Uh, happy Friday: several gossip sites are reporting that a woman named Tina Seals has filed a maternity lawsuit against Beyoncé and Jay Z. A maternity lawsuit. As in, she’s claiming that she’s the one who gave birth to Blue Ivy. The legal document, filed in Manhattan, apparently alleges that Seals is seeking “to verify whether she is the biological …

Many of us take on responsibilities because they provide us prestige or recognition. If you have time constraints, consider dropping a few of these. Jeff Haden writes over at LinkedIn that dropping these “ego commitments” is an easy way to increase your productivity: We all do things that have more to do with ego than results. Maybe you serve on …

A 200-year-old stoneware seltzer bottle that was recently recovered from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea contains alcohol, according to the results of a preliminary analysis. Researchers discovered the well-preserved and sealed bottle in June, while exploring the so-called F53.31 shipwreck in Gda?sk Bay, close to the Polish coast. Preliminary laboratory tests have now shown the bottle …

A new study by Feeding America reveals some disturbing news: fully one-quarter of American military families requires state and federal aid just to be able to put food on the table. The study found that 620,000 households that include at least one member of active duty military personnel seek food aid. It also found that fully one in seven Americans …

Daniel Andrew, the California Highway Patrol officer who was seen repeatedly punching an unarmed black woman on video last month, could face serious felony charges for the beating, according to the CHP. The agency, which conducted an internal investigation into the incident, turned its findings over to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office yesterday. It said in a news …

Battered by controversy over its treatment of killer whales, SeaWorld San Diego announced Friday that it plans to double the size of its orca environment, contribute an additional $10 million to research on the species and establish an independent advisory committee of scientists to oversee its orca program. Called the Blue World Project, the new orca environment will be nearly …

Today in archaic, bigoted regulations, the FDA has rejected a gay teenager’s tissue donation because men who have sex with other men are a “risk factor” for communicable disease. AJ Betts died by suicide last year after being bullied for his sexual orientation, race, and cleft lip. While his organs were accepted for donation, his tissue—a separate designation, which includes …