Pyongyang, June 4 (KCNA) -- The General Staff of the Korean People's Army sent the following open ultimatum to the south Korean group of traitors on Monday:

 The celebrations of the 66th anniversary of the Korean Children's Union are now taking place in the revolutionary capital of Pyongyang with splendor.

 They are a great political festival of children unprecedented not only in the history of the Korean nation but in the long history of mankind.

 As many as 20 000 delegates of school children have come to Pyongyang on invitation from all parts of the country, including remote villages and solitary islands.

 It was the noble outlook of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il on the younger generation and the future that they showed paternal loving care and solicitude for them, calling them kings of the country. This outlook has been steadfastly carried forward by the dear respected Kim Jong Un.

 All the service members and people are immensely excited and pleased with this stirring reality.

 The world is becoming envious of the DPRK, noting that such great event can take place in socialist Korea only.

 But it is only the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors in south Korea that is chilling the atmosphere of these auspicious events of the children.

 From May 29 the group set in motion Chosun Ilbo, Choongang Ilbo, "A channel" of Dong-A Ilbo, KBS, CBS, MBC, SBS and other media to launch a campaign defaming the above-said celebrations. It went the lengths of resorting to a new campaign of hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK, availing itself of this opportunity.

 The children of the kindergarten in magnificent and modern Changjon Street were so happy as to have a photo taken with Kim Jong Un and sons and daughters of ordinary working people are participating in the above-said celebrations. However, the Lee group is letting loose a string of vituperations describing all these blessings as "charades intentionally orchestrated" by the supreme leadership of the DPRK.

 The auspicious political festival was opened amid joy and cheers of three million of schoolchildren, hailed by their fathers and mothers throughout the country. The group, however, is playing down it as "events for publicity stunt," "events to win popularity", "events to curry favor with them." It made no scruple of letting loose a spate of such invectives as deliberately hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK, describing the great inheritance of the love for the younger generation and the future as "act of imitating gesture and copying after Hitler" and "the north's staging of a political show as that staged by the Nazis to train the Juvenile Corps.

 And the Lee group went the lengths of describing the unblemished naive schoolchildren as "children on markets" more familiar with capitalist markets than socialist policies and "mere children knowing nothing about the world".

 This is a new form of evil action hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK. It is a thrice-cursed criminal act as it is a monstrous mud-slinging at the rosy future of our revolution.

 There is no country in the world as the DPRK which projects children as kings of the country.

 When babies are born, they are taken care of at palaces of babies and children are rapidly growing at children's palaces, bringing their talents into full bloom. They are leading such blessed lives under the immensely profound loving care of the great persons of Mt. Paektu, something rare to be found in any other parts of the world.

 It was President Kim Il Sung who brought up all the children under his deep care with the noblest viewpoint on the younger generation and the future, despite snow and rain. It was leader Kim Jong Il who saw off the children leaving for their camps while starting his journey to the front along rugged roads in adversity.

 It was Kim Jong Un who visited the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School on the New Year's Day and put forward its children as future pillars.

 It was thanks to this profound care of the sun that the children were provided with ampler opportunities of learning and flags of the Children's Union fluttered more vigorously over their camps under the clean and blue sky of the country even under the difficult situation where its people had to fasten their belts in manifold adversity.

 Children are the future of the country and a symbol of hope and victory.

 The above-said vituperation let loose by the group of traitors is nothing but a shriek made by the group, utterly discomfited by the bright future of the supreme headquarters of the DPRK and rosy future of the younger generation.

 From olden times, idiots are apt to see everything quite different from a reality.

 It is quite natural that the group of traitors branded as fools, idiots and blockheads can hardly see the present world correctly.

 If it is not true, how can the group describe the great inheritance of our nation as "imitation" and compare the children who would shoulder upon themselves the future of the nation with the juvenile organization of fascist Hitler?

 As for Hitler, he was the fascist fanatic who drove guiltless humankind into pitfalls of disasters and death, special class war criminal who destroyed his country and nation and die-hard tyrant who had no love for its children.

 The south Korean people had already branded the worst traitor Lee as a notorious "Hitler Lee" and burned the traitor in effigy in Nazi uniform, bearing the same moustache as Hitler's as he has been hell-bent on mercilessly suppressing the protestors at the point of bayonet and enforcing an unpopular rule.

 It is said that one's wrong tongue-lashing is as harmful as a sword cutting off one's head.

 Upon hearing the news that the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK and slandered its loved children, the officers and men of the three services of the KPA are expressing towering resentment and pledging themselves as one to resolutely settle accounts by force of arms with those who violated the moral law of the nation and defamed the great man whom the people follow and the world look up to.

 Officers and men of the army corps, divisions and regiments on the front and strategic rocket forces in the depth of the country are loudly calling for the issue of order to mete out punishment, declaring that they have already targeted Chosun Ilbo at coordinates of 37 degrees 56 minutes 83 seconds North Latitude and 126 degrees 97 minutes 65 seconds East Longitude in the Central District, Seoul, Choongang Ilbo at coordinates of 37 degrees 33 minutes 45 seconds North Latitude and 126 degrees 58 minutes 14 seconds East Longitude in the Central District, Seoul, the Dong-A Ilbo at coordinates of 37 degrees 57 minutes 10 seconds North Latitude and 126 degrees 97 minutes 81 seconds East Longitude in Jongro District, Seoul, KBS, CBS, MBC and SBS, the strongholds of the Lee group orchestrating the new vicious smear campaign.

 In view of this grave situation the KPA General Staff sends the following ultimatum to the Lee group of traitors:

 The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK are the army of the supreme commander and the people's army which is devotedly defending the supreme commander and protecting his idea and the people and children whom he values and loves so much.

 It is the iron will of the army of the DPRK that the dens of heinous provocateurs hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK and desecrating its idea, system and people should not be allowed to exist as they are.

 We would like ask the Lee group if it wants leave all this to be struck by the DPRK or opt for apologizing and putting the situation under control, though belatedly.

 It should take a final choice by itself.

 Now it is impossible for the officers and men of the KPA three services to keep back their towering resentment any longer. In case dens of monstrous crimes are blown up one after another, the Lee group will be entirely held responsible for this.

 If the Lee group recklessly challenges our army's eruption of resentment, it will retaliate against it with a merciless sacred war of its own style as it has already declared.

 We are fully ready for everything.

 Time is running out.

 ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| North Korea issued one of its most direct threats yet on South Korean media outlets on Monday.

 [This post has been updated, see below]

 The threats, to stage “a merciless sacred war” and to blow up “dens of monstrous crimes” came after South Korean media coverage of the Korean Children’s Union anniversary events that are currently taking place in Pyongyang.

 From May 29 the group set in motion Chosun Ilbo, Choongang Ilbo, “A channel” of Dong-A Ilbo, KBS, CBS, MBC, SBS and other media to launch a campaign defaming the above-said celebrations. It went the lengths of resorting to a new campaign of hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK, availing itself of this opportunity. — KCNA, June 4, 2012.

 The newspapers were singled out and direct threats made against their editorial offices:

 Officers and men of the army corps, divisions and regiments on the front and strategic rocket forces in the depth of the country are loudly calling for the issue of order to mete out punishment, declaring that they have already targeted Chosun Ilbo at coordinates of 37 degrees 56 minutes 83 seconds North Latitude and 126 degrees 97 minutes 65 seconds East Longitude in the Central District, Seoul, Choongang Ilbo at coordinates of 37 degrees 33 minutes 45 seconds North Latitude and 126 degrees 58 minutes 14 seconds East Longitude in the Central District, Seoul, the Dong-A Ilbo at coordinates of 37 degrees 57 minutes 10 seconds North Latitude and 126 degrees 97 minutes 81 seconds East Longitude in Jongro District, Seoul, KBS, CBS, MBC and SBS, the strongholds of the Lee group orchestrating the new vicious smear campaign. — KCNA, June 4, 2012.

 But take a closer look at those coordinates.

 Those given for the Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A-Ilbo are incorrectly stated because the maximum value for minutes and seconds measurements is 60. Sixty seconds make a minute and 60 minutes make one degree.

 The Chosun Ilbo is listed at 37°56’83” North and 126°97’65” East, so that should be written 37°57’23” North and 127°38’05” East. But plug that into some mapping software and you end up at a location in the mountains to the northwest of Chuncheon.

 It’s a long way from downtown Seoul.

 Perhaps it’s a typo, but the Chosun Ilbo’s actual location, at 37°34’06” North and 126°58’35” East, is different enough from the location listed by KCNA to rule out an error on a digit or even two digits.

 It’s unclear exactly what those coordinates represent and how they could be so wrong.

 Similarly, the Dong-A-Ilbo’s location is well off course.

 The only one that’s close — both written and located — is for the offices of JoongAng Ilbo, although KCNA has North Korea’s military targeting a building across the street.

 UPDATE: Evan Ramstad at The Wall Street Journal notes “A reporter at another Seoul-based Web site, Asia Business Daily, also suggested the numbers in excess of 60 could have been a percentage representation of the minutes and second figures.” The unnamed reporter appears to be correct!

 The Chosun Ilbo’s actual location is close to 37°34’06” North and 126°58’35” East, which can be written in decimal as 37.56833 East and 126.97638 North. Notice the difference between those decimal numbers and the quoted location of 37°56’83” North and 126°97’65” East.

 It appears decimal locations for the Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A-Ilbo were converted to degrees, minutes and seconds by simply inserting the appropriate marks in the number. It should of course be a mathematical step.

 So, that explains the error.

Summary: – Pity North Korea: Even when, in typical grandiloquent style, it threatens the "fools, idiots, and blockheads" in the South Korean media with "a merciless sacred war," it manages to muck that up, reports the Wall Street Journal. Apparently the North got really peeved at South Korean media's coverage of its Children's Day celebrations (the North's propaganda was compared to the Nazi youth). So the North threatened to blow up several South Korean newspapers and TV stations (not for the first time), offering longitude and latitude coordinates for its targets (for the first time). The problem? Pretty much all those coordinates were wrong. One newspaper was listed as "37 degrees 56 minutes 83 seconds North Latitude and 126 degrees 97 minutes 65 seconds East Longitude"—of course, there are only 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour, so those numbers made no sense (the same error appeared in the Korean and English versions of the story). Trying to figure out where those coordinates are, as the North Korea Tech blog did, would most likely put you in Gangwon Province, quite a distance east of the target in Seoul. In fact, only one set of coordinates was even close, and even that was a building across the street. To enjoy the full effect of North Korea's flowery rhetoric, check out its original "open ultimatum" at the KCNA website.


Teenagers stealing cars, it's an epidemic hitting the Bay area.

 “We need to send a message that we are going to find you, arrest you, jail you,” says Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

 The sheriff and community have had enough after the latest heist ended with three teenage girls dead.

 Now, the sheriff’s office is taking extreme measures to combat young criminals and car thefts, because if something doesn't change, the sheriff believes more kids will die.

 Fifteen-year-old Laniya Miller, 15-year-old Ashaunti Butler and 16-year-old Dominique Battle died early Thursday morning when investigators say they crashed a stolen car into a pond in a cemetery off Gandy Boulevard and Interstate 275.

 It's the latest in what the sheriff says is an out-of-control crime trend. The sheriff’s office says between July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015, teenagers were charged with 1,733 felonies, 20 percent for stealing cars.

 Ebony Jackson's stepsister, Ashaunti Butler, is one of the three girls who died when they crashed into a pond, couldn't escape, and deputies couldn't save them.

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 “I was shocked when I heard it, real shocked, because I just saw her,” says Jackson. “I don't think it was a smart decision, whatever she did.”

 “Three young lives have been needlessly lost. Between these three teens they were arrested seven times just for grand theft auto,” says Sheriff Gualtieri.

 Dominique M. Battle’s Criminal History:

 Active Warrant for Violation of Probation- Burglary

 10/30/14- Burglary to a Dwelling

 11/10/14 Burglary to a Dwelling , Resist Officer without Violence, Trespassing

 1/16/15- Vehicle Theft, Resist Officer without Violence

 3/16/15- Vehicle Theft

 7/9/15- Burglary to a Dwelling, Provide False Name to Law Enforcement

 7/25/15- Violation of Probation

 11/22/15- Vehicle Theft, Resist Officer without Violence

 12/15/15- Possession of Marijuana, Burglary to a Dwelling

 1/8/16- Vehicle Theft

 Ashaunti N. Butler’s Criminal History:

 Active Warrant for Failure to Appear- Resisting Officer without Violence and 2 counts of Petit Theft

 Active Pick-up Order- Runaway

 5/5/15 Resist Officer without Violence, Retail Theft

 11/21/15- Vehicle Theft

 12/9/15- Burglary to a Dwelling, Burglary to a Conveyance

 1/18/16- Vehicle Theft, Possession of Marijuana, Burglary, Petit Theft

 3/29/16- Violation of Probation- Trespassing

 Laniya D. Miller’s Criminal History:

 3/16/15- Vehicle Theft

 The sheriff says the long list of crimes these girls racked up in their young lives, yet aren't behind bars, exposes a deeper problem in the community.

 PHOTOS: Police search for car in pond Three dead after crash into pond (WTSP) Three dead after crash into pond (WTSP) Three dead after crash into pond (WTSP) Three dead after crash into pond (WTSP) SKY10 photo showing the car pulled from the pon (WTSP) Photos from SKY10 over the pond (WTSP) Photos from SKY10 over the pond (WTSP) Photos from SKY10 over the pond (WTSP) Photos from SKY10 over the pond (WTSP) Photos from SKY10 over the pond (WTSP) Photos from SKY10 over the pond (WTSP)

 “The system is handcuffed by the existing laws and what the judges can do to detain them. They turn around, they flip you the bird and take off, because they don't care. There's no respect. There's no fear of consequence,” says Sheriff Gualtieri.

 “Stop slapping them on the wrist. They need to be punished,” says Tameka Salter. 4 teenage boys stole Salter's car Saturday from the Post Card Inn on St. Pete Beach.

 “I have a tracking device, and it said my car was moving and where is moving to. I tracked it down. They did an armed robbery in my car,” says Salter.

 Salter had to get new tires after deputies used stop sticks to nab the young car thieves and robbers.

 “They caught all 4 suspects, and the youngest is 13. The parents can't handle them, the system needs to step up and handle them,” says Salter.

 Local departments are now relaunching a grand theft auto task force. They started it last year with 2, 779 cars reported stolen, but suspended the team after they thought they got a handle on these heists.

 “This is a systemic and complicated problem, but unless we do something differently, we'll continue to see more lives lost,” says Sheriff Gualtieri.

 Normally, with our 10News WTSP Crime Guidelines we don't identify juveniles. We made the decision to share the names of these girls since they passed away and to put a face to the issue. ||||| SILVER SPRINGS SHORES — A 15-year-old boy was killed Wednesday afternoon when he fell off the back of a Chevy Camaro being driven by another teenager.

 Gianni Fabian Garcia, of Silver Springs Shores, was sitting on the back of the car with another friend when the accident occurred, according to Florida Highway Patrol troopers at the scene.

 The two were seated on the trunk of the white 2011 Camaro with their backs to the rear window and their hands behind them, trooper said. Gianni fell off the moving car and struck his head against the pavement.

 The accident was reported at 3:58 p.m., according to sheriff's deputies. Gianni was taken to Ocala Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

 The 2011 Camaro, driven by Herman Joel Nazario, 17, also of Silver Springs Shores, was traveling on Pecan Road. The accident occurred at Pecan Road and Pecan Close Circle.

 Angel Luis Garcia Cruz, 18, had been sitting on the back of the car with Gianni when he fell, according to FHP. All three youths were friends and attended Forest High School.

 Troopers said the car belongs to Nazario's father.

 It is too early to say if speed was factor in accident, troopers said. Their investigation is ongoing.

 The incident is similar to what happened to David Cross on Aug. 25, 2012. In that case, after climbing onto the roof of a moving 1997 Honda Accord, Cross fell off and hit his head on the roadway just past Northeast 41st Avenue in Ocala. Cross was flown to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, where he died. Ocala Police Department officials determined the car was traveling at approximately 35 mph on the two-lane roadway. Cross, 19, had a blood alcohol content of .10. The state's legal limit for a driver is .08.

 At the Shores location Wednesday, the surviving boys openly wept as others who were with them, hugged and consoled them.

 The driver voluntarily gave blood, and it will be tested at a lab to determine if he had any drugs or alcohol in his body at the time of the incident.

 Jara Lopez, whose home is mere yards from the crash site, told a Star-Banner reporter that she was inside when the crash occurred. She said that, when she went outside, she saw one of the boy's arms was covered in blood. She said he was trying to help his friend, and both teens appear devastated.

 Lopez said when paramedics arrived, they did chest compressions and they quickly put the victim in the ambulance and drove away.

 Troopers said the boys were on their way to a friend's residence when the incident occurred.

 Contact Austin L. Miller at austin.miller@ocala.com, 352-867-4118 or @almillerosb. ||||| PINELLAS COUNTY, FL (WFLA) – Three high school girls are dead after a vehicle they may have stolen sunk in a pond.

 Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said all three had criminal histories which included grand theft auto.

 Eagle 8 HD captured the tragic scene early Thursday morning.

 The teens are identified as 16-year-old Dominique Battle, 15-year-old Ashaunti Butler, and 15-year-old Laniya Miller. The owner of the car was giving the girls a ride. When he got out to briefly go into Walmart, they took off.

 The Honda was reported stolen in St. Pete around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night.

 “We don’t know what the girls did or where they were between about 8:30 last night, when they stole the car and when our Sergeant saw them on Sunset Point Road about 3:30 this morning. All three have criminal history for grand theft auto,” said Sheriff Gualtieri.

 Deputies spotted the car running a red light off U.S. 19 onto Gandy Blvd. They followed it to the cemetery, where the girls crashed the vehicle. Authorities jumped in to help, but couldn’t find them in the murky water. It was two hours before a tow truck pulled the vehicle out.

 “With the water and the thickness and with the windows being closed, unfortunately it just became a death chamber. They just drowned and they couldn’t get out,” said the Sheriff.

 With car thefts on the rise, the sheriff hopes other troubled teens take heed to this tragic story.

 “They need to know that there are consequences for their actions. They need to know that you can’t get arrested four and five times in a year in auto theft and get away with it,” said Sheriff Gualtieri. “This is a systemic and complicated problem and unless we do something differently, we’ll continue to see more lives lost.”

 Neighbor says this could’ve been prevented

 Deloyse Hubbard lives next door to one of the victims. She believes the entire tragedy could have been prevented.

 “It’s really sad, though,” Hubbard said. “They shouldn’t have been in a stolen car.”

 She believes parents should talk with their kids and tell them that a life of crime isn’t worth it.

 “We don’t know where you at if you’re in a stolen car,” Hubbard said. “Nobody know where you at until the police call and let you know what happened.”

 She has two kids and seven grandchildren of her own. They’ve stayed on the right side of the law, except for a few times, Hubbard says, when they missed curfew.

 “It wasn’t like that when we was coming up,” she remembers. “We would have gotten the beatin’ of our lives if we had done something like that.”

 OTHER TOP CLICKED STORIES: ||||| The Florida Highway Patrol says a 15-year-old north Florida boy is dead after falling off the back of a moving car being driven by one of his friends.

 Troopers say Gianni Fabian Garcia was sitting on the back of a Chevy Camaro with another friend Wednesday afternoon. The teens were sitting with their backs to the rear window as the vehicle was moving.

 The Ocala Star-Banner (http://bit.ly/234h3k7 ) reports Garcia fell off the car and hit his head on the pavement. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

 Troopers are investigating and say it's too early to say whether speed was a factor.

 The driver is 17 and the other teen on the back of the car is 18. Officials say the teens attended school together.

 ___

 Information from: Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ ||||| ST. PETERSBURG — Three teenage girls asked a stranger for a ride to Childs Park.

 But before they were dropped off, the driver stopped at a Walmart at 22nd Street S. He stepped out, leaving the gold Honda Accord running.

 Moments later, the girls and the car were gone.

 "Who tryna get seen & wheels?" posted Dominique Battle, 16, on Facebook at 8:48 p.m. Wednesday.

 Seven hours later, the Honda rolled into a pond inside a cemetery off Gandy Boulevard. The car sank within five minutes.

 No one got out.

 "Three young lives have been needlessly lost," Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Thursday.

 • • •

 Pinellas deputies don't know where Laniya D. Miller, 15, Ashaunti Butler, 15, and Dominique Battle, 16, went after they left the Walmart about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. Nor do they know which girl drove the car out of the parking lot.

 A sheriff's sergeant first spotted the Honda with the dark tinted windows about 3:30 a.m. Thursday as it headed east on Sunset Point Road west of U.S. 19. Its headlights were off.

 The sergeant turned on his vehicle's emergency lights, but the Honda continued east on Sunset Point Road and then turned south onto U.S 19. It ran a red light.

 The Honda, driving at the legal speed limit, continued five more miles to Ulmerton Road. There, another Pinellas sergeant ran the tag number and confirmed it was stolen out of St. Petersburg, Gualtieri said at a news conference Thursday where he described the chain of events.

 The deputy followed the car from a distance. Under Pinellas County Sheriff's Office policy, deputies cannot pursue stolen cars.

 At U.S. 19 and Gandy Boulevard, the Honda stopped again. But when the driver saw another sheriff's cruiser at the same intersection, the Honda ran a red light and headed toward Royal Palm North Cemetery at 2600 Gandy Blvd.

 At speeds between 30 to 35 mph, the Honda navigated the narrow roads of the cemetery. It was dark, with the glowing lights of Interstate 275 in the distance. Deputies, with their emergency lights off, slowly followed behind.

 At a sharp bend in the road about 4 a.m., the car stayed on a straight course, then slipped into a pond.

 It drifted about 20 yards into the muddy waters. Deputies shed their gun belts and equipment and waded in to save whoever was inside. But the mud was so thick, Gualtieri said, it stopped them from venturing farther into the pond.

 Within five minutes, the Honda submerged in about 15 feet of water.

 "That car became a death chamber," the sheriff said. "That was a very horrific event for those girls sitting in that car."

 • • •

 About 6 a.m. Thursday, a wrecker pulled the car out. It was covered in underwater weeds. The doors were closed and the windows were shut.

 Inside, deputies found Battle in the front seat. Miller and Butler were in the back. Because the windows were tinted and the girls may have moved inside as they tried to break free, deputies don't know for sure who was driving when the car entered the pond.

 Investigators believe the girls may have thought they could get to I-275 through the cemetery.

 Damien Marriott, 36, the owner of the Honda, declined to comment. He told deputies he didn't know the girls. A friend of his had asked him to give them a ride to Childs Park. He said he stopped at the Walmart Neighborhood Market at 1794 22nd St. S to buy a TV when the teens, who stayed behind, stole his car.

 As news of the deaths unfolded, friends of the girls mourned them on social media.

 "Wish you would of slowed down when the judge told you to," read one post about Butler.

 "Y'all Too Young To Leave," read another.

 Police records paint a troubling picture of all three girls.

 Dominique Battle, a St. Petersburg High School student, had multiple arrests for burglary and grand theft motor vehicle.

 Ashaunti Butler, who went to Dixie Hollins High School, was wanted on an arrest warrant and was also the subject of a pick-up order for being a runaway.

 Laniya Miller attended Gibbs High School. She was arrested for grand theft motor vehicle last March. It was her only arrest. The dispositions of the girls' arrests were not available Thursday.

 Battle's father, Allen Battle, is serving a 30-year prison sentence for drug trafficking.

 Butler had just entered the foster care system Wednesday, the sheriff said.

 The girls' families could not be reached for comment Thursday.

 • • •

 Gualtieri stood before the TV cameras on Thursday afternoon with photos of the girls on one side of him and photos of the wrecked Honda on the other.

 For the past year, he said, authorities have been grappling with an "epidemic" of juveniles stealing cars and joyriding across Tampa Bay. In Pinellas County alone last year, 2,779 cars were stolen.

 "Solutions need to come deep from within the community," the sheriff said. "Kids need to know there are consequences. This is a systematic and complex problem.

 "Three dead teenagers is unacceptable."

 Times senior news researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Contact Laura C. Morel at lmorel@tampabay.com. Follow @lauracmorel.

Summary: – Three teen girls allegedly stole a car in Florida Wednesday night—a joyride that ended tragically when the car plunged into a Pinellas County pond, killing all three, WFLA reports. The owner of the Honda had given the girls a ride and stopped at a Walmart, which is when cops say the teens, all of whom have been in trouble for grand theft auto before, took off. Early the next morning, sheriff's deputies saw the car run a red light and tailed it from a distance (county deputies aren't permitted to pursue stolen cars, per the Tampa Bay Times), but the car drove to a cemetery and into the pond. The car was towed out of the water about two hours later. "We don't know what the girls did or where they were between about 8:30 … when they stole the car and when our sergeant saw them … about 3:30," says Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, per WFLA. The only clue: A Facebook post that said, "Who tryna get seen & wheels?" made by one of the teens at 8:48pm. "With the water and the thickness and with the windows being closed, unfortunately it just became a death chamber," Gualtieri tells WFLA. The teens were IDed as Dominique Battle, 16, and Ashaunti Butler and Laniya Miller, both 15. WTSP notes a car-theft "epidemic" has hit the area. Also in Florida, per the AP: A 15-year-old boy from Silver Springs Shores died Wednesday after he fell off the back of a Chevy Camaro driven by a 17-year-old friend. The death of Gianni Fabian Garcia, who hit his head on the pavement when he fell, is being investigated, the Ocala Star-Banner reports.


"Nothing is written." That was T.E. Lawrence to the Arab tribesmen in Robert Bolt's screenplay, a masterpiece, of "Lawrence of Arabia." You write no one off. Nothing is inevitable. Life is news—"What happened today?" And news is surprise—"You're kidding!"

 But you have to look at the landscape and see the shape of the land. You have to see it clearly to move on it well.

 So here's one tough, cool-eyed report on what is happening in the presidential race. It's from veteran Republican pollster, now corporate strategist, Steve Lombardo of Edelman public relations in Washington. Mr. Lombardo worked in the 2008 Romney campaign. He's not affiliated with any candidate. This is what he wrote Thursday morning, and what he sees is pretty much what I see.

 Enlarge Image Close Associated Press James Baker III, right, and President Reagan

 "The pendulum has swung toward Obama." Mitt Romney has "a damaged political persona." He is running behind in key states like Ohio and Virginia and, to a lesser extent, Florida. The president is reversing the decline that began with his "You didn't build that" comment. For three weeks he's been on a roll. The wind's at his back.

 How did we get here? What can turn it around?

 1. Mr. Romney came out of the primaries "a damaged and flawed candidate." Voters began to see him as elitist, rich, out of touch. "Here the Democrats' early advertising was crucial." Newt Gingrich hurt too, with his attacks on Bain.

 2. The Democrats defined Mr. Romney "before he had a chance to define himself." His campaign failed in "not doing a substantial positive media buy to explain who Mitt Romney is and what kind of president he might be."

 3. "Perceptions of the economy are improving." Unemployment is high, but the stock market has improved, bringing 401(k)s with it.

 4. Obama's approval ratings are up five to six points since last year. He is now at roughly 49% approval, comparable to where President Bush was in 2004.

 5. "The president had a strong convention and Romney a weak one." The RNC failed "to relaunch a rebranded Romney and create momentum."

 6. Team Romney has been "reactive," partly because of the need for damage control, but it also failed to force the Obama campaign to react to its proposals and initiatives.

 7. The "47%" comment didn't help, but Mr. Romney's Libya statement was a critical moment. Team Romney did not know "the most basic political tenet of a foreign crisis: when there is an international incident in which America is attacked, voters in this country will (at least in the short term) rally around the flag and the President. Always. It is stunning that Team Romney failed to recognize this."

 But, says Mr. Lombardo, nothing is over, much remains fluid. The president and his campaign know it. "Among likely voters nationally only two-three points separate the two candidates." The debates are critical. "If Romney clearly wins the first debate" Oct. 3, "he has a good chance of reversing the trajectory of the last three weeks."

 Why? "Because support for Obama remains lukewarm." That's why "he is not running away with this thing even after Romney's myriad stumbles."

 Finally, "the economy is still weak and the jobs report on October 5th will be pivotal. A strong one may ensure an Obama victory. On the other hand, a poor one on the heels of a Romney debate win could re-align this race."

 ***

 It is true that a good debate, especially a good first one, can invigorate a candidate and lead to increased confidence, which can prompt good decisions and sensible statements. There is more than a month between the first debate and the voting: That's enough time for a healthy spiral to begin.

 But: The Romney campaign has to get turned around. This week I called it incompetent, but only because I was being polite. I really meant "rolling calamity."

 A lot of people weighed in, in I suppose expected ways: "Glad you said this," "Mad you said this." But, some surprises. No one that I know of defended the campaign or argued "you're missing some of its quiet excellence." Instead there was broad agreement with the gist of the critique—from some in the midlevel of the campaign itself, from outside backers and from various party activists and officials. There was a perhaps pessimistic assumption that no one in Boston would be open to advice. A veteran of a previous Romney campaign who supports the governor and admires him—"This is a good man"—said the candidate's problem isn't overconfidence, it's a tin ear. That's hard to change, the veteran said, because tin-earness keeps you from detecting and remedying tin-earness.

 Peggy Noonan's Blog Daily declarations from the Wall Street Journal columnist.

 There were wistful notes from the Republicans who'd helped run previous campaigns, most of whom could be characterized as serious, moderate conservatives, all of whom want to see Mr. Romney win because they believe, honestly, that the president has harmed the country financially and in terms of its position in the world. They're certain it will only get worse in the next four years, but they're in despair at the Romney campaign. Some, unbidden, brought up the name James A. Baker III, who ran Ronald Reagan's campaign in 1984 (megalandslide—those were the days) and George H.W. Bush's in 1988 (landslide.)

 What they talked about, without using this phrase, is the Baker Way.

 This was a man who could run a campaign. Twice in my life I've seen men so respected within their organizations that people couldn't call them by their first names. That would be Mr. Paley, the buccaneer and visionary who invented CBS, and Mr. Baker, who ran things that are by nature chaotic and messy—campaigns and White Houses—with wisdom, focus, efficiency, determination and discipline. And he did it while being attacked every day from left, right and center—and that was in the Reagan White House, never mind outside, which was a constant war zone.

 Mr. Baker's central insight: The candidate can't run the show. He can't be the CEO of the campaign and be the candidate. The candidate is out there every day standing for things, fighting for a hearing, trying to get the American people to listen, agree and follow. That's where his energies go. On top of that, if he's serious, he has to put in place a guiding philosophy that somehow everyone on the plane picks up and internalizes. The candidate cannot oversee strategy, statements, speechwriting, ads. He shouldn't be debating what statistic to put on slide four of the Powerpoint presentation. He has to learn to trust others—many others.

 Mr. Baker broke up power centers while at the same time establishing clear lines of authority—and responsibility. When you screwed up, he let you know in one quick hurry. But most of all he had judgment. He delegated, and only the gifted were welcome: Bob Teeter, Dick Darman, Roger Ailes, Marlin Fitzwater. He didn't like hacks, he didn't get their point, and he knew one when he saw one.

 A campaign is a communal exercise. It isn't about individual entrepreneurs. It's people pitching in together, aiming their high talents at one single objective: victory.

 Mitt Romney needs to get his head screwed on right in this area. Maybe advice could come from someone in politics who awes him. If that isn't Jim Baker then Mitt Romney's not awe-able, which is a different kind of problem. ||||| "Nothing is written." That was T.E. Lawrence to the Arab tribesmen in Robert Bolt's screenplay, a masterpiece, of "Lawrence of Arabia." You write no one off. Nothing is inevitable. Life is news—"What happened today?" And news is surprise—"You're kidding!"

 But you have to look at the landscape and see the shape of the land. You have to see it clearly to move on it well.

 So here's one tough, cool-eyed report on what is happening in the presidential race. It's from veteran Republican pollster, now corporate strategist, Steve Lombardo of Edelman public relations in Washington. Mr. Lombardo worked in the 2008 Romney campaign. He's not affiliated with any candidate. This is what he wrote Thursday morning, and what he sees is pretty much what I see.

 Enlarge Image Close Associated Press James Baker III, right, and President Reagan

 "The pendulum has swung toward Obama." Mitt Romney has "a damaged political persona." He is running behind in key states like Ohio and Virginia and, to a lesser extent, Florida. The president is reversing the decline that began with his "You didn't build that" comment. For three weeks he's been on a roll. The wind's at his back.

 How did we get here? What can turn it around?

 1. Mr. Romney came out of the primaries "a damaged and flawed candidate." Voters began to see him as elitist, rich, out of touch. "Here the Democrats' early advertising was crucial." Newt Gingrich hurt too, with his attacks on Bain.

 2. The Democrats defined Mr. Romney "before he had a chance to define himself." His campaign failed in "not doing a substantial positive media buy to explain who Mitt Romney is and what kind of president he might be."

 3. "Perceptions of the economy are improving." Unemployment is high, but the stock market has improved, bringing 401(k)s with it.

 4. Obama's approval ratings are up five to six points since last year. He is now at roughly 49% approval, comparable to where President Bush was in 2004.

 5. "The president had a strong convention and Romney a weak one." The RNC failed "to relaunch a rebranded Romney and create momentum."

 6. Team Romney has been "reactive," partly because of the need for damage control, but it also failed to force the Obama campaign to react to its proposals and initiatives.

 7. The "47%" comment didn't help, but Mr. Romney's Libya statement was a critical moment. Team Romney did not know "the most basic political tenet of a foreign crisis: when there is an international incident in which America is attacked, voters in this country will (at least in the short term) rally around the flag and the President. Always. It is stunning that Team Romney failed to recognize this."

 But, says Mr. Lombardo, nothing is over, much remains fluid. The president and his campaign know it. "Among likely voters nationally only two-three points separate the two candidates." The debates are critical. "If Romney clearly wins the first debate" Oct. 3, "he has a good chance of reversing the trajectory of the last three weeks."

 Why? "Because support for Obama remains lukewarm." That's why "he is not running away with this thing even after Romney's myriad stumbles."

 Finally, "the economy is still weak and the jobs report on October 5th will be pivotal. A strong one may ensure an Obama victory. On the other hand, a poor one on the heels of a Romney debate win could re-align this race."

 ***

 It is true that a good debate, especially a good first one, can invigorate a candidate and lead to increased confidence, which can prompt good decisions and sensible statements. There is more than a month between the first debate and the voting: That's enough time for a healthy spiral to begin.

 But: The Romney campaign has to get turned around. This week I called it incompetent, but only because I was being polite. I really meant "rolling calamity."

 A lot of people weighed in, in I suppose expected ways: "Glad you said this," "Mad you said this." But, some surprises. No one that I know of defended the campaign or argued "you're missing some of its quiet excellence." Instead there was broad agreement with the gist of the critique—from some in the midlevel of the campaign itself, from outside backers and from various party activists and officials. There was a perhaps pessimistic assumption that no one in Boston would be open to advice. A veteran of a previous Romney campaign who supports the governor and admires him—"This is a good man"—said the candidate's problem isn't overconfidence, it's a tin ear. That's hard to change, the veteran said, because tin-earness keeps you from detecting and remedying tin-earness.

 Peggy Noonan's Blog Daily declarations from the Wall Street Journal columnist.

 There were wistful notes from the Republicans who'd helped run previous campaigns, most of whom could be characterized as serious, moderate conservatives, all of whom want to see Mr. Romney win because they believe, honestly, that the president has harmed the country financially and in terms of its position in the world. They're certain it will only get worse in the next four years, but they're in despair at the Romney campaign. Some, unbidden, brought up the name James A. Baker III, who ran Ronald Reagan's campaign in 1984 (megalandslide—those were the days) and George H.W. Bush's in 1988 (landslide.)

 What they talked about, without using this phrase, is the Baker Way.

 This was a man who could run a campaign. Twice in my life I've seen men so respected within their organizations that people couldn't call them by their first names. That would be Mr. Paley, the buccaneer and visionary who invented CBS, and Mr. Baker, who ran things that are by nature chaotic and messy—campaigns and White Houses—with wisdom, focus, efficiency, determination and discipline. And he did it while being attacked every day from left, right and center—and that was in the Reagan White House, never mind outside, which was a constant war zone.

 Mr. Baker's central insight: The candidate can't run the show. He can't be the CEO of the campaign and be the candidate. The candidate is out there every day standing for things, fighting for a hearing, trying to get the American people to listen, agree and follow. That's where his energies go. On top of that, if he's serious, he has to put in place a guiding philosophy that somehow everyone on the plane picks up and internalizes. The candidate cannot oversee strategy, statements, speechwriting, ads. He shouldn't be debating what statistic to put on slide four of the Powerpoint presentation. He has to learn to trust others—many others.

 Mr. Baker broke up power centers while at the same time establishing clear lines of authority—and responsibility. When you screwed up, he let you know in one quick hurry. But most of all he had judgment. He delegated, and only the gifted were welcome: Bob Teeter, Dick Darman, Roger Ailes, Marlin Fitzwater. He didn't like hacks, he didn't get their point, and he knew one when he saw one.

 A campaign is a communal exercise. It isn't about individual entrepreneurs. It's people pitching in together, aiming their high talents at one single objective: victory.

 Mitt Romney needs to get his head screwed on right in this area. Maybe advice could come from someone in politics who awes him. If that isn't Jim Baker then Mitt Romney's not awe-able, which is a different kind of problem.

Summary: – Peggy Noonan raised some eyebrows earlier this week when she called Romney's campaign incompetent. "I was being polite," she writes in today's Wall Street Journal. "I really meant 'rolling calamity.'" Noonan says almost everyone agreed with her dire outlook, including some midlevel campaign insiders. Some said Boston wouldn't listen to advice. One Romney 2008 veteran said he was a good man with a "tin ear." "No one that I know of defended the campaign, or argued, 'you're missing some of its quiet excellence.'" What Romney needs, Noonan declares, is a "new CEO." Someone like Reagan campaign manager James Baker III, whose guiding philosophy was that the candidate "can't run the show." His energy should be devoted to campaigning. "He shouldn't be debating what statistic to put on slide four of the Powerpoint presentation. He has to learn to trust others—many others. … Mitt Romney needs to get his head screwed on right in this area." Maybe some advice from Baker himself would do the trick. Read Noonan's full column here.


Hal Douglas, whose gravelly tones graced famous trailers for films such as Forrest Gump, Philadelphia and Lethal Weapon, has died. He was 89.

 Douglas's daughter Sarah told the New York Times her father passed away following complications from pancreatic cancer. He was known as one of a top trio of trailer voiceover artists - the late Don LaFontaine and Don Morrow, voice of the Titanic trailer were the others - who came close to monopolising the industry for decades with catchphrases such as "In a world … ".

 "The fact is, my voice has been out there," Douglas told the Times in 2009. "And it hangs out there. You sit down in the theatre and sometimes in three out of four trailers I'd be on them."

 While Douglas was well known for the "in a world" phrase, there was some disagreement over whether he originated it, with LaFontaine claiming to have used it first. Unlike his late contemporary, who hired his own driver to take him from Hollywood studio to Hollywood studio at the height of his career in order to avoid wasting time on parking, Douglas worked mainly in New York studios.

 Reading on mobile? Click here to view Comedian trailer

 The voiceover artist's only known on-screen role came in the trailer for a 2002 documentary from Jerry Seinfeld, titled Comedian. While the film itself did not perform particularly well, Douglas's segment was viewed more than 700,000 times on YouTube. If features him repeatedly attempting to launch into the trailer with phrases such as "In a world … ", "In a land …" and "In a land before time… " while being unceremoniously interrupted (and eventually fired) by a producer determined to avoid such cliched phrases.

 Born Harold Cone in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1924, Douglas flew as a US navy pilot in the second world war for three years before enrolling at the University of Miami via the GI bill to study acting. He began doing voiceover work to supplement his income from acting in New York during the late 1940s, and soon became much sought-after.

 Douglas's story is told in the 2013 short film A Great Voice, in which he decried suggestions that his deep baritone was anything special. "I never thought of it as a great voice," he said, suggesting it was in fact "throaty, chesty, a voice in need of clearing".

 Douglas died on 7 March at his home in Lovettsville, north Virginia. He leaves behind his wife Ruth, a daughter and two sons from a previous marriage, Jeremy and Jon.

 • Hal Douglas - six of the best trailers from the voiceover king ||||| Photo

 Hal Douglas, a voice-over artist who narrated thousands of movie trailers in a gravelly baritone heard by “audiences everywhere,” as he might have put it, “thrilled by images never before seen ... until now!,” died on Friday at his home in Lovettsville, Va. He was 89.

 The cause was complications of pancreatic cancer, his daughter, Sarah Douglas, said.

 Mr. Douglas was known for a generation in the voice-over industry as one of the top two or three go-to talents, along with Don LaFontaine, the most prolific, who died in 2008, and Don Morrow, the voice of the “Titanic” trailer.

 His dramatic range, from Olympian-thunderous to comic-goofy, suited him for trailers for movies as diverse as “Philadelphia,” “Forrest Gump,” “Coneheads,” “Meet the Parents” and “Lethal Weapon.” (“Under 17 not admitted without a parent.”)

 The flexibility of his voice, and the longevity of his career — he worked steadily until two years ago — made him a “one name” phenomenon in Hollywood, said Marice Tobias, a consultant and voice coach to many A-list actors. “When you go past superstar status, you reach icon status in this business, where people know you by one name only,” she said. “That was Hal.”

 Mr. Douglas, who never lived in Hollywood, preferring to work from studios in New York, took a more relaxed view of his work. “I’m not outstanding in any way,” he told The New York Times in 2009. “It’s a craft that you learn, like making a good pair of shoes. And I just consider myself a good shoemaker.”

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 With his insider’s cachet and ironic sensibility, he was cast in one of his few on-camera roles — as a voice-over artist — in the trailer for Jerry Seinfeld’s 2002 documentary, “Comedian.”

 Mr. Douglas played an announcer, named Jack, who speaks only in trailer clichés. Settling into a recording booth to do the usual spiel, he begins, “In a world where laughter was king” — only to be cut off by a director on the other side of the glass.

 “Uh, no ‘in a world,’ Jack.”

 “What do you mean, No ‘in a world’?”

 “It’s not that kind of movie.”

 “Oh? O.K. In a land that ... ”

 “No ‘in a land,’ either.”

 “In a time ... ”

 “Nah, I don’t think so.”

 “In a land before time.”

 “It’s about a comedian, Jack.”

 “One man!”

 “No ... ”

 The movie was not particularly successful, but the trailer — uploaded to YouTube — has been viewed more than 700,000 times.

 Mr. Douglas was born Harold Cone in Stamford, Conn., on Sept. 1, 1924, to Samuel and Miriam Levenson Cone. After his mother died when he was 9, Hal (as he was always known) and a brother, Edwin, were raised mainly by their grandparents, Sarah and Tevya Levenson. His father, whose original name was Cohen and who worked in the Cohen family haberdashery in Stamford, remarried.

 Hal Cone trained as a pilot and spent three years in the Navy during World War II. He wrote fiction in his free time, and after the war he enrolled on the G.I. Bill at the University of Miami, where he studied acting.

 After moving to New York, he changed his last name to Douglas and began supplementing his meager income from acting jobs with voice-over and announcer work on radio and television, becoming much sought after for commercials and lead-ins for TV shows. He continued working in television throughout his life, while also doing film trailers and occasional documentaries.

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 Besides his daughter, Mr. Douglas is survived by his wife of 43 years, Ruth Francis Douglas, and two sons from a previous marriage, Jeremy and Jon.

 “I never thought of it as a great voice,” he said of himself in “A Great Voice,” a short 2013 film about his career directed by Casimir Nozkowski. It was, he said, “throaty, chesty, a voice in need of clearing.”

 But he found, he said, that it was “O.K. for a lot of things” professionally, if he didn’t clear it.

Summary: – You know the voice even if the name isn't familiar. Voice-over artist Hal Douglas, who added drama to countless movie trailers and TV promos, is dead at age 89 of pancreatic cancer, reports the Guardian. The New York Times notes that Douglas was one of three legends in the industry, including Don Morrow (Titanic trailer) and the late Don LaFontaine. Douglas achieved some in-front-of-the-camera fame of his own in a 2002 trailer for Comedian, in which he spoofs his own propensity to use phrases like "In a world where ..."


Personal Quote:

 To have that concentration to act well is like lugging things up staircases in your brain. I think that's a thing people don't understand. It is that exhausting. If you're doing it well, if you're concentrating the way you need to, if your will and your concentration and emotional and imagination and emotional life are all in tune, concentrated and working together in that role, that is just like ... ||||| PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Philip Seymour Hoffman's new movie is a psychological thriller about terrorism, but he says it also has something to do with hitting a midlife crisis — and that's what really drew him to the role.

 FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014 file photo, cast member Philip Seymour Hoffman poses at the premiere of the film "A Most Wanted Man" during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. Hoffman's... (Associated Press)

 This photo provided by the Sundance Institute shows Philip Seymour Hoffman, right, and Rachel McAdams, front, in a scene from the film, "A Most Wanted Man," which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.... (Associated Press)

 "The story really moved me," said Hoffman.

 "A Most Wanted Man," based on John Le Carre's 2008 book, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last weekend, with Hoffman playing a German operative heading up an anti-terrorism team in Hamburg, Germany.

 Hoffman recalls reading it a long time ago and being draw to "everything about it."

 "There is something about that story that spoke to me about where I am now in my life, though it's not something I could really put into words," he said. "I read it and saw myself in it somehow. It's about being in the middle of your life. It's as much a story about that, than all of the other things. It's about a man really confronted with what he's passionate about pursuing and what that's done to him."

 The Anton Corbijn-directed film focuses on a Chechen-Russian immigrant, Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin), who's on the run in post-9/11 Hamburg, Germany. Hoffman, as spy Gunther Bachmann, develops Islamic sources. He believes Issa could guide him to more powerful culprits.

 Taking a benevolent approach when examining the counterterrorist profession and those thought to be suspects, the film also stars Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright and Willem Dafoe.

 "The story is such a tangled web and is very relevant," said McAdams, also at Sundance to promote the film. "I learned a lot about what human rights lawyers are doing in Hamburg and what a difficult position they are in. There are realities to the story that are very disturbing. Every character is dealing with moral questions. That stays with you."

 After appearing in over 50 movies, 46-year-old Hoffman says working on "A Most Wanted Man" was one of the most satisfying movie-making experiences he's had.

 "Far more than most films I've done," he says. "These espionage-ish stories tend to get lost and I wanted people to be surprised emotionally. Everyone was on board with making this story believable, meaningful and human."

 ___

 Follow AP Film Writer Jessica Herndon at https://twitter.com/SomeKind . ||||| In 2006, he told "60 Minutes" that he went to rehab and got sober when he was 22. Hoffman said he began using drugs after graduating from New York University's drama school in 1989. "It was all that (drugs and alcohol), yeah, it was anything I could get my hands on ... I liked it all," he said then. ||||| NEW YORK—Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead of an apparent drug overdose late Sunday morning in his Manhattan apartment, authorities said.

 Law-enforcement officials said a hypodermic needle and two glassine envelopes containing what is believed to be heroin were found in the apartment on Bethune Street in the West Village.

 The 46-year-old actor was found unconscious in the bathroom of his fourth-floor... ||||| Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead of an apparent heroin overdose — with a hypodermic needle still stuck in his arm and 70 baggies of the drug inside his Greenwich Village pad Sunday, authorities said. He was 46.

 The acclaimed screen and stage star was discovered in his underwear on the bathroom floor of his $9,800-a-month rental after missing a morning appointment to pick up his three young kids from their mother, his estranged girlfriend, Mimi O’Donnell, law-enforcement sources said.

 He was declared dead at the scene, a needle in his left forearm. A source said it was clear that the “Capote’’ star had been dead “for hours.”

 Hoffman — a versatile and prolific actor famed for his vivid portrayals of troubled souls — had repeatedly struggled with substance abuse. He spent 10 days in rehab last year for abusing prescription pills and heroin after 23 years of sobriety.

 Cops found five empty glassine envelopes in a garbage can, two more under the bed and one on a table in the apartment, along with a charred spoon in the kitchen sink, sources said.

 “He was shooting up in the bathroom,” a law-enforcement source said.

 The drug envelopes were marked “Ace of Spades,” which sources said is a brand of heroin that has not been seen on city streets since around 2008 in Brooklyn.

 Police later executed a search warrant and found 70 glassine envelopes of heroin inside a desk. In addition to the “Ace of Spades,” investigators also found packages marked “Ace of Hearts” and one with a playing-card jack stamped on it.

 Hoffman’s body was found at about 11:15 a.m. by a screenwriter pal, David Bar Katz, and Isabella “Bella” Wing-Davey, Hoffman’s personal assistant, who performed CPR. They called 911 at 11:36 a.m. Hoffman was pronounced dead at 11:45 a.m.

 Reached by phone, Katz confirmed, “Yes, I was the one who found him . . . But, honestly, right now isn’t the time to talk about this . . . I apologize.”

 Wing-Davey let Katz into the apartment after getting a call from O’Donnell, with whom Hoffman had lived until moving out three months ago, a law enforcement source said.

 “They were apparently estranged. They were living separate lives. He was living over here, she was living over there. You do the math,’’ the source said.

 Wing-Davey, according to her LinedIn page, has written and produced a number of short indy flicks, including “Candlesticks,” whose credits list Hoffman as an associate producer.

 She is the daughter of Mark Wing-Davey, chairman of the graduate acting department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a longtime friend of the troubled actor.

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 The law enforcement source said he doubted Hoffman and Wing-Davey were romantically involved.

 “He was apparently in the throes of a major heroin addition. Sex is the last thing on your mind. Your sex is your drugs,’’ the source said.

 Cops interviewed both O’Donnell and Wing-Davey but did not delve into their personal lives, the source said.

 Detectives limited their line of inquiry to questions about Hoffman, such as when the women had last seen him and whether he usually kept his apartment the way they found it, the source added.

 Wing-Davey could not be reached for comment.

 There was no note, and Hoffman’s death is believed to have been be accidental.

 Probers believe the last person that Hoffman talked to was O’Donnell, during a phone call at 10 p.m. Saturday. She said he sounded as if he were high.

 “We’re just really devastated that this could happen,” said Doris Barr, 76, whose son is married to Hoffman’s sister.

 “There had always been a concern with the business he was in. We just worried there was a great opportunity for [drug] issues to come up.”

 The building where Hoffman lived, at 35 Bethune St., is less than three blocks from a three-bedroom, 2¹/₂-bath apartment on Jane Street that he and O’Donnell, a costume designer, bought for $4.4 million in 2008.

 The couple met in 1999 while working on the play “In Arabia We’d All Be Kings,” which Hoffman directed.

 They have a son, Cooper, 10, and two daughters, Tallulah, 7, and Willa, 5.

 O’Donnell, weeping and distraught, went to the Bethune Street apartment after Hoffman’s body was discovered, but cops wouldn’t let her into the bathroom, sources said.

 His body was finally removed at around 6:45 p.m.

 A Jane Street neighbor described Hoffman as “a troubled soul,” adding that “everyone knew he had substance-abuse problems.”

 “He did not look well recently — like he was out of it,” the woman said.

 Another neighbor, Amy Gruenhut, 33, said she last saw Hoffman about two weeks ago.

 “I would see him strolling around looking depressed.

 “He looked sad. He didn’t look normal. There was something off. He just looked really sad and lonely.”

 A native of upstate Fairport, Hoffman was a trained stage actor who scored his breakthrough movie role in 1997’s “Boogie Nights,” in which he played a gay member of a porn film crew.

 He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Truman Capote in the 2005 movie “Capote,” shortly after publicly admitting that he had nearly succumbed to substance abuse years earlier, after graduating from NYU’s drama school.

 “It was all that [drugs and alcohol], yeah. It was anything I could get my hands on . . . I liked it all,” he told “60 Minutes” at the time.

 But he said he got sober in rehab.

 Then last year, he admitted to suffering a drug relapse in 2012, and again went to rehab.

 Also in 2012, he was nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of Willy Loman in a revival of “Death of a Salesman,” one of three times he was up for Broadway’s highest honor.

 He also had been nominated for Oscars for his appearances in “Doubt,” “Charlie Wilson’s War” and “The Master,” in which he played a character inspired by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.

 In a statement released by his manager, Hoffman’s family called his death “a tragic and sudden loss.”

 “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone,” the statement said.

 “Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers.”

 Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland, Frank Rosario, Kate Briquelet, Jamie Schram and C.J. Sullivan

Summary: – Philip Seymour Hoffman, the staggeringly talented actor who won a 2005 Academy Award for his portrayal of Truman Capote, was found dead this morning in his Manhattan apartment at the age of 46, reports the Wall Street Journal. Though the medical examiner's office has yet to release a cause of death, a heroin overdose is suspected. He was found in his bathroom by screenwriter David Katz, who, unable to get in touch with Hoffman, went to the West Village apartment. The New York Post goes further, reporting he was found with a needle still in his arm. Police officials tell the Journal a hypodermic needle and two envelopes possibly containing heroin were recovered from the apartment. Hoffman had undergone a stint in rehab last May for snorting heroin. Hoffman had most recently starred in A Most Wanted Man, and leaves behind three children he had with longtime girlfriend Mimi O’Donnell. The New York Daily News has this statement from the family: "We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone. This is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you respect our privacy during this time of grieving. Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers."


Fashion photographer David Bailey captured Queen Elizabeth’s youthful spirit ahead of her 88th birthday on April 21.

 "I've always been a huge fan of the Queen. She has very kind eyes with a mischievous glint,” said Bailey according to Britain’s Press Association. “I've always liked strong women and she is a very strong woman."

 His affable nature behind-the-lens helped catch the oft photographed Queen with a more candid expression than what is seen in her typical formal portraits.

 British-born Bailey, 76, rose to prominence as a fixture in the ‘Swinging London’ scene of the 1960s, and was caricaturized in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blow-Up. Antonioni based the film’s main character on Bailey’s signature flamboyant rapport with his subjects.

 The portrait was commissioned as part of the GREAT Britain campaign, intended to encourage business and tourism to the country. ||||| This portrait of Queen Elizabeth II taken and made available at 12:00 GMT Sunday, April 20, 2014, by British photographer David Bailey has been released to mark her 88th birthday on Monday April 21, 2014.... (Associated Press)

 This portrait of Queen Elizabeth II taken and made available at 12:00 GMT Sunday, April 20, 2014, by British photographer David Bailey has been released to mark her 88th birthday on Monday April 21, 2014.... (Associated Press)

 LONDON (AP) — A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by renowned British photographer David Bailey has been unveiled to mark the monarch's 88th birthday.

 The black-and-white photograph, taken at Buckingham Palace in March, shows the queen smiling broadly. Bailey described his subject as a "very strong woman" with "very kind eyes with a mischievous glint."

 The portrait, unveiled Sunday for the queen's birthday on Monday, was commissioned for a government campaign to promote Britain's heritage and tourism to potential visitors abroad.

 Britain's monarchy and royal history is one of the biggest drivers of its strong tourism industry.

 The queen celebrates two birthdays each year: Her actual one on Apr. 21 is celebrated privately, while a public ceremony in June marks the occasion with a Trooping the Color parade in London.

Summary: – What to get for the forever-reigning monarch who has everything? Britain's Queen Elizabeth turns 88 tomorrow, and the government got her, well, a portrait of herself to mark the occasion. The black-and-white photo by Brit photographer David Bailey was taken back in March, notes the AP. "I've always been a huge fan of the queen. She has very kind eyes with a mischievous glint," Bailey tells Britain’s Press Association, as per NBC. "I've always liked strong women and she is a very strong woman." The portrait, which NBC thinks captures her "youthful spirit," was commissioned as part of an official tourism campaign. And in case you forgot that the lives of Britain's royals are better than everyone else's, the AP notes that Elizabeth gets two birthdays: Tomorrow will be celebrated privately, while a public ceremony will be held in June.


A bear hunter based out of Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson in critical condition at Anchorage Providence after an accident above Carter Lake Saturday afternoon, according to Alaska State Troopers.

 Soldotna Public Safety Communications Center received a distress signal via an in-reach device just after 12:00 Saturday afternoon. Two men, Zachary Tennyson, 19, and William McCormick, 28, both of JBER, shot a bear on a ridge above them.

 The bear then rolled down the slope, dislodging rocks in the process. Troopers say McCormick was struck by both a rock and the falling bear. Tennyson was reportedly uninjured, but McCormick was hand carried to a LifeMed helicopter and transported to Anchorage Providence with life threatening injuries.

 Alaska State Troopers, Bear Creek Fire Department, Moose Pass Volunteer Fire Department, and LifeMed all responded to the scene.

 ||||| William McCormick, 28, and Zachary Tennyson, 19, were hunting in the area above Carter Lake near Moose Pass at the time of the incident, according to a trooper dispatch. Dispatchers in Soldotna first learned of it at about noon Saturday through a signal from an InReach satellite beacon.

Summary: – Getting hurt by a bear in Alaska is rare but not unheard of. But William McCormick's injury is more of the unheard of kind: The Army soldier suffered "life-threatening injuries" last weekend when a bear he shot fell on him. McCormick was hunting with Zachary Tennyson, 19, near Moose Pass; both are stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. They shot a bear positioned above them on a ridge, KTVA reports, and troopers explained the bear then began to roll down the ridge, "dislodging rocks in the process. [McCormick] was injured when he was struck by both a rock and the bear." It's unclear how far the bear was from the men when they shot it, and details about the bear itself weren't available. Tennyson was uninjured; KTUU reports McCormick was carried to a helicopter and airlifted to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. (This bear killed a hiker in Alaska and mauled a volunteer who went looking for him.)


Hadiya Pendleton, a Chicago teenager, was shot on Tuesday by a bullet police believe was intended for someone else. Gun violence in Chicago appears to be on the rise. In the meantime, legislators discussed gun laws in Washington on Wednesday.

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 This undated family photo shows 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton of Chicago. Pendleton was shot and killed Tuesday by a gunman who apparently was not even aiming at her. Pendleton is the latest face on the ever-increasing homicide toll in the president's hometown.

 A 15-year-old Chicago girl who performed at President Barack Obama's inauguration last week was shot to death in a city park in what police think was a case of "mistaken identity" related to a gang turf war.

 "Mistaken identity -- wrong place at the wrong time," Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said at a press conference on Wednesday, a day after the shooting that killed Hadiya Pendleton and injured another teen. The press conference was broadcast by CLTV.

 McCarthy said police have been interviewing witnesses who were standing near Pendleton in a park on the city's South Side. He said police were making progress in the investigation.

 "I don't want this to be a three-week or a three-month investigation," said McCarthy, who was in Washington earlier this week addressing gun control. "I want this closed now ... I want that kid off the street," he said, referring to the killer. Police believe a handgun was used.

 Pendleton, a sophomore at Martin Luther King Jr. College Prep, had performed at the inauguration with her school band, according to local media reports. News of her death near Obama's old home in the Kenwood neighborhood came before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on gun control on Wednesday.

 Gun violence in Chicago has been in the national spotlight over the past year, with 506 murders in 2012, an increase of 17 percent over the previous year. So far in January, there have been 42 homicides and 157 shootings, according to Chicago police.

 Obama spokesman Jay Carney was asked about Pendleton's death Wednesday. He said the prayers of the president and the first lady were with the girl's family.

 "The president has more than once, when he talks about gun violence in American, referred not just to the horror of Newtown or Aurora or Virginia Tech or Oak Creek, but to shootings on the corner in Chicago and other parts of the country," said Carney. "And this is just another example of the problem that we need to deal with."

 McCarthy said that an $11,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the capture of Pendleton's killer.

 Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, shot in the head in a 2011 mass shooting, made an emotional plea before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for action to curb U.S. gun violence, but a National Rifle Association executive said new gun laws have failed in the past and would fail again.

 Giffords opened testimony at the first congressional hearing on gun violence since the Dec. 14 massacre in which a gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

 Responding to outrage across the country following that incident, Obama and other Democrats have asked Congress to pass the largest package of gun restrictions in decades.

 Speaking at the news conference in Chicago, Father Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest known for his activism against gun violence, compared the Chicago shootings to Newtown.

 "This is Sandy Hook. This is Connecticut. This is Newtown, right here. We have to be just as outraged," Pfleger said.

 (Reporting By Mary Wisniewski; additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Roberta Rampton and Renita D. Young; Editing by Greg McCune and Leslie Adler) ||||| With outrage over Hadiya Pendleton's slaying spreading from City Hall to the White House, the 15-year-old became a symbol Wednesday of escalating violence in Chicago while fueling the national debate over guns and crime.

 A little more than a week after performing with the King College Prep band in Washington during President Barack Obama's inauguration festivities, Hadiya was fatally shot Tuesday afternoon in a park about a mile north of Obama's Kenwood home. Two other teens were wounded.

 At a White House press briefing Wednesday, Obama spokesman Jay Carney was asked about Hadiya's death. "It's a terrible tragedy any time a young person is struck down with so much of their life ahead of them, and we see it far too often," he said.

 Hadiya's slaying also came up in an interview Obama did with Telemundo. The president was asked whether the example of Chicago, with strict gun control laws, gave credence to the National Rifle Association's position that more gun laws don't necessary mean less gun violence.

 "Well, the problem is that a huge proportion of those guns come in from outside Chicago," Obama said. The president said it was true that creating a "bunch of pockets of gun laws" without a unified, integrated system of background checks makes it harder for a single community to protect itself from gun violence.

 Police announced an $11,000 reward for information leading to the killer's capture and conviction during a Wednesday afternoon news conference at the North Kenwood park where Hadiya was shot.

 "I want this closed now," said police Supt. Garry McCarthy, who was among the police chiefs in Washington on Monday to meet with Obama on gun control. "I don't want to wait."

 Hadiya was the 42nd homicide victim this year in Chicago, where killings last year climbed above 500. Mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke with Hadiya's mother Wednesday morning and later, at an unrelated news conference, said the teenager represented "what is best in our city."

 "A child going to school, who takes a final exam, who had just been to inaugural," said Emanuel, looking down at the podium for several seconds to collect himself before continuing. "And I think if anybody has any information, you are not a snitch, you're a citizen. You're a good citizen in good standing if you help."

 Hadiya's father, Nathaniel Pendleton, pleaded for someone to step forward and bring the 15-year-old's killer to justice.

 "She was destined for great things," he said.

 Hadiya was a majorette with the band at King, one of the city's elite selective-enrollment schools. She dreamed of going to Northwestern University and talked about becoming a pharmacist or a journalist, maybe a lawyer.

 She had just finished her final exams at King, where she was a sophomore, and was hanging out with friends from the school's volleyball team Tuesday afternoon in a park in the 4400 block of South Oakenwald Avenue. The group sought shelter from a rainstorm under a canopy at the park about 2:20 p.m. when a gunman jumped a fence, ran toward them and opened fire, police said.

 As the teens scattered, Hadiya and two teenage boys were shot. Hadiya was hit in the back and pronounced dead at Comer Children's Hospital less than an hour after the shooting. The wounds suffered by the boys were not life-threatening.

 McCarthy stressed that neither Hadiya nor anyone in the group she was with were involved with gangs. But it appears the gunman mistook the students for members of a rival gang, he said.

 "This guy, whoever he was, the gunman … you took the light of my life," Hadiya's father said. "Just look at yourself and just know that you took a bright person, an innocent person, a non-violent person."

 No bullet casings were found by investigators at the crime scene, leading them to believe that Hadiya may have been shot with a revolver, according to McCarthy. While it took a while to gather witnesses, McCarthy said police were making "a lot of progress."

 At King on Wednesday, classmates created a memorial at Hadiya's locker with pictures, teddy bears and balloons, said Jayla Rufus, 16, a junior who also traveled to D.C. with the King band. "A lot of people are saying, 'Why Hadiya? Why did it have to be her?'" Rufus said.

 During the band's three-day trip to Washington, the students visited the Washington Monument and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Rufus said. Hadiya and the majorettes performed with the band in the Presidential Inauguration Heritage Festival.

 The school won multiple awards while at the competition, including a first place honor for the band's auxiliary team that included the majorettes, according to Benjamin Washington, the school's director of bands. ||||| MARY MITCHELL: Friend sets record straight: Hadiya was not left alone to die BY MARY MITCHELL marym@suntimes.com

 A teen shows her boot that was hit by shrapnel. | Richard A. Chapman~Sun-Times

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 Hadiya Pendleton was not left alone.

 When an unidentified gunman fired into a crowd of King College Prep students who had gathered in a neighborhood park Tuesday, about a dozen students ran for their lives.

 One bullet caught 15-year-old Hadiya in the back, causing her death a short while later.

 Another grazed the boot of a 16-year-old classmate and lodged in her boyfriend’s ankle. Another unidentified 16-year-old boy also was wounded and was in good condition.

 Contrary to earlier reports, Hadiya, who had just attended presidential inauguration festivities a week earlier, was not left mortally wounded while her classmates ran off.

 A 15-year-old classmate who was with the group described the chaotic scene that unfolded when, for no apparent reason, a gunman jumped a fence and opened fire on the students then sped away in a waiting car.

 “We were under a little tent thing and a man came up and shot at us about five times,” the girl told me in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon. (Because the shooter is still at large, I am not identifying the girl, or her mother, by name.)

 According to the girl, the group had been in the park for about 20 minutes and had sought shelter under a canopy when gunfire erupted.

 “We all started running and Hadiya fell down. We were running at about the same pace, and Hadiya said: ‘I think I got shot,’ and slowed, then fell.”

 The girl’s boyfriend pushed her out of the way and a bullet grazed her boot and struck his ankle. The boyfriend, who was taken from the scene in an ambulance, was treated at the hospital and released.

 Hadiya’s classmate said a nurse who lived in one of the houses nearby heard the gunshots and came to the scene.

 “She told me to hold Hadiya’s hand, and I had her head in my lap,” the girl told me.

 Although earlier reports suggested that most of the teens in the group were gang members, that is not the case.

 At a news conference attended by the slain girl’s parents and other relatives at the park on Wednesday, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Hadiya had no arrest record or affiliation with any gang or criminal activity.

 “In fact, every indication points to the fact that none of the individuals who were here in the group were involved with any sort of criminal activity,” McCarthy said. “What we believe happened is that this is some sort of territory that some gang might call their own. As a result of that, we believe that somebody mistaking a group that was hanging out here of innocent children returned with a firearm and fired into the crowd killing Hadiya.”

 McCarthy said the group immediately dispersed and overnight detectives were “busy scrambling” trying to identify witnesses.

 The 15-year-old girl said she was questioned by police at the hospital.

 “I just feel that people are getting the story wrong and making other people blame themselves, and it was not even their fault,” she said.

 The girl’s mother pointed out that all of the teens in the park were “honor school kids,” and it was “devastating” to see them initially portrayed as “gang members.”

 “This is a selective enrollment school. You have to place high to get into this school. These kids are bright kids,” she said. “It was totally wrong for these kids to be called gang members.”

 Hadiya and the other wounded students were innocent victims in the same way that the 20 children in Newtown, Conn., were innocent victims.

 But unfortunately, some of us don’t see it that way. Frankly, some of the emails I received about this tragedy were shameful.

 Instead of blaming the shooter, some of you leaped at the chance to blame Hadiya for hanging out with gang-bangers who didn’t stick around to cooperate with police.

 In reality, these were clean-cut teens who were simply trying to unwind in a public park after a grueling day of final exams.

 Hadiya’s classmates aren’t the bad guys.

 They didn’t create a world where someone with evil intentions can walk into a park in the middle of the afternoon and kill at will.

 They are the heroes.

 What does that make us?

Summary: – The Chicago teen who was killed days after performing in President Obama's inauguration may have simply been in the "wrong place at the wrong time," Chicago's police superintendent says, calling the shooting a matter of "mistaken identity." The shooting, police believe, was part of a turf war among gangs, but Hadiya Pendleton herself had no gang links—nor, it appears, did any of those with her that day. The gunman, however, seemed to confuse the group with gang members. In other details from the case: Hadiya was a band majorette at the elite King College Prep; she hoped to go to Northwestern University, the Chicago Tribune reports. A friend of Hadiya rejects reports that the teen's friends abandoned her as they ran. "A man came up and shot at us about five times," the friend tells the Chicago Sun-Times. "We were running at about the same pace, and Hadiya said: ‘I think I got shot,’ and slowed, then fell." A nurse who lived nearby arrived on the scene. "She told me to hold Hadiya’s hand, and I had her head in my lap," the friend said. There were no bullet casings on the scene, suggesting the shooter may have used a revolver. Officers are offering an $11,000 reward for information leading to the shooter's arrest, adds the Christian Science Monitor. "This guy, whoever he was, the gunman ... you took the light of my life," says dad Nathaniel Pendleton. "Just look at yourself and just know that you took a bright person, an innocent person, a non-violent person." The shooting prompted Telemundo to ask President Obama whether tight gun control laws like Chicago's really worked. "The problem is that a huge proportion of those guns come in from outside Chicago," he said, per the Tribune.