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July 03, 2014 | | GRANDE DAME At age 81, Joan Rivers remains the dirtiest, rudest deflater of celebrity egos and vanity in Hollywood. Over caviar and wine, Tim Teeman interviewed the icon who talked about thin skins, Twitter and Vine, and about the time she contemplated suicide after her husband killed himself. MELTDOWN In recent weeks, groups of as many as 200 have been crossing the Rio Grande in broad daylight so the Border Control can nab them. Caitlin Dickson reports on why so many want to go behind bars. FINALLY The jobs numbers for the month of June came in stronger than expected with 288,000 added. As a result, the unemployment rate has dropped to 6.1 percent, which is the lowest since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Economists had expected a gain of between 200,000 to 250,000. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job gains were across the board in professional and business services, retail, health care, and food services. So far in 2014, the number of unemployed persons has declined by 1.4 percentage points, or 2.3 million people. The number of long-term unemployed also dropped by 293,000 to 3.1 million.
FAREWELL Louis Zamperini, the World War II prisoner of war and former Olympic distance runner, has passed away at the age of 97. Zamperini was the subject of Lauren Hillenbrand's best-selling book Unbroken. His family says he battled for 40 days against pneumonia before succumbing. "Leaving behind a legacy that has touched so many lives. His indomitable courage and fighting spirit were never more apparent than in these last days," the family said. Zamperini was the youngest-ever American Olympic qualifier for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin where he placed eighth in the 5,000 meters. His final lap of 56 seconds, however, got him a one-on-one meeting with Adolf Hitler. Zamperini then enlisted in the Army Air Corps. in 1941. After his plane crashed, he spent 74 days on a raft before being captured by the Japanese Navy upon reaching shore. He would spend two and a half years as an unofficial POW, and was declared killed in action by the U.S. A movie adaptation of the book by Hillenbrand directed by Angelina Jolie is scheduled to hit theaters on Christmas Day 2014. SAY WHAT?! One of the most famous phrases in American history may have had its meaning changed by a wayward drop of ink. According to scholar Danielle Allen, the National Archive's copy of the Declaration of Independence has an error—a period right after the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." That period, she says, has caused a "routine but serious misunderstanding" throughout history, thinking that the sentence ends there. In fact, it continues with "instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." The difference, she argues, is that "the logic of the sentence moves from the value of individual rights to the importance of government as a tool for protecting those rights. You lose that connection when the period gets added." The errant period apparently does not exist on other copies, including Thomas Jefferson's rough draft. As a result of Allen's work, the National Archives are considering changes to its online presentation of the Declaration. | | 
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