| 2 Shot Dead At Central Michigan University Posted: 02 Mar 2018 07:38 AM PST  The victims weren't students of the school, in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, according to police, and no one else was hurt. "Police believe the situation started from a domestic situation," the school said in a statement. CMU police confirm two individuals were fatally shot at Campbell Hall on campus this morning.
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| Mudslide threat prompts mandatory-evacuation order for 30,000 in Southern California Posted: 01 Mar 2018 04:17 PM PST  The threat of deadly mudslides from an impending Pacific storm prompted authorities on Thursday to order mandatory evacuations for some 30,000 people living adjacent to fire-scarred foothills and mountain slopes along California's Santa Barbara coast. The evacuation was put into effect in the same general area where torrential rains on Jan. 9 unleashed cascades of mud, boulders and other debris that killed 21 people, injured dozens of others and damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes. The bulk of the devastation occurred in the affluent hillside community of Montecito, 85 miles (137 km) northwest of Los Angeles, in a region where vast swaths of the coastal landscape were stripped of vegetation by huge wildfires in December.
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| Puerto Rico power grid snaps, nearly 1 million in the dark Posted: 01 Mar 2018 12:02 PM PST  Puerto Rico's power grid broke down again on Thursday, leaving some 800,000 customers without power, as the US Caribbean possession struggles to recover five months after Hurricane Maria slammed the island. Justo Gonzalez, head of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), said that one of the island's main transmission lines was out of service. The government-owned utility has 1.5 customers out of a population of 3.5 million -- not counting the 500,000 Puerto Ricans who left since Maria struck on September 20, 2017.
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| Delta To Georgia Lawmakers: 'Our Values Are Not For Sale' Posted: 02 Mar 2018 12:08 PM PST  The CEO of Delta Air Lines on Friday declared his company's "values are not for sale" after Georgia lawmakers retaliated against the airline for cutting ties with the National Rifle Association in the wake of last month's Florida school shooting. Bastian explained the decision to employees a day after Georgia lawmakers passed a tax bill that effectively punishes the airline for rescinding the discount for NRA members to travel to the group's annual meeting.
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| Vladimir Putin claims Russia has developed nuclear weapons 'invulnerable' to US missile defence Posted: 01 Mar 2018 02:41 PM PST  Vladimir Putin said Russia has tested high-tech nuclear weapons invulnerable to US missile defence in a defiant speech before he stands for re-election this month. In a state-of-the-nation address to top officials, Mr Putin made his most forceful declaration yet of Russia's military might. He said the country was developing a new generation of deadly weapons able to penetrate missile defences, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile with "unlimited range," an underwater nuclear drone and a "practically invulnerable" hypersonic warhead that travels "like a ball of fire". Moscow has also tested its long-awaited Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, which will fly farther and carry more warheads than its predecessors, he said. "Russia remained a nuclear power, but no one wanted to speak with us. No one wanted to listen to us. Listen to us now," Mr Putin said to enthusiastic applause from the audience. The speech raised the spectre of a new arms race, as Donald Trump has similarly promised to expand the US arsenal and issued a nuclear arms policy this month aimed at countering Russian modernisation. Responding to Mr Putin's speech, UK defence secretary Gavin Williamson accused Russia of choosing "a path of escalation and provocation". Russian President Vladimir Putin gives his annual state of the nation address in Manezh in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 1, 2018 Credit: AP "We are facing intensifying threats to our way of life and this development is another reminder to not let down our guard," he said. But a US official told CNN that Russia's nuclear-powered cruise missile tests had ended in crashes 'Like a ball of fire' | New strategic weapons announced by Vladimir Putin Although he touched on economic problems, the president's nuclear sabre-rattling soon shifted attention to the assertive foreign policy that has been popular with Russians despite Western sanctions. Mr Putin complained bitterly about the US withdrawal from the anti-ballistic missile treaty in 2002 and its development of missile defence installations in Romania and Poland, which Moscow has long said will upend the strategic balance. Since its warnings about missile defence had not been heeded, Russia had created new arms to ramp up its nuclear deterrent and "annul the strategic advantage" of the West, he said. Mr Putin repeatedly paused to display videos of missile launches, explosions and flight trajectories. The clunky computer graphics would have been almost comical if not for the many unsettling images of targeted attacks and missiles heading toward North America. One showed warheads raining down on Florida. Mr Putin speaks to a hall of top officials in the Manezh exhibition centre next to the Kremlin Credit: Maxim Shemetov/AFP/Getty Images The sheer bombast of this military muscle-flexing was unprecedented for the Russian president, as was the peek he offered through the veil of secrecy around the country's latest arms. He even announced an online contest to choose a name for an underwater drone able to carry a nuclear warhead, which was shown blowing up a destroyer in a video. Previously the underwater drone had only been known from a piece of paper caught by a wandering television camera during a defence officials' meeting. At Putin's speech they're literally showing videos of new ballistic missiles heading toward the United States as he promises to "overcome misile defense" pic.twitter.com/iMojufntMT— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) March 1, 2018 "The sanctions to constrain Russia's development, including in the military sphere... they didn't work out," Mr Putin said. "They haven't been been able to contain Russia. They need to realise this… Stop rocking the boat in which we all sit." He also vowed that incidents like the death of pilot Roman Filipov, who blew himself up with a grenade after being forced to bail out over enemy territory in Syria last month, "will never happen again," drawing a standing ovation. The aggressive military declarations were a departure from the first half of his speech, which focused on social problems and improving people's quality of life. Journalists watch as Russian President Vladimir Putin gives his annual state of the nation address in Manezh in Moscow Credit: AP The remarks are being seen as his vision for a next term, which he is almost certain to win. Mr Putin has not put forth a campaign platform and been largely absent from the race so far. Among a raft of ambitious goals, the president promised to cut poverty in half in the next six years, saying that the 20 million Russians below the poverty line was too many. He also called for a 50 per cent increase in GDP per capita by 2025. He said the top priority should be the well-being of Russians and their families, calling for a "leap forward in the quality of people's lives, the modernisation of technologies, government management". At a glance | Russian presidential election 2018 "Russia has realised its foreign policy and defence potential, but in terms of people's personal growth we haven't reached our full abilities. We should do this and we will do this," Mr Putin said to applause from a packed hall in the Manezh centre next to the Kremlin. "Technological development" and "digital economy" were the latest watchwords from the Russian leader, who has tentatively embraced innovations like blockchain while also cracking down on dissent on the web. He said Russia should be a country "open to the world, to new ideas and initiatives". "We should increase the space for freedom in all spheres and strengthen democracy," said Mr Putin, whose expected victory in the March 18 election is to keep him in power for more than a quarter-century, longer than Joseph Stalin. Longest serving Russian leaders Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been barred from the race due to an embezzlement conviction that the European Court of Human Rights has said was politicised. The state-of-the-nation address had been repeatedly postponed since December. As he spoke, the president paused frequently, not just for clapping but also to cough and gulp from a cup on the podium. When Mr Putin disappeared from public for nearly two weeks last month, his spokesman said he had come down with a "cold," a rare admission from an administration that has constantly stressed the leader's unfailing robust health.
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| Canadian Outdoor Retailer Drops Products From U.S. Company That Makes Guns Posted: 01 Mar 2018 08:59 AM PST  A major Canadian outdoor retail chain said Thursday it will stop selling products from a U.S. company that manufactures guns and ammunition. Mountain Equipment Co-op, known as MEC, said it would stop carrying products from Vista Outdoor, a sprawling outdoor sports and recreation company that manufactures gun products, including assault-style rifles. MEC, based in Vancouver, sells neither firearms nor ammunition, but said it would quit selling five brands owned by Vista, including CamelBak, Bollé and Bushnell, in an effort to distance itself from the U.S. gun-maker.
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| In exile with Bill Kristol, the Republican resister-in-chief Posted: 01 Mar 2018 02:00 AM PST  Bill Kristol is steadily launching an unrelenting assault on his own party's president. You could say he is the clearest and most credible voice of Republican resistance in Washington.
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| DA: Woman, 3 young children found dead in Massachusetts home Posted: 01 Mar 2018 08:28 PM PST  WEST BROOKFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A woman and three young children were found dead Thursday in the upstairs bedroom of a Massachusetts home, according to a district attorney who called their deaths suspicious.
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| U.S. issues alert after tourist ferry explosion in Mexico Posted: 01 Mar 2018 07:02 PM PST ![U.S. issues alert after tourist ferry explosion in Mexico]( "U.S. issues alert after tourist ferry explosion in Mexico") A blast last month on a tourist ferry in the Mexican beach resort of Playa del Carmen was caused by "an explosive device" that injured passengers, including U.S. tourists, the U.S. embassy in Mexico said on Thursday. A security alert posted on the embassy's website warned American citizens to exercise caution and said Mexican authorities continued to investigate the blast. Two more explosive devices were found attached to another ferry on the island of Cozumel on Thursday, local media reported, saying marine troops had secured the scene.
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| New Tax Law Benefiting Shareholders More Than Workers So Far Posted: 02 Mar 2018 10:22 AM PST  WASHINGTON ― Since President Donald Trump signed the Republican tax bill in December, hundreds of retail companies have announced employee bonuses totaling more than $3 billion, which Republicans have said proves them right that the new law benefits regular Americans. According to several estimates, firms have announced roughly $200 billion worth of stock buybacks this year, inflating the value of company shares by reducing their supply. "Stock buybacks are windfalls that drive up the value of investment portfolios for CEOs and high-flyers," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a Senate floor speech this week.
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| NRA TV: inside the channel activists are urging Apple and Amazon to axe Posted: 28 Feb 2018 10:00 PM PST  The NRA's TV channel stresses the organization's size and the importance of guns to staying alive in the US. As the National Rifle Association has come under increased scrutiny since the Florida school shooting, so too has its television channel: NRATV. Activists and celebrities have led calls for Apple, Amazon, Google and Roku to remove NRATV from their streaming platforms, as companies have divested from the lobbying group.
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| The Funniest Tweets From Parents This Week Posted: 02 Mar 2018 05:47 AM PST  Kids may say the darndest things, but parents tweet about them in the funniest ways. So each week, we round up the most hilarious 280-character quips from moms and dads to spread the joy.
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| India trip controversy follows Trudeau back to Canada Posted: 01 Mar 2018 01:42 PM PST  Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced persistent criticism Thursday over a convicted Sikh extremist's attendance at a Canadian event in Mumbai, nearly a week after the premier's return from a trip to India. Opposition parties and editorialists heaped scorn on the prime minister and his Liberal government over the "fiasco" that dogged Trudeau during his first official visit to India to drum up trade and investment. Canadian-Indian businessman Jaspal Atwal was sentenced in Canada to 20 years in prison for a 1986 assassination attempt on an Indian politician, as part of a violent campaign to establish an independent Sikh state of Khalistan.
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| 16 Tweets That Will Make All Introverts Say 'Me' Posted: 01 Mar 2018 03:40 PM PST  If you're an introvert, you likely value your alone time. You think before you speak. You'd much rather socialize one-on-one than in a group. A phone call is probably your worst nightmare. But most of all, you are silently strong.
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| U.S. evangelist Graham 'followed Jesus all the way to heaven,' son says Posted: 02 Mar 2018 11:44 AM PST  U.S. evangelist Billy Graham, who preached to millions and counselled presidents in his 70-year career, was remembered as a man who loved his family and the Bible at a funeral on Friday attended by President Donald Trump in Graham's native North Carolina. About 2,300 people gathered beneath a canvas tent emblematic of Graham's 1949 Los Angeles revival that marked his breakthrough as a religious leader. Graham, who died on Feb. 21 at age 99, lay in honour at the U.S. Capitol this week in recognition of a clergyman who became the first noted evangelist to take his message to the Soviet bloc when its communist regimes were hostile to organised religion.
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| Feds: Man sent white powder letters to Trump Jr., 4 others Posted: 01 Mar 2018 03:42 PM PST  WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man was charged Thursday with sending threatening letters with white powder to five people, including one to Donald Trump Jr. that landed his wife, Vanessa, in the hospital.
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| Massachusetts can sue federal student loan servicer, judge rules Posted: 01 Mar 2018 01:04 PM PST  Massachusetts' attorney general can move forward with a lawsuit alleging that one of the largest student loan servicers in the United States has engaged in practices that have undermined a federal debt forgiveness program, a state court judge has ruled. Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Salinger in a decision released on Thursday denied Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistant Agency's motion to dismiss Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's lawsuit.
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| China Senses and Acts on U.S. Weakness in South China Sea Posted: 01 Mar 2018 08:17 AM PST  China is a rising power and it is only natural that it would seek to expand its areas of naval operations and political influence. China seems to think that, because it was once the center of its world, more respect for its exalted status is needed. There are rising indications, however, that China intends to be just that.
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| Abortion to be illegal? Mike Pence’s prediction enrages Newsroom readers Posted: 01 Mar 2018 12:21 PM PST  "It looks like they only care about people before they are born." "This is the zealot we have to look forward to if Mueller does actually bring down Trump." "Abortions have always occurred and always will." Vice President Mike Pence made a startling prediction about legal abortion, saying it would end in "our time." His remark has fired up thousands of Newsroom commenters. Pence made the statement while at a luncheon hosted by the anti-abortion organization Susan B. Anthony List & Life Issues Institute. In his speech he said, "If all of us do all we can, we can once again, in our time, restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law." The majority of the more than 15,000 comments on HuffPost's article express outrage: "His personal beliefs are his personal beliefs not a basis for policy," one reader declared. Many that don't agree with abortion said they still "think that they should be available and safe." The vice president, known for his anti-choice stance, described President Trump as the "most pro-life president in American history" and said the administration would continue to push measures to restrict abortion. What do you think of the future that Pence envisions? Join the conversation in Newsroom.
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| CEO of gunmaker that produced Florida shooter's weapon: 'I share nation's grief' Posted: 01 Mar 2018 03:08 PM PST  American Outdoor Brands' profit fell sharply over the three months ending 31 January, it reported. James Debney, the British-born chief executive of the company that made the rifle used by the gunman in the school shooting in Florida last month, on Thursday said he "shared the nation's grief" over the massacre. Announcing American Outdoor Brands' (AOB) latest results, Debney called the shooting, which killed 17 at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, an "incomprehensible loss of life" but said the company would continue to support the right of Americans to carry firearms.
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| West Virginia Teacher Strike Heads Into Uncharted Territory Posted: 01 Mar 2018 01:53 PM PST  The statewide strike by teachers and other school workers in West Virginia stretched into its second week on Thursday, as protesters filled the state Capitol for a sixth straight workday with no clear end to the work stoppage in sight. The standoff between workers and legislators appeared all but resolved just two days earlier, when Republican Gov. Jim Justice announced a deal with union leaders to hike pay for teachers and state employees. In a remarkable turn, workers bucked union leadership and vowed to return to the picket lines, carrying out what amounted to a wildcat strike. Schools in all 55 counties stayed closed on Thursday, a day Justice had expected everyone to return to work after a one-day "cooling off" period on Wednesday.
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| Georgia Lawmakers Pass Bill Punishing Delta For Cutting Ties With NRA Posted: 01 Mar 2018 02:05 PM PST  Georgia lawmakers passed a bill on Thursday effectively punishing Delta Air Lines for its decision to cut ties with the National Rifle Association in the wake of last month's school shooting in Parkland, Florida. The state's House and Senate passed a major a tax bill, which Republican lawmakers had amended to remove a sales tax exemption on jet fuel, The Associated Press reported. Delta, which is based in Atlanta, would have been the primary airline to benefit from the exemption.
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| Sheriff: Indiana deputy shot during pursuit won't survive Posted: 02 Mar 2018 02:46 PM PST  LEBANON, Ind. (AP) — A central Indiana sheriff's deputy who was shot in the head while chasing three suspects won't survive and was on life support for donation of his organs, authorities said Friday.
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| EPA proposes changes to coal ash regulations Posted: 01 Mar 2018 06:42 PM PST  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed changes to rules regulating coal ash waste from power plants that it said would give states more flexibility over its disposal and save electric utilities up to $100 million a year in compliance costs. The proposal includes more than a dozen changes to an Obama-era rule that established minimum national standards for the disposal of coal ash, a byproduct of coal-based power plants that contains toxic materials such as arsenic and lead. "Today's coal ash proposal embodies EPA's commitment to our state partners by providing them with the ability to incorporate flexibilities into their coal ash permit programs based on the needs of their states," EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in a statement.
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| Jimmy Kimmel Says He Won’t Address Me Too Movement At The Oscars Posted: 01 Mar 2018 03:57 AM PST  Jimmy Kimmel returns to host the Academy Awards on Sunday, and says he won't shy away from making jokes about President Donald Trump. "This show is not about reliving people's sexual assaults," he told ABC News' Paula Faris in an interview that aired this week.
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| South Korea to send special envoy to North Korea, president tells Donald Trump Posted: 01 Mar 2018 07:27 AM PST  South Korea plans to send a special envoy to North Korea in response to an invitation from leader Kim Jong-un, South Korean President Moon Jae-in told his US counterpart Donald Trump in a phone call on Thursday. The two presidents discussed the recent visits to the south by high-level North Korean officials, the South Korean presidential Blue House said in a statement. The Olympics gave a boost to recent engagement between the two Koreas after more than a year of sharply rising tensions over the North's missile programme and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of UN sanctions. "[Mr Moon and Mr Trump] agreed to continue to make efforts to head toward the Korean peninsula's denuclearisation by maintaining the momentum of South-North dialogue," the Blue House statement said. In sending an envoy to Pyongyang, Mr Moon said he would be seeking to reciprocate for the senior delegations dispatched to the Olympics by Kim Jong-un, including his sister, Kim Yo-jong, the first visit by a member of the North's ruling bloodline since the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korean cheering squads leaving the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics for North Korea Credit: REUTERS/Kim Hee-Chul/Pool Senior officials from Pyongyang visiting South Korea for the Winter Olympics said on Sunday their government was open to talks with the US, while the White House said any talks with North Korea must lead to an end to its nuclear programme. Mr Moon has urged North Korea and the US to talk to resolve the issue of Pyongyang's weapons programme, which Mr Kim has said he will never abandon. In the latest attempt to defuse the crisis over North Korea's weapons programme, Seoul urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks. "Both leaders agreed to continue close consultations on the progress of South-North Korea dialogue that will go on," the statement said.
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| German SPD minister expects 60 percent party support for coalition Posted: 01 Mar 2018 09:17 AM PST  Germany's Social Democrat (SPD) environment minister said on Thursday she expects party members to support a new coalition government with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives by a margin of 60 percent. The SPD's 464,000 members are voting in a postal ballot on whether to endorse their party leadership's decision to renew for another four years the 'grand coalition' that took office in 2013.
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| Bodycam Video Shows North Carolina Officer Beating Black Man Accused Of Jaywalking Posted: 02 Mar 2018 11:50 AM PST  An Asheville, North Carolina, news outlet published disturbing bodycam footage this week showing a white police officer beating a black resident, prompting public apologies from city officials who are continuing to investigate the incident. The graphic video shows officers chasing Johnnie Rush, 33, throwing him to the ground, shocking him with a stun gun and beating him as he cries out in pain and shouts for help. Photos that Rush provided to the Asheville Citizen-Times show his bandaged and swollen head and other injuries.
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| The One Way to Know If You're Officially a Millennial — Whether You Like It or Not Posted: 01 Mar 2018 12:52 PM PST  Wanna take a selfie?
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| Mom of slain medical student calls daughter a 'warm person' Posted: 01 Mar 2018 11:08 AM PST  BOSTON (AP) — A medical student stabbed to death in a Massachusetts library was "The Little Engine That Could," her mother said Thursday.
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| Palestinian migrant gets life sentence for supermarket stabbing in Germany Posted: 01 Mar 2018 01:02 AM PST  A Palestinian asylum seeker and radicalized Islamist who killed one person and injured six others in a knife attack in a Hamburg supermarket in July has been sentenced to life in prison, a spokesman for a city court said on Thursday. Hamburg residents threw chairs and other objects at the attacker - who had been known to authorities - helping police to detain him, but a 50-year-old man died of his injuries. The asylum seeker could not be deported as he lacked identification documents and was psychologically unstable, Hamburg's Interior Minister Andy Grote said after the attack.
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| Mom still searching for answers after young son's deadly fall Posted: 02 Mar 2018 12:09 PM PST  Dina Shacknai's 6-year-old son Max Shacknai died in 2011, after falling from a second-story landing at his father Jonah Shacknai's mansion. Police later determined Max's death was an accident.
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| NRA's Top Lobbyist Implies Trump Is Back On Its Side Posted: 01 Mar 2018 08:47 PM PST  The top lobbyist for the National Rifle Association hinted late Thursday that President Donald Trump had cooled on his own plans to support gun control measures. "We all want safe schools, mental health reform and to keep guns away from dangerous people," Cox said after the meeting.
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| Jimmy Kimmel's Wife Says His Pancake Art Is 'Making My Life Hell' Posted: 02 Mar 2018 04:30 AM PST  Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the Oscars for the second straight year on Sunday, but he's already earning bad reviews from his wife for his performances at breakfast. Kimmel began making "normal" pancakes about a year ago, and graduated to "realistic, totally edible portrayals" of beloved children's characters and other fun shapes, she wrote. "The adorable pancakes my husband, Jimmy Kimmel, cooks for our kids are making my life hell," the headline reads.
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| Robert Buchel, Star of ‘My 600-Lb. Life,' Dies While Filming TLC Show Posted: 02 Mar 2018 10:07 AM PST  The 41-year-old man suffered a fatal heart attack.
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| Attack on French embassy, army in Burkina Faso kills eight Posted: 02 Mar 2018 11:57 AM PST  By Nadoun Coulibaly OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Attackers in Burkina Faso's capital killed eight people and wounded dozens more in a coordinated assault on the army headquarters and French embassy that France's foreign minister said was likely carried out by "terrorist groups". West Africa's arid Sahel region is suffering a spike in violence by militant groups, some with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, that is drawing an increasingly aggressive response from countries including France and the United States. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which is the third major assault on Ouagadougou in just over two years.
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| Turkey arrests two Greek soldiers 'on espionage charges' Posted: 02 Mar 2018 12:52 PM PST  A Turkish court on Friday placed two Greek soldiers under arrest on espionage charges after they illegally crossed into Turkey, state media reported, in a move that risks a new flaring of tensions between Ankara and Athens. The court in the western province of Edirne ordered the pair be charged with "attempted military espionage" and "entering forbidden military territory", state news agency Anadolu said. The Greek army said the two soldiers lost their way in poor weather while patrolling the area around the Evros river that separates the two countries.
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| 2019 GMC Sierra Revealed: Diesel Power and a Carbon-Fiber Bed Posted: 01 Mar 2018 02:20 PM PST  The new Sierra has a few tricks all its own.
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| Health of world's last male northern white rhino in decline Posted: 01 Mar 2018 07:21 AM PST  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The health of the world's last male northern white rhino has deteriorated, bringing the rhino subspecies a step closer to extinction caused by poaching.
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| Man suspected of shooting parents at Michigan university: police Posted: 02 Mar 2018 04:24 PM PST ![Man suspected of shooting parents at Michigan university: police]( "Man suspected of shooting parents at Michigan university: police") A gunman suspected of killing his parents at a Central Michigan University dormitory during a domestic dispute on Friday was still at large, authorities said. The two victims were found inside the residence hall at the university in Mount Pleasant, about 125 miles (200 km) northwest of Detroit, said Lieutenant Larry Klaus of the university's police force.
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| My children have stopped calling me dad - should I be offended? Posted: 01 Mar 2018 05:30 AM PST  Daddy is no more. Three weeks ago, I heard a voice say, "Rhymer, could you please pass me the salt?" I did a double take. These were not the strident, increasingly confident intonations of the 10- year-old but rather the still-sweet, little-girlish vocalisations of her younger sister. Polly, the 10-year-old, has been calling me "Rhymer" for more than a year now. But for the seven-year-old, Claudia, this is a new departure. It is, I will admit, a bit disconcerting. Three weeks later and both of them now regularly call me "Rhymer". The oddest thing is when they refer to me in the third person. "Mummy," they'll say, "is Rhymer coming swimming with us?" Your first thought is, "My life has become an episode of The Simpsons and I am Homer." It's true that they sometimes call their mother Jane. But I don't think they get quite the satisfaction out of it that they do out of calling me by my first name. Of course, children do grow up. With Polly, I'd been anticipating the end of "Daddy" for some time. But I'd also expected it to be - to adopt the language of Brexit - a soft transition. Daddy to dad. I still call my own dad "Dad". But no. Rhymer it is. A couple of friends have told me that "it's just phase they'll grow out of". But I don't think so. It's been a year now and I'm confident "Rhymer" is hard-wired into the 10-year-old's brain. And, as the seven-year-old bases many of her behaviours on the 10-year-old, I've probably lost her too. What's in a name? Rhymer Rigby with daughters Polly and Claudia Credit: Rii Schroer None of this really matters in the sense that it doesn't bother me enormously. I find it, if anything, amusing. But should it matter? Is it disrespectful? Should I come over all Victorian and demand that, as a matter of filial deference, they call me dad or daddy? Or should I go next level - and be troubled by how untroubled I am? I started by examining my own past. I have never called my dad by his first name. But that is because we share a name and it would be really confusing. Indeed, after my birth, my dad tended to be referred to more by his nickname, Rig. My siblings have never called my dad "Rhymer" either. Mostly my parents are still mum and dad to us. I don't think respect or a lack thereof really comes into it. My family are all quite laid-back people, that's just the way it is. Growing up, a very few of my friends did call their parents by their first names. But again this offers little in the way of real insight. It was just "a thing" rather than a matter of great importance and it wasn't even indicative of the parents being Seventies hippies or Eighties individualists. Some grist to my angst mill arrived in the form of a Twitter poll. I asked Twitter if people's children called them mummy and daddy or by their first names. A full 100 per cent (of around 50 votes) said the former. Hoping for more online worries, I next dived into the swamp of parental disquietude that is Mumsnet. This looked promising at first. Mumsnet is great at finding the most worrisome and/or judgmental take on anything. But honestly, even the Mumsnetters didn't seem that bothered. In the UK there's a lot tied up in the idea that, as a parent, you should command respect Next, I spoke to a couple of parenting experts. One, Sue Atkins, who runs an online parenting club, said that being on first-name terms with your firstborn isn't a problem in itself. "You need to be comfortable with it and if you're not you should say so." She added that it's only an issue if it's done to be rude or to annoy. "There should be respect and dignity and you need to be a parent, not a friend." On these grounds I think I'm OK. Polly knows there are boundaries and is tolerably well-behaved. Sarah Ockwell-Smith, author of the The Gentle Discipline Book, says that it can actually be a positive thing. "Normally it's a sign that you have a good relationship with the child." As for any perceived respect angle, she suggests that it's not worth getting hung up on this at all: "In the UK there's a lot tied up in the idea that, as a parent, you should command respect. Discipline in this country is quite old-fashioned." This did make me wonder if parental first names were the norm in any other cultures. But I couldn't find any. The UK-based French political journalist Marie Le Conte told me that her theory is that in France there's a class angle. Only the poshest and the most working-class people routinely call their parents by their first names. The middle is solidly maman et papa. I myself spent four years abroad as a child. When we moved to the US I discovered that (in Eighties Pennsylvania, at least) you were meant to call everyone's else parents "Mr and Mr Smith" rather than "David and Sue". This felt strangely formal and awkward. Although once they discovered the British norm, some of my American friends' parents decided it would be great fun to be on first-name terms. While this felt more natural to me, it also made me different to my peers, which is the last thing any 10-year-old wants. It all felt like a sort of awkward transatlantic comedy of manners and eventually I just called everyone else's parents Mr and Mrs to fit in. I was reminded of this the other day when one of my eldest daughter's friends said, "Hello Mr Rigby" at school. She subsequently explained she was calling me "Mr Rigby" because she didn't know my first name and she was a bit old to call me "Polly's dad". I told her I was fine with "Rhymer." "Yes," said my eldest. "We all call him Rhymer." Indeed they do, but why? One friend may have put her finger on it when she asked, "What do you and your wife call each other?" The answer is mostly "Rhymer" and "Jane". Aha, she replied - that could be the root of things: the friend and her husband mostly don't call each other by their names in front of the children. 'Hey Homer': Bart Simpson also calls his Dad by his first name Indeed, Ockwell-Smith says that a lot of what children do is down to modelling: "Kids learn mostly from what they see us doing so if everyone calls you 'Rhymer' they will too." We've also always been quite grown-up in the way we speak to the girls - our house is not a place of excessively cutesy language - and perhaps this is another driver. I suspect there may be one final factor at work here that is particular to me. When I'm introduced to people (like parents at school) the girls hear other adults get me to repeat my name, express surprise and say things like, "That's such an unusual name. I've never heard it before." So there's a sort of novelty to "Rhymer" that there isn't to say, John or Sarah. Perhaps they've internalised this - and it might account for their untroubling but untypical decision to call me Rhymer. So as long as it's not rooted in overt disrespect, I'm OK with it. If the girls do their homework, tidy their rooms and feed the cat, I can live with being called Rhymer. Perhaps, in time, I'll even stop thinking of Bart Simpson saying "Hey, Homer!" every time they do it.
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