On to the next one! Kate Hudson and her fiancee Matt Bellamy have called off their engagement, and the actress has moved on with Derek Hough, multiple sources confirm to Us Weekly.

 The How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days actress, 35, and Muse rocker, 36, started dating in 2010, and got engaged in April 2011. Three months after their engagement news, the couple welcomed a son Bingham Hawn Bellamy (now age 3). Hudson also shares a 10-year-old son named Ryder with her ex-husband Chris Robinson, whom she split from in November 2006.

 PHOTOS: Celebrity splits in 2014

 Hudson and Bellamy last hit the red carpet together at Goldie Hawn's Love In For Kids event in L.A., on Nov. 21. Hough also attended the same event that evening.

 PHOTOS: Longest celebrity engagements

 Sources tell Us that Hudson and Hough were together this past weekend at the Nice Guy Restaurant in L.A. One eyewitness says the stars ate dinner, drank, and stayed past closing.

 Even before the two were linked together, Hudson gushed about spending time with Hough in a 2013 interview with Shape magazine. "My heart is really in contemporary jazz, but lately I’ve been ballroom dancing with Derek Hough," she told the mag of the seasoned DWTS pro. "It’s been a real blast." See more photos of Kate and Derek.

 PHOTOS: Kate's bikini body

 Hudson previously voiced how she didn't mind her prolonged engagement to Bellamy. "No, I'm planning nothing right now. I'm so busy, we've been so busy and it's been great," Hudson told Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan this past January.

 PHOTOS: Celebs and their lookalike kids

 "I come from an unconventional family — they're not married, my parents aren't married," she continued of her mom Goldie Hawn and her longtime partner Kurt Russell, whom she affectionately refers to as dad. (Hawn split from Hudson's biological father, Bill Hudson, in 1980.)

 "So there's a part of me that goes, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right," she continued. "And I'm going to take the time to really plan it right . . . And it's a lot. Planning a wedding is a lot! I mean, I did a movie about planning a wedding and that was a lot, let alone actually planning a wedding! So, no. Not anytime soon, no."

 X17 was first to report Hudson's split.

 Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!

 Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! ||||| The seed for Wide00014 was:

 - Slash pages from every domain on the web:

 -- a ranking of all URLs that have more than one incoming inter-domain link (rank was determined by number of incoming links using Wide00012 inter domain links)

 -- up to a maximum of 100 most highly ranked URLs per domain

 - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph ||||| Kate Hudson will be ringing in the holiday season without her engagement ring. RadarOnline.com has learned that Goldie Hawn’s daughter has reportedly ended her engagement to Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy, after more than three years together.

 Hudson and Bellamy got engaged in April 2011, and welcomed son Bingham three months later. Hudson already had a son, Ryder, 10, with ex-husband Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes.

 But despite their history together, Hudson, 35, seemed to cool on the idea of marriage in recent months, as the couple spent more and more time apart.

 PHOTOS: Waiting At The Altar — 38 Hollywood Weddings That Were Called Off

 In February, she said, “My parents aren’t married,” during an appearance on Live! With Kelly and Michael. “And [planning a wedding is] a lot. … So no. Not [getting married] anytime soon, no.”

 And in July, she insisted, “We’ve got kids and a family and we’ve got to find our time together alone. We are in it. I think if we do get married it will be for the kids, really. For us, we’re just happy.”

 “I know that’s not really necessarily a golden ticket but there is something beautiful about the security of marriage,” she continued. “And we’ll get there when we get there.”

 PHOTOS: Extravagance: 10 Most Outrageous Celebrity Proposal Engagement Photos

 But now, it seems they won’t get there after all.

 According to X17online.com, who broke the news of the split, Bellamy, 36, was a no-show at Hudson’s family Thanksgiving festivities. And last night, he was partying at the Koko club in London while Hudson was hanging at The Nice Guy nightclub in L.A.

 The last time they were seen together in public was at a charity event for Hawn in L.A. On November 21.

 Story developing.

Summary: – Kate Hudson and Matt Bellamy won't be getting married after all. The formerly engaged couple "have been separated for some time now," Hudson's rep tells People. "Despite this, they remain very close friends and committed co-parents." The actress and the Muse frontman got engaged in April 2011 and welcomed son Bingham in July that same year. Sources tell Us Hudson has already moved on to Dancing With the Stars pro Derek Hough, with whom she's been spotted around town. Last year, Hudson said in an interview that she'd "been ballroom dancing with Derek Hough" lately and that it was "a real blast." (Click to read Hudson's thoughts on her long engagement.)


The officer involved in a shooting at the Punta Gorda Citizens Academy resigned from the department where he previously worked after allegations of excessive force surfaced in 2013.

 The officer involved in a shooting at the Punta Gorda Citizens Academy resigned from the department where he previously worked after allegations of excessive force surfaced in 2013.

 Remembering Mary Knowlton. On Tuesday, the hundreds of people from the Punta Gorda community gathered to say goodbye to the 73-year-old librarian, mother and wife.

 Remembering Mary Knowlton. On Tuesday, the hundreds of people from the Punta Gorda community gathered to say goodbye to the 73-year-old librarian, mother and wife.

 There are stunning new details about a 73-year-old librarian who was accidentally shot and killed by a Punta Gorda police officer during a gun demonstration.

 There are stunning new details about a 73-year-old librarian who was accidentally shot and killed by a Punta Gorda police officer during a gun demonstration.

 A month has passed since a Punta Gorda police officer shot and killed a woman during a Citizen's Police Academy session, and we're still waiting for an official account of what happened.

 A month has passed since a Punta Gorda police officer shot and killed a woman during a Citizen's Police Academy session, and we're still waiting for an official account of what happened.

 The City of Punta Gorda and Mary Knowlton’s family reached an agreement on a proposed $2 million settlement in the accidental fatal shooting at the city’s Citizen Police Academy.

 The City of Punta Gorda and Mary Knowlton’s family reached an agreement on a proposed $2 million settlement in the accidental fatal shooting at the city’s Citizen Police Academy.

 Punta Gorda Police Chief Tom Lewis had been placed on paid administrative leave while Officer Lee Coel will face a pre-disciplinary hearings with human resources.

 Punta Gorda Police Chief Tom Lewis had been placed on paid administrative leave while Officer Lee Coel will face a pre-disciplinary hearings with human resources.

 A police officer who's been charged with manslaughter for shooting and killing a woman during a citizen's academy exercise faced a disciplinary board Wednesday.

 A police officer who's been charged with manslaughter for shooting and killing a woman during a citizen's academy exercise faced a disciplinary board Wednesday.

 Future with Punta Gorda PD hazy for officer in fatal shooting

 Future with Punta Gorda PD hazy for officer in fatal shooting

 Punta Gorda Police Officer Lee Coel, the man who shot and killed 73-year-old Mary Knowlton during a police academy, has been fired by the city.

 Coel's last day will be March 10th, 2017.

 The shooting happened in August of 2016, during a role-playing exercise in which live ammunition was used.

 The city says in a letter addressed to Officer Coel on February 22, that he should have taken the "appropriate and reasonable steps to ensure the safety of Mary Knowlton and in failing to ensure that no live ammunition was used during the exercise."

 It also says that his action led the State Attorney's Office to file felony criminal charges against him for culpable criminal negligence.

 Coel does have the opportunity to appeal the human resource manager's decision.

 Coel's arraignment hearing is scheduled for April 10th at 8:30 a.m.

 Count on NBC2 for more updates ||||| A Florida cop has been fired after shooting and killing a beloved 73-year-old retiree during a citizen police academy where he was not supposed to be using real bullets.

 Punta Gorda Officer Lee Coel faces manslaughter charges in the death of Mary Knowlton, a former librarian who retired in the town north of Fort Myers.

 Knowlton was asked to play a “bad guy” during a “shoot, don’t shoot” event at the community academy when Coel’s gun fired, hitting her with live ammunition and killing her in front of her husband of 55 years.

 The academies normally use "simunition" guns that fire non-lethal rounds, a police spokeswoman told the Daily News at the time.

 Cop, police chief charged for accidental shooting death in class

 Officer Lee Coel has been canned for fatally shooting a woman during a simulation at a citizen police academy in Punta Gorda, Fla. (Punto Gorda Police Department/Facebook)

 Coel has been on administrative leave since the shooting, but has now been told his last day will be Friday in a letter from Punta Gorda reported by WBBH.

 The officer should have taken “appropriate and reasonable steps to ensure the safety of Mary Knowlton and in failing to ensure that no live ammunition was used during the exercise,” reads the letter sent last month.

 The defense for Coel, a two-year veteran who previously faced excessive force complaints at a previous department, has said that he did not know that there was ammunition in the gun he used

 Mary Knowlton died in the police simulation. (Facebook)

 He faces up to 30 years behind bars for the manslaughter charge, and pleaded not guilty earlier this week.

 Husband of woman killed at citizen cop academy forgives shooter

 Punta Gorda Police Chief Thomas Lewis, who was present at the shooting and called it a “horrible accident” is also charged with misdemeanor culpable negligence.

 Knowlton’s family also agreed to a settlement of more than $2 million with the city of Punta Gorda in October.

Summary: – The Florida cop who killed a 73-year-old librarian when he fired real bullets during a role-playing exercise is now an ex-cop. Punta Gorda Officer Lee Coel has been on administrative leave since last summer, when he shot Mary Knowlton dead in front of her husband of 55 years, but he has now been informed that his last day will be Friday, the New York Daily News reports. Coel has said he thought he was firing blanks during the exercise at a citizen police academy event, where Knowlton was among dozens of volunteers. In a letter to the officer, the city says he should have taken "appropriate and reasonable steps" to ensure the safety of Knowlton, who had been selected at random to play a bad guy, including making sure that no live ammunition was used during the exercise, WBBH reports. Coel—who was accused of using excessive force in his previous job—was charged with felony manslaughter after the death and pleaded not guilty earlier this week. Punta Gorda Police Chief Thomas Lewis is charged with misdemeanor negligence in the shooting. Knowlton's family reached a $2 million settlement with the city last fall.


The multinational coalition executing airstrikes against forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi appears to have paved the way for a new rebel front by bombing positions near a rural stretch along the country's western border.Libyan authorities took journalists to the city of Mizdah, about 100 miles south of Tripoli, the capital, on Tuesday to view evidence of damage to civilian buildings caused by coalition warplane and missile strikes Sunday and Monday on military targets. Military sites in both Mizdah and Gharyan, another city struck by coalition warplanes this week, lie on the front line against the rebel-controlled towns of Zintan and Nalut to the west.Mizdah showed the perils of using airstrikes in an attempt to change the balance of military power on the ground. Coalition airstrikes on an ammunition depot apparently resulted in Libyan rockets hitting the town's general hospital, a nearby apartment complex housing foreign medical staff members and a single-family home. Several civilians were injured but there were no deaths, hospital officials said.At the same time, Adel Zintani, a rebel spokesman reached in Zintan, about 90 miles southwest of Tripoli, said that town was being pummeled daily by Kadafi forces firing Grad missiles. Both Mizdah and Gharyan house huge weapons storage facilities that are used to support the offensive against Zintan, Nalut and several other towns along Libya's sparsely populated Western Mountains region, he said.Kadafi's men were hunkering down and "preparing to reinforce existing positions" near Zintan, U.S. Vice Adm. William E. Gortney told reporters Monday at the Pentagon.Like the rebel advance on the Kadafi stronghold of Surt to the east, a move by rebel fighters into Mizdah risks igniting long-simmering tribal animosities."If they come here the people from Zintan are going to kill us," said Ahmad Ali, 25, a member of the Assayeh tribe, which views those from Zintan with suspicion. "It's because between our grandfathers and their grandfathers, there was a dispute over land."Rebel forces to the west and along the Tunisian border can count on at least some support within the population of towns like Mizdah, which was also briefly under rebel control early in an uprising against Kadafi that erupted last month and was violently crushed.Last month, opposition supporters burned down a police station and the offices of Kadafi's "revolutionary committee" and spray-painted "Down with Kadafi!" on the walls. They also attempted to take control of police and military vehicles and plunder arms caches. Witnesses said the rebels were violent and determined."If they want to change the system they could have done it peacefully," said Mona Ali, a 31-year-old nurse at the Mizdah hospital. "What are they doing burning down the police station? All the children are afraid of them."Security forces suppressed the rebellion in this desert town with massive volleys of gunfire that sent dozens of people to the emergency room with bullet wounds to their legs and torsos, hospital staff said.But even staunch Kadafi supporters concede that Nalut, a Tunisian border town and major smuggling junction, and nearby Zintan remain firmly under the control of rebels, whom they describe as radical Islamists."All people are suffering in Nalut because they have started establishing Al Qaeda laws in the city," said Taer Abdul-Rahman, a lawyer in Mizdah who said he attended university in Nalut and maintains strong ties to the city.Residents of Mizdah said they dread an advance by the rebels in Zintan or another uprising in the city. Officials have distributed fresh weapons to government loyalists, including Bedouin tribes roaming the desert. They have formed informal neighborhood watch committees to protect against infiltrators at night."All the problems started with these people," said Abdul-Rahman, who vowed to wield his AK-47 and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher against any rebels that approached the city. "They cannot take control of Mizdah because all the people are with Moammar Kadafi. They will only get our dead bodies."Zintani, a pharmacist by training, said the opposition in the Western Mountains included doctors, engineers, students, teachers and retirees. They were in contact with the opposition government in the eastern city of Benghazi, he said."If anyone asking for freedom and their rights is a terrorist, then we are the biggest terrorists in the world," he said in a phone interview. "We won't let anyone from Al Qaeda be here." ||||| Forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi continued to push rebels out of positions along coastal oil towns Wednesday, testing the limits of the coalition airstrikes. Jerry Seib discusses whether Libya's rebels can prevail without ground support.

 Libyan rebel fighters fled farther east from Col. Moammar Gadhafi's military Wednesday, a retreat that is forcing the U.S. and its allies to confront the possibility that their air power alone won't be sufficient to boost the ragtag opposition forces.

 The prospect of a stalemate is leading the U.S. and its allies to consider other ways to help the rebel cause. Over the past several days, debate has simmered in Washington about whether to arm rebel groups, a discussion made all the more critical by the rebels' latest setbacks.

 President Barack Obama has signed a secret order that could facilitate such weapons transfers. Under the authorization, the Central Intelligence Agency has placed covert operatives on the ground in parts of Libya, officials say.

 WSJ's Paul Sonne reports from London on allied leaders moving toward the goal of removing Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and democratizing the Northern Africa country. Also, a report on Syrian president al-Assad addressing the public to quell protests.

 "We have done very well in attacking the targets that air power can attack," said retired Army Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington. "But we will not be able to protect civilians to the point expected through air power alone."

 Obama administration officials have openly hoped that Libyan military commanders will see their troops shattered by allied airstrikes and decide to depose or kill Col. Gadhafi themselves.

 On Wednesday, Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa resigned his position, creating expectations that he would announce his defection as early as Thursday. U.S. officials called the development "very significant" and an example of growing splits inside Col. Gadhafi's inner circle.

 In fighting Wednesday, the lightly armed opposition forces fell back from the oil-refinery town of Ras Lanuf and faced intense pressure from Col. Gadhafi's forces around Brega, another oil port they had conquered in recent days under the umbrella of allied airstrikes.

 Rebels Retreat View Slideshow Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Libyan rebels waited at a checkpoint in Brega Wednesday as outgunned rebels fled Ras Lanuf.

 Rebels in Darnah, in eastern Libya, recounted unconfirmed reports that their fighters had been pushed back toward Ajdabiya, a crossroads leading to the rebel capital, Benghazi.

 The first days of the allied air war, which began March 19, gave a huge boost to the rebels, who had appeared on the verge of being crushed in Benghazi. Columns of pickup trucks and other vehicles swept quickly west into areas held by Col. Gadhafi's loyalists, and threatened his hometown of Sirte, with allied planes and missiles hitting regime armor in open desert.

 In the 24 hours ended midday Wednesday, U.S. and coalition aircraft conducted a total of 188 sorties, including 102 strikes against Libyan ground targets. U.S. warships also launched two Tomahawk cruise missiles.

 On Edge in Libya Track the latest events in the fight for Libya. View Interactive More photos and interactive graphics

 But it has proved hard for rebels to hold the ground they seize. "What we call the rebel force is not a force at all," Gen. Dubik said. "It's just guys with guns."

 Col. Gadhafi's forces, by contrast, are better equipped and better organized. The advances of government troops show air attacks haven't degraded the government's military to the point where it can't advance.

 Allied planes and missiles will likely be of limited value should the rebels make their way into major settlements or the capital, because airstrikes could potentially threaten civilian lives.

 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is taking over command of the operation from the U.S., won't discuss its rules of engagement—the conditions under which allied forces are allowed to fire their weapons.

 NATO officials said its operations will be strictly guided by this month's United Nations resolution authorizing "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians.

 In recent days, allied forces have hit ammunition storage dumps, rocket launchers and surface-to-air missile launchers. The U.S. has brought in two types of aircraft—tank-busting A-10s and AC-130 gunships—that can deliver accurate, devastating attacks on ground targets.

 White House spokesman Jay Carney said that "no decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya— we're not ruling it out or ruling it in."

 Those who oppose such a move argue the rebels are too disorganized and ill-trained to use any U.S.-provided weapons aid effectively and that there is a risk that the arms provided to them today will fall into the hands of anti-American Islamists.

 "We need to understand more about the opposition before I would support passing out guns and advanced weapons to them," said Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. "It's safe to say what the rebels stand against, but we are a long way from an understanding of what they stand for. We need to be very careful before rushing into a decision that could come back to haunt us."

 Write to Sam Dagher at sam.dagher@wsj.com and Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com

Summary: – Rebels suffered a significant setback on their main front yesterday, as Gadhafi’s heavily-armed forces drove them out of the oil port of Ras Lanuf, according to the Wall Street Journal. Defeats like that raise the possibility that the coalition will need to arm the rebels, a move Barack Obama yesterday said was a definite option: "I’m not ruling it out, but I’m also not ruling it in," he told NBC News. "We’re still making an assessment partly about what Qaddafi’s forces are going to be doing. Keep in mind, we’ve been at this now for nine days." Opponents say supplying arms would pull the US in deeper, because the rebels would need to be trained to use even relatively simple weapons. Meanwhile, coalition airstrikes have begun targeting cities and towns near Libya’s western border, in an apparent attempt to open a second front in the rebels’ war against Moammar Gadhafi. Libyan authorities took reporters to Mizdah yesterday to show off the damage those strikes had allegedly done to civilian buildings; in one case, a strike on an arms depot had apparently caused Libyan rockets to fire into a nearby hospital, injuring some civilians, the LA Times reports.


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 Olympic gold medal gymnast McKayla Maroney says former team doctor Larry Nassar molested her on her very first visit to the famed Karolyi ranch — and then abused her hundreds of times over the next five years.

 "He said that nobody would understand this and the sacrifice that it takes to get to the Olympics. So you can't tell people this," Maroney said in an exclusive interview with NBC News' Savannah Guthrie for a special investigative edition of "Dateline" airing Sunday night, 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT.

 "I actually was like, 'That makes sense. I don't want to tell anybody about this,'" she recalled. "I didn't believe that they would understand."

 The one-hour broadcast will also include an exclusive interview with legendary gymnastics coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi, who have not spoken since the sexual abuse scandal engulfed the sport a year and a half ago.

 The show also includes interviews with Olympian Aly Raisman and Gina Nichols, the mother of former world champion gymnast Maggie Nichols, and new details about an alleged cover-up attempt by USA Gymnastics and the failure of the FBI and others to stop Nassar sooner.

 Speaking in detail about her ordeal for the first time since she disclosed she was a victim last year, Maroney described what happened the first day she met Nassar at the ranch, when she was just 13 years old.

 Related Eight times Larry Nassar could have been stopped

 "He told me he was going to do a checkup on me and that was the first day I was abused," she said.

 Nassar, who admitted in court that he penetrated his patients with ungloved hands under the guise of medical treatment, saw Maroney every time she was at the ranch and at competitions around the world.

 She said he molested her "every time."

 How many times before she finally quit competitive gymnastics? "Hundreds," Maroney said.

 Martha and Bela Karolyi sit inside Karolyi Ranch on Jan. 26, 2011 in Huntsville, Texas. Bob Levey / Getty Images for Hilton

 Nassar is now serving up to 175 years in prison, but questions continue to swirl about whether powerful institutions could have done more to stop him.

 A U.S. Senate subcommittee held a hearing Wednesday on how to protect Olympic athletes, taking testimony from victims in several sports, including Maroney's "Fierce Five" teammate, Jordyn Wieber.

 Wieber said Nassar began abusing her when she was 14 years old, six years after she first met him. "I would cringe at how uncomfortable it felt," she said.

 "The worst part was that I had no idea that he was sexually abusing me for his own benefit. I knew it felt strange, but after all, he was the national team doctor."

 "Me and my teammates were not protected," Wieber added. "My parents trusted USA Gymnastics and Larry Nassar to take care of me and we were betrayed by both."

 USA Gymnastics says the first time it learned of abuse allegations was in June 2015, from a coach who overheard a conversation between two gymnasts. The organization said it moved quickly to hire an expert to interview Maroney and two other athletes and then alerted the FBI weeks later.

 In a statement, USA Gymnastics, which sparked outrage by including a confidentiality clause in a settlement agreement with Maroney, said it admires her for speaking out against abuse.

 "USA Gymnastics is saddened that her memories of gymnastics are tainted by the despicable crimes of Larry Nassar. Our athletes, like McKayla, are the heart and soul of USA Gymnastics, and every effort has been made to support our athletes' development and provide the opportunities for them to achieve their dreams," it said.

 "The powerful voices of the athletes, like McKayla, who shared their experiences of abuse by Nassar impacted us all and will influence our decisions going forward. USA Gymnastics is committed to building a culture that empowers and supports our athletes and focuses on our highest priority, the safety and well-being of our athletes. We are doing everything possible to prevent abuse, and we hope everything we do going forward makes this very clear." ||||| Olympic gold medal gymnast McKayla Maroney, right, Olympic gold medal gymnast McKayla Maroney, center, a sexual abuse victim of U.S. women's gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, speaks at the 2018 Spring luncheon of The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC), Tuesday April... (Associated Press)

 NEW YORK (AP) — McKayla Maroney's gymnastics career brought her a pair of Olympic medals and widespread fame.

 It also brought her into close contact with former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who Maroney says abused her for years and left her wondering if the heights she reached during her career came at too high a price.

 "I at times question if my gymnastics career was really even worth it," Maroney said Tuesday while speaking to the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. "Because of the stuff I'm dealing with now. . You have to pick up the pieces of your life and that has been the hardest part for me. It's always three steps forward, two steps back."

 Maroney's remarks were her first public statements since revealing she was among Nassar's abuse victims last fall. The 22-year-old said she's been empowered by the outpouring of support from others since coming forward and is intent on making sure the culture at USA Gymnastics, the United States Olympic Committee and Michigan State University changes for the better.

 Nassar spent nearly three decades at USA Gymnastics before being fired in 2015 after complaints about his behavior. He continued to work at MSU through the fall of 2016 before being hit with federal charges. Nassar is now serving decades in prison for molesting women and girls and for possessing child pornography.

 Maroney pointed to personnel overhauls at USA Gymnastics, Michigan State and the USOC as signs of progress, though much work remains to be done.

 "Within the gymnastics world, there's no question we need to rebuild from the ground up so this never happens again," Maroney said. "I definitely see a future where athletes are safe and succeeding. This next generation is going to be even stronger with everything that we're doing because they don't need to continue to struggle with the repercussions of sexual abuse. They shouldn't have to. I should have never had to. My team won gold medals in spite of USA Gymnastics and MSU and USOC. They don't build champions. They break them. But we're changing that."

 USA Gymnastics has replaced nearly its entire leadership over the last 15 months, including bringing on a new president and board of directors. Michigan State and the USOC have also shaken up their leadership in response to Nassar's widespread abuse.

 Maroney captured a gold and silver at the 2012 London Olympics and won gold on vault in the 2011 and 2013 world championships. She announced her retirement in 2016, the last time she spoke publically before Tuesday. In December, 2016 she reached a settlement with USA Gymnastics after suffering "years of psychological trauma." Maroney filed a lawsuit last December seeking to invalidate parts of the settlement, arguing it violated California law.

 Whatever the legal fallout, Maroney is intent on picking up the pieces and moving on. Becoming a leading advocate for the prevention of abuse is part of the plan.

 "The one thing gymnastics did teach me is when you fall, you have to get back up," Maroney said. "We can't give up on ending sexual abuse."

 ___

 Freelance writer Denis Gorman in New York contributed to this report.

Summary: – McKayla Maroney is detailing her abuse at the hands of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar for the first time in an interview with Savannah Guthrie set to air Sunday on Dateline. On the first day she met Nassar, when she was 13 years old, "He told me he was going to do a checkup on me and that was the first day I was abused," Maroney says in a preview of the sit-down. He went on to molest her "every time" she saw him, she says, noting that it amounted to "hundreds" of instances over five years. Nassar admitted in court he penetrated his patients under the guise of medical treatment. "He said that nobody would understand this and the sacrifice that it takes to get to the Olympics. So you can't tell people this," she says. "I actually was like, 'That makes sense. I don't want to tell anybody about this.' I didn't believe that they would understand." On Tuesday, Maroney spoke publicly for the first time since revealing she was among Nassar's victims, the AP reports. "I at times question if my gymnastics career was really even worth it," she said while speaking to the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. "Because of the stuff I'm dealing with now. You have to pick up the pieces of your life and that has been the hardest part for me. It's always three steps forward, two steps back." She also slammed the institutions that didn't protect Nassar's victims, among them USA Gymnastics, the US Olympic Committee, and Michigan State University, where Nassar had a sports medicine practice, NBC notes. Sunday's Dateline will also include interviews with other gymnasts and their parents as well as gymnastics coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi, who have not yet spoken publicly about the sexual abuse scandal.


5 years ago

 Updated 7:26 p.m., 5/17/2014

 Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama intends to nominate San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to be his next secretary of Housing and Urban Development, a government source said Saturday.

 The 39-year old, three-term mayor first gained national recognition when he delivered the keynote address at the 2012 Democratic National Convention - the first Hispanic to do so.

 Follow @politicaltickerFollow @JimAcostaCNNFollow @ConorCNN

 First elected in 2009 and re-elected in 2011 and 2013, Castro is the youngest mayor of a major American city. He has been widely considered a rising leader in the Democratic Party and some even say a potential vice presidential candidate in 2016.

 The current HUD secretary, Shaun Donovan, has been a member of the Obama administration from the start.

 A Democratic official with knowledge of the cabinet selection process tells CNN that a plan is now in place for the President to nominate Castro for HUD secretary and tap Shaun Donovan to head the Office of Management and Budget. That position became open after Syliva Mathews Burwell was tapped to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

 This Democratic official said the vetting process for Castro is still under way and that a formal announcement could be weeks away.

 In response to questions Saturday, the White House said, "We have no personnel announcements at this time."

 The intended Cabinet shuffle was first reported in The New York Times.

 A graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, Castro began his political career at a young age. At 26, he was the youngest councilman ever elected in San Antonio.

 Four years later, he ran for mayor, but lost to retired judge and fellow Democrat Phil Hardberger. Another four years, and Castro was in City Hall at the ripe old age of 34.

 Castro was re-elected in 2011 with 82% of the vote and in 2013 with 67%.

 He has spoken out in favor of same-sex marriage and of affirmative action, even telling The New York Times that it helped him get into Stanford.

 Castro has built a reputation as "a youthful and dynamic leader here in town," Walter Wilson, assistant professor of political science at the University of Texas-San Antonio, told CNN in 2012.

 Former San Antonio mayor and HUD secretary Henry Cisneros told CNN in an interview that Castro is a good fit for the job, noting the current mayor's record of expanding pre-K education, revitalizing San Antonio's downtown and shoring up the city's finances.

 With an eye on 2016, Cisneros said the mayor could "learn the country" as HUD secretary, arguing, "It's a lot more likely he can get on that ticket from a national office than from a mayor's job."

 "He can't stay a mayor forever without getting dinged," Cisneros said, noting the Republican Party’s current dominance in Texas politics.

 "He will grow into a national-caliber talent," Cisneros continued, saying Castro has the potential to one day become the nation's first Latino president.

 Not everyone is a fan, though.

 "He's a tax-and-spend liberal. He does not represent all Hispanics, we're not all the same," George Rodriguez, president of the tea party in San Antonio, said in 2012.

 Castro is the grandson of Mexican immigrants. His grandmother came to Texas from Mexico as an orphan at the age of 6. She taught herself to read and write in Spanish, eventually finding work in San Antonio as a maid and a cook.

 His twin brother, Joaquin Castro, who introduced him at the DNC in 2012, is representing San Antonio in the House of Representatives.

 –CNN's Conor Finnegan, Sarah Aarthun, Ed Lavandera and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report. ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story

 WASHINGTON — President Obama is preparing to nominate Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio as his new secretary of housing and urban development, elevating one of his party’s Hispanic rising stars as part of a cabinet shuffle that has possible implications for the 2016 presidential race, Democrats informed about the plans said on Saturday.

 Mr. Castro, who has often been mentioned as a potential vice-presidential candidate for the Democrats, would take the place of Shaun Donovan, who is to become director of the Office of Management and Budget. That job is being vacated by Sylvia Mathews Burwell, whom Mr. Obama tapped to be secretary of health and human services and who seems headed to Senate confirmation.

 Mr. Castro, 39, won national attention in 2012 as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, and he and his twin brother, Representative Joaquin Castro, have become popular speakers on the party’s fund-raising circuit. Mr. Obama and the Democrats have predicated their electoral hopes on appealing to the country’s growing Hispanic population as House Republicans have blocked their efforts to overhaul the immigration system.

 Photo

 Mr. Obama’s failure to push through immigration legislation has increased the political pressure on him and his Democratic allies from some Latino groups, which have demanded in recent weeks that the president act to reduce deportations that break up immigrant families.

 Mr. Obama had tried to lure Mr. Castro to the cabinet before. After the 2012 election, the president approached the mayor about serving as transportation secretary, but Mr. Castro, whose third term ends next year, indicated that he preferred to stay in San Antonio. He also passed on the chance to run for governor of Texas this year.

 “Just like I decided not to run in 2014, I told the voters of San Antonio I would remain mayor until my tenure was over,” Mr. Castro said in an interview last month.

 He could not be reached on Saturday, and it was not clear what had prompted his change of heart. But Mr. Castro, a Mexican-American whose mother once worked at the San Antonio Housing Authority, found the HUD post appealing because it would allow him to work on issues he has focused on as mayor, according to associates familiar with his thinking.

 Asked last month if he thought he might be wasting a political opportunity if he did not move to the national stage, Mr. Castro said: “I’m going to be 40 this year. I feel like I have a decent amount of time either way. Whatever happens in the next two years to eight years, I’ll have time.”

 But he has been advised to raise his profile in the hope of securing a slot on the national ticket. Democrats said that by taking an executive position in Washington, he would bolster his résumé after serving as mayor of the nation’s seventh-largest city since 2009.

 “You take somebody who is a very successful and appealing politician, who has regional strength, and put them on the national stage, and by definition you raise their stature and increase the possibility that they are going to get a look by the nominee,” said Jonathan Prince, a Democratic consultant.

 Advertisement Continue reading the main story

 Advertisement Continue reading the main story

 Some of Mr. Castro’s allies also believe that with income inequality becoming a focal point for Democrats, the HUD job offers the mayor an opportunity to burnish his credentials on issues of poverty and to raise his appeal among those on the party’s left. The post will also let him develop relationships with and win favors from city leaders and activists in a way he cannot on the Democratic lecture circuit.

 In a move that raised eyebrows about his political future, Mr. Castro shared lunch in February with former President Bill Clinton and Henry Cisneros, a former San Antonio mayor who went on to serve as housing secretary in Mr. Clinton’s cabinet.

 “I advised that he accept a position for President Obama,” Mr. Cisneros said in an interview this year about the previous offer. “I thought that if he was going to be vice-presidential material in 2016, then he needed to be more than mayor at that time.”

 Few prominent Hispanic Democrats are positioned to be considered for vice president in 2016, but several Republicans are thought to be prospects for their party’s next ticket, including Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida and Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico.

 “That puts them in a bit of a pinch, and this may be an effort to move the pieces around on the chessboard,” Danny Diaz, a strategist who advises Ms. Martinez, said of the Democrats.

 Given how crucial Hispanics’ votes were in Mr. Obama’s two victories, some Democrats believe that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, should she run and win the nomination, would be wise to pick a Hispanic running mate.

 Mr. Castro is one of the leading voices predicting that changing demographics will eventually favor Democrats. “A couple years ago, I said Republicans should enjoy it because it’s not going to get any better for them,” he said, “and it’s only getting better for Democrats moving forward.”

 The San Antonio Express-News first reported that Mr. Castro had been offered a cabinet post and was undergoing the standard background vetting, but the newspaper had not identified which position he would take. The Democrats who described the fuller cabinet shuffle on Saturday asked not to be identified because the plans had not been announced. The White House declined to comment.

 The HUD job would become available to Mr. Castro with Mr. Donovan’s move to the budget office, replacing Ms. Burwell. She would succeed Kathleen Sebelius, who announced last month that she was resigning as secretary of health and human services after presiding over the disastrous rollout of the online exchanges for the Affordable Care Act in the fall.

 While not formally part of the statutory cabinet, the budget office position has cabinet rank under Mr. Obama, and its director can play an outsize role in shaping administration policy.

 Mr. Donovan, a former commissioner of housing preservation in New York City and an original member of Mr. Obama’s cabinet, has been a favorite of the president’s. At a Democratic fund-raiser on Wednesday in New York, Mr. Obama offered effusive praise for Mr. Donovan, singling out his work on recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy.

 “When we thought about who was somebody who we had confidence” could take on the task, “Shaun came to mind,” Mr. Obama said. He added that Mr. Donovan had “done a terrific job.”

Summary: – President Obama has chosen San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro as the next housing secretary, Democratic insiders tell the New York Times. Castro, who has been mayor since 2009, was the 2012 Democratic National Convention's keynote speaker, and he has been named as a possible future VP candidate, the Times notes. He would take part in a chain of Cabinet replacements following Kathleen Sebelius' departure as health secretary. Obama nominated Office of Management and Budget head Sylvia Mathews Burwell to replace Sebelius; current secretary of housing and urban development Shaun Donovan would replace Burwell, with Castro taking Donovan's position. The White House hasn't confirmed the Castro report. At 39, Castro is the youngest mayor of a major US city, CNN notes, per his website.


Crawl of outlinks from wikipedia.org started March, 2016. These files are currently not publicly accessible. Properties of this collection. It has been several years since the last time we did this. For this collection, several things were done: 1. Turned off duplicate detection. This collection will be complete, as there is a good chance we will share the data, and sharing data with pointers to random other collections, is a complex problem. 2. For the first time, did all the different wikis. The original runs were just against the enwiki. This one, the seed list was built from all 865 collections. ||||| Representative Paul D. Ryan said on Thursday it was a mistake to have requested funds in 2009 from the federal stimulus bill after voting against it.

 Mr. Ryan earlier denied asking for money from the $787 billion stimulus on behalf of companies in his Wisconsin district, contradicting a report by The Boston Globe on Tuesday that he wrote to the federal Energy Department requesting funds for two companies to develop so-called green jobs.

 “No, I never asked for stimulus,’’ Mr. Ryan said in an interview with WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, which was broadcast Thursday. Mr. Ryan, along with Mitt Romney, who picked him as his running mate last week, have vociferously denounced the stimulus as an example of President Obama’s failure to restore the economy. The Congressional Budget Office said the stimulus increased employment by 1.3 million to 3.3 million people.

 Mr. Ryan said in the television interview that he did not recall writing the letters. Later, his office issued a statement that he had since checked into the letters. “They were treated as constituent service requests in the same way matters involving Social Security or Veterans Affairs are handled,’’ he said in the statement. “This is why I didn’t recall the letters earlier. But they should have been handled differently, and I take responsibility for that. Regardless, it’s clear that the Obama stimulus did nothing to stimulate the economy, and now the President is asking to do it all over again.’’

 This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

 Correction: August 17, 2012

 An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the television station that interviewed Paul D. Ryan. It is WCPO, not WCOP. ||||| WASHINGTON—Democrats, stung by criticism of their $787 billion economic-stimulus plan, are targeting Republicans who have attacked the program and then lobbied to get money for their districts.

 More than a dozen Republican lawmakers supported stimulus-funding requests submitted to the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forest Service, in letters obtained by The Wall Street Journal through the Freedom of Information Act.

 The stimulus package passed last February with no Republican votes in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, just three Republicans supported it: Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who later switched to the Democratic Party.

 Read the letters sent to the EPA by Kay Bailey Hutchison, John Cornyn, and Robert Bennett; to the Labor Department by Sue Myrick, Paul Ryan, Jean Schmidt; and to the Forest Service by the Alabama congressional delegation.

 Lawmakers routinely send letters in support of federal funding for projects in their constituencies; some Republican lawmakers have deliberately avoided sending requests for stimulus dollars because of their opposition to the bill.

 Rep. Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who called the stimulus a "wasteful spending spree" that "misses the mark on all counts," wrote to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in October in support of a grant application from a group in his district which, he said, "intends to place 1,000 workers in green jobs." A spokeswoman for Mr. Ryan said the congressman felt it was his job to provide "the basic constituent service of lending his assistance for federal grant requests."

 Republican Reps. Sue Myrick of North Carolina and Jean Schmidt of Ohio sent letters in October asking for consideration of funding requests from local organizations training workers for energy-efficiency projects.

 In November, Ms. Schmidt said in a statement, "It is time to recall the stimulus funds that have not been spent before the Chinese start charging us interest." Aides to the congresswomen said they had always supported local organizations in their requests for federal funding.

 None of the projects requested by the three House members received awards in funding decisions announced in January.

 The Environmental Protection Agency received two letters from Sen. John Cornyn of Texas asking for consideration of grants for clean diesel projects in San Antonio and Houston. Mr. Cornyn is the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

 One of the letters was signed jointly with Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, also of Texas. The letter said that the Port of Houston Authority "has informed me of the positive impact this grant will have in the region by serving as a foundation for PHA's Clean Air Strategy Plan, creating jobs, and significantly reducing diesel emissions." Houston received millions of dollars in diesel funding.

 The agency also appeared to have received eight identical letters from Republican Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah recommending infrastructure projects in his state, seven of which were sent before stimulus legislation was passed by Congress.

 Spokespeople for Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Bennett said they were just making sure their states received part of the spending once it had been agreed upon. Ms. Hutchison's office didn't respond to a request for comment.

 The entire congressional delegation of Alabama, including its two Republican senators, wrote to then-Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell asking for $15 million for cogongrass eradication and control programs in the state. The state ended up getting a $6.3 million grant.

 Republican Richard Shelby, the state's senior senator, called the stimulus package "the socialist way" while it was being debated. A spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment.

 President Barack Obama and his party have been playing defense for much of the past year on the stimulus bill. But now the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its allies are planning to use this week's anniversary of the passage of the stimulus package to tout its success, and to attack prominent Republicans whose states have benefited from stimulus grants.

 Mr. Obama warned Republicans last month at their annual retreat that Democrats were ready to spotlight representatives who touted stimulus funds in their districts. "Let's face it, some of you have been at the ribbon-cuttings for some of these important projects in your communities," Mr. Obama said.

 A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee said Democrats risked being perceived as "totally out of touch" by marking the achievements of the stimulus plan on its anniversary. "If the Democrats' answer is to highlight the few worthy projects within what has become regarded as a wasteful and bloated trillion-dollar failure then they are truly grasping at straws," said Ken Spain.

 Republicans have seized on double-digit unemployment—the rate hit 10.2% in October before easing in January to 9.7%—to challenge the Obama administration's estimates for the number of jobs supported by stimulus spending.

 About $180 billion of the funds allocated to various projects has been paid out. Tax cuts worth about $93 billion have also taken effect, according to agency records published on the government Web site recovery.gov. An additional $320 billion in spending hasn't yet been handed out. A further $195 billion in tax cuts are due to flow through tax returns.

 Most of the stimulus spending so far has gone to state and local governments to plug holes in their schools, Medicaid and unemployment-benefits budgets. Spending on infrastructure projects is expected to pick up in 2010.

 Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@dowjones.com

Summary: – Paul Ryan has repeatedly denied that he requested funds for Wisconsin businesses from Barack Obama's signature stimulus bill, despite documented evidence to the contrary. Yesterday he finally admitted he had—but said he hadn't realized he was doing it. Ryan's stimulating ways first came to light in a 2010 Wall Street Journal report. In an interview at the time, Ryan said he wouldn't vote against something "then write to the government to ask them to send us money." But the Boston Globe reported this week that Ryan did just that, sending at least four letters to the Department of Energy on behalf of two Wisconsin companies looking to develop "green jobs." Ryan again denied those reports yesterday, before finally backtracking with a statement saying the requests were "treated as constituent service requests," according to the New York Times. "This is why I didn't recall the letters earlier. But they should have been handled differently." Ryan still insists, however, that the stimulus didn't boost the economy.


Washington lurched toward another potential government shutdown crisis Friday, as the House approved by a 219-203 vote a GOP-authored short-term funding measure designed to keep the government running through Nov. 18 and Democrats in the Senate immediately vowed to reject the bill.

 “We expect a vote fairly quickly,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Friday morning.

 In an after-midnight roll call, House Republican leaders persuaded conservatives early Friday morning to support a stop-gap measure nearly identical to one they had rejected just 30 hours earlier. By a narrow margin, 213 Republicans supported the plan, along with six Democrats; 179 Democrats opposed it, joined by 24 Republicans.

 The bill, which will keep federal agencies funded through Nov. 18, passed over staunch objections from House Democrats, who opposed a provision that would pair increased funding for disaster relief with a spending cut to a program that makes loans to car companies to encourage energy efficient car production.

 But House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) victory is likely to be short-lived. Reid said late Thursday that the measure could not pass his chamber, with a vote expected sometime Friday. A Senate defeat would leave Congress at a new standoff.

 “It fails to provide the relief that our fellow Americans need as they struggle to rebuild their lives in the wake of floods, wildfires and hurricanes, and it will be rejected by the Senate,” Reid said of the House bill.

 Without a resolution, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund will run out of money early next week and the rest of the government would be forced to shutdown Oct. 1.

 House leaders contend that the Senate would be responsible for blocking desperately needed disaster dollars from flowing to FEMA if they reject their bill.

 “You saw the House act,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) as he left the Capitol early Friday morning. “We are intending that the money gets to FEMA and to disaster victims as they need it.”

 “I think Harry Reid’s political ploy is not going to work,” Cantor continued, adding that blame for FEMA funding drying up if the Senate rejects the bill would fall on Senate Democrats. “I guess Harry Reid will have to bear the burden of denying disaster victims the money they need.”

 Friday’s House vote marked a reversal of fortunes for Boehner, who after losing the initial Wednesday vote on the House spending resolution found himself roaming the contours of a familiar dilemma — capitulate to fiscal hawks in his own party who want to spend less, or compromise with Democrats who want to spend more.

 Instead, Boehner found another route: He huddled all day and night Thursday with his rank-and-file, warning them he would give them one more chance to approve the bill or he would be forced to agree to drop the offsetting cut, as Democrats had demanded.

 In addition, after a 90-minute meeting with the House GOP Conference on Thursday afternoon, the leadership agreed to an additional, largely symbolic cut by striking $100 million from a loan program that funded the bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. That company, which received the loan guarantees through the Obama administration’s 2009 stimulus legislation, has become a favorite target for Republicans in their critique of the White House’s handling of the economy.

 As for the swipe at the program that had funded Solyndra, Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) told colleagues on the House floor late Thursday that the goal was to “ensure that hard-earned dollars of the American people are not wasted in the way that we have seen” with the company.

 Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) countered that the measure had hardly changed after a day of wrangling and still made “unacceptable cuts to an essential manufacturing jobs program to pay for equally essential disaster relief.”

 The blow-up over what Boehner had once hoped would be a routine matter — a bill to merely keep government operating until Nov. 18 — illustrated what has become a central reality for the Republican speaker: He controls the House majority only on paper.

 On any given vote, he must contend with a sizable bloc of his own members willing to buck his leadership in the name of shrinking government.

 This leaves him in the uncomfortable position of having to consider alliances with Democrats — and facing negotiating those alliances from a position of weakness.

 Despite the embarrassing loss on Wednesday’s vote, Republicans defended the decision to hold the vote even though they realized it was likely to fail. The GOP leadership wanted to demonstrate to the recalcitrant conservatives that their actions had real consequences. One senior Republican adviser called the process “an educational experience.”

 “I’ve always believed in allowing the House to work its will. I understood what the risk was yesterday. But why not put the bill on the floor and let the members speak? And they did,” Boehner said Thursday morning at his weekly press briefing.

 According to GOP lawmakers and aides, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had reported to Boehner and Cantor that a few dozen Republicans would oppose the legislation, mostly because they thought its spending levels were too far above those they voted for in the spring when they approved the 2012 budget originally proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

 Boehner’s leadership team knew that it would need Democratic votes to approve the plan, but only by Wednesday afternoon did they fully understand that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) were whipping their caucus to oppose the measure and make Boehner deliver nearly all Republican votes for passage. Rather than pulling the bill from the floor, Boehner told his deputies to hold the vote.

 The extraordinary effort required to pass such a basic bill suggests even bigger battles later in the fall on potential blockbuster deficit-reduction plans.

 The stopgap spending bill is necessary because the House and Senate have stalemated over how to fund government through the whole year. Without a stopgap in place to buy time for further negotiations, the government will shut down at month’s end.

 House leaders had hoped to pass the short-term funding bill without the strife that had characterized recent debates, which they knew would erode financial markets’ confidence and spark further disgust among voters. They would do it by agreeing to set spending in the bill at a rate of $1.043 trillion for the year, the amount set in the rancorous August deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

 But that plan ran headlong into the political realities of their divided chamber — as well as a congressional calendar that provides for a week-long recess starting Friday so that Jewish lawmakers can observe their holidays next week.

 Democrats, stung by accusations that they had made too many concessions in the debt fight during the summer, stood unified against the measure over a Republican decision to pair $3.65 billion in funding for disaster relief with a $1.5 billion spending cut to the the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program, which offers loans to car companies to encourage the production of energy-efficient cars. That particular cut was anathema to many Democrats, who argued that the loan program has generated tens of thousands of jobs.

 Democrats relished the prospect that their unified opposition forced Boehner to publicly struggle.

 “In the House, the majority controls all the mechanisms,” said Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.). “You’d better be able to produce the votes. You just cant go willy-nilly to the floor and then say, ‘Well, oopsy.’ ”

 Staff writers David A. Fahrenthold and Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report. ||||| WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Friday morning to reject the House's stopgap spending bill, less than 12 hours after the House's Republican leaders had forced it through on their second try.

 The Senate vote was 59 to 36 to table the House bill, effectively killing it. Some conservative Republicans joined in rejecting the measure.

 The House, in the wee hours of Friday morning, had passed its latest version of a stopgap spending bill after rejecting on Wednesday a nearly identical version of the legislation, which is needed to keep the government open after Sept. 30 and to provide assistance to victims of natural disasters. The House vote was 219 to 203.

 House Republican leaders, trying to recover from a humiliating political defeat, had made one change in the bill -- but it was one that most Democrats in the House and Senate opposed, trimming green energy loans. The new version would offset more of the cost of disaster assistance by rescinding $100 million from an Energy Department program that guaranteed a loan for Solyndra, the solar equipment manufacturer that filed recently for bankruptcy protection.

 The bill, to finance government operations for seven weeks after the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, had faced problems in the Senate, where Democrats want to spend more without cutting other programs to offset the cost.

 Senate Democratic leaders had said all along that the House version would be swiftly rejected in the Senate, which had already passed a version of its own. Indeed, the senators acted even before the House version had formally arrived for their consideration.

 "The House bill is not an honest effort at compromise," said the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada. "It fails to provide the relief that our fellow Americans need as they struggle to rebuild their lives in the wake of floods, wildfires and hurricanes, and it will be rejected by the Senate."

 Mr. Reid said he had hoped that House Republicans would move toward the middle. "Instead," he said, "they moved even further toward the Tea Party."

 It is not clear how the two houses will overcome the impasse and avert a government shutdown. Most federal agencies need money to continue operations beyond Oct. 1. The disaster relief fund of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is running short of money. And lawmakers are planning to leave town for a recess scheduled for next week.

 House Republican leaders, who lost control of their caucus on Wednesday, worked furiously on Thursday to round up votes for the revised version of the stopgap bill.

 They prevailed by halving the number of defections from their ranks. On Wednesday, 48 Republicans voted against the bill. On Friday, just 24 voted no. Representative David Dreier, Republican of California and chairman of the Rules Committee, said it had been "an ugly, messy, difficult process." The purpose of the change, he said, was to prevent "another boondoggle like Solyndra."

 The new version of the House bill, like the original, would have partially offset the cost of disaster assistance by cutting a separate Energy Department loan program that promotes development of energy-efficient cars. This cut infuriates Democrats in the House and the Senate, who say the program is creating thousands of jobs at automakers and auto parts suppliers.

 "The bill was wrong yesterday, the bill is wrong today," Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York, said Thursday night on the House floor. "Virtually nothing has changed."

 The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of California, said Republicans were offering "the same old warmed-over stew that was rejected" on Wednesday.

 Speaker John A. Boehner had solicited the views of his colleagues at a meeting of the House Republican Conference, where lawmakers expressed frustration at the setback they suffered Wednesday on the bill to provide $3.65 billion in disaster relief.

Summary: – House Republicans got their ducks in a row late last night, passing a spending measure nearly identical to the one that went down in flames Wednesday. But that might not be enough to prevent a government shutdown, because the Senate is drawing a hard line against the bill, the Washington Post reports. Boehner won conservatives by slicing $100 million from the loan program that benefited Solyndra, and warning that if the bill didn’t pass, he’d be forced to compromise with Democrats. Like the failed bill, the new version also cuts some funding from an energy efficient car program. Democrats who back the program—which they say creates thousands of auto-related jobs—were outraged, and the Senate immediately vowed to reject the bill because it didn’t provide enough funding for disaster relief efforts. “The House bill is not an honest effort at compromise,” Harry Reid told the New York Times. “They moved even further toward the Tea Party.” But if something doesn’t pass, FEMA will run out of money next week, and the government will shut down Oct. 1.


...

 l. I'm confident he's going to get it done. https://www.breitbart.com/…/gaetz-tru…/…

 Our President is committed to securing our border and building a wal ||||| Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., had a non-Kodak moment Tuesday after a sixth-grade girl was snapped giving the lawmaker the middle finger during a school visit.

 Gaetz met with students at Shoal River Middle School in Crestview, Fla., to lecture them on civics when he decided to take a selfie with the sixth graders. Many students struck a pose or smiled for the photo except for one girl in the front row who flipped the bird directly at Gaetz. The congressman posted the photo on his Facebook page.

 The congressman laughed off the gesture to reporters Tuesday. “It’s certain to occur again,” Gaetz told NWF Daily News.

 PELOSI ENDORSES CUOMO AS DEMS GO INCREASINGLY BICOASTAL

 Angela Marie, who identified herself as girl’s mother, commented on Gaetz’s photo apologizing for her daughter’s “unacceptable” gesture.

 “As the mother of the little girl very disrespectfully flipping the ‘bird,’ I will be dealing with her at home tonight! I absolutely have raised her better than this, and I promise this will never happen again! I have been dealing with her wanting to ‘fit in’ and I promise you, I am livid. Political views aside, this is completely unacceptable. Mr. Gaetz, I apologized on behalf of my daughter. I am very sorry this occurred,” she wrote.

 Gaetz replied that he understood and had an “occasional lapse of judgement as a middle schooler.”

 FRANKEN, DEMS RAISE ALARM ABOUT CYBER-MEDDLING IN MIDTERMS

 “Teaching moments like this are a good thing. I had a lovely time with the students,” he said.

 The congressman said he would not take down the photo, calling the snap a “good teaching moment.”

 “You never know what’s going to happen on Open Gaetz Day,” he said, referring to his district tours. ||||| CRESTVIEW — During his Monday tour through Crestview, Congressman Matt Gaetz, R-1st, met with sixth-graders at Shoal River Middle School to give them a brief civics lesson.

 And at least one young girl learned about her First Amendment right.

 After meeting with students, Gaetz took a selfie with the audience and quickly shared it to his Facebook page. Kids were smiling and waving their hands — and one young lady in the front was clearly extending her middle finger.

 To the congressman, it's just another day in politics.

 "It's certain to occur again," Gaetz said with a laugh.

 The mother of the girl commented on the photo — which had 500 shares at this writing — saying she was very sorry about the photo and would "deal with her daughter."

 "Political views aside, this is completely unacceptable. Mr. Gates (sic), I apologize on behalf of my daughter," she wrote. "I am very sorry this occurred."

 Dozens of commenters said the girl was simply exercising her First Amendment rights. Gaetz replied back saying he had a lovely time with the students.

 "As a middle school student I'm sure I had plenty of lapses in judgment that were far more severe than this one," Gaetz said Tuesday afternoon. "We've all been middle schoolers, we all know what the wonder years are like. I don't know if she would choose that particular method in the future, but I'm not really someone who criticizes how they express themselves."

 Gaetz said he has no intention of taking the photo down. In fact, the photo is a good teaching moment, he said.

 "You never know what's going to happen on Open Gaetz Day," he said, referring to the name of his district tours.

Summary: – It's probably not a photo that mom is going to frame. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida made a stop at Shoal River Middle School in Crestview on Tuesday to talk civics, but things concluded with some not-exactly-civil behavior. Gaetz posed for a selfie with sixth graders and posted it to Facebook, where it shows a smiling Gaetz in the lower left—and a girl with her middle finger raised in the lower right. (See the photo here.) Fox News reports the GOP congressman took it in stride, saying he had an "occasional lapse of judgement" at that age. Northwest Florida Daily News reports that one of the commenters on the photo identified herself as the girl's mother, offered an apology for the "unacceptable move," and wrote that she would "be dealing with her at home tonight! I absolutely have raised her better than this, and I promise this will NEVER happen again! I have been dealing with her wanting to 'fit in' and I promise you, I am livid." Gaetz says he'll keep the photo up. "I'm not really someone who criticizes how they express themselves." (This driver flipped off police, and then found himself in trouble.)


A research organization is growing human skin in the hope of using it to trial cosmetics and medicines, reducing the need for animal testing. The synthetic skin is made using cells from infant foreskins.

 The idea of a "skin factory" may sound sinister, but that is exactly what scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart have created. Their so-calledgrows tiny swatches of skin - not for skin grafts, but for testing consumer products.The renowned institute is presenting their ground-breaking invention as an affordable and sustainable alternative to animal testing, which many consider unnecessarily cruel.The skin factory is a machine measuring seven metres long, three metres high and three metres deep, sealed and heated to 37 degrees Celsius – the same temperature as inside people.The machine is fitted with 500 boards, each with 24 tissue cultures growing on it in little tube formations. In each tube, extremely thin skin samples grow from cells, which robotic hands have painstakingly extracted from foreskins donated to the project. Scientists use enzymes to detach the very top layer of cells from the skin, along with connective tissue and pigment cells.The foreskin used for the process is only taken from boys up to the age of four. “The older skin is, the worse the cells function,” explained Andreas Traube, an engineer at the institute's department of production technology and automation.“It is also important that the cells we use are coming from a uniform source," said Traube. "This avoids discrepancies in the production of the new skin."The equipment developed by the Fraunhofer team can extract between three to 10 million cells from a single foreskin. In the incubator these cells then multiply hundreds of times.The brand new skin cells are mixed with collagen and connective tissue, which then becomes ‘proper’ skin, measuring up to five millimetres in thickness. The whole process can take up to six weeks, but according to Traube, “We can’t use the machine to speed up the process; biology needs time to take its course.”In a single month, the machine can produce around 5,000 skin samples. For now, these delicate creations remain untouched as the process is still being authorized by European authorities, who are examining the growths to see whether they are suitable to be used in testing.But the process has been given the nod of approval by some key members of the Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Companies (VFA).“I think the idea is a good one,” said Rolf Hömke, VFA spokesman. “I believe cells from artificially cultivated skin are indeed comparable with real skin.”“I do think it might take a few years to get up and running though,” warned Hömke. “There are complicated international safety standards, these procedures can’t just be changed overnight.”At the moment only very small skin samples are being created. “It’s logical that we’d want to take the operation to a bigger scale,” said Traube.He added that possible future applications for products from thecould be research into cancer, pigmentation diseases, allergic reactions and fungal infections.The next step for the company is a little smaller though, as their sights are set on synthesizing a human cornea. ||||| Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart recently created the "Skin Factory," an advanced piece of lab equipment designed to use foreskin taken from babies to grow patches of human skin that can be used in the place of animals to test products, the German Herald reported.

 According to a spokesman for the Institute, the groundbreaking equipment may be able to eliminate animal testing altogether and, if developed on a larger scale, could be useful in developing treatments for cancer, pigmentation diseases, and certain skin allergies.

 So how does the miracle machine work? First, it's heated to roughly 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of the human body, according to the German news outlet The Local. Next, robotic hands meticulously extract cells from foreskins donated to the project, all samples of which must come from boys age four-and-under.

 "The older skin is, the worse the cells function," Andreas Traube, an engineer at the institute.

 Scientists then take the cells extracted from the foreskin (one sample can provide up to 10 million cells) and incubate them inside tubes, where they multiply hundreds of times. The cells are then mixed with collagen and connective tissue to create skin about 5 millimeters thick. All in all, Traube explained, the process takes about six weeks -- about the same amount of time it takes skin to grow naturally.

 "We can't use the machine to speed up the process; biology needs time to take its course," Traube told the The Local.

 At least one organization within Germany has already expressed measured approval for the machine.

 "I think the idea is a good one. I believe cells from artificially cultivated skin are indeed comparable with real skin," Rolf Homke, spokesman for the German Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Companies, told The Local. "I do think it might take a few years to get up and running though. There are complicated international safety standards, these procedures can't just be changed overnight."

Summary: – Babies' foreskins: The new wonder material? Maybe. They're already being used to make wrinkle creams, and now German scientists have developed a machine that uses the foreskin of young boys to grow artificial skin, reports the Local. For now, the researchers hope their innovation can be used for testing consumer products, replacing animal testing—but the technology's longer-term potential is much more ambitious, and could be used for creating artificial corneas and for research into cancer and a whole host of illnesses. The process works by extracting skin cells from donated foreskins using a 23-foot-long skin machine capable of extracting up to 10 million skin cells per foreskin; those cells then multiply hundreds of times. The new cells are mixed with collagen and connective tissue to become "real" skin. One month's output clocks in at about 5,000 skin samples, though they're not yet being used in testing. "There are complicated international safety standards, these procedures can’t just be changed," said a pharmaceutical spokesman. But he believes that "cells from artificially cultivated skin are indeed comparable with real skin." Click for more on the "skin factory."


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 Apple Inc. is in talks with some of the biggest U.S. cable operators about letting consumers use an Apple device as a set-top box for live television and other content, according to people familiar with the matter.

 The talks represent Apple's most ambitious crack at infiltrating the living room after years of trying.

 Apple doesn't appear to have reached a deal with any cable operators. One obstacle may be the reluctance of operators to let Apple establish a foothold in the television business.

 Apple would also need to persuade significant numbers of consumers to buy a set-top box for what ... ||||| Stock Chart for Apple Inc (AAPL)

 Apple Inc. (AAPL) is in talks with at least one of the largest U.S. cable companies about teaming up on a product to carry live television and other content, a person with knowledge of the discussions said.

 Customers would be able to use an Apple-designed device to access their set of channels instead of leasing a set-top box from cable companies for a monthly fee, said the person, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. No deal has been reached, the person said.

 An agreement would mark the iPhone maker’s biggest foray into TV after years of calling it a “hobby.” The company’s $99 Apple TV product doesn’t carry live network broadcasting and is mainly used for downloading movies and shows from the iTunes media store or streaming content from such services as Netflix Inc. (NFLX) and Google Inc.’s YouTube.

 By aligning with cable companies, Apple would get access to the variety of channels now available to cable subscribers, instead of having to strike independent licensing deals with media companies and program owners.

 Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment. The discussions were previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.

 Earlier Comcast Talks

 Apple, the world’s most valuable company, has talked with cable companies about a TV partnership in the past. When the company was preparing to introduce Apple TV in 2007, executives reached out to Comcast (CMCSA) Corp. about striking a deal, according to a person familiar with the talks. D’Arcy Rudnay, a spokeswoman for Philadelphia-based Comcast, declined to comment.

 Apple executives, led by Senior Vice President Eddy Cue, have long been talking with media companies about ways to get more content for its TV product. Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ESPN sports network has talked with Apple about giving subscribers online access to programming through Apple TV, executives said in May.

 In 2010, Apple also tried unsuccessfully to get some networks to offer subscriptions to their channels for Apple TV users, people familiar with the plans said at the time.

 Time Warner Inc. (TWX) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes said in July that he planned to talk with Apple CEO Tim Cook about Apple TV. Apple may forge a partnership with a cable provider, similar to the way it originally struck a deal with AT&T Inc. (T) on the iPhone, said Bewkes, whose company owns HBO and other channels.

 Affiliate Fees

 That’s because Bewkes said Apple most likely wouldn’t be interested in cutting deals directly with television programmers, which would charge costly affiliate fees.

 “I don’t know if that’s Apple’s style to pay programmers,” Bewkes said at Allen & Co.’s annual media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

 One challenge Apple has faced is that cable companies such as Comcast have invested heavily in developing a new user interface for their own set-top boxes that they lease to customers for a monthly fee. Cable companies also may be reluctant to cede control to Apple in the way record labels and telephone carriers have.

 Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had expressed skepticism to other executives about the company’s chances in television if they weren’t able to get more content, especially live broadcast rights, said two people familiar with the company’s TV efforts. Jobs also had been wary of working with cable companies because each provider only controls certain geographies, limiting what would be available to some customers if any of them didn’t team up with Apple, these people said.

 ‘Simplest Interface’

 Before his death last year, Jobs became more upbeat about the company’s chances. He told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “finally cracked” how to build a TV device.

 “It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine,” Jobs told Isaacson in the biography “Steve Jobs.”

 The comments fueled speculation about Apple’s aspirations to reach customers in the living room. Gene Munster, an analyst for Piper Jaffray Cos., has said that the company has built a prototype TV for release by next year.

 It isn’t clear whether a deal with cable companies would involve use of Apple’s existing TV product, which plugs in to a television set, or the release of a new device.

 Cable companies have begun embracing the popularity of Apple devices in other ways. Comcast, Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) offer apps so subscribers can watch TV on an iPhone or iPad.

 Besides Cue, who leads Apple’s negotiations with media companies, another executive leading the product design of Apple’s TV effort is Jeff Robbin, who helped create the iPod and build the iTunes store, people familiar with the project said last year.

 To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Sherman in New York at asherman6@bloomberg.net; Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net

 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

Summary: – Today's Apple TV box is mainly used to play Internet downloads and stream content—but the next Apple set-top box could play live television. Apple is currently in talks with top US cable providers to that end, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. Customers would get to own the box (at a cost that could hit a few hundred dollars), as opposed to leasing one from their cable companies (which typically clocks in at $10 to $15 a month). The Journal notes that TiVo and Samsung currently sell these type of boxes. And for Apple, dealing directly with a cable company would mean a content windfall: The tech firm wouldn't have to deal with individual media companies to license already-broadcast shows, reports Bloomberg. The Journal calls the approach "a less radical path to expand in television than [Apple] has contemplated in the past." But it doesn't look like Apple has made a deal with any of the cable companies, who may be wary of giving the tech giant the OK to invade their turf.


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 Life support was removed from a pregnant brain-dead Haltom City woman shortly before noon Sunday after John Peter Smith Hospital said it would not appeal a state district judges ruling to remove life-sustaining measures.

 Our client, Erick Muñoz, has authorized us to give notice that today, at approximately 11:30 a.m ... Marlise Muñozs body was disconnected from life support and released to Mr. Muñoz, said a statement from the familys attorneys. The Muñoz and Machado families will now proceed with the somber task of laying Marlise Muñozs body to rest, and grieving over the great loss that has been suffered.

 May Marlise Muñoz finally rest in peace, and her family find the strength to complete what has been an unbearably long and arduous journey, said the statement released by attorneys Heather L. King and Jessica H. Janicek.

 Marlise Muñoz, a 33-year-old woman who was 14 weeks pregnant when she arrived at the hospital after suffering an embolism. State District Judge R.H. Wallace ruled on Friday that she should be taken off life support after county-owned hospital refused to do so.

 Marlise Muñoz was being taken off life support at the same time that the hospital released a statement saying that it would not appeal Wallaces ruling.

 The past eight weeks have been difficult for the Muñoz family, the caregivers and the entire Tarrant County community, which found itself involved in a sad situation, according to a statement from J.R. Labbe, a spokeswoman for JPS Health Network. The hosptial ...has followed what we believed were the demands of a state statute. From the onset, JPS has said its role was not to make nor contest law but to follow it.

 On Friday, a state district judge ordered the removal of life-sustaining treatment from Marlise Muñoz. The hospital will follow the court order, Labbe said.

 On Friday, Wallace said he agreed with attorneys for the Muñoz family that a 1999 state law requiring pregnant women to be kept on life support does not apply to Muñoz because she is brain-dead.

 Wallace gave the county-owned hospital until 5 p.m. Monday to decide whether to appeal.

 The Tarrant County district attorneys office argued at the hearing Friday that it must balance the interests of the state to protect an unborn child against the wishes of the Muñoz family to end life support.

 Attorneys for the Muñoz family released a statement saying that medical records indicate the fetus is distinctly abnormal, with lower extremities deformed, and suffers from a number of other serious health conditions, including water on the brain and heart problems.

 Muñoz has been hospitalized since just before Thanksgiving. Husband Erick Muñoz found her lying on the kitchen floor.

 When he was told at the hospital that his wife was brain-dead, he requested that life support be removed. He said he and his wife had discussed what to do in such a situation.

 The hospital declined, citing a Texas law that requires a pregnant woman to be kept on life support until the fetus is viable, usually at 24 to 26 weeks.

 Marlise Muñozs pregnancy is about to enter its 23rd week.

 Erick Muñoz sued JPS. His attorneys argued that the hospital failed to recognize that Marlise Muñoz was not a pregnant patient but a clinically dead person.

 The hospital acknowledged as much in court documents.

 Assistant District Attorney Larry Thompson said Texas legislators have demonstrated a commitment to protecting the unborn by including in laws that a human being is alive at every stage of gestation.

 The Legislature also passed the Womans Right to Know Act, which says substantial medical evidence shows that an unborn child is capable of feeling pain by no later than 20 weeks after fertilization.

 Max Baker, 817-390-7714 Twitter: @MaxBBaker

 Looking for comments? ||||| DALLAS (AP) — A Texas hospital says it will follow a judge's order to remove life support from a pregnant, brain-dead woman.

 J.R. Labbe, a spokeswoman for John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, issued a statement Sunday that said the hospital "will follow the court order" issued Friday in the case of Marlise Munoz.

 Judge R.H. Wallace gave the Fort Worth hospital until Monday at 5 p.m. to comply with his ruling to remove Munoz from life support, which her husband Erick Munoz says she would have wanted.

 She was 14 weeks pregnant when her husband found her unconscious Nov. 26, possibly due to a blood clot.

 The hospital says in the statement that it saw its role as "not to make nor contest law but to follow it."

Summary: – The Texas hospital that has kept a brain-dead pregnant woman alive against her family's wishes has complied with Friday's court ruling to end life support for Marlise Munoz, lawyers for her family confirm. John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth said earlier today in a statement that its role is "not to make nor contest law but to follow it," reports the AP. The hospital had until 5pm tomorrow to comply or file an appeal, notes the Star-Telegram. Munoz, who is 23 weeks pregnant with a "distinctly abnormal" fetus, has been hospitalized and on life support since before Thanksgiving.