Ben Finley

Stay informed with Ben Finley’s coverage and analysis.

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  • A man wearing Dodgers apparel stands with a Mega Millions lottery ticket he purchased from a convenience storeLifestyle

    The Mega Millions jackpot is now over $1 billion—and experts say larger payouts are on the horizon once ticket prices increase next year

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • NORAD volunteers track Santa, sitting around the table wearing headsetsLifestyle

    NORAD’s Santa tracker, now used by millions, started as a morale booster during the Cold War

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • woman lays out tarot cards on tableLifestyle

    Offering psychic services in this city could’ve landed you in jail. But the ban was just lifted as fortune telling becomes a $2.3 billion industry

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • Baltimore County Police ChiefTech

    Disgruntled high school athletic director uses AI to clone principal’s voice in racist, antisemitic deep fake

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • Robert McCulloughTech

    An athletic director used AI to fake a high school principal’s racist tirade, and police say state laws need to catch up

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • Baltimore bridge collapseEnvironment

    Fixing the Francis Scott Key Bridge that collapsed this week could cost more than $800 million—and take several years to repair

    By Ben Finley, Brian Witte, and others
  • Francis Scott Key BridgePolitics

    Engineering professor on Baltimore’s fallen bridge: It can’t absorb ‘anywhere near the energy that this humongous ship is bringing’

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • FILE – A sign marks the entrance to Liberty University, March 24, 2020, in Lynchburg, Va. Liberty University has agreed to pay an unprecedented $14 million fine after the Christian school failed to disclose information about crimes that occurred on its Lynchburg campus, including those involving sexual assaults, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)Finance

    Liberty University will pay $14m for failing to disclose information about crimes on campus and for its treatment of sexual assault survivors

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 13: Rev. William Barber II speaks during a rally organized by the Poor People’s Campaign to lobby for the Build Back Better Act at Union Square on Monday December 13, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images)Retail

    A civil rights leader went to see ‘The Color Purple’ with his mother—then AMC ejected him for using his own chair

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • This image provided by Wright Auction House shows a vase by Italian architect and designer Carlo Scarpa which was part of his Pennelatte series in the 1940s. Jessica Vincent purchased it at a Goodwill store outside Richmond, Va., in June for $3.99. It was sold through the Wright Auction House in Chicago on Wednesday Dec. 13, 2023, to a private European collector for $107,100. (Wright Auction House via AP)<br /> This image provided by Jessica Vincent shows Jessica Vincent holding a vase by Italian architect and designer Carlo Scarpa which was part of his Pennelatte series in the 1940s at her home in Henrico County, Virginia. Vincent purchased it at a Goodwill store outside Richmond, Va., in June for $3.99. It was sold through the Wright Auction House in Chicago on Wednesday Dec. 13, 2023, to a private European collector for $107,100. (Jessica Vincent via AP) AP_12_19_2023_153021Lifestyle

    Glass vase bought at Goodwill for $3.99 turns out to be a rare masterpiece that just sold for $107,000

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • FILE &#8212; Former Navy SEAL Robert O&#8217;Neill, who claims to have fatally shot Osama Bin Laden, talks about joining the service at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., Wednesday, July 26, 2017. O&#8217;Neill has a small ownership stake in Armed Forces Brewing Company and has served as its brand ambassador. His recent social media complaint about a Navy sailor who performs as a drag queen and a police report alleging he used a racial slur are fueling efforts to stop the brewery from opening in military friendly Norfolk, Va. (Matt Masin/The Orange County Register via AP)Politics

    Inverse version of Bud Light culture war hits Navy town mulling military-themed brewery: ‘No one is running around the brewing facility with AR-15s’

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • UNLV mass shootingPolitics

    Police have no motive after college professor who was denied various jobs murders several faculty at UNLV

    By Rio Yamat, Ben Finley, and others
  • A replicated model of the RMS Titanic liner is displayed on the opening day of the XXL Titanic exhibition at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in Paris on July 18, 2023, revealing authentic relics and objects recovered after the sinking, as well as life-size replicas of several areas of the liner. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic, a British liner reputed to be unsikable, sank off Newfoundland near Canada, after hitting an iceberg, the tragedy claiming the lives of around 1500 passengers. (Photo by Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT / AFP) (Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty Images)Lifestyle

    Controversial planned trip to recover Titanic artifacts is cancelled after the expedition’s leader died in a submersible accident near the shipwreck

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • RMS Titanic passenger liner of the White Star Line. From The Story of 25 Eventful Years in Pictures, published 1935. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)Lifestyle

    U.S. is fighting a planned Titanic expedition to collect historic artifacts because the shipwreck is a hallowed grave site

    By Ben Finley and The Associated Press
  • ARCHIVO &#8211; El tackle ofensivo de los Ravens de Baltimore Michael Oher sentado en el banco durante un juego de la NFL ante los Bills de Buffalo. Domingo 24 de octubre de 2010. (AP Foto/Nick Wass, Archivo)Personal Finance

    ‘Blind Side’ family’s conservatorship of Michael Oher full of ‘shocking and maybe never before seen things’, says legal expert

    By Adrian Sainz, Jonathan Mattise, and others