121 Structures Burned by Oklahoma Fires

At least 121 structures have been burned down by wildfires in Oklahoma.

Saturday saw temperatures over 100 degrees for the nineteenth straight day.

Thousands have been evacuated, including the entire town of Glencoe.

Thirteen fires are burning across the state, at least one of which was the work of arson.

Oklahoma has asked neighboring states for help, but very little has been sent, as they are all fighting fires of their own.

Conditions have been extremely dry throughout much of the United States.

More than half the US is in the worst drought the country has seen since at least 1956.

Phelps Career Ends in Gold

Phelps and his team took gold in the 400 meter medley relay, barely missing the Olympic record.

It gave Phelps his twenty-second overall medal, and his eighteenth gold.

He has gained six medals in the London Olympics.

Some have called him the greatest Olympian of all time, due to his twenty-two medals being the most of anyone for any sport.

Serena Gains Career Golden Slam

Saturday saw Serena Williams become only the second woman to ever attain a career Golden Slam.

To win a career Golden Slam, a tennis player has to win all four grand slams, and then the Olympic gold medal.

By beating Maria Sharapova in two straight sets, Serena won her first singles gold medal.

Steffi Graf accomplished the feat in the 1988 Olympics.

Fires in Colorado Start up Again

South of Elk Springs, Colorado two fires began on Friday, both were started by lightning strikes.

As of Saturday morning the Wolf Fire was around 1,200 acres and the Divide Fire was nearly 300 acres.

The fires are burning through grasslands, and being spread by winds.

Seventy-six firefighters and a helicopter are battling the blaze.

Ranchers are worried as the area that is burning is crucial grazing land for the cattle.

Conditions have been extremely dry throughout many areas in Colorado as well as the rest of the United States.

More than half the US is in the worst drought the country has seen since at least 1956.

Floods Kill 170 in North Korea

Floods in North Korea have killed at least 170 people, four hundred more are missing, and over 200,000 are homeless.

160,000 acres of farmland, as well as populated areas, have been flooded in a country that already was dealing with major food shortages.

The United Nations estimates that around two thirds of the North Korean population are not getting enough food, and that a third of children have stunted growth due to malnutrition.

Various agreements in the past to get food to the North Korean people have been either rejected by their government, or fallen through after the regime broke the terms.

Due to the situation of the floods, the UN has decided to send food aid, without terms.

Pirates Kidnap Four Off Nigeria

On Saturday gunmen raided an oil barge off the coast of Nigeria.

Two Nigerian navy sailors were killed in the attack, two more were injured, and four foreigners were kidnapped.

The foreigners work for Sea Trucks Group, an international oil services firm and were from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Iran.

Nigeria has been trying to build up their oil industry, recently announcing an all time high of production at 2.7 million barrels a day.

Kidnapping and piracy have been on the rise off the Nigerian coast, with seventeen attacks being recorded so far this year alone.

NASA Selects Winners of Space Taxi Competition

NASA has announced the winners of it's 'space taxi' competition.

The award is $1.1 billion dollars worth of funding, and will be split between the three companies.

Boeing of Texas, SpaceX of California, and Sierra Nevada of Colorado were the winners of the funding.

Winning the funding does not guarantee the contract, but does give a nice financial edge over other companies.

The companies will have several other major steps to accomplish within the next twenty-one months, before a final decision will be made.

'Space taxis' are being designed to ensure that US astronauts will not be dependent upon Russian space craft to reach space.

They have been forced to do so, since NASA's space shuttles were retired by President Obama.

Hopes are for the private companies to be shuttling astronauts by 2017.

CDOT Warns Drivers From Using I 225

Colorado's Department of Transportation is advising drivers to avoid I 225 for the rest of Friday.

The advisory comes due to necessary emergency repairs, in traffic lanes.

Plans had been to divert traffic from the south bound lanes, for the current construction project, but crews found damage to the transition area.

At this point there is no time table for when the repairs will be completed, or when all south and north bound lanes will be reopened.

Officials with CDOT had been planning on using the diversion route for nine months, whilst I 225 is widened and light rail tracks are added between Parker and Mississippi.

Remembering: The Macarena

In 1995 Antonia Romero and Rafael Ruiz of Spain released a song.

It was a hit in Latin America, and was noticed by a few in North America, but that seemed to be where it would end.

US stations noted it's popularity to the south, but would not play a song that was purely in Spanish.

That's when producers Carols De Yarza and Mike Triay became involved.

They remixed the song to give it a club beat and had the verses rerecorded in English, leaving the chorus in Spanish.

With the addition of the music video, which featured a dance everyone could learn, the song began climbing the charts.

On August 3, 1996 "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)" reached number one on the Billboard Charts.

The song would spend a total of sixty weeks on the charts, and set a record for most weeks at number one.

Remembering: Columbus' Voyage

On August 3, 1492 three ships left Spanish port of Palos, under the command of Christopher Columbus.

Their mission was simple, but possibly fraught with danger.

They had been tasked to find a western route to China and India.

The Santa Maria, Pinta, and Nina sighted land on October 12, and as they continued exploring they believed they had found part of China and Japan.

In March 1943 they returned to Spain with "Indian" captives, gold, spices, and other wealth and novelties.

History would later show that they hadn't made it to Asia, but in fact an unmapped part of the world, which would later be called the Americas.

Columbus would make a total of four trips across the sea, never realizing the importance of his discovery.

For centuries the explorers were thought to be the first to discover the Americas, but eventually time would show that the Vikings had made it four to five hundred years before them, further north.