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A 21-year-old University of Utah track star was abducted and shot to death on campus late Monday night -- and her parents believe it was all because she discovered a horrible secret about the killer.

Lauren McCluskey -- a 2017 honorable mention Pac-12 All-Academic -- had been dating a man named Melvin Rowland for about a month ... until Oct. 9, when she found out he was a registered sex offender.

Lauren's parents say, while the two were dating, Rowland had lied to her about his name, his age and his criminal history, which included a 2004 conviction for attempted forcible sex abuse and enticing a minor over the internet.

Fast forward to Monday night at 8 PM when Lauren was talking with her mother on the phone while leaving campus ... and she was abducted in a school parking lot.

"Suddenly, I heard her yell, "No, no, no!" Lauren's mother says ... "I thought she might have been in a car accident. That was the last I heard from her. My husband called 911."

Lauren was found shot to death in her car. Witnesses report hearing several gunshots. Cops launched an all-out manhunt for the suspect and tracked him down outside of a church in Salt Lake City.

Cops say Rowland forced his way inside the building early Tuesday morning and shot himself to death.

School president Ruth V. Watkins announced all classes Tuesday have been canceled and an on-campus vigil is being set for Wednesday evening.

"As a campus community, we share grief over this tragic loss of life," Watkins wrote ... "Our deepest sympathy is extended to Lauren’s family and friends."

Police were dispatched to billionaire Democratic philanthropist George Soros' home after an explosive device was found in his mailbox ... and there's suspicion the culprits may be part of right wing extremists.

The Bedford Police Department got a call from one of Soros' employees ... saying an explosive device was found Monday at his home in a suburb north of NYC. Cops say the employee opened the package and discovered the contraption.

A flood of local and federal agents responded to the scene -- including folks from ATF and the FBI -- and bomb squads were reportedly able to disarm it by proactively detonating it.

Soros was not home at the time ... and the FBI is on the hunt.

The well-known Dem has incurred the ire of many extreme right-wing groups, and has also been target of anti-Semites. He donates lots of money to Democratic candidates and progressive causes ... as well as more than $18 billion to his Open Society Foundations to promote democracy worldwide.

It's pretty clear now ... the Saudis planned to kill Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the get-go, because they had a decoy ready, complete with disguise.

There's surveillance video, obtained by CNN, showing Mustafa al-Madani -- apparently part of the hit squad that tortured and killed Khashoggi -- strolling around a famous Turkish Mosque just hours after Khashoggi entered the Saudi Embassy.

Al-Madani was wearing a fake beard and wearing the same outfit as Khashoggi. The 2 men are roughly the same height and weight.

The former head of the RNC doesn't believe a word of Saudi Arabia's explanation of how journalist Jamal Khashoggi died, and he doesn't buy Trump's denial of financial ties there.

We got Michael Steele Saturday at the L.A. Convention Center during Politicon 2018 and asked what he made of Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor insisting that Khashoggi had gotten into a fist fight inside the country's consulate in Turkey ... which led to his death.

It's clear he thinks the Saudi Arabian goverment's full of it -- as he describes just how unlikely it is for such a scenario to play out ... especially in light of how brutal his murder has been described by Turkish officials. He's said to have been dismembered.

Ben Stein says the guy who attacked Mitch McConnell Friday night is like a brownshirt in the early days of the Nazi Party.

We got Ben Saturday at Politicon in L.A., and he was disgusted by the video TMZ posted, showing a restaurant patron verbally assaulting McConnell and his wife at a Louisville, Kentucky restaurant. The person who shot the video told us before the attack, the patron grabbed McConnell's doggie bag and threw it out the door.

Ben is consistent ... saying the verbal assault against Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats are just as bad as what happened to the Majority Leader.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, is outraged at this weekend's verbal assault against Senator Mitch McConnell, saying attacks like this will make politicians hostages in their own homes.

We got the former Gov on Saturday at Politicon in L.A., and he was clearly upset by what went down Friday night at a Louisville, Kentucky restaurant, where a patron apparently slammed his fists down on the table where McConnell and his wife were sitting, grabbed his doggie bag, and threw the food out the door ... then started to berate the Majority Leader.

Christie says, if politicians isolate themselves from the public out of fear they'll be assaulted, then we all lose.

Check out how Christie invokes the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ... this in response to whether McConnell should have struck back.

Dozens of college students were injured when a floor collapsed Saturday night during a dance party ... and it was caught on video.

It's shocking to watch, as students plummet from the first floor into the basement of an apartment. Some of the students tried to jump to safety as the floor gave way ... mostly to no avail.

It appears as many as 30 people were injured and taken to the hospital for various injuries. Police say none of the injuries were life threatening.

Check out the aftermath video ... you hear students screaming in shock, not processing what had happened.

The incident occurred in a clubhouse at the apartment complex, a couple of miles from Clemson Univ.

One student said he felt something "weird" just before the collapse and suddenly the guy behind him just disappeared.

President Trump's watching his worst nightmare unfold -- more than 1,500 immigrants marching from Honduras to the U.S., and he's vowing our troops will stop them ... if Mexico can't get the job done.

The sea of humanity -- which started last week with fewer than 200 people -- is currently approaching Mexico, hell-bent on steaming toward the U.S. border. Images like this caught Trump's eye Thursday morning, and he started leveling a slew of threats -- including cutting off aid to Central American countries and demanding Mexico intervene.

For what it's worth ... Mexico seems to have gotten the message, and is sending hundreds of federal cops to try to stem the caravan.

A very similar situation unfolded earlier this year when a group of 1,200 people set out for the United States. Only about 150 made it to the border crossing at Tijuana, seeking asylum.

WWE superstar Randy Orton believes it's VERY important for the WWE to move forward with plans to host a major Pay-Per-View event in Saudi Arabia ... despite calls from U.S. officials to hold off.

WWE is scheduled to have the "Crown Jewel" event in Riyadh on Nov. 2 -- something they've been planning for months.

The problem ... Saudi Arabia is under fire for allegedly ordering the torture and murder of former Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Several politicians have called for Vince McMahon to postpone the event until there are clear answers as to the Saudi role in Khashoggi's disappearance.

Several powerful business leaders have distanced themselves from Saudi Arabia, including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Ford Motor Chairman Bill Ford.

Also, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has called on WWE to reconsider doing business with the country due to a "continuing pattern of abuse of civil rights and civil liberties."

But, Orton doesn't feel the same way -- telling TMZ Sports, "I think we should go. I think the only way to help with change over there is to go and not to cancel the trip."

"That's the goal is to make things better everywhere and I think us NOT going doesn't help. Going helps."

This is NOT a figment of Truman Burbank's imagination ... the house where Jim Carrey filmed "The Truman Show" was smack in the path of Hurricane Michael's 155 mph winds, but somehow dodged disaster.

Exteriors for the 1998 flick were shot at this home in Seaside, FL and, despite the approaching category 4 storm, the owners tell us they did very little to protect the house. They trusted the fact it's sitting on a solid foundation, and hoped for the best. However, the town was under mandatory evacuation, so they got out of harm's way ... not knowing if the home would make it.

Truth is, the odds weren't in their favor when Michael made landfall. As a barometer, Panama city -- just 35 miles west of Seaside -- was decimated.

As it turns out, the hurricane ended up skirting Seaside ... and the only real damage suffered at the house was limited to some branches coming down.

The owners know they got super lucky this time around.

Kanye West may have heard the outcry over his MAGA hat, because we found out he changed it up after the media left the Oval and gave Trump a cap, sans the word, "again."

Check out the embroidery on the hat the Prez is wearing ... "Make America Great." Kanye tells us it's an acknowledgment America needs work. It also seems to do away with the concept Obama screwed up the country -- although it's unclear if Trump agrees with that sentiment. Ye says he lobbied Trump during lunch on prison reform, manufacturing and other issues toward that end.

He says he told Trump he was going to create a factory in Chicago called Larry's -- as in Larry Hoover, the Chicago gang leader who's serving 6 life sentences for murder -- and says he'll hire former inmates to manufacture the Make America Great hats, among other items.

Ye was wearing a MAGA hat, because he says he only brought one hat without the word "again" but says he'll also start wearing the new version.

He also brought hats for Ivanka and Jared Kushner -- hers reads "Make Earth Great Again" and his says "Travel Space Again." Kanye showed Trump his concept idea for a new Air Force 1 too, calling it iPlane 1.

He also gave Trump a pair of Yeezys, size 12. He says his staff asked Trump's people for his shoe size in advance. BTW ... Yeezys usually run half a size small.

5:55 PM PT -- Not so fast. An industrial designer says Kanye's so-called iPlane 1 is hardly Ye's original idea. He told The Verge it's from his 2012 master's thesis imagining the future of air travel in 2030. The designer says he has no idea how Kanye found his designs, or what compelled him to claim the design as his idea.

Another milestone for Elon Musk, as the SpaceX CEO launched a satellite into space and successfully landed the rocket booster on solid ground at its California launch site in a visually stunning mission carried out over Los Angeles.

The amazing video delighted onlookers, and surprised those who were unaware of the launch ... nope, not a UFO. Sorry!

You see the Falcon 9 rocket soaring through the sky, leaving behind a beautiful trail of light ... that's when the first-stage booster (on the right) separates and heads back towards Earth as another rocket continues boosting the satellite into space.

It's the first time SpaceX has landed a first-stage booster on the West Coast ... they've previously flown rockets back to land in Florida, and on barges in the Pacific Ocean. The rocket will be reused, saving SpaceX tons of money.

Steven Seagal was quick to shut down an interview after a reporter brought up a rape allegation made against the actor.

Seagal appeared on BBC's Newsnight Thursday and host Kirsty Wark brought up the #MeToo movement. Wark then says, "You've been very much caught up in all the allegations of sexual harassment, you had a rape allegation against you and I wonder how you deal with all that?"

Just as Wark wrapped her question, Seagal ripped out his earpiece, stood up and walked out of camera view.

Seagal was accused in March of raping a woman back in the 90's ... another woman claimed he had sexually assaulted her in 2002. Portia de Rossi claimed Seagal sat her down on a couch during a casting for one of his films and unzipped his pants, so she fled the room.

Seagal adamantly denied all claims.

If you were already sick and tired of seeing electric scooters zipping all over L.A.'s Westside, too bad ... 'cause Uber's dumping even more of 'em onto the streets.

Uber rolled out its own line of electric scooters Wednesday in Santa Monica, which they're calling JUMP. No word if these things can catch air -- 'memba Razors?! We're guessing it's not recommended since these seem to be similar to scooters Bird and Lime are using.

Needless to say, these little fellas have pissed off a lot of people for a bunch of different reasons -- blocking walkways, riding in the middle of roadways, drunk scooter riders ... and so on. On the other hand -- they're super fun!!! Try one out sometime ... responsibly.

Apparently, through October 7, people who use Uber's new scooter can rent 'em for free for 5-30 minute rides. Capitalism at its finest.

Imagine President Trump sliding into your DMs -- okay, now take a deep breath because it's not THAT bad, but most likely you DID just get a text from him ... and a dead serious one at that.

If you haven't looked down at your phone recently ... FEMA sent out the first nationwide presidential alert text on behalf of POTUS Wednesday at 2:18 PM ET. It was just a test, and the real thing would only be used during a national crisis when it would be necessary to immediately contact all citizens.

We had our cameras set on Trump's Hollywood Walk of Fame star and at Time's Square -- and the moment the message hit was pretty obvious -- check out everyone who pulled out their phones.

Interestingly, the text is neutral and contains zero messaging directly from Trump -- "THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed." FEMA says the Prez gives the go-ahead to send the text, while FEMA drafts and sends the actual message.

If you're wondering ... the system doesn't allow 45 to wake up in the morning and decide on a whim to send a blast message to all Americans. Still gotta see Twitter for that.

2:30 PM PT -- POTUS has authorized the FBI to begin the Kavanaugh investigation that Sen. Flake called for right before the Judiciary Committee voted to recommend confirmation.

Several other Senators demanded such an investigation during Thursday's testimony, and Flake suggested the investigation should only delay the full Senate vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation by a week.

President Trump is one huge step closer to getting his guy, Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court -- the Senate Judiciary Committee just voted 11-10 to recommend he be confirmed.

The Committee has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, so the tally comes as no shock -- even after Thursday's emotional day of testimony from Kavanaugh and his sexual assault accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. The next step for Kavanaugh is the confirmation vote before the full Senate.

Before he cast his vote recommending confirmation, Sen. Jeff Flake came face-to-face with two sexual assault victims who confronted and cornered him in an elevator on Capitol Hill. The incident might have had some impact -- before the Committee voted, Sen. Flake requested the Senate vote be delayed for one week to let the FBI conduct an investigation. However, the Committee voted to recommend confirmation ... and did NOT insist on the one-week delay.

Emotions have been running high since Thursday's nearly 9 hours of testimony. Two other women -- Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick -- also levied allegations but were not allowed to testify.

Ford recounted Kavanaugh's alleged attack on her at a house party when they were in high school. Kavanaugh followed, and vehemently denied the allegations ... seemingly coming unhinged at times.