
Twitter Blue "debacle": Dead celebrities receive check marks, impersonators jump in
CBSN
The rollout of Twitter's paid blue check mark, which now costs $8 a month after previously being free, could become a case study in business schools across the globe, with some users calling it a "debacle" and media experts calling it chaotic and incompetent.
Twitter's iconic blue checkmarks began disappearing last week when the company fully moved over to its new subscription service called Twitter Blue. The blue check marks were first instituted by Twitter as a free service to verify the identity of users who could be subject to impersonation, such as politicians, journalists and celebrities.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who bought Twitter last year, is now asking users to pay $8 a month to keep their verification — although last week, he said he was paying for three celebrities so they could keep their blue checks: Stephen King, LeBron James and William Shatner.

Santa Fe, New Mexico — A representative for the estate of actor Gene Hackman is seeking to block the public release of autopsy and investigative reports, especially photographs and police body-camera video related to the recent deaths of Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa after their partially mummified bodies were discovered at their New Mexico home in February.

In the past year, over 135 million passengers traveled to the U.S. from other countries. To infectious disease experts, that represents 135 million chances for an outbreak to begin. To identify and stop the next potential pandemic, government disease detectives have been discreetly searching for viral pathogens in wastewater from airplanes. Experts are worried that these efforts may not be enough.