he ran practice was dangerous, even if no one had been seriously hurt because of it. Read more…

North and South Korea agreed Friday to hold a new round of reunions next month for families long separated by the Korean War in the latest sign of easing tensions on the divided peninsula. The planned meetings will be the first in nearly two years.

Red Cross officials from the two sides wrapped up three days of talks at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort with an accord to hold six days of temporary reunions involving a total of 200 families from Sept. 26 at the scenic resort, according to a joint statement.

Millions of families were separated by the Korean War, which ended in 1953 with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. No mail, telephone or e-mail exchanges exist between ordinary citizens across the Korean border.

This week’s rare talks and the resulting agreement are the latest signs of improving relations between the two rival nations. The agreement said the North and the South will continue to discuss the separated families and other humanitarian issues.

North Korea has been pushing in recent weeks to reach out to Seoul and Washington following a series of provocations, including nuclear and missile tests, and international sanctions to punish the communist regime for the defiant moves banned under U.N. resolutions. Read more…

Wildfires chewed through tinder-dry brush up and down California on Friday, forcing thousands to flee ritzy seaside neighborhoods, comfortable foothill suburbs and tiny farming communities.

At least 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate from the wealthy seaside community of Rancho Palos Verdes late Thursday, Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mike Brown said.

Fire Inspector Frederic Stowers said an unknown of structures had been damaged. The wealthy communities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula south of Los Angeles, are in an area known for horse trails, spectacular Pacific views, pricey real estate and exclusive golf clubs, including the Trump National Golf Club owned by Donald Trump. Read more…