Emblem of the NICS. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is a U.S. system for determining if prospective firearms or explosives buyers' name and birth year match those of a person who is not eligible to buy.
Paul Gray, who founded heavy-metal band Slipknot, died of a drug overdose in an Iowa motel in 2010. His doctor, Dr Daniel Baldi, faces 9 counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the deaths of Gray and others he prescribed drugs to.
Chuck Brown died May 16, 2012, of complications from sepsis during a long hospitalization for pneumonia. He was 75, a local legend, the progenitor of a homespun strain of funk that became the sound of black Washington.