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Photo Two months before the Iowa caucuses, Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton are showing no signs of losing steam. A new national poll from Quinnipiac University finds the leading candidates solidifying their positions in the races for the Republican and Democratic nominations, fending off challenges from rivals such as Ben Carson and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. On the Republican side, Mr. Trump has benefited from recent stumbles by Mr. Carson, the retired neurosurgeon whose rise has been stymied by questions about his biography and his knowledge of foreign policy. A month ago, the two were deadlocked, but the survey results released Wednesday show Mr. Trump clearly in first place with 27 percent of Republican voters. Mr. Carson has dropped to third place with 16 percent, having been overtaken by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida at 17 percent. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is tied with Mr. Carson at 16 percent, having risen from 13 percent in a previous poll. Hoping to strengthen his foreign policy credentials and to educate himself about foreign affairs, Mr. Carson made an impromptu trip to Jordan over the weekend to see the Syrian refugee crisis firsthand. On Wednesday, he heads to South Carolina, and later this week he will go to Iowa, where he will seek to solidify his support among evangelical Christian voters. Mr. Trump’s endurance comes as he continues to face questions about his honesty and as he stirs controversy with his ideas about aggressive surveillance of Muslims, his proposal to reinstitute waterboarding and his mockery of a New York Times reporter with a physical disability. Many Republican leaders are actively fretting about Mr. Trump’s continued strength, but they remain wary of attacking him directly out of fear that they will have to endure his vicious counterattacks. This week, Mr. Trump called Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio a “lunatic” and ridiculed Gov. Chris Christie’s record in New Jersey after the two rivals for the nomination were openly critical of him. “It doesn’t seem to matter what he says or who he offends, whether the facts are contested or the ‘political correctness’ is challenged, Donald Trump seems to be wearing Kevlar,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll, said in a statement on Tuesday. “The G.O.P., 11 months from the election, has to be thinking, ‘This could be the guy.’ ” For Democrats, this appears to be good news. Quinnipiac’s poll shows both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders beating Mr. Trump handily in head-to-head matchups. At the moment, Mrs. Clinton appears to be the clear favorite, having widened her advantage against Mr. Sanders: The poll shows her ahead by a margin of 60 percent to 30 percent among Democratic voters. Mr. Sanders lost some momentum after the Democratic debates, where Mrs. Clinton performed well. While voters still have doubts about her honesty, questions about Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state have subsided for the time being. Mrs. Clinton’s momentum has improved her standing in face-offs against all the leading Republican contenders, the poll shows. However, Mr. Rubio, who has been rising steadily, fares the best against her, trailing by just one percentage point. The Quinnipiac poll had a margin of error of four percentage points for Republicans and Democratic voters, and three percentage points over all. ||||| December 2, 2015 - Bump For Trump As Carson Fades In Republican Race, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Clinton, Sanders Surge In Matchups With GOP Leaders PDF format Additional Trend Information Eleven months before the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump is the undisputed leader in the Republican field, as Dr. Ben Carson, in a virtual tie with Trump four weeks ago, drops to third place, according to a Quinnipiac University National poll released today. On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton widens her lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to 60 - 30 percent, compared to 53 - 35 percent in a November 4 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University Poll. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has 2 percent, with 6 percent undecided. Trump gets 27 percent of Republican voters today, with 17 percent for Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, 16 percent each for Carson and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and 5 percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. No other candidate tops 3 percent, with 8 percent undecided. Last month, Trump had 24 percent, with 23 percent for Carson. Among Republicans, 26 percent of voters say they "would definitely not support" Trump, with 21 percent who would not back Bush. "It doesn't seem to matter what he says or who he offends, whether the facts are contested or the 'political correctness' is challenged, Donald Trump seems to be wearing Kevlar," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. "Dr. Ben Carson, moving to center stage just one month ago, now needs some CPR. The Doctor sinks. The Donald soars. The GOP, 11 months from the election, has to be thinking, 'This could be the guy.' "Secretary Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders have to be hoping Trump is the GOP's guy." American voters shift to Clinton as the Democrat gains ground against Republicans: 47 - 41 percent over Trump, compared to 46 - 43 percent November 4; Clinton at 45 percent to Rubio's 44 percent, compared to a 46 - 41 percent Rubio lead last month; Clinton tops Cruz 47 - 42 percent, compared to Cruz at 46 percent to Clinton's 43 percent last month; Clinton at 46 percent to Carson's 43 percent compared to Carson's 50 - 40 percent lead last month. Sanders does just as well, or even better, against top Republicans: Topping Trump 49 - 41 percent; Getting 44 percent to Rubio's 43 percent; Beating Cruz 49 - 39 percent; Leading Carson 47 - 41 percent. Clinton has a negative 44 - 51 percent favorability rating. Other favorability ratings are: Negative 35 - 57 percent for Trump; 40 - 33 percent for Carson; 44 - 31 percent for Sanders; 37 - 28 percent for Rubio; 33 - 33 percent for Cruz. American voters say 60 - 36 percent that Clinton is not honest and trustworthy. Trump is not honest and trustworthy, voters say 59 - 35 percent. Sanders gets the best honesty grades among top candidates, 59 - 28 percent, with Carson at 53 - 34 percent, Rubio at 49 - 33 percent and Cruz at 43 - 39 percent. All American voters say 63 - 32 percent, including 69 - 27 percent among independent voters, that Clinton would have a good chance of beating the Republican nominee in a head-to- head matchup. Voters are divided 46 - 49 percent on whether Trump would have a good chance of beating the Democratic nominee, with independent voters divided 47 - 48 percent. From November 23 - 30, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,453 registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones. The survey includes 672 Republicans with a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points and 573 Democrats with a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points. The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and the nation as a public service and for research. For more information, visit http://www.quinnipiac.edu/polling, call (203) 582-5201, or follow us on Twitter @QuinnipiacPoll. 1. (If Republican or Republican Leaner) If the Republican primary for President were being held today, and the candidates were Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, George Pataki, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, and Donald Trump, for whom would you vote? REPUBLICANS/REPUBLICAN LEANERS...................... Wht POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Tea BrnAgn CONSERVATIVE Mod/ Tot Party Evang Very Smwht Lib Men Wom Bush 5% 1% 4% 6% 2% 7% 5% 5% Carson 16 17 19 15 15 16 14 18 Christie 2 1 - - 2 4 2 2 Cruz 16 29 24 29 14 3 16 17 Fiorina 3 3 2 2 3 5 2 4 Gilmore - - - - - - - - Graham - - - - - 1 - - Huckabee 1 1 2 2 - - 1 - Kasich 2 - - - 2 3 2 1 Pataki - - - - - 1 1 - Paul 2 1 2 1 1 3 1 2 Rubio 17 12 13 11 26 15 17 16 Santorum - - - 1 - - - 1 Trump 27 29 24 25 25 31 30 24 SMONE ELSE(VOL) - - - - - - - - WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 1 1 1 - 1 2 2 - DK/NA 8 5 8 8 8 8 7 10 MOST IMPORTANT FOR REP PRES NOMINEE Q70 Shares Strong Honest/ Values Leader Trustworthy Bush 2% 2% 3% Carson 23 10 17 Christie 1 4 1 Cruz 15 20 18 Fiorina 1 3 4 Gilmore - - - Graham - - - Huckabee 1 2 - Kasich 2 2 1 Pataki - - 1 Paul 3 - - Rubio 16 15 19 Santorum 1 1 - Trump 27 30 21 SMONE ELSE(VOL) - - - WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) - 2 2 DK/NA 8 9 12 REPUBLICANS/REPUBLICAN LEANERS...................... MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE Q72........... Economy/ Foreign Jobs Terrorism Policy Bush 8% 5% 3% Carson 12 19 17 Christie 3 1 5 Cruz 13 16 19 Fiorina 2 5 4 Gilmore - - - Graham - - - Huckabee 1 1 1 Kasich 3 1 1 Pataki 1 - - Paul 2 - - Rubio 17 18 22 Santorum - - 1 Trump 23 29 19 SMONE ELSE(VOL) - - - WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 1 - 2 DK/NA 13 7 4 1A. (If candidate chosen q1) Is your mind made up, or do you think you might change your mind before the primary? REPUBLICANS/REPUBLICAN LEANERS............................... CANDIDATE CHOSEN Q1.......................................... CANDIDATE OF CHOICE Q1......................... Tot Carson Cruz Rubio Trump Made up 32% 26% 33% 23% 46% Might change 65 71 65 75 53 DK/NA 2 3 2 2 1 2. (If Republican or Republican Leaner) Are there any of these candidates you would definitely not support for the Republican nomination for president: Bush, Carson, Christie, Cruz, Fiorina, Gilmore, Graham, Huckabee, Kasich, Pataki, Paul, Rubio, Santorum, or Trump? (Totals may add up to more than 100% because multiple responses were allowed) REPUBLICANS/REPUBLICAN LEANERS...................... Wht POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Tea BrnAgn CONSERVATIVE Mod/ Tot Party Evang Very Smwht Lib Men Wom Bush 21% 25% 17% 27% 20% 15% 23% 18% Carson 10 2 3 11 7 13 10 9 Christie 13 13 9 14 14 11 15 10 Cruz 6 1 1 4 5 9 7 4 Fiorina 11 8 9 9 12 13 10 12 Gilmore 9 9 4 13 8 8 9 10 Graham 11 16 7 16 9 6 12 10 Huckabee 9 5 2 11 8 9 10 9 Kasich 13 16 9 21 11 7 14 13 Pataki 11 13 5 16 9 7 11 11 Paul 13 11 9 16 13 9 11 15 Rubio 5 5 3 7 4 5 6 4 Santorum 9 5 1 10 8 8 9 9 Trump 26 16 24 25 20 34 24 30 No/No one 30 32 32 28 34 27 31 28 DK/NA 6 5 5 4 5 10 6 6 3. (If Democrat or Democratic Leaner) If the Democratic primary for President were being held today, and the candidates were Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley, and Bernie Sanders, for whom would you vote? DEMOCRATS/DEMOCRATIC LEANERS.......... POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY LIBERAL..... Mod/ Tot Very Smwht Cons Men Wom Clinton 60% 48% 60% 62% 53% 65% O'Malley 2 - 3 2 3 1 Sanders 30 47 33 24 39 23 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 - - 2 - 2 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 1 - - 2 1 2 DK/NA 6 5 4 8 4 8 MOST IMPORTANT FOR DEM PRES NOMINEE Q69........................... Shares Strong Honest/ Right Values Leader Trustworthy Cares Experience Clinton 58% 70% 44% 53% 81% O'Malley 1 3 3 1 3 Sanders 31 24 39 39 6 SMONE ELSE(VOL) - - 5 - - WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 3 2 1 1 - DK/NA 7 2 8 6 9 MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE Q71 Economy/ Foreign Jobs Policy Clinton 59% 64% O'Malley 3 1 Sanders 31 23 SMONE ELSE(VOL) - - WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 2 - DK/NA 5 12 3A. (If candidate chosen q3) Is your mind made up, or do you think you might change your mind before the primary? DEMOCRATS/DEMOCRATIC LEANERS........ CANDIDATE CHOSEN Q3................. CANDIDATE OF CHOICE Q3 Tot Clinton Sanders Mind made up 57% 62% 50% Might change 41 37 49 DK/NA 1 2 1 4. (If Democrat or Democratic Leaner) Are there any of these candidates you would definitely not support for the Democratic nomination for president: Clinton, O'Malley, or Sanders? (Totals may add up to more than 100% because multiple responses were allowed) DEMOCRATS/DEMOCRATIC LEANERS.......... POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY LIBERAL..... Mod/ Tot Very Smwht Cons Men Wom Clinton 8% 2% 7% 11% 12% 6% O'Malley 15 13 11 17 13 16 Sanders 7 - 5 11 5 9 No/No one 60 78 67 51 63 57 DK/NA 13 7 12 14 9 16 5. If the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Hillary Clinton the Democrat and Ben Carson the Republican, for whom would you vote? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Clinton 46% 8% 89% 41% 39% 53% 54% 42% Carson 43 84 7 42 49 37 39 45 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 1 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 6 4 1 10 7 5 4 7 DK/NA 4 2 2 6 4 4 1 5 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Clinton 49% 51% 48% 38% 32% 43% 38% 82% 74% Carson 37 42 42 50 57 46 52 12 15 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 - - WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 8 4 5 5 5 6 6 4 8 DK/NA 5 2 2 7 3 4 4 1 3 6. If the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Hillary Clinton the Democrat and Donald Trump the Republican, for whom would you vote? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Clinton 47% 7% 91% 45% 39% 56% 55% 44% Trump 41 82 7 37 49 33 34 45 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 2 1 1 4 2 2 2 2 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 6 6 1 9 6 5 6 5 DK/NA 4 4 1 5 3 4 3 4 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Clinton 52% 50% 49% 39% 31% 45% 38% 87% 76% Trump 32 42 44 46 57 43 50 7 13 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 3 2 1 1 2 2 2 - - WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 9 4 4 6 6 6 6 4 5 DK/NA 3 2 3 7 4 3 4 2 5 7. If the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Hillary Clinton the Democrat and Marco Rubio the Republican, for whom would you vote? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Clinton 45% 7% 87% 40% 36% 53% 51% 41% Rubio 44 89 8 41 51 37 43 45 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 5 2 1 10 6 4 3 6 DK/NA 5 1 2 8 5 4 2 6 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Clinton 45% 49% 47% 40% 30% 42% 36% 83% 69% Rubio 38 44 43 52 59 49 54 10 18 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 - 3 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 8 3 5 3 6 4 5 2 5 DK/NA 8 3 3 4 3 5 4 5 5 8. If the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Hillary Clinton the Democrat and Ted Cruz the Republican, for whom would you vote? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Clinton 47% 8% 90% 43% 39% 55% 55% 43% Cruz 42 87 5 39 50 34 38 44 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 2 - 2 2 2 1 2 2 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 5 1 2 9 5 5 4 5 DK/NA 5 3 1 7 4 5 2 6 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Clinton 51% 50% 49% 39% 32% 45% 39% 84% 72% Cruz 33 42 43 52 58 45 51 9 17 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 3 1 1 2 1 2 - - WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 8 2 5 3 4 5 4 3 4 DK/NA 7 3 3 5 4 4 4 3 8 9. If the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Bernie Sanders the Democrat and Ben Carson the Republican, for whom would you vote? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Sanders 47% 11% 84% 47% 41% 53% 52% 45% Carson 41 81 6 40 48 35 41 42 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 6 5 5 6 4 7 4 7 DK/NA 5 3 4 6 5 5 2 6 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Sanders 60% 49% 46% 35% 35% 46% 40% 77% 72% Carson 33 41 43 49 57 43 50 16 13 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 - 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 1 9 5 6 4 6 5 3 6 DK/NA 5 1 4 7 3 4 4 3 7 10. If the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Bernie Sanders the Democrat and Donald Trump the Republican, for whom would you vote? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Sanders 49% 11% 86% 52% 43% 55% 56% 46% Trump 41 80 8 36 47 35 36 43 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 1 - 3 2 - 1 1 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 5 5 3 4 4 6 4 5 DK/NA 4 3 2 5 4 4 3 5 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Sanders 62% 49% 48% 40% 36% 47% 42% 82% 78% Trump 29 43 45 45 54 43 48 13 11 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 1 1 2 2 - 1 1 2 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 3 6 3 7 4 6 5 3 3 DK/NA 5 1 3 7 4 4 4 2 6 11. If the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Bernie Sanders the Democrat and Marco Rubio the Republican, for whom would you vote? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Sanders 44% 7% 81% 45% 39% 49% 48% 43% Rubio 43 85 8 39 50 35 44 42 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 5 3 5 5 3 7 3 6 DK/NA 6 4 5 9 6 7 5 7 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Sanders 59% 46% 43% 33% 33% 40% 37% 80% 68% Rubio 33 41 44 53 58 45 51 12 18 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 - - WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) - 8 5 5 3 5 4 3 6 DK/NA 7 3 6 8 4 8 6 4 8 12. If the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Bernie Sanders the Democrat and Ted Cruz the Republican, for whom would you vote? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Sanders 49% 9% 87% 51% 43% 54% 54% 46% Cruz 39 83 4 34 48 31 38 40 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 5 3 4 5 3 7 3 6 DK/NA 6 4 4 8 4 7 4 6 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Sanders 62% 50% 49% 34% 37% 45% 41% 86% 71% Cruz 28 36 41 52 55 39 48 8 15 SMONE ELSE(VOL) 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 WLDN'T VOTE(VOL) 1 9 5 5 3 6 4 3 7 DK/NA 7 3 4 8 3 8 5 3 6 Q13-24. Summary Table - Is your opinion of [Candidate] favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him/her? Table ranked by net favorability (Favorable - Unfavorable). REGISTERED VOTERS................. Hvn't Fav Unfav hrdEn REF NetFav Sanders 44 31 24 1 13 Rubio 37 28 34 1 9 Carson 40 33 25 1 7 Cruz 33 33 32 1 0 Fiorina 28 29 42 - -1 Kasich 19 23 57 1 -4 Clinton 44 51 3 2 -7 Huckabee 29 41 30 1 -12 Paul 23 40 36 1 -17 Christie 28 48 24 1 -20 Bush 32 54 12 2 -22 Trump 35 57 5 3 -22 REPUBLICANS....................... Hvn't Fav Unfav hrdEn REF NetFav Rubio 66 8 25 1 58 Cruz 65 9 26 - 56 Carson 67 13 19 1 54 Huckabee 56 18 27 - 38 Trump 64 27 6 3 37 Fiorina 49 17 33 - 32 Bush 53 34 11 2 19 Christie 43 31 25 1 12 Kasich 27 20 52 1 7 Paul 32 36 31 1 -4 DEMOCRATS......................... Hvn't Fav Unfav hrdEn REF NetFav Clinton 85 11 3 1 74 Sanders 68 7 24 1 61 13. Is your opinion of Hillary Clinton favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about her? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 44% 9% 85% 38% 36% 52% 50% 41% Unfavorable 51 89 11 56 59 43 46 54 Hvn't hrd enough 3 2 3 5 4 3 2 4 REFUSED 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Favorable 44% 45% 48% 39% 30% 41% 35% 84% 64% Unfavorable 48 50 48 57 66 54 60 14 27 Hvn't hrd enough 5 3 3 2 3 3 3 2 9 REFUSED 3 2 - 2 1 2 1 - - 14. Is your opinion of Ben Carson favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 40% 67% 13% 44% 45% 36% 40% 41% Unfavorable 33 13 54 32 31 36 47 27 Hvn't hrd enough 25 19 33 22 24 26 13 31 REFUSED 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Favorable 31% 37% 42% 49% 49% 41% 45% 22% 20% Unfavorable 32 39 36 26 30 38 34 45 25 Hvn't hrd enough 35 24 21 22 20 19 20 33 55 REFUSED 1 - 1 3 1 2 1 - - 15. Is your opinion of Donald Trump favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 35% 64% 10% 31% 41% 29% 27% 39% Unfavorable 57 27 86 60 52 63 67 53 Hvn't hrd enough 5 6 3 5 5 6 3 6 REFUSED 3 3 - 3 2 3 2 3 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Favorable 23% 36% 39% 39% 47% 36% 42% 9% 9% Unfavorable 69 57 56 49 45 54 50 87 84 Hvn't hrd enough 5 5 4 8 5 6 6 3 7 REFUSED 3 2 1 4 2 3 3 1 - 16. Is your opinion of Bernie Sanders favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 44% 15% 68% 47% 41% 46% 49% 41% Unfavorable 31 58 7 29 36 26 31 31 Hvn't hrd enough 24 27 24 24 22 26 18 27 REFUSED 1 - 1 - - 1 1 1 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Favorable 59% 43% 43% 32% 39% 43% 41% 57% 60% Unfavorable 22 30 32 40 41 32 36 11 16 Hvn't hrd enough 19 27 24 26 20 24 22 32 23 REFUSED - - 1 1 1 1 1 - - 17. Is your opinion of Marco Rubio favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 37% 66% 15% 36% 42% 32% 43% 34% Unfavorable 28 8 51 23 28 28 33 25 Hvn't hrd enough 34 25 33 41 29 39 22 40 REFUSED 1 1 1 - 1 2 1 1 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Favorable 27% 34% 38% 48% 46% 38% 42% 21% 22% Unfavorable 22 33 32 23 27 26 26 33 42 Hvn't hrd enough 50 33 28 27 27 34 30 46 36 REFUSED 1 - 2 2 1 2 2 - - 18. Is your opinion of Ted Cruz favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 33% 65% 8% 30% 38% 28% 31% 34% Unfavorable 33 9 60 30 32 35 47 27 Hvn't hrd enough 32 26 31 40 30 35 22 38 REFUSED 1 - 1 - 1 1 1 1 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Favorable 25% 31% 33% 43% 42% 33% 38% 15% 25% Unfavorable 24 38 40 28 31 34 33 38 33 Hvn't hrd enough 51 30 25 26 26 31 28 47 41 REFUSED - - 1 2 - 2 1 - 1 19. (Split Sample) Is your opinion of Jeb Bush favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 32% 53% 19% 27% 33% 31% 38% 29% Unfavorable 54 34 67 60 56 53 51 56 Hvn't hrd enough 12 11 13 12 10 14 9 13 REFUSED 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 AGE IN YRS.............. 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Favorable 24% 32% 32% 35% Unfavorable 55 54 59 51 Hvn't hrd enough 21 11 8 10 REFUSED - 3 1 3 20. (Split Sample) Is your opinion of Chris Christie favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 28% 43% 15% 28% 30% 26% 36% 24% Unfavorable 48 31 58 50 47 48 48 47 Hvn't hrd enough 24 25 25 21 23 25 15 28 REFUSED 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 AGE IN YRS.............. 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Favorable 23% 21% 30% 36% Unfavorable 42 53 53 40 Hvn't hrd enough 35 26 15 22 REFUSED - - 2 2 21. (Split Sample) Is your opinion of Carly Fiorina favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about her? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 28% 49% 11% 25% 31% 25% 31% 27% Unfavorable 29 17 48 24 27 32 37 26 Hvn't hrd enough 42 33 41 50 42 43 31 48 REFUSED - - - 1 - 1 1 - AGE IN YRS.............. 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Favorable 21% 20% 33% 37% Unfavorable 18 34 35 28 Hvn't hrd enough 60 46 32 34 REFUSED 1 - - 1 22. (Split Sample) Is your opinion of Mike Huckabee favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 29% 56% 5% 29% 36% 23% 28% 29% Unfavorable 41 18 60 46 37 44 52 36 Hvn't hrd enough 30 27 34 26 26 33 20 34 REFUSED 1 - 1 - 1 1 1 1 AGE IN YRS.............. 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Favorable 19% 32% 25% 40% Unfavorable 26 47 51 37 Hvn't hrd enough 55 22 24 22 REFUSED - - 1 1 23. (Split Sample) Is your opinion of John Kasich favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 19% 27% 16% 17% 23% 14% 21% 18% Unfavorable 23 20 26 20 25 21 26 21 Hvn't hrd enough 57 52 57 62 52 63 52 61 REFUSED 1 1 1 - - 1 1 1 AGE IN YRS.............. 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Favorable 5% 18% 24% 27% Unfavorable 19 18 23 30 Hvn't hrd enough 76 63 52 42 REFUSED - - 1 2 24. (Split Sample) Is your opinion of Rand Paul favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Favorable 23% 32% 10% 26% 29% 17% 27% 20% Unfavorable 40 36 50 36 42 39 49 36 Hvn't hrd enough 36 31 39 37 28 43 23 42 REFUSED 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 1 AGE IN YRS.............. 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Favorable 24% 25% 23% 19% Unfavorable 25 37 47 51 Hvn't hrd enough 50 38 29 29 REFUSED - - 1 1 33. Would you say that - Hillary Clinton is honest and trustworthy or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 36% 7% 73% 26% 30% 41% 37% 35% No 60 91 23 68 67 54 60 61 DK/NA 4 1 3 6 3 5 3 4 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 38% 29% 40% 37% 24% 32% 28% 65% 60% No 57 66 58 60 74 63 69 31 35 DK/NA 6 5 2 3 2 6 4 4 5 34. Would you say that - Donald Trump is honest and trustworthy or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 35% 58% 12% 36% 40% 30% 29% 38% No 59 36 84 57 54 63 67 55 DK/NA 6 6 4 7 5 6 4 7 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 28% 33% 37% 41% 44% 38% 41% 10% 22% No 67 62 58 51 51 55 53 84 73 DK/NA 5 6 5 8 5 7 6 6 5 35. Would you say that - Bernie Sanders is honest and trustworthy or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 59% 39% 78% 64% 62% 57% 68% 55% No 28 45 11 25 27 28 22 31 DK/NA 13 17 11 11 11 15 11 14 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 70% 58% 60% 48% 60% 54% 57% 69% 67% No 18 28 29 34 29 29 29 18 20 DK/NA 12 14 10 18 11 16 14 13 13 36. Would you say that - Ben Carson is honest and trustworthy or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 53% 79% 31% 54% 59% 48% 52% 54% No 34 13 55 33 32 36 41 31 DK/NA 12 8 14 13 9 16 7 15 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 45% 49% 56% 63% 64% 52% 58% 39% 43% No 37 40 35 24 29 33 31 49 37 DK/NA 17 11 9 13 7 15 11 13 19 37. Would you say that - Marco Rubio is honest and trustworthy or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 49% 74% 32% 46% 54% 44% 54% 47% No 33 12 47 37 35 31 32 34 DK/NA 18 14 20 17 11 24 14 19 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 42% 43% 51% 59% 59% 50% 55% 31% 38% No 33 37 36 26 31 25 28 48 45 DK/NA 25 20 13 15 10 25 17 21 17 38. Would you say that - Ted Cruz is honest and trustworthy or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 43% 74% 18% 42% 51% 36% 42% 44% No 39 13 63 40 37 42 46 37 DK/NA 17 13 18 18 12 22 13 19 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 35% 42% 43% 52% 56% 41% 49% 26% 28% No 40 44 45 30 34 35 35 57 54 DK/NA 26 14 12 18 10 23 17 16 18 39. Would you say that - Hillary Clinton has strong leadership qualities or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 60% 26% 91% 62% 53% 67% 65% 57% No 38 73 8 35 45 32 34 41 DK/NA 2 1 1 3 2 2 2 2 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 68% 59% 62% 52% 47% 58% 52% 87% 77% No 27 40 37 47 52 39 46 12 22 DK/NA 5 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 2 40. Would you say that - Donald Trump has strong leadership qualities or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 58% 80% 35% 61% 63% 54% 56% 60% No 39 18 63 36 34 44 43 37 DK/NA 2 2 2 2 2 3 1 3 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 60% 62% 58% 52% 67% 60% 64% 38% 38% No 38 36 40 43 31 37 34 60 60 DK/NA 1 2 2 5 2 3 2 3 2 41. Would you say that - Bernie Sanders has strong leadership qualities or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 46% 22% 68% 47% 44% 48% 49% 44% No 41 60 21 40 46 36 40 41 DK/NA 13 17 11 13 10 17 11 15 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 61% 43% 43% 35% 39% 44% 41% 59% 62% No 25 41 47 48 50 39 45 26 26 DK/NA 14 16 9 16 10 17 14 15 13 42. Would you say that - Ben Carson has strong leadership qualities or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 40% 60% 20% 40% 43% 36% 33% 43% No 49 29 68 48 50 48 58 45 DK/NA 12 11 11 11 7 16 9 13 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 37% 38% 40% 44% 46% 38% 42% 34% 26% No 48 51 52 44 49 46 48 57 52 DK/NA 15 11 8 12 6 16 11 9 22 43. Would you say that - Marco Rubio has strong leadership qualities or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 47% 70% 32% 43% 48% 45% 54% 43% No 36 17 49 40 40 33 34 38 DK/NA 17 13 20 17 12 23 13 19 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 40% 44% 46% 54% 52% 49% 51% 28% 43% No 36 37 41 32 39 27 33 54 38 DK/NA 24 19 13 14 9 24 16 18 19 44. Would you say that - Ted Cruz has strong leadership qualities or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 43% 69% 20% 42% 47% 38% 44% 42% No 43 17 66 43 43 43 45 42 DK/NA 15 14 15 15 11 19 11 17 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 40% 40% 41% 50% 51% 43% 47% 25% 31% No 37 47 48 38 40 39 39 58 53 DK/NA 23 14 11 12 9 18 14 17 17 45. Would you say that - Hillary Clinton cares about the needs and problems of people like you or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 46% 14% 84% 40% 37% 55% 50% 44% No 51 84 15 56 60 42 47 53 DK/NA 3 2 1 4 2 3 2 3 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 50% 42% 52% 42% 31% 46% 38% 80% 65% No 47 54 47 54 67 51 59 17 31 DK/NA 3 3 1 4 2 3 2 3 4 46. Would you say that - Donald Trump cares about the needs and problems of people like you or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 36% 66% 11% 33% 43% 30% 30% 39% No 59 30 88 60 54 65 66 56 DK/NA 4 4 1 7 3 5 4 4 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 25% 33% 40% 43% 46% 38% 42% 9% 14% No 71 63 57 52 51 56 53 88 83 DK/NA 4 4 3 5 3 6 5 2 3 47. Would you say that - Bernie Sanders cares about the needs and problems of people like you or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 53% 26% 75% 59% 55% 51% 61% 49% No 35 59 15 30 37 32 31 37 DK/NA 12 15 10 11 7 16 8 14 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 68% 49% 57% 37% 52% 48% 50% 66% 61% No 21 37 35 46 41 34 38 21 26 DK/NA 11 14 8 17 6 17 12 13 13 48. Would you say that - Ben Carson cares about the needs and problems of people like you or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 50% 75% 25% 53% 56% 44% 47% 51% No 38 15 64 34 36 39 45 34 DK/NA 13 10 11 13 8 17 9 14 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 45% 46% 52% 56% 61% 48% 55% 33% 35% No 34 43 40 32 33 35 34 55 49 DK/NA 20 11 8 12 6 17 11 12 16 49. Would you say that - Marco Rubio cares about the needs and problems of people like you or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 46% 76% 25% 43% 52% 41% 51% 44% No 39 14 59 42 39 38 36 40 DK/NA 15 10 15 15 8 21 12 16 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 41% 42% 47% 54% 56% 48% 52% 26% 28% No 36 41 43 35 36 32 34 57 57 DK/NA 23 17 10 12 8 20 14 16 15 50. Would you say that - Ted Cruz cares about the needs and problems of people like you or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 42% 75% 17% 39% 49% 36% 39% 44% No 43 15 70 43 43 44 50 40 DK/NA 15 10 13 17 9 20 11 16 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 38% 41% 42% 48% 54% 42% 48% 21% 24% No 39 47 48 40 39 38 39 63 58 DK/NA 23 13 10 13 7 20 13 15 18 51. Would you say that - Hillary Clinton has the right kind of experience to be President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 67% 34% 96% 70% 62% 71% 73% 64% No 32 64 4 30 38 27 27 35 DK/NA 1 2 - 1 1 2 1 1 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 77% 71% 67% 52% 55% 65% 60% 93% 86% No 21 28 32 46 44 33 39 7 14 DK/NA 2 1 1 2 - 2 1 - 1 52. Would you say that - Donald Trump has the right kind of experience to be President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 34% 60% 9% 32% 42% 26% 28% 37% No 63 37 90 64 56 70 71 60 DK/NA 3 3 1 4 2 4 2 3 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 27% 33% 36% 37% 47% 32% 40% 6% 17% No 70 65 61 58 52 64 58 91 81 DK/NA 3 2 2 5 1 4 3 3 2 53. Would you say that - Bernie Sanders has the right kind of experience to be President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 47% 24% 68% 50% 47% 48% 50% 46% No 42 64 21 41 46 37 41 42 DK/NA 11 12 11 9 7 15 9 12 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 68% 46% 46% 30% 44% 44% 44% 62% 59% No 20 40 46 58 49 42 46 22 29 DK/NA 12 13 8 12 7 13 10 16 11 54. Would you say that - Ben Carson has the right kind of experience to be President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 28% 42% 14% 30% 32% 24% 21% 31% No 62 46 76 63 62 62 72 57 DK/NA 10 12 10 7 6 14 6 12 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 31% 23% 26% 34% 34% 25% 30% 23% 21% No 56 67 66 56 60 61 61 72 62 DK/NA 12 10 8 10 5 14 9 6 17 55. Would you say that - Marco Rubio has the right kind of experience to be President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 43% 67% 22% 46% 48% 39% 48% 41% No 41 20 60 39 43 39 40 41 DK/NA 16 12 18 16 9 22 11 18 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 40% 43% 40% 49% 52% 44% 48% 29% 27% No 35 38 51 40 40 37 38 45 54 DK/NA 25 19 9 11 9 19 14 26 19 56. Would you say that - Ted Cruz has the right kind of experience to be President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 44% 70% 21% 44% 51% 38% 44% 45% No 41 19 63 40 40 42 47 38 DK/NA 15 11 15 16 9 20 9 17 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 47% 44% 41% 47% 55% 44% 50% 30% 24% No 32 40 51 40 37 39 38 53 49 DK/NA 21 16 9 13 8 17 13 18 27 57. Would you say that - Hillary Clinton shares your values or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 42% 8% 84% 33% 34% 51% 47% 40% No 55 91 15 60 65 45 50 57 DK/NA 3 1 1 6 2 4 3 3 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 45% 40% 46% 38% 27% 41% 34% 79% 65% No 53 56 50 60 71 55 63 18 35 DK/NA 3 4 3 2 2 4 3 3 - 58. Would you say that - Donald Trump shares your values or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 35% 65% 8% 32% 42% 28% 27% 39% No 61 30 90 62 54 67 70 56 DK/NA 4 4 3 5 3 5 3 5 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 25% 34% 39% 40% 46% 35% 41% 13% 15% No 70 64 56 55 50 59 55 82 83 DK/NA 5 2 5 5 3 6 5 5 2 59. Would you say that - Bernie Sanders shares your values or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 44% 13% 73% 47% 42% 46% 50% 41% No 44 71 17 45 50 38 40 46 DK/NA 12 15 11 9 8 16 10 13 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 59% 43% 45% 30% 39% 44% 42% 56% 59% No 32 45 43 54 54 39 47 29 32 DK/NA 9 12 12 16 7 17 12 15 9 60. Would you say that - Ben Carson shares your values or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 46% 75% 17% 50% 53% 40% 41% 49% No 43 14 71 41 41 45 51 39 DK/NA 11 11 12 9 6 15 7 13 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 44% 39% 49% 53% 57% 44% 51% 32% 32% No 38 53 42 36 37 42 39 55 51 DK/NA 18 8 9 11 6 14 10 12 17 61. Would you say that - Marco Rubio shares your values or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 40% 71% 15% 39% 46% 35% 44% 39% No 43 15 70 43 43 44 43 43 DK/NA 17 14 15 18 12 21 13 18 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 32% 35% 41% 51% 50% 42% 46% 18% 25% No 42 48 45 39 39 37 38 65 61 DK/NA 26 17 14 11 11 21 16 17 14 62. Would you say that - Ted Cruz shares your values or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 35% 68% 8% 34% 44% 27% 33% 37% No 48 15 77 50 45 51 56 44 DK/NA 16 17 15 15 11 22 11 19 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 27% 32% 36% 46% 49% 33% 41% 15% 21% No 51 53 49 40 41 44 43 72 64 DK/NA 22 15 14 14 10 23 16 13 15 63. Would you say that - Hillary Clinton would have a good chance of defeating the Republican nominee in the general election for President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 63% 34% 87% 69% 62% 64% 69% 60% No 32 61 10 27 35 30 26 36 DK/NA 5 5 3 5 4 6 6 4 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 68% 66% 66% 52% 56% 56% 56% 95% 73% No 30 31 29 39 40 37 38 4 22 DK/NA 2 3 5 9 4 7 5 1 5 64. Would you say that - Donald Trump would have a good chance of defeating the Democratic nominee in the general election for President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 46% 73% 20% 47% 50% 43% 36% 51% No 49 22 77 48 47 50 59 44 DK/NA 5 5 3 5 3 7 5 5 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 45% 45% 46% 47% 55% 50% 53% 21% 18% No 52 50 48 46 41 42 42 77 74 DK/NA 2 5 5 7 3 8 6 1 8 65. Would you say that - Bernie Sanders would have a good chance of defeating the Republican nominee in the general election for President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 34% 17% 49% 39% 34% 34% 31% 35% No 55 75 39 51 59 52 59 54 DK/NA 10 8 12 10 7 14 10 11 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 54% 33% 29% 23% 30% 30% 30% 48% 53% No 39 57 61 64 64 56 60 41 32 DK/NA 7 10 10 13 6 15 10 11 15 66. Would you say that - Ben Carson would have a good chance of defeating the Democratic nominee in the general election for President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 31% 55% 11% 30% 35% 28% 31% 32% No 58 34 79 60 57 59 61 57 DK/NA 11 11 9 10 8 13 9 12 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 28% 27% 35% 35% 39% 31% 35% 16% 20% No 59 63 58 53 55 56 55 80 55 DK/NA 13 10 8 12 6 13 10 4 25 67. Would you say that - Marco Rubio would have a good chance of defeating the Democratic nominee in the general election for President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 39% 63% 23% 37% 43% 35% 44% 37% No 47 25 65 47 47 47 43 49 DK/NA 14 12 11 16 10 18 13 14 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 30% 40% 39% 48% 48% 42% 45% 19% 20% No 50 46 49 43 43 40 42 72 55 DK/NA 20 14 12 9 9 17 13 9 25 68. Would you say that - Ted Cruz would have a good chance of defeating the Democratic nominee in the general election for President or not? COLLEGE DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Yes 31% 59% 10% 28% 34% 29% 27% 33% No 55 28 78 55 56 54 61 51 DK/NA 14 12 11 16 11 18 11 15 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp Yes 21% 33% 31% 41% 38% 34% 36% 11% 19% No 57 54 60 47 53 49 51 80 56 DK/NA 22 13 9 12 9 17 13 9 25 69. (If Democrat or Democratic Leaner) Thinking about the Democratic nominee for president in 2016, which of the following is most important to you: Someone who shares your values, cares about the needs and problems of people like you, has strong leadership qualities, is honest and trustworthy, has the right kind of experience, or has the best chance of winning? DEMOCRATS/DEMOCRATIC LEANERS.......... POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY LIBERAL..... Mod/ Tot Very Smwht Cons Men Wom Shares values 15% 16% 13% 15% 15% 15% Cares needs/problems 27 33 36 22 27 27 Strong leadership 19 10 11 25 13 23 Honest/trustworthy 17 14 19 17 22 14 Right experience 13 14 12 14 14 12 Best chance/winning 6 13 7 4 7 5 DK/NA 3 - 1 2 2 3 70. (If Republican or Republican Leaner) Thinking about the Republican nominee for president in 2016, which of the following is most important to you: Someone who shares your values, cares about the needs and problems of people like you, has strong leadership qualities, is honest and trustworthy, has the right kind of experience, or has the best chance of winning? REPUBLICANS/REPUBLICAN LEANERS...................... Wht POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Tea BrnAgn CONSERVATIVE Mod/ Tot Party Evang Very Smwht Lib Men Wom Shares values 22% 28% 28% 28% 22% 15% 27% 15% Cares needs/problems 11 6 9 7 9 17 9 13 Strong leadership 26 28 23 24 31 24 23 31 Honest/trustworthy 23 24 27 23 23 23 24 22 Right experience 6 1 3 2 5 10 4 8 Best chance/winning 8 5 7 10 8 6 7 9 DK/NA 4 8 2 6 2 6 5 3 71. (If Democrat or Democratic Leaner) Which of these is the most important issue to you in deciding who to support for the Democratic nomination for President: the economy and jobs, terrorism, immigration, the federal deficit, health care, foreign policy, climate change, race relations, abortion, gun policy or taxes? DEMOCRATS/DEMOCRATIC LEANERS.......... POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY LIBERAL..... Mod/ Tot Very Smwht Cons Men Wom Economy and jobs 43% 40% 44% 45% 48% 40% Terrorism 8 3 5 11 5 10 Immigration 4 4 3 4 3 4 Federal deficit 3 - - 4 3 2 Health care 11 8 7 13 10 12 Foreign policy 12 14 11 11 13 10 Climate change 8 20 12 3 9 7 Race relations 2 3 2 2 2 2 Abortion 2 2 4 - - 3 Gun policy 3 3 4 2 1 3 Taxes 2 2 1 3 1 3 DK/NA 3 - 7 2 4 3 72. (If Republican or Republican Leaner) Which of these is the most important issue to you in deciding who to support for the Republican nomination for President: the economy and jobs, terrorism, immigration, the federal deficit, health care, foreign policy, climate change, race relations, abortion, gun policy or taxes? ||||| Ben Carson on TODAY Show: Welcoming Syrian refugees 'exposes us to danger' share share tweet pin email GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson tells TODAY's Matt Lauer that allowing the United States to welcome tens of thousands of Syrian refugees would not help resolve the crisis but only put the nation in jeopardy. "Bringing them into this country does not solve the problem, and it exposes us to danger," Carson said during an interview Tuesday. Carson last week visited Jordan to tour Syrian refugee camps in an effort to bolster his foreign affairs credentials, something he has been criticized for lacking. Carson called the camps "really quite nice" and suggested they should serve as a long-term solution. On TODAY, he called the Jordanians "very generous people" who have set up camps and hospitals "that work very well" but just lack to the resources to support the efforts. "Why don't we take advantage of things that are already in place, before we start trying to come up with other things," he said. When reminded that refugee camps aren't places where settlers can build their future, Carson said that most of the refugees he met with want to return back home to Syria. But they also suggested ways that foreign nations can help outside of opening their borders. "What can nations like the United States do? They can support the efforts of places like Jordan and other places that might offer them a safe place to inhabit until such time as they can return home," he said. Carson also addressed his recent slide down polls in Iowa, which will hold the nation's first presidential caucus on Feb. 1. RELATED: Watch Donald Trump put a price on his participation in an upcoming debate "Poll numbers will go up and down. It's a marathon, not a sprint," he told Lauer. Carson said voters are still evaluating where each candidate stands on issues and how views fit "their impression of what they need." "I think there is plenty of time to make the appropriate arguments," he said. Carson has been courting the Christian conservative vote for months in Iowa, where he once led the polls. His standings have taken a hit recently, and the retired neurosurgeon finds himself in third place in numerous polls, behind Donald Trump and either Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. Some conservative pundits have noted that Carson's slip has coincided with an increase in world events, including the growth of the Syrian refugee crisis and the deadly attacks in Paris. Follow TODAY.com writer Eun Kyung Kim on Twitter. ||||| Ben Carson took a tumble in the latest national poll, falling 7 points from last month in the Quinnipiac University survey, after weathering heavy criticism for his lack of foreign policy expertise and scrutiny about his personal tale of redemption. After pulling a virtual tie with Donald Trump in the previous poll, the retired neurosurgeon dropped to third place with 16 percent support among Republican respondents. Trump moved up 3 percentage points to dominate the field at 27 percent. Story Continued Below Also enjoying a bump — Sen. Marco Rubio, who moved up 3 percentage points and into second place with 17 percent support, and Sen. Ted Cruz, who also gained 3 percentage points and tied with Carson at 16 percent. The 3-point hikes for Trump, Rubio and Cruz are all within the poll's margin of error. Behind Trump and the triumvirate vying for position behind the Manhattan businessman, no other candidate finished in the double digits. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush earned 5 percent, followed by former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina at 3 percent. No other candidate received more than 2 percent support, and 8 percent of respondents were undecided. Carson's dip follows a series of unforced errors, including a flap over his assertion that China is involved in the Syrian conflict and his struggle to answer what nations he would call first to form a coalition against the Islamic State. He also has come under increased scrutiny for the stories he has often retold about his violent childhood and his religious redemption that helped him to become a highly successful pediatric neurosurgeon. After surging in the early fall, nipping at the heels of Trump and even surpassing him in some polls, Carson appears to be settling back down in some surveys. “Poll numbers will go up and down. It’s a marathon, not a sprint," Carson told NBC's "Today" on Tuesday in addressing his slide among Iowa Republicans specifically. This most recent poll delivered some good news for Rubio and Cruz, who have both recently upped their profiles on the campaign trail and engaged in some nasty back-and-forths about their respective political records, especially regarding immigration. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton continues to enjoy a sizable advantage over her rival Bernie Sanders, outpolling the Vermont senator 2-to-1 — 60 percent to 30 percent — among registered Democratic voters surveyed nationwide. The only other candidate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, took just 2 percent, with 6 percent of Democratic respondents undecided. Matched against potential Republican challengers next November, Clinton performed better than in Quinnipiac's previous survey. Facing Carson, Clinton earned 46 percent to 43 percent, a 6-point jump from the last survey, when Carson held a 50 percent to 40 percent advantage against the former secretary of state. Against Trump this time, Clinton earned 47 percent to 41 percent, an improvement from 46 to 43 percent in the late October/early November survey. Matched against Rubio, Clinton led 45 percent to 44 percent, while Rubio held a 46 percent to 41 percent advantage in the last poll. More than six in 10 American voters surveyed — 63 percent — said Clinton would have a good chance of beating any potential Republican opponent in the general election, while 32 percent said she would not. About 69 percent of independents gave Clinton a better chance of winning than a GOP challenger, while 27 percent did not. Conversely, just 46 percent of all respondents said that Trump would beat the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, while 49 percent said he would not. Among independents, the split is similar, at 47 percent to 48 percent. But Sanders fared just as well in some head-to-heads, even better than the current Democratic front-runner, holding wider advantages in matchups over Carson, Trump and Cruz than did Clinton. As has been the case in recent national polling, Trump and Clinton led the field among voters in their respective parties but failed to register positive image or trustworthiness ratings from the larger sample of all registered voters. Trump holds a net negative favorability rating of 35 percent favorable to 57 percent unfavorable (-22 points), while Clinton earned a more respectable, if still negative rating of 44 percent to 51 percent. Sanders, on the other hand, earned the highest net favorability rating among all respondents of any candidate in either party (at +13 points), with 44 percent favorable, 31 percent unfavorable and 24 percent who said they still have not heard enough to decide. Among just Democrats, however, Clinton earned the highest net favorability (85 percent to 11 percent), while Rubio led Republican hopefuls with a net-positive rating of +58 points (66 percent to 8 percent), narrowly edging out Cruz (65 percent to 9 percent) and Carson (67 percent to 13 percent). Only 35 percent of all respondents said Trump is honest and trustworthy, similar to the 36 percent who said the same of Clinton, while 59 percent and 60 percent, respectively, said they were not. The poll was conducted Nov. 23-30, surveying 1,453 registered voters nationwide via landlines and cellphones, with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. The sample included 672 Republicans with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points, and 573 Democrats with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said Carson dropped six points from last month. He dropped seven points. ||||| If Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton or any other presidential candidate said the things Donald Trump says, did the things Donald Trump does, or had led the controversial life Donald Trump has, his or her campaign would already have died in a pile of negative headlines and video clips. But Donald Trump is alive. It is evident that the regular rules do not apply to him. Two months into his rowdy campaign, it is instead the political media that has been leveled by Trump — floored, mystified and stupefied by a candidate who prospers where others would perish. What’s more, the press corps is beginning to realize that nothing it might do — no report it can publish, no question it can ask – has the power to push this candidate an inch off the course that is preordained for him, one which is far more likely to burn out on its own terms than flame out under some great bonfire set by the media. Story Continued Below That is the consensus, anyway, of the nearly two dozen journalists, pundits, campaign strategists and political advisers who spoke with POLITICO this week about what many described as the “exceptionalism” of Trump’s campaign. Trump’s bombast and bluntness are resonating with voters, they said, and there’s not a damn thing the press, pundits or rival campaigns can do about it. The list of offenses that would likely cripple other candidates is long: Trump called Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. He said that Sen. John McCain, who spent five-and-a-half years in a North Vietnamese prison, is not a war hero. He has referred to women as “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs” and worse, and had those remarks read to him before 24 million Americans by one of the most popular female news anchors in the country — because, Trump later suggested, she was menstruating. Far from dismantling Trump’s campaign, these controversies have only benefited him. “The only thing that takes him out is either Father Trump or Father Time,” said Matthew Dowd, the former chief strategist for President George W. Bush. “So far, he is immune.” More recently, Trump sat down for an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Asked who he talks to for military advice, Trump replied: “Well, I watch the shows. I mean, I really see a lot of great — you know, when you watch your show and all of the other shows and you have the generals and — and you have certain people that you like.” If Trump’s remark called to mind Sarah Palin’s inability, in a 2008 interview, to name a single newspaper or magazine that she had read before being tapped as McCain’s vice presidential nominee, it has not had the same effect. For Palin, it was an embarrassment that continues to dog her reputation. For Trump, the ‘shows’ remark barely registered. “In any other campaign cycle, another campaign would have been making Trump pay for that remark before he even walked out of the studio,” Kevin Madden, the senior adviser and spokesman for Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, said. “It’s an entirely disqualifying statement, yet we didn’t see other campaigns move with much speed or purpose to expose it.” Trump’s ability to shrug off controversy and criticism, to out-shame his detractors in the media and on the campaign trail, is almost certainly a reflection of widespread public frustration with career politicians and the mainstream press, and with its way of covering elections. In fact, Trump is playing according to a different bit of wisdom, one that belongs to show business and is thought to have come from circus-master P.T. Barnum: all publicity is good publicity. He has done this before. Among the small conclave of family and corporate dynasties that have long dominated New York City’s real estate industry, discretion has forever been a watchword — the preferred method of influence is boardrooms and living rooms and wood-paneled offices not made up for a reality television show like “The Apprentice.” Trump did not succeed (or at least survive) in the cutthroat world of New York real estate by playing by its rules, but by flouting them. It only worked because it made him an outlier: None of the rules have changed for his equals in the industry. That Trump can bring those rules with him on the road to the 2016 presidential election makes him a completely different candidate from the rest of the pack. The rules of show business are just as fickle as those of presidential politics. But they are completely different. And they are serving him in politics as they once served him in business. “The conventional wisdom doesn’t apply to Donald Trump — at least not so far,” Roger Stone, the former top adviser with Trump’s campaign, said. Part of it is the peculiar environment in which Republican primary contenders are now selling their wares. “He’s not a career politician, so voters aren’t holding him to the same standards. He’s a larger-than-life figure that comes from outside politics,” said Stone. “When you combine that with voters dislike of politics, political institutions, and the media, it’s very effective.” “He’s not a candidate,” said Brad Todd, the Republican advertising strategist. “He is a protest vehicle.” There was a moment where the journalism-theory crowd was gnashing its teeth about Trump. His candidacy, they said, was enabled by the media, which was only looking for cheap page views and Nielsen ratings. Whether they created the monster that is the perpetually successful Trump candidacy or not, they are certainly not the people who can dismantle it. They don’t even understand it. In a recent Facebook video, The Atlantic’s Molly Ball acknowledged as much, listing Trump’s offenses and his resulting rise in the polls, and then admitting: “Pundits like me are terribly clueless when it comes to predicting how Donald Trump is going to do. What’s going to happen next to Trump? I don’t know. Nobody knows. We’re all totally clueless.” “Maybe this is why so many people like Donald Trump,” Ball concluded. “American voters really don’t like pundits. They think we’re all stupid. … So maybe, when Donald Trump can come along, and make us all look like fools, people think that he must be doing something right.” There is perhaps no clearer illustration of the media’s inability to faze Trump than his exchange with Fox News host Megyn Kelly at the inaugural Republican primary debate in Cleveland. Her first question to him — in which she listed a litany of misogynistic remarks he’d made about women — was the sort of unforeseen torpedo that could have decimated any politician. Trump’s response was a brazen quip, off the cuff: “Only Rosie O’Donnell.” In any other cycle, the win would likely have gone to Kelly, a rising television star with the vast admiration of the Fox News audience. By the time the dust cleared, however, the win had gone to Trump. His poll numbers went up, his quip was the talk of the Twitterverse, and, after threatening to boycott Fox News, he received a call from the network’s chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, assuring him that he would receive fair and balanced coverage. “It represents the genuine Trump,” Stone said of the candidate’s off-the-cuff remarks. “He’s not practicing his lines in the mirror like Marco Rubio. He’s not checking everything with his pollster. That’s why he’s doing so well. Voters like that.” To be sure, there are many who think the media colluded in this whole thing. From the beginning, Trump’s campaign has been covered more like theater than politics — in a bit of grandstanding, The Huffington Post has filed all Trump copy under its entertainment section — and as a result, many news organizations have only recently started to hold Trump to account on his personal history and policy positions. “Everyone is stuck in process stories and not reporting about real Trump,” said Rick Wilson, the Florida-based GOP strategist. “He’s a celebrity, and the media is only reporting on him as such. It’s all process.” Wilson said the media should instead be reporting “on all the hinky bullshit in his business life and personal life.” Trump’s history isn’t rosy: It includes multiple marriages, suspect business deals and confirmed ties to organized crime in Atlantic City. Wayne Barrett, the author of “Trump: The Deals and the Downfall,” an unauthorized biography, told POLITICO that Trump’s personal past and business dealings would almost surely ruin a conventional candidate. “He is the embodiment of crony capitalism,” Barrett said, noting that, as “a very formidable donor in New York politics,” Trump “always hired the right insider to put the fix in for him.” “He’s the antithesis of conservative wealth, or at least the wealth that conservatives pretend to revere,” he said. “It’s not market wealth, it’s state wealth. It’s crony wealth. Every deal he did was laced with crony connections.” Barrett also said that Trump “would have been personally bankrupt” if he hadn’t been bailed out by bankers who decided that he was too big to fail. “I would think that if reporters were out there doing some serious digging, they ought to be talking to the bankers who used to deal with him,” he said. Michael Cohen, Trump’s legal counsel and top spokesperson, did not respond to requests for comment. Trump’s marital history might also have proven problematic for a more conventional conservative candidate. Trump is in his third marriage, and some of his remarks about his past partners have been callous. In 1990, he told Vanity Fair: “When a man leaves a woman, especially when it was perceived that he has left for a piece of ass—a good one!—there are 50 percent of the population who will love the woman who was left.” And the mob ties: Barrett has alleged that Trump organized a land purchase from “a top leader of the murderous Scarfo crime family in Atlantic City so that his name would not appear in the transaction,” and that Roy Cohn, Trump’s former lawyer and close friend, also represented Fat Tony Salerno, the head of the Genovese crime family. Importantly, Barrett told POLITICO that while a handful of reporters have contacted him about these connections, nothing has materialized. And even if the connections did make headlines today, Barrett’s not convinced it would do much to sway voter sentiment. “For most of the Americans that are enchanted by Donald, the mob is not a real thing. It’s a Hollywood thing, but it’s not real. If you lived in New York, the power of the mob was enormous,” he said. “But who can figure out what would affect the people who are for him?” Barrett asked. “It’s almost a mystical connection he has with these people. What would demystify him is very hard to figure. I don’t know if the media can do it, because his supporters are not a fact-based constituency.” Some pundits have argued that the best way to dismantle Trump’s campaign is to take him seriously and expose his lack of feasible, detailed policy positions. But Trump’s recent 40-minute sitdown with “Meet The Press,” and subsequent interviews with personalities like Bill O’Reilly, have focused almost exclusively on policy and done little to curb support — even if Trump says he watches “the shows” for military advice, or defers to lawyers when asked how he would change the 14th Amendment to implement his immigration policy. As Trip Gabriel, The New York Times political reporter, has argued, Trump “may be the first post-policy candidate.” His campaign is “built on his unfettered style, rather than on his positions, which have proved highly fungible.” So if Trump can’t be beat on his past or his policies, and if he can’t be matched for style, what could possibly stop him from securing the nomination? For most observers, it is, as Dowd said, up to Father Trump or Father Time. One theory posits that Trump will say something so radically inappropriate that it jettisons his support with conservatives: “Where he says or does something too outrageous, and people have time to reflect more on what the choice means,” Dowd said. Another theory posits that Trump will bow out before the Iowa caucuses because he doesn’t want to run the risk of losing. “It would be completely out of character for him to subject himself to voters to be judged,” Stuart Stevens, the top strategist on Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, said. “What’s his greatest put-down? ‘Loser.’ Will Trump be the next president? No. Does Donald Trump want to go through the rest of his life known as a loser? No.” “When he inevitably drops to second or third in polls … I wonder how he handles adversity,” one prominent political journalist said. “I think he could take his ball and go home.” The final theory is that Trump’s support — about 25 percent, according to the latest national polls — simply won’t translate into votes. “What does it matter to someone now if they say they are for Trump? It means nothing. And 75 percent of the Republican voters aren’t for him even though he has the highest name ID and has been in the public eye far more than any other candidate,” Stevens said. He also noted that Trump had 26 percent support in 2011: “Four years ago, he had about the same vote when he wasn’t even running,” he said. “So despite saying he’s a candidate and debates and campaigning, he has the same vote share he had before. That’s a success?” Brad Todd, the GOP strategist, said Trump’s campaign would end with “someone passing out actual ballots at elementary schools at a thousand Iowa caucus locations, making this less like “American Idol” and more like a decision with consequences.” “Summer beach flings rarely morph into lasting love,” Todd said. Until then, or perhaps beyond then, the political media looks on, “totally clueless.” “In politics, particularly presidential races, my oft repeated mantra is the UFO rule. At some point, the unforeseen will occur,” Tom Brokaw, the veteran NBC News anchor who has covered presidential elections dating back to Johnson vs. Goldwater, told POLITICO. “Gary Hart and Monkey Business, Dukakis failing to defend Kitty, Bush 41 and the Perot factor. What the UFO will be this time, I don’t know yet, but there will be one — and not just for Trump,” he said. “All the candidates in both parties are vulnerable.” Authors:

– While nothing seems to be able to topple Donald "Teflon Don" Trump, Ben Carson isn't enjoying the same kind of luck. The former neurosurgeon plummeted 7 percentage points in a newly released Quinnipiac University poll, falling to third place with 16%, Politico reports. Meanwhile, Trump absorbed 3 points, boosting him to a healthy lead of 27%. Ascending to second-place position in the poll: Marco Rubio, who gained 3 percentage points for a total of 17%. Ted Cruz also drew in 3 additional points to tie Carson at 16%, while Jeb Bush languishes in a distant fifth place with 5%. The rest of the GOP comes in at 3% or less. The poll surveyed 1,453 registered voters between Nov. 23-30, with a 2.6-point margin of error. What seemed to precipitate Carson's sudden dip—he was "deadlocked" with Trump just a month ago, the New York Times points out—were flaps over both his origin story and his apparent lack of foreign policy knowledge. Carson isn't letting on, though, that he's fazed by the latest setback. "Poll numbers will go up and down," he told Matt Lauer Tuesday on the Today show. "It's a marathon, not a sprint." The assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll adds his own take. "Dr. Ben Carson, moving to center stage just one month ago, now needs some CPR," Tim Malloy says. "The Doctor sinks. The Donald soars. The GOP, 11 months from the election, has to be thinking, 'This could be the guy.'" Meanwhile, on the Dems' side, Hillary Clinton maintains a large lead over Bernie Sanders (60% to 30%), with Martin O'Malley barely making a blip at 2%. (Carson's unusual theory about the pyramids probably didn't do him any favors.)

Contains archived websites, blogs, editorials and other materials posted online by, or on behalf of, 17 Russian political and cultural figures who have expressed some opposition to foreign and domestic policy in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The archive also captures eight websites that chronicle a range of contemporary political and human rights positions and events that reflect the prevailing climate. The political and cultural figures whose websites and/or blogs have been captured include: Rustem Adagamov, widely-read Russian blogger; Sergei Aleksashenko, economist, businessman; Konstantin Borovoi, entrepreneur and opposition politician; Leonid Gozman, opposition politician; Il’ia Iashin, opposition politician, co-founder of Russian “Solidarity” party; Oleg Kashin, political journalist and author; Oleg Kozyrev, author, screenwriter, blogger and journalist, leader of youth movement “Democratic Alternative”; Andrei Makarevich, founder of classic rock group Mashina Vremeni [Time Machine]), who Russian state media condemned as a “traitor” for performing a charity concert for Ukrainian children displaced by the war; Andrei Mal’gin, journalist, literary scholar and critic, publisher, and political activist well known for his blogging; Aleksei Naval’nyi, Russian political and social activist, lawyer, and popular blogger; Boris Nemtsov, prominent Russian opposition leader gunned down in Moscow on February 27, 2015; Valeriia Novodvorskaia (d. July 2014), a political activist, dissident, human rights advocate, independent journalist, and founder of liberal political parties; Dmitrii Oreshkin, political scientist and activist; Sergei Parkhomenko, publisher, journalist, political observer; Irina Prokhorova, literary scholar, editor, television personality, opposition political figure; Artemii Troitskii, rock journalist, music critic who emigrated to Estonia in 2014 because of the worsening political climate; Nikolai Uskov, historian, journalist and publishing executive. This archive also includes captures of the following sites: Civil Platform, founded in 2012, with the aims of establishing civil society in Russia, upholding of the rights of the individual, and economic reform. Human Rights in Russia, a website dedicated to raising awareness of threats to human rights in Russia, funded by the MacArthur Foundation and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. Nashi, a pro-Kremlin youth organization. Politkom.Ru, web platform of the Center for Political Technology, which purports to be an independent source of news and analysis and an open forum for exchange of opinions between politicians, analysts and journalists. Putin. Itogi publishes “independent, expert” reports on Putin’s leadership, among them reports written by Boris Nemtsov. Solidarnost’ is a “united democratic movement” founded in 2008 as a coalition of opposition organizations against authoritarianism. Bolotnaya Square Case is a website devoted to documenting the consequences for dozens of protesters after their participation in an opposition rally in Moscow in May of 2012. Traitor.net is a website that singles out political and cultural figures for their expression of disagreement with Russian incursions into Ukraine. ||||| Rossia 1 Kiselyov speaking on his news program on state television on Sunday. An anchor on state-run television threatened that Russia could "turn the U.S. into radioactive ashes" and showed a simulation of a Russian nuclear strike during his program on the U.S. response to Russia's interference in Ukraine. Dmitry Kiselyov, who hosts a current affairs talk show on the Rossiya television network and heads a new Kremlin-backed news agency, accused U.S. President Barack Obama of supposedly dithering in talks with President Vladimir Putin, and suggested on his Sunday program that the U.S. leader was intimidated by his Kremlin opponent, who is "not an easy one." "And Russia is the only country that could really turn the U.S. into radioactive ashes," Kiselyov said, against the backdrop of a mushroom cloud from a nuclear blast appearing on a huge screen behind him. Kiselyov also suggested that threats of a nuclear strike were coming from the Kremlin. "I do not know if this is a coincidence or what, but here was Obama calling Putin on Jan. 21 — probably, again trying to pressure somehow — and the very next day, on Jan. 22, the official media outlet of the Russian government ran an article that spelled out in simple terms how our system of nuclear response works," he said. While Kiselyov's comment suggested that Obama's Jan. 21 call had to do with the Ukrainian crisis, an earlier statement from the White House said the U.S. leader spoke to Putin on that day to wish him a "safe and secure" Olympics in Sochi. The Kremlin has unleashed a large-scale propaganda war over Moscow's takeover of Crimea and the peninsula's referendum on Sunday, in which more than 90 percent of voters cast supported seceding from Ukraine to Russia, according to preliminary results released by Crimea's pro-Russian administration. The promotion by state-run television of the Kremlin's views has also helped Putin's approval ratings in the country to soar to 72 percent this month, a recent survey by the Levada pollster showed. The number of respondents who said they would like to see Putin as Russia's president for a fourth term increased this month to 32 percent, from 26 percent in in April, 2013, while the number of people who said they would like the job to go to a "person who proposes a different solution to Russia's problems" declined from 41 percent to 31 percent over the same period. The poll, conducted on March 7-10 among 1,603 people around Russia, gave a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| As the United States condemned a referendum on the future of the Crimean peninsula staged by pro-Russian separatists on Sunday, one of Russia’s most influential television hosts appeared on the evening news in Moscow, before a huge mushroom cloud graphic, to remind viewers that Russia is still “the only country in the world capable of turning the U.S.A. into radioactive dust.” On Russian state TV: lovely closing ceremony of Sochi Paralympics v. warning that Russia can turn the US into radioactive dust. Good night. — Steven Lee Myers (@slmmoscow) 16 Mar 14 Although the saber-rattling comments came from Dmitry Kiselev, a news anchor well known for his “mad as hell” delivery of diatribes on the supposed threats to Russia posed by foreign plotters and native homosexuals, the report still stunned viewers of the state broadcaster’s main channel. Киселев продолжает! Прямо сейчас: Россия – единственная страна, которая может превратить США в радиоактивный пепел //t.co/zNTh7imMKz — Коробков-Землянский (@korobkov) 16 Mar 14 One reason is that, as the Russian journalist Leonid Ragozin observed, Mr. Kiselev was the man recently chosen by President Vladimir V. Putin to lead an official news agency charged with explaining Kremlin policy to the world, a media organization to be called Rossiya Sevodnya, or Russia Today. Kiselev is not your average moron. He is Russia’s most senior government media executive, essentially minister of propaganda. — Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) 16 Mar 14 Mr. Ragozin noted that the anchor also claimed that President Obama was deeply worried by Russia’s nuclear arsenal. Kiselev then talks abt Russia’s ‘dead hand’ system that will destroy America automatically after all Russians are dead. — Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) 16 Mar 14 Kiselev claims a publication about “Perimeter” – the Russian nuclear extermination system – prompted Obama’s frantic calls to Kremlin in Jan — Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) 16 Mar 14 A Moscow correspondent for The Associated Press, Laura Mills, reported that the broadcaster had then moved on to attack a “fifth column” of supposedly traitorous Russian dissidents who signed an open letter against the Kremlin’s “de facto annexation of Crimea.” Russian state TV anchor lists intellectuals who oppose Crimean annexation, says: “If this isn’t the fifth column, what IS the fifth column?” — Laura Mills (@lauraphylmills) 16 Mar 14 Mr. Kiselev’s appointment, and the shuttering of a more independent state news agency, was described by Russia’s respected business daily Vedomosti as a sign that Mr. Putin had abandoned any hope of persuading educated Russians to embrace his policies, my colleague Serge Schmemann explained. “The Kremlin acknowledged that it has lost the educated community,” the editors of Vedomosti wrote in December, “and has neither the means nor the will to hold a dialogue about values, and therefore instead of culture began to impose ideology, and instead of information, propaganda.” The instant online reaction to Mr. Kiselev’s Sunday night riff from Russian bloggers seemed to indicate that they are indeed not the target demographic for his editorial commentaries. A screenshot of the segment, with a caption suggesting that the host might have a substance abuse problem, was posted on the Twitter feed of Aleksei Navalny, an opposition leader currently under house arrest whose blog was blocked by Russian Internet authorities last week. Mr. Navalny’s feed, which is ostensibly under the control of his wife until the end of his ban on using the Internet, also drew attention to another opposition activist’s suggestion of how the segment should have ended, with the host being dragged away by men in white coats. По логике вещей, эта клоунада должна закончиться так //t.co/z9abXeb0dW — Владислав Наганов (@naganoff_ru) 16 Mar 14 Other bloggers heaped scorn on Mr. Kiselev’s false claim that Mr. Obama’s hair had turned gray from worry over Russia’s nuclear might. Киселев говорит, что Обама резко поседел из-за того, что боится Россию. Это, конечно, какой-то КВН,а не журналистика. //t.co/ZMzXq9rENs — Алекс Заборовский (@sazam) 16 Mar 14 As my colleague Ellen Barry reported on Saturday, some influential members of the Russian president’s inner circle “view isolation from the West as a good thing for Russia,” and seem to welcome the revival of Cold War tensions. On Sunday, she noted, the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, Dmitri Trenin, told RT, a Kremlin-funded news network that broadcasts in English, that the new standoff between Moscow and the West “closes the books on what I would call inter Cold War period” that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Russian bloggers also turned their attention to reworking an Associated Press photograph of a confrontation on Saturday between the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, and her Russian counterpart, Vitaly I. Churkin. Photo

– The man Vladimir Putin hand-picked to run a new state-run news agency turned a number of heads yesterday when he stood before an image of a mushroom cloud and declared that "Russia is the only country that could really turn the US into radioactive ash." Dmitry Kiselyov then showed a simulation of a Russian nuclear strike, and suggested that the Kremlin had threatened Washington by running an article on such a strike on Jan. 22, a day after an Obama-Putin phone call, the Moscow Times reports. Kiselyov is known as a pro-Putin anti-gay firebrand, but he's "not your average moron," one Russia expert tweeted. "He is Russia's most senior government media executive, essentially minister of propaganda." Russian bloggers responded with shock and mockery, the New York Times reports; one opposition leader's Twitter feed suggested that Kiselyov was intoxicated, then pointed out a Photoshopped image of the host being dragged away by men in white coats.

(CNN) Investigators have identified a suspect in the death of a western Pennsylvania police officer who was gunned down during a traffic stop. Rahmael Sal Holt, 29, shot and killed officer Brian Shaw on Friday, police said. "Consider Holt armed and dangerous," the Pennsylvania State Police tweeted. Update New Kensington Police Officer Shooting: Rahmael Sal HOLT (DOB 05/31/88) has been identified as the person who shot and killed Officer Shaw. A warrant has been issued for Holt's arrest. Consider Holt armed and dangerous! Call 911 with info on his location. Pictured below pic.twitter.com/6L6vqQ0WVs Brian Shaw had been a patrolman with New Kensington's police department for less than a year when he was killed Friday night, according to police Chief James Klein. The traffic stop resulted in a foot chase before Shaw, 25, was shot, Klein said. New Kensington is about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Our thoughts and prayers are with the New Kensington police and all who mourn the loss of Officer Brian Shaw. #EOW pic.twitter.com/xnVj2xM25E — Pittsburgh Police (@PghPolice) November 18, 2017 Authorities have put up a $40,000 reward for information leading to the suspect's arrest, according to a Pennsylvania State Police spokesman, with money pooled from multiple agencies, including the US Marshals Service, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Officers from Westmoreland County and neighboring Allegheny County, as well as Pittsburgh police, combed the area overnight and processed the scene, CNN affiliate KDKA reported Trooper Stephen J. Limani, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Police, emphasized the importance of any information people can provide. We are again deeply saddened by the loss of another officer. Our thoughts and prayers are with the officer's family and friends and the New Kensington Police Department. Lest We Forget. #EOW #LODD — FBI Pittsburgh (@FBIPittsburgh) November 18, 2017 "If you look back in the history of many horrific incidents, a very small, minute tip could be the tipping point to lead us in a direction of who the person was that committed this crime," Limani said. Shaw graduated from the Allegheny County Police Training Academy in 2014, according to a post on the Allegheny County Police Department's Facebook page. "Officer Brian Shaw, you were taken from us too soon," the department wrote. "You are in our thoughts and prayers. Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin tweeted his condolences to Shaw's family and New Kensington police. My thoughts and prayers are with the family of Officer Brian Shaw and the entire New Kensington Police Department. So sad. RIP. — Mike Tomlin (@CoachTomlin) November 18, 2017 Shaw played for Slippery Rock University's football team, according to the school athletic department's Twitter page "Words can't describe how I feel," head football coach Shawn Lutz told KDKA . "He was part of our 2011 and 2013 championship teams." Shaw was the team's kicker, Lutz said. The university is about an hour's drive north of Pittsburgh. "He said he wanted to be a police officer, he was a hard working guy, such a positive young man," Lutz said of his former player. "Every time I think about Brian, I think of such a positive guy who would be successful at anything he did." ||||| ... wanted person investigation. On September 15, 2018, the Allegheny County Police Department (ACPD) assisted the Pitcairn Police Department in attempting to apprehend Jerome Solomon on outstanding arrest warrants at a residence in Pitcairn. Solomon was wanted on charges from two different incidents. As officers were approaching the residence, Solomon fled on foot. Officers gave chase and located Solomon behind a garage at 625 Second Avenue. Solomon had gone over a wall and fallen approximately 15 feet. He was suffering a compound fracture of his left ankle and was transported to a local hospital where he underwent surgery. The hospital contacted ACPD to advise that Solomon was out of surgery. Before officers could get to the hospital, Solomon had fled the hospital with an IV and a heart monitor still attached to him. Police reviewed surveillance video from the hospital and discovered that Jerome Solomon, a 39-year-old black male, had absconded from the hospital with the help of two other black males and two black females. Solomon is wanted on robbery, theft, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, and other charges on the two outstanding arrest warrants. Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of Jerome Solomon is asked to call Pittsburgh Crime Stoppers at 412-255-TIPS (412-255-8477). A reward of up to $1,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of individuals wanted for featured crimes. Callers may remain anonymous. Pittsburgh Crime Stoppers is seeking the public’s assistance with a ||||| The man who authorities say shot and killed a Pennsylvania police officer was caught Tuesday morning following a manhunt that lasted nearly 3 1/2 days. Pennsylvania State Police announced early Tuesday that authorities had apprehended Rahmael Sal Holt, who is accused of fatally shooting New Kensington Police Officer Brian Shaw following a Friday night traffic stop about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said at a news conference Tuesday that Holt, 29, was arrested at a home in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported that several associates and relatives, including the suspect’s mother, Sherry Holt, and another woman, Aysa Benson, were also arrested and accused of helping Rahmael Holt. Court records show the two have been charged with hindering apprehension, a third-degree felony. Rahmael Holt has been charged with first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer; murder of the first degree; possession of a firearm; and carrying a firearm without a license, according to an online court docket. The shooting happened just after 8 p.m. Friday, when Shaw tried to pull over an SUV. Holt, who was the passenger, jumped out of the moving vehicle and Shaw ran after him, according to an affidavit. Surveillance footage shows Holt running to a nearby parking lot, where authorities said he shot Shaw. [Suspected cop killer arrested following days-long manhunt, Pennsylvania State Police say] Peck said Holt fired six shots, striking Shaw multiple times. The officer, who was wearing a vest, was able to radio to the 911 center that he had been shot. He tried to stand up before he fell down and was not able to return fire, Peck told reporters. The surveillance footage shows Holt running toward the back of a building and into an alley after he shot Shaw, the affidavit said. The 25-year-old officer, who had been with the New Kensington Police Department for less than a year, died at a hospital less than an hour later. The affidavit said he had multiple gunshot wounds to the torso. Police later found the SUV not far from where the shooting occurred. The suspected driver, 27-year-old Tavon Jamere Harper, was arrested over the weekend and is facing fleeing and drug-related charges, court records show. Harper told investigators that he was accompanying Holt when Shaw tried to pull them over. After Holt leaped out, Harper said he kept driving, “clipping” Holt as he fled, the affidavit said. Peck said investigators received information from “various informants” that led to Holt’s capture. He did not elaborate further. He said the investigation is still ongoing. The suspect’s weapon has not been found, but Peck said .40-caliber casings were found at the crime scene. Investigators also are still looking for people who had contact with Holt before and after the shooting. It also remains unclear why Shaw tried to pull over the SUV. Videos and photos taken by local media Tuesday show Holt wearing a black hooded jacket as he was being led by officers to a small courthouse, where he was arraigned. Jail records show Holt is being held without bail. The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported that he would hire a private attorney. Westmoreland Detective Ray Dupilka and New Ken police Chief Jim Klein spoke briefly before they led suspect Rahmael Holt to his arraignment on homicide charges. pic.twitter.com/6UVwSDdKAU — Renatta Signorini (@ByRenatta) November 21, 2017 Multiple law enforcement agencies and several residents had offered a total of $55,000 to anyone who could provide information leading to Holt’s capture. Authorities have not said if that money has been awarded to anyone. Speaking briefly at the news conference Tuesday, New Kensington Police Chief James Klein said Holt’s capture would allow him and his police officers to finally start grieving. “Our officers are dedicated to providing the best possible service to protect you and keep you safe. There’s no better example than Officer Brian Shaw who gave his life serving this community,” Klein said, taking deep breaths and pausing several times mid-sentence. “I promise you that officers will continue to serve with the same honor that Brian did.” Klein, as he did in previous news conferences, spoke only for a few minutes and did not take any questions from reporters. “At this time, it is important for me to spend time with the Shaw family,” he said. He also asked reporters to refrain from contacting the officer’s family, thanked them and left the news conference before it was over. [Slain border agent may have been beaten to death by rocks in ‘grisly scene,’ union leader says] Holt has a lengthy criminal history that stretches back to at least 2007. Court records show he had pleaded guilty to gun and drug charges, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. He does not have a license to carry a firearm, the affidavit said. Shaw left behind his parents, a brother, a grandmother and his girlfriend, according to his obituary. He loved working out, hunting and playing with his dogs, Satie May and Gus. He was also a fan of sports and enjoyed playing soccer and football. Shaw graduated from the Allegheny County Police Academy. He worked as a part-time officer for three other towns before he joined the New Kensington Police Department, the Associated Press reported. Shaw’s parents, Stephan and Lisa Shaw, watch while their son’s casket is moved into the Rusiewicz Funeral Home in Lower Burrell, Pa., on Nov. 18. (Pam Panchak/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, via AP) He attended Burrell High School and Slippery Rock University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and played football for four years. “Our hearts are broken this morning as we mourn the loss of former Rock football player Brian Shaw, who was killed last night while serving as a police officer in New Kensington,” the university’s athletics department said Saturday on Twitter. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Shaw family and The Rock football brotherhood.” A procession to move Shaw’s body to the Rusiewicz Funeral Home in Lower Burrell, Pa., where the officer lived, took place Saturday morning. Residents, many of whom carried American flags, and firefighters, all wearing their gear, waited on the streets to pay their respects. People line the street during the procession of slain New Kensington police officer Brian Shaw in Lower Burrell, Pa., on Nov. 18. (Nate Smallwood/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, via AP) Read more: Man accused of fatally shooting a Missouri police officer during a traffic stop has been arrested Parolee’s anger at police may have led to shooting ‘I’m not playing, Mister Officer’: Gunman appears to complain about police mistreatment in video months before shooting NYPD officer ||||| Brian David Shaw December 30, 1991 - November 17, 2017 Share this obituary Brian David Shaw Age 25, of Lower Burrell died Friday November 17, in 2017 in his line of duty as a New Kensington Police Officer. He was born in Pittsburgh on December 30, 1991 to Stephan A. Sr. and Lisa J. Kristofik Shaw and has been a life long resident of Lower Burrell. Brian was a 2010 graduate of Burrell High School and attended Slippery Rock University where he was the place kicker for four years. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice then graduated from Allegheny County Police Academy. He worked as a police officer for the New Kensington Police Department and had previously worked East Deer, Frazier, and Cheswick Police Departments. He was a member of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, New Kensington and the F.O.P. Lodge 39. He enjoyed working out, soccer, football, hunting, playing with his dogs Satie Mae and Gus and was a fan of all sports. He will always be remembered for his charismatic, outgoing personality and addictive smile. In addition to his parents he is survived by his brother Steffan Shaw of Plum Boro., maternal grandmother Bernadine Kristofik of New Kensington, girlfriend Haylee Oliver of Lower Burrell and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. He was preceded in death by his grandparents Lillie and Donald Berkoben and Frank Kristofik. Friends will be received Monday and Tuesday from 1-4 and 6-8 PM at THE RUSIEWICZ OF LOWER BURRELL FUNERAL HOME, 3124 Leechburg Road at Alder Street where Prayers of Transfer will be said Wednesday 9:15 AM followed by Christian Funeral Mass at 10 AM in Mount St. Peter Church, New Kensington. The F.O.P. will conduct services at 8 PM Tuesday in the funeral home. Donations may be made to the First National Bank, c/o Officer Brian Shaw Memorial Fund,110 Burrell Plaza, Lower Burrell, PA 15068 www.RusiewiczFH.com

– Police have identified a suspect in the tragic shooting of a rookie officer in western Pennsylvania. Per CNN, authorities named Rahmael Sal Holt, 29, as the alleged gunman who killed officer Brian Shaw Friday during a traffic stop turned foot chase. Details about the incident are still unfolding, including why Holt was pulled over and how many gunshots were fired, the Washington Post reports. A warrant for Holt’s arrest has been issued. “Consider Holt armed and dangerous!” Pennsylvania State Police warned in a tweet calling for tips. A $40,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the suspect’s arrest as a manhunt is under way (the money was reportedly pooled from multiple agencies, including the FBI.) "If you look back in the history of many horrific incidents, a very small, minute tip could be the tipping point to lead us in a direction of who the person was that committed this crime,” said a Pennsylvania State Police spokesman. The Allegheny County Police Department offered condolences to Shaw’s family and colleagues in a Facebook post, writing, “Your life mattered and you will be missed.” Shaw, 25, had been on the force for under a year. According to his obituary, he is survived by his parents, brother, grandmother, and girlfriend. “He will always be remembered for his charismatic, outgoing personality and addictive smile,” it said.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers says an article in The New York Times on Benghazi doesn’t square with intelligence assessments about last year’s attacks on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city. Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” the Michigan Republican declined to answer when asked by host Chris Wallace whether The Times story was designed to exonerate Hillary Clinton, who was the secretary of state at the time of the attacks. “I find the timing odd,” Rogers said. “I don’t want to speculate on why they might do it.” In a story published online Saturday, The Times said it had “turned up no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault” and that the attacks were, in fact, “fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam.” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, said intelligence assessments indicate that Al Qaeda was involved in the attacks. But, he said, The Times story “adds some valuable insights.” “It is a complex picture,” he said. Read more about: Hillary Clinton, Mike Rogers, Benghazi ||||| poster="https://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201312/81/1155968404_2990356625001_video-still-for-video-2989614297001.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Rep. Darrell Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Sunday during an interview with NBC's 'Meet the Press' defended his past statements on Benghazi in response to a New York Times story. Issa on defense over Benghazi statements Rep. Darrell Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Sunday defended his past statements on Benghazi in response to a New York Times story that said it had “turned up no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault.” “There is a group that was involved that claims an affiliation with Al Qaeda,” the California Republican said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” insisting that he was accurate in his past assertion that Al Qaeda was involved in the attacks. Issa’s committee has been investigating last year’s assault on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, and the congressman has repeatedly slammed the Obama administration for its handling of the issue. (Also on POLITICO: Rogers knocks NYT over Benghazi) On Sunday, “Meet the Press” host David Gregory asked Issa to respond to The Times story, which was published online Saturday. The story also said the Benghazi attacks were “fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam.” “We have seen no evidence that the video was widely seen in Benghazi,” Issa said Sunday. “People from this administration … have said under oath there was no evidence of any reaction to a video. “What we know, David, is the initial reports did not name this video as the prime cause,” he added. Issa also commended The Times for doing “some very good work” in its reporting on the issue. ||||| Lieberman stands by Obamacare vote Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday that, knowing what he knows today, he still would have voted for Obamacare. “The rollout of Obamacare has been bad,” Lieberman acknowledged on “Fox News Sunday.” But, he said, the status quo before Obamacare was also bad. “The best thing that could happen now is for both parties to sit down and figure out how to fix the current system,” he said. Lieberman, a former Democratic vice presidential candidate, retired from the Senate as an independent. Austin Wright is a defense reporter for Politico. ||||| Dean predicts more Obamacare problems Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean acknowledged on Sunday that Obamacare would suffer additional setbacks as it continues rolling out next year — but, he said, ultimately the health care overhaul “will work.” “There are going to be problems,” Dean said on “Fox News Sunday,” explaining that the Obama administration was having trouble getting young, healthy people to sign up for health care plans — an issue that could drive up costs. “The data does show that less healthy people are signing up,” he said. “Younger people are signing up less frequently than hoped.” Dean, a physician who formerly chaired the Democratic National Committee, also defended Obamacare and knocked its critics, accusing them of “hyperbole” and saying they “look incredibly partisan.” “I think the first year is going to be more successful than most people think,” he said. Dean sparred on Sunday with Scott Gottlieb, a resident fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, who said the health care plans offered under Obamacare are “very, very narrow” and “exclude a lot of specialists.” ||||| Navarro: Senate GOP won't get 'Lugared' again Senate Republicans have learned their lesson since their colleague, Dick Lugar, was felled by a tea party challenger in Indiana in 2012, GOP commentator Ana Navarro said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." Several Republican incumbents - including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mike Enzi of Wyoming - are facing challenges from the right in next year's midterm elections. "I think you're going to see them win their primaries because they're taking it seriously, they're campaigning hard, they're raising the money and they're doing what they have to do," Navarro said. "They're not about to get Richard Lugared." "They see it coming now," said host Candy Crowley. Cited as one indicator of congressional Republicans' changing frame of mind: House Speaker John Boehner's "Are you kidding me?" moment, when he was discussing outside groups' support — and low expectations — for the government shutdown earlier this year. Republicans need to net six seats to take back control of the Senate in 2014. ||||| Sen. Ted Cruz is unapologetic for what he acknowledges was a “whirlwind” first year as a senator. “This is a city where it’s all politics all the time. And I’m trying to do my best not to pay attention to the politics, to focus on fixing the problems,” the Texas Republican said in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “Really,” interjected ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl, who did the interview. “I know it’s hard to believe,” Cruz went on, “because no one in this town does that. This is a time for people to step up and do the right thing. And that’s what I’m trying to do.” Read more about: Ted Cruz, Jonathan Karl

– Congressmembers took turns today swinging at yesterday's New York Times report that al-Qaeda wasn't involved in the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, with Darrell Issa defending his past statements implicating the terror group. "There is a group that was involved that claims an affiliation with al-Qaeda," he said, per Politico. Of the Times' conclusion that the attack was "fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam," Issa countered, saying, "We have seen no evidence that the video was widely seen in Benghazi. People from this administration … have said under oath there was no evidence of any reaction to a video." Democrat Adam Schiff of California stood by Qaeda's involvement, but said the Times report "adds some valuable insights," reports Politico. "It is a complex picture." Said Michigan Republican Mike Rogers, "I find the timing odd. I don’t want to speculate on why (the NYT) might do it." Elsewhere on your Sunday dial, as per Politico: Ted Cruz on his 'whirlwind' first year: "This is a city where it’s all politics all the time. And I’m trying to do my best not to pay attention to the politics, to focus on fixing the problems. I know it’s hard to believe, because no one in this town does that. This is a time for people to step up and do the right thing. And that’s what I’m trying to do." Howard Dean on ObamaCare: "There are going to be problems. The data does show that less healthy people are signing up. Younger people are signing up less frequently than hoped." Critics, however, are guilty of "hyperbole" and "look incredibly partisan," and "the first year is going to be more successful than most people think." GOP commentator Ana Navarro on GOP incumbents vs. the Tea Party: "I think you're going to see them win their primaries because they're taking it seriously, they're campaigning hard, they're raising the money and they're doing what they have to do. They're not about to get Richard Lugared." Joe Lieberman says he would still vote for ObamaCare: "The rollout of ObamaCare has been bad," as was the status quo. "The best thing that could happen now is for both parties to sit down and figure out how to fix the current system."

Some people frequently check and re-check their mobile phones. Once this impulse is triggered, it may be more a question of not being able to leave the device alone than actually hoping to gain some reward from it. These insights are drawn from a study1 by psychologists Henry Wilmer and Jason Chein of Temple University in the US and are published in Springer's journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. Their findings shed light on the reasons why some people are so attached to their smartphones and mobile technology, while others are less so. A better understanding of the impact of smartphone and mobile technology usage is needed to assess the potential problems associated with heavy use. Although these electronic devices are playing an increasingly pervasive role in our daily activities, little research has been done about a possible link between usage behaviour and specific mental processes and traits. Therefore, Wilmer and Chein set out to determine if people who report heavier mobile technology use might also have different tendencies towards delaying gratification than others, or might exhibit individual differences in impulse control and in responding to rewards. Ninety-one undergraduate students completed a battery of questionnaires and cognitive tests. They indicated how much time they spent using their phones for social media purposes, to post public status updates, and to simply check their devices. Each student's tendency to delay gratification in favour of larger, later rewards (their so-called intertemporal preference) was also assessed. They were given hypothetical choices between a smaller sum of money offered immediately or a larger sum to be received at a later time. Participants also completed tasks that assessed their ability to control their impulses. Finally, participants' tendencies to pursue rewarding stimuli were also assessed. The results provide evidence that people who constantly check and use their mobile devices throughout the day are less apt to delay gratification. "Mobile technology habits, such as frequent checking, seem to be driven most strongly by uncontrolled impulses and not by the desire to pursue rewards," says Wilmer, who adds that the findings provide correlational evidence that increased use of portable electronic devices is associated with poor impulse control and a tendency to devalue delayed rewards. "The findings provide important insights regarding the individual difference factors that relate to technology engagement," adds Chein. "These findings are consistent with the common perception that frequent smartphone use goes hand in hand with impatience and impulsivity." ||||| Are you the type to respond to every single text ASAP? Or are you capable of putting your smartphone down for hours and forget about its flashing blue light? A new study suggests that the more people check their devices, the more impulsive they are in their everyday lives. Two researchers from Temple University had 91 undergraduates fill out a questionnaire assessing how often they used their phones to update social media, browse the Internet, or interact with friends. Then they tested students' ability to delay gratification (aka wait) by asking them whether they'd prefer a small sum of money right now or a large sum anywhere from a few days to a year from the immediate moment. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The researchers also assessed students' sensitivity to rewards by having them rate how greatly they identified with statements like, "I'll try anything once," and, "I like wild and uninhibited parties." Finally, they ranked students' impulsivity by placing them at a computer and asking them to press a button whenever an "x" popped up on the screen but resist pressing a button whenever they saw a "k." (The more participants hit buttons when they weren't supposed to, the less impulse control the researchers concluded they had.) Impatient undergrads — the ones least interested in waiting more than a day to get a hypothetical amount of money — were more likely to be preoccupied with their smartphones on a regular basis. Those who had a harder time controlling impulses to press buttons were also more tethered to their devices. Surprisingly, students' sensitivity to rewards didn't appear to be an influence on their phone-checking habits. The more compulsively you check your smartphone, the more impulsive and impatient you probably are. And not just when it comes to technology. (Other studies have found similar parallels between how compulsively people check their cellphones and how negatively it can impact their well-being.) If you're the type to never let a retweet remain un-liked or a friend request go unnoticed, take a peek at some other areas of your life. If you're having trouble reining in urges — to, say, eat the whole pint of ice cream, resist ordering one more round, or flip out at a coworker or friend — it may be time to take a break from your smartphone and start practicing some self-regulation. Follow Katherine on Twitter. ||||| Mobile electronic devices are playing an increasingly pervasive role in our daily activities. Yet, there has been very little empirical research investigating how mobile technology habits might relate to individual differences in cognition and affect. The research presented in this paper provides evidence that heavier investment in mobile devices is correlated with a relatively weaker tendency to delay gratification (as measured by a delay discounting task) and a greater inclination toward impulsive behavior (i.e., weaker impulse control, assessed behaviorally and through self-report) but is not related to individual differences in sensitivity to reward. Analyses further demonstrated that individual variation in impulse control mediates the relationship between mobile technology usage and delay of gratification. Although based on correlational results, these findings lend some backing to concerns that increased use of portable electronic devices could have negative impacts on impulse control and the ability to appropriately valuate delayed rewards. Keywords Cognitive and attentional control Impulse control Reward sensitivity Technology Electronic devices have become more and more portable and convenient, providing nearly constant (and ever more efficient) access to the Internet and a diverse range of software applications and digital media. With this ease of access, technology is playing an increasingly large role in our mental lives, serving as a form of “extended cognition” (Barr, Pennycook, Stolz, & Fugelsang, 2015; Clark & Chalmers, 2002; Clayton, Leshner, & Almond, 2015). This situation can be viewed as a double-edged sword: although it allows us to communicate, learn, and entertain ourselves, it also makes it difficult to avoid doing so—even when engaging with technology is likely to detract from other ongoing activities. Notifications built into smartphones and other e-devices can intrude on three of our five senses, with lights, tones, and vibrations each beckoning us to extricate ourselves from our current tasks and engage instead with the device. Even in the absence of notifications, internal and external cues (a thought about work or a social relationship, something brushing against your pocket, noticing others on their phones, etc.) provide regular reminders of the opportunity to engage with the digital world. These constant notifications and cues, and the relative immediacy with which we can acquire information and satisfy specific desires by responding to them, may alter our basic cognitive and affective functioning. Regular intrusions into ongoing cognition present a challenge to the self-regulatory, cognitive control processes that support the maintenance of goal-directed behaviors. And, by offering an often-gratifying escape from ongoing tasks, engagement with e-devices may occupy basic reward-related processes and even impact the fundamental mechanisms through which we valuate and process rewards (Atchley & Warden, 2012). Indeed, some have argued that today’s youth—referred to at times in the popular media as the “Now Generation” and “Generation C” (for “Connected”; “Introducing Generation C,” 2012), having grown up in an era in which mobile technology is omnipresent, possess an especially strong need for instant gratification, which has diminished their ability to plan effectively for the future (Muther, 2013). Such assertions are part of a larger movement generally espousing the ills of technology access and use (Bauerlein, 2008; Ellison, 2012; Greenfield, 2013; Sutter, 2012). Unfortunately, most of the relevant assertions (e.g., today’s youth are more immediacy oriented) are based principally on anecdote, while empirical evidence regarding any relationship between technology habits and delay of gratification (or other aspects of cognition) is still quite limited. Some foundational work, such as that of Atchley and Warden (2012), shows a close parallel between the willingness to delay the receipt of monetary rewards and to delay responding to informational prompts (to text or call someone back). These findings indicate that technology behaviors can be understood in terms of frequently researched decision-making processes (i.e., intertemporal preference), though the specific mechanisms that are most directly linked to regular technology use remain poorly understood. Prior research on intertemporal preference (Kalenscher & Pennartz, 2008; Peters & Büchel, 2011; van den Bos & McClure, 2013) has established that individual differences in the inclination to forego a smaller near-term reward in favor of a larger delayed reward (i.e., to delay gratification) relates to the behavior of two interacting systems: one governing the capacity to control impulses and the other influencing the individual’s sensitivity to immediately available rewards (McClure, Laibson, Loewenstein, & Cohen, 2004). Put differently, the tendency to seek immediate gratification can be explained either by weak impulse control (i.e., the inability to withhold a reactive or reflexive response in favor of more deliberative actions; Ainslie, 1975) or greater immediate reward sensitivity (i.e., the tendency to seek out novel or rewarding sensations and to experience greater sensation upon acquiring a reward; Carver & White, 1994). As the opportunities for technology use have grown, so too has a body of literature investigating the resultant cognitive and behavioral impacts (cf. Baumgartner, Weeda, van der Heijden, & Huizinga, 2014; Minear, Brasher, McCurdy, Lewis, & Younggren, 2013; Ralph, Thomson, Seli, Carriere, & Smilek, 2014; Wang & Tchernev, 2012). Understandably, a significant area of focus in recent research is the safety implications of using a cellphone while driving (e.g. Atchley, Atwood, & Boulton, 2011; Strayer & Drews, 2007). For example, work in this field has demonstrated that individuals who have a tendency to text on their cellphones while driving show a steeper discounting function compared to those who do not (Hayashi, Russo, & Wirth, 2015). That is, those who more frequently engage in this dangerous behavior are also generally less inclined to delay gratification in favor of a larger, later reward. This work shows that at least one technology-related habit—texting while driving—is related to variation in intertemporal preference. Whether this relationship arises from individual differences in impulse control or reward sensitivity (or some other correlated variable), and whether it generalizes to other mobile technology habits, remains undetermined. Additional clues come from work by Pearson, Murphy, and Doane (2013) and Sanbonmatsu, Strayer, Medeiros-Ward, and Watson (2013). As in the aforementioned studies, Pearson and colleagues examined cell-phone use while driving, and explored possible relationships with individual traits that are related to impulse control and reward sensitivity (using the Urgency Premeditation Perseverance Sensation Seeking Impulsive Behavior Scale [UPPS]; Whiteside & Lynam, 2001). Likewise, Sanbonmatsu et al. (2013) asked participants to report how often they used their cellphones while driving, assessed a broader facet of technology engagement captured by the Media Multitasking Index (Ophir, Nass, & Wagner, 2009), and also examined trait impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, Version 11; Patton, Stanford, & Barratt, 1995) and sensation seeking (Sensation Seeking Scale; Zuckerman, Eysenck, & Eysenck, 1978). In both studies, a significant relationship was found between the assessed technology habits and the individual trait questionnaires. These findings encourage the conclusion that personality variables related to both impulsivity and reward processing are relevant factors in mobile technology use. Still, some concern has been raised about the specificity, utility, and reliability of the particular questionnaires used in those studies (Gray & Wilson, 2007; Zuckerman, 2007). For instance, as noted by Zuckerman (1996; see also Zuckerman, 2007) the original Sensation Seeking Scale contains a number of “anachronistic” questions and may be too narrowly focused on specific contextualized activities; limitations also adopted (in revised form) into the UPPS. Zuckerman and colleagues have since constructed a revised scale meant to better capture overall sensation seeking (Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Joireman, Teta, & Kraft, 1993). Subsequently, Steinberg et al. (2008) introduced the use of only a carefully selected subset of questions from the revised scale to disentangle impulsivity and reward/sensation seeking. In our pursuit of the question of what motivates smartphone usage, we hoped to delineate in a single study the interrelationships between smartphone usage, delay of gratification, impulse control, and reward sensitivity. In so doing, we first sought to develop a survey instrument with a focus on smartphone usage. Researchers have already developed a large number of self-report indices of technology use (Alloway & Alloway, 2012; Jacobsen & Forste, 2011; Junco, 2012; Ophir et al., 2009), but there exists little consensus on which instruments most aptly capture relevant individual differences. One recent, and already widely deployed, measure of technology usage is the aforementioned Media Multitasking Index. While media multitasking is certainly an important aspect of technology use, this instrument focuses on only this facet of technology-related behavior (multitasking with technology) and does not isolate the type of usage that differentiates smartphones from other technology (short, frequent usage throughout the day). Thus, we sought to develop an ecumenical, but still targeted, assessment of personal mobile technology device usage. With this assessment, we sought to determine if individuals who reported heavier mobile technology use also exhibit a differential tendency to delay gratification, as measured by performance on a “delay discounting” task. Merely establishing a relationship between technology habits and delay of gratification would not be sufficient to clarify the factors that drive this relationship, whether differences in impulse control or differences in reward processing. So, we further assessed individual differences in both impulse control and reward sensitivity to determine which, if either, of these variables mediates the relationship between technology engagement and delay of gratification. To avoid the pitfalls of relying on individual, and potentially conflated, questionnaire instruments, we followed Steinberg et al. (2008) in using a validated subset of questions from existing questionnaires (as explained in the Method section), and additionally collected responses from secondary measures of both impulse control and reward sensitivity in order to develop construct-level estimates of each variable. Method Participants Participants were 91 undergraduate students (71.4 % female; age M = 20.05, SD = 2.19) who completed a battery of questionnaires and cognitive tests. The sample was racially (59.3 % self-identified as Caucasian or white, 15.4 % as African American or black, 14.3 % as Asian, 1.1 % as American Indian or Alaskan Native, 3.3 % as more than one race, and 6.6 % declined to respond) and ethnically (4.4 % self-identified as Hispanic) diverse. All procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board at Temple University, and participants were given course credit for participation. Measures Technology engagement We created a technology engagement scale with the purpose of indexing mobile technology usage.1 By assessing self-reported behaviors regarding different facets of mobile technology, we hoped to create an index that could characterize individual technology engagement patterns while not being overly biased by any one technology-related habit. The three components of this scale were brief self-report questionnaires assessing (1) phone-based social media use, (2) frequency of public status updating, and (3) phone-checking behavior. Phone-based social media use was determined by the participants’ responses to three Likert-style questions about their daily usage of various mobile social media applications (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat). Frequency of posting public status updates was determined by the participants’ response to a single question, “How often do you post public status updates?” Phone-checking behavior was determined by the average response of participants’ answers to three Likert-style questions: “How often do you check your phone for new activity?”, “How often do you find yourself checking your phone when you have a few moments to spare?”, and “How often do you find yourself checking your phone during conversations or when hanging around with friends?” The study sample indicated acceptable internal reliability for this construct (α = .65). To further explore the validity of this technology engagement scale, we also gathered, from a subset of our participants, information regarding their technology multitasking habits using the Media Multitasking Index (MMI; Ophir et al., 2009) and examined correlations between the Technology Engagement scale and the MMI. The MMI provides an estimate of the amount of time one spends multitasking with various forms of media. In the standard form, participants are asked to estimate the total number of hours they spend engaging in 12 different forms of media (e.g., watching television, playing video games, talking on the phone, instant messaging) and to specify, across a series of pages (one for each media type), the degree to which they use each media technology concurrently with each of the other media formats (i.e., engage in media multitasking). The MMI score is an aggregated score based on the sum total of multitasking habits (specific calculation is described in Ophir et al., 2009). For expediency, in the present study we created a matrix-style version of the MMI (see supplemental online information), which allowed participants to detail their media multitasking habits on a single computerized form rather than across a series of repeated forms pertaining to each media type. Intertemporal preference We assessed individual differences in the tendency to delay gratification in favor of larger, later, rewards using a delay discounting task (O’Brien, Albert, Chein, & Steinberg, 2011). In the delay discounting task, participants were asked to make hypothetical choices between a smaller sum of money offered now versus a larger sum of money (always $1,000) offered at six different delays, ranging from 1 day to 1 year. The smaller sum of money offered was varied systematically, until the participant reached an indifference point—the value at which the subjective value of the smaller immediate offer matched the subjective value of the larger ($1,000) delayed offer (Ohmura, Takahashi, Kitamura, & Wehr, 2006). Participants completed 10 trials at each delay interval. Using this data, we calculated each individual’s discount rate (k) as well as their indifference points at each delay. As is commonly done, a natural log transformation was applied to all k values in order to reduce skewness to an acceptable level. While we investigated indifference points at each delay, based on previous experience with this task (O’Brien et al., 2011; Weigard, Chein, Albert, Smith, & Steinberg, 2014) we expected the responses to the longer delays to have the greatest individual subject variance. Thus, the longest two delays (6 months and 1 year) were averaged and taken as a more sensitive index of individual variation in immediacy orientation. Reward sensitivity Two instruments were used to create a reward sensitivity construct: a subset of questions from Zuckerman’s revised Impulsive Sensation Seeking scale and a subscale of the BIS/BAS questionnaire. The Impulsive Sensation Seeking measure (Zuckerman et al., 1993) is a 19-item self-report questionnaire that intentionally conflates impulsive and sensation-seeking behaviors in order to broadly characterize these personality traits. To isolate sensation seeking, Steinberg et al. (2008) identified a subset of six items from the updated Zuckerman scale that most purely related to this construct (“I like to have new and exciting experiences and sensations, even if they are a little frightening,” “I like doing things just for the thrill of it,” “I sometimes like to do things that are a little frightening,” “I’ll try anything once,” “I sometimes do ‘crazy’ things just for fun,” and “I like wild and uninhibited parties”). These items were answered as either true (coded 1) or false (coded 0), and item scores were averaged to create a mean Sensation Seeking score. This subset of items has been shown to exhibit good internal consistency (α = .70; Steinberg et al., 2008). In the current sample, the internal consistency was similarly good (α =.73). The BIS/BAS scales are measures of behavioral inhibition and behavioral approach (Carver & White, 1994). For the purposes of the present study, we were primarily concerned with the behavioral approach component (BAS), which is itself comprised three subscales: Fun Seeking, Reward Responsiveness, and Drive. Because we were specifically focused on targeting individual reward sensitivity, only the Reward Responsiveness subscale was used in our analyses. This subscale has been shown to have good internal consistency (α = .73; Carver & White, 1994). The present sample indicated acceptable internal consistency (α = .68) with this subscale. Impulse control An Impulse Control construct was calculated by taking the average score from two measures, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and false alarm rate on a go/no-go task. The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale is a widely used self-report measure of impulsivity (Patton et al., 1995). Again, based on the findings of Steinberg et al. (2008), we elected to use only 18 items of the full 30-item questionnaire having specificity with respect to impulsive behavior (rather than to sensation seeking). Each item was answered on a 4-point scale (rarely/never, occasionally, often, almost always) and scores were averaged, with higher scores indicative of greater impulsivity. Steinberg et al. (2008) showed that this subset of questions has good internal consistency (α = .73). In the current sample, the internal consistency was similarly good (α = .75). The go/no-go task used in the current study involved the rapid presentation of a series of go (x) and no-go (k) stimuli. Participants were instructed to give a button press response following each x, but to withhold responding whenever they saw a k stimulus. The stimuli were presented for 250 ms each, followed by an unpredictable ITI ranging between 750 ms and 1,750 ms. In total, 333 stimuli were presented, of which only 50 were no-go trials (ks). These no-go trials were pseudo-randomly interspersed into the series so that a no-go trial was equally often preceded by 1 to 10 prior go trials (five occurrences of each). The entire task lasted just over 8.5 minutes. Normalized scores from both the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and go/no-go measures were inverted so as to reflect impulse control rather than impulsivity (i.e., a higher score on the construct indicated a stronger tendency to control impulsive responses). Results Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations 1 2 Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation MMI 0.01 7.31 3.22 1.61 Technology engagement Phone-based social media use 4 25 12.32 4.76 Phone-checking behavior -2.72 1.59 -0.03 0.78 Frequency of posting public status updates 1 7 2.36 1.15 Intertemporal Preference (ITP) Mean indifference point 57.43 970.13 489.41 249.03 Impulse control Go /No-Go false alarms 2 44 19.95 8.88 Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 1.22 2.93 2.03 0.37 Reward sensitivity Zuckerman’s Impulsive Sensation Seeking scale 0 1 0.68 0.29 BAS-reward 13 20 16.57 1.86 Open image in new window Basic descriptive statistics for each measure are provided in Table, and correlations between individual measures are shown in Table. To verify the validity of our Technology Engagement scale, we first examined the bivariate correlation between normalized scores on this scale and the MMI scores obtained from a subset of our participants (n = 50). The significant correlation (r = .310, p = .028) indicates that, despite focusing on different aspects of technology use, the two measures explain overlapping variance with respect to general technology habits. Relationship between technology engagement and intertemporal preference 1a Open image in new window A primary aim of the present study was to determine whether there is a relationship between technology use and intertemporal preference. Indeed, we found a significant correlation between individuals’ discounting rate (logk) and their self-reported technology engagement (r = .240, p = .023). Next, we confirmed that the correlation was driven by participants’ responses at the longest 2 delays. As expected, technology engagement scores were highly correlated with the mean indifference points for 6-month and 1-year delays (r = -.286, p = .006; see Fig.), but not for any of the shorter delays (all ps > .05, for the average of indifference points at the shorter delays: r = -.020, p = .849). Relationship between technology engagement, impulse control, and reward sensitivity We next sought to determine whether there was also a relationship between technology engagement and either impulse control or reward sensitivity. Bivariate correlations revealed a significant negative relationship between technology engagement and impulse control (r = -.234, p = .025; see Fig. 1b), indicating that individuals who report more engagement with e-devices tend to exhibit a lack of impulse control. Meanwhile, no such relationship existed between technology engagement and reward sensitivity (r = .052, p = .627; see Fig. 1c). Mediation of the relationship between technology engagement and delay of gratification 2004 2013 2004 2 Open image in new window The pattern of correlations we obtained suggested the possibility that the relationship between technology engagement and intertemporal preference might be specifically mediated by individual variation in impulse control, and not in reward sensitivity. To test this possibility we conducted mediation analyses using the bootstrapping methods delineated by Preacher and Hayes () and utilizing Hayes’ PROCESS Model (Hayes,; Preacher & Hayes,). Each analysis was performed using 10,000 bootstrap resamples to estimate the indirect effect of the proposed mediator variables. The bootstrapping method yields 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) for each proposed mediator and its indirect effect. If zero is not included within an estimated 95 % CI, the indirect effect is taken to be significantly different from zero. In an initial mediation analysis we tested whether impulse control plays a mediating role in the relationship between technology engagement and intertemporal preference. The indirect effect of technology engagement through impulse control yielded a bootstrapped CI that did not include zero (b = .059, 95 % CI [0.005, 0.187]), indicating that impulse control is indeed a significant mediator of the relationship. That is, as shown in Fig., while higher levels of technology engagement are related to a tendency toward accepting a smaller immediate reward, this relationship is due in part to the relationship between technology engagement and impulse control. A further mediation analysis sought to determine whether reward sensitivity mediates the relationship between technology engagement and intertemporal preference. This mediation analysis yielded a bootstrapped CI that included zero, indicating that reward sensitivity is not a mediator in this relationship (b = .012, 95 % CI [-0.037, 0.116]). ||||| An article published by TIME in 2015 reported that on average Americans check their phone 48 times a day, with 18- to 24-year-olds averaging the most at 74 checks a day. Prompted by our growing dependence on technology, a new study published in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review seeks to find out why some people are more addicted to their phones than others. I admit it — I am guilty of being one of the frequent checkers. Every time there is a Facebook or a Twitter notification I feel a burst of satisfaction. Sometimes, I even click the screen without being prompted by the soft “ding” that signals an update. Me and my phone are best buds, and if anything happened to it, I’d be devastated (and that's not just because I can’t afford to replace it). But it seems checking my phone is due to more than seeking a reward or just a modern tic. Psychologists Henry Wilmer and Jason Chein of Temple University believe that frequent phone use is a telling behavior that might say something vital about our impulse control and behavior. The study, which examined what is driving the impulse to check and recheck our mobile devices, assessed if heavy usage is tied to certain mental functions and traits, such as delayed gratification and impulse control. To do so, 91 college undergrads were put through a volley of cognitive tests and questionnaires. These methods collected data on how much the students checked their phones and posted to social media on a daily basis. [Embed] The students were also tested on their ability to delay gratification by answering hypothetical questions about their preference towards receiving a large amount of money in the future or a smaller sum instantly. Tasks which tested their ability to control their impulses, as well as tests which measured their reaction to reward stimuli were also administered. The evidence from the study suggests that the people who obsessively check their phones are less likely to delay gratification. The tendency to devalue rewards that are not immediate and subpar impulse control are connected to the growing use of portable electronics as well. So, if you're wondering why you are having a hard time editing yourself on social media, perhaps our phone scanning compulsion is partly to blame. Wilmer described the findings to Springer, "Mobile technology habits, such as frequent checking, seem to be driven most strongly by uncontrolled impulses and not by the desire to pursue rewards." I mean, if you asked if I wanted a small cookie now or a big cookie later, I would DEFINITELY choose the cookie now. Great, now I've made myself hungry again. [Embed] With these always accessible devices we have the world at our fingertips. Dr. Chein, who led the study, warned that there may be a downside to our growing dependence on this technology. "The findings provide important insights regarding the individual difference factors that relate to technology engagement," says Chein. "These findings are consistent with the common perception that frequent smartphone use goes hand in hand with impatience and impulsivity." Perhaps it's finally time to fight my smartphone addiction with a little digital detox? [Embed] Images: Pexels; Giphy

– There's no denying that humans are mad for their cellphones, but some are clearly more attached than others—and scientists now have a clearer understanding of why. Generally speaking, people who constantly check their phones have a problem controlling impulses, period, and they're not so great at delayed gratification, either, reports Bustle. Once a person of this nature checks their phone, it triggers the impulse to keep checking it again and again, even if the reward will be a paltry one, say psychologists Henry Wilmer and Jason Chein of Temple University in a post at Science Daily. They drew the conclusion after putting 91 undergrads through a series of tests that measured how often they checked their phones, how well they controlled their impulses, and whether they'd prefer to receive a small amount of money immediately or a larger sum if they waited a few days to a year. Among other things, Wilmer and Chein found that students who were least interested in waiting for that hypothetical sum of money—in other words, they were impatient—were more likely to check their phones frequently. "Mobile technology habits, such as frequent checking, seem to be driven most strongly by uncontrolled impulses and not by the desire to pursue rewards," Wilmer concludes in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. A post at Cosmopolitan draws a lesson from the research: "If you're the type to never let a retweet remain un-liked or a friend request go unnoticed, take a peek at some other areas of your life," writes Katherine Schreiber. "If you're having trouble reining in urges—to, say, eat the whole pint of ice cream, resist ordering one more round, or flip out at a coworker or friend—it may be time to take a break from your smartphone and start practicing some self-regulation." (Some people have "ringxiety.")

Charlie Sheen gets standing ovation in Chicago's 'Torpedo of Truth' show after Detroit's bombed show Kersey/AP Charlie Sheen waves to fans as he leaves the Chicago Theatre after getting a standing ovation. Charlie Sheen got the audience on his side Sunday night as he took his "Torpedo of Truth" tour to Chicago. Fresh off getting panned and slammed by fans Saturday night in Detroit, the fired "Two and a Half Men" star sought revenge on the Motor City Sunday night. He ended up getting a standing ovation. Sheen kicked off the show at the Chicago Theatre by reading a poem about how much he hates Detroit as the audience chanted, "Detroit sucks!" When an audience member yelled, "Train wreck," Sheen shot back, "Go back to Detroit, dude." The 45-year-old sobriety-challenged actor pleaded with the crowd not to boo him. They didn't. Someone in the crowd instead shouted, "Get naked!" prompting Sheen to trade shirts with him. Sheen seemed to have retooled his act after Saturday's debacle. Instead of winging it, he had an anonymous interviewer ask him questions Sunday night. The actor revealed that the first time he smoked weed was with the late actor Chris Penn. He talked about partying once with Mick Jagger and Eddie Van Halen and owing ex-Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss $2 million - saying he pays for sex because he has millions to spare. Sheen still got panned by Chicago film critic Richard Roeper, who tweeted from the audience: "Whatever you're doing right now, including sleeping, it's probably more engaging than this." Online ticket brokers say they've been flooded with people trying to dump their tickets since the star's Saturday show. On StubHub.com, tickets for his New York show at Radio City were plummeting in demand and price. lalpert@nydailynews.com ||||| Charlie Sheen's life has been lived, at times, as if he were starring in his own reality show, part "Celebrity Rehab," part "Cribs," part "Howard Stern Show," part "The Girls Next Door."If we accept that premise, then Sunday at the Chicago Theatre was the makeover episode.Instead of the disjointed exercise in hero worship he had presented on night one of his theatrical tour in Detroit Saturday, Sheen mostly sat and fielded an interviewer's questions, bantering with the crowd, dropping the F-word, and actually seeming to satisfy, if not amaze, concertgoers.Gone was the dime-store Hunter S. Thompson manifesto he had recited, losing much of the Detroit crowd in his first half-hour on stage. Gone was the raucous banging bass and the videos cobbled together from old movies and YouTube clips about Sheen.And gone, almost entirely, were the boos for the embattled, family-troubled, recently fired, oft-interviewed sitcom star.It was a canny shift of the show's tone, from epic self-aggrandizement to a more casual, at times even likable, persona. We will not go so far as to say "humble," because Saturday's Sheen seemed to be lurking at Sunday's edges, ready to return, especially for a few minutes early on when the 45-year-old actor seemed to be resisting the new stage-show format.While it didn't fully justify $80 main-floor ticket prices, it got the job done. And it gave the tour -- which looked doomed after Saturday -- a format it can work with going forward. The show was still not "My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat Is Not an Option," as the tour title promises, but it was at least a forward-moving projectile of moderate dish about celebrity.People outside before the show said they didn't expect magnificence. They just wanted to see and hear Sheen being more or less himself, like in all those TV interviews he's done since his life blew up this spring. And in the Chicago Theatre's interview setting, with Sheen chain-smoking, wearing a shirt borrowed from a guy in the front rows, they got it.They also got some news. Sheen said he would return to "Two and a Half Men," the hit CBS sitcom that fired him after he viciously criticized creator Chuck Lorre. "If they say 'Here's your job back,' I'll go back to work," he said."I think it's a great f------ show," he said, but his bosses, not so great: "They didn't give a f--- that I was hammered for eight years money, ratings, money, ratings."He apologized to co-star Jon Cryer for having called him a "troll," Sheen's most-used word for his perceived enemies, as things were going south: "I was wrong. Jon's not a troll. Jon's a rock star."He acknowledged being jealous of George Clooney and how Clooney's movies always seem to work, told at least a little bit of what it was like to live with two women, his "goddesses," and saved some special venom for Brooke Mueller, who has been listed as his ex-wife, but whom Sheen said he is still technically married to.Credit Sheen for being willing to dump the show he had planned for his mutlicity tour. And for taking on the Detroit debacle -- in which he was serenaded with chants of "refund" -- early and often. "I had the best f------ time of my life, unlike that death sentence that was Detroit," he said at show's end Sunday.The Chicago crowd was ready to please him, too, delivering an unbidden "Detroit sucks" chant right away.And give special credit to Sheen's interviewer, former radio deejay Joey Scoleri, a co-producer on the tour who works in marketing for promoter LiveNation. He worked hard to keep the actor on track, telling stories rather than being distracted by noises in the crowd. One of Sheen's biggest problems in Detroit was that he had rabbit ears, only hearing the boos and letting it derail any control he had of the crowd.Sheen would start a story about, say, crack cocaine use, but when not everybody in the Motor City gave him instant adulation and approval, he stopped, only making the crowd's revolt worse.In Detroit, he told the folks in his manifesto that "it's about to get a lot more radical," only to later answer a question about the possibility of another sequel to "Major League" (indeed, he said Sunday there will be a "Major League 3"). He talked big about telling the truth, the "REAL story," as he put it. But he delivered less insight than you would get were Oprah to interview him.Before the show Sunday, as TV cameras and reporters swarmed the entrance, the mood was one of cautious optimism. Few interviewed before Detroit or Chicago came in with expectations any higher than being able to say they had been there for a potential public implosion. It's a powerful draw."I wanted to not go at all, then I read the review (of the Detroit show) this morning and it changed my mind," said Bill Termunde, 26, a Wicker Park resident who works in marketing. "I wanted to see this disaster."Termunde and a friend paid $15 for $35 tickets outside the Chicago Theatre from someone who, they said, had made the opposite decision.Sheen was, in a sense, bulletproof. "I'm not expecting him to do that well, or he wouldn't be Charlie Sheen," said Jenna Schaefer, a student at Eastern Illinois University from Gurnee.Said her date, consultant Michael Mock: "I just want to pretty much see all the interviews I've seen on TV in real life. Tell us what he's done. Tell us about some 7-gram rocks (of cocaine). It's either gonna make history or it's gonna be a great show."Inside the theater, the preshow mood was decidedly more mellow than in Detroit; Jimmy Buffett was part of the music. Lines were long for official tour merchandise, including $35 T-shirts that made such proclamations as "Sheenius" and "Bangin' 7Gs." The theater listed a drink special called the "Train Wreck": $9 for vodka and Red Bull, mostly. It was not, alas, a Sheen-inspired concoction, but something that has long been available there, the server said.Sheen's tour comes on the heels of a tabloid maelstrom during which he was hospitalized after trashing a New York hotel room and again after hosting what sounded like a marathon bender at his home. But through most of that, he continued to hold down his job as star of CBS' "Two and a Half Men" just fine. It wasn't until Sheen began insulting his employers, especially the show's creator, Lorre, that production was halted (in late February) and Sheen was fired (in early March).As lawsuits regarding the TV show wait to be settled, Sheen decided to follow the Conan O'Brien model: Take his personality directly to the people. But O'Brien has been running, writing and starring in very funny TV shows for decades. He knows what it takes to entertain crowds. Sheen apparently made the mistake, initially, of believing that his sitcom popularity and subsequent mass Twitter following meant he could do anything.As it turned out, all he had to do was sit back and, with a little guidance, be himself.sajohnson@tribune.com ||||| Charlie Sheen on His Chicago Show: 'I Won' Email This After an The "winning" actor said he stayed up until 4:30 Sunday morning re-working his live show, which debuted to "Gotta go with what got you to the dance and give the people what they want," the actor said. "On the bus someone said, 'You know, we could just keep driving to LA.' I said, 'F**k that. That's what losers do. I won.'" Apparently so, since Sheen was greeted with a standing ovation from the Chicago crowd, along with chants of "Detroit sucks!" The former 'Two and a Half Men' star decided to ditch everything that didn't work during his first show -- like opening acts and video segments -- and give the audience what they want: Charlie Sheen. The actor sat in a chair with a pack of cigarettes as he was interviewed by the tour's co-producer Joey Scoleri -- just like the After an epic fail in Detroit, Charlie Sheen said he "got back to basics" for the second show of his 'Torpedo of Truth' tour, according to E! Online The "winning" actor said he stayed up until 4:30 Sunday morning re-working his live show, which debuted to boos and heckling Saturday night in Detroit."Gotta go with what got you to the dance and give the people what they want," the actor said. "On the bus someone said, 'You know, we could just keep driving to LA.' I said, 'F**k that. That's what losers do. I won.'"Apparently so, since Sheen was greeted with a standing ovation from the Chicago crowd, along with chants of "Detroit sucks!" The former 'Two and a Half Men' star decided to ditch everything that didn't work during his first show -- like opening acts and video segments -- and give the audience what they want: Charlie Sheen.The actor sat in a chair with a pack of cigarettes as he was interviewed by the tour's co-producer Joey Scoleri -- just like the interviews that prompted the bizarre rants that catapulted Sheen further into pop culture fame earlier this year. Looks like the second time's the charm for Sheen because the packed show ended as it began -- with a standing ovation from crowd. http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=691977&pid=691976&uts=1294158078 http://www.popeater.com/mm_track/popeater/music/?s_channel=us.musicpop&s_account=aolpopeater,aolsvc&omni=1&ke=1 http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf PopScene: Week's Hottest Pics Reese Witherspoon keeps her hands in her pockets as she tries to stay warm while out in New York City on January 3rd. X17online X17online During the show, he talked about marriage -- "I'm 0-3" -- and estranged wife Brooke Mueller. "Nice try, bitch," he said of Mueller's attempt to take away his twin sons. "I got those kids back, didn't I? She sent 9,000 cops to my house looking for drugs and guns. They found one gun from 1848."Of course he touched on the 'Two and a Half Men' debacle. "I didn't walk away from s**t. I got fired," he said. "That's not f**king cool. They didn't give a f**k that I was hammered for eight years ... If they hired me back I'd do it again."He also revealed his attempt to add a third "goddess" to his group didn't work out so well. "I tried a third. I did," he said. "You can't keep an eye on the third one. I have two eyes. I have two goddesses. I'm not bipolar. I'm bi-winning." ||||| Whoever this guy is questioning Sheen, he's just awful. If you were sitting next to these two guys in a bar, you'd find another table...

– Charlie Sheen may have totally bombed in Detroit, but with a few changes, he managed to score a standing ovation last night in Chicago. Gone was the "disjointed exercise in hero worship" from the first night of his Violent Torpedo of Truth tour, writes Steve Johnson in the Chicago Tribune. In its place was Sheen, fielding questions from an interviewer, "chain-smoking, wearing a shirt borrowed from a guy in the front rows" ... "bantering with the crowd, dropping the F-word, and actually seeming to satisfy, if not amaze, concertgoers." The result? The boos were nearly entirely gone. The Chicago show shifted the tone "from epic self-aggrandizement to a more casual, at times even likable, persona." Did it justify the $80 ticket price? Not exactly, but "it got the job done. And it gave the tour—which looked doomed after Saturday—a format it can work with going forward." (Even so, the New York Daily News reports that at least one audience member called out "train wreck"; noted Chicago film critic Richard Roeper was not impressed.) Click to read more about Sheen's show, which included some nasty comments about one of his babymommas.

A 73-year-old Vietnam veteran paid a high price for a free muffin. Joe Koblenzer says he was fired by a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Florida after he gave a needy person a corn muffin for free, WWSB reported. Koblenzer, who had been with the eatery in Sarasota for three years, told the station that he was previously written up twice before the muffin infraction: once for having a fountain drink while on duty, and another time for allegedly giving a woman a free cup of coffee. In the latter instance, Koblenzer says the customer paid for the coffee. “It's a rule. They legally can do this because I did break the rule." - Joe Koblenzer Cracker Barrel, however, says the muffin giveaway was Koblenzer’s fifth violation of company policy, which includes not giving away food and not consuming food without paying for it. Koblenzer told WWSB that on the day he was fired, a man who looked like he may be homeless asked him for mayonnaise and tartar sauce. “He said he was going to cook fish,” Koblenzer told the station. Koblenzer said he got the man the condiments, and added a corn muffin to the bag as he handed it over. The kindness cost the Vietnam vet his job, but he understands why he was fired. “It's a rule. They legally can do this because I did break the rule. I completely forgot about it. I am a host at Cracker Barrel with a little above minimum wage job, " Koblenzer told the station. He said he took the job to supplement his monthly Social Security benefits. “I’m not casting doom and gloom on the company. They did their thing, and now people know about it,” Koblenzer told Fox News. Was the gesture worth it? “Yes, it was worth it," Koblenzer told Fox News. "I would do it again. A moral issue comes in." The veteran says that if Cracker Barrel would have asked him to pay for the muffin, he would have. Cracker Barrel released the following statement on the matter: “Mr. Koblenzer has worked as a host at Cracker Barrel’s Sarasota store since April 2011. During the time he was employed, he violated the Company’s policies regarding consuming food without paying or giving away free food, on five separate occasions. Mr. Koblenzer received multiple counselings and written warnings reminding him about the company’s policies and the consequences associated with violating them. On the fifth occasion, again per Company policy, Mr. Koblenzer was terminated. Cracker Barrel is grateful for and honors Mr. Koblenzer’s service to our country as we honor all service men and women and their families.” Koblenzer says he is looking for a new job, but is unsure what he will do next. Click for the story from WWSB-TV. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| 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.

– A 73-year-old Vietnam veteran has lost his job for giving a needy man a muffin—and says he doesn't regret his moment of charity, Fox News reports. Joe Koblenzer was working as a Cracker Barrel host in Venice, Fla., when a homeless-looking man came in asking for tartar sauce and mayonnaise. "He said he was going to cook a fish," Koblenzer told WWSB. Koblenzer gave him the condiments and plunked a corn muffin in the bag as well. Soon after, he says, the general manager called him in and "said he had some bad news for me. 'Joe we are going to have to let you go.'" Cracker Barrel issued a statement saying this was Koblenzer's fifth time giving away food or consuming it without paying, but Koblenzer says it was only strike three, and one accusation was unfair. Either way, he's now jobless after three years at the company where he earned the highest number of stars on his apron for job performance. He admits to breaking a rule, but says he'd do it again because "a moral issue comes in." The story has gained traction in social media, WWSB notes, and became a hot topic on the restaurant's Facebook page with more than 30 negative comments. "I feel badly," says Koblenzer. "I would not want that on any company, but it happened."

1 of 4. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (L) and China's Premier Wen Jiabao (R) smile during their meeting at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing August 19, 2011. CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday rejected views that American power is waning and said Washington would never default, wrapping up a China visit that has played down tensions between the world's two biggest economies. "We are still the single best bet in the world, in terms of where to invest," Biden told a university audience in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, the southwest province that is the second and last stop of his visit to China. "Please understand that no one cares more about this than we do, since Americans own 87 percent of all our financial assets and 69 percent of all our treasury bonds," Biden said, answering a question about U.S. debt. "So our interest is not just to protect Chinese investment. We have an overarching interest in protecting the investment, while the United States has never defaulted and never will default." "You're safe," he added. Biden also used his speech to renew U.S. calls for Beijing to do more to rein in North Korea and Iran, whose nuclear ambitions have alarmed the West. "The fact is, China and the United States face many of the same threats and share many of the same objectives and responsibilities," he said. But his key theme was, as it has been throughout his five-day visit to China, economic: that the United States can reverse its high debt and low growth, and that China should play a part by buying more American-made goods and services. "I also know that some of you are skeptical about America's future prospects. With that in view, I would like to suggest that I respectfully disagree with that view and will allay your concerns," said Biden. He told the audience to remember that the United States was by far the largest economy in the world, about two and a half times as large as China's. Biden and President Barack Obama, both Democrats, face re-election next year. Biden said the debate with Republicans over how to tackle U.S. fiscal problems would be at the heart of the 2012 presidential election. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is virtually certain to succeed Hu Jintao as Chinese President in early 2013, has hosted Biden during this visit. Obama administration officials have said they want to build trust with Xi ahead of the transition that begins in late 2012, when Hu gives up his post as general secretary of the ruling Communist Party. Next year would need careful political footwork from both governments, said Biden. "Both our countries are going through a political transition in 2012. It is very important, in my view, that we both are aware of the political sensitivities in each of the countries as they go through that," he said. "NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT" Sichuan province is a fast-growing example of the inland development that Beijing hopes will power the Chinese economy in coming decades -- and also a slice of the rising consumer power that Washington hopes will buy more U.S. goods and reduce a huge trade deficit with China. With 80 million people, Sichuan enjoyed economic growth of 15.1 percent last year, according to government statistics. Such economic concerns have dominated Biden's visit to China, which began on Wednesday, and has featured a succession of unusually vocal declarations of Beijing's confidence in the U.S. economy, despite Standard & Poor's recent downgrade of the sovereign credit rating of the United States. China has quarreled with the United States on trade, Internet censorship, human rights and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. While those thorny disputes have not disappeared, they appear to have been overtaken by a shared desire to show confidence and cooperation to a jittery global economy. In Sichuan, Biden raised human rights in general terms. "Liberty unlocks a people's full potential, and in its absence, unrest festers," he told the university audience. Biden told Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday that China had "nothing to worry about" over the safety of its holdings of Treasury debt, and Wen voiced confidence in the resilience of the U.S. economy, troubled by debt worries and sluggish growth. Analysts estimate two thirds of China's $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, are in dollar holdings, making it the biggest U.S. foreign creditor. Biden will fly to Mongolia on Monday morning for a day before heading onto Japan. (Writing and additional reporting by Chris Buckley and Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa) ||||| U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's head is framed by the teleprompter as he delivers a speech at Sichuan University in Chengdu in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011. Biden says... (Associated Press) U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's head is framed by the teleprompter as he delivers a speech at Sichuan University in Chengdu in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011. Biden says... (Associated Press) Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday that the United States and China need to recognize their mutual global concerns and responsibilities and ensure greater fairness in trade and investment conditions. Biden brought a strong message of mutual interdependence on his visit to the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu on the final day of a five-day visit to the world's second-largest economy and a key U.S. trading partner. "The more we can work together, the more our people can benefit ... the more the world can benefit," Biden told students in a speech at Sichuan University. Biden emphasized the frequent exchanges between President Barack Obama and China's Hu Jintao along with government officials in the political and economic field. He said there needed to be more exchanges between their civilian and military leaders over security issues, especially on cybersecurity and maritime issues where the sides view matters from different perspectives. "The fact is, China and the United States face many of the same threats and share many of the same objectives and responsibilities," Biden said. "Our generals should be talking to each other as frequently as our diplomats." Biden said both countries need global stability, which includes preventing Iran and North Korea from obtaining nuclear weapons. He also reasserted that the U.S. will remain a Pacific nation in future, saying that the American presence had benefited regional stability and allowed China to focus on economic development. "Asia and the United States are not separated by this great ocean. We are bound by it," he said. Biden said he recognized frustrations among many Chinese businessmen and officials at the length of time needed to obtain visas to visit the U.S. and said Washington was working on improvements. But he said U.S. companies continue to face major investment barriers in China, a frequent complaint among the business community here. He said U.S. businesses were locked out of entire fields and face "restrictions that no other major economy imposes on us or so broadly." Biden also looked to reassure his audience over the security of China's $1.2 trillion in U.S. Treasury debt following the downgrading of America's credit rating. He said Chinese and U.S. prosperity was key to reviving the global economy. "We're the two biggest engines in the world to be able to do that," he said. Biden was to spend the rest of the day Sunday visiting sites with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, who is expected to become the country's next leader.

– Vice President Joe Biden wrapped up his five-day visit to China with a strong message of China-US interdependence and firm promises that the United States would never default on its debt, reports Reuters. Speaking in the southwest city of Chengdu earlier today, Biden emphasized the continued strength of the US economy, noting that America 's economy is two-and-a-half times larger than China's. He also pointed out that, as the United States owns 87% of its financial assets and 69% its treasury bonds, compared to the 1% of financial assets and 8% of treasury bills owned by China, it was in the US interest to pay its bills, adding "the United States has never defaulted and never will default." Biden called on China to be more forceful in reining in North Korea and Iran, and encouraged Beijing to allow a freer flow of information and greater political dialogue, reports the AP. "Liberty unlocks a people's full potential and in its absence, unrest festers," said Biden. In general, the visit emphasized common ties and building trust between the two countries. "Asia and the United States are not separated by this great ocean," said Biden. "We are bound by it."

A tweet from the McDonald's corporate account called President Trump "a disgusting excuse of a President" on Thursday morning, which the company said was the work of a hacker. The tweet, which was briefly pinned to the top of the account before being deleted, mocked Trump and called for the return of former President Obama. "@realDonaldTrump You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have @BarackObama back, also you have tiny hands," the tweet read. McDonald's later said in a statement that the account was hacked and apologized. "Based on our investigation, we have determined that our Twitter account was hacked by an external source. We took swift action to secure it, and we apologize this tweet was sent through our corporate McDonald’s account," spokeswoman Terri Hickey said. Twitter notified us that our account was compromised. We deleted the tweet, secured our account and are now investigating this. — McDonald's (@McDonaldsCorp) March 16, 2017 oh my it’s even pinned pic.twitter.com/tGv6EdpZEm — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 16, 2017 Trump was once in a commercial for the fast food giant, and has posted images eating McDonald's food on his social media accounts during his campaign. Celebrating 1237! #Trump2016 A post shared by Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on May 26, 2016 at 2:29pm PDT --This report was updated at 11:04 a.m. ||||| The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

– Is McDonald's anti-Trump? It briefly appeared so Thursday morning when a tweet insulting the POTUS was posted and even pinned to the top of the McDonald's corporate Twiitter feed, but the tweet was quickly deleted and McDonald's said its account had been "compromised." The Hill has a screenshot of the original tweet: "@realDonaldTrump You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have @BarackObama back, also you have tiny hands." McDonald's now says it is looking into who compromised its account. President Trump, who has been pictured eating Mickey D's, was even in a McDonald's commercial once.

Mariah Carey’s ex-husband Tommy Mottola urges the singer to seek “more seasoned and respected professionals” to guide her career after her disastrous New Year’s Eve performance. He also blasts the singer’s decision to do a reality show in a letter exclusively given to Page Six. “MC is arguably the greatest pop voice to come along in the last three decades. She has had more number one hits than any pop artist in history!!! She is a global icon and a treasure with incredible talent not only as a singer but as a great songwriter. What happened on NYE could’ve happened to anyone! Yes, her technical people should’ve helped pay more attention to all of it so that there was no chance of that happening.” Mottola launched Carey’s career in 1990 with “Vision of Love.” They wed in 1993, but divorced in 1998. Still, he continues to criticize her management and reality show, “Mariah’s World.” “My only advice is that she should hire more seasoned and respected professionals to surround her and help her with her career! I would never have encouraged her or guided her to do something like a reality television show!!!!! I don’t get it!!” Mottola wrote, adding, “That does absolutely nothing for her integrity, her credibility, or her massive talent!! She should take a step back, think carefully and figure out what to do next. That is what she does best.. most certainly none of these issues or problems ever existed with her in her early days at Sony for the first 10 years when she skyrocketed to global superstardom!! Where absolutely meticulous and methodical attention was paid to every single detail and nuance that went on into her career!” Mottola, now a producer of Broadway’s “A Bronx Tale,” believes there’s still hope for Carey. “It could have happened to anyone and it has, so everyone should just get off her back and leave her the hell alone and hopefully she will find her way to the right professionals for guidance. It’s never about the fall, it’s all about the recovery.” Meanwhile, Carey’s manager Stella Bulochnikov fired back, “Really? Tommy is a relic. Did he give you that statement from a rotary phone?” ||||| Tommy Mottola Blames Mariah Carey's Professional Team For Botched NYE Performance Mariah Carey should ditch her advisers and “hire more seasoned and respected professionals” in light of her disastrous New Year’s Eve performance. That’s the line according to her ex-husband, Tommy Mottola. Mottola, the one-time Sony Music chairman who helped guide Carey from a 19-year-old backup singer to one of the most popular singers on the planet, weighed in on her awkward appearance at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest. Carey should take some of the rap for her epic-fail, but only for choosing the wrong support team, he suggests. Describing Carey as a “global icon and a treasure with incredible talent,” Mottola admits the snafu “could’ve happened to anyone.” And it should never have happened in the first place. And nor should her participation in the reality TV show Mariah’s World. “My only advice is that she should hire more seasoned and respected professionals to surround her and help her with her career,” he wrote in a letter to the New York Post’s Page Six column. Carey made global headlines with her headlining set which, leading up to midnight, went careening downhill as she got to “Emotions" and “We Belong Together." With the pop star apparently unable to hear through her in-ear monitor, she removed it completely. Then, unable to follow the backing track over the noise of the crowd, Carey eventually abandoned singing and lip-syncing all-together as she became frustrated, addressing the crowd, “I’m trying to be a good sport here.” Both camps deflected blame and presented conflicting explanations for what went wrong. The singer and her reps said the in-ear monitors were faulty (and that action wasn't taken on prior warnings) and BWR-PR's Nicole Perna told Billboard that "production set her up to fail." Dick Clark Productions issued its own statement claiming, “To suggest that dcp ... would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd,” and insiders previously told Billboard that Carey’s tech team had her in-ears “set to the wrong frequency” and that she had used a body double for rehearsals earlier in the day. Mottola, who recounted how he romanced, wed and later divorced Carey in his tell-all 2013 book Hitmaker: The Man and His Music, argued that Mariah’s World was an unnecessary distraction which “does absolutely nothing for her integrity, her credibility, or her massive talent.” He added, “She should take a step back, think carefully and figure out what to do next.” Carey’s manager Stella Bulochnikov reportedly fired back: “Really? Tommy is a relic. Did he give you that statement from a rotary phone?” Billboard reached out to a rep for Mottola for additional comment. ||||| The fallout from Mariah Carey's headline-making New Year's Eve performance continues. Carey's manager, Stella Bulochnikov, is doubling down on accusations against the producers of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest in a new interview with ET. "I'm furious," Bulochnikov told ET's Carly Steel on Wednesday in Studio City, California. "She cut her vacation short. She came there to have a festive moment, not a disastrous moment." The singer suffered technical difficulties after hitting the stage just before midnight on Saturday in New York City, eventually causing her to walk off stage. After the show, Carey tweeted: "S**t happens. Have a happy and healthy new year everybody. Here's to making more headlines in 2017." Shit happens 😩 Have a happy and healthy new year everybody!🎉 Here's to making more headlines in 2017 😂 pic.twitter.com/0Td8se57jr — Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) January 1, 2017 WATCH: Mariah Carey's New Year's Eve Performance: Dick Clark Productions Denies Sabotage, Ryan Seacrest in Shock "They could have cut to a commercial, they could have edited the west coast feed to make her look good," Bulochnikov suggested. "So when we say words like sabotage, I'm not saying you intentionally decided, 'Hey! We're gonna sabotage Mariah Carey tonight.'" While Bulochnikov made it clear that she doesn't believe DCP intentionally sabotaged Carey's performance, she still insisted that "it happened!" Bulochnikov went on to challenge the production decision to air the moment again on the west coast feed, saying: "There are a myriad, a million ways to fix the feed for the west coast, because the people deserve better." DCP previously released a statement saying that they "had no involvement in the challenges associated with Ms. Carey's New Year's Eve performance" after Bulochnikov stated that "a production issue" and "technical difficulties" were to blame for the moment. On Wednesday morning, ET asked DCP executive vice president of television, Barry Adelman, for his side of the story. "We have no comment on this," he said. "I think the statements have been made." WATCH: Jenny McCarthy Says It's 'Completely Unfair' for Mariah Carey to Blame Others for 'Train Wreck' NYE Performance Carey voiced her displeasure with the situation on Tuesday, telling Entertainment Weekly: "I'm of the opinion that Dick Clark would not have let an artist go through that and he would have been as mortified as I was in real time." The songstress added that she would be wary of working with external crews on future performances. "It's not going to stop me from doing a live event in the future," she said. "But it will make me less trusting of using anyone outside my own team." WATCH: Mariah Carey Plagued by Technical Difficulties During Live New Year’s Eve Performance Related Gallery

– Finally, Mariah Carey has received what she's likely been waiting for ever since her awkward New Year's Eve performance: advice from her ex-husband. In a letter given exclusively to Page Six, Tommy Mottola calls Carey "arguably the greatest pop voice to come along in the last three decades," a "global icon," and a "treasure with incredible talent not only as a singer but as a great songwriter," but he says she needs to get some help. "My only advice is that she should hire more seasoned and respected professionals to surround her and help her with her career!" In addition to having once been married to Carey, Mottola also launched her career back in 1990 when he was a Sony Music exec, Billboard reports. That was three years before marrying her (and eight years before divorcing her). Mottola says that, while the New Year's Eve debacle "could've happened to anyone," Carey's tech crew should have paid more attention in order to prevent it from happening. He also takes issue with her decision to do a reality show, Mariah's World. "I would never have encouraged her or guided her to do something like a reality television show!!!!! I don't get it!!" he wrote. "That does absolutely nothing for her integrity, her credibility, or her massive talent!!" Amusingly, Carey's current manager responded to Mottola's letter like so: "Really? Tommy is a relic. Did he give you that statement from a rotary phone?" That same manager told ETOnline Wednesday that she's "furious" over what happened to Carey at New Year's Rockin' Eve, again calling out Dick Clark Productions: "They could have cut to a commercial, they could have edited the West Coast feed to make her look good" after it was clear she was having issues with the audio. (Carey has also called out Dick Clark Productions.)

Mr. Kelley then moved to a recreational vehicle park in Colorado Springs, where four witnesses told the police that they had seen Mr. Kelley chase down his white-and-brown Siberian husky and punch the dog four or five times, yelling at it, before dragging it into his camper, according to a report from the sheriff’s office in El Paso County, Colo. Mr. Kelley was charged with animal cruelty, pleaded guilty and received a deferred sentence, records show. Image Devin P. Kelley Credit via Texas Department of Public Safety Brent Moody, a neighbor who called the police, said in an interview that he and his wife moved out sooner than they would have liked because they were scared of Mr. Kelley. “In his eyes, he looked like there was intense anger,” Mr. Moody said. “Something didn’t seem right with him.” Last Sunday morning, Mr. Kelley took a Ruger AR-556 assault rifle to the First Baptist Church and opened fire, killing 26 people and wounding at least 20 others. After a shootout outside the church with a bystander, in which he was hit twice, Mr. Kelley raced away in his car, chased by the bystander and another man, and soon crashed. He was found dead, having shot himself in the head. Officials have said that the massacre may have stemmed from acrimony between Mr. Kelley and the family of his estranged second wife. His mother-in-law, who attended the church, was not there on Sunday, but his wife’s grandmother was among those killed. But as they try to delve deeper into what might have motivated the rampage, investigators said, they have hit a roadblock: They have not been able to unlock the killer’s cellphone, reviving an issue that received national attention after another mass shooting two years ago. “Unfortunately, at this point in time, we are unable to get into that phone,” Christopher H. Combs, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s San Antonio office, said. He refused to name the brand of the phone, saying that it would encourage other criminals to get the same kind. After 14 people were shot to death in a conference room in San Bernardino, Calif., the F.B.I. was unable to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the attackers. The bureau went to court to try to force Apple to build a software “back door” allowing law enforcement agencies to get into phones, but the company refused. ||||| HOUSTON - Channel 2 Investigates obtained law enforcement documents revealing Devin Kelley escaped from a behavioral center in New Mexico a little more than five years before Sunday’s deadly rampage in Sutherland Springs. The incident report, filed by the El Paso Police Department, states Kelley was picked up at a bus terminal in downtown El Paso before midnight on the evening of June 7, 2012. The report states two officers were dispatched to the terminal to look into a missing-person report. READ: Incident report on Devin Kelley Download File When they arrived, the two officers learned Kelley had escaped from Peak Behavioral Health Services, a mental health facility in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, that has a dedicated unit for service members and veterans. Xavier Alvarez, who was the director of military affairs for Peak Behavioral Health at the time, told the officers on scene that Kelley, who was 21 years old at the time, had “suffered from mental disorders and had plans to run to from Peak Behavioral Health Services” by purchasing a bus ticket out of state. NBC News spoke with Alvarez, who according to the police report, said he informed officers that Kelley “was a danger to himself and others as he had already been caught sneaking firearms onto Holloman Air Force base,” located approximately 100 miles from the bus terminal. The report further states that Kelley “was attempting to carry out death threats” he had made on his military superiors. Alvarez told NBC News Kelley was ordered to Peak Behavioral Health Services by the military. On the day of the escape, Alvarez told NBC News he was home when he received a call at 1 or 2 in the morning that Kelley had absconded. "He jumped a fence," he said. The facility is in a desolate area. Alvarez jumped in his truck and began driving through the desert while other Peak staffers were talking to patients "to get any clues to what transpired." "It turned out that several times he had mentioned he was practicing for a 12-mile run. So I asked Siri, 'What is the distance to the Greyhound station' and lo and behold, it was 12 miles," Alvarez told NBC News. Alvarez called Sunland Park and El Paso police and El Paso police created a perimeter around the Greyhound station. Alvarez sat there in the dark, watching for Kelley's arrival. He saw a taxicab pull up and he crept over to it; when it pulled away, he and Kelley were "eye to eye." "Because he made a reaction as if he was going to run, I quickly restrained him. He put up no fight. He laid on the ground and police were there in seconds," Alvarez said. He noted Kelley was wet. "He thought he was going to be tracked and he went through the river to cover these tracks." "He was very quiet, but he did mention that given the opportunity he would try to go for the [officers'] guns," Alvarez said. When he went back to the facility, Alvarez told NBC News Kelley was very docile. He was there only a couple of weeks before the military picked him up for his court-martial. Alvarez confirmed that during his time at Peak, "he [Kelley] had verbalized that he wanted to get some kind of retribution to his chain of command." He said other patients also reported that Kelley seemed to be up to something on the computers they were allowed to use to pay bills, etc. The military examined the computers and it turned out "he was ordering weapons and tactical gear to a PO Box in San Antonio," Alvarez told NBC News. He said he could not talk about Kelley's diagnosis but added, "I had a very strong relationship with all the service members but this kid -- he was hollow. I could never reach him." He said that after Kelley was identified as the suspect, one of his former colleagues contacted him. The message? "We stopped the first one." El Paso police officers spoke with Kelley after finding him at the terminal. The report states he did not make threatening comments. Kelley was released to police officers from Sunland Park Police Department in New Mexico, located just across the state line. The report states there was an entry submitted to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database. READ: Military Discharges Explained The El Paso incident took place months after Air Force documents state Kelley had attacked his wife by striking and kicking her and pulling her hair. Kelley, according to the documents, also pointed a loaded firearm at her. Kelley was also charged with unlawfully striking his child on various occasions between April 27, 2011, and June 16, 2011. Records indicate Kelley plead “G” (guilty) to assault on a child and the assault on his wife. Records show he pleaded “NG” (not guilty) on the others that were “withdrawn and dismissed with prejudice” after Kelley’s arraignment. Kelley received a general court martial and was sentenced Nov. 7, 2012. He was handed a bad conduct discharge, 12 months of confinement and a reduction in rank to the grade of E-1. The sentence came exactly five months to the day after the attempted escape from the behavioral facility in southern New Mexico. An Air Force spokesperson told Channel 2 Investigates that they cannot comment on the 2012 report, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Rick Rousseau, a retired Army Colonel and Judge Advocate for 27 years, said he is not surprised that Kelley may have been in a behavioral facility in the midst of his legal battles. “It would be a normal course of negotiation that he had been in behavioral health in advance of going to court," he said. Rousseau also added that if the move was a preventative measure by Kelley and his team that it probably would have been revealed. “At a minimum the defense attorney may have told the prosecutor," Rousseau said. Copyright 2017 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Tracy Connor and Daniel Arkin The gunman accused of the worst mass murder in Texas history escaped from a mental health hospital during his stint in the Air Force — after making death threats against his superiors, according to a 2012 police report. The incident raises new questions about whether Devin Kelley's past should have prompted authorities to make sure that he could not purchase weapons long before he killed 26 people at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs on Sunday. Police took Kelley into custody on June 7, 2012, at a bus terminal in downtown El Paso, Texas, after he broke out of Peak Behavioral Health Services, just over 10 miles away in New Mexico, according to the report, which was first obtained by NBC Houston affiliate KPRC. Kelley, who was 21 at the time of the escape, had been sent to the facility after he was accused of assaulting his wife and fracturing his baby stepson's skull. The person who reported Kelley missing told El Paso officers that Kelley "was a danger to himself and others as he had already been caught sneaking firearms onto Holloman Air Force Base," where he had been stationed, according to the police report. He "was attempting to carry out death threats" he had made against his military superiors, the report said. Xavier Alvarez, a former Peak Behavioral employee, confirmed to NBC News that during Kelley's time at the facility he "verbalized that he wanted to get some kind of retribution to his chain of command." He said other patients had reported that Kelley seemed to be do something suspicious on computers they were allowed to use for things like paying bills. When the military examined the computers, it turned out that Kelley was "ordering weapons and tactical gear and magazines to a P.O. Box in San Antonio," Alvarez said. Alvarez said he had a strong relationship with all the service members in the military wing at Peak Behavioral — but Kelley was an exception. "This kid — he was hollow," Alvarez said. "I could never reach him." Peak Behavioral declined to comment on the incident citing patient confidentiality. Alvarez said he could not discuss Kelley's diagnosis or any of his medical care. "This kid — he was hollow. I could never reach him." But he vividly remembered getting the call that Kelley had "jumped a fence" in the middle of the night and was on the loose. He hopped into his truck and began driving through the desert while staff at the facility questioned other patients about Kelley's intentions. "It turned out that several times he had mentioned he was practicing for a 12-mile run," Alvarez said. "So I asked Siri, 'What is the distance to the Greyhound station?' And lo and behold, it was 12 miles." Alvarez, joined by police, said he spotted Kelly getting out of a cab at the bus station, where he "quickly restrained him." "He put up no fight," Alvarez said of Kelley. "He laid on the ground and police were there in seconds. ... He was very quiet, but he did mention that, given the opportunity, he would try to go for the [officers'] guns." Kelley was taken back to the facility but eventually discharged for his court-martial. The Air Force reported that after Kelley was convicted of assault, he was confined for a year, given a bad conduct discharge and reduced in rank to E-1, or airman basic. Related: Senators Call for Probe After Military Error Let Texas Gunman Buy Weapons The military failed to enter the domestic violence case into a database that would have made it illegal for him to buy the Luger AR-556 rifle he used to commit the massacre — a mistake that is now under investigation by the Air Force. The entrance to the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, the site of the shooting, is seen in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Nov. 7, 2017. Jonathan Bachman / Reuters And in Comal County, Texas, the local sheriff is investigating another apparently missed opportunity to take action against Kelley. After being discharged from the military, Kelley returned to his hometown of New Braunfels. That's where, in June 2013, deputies received a report of sexual assault against Kelley. Sheriff Mark Reynolds, who was not the sheriff at the time, said the case file shows that detectives were working on the case in July, September and October "and then it just kind of stalled out." Police believed Kelley had moved to Colorado, but made no apparent attempt to contact or arrest him there, Reynolds said. Four months later, they were called to Kelley's New Braunfels home after receiving a report of abuse, Reynolds said. A woman inside the home had texted a friend that she was being abused, and the friend called police. Reynolds would not identify the woman in the home, but a source familiar with the incident said it was Kelley's girlfriend, and future second wife, Danielle Shields. She told deputies she had sent the texts but denied being abused, and after interviewing Kelley, police chalked it up to a "misunderstanding," the sheriff said. "Why didn't someone put two and two together?" Reynolds said. "That's what my office is trying to investigate."

– Fives years before killing 26 people in a Texas church, Devin Kelley escaped from a psychiatric hospital after trying to sneak weapons onto his Air Force base and making death threats against his superiors, the New York Times reports. Kelley was sent to Peak Behavioral Health Services in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in 2012 after he was charged with assaulting his wife and young stepson, who was left with a fractured skull. He would later plead guilty to those charges and spend a year in a Navy prison. According to KRPC, Xavier Alvarez, former director of military affairs at the psychiatric hospital, said in a police report at the time that Kelley "was a danger to himself and others." Prior to hopping a fence to escape, Alvarez tells NBC News that Kelley was caught using the hospital's computers to order weapons and tactical gear, which he was having shipped to a PO Box. In the police report, he said Kelley "was attempting to carry out death threats" against "his military chain of command." Following his escape, Kelley was apprehended at a bus station in El Paso. Alvarez says he told the arresting officers he would go for their guns if he got the chance. "This kid—he was hollow," Alvarez says. "I could never reach him." Meanwhile, authorities are still trying to piece together a motivation for Sunday's shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, hampered by an inability to unlock Kelley's cellphone.

Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) If you like Bill O’Reilly, read this. Don’t like him, read it anyway. It’s interesting. TBA: Oct. 6 he and Jon Stewart will co-juice up a live mock debate rumble, 90 minutes, in DC’s nice air-conditioned George Washington University auditorium. Filmed, available subsequently on DVD, it’ll stream worldwide on the Internet. Cost: $5. Money to charity. Former “Fox and Friends” host E.D. Hill moderates. Why? Why not. They’ve done one another’s programs. They like each other. And both can outtalk Obama. Even Clinton. Another thing. A two-hour movie job of O’Reilly’s best seller “Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever” grabs National Geographic Channel early next year. Ridley Scott, exec producer. Tom Hanks, narrator. Through great-great-great-grandfather John Hanks, Oscar winner Hanks is also a third cousin, four generations removed, from Abraham Lincoln. EMMA Watson, Paul Rudd, Joan Cusack, Dylan McDermott grace the new film “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” based on a best seller — banned from some schools — about love, not love, more love, less love, lots of love, hope, fear, a little sex, a lot of bacchanalia, and some heavy love. Emma’s character, named Sam, is charismatic but melancholy. Who cares what she is? Nobody can take their eyes off her. Her first major role since becoming a “Harry Potter” star at 11, she’s now a face of Lancome and attends Brown University. Screenings organizer Andrew Saffir told me: “The film’s starting 7:30. Emma’s arriving 7:15.” Right. She showed promptly 7:50. “Watching yourself in a movie is a struggle,” she said. “Not just now but even in early childhood days. Every second of the time I’m on-screen, I’ve had to step back and try to see myself. It’s intense. Looking at myself, I had to try and explain: Am I just being me, or am I really the character? “I’m just back from filming in Iceland with Darren Aronofsky, who got an Oscar nomination for directing ‘Black Swan.’ He’s so caring of his actors. He was always making sure I’m OK. I’d never seen Iceland before. The place is like going into space.” She looked pretty heavenly herself. Short bob. Half-cutout all white dress by new designer Brood. Large middle finger ring. “I seem to have passed over the ‘Harry Potter’ crazy. Nobody shouts that out at me anymore. When they see me now, they just call out, ‘Hey . . . Emma . . .’ ” Then — since it was late — somebody shouted out, “Hey . . . Emma . . . ” — and off she went. ONE of the most beautiful things on earth is the logo of 1stdibs, where Gloria Vanderbilt, 88, displayed her artwork. Most beautiful thing Anderson Cooper showed for a fast hello. Most beautiful Four Seasons private pool room got redecorated just for a private dinner afterwards in her favorite red — lights, flowers, cloths, seats, candles — by event planner Jerry Sibal, who just did the Princess of Doha’s palace wedding. And may that last as long as Gloria. ROCKER Madame Mayhem celebrating her Social Life cover at the Sanctuary Hotel . . . Jonathan Goldberg’s Cherub Improv cheering up the Kittay House elderly . . . Christy Cashman, in Parker Posey’s new film (which I don’t know what it is), modeled Callua Lillibelle for a fashion spread in Brooklyn. IT’s mumbled that New Yorkers may form their own country, taking along other Blue States — Oregon, California, Hawaii, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the whole Northeast. We have Cuomo, Hillary, stem-cell research, the best beaches, Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge and two-thirds of tax revenue. Also Intel, Microsoft and Harvard. Red States have Texas, Oklahoma, the slave territories, Bobby Jindal and Todd Akin, OpryLand and Dollywood. Also Alabama and Mississippi. And Perdue. We — 85 percent of entrepreneurs and venture capital. Plus Hollywood and Yosemite. Them — majority of single moms and obese Americans, most tornadoes, hurricanes, mosquitoes, 99 percent of Southern Baptists, and 100 percent of all televangelists. We control the fresh fruit, fresh water, domestic wines, most low sulfur coal, and all redwoods, sequoias and condors. Red Staters consider life sacred except for the death penalty or gun laws, and 61 percent of those crazy bastards claim higher morals then we north of the Mason-Dixon. We’ll be known as Citizens of the Enlightened States of America. BROADWAY bus. Cute head of a little white dog in a carrier poked out. Passenger alongside asked: “What’s its name?” The owner: “None of your business.” The questioner burbled, “Ohhh, sorry . . . I didn’t mean to intrude . . . ” Owner: “Oh, no, it’s OK. That’s her name. I named her ‘None of Your Business’ because she always sticks her head out and gets into everything.” Only in New York, kids, only in New York. ||||| In his “Talking Points Memo” tonight, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly announced he’ll be pairing up with Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart for a 90-minute debate. It will stream online on Oct. 6. O’Reilly said the debate will center on three topics: the national debt, American relations in Muslim countries and gas prices. “I feel so strongly about this that I’m teaming up with my pal Jon Stewart to do a 90-minute debate on those and other vital issues,” O’Reilly said. He said they were calling it “The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium” and it will be formatted like a presidential debate, “without all the phoniness and pomposity.” Furthermore, O’Reilly said there will be a Q&A with the live audience and those streaming online can submit questions. The tickets are available for pre-order at TheRumble2012.com for $4.95. O’Reilly said fifty-percent of the profits “if there are any” will go to “a bunch of very worthy charities.” The New York Post‘s Cindy Adams wrote this morning and said CNN anchor E.D. Hill will moderate. From The O’Reilly Factor: [ooyala code=”hiNnF3NTrM7RsUAGJ1tR5FGW8KaspF9D”] And here’s the promo for the debate:

– Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart always make for an entertaining pair, so mark your calendars for Oct. 6. That's when they'll be debating issues including the national debt, America's relationship with the Muslim world, and gas prices, O'Reilly announced last night on his show. The 90-minute debate will be just like a presidential debate, except "without all the phoniness and pomposity," O'Reilly promised. It will be streamed online and will include a Q&A session with the audience, The Blaze reports. Tickets to the amusingly named "Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium" are $4.95, and 50% of the proceeds go to charity. Former Fox and Friends host ED Hill will moderate, the New York Post reports, and a DVD will be sold after the fact.

The Australian radio presenters who made a prank call to the hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge three days before the nurse who handled the call apparently killed herself have been taken off the air until further notice. The Sydney station 2Day FM released a statement on Friday evening expressing its sadness at Jacintha Saldanha's death and saying the presenters responsible for the call, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, were "both deeply shocked". It was not clear whether the pair had been suspended, nor whether they would return to their jobs. "Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) and 2Day FM are deeply saddened by the tragic news of the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha from King Edward VII's hospital and we extend our deepest sympathies to her family and all that have been affected by this situation around the world," said the statement. "Chief executive officer Rhys Holleran has spoken with the presenters. They are both deeply shocked and at this time we have agreed that they not comment about the circumstances. SCA and the hosts have decided that they will not return to their radio show until further notice out of respect for what can only be described as a tragedy." Vicki Heath, PR manager for Southern Cross Austereo, which owns 2Day FM, said she was being inundated with calls. Speaking to the Guardian in the early hours of the morning in Australia, Heath said: "We've just heard about it and I guess there's still a lot of detail that we are unaware of." Heath said the process of removing content relating to the prank from the station's website was under way. She said: "We are working through all of that at the moment. We are just having to get the right people out of bed." Heath added that the station had learned of the nurse's death when it was contacted at around midnight, local time, by the Daily Mail. ||||| Australian radio station boss refuses to sack Royal prank DJs and claims THEY are the victims Jacintha Saldanha found unconscious near King Edward VII Hospital Mother-of-two transferred prank call from Australian DJs asking about Kate William and Kate 'deeply saddened' by death and said they did not complain Presenters behind the hoax are taken off air following tragedy Australian media regulator inundated with complaints about prank Companies pull advertising from station following incident Mel Greig and Michael Christian boasted about prank as tragedy unfolded Both deleted their Twitter accounts after global backlash following death Hospital has written letter to radio station's parent company Described the prank as 'truly appalling' and 'extremely foolish' By Mario Ledwith and Richard Sears | The boss of the radio company at the centre of the royal hoax call today refused to sack the DJs behind the stunt and painted them as victims. 2DayFM presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian were taken off air after it emerged the nurse who took their prank call at Kate Middleton's hospital had died in a suspected suicide. Jacintha Saldanha, a 46-year-old mother of two, had been manning the hospital switchboard when the Australian hoaxers called and she transferred the call to the Duchess of Cambridge's ward. Tragic: The grieving husband of nurse Jacintha Saldanha who died in a suspected suicide has tonight told of his devastation at her death. She is pictured centre, believed to be with her two children Loss: Benedict Barboza, a 49-year-old hospital accountant, also known as Ben, posted a tribute to Mrs Saldanha on his Facebook page. He is pictured, left. It is believed the youngster on the right is the couple's son Rhys Holleran, the chief executive of Southern Cross Austereo, which owns the station, said the presenters were 'completely shattered' and had been offered counselling. His comments were made before King Edward VII hospital said they had sent a letter of complaint to the company about the 'truly appalling' prank earlier today. Lord Glenarthur, chairman of the hospital , said that he wanted to 'protest' against the prank and seek assurances that the station would never do anything similar again. Mr Holleran told a press conference in Melbourne that the primary concern was for the family of Jacintha Saldanha, whose body was found yards from the King Edward VII Hospital yesterday. He said: 'I spoke to both presenters early this morning and it's fair to say they are completely shattered. Nurse Jacintha Saldanha, 46, died yesterday in an apparent suicide after she transferred a hoax call from Australian DJs who retrieved sensitive information about Kate Middleton while in hospital ' These people aren't machines, they're human beings. What happened is incredibly tragic and we’re deeply saddened and we’re incredibly affected by that.’ He added: 'I think prank calls as a craft in radio have been going for decades and decades and are not just part of one radio station or network or country. 'No-one could have reasonably foreseen what ended up being an incredibly tragic day.' Mr Holleran declined to reveal who had dreamed up the prank call but said: ‘These things are often done collaboratively.' A source confirmed that 2DayFM’s lawyers had listened to audio of the entire call and had given it clearance to go to air. Mr Holleran said it was ‘a bit early’ to be drawing conclusions from what was really a ‘deeply tragic matter.’ He added: ‘I don’t think anyone could have reasonably foreseen that this was going to be a result.' This evening, the grieving husband of nurse Mrs Saldanha has told of his devastation at her death. Benedict Barboza, a 49-year-old hospital accountant, also known as Ben, posted a tribute to Mrs Saldanha on his Facebook page. He wrote: 'I am devastated with the tragic loss of my beloved wife Jacintha in tragic circumstances, She will be laid to rest in Shirva, India.' Mrs Saldanha found herself at the centre of the controversy after answering the DJs' call, when they obtained intimate details about Kate Middleton's condition by posing as the Queen and Prince Charles. The grieving family of the 'excellent' nurse said: 'We as a family are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved Jacintha.' Scroll down for video Facing the media; Southern Cross Austereo CEO Rhys Holleran came out in defence of the DJs behind the prank call to Kate Middleton's hospital Tragedy: Kate and WIlliam have said they are 'deeply saddened' by Jacintha Saldanha's death and paid tribute to the care the Duchess received at the King Edward VII Abuse: Australian radio presenters Christian Michael and Mel Greig, whose prank call about the Duchess of Cambridge was transferred by nurse Jacintha Saldanha, have been bombarded with abuse on Twitter following news of her suspected suicide. They later removed their accounts Prince William and his pregnant wife Kate told how they are 'deeply saddened' by the tragedy. A Palace spokesman said the couple had not made a complaint about the prank call. 'Their thoughts and prayers are with Jacintha Saldanha’s family, friends and colleagues at this very sad time,' a statement said. When asked if they had expressed concern, the spokesman added: 'On the contrary we offered our full and heartfelt support to the nurses involved and hospital staff at all times.' Sombre: Police guard the front of King Edward VII's hospital yesterday where Jacintha Saldanha had worked as a nurse for four years The shockwaves over the death of the nurse have spread rapidly around Australia. Australia's media regulator was inundated with complaints about the prank. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which regulates radio broadcasting, has said it is currently in the process of discussing the matter with the Sydney-based station. A spokesman for the ACMA said it had received 'a lot' of complaints but declined to give a figure. 'Terrible tragedy': Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has offered her condolences to Jacintha's family The spokesman said: 'We've had a lot but it doesn't actually matter, we only need one complaint to launch an investigation. 'But we haven't launched an investigation yet, we're engaging with the licensee at the moment.' ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said: 'These events are a tragedy for all involved and I pass on my heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased nurse in London. 'The ACMA does not propose to make any comments at this stage, but will be engaging with the licensee, Today FM Sydney, around the facts and issues surrounding the prank call.' British-born Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the death as 'a terrible tragedy' and, through a spokesman, passed on her deep-felt condolences to the family of Jacintha. Mrs Saldanha, also known as Jess, is thought to have come to the UK from southern India ten years ago and settled in the UK with her partner, 49-year-old hospital accountant Benedict Barboza. The couple bought their £123,000 three-bedroomed home in 2005 in the Westbury-on-Trym district of Bristol. After registering as a nurse in 2003 when she initially worked for the North Bristol NHS Trust, which runs Frenchay and Southmead hospitals, it is believed the nurse chose to apply for a job at King Edward VII four years ago and appears to have been living in the nursing accommodation ever since. She has a son called Junal, 16, and daughter, believed to be 14. She stayed in London when she was working before returning to her family on days off. Mrs Saldanha is thought to have been from the Mangalore region of India. She is thought to have spent time in the Middle East before moving to Britain . The hospital said Mrs Saldanha had not been disciplined over the call. 'Deeply saddened': Body believed to be that of Jacintha Saldanha was found in lodgings only yards from the hospital where she worked Death: A police officer stands outside the home of Jacintha Saldanha in Bristol yesterday evening Distraught: Nurses at the hospital head inside while clinging to eachother after hearing the news about Jacintha Shattered: Hospital chief executive John Lofthouse spoke of their pain and sadness at the news of Jacintha's death - and clearly linked it to the hoax call she took from the Australian DJs Told about the tragedy last night, Vicki Heath, a spokesman for 2DayFM, said: ‘Is this is a hoax call? You’re having me on, aren’t you?’ Assured that the call was genuine, she burst into tears. ‘I can’t believe this – I just can’t believe it,’ she said. ‘Oh my God, oh no.’ The owners of the radio station that employ Mel Greig and Michael Christian announced that the duo will not return to their show until further notice. It is believed that senior management at 2Day FM were so shocked at the death of Jacintha that bosses have ordered the pair off the air. Concerns were expressed last night about the well-being of the DJs. Jeff Kennett, Melbourne-based chairman of the Beyond Blue group, which deals with people with mental issues, said: ‘Australians should support, rather than crucify, the pair for a prank made in good faith.’ He added: 'This is going to have terrible ramifications in terms of the impact on people’s lives well beyond the nurse in the UK. ‘I hope that both Mel and Michael are strong and firm. Nothing they did was offensive, it was a joke, a prank, never intended to have any ramifications of this sort ‘We’ve got to be careful we don’t become so politically correct that we deny ourselves the opportunity right now to extend to these two all the support we can to ensure that they come through this as strongly as possible.’ Others have come out in support of the DJs and said they were not to blame for what happened to the nurse – rather, the hospital should have had more strenuous security measures in place The telephone giant Telstra, joined a list of companies removing their advertising from the radio station last night. The station's owner was forced to pull advertising over panic from advertisers. Patrol: Police officers walk outside King Edward VII hospital Scene: A police car outside the lodgings where Jacintha Saldanha's body was found yesterday morning Accommodation: The lodgings where Jacintha was staying - around the corner from the hospital Guard: An officer guards the entrance to the block where the nurse's body was found 'A FIRST CLASS NURSE WHO CARED DILIGENTLY FOR HUNDREDS' King Edward VII hospital spoke of the their shock at the death of Jacintha Saldanha in a statement: 'It is with very deep sadness that we confirm the tragic death of a member of our nursing staff, Jacintha Saldanha. 'Jacintha has worked at the King Edward VII’s Hospital for more than four years. She was an excellent nurse and well-respected and popular with all of her colleagues. 'We can confirm that Jacintha was recently the victim of a hoax call to the hospital. The hospital had been supporting her throughout this difficult time.' John Lofthouse, Chief Executive at King Edward VII’s Hospital, said: 'Our thoughts and deepest sympathies at this time are with her family and friends. Everyone is shocked by the loss of a much loved and valued colleague." Lord Glenarthur, Chairman of King Edward VII’s Hospital, says, 'This is a tragic event. Jacintha was a first class nurse who cared diligently for hundreds of patients during her time with us. She will be greatly missed.' A statement from the station owners said: 'Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) and 2Day FM are deeply saddened by the tragic news of the death of the nurse, Jacintha Saldanha from King Edward VII Hospital and we extend our deepest sympathies to her family, and all that have been affected by this situation around the world. 'CEO Rhys Holleran has spoken with the presenters, they are both deeply shocked, and at this time we have agreed that they not comment about the circumstances. 'SCA and the hosts have decided that they will not return to their radio show, until further notice out of respect for what can only be described as a tragedy.' News of the death broke in the middle of the night in Australia and it was only during the evening London time yesterday that Australians woke to hear about the tragedy. It led the news on every radio station, including the national broadcaster ABC. It reported that there had been an outpouring of anger in the UK and said thousands of people had demanded that the DJs be fired. The Palace declined to say whether the Duchess met Jacintha Saldanha but it was very possible. Staff at King Edward VII hospital were not believed to be disciplining Jacintha over the incident. It said it announced her death with 'very deep sadness.' The statement added: 'Jacintha has worked at the King Edward VII Hospital for more than four years. She was an excellent nurse and well respected and popular with all over her colleagues.' Ms Saldanha answered the hoax call at 5.30am on Tuesday morning and transferred the call through to Kate's ward. Another nurse then told the giggling DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who were pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles, how the Duchess was about to 'get freshened up'. The station apologised for 'any inconvenience caused' but provoked widespread fury and disbelief by continuing to promote its hoax, calling it 'the prank call the world is talking about', before playing clips of the recording. As the backlash grew the DJs both deleted their Twitter accounts.The radio station's Facebook page was bombarded with thousands of abusive comments from outraged users. Shock: The exact cause of Jacintha's death has not yet been confirmed but it is being treated as suicide Dr Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: 'This is tragic news, and the thoughts of all at the Royal College of Nursing go to the family of Jacintha Saldanha. 'It is deeply saddening that a simple human error due to a cruel hoax could lead to the death of a dedicated and caring member of the nursing profession.' Officers from Scotland Yard launched an investigation yesterday and are treating the death as ‘unexplained’. A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister’s thoughts are with the family and colleagues of Jacintha Saldanha at this sad time.’ The exact cause of death remained unclear. However, one source indicated that the woman appeared to have killed herself. A neighbour said the family have lived in their £130,000 terraced home in Bristol for about eight years. Household: The Bristol home of Jacintha Saldanha following news of her death yesterday The neighbour said: 'They're a lovely family - Ben gives my lad a lift when he goes refereeing at Bristol Rovers with Junal. 'It's so so tragic, she was such a lovely woman. 'She must have thought there was no way back, that's the only thing I can think of.' Another neighbour of Mrs Saldanha described the tragic nurse as 'a lovely woman'. Marianne Homes, 49, said: 'I've always known her as the doctor, she was always very smartly dressed. 'Their son was always really into football, we always saw him with a ball kicking it about with his friends. 'She was a lovely woman, everytime I saw her she would talk to me. 'I hadn't seen her for a while, I wondered what had happened to her it's so sad to know this has happened. 'She was always so smartly dressed and well presented. 'I think her kids are secondary school age, she definitely has one boy and one girl.' A former neighbour of the nurse described her as a 'nice, lovely lady'. Boast: 2dayFM kept a recording of the prank on their website days after it was first broadcast Pose: DJ Mel Greig lies across the laps of One Direction when they flew into Australia this year Still boasting: DJ Michael Christian's Twitter feed pictured after the incident Abuse: DJ Mel Greig has deleted her Twitter account after she was bombarded with messages calling on her to quit Fighting back tears, she said: 'What a terrible tragedy - just before Christmas as well. Oh those two young boys - they'll be heartbroken. Her and Ben were a lovely couple. 'They didn't live here very long, but they were such nice neighbours - they invited us in for a curry when they moved in. 'They lived here seven or eight years ago, if not more. They kept themselves to themselves mostly. 'They bought their own house and moved on - they were just renting here I think. 'I can't believe what happened. It's so sad, so tragic. They always spoke to us - she was such a nice lady. 'It's devastating to hear she's gone - and in such circumstances that could be so easily avoided. 'Those Australians that called the hospital want stringing up.' Even yesterday, before news of the death, DJ Michael Christian was urging people to tune in to their show to hear more about the prank. In the 5.30am call, Mrs Saldanha had connected them to another nurse who gave details of Kate's condition. The presenters, from 2Day FM, remarked during their show how their efforts were the 'easiest prank call ever made', as they put on mock British accents they later described as 'terrible'. The Australian station and presenters advertised the stunt worldwide. Both presenters have deleted their Twitter accounts after an online backlash called for them to lose their jobs. One user, Alison Hassell, told Greig: 'If you have any kind of conscience or morals..... Right about now you should be typing your resignation.' Scott Ashworth tweeted: 'You scumbag, hope you get what's coming to you!', while another user, Michael Hird, wrote: 'I hope you're happy now.. The receptionist you rang has COMMITTED SUICIDE! You have blood on your hands now!' Greig also received what appeared to be threats on the social networking site. Costas Loizou swore at the presenter and ended his message: 'I might start calling your mum and leaving messages..in fact expect one on xmas day....' Other users directed abuse at her co-presenter Christian. Justine Daniel told him the hoax was a 'sick joke' and added: 'Hope you're banished from being on air forever.' Peter Timmins wrote: 'There are no words to describe the disgust that everyone else is feeling about the prank you thought so funny.' Sinead Gavaghan called him a 'vile, stupid creature', while Chris Campbell claimed: 'You should be fired and the station shut down.' In the call at 5.30am on Tuesday impersonating the Queen, Miss Greig said: ‘Oh, hello there. Could I please speak to Kate please, my granddaughter?’ Row: The DJs - known simply as Matty and Mel - have been linked to the suspected suicide by the hospital Jacintha worked in Shame: Mel Greig pictured with Australian singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte, bragged along with her co-presenter for days of their hoax phone call Thinking she was speaking to the Queen, the receptionist replied: ‘Oh yes, just hold on ma’am’. She then put the presenters through to one of the nurses who was caring for the Duchess. The nurse also believed she was speaking to the Queen and went on to make a number of deeply personal observations about Kate’s health. A recording of the entire conversation was played on the Sydney-based radio station 2Day. A radio station spokesman later apologised for the 'inconvenience' caused by the call. According to the website of the talent agency that promotes Greig, the prank was 'a bit of fun and indicative of Mel's high energy, anything for a laugh, personality'. Her profile reads: 'Mel started at 2Day FM, Sydney's number one hit music station, in early 2012 after five years experience in commercial radio and off the back of running her own radio school from her home town in Adelaide. 'Mel is well known and loved for her stint on The Amazing Race Australia in 2011 with sister Alana. 'She is also the consummate MC and has hosted everything from fashion events, modelling comps and award nights.' Hospital boss John Lofthouse confirmed his staff had passed on information about Kate, saying: 'This was a foolish prank call that we all deplore.' Third visit: Prince William arrives at the King Edward VII Hospital to visit his wife the Duchess of Cambridge in central London A Scotland Yard spokesman said yesterday: ‘Police were called at approximately 9.25am on Friday, December 7, to a report of a woman found unconscious an address in Weymouth Street, W1. ‘London Ambulance Service attended and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. 'Inquiries are continuing to establish the circumstances of the incident. ‘The death is not being treated as suspicious at this stage’. In a statement, the Royal College of Nursing said: 'The Royal College of Nursing has expressed sadness at the death of the nurse from the London hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge who took a hoax call about the Duchess's condition. 'Jacintha Saldanha, who was found dead this morning, had worked at the King Edward VII Hospital for more than four years and was described by the hospital as a first-class nurse who had cared diligently for hundreds of patients during her time there.' Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, said: 'This is tragic news, and the thoughts of all at the Royal College of Nursing go to the family of Jacintha Saldanha. 'It is deeply saddening that a simple human error due to a cruel hoax could lead to the death of a dedicated and caring member of the nursing profession.' MailOnline did not publish details of the tragedy until the hospital confirmed the woman's family had been contacted. Scrum: John Lofthouse the Chief Executive of King Edward VII's hospital and Lord Glenarthur, the hospital's Chairman, deliver a statement LEVESON: AUSSIE HOAX PROVES NEW PRIVACY LAWS NEEDED The prank call by Australian radio presenters who got a condition report from the Duchess of Cambridge's nurse by pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles proves the need for new privacy laws, Lord Justice Leveson has said. He blamed the 'historic failure' of successive British governments for failing to curb media intrusion and added individuals who tweet or use social media platforms are not beyond reach of the criminal law. The judge also criticised European magazines for publishing photographs of Kate topless on holiday and blamed the 'historic failure' of successive governments to curb media intrusion. During a speech in Sydney, he refused to respond to what he described as 'misconceived' criticism of his milestone report into the press. He was speaking to a £620-a-head audience at the Shangri-La Hotel. Leveson criticised 'certain sections' of the press which had “started to push against ethical boundaries and in some instances have pushed too far'. He then highlighted the 'recent Australian intrusion' into the Duchess of Cambridge’s 'private life while she was in hospital'. The Duchess of Cambridge is now resting at the London home she shares with Prince William after her release from the hospital where she had been recovering from hyperemesis gravidarum. She was forced to cancel a string of engagements because of her acute morning sickness. Kate, who was admitted to hospital on Monday, returned to Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace and cancelled upcoming engagements after doctors told her to rest. And she may have to recuperate without Prince William by her side, as he may be returning to duty with his Search and Rescue squadron at RAF Valley in Anglesey, it has been reported. She missed a planned fundraising engagement in the City of London on Wednesday because she was confined to hospital. William and the Duchess of Cambridge had been hoping to keep the news they were expecting a baby to themselves until Christmas Day. But with Kate admitted to hospital with acute morning sickness, they had little choice but to make the announcement. They delighted millions around the world – including their own families – with the happy news. But as the word spread, the parents-to-be were together in hospital, facing the first hurdle in a much longed for pregnancy. Kate, 30, who is barely eight weeks pregnant, was taken to the hospital just after Sunday lunch by her husband and immediately put on a drip to stop her becoming dehydrated. For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90 or visit a local Samaritans branch. 'ROYAL HOSPITAL PRIDES ITSELF ON DISCRETION AND EXCELLENT CARE ' King Edward VII hospital is one of the most exclusive private hospitals in the country, attracting world-class medical specialists It has been treating the Royal Family since it opened in 1899 at the suggestion of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and its patron is the Queen. It prides itself on 'a strong tradition of excellence in nursing', with one of the best nurse-to-patient ratios in the country, far exceeding the national average. Its website states: 'Our nursing staff are some of the very best and - unlike many hospitals - the vast majority are permanently employed by us.' It also states there has never been a case of hospital acquired MRSA or C-difficile. The hospital has been run by John Lofthouse, who has been chief executive since June 2009. Prior to that he worked as a general manager at the privately owned Circle Health, managing the Nottingham NHS Treatment Centre. Previous royal patients of King Edward VII include Prince Philip, who was treated for a bladder infection in June. Other royal patients are said to include Prince Charles, the Queen herself, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and the Countess of Snowdon. However, it is unlikely that the new arrival to the family will be born at King Edward VII. St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, is the said to be the bookies' favourite, helping to affirm the new tradition of The royal family of having children in NHS hospitals. Both Prince William and Prince Harry were born there, as were Zara and Peter Philips, the Princess Royal’s children. Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were born in the private Portland Hospital, while older generations, including Prince Charles, have traditionally been born at Buckingham Palace. As a registered charity, there are currently around 1,800 Friends of the Hospital who contribute £40 per year. The hospital also claims to have more than 4,000 supporters and the 2010 annual report shows that more than £2 million was raised through fundraising. Founded by Agnes Keyser in 1899 as a hospital for sick and wounded Officers returning from the Boer War, subsidies are automatically offered to all Service patients and are given regardless of rank, length of service or treatment. ANNA HODGEKISS VIDEO: RADIO STATION BOSS 'DEEPLY SADDENED' BY NURSE DEATH

– The Australian radio hosts whose royal hoax led to the apparent suicide of the nurse they tricked are off the air for the time being, reports the Guardian. Sydney station 2Day FM said Mel Greig and Michael Christian were "both deeply shocked" at the death of Jacintha Saldanha. "They will not return to their radio show until further notice out of respect for what can only be described as a tragedy." Earlier this week, the male-female radio team called up the London hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated and tricked Saldanha into giving them information by impersonating the queen. The mother of two was found unconscious today near King Edward VII hospital. "We as a family are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved Jacintha," said a family statement. A hospital spokesperson called her an "excellent nurse," reports the Daily Mail.

See more of D'Arreion Nuriyah Toles on Facebook ||||| Close Get email notifications on Venton Blandin daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. Whenever Venton Blandin posts new content, you'll get an email delivered to your inbox with a link. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. ||||| He said it made him feel “like you can’t be who you are in America.” In one of the videos, Mr. Toles is in an elevator and Ms. Mueller follows him. He says, “So now you’re going to follow me?” “I am,” she replies. In another video, she trails him in a hallway, saying she wants to introduce herself because he is a neighbor. “I do not want to speak with you,” he says. “Please stop following me. I’m going to call the cops for harassment. That’s my next step.” The last video shows Ms. Mueller outside his unit, with Mr. Toles standing in the doorway. “You just followed me all the way to my door,” he says. “And you see my keys in the door.” “As a record I just want to say, ‘Hi, what is your name?’” she begins to say before Mr. Toles cuts her off. “Ma’am — you just — no. Have a good night, ma’am,” he says. “Don’t ever do that again.” Brandon Mueller, Ms. Mueller’s estranged husband, said in an interview on Sunday that he was shocked to learn about the encounter after he got messages and notifications on Facebook. On Facebook, Mr. Mueller, who has a black father and white mother, posted a video in which he said he was disappointed about what happened. He said he had been separated from Ms. Mueller for more than a year and had not lived in the Elder Shirt Lofts building for just as long. ||||| 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.

– In the latest high-profile "living while black" incident, a white woman attempted to block a black man from entering his building in St. Louis, then called the police on him after he successfully made his way into his apartment. D’Arreion Toles recorded the Friday night encounter with Hilary Brooke Mueller, who was outside with her dog and repeatedly asked Toles what unit of the Elder Shire Lofts condominium complex he lived in. After he managed to get past her and into the building, she followed him into the elevator and all the way to his door, the New York Times reports. About 30 minutes later, police arrived at the unit and told Toles that Mueller had reported being "uncomfortable" with his presence; he told police he rented the unit and had shown Mueller his key fob. No one was cited, KMOV reports. He posted videos of the encounter on Facebook, where Mueller became known as "Apartment Patty" (reminiscent of "Permit Patty" and other such nicknames). Eventually her identity was uncovered and her employer, real estate management company Tribeca-STL, posted a statement on its website saying she had been fired. (The website is currently down.) Neither Mueller nor the police have yet commented on the situation, but Toles tells the Times he felt unsafe, even concerned he could end up like Botham Jean, the black man shot dead by a police officer in his own Dallas apartment. Even so, he asked supporters not to attack Mueller. "I am not upset with her. I am not going to go after her legally or anything like that," he says. "I wish her the best. I would still have a conversation with her." (This woman called 911 on a black lawmaker.)

“It is true that he’s broadened the search,” Kellyanne Conway said. | AP Photo State Department choice: None of the above? The final four of Romney, Giuliani, Corker and Petraeus has been expanded. Donald Trump’s short list for secretary of state is getting longer. Two new candidates are retired Adm. James G. Stavridis and Rex W. Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil. Both are expected to meet with Trump this week, according to sources familiar with the transition. At one point during the summer, Stavridis was mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick for Hillary Clinton. Story Continued Below The president-elect, who teased that “almost all” of his remaining Cabinet choices will be named this week, will interview more secretary of state candidates, senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said Sunday. “It is true that he’s broadened the search,” Conway said during a press briefing inside Trump Tower, confirming earlier comments from Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Trump’s transition team last week identified former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and former CIA Director David Petraeus as the top four contenders. “That list is expanding because at the moment, there are no — there is not a finite list of finalists only because he will interview with additional candidates early this week,” Conway said, later clarifying that the short list of candidates stands at “more than four.” “But who knows how many finalists there will be,” she said. “It’s a big decision, and nobody should rush through it.” The widening search for secretary of state suggests none of the initial final four candidates has stood out to Trump as the clear choice. Romney has been mocked by Conway and others, Giuliani has been bogged down by reports of foreign entanglements, senators have expressed support for Corker but Trump hasn’t been as vocal, and tapping Petraeus would be treated as hypocritical, given how aggressively the president-elect went after Democratic nomineeClinton on the trail for her handling of classified information as secretary of state. Conway downplayed the expansion, though, remarking that all that has changed since Trump narrowed his list to four is “a lot of qualified people.” “There’s many qualified people who have expressed an interest in serving,” she said. “I think one thing that really strikes us — and this is not unique to this president, who is unique — but there are a number of people that we may not have thought wanted to leave their very lucrative private industry positions to go and serve the government, and they are coming forth now and expressing interest, and it’s exciting, frankly, to at least get their counsel.” Pence had hinted earlier Sunday in an interview with host Chuck Todd on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the secretary of state list would grow. “With regard to secretary of state, we’ve been winnowing the list, but it might grow a little bit,” he said. “I think to talk to the president-elect is to know he’s simply looking for the best men and women to advance the agenda that we know will make America great again.” Asked what it is about the current field that has prompted Trump to broaden his search, Pence argued that expanding the short list isn’t a reflection of the field. “I think everyone that he’s talked to and has been talked about, whether it be Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney or General Petraeus or Senator Corker, John Bolton and others, bring extraordinary background and qualities to this,” Pence said. “But I think you're going to see the president-elect continue that process, to ensure that as he has a vision for really reengaging the world with an America-first agenda, advancing America’s interests in the world economically and diplomatically that he’s going to make sure that he has the right person in that role just like he is in every role.” POLITICO reported Friday that Trump’s team would be closely monitoring Petraeus’ interview with ABC’s “This Week” to see how he would handle concerns over his possible nomination. The retired general and former CIA director was candid in his Sunday interview, acknowledging that it was a mistake to share classified information with his biographer and admitting to lying, albeit unknowingly at the time, he said, to the FBI. “I made a mistake. I have, again, acknowledged it,” Petraeus said. “Folks will have to factor that in and determine whether that is indeed disqualifying or not.” As for whether Petraeus is even nominated to head the State Department, Pence said Trump will “factor the totality of General Petraeus’ career in making that decision.” Conway, who has voiced her opposition to Romney, stressed that America’s chief diplomat “is an incredibly important position for any president to fill” and said Trump is “very fortunate to have interest among serious men and women” who understand their primary role “would be to implement and adhere to the president-elect’s America-first foreign policy — if you will, his view of the world.” “So, he continues to — he continues to talk to different people,” Conway said. Reince Priebus, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, said while “things are moving fast,” the choice for secretary of state “is just taking a little bit longer, and I think it’s just fine.” “Everything doesn’t have to happen all at once, but he’s taking his time, making a smart decision. And we’ll see where that goes,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, another vocal Romney critic, praised Trump for his patience, crediting him specifically for not rushing to choose Romney or hastily opposing him, either. But Gingrich noted that as tough and deliberately aggressive as he has been against choosing Romney, “I’ve gotten no blowback from anybody, including Reince.” “There’s a sense of you’re allowed to have your own opinion. This is like ‘The Apprentice,’” he said. “When we get to a decision, we ought to all be on the same team. But until that decision’s made, you know, it’s a fair conversation.” Gingrich insisted he will support Trump’s decision, even if it’s Romney, but stressed that the real estate mogul needs “to build a real team.” “He can’t possibly do it by himself, and he’s showing that he understands that,” Gingrich said. The vocal anti-Romney campaign could ultimately prove fruitful, though. As Gingrich said, Trump generally gives more weight to what people tell him in person, but “on occasion, it helps to reinforce that on TV.” Alex Isenstadt contributed to this report. ||||| Vice President-elect Mike Pence speaks at a "Get Out The Vote" rally to stump for Republican senate candidates in New Orleans, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Associated Press) Vice President-elect Mike Pence speaks at a "Get Out The Vote" rally to stump for Republican senate candidates in New Orleans, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times local): 11 a.m. Kellyanne Conway is saying that President-elect Donald Trump is expanding his secretary of state search beyond the four finalists announced last week. Conway told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower on Sunday that Trump would have "additional interviews" this week but she did not identify the new candidates. Conway, who was Trump's campaign manager, said that all the candidates "need to understand" that they must "be loyal" to the president-elect's view of the world. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is one candidate who might be considered, according to someone close to the transition process who was not permitted to speak publicly about the process. The previously identified finalists are Mitt Romney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former CIA director David Petraeus and Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker. ___ 10:10 a.m. Alec Baldwin says if Donald Trump releases his taxes, he'll stop impersonating him. The actor is lashing back at the president-elect's swipes of his performance on Saturday Night Live. Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the show and Baldwin's impersonation specifically, tweeted late Saturday night that the show is "unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny." He added that "the Baldwin impersonation just can't get any worse. Sad." Baldwin began impersonating Trump on the NBC show in the later months of the campaign and has continued the stint since Trump won the election last month. Baldwin replied, through the Twitter handle of the Alec Baldwin Foundation, "Release your tax returns and I'll stop." Trump has long said he would release his taxes following the completion of an audit. ___ 9:30 a.m. Vice President-elect Mike Pence says Donald Trump's phone call with Taiwan's leader was a "courtesy call" and does not necessarily reflect a shift in U.S. policy. The phone call drew an irritated response from China, whose foreign minister called the contact a "small trick by Taiwan" and noted that "healthy" U.S.-China relations hinge upon the so-called "one-China" policy. In a Sunday interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," Pence shrugged off China's annoyance as media hype and noted the estimated 50 calls Trump has had with world leaders since the Nov. 8 election. Pence said he's not aware of any contact between Trump or his advisers and Chinese officials since the incident. When asked if there might be a follow-up phone call to Chinese leaders this week, Pence said probably not. ___ 7:40 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is confident that President-elect Donald Trump will soon realize the level of responsibility his job entails. Despite Trump's pro-Russian statements during the campaign, Russian politicians are concerned about reports that Trump is considering Mitt Romney, known for his harsh stance on Russia, to be his secretary of state. Putin said in an interview with the NTV channel to be broadcast later on Sunday that Trump's business accomplishments show him to be a "smart man." He added that "if he is a smart man, that means that he will fairly soon become aware of a different level of responsibility. We expect that he act with these considerations in mind." ___ 7:35 a.m. President-elect Donald Trump is threatening heavy taxes as retribution for U.S. companies that move their business operations overseas and still try to sell their product to Americans. In a series of early-morning tweets Sunday, Trump vowed a 35 percent tax on products sold inside the U.S. by any business that fired American workers and built a new factory or plant in another country. Trump campaigned on a vow to help American workers but also to reduce taxes and regulations on businesses. Trump tweets "there will be a tax on our soon to be strong border of 35 percent for these companies wanting to sell their product, cars, A.C. units, etc., back across the border." He says companies should be "forewarned prior to making a very expensive mistake."

– Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Bob Corker, and David Petraeus: Donald Trump's shortlist for secretary of state is evidently not as short as previously thought, reports Politico. "It is true that he’s broadened the search," said Kellyanne Conway, who's made no secret of her personal contempt for Romney, on Sunday at Trump Tower. "I think you've all seen the list before that already existed. I think there'll be additional interviews with other candidates for secretary of state and other Cabinet positions, and deputy Cabinet positions as well." That reveal syncs up with what Mike Pence earlier told Meet the Press: "With regard to secretary of state, we've been winnowing the list, but it might grow a little bit." The AP floats a potential addition, citing an anonymous transition source: Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman. Pence is downplaying Trump's call to Taiwan's leader as a "courtesy call." China was not happy. Meanwhile, in Russia, Vladimir Putin is praising Trump as a "smart man" as evidenced by his business acumen. Further, "if he is a smart man, that means that he will fairly soon become aware of a different level of responsibility. We expect that he act with these considerations in mind." Putin is said to be antsy that Trump might appoint Romney, whose stance toward Russia is harsh.

— The CIA said Thursday that it had opened an “exploratory” investigation into the conduct of former director David Petraeus, who resigned after admitting to adultery, on the same day that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the military services to review ways to strengthen ethics standards “that keep the military well led and well disciplined.” The CIA and Pentagon actions were the latest fallout from the shocking resignation of Petraeus, a retired four-star Army general, and revelations that four-star Marine Corps Gen. John Allen exchanged inappropriate emails with the woman who triggered the FBI probe that exposed Petraeus’ affair. The military brass also has been rattled by a slew of lesser-known, more serious cases, including a one-star general recalled from Afghanistan who is facing criminal charges of sexually assaulting or committing adultery with five women. The Pentagon, however, insisted that the timing of Panetta’s directive was “coincidental.” The FBI, meanwhile, was trying to determine if Paula Broadwell, the Army Reserve intelligence officer with whom Petraeus was romantically involved, had the security clearances needed to possess all of the classified materials found on her personal computer, according to a senior law enforcement official, who requested anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive subject. "There are levels of clearance that she may not have had authorization for certain documents,” the senior law enforcement source said. “That’s what they’re really trying to sort out is classification levels, clearance levels." The FBI investigation could take a while, the official said, because the bureau wants "to conduct a thorough investigation to see if there was any classified information that was either compromised or mishandled. That’s something (the FBI takes) very seriously." Broadwell, 40, who voluntarily allowed the FBI to search her Charlotte, N.C., home on Monday night and remove two computers, had her security clearances withdrawn by the Army on Wednesday. The preliminary investigation by the CIA inspector general’s office into Petraeus was apparently aimed at assessing his general conduct during his 14-month stint as the nation’s top spy. “At the CIA we are constantly reviewing our performance. If there are lessons to be learned from this case we’ll use them to improve,” said a statement quoting an unnamed CIA spokesperson. “But we’re not getting ahead of ourselves; an investigation is exploratory and doesn’t presuppose any particular outcome.” The scope of the investigation wasn’t disclosed, including whether it would involve questioning the CIA security team that accompanied Petraeus everywhere, 24 hours a day. Meanwhile, Petraeus will testify Friday before closed-door hearings of both the House and Senate intelligence committees on the circumstances surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. consulate and a nearby CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya. They resulted in the deaths of four Americans, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, a State Department staffer and two CIA contract security officers. The attacks ignited a political firestorm, with critics questioning whether the Obama administration had provided adequate security, reacted properly and offered accurate accounts of what happened. “The opportunity to get his views is very important,” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said of Petraeus. CNN reported that Petraeus told one of its reporters in a conversation that his resignation had nothing to do with the Benghazi attack and that he wanted to testify. Panetta’s order to Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for the ethical standards review by the service chiefs was announced during a visit by the defense secretary to Bangkok, Thailand. The assessment “is intended to reinforce and strengthen the standards that keep the military well led and disciplined,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said. “The secretary believes that the vast majority of our senior military officers exemplify the strength of character and the highest ethical standards the American people expect of those whose job it is to provide for the security of our nation.” The review’s findings will be used as the basis for a report that will be presented to President Barack Obama by Dec. 1. Some independent experts welcomed the announcement in light of the scandal enmeshing Petraeus and Allen, who is the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. “These are people who in their leadership role are supposed to set an example,” said Nicholas Fotion, a professor of philosophy and military ethics at Emory University in Atlanta. “If they don’t do that, they do more harm than if an ordinary male soldier has an affair with a female soldier. If you accept a leadership role, you accept certain responsibilities.” Petraeus and other U.S. military leaders have been “glorified” by the American public during more than a decade of war, and some may have come to believe that they could relax their standards of conduct, he said. “The high status we gave them has gone to their heads,” said Fotion. Frances V. Harbour, a professor of international security issues at George Mason University in Virginia who specializes in military ethics, said that the new review appeared to be aimed at reinforcing at senior levels lessons in “making the right choices” that military academies work to inculcate in cadets. She said that the pressures from long overseas deployments away from families to which service members have been subjected is “part of the explanation” for troubling behavior by senior officers. “But that doesn’t mean it’s an excuse,” she added. “You are still obligated by the special promises you made to not just follow normal moral codes, but to follow these military codes which are much stricter,” she said. Petraeus, 60, who has been married for 38 years, disclosed his affair with Broadwell, his married biographer, in resigning on Friday, saying his behavior was “unacceptable.” On Monday, Panetta announced that he’d ordered the Pentagon inspector general to investigate more than 20,000 emails and other documents that Allen exchanged with Jill Kelley, a Tampa, Fla., socialite who threw parties for prominent citizens and senior officers from MacDill Air Force Base, home of the U.S. Central Command. Kelley, 37, and her husband were friends with Petraeus – who served as CENTCOM commander from October 2008 until June 2010 – and Allen, 58, who served as Petraeus’ deputy, and his wife. Kelley’s complaint earlier this year to an FBI agent who she knew about threatening anonymous emails triggered the FBI investigation that led to Broadwell and uncovered her affair with Petraeus. The first email reportedly was sent in May to Allen, who subsequently forwarded it to Kelley. The military also has been rocked by Panetta’s decision this week to penalize William Ward, a former four-star general who led U.S. Africa Command, and order him to repay $82,000 for taking extravagant and unauthorized trips with his wife, and the sexual assault and adultery charges facing Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair of the 82nd Airborne Division. In another recent case, James H. Johnson III, a former commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, was convicted of bigamy and fraud stemming from an improper relationship with an Iraqi woman and her family, busted in rank and expelled from the Army. Greg Gordon of the Washington Bureau contributed. Email: jlanday@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @JonathanLanday ||||| Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said on Thursday that the F.B.I. investigation into a cyberstalking case that revealed the affair concluded that e-mails Mr. Petraeus and Ms. Broadwell exchanged did not violate national security. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Speaking at a news conference in New Orleans to announce a settlement with the oil company BP, Mr. Holder said the White House and Congress were not notified about Mr. Petraeus’s situation until last week because the national security concerns had been allayed. “As we went through the investigation, we looked at the facts and tried to examine them as they developed,” Mr. Holder said. “We felt very secure in the knowledge that a national security threat did not exist that warranted the sharing of that information with the White House or with the Hill.” The spotlight will turn to Mr. Petraeus on Friday, when he testifies in closed session to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees — not about his affair, though that may well come up, but mainly about the attacks on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Petraeus gave his first interview since resigning, telling Kyra Phillips of CNN that he had never given classified information to Ms. Broadwell and that his resignation had been solely because of their relationship. He said it had nothing to do with disagreements over the attack on the American Mission and a C.I.A. safe house in Benghazi. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Leading administration officials, meanwhile, met privately with lawmakers for a third straight day to explain how the Petraeus investigation was handled and explore its national security implications. Among those appearing before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees were James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence; Michael J. Morell, the acting C.I.A. director; and Sean Joyce, the deputy F.B.I. director. Advertisement Continue reading the main story After a four-hour closed hearing on Thursday, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who heads the Intelligence Committee, said the panel had reviewed a detailed chronology of the attack on Sept. 11 that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. It included a video made from a composite of sources, including Predator drone video of the events that night. Ms. Feinstein said that in addition to meeting with Mr. Petraeus on Friday to hear his account of the attack — as well as an assessment of a visit he made just two weeks ago to the C.I.A.’s station in Tripoli, Libya’s capital — the committee would hold at least three additional hearings on the matter. Photo “We are in effect fact-finding,” she said. Ms. Feinstein and the panel’s senior Republican, Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, declined to tell reporters what questions they had asked the witnesses, but Mr. Chambliss and his colleagues said previously they would examine possible intelligence flaws, security lapses and the Obama administration’s handling of the issue. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “Were mistakes made?” Mr. Chambliss said. “We know mistakes were made, and we’ve got to learn from that.” Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Earlier in the day, the same administration officials faced tough questioning from members of the House Intelligence Committee. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Representative C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the committee’s top Democrat, said after the hearing that he was satisfied the F.B.I. had behaved properly in not notifying the White House or lawmakers about the inquiry sooner, in keeping with post-Watergate rules set up to prevent interference in criminal investigations. Leading Republicans, including Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have criticized the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, for suggesting that the siege in Benghazi was a spontaneous protest rather than an opportunistic terrorist attack. Advertisement Continue reading the main story But Mr. Ruppersberger said on Thursday that this criticism was unfair and that the intelligence community’s assessment of what had happened was now roughly what Ms. Rice recounted on several Sunday talk shows. “You had a group of extremists who took advantage of a situation, and unfortunately we lost four American lives,” he said. Mr. Ruppersberger also underscored what intelligence officials have said for weeks: that the attack on the diplomatic mission seemed disorganized, and without good command and control, but that the second attack, a mortar strike on the C.I.A. base nearly eight hours later, was much more sophisticated. It was clearly the work of terrorists, he said. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Representative Adam B. Schiff, a California Democrat on the panel, said that Benghazi would be the main focus of Friday’s hearing, but that lawmakers still had many questions “with respect to the facts about the allegations against General Petraeus.” While the intelligence committees questioned witnesses behind closed doors, Democrats and Republican sparred openly at a hearing on Benghazi by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which heard testimony from outside experts. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Michael J. Courts, a specialist from the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, told lawmakers that his agency warned three years ago in a report that the State Department’s diplomatic security division had failed to devise an effective strategic plan to deal with a growing number of operational challenges in increasingly dangerous overseas posts like Pakistan, Yemen and Libya. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Representative Ed Royce, a California Republican on the committee, suggested that the United States had been ill-prepared to cope with the threats posed in eastern Libya on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, despite a string of assaults against the Red Cross and Western diplomats in the previous several months. “Somebody forgot to circle the calendar on 9/11,” he said. Others, like Representative Gerald E. Connolly, a Virginia Democrat who visited Libya in May, said that the Foreign Service was inherently dangerous in certain places, but that American diplomats needed to keep doing their jobs. Libya was a case in point, Mr. Connolly said. “When I landed at Tripoli, there was a militia, not the government, guarding the airport in Tripoli,” he said. “It’s an inherently unstable situation after 40 years of autocratic rule by Qaddafi. Tragedies happen.” ||||| * No CIA documents on mistress' computer -sources * Spy agency launches probe of its own * Petraeus says resigned CIA post over affair, not Benghazi By Mark Hosenball and Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Classified material kept by the woman who conducted an affair with former CIA Director David Petraeus predates their liaison and does not come from the spy agency, sources briefed on the investigation told Reuters on Thursday. The finding appears to bolster assertions by both Petraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, that their affair did not put national security secrets at risk - a central question hovering over the scandal that brought down one of the United States' most respected public figures last week. The CIA said on Thursday it had opened an "exploratory" investigation into Petraeus' conduct, building on the FBI's probe. Law enforcement officials have said they believe the FBI investigation is likely to end without criminal charges. The scandal has cast a spotlight on the private lives of some of the nation's top national security officials. The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Marine General John Allen, now faces a Pentagon inspector general's review of what sources describe as "flirtatious" emails with a Tampa socialite. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the military's top brass to look for any gaps in ethics amid concerns officers' lapses in judgment could erode public confidence in the military. Traveling in Bangkok, Panetta said he knew of no other military officials who have been drawn into the investigation. Petraeus and Broadwell have separately told investigators they did not share security secrets, and Petraeus has repeated that assertion to associates and a television reporter. In his first public comments on the matter, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday the FBI did not see any possible threats over the course of the investigation that were urgent enough to notify President Barack Obama or lawmakers until shortly before Petraeus stepped down. BROADWELL HAD SECURITY CLEARANCE FBI agents have found a substantial amount of classified information on Broadwell's personal computer since they searched her Charlotte, North Carolina, home with her consent on Monday. Sources briefed on the investigation said the documents date from before August 2011, when Petraeus took up his post at the CIA and the two started their affair. None of the material comes from the CIA. As an Army reserve officer involved in military intelligence, Broadwell had a security clearance that allowed her to handle sensitive documents. However, she would still have to comply with strict rules that lay out how sensitive materials must be protected. Broadwell's security clearance has now been suspended. She could have it revoked and face harsher penalties if it is found she mishandled classified data. Petraeus' remarks notwithstanding, investigators said on Thursday they had not ruled out the possibility that he passed on classified material to Broadwell. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing law enforcement investigation. Broadwell, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, has made no public comment since the scandal erupted last week. 'PRETTY CRITICAL INTERVIEW' Some lawmakers have questioned why they were not notified of the probe until after last week's presidential election. Holder, at a news conference in New Orleans, defended the Justice Department's handling of the case and its sharing of information with top Obama administration officials. "After a pretty critical interview occurred the Friday before we made that disclosure, when we got to that point where we thought it was appropriate to share the information, we did so," Holder said at a news conference. Petraeus is due on Friday to face lawmakers who are examining the September attacks in Benghazi, Libya, which led to the death of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador. The attack has turned into a flash point between Obama and Republicans who accuse his administration of misleading the public in the days following the attack. The questioning will be confined to the events in Benghazi, said one lawmaker who is expected to participate. "We'll get his perspective on what information he knew and how his assessment of that intelligence changed over time," said Democratic Representative Adam Schiff. Petraeus told the television network HLN that he resigned because of the affair, not Benghazi.

– The CIA announced yesterday that it is opening its own investigation into the conduct of former chief David Petraeus, and sources tell the New York Times the investigation will center around whether Petraeus misused any CIA assets—from security details to private jets—to carry out his affair with Paula Broadwell. The CIA itself didn't shed much light into the scope of the probe, reports McClatchy. "At the CIA we are constantly reviewing our performance," said a spokesperson. "If there are lessons to be learned from this case we’ll use them to improve. But we’re not getting ahead of ourselves; an investigation is exploratory and doesn’t presuppose any particular outcome.” Meanwhile, sources tell Reuters that the classified information held by Paula Broadwell predated her relationship with Petraeus, backing up his assertion that he divulged none and that their affair did not put national security at risk. Eric Holder announced yesterday that the FBI probe that originally uncovered the affair found that Petraeus and Broadwell did not violate national security in their email exchanges. Petraeus is set to testify before a Congressional committee today on the Benghazi attack that killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens.

This view from the Viking 2 shows Utopia Planitia on Mars in 1976. Some researchers think that the Viking lander's main instrument may have burned up organic molecules in collected soil samples. Over 40 years ago, a NASA mission may have accidentally destroyed what would have been the first discovery of organic molecules on Mars, according to a report from New Scientist. Recently, NASA caused quite a commotion when it announced that its Curiosity rover discovered organic molecules — which make up life as we know it — on Mars. This followed the first confirmation of organic molecules on Mars in 2014. But because small, carbon-rich meteorites so frequently pelt the Red Planet, scientists have suspected for decades that organics exist on Mars. But researchers were stunned in 1976, when NASA sent two Viking landers to Mars to search for organics for the first time and found absolutely none. Scientists didn't know what to make of the Viking findings — how could there be no organics on Mars? "It was just completely unexpected and inconsistent with what we knew," Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, told New Scientist. [Viking 1: The Historic First Mars Landing in Pictures] A technician checks the soil sampler on the Viking Lander in 1971 before the probe traveled to Mars. Some scientists think that the organic molecules in the soil samples collected by the lander were burned up accidentally. Credit: NASA. A possible explanation arose when NASA's Phoenix lander found perchlorate on Mars in 2008. This is a salt used to make fireworks on Earth; it becomes highly explosive under high temperatures. And while the surface of Mars isn't too warm, the main instrument aboard the Viking landers, the gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GCMS), had to heat the Martian soil samples to find organic molecules. And because perchlorate is in the soil, the instrument would have burned up any organics in the samples during this process. The discovery of perchlorate reignited scientists' convictions that the Viking landers could have found organics on Mars. "You get some new insight, and you realize that everything you thought was wrong," McKay said. However, finding perchlorate didn't provide concrete proof that the Viking landers found and accidentally destroyed organic molecules, so the investigation continued. The variety of organic molecules that Curiosity recently discovered on the Red Planet included chlorobenzene. This molecule is created when carbon molecules burn with perchlorate, so scientists suspect that it could have been created when the soil samples were burnt, according to New Scientist. Researchers were inspired by this indirect evidence to dig a little deeper and find more evidence that the Viking landers could have found and then destroyed organics. In a new study, published in June in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Melissa Guzman of the LATMOS research center in France, McKay and a handful of collaborators revisited the Viking lander data to see if anything was missed. This team found that the Viking landers also detected chlorobenzene, which the researchers said could have formed from burning organic material in the soil samples. Still, this is not proof that the Viking landers found organic molecules and then accidentally burned them, the researchers told New Scientist. Even the scientists who completed this investigation are divided. Guzman said she still isn't completely convinced that the chlorobenzene they detected formed when organics in Martian soil were burned. She said that the molecule could have come from Earth aboard NASA equipment. But despite this skepticism, others are convinced; "this paper really seals the deal," Daniel Glavin, an astrobiologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who was not involved in the study, told New Scientist. Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her @chelsea_gohd. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. ||||| NASA/GSFC NASA recently announced its Curiosity rover had discovered complex organic molecules – key raw materials for life as we know it – on the surface of Mars. But now it seems a previous NASA probe may have made the same discovery more than 40 years ago, then accidentally burned it up. In 1976, NASA’s twin Viking landers conducted the first experiments that searched for organic matter on the Red Planet. Researchers had long known that all planets receive a steady rain of carbon-rich micrometeorites and dust from space, meaning that Mars should be …

– Much was made of NASA's announcement last month that "building blocks of life" had been found on Mars. But new research suggests the same organic molecules may actually have been discovered by Viking landers NASA sent to Mars in 1976—and then accidentally burned, New Scientist reports. The landers' main instrument was a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer, which used heat in an attempt to find organic matter. But scientists now know that due to a chemical in the soil on Mars, that process would have destroyed anything organic. At the time, scientists were "shocked" when the Viking landers reported finding nothing organic, USA Today reports. "It was just completely unexpected and inconsistent with what we knew," a NASA scientist explains, per Space.com. Small, carbon-rich meteorites frequently hit Mars, so researchers had long assumed there would be organic matter on the planet. When scientists discovered perchlorate, a salt that's explosive under high temperatures, in Mars soil, they realized what might have happened during the 1976 mission. The new study corroborates the idea of the Viking landers possibly discovering and then destroying organic matter, but it doesn't conclusively prove it.

Supreme Court blocks ruling that let transgender Va. student use boys' bathroom The Supreme Court signaled in an order Wednesday that it is highly likely to grapple with the issue of transgender bathrooms in its coming term. Acting on a 5-3 vote, the justices put on hold a groundbreaking court ruling requiring a Virginia school district to accommodate a transgender high school student’s request to use the boys’ bathroom. Story Continued Below It’s the first time the high court has shown interest in the transgender bathroom issue, which has prompted nearly half of states to sue the Obama administration over its interpretation of federal civil rights law. The Justice and Education Departments have said transgender students are offered sweeping civil rights protections under federal law, including their right to access bathrooms and locker rooms in alignment with their gender identity. The American Civil Liberties Union is representing student Gavin Grimm in the case. Senior staff attorney Joshua Block said, “We are disappointed that the court has issued a stay and that Gavin will have to begin another school year isolated from his peers and stigmatized by the Gloucester County school board just because he’s a boy who is transgender. We remain hopeful that Gavin will ultimately prevail.” Francisco Negrón, general counsel and associate executive director of legal advocacy at the National School Boards Association, said the high court eventually will have to resolve the issue of transgender bathroom access. "A quick court resolution would be a welcome thing," he said, as schools and districts are struggling with conflicting messages and policies from the federal government, states, districts and court cases. Attorneys for the school board said they welcomed the Supreme Court’s action "as the new school year approaches." "The Board continues to believe that its resolution of this complex matter fully considered the interests of all students and parents in the Gloucester County school system," the school board said. The Justice Department declined to comment. Justice Stephen Breyer joined with the court’s four GOP appointees to lift—for now—the obligation of the Gloucester County school system to allow Grimm to use the bathroom of his choice in accordance with Obama Administration guidance. In a statement accompanying the order, Breyer said he was agreeing to the stay as a “courtesy” because the court is in recess and putting the ruling on hold "will preserve the status quo." The three other Democratic appointees opposed the stay. However, since only four justices are needed to grant review in a case, the fact that the four Republican appointees favored the stay sought by the school district is a strong sign the high court will agree to take up the case this fall. Nathan Smith, director of public policy for the LGBT advocacy organization GLSEN, said "preserving the 'status quo’ unfortunately means allowing a school district to discriminate against a transgender student." "But it doesn’t seem like the decision here was on the merits of the case, so we feel pretty confident that they’ll ultimately rule in a just way," Smith added. "But at least in the short-term we’re pretty disappointed.” A Richmond, Va.-based federal appeals court ruled in April that the U.S. Department of Education acted within its authority when issuing guidance to school systems on the transgender bathroom issue and that Grimm’s school had a duty to follow it. The school board filed an emergency application with SCOTUS last month, asking Chief Justice John Roberts to suspend a lower court’s decision granting Grimm bathroom access while they ask the Supreme Court to take up the case. As is customary, Roberts referred the request to the full court. Authors: ||||| The school board said it intended to file an appeal petition by the end of this month that formally asks the high court to review the 4th Circuit's decision. If the justices agree to hear the case, which now seems likely, it would be one of the court's major cases of the coming term. If a 4-4 deadlock is averted, the case could yield the court's first ruling on the issue of transgender rights. ||||| RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Virginia school board can block a transgender male from using the boys restroom when school starts next month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. In a 5-3 decision, the high court put on hold a lower court ruling that ordered the Gloucester County School Board to let Gavin Grimm use the bathroom that matches his gender identity. The school board is expected to ask the justices to further intervene in the case later this month. The decision means Grimm will be barred from using the boys bathroom for at least the first half of his senior year, said Josh Block, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who's representing Grimm. The school board says it plans to formally ask the Supreme Court to review 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Grimm's case by the end of August and then it will be months before the justices decide whether to do so. Block said he's disappointed the teen will have to begin another school year being "stigmatized and isolated from the rest of his peers just because he is transgender." But he said he remains hopeful that Grimm will ultimately prevail in the case. Grimm, who was born female but identifies as male, was allowed to use the boys restroom at his high school for several weeks in 2014. But after some parents complained, the school board adopted a policy requiring students to use either the restroom that corresponds with their biological gender or a private, single-stall restroom. Grimm argues the policy violates Title IX, a federal law that bars sex discrimination in schools. The school board counters that allowing Grimm use the boys restroom raises privacy concerns and may cause some parents to pull their children out of school. An attorney for the board didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. If the justices agree to hear Grimm's case, the order will remain on hold until the court makes a final ruling, the court's ruling said. If they deny the school board's petition for review, the order requiring the board to let Grimm use the boys bathroom will be reinstated. The appeals court sided with Grimm in April, saying the federal judge who previously dismissed Grimm's Title IX discrimination claim ignored a U.S. Department of Education rule that transgender students in public schools must be allowed to use restrooms that correspond with their gender identity. The appeals court reinstated Grimm's Title IX claim and sent it back to the district court for further consideration. But the high court's decision Wednesday puts Grimm's case on hold until the justices decide whether to intervene. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented. Justice Stephen Breyer said he agreed to put the case on hold to "preserve the status quo" until the court decides whether to weigh in. ___ Follow Alanna Durkin Richer on Twitter at https://twitter.com/aedurkinricher. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/alanna-durkin-richer.

– Seventeen-year-old Gavin Grimm will start his senior year of high school once again banned from using the boys restroom, the AP reports. In a 5-3 decision on Wednesday, the US Supreme Court put a hold on the decision of a lower court that would have allowed Grimm, a transgender male, to use the boys restroom at his school in Virginia. According to the Los Angeles Times, an appeals court ruled in April that the school board was in violation of Title IX when it barred Grimm from the boys restroom. Grimm's lawyer says the Supreme Court's decision means Grimm will continue to be "stigmatized and isolated from the rest of his peers just because he is transgender." However, Politico reports it's likely the Supreme Court will hear Grimm's case when it reconvenes in the fall. And that's good news for Grimm and transgender students like him: A hearing on the issue will probably result in a 4-4 tie, which will uphold the appeals court's earlier ruling and allow Grimm to use the boys restroom—albeit months from now, according to the Times. The appeals court's ruling will also be upheld if the Supreme Court decides not to hear the case. Grimm used the boys restroom for a few weeks in 2014 until a number of parents complained. The Virginia school board says it wants to "protect the basic expectations of bodily privacy."

Not only did FiveThirtyEight's Silver pick all 50 state winners in the presidential race, he also beat out his polling aggregator rivals for sheer margin of accuracy. FiveThirtyEight blogger and statistician Nate Silver. (Credit: CBSNews.com) While there's already been whole swimming pools of ink devoted to the Election Day prediction performance of polling aggregators like FiveThirtyEight blogger Nate Silver, CNET is ready to hand out one more round of kudos to the king of the quants. By now, anyone following the presidential election knows that Silver successfully predicted the winner in the race between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in all 50 states. That performance was one for the ages, earning him worldwide admiration and validating a polling aggregation model that had drawn mockery and ire from many pundits. This CNET chart shows that, among polling aggregators, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver was more accurate than anyone on Election Day. (Credit: Data by Daniel Terdiman/CNET) But Silver wasn't the only one to do exceptionally well in the prediction department. In fact, each of the five aggregators that CNET surveyed yesterday -- FiveThirtyEight, TPM PollTracker, HuffPost Pollster, the RealClearPolitics Average, and the Princeton Election Consortium -- successfully called the election for Obama, and save for TPM PollTracker and RealClearPolitics handing Florida to Romney, the aggregators were spot on across the board when it came to picking swing state victors. Read: The post-election tech tally: Winners and losers Still, even within the club of those who used computational analysis of thousands of national and statewide polls to peg the outcome of the election, someone had to be the most accurate. And a CNET examination of each aggregator's performance reveals a single winner -- unsurprisingly, Silver. In addition to picking the winner in all 50 states -- besting his 49 out of 50 slate in 2008 -- Silver was also the closest among the aggregators to picking the two candidates' popular vote percentages. All told, he missed Obama's total of 50.8 percent by just four-tenths of a percentage point (50.4) and Romney's 48 percent by just three-tenths of a point (48.3) for an average miss of just 0.35 percentage points. HuffPo Pollster and RealClearPolitics tied for second with an average miss of 0.85 points. In preparing to make these comparisons, CNET surveyed 11 swing states. In the end, Silver was closest to the final margins among the candidates in seven of them and also had the best overall record, missing by an average of just 1.46 points in the 11 states. TPM PollTracker was second with the closest predicted margins in three states, and the second-best average margin, 1.80 points. It is worth noting that while Silver's final pre-election calculations showed a tie vote in Florida, he still predicted a 50.3 chance that the president would prevail in the Sunshine State. The performances by Silver and his fellow polling aggregators should be sounding alarm bells in the halls of long-venerated pollsters like Gallup -- which, by the way, predicted that Romney would win the national popular vote by a point. For the Nate-haters, here's the 538 prediction and actual results side by side twitter.com/cosentino/stat... -- Michael Cosentino (@cosentino) November 7, 2012 But the situation does create a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. While the results of pollsters like Gallup and many of its competitors are looking increasingly suspect in the face of more accurate predictions by Silver and other aggregators, and while some may begin choosing to ignore those traditional polls, the aggregators could not do what they do without the standard polling systems. In the meantime, even Silver may need to tip his cap to someone who seems to have done an even better job at prognosticating the final presidential election results. In a blog post today, dailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas noted that he had predicted exactly the final Electoral College vote totals and reported an average margin in the swing states that was less than Silver's or that of any aggregator. Moulitsas' methodology? A savvy but seemingly manual reading of last-minute pre-election polls. Maybe the quants don't have all the answers after all. Correction, November 8, 4 p.m. PT: The above chart originally misreported the number of points by which TPM PollTracker was off in Florida. The correct figure is 1.7 points. ||||| Two more presidential elections, 2016 and 2020, will be contested under the current Electoral College configuration, which gave Barack Obama a second term on Tuesday. This year’s results suggest that this could put Republicans at a structural disadvantage. Based on a preliminary analysis of the returns, Mitt Romney may have had to win the national popular vote by three percentage points on Tuesday to be assured of winning the Electoral College. The last Republican to accomplish that was George H.W. Bush, in 1988. In the table below, I have arranged the 50 states and the District of Columbia from the most Democratic to the most Republican, based on their preliminary results from Tuesday. Along the way, I have counted up the number of electoral votes for the Democratic candidate, starting at zero and going up to 538 as he wins progressively more difficult states. This process resembles how the FiveThirtyEight tipping-point analysis was calculated. In the simulations we ran each day, we accounted for the range of possible outcomes in each state and then saw which states provided Mr. Obama with his easiest route to 270 electoral votes, the minimum winning number. The state that put Mr. Obama over the top to 270 electoral votes was the tipping-point state in that simulation. Photo Now that the actual returns are in, we don’t need the simulations or the forecast model. It turned out, in fact, that although the FiveThirtyEight model had a very strong night over all on Tuesday, it was wrong about the identity of the tipping-point state. Based on the polls, it appeared that Ohio was the state most likely to win Mr. Obama his 270th electoral vote. Instead, it was Colorado that provided him with his win – the same state that did so in 2008. The worry for Republicans is that Mr. Obama won Colorado by nearly five percentage points (4.7 points was his margin there, to the decimal place). In contrast, Mr. Obama’s margin in the national popular vote, as of this writing, is 2.4 percentage points. We estimate that it will grow to 2.5 percentage points once some remaining returns from states like Washington are accounted for, or perhaps slightly higher once provisional ballots in other states are counted. But it seems clear that Mr. Obama had some margin to spare in the Electoral College. Had the popular vote been a tie – assuming that the margin in each state shifted uniformly – he would still have won re-election with 285 electoral votes, carrying Colorado and Virginia, although losing Florida and Ohio. In fact, had Mr. Romney won the popular vote by two percentage points, Mr. Obama would still have won the Electoral College, losing Virginia but holding onto Colorado. Of course, the relative order of the states can shift a bit from election to election: in 2000, after all, it was Democrats who lost the Electoral College despite winning the popular vote. Ohio might be one of the Republicans’ lesser worries. Mr. Obama did win the state, but his margin is 1.9 percentage points based on the ballots in so far, slightly less than his margin of victory nationally, and he may have benefited there from the auto bailout, a one-off event. But Mr. Obama did not need Ohio to carry the Electoral College, it turned out. Instead, states where there have been demographic shifts, like Colorado, gave him enough of a cushion. Nor was Ohio the only formerly Republican-leaning state to move closer to the Electoral College tipping point. Mr. Obama’s margins in Virginia, Florida and North Carolina also held up well as compared to 2008. Virginia, in fact, was incrementally more Democratic-leaning than the country as a whole this year, voting for Mr. Obama by three percentage points. In Florida, Democrats now seem to have a real advantage with Hispanic voters. Non-Cuban Hispanics there voted for Mr. Obama by roughly the same two-to-one margins that they did in other states, and the Cuban-American vote, long considered Republican-leaning, is now divided about equally between the parties. Mr. Obama lost North Carolina on Tuesday, but he did so by only about two percentage points. By contrast, in 2000 Al Gore lost North Carolina by 13 points despite winning the national popular vote. If these states are becoming more Democratic-leaning, which ones are shifting toward Republicans? Missouri, once a tossup, is now solidly Republican. And West Virginia, which was once Democratic-leaning enough that Michael Dukakis carried it in 1988, voted for Mr. Romney by 27 points on Tuesday. The problem for Republicans is that in states like these, and others like Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas, they are now winning by such large margins there that their vote is distributed inefficiently in terms of the Electoral College. By contrast, a large number of electorally critical states – both traditional swing states like Iowa and Pennsylvania and newer ones like Colorado and Nevada – have been Democratic-leaning in the past two elections. If Democrats lose the election in a blowout, they would probably lose these states as well. But in a close election, they are favored in them. The Republican Party will have four years to adapt to the new reality. Republican gains among Hispanic voters could push Colorado and Nevada back toward the tipping point, for example. States like Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Iowa are overwhelmingly white – but also highly educated, with fairly progressive views on social policy. If Republicans moderated their tone on social issues, they might be more competitive in these states, while regaining ground in Northern Virginia and in the Philadelphia suburbs. Finally, some of the Democrats’ apparent advantage in the swing states may reflect Mr. Obama’s voter targeting and turnout operations – which were superior, by most accounts, to John McCain’s in 2008 and Mr. Romney’s in 2012. It is not my job to give advice, but the next Republican nominee might be well served to remember that the party won the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote in 2000, when George W. Bush and Karl Rove put more emphasis on the “ground game.” But the Republicans seemed to be at a disadvantage in the last two years when their candidates put less of an investment into it. If the parties continue down the same paths, however, this won’t be the last election when most of the swing states turn blue.

– Nate Silver has a right to gloat, but his first post-election blog post at the New York Times resists the urge. Well, mostly: He acknowledges a "very strong night" and links to a glowing CNET review. Silver does, however, admit to getting one thing wrong on election night: Turns out the "tipping point" state for President Obama as defined by his formula was Colorado, not Ohio as he forecast. Republicans might take heed that Silver thinks they face a "structural disadvantage" in coming elections given that crucial states are turning bluer. "The Republican Party will have four years to adapt to the new reality," he writes. "Republican gains among Hispanic voters could push Colorado and Nevada back toward the tipping point, for example." Read the full post here. Or read about the (fake) "drunk Nate Silver" Twitter meme here.

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. ||||| The former child star has been more famous for her run-ins with the police and the media than anything else in recent years, but a move to the UK and a London stage debut changed all that Sitting in the corner of the bar of the Connaught hotel in Mayfair, wide-eyed, sipping iced water, Lindsay Lohan is telling me in her cracked voice about the latest addiction she is having to suffer cold turkey from. “It was such a diligent thing,” she says, “the schedule was very ritualistic, so not to have that every day has been a really strange feeling. It’s been hard for me to adjust.” Her compulsion, now removed from her life, has been to appear on stage eight times a week for three months in David Mamet’s play Speed-the-Plow at the Playhouse theatre, a run that had come to an end a week before we met. Contrary to expectations, she didn’t miss a show (or a cue) and is finding withdrawal tough. She is still talking to the director Lindsay Posner every day, planning her next fix: she is desperate to do another Mamet play with Posner – Oleanna – as early as possible in the new year. Lohan, 28, has been acting on screen since her parents (of whom it was once observed “if they were any more low-rent they’d be a spring-break destination”) put her forward for auditions when she was three. The London show is only the second time she has appeared on stage, however – the other was a school production of Cinderella at 13 when, having been cast as an ugly sister rather than the lead (and already a real-life million-dollar-a-movie Disney princess) she walked out after a couple of performances. One of several great things about her latest commitment, she says, is that for three months it removed a question that has dogged her recent life: how to fill the evenings? “In LA I didn’t know what to do apart from go out every night,” she says. “That’s when my friends were free. And I would go out and there would be all these cameras there and that’s when it became difficult.” That obsessively documented “difficulty” is shorthand for the literal multiple-car-crash-of-a-life that saw Lohan twice imprisoned for driving under the influence, indicted for fights in nightclubs and for lying to the police, in and out of rehab for drug and alcohol addictions and on almost permanent probation for the last seven years: the ubiquitous cautionary caricature of celeb excess gone bad. At one point in 2011 Lohan was ordered to do a series of 12-hour shifts of community work in the LA county morgue. If the intention of that curious punishment was to give her a sense of her own fragile mortality, the talent she was throwing away, it has taken until this year to finally sink in. She herself puts her current sobriety down to a couple of things. Firstly, the intervention and example of the archetypal celebrity fairy godmother, Oprah Winfrey. In the curious double bind of Oprah’s friendship, the counselling sessions she gave Lohan were broadcast to a global TV audience and an intrusive five-part reality show about Lohan’s struggles with life lived in public was aired in the spring. Lohan remains grateful for the last of many “second chances” Oprah offered her. The second strand of her strategy to change her life around was perhaps braver and more radical, however: she moved to London. Lohan has lived in the capital for nine months now, has a lease for another year on her flat in the West End, and is currently planning to make it her permanent home. She can’t emphasise enough the liberation the move has given her. “I can go for a run here on my own,” she says. “I do every morning, early, and I think how my friends in New York would still be up partying at that time. I needed to grow up and London is a better place for me to do that than anywhere else.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lindsay Lohan (Karen) and Nigel Lindsay (Charlie Fox) in Speed-The-Plow at the Playhouse theatre in London. Photograph: Tristram Kenton The defining moment of this shift, she says, came on a holiday she took to Greece in the summer. “It was,” she says, still thrilled at the idea, “the first time I have ever just been on a vacation by myself. I just wandered about on my own! I turned off my phone. It was so extraordinarily freeing for me. Like another life.” The world, which had for so long reflected back to her an ugly image of herself, was suddenly just “out there”. “I won’t live in LA again, hell no,” she says. “My friends tell me shit when they come over I don’t want to hear. I don’t even know who got married and who got pregnant. You turn on the news in LA and it is all gossip about people. All the stuff that is going on in the world right now and this gossip is the news?” She laughs. “I love the BBC. I haven’t heard myself mentioned on TV since I have been here. That has been really weird for me, and great.” Having moved to London, there was, she says, quickly only one thought in her head: to do a play. She was encouraged to take on the role of Karen in Mamet’s Hollywood satire not only by the playwright himself but also by his friend, Al Pacino. The actor came to see Lohan a couple of nights into her performance and offered her advice throughout the play’s run. “He said I know you are going to love this, it will be such a rush for you. He helped me get a routine; I like to meditate a bit before I go on to stage. He warned me the adrenaline you have after is tricky, it’s late and you want to do something. I have let myself go eat, and then I have gone home.” The other thing she has learned was that all-important lesson of having to turn up. Having infamously stood up the American justice system on several occasions, she was determined to prove herself able to keep an appointment. “One time I was sick with a bug, I had been vomiting all day, but no way was I going to miss a show. I was sitting there beforehand seeing spots in front of my eyes. I had a plan: if I felt sick on stage I was going to faint, play dead, pretend it was part of the script. Didn’t happen fortunately.” The self-imposed disciplines made her feel good about herself for the first time since she can remember, since the early successes of The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday, maybe. “Going on to a film set there have been times when I really hated it,” she says. “When I just wanted to stop and be home. I should have done that, because instead all the court stuff happened.” Lohan’s redemptive Hollywood journey from jail to stage would not be complete, of course, without a degree of 12-step wisdom. Oprah gave her a self-help book that has become her bible, The Untethered Soul, by Michael Singer. The book has helped her to shut down the destructive voice in her head, she says, the one that, against her first instincts, told her to get in the car drunk, or turn up late for the court appearance, or to have just one more. “There is a chapter called ‘The Rose and the Thorn’, you sit on a couch, and you imagine that voice in your head as a person next to you. You learn how to distance yourself from that person.” Part of her “intention-led” life has been to become involved in a charitable community project in London, the Red Route Cafe in Hackney, which helps young people find a sense of purpose through volunteering. “The kids there know me a bit now,” she says, “and they treat me the same as everyone else. That is so cool for me. In the past I got used to meeting people who would seem like genuine people but often they would have other intentions. There is less of that for me here now.” She hasn’t given up on movies, but the immediacy of the stage is something she will not give up lightly. Will we be seeing Lohan doing Shakespeare any time soon? “I would like to do a period piece at least,” she says. “I enjoyed having a British accent when I did Parent Trap so I guess I am halfway there. The way I see it,” she says, a threat and a promise, “the longer I live here the less of a choice you will all have not to hire me for plays… ”

– Those of you hanging around the Chateau Marmont hoping to catch a glimpse of Lindsay Lohan can go home. Lohan has been living in London for the past nine months, and in an interview with the Observer, she says she has no plans to return to the City of Angels. "I won't live in LA again, hell no," she says. "My friends tell me shit when they come over I don't want to hear. I don't even know who got married and who got pregnant. You turn on the news in LA and it is all gossip about people. ... I love the BBC. I haven't heard myself mentioned on TV since I have been here. That has been really weird for me, and great." She says London is one of the main reasons for her current sobriety (it's right up there with Oprah Winfrey's intervention). "In LA I didn't know what to do apart from go out every night," she says. "That's when my friends were free. And I would go out and there would be all these cameras there and that's when it became difficult." In London, she continues, "I can go for a run here on my own. I do every morning, early, and I think how my friends in New York would still be up partying at that time. I needed to grow up and London is a better place for me to do that than anywhere else." (In addition to an acting comeback, Lohan is attempting a fashion comeback.)

A day after police said two pipe bombs detonated in an unpopulated part of a mall in Lake Wales, Florida, the FBI now believes the incident was caused by a pair of marine flares. "There is no indication of any explosion at the mall and no pipe bombs were found," according to a statement released Monday by the FBI's Tampa field office. "It appears two items, believed to be marine flares, were ignited in a mall hallway, creating a large amount of smoke, and a backpack was located at the scene." Bomb technicians "examined the contents of the backpack and determined it did not contain any incendiary or explosive devices," the statement said. Any fears of terrorism have so far been ruled out. "There is no current indication of any terrorist connection to this incident," the statement added. A statement published on the Eagle Ridge Mall's website echoed the FBI, saying that "two signal flares triggered a fire alarm" and that it was open for business. It was a different story Sunday night, however. The reports coming from local authorities suggested the mall had sustained some kind of nefarious attack. Authorities said Sunday evening that two improvised explosive devices had detonated in the corridor of the mall. After Lake Wales police arrived, the mall was quickly evacuated and a perimeter established. No injuries were reported. Emergency personnel from surrounding counties responded to the mall around 5:30 p.m. Lake Wales Police Department Deputy Chief Troy Schulze said initially there was a "smoke alarm" inside a remote, unpopulated service corridor. When authorities arrived, "they determined that an IED, or a pipe bomb explosive, had detonated in the corridor," Schulze said. Cops soon made the determination that it was not just one pipe bomb that went off, but two. Then, Schulze said, authorities found a "backpack or book bag that contained five or six other IEDs that were not detonated," adding that those devices were "safely removed." "We had guys go in and do a cursory search to make sure there wasn't anything else suspicious or out of place," he said. Schulze said multiple witnesses told police about a middle-aged man -- with a "heavy/stocky build, wearing a gray shirt and gray hat" -- seen running from the area. "If anybody knows or hears anything we hope they would contact us," he said on Sunday. It's unclear if police or the FBI are still in pursuit of this person-of-interest given the new information. ABC News' Darren Reynolds contributed to this report. ||||| Sign in using you account with: {* loginWidget *} Sign in using your wftv profile Welcome back. Please sign in Why are we asking this? By submitting your registration information, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . Already have an account? We have sent a confirmation email to {* data_emailAddress *}. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. Thank you for registering! Thank you for registering! We look forward to seeing you on [website] frequently. Visit us and sign in to update your profile, receive the latest news and keep up to date with mobile alerts. Click here to return to the page you were visiting.

– Police are hunting what they call a "person of interest" after two improvised explosive devices went off at a mall in central Florida Sunday evening, causing damage and a small fire but no injuries. Police in Lake Wales say the pipe bombs went off in a service corridor near the entrance of the Eagle Ridge Mall's JC Penney store, WFTV reports. The mall was quickly evacuated after the IEDs went off around 5:20pm, reports ABC News. Authorities say the devices caused damage to a drop ceiling and to the wall of a docking area where trucks load and unload cargo. A backpack was found at the scene. Police say the person they're seeking is a middle-aged white male with a heavy/stocky build who was seen wearing a gray shirt and gray hat. The Polk County Sheriff's Office, the State Fire Marshal, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad have joined the investigation, the Ledger reports. Lake Wales Police Department Deputy Chief Troy Schulze says the bombing could have been a lot more dangerous if it had hit an area where there were shoppers.

Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua have offered asylum to Edward Snowden, the US whistleblower who is believed to have spent the past two weeks at a Moscow airport evading US attempts to extradite him. The Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his Nicaraguan counterpart, Daniel Ortega, made the asylum offers on Friday, shortly after they and other Latin American leaders met to denounce the diversion of a plane carrying the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, due to suspicions that Snowden might have been on board. Shortly after, Morales also said Bolivia would grant asylum to Snowden, if asked. On Saturday, Venezuela's offer was given a warm reception by an influential member of the Russian parliament. In a tweet, Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the Duma foreign affairs committee, said: "Asylum for Snowden in Venezuela would be the best solution." The invitations from South America came as Snowden sent out new requests for asylum to six countries, in addition to the 20 he has already contacted, according to WikiLeaks, which claims to be in regular contact with the former National Security Agency contractor. Most of the countries have refused or given technical reasons why an application is not valid, but several Latin American leaders have rallied together with expressions of solidarity and welcome. "As head of state of the Bolivarian republic of Venezuela, I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young Snowden … to protect this young man from persecution by the empire," said Maduro who, along with his predecessor Hugo Chávez, often refers to the US as "the empire". The previous day, Maduro told the Telesur TV channel that Venezuela had received an extradition request from the US, which he had already rejected. A copy of the request, seen by the Guardian, notes that Snowden "unlawfully released classified information and documents to international media outlets" and names the Guardian and the Washington Post. Dated 3 July and sent in English and Spanish, it says: "The United States seeks Snowden's provisional arrest should Snowden seek to travel to or transit through Venezuela. Snowden is a flight risk because of the substantial charges he is facing and his current and active attempts to remain a fugitive." It adds that he is charged with unauthorised disclosure of national defence information, unauthorised disclosure of classified communication intelligence and theft of government property. Each of these three charges carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. Describing Snowden as "a fugitive who is currently in Russia", it urges Venezuela to keep him in custody if arrested and to seize all items in his possession for later delivery to the US. It provides a photograph and two alternative passport numbers – one revoked, and one reported lost or stolen. Maduro said he did not accept the grounds for the charges. "He has told the truth, in the spirit of rebellion, about the US spying on the whole world," Maduro said in his latest speech. "Who is the guilty one? A young man … who denounces war plans, or the US government which launches bombs and arms the terrorist Syrian opposition against the people and legitimate president, Bashar al-Assad?" The Bolivian government, which has said it would listen sympathetically to an aslyum request from Snowden, said it too had turned down a pre-emptive US extradition request. Ortega said Nicaragua had received an asylum request from Snowden and the president gave a guarded acceptance. "We are an open country, respectful of the right of asylum, and it's clear that if circumstances permit, we would gladly receive Snowden and give him asylum in Nicaragua," Ortega told a gathering in Managua. So far, the countries that have been most vocal in offering support are close allies of Venezuela. Ecuador has also expressed support for Snowden, though the government there has yet to decide whether it would grant aslyum. It is already providing refuge for the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for about a year. Many in Latin America were furious when the Bolivian president's flight from Russia was denied airspace by European countries, forcing it to land in Vienna, where Morales had to spend more than half a day waiting to get clearance to continue his journey. Morales said the Spanish ambassador to Austria arrived at the airport with two embassy personnel and asked to search the plane. He said he refused. The Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, acknowledged on Friday that the decision to block Morales plane was based on a tip that Snowden was on board. "They told us that the information was clear, that he was inside," he told Spanish TV, without clarifying who the tip was from. It is assumed the US was behind the diversion, though US officials have said only that they were in contact with the countries on the plane's route. France has apologised to Bolivia. Morales said when he finally arrived in La Paz: "It is an open provocation to the continent, not only to the president; they use the agent of North American imperialism to scare us and intimidate us." At a hastily called meeting of the Unasur regional bloc, many governments condemned the action against Morales plane. "We are not colonies any more," Uruguay's president, José Mujica, said. "We deserve respect, and when one of our governments is insulted we feel the insult throughout Latin America." The Argentinean president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, was also present, along with a senior representative of President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil. Regional support may make it easier for the country offering asylum to resist US pressure for extradition. But whether Snowden can make it to South America remains uncertain, as are his current circumstances. He has not been seen or heard in public since he flew to Russia from Hong Kong. WikiLeaks says it is in touch with him and that he has widened his search for aslyum by adding six new countries. In a tweet, the group said it would not reveal the names of the nations "due to attempted US interference". ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The presidents of Venezuela and Nicaragua explain their offers The presidents of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia have indicated their countries could offer political asylum to US fugitive Edward Snowden. Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro said it would give asylum to the intelligence leaker, who is believed to be holed up in a transit area of Moscow airport. Meanwhile Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said his country would do so "if circumstances permit". Bolivia's Evo Morales said Mr Snowden could get asylum there if he sought it. Mr Snowden has sent requests for political asylum to at least 21 countries, most of which have turned down his request. Earlier, Wikileaks said he had applied to six additional countries on Friday. The whistleblowing website said it would not name the countries "due to attempted US interference". But even if a country accepted the American's application, getting there could prove difficult, the BBC's Steven Rosenberg, in Moscow, reports. European airspace could be closed to any aircraft suspected of carrying the fugitive, our correspondent says. Earlier this week, several European countries reportedly refused to allow the Bolivian president's jet to cross their airspace on its way back from Moscow - apparently because of suspicions that Edward Snowden was on board. Mr Morales described Mr Snowden's actions as "a fair way of protesting" and described him as "persecuted by his fellow countrymen". "We are not scared [of reprisals]," he added. Speculation President Maduro made his announcement in a speech on Venezuela's Independence Day. "As head of state and government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young US citizen Edward Snowden so he can come to the fatherland of Bolivar and Chavez to live away from the imperial North American persecution," President Maduro said. The US wants to prosecute Mr Snowden over the leaking of thousands of classified intelligence documents. Earlier Mr Ortega said Nicaragua had received an application at its embassy in Moscow. "We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua," AFP news agency quoted the Nicaraguan president as saying. Image caption President Ortega said the asylum application was received in Moscow Daniel Ortega was a fierce opponent of the US during his first period as Nicaragua's president in the 1980s, after the left-wing Sandinista movement came to power. Bolivia, which had also suggested it could offer Mr Snowden asylum, saw its presidential plane barred from European airspace on Tuesday. There was speculation the 30-year-old was on the plane carrying President Evo Morales back from Russia to La Paz earlier this week. "Edward Snowden has applied to another six countries for asylum," tweeted Wikileaks, which has been helping the former CIA contractor. "They will not be named at this time due to attempted US interference." The US has been blamed for being behind the decision by France, Portugal, Italy and Spain to close its airspace to Bolivia's president, whose plane was grounded in Austria for 13 hours as a result. Earlier on Friday, Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo admitted he and other European officials had been told that Mr Snowden was on board - but refused to say who gave out the information. He denied Spain had closed its airspace to the presidential plane, explaining that the delay in Austria meant the flight permit had expired and needed to be renewed. His comment is the first official recognition by the European states that the incident with Mr Morales' plane was connected with the Snowden affair. It has been widely condemned by President Morales and several other South American nations, who were critical of the US. Mr Snowden arrived in the Moscow airport from Hong Kong last month. He revealed himself to be responsible for the leaking of classified US intelligence documents that revealed a vast surveillance programme of phone and web data. The documents have also led to allegations that both the UK and French intelligence agencies run similarly vast data collection operations, and the US has been eavesdropping on official EU communications. ||||| President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela said Friday that he would offer asylum to the fugitive intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden, who has been stranded in a Moscow airport searching for a safe haven. “I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American Edward Snowden,” Mr. Maduro said during a televised appearance at a military parade marking Venezuela’s independence day. Mr. Maduro said he had decided to act “to protect this young man from the persecution unleashed by the world’s most powerful empire.” It was not immediately clear, however, how Mr. Snowden could reach Venezuela or if Mr. Maduro was willing to help transport him. Also on Friday, Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, said he was open to taking in Mr. Snowden. “It is clear that if the circumstances permit we will take in Mr. Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum in Nicaragua,” Mr. Ortega said in Managua. Mr. Snowden has sought asylum from more than two dozen nations. Most countries have declined. The offers from Venezuela and Nicaragua appeared to be linked to outrage in Latin America over the treatment last week of President Evo Morales of Bolivia, whose plane was denied permission to fly over several European countries because of what Bolivian officials said were unfounded suspicions that Mr. Snowden was aboard. Mr. Morales was on his way home from a meeting in Moscow. Mr. Maduro had previously voiced sympathy for Mr. Snowden. He frequently bashes the United States, depicting it as an imperialist bully in Latin America. But at the same time he has shown a desire to improve relations with the United States, directing his foreign minister to start talks with Washington aimed at smoothing the rocky relationship with the top buyer of his country’s all-important oil exports. Earlier on Friday, WikiLeaks said in a post on Twitter that Mr. Snowden, who is wanted by the United States on charges of revealing classified government information, “has applied to another six countries for asylum,” following up on similar applications to about 20 nations last week. Supporters of Mr. Snowden clearly blame the refusals on pressure from the United States, and, as a result, WikiLeaks said it would not reveal the latest countries in which he is seeking shelter. “They will not be named at this time due to attempted US interference,” the group wrote on Twitter. In Russia, officials have expressed impatience over Mr. Snowden’s continuing sojourn in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport. On Thursday, a deputy foreign minister, Sergey A. Ryabkov, told reporters that Mr. Snowden should pick a destination and leave as soon as possible. Russia was apparently among the original countries to which Mr. Snowden submitted an asylum request, but a spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin, Dmitri S. Peskov, has said since that the request was withdrawn. On Thursday, Mr. Putin sent a telegram to President Obama noting the Fourth of July holiday and restating his commitment to holding a summit meeting in Moscow in September, ahead of the G20 conference, which will be in St. Petersburg. American officials have signaled that Mr. Obama is unlikely to visit Moscow if Mr. Snowden is still holed up at Sheremetyevo airport.

– He wasn't on that plane to Bolivia, but Edward Snowden may yet end up in Latin America. Venezuela and Nicaragua said yesterday they'd be willing to grant asylum to the NSA leaker, reports the BBC. Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega was a little less expansive, saying his country would do so if "circumstances permit," but Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro said his country would be proud “to protect this young man from the persecution unleashed by the world’s most powerful empire," reports the New York Times. Of course, even when Snowden picks a country, he still has to get there from Russia, and European countries have shown they're willing to shut down airspace to prevent that. WikiLeaks says Snowden applied to six more countries yesterday, reports the Guardian. He had previously applied to nearly two dozen nations, but diplomatic pressure from the US resulted in a series of rejections. Latin America has since united behind him, thanks in part to the treatment of the Bolivian president's plane.

Image caption The fragment of pelvis dates back to the period in history when King Alfred died A fragment of pelvis bone unearthed in Winchester in 1999 may belong to King Alfred the Great or his son Edward the Elder, academics have said. It was found at a previous dig at Hyde Abbey and has been dated to 895-1017 - the era the king died. Experts were originally testing remains exhumed last year from an unmarked grave at St Bartholomew's Church, where it was thought he was buried. But they were found to be from the 1300s, not 899, when the king died. The fragment of pelvis had been among remains stored in two boxes at Winchester's City Museum and was tested by academics at Winchester University after their study into the exhumed remains proved fruitless. Royal differences At first glance, the find appears similar to the discovery of King Richard III's skeleton beneath a Leicester car park. But there are a number of key differences between the two. DNA testing proved beyond "reasonable doubt" the bones thought to be Richard III's matched descendants of the monarch's family. Dr Katie Tucker, who analysed the bones found in Winchester, admits it will not be as easy to do likewise in this case. She said: "This is a path that may be worth pursuing but it's a very long way to go back, an extra 500 years to go back than Richard III, it's always going to be more of a difficult task to find a descendant." More tests and investigations are planned, but it could be a while yet before the Alfred the Great 'discovery' attracts Richard III levels of attention and drama. Who was King Alfred the Great? BBC Two: The Search for Alfred the Great The university and the community group behind the search, Hyde900, are now calling for further excavations at Hyde Abbey Gardens in the hunt for more remains. 'Hard to prove' Experts said the bone, recovered from the site of the abbey, came from a man who was aged between 26 and 45-plus at the time of his death, leading them to believe it could be either Alfred or his son Edward. Dr Katie Tucker, whose examination of the bones will feature in a BBC documentary, said: "These are the bones that were found closest to the site of the high altar. "As far as we know, from the chronicles and the records, the only individuals close to the site of the high altar who are the right age when they died and the right date when they died would either be Alfred or Edward." The remains at St Bartholomew's Church, which carbon dating showed to be from the wrong era, were exhumed last year amid security fears after publicity surrounding the discovery of Richard III's remains under a Leicester car park. Dr Tucker said she was later made aware of the remains found at Hyde Abbey. No analysis of that find was conducted due to a lack of funding and because a bone discovered next to it was found to be from the 17th or 18th century, and it was not thought to be of any interest. Dr Tucker then arranged for tests to be carried out on the pelvic bone. She said: "The simplest explanation, given there was no Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Hyde Abbey, is that this bone comes from one of the members of the West Saxon royal family brought to the site. DNA match "Given the age at death of the individual and the probable male identity, the plausible candidates are King Alfred, King Edward the Elder, or the brother of King Edward, Aethelweard." Richard Buckley, co-director of the University of Leicester's archaeology services, led the search for Richard III. Image caption Dr Katie Tucker believes the fragment belongs to a member of the West Saxon royal family He said it would be "very hard to prove" the bone belongs to King Alfred. "With Richard III we had to build a case with lots of different threads, we knew historic accounts... including trauma on the skeleton, we knew he died a violent death," he said. "We got to the point with the balance of probability that it was him, with the DNA it meant we could say it was beyond reasonable doubt. "The difficulty with this bone is that it is only one bone, you're having to rely on historical accounts of only two males being brought and reburied there - Alfred and his son - it depends if any males may have been buried without documentation. "If they could find an articulated skeleton there could be other clues." The King Alfred team said it may be possible to extract DNA from the pelvic bone but the problem would be finding another DNA source to check it with. Dr Tucker said they tried to get a sample from Alfred's granddaughter, who is buried in Germany, but efforts failed as her grave was not well preserved. The investigation is the subject of a BBC2 documentary due to be broadcast on Tuesday 21 January at 21:00 GMT. ||||| King Alfred the Great's bones discovered in a MUSEUM: Remains inside box are thought to belong to Anglo-Saxon ruler Pelvis bone was stored at Winchester City Museum after an excavation in the late 1990s - but could also belong to Edward the Elder Remains of Alfred the Great were believed to lie in a grave in St Bartholomew’s Church in Winchester, Hampshire You wait centuries for the discovery of a royal body … and then two come along at once. A year after the remains of Richard III turned up under a car park in Leicester, archaeologists have found a piece of a pelvis that could belong to Alfred the Great. Experts are sure the fragment, excavated from the grounds of Hyde Abbey in Winchester, came from Alfred or his son Edward the Elder. It has been kept in a box in a storeroom at Winchester City Museum since 1999, but only now have historians realised its importance. The pelvis bone (right) of King Alfred the Great (illustrated left) is believed to have been found in a box stored in a museum, and not buried in an unmarked grave as previously thought They initially disregarded the find because it was found near other remains which were hundreds of years younger. But carbon dating has shown the bone dates from 895-1017, which scientists believe makes it unlikely to have come from anyone apart from the father or the son. Alfred is known to generations of schoolchildren for burning the cakes, but his rule of Wessex was hugely important. The king, who died in 899, held back the Viking invaders, established the foundations of our law codes and justice system, and safeguarded the English language and Christian religion. His son Edward the Elder, who ruled until 924, continued his work, driving the Danes north and unifying the kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia and East Anglia. Finding Alfred’s remains has long been a passion for historians, because his body was known to have been moved at least once after New Minster in Winchester, his first burial place, was demolished in the early 12th century. The bodies of Alfred and his successors were moved to Hyde Abbey in 1110, but the building was demolished during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries and the graves were dug up when a prison was built on the site in 1788. Convicts building the prison looted royal jewellery from the coffins and stole the lead lining, before smashing up the bones and flinging them around the site. The search for Alfred’s remains has for decades been complicated by a false lead suggesting they were buried in an unmarked grave at nearby St Bartholomew’s Church. Three headstones mark the spot of the former Hyde Abbey, where a pelvic bone that could potentially belong to King Alfred the Great was found. Although the bone was discovered during an excavation in 1999, it is only recently that tests have led researchers to make a link between the bone and King Alfred and his son But historians who opened the grave last year found that the remains of six bodies inside, including at least one skull, dated from 1100 to 1500AD – much later than Alfred’s reign. After that disappointment Dr Katie Tucker, researcher at the University of Winchester, went back to bones stored in the city museum to seek other leads. To her astonishment, she discovered one bone was much older than those around it. Human osteology researcher Katie Tucker demonstrates the size of the pelvic bone which tests have discovered could potentially belong to King Alfred the Great or his son HOW WILL SCIENTISTS KNOW IF THE BONE BELONGS TO KING ALFRED? Dr Tucker said that it might be possible to extract DNA from the pelvic bone but said the problem was finding another DNA source to check it with. ‘There's a good chance of extracting DNA and comparing it to Alfred's granddaughter who is buried in Germany but they did try to get a DNA sample from her grave but were not able to because it was not so well preserved so we need to find someone else to compare them with,’ she said. She explained that it would theoretically be possible to check against a living ancestor, as had been done with Richard III, but the problem was identifying a definite descendant. She said: ‘We have had quite a number of individuals who have been contacting us, sending us their family trees, saying they are descendants of Alfred. ‘This is a path that may be worth pursuing but it's a very long way to go back, an extra 500 years to go back than Richard III, it's always going to be more of a difficult task to find a descendant.’ The carbon dating range was wide enough to cover both Alfred and his son. ‘The range does cover the death dates of Alfred and Edward equally well, I would say it's likely to be one of them, I wouldn't like to say which one of them,’ she said. She said it might be possible to extract DNA from the pelvic bone but the problem would be finding another DNA source related to Alfred to check it with. Archaeologist Neil Oliver, who will present a BBC2 documentary about the find, said: ‘To find that Alfred the Great or his direct descendant has survived, literally by the seat of his pants, into the 21st century is astonishing. ‘It overshadows the discovery of Richard III’s remains. Alfred is one of the few great kings of England that most people can name. He’s a mythologised figure, almost like Arthur.’ Alfred the Great ruled from 871 to 899 and is remembered for his social and educational reforms, military victories against the Vikings and of course his legendary bad cooking skills. The story goes that the Vikings sprung a surprise attack on Alfred and his men, causing them to go on the run and beg for food in the Wiltshire marshes. The wife of a swineherd gave the men food and asked Alfred to keep an eye on the baking cakes, which he famously burnt. Historians have suggested the tale might be a metaphor for the ailing health of the Kingdom of Wessex or a show of the king's humility. Dr Tucker was made aware of the existence of the bones after the skeletons exhumed last year turned out to be a red herring. She arranged for tests to be carried out on the pelvic bone, which not only dated it but found that it belonged to a man aged between 26 and 45 at death. Dr Tucker said: 'The simplest explanation, given there was no Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Hyde Abbey, is that this bone comes from one of the members of the West Saxon royal family brought to the site. 'Given the age at death of the individual and the probable male identity, the plausible candidates are King Alfred, King Edward the Elder, or the brother of King Edward, Aethelweard. Alfred the Great ruled from 871 to 899 and is remembered for his social and educational reforms, military victories against the Vikings and of course his legendarily bad cooking skills where he burned cakes (an illustration is pictured) 'All were buried in the abbey. However, historical evidence indicates that only the coffins of Alfred and Edward were at the site of the high altar. 'The discovery of the bone in a pit dug into the graves in front of the high altar makes it far more likely it comes from either Alfred or Edward.' Dr Nick Thorpe, head of the department of archaeology at the university, said: 'The department of archaeology is extremely excited to have been able to plausibly link this human bone to one of these two crucial figures in English history. Archaeologists at the University of Winchester carried out an exhumation of the grave at St Bartholomew's Church in Winchester, Hampshire, last March in a bid to find the last resting place of the ninth-century king. They now believe the king's bones have been found inside Winchester City Museum Archaeologists carried out an exhumation of a grave at St Bartholomew's Church Winchester, Hampshire, (pictured) last March in a bid to find the last resting place of King Alfred the Great 'We also believe that we are thereby helping the city to right a historical wrong done to the remains of these great kings, which began with the dissolution of Hyde Abbey in 1539 to be followed by centuries of neglect, destruction and disturbance up to the last antiquarian diggings in 1901. 'Monks brought their remains to Hyde in 1110 because they wanted to preserve and honour them and this project enables us to do this once more.' The university is now going to work with local heritage charity Hyde900 on further investigations into the findings with further excavations being considered and a suitable resting place being planned for the royal bones. Professor Yorke said that Alfred was revered by the Victorians, partly because he was the only Anglo-Saxon king with a full biography and he was often accredited with many achievements which did not actually originate with him. In 1901, a famous statue of Alfred (pictured) was raised in Winchester

– Archaeologists may have uncovered a bone fragment belonging to Alfred the Great—in 1999. The English king, who ruled from 871 until his death in 899, made news last year when experts thought they had found his unmarked grave. Except the remains they found there turned out to be from the 1300s, so they turned to decade-old dig records from Hyde Abbey, where Albert's bones were said to have been moved, the BBC reports. Gathering dust in a storage box at Winchester's City Museum sat a fragment of pelvic bone that had never been examined, because funding on that dig ran out and because a bone found next to it was dated to the 17th or 18th century. Now, carbon dating places the fragment in the right time period: 895 to 1017, the Daily Mail notes. It was also determined to come from a man who died between the ages of 26 and roughly 45. "These are the bones that were found closest to the site of the high altar," an archaeologist says. "As far as we know, from the chronicles and the records, the only individuals close to the site of the high altar who are the right age when they died and the right date when they died would either be Alfred or (his son) Edward." Researchers now plan to break ground again near the spot the bone was found in the hope that more will turn up. (Click for news on another Great—this one felled by a bad batch of wine.)

Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia said he did "nothing wrong" as he left federal court in Boston Thursday afternoon, following his early morning arrest on charges that he defrauded investors in his company to fuel his "lavish lifestyle." The 26-year-old mayor, who pleaded not guilty to nine counts of wire fraud and four counts of filing false taxes Thursday, emerged from the courthouse with a smile and a message. "I've done nothing wrong. If you look at my track record as mayor all you see is positive results," he told media gathered outside in the rain. "I was elected and re-elected with 65 percent of the vote in Fall River and if you look at those bogus charges or whatever they're called there is not a single thing...I did wrong as the mayor of the city of Fall River." Correia was arrested by FBI and IRS agents at a home in Bridgewater at 6:30 a.m. Thursday. Andrew Lelling, U.S. Attorney for the district of Massachusetts, alleges the mayor spent more than half of the money Massachusetts residents invested in his app SnoOwl on personal items. This included airfare, luxury hotel stays, adult entertainment, dating services, designer clothes, and a Mercedes, prosecutors allege in an indictment. Correia changed from the polo shirt and jeans he wore during his arraignment into a suit before exiting court to speak with more than a dozen reporters. He thanked the agents who arrested him for being "nice." He said he was not angry. "It's not my best Thursday. It's raining," he said. "I don't like to be out in the rain." He said he was headed straight to the office to "get back to serving the people of Fall River." Correia said he will not resign because the charges are not related to his work as mayor. "There is absolutely no reason," to resign, he said. ||||| Fall River Mayor Jasiel F. Correia II calls himself a “classic example of a Fall River kid made good” in an official biography, which highlights his rise from “youth of the year” in 2008 to being elected the youngest mayor in the city’s history in 2015 at age 23. But a federal indictment unsealed Thursday cast an ignominious shadow over Correia’s precocious political ascent with allegations that he stole more than $231,000 from investors in his tech startup and used the money on expensive travel, a Mercedes-Benz sedan, casinos, and adult entertainment. The stolen funds, equal to about six times the median household income in Fall River, were taken from investors in SnoOwl, which Correia founded in 2012, federal prosecutors said. Advertisement Correia is also charged with filing fraudulent tax returns in an effort to conceal the scheme. Prosecutors allege Correia stole about 64 percent of the $363,690 that SnoOwl’s seven investors contributed and spent it before becoming mayor. Get Metro Headlines in your inbox: The 10 top local news stories from metro Boston and around New England delivered daily. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here “Today’s arrest is a shock to many in the city which has prided itself on a tradition of honest government, hard work, and public service,” Harold Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, said at a news conference. “Yet its mayor was far from honest, selling out his friends and associates for his own personal gain. His actions were underhanded, shameless, and greedy.” FBI agents arrested Correia, 26, in Bridgewater at about 6:30 a.m. Thursday and brought him to Boston, where he appeared in a federal courtroom smiling and wearing leg irons with his hands cuffed behind his back. He pleaded not guilty to nine counts of wire fraud and four counts of filing false tax returns as Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley set unsecured bond of $10,000, a sum Correia would only have to pay if he fails to appear in court. After being set free, Correia changed into a blue suit, red tie, and Fall River lapel pin, and then denied the charges after leaving court. “I’ve done nothing wrong,” said Correia, a Democrat who was reelected last year by a wide margin. “If you look at those bogus charges, whatever they’re called, there’s not a single thing . . . that the US attorney’s office said in that 19-page indictment that I did wrong as the mayor of Fall River.” Advertisement He said he has no plans to resign. “I love the city of Fall River,” said Correia, flanked by his defense attorneys. “I’m going to go back to my office tonight and get back to work serving the people of Fall River.” One of his lawyers, Mark Berthiaume, said Correia established SnoOwl while he was an undergraduate student at Providence College. “This is a business dispute that has no business being in a federal, criminal court,” Berthiaume said. SnoOwl was developing an app that would connect businesses and consumers. The fraud unfolded, prosecutors said, when Correia falsely claimed in his pitch to potential investors that he already built and sold an app called FindIt Networks for a profit. Advertisement A prototype for SnoOwl was built, but the product never made it to market, despite representations Correia made to investors that the company was in good standing and their money was being spent on the app, US Attorney Andrew Lelling said at the news conference. None of the investors have received returns, and investigators believe Correia has spent their money, he said. Correia largely abandoned SnoOwl in 2015 when he launched his mayoral campaign, according to the indictment. “Despite the trappings of a company and whatever technical progress was made on the app product that SnoOwl intended to sell, the company was first and foremost a clever way to defraud well-intentioned investors and fund Correia’s lifestyle,” Lelling said. The first victim listed in the indictment is identified as an orthodontist whose son attended high school with Correia. In January 2013, he invested $50,000 in exchange for equity in SnoOwl. But about a month later, according to the indictment, Correia used $10,000 of that money to buy a 2011 Mercedes-Benz sports sedan. The orthodontist, who sunk a total of $145,000 into SnoOwl, declined to comment Thursday, as did a lawyer for another investor. None of the investors are named in the indictment, though some have come forward in The Herald News, a newspaper in Fall River. Lelling said authorities haven’t found evidence that Correia misused public funds while in office, but stressed the investigation is continuing. Correia also is accused of using $10,000 of the investment money to pay off student loans and finance his political campaign, while other funds paid for charitable donations in his own name, jewelry, restaurants, and designer clothing, the indictment said. While making his first run for mayor three years ago, Correia, then a city councilor, said his stewardship of SnoOwl was proof he was qualified to run Fall River, Lelling said. Former mayor Sam Sutter, whom Correia defeated in 2015, said he had information three years ago that SnoOwl was a failure. “One of the frustrating aspects of the campaign was that a lot of people thought he was a success and had been an entrepreneurial wizard,” Sutter said. “But the exact opposite was true.” Investigators said Correia tried to cover his tracks by filing false tax returns for 2013 and 2014. When Correia learned he was under federal investigation in spring 2017, he directed his accountant to file amended personal tax returns to account “for the diverted investor funds that he had previously failed to report as income,” Lelling said. In January, the Friends of Jasiel F. Correia II Legal Defense Fund was registered with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, records show. The fund has collected more than $76,000, including thousands of dollars donated by Correia’s campaign committee. Among Fall River residents, reaction to Correia’s arrest was mixed. “He’s a thief — that’s what he is,” said Eddie Perriera, 90, shaking his head as he sat with arms folded on a park bench. “This has been going on for years, and they’re just catching on.” Another resident, David Pacheco, 70, said he voted for Correia in 2015, but not last year. “I’m not shocked about this. Money does things to people,” Pacheco said. “At 26 years old, he had the world in the palm of his hand, and the people believed in him.” Some expressed support for Correia. “I love the man,” said a woman who gave only her first name, Lydia . “He’s done a lot of good things for this city that a lot of people aren’t noticing. He’s fixing the streets. He’s fixing the pipes. What more do people want?” A status conference in Correia’s case is scheduled for Dec. 6. As he walked away from the courthouse Thursday afternoon with his lawyers, Correia was followed by journalists shouting questions about reports that he was partying Wednesday night in a Seaport District nightclub. Travis Andersen of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Matt Stout contributed. Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi . Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at brian.macquarrie@globe.com ||||| FALL RIVER — A defiant Fall River Mayor Jasiel F. Correia II returned to City Hall Friday amid a call from Governor Charlie Baker to relinquish his post while his criminal case is pending and plans by city councilors to hold a special session to discuss the indictment. Baker, who renounced Correia’s endorsement Thursday, released a statement Friday urging the 26-year-old Democratic mayor to hand over the reins of power following his arrest on federal fraud and tax evasion charges. “Governor Baker and Lieutenant Governor Polito believe that in light of these serious allegations, Mayor Correia should act in the best interests of the people of Fall River and step aside until the case is resolved,” the statement from Baker/Polito campaign spokesman Terry MacCormack said. “Ultimately, it is up to residents and voters to decide who is best fit to lead the city.” Advertisement City Council President Cliff Ponte said he’s convening a special meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday to discuss the criminal case against Correia and any proposals from members “regarding the leadership of our city.” Get Metro Headlines in your inbox: The 10 top local news stories from metro Boston and around New England delivered daily. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Correia was arrested Thursday morning and charged with stealing more than $231,000 from investors in his SnoOwl tech startup. Federal prosecutors said he used the money on expensive travel, a Mercedes-Benz sedan, casinos, and adult entertainment. He is also charged with filing fraudulent tax returns in an effort to conceal the alleged scheme. Prosecutors allege Correia stole about 64 percent of the $363,690 that SnoOwl’s seven investors contributed and spent it before being sworn in as mayor in 2016. He has pleaded not guilty to nine counts of wire fraud and four counts of filing false tax returns. Correia, back on the job Friday morning, insisted he would not resign. “I’m back at work and doing the people’s business,” he said as he walked out of his office and into an elevator. “I was elected to do the job, and it is my job to be the mayor, and, until such time as it isn’t my job, I’m going to continue to do the job.” Advertisement City Councilor Leo Pelletier said Correia should step aside, citing allegations that he spent ill-gotten gains on adult entertainment. “Some of the money he spent and the way he spent it is embarrassing,” said Pelletier, who has served on the council for 30 years. “He’s a college man. He should know better.” The city charter includes a recall process for elected officials and a mechanism for replacing the mayor “by reason of sickness or other cause.” The nine-member City Council has the authority to find Correia “unable to perform the duties of the office” and install its president, Ponte, as acting mayor with a vote of seven councilors, according to the charter. Pelletier, however, said he doesn’t believe enough councilors would vote to force Correia to step aside. The recall process takes too long, he said. Advertisement “You could probably squeeze five [votes] unless the people badger these other guys,” Pelletier said. If Correia is convicted, he would be ousted under the charter. Another councilor, Steven A. Camara, said Correia should decide whether to resign. He said he wouldn’t support a recall or any effort to force Correia to step aside and put an acting mayor in charge of Fall River. “One is innocent until proven guilty,” Camara said. “An indictment is an accusation.” City operations aren’t solely reliant upon Correia, Camara said, noting Fall River has a city administrator and department heads who run different aspects of municipal government. “The mayor is one person,” he said. In 2014, the city ousted Mayor William Flanagan in a recall election and voted in Samuel Sutter, who was then Bristol district attorney. A few months before the vote, Correia, then a city councilor, accused Flanagan of trying to intimidate him. He said Flanagan showed him a gun during a ride in Flanagan’s vehicle, after Correia signed a petition seeking the recall. Correia first ran for mayor in 2015 at age 23, defeating Sutter and becoming the youngest person elected to the post in Fall River’s history. Last year he won reelection by a wide margin. The state Democratic Party declined to say whether Correia should resign. “The charges against Mayor Correia are serious, and the people of Fall River deserve a thorough, fair, and transparent investigation,” Veronica Martinez, the party’s executive director, said in a statement. Asked Friday how he would respond to a city councilor who has called on him to step down, Correia chuckled. “Oh, come on,” he said. “City councilors always talk.” Correia said he has a full agenda and plans to attend events throughout the city. Then he let the elevator doors close, ending the interview. Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com . Follow him on Twitter @mlevenson . Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi

– Elected at age 23, arrested three years later: That's the latest on Jasiel Correia, the youngest-ever mayor of Fall River, Mass., and alleged defrauder of investors in a tech startup, the Boston Globe reports. Before turning mayor in 2015, Correia allegedly spent $231,000 in investors' money on everything from a Mercedes-Benz to pricey travel to adult entertainment—then filed fraudulent tax returns to cover his trail. "It's not my best Thursday," he said after pleading not guilty to 13 counts of wire and tax fraud in federal court in Boston, per MassLive. "It's raining. I don't like to be out in the rain." Correia also issued a public denial of sorts: "There is not a single thing ... I did wrong as the mayor of the city of Fall River," he said. Per a federal indictment, Correia lied to investors of the business app SnoOwl by saying he'd created a profitable app before. He then allegedly spent almost two-thirds of their money: $10,000 on a 2011 Mercedes sports sedan, another $10,000 to pay off student loans and boost his political campaign, and other funds on designer clothing, restaurants, jewelry, and charitable donations in his name. None of the seven investors have seen returns. "One of the frustrating aspects of [Correia's first mayoral] campaign was that a lot of people thought he was a success and had been an entrepreneurial wizard," says former mayor Sam Sutter, who lost to Correia in 2015. "But the exact opposite was true." Correia returned to work Friday at City Hall saying he would not resign, per the Globe.

Associated Press Yes, it was that time again, folks. Jobs Friday, when for one ever-so-brief moment the interests of Wall Street, Washington and Main Street are all aligned on one thing: jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that U.S. economy added 257,000 jobs in January, ahead of the consensus expectation of 237,000. Revisions showed that employment gains in the last two months of 2014 included 147,000 more jobs than previous estimated. Here at MoneyBeat HQ, we crunched the numbers, tracked the markets and compiled the commentary before and after the data crosses the wires. Now that we’re done, feel free to continue the conversation in the comments section. And while you’re here, why don’t you sign up to follow us on Twitter. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added a vigorous 257,000 jobs in January, and wages jumped by the most in six years — evidence that the U.S. job market is accelerating closer to full health. In this Friday, Jan. 23, 2015 photo, job applicant Rafael Ferrer, 49, left, shakes hands with a representative of the Hilton Bentley Miami Beach hotel during a job fair at the Hospitality Institute, Friday,... (Associated Press) The surprisingly robust report the Labor Department issued Friday also showed that hiring was far stronger in November and December than previously thought. Employers added 414,000 jobs in November — the most in 17 years. Job growth in December was also revised sharply higher, to 329,000, from 252,000. Average hourly wages soared 12 cents in December to $24.75, the biggest gain since September 2008. In the past year, hourly pay has increased 2.2 percent. That is ahead of inflation, which rose just 0.7 percent in 2014. The sharp drop in gas prices in the past year has held down inflation and boosted Americans' spending power. Still, wages typically rise at a roughly 3.5 percent pace in a fully healthy economy. The unemployment rate in January rose to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent. But that occurred for a good reason: More Americans began looking for jobs, though not all of them found work. Their job hunting suggests that they are more confident about their prospects. Strong hiring pushes up wages as employers compete for fewer workers. Job gains have now averaged 336,000 a month for the past three months, the best three-month pace in 17 years. Just a year ago, the three-month average was only 197,000. The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring wages and other job market data as it considers when to begin raising the short-term interest rate it controls from a record low near zero. The Fed has kept rates at record lows for more than six years to help stimulate growth. Most economists think the central bank will start boosting rates as early as June. Steady economic growth has encouraged companies to keep hiring. The economy expanded at a 4.8 percent annual rate during spring and summer, the fastest six-month pace in a decade, before slowing to a still-decent 2.6 percent pace in the final three months of 2014. There are now 3.2 million more Americans earning paychecks than there were 12 months ago. That lifts consumer spending, which drives about 70 percent of economic growth. More hiring, along with sharply lower gasoline prices, has boosted Americans' confidence and spending power. Consumer confidence jumped in January to its highest level in a decade, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. And Americans increased their spending during the final three months of last year at the fastest pace in nearly nine years.

– The US economy added 257,000 jobs last month, a full 20,000 more than economists had expected today's jobs report to show, the Wall Street Journal reports. The unemployment rate ticked up from 5.6% to 5.7%, but as the AP explains, that's partially because more Americans started looking for work, showing confidence in the economy. As Kevin Kingsbury writes for the Journal, "In this case, today’s increase is actually a good sign." But while the labor force participation rate did inch up to 62.9%, last month's 62.7% was a "multi-decade low." Paul Vigna's take: "So, that’s at least movement in the right direction, but it’s not much movement. ... It’s hard to get growth really going with so many people out of the work force." December's new jobs number was revised significantly upward from 252,000 to 329,000, and November's number was revised all the way up to 414,000—the highest total in 17 years. Plus, average hourly wages rose 12 cents to $24.75, the biggest gain since September 2008. In the past year, hourly pay has increased 2.2%. That is ahead of inflation, which rose just 0.7% in 2014. All in all: The Bureau of Labor Statistics says 2014, in which average monthly job gains were 258,000, was the best year since 1999 for jobs growth.

Nicolas Cage Bailed Out by Dog the Bounty Hunter Nicolas Cage received the help of an unlikely ally after being arrested in New Orleans Reality star Duane 'Dog' Chapman – aka Dog the Bounty Hunter – posted the actor's $11,000 bond after he was charged with domestic abuse and disturbing the peace Saturday in the French Quarter."I am a truly dedicated fan of Mr. Cage and will not be granting any interviews about my client as I wish to respect his privacy," Chapman, 58, told E! News in a statement."I performed my duties as a bail bondsman and not in connection with our show," the statement continued. "This is what I do for a living. There are two sides of my job: I release my clients after they have been arrested; and pick them up if they don't show up in court. I do not believe the latter will be the case for Mr. Cage."Cage, 47, is scheduled to appear in court May 31. ||||| Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage, jailed in New Orleans over an alleged outburst against his wife, police and a few parked cars, is free today after reportedly being bailed out by reality TV star Duane "Dog" Chapman. "I am a truly dedicated fan of Mr. Cage and will not be granting any interviews about my client as I wish to respect his privacy," Chapman, a bail bondsman and bounty hunter who parlayed his colorful personality to land a TV show, "Dog the Bounty Hunter." "I performed my duties as a bail bondsman and not in connection with our show," he said. "This is what I do for a living." According to the New Orleans Police Department, Cage, 47, was "heavily intoxicated and arguing with his wife Alice Kim, 27, in front of a home at 11:30 p.m. Saturday on Dumaine Street in the city's French Quarter, insisting that the house they were in front of was their rental property. Police said that Cage grabbed his wife by her upper arm and dragged her towards the property that he believed they were renting -- there were no visible signs of injury to Kim's arm. The actor then allegedly began to strike cars in the immediate vicinity and attempted to jump into a taxi, police said. At this point a police officer "immediately observed that Cage was heavily intoxicated and ordered him out of the cab, which prompted Cage to start yelling," according to police. Cage allegedly said to the police "Why don't you just arrest me?" gossip website TMZ.com reported. The police did just that, arresting him on one count of domestic abuse and one count of disturbing the peace. TMZ also stated that Kim is not a complaining witness, does not want her husband to be charged and that witnesses have said there was no physical contact between the two. Cage has been married to the former waitress Kim since July 30, 2004. The two had a son, Kal-El, in 2005. The actor has been nominated for an Academy Award twice and won the Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of an alcoholic spiraling out of control in 1995's "Leaving Las Vegas." Born Nicolas Kim Coppola, Cage changed his name to avoid the appearance of nepotism, as he is the nephew of legendary film director Francis Ford Coppola. Cage has previously been married to Patricia Arquette and Lisa Marie Presley. Nicolas Cage's Troubles Off the Screen Late last year Nicolas Cage -- who is known to fly off the handle in memorable performances in films such as "Moonstruck" and "Adaptation" -- made the news for his off-screen temper. While leaving a night club in Romania, where he was on location filming the sequel to his 2007 hit "Ghost Rider," the actor was filmed bursting into a rage during an altercation with a companion. Cage was taped screaming: "I thought we were brothers, man," and "I'll die in the name of honor!" TMZ has also previously reported that the actor is facing financial troubles. A federal tax lien from 2009 showed that Cage owes over $6.7 million in taxes for 2008. He's been forced to sell off some of his "national treasure" including a Bavarian castle, and a Rhode Island home sold earlier this month at a $9.5 million loss. "I mean everybody makes mistakes. It's part of being human," Cage said on "Good Morning America" earlier this year. "And when we make mistakes, I think sometimes it can be a great lesson because it puts you in to looking for something. Some people say you have to be a sinner before you can be a saint." Cage made news earlier this week when a missing mint copy of Action Comics No. 1 -- the comic book debut of Superman -- belonging to him surfaced in a San Fernando Valley, Calif., storage locker. The comic, which has been authenticated, was stolen from Cage more than a decade ago, according to Detective Don Hrycyk with the Los Angeles Police Department's Art Theft Detail. Cage accepted an insurance payout after the theft, so it is unclear if he will regain his missing comic.

– In a case of reality not imitating "art," Dog the notorious bounty hunter bailed actor Nicolas Cage out of jail. Reality star Duane "Dog" Chapman posted Cage's $11,000 bond after he was charged with domestic abuse and disturbing the peace over the weekend in New Orleans. "I am a truly dedicted fan," Dog, 58, said by way of explanation. "There are two sides of my job: I release my clients after they have been arrested; and pick them up if they don't show up in court. I do not believe the latter will be the case for Mr. Cage." Cage, 47, was busted after arguing loudly with his 27-year-old wife and dragging her down the street, said police. The actor, who appeared to be "heavily intoxicated" then began hitting cars, according to cops. He's due in court next month, reports People. Click for more details on Cage's French Quarter bust.

A Tennessee woman posted a heartbreaking tweet Friday of the last bouquet of flowers she would receive from her late father who promised to send her a gift until she was 21 years old. Bailey Sellers of Knoxville, Tenn., tweeted the photo of the purple bouquet along with pictures of a letter her father wrote to her and a snap of them together on the beach. FATHER CHARGED WITH RAPING, KILLING INFANT DAUGHTER, TENNESSEE COPS SAY Sellers wrote: “My dad passed away when I was 16 from cancer and before he died he prepaid flowers so I could receive them every year on my birthday. Well this is my 21st birthday flowers and the last. Miss you so much daddy.” The note, which she also received each year from her father, read: “This is my last love letter to you until we meet again. I do not want you to shed another tear for me my baby girl for I am in a better place.” Sellers’ father concluded he would be with her “through every milestone” and to respect her mother. TENNESEE MAN ARRESTED AFTER 3-YEAR-OLD SHOT 1-YEAR-OLD WITH HIS GUN, REPORTS SAY A social media user tweeted to Sellers her condolences and called the gesture “sad and heartwarming.” Sellers replied back that she looked forward to receiving flowers each year but this time was “heartbreaking.” Sellers tweet, which has received more than 715,000 likes as of Saturday afternoon, has gone viral on social media. Sellers retweeted a number of responses and tweeted that she was “thankful” that her father’ “thoughtful brought so many people happiness.” ||||| We've detected that JavaScript is disabled in your browser. Would you like to proceed to legacy Twitter? Yes

– After turning 21 on Friday, a Tennessee woman received a bittersweet gift from her father…who died five years ago. Bailey Sellers of Knoxville posted photos to Twitter of the last bouquet of flowers she’ll get from her dad, who paid to have them sent to her on her birthdays, Fox News reports. “My dad passed away when I was 16 from cancer” Sellers wrote on Twitter, adding that he arranged for her to receive flowers every year on her birthday until she turned 21. “Well this is my 21st birthday flowers and the last. Miss you so much daddy.” A card decorated with butterflies that accompanied the flowers had a beautiful message from her dad, who told her to respect her mother and that “I will still be with you through every milestone, just look around and there I'll be.” The heartbreaking post has since gone viral, with over 1.3 million likes and over 300,000 retweets by Sunday afternoon. Sellers responded with gratitude to the outpouring of responses on social media, writing, “I'm so thankful that my dads thoughtfulness brought so many people happiness.”

Although Joan Rivers went to Yorkville Endoscopy for a routine procedure, her time spent there was anything but routine. As RadarOnline.com has previously reported, Rivers’ female ear, nose and throat doctor stepped in once Dr. Lawrence Cohen, Rivers’ gastroenterologist, discovered something on her vocal cords. The ENT, who wasn’t authorized to perform any medical procedures at the clinic, took over and began a biopsy. PHOTOS: Celebrities Who Died In Bizarre Circumstances The biopsy was not authorized, as Rivers never signed a consent form. And once it began, her vocal cords began to swell, Anderson 360 revealed Tuesday night. But that’s not all. Not only was the ENT not supposed to be treating the comedienne, 81, at this time, medical staffers have also told investigators that the ENT snapped a selfie with the Fashion Police star while she was under anesthesia – a major violation of privacy, given she did not give her consent to have her picture taken. Dr. Cohen, who doubled as the clinic’s medical director, has since parted ways with Yorkville. The clinic confirmed his departure, stating, Dr. Cohen “is not currently performing procedures…nor is he currently serving as medical director.” PHOTOS: 10 Celebrity Spawn Who Look Just Like Their Famous Mothers As Radar has reported, Rivers’ daughter Melissa is now considering a lawsuit against the clinic and associated doctors. Story developing. What do you think about the new details that have come to light? Sound off in the comments below. ||||| See more of Susan Candiotti's investigation of Yorkville Endoscopy at 8 p.m. ET/PT Wednesday on "Anderson Cooper 360" on CNN. (CNN) -- The cardiac arrest leading to Joan Rivers' death happened as the comedian's personal doctor began performing a biopsy on her vocal cords, a source close to the death investigation told CNN. A staff member at Manhattan's Yorkville Endoscopy clinic told investigators that the doctor, who has not been publicly identified, took a selfie photo in the procedure room while Rivers was under anesthesia, the source said. Rivers, 81, was at the clinic for a scheduled endoscopy by another doctor, gastroenterologist Dr. Lawrence Cohen. That procedure, intended to help diagnose her hoarse voice and sore throat, involved the insertion of a camera down her throat. After Cohen, the clinic's medical director, finished his work, a biopsy was done on Rivers without her prior consent, according to the source. An ear, nose and throat specialist not certified by the clinic as required by law performed a biopsy on her vocal cords. The doctor is described by the source as Rivers' personal ear-nose-throat physician. Clinic: Vocal-cord biopsy did not kill Joan Rivers "Even though you are a licensed physician, you still should have, if you will, the checks and balances to get your approval to practice in that particular place," said Dr. Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York University's Langone Medical Center. Investigators believe that Rivers' vocal cords began to swell during the allegedly unauthorized biopsy, cutting off the flow of oxygen to her lungs, which led to cardiac arrest on the morning of August 29, the source said. Rivers, 81, was rushed by paramedics from Yorkville Endoscopy to New York's Mount Sinai Hospital a mile away, where she died a week later. Yorkville Endoscopy issued a statement last Thursday denying reports that any vocal cord biopsy has ever been done at the clinic, although federal privacy law prevented any patient information from being released. The day after the denial was issued, the clinic confirmed that Dr. Cohen "is not currently performing procedures... nor is he currently serving as medical director." The source said that at this time neither Cohen nor the ear, nose and throat doctor have been accused of wrongdoing by investigators. The clinic declined to respond to the source's comments about a biopsy or a selfie, citing federal privacy law. Timeline emerges in Joan Rivers' death See more about the comedy business at CNN Comedy.

– Joan Rivers' personal doctor not only performed an unplanned biopsy during a routine procedure—the ear, nose, and throat specialist snapped a "selfie" with the star while she was unconscious, a source close to the investigation tells CNN. The cardiac arrest that led to her death happened during the unplanned procedure, but neither Rivers' personal doctor nor Yorkville Endoscopy co-owner Dr. Lawrence Cohen have been accused of wrongdoing by state investigators, the source says. The New York City clinic says Cohen, who performed the routine endoscopy on Rivers, is no longer its medical director. Rivers' daughter, Melissa, is considering a lawsuit against the clinic and the doctors involved, Radar reports.

Pope Francis delivers his speech during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican , Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) (Associated Press) Pope Francis delivers his speech during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican , Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) (Associated Press) VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a U.S. bishop Thursday and authorized an investigation into allegations he sexually harassed adults, adding awkward drama to an audience with U.S. church leaders over the abuse and cover-up scandal roiling the Catholic Church. The resignation of West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield was announced just as the four-member U.S. delegation was sitting down with Francis in his private study in the Apostolic Palace. Among the four was Bransfield's cousin, Monsignor Brian Bransfield, secretary-general of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Bransfield had been investigated for an alleged groping incident in 2007 and was implicated in court testimony in 2012 in an infamous Philadelphia priestly sex abuse case. He strongly denied ever abusing anyone and the diocese said it had disproved the claims. He continued with his ministry until he offered to retire, as required, when he turned 75 last week. The Vatican said Francis accepted his resignation Thursday and appointed Baltimore Archbishop William Lori to take over Bransfield's Wheeling-Charleston diocese temporarily. Lori said in a statement that Francis had also instructed him to "conduct an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment of adults against Bishop Bransfield." No details of the allegations were revealed and his diocese said it had "no idea" where Bransfield was after the Vatican ordered him to live outside the diocese. Lori set up a hotline for potential victims to call, said the Vatican had instructed him to make the investigation public, and vowed to conduct a thorough study into what he said were "troubling" claims against Bransfield, who was a major fundraiser for the Vatican via the Pennsylvania-based Papal Foundation. The revelation was the latest twist in an incredible turn of events in the U.S. church that began with the June 20 announcement that one of the most prestigious U.S. cardinals, Theodore McCarrick, had been accused of groping a teenage altar boy in the 1970s. Francis removed McCarrick as a cardinal in July after a U.S. church investigation found the allegation credible. After news broke of the investigation, several former seminarians and priests came forward to report that they, too, had been abused or harassed by McCarrick as adults. The McCarrick affair — coupled with revelations in the Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing decades of abuse and cover-up in six dioceses — has fueled outrage among the rank-and-file faithful who had trusted church leaders to reform themselves after the abuse scandal first erupted in Boston in 2002. Outrage has also been directed at Francis and the Vatican and has fueled conservative criticism of Francis' pontificate. The head of the U.S. bishops conference, Houston Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, had requested the papal audience last month following revelations that McCarrick had risen through church ranks even though the allegations of sexual misconduct were known in U.S. and Vatican circles. DiNardo requested a full-fledged Vatican investigation into the McCarrick affair, and said he also wanted answers to allegations that a string of Vatican officials knew of McCarrick's misdeeds since 2000, but turned a blind eye. A statement issued by DiNardo after the papal audience made no mention of his request for a Vatican investigation. It said that the Americans briefed the pope on the "laceration" that abuse has caused and that "we look forward to actively continuing our discernment together identifying the most effective next steps." The statement also made no mention of the Bransfield investigation. McCarrick was a co-consecrator when Bishop Bransfield was ordained a bishop in 2005 and the two were active in the Papal Foundation, the big U.S. fundraising organization that McCarrick co-founded and which has funneled millions of dollars to the Vatican over the years. Bransfield was president when the foundation was thrown into disarray last year over a revolt by its lay donors. They were incensed that the cardinals who run the foundation had agreed to a $25 million request from the Vatican to bail out a troubled Rome hospital. Under pressure, the cardinals pulled the plug on the funding mid-way through. Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston spokesman Tim Bishop said Thursday he couldn't answer questions about Bransfield's whereabouts or whether he has an attorney. "The Holy See has instructed him to live outside the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston," Bishop said. "I have no idea of his whereabouts." The Vatican hasn't responded to allegations by its former ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, that Francis effectively rehabilitated McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI over allegations McCarrick would routinely invite seminarians to his beach house and into his bed. Francis has, however, responded to the overall scandal with a series of initiatives aimed at trying to convince the faithful that he "gets it" and is prepared to take measures to put an end to what he has called the "culture of cover-up" in the church. On the eve of the U.S. audience, Francis announced he was summoning the presidents of bishops conferences around the world to a February summit to discuss prevention measures and protection of minors and vulnerable adults. The surprise announcement was largely dismissed as a belated damage control effort by victims' advocates. Church historians questioned why such an urgent problem was being scheduled for discussion six months from now with the very bishops who are blamed for much of the scandal. "Where are the laity and others who might provide both new and uncomplicit voices and insights into the process?" asked Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history at Syracuse University. Even DiNardo's own record on protecting children has now come into question. On the eve of his audience with Francis, The Associated Press reported that two victims in Houston had accused him of not doing enough to stop a priest who was arrested this week on sexual abuse charges. The archdiocese issued a statement Wednesday confirming that both alleged victims had come forward to report abuse by the priest, the Rev. Manuel LaRosa-Lopez, one of them in 2001. The delegation of U.S. bishops announced no plans to speak to the media after their audience. ___ AP writers Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and John Raby in Charleston contributed to this report. ___ This story has been corrected to say that Lori is Archbishop of Baltimore, not bishop. ||||| FILE - In this April 8, 2010 file photo a cross sits on top of a church in Berlin, Germany. A leading German magazine says a report on sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Germany details 3,677... (Associated Press) FILE - In this April 8, 2010 file photo a cross sits on top of a church in Berlin, Germany. A leading German magazine says a report on sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Germany details 3,677 abuses cases by Catholic clergy between 1946 and 2014. Spiegel Online wrote Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018... (Associated Press) FILE - In this April 8, 2010 file photo a cross sits on top of a church in Berlin, Germany. A leading German magazine says a report on sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Germany details 3,677 abuses cases by Catholic clergy between 1946 and 2014. Spiegel Online wrote Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018... (Associated Press) FILE - In this April 8, 2010 file photo a cross sits on top of a church in Berlin, Germany. A leading German magazine says a report on sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Germany details 3,677... (Associated Press) BERLIN (AP) — A report on sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Germany says 3,677 people were abused by clergy between 1946 and 2014, two leading German media outlets said Wednesday. Spiegel Online and Die Zeit said the report they obtained — commissioned by the German Bishops Conference and researched by three universities — concludes that more than half of the victims were 13 or younger and most were boys. Every sixth case involved rape and at least 1,670 clergy were involved, both weeklies reported. Die Zeit wrote that 969 abuse victims were altar boys. The report also says that the actual number of victims was likely much higher, according to the research by experts from the Universities of Giessen, Heidelberg and Mannheim. The German Bishops Conference said in a written response a few hours later that it regretted the leaking of the report, but that the study confirms "the extent of the sexual abuse" that took place. "It is depressing and shameful for us," Bishop Stephan Ackermann said. He didn't further elaborate on the findings of the report, but said the Catholic group would present the study as initially planned on Sept. 25 together with the authors. Die Zeit wrote that researchers weren't allowed to look at the original church files but had to provide questionnaires to the dioceses, which then provided the information. In their conclusions, the researchers write that there was evidence that some files were manipulated or destroyed, many cases were not brought to justice, and that sometimes abuse suspects — primarily priests — were simply moved to other dioceses without the congregations being informed about their past. The Catholic Church has been struggling with sex abuse by its clergy for a long time. In 2010, the German church was roiled by a sex abuse scandal triggered by the head of a Jesuit school in Berlin who went public about decades-long sexual abuse of high school students by clergy. Following that, a whole wave of victims who were sexually abused by clergy spoke out across the country. An investigation in the United States last month found rampant sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children by about 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania. Earlier this week, the Vatican said it is preparing the "necessary clarifications" about accusations that top Vatican officials including Pope Francis covered up the sexual misconduct of a now-disgraced American ex-cardinal. Also on Wednesday, the Vatican said it's summoning the presidents of every bishops conference around the world for a February summit to discuss preventing clergy sex abuse and protecting children.

– Pope Francis accepted the resignation of West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield on Thursday and authorized an investigation into allegations he sexually harassed adults, adding awkward drama to an audience with US church leaders over the abuse and cover-up scandal roiling the Catholic Church, the AP reports. Bishop Bransfield—a major fundraiser for the Vatican—had been investigated for an alleged groping incident in 2007 and was implicated in court testimony in 2012 in an infamous Philadelphia priestly sex abuse case. He strongly denied ever abusing anyone and the diocese said it had disproved the claims. He continued with his ministry until he offered to retire, as required, when he turned 75 last week. Baltimore Archbishop William Lori will take over Bransfield's Wheeling-Charleston diocese temporarily and investigate accusations against him. The revelation was the latest twist in an incredible turn of events in the US church that began with the June 20 announcement that one of the most prestigious US cardinals, Theodore McCarrick, had been accused of groping a teenage altar boy in the 1970s. Francis removed McCarrick as a cardinal in July. The McCarrick affair—coupled with revelations in the Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing decades of abuse and cover-up in six dioceses—has fueled outrage among the rank-and-file faithful who had trusted church leaders to reform themselves after the abuse scandal first erupted in Boston in 2002. In Germany, a new report on sexual abuse inside the church says clergy members in that country abused 3,677 people between 1946 and 2014.

Get the local report from WJHG. (CNN) -- Clay Duke sat quietly through the first portion of the Bay District Schools, Florida, school board meeting Tuesday afternoon as local children were honored for their achievements. When it came time for citizens to bring up issues, the 56-year-old resident calmly approached the front. He spray painted a red "V" with a circle around it on the wall, brandished a small-caliber handgun and ordered the room cleared at a Panama City schools building. "Six men stay. Everyone else leave," the burly gunman said. Moments later, Ginger Littleton, a board member, returned to the room and swung a purse at him. She ended up on the ground after the two struggled. The gunman cursed her, but did not open fire and he let her leave the room. Someone was going to die, he said. At that point, Duke, as seen on the dramatic live internet feed provided by CNN affiliates WJHG and WMBB, began a rambling discourse that included the apparent firing of his wife and sales taxes. The confrontation ended in the gunman identified as Duke calmly firing at the school officials, being wounded and, according to police, taking his own life. At first, school board members and Superintendent Bill Husfelt tried to reason with Duke, who had a criminal record. They talked about possibly finding a job for Duke's wife or looking into the case. Husfelt told the gunman that he likely signed the termination papers, but didn't recall the circumstances. "I'm the one who signed the papers," Husfelt. "Let them go," he said referring to the school board members. At one point, Husfelt said, "I don't want anybody to get hurt. I've got a feeling that what you want, is you want the cops to come in and kill you because you are mad. Because you said you are going to die." "But why? This isn't worth it," the superintendent told him. "This is a problem." The gunman then pointed the pistol at the official. "Please don't. Please don't. Please," Husfelt said. The gunman opened fire at Husfelt and school board members. He missed them all, even though he was at close range, said Lee Stafford, director of student services of Bay District Schools. Duke said, "I'm going to kill [unintelligible]," while he fired. Mike Jones, chief of security for the school system and a retired police officer, exchanged fire with Duke, who was wounded and rolled to the ground. Duke turned his gun on himself, dying of a fatal gunshot to the head, authorities said. Husfelt called Jones a "hero." The gunman was declared dead at a local hospital. An autopsy is expected Wednesday. Police and school officials were left to piece together what happened. "I'm sure they never expected this kind of event to occur," Sgt. Jeffrey Becker of the Panama City Police Department. The superintendent later related the event as being "surreal," Becker said. Husfelt told reporters that Duke had almost a smile on his face. "He made up his mind. You could tell he was going to die." The superintendent said he believes the gunman used a combination of live bullets and blanks. But police said live bullets were used. Husfelt told "AC360" Tuesday night that the gunman was "just mixed up" and that he tried to calm him down. "I knew the police were on their way." "You knew he had something in mind he was going to do and it would not end well," Husfelt said. The superintendent said he wanted to protect the school board members, but Duke did not want to talk. "The good Lord was standing in front of me," said the school chief, adding authorities found two bullet holes behind his desk. Police have a solid lead on Duke's motive, Becker said, but were not prepared Tuesday night to release it. The investigation includes Duke's assertions that his wife had been terminated by the school district. Police were talking with Duke's wife, Becker said. School officials said they were unaware of the significance of the spray painting. But a Facebook page belonging to a Clay Duke has a profile photo of a "V" in a red circle, a logo that is used in the movie "V for Vendetta." According to the Internet Movie Database, the 2006 film is about "a shadowy freedom fighter known only as "V" uses terrorist tactics to fight against his totalitarian society. Upon rescuing a girl from the secret police, he also finds his best chance at having an ally." CNN could not verify if the Facebook page belonged to the gunman, but it does list Duke, 56, as living in Panama City, Florida. A biography on Duke's Facebook page reads: "My Testament: Some people (the government sponsored media) will say I was evil, a monster (V)... no... I was just born poor in a country where the Wealthy manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 95% of the population. Rich Republicans, Rich Democrats... same-same... rich... they take turns fleecing us... our few dollars... pyramiding the wealth for themselves. The 95%... the us, in US of A, are the neo slaves of the Global South. Our Masters, the Wealthy, do, as they like to us..." Under "political views," Duke labels himself a "Freedom Fighter." Under religious views, he wrote, "Humanism." Duke, who lived in Lynn Haven, a suburb of Panama City, has a previous record, Becker told CNN. According to the website of the Florida Department of Corrections, Duke was sentenced in 2000 for aggravated stalking, obstructing justice and throwing or shooting into a vehicle. According to the Panama City News Herald, after six months of stalking a former girlfriend, Duke confronted the woman outside her home on Oct. 20, 1999. He was wearing the mask and vest and holding two .22-caliber guns. He threatened to kill her, then kill several others and then himself, the newspaper said. When the woman tried to drive away, Duke shot out a rear tire. The photo of Duke on the corrections page matches the Facebook page. The News Herald reported that the gunman was taken out of the building on a stretcher. According to Panama City Police Chief John Van Etten, no one other than the suspect was injured, affiliate WJHG said. School board spokeswoman Karen Tucker said the man "was a large guy" she had seen sitting in the back of the boardroom earlier, according to the News Herald. Superintendent Husfelt will hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the administration building in Panama City, police said. CNN affiliate WMBB reported children and parents were at the meeting to be recognized for achievements, but were gone before the incident began. "We are absolutely in state of shock," said Stafford. "I was in the third floor and we were watching the live feed, and first we thought it was a drill. But the more that you watched it, we realized this was an actual incident and emergency situation." Duke's Facebook page listed him as a 1972 graduate of King High School in Tampa. His favorite quotation: "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth," from the movie "A Few Good Men." From CNN's Vivian Kuo. ||||| A gunman who fired point-blank at school board members before fatally shooting himself had for much of the meeting sat with the rest of the audience, listening to routine business. This photo provided by the Florida Dept. of Corrections shows Clay Duke. (AP Photo/Florida Dept of Corrections) (Associated Press) As the board was in the midst of a discussion Tuesday, Clay A. Duke walked to the front of the room, spray painted a red "V" with a circle around it on the white wall, then turned and waved a handgun. He calmly ordered everyone to "hit the road" except the men on the board sitting behind a long beige desk. Despite his shock, Bay City Schools Superintendent Bill Hasfelt mustered a calm voice and tried to persuade Duke to drop the gun, but the 56-year-old ex-convict just shook his head, blaming officials for his wife being fired. Video showed him slowly raising the gun and leveling it at Husfelt, who pleaded "Please don't, please don't." "We could tell by the look in his eyes that this wasn't going to end well," Husfelt later told The Associated Press. Duke shot twice at Husfelt from about 8 feet away and squeezed off several more rounds before security guard Mike Jones bolted in and, after exchanging gunfire with Duke, wounded him in the leg or side. Duke then fatally shot himself, police Sgt. Jeff Becker said. Somehow, no one else who remained in the small board room was injured in the clash that lasted several minutes, and Husfelt said at least two rounds lodged in the wall behind him. "It was so surreal. You couldn't believe it was going on," he said. Before the shooting started, the only woman on the five-member board _ who had left the room as ordered _ came back, sneaked up behind Duke and whacked his gun arm with her large, brown purse. "In my mind, that was the last attempt or opportunity to divert him," Ginger Littleton told AP. Duke, a large, heavyset man dressed in a dark pullover coat, got angry, turned around, and she fell to the floor, as board members pleaded with her to stop. Duke pointed the gun at her head and said, "You stupid b----" but he didn't shoot her, she said. She's not sure why. "He had every opportunity to take me out," she said. In his brief exchange with the board, Duke said his wife had been fired from the northern Florida district, but never told Husfelt or the board who she was or her job. Members promised to help her find a new job, but Duke just shook his head. Husfelt told Duke he would be responsible for her dismissal, so the board members should be allowed to leave. "He said his wife was fired, but we really don't know what he was talking about," Husfelt told the AP at his Panama City home. "I don't think he knew what he was talking about." Husfelt in the exchange on video tells Duke: "I've got a feeling you want the cops to come in and kill you because you said you are going to die today." Later, the head of more than 30 district schools said he was sure someone was going to be killed. Tommye Lou Richardson, the school district's personnel director, who was at the meeting, called district security chief and former police officer Jones a hero. In the video, as Duke lay on the floor, colleagues comforted a shaken Jones, who said he had never shot anyone before. SWAT officers then storm the room and order everyone onto the ground. School officials tell them that Duke is shot and appears dead. His feet can be seen near the board's seats. The district said Jones would not be available for an interview. Minutes before Duke rose from his seat, the room had been filled with students receiving awards, Husfelt said. "It could have been a monumental tragedy." Husfelt spoke to the AP wearing a sweat shirt and pajama bottoms, surrounded by his family. With a Christmas tree as backdrop, he said his faith anchored him during the ordeal and that he thought, "I don't want to die today but I'm prepared if I do. "God was standing in front of me and I will go to my grave believing that," he said. As for the V inside a circle that Duke painted, it's the same symbol used in the graphic novel series and movie "V for Vendetta," though police didn't talk about his motive. After everything stopped, some board members speculated that the bullets Duke was firing were fake or caps. But police say the gun was real _ and the video shows papers flying up on Husfelt's desk. Duke was charged in October 1999 with aggravated stalking, shooting or throwing a missile into a building or vehicle and obstructing justice, according to state records. He was convicted and sentenced in January 2000 to five years in prison and was released in January 2004. Records show Duke was a licensed massage therapist before his arrest but it wasn't clear if he was employed. Attorney Ben Bollinger, who represented Duke during his trial, told The News Herald of Panama City that Duke was waiting in the woods for his wife with a rifle, wearing a mask and a bulletproof vest. She confronted him and then tried to leave in a vehicle, and Duke shot the tires. He said that as part of his sentence, Duke was required to complete psychological counseling. Bollinger did not immediately return a phone message from the AP. "The guy obviously had a death wish," district spokeswoman Karen Tucker said of Duke.

– If there was a prize for America's bravest school board member, Ginger Littleton would be a shoo-in. Video of yesterday's hostage-taking incident at a Florida school board meeting shows that after gunman Clay Duke ordered everybody apart from six men to leave the room, Littleton returned to the room and swung a purse at him. Duke, who later shot himself after being injured in an exchange of fire with a security guard, swore at her but didn't shoot, CNN reports. Nobody except Duke, a 56-year-old ex-con, was harmed in the incident. As board members and superintendent Bill Husfelt tried to reason with him, Duke rambled about grievances including sales taxes. "He said his wife was fired, but we really don't know what he was talking about," Husfelt tells the AP. "I don't think he knew what he was talking about." Duke then opened fire on the superintendent and board members at close range but missed them all before the security guard bolted in. "God was standing in front of me and I will go to my grave believing that," Husfeldt says.

The front of the McLaren F1 supercar was wrecked in the collision with the rear of a Rover Metro in Lancashire at 1400 BST on Monday. The star's brother says it is his first accident The star, also famous for his role as Edmund Blackadder in the eponymous TV series, reportedly asked police not to name him following the accident in the 230mph supercar. Mr Atkinson's brother Rodney said the star - whose Mr Bean character drives a Mini rather than a high-powered sports car - was "an absolute fanatic" about cars. He said: "The faster they are the more he likes them. He's a very good driver, there's no doubt about it, and this is the first accident I have heard of involving him. "Obviously, we are relieved he is uninjured." Mr Atkinson's sports car, which can travel from 0-60mph in just 3.2 seconds, is not the only prestige vehicle he has owned. He has also driven Aston Martins, Rolls Royces, Lancias and Mercedes. The McLaren car was delivered to his Oxfordshire home in 1997. ||||| For the Formula One team, see McLaren The McLaren F1 is a sports car designed and manufactured by McLaren Cars. Originally a concept conceived by Gordon Murray, he convinced Ron Dennis to back the project and engaged Peter Stevens to design the exterior and interior of the car. On 31 March 1998, the XP5 prototype with modified rev limiter set the Guinness World Record for the world's fastest production car, reaching 240.1 mph (386.4 km/h), surpassing the modified Jaguar XJ220's 217.1 mph (349 km/h) record from 1992. The McLaren's record lasted until the Koenigsegg CCR surpassed it in 2005, followed by the Bugatti Veyron. Only low production volume cars like the 1993 Dauer 962 Le Mans which attained 251.4 mph (404.6 km/h) in 1998 were faster.[2][3] The car features numerous proprietary designs and technologies; it is lighter and has a more streamlined structure than many modern sports cars, despite having one seat more than most similar sports cars, with the driver's seat located in the centre (and slightly forward) of two passengers' seating positions, providing driver visibility superior to that of a conventional seating layout. It features a powerful engine and is somewhat track oriented, but not to the degree that it compromises everyday usability and comfort. It was conceived as an exercise in creating what its designers hoped would be considered the ultimate road car. Despite not having been designed as a track machine, a modified race car edition of the vehicle won several races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995, where it faced purpose-built prototype race cars. Production began in 1992 and ended in 1998. In all, 106 cars were manufactured, with some variations in the design.[4] In 1994, the British car magazine Autocar stated in a road test regarding the F1, "The McLaren F1 is the finest driving machine yet built for the public road." They further stated, "The F1 will be remembered as one of the great events in the history of the car, and it may possibly be the fastest production road car the world will ever see."[5] In 2005, Channel4 placed the car at number one on their list of the 100 greatest cars, calling it "the greatest automotive achievement of all time". In popular culture, the McLaren F1 has earned its spot as 'The greatest automobile ever created' and 'The Most Excellent Sports Car Of All Time' amongst a wide variety of car enthusiasts and lovers.[6] Notable past and present McLaren F1 owners include Elon Musk,[7] Jay Leno,[8] George Harrison,[9] and the Sultan of Brunei.[10] In the April 2017 issue of Top Gear Magazine, the McLaren F1 was listed as one of the fastest naturally aspirated cars currently available in the world, and in the same league as the more modern vehicles such as the Ferrari Enzo and Aston Martin One-77 despite being produced and engineered 10 years prior the Ferrari Enzo and 17 years prior the Aston Martin One-77.[11] Design and implementation [ edit ] The logo of McLaren F1 McLaren F1 Chief engineer Gordon Murray's design concept was a common one among designers of high-performance cars: low weight and high power. This was achieved through use of high-tech and expensive materials such as carbon fibre, titanium, gold, magnesium and kevlar. The F1 was the first production car to use a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis.[12] The three seat setup inside an F1 Gordon Murray had been thinking of a three-seat sports car since his youth. When Murray was waiting for a flight home from the Italian Grand Prix in 1988, he drew a sketch of a three-seater sports car and proposed it to Ron Dennis. He pitched the idea of creating the ultimate road car, a concept that would be heavily influenced by the company's Formula One experience and technology and thus reflect that skill and knowledge through the McLaren F1. Murray declared that "During this time, we were able to visit Honda's Tochigi Research Center with Ayrton Senna. The visit related to the fact that at the time, McLaren's F1 Grand Prix cars were using Honda engines. Although it's true I had thought it would have been better to put a larger engine, the moment I drove the Honda NSX, all the benchmark cars—Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini—I had been using as references in the development of my car vanished from my mind. Of course the car we would create, the McLaren F1, needed to be faster than the NSX, but the NSX's ride quality and handling would become our new design target. Being a fan of Honda engines, I later went to Honda's Tochigi Research Center on two occasions and requested that they consider building for the McLaren F1 a 4.5 litre V10 or V12. I asked, I tried to persuade them, but in the end could not convince them to do it, and the McLaren F1 ended up equipped with a BMW engine."[13] Later, a pair of Ultima MK3 kit cars, chassis numbers 12 and 13, "Albert" and "Edward", the last two MK3s, were used as "mules" to test various components and concepts before the first cars were built. Number 12 was used to test the gearbox with a 7.4 litre Chevrolet V8, plus various other components such as the seats and the brakes. Number 13 was the test of the V12, plus exhaust and cooling system. When McLaren was done with the cars they destroyed both of them to keep away the specialist magazines and because they did not want the car to be associated with "kit cars".[14] The car was first unveiled at a launch show, 28 May 1992, at The Sporting Club in Monaco. The production version remained the same as the original prototype (XP1) except for the wing mirror which, on the XP1, was mounted at the top of the A-pillar. This car was deemed not road legal as it had no indicators at the front; McLaren was forced to make changes on the car as a result (some cars, including Ralph Lauren's, were sent back to McLaren and fitted with the prototype mirrors). The original wing mirrors also incorporated a pair of indicators which other car manufacturers would adopt several years later. The car's safety levels were first proved when during a testing in Namibia in April 1993, a test driver wearing just shorts and a T-shirt hit a rock and rolled the first prototype car several times. The driver managed to escape unscathed. Later in the year, the second prototype (XP2) was specially built for crashtesting and passed with the front wheel arch untouched. Engine [ edit ] History [ edit ] The McLaren F1's engine compartment contains the mid-mounted BMW S70/2 engine and uses gold foil as a heat shield in the exhaust compartment Gordon Murray insisted that the engine for this car be naturally aspirated to increase reliability and driver control. Turbochargers and superchargers increase power but they increase complexity and can decrease reliability as well as introducing an additional aspect of latency and loss of feedback. The ability of the driver to maintain maximum control of the engine is thus compromised. Murray initially approached Honda for a powerplant with, 558 PS (550 bhp; 410 kW) 600 mm (23.6 in) block length and a total weight of 250 kg (551 lb), it should be derived from the Formula One powerplant in the then-dominating McLaren/Honda cars. When Honda refused, Isuzu, then planning an entry into Formula One, had a 3.5-litre V12 engine being tested in a Lotus chassis. The company was very interested in having the engine fitted into the F1. However, the designers wanted an engine with a proven design and a racing pedigree.[15] Specifications [ edit ] Gordon Murray then approached BMW, which took an interest, and the motorsport division BMW M headed by engine expert Paul Rosche[16] designed and built Murray a 6,064 cc (6.1 L; 370.0 cu in) 60º V12 engine called the BMW S70/2.[17] At 627 PS (618 bhp; 461 kW)[18][19] and 266 kg (586 lb) the BMW engine ended up 14% more powerful and 16 kg (35 lb) heavier than Gordon Murray's original specifications, with the same block length. It has an aluminium alloy block and heads, with bore x stroke of 86 mm × 87 mm (3.39 in × 3.43 in) DOHC with variable valve timing (a relatively new and unproven technology for the time) for maximum flexibility of control over the 4 valves per cylinder, and a chain drive for the camshafts for maximum reliability. The engine uses a dry sump oil lubrication system. The carbon fibre body panels and monocoque required significant heat insulation in the engine compartment, so Murray's solution was to line the engine bay with a highly efficient heat-reflector: gold foil. Approximately 16 g (0.8 ounce) of gold was used in each car.[20] The road version used a compression ratio of 11:1 to produce a maximum power output of 627 PS (618 bhp; 461 kW) at 7,400 rpm and 479 lb⋅ft (650 N⋅m) at 5,600 rpm of torque.[21][22] The engine has a redline rev limiter set at 7,500 rpm. In contrast to raw engine power, a car's power-to-weight ratio is a better method of quantifying acceleration performance than the peak output of the vehicle's powerplant. The standard F1 achieves 550 hp/ton (403 kW/tonne), or just 4.0 lb/hp. The cam carriers, covers, oil sump, dry sump, and housings for the camshaft control are made of magnesium castings. The intake control features twelve individual butterfly valves and the exhaust system has four Inconel catalysts with individual Lambda-Sondion controls. The camshafts are continuously variable for increased performance, using a system very closely based on BMW's VANOS variable timing system for the BMW M3;[23] it is a hydraulically actuated phasing mechanism which retards the inlet cam relative to the exhaust cam at low revs, which reduces the valve overlap and provides for increased idle stability and increased low-speed torque. At higher rpm the valve overlap is increased by computer control to 42 degrees (compare 25 degrees on the M3)[23] for increased airflow into the cylinders and thus increased performance. To allow the fuel to atomise fully, the engine uses two Lucas injectors per cylinder, with the first injector located close to the inlet valve – operating at low engine rpm – while the second is located higher up the inlet tract – operating at higher rpm. The dynamic transition between the two devices is controlled by the engine computer.[23] Each cylinder has its own miniature ignition coil. The closed-loop fuel injection is sequential. The engine has no knock sensor as the predicted combustion conditions would not cause this to be a problem. The pistons are forged in aluminium. Every cylinder bore has a Nikasil coating giving it a high degree of wear resistance.[23] From 1998 to 2000, the Le Mans–winning BMW V12 LMR sports car used a similar S70/2 engine. The engine was given a short development time, causing the BMW design team to use only trusted technology from prior design and implementation experience. The engine does not use titanium valves or connecting rods. Variable intake geometry was considered but rejected on grounds of unnecessary complication.[23] As for fuel consumption, the engine achieves on average 15.2 mpg (15 L/100 km), at worst 9.3 mpg (25 L/100 km) and at best 23.4 mpg (10 L/100 km).[5] McLaren F1 with all user accessible compartments opened Chassis and body [ edit ] The McLaren F1 was the first production road car to use a complete carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) monocoque chassis structure.[24] Aluminium and magnesium were used for attachment points for the suspension system, inserted directly into the CFRP.[25] The car features a central driving position – the driver's seat is located in the middle, ahead of the fuel tank and ahead of the engine, with a passenger seat slightly behind and on each side.[26] The doors on the vehicle move up and out when opened, and are thus of the butterfly type, also called Dihedral doors. Gordon Murray's design for the doors was inspired by a Toyota Sera.[27] The engine produces high temperatures under full application and thus causes a high temperature variation in the engine bay from no operation to normal and full operation. CFRP becomes mechanically stressed over time from high heat transfer effects and thus the engine bay was not constructed from CFRP.[28] Aerodynamics [ edit ] The overall drag coefficient on the standard McLaren F1 is 0.32,[29] compared with 0.36 for the faster Bugatti Veyron, and 0.357 for the SSC Ultimate Aero TT, which was the fastest production car from 2007 to 2010. The vehicle's frontal area is 1.79 square metres, and the S·Cd figure is 0.57. Because the machine features active aerodynamics[30][20][31] these are the figures presented in the most streamlined configuration. The normal McLaren F1 features no wings to produce downforce (compare the LM and GTR editions); however, the overall design of the underbody of the McLaren F1 in addition to a rear diffuser exploits ground effect to improve downforce which is increased through the use of two electric Kevlar fans to further decrease the pressure under the car.[32] A "high downforce mode" can be turned on and off by the driver.[32] At the top of the vehicle, there is an air intake to direct high pressure air to the engine with a low pressure exit point at the top of the very rear.[32] Under each door is a small air intake to provide cooling for the oil tank and some of the electronics.[32] The airflow created by the electric fans not only increases downforce, but the airflow that is created is further exploited through design, by being directed through the engine bay to provide additional cooling for the engine and the ECU.[32] At the front, there are ducts assisted by a Kevlar electric suction fan for cooling of the front brakes.[32] There is a small dynamic rear spoiler on the tail of the vehicle, which will adjust dynamically and automatically attempt to balance the centre of gravity of the car under braking[20] – which will be shifted forward when the brakes are applied. Upon activation of the spoiler, a high pressure zone is created in front of the flap, and this high pressure zone is exploited—two air intakes are revealed upon application that will allow the high pressure airflow to enter ducts that route air to aid in cooling the rear brakes.[32] The spoiler increases the overall drag coefficient from 0.32 to 0.39 and is activated at speeds equal to or above 40 mph (64 km/h) by brake line pressure.[23] Suspension [ edit ] Steve Randle, who was the car's dynamicist, was appointed responsible for the design of the suspension system of the McLaren F1.[23] It was decided that the ride should be comfortable yet performance-oriented, but not as stiff and low as that of a true track machine, as that would imply reduction in practical use and comfort as well as increasing noise and vibration, which would be a contradictory design choice in relation to the former set premise – the goal of creating the ultimate road car. From inception, the design of the F1 had a strong focus on adjusting the mass of the car as near the middle as possible by extensive manipulation of placement of, among other things, the engine, fuel and driver, allowing for a low polar moment of inertia in yaw. The F1 has 42% of its weight at the front and 58% at the rear,[23] this figure changes less than 1% with the fuel load. The distance between the mass centroid of the car and the suspension roll centre were designed to be the same front and rear to avoid unwanted weight transfer effects. Computer controlled dynamic suspension were considered but not applied due to the inherent increase in weight, increased complexity and loss of predictability of the vehicle. Damper and spring specifications: 90 mm (3.5 in) bump, 80 mm (3.1 in) rebound with bounce frequency at 1.43 Hz at front and 1.80 Hz at the rear.[23] Despite being sports oriented, these figures imply a soft ride and inherently decrease track performance. As can be seen from the McLaren F1 LM and the McLaren F1 GTR track variants, the track performance potential is much higher than that in the standard F1 road car due to fact that car should be comfortable and usable in everyday conditions. The suspension is a double wishbone system with an unusual design. Longitudinal wheel compliance is included without loss of wheel control, which allows the wheel to travel backwards when it hits a bump – increasing the comfort of the ride. Castor wind-off at the front during braking is handled by McLaren's proprietary Ground Plane Shear Centre – the wishbones on either side in the subframe are fixed in rigid plane bearings and connected to the body by four independent bushes which are 25 times more stiff radially than axially.[23] This solution provides for a castor wind-off measured to 1.02 degrees per g of braking deceleration. Compare the Honda NSX at 2.91 degrees per g, the Porsche 928 S at 3.60 degrees per g and the Jaguar XJ6 at 4.30 degrees per g respectively. The difference in toe and camber values are also of very small under lateral force application. Inclined Shear Axis is used at the rear of the machine provides measurements of 0.04 degrees per g of change in toe-in under braking and 0.08 degrees per g of toe-out under traction.[23] When developing the suspension system the facility of electro-hydraulic kinematics and compliance at Anthony Best Dynamics was employed to measure the performance of the suspension on a Jaguar XJR16, a Porsche 928S and a Honda NSX to use as references. Steering knuckles and the top wishbone/bell crank are also specially manufactured in an aluminium alloy. The wishbones are machined from a solid aluminium alloy with CNC machines.[23] Tyres [ edit ] The McLaren F1 uses 235/45ZR17 front tyres and 315/45ZR17 rear tyres.[30] These are specially designed and developed solely for the McLaren F1 by Goodyear and Michelin. The tyres are mounted on 17-by-9-inch (430 mm × 230 mm) front, and 17-by-11.5-inch (430 mm × 290 mm) rear five-spoke cast magnesium wheels, coated with a protective paint and secured by magnesium retention pins.[26] The turning circle from kerb to kerb is 13 m (43 ft), allowing the driver 2 turns from lock to lock. Brakes [ edit ] The F1 features unassisted, vented and cross-drilled brake discs made by Brembo. Front size is 332 mm (13.1 in) and at the rear 305 mm (12.0 in).[30][23] The callipers are all four-pot, opposed piston types, and are made of aluminium.[23] The rear brake callipers do not feature any handbrake functionality, however there is a mechanically actuated, fist-type callipers which is computer controlled and thus serves as a handbrake. To increase calliper stiffness, the callipers are machined from one single solid piece (in contrast to the more common being bolted together from two halves). Pedal travel is slightly over one inch. Activation of the rear spoiler will allow the air pressure generated at the back of the vehicle to force air into the cooling ducts located at either end of the spoiler which become uncovered upon application of it. Servo-assisted ABS brakes were ruled out as they would imply increased mass, complexity and reduced brake feel; however at the cost of increasing the required skill of the driver.[23] Gordon Murray attempted to utilise carbon brakes for the F1, but found the technology not mature enough at the time;[28] with one of the major culprits being that of a proportional relationship between brake disc temperature and friction—i.e. stopping power—thus resulting in relatively poor brake performance without an initial warm-up of the brakes before use.[33] Since carbon brakes have a more simplified application envelope in pure racing environments, this allows for the racing edition of the car, the F1 GTR, to feature ceramic carbon brakes.[16] Gearbox and powertrain [ edit ] The standard McLaren F1 has a transverse 6-speed manual gearbox with an AP carbon triple-plate clutch[30] contained in an aluminium housing. The second generation GTR edition has a magnesium housing.[16] Both the standard edition and the 'McLaren F1 LM' have the following gear ratios: 3.23:1, 2.19:1, 1.71:1, 1.39:1, 1.16:1, 0.93:1, with a final drive of 2.37:1, the final gear is offset from the side of the clutch.[30] The gearbox is proprietary and was developed by Weismann.[34] The Torsen LSD (Limited Slip Differential) has a 40% lock.[30] The McLaren F1 has an aluminium flywheel that has only the dimensions and mass absolutely needed to allow the torque from the engine to be transmitted. This is done in order to decrease rotational inertia and increase responsiveness of the system, resulting in faster gear changes and better throttle feedback. This is possible due to the F1 engine lacking secondary vibrational couples and featuring a torsional vibration damper by BMW.[23] Interior and equipment [ edit ] 1996 McLaren F1 side luggage compartment Standard equipment on the stock McLaren F1 includes full cabin air conditioning, a rarity on most sports cars and a system design which Murray again credited to the Honda NSX, a car he had owned and driven himself for 7 years without ever needing to change the AC automatic setting.[citation needed] Further comfort features included SeKurit electric defrost/demist windscreen and side glass, electric window lifts, remote central locking, Kenwood 10-disc CD stereo system, cabin access release for opening panels, cabin storage compartment, four-lamp high performance headlight system, rear fog and reversing lights, courtesy lights in all compartments, map reading lights and a gold-plated Facom titanium tool kit and first aid kit (both stored in the car).[35] In addition, tailored, proprietary luggage bags specially designed to fit the vehicle's carpeted storage compartments, including a tailored golf bag, were standard equipment.[26] Airbags are not present in the car.[5][16] Each customer was given a special edition TAG Heuer 6000 Chronometer wristwatch with its serial number scripted below the centre stem.[36] All features of the F1 were, according to Gordon Murray, obsessed over including the interior.[28] The metal plates fitted to improve aesthetics of the cockpit are claimed to be 20 thousandths of an inch (0.5 mm) thick to save weight.[28] The driver's seat of the McLaren F1 is custom fitted to the specifications desired by the customer for optimal fit and comfort; the seats are handmade from CFRP and covered in light Connolly leather.[26] By design, the F1 steering column cannot be adjusted; however, prior to production each customer specifies the exact preferred position of the steering wheel and thus the steering column is tailored by default to those owner settings. The same holds true for the pedals, which are not adjustable after the car has left the factory, but are tailored to each specific customer.[5] During its pre-production stage, McLaren commissioned Kenwood, the team's supplier of radio equipment, to create a lightweight car audio system for the car; Kenwood, between 1992 and 1998 used the F1 to promote its products in print advertisements, calendars and brochure covers. Each car's audio system was especially designed to tailor to an individual's listening taste, however radio was omitted because Murray never listened to the radio. Purchase and maintenance [ edit ] Only 106 cars were manufactured: 5 prototypes (XP1, XP2, XP3, XP4, XP5), 64 road versions (F1), 1 tuned prototype (XP1 LM), 5 tuned versions (LM), 1 longtail prototype (XPGT), 2 longtail versions (GT), and 28 racecars (GTR). Production began in 1992 and ended in 1998.[4] At the time of production, each car took around three and a half months to make.[5] Although production stopped in 1998, McLaren still maintains an extensive support and service network for the F1. Every standard F1 has a modem which allows customer care to remotely fetch information from the ECU of the car in order to assist the customer in the event of a mechanical vehicle failure.[37] There are eight[38] authorised service centres throughout the world, and McLaren will on occasion fly a specialised technician to the owner of the car or the service centre. All of the technicians have undergone dedicated training in service of the McLaren F1. In cases where major structural damage has occurred, the car can be returned to McLaren directly for repair.[38] Performance [ edit ] The F1 remains one of the fastest production cars ever made; as of July 2013 it is succeeded by very few cars, including the Koenigsegg CCR,[39] the Bugatti Veyron,[40] the SSC Ultimate Aero TT,[41] and the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. However, all of the higher top speed machines use forced induction to reach their respective top speeds, whereas the McLaren F1 is naturally aspirated. McLaren F1 has a power to weight ratio of 1.79 kg (3.95 lb) per horsepower. Acceleration (Test By Autocar Magazine) [ edit ] 0–30 mph (48 km/h): 1.8 s [42] 0–40 mph (64 km/h): 2.3 s [42] 0–50 mph (80 km/h): 2.7 s [42] 0–60 mph (97 km/h): 3.2 s [42] 0–70 mph (113 km/h): 3.9 s [42] 0–80 mph (129 km/h): 4.5 s [42] 0–90 mph (145 km/h): 5.6 s [42] 0–100 mph (161 km/h): 6.3 s [42] 0–110 mph (177 km/h): 7.2 s [42] 0–120 mph (193 km/h): 9.2 s [42] 0–124.3 mph (200 km/h): 9.4 s [43] 0–130 mph (209 km/h): 10.4 s [42] 0–140 mph (225 km/h): 11.2 s [42] 0–150 mph (241 km/h): 12.8 s [42] 0–160 mph (257 km/h): 14.6 s [42] 0–170 mph (274 km/h): 17.2 s [42] 0–180 mph (290 km/h): 20.3 s [42] 0–190 mph (306 km/h): 23.8 s [42] 0–200 mph (322 km/h): 28 s [42] 30–50 mph (48–80 km/h): 1.8 s, using 3rd/4th gear [42] 30–70 mph (48–113 km/h): 2.1 s, using 3rd/4th gear [42] 40–60 mph (64–97 km/h): 2.3 s, using 4th/5th gear [42] 50–70 mph (80–113 km/h): 2.8 s, using 5th gear [42] 180–200 mph (290–322 km/h): 7.6 s, using 6th gear [42] 0–400 m (0.25 mi): 11.045 s at 138 mph (222 km/h) [44] 0–1,000 m (0.62 mi): 19.548 s at 276.41 km/h (171.75 mph)[44] Acceleration (On a customer car) [ edit ] Braking and handling [ edit ] 30–0 mph (48–0 km/h): 9.7 m / 31.83 ft [46] 50–0 mph (80–0 km/h): 25.2 m / 82.68 ft [46] 70–0 mph (112–0 km/h): 49 m / 162 ft [42] Skidpad Lateral Acceleration: 1.2[47]–1.3g[15] Track tests [ edit ] Tsukuba Circuit, time trial : 1:04.62 (Driven by Naoki Hattori in Best Motoring) on a hot lap with humid (92%) weather and some miss shifting. [48] Which means that lap time can be improved to 59s with ideal conditions and if miss shifts were corrected as said by Best Motoring (who tested it) on Facebook. [49] : 1:04.62 (Driven by Naoki Hattori in Best Motoring) on a hot lap with humid (92%) weather and some miss shifting. Which means that lap time can be improved to 59s with ideal conditions and if miss shifts were corrected as said by Best Motoring (who tested it) on Facebook. Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, 2-mile (3.2 km) banked circuit, top speed test : An average speed of 195.3 mph (314.3 km/h), with a maximum speed of 200.8 mph (323.2 km/h) (driven by Tiff Needell using the XP5 prototype). [50] : An average speed of 195.3 mph (314.3 km/h), with a maximum speed of 200.8 mph (323.2 km/h) (driven by Tiff Needell using the XP5 prototype). MIRA, 2.82-mile (4.54 km) banked circuit, top speed test : An average speed of 168 mph (270 km/h), with a maximum speed of 196.2 mph (315.8 km/h) (driven by Peter Taylor). [50] : An average speed of 168 mph (270 km/h), with a maximum speed of 196.2 mph (315.8 km/h) (driven by Peter Taylor). Bedford Autodrome West Circuit Post 2006 Hot Lap: 1:21.20 done by Evo magazine with a custom modified McLaren F1(with same tyres as Enzo) on 10 January 2007 which was faster than a Ferrari Enzo lap of 1:21.30 [51] Estoril circuit lap is 1:55.9 in 1994 (4.36 km) configuration of the track with 3 people on board in July 1994. [52] [53] Mclaren F1 XP4 prototype was tested by Tiff Needell on TopGear at Goodwood track. [54] He said that its handling was superb and precise. The car reaches same part of the GoodWood that is woodcote corner from 6:53 to 8:18 of the video so expect the laptime to be around 1:25 (it may vary as it is estimation from video). [54] He said that its handling was superb and precise. The car reaches same part of the GoodWood that is woodcote corner from 6:53 to 8:18 of the video so expect the laptime to be around 1:25 (it may vary as it is estimation from video). The 1st lap of Nurburgring was completed by Jonathan Palmer in the XP4 prototype, where he reached a maximum of 200 mph (322 km/h) on the track.[55] Record claims [ edit ] The title of "world's fastest production road car" was constantly in contention, especially because the term "production car" is not well-defined. In August 1993 McLaren tested the XP3 prototype – which had only about 580 hp – at Nardo. They calculated a top speed of 231 mph from the data recording inside the car.[56] The British magazine Autocar was given access and tested the XP5 prototype in May 1994. They wrote:"Had we enough tarmac, we have no doubt that it would finally stop accelerating at its rev-limiter in top which, taking tyre growth into account, would be somewhere the far side of 230mph."[46] Car and Driver wrote in their August 1994 issue ("Courtesy of Autocar & Motor" written in the box with performance numbers): "Top speed? The F1 runs into the 7500 rpm redline in sixth at 221 mph—but it's still accelerating. Gordon Murray, the F1's designer, is convinced that with taller gearing, the car is capable of at least 230 mph."[42] On 31 March 1998 Andy Wallace drove the five-year-old XP5 prototype at Volkswagen's test track in Ehra-Lessien, setting a new production car world record of independently measured 240.1 mph (386.4 km/h) two-way average (peak speed 243 mph(391 km/h) measured by McLaren)[57] with the rev-limiter raised to 8300 rpm.[30][58] It's said that the certified 240.1 mph were converted from 386.7 km/h which is almost 240.3 mph if converted more precisely, so top speeds in the 240.1–240.3 mph (386.4–386.7 km/h) range can be read from various sources. Depending on the definition of "production car" it was dethroned in November 1998 by the Dauer 962 Le Mans (404.6 km/h (251.4 mph) in Ehra-Lessien)[2][59] or in April 2007 by the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 (408.47 km/h (253.81 mph) in Ehra-Lessien).[40] Motorsports [ edit ] Following its initial launch as a road car, motorsports teams convinced McLaren to build racing versions of the F1 to compete in international series. Three different versions of the race car were developed from 1995 to 1997.[60] Many F1 GTRs, after the cars were no longer eligible in international racing series, were converted to street use. By adding mufflers, passenger seats, adjusting the suspension for more ground clearance for public streets, and removing the air restrictors, the cars were able to be registered for road use. F1 GTR 1995 [ edit ] Built at the request of race teams, such as those owned by Ray Bellm and Thomas Bscher, in order to compete in the BPR Global GT Series, the McLaren F1 GTR was a custom-built race car which introduced a modified engine management system that increased power output — however, air-restrictors mandated by racing regulations reduced the power back to 600 hp (608 PS; 447 kW) at 7,500 rpm.[61] The car's extensive modifications included changes to body panels, suspension, aerodynamics and the interior. The F1 GTR would go on to take its greatest achievement with first, third, fourth, fifth, and 13th places in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans, beating out custom built prototype sports cars.[60] In total, nine F1 GTRs were built for the 1995 season.[61] The 1995 version of F1 GTR created so much downforce that it was claimed to run along the ceiling at 100 mph (160 km/h).[62] F1 GTR 1996 [ edit ] To follow up on the success of the F1 GTR into 1996, McLaren further developed the 1995 model, leading to a size increase but weight decrease.[60] Nine more F1 GTRs were built to 1996 spec, while some 1995 cars were still campaigned by privateers. F1 GTR 1996 chassis #14R is notable as being the first non-Japanese car to win a race in the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC).[63] The car was driven by David Brabham and John Nielsen. The weight was reduced with around 37 kg (82 lb) from the 1995 GTR but the engine was kept detuned at 600 hp (608 PS; 447 kW) to comply with racing regulations.[18] F1 GTR 1997 [ edit ] With the 2 F1 GT homologation street version s produced, McLaren could now develop the F1 GTR for the 1997 season. Weight was further reduced and a sequential gearbox was added.[60] The engine was slightly destroked to 6.0 L instead of the previous 6.1 L. Due to the heavily modified bodywork, the F1 GTR 1997 is often referred to as the "Longtail" thanks to the rear bodywork being extended to increase downforce. A total of ten F1 GTR 1997 were built for the 1997 season. The weight was reduced to a total of 910 kg (2,010 lb).[60] Variants [ edit ] Total production Variant Road Prototype Race Total F1 64 5 69 F1 LM 5 1 6 F1 GT 2 1 3 F1 GTR 28 28 Total 71 7 28 106 The McLaren F1 road car, of which 64 were originally sold, saw several different modifications over its production span which were badged as different models. Of the road versions, 21 are reportedly in the United States. The company maintains a database to match up prospective sellers and buyers of the cars. Prototypes [ edit ] McLaren XP3 prototype, photographed during testing in 1993. The car is now owned by Gordon Murray A McLaren F1 with the wing mirrors mounted on the A-pillar as on the prototypes Prior to the sale of the first McLaren F1s, five prototypes were built, carrying the numbers XP1 through XP5.[64] These cars carried minor subtle differences between each other as well as between the production road cars. Contrary to common misunderstanding, XP1, the first ever running prototype, was never publicly unveiled. The XP1 was never painted (with bare carbon fibre exterior) and later destroyed in an accident in Namibia. The car unveiled at the Monaco 1992 event was actually a "Clinic Model", aesthetically convincing but without a powertrain. XP2 was used for crash testing (sporting a blue colour during the test) and also destroyed. As it was a crash test car, it didn't have full interior equipment or a powertrain. XP3 did durability testing, XP4 stress tested the gearbox system and XP5 was a publicity car. The XP3 has been in Murray's ownership since the completion of the programme, XP4 was seen by many viewers of Top Gear when reviewed by Tiff Needell in the mid-1990s and later on sold to a private owner, while XP5 went on to be used in McLaren's famous top speed run and is still owned by McLaren. Ameritech [ edit ] This version of the McLaren F1 is modified in order to obtain road legality in the United States. These modifications include the deletion of side seats, the replacement of headlights, a heightened bumper and dampened performance figures including handling and braking compared to the European F1, due to road legality issues. It weighs in at 1,288.2 kg (2,840 lb). Performance [ edit ] Performance figures as tested by Road And Track Magazine in 1997:[65] Performance figures are lower than a regular F1 in all aspects (apart from 0–30 mph (0–48 km/h)) relating to performance. As Mario Andretti noted in a top speed comparison test after hitting the rev limiter at 217.7 mph (350.4 km/h) on Ameritech F1, the Ameritech F1 is fully capable of pulling a seventh gear, thus with a higher gear ratio or a seventh gear the car would probably be able to reach an even greater top speed.[66] Acceleration figures [ edit ] Braking [ edit ] 60–0 mph: 127 ft [65] 80–0 mph: 215 ft[65] Handling [ edit ] Skidpad 200 ft: 0.86g [65] Slalom 700 ft Speed: 64.5 mph[65] F1 LM [ edit ] The McLaren F1 XP1 LM prototype on display The McLaren F1 LM (LM for Le Mans) is a series of five special cars which were built in honour of the five McLaren F1 GTRs which finished the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans, including the winning car.[68] The weight was reduced by approximately 76 kg (167.6 lb) to a total of 1,062 kg (2,341 lb) – achieved by having no interior noise suppression, no audio system, a stripped-down base interior, no fan-assisted ground effect and no dynamic rear wing. The car also had a different transaxle, various aerodynamic modifications, specially designed 18-inch (457 mm) magnesium alloy wheels and upgraded gearbox. The F1 LM used the same engine as the 1995 F1 GTR, but without race-mandated restrictors, to produce 680 hp (507 kW; 689 PS). It had a top speed of 225 mph (362 km/h), which is less than the standard version because of added aerodynamic drag, despite identical gear ratios. In the place of the small dynamic rear wing there is a considerably larger, fixed CFRP rear wing mounted on the back of the vehicle. The LM has the following specifications: Peak torque of 705 N⋅m (520 lbf⋅ft) at 4,500 rpm Peak power of 680 PS (500 kW; 670 hp) at 7,800 rpm A redline at 8,500 rpm Total weight of 1,062 kg (2,341 lb) which gives the car a 110.16 bhp (82 kW; 112 PS) per litre ratio.[69] While McLaren has never claimed specific acceleration figures for the LM, Motortrend recorded traction-limited times of 0–60 mph in 3.9s and 0–100 mph in 6.7s.[62] The LM was once the holder of the 0–100–0 mph record, which it completed in 11.5 seconds when driven by Andy Wallace at the disused airbase RAF Alconbury in Cambridgeshire.[70] The F1 LMs can be identified by their Papaya Orange paint. They were painted in this colour in memory of, and tribute to, Bruce McLaren, whose race colour was Papaya Orange. Two of the chassis were painted in Black with Grey trim similar to the Ueno Clinic sponsored Le Mans 24 Hours winning car. These cars were bought by the Sultan of Brunei as such, also feature horizontal stripes down the sides in yellow, red and blue. Although only five F1 LMs were sold, a sixth chassis exists in the form of XP1 LM, the prototype for modifications to the existing F1 to form the new F1 LM. This car is also painted Papaya Orange and is retained by McLaren. F1 GT [ edit ] The final incarnation of the road car, the F1 GT was meant as a homologation special. With increased competition from homologated sports cars from Porsche and Mercedes-Benz in the former BPR Global GT Series and new FIA GT Championship, McLaren required extensive modification to the F1 GTR in order to remain competitive. These modifications were so vast that McLaren would be required to build a production road-legal car on which the new race cars would be based. The F1 GT featured the same extended rear bodywork as the GTRs for increased downforce and reduced drag, yet lacked the rear wing that had been seen on the F1 LM.[72] The downforce generated by the longer tail was found to be sufficient to not require the wing. The front end was also similar to the racing car, with extra louvers and the wheel arches widened to fit larger wheels. The interior was modified and a racing steering wheel was included in place of the standard unit. The F1 GTs were built from standard F1 road car chassis, retaining their production numbers. The prototype GT, known as XPGT, was F1 chassis #056, and is still kept by McLaren. The company technically only needed to build one car and did not even have to sell it. However, demand from customers drove McLaren to build two production versions that were sold. The customer F1 GTs were chassis #054 and #058. It weighs 1120 kg which is 20 kg lighter than Standard F1 and has the top speed above 240 mph (386 km/h) although this was never tested. References [ edit ] ||||| Rowan Atkinson was rushed to hospital last night after crashing his ultra rare £2million sports car. The Mr Bean star lost control of the 230mph McLaren F1 after wet weather hit much of the country last night. The supercar spun several times before hitting a tree and a lamppost, coming to a rest at the roadside before bursting into flames. One onlooker said: “Rowan is lucky to be alive considering the state of the car.” When emergency services arrived at the scene, Atkinson, whose character Mr Bean drives an old Mini, was sitting in a passing motorist’s car. The actor, 56, suffered shoulder injuries in the crash, which happened at about 7.30pm on the A605 in Cambridgeshire. Paramedics took him to Peterborough City Hospital for treatment and firefighters made the car safe to be towed away by McLaren recovery experts. Atkinson, who is well-known as a fast car enthusiast, bought the McLaren, one of only 65 in existence, to celebrate the success of the Mr Bean movie and its value has since soared to around £2million. He also owns vintage and classic cars including Aston Martins and Rolls Royces, has written articles for car magazines and recently appeared as the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car on the BBC’s Top Gear. It is the second time he has crashed his F1. The front of the car was damaged in a collision in Forton, Lancs, in 1999. ||||| British media say actor Rowan Atkinson, famed for his "Mr. Bean" television shows and films, is recovering in hospital after crashing his supercar. The 56-year-old comedian, also known for the "Blackadder" historical comedy shows, was expected to be discharged on Friday after treatment for a shoulder injury, the Daily Mirror reported. Atkinson's spokesman could not immediately be reached. Police and firefighters both said that a vehicle crashed late Thursday close to Haddon, a village about 85 miles (137km) north of London. The car struck a tree, a lamppost and caught fire, authorities said. Firefighters said the driver was not trapped and he was taken to hospital. Atkinson was driving his McLaren F1 supercar _ one of the world's fastest road cars, the newspaper said.

– The comic know around the world as nerdy Mr. Bean is recovering in a British hospital after crashing his McLaren F1 supercar and striking a tree and lamppost before the vehicle burst into flames. Rowan Atkinson is "lucky to be alive considering the state of the car," said a witness. The actor suffered only a minor shoulder injury in the wreck some 85 miles north of London, reports AP. Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, but some media reported that Atkinson spun out on a portion of rain-slicked highway. Atkinson also crashed the car in 1999, rear-ending a Land Rover. He bought the sports car, which can reach speeds of 230 mph, to celebrate the success of Mr. Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie. It's only one of 65 street versions ever made and is valued at more than $2 million, reports the Mirror. While his character Mr. Bean putts along in a Mini-Cooper, Atkinson is a fan of luxury sports cars, and has also owned Aston Martins, Mercedes, and Rolls Royces.

In the U.S., legal hurdles have long hampered research into marijuana. But as more states approve medical and even recreational marijuana, scientific inquiries have spiked, especially studies aimed at finding out what exactly is in today's weed—and what it does to our bodies. In Colorado, which made marijuana legal in November 2012, the latest results show that the pot lining store shelves is much more potent than the weed of 30 years ago. But the boost in power comes at a cost—modern marijuana mostly lacks the components touted as beneficial by medical marijuana advocates, and it is often contaminated with fungi, pesticides and heavy metals. “There's a stereotype, a hippy kind of mentality, that leads people to assume that growers are using natural cultivation methods and growing organically," says Andy LaFrate, founder of Charas Scientific, one of eight Colorado labs certified to test cannabis. "That's not necessarily the case at all." LaFrate presented his results this week at a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Denver. LaFrate says he's been surprised at just how strong most of today's marijuana has become. His group has tested more than 600 strains of marijuana from dozens of producers. Potency tests, the only ones Colorado currently requires, looked at tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound that produces the plant's famous high. They found that modern weed contains THC levels of 18 to 30 percent—double to triple the levels that were common in buds from the 1980s. That's because growers have cross-bred plants over the years to create more powerful strains, which today tout colorful names like Bruce Banner, Skunkberry and Blue Cookies. Those thinking that stronger pot is always better pot might think again. Breeding for more powerful marijuana has led to the virtual absence of cannabidol (CBD), a compound being investigated for treatments to a range of ills, from anxiety and depression to schizophrenia, Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's. Much of the commercially available marijuana LaFrate's lab tested packs very little of this particular cannabinoid. “A lot of the time it's below the detection level of our equipment, or it's there at a very low concentration that we just categorize as a trace amount,” he says. Consumers specifically seeking medical benefits from cannabis-derived oils or other products may have a tough time determining how much, if any, CBD they contain, because Colorado doesn't currently require testing. “I've heard a lot of complaints from medical patients because somebody claims that a product has a high level of CBD, and it turns out that it actually doesn't,” LaFrate says. Colorado also does not yet require testing of marijuana for contaminants. Washington, the second state to legalize recreational marijuana, does require such testing for microbial agents like E. coli, salmonella and yeast mold, and officials there rejected about 13 percent of the marijuana products offered for sale in 2014. "It's pretty startling just how dirty a lot of this stuff is," LaFrate says. His team commonly found fungi and bacteria in the marijuana products they tested. But for now it's unclear just how much marijuana growers need to clean up their product. "Like ourselves, this plant is living with bacteria that are essential to its survival. In terms of microbial contamination, it's kind of hard to say what's harmful and what's not," he adds. "So the questions become: What's a safe threshold, and which contaminants do we need to be concerned about?" At the top of that list would be chemical contaminants in products such as concentrates, like the hard, amber-colored Shatter, which contains more than 90 percent THC, LaFrate suggests. Concentrates and edibles (think brownies) make up perhaps half of the current Colorado market. Their makers sometimes suggest that their chosen products are healthier than standard weed because they don't involve frequent smoking. But some manufacturers employ potentially harmful compounds like butane to strip the plant of most everything but THC. Tests also show that marijuana plants can draw in heavy metals from the soil in which they are grown, and concentrating THC can increase the amounts of heavy metals, pesticides or other substances that end up in a product. That means regulations for their production still need to be hammered out, LaFrate says. “People use all kinds of different methods to produce concentrates,” LaFrate says. “They allow people to use rubbing alcohol and heptane. But what grade of solvents are they using? Are they buying heptane on eBay, and if so, what exactly is in there? 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For over a year, Coloradans age 21 and up have been able to buy recreational marijuana from state-regulated dispensaries. As part of the experiment, several labs have been certified to monitor samples from the state's burgeoning pot industry. One of those labs is scheduled to report its initial findings on Monday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, in Denver. Those tests revealed one pattern that was somewhat surprising -- namely, the pot's high concentrations of THC, according to Andy LaFrate, president of Denver-based testing firm Charas Scientific. THC is the compound that gives marijuana users a "high," and on average, the pot in Colorado's retail supply is 30 percent THC. According to LaFrate, that's more than triple the THC level typically found in street marijuana a few decades ago. Is that concerning? "I don't think so," LaFrate said. "Especially when you're talking about smoking." However, he added, high potency can be an issue with marijuana-infused "edibles." People can easily overdo it with ingested pot because its effects aren't as immediate as when it is smoked. LaFrate noted that Colorado has passed new regulations targeting edible marijuana -- including potency restrictions and stronger child-resistant packaging. LaFrate's lab also found some contaminants in retail pot samples, including fungus and the chemical butane, which is used in making marijuana extracts. Whether that's any cause for worry, however, is unclear. "Some contamination is inevitable," LaFrate said. "Is there a threat from the contaminants we found? It's hard to say. But if you're smoking, these [substances] will be inhaled into the lungs." Finally, the lab found that pot samples contained little to no cannabidiol, or CBD -- one of the marijuana compounds believed to have medicinal properties. That's not surprising, LaFrate said, given that the point of recreational pot is to get high. But, he added, "there is a decent number of people buying retail marijuana who want some medicinal value." So those folks should be aware that what they buy could be devoid of CBD, LaFrate said. Paul Armentano, deputy director of the nonprofit NORML, saw no surprises in the findings. "It is well known that Colorado possesses two separate markets for [marijuana] -- one for medical consumers and one for retail consumers," said Armentano, whose Washington, D.C.-based group advocates for legal marijuana use. So it's "hardly surprising," he said, that the state's retail pot would be high in THC, but low in CBD. And, Armentano said, concerns about high THC levels seem "largely misplaced." People seeking a high will probably smoke less, because it will take less higher-potency marijuana to achieve a high. As for contaminants, Armentano said, "obviously one wants consumers to be able to obtain a product of consistent quality and safety." And that's why ongoing quality testing is crucial, he added. "Further regulatory oversight may be needed in order to assure that consumers are presented with a product of consistent and acceptable quality," Armentano said. That may eventually happen, LaFrate speculated. Still, he said, "even though we did find these contaminants, I think overall the supply is very safe." Along with Colorado, three other states -- Alaska, Oregon and Washington -- and Washington, D.C. currently have a legal marijuana market. More information NORML keeps track of state marijuana laws. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated This is not your father's weed. Colorado marijuana is nearly twice as potent as illegal pot of past decades, and some modern cannabis packs triple the punch of vintage ganja, lab tests reveal for the first time. In old-school dope, levels of THC — the psychoactive chemical that makes people high — were typically well below 10 percent. But in Colorado's legal bud, the average THC level is 18.7 percent, and some retail pot contains 30 percent THC or more, according to research released Monday. “That was higher than expected,” said Andy LaFrate, president of Charas Scientific. His Denver lab is licensed by the state and paid by marijuana businesses to measure the THC strength in their products before they go to market. “It’s common to see samples in the high 20s.” What’s really in — and not in — Colorado’s retail weed surprised LaFrate. After analyzing more than 600 samples of bud provided by certified growers and sellers, LaFrate said he detected little medical value and lots of contamination. He presents those findings Monday to a national meeting of the American Chemical Society, a nonprofit scientific group chartered by Congress. “We don’t want to be alarmists and freak people out, but at the same time we have been finding some really dirty marijuana,” LaFrate told NBC News. Some green buds he viewed were covered in funghi — and he estimated that several marijuana flowers were "crawling" with up to 1 million fungal spores. "It's a natural product. There's going to be microbial growth on it no matter what you do," LaFrate said. "So the questions become: What's a safe threshold? And which contaminants do we need to be concerned about?" For example, he also examined more than 200 pot extracts or "concentrates" and found some contained solvents like butane. All the tests were done with high-performance liquid chromatography, a method to separate, classify and measure individual compounds. What LaFrate didn't see, however, also astonished him. The 600-plus weed samples generally carried little or no cannabidiol, or CBD — the compound that makes medical marijuana “medical.” The average CBD amount: 0.1 percent, his study reports. CBD is anecdotally known to control depression, anxiety, and pain. About 200 families with ill children also moved to Colorado to access a strain called Charlotte’s Web, which appears to control seizures in some kids. “It’s disturbing to me because there are people out there who think they’re giving their kids Charlotte’s Web. And you could be giving them no CBD — or even worse, you could be giving them a THC-rich product which might actually increase seizures,” LaFrate said. “So, it's pretty scary on the medical side." The majority of samples tested came from recreational-pot merchants. Under Colorado law, recreational weed must be tested for potency. Some medical-pot sellers voluntarily provided samples to LaFrate. Colorado does not require pre-sale testing of medical marijuana. LaFrate did not analyze any edibles. "Really, there is very little difference between recreational and medical in terms of the THC-to-CBD ratio, at least at the aggregate level," LaFrate said. What does that mean for buyers? There may be little difference in how various strains make users feel, even though some people claim one type induces relaxation and another hikes alertness, LaFrate said. Three decades of cross-breeding pot strains — done to meet a demand for stronger weed — generally elevated THC and decreased CBD in many marijuana varieties, LaFrate said. "These samples are representational, I think, of what’s happening here in the state and, probably, across the country," LaFrate said. "Because most of the new states coming online with medical or retail marijuana have people from Colorado coming in to set up those markets. "We found there’s a tremendous amount of homogeneity within the genetics, at least as far as potency." But some legal weed producers have launched new breeding projects, using different genetic combinations to boost CBD content, said Sean Azzariti, a cannabis advocate in Denver. Azzariti also champions contamination testing as "an integral part of our industry." "I personally am very excited to see technology in testing continue to advance. You would be very hard pressed to find a garden that hasn't at one point had some sort of issue, whether it's an infestation, microbial problems," said Azzariti, an Iraq War veteran. He uses cannabis to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder. On Jan. 1, 2014, he became Colorado's first buyer of legal weed. Meanwhile, pot-legalization opponents are using LaFrate's findings to compare retail weed to food raised or grown with genetically modified organisms or GMOs. And pot foes continue to link the rise of the marijuana industry to the long-ago advance of Big Tobacco. "This study is further evidence that Colorado legalization is not working. It proves that even under government control, there's no way to ensure marijuana is free of bacteria and chemicals," said Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). "This shows that marijuana is a GMO product just like other products sold by big business. And just like other industries, now you have a big marijuana industry determined to hide these findings from the public. Where is their outcry? Where are the promises to change the way they do business?" Sabet said. "I won't hold my breath. For years, the tobacco industry did the same thing. Welcome, America, to Big Tobacco 2.0 — Big Pot."

– If a meeting of the American Chemical Society wouldn't typically catch your attention, this week's Denver gathering may prove an exception. That's after Andy LaFrate presented his pot-themed paper, which had three standout (but not particularly worrisome) findings: retail pot is way more potent, potentially less medically beneficial, and a little dirty. LaFrate runs Charas Scientific; it's one of eight labs certified to test recreational pot in the state, and what it found after examining 600 strains of marijuana from legally certified growers and sellers is that THC—the compound behind pot's "high"—is present in levels as high as 30%, though NBC News reports the average is 18.7%. In the '80s, it was usually below 10%. As Smithsonian explains, that isn't an accidental occurrence: Growers have been crossbreeding strains in a bid to up the potency. LaFrate tells HealthDay it's not really a big deal, at least in terms of smoking, as smokers can just smoke less. But in that cross-breeding, cannabidiol—that's CBD, a compound that may benefit those suffering from everything from depression to Alzheimer's—has nearly been bred-out. "A lot of the time it's below the detection level of our equipment," says LaFrate. The director of a nonprofit that tracks state marijuana laws isn't wowed by the finding, saying he expects retail pot would be heavy on the THC and light on the CBD. But LaFrate noted that his lab has seen "very little difference between recreational and medical in terms of the THC-to-CBD ratio, at least at the aggregate level." As for it being "really dirty," his lab found fungus (up to 1 million spores, in some cases) on buds, and butane in some pot concentrates. "There's going to be microbial growth on it no matter what you do," he notes. But "what's a safe threshold?" (Would you ever put your pet on pot?)

For the latest GDP data for the following countries please check the "Projected % Change" on the individual country pages, in the At A Glance section : The World Economic Outlook (WEO) database contains selected macroeconomic data series from the statistical appendix of the World Economic Outlook report, which presents the IMF staff's analysis and projections of economic developments at the global level, in major country groups and in many individual countries. The WEO is released in April and September/October each year. Use this database to find data on national accounts, inflation, unemployment rates, balance of payments, fiscal indicators, trade for countries and country groups (aggregates), and commodity prices whose data are reported by the IMF. Data are available from 1980 to the present, and projections are given for the next two years. Additionally, medium-term projections are available for selected indicators. For some countries, data are incomplete or unavailable for certain years. The World Economic Outlook (WEO) database is now available in SDMX format from our Entire Dataset page. For more information about SDMX, please visit SDMX.org Changes to the April 2018 Database In the April 2018 WEO, there has been a similar exercise as of October 2017 to improve the net debt data to bring the data into better alignment with the definition of net debt in the IMF GFS Manual 2014 (GFSM 2014). ||||| LISTEN TO ARTICLE 1:46 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Qatar is on track to lose its status as the richest place in the world to the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau. The global casino hub’s economy will reach the equivalent of about $143,116 per person by 2020, according to projections from the International Monetary Fund. That will put Macau ahead of the current No. 1 Qatar, which will reach $139,151 in the same time frame. A former Portuguese outpost on the southern tip of China, Macau has become a gambling mecca since returning to Chinese control almost two decades ago. It’s the only place in China where casinos are legal, turning it into a magnet for high-rollers from the mainland. Macau’s gross domestic product has more than tripled from about $34,500 per capita in 2001, the IMF data shows. Rich Getting Richer By 2020 these will be the richest places on earth, the IMF says Source: IMF World Economic Outlook database, as of April 2018. The wealth gap between the two places is also expected to widen beyond 2020, with Macau’s GDP per capita set to reach about $172,681 by 2023, according to data compiled from the April edition of the IMF’s Global Economic Outlook database. Qatar’s, meanwhile, will grow to just $158,117. Elsewhere, financial hub Singapore’s GDP per capita is expected to top six digits by next year and is on track to grow to about $117,535 by 2023, while Hong Kong -- across the water from Macau -- will touch almost $80,000 by that time, the IMF projections show. Three European countries -- Luxembourg, Ireland, and Norway -- made the top 10 places expected to be the world’s wealthiest by 2020, while the U.S. came in at No. 12. ||||| Just when you thought it was safe to store away the superlatives to describe its meteoric rise to the top of world gaming, Macau is set to outdo itself by becoming the richest place on the planet. Fresh data from the Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) ­predicted that by 2020, the city would overtake oil-rich Qatar with the highest per-capita gross domestic product of any country or jurisdiction on earth. The IMF’s World Economic Outlook Update – published at the end of last month – expected ­continuing economic growth in the casino hub would see it leapfrog Qatar by 2020. This year the IMF ranked ­Macau, with a US$122,489 per capita GDP, second behind Qatar, for which it said the equivalent ­figure was US$128,702. Singapore was ranked fourth with US$98,014, just behind Luxembourg with US$110,870 while Hong Kong took 10th place with a per capita GDP of US$64,533. However, by 2020, Hong Kong’s sister SAR – which outstripped Las Vegas to become the world’s richest casino destination several years ago – would become the richest place in the world with a per capita GDP of US$143,116, leaving Qatar, with a paltry US$139,151, in its wake. The IMF forecast assumed a period of sustained growth which would see Macau continue to open up a gap on its rivals until 2023. However, Macau lawyer and social commentator Sérgio ­Almeida Correia, wrote in his blog: “In terms of quality of life, green areas, pollution, education, health, sport, renewable energies, recycling of urban waste, hygiene and cleanliness of public spaces, accessibility for disabled people, road cycling, public transport might not rank quite as high by any means.” With a population of just over 650,000, packed into just 30.8 sq km, Macau also holds top spot as the most densely populated place on Earth, according to the United Nations. The tight squeeze means the casino city has 21,322 people per square kilometre packed into its bustling streets. Hong Kong, the fourth most densely populated place on the planet behind Monaco and Singapore, packs in 6,490 people per square kilometre. However, within its most dense areas, such as Mong Kok, the population density is more than 120,000 people per square kilometre, according to the Population Division of the United ­Nations Department of ­Economic and Social Affairs.

– A "gambling mecca" is set to oust Qatar as the richest place on Earth, per the International Monetary Fund's newest stats. Bloomberg reports that the IMF's World Economic Outlook database has pegged Macau as the planet's wealthiest place, with its economy on track to reach the equivalent of $143,116 by 2020. Qatar, meanwhile, will come in at $139,151 by then. Macau, an autonomous region that holds the only legal casinos in China, is also set to even further outpace Qatar by 2023, with an expected GDP per capita of $172,681 to Qatar's $158,117. The South China Morning Post describes Macau's "meteoric rise to the top of world gaming" as the reason behind its newfound status, though a Macau social commentator and attorney says the region has a lot to improve on in many areas, including quality of life, education, health, and pollution. Luxembourg, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam round out the IMF's top five, while the US takes the No. 12 spot in the rankings.

Add a location to your Tweets When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Ginnifer Goodwin Pregnant: Once Upon a Time Star Expecting Baby With Fiance Josh Dallas A little prince or princess is on the way for Snow White and Prince Charming! Once Upon a Time actress Ginnifer Goodwin is pregnant and expecting a baby with fiance (and costar) Josh Dallas, their reps confirm to Us Weekly. PHOTOS: Celeb pregnancy confessions Rumors that the 35-year-old Something Borrowed star had a baby on board first swirled when she was photographed on the set of her hit ABC drama in a gray swing coat that seemed to strategically conceal her stomach. PHOTOS: Costar couples This will be the first child for Goodwin and Dallas, 31. Together since March 2012, the couple confirmed their engagement to Us in October of this year, just a few days after the actor popped the question. "They really hit it off," a source told Us Weekly of the costars in 2012. "She and Josh have a blast together and had instant chemistry." PHOTOS: The cast of Once Upon a Time Goodwin was previously engaged to actor Joey Kern. Dallas was wed to actress Lara Pulver; they split in 2011 after four years of marriage. ||||| Leighton Meester and Adam Brody are engaged! The cutie pie couple of 10 months is heading to the altar after the former Gossip Girl star accepted Adam’s surprise proposal. “Leighton and Adam are crazy about each other and have talked about getting married eventually,�? an insider tells Star. “But she had no idea he would propose so soon! It was the surprise of her life and she’s ecstatic!�? Adam, 33, and Leighton, 27, have been friends for years, getting close in 2011 while co-starring in the independent film, The Oranges. In January they took their relationship to the next level and were soon spotted taking in art exhibits at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and traveling together through Bangkok in February. Adam previously dated director Lorene Scafaria in 2010 and his co-star on The O.C., Rachel Bilson, for three years. Leighton was most recently linked to actor Aaron Himelstein, which followed her 2-year relationship with Gossip Girl co-star Sebastian Stan ending in 2010. “Right now their plan is to get married next summer,�? adds the insider. “They are still deciding if they want a destination wedding or if they’ll marry in Southern California somewhere.” While there are no plans for children in the immediate future the couple do have two dogs together, Penny Lane and Trudy.

– Well, at least one celebrity is explaining her odd name choice: Fergie says she and hubby Josh Duhamel chose their baby's name, Axl Jack, after a dream she had while pregnant. In the dream, "I was in the audience at this festival. It was outdoors and it was all grimy and nobody knew who I was," she reveals in an appearance airing today on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. "On stage singing was Jim Morrison and then came Bob Marley and then Axl Rose. I was in heaven in this dream and I’m dancing and just getting into the music." Then her still-in-utero baby woke her up by kicking her for the first time. "It was like he was feeling the music with me," she says. "It was really beautiful and I woke Josh up and I said, 'Honey, honey, honey, he kicked me. He finally kicked me.'" They figured it was a sign, and after considering the names "Morrison" and "Marley," finally settled on "Axl." They had already chosen "Jack" as a tribute to Fergie's late uncle. More in the world of celebrity romance and babies: Kelly Clarkson is expecting her first baby with husband Brandon Blackstock, tweeting yesterday, "I'm pregnant!!! Brandon and I are so excited! Best early Christmas present ever :)" Ginnifer Goodwin is also expecting her first baby, with fiance and Once Upon a Time co-star Josh Dallas, their reps confirm to Us. And no baby yet, but Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester is engaged to The OC star Adam Brody, if Star's sources are to be believed.

WASHINGTON—Strong hiring and low unemployment are delivering U.S. workers their best pay raises in nearly a decade. Employers shook off a September slowdown to add 250,000 jobs to their payrolls in October, above monthly averages in recent years, the Labor Department said Friday. With unemployment holding at 3.7%, a 49-year low, and employers competing for scarce workers, wages increased 3.1% from a year earlier, the biggest year-over-year gain for average hourly earnings since 2009. ... ||||| FILE- In this Jan. 30, 2018, file photo, Loredana Gonzalez, of Doral, Fla., fills out a job application at a JobNewsUSA job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. On Friday, Nov. 2, the U.S. government issues the... (Associated Press) FILE- In this Jan. 30, 2018, file photo, Loredana Gonzalez, of Doral, Fla., fills out a job application at a JobNewsUSA job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. On Friday, Nov. 2, the U.S. government issues the October jobs report. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File) (Associated Press) FILE- In this Jan. 30, 2018, file photo, Loredana Gonzalez, of Doral, Fla., fills out a job application at a JobNewsUSA job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. On Friday, Nov. 2, the U.S. government issues the October jobs report. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File) (Associated Press) FILE- In this Jan. 30, 2018, file photo, Loredana Gonzalez, of Doral, Fla., fills out a job application at a JobNewsUSA job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. On Friday, Nov. 2, the U.S. government issues the... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added a stellar 250,000 jobs last month and raised average pay by the most in nearly a decade. The Labor Department's monthly jobs report, the last major economic data before Tuesday's congressional elections, also showed that the unemployment rate remained at a five-decade low of 3.7 percent. The influx of new job-seekers in October increased the proportion of Americans with jobs to its highest level since January 2009. Consumers are the most confident they have been in 18 years and are spending freely and propelling brisk economic growth. The U.S. economy is in its 10th year of expansion, the second-longest such period on record, and October marked the 100th straight month of hiring, a record streak. The resulting strength in customer demand has led companies to steadily add workers. Though economists predict that hiring will eventually slow as the pool of unemployed Americans dwindles, there's no sign of that happening yet. Still, the latest month of healthy job growth might not tip many votes in the midterm elections. Polls have suggested that while Americans generally approve of the economy's performance, that sentiment hasn't necessarily broadened support for President Donald Trump or Republican congressional candidates. In October, consumer confidence reached its highest point in 18 years, propelled by optimism about the job market. Last month's plunge in stock prices didn't dampen Americans' enthusiasm, though the survey was conducted in the first half of October, before the full market decline had occurred. In the July-September quarter, consumer spending grew by the most in four years and helped the economy expand at a 3.5 percent annual rate. That growth followed a 4.2 percent annual pace in the April-June quarter. Combined, the two quarters produced the strongest six-month stretch of growth in four years. Manufacturing output and hiring remain healthy, according to a survey by a private trade association, although increased tariffs have raised factory costs. By contrast, housing remains a weak spot in the economy, with sales of existing homes having fallen for six straight months as mortgage rates have risen to nearly 5 percent. But slower sales have started to limit home price increases, which had been running at more than twice the pace of wage gains. There are signs that pay growth is picking up. A measure of wage and salaries rose 3.1 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the best such showing in a decade. Although pay increases can help boost spending and propel the economy's growth, they can also lead companies to raise prices to cover their higher labor costs. That trend, in turn, can accelerate inflation. So far, though, inflation remains in check. The Federal Reserve's preferred price measure rose 2 percent in September compared with a year earlier, slightly lower than the year-over-year increase in August.

– The last unemployment report before the midterms is a strong one. Employers added 250,000 jobs in October, above the forecast of 188,000, reports the Wall Street Journal. The unemployment rate itself remained at a five-decade low of 3.7%, per the AP. The influx of new job-seekers in October increased the proportion of Americans with jobs to its highest level since January 2009. What's more, wages rose 3.1% when compared to last October, the best such gain since 2009. It's the first time since the recession ended that wages rose more than 3% over a year. Average hourly earnings in the private sector increased 5 cents to $27.30.

Former Vice President Joe Biden said his family would be the deciding factor in his decision about whether to pursue a 2020 bid for the White House. | Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP 2020 Biden: 'I'm the most qualified person in the country to be president' Former Vice President Joe Biden is fueling more 2020 speculation, claiming that he is "the most qualified person in the country to be president" and teasing that an announcement about his candidacy could come within six weeks. Biden has been flirting with another presidential run after deciding not to seek the highest office in 2016, a decision he has said he regrets every day. But his remarks Monday evening at the University of Montana in Missoula, where he was promoting his book "Promise Me, Dad," suggested the wheels of a White House bid may already be in motion. Story Continued Below "I'll be as straight with you as I can. I think I'm the most qualified person in the country to be president," Biden said, according to CNN. "I've been doing this my whole adult life, and the issues that are the most consequential relating to the plight of the middle class and our foreign policy are things that I have — even my critics would acknowledge, I may not be right, but I know a great deal about it." Biden has openly sparred with President Donald Trump over the past two years, trading barbs with the commander in chief and casting himself as a foil to what he sees as a democracy-eroding force in the West Wing. But Biden also admitted he had some vulnerabilities, including his age and his co-sponsorship of the 1994 crime bill. COUNTDOWN TO 2020 The race for 2020 starts now. Stay in the know. Follow our presidential election coverage. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. "I am a gaffe machine, but my God, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can't tell the truth," he said. "I'm ready to litigate all those things. The question is, what kind of nation are we becoming? What are we going to do? Who are we?" Democratic strategists say he would also be forced to confront his mishandling of the 1991 Anita Hill hearings involving sexual harassment allegations against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, when Biden chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It’s not going to be something he can charm out of. I think in 2018, you can’t just smile it away," Toi Hutchinson, an Illinois state senator who launched a #MeToo awareness effort in the state, said earlier this year. Biden's simpatico bonds with the Democratic Party and his appeal to white working-class voters in the Midwest appear to be his clearest advantages in navigating what is shaping up to be one of the most crowded primary fields on the left. But Biden said his family would be the deciding factor. "I have two young grandchildren my son left who love me and adore me and want me around. I want to be there to take care of them, so we've got to figure out whether or not this is something we can all do as a family," he said. "We're going to make that decision in the next six weeks to two months." ||||| (CNN) During a stop for his book tour in Missoula, Montana, Monday night, former Vice President Joe Biden discussed his 2020 prospects, saying he believes that he is the "most qualified person" to be president, noting a decision is coming in the next two months, and acknowledging he's a "gaffe machine." "I'll be as straight with you as I can. I think I'm the most qualified person in the country to be president," Biden said to applause at the University of Montana. "The issues that we face as a country today are the issues that have been in my wheelhouse, that I've worked on my whole life." "No one should run for the job unless they believe that they would be qualified doing the job. I've been doing this my whole adult life, and the issues that are the most consequential relating to the plight of the middle class and our foreign policy are things that I have -- even my critics would acknowledge, I may not be right but I know a great deal about it," he added. Biden said his family must now decide as a "unit" whether or not they're prepared for a run -- setting a decision time frame of the next six weeks to two months. "I have two young grandchildren my son left who love me and adore me and want me around. I want to be there to take care of them, so we've got to figure out whether or not this is something we can all do as a family," he said. "We're going to make that decision in the next six weeks to two months, and that's the basis of the decision." Read More

– Joe Biden says he knows who should be the next president: himself. But the former VP says he's not ready to commit to a 2020 run. The comments came Monday during a stop in Montana to plug his book Promise Me, Dad, reports CNN. "I'll be as straight with you as I can," Biden told the crowd at the University of Montana in Missoula. "I think I'm the most qualified person in the country to be president." He said two big issues of the day—"the plight of the middle class and our foreign policy"—were his strong suits. "Even my critics would acknowledge, I may not be right but I know a great deal about it." Biden said he would decide in the next two months whether to run, with one factor being the time he's currently able to spend with his two young grandchildren from his late son, Beau. Event moderator Bruce Feiler pointed out some potential weaknesses, including Biden's age of 76, his chairmanship of the judiciary panel that grilled Anita Hill, and his propensity to be a "gaffe machine." Politico reports that party strategists say Biden would have to confront the Anita Hill controversy in particular. Biden insisted Monday that he's "ready to litigate all those things," before taking a shot at President Trump. "I am a gaffe machine," he said, "but my God, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can't tell the truth. (Hill's family has a running joke about Biden.)

She was the artist who put the contemporary in contemporary Inuit art, a catalyst for other Inuit artists, young and old, to deal with life as it was in Canada’s North, an award-winning international standard-bearer. And now Annie Pootoogook is dead at 47. Officials with the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in her hometown of Cape Dorset confirmed Friday afternoon that the woman whose body had been recovered Monday morning from the Rideau River in Ottawa was Ms. Pootoogook. Police said they were not treating the incident as a homicide but crime investigators are seeking the public’s help in retracing the artist’s last hours and days. Ms. Pootoogook had been living for roughly the past nine years in Ottawa, sometimes on the street and in shelters, sometimes plagued by alcohol and drug abuse and, in 2012, an unwanted pregnancy. She’d relocated there from Nunavut in the wake of a string of major artistic successes in southern Canada and internationally. These included an acclaimed solo exhibition, in 2006, of her ink, crayon, pencil and chalk drawings at Toronto’s Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, one of Canada’s premier venues for cutting-edge art. This in turn led to her winning the $50,000 Sobey Art Award that same year, given annually to an artist of singular talent under 40. In 2007 she was invited to participate at the prestigious Documenta 12 showcase, held every five years in Kassel, Germany. Two years later, she was given a solo show at New York’s National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center. In photos: The work of artist Annie Pootoogook Ms. Pootoogook’s art was far removed from the imagery of kayaks, walruses, harpoons and the other tried-and-true themes and subjects that had informed much Inuit art from the 1950s onward. She wielded a matter-of-fact, almost deadpan style to closely depict all facets of modern Inuit life, from a husband beating his wife and families shopping, to men watching television porn and women beading. Ms. Pootoogook, who began drawing in 1997, was the granddaughter of Pitseolak Ashoona, one of the earliest Cape Dorset drawers and print-makers. Her mother Napachie was a prolific graphic artist while father Eegyvudluk was similarly esteemed as a carver and print-maker. However, after her triumphs of 2006-09, Ms. Pootoogook’s output slowed, then seemed to stop. Toronto dealer Pat Feheley, who’d given Ms. Pootoogook her first commercial bow in 2001 as part of a group show called The Unexpected, then her first solo outing in 2003, told The Globe and Mail in July of 2012 that she hadn’t received an original Pootoogook drawing in more than three years. In an interview Friday, Ms. Feheley said she was “stunned” by the loss. “She had a rough couple of years but I always thought she’d be back. We’d go back to Dorset and the image bank she would have had would have been amazing.” Ms. Pootoogook’s art, at least initially, was almost a kind of therapy, Ms. Feheley said. “It was simply to get it out of her head. She didn’t particularly care if they sold or not.” Tributes were quick to pour in. Andrew Hunter, Canadian art curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario, called her “a profoundly influential artist who had the courage to push the boundaries of Inuit art.” Academic curator Gerald McMaster said “her legacy will not be forgotten, in that she leaves us thinking about the same troubled world she was brave enough to depict.” Nancy Campbell, former AGO associate curator of special projects, spoke of Ms. Pootoogook’s “poignant, often difficult pictures” being “a crucial part of opening the dialogue about art-making in the North.” Report Typo/Error ||||| Prominent Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook has been identified as the woman whose body was found in Ottawa's Rideau River earlier this week. Officials with the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in her hometown, Cape Dorset, Nunavut, confirmed the death of the chalk-and-ink artist, who rose to prominence when she won the Sobey Award in 2006. Pootoogook, 47, had been living in Ottawa. Her drawings offered a contemporary take on her culture, where old customs intermingled with modern technology and goods. Her work is part of the collections at the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario and was recently part of an exhibition on Indigenous pop art at Ottawa's Saw Gallery. "Her inclusion in the exhibition was a no-brainer, in that she looked at contemporary life in a way no other artist had ever done," said Saw Gallery curator Jason St-Laurent, who first met Pootoogook five years ago. Fine Liner Eyebrow one of Pootoogook's drawings on display at the National Gallery of Canada. (Annie Pootoogook/National Gallery of Canada/Dorset Fine Arts) 'Revolutionary' impact Pootoogook was from an artistic family. Her parents, Napachie and Eegyvudlu Pootoogook, and her grandmother Pitseolak Ashoona were all artists. It was "like the artistic lives were already aimed to be passed on to Annie," said Jimmy Manning, the president of the Inuit Art Foundation, in Inuktitut. Saw Gallery curator Jason St-Laurent, standing in front of one of Annie Pootoogook's drawings, said the artist was a "shining light" to those who knew her. (CBC News) "As soon as she started sketching [when she was a child] you knew her art was going to go somewhere." "Her impact was revolutionary and it's no surprise she had international acclaim for her work," he said. St-Laurent described Pootoogook as a free spirit who lived life on her own terms. He said he lost touch with her a few months ago, but said she was always welcome at the gallery. "When she came into Saw, she was a shining light, and made everyone laugh… she was the kindest soul you could ever meet. If you talk to anyone who has met Annie Pootoogook, they'll never forget her," he said. AGO Canadian art curator Andrew Hunter said in a statement Pootoogook would "be deeply missed." "She was a profoundly influential artist who had the courage to push the boundaries of Inuit art, capturing in her work challenging and even troubling themes that reflected the reality of contemporary life for women in the North. Her work has had a remarkable impact not only on Inuit art, but on contemporary Canadian art as well." Major crimes unit investigating Ottawa police say they are not treating it as a homicide, but the major crimes unit is investigating. Police are hoping to get the public's help in retracing her steps leading up to the discovery of her body on Sept. 19. A city worker called 911 just before 9 a.m. ET Monday after seeing a body in the river near Bordeleau Park, which sits off King Edward Avenue, Cathcart and Bruyère streets in the Lowertown neighbourhood. Anyone who saw Pootoogook in the days leading up to Sept. 19 is asked to contact the major crimes unit at 613-236-1222 ext. 5493. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or by downloading the Ottawa Police Service app. ||||| Ottawa police are asking for the public’s help in tracing the last movements of Annie Pootoogook, an acclaimed Inuit artist whose body was found in the Rideau River earlier this week. Pootoogook’s body was discovered Monday at about 8:50 a.m. in the water close to Bordeleau Park in Lowertown. Police do not consider her death to be suspicious or a homicide, said Const. Marc Soucy. “We just want to recreate her final moments.” Soucy said an autopsy has been performed, but police are not releasing a cause of death. It is unclear where Pootoogook was last seen. Pootoogook’s story is one of a rocket ride to superstardom in the art world, followed by a crash into addiction, life on the street and tragedy. Originally from Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Pootoogook was considered one of Canada’s most pre-eminent Inuit artists. Her grandmother, Pitseolak Ashoona, an artist, was the last to grow up in the traditional Inuit lifestyle. Her mother, Napachie Pootoogook, was also an artist who died in 2002. Pootoogook began drawing in 1997 and was discovered about 14 years ago by Patricia Feheley of Feheley Fine Arts, a Toronto art gallery that began buying her work through the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset. Her drawings were a jarring chronicle of modern Inuit life — a family watching Jerry Springer on television, ATM cash machines, scenes of alcoholism and spousal abuse. Feheley helped to raise Pootoogook’s profile and sold her drawings in coloured pencils for as much has $2,600. Related “I was just hit by their power,” Feheley said in a 2012 interview. “The best I have ever heard it described is they are so direct, they are so honest, they so come from the head to the hand to the paper, and that is why they resonate so much with people.” Pootoogook won the $50,000 Sobey Art Award in 2006 and exhibited on an international scale. In 2007, showed at the Montreal Biennial, the Basel Art Fair in Switzerland and Documenta 12 in Kasel, Germany. In 2009-10 there was a solo show in New York, and a review in the New York Times which called her work “disconcertingly autobiographical.” Her last solo show was in 2011 in Kingston. Pootoogook, who has lived in Ottawa since 2007, battled the demons of sexual abuse, alcohol and drugs. By 2012 she had disappeared from view and journalists who attempted to track down the media-shy artist were disappointed. She drew attention again when Citizen reporter Hugh Adami found her in July of 2012, pregnant, panhandling and selling drawings for $25 to $30 on the street to pay for cigarettes. That September, she gave birth to a baby girl, named Napuchie, in a bathroom at the Shepherds of Good Hope. The baby was a month premature and weighed three pounds, 10 ounces. (She had two previous children on Baffin Island.) Three days later, Pootoogook was back on Rideau Street. Her art appeared to reflect the torment of her life. Crying While Making a Drawing, dated 2003, shows a woman in tears on her knees in a near-empty room, with drawings of Christian crosses on the floor in front of her. Another drawing from that time period, called Evil Spirit, shows a woman on her hands and knees being tormented by a horned demon. Last October, Pootoogook told Adami that she was living at a women’s shelter after moving out of an ex-boyfriend’s apartment in the wake of a tumultuous relationship. She said she knew she had an alcohol problem and planned to see an addiction counsellor. She was on probation because she made a “mistake” related to drinking. “When people tell you to stop drinking,” Pootoogook told Adami, her tendency is to “keep drinking and drinking.” On Friday, Adami, now retired, said when he first met Pootoogook “I thought she was going to pull it together. People in the art community were reaching out to her. Lots of people wanted to help.” He interviewed her several times after that, most recently last October. “It was getting worse and worse. She was ravaged by alcohol. She mentioned her baby and started crying. It was very, very sad.” In a 2012 interview with Citizen arts writer Paul Gessell, Feheley said Pootoogook’s fame was “just too much, too fast.” “Her vault to stardom, which was serious stardom, was really a two-and-one-half year thing for someone who was living a relatively sheltered life and not that happy a life in Cape Dorset, when suddenly she was in Switzerland and she was in Germany and she won all this money and there were three books and two movies,” said Feheley. “I think she just literally got overwhelmed.” Police ask anyone who saw Pootoogook in the days leading up to the discovery of her body to contact the Ottawa Police major crime unit at 613 236 1222, ext. 5493. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477. jlaucius@postmedia.com ||||| The body of Pootoogook, 46, was spotted in the water around 8:50 a.m. Monday near Bordeleau Park in Lowertown, near the Ontario-Quebec border. An autopsy was performed later in the week to confirm her identity; Ottawa police identified Pootoogook in a news release Friday. Pootoogook, born in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, was an acclaimed, award-winning contemporary Inuit artist best known for her frank, ink-and-crayon drawings of contemporary northern life. Her work was reflective of her own life and community, at times chronicling her experience of physical and sexual abuse and living with relatives suffering from alcoholism. In 2006, Pootoogook won the Sobey Art Award, beating out four other shortlisted artists from across Canada for the $50,000 prize. The same year, her work was exhibited at a landmark show at Toronto’s Power Plant Gallery, the first time Canada’s pre-eminent contemporary art venue had held a major show by an Inuit. In 2007 she took part in Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany, a prestigious, invitation-only art exhibition — held once every five years — that defines the current state of contemporary and modern art. Pootoogook’s Toronto dealer, Pat Feheley, said at the time that it was the first time that an Inuit artist had been invited to participate. Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna offered his condolences to Pootoogook’s family Friday afternoon on Twitter.

– An Inuit artist whose "impact was revolutionary" but who had trouble coping with "serious stardom" was found dead in a river this week. Annie Pootoogook's life changed dramatically in 2006, the Ottawa Citizen reports. She went from drawing in a tiny town in Canada's deep north to having her work displayed in Toronto, New York, Germany, and Switzerland. She won a $50,000 award for her art, which could sell for up $2,600 per piece. But it was "too much, too fast," says the art dealer who discovered her. According to the Globe and Mail, Pootoogook had largely stopped creating art by 2009. She was living on and off the street in Ottawa and struggling with drugs and alcohol. She could occasionally be found selling drawings for cigarette money. Authorities confirmed Friday that a body pulled from a river on Monday was Pootoogook. She was 47. Authorities haven't released a cause of death but aren't treating it as a homicide. "She has left a tremendous legacy to the Canadian cultural fabric,” the Toronto Star quotes a statement from the Sobey Art Foundation. Her work will be remembered for portraying contemporary Inuit life—from women beading to spousal abuse—in a "poignant, often difficult way." "She was the kindest soul you could ever meet," a gallery curator tells CBC. "If you talk to anyone who has met Annie Pootoogook, they'll never forget her." (Her art was her photos. She didn't take a single one.)

The singed fur and charred feet are testament to the weasel’s last stand: an encounter with the world’s most powerful machine that was never going to end well. Now an exhibit at the Rotterdam Natural History Museum, the stone marten met its fate when it hopped over a substation fence at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva and was instantly electrocuted by an 18,000 volt transformer. The incident in November last year knocked out the power to the vast particle accelerator which recreates in microcosm the primordial fire that prevailed at the birth of the universe. The partly-cooked corpse was duly secured for inclusion in the museum’s Dead Animal Tales exhibition. “It’s a fine example of what the exhibition is all about,�? said Kees Moeliker, director of the museum. “It shows that animal and human life collide more and more, with dramatic results for both.�? Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Cern stone marten, secured for inclusion in the Rotterdam Natural History Museum’s Dead Animal Tales exhibition. Photograph: Kees Moeliker The stone marten is the latest dead animal to go on display at the museum. It joins a sparrow that was shot after it sabotaged a world record attempt by knocking over 23,000 dominoes; a hedgehog that got fatally stuck in a McDonalds McFlurry pot, and a catfish that fell victim to a group of men in the Netherlands who developed a tradition for drinking vast amounts of beer and swallowing fish from their aquarium. The catfish turned out to be armoured, and on being swallowed raised its spines. The defence did not save the fish, but it put the 28-year-old man who tried to swallow it in intensive care for a week. It was another unfortunate incident that spurred Moeliker to establish the exhibition in the first place. In 1995, a male duck flew into the glass facade of the museum and died on impact, a fate that did not deter another male duck from raping the corpse for 75 minutes. The incident ruffled feathers in the community but earned Moeliker a much-coveted IgNobel prize when he published his observations . “I was the one and only witness,�? Moeliker said. “I’m a trained biologist but what I saw was completely new to me.�? The LHC has been brought to its knees by stone martens before. In April last year, one of the animals bounded into a 66,000 volt transformer and shut the collider down for a week. The Rotterdam museum tried to obtain the remains of the beast, known as the “Cern weasel�?, but the highly efficient staff at the European particle physics laboratory had already disposed of the corpse. When a second stone marten met a similar fate in November, Moeliker was ready to secure the animal for the exhibition. Stone martens - or “fouines�? - have a habit of gnawing through electrical cables and are known for causing power outages in the region. “We want to show that no matter what we do to the environment, to the natural world, the impact of nature will always be there,�? Moeliker said. “We try to put a magnifying glass on some fine examples. This poor creature literally collided with the largest machine in the world, where physicists collide particles every day. It’s poetic, in my opinion, what happened there.�? ||||| World's Most Destructive Stone Marten Goes On Display In The Netherlands Enlarge this image toggle caption Natural History Museum Rotterdam Natural History Museum Rotterdam The remains of the world's most destructive stone marten are now on display at a museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands. On Nov. 20, 2016, the animal hopped over a fence at the $7 billion Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, touched a transformer and was electrocuted by 18,000 volts. The marten died instantly. The collider, which accelerates particles to near the speed of light to study the fiery origins of the universe, lost power and shut down. "There must have been a big flame," said Kees Moeliker, the director of the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam and the man behind its Dead Animal Tales exhibit, where the preserved marten is now displayed. "It was scorched. When you're not really careful with candles and your hair, like that," he explained. "Every hair of this creature was kind of burned and the whiskers, they were burned to the bare minimum and especially the feet, the legs, they were cooked. They were darker, like roasted." "It really had a bad, bad encounter with this electricity." The November incident wasn't the first time a marten has sabotaged the vast scientific instrument. In April 2016, an animal originally thought to be a weasel and later guessed to be a marten, which is in the weasel family, appeared to have gnawed through a power cable, as we reported. (OK, to be fair, maybe that animal was really the world's most destructive marten.) "This was big news [in April]. The collider was out of work for a week, so they had other things on their mind than an excited museum director in the Netherlands," explained Moeliker, who said he could understand why staffers at the collider weren't able to provide him with the animal's corpse. When it happened again in November, he was ready. "We had a couple of people who got interested in the request from April, and we contacted them and they made sure [the corpse] wasn't destroyed," Moeliker said. He outfitted a car with a small refrigerator that plugged into the vehicle's cigarette lighter, bought a block of ice at a local supermarket and drove to France's border with Switzerland to pick up the carcass. "It was in good condition," he said. "Well, for an electrocuted marten it was in good condition." The exhibit also houses a sparrow that was shot to death after knocking over 23,000 dominoes in the Netherlands in 2005, sabotaging a world record attempt. And a seagull that died after it flew into an ambulance. And a mallard duck known in the scientific community for its documented history of homosexual necrophilia. And a hedgehog that died after it put its head into a McDonald's McFlurry cup and could not escape. And then there's the smallest critter in the collection. A few years ago, Moeliker started collecting pubic lice after two British doctors alerted him that the animal might be endangered by habitat destruction associated with modern personal grooming habits. Moeliker said he has since provided specimens of human pubic lice to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Enlarge this image toggle caption Natural History Museum Rotterdam Natural History Museum Rotterdam "The things we get are so surprising," Moeliker said. "Just before the stone marten we had a fish that lodged himself in the throat of a man." The man had deliberately swallowed the catfish as part of a game with friends — they had reportedly worked up from goldfish to larger, more exotic species. But he didn't know it was an armored catfish. When it entered the man's throat, the catfish raised spines to defend itself, which did not save its life but did put the 28-year-old man in the hospital for a week. "I never thought we would get a fish ... that had qualifications to be part of this show," Moeliker remarked. "Let me be clear, I prefer all wildlife to be happy and flying and crawling around alive," he explained of the museum's approach to the Dead Animal Tales exhibit. "But if [an animal] has a story attached to it [that] shows how and when animal and human life collide, then they are welcome here. It's only going to increase, the collisions between man and animal. We more and more share the same environment, the same habitat. Nature strikes back. We have to get used to it." ||||| 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.

– The Large Hadron Collider facilitated the discovery of the Higgs boson, but it's not yet immune to animal troubles. Following a similar incident last April, a stone marten jumped a fence at the $7 billion site in Switzerland on Nov. 20 and came into contact with a transformer, causing the LHC to lose power, reports NPR. "There must have been a big flame" because "every hair of this creature was kind of burned" and the feet and legs "were cooked," says Kees Moeliker. He should know. After making some calls, Moeliker, of the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands, got his hands on the marten, had it stuffed, and put it on display in the museum's "Dead Animal Tales" exhibit, which shows how "animal and human life collide … with dramatic results." "We want to show that no matter what we do to the environment, to the natural world, the impact of nature will always be there," Moeliker tells the Guardian. The marten—a member of the weasel family—is "a fine example" of that, he adds. Among the other animals on display: a sparrow killed after knocking over 23,000 dominoes meant to be part of a world record attempt, a seagull that died after colliding with an ambulance, a hedgehog that died with its head stuck in a McDonald's McFlurry cup, an armored catfish that got stuck in a man's throat, and pubic lice said to be endangered thanks to humans' sudden dislike of pubic hair. (Perhaps this squirrel would qualify for a place in the exhibit.)

This artist's rendering shows NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby of Pluto and its moons on July 14, 2015. The spacecraft awoke from its final hibernation period on Dec. 6, 2014 in preparation for the epic Pluto encounter at the edge of the solar system. LAUREL, Md. — Pluto, get ready for your close-up: A NASA spacecraft has roused itself from the final slumber of its nine-year trek to the edge of the solar system, setting the stage for the first close encounter with Pluto next year. The New Horizons spacecraft, currently located 2.9 billion miles (4.6 billion kilometers) from Earth, had been in hibernation since August — with most of its systems turned off to reduce wear. But late Saturday (Dec. 6), mission scientists received a confirmation signal from New Horizons at the probe's Mission Operations Center here at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The probe is now wide awake for its 2015 flyby of Pluto. At the time of its wakeup call, New Horizons was just over 162 million miles (261 million km) from Pluto. About 20 people gathered in a conference room here at APL to await the signal from New Horizons. [Photos from NASA's New Horizons Pluto Probe] NASA's New Horizon Pluto flyby mission operations manager Alice Bowman and operations team Karl Whittenburg watch screens for signals confirming that the New Horizons probe awoke from hibernation on Dec. 6, 2014. The New Horizons mission is managed from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Credit: NASA First word from the probe arrived at about 9:30 p.m. EST on Saturday (Dec. 6) — generating a burst of happy applause from the attendees, including Alan Stern, New Horizon's principle investigator, and Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary sciences. At 9:52 p.m. EST (0252 GMT), mission managers confirmed that New Horizons was awake, with all systems functioning normally. The wakeup sets the stage for the probe's flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015. "This is the turning of a page. This is changing from a mission in cruise to a mission at its destination," said Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Stern popped a champagne bottle and offered a toast to the mission following the signal confirmation. New Horizons even got a wakeup song to mark the occasion: the tune "Where My Heart Will Take Me" by English tenor Russell Watson. The song, which included a special greeting from Watson for New Horizons, was played in the mission operations center after the confirmation signal was received. You can hear Watson's New Horizons wakeup song here. This photo of Pluto (center) and its largest moon Charon was captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in July 2014 and released on Aug. 7. New Horizons took this image and others from a range of 267 million to 262 million miles (429 million to 422 million kilometers). Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute English tenor Russell Watson recorded a special version of his song "Where My Heart Will Take Me" to help wake up NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on Dec. 6, 2014 ahead of the probe's 2015 Pluto flyby. Credit: NASA New Horizons will begin its Pluto science campaign in January, and will make its closest approach to Pluto in July. It will explore the outer-most and most-populated region of the solar system, the Kuiper belt, which is full of rocky, icy objects that have remained largely unchanged since the formation of the solar system. "This is the place that this spacecraft was built to operate, and these are the operations that this team has waited a decade to actually go and execute," Stern said. "So it's game time." NASA launched the New Horizons mission in 2006 on a $700 million mission to be the first spacecraft ever to see Pluto and its five moons up close. The piano-size spacecraft is powered by a nuclear power source and has traveled nearly 3 billion miles (4.8 billion km) to reach Pluto in a mere nine years, making it the fastest space probe ever launched). It has spent two-thirds of its journey in a hibernation state that has both prolonged the life of the instruments and reduced staff costs on the ground. While New Horizons has gone through 18 hibernation periods, sleeping for about 1,873 days in all, this is the last one before it begins taking data on the Pluto system. For 20 weeks of its flyby of Pluto, New Horizons will provide better photos of Pluto and its moons than those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, Stern said. In analogy, if the spacecraft were flying over a city it would be able to count the individual buildings on the ground. New Horizons may also identify as-yet-unknown moons or rings around Pluto. At the wake-up event, Stern handed out small, 2-inch-long pencils — whittled down from extensive use. "This is the metaphor for persistence," Stern said, holding up the pencil stub. "Since this mission went through so many ups and downs — the way the exploration of Pluto did — I thought this was an appropriate thing to give away. It's very simple, but it's meaningful." Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. Pluto, the most famous dwarf planet in our solar system, underwent a well-publicized (and somewhat controversial) reclassification that took away its title as the ninth and most distant planet from the sun. So, how well do you know this fascinating world? Start the Quiz 0 of 10 questions complete ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.

– New Horizons just got what's probably the earliest wakeup call ever. Even though it's not supposed to fly by Pluto—the destination of its nine-year, 3-billion-mile journey—until July, the NASA craft roused itself from its "hibernation" slumber and is fully awake for the last leg of its mission, Space.com reports. Russell Watson's "Where My Heart Will Take Me" blasted NH out of its somnambulant state with a personal message from Watson himself before crooning the appropriate lyrics, "It's been a long road/Getting from there to here." About 20 scientists waiting back home in Maryland at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory got the confirmation signals on Saturday evening that New Horizons was up and at 'em, just over 162 million miles from Pluto. The piano-sized craft, which was launched in 2006, had been "asleep" since August to conserve energy and reduce wear and tear on its systems. It's been asleep before (18 other times, to be exact) during its long trip, but this was the last sleep before it makes it to the Kuiper Belt, the icy "disc-shaped region" that harbors Pluto and other dwarf worlds, NASA notes. "This is the place that this spacecraft was built to operate, and these are the operations that this team has waited a decade to actually go and execute," New Horizons' principle investigator says. "So it's game time." (New Horizons got some great pics of Jupiter during its flyby nearly eight years ago.)

Bill Keller’s column in The Times on Monday about Lisa Bonchek Adams has generated a great deal of negative response. Xeni Jardin, the well-known writer who blogs on Boing Boing, sometimes about her own experience with cancer, was outraged, calling it bullying. Ms. Adams herself responded this way on Twitter: I don’t know why I, a person dedicated to education and personal choice by cancer patients, have been so mischaracterized as lay in hospital — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) 13 Jan 14 And a reader, Ximena Pena, who wrote that she has breast cancer, included this among her several objections: “The piece lacks empathy. It is an open attack on someone who has decided to be open about her treatment to help people with my diagnosis.” A particularly tough takedown came from Zeynep Tufekci, writing in Medium. She wrote that Mr. Keller “has something he wants to say about how end of life is perhaps unwisely prolonged by small, painful amounts with massive technological intervention in this country so projects this situation to Lisa Adams – except that is not applicable in this case. Lisa Adams is not prolonging her last few weeks with a cascade of interventions. She’s getting treatment for pain in her bones – the type of tumors that won’t kill her till they spread elsewhere which may be soon or may be years away.” One of the odd aspects of the column is that it follows, by just days, a column about Ms. Adams by Mr. Keller’s wife, Emma Gilbey Keller, who writes for The Guardian. Ms. Keller’s piece was also criticized, and she added a line at the bottom that said she regretted not letting Ms. Adams know in advance that the post was coming. Now the piece has been removed from the site, “pending investigation.” The Guardian told iMediaEthics that the piece was “inconsistent with The Guardian editorial code.” That negative response was not universal. My email on Monday included correspondence from those who defended the column. And the comments under the column itself include many positive ones. But for most of those who have been in touch with me, the subject matter is intensely personal. And for those who know and admire Ms. Adams, that personal reaction is multiplied. I asked Mr. Keller, a former executive editor of The Times, to respond. He wrote to me, noting that “it’s clear the column touched a nerve, particularly among her devoted following.” He added: Some of the reaction (especially on Twitter, which as a medium encourages reflexes rather than reflection) has been raw, and some (especially in comments posted to the article online, where there is space for nuance) has been thoughtful and valuable. I tried to be clear in the column that I respect Lisa Adams’s choices, and I meant it. I wish every cancer victim could have those options – to fight with all the resources of medicine, or not. By living her disease in such a public way, by turning her hospital room into a classroom, she invites us to think about and debate some big, contentious issues. I think some readers have misread my point, and some – the most vociferous – seem to believe that anything short of an unqualified “right on, Lisa!” is inhumane or sacrilegious. But I’ve heard from readers who understood the point and found it worth grappling with. I followed up with a question about the similarity of his piece to that of his wife’s in The Guardian, making the point that many critics see the two pieces together as a sort of double-pronged slam, greater together than the sum of their parts. He answered: I only learned of Lisa Adams’s story because of Emma, who follows the subject of breast cancer with personal interest. (See her Guardian piece from 2012.) She told me she was planning to write about Lisa for The Guardian. Normally I would have left the subject alone, or put it off until later, but it turned out Emma and I had different angles on the subject. She was interested in it as a new frontier in social media – a woman living every intimate detail of her disease in such a public way, and why readers are so drawn to such unsparing self-revelation. Except for the snarky headline, which Emma didn’t write, I thought she wrote a sensitive and provocative piece, clearly aimed at stimulating a reader discussion of this hyper-transparent world we inhabit. (She responded to the backlash in The Guardian’s comments section.) My interest, as I said in the column, was in the continuing debate in American medicine about how aggressively to fight terminal diseases if the fight may mean trading quality of life for quantity. My view is that this is a highly personal choice that should be made by patients in consultation with their families and physicians. It is not always presented that way to patients. I don’t think either of the Keller pieces was a “slam” of Lisa Adams or her choices. As a columnist, Mr. Keller – by definition – has a great deal of free rein. As I’ve written before, Times opinion editors very rarely intrude on that process by steering a writer away from a topic or killing a column before it runs. It’s a columnist’s job, in short, to have an opinion and to speak it freely. That’s as it should be. I don’t make a practice of commenting on whether I agree with columnists, or if I like their columns in general or on a particular day, whether it’s David Brooks on pot-smoking or Maureen Dowd on Chris Christie. That is pretty clearly not my job as public editor. In this case, I’ll go so far as to say that there are issues here of tone and sensitivity. For example, when Ms. Adams has made it so abundantly clear in her own work that she objects to the use of fighting metaphors in describing experiences with cancer, it was regrettable to use them throughout a column about her, starting with the first sentence. It suggests that Mr. Keller didn’t make a full effort to understand the point of view of the person he’s writing about on the very big and public stage that is The Times. And although I haven’t read all of Ms. Adams’s writing, readers are complaining about other examples of this disconnect. The Times should consider publishing some opposing points of view, possibly in the form of an Op-Ed column from a contributor. In addition, Mr. Keller’s views here fall within what journalists would call “fair comment” only to the extent that they are based on facts. A line often attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the former New York senator, makes this point well: “You’re entitled to your own opinion; you’re not entitled to your own facts. “ Anything that’s not accurate must be corrected, and one such correction – concerning Ms. Adams’s number of children – has already been made to Mr. Keller’s column. Many readers are making the point that Ms. Adams’s cancer metastasized in 2012. Mr. Keller suggests in his lead sentence (“Lisa Bonchek Adams has spent the last seven years in a fierce and very public cage fight with death”) that the known seriousness of the disease came much earlier. ||||| Last week at the Guardian, the writer Emma Gilbey Keller wondered aloud, “Forget funeral selfies. What are the ethics of tweeting a terminal illness?” Her commentary centered on the public presence of Lisa Bonchek Adams, who has blogged and tweeted her way through treatment for metastatic breast cancer. “As her condition declined, her tweets amped up both in frequency and intensity. I couldn’t stop reading — I even set up a dedicated @adamslisa column in Tweetdeck – but I felt embarrassed at my voyeurism,” Keller explained. “Should there be boundaries in this kind of experience? Is there such a thing as TMI? Are her tweets a grim equivalent of deathbed selfies, one step further than funeral selfies? Why am I so obsessed?” Keller’s rhetorical questions were met with anger and hurt from her audience, including Adams, and the Guardian has since removed the entire column, but not before she passed the obsession on to her husband, former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller. In the Times today, Mr. Keller picked up where his wife left off, likening Adams’s treatment and personal writing to “a military campaign” and contrasting her cancer fight with that of his father-in-law’s: “His death seemed to me a humane and honorable alternative to the frantic medical trench warfare that often makes an expensive misery of death in America,” Keller wrote. I've written extensively on my hatred of war metaphors and cancer. — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) January 13, 2014 His point, like his wife’s, is underinformed and muddled in a mess of condescension toward Adams’s suffering and her work. In addition to factual errors, he described Adams as “a cheerleader for cancer research,” noting the research fund she helped start, but added, “Beyond that, whether her campaign has been a public service is a more complicated question.” Her writing was described as pecking, and so on: “The words of disease become words my brain gravitates to,” she pecked the other day after a blast of radiation. […] … any reader can see that Adams’s online omnipresence has given her a sense of purpose, a measure of control in a tumultuous time, and the comfort of a loyal, protective online community. Social media have become a kind of self-medication. […] Her digital presence is no doubt a comfort to many of her followers. On the other hand, as cancer experts I consulted pointed out, Adams is the standard-bearer for an approach to cancer that honors the warrior, that may raise false hopes, and that, implicitly, seems to peg patients like my father-in-law as failures. Adams responded in a huge, emotional string of critical tweets: I don't know why I, a person dedicated to education and personal choice by cancer patients, have been so mischaracterized as lay in hospital — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) January 13, 2014 my dear family should not be subjected to this. Hope some of you can help me get this fixed. — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) January 13, 2014 As did Jeopardy! celeb Ken Jennings and Boing Boing blogger Xeni Jardin, who has written extensively about her own breast cancer: Terrified I might get cancer, because what if Bill and Emma Keller yell at me. — Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) January 13, 2014 God forbid a person with metastatic cancer cope with it by telling people what it feels like and how the science works. — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 Let the little lady peck her Tweets and receive her silly treatment. Real men know how to do cancer right: by dying offline. — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 Even before her husband doubled-down on the unnecessary second-guessing, Ms. Keller’s column had problems. “Since this article was published two days ago, there’s been a lot of negative comment on Twitter and below the line. Lisa Adams herself was upset by it,” Emma Keller amended in an update on Friday. “I had been in communication with her a number of times in recent weeks; given her health, I could have given her advance warning about the article and should have told her that I planned to quote from our conversations. I regret not doing so.” The piece has since been taken down for quoting the private correspondence, “pending investigation.” But beyond the potential journalistic malfeasance, the larger issue remains the discounting of one woman’s vast and varied experiences to make more general, misguided points about the types of treatment available or our culture’s urge to “overshare.” Adams is very much alive and has found an audience that values her personal journey as more than just voyeurism. Instead of using their respective positions of power to wrestle awkwardly with something that makes them uncomfortable, the Kellers could attempt to consider Adams’s online presence on its own terms, or just unsubscribe. Update: “Some of the reaction (especially on Twitter, which as a medium encourages reflexes rather than reflection) has been raw, and some (especially in comments posted to the article online, where there is space for nuance) has been thoughtful and valuable,” Bill Keller told Times public editor Margaret Sullivan, who took on the issue in a post this afternoon. “I think some readers have misread my point, and some – the most vociferous – seem to believe that anything short of an unqualified ‘right on, Lisa!’ is inhumane or sacrilegious. But I’ve heard from readers who understood the point and found it worth grappling with.” ||||| Unranked media power couple Bill and Emma Keller have discovered a question so pressing, so important to our time that they both felt the need to write a column in their respective papers about it in the same week. Is Lisa Bonchek Adams, a stage four cancer patient, having cancer wrong? According to the Kellers, the answer is "yes." The biggest problem in their views, seems to be that Adams — who is aggressively blogging and tweeting about every aspect of illness and treatment — just won't be quiet about having cancer. Emma Keller, who has had cancer herself, published a critical op-ed in the Guardian last Wednesday about Adams's Twitter feed. In it, Keller seems to be concerned about whether Adams's decision to publicly discuss her diagnosis and treatment is "dignified," both for Adams (who "is dying," according to Keller, even though this is a characterization Adams rejects), and for Emma Keller personally. You see, a particularly intense series of updates from Adams apparently ruined the Kellers' Christmas, because Emma couldn't stop reading what Adams wrote, and that gives her complicated feelings: She could hardly breathe, her lungs were filled with copious amounts of fluid causing her to be bedridden over Christmas. As her condition declined, her tweets amped up both in frequency and intensity. I couldn't stop reading – I even set up a dedicated @adamslisa column in Tweetdeck – but I felt embarrassed at my voyeurism. Should there be boundaries in this kind of experience? Is there such a thing as TMI? Are her tweets a grim equivalent of deathbed selfies, one step further than funeral selfies? Why am I so obsessed? But the Kellers' concern with how Adams is doing cancer actually goes deeper than Emma's reading habits. Keller's Sunday New York Times piece goes after the aggressive, no-holds-barred manner in which Adams has decided to pursue treatment for the disease. She is willing to try anything, no matter how risky, if it might prolong her life, instead of a more peaceful pain management and palliative approach that others have chose, like Keller's father-in-law. He died from cancer in the U.K., and Keller decides to compare Adams's approach (which he characterizes as "her decision to treat her terminal disease as a military campaign") unfavorably to that of his father-in-law's: [In the U.K.] more routinely than in the United States, patients are offered the option of being unplugged from everything except pain killers and allowed to slip peacefully from life. His death seemed to me a humane and honorable alternative to the frantic medical trench warfare that often makes an expensive misery of death in America. For the record, the "military" metaphors Keller repeatedly associates with Adams's approach to treatment and choice to be public about it is a metaphor Adams herself soundly rejects. To hear it from the Kellers, Adams's public engagement with cancer invites "judgement" as the "ethical questions abound," as Emma writes. Or, as Bill posits, "her decision to live her cancer onstage invites us to think about it, debate it, learn from it." Not only is it incorrect to assume that Adams's writing comes with an RSVP for judgement from Team Keller, it also appears that the Kellers aren't even looking closely at what they're attacking. For instance, Keller states that Adams has two children at home. According to her Twitter bio, Adams actually has three. They are young — 15, 11, and 7, as of last November. Although it should be obvious, it seems that the Kellers forgot to notice that Adams is neither Bill Keller's father-in-law, nor is she a generic idea of a cancer patient. She is a person, pursuing treatment to extend her life, so that she can spend as much of it as possible with her kids. That is a different thing from refusing palliative — or pain management — care at the end of one's life, as Bill Keller seems to believe (erroneously) that Adams is doing. And then there's Bill Keller's mini-investigative mission into the parts of Adams's medical treatment and prognosis that remain confidential. Keller apparently asked both Adams and her hospital to detail the financial costs of her treatment, so he could weigh it more accurately against his own assessment of whether it's worth it or not: "Whether or not this excellent care has added months or years to her life, as she clearly believes, is a medical judgment, and her doctors, bound by privacy rules, won’t say," he writes. The insinuation is that her choice to continue to treat her cancer after her stage four diagnoses "may raise false hopes." Keller thinks that such an approach "implicitly, seems to peg patients like my father-in-law as failures." Except, is not what Adams is doing, as Adams herself said in response: Again, let me make it clear. honest discussion and acceptance of the reality of diagnosis is what I have always been doing. READ MY WORK. — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) January 13, 2014 I've been doing exactly what he supports all along. If he'd actually been reading the posts. — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) January 13, 2014 Others have rightly responded with anger to the tag-team cancer-explaining (or "cansplaining," as Megan Garber put it in the Atlantic). Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin — who live-tweeted her own cancer diagnosis — took on Bill Keller's piece in particular. Her whole Twitter response to Keller is worth a read. But here are a few highlights: Problems I have w Bill Keller's bullying NYT oped about @AdamsLisa, which oddly mirrors & follows his wife's earlier Guardian shitfest: — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 14) “Lisa Adams’s choice is in a sense the opposite” of “my father-in-law’s calm death.” SHE'S ALIVE AS YOU CAN TELL BY HER FUCKING TWEETS. — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 15) “there is something enviable about going gently” LADIES WITH METS SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD. — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 False hopes my ass! I remember the day she called me before my mastectomy, with pragmatic, calm, not-fun info. She told me a story. — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 I am appalled on every level by Bill Keller's oped piece about @AdamsLisa. Astonishing. — Susan Orlean (@susanorlean) January 13, 2014 Meanwhile, Adams has taken a break from addressing the Kellers' concerns about Adams's life choices, because she is in the middle of a round of treatment . Luckily, she's got plenty of people online to respond for her. Update: The Guardian has since removed the piece in question by Emma Keller, "because it is inconsistent with the Guardian editorial code."

– A pair of columns questioning a woman's very public battle with Stage IV breast cancer are lighting up the Internet. Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller and his wife, writer Emma Gilbey Keller, both wrote pieces on Lisa Bonchek Adams, who is chronicling her fight via Twitter and her blog. Emma Keller's column (with a headline that compared Bonchek Adams' social media postings to "funeral selfies"), posted last week, was removed from the Guardian's website yesterday amid all the furor; Bill Keller's column was published in the Times yesterday. Both Kellers weigh various questions that seem to come down to this: Is Bonchek Adams engaging in "TMI"? And would it be better for someone like her to opt for a peaceful, quiet death instead of "heroic measures"? A sample of the reactions: "[Emma] Keller seems to be concerned about whether Adams's decision to publicly discuss her diagnosis and treatment is 'dignified,' both for Adams ... and for Emma Keller personally. You see, a particularly intense series of updates from Adams apparently ruined the Kellers' Christmas, because Emma couldn't stop reading what Adams wrote, and that gives her complicated feelings," writes Abby Ohlheiser for The Wire. Ohlheiser refers to the Keller columns as "tag-team concern trolling," and goes on to quote the relevant portion of Emma Keller's piece: "As her condition declined, her tweets amped up both in frequency and intensity. I couldn't stop reading—I even set up a dedicated @adamslisa column in Tweetdeck—but I felt embarrassed at my voyeurism. Should there be boundaries in this kind of experience? Is there such a thing as TMI? Are her tweets a grim equivalent of deathbed selfies, one step further than funeral selfies?" As for Bill Keller's column, "His point, like his wife's, is underinformed and muddled in a mess of condescension toward Adams's suffering and her work," writes Joe Coscarelli for Daily Intel. "Instead of using their respective positions of power to wrestle awkwardly with something that makes them uncomfortable, the Kellers could attempt to consider Adams' online presence on its own terms, or just unsubscribe." There's much, much more—but in a response to the uproar posted on the Times website yesterday, Bill Keller insists he's also "heard from readers who understood the point and found it worth grappling with."

While people were standing by at a Chevron gas station in Beaverton, taking video of a woman trapped inside of her burning car, a 19-year-old came to her rescue. "I wasn't really thinking, I just saw her and knew I had to get her out of there before it gets worse," Phillipe Bittar said after saving the woman's life Saturday. Bittar was on his way to get some food with his brother when they saw the plume of smoke and fire. But what surprised Bittar wasn't the flames, it was the crowd of people he said standing around, taking video of what he found to be a woman trapped in her burning car. "There was like six bystanders just videotaping like oh man she needs to get some help." PHOTOS: Woman rescued from burning car at gas station That's when Bittar took the situation into his own hands. "I told her, hey I'm going to pull you out, get away from the window because I have to break it and she's like okay," he described. The woman was taken by medic crews to a nearby hospital. And now, Bittar is being called a hero. "I just did what any person's supposed to do," he said. Fire crews later said in a statement that Bittar's actions were nothing short of "heroic". They said if he didn't pull the woman out in time, she probably would not have survived. Crews also said one of Chevron's employees turned off the gas pump right away, preventing the fire from spreading. Right now the cause of the fire is being investigated. Bittar walked away with cuts from breaking the window while the woman suffered non-life threatening injuries from smoke inhalation. Copyright 2015 KPTV-KPDX Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. ||||| It's not every day that you see a car burning in front of you. So when Phillipe Bittar and his 16-year-old brother, Raphael, spotted flames and thick smoke rising from a sedan Saturday at a Raleigh Hills Chevron station, they stopped to take a picture. Then they noticed the woman inside. Another woman ran up to the car and desperately tried to open the passenger side door as the fire spread to a gas pump and worked its way through the car's trunk. The passenger, who firefighters say is in her 70s, was shaking in the seat. "Seeing her like that hit me in a certain way that just made me react," said Bittar, 19, of Raleigh Hills. Though a Chevron attendant scrambled to shut the lines that flow gasoline to the pumps, Bittar didn't see anyone else trying to help and ran to the car. By this time the flames had reached the back seats, and the woman in the car was still frantically trying to free herself. Bittar looked for another way in. Then with only one punch, the former Beaverton High School linebacker shattered the window. The 19-year-old told the woman he was going to get her out. He reached in and grabbed her under her armpits and pulled her through the window. "She was light in my arms," he said. Once out of the car, Bittar held her up and walked her over to two other women, who embraced her. Then they hugged and thanked him. By the time Bittar turned back to look at the car, it was engulfed in flames. Adrenaline helped mask the heat of the fire and the initial pain of smashing the window with his bare fist, Bittar said. Firefighters responded around 2:15 p.m. to the station along Southwest Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, and paramedics treated the cuts on his hand. The woman, whose name has not been released, was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation, said Alisa Cour, a Tualatin Fire & Rescue spokeswoman. She was taken to a hospital as a precaution, but is expected to recover. What caused the fire is still under investigation, Cour said. No one else was injured. Firefighters likely would not have been able to reach the woman in time had Bittar not gotten her out, said Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Battalion Chief Leonard Damian. "His actions were nothing short of heroic," he said. The brothers had been leaving a nearby New Seasons Market to get some food when they drove toward the gas station and saw the burning car. Afterward, once the woman was safe, Bittar said that he felt dazed as he watched the flames consume the car. "I didn't really have much time to think and process everything as it was happening," he said. "But seeing the fire and the car and knowing she was out, it really hit me that I saved her life, and it felt really good." Bittar, a pre-med student at Oregon State University who is on summer break, said he's often seen videos on YouTube of people captured in life-or-death situations and always wondered how he would react if he happened upon one. He comes from a family of people who work in the medical field and hopes to become a doctor one day. He said he's relieved to know that he won't shy away from a situation where someone needs help. "I just wanted to make sure she was safe," Bittar said. "Now that I know she is, I know I'll be able to rest a little easier tonight." -- Everton Bailey Jr. ebailey@oregonian.com 503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey ||||| PORTLAND, Ore. – Two brothers pulled a woman from a burning car Saturday afternoon after it had crashed into a gas pump. One of the brothers punched through the car's passenger-side window to get inside the car as it and two gas pumps burned. The crash happened at a Chevron service station at 7200 S.W. Beaverton Hillsdale Highway around 2 p.m. Phillipe and Raphael Bittar pulled their car over to take a picture of the flames and spotted the woman inside the Volvo. Phillipe, 19 years old and a student at Oregon State, ran toward the burning sedan. He said the older woman inside the car had tried to get out herself. She had managed to move from the driver seat to the passenger side but was trapped. "The woman, she was just panicking inside the car and I told her, 'I'm going to get you out of here as fast as I can,'" said Phillipe. "I just punched the window and I took her out. I picked her up and gave her to her friends." "The flames were already starting to creep into the back seat, and after we got her out and go her behind the building for safety, we came back (and) the flames were already out of the front seat," said Raphael. According to Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, the woman suffered from smoke inhalation and was taken to the hospital. She was expected to recover. A gas station employee quickly shut off the main switch to the gas pumps, preventing the situation from becoming worse, TVF&R said. Phillipe got scraped up during the rescue. “Had this individual not broken out the window and pulled the patient out of the burning car and to safety, I don't believe she would have survived. His actions were nothing short of heroic," said TVF&R Battalion Chief Leonard Damian. Video and photographs taken at the scene showed the car completely engulfed in flames as well as the gas pumps. At one point an explosion occurred, shooting a ball of flame toward the station's building. While the car burned, people stopped to take pictures and video with their phones, but Phillipe and Raphael were two of only one or two others to put down their phones and rush to help. "I was expecting for everybody to be safe because there was nobody trying to intervene or anything," said Phillipe. "So I just kind of came over here and I was like, 'Oh wow, that's a pretty bad fire.' I didn't realize there was somebody in the car until a woman ran up and my brother's like, 'There's a woman in there.' And I was like, 'Let's go.'" The Washington County Sheriff's Office is investigating the crash. Heroes! These brothers pulled a woman from a burning car at a Chevron. Pure bravery. Punched through glass#liveonk2 pic.twitter.com/KKleiNve2M — Julie Murray (@videojulie) July 18, 2015 Below Video: Joshua McCool:

– An Oregon State University student is being called "heroic" for rescuing an elderly woman from a burning car while others stood by shooting videos. Phillipe Bittar, 19, says he didn't have much time to react yesterday afternoon when he saw the car at a Chevron station in Portland, KPTV reports. "I wasn't really thinking, I just saw her and knew I had to get her out of there before it gets worse," he says. "There was like six bystanders just videotaping like oh man she needs to get some help." With the passenger frantic inside, Bittar smashed the car window open with a single punch, the Oregonian reports. A former high-school linebacker, he easily pulled her out: "She was light in my arms," he says. Right after, the fire grew so rapidly that flames were already shooting out of the car's front seat, Bittar's brother Raphael tells KVAL. A gas station worker swiftly turned off the gas pump, but the car and more than one pump were toast; an explosion rocked the gas station at one point, sending a ball of fire into the main building. The woman was taken to hospital with smoke inhalation and is expected to recover, while Phillip received treatment on the scene for cuts to his hand. "Had this individual not broken out the window and pulled the patient out of the burning car and to safety, I don't believe she would have survived," says a local fire chief. "His actions were nothing short of heroic."

Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Nov. 17, 2016, 3:54 AM GMT / Updated Nov. 17, 2016, 7:24 AM GMT By Amanda Sakuma The man who helped write the book on creating a federal Muslim registry in the name of national security, now has Donald Trump’s ear as a top member of his transition team. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a policy wonk with a reputation for handcrafting the legal means to political ends, says he has a plan to help Trump pull off some of his most contentious campaign promises. Trump has explored a variety of methods to vet potential terror threats, targeting specifically Muslims by proposing outright travel bans or creating a federal database of all people in the United States who practice Islam. Kobach believes Trump can take action immediately with the swipe of a pen. In an interview with Reuters this week, Kobach said Trump's immigrant transition team proposed drafting executive actions to reinstate a post-9/11 era program that registered immigrants and visitors from countries designated as havens for extremist activity. Related: Trump Backer Cites Japanese Internment as Precedent for Registry Kobach would know — he helped write the blueprint for it while working for the Justice Department under President George W. Bush. “These programs had Kobach’s signature all over them,” said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the non-partisan think tank the Migration Policy Institute. "Now, the architect of the old program again has a seat at the table." Kobach is renowned as the mastermind behind the Republican Party's heavily contested anti-immigrant bills and restrictions on voter registration. Kobach first met Trump days before the New Hampshire primary, the Kansas secretary of state said last month in a podcast with Politico’s Glenn Thrush. The policy savant said he offered his services in helping Trump nail down the details of his immigration platform. Related: Mike Pence Orders Lobbyists Be Removed From Transition Team But Kobach soon had his fingerprints all over Trump’s policy white papers. He even found a potential way to pull off even Trump’s most far-fetched of campaign promises — like forcing the Mexican government to write a blank check to build a massive wall along the U.S. border. Using a technicality tucked within the Patriot Act, Kobach plotted a way to force Mexico’s hand by holding hostage the millions of dollars that Mexican nationals in the U.S. send home to family each year. Kobach is now on a tour touting himself as the brains behind the border wall payment plan. And with Trump assembling the final pieces of his cabinet, Kobach has indicated he may have another trick up his sleeve. The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS, targeted people from 25 countries that were considered "higher risk" of extremist activity. The program focused only on young men over the age of 16, who underwent intense interrogations. An earlier iteration asked for Muslims to come forward and identify themselves, provide fingerprints and personal information. Chishti says the registry was broad by design. Rather than discriminate people by religion, the program instead focused on all people from Muslim-majority countries. “There is no way of establishing a registry of Muslims because there is no way of establishing who is a Muslim and who is not,” he said. President Obama shut down the operations in 2011, but the policy infrastructure technically remains on the books. Trump could simply revitalize the program by designating which countries were deserving of the "extreme vetting" of all individuals, Muslim or not. The DHS Inspector General later issued a report finding that the program was costly and unreliable. More than 80,000 men participated in the registry. Thousands of those were interrogated and even detained. None were ever prosecuted on terrorism charges. Related: 'Never Ever Give Up': Clinton Makes First Public Appearance Since Conceding the Election Instead the program created a pipeline for deportation. More than 13,000 men were removed from the country for either overstaying a visa or being unlawfully present in the U.S. Fahd Ahmed, executive director of New York-based Arab and south Asian advocacy group DRUM, said the program had a lasting impact on Muslims who soon grew accustomed to being targeted for interrogation at airports. “For thousands of people, families were destroyed, livelihoods were destroyed, the social fabric of our communities — destroyed,” Ahmed said. And Kobach’s new proximity to the power structures in a future Trump administration has top Democrats sounding alarms that he is unfit to serve. Rep. John Conyers issued a statement on Wednesday railing against two Trump advisers — Kobach and Frank Gaffney, founder of the hard-right Center for Security Policy — for being “right wing extremists.” Conyers took particular aim at Kobach’s tenure at the Justice Department and his blueprint for a Muslim registry, calling it "a proposal that flies in the face of the constitution and is a threat to the civil liberties of all Americans." ||||| NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An architect of anti-immigration efforts who says he is advising President-elect Donald Trump said the new administration could push ahead rapidly on construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall without seeking immediate congressional approval. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach talks in his Topeka, Kansas, U.S., office May 12, 2016. REUTERS/Dave Kaup/File Photo Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who helped write tough immigration laws in Arizona and elsewhere, said in an interview that Trump’s policy advisers had also discussed drafting a proposal for his consideration to reinstate a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries. Kobach, who media reports say is a key member of Trump’s transition team, said he had participated in regular conference calls with about a dozen Trump immigration advisers for the past two to three months. Trump’s transition team did not respond to requests for confirmation of Kobach’s role. The president-elect has not committed to following any specific recommendations from advisory groups. Trump, who scored an upset victory last week over Democrat Hillary Clinton, made building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border a central issue of his campaign and has pledged to step up immigration enforcement against the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants. He has also said he supports “extreme vetting” of Muslims entering the United States as a national security measure. Kobach told Reuters last Friday that the immigration group had discussed drafting executive orders for the president-elect’s review “so that Trump and the Department of Homeland Security hit the ground running.” To implement Trump’s call for “extreme vetting” of some Muslim immigrants, Kobach said the immigration policy group could recommend the reinstatement of a national registry of immigrants and visitors who enter the United States on visas from countries where extremist organizations are active. Kobach helped design the program, known as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, while serving in Republican President George W. Bush’s Department of Justice after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al Qaeda militants. Under NSEERS, people from countries deemed “higher risk” were required to undergo interrogations and fingerprinting on entering the United States. Some non-citizen male U.S. residents over the age of 16 from countries with active militant threats were required to register in person at government offices and periodically check in. NSEERS was abandoned in 2011 after it was deemed redundant by the Department of Homeland Security and criticized by civil rights groups for unfairly targeting immigrants from Muslim- majority nations. Kobach said the immigration advisers were also looking at how the Homeland Security Department could move rapidly on border wall construction without approval from Congress by reappropriating existing funds in the current budget. He acknowledged “that future fiscal years will require additional appropriations.” Congress, which is controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, could object to redirecting DHS funds designated for other purposes. HELPED DRAFT TOUGH ARIZONA LAW Kobach has worked with allies across the United States on drafting laws and pursuing legal actions to crack down on illegal immigration. In 2010, he helped draft an Arizona law that required state and local officials to check the immigration status of individuals stopped by police. Parts of the law, which was fiercely opposed by Hispanic and civil rights groups, were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011. Kobach was also the architect of a 2013 Kansas law requiring voters to provide proof-of-citizenship documents, such as birth certificates or U.S. passports, when registering for the first time. A U.S. appeals court blocked that law after challenges from civil rights groups. Kobach said in the interview he believed that illegal immigrants in some cases should be deported before a conviction if they have been charged with a violent crime. Trump said in an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday that once he took office, he would remove immigrants with criminal records who are in the country illegally. Kobach said the immigration group had also discussed ways of overturning President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive action that has granted temporary deportation relief and work permits to more than 700,000 undocumented people or “dreamers” who came to the United States as children of illegal immigrants. ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201611/883/1155968404_5214507358001_5214501338001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Trump supporter cites Japanese internment 'precedent' in backing Muslim registry A spokesman for the pro-Trump Great America PAC cited World War II Japanese internment camps as "precedent" for President-elect Donald Trump's discussed plan for a Muslim registry system. Carl Higbie, a former Navy SEAL, appeared on Fox News' "The Kelly File" to argue in favor of the plan, which Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said in a Reuters interview is being modeled after the highly controversial National Security Entry-Exit Registration System implemented after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Story Continued Below Confronted with questions about the constitutionality of such a plan, Higbie cited history, in particular the forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. "We've done it based on race, we've done it based on religion, we've done it based on region," he said. "We've done it with Iran back — back a while ago. We did it during World War II with [the] Japanese." Pressed by host Megyn Kelly on whether he was suggesting re-implementing the internment camps, Higbie said no, before adding: "I'm just saying there is precedent for it." Kelly then swiftly rebuked his suggestion. "You can't be citing Japanese internment camps as precedent for anything the president-elect is gonna do," she said.

– How might Donald Trump translate his calls for restrictions on Muslim immigration into policy? One possibility is the reinstatement of a national registry of visitors from high-risk countries. The revelation comes from a Reuters interview of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is known for his anti-immigration views within the GOP and who has been advising Trump since the campaign's early days. Kobach said Trump's transition team is considering dusting off the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, which Kobach himself helped design as a member of George W. Bush's Justice Department in the wake of 9/11. Under the program, people from nations deemed high-risk had to undergo interrogations, fingerprinting, and, in some cases, periodic check-ins upon entering the US. The program, NSEERS, was abandoned in 2011. "These programs had Kobach's signature all over them," the director of the Migration Policy Institute tells NBC News. "Now, the architect of the old program again has a seat at the table." Kobach, in fact, is rumored to be on Trump's list of attorney general candidates, reports McClatchy. Meanwhile, a spokesman for a pro-Trump super PAC has drawn attention for saying the mass internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII could serve as a model for Trump's policy on Muslim immigrants. "We've done it based on race, we've done it based on religion, we've done it based on region," Carl Bigbie of the Great America PAC told Fox News, per Politico. “Come on, you’re not proposing we go back to the days of internment camps, I hope,” responded Megyn Kelly. “I’m not proposing that at all,” Higbie responded. "But I’m just saying there is precedent for it."

The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a southern Oregon couple must quiet their incessantly barking dogs by sending them to the vet to have their voices surgically squelched. The Appeals Court ruled “debarking” surgery is an appropriate solution to a noisy and relentless problem that neighbors living next to the dogs have had to endure for more than a decade on their rural property outside Grants Pass. Debarking operations, also known as devocalization, are highly controversial. Groups such as the Oregon Humane Society and American Humane have spoken out against them. Six states have outlawed the procedure under certain circumstances, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. The surgery involves cutting the vocal cords. Opponents say removing a dog or cat's prime means of communication is cruel and unnecessary. Proponents say if done correctly, it can save problematic animals from being euthanized and still allow them to express themselves with a soft, raspy bark or muffled squeak. But it’s rare for courts in Oregon to order the procedure done, in part because barking-dog disputes usually are resolved long before cases get that far. “We are just shocked,” said David Lytle, a spokesman for the Oregon Humane Society. Lytle said his organization pushed for a bill to outlaw debarking surgeries in Oregon, but it failed a few years ago. The lawsuit began as a last resort, according to the neighbors who filed it. Debra and Dale Krein said they could no longer take the barking of the six or more Tibetan and Pyrenean Mastiffs owned by the couple who lived next door for almost 20 years. The barking started in 2002, but the Kreins didn't sue Karen Szewc and John Updegraff until 10 years later, according to a court summary of the case. Like the Kreins, Szwec and Updegraff are married. The Kreins contended the barking started as early as 5 a.m. and continued for hours on end after Szewc and Updegraff left the house for the day. The dogs routinely roused the Kreins from sleep, deterred relatives from visiting their property and forced them to turn up the volume of their TV to watch shows, they said. Their children dreaded coming home from school. The Kreins made audio recordings to prove their case. After a four-day trial in Jackson County Circuit Court in April 2015, a jury ruled that Szewc and Updegraff had to pay the Kreins $238,000. The Kreins at the time also argued that while the money compensated them for several years of disruption, it didn’t stop the problem. Judge Timothy Gerking agreed and ordered that the Mastiffs be debarked, given that the owners hadn't stopped the barking by other means, including using citronella-spray and shock collars or erecting a visual barrier between the dogs and the neighbors’ property. The Appeals Court upheld the $238,000 verdict and Gerking’s ruling, reasoning that the Kreins shouldn't have to file lawsuit after lawsuit to recover compensation as the problem continues. In his written opinion, Appeals Judge Joel DeVore likened that to a “judicial merry-go-round.” Reached by phone, Debra Krein declined comment. The Kreins' Medford attorney, Michael Franell, couldn't be reached for comment. Szewc told The Oregonian/OregonLive that efforts to silence her dogs have threatened her ability to run her farm. “The dogs are my employees,” she said. “We do not have the dogs to harass the neighbors. We have the dogs to protect our sheep.” The dogs bark, she said, when they sense predators, such as bears and cougars. She said agricultural properties generate farm noise -- something her neighbors haven't come to accept. “The next line of defense is a gun. I don’t need to use a gun, if I can protect my sheep with dogs," Szewc said. "This is a passive way of protecting livestock.” Szewc said she and her husband currently have six dogs, but the number has fluctuated over the years. In 2005, Jackson County cited Szewc for allowing two of her dogs to become a public nuisance with frequent and prolonged barking. After reviewing the case, county hearings officer Donald Rubenstein in 2006 ordered Szewc to pay a $400 fine and have the dogs debarked or moved off of her land. In making his decision, Rubenstein found that Szewc’s farm activities then were so small and unprofitable that they didn't fall under farm-use laws that might have protected the sound of the barking dogs. Szewc and Updegraff have strongly disputed that. Szewc said the farm made $26,000 last year and it has supplemented their income. Court papers describe the couple's land as a 3.4-acre parcel, populated by sheep, goats and chickens. Szewc said the couple did debark the dogs, but it had disastrous effects in 2010. A cougar ran off with six lambs in a single week, she said. “That’s $3,000 of income,” Szewc said. Now, Szewc said, she doesn’t know what she’ll do -- whether she’ll try to appeal the decision or accept it. Only one of the couple's six dogs have been debarked. The ruling was made by a three-judge panel of the Appeals Court: Joel DeVore, Chris Garrett and Bronson James. Read the opinion here. -- Aimee Green agreen@oregonian.com o_aimee ||||| Full Width Column 1 Decisions of the Oregon Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Tax Court are posted weekly after 8:00 a.m., or as soon as available, on the day issued by the court. Final publication in the bound volumes of the Oregon Reports are accessible through the State of Oregon Law Library Digital Collection. Opinions ||||| Owners must surgically 'debark' loud dogs, court rules https://t.co/cnggmgZZdj pic.twitter.com/148pp9Y9mk — The Oregonian (@Oregonian) August 31, 2017 An Oregon appeals court agreed Wednesday that a couple must surgically lacerate their dogs’ vocal cords in a procedure known as “debarking” or “devocalization,” following a lawsuit brought by neighbors annoyed by the pets’ “incessant barking.” The ruling upheld a lower court order. The case began in 2002, when Karen Szewc and John Updegraff began breeding Tibetan Mastiffs, large fluffy dogs often employed to protect sheep from predators, at their home in Rogue River, Ore., about 150 miles south of Eugene. The married couple’s neighbors, Debra and Dale Krein, quickly grew tired of the dogs’ barking. According to the Kreins, the “dogs bark[ed] uncontrollably for long periods of time while defendants [were] away from the residence,” court documents state. But they weren’t the first ones to take action against the dog owners. In both 2004 and 2005, Jackson County cited Szewc for violating a county code provision on public nuisance “by allowing two of her dogs to bark frequently and at length,” according to court documents. Szewc argued the provisions didn’t apply to her because she ran a farm on the couple’s 3.4-acre parcel of land, which includes sheep, goats and chickens. Farms fall under different ordinances. The Jackson County Circuit Court rejected this argument, saying the property was not a farm, ordered her to pay $400 and to debark the two offending dogs or to move them to a different area. It is unclear if she debarked these dogs, but in 2012, the Kriens filed a lawsuit against Szewc and Updegraff, claiming they had not taken the necessary actions to prevent the dogs from barking. At that point, there were at least six dogs on the property, all either Tibetan or Pyrenean Mastiffs, the Oregonian reported. Again, the dog owners argued that they were not subject to the dog barking ordinance because they were running a farm. The Kreins claimed the dogs often began barking at 5 a.m., sometimes waking the couple. Relatives refused to visit, and their children hated being around the house, according to the Oregonian. They recorded the barking to prove it. “The dogs are my employees,” Szewc told the Oregonian. “We do not have the dogs to harass the neighbors. We have the dogs to protect our sheep.” “The next line of defense is a gun. I don’t need to use a gun, if I can protect my sheep with dogs,” she added. “This is a passive way of protecting livestock.” In April 2015, a jury sided with the Kreins and ordered Szewc and Updegraff to pay them $238,000 in damages. Also in response to the suit, Judge Timothy Gerking ordered the couple to debark the mastiffs, since they hadn’t stopped them from barking using other means such as shock collars. Szewc and Updegraff again argued unsuccessfully that the dogs were necessary because they had a farm. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the Oregon Court of Appeals consisting of Joel DeVore, Chris Garrett and Bronson James upheld that ruling, agreeing that the dog owners were not running a farm. The question of whether debarking is an appropriate remedy was not at issue in the case. Debarking is a surgical procedure in which parts of a dog’s vocal folds or cords are cut out in an effort to lower the volume of its barks or, more severely, to eliminate the dog’s ability to bark altogether, according to the American Veterinary Medical Foundation. The procedure is partially prohibited in six states, according to the AVMF. Many animal welfare organizations oppose it, as do some veterinarians. “Debarking is not a medically necessary procedure,” Jeffrey S. Klausner, chief medical officer of the Banfield Pet Hospital, told the New York Times in 2010. “We think it’s not humane to the dogs to put them through the surgery and the pain. We just do not think that it should be performed.” Wednesday’s ruling left some animal rights activists reeling. “We are just shocked,” David Lytle, a spokesman for the Oregon Humane Society, told the Oregonian. More from Morning Mix Trump and Manafort get big reminder that pardon power does not extend to state crimes Investors say SeaWorld lied about business downturn after orca outcry. Now feds are investigating. Evangelicals’ ‘Nashville Statement’ denouncing same-sex marriage is rebuked by city’s mayor Lesbians win $10,000 judgment against county clerk for calling them an ‘abomination’ ||||| MEDFORD-- An Oregon couple who sued their neighbors because of their constantly barking dogs was awarded nearly $240,000 in damages. The Mail Tribune reports that a Jackson County jury found in favor of Dale and Debra Krein of Rogue River, awarding damages for what was described as more than a decade of ceaseless barking. The defendants, John Updegraff and Karen Szewc, said their dogs were necessary to protect their livestock from predators. The court last week found that the Tibetan mastiffs weren't ideally suited to be livestock guardians and ordered them debarked within 60 days or replaced with a more suitable breed. Szewc and Updegraff reportedly began breeding the dogs at their home around 2002. According to the Mail Tribune, the Kreins claimed the dogs would often begin barking at 5 a.m. and would continue throughout the day. They also claimed the couple did nothing to quiet their dogs even after being cited by Jackson County Animal Control in 2002 and 2004 for violating public nuisance codes. -- The Associated Press

– "We are just shocked." That's the reaction of the Oregon Humane Society to a Wednesday ruling by the Oregon Court of Appeals that will require a Rogue River couple to have their six dogs' vocal cords cut. The court case was one between neighbors of nearly 20 years, reports the Oregonian: Debra and Dale Krein said the barking from Karen Szewc and John Updegraff's Tibetan and Pyrenean Mastiffs began in 2002—at 5am each day, and didn't stop. The suit was filed 10 years later, with the Kreins alleging an auditory hell so bad their kids didn't want to come home from school. Szewc and Updegraff reportedly did attempt to rectify the situation with methods including shock collars, to no avail. A jury ruled in the Kreins' favor in 2015; Szewc and Updegraff were ordered to pay the couple $238,000 and have their dogs undergo devocalization. The Appeals Court upheld that ruling. Szewc and Updegraff had argued that the dogs were what kept their livestock—sheep, goats, and chickens on 3.4 acres—safe from predators. The Washington Post reports that as such, they argued the county's public nuisance code didn't apply as they were subject instead to farming ordinances. But the AP in 2015 reported on the original ruling, which found Tibetan mastiffs aren't a breed designed to guard livestock. It also cited the 2006 decision of a local hearings officer (related to a citation over the barking) who found the farm use defense was unavailable to the couple due to the small size and profits of their farming endeavors. They have not decided whether to appeal the latest decision. The Oregonian notes the surgery still allows dogs to make a very quiet bark or squeak; critics call it a "cruel and unnecessary" procedure. (Read about another case of discord between neighbors.)

A group founded by American actor George Clooney said Tuesday it has teamed up with Google, a U.N. agency and anti-genocide organizations to launch satellite surveillance of the border between north and south Sudan to try to prevent a new civil war after the south votes in a secession referendum next month. Clooney's Not On Our Watch is funding the start-up phase Satellite Sentinel Project that will collect real-time satellite imagery and combine it with field analysis from the Enough Project and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, organizers said. The data will point out movements of troops, civilians and other signs of impending conflict. The U.N. Operational Satellite Applications Program and Google will then publish the findings online. "We want to let potential perpetrators of genocide and other war crimes know that we're watching, the world is watching," Clooney said in a statement. "War criminals thrive in the dark. It's a lot harder to commit mass atrocities in the glare of the media spotlight." The groups hope that early warnings will reduce the risk of violence. Southern Sudan's looming Jan. 9 independence referendum has raised fears of renewed north-south civil war. The vote is the result of a 2005 peace deal that ended a 21-year conflict that claimed the lives of two million people and left twice as many displaced. Organizers said the Satellite Sentinel Project will be available online Wednesday at http://www.satsentinel.org. . ||||| Tim Freccia / Enough Project George Clooney visits Sudan to draw attention to the dangers that could result should southern Sudan vote to separate from the north George Clooney and John Prendergast slumped down at a wooden table in a dusty school compound in southern Sudan. It was Oct. 4, and the two men were in the hometown of Valentino Achak Deng, whose experiences wandering the desert as a refugee during Sudan's last civil war were the basis for the best-selling book What Is the What. Clooney, the actor, and Prendergast, a human-rights activist with 25 years of experience in Africa, had heard enough on their seven-day visit to know that a new round of atrocities could follow the January referendum on independence. If it did, the likelihood was that no one would be held accountable. Why not, Clooney asked, "work out some sort of a deal to spin a satellite" above southern Sudan and let the world watch to see what happens? (See photos of Clooney in Sudan.) Three months later, Clooney's idea is about to go live. Starting Dec. 30, the Satellite Sentinel Project — a joint experiment by the U.N.'s Operational Satellite Applications Programme, Harvard University, the Enough Project and Clooney's posse of Hollywood funders — will hire private satellites to monitor troop movements starting with the oil-rich region of Abyei. The images will be analyzed and made public at www.satsentinel.org (which goes live on Dec. 29) within 24 hours of an event to remind the leaders of northern and southern Sudan that they are being watched. "We are the antigenocide paparazzi," Clooney tells TIME. "We want them to enjoy the level of celebrity attention that I usually get. If you know your actions are going to be covered, you tend to behave much differently than when you operate in a vacuum." You don't have to be a spook to have an eye in the sky anymore. Private firms with names like GeoEye, DigitalGlobe and ImageSat International have a half-dozen "birds" circling the globe every 90 minutes in low-Earth orbit, about 297 miles (478 km) up. The best images from these satellites display about 8 sq. in. (50 sq cm) of the ground in each pixel on a computer screen. That is not enough granularity to read a car's license plate or ID a person, but analysts can tell the difference between cars and trucks and track the movements of troops or horses. "It is Google Earth on lots of steroids," says Lars Bromley, a top U.N. imagery analyst. (See pictures of southern Sudan preparing for nationhood.) But you need money for it. A hurry-up order of what Bromley calls a "single shot" from a satellite covers an area of about 105 sq. mi. (272 sq km) and costs $10,000. A rush job on a "full strip" image of land roughly 70 miles (115 km) long and 9 miles (14 km) wide could run nearly $70,000. Sentinel is launching with $750,000 in seed money from Not On Our Watch, the human rights organization Clooney founded along with Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, David Pressman and Jerry Weintraub. Clooney predicted he won't have much trouble raising more money once the project goes live. (See the top 10 world news stories of 2010.) Prendergast's group, the Enough Project, is the human-rights arm of the liberal Center for American Progress; it recruited Bromley's team at the U.N. and brought in analysts from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative to pore over the images as they arrive. "Generally, what we have done in the past is an after-the-fact documentation exercise," Bromley explains. "This is proactive, wide-area monitoring," he says. Clooney, who has made four trips to Sudan since 2006, believes Sentinel might have applications in other global hot spots. "This is as if this were 1943 and we had a camera inside Auschwitz and we said, 'O.K., if you guys don't want to do anything about it, that's one thing,'" Clooney says. "But you can't say you did not know." See the best pictures of 2010.

– As southern Sudan votes on a secession referendum Jan. 9, sparking fears of a new civil war with the north, someone will be watching: George Clooney. And the actor hopes you’ll watch, too, via his new Satellite Sentinel Project website, the AP reports. The idea: Train a bunch of cameras on Sudan in an effort to spotlight the region—and hopefully halt genocide and war crimes. “We are the anti-genocide paparazzi,” Clooney tells Time. The project, a joint effort with Google, the UN, and anti-genocide organizations, will provide real-time satellite surveillance of the border, because “it’s a lot harder to commit mass atrocities in the glare of the media spotlight,” and Clooney wants Sudanese leaders “to enjoy the level of celebrity attention that I usually get,” he says. “This is as if this were 1943 and we had a camera inside Auschwitz and we said, 'OK, if you guys don't want to do anything about it, that's one thing. But you can't say you did not know.’”

If you suffer from a fear of sheep you might want to skip this video showing 1,300 sheep running on the loose and basically taking over a town as if they were in New Zealand horror movie Black Sheep. The freakish incident occurred just after 4 a.m. in the northeastern Spanish city of Huesca, south of the Pyrenees mountains, on the French border, after a shepherd fell asleep, according to local police. SEE ALSO: A little town is being ruled by hundreds of crazy goats Alerted by several phone calls from residents, Huesca police were forced to round up the flock, which had already taken over the city centre, and deliver them back to the shepherd. Two police cars were sent to the scene and five officers spent about 45 minutes trying to round up all the sheep and return them to their pen. A video posted by Huesca police on their Facebook page shows a police car with it lights on pulling up in front of the flock. The shepherd had dozed off instead of guiding the sheep onto the pastures of the Pyrenees, where they'll spend the summer. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. ||||| Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

– A YouTube video proves why you should never fall asleep on the job—particularly if you have 1,300 sheep in your care. A resident in the Spanish city of Huesca called police around 4:30am Tuesday to report a herd of sheep making its way through the city streets, per the Telegraph. And what a herd it was. About five officers spent 45 minutes rounding up the animals before delivering them to their shepherd, who was fast asleep, reports Mashable. The shepherd—who was apparently waiting to begin an age-old tradition of migrating the sheep through the city to summer grazing grounds in the Pyrenees mountains—hadn't even realized the sheep were missing.

This month, the full moon falls on Friday the 13th. Freaky? Nah, probably not. Despite many myths, the full moon does not actually embolden criminals, bring about births or make people mad, studies show. And while Friday the 13th superstitions may be well entrenched, there's nothing particularly special about a full moon falling on this date. Sign up for top Science news delivered direct to your inbox This Friday's full moon will be the lowest in the sky this year, however, since it will occur so close to the summer solstice. You can watch this freaky full moon rising in a live webcast on Live Science, beginning at 9:30 p.m. EDT tonight (June 12). [Gallery: Fantastic Photos of Full Moons] Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed World Cup Excitement in Zero Gravity 0:27 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog The June full moon is nicknamed the "Strawberry Moon," a moniker that goes back to the Algonquin Native American tribe, according to the Farmer's Almanac. June is strawberry season, and the full moon would have traditionally coincided with the harvest. The June full moon is frequently the one nearest to the summer solstice, which falls on June 21 this year. Because of a neat bit of galactic geometry, this means the full moon on Friday will be the lowest in the sky of any in 2014. The June full moon, called the Strawberry Moon, occurs on Friday the 13th. Here a full moon climbs its way to the top of the Washington Monument, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Bill Ingalls / NASA Here's how it works: The Earth rotates on a tilted axis; in June — summer in the Northern Hemisphere — the North Pole is tilted about 23.5 degrees toward the sun, while the South Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. On the solstice, the sun reaches its farthest point north of the equator. Full moons happen when Earth's satellite is opposite the sun; that's why viewers on Earth see the entire face of the moon illuminated. Thus, when the full moon is directly opposite the sun when our host star appears at its highest point, the moon is at its lowest point with respect to the equator. That's why winter full moons rise higher above the horizon than summer full moons. June's moon reaches its fullest point at 12:11 a.m. EDT (0411 GMT) on Friday, June 13. Of course, this means that for people in the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones in the United States, this full moon isn't a Friday the 13th full moon at all: It technically falls on June 12. Friday the 13th full moons occur sporadically. The last one fell on Aug. 13, 2011. The next Friday the 13th full moon will be on Aug. 13, 2049. Even those who live in the Eastern time zone should not stress over the confluence of the full moon with Friday the 13th. Contrary to myth, the full moon does not affect human behavior or health. For example, a 1985 review published in the journal Psychological Bulletin tracked hospital admissions, psychiatric disturbances, homicides and other crime over several months and found no uptick in any of those variables around the time of the full moon. Alas for heavily pregnant women, a 2001 study in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society looked at about 70 million births in the United States and found no link between the phase of the moon and labor starting. So don't expect to finish your pregnancy just because the moon is full. ||||| The superstitious may want to steer clear of black cats this Friday the 13th, but venturing outside very early in the morning will be worthwhile—you'll be able to catch the spectacular full "honey moon" in the night sky. The honey moon officially reaches its full moon phase at 12:13 a.m. EDT on Friday morning for eastern North America. But its honey hues will shine most brightly in the early evening. With the sun's path across the sky at its highest during this month of the summer solstice, the moon is at its lowest, which keeps the lunar orb close to the horizon and makes it appear more amber than other full moons this year. The amber colors are due to the scattering of longer wavelengths of light by dust and pollution in our atmosphere. "It is a similar phenomenon as seen at sunset, when sunlight is scattered towards the red end of the spectrum, making the sun's disk appear orange-red to the naked-eye," says astronomer Raminder Singh Samra of the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada. The most spectacular part of the so-called honey moon begins hours before midnight, due to an illusion by which the moon appears larger to sky-watchers when it's near the horizon than when it hangs high in the sky. Researchers aren't quite sure what causes this optical illusion of a larger moon near the horizon, but they suspect it has something to do with the human mind trying to make sense of the moon's proximity to more familiar objects like mountains, trees and houses in the foreground. The Moon at Its Closest The monthly full moon always looks like a big disk, but because its orbit around the Earth is egg-shaped, there are times in the lunar cycle when the moon is at its shortest distance from Earth (called perigee), some 224,976 miles (362,065 kilometers) away. This month the perigee just happens to coincide with the full phase, which may make it appear unusually large to some keen-eyed sky-watchers. "The moon illusion should be more prominent during this full moon as it will graze closer to the horizon than at any other time of the year," Samra says. "This will make the moon appear more amber than other full moons of the year. A full moon coinciding on Friday the 13th is not all that uncommon, occurring every three or so years. But having the combination of a honey moon and Friday the 13th is rare, last occurring on June 13, 1919, according to the popular astronomy site Universe Today. We'll have to wait until June 13, 2098, for the next one. Marital Traditions? Astronomer Bob Berman says that the honey-hued moon, which always occurs in June around the summer solstice, may have given us the modern term "honeymoon," with weddings traditionally held in June in some cultures. "That phrase dates back nearly half a millennium, to 1552, but one thing has changed: Weddings have shifted and are now most often held in August or September," said Berman, who works with the astronomy group Slooh, in a statement. "The idea back then was that a marriage is like the phases of the moon, with the full moon being analogous to a wedding," Berman said. "Meaning, it's the happiest and 'brightest' time in a relationship." Armchair astronomers can catch the sky show virtually through a live high-definition webcast of the honey moon by the Slooh telescopes in the Canary Islands, off the coast of Africa. The online show starts on Thursday, June 12, at 9:30 p.m. EDT (link for international times). Follow Andrew Fazekas, the Night Sky Guy, on Twitter, Facebook, and his website.

– If the fact that it's Friday the 13th has you shaking in your boots, we hope you didn't look out your window early this morning. For the first time in nearly 100 years, what's known as a "honey moon" or "strawberry moon" coincided with the 13th, reaching the full moon phase at 12:13am ET. The honey moniker comes from the moon's golden color caused by its low position in the sky thanks to the proximity to the summer solstice, while the latter refers to June's strawberry harvest, NBC News and National Geographic report. The next Friday the 13th "honey moon" won't happen again until June 13, 2098; the last happened on June 13, 1919. Too many rarities for your liking? Well, there's no need to be unnerved. Contrary to myth, the full moon doesn't actually affect human behavior or health, NBC News notes, citing a 1985 study which found no increase in hospital admissions, psychiatric disturbances, homicides, or other crimes around the full moon.

I love when one creative process inspires another. Recently a French dance troupe licensed some of my footage for their routine and project it as a backdrop to their interpretive dance performance. 25 1 ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.

– "Makes me feel at peace," "My headache soon went away," and "With this through my headphones, studying never has been easier" are just a handful of the comments you'll find underneath a viral YouTube video created by UK visual artist Johnnie Lawson. But Lawson isn't hawking some kind of wonder drug: The eight-hour-plus video of a waterfall cascading under a footbridge on the River Bonet in Ireland has apparently made quite an impression on insomniacs and relaxation-seekers from all over the world, with almost 7 million views and about 27,500 "likes" since he uploaded it in 2013. Lawson tells the BBC he's heard from people globally—even from the Vatican—gushing about his creations, and the video and others like it that he's put together are being used for medical research in several London hospitals. A trial at London's University College Hospital is trying to lessen trauma and PTSD among ICU patients. Incorporated into the patients' recovery are tablets with varying "relaxation materials," including Lawson's catalog of sounds and images from the woods and shorelines of County Leitrim and surrounding areas. He has just over 170 videos in his collection, and some of those compilations can get difficult sleepers through the entire night. "Insomnia [sufferers] would fall asleep listening to some of my videos, but they'd wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of silence. That's when I started making eight-hour-long videos," he says. The descriptive sayings he posts on his Facebook wall are similarly peaceful and inspirational. Sample: "Under a warming evening sun, a gentle breeze caresses still waters." (Click to find out why married women might want to check out these videos.)

See more of Larissa Waters on Facebook ||||| Alia Joy Waters is just weeks old. But she has already made political history in Australia by becoming the first baby to be breast fed in the Australian parliament. Senator Larissa Waters returned to parliament today for the first time since giving birth to her second daughter earlier this year, bringing Alia Joy with her while she voted. And when her baby needed it, she didn't hesitate to feed her. Afterwards, she wrote on Twitter: "So proud that my daughter Alia is the first baby to be breastfed in the federal Parliament! We need more #women & parents in Parli." ||||| THE Australian Senate is used to childish behaviour but next week could deliver a legitimate outcry from an actual child. Just 10 weeks after giving birth, Queensland Senator Larissa Waters is returning to work with her daughter, Alia Joy, in tow – and she plans to breastfeed her in the Senate chamber. media_camera Senator Larissa Waters at work with partner Jeremy Gates, who has scaled back his digital marketing agency to be a full-time dad. Picture: Jono Searle Breastfeeding has been permitted in the chamber since 2003, but Alia will be the first. “If she’s hungry, that’s what you do, you feed your baby,” Senator Waters said. The 40-year-old Greens senator last year successfully extended breastfeeding rules in the Senate to include caring for an infant. media_camera Kelly O’Dwyer – with then four-month-old Olivia – managed to survive a push to unseat her as a Cabinet minister after she gave birth. media_camera Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in 2009, around the time that two-year-old Kora was infamously ejected from the Senate. She will be joined in Canberra by her partner, Jeremy Gates, who has scaled back his digital marketing agency to be a full-time dad. He can bring Alia into the chamber when she needs some mother time. “I hope she doesn’t squawk her head off too much, but she’s probably going to be better behaved than many of the people in that room,” Senator Waters said. In 2009, Senator Sarah ­Hanson-Young’s two-year-old daughter, Kora, was infamously ejected from the Senate. Senator Waters said the rule changes were designed to encourage more parenting Australians to enter parliament to ensure it is representative of the community. “It is important we make all workplaces more family friendly, not just parliament,” she said. Senator Waters said the recent unsuccessful push to unseat Cabinet minister and fellow new mum Kelly O’Dwyer shows how women still face workplace discrimination. “That was atrocious, but sadly, it’s not that uncommon,” she said. “One in five women experience severe discrimination on the basis of their parenthood. It is a very sobering statistic, and it’s really disheartening for people to see that even Cabinet ministers can be subjected to that as well.”

– Australian Sen. Larissa Waters made history with her 2-month-old daughter Alia Joy on Tuesday. The Australian Greens party member became the first mother to breastfeed a baby in the Parliament chamber, winning praise for setting an example for mothers in the workplace, the Telegraph reports. Other lawmakers in countries including Argentina and Spain have breastfed their babies in parliament chambers, and Icelandic MP Unnur Bra Konradsdottir fed her baby while delivering a speech last year, though breastfeeding remains banned in parliaments in countries such as the UK. Last year, Waters introduced rule changes that made it easier for lawmakers to bring children to work, saying it is "important we make all workplaces more family friendly, not just Parliament," the Courier-Mail reports. "I'll be having a few more weeks off but will soon be back in Parliament with this little one in tow," Waters wrote in a Facebook post announcing Alia Joy's birth in March. "She is even more inspiration for continuing our work to address gender inequality and stem dangerous climate change. (And yes, if she's hungry, she will be breastfed in the Senate chamber.)"

JUBA/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - South Sudan’s government and rebels finally began talks to end weeks of bloodletting on Friday after days of delay as the United States ordered out more of its embassy staff. Marines and sailors with Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response help U.S. citizens into a Marine Corps KC-130J Hercules airplane during an evacuation of personnel from the U.S. Embassy, in this handout photo taken in Juba, South Sudan, January 3, 2014, courtesy of the U.S. Marines. REUTERS/U.S. Marines/Staff Sgt. Robert L. Fisher III/Handout via Reuters However, there was no face-to-face meeting, and fighting was reported near the key town of Bor, suggesting that a halt to clashes between President Salva Kiir’s SPLA government forces and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar is still a long way off. Neighboring countries fear that the fighting, which quickly spread out from the capital Juba last month along ethnic faultlines, could destabilize East Africa, and the regional IGAD grouping is mediating the peace talks in Ethiopia. The talks had been scheduled to begin in Addis Ababa on January 1, and made a slow start on Friday. “Both delegations are meeting the mediators separately,” said Dina Mufti, a spokesman for Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry. “We hope to bring both sides into face-to-face talks soon.” Meanwhile the SPLA said its troops were fighting rebels 24 km (14 miles) south of rebel-controlled Bor, the capital of the vast Jonglei state and site of an ethnic massacre in 1991. Bor lies 190 km (118 miles) to the north of Juba and has changed hands three times since the unrest began. “The rebels will be flushed out of Bor any time,” SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer said. Rebel spokesman Moses Ruai Lat, based in the northern state of Unity, said it was the government forces who were on the back foot and his advancing comrades were already “close” to Juba. 200,000 DISPLACED More than a thousand people have been killed and 200,000 driven from their homes in three weeks of fighting that has raised the specter of a civil war pitting Kiir’s ethnic Dinkas against Machar’s Nuer. The United States has been withdrawing non-essential embassy staff since mid-December and said Friday it was evacuating more. It also urged all American citizens to leave South Sudan - a country the size of France estimated to hold the third largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa, but desperately poor and short of infrastructure. “We are not suspending our operations. We are just minimizing our presence,” said Susan Page, the U.S. ambassador. More than 440 U.S. officials and private citizens have been evacuated on charter flights and military aircraft, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in Washinton. The United States has also flown out 750 citizens of 27 other countries. The Pentagon sent two KC-130 aircraft to pick up approximately 20 U.S. diplomatic personnel from the embassy in Juba, said Army Colonel Steve Warren, a spokesman. One landed and the other one circled nearby in case it was needed. An emergency message to U.S. citizens on the embassy’s website said the move was due to a “deteriorating security situation”. It said there would be an evacuation flight on Friday arranged by the U.S. State Department. Slideshow (17 Images) Kiir has accused his long-term political rival Machar, whom he sacked in July, of starting the fighting in a bid to seize power. Machar denies the claim. Mediators say Kiir’s government and the rebels loyal to Machar have agreed in principle to a ceasefire, but there is no agreement on a starting date and some diplomats say both sides still seem more intent on maneuvering for military advantage. The United Nations said it was planning for the number of displaced people to double in the next three months. ||||| Initial meetings in Addis Ababa between mediators and the warring parties in South Sudan have been "fruitful," Ethiopia's foreign minister has said. Tedros Adhanom said direct talks between the two sides, aimed at ending the violence, would begin on Saturday. Fighting between supporters of President Salva Kiir and those of his sacked deputy Riek Machar has killed at least 1,000 people since 15 December. The US has announced a further cut of its embassy staff in South Sudan. Analysis Arriving in Ethiopia on Thursday night, the delegation for the South Sudan government barely had time to rest. Its 14-man delegation held meetings with the two regional mediators on Friday morning. Overnight at the same hotel venue, rebel negotiators also met the mediators. Both teams are expecting the talks to last days. But the Sheraton Hotel in Addis Ababa remains a no-go zone for journalists, perhaps signifying the sensitive nature of the negotiations. While the African Union has insisted on the talks being African-driven, Western nations and the UN are keeping a close eye on them. Already the European Union special representative to the Horn of Africa is in Addis Ababa, with more foreign envoys expected in the coming days. More than 180,000 people have been displaced in the conflict. Aid workers say many are living without shelter, clean water and sanitation. Tensions are increasing around the rebel-held cities of Bor, in Jonglei state, and Bentiu, in the northern state of Unity. A build-up of military personnel around both cities has prompted fears that renewed heavy fighting may be imminent as the government attempts to regain control, the BBC's Alastair Leithead reports from the capital, Juba. One rebel spokesman told Reuters its troops were marching towards Juba, while a spokesman for the government said its forces were closing in to recapture Bor. Evacuation flight Delegates from both sides began arriving in the Ethiopian capital on Wednesday but talks were delayed until the full negotiating teams had arrived. The BBC's Emmanuel Igunza in Addis Ababa says the rival teams are in the same hotel but are currently in talks only with mediators. Mabior Garang, left, part of the negotiating team backing Riek Machar, arrives for talks in Addis Ababa A government soldier patrols Malakal in Upper Nile State These refugees in the town of Awerial are among the 180,000 people estimated displaced by the conflict The mediators are preparing the ground for direct talks, he adds. Observers have said the discussions are likely to be complicated, as the two sides will have to agree on a mechanism to monitor any ceasefire. Meanwhile, the US state department said it had ordered a "further drawdown" of its embassy staff in Juba "because of the deteriorating security situation". It evacuated a large number of non-essential staff soon after the fighting began on 15 December. But ambassador Susan Page told Reuters: "We are not suspending our operations. We are just minimising our presence." However, the state department also said that, from Saturday, it would no longer be providing consular services to US citizens in South Sudan. And it repeated its advice to its citizens to leave the country, announcing a further evacuation flight from Juba "to the nearest safe haven country" on Friday. A political squabble has become a conflict - and one with nasty ethnic undertones Analysis: Bitter divide Q&A: South Sudan clashes The United Nations, however, is flying more staff into Juba to help in the aid effort and to protect civilians' human rights. One official said US staff working for the UN had not been asked to leave. South Sudan is the world's newest state. It was formed in 2011, gaining independence from Sudan after decades of conflict. The latest trouble has its roots in tensions that go back long before 2011, rebels were fighting each other as well as for independence. But what began as a squabble between former fighters turned politicians has taken on an ethnic dimension. Politicians' political bases are often ethnic. President Kiir is from the Dinka community while Mr Machar is a Nuer. Mr Kiir has ruled out any power-sharing arrangement with his rival in the longer term. Fighting erupted in the South Sudan capital, Juba, in mid-December. It followed a political power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his ex-deputy Riek Machar. The squabble has taken on an ethnic dimension as politicians' political bases are often ethnic. Sudan's arid north is mainly home to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in South Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own languages and traditional beliefs, alongside Christianity and Islam. Both Sudan and the South are reliant on oil revenue, which accounts for 98% of South Sudan's budget. They have fiercely disagreed over how to divide the oil wealth of the former united state - at one time production was shutdown for more than a year. Some 75% of the oil lies in the South but all the pipelines run north The two Sudans are very different geographically. The great divide is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. South Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest. After gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan is the world's newest country - and one of its poorest. Figures from 2010 show some 69% of households now have access to clean water - up from 48% in 2006. However, just 2% of households have water on the premises. Just 29% of children attend primary school in South Sudan - however this is also an improvement on the 16% recorded in 2006. About 32% of primary-age boys attend, while just 25% of girls do. Overall, 64% of children who begin primary school reach the last grade. ||||| JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in South Sudan is evacuating more of its personnel because of a deteriorating security situation. Displaced people wade through mud as they get off a river barge from Bor, some of the thousands who fled the recent fighting between government and rebel forces in Bor by boat across the White Nile, in... (Associated Press) Displaced people rest after getting off a river barge from Bor, some of the thousands who fled the recent fighting between government and rebel forces in Bor by boat across the White Nile, in the town... (Associated Press) Those displaced who have enough money to pay the fare get on a bus heading to the capital Juba, some of the thousands who fled the recent fighting between government and rebel forces in Bor by boat across... (Associated Press) The embassy said Friday that it is organizing another evacuation flight to leave Friday. The embassy has already organized about a dozen flights since fighting broke out Dec. 15. The embassy did not give a specific reason why it is evacuating more personnel. An anti-government force controls a state capital about 120 kilometers (70 miles) north of the country capital, Juba. South Sudan's military spokesman says that force wants to advance on to Juba. The embassy said it will no longer provide consular services in South Sudan as of Saturday. Even as rebels threaten to march on the capital, representatives for the warring parties are holding preliminary peace talks in Ethiopia.

– As of tomorrow, the US embassy in South Sudan will no longer provide consular services to US citizens, according to the AP, as even more embassy staff were today whisked out of Juba in the face of a "deteriorating security situation." The State Department today facilitated an evacuation flight, one of about a dozen that have taken place since fighting erupted Dec. 15. Reuters spoke with the US ambassador to Juba, Susan Page, who said "we are not suspending our operations. We are just minimizing our presence." Reuters notes that a rep for the rebels claims that after seizing Bor, rebel forces are headed to Juba, and are "close" to the capital. (Though a government rep says its forces were going to retake Bor.) What isn't close: the peace negotiations in Ethiopia, where both sides have yet to meet face-to-face. "Both delegations are meeting the mediators separately," says a rep for Ethiopia's foreign ministry. The BBC reports that mediators hope to start direct talks late today or tomorrow.

A man who took part in the kidnapping and murder of a Kansas City girl is scheduled to die Tuesday evening. Missouri has executed a man who took part in a notorious kidnapping and murder of a Kansas City-area teenage girl more than a quarter-century ago. Missouri poised to execute man who abducted KC teen from... Missouri was preparing to execute a man who took part in a notorious kidnapping and murder of a Kansas City-area teenage girl more than a quarter-century ago. More Roderick Nunley had been scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m., but a late appeal postponed it until 9 p.m. The lethal injection process began at 8:58 p.m. and he was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later. Nunley was one of two men convicted in the kidnapping and killing of Ann Harrison, 15, who was taken while she was waiting for a school bus. Her body was found three days later in the trunk of a stolen car. Police said she had been raped, sodomized and stabbed with kitchen knives. Michael Taylor, the other man convicted in the case, was executed last year. Nunley and Taylor confessed to the killings with each arguing they were the ringleader. They both waived trials and pleaded guilty before a judge sentenced them to die. “If somebody had told me it was going to take 25 years to get them executed, I would have said, ‘You are out of your mind,’” said retired detective Pete Edlund, who worked the case. He said police cracked the case when a jailhouse snitched stepped forward for the reward money. He said that informant faced robbery charges and needed money for bail and lawyer. The executions were held up during lengthy appeals and challenges to Missouri’s execution procedures. After debates over which drugs should be used to give lethal injections, Missouri no longer identifies the exact drugs it uses. Harrison's parents, Bob and Janel, released a statement that read in part: "For the last 26 years Janel and I have, on occasion, experienced a form of compassion for not only Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor but especially their families. No one involved deserved the pain, suffering or anguish these two cowards have bestowed on this community. This feeling diminishes rapidly as our thoughts are uncontrollably diverted to the vision of Ann being dragged into the stolen car by her hair and stomped to the floor board in an attempt to hide her from sight as they transported her to Nunley's home." The Harrisons' went on to say that they don't know if the executions of Nunley and Taylor will bring them closure. "Will it put the heartbreak of reliving what they did to Ann during all the hearings, appeals and seemingly endless stalling attempts? "We certainly hope so. "If this is the only form of closure we receive, then we will gladly take it." Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster noted that it took years for Nunley's sentence to be carried out. "Despite openly admitting his guilt to the court, it has taken 25 years to get him to the execution chamber. Nunley's case offers a textbook example showing why society is so frustrated with a system that has become too cumbersome,” Koster said. "The two men who were found guilty of Ann’s kidnapping, rape and murder have now had their sentences carried out. But even as there is judicial closure tonight, we know that a Missouri family will always miss and grieve the young woman who has been gone for more than 26 years. We grieve with them," Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said. "I ask that Missourians join me in keeping the family of Ann Harrison in their thoughts and prayers tonight." Harrison's father, uncle and two family friends were at the prison to witness the execution. Harrison’s friends are now adults, many with teenage children of their own. “It is a tough day. It brings back lots of feelings, emotions and memories,” said Carrie Willis, one of Harrison’s friends. She said this is a difficult, but important day. “Maybe now we can move on and remember Ann,” she said. “Just remember Ann and not why it has taken so long.” Harrison’s friends Kelly Potter and Amy Kaye also posted a message on Facebook. “Today is a tough day. It has been over 26 years that those of us close to Ann Harrison have waited for justice to be served.” “Ann was a sweet, shy, family oriented girl who loved life, was nice to everyone she met and would help anyone who needed it. She was an excellent student, softball player and had a love of music.” “On that day in March of 1989, this earth lost a beautiful soul for no good reason. People are eternally bonded through this tragedy. We will continue to honor the memory of our dear friend and life that she lead and dreamed of leading. She remains in our hearts and thoughts forever. We will always have #LoveForAnn.” "I know that putting these two to death will never bring back Ann. And while she's gone from this Earth, she is most certainly with God and waiting for the day when she is reunited with her loved ones. She is at peace. Her memory lives on in OUR hearts and minds, and she will never be forgotten by any of us," friend Tricia Wear posted on Facebook. ||||| BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A man who spent nearly 25 years on Missouri's death row was executed Tuesday for the kidnapping, rape and fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old girl who was waiting for a school bus. Roderick Nunley became the sixth inmate put to death in Missouri this year. During the lethal injection, the 50-year-old inmate's breathing became labored for a few seconds. He briefly opened his mouth before becoming still. He was pronounced dead at 9:09 p.m. CDT. "Despite openly admitting his guilt to the court, it has taken 25 years to get him to the execution chamber," Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statement afterward. "Nunley's case offers a textbook example showing why society is so frustrated with a system that has become too cumbersome." Of 20 executions nationally in 2015, all but four have been in Missouri and Texas. Nunley's execution was delayed by last-minute appeals from attorneys for death penalty opponents in Missouri questioning the competence of Nunley's lawyer. Nunley made no final statement and no one witnessed his punishment on his behalf, although he visited earlier in the day with his daughter and a spiritual adviser. Robert Harrison, the father of the girl killed, watched the execution along with the victim's uncle and two family friends. The disappearance and death of Ann Harrison haunted the Kansas City area in March 1989. She was waiting for a school bus on her driveway, 20 yards from her front door, when Nunley and Michael Taylor drove by in a stolen car and made the spur-of-the-moment decision to abduct her. Her body was found in the trunk of the abandoned car days later. Both men were sentenced to death in 1991. Taylor was executed last year. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Tuesday denied a clemency request for Nunley, filed by death penalty opponents, asserting that racial bias played a role in the case because a prosecutor refused a plea deal that would have given Nunley life in prison without parole. Nunley was black, as was Taylor, while the victim was white. The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, denied several appeals from Nunley's attorney, including one claiming that the death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. According to prosecutors, Nunley and Taylor binged on cocaine and stole a car in the pre-dawn hours of March 22, 1989. At one point, a police officer from neighboring Lee's Summit chased the car but was called off by a supervisor when the stolen vehicle crossed into Kansas City. Later that morning, the men were driving around Kansas City when they saw Ann, her school books and flute on the ground beside her. "They were just cruising and she's out at the driveway waiting for the school bus," retired Kansas City detective Pete Edlund recalled Monday in an interview with The Associated Press. The girl's mother had stepped inside to get a younger daughter ready for school. When she heard the bus, she looked outside. The books and flute were still there, but Ann was gone. "She knew something was wrong," Edlund said. Taylor and Nunley had grabbed the girl and taken her to Nunley's mother's home. She was raped and sodomized, then stabbed repeatedly in the stomach and neck. Taylor and Nunley put the girl's body in the trunk of the stolen car, then abandoned the vehicle in a residential area. The body was found three days later. Edlund said the case was cracked months later when a man in jail for robbery — and seeking a $10,000 reward in the case — turned in Taylor and Nunley. Both men confessed, and some of Ann's hair was found in carpeting at the home where the crime occurred. Edlund said Ann's father was a former reserve officer with the Police Department, and her uncle was a Kansas City officer. "To all of us, she was part of our police family," Edlund said. "That made it even more important that we solve the case." ||||| Updated 9/1/2015, 10:13 p.m. -- Roderick Nunley has become the sixth death row inmate executed in Missouri this year. He was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre for the 1989 murder of 15-year-old Ann Harrison. Nunley's lethal injection began at 8:58 p.m., and he was pronounced dead at 9:09 p.m., according to the Missouri Department of Corrections. Spokesman Mike O'Connell said Nunley's last meal consisted of a steak, shrimp, chicken strips, salad, and a slice of cheesecake. Nunley did not provide a final statement. O'Connell also said Nunley declined to use a sedative before being given pentobarbital, the drug used for executions in Missouri, and that there were no complications. Ann Harrison's family did not provide a statement after the execution, which was witnessed by an uncle and two family friends. Corrections Director George Lombardi read a prepared statement from Gov. Jay Nixon: Tonight, as we remember Ann Harrison, our thoughts and prayers are again with Bob and Janel Harrison, and the other members of Ann’s family. The acts of violence that took this 15 year old who was full of life and promise away from her loved ones can never make sense to us. The two men who were found guilty of Ann’s kidnapping, rape and murder have now had their sentences carried out. But even as there is judicial closure tonight, we know that a Missouri family will always miss and grieve the young woman who has been gone for more than 26 years. We grieve with them. So, I ask that Missourians join me in keeping the family of Ann Harrison in their thoughts and prayers tonight. Attorney General Chris Koster also issued a brief statement: "Roderick Nunley murdered 15-year-old Ann Harrison in 1989, pled guilty, and was sentenced to death. Despite openly admitting his guilt to the court, it has taken 25 years to get him to the execution chamber. Nunley's case offers a textbook example showing why society is so frustrated with a system that has become too cumbersome." Pete Edlund is a retired Kansas City police officer who led the investigation into Harrison's death. "I'm just glad that justice, 25 years later, is finally served," Edlund said. "It's a sad commentary on the system that people who have committed violent vicious crimes don't receive just punishment in a timely manner." Nunley's attorney, Jennifer Herndon, has not responded yet to requests for comments. Updated 9/1/2015, 8:02 p.m. -- A second request for a stay of execution, a writ of habeus corpus, for Roderick Nunley has been denied by the U.S. Supreme Court. Within minutes, Gov. Jay Nixon denied Nunley's request for clemency: After deliberate consideration of its merits and the facts of this case, I have denied this petition. As Governor, this is a power and a process I do not take lightly. Each instance involves a very specific set of facts, which must be considered on its own. On the morning of March 22, 1989, 15-year-old Ann Harrison was waiting for the school bus at the end of the driveway of her Raytown home when she was abducted, raped, and then stabbed to death by Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor. The capital punishment sentence given to Taylor for his role in these brutal crimes was carried out last year. Nunley also pleaded guilty to these heinous crimes and was sentenced to death. My decision today upholds this appropriate sentence. I ask that Missourians remember Ann Harrison at this time and keep her parents, Bob and Janel Harrison, and the Harrison family in your thoughts and prayers. Updated 9/1/2015, 5:43 p.m. -- The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a stay of execution for Roderick Nunley, who's scheduled to die by lethal injection at Missouri's Bonne Terre prison as early as 6 p.m. tonight. Nunley was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of 15-year-old Ann Harrison in the Kansas City area. This is a developing story and we'll have more details as they come in. Original story Pending a stay or clemency, Roderick Nunley will become the sixth death row inmate executed in Missouri this year and the 18th since the state resumed executions in November 2013. Nunley was sentenced to death for the 1999 kidnapping, rape and murder of 15-year-old Ann Harrison in Kansas City. He was charged along with Michael Taylor, who was executed last year. According to police reports and court documents, Nunley and Taylor had been using cocaine the night of March 21, 1989, and then stole a car during the early morning hours of March 22. They saw Ann Harrison standing in her driveway waiting on a school bus. When they pulled up to her, Taylor grabbed her, pulling her inside the car. Nunley then drove to his mother’s house in Grandview, a suburb of Kansas City, where Harrison was taken blindfolded into the basement. He said in court that Taylor raped Harrison while he did nothing to prevent it, and that they both later agreed to kill her to prevent her from testifying against them in court. Harrison was stabbed multiple times and left in the trunk of the stolen car to die. Both the car and her body were discovered three days later in a nearby neighborhood. Nunley pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1991, in the hopes of receiving a life sentence, but after a three-day sentencing hearing he was sentenced to death. In 1994, Nunley filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, which was rejected. His attorneys had argued that he suffered from a “dependent personality disorder” and that his judgment was impaired due to his cocaine use when Harrison was murdered. They also accused the Jackson County prosecutor’s office of having a track record of racial discrimination when pursuing the death penalty in cases where the defendant was African American and the victim was white. Late Friday, the Missouri Supreme Court rejected Nunley’s request to withdraw the execution warrant, and a motion on Monday to reconsider that decision was also rejected. Meanwhile, Nunley’s attorney, Jennifer Herndon, has filed another appeal based on the state’s refusal to disclose where it gets its execution drug, although that maneuver failed to halt other executions carried out in Missouri this year. The Marshall Project, which has put forth several articles critical of the death penalty, recently had an article that was critical of Herndon. Nunley’s window of execution is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday night. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow Marshall Griffin on Twitter: @MarshallGReport ||||| This April 22, 2014 provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Roderick Nunley who is scheduled to die for raping and killing 15-year-old Ann Harrison in Kansas City in 1989. (Missouri Department of Corrections via AP) A man who spent nearly 25 years on Missouri's death row has been executed for the kidnapping, rape and stabbing death of a 15-year-old Kansas City girl. Roderick Nunley, 50, died by injection Tuesday night. During the execution, his breathing became labored for a few seconds. He briefly opened his mouth before becoming still. He was pronounced dead at 9:09 p.m. CDT. Of 20 executions nationally in 2015, 10 have been in Texas and Nunley's makes the sixth death row inmate to be put to death in Missouri. Bob and Janel Harrison, the parents of the young victim, released a statement afterwards, saying: "For the last 26 years Janel and I have, on occasion, experienced a form of compassion for not only Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor but especially their families. No one involved deserved the pain, suffering or anguish these two cowards have bestowed on this community. This feeling diminishes rapidly as our thoughts are uncontrollably diverted to the vision of Ann being dragged into the stolen car by her hair and stomped to the floor board in an attempt to hide her from sight as they transported her to Nunley’s home. Upon arrival at the home, she was made to crawl through the garage to an area where the true torture began, not only physical, but mental. They recounted in their confessions that while she was blindfolded they laughed as she pleaded for her life and how they stood over her and discussed that they had to kill her so she could not identify them. Ann was then lifted into the trunk of the stolen car as Nunley went to the kitchen to obtain the murder weapons. After attempting to slit her throat, only to find the kitchen knives were too dull, they elected to stab her repeatedly in the chest and back and shut the trunk lid, only to hear her sobbing and moaning in her final moments of life. Will the execution of Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor bring a sense of closure for us and our younger daughters? We don’t know. Will it put the heartbreak of reliving what they did to Ann during all the hearings, appeals and seemingly endless stalling attempts? We certainly hope so. If this is the only form of closure we receive, then we will gladly take it. We want to express our deepest appreciation for all the support we have continuously received from our family, extended family, friends, Ann’s classmates, The Raytown Girls Softball League, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Governor Nixon, The Attorney General’s office, the Department of Corrections and especially to the officers and detectives of the KCPD who worked tirelessly to bring Ann’s killers to justice. Finally, we wish to thank the many members of the media and press many of which have been at our side from the very morning Ann was taken. You have accepted the times when we were completely drained and just unable to speak to anyone. You allowed us the privacy we needed to work through the 26 years of grieving. Thank you all." "Despite openly admitting his guilt to the court, it has taken 25 years to get him to the execution chamber," Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statement. "Nunley's case offers a textbook example showing why society is so frustrated with a system that has become too cumbersome." Investigators say he and his co-defendant randomly targeted and kidnapped Ann Harrison, 15, as she waited outside her Kansas City home for the school bus in 1989. The girl was then raped and fatally stabbed. The U.S. Supreme Court had said it wouldn't stop the scheduled execution and Gov. Jay Nixon denied his clemency petition. Both Nunley and his co-defendant in the case, Michael Taylor, were sentenced to death in 1991. Taylor was executed last year. Nunley's attorney has three appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, including one that says the death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment — an argument rebuffed by a detective with a 42-year career who helped break the case. Retired Kansas City detective Pete Edlund said the only thing cruel and unusual is how long Nunley and Taylor remained on death row. “A travesty,” he said. “I’m frustrated by the fact it’s taken so long and over ridiculous excuses to extend their time on death row.” He said Nunley should have been put to death long ago. "They just take forever to do the deed," Edlund told The Associated Press. "The delay in executing these two is just nuts because it didn't have anything to do with their guilt. It was legal mumbo jumbo nonsense." To this day neighbor Deborah Bowen carries a picture of Ann and her sisters in her car. It’s there to remind her of the innocent girl down the street from her. “I will never forget the girl, she was just a beautiful thing,” Bowen said. “My dad went to his grave knowing those two were still alive.” The former detective is hoping, with Nunley’s execution, it will offer some sort of peace for Ann’s family. “It has been a long time, justice delayed,” Edlund said. The other two pending appeals take issue with Missouri's process of secretly acquiring its execution drug and argue that Nunley should have been sentenced by a jury, not a judge. The clemency petition to Nixon, filed by death penalty opponents, alleges that racial bias played a role in the case because a prosecutor refused a plea deal that would have given Nunley life in prison without parole. Nunley is black, as was Taylor, while the victim was white. According to prosecutors, Nunley and Taylor binged on cocaine and stole a car in the pre-dawn hours of March 22, 1989. At one point, a police officer from neighboring Lee's Summit chased the car but was called off by a supervisor when the stolen car crossed into Kansas City. Later that morning, the men were driving around Kansas City when they saw Ann standing at the end of her driveway, waiting for a school bus. The girl's mother had stepped inside to get a younger daughter ready for school. When she heard the bus, she looked outside. The books and flute were still there, but Ann was gone. Taylor and Nunley had quickly grabbed the 15-year-old girl and took her to Nunley's mother's home. She was raped and sodomized, then stabbed repeatedly in the stomach and neck. Taylor and Nunley put the girl's body in the trunk of the stolen car, then abandoned it in a residential area. The body was found three days later. Edlund said the case was cracked months later when a man in jail for robbery — and seeking a $10,000 reward in the case — turned in Taylor and Nunley. Both men confessed, and some of Ann's hair was found in carpeting at the home where the crime occurred. Copyright 2015 KCTV (Meredith Corp.) and The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

– A man convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering a 15-year-old Missouri girl from the Kansas City area more than a quarter-century ago was executed last night, becoming the state's sixth person to be put to death this year, the AP reports. The lethal injection for Roderick Nunley, 50, began a couple of minutes before 9pm and he was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later, per KBMC. Nunley—who St. Louis Radio reports requested a final meal of steak, shrimp, chicken strips, salad, and cheesecake, per a prison rep—had no one from his camp witness his death and made no final statement, though he met with his daughter and a spiritual adviser earlier in the day, the AP reports. The father of Ann Harrison, abducted in March 1989 by Nunley and Michael Taylor while waiting for her bus 20 yards from her front door, attended the execution, as did her uncle and two family friends, the AP notes. Taylor was executed last year. Some blame drawn-out appeals and an inefficient system for the executions' lengthy delay. "Nunley's case offers a textbook example showing why society is so frustrated with a system that has become too cumbersome," Missouri's AG said in a statement after the execution, per the AP. A retired Kansas City detective who tells KCTV the stalling was a "travesty" also told the AP this week "the delay in executing these two is just nuts because it didn't have anything to do with their guilt. It was legal mumbo-jumbo nonsense." After the execution, Ann's parents released a statement, per KCTV, that said, "Will the execution of Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor bring a sense of closure for us and our younger daughters? We don't know," though they conceded "if this is the only form of closure we receive, then we will gladly take it." (A woman hopes the pope will ask for clemency for her son on death row in Texas.)

Published on Mar 28, 2017 Watch the new trailer for An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, the sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. In theatres July 28, 2017. #BeInconvenient Climate Changes, Truth Does Not. A decade after AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH brought climate change into the heart of popular culture, comes the riveting and rousing follow-up that shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution. Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight traveling around the world training an army of climate champions and influencing international climate policy. Cameras follow him behind the scenes – in moments both private and public, funny and poignant -- as he pursues the inspirational idea that while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion. Directed by Jon Shenk & Bonni Cohen Cast: Al Gore Official Movie Site: http://www.inconvenientsequel.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnInconvenie... Twitter: https://twitter.com/aitruthfilm Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aninconveni... Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF9i... Watch all the latest movie trailers from Paramount Pictures: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Television, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount StudioGroup. Connect with Paramount Pictures Online: Official Site: http://www.paramount.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Paramount Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/ParamountPics Twitter: https://twitter.com/paramountpics YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Paramount ||||| President Donald Trump just landed himself a juicy movie role by pulling the United States out of the landmark Paris Climate Agreement. Filmmakers behind “An Inconvenient Sequel,” a documentary that covers the accord’s signing and stars Al Gore, will update the movie to include Trump’s Thursday withdrawal from the emissions-cutting deal before it hits theaters in July. The highly criticized move “will appear in the final film,” a spokesperson for Paramount Pictures told TheWrap. The studio is releasing the movie with Participant Media. Also Read: Al Gore Will Keep 'Open Line of Communication' With Trump on Climate (Exclusive Video) Including the development not only makes the doc timely, it will likely help keep narrative pace. The climax of the film sees Gore riding through the streets of Paris, wheeling and dealing to get people on board for the agreement ahead of United Nations 2015 Climate Change Conference. “Inconvenient Sequel” is a follow-up to Davis Guggenheim’s Oscar-winning 2006 film “An Inconvenient Truth,” which followed Gore’s efforts to convince legislators and the public of the devastating effects of climate change. Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk directed the sequel, which premiered the day before Trump took office at January’s Sundance Film Festival. Also Read: Angry Emoji: Mark Zuckerberg, Silicon Valley Execs Strongly Dislike Trump's Climate Deal Pullout “Removing the United States from the Paris Agreement is a reckless and indefensible action,” Gore said in response to Trump’s decision. “It undermines America’s standing in the world and threatens to damage humanity’s ability to solve the climate crisis in time. But make no mistake: if President Trump won’t lead, the American people will,” he concluded. “An Inconvenient Truth” opens in limited release on July 28, and expands wide on August 4.

– Al Gore's latest climate change documentary hits theaters next month, but filmmakers have some new editing to do. That's because the final cut of An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power will include President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, reports the Wrap. Mike Allen at Axios reports that Trump's decision will likely be the new ending, with the film expected to play a central role for advocates pushing back against the president's move. It's a sequel to the decade-old An Inconvenient Truth. (Gore himself criticized Trump's decision as "reckless and indefensible.")

Suspected Islamist fires at Sarajevo US embassy SARAJEVO — A suspected radical Islamist opened fire on the US embassy in Sarajevo on Friday wounding a police guard in what a Bosnian leader condemned as a "senseless terrorist attack". Bosnia's intelligence chief later said they had arrested a Serbian national with ties to the local Wahhabi community, a radical branch of Islam. But a police officer guarding the building in the Bosnian capital was seriously wounded, police said. Local television showed video footage of a bearded man carrying a Kalashnikov rifle. A special police unit shot and injured the suspect before arresting him, Irfan Nefic told national BHT television. "The person who fired an automatic weapon was wounded and arrested during the police operation," he said. "After receiving medical treatment on the scene the person was hospitalised." A statement from the US embassy, which closed after the incident, confirmed that the building "had been attacked with an automatic weapon" and had been hit "several times". "I firmly condemn the terrorist attack on the US embassy in Bosnia-Hercegovina," Bakir Izetbegovic, the Muslim member of Bosnia's three-man presidency said in a statement. Following the attack, Bosnia's acting president Zeljko Komsic met US ambassador Patrick Moon. He told him that Bosnia was capable of "guaranteeing the security of all US citizens and diplomatic representatives" in the country. "Our country is not a haven for terrorists," he stressed, as the presidency said it had called a special meeting of all Bosnian police branches. "I expect the competent authorities to carry out a quick and efficient investigation of this senseless act," he added. "I was waiting for a tram when I saw right next to me this guy armed with a rifle firing at the embassy," Igor Parac told AFP. "People started running in all directions." Another eyewitness, Admir Hrenovica, told BHR1 television the gun shots had lasted around 15 minutes. "I first heard several bursts of gunfire and then single shots. People close to me threw themselves on the ground. It was total panic," he said. Bosnia's intelligence chief Almir Dzuvo said the suspect was Mevlid Jasarevic, 23, a Serbian national with ties to the local Wahhabi community. "He crossed the border (between Bosnia and Serbia this morning," he said. The head of Serbian police Milorad Veljovic said officers were searching the suspect's residence in the southern Serbian city of Novi Pazar, home to a large Muslim community. Serbian broadcaster B92 reported that Serbian police had stepped up security around the US embassy in Belgrade following the Sarajevo incident. Serbian police said the suspected gunman had been arrested in Serbia last year when police found him carrying a knife during a visit by Mary Warlick, US ambassador to Serbia, to the Sandzak region on the border between Serbia and Montenegro, which has an important Muslim community. Bosnia is home to a small minority of followers of Wahhabism, a strict and ultra-conservative branch of Islam which is dominant in Saudi Arabia. During Bosnia's 1992-95 war between its Croat, Muslim and Serb communities, a large number of volunteers from Muslim nations flocked to the Balkan country to take up arms. Many of these Muslim fighters stayed on after the conflict ended and obtained Bosnian citizenship. Some in the mostly moderate Bosnian Muslim community have converted to this more radical branch of Islam. The local security forces have been cracking down on the Wahhabis. In the summer of 2010 suspected radical Islamists attacked a police station in central Bosnia killing one officer. Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| A man opened fire with an automatic weapon outside the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia on Friday, and authorities said he was targeting the building in a terrorist attack. An unidentified gunman stands in the center of the street in Sarajevo, Bosnia on Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 at a street in front of the U.S. embassy. An unidentified man shot several rounds at pedestrians... (Associated Press) An unidentified gunman stands in the center of the street in Sarajevo, Bosnia on Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 at a street in front of the U.S. embassy. An unidentified man shot several rounds at pedestrians... (Associated Press) RETRANSMISSION FOR ALTERNATIVE CROP An unidentified gunman stands in the center of the street in Sarajevo, Bosnia on Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 at a street in front of the U.S. embassy. An unidentified man... (Associated Press) An unidentified gunman stands in the center of the street in Sarajevo, Bosnia on Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 at a street in front of the U.S. embassy. An unidentified man shot several rounds at pedestrians... (Associated Press) The man injured at least one police officer guarding the embassy before police surrounded him. After a 30-minute standoff, the sound of a single shot echoed and the shooter slumped to the ground. Police arrested the wounded man and took him away in an ambulance as pedestrians watched from behind buildings and vehicles. Sarajevo police spokesman Irfan Nefic said the man was being treated at a hospital. The U.S. Embassy said none of its employees was injured. Bakir Izetbegovic, one of Bosnia's three presidents, issued a statement condemning "the terrorist attack on the embassy of the United States in Bosnia-Herzegovina." "The United States is a proven friend of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its government and its people supported us in the most difficult moments in our history and nobody has the right to jeopardize our relations," he said. The gunman wore a beard and was dressed in an outfit typical for followers of the conservative Wahabi branch of Islam. Bosnian TV identified the shooter as Mevlid Jasarevic, from Novi Pazar, Serbia. It said he is a Wahabi follower, but did not cite its sources. The Wahabis are an extremely conservative branch of Islam which is rooted in Saudi Arabia and linked to religious militants in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. A Sarajevo city official, Muhamed Budimlic, told The Associated Press that a policeman guarding the embassy was injured.

– A gunman using an automatic weapon opened fire near the US embassy in Sarajevo before he was arrested, police say. The suspected radical Islamist shooter was wounded and treated before being hospitalized, a police official told local TV. Two police officers were wounded in the operation, “one in the leg and one in the head,” national radio said. No embassy workers were hurt. The man, whom TV reports identified as Mevlid Jasarevic, was reported to be a member of the conservative Wahhabi branch of Islam, AFP notes. One of Bosnia’s three presidents, Bakir Izetbegovic, condemned “the terrorist attack,” the AP reports. “The United States is a proven friend of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its government and its people supported us in the most difficult moments in our history and nobody has the right to jeopardize our relations.”

"We've known for several months that there was some trouble brewing with the Cossacks and the Bandidos, sources we had within the Cossacks that have said this is going to erupt if we put this rocker on," Cook said. "There's nothing Waco police could have done that they didn't do." ||||| Former undercover agent Jay Dobyns says people can be forgiven for thinking Sunday's biker bloodbath in Waco, Texas, was a throwback to a bad 1970s movie. Law enforcement continue to investigate the motorcycle gang related shooting at the Twin Peaks restaurant, Monday, May 18, 2015, in Waco, Texas, where 9 were killed Sunday and over a dozen injured. Waco... (Associated Press) Law enforcement continue to investigate the motorcycle gang related shooting at the Twin Peaks restaurant, Monday, May 18, 2015, in Waco, Texas, where 9 were killed Sunday and over a dozen injured. Waco... (Associated Press) Waco Police Sgt. Patrick Swanton addresses the media as law enforcement continues to investigate the motorcycle gang related shooting at the Twin Peaks restaurant, Monday, May 18, 2015, in Waco, Texas,... (Associated Press) Waco Police Sgt. Patrick Swanton addresses the media as law enforcement continues to investigate the motorcycle gang related shooting at the Twin Peaks restaurant, Monday, May 18, 2015, in Waco, Texas,... (Associated Press) Bikers congregate against a wall while authorities investigate a Twin Peaks restaurant Sunday, May 17, 2015, in Waco, Texas. Waco Police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton told KWTX-TV there were "multiple victims"... (Associated Press) The shootout — which killed nine people and wounded 18 — seemed aberrant because the public image of many motorcycle gangs has been burnished in recent years thanks to the many largely benign bike enthusiasts who've co-opted some of the same clothing and style. "I think, as a society, and to a large extent even in law enforcement, we fall into the sense that these guys are these big, rough-looking teddy bears that do blood drives and toy runs and are harmless," says Dobyns, who infiltrated the notorious Hells Angels Motorcycle Club for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. "These are people that have used the motorcycle culture as camouflage." The more sinister side of biker culture was thrust into the spotlight after Sunday's shooting in the parking lot of a restaurant where members of several rival gangs were having a meeting. By Monday, authorities had charged about 170 gang members with engaging in organized crime. Motorcycle culture's image problem goes back at least to 1947, when a race in Hollister, California, descended into two days of bloody riots. The American Motorcycle Association, the race's sponsor, responded to the coverage by declaring that 99 percent of participants were law-abiding. To this day, gangs like the Outlaws refer to themselves as "1 percenters," says Terry Katz, former commander of the Maryland State Police's organized crime section. Trouble is, it's sometimes hard to tell the dark side of motorcycle groups from the light. Even the terminology is interchangeable. Good and bad alike call their organizations "clubs." Both use the term "colors" for the emblems on the backs of their jackets and vests. "Wear your colors with pride," advertises a California company that makes patches for biker clubs, law enforcement agencies, fire departments, even the Boy Scouts of America. Don Chambers, founder of the Bandidos gang, modeled his club's emblem — a sombrero-wearing Mexican caricature carrying a sword and pistol — after the corn chip company's Frito Bandito mascot, says Katz, who went undercover in the 1970s as an associate to two clubs, the Pagans and the Phantoms. Other clubs that want to operate on their turf are required to wear a patch called a "support cookie," so named because it's the size and shape of a cookie. "You have a major gang. Then you have like a puppet club or you can call it a farm team that is part of their organization. But they're not a member of the big dogs," says Katz, vice president of the International Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigators Association. The names have also grown more sinister. The Boozefighters and Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington of 1947 Hollister have given way to the Outlaws, Cossacks and Hells Angels of today. Katz says bikers maim and kill each other all the time. The only thing unusual about the Waco confrontation was that it happened in public. "I get that question all the time: 'Are these guys still around?'" he says. "Of course, they are. But they've lowered their profile, because it's bad for business to be involved in something where you're going to attract a great deal of law enforcement attention. They've never gone away. In fact, they've grown." Some clubs boast chapters on the other side of the globe. "You look at crime syndicates. They come to America from other places," says Dobyns, who lives in Tuscon, Arizona. "But the biker culture? That is America's export to the ... world of crime syndicates." Part of the problem, Dobyns says, is that the entertainment world tends to glamorize these groups. The Hollister riots spawned "The Wild One," Marlon Brando's 1953 classic. But Johnny, with his dungarees turned up at the ankles and cap at a rakish angle, seems quaint compared to FX Networks' "Sons of Anarchy." "They prey on the Americana of it," says Dobyns, who used his own childhood nickname of "Jaybird" in his undercover work. "And it's sexy and it's glamorous. The reality of it is that it's a very dangerous world, inhabited by violent men. And the reality of it is that it's very unsexy and it's very unglamorous." FX spokesman John Solberg declined to respond to Dobyns' comments. Like the Mafia, motorcycle gangs aren't interested in big public displays, says Katz. But the cornerstone of that culture is a willingness to kill — and die — for your club. "And that's what you saw yesterday," he says. "I mean, there were marked police cars outside that event ... Once the fight started, it didn't matter." ||||| The Cossacks — Mr. Jimmy did not want to be quoted using the club’s name, referring to it instead as “the other side” — were not part of the meeting, but the Bandidos were. Eight Cossacks and one Bandido were killed in the gunfight, he said. “The only reason I am not in jail,” he added, “is that I got there late.” The police on Monday were still sorting out what had happened at the restaurant off Interstate 35, and local officials were beginning an extraordinary booking process — arresting and charging about 170 people they had detained after the fight. The restaurant where the biker groups had gathered, a chain known for scantily clad waitresses, continued to face scrutiny over its handling of security. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission suspended the restaurant’s license for a week, and its corporate headquarters revoked its franchise agreement. The local management said it was disappointed that Twin Peaks had “made a sudden decision to cancel our Waco franchise before all of the facts are learned.” After the shooting, the state-run Texas Joint Crime Information Center issued an advisory that members of the Bandidos and the Cossacks “reportedly have been instructed to arm themselves with weapons and travel to north Texas.” The bulletin said officers throughout Texas “should be aware of the escalating violence between both groups and are to consider all Bandidos and Cossacks members as armed and dangerous.” The one-page document said the Bandidos were believed to have summoned additional members from Arkansas and New Mexico as “reinforcements.” Sgt. Patrick Swanton, a Waco Police Department spokesman, said that rather than overwhelm the jail, the police had used the Waco Convention Center as a staging area overnight to hold those arrested. The bikers were appearing before magistrates who were setting bond at $1 million each.

– The Waco shootout that left nine men dead, 18 injured, and 170 behind bars had its roots in a decades-long rivalry and a dispute over a small piece of cloth, insiders say. The Bandidos and the Cossacks have been rivals since both gangs were formed in Texas in the '60s, and former Bandidos leader Edward Winterhalder tells the LA Times that the latest dispute started in 2013, when the Cossacks offended the Bandidos by adding the word "Texas" to their colors. He says the Bandidos—by far the bigger of the two clubs—saw the move as an attempt to claim territory and ordered the Cossacks to remove the "territory-claiming patch" from their jackets but they refused, sparking escalating violence between the outfits before yesterday's shootout. The Bandidos see Texas as their state, the vice president of the International Association of Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigators tells the New York Times. "They are the big dogs of Texas, and then this other, smaller club—the Cossacks—comes along in 1969 or so, and they decide that they are not going to bow down," he says. The reason the public violence was so shocking, a former undercover ATF agent tells the AP, is that large numbers of harmless bikers have adopted a similar look to the outlaw clubs. "I think, as a society, and to a large extent even in law enforcement, we fall into the sense that these guys are these big, rough-looking teddy bears that do blood drives and toy runs," he says. "These are people that have used the motorcycle culture as camouflage."

Boaty McBoatface Prepares For First Antarctic Mission Enlarge this image toggle caption Department for Business, Innovation & Skills Department for Business, Innovation & Skills The remotely operated underwater research vessel known as Boaty McBoatface is preparing for its first research mission — an expedition into "some of the deepest and coldest abyssal ocean waters on earth." Boaty McBoatface, of course, was the moniker that emerged triumphant in an online poll meant to name the newest research ship in the U.K.'s Natural Environment Research Council fleet. But the council opted to overrule the will of the people, and named the ship the Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough instead. As a consolation gesture, however, a smaller autonomous underwater vehicle was named Boaty McBoatface. So the name lives on — albeit in a way that makes less sense, because a submersible vehicle isn't actually a boat. (Subby McSubface, anybody?) The RRS Sir David Attenborough is still under construction, but Boaty McBoatface is already on the job. The British Antarctic Survey explains that the submersible will be investigating "an abyssal current of Antarctic Bottom Water along the Orkney Passage," as part of an expedition that begins Friday. Antarctic Bottom Water is cold and dense, and its movement contributes to ocean circulation worldwide, the BAS writes. Boaty McBoatface will gather information on the intensity of turbulence in the Orkney Passage — information that could help improve climate change models. "One of the most surprising features of the climate change that we are currently experiencing is that the abyssal waters of the world ocean have been warming steadily over the last few decades," professor Alberto Naveira Garabato wrote in the press release. "Establishing the causes of this warming is important because the warming plays an important role in moderating the ongoing (and likely future) increases in atmospheric temperature and sea level around the globe." The BBC notes that there are actually three Boaty McBoatfaces: "The name covers a trio of vehicles in the new Autosub Long Range class of underwater robots developed at Southampton's National Oceanography Centre (NOC). "These machines can all be configured slightly differently depending on the science tasks they are given. "The one that will initiate the 'adventures of Boaty' will head out of Punta Arenas, Chile, on Friday aboard Britain's current polar ship, the RRS James Clark Ross." The U.K.'s National Oceanography Centre has designed a cartoon version of Boaty McBoatface to help teach children about marine research. According to The Guardian, a full-size, inflatable version of the submersible will "travel to events across the country." ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Prof Russell Wynn explains the workings of Boaty McBoatface The yellow submarine named Boaty McBoatface is set to leave for Antarctica this week on its first science expedition. The robot is going to map the movement of deep waters that play a critical role in regulating Earth's climate. Boaty carries the name that a public poll had suggested be given to the UK's future £200m polar research vessel. The government felt this would be inappropriate and directed the humorous moniker go on a submersible instead. But what many people may not realise is that there is actually more than one Boaty. The name covers a trio of vehicles in the new Autosub Long Range class of underwater robots developed at Southampton's National Oceanography Centre (NOC). These machines can all be configured slightly differently depending on the science tasks they are given. The one that will initiate the "adventures of Boaty" will head out of Punta Arenas, Chile, on Friday aboard Britain's current polar ship, the RRS James Clark Ross. The JCR will drop the sub into a narrow, jagged, 3,500m-deep gap in an underwater ridge that extends northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Referred to as the Orkney Passage, this is the gateway into the Atlantic for much of the "bottom-water" that is created as sea-ice grows on the margins of the White Continent. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Prof Mike Meredith: A quarter of all Antarctic bottom-water is exported through Orkney Passage Frozen floes will cool and densify the water immediately below them, and this then generates a current that slides into the abyss to eventually move northwards. And in traversing the Orkney Passage, the bottom-water can feed the "great ocean conveyor" - the relentless system of deep circulation that helps redistribute all the heat energy that has built up in the climate system. Boaty's mission will be to survey conditions in the passage. Scientific moorings anchored in the area already gather some data, but the robot's mobility and autonomy means it can now build a full, three-dimensional picture of what's happening many hundred of metres below the surface. Image copyright NERC/BAS Image caption The JCR will eventually be replaced by the RRS Sir David Attenborough Scientists have good evidence that the bottom-water is warming. Quite why is not clear but it could have major implications, says Prof Mike Meredith from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). "One of these is sea-level rise because if you make water warmer obviously it expands and that pushes the sea level up," he told BBC News. "But it also has relevance for benthic ecosystems. So, the animals that live on the seabed can typically cope well with low temperatures but not all of them can cope with changes in temperatures. The fact that this water has been getting warmer may have significant consequences for these animals." Image caption Bottom-water is generated at the margin of the continent and then spills north into the Atlantic The recorded warming could be the result of a change in the way the deep current is moving through the passage. If there is greater turbulence as the bottom-water flows over the jagged terrain, it might be mixing more warm water downwards. Boaty will have a probe on its nose to assess this. "There are 'rapids' and 'waterfalls' that are occurring within the channels and valleys that surround underwater mountains in the passage," explained Dr Eleanor Frajka-Williams from Southampton University. "Boaty is going to make measurements within these 'streams' and 'rivers' of the smallest-scale motions to try to understand how that water is being changed as it leaves the formation regions around Antarctica and then spreads out over the world's oceans." Image copyright NERC/NOC Image caption The Autosub LR class of vehicles is beginning full science operations after successful sea trials And while this particular robot is hard at work in the Southern Ocean, its two siblings back in Southampton are being prepared for their own expeditions. Scientists are queuing up to use them, and to exploit their ability to autonomously patrol the oceans for weeks, even months, on end. "Having three Boaty vehicles in the fleet means we can cover a much wider range of environments and geographic locations than we could with just one," said NOC's Prof Russell Wynn. "So, one vehicle might be going out to Antarctica and surveying around and under the ice; another might be going to the deepest parts of the ocean, down to 6km; and another might be doing something more applied in, for example, the North Sea. "We're getting lots of proposals and it's great that we can meet that demand," he told BBC News. The Dynamics of the Orkney Passage Outflow (DynOPO) expedition is a collaboration between BAS, the University of Southampton and NOC. Image copyright NERC/NOC Image caption Public outreach campaigns will be built around the future work of the subs Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

– Boaty McBoatface is going into action. The remotely operated underwater research vessel will be undertaking its first research mission as part of an Antarctic expedition that starts Friday, NPR reports. The submersible, of course, was named Boaty McBoatface after that name won an online poll that was supposed to pick the name of a new UK research ship. The UK decided to name that ship the RRS David Attenborough instead, but gave the Boaty name instead to a trio of underwater vehicles, the BBC reports. It's one of those vehicles that will be heading to the Orkney Passage to study Antarctic Bottom Water, looking at its movement and turbulence in an effort to improve climate change models.

Charlie Munger: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also bubbles 8:24 PM ET Wed, 10 Jan 2018 | 00:57 Warren Buffett's right-hand man, Charlie Munger, blasted the frothiness in venture capital funding and bitcoin. During a phone interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday, Munger was asked if bitcoin was a bubble. "Yeah sure [on bitcoin] and venture capital, too," Munger replied. "There are always bubbles ... that are going to end badly." On "Squawk Box" on Wednesday, Buffett also said the craze over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies won't end well. The billionaire Munger, who turned 94 on New Year's Day, said there was "too much money" in venture capital, and he compared the current environment to the dot-com bubble in 2000. "Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies are also bubbles," he added. Investors "are excited because things are going up at the moment and it sounds vaguely modern. ... But I'm not excited." Munger made waves when he said bitcoin is "total insanity" and avoid it "like the plague" at a University of Michigan Ross School of Business event last year. Munger is one of the most celebrated investors in the world and was an essential partner in Buffett's success. Before becoming vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, he had quite the track record himself. From 1962 to 1975, Munger's investment partnership generated 20 percent annual returns versus the S&P 500's 5 percent. ||||| SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s government said on Thursday it plans to ban cryptocurrency trading, sending bitcoin prices plummeting and throwing the virtual coin market into turmoil as the nation’s police and tax authorities raided local exchanges on alleged tax evasion. The clampdown in South Korea, a crucial source of global demand for cryptocurrency, came as policymakers around the world struggled to regulate an asset whose value has skyrocketed over the last year. Justice minister Park Sang-ki said the government was preparing a bill to ban trading of the virtual currency on domestic exchanges. “There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and the justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges,” Park told a news conference, according to the ministry’s press office. After the market’s sharp reaction to the announcement, the nation’s Presidential office hours later said a ban on the country’s virtual coin exchanges had not yet been finalised while it was one of the measures being considered. A press official at the justice ministry said the proposed ban on cryptocurrency trading was announced after “enough discussion” with other government agencies, including the nation’s finance ministry and financial regulators. Once a bill is drafted, legislation for an outright ban of virtual coin trading will require a majority vote of the total 297 members of the National Assembly, a process that could take months or even years. The government’s tough stance triggered a selloff of the cryptocurrency on both local and offshore exchanges. The local price of bitcoin plunged as much as 21 percent in midday trade to 18.3 million won ($17,064.53) after the minister’s comments. It still trades at around a 30 percent premium compared to other countries. Bitcoin BTC=BTSP was down more than 10 percent on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp at $13,199, after earlier dropping as low as $13,120, its weakest since Jan. 2. South Korea’s cryptocurrency-related shares were also hammered. Vidente (121800.KQ) and Omnitel (057680.KQ), which are stakeholders of Bithumb, skidded by the daily trading limit of 30 percent each. Once enforced, South Korea’s ban “will make trading difficult here, but not impossible,” said Mun Chong-hyun, chief analyst at EST Security. “Keen traders, especially hackers, will find it tough to cash out their gains from virtual coin investments in Korea but they can go overseas, for example Japan,” Mun said. Park Nok-sun, a cryptocurrency analyst at NH Investment & Securities, said the herd behavior in South Korea’s virtual coin market has raised concerns. Indeed, bitcoin's BTC=BTSP 1,500 percent surge last year has stoked huge demand for cryptocurency in South Korea, drawing college students to housewives and sparking worries of a gambling addiction. “Some officials are pushing for stronger and stronger regulations because they only see more (investors) jumping in, not out,” Park said. By Thursday afternoon, the Justice Ministry’s announcement had prompted more than 55,000 South Koreans to join a petition asking the presidential Blue House to halt the crackdown on the virtual currency, making the Blue House website intermittently unavailable due to heavy traffic, the website showed. REGULATORY CONUNDRUM There are more than a dozen cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, according to Korea Blockchain Industry Association. The proliferation of the virtual currency and the accompanying trading frenzy have raised eyebrows among regulators globally, though many central banks have refrained from supervising cryptocurrencies themselves. The news of South Korea’s proposed ban came as authorities tightened their grip on some cryptocurrency exchanges. The nation’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinone and Bithumb were raided by police and tax agencies this week for alleged tax evasion. The raids follow moves by the finance ministry to identify ways to tax the market that has become as big as the nation’s small-cap Kosdaq index in terms of daily trading volume. Some investors appeared to have taken preemptive action. “I have already cashed most of mine (virtual coins) as I was aware that something was coming up in a couple of days,” said Eoh Kyung-hoon, a 23-year old investor. Bitcoin sank on Monday after website CoinMarketCap removed prices from South Korean exchanges, because coins were trading at a premium of about 30 percent in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. That created confusion and triggered a broad selloff among investors. An official at Coinone told Reuters that a few officials from the National Tax Service raided the company’s office this week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Coinone was cooperating with the investigation. Bithumb, the second largest virtual currency operator in South Korea, was also raided by the tax authorities on Wednesday. “We were asked by the tax officials to disclose paperwork,” an official at Bithumb said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. FILE PHOTO: A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo The nation’s tax office and police declined to confirm whether they raided the local exchanges. South Korean financial authorities had previously said they are inspecting six local banks that offer virtual currency accounts to institutions, amid concerns the increasing use of such assets could lead to a surge in crime. ($1 = 1,069.9600 won) ||||| Billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC on Wednesday the recent craze over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies won't end well. "In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending," the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway said. "When it happens or how or anything else, I don't know," he added in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" from Omaha, Nebraska. "If I could buy a five-year put on every one of the cryptocurrencies, I'd be glad to do it but I would never short a dime's worth."

– Warren Buffett's advice on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be summed up in two words: Stay away. In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, the billionaire Berkshire Hathaway investor said that "in terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending." The 87-year-old, however, said he couldn't predict when that bad ending would occur—and admitted he doesn't know that much about cryptocurrencies. "We don't own any, we're not short any, we'll never have a position in them," he said. "I get into enough trouble with the things I think I know something about. Why in the world should I take a long or short position in something I don't know about?" Charlie Munger, Buffett's 94-year-old right-hand man, also told CNBC he sees cryptocurrencies as a bubble. Investors "are excited because things are going up at the moment and it sounds vaguely modern," he said. "But I'm not excited." Bitcoin fell more than 10% to $13,200 early Thursday after South Korea's government announced that it plans to ban trading in cryptocurrencies, Reuters reports. The government later clarified that legislation to bring in a ban is being discussed with financial regulators, among others, but has not been finalized. Earlier this week, police raided South Korea bitcoin exchanges in a crackdown on tax evasion. (Kodak is creating its own cryptocurrency.)

(CNN) -- The year was 1890. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky premiered his Sleeping Beauty ballet in St. Petersburg. Vincent van Gogh ended his life, apparently by shooting himself. And Idaho and Wyoming became the 43rd and 44th states of the United States. 1890 is also the year Carmelo Flores Laura was born, or at least, that's what his family and the Bolivian government claim. The Bolivian man, who lives in the town of Frasquia, in the arid highlands of Bolivia, showed CNN government documents that seem to confirm he's 123 years old. The documents include a birth certificate showing his birth date as July 16, 1890. There's also a national identity card with the same birth date. Several media outlets published stories about Flores calling him the oldest man alive. But there appear to be several problems with this claim. For starters, neither the birth certificate nor the national identity card is original. "We were skeptical from the beginning," said Stephen Coles, a professor of gerontology at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California in Los Angeles. He's also the director of the Gerontology Research Group, an independent organization that tracks, monitors and verifies claims of longevity. "He's not the real thing. Carmelo is not 123 years old despite the documents his family has shown. He was not born in the year 1890." Coles said the first red flag was the fact that Flores is a man. The gerontologist said more than 90% of cases of what his organization categorizes as supercentenarians are women. Jean Louise Calment from France lived to the age of 122. Her case is the longest human lifespan that has been verified with several documents. According to Coles, there are 57 documented and verified cases of people over the age of 110 around the world. Fifty-five are women and two are men. Four other cases are still pending final verification. The Gerontology Research Group has found a document that purportedly shows Flores is actually 107 years old, and not 123. The document is a baptismal certificate. Back in 1890, the Bolivian government didn't record live births or any other demographic data, so it was up to the Catholic Church to register births, deaths and marriages. In any case, the fact that Carmelo Flores Laura has lived for more than a century in the arid highlands of Bolivia at an altitude of more than 12,000 feet is striking. Not only does he walk on his own, but his voice is still commanding. His son Cecilio Flores, who's 65 years old, has to speak loudly in his ear to communicate with him, but his memory seems to be in perfect shape. He doesn't speak Spanish, but his native Aymara, an indigenous language in Bolivia. "I was born here in the highlands," Flores told CNN in Aymara, with his son translating into Spanish. "I was not a mischievous child. I was rather calm. I arrived as a young man in Frasquia and worked as herder and farmer. I was very happy with my wife. We never fought. I never cheated on her and we were both very happy." Flores' wife lived to be over 100 years old. According to family tradition, the secret to a long life is drinking the water that flows down the Illampu Glacier, located not far from Frasquia. Their diet includes no packaged or processed foods, but locally grown plants like barley and quinoa. They hunt a local fox that lives in the Bolivian mountains known regionally as "zorrino." 80 year old becomes oldest to climb Mount Everest Before you get any ideas, the Gerontology Research Group has found that no particular diet, geographical location or kind of water makes people live longer. Coles said it's the genes. "People who have extreme old age have virtually nothing in common. They don't share the same religion, nutrition or exercise routine. They only have one detail in common: they have relatives who have lived a long time and children (who) also tend to live a long time," Coles said. Cecilio Flores said his supercentenarian father had five children, 16 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren. "I constantly congratulate my father," he said. "He took care of me when I was little so I'm now taking care of him. Now it's my turn to make sure he's taken care of." Cecilio is the only child of Flores still alive. No one in the Flores family doubts that the patriarch is 123 years old. There seems to be no doubt either when it comes to officials. In fact, the government of Bolivia plans to honor Flores by declaring him "a living heritage" of the Bolivian people. ||||| Off-Ramp ® is a lively weekly look at Southern California through the eyes and ears of radio veteran John Rabe. News, arts, home, life... covering everything that makes life here exciting, enjoyable, and interesting. This week, this story crossed the wires: FRASQUIA, Bolivia (AP) - If Bolivia's public records are correct, Carmelo Flores Laura is the oldest living person ever documented. They say he turned 123 a month ago. The native Aymara lives in a straw-roofed dirt-floor hut in an isolated hamlet near Lake Titicaca at 13,100 feet (4,000 meters), is illiterate, speaks no Spanish and has no teeth. He walks without a cane and doesn't wear glasses. And though he speaks Aymara with a firm voice, one must talk into his ear to be heard. "I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming," he tells Associated Press journalists who visit after a local TV report touts him as the world's oldest person. The story has all the elements that make it irresistible to the public ... and journalists. To be fair, the story contains qualifiers like "If Bolivia's public records are correct," but the claim was relatively easily debunked within a few days. UCLA's Dr Stephen Coles, director of the Gerontology Research Group, which investigates these kinds of claims for the Guinness Book of World Records, says he was skeptical from the start, especially because there was no documentary proof dating to the year Laura was supposedly born. "I was immediately suspicious because no man to our knowledge has ever lived past the age of 116, because 90% of people we call super-centenarians are female." He listed other red flags: This gentlemen is illiterate; There's no proof of birth dating to the original time of birth; There's no documentation for this man's age until he applied for a pension (giving him a financial incentive for age exaggeration); There's an alleged Baptismal Record (which, if it exists at all, could be for an entirely different person); There's no current ID; He can still walk at age "123" yo; His oldest child is 67 (that's a huge generation gap). Then, researchers went on the Internet. "There was," Coles said, "to our surprise, a baptismal certificate, which I'm holding in my hand right now." I asked, "Was he born in 1890, like they said?" "Not at all," Coles responded. "Not 1890, but 1906." 107 is nothing to sneeze at, but we'll check back with Carmelo Flores Laura in 16 years. The oldest person in history remains a Frenchwoman, Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122.

– It's the kind of story you really want to believe: According to Bolivia's public records, Carmelo Flores Laura turned 123 years old last month, making him the oldest living person ever documented. CNN, however, advises you take the news with a grain—or spoonful—of salt, this after it actually saw the government documents that establish Flores' July 16, 1890 birth date. It, along with KPCC, runs down five reasons why Flores is probably a good decade or two younger than is being claimed: Though Flores has a birth certificate and a national identity card bearing his birth date, neither are original. Bolivia didn't keep records of live births in 1890. In what CNN describes as a "red flag," Flores is a man. Gerontologist Stephen Coles (who actually looks into these claims for the Guinness Book of World Records) says the lion's share of supercentenarians are women. He notes that just two of the 57 people verified to having lived past 110 are male, with the oldest man on record having lived to 116. The Gerontology Research Group that Coles heads up tracked down what it says is Flores' baptismal certificate—which establishes his age as an impressive but not record-setting 107. He not only still walks at 123, but does so without a cane. His sole living child is 67—that's a pretty significant generation gap. This supercentenarian male, however, has had his impressive age verified.

The word “shithole” was projected onto President Trump Donald John TrumpStone: 'I’ve never had any discussion' with Trump about a pardon White House: Trump will move forward on wall 'with or without' Dems Pelosi after Stone indictment: 'What does Putin have on the president'? MORE’s D.C. hotel Saturday. Video shows the word, along with the poop emoji, being projected onto the property. ADVERTISEMENT “Pay Trump bribes here,” “emoluments welcome” and “we are all responsible to stand up and end white supremacy” were also projected onto the building. Trump has faced intense backlash for calling Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “shithole countries” during an Oval Office meeting on immigration this week. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump reportedly said, before suggesting that the U.S. bring in more immigrants from countries like Norway. The White House initially did not deny that Trump made the remarks, but Trump later disputed the reports on Twitter. Lawmakers, media figures and world leaders have all decried Trump’s comments. The African Union, representing all 55 African countries, demanded Saturday that Trump apologize for the remarks. ||||| The expletive President Trump used last week in a discussion about immigration in the Oval Office and other slogans were projected Saturday night onto an outer wall of the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington. Video footage posted on Twitter shows the word "SHITHOLE" and poop emoji projected on the wall of the hotel. An arrow, also apparently projected on the building, points to the arched doorway. The pictures appear on the Twitter feed of Robin Bell, who has previously projected wording critical of the president onto the hotel. He has become known as a kind of projectionist provocateur and something of a "hit-and-run editorial writer," as David Montgomery described him last year in The Washington Post. The president, in a discussion last week on immigration policy, used "shithole" to refer to certain countries from which large-scale immigration was undesirable, according to people present at the meeting. The Washington Post saw the posted photographs but did not actually see the words at the time they were projected. Bell said he had focused his projector onto the building for about 40 minutes. He was interviewed afterward. ||||| A screen grab of video posted on Twitter showing the word “SHITHOLE” projected onto the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. on January 14, 2017. Twitter.com/bellvisuals The word of the week in Washington got a full-blown public display on Saturday night as an artist projected it on the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Video footage shows that an artist projected the word “SHITHOLE” surrounded by a stream of animated poop emojis onto the wall of the hotel. The projection ended a week in which uttering the word “shithole” in public suddenly became common after President Trump reportedly used it in a meeting. The video posted on Twitter shows the sequence of phrases that were projected onto the front steps of the hotel: “Not a D.C. resident?” / “Need a place to stay?” / “Try our shithole” / “This place is a shithole.” And then the one word—“SHITHOLE”—in capital letters was projected surrounded by poop emojis. Later in the projection, the artist issues a stark warning: “The president is distracting us from politics that are harming us” / “Stay vigilant.” The video ends with the projection: “Pay Trump bribes here” with an arrow pointing to the entrance of the hotel. The projection is the work of Robin Bell, who posted it on his Twitter account. This is not the first time Bell has made politically charged projections onto Trump’s hotel in Washington. He had already displayed the “Pay Trump bribes here” message before, for example. Bell has also gone beyond the hotel, projecting #SessionsMustGo and “I thought the KKK was OK until I learned that they smoked pot”onto the Department of Justice building. In a long profile of Bell last year, the Washington Post’s David Montgomery described him as a “hit-and-run editorial writer.” At the time, Montgomery noted that “Bell’s projections now come regularly enough that during especially volatile news cycles, it’s like sensing mayhem in Gotham and looking out for a bat signal.”

– President Trump's controversial pet phrase came home to roost in a way on Saturday night, when someone projected "SHITHOLE" onto the front of Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. Per Slate, the display went thusly: "Not a D.C. resident?/Need a place to stay?/Try our shithole/This place is a shithole." That was followed by "SHITHOLE" over the entrance, combined with poop emojis. The projection appears to be the work of Robin Bell, reports the Washington Post, who has pulled similar anti-Trump stunts in the past. Footage of the projection appeared on Bell's Twitter feed; he told the Post that it was up for about 40 minutes Saturday night. (You can see it here.) In further fallout on Saturday, the Hill notes that the entire 55-nation African Union demanded Trump apologize.

But he suggested that he sees his role in addressing domestic issues as dominant, saying that it would be difficult to get the economy rolling again but that doing so was “our central mission as a people, and my central responsibility as president.” With his party facing the prospect of losing control of Congress in this fall’s elections and his own poll numbers depressed in large part because of the lackluster economy and still-high unemployment, he said the nation’s perseverance in Iraq must be matched by determination to address problems at home. Over the last decade, “we have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas,” he said. “And so at this moment, as we wind down the war in Iraq, we must tackle those challenges at home with as much energy and grit and sense of common purpose as our men and women in uniform who have served abroad.” Mr. Obama acknowledged a war fatigue among Americans who have called into question his focus on the Afghanistan war, now approaching its 10th year. He said that American forces in Afghanistan “will be in place for a limited time” to give Afghans the chance to build their government and armed forces. “But, as was the case in Iraq, we cannot do for Afghans what they must ultimately do for themselves,” the president said. He reiterated that next July he would begin transferring responsibility for security to Afghans, at a pace to be determined by conditions. “But make no mistake: this transition will begin, because open-ended war serves neither our interests nor the Afghan people’s,” he said. This was no iconic end-of-war moment with photos of soldiers kissing nurses in Times Square or victory parades down America’s Main Streets. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Instead, in the days leading to the Tuesday night deadline for the withdrawal of American combat troops, it has appeared as if administration officials and the American military were the only ones marking the end of this country’s combat foray into Iraq. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are all in Baghdad for the official ceremony on Wednesday. The very sight of Mr. Obama addressing Americans from the Oval Office — from the same desk where Mr. Bush announced the beginning of the conflict — shows the distance traveled since the Iraq war began. On the night of March 20, 2003, when the Army’s Third Infantry Division first rolled over the border from Kuwait into Iraq, Mr. Obama was a state senator in Illinois. Mr. Bush was at the height of his popularity, and the perception at home and in many places abroad was that America could achieve its national security goals primarily through military power. One of the biggest fears among the American troops in the convoy pouring into Iraq that night — every one of them suited in gas masks and wearing biohazard suits — was that the man they came to topple might unleash a chemical weapons attack. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Seven years and five months later, the biggest fears of American soldiers revolve around the primitive, basic, homemade bombs and old explosives in Afghanistan that were left over from the Soviet invasion. In Iraq, what was perceived as a threat from a powerful dictator, Saddam Hussein, has dissolved into the worry that as United States troops pull out they are leaving behind an unstable and weak government that could be influenced by Iran. On Tuesday, a senior intelligence official said that Iran continues to supply militant groups in Iraq with weapons, training and equipment. “Much has changed since that night,” when Mr. Bush announced the war in Iraq, Mr. Obama said. “A war to disarm a state became a fight against an insurgency. Terrorism and sectarian warfare threatened to tear Iraq apart. Thousands of Americans gave their lives; tens of thousands have been wounded. Our relations abroad were strained. Our unity at home was tested.” The withdrawal of combat forces represents a significant milestone after the war that toppled Mr. Hussein, touched off waves of sectarian strife and claimed the lives of more than 4,400 American soldiers and more than 70,000 Iraqis, according to United States and Iraqi government figures. “Operation Iraqi Freedom is over,” Mr. Obama said, using the military name for the mission, “and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country.” As Mr. Obama prepared to observe the end of one phase of the war, he called Mr. Bush from Air Force One, as he was en route to Fort Bliss in Texas to meet with American troops home from Iraq. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The two spoke “just for a few moments,” Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, told reporters aboard the plane, declining to give any additional details. American troops reached Mr. Obama’s goal for the drawdown early — last week Gen. Ray Odierno, the American commander in Iraq, said that the number of troops had dropped to 49,700, roughly the number that would stay through next summer. That is less than a third of the number of troops in Iraq during the surge in 2007. Under an agreement between Iraq and the United States, the remaining troops are to leave by the end of 2011, though some Iraqi and American officials say they think that the agreement may be renegotiated to allow for a longer American military presence. The remaining “advise and assist” brigades will officially concentrate on supporting and training Iraqi security forces, protecting American personnel and facilities, and mounting counterterrorism operations. Still, as Mr. Obama himself acknowledged Tuesday, the milestone came with all of the ambiguity and messiness that accompanied the war itself. A political impasse, in place since March elections, has left Iraq without a permanent government just as the government in Baghdad was supposed to be asserting more control. Republican critics of the president were quick to point out Tuesday that Mr. Obama opposed the troop surge that they credit for decreased violence in Iraq. “Some leaders who opposed, criticized, and fought tooth-and-nail to stop the surge strategy now proudly claim credit for the results,” Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, told veterans at the national convention of the American Legion in Milwaukee. ||||| The Americans who have served in Iraq completed every mission they were given. They defeated a regime that had terrorized its people. Together with Iraqis and coalition partners who made huge sacrifices of their own, our troops fought block by block to help Iraq seize the chance for a better future. They shifted tactics to protect the Iraqi people; trained Iraqi security forces; and took out terrorist leaders. Because of our troops and civilians — and because of the resilience of the Iraqi people — Iraq has the opportunity to embrace a new destiny, even though many challenges remain. So tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country. This was my pledge to the American people as a candidate for this office. Last February, I announced a plan that would bring our combat brigades out of Iraq, while redoubling our efforts to strengthen Iraq’s security forces and support its government and people. That is what we have done. We have removed nearly 100,000 U.S. troops from Iraq. We have closed or transferred hundreds of bases to the Iraqis. And we have moved millions of pieces of equipment out of Iraq. This completes a transition to Iraqi responsibility for their own security. U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq’s cities last summer, and Iraqi forces have moved into the lead with considerable skill and commitment to their fellow citizens. Even as Iraq continues to suffer terrorist attacks, security incidents have been near the lowest on record since the war began. And Iraqi forces have taken the fight to Al Qaeda, removing much of its leadership in Iraqi-led operations. This year also saw Iraq hold credible elections that drew a strong turnout. A caretaker administration is in place as Iraqis form a government based on the results of that election. Tonight, I encourage Iraq’s leaders to move forward with a sense of urgency to form an inclusive government that is just, representative, and accountable to the Iraqi people. And when that government is in place, there should be no doubt: the Iraqi people will have a strong partner in the United States. Our combat mission is ending, but our commitment to Iraq’s future is not. Going forward, a transitional force of U.S. troops will remain in Iraq with a different mission: advising and assisting Iraq’s security forces; supporting Iraqi troops in targeted counterterrorism missions; and protecting our civilians. Consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, all U.S. troops will leave by the end of next year. As our military draws down, our dedicated civilians — diplomats, aid workers, and advisers — are moving into the lead to support Iraq as it strengthens its government, resolves political disputes, resettles those displaced by war, and builds ties with the region and the world. And that is a message that Vice President Biden is delivering to the Iraqi people through his visit there today. This new approach reflects our long-term partnership with Iraq — one based upon mutual interests, and mutual respect. Of course, violence will not end with our combat mission. Extremists will continue to set off bombs, attack Iraqi civilians and try to spark sectarian strife. But ultimately, these terrorists will fail to achieve their goals. Iraqis are a proud people. They have rejected sectarian war, and they have no interest in endless destruction. They understand that, in the end, only Iraqis can resolve their differences and police their streets. Only Iraqis can build a democracy within their borders. What America can do, and will do, is provide support for the Iraqi people as both a friend and a partner. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ending this war is not only in Iraq’s interest — it is in our own. The United States has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its people. We have sent our young men and women to make enormous sacrifices in Iraq, and spent vast resources abroad at a time of tight budgets at home. We have persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people — a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it is time to turn the page. As we do, I am mindful that the Iraq war has been a contentious issue at home. Here, too, it is time to turn the page. This afternoon, I spoke to former President George W. Bush. It’s well known that he and I disagreed about the war from its outset. Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security. As I have said, there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it. And all of us are united in appreciation for our servicemen and women, and our hope for Iraq’s future. The greatness of our democracy is grounded in our ability to move beyond our differences, and to learn from our experience as we confront the many challenges ahead. And no challenge is more essential to our security than our fight against Al Qaeda. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Americans across the political spectrum supported the use of force against those who attacked us on 9/11. Now, as we approach our 10th year of combat in Afghanistan, there are those who are understandably asking tough questions about our mission there. But we must never lose sight of what’s at stake. As we speak, Al Qaeda continues to plot against us, and its leadership remains anchored in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. We will disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda, while preventing Afghanistan from again serving as a base for terrorists. And because of our drawdown in Iraq, we are now able to apply the resources necessary to go on offense. In fact, over the last 19 months, nearly a dozen Al Qaeda leaders — and hundreds of Al Qaeda’s extremist allies — have been killed or captured around the world. Within Afghanistan, I have ordered the deployment of additional troops who — under the command of General David Petraeus — are fighting to break the Taliban’s momentum. As with the surge in Iraq, these forces will be in place for a limited time to provide space for the Afghans to build their capacity and secure their own future. But, as was the case in Iraq, we cannot do for Afghans what they must ultimately do for themselves. That’s why we are training Afghan security forces and supporting a political resolution to Afghanistan’s problems. And, next July, we will begin a transition to Afghan responsibility. The pace of our troop reductions will be determined by conditions on the ground, and our support for Afghanistan will endure. But make no mistake: this transition will begin — because open-ended war serves neither our interests nor the Afghan people’s. Indeed, one of the lessons of our effort in Iraq is that American influence around the world is not a function of military force alone. We must use all elements of our power — including our diplomacy, our economic strength, and the power of America’s example — to secure our interests and stand by our allies. And we must project a vision of the future that is based not just on our fears, but also on our hopes — a vision that recognizes the real dangers that exist around the world, but also the limitless possibility of our time. Today, old adversaries are at peace, and emerging democracies are potential partners. New markets for our goods stretch from Asia to the Americas. A new push for peace in the Middle East will begin here tomorrow. Billions of young people want to move beyond the shackles of poverty and conflict. As the leader of the free world, America will do more than just defeat on the battlefield those who offer hatred and destruction — we will also lead among those who are willing to work together to expand freedom and opportunity for all people. That effort must begin within our own borders. Throughout our history, America has been willing to bear the burden of promoting liberty and human dignity overseas, understanding its link to our own liberty and security. But we have also understood that our nation’s strength and influence abroad must be firmly anchored in our prosperity at home. And the bedrock of that prosperity must be a growing middle class. Unfortunately, over the last decade, we have not done what is necessary to shore up the foundation of our own prosperity. We have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas. This, in turn, has shortchanged investments in our own people, and contributed to record deficits. For too long, we have put off tough decisions on everything from our manufacturing base to our energy policy to education reform. As a result, too many middle class families find themselves working harder for less, while our nation’s long-term competitiveness is put at risk. Advertisement Continue reading the main story And so at this moment, as we wind down the war in Iraq, we must tackle those challenges at home with as much energy, and grit, and sense of common purpose as our men and women in uniform who have served abroad. They have met every test that they faced. Now, it is our turn. Now, it is our responsibility to honor them by coming together, all of us, and working to secure the dream that so many generations have fought for — the dream that a better life awaits anyone who is willing to work for it and reach for it. Our most urgent task is to restore our economy, and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work. To strengthen our middle class, we must give all our children the education they deserve, and all our workers the skills that they need to compete in a global economy. We must jump-start industries that create jobs, and end our dependence on foreign oil. We must unleash the innovation that allows new products to roll off our assembly lines, and nurture the ideas that spring from our entrepreneurs. This will be difficult. But in the days to come, it must be our central mission as a people, and my central responsibility as president. Part of that responsibility is making sure that we honor our commitments to those who have served our country with such valor. As long as I am president, we will maintain the finest fighting force that the world has ever known, and do whatever it takes to serve our veterans as well as they have served us. This is a sacred trust. That is why we have already made one of the largest increases in funding for veterans in decades. We are treating the signature wounds of today’s wars post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, while providing the health care and benefits that all of our veterans have earned. And we are funding a post-9/11 G.I. bill that helps our veterans and their families pursue the dream of a college education. Just as the G.I. Bill helped those who fought World War II — including my grandfather — become the backbone of our middle class, so today’s servicemen and women must have the chance to apply their gifts to expand the American economy. Because part of ending a war responsibly is standing by those who have fought it. Two weeks ago, America’s final combat brigade in Iraq — the Army’s Fourth Stryker Brigade — journeyed home in the predawn darkness. Thousands of soldiers and hundreds of vehicles made the trip from Baghdad, the last of them passing into Kuwait in the early morning hours. Over seven years before, American troops and coalition partners had fought their way across similar highways, but this time no shots were fired. It was just a convoy of brave Americans, making their way home. Of course, the soldiers left much behind. Some were teenagers when the war began. Many have served multiple tours of duty, far from their families who bore a heroic burden of their own, enduring the absence of a husband’s embrace or a mother’s kiss. Most painfully, since the war began 55 members of the Fourth Stryker Brigade made the ultimate sacrifice — part of over 4,400 Americans who have given their lives in Iraq. As one staff sergeant said, “I know that to my brothers in arms who fought and died, this day would probably mean a lot.” Those Americans gave their lives for the values that have lived in the hearts of our people for over two centuries. Along with nearly 1.5 million Americans who have served in Iraq, they fought in a faraway place for people they never knew. They stared into the darkest of human creations — war — and helped the Iraqi people seek the light of peace. In an age without surrender ceremonies, we must earn victory through the success of our partners and the strength of our own nation. Every American who serves joins an unbroken line of heroes that stretches from Lexington to Gettysburg; from Iwo Jima to Inchon; from Khe Sanh to Kandahar — Americans who have fought to see that the lives of our children are better than our own. Our troops are the steel in our ship of state. And though our nation may be travelling through rough waters, they give us confidence that our course is true, and that beyond the predawn darkness, better days lie ahead. Thank you. May God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America, and all who serve her.

– President Obama stuck to the script tonight in declaring the end of the 7-year US military operation in Iraq. "Our combat mission is ending," he said. "Our commitment to Iraq's future is not." But Obama also acknowledged George W. Bush's stewardship of the war, along with his own personal opposition to it as an Illinois senator. "It’s well known that he and I disagreed about the war from its outset," he said. "Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security." (He made no mention of the troop surge ordered by Bush.) Obama said "there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it, and all of us are united in appreciation for our servicemen and women, and our hope for Iraq’s future." As expected, he later pivoted from the war to the economy, calling its restoration "our most urgent task." (More details in the New York Times, which also has the full text here. For excerpts, click here. To read about Obama's speech earlier in the day to troops at Fort Bliss, click here.)

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– Ray Demers has been at the same hobby for half a century: learning all he can about shipwrecks he discovered in New Hampshire waters in the 1960s. The 73-year-old is now coming forward with what he believes to be the story of the ships, and it's a tale of Native Americans battling Colonists—on the water. Demers' own story begins with some dropped air tanks. He accidentally lost them in the water during a dive off Salamander Point in New Castle (it's near Portsmouth, and just south of the Maine border) decades ago, and when he dove to retrieve them some 16 feet below the surface, he came across two cannons. "I put my hand on one of them and I said, 'Ray, you are going to spend the rest of your life studying this site' ... and, you know what?" he tells Foster's Daily Democrat. "I did." Though not a trained archaeologist, he tried to approach the scene as a professional would, with great care to avoid contamination. Using the cannons as a starting point, he discovered a shipwreck about 75 feet away, then a second wreck in deeper water. He also found a number of artifacts, including an onion bottle whose seal featured the name of W. Darracott and the date 1723, reports the Union Leader. By relying on a 1959 book, input from Colonial Willamsburg's then-chief archaeologist, and the name Darracott, Demers was led to George Jackson and Sylvester Lakeman, men he believes commanded privateers and attempted to "engage" Native Americans who had themselves seized hold of a privateer and were attacking fishing ships in the area. The "unique naval engagement ... could have resulted in the Salamander Point wrecks," notes Foster's. (Another shipwreck was recently uncovered in Upstate New York.)

SANAA Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told a huge rally of supporters on Friday that he would sacrifice everything for his country, suggesting he has no plans to step down yet. Weeks of protests across Yemen have brought Saleh's 32-year rule to the verge of collapse but the United States and neighboring oil giant Saudi Arabia, an important financial backer, are worried about who might succeed him in a country where al Qaeda militants flourish. Tens of thousands, both for and against Saleh, took to the streets of the capital Sanaa, as negotiators struggle to revive talks to decide his fate. "I swear to you I will sacrifice blood and soul and everything precious for the sake of this great people," he told supporters shouting "the people want Ali Abdullah Saleh." Saleh has lost support from tribal, military and political backers. Protests on Friday reached the thousands in provincial capitals from Taiz, 200 km (125 miles) south of Sanaa, to the southern port city of Aden, once capital of an independent south before Saleh united it with the north. "Saleh is going down with the ship," said Theodore Karasik, security analyst at the Dubai-based INEGMA group. "The only way he'll let himself get dislodged is if he loses even more supporters from his inner circle. "It seems like he's not ready to go. He's making statements saying he's going to do what's best for Yemen but really this is Saleh trying to do what's best for Saleh." Helicopters buzzed over protests in Sanaa. "Out traitor, the Yemeni people are in revolt. We, the army and the police are united under oppression," the crowds of anti-Saleh protesters shouted outside Sanaa University. One cleric said during morning prayers at the rally: "I say to you, Saleh, while you sit terrified in your palace, that the people are on to your tricks... You (protesters) represent the oppressed, the poor and the imprisoned." Tensions were high as equally large crowds came out in a show of support for Saleh in Sabyeen Square. That protest ended quietly as anti-Saleh protesters continued their sit-in near the university. Hundreds of security forces deployed at checkpoints across the city as tanks rolled through the streets. Anti-Saleh protesters named the day a "Friday of enough" while loyalists branded it a "Friday of brotherhood." "We send a message from the Yemeni majority to them (the opposition) and the whole world ... of our support for the nation and for our leader," former prime minister Ali Mohammed Megawar said at the pro-Saleh rally. TALKS STALLED Some Sanaa residents said they were paid to join protests. Government officials denied the ruling party had given any money to demonstrators, calling it an attempt by the opposition to diminish the significance of the large crowds they had drawn. Saleh is looking to stay on as president while new parliamentary and presidential elections are organized by the end of the year, an opposition source told Reuters on Tuesday. Talks over his exit have stalled and Saudi authorities have deflected Yemeni government efforts to involve them in mediation. Protesters camped outside Sanaa University since early February insist that Saleh, who has said he will not run for re-election when his term ends in 2013, should step down now. Rallies ended peacefully on Friday, but they could spiral into violence in the turbulent Arabian Peninsula state. Over half the 23 million population own a gun. Some 82 people have been killed so far, including 52 shot by snipers on March 18. Rows can often turn to bloodshed, from tribal clashes over dwindling water resources to army skirmishes with separatist militants in the south. On Friday, armed tribesmen kidnapped two soldiers and wounded another in the southern town of Lawdar. Residents said the tribesmen took the hostages to win concessions from the government after the army killed 5 fellow tribesmen and claimed they were from al Qaeda -- charges the tribe said were false. Washington has long regarded Saleh as a bulwark of stability who can keep al Qaeda from extending its foothold in Yemen, a country which many see as close to disintegration. Saleh has talked of civil war if he steps down without ensuring power passes to "safe hands" and has warned against a coup after senior generals turned against him in the past week. Opposition parties say they can handle the militant issue better than Saleh, who they say has made deals with militants in the past to avoid provoking Yemen's Islamists. (Additional reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden, Writing by Erika Solomon and Nick Macfie; Editing by Janet Lawrence) ||||| Many thousands turn out for Yemen protests Huge rival demonstrations were held in the Yemeni capital Continue reading the main story Related Stories Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Yemen again as the country's political crisis deepens. In the capital, Sanaa, two rival demonstrations are being held - in support of and against President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Representatives from the government and the opposition are reported to have met and agreed to avoid confrontation. Protests in recent weeks have brought President Saleh's 32-year rule to the verge of collapse. He is under increasing pressure both at home and from abroad to resign immediately. The UK Foreign Office has urged Britons to leave Yemen as soon as possible, and warned of a "high possibility of violent demonstrations" on Friday. Transfer of power A BBC correspondent in Sanaa says tens of thousands of demonstrators marching in two different directions in the capital this morning. President Saleh has offered to step down in 2012, but the opposition wants him to go now The opposition said it would get one million people on to the streets. Anti-government protesters gathered in the renamed "Change Square" near the university. Supporters of the president congregated in the city's Tahrir Square some 2km (1.2 miles) away. Mr Saleh addressed supporters, thanking them. "I pledge to sacrifice myself for the people, with my blood and with everything I hold dear," Mr Saleh said. Reports say that the crowds started to disperse without incident. Our correspondent says only a political deal between the government and opposition will resolve this crisis, but for now all talks have stalled and neither side is willing to back down. President Saleh has agreed to resign by January 2012, but the opposition is calling for his immediate departure. Western diplomats in Sanaa say they are pushing for a transfer of power, our correspondent reports. For many years an ally of the West, President Saleh was seen as vital in the war against terror and for tackling al-Qaeda in the country. Mr Saleh says that without him al-Qaeda could still take over Yemen. But, increasingly, many people both at home and abroad are viewing him as the main source of instability, our correspondent adds.

– A pair of opposing demonstrations—one supporting the president, one calling for his resignation—brought tens of thousands to the streets today in Yemen. The demonstrations took place in squares about a mile apart. Government and opposition leaders reportedly met in advance, agreeing to prevent confrontation. Though the UK Foreign Office warned of a “high possibility” of violence, crowds have started to disperse peacefully, the BBC reports. In Tahrir Square, President Ali Abdullah Saleh told supporters that he pledged “to sacrifice myself for the people, with my blood and with everything I hold dear.” Saleh had initially offered to step down by 2012, but it now appears he's intent on "going down with the ship," an analyst tells Reuters. "The only way he'll let himself get dislodged is if he loses even more supporters from his inner circle."

Correction appended Sept. 27, 2016 Dogs don’t wear pants — and it’s hard to know how things would work out if they tried. But one thing is clear: if dogs did wear pants, they would use either a belt or suspenders, but definitely not both. That, in some ways, puts them ahead of us. According to a new study, both domesticated dogs and one species of wild dog do a better job than human beings and chimpanzees of ignoring bad instructions and eliminating unnecessary steps when trying to solve a problem. It’s a difference that says a lot about the social order of all of the species. The study, published in the journal Developmental Science and led by Angie Johnston and Paul Holden of the Yale University Canine Cognition Center, was designed to explore the learning behavior known straightforwardly as overimitation, a feature of our own species far more than any other. When an adult teaches a small child how to, say, solve a puzzle or operate a device like a television, the child will faithfully perform all of the steps nearly all of the time, even when repeated trials plainly show that some of those steps are unnecessary. A landmark 2005 study involving both young chimpanzees and 3- to 4-year-old children revealed that both sets of subjects will go through as many as five steps — some ultimately proving to be unnecessary — to retrieve a reward from a box, with the humans actually performing less well than the chimps at eventually skipping the irrelevant ones. Dogs would need a great deal of training to solve a five-step puzzle, if they ever mastered it at all. For that reason, the Yale researchers decided to keep things simple, presenting both domesticated dogs and wild dingoes with a plastic box that had both a lever on the side and a lid. The box contained a treat and the experimenters first demonstrated to the animals how to move the lever and then lift the lid to get at the reward. The lever, however, was useless and the lid could be opened without it. In some cases the puzzle was made of transparent plastic, revealing both the contents and the box’s internal workings; in other cases it was opaque. As is the case with all dog studies, not every subject was quite up to completing the experiment. “One trial was excluded from analysis for puzzle error (the dog flipped the entire puzzle over),” the researchers wrote. Most of them, however, did get all the way to the end, and the results were both impressive and, for humans, a little humbling. After watching the box being demonstrated, up to 75% of the dogs and dingoes correctly learned and imitated the two-step process to get the treat. It took just four trials, however, for a significant number of them to learn to skip the useless lever, with 59% of the dogs and only 42% of the dingoes continuing to use it. The appearance of the box — clear or transparent — made no difference at all to the dogs. The dingoes — for reasons that were uncertain — actually did a better job of catching wise to the uselessness of the lever when they couldn’t see through the box than when they could. If dogs are more efficient learners than humans, it hardly needs to be said that they are not better learners, and for a species with as elaborate a social system as ours, efficiency in learning is not necessarily a good thing. Johnston points out, for example, that children quickly learn that washing their hands before dinner and brushing their teeth after are not necessary to achieving their focal goal — eating — but their parents insist on it and so they comply. More subtly, once kids are out in the world there are uncountable social conventions — shaking hands, saying “please,” holding a door for the person behind you — that may be irrelevant to getting immediate needs satisfied but are essential to the maintenance of social order. “Although the tendency to copy irrelevant actions may seem silly at first,” said Johnston in a statement accompanying the paper’s release, “it becomes less silly when you consider all of the important but seemingly irrelevant actions that children are successfully able to learn.” From that kind of learning, a complex culture follows. Correction: The original version of this story misstated the journal in which the study appeared. It is Developmental Science. ||||| Photo: Li Kim Goh/Getty Images When my brother and I were younger, one of our favorite winter activities was to go outside with the family dog, make a bunch of snowballs, throw them somewhere in the distance, and then cackle our sadistic little hearts out as the dog ran around trying to find snowballs on the snowy ground. What can I say? Kids are jerks sometimes. To his credit, at least, the dog always got bored of the whole thing pretty quickly. Which, as a matter of fact, speaks to one of science’s newest findings about our canine pals: They have no patience for your human nonsense. Specifically, a study recently published in the journal Developmental Science found that when you give a dog bad directions, it’ll learn pretty quickly to ignore them. For the study, which recruited 40 pet dogs of varying breeds, psychologists from Yale’s Canine Cognition Center placed a treat inside a puzzle, then demonstrated to their subjects how to get it out. In reality, the puzzle was just one step — all the dogs had to do was lift the lid of a box — but the researchers added an extra, unnecessary action to their demo, pushing a lever attached to the box that didn’t actually do anything. To make sure the dogs were really trying to solve the task in front of them, rather than following a perceived command, the study authors then left the room and left the animals to their own devices. The dogs, who each went a couple rounds with the puzzle, proved adept at figuring out not only what they needed to do, but also what they didn’t: As the experiment progressed, they began disregarding the lever, going straight for the step that would get them their treat. The study offers an interesting insight into dog cognition in its own right, but it also has another layer: The authors based their study on a similar one from 2005 that focused on children instead of dogs — and compared to the dogs, the kids weren’t nearly so savvy. Their puzzle was more complicated, but they tended to repeat the experimenters’ actions step for step each time, without ever pausing to think through or weed out the irrelevant ones. It’s a tendency the authors of this latest study refer to as “overimitation,” writing: “This pattern of results suggests that overimitation may be a unique feature of human social learning,” possibly because by uncritically copying what they see, “children generally limit the amount of time they need to spend learning through repeated trial and error.” Or, as lead study author Angie Johnston put it in a statement: “Consider all the important, but seemingly irrelevant, actions that children are successfully able to learn, such as washing their hands and brushing their teeth.” To a little kid who doesn’t yet understand hygiene, those things don’t make much sense — but you learn to do them anyway, and the reasoning comes later. Dogs, on the other hand, don’t stay so trusting. ||||| desc12460-sup-0001-SupInfo.docxWord document, 42.9 KB Figure S1. Proportion of dogs (Figure a) and dingoes (Figure b) using the lever without solving the puzzle (leftmost bar), using the lever and solving the puzzle (middle bar), solving the puzzle without using the lever (rightmost bar) on each trial. Figure S2. Proportion of dogs and dingoes that used the irrelevant lever across trials in Experiment 1. Error bars indicate standard error. Figure S3. Proportion of dogs and dingoes solving the puzzle on opaque and transparent puzzle trials in Experiment 1. Error bars indicate standard error. Figure S4. Latency to solve the puzzle (in seconds) for dogs and dingoes across trials in Experiment 1. Error bars indicate standard error. Figure S5. Proportion of dingoes solving the puzzle across trials 1 and 2 in Experiments 1 and 3. Error bars indicate standard error. Table S1. List of animals, indicating species, owner‐reported breed, sex (Male/Female), age (in years), and the experiment(s) in which each subject's data was included. Dogs listed as “Experiments 1 & 2” only participated in Experiment 1, but their data was used as a comparison for dogs that participated in Experiment 2. Dingoes listed as “Experiments 1 & 3” participated in both experiments, with an 8‐month break in between experiments. Table S2. Estimate (±SE) of fixed effects in generalized linear and linear mixed models predicting subjects’ lever use, solve outcome, and solve latency in Experiments 1‐3. Baselines were set as follows: species = dingo; experiment = Experiment 1; box style = opaque. Table also shows goodness‐of‐fit statistics.

– Dogs might be better than humans at ignoring bad advice, suggests a new study out of Yale. In the experiment, researchers trained dogs to get a treat out of a box by moving a lever and then lifting the lid. Then they left the dogs on their own, and a significant number of them soon figured out the truth: There was no need to move that lever; they merely needed to lift the lid and get their treat. That's interesting in and of itself, notes a post at New York, but it's far more interesting when contrasted with a similar experiment conducted several years ago with kids. In that one, the human subjects went right on pulling that lever, because they had been instructed to do so. “Humans often fall prey to the bad advice of others,” says lead author Laurie Santos of Yale's Canine Cognition Center in a release. “Children tend to copy all of a teacher’s actions, regardless of whether they are necessary or not.” The dogs, however, were all about ruthless efficiency. Don't be too hard on the humans, though: The researchers behind the study in Development Science say it's vital kids follow seemingly useless commands. As Time explains, "for a species with as elaborate a social system as ours, efficiency in learning is not necessarily a good thing." For instance, a child who learns to wash his hands before eating is delaying his meal, but for good reason. (Dogs seem to be clued in to false praise as well.)

Weekly syndication ratings roundup The Queen of Court posts an 8.6 in the week ending Feb. 9. Among the talkers, Dr. Phil, Live with Kelly and Michael, Wendy Williams and Trisha show improvement from the previous week. TVNewsCheck , February 19, 2014 1:18 PM EST The top two talk shows — Dr. Phil and Live with Kelly and Michael — soared to multi-year ratings records in the first full week of the February sweep. However, only two other talkers were able to improve from the week before, in the session ending Feb. 9: Wendy Williams, which added 6% to a 1.7 and gained 31% from last year, and Trisha, which scored a new series high and surged 40% from last year. Story continues after the ad Talk leader Dr. Phil posted its highest in five years, climbing 5% from the previous week and 24% from last year at this time to a first-place 4.1. Phil was also No. 1 among women 25-54 by a significant margin. Live with Kelly and Michael, which has been the No. 2 talker this season, clocked its best ratings since the week of Nov. 14, 2011, growing 6% week to week and 29% from last year. On the other hand, 14 talk shows were flat or down from the prior week as PUT levels declined and many viewers began to focus on the Winter Olympics, which began in primetime on Feb. 6. However, Maury hit a new season high among women 25-54 and Steve Harvey improved 31% from last year. Elsewhere in daytime, court show standout Judge Judy dominated the entire syndicated ratings chart for the 22nd time in the past 24 weeks, zooming to its biggest rating in 11 years, an 8.6, which was a 15% increase over the same week last year. Brand Connections In access, almost all the top magazine shows maintained their season-high ratings from the prior session, due in part to viewer interest in the sudden death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Shows moving up from last year at this time included leader Entertainment Tonight, which gained 2% from last year; Inside Edition, which rose 3% year to year to a new season high; Access Hollywood, which advanced 11% to a new season high; Extra, which ballooned 19% from last year; and Dish Nation, which grew 10% from a year ago. In off-net syndication, freshmen sitcom leader Modern Family set a new high in households with a 5.2, jumping 2% from the week before. Among shows not yet nationally cleared, Access Hollywood Live averaged a 0.9 rating/3 share in 15 metered markets, up 13% from February 2013. The week’s top nationally rated daytime talk shows in the women 25-54 demo were: Dr. Phil (2.3, unchanged from the week before) Ellen (2.0, unchanged) Live with Kelly and Michael (1.9, unchanged) Maury (1.6, +7%) Dr. Oz (1.3, -13%), tied with Wendy Williams (1.3, unchanged) Steve Harvey (1.2, -14%) Steve Wilkos (1.1, unchanged) In the household rating rankings that follow, % change is from the previous week; * indicates a new season high rating; ** indicates a new season low; NC indicates no change from the previous week; NA mean not applicable. TALK SHOWS 1. Dr. Phil (CTD) 4.1* +5% 2. Live with Kelly and Michael (Disney-ABC) 3.6* +6% 3. Ellen (WBDTD) 3.3 NC 4. Dr. Oz (Sony) 2.4 NC 5. Maury (NBCU) 2.3 NC 6. Steve Harvey (NBCU) 2.1 -5% 7. Katie (Disney-ABC) 1.8 -5% 8. Rachael Ray (CTD) 1.7 NC 8. Wendy Williams (Debmar-Mercury) 1.7 +6% 10. Steve Wilkos (NBCU) 1.6 NC 11. Jerry Springer (NBCU) 1.4 NC 11. The Doctors (CTD) 1.4 NC 13. Queen Latifah (Sony) 1.2 -8% 14. Bethenny (WBDTD) 1.0 NC 15. Arsenio (CTD) 0.7 NC 15. The Test (CTD) 0.7 NC 15. Trisha (NBCU) 0.7* +17% 18. The Better Show (Meredith) 0.2 NC FRESHMEN TALKERS 1. Queen Latifah (Sony) 1.2 -8% 2. Bethenny (WBDTD) 1.0 NC 3. Arsenio (CTD) 0.7 NC 3. The Test (CTD) 0.7 NC COURT SHOWS 1. Judge Judy (CTD) 8.6* +5% 2. People’s Court (WBDTD) 2.1 NC 3. Divorce Court (Twentieth) 1.8 -10% 3. Judge Alex (Twentieth) 1.8 NC 5. Judge Mathis (WBDTD) 1.7 -11% 6. Paternity Court (Orion Television) 1.2 NC MAGAZINE SHOWS 1. Entertainment Tonight (CTD) 4.1 NC 2. Inside Edition (CTD) 3.5* +9% 3. TMZ (WBDTD) 2.1 -5% 3. Access Hollywood (NBCU) 2.1* +5% 5. Extra (WBDTD) 1.8 NC 6. The Insider (CTD) 1.5 -6% 7. Right This Minute (MGM) 1.1 -15% 7. Dish Nation (Twentieth) 1.1 +10% 9. America Now (Trifecta) 0.4 -20% 10. OK! TV (Trifecta) 0.3 +50% GAME SHOWS 1. Wheel of Fortune (CTD) 7.6 -4% 2. Jeopardy (CTD) 7.3 +1% 3. Family Feud (Debmar-Mercury) 6.0 -5% 4. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Disney-ABC) 2.4 +9% OFF-NET SITCOMS 1. Big Bang Theory (WBDTD) 7.0* +1% 2. Modern Family (Twentieth) 5.2* +2% 3. Two and a Half Men (WBDTD) 4.0 -2% 4. Family Guy (Twentieth) 3.1 +3% 5. How I Met Your Mother (Twentieth) 2.3 NC 6. Friends (WBDTD) 1.9 -5% 6. The Cleveland Show (Twentieth) 1.9 NC 6. Seinfeld (Sony) 1.9 +6% 9. Rules of Engagement (Sony) 1.7 NC ||||| • Forget about Girls, Homeland, New Girl, Scandal, and The Mindy Project. Television has had a strong female lead for decades: Her name is Judith Sheindlin. Judge Judy premiered in 1996, and just got renewed through 2017. The show dominates daytime television, even edging out Oprah in reruns. While most television shows fight to hang onto viewership, Judge Judy’s grows. President Obama, Anderson Cooper, and Katie Couric all want her audience, and most television actors would kill for her $47 million annual salary. Who makes up Sheindlin’s much-coveted daytime audience? Older women, African Americans, and Latinos. You might think Judge Judy is most popular with those who feel most disenfranchised by our legal system, but it’s hardly that simple. Part of the appeal is personal: her viewers’ loyalty is rivaled only by her own, and they know it. When a former bailiff who knew Sheindlin from her time as a family court judge in Manhattan wrote to congratulate her on the show, he quipped, “If you ever need a bailiff, I still look good in uniform.” She called as soon as she got the note, and he’s been by her onscreen side since. But Americans’ love of Judge Judy is more than personal: it’s symbolic. “Consider yourself having been reasonably humiliated in front of 10 million people. Now, without saying another word, turn around, and find the exit. Goodbye.” Sheindlin’s audience considers her a real-life kind of superhero: a no-nonsense, sassy arbiter of justice who punishes the guilty, scolds the swindlers, and defends the little guy. She does what we want the justice system to do for us. My grandmother delights in watching Judge Judy lay down the law once a day in a routine that pairs Sheindlin’s acerbic commentary with Splenda-sweetened vanilla ice cream. It isn’t just that the “judge” delivers snappy one-liners: it’s that she deals them out even-handedly. One cousin, a business professional, has a standing date to watch Judge Judy in the evening with her seven-year-old daughter. She tells me, “We like watching her figure out who’s telling the truth by asking a lot of seemingly unrelated questions.” I suspect her precocious daughter likes the idea that even adults can get in trouble. Judge Judy can be showy, but rarely gratuitously so, and she’s smart—and doesn’t let anyone forget it. In a given case, Judge Judy might paraphrase Mark Twain (“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to have a good memory; if you lie, you’re always tripping over your own tie”) or offer a common-sense connection to her own life (“The toilet broke while she was using it—that doesn’t mean that she broke it, and it doesn’t mean that she’s responsible for it! Toilets break—I had one just break in my apartment last week!”). Most satisfyingly, she tells it like it is: “Consider yourself having been reasonably humiliated in front of 10 million people. Now, without saying another word, turn around, and find the exit. Goodbye.” Sheindlin’s persona is key to the show’s success, but so are the cases themselves. Judge Judy chooses cases that resonate with her audience. The most pervasive forms of injustice affecting Americans rarely get investigated, much less prosecuted, by the state; they’re “little” things: a dented car door, an unreturned security deposit, or an unfair asset split after a bad break-up. Citizens can usually only take action by bringing suit in small claims courts, navigating the complicated court system on their own. These courts hear lawsuits for claims that fall under a certain dollar amount that varies by state, from $10,000 in California to $5,000 in North Carolina; plaintiffs and defendants usually represent themselves. A small claims court’s decisions relate to daily life, more so than virtually any other court. For most of us, there’s nothing “small” about the types of problems that end up in such courts: $500 is a lot of money, never mind $5,000. These courts address commonplace questions of fairness: How can I be made whole again after someone has damaged my property or violated an agreement? When does a promise become legally binding? The answers these courts supply reflect upon our justice system writ large and the society behind it. Judge Judy employs 60 to 65 researchers to visit courthouses around the country, where, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, they can gain access to small claims filings. Promising candidates get sent back to the show’s producers, who assess their appeal. Some of their criteria are drama-based, like one producer’s affinity for disputes involving “prior relationships” (preferably “boyfriend-girlfriend, mother-daughter, father-son, father-brother, sister-sister”), but for the most part the show’s producers look for relatable cases: unfair billing practices, corrupt landlords, petty vandalism, unpaid child support, and family loan sharks. Selected participants sign a waiver to appear on the show, agreeing that Judge Judy’s decision is binding and they will not pursue the case elsewhere, and, in return, they receive a flat fee for making an appearance. That’s where the fun begins. Defendants are announced by Sheindlin’s trusty bailiff, then appear before her in a mock court room. Judge Judy asks a lot of questions, identifies factual disputes, and parses “the question of law,” as a law professor would call it, for all to hear. Viewers who will never read a court transcript or slog through the lines of a judicial opinion get to hear a real-time approximation of judicial reasoning. Many Judge Judy cases, even the most outrageous, speak to the everyday injustices suffered by most Americans. Who hasn’t had an unreasonable landlord they wished to have exposed and penalized? Who wouldn’t want to see an unruly neighbor with a penchant for scratching your car ordered to cover the repairs? By legitimating and rectifying the types of injustices that often make us feel helpless, Sheindlin reaffirms that justice is attainable. Because of shows like hers, we feel there is a way to seek fairness and accountability. Of course, not everyone adores Judge Judy. The American Bar Association published an essay calling what Judge Judy and her colleagues do “syndi-court justice” (PDF) and accusing them of exploiting arbitration. They worry she’ll corrupt potential jurors and distort the justice system. The argument that Judge Judy is a threat to the jury system seems to forget the First Amendment—and, more importantly, the several amendments that tell us our Founding Fathers trusted juries. As a favorite law school professor, Akhil Reed Amar, wrote, “No idea was more central … to America’s distinctive regime of government of the people, by the people, and for the people—than the idea of the jury.” But not only are such criticisms constitutionally questionable, they’re empirically unfounded—like the supposed “CSI Effect,” the since-debunked theory that jurors who watched crime dramas would expect “too much scientific evidence.” Then there’s the commonsense protest: there are no juries on Judge Judy. She simulates a bench trial, not a jury trial. Why do we love Judge Judy? Sheindlin hears and protects the reasonable American’s notion of accountability and justice. It doesn’t matter that she isn’t actually running a small claims court: she’s managing arbitration on the same issues. Judge Judy proves courts can right wrongs and guarantee future protections, perhaps the most basic foundation of an organized society. That means Judith Sheindlin plays a role in shaping and upholding our social contract. Witnessing successful legal proceedings, even in a simulated small claims setting, reassures citizens: offenders will be punished; victims will be compensated. Judge Judy might not be the most powerful judge in America, but she’s surely the most popular and the best paid—for good reason.

– The strongest female lead on television has been there for 19 years: Judith Sheindlin. Judge Judy earned its highest rating in 11 years to begin February sweeps, according to TVNewsCheck, and the show was recently renewed through 2017, with good reason. "Sheindlin hears and protects the reasonable American's notion of justice," Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza writes in Pacific Standard. Sheindlin is beloved especially by older women, African-Americans, and Latinos; it's tempting to think she's "most popular with those who feel most disenfranchised by our legal system." But it's more complicated than that. Viewers connect with Sheindlin personally, considering her "a real-life kind of superhero." The cases she handles—minor small-claims disputes—resonate with Americans' daily lives. "Who hasn't had an unreasonable landlord they wished to have exposed and penalized?" On Judge Judy, "viewers who will never read a court transcript … get to hear a real-time approximation of judicial reasoning" and come away believing that courts can right wrongs and protect us, "perhaps the most basic foundation of an organized society." Click for Buckwalter-Poza's full column.

FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2012 file photo, Alissa Parker, left, and her husband, Robbie Parker, leave the firehouse staging after receiving word that their six-year-old daughter Emilie was one of the 20... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2012 file photo, Alissa Parker, left, and her husband, Robbie Parker, leave the firehouse staging after receiving word that their six-year-old daughter Emilie was one of the 20... (Associated Press) The parents of one of the 20 first-graders killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre met with the gunman's father for more than an hour in an effort to bring some closure to the tragedy, asking him about his son's mental health and other issues. Alissa Parker told "CBS This Morning" in an excerpt of an interview that aired Thursday the meeting with Adam Lanza's father, Peter Lanza, was her idea. Her 6-year-old daughter, Emilie, died in December's shooting rampage. "I felt strongly that I needed to tell him something, and I needed to get that out of my system," Alissa Parker said. "I felt very motivated to do it and then I felt really good about it and prayed about it. And it was something that I needed to do." It was unclear what they discussed or when the meeting took place. CBS plans to show the rest of the interview with Alissa and Robbie Parker on Friday morning, revealing more details about their meeting with Peter Lanza. No one answered the phone at the Parkers' home Thursday morning. A message seeking comment from Peter Lanza was left with a Lanza family spokesman. The Parkers told CBS they wanted to ask Peter Lanza about his son's medical history, his and his ex-wife's relationships with Adam Lanza and other issues. Robbie Parker was the first parent of a child killed at the school to speak publicly about the massacre. A day after the Dec. 14 killings, he fought back tears and struggled to catch his breath as he spoke lovingly of Emilie at a wrenching, lengthy news conference. "She was beautiful. She was blond. She was always smiling," he said, adding that the world was a better place because Emilie was in it. "I'm so blessed to be her dad." Adam Lanza, 20, shot 20 children and six educators to death at the school and killed himself as police arrived. He also fatally shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their Newtown home before going to the school. Peter Lanza, who was divorced from Nancy Lanza, said in a statement after the killings that his family also was asking why Adam Lanza would go on a shooting spree. People close to the investigation have told The Associated Press that Adam Lanza showed interest in other mass killers. ||||| Newtown victim's parents talk about meeting killer Adam Lanza's father (CBS News) Vice President Biden and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are expected to meet with the families of Newtown school shooting victims on Thursday, over three months after the massacre took place in Connecticut. Ahead of the meeting, CBS This Morning's Norah O'Donnell spoke with Robbie and Alissa Parker, the parents of six-year-old victim Emilie Parker. They revealed that they recently met with the father of gunman Adam Lanza as part of their search for understanding and grieving process. The meeting "was kind of my doing," Alissa Parker explained. "I guess the reason why I felt strongly that I needed to tell [Peter Lanza] something. And I needed to get that out of my system. I felt very motivated to do it and ... I felt really good about it, I prayed about it, and it was something that I needed to do. Robbie added their family has experienced "a little bit of everything," as they've dealt with the scope of the tragedy over the past three months. "You know, you went from the absolute worst experience that you could ever imagine to have to go through as a parent ... and being overwhelmed with that sense of grief and loss to, on the other end of the spectrum, you're being completely overwhelmed with outpouring of love and support from so many people and everything that kinda falls in between," he said. The Parkers addressed the recent news that Newtown investigators determined that Adam Lanza kept a spreadsheet methodically detailing the death toll of other mass shooters, types of weaponry, and plotted how he would add to the death tolls. "Any information ... that you gain in this experience is just that. It's information," Robbie said. "And then you have to choose how you're gonna handle it. And so for us, we've decided that what works best for us is you receive a bit of information, you process it, you feel the emotion that comes along with it, and then you have to let it go." Alissa added, "It's just like another piece to the puzzle. And it always brings with it a period of, you know, sorrow, pain, and you deal with it and you just move on. The outcome is still the same, regardless if it was planned, not planned. But it doesn't change anything. It doesn't change that our child's gone."

– Peter Lanza has remained out of the spotlight since news of the Newtown shooting broke, but one victim's family tells CBS that they have privately met with him. Robbie and Alissa Parker, parents to 6-year-old Emilie, spent more than an hour with Lanza; in CBS' Norah O'Donnell's words, they believe he "holds the keys" to understanding Adam Lanza's motivation. The AP notes that it's unclear when the meeting occurred or what was discussed, though O'Donnell says the couple wanted to ask Lanza about his son's medical history and his and Nancy's relationship with him. In a portion of an interview with the Parkers aired today, Alissa explains that the meeting "was kind of my doing. I guess the reason why I felt strongly that I needed to tell him something. And I needed to get that out of my system. I felt very motivated to do it and ... I felt really good about it, I prayed about it, and it was something that I needed to do." CBS will air part two tomorrow. Meanwhile, news broke this week that Adam Lanza kept a "score sheet."

Web wide crawl with initial seedlist and crawler configuration from March 2011. This uses the new HQ software for distributed crawling by Kenji Nagahashi. What’s in the data set: Crawl start date: 09 March, 2011 Crawl end date: 23 December, 2011 Number of captures: 2,713,676,341 Number of unique URLs: 2,273,840,159 Number of hosts: 29,032,069 The seed list for this crawl was a list of Alexa’s top 1 million web sites, retrieved close to the crawl start date. We used Heritrix (3.1.1-SNAPSHOT) crawler software and respected robots.txt directives. The scope of the crawl was not limited except for a few manually excluded sites. However this was a somewhat experimental crawl for us, as we were using newly minted software to feed URLs to the crawlers, and we know there were some operational issues with it. For example, in many cases we may not have crawled all of the embedded and linked objects in a page since the URLs for these resources were added into queues that quickly grew bigger than the intended size of the crawl (and therefore we never got to them). We also included repeated crawls of some Argentinian government sites, so looking at results by country will be somewhat skewed. We have made many changes to how we do these wide crawls since this particular example, but we wanted to make the data available “warts and all” for people to experiment with. We have also done some further analysis of the content. If you would like access to this set of crawl data, please contact us at info at archive dot org and let us know who you are and what you’re hoping to do with it. We may not be able to say “yes” to all requests, since we’re just figuring out whether this is a good idea, but everyone will be considered. ||||| Jennifer Lopez is now in the enviable position of having people not care about her personal life. Lopez began as a dancer on In Living Color, became an actress, then a movie star, then a pop star, then a brand, then a tabloid fixture, first as half of Dilopez and then Bennifer, then a punchline and now as something of a has-been. The public overdosed on Lopez sometime around the 2003 release of Gigli so she is in the perfect position to reinvent herself as an actress instead of a global corporation the way her former beau Ben Affleck washed away the filth of tabloid infamy and established himself as a promising filmmaker with Gone Baby Gone and a gifted character actor with memorable supporting roles in Hollywoodland and Extract. Affleck is doing the best work of his often checkered and spotty career; Lopez was on Saturday Night Live last night pimping a terrible-looking romantic comedy pairing her with mega-star Alex O’ Laughlin and what appears to be yet another slick, forgettable pop album. Don’t call it a comeback cause it probably isn’t one. Lopez hasn’t captured the imagination of the public or the tabloids for a while so references to her personal life were refreshingly few and far between. Lopez’s opening monologue riffed on the gulf between the J. Lo of 2000 and the cut-rate recession version by having Kenan Thompson appear in the audience as a downsized former member of her entourage who had fallen upon hard times since his one skill in life— holding a glass of orange juice for a superstar—does not prove terribly useful outside life inside the hermetic world of an entourage. Like the rest of the show, it was both mildly amusing and utterly predictable. Saturday Night Live is all about going after the low-hanging fruit. Last night the venerable comic institution attacked all the most obvious satirical targets from all the most obvious angles. Hey, that “We Are The World” remake sure is pointless, huh? Saturday Night Live artfully satirized the pointlessness of this newfangled twist on a hoary old chestnut by having the “We Are The World” gang sing about the pointlessness of remaking a song that was pretty terrible in the first place. And how about that David Patterson? Is his administration going down in flames or what? And what about that curling? How fucking nutty is that? Is that even a sport? Doesn’t it seem more like some sort of strange performance art piece? And what’s the deal with Youtube? Isn’t it irritating when a friend insists you watch some inane homemade clip of George C. Scott getting hit in the nuts with a football, then it takes forever to get the damned thing to work? And what about those Telenovelas? Are those insane or what? Last and almost certainly least, how goofy is that Undercover Boss show? All of the above pop-culture ephemera got skewered last night in a manner that suggests no first ideas got rejected in the SNL writer’s room. Throw in a smattering of recurring characters doing their recurring character’s shtick—Kristin Wiig and Bill Hader getting all rubber-faced in shock and mock-horror as hosts of an Entertainment Tonight-like celebrity gossip show, Kenan Thompson crooning up a storm as a loverman who narrates the courtship of a painfully awkward would-be couple, the aforementioned Patterson as a hacky open mic insult comedian and a repeat visit from the round the way girl shilling for a line of perversely casual car horns—and you have an episode almost wholly devoid of originality. The funniest sketch was also, perhaps not coincidentally, the only one that bordered on original. It revolved around the band Smash Mouth appearing in a little girl’s room the minute her mother steps out and performing their late nineties hit “All Star”. I’ve been listening to an awful lot of Smash Mouth as of late for my That’s What They Called Music THEN! project and then also because I love the music of the band Smash Mouth so I was a little biased but I liked the idea of a song that was so ubiquitous (during J.Lo’s heyday, incidentally) at one point reappearing in such a bizarre context and the notion of Smash Mouth as magical musical elves. The sketch got all the details right—the soul patches, someone mistaking Smash Mouth for Third Eye Blind, the little girl using “All Star” on her soccer video—and had a nice ending where Lopez, as the mother, reminds the little girl of all the positive associations she has with “All Star”. A commenter has pointed out that almost all of Fred Armisen’s recurring characters are bad comedians. That’s true but I’m a sucker for his Patterson all the same and “Weekend Update” was pretty sharp tonight. I especially liked the line about Gatorade dropping Tiger Woods as spokesman because his thirst can never be quenched. I was less enamored of the Bobby Moynihan Youtube bit, which was about five years too late and five times too hacky. Otherwise tonight’s episode was very much adequate. It was an episode of creamy middles; there was nothing too brilliant and nothing too egregiously awful, just a bunch of affable mediocrity. Lopez proved a game host and a predictably forgettable musical guest. She really threw herself into playing a woman whose attractiveness is severely compromised by her unfortunate predilection for ventriloquism and seemed right at home in the doorbell sketch. Episodes like last night sometimes make me feel like reviewing Saturday Night Live on a weekly basis is a pointless endeavor (almost as pointless as that "We Are The World" remake and living in New Jersey, am I right people?) At this point in the season, the show is on autopilot. I don’t know whether that’s a matter of finding a comfortable groove or falling into a rut. It’s not great. It’s not terrible. It just is. ||||| I think we can safely say that nobody really had high expectations for the Jennifer Lopez-hosted episode of SNL last night, which was good, because the show was a bit of a clunker. Still, there were a few highlights: The show opened with a parody of the "We Are The World" remake, which gave the cast an opportunity to do their most ridiculous celebrity impressions. Kristen Wiig's Gwen Stefani was particularly impressive: Though the cold open was pretty funny (and, mercifully, a break from the drag-on-forever political openings that have been dominating this season), most of the commenters in our live thread felt it was already pretty dated, what with the Olympics dominating most of the news coverage over the past two weeks of the show's hiatus. The show did cover the Olympics later, however, but we'll get to that in a second. For now, let's talk about J-Lo. Her monologue was painful, and set up the tone of the rest of the show: whenever she appeared, things got awkward and strained and decidedly unfunny. She spent half of the show playing herself, and the other half playing a Latina stereotype, which seemed to be the only thing the writers knew what to do with her. Her appearance on the show—bizarro Hallmark lyric songs included—was a very obvious attempt at rebranding herself as a down-to-earth, un-diva-like sweetheart, but it just came across as weird and overly acted. It was almost as if she was sitting down with the cast of The View as opposed to performing on a sketch comedy show: One of the highlights of the show came quite early though: a digital short called "Flags of the World," starring Andy Samberg and Abby Elliott and a cast of wacky flags, including the "Neo-Nazi Potsie Flag." The difference in tone between the digital shorts and the rest of the show gets more and more noticeable each week, and one wonders why Lorne Michaels just doesn't give The Lonely Island its own show ala The Kids in the Hall (though I guess the obvious answer is that SNL would be in even more trouble without them): Also, in case you missed it, there were two noticeable shout outs during that flag sketch—one to Betty White, who is currently being supported by a Facebook campaign to host the show: Advertisement And one to John Mayer, who represented the "jags" of the world on the "Jag Flag." Ouch! Lopez's main skits were all focused around stereotypes; she appeared in this Telemundo Olympics sketch (where her accent was worse than Fred Armisen's, btw): She was also in a telenovela sketch that is apparently not working on either NBC.com or Hulu right now, so I'll keep you posted. And she also showed up to help Jenny Slate promote car horns in a return of Slate's "doorbell" character: Weirdly enough, the most shocking parts of the evening were Lopez' musical performances, where she sang what sounded like country songs discarded by Faith Hill and hit about 50% of the notes. The songs haven't been released by NBC or Hulu yet, so either there's a licensing issue or Lopez doesn't want the fairly terrible singing available to the good people of the internet. The best sketch of the evening, wherein a young girl is being haunted by the band Smashmouth (it's kind of hard to explain) isn't available either, and music licenses are probably to blame, as Smashmouth's "All-Star" was a centerpiece of the skit. Overall, it was a pretty craptacular show. You almost felt bad for Lopez, who was clearly there to kickstart her slumping career and, instead, most likely succeeded in killing any chance she had to revive her musical career and didn't do much in the way of proving her comedic talents, either. Of course, the material wasn't great either: it would have been nice if the show had focused on something other than stereotypes and had Lopez do something that didn't involve Telemundo and telenovelas, but maybe that's all she gave the writers room to work with. Sponsored In true SNL fashion, however, I expect this dud of a show to be followed by a great one next week. How could it not be, with Zach Galifianakis hosting?

– The Jennifer Lopez image-rehab train pulled into Saturday Night Live station last night, to mixed reviews. "Her appearance on the show—bizarro Hallmark lyric songs included—was a very obvious attempt at rebranding herself as a down-to-earth, un-diva-like sweetheart, but it just came across as weird and overly acted," Hortense writes for Jezebel. Although there were some high points, "overall, it was a pretty craptacular show." Ken Tucker couldn't disagree more. "Lopez came with the right SNL attitude: Ready to poke fun at herself and to engage enthusiastically with anything the show offered her," he writes for Entertainment Weekly. "Fortunately, much of her material was good stuff." Lopez was "a game host and a predictably forgettable musical guest," writes Nathan Rabin of the Onion A.V. Club. Rabin blames the writing staff for a "mildly amusing and utterly predictable" effort: "There was nothing too brilliant and nothing too egregiously awful, just a bunch of affable mediocrity."

Image copyright AP Image caption Breivik says his prison conditions have forced him to drop out of a University of Oslo political science course Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has threatened to starve himself to death in protest at his treatment in prison, according to media reports. Breivik claims to have been kept in isolation since 2 September, with time outside his cell limited to an hour a day. Breivik killed 77 people in 2011 when he bombed central Oslo before going on a shooting spree at a youth camp. He was sentenced to 21 years in 2012. His claims about deteriorating prison conditions were made in a letter to media outlets in Norway and Sweden. 'Studying impossible' In his letter, Breivik, 36, says harsh prison conditions have forced him to drop out of a political science course at the University of Oslo. "Studying and corresponding is not humanly possible under such circumstances, and this applies to anyone who is isolated under such conditions," he wrote according to English news site The Local. Breivik said that if conditions remained unchanged he would continue the hunger strike until he died, Norwegian media reported. No one at Skien prison, where Breivik is held, is currently on hunger strike, prison director Ole Kristoffer Borhaug told the BBC. He declined to comment on the conditions of individual prisoners. Norwegian Justice Minister Anders Anundsen also declined to comment on Breivik's claims, according to the Dagbladet newspaper. The University of Oslo admitted Breivik as a full student in July, explaining that inmates had a right to higher education if they won entry to courses. Breivik has previously complained of "inhumane" prison conditions, including that his coffee was being served cold. ||||| Video Image Shot survivor wrote in blood 2:43 Norway massacre survivors, including a shot man who wrote in his own blood, speak at the trial of Anders Breivik. Rohan Smith news.com.au HE’S been jailed for just 21 years for slaughtering 77 people, but Anders Behring Breivik’s list of jailhouse complaints is long. Since committing Norway’s worst ever massacre in 2011, the 36-year-old gunman has whined to prison authorities about being unable to finish his university studies, being denied access to “a wider selection of activities” and — incredibly — only being allowed to play children’s video games in his cell. Threatening a hunger strike in a written list of 12 demands, Breivik wants a PlayStation 3 console and a comfortable sofa to sit on while playing it. He’s also demanded the doubling of his weekly prison allowance to $65, citing “exemplary” behaviour. “Other inmates have access to adult games while I only have the right to play less interesting kids games. One example is Rayman Revolution, a game aimed at three year olds,” the mass killer moans in letters obtained by the media. “You’ve put me in hell ... and I won’t manage to survive that long.” Breivik’s childish tantrum might seem like a joke, but Emma Martinovic, 22, who survived his July 2011 massacre, isn’t laughing. As Breivik stalked Utoya with a semiautomatic rifle and a twisted sense of justice, Ms Martinovic, then 18, was at the Norwegian island’s summer camp with friends. She received a text message from friends warning a gunman was nearby when she stripped off her clothes and jumped into the freezing water to escape. Around her, friends swam for their lives as they were picked off one-by-one. Ms Martinovic was shot, the bullet piercing her left arm. She remembers “the laughter of the bastard as he shot” and his taunts from shore: “You won’t get away,” he told her. Speaking to news.com.au, Ms Martinovic said she had a message for the man who tried to kill her: “You don’t know what it means to have a hard time. Shut the f*** up and take your punishment.” A MASS MURDERER’S DEMANDS NOT MET Breivik planted a bomb in Oslo before travelling to the tiny island where a Norwegian Labour Party-run youth summer camp was underway. The car bomb made partly with fertiliser was left outside the office of then-Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. It killed eight people and injured more than 200. On Utoya, dressed in a homemade police uniform, Breivik aimed to leave no survivors. He killed 69 people and injured 110 more. It was a massacre on a scale Norway had never seen. Breivik was arrested on Utoya and faced trial in April 2012. The self-styled extremist with a crusade against Islam and multiculturalism admitted his crimes but argued they were “necessary”. He was found to be of sane mind and sentenced to just 21 years in prison. He smiled when Judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen read the ruling. His sentence is the maximum allowed in Norway but it will likely be reviewed and extended. From a single cell where he is isolated 23 hours a day, Breivik is free to write. He has started a political science course at the University of Oslo. But he says conditions are deteriorating. In a letter obtained by Norwegian and Swedish media, Breivik said his tiny cell was too small for him to work. He complained about being given less time with prison staff and only communicating through a hole in the door. “Studying and corresponding is not humanly possible under such circumstances, and this applies to anyone who is isolated under such conditions,” he wrote in the letter. “Unless the (situation) is reversed, I will eventually continue the hunger strike until death. I cannot stand any more.” Breivik demanded a couch to sit on, a weekly allowance and said he wanted his typewriter to be upgraded to a PC. His victims say he deserves exactly what he’s got. ‘I HAVE NO SYMPATHY FOR HIM’ In her blog in 2011, Ms Martinovic wrote about her ordeal. When chaos broke out and Breivik started shooting, she and three others were on the opposite side of the island. First she hid, then she fled, but not before stumbling upon the body of her friend at the water’s edge. “I dragged the boy’s body back to land and when I pulled back his jacket hood I saw it was a friend of mine, and I saw the wound to his head. There was no time to react. I kissed him on the cheek and returned to my rock face,” she wrote. She decided the only way to survive way to swim for her life. “It was cold, I felt the chill in my bones, but focused on keeping my head above water. Behind me some of the others were starting to panic, so I shouted to them: ‘Keep your head above water, get away from land.” It wasn’t long before Breivik spotted those trying to flee. She kept swimming. “It looked as if he was aiming at us. One of the other swimmers was shot, I saw the blood stream out, so I started to swim even faster. Then I turned on my back again and saw he was aiming at those who still hadn’t started swimming from land yet. “I saw one of my friends about to leap into the water, but in a second he was shot. Even at a distance I could see and hear the two shots, straight to the head. “Panic spread like wildfire among those on land. I wanted to be among them, urging them to get away, by land or water.” She escaped, but not without a very close call. “I looked down at my left arm, there was blood pouring from it,” she said. “I tried to shut it out, focus on swimming. Behind us we could still hear shooting, the screams, the laughter of the bastard as he shot, and his shout to us: “You won’t get away!” “I have so many questions. Why? What was he thinking? All these questions which will never be answered.” Ms Martinovic today told news.com.au she was still haunted by what she experienced that day. “It has it’s ups and downs but I can’t give up and let him win,” she said. “I just have to keep learning how to handle these hard days and take care of the good days that come. “It’s hard but I am working on it. The nights are often the worst but I hope that some day everything gets a little easier. My psychologist says: ‘You don’t move on, you just learn to live with it’ and that’s a very good point I think.” For Anders Behring Breivik, she has absolutely no sympathy, no matter how many letters he writes or how he describes his suffering. “I really don’t. I try to think that every person is a human and needs to be handled with respect but with him I think it’s very hard. I have no sympathy for him and that’s because he has taken so many people from me and because he has made my life so hard. “Shut the f*** up and take you’re punishment as the coward you are. You killed so many people and acted (like) God for some hours and now you are complaining that you are having a hard time in jail when you don’t even know what it means to have a hard time. Loser.” ||||| Norway killer Anders Breivik makes a fascist salute as he enters the courtroom during his trial in 2012. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen/Scanpix Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has threatened to go on hunger strike until he dies of starvation in protest at what he claims has been a dramatic worsening of his prison conditions. In an open letter sent a Norwegian and Swedish media, Breivik complained that since the second of September, he had been confined in isolation in a single cell, which he was only allowed to leave for one hour a day. He also complained that he was being given less time with prison staff, and that communication was now limited to a small gap in the door. "Unless the 02/09/15 escalation [sic] is reversed, I will eventually continue the hunger strike until death. I can not stand any more," he wrote. Breivik is currently serving a 21-year jail sentence at Skien prison for a brutal twin terror attack in 2011, in which he detonated a bomb in the government quarters in Oslo, killing eight people, and then opened fire at a political youth camp, killing 69 more. In his letter he complained that his conditions meant he could no longer study his political science course at University of Oslo. "Studying and corresponding is not humanly possible under such circumstances, and this applies to anyone who is isolated under such conditions," he wrote in the letter. "The decision about the drastic deterioration of prison conditions forced me to drop out of my studies, which in turn means that I will lose my place at the University. The studies, which were made possible for only thirteen full days before the Minister of Justice put an end to them, were the only thing I had." Breivik's lawyer Øystein Storrvik, who is suing the Norwegian state for human rights violations on behalf of his client, confirms that Breivik's prison conditions have deteriorated. "I can confirm that there is less of the little that was," told Norway's Dagbladet. "Total isolation from other people has been maintained, while his movements are confined to a smaller space. He also has less time with officers." Storvik also confirms that Breivik is preparing to go on hunger strike. "He writes that he is going on hunger strike until death. He writes that he can not bear anymore."

– Anders Breivik, the Norwegian extremist serving a 21-year sentence for massacring 77 people, is complaining once again about getting a raw deal. He says he'll continue a hunger strike "until death" to protest a "drastic deterioration of prison conditions" since early September, the Local reports. The 36-year-old says he is being kept in isolation in a cell that he's allowed to leave for only an hour a day, and that he's been given less time with prison staff. He complains that he has had to drop out of his University of Oslo political science course because "studying and corresponding is not humanly possible under such circumstances." The prison director tells the BBC that he won't comment on individual prisoners but that nobody at the institution is currently on a hunger strike. Breivik has had plenty of complaints about prison in the past, including about the cold coffee and "sadistic" limitations on what kind of pen he can use. Last year he threatened a hunger strike unless his PS2 was upgraded to a PS3. Emma Martinovic, who saw her friends killed and swam for her life as Breivik slaughtered dozens of people at a youth summer camp, isn't overflowing with sympathy for him. She was shot in the arm and tells news.com.au that Breivik laughed and taunted her from the shore. She says she has a message for him: "You don't know what it means to have a hard time. Shut the f--- up and take your punishment."

Doral police arrested Christian David Guevara and charged him with strong arm robbery. They say he threw a 17-year-old girl to the ground and took her iPhone when she wasn’t able to produce cash he demanded. ||||| For 17 years, Juan Reinaldo Sanchez served as a bodyguard to Fidel Castro. But when he became disillusioned with the Cuban dictator’s hypocrisy and tried to retire in 1994, Castro had him thrown in prison. Sanchez made 10 attempts to escape the island, finally making it to Mexico by boat, then across the Texas border in 2008. Now he reveals all in his new book, “The Double Life of Fidel Castro.” In this excerpt, Sanchez explains how he lost faith in the revolution — and “El Jefe.” The end of 1988. A day like any other was coming to a close in Havana. In a few minutes, my life would be overturned. Fidel had spent his afternoon reading and working in his office when he stuck his head through the door to the anteroom, where I was, to warn me that Abrantes was about to arrive. Gen. José Abrantes, in his 50s, had been minister of the interior since 1985 after having been, notably, the commander in chief’s head of security for 20 years. Utterly loyal, he was one of the people who saw El Jefe daily. While they met, I went to sit in my office, where the closed-circuit TV screens monitoring the garage, the elevator and the corridors were found, as well as the cupboard housing the three locks that turned on the recording mikes hidden in a false ceiling in Fidel’s office. A moment later, the Comandante came back, opened the door again, and gave me this instruction: “Sánchez, ¡no grabes!” (“Sánchez, don’t record!”) The interview seemed to go on forever . . . one hour went by, then two. And so, as much out of curiosity as to kill the time, I put on the listening headphones and turned Key No. 1 to hear what was being said on the other side of the wall. Disillusioned Their conversation centered on a Cuban lanchero (someone who smuggles drugs by boat) living in the United States, apparently conducting business with the government. And what business! Very simply, a huge drug-trafficking transaction was being carried out at the highest echelons of the state. Abrantes asked for Fidel’s authorization to bring this trafficker temporarily to Cuba as he wanted to have a week’s vacation in his native land, accompanied by his parents, in Santa María del Mar — a beach situated about 12 miles east of Havana where the water is turquoise and the sand as fine as flour. For this trip, explained Abrantes, the lanchero would pay $75,000 — which, at a time of economic recession, wouldn’t go amiss . . . Fidel was all for it. But he expressed a concern: How could they ensure that the parents of the lanchero would keep the secret and not go and blab everywhere that they had spent a week near Havana with their son, who was supposed to live in the United States? The minister had the solution: All they had to do was make them believe their son was a Cuban intelligence officer who had infiltrated the United States and whose life would be gravely endangered if they did not keep his visit to Cuba absolutely secret. “Very well . . .” concluded Fidel, who gave his agreement. It was as if the sky had fallen in on me. I realized that the man for whom I had long sacrificed my life, the Líder whom I worshipped like a god and who counted more in my eyes than my own family, was caught up in cocaine trafficking to such an extent that he was directing illegal operations like a real godfather. The Comandante, with his talent for dissimulation, went back to work as if nothing was amiss. One has to understand his logic. For him, drug trafficking was, above all, a weapon of revolutionary struggle more than a means of making money. His reasoning was as follows: If the Yanks were stupid enough to use drugs that came from Colombia, not only was that not his problem — as long as it was not discovered, that is — but, in addition, it served his revolutionary objectives in the sense that it corrupted and destabilized American society. Icing on the cake: It was a means of bringing in cash to finance subversion. And so, as cocaine trafficking increased in Latin America, the line between guerrilla war and trafficking drugs gradually blurred. What was true in Colombia was just as true in Cuba. For my part, I never managed to accept this twisted reasoning, in absolute contradiction to my revolutionary ethics. Sham Trials In 1986, when economic aid from Moscow was starting to dry up, Castro founded the MC Department (for moneda covertible, or “covertible currency”), which traded in goods — illegal and legal — for hard currency from third parties, principally Panama. The MC Department soon acquired another nickname, the “Marijuana and Cocaine Department.” But the Americans became suspicious of Cuba’s drug dealing, and scandal loomed. Fidel decided to take action to nip any possible suspicion about him in the bud. He used the official daily paper, Granma, to inform its readers that an inquiry had been opened. Among the arrested were the respected revolutionary general Arnaldo Ochoa and the minister I had overheard talking to Castro, José Abrantes. The Machiavellian Fidel, while declaring himself “appalled” by what he pretended to have discovered, claimed that “the most honest imaginable political and judicial process” was under way. Obviously, the reality was completely different. Comfortably installed in his brother Raúl’s office, Fidel Castro and Raúl followed the live proceedings of Causa No. 1 and Causa No. 2 on the closed-circuit TV screens. Both trials were filmed — which is why one can today see large sections of it on YouTube — and broadcast to every Cuban home, though not live: The government wanted to be able to censor anything that might prove embarrassing. Fidel even had the means to alert the president of the court discreetly, via a warning light, whenever he thought a session should be interrupted. And during breaks, the president of the court, the public prosecutor and the jury members would swarm out onto the fourth floor of the ministry to take their instructions from Fidel, who, as usual, organized and ordered everything, absolutely everything. The Videotape At the end of these parodies of justice, Gen. Ochoa was condemned to death. José Abrantes received a sentence of 20 years of imprisonment. After just two years of detention in 1991, he would suffer a fatal heart attack, despite his perfect state of health, in circumstances that were, to say the least, suspicious. There followed the most painful episode of my career. Fidel had asked that the execution of Ochoa and the three other condemned men be filmed. And so, two days later, on a Saturday, a chauffeur arrived at the residence, where I was, to deliver a brown envelope containing a ­Betamax cassette video. Castro’s wife, Dalia, told Fidel’s men they should watch it. The video had no sound, which made the scenes we began to watch even more unreal. First, we saw vehicles arriving in a quarry at night, lit by projectors. I have often been asked how Ochoa faced death. The answer is clear and unambiguous: with ­exceptional dignity. As he got out of the car, he walked straight. When one of his torturers proposed to put a band over his eyes, he shook his head in sign of refusal. And when he was facing the firing squad, he looked death square in the face. Despite the absence of sound, the whole excerpt shows his courage. To his executioners, who could not be seen in the footage, he said something that one could not hear but which one could guess. His chest pushed out and his chin raised, he probably shouted something like, “Go on, you don’t frighten me!” An instant later, he crumpled from beneath the bullets of seven gunmen. Castro made us watch it. That’s what the Comandante was capable of to keep his power: not just of killing but also of humiliating and reducing to nothing men who had served him devotedly. His Brother’s Keeper After Ochoa’s death, Raúl Castro plunged into the worst bout of alcoholism of his life. He had taken part in the assassination of his friend. He turned to vodka, which had long been his favorite drink. There was doubtless another factor involved: having watched the elimination of his counterpart, Abrantes, Raúl could logically fear that he, too, would be hounded from his position of defense minister. The government No. 2 was dead drunk so often that the ministers and the generals could not have failed to miss it. The ­Comandante decided to go and lecture his younger brother. I heard Fidel admonishing his brother, launching into a long, moralistic tirade. “How can you descend so low? You’re giving the worst possible example to your family and your escort,” began the Comandante. “If what’s worrying you is that what happened to Abrantes will happen to you, let me tell you that Abrantes no es mi hermano [is not my brother]! You and I have been united since we were children, for better and for worse. So, no, you are not going to experience Abrantes’ fate, unless . . . you persist with this deplorable behavior. “Listen, I’m talking to you as a brother. Swear to me that you will come out of this lamentable state and I promise you nothing will happen to you.” Sure enough, shortly afterward, Fidel spoke out in praise of Raúl, applauding his integrity and his devotion to the Revolution. Raúl, for his part, carried on drinking vodka, but in far more reasonable quantities. From “The Double Life of Fidel Castro: My 17 Years as Personal Bodyguard to El Lider Maximo” by Juan Reinaldo Sanchez with Axel Gyldén. Copyright © 2015 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press, LLC.

– Fidel Castro, ragtag communist revolutionary? Not according to a new book that chronicles his alleged luxurious lifestyle and drug-smuggling into the United States. A former bodyguard to Castro, Juan Reinaldo Sanchez—who fled Cuba in 2008 and has made similar allegations before—describes them fully in The Double Life of Fidel Castro: My 17 Years as Personal Bodyguard to El Lider Maximo. In a juicy New York Post excerpt, Sanchez claims that he overheard Castro meeting with a loyal general, José Abrantes, about drug trafficking: "What business!" Sanchez writes, with co-writer Axel Gylden. "Very simply, a huge drug-trafficking transaction was being carried out at the highest echelons of the state." According to the book, Castro and Gen. Abrantes discussed smuggling cocaine into the US. Castro's reasoning: "If the Yanks were stupid enough to use drugs that came from Colombia, not only was that not his problem ... it served his revolutionary objectives in the sense that it corrupted and destabilized American society," the book reads. Sanchez also accuses Castro of covering up his involvement by engineering sham trials that led to the deaths of two devoted officers, including Abrantes; this fueled the alcoholism of brother Raul, who feared he would be next. Imprisoned in Cuba for two years before fleeing, Sanchez has already accused Castro of secretly living a luxurious life that includes an 88-foot yacht and a Caribbean getaway island, the Miami Herald reported last year.

Vintners in the Napa Valley have begun to evaluate the damage to their cellars following Sunday's 6.0-magnitude earthquake, which rocked American Canyon and its immediate environs at 3:20 a.m. Damage is being reported across the valley, and many winery tasting rooms will be closed today and possibly tomorrow. In downtown Napa, winemaker Alison Crowe of Garnet Vineyards says she and her family were "literally thrown out of bed" when the quake hit. "It was very violent," says Crowe, mother to William, 3, and Bryce, 1. The family lives in an renovated 1898 farmhouse which sustained no structural damage, but they are currently without electricity. "We're making pancakes on the barbecue outside." NAPA, CA - AUGUST 24: A worker looks at a pile of wine bottles that were thrown from the shelves at Van's Liquors following a reported 6.0 earthquake on August 24, 2014 in Napa, California. A 6.0 earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area shortly after 3:00 am on Sunday morning causing damage to buildings and sending at least 70 people to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) ( Justin Sullivan ) While Crowe's home collection -- 100 bottles of the winery's premium pinot noir and chardonnay -- were "undamaged and still resting snug on their sides," initial reports from the winery's American Canyon warehouse indicate that "a lot of bottles" were lost there, says Crowe, who chose not to disclose the name of the warehouse until the owners make an official statement. The loss was even bigger at Napa's City Winery, a venue for music, winemaking and the culinary arts, which opened this past spring in the historic Napa Valley Opera House. According to owner Michael Dorf, the winery's restaurant has been flooded with inches of water. Liquor and wine bottles tumbled and crashed to the floor and food fell off shelves throughout the kitchen. Advertisement "Most likely, all the other restaurants along Main Street suffered similar issues," Dorf said via e-mail. In total, Dorf estimates the loss of wine at 300 to 400 bottles, including some rare wines purchased at auction, as well as more than 200 pieces of Riedel stemware. At this time, the venue and main structure appear undamaged, he says, but they are canceling tonight's concert of (NVOH and Lucky Penny) and are unclear when they will reopen. Men Without Hats is supposed to perform on Monday. When Crowe heads to work on Monday, she will double-check the winery's barrels and tanks for damage but is confident that the quake will not interfere with harvest, which is currently in full swing in parts of the valley. "Everyone's going to gear up and get right back to work," she says. "It's a blessing that we've had this recent cool weather because it has actually slowed things down a bit. I took my first load of Carneros pinot noir in (last Friday) and wasn't planning on crushing harvesting more fruit until this Friday. We lives in the lap of Mother Nature here so we know that we're not in control but sometimes it takes something as big as an earthquake to really open your eyes." Check back for futher updates throughout the day. NAPA, CA - AUGUST 24: Workers clean up piles of bottles that were thrown from the shelves at Van's Liquors following a reported 6.0 earthquake on August 24, 2014 in Napa, California. A 6.0 earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area shortly after 3:00 am on Sunday morning causing damage to buildings and sending at least 70 people to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) ( Justin Sullivan ) Follow Jessica Yadegaran at Twitter.com/swirlgirl_jy. ||||| Napa damaged, more than 100 hurt in Northern California quake (08-24) 20:45 PDT NAPA -- A magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck the North Bay early Sunday, injuring more than 100 people, causing extensive damage to dozens of buildings in downtown Napa and Vallejo and sparking a fire that destroyed sixhomes, authorities said. The quake, the largest in the Bay Area since the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, struck 3 miles northwest of American Canyon at 3:20 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was felt as far away as Chico and Fresno, the USGS said. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for California and said state resources would be mustered to areas affected by the quake, including Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties. Hardest-hit was Napa, about 6 miles northwest of the quake's epicenter. Walt Mickens, CEO at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, said 172 people were treated Sunday at the hospital, including a 13-year-old identified by neighbors as Nicholas Dillon. He was hurt inside his family's home on Eva Street when a chimney fell on him during a slumber party, and was airlifted from Napa to the UC Davis Children's Hospital in Sacramento, where hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Brown said he was in serious condition. In all, Mickens said, 12 people were admitted to Queen of the Valley and treated for injuries related to the quake, the majority with broken bones. By late Sunday, just one person remained in critical condition at the hospital; the others were in serious or stable condition. The majority of other injuries were cuts and bruises from broken glass and falling objects, he said. Many residents were unable to return home Sunday evening because of damage sustained in the quake. Napa officials said 33 buildings have been red-tagged, meaning residents cannot return to them until authorities determine they are safe, and they are only one-third of the way through assessing buildings. Napa Mayor Jill Techel was among the displaced. She returned from a conference in Monterey on Sunday morning, and said when she when she first arrived downtown, she felt, "scared and sad." "My neighbors are staying strong but you can see tears right behind their eyes," she said. Throughout the region, said State Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci said, about 90 to 100 homes have been red-tagged. Officials won't have a tally of how many people have been displaced until late Sunday, Ghilarducci said, when they begin showing up at emergency shelters. "We have a handle on what's happening at this point," he said at a late afternoon news conference, adding that state officials do not yet have damage cost estimates and are deciding whether to apply for federal disaster assistance. State geologist John Parrish said all the region's bridges have been checked and are safe. Measurements taken from the Carquinez Bridge revealed the span took quite a hit during the quake, but sustained no damage. While officials warned residents to be prepared for aftershocks, Parrish said the biggest risk had passed by Sunday afternoon, as the highest probability of aftershocks is within the first hour after a quake. In all, he said, 50 to 60 aftershocks were recorded, the largest a magnitude 3.6. "We feel it unlikely now that there will be a large follow-up earthquake to this one," Parrish said Sunday afternoon. "We do not expect there will be much larger aftershocks, but we expect they will continue for several weeks." Parrish said the soft ground in the Napa Valley helped mitigate damage by absorbing some of movement. Still, said Ghilarducci, "It took half day to get our hands around the complexity of the event," due to power outages. In all, 70,000 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers lost power in the quake, but by early evening, the utility had restored power to the majority. A PG&E statement said about 7,300 customers in Napa County remained in the dark. Most customers can expect to be back online by the end of Sunday, according to the utility. Sixty water mains and at least 50 gas lines also broke in the quake. PG&E said 439 people called to report gas leaks Sunday, and by early evening, the vast majority had been investigated. Beginning Monday, the utility plans to fan out across the impacted areas to conduct courtesy gas safety checks. There were also problems in Vallejo, where officials said 41 buildings were damaged, including businesses, several homes and a church. On one residential block, nearly every brick chimney had collapsed, including two that fell on a car. "It's bad any way you look at it, but it could have been a heck of a lot worse," said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa. Napa City Manager Mike Parness said that "most of the (Napa) Valley is operating as normal" and that most of the damage was confined to a few locations. But officials said it will be weeks until those areas are cleaned up. Officials at Queen of the Valley set up a triage tent in the back parking lot of the emergency room. In the first hours after the quake, ambulances were arriving every few minutes dropping off patients. A fire at a Napa mobile home park on Orchard Avenue destroyed four homes and damaged two others as firefighters improvised to put out the blaze, with a water main broken and unavailable. In downtown Napa, bricks, concrete chunks and broken glass littered the streets. About 15 buildings were red-tagged, , and numerous other buildings were yellow-tagged and were open only on a limited basis, officials said. Most of the yellow-tagged buildings suffered damage such as broken windows, Parness said. Most of the windows were blown out of the air traffic control tower at the Napa County Airport. The structure was spared major damage, but it will be unusable for several weeks, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Across Napa, dozens of unreinforced chimneys toppled, tilted or leaned precariously from houses. "It was just like a train hit the house," Cathy Hunt said as she surveyed a pile of bricks that used to make up the chimney of her home on the 500 block of Montgomery Street. At Napa Barrel Care, a wine warehouse just south of the city, Carole Meredith surveyed an array of tumbled barrels. "We're physically fine but we're emotionally shell-shocked," Meredith said. Although it is too soon to know the extent of loss, she said, "there is a lake of wine on the floor." Because wines from the bountiful 2013 vintage are mostly still in barrel, "there's just going to be huge losses," said Meredith, who owns the Lagier Meredith winery on Mount Veeder. "This is going to be a really expensive earthquake for the wine business." At the Don Perico Mexican restaurant on First Street, there were no outward signs of problems on the exterior of the building. But inside, a pile of bricks stood several feet high. At the Bounty Hunter restaurant down the street, broken wine bottles littered the floor. But the eatery's "holy grail" case, containing prized bottles worth up to $80,000, remained intact. "It's a disaster, but we'll clean up," said employee Will Wright. "We'll get through it." Andrea Griego of Napa said the quake knocked over her bedroom dresser, temporarily immobilizing her. "It was so scary," said Griego, who suffered a large bruise and cut. Napa's Old County Courthouse and the post office were among the buildings that sustained damage. Emergency workers usually stationed there were moved to the sheriff's office. Residents and city officials said the toll would have been far greater had the quake struck on Saturday, when thousands of people were downtown enjoying the Napa Blues, Brews and BBQ event in downtown Napa. Although damage appeared to be worst in Napa, there were also problems elsewhere. In downtown Vallejo, a large chunk of bricks fell off the First Methodist Church at Sonoma Boulevard and Virginia Street. Several older homes near the church lost their chimneys. Glass covered buckled sidewalks on a six-block stretch of businesses on the west end of Tennessee Street, the city's primary link to the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Sixteen water mains in the city were broken, city officials said. On Georgia and Virginia streets on downtown Vallejo, several buildings were evacuated after a 19th-century brick building partially collapsed. The city engineer was on scene investigating, but fire officials said the building, the former City of Paris department store, would likely be demolished. Building owner Buck Kamphausen, who is also the city mortician, said the building was under renovation. The roof of collapsed into the roof of a neighboring building, falling through to the floor. No one was injured. Officials were blocking off the sidewalks on both Georgia and Virginia streets. Firemen said the extent of the damage would likely not be known until Monday, as many of the shops on the commercial strip were closed Sunday and owners had not come to survey the damage. The First Methodist Church on Sonoma and Virgin streets also suffered damage to its bell tower. On Fern Street, a leafy block in the city's Garden District dotted with 1920's bungalows, residents were surveying the slew of collapsed brick chimneys and starting to clean up. At the end of the block, a brick building that houses a Real Estate brokerage was red-tagged. Brick mason Marshall Foster was using a jackhammer to take down the top half of a damaged chimney at one home. "It was like something exploded," said Annette Millhollin, whose chimney, along with her neighbor's, tumbled onto her driveway, crushing her Oldsmobile. Chris Mariano, who lives next to the brokerage firm, said it "felt like a bomb went off," when the quake struck at 3:20 a.m., knocking down all the dishes in his home. "It went on forever," he said. "I've never been in a quake that close to the epicenter." There were widespread reports of power outages, gas leaks and flooding in the North Bay. In addition to the power outages, Napa'stwo water treatment plants were undamaged, but water-main breaks knocked out service to some areas. The water that is available is safe to drink, Napa officials said. Still, the recovery could take "a week or so because we have a lot of things to get buttoned up," said Napa's director of public works Jacques LaRochelle. Caltrans checked the Bay Area's toll bridges after the quake and found them to be safe. On Highway 121 in the North Bay, 30 feet of asphalt was cracked, but the road was open. Scientists said the quake was 6.7 miles deep and may have hit on the West Napa Fault. It was the largest in the Bay Area since the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake killed 62 people on Oct. 17, 1989. The U.S. Geological Survey initially said the quake measured magnitude 6.0, then upgraded it to 6.1 later in the day. One of the worst scenes of damage was at the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park at 1040 Orchard Ave. near Mark Way, where a fire burned at least four homes. A broken water main hobbled firefighters' efforts to control the blaze. Water trucks were brought to the scene, enabling firefighters to control the blaze before 6 a.m. There were no injuries. The cause of the fire was unknown. PG&E said its natural-gas lines were not responsible. Ray Kauffman, 68, said that as soon as he saw the smoke at one of the mobile homes, "I went home to get my crescent wrench but I couldn't get to it." "The flames were too much when I got there," Kauffman said as he looked at the remains of his neighbor's home. A woman who asked to be identified as Theresa said she had trouble getting out of her boyfriend's home because it shifted off the foundation. She went across the street and watched the home burn to the ground. "It was really scary," she said. "We were really lucky to get out. We lost a kitten, CoCo." Firefighters extinguished two other residential fires in Napa, officials said. Throughout the Bay Area, many people were jolted awake by the quake. Others who were already up were similarly jarred. Erica Gregory, who was brewing coffee while working by herself at the 24-hour Shell gas station on Highway 29 in Vallejo, said items started to fly off the shelves when the quake hit. "It was nerve-wracking," Gregory said. "You just have to stand there and take it." Lily Atkinson, 10, said she was playing solitaire when her bed, and then her entire room, began shaking. "I grabbed onto my head and held on for dear life," she said. In Benicia, several miles from the epicenter, the quake was strong enough to knock pictures off mantles. Darryl Sismil, owner of Marin Computer Service in Santa Rosa, described the tremor as "just a rolling sensation. It felt like I was on a boat in the bay." At the 24-hour Napa Valley Casino off Highway 29 in American Canyon, the quake interrupted a hand of Texas Hold 'Em. "I didn't know what to do," said Sunshine Hamilton, adding that her "legs were shaking" from the experience. "Everybody ran outside, so I ran outside too. No one grabbed chips or anything like that." They sat outside for about 10 minutes before returning inside to finish the hand. Les Flynn was asleep with his son on a buddy's couch in Napa when the quake hit. "I had my little boy on the couch so I threw myself over him because the there was s- falling on the couch," Flynn said. "It was crazy, everything was shaking off the walls. The whole house was just rolling." San Francisco Chronicle Science Editor David Perlman and staff writers Suzanne Espinosa Solis, Joe Garofoli, Melody Gutierrez, Kristen V. Brown, Greta Kaul, Jill Tucker, Mike Lerseth and David R. Baker contributed to this report. ||||| NAPA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco Bay Area's strongest earthquake in 25 years struck the heart of California's wine country early Sunday, igniting gas-fed fires, damaging some of the region's famed wineries and historic buildings, and sending dozens of people to hospitals. A Napa firefighter inspects mobile homes that were destroyed Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, at the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park, in Napa, Calif. A gas fire destroyed four homes at the park after an earthquake... (Associated Press) A mailbox is all that remains of one of four mobile homes which were destroyed in a gas fire Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, at the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park, in Napa, Calif. A large earthquake caused significant... (Associated Press) Steve Brody inspects damage to the interior of his mobile home after an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, at the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park, in Napa, Calif. A large earthquake caused significant damage... (Associated Press) Nola Rawlins drinks coffee in the office of the at the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, Calif. Rawlins home was one of 4 destroyed by a gas fire at the mobile home park, the... (Associated Press) Police cars block the street outside a heavily damaged building following an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, Calif. A large earthquake caused significant damage in California's northern Bay... (Associated Press) Jorge Sanchez looks over damage to the main post office following an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, Calif. A large earthquake caused significant damage in California's northern Bay Area early... (Associated Press) Jean Meehan looks over the damage to her JHM Stamp and Collectibles store following an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, Calif. A large earthquake caused significant damage in California's northern... (Associated Press) Nina Quidit cleans up the Dollar Plus and Party Supplies Store in American Canyon Calif. after an earthquake on Sunday Aug. 24, 2014. Quidit and her husband were woken up in the early morning hours by... (Associated Press) Nina Quidit cleans up the Dollar Plus and Party Supplies Store in American Canyon Calif., after an earthquake on Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. Quidit and her husband were woken up in the early morning hours... (Associated Press) Steve Brody inspects damage to the interior of his mobile home after an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, at the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park, in Napa, Calif. A large earthquake caused significant damage... (Associated Press) Janelle Dahl and her son Austin clean up broken bottles of wine in a tasting room after an earthquake at Dahl Vineyards Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Yountville, Calif. A large earthquake rolled through California's... (Associated Press) A youngster rides his scooter over a sidewalk buckled by an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, Calif. A large earthquake caused significant damage and left at least three critically injured in... (Associated Press) Winemaker Tom Montgomery stands in wine and reacts to seeing damage following an earthquake at the B.R. Cohn Winery barrel storage facility Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, Calif. Winemakers in California’s... (Associated Press) Part of a brick wall is missing from a building after an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, Calif. Officials say an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 has been reported in California's... (Associated Press) Grace Hardy cleans up wine bottles at nakedwines.com in Napa, Calif., following an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. Winemakers in California’s storied Napa Valley woke up to thousands of broken bottles,... (Associated Press) An awning for Carpe Diem wine bar sits among rubble in Napa, Calif., following an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. A large earthquake caused significant damage and left at least three critically injured... (Associated Press) The magnitude-6.0 quake, centered near the city of Napa, an oasis of Victorian-era buildings nestled in the vineyard-studded hills of northern California, ruptured water mains and gas lines, hampering firefighters' efforts to extinguish the blazes that broke out after the temblor struck at 3:20 a.m. Dazed residents who had run out of their homes in the dark and were too fearful of aftershocks to go back to bed wandered through Napa's historic downtown, where boulder-sized chunks of rubble and broken glass littered the streets. Dozens of homes and buildings across the Napa Valley were left unsafe to occupy, including an old county courthouse, where a 10-foot wide hole opened a view of the offices inside. College student Eduardo Rivera said the home he shares with six relatives shook so violently that he kept getting knocked back into his bed as he tried to flee. "When I woke up, my mom was screaming, and the sound from the earthquake was greater than my mom's screams," the 20-year-old Rivera said. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for southern Napa County, directing state agencies to respond with equipment and personnel. President Barack Obama was briefed on the earthquake, the White House said, and federal officials were in touch with state and local emergency responders. The temblor struck about six miles south of Napa and lasted 10 to 20 seconds, according to the United States Geological Survey. It was the largest to shake the San Francisco Bay Area since the magnitude-6.9 Loma Prieta quake struck in 1989, collapsing part of the Bay Bridge roadway and killing more than 60 people, most when an Oakland freeway collapsed. Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, where an outdoor triage tent was set up to handle the influx, reported treating 172 people in the emergency room, although hospital officials could not say how many of them were there for bruises and cuts suffered in the quake and how many for more routine injuries and illnesses. Twelve people were admitted for broken bones, heart attacks and other problems directly related to the earthquake, including an adult who remained in critical condition on Sunday night and a 13-year-old boy. The teen was hit by flying debris from a collapsed fireplace and had to be airlifted to the children's hospital at the University of California Davis hospital for a neurological evaluation. He condition was listed as serious, hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Brown said. Napa Fire Department Operations Chief John Callanan said the city had exhausted its own resources trying to extinguish at least six fires after 60 water mains ruptured, as well as transporting injured residents, searching homes and collapsed carports for anyone trapped and responding to 100 reports of leaking gas. Two of the fires happened at mobile home parks, including the one where four homes were destroyed and two others damaged, Callanan said. A ruptured water main there delayed efforts to fight the blaze until pumper trucks could be brought in, he said. Nola Rawlins, 83, was one of the Napa Valley Mobile Home Park residents left homeless by the fire. No one was injured in the blaze, but Rawlins said she lost all her jewelry, papers and other belongings. "There were some explosions, and it was burning. Everybody was out in the street," she said. "I couldn't get back in the house because they told everybody to go down to the clubhouse, so I didn't get anything out of the house." U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, who represents Napa, said federal and state officials had conducted an aerial survey of the area, but they wouldn't have a cost estimate for the damage until they can get on the ground and into buildings. He said that while Napa suffered the worst of it, there also was significant damage about 17 miles south on Mare Island in Vallejo, a former naval shipyard where a museum and historic homes were declared uninhabitable. "It's bad any way you calculate it. But it could have been a heck of a lot worse," Thompson said. While inspecting the shattered glass at her husband's storefront office in downtown Napa, Chris Malloy described calling for her two children in the dark as the quake rumbled under the family's home, tossing heavy pieces of furniture for several feet. "It was shaking, and I was crawling on my hands and knees in the dark, looking for them," the 45-year-old woman said, wearing flip flops on feet left bloodied from crawling through broken glass. Sunday's quake was felt widely throughout the region, with people reporting its effects more than 200 miles south of Napa and as far east as the Nevada border. Amtrak suspended service through the Bay area so tracks could be inspected. Vintner Richard Ward of Saintsbury Winery south of Napa watched Sunday afternoon as workers righted toppled barrels and rescued a 500-pound grape de-stemmer that the quake had thrown to the ground. "That's what happens when you're a mile from the epicenter," said Ward, who lost 300 to 400 bottles in the winery's basement. The grape harvest was supposed to start overnight Monday, but it would now be pushed off a few days, he said. Had the harvest started a day earlier, the quake would have caught the workers among the heavy barrels when it struck, Ward said. Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, told an afternoon news conference some 90 to 100 homes and buildings were deemed not habitable. A Red Cross evacuation center was set up at a church, and crews were assessing damage to homes, bridges and roadways. The Napa Unified School District said classes were canceled for students Monday and that students would not be allowed to return to schools until they were checked. "There's collapses, fires," said Napa Fire Capt. Doug Bridewell, standing in front of large pieces of masonry that broke loose from an early 20th-century office building where a fire had just been extinguished. "That's the worst shaking I've ever been in." Bridewell said he had to climb over fallen furniture in his own home to check on his family before reporting to duty. Pacific Gas and Electric spokesman J.D. Guidi said some 30,000 customers lost power after the quake hit, but that number was down to around 7,300 later in the day, most of them in Napa. He said crews were working to make repairs, but it was unclear when electricity would be restored. The depth of the earthquake was just under seven miles, and it was followed by numerous small aftershocks, the USGS said. On Sunday night in Southern California, a small, magnitude-3.3 earthquake hit off the region's coast. The U.S. Geological Survey says the temblor struck at 7:50 p.m. and was centered about 5 miles southwest of San Pedro and 6 miles southeast of Rancho Palos Verdes. There were no initial reports of damages, police said. ___ Associated Press writers Juliet Williams in Napa, Tom Verdin in Sacramento, Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco and Courtney Bonnell in Phoenix contributed to this report.

– Northern California is assessing the damage after the region's worst earthquake in 25 years and while no deaths have been reported, at least 100 people have been injured, more than 10,000 are still without power, dozens of buildings have been wrecked—and there is a heck of a lot of broken glass in the Napa Valley wine country. Huge numbers of bottles and barrels of wine were ruined as yesterday's 6.0 magnitude quake caused widespread damage across the valley, the San Jose Mercury-News reports. Wineries say the quake will cause serious losses, but the harvest now under way shouldn't be affected. The US Geological Survey believes total damage could be more than $1 billion. More: Authorities say that across the region, around 100 homes have been red-tagged as unsafe to return to until authorities declare them safe—and they are only a third of the way through the process of tagging buildings, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. There have been more than 50 aftershocks but state officials say that they now consider a major follow-up quake unlikely, reports the Los Angeles Times. Three of the injured are in critical condition, including a 13-year-old boy injured by debris from a falling chimney, according to the AP. Some 172 people were treated in the emergency room of the Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa after the quake, though it's not clear how many of them were there for quake-related injuries. A USGS geophysicist says that despite the damage, the earthquake was "truly small" compared to some that California has experienced. "We owe wine country in part to earthquakes" that created the terrain, he tells the New York Times. "We all want to enjoy the fruits of the quakes, so we all have to prepare for the downside, too."

August 20, 2011 Toronto, Ontario Dear Friends, Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination. Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue. I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected. I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election. A few additional thoughts: To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer. To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government. To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election. To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all. To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future. And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done. My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world. All my very best, Jack Layton ||||| Family, friends and colleagues are remembering NDP Leader Jack Layton as news starts to sink in that the politician known for his warmth and personality has died. Friends and political foes alike praised Layton on Monday for his warmth, optimism and respect for opponents. People who squared off politically against Layton, including former prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, as well as Prime Minister Stephen Harper and interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae, all spoke warmly about the NDP leader's commitment to Canadians. Layton, who led Canada's Official Opposition, died early Monday morning at his Toronto home after a battle with cancer. He was 61. Layton's wife, Olivia Chow, and his children, Sarah and Michael Layton, issued a statement announcing his death. "We deeply regret to inform you that the Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 am today, Monday August 22. He passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by family and loved ones," the statement read. State funeral Saturday Layton will be honoured with a state funeral Saturday in Toronto, senior NDP officials have told CBC News. The government protocol office is working with the NDP and family of the NDP leader on exactly what the funeral will be. Condolence books will be set up in Ottawa on Parliament Hill and in Toronto at city hall. Others will be located in NDP constituency offices across the country. On Monday, mourners, many bearing flowers and other tributes, arrived at Layton's Toronto constituency office. Friends and areas residents also arrived at his home on the quiet side street where he lived with Chow. Social media was used to quickly organize public tributes, including gatherings on Parliament Hill, and a rally in Toronto. Later Monday evening, several hundred people came together for a vigil outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. On Monday evening, hundreds of people were near the Centennial Flame at Parliament Hill, many leaving flowers, cans of Orange Crush that symbolize the NDP's official colour, and notes. The crowd, many bearing candles, sang O Canada as the sun set. The family released a letter from Layton to Canadians just after noon. Layton had been battling new cancer Layton's death comes less than a month after he announced to the country that he was fighting a new form of cancer and was taking time off for treatment. Layton had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in late 2009 and underwent treatment for it. He continued working throughout that time and also battled a broken hip earlier this year. Layton used a cane for much of his time on the campaign trail this spring as he led the NDP to a historic victory on May 2. His party claimed 103 seats, and was propelled to official Opposition status. Layton and his party were getting used to their new roles in Parliament but he did not appear to be in good health near the end of June. He said he felt pain and stiffness, he underwent tests and they confirmed he had a new form of cancer. He did not disclose what kind of cancer. Layton's chief of staff, Anne McGrath, said Monday that Layton's condition took a quick turn for the worse Sunday night. She spent a few hours with him Saturday and had a sense that he was losing a battle, but says his campaign slogan – don't let them tell you it can't be done – was also a personal slogan. "It is a huge loss. It is a huge loss for me personally, but it's a huge loss also for our party and our country," she said. McGrath worked with Layton for nearly a decade. "There's no question that my heart is broken," she said. McGrath said Layton was thinking about what it would mean for the party if he died. When they spoke on Saturday, they talked about upcoming events like the party's annual caucus retreat in September and what Parliament would be like if he weren't there. Layton always liked to be presented with options, McGrath told Evan Solomon on CBC's Power & Politics, including a plan for what would happen if he died. "He was very, very practical and he was very much wanting to know that we were going to be able to continue and we were going to be strong," she said. After the news of Layton's death emerged shortly after 8 a.m. ET, friends, colleagues and Canadians reacted quickly and with shock, sadness and tears. The flag on the Peace Tower was lowered to half-mast. Harper saddened by news Layton's last letter "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world," Jack Layton writes just days before his death. Read more Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Layton will be remembered for the force of his personality and his dedication to public life. Speaking from the foyer of the House of Commons, Harper said the two leaders had always talked about getting together to jam. "I will always regret the jam session that never was. That is a reminder, I think, that we must always make time for friends, family and loved ones, while we still can," he said. In a statement earlier Monday, Harper saluted Layton's contribution to public life and said it would be sorely missed. "I know one thing: Jack gave his fight against cancer everything he had. Indeed, Jack never backed down from any fight," he said. Tributes to Layton poured in from across party lines. Rae said the news took his breath away and that Layton's death is not just a loss for the NDP, but for all Canadians. "It's a loss for the country because he was a political guy who believed strongly in politics and who had a lot of resilience and a lot of guts," Rae told CBC News. NDP colleagues shocked Longtime NDP leader and MP Ed Broadbent told CBC News he sensed the end was coming, but was still shocked when he got the call Monday morning. "In each and every election, he moved us forward ... he wanted a reason in politics," Broadbent said. "Canada has lost a great politician. A man who believed in working for the public good. And I've lost a personal friend." Interim NDP Leader Nycole Turmel spoke of one of Layton's favourite quotes from Tommy Douglas, the founder of the CCF, the NDP's forerunner. Layton included the quote in every email he sent: “Courage my friends, ‘tis never too late to build a better world.” "Jack was a courageous man. It was his leadership that inspired me, and so many others, to run for office," Turmel said in her statement. "We – members of Parliament, New Democrats and Canadians – need to pull together now and carry on his fight to make this country a better place." NDP deputy leader Libby Davies, fighting back tears, said Layton's death is "an incredible loss." "Jack was not only a great leader of the NDP, he's someone that Canadians across the country came to love. We feel a tremendous sense of loss and grief," she said. Davies said Layton brought a sense of humanity to Canadian politics and in his career and his life, especially his battle with cancer, "he gave it his all." "We have only love and respect for everything that he did and he leaves some really important legacies in Canadian politics," she said. The NDP appointed Turmel to take over for Layton temporarily. Layton wanted to be back at work in time for Parliament's fall session in mid-September. Jack Layton, speaking at the NDP's 50th anniversary convention in June, led his party past the Liberals to become the Official Opposition during the spring election. Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press Douglas' daughter, Shirley, says Layton was the same whether he was in a crowded room or meeting people one-on-one. "Everywhere I've gone, people said 'You know, we've got a leader who cared'," she told CBC News. Douglas says she's worried about Chow. "That's the one person I keep thinking about all morning," she said. "They were so close and when a marriage that is as close as that one ... it's a terrible thing to see that marriage broken apart by this. I just couldn't say enough to her. She's a tremendous woman on her own." The leader of the Official Opposition announced on July 25 he was stepping away from the job to concentrate on his cancer treatment. He told Canadians he had recently been diagnosed with a new form of cancer, in addition to the prostate cancer he had earlier battled.

– Jack Layton has died of cancer barely three months after leading the New Democratic Party to its strongest-ever result in Canada. The 61-year-old, who shocked the country only a few weeks ago when he announced he was stepping aside as the official opposition leader because of health issues, died yesterday of an undisclosed form of cancer and will receive a state funeral, the CBC reports. Tributes to Layton, who led the social democratic party for nine years, have poured in from across the political spectrum. After his death, Layton's family released a final letter to Canadians in which he addressed his battle with cancer and his vision for a better Canada. "To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope," he wrote. "Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer."

xkcd.com Randall Munroe Contact: orders@xkcd.com -- All store-related email. press@xkcd.com -- Press questions, etc (may take a long time to get to me). Note: You are welcome to reprint occasional comics pretty much anywhere (presentations, papers, blogs with ads, etc). If you're not outright merchandizing, you're probably fine. Just be sure to attribute the comic to xkcd.com. If you have a question or comment about xkcd, you may want to try sharing it on the forums or the IRC channel. IRC: #xkcd on irc.foonetic.net Wikipedia article: xkcd Translations (unofficial): Spanish, Russian, German. xkcd.com updates without fail every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Who are you? I'm just this guy, you know? I'm a CNU graduate with a degree in physics. Before starting xkcd, I worked on robots at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia. As of June 2007 I live in Massachusetts. In my spare time I climb things, open strange doors, and go to goth clubs dressed as a frat guy so I can stand around and look terribly uncomfortable. At frat parties I do the same thing, but the other way around. What else do you do? Occasionally produce a few extra comics such as a pair of comics for IBM's A Smarter Planet initiative (also archived here as they are released). Encourage people to get out and meet each other in, hopefully, interesting places via geohashing. Host a gallery of photos inspired by comic #249. Who else are you? Server maintenance and most of the coding for these sites is done by my friend davean, who tries hard to remain invisible but can be reached at davean@xkcd.com. Designer Christina Gleason also helps with posters, books, and various side projects. What does XKCD stand for? It's not actually an acronym. It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings. Where did all this start? I was going through old math/sketching graph paper notebooks and didn't want to lose some of the work in them, so I started scanning pages. I took the more comic-y ones and put them up on a server I was testing out, and got a bunch of readers when BoingBoing linked to me. I started drawing more seriously, gained a lot more readers, started selling t-shirts on the site, and am currently shipping t-shirts and drawing this comic full-time. It's immensely fun and I really appreciate y'all's support. Why can't I read the whole comic mouseover text in Firefox? They can be read with extensions like Long Titles, or by right-clicking on the images and going to 'properties', then clicking and dragging to read the whole thing. This is a bug in Firefox, Mozilla Bug #45375. It has been outstanding for many years now. Note: It looks like it's been fixed in Firefox 3.0. Now, as an added tweak, to keep the tooltips from expiring while you're reading, you can use this. Can we print xkcd in our magazine/newspaper/other publication? If it's a not-for-profit publication, you need no permission -- just print them with attribution to xkcd.com. You can post xkcd in your blog (whether ad-supported or not) with no need to get my permission. How can I find the date a comic was posted? The posting date is in the mouseover text on the archive page. Is there an interface for automated systems to access comics and metadata? Yes. You can get comics through the JSON interface, at URLs like http://xkcd.com/info.0.json (current comic) and http://xkcd.com/614/info.0.json (comic #614). How do I write "xkcd"? There's nothing in Strunk and White about this. For those of us pedantic enough to want a rule, here it is: The preferred form is "xkcd", all lower-case. In formal contexts where a lowercase word shouldn't start a sentence, "XKCD" is an okay alternative. "Xkcd" is frowned upon. What is your favorite astronomical entity? The Pleiades. Back to main ||||| Invasion of the tiny plastic people! Lego figures set to outnumber HUMANS by 2019 A graph produced by a physics graduate in Virginia, compared human population predictions and the forecast production of Lego figures At the end of 2006, Lego said there were four billion figures in existence, but the number is expected to rise to almost eight billion in 2019 The first Lego figurine went on sale in 1978 and had no race, sex or specific role, as these would be determined by a child's imagination Since 1978, millions of tiny plastic people have been populating the Earth. And now it is predicted that there could be a miniature Lego figure for every person on Earth in 2019. According to a mathematical online comic, Lego has been making its little people at such a rate that they will outnumber the human population by the end of the decade. A physics graduate from Massachusetts, who is behind the web comic Xkcd.com has calculated that the predictions for the global population and predictions for the number of Lego Figurines will match up in 2019 and the little plastic people will go on to out-number humans The first Lego figurine went on sale in 1978 and since then, billions have been produced At the end of 2006, the company announced there were four billion miniature figures in existence, being played with by children across the planet. Now, a physics graduate from Massachusetts, who is behind the web comic Xkcd.com has calculated that the predictions for the global population and predictions for the number of Lego Figurines will match up in 2019 and the plastic people will go on to out-number humans. If the predictions are correct, there will be almost eight billion people and the same amount of Lego figures calling Earth home in 2019. Lego said in 2008 that it has made 400 billion Lego bricks since the company began, which is enough for 62 each for every person in existence at that time. According to a mathematical online comic, Lego has been making its little people at such a rate that they will outnumber the human population by the end of the decade. Here, s model maker at Legoland Windsor puts the finishing touches to a wall made up of over 6,000 Lego figures LEGO MINIFIGURE TIME LINE 1978: The first minifigures are launched for the themes Town, Space and Castle 1978: Two months after the appearance of the first minifigures the first female minifigure arrives on the scene and she's a nurse 1989: Minifigures change their facial expressions. Now they can be either good or bad 1997: The minifigure comes to life in the computer game PANIC ON LEGO ISLAND as an animated character 1998: The minifigure makes its first appearance in a specific role - as Star Wars characters 2003: For the first time in the history of the minifigure its yellow facial colouring is replaced by a more authentic skin colour 2004: Lego licensed products no longer have yellow faces – Harry Potter, for example, assumes a more natural skin tone 2010: Minifigures are launched as collector’s items The first Lego figurine went on sale in 1978 and since then, billions have been produced, making them the world's biggest population group, according to the company. The mini figure has been modelled after celebrities from Stephen Spielberg to Santa Claus and enjoyed various careers, including astronaut, policeman, racing driver, warrior, pirate, skater and scientist as well as taken on the role of fictional characters like Spider-Man, Harry Potter and Yoda. Lego said that when the mini figure first appeared, it was decided that its face should have only one colour - yellow - and that its facial features should be happy and neutral. However earlier this year, robot experts at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, studied all 6000 minifigures from 1975 to 2010 and found that from the early Nineties onwards, Lego's mini-figures' facials expressions have been diversifying from consistently happy smiles to expressions reflecting greater conflict. The first figures had no sex, race or specific role, as these would be determined by a child's imagination and it was not until the launch of Lego Pirates in the 1980s that the figures were given differing facial expressions.

– Today's oddest factoid: There may be 7 billion humans on the planet, but by 2019 a species of tiny plastic people will outnumber even us: Lego figurines. Randall Munroe, the physics grad behind the webcomic xkcd, has compared Lego production forecasts with human population predictions to determine that by 2019, there will be nearly 8 billion tiny, yellow people around—up from 4 billion in 2006—a number that will outstrip the human population. It's all the more impressive considering Lego figurines have only been on sale since 1978, the Daily Mail reports.(Click to see why some of those Lego people may appear angry.)

Published on Nov 6, 2017 Donald Trump and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzō Abe, feed fish on the second day of the US president’s five-nation tour of Asia. Standing beside a pond brimming with colourful koi in the Akasaka palace in Tokyo, the two men upended their wooden containers and dumped the entire contents of fish food into the pond Fishy business: Trump and Abe dump fish food into precious koi pond Subscribe to Guardian News ► http://bit.ly/guardianwiressub Support the Guardian ► https://theguardian.com/supportus The Guardian YouTube network: The Guardian ► www.youtube.com/theguardian Owen Jones talks ► http://bit.ly/subsowenjones Guardian Football ► http://is.gd/guardianfootball Guardian Science and Tech ► http://is.gd/guardiantech Guardian Sport ► http://bit.ly/GDNsport Guardian Culture ► http://is.gd/guardianculture ||||| US president and Japanese host give fish a large feast on second day of former’s five-nation tour of Asia Donald Trump and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, have taken a forceful approach to feeding fish on the second day of the US president’s five-nation tour of Asia. Standing beside a pond brimming with colourful koi in the Akasaka palace in Tokyo, the two men began spooning out fish food before appearing to lose patience and emptying their wooden containers with a shake. The palace’s large collection of koi have been viewed by a succession of world leaders, including Margaret Thatcher. It is not known whether the former British prime minister was as aggressive as Trump when it came to feeding the pond’s inhabitants. White House reporters, keen perhaps to pick up on a Trump gaffe, captured the moment when he upended his box on their smartphones and tweeted evidence of his questionable grasp of fish keeping. However, other footage made clear that Trump was merely following his host’s lead. Abe is seen grinning, as is a woman in a kimono standing to one side. Next to her, Rex Tillerson – perhaps grateful for a moment of comic relief after he was named in the Paradise Papers – could not suppress a laugh, according to witnesses. Some speculated that a poor palace employee would be dispatched to the scene to clean up the mess as soon as the two leaders disappeared inside. Trump and Abe are not alone in misjudging the fishes’ appetite. According to the Aquascape website, overfeeding is the most common mistake made by keepers of koi. “This can make your fish sick, and excessive amounts of waste that strains the limits of what can be biologically reduced, results in a decline of water quality,�? the site says.

– It's probably one of the most-repeated phrases when teaching kids about how to feed fish: just a pinch. It's a directive President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe most definitely did not follow while the two visited the Akasaka palace's koi carp pond Monday. The Guardian reports that the men began by spooning a bit of food in before "appearing to lose patience" and essentially dumping the contents of the boxes they held into the pond. While some in the media were quick to pounce on Trump for the apparent gaffe, the Guardian notes that video footage shows he was simply imitating Abe's approach.

A former executive with Tiffany & Co. stole a little blue box bounty from the jeweler's midtown Manhattan headquarters and resold it for more than $1.3 million, federal authorities said Tuesday. Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun was arrested Tuesday at her home in Darien, Conn. She was to appear later in the day in federal court in Manhattan to face charges of wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. As vice president of product development, Lederhaas-Okun had authority to "check out" jewelry from Tiffany to provide to potential manufacturers to determine production costs. Authorities allege that after she left Tiffany in February, the company discovered she had checked out 164 items that were never returned. According to a criminal complaint, the missing jewelry included numerous diamond bracelets in 18-carat gold, diamond drop and hoop earrings in platinum or 18-carat gold, diamond rings in platinum, rings with precious stones in 18-carat gold, and platinum and diamond pendants. When confronted about the missing jewelry, Lederhaas-Okun claimed that she had left some of it behind at Tiffany and that some had been lost or damaged, the complaint said. But an investigation found that Lederhaas-Okun resold the goods to an unidentified international dealer for more than $1.3 million, it said. Bank records showed that since January 2011, the dealer wrote 75 checks to her or her husband for amounts of up to $47,400, the complaint said. Investigators also recovered purchase forms signed by Lederhaas-Okun that said the items were her personal property. Authorities allege Lederhaas-Okun purposely checked out items valued at under $10,000 apiece to avoid detection. The company takes a daily inventory of all checked-out items worth more than $25,000. If convicted, Lederhaas-Okun faces up to 20 years in prison. The name of her attorney wasn't immediately available. Tiffany representatives declined to comment Tuesday. ||||| A former Tiffany exec was busted by the feds this morning in the theft of more than $1 million worth of bling from the famed jewelry company. Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun, who oversaw product development for the blue box bauble business, allegedly resold the valuable trinkets to an unidentified Midtown jewelry company and concocted a series of stories to account for the loss. The loot included more than 165 pieces, including “numerous diamond bracelets, platinum or gold diamond drop and hoop earrings, platinum diamond rings, and platinum and diamond pendants,” according to the feds. Lederhaas-Okun, 46, was nabbed by the FBI this morning at her home in ritzy Darien, Conn., and charged with wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. The charges carry a maximum punishment of 30 years in the slammer. “As alleged, Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun went from a vice president at a high-end jewelry company to jewel thief,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said. “Her arrest shows that no matter how privileged their position in a company, employees who steal will face the full consequences of the law.” According to a profile posted on linkedin.com, Lederhaas-Okun started working at Tiffany as an assistant buyer in 1991 and rose through the ranks over the following years. She was canned in February “as part of an overall downsizing at the jewelry company,” according to court papers. A Tiffany spokeswoman said: “In deference to the US Attorney’s investigation, we are not in a position to comment at this time.” Lederhaas-Okun is due in court later today.

– It's not the kind of jewelry heist screenwriters dream about, but this alleged plot seems to have gotten the job done: A former executive at Tiffany's is accused of taking 165 pieces of jewelry, pretty much one piece at a time, and then reselling them to an international dealer for about $1.3 million, reports AP. Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun had access to the loot as part of her job as VP in charge of product development. An investigation found that she checked out from storage everything from diamond bracelets to precious stones to gold earrings, items that somehow never found their way back to the company. Her excuses about things getting lost or damaged didn't stand up to scrutiny, especially when authorities found 75 hefty checks written by the unidentified dealer to her or her husband. (The New York Post says the dealer is a company in Midtown Manhattan.) The 46-year-old suspect, who lost her job at Tiffany's during downsizing in February, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

CONCORD, N.H.—It was not the news that South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham went on TV to make. Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, who like the rest of Washington was exploring every angle of the Hillary Clinton e-mail kerfuffle, asked Graham if he had a private e-mail address. "I don't e-mail," said Graham. "No, you can have every e-mail I've ever sent. I've never sent one." That went viral, funny enough, on the weekend of Graham's first trip to New Hampshire as a potential presidential candidate. After a marathon town-hall meeting in Concord's Snow Shoe Lodge, the Republican held a gaggle with reporters, and Fox News lobbed a question about the e-mail. Graham repeated himself: He did not use e-mail. He preferred to talk on the phone. "The next president of the United States needs to be good with people, not just technology," he said. http://youtu.be/RoNHHaL2Phs After that exchange, Graham responded to a question about Clinton with a joke: "If she could do it again, she'd do the Lindsey Graham thing, and not use e-mail." As he headed to his car, I asked Graham to explain his communication methods, a subject that truly baffled a press corps that walks around with smartphones welded to hands. "What I do, basically, is that I've got iPads, and I play around," Graham explained. "But I don't e-mail. I've tried not to have a system where I can just say the first dumb thing that comes to my mind. I've always been concerned. I can get texts, and I call you back, if I want. I get a text, and I respond not by sending you a text, but calling you if I think what you asked is worthy enough for me calling you. I'm not being arrogant, but I'm trying to jealously guard myself in terms of being able to think through problems and not engage in chat all day. I've had a chance to kind of carve out some time for myself not responding to every 15-second crisis." ||||| University of WisconsinArchive-It Partner Since: Aug, 2007Organization Type: Colleges & UniversitiesOrganization URL: http://archives.library.wisc.edu This collection currently includes two distinct sub-collections: The UW-Madison Collection and The Stem Cell Research Archives Project.The UW-Madison Collection includes University of Wisconsin Web sites that document many aspects of campus life including university administration, colleges, departments, and major campus organizations, student life, research, buildings, and special and ongoing events. We also crawl UW System and Colleges administration and UW Extension Web sites.The Stem Cell Research Archives Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries collects, preserves, and provides access to records of stem cell research at UW-Madison and reactions in Wisconsin to work accomplished or underway at UW-Madison.For more information about these collections or UW campus history, visit http://archives.library.wisc.edu or contact uwarchiv@library.wisc.edu. On Wisconsin! ||||| How does he find out that there’s been a last-minute change to his scheduled meeting? How does he know whether his Amazon.com order has been dispatched? What does he do when he forgets the password for his Spotify account? These questions plagued me upon hearing that South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has never sent an email. Graham, who was a U.S. congressman for eight years before becoming a senator 12 years ago, laughed about his email habits before adding, “I don’t know what that makes me.” More Politics We know: It makes Graham part of the 9 percent of American adults who say they have never sent or received an email in their lives. That number comes from a report published by the Pew Research Center in April 2012 that used survey data to analyze the way American adults use the Internet. It’s not just Graham’s public role that makes his avoidance of email surprising, it’s also his demographic characteristics. Only 3 percent of college-educated respondents said they had never used email (Graham graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1977, the same year the U.S. Postal Service recognized electronic messaging as a threat to its revenue). Graham’s annual salary of $174,000 also makes his non-emailing unusual, since more affluent groups are more likely to have used email: 85 percent of respondents whose household income was less than than $30,000 per year said they had used email compared to 97 percent of those earning $75,000 or more. Being white also increases the probability that an American will have used email at some point in his or her life. In fact, the only thing that makes Graham’s communication habits less surprising is the fact that he’s approaching 60 years of age. Older Americans are less likely to say they have used email. But still, 90 percent of adults in Graham’s age group have sent or received at least one message, and even among those age 65 and over, that number is 86 percent. Pew also asked why people emailed or didn’t. About a third of all respondents who didn’t use the Internet or email said it was because they were just not interested, and another 12 percent said it was because they don’t have a computer. Other responses included “it’s a waste of time” (7 percent of respondents), “too old to learn” (4 percent) and “worried about viruses/spyware/spam” (only 1 percent). It’s not yet clear why the senator has chosen to abstain from email. Maybe Graham just really, really cares about the U.S. Postal Service — after all, he did sponsor a bill in 2003 to rename a branch in his home state the Floyd Spence Post Office Building. I assume he received the good news that the bill passed via a stamped letter. ||||| 15% of American adults do not use the internet at all, and another 9% of adults use the internet but not at home. As of May 2013, 15% of American adults ages 18 and older do not use the internet or email. Asked why they do not use the internet: 34% of non-internet users think the internet is just not relevant to them , saying they are not interested, do not want to use it, or have no need for it. , saying they are not interested, do not want to use it, or have no need for it. 32% of non-internet users cite reasons tied to their sense that the internet is not very easy to use . These non-users say it is difficult or frustrating to go online, they are physically unable, or they are worried about other issues such as spam, spyware, and hackers. This figure is considerably higher than in earlier surveys. . These non-users say it is difficult or frustrating to go online, they are physically unable, or they are worried about other issues such as spam, spyware, and hackers. This figure is considerably higher than in earlier surveys. 19% of non-internet users cite the expense of owning a computer or paying for an internet connection . . 7% of non-users cited a physical lack of availability or access to the internet. As in previous surveys by the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project, internet use remains strongly correlated with age, educational attainment, and household income. One of the strongest patterns in the data on internet use is by age group: 44% of Americans ages 65 and older do not use the internet, and these older Americans make up almost half (49%) of non-internet users overall. Though they themselves do not go online, these self-described non-internet users often report that the internet touches their lives: 44% of offline adults have asked a friend or family member to look something up or complete a task on the internet for them . . 23% of offline adults live in a household where someone else uses the internet at home, a proportion that has remained relatively steady for over a decade. at home, a proportion that has remained relatively steady for over a decade. 14% of offline adults say that they once used to use the internet, but have since stopped for some reason. Overall, most adults who do not use the internet or email do not express a strong desire to go online in the future: just 8% of offline adults say they would like to start using the internet or email, while 92% say they are not interested. We also offline adults whether they would need assistance going online if they did wish to do so, and found that only 17% of all non-internet users say they would be able to start using the internet on their own, while 63% say they would need assistance. Even among the 85% of adults who do go online, experiences connecting to the internet may vary widely. For instance, while 76% of adults use the internet at home, 9% of adults use the internet but lack home access. Groups that are significantly more likely to rely on internet access outside the home include blacks and Hispanics, as well as adults at lower levels of income and education. Finally, while most home internet users have broadband in some form, 3% of all adults go online at home via dial-up connections. About this survey The findings in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from April 17 to May 19, 2013, among a sample of 2,252 adults ages 18 and older. Telephone interviews were conducted in English and Spanish by landline and cell phone. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. More information is available in the Methods section at the end of this report.

– Lindsey Graham, take heart: Up to 15% of Americans don't use email either and may not go online at all. The South Carolina Republican revealed yesterday during a conversation about Hillary Clinton's emails that he had never sent an email before. "I don't know what that makes me," he said on Meet the Press. Well, drawing on a Pew Research Center report from 2012, Five Thirty-Eight says that 9% of American adults haven't sent an email either. And a Pew report from last year says 15% of American adults don't go online for email, surfing, pinging, posting, or whatever. What's really unusual about Graham's email stance is the fact that he doesn't fit into the non-email group's demographic. Per the 2012 report, just 3% of Americans with a college education say they haven't clicked "send" before—while Graham left the University of South Carolina in 1977 with a bona fide degree. And his $174,000 salary makes him more affluent than most non-email users; 97% of Americans making at least $75,000 say they've used email compared to 85% of people banking under $30,000. Whites are also more likely to have sent an electronic message. Only Graham's age (he's 59) makes him a closer demographic fit, but even then, 90% of adults in his age range say they've sent email before. So why doesn't he? "I've tried not to have a system where I can just say the first dumb thing that comes to my mind," he tells Bloomberg.

Cleveland Heights, Ohio — THERE is no song called “I Left My Heart in Cleveland.” Cleveland is the flip side of California and the Golden State Warriors, whom they have met in the last two N.B.A. finals. The former Cleveland Cavaliers basketball coach David Blatt once said: “We’re in Cleveland. Nothing is easy here.” Then he got fired. Sunday night Cleveland came back from a three-games-to-one deficit to beat Golden State and win the N.B.A. championship. I was born in Cleveland, my father was born in Cleveland, my children were born in Cleveland, and we’ve all seen many, many losing teams — 52 years’ worth, if you’re counting. And we’re counting here in Cleveland. The last time Cleveland won a championship was the 1964 National Football League Championship. My dad took me. I was in Section 18, Row T, Seat 8 of Municipal Stadium. Two years ago, when LeBron James announced his return to Cleveland from Miami in Sports Illustrated, some Cleveland men teared up. My middle-aged friend Jimmy and I did. So un-Cleveland — those tears. The credo here is “Cleveland: You’ve Got to Be Tough,” from a T-shirt first printed in the 1970s when the boy-mayor Dennis Kucinich ushered the city into default. James wrote: “Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart. People there have seen me grow up. I sometimes feel like I’m their son.” ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| After Cleveland's win in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, the only Cavaliers player who was anywhere near as emotional as LeBron James was J.R. Smith. Smith cried on the court and this image started making the rounds on social media almost immediately: But those weren’t the only tears Smith shed on Sunday night. Far from it, actually. After the Cavaliers collected the Larry O’Brien Trophy and went back to their locker room, Smith held a post-game press conference, and he was extremely emotional throughout it. His tears continued to flow throughout his presser, as he talked about how much his family means to him and what they've done to help him overcome adversity. It was easily one of the best moments of the entire NBA Playoffs. Watch it, here: Here’s a transcript of Smith’s speech, which included a portion devoted specifically to his father: That Smith’s press conference took place on Father’s Day made it all the more special. Plenty of people had jokes about Smith being an NBA champion on Twitter after the game: JR Smith bout to throw a hell of a party. — Twan (@Twan_Priceless) June 20, 2016 I can only wish one day I'll party as hard as JR smith does tonight — sean brannagan (@seanbraggs36) June 20, 2016 I would pay an unlimited amount of money to be able to party with Jr Smith tonight — Nick Johnson (@nick_johnson019) June 20, 2016 But the things he said during his press conference really summed up what being an NBA champion is all about. And all jokes aside (we've made a lot of them, too, over the years), it's nice to see how much winning a title truly means to a player like Smith. ||||| Ezra Shaw/Getty Images LeBron James was anointed as a transcendent, generational star while he was still in high school. He’s been the best player in basketball for most of the 13 years he’s been in the league—a four-time MVP, a 12-time All-Star, and already the 11th-leading scorer in NBA history by the age of 31. He’s the most physically gifted player of all time, faster and more skilled than anyone with his size and strength. And yet on Sunday night, a few minutes after he led the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first-ever title, James said, “I don’t know why the man above give me the hardest road.” The now three-time NBA champ spoke the truth. Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals felt like a rock fight staged inside an enormous pothole. Steph Curry, the unanimous MVP, shot 6 for 19 from the field and finished with more turnovers than assists. His fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson shot 6 for 17 from the floor and 2–10 from 3-point range. LeBron himself shot just 9 for 24 and led both teams with five turnovers. After he scored six straight points to put the Cavs up 89–87 with 4:52 to go, James missed four shots in a row, each of which would’ve given Cleveland back the lead. On the other end, the Warriors missed their last nine shot attempts. The only player on either team who made a field goal in the last 4:39 was Kyrie Irving, whose 3-pointer with 53 seconds left turned out to be the game-winner in Cleveland’s 93–89 victory over Golden State. Advertisement This is the thing about the NBA and legacies and greatness: In this series, LeBron was about as dominant as any basketball player can be, and he never came close to controlling his team’s fate. If one of the best offensive teams in history managed to score any points at all in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter … if Curry didn’t throw a dumb behind-the-back pass out of bounds … if Kyrie Irving had clanged that long jumper instead of knocking it in, then this story probably wouldn’t include the phrase “three-time NBA champ.” James led both teams in the NBA Finals in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. He scored 41 points in Game 5, 41 more in Game 6, and put up a triple-double in Game 7. With a little less than two minutes on the clock, he chased down Andre Iguodala and made the block of the century to keep the game tied. A couple of minutes later, he nearly destroyed space and time with a game-clinching dunk over Draymond Green. That would've been fitting, for the best player in the world to seal one of the most significant victories in NBA history with one of the greatest dunks ever. But Green fouled him, hard, sending James to the line. He flicked his jammed right wrist and made one out of two free throws, giving the Cavs the two-possession lead they wouldn't relinquish. This was less spectacular but somehow more appropriate. LeBron soared over everyone, got knocked out of the sky, and had to pull himself off the ground to lock up his franchise's biggest victory. Advertisement But to bring a championship to Cleveland, the best player in the game needed a couple of breaks. This is the reality of professional sports, and it’s because of that reality that I’ve rooted for LeBron James for the past 10 years. Players play to win championships, and fans and writers evaluate them based on whether they succeed. It’s unfair, but it’s what makes the games we watch so thrilling. Since winner-takes-some is never going to be a thing, those of us who want one of the best players we’ve ever seen to get the respect he deserves have no choice but to hope he gets the bounces he needs to make his résumé unimpeachable. LeBron led the first-ever comeback from 3–1 down in the NBA Finals. He beat the greatest regular-season team ever. He came back to his home state of Ohio and won a championship for the most star-crossed sports city in the United States. That block on Iguodala isn’t the block that kept the game tied before Steph Curry went off and won his second title in a row. It’s the Block. If he wasn’t before, LeBron James is now, rightfully, a basketball legend. It’s been a hard road for LeBron James. It was a hard road to get nicknamed “the Chosen One” as a high school junior, then get criticized even as he exceeded every unrealistic expectation. It was a hard road to get drafted by his home-state team, and be expected to do what no other player in any sport had done for Cleveland since 1964. It was a hard road to leave Ohio for another, better opportunity, and to have his jersey burned by the fans that had claimed to love him. It was a hard road to come back, to forgive Dan “Comic Sans” Gilbert, and to say he was “ready to accept the challenge” of winning a championship with the Cavaliers. It was a hard road to play without Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in last year’s finals. It was a hard road at times to play with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving—the star power forward who can’t play defense and the star point guard who sees the game as a 48-minute one-man show with occasional intermissions during which other people are allowed to touch the ball. It was a hard road to lead a team that might not have even made the postseason without him. Winning a championship in any sport is hard. An NBA championship is harder to win than most. There are no hot goaltenders or dominant starting pitchers. The playoffs aren’t a crapshoot; they’re a gauntlet. You can’t luck your way to an NBA title. You can’t hoist the trophy by relying on grit and guile. You have to be the best, or very, very close to the best, and hope that this is one of the years in which that’s good enough. ||||| Your teams. Your favorite writers. Wherever you want them. Personalize SI with our new App. Install on iOS or Android.​ In the final minutes of Cleveland's Game 7 victory, LeBron James chased down Andre Iguodala for a giant block that helped seal a 93–89 win and the Cavs’ first championship. With the game tied, 89–89, James ran back on defense after a Kyrie Irving miss. In transition, Iguodala kicked the ball to Curry, and got it back for a layup try. James sprinted toward the bucket, leaped just outside the restricted area, and pinned Iguodala's shot against the backboard. James won Finals MVP after finishing the game with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. He hit the game-sealing free throw with an injured wrist. LeBron with one of the biggest blocks you'll ever see pic.twitter.com/vu3UIUIBiH — Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) June 20, 2016 • Get SI’s Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Championship package The Cavs captured their first NBA title, and the first for the city of Cleveland in any major sport since the Browns won the NFL championship in 1964. ||||| I AM LEGEND He single-handedly brought his team back from a 3-1 deficit to win one of the most thrilling NBA Finals ever. It’s time to admit that LeBron is on the Mount Rushmore of basketball. I give up. It is simply too hard to hate LeBron now. It is too much effort, and it makes me feel like a sad person. Saying this goes against my nature. He was the bad guy for, in hindsight, simultaneously obvious and vituperatively stupid reasons. I will try to enumerate them. A guy, Scott Raab, wrote a bunch of columns and a book about LeBron in my formative years. The book wound up being called The Whore of Akron. “May he suffer another decade of strokes and spend an eternity tonguing Satan’s flaming anus,” Raab wrote of LeBron. It felt fresh and perfect. Eric Risberg/AP There was a media prescription for LeBron—a big, juggernaut of a teenager who had been lying around, cocooning in televised high school games on ESPN2, and we all had to like him. This was back when ESPN was infallible, and questioning its incessant starfucking was considered weird and wrong. Therefore, questioning why they were showing blowout high school games and lauding a 17-year-old as the next Jesus Christ wasn’t even on the radar. The bloom is well off the rose on that network now—after three straight, static years of a sports network chasing Johnny Manziel from bar to bar so that two red-faced, middle-aged millionaires could argue about the definition of alcoholism first thing in the morning, every morning. But back then, it wasn’t part of the deal to think that ESPN might be in it for the wrong reasons. So when Raab wrote a bunch of vicious columns about LeBron, it felt like home. I wanted to live inside it. All of my skepticism about this restrictive and overall dumb way we talked about sports was able to calcify into pure, easy hate, and it was all seized and appropriated into one big villain: LeBron James. After his Decision, when traditional sports media was leveling a seesaw over whether LeBron “taking my talents to South Beach” James was a misunderstood star or a standard antihero and nothing in between, Raab was playing around in the beautiful nuance and verbiage and color of hate. ESPN seemed so binary. These columns, about how LeBron ripped the heart out of his hometown, and then the guts, and then the pancreas, for good measure—they were real, and they were landscapes, and they were gorgeous. Everybody else wanted to get their heart rate up while watching Hot Take Hell on ESPN7. Scott Raab was making outsider art that people used to reserve for graffiti against oppressive governments. It was the American male way to read big words without shame in the early 2000s: write about sports with a lot of provincialism, covered in blood. Then LeBron got unbelievably good, winning a couple of titles in Miami before coming home to Cleveland to wonder why people still hated him. I don’t know. I don’t have an answer anymore. It was an anxious, impractical hate, one that required a lot of logic-leaping, emotional energy, and lighter fluid. And now I’m done with it. He made five straight NBA Finals? Fine, but he only won a couple of them. He moved back to godawful Cleveland from gorgeous Miami so he could make good on his word? Yeah, but he wrote a persnickety letter and left a bunch of players off it that wound up getting traded, and now—look here—there’s a conspiracy that he might have gotten those players traded himself. Does he secretly run the team? Does he have more say than the Cavs’ general manager? Is LeBron Machiavellian? Is he not a point forward but actually the Dictator of Cleveland? I mean, he got his coach fired, right? And replaced him with a buddy of his? Who does that? Boy, he’s gonna have it coming to him when some superteam just shellacks him twice and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. He’s gonna get it good. Say goodnight to the bad guy. And then there was none. He didn’t get it good. He served up a chasedown block from nowhere, like a teenager in an AND1 Mixtape—but at 31 years old. It saved the Finals. He led his team in every conceivable category. In fact, he led all players on both teams in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, making him, as ESPN noted, “the first player in NBA history to lead all players in all five categories for an entire playoff series,” averaging 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.3 blocks and 2.6 steals. It is undeniable. He won the NBA Finals by himself. He came back down 3-1. He brought his native Cleveland its first major sports championship in 50 years. I’m too tired now to deny it anymore, and a little ashamed. LeBron’s one of the greatest there is. He’s up there with Jordan. Don’t let me tell me otherwise. ||||| Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James answers questions as he holds his daughter Zhuri during a post-game press conference after Game 7 of basketball's NBA Finals Sunday, June 19, 2016, in Oakland, Calif.... (Associated Press) Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James answers questions as he holds his daughter Zhuri during a post-game press conference after Game 7 of basketball's NBA Finals Sunday, June 19, 2016, in Oakland, Calif. Cleveland won 93-89. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) (Associated Press) The drought is over for Cleveland, and the debate is over as well. Best player in basketball? His name is LeBron James. This is why he went back to Cleveland, to deliver a title, to end the city's epic championship drought and finally give Northeast Ohio what it craved for nearly 52 years. It's done. And now he's free. Anything that happens from here is icing atop a three-tiered championship cake for James. There's absolutely nothing left for James to prove. The only thing he hadn't done on a basketball court was make Cleveland, a city whose sports teams were cursed for so long, a winner. December 27, 1964 was the day Jim Brown last made them one. That is, until June 19, 2016. James was an NBA champion before from his time in Miami, an Olympic champion, an MVP, a Finals MVP ... he had checked every box but one, and now that one is filled as well. Stephen Curry is the two-time reigning MVP and rightly so, best player on the best regular-season team in league history. Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant will likely be the hottest free agent on the market this summer, coveted by everyone. Kobe Bryant was the highest-paid player in the NBA this season and this year was a celebration of his 20 years of greatness. But they're all part of LeBron's world. James is the freight train, the most unstoppable force in the game, and he shows no signs of slowing down after 13 years in the league. He's 31. He rarely if ever misses games. He's been in seven of the last 10 NBA Finals, including each of the last six. He's nowhere near his decline, which has to delight even those Cleveland fans who burned his jerseys in 2010. And while winning cures all, he can be a free agent this summer, which should scare some people as well. "I'm true to the game," James said, "and I know what I bring to the table." It bears noting that some of what's on that table now wasn't there six years ago, though. It's fair to say, this celebration would not be happening without July 8, 2010, the day James headed to Miami. James needed a change and craved a title. He got all that and more. He learned how to lead, he learned the value of structure, he learned from Dwyane Wade and Erik Spoelstra and Pat Riley and Micky Arison, took little bits from each of them, added it all to his already-ridiculous game and made himself better. James never went to college. But like many college kids, he went away for four years and then returned home with hopes of making his city better. The result: Cleveland is a city of champions. "I knew what I learned in the last couple years that I was gone," James said, "and I knew if I had to — when I came back, I knew I had the right ingredients and the right blueprint to help this franchise get back to a place that we've never been. That's what it was all about." He'll never win over everyone. He'll never win the argument about who is better, him or Michael Jordan or anyone else who merits mention among the league's greats. He doesn't care, either. He'll leave those conversations for others to have. But he put an end to the discussion of who is the best right now. "There's no denying what he was able to accomplish this series," a very classy Curry said after Game 7. "He played pretty great basketball." James is the quintessential American success story. He bucked overwhelming after odds by rising above his impoverished upbringing in Akron, Ohio. He's a global icon who's earned roughly $175 million in NBA salary, probably that much if not a great deal more from his Nike sponsorship deal alone, has a blossoming entertainment studio and is easily one of the most recognizable faces on the planet. He's on pace to be a billionaire someday like his good pal Warren Buffett, who James can chat up basically any time he wants. And now he can do whatever he wants for as long as he wants to play this game. He owes no one anything anymore. Stay in Cleveland, return to Miami, go anywhere else in the NBA; it's all up to him now. For the first time in 13 years, LeBron James is free of burden. With that weight lifted, it's scary to think his best might be yet to come. ___ Tim Reynolds is a national basketball writer for The Associated Press. Write to him at treynolds@ap.org ||||| Your teams. Your favorite writers. Wherever you want them. Personalize SI with our new App. Install on iOS or Android.​ OAKLAND, Calif. — The cozy basketball locker room at Akron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary High School is loaded with motivation in every corner. There are bible verses in the lockers and along the side walls, a John Wooden quote in the back and blow-up photographs of the program’s most famous alum plastered everywhere. But the first thing visitors see upon entry is a simple, tall poster with Fighting Irish green lettering that reads: “Discipline: Do what has to be done; when it has to be done; as well as it can be done; do it that way all the time.” Four virtues are built into the message: Responsibility, timeliness, excellence and consistency. Those same four virtues carried LeBron James, the alum whose photos grace the locker room’s walls, to the greatest achievement of his career: his first NBA championship in his native Ohio, the first title in the Cavaliers’ 46-year history, and the first title in 52 years for the cursed city of Cleveland. The Cavaliers defeated the Warriors 93–89 in Game 7 at Oracle Arena on Sunday, pulling off the greatest comeback in Finals history by digging out of a 3–1 deficit and spoiling the most successful regular season the league has seen. “Our fans ride or die, no matter what’s been going on,” said James, who broke into tears on the court after the final buzzer sounded and was named Finals MVP for the third time in his career. “No matter the Browns, the Indians, the Cavs. They continue to support us. For us to be able to end this drought, our fans deserve it. They deserve it. It was for them.” • How Cavs pulled off stunning upset | Frame-by-frame look at The Block The Cavaliers did it thanks to some resourcefulness from rookie coach Tyronn Lue, a gigantic late-game three-pointer from Kyrie Irving and unexpected contributions from the much-maligned Kevin Love. They had a little help from Draymond Green’s Game 5 suspension and multiple shaky outings from Stephen Curry. Most of all, though, the Cavaliers shocked the world because James did what had to be done, when it had to be done, as well as it could be done, and he did it that way all the time. Ben Golliver for Sports Illustrated James did it in Game 5, pouring in 41 points on the road to spoil Golden State’s party. James did it again in Game 6, scoring 41 points again and dishing 11 assists, while blocking Curry in emphatic fashion. And James did it again in Game 7, posting 27 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, to notch the seventh triple double in his Finals career and the first triple double in a Finals Game 7 since James Worthy in 1988. “I watched Beethoven tonight,” Irving said. “LeBron James composed a game. He had a freakin’ triple double in Game 7 of an NBA Finals game.” • Get SI’s Cavaliers NBA Championship package | Watch Game 7 highlights The play that will live for years on the highlight tapes came with just under two minutes left. For nearly three tense minutes, neither team scored, but the Warriors broke out on a two-on-one fast break, threatening to get an easy go-ahead bucket. Andre Iguodala dribbled hard to half-court and then passed to Curry on the left wing, who returned the pass in textbook fashion without dribbling. Iguodala took the ball in full stride, with a crease to the basket past J.R. Smith, and tossed up a double-clutch layup off the glass. Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images As that sequence unfolded, James, who had been in the right corner, found himself trailing the play, caught up briefly by Klay Thompson. When Curry received the ball, near the three-point line, James had only just crossed half-court, and yet he already had a vision for how the play would end. When Curry returned the ball to Iguodala, James gathered in stutter-step fashion, preparing to plant for a swooping block attempt. He leapt from outside the protected circle, floating across the paint to pound the shot against the backcourt and keep it in play. The Cavaliers needed a block, they needed a block at that exact moment and only a superhuman effort would make it happen. James delivered on all counts, just as he had all series, just as he has throughout his 13-year career. No one else on the Cavaliers could make that play. No one else would even think to make that play. James thought about it, made it and made it look easy. • All of LeBron’s Finals, ranked​ | LeBron’s letter | A timeline since then ... James has been a bigger, stronger and faster physical force since his prep school play landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated at age 17, but he’s always been smarter too. A huge part of his basketball intelligence is his vision, which manifests itself in many ways. He saw that it was time to take a backseat to a scorching hot Irving late in Game 5. He saw the impossible passing angles throughout Game 6. He saw the chasedown block opportunity in Game 7. His vision, unlike any other current athlete, has extended well outside his 94' by 50' office. James saw that he made a mistake with how he executed The Decision in 2010, he saw what it took to win a title in Miami, he saw the possibility of a return to Cleveland when many others didn’t, and he saw that he could use his leverage as a player to build a roster and reshape a coaching staff to his liking. James saw that he had no equal in the Eastern Conference, he saw Irving’s precocious talent, he saw Love’s desire to start fresh outside Minnesota, he saw Tristan Thompson’s undervalued skills and he saw that Dion Waiters and former coach David Blatt weren’t going to be a part of the equation. “I came back for a reason,” James said, wearing the net around his neck, his Finals MVP trophy in front of him, his daughter in his arms and his two sons by his side. “I came back to bring a championship to our city. I knew what I was capable of doing. I knew what I learned in the last couple years that I was gone, and when I came back, I knew I had the right ingredients and the right blueprint.” That blueprint and those maneuverings put James and the Cavaliers in position to strike when the Warriors’ dream season fell to pieces with Green’s suspension and Curry’s subpar play. See classic photos of three-time NBA Finals MVP LeBron James LeBron James Off the Court Courtesy of the James Family Courtesy of the James Family Michael J. LeBrecht II Michael J. LeBrecht II Michael J. LeBrecht II Michael J. LeBrecht II David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images Johnny Nunez/WireImage Steve Grayson/WireImage Steve Grayson/WireImage David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images Johnny Nunez/WireImage Simon Bruty Chris Polk/FilmMagic Greg Nelson Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images Johnny Nunez/WireImage Gregory Heisler Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for Sprite John Parra/WireImage John W. McDonough Ben Pruchnie/WireImage for Budweiser Harry How/Getty Images Bruce Yeung/NBAE/Getty Images Greg Nelson Sands/GC Images Fred Vuich Kevin Mazur/WireImage Todd Rosenberg John W. McDonough Robert Beck Ron Schwane/AP Gene J. Puskar/AP Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Jeff Haynes 1 of 37 Advertisement Down the stretch, as James blocked Iguodala and Irving broke the long-standing tie with an incredible three-pointer, Golden State missed nine straight shots and didn’t score in the final 4:38. During the regular season, the Warriors had been the league’s most clutch team; here, in a winner-take-all Game 7, they spent crunch time back on their heels, overwhelmed. Curry, who finished with 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting, said he was “aggressive, but in the wrong ways,” as he went 1 of 6 in the final period and carelessly flipped a behind-the-back pass out of bounds down the stretch. “We’re stunned,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We thought we were going to win. I was extremely confident coming into tonight. This is why you can’t mess around. … James is one of the great players of alltime and obviously he was the key to the turnaround. He had a great series.” This championship is a long time coming: 16 years after his first high school state title, 14 years after the Chosen One” SI cover, 13 years after he was Cleveland’s No. 1 pick, six years after The Decision and three years after his most recent title with the Heat. James has, without hyperbole, spent more than half of his life in direct preparation for this moment. So too has Akron, Cleveland and the rest of Ohio. There’s no doubt that this is and will be remembered as the high point of his career to date, and nothing that comes afterward will be able to top it. This is the peak, the pinnacle, the ultimate triumph. “He deserves it,” Lue said. “He’s a hard worker. He’s been the face of the NBA for 13 years. To leave Miami to come to Cleveland to give the city of Cleveland a championship, just shows you who he is. He’s a giver. He’s always looking to take care of people. He’s always been nice to everyone. If anyone deserves it, LeBron James definitely deserves it.” #http://www.120sports.com/video/v185109022/cavaliers-win-the-nba-finals Back at St. V, James has donated enough money to fund a new gymnasium, dubbed The LeBron James Arena. His No. 23 jersey is everywhere—from the backs of the school’s students, to the student store, to the gym rafters—and his old basketball teammate Willie McGee is the school’s athletic director. “I can’t wait to get back home,” James said from Oracle, thousands of miles from the Akron high school gym that put him on the map and then on the globe. Halfway across the country and more than a decade later, his play had perfectly embodied the message that can be found next to his old green, metal locker. James put the Cavaliers on his shoulders. He saved their season from elimination three straight times in unprecedented fashion. He played the best and most complete basketball of his first-ballot Hall of Fame career, earning unanimous Finals MVP honors by leading all players in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. And, on Sunday, he played 46-plus minutes in the 199th postseason game of his career—that’s 199 out of a possible 199 games, because he’s never once missed a playoff game due to injury. Responsibility, timeliness, excellence, consistency. ||||| This is more than just an NBA finals win for Cleveland. This is the end of the drought. The end of the curse. The end of the heartaches. Fifty-two years - just a blip. LeBron James, MVP for the finals, put it all on the court, all of it, all in for Cleveland. So did the team. So did the amazing Tristan Thompson. Kyrie Irving. Kevin Love. The celebration. The delivery. The tears from LeBron. He earned it for Cleveland. LeBron promised it, he came home for it, and he brought it. It wipes out The Decision. What decision? As LeBron said -- he poured his heart and his blood and his tears into this game, against all odds. "Cleveland! This is for you!" And it was all heart, all determination, against, on paper, the best team in the NBA. The Golden State Warriors played hard, played smart, but Cleveland just was smarter, just was tougher, just was better. The moment is magic, unbelievable, transformative. Thank you, Cleveland Cavaliers. Thank you, LeBron. Thank you, Cleveland, for believing. 93-89. Fifty-two years. It was worth it. And it changes everything. ||||| Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

– LeBron James led his Cleveland Cavaliers to a Game 7 win Sunday night to cap an epic championship series, one in which the Cavs became the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit. Some of the next-morning analysis: If there are any LeBron haters left, it's time to let it go, writes Ben Collins in the Daily Beast. (He counts himself as one of those former haters.) He's "one of the greatest there is. He's up there with Jordan." Josh Levin at Slate explains why this is now true: "If he wasn't before, LeBron James is now, rightfully, a basketball legend." Tim Reynolds of the AP weighs in, too. No more debate: LeBron is the "best player in basketball." Sports Illustrated says this play by James late in the game (a "superhuman" shot block) will be replayed for years. Cleveland native Bert Stratton writes about what the first sports championship in a half-century means for his city at the New York Times. An editorial in the Cleveland Plain Dealer has three words for it: "magic, unbelievable, transformative." A post at Complex says an emotional JR Smith of the Cavs gave one of the most memorable post-game news conferences ever. The video is here. Deadspin highlights the moment Cleveland newscasters learned the Cavs had won while on the air.

They flew home from Iraq together on a spring day in 2010 on a C-17 cargo plane, the dog in a metal kennel on the floor at the soldier’s feet. When they reached the United States, the soldier went home to his farm in Fountain, Colo., and the dog was transported to the Army’s military kennels at Fort Carson, about 12 miles north. Sergeant 1st Class Matthew Bessler and the Belgian Malinois named Mike had been part of a canine tactical team with the 10th Special Forces Group based at Fort Carson. On the ground in Iraq, their work had been phenomenal, earning Bessler two Bronze Stars, among the most coveted commendations in the military. During their second tour as part of an elite Special Operations group in a particularly deadly phase of the war, the pair had spent every day and night together for eight months. Now back home, the days were never longer than when they were apart. It was as if one’s existence was proof of the other’s survival. Both the soldier and the dog had come home with symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Mike was retiring as a combat dog, although his PTSD would get worse before it got better. And although Bessler had been in denial about his PTSD for some time, it would soon become clear that it had become too severe for him to return to war. Bessler had already planned to adopt Mike, but in time he would wind up training him for a new job — this time as a service dog to help protect Bessler from the unpredictable menace of PTSD. “Michael is a brother,” said Bessler, who served more than half of his 20-year military career in Special Operations, with an expertise in engineering and intelligence gathering. “He needs me just as much as I need him.” [MORE: After the earthquakes: Here’s what the Nepal rescue dogs do when they’re not working] For his service, including the detection of thousands of pounds of explosives and bomb-making materials that likely no human or machine could have located, Mike had been promoted to the rank of Major. That was part of the Army’s long tradition of bestowing ranks upon war dogs; the dog’s rank was usually at least one above the soldier’s to encourage respect and discourage abuse. To Bessler, Mike was a soldier, and their bond was as strong or stronger than the love that can grow between soldiers during combat. Bessler would lose touch with many of his battle brothers over time, but Mike would become a constant in a world spinning with chaos. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, was not a new diagnosis for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan at that time. But PTSD, traumatic brain injury and the physical and mental needs of the 2.1 million veterans of those long wars would soon become part of an all-out crisis for America. It was no surprise that Bessler, a highly decorated Army Ranger who fought for long stretches in some of the most violent of America’s recent wars and conflicts — Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Iraq — could return home damaged. But Canine PTSD was a new diagnosis, only then emerging as a possible explanation for some of the troubling behaviors some veteran combat dogs exhibit. A key to diagnosing a war dog with post-traumatic stress is noting whether the dog’s behavior has changed in the same setting, according to Dr. Walter F. Burghardt Jr., the chief of Behavioral Medicine at the Daniel E. Holland Military Working Dogs Hospital at Lackland Airforce Base in Texas. So if a dog consistently searches for bombs, for example, and suddenly stops in the midst of working, with no change in his environment, that would be a clear sign of trauma. “It usually involves a situation where the dog is not working as we expect it to,” Dr. Burghardt said. An estimated 5 to 10 percent of the 650 military working dogs who served in combat are expected to show symptoms of Canine PTSD, he said. Looking back, Bessler believes he can pinpoint the exact moment that pushed Mike over the edge. [MORE: Meet the Belgian Malinois, the highly-trained military dogs that guard the White House] After Bessler and Mike returned home from Iraq, Bessler put in the papers to adopt his wartime companion, whose official military name was K-9 Mike 5 #07-257. While the adoption was pending, Bessler would get up at dawn and drive to Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs, to see Mike at the kennel, inside a shabby beige structure called Building 6001. The dog was refusing to eat unless Bessler was there with him. So first Mike would eat from a bowl of dry food, and then Bessler would let the 52-pound Belgian Malinois out of his barren steel cage. Mike would be elated as soon as he spied Bessler. The dog’s lean and muscular body would shake with anticipation — his ears perking up, his long tail wagging furiously, his giant pink tongue hanging out. And Mike would know what was coming next: chasing and chewing on his cherished tennis balls. The Belgian Malinois, nicknamed “the malligator,” is known for its propensity to chew and the incredible strength of its bite. Mike was trained with the “ball reward system,” and tennis balls were his prize for doing his duty in Iraq. During Bessler’s early morning visits to the kennel in Ft. Carson, the two would go around the side of the building to an old basketball court where Mike could chase the ball. Bessler would return to the kennels in the middle of the day to play ball, come back at night, and think of Mike during the hours in between. One day a trainer called Bessler. Mike was refusing to work with any other handler. In effect, the dog was insisting that he stay with his human brother. “He’s waiting for you to come back,” he told Bessler. “Come pick up your dog.” The adoption was official, three weeks after Mike and Bessler had arrived home from Iraq. [MORE: Finding hope in a trash can: How a North Korean boy saved himself from starving and made it to America] On Bessler’s farm, Mike was surrounded by other dogs, cats, horses, chickens, a billy goat — and all the tennis balls he wanted. He was out of that grim cage at Fort Carson and enveloped by love. But soon after Mike settled in, the dog began anxiously chewing on rocks instead of tennis balls, crushing his teeth and destroying his gums and a chunk of his lip. He was hyper and hypervigilant, unable to focus and easily spooked by loud noises. He was having accidents in the house. Mike’s gum and lip injuries got so bad that Bessler and his ex-wife took him to the emergency room several times. A veterinarian in Colorado helped perform a series of successful surgeries to essentially reconstruct his nose and mouth. Mike’s veterinarian in Colorado, Carin Ramsel, said that Mike’s condition met the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis, and she prescribed 20 milligrams of Prozac a day for anxiety. Although his symptoms had become horrifyingly worse, Mike had first starting show signs of PTSD about six months into his last tour with Bessler. Bessler and Mike had been posted at a small, makeshift base in the swamplands of Basra Province, in southeastern Iraq. Bessler recalled that he had received intel about a pocket of insurgent activity within about two miles of the post. But in order to get there, he and Mike, along with an Iraqi Intelligence officer and two other members of the 10th Special Forces Group, had to cross a river in a small inflatable boat at night. The soldiers loaded up all their gear into the boat and made their way about halfway across the river when the boat started taking on water. It was near the point of capsizing when Bessler and the other soldiers began throwing their rucksacks, rifles, ammo and other gear overboard. The Iraqi intelligence officer shouted to the other soldiers that he couldn’t swim. Bessler told him not to panic. He grabbed Mike’s 15-foot leash and both he and the dog went overboard, sinking down into the river, which was filled with muck and kelp. Bessler jumped into the water and swam toward them. He got hold of Mike first and then tried to grip the intelligence officer’s right arm and pull him along with the dog toward the shore. But the arm slipped through Bessler’s hand and the man went under. He realized then that Mike, who was trained to rappel from an airplane and had mastered other highly advanced tasks, had no training in the water and was on the verge of drowning. But Bessler was holding onto Mike for dear life, gasping for air and pushing his way upward through the morass of kelp. The boat was floating away. The two other soldiers had made it to shore and the intelligence officer was dead under the water as Bessler and Mike made their way to the riverbank. Bessler followed the faint glare of a light that was flashing friendly code. The feeling of the Iraqi intelligence officer’s arm slipping from his fingers was as haunting as any of the bad deaths Bessler had witnessed or tried to stop. But this time Mike’s life had been at stake. It had felt beyond terrifying. Soon after that Mike stopped searching for bombs. Instead he was jumpy, on high alert, looking around to try and keep Bessler safe but no longer sniffing for explosives, a key requirement of his job. So Bessler took Mike to the 10th Group’s lead dog trainer in Baghdad, who spent some time with the dog and then told Bessler: “He’s done working.” [MORE: After her husband’s Parkinson’s diagnosis, she created a product to help millions] Back in Colorado, once Mike had been on Prozac for six months or so, he became calmer, more focused, more trusting, Dr. Ramsel said. Still, like many returning veterans, Mike needed a purpose. He was a rock star in Iraq until he stopped searching for bombs. Now he was an unemployed Type A dog. At that point Bessler was slowly coming to terms with his own disabling trauma and the fact that he would not be able to return to war. He knew what service dogs could do for struggling veterans and decided to learn everything he could about training one. Mike has been his service dog for three years now. Facing a recent painful and legally messy divorce, Bessler moved from Colorado back to his hometown of Powell, Wyo., where he was a star wrestler in high school and where his father and other relatives live. The connection began so long ago, it’s no stretch to say that Mike can read Bessler’s mind –only he does it with his nose, picking up on the scents of his moods. Now when Bessler goes to Wal-Mart, where it can feel like a minefield of overstimulation is waiting for him in every aisle, if he starts to panic he’ll walk with Mike into a corner. And Mike will stand on his feet. The physical pressure is recognized as one of many ways service dogs can help reduce anxiety. There is also a science to Mike’s ability to help Bessler with his anxiety and fear: the hormone oxytocin, which creates feelings of safety and calm, and is stimulated in both dogs and humans when they interact with each other. Besides PTSD, Bessler also lives with chronic headaches and migraines, shoulder and back pain — most likely from years of carrying a 60-to-70 pound rucksack — and tinnitus, a continuous, distracting and often painful ringing in the ears. He also suffers from memory and speech problems and blurred vision. You wouldn’t know Bessler had so many medical and mental health issues from looking at him. That’s why experts say the signature wounds of these wars are mostly invisible. Thick with muscle, heavily tattooed but with a low-key manner, Bessler could simply be the likable guy in a baseball cap riding around in his pickup truck with a cool dog and a really cute puppy in the front seat. The puppy, Ziva (a Hebrew name that means brilliance and splendor ) is a black lab that was a present from a neighbor for Valentine’s Day. But Bessler’s moods change day-to-day and sometimes hour-by-hour. Sometimes medications work, sometimes they don’t. Out of nowhere, he’ll be overcome by a flashback. He’ll get so fed up with the nightmares and sleepless nights — “Why even bother to nap or sleep?” he said by telephone the other night — he’ll think the only thing that can stop all the physical and psychic pain is death. Then Mike will pick up on Bessler’s depressive state, and as well-trained service dogs do, interrupt him, stop the demons from taking over. The dog will climb on top of Bessler as if to make sure his master can not go anywhere and hurt himself. Or, he’ll drop a tennis ball or a stuffed toy in Bessler’s lap and refuse to leave until he gets to chase one of them. And Bessler will consider that taking his own life would mean leaving Mike behind. A credo in the military is to leave no soldier behind. “That’s not being fair to the dog, not being fair to that partner who’s stood beside me forever,” he said, crying. “When you can escape yourself for a minute, and stop being selfish and think about the things you have, in my world it’s that dog.” Want more inspiring news and stories to improve your life? Sign up for the Inspired Life Saturday newsletter here​.​ ||||| In this file photo, Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Bessler of Powell is pictured in Iraq with Mike, the dog he adopted after the pair served together in the U.S. Army. The dog was killed on Saturday by a bicyclist who said he was attacked, but Bessler is disputing that claim. A retired military dog was shot and killed outside of Powell on Saturday by a bicyclist who says the dog attacked him. The dog, named Mike, also was a service dog for Army veteran Matthew Bessler of Powell, who raised the 10-year-old Belgian Malinois since he was a puppy. Bessler, who was out of town at the time, disputes the bicyclist’s account. “As a dog and a companion, he was probably one of the most loyal animals to anyone he came across,” Bessler said of Mike in a Wednesday interview. “If he knew you and you were in my house, he was by your side, leaning up against you.” Bessler hopes Mike can have a burial with military honors. “Mike was a retired major in the Army that saved a number of lives because of his work in bomb detection and everything he had done,” Bessler said. Mike served alongside Bessler in Iraq in the U.S. Army, and both came home with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mike then became a service dog for Bessler. That transition — from a combat dog to a service dog — made the canine especially unique and led to a profile in the Washington Post in July. “As far as we know, this is the first and only case that they have,” Bessler told the Tribune in July. An online fundraising campaign to help pay for Mike’s funeral costs was launched on Tuesday by Jess Campbell. “We are a community coming together to mourn the loss of a brave military service dog, who deserves the honor to be laid to rest with a military funeral and burial,” the page reads. “Major Mike is a former military combat dog that had served two tours of duty in Iraq. Please help us fund a funeral that will do this military war veteran the respect he deserves.” Extra donations will go toward a program that honors and supports war veterans, Campbell said. For more information about the campaign, visit www.gofundme.com/ew6cjw7k. The 59-year-old Powell man who shot Mike has not been cited for any wrongdoing. “Essentially, if you feel your life is in danger or threatened by an animal, you can act against it,” Park County Sheriff Scott Steward said Wednesday. Steward said that, according to the man’s statements and his actions, he felt threatened. The man was not injured in the incident. According to the account the bicyclist gave to the Sheriff’s Office, he was turning north onto Road 5 from Lane 9 when he was “attacked” by a “German shepherd-looking dog.” The Powell man got off of his bike and began using it as a shield, circling back and forth and keeping the bike between him and the dog, he told the Sheriff’s Office. Eventually, he was able to grab a revolver from his bicycle-mounted holster, and he shot the dog. The dog ran away and the man called 911, the Sheriff’s Office said. “(The man) said he was genuinely in fear of his life and well-being, and the dog was ‘definitely in full attack mode and not backing down at all,’” Park County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lance Mathess summarized of the report later compiled by a deputy. When he shot the animal, it was about 5-10 feet away, the man said. He had not thought the single round of bird shot had killed the dog, Mathess said of the man’s account. No other people witnessed the incident, though a neighbor heard the shot and came outside to see the dog limping away. Bessler had been hunting in the Big Horn Mountains at the time. The friend who was caring for Mike told the Sheriff’s Office they had no idea how the dog had escaped from Bessler’s residence, Mathess said. Bessler questions many parts of the bicyclist’s account. “He has his story,” Bessler said. “I know my dog. I have my story.” The man told the Sheriff’s Office, and the dog’s wounds show, that he shot the dog in the rear. “In my mind, it’s inconsistent with a dog that’s attacking somebody,” Bessler said, saying that two pellet marks went directly toward Mike’s heart. Bessler described Mike as a nice dog who was gentle with children, enjoyed being petted and always wanted to play ball. “He would never attack someone,” he said. “The only time he ever protected property was when somebody stepped on to my property and looked into the back of my truck.” Bessler added that Mike effectively had no teeth from years of chewing rocks out of anxiety. Bessler said Mike “never gets out on the road” and would only briefly run alongside people passing by. “I believe the gentleman just shot the dog on my property,” Bessler said, adding, “I don’t buy his story.” The man said the encounter took place in the road, and Steward said that’s consistent with what the neighbor told the deputy. “She comes out, and laying in the intersection was this guy’s bike and him standing there,” Steward said. The man initially reported he’d been attacked by a “pack of dogs,” but he later admitted that — while several other dogs came near him — only Mike threatened him, Mathess said. Bessler said the three other dogs with Mike when the incident occurred were smaller than Mike, including a puppy, and that none of them are aggressive. “If it went down the way the guy said it did, then so be it,” Bessler said. “But I’m disgusted with the fact that the guy hasn’t even shown his face to say, ‘I’m sorry this happened.’” Steward said the Sheriff’s Office plans to follow up on a few inconsistencies, such as whether bird or buck shot was used, but he said “everything’s pretty consistent with what the victim’s telling us.” Bessler said his next step will be having an autopsy performed and “memorializing, remembering Mike and taking care of services.” “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m still so flabbergasted over the whole thing of why a person would be carrying the types of things he (the bicyclist) was carrying.” Steward doesn’t think it’s that unusual for someone to be carrying a weapon. “A lot of people, when they walk or ride bikes around here, they’ve got pepper spray, a gun or a stick,” he said. “And that’s because dogs come out and chase bikes (and) people.” The sheriff called it “tragic all the way around.” ||||| We are a community coming together to mourn the loss of a brave military service dog, who deserves the honor to be laid to rest with a military funeral and burial. This soldier was found fatally wounded by his owner and friend Matt Bessler (also a military war veteran) after Matt returned home from a hunting trip. Major Mike is a former military combat dog that had served two tours of duty in Iraq. Please help us fund a funeral that will do this military war veteran the respect he deserves.Any extra donations will be distributed to a military based program that honors and supports military war veterans.I have been contacted by gofundme for validation purposes and to make sure that the donors are not being taken advantage of due to the size of this campaign and the national attention of the story. Which is absolutey fine and helps to reassure the purpose of this account.Here are the questions asked with my answers:1. Who you are: my name is Jessica Campbell2. Where you're from: I was born and raised in Frannie, WY. I now reside in Cowley Wy and own and operate a business in Powell,WY. Now these towns are about only 15 minutes apart.3. Your relationship to the parties you're raising funds for: Matt and Major Mike (more Matt then Mike but Mike was always welcome) both attended and trained at my gym on and off for the the past 1.5-2 years.4. How the funds will be spent (be specific as possible): the funding will be spent on funeral services, necropsy (animal autopsy), an other support and any other costs that Matt may have in association with the shooting incident and the funeral for Major Mike (military honors, etc.). Any and all left over funds will be donated to an organization for war veterans that Matt works with and will be of his choosing. I will update every one every time there is a change or where the funds are spent.5. How you intend to get the funds to those in need: I do not have access to the funds. That is why I chose gofundme, these funds will go directly to Matt as needed for use and then to the organizations of Matt's choosing.Please follow the link below to read a recent article written in the Washington Post telling the story of two amazing soldiers who went through hell together both in Iraq and back home here in the U.S. ||||| Stock image of a Belgian Malinois. (Photo: Milan Maksic, Getty Images/iStockphoto) POWELL, Wyo. — An Army veteran is asking for a burial with military honors for his dog that was shot and killed outside Powell. Matthew Bessler's 10-year-old Belgian Malinois named Mike was shot and killed last Saturday by a bicyclist who says the dog attacked him. Mike served with Bessler in Iraq in the U.S. Army acting as a combat dog and in bomb detection. When the pair returned from their deployment, Bessler adopted Mike. The dog helped Bessler transition from combat to normal life as he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder. “I raised him and trained him as a puppy, and the ability he has to sense some of the issues that I have with seizures, with my PTSD, my TBI (traumatic brain injury) and severe anxiety disorders, how he can calm me down just by him being in my presence ... He can help take the focus and help change the focus of what’s going on with me and help me calm down or relax me,” Bessler told the Billings Gazette. According to the Powell Tribune, the bicyclist who shot Mike told the sheriff's office that he felt threatened by a pack of dogs that he encountered while on the road. The man said he first used a bicycle as a defense but then grabbed a revolver from his bicycle-mounted holster and shot the dog. However, Bessler — who was out of town at the time of the shooting — disputes the cyclist's account. “If the guy was actually fending the dogs off with a bicycle, (Mike) would have really been barking, and there was no barking," Bessler said. "All there was was just a shot. The guests who were at the house, they said the same thing. There was no barking. It was just a gunshot.” The 59-year-old Powell man who shot Mike has not been cited for any wrongdoing. Iraq Bronze Star combat dog is shot and killed by bicyclist in Wyoming http://t.co/yGvBCf3g0o — Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) October 17, 2015 The Associated Press contributed to this report. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1ROoR3t

– A US military veteran wants his service dog to receive burial with military honors after it was shot dead by a cyclist in Powell, Wyoming, USA Today reports. Matthew Bessler says Mike, his 10-year-old Belgian Malinois, was a combat dog who did bomb detection in Iraq before transitioning to civilian life, albeit with canine PTSD. "I raised him and trained him as a puppy, and the ability he has to sense some of the issues that I have with seizures, with my PTSD, my TBI [traumatic brain injury] and severe anxiety disorders, how he can calm me down just by him being in my presence," the Army veteran tells the Billings Gazette. "He can help take the focus and help change the focus of what’s going on with me and help me calm down or relax me." (The unique pair were featured in a Washington Post story this summer.) Now Bessler is questioning the official story that a passing cyclist killed Mike when the dog tried to attack him, the Powell Tribune reports. Bessler was away on a hunting trip when the cyclist passed the veteran's house, drew a bike-mounted revolver, and opened fire (with birdshot, the cyclist says). The cyclist "said he was genuinely in fear of his life and well-being, and the dog was 'definitely in full attack mode and not backing down at all,'" says a sheriff's spokesman. Yet Mike was shot in the backside from 5 to 10 feet away, per the sheriff's office. Bessler says he's considering taking civil action, and is "flabbergasted" that "a person would be carrying the types of things [the bicyclist] was carrying." Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page has reached its $10,000 goal to get Mike an animal autopsy and have him "laid to rest with a military funeral and burial."

The family of 13-year-old Jahi McMath may have succeeded in transferring the brain-dead teen from an Oakland hospital to undisclosed care facility, but medical experts say it's only a matter of time before not even machines can keep her blood flowing. Bodies of the brain-dead have been maintained on respirators for months or in rare cases even years — and in a few other cases released to families. But once cessation of all brain activity is confirmed, there is no recovery, said Rebecca S. Dresser, professor of law and ethics in medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, who served on a presidential bioethics council that in 2008 reaffirmed "whole-brain death" as legal death. Brain cells die without blood flow and autopsies in such cases have shown that the brain liquefies. After marathon negotiations with a federal magistrate, Jahi's family members received approval to remove her body, while attached to a ventilator, from Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland on Sunday. The brain-dead girl was released first to the Alameda County coroner and then to the family, and is now the responsibility of her mother, who has moved her to an unnamed facility. The courts have so far agreed that Jahi is dead. The coroner on Friday issued a death certificate listing Dec. 12 as the date of death. But bioethics experts say news media coverage that often repeated family assertions that Jahi McMath was alive — even responding to touch — clouded an issue the public already has difficulty grasping. The Oakland girl underwent surgery Dec. 9 to remove her tonsils, adenoids and uvula. She was declared brain-dead after she went into cardiac arrest and suffered extensive brain hemorrhaging. At least three neurologists confirmed that Jahi was unable to breathe on her own, had no blood flow to her brain and had no sign of electrical activity. What followed was a court's order — extended once — that the hospital keep the ventilator on, first while an independent neurologist confirmed Jahi was brain-dead, then as the family scrambled to find a facility that would accept a patient declared deceased. All the while, the breathing machine kept Jahi's lungs and heart working. Jahi's family — and their attorney, Christopher Dolan of San Francisco — have maintained that brain death is not death, that the girl might get better, and that the rights of Jahi's mother, Latasha Winkfield, to determine the medical course of action were violated. But California law says the family had no right to make decisions about the ventilator, only a right to a "reasonably brief period of accommodation" after the declaration of brain death to "gather family or next of kin at the patient's bedside." To experts, the case has raised no novel legal issues, but it has created a painful spectacle. Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center, said the Jahi case could compel other families to "ultimately say, 'I'd like to take this body home and wait for a miracle.' That would be a public policy of disrespect for dead bodies." "The ability to get clear about brain death has been a real obstacle," he said. "This hasn't helped at all." ALSO: Man found standing over dead mother with knife, police say Suspect in salon death offered 'vampire face lifts,' police say CHP: 17 callers saw wrong-way driver on 2 freeways before fatal crash lee.romney@latimes.com Twitter: @LeeRomney ||||| Chris Dolan, the attorney for the family of 13-year-old Jahi McMath, answers questions at a press conference at Dolan's San Francisco offices, Jan. 5, 2014. (D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group) ( D. ROSS CAMERON ) SAN FRANCISCO -- The mantel over a fireplace in Christopher Dolan's law office is lined with photos of his family, notably pictures of his two young children. Advertisement And as far as he's concerned, those photos -- not money, fame or a lawyer's hubris -- explain why he took on an Oakland family's heart-wrenching public battle over 13-year-old Jahi McMath when she was declared brain dead more than a month ago. And it hasn't made him popular. Dolan has received death threats, been called a liar, unethical and accused of exploiting a family's grief. But the tough-talking Connecticut native, who sprinkles his narrative with a healthy dose of profanity, makes no apologies for his very public role in helping Jahi's family get her out of Children's Hospital Oakland and preserve some form of medical treatment. "If it was my daughter, I'd do everything I'm doing for this family," Dolan said Tuesday during a two-hour interview with this newspaper. "The one thing the family was going to know at the end of the day is that the family had somebody who fought for them." In Dolan, Jahi's family found a 50-year-old trial lawyer who has sparred in court against a host of powerful adversaries, from Stanford University's hospital to companies such as Federal Express. The delivery giant found out just how tough Dolan can be when he persuaded a federal jury a decade ago to award $61 million to two Lebanese drivers harassed by a manager with racial slurs in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Dolan even took on the Ladies Professional Golf Association on behalf of Lana Lawless, a transgender golfer who won the right to play on the tour and forced the organization to change its rules to enable transgender golfers to participate. Dolan was drawn into the maelstrom over Jahi's fate on Dec. 16, when he got a phone call at his San Rafael home from her uncle, Omari Sealey. He knew nothing of the controversy, having been immersed in a federal court trial, but Sealey pleaded for help, urging him to turn on the television to watch the latest coverage of the drama. Dolan flipped on the TV, and could see Sealey in the background of the newscast, holding his phone, as their conversation unfolded. After discussions with his wife, Dolan decided to take on the family's cause, convinced they should have a choice in the decision over whether Jahi should be taken off a ventilator. Describing himself as a "cafeteria Catholic," Dolan admits he did a lot of soul-searching on his views about end-of-life treatment, but kept coming back to the conclusion that a family, rather than just doctors and hospital administrators, should have a voice when they still believe a child can be saved. But critics have questioned Dolan's altruism. After Dolan and Sealey appeared on CNN's Piers Morgan show Monday night, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin decried the role of a lawyer in the case, saying he was "preying on the false hope of the family." Children's Hospital spokesman Sam Singer, Dolan's chief antagonist in the Jahi saga, calls the lawyer "heartless," adding: "I've never seen such reckless disregard for the truth." Dolan is particularly dismissive of Singer and the hospital, claiming that they've libeled him. He points to a wall full of lawyer awards in the entryway of his Market Street office, some singling out his ethics, and merely jokes that Singer needs "to get some decent clothes." "The whole thing about me giving them false hope is a construction of public relations because they needed a villain," Dolan said. "It's OK if I take the heat. You can still have sympathy for the family." Describing himself as "about as pro-choice as you can get," Dolan is not an avenger for groups devoted to the end-of-life treatment issue. "I didn't know (expletive) about it when I took this on," he said. "I knew nothing about it." And Dolan stresses that he's representing the family for free, and will not handle the inevitable medical negligence lawsuit sure to come against Children's Hospital, where Jahi developed complications and suffered cardiac arrest after a three-part surgery to remove tonsils and clear tissue from her nose and throat on Dec. 9. Multiple doctors have declared Jahi brain dead, but the family has rejected that diagnosis, hoping she can live. She has been moved to an undisclosed location, where Dolan concedes the medical outlook is grim. Dolan insists it would be unethical for him to handle any negligence or wrongful death case, which could expose the hospital to millions of dollars in damages, although he will continue to press a separate federal constitutional case he hopes might define family rights in such situations in the future -- if Jahi's family wants to pursue it. Dolan matter-of-factly states he's already made a "boatload of money," so he can afford to subsidize such causes. Dolan has no shortage of adjectives for himself, at once describing himself as a "scalpel" and "hard-ass" to a "highly educated juvenile delinquent (he graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law School)." He shows a visitor texts he's received in recent days from Jahi's family, one from her mother saying she was "forever grateful" for his help. He insists he won't do another case like this one, but has no regrets about spending all those days trying to help the motionless Jahi and her family. "I'll go down swinging," Dolan said, tearing up at one point when he recalled the day they got the right to move Jahi. "I don't care. I'll lose the money. Maybe that's why people are having such a hard time understanding what's my angle. This lady asked me to save her kid from being killed." Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz ||||| Photo: Uncredited, Associated Press Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Image 1 of 8 This undated file photo provided by the McMath family and Omari Sealey shows Jahi McMath. This undated file photo provided by the McMath family and Omari Sealey shows Jahi McMath. Photo: Uncredited, Associated Press Image 2 of 8 Attorney Christopher Dolan (left) and Omari Sealey smiled as reporters tried to find out where Jahi McMath had been moved Monday January 6, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. Attorney Christopher Dolan and uncle Omari Sealey announced that Jahi McMath has been moved to another medical facility and is receiving antibiotics and nutrients. Attorney Christopher Dolan (left) and Omari Sealey smiled as reporters tried to find out where Jahi McMath had been moved Monday January 6, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. Attorney Christopher Dolan and uncle ... more Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle Image 3 of 8 Jahi's Uncle Omari Sealey, (left) listens as Sandra Chatman talks about her grandaughter Jahi McMath while being joined by the family attorney Christopher Dolan, as they speak to the news media about the court ordered extension in front of Children's Hospital in Oakland, Ca., on Monday Dec. 30, 2013. 13-year-old Jahi McMath was slated to be removed from a ventilator at 5pm this afternoon but a court order has extended the deadline for the removal of the ventilator until 5pm January 7, 2014. Jahi's Uncle Omari Sealey, (left) listens as Sandra Chatman talks about her grandaughter Jahi McMath while being joined by the family attorney Christopher Dolan, as they speak to the news media about the court ... more Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 4 of 8 Nailah Winkfield, the mother of brain-dead girl Jahi McMath, embraces her brother Omari Sealey, after they stated that the court order to remove Jahi from a ventilator has been extended to January 7th 2014. The statement was made by the family to the news media in front of Children's Hospital in Oakland, Ca. , on Monday Dec. 30, 2013. 13-year-old Jahi McMath is slated to be removed from a ventilator at 5pm this afternoon, after being declared brain-dead by the hospital. Nailah Winkfield, the mother of brain-dead girl Jahi McMath, embraces her brother Omari Sealey, after they stated that the court order to remove Jahi from a ventilator has been extended to January 7th 2014. The ... more Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle Image 5 of 8 Christopher Dolan, attorney representing the family of 13-year-old Jahi McMath, speaks to member of the media after a court hearing on Monday, Dec. 23, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. McMath remains on life support at the Children's Hospital Oakland after doctors declared her brain dead following a routine tonsillectomy procedure. A judge on Monday appoints Dr. Paul Fisher, Chief of Pediatric Neurology at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, to determine whether Jahi is legally dead as the family members continue to fight to keep McMath on life support. Christopher Dolan, attorney representing the family of 13-year-old Jahi McMath, speaks to member of the media after a court hearing on Monday, Dec. 23, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. McMath remains on life support at ... more Photo: Stephen Lam, Special To The Chronicle Image 6 of 8 Nailah Winkfield, mother of 13-year-old Jahi McMath, cries before a court hearing on Monday, Dec. 23, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. McMath remains on life support at the Children's Hospital Oakland after doctors declared her brain dead following a routine tonsillectomy procedure. A judge on Monday appoints Dr. Paul Fisher, Chief of Pediatric Neurology at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, to determine whether Jahi is legally dead as the family members continue to fight to keep McMath on life support. Nailah Winkfield, mother of 13-year-old Jahi McMath, cries before a court hearing on Monday, Dec. 23, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. McMath remains on life support at the Children's Hospital Oakland after doctors ... more Photo: Stephen Lam, Special To The Chronicle Image 7 of 8 Family members of 13-year-old Oakland teen Jahi McMath are holding out hope for a miracle recovery after a routine procedure has left the girl brain dead. Family members of 13-year-old Oakland teen Jahi McMath are holding out hope for a miracle recovery after a routine procedure has left the girl brain dead. Photo: CBS San Francisco

– The California 13-year-old declared dead after tonsil surgery is getting better at the undisclosed facility where she was moved earlier this week, family lawyer Christopher Dolan claims. Jahi McMath has had feeding and tracheostomy tubes inserted and "doctors are optimistic that her condition has stabilized and that her health is improving from when she was taken from" the hospital, Dolan tweeted. He says she is now "doing very well" and is getting the treatment she should have had weeks ago, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Dolan's opinion aside, the Los Angeles Times points out that recovery is not possible, and that machines can only keep her blood flowing for a finite amount of time; in only rare cases have the bodies of the brain-dead been "maintained" longer than months. In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, the veteran trial lawyer defends his role in the case and says he has been receiving death threats. He describes himself as a pro-choice, "cafeteria Catholic" who had to do plenty of soul-searching before getting involved, but will "go down swinging" in his efforts to help the family. "If it was my daughter, I'd do everything I'm doing for this family," he says. "The one thing the family was going to know at the end of the day is that the family had somebody who fought for them." He stresses that he is helping the family for free and will not get involved in any negligence lawsuits.

A federal judge in Hawaii on Wednesday issued a sweeping freeze of President Trump’s new executive order hours before it would have temporarily barred the issuance of new visas to citizens of six Muslim-majority countries and suspended the admission of new refugees. In a blistering 43-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson pointed to Trump’s own comments and those of his close advisers as evidence that his order was meant to discriminate against Muslims and declared there was a “strong likelihood of success” that those suing would prove the directive violated the Constitution. Watson declared that “a reasonable, objective observer — enlightened by the specific historical context, contemporaneous public statements, and specific sequence of events leading to its issuance — would conclude that the Executive Order was issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion.” He lambasted the government, in particular, for asserting that because the ban did not apply to all Muslims in the world, it could not be construed as discriminating against Muslims. “The illogic of the Government’s contentions is palpable,” Watson wrote. “The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed.” Early Thursday, a federal judge in Maryland issued a second, narrower injunction against the measure — suspending only the portion that stopped the issuance of visas to citizens of six Muslim-majority countries. In that case, U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang also pointed to statements by Trump and his advisers made that, in Chuang’s opinion, indicated the executive order was “the realization of the long-envisioned Muslim ban.” “These statements, which include explicit, direct statements of President Trump’s animus toward Muslims and intention to impose a ban on Muslims entering the United States, present a convincing case that the First Executive Order was issued to accomplish, as nearly as possible, President Trump’s promised Muslim ban,” Chuang wrote. At a rally in Nashville on Wednesday, Trump called the Hawaii court ruling “terrible” and asked a cheering crowd whether the ruling was “done by a judge for political reasons.” He said the administration would fight the case “as far as it needs to go,” including up to the Supreme Court, and rued that he had been persuaded to sign a “watered-down version” of his first travel ban. “Let me tell you something, I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way,” Trump said. “The danger is clear, the law is clear, the need for my executive order is clear.” Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said in a statement: “The Department of Justice strongly disagrees with the federal district court’s ruling, which is flawed both in reasoning and in scope. The President’s Executive Order falls squarely within his lawful authority in seeking to protect our Nation’s security, and the Department will continue to defend this Executive Order in the courts.” (Daron Taylor/The Washington Post) Watson was one of three federal judges to hear arguments Wednesday about the ban, though he was the first to issue an opinion. A ruling was also expected from a federal judge in Washington. As the ruling in Hawaii was being handed down, James L. ­Robart, the federal judge in Washington state who froze Trump’s first travel ban, was hearing arguments about whether he should freeze the second. He said he did not think his first freeze was still in effect, though he did not immediately rule on whether he should issue a new one. Watson’s decision might not be the last word. He was considering only a request for a temporary restraining order, and while that required him to assess whether challengers of the ban would ultimately succeed, his ruling is not final on that question. The Justice Department could appeal the ruling or wage a longer-term court battle before the judge in Hawaii. Watson’s decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by Hawaii. Lawyers for the state alleged that the new entry ban, much like the old, violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment because it was essentially a Muslim ban, hurt the ability of state businesses and universities to recruit top talent, and damaged the state’s robust tourism industry. They pointed to the case of ­Ismail Elshikh, the imam of the Muslim Association of Hawaii, whose mother-in-law’s application for an immigrant visa was still being processed. Under the new executive order, attorneys for Hawaii said, Elshikh feared that his mother-in-law, a Syrian national, would ultimately be banned from entering the United States. [Why Hawaii says Trump’s new travel ban is still unconstitutional] “Dr. Elshikh certainly has standing in this case. He, along with all of the Muslim residents in Hawaii, face higher hurdles to see family because of religious faith,” lawyer Colleen Roh Sinzdak said at a hearing Wednesday. “It is not merely a harm to the Muslim residents of the state of Hawaii, but also is a harm to the United States as a whole and is against the First Amendment itself.” Elshikh is a U.S. citizen of Egyptian descent who has been a resident of Hawaii for over a decade. His wife is of Syrian descent and is also a resident of Hawaii. Justice Department lawyers argued that Trump was well within his authority to impose the ban, which was necessary for national security, and that those challenging it had raised only speculative harms. “They bear the burden of showing irreparable harm … and there is no harm at all,” said the acting U.S. solicitor general, Jeffrey Wall, who argued on behalf of the government in Greenbelt, Md., in the morning and by phone in Hawaii in the afternoon. Watson agreed with the state on virtually all the points. He ruled that the state had preliminarily demonstrated its universities and tourism industry would be hurt, and that harm could be traced to the executive order. He wrote that Elshikh had alleged “direct, concrete injuries to both himself and his immediate family.” And Watson declared that the government’s assertion of the national security need for the order was “at the very least, ‘secondary to a religious objective’ of temporarily suspending the entry of Muslims.” He pointed to Trump’s own campaign trail comments and public statements by advisers as evidence. “For instance, there is nothing ‘veiled’ about this press release: ‘Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,’ ” Watson wrote. “Nor is there anything ‘secret’ about the Executive’s motive specific to the issuance of the Executive Order. Rudolph Giuliani explained on television how the Executive Order came to be. He said: ‘When [Mr. Trump] first announced it, he said, ‘Muslim ban.’ He called me up. He said, ‘Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.’ ” Watson also pointed to a recent Fox News appearance by Stephen Miller, in which the president’s senior policy adviser said the new ban would have “mostly minor technical differences” from the previous iteration frozen by the courts, and Americans would see “the same basic policy outcome for the country.” “These plainly-worded statements, made in the months leading up to and contemporaneous with the signing of the Executive Order, and, in many cases, made by the Executive himself, betray the Executive Order’s stated secular purpose,” Watson wrote. Opponents of the ban across the country — including those who had argued against it in different cases on Wednesday — hailed Watson’s ruling. Bob Ferguson, the Washington state attorney general who asked Robart to block the measure, called the Hawaii ruling “fantastic news.” Justin Cox, a staff attorney for the National Immigration Law Center who argued for a restraining order in the case in Maryland, said, “This is absolutely a victory and should be celebrated as such, especially because the court held that the plaintiffs, that Hawaii was likely to succeed on its establishment clause claim which essentially is that the primary purpose of the executive order is to discriminate against Muslims.” Cox said while the judge did not halt the order entirely, he blocked the crucial sections — those halting the issuance of new visas and suspending the refu­gee program. Left intact, Cox said, were lesser-known provisions, including one that orders Homeland Security and the U.S. attorney general to publicize information about foreign nationals charged with ­terrorism-related offenses and other crimes. He said the provision seems designed to whip up fear of Muslims. “It’s a shaming device that it’s really a dehumanizing device,” he said. “It perpetuates this myth, this damaging stereotype of Muslims as terrorists.” Trump’s new entry ban had suspended the U.S. refugee program for 120 days and halted for 90 days the issuance of new visas to people from six Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Syria. It was different from the first entry ban in that it omitted Iraq from the list of affected countries, did not affect current visa or green-card holders and spelled out a robust list of people who might be able to apply for exceptions. The administration could have defended the first ban in court — though it chose instead to rewrite the president’s executive order in such a way that it might be more defensible. The next step might have been to persuade the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to rehear the case en banc, after a three-judge panel with the court upheld the freeze on Trump’s ban. Hawaii is a part of the 9th Circuit, so the legal road could pass through the appeals court there again. Perhaps previewing the contentious fight ahead, five of the circuit’s judges on Wednesday signed a dissenting opinion in the case over the original travel ban, declaring Trump’s decision to issue the executive order was “well within the powers of the presidency.” The judges wanted to wipe out a ruling by a three-judge panel declaring otherwise. “Above all, in a democracy, we have the duty to preserve the liberty of the people by keeping the enormous powers of the national government separated,” Judge Jay S. Bybee wrote for the dissenters. “We are judges, not Platonic Guardians. It is our duty to say what the law is, and the meta-source of our law, the U.S. Constitution, commits the power to make foreign policy, including the decisions to permit or forbid entry into the United States, to the President and Congress.” The dissent was signed by Judges Bybee, Sandra S. Ikuta, Consuelo M. Callahan and Carlos T. Bea, who all were appointed by President George W. Bush; and Judge Alex Kozinski, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. It seemed to represent a minority view. The circuit has 25 active judges, and the court said a majority had not voted in favor of reconsidering the three-judge panel’s published opinion to keep Trump’s first ban frozen. That opinion was signed by Judges Michelle T. Friedland, who was appointed by President Obama; Richard R. Clifton, who was appointed by President George W. Bush; and Judge William C. Canby Jr., who was appointed by President Carter. Judge Stephen Reinhardt, also a Carter appointee, formally joined their opinion Wednesday and remarked that only a “small number” of 9th Circuit judges wanted to overturn it. Takase reported from Honolulu. Lornet Turnbull in Seattle contributed to this report. ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201703/2151/1155968404_5361762127001_5361759951001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Judges use Trump’s own words in ruling against revised travel ban Two federal judges halt the president’s second attempt at his executive order, citing Trump’s prior vows to seek a Muslim ban. A federal judge in Hawaii issued a worldwide restraining order against enforcement of key parts of President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban executive order just hours before the directive was set to kick in, backed up by a second federal judge in Maryland who put out his own ruling blocking parts of the order. U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson ruled Wednesday that the state of Hawaii and a local Muslim leader had “a strong likelihood of success on their claim” that Trump’s order intentionally targets Muslims and therefore violates the Constitution’s guarantee against establishment of religion. Story Continued Below Watson bluntly rejected the federal government's claims that the new directive does not target Islam because it is focused on six countries that account for less than 9 percent of the world's Muslims. "The illogic of the Government’s contentions is palpable," wrote Watson, an appointee of President Barack Obama. "The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed. The Court declines to relegate its Establishment Clause analysis to a purely mathematical exercise." Hours after that opinion emerged, a federal judge in Maryland, U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang — also an Obama appointee and a former Department of Homeland Security deputy counsel — held that Trump's order appeared to violate a specific provision in federal law by blocking the issuance of immigrant visas from the six targeted countries. The rulings are another serious blow to Trump’s attempt to limit immigration as part of what he claims is an effort to reduce the threat of terrorist attacks in the U.S. Trump slammed the decision during a speech to a campaign rally in Nashville on Wednesday a short time after the new restraining order was issued. "This is, in the opinion of many, an unprecedented judicial overreach. ... This ruling makes us look weak," the president declared before appearing to vow to take the issue to the Supreme Court. "This is a watered-down version of the first one. ... I think we should go back to the first one and go all the way which is what I wanted to do in the first place." “Trump’s statements tonight? He should just continue talking, because he’s making our arguments for us,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. A spokewoman for the Department of Justice called the ruling "flawed both in reasoning and in scope," adding that the administration will "continue to defend this Executive Order in the courts." Trump effectively abandoned the earlier, broader version of his travel ban order after the bulk of it was blocked by another federal judge and a three-judge appeals court panel declined to allow Trump to restore it. As the White House mulled the possibility of an appeal of the latest ruling, there was one piece of good news for Trump's team: Roughly two hours after Watson issued the new restraining order, five 9th Circuit judges formally declared that the original appeals panel made a "fundamental error" by refusing to let Trump proceed with his first order. The dissenters' move does not alter that earlier ruling but could be seen as a signal to other judges or even the Supreme Court that Trump's travel orders are legally valid. "The President’s actions might have been more aggressive than those of his predecessors, but that was his prerogative," Judge Jay Bybee and four other Republican-appointed appeals judges wrote in a dissent from the decision not to reconsider the appeals court's earlier ruling. "Even if we have questions about the basis for the President’s ultimate findings — whether it was a 'Muslim ban' or something else — we do not get to peek behind the curtain. So long as there is one 'facially legitimate and bona fide' reason for the President’s actions, our inquiry is at an end." However, Chuang soundly rejected that approach in his ruling from Maryland early Thursday, using Trump's campaign comments and pledges to conclude that the primary purpose of Trump's travel ban order was to advance religious bias. "These statements, which include explicit, direct statements of President Trump's animus towards Muslims and intention to impose a ban on Muslims entering the United States, present a convincing case that the First Executive Order was issued to accomplish, as nearly as possible, President Trump's promised Muslim ban," Chuang wrote. Chuang's decision flatly dismissed the federal government's arguments that Trump's comments before he took office should not be considered in assessing the executive order's purpose. "Simply because a decisionmaker made the statements during a campaign does not wipe them from the 'reasonable memory' of a 'reasonable observer,'" the judge wrote, pointing to a federal appeals court decision that considered "billboards and campaign commercials" for Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in concluding that he was motivated by religion when he had a Ten Commandments display installed at a state courthouse. Breaking News Alerts Get breaking news when it happens — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. Chuang said the conclusion that anti-Muslim sentiment was the primarily reason behind the travel ban was supported by the fact that it seemed to be a poor fit for known terrorist threats. "In this highly unique case, the record provides strong indications that the national security purpose is not the primary purpose for the travel ban," the judge wrote. "While the travel ban bears no resemblance to any response to a national security risk in recent history, it bears a clear resemblance to the precise action that President Trump described as effectuating his Muslim ban." Watson's order took a similar tack, citing campaign trail statements by Trump that the judge said amounted to "significant and unrebutted evidence of religious animus driving the promulgation of the Executive Order and its related predecessor." Watson's ruling — applicable "in all places, including the United States" — blocked two core provisions of Trump's redrafted order: a 90-day halt in issuance of visas to citizens of six majority-Muslim countries and a 120-day halt of refugee admissions from around the globe. The judge's 43-page decision was issued about two hours after a court session in Honolulu during which he heard arguments over the legality of the revised order, which Trump signed last week. Chuang's decision was narrower in effect, halting only the ban on newly issued visas for citizens of the six countries and not interfereing with the interruption in refugee admissions. The rulings followed a series of four court hearings on Trump's revised travel ban held in the hours before it was set to take effect. In addition to the court sessions in Honolulu and Greenbelt, Maryland, two hearings took place in Seattle, where U.S. District Court Judge James Robart listened to arguments on a suit filed by individuals in Washington state and their family members abroad. In addition, a group of about half a dozen states asked Robart, the same judge who issued the injunction last month blocking Trump's first travel ban, to declare that his initial ruling covers the president's replacement order. Citing differences in the two orders, the George W. Bush appointee turned down that request, according to reporters in the courtroom. However, Robart left unclear whether he would grant separate motions to block the new order. At the Maryland hearing, refugee aid organizations pleaded with Chuang not to ignore Trump's numerous vows to cut off travel to the U.S. by adherents of Islam. “It’s asking the court to turn a blind eye to all of the evidence that’s apparent to everybody," said Omar Jadwat of the American Civil Liberties Union. "It doesn’t make sense to blind the court.” However, acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall warned the judge against taking into account statements Trump made before he took office. The Justice Department lawyer said the revised order doesn't even mention religion. "This is an order that draws no religious distinctions at all," Wall insisted. The Maryland suit was filed last month by two refugee aid groups, the International Refugee Assistance Project and HIAS, a Jewish charity that facilitates refugee resettlement in the U.S. for the federal government. Several individuals who claim to be directly affected by Trump's orders are also plaintiffs. The Maryland suit is the only one that includes a challenge to a specific aspect of Trump's orders: a provision lowering the cap on annual refugee admissions for the current fiscal year to 50,000 from 110,000. In addition to the broader argument about the order as a whole being tainted by religious bias, the suit argues that Trump had no authority to lower that cap since federal law says it must be established before the fiscal year begins. Justice Department attorneys also argued that the case should wait to see whether individual immigrants receive waivers that allow them to get visas despite the six-country ban. Washington state Attorney General attempts to block Trump's revised travel ban poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201703/1795/1155968404_5353862488001_5353850248001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" However, National Immigration Law Center lawyer Justin Cox said that suggestion was bizarre given the claim that the process itself amounts to illegal religious discrimination. "If there were a special process for black folks to live in a certain neighborhood, you wouldn't say their claims are not ripe until they're denied" permission, Cox said. After the Maryland hearing, refugee advocates used bleak language to describe the scramble underway to protect their clients in case the revised travel's bans directives kicked in. "We're trying to find emergency shelter and places for people to hide so they don't get killed while the U.S. is in the process of implementing this executive order," said Rebecca Heller of the International Refugee Assistance Project. Josh Dawsey contributed to this report from Nashville. Nahal Toosi also contributed to this report. ||||| Justin Cox of the National Immigration Law Center, representing all the plaintiffs, right, accompanied by Omar Jadwat of the ACLU, speaks to reporters outside the court in Greenbelt, Md., Wednesday, March... (Associated Press) Justin Cox of the National Immigration Law Center, representing all the plaintiffs, right, accompanied by Omar Jadwat of the ACLU, speaks to reporters outside the court in Greenbelt, Md., Wednesday, March 15, 2017. A federal judge in Maryland says he will issue a ruling in a lawsuit challenging President... (Associated Press) The Latest on legal challenges to the Trump administration's revised travel ban (all times Pacific unless noted): 12:50 p.m. A federal judge in Hawaii has put President Donald Trump's revised travel ban on hold. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson issued his ruling Wednesday after hearing arguments on Hawaii's request for a temporary restraining order involving the ban. His ruling prevents the executive order from going into effect Thursday. More than half a dozen states are trying to stop the ban, and federal courts in Maryland, Washington state and Hawaii heard arguments Wednesday about whether it should be put into practice. Hawaii argued that the ban discriminates on the basis of nationality and would prevent Hawaii residents from receiving visits from relatives in the six mostly Muslim countries covered by the ban. The state also says the ban would harm its tourism industry and the ability to recruit foreign students and workers. ___ 3:30 p.m. A federal judge in Seattle said after a hearing that he will issue a written order about whether to block President Donald Trump's revised travel ban but didn't say when he would make his decision. Judge James Robart told lawyers for an immigrant rights group and for the Justice Department that he's most interested in whether the ban violates federal immigration law, and whether affected immigrants would be irreparably harmed should the ban go into effect. The judge spent much of the Wednesday hearing grilling the lawyers about two seemingly conflicting federal laws on immigration — one which gives the president the authority to keep any class of aliens out of the country, and another that forbids the government from discriminating on the basis of nationality when it comes to issuing immigrant visas. ___ 2:55 p.m. Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin says he's cautiously optimistic that a federal judge will rule in the state's favor and issue an injunction against President Donald Trump's revised travel ban before it goes into effect. Chin spoke at a news conference Wednesday after U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson heard arguments regarding the injunction request. The judge said he would issue a ruling before the ban is scheduled to go into effect at 9:01 p.m. PDT Wednesday. Chin wasn't the only state attorney general at the hearing. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is in Honolulu for a conference, and sat in to hear the case. Oregon filed a brief supporting Hawaii's lawsuit. Rosenblum says it's helpful that challenges to the travel ban are being held in so many jurisdictions, with the hope that at least one judge will issue a temporary restraining order. Other hearings were held Wednesday in federal courts in Maryland and Washington state challenging the ban. ___ 2:15 p.m. A hearing on President Donald Trump's revised travel ban is underway in federal court in Seattle. Judge James Robart began the session Wednesday by questioning a lawyer for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project about two seemingly conflicting federal laws on immigration. One gives the president the authority to keep any class of aliens out of the country, and another forbids the government from discriminating on the basis of nationality when it comes to issuing visas. Attorney Matt Adams responded that while the law does give the president broad authority, Congress later clarified the law to say the government can't discriminate on the basis of nationality any more than it could bar people based on their race. ___ 2 p.m. A federal judge in Hawaii is considering a request to issue a temporary restraining order against the revised travel ban ordered by President Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson says he will issue a written order by 9:01 p.m. PDT, when Trump's executive order is set to take effect. Watson made the statement Wednesday after hearing arguments by both sides in the case. The ban blocks new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries and temporarily halts the U.S. refugee program. Hawaii was the first state to file a lawsuit challenging the revised ban. Its motion for a restraining order contends the ban discriminates on the basis of national origin. The state also argues that the ban would prevent Hawaii residents from receiving visits from relatives in the six mostly Muslim countries covered by the ban. The government says Hawaii's concerns are speculation. More than half a dozen states are trying to stop the ban. ___ 4:45 p.m. A Justice Department attorney is arguing that there's no need for a judge in Hawaii to issue an emergency restraining order against the revised travel ban issued by President Donald Trump. Jeffrey Wall of the Office of the Solicitor General said during a hearing Wednesday that plaintiffs have said little about harm from the ban that was not speculative. He said Hawaii is making generalized allegations. Wall said if the judge is inclined to issue an injunction, it shouldn't be nationwide and should be tailored to the claims raised by Hawaii. ___ 1:25 p.m. Washington state has filed a backup motion in an effort to keep President Donald Trump's revised travel ban from taking effect as scheduled Thursday. In a new court filing Wednesday, Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the state supports the arguments made in a related case filed by an immigrant rights group based in Seattle that alleges the ban discriminates against Muslims and violates federal immigration law. U.S. District Judge James Robart is hearing arguments in that case later in the day. Ferguson said Robart should consider Washington state's new emergency motion for a temporary restraining order if he doesn't see fit to issue an order in the case by the rights group or to rule immediately on a prior motion by Washington state. The Justice Department says Trump's action is a lawful exercise of presidential authority. ___ 1:15 p.m. The state of Hawaii says an imam from Honolulu has legal standing to assert the First Amendment claim of religious discrimination when challenging President Donald Trump's revised travel ban. Hawaii's case for a temporary restraining order to block the ban is being heard Wednesday in federal court in Honolulu. The judge told lawyers that he is more interested in constitutional claims and wanted to know who had such standing in the lawsuit. Attorney Colleen Roh Sinzdak says a Muslim plaintiff in the lawsuit, Ismail Elshikh, has such standing to challenge the ban. Elshikh says the ban prevents his mother-in-law, who lives in Syria, from visiting family in Hawaii. Sinzdak says Elshikh and all Muslim residents in Hawaii face higher hurdles in reuniting with family members because of their faith. She says that harm applies to all residents, not just Muslims. ___ 3:15 p.m. EDT Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin has arrived in a Honolulu federal courtroom, ready to challenge President Donald Trump's revised travel ban. Chin arrived about 30 minutes before the start of Wednesday's hearing as legal efforts to overturn the ban now shift to Honolulu. Chin's lawsuit claims the ban harms Hawaii by highlighting the state's dependence on international travelers, its ethnic diversity and its welcoming reputation as the Aloha State. Hawaii's lawsuit includes a Muslim plaintiff, Ismail Elshikh, the imam of a Honolulu mosque. He says the ban prevents his mother-in-law, who lives in Syria, from visiting family in Hawaii. In response, the Justice Department says Hawaii's claims are mere speculation. It's not clear when U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson will rule on the state's request for a temporary restraining order. Attorneys from the Washington, D.C., law firm Hawaii has hired will participate by phone. Justice Department attorneys are also phoning in for the hearing. ___ 12:30 p.m. EDT Legal efforts to overturn President Donald Trump's travel ban now shift to Honolulu, where a hearing will be held later Wednesday. The lawsuit claims the ban harms Hawaii by highlighting the state's dependence on international travelers, its ethnic diversity and its welcoming reputation as the Aloha State. Hawaii's lawsuit includes a Muslim plaintiff, Ismail Elshikh, the imam of a Honolulu mosque. He says the ban prevents his mother-in-law, who lives in Syria, from visiting family in Hawaii. In response, the Justice Department says Hawaii's claims are mere speculation. It's not clear when U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson will rule on the state's request for a temporary restraining order. Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin plans to argue before the court, but attorneys from the Washington, D.C., law firm Hawaii has hired will participate by phone. Justice Department attorneys are also expected to phone in for the hearing. ___ 11:50 a.m. EDT A federal judge in Maryland says he will issue a ruling in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's revised travel ban. However, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang did not promise that he would rule before the ban takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. He also said Wednesday he may issue a narrow ruling that does not address the ban nationwide. The lawsuit in Maryland was filed by the ACLU and other groups representing immigrants and refugees, as well as some individual plaintiffs. They argue banning travel from six majority-Muslim countries is unconstitutional discrimination on the basis of religion. They also say it's illegal for Trump to reduce the number of refugees allowed into the United States this year by more than half. Government lawyers argued the ban was revised significantly to address legal concerns and no longer singles out Muslims. ___ 11:20 a.m. EDT The Seattle federal judge who blocked President Donald Trump's original travel ban will hear a challenge to the new order by an immigrant rights group. U.S. District Judge James Robart will hear arguments Wednesday in the lawsuit brought by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. The group says the new version of the travel ban discriminates against Muslims and raises the same legal issues as the original. Robart also is overseeing the legal challenge brought by Washington state. He also issued the order halting nationwide implementation of the first ban. Among the plaintiffs in the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project case is a legal permanent resident who has been trying to bring her 16-year-old son from war-torn Syria. The Trump administration says it believes its revised order is legal. The travel ban is scheduled to go into effect next Thursday. ___ 10:50 a.m. EDT Airbnb, Lyft and Wikimedia are among 58 technology companies backing a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration's revised travel ban from taking effect. The tech companies signed onto a friend-of-the-court brief filed in federal court on Tuesday claiming the White House's planned travel restrictions "would inflict significant and irreparable harm on U.S. businesses and their employees, stifling the growth of the United States' most prominent industries." The filing supported a legal challenge from the state of Hawaii, which is trying to derail Trump's executive order affecting travelers from six Muslim-majority nations. The tech companies signed onto the new brief also include Kickstarter, Dropbox Inc., Electronic Arts, Meetup, Pintrest, Square and TripAdvisor. Last month, nearly 100 tech companies signed a similar amicus brief opposing Trump's first proposed travel ban. ___ 9:30 a.m. EDT Virginia's attorney general is supporting Hawaii's lawsuit against President Donald Trump's revised travel ban. Attorney General Mark Herring said in a statement Tuesday that he joined 13 other attorneys general in filing an amicus brief Monday in the District Court for Hawaii. Hawaii has asked for a temporary restraining order blocking the enforcement of the revised travel ban. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday. The attorneys general argue that the revised ban retains the unconstitutional components of the original order, including a broad ban on entry by nationals from several predominantly Muslim countries and a suspension of the refugee program. ___ 2:15 a.m. EDT A Maryland judge is scheduled to hold a hearing on a lawsuit stemming from President Donald Trump's travel ban. Several individuals and groups including the American Civil Liberties Union originally filed the lawsuit in February over the initial ban, which was blocked in court and later revised. On Wednesday, the groups will be asking a Maryland judge to issue an order that would keep the revised ban from taking effect. It's scheduled to take effect Thursday. A federal judge in Hawaii has also scheduled a hearing Wednesday on the revised ban. In Maryland, the groups are arguing that the revised ban has the same legal flaws as Trump's first executive order.

– A federal judge in Hawaii blocked President Trump's revised travel ban just hours before it was set to go into effect across the country, the Washington Post reports. Hawaii had filed a lawsuit over the new executive order, which halted visas for citizens from six Muslim-majority nations for 90 days and stopped new refugees for 120 days, claiming it hurts tourism, business, and universities and would keep people from those six countries from visiting family in Hawaii. The state alleged the order, which also cuts the number of refugees allowed in the US next year in half, was essentially a Muslim ban. US District Judge Derrick Watson froze the order Wednesday, saying Hawaii has a "strong likelihood of success on their claim," according to Politico. More than six states are currently trying to halt the new travel ban, the AP reports. Arguments against it were also scheduled to be heard in Maryland and Washington state on Wednesday. Trump issued the revised travel ban after his first attempt was blocked by a federal judge in Washington state. Justice Department lawyers defending the new executive order said the ban was well within the president's power and claimed its potential harms were only speculation.

The United Kingdom is a highly developed nation that exerts considerable international economic, political, scientific and cultural influence. Located off the northwest corner of Europe, the country includes the island of Great Britain – which contains England, Scotland and Wales – and the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The year 2017 ushered in anxiety about the country’s role on the global stage, due to the public voting in the summer of 2016 to leave the European Union. The vote raises questions about the European Union , as well as the policies supporting the eurozone . ||||| (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images) The mood on the international conference call at the beginning of this month was somber as Ian Bremmer, president of the political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group, prepared to list off top global dangers in the coming year. Bremmer began with a show-stopping line: "If we had to pick one year for a big unexpected crisis — the geopolitical equivalent of the 2008 financial meltdown — it feels like 2018." The reasons are many, Bremmer cited, but the most prominent causes for global insecurity stem from U.S. President Donald Trump's move away from global leadership, and China's eagerness to fill the perceived vacuum. Bremmer isn't alone. Donald Trump pledged to "Make America Great Again." The world thinks he is doing the opposite. The United States slips in this year's U.S. News Best Countries ranking, dropping to the No. 8 spot after falling one position from its 2017 ranking. Switzerland, an island of stable prosperity in a world of turmoil, remains the Best Country, according to a global survey of more than 21,000 persons. The reasons for America's drop – the second straight year its ranking dipped – are fueled by the world's perceptions of the country becoming less progressive and trustworthy, more politically unstable and a president who after just a year in office is far more unpopular than any other head of state or company CEO. As in 2017, Canada remains the No. 2 in the survey. Germany, as it was in 2016, is perceived as the most powerful country in Europe – surpassing the U.K. to place at No. 3 overall, while the U.K. drops to No. 4. Japan rounds out the top five, the highest finish for a nation in Asia, a region which survey respondents increasingly believe holds many of the keys to the world's future. At No. 6 is Sweden and Australia moves up to the No. 7 position, surpassing the U.S. The 2018 Best Countries rankings, formed in partnership with global marketing communications company Y&R's brand strategy firm, BAV Group, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, are based on a study that surveyed global citizens from four regions to assess perceptions of 80 countries on 75 different metrics. Trump Shocks, Divides the World The Best Countries rankings come just days after Trump celebrates his first year as U.S. president. The U.S. is still seen as the most powerful nation. In many ways, however, the results reflect 12 months of ongoing signs of the decline of America's standing in the world. In this sense, a noticeable "Trump Effect" is taking hold of the U.S. Just days after taking office, Trump fulfilled a campaign promise by pulling the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. Weeks later a poll showed just 15 percent of Germans believed the new U.S. president to be competent. By last spring's NATO summit, European leaders had begun believing that the U.S. had abdicated its leadership role in the military alliance, as Trump shifted support for both NATO and the European Union. As summer unfolded, Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Days later, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center released a poll showing the unpopularity of Trump and his policies was sharply dragging down global opinion of the U.S. Meanwhile, Trump's statements further rattled world opinion. The president engaged in a war of words with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. By November, Trump had begun accumulating a sizeable trail of verbal gaffes to world leaders. By early January, the Washington, D.C.-based Freedom House warned that democracy was "in crisis" around the world, in no small part because of Trump's repeated attacks on the judiciary system and news media in the U.S., lack of seeking "meaningful input" from relevant agencies and "violations of basic ethical standards." In the Best Countries survey, the greatest drop by the U.S. in the rankings came in the perceptions of survey respondents for countries having open travel policies. The backlash against Trump's travel ban order in February 2017 and subsequent media attention are having a lasting impact on America's image, and challenging long-held perceptions of the country's reputation for openness. One piece of good news for the U.S.: The country is seen as the No. 2 country overall for education. Even so, U.S. higher education industry experts worry the country is becoming a less attractive destination for international students, partly because of U.S. immigration policies. Opportunities for Many Countries Among other key findings in the 2018 Best Countries survey: America's perceived retreat from its traditional global leadership role is creating opportunities for other countries, particularly in the areas of "soft power," arenas where economic and cultural influence drive opinions and policy-making. Switzerland's position as the No. 1 overall country is driven by its reputation for citizenship and being open for business. For the third year in a row, Canada is seen as offering the best quality of life, driven by high ratings for education, health care and public safety. In Asia, the U.S. withdrawal from the TPP hasn't slowed the advancing economic might of the region, particularly in China. Authorities in Beijing now see the U.S. foreign policy signals as mixed and an opportunity to work more closely with other countries, including American allies. "Trump's neo-isolationist and unilateralist inclinations have given China a golden opportunity to enhance its prestige, status, and international leadership," says Zhang Baohui, a professor of political science and director of the Centre for Asian Pacific Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. The Best Countries survey findings on leadership and trust in governments and companies are particularly revealing. Approximately 82 percent of survey respondents believe there is a leadership crisis, and 61 percent say they trust private companies more than the government to take care of their needs. Additionally, corporate CEOs are more supported than government leaders. Only Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have approval ratings to rival the top ratings by CEOs such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. And the people with the highest disapproval ratings? By far, Trump, followed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. For 10 interesting facts on the Best Countries survey, click here. For top 25 countries in the Best Countries ranking, click here. Data Editor Deidre McPhillips and BAV's Anna Blender contributed to this report.

– US News ranks everything from hospitals to diets—and now also countries. In a first, the publication has come out with a list of the best 10 countries in the world, based on the perceptions of more than 16,000 people, who were asked to score countries on things like leadership, military, economic strength, culture, and transparency. The US doesn't make the top three: Germany Canada United Kingdom United States Sweden Australia Japan France Netherlands Denmark At least the US fares better when it comes to the most popular leaders, according to Facebook.

Newly available CIA records obtained by Judicial Watch, the conservative watchdog group, reveal that New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti forwarded an advance copy of a Maureen Dowd column to a CIA spokesperson — a practice that is widely frowned upon within the industry. Mazzetti's correspondence with CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf, on Aug. 5, 2011, pertained to the Kathryn Bigelow-Mark Boal film "Zero Dark Thirty," about the killing of Osama bin Laden, and a Times op-ed column by Dowd set to be published two days later that criticized the White House for having "outsourced the job of manning up the president’s image to Hollywood." According to Judicial Watch, Mazzetti sent Harf an advance copy of Dowd's column, and wrote: “this didn’t come from me… and please delete after you read. See, nothing to worry about!” POLITICO has just reached out to the Times for comment, as it was unable to do so prior to Judicial Watch's decision to lift the embargo on the files. (See update). Judicial Watch obtained the files through a formal Freedom of Information Act request. The full email can be viewed here. UPDATE (12:41 p.m.): New York Times Managing Editor Dean Baquet called POLITICO to explain the situation, but provided little clarity, saying he could not go into detail on the issue because it was an intelligence matter. "I know the circumstances, and if you knew everything that's going on, you'd know it's much ado about nothing," Baquet said. "I can't go into in detail. But I'm confident after talking to Mark that it's much ado about nothing." "The optics aren't what they look like," he went on. "I've talked to Mark, I know the cirucmstance, and given what I know, it's much ado about nothing." Baquet would not provide further details, which means his statements amount to a plea to readers to take it on faith that Mazzetti's leak was ethically sound. (h/t Byron Tau) UPDATE (4:15 p.m.): Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy emails to explain that Mazzetti made a mistake: Last August, Maureen Dowd asked Mark Mazzetti to help check a fact for her column. In the course of doing so, he sent the entire column to a CIA spokeswoman shortly before her deadline. He did this without the knowledge of Ms. Dowd. This action was a mistake that is not consistent with New York Times standards. Read more about: CIA, Maureen Dowd ||||| Obama Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications: Obama White House ‘trying to have visibility into the UBL (Usama bin Laden) projects.’ (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Department of Defense (DOD) regarding meetings and communications between government agencies and Kathryn Bigelow, the Academy Award-winning director of The Hurt Locker, and screenwriter Mark Boal in preparation for their film Zero Dark Thirty, which details the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden. According to the records, the Obama administration granted Boal and Bigelow unusual access to agency information in preparation for their film, which was reportedly scheduled for an October 2012 release, just before the presidential election, but the trailers are running now until the rescheduled release in December. If you would like to receive weekly emails updating you about all of our efforts to fight corruption, please sign up here. * Email * State: AL AK AS AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA GU HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MH MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NM NH NJ NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY Judicial Watch Weekly Update The records – which should have been produced months ago pursuant to a court order in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed on January 21, 2012 – include records from a “stack” of “overlooked” documents discovered by the CIA in July 2012. The following are highlights from the records, which include internal DOD, White House and CIA email correspondence with the filmmakers: According to a June 15, 2011, email from Benjamin Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, to then Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Doug Wilson, then-CIA Director of Public Affairs George Little, and Deputy White House Press Secretary Jaime Smith, the Obama White House was intent on “trying to have visibility into the UBL (Usama bin Laden) projects.” “…we are trying to have visibility into the UBL projects and this is likely the most high profile one. Would like to have whatever group is going around in here at the WH [White House] to get a sense of what they’re doing / what cooperation they’re seeking. Jamie will be POC [point of contact].” According to e-mail exchange on June 7, 2011, CIA spokesperson Marie E. Harf openly discussed providing preferential treatment to the Boal/Bigelow project over others related to the bin Laden killing: “I know we don’t pick favorites but it makes sense to get behind a winning horse…Mark and Kathryn’s movie is going to be the first and the biggest. It’s got the most money behind it, and two Oscar winners on board…” In a July 20, 2011, e-mail, Mark Boal writes to thank then-CIA Director of Public Affairs George Little for “pulling for him” with the agency, noting that it made, “all the difference.” Little responds: “…I can’t tell you how excited we all are (at DOD and CIA) about the project…PS – I want you to know how good I’ve been not mentioning the premiere tickets. :)” On July 13, 2011, Mark Boal’s assistant, Jonathan Leven, sent CIA spokesperson Marie Harf a copy of the floor plan of the bin Laden compound and asked him to verify its accuracy: “Per your conversation with Mark, can you verify whether this floor plan is accurate?” The next day Harf responds: “Ok, I checked with our folks, and that floor plan matches with what we have. It looks legit to us.” On July 14, 2011, Mark Boal asks CIA spokesperson Marie Harf to provide detailed information regarding the third floor of the compound that were not present on the open-source floor plan: “Would you mind looking into getting us some of the third floor specs…as the open source plan is missing those: height of wall, etc..? We will be building a full scale replica of the house. Including the inhabitants of the animal pen!” Harf responds minutes later: “Ha! Of course I don’t mind! I’ll work on that tomorrow… In an internal CIA memo regarding Kathryn Bigelow’s visit to agency headquarters dated July 14, 2011, CIA spokesperson Marie Harf describes Boal’s contact with the agency as a “deep dive.” (The memo was originally classified Secret.): “Kathryn is not interested in doing the deep dives that Mark did; she simply wants to meet the people Mark has been talking to.” On August 5, 2011, CIA Spokesperson Marie Harf exchanges several e-mails with New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti about the Boal/Bigelow project and, specifically, about a column by Maureen Dowd to be published August 7, 2011, making critical reference to the access the filmmakers were given. Mazzetti gave Harf an advance copy of the article, with the caveat, “this didn’t come from me… and please delete after you read. See, nothing to worry about!” In a June 15, 2011, e-mail, to Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Benjamin Rhodes, Doug Wilson notes that the cooperation that Boal and Bigelow had been getting from the CIA was with the “full knowledge and full approval/support” of Director Panetta. “Boal has been working with us and with the CIA (via George Little) for initial context briefings – at DoD this has been provided by Mike Vickers, and at CIA by relevant officials with the full knowledge and full approval/support of Director Panetta.” In a July 17, 2011, e-mail, CIA spokesperson Marie Harf advises then CIA Director of Public Affairs Greg Little that Boal and Bigelow would be “meeting individually with both [name redacted] and the translator who was on the raid…” Judicial Watch launched its investigation of Bigelow’s meetings with the Obama administration following press reports suggesting that the Obama administration may have leaked classified information to the director as source material for Bigelow’s film. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote that the information leak was designed to help the Obama 2012 presidential reelection campaign: “The White House is also counting on the Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal big-screen version of the killing of Bin Laden to counter Obama’s growing reputation as ineffectual. The Sony film [sic] by the Oscar-winning pair who made ‘The Hurt Locker’ will no doubt reflect the president’s cool, gutsy decision against shaky odds. Just as Obamaland was hoping, the movie is scheduled to open on Oct. 12, 2012 — perfectly timed to give a home-stretch boost to a campaign that has grown tougher.” In addition to Judicial Watch’s pursuit of the bin Laden film records, the organization continues to fight in court for the release of post-mortem images of bin Laden and the alleged burial at sea. The Obama administration continues to withhold these records citing national security concerns. “These new documents provide more backing to the serious charge that the Obama administration played fast and loose with national security information to help Hollywood filmmakers,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “No wonder we’ve had to fight one year of stonewalling from the administration. These new documents show there is no doubt that Obama White House was intensely interested in this film that was set to portray President Obama as ‘gutsy.’” Read about the search for bin Laden documents and more in Tom Fitton’s New York Times best-seller The Corruption Chronicles, on sale now. ||||| New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti e-mailed an advance, unpublished copy of a Maureen Dowd column dealing with the CIA to an Agency spokeswoman last year, according to newly released emails obtained by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act. Depending on whom at the Times you ask, that was either "much ado about nothing" or a "mistake that is not consistent with New York Times standards." The emails were released to Judicial Watch as part of a FOIA lawsuit the group brought seeking information about the Agency's cooperation with filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, who are working on a film about the assassination of Osama bin Laden. They show that last August, Mazzetti, who covers national security for the Times, sent CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf a Maureen Dowd column the paper was about to publish critiquing the White House's attempt to spin the raid with the admonition, "this didn't come from me...and please delete after you read." Earlier, Harf had emailed Mazzetti asking "any word?" Mazzetti had replied, "Going to see a version before it gets filed. My sense is there is a very brief mention at the very bottom of column about CIA ceremony, but that Boal also got high level access at the Pentagon." Indeed, the column reported that Boal had been invited to a CIA ceremony honoring the SEALs. The exchange was obviously an effort on Harf's part to gather intelligence about what the Times was going to report. And if Mazzetti did indeed send Harf a version he saw "before it [got] filed," that means the CIA read Dowd's column before her own editors did. Mazzetti declined to comment for the record. As far as Times managing editor Dean Baquet is concerned, this sort of cozy information-sharing (for which Wall Street Journal reporter and elephant-fucker Gina Chon was nominally fired in June) is no big deal at all. "I know the circumstances, and if you knew everything that's going on, you'd know it's much ado about nothing," Baquet told Politico's Dylan Byers. "I can't go into in detail. But I'm confident after talking to Mark that it's much ado about nothing. The optics aren't what they look like." But Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy, issuing a statement to Gawker on behalf of the paper, had a slightly less sanguine take. Last August, Maureen Dowd asked Mark Mazzetti to help check a fact for her column. In the course of doing so, he sent the entire column to a CIA spokeswoman shortlly before her deadline. He did this without the knowledge of Ms. Dowd. This action was a mistake that is not consistent with New York Times standards. It's not really clear what's behind the cognitive dissonance, though the statement's insistence that Mazzetti acted without Dowd's knowledge might explain it. Perhaps she found more to be "ado" about than Baquet did with the notion of her colleague sharing a critical column with a flack for the spooks, and asked that it be made known. The Judicial Watch emails, by the way—which are supplementary to another batch released in May—offer a wealth of new information on the extent to which the White House invited Boal and Bigelow into the highly classified world of the bin Laden raid, including letting them speak to a translator who joined the raid and the fact that then-CIA director Leon Panetta was fully aware of the project and offered his "full knowledge and full approval/support." [Image via Getty]

– The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch has brought to light a media flap that could prove embarrassing to the New York Times. National security reporter Mark Mazzettii of the Times emailed an advance copy of a Maureen Dowd column to the CIA last year, complete with the plea, “this didn’t come from me… and please delete after you read. See, nothing to worry about!” report Gawker and Politico. After Times managing editor Dean Baquet initially called it "much ado about nothing," a Times spokesperson followed up by calling Mazzetti's move a "mistake that is not consistent with New York Times standards." She explained: “Last August, Maureen Dowd asked Mark Mazzetti to help check a fact for her column. In the course of doing so, he sent the entire column to a CIA spokeswoman shortly before her deadline. He did this without the knowledge of Ms. Dowd.” Judicial Watch got the emails as part of an FOIA lawsuit to obtain information about the CIA's cooperation with filmmakers making a documentary about the Osama bin Laden raid. Dowd was writing a column critical of the White House, accusing it of trying to spin the raid to Hollywood.

Here are the key moments from the debate that brought Republican presidential candidates head-to-head in North Charleston, S.C. on Jan. 14. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) Seven candidates participated in Thursday's 2016 presidential debate in North Charleston, S.C.: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey governor Chris Christie. The complete transcript is posted below. Washington Post reporters and readers using Genius have annotated it, and will continue to do so following the debate. To see an annotation, click or tap the highlighted part of the transcript; if you would like to leave your own annotations, make sure you have a Genius account. Post staff annotations will appear by default; others are in a menu that you can see in the upper right when you click or tap on an annotation. The debate began after moderators Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo introduced the candidates. BARTIROMO: So let's get started. Candidates, jobs and growth -- two of the biggest issues facing the country right now. In his State of the Union address earlier this week, the president said, quote, "we have the strongest, most durable economy in the world." And according to our Facebook research, jobs is one of the biggest issues resonating across the country, including here in South Carolina. The president is touting 14 million new jobs and an unemployment rate cut in half. The president said that anyone who claims America's economy is in decline is peddling fiction. Senator Cruz, what do you see that he doesn't? CRUZ: Well, Maria, thank you for that question, and let me say thank you to the state of South Carolina for welcoming us. Let me start -- I want to get to the substance of the question on jobs, but I want to start with something. Today, many of us picked up our newspapers, and we were horrified to see the sight of 10 American sailors on their knees, with their hands on their heads. In that State of the Union, President Obama didn't so much as mention the 10 sailors that had been captured by Iran. President Obama's preparing to send $100 billion or more to the Ayatollah Khamenei. And I'll tell you, it was heartbreaking. But the good news is the next commander-in-chief is standing on this stage. (APPLAUSE) CRUZ: And I give you my word, if I am elected president, no service man or service woman will be forced to be on their knees, and any nation that captures our fighting men will feel the full force and fury of the United States of America. (APPLAUSE) Now, on to your substantive question. The president tried to paint a rosy picture of jobs. And you know, he's right. If you're a Washington lobbyist, if you make your money in and around Washington, things are doing great. The millionaires and billionaires are doing great under Obama. But we have the lowest percentage of Americans working today of any year since 1977. Median wages have stagnated. And the Obama-Clinton economy has left behind the working men and women of this country. The reason all of us are here is we believe we should be fighting for the working men and women of this country, and not Washington, D.C. BARTIROMO: Thank you, sir. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Governor Kasich, we are not even two weeks into this stock trading year, but (inaudible) investors already lost $1.6 trillion in market value. That makes it the worst start to a new year ever. Many worry that things will get even worse, and that banks and financial stocks are particularly vulnerable. Now, if this escalates, like it did back when Barack Obama first assumed the presidency, what actions would you take if this same thing happens all over again just as, in this example, you are taking over the presidency? KASICH: Look, it takes three things basically to grow jobs. And I've done it when I was in Washington when we had a balanced budget; had four years of balanced budgets; paid down a half-trillion of debt. And our economy was growing like crazy. It's the same thing that I did in Ohio. It's a simple formula: common sense regulations, which is why I think we should freeze all federal regulations for one year, except for health and safety. It requires tax cuts, because that sends a message to the job creators that things are headed the right way. And if you tax cuts -- if you cut taxes for corporations, and you cut taxes for individuals, you're going to make things move, particularly the corporate tax, which is the highest, of course, in the -- in the world. But in addition to that, we have to have fiscal discipline. We have to show that we can march to a balanced budget. And when you do that, when you're in a position of managing regulations; when you reduce taxes; and when you have fiscal discipline, you see the job creators begin to get very comfortable with the fact that they can invest. Right now, you don't have the -- you have taxes that are too high. You have regulations -- I mean, come on, they're affecting everybody here, particularly our small businesses. They are -- they're in a position where they're smothering people. And I mean, are you kidding me? We're nowhere close to a balanced budget or fiscal discipline. Those three things put together are going to give confidence to job creators and you will begin to see wages rise. You will begin to see jobs created in a robust economy. And how do I know it? Because I've done it. I did it as the chairman of the Budget Committee, working with Senator Domenici. And I've done it in the state of Ohio as the chief executive. Our wages are growing faster than the national average. We're running surpluses. And we can take that message and that formula to Washington to lift every single American to a better life. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: We know that recent global events have many people worried -- Iran detaining American sailors, forcing them to apologize; North Korea and its nuclear ambitions; an aggressive China; and a Middle East that continues to deteriorate, not to mention ISIS is getting stronger. Governor Christie, sometimes it seems the world is on fire. Where and when should a president use military action to restore order? CHRISTIE: Well, Maria, I'm glad to have heard from you in the summary of that question about what's going on in the world. Because Tuesday night, I watched story time with Barack Obama. And I've got to tell you, it sounded like everything in the world was going amazing, you know? (APPLAUSE) The fact is, there's a number of things that the next president is going to have to do to clean up this mess. The first thing is we have to strengthen our alliances around the world. And the best way to do that is to start talking to our allies again and having them be able to count on our word. CHRISTIE: Lots of people will say lots of different things about me in this campaign and others, but the one thing they've never said about me is that I'm misunderstood. And so when we talk to our allies and we give them our word, in a Christie administration, they know we're going to keep it. Next, we have to talk to our adversaries, and we have to make sure they understand the limits of our patience. And this president, given what Ted said right at the beginning, he's absolutely right. It's a -- it's absolutely disgraceful that Secretary Kerry and others said in their response to what's going on in Iran that this was a good thing; it showed how the relationship was getting better. The president doesn't understand -- and by the way, neither does Secretary Clinton -- and here's my warning to everybody out in the audience tonight. If you're worried about the world being on fire, you're worried about how we're going to use our military, you're worried about strengthening our military and you're worried most of all about keeping your homes and your families safe and secure, you cannot give Hillary Clinton a third term of Barack Obama's leadership. I will not do that. If I'm the nominee, she won't get within 10 miles of the White House. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Just to be clear Governor, where and when would you use military action? CHRISTIE: Military action, Maria, would be used when it was absolutely necessary to protect American lives and protect American interests around the world. We are not the world's policeman, but we need to stand up and be ready. And the problem, Maria, is that the military is not ready, either. We need to rebuild our military, and this president has let it diminish to a point where tinpot dictators like the mullahs in Iran are taking our Navy ships. It is disgraceful, and in a Christie administration, they would know much, much better than to do that. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Governor Bush, the president just told the nation two nights ago that America is back and that the idea that our enemies are getting stronger or that this country is getting weaker, well, it's just rhetoric and hot air. Now other Democrats go even further, sir, saying Republicans even suggesting such comments actually embolden our enemies. I guess they would include you. What do you say? BUSH: Well first of all, the idea that somehow we're better off today than the day that Barack Obama was inaugurated president of the United States is totally an alternative universe. The simple fact is that the world has been torn asunder. Think about it. With grandiose language, the president talks about red lines and nothing to follow it up; talks about ISIS being the JV team, they form a caliphate the size of Indiana with 35 (thousand) to 40,000 battle-tested terrorists. He's missing the whole point, that America's leadership in the world is required for peace and stability. In the crowd today is Major General James Livingston, who's the co-chairman of my campaign here in South Carolina, a Medal of Honor recipient. (APPLAUSE) I've learned from him that what we need to achieve is peace through strength, which means we need to rebuild the military. In this administration, every weapon system has been gutted, in this administration, the force levels are going down to a level where we can't even project force. Our friends no longer think we have their back and our enemies no longer fear us, and we're in a much difficult -- we're in a much different position than we should be. And for the life of me, I have no understanding why the president thinks that everything is going well. Terrorism is on the run, China, Russia is advancing their agenda at warp speed, and we pull back. As president of the United States, I will be a commander in chief that will have the back of the military. We will rebuild the military to make sure that it is a solid force, not to be the world's policeman, but to make sure that in a peaceful world, people know that the United States is there to take care of our own national interests and take care of our allies. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: So I take it from that you do not agree with the president. BUSH: No. And worse -- worse yet, to be honest with you, Hillary Clinton would be a national security disaster. Think about it. She wants to continue down the path of Iran, Benghazi, the Russian reset, Dodd-Frank, all the things that have -- that have gone wrong in this country, she would be a national security mess. And that is wrong. And you know what? Here's the problem. If she gets elected, she's under investigation with the FBI right now. If she gets elected, her first 100 days, instead of setting an agenda, she might be going back and forth between the White House and the courthouse. We need to stop that. (LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Senator Rubio, the president says that ISIS doesn't threaten our national existence like a Germany or a Japan back in World War II, that the terror group is nothing more than twisted souls plotting attacks in their garages. But House Homeland Security Committee recently said that over 1,000 ongoing investigations of homegrown extremism in 50 states. So how do you define the threat? Germany then or dangerous nut cases now? RUBIO: Yeah, I would go, first of all, one step further in this description of Hillary Clinton. She wouldn't just be a disaster, Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being commander in chief of the United States. (APPLAUSE) Someone who cannot handle intelligence information appropriately cannot be commander in chief and someone who lies to the families of those four victims in Benghazi can never be president of the United States. Ever. (APPLAUSE) On the issue of Barack Obama, Barack Obama does not believe that America is a great global power. Barack Obama believes that America is a arrogant global power that needs to be cut down to size. And that's how you get a foreign policy where we cut deals with our enemies like Iran and we betray our allies like Israel and we gut our military and we go around the world like he has done on 10 separate occasions and apologized for America. He doesn't understand the threat in ISIS. He consistently underestimates it but I do not. There is a war against ISIS, not just against ISIS but against radical jihadists terrorists, and it is a war that they win or we win. When I'm president of the United States, we are going to win this war on ISIS. The most powerful intelligence agency in the world is going to tell us where we are, the most powerful military in the world is going to destroy them. And if we capture any of them alive, they are getting a one-way ticket to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and we are going to find out everything they know. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Thank you, Senator. BARTIROMO: Dr. Carson, the president says he does not want to treat ISIS as a foreign army, but ISIS is neither a country nor a government. How do you attack a network that does not respect national borders? CARSON: Well, I'm very happy to get a question this early on. I was going to ask you to wake me up when that time came. (LAUGHTER) You know, I find it really quite fascinating some of the president's proclamations. The fact of the matter is he doesn't realize that we now live in the 21st century, and that war is very different than it used to be before. Not armies massively marching on each other and air forces, but now we have dirty bombs and we have cyber attacks and we have people who will be attacking our electrical grid. And, you know, we have a whole variety of things that they can do and they can do these things simultaneously. And we have enemies who are obtaining nuclear weapons that they can explode in our exoatmosphere and destroy our electric grid. I mean, just think about a scenario like that. They explode the bomb, we have an electromagnetic pulse. They hit us with a cyberattack simultaneously and dirty bombs. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue at that point? He needs to recognize that those kinds of things are in fact an existential threat to us. But here's the real key. We have the world's best military, even though he's done everything he can to diminish it. And the fact of the matter is if we give them a mission and we don't tie their hands behind their back, they can get it accomplished. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Mr. Trump, at the State of the Union, the president pointed to a guest who was a Syrian refugee you might recall whose wife and daughter and other family members were killed in an air attack. Now he fled that country seeking asylum here, ultimately ended up in Detroit where he's now trying to start a new life. The president says that that doctor is the real face of these refugees and not the one that you and some of your colleagues on this stage are painting; that you prefer the face of fear and terror and that you would refuse to let in anyone into this country seeking legitimate asylum. How do you answer that? TRUMP: It's not fear and terror, it's reality. You just have to look today at Indonesia, bombings all over. (APPLAUSE) You look at California, you look, frankly, at Paris where there's a -- the strictest no-gun policy of any city anywhere in the world, and you see what happens: 130 people dead with many to follow. They're very, very badly wounded. They will -- some will follow. And you look around, and you see what's happening, and this is not the case when he introduced the doctor -- very nice, everything perfect but that is not representative of what you have in that line of migration. That could be the great Trojan Horse. It could be people that are going to do great, great destruction. When I look at the migration, I looked at the line, I said it actually on your show recently, where are the women? It looked like very few women. Very few children. Strong, powerful men, young and people are looking at that and they're saying what's going on? TRUMP: You look at the kind of damage that two people that two people that got married, they were radicalized -- they got married, they killed 15 people in actually 15 -- going to be probably 16 but you look at that and you take a look -- a good strong look and that's what we have. We are nineteen trillion dollars -- our country's a mess and we can't let all these people come into our country and break our borders. We can't do it. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Senator Cruz, the New York Times is reporting that you failed to properly disclose a million dollars in loans from Goldman Sachs and CitiBank. During your senate race, your campaign said, "it was inadvertent." A million dollars is inadvertent? CRUZ: Well Maria, thank you for passing on that hit piece in the front page of the New York Times. You know the nice thing about the mainstream media, they don't hide their views. The New York Times a few weeks back had a columnist who wrote a column saying, "Anybody But Cruz." Had that actually -- that same columnist wrote a column comparing me to an evil demonic spirit from the move, "It Follows" that jumps apparently from body to body possessing people. So you know the New York Times and I don't have exactly have the warmest of relationships. Now in terms of their really stunning hit piece, what they mentioned is when I was running for senate -- unlike Hillary Clinton, I don't have masses of money in the bank, hundreds of millions of dollars. When I was running for senate just about every lobbyist, just about all of the establishment opposed me in the senate race in Texas and my opponent in that race was worth over 200 million dollars. He put a 25 million dollar check up from his own pocket to fund that campaign and my wife Heidi and I, we ended up investing everything we owned. We took a loan against our assets to invest it in that campaign to defend ourselves against those attacks. And the entire New York times attack -- is that I disclosed that loan on one filing with the United States Senate, that was a public filing. But it was not on a second filing with FDIC and yes, I made a paperwork error disclosing it on one piece of paper instead of the other. But if that's the best the New York Times has got, they better go back to the well. BARTIROMO: Thank you. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) CAVUTO: All right. Welcome back to the Republican presidential debate, right here in North Charleston, South Carolina. Let's get right back to the questions. And I'll start with you, Senator Cruz. Now you are, of course, a strict constitutionalist -- no one would doubt that. And as you know, the U.S. Constitution says only natural-born citizens are eligible for the office of president of the United States. Stop me if you've heard this before. Now, you were born... (LAUGHTER) ... you were born in Canada to an American mother. So you were and are considered an American citizen. But that fellow next to you, Donald Trump -- and others -- have said that being born in Canada means you are not natural-born, and that has raised questions about your eligibility. Do you want to try to close this topic once and for all tonight? CRUZ: Well, Neil, I'm glad we're focusing on the important topics of the evening. (LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE) You know, back in September, my friend Donald said that he had had his lawyers look at this from every which way, and there was no issue there. There was nothing to this birther issue. (LAUGHTER) Now, since September, the Constitution hasn't changed. (LAUGHTER) But the poll numbers have. (APPLAUSE) And I recognize -- I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling in Iowa. But the facts and the law here are really quite clear. Under longstanding U.S. law, the child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural-born citizen. If a soldier has a child abroad, that child is a natural-born citizen. That's why John McCain, even though he was born in Panama, was eligible to run for president. If an American missionary has a child abroad, that child is a natural-born citizen. That's why George Romney, Mitt's dad, was eligible to run for president, even though he was born in Mexico. At the end of the day, the legal issue is quite straightforward, but I would note that the birther theories that Donald has been relying on -- some of the more extreme ones insist that you must not only be born on U.S. soil, but have two parents born on U.S. soil. Under that theory, not only would I be disqualified, Marco Rubio would be disqualified, Bobby Jindal would be disqualified and, interestingly enough, Donald J. Trump would be disqualified. (APPLAUSE) (UNKNOWN): Not me. CRUZ: Because -- because Donald's mother was born in Scotland. She was naturalized. Now, Donald... TRUMP: But I was born here. CRUZ: ... on the issue -- on the issue of citizenship, Donald... TRUMP: (inaudible). Big difference. CRUZ: ... on the issue of citizenship, Donald, I'm not going to use your mother's birth against you. TRUMP: OK, good. Because it wouldn't work. CRUZ: You're an American, as is everybody else on this stage, and I would suggest we focus on who's best prepared to be commander- in-chief, because that's the most important question facing the country. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Mr. Trump... (CROSSTALK) CAVUTO: ... that you raised it because of his rising poll numbers. TRUMP: ... first of all, let me just tell you something -- and you know, because you just saw the numbers yourself -- NBC Wall Street Journal just came out with a poll -- headline: Trump way up, Cruz going down. I mean, so don't -- so you can't -- you can't... (BOOING) ... they don't like the Wall Street Journal. They don't like NBC, but I like the poll. (LAUGHTER) And frankly, it just came out, and in Iowa now, as you know, Ted, in the last three polls, I'm beating you. So -- you know, you shouldn't misrepresent how well you're doing with the polls. (APPLAUSE) You don't have to say that. In fact, I was all for you until you started doing that, because that's a misrepresentation, number one. TRUMP: Number two, this isn't me saying it. I don't care. I think I'm going to win fair and square (inaudible) to win this way. Thank you. Lawrence Tribe and (inaudible) from Harvard -- of Harvard, said that there is a serious question as to whether or not Ted can do this. OK? There are other attorneys that feel, and very, very fine constitutional attorneys, that feel that because he was not born on the land, he cannot run for office. Here's the problem. We're running. We're running. He does great. I win. I choose him as my vice presidential candidate, and the Democrats sue because we can't take him along for the ride. I don't like that. OK? (LAUGHTER) The fact is -- and if for some reason he beats the rest of the field, he beats the rest of the field (inaudible). See, they don't like that. They don't like that. (AUDIENCE BOOING) No, they don't like he beats the rest of the field, because they want me. (LAUGHTER) But -- if for some reason, Neil, he beats the rest of the field, I already know the Democrats are going to be bringing a suit. You have a big lawsuit over your head while you're running. And if you become the nominee, who the hell knows if you can even serve in office? So you should go out, get a declaratory judgment, let the courts decide. And you shouldn't have mentioned the polls because I would have been much... (CROSSTALK) CAVUTO: Why are you saying this now -- right now? Why are you raising this issue now? TRUMP: Because now he's going a little bit better. No, I didn't care (inaudible). It's true. No, it's true. Hey look, he never had a chance. Now, he's doing better. He's got probably a four or five percent chance. (LAUGHTER) (CROSSTALK) CRUZ: Neil... (CROSSTALK) TRUMP: The fact is, there is a big overhang. There's a big question mark on your head. And you can't do that to the party. You really can't. You can't do that to the party. You have to have certainty. Even if it was a one percent chance, and it's far greater than one percent because (inaudible). I mean, you have great constitutional lawyers that say you can't run. If there was a -- and you know I'm not bringing a suit. I promise. But the Democrats are going to bring a lawsuit, and you have to have certainty. You can't have a question. I can agree with you or not, but you can't have a question over your head. CAVUTO: Senator, do you want to respond? CRUZ: Well, listen, I've spent my entire life defending the Constitution before the U.S. Supreme Court. And I'll tell you, I'm not going to be taking legal advice from Donald Trump. TRUMP: You don't have to. Take it from Lawrence Tribe. (APPLAUSE) (CROSSTALK) TRUMP: Take it from your professors... (CROSSTALK) CRUZ: The chances of any litigation proceeding and succeeding on this are zero. And Mr. Trump is very focused... TRUMP: He's wrong. He's wrong. CRUZ: ... on Larry Tribe. Let me tell you who Larry Tribe is. He's a left-wing judicial activist, Harvard Law professor who was Al Gore's lawyer in Bush versus Gore. He's a major Hillary Clinton supporter. And there's a reason why Hillary's supporters are echoing Donald's attacks on me, because Hillary... TRUMP: He is not the only one. CRUZ: ... wants to face Donald Trump in the general election. TRUMP: There are many lawyers. CRUZ: And I'll tell you what, Donald, you -- you very kindly just a moment ago offered me the V.P. slot. (LAUGHTER) I'll tell you what. If this all works out, I'm happy to consider naming you as V.P. So if you happen to be right, you could get the top job at the end of the day. TRUMP: No -- no... (LAUGHTER) ... I think if it doesn't... (APPLAUSE) I like that. I like it. I'd consider it. But I think I'll go back to building buildings if it doesn't work out. CRUZ: Actually, I'd love to get you to build a wall. (CROSSTALK) TRUMP: I have a feeling it's going to work out, actually. (CROSSTALK) RUBIO: Let me (inaudible). I was invoked in that question, so let me just say -- in that answer -- let me say, the real question here, I hate to interrupt this episode of Court TV. (LAUGHTER) But the real -- but I think we have to get back to what this election has to be about. OK? Listen, we -- this is the greatest country in the history of mankind. But in 2008, we elected a president that didn't want to fix America. He wants to change America. We elected a president that doesn't believe in the Constitution. He undermines it. We elected a president that is weakening America on the global stage. We elected a president that doesn't believe in the free enterprise system. This election has to be about reversing all of that damage. That's why I'm running for office because when I become president of the United States, on my first day in office we are going to repeal every single one of his unconstitutional executive orders. When I'm president of the United States we are getting rid of Obamacare and we are rebuilding our military. And when I'm president, we're not just going to have a president that gives a State of the Union and says America is the greatest country in the world. When I'm president, we're going to have a president that acts like it. BARTIROMO: Thank you, senator. BARTIROMO: Mr. Trump, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in her response to the State of the Union address (APPLAUSE) BARITROMO: appeared to choose sides within the party, saying Republicans should resist, quote, "the siren call of the angriest voices". She confirmed, she was referring to you among others. Was she out of line? And, how would a President Trump unite the party? TRUMP: Okay. First of all, Nikki this afternoon said I'm a friend of hers. Actually a close friend. And wherever you are sitting Nikki, I'm a friend. We're friends. That's good. (LAUGHTER) But she did say there was anger. And I could say, oh, I'm not angry. I'm very angry because our country is being run horribly and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger. Our military is a disaster. (APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Our healthcare is a horror show. Obamacare, we're going to repeal it and replace it. We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief. Our country is being run by incompetent people. And yes, I am angry. (APPLAUSE) TRUMP: And I won't be angry when we fix it, but until we fix it, I'm very, very angry. And I say that to Nikki. So when Nikki said that, I wasn't offended. She said the truth. One of your colleagues interviewed me. And said, well, she said you were angry and I said to myself, huh, she's right. I'm not fighting that. I didn't find it offensive at all. I'm angry because our country is a mess. (APPLAUSE) BARITROMO: But what are you going to do about it? CAVUTO: Marco Rubio. I'm sorry, it's the time constraints. You and Governor Christie have been exchanging some fairly nasty words of late, and I will allow the governor to respond as well. The governor went so far to say, you won't be able to slime your way to the White House. He's referring to a series of ads done by a PAC, speaking on your behalf, that say quote,"One high tax, Common Core, liberal, energy-loving, Obamacare, Medicaid-expanding president is enough. You think you went too far on that and do you want to apologize to the governor? RUBIO: You know, as I said already twice in this debate, we have a very serious problem in this country. (APPLAUSE) RUBIO: We have a president of the United States that is undermining this country's security and expanding the role of... CAVUTO: That is not my question. RUBIO: Well, I am going to answer your question, Neil. He is -- this president is undermining the constitutional basis of this government. This president is undermining our military. He is undermining our standing in the world. I like Chris Christie, but we can not afford to have a president of the United States that supports Common Core. (APPLAUSE) RUBIO: We can not afford to have a president of the United States that supports gun control. This president, this president is more interested in funding -- less interested in funding the military, than he is in funding planned -- he's more interested in funding Planned Parenthood than he is in funding the military. Chris Christie wrote a check to Planned Parenthood. All I'm saying is our next president has to be someone that undoes the damage Barack Obama has done to this country. It can not be someone that agrees with his agenda. Because the damage he has done to America is extraordinary. Let me tell you, if we don't get this election right, there may be no turning back for America. We're on the verge of being the first generation of Americans that leave our children worse off than ourselves. So I just truly, with all my heart belief, I like everybody on the stage. No one is a socialist. No one here is under FBI investigation. So we have a good group of people. CAVUTO: Is he a liberal? RUBIO: Our next president... CAVUTO: Is he a liberal? RUBIO: Unfortunately, Governor Christie has endorsed many of the ideas that Barack Obama supports, whether it is Common Core or gun control or the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor or the donation he made to Planned Parenthood. Our next president, and our Republican nominee can not be someone who supports those positions. CAVUTO: Governor? (APPLAUSE) CHRISTIE: I stood on the stage and watched Marco in rather indignantly, look at Governor Bush and say, someone told you that because we're running for the same office, that criticizing me will get you to that office. It appears that the same someone who has been whispering in old Marco's ear too. (LAUGHTER) So the indignation that you carry on, some of the stuff, you have to also own then. So let's set the facts straight. First of all, I didn't support Sonia Sotomayor. Secondly, I never wrote a check to Planned Parenthood. Third, if you look at my record as governor of New Jersey, I have vetoed a 50-caliber rifle ban. I have vetoed a reduction this clip size. I vetoed a statewide I.D. system for gun owners and I pardoned, six out-of-state folks who came through our state and were arrested for owning a gun legally in another state so they never have to face charges. And on Common Core, Common Core has been eliminated in New Jersey. So listen, this is the difference between being a governor and a senator. See when you're a senator, what you get to do is just talk and talk and talk. And you talk so much that nobody can ever keep up with what you're saying is accurate or not. When you're a governor, you're held accountable for everything you do. And the people of New Jersey, I've seen it. (APPLAUSE) CHRISTIE: And the last piece is this. I like Marco too, and two years ago, he called me a conservative reformer that New Jersey needed. That was before he was running against me. Now that he is, he's changed his tune. I'm never going to change my tune. I like Marco Rubio. He's a good guy, a smart guy, and he would be a heck of a lot better president than Hillary Rodham Clinton would ever be. (APPLAUSE) BUSH: Neil, my name was mentioned here. Neil, my name was mentioned as well. Here's the deal, Chris is totally right. He's been a good governor, and he's a heck of a lot better than his predecessor that would have bankrupted New Jersey. Everybody on this stage is better than Hillary Clinton. And I think the focus ought to be on making sure that we leave this nomination process, as wild and woolly as it's going to be -- this is not being bad. These attack ads are going to be part of life. Everybody just needs to get used to it. Everybody's record's going to be scrutinized, and at the end of the day we need to unite behind the winner so we can defeat Hillary Clinton, because she is a disaster. (APPLAUSE) Our country rise up again, but we need to have a compelling conservative agenda that we present to the American people in a way that doesn't disparage people, that unites us around our common purpose. And so everybody needs to discount some of the things you're going to hear in these ads, and discount the -- the back-and-forth here, because every person here is better than Hillary Clinton. CARSON: Neil, I was mentioned too. CAVUTO: You were? CARSON: Yeah, he said everybody. (LAUGHTER) And -- and I just want to take this opportunity to say, you know, in the 2012 election, you know, we -- and when I say we, Republicans -- tore themselves apart. You know, we have to stop this because, you know, if we manage to damage ourselves, and we lose the next election, and a progressive gets in there and they get two or three Supreme Court picks, this nation is over as we know it. And we got to look at the big picture here. BARTIROMO: Governor Kasich... (APPLAUSE) ... Governor Kasich, Hillary Clinton is getting some serious competition from Senator Bernie Sanders. He's now at 41 percent in the latest CBS/New York Times poll. Vice President Biden sang his praises, saying Bernie is speaking to a yearning that is deep and real, and he has credibility on it. So what does it say about our country that a candidate who is a self-avowed socialist and who doesn't think a 90 percent tax rate is too high could be the Democratic nominee? KASICH: Well, if that's the case, we're going to win every state, if Bernie Sanders is the nominee. That's not even an issue. But look... (APPLAUSE) ... and I know Bernie, and I can promise you he's not going to be president of the United States. So here's this -- the situation, I think, Maria. And this is what we have to -- I -- I've got to tell you, when wages don't rise -- and they haven't for a lot of families for a number of years -- it's very, very difficult for them. Part of the reason why it hasn't risen because sometimes we're not giving people the skills they need. Sometimes it's because the Federal Reserve kept interest rates so low that the wealthy were able to invest in -- in strong assets like the stock market when everybody else was left behind. People are upset about it. I'll tell you what else they're upset about: you're 50 or 51 years old, and some kid walks in and tells you you're out of work, and you don't know where to go and where to turn. Do we have answer for that? We do. There are ways to retrain the 50 and 51-year-olds, because they've got great value. I'll tell you what else people are concerned about. Their kids come out of college, they have high debt and they can't get a good job. We got to do a lot about the high cost of high -- higher education, but we've got to make sure we're training people for jobs that exist, that are good jobs that can pay. (APPLAUSE) Let me tell you that, in this country -- in this country, people are concerned about their economic future. They're very concerned about it. And they wonder whether somebody is getting something to -- keeping them from getting it. That's not the America that I've ever known. My father used to say, "Johnny, we never -- we don't hate the rich. We just want to be the rich." And we just got to make sure that every American has the tools, in K-through-12 and in vocational education, in higher education. And we got to fight like crazy so people can think the American dream still exists, because it does, with rising wages, with full employment and with everybody in America -- and I mean everybody in America -- having an opportunity to realize the American dream of having a better life than their mother and their father. I'm president -- look, I've done it once. I've done it once in Washington, with great jobs and lower taxes. The economy was really booming. And now in Ohio, with the same formula, wages higher than the -- than the national average. A growth of 385,000 jobs. (BELL RINGS) It's not that hard. Just know where you want to go, stick to your guts. Get it done, because our -- our children and grandchildren are counting on us to get it done. And, folks, we will. You count on it. BARTIROMO: Dr. Carson, one of the other candidates on this stage has brought Bill Clinton's past indiscretions. Is that a legitimate topic in this election? And what do you think of the notion that Hillary Clinton is an enabler of sexual misconduct? CARSON: Well, there's not question that we should be able to look at past president whether they're married to somebody who's running for president or not in terms of their past behavior and what it means. But you know, here's the real issue, is this America anymore? Do we still have standards? Do we still have values and principles? You know, you look at what's going on, you see all the divisiveness and the hatred that goes on in our society. You know, we have a war on virtual everything -- race wars, gender wars, income wars, religious wars, age wars. Every war you can imaging, we have people at each other's throat and our strength is actually in our unity. You know, you go to the internet, you start reading an article and you go to the comments section -- you cannot go five comments down before people are calling each all manner of names. Where did that spirit come from in America? It did not come from our Judeo-Christian roots, I can tell you that. And wherever it came from we need to start once again recognizing that there is such a thing as right and wrong. And let's not let the secular progressives drive that out of us. The majority of people in American actually have values and principles and they believe in the very things that made America great. They've been beaten into submission. It's time for us to stand up for what we believe in. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Well, we are not done. Coming up, one of the top things people are talking about on Facebook, guns. And you can join us live us on this stage in the conversation during this commercial break right from home. You can go to Facebook.com/(inaudible). We will be streaming live and talking about how we think the debate is going so far. CAVUTO: We're back in a moment in Charleston, South Carolina. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Welcome back to the Republican presidential debates, right here in North Charleston. Let's get right back to the questions. Governor Bush, gun rights, one of the top issues seen on Facebook with close to 3 million people talking about it in the past month. Right here in Charleston, Dylann Roof, who has been accused of killing nine people in a nearby church, reportedly had not passed his background check when he got his gun. What is the harm in tightening standards for not only who buys guns, but those who sell them? BUSH: First of all, I'd like to recognize Governor Haley for her incredible leadership in the aftermath of the -- (APPLAUSE) BUSH: The Emanuel AME church killings. And I also want to recognize the people in that church that showed the grace of God and the grace of forgiveness and the mercy that they showed. (APPLAUSE) BUSH: I don't know if any of us could have done what they did, one after another, within 48 hours of that tragedy taking place. Look, here's the deal, in this particular case, the FBI made a mistake. The law itself requires a background check, but that didn't fulfill their part of the bargain within the time that they were supposed to do. We don't need to add new rules, we need to make sure the FBI does its job. Because that person should not have gotten a gun, should not -- would not have passed a background check. The first impulse of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is to take rights away from law- abiding citizens. That's what they do, whether it's the San Bernardino attack or if it's these tragedies that take place, I think we need to focus on what the bigger issue is. It isn't law-abiding gun owners. Look, I have an A plus rating in the NRA and we also have a reduction in gun violence because in Florida, if you commit a crime with a gun, you're going away. You're going away for a long, long while. And that's what we should focus on is the violence in our communities. Target the efforts for people that are committing crimes with guns, and if you do that, and get it right, you're going to be much better off than creating a political argument where there's a big divide. The other issue is mental health. That's a serious issue that we could work on. Republicans and Democrats alike believe this. (APPLAUSE) BUSH: The president's first impulse is do this by executive order, power he doesn't have. Why not go to Congress and in a bipartisan way, begin to deal with the process of mental health issues so that people that are spiraling out of control because of mental health challenges don't have access to guns. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Thank you, sir. Mr. Trump, are there any circumstances that you think we should be limiting gun sales of any kind in America? TRUMP: No. I am a 2nd amendment person. If we had guns in California on the other side where the bullets went in the different direction, you wouldn't have 14 or 15 people dead right now. If even in Paris, if they had guns on the other side, going in the opposite direction, you wouldn't have 130 people plus dead. So the answer is no and what Jeb said is absolutely correct. We have a huge mental health problem in this country. We're closing hospitals, we're closing wards, we're closing so many because the states want to save money. We have to get back into looking at what's causing it. The guns don't pull the trigger. It's the people that pull the trigger and we have to find out what is going on. (APPLAUSE) TRUMP: We have to protect our 2nd amendment and you cannot do this and certainly what Barack Obama was doing with the executive order. He doesn't want to get people together, the old-fashioned way, where you get Congress. You get the Congress, you get the Senate, you get together, you do legislation. He just writes out an executive order. Not supposed to happen that way. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Thank you sir. XXX where you get Congress. TRUMP: You get the Congress. You get the Senate. You get together. You do legislation. He just writes out an order, executive order. It's not supposed to happen that way. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Thank you, sir. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Senator Rubio, you said that President Obama wants to take people's guns away. Yet under his presidency, gun sales have more than doubled. That doesn't sound like a White House unfriendly to gun owners. RUBIO: That sounds like people are afraid the president's going to take their guns away. (APPLAUSE) Look, the Second Amendment is not an option. It is not a suggestion. It is a constitutional right of every American to be able to protect themselves and their families. I am convinced that if this president could confiscate every gun in America, he would. I am convinced that this president, if he could get rid of the Second Amendment, he would. I am convinced because I see how he works with his attorney general, not to defend the Second Amendment, but to figure out ways to undermine it. I have seen him appoint people to our courts not to defend the Second Amendment, but to figure out ways to undermine it. Here's my second problem. None of these instances that the president points to as the reason why he's doing these things would have been preventive. You know why? Because criminals don't buy their guns from a gun show. They don't buy their guns from a collector. And they don't buy their guns from a gun store. They get -- they steal them. They get them on the black market. And let me tell you, ISIS and terrorists do not get their guns from a gun show. These... (LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE) ... his answer -- you name it. If there's an act of violence in America, his immediate answer before he even knows the facts is gun control. Here's a fact. We are in a war against ISIS. They are trying to attack us here in America. They attacked us in Philadelphia last week. They attacked us in San Bernardino two weeks ago. And the last line standing between them and our families might be us and a gun. When I'm president of the United States, we are defending the Second Amendment, not undermining it the way Barack Obama does. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: But what fact can you point to, Senator -- what fact can you point to that the president would take away everyone's gun? You don't think that's (inaudible)? RUBIO: About every two weeks, he holds a press conference talking about how he can't wait to restrict people's access to guns. He has never defended... (CROSSTALK) RUBIO: I'll give you a fact. Well, let me tell you this. Do you remember when he ran for president of the United States, and he was a candidate, and he went and said, "These Americans with traditional values, they are bitter people, and they cling to their guns and to their religion." That tells you right away where he was headed on all of this. This president every chance he has ever gotten has tried to undermine the Second Amendment. (APPLAUSE) He doesn't meet -- here's the difference. When he meets with the attorney general in the White House, it's not "how can we protect the Second Amendment rights of Americans." It's "give me options on how I can make it harder for law-abiding people to buy guns." That will never happen when I am president of the United States. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Governor Christie, you, too, have criticized the president's recent executive action on gun control, saying it's unconstitutional, another step to bypass Congress. But hasn't your own position on guns evolved, sir? The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports that you signed several laws to regulate the possession of firearms, and that you argued back in August 2013, and I quote, "These common sense measures will strengthen New Jersey's already tough gun laws." So isn't that kind of what the president wants to do now? CHRISTIE: No, absolutely not. The president wants to do things without working with his Congress, without working with the legislature, and without getting the consent of the American people. And the fact is that that's not a democracy. That's a dictatorship. And we need to very, very concerned about that. See, here's the thing. I don't think the founders put the Second Amendment as number two by accident. I don't think they dropped all the amendments into a hat and picked them out of a hat. I think they made the Second Amendment the second amendment because they thought it was just that important. The fact is in New Jersey, what we have done is to make it easier now to get a conceal and carry permit. We have made it easier to do that, not harder. And the way we've done it properly through regulatory action, not buy signing unconstitutional executive orders. This guy is a petulant child. That's what he is. I mean, you know... (APPLAUSE) ... the fact is, Neil, let's think about -- let's think about -- and I want to maybe -- I hope the president is watching tonight, because here's what I'd like to tell him. Mr. President, we're not against you. We're against your policies. When you became president, you had a Democratic Congress and a filibuster-proof Democratic Senate. You had only 21 Republican governors in this country. And now after seven years of your policies, we have the biggest majority we've had since the 1920s in the House; a Republican majority in the Senate; and 31 out of 50 Republican governors. The American people have rejected your agenda and now you're trying to go around it. That's not right. It's not constitutional. And we are going to kick your rear end out of the White House come this fall. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: So what is the answer, Senator Cruz, to stop mass shootings and violent crime, up in 30 cities across the country? CRUZ: The answer is simple. Your prosecute criminals. You target the bad guys. You know, a minute ago, Neil asked: What has President Obama do -- done to illustrate that he wants to go after guns? Well, he appointed Eric Holder as attorney general. Eric Holder said he viewed his mission as brainwashing the American people against guns. He appointed Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, someone who has been a radical against the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. He launched Fast and Furious, illegally selling guns to Mexican drug lords that were then used to shoot law enforcement officials. And I'll tell you what Hillary Clinton has said: Hillary Clinton says she agrees with the dissenters -- the Supreme Court dissenters in the Heller case. There were four dissenters, and they said that they believe the Second Amendment protects no individual right to keep and bear arms whatsoever, which means, if their view prevailed and the next president's going to get one, two, three, maybe four Supreme Court justices, the court will rule that not a single person in this room has any right under the Second Amendment and the government could confiscate your guns. And I'll note that California senator -- Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said, if she could say to Mr. America and Mrs. America, "give me your guns, I'm rounding them up," she would. And let me make a final point on this. Listen, in any Republican primary, everyone is going to say they support the Second Amendment. Unless you are clinically insane... (LAUGHTER) ... that's what you say in a primary. But the voters are savvier than that. They recognize that people's actions don't always match their words. I've got a proven record fighting to defend the Second Amendment. There's a reason Gun Owners of America has endorsed me in this race. There's a reason the NRA gave me their Carter Knight Freedom Fund award... (BELL RINGS) ... and there's a reason, when Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer came after our right to keep and bear arms, that I led the opposition, along with millions of Americans -- we defeated that gun control legislation. And I would note the other individuals on this stage were nowhere to be found in that fight. BARTIROMO: Senator... (APPLAUSE) ... let me follow up and switch gears. Senator Cruz, you suggested Mr. Trump, quote, "embodies New York values." Could you explain what you mean by that? CRUZ: You know, I think most people know exactly what New York values are. (LAUGHTER) BARTIROMO: I am from New York. I don't. CRUZ: What -- what -- you're from New York? So you might not. (LAUGHTER) But I promise you, in the state of South Carolina, they do. (APPLAUSE) And listen, there are many, many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of New York. But everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro- gay-marriage, focus around money and the media. And -- and I would note indeed, the reason I said that is I was asked -- my friend Donald has taken to it as (ph) advance playing Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA", and I was asked what I thought of that. And I said, "well, if he wanted to play a song, maybe he could play, 'New York, New York'?" And -- and -- you know, the concept of New York values is not that complicated to figure out. Not too many years ago, Donald did a long interview with Tim Russert. And in that interview, he explained his views on a whole host of issues that were very, very different from the views he's describing now. And his explanation -- he said, "look, I'm from New York, that's what we believe in New York. Those aren't Iowa values, but this is what we believe in New York." And so that was his explanation. And -- and I guess I can -- can frame it another way. Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I'm just saying. (LAUGHTER) BARTIROMO: Are you sure about that? CAVUTO: Maria... TRUMP: So conservatives actually do come out of Manhattan, including William F. Buckley and others, just so you understand. (APPLAUSE) And just so -- if I could, because he insulted a lot of people. I've had more calls on that statement that Ted made -- New York is a great place. It's got great people, it's got loving people, wonderful people. When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York. You had two one hundred... (APPLAUSE) ... you had two 110-story buildings come crashing down. I saw them come down. Thousands of people killed, and the cleanup started the next day, and it was the most horrific cleanup, probably in the history of doing this, and in construction. I was down there, and I've never seen anything like it. And the people in New York fought and fought and fought, and we saw more death, and even the smell of death -- nobody understood it. And it was with us for months, the smell, the air. TRUMP: And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers. And I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Governor bush, for the third time in as many months, the Iranians have provoked us, detaining us, as we've been discussing, with these 10 Navy sailors Tehran had said strayed into their waters. The sailors were released, but only after shown on video apologizing for the incident. This occurring only weeks after Iran fired multiple rockets within 1,500 yards of a U.S. aircraft carrier and then continued to test medium range missiles. Now you've claimed that such actions indicate Tehran has little to fear from a President Obama. I wonder, sir, what would change if they continued doing this sort of thing under a President Jeb Bush? BUSH: Well, first of all, under President Jeb Bush, we would restore the strength of the military. Last week, Secretary Carter announced that the Navy's going to be cut again. It's now half the size of what it was prior to Operation Desert Storm. The deployments are too high for the military personnel. We don't have procurement being done for refreshing the equipment. The B-52 is still operational as the long range bomber; it was inaugurated in the age of Harry Truman. The planes are older than the pilots. We're gutting our military, and so the Iranians and the Chinese and the Russians and many other countries look at the United States not as serious as we once were. We have to eliminate the sequester, rebuild our military in a way that makes it clear that we're back in the game. Secondly, as it relates to Iran, we need to confront their ambitions across the board. We should reimpose sanctions, they've already violated sanctions after this agreement was signed by testing medium-range missiles. Thirdly, we need to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to send a serious signal that we're back in the game with Israel -- (APPLAUSE) ... and sign an agreement that makes sure that the world knows that they will have technological superiority. We need to get back in the game as it relates to our Arab nations. The rest of the world is moving away from us towards other alliances because we are weak. This president and John Kerry and Hillary Clinton all have made it harder for the next president to act, but he must act to confront the ambitions of Iran. We can get back in the game to restore order and security for our own country. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Thank you, Governor. Governor Kasich, while everyone has been focusing on Iran's provocations, I'm wondering what you make of what Saudi Arabia has been doing and its recent moves in the region, including its execution of a well-known Shi'ite cleric and its move to dramatically increase oil production, some say in an effort to drive down oil prices and force a lot of U.S. oil producers out of business. Sure enough, oil prices have tumbled. One brokerage house is predicting a third or more of American oil producers and those heavily invested in fracking will go bankrupt, and soon Saudi Arabia and OPEC will be back in the driver's seat. U.S. energy player Harold Hamrie similarly told me with friends like these, who needs enemies? Do you agree? KASICH: Well, let me -- let me first of all talk a little bit about my experience. I served on the Defense Committee for 18 years, and by the way, one of the members of that committee was Senator Strom Thurmond from South Carolina. Let em also tell you... (APPLAUSE) ... that after the 9/11 attacks, Secretary Rumsfeld invited me to the Pentagon with a meeting of the former secretaries of Defense. And in that meeting, I suggested we had a problem with technology, and that I wanted to take people from Silicon Valley into the Pentagon to solve our most significant problems. So I not only had the opportunity to go through the Cold War struggles in Central America, and even after 9/11 to be involved. With Saudi Arabia and oil production, first of all, it's so critical for us to be energy independent, and we're getting there because of fracking and we ought to explore because, see, energy independence gives us leverage and flexibility, and secondly, if you want to bring jobs back to the United States of America in industry, low prices make the difference. We're seeing it in my state and we'll see it in this country. And that's why we must make sure we continue to frack. In terms of Saudi Arabia, look, my biggest problem with them is they're funding radical clerics through their madrasses. That is a bad deal and an evil situation, and presidents have looked the other way. And I was going to tell you, whether I'm president or not, we better make it clear to the Saudis that we're going to support you, we're in relation with you just like we were in the first Gulf War, but you've got to knock off the funding and teaching of radical clerics who are the very people who try to destroy us and will turn around and destroy them. (APPLAUSE) KASICH: So look, in foreign policy -- in foreign policy, it's strength, but you've got to be cool. You've got to have a clear vision of where you want to go. And I'm going to tell you, that it -- I'm going to suggest to you here tonight, that you can't do on the job training. I've seen so much of it - a Soviet Union, the coming down of a wall, the issues that we saw around the world in Central America, the potential spread of communism, and 9/11 and Gulf War. You see what the Saudi's -- deliver them a strong message but at the end of the day we have to keep our cool because most of the time they're going right with us. And they must be part of our coalition to destroy ISIS and I believe we can get that done. Thank you. CAVUTO: Thank you John. BARTIROMO: There's much more ahead including the fight against ISIS. More from Charleston, South Carolina when we come right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: We welcome back to the Republican Presidential Debate, right back to the questions. Candidates, the man who made fighting ISIS the cornerstone of his campaign, South Carolina Senator, Lindsey Graham is out the race but he joins us tonight in the audience. (APPLAUSE) He says, "the air-strike now in their 16th month have been ineffective." Dr. Carson ... CARSON: Wait a minute, who in their 16th month? BARTIROMO: The air-strikes. CARSON: OK. BARTIROMO: Now in their 16th month are ineffective. Dr. Carson, do you think Senator Graham is right in wanting to send 20,000 troops -- ground troops to Iraq and Syria to take out ISIS? CARSON: Well, there's no question that ISIS is a very serious problem, and I don't believe that this administration recognizes how serious it is. I think we need to do a lot more than we're doing. Recognize that the caliphate is what gives them the legitimacy to go out on a jihadist mission, so we need to take that away from them. The way to take that away from them is to talk to our military officials and ask them, "what do you need in order to accomplish this goal?" Our decision is, then, do we give them what we need. I say, yes, not only do we give them what they need, but we don't tie their hands behind their backs so that they can go ahead and get the job done. In addition to that... (APPLAUSE) ... in addition to that, we go ahead and we take the oil from them, their source of revenue. You know, some of these -- these engagement rules that the administration has -- "we're not going to bomb a tanker that's coming out of there because there might be a person in it" -- give me a break. Just tell them that, you put people in there, we're going to bomb them. So don't put people in there if you don't want them bombed. You know, that's so simple. (APPLAUSE) And then we need to shut down -- we need to shut down their mechanisms of funding and attack their command-and-control centers. Why should we let their people be sitting there smoking their cigars, sitting in their comfortable chairs in Raqqa? We know (ph) to go ahead and shut off the supply routes, and send in our special ops at 2:00 a.m. and attack them everywhere they go. They should be running all the time, then they won't have time to plan attacks against us. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Thank you, sir. Senator Graham has also said that the U.S. will find Arab support for its coalition if it removes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. And I quote, "The now king of Saudi Arabia told us, 'you can have our army, you just got to deal with Assad.' "The emir of Qatar said, 'I'll pay for the operation, but they are not going to fight ISIS and let Damascus fall into the hands of the Iranians. Assad has to go.'" Governor Christie, how important is it to remove Assad from power and how would you do it? CHRISTIE: Maria, you look at what this president and his secretary of state, Secretary of State Clinton, has done to get us in this spot. You think about it -- this is the president who said, along with his secretary of state -- drew a red line in Syria, said, if Assad uses chemical weapons against his people, that we're going to attack. He used chemical weapons, he's killed, now, over a quarter of a million of his own people, and this president has done nothing. In fact, he's done worse than nothing. This president -- and, by the way, Secretary Clinton, who called Assad a reformer -- she called Assad a reformer. Now, the fact is, what this president has done is invited Russia to play an even bigger role, bring in Vladimir Putin to negotiate getting those chemical weapons back from Assad, yet what do we have today? We have the Russians and the Iranians working together, not to fight ISIS, but to prop up Assad. The fact of the matter is we're not going to have peace -- we are not going to have peace in Syria. We're not going to be able to rebuild it unless we put a no-fly zone there, make it safe for those folks so we don't have to be talking about Syrian refugees anymore. The Syrians should stay in Syria. They shouldn't be going to Europe. And here's the last piece... (APPLAUSE) ... you're not going to have peace in Syria with Assad in charge. You're simply not. And so Senator Graham is right about this. And if we want to try to rebuild the coalition, as Governor Kasich was saying before, then what we better do is to get to the Arab countries that believe that ISIS is a threat, not only to them, but to us and to world peace, and bring them together. And believe me, Assad is not worth it. And if you're going to leave this to Hillary Clinton, the person who gave us this foreign policy, the architect of it, and you're going to give her another four years, that's why I'm speaking out as strongly as I am about that. Hillary Clinton cannot be president. It will lead to even greater war in this world. And remember this, after Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have had nearly 8 years, we have fewer democracies in the world than we had when they started. That makes the world less peaceful, less safe. In my administration, we will help to make sure we bring people together in the Middle East, and we will fight ISIS and defeat them. BARTIROMO: Thank you, sir. (APPLAUSE) Mr. Trump -- Mr. Trump, your comments about banning Muslims from entering the country created a firestorm. According to Facebook, it was the most-talked-about moment online of your entire campaign, with more than 10 million people talking about the issue. Is there anything you've heard that makes you want to rethink this position? TRUMP: No. (LAUGHTER) No. (APPLAUSE) Look, we have to stop with political correctness. We have to get down to creating a country that's not going to have the kind of problems that we've had with people flying planes into the World Trade Centers, with the -- with the shootings in California, with all the problems all over the world. TRUMP: I just left Indonesia -- bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb. We have to find out what's going on. I said temporarily. I didn't say permanently. I said temporarily. And I have many great Muslim friends. And some of them, I will say, not all, have called me and said, "Donald, thank you very much; you're exposing an unbelievable problem and we have to get to the bottom of it." And unlike President Obama, where he refuses even to use the term of what's going on, he can't use the term for whatever reason. And if you can't use the term, you're never going to solve the problem. My Muslim friends, some, said, "thank you very much; we'll get to the bottom of it." But we have a serious problem. And we can't be the stupid country any more. We're laughed at all over the world. (APPLAUSE) BUSH: Donald, Donald -- can I -- I hope you reconsider this, because this policy is a policy that makes it impossible to build the coalition necessary to take out ISIS. The Kurds are our strongest allies. They're Muslim. You're not going to even allow them to come to our country? The other Arab countries have a role to play in this. We cannot be the world's policeman. We can't do this unilaterally. We have to do this in unison with the Arab world. And sending that signal makes it impossible for us to be serious about taking out ISIS and restoring democracy in Syria. (APPLAUSE) So I hope you'll reconsider. I hope you'll reconsider. The better way of dealing with this -- the better way of dealing with this is recognizing that there are people in, you know, the -- Islamic terrorists inside, embedded in refugee populations. What we ought to do is tighten up our efforts to deal with the entry visa program so that a citizen from Europe, it's harder if they've been traveling to Syria or traveling to these other places where there is Islamic terrorism, make it harder -- make the screening take place. We don't have to have refugees come to our country, but all Muslims, seriously? What kind of signal does that send to the rest of the world that the United States is a serious player in creating peace and security? CAVUTO: But you said -- you said that he made those comments and they represented him being unhinged after he made them. BUSH: Yeah, they are unhinged. CAVUTO: Well -- well, after he made them... (APPLAUSE) ... his poll numbers went up eight points in South Carolina. Now -- now, wait... TRUMP: Eleven points, to be exact. CAVUTO: Are you -- are you saying -- are you saying that all those people who agree with Mr. Trump are unhinged? BUSH: No, not at all, absolutely not. I can see why people are angry and scared, because this president has created a condition where our national security has weakened dramatically. I totally get that. But we're running for the presidency of the United States here. This isn't -- this isn't, you know, a different kind of job. You have to lead. You cannot make rash statements and expect the rest of the world to respond as though, well, it's just politics. Every time we send signals like this, we send a signal of weakness, not strength. And so it was (inaudible) his statement, which is why I'm asking him to consider changing his views. (APPLAUSE) TRUMP: I want security for this country. OK? (APPLAUSE) I want security. I'm tired of seeing what's going on, between the border where the people flow over; people come in; they live; they shoot. I want security for this country. We have a serious problem with, as you know, with radical Islam. We have a tremendous problem. It's not only a problem here. It's a problem all over the world. I want to find out why those two young people -- those two horrible young people in California when they shot the 14 people, killed them -- people they knew, people that held the wedding reception for them. I want to find out -- many people saw pipe bombs and all sorts of things all over their apartment. Why weren't they vigilant? Why didn't they call? Why didn't they call the police? And by the way, the police are the most mistreated people in this country. I will tell you that. (APPLAUSE) The most mistreated people. In fact, we need to -- wait a minute -- we need vigilance. We have to find out -- many people knew about what was going on. Why didn't they turn those two people in so that you wouldn't have had all the death? There's something going on and it's bad. And I'm saying we have to get to the bottom of it. That's all I'm saying. We need security. BARTIROMO: We -- we want to hear from all of you on this. According to Pew Research, the U.S. admits more than 100,000 Muslim immigrants every single year on a permanent lifetime basis. I want to ask the rest of you to comment on this. Do you agree that we should pause Muslim immigration until we get a better handle on our homeland security situation, as Mr. Trump has said? Beginning with you, Governor Kasich. KASICH: I -- I've been for pausing on admitting the Syrian refugees. And the reasons why I've done is I don't believe we have a good process of being able to vet them. But you know, we don't want to put everybody in the same category. KASICH: And I'll go back to something that had been mentioned just a few minutes ago. If we're going to have a coalition, we're going to have to have a coalition not just of people in the western part of the world, our European allies, but we need the Saudis, we need the Egyptians, we need the Jordanians, we need the Gulf states. We need Jordan. We need all of them to be part of exactly what the first George Bush put together in the first Gulf War. (BELL RINGS) It was a coalition made up of Arabs and Americans and westerners and we're going to need it again. And if we try to put everybody in the same -- call everybody the same thing, we can't do it. And that's just not acceptable. But I think a pause on Syrian refugees has been exactly right for all the governors that have called for it, and also, of course, for me as the governor of Ohio. BARTIROMO: Thank you, sir, we want to hear from the rest of you, Governor Christie, your take. CHRISTIE: Now Maria, listen. I said right from the beginning that we should take no Syrian refugees of any kind. And the reason I said that is because the FBI director told the American people, told Congress, that he could not guarantee he could vet them and it would be safe. That's the end of the conversation. I can tell you, after spending seven years as a former federal prosecutor, right after 9/11, dealing with this issue. Here's the way you need to deal with it. You can't just ban all Muslims. You have to ban radical Islamic jihadists. You have to ban the people who are trying to hurt us. The only way to figure that out is to go back to getting the intelligence community the funding and the tools that it needs to be able to keep America safe. (BELL RINGS) And this summer, we didn't do that. We took it away from the NSA, it was a bad decision by the president. Bad by those in the Senate who voted for it and if I'm president, we'll make our intelligence community strong, and won't have to keep everybody out, we're just going to keep the bad folk out and make sure they don't harm us. BARTIROMO: Senator Rubio, where do you stand? RUBIO: Well, first of all, let's understand why we are even having this debate and why Donald tapped in to some of that anger that's out there about this whole issue. Because this president has consistently underestimated the threat of ISIS. If you listen to the State of the Union the other night, he described them as a bunch of guys with long beards on the back of a pickup truck. They are much more than that. This is a group of people that enslaves women and sells them, sells them as brides. This is a group of people that burns people in cages, that is conducting genocide against Christians and Yazidis and others in the region. This is not some small scale group. They are radicalizing people in the United States, they are conducting attacks around the world. So you know what needs to happen, it's a very simple equation, and it's going to happen when I'm president. If we do not know who you are, and we do not know why you are coming when I am president, you are not getting into the United States of America. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Senator Cruz, where do you stand? Senator Cruz? CRUZ: You know I understand why Donald made the comments he did and I understand why Americans are feeling frustrated and scared and angry when we have a president who refuses to acknowledge the threat we face and even worse, who acts as an apologist for radical Islamic terrorism. I think what we need is a commander in chief who is focused like a laser on keeping this country safe and on defeating radical Islamic terrorism. What should we do? First, we should pass the Expatriate Terrorist Act, legislation I've introduced that says if an American goes and joins ISIS and wages jihad against America, that you forfeit your citizenship and you can not come in on a passport. (APPLAUSE) CRUZ: And secondly, we should pass the legislation that I've introduced... (BELL RINGS) ... that suspends all refugees from nations that ISIS or Al Qaida controls significant territory. Just last week, we see saw two Iraqi refugees vetted using the same process the president says will work, that were arrested for being alleged ISIS terrorists. If I'm elected president, we will not let in refugees from countries controlled by ISIS or Al Qaida. When it comes to ISIS, we will not weaken them, we will not degrade them, we will utterly and completely destroy ISIS (APPLAUSE). BARTIROMO: Dr. Carson, where do you stand? Do you agree with Mr. Trump? CARSON: Well, first of all, recognize it is a substantial problem. But like all of our problems, there isn't a single one that can't be solved with common sense if you remove the ego and the politics. And clearly, what we need to do is get a group of experts together, including people from other countries, some of our friends from Israel, who have had experience screening these people and come up with new guidelines for immigration, and for visas, for people who are coming into this country. That is the thing that obviously makes sense, we can do that. And as far as the Syrians are concerned, Al-Hasakah province, perfect place. They have infrastructure. All we need to do is protect them, they will be in their own country. And that is what they told me when I was in Jordan in November. Let's listen to them and let's not listen to our politicians. BARTIROMO: So, to be clear, the both of you do not agree with Mr. Trump? BUSH: So, are we going to ban Muslims from India, from Indonesia, from countries that are strong allies -- that we need to build better relationships with? Of course not. What we need to do is destroy ISIS. I laid out a plan at the Citadel to do just that and it starts with creating a "No Fly Zone" and "Safe Zones" to make sure refugees are there. We need to lead a force, a Sunni led force inside of Syria. We need to embed with -- with the Iraqi military. We need to arm the Kurds the directly. We need to re-establish the relationships with the Sunnis. We need the lawyers(ph) off the back of the war fighters. That's how you solve the problem. You don't solve it by big talk where you're banning all Muslims and making it harder for us to build the kind of coalition for us to be successful. BARTIROMO: Thank you governor. CAVUTO: Mr. Trump, sometimes maybe in the heat of the campaign, you say things and you have to dial them back. Last week, the New York Times editorial board quoted as saying that you would oppose, "up to 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods." TRUMP: That's wrong. They were wrong. It's the New York Times, they are always wrong. CAVUTO: Well... TRUMP: They were wrong. CAVUTO: You never said because they provided that... TRUMP: No, I said, " I would use -- " they were asking me what to do about North Korea. China, they don't like to tell us but they have total control -- just about, of North Korea. They can solve the problem of North Korea if they wanted to but they taunt us. They say, " well, we don't really have control." Without China, North Korea doesn't even eat. China is ripping us on trade. They're devaluing their currency and they're killing our companies. Thousands of thousands -- you look at the number of companies and the number in terms of manufacturing of plans that we've lost -- 50,000 because of China. (CROSSTALK) CAVUTO: So they've never said to put a tariff on their... TRUMP: We've lost anywhere between four and seven million jobs because of China. What I said then was, "we have very unfair trade with China. We're going to have a trade deficit of 505 billion dollars this year with China." A lot of that is because they devalue their currency. What I said to the New York Times, is that, "we have great power, economic power over China and if we wanted to use that and the amount -- where the 45 percent comes in, that would be the amount they saw their devaluations that we should get." That we should get. What I'm saying is this, I'm saying that we do it but if they don't start treating us fairly and stop devaluing and let their currency rise so that our companies can compete and we don't lose all of these millions of jobs that we're losing, I would certainly start taxing goods that come in from China. Who the hell has to lose 505 billion dollars a year? CAVUTO: I'm sorry, you lost me. TRUMP: It's not that complicated actually. CAVUTO: Then I apologize. Then I want to understand, if you don't want a 45 percent tariff, say that wasn't the figure, would you be open -- are you open to slapping a higher tariff on Chinese goods of any sort to go back at them? TRUMP: OK, just so you understand -- I know so much about trading about with China. Carl Icon today as you know endorsed. Many businessmen want to endorse me. CAVUTO: I know... TRUMP: Carl said, "no, no -- " but he's somebody -- these are the kind of people that we should use to negotiate and not the China people that we have who are political hacks who don't know what they're doing and we have problems like this. If these are the kinds of people -- we should use our best and our finest. Now, on that tariff -- here's what I'm saying, China -- they send their goods and we don't tax it -- they do whatever they want to do. They do whatever what they do, OK. When we do business with China, they tax us. You don't know it, they tax us. I have many friends that deal with China. They can't -- when they order the product and when they finally get the product it is taxed. If you looking at what happened with Boeing and if you look at what happened with so many companies that deal -- so we don't have an equal playing field. I'm saying, absolutely, we don't have to continue to lose 505 billion dollars as a trade deficit for the privilege of dealing with China. I'm a free trader. I believe in it but we have to be smart and we have to use smart people to negotiate. I have the largest bank in the world as a tenant of mine. I sell tens' of millions of (inaudible). I love China. I love the Chinese people but they laugh themselves, they can't believe how stupid the American leadership is. CAVUTO: So you're open to a tariff? TRUMP: I'm totally open to a tariff. If they don't treat us fairly, hey, their whole trade is tariffed. You can't deal in China without tariffs. They do it to us, we don't it. It's not fair trade. KASICH: Neil, Neil -- can I say one thing about this. I'm a free trader. I support NAFTA. I believe in the PTT because it's important those countries in Asia are interfacing against China. And we do need China -- Donald's right about North Korea. I mean the fact is, is that they need to put the pressure on and frankly we need to intercepts ships coming out of North Korea so they don't proliferate all these dangerous materials. But what he's touching -- talking about, I think has got merit. And I'll allow putting that tariff or whatever he's saying here... TRUMP: I'm happy to have him tonight... (LAUGHTER) KASICH: For too long -- no, for too long, what happens is somebody dumps their product in our country and take our people's jobs, and then we go to an international court and it takes them like a year or two to figure out whether they were cheating us. And guess what? The worker's out of a job. So when they -- be found against that country that's selling products in here lower than the cost of what it takes to produce them, then what do we tell the worker? Oh, well, you know, it just didn't work out for you. I think we should be for free trade but I think fair trade. And when countries violate trade agreements or dump product in this country, we need -- we need to stand up against those countries that do that without making them into an enemy. And I want to just suggest to you. How do I know this? Because so many people in my family worked in steel mills, and they didn't work with a white collar, they worked in a blue collar. And the fact is those jobs are critical, they're hard working members of the middle class and they need to be paid attention to because they're Americans and they carry the load. So let's demand open trade but fair trade in this country. That's what I think we need to do. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: All right. RUBIO: But on this point, if I may add something on this point. We are all frustrated with what China is doing. I think we need to be very careful with tariffs, and here's why. China doesn't pay the tariff, the buyer pays the tariff. If you send a tie or a shirt made in China into the United States and an American goes to buy it at the store and there's a tariff on it, it gets passed on in the price to price to the consumer. So I think the better approach, the best thing we can do to protect ourselves against China economically is to make our economy stronger, which means reversing course from all the damage Barack Obama is doing to this economy. It begins with tax reform. Let's not have the most expensive business tax rate in the world. Let's allow companies to immediately expense. (APPLAUSE) It continues with regulatory reform. Regulations in this country are out of control, especially the Employment Prevention Agency, the EPA, and all of the rules they continue to impose on our economy and hurting us. How about Obamacare, a certified job killer? It needs to be repealed and replaced. And we need to bring our debt under control, make our economy stronger. That is the way to deal with China at the end of the day. TRUMP: Neil, the problem... BARTIROMO: We're getting... TRUMP: ... with what Marco is saying is that it takes too long, they're sucking us dry and it takes too long. It would just -- you absolutely have to get involved with China, they are taking so much of what we have in terms of jobs in terms of money. We just can't do it any longer. CAVUTO: He is right. If you put a tariff on a good, it's Americans who pay. BUSH: Absolutely. TRUMP: You looking at me? BUSH: Yeah. BARTIROMO: Prices go higher for... TRUMP: Can I tell you what? It will never happen because they'll let their currency go up. They're never going to let it happen. Japan, the same thing. They are devaluing -- it's so impossible for -- you look at Caterpillar Tractor and what's happening with Caterpillar and Kamatsu (ph). Kamatsu (ph) is a tractor company in Japan. Friends of mine are ordering Kamatsu (ph) tractors now because they've de-valued the yen to such an extent that you can't buy a Caterpillar tractor. And we're letting them get away with it and we can't let them get away with it. And that's why we have to use Carl (ph) and we have to use our great businesspeople and not political hacks to negotiate with these guys. (APPLAUSE) BUSH: Here's -- apart from the -- apart from the higher prices on consumers and people are living paycheck to paycheck, apart from that, there will be retaliation. BARTIROMO: Yeah. BUSH: So they soybean sales from Iowa, entire soybean production goes -- the equivalent of it goes to China. Or how about Boeing right here within a mile? Do you think that the Chinese, if they had a 45 percent tariff imposed on all their imports wouldn't retaliate and start buying Airbus? Of course, they would. This would be devastating for the economy. We need someone with a steady hand being president of the United States. BARTIROMO: Real quick, Senator -- go ahead, Senator Cruz. (APPLAUSE) And then we have to get to tax reform. TRUMP: And we don't need a weak person being president of the United State, OK? Because that's what we'd get if it were Jeb -- I tell you what, we don't need that. AUDIENCE: Boo. TRUMP: We don't need that. That's essentially what we have now, and we don't need that. And that's why we're in the trouble that we're in now. And by the way, Jeb you mentioned Boeing, take a look. They order planes, they make Boeing build their plant in China. They don't want them made here. They want those planes made in China. BUSH: They're a mile away from here. TRUMP: That's not the way the game is supposed to be played. BARTIROMO: Thank you, Governor Bush. Thank you, Mr. Trump. Very briefly. BUSH: My name was mentioned. My name was mentioned here. The simple fact is that the plane that's being build here is being sold to China. You can -- if you -- you flew in with your 767, didn't you? Right there, right next to the plant. TRUMP: No, the new planes. I'm not talking about now, I'm talking about in the future they're building massive plants in China because China does not want Boeing building their planes here, they want them built in China, because China happens to be smart the way they do it, not the way we do it. BARTIROMO: Thank you, Mr. Trump. BUSH: When you head back to airport tonight, go check and see what the... BARTIROMO: Thank you, Mr. Trmup. Thank you, Governor. TRUMP: I'll check for you. BUSH: Check it out. (LAUGHTER) BARTIROMO: Senator briefly. CRUZ: Thanks for coming back to me, Maria. Both Donald and Jeb have good points, and there is a middle ground. Donald is right that China is running over President Obama like he is a child, President Obama is not protecting American workers and we are getting hammered. CRUZ: You know, I sat down with the senior leadership of John Deere. They discussed how -- how hard it is to sell tractors in China, because all the regulatory barriers. They're protectionist. But Jeb is also right that, if we just impose a tariff, they'll put reciprocal tariffs, which will hurt Iowa farmers and South Carolina producers and 20 percent of the American jobs that depend on exports. So the way you do it is you pass a tax plan like the tax plan I've introduced: a simple flat tax, 10 percent for individuals, and a 16 percent business flat tax, you abolish the IRS... (APPLAUSE) ... and here's the critical point, Maria -- the business flat tax enables us to abolish the corporate income tax, the death tax, the Obamacare taxes, the payroll taxes, and they're border-adjustable, so every export pays no taxes whatsoever. It's tax-free -- a huge advantage for our farmers and ranchers and manufacturers -- and every import pays the 16 percent business flat tax. It's like a tariff, but here's the difference: if we impose a tariff, China responds. The business flat tax, they already impose their taxes on us, so there's no reciprocal... (BELL RINGS) ... tariffs that come against us. It puts us on a level, even playing field, which brings jobs here at home... (UNKNOWN): Maria... CRUZ: ... and as president, I'm going to fight for the working men and women. (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: We've got to get to tax reform, gentlemen. We've got to get to tax reform, and we've got to get to the... (UNKNOWN): Yeah, but I want to talk about taxes. BARTIROMO: ... we've got to get to the national debt as well. Coming up next, the growing national debt, the war on crime, tax reform. More from North Charleston, South Carolina, when we come right back. COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back to the Republican presidential debate here in North Charleston. Right back to the questions. (APPLAUSE) Governor Christie, we have spoken much about cutting spending, given the $19 trillion debt. But according to one report, America needs $3.6 trillion in infrastructure spending by 2020. Here in South Carolina, 11 percent of bridges are considered structurally deficient, costing drivers a billion dollars a year in auto repairs. What is your plan to fix the ailing roads and bridges without breaking the bank? CHRISTIE: Well, I'm glad you asked that, Maria. Here's -- here's our plan. We've all been talking about tax reforms tonight, and paying for infrastructure is caught right up in tax reform. If you reform the corporate tax system in this country, which, as was mentioned before, is the highest rate in the world -- and we double tax, as you know. And what that's led to over $2 trillion of American companies' monies that are being kept offshore, because they don't want to pay the second tax. And who can blame them? They pay tax once overseas. They don't want to pay 35 percent tax on the way back. So beside reforming that tax code, bringing it down to 25 percent and eliminating those special-interest loopholes that the lobbyists and the lawyers and the accountants have given -- bring that rate down to 25 percent, but also, a one-time repatriation of that money. Bring the money -- the $2 trillion -- back to the United States. We'll tax it, that one time, at 8.75 percent, because 35 percent of zero is zero, but 8.75 percent of $2 trillion is a lot of money. And I would then dedicate that money to rebuilding infrastructure here in this country. It would not necessitate us raising any taxes. It would bring the money back into the United States to help build jobs by American companies and get our economy moving again, and growing as a higher rate, and it would rebuild those roads and bridges and tunnels that you were talking about. And -- and -- and the last piece of this, Maria, is this. You know, the fact is that this president has penalized corporations in America. He's penalized -- and doesn't understand. In fact, what that hurts is hurt hardworking taxpayers. You've seen middle-class wages go backwards $3,700 during the Obama administration. That's wrong for hardworking taxpayers in this country. We'd rebuild infrastructure that would also create jobs in this country, and we'd work with the states to do it the right way, to do it more efficiently and more effectively. And remember this -- I'm credible on this for this reason: Americans for Tax Reform says that I've vetoed more tax increases than any governor in American history. We don't need to raise taxes to get this done. We need to make the government run smarter and better, and reform this corporate tax system, bring that money back to the United States to build jobs and rebuild our infrastructure, and we need to use it also to protect our grid from terrorists. All of those things are important, and all those things would happen in a Christie administration. BARTIROMO: Thank you, sir. Dr. Carson... (APPLAUSE) ... it is true U.S. companies have $2 trillion in cash sitting overseas right now. That could be used for investment and jobs in America. Also, several companies right now are pursuing mergers to move their corporate headquarters abroad, and take advantage of much lower taxes. What will you do to stop the flow of companies building cash away from America, and those leaving America altogether? CARSON: Well, I would suggest a fair tax system, and that's what we have proposed. A flat tax for everybody -- no exemptions, no deductions, no shelters, because some people have a better capability of taking advantage of those than others. You know, and then the other thing we have to do is stop spending so much money. You know, I -- my -- my mother taught me this. You know, she only had a third-grade education, but -- you know, she knew how to stretch a dollar. I mean, she would drive a car until it wouldn't make a sound, and then gather up all her coins and buy a new car. In fact, if my mother were secretary of treasury, we would not be in a deficit situation. But... (LAUGHTER) ... you know, the -- the -- the fact of the matter is -- you know, if we fix the taxation system, make it absolutely fair, and get rid of the incredible regulations -- because every regulation is a tax, it's a -- on goods and services. And it's the most regressive tax there is. You know, when you go into the store and buy a box of laundry detergent, and the price has up -- you know, 50 cents because of regulations, a poor person notices that. A rich person does not. Middle class may notice it when they get to the cash register. And everything is costing more money, and we are killing our -- our -- our people like this. And Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will say it's those evil rich people. It's not the evil rich people. It's the evil government that is -- that is putting all these regulations on us so that we can't survive. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Thank you, sir. Senator Rubio... TRUMP: Maria -- Maria, what you were talking about just now is called corporate inversion. It's one of the biggest problems our country has. Right now, corporations, by the thousands, are thinking of leaving our country with the jobs -- leave them behind. TRUMP: They're leaving because of taxes, but they are also leaving because they can't get their money back and everybody agrees, Democrats and Republicans, that is should come back in. But they can't get along. They can't even make a deal. Here is the case, they both agree, they can't make a deal. We have to do something. Corporate inversion is one of the biggest problems we have. So many companies are going to leave our country. BARTIROMO: Which is why we raised it. Senator Rubio? Thank you, Mr. Trump. TRUMP: Thank you. BARTIROMO: One of the biggest fiscal challenges is our entitlement programs, particularly Social Security and Medicare. What policies will you put forward to make sure these programs are more financially secure? RUBIO: Well, first let me address the tax issue because it's related to the entitlement issue and I want to thank you for holding a substantive debates where we can have debates about these key issues on taxes. (APPLAUSE) RUBIO: Here is the one thing I'm not going to do. I'm not going to have something that Ted described in his tax plan. It's called the value added tax. And it's a tax you find in many companies in Europe. Where basically, businesses now will have to pay a tax, both on the money they make, but they also have to pay taxes on the money that they pay their employees. And that's why they have it in Europe, because it is a way to blindfolded the people, that's what Ronald Reagan said. Ronald Regan opposed the value tax because he said it was a way to blindfold the people, so the true cost of government was not there there for them. Now, you can support one now that's very low. But what is to prevent a future liberal president or a liberal Congress from coming back and not just raising the income tax, but also raising that VAT tax, and that vat tax is really bad for seniors. Because seniors, if they are retired, are no longer earning an income from a job. And therefore, they don't get the income tax break, but their prices are going to be higher, because the vat tax is embedded in both the prices that business that are charging and in the wages they pay their employees. When I am president of the United States, I'm going to side with Ronald Regan on this and not Nancy Pelosi and we are not having a vat tax. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Thank you senator. CRUZ: Maria, I assume that I can respond to that. BARTIROMO: Senator Cruz, yes. You were meant to. Yes, of course. CRUZ: Well, Marco has been floating this attack for a few weeks now, but the problem is, the business flat tax in my proposal is not a vat. A vat is imposed as a sales tax when you buy a good. This is a business flat tax. It is imposed on business and a critical piece that Marco seems to be missing is that this 16 percent business flat tax enables us to eliminate the corporate income tax. It goes away. It enables us to eliminate the death tax. If you're a farmer, if you're a rancher, if you are small business owner, the death tax is gone. We eliminate the payroll tax, we eliminate the Obamacare taxes. And listen, there is a real difference between Marco's tax plan and mine. Mine gives every American a simple, flat tax of 10 percent. Marco's top tax rate is 35 percent. My tax plan enables you to fill out your taxes on a postcard so we can abolish the IRS. Marco leaves the IRS code in with all of the complexity. We need to break the Washington cartel, and the only way to do it is to end all the subsidies and all... (BELL RINGS) ... the mandates and have a simple flat tax. The final observation, invoked Ronald Reagan. I would note that Art Laffer, Ronald Reagan's chief economic adviser, has written publicly, that my simple flat tax is the best tax plan of any of the individuals on this stage cause it produces economic growth, it raises wages and it helps everyone from the very poorest to the very richest. BARTIROMO: Thank you senator. (APPLAUSE) RUBIO: But that's not an accurate description of the plan. Because, first of all, you may rename the IRS but you are not going to abolishes the IRS, because there has to be some agency that's going to collect your vat tax. Someone's going to be collecting this tax. In fact, Ronald Reagan's treasury, when Ronald Reagan's treasury looked at the vat tax, you know what they found? That they were going to have to hire 20,000 new IRS agencies to collect it. The second point, it does not eliminate the corporate tax or the payroll tax. Businesses will now have to pay 16 percent on the money they make. They will also have to pay 16 percent on the money they pay their employees. So there are people watching tonight in business. If you are now hit on a 60 percent tax on both your income and on the wages you pay your employees, where are you going to get that money from? You're going to get it by paying your employees less and charging your customers more, that is a tax, the difference is, you don't see it on the bill. And that's why Ronald Reagan said that it was a blindfold. You blindfold the American people so that they cannot see the true cost of government. Now 16 percent is what the rate Ted wants it at. But what happens if, God forbid, the next Barack Obama takes over, and the next Nancy Pelosi, and the next Harry Reid... (BELL RINGS) and they decide, we're going to raise it to 30 percent, plus we're going to raise the income tax to 30 percent. Now, you've got Europe. (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: Thank you senator. I have to get to a question for Mr. Trump. CRUZ: Maria... BARTIROMO: Yes. CRUZ: Maria, I'd just like to say... (CROSSTALK) CHRISTIE: Maria, I'd like to interrupt this debate on the floor of the Senate to actually answer the question you asked, which was on entitlements. Do you remember that, everybody? This was a question on entitlements. And the reason -- and the reason... (CROSSTALK) CHRISTIE: ... no, you already had your chance, Marco, and you blew it. Here's the thing. (CROSSTALK) CHRISTIE: The fact is, the reason why... RUBIO: If you'll answer the (inaudible) core question. CHRISTIE: ... the fact is -- the fact is the reason why that no one wants to answer entitlements up here is because it's hard. It's a hard problem. And I'm the only one up on this stage who back in April put forward a detailed entitlement reform plan that will save over $1 trillion, save Social Security, save Medicare, and avoid this -- avoid what Hillary Rodham Clinton will do to you. Because what she will do is come in and she will raise Social Security taxes. Bernie Sanders has already said it. And she is just one or two more poll drops down from even moving further left than she's moved already to get to the left of Bernie on this. We have seniors out there who are scared to death because this Congress -- this one that we have right now, just stole $150 billion from the Social Security retirement fund to give it to the Social Security disability fund. A Republican Congress did that. And the fact is it was wrong. And they consorted with Barack Obama to steal from Social Security. We need to reform Social Security. Mine is the only plan that saves over $1 trillion and that's why I'm answering your question. BARTIROMO: Thank you, Governor. Thank you, Governor. (APPLAUSE) CARSON: Can I just add one very quick thing? And I just want to say, you know, last week we released our tax plan. And multiple reputable journals, including The Wall Street Journal, said ours is the best. Just want to get that out there, just saying. BARTIROMO: Thank you, Dr. Carson. Coming up, how would the candidates protect America, and another terror attack, if we were to see it. But first, you can join us live on stage during the commercial break right from home. Go to facebook.com/foxbusiness. We'll be streaming live and answering your questions during this break next. More from South Carolina coming up. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Mr. Trump, your net worth is in the multi-billions of dollars and have an ongoing thriving hotel and real estate business. Are you planning on putting your assets in a blind trust should you become president? With such vast wealth, how difficult will it be for you to disentangle yourself from your business and your money and prioritize America's interest first? TRUMP: Well, it's an interesting question because I'm very proud of my company. As you too know, I know I built a very great company. But if I become president, I couldn't care less about my company. It's peanuts. I want to use that same up here, whatever it may be to make America rich again and to make America great again. I have Ivanka, and Eric and Don sitting there. Run the company kids, have a good time. I'm going to do it for America. So I would -- I would be willing to do that. BARTIROMO: So you'll put your assets in a blind trust? TRUMP: I would put it in a blind trust. Well, I don't know if it's a blind trust if Ivanka, Don and Eric run it. If that's a blind trust, I don't know. But I would probably have my children run it with my executives and I wouldn't ever be involved because I wouldn't care about anything but our country, anything. BARTIROMO: Thank you sir. TRUMP: Thank you. CAVUTO: Governor Christie, going back to your U.S. Attorney days, you had been praised by both parties as certainly a tough law and order guy. So I wonder what you make of recent statistics that showed violent crimes that have been spiking sometimes by double digit ratings in 30 cities across the country. Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn said, "most local law enforcement officials feel abandoned by Washington." Former NYC Police Chief Ray Kelly, says that, "police are being less proactive because they're being overly scrutinized and second guessed and they're afraid of being sued or thrown in jail." What would you do as president to address this? CHRISTIE: Well, first off, let's face it, the FBI director James Comey was a friend of mine who I worked with as U.S. Attorney of New Jersey. He was the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan. He said, "there's a chill wind blowing through law enforcement in this country." Here's why, the president of the United States and both his attorney's general, they give the benefit of the doubt to the criminal, not to the police officers. That's the truth of the matter and you see it every time with this president. Every time he's got a chance, going all the way back to -- remember that Great Beer Summit he had after he messed up that time. This is a guy who just believes that law enforcement are the bad guys. Now, I for seven years was the U.S. Attorney of New Jersey. I worked hard with not only federal agents but with police officers and here's the problem, sanctuary cities is part of the problem in this country. That's where crime is happening in these cities where they don't enforce the immigration laws. And this president turns his back -- this president doesn't enforce the marijuana laws in this country because he doesn't agree with them. And he allows states to go ahead and do whatever they want on a substance that's illegal. This president allows lawlessness throughout this country. Here's what I would do Neil, I would appoint an Attorney General and I would have one very brief conversation with that Attorney General. I'd say, "General, enforce the law against everyone justly, fairly, and aggressively. Make our streets safe again. Make our police officers proud of what they do but more important than that, let them know how proud we are of them." We do that, this country would be safe and secure again not only from criminals but from the terrorist who threaten us as well. I'm the only person on this stage who's done that and we will get it done as President of the United States. CAVUTO: Thank you governor. Governor Kasich, as someone has to deal with controversial police shootings in your own state, what do you make of Chicago's move recently to sort of retrain police? Maybe make them not so quick to use their guns? KASICH: Well, I created a task force well over a year ago and the purpose was to bring law enforcement, community people, clergy and the person that I named as one of the co-chair was a lady by the name of Nina Turner, a former State Senator, a liberal Democrat. She actually ran against one of my friends and our head of public safety. KASICH: And they say down as a group trying to make sure that we can begin to heal some of these problems that we see between community and police. KASICH: And they came back with 23 recommendations. One of them is a statewide use of deadly force. And it is now being put into place everyplace across the state of Ohio. Secondly, a policy on recruiting and hiring, and then more resources for -- for training. But let me also tell you, one of the issues has got to be the integration of both community and police. Community has to understand that that police officer wants to get home at night, and not -- not to lose their life. Their family is waiting for them. At the same time, law enforcement understands there are people in the community who not only think that the system doesn't work for them, but works against them. See, in Ohio, we've had some controversial decisions. But the leaders have come forward to realize that protest is fine, but violence is wrong. And it has been a remarkable situation in our state. And as president of the United States, it's all about communication, folks. It's all about getting people to listen to one another's problems. And when you do that, you will be amazed at how much progress you can make, and how much healing we can have. Because, folks, at the end of the day, the country needs healed. I've heard a lot of hot rhetoric here tonight, but I've got to tell you, as somebody that actually passed a budget; that paid down a half-a-trillion dollars of our national debt, you can't do it alone. You've got to bring people together. You've got to give people hope. And together, we can solve these problems that hurt us and heal America. And that is what's so critical for our neighborhoods, our families, our children, and our grandchildren. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Thank you, Governor. BARTIROMO: Senator Rubio? (APPLAUSE) Under current law, the U.S. is on track to issue more new permanent immigrants on green cards over the next five years than the entire population of South Carolina. The CBO says your 2013 immigration bill would have increased green cardholders by another 10 million over 10 years. Why are you so interested in opening up borders to foreigners when American workers have a hard enough time finding work? RUBIO: Well, first of all, this is an issue that's been debated now for 30 years. And for 30 years, the issue of immigration has been about someone who's in this country, maybe they're here illegally, but they're looking for a job. This issue is not about that anymore. First and foremost, this issue has to be now more than anything else about keeping America safe. And here's why. There is a radical jihadist group that is manipulating our immigration system. And not just green cards. They're looking -- they're recruiting people that enter this country as doctors and engineers and even fiances. They understand the vulnerabilities we have on the southern border. They're looking -- they're looking to manipulate our -- the visa waiver countries to get people into the United States. So our number one priority must now become ensuring that ISIS cannot get killers into the United States. So whether it's green cards or any other form of entry into America, when I'm president if we do not know who you are or why you are coming, you are not going to get into the United States of America. BARTIROMO: So your thinking has changed? RUBIO: The issue is a dramatically different issue than it was 24 months ago. Twenty-four months ago, 36 months ago, you did not have a group of radical crazies named ISIS who were burning people in cages and recruiting people to enter our country legally. They have a sophisticated understanding of our legal immigration system and we now have an obligation to ensure that they are not able to use that system against us. The entire system of legal immigration must now be reexamined for security first and foremost, with an eye on ISIS. Because they're recruiting people to enter this country as engineers, posing as doctors, posing as refugees. We know this for a fact. They've contacted the trafficking networks in the Western Hemisphere to get people in through the southern border. And they got a killer in San Bernardino in posing as a fiance. This issue now has to be about stopping ISIS entering the United States, and when I'm president we will. BARTIROMO: Thank you, Senator. (APPLAUSE) CRUZ: But Maria, radical Islamic terrorism was not invented 24 months ago; 24 months ago, we had Al Qaida. We had Boko Haram. We had Hamas. We had Hezbollah. We had Iran putting operatives in South America and Central America. It's the reason why I stood with Jeff Sessions and Steve King and led the fight to stop the Gang of Eight amnesty bill, because it was clear then, like it's clear now, that border security is national security. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Thank you, Senator. CRUZ: It is also the case that that Rubio-Schumer amnesty bill, one of the things it did is it expanded Barack Obama's power to let in Syrian refugees. It enabled him -- the president to certify them en masse without mandating meaningful background checks. I think that's a mistake. That's why I've been leading the fight to stop it. And I would note the Senate just a few weeks ago voted to suspend refugees from Middle Eastern countries. I voted yes to suspend that. Marco voted on the other side. So you don't get to say we need to secure the borders, and at the same time try to give Barack Obama more authority to allow Middle Eastern refugees coming in, when the head of the FBI tells us they cannot vet them to determine if they are ISIS terrorists. RUBIO: Maria, let me clear something up here. This is an interesting point when you talk about immigration. RUBIO: Ted Cruz, you used to say you supported doubling the number of green cards, now you say that you're against it. You used to support a 500 percent increase in the number of guest workers, now you say that you're against it. You used to support legalizing people that were here illegally, now you say you're against it. You used to say that you were in favor of birthright citizenship, now you say that you are against it. And by the way, it's not just on immigration, you used to support TPA, now you say you're against it. I saw you on the Senate floor flip your vote on crop insurance because they told you it would help you in Iowa, and last week, we all saw you flip your vote on ethanol in Iowa for the same reason. (APPLAUSE) That is not consistent conservatism, that is political calculation. When I am president, I will work consistently every single day to keep this country safe, not call Edward Snowden, as you did, a great public servant. Edward Snowden is a traitor. And if I am president and we get our hands on him, he is standing trial for treason. (APPLAUSE) And one more point, one more point. Every single time that there has been a Defense bill in the Senate, three people team up to vote against it. Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. In fact, the only budget you have ever voted for, Ted, in your entire time in the Senate is a budget from Rand Paul that brags about how it cuts defense. Here's the bottom line, and I'll close with this. If I'm president of the United States and Congress tries to cut the military, I will veto that in a millisecond. (APPLAUSE) BUSH: There's -- look, there's -- CAVUTO: Gentlemen, gentlemen -- CRUZ: I'm going to get a response to that, Neil. There's no way he launches 11 attack -- CAVUTO: Very quick, very quick. CRUZ: I'm going to -- he had no fewer than 11 attacks there. I appreciate your dumping your (inaudible) research folder on the debate stage. RUBIO: No, it's your record. CRUZL But I will say -- CAVUTO: Do you think they like each other? CRUZ: -- at least half of the things Marco said are flat-out false. They're absolutely false. AUDIENCE: Boo. CRUZ: So let's start -- let's start with immigration. Let's start with immigration and have a little bit of clarity. Marco stood with Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama on amnesty. I stood with Jeff Sessions and Steve King. Marco stood today, standing on this stage Marco supports legalization and citizenship for 12 million illegals. I opposed and oppose legalization and citizenship. And by the way, the attack he keeps throwing out on the military budget, Marco knows full well I voted for his amendment to increase military spending to $697 billion. What he said, and he said it in the last debate, it's simply not true. And as president, I will rebuild the military and keep this country safe. CAVUTO: All right, gentlemen, we've got to stop. I know you are very passionate about that. (APPLAUSE) Governor Bush, fears have gripped this country obviously, and you touched on it earlier since the San Bernardino attacks. Since our last debate, the national conversation has changed, according to Facebook data as well. Now this first graphic shows the issues that were most talked about right before those attacks and now after: the issues of Islam, homeland security and ISIS now loom very large. The FBI says Islamic radicals are using social media to communicate and that it needs better access to communication. Now the CEO of Apple, Governor, Tim Cook said unless served with a warrant private communication is private, period. Do you agree, or would you try to convince him otherwise? BUSH: I would try to convince him otherwise, but this last back and forth between two senators -- back bench senators, you know, explains why we have the mess in Washington, D.C. We need a president that will fix our immigration laws and stick with it, not bend with the wind. The simple fact is one of the ways, Maria, to solve the problem you described is narrow the number of people coming by family petitioning to what every other country has so that we have the best and the brightest that come to our country. We need to control the border, we need to do all of this in a comprehensive way, not just going back and forth and talking about stuff -- CAVUTO: Would you answer this question? BUSH: Oh, I'll talk about that, too. But you haven't asked me a question in a while, Neil, so I thought I'd get that off my chest if you don't mind. (LAUGHTER) CAVUTO: Fair enough. So Tim Cook -- so Tim Cook says he's going to keep it private. BUSH: I got that. And the problem today is there's no confidence in Washington, D.C. There needs to be more than one meeting, there needs to complete dialogue with the large technology companies. They understand that there's a national security risk. We ought to give them a little bit of a liability release so that they share data amongst themselves and share data with the federal government, they're not fearful of a lawsuit. We need to make sure that we keep the country safe. This is the first priority. The cybersecurity challenges that we face, this administration failed us completely, completely. Not just the hacking of OPM, but that is -- that is just shameful. 23 million files in the hands of the Chinese? So it's not just the government -- the private sector companies, it's also our own government that needs to raise the level of our game. We should put the NSA in charge of the civilian side of this as well. That expertise needs to spread all across the government and there needs to be much more cooperation with our private sector. CAVUTO: But if Tim cook is telling you no, Mr. President. BUSH: You've got to keep asking. You've got to keep asking because this is a hugely important issue. If you can encrypt messages, ISIS can, over these platforms, and we have no ability to have a cooperative relationship -- CAVUTO: Do you ask or do you order? BUSH: Well, if the law would change, yeah. But I think there has to be recognition that if we -- if we are too punitive, then you'll go to other -- other technology companies outside the United States. And what we want to do is to control this. We also want to dominate this from a commercial side. So there's a lot of balanced interests. But the president leads in this regard. That's what we need. We need leadership, someone who has a backbone and sticks with things, rather than just talks about them as though anything matters when you're talking about amendments that don't even actually are part of a bill that ever passed. CAVUTO: Governor, thank you. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: When we come right back, closing statements. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Candidates, it is time for your closing statements. You get 60 seconds each. Governor John Kasich, we begin with you. KASICH: You know, in our country, there are a lot of people who feel as though they just don't have the power. You know, they feel like if they don't have a lobbyist, if they're not wealthy, that somehow they don't get to play. But all of my career, you know, having been raised in -- by a mailman father whose father was a coal miner, who died of black lung and was losing his eyesight; or a mother whose mother could barely speak English. You see, all of my career, I've fought about giving voice to the people that I grew up with and voice to the people that elected me. Whether it's welfare reform and getting something back for the hard-earned taxpayers; whether it's engaging in Pentagon reform and taking on the big contractors that were charging thousands of dollars for hammers and screw drivers and ripping us off; or whether it's taking on the special interests in the nursing home industry in Ohio, so that mom and dad can have the ability to stay in their own home, rather than being forced into a nursing home. KASICH: Look, that's who I stand up for. That's who's in my mind (BELL RINGS) And if you really want to believe that you can get your voice back, I will tell you, as I have all my career, I will continue to fight for you, because you're the ones that built this country, and will carry it into the future. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Governor Bush? BUSH: Who can you count on to keep us safer, stronger and freer? Results count, and as governor, I pushed Florida up to the top in terms of jobs, income and small business growth. Detailed plans count, and I believe that the plan I've laid out to destroy ISIS before the tragedies of San Bernardino and Paris are the right ones. Credibility counts. There'll be people here that will talk about what they're going to do. I've done it. I ask for your support to build, together, a safer and stronger America. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Governor Chris Christie? CHRISTIE: Maria, Neil, thank you for a great debate tonight. When I think about the folks who are out there at home tonight watching, and I think about what they had to watch this week -- the spectacle they had to watch on the floor of the House of Representatives, with the president of the United States, who talked a fantasy land about the way they're feeling. They know that this country is not respected around the world anymore. They know that this country is pushing the middle class, the hardworking taxpayers, backwards, and they saw a president who doesn't understand their pain, and doesn't have any plan for getting away from it. I love this country. It's the most exceptional country the world has ever known. We need someone to fight for the people. We need a fighter for this country again. I've lived my whole life fighting -- fighting for things that I believe in, fighting for justice and to protect people from crime and terrorism, fighting to stand up for folks who have not had enough and need an opportunity to get more, and to stand up and fight against the special interests. But here's the best way that we're going to make America much more exceptional: it is to make sure we put someone on that stage in September who will fight Hillary Clinton and make sure she never, ever gets in the White House again. I am the man who can bring us together to do that, and I ask for your vote. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Dr. Ben Carson? CARSON: You know, in recent travels around this country, I've encountered so many Americans who are discouraged and angry as they watch our freedom, our security and the American dream slipping away under an unresponsive government that is populated by bureaucrats and special interest groups. We're not going to solve this problem with traditional politics. The only way we're going to solve this problem is with we, the people. And I ask you to join me in truth and honesty and integrity. Bencarson.com -- we will heal, inspire and revive America for our children. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Senator Marco Rubio? RUBIO: You know, 200 years ago, America was founded on this powerful principle that our rights don't come from government. Our rights come from God. That's why we embraced free enterprise, and it made us the most prosperous people in the history of the world. That's why we embraced individual liberty, and we became the freest people ever, and the result was the American miracle. But now as I travel the country, people say what I feel. This country is changing. It feels different. We feel like we're being left behind and left out. And the reason is simple: because in 2008, we elected as president someone who wasn't interested in fixing America. We elected someone as president who wants to change America, who wants to make it more like the rest of the world. And so he undermines the Constitution, and he undermines free enterprise by expanding government, and he betrays our allies and cuts deals with our enemies and guts our military. And that's why 2016 is a turning point in our history. If we elect Hillary Clinton, the next four years will be worse than the last eight, and our children will be the first Americans ever to inherit a diminished country. But if we elect the right person -- if you elect me -- we will turn this country around, we will reclaim the American dream and this nation will be stronger and greater than it has ever been. (APPLAUSE) CAVUTO: Senator Ted Cruz? CRUZ: "13 Hours" -- tomorrow morning, a new movie will debut about the incredible bravery of the men fighting for their lives in Benghazi and the politicians that abandoned them. I want to speak to all our fighting men and women. I want to speak to all the moms and dads whose sons and daughters are fighting for this country, and the incredible sense of betrayal when you have a commander-in-chief who will not even speak the name of our enemy, radical Islamic terrorism, when you have a commander-in- chief who sends $150 billion to the Ayatollah Khamenei, who's responsible for murdering hundreds of our servicemen and women. I want to speak to all of those maddened by political correctness, where Hillary Clinton apologizes for saying all lives matter. This will end. It will end on January 2017. CRUZ: And if I am elected president, to every soldier and sailor and airman and marine, and to every police officer and firefighter and first responder who risk their lives to keep us safe, I will have your back. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Mr. Donald Trump? TRUMP: I stood yesterday with 75 construction workers. They're tough, they're strong, they're great people. Half of them had tears pouring down their face. They were watching the humiliation of our young ten sailors, sitting on the floor with their knees in a begging position, their hands up. And Iranian wise guys having guns to their heads. It was a terrible sight. A terrible sight. And the only reason we got them back is because we owed them with a stupid deal, $150 billion. If I'm president, there won't be stupid deals anymore. We will make America great again. We will win on everything we do. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) BARTIROMO: Candidates, thank you. CAVUTO: Gentlemen, thank you all. All of you. That wraps up our debate. We went a little bit over here. But we wanted to make sure everyone was able to say their due. He's upset. All right. Thank you for joining us. Much more to come in the Spin Room ahead. ||||| The 12 biggest moments of the GOP debate A smaller cast featured harder hits Thursday, as seven top-polling Republican presidential candidates sought to leave a lasting impression with 18 days until voting begins in Iowa. Here are the most memorable moments: 1. Citizenship melee Story Continued Below Ted Cruz unloaded on Donald Trump with his most forceful salvo yet, rejecting any suggestion that he's ineligible to be president because he was born on Canadian soil to an American mother. Cruz noted that many people supporting Trump's theory also believe that citizenship requires two American parents born on American soil. "Since September the constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll numbers have," Cruz said. "I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling … but the facts of the law here are clear." He added that if Trump's backers are right, Trump himself wouldn't be eligible because his mother was born in Scotland. "On the issue of citizenship, Donald, I’m not going to use your mother’s birth against you," he said. 2. New York values Cruz elaborated on his recent Trump dig, accusing the mogul of having "New York values." He said he meant that New Yorkers tend to value "money and media" and are socially liberal on issues from abortion to same-sex marriage. Riffing on Trump's dig at him -- that not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba -- he charged, "Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan." Trump delivered a somber and indignant reply, reminding the audience that New York was watched by the world as it responded to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "We rebuilt downtown Manhattan ... everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers," he said. "And I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement Ted made." 3.Trump-Cruz or Cruz-Trump The brawl over citizenship also led to an unusual exchange in which Trump and Cruz each appeared, sarcastically, to offer each other the vice presidential slot on their ticket. Trump, playing out a hypothetical, said that he might consider choosing Cruz as his running mate but that Cruz might be sued by Democrats over his citizenship. "I choose him as my vice presidential candidate, and the Democrats sue because we can’t take him along for the ride," he said. "I don’t like that." Cruz replied with a joke — when he's the nominee, Trump can be his vice presidential pick, and if his citizenship theory is right, Trump will become president. "Donald, you — you very kindly just a moment ago offered me the V.P. slot," he said. "I'll tell you what. If this all works out, I'm happy to consider naming you as V.P. So if you happen to be right, you could get the top job at the end of the day." 4. Cruz takes on the Times Ted Cruz was practically salivating when moderator Maria Bartiromo asked him to respond to The New York Times report that nicked him for failing to disclose a $1 million loan from Goldman Sachs while running for Senate in 2012. Cruz quickly labeled the story a "hit piece" and thrashed the paper -- already a low-hanging conservative foil. Cruz pointed out that he's been the subject of Times columnist Frank Bruni's ire. "That same columnist wrote a column comparing me to an evil demonic spirit from the movie 'It Follows,'" Cruz said. "The New York Times and I don’t really have the warmest of relationships." Cruz said the undisclosed loan was a "paperwork error." "If that's the best hit the New York Times has got, they better go back to the well," he said. 5. Senate squabble Sen. Marco Rubio and Cruz locked horns late in the debate over immigration, with Rubio accusing Cruz of repeatedly changing positions for political expedience, and he didn't stop at immigration issues. "I saw you on the Senate floor flip your vote on crop insurance," he said. "That is not consistent conservatism" Cruz retorted, "I appreciate you dumping your oppo research folder," to which Rubio shot back, "No, it’s your record." 6. "I hope you'll reconsider" Jeb Bush jumped in after Trump defended his plan to ban Muslim immigration into the United States, pleading with the GOP poll leader to change his views. "I hope you reconsider this because this policy is a policy that makes it impossible to build the coalition necessary to take out ISIS," Bush said. "The Kurds are our strongest ally, they’re Muslim." "All Muslims? Seriously?" he asked. Trump countered that he's simply seeking security. "I want security for this country," he said. "We have a serious problem with, as you know, radical Islam." 7. Christie intervenes in Rubio-Cruz tussle Rubio and Cruz criticized each other in harsh terms over their competing tax plans, a wonky clash that centered on their interpretation of value-added taxes on business. "I’m going to side with Ronald Reagan on this and not Nancy Pelosi," Rubio charged. Cruz countered that Reagan economist Art Laffer backed his plan. After Rubio countered again, suggesting Cruz's plan to abolish the IRS would fail, Chris Christie jumped in to remind viewers that the two senators were initially asked to talk about entitlement programs. Rubio said he'd get to entitlements, but Christie cut him off. "You already had your chance, Marco, you blew it," he said. 8. Trump talks trade and tariffs Donald Trump, facing questions for telling The New York Times that he'd consider a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods, lashed out at the paper, following Ted Cruz's smackdown of the Times earlier. "It’s the New York Times, they’re always wrong," he said. Trump said he's "open to a tariff" but only mentioned 45 percent to suggest what the rate would have to be to offset China's currency devaluation. "If they don’t start treating us fairly and stop devaluing and let their currency rise so our companies can compete," he said, "I would certainly start taxing goods coming in from China." 9. Christie hurls insults at Obama New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has long aimed memorably nasty barbs at the president, and he continued Thursday, calling him a "petulant child" for pursuing executive actions to implement his favored policies. But he ratcheted up the schoolyard language in the debate. "We are going to kick your rear end out of the white house come this fall," Christie said after pointing out that Democrats have been routed from governorships and lost their majorities in Congress throughout Obama's tenure. 10. Trump: My kids will run my company Trump talked logistics for transferring control of his company to his kids if he takes the White House. "If I'm elected president, I couldn't care less about my company, " he said. “I have Ivanka and Eric and Don sitting there,” he said, gesturing toward his kids in the debate audience. “Run the company kids. Have a good time. I’m gonna do it for America.” Trump initially suggested the arrangement would constitute a "blind trust," but then noted that might not be the case because they're his children. 11. Carson gets apocalyptic Ben Carson criticized Barack Obama for being naive on foreign policy, but in doing so outlined a terrifying scenario in which a nuclear blast takes out America's electric grid while they're also using dirty bombs to attack and using cyber attacks to take down American computer systems. "I mean, just think about a scenario like that. They explode the bomb, we have an electromagnetic pulse. They hit us with a cyberattack simultaneously and dirty bombs," he said. "Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue at that point? He needs to recognize that those kinds of things are in fact an existential threat to us." 12. One-way ticket to Guantanamo Marco Rubio hinted that he'd get pretty aggressive with terrorists caught by the United States. Describing a muscular approach to taking on "radical jihadist terrorists," Rubio said he had a plan for those caught on the battlefield: "A one-way ticket to Guantanamo Bay Cuba, and we are going to find out anything they know." "It is a war that either they win or we win," he said. Authors:

– A look at some of the lines generating buzz from each of the seven candidates in the prime-time Republican debate, via the Washington Post: Ted Cruz: "Since September the constitution hasn’t changed, but the poll numbers have. I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling … but the facts of the law here are clear." (On his eligibility to be president.) Cruz also said, “Well, Maria, thank you for passing on that hit piece on the front page of the New York Times," when asked about this loan story. "You know the nice thing about the mainstream media, they don’t hide their views." Donald Trump: "We rebuilt downtown Manhattan ... everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers. And I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement Ted made." After Cruz slammed "New York values" and said, "Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan." Jeb Bush: "If she gets elected, her first 100 days, instead of setting an agenda, she might be going back and forth between the White House and the courthouse. We need to stop that." Referring to Hillary Clinton. Chris Christie: "You already had your chance, Marco, you blew it." (After Rubio talked of other things when asked about entitlements.) Rubio responded, "I'll answer the entitlement question if you'll answer the Common Core question." Christie also said, “I watched story time with Barack Obama [at the State of the Union], and I got to tell you, it sounded like everything in the world was going amazing.” Marco Rubio: He said any "radical jihadist terrorists" captured alive would get "a one-way ticket to Guantanamo Bay Cuba, and we are going to find out everything they know." Ben Carson: "If my mother were secretary of the Treasury, we would not be in a deficit situation." John Kasich: "So look, in foreign policy—in foreign policy, it's strength, but you've got to be cool. You've got to have a clear vision of where you want to go. And I'm going to tell you, that it—I'm going to suggest to you here tonight, that you can't do on the job training." Rubio vs. Cruz: "I saw you on the Senate floor flip your vote on crop insurance," Rubio said of Cruz, per Politico. "That is not consistent conservatism." Cruz responded, "I appreciate you dumping your oppo research folder," and Rubio said, "No, it’s your record."

BARNSTABLE (CBS) — A skydiving instructor and student were killed in a training jump on Cape Cod Sunday afternoon, officials said. The skydivers, jumping in tandem, crashed into a garage on Race Lane in Marstons Mills beyond the intended landing area of the Cape Cod airfield authorities said. The victims were both adults males, according to Massachusetts State Police. “We responded to the scene and we observed two people – the instructor and the student – laying on the ground beside the garage,” Barnstable Police Sgt. Ben Baxter said. “It appears they did hit the garage.” Both of the skydivers were rushed to Cape Cod Hospital, but did not survive. The Federal Aviation Administration and the district attorney’s office are also investigating. The identities of the victims have not yet been released. It was not clear if an equipment malfunction was to blame. Neighbors tell WBZ-TV that skydivers are a fairly common site at the airfield, but this time something went wrong. One person living close by said she saw the two men parachuting, but then heard a frightening sound. “Unfortunately I don’t know what happened, but I heard a thud,” the neighbor said. “The parachute looked deployed.” MORE LOCAL NEWS FROM CBS BOSTON ||||| Authorities in Barnstable, Massachusetts, confirm an instructor and a student are dead after attempting to land at Cape Cod Airfield. (Published Monday, Sep 29, 2014) UPDATE: Officials identified the victims on Sept. 29. A skydiving instructor and a student are dead after a skydiving accident on Cape Cod, officials confirm. Police in Barnstable, Massachusetts, found the victims next to a garage at 885 Race Lane in the Barnstable village of Marston Mills, across the street from Cape Cod Airfield. "It appears they did hit the garage," said Barnstable Police Sgt. Ben Baxter. "The Mass. State Police will be investigating, along with our detective division." The two male victims jumped in tandem, attached together. They were both transported by ambulance to Cape Cod Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. A Boston MedFlight helicopter had been asked to stand by in case either patient needed to be taken to a trauma center. Officials are working to determine what went wrong. There is a skydiving school at Cape Cod Airfield, but it is not yet known whether the victims were from there. NECN will have more as this story develops.

– The Federal Aviation Administration and local authorities are probing the deaths of two skydivers yesterday evening. The instructor and student, both adult males, were found next to a garage across the street from the Cape Cod Airfield, reports NECN. "We responded to the scene and we observed two people—the instructor and the student— laying on the ground beside the garage," a police spokesman tells CBS. "It appears they did hit the garage." The pair were jumping in tandem, and it's not clear whether there was an equipment malfunction.

Move over salt. Step aside, saturated fat. There’s a new public enemy in the pantry, and it’s … sugar.In a provocative commentary coming out in Thursday’s edition of the journal Nature, Dr. Robert Lustig and two colleagues from UC San Francisco argue that the added sugars in processed foods and drinks are responsible for so many cases of chronic disease and premature deaths that their use ought to be regulated, just like alcohol and tobacco.To those who view sugar as more of a treat than a poison – and especially to libertarian-minded people who oppose government regulation in general – Lustig’s proposal is certainly a nonstarter. Public health advocates have spent years trying to enact a soda tax to discourage consumption of added sugar, and none of their efforts is close to succeeding.But if you set aside both political reality and your sweet tooth, you have to admit that Lustig makes some good points.For starters, he and coauthors Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF aren’t claiming that sugar should be illegal or removed from the diet completely. They are focused on added sugars, which they define as “any sweetener containing the molecule fructose that is added to food in processing.”In this country, the average American consumes 222 calories worth of sugar from sugar cane and sugar beets each day, along with 165 calories with of sugar from high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture . But the proposed regulations wouldn't make any distinction between these sweeteners -- any caloric sweetener that contains fructose would be subject to scrutiny.Why? Because even the United Nations recognizes that the greatest threat to public health now comes from non- communicable diseases , including diabetes heart disease and cancer . Together, these play a role in more than 35 million deaths each year. And they get a big boost from the choices people make about tobacco, alcohol and diet.Of these three “risk factors,” only tobacco and alcohol are currently subject to regulation, the authors write. Of course, these differ from food in that they are not necessary for survival. But added sugars – and the items made with them – aren’t necessary either.When it comes to alcohol, there are four criteria that justify government regulation, according to the 2003 book “Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity”:* It’s unavoidable in society.* It’s toxic.* It can be abused.* It’s bad for society.“Sugar meets the same criteria,” Lustig and colleagues write, “and we believe that it similarly warrants some form of societal intervention.”The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization says that in 2007, Americans consumed more than 600 calories' worth of added sugar each day. And the damage it does goes beyond supplying empty calories. In fact, it may not be excess fat that causes diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and other manifestations of metabolic syndrome – there’s scientific evidence that suggests sugar itself is to blame. After all, 20% of obese people don’t have these diseases, but 40% of normal-weight people do.“For both alcohol and tobacco, there is robust evidence that gentle ‘supply side’ control strategies which stop far short of all-out prohibition – taxation, distrbution controls, age limits – lower both consumption of the product and the accompanying health harms,” the UCSF trio writes. “Consequently, we propose adding taxes to processed foods that contain any form of added sugars.”Though this is a pipe dream in the U.S. (despite the authors’ attempt to call their proposal “the possible dream”), they do note that Canada and some countries in Europe already impose small taxes on some artificially sweetened foods. Denmark, the country that imposed a “fat tax” last year, is now eyeing a sugar tax as well.Short of taxes, there are other things regulators can do to discourage consumption of added sugar. “States could apply zoning ordinances to control the number of fast-food outlets and convenience stores in low-income communities, and especially around schools,” the authors argue.States could also impose a “drinking age” for buying soda, sports drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages. (The authors suggest age 17.)And how about “a limit – or, ideally, ban – on television commercials for products with added sugars”?At a minimum, the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationcould remove fructose from its list of items Generally Recognized as Safe . That would force food makers to seek an FDA review of products with added sugars.“The food industry knows that it has a problem,” the authors write. “With enough clamour for change, tectonic shifts in policy become powerful.”A link to the commentary (which is behind a paywall) is online here An earlier version of this post said that most added sugar consumed in the U.S. is in the form of high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS. It should have said that Americans consume more HFCS than people in other countries. In 2010, the average American consumed 34.8 pounds of HFCS and 47 pounds of cane and beet sugar, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Return to the Booster Shots blog ||||| SUMMARY Sugar consumption is linked to a rise in non-communicable disease Sugar's effects on the body can be similar to those of alcohol Regulation could include tax, limiting sales during school hours and placing age limits on purchase Last September, the United Nations declared that, for the first time in human history, chronic non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes pose a greater health burden worldwide than do infectious diseases, contributing to 35 million deaths annually. This is not just a problem of the developed world. Every country that has adopted the Western diet — one dominated by low-cost, highly processed food — has witnessed rising rates of obesity and related diseases. There are now 30% more people who are obese than who are undernourished. Economic development means that the populations of low- and middle-income countries are living longer, and therefore are more susceptible to non-communicable diseases; 80% of deaths attributable to them occur in these countries. ILLUSTRATION BY MARK SMITH Many people think that obesity is the root cause of these diseases. But 20% of obese people have normal metabolism and will have a normal lifespan. Conversely, up to 40% of normal-weight people develop the diseases that constitute the metabolic syndrome: diabetes, hypertension, lipid problems, cardiovascular disease andnon-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Obesity is not the cause; rather, it is a marker for metabolic dysfunction, which is even more prevalent. The UN announcement targets tobacco, alcohol and diet as the central risk factors in non-communicable disease. Two of these three — tobacco and alcohol — are regulated by governments to protect public health, leaving one of the primary culprits behind this worldwide health crisis unchecked. Of course, regulating food is more complicated — food is required, whereas tobacco and alcohol are non-essential consumables. The key question is: what aspects of the Western diet should be the focus of intervention? In October 2011, Denmark chose to tax foods high in saturated fat, despite the fact that most medical professionals no longer believe that fat is the primary culprit. But now, the country is considering taxing sugar as well — a more plausible and defensible step. Indeed, rather than focusing on fat and salt — the current dietary 'bogeymen' of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the European Food Safety Authority — we believe that attention should be turned to 'added sugar', defined as any sweetener containing the molecule fructose that is added to food in processing. Over the past 50 years, consumption of sugar has tripled worldwide. In the United States, there is fierce controversy over the pervasive use of one particular added sugar — high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It is manufactured from corn syrup (glucose), processed to yield a roughly equal mixture of glucose and fructose. Most other developed countries eschew HFCS, relying on naturally occurring sucrose as an added sugar, which also consists of equal parts glucose and fructose. Authorities consider sugar as 'empty calories' — but there is nothing empty about these calories. A growing body of scientific evidence is showing that fructose can trigger processes that lead to liver toxicity and a host of other chronic diseases1. A little is not a problem, but a lot kills — slowly (see 'Deadly effect'). If international bodies are truly concerned about public health, they must consider limiting fructose — and its main delivery vehicles, the added sugars HFCS and sucrose — which pose dangers to individuals and to society as a whole. Table 1: Deadly effect Excessive consumption of fructose can cause many of the same health problems as alcohol. Full table No ordinary commodity In 2003, social psychologist Thomas Babor and his colleagues published a landmark book called Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity, in which they established four criteria, now largely accepted by the public-health community, that justify the regulation of alcohol — unavoidability (or pervasiveness throughout society), toxicity, potential for abuse and negative impact on society2. Sugar meets the same criteria, and we believe that it similarly warrants some form of societal intervention. First, consider unavoidability. Evolutionarily, sugar was available to our ancestors as fruit for only a few months a year (at harvest time), or as honey, which was guarded by bees. But in recent years, sugar has been added to nearly all processed foods, limiting consumer choice3. Nature made sugar hard to get; man made it easy. In many parts of the world, people are consuming an average of more than 500 calories per day from added sugar alone (see 'The global sugar glut'). SOURCE: FAO Now, let's consider toxicity. A growing body of epidemiological and mechanistic evidence argues that excessive sugar consumption affects human health beyond simply adding calories4. Importantly, sugar induces all of the diseases associated with metabolic syndrome1, 5. This includes: hypertension (fructose increases uric acid, which raises blood pressure); high triglycerides and insulin resistance through synthesis of fat in the liver; diabetes from increased liver glucose production combined with insulin resistance; and the ageing process, caused by damage to lipids, proteins and DNA through non-enzymatic binding of fructose to these molecules. It can also be argued that fructose exerts toxic effects on the liver that are similar to those of alcohol1. This is no surprise, because alcohol is derived from the fermentation of sugar. Some early studies have also linked sugar consumption to human cancer and cognitive decline. Sugar also has clear potential for abuse. Like tobacco and alcohol, it acts on the brain to encourage subsequent intake. There are now numerous studies examining the dependence-producing properties of sugar in humans6. Specifically, sugar dampens the suppression of the hormone ghrelin, which signals hunger to the brain. It also interferes with the normal transport and signalling of the hormone leptin, which helps to produce the feeling of satiety. And it reduces dopamine signalling in the brain's reward centre, thereby decreasing the pleasure derived from food and compelling the individual to consume more1, 6. Finally, consider the negative effects of sugar on society. Passive smoking and drink-driving fatalities provided strong arguments for tobacco and alcohol control, respectively. The long-term economic, health-care and human costs of metabolic syndrome place sugar overconsumption in the same category7. The United States spends $65 billion in lost productivity and $150 billion on health-care resources annually for morbidities associated with metabolic syndrome. Seventy-five per cent of all US health-care dollars are now spent on treating these diseases and their resultant disabilities. Because about 25% of military applicants are now rejected for obesity-related reasons, the past three US surgeons general and the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff have declared obesity a “threat to national security”. How to intervene How can we reduce sugar consumption? After all, sugar is natural. Sugar is a nutrient. Sugar is pleasure. So too is alcohol, but in both cases, too much of a good thing is toxic. It may be helpful to look to the many generations of international experience with alcohol and tobacco to find models that work8, 9. So far, evidence shows that individually focused approaches, such as school-based interventions that teach children about diet and exercise, demonstrate little efficacy. Conversely, for both alcohol and tobacco, there is robust evidence that gentle 'supply side' control strategies which stop far short of all-out prohibition — taxation, distribution controls, age limits — lower both consumption of the product and the accompanying health harms. Successful interventions share a common end-point: curbing availability2, 8, 9. Taxing alcohol and tobacco products — in the form of special excise duties, value-added taxes and sales taxes — are the most popular and effective ways to reduce smoking and drinking, and in turn, substance abuse and related harms2. Consequently, we propose adding taxes to processed foods that contain any form of added sugars. This would include sweetened fizzy drinks (soda), other sugar-sweetened beverages (for example, juice, sports drinks and chocolate milk) and sugared cereal. Already, Canada and some European countries impose small additional taxes on some sweetened foods. The United States is currently considering a penny-per-ounce soda tax (about 34 cents per litre), which would raise the price of a can by 10–12 cents. Currently, a US citizen consumes an average of 216 litres of soda per year, of which 58% contains sugar. Taxing at a penny an ounce could provide annual revenue in excess of $45 per capita (roughly $14 billion per year); however, this would be unlikely to reduce total consumption. Statistical modelling suggests that the price would have to double to significantly reduce soda consumption — so a $1 can should cost $2 (ref. 10). Other successful tobacco- and alcohol-control strategies limit availability, such as reducing the hours that retailers are open, controlling the location and density of retail markets and limiting who can legally purchase the products2, 9. A reasonable parallel for sugar would tighten licensing requirements on vending machines and snack bars that sell sugary products in schools and workplaces. Many schools have removed unhealthy fizzy drinks and candy from vending machines, but often replaced them with juice and sports drinks, which also contain added sugar. States could apply zoning ordinances to control the number of fast-food outlets and convenience stores in low-income communities, and especially around schools, while providing incentives for the establishment of grocery stores and farmer's markets. Another option would be to limit sales during school operation, or to designate an age limit (such as 17) for the purchase of drinks with added sugar, particularly soda. Indeed, parents in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, recently took this upon themselves by lining up outside convenience stores and blocking children from entering them after school. Why couldn't a public-health directive do the same? The possible dream Government-imposed regulations on the marketing of alcohol to young people have been quite effective, but there is no such approach to sugar-laden products. Even so, the city of San Francisco, California, recently banned the inclusion of toys with unhealthy meals such as some types of fast food. A limit — or, ideally, ban — on television commercials for products with added sugars could further protect children's health. Reduced fructose consumption could also be fostered through changes in subsidization. Promotion of healthy foods in US low-income programmes, such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as the food-stamps programme) is an obvious place to start. Unfortunately, the petition by New York City to remove soft drinks from the food-stamp programme was denied by the USDA. “Sugar is cheap, sugar tastes good and sugar sells, so companies have little incentive to change.” Ultimately, food producers and distributors must reduce the amount of sugar added to foods. But sugar is cheap, sugar tastes good and sugar sells, so companies have little incentive to change. Although one institution alone can't turn this juggernaut around, the US Food and Drug Administration could “set the table” for change8. To start, it should consider removing fructose from the Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) list, which allows food manufacturers to add unlimited amounts to any food. Opponents will argue that other nutrients on the GRAS list, such as iron and vitamins A and D, can also be toxic when over-consumed. However, unlike sugar, these substances have no abuse potential. Removal from the GRAS list would send a powerful signal to the European Food Safety Authority and the rest of the world. Regulating sugar will not be easy — particularly in the 'emerging markets' of developing countries where soft drinks are often cheaper than potable water or milk. We recognize that societal intervention to reduce the supply and demand for sugar faces an uphill political battle against a powerful sugar lobby, and will require active engagement from all stakeholders. Still, the food industry knows that it has a problem — even vigorous lobbying by fast-food companies couldn't defeat the toy ban in San Francisco. With enough clamour for change, tectonic shifts in policy become possible. Take, for instance, bans on smoking in public places and the use of designated drivers, not to mention airbags in cars and condom dispensers in public bathrooms. These simple measures — which have all been on the battleground of American politics — are now taken for granted as essential tools for our public health and well-being. It's time to turn our attention to sugar. ||||| Contains Nonbinding Recommendations December 2004 Additional copies are available from: Office of Food Additive Safety, HFS-200 Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Food and Drug Administration 5100 Paint Branch Parkway College Park, MD 20740 (Tel) 301-436-1200 (Updated phone: 240-402-1200) http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/guidance.html U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) December 2004 Contains Nonbinding Recommendations This guidance represents the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) current thinking on this topic. It does not create or confer any rights for or on any person and does not operate to bind FDA or the public. An alternative approach can be used if such approach satisfies the requirements of the applicable statutes and regulations. If you want to discuss an alternative approach, please contact the FDA staff responsible for implementing this guidance. If you cannot identify the appropriate FDA staff, contact the appropriate number listed on the title page of this document. This list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) is intended to be a convenient place to find answers to common questions about the food ingredient classification known as "generally recognized as safe" or "GRAS." This FAQ addresses common questions about the regulatory process and regulatory considerations regarding whether the use of a food substance is GRAS. For more information about the GRAS program, please contact Dr. Paulette Gaynor (301-436-1192)(Updated phone: 240-402-1192) in the Office of Food Additive Safety, or email questions to premarkt@fda.hhs.gov. See additional contact information at the bottom of this page. What does "GRAS" mean? "GRAS" is an acronym for the phrase Generally Recognized As Safe. Under sections 201(s) and 409 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act), any substance that is intentionally added to food is a food additive, that is subject to premarket review and approval by FDA, unless the substance is generally recognized, among qualified experts, as having been adequately shown to be safe under the conditions of its intended use, or unless the use of the substance is otherwise excluded from the definition of a food additive. For example, substances whose use meets the definition of a pesticide, a dietary ingredient of a dietary supplement, a color additive, a new animal drug, or a substance approved for such use prior to September 6, 1958, are excluded from the definition of food additive. Sections 201(s) and 409 were enacted in 1958 as part of the Food Additives Amendment to the Act. While it is impracticable to list all ingredients whose use is generally recognized as safe, FDA published a partial list of food ingredients whose use is generally recognized as safe to aid the industry's understanding of what did not require approval. What are the criteria for GRAS status? Under sections 201(s) and 409 of the Act, and FDA's implementing regulations in 21 CFR 170.3 and 21 CFR 170.30, the use of a food substance may be GRAS either through scientific procedures or, for a substance used in food before 1958, through experience based on common use in food. Under 21 CFR 170.30(b), general recognition of safety through scientific procedures requires the same quantity and quality of scientific evidence as is required to obtain approval of the substance as a food additive and ordinarily is based upon published studies, which may be corroborated by unpublished studies and other data and information. Under 21 CFR 170.30(c) and 170.3(f), general recognition of safety through experience based on common use in foods requires a substantial history of consumption for food use by a significant number of consumers. In what way are the criteria for the use of a substance to be GRAS similar to that for the approved use of a food additive? Regardless of whether the use of a substance is a food additive use or is GRAS, there must be evidence that the substance is safe under the conditions of its intended use. FDA has defined "safe" (21 CFR 170.3(i)) as a reasonable certainty in the minds of competent scientists that the substance is not harmful under its intended conditions of use. The specific data and information that demonstrate safety depend on the characteristics of the substance, the estimated dietary intake, and the population that will consume the substance. In what way are the criteria for the use of a substance to be GRAS different from that for the approved use of a food additive? A GRAS substance is distinguished from a food additive on the basis of the common knowledge about the safety of the substance for its intended use. As FDA discussed in a proposed rule to establish a voluntary notification program for GRAS substances (62 Fed. Reg. 18938; April 17, 1997), the data and information relied on to establish the safety of the use of a GRAS substance must be generally available (e.g., through publication in the scientific literature) and there must be a basis to conclude that there is consensus among qualified experts about the safety of the substance for its intended use. Thus, the difference between use of a food additive and use of a GRAS substance relates to the widespread awareness of the data and information about the substance, i.e., who has access to the data and information and who has reviewed those data and information. For a food additive, privately held data and information about the use of the substance are sent by the sponsor to FDA and FDA evaluates those data and information to determine whether they establish that the substance is safe under the conditions of its intended use (21 CFR 171.1). For a GRAS substance, generally available data and information about the use of the substance are known and accepted widely by qualified experts, and there is a basis to conclude that there is consensus among qualified experts that those data and information establish that the substance is safe under the conditions of its intended use. (proposed 170.36 (c)(4)(i)(C)) If an ingredient is GRAS for one use, is it GRAS for all uses? Not necessarily. Under section 201(s) of the Act, it is the use of a substance, rather than the substance itself, that is eligible for the GRAS exemption (62 Fed. Reg. 18939; April 17, 1997). A determination of the safety of the use of an ingredient includes information about the characteristics of the substance, the estimated dietary intake under the intended conditions of use, and the population that will consume the substance (proposed 21 CFR 170.36 (c)(1)(iii)). Dietary intake of a substance depends on the food categories in which it will be used and the level of use in each of those food categories. For information about how FDA estimates dietary intake of a food substance, see FDA's document entitled "Estimating Exposure to Direct Food Additives And Chemical Contaminants in the Diet" Some uses of a food substance are intended for a narrowly defined population, such as newborn infants who consume infant formula as the sole item of the diet; in such a circumstance, there may be special considerations associated with that population but not with general use of the food substance. Is a substance that is used to impart color eligible for classification as GRAS? The short answer is "No." Under section 201(s) of the Act, the GRAS provision applies to the definition of a food additive. There is no corresponding provision in the definition (in section 201(t) of the Act) of a color additive. However, under section 201(t)(1) and 21 CFR 70.3(f), the term color additive means a material that is a dye, pigment, or other substance made by a process of synthesis or similar artifice, or extracted, isolated, or otherwise derived from a vegetable, animal, mineral, or other source, and that is capable (alone or through reaction with another substance) of imparting color when added or applied to a food; except that such term does not include any material which FDA, by regulation, determines is used (or intended to be used) solely for a purpose or purposes other than coloring. Under 21 CFR 70.3(g), a material that otherwise meets the definition of color additive can be exempt from that definition on the basis that it is used or intended to be used solely for a purpose or purposes other than coloring, as long as the material is used in a way that any color imparted is clearly unimportant insofar as the appearance, value, marketability, or consumer acceptability is concerned. Given the construct of section 201(t)(1) of the Act and 21 CFR 70.3(f) and (g), the use of a substance that is capable of imparting color may constitute use as both a color additive and as a food additive or GRAS substance. For example, beta-carotene is both approved for use as a color additive (21 CFR 73.95) and affirmed as GRAS for use as a nutrient (21 CFR 184.1245); in some food products, beta-carotene may be used for both purposes. Is a substance that is used as a dietary ingredient of a dietary supplement eligible for classification as GRAS? Under section 201(s) of the Act, the ingredients whose use is GRAS are excluded from the definition of a food additive. That definition of food additive also specifies that the term "food additive" does not include a dietary ingredient of a dietary supplement described in section 201(ff) of the Act or intended for use in a dietary supplement. Thus, it is meaningless to refer to a GRAS exclusion from the food additive definition for dietary ingredients that are already excluded from that definition. However, some dietary ingredients that may be used in a dietary supplement may also be GRAS for use in a conventional food (e.g., vitamin C; calcium carbonate). Must FDA approve GRAS substances? No. If the use of a food substance is GRAS, it is not subject to the premarket review and approval requirement by FDA. What is GRAS affirmation? GRAS affirmation is a process that FDA developed in the 1970s. In response to concerns raised by new information on cyclamate salts, then-President Nixon directed FDA to re-examine the safety of substances considered to be GRAS. FDA announced that the agency would evaluate, by contemporary standards of the time, the available safety information regarding substances considered to be GRAS. If the revaluation of current data confirmed that use was GRAS, FDA would promulgate a new GRAS regulation, affirming that finding. FDA also established procedures whereby an individual could petition FDA to review the GRAS status of substances that would not have been considered as part of the agency's GRAS review. Does FDA currently have a program to affirm that one or more uses of a food substance are GRAS? In a proposed rule that FDA published in 1997 (62 Fed. Reg. 18938; April 17, 1997), FDA explained why the agency could no longer devote resources to the voluntary GRAS affirmation petition process that is described in 21 CFR 170.35(c) and proposed to abolish that process and replace it with a notification procedure. The agency has not yet issued a final rule however, and the petition procedure remains in the agency's regulations. However, at this time FDA is not committing resources to the review of GRAS affirmation petitions. What is the GRAS notification program? The GRAS notification program is a voluntary procedure that is operating under a proposed rule issued in 1997 (62 Fed. Reg. 18938; April 17, 1997). The notification program is intended to replace the GRAS affirmation process by providing a mechanism whereby a person may inform FDA of a determination that the use of a substance is GRAS, rather than petition FDA to affirm that the use of a substance is GRAS. The submitted notice includes a "GRAS exemption claim" that includes a succinct description of the substance, the applicable conditions of use, and the statutory basis for the GRAS determination (i.e., through scientific procedures or through experience based on common use in food). A GRAS notice also includes information about the identity and properties of the notified substance and a discussion of the notifier's reasons for concluding that the substance is GRAS for its intended use. If I choose to notify FDA of my GRAS determination, how do I do so? FDA described the procedure for submitting a GRAS notice in the proposed rule to establish the notification procedure (62 Fed. Reg. 18938; April 17, 1997). Because the proposed rule is a lengthy document, our Internet site has a specific link to the part of the proposed rule that describes the procedure. You can find both the complete proposed rule and the link to the procedure on the main page of the GRAS notification program. Where do I send my GRAS notice? You should send your GRAS notice to the Office of Food Additive Safety (HFS-255), Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD 20740. [Note that our office moved since we issued the proposed rule to establish a GRAS notification procedure and, thus, the address where you should send your GRAS notice is different from the address that we published in the proposed rule that describes the procedure]. If I submit a GRAS notice, how long will it take for me to receive a response from FDA? Our goal is to respond to most GRAS notices within 180 days. If I submit a GRAS notice about a food substance, must I wait until I receive a response from FDA before I market that substance? No. If one is correct in determining that the intended use of an ingredient is GRAS, use of the ingredient is not subject to any legal requirement for FDA review and approval. Your decision to submit a GRAS notice is voluntary, and FDA's response to a GRAS notice is not an approval. You may market a substance that you determine to be GRAS for a particular use without informing FDA or, if FDA is so informed, while FDA is reviewing that information (62 Fed. Reg. 18951; April 17, 1997). We recognize, however, that some firms prefer to know that FDA has reviewed its notice of a GRAS determination, without raising safety or legal issues, before marketing. Does FDA have a list of substances that are used in food on the basis of the GRAS provision? FDA has several lists of GRAS substances. Importantly, these lists are not all-inclusive. Because the use of a GRAS substance is not subject to premarket review and approval by FDA, it is impracticable to list all substances that are used in food on the basis of the GRAS provision. 21 CFR Part 182 contains the remnants of a list, which FDA established in its regulations shortly after passage of the 1958 Food Additives Amendment. The list is organized according to the intended use of these substances. As part of the agency's comprehensive review of GRAS substances in the 1970s, FDA affirmed that the use of some of the ingredients on this original GRAS list is GRAS, and moved the affirmed uses of the substance to 21 CFR Part 184. 21 CFR Part 184 contains a list of substances that FDA affirmed as GRAS as direct food ingredients for general or specific uses. This list derives from the agency's 1970s comprehensive review of GRAS substances and from petitions that FDA received to affirm the GRAS status of particular uses of some food ingredients. 21 CFR Part 186 contains a list of substances that FDA affirmed as GRAS for certain indirect food uses. FDA's Internet site also contains a list of substances that have been the subject of a notice to FDA - i.e., when a firm has notified FDA about its view that a particular use of a substance is GRAS. You can access this summary of GRAS notices, along with FDA's response, from the GRAS Notification Program page.

– Tobacco, alcohol, and ... sugar? Yes, according to professors at UC San Francisco, sugar should be regulated like tobacco and alcohol in order to cut down on ailments like heart disease, high blood pressure, and fatty liver disease, the Los Angeles Times reports. “For both alcohol and tobacco, there is robust evidence that gentle ‘supply side’ control strategies" such as "taxation, distribution controls, [and] age limits" are beneficial to society, they write in the journal Nature. Sugar also "meets the same criteria" as alcohol for government regulation, they say: It's unavoidable, it's toxic, it can be abused, and it's bad for you. Canada and a few European countries are already taxing certain artificially sweetened foods, and Denmark is considering a sugar tax. So the USDA should at least stop listing fructose on its "Generally Recognized as Safe" list, they argue: “The food industry knows that it has a problem. With enough clamour for change, tectonic shifts in policy become powerful.”

Germany's Deutsche Boerse AG, the company that runs the stock exchange in Europe's largest economy, could soon take over the New York Stock Exchange. Specialist Evan Solomon, left, resumes trading in shares of NYSE Euronext on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011. Stock market operator NYSE Euronext confirms it's in "advanced... (Associated Press) Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011. Stock market operator NYSE Euronext confirms it's in "advanced discussions" about a potential business combination with... (Associated Press) Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011. Stock market operator NYSE Euronext confirms it's in "advanced discussions" about a potential business combination with... (Associated Press) NYSE signage adorns the top of trading posts on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011. Stock market operator NYSE Euronext confirms it's in "advanced discussions" about a potential... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Feb. 2, 2011 file picture, traders work in the Frankfurt stock exchange , Deutsche Boerse. Stock market operator NYSE Euronext confirms it's in "advance discussions" about a potential... (Associated Press) Traders gather at the post that handles shares of NYSE Euronext as they wait for trading to resume, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011. Stock market operator NYSE Euronext... (Associated Press) Traders gather at the post that handles shares of NYSE Euronext as they wait for trading to resume, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011. Stock market operator NYSE Euronext... (Associated Press) NYSE Euronext Inc., which also operates exchanges in Europe, said Wednesday it is in "advanced discussions" about a possible merger with Deutsche Boerse, owner of the Frankfurt stock exchange. The new company would have dual headquarters in New York and Frankfurt. The announcement came hours after news of a $2.9 billion merger between the London Stock Exchange and TMX Group Inc., parent company of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Deutsche Boerse shareholders would hold 59 to 60 percent of the combined company. NYSE Euronext said it expected the two market operators to combine their businesses under a new legal entity incorporated in the Netherlands. NYSE Euronext's shares jumped 14 percent to close at $38.10 in New York. The New York Stock Exchange is already the world's largest stock market. But its parent, the $9.9 billion NYSE Euronext, isn't even the largest exchange company in the U.S. That title belongs to the $20 billion CME Group Inc. CME runs the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where wheat, corn and pork belly futures are traded, as well as a number of other exchanges. "The real motivation here is really about competing with the CME Group," said Larry Tabb, founder and CEO of the Tabb Group. Increased competition has made stock trading less profitable. So the answer is to get bigger, he said. But the thought of a German company taking over the NYSE could run into trouble with Congress, Tabb said. "It's going to get interesting," he said. The NYSE Group, operator of the New York Stock Exchange, bought Euronext for $10.2 billion in 2007. The combined company handles stock and derivative markets in Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris as well as the NYSE Liffe derivatives market. Deutsche Boerse, whose predecessor was founded in 1585, operates the stock market in Europe's largest economy. It also runs Europe's largest derivative exchange, the Eurex. Aite Group analyst Simmy Grewal said more mergers may be on the way. Shares in other exchanges jumped on the news. The Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., the IntercontinentalExchange and CBOE Holdings Inc. all gained more than 4 percent. CME Group rose 1 percent. Deutsche Boerse AG chief executive Reto Francioni would become the new group's chairman, and NYSE's CEO Duncan Niederauer, based in New York, its CEO. The new company's executive committee would be drawn equally from the current leadership of both companies. For Deutsche Boerse, the deal would represent a breakthrough in its aim to strengthen its international profile. Deutsche Boerse had been in merger talks with NYSE Euronext three years ago, but no deal was reached. In 2006, the company tried to buy Euronext NV in a bid to build a pan-European stock exchange, but it eventually gave up, clearing the way for NYSE to merge with Euronext, which then formed the world's first trans-Atlantic stock exchange. In 2005, a Deutsche Boerse takeover bid for Britain's London Stock Exchange Group PLC did not succeed. ___ Craft reported from New York. Greg Keller contributed from Paris. ||||| (See Corrections and Amplifications item below.) After 219 years as the citadel of American capitalism, the New York Stock Exchange was near an agreement to be acquired by Deutsche Börse AG in a deal that would create the world's largest financial exchange. With the parent of the New York Stock Exchange and Germany's Deutsche Borse in advanced talks to merge, Aaron Lucchetti and Dennis Berman look at the likely impact on Wall Street as the financial capital of the world. If a deal is reached and regulators approve, the combined company would trade more stocks and futures than any rival in the world and more options than any U.S. exchange. The takeover would culminate a decade of tie-ups by exchanges around the world eager to find new sources of growth and catch up with smaller rivals that have been quicker to embrace new and lucrative kinds of trading. For New York, the move is symbolic of the city's fading dominance on the world stage as other countries are drawing investors directly to their markets. The move also is a recognition that securities trading today goes on at all hours and in all time zones, making the actual bricks and mortar of Wall Street far less important than before. "New York is going to be important, but it's not the financial center. Capital markets are everywhere now," said Michael LaBranche, CEO of LaBranche & Co, the family-run firm that traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for 87 years before it sold that part of its business to Britain's Barclays Capital in 2010. Antitrust experts cautioned that the proposed deal could face tough regulatory scrutiny in Europe, as the new behemoth would dominate share and derivatives trading in the European Union—and in Washington, where tempers may rise over a crown jewel of the economy falling into foreign hands. The exchanges, which are presenting the deal as a merger of equals, said the combination would leave 60% of the company in the hands of Deutsche Börse shareholders, with NYSE Euronext shareholders holding the remaining 40%. The combined company, with a putative market capitalization of some $25 billion as of Wednesday, would be incorporated in the Netherlands and split its headquarters between Frankfurt and New York. Deutsche Börse Chief Executive Reto Francioni would become chairman, and NYSE Euronext chief Duncan Niederauer would be the new company's CEO under a board drawn equally from both companies. The proposed all-stock deal is driven by growing competition from purely electronic exchanges, not only in stock trading but also in more-profitable derivative contracts such as options and futures. It lets NYSE and Deutsche Börse fight back against rising competitors such as CME Group Inc. and private exchanges known as "dark pools" run by big securities firms. A deal would extend NYSE's lead as the largest share-trading venue in the world, adding the Frankfurt Stock Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange and the four European exchanges owned by NYSE. The new entity would supplant CME Group as the world's largest futures exchange and create the biggest U.S. options group, as measured by contract volume. NYSE Euronext's two options platforms, combined with Deutsche Börse's International Securities Exchange market, amounted to about 40.5% of the U.S. options market last month. NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse are in advanced merger talks, a combination that would create one of the world's largest share- and derivatives-trading platforms. Aaron Lucchetti has details. Interest over a merger between Singapore and Australia's exchanges has been reignited after Deutsche Börse neared an agreement to buy the NYSE. WSJ's Jake Lee talks to Hong Kong Bureau Chief Peter Stein on possible tie-ups between Asian exchanges. Global stock listing and U.S. stock trading would be based in New York, people familiar with the situation said. The global derivatives business would be led from Frankfurt, and Paris would host the technology arm and European stock trading. The merger marks the NYSE's second European deal in just five years. In 2006, the NYSE beat out Deutsche Börse to buy Paris-based Euronext, which boasts exchanges in Amsterdam, Paris and elsewhere. In 2008 and again in 2009, following their bidding war for Euronext, the German exchange and NYSE discussed a possible merger. But talks foundered because of internal management disputes at Deutsche Börse and disagreements about where a merged company would be based. The two sides had been planning to announce a deal next week, but put out a statement Wednesday disclosing the talks after word leaked out on a German online financial site, said people familiar with the matter. The companies are in advanced talks, though no terms have been set. Directors will need to sign off on the deal—and a host of regulatory challenges awaits on both sides of the Atlantic. The plan is likely to trigger an in-depth probe at the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, said Simon Holmes, partner and head of the EU and Competition department in the London office of international law firm SJ Berwin. "It would be a very complicated deal likely to require a detailed … investigation by the European antitrust regulator," Mr. Holmes said. The plan drew a cautious, low-key response from American politicians and regulators faced with control of an iconic U.S. institution. The Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment all would have a role in signing off on any deal. Shareholders and those concerned about the Big Board's competitive status applauded the news. NYSE rose 14% to $38.10, while shares of Deutsche Börse were halted in Frankfurt after rising 1.7% to €58.42. But for those who remember the glory days, when the New York Stock Exchange was the unchallenged center of world finance, there was trouble containing the dismay. The NYSE "is not the same iconic place that it was in its heyday," said William Higgins, a 74-year-old retired NYSE trader, who still owns about 70,000 shares of the company. He recalls when the NYSE was a private club and traders gained entry by buying a "seat" that entitled them to do business there. "It doesn't mean life won't go on, but to those of us who have been called New Yorkers, to not have that air of sophistication, the sense that 'this is where things get done,' it's sad." According to lore, New York stock trading can be traced to 1792, when traders signed an agreement under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street. Since then, the exchange has grown into a symbol of American capitalism where thousands of global companies are listed. For two centuries, trading was face-to-face, conducted between individuals on the exchange floor. When the World Trade Center was attacked in 2001, the exchange unveiled a huge Stars and Stripes on the front of its building, and a symbol of American resilience was born. Today, the great majority of NYSE trading is done electronically. Actual floor trading tends to be so quiet that some traders began spending time in a lounge where they could watch movies during the day. The lounge was closed after a Wall Street Journal article mentioned it. In Frankfurt, the German exchange voted in November to end face-to-face trading entirely in May of this year. According to a person familiar with plans, several hundred jobs would likely be cut over time, but most of the cost cutting would be in technology, and fewer than 100 jobs would be cut in New York. Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext said a combination could generate €300 million in annualized savings, some 10% of their cost base. To avoid nationalistic concerns over the name, one idea is to avoid using the word Deutsche or the acronym NYSE, said one person familiar with the plans, who stressed that no decision has been made. "I wish them luck. I hope they know what they are doing," said veteran stock trader Alan "Ace" Greenberg, a former Bear Stearns Cos. chairman who now is vice-chairman emeritus at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Corrections & Amplifications The potential purchaseof NYSE Euronext by Deutsche Börse AG could generate €300 million ($408 million) in annual cost savings, the companies said. In addition, the American Stock Exchange was acquired by NYSE Euronext in 2008. An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the cost-savings target was $300 million, and a graphic accompanying the continuation of the article incorrectly said the American Stock Exchange had been acquired by Nasdaq OMX Group Write to E.S. Browning at jim.browning@wsj.com, Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@dowjones.com and Aaron Lucchetti at aaron.lucchetti@dowjones.com

– The raucous cathedral of American capitalism, the New York Stock Exchange, is about to be bought by the Germans. If regulators approve the deal, the acquisition of NYSE Euronext (which owns the NYSE) by Deutsche Börse AG (which owns the Frankfurt stock exchange) would create the world's largest financial exchange. The move is bound to face intense scrutiny from regulators in Europe, where the new operation would dominate trade, and in Washington, where acquisition by a foreign company will pique nationalist sentiment, reports the Wall Street Journal. Deutsche Börse would own 60% of the combined company, estimated to be worth some $25 billion, while NYSE Euronext shareholders would hold 40%. The operation's incorporation papers would be filed in the Netherlands, and its headquarters would be split between New York and Frankfurt. The AP notes that while the NYSE is already the world's largest stock market, NYSE Euronext isn't the largest exchange company in the US. That title belongs to the $20 billion CME Group, which runs the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. "The real motivation here is really about competing with the CME Group," said the head of a financial markets' research and strategic advisory firm. Increased competition has made stock trading less profitable. So the answer is to get bigger, he said.

“Selfies at Funerals! A page on Tumblr has been creating quite an uproar," says a man on Good Morning America while reading a script, clearly not uproar’d himself. But this scary man seems quite upset indeed: Terrifying, right? Perhaps you have some questions. Why is all this text here in blue? It’s the Tumblr template and I don’t know how to change it. I hate it too. Why did you— Sorry to I interrupt but I see where you’re going. Please check out the press page, and in particular, listen to the interviews on "Q” and “The List,” which should provide plenty of context. Will you keep updating this Tumblr? Probably not. I like to think of it as a standing statement: Everyone who’s ever visited will have seen the exact same thing (except for this post, which came a few weeks after launch.) But if someone wants to offer me a lot of money to keep it going—or to do anything else, I suppose—you have my full attention. So what now? Follow me on Twitter. Or, take a selfie at a funeral and be mocked globally. Those are your only two options. ||||| 5 years ago Updated 11:06 a.m. ET, 12/11/2013 (CNN) – Nelson Mandela's memorial service Tuesday was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event where dozens of world leaders join thousands of South Africans in a massive stadium, all to honor the anti-apartheid icon. Instead, it turned into a media sensation...about a selfie. Follow @politicalticker Follow @KilloughCNN Halfway through the ceremony, President Barack Obama could be seen helping Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt as the two squeezed in with British Prime Minister David Cameron to take a smiling photo of themselves with a camera-phone Sitting next to them was first lady Michelle Obama, who was clearly not taking part in the photo-op. AFP Photographer Roberto Schmidt, from about 150 meters away, caught the moment. And as soon his photo went public, it went viral. Twitter and Facebook feeds lit up with the photo. News outlets quickly blasted it out online and on television. It all sparked a surging debate: Was the selfie a cute moment, or a tasteless act? The reaction "Did the President really take a selfie at a funeral? It appears the First Lady did not approve," Republican strategist and conservative firebrand Erick Erickson tweeted early Tuesday. Did the President really take a selfie at a funeral? It appears the First Lady did not approve. — Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 10, 2013 Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh spent a portion of show hammering the President for taking part in the selfie and shaking Cuban President Raul Castro's hand at the same event. Obama, Limbaugh argued, was trying to make the memorial service all about himself. "He doesn't care, folks," Limbaugh said. "This is his stage. I mean, this whole week is about Barack Obama. You understand, that's really what this all means. That's what this soap opera script is. It's not the death of Mandela anymore. This is about Barack Obama assuming Mandela's place as a great whatever on the world stage." Some tabloids in Britain, Denmark and the U.S. were afire with speculation, as more photos came out and showed the three world leaders playfully interacting, with the first lady still sitting idly by. "UK papers making hay with Obama selfie & FLOTUS's face. Daily Mail calls PM Helle Thorning-Schmitt "the flirty Dane," Jon Williams tweeted. UK papers making hay with Obama selfie & FLOTUS's face. Daily Mail calls PM Helle Thorning-Schmitt "the flirty Dane" pic.twitter.com/dckRYIb1MS — Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) December 10, 2013 Karl Erik Stougaard, online managing editor at the Danish newspaper Politiken, told BBC on Wednesday that the Danish press consider the now-famous selfie "humorous" and a "very fun story." "I don't see anyone complaining or criticizing the Danish prime minister for taking a selfie at the memorial,' he said, joking that the Danish don't have their own word for "selfie" and stole the English version. In fact the word "selfie" didn't become a household name until just the last couple of years, as camera phones–combined with photo sharing sites like Instagram–made it easier to instantly spread the photos far and wide. This year the phenomenon also became a fun pastime for celebrities, who are more used to being photographed from a distance than an arms-length away. Selfies by people like Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Beyoncé– even the Pope - further amplified the selfie movement. Nearly a year ago Obama's own daughters, Sasha and Malia, stole the show at their father's inauguration parade when they were seen taking selfies. The First Lady herself snapped a photo of her and the family dog at the White House. And in August of this year, Oxford Dictionaries cemented the word in the English language, giving it a spot in the dictionary after finding that usage of the term had increased by 17,000% within the previous year. 'Simply acting like human beings' Schmidt, the AFP photographer, said he was flummoxed at the reaction to the selfie and found nothing distasteful about posing for a self-photo at this particular memorial service. "All around me in the stadium, South Africans were dancing, singing and laughing to honour their departed leader," Schmidt wrote in a blog post. "It was more like a carnival atmosphere, not at all morbid. The ceremony had already gone on for two hours and would last another two. The atmosphere was totally relaxed – I didn't see anything shocking in my viewfinder, president of the US or not. We are in Africa." Responding to interpretations that Michelle Obama was peeved at her husband for lightheartedly engaging with his European counterparts–even perhaps flirting with the Danish prime minister–Schmidt cautioned that "photos can lie." "In reality, just a few seconds earlier the first lady was herself joking with those around her, Cameron and Schmidt included," he continued. "Her stern look was captured by chance." In what's become the year of the selfie, Schmidt also questioned the new social media whirlwind in which photos that show such levity become the center of heated debate. "At the time, I thought the world leaders were simply acting like human beings, like me and you," he said. "For me, the behaviour of these leaders in snapping a selfie seems perfectly natural. I see nothing to complain about, and probably would have done the same in their place." ||||| In politics, image is king, and every politician knows it. President Obama knows it more than most, having been caught in one or two pictures that hand his opponents, rightly or wrongly, a gift of a story. You may recall a small controversy over candidate Obama not putting his hand on his heart during the playing of the national anthem. The moment he bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia also became a conservative cause célèbre. So it's surprising to see the president caught in a three-way selfie at Nelson Mandela's memorial service in South Africa, even if the other two people in the picture are the British and Danish Prime Ministers. The now iconic picture above, snapped by an AFP photographer, speaks more than its thousand-word allotment — largely because Michelle Obama appears to be the only one showing any decorum. It doesn't take a David Axelrod to look at that and say, "Ouch. Not good." Especially not in the context of Selfies at Funerals, a Tumblr designed to shame the hundreds of (mostly) teenagers who liven up their sad days with egotistical snapshots. In the wake of the Obama funeral selfie, the Tumblr declared it could not top that, and promptly shut down at the height of its fame. But this is the Internet age, where you don't just get a few lines of caption underneath a damning picture on your front page. You get the whole story whether you like it or not. So here's an object lesson in mitigating circumstances, suitable for sharing with anyone who decided to spin their own story on the basis of this picture. First of all, this wasn't strictly a funeral; certainly not the solemn dressed-in-black occasion we often associate with the term. It was a four-hour stadium-sized memorial celebrating the life and works of the beloved Madiba, a riot of colorful dancing and singing. Think New Orleans meets the World Cup. Secondly, it seems to have been a day for presidents and VIPs to take snaps of themselves. Witness Bush and Bono on Instagram (which wasn't technically a selfie, unless the former president has extraordinarily long arms): Funeral selfie: George W. Bush posted this Instagram picture of him with Bono at the #MandelaMemorial pic.twitter.com/Sfu3LAPA6K — Kety Shapazian (@KetyDC) December 10, 2013 Thirdly, consider the context of the shot itself. In other photos, we can see the leaders joking around, switching seats, looking bored — all the things you might find it hard to avoid doing if you were stuck in a stadium for four hours. Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt appears to have been the first one to crack and pull out her smartphone. We can relate. Fourthly, and perhaps most importantly in this case, it was Thorning-Schmidt taking the picture. If a major European leader asked you to get in on a quick snapshot, it would be churlish (and diplomatically inept) to refuse — especially if the sober British Prime Minister David Cameron was already in on the fun. For the picture to be truly complete, you'd need to add speech balloons. Perhaps Thorning-Schmidt is saying, "Let's commemorate this amazing moment and the life of an incredible man with a joyous group photo." Maybe Michelle is thinking, "Man, I wish there were room for me in that picture." The point is, we don't know the full context of what would be, for almost any other three people in the world, a private moment. Without that knowledge, a rush to judgment dishonors the memory of a man who spent decades fighting a society that systematically rushed to judgment. Image may be king in politics, but it's high time that king was dethroned. Nelson Mandela Memorial Image: Roberto Schmidt AFP Getty ||||| President Obama was caught taking a selfie with the prime ministers of Britain and Denmark at the Nelson Mandela memorial in South Africa, creating a small uproar online. President Obama took a selfie with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt while seated in the audience at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in South Africa on Tuesday. Yes, you’re right, that’s a lead sentence that we did not really envision writing when we got up this morning, but we go where the news flows, and there you are. Photos of the smiling trio taking their self-portrait are all over the Internet at the moment. Many of them show Michelle Obama looking off to one side, as if she can’t believe the misbehavior of her seatmates. Some critics thought that the world leader photo-op was in poor taste given the context. “So Obama & Cameron & Danish PM displaying similar levels of gravitas today as 14 yr olds on the school bus,” was a typical Twitter comment. Some journalists thought the mass coverage of the photo event was worse than the event itself. “You guys know this makes the media look bad, right?” tweeted Politico’s media columnist Dylan Byers. At the risk of looking bad, though, we’ve got these thoughts. It was a memorial, not a funeral. The massive event was meant to celebrate the great life of Mr. Mandela. There was singing, dancing, jumping throughout the crowd. When Mr. Obama spoke, spectators swayed and clapped behind him. The atmosphere was anything but stiff and funereal. Leave Michelle out of it. Look, it’s impossible to really tell if she’s peeved, not paying attention, or (most likely) just got snapped at the micro-second she was looking in another direction. We’ve seen enough photo meetings to know it’s easy to construct a narrative where none exists. We don’t really have any idea what the first lady is thinking at the moment. The president is always on stage. For those who think the shot irrelevant, we’d say the US president is always in the public eye. His every public move is captured on film, his every public action surveyed for possible meaning. Look no further than Obama’s handshake with Raul Castro at the memorial; was he too friendly to a repressive Cuban leader? Was he just he trying to put Mr. Castro off-balance? Was it just a handshake? Inquiring minds want to know. Most presidential moments are predictable, preplanned. The selfie moment was not. It was a bit of genuine ad hoc get-togetherness among world leaders. It’s interesting to see that such powerful people can act like three friends at a sporting event. The media’s not going to cover that? Right. It's all about us. However, we will note that the US media is (unsurprisingly) US-centric, so wherever the president goes, the story is framed through their experience. At Mandela’s memorial that means Obama’s speech and action will be the central aspect of many American stories. This provincialism can be seen in the fact that some US broadcasters at first said the woman in the selfie shot was unidentified. Then some expressed surprise the Danish PM was a woman. Ms. Thorning-Schmidt has in fact been the head of government of Denmark, a NATO ally, since 2011. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg is also a woman, by the way. Then there’s Angela Merkel, German chancellor. So perhaps a northern European leader who is a women shouldn’t be, you know, a shock? ||||| We knew “funeral selfies” were all the rage for the young, dumb and impressionable … but President Obama took one, too? Here’s the president, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Danish Prime Minister Helle-Thorning-Schmidt taking a selfie at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. How very gauche of them at a solemn occasion. I know funerals are boring, but this is not a good look. See, even Michelle is pretending she doesn’t know you. [Mediaite] [Image via Mediaite]

– One of the stranger stories out of today's memorial service for Nelson Mandela was the Internet furor that erupted when Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt took a selfie with President Obama and Britain's David Cameron. Lot of commenters, of course, picked up on the fact that a somber-looking Michelle Obama isn't in on the fun. (She looks "mortified," says the Stir.) Or they pounced on Obama for acting inappropriately given the circumstances. Ease up, writes Chris Taylor at Mashable. This was a celebratory memorial service, remember, not a funeral. "In other photos, we can see the leaders joking around, switching seats, looking bored—all the things you might find it hard to avoid doing if you were stuck in a stadium for four hours." The upshot is that we don't know the full context, and "without that knowledge, a rush to judgment dishonors the memory of a man who spent decades fighting a society that systematically rushed to judgment." As for Michelle's reaction, don't read too much into it, adds Peter Grier at the Christian Science Monitor. "It’s impossible to really tell if she’s peeved, not paying attention, or (most likely) just got snapped at the micro-second she was looking in another direction," he writes. "We’ve seen enough photo meetings to know it’s easy to construct a narrative where none exists." (Yeah, but her reaction in other shots looks "dare we say disapproving," observes Caitlin Dewey at the Washington Post.) All that said, the creator of the "Selfies at Funerals" Tumblr may have gotten the last word. He quickly posted the image, then declared the Tumblr finished. "Our work here is done."

The seed for this crawl was a list of every host in the Wayback Machine This crawl was run at a level 1 (URLs including their embeds, plus the URLs of all outbound links including their embeds) The WARC files associated with this crawl are not currently available to the general public. ||||| Have you heard the one about the kid who got his mom to call his boss and ask for a raise? Or about the college student who quit her summer internship because it forbade Facebook in the office? Yep, we’re talking about Generation Y — loosely defined as those born between 1982 and 1999 — also known as millennials. Perhaps you know them by their other media-generated nicknames: teacup kids,for their supposed emotional fragility; boomerang kids, who always wind up back home; trophy kids — everyone’s a winner!; the Peter Pan generation, who’ll never grow up. Now this pampered, over-praised, relentlessly self-confident generation (at age 30, I consider myself a sort of older sister to them) is flooding the workplace. They’ll make up 75 percent of the American workforce by 2025 — and they’re trying to change everything. These are the kids, after all, who text their dads from meetings. They think “business casual” includes skinny jeans. And they expect the company president to listen to their “brilliant idea.” When will they adapt? (Michael Byers for The Washington Post) They won’t. Ever. Instead, through their sense of entitlement and inflated self-esteem, they’ll make the modern workplace adapt to them. And we should thank them for it. Because the modern workplace frankly stinks, and the changes wrought by Gen Y will be good for everybody. Few developed countries demand as much from their workers as the United States. Americans spend more time at the office than citizens of most other developed nations. Annually, we work 408 hours more than the Dutch, 374 hours more than the Germans and 311 hours more than the French. We even work 59 hours more than the stereotypically nose-to-the-grindstone Japanese. Though women make up half of the American workforce, the United States is the only country in the developed world without guaranteed paid maternity leave. All this hard work is done for less and less reward. Wages have been stagnant for years, benefits shorn, opportunities for advancement blocked. While the richest Americans get richer, middle-class workers are left to do more with less. Because jobs are scarce and we’re used to a hierarchical workforce, we accept things the way they are. Worse, we’ve taken our overwork as a badge of pride. Who hasn’t flushed with a touch of self-importance when turning down social plans because we’re “too busy with work”? Into this sorry situation strolls the self-esteem generation, printer-fresh diplomas in hand. And they’re not interested in business as usual. The current corporate culture simply doesn’t make sense to much of middle-class Gen Y. Since the cradle, these privileged kids have been offered autonomy, control and choices (“Green pants or blue pants today, sweetie?”). They’ve been encouraged to show their creativity and to take their extracurricular interests seriously. Raised by parents who wanted to be friends with their kids, they’re used to seeing their elders as peers rather than authority figures. When they want something, they’re not afraid to say so. And what the college-educated Gen Y-ers entering the workforce want is engaging, meaningful, flexible work that doesn’t take over their lives. The grim economy and lack of job opportunities don’t seem to be adjusting their expectations downward much, either. According to a recent AP analysis, more than 53 percent of recent college grads are unemployed or underemployed, but such numbers don’t appear to keep these new grads from thinking their job owes them something. In a MarchMTV survey of about 500 millennials, called “No Collar Workers,” 81 percent of respondents said they should be able to set their own hours, and 70 percent said they need “me time” on the job (compared with 39 percent of baby boomers). Ninety percent think they deserve their “dream job.” They expect to be listened to when they have an idea, even when they’re the youngest person in the room. “Why do we have to meet in an office cross-country when we can call in remotely via Skype?” asks Megan Broussard, a 25-year-old New Yorker who worked at a large PR firm for three years before quitting to become a freelance writer and career adviser. “Why wouldn’t my opinion matter as much as someone else’s who only has a few more years of experience than I do?” These desires are not exactly radical. Who wouldn’t want flexibility, autonomy and respect? What’s different, says Lindsey Pollak, the author of “Getting From College to Career: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World,” is how Gen Y-ers are asking for those things. Pollak, a consultant who advises companies on how to deal with Gen Y, says these workers — at least, the well-educated ones who can afford to make demands — want what everyone wants out of a job, they’re just asking for it in a more aggressive way. “And they’re the first ones to leave when they don’t get it,” Pollak says. According to surveys, 50 percent of Gen Y-ers would rather be unemployed than stay in a job they hate. Unlike their child- and mortgage-saddled elders, many can afford to be choosy about their jobs, given their notorious reliance on their parents. After all, they can always move back in with Mom and Dad (40 percent of young people will move home at least once, per Pew research), who are likely to be giving them financial help well into their 20s (41 percent of Gen Y-ers receive financial support from their parents after college, according to research from Ameritrade). In fact, it’s possible that a bad economy can make being choosy even easier — if more people are struggling to find work and living at home, there’s no stigma to it. Nancy Sai, a 25-year-old who works at a nonprofit in Manhattan, spent a year living with her parents and working at a gas station while trying to snag her dream job. Her mom kept bugging her to look for something different — teaching! government! anything! — but Sai held firm. While it took her a year to find the ideal gig, she’s glad she waited. Her job is meaningful, the office environment friendly and welcoming, her bosses forthcoming with feedback. Some of her friends have not been so lucky — one quit her job in politics when her boss refused to give her any time off. “She couldn’t separate her work life from her personal life at all,” Sai says. “She quit without another job lined up. She said she felt the most liberated she had in two years.” Despite the recession, or perhaps because of it, corporations are eager to hire and retain the best, most talented Gen Y workers. “In this risky economic environment, the energy, insight and high-tech know-how of Gen Yers will be essential for all high-performing organizations,” said a 2009 study on Gen Y from Deloitte, the professional services giant. Companies are beginning to heed Gen Y’s demands. Though flextime and job-sharing have been staples of the workforce for a few decades, they are becoming more accepted, even in rigid corporate culture, says Laura Schildkraut, a career counselor specializing in the needs of Gen Y. There has also been a rise in new work policies, such as ROWE, or “results only work environment,” a system in which employees are evaluated on their productivity, not the hours they keep. In a ROWE office, the whole team can take off for a 4 p.m. “Spider-Man” showing if they’ve gotten enough done that day. Radical-sounding perks such as unlimited paid vacation — assuming you’ve finished your pressing projects — are more common among companies concerned with attracting and retaining young talent. By 2010, 1 percent of U.S. companies had adopted this previously unheard-of policy, largely in response to the demands of Generation Y. The Deloitte study warns that, to retain Gen Y-ers, companies “must foster a culture of respect that extends to all employees, regardless of age or level in the organization.” In other words: Treat your Gen Y workers nicely. But we should be treating everyone nicely already, shouldn’t we? Beyond that, Gen Y’s demands may eventually help bring about the family-friendly policies for which working mothers have been leading the fight. Though the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 afforded some protections for working parents, genuine flexibility is still a privilege of the lucky few, and parents who try to leave the office at 5:30 p.m. are often accused of not pulling their weight. Well, guess what? Now everybody wants to leave the office at 5:30. Because they’ve got band practice. Or dinner with their grandma. Or they need to walk their rescue puppy. The American workplace has been transformed during economic upswings and downturns. The weekend was a product of labor union demands during the relative boom of the early 20th century. The Great Depression led to the New Deal’s Fair Labor Standards Act, which introduced the 40-hour workweekand overtime pay to most Americans. But now, workplace change is coming from unadulterated, unorganized worker pushiness. So we could continue to roll our eyes at Gen Y, accuse them of being spoiled and entitled and clueless little brats. We could wish that they’d get taken down a peg by the “school of hard knocks” and learn to accept that this is just the way things are. But if we’re smart, we’ll cheer them on. Be selfish, Gen Y! Be entitled! Demand what you want. Because we want it, too. Emily Matchar is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Salon, Gourmet and Outside, among other publications. She is the author of an upcoming book about “new domesticity.” Read more from Outlook: The new domesticity: Fun, empowering or a step back for American women? Friend us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

– Gen Y millennials have begun arriving in force in the workplace, and given their reputation as self-centered, spoiled brats, this can only be a bad thing, right? Exactly the opposite, writes Emily Matchar in the Washington Post, who at 30 thinks of herself as an "older sister" to millennials. These younger workers are not going to adapt to the workplace as we know it. "Instead, through their sense of entitlement and inflated self-esteem, they’ll make the modern workplace adapt to them," writes Matchar. "And we should thank them for it," because everybody is going to benefit. Go ahead and roll your eyes at them, but it's the rest of us who are the suckers, content to put in too-long hours without complaint and to sacrifice much of our personal lives for the office. Gen Y ain't having it. And considering that they'll make up 75% of the workforce come 2025, business-as-usual is about to change fast. "If we’re smart, we’ll cheer them on," writes Matchar. "Be selfish, Gen Y! Be entitled! Demand what you want. Because we want it, too." Read her full piece here.

Hedge fund operator Robert Mercer almost never talks about himself, and neither do the people who know him. Yet Mercer's money is sure making a lot of noise on the campaign trail. The third most generous Republican donor this cycle, Mercer has cut checks for a total of $37 million in the past six years, supporting pro-life candidates, those who deny man-made global warming, as well as helping fund the effort to block construction of a mosque near the site of the September 11 attacks in New York. In fact, this year he gave more to the Koch brothers' organization, $2.5 million, than the Kansas founders, David and Charles, who each chipped in just $2 million to Freedom Partners Action Fund. Bloomberg Visual Data Yet the man who first made his mark by upending the field of computer linguistics and is now seeking to bend the national political debate in his conservative direction, is a stranger to the electorate he seeks to sway and the public that would be affected should he succeed. He is the ultimate behind-the-scenes kingmaker in the fight for control of the U.S. Senate who almost never talks—publicly or otherwise. An address to computer scientists at an awards ceremony in Baltimore this summer was a rare exception, and he admitted to finding it daunting. It was only after he agreed to accept a lifetime achievement award that it dawned on him that he'd have to address attendees for about an hour. "Which, by the way, is more than I typically talk in a month," he said. About 10 minutes into the lecture, he paused, and took a sip of water. "I've just reached one week of speaking," he said, "so I have to take a little drink." Asked to share their impressions about Mercer, people who have met him at conservative gatherings said they could recall little about about the man behind the checkbook. "I've only talked to him one time," said James Bopp, a normally outspoken campaign finance attorney who runs the USA Super PAC, a boutique political group backing Republican Pete Ricketts' gubernatorial bid in Nebraska. Bopp's super-PAC has just seven donors, including Mercer. Senator Rob Portman, the National Republican Senatorial Committee's finance chair and a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate simply said, "I don't have any insights" about the man who is one of two people who've donated to the Portman Victory Committee. The other contributor is Mercer's wife of more than 40 years, Diana. "The conversation I had with him was about the direction of the country. His focus with me was on the economic issues and the fiscal issues," Portman said. Mercer declined to comment for this story via his a spokesman, Jonathan Gasthalter. Mercer's daughter Rebekah, who runs the $37.6 million Mercer Family Foundation and sits on the board of at least one conservative non-profit that the family funds, didn't respond to messages seeking comment. Along with her two sisters Jenji and Heather Sue, she operates a pastry store in mid-town Manhattan. (The business, unlike the vast majority of Mercer's projects, has bipartisan support. The shop's website includes rave reviews from former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.) Rebekah Mercer is also a budding political donor, and among the recipients of her largess is Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican. In addition to a broader desire to shape national policy, Mercer has business interests in the midterms. His company, Renaissance Technologies, which runs the Medallion fund and has produced 35 percent returns annualized over two decades, was hauled before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in July and quizzed over how the firm calculates its taxes. According to the committee, RenTech has used sophisticated financial maneuvers to lower the amount it's investors paid to the Internal Revenue Service by $6 billion over 14 years. “It meant enormous profit for both the banks and the hedge funds,” said Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, a Democrat who chairs the panel. “Ordinary Americans had to shoulder a tax burden of billions of dollars, a burden that was shrugged off by those hedge funds.” Gasthalter, also a spokesman for RenTech, said in a statement at the time that the IRS has been reviewing the hedge funds transactions for the past six years. “We believe that the tax treatment for the option transactions being reviewed by the [Senate committee] is appropriate under current law," he said. With RenTech's outsized profits, Mercer is earning more than enough to fund political campaigns, and so far this cycle, he's contributed $8.8 million. The beneficiaries of that money have been, across the board, Republicans—House candidates, Senate candidates, institutional super-PACs that give to lots of candidates and smaller super-PACs focused on individual candidates and conservative non-profits. Mercer has dipped into state races, including Ken Cuccinelli's 2013 gubernatorial contest in Virginia to which he gave a $600,000 contribution to an outside group. Cuccinelli recalled asking Mercer for support just after Mitt Romney had lost his 2012 presidential bid, when Republican money people were in what he referred to as deep donor depression. "He's very solid and understated," said Cuccinelli, who met with him on a fundraising trip to New York. "You wouldn't know you were talking to someone with that kind of force." Pet causes such as gun rights and charter schools don't seem to be the primary motivator for Mercer, unlike some donors, Cuccinelli said. "He just thinks our country is off track and he's in a position to do something to get it back on track," he said. Only once during Mercer's talk in Baltimore did his conservative politics show. He recounted how he worked at a military base during college and he'd re-written an unwieldy computer program to make it faster. The bosses, to his surprise, added more to the program, slowing the computer back down. "The point of government-funded research was not to get answers but to consume the computer budget," he quipped to the crowd. "Which has left me with a jaundiced view of government research." Mercer was born in July 1946 and grew up in New Mexico. He was obsessed with computers—writing code in high school even though he didn't have a machine to run it on. In graduate school he studied computer science. "I loved the solitude of the computer lab late at night," he said, during a 2013 talk to computer scientists. "I loved the air conditioned smell of the place. I loved the sound of the disks whirring and the printers clacking." Later, he joined IBM and worked at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, focusing on the then-vexing problem of programming computers to recognize speech. He and his IBM colleague Peter Brown both joined RenTech in 1993, where the two men are now co-CEOs. The company's founder, James Simons, is the 54th richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He's also a hefty political donor—to Democrats. In March he wrote a $2 million check to the Senate Majority PAC, dedicated to keeping Democrats in power in the Senate. The company was profiled in one chapter of Sebastian Mallaby's book "More Money Than God," which details the world's most successful hedge funds. In it, Mallaby shared only a few observations about Mercer. "He was an icy cold poker player; he never recalled having a nightmare; his IBM boss jokingly called him an automaton." Mallaby wrote. Last year, Mercer's household staff sued him, claiming their wages were improperly docked for failing to replacing shampoo bottles, closing doors improperly and not straightening pictures. Get the latest on global politics in your inbox, every day. Get our newsletter daily. Despite Mercer's material success, he political record is mixed. In 2010, he poured money into an Oregon House race to support a man—Republican Arthur Robinson, who was challenging incumbent Representative Peter DeFazio—who's skeptical work on climate change Mercer had funded. DeFazio's campaign put Mercer front and center that year, running radio ads saying Robinson was funded by a secretive donor with Wall Street ties. "Oregon isn't a state that likes outside interference," DeFazio said. "Once we focused on who Mercer was we began to move our poll numbers." DeFazio won. This year, Robinson is running again to oust DeFazio, but Mercer hasn't dropped mega-dollars into the race. Robinson declined comment for this story. ||||| Ted Cruz’s presidential effort is getting into the shock-and-awe fundraising business. An associate of the Texas senator, a recently announced presidential candidate, tells Bloomberg that a cluster of affiliated super-political action committees was formed only this week, and among them they are expected to have $31 million in the bank by Friday. Even in the context of a presidential campaign cycle in which the major party nominees are expected to raise more than $1.5 billion, Cruz’s haul is eye-popping, one that instantly raises the stakes in the Republican fundraising contest. “Our goal is to guarantee Senator Cruz can compete against any candidate. ” Dathan Voelter Although super-PACs have radically changed the pace at which committees backing presidential candidates can raise money, the Cruz haul is remarkable. There are no known cases in which an operation backing a White House hopeful has collected this much money in less than a week. Those involved in the Cruz super-PACS say many of his biggest financial backers haven’t yet made contributions to the new organizations and are expected to do so in the coming months. By law, super-PACS can accept unlimited contributions from individuals. From his time as a Senate candidate in 2012, Cruz has been one of the country’s most aggressive and successful super-PAC fundraisers. His political team has calculated from the start of their planning for a presidential campaign that his overall operation would be able to keep pace with rivals in part because of a robust super-PAC operation. They have talked among themselves about the names of numerous wealthy Cruz backers who they fully expect will contribute several million dollars each. Still, even some Cruz supporters, and many others who have been skeptical that his candidacy could draw significant financial support, are certain to be stunned by this initial round of contributions. While former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is universally expected to easily lead all other Republican presidential candidates in financial backing, a hotly debated topic in political circles has been who would finish second to Bush in money raised by the end of 2015. This week’s apparent lightning strike could help Cruz claim that spot, possibly besting other leading prospects such as Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Cruz’s campaign is also expected to raise money competitively at the grassroots level through the Internet and small-dollar contributions, as well as through traditional bundling of so-called hard-dollar checks, which are subject to limits of $2,700 per election per individual. Either of those methods, of course, would require significantly more than a week to generate $31 million. According to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission, the treasurer for the three of the new super-PACS is Dathan Voelter, an Austin, Texas, attorney who is a longtime friend and financial backer of Cruz. A fourth lists as its treasurer Jacquelyn James of Port Jefferson Station, N.Y. All four PACS have a variant of the name “Keep the Promise.” A document prepared by the super-PAC organizers says they “are committed to raising the resources necessary to promote Senator Cruz in his efforts to win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.” The document quotes Voelter as saying, “We’re just getting started … Our goal is to guarantee Senator Cruz can compete against any candidate. Supporters of the Senator now have a powerful vehicle with the resources necessary to aid in his effort to secure the Republican nomination and win back the White House.” The document describes those “leading the financial charge” as “a group of close, personal friends of Senator Cruz, who share his conservative vision for America.” According to the source close to Cruz, more than $20 million of the $31 million is expected by Wednesday, with the rest due in by the end of the week. Those cash figures could not be independently confirmed by Bloomberg, and sources declined to provide financial documents to support the claim. The group does not plan to reveal the names or number of donors until they are legally required to do so, at the end of the FEC reporting period on July 15. According to a person familiar with the workings and financing of the new super-PACs, many of the donors are former backers of George W. Bush and Perry. Bush’s brother, of course, and Perry himself, are seeking the White House now, which makes Cruz’s coup that much more impressive. A Houston-area associate of Cruz’s has led the effort to pull together the donors, many of whom are Texans and New Yorkers. The PAC names are “Keep the Promise,” "Keep the Promise I," “Keep the Promise II,” and “Keep the Promise III.” An internal document describing the groups’ intentions says, “Every PAC in the Keep the Promise network will fully comply with all disclosure and recordkeeping obligations set forth in federal law. The use of multiple PACS, however, will allow Keep the Promise to uniquely and flexibly tailor its activities in support of Senator Cruz and afford donors greater control over PAC operations.” In a cover letter dated April 6, sent to the FEC along with the formal filings for three of the super-PAC entities, Voelter says that the trio “are affiliated with one another for legal and regulatory purposes.” It lists an Austin post office box as their shared address, and the Fifth Third Bank in Atlanta as the place where funds are being deposited. Voelter declined to comment. The document from the group says that “Keep the Promise can provide the ‘appropriate air cover’ in the battle against Senator Cruz’s opponents in the Washington establishment and on the political left. We plan to support the effort of millions of courageous conservatives who believe 2016 is our last opportunity to ‘keep the promise’ of America for future generations.” This story has been updated to reflect the filing of paperwork for a fourth super-PAC.

– If other GOP contenders shrugged off Ted Cruz's chances of winning the nomination, it's a safe bet they're reassessing things after four new super PACS announced they'd raised a staggering $31 million to support his new candidacy. "Even in the context of a presidential campaign cycle in which the major party nominees are expected to raise more than $1.5 billion, Cruz’s haul is eye-popping, one that instantly raises the stakes in the Republican fundraising contest," writes Mark Halperin at Bloomberg. The super PACs in question are only a week old, and it's unprecedented to have raised so much so quickly. So who's behind the money? The New York Times identifies the main player as a "reclusive Long Islander" named Robert Mercer. Mercer began his career at IBM but now runs a hedge fund called Renaissance Technologies, and like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson, he is taking advantage of the Citizens United case that loosened restrictions on wealthy donors. He's "a very low-profile guy, but he’s becoming a bigger and bigger player,” says one campaign finance expert. And his backing of Cruz “sends the message to other donors that Cruz is a serious guy,” which in turn encourages other donors. The Times notes that Mercer's hedge fund is under investigation by the IRS, an agency that Cruz would love to abolish. A previous profile of Mercer at Bloomberg describes him as "one of the most powerful men in Republican politics that nobody is talking about."

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.

– 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. Sign up for the daily Brightside Blend Newsletter Sign up for the daily Brightside Blend Newsletter Something went wrong. This email will be delivered to your inbox once a day in the morning. Thank you for signing up for the Brightside Blend Newsletter. Please try again later. Submit “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.

– 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.

– 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.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story 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. Advertisement Continue reading the main story 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.

– 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. "Scent of a Woman" (1992) Courtesy Everett Collection "Twister" (1996) Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection "Boogie Nights" (1997) Courtesy Everett Collection "Patch Adams" (1998) MCA Universal/courtesy Everett Collection "Happiness" (1998) Lions Gate Films/courtesy Everett Collection "Next Stop Wonderland" (1998) Miramax/courtesy Everett Collection "The Big Lebowski" (1998) Gramercy Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999) Courtesy Everett Collection "Magnolia" (1999) Courtesy Everett Collection "Flawless" (1999) MGM/courtesy Everett Collection "State and Main" (2000) Fine Line Features/courtesy Everett Collection "Almost Famous" (2000) DreamWorks/ courtesy Everett Collection. "Red Dragon" (2002) Universal/courtesy Everett Collection "Punch Drunk Love" (2002) Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection "25th Hour" (2002) Walt Disney/courtesy Everett Collection "Love Liza" (2002) Sony Pictures Classics/courtesy Everett Collection "Owning Mahowny" (2003) Sony Pictures Classics/courtesy Everett Collection "Along Came Polly" (2004) Universal/courtesy Everett Collection "Capote" (2005) Sony Pictures Classics/courtesy Everett Collection "Mission: Impossible III" (2006) Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" (2007) Think Film/Courtesy Everett Collection "The Savages" (2007) 20th Century Fox/courtesy Everett Collection "Charlie Wilson's War" (2007) Universal/courtesy Everett Collection "Synecdoche, New York " (2008) Sony Pictures Classics/Courtesy Everett Collection "Doubt" (2008) Miramax/courtesy Everett Collection "Pirate Radio" (2009) Focus Features/courtesy Everett Collection "Jack Goes Boating" (2010) Overture Films/courtesy Everett Collection "Moneyball" (2011) Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection "A Late Quartet" (2012) RKO Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection "The Ides of March" (2011) Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection "The Master" (2011) The Weinstein Company/courtesy Everett Collection "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (2013) Lionsgate/courtesy Everett Collection "A Most Wanted Man" (2014) Roadside Attractions/Courtesy Everett Collection Ad Up Next Close This week's couple: Offline connection There are all sorts of ways to get in touch... 33 View Slideshow Back Continue Share this: Facebook Twitter Flipboard WhatsApp Email Copy Advertisement 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

– 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.

– 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.

– 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. What does the Pope’s synagogue visit mean for Jews and Christians? More than a day off: How some communities honor MLK's legacy 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 storyidforme: 43869423 tmspicid: 16241926 fileheaderid: 7305548 Updated: 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?

– 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.

Janie Thompson speaks about her financial concerns outside of a temporary shelter in Gatlinburg, Tenn., Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. Thompson, who works at the McDonalds in Gatlinburg, has been unable to... (Associated Press) Janie Thompson speaks about her financial concerns outside of a temporary shelter in Gatlinburg, Tenn., Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. Thompson, who works at the McDonalds in Gatlinburg, has been unable to work due to the wildfire that hit the town, and doesn't know when she can return. (Andrew Nelles/The... (Associated Press) GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) — Crews discovered the remains of more people as they searched the rubble of wildfires that torched hundreds of homes and businesses near the Great Smoky Mountains, bringing the death toll to 11, officials said Thursday. Authorities set up a hotline for people to report missing friends and relatives, and after following up on dozens of leads, they said many of those people had been accounted for. They did not say whether they believe anyone else is still missing or may have died. "I think it's fair to say that the search is winding down," Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters said. "And hopefully we will not find any more." He said the searches would likely be completed Friday. Nearly 24 hours of rain on Wednesday helped dampen the wildfires, but fire officials struck a cautious tone, saying people shouldn't have a false sense of security because months of drought have left the ground bone-dry and wildfires can rekindle. The trouble began Monday when a wildfire, likely caused by a person, spread from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park into the tourist city of Gatlinburg as hurricane-force winds toppled trees and power lines, blowing embers in all directions. "We had trees going down everywhere, power lines, all those power lines were just like lighting a match because of the extreme drought conditions. So we went from nothing to over 20-plus structure fires in a matter of minutes. And that grew and that grew and that grew," Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said. More than 14,000 residents and visitors in Gatlinburg were forced to evacuate, and the typically bustling tourist city has been shuttered ever since. At least 700 buildings in the county have been damaged. "Gatlinburg is the people; that's what Gatlinburg is. It's not the buildings, it's not the stuff in the buildings," Mayor Mike Werner said. "We're gonna be back better than ever. Just be patient." Starting Friday, homeowners, business owners, renters and lease holders will be allowed to go see most of their Gatlinburg properties, said City Manager Cindy Cameron Ogle. The city is hoping to open main roads to the general public Wednesday. There were other signs of recovery. Waters declared that Sevier County was "open for business." In nearby Pigeon Forge, the Comedy House rented an electronic billboard message that said it was open for laughs, and a flyer at a hotel urged guests to check out the scenic Cades Cove loop. "Take a drive and remember what you love about the Smokies!" the flyer said. Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash has said the fires were "likely to be human-caused" but he has refused to elaborate, saying only that the investigation continues. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are helping investigate the cause. About 10,000 acres, or 15 square miles, burned inside the country's most visited national park. Another 6,000 acres were scorched outside of the park. One of the victims was identified as Alice Hagler. Her son Lyle Wood said his mother and brother lived in a home at Chalet Village in Gatlinburg and she frantically called his brother Monday night because the house had caught fire. The call dropped as Wood's brother raced up the fiery mountain trying to get to his mother. He didn't make it in time. "My mom was a very warm, loving, personable person. She never met a stranger. She would talk to anybody," Wood said. Authorities said they were still working to identify the dead and did not release any details about how they were killed. Three brothers being treated at a Nashville hospital said they had not heard from their parents since they were separated while fleeing the fiery scene during their vacation. A number of funds have been established to help victims of the wildfires, including one set up by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and another by country music legend and native Dolly Parton. The flames reached the doorstep of Dollywood, the theme park named after Parton, but the park was spared any significant damage and will reopen Friday. About 240 people stayed overnight in shelters, including Mark Howard, who was flat on his back in the hospital with pneumonia when the wildfires started. He called 911 when he heard his house was consumed. "I had no insurance. It's a total loss," the 57-year-old owner of a handyman business said. ___ Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press writers Rebecca Yonker in Louisville, Kentucky, and Kristin M. Hall in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, contributed to this report. ||||| Summers Family (Photo: Summers Family) Jon and Janet Summers, the Memphis couple missing since the spread of the Gatlinburg fires, were confirmed dead late Thursday afternoon, brother Jim Summers said in a Facebook post. "I am sorry to report that at 4:45 pm CST the Sevier County Sheriff's Department has reported that the medical examiner has confirmed that two of the bodies found in North Chalet Village were Jon and Janet Summers," the post read, adding that the couple's three sons have also been notified. While the news was not unexpected considering that the couple had been missing for several days, family and friends still mourned when the official notification came through. "We’re going to miss Jon. He brought a lot of leadership to the firm. His exuberance for the work that we did is just something that we’re going to miss," said Steve Berger, the managing principal at brg3s architects, where Jon Summers was a partner. "He brought a lot of experience and our staff always looked to him for guidance. All of us, our thoughts now are with the boys and the family. We’re a small office and all of our families know each other. Janet was a wonderful partner for Jon and a great mom for the boys. We’re going to miss her as well." Jon and Janet, both 61, and their three sons were in Gatlinburg for a birthday celebration, and had been staying at the Chalet Village a little west of the city’s popular downtown area. But when the wildfires spread, the family tried to flee the area by car. However, friends said, their path was blocked by debris. They left the car and tried to flee on foot, but became separated. The sons — Branson, 23, and Jared and Wesley, who turned 22 on Wednesday — were rescued and taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. All three were recovering Thursday — Jared and Wesley in stable condition with Branson in critical but stable condition. No one had seen or heard from Jon and Janet since that attempted escape, and friends and family had hoped for good news but feared the worst. That came with the family notification Thursday afternoon. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Knox County medical examiner's office handled the identification of the remains, likely through dental records. "It’s significant not only for me, but a lot of other kids our age," said Ryan Agee, a friend to the Summers boys and an admirer of their parents. "(They) were always a second (set of) parents to everybody. We were always eating dinner at their house, talking to them about things. They were very caring people." Jon, Janet and Jared left Memphis ast weekend for the quick getaway to the Smoky Mountains, likely picking up Branson and Wesley — who were still living in Nashville — on the way. The plan was to get the family together to celebrate Wednesday's 22nd birthday for the twins, Jared and Wesley. They booked a spot at Chalet Village, a large property just west of Downtown Gatlinburg that primarily rents vacation cabins. Before the fires, the family posted several updates and images on social media, letting everyone know how their vacation was going. But on Monday night, a fire that began at a point on Chimney Tops Trail, south of Gatlinburg in the mountains, was stoked and spread by high winds that pummeled the area. Those winds took embers from Chimney Tops and threw them all over the Gatlinburg area, sparking dozens of fires that grew and coalesced into what some called an apocalyptic scene. It was that conflagration that prompted the Summers family to try and flee, particularly since several areas in Chalet Village were on fire. Firefighters from Gatlinburg and, eventually, from all over the nation battled the flames for days until they finally brought them under control. The original fire on Chimney Tops, however, remained ablaze. So far, the grim tally is 11 dead, including Jon and Janet Summers and Alice Hagler, who was also in the Chalet Village area, as well as dozens wounded. More than 400 structures have been destroyed or damaged, and at least 17,000 acres have been scorched in what some officials called the worst fire in Tennessee in more than a century. The one spot of good news Thursday, however, was that the Summers boys were improving. Jim Summers posted several Facebook updates Thursday letting well-wishers know what was going on with the young men, adding that it was possible that they could be discharged on Sunday. "Sunday discharge not cast in stone. Many things can occur that would extend that, but still positive since we were looking at weeks vs days on arrival. Thanks again for all the prayers and well wishes. So very much appreciated," Jim Summers said on Facebook. He then went on to update family and friends about the condition of his nephews. He said that Branson Summers will have to undergo another procedure to repair a small leakage in his collapsed lung. "All, this morning at 6 a.m. Ruth and the attending physician contacted me and advised that Branson had developed a very small leakage in the fire damaged lung, and would need a thoracostomy to plug the leakage and remove the fluid from the is chest cavity," Jim Summers wrote. "This will not interfere with his recovery, and will assist in recovering a partially collapsed lung. This is not an unusual condition, considering the trauma from the injury. It not a procedure to be postponed, and I advised the physician to move forward with the procedure, which is done in the room. It takes about 10 minutes. The condition was found with a routine chest X-ray used to monitor lung and chest cavity while he is on the respirator. The risks are minor from the procedure, major if no effort is made to plug the leak. I have no further information at this time." Later, he updated readers about the twins. "Jared's ventilator was successfully removed yesterday, and he did well. It was decided to hold off on any attempts to remove Branson and Wesley from the ventilator until more time has passed. If Jared continues to breathe on his own today, there is a possibility he will be discharged from emergency care, and move to dressing replacement and wound care. No surgery planned. With the exception of the minor setback to Branson this morning, he and Wesley may be discharged by Sunday, and will then have follow up care for the injuries. But out of the woods in terms of critical vs stable. Improvement continues." Friends have set up a fund to help the brothers. By late Thursday, more than $35,000 in donations had been made at youcaring.com/bransonsummersjaredsummersandwesleysummers-704149. Gatlinburg Developments GATLINBURG, Tenn. - Crews discovered the remains of three more people as they searched the rubble of wildfires that torched hundreds of homes and businesses near the Great Smoky Mountains, bringing the death toll to 11, officials said Thursday. Authorities set up a hotline for people to report missing friends and relatives, and after following up on dozens of leads, they said many of those people had been accounted for. They did not say whether they believe anyone else is still missing or may have died. “I think it’s fair to say that the search is winding down,” Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters said. “And hopefully we will not find any more.” He said the searches would likely be completed Friday. More than 14,000 residents and visitors in Gatlinburg were forced to evacuate, and the typically bustling tourist city has been shuttered ever since. At least 700 buildings in the county have been damaged. Starting Friday, homeowners, business owners, renters and lease holders will be allowed to go see most of their Gatlinburg properties, said City Manager Cindy Cameron Ogle. The city is hoping to open main roads to the general public on Wednesday. Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash has said the fires were “likely to be human-caused” but he has refused to elaborate, saying only that the investigation continues. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are helping investigate the cause. About 10,000 acres, or 15 square miles, burned inside the country’s most-visited national park. An additional 6,000 acres were scorched outside of the park. Read or Share this story: http://memne.ws/2gpkjql

– Crews discovered the remains of more people as they searched the rubble of wildfires that torched hundreds of homes and businesses near the Great Smoky Mountains, bringing the death toll to 11, officials in Gatlinburg, Tenn., said Thursday. The Commercial Appeal reports that Memphis couple Jon and Janet Summers are among the dead. They were at the Chalet Village with sons Branson, 23, and Jared and Wesley, 22, and found themselves unable to flee by car; the family got separated while on foot. The sons are being cared for at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. A hotline has been set up for people to report missing friends and relatives, and after following up on dozens of leads, authorities say many of those people had been accounted for. They didn't say whether they believe anyone else is still missing or may have died, the AP reports. "I think it's fair to say that the search is winding down," Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters says. "And hopefully we will not find any more." He says the searches will likely be completed Friday. More than 14,000 residents and visitors in Gatlinburg were forced to evacuate, and the typically bustling tourist city has been shuttered ever since. At least 700 buildings in the county have been damaged. The city hopes to open main roads again by the middle of next week. The superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park has said the fires were "likely to be human-caused" but he has refused to elaborate, saying only that the investigation continues. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives are helping investigate the cause.

Ivanka Trump watches as President Trump speaks before presenting a Medal of Honor at the White House this week. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) When Samantha Bee used a vulgarity last month to describe his eldest daughter, President Trump lashed out at the “no talent” comedian and asked why she hadn’t been fired. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Bee’s language “vile and vicious” and said that her “disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast.” Ivanka Trump remained silent. During a television interview Friday morning, she sought to explain why. “I have chosen, and I made a conscientious decision a long time ago, that I was not going to get into the fray, and that means that I’ll absorb the body blows that come my way,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo during an appearance on the Fox Business Network. “It is important to me to focus on the task at hand, which is serving the American people and using this moment in my life to advance an agenda that I deeply believe in and feel very fortunate to be able to work on,” added Trump, who serves as a White House adviser. [Trump says Samantha Bee has ‘no talent,’ asks why she hasn’t been fired] During a segment of her “Full Frontal” show on TBS last month, Bee took aim at Trump for tweeting a photo of herself with her younger son around the same time as reports that the U.S. government had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children last year. “You know, Ivanka, that’s a beautiful photo of you and your child,” Bee said. “Let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless c---. He listens to you.” Bee later apologized, saying her use of the vulgarity was “inappropriate and inexcusable” and that she had “crossed a line.” During Friday’s broadcast on Fox Business, Trump also confirmed reports that she had advocated that her father reverse his administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the border. “Of course, I have very strong opinions on that topic,” Trump said when asked by Bartiromo if she had advised the president on the issue before his issuance of an executive order last week. Ivanka Trump was among administration guests on the network Friday who talked up the importance of the GOP tax bill signed by the president six months ago. She said the tax cuts and other administration policies had served “to really release the animal spirits of the economy.” ||||| When comedian Samantha Bee hurled insults at Ivanka Trump during an episode of “Full Frontal” in June, she incited outrage and furor that crossed the political aisle, with many urging TBS, the Time Warner channel that's now part of AT&T, to cancel her show. Continue Reading Below But the president’s daughter and close adviser stayed silent on the issue and the extreme vulgarity used to describe a photograph she’d shared on social media. “I have chosen, and I made a conscientious decision a long time ago, that I was not going to get into the fray,” she said during an interview with FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Friday. “That means I will absorb the blows that come my way. It is important to me to focus on the task at hand.” Bee -- along with other celebrities -- criticized the first daughter for sharing what they said was a tone deaf photo of her with her child, even amid reports that the Office of Refugee Resettlement lost track of 1,500 immigrant children in the last three months of 2017. But Bee took it a step further, calling her a “feckless c---.” The comedian, and TBS, later apologized for the comment. Trump, however, said she tries to stay focused on moving forward with her own goals and helping shape policies for America, including expanded paid family leave. Advertisement “I never allow myself to forget the extraordinary privilege I have to serve this country,” she said. ||||| The first daughter remained silent for months about her father's policy of separating parents and children at the border. During an interview with Fox Business on Friday, Ivanka Trump commented verbally on the family separation policy. When asked whether she'd approached Trump about it, Ivanka said she had, and added that she has "very strong opinions on that topic." In April, the Trump administration announced a "zero-tolerance" immigration policy of prosecuting all parents who crossed the border without paperwork, part of which included taking children from their parents and detaining them separately. Ivanka didn't speak out publicly about the policy for months, until the president signed an executive order in June to replace it with one that would allow the government to keep families in detention together indefinitely. After discussing the first daughter's support for a child tax credit, interviewer Maria Bartiromo brought up family separation. "Our first lady was very moved by it, went to the border twice," she said. "Did you also say something to him [...] before he signed that executive order?" "Of course," Ivanka said, nodding. "I have very strong opinions on that topic." She did not elaborate on those opinions, and Bartiromo ended the interview there. Prior to Friday, the first daughter had only commented on the policy via Twitter. After Trump signed the order, she tweeted: Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border. Congress must now act + find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values;the same values that so many come here seeking as they endeavor to create a better life for their families." She also wrote that families should be reunited as "swiftly and safely" as possible. These tweets, and her comment to Fox Business, suggest that she was opposed to the separation policy — and she's received some criticism for not saying so openly while it was still going on. "Where is Ivanka in all of this?" Meghan McCain, ABC host and daughter of Senator John McCain (R-AZ), said on June 19. "Because she's all for women and mothers, and she has a White House role... and I'm sort of interested that her platform has been women and mothers and she doesn't seem to have anything to say about this." The first daughter also experienced backlash for posting photos of her children on social media during the border crisis. Journalist Brian Klaas called one of the pictures "unbelievably tone deaf." Even though Ivanka has been reticent to address the crisis in public, Trump told lawmakers on June 19 that she approached him about it privately. "Daddy, what are we doing about this?" he said she asked him. Representative Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) told The Daily Beast that Ivanka was eager to end family separations. "She has been apparently very affected by this and moved, and asked him to find a way to stop this practice," he said. Axios reported that she also told the president that photographs from the border crisis were a "problem." Last week, Ivanka donated $50,000 to a megachurch in Plano, Texas that plans to help separated migrant kids. The church says that it will hold an event to raise the children's spirits and give families financial assistance. The donation brought her a new round of condemnation, though, when word spread that the church engages in anti-LGBTQ activism. The first daughter's comments on Thursday seem destined to bring her yet another surge of criticism. "After weeks of silence on Trump's immoral family separation policy," CNN pundit Keith Boykin tweeted on Friday, "Ivanka Trump now wants to take credit for her father's policy shift."

– So why didn't Ivanka Trump fire back when Samantha Bee hurled a vulgarity at her? The presidential daughter appeared on Fox Business Network Friday and said her silence was deliberate. “I have chosen, and I made a conscientious decision a long time ago, that I was not going to get into the fray, and that means that I’ll absorb the body blows that come my way,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo. Instead, she says she wants to "focus on the task at hand, which is serving the American people and using this moment in my life to advance an agenda that I deeply believe in and feel very fortunate to be able to work on." Ivanka Trump had taken flak for not publicly criticizing the policy of separating families at the border—in fact, that was the source of Bee's criticism. When Bartiromo asked her if she had advised her father privately to ditch the policy, the first daughter said she had. “Of course, I have very strong opinions on that topic,” she said, per the Washington Post. As Bustle notes, Ivanka Trump tweeted her thanks to President Trump after he reversed the policy and called for families to be reunited "swiftly."

FILE - The Nov. 21, 2011 file photo shows visitors standing in front of an attraction at the Christmas market near Alexanderplatz in Berlin. Police said Monday, Dec. 12, 2011 a man dressed as Santa drugged... (Associated Press) FILE - The Nov. 21, 2011 file photo shows visitors standing in front of an attraction at the Christmas market near Alexanderplatz in Berlin. Police said Monday, Dec. 12, 2011 a man dressed as Santa drugged... (Associated Press) A man dressed as Santa drugged a 15-year-old girl at a Berlin Christmas market over the weekend _ the latest such attack that has seen holiday revelers left either sickened or unconscious, police said Monday. At about 10 p.m. Saturday the suspect approached the girl and her friend at Berlin's downtown Alexanderplatz Christmas market, offering both of them what he said was a shot of alcohol in a paper cup, police said. One girl refused, but the other girl drank both of the shots. She soon started vomiting and had to be taken to the hospital, where she underwent a blood test, before being released. Police said it appeared she had been slipped some type of a date rape drug, but released no further details, citing the ongoing investigation. Eight other people at various Berlin Christmas markets have fallen prey to similar attacks _ usually with an unidentified man in regular clothes handing out single-shot bottles of alcohol, asking people to join him in celebrating the birth of his child. Police say some of the victims _ mostly young women _ have lost consciousness and many have been briefly hospitalized. All have experienced dizziness and nausea. It's not yet clear whether all the attacks are linked, or whether some may be copycat crimes, and police spokesman Ivo Habedank said authorities did not yet have a good description of the suspect. "Intense investigations are ongoing," Habedank said. Most recently, a 31-year-old woman who had read media reports of the attacks reported to police Sunday night that she and her friend, a 33-year-old man, had both fallen ill Dec. 7 after drinking small bottles of alcohol given to them at the Alexanderplatz Christmas market by a man saying he was celebrating becoming a first-time father. She described the man as about 40-years-old and 5-foot 9-inches (180 centimeter) tall but no further details were released. In Germany, Christmas markets are traditional outdoor holiday markets that are popular with residents and tourists alike throughout December, bringing together stands selling handicrafts, ornaments and small gifts along with a wide array of food and drink, including multiple varieties of hot mulled wine. ||||| Christmastime means Christmas crimes. People do stupid crap all year-long, but the holidays inspire a special brand of crazy. The 2011 holiday crime season is just ramping up. Just this week a burglar broke into a Pittsburgh liquor store and made off with two bottles of alcoholic egg nog. I mean, egg nog is good, but not worth going to jail for. Click on through to see some of the craziest Christmas crimes committed so far this year. [Huffington Post]

– A ho-ho-horrible story out of Berlin, where police say a man dressed as Santa drugged a teenager Saturday night at a Christmas market. The suspect offered the 15-year-old girl and her friend a shot of alcohol; the friend refused, but the victim drank both and soon began vomiting. Police say she was apparently given a date rape drug, the AP reports; she was hospitalized and released. Eight other people have recently been left ill or unconscious after similar attacks at Christmas markets in the city, although the suspect is usually dressed normally. The suspect typically hands out small bottles of alcohol and claims to be celebrating the birth of his child. Most of the victims have been young women, and police are still investigating the possibilities of linked attacks or copycat crimes. If that doesn't trample on your holiday spirit enough, click for six more crazy Christmas crimes from this year.

"She had to make a decision between the drugs and the babies," Roberts said Tuesday. He also said DNA testing on seven dead babies found stuffed into cardboard boxes at Huntsman's home in April confirmed that all of them — five girls and two boys — were fathered by her husband. The long-awaited results were difficult to obtain due to the condition of the remains. Forensic experts resorted to "nuclear DNA" testing to determine both gender and paternity. Nuclear DNA, found in the nucleus of most human cells, generally provides more genetic information — and from both parents — than the more commonly tested mitochondrial, or maternal DNA. Prosecutors contend that six of the infants were choked or smothered shortly after birth by Huntsman, 39, during the period from Jan. 1, 1996, to Dec. 31, 2006. Huntsman allegedly told investigators that she had killed six of the babies, but she claimed the seventh was stillborn. Huntsman, who was charged in Provo's 4th District Court with six counts of first-degree felony murder, remained in the Utah County Jail on Tuesday in lieu of $6 million cash-only bail. The long-kept, deadly secret began to unravel April 12, when Huntsman's now-estranged husband, 41-year-old Darren West — who had spent eight years in prison for drug crimes before being released into a Salt Lake City halfway house — was at their Pleasant Grove home retrieving some of his belongings. Inside the garage, West found the remains of a baby wrapped in plastic bags and a green towel and stuffed into a white box, sealed with electrical tape. Alerted to the grisly discovery, police later found six more infant corpses similarly stored inside other boxes. Huntsman will not face the death penalty under the near-decade-old murder statute in effect at the time of the crimes. Instead, she faces a maximum penalty for each count of five years to life. West and Huntsman have three living children together, all daughters, now ages 13 to 20. Huntsman is next set to appear in court July 21 to determine if she will waive a preliminary hearing. On May 16, Judge Darold McDade ordered that Huntsman be made available for a psychological evaluation, but no further details on whether that exam had yet been done, or if so what the results were, had been released as of Tuesday. remims@sltrib.com Twitter: @remims ||||| SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah mother told authorities that she killed six of her newborns and stored their bodies in a garage because she was addicted to drugs and didn't want to deal with the responsibility of raising them, police said Tuesday, revealing a suspected motive for the first time. FILE - This April 13, 2014 file photo shows police tape in front of the scene where seven infant bodies were discovered and packaged in separate containers at a home in Pleasant Grove, Utah. On Tuesday,... (Associated Press) FILE - In this April 21, 2014 file photo, Megan Huntsman, accused of killing six of her babies and storing their bodies in her garage, appears in court, in Provo, Utah. On Tuesday, July 8, 2014, authorities... (Associated Press) Megan Huntsman, 39, was heavily into a meth addiction when she strangled or suffocated the infants from 1996 to 2006, Pleasant Grove Police Capt. Mike Roberts told The Associated Press. She wasn't worried about potential health problems caused by her drug abuse while pregnant, she simply didn't want to care for them, he said. "It was completely selfish. She was high on drugs and didn't want the babies, or the responsibility," Roberts said. "That was her priority at the time." Authorities think a seventh baby found in her Pleasant Grove garage after an April search was stillborn. Police had previously declined to discuss a motive in the case, saying only that it had been uncovered during interviews with Huntsman. Huntsman has been held in Utah County Jail since April 13, and her bail has been set at $6 million. She has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and is due in court in Provo on July 21. She has not yet entered a plea. Her lawyer, public defender Anthony Howell, declined comment Tuesday, saying office policy prevents him from discussing open cases. Huntsman's estranged husband, Darren West, spent more than eight years in federal prison after pleading guilty to meth charges. He was released to a halfway house in Salt Lake City in January. West made the grisly discovery April 12 while cleaning out the garage of the home he had shared with Huntsman. He told police he found a dead infant in a small white box covered with electrician's tape. Six other bodies were found after police obtained a search warrant. Documents show the newborns had been wrapped in shirts or towels inside individual boxes in the garage. West lived with Huntsman during the decade their children were killed before going to federal prison in 2006, but he isn't a suspect in the deaths, Roberts said. Investigators don't know how he could have been oblivious to the pregnancies or deaths, but they don't plan to bring him in for further questioning. Huntsman remains the only suspect in the investigation, which remains open, Roberts said. Results of a psychological examination of Huntsman haven't been disclosed. DNA results revealed Tuesday showed that all seven babies were full term and that five were girls and two were boys. Those tests also confirmed that West was biological father of the infants. Previous tests from the Utah state lab found that the babies were likely dead anywhere from two to 10 years or more, Roberts said. The day of the grisly discovery, Huntsman told police that were eight or nine dead babies in her home, a previously released search warrant affidavit showed. But Roberts said Huntsman was confused and was taking a ballpark guess. Roberts said Tuesday investigators continue to believe there were only seven.

– What could drive a mother to smother six babies as soon as she gave birth to them? Police in Utah say it was pure selfishness, driven by drug addiction. Megan Huntsman was a heavy methamphetamine user when she strangled or suffocated the newborns between 1996 and 2006, a police spokesman tells the AP. He says she wasn't concerned about potential health problems caused to the infants by her drug use—but did care about the cost of feeding her addiction. "It was completely selfish. She was high on drugs and didn't want the babies, or the responsibility," he says. "That was her priority at the time." "She had to make a decision between the drugs and the babies," says the police spokesman, who confirmed that the five girls and two boys found in boxes in her garage were all fathered by her husband, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Investigators believe one of the babies was stillborn, so Huntsman faces six counts of first-degree felony murder. She has been in jail since April with bail set at $6 million. Her long-estranged husband, who spent eight years in federal prison on meth charges, was the one who alerted police after finding one of the dead infants and is not considered a suspect.

HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu police officers have urged lawmakers to keep an exemption in state law that allows undercover officers to have sex with prostitutes during investigations, touching off a heated debate. Hawaii state Rep. Karl Rhoads listens during a House floor session at the Capitol in Honolulu on Wednesday, March 19, 2014. As Hawaii lawmakers considered a measure that would crack down on prostitution,... (Associated Press) A pedestrian walks in front of a Honolulu Police Department station in Honolulu's tourist area of Waikiki on Wednesday, March 19, 2014. As Hawaii lawmakers considered a measure that would crack down on... (Associated Press) Authorities say they need the legal protection to catch lawbreakers in the act. Critics, including human trafficking experts and other police, say it's unnecessary and could further victimize sex workers, many of whom have been forced into the trade. Police haven't said how often — or even if — they use the provision. And when they asked legislators to preserve it, they made assurances that internal policies and procedures are in place to prevent officers from taking advantage of it. But expert Derek Marsh says the exemption is "antiquated at best" and that police can easily do without it. "It doesn't help your case, and at worst you further traumatize someone. And do you think he or she is going to trust a cop again?" asked Marsh, who trains California police in best practices on human trafficking cases and twice has testified to Congress about the issue. A Hawaii bill cracking down on prostitution (HB 1926) was originally written to scrap the sex exemption for officers on duty. It was amended to restore that protection after police testimony. The revised proposal passed the state House and will go before a Senate committee Friday. It's not immediately clear whether similar provisions are in place elsewhere as state law or department policy. But advocates were shocked that Hawaii exempts police from its prostitution laws, suggesting it's an invitation for misconduct. "Police abuse is part of the life of prostitution," said Melissa Farley, the executive director of the San Francisco-based group Prostitution Research and Education. Farley said that in places without such police protections "women who have escaped prostitution" commonly report being coerced into giving police sexual favors to keep from being arrested. The Hawaii bill aims to ratchet up penalties on johns and pimps. Selling sex would remain a petty misdemeanor. During recent testimony, Honolulu police said the sex exemption protects investigations and should remain in place. "The procedures and conduct of the undercover officers are regulated by department rules, which by nature have to be confidential," Honolulu Police Maj. Jerry Inouye told the House Judiciary Committee. "Because if prostitution suspects, pimps and other people are privy to that information, they're going to know exactly how far the undercover officer can and cannot go." Democratic state Rep. Karl Rhoads, the committee chairman, said police testimony convinced him to amend the proposal. "It's a really murky area," said Rhoads, who represents a district that includes Honolulu's Chinatown, a longstanding epicenter of street prostitution. "I was reluctant to interfere in something that they face all the time. If they think it's necessary to not have it in the statute, this is one area where I did defer to them and say, 'I hope you're not having sex with prostitutes.'" Critics say the police perspective is off base. Lauren Hersh, a former prosecuting attorney who runs the global trafficking program of the women's advocacy group Equality Now, said the risk of re-victimizing a sex worker, who may already have been trafficked, should make sex during an investigation off-limits. "I can understand you're in a drug den, and you have a gun to your head and someone says 'snort this,'" Hersh said, acknowledging the gray areas associated with undercover police work. But the sex exemption in Hawaii is "so dissimilar from that circumstance on so many levels." There have been instances of police being accused of victimizing sex workers across the nation. In Philadelphia, a former officer is on trial facing charges of raping two prostitutes after forcing them at gunpoint to take narcotics. A former West Sacramento, Calif., officer is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of raping prostitutes in his police cruiser while on patrol. And last year in Massachusetts, a former police officer pleaded guilty to extorting sex from prostitutes he threatened with arrest. Rhoads said he knew no reason to suspect Honolulu police are out of line. "All allegations of misconduct are investigated and the appropriate disciplinary action taken," said Michelle Yu, Honolulu police spokeswoman, in an email. It's not clear, however, what the punishment would be. The disclosure laws for police misconduct in Hawaii make it impossible to know if an on-duty officer had faced discipline or accusations of having sex with a prostitute. Officers who investigate prostitution haven't been accused of sexual wrongdoing in recent memory, Yu said. A patrol officer in 2011 was fired after being convicted of sexual assault against a prostitute, she said. Skeptics, such as Roger Young, a retired special agent who for more than 20 years worked sex crimes for the FBI from Las Vegas and has trained vice squads around the country, remain unconvinced. Young said Thursday, "I don't know of any state or federal law that allows any law enforcement officer undercover to penetrate or do what this law is allowing." ___ Sam Eifling can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sameifling ||||| Debate is raging in Hawaii over a controversial law that permits undercover officers to have sex with sex workers during police operations. The debate over the law started over a recent bill that attempted to do away with the sex exemption for officers, but it was amended to restore the measure after police testified for lawmakers. According to a report by the Associated Press in The New York Times, police officials say the law is vital in helping them catch people breaking the law in the act. Critics, rightfully so, are outraged and say the measure further victimizes people in sex trafficking rings or those who may have been forced into prostitution by abusers and others. There are also serious concerns about potential abuses: "Police abuse is part of the life of prostitution," said Melissa Farley, the executive director of the San Francisco-based group Prostitution Research and Education. Farley said that in places without such police protections "women who have escaped prostitution" commonly report being coerced into giving police sexual favors to keep from being arrested or harassed. [....] Critics say the police perspective is off base. Lauren Hersh, a former prosecuting attorney who runs the global trafficking program of the women's advocacy group Equality Now, said the risk of re-victimizing a sex worker, who may already have been trafficked, should make sex during an investigation off-limits. "I can understand you're in a drug den, and you have a gun to your head and someone says 'snort this,'" Hersh said, acknowledging the gray areas associated with undercover police work. But the sex exemption in Hawaii is "so dissimilar from that circumstance on so many levels." The law even has critics inside the law enforcement community crying foul, according to the A.P. Skeptics, such as Roger Young, a retired special agent who for more than 20 years worked sex crimes for the FBI from Las Vegas and has trained vice squads around the country, remain unconvinced. Young said Thursday, "I don't know of any state or federal law that allows any law enforcement officer undercover to penetrate or do what this law is allowing." [....] Derek Marsh says the exemption is "antiquated at best" and that police can easily do their jobs without it. "It doesn't help your case, and at worst you further traumatize someone. And do you think he or she is going to trust a cop again?" asked Marsh, who trains California police in best practices on human trafficking cases and twice has testified to Congress about the issue. Police officials, such as Major Jerry Inouye who testified before the House Judiciary Committee say they need the exemption because suspects are too familiar with how far undercover cops can and can't go in during sting operations. Advertisement Of course, the main concern from critics is potential abuse, especially since we've already seen instances where officers have used their position of power to re-victimize women in vulnerable situations. The A.P. points out even more instances that will make you shudder: In Philadelphia, a former officer is on trial facing charges of raping two prostitutes after forcing them at gunpoint to take narcotics. A former West Sacramento, Calif., officer is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of raping prostitutes in his police cruiser while on patrol. And last year in Massachusetts, a former police officer pleaded guilty to extorting sex from prostitutes he threatened with arrest. So far, police won't say how much they use this tactic and told lawmakers they have policies in place to keep their officers from abusing it. But very little information is being made available about just what those policies and internal procedures are: "All allegations of misconduct are investigated and the appropriate disciplinary action taken," said Michelle Yu, Honolulu police spokeswoman, in an email. It's not clear, however, what the punishment would be. The disclosure laws for police misconduct in Hawaii make it impossible to know if an on-duty officer had faced discipline or accusations of having sex with a prostitute.Vice officers who investigate prostitution haven't been accused of sexual wrongdoing in recent memory, Yu said. Even more troubling? There's already been an example in Hawaii of abuse of power—a parole officer was convicted of sexual assault against a prostitute in 2011. Advertisement Isn't one of the biggest questions here just why, exactly, Hawaii needs a exemption like this for their sex sting operations and none of the other law enforcement agencies in other states need one? They seem to be able to bust prostitutes and pimps in other states just fine without allowing their officers to engage in sexual acts in other places. Actually, there's a lot of questions raised by this. As addressed by critics mentioned above, what policies are in place to prevent officers from using this exemption to have sex with people who are being forced into this lifestyle? (Is that even a consideration or concern for Hawaii law enforcement?) How exactly would they even know what someone's situation is before the bust them? And what about underage sex workers? If a young girl is working as prostitute, what's to stop an undercover from engaging in a sexual act with her under this exemption? Hawaii, do you really want your police officers having sex with underage people just so you can increase a few crime fighting stats on a spreadsheet somewhere? Is that what we've come to in this country? Excuse me while I throw up the proverbial "give me a freaking break!" The revised proposal has passed the state House and will go before a Senate committee Friday. Hopefully, lawmakers will come to their senses by then.

– Cops in Hawaii are fighting to keep what they describe as an important legal protection: Permission to have sex with prostitutes. A state bill cracking down on prostitution originally scrapped an exemption allowing undercover officers to have sex with prostitutes, but it was controversially restored after police testimony, the AP finds. Police won't say how often the exemption is used, but critics argue that it leaves the system wide open to abuse, noting that there have been many cases nationwide of police officers extorting sex from prostitutes. The chief of Honolulu's vice squad argued the exemption is necessary because prostitutes and pimps are otherwise "going to know exactly how far the undercover officer can and cannot go." A former FBI agent who trained vice squads around the country for 20 years, however, says he doesn't know of any other state or federal law that allows undercover officers to do what the Hawaii law allows. "Isn't one of the biggest questions here just why, exactly, Hawaii needs a exemption like this for their sex sting operations and none of the other law enforcement agencies in other states need one?" asks Rebecca Rose at Jezebel. "They seem to be able to bust prostitutes and pimps in other states just fine without allowing their officers to engage in sexual acts."

Image copyright Getty Images Open heart surgery appears to be safer in the afternoon because of the body's internal clock, scientists have said. The body clock - or circadian rhythm - is the reason we want to sleep at night, but it also drives huge changes in the way our bodies work. The research, published in the Lancet, suggests the heart is stronger and better able to withstand surgery in the afternoon than the morning. And it says the difference is not down to surgeons being tired in the morning. Doctors need to stop the heart to perform operations including heart valve replacements. This puts the organ under stress as the flow of oxygen to the heart tissue is reduced. The doctors and researchers looked for complications including heart attacks, heart failure or death after surgery. They found: 54 out of 298 morning patients had adverse events 28 out of 298 afternoon patients had adverse events Afternoon patients had around half the risk of complications One major event would be avoided for every 11 patients operated on in the afternoon One of those involved in the research, Prof Bart Staels, from the Institut Pasteur de Lille, told the BBC News website: "We don't want to frighten people from having surgery - it's life saving." He also said it would be impossible for hospitals to conduct surgery only after lunch. But Prof Staels added: "If we can identify patients at highest risk, they will definitely benefit from being pushed into the afternoon and that would be reasonable." Obesity and type 2 diabetes have been shown to increase the risk of complications after surgery. Heart health is already known to fluctuate over the course of a day. The risk of a heart attack or stroke is highest first thing in the morning, while the heart and lungs work at their peak in the afternoon. Dr John O'Neill, from the UK Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology, said: "Scientifically it is not hugely surprising, because just like every other cell in the body, heart cells have circadian rhythms that orchestrate their activity. "Our cardiovascular system has the greatest output around mid/late-afternoon, which explains why professional athletes usually record their best performances around this time." Other possible explanations for the findings included surgeons being tired in the morning or their own body clock affecting their surgical skill, particularly if they are not "morning people". But Prof Staels said the researchers had gone to great lengths to show that the difference in survival rates was not down to the surgeons. The French team also experimented on cardiac tissue samples from patients and showed they beat more readily in the afternoon. And an analysis of the DNA in the samples found 287 genes whose activity showed a circadian rhythm - waxing and waning during the day. They then moved into mice and used experimental drugs to alter the activity of one of those genes and seemed to be able to reduce the risk of death. Prof Staels said: "We believe we have identified a potential way to circumvent the disturbing observation that operations in the morning lead to more complications." However, that will require more research to confirm. The researchers are also investigating whether circadian rhythms have an impact on survival in other types of surgery. Dr Mike Knapton, from the British Heart Foundation, said: "Thousands of people now have open heart surgery in the UK. If this finding can be replicated in other hospitals this could be helpful to surgeons planning their operating list, for non-urgent heart surgery. Follow James on Twitter. ||||| Nobody wants to have open heart surgery. But if you do, you want to have it in that afternoon. That's the conclusion of a major new study that found there is a significantly higher risk of damage for people having surgery in the morning. And it's all because of the body clock, or circadian rhythms, which help keep us regulated through the day. It decides when we wake up, sleep and eat – and how ready we are to recover from major surgery. The new study, published in the Lancet, found that there are almost 300 genes that link the body clock to heart damage. And it found that there is a link between a person's body clock and how at risk they are of undergoing heart damage and major events like heart attacks after having heart surgery. Science news in pictures 20 show all Science news in pictures 1/20 Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary 2/20 A 3D reconstruction of an African grey parrot post euthanasia Included in Wellcome Image Awards, this 3D image of an African grey parrot shows the highly intricate system of blood vessels. Scott Birch. Wellcome Images 3/20 Baby Hawaiian bobtail squid Another Wellcome Images Award winner, this time of baby Hawaiian bobtail squid. The black ink sac and light organ in the centre of the squid’s mantle cavity can be clearly seen. Macroscopic Solutions. Wellcome Images 4/20 Skeletons of 5,000-year-old Chinese ‘giants’ discovered by archaeologists The people are thought to have been unusually tall and strong. The tallest of the skeletons uncovered measured at 1.9m YouTube 5/20 Nasa discovers 75,000 mile-wide hole in the Sun Sunspots are caused by interactions with the Sun’s magnetic field and are cooler areas on the star’s surface. Nasa 6/20 View(active tab) Apple News Breaking news email Edit Revisions Workflow Clear Cache NewsScience 132 million-year-old dinosaur fossil found at factory in Surrey Paleontologists Sarah Moore and Jamie Jordan believe they have discovered a Iguanodon dinosaur, a herbivore that was around three metres tall and 10 metres long Cambridge Photographers/Wienerberger 7/20 Discovering life on Mars is less likely as researchers find toxic chemicals on its surface The Echus Chasma, one of the largest water source regions on Mars Getty Images 8/20 The Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest in the United States and third largest in the world, is seen in Yellowstone National Park. The park is famous for its geothermal activity – which includes its spectacular, flowing springs as well as the famous "Old Faithful" geyser that sprays water out every hour or so. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart 9/20 An iris clip fitted onto the eye This images is apart of the Wellcome Images Awards and shows how an artificial intraocular lens is fitted onto the eye. Used for conditions such as myopia and cataracts. Cambridge University Hospitals NHS FT. Wellcome Images 10/20 The Syrian civil war has caused the first ever withdrawal from the 'doomsday bank' Researchers in the Middle East have asked for seeds including those of wheat, barley and grasses, all of which are chosen because especially resistant to dry conditions. It is the first withdrawal from the bank, which was built in 2008. Those researchers would normally request the seeds from a bank in Aleppo. But that centre has been damaged by the war — while some of its functions continue, and its cold storage still works, it has been unable to provide the seeds that are needed by the rest of the Middle East, as it once did. 11/20 Scientists find exactly what human corpses smell like New research has become the first to isolate the particular scent of human death, describing the various chemicals that are emitted by corpses in an attempt to help find them in the future. The researchers hope that the findings are the first step towards working on a synthetic smell that could train cadaver dogs to be able to more accurately find human bodies, or to eventually developing electronic devices that can look for the scent themselves. 12/20 Black hole captured eating a star then vomiting it back out Astronomers have captured a black hole eating a star and then sicking a bit of it back up for the first time ever. The scientists tracked a star about as big as our sun as it was pulled from its normal path and into that of a supermassive black hole before being eaten up. They then saw a high-speed flare get thrust out, escaping from the rim of the black hole. Scientists have seen black holes killing and swallowing stars. And the jets have been seen before.But a new study shows the first time that they have captured the hot flare that comes out just afterwards. And the flare and then swallowed star have not been linked together before 13/20 Dog-sized horned dinosaur fossil found shows east-west evolutionary divide in North America A British scientist has uncovered the fossil of a dog-sized horned dinosaur that roamed eastern North America up to 100 million years ago. The fragment of jaw bone provides evidence of an east-west divide in the evolution of dinosaurs on the North American continent. During the Late Cretaceous period, 66 to 100 million years ago, the land mass was split into two continents by a shallow sea. This sea, the Western Interior Seaway, ran from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. Dinosaurs living in the western continent, called Laramidia, were similar to those found in Asia 14/20 'Male and female brains' aren't real Brains cannot be categorised into female and male, according to the first study to look at sex differences in the whole brain. Specific parts of the brain do show sex differences, but individual brains rarely have all “male” traits or all “female” traits. Some characteristics are more common in women, while some are more common in men, and some are common in both men and women, according to the study 15/20 Life on Earth appeared hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought Life may have come to earth 4.1 billion years ago, hundreds of millions of years earlier than we knew. The discovery, made using graphite that was trapped in ancient crystals, could mean that life began "almost instantaneously" after the Earth was formed. The researchers behind it have described the discovery as “a potentially transformational scientific advance”. Previously, life on Earth was understood to have begun when the inner solar system was hit by a massive bombardment from space, which also formed the moon's craters 16/20 Nasa confirms Mars water discovery Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae — or dark patches — on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. 17/20 Earth could be at risk of meteor impacts Earth could be in danger as our galaxy throws out comets that could hurtle towards us and wipe us out, scientists have warned. Scientists have previously presumed that we are in a relatively safe period for meteor impacts, which are linked with the journey of our sun and its planets, including Earth, through the Milky Way. But some orbits might be more upset than we know, and there is evidence of recent activity, which could mean that we are passing through another meteor shower. Showers of meteors periodically pass through the area where the Earth is, as gravitational disturbances upset the Oort Cloud, which is a shell of icy objects on the edge of the solar system. They happen on a 26-million year cycle, scientists have said, which coincide with mass extinctions over the last 260-million years 18/20 Genetically-engineered, extra-muscular dogs Chinese scientists have created genetically-engineered, extra-muscular dogs, after editing the genes of the animals for the first time. The scientists create beagles that have double the amount of muscle mass by deleting a certain gene, reports the MIT Technology Review. The mutant dogs have “more muscles and are expected to have stronger running ability, which is good for hunting, police (military) applications”, Liangxue Lai, one of the researchers on the project. Now the team hope to go on to create other modified dogs, including those that are engineered to have human diseases like muscular dystrophy or Parkinson’s. Since dogs’ anatomy is similar to those of humans’, intentionally creating dogs with certain human genetic traits could allow scientists to further understand how they occur 19/20 Researchers discover 'lost world' of arctic dinosaurs Scientists say that the new dinosaur, known as Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis, “challenges everything we thought about a dinosaur’s physiology”. Florida State University professor of biological science Greg Erickson said: “It creates this natural question. How did they survive up here?” 20/20 A team of filmmakers in the US have made the first ever scale model of the Solar System in a Nevada desert Illustrations of the Earth and moon show the two to be quite close together, Mr Overstreet said. This is inaccurate, the reason being that these images are not to scale. Study author Professor David Montaigne, University of Lille, France, said: "Our study found that post-surgery heart damage is more common among people who have heart surgery in the morning, compared to the afternoon. "Our findings suggest this is because part of the biological mechanism behind the damage is affected by a person's circadian clock and the underlying genes that control it. "As a result, moving heart surgery to the afternoon may help to reduce a person's risk of heart damage after surgery." Researchers looked at the medical records of 596 people who had heart valve replacement surgery including half who had surgery in the morning, half in the afternoon. They checked for any major cardiac events such as a heart attack, heart failure or death from heart disease in this research which took place between January 2009 to December 2015. They found that 28 out of 298 afternoon patients had adverse events while 54 out of 298 morning patients experienced such events. The researchers suggest this could equate to one major event being avoided for every 11 patients who have afternoon surgery and that people who had surgery in the afternoon had a 50% lower risk of a major cardiac event, compared with people who had surgery in the morning. The team also tracked the health of 88 patients who were randomly scheduled for heart valve replacement surgery in the morning or afternoon between January 2016 to February 2017. Those who had afternoon surgery had lower levels of heart tissue damage after surgery, compared with morning surgery patients, according to the researchers. Tests on heart tissue samples from 30 of the patients - including 14 who had morning surgery and 16 from the afternoon surgery group - showed that the afternoon surgery samples more quickly regained their ability to contract when put in conditions similar to the heart refilling with blood. Genetic analysis of these samples also showed that 287 genes linked to the circadian clock were more active in the afternoon surgery sample. The researchers believe this suggests the heart is subject to the body's circadian clock and the post-surgery results highlight that the heart is maybe weaker at repairing in the morning than in the afternoon. Larger trials are need to test the findings. Professor Michel Ovize, Hopital Louis Pradel, France, said the scientists have "clearly shown that circadian rhythm is of clinical importance in aortic valve replacement surgery" but that more research is needed. He added: "Even before we have drugs available to regulate the circadian clock, one might propose that high-risk patients should preferentially be operated on in the afternoon." Additional reporting by agencies

– Should you ever need heart surgery, it might be worth pressing for an afternoon appointment. New research in the Lancet finds patients who undergo morning heart surgery are twice as likely to suffer heart issues and other complications as patients who have surgery in the afternoon, per the BBC. It's not that doctors are drowsy in the morning and therefore prone to mistakes. Rather, researchers say the body's circadian rhythm regulates genes that are in top form and better able to handle stress in the afternoon, a fact that also explains why one's risk of heart attack is highest in the morning. To discover this, researchers conducted several studies, one monitoring 596 patients who underwent an aortic valve replacement, half in the morning, half in the afternoon. After 17 months, they found 18% of morning patients had suffered a major adverse cardiac event, acute heart failure, cardiovascular death, or a heart attack during the operation, compared to 9% of afternoon patients. Morning patients also had twice the risk of other complications, per the study, which identified 287 genes linking the body clock to heart health, reports the Independent. A second study also found morning patients had significantly higher levels of troponin, a measure of heart damage, per the New York Times. This doesn't mean morning surgeries should be avoided, but "we should identify patients at high risk for complications—those with diabetes or other metabolic risks, for example—and operate on those in the afternoon," a study author tells the Times.

CLOSE The Pentagon has apparently spent $28 million dollars on “forest” camouflaged Afghanistan military uniforms rather than give them other patterns that cost nothing. Josh King has the story (@abridgetoland). Buzz60 An Afghan soldier with an appropriate form of uniform. (Photo: Kay Johnson, AP) WASHINGTON — The Pentagon wasted as much as $28 million over the past decade buying uniforms for the Afghan army with a woodland camouflage pattern appropriate for a tiny fraction of that war-torn country, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. The Afghan Defense Minister picked the pricey, privately owned “forest” color pattern over free camouflage schemes owned by the U.S. government, according to an advance copy of the report due out on Wednesday. The scathing, 17-page study notes that “forests cover only 2.1% of Afghanistan’s total land area.” “My concern is what if the minister of defense liked purple, or liked pink?” John Sopko, the special inspector general, told USA TODAY in an interview. “Are we going to buy pink uniforms for soldiers and not ask questions? That’s insane. This is just simply stupid on its face. We wasted $28 million of taxpayers’ money in the name of fashion, because the defense minister thought that that pattern was pretty. So if he thought pink or chartreuse was it, would we have done that?” John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. (Photo: Charles Dharapak, AP) For years, Sopko’s office has scalded the Pentagon for squandering tens of millions of dollars of the $66 billion Congress has appropriated to train, equip and house Afghan security forces. Wednesday’s installment on uniforms was particularly pungent, noting that special tailoring — zippers instead of buttons — boosted the cost of uniforms of already dubious value. The report’s release comes as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis considers sending thousands more U.S. troops to bolster beleaguered Afghan forces in what has become America’s longest war. Afghan troops face a resurgent Taliban insurgency, an offshoot of the Islamic State (ISIS), and other terrorist groups. The Pentagon has spent $93 million on the uniforms since 2007. Switching to a camouflage pattern owned by the U.S. military could save taxpayers as much as $71 million over the next decade, the inspector general found. The Pentagon, in its written response, didn’t quibble with the findings. Instead, in a letter to Sopko, the military acknowledged the need for a cost-benefit analysis “to determine whether there is a more effective alternative, considering both operational environment and cost.” No camouflage for bad decisions Reaction to Sopko’s findings was swift and sharp. “You’d think the Pentagon would have had a good handle on how to pick the right camouflage for uniforms,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican and senior member of the Budget and Finance committees, said in a statement. “Instead, the Defense Department gave up control of the purchase and spent an extra $28 million on the wrong pattern just because someone in Afghanistan liked it. It’s embarrassing and an affront to U.S. taxpayers. Those who wasted money on the wrong camouflage uniforms seem to have lost sight of their common sense.” The decision to buy the woodland-pattern uniform dates to 2007. For the previous five years, Afghan soldiers had been issued a “hodgepodge” of uniforms donated from several nations, according to the report. Early in 2007, the Afghan Defense Ministry decided it needed a “new and distinctive uniform” to set the Afghan army apart. CLOSE The United States is not winning in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress on Tuesday, saying he was crafting a new war strategy to brief lawmakers about by mid-July that is widely expected to call for thousands more U.S. troops Time In February 2007, U.S. officials training the Afghan army cruised the internet for camouflage patterns. In an email, the officials “ran across” camouflage from a company called HyperStealth and showed them to Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak. He “liked what he saw,” the report says. By May, Wardak had selected the “Forest” pattern, and U.S. officials made the decision to buy 1,364,602 uniforms and 88,010 extra pairs of pants “without conducting any formal testing to determine the pattern's effectiveness for use in Afghanistan,” according to the report. The report, however, raises questions about the utility of forest camouflage in a country that “on the whole is dry, falling within the Desert or Desert Steppe climate classification,” according to the National Climatic Data Center. Read more: The Pentagon also could have recommended camouflage patterns the military owns but no longer uses. Those uniforms “may have been equally effective in the Afghan environment” and with fewer alterations, like zippers, could have saved as much as $28 million. “We had camouflage patterns,” Sopko said. “Dozens of them. For free!” The inspector general’s report concludes that neither the Pentagon nor the Afghan government knows if the uniform still being issued there is “appropriate to the Afghan environment, or whether it actually hinders their operations by providing a more clearly visible target to the enemy.” Those soldiers may be the ultimate losers in the uniform debacle, Sopko said. “I feel sorry for the poor Afghan soldiers,” Sopko said. “I mean they’re walking around with a target on their backs, ‘Shoot me.’ Because only 2% of the country is forest woodland, and that’s the outfit that the Afghan minister picked.” Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2sRL7qf ||||| Woodland Battle Dress Uniform worn by Afghan commandos (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Dustin Payne) Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Dustin Payne Uniforms used by ANA conventional forces with Spec4ce Forest Uniform pattern. (Defense Department photo by Pfc. David Devich) Photo Credit: Defense Department photo by Pfc. David Devich WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is under fire for spending nearly $28 million procuring camouflage uniforms for the Afghan army, gear suited for environments so rare they account for just 2 percent of Afghanistan's countryside, according to a new watchdog report.The Defense Department organization overseeing efforts to train and equip Afghan forces supervised selection and design of the new proprietary woodland camouflage pattern without proper testing and assessment, according to the report published Wednesday by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.For years, Afghan conventional forces and elite commandos have fielded the U.S. Army’s woodland pattern utility uniforms. In 2007, the Afghan Defense Ministry embarked on a quest to design new uniforms to counter efforts by the Taliban and militants battling government forces to counterfeit the clothing.The new uniform was designed in similar fashion to the current uniform worn by the U.S. Army, called the Army Combat Uniform, but at a much higher cost, the inspector general determined.According to the report, the HyperStealth’s Spec4ce Forest camouflage pattern was chosen by the then-Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak — because he liked what he saw while browsing a website.“This is just simply stupid on its face. We wasted $28 million of taxpayers’ money in the name of fashion, because the defense minister thought that that pattern was pretty. So if he thought pink or chartreuse was it, would we have done that?” said John Sopko, the inspector general, in an interview with USA Today Picking uniform patterns for specific environments requires formal testing and evaluation, a process that can be a “an extremely fussy and demanding experimental design problem,” said Dr. Timothy O’Neill, creator of the camouflage pattern which served as the basis for the Army Combat Uniform. “Desert designs don’t work well in woodland areas and woodland patterns perform poorly in the desert.”The U.S. government already had the rights to multiple camouflage pattern schemes that could have been provided to the Afghan army at no cost.Furthermore, the “DOD was unable to provide documentation demonstrating that the Spec4ce Forest specification was essential to the U.S. government’s requirement, or documentation justifying and approving the Spec4ce Forest requirement in the ANA uniform specification,” the report reads.Propriety uniforms cost significantly more to produce because vendors seeking to supply the Afghan military with its uniform needs are required to “purchase pre-patterned material, or obtain the rights to use the proprietary pattern from HyperStealth or an authorized licensee, according to the report.The new uniforms now cost 40 percent to 43 percent more at about $45 to $80 per set.Sopko has recommended conducting a cost-benefit analysis and consider changing the Afghan camouflage uniforms, which could save taxpayers $70 million over the next 10 years.

– Just one week after defense chief James Mattis told a Senate panel the US is "not winning in Afghanistan," a new report reveals that the US wasted $28 million on the wrong kind of uniforms for Afghan army soldiers. In 2007, the Pentagon allowed the Afghan defense minister to pick expensive woodland-camouflage patterns from a private company rather than free camouflage schemes from the government, reports USA Today. This despite the fact that forest makes up only 2.1% of Afghanistan's land area. The revelation is in a newly released report from Afghan special inspector general John Sopko. “This is just simply stupid on its face," he tells the newspaper. "If he thought pink or chartreuse was it, would we have done that?” A decade ago, US military consultants decided the Afghan army needed a more distinct uniform, in part to make it harder for the Taliban to stage attacks in counterfeit uniforms, reports the Military Times. The consultants showed then-Afghan defense chief Abdul Rahim Wardak pictures of "forest" uniforms they found on the internet, and he "liked what he saw," according to the report. The Pentagon bought more than 1.3 million of the uniforms and 88,000 extra pairs of pants “without conducting any formal testing to determine the pattern's effectiveness for use in Afghanistan.” The report comes at a sensitive time: Afghan troops are in the midst of a multi-front conflict with both the Taliban and an ISIS offshoot, and earlier this month President Trump gave Mattis the authority to increase troop levels.