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February 15, 2013 | | EXCLUSIVE Obama's former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel might make a go for 2016, two well-connected Democrats tell Lloyd Grove—as long as Hillary doesn't. Why the potty-mouthed Chicago mayor could win. THE SKY IS FALLING Outer-space junkies, today's your lucky day. As news of an approaching asteroid broke Friday morning, authorities announced that a meteor had exploded over Russia, showering debris and broken glass and injuring over 500 people. What exactly caused the meteorite shower is up for debate. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Emergency Situations said it was the result of an explosion, while a different government expert said it could have been a bolide—a fiery sort of meteor that, based on composition or how it makes its way into Earth's atmosphere, would explode on entry. And yet, according to the governor of Siberia's Chelyabinsk region, a search team has already found an impact crater 50 miles west of the area, suggesting that the meteor did not explode at all before reaching ground. Officials say the meteor shower is not connected to the asteroid set to "nearly miss" Earth Friday.
OLYMPIC SCANDAL Olympic champion and double amputee Oscar Pistorius broke down in court Friday, facing a murder charge for the death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The news from South Africa was shocking, says Buzz Bissinger, but maybe it shouldn't be. Like too many other sports celebrities, he won by breaking the rules. Will we ever learn to cut this self-delusion? SEWAGE STEAMER Miserable passengers arrived in Mobile, Alabama, Thursday night, and have begun to disembark. It's the end of a five-day nightmare, after a fire in the engine room turned the Carnival Triumph ship into a "floating Petri dish" with sewage oozing down the walls and floating along the decks. Much of the ship's electric system went down in the fire, causing the sanitary systems to malfunction—and exposing passengers to raw sewage. Additionally, passengers have reported not getting enough to eat, with waits as long as four hours for food. Carnival said it will issue refunds for the trip and give each passenger $500 in compensation, and the cruise line has canceled all voyages on the troubled ship going forward. CLOSE ONE If asteroids were apartments, this one would be New York City–style teensy. NASA is on the lookout for a 150-foot asteroid, described as roughly the size of an apartment building, slated to fly dangerously close to Earth sometime Friday. DA14's journey will actually be the closest to Earth for a space rock its size—missing our planet by only 17,150 miles. While the little guy is too small to see with the naked eye, it could release the equivalent of 2.4 million tons of TNT and destroy about 750 square miles if it were to touch ground. But scientists are sure that won't happen and are excited for this opportunity to learn more about how to keep future—potentially harmful—asteroids away.
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