USA DAWN: NEWS AND UPDATES

Washington (CNN) Joseph "Beau" Biden III, an Iraq War veteran who served as the attorney general of Delaware and was a son of Vice President Joe Biden, died Saturday at age 46, the White House said in a statement. He died after battling brain cancer, according to the vice president's office. "Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known," his father wrote in a statement. Biden had suffered known health problems dating back to 2010, when he experienced a stroke that did not affect his motor skills or speech. In 2013, Beau Biden was treated at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston after he became disoriented and weak while on vacation.   He was diagnosed with brain cancer, and after undergoing surgery was given a clean bill of health. The cancer returned this spring and Biden pursued aggressive treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, the vice president's office said. He died Sa

ROSS ULBRICHT CONCEIVED  of his Silk Road black market as an online utopia beyond law enforcement’s reach. Now he’ll spend the rest of his life firmly in its grasp, locked inside a federal penitentiary. On Friday Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in creating and running Silk Road’s billion-dollar, anonymous black market for drugs. Judge Katherine Forrest gave Ulbricht the most severe sentence possible, beyond what even the prosecution had explicitly requested. The minimum Ulbricht could have served was 20 years. “The stated purpose [of the Silk Road] was to be beyond the law. In the world you created over time, democracy didn’t exist. You were captain of the ship, the Dread Pirate Roberts,” she told Ulbricht as she read the sentence, referring to his pseudonym as the Silk Road’s leader. “Silk Road’s birth and presence asserted that its…creator was better than the laws of this country. This is deeply troubling, terribly

Releasing a rap album in 2015 isn’t as straightforward as it should be. From Lil Wayne’s perpetually delayed final Carter album to early releases/leaks forcing Earl Sweatshirt and Kendrick Lamar’s hands, often things are mothballed or shunted forward by forces well outside of an artist’s or label’s control. Chance the Rapper has taken a different approach entirely in releasing Surf, a  sort-of  follow up to 2013’s mixtape hit Acid Rap, with Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment (the latter being the live band he tours and records with). It’s a sort-of follow-up because he’s not simply moonlighting as Donnie Trumpet. That’s the alias of 21-year-old trumpeter Nico Segal who is joined by other members Nate Fox, Peter Wilkins and drummer Greg “Stix” Landfair Jr, while Chancelor Bennett is billed just as another part of the group. A self-effacing, limelight-sharing side man. But that cameo role isn’t obvious on Surf. Opening track Miracle sees him take centre stage while

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Stephen Curry had 26 points and eight rebounds, Harrison Barnes added 24 points and the Golden State Warriors advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in 40 years with a 104-90 victory over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night. After decades of wishing and waiting for this moment, the Warriors have finally arrived. They shook off a slow start and sweated out a shaky finish in Game 5 to close out the Rockets and set up a matchup with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers beginning June 4. All five Rockets starters scored at least 10 points, but MVP runner-up James Harden had a forgettable finale. Harden had a playoff-record 13 turnovers and scored 14 points on 2-of-11 shooting. Dwight Howard led Houston with 18 points and 16 rebounds.

Stephen Curry tried to keep his daughter Riley under control at the podium on Wednesday night after leading the Golden State Warriors to the NBA Finals for the first time in 40 years. Curry moved her from one side of his lap to the other, holding her tightly by the waist, but Riley, 2, continued to fidget, yawn, wave and shout. Finally, she spotted the microphone and started to sing the hook of a popular song by rappers Big Sean, Drake and Kanye West, “Blessings.” “Waaaaay up, I feel blessed,” Riley shouted. “You wanted to say that,” Stephen Curry said, looking down at her, with a laugh. Riley continued to lunge toward the microphone to repeat the words as her father held back laughter and attempted to listen to questions: “Way up, I feel blessed.” Based on Riley’s knowledge of the song, there’s a decent chance that it has been played many times in the household or in the car rides to the arena. And it probably is reflective of the mood as Stephen Curry gets ready to take on L

Klay Thompson’s name wasn’t even mentioned on the scouting report. The sophomore at Santa Margarita High School was getting ready to face a junior from Artesia High School, James Harden, in the California Interscholastic Federation Championship. The Artesia coach at the time, Scott Pera – now an assistant at Rice – said he doesn’t remember Thompson then. “I might have had him listed as a guy who could shoot the ball, a guy not to leave open,” Pera said. “But he certainly wasn’t their best player or anyone we were game planning against.” Harden’s team won that day. Almost a decade later, he and Thompson are competing for another championship. This time it’s for the Western Conference title and both are at the top of the scouting report. Thompson and Harden have both come a long way. Both were late bloomers in an area with an abundance of talent. And now both are trying to lead their teams as the Warriors and Rockets battle it out for a spot in the NBA Finals. “It’s re

Rick Santorum, the runner-up in the Republican nomination race four years ago, announced his second presidential bid on Wednesday, pledging to restore a middle class “hollowed out” by government policies. A former United States senator from rural western Pennsylvania, he appealed primarily to social conservatives four years ago. But he has donned a new mantle of economic populism, one he calls “blue-collar conservatism.” “Working families don’t need another president tied to big government or big money,” he said, criticizing Hillary Rodham Clinton and “big business” for pro-immigration policies he said had undercut American workers. Mr. Santorum, 57, was the surprise winner of the Iowa caucuses in 2012, thanks to evangelical Christian voters, and he went on to win 10 other states, dragging out Mitt Romney’s quest for the nomination. Still, he has struggled to catch on this time around. He is in danger of not making the 10-candidate cutoff for the first Republican debate o

A powerful earthquake will devastate California at 4pm local time tomorrow, according to the bizarre prophecy of Dutch researcher, Frank Hoogerbeets. Hoogerbeet's YouTube video, which provides improbable 'scientific' reasons behind his claim, has now been watched more than half a million times. But geologists around the world have rubbished his argument, saying such a scenario is 'literally impossible'. 'California is going to go into the sea, and if that's going to happen, Japan is also going to be battered by tsunamis that you just can't imagine,' said Hoogerbeets during his 28-minute prophecy. Hoogerbeets, the founder and president of Ditrianum Media, uses a computer program called Solar System Scope to show why he believes a 9.8 earthquake will hit the region. He says the earthquake will strike when 'no less than five planetary alignments will converge with the Earth.' This, he believes, will impact the Earth-moon align

President Barack Obama on Monday honored soldiers who died in Afghanistan, during his annual speech at Arlington national cemetery on Memorial Day. Though troops remain stationed in Afghanistan, it was the first time in 14 years that the US had celebrated the holiday while not engaged in a major ground war. After laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Obama praised American soldiers for their “honor, courage, selflessness” in every war, from the Revolutionary war against Britain to the recently ended conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ahead of the ceremony, the administration touted this as the first Memorial Day ceremony since the end of the ground war in Afghanistan, where more than 2,200 Americans died since 2001. “This may be the first Memorial Day since the end of our war in Afghanistan, but we are acutely aware, as we speak, of our men and women in uniform, who still stand watch, still serve and still sacrifice, around the world,” Obama said. Nearly

CLEVELAND – LeBron James doesn't want to hear any badmouthing of teammate Matthew Dellavedova. "This is my guy," James said on Sunday night. "This is my teammate and guys are trying to give him a bad rap. He doesn't deserve it and I don't like it." Is Dellavedova, a reserve point guard, worthy of a "dirty player" reputation, particularly after his play led to the ejection of the Atlanta Hawks' Al Horford in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals? Horford led the charge in disagreeing with James, issuing some strong words after Atlanta's 114-111 overtime loss, saying Dellavedova now has a "track record" for trying to cause physical harm to opponents. Horford and Dellavedova got tangled on the floor while scrambling for a loose ball in the second quarter with 34 seconds left. As Dellavedova fell back on Horford's right knee, Horford brought his right arm down hard to the side of the guard's head and shou

When Sally Ride died in 2012, her obituary noted a new fact that was widely picked up: that she was survived by her partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy. The first American woman in space suddenly became a more complicated figure. Now Lynn Sherr, a journalist and friend of Ride, has created a brilliant and eye-opening biography. Sherr's book,  Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space , opens with an anecdote: She was at a school, and asked a classroom a simple question: Who was Sally Ride? The answers flooded back: The first woman on the moon? The first to step into space? A great scientist? One finally got it right: the first American woman to ride into orbit. It's easy to remember the firsts when it comes to space travel. There's Yuri Gagarin, Alan Shepard, Neil Armstrong, of course, and then there's Sally Ride, notable for being the first woman NASA sent up into space. Other than that, what's to know? It turns out, quite a lot. Indeed, the general