The bottom line: that one “perfect” school need not break a student’s heart. The colleges on the following list—the “New Ivies”—are beneficiaries of the boom in top students. We selected them based on admissions statistics as wellas interviews with administrators, faculty, students and alumni. In some cases, admissions directors have also provided examples of “overlap” schools—rivals for applicants to the colleges on our list. Boston College Chestnut Hill, Mass. Founded by Jesuits to teach the sons of Irish immigrants, BC today serves 9,000 undergraduates and 4,500 graduate students....

Sure, the Cowboys are Dallas-Fort Worth’s team, based on local TV ratings from Week 2 of the season, but when it comes to other NFL teams in home markets, they’re strictly seventh-rate (via the Dallas Morning News). MORE: Week 3 picks | Teams that should always go for 2 The Cowboys drew a 35.3 rating, relatively strong for their relatively ugly victory over the hapless Eagles, but that ranked behind seven other markets that watched their hometown teams....

Federal investigators at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) discovered that the nation’s largest air carrier “retaliated” against flight attendants who reported falling ill because of toxic fumes. The government body has called on American Airlines to pay $6,837 in penalties for violations of the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act. It initiated an investigation on August 2 after concerns were raised by whistleblowers, OSHA said in a statement on Wednesday....

Republicans are going to be crawling all over my decidedly Democratic hometown–and everyone is expecting the worst. (Forget the usual suspects; even the city’s police and fire unions have announced plans to protest President Bush. If New York’s ‘Finest’ and “Bravest’ are screaming, you know it’s going to be long, hot, New York summer for the GOP). Mayor Mike Bloomberg is well aware that New York is a liberal town....

This happened the other day, after the Supreme Court ruled that it would not “fundamentally alter” the game of golf to allow Casey Martin-who suffers from a degenerative disease that makes it painful to walk the course-to use a golf cart even though professional golf bars the use of any conveyance other than the feet. You remember the facts in this case: Martin, who suffers from Klippel-Trenauay Syndrome, once played on the PGA Tour until his condition left him unable to compete without a golf cart....

Lately, the more data I try to cram into my brain, the less actual information is retained. Evidence of this shows up in unrelated places: the five minutes it took for me to remember my locker combination at the gym the other day, the sudden confusion about the meaning of a flashing “Walk” sign at an intersection near my home, the inability to summon up the proper synonym for “sloppy” while recently banging away on my soon-to-be-published, semi-autobiographical, self-indulgent second novel....

Confused? so was the mostly Democratic New York City Council, which wanted to condemn the coming war in no uncertain terms–that is, until they got uncertain about it. The result was an “anti-war” resolution that covered so many bases–from condemning violence, to condemning Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons, to condemning the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive attack–that it reads as if paragraphs were lifted indiscriminately from White House press releases, Ralph Nader speeches, Condi Rice briefings and Jacques Chirac private conversions with Gerhard Schroeder....

With the current debate raging over whether the federal government should finance research into stem cells, I felt I lacked that very same perspective about what America should do. Fortunately, a fertility clinic whose name I have agreed to conceal has granted me an exclusive interview with someone who can provide that perspective. Ladies and gentleman, I offer you an interview with: The One-Two-Thousandths-of-a-Year-Old Man. (Please try to read the following with a very strong Mel Brooks accent....

Now, a 10-cent espresso tax might not sound like a big deal to you. Let’s face it, espresso is an effete luxury item that smacks of internationalism (it’s from Europe, for pete’s sakes!) and elitism (people pay $4 for one ounce of espresso and lots and lots of milky foam). But in Seattle, espresso is, simply put, the bread of life. The Space Needle city is home to only a half-million adults, but an estimated 200,000 shots of espresso are downed every single day....

True, no advance information will fully prepare you for Rudy’s hair, but you’ll need some help in decoding this movie, most of which will be incomprehensible to anyone except New Yorkers with subscriptions to the city’s three daily papers and an addiction to our 24-hour local news station, NY1. By the way, that would make you a loser. But you’re not a loser if you have trouble reconciling the complexities of the man who was three months shy of being tossed into the dustbin of history when the terror attacks of September 11 turned him into “America’s Mayor....

“The opportunity to come and help is a highlight of my career,” Moore told Newsweek from Australia. “There’s nobody at home that wouldn’t want to be here to help.” Wildfires have been ravaging Australia since September, burning through about 20 million acres of land and claiming the lives of over two dozen people and potentially hundreds of thousands of animals. America started sending firefighters to Australia in December to aid their firefighting efforts....

Five minutes before his scheduled arrival, the plane dropped from airport radar. Brown’s flight had inexplicably drifted 1.8 miles off course and slammed into the top of a lonely ridge. The 23-year-old aircraft, a military version of the 737, was not equipped with a flight-data recorder. What little is known raises disturbing questions. The flight crew was apparently attempting a tricky landing in heavy rains and gusting winds at an airport with primitive navigational systems (page 48)....

At 3-to-5 odds, the Bob Baffert-trained colt paid a scant $3.50 to win. But that’s not really what’s important today. More: Triple Crown winners Even bettors with tickets on longer shots had smiles on their faces as American Pharoah, under Victor Espinoza, lengthened his lead and was never really challenged down the stretch. With Frosted, the second betting choice at 9-to-2 odds, finishing second, the shortest possible exacta hit the board, paying $13....

American Pharoah jockey Victor Espinoza announced after the race that he would donate his share of the purse to City of Hope, a center for cancer treatment and research. Trainer Bob Baffert said he and his wife were donating to various charities that help retired thoroughbreds and disabled jockeys. MORE: Watch American Pharoah’s historic win | Pharoah likely to run at least once more MORE: Triple Crown winners | Triple Crown misses...

Owner Ahmed Zayat said Sunday’s New Jersey race was a " no-win situation " as a 1-9 favorite. American Pharoah easily won the William Hill Haskell Invitational starting from the No. 4 position. Zayat announced on July 2 that American Pharoah would compete at the Haskell Invitational before targeting the October’s Breeders’ Cup Classic as his final race. MORE: How 11 other horses fared after Triple Crown victory | Crown winners on camera...

The president is facing stubbornly low approval ratings as he nears his 11th month office and some polling has shown him losing to Trump in a hypothetical rematch. Trump has repeatedly teased a third presidential campaign, while Biden has indicated he intends to run for a second term amid speculation about his future and his recent 79th birthday. A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll conducted from November 3 to 5 found that 64 percent of respondents did not want Biden to run again....

The Presidents Cup at least was close for one day, and it was entertaining beyond the golf. Former president George W. Bush was on the first tee - not the greatest omen because he also met with the Americans at Medinah before they coughed up the Ryder Cup - and Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel made light of their bad haircuts by wearing wigs onto the tee. Assistant captain Davis Love III found a pet squirrel small enough to fit into his pocket, and Olympic ski champion Lindsey Vonn gave Tiger Woods a brief scare when she put the squirrel on his back....

As some observers call for international cooperation, President Donald Trump and Chinese officials have traded barbs as to who is responsible for the pandemic, which has killed almost 10,000 people since it appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December. The dispute has been aired on Twitter, and from press conference podiums to editorial columns published by Beijing-backed publications. Trump has repeatedly referred to the COVID-19 coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus,” raising fears that his rhetoric will encourage racist sentiment and persecution of Chinese and Asian people....

Companies offering BNPL such as PayPal, Pay-in-4, Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna have seen significant growth in the past few years in the U.S. market and are expected to account for 12 percent of e-commerce sales by 2025—up from 3 percent in 2021. Essentially touted as interest-free loans, the plans are attractive to those with no credit history and people who have never used credit cards. Generation Z and millennials with subprime credit histories are common users, according to TransUnion....

The confirmation came from Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto on Friday during a media teleconference. Haavisto also told reporters that although understanding tension between Ukraine and Russia are high, he hopes that Finland does not end up getting caught in the middle. “Finland does not discuss with NATO joining it, nor does Finland have such a project upcoming,” Haavisto said. “Finland’s security policy remains unchanged.” The comments came after Haavisto praised U....