Facebook unveils redesigned news feed
If you’re reading this in print, then you might appreciate Facebook’s latest redesign.
Unveiled at a press event Thursday, the news feed’s new look is designed to be a “personalized newspaper,” according to CBS News and multiple media reports.
The new clutter-free design will have big images, content-specific feeds and mobile consistency, CBS News reported. The changes should give users more control over how they sort their news feeds, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“News feed is one of the most important services that we build,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg told CBS News.
Facebook’s news feed feature debuted in September 2006 with considerable user protest at the time. The social network currently reports having over 1 billion active monthly users.
— Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor
Apartment fire caused by ‘discarded smoking material’
The cause of a two-alarm apartment fire in Columbia that sent two people to the hospital Wednesday morning has been determined as the “accidental discarding of smoking material,” according to a report from the Columbia Fire Department Thursday.
At least 20 residents were displaced from Stone Ridge Apartments after the blaze started around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to WIS. The fire was under control at 7:30 a.m., WIS reported.
Twelve apartments were damaged — two of them destroyed — at an estimated cost of $270,000, according to the report. Windy conditions also played a factor in the blaze.
Columbia Fire Chief Aubry Jenkins encouraged smokers to follow safe smoking practices including smoking outside, using ashtrays, making sure that cigarettes and ashes are completely snuffed and practicing a home fire escape plan.
— Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor
Sheheen urges state Medicaid expansion
State Sen. Vincent Sheheen supports expanding the state’s Medicaid program.
He urged Gov. Nikki Haley Thursday to embrace the federal Affordable Care Act and its promise to expand the state’s health insurance program for the poor and disabled, The State reported.
“It’s time to do the right thing and bring South Carolina’s tax dollars back to South Carolina. Whether Gov. Haley and other politicians like the law is irrelevant,” Sheheen said in a news release.
Haley has said she will refuse an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program, which would add an estimated 500,000 people to the state’s Medicaid rolls, and could add $11.2 billion in federal money and 44,000 jobs to the state’s economy by 2020, according to The State.
Sheheen, a Democrat, is widely expected to challenge Haley as a candidate for governor in 2014.
— Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor