Luke and Hillary Gardner never have a problem remembering each other’s birthday. They were born the same day. So was their infant son, 27 years later this past December.

Experts say the odds of that are about one in 133,000.

Luke Gardner, an assistant pastor at a Baptist church in northeast Mississippi, says he and his wife weren’t even aiming for a December birthday for son Cade Lee Gardner. It just happened.

Gardner joked that if he and Hillary Gardner decide to have more children, they may have to try for December.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon plans to hire 100,000 people across the U.S. over the next 18 months.

The online retailer said Thursday that the jobs are full time and come with benefits. Many of the new jobs will be at fulfillment centers currently being built in a number of states, including California, Florida, and Texas.

The Seattle company says the new jobs will be filled by people of differing experiences and education levels.

Amazon.com Inc. says it’s expanded its U.S. workforce by more than 150,000 people in the last five years.

The hiring surge comes as traditional retailers cut jobs and close stores.

Last week, the Limited said it would close all its stores and Macy’s moved forward with plans to close 68 stores and said it will cut more than 10,000 jobs.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — Three enlisted female Marines are reporting to a ground combat unit in North Carolina and are among the first women in the service to do so.

1st Lt. John McCombs, a Marine Corps spokesman with the Second Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, says the three report Thursday to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. McCombs says the unit has three female officers that will assist them.

The Marines are declining to identify the enlisted women. Armistead says they will serve as a rifleman, a machine gunner and a mortar Marine. There are some 40,000 Marines in the Expeditionary Force.

In June, The Associated Press reported the Marine Corps had seven female officers either serving in combat posts or waiting in line to serve, and 167 women with non-combat jobs in front-line units.

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Twins delivered 10 minutes apart at an Arizona hospital over the New Year’s weekend have different birth years.

Parents Holly and Brandon Shay welcomed their first son, Sawyer, into the world at 11:51 p.m. Saturday at Banner Hospital.

Their second son, Everett, arrived one minute after midnight on Sunday.

The father joked that Sawyer will tease his brother about being the older sibling.

The same thing happened over the weekend in San Diego.

Twin girls born at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns were delivered at 11:56 p.m. Saturday and at midnight on Sunday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actress Carrie Fisher, who found enduring fame as Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars,” has died. She was 60.

Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, released a statement through her spokesman saying Fisher died Tuesday just before 9 a.m PST. Lourd said her mother was “loved by the word and she will be missed profoundly.”

Fisher had been hospitalized since Friday when she suffered a medical emergency on board a flight to Los Angeles.

She made her feature film debut opposite Warren Beatty in the 1975 hit “Shampoo” and was also an accomplished author who detailed her experiences with addiction and mental illness in several best-selling books. Besides her daughter, Fisher is survived by her brother, Todd Fisher, and her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds.

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (AP) — A poll has found that the most annoying word or phrase used in casual conversation in America is “whatever.”

The Marist College poll released Wednesday indicates the word irritates 38 percent of Americans.

The pollsters offered up five options for most annoying word or phrase: “Whatever,” ”No offense, but,” ”Ya know, right,” ”I can’t even” and “huge.”

“No offense, but” is second with 20 percent. In third place is, “You know, right,” which is irksome to 14 percent of people, tied with “I can’t even.” ”Huge” grates on the nerves of 8 percent.

“Whatever” is losing some steam, though. Last year it topped the list at 43 percent.

Age matters. Among Americans under 30, “I can’t even” takes top honors.

The Dec. 1-9 survey of 1,005 adults has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials have approved a new option for some women battling ovarian cancer: a drug that targets a genetic mutation seen in some highly aggressive tumors.

The Food and Drug Administration cleared the drug, Rubraca, from Clovis Oncology Inc. for women in advanced stages of the disease who have already tried at least two chemotherapy drugs. The Clovis drug targets a genetic mutation found in 15 to 20 percent of ovarian cancer patients. The FDA also approved a companion test that screens for the mutation.

About 1 percent of women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in their lifetime, according to the National Cancer Institute. This year an estimated 14,240 women will die from the disease in the U.S.

Currently, the disease is treated with surgery or chemotherapy.

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — The popularity of e-cigarettes has been accompanied by a climbing number explosions or fires in the decade since their debut.

The devices simulate tobacco smoking. Because they operate on lithium batteries, they appear to be suffering mishaps similar to some smartphones, hover boards and other products.

Elected officials, personal injury attorneys and victims are demanding action.

This year alone a teenager at a Florida amusement park was burned. A man was chatting with co-workers in New York’s Grand Central Terminal when his pants erupted in flames. And a Brooklyn boy was partially blinded.

The Food and Drug Administration started regulating the devices in May. It is reporting increasing numbers of injuries in the past 18 months from exploding e-cigarettes.

DETROIT (AP) — The Obama administration has decided not to change government fuel economy requirements for cars and light trucks despite protests from automakers.

Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign environmental group, says he was told by people with knowledge of the decision that it will be announced on Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The decision means that automakers will still have to meet strict fuel economy requirements from 2022 through 2025. The standards had required the fleet of new cars to average 54.5 miles per gallon. But there was a built-in reduction if buying habits changed, dropping the number to 50.8.

Becker says the EPA will take public comments and enact the decision before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated in January.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — McDonald’s is testing the use of fresh, never frozen beef for its Quarter Pounder hamburgers.

The fast food giant says the tests are being carried out in 75 of its restaurants in the Tulsa, Oklahoma-area. It says Quarter Pounders in the restaurants will be made with fresh beef that’s cooked when ordered.

Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s says it got positive feedback recently from a similar test in the Dallas/Fort Worth-area.

McDonald’s says it has making “significant enhancements” to its food. It says that over last 18 months it has removed high fructose corn syrup from its buns and stopped using margarine in favor of butter.

The company is trying to stage a comeback after losing customers in recent years, with executives conceding they failed to keep up with changing tastes.