Datasets:

Glow-01

/

multiews-dataset01

like 0

WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump’s travel ban, the Second Amendment, religious liberty versus LGBT issues, and even the possibility of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement will be addressed, as all eyes are on the Supreme Court on Monday. The nation’s highest court should decide two major cases on Monday. The first is Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, where the Court will decide whether Blaine Amendments — constitutional provisions in some states that bar churches and faith-based organizations from receiving any taxpayer money, including for secular programs like children’s playground programs — violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. Another case that will be addressed is Hernandez v. Mesa, in which U.S. agents shot a Mexican national in a group of assailants on the Mexican side of the border. Agents said the assailants were throwing dangerous rocks at the agents. The issue is whether the slain foreigner’s family can sue the federal agents for a Fourth Amendment violation. A final word is also expected on whether the Court will take several major cases for next year. The first is the Trump v. International Refugee Assistance Project, the constitutional challenge to Executive Order 13,780, President Donald Trump’s travel-restriction order. It is almost inevitable that the Court will at least take that case, possibly on an accelerated basis. There are also two major Second Amendment cases, either one of which would be only the third such Supreme Court case in American history. The first is United States v. Binderup, concerning the constitutionality of the federal law making it a crime for convicted felons to own guns. The other is Peruta v. California, which explores whether the right to keep and bear arms extends beyond a person’s home to include places a person goes to in public. Another is a case pitting religious liberty against LGBT issues. The Court will decide whether the take the case of a Colorado baker who declined to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding. But most consider the biggest question Monday to be whether there will be a Supreme Court retirement, which are often announced on the last day of the Court’s term. Specifically, the focus is on Justice Anthony Kennedy, who will turn 81 next month. It has long been expected that Justice Kennedy would retire if a Republican were elected president in 2016. The rumor mill is flying that he will leave the bench this year, although there is no way for anyone to know whether any of the rumors are based on private thoughts the justice has shared with close friends, versus how much is unfounded speculation. After June 26’s daily session, the Supreme Court will adjourn for the summer and is not expected to hold another public session until the first Monday in October — unless the Court holds a special hearing for President Trump’s executive order. Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski. ||||| On Monday, the Supreme Court’s tumultuous 2016 term is scheduled to draw to an end. But will it? All of the briefing in the travel ban litigation has been filed, and the cases are ready for the Court’s ruling. There are (at least) six possible options for resolving this matter. 1. Hold a Special Session in July Two weeks ago, I wrote in the New York Times that the Court should hear arguments in the case over the summer. This option would bring finality to a significant national security matter. Further, by resolving the issue quickly, the Court could avoid any potential mootness issues that could arise if arguments are postponed until the fall. Alas, this option looks increasingly unlikely. If the Justices wanted immediate oral argument, they could have issued a scheduling order last week. As I understand the unwritten rules, five votes are required to expedite arguments. By waiting until Monday (or later) to even address the matter, a majority of the Court has signaled this case isn’t that urgent. 2. Hold a Special Session in September Another option would be to schedule a special session to hear arguments in September, prior to the traditional beginning of the term on the first Monday in October. There is precedent for this move. For example, in 2009 the Court held such a special session, to re-argue Citizens United v. FEC. In that case, a divided 5-4 decision was issued four months later in January 2010. The problem with this approach, as I and others have noted, is that the case arguably becomes moot by mid-September. Two weeks ago, the Ninth Circuit modified the injunction issued by the District Court in Hawaii. As result, the government can now take the full 90 days to consider how to revamp its vetting procedures. At that point, the stated justification for the travel ban vanishes. Perhaps, as I noted, delaying arguments is merely a stratagem to vacate the decisions of the Fourth and Ninth Circuits under the Munsingwear doctrine, without having to rule on the statutory and constitutional matters. Mark Tushnet called this an “easy out.” I would call it a naked punt. If the case is worth hearing in September, it is worth hearing in July. The Justices wouldn’t fool anybody paying close attention to this issue. 3. Hear the Case in January The Justices could also grant certiorari this week and schedule the case for late 2017. In the normal course, a petition for certiorari that is granted at the end of June would be scheduled for argument in November or December and there would likely not be a resolution until June 2018. It should not take a year to resolve this case. For example, the en banc Fourth Circuit managed to publish a 60-page opinion within three weeks of oral argument. The Justices have very smart law clerks. They can resolve the case with haste. If the Court takes this third approach, it would be an even more transparent effort to let the case moot itself before argument, at which point the petition could even be dismissed as improvidently granted. 4. Take No Action, and Relist the Case for the Long Conference In recent years, the Court has adopted a cautionary practice before granting review in a case: each petition would be “relisted” at least once to give all of the Justices and their law clerks an opportunity to scrutinize the pleadings and ensure there are no “vehicle problems.” If the Court decides to relist the travel ban petitions, the case would be held over for the so-called long conference on September 25, 2017. By that point, as noted earlier, the entire case may become moot. The petitions could simply be denied, and the judgments of the lower courts would stand as both judgments and binding circuit precedents. The travel ban would end not with a bang, but a whimper. 5. Deny Certiorari Now The Court could also simply cut to the chase. Because it takes four Justices to grant certiorari, if six Justices band together, the Court could deny review. Perhaps the sextet will reason that in the absence of a circuit split there is no reason to take the case. Or they will decide that since the case may become mooted in the fall, there is no reason to get involved. Or perhaps they would rather avoid this difficult case and not deal with President Trump’s unpopular action. Whatever the reason, it would take six Justices to deny review now. I predict such a denial would elicit one or more blistering dissents from denial of certiorari, and possibly even a response from the deniers. 6. Issue a Summary Reversal There is another possibility that I haven’t seen addressed elsewhere: the Court could issue a per curiam summary reversal of the Fourth and Ninth Circuits. Generally, summary reversals are employed for unargued cases where the lower court made plain errors. As I’ve contended at some length, there are many such errors in both IRAP and Hawaii v. Trump. If five Justices so choose, they could issue a per curiam decision—over one or more dissents—that the lower courts erred. For example, the cases could be reversed on any number of grounds: the Justices could determine the plaintiffs lack standing; that Presidential declarations under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f) are not subject to judicial review or else are reviewed deferentially; that Kleindienst v. Mandel is limited to the facial validity of the policy, and courts that looked to the President’s statements erred; that Mandel is limited to the actual denial of a visas, and not an executive order; that the Establishment Clause does not apply to foreign policy decisions as it does in the domestic context; that denial of entry and issuance of visas are different doctrines; or that none of these claims are ripe because no one has been denied entry. In my view, the grounds for summary reversal are legion. This approach would allow the Justices to quickly resolve the case before it becomes moot, avoid the need to disrupt summer schedules to hold arguments, and bring finality to this difficult issue. *** This litigation has taken more twists and turns than I could have imagined when Trump issued his original executive order in February. During periods of regularity, an injunction barring the President’s signature national security policy would be an issue of the utmost importance for the Supreme Court. But these are not normal times. To reiterate a point I made in the Times, the issues in this appeal go far beyond the travel ban: Far beyond this interim order, all of President Trump’s foreign and domestic policies will be infected by these same critical disputes. The Supreme Court may be able to evade review here, but these issues are certain to repeat themselves. The nine justices cannot punt these complicated matters, hoping someone else deals with them. All of the issues are fully developed, and ready for resolution now. The buck stops here. ||||| The justices are expected to take the bench on Monday at 10 a.m. to issue opinions in argued cases. There are six decisions still outstanding, involving everything from cross-border shootings to the death penalty and public funding for playgrounds at religious preschools. To be sure, there is no guarantee that we will actually get opinions on the merits in all six of these cases: Three of the remaining cases were argued before Justice Neil Gorsuch took the bench in April, creating a not-insubstantial possibility that the justices are deadlocked. With Gorsuch now on the bench, the justices could order reargument in those three cases, which would presumably take place next fall. But we will know much more by the end of Monday morning. In any event, here is a brief summary of each of the six cases, organized by the sitting in which they were argued. December sitting (November 28 to December 7) Jennings v. Rodriguez: The question before the Supreme Court in this case is whether immigrants who are detained have a right to a bond hearing – that is, a chance to appear in front of an immigration judge and seek their release after making payments to ensure that they will appear at later proceedings in the case. The named plaintiff in the class action is Alejandro Rodriguez, who was held for more than three years without a hearing. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that immigration judges must give immigrants who have been detained bond hearings at least every six months; at the hearing, the immigration judge must order an immigrant’s release unless the government can show convincingly that the immigrant is either a flight risk or a danger to public safety. When the case was argued on November 30, Kevin Johnson reported that the justices “appeared deeply divided.” The decision is likely to be written by either Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Samuel Alito, because neither justice has written an opinion from the December sitting yet. (The justices try very hard to divide up the opinion-writing workload evenly, not only over the course of the term but also from sitting to sitting, which has the added benefit of allowing us to predict who might be writing the opinion with some degree of certainty.) January sitting (January 9 to 18) Sessions v. Dimaya: When someone who is not a citizen of the United States is convicted of a crime, he can be deported from the country if his crime was an “aggravated felony.” Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, an “aggravated felony” is defined to include a “crime of violence,” which is in turn defined as any felony that, “by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.” In 2015, the court ruled that the so-called “residual clause” in the Armed Career Criminal Act’s definition of “violent felony” – which was similar, although not identical, to the definition of a “crime of violence” – was so ambiguous that it violates the Constitution’s bar on vague criminal laws. The question is whether the same is true for the INA’s definition of a “crime of violence.” Justice Clarence Thomas is the only justice who has not yet written an opinion from the January sitting, so he is almost certainly writing this one. Thomas did not ask any questions at the January 17 oral argument, and he agreed with the result – but not the reasoning – in the court’s earlier ruling on the ACCA. In his separate opinion in that case, he indicated that he would have resolved the case based on the statute, rather than finding that the provision at issue violated the Constitution. He explained that he “would be wary of holding the residual clause to be unconstitutionally vague” because, in his view, “the vagueness doctrine shares an uncomfortably similar history with substantive due process, a judicially created doctrine lacking any basis in the Constitution.” February sitting (February 21 to March 1) Hernandez v. Mesa: In this case, the justices will decide what standard courts should use to determine whether the Fourth Amendment applies outside the United States. The case was brought by the family of Sergio Hernandez, a 15-year-old who was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Jesus Mesa, as Hernandez played in a culvert on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border. The family’s lawsuit alleged (among other things) that the agent’s conduct violated the Fourth Amendment’s bar against excessive deadly force, but the lower court ruled that the protections of the Fourth Amendment do not extend to Mexican citizens like Hernandez, who lacked any real connection to the United States and who was in Mexico when he was shot. The justices also are considering two other questions: whether Mesa can be sued if he did not know at the time of the shooting that Hernandez was not a U.S. citizen; and whether Hernandez’s parents can rely on a 1971 case, Bivens v. Six Unknown Federal Narcotics Agents, which held that a violation of the Fourth Amendment by federal government officials could give rise to a lawsuit for damages. Two justices have not yet written any opinions from the February sitting: Alito and Justice Stephen Breyer. In a decision issued on Monday, the court – in an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy – ruled that Middle-Eastern men who were detained after the September 11 attacks could not rely on Bivens to sue high-level Department of Justice officials. Because Alito joined Kennedy’s opinion on Monday, and he had expressed concern at the February 21 argument about the family’s failure to provide what he regarded as a workable rule for determining when Bivens suits should be allowed, an Alito opinion would likely bode well for Mesa and poorly for Hernandez’s family. By contrast, Breyer took the rare step of dissenting from the bench on Monday to explain that he would have allowed the Bivens claims in those cases to go forward. And at the oral argument in this case, he suggested that the availability of a Bivens claim should be presumed unless there are special factors weighing against one. On the other hand, Breyer (like Alito) also pressed the lawyer for Hernandez’s family to articulate a clear and rational rule. So although a Breyer opinion would be better news for the Hernandez’s family than for Mesa, a favorable outcome would be far from certain for them. April sitting (April 17 to 26) California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. ANZ Securities, Inc.: In this case, the justices are considering questions related to the timeliness of individual securities fraud actions that are related to securities-fraud class actions – specifically, whether the filing of a would-be class action satisfies the statute of limitations for members of that class, or whether an individual class member would have to file his own complaint before the statute of limitations runs out. This is a key question whenever a class member decides that he wants to “opt out” of the class action and file a separate complaint. In this case, for example, CalPERS opted out of a settlement in a class action against underwriters of Lehman Brothers securities; although the class-action complaint had been filed on time, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit held that CalPERS’ individual complaint, which it filed after it opted out of the settlement, was too late. [Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, is among the counsel to the petitioner in this case.] Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer: In 2012, Trinity Lutheran Church applied for a state program that reimburses nonprofits for the purchase and installation of rubber playground surfaces made from recycled tires. Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources, which administers the playground program, ranked Trinity Lutheran’s application fifth out of the 44 that were submitted but nonetheless denied the church’s application, citing a provision of the state constitution which prohibits money from the state treasury from going “directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, or denomination of religion.” The church went to court, arguing that the denial of its application violates the Constitution by discriminating against religious institutions. The state countered that the church members are free to exercise their religion, but the state does not have to pay for it. The state prevailed in the lower courts, but the Supreme Court agreed to weigh in last year, before Scalia’s death. The case remained on hold until April 2017, when the justices finally heard oral argument. At the oral argument, only Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor seemed to be squarely on the state’s side, with Justices Elena Kagan and Breyer perhaps leaning toward the church, making the delay in scheduling the case even harder to understand. Davila v. Davis: In 2012, the Supreme Court considered a case in which a defendant alleged that the lawyer who represented him in his state post-conviction proceedings provided inadequate assistance when he failed to properly raise the defendant’s claim of ineffective representation at his trial. In that case, Martinez v. Ryan, the court ruled that a defendant who receives inadequate representation from his lawyer in his post-conviction challenges is excused from having to present his underlying ineffective assistance claim adequately, so that a federal court can consider the merits of his original claim of ineffective assistance at trial. In this case, the question before the court is whether the same is true when the underlying ineffective assistance claim arises from the defendant’s appeal, rather than from the trial itself. There are three opinions still outstanding from April. Chief Justice John Roberts has not yet written for April, but it’s hard to know which one or how many of the three remaining decisions he will write. Ginsburg and Alito have each written two of the April opinions, so it is unlikely they will be writing again for that session. Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, And then there were six – the remaining cases, SCOTUSblog (Jun. 23, 2017, 3:30 PM), http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/06/six-remaining-cases/ ||||| Amid speculation that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy may announce his retirement, presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway declined to say whether President Trump or the White House has heard from the justice about his plans. Interested in Supreme Court? Add Supreme Court as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Supreme Court news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest “I will never reveal a conversation between a sitting justice and the president or the White House,” Conway told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” Sunday. The Supreme Court’s last day before summer recess is Monday, and there is speculation that any news out of the high court could come then. Conway said the White House is “paying very close attention” to decisions that may come down before the court adjourns for the summer. In the event of a vacancy, she said the president would look for a candidate with similar credentials to his previous nominee who was confirmed, Justice Neil Gorsuch. “I can tell you one thing just as the president did with Justice Neil Gorsuch, whenever there are vacancies, whenever that happens he will look for someone with the fidelity to the Constitution, who doesn’t make up the law as they go along,” Conway said. She added that she hopes Republicans can “get more than a handful of Democrat senators” to vote for our nominee. ||||| FILE - This Jan. 25, 2012, file photo, shows the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington. The Supreme Court enters its final week of work before a long summer hiatus with action expected on the Trump... (Associated Press) FILE - This Jan. 25, 2012, file photo, shows the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington. The Supreme Court enters its final week of work before a long summer hiatus with action expected on the Trump administration’s travel ban and a decision due in a separation of church and state case that arises... (Associated Press) FILE - This Jan. 25, 2012, file photo, shows the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington. The Supreme Court enters its final week of work before a long summer hiatus with action expected on the Trump administration’s travel ban and a decision due in a separation of church and state case that arises... (Associated Press) FILE - This Jan. 25, 2012, file photo, shows the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington. The Supreme Court enters its final week of work before a long summer hiatus with action expected on the Trump... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Before taking their long summer break, the Supreme Court justices are poised to act on the Trump administration's travel ban and a separation of church and state dispute involving a Missouri church playground. But something could overshadow rulings in those high-profile cases: If Justice Anthony Kennedy were to use the court's last public session on Monday to announce his retirement. Kennedy has given no public sign that he would step down this year and give President Donald Trump his second high court pick in the first months of his administration. Kennedy's departure would allow conservatives to take firm control of the court. But Kennedy turns 81 next month and has been on the court for nearly 30 years. Several of his former law clerks have said they think he is contemplating stepping down in the next year or so. Kennedy did not address the retirement rumors when he and his clerks gathered over the weekend for a reunion, according to three clerks who were there. The decision to push up the reunion by a year helped spark talk he might be leaving the court. The justices on Monday were expected to decide the case of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, which was excluded from a state grant program to pay for soft surfaces on playgrounds run by not-for-profit groups. The case was being closely watched by advocates of school vouchers, who hope the court will make it easier to use state money to pay for private, religious schooling in states that now prohibit it. Missouri has since changed its policy under Republican Gov. Eric Greitens so that churches may now apply for the money. Also expected in the next few days, though there's no deadline by which the court must decide, was a ruling on whether to allow the administration to immediately enforce a 90-day ban on visitors from six mostly Muslim countries. Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, could play a pivotal role in both the travel ban and church playground cases. In all, six cases that were argued between November and April remain undecided. Three of those, all involving immigrants or foreigners, were heard by an eight-justice court, before Gorsuch joined the bench in April. If the eight justices are evenly divided, those cases could be argued a second time in the fall, with Gorsuch available to provide the tie-breaking vote. ||||| Jonathan Ernst/Reuters The most important ruling of this Supreme Court term—by far—is likely to be the court’s decision in the travel ban case. The common assumption has been that the challenge to President Trump’s order barring entry into the United States for nationals from six countries will be the headline event next term. But that is very likely wrong: The court will most likely rule definitively on Trump’s action right now—by Monday or Tuesday morning at the latest. The appellate courts that have heard the challenges have held the president’s order to be invalid, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on statutory grounds and the 4th Circuit on constitutional grounds. Both courts upheld temporary injunctions against the enforcement of the visa ban, so it is not in effect at the moment. The government has asked the Supreme Court to grant review of the cases (with argument set for next October, when the court returns) and to issue a stay of the lower court injunctions against Trump’s ban. Advertisement The ban on entry from the six countries is set by the president’s order to last for 90 days. The stated purpose of the ban is to provide time for the president’s national security team to engage in an internal review of visa procedures from those six countries. The 9th Circuit has now held, however, that the internal review may proceed. Thus the internal review will be completed before the court returns next fall. What matters is what happens this summer, and that is what the court will announce in the next few days. The choices are (1) the Supreme Court can deny the government’s request and keep the temporary injunctions against the travel ban in place while the government does its internal review or (2) the Supreme Court can grant the government’s request and allow the Trump travel ban to go into effect (with potential chaos at airports all summer long) while that internal review is conducted. Again, whatever the court decides, the internal review will be finished by fall and the rationale for the existing travel ban (or travel “pause” as the administration likes to call it) will be extinguished. One caveat: The government suggested at one point that it would want to have a 90-day travel ban go into effect even after the internal review of visa procedures is complete. This argument, though, would keep the case alive while destroying the government’s original defense of the ban. Once decoupled from the period for internal review, a “free-floating” 90-day travel ban has lost its only articulated and even possibly legitimate rationale. (An extraordinary and indispensable set of writings on the case by professor Leah Litman of University of California–Irvine School of Law, Marty Lederman of Georgetown Law, and others can be found at this Take Care link. They merit reading in full.) Make no mistake: The travel ban cases are of immense importance even if the period that’s actually in question is essentially this summer. This is a signal moment for determining the scope of presidential powers over national security and the deference that should be accorded the president by the judiciary. When the first travel ban was announced, I thought that any judicial challenge would be difficult to sustain. Having served as an executive branch lawyer, my instinct was to believe that the complexities of national security render suspect any second-guessing of presidential determinations in this area. Advertisement The Trump administration, however, has made an unholy mess of the president’s authority over national security. Its irresponsible and preposterously pretextual arguments for deference to these travel bans threaten to weaken the national security authority of all future presidents. In thinking that the travel bans would present difficult cases for the courts, I assumed that there would of course be some reasoned executive branch process leading to a national security determination by the president. But when the first travel ban—adopted on the president’s seventh day in office—was subject to judicial review, it turns out the government was buck naked. The government’s lawyers had nothing. Nothing. It was an embarrassment for anyone who has served in administrations of either party to see there was nothing to counter the notion that this ban was in fact drafted by a couple of White House staffers with no national security experience and after no serious consultation with career officials at any of the relevant defense and national security departments. The second travel ban came with only a fig leaf of a simplistic and conclusory letter from the attorney general and the secretary of homeland security, a letter so thin the Department of Justice barely mentions it in its filings. What does it do for presidential credibility, now and in the future, if a solemn declaration of urgent national security necessity turns out to have been the work of two staffers named Steve? ||||| Ed. note : Please note the UPDATES I have added — and will continue to add — at the end of this story. Look, I love legal gossip as much as — actually, way more than — the next guy. I entered the world of legal media through the back door of judicial gossip, writing a blog called Underneath Their Robes under the pseudonym of “Article III Groupie” (because gossiping about judges by night while appearing before them by day, as a federal prosecutor, is not a good look). But to be a good gossip, you can’t just spread random rumors. You need to exercise discretion and discernment in what you disseminate — which brings me to the rampant rumors about Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s supposedly imminent retirement, to be announced possibly as early as tomorrow. I won’t bury the lede, so here it is: based on reports I’ve received from former AMK clerks who attended his law clerk reunion dinner last night, it is highly unlikely that Justice Kennedy will announce his retirement tomorrow. But before getting into those reports, let me explain the origins of the latest speculation. Rumors of AMK retiring have been galloping around inside the Beltway for months now. On June 22, they gained momentum after Chris Hayes tweeted: Just a reminder: there's a chance Kennedy announces his retirement on Monday, paving the way for the end of Roe. — Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 22, 2017 Matt Drudge and the Drudge Report soon joined in the wishful thinking fun: The news cycle in 2017: I am now tweeting about a Drudge banner that links to a story about speculation that quotes one of my tweets. pic.twitter.com/qmigtvCyYW — Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr) June 24, 2017 Now, legal nerds and #appellatetwitter types might scoff at taking SCOTUS predictions from the likes of Hayes and Drudge. But Mark Sherman of the Associated Press and Ariane de Vogue of CNN, both highly respected Supreme Court correspondents, wrote stories yesterday flagging the speculation. From Sherman: The biggest news of all [from the Supreme Court] would be if Justice Anthony Kennedy were to use the court’s last public session on Monday to announce his retirement. To be sure, Kennedy has given no public sign that he will retire this year and give President Donald Trump his second high court pick in the first months of his administration…. But Kennedy turns 81 next month and has been on the court for nearly 30 years. Several of his former law clerks have said they think he is contemplating stepping down in the next year or so. Kennedy and his clerks were gathering over the weekend for a reunion that was pushed up a year and helped spark talk he might be leaving the court. From de Vogue: Will he stay or will he go? The rumors have swirled for months, and the 80-year-old justice has done nothing either personally or though intermediaries to set the record straight on whether he will step down. Adding fuel to the fire, this morning top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said on ABC’s “This Week” that she could not confirm or deny the AMK retirement talk: “I will never reveal a conversation between a sitting justice and the president or the White House.” Now, here’s my rebuttal. First, allow me to respectfully dissent from Ariane de Vogue’s comment that “the 80-year-old justice has done nothing either personally or though intermediaries to set the record straight.” Justice Kennedy, through the Court’s Public Information Office, previously has tried to dispel the rumors. Last November, I offered a detailed discussion of the AMK retirement rumors, identifying three factors fueling the rumors: (1) moving his law clerk reunion up a year, a departure from the customary schedule of every five years; (2) not teaching in summer 2016 at McGeorge Law’s Summer Program in Salzburg, suggesting a possible slowdown for Justice and Mrs. Kennedy; and (3) hiring just one law clerk for the upcoming Term, October Term 2017. (Active justices get four clerks, while retired justices get one clerk, and in the past, some justices have tipped their hands by hiring fewer clerks than usual.) If you’ve ever dealt with the Supreme Court Public Information Office, you know that the PIO likes to stay above the fray. It doesn’t chime in on every hiccup in the federal judiciary — it’s not Donald Trump’s Twitter feed, after all — and often it simply doesn’t comment on things. But the PIO did respond to my inquiry about Justice Kennedy, issuing this statement (presumably based on information received from the justice himself): Justice Kennedy is in the process of hiring clerks for 2017. The Justice didn’t go to Salzburg this past summer because it conflicted with some plans with his family, but he is scheduled to return to teach there in 2017. The reunion is scheduled for the end of this Term because the Justice’s law clerks wanted to hold it during the Justice’s 80th year to mark his birthday. Now, back when I shared this comment with my readers, I offered some caveats: Is it possible that Justice Kennedy actually is planning to retire next year, but doesn’t want the world to know just yet? Sure. Is it possible that he isn’t currently planning to retire next year, but then changes his mind later? Certainly. But, on balance, the PIO’s statement weighs in favor of AMK sticking around for a little while. Second, look at his law clerk hiring. In January 2017, a few weeks after the Public Information Office’s statement, Justice Kennedy hired his fourth and final clerk for the next Term. And wait, that’s not all. As I’ll mention in my next Supreme Court clerk hiring round-up, and as I’ve already tweeted via @SCOTUSambitions (which offers real-time SCOTUS clerk hiring news), Justice Kennedy recently hired one clerk for 2018: Clayton Kozinski (Yale 2017 / Kavanaugh), son of prominent Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski (who clerked for Justice Kennedy back when he was Judge Kennedy of the Ninth Circuit, and who remains personally close to AMK). Now, hiring clerks for 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 is not dispositive evidence that a justice will remain on the bench. There’s a nice tradition at the Court of justices picking up “orphaned” hires of their colleagues (which is what happened with Justice Antonin Scalia’s displaced clerks), so the clerks aren’t necessarily left in the lurch. But as a matter of collegiality and consideration — and whether or not you like his jurisprudence, Justice Kennedy is collegial and considerate — it’s not nice to impose upon your colleagues by hiring clerks you know will never work for you, putting pressure on these colleagues to sacrifice their own hiring discretion to scoop up your leftovers (because of SCOTUS tradition). Finally, let’s turn to the dinner at the Kennedy law clerk reunion, which took place last night. As Kevin Daley noted over at the Daily Caller, Eliana Johnson of Politico and Lawrence Hurley of Reuters previously tweeted that AMK didn’t make a retirement announcement last night. I have more specifics of what he did say, which I’ll now share. I reached out to several AMK clerks who were in attendance, and those who got back to me all opined that they don’t think he will announce his retirement tomorrow. Here’s why (in addition to their “spidey sense” from his demeanor). First, Justice Kennedy generally made forward-looking rather than valedictory comments. For example, he talked about the three pairs of parent-child clerks he’s had — e.g., the Kozinskis — and how he hopes to have more in the future. This doesn’t sound like a justice who’s about to be slashing his clerk hiring to one a year (the allotment given to a retired justice). Second, Justice Kennedy made a joke about all the retirement buzz. At the end of his remarks, he said something along these lines: “There has been a lot of speculation about… a certain announcement from me tonight. And that announcement is: the bar will remain open after the end of the formal program!” Again — like the Supreme Court press office statement, and like the law clerk hiring — Justice Kennedy’s reunion remarks are not conclusive evidence of non-retirement. Indeed, a few of his former clerks have said — not in a mean way, just a matter-of-fact way — that AMK doesn’t care enough about his clerks to make the big announcement at the reunion. (Compare him to my former boss, Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the Ninth Circuit, who announced his move to senior status at his law clerk reunion — right around the same time he told his colleagues on the bench, and in advance of the first news reports.) Let’s not mince words: as the so-called “swing justice” on the Supreme Court, Justice Kennedy is one of the most powerful people in the world, and nobody puts AMK in the corner. As both liberals and conservatives have discovered to their dismay over the years, he swings his gavel every which way. Trying to predict AMK’s actions is almost as challenging as, well, trying to predict the actions of the man who might appoint his successor. As one of my sources said, “I’d be shocked if he retired this Term after last night — but it wouldn’t be the first time he’s surprised me!” Truth be told, I would not be surprised if even Justice Kennedy himself hasn’t fully made up his mind (as another source of mine suggested to me). I would not be surprised if AMK has already drafted his letter to President Donald Trump, and if and when the spirit moves the justice, he’ll date it, print it, sign it, and have his chambers aide walk it over to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Kennedy, OUT! Liberals should hope and pray that the justice wakes up in a good mood tomorrow morning. Despite progressives’ issues with AMK — cough cough, Citizens United — he’s a heck of a lot better for them than any Trump pick, especially in a post-nuclear world. So anything is possible tomorrow when it comes to Justice Kennedy — but in terms of what’s probable, it’s highly unlikely that Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy will announce his departure from the Supreme Court of the United States. P.S. Despite these lawyerly caveats, I’m not betting both sides of the line; put me on record as saying AMK won’t retire tomorrow. If forced to assign a probability, I’d say there’s only a 10 percent chance of a retirement announcement. If Justice Kennedy does in fact retire, then yes, I’ll have a veritable three-egg omelet on my face. P.P.S. In terms of my own self-interest, I’m fervently hoping that Justice Kennedy doesn’t retire tomorrow morning. I’m in meetings or speaking engagements pretty much all day on Monday — come see me tomorrow night if you’re in Minneapolis — so I’ll be majorly annoyed if AMK drops the retirement bomb on a day when I’m mostly offline. UPDATE (6:40 p.m.): See also this earlier post by Adam Feldman, Why Justice Kennedy May Not Leave The Court Right Now, with which I agree. Some observers have suggested that AMK might not want to step down next year for fear of making himself an issue for the 2018 midterm elections. But with all due respect to the Supreme Court — and this is coming from me, a huge judicial junkie — there will be many, many other issues for the midterms besides SCOTUS. And, from the Democrats’ point of view, the American people’s indifference to what happened (or didn’t happen) to the Supreme Court nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland shows that the Court is not a major voting issue (or if it is, it motivates conservatives more than it motivates liberals and moderates). UPDATE (6:43 p.m.): A partial dissent from one source on the tone of Justice Kennedy’s speech: “there was a valedictory tone [to some of his comments], all the featured speakers were judges, and Justice Gorsuch was seated as ‘hand of the king’ [for the photo op]. Legacy-type stuff, in other words.” UPDATE (7:29 p.m.): Another attendee had this interesting observation: “note the two judges who did not give speeches: [D.C. Circuit Judge Brett M.] Kavanaugh and [Sixth Circuit Judge Raymond M.] Kethledge. Significance? Maybe nothing, but they are the AMK clerks most likely to get the nod if he retires, and speaking at his final banquet might be awkward.” So this point weighs in favor of a possible retirement (but not necessarily announced tomorrow, I’d argue, just a retirement during the Trump administration). UPDATE (7:46 p.m.): A good question from a reader: “Isn’t AMK’s hiring of one clerk for OT 2018 consistent with him retiring? Retired Justices frequently hire just one clerk, correct?” Answer: no, because Clayton Kozinski was a super-early hire for Justice Kennedy (but not surprising, given that AMK sometimes hires someone early from Judge Kozinski, to whom he’s very close). The justice typically hires in December or January for the following October Term. So if December 2017 or January 2018 rolls around and Clayton has no co-clerks, that would be a sign of possible retirement. UPDATE (6/26/2017, 7:47 a.m.): As reported by Jess Bravin of the Wall Street Journal (via SCOTUSblog), Justice Kennedy’s dinner remarks on Saturday addressed the following themes: The Supreme Court’s senior member–and frequently its deciding vote on cases involving gay rights, abortion access, capital punishment and other major issues–closed a private reunion of his law clerks with remarks touching on many of his longstanding concerns, according to several people who attended. He spoke of the impact of technological change, the need for civility in political discourse and the importance of public service plans. If AMK is concerned about “civility in political discourse,” then he should not create a SCOTUS vacancy at a moment in our history that’s this turbulent and politically charged. Just imagine the political armageddon that will immediately ensue if Justice Kennedy reveals his retirement this morning; it will make the Garland and Gorsuch battles look like sandbox squabbling. Sure, it’s possible that the state of our politics might not improve — but on the other hand, a lot can happen in a year. So even if I might raise my 10 percent estimate of a retirement announcement today to 20 or 30 percent (in light of some of the updates I’ve added here), I still think it’s far more likely that Justice Kennedy will retire next year as opposed to today. UPDATE (6/26/2017, 11:18 a.m.): Please allow me to take my victory lap. As I predicted, Justice Kennedy did not announce his retirement yesterday. Could Justice Kennedy announce his retirement later this summer — recall how Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement on July 1, 2005, after the end of the Term — or later this year? It’s theoretically possible, but not probable. My guess is that AMK will not announce any retirement until around this time next year — i.e., the end of October Term 2017 — at the earliest. Big cases, retirement rumors as Supreme Court nears finish [Associated Press] Anthony Kennedy retirement watch at a fever pitch [CNN] Conway won’t confirm Justice Kennedy retirement rumors [The Hill] Why Justice Kennedy May Not Leave The Court Right Now [Empirical SCOTUS] Earlier: David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.

– The Supreme Court gathers Monday for the last scheduled day of the current term, with decisions on six cases—including one on the separation of church and state—still to come. Overshadowing all that, however, is speculation about whether Justice Anthony Kennedy will announce his retirement after 30 years on the bench. Details: Kennedy: If the 81-year-old is indeed stepping down, he would have told President Trump by now. But Kellyanne Conway wasn't giving any hints: "I will never reveal a conversation between a sitting justice and the president or the White House,” she said on ABC News Sunday. Don't bet on it: David Lat of Above the Law assesses the Kennedy rumors and weighs in on the chances of retirement: "Highly unlikely." The six cases: ScotusBlog provides quick snapshots of the six cases on which decisions are pending. A big one is Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, which involves a Missouri church that sought to use state funds designated for nonprofits to build a playground. Travel ban: One wild card is that the court also could make an announcement related to Trump's travel ban. A post at Lawfare runs through six possibilities, including the announcement of a special session in July to hear arguments. One key question expected to be answered as soon as Monday: Will the justices keep lower courts' temporary injunctions in place or allow the ban to take effect until a decision is reached? Slate assesses. Back to drawing board? Three of the six cases still pending, all of which involve immigrants or foreigners, were argued before Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch took the bench, notes the AP. It's possible the court could decide that some or all be re-argued before the nine-member court. Among them is Hernandez v. Mesa, on whether the family of a Mexican teen who was killed by a US border patrol agent can sue over a Fourth Amendment violation regarding the use of deadly force. Next term: The court also is expected to announce whether some high-profile cases will be on the docket next year. Two notable ones involve gun rights and the Second Amendment, and Breitbart has details.

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. ||||| “Extra’s” AJ Calloway caught up with Brad Pitt at the NYC premiere of “World War Z” and asked Pitt about comments singer Melissa Etheridge made on Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy. The singer, who is a breast cancer survivor, spoke with the Washington Blade and said, “I have to say I feel a little differently. I have that gene mutation too and it’s not something I would believe in for myself. I wouldn’t call it the brave choice. I actually think it’s the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer.” Pitt, who had not heard the comments, responded, “Oh, I didn’t know, I haven’t seen her… Melissa is an old friend of mine, so I’ll have to give her a call.” The actor added that Jolie is doing great. Watch more of the red carpet interview! “World War Z” swarms into theaters Friday. ||||| Email Share +1 576 Shares Melissa Etheridge With guest Eric Hutchinson Tuesday 8 p.m. Wolf Trap Filene Center 1551 Trap Road Vienna, VA $35 (lawn)-$65 wolftrap.org When we talked to Melissa Etheridge last year the conversation turned — as one might expect in an election year — to politics. So this time we focused on music. The lesbian rocker plays Wolf Trap Tuesday night. Her comments have been slightly edited for length. WASHINGTON BLADE: Last time you were here you played the Strathmore, which is kind of stately, whereas Wolf Trap is outside and more earthy. Does the venue affect the kind of show you play? MELISSA ETHERIDGE: Yes, totally. One of the things I do before I even write out a set list is I go stand on stage and look out and really get a feel for what the venue is like. Is it indoors, outdoors, is the first row up close, will people be able to stand, are they soft seats, hard seats? I’ve been touring for 25 years so I’m very conscious of what kind of show can be produced at each place and it does make a difference in what songs I play. This will definitely be different from the Strathmore show. I love playing Wolf Trap and I don’t think I’ve ever sweated as much on stage as when I’ve played Wolf Trap. It was just so humid last time I was there, I was really soaked even before the show. But yeah, it’s gonna be much more rock and roll out there. BLADE: How do you manage to do those big rock money notes year after year? Rock singing, of course, often doesn’t use proper vocal technique that they teach you in classical singing and some singers get vocal cord nodules while others, like Tina Turner perhaps or many gospel singers, seem to be able to growl and howl for decades on end with no problem. Have you ever strained your voice letting it rip so to speak? ETHERIDGE: I learned a long time ago playing in bars how to make that growly rock and roll sound but not harm the vocal cords. It’s not really screaming, it’s like a stage scream. That and having a good understanding of how not to tax the voice too much in doing that style of singing, also helps. I usually don’t sing more than three night in a row. I can do four, but it will start to wear down after awhile and the shape of my voice is definitely related to everything. If I’m tired, if I haven’t eaten right, if I’m stressed, all those things affect it. But as long as I can eat right and sleep well, I can be on the road and do the rock and roll stuff out there every night. BLADE: How have you found the right balance throughout your career of knowing when to play up the all-out rock stuff versus having enough of a commercial, pop/AC vibe on your various projects to get some radio and mainstream exposure? Have you given much thought to those sorts of things as you’ve been writing and recording various records? ETHERIDGE: Yeah, it’s been a big part of understanding radio and the music business in general and then just when you kind of have a handle on it, of course it changes much like it did in the mid-‘90s when I was really at the pinnacle of it. As it should — young kids grow up and they have their own stuff and I get that. I stopped, I guess around the turn of the century, trying to make my music for radio because I think that would just have been selling myself out and I realized I had a strong live audience that was not going away and would still come see me play, so I really dedicated myself to making the music that I love and not trying to be so much pop. Which is fine — I mean, I love a good pop song like everybody else does, but I don’t limit myself to that anymore. The most important thing in my mind when I’m writing and recording is how is this going to translate to the live stage. That’s more the guideline. BLADE: And yet many veteran acts who have that loyal fan base have great numbers the first week out with a new album and like you said, do fine filling decent-size venues, yet without any radio traction, the albums can come and go so quickly it seems. Has there been any frustration with that at various times? Any sense of a diminishing return for all the hard work? ETHERIDGE: Well yeah, of course you always hope there’s maybe something there radio can hold on to a little and you would always like to make your record company a little money, that’s always nice. Yet I really have learned to let it go because I think the music does sort of manage to find its own way. I just stumbled on some online music site where these two rock critics were saying my last album “4th Street Falling,” that if it had been released by some up-and-coming singer, it would have really represented kind of the future of rock and roll or something so yes, there is sometimes an advantage to being not as established but I wouldn’t trade where I am at all to be up and coming. I’m very happy with where I am overall and I feel I have a great deal of industry respect and I’m fine with that. BLADE: You’ve been on Island your whole career, which is almost unheard of in this day and age. I’m sure the whole staff has changed since you started … ETHERIDGE: Not a single person is still there from then. BLADE: How have you navigated all the changeover? ETHERIDGE: It’s funny, there was a joke a few years ago there that everytime I had a new album out, “Oh, watch out, Melissa’s got a new one, there’s going to be a complete regime change.” Different times my options have been up we’ve looked around and, you know, Island and Def Jam and Universal — it’s one of the biggest labels there is. I always felt I had good relationships there so why not? The whole business has changed so much, it’s nice to stay someplace if you can. BLADE: Last time you played here, the album was just out. Do you feel freer to sing more of it live now that it’s been out awhile and people have had time to let it sink in or do you skew more hit-heavy for the summer shows? ETHERIDGE: Last fall I did kind of the “4th Street Falling” tour and I did a lot of new stuff but at that stage, I’m still listening to the new stuff, experimenting a bit and finding out which songs seem to pop more live. So I kind of play the new stuff and see which cuts were really fun for the audience and they tend to stay in the show. But yeah, it’s a summer show — we’re going to be doing all the hits too. We’ll be singing “Come To My Window” at the top of our lungs. BLADE: You had so many great TV duet shows over the years in terms of collaborations with other artists — Joan Osborne, Sophie B. Hawkins, Jewel, Dolly Parton. Any of those especially stand out in your mind? ETHERIDGE: Well singing with Bruce Springsteen was a dream come true. It was like, “Oh, please let time stop.” That one and singing with Dolly was just one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. I felt like our entertainment ethics were the same. She’s such a great entertainer and we kind of threw things back and forth. It felt like a good game of one on one. BLADE: One that I really remember was when you sang “You Can Sleep While I Drive” as a duet with Amy Grant. Here she was this gospel singer singing a sweet duet with you, which sort of gave it a lesbian undercurrent. It seemed kind of shocking at the time. Do you remember how that came about or if there was any hesitation in her camp to do it? ETHERIDGE: Trisha Yearwood had covered that song sometime in the ‘90s, so it had kind of been in the country world, then when Amy came in and we were talking about songs we could do, she said, “Well, I want to sing ‘You Can Sleep While I Drive.’” I’ve sang that with more people than any other song. It just kind of lends itself to that harmony duet feeling. I’ve known her for a long time. I met her in Europe back in ’88 and have been friends with Vince too. You know she kind of went through her own tabloid-y thing but she’s just so open and very very easygoing so that wasn’t even part of it. It was just like, “Let’s sing together and just enjoy it.” BLADE: How prolific have you been in the studio over the years? Did you overcut tracks for very many of your albums? Is there going to be a killer Melissa Etheridge box set of outtakes and rareties someday? ETHERIDGE: I can’t believe you asked that because yes, I’m working on that right now. The record company came to me and said, “You know, it’s been 25 years, let’s put out a box set.” But I didn’t want to just say, “OK, here’s my songs again.” I think my fans will enjoy some of these other things so I started going back into the vaults and into my storage space and found some tapes I hadn’t even remembered. So it’s going to be eight CDs and there’s live tracks, covers, solo demo tracks, a recording of me made when I was 14, everything that didn’t make it onto an album, pictures and videos. I even found a TV show I did back in 1982 in L.A. BLADE: ETA? ETHERIDGE: I don’t know the exact date right off, but it will be in November. BLADE: Where do you keep your Grammys, platinum albums and Oscar? ETHERIDGE: I have a lovely office I share with my gal, Linda. BLADE: You and Linda (Wallem) are still together? ETHERIDGE: Oh yes, yes, yes. I finally got it right. It’s a bunch of things. It’s a grown-up relationship. BLADE: As a breast cancer survivor yourself, what did you think of Angelina Jolie’s announcement? ETHERIDGE: I have to say I feel a little differently. I have that gene mutation too and it’s not something I would believe in for myself. I wouldn’t call it the brave choice. I actually think it’s the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer. My belief is that cancer comes from inside you and so much of it has to do with the environment of your body. It’s the stress that will turn that gene on or not. Plenty of people have the gene mutation and everything but it never comes to cancer so I would say to anybody faced with that, that choice is way down the line on the spectrum of what you can do and to really consider the advancements we’ve made in things like nutrition and stress levels. I’ve been cancer free for nine years now and looking back, I completely understand why I got cancer. There was so much acidity in everything. I really encourage people to go a lot longer and further before coming to that conclusion.

– When Angelina Jolie revealed her choice to have a preventative double mastectomy, celebrities fell all over themselves in their rush to call her courageous—but not Melissa Etheridge. In an interview with the Washington Blade last week that apparently just got noticed by the celebrity media, Etheridge—a breast cancer survivor herself—says, "I wouldn't call it the brave choice. I actually think it's the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer." She says she, too, carries the breast cancer gene mutation that caused Jolie to make her decision. "My belief is that cancer comes from inside you and so much of it has to do with the environment of your body," Etheridge continues. "It’s the stress that will turn that gene on or not. Plenty of people have the gene mutation and everything but it never comes to cancer." Of course, Extra got Brad Pitt's thoughts on the matter at the New York premiere of his new movie, World War Z. "Oh, I didn’t know, I haven’t seen her," he said when asked about Etheridge's comments. "Melissa is an old friend of mine, so I’ll have to give her a call." On the same red carpet, he told People Jolie is still "sexy as ever."

But "25," the follow-up to the hit "21," is all but certain to be a blockbuster. The first single, "Hello," sold a record 1.1 million copies in its first week of release, and its video has more than 415 million views. ||||| For Adele’s legions of fans, as well as for the music industry at large, a big question has hung over the release of “25,” her first album in nearly five years. The album is all but certain to be a gigantic hit, but would Adele make it available for streaming on services like Spotify and Apple Music? An answer emerged on Thursday, after weeks of speculation: No. With less than 24 hours before the release of the album on Friday, the major digital music services were informed that “25” would not be available for streaming, according to three people with direct knowledge of the plans. A spokesman for Adele declined to comment. Streaming has taken hold as the fastest-growing part of the music business and the format that record executives and technology mavens alike point to as the future of listening. But it remains controversial among many artists over royalty payments and issues of control. Most artists have no choice but to opt for streaming and accede to the terms set by the services. But Adele, along with Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, are viewed as among the very few superstar acts with enough leverage to set the terms for how they want their music to be consumed.

– Adele's 25, her first album in nearly five years, will soon be blasting from every commercial, shopping mall, and cellphone from here to Timbuktu. But there's one place you won't be hearing it: streaming online. The New York Times reports 25 will not be available on Spotify, Apple Music, or any other digital streaming service when it's released Friday, a decision streaming services weren't made aware of until Thursday. "We love and respect Adele, as do her 24 million fans on Spotify," the Los Angeles Times quotes a statement from Spotify. "We hope that she will give those fans the opportunity to enjoy 25 on Spotify alongside 19 and 21 very soon." 25 is expected to be a mega-hit for the music industry, with experts predicting 2.5 million copies sold in the first week, the New York Times reports. That would be the best first week since 'N Sync 15 years ago. Tyler Goldman, CEO of French streaming company Deezer, tells the Los Angeles Times keeping 25 off streaming services might help Adele's sales in the immediate future, but it won't slow down paid streaming services, which are pretty much the only growth area in the music industry. "It's not like users want to go back to downloads and CDs," he says.

He writes to The Stranger: Hi there, Having been recently alerted to the Victoria Liss story on your website [here and here], I cannot stand by and have my good name tarnished. As an Andrew Meyer who lives nowhere near the scene of the crime (I live in Fountain Valley, California), I am outraged by this situation. I would like to cover for the trouble that poor Victoria has had to go through on behalf of someone who should be ashamed of himself on so many levels. As a result, I'd like to send a 100% tip from the cost of the meal to Victoria. I will send $28.98 to her if you can arrange for that to happen. Please contact me via e-mail or at [redacted]. My "name" can't be shamed anymore. It was bad enough when this guy tried his part. I can stand my ground no more. Looking forward to hearing from you. Andrew Meyer ||||| Bad tippers be warned, there are servers out there in restaurants who may hunt you down if you don't deliver what they deem an appropriate tip. Servers like Victoria Liss, who has waged an all-out manhunt/smear campaign to make "yuppie scum" Andrew Meyers pay for what he left her. Meyers moseyed into Bimbo's Cantina in Seattle last Friday night with a lady friend where Liss had the "pleasure" of waiting on them. They had some chips, guac, a double-decker pork taco, and no apparent complaints. When the bill for $28.98 came, it was bad enough that Meyers put a big old zero on the tip line, but it's what he wrote at the bottom of the bill that really pissed Liss off: "P.S. You could stand to loose [sic] a few pounds." Oh, yes he did ... and in doing so raised the ire of Liss and subsequently mobs of Internet users after Liss set out to pay him back via public shaming. Advertisement

– A crazy story about a waitress getting gipped and insulted by a customer just may have a happy ending: The tale began last weekend when Seattle waitress Victoria Liss collected a bill from a customer who wrote in "0" on the tip line and added, "P.S. You could stand to loose (sic) a few pounds." An outraged Liss uploaded a photo of the bill to her Facebook page and identified him online. (He paid by credit card, making it easy.) Internet revenge ensued, with strangers, friends, and bloggers calling out the customer, Andrew Meyers. Which, of course, led to the wrong Andrew Meyers being pilloried in public. Now, however, yet another Andrew Meyers has come forward to the Stranger to offer Liss a 100% tip on the $29 bill, all in the name of clearing the Andrew Meyers name. The newspaper is putting him in touch with Liss. At the Stir blog, meanwhile, Julie Ryan Evans hopes the real culprit is "shaking in his scummy yuppie shoes."

I've never hit a golf ball. I've never set foot on a golf course. Everything I draw is from inside a 6-by-10 prison cell. The first course I ever drew was for warden James Conway. He would often stop by my cell to ask how my appeal was going and to see my drawings. Before he retired, the warden brought me a photograph of the 12th hole at Augusta National and asked if I could draw it for him. I spent 15 hours on it. The warden loved it, and it was gratifying to know my art would hang in his house. Something about the grass and sky was rejuvenating. I'd been getting bored with drawing animals and people and whatever I'd get out of National Geographic. After 19 years in Attica (N.Y.) Correctional Facility, the look of a golf hole spoke to me. It seemed peaceful. I imagine playing it would be a lot like fishing. There's an inmate here who subscribes to Golf Digest. He crosses his name out and loans me the issues, because you get a ticket if you're caught with something that has somebody else's name on it, just like you get tickets for draping sheets across your bars, or fighting. Some guys in here break the rules anyway, but life's better when you stay invisible. Except for that one drawing for the warden, I never copy holes exactly. I use a photograph as a starting point and then morph the image in my own way. Sometimes I'll find a tiny piece of reference material, like a tree on a stamp or mountains on a calendar, and then imagine my own golf course with it. I find the challenge of integrating these visions very rewarding. The past two years I've drawn more than 130 golf pictures with colored pencils and 6-by-8-inch sheets of paper I order through the mail. We're not allowed to have brushes and paints, but that's all right; I like pencils. When I was little, my mom and grandma used to slap my hand because of the unconventional way I gripped the pencil, until one day my aunt Gwen told them to stop and look at the comics I'd done from the newspaper. My mom didn't believe I'd done it without tracing, so she made me draw them again freehand as she watched. Growing up on the east side of Buffalo, my only sports were football and basketball. Talk about golf in our neighborhood and you'd probably get shot. Because of my art ability, I attended the performing-arts high school and stayed pretty clean until I graduated. Then I started dating a girl whose brothers were drug dealers, and before long I was in it, too. It's no excuse. It was what you did in my neighborhood if you wanted to make money. I became a mid-level cocaine dealer and pulled in enough to drive flashy cars and cover friends, but not much else. I rode with a weapon, same as everybody. I was out on bail for possession charges the night my life changed forever. I was 21 then. I'm 42 now. Pinterest Valentino Dixon in an Attica Correctional Facility visitation room. No one likes to hear how you're innocent. I get that, and I don't talk about my case to inmates or guards. Everyone's innocent, right? Truth is, there are a lot of bad folk in Attica who deserve to be locked up. They were animals even before they were treated as animals. Violent people who want to rape and cut you, and society is safer because they're in here. But there are also people who'd never hurt anybody, who deserve a second chance. And out of 2,200 inmates, you'd better believe there are a few innocents who got railroaded by the system. When you're young and black, it can happen, and it happened to me. It was 1:30 in the morning, and we were hanging out at a popular street corner. There were probably 70 people there when word came that the Jackson brothers were looking to get my friend Mario. It was over a girl. You never knew how seriously to take these threats in our neighborhood, but sure enough, I was in a store buying beer when I heard the shots: pow pow. I ran outside the store and grabbed my half-brother to flee. I didn't want any involvement. I was out on bail, and of all things, I wasn't going to let some romance drama among younger kids land me in prison. I drove home and went to bed. From what I saw, I didn't think anybody had died. The next day the cops pulled me over, and within minutes a tow truck was there to haul away my car. It wasn't until I got to the station that they said I was being charged with second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder and third-degree assault. I wasn't nervous because so many people had witnessed the shooting. But soon there I was, being paraded before television cameras in a white paper suit on my way to county lockup. Two days later, LaMarr Scott, a guy I knew but wasn't close to, gave a statement to WGRZ television confessing to be the shooter and turned himself in to the police. Because my dad drove LaMarr downtown, much was made that he had coerced LaMarr into confessing. For murder? Please. My half-brother had brought LaMarr to our dad to set everything straight, and LaMarr owned only a bicycle. Pinterest Dixon, 21, shortly before he was incarcerated. I now see LaMarr regularly. One year after I was convicted, LaMarr shot a teenager in the face after an armed robbery and made him a quadriplegic. I choose not to hold a grudge against LaMarr because psychologically, it would kill my spirit. LaMarr's eligible for parole in 2018; I'm not up until 2030. For the past 12 years I've lived in "honor block," which holds 145 inmates with the cleanest disciplinary records. We can shower every day, use the telephone, and our cells are mostly open so we can socialize and play cards and chess. There are hotplates we share to cook our food, and I buy a lot of rice, beans and pack-dried chicken from the commissary. Still, tension can brew in here. A guy will tell another guy to take it to the back, but mostly people want to stay here so they avoid trouble. Every two months I get to visit my family for two days in a trailer. My mom lives an hour away, and I have three daughters (my youngest can thank her existence to the family-reunion program) and a wife, Louise, who was recently deported to her native Australia. Louise encountered my drawings on the Internet and moved to the United States to help with my appeals. We were married in a brief ceremony in the visitation room. The light in my cell isn't great for drawing, but I do have an outlet to plug in my Walkman. When I draw I listen to cassettes to block out the noise of the other prisoners, which can get relentless, even in honor block. I also work as a barber, do push-ups, run in place and read. One of my favorites is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl about his experiences in a concentration camp. You have to find meaning in your suffering, Frankl said. To that, I say I think God put me here to draw golf courses. Maybe one day I'll play. Some days I feel like giving up, it's true. I just want to turn nasty and bitter, but in a few hours, or maybe a few days, I'm reaching for the pencils again. It's possible I wouldn't have lived to this age if I'd stayed on the outside. When I was a young man I wasn't useful to society -- this I don't argue. But I'm not a murderer. That's the worst thing somebody can be, and I'm not that. I hope all you need to do is look at my drawings to know that. IS VALENTINO DIXON INNOCENT? It might be impossible to know exactly what happened in a beery east Buffalo parking lot on the early morning of Aug. 10, 1991, but it's worth trying to figure out: Someone's freedom is at stake. As many as 70 people were present when what started as a fistfight ended with gunfire. Four young black males were shot, and one, Torriano Jackson, was killed. Valentino Dixon is at Attica (N.Y.) Correctional Facility, having served 21 years of a life sentence, and still protests his innocence. Another Attica inmate, LaMarr Scott, has confessed to being the killer, but his words are not taken seriously. It's an extremely complex case. Across two decades, 15 eyewitnesses have testified in court or signed sworn statements. These witnesses pretty much shake out 7 to 3 in favor of Valentino Dixon's innocence, with the others saying everything happened too fast or their vantage wasn't clear. Nearly everyone there was a teenager, and many of the key participants didn't know, barely knew, just met, or claimed not to know other key participants. Clearly, some are telling the truth and some are not. Depending on how you mix, accept or deny the conflicting accounts, two versions emerge: (1) Known drug dealer Valentino Dixon, 21, stood over Torriano Jackson, 17, and emptied the clip of a 9-millimeter automatic. (2) LaMarr Scott, 18, struggled with the same automatic, and when he finally got the barrel under control, he settled its aim on Torriano Jackson, who had shot first. Minutes before the 1:30 a.m. shooting, a yellow Geo Storm pulled up and parked at the corner of Bailey and East Delavan avenues. From this car emerged Torriano Jackson and his older brother Aaron Jackson, 20, intent on confronting Mario Jarmon, 19, over an earlier dispute. They exchanged angry words. A crowd circled. Then, at the sound of gunshots, the crowd dispersed. The police arrived shortly. From the bloody pavement officers recovered a .32-caliber handgun with a single spent bullet in its cylinder, a .22-caliber bullet casing, and 27 spent 9-millimeter bullet casings -- same as what riddled Torriano Jackson. (This is significant because the prosecution would present Valentino Dixon as responsible for shooting all four people.) The murder weapon was never recovered. Christopher J. Belling, who prosecuted the case and is now the senior trial counsel of the Erie County District Attorney's Office, says the extra gun and bullet casings don't cause him to doubt that Dixon was the only gunman responsible. "Given the neighborhood and the chaos of the scene, they could've come from anywhere," Belling told Golf Digest in April 2012. "Whoever had the .32 probably decided they didn't want to have it in their hand anymore. They wanted it on the ground." As the wounded were taken to hospitals, the police interviewed people who lingered at the scene. Some of these records haven't survived, but the police did speak to the driver of the yellow Geo, Travis Powell, 22, who said he didn't recognize the shooter. Emil Adams, 18, made a sworn statement at the police station. He described two guys with guns; he knew neither. He said the smaller guy had a handgun and the "heavyset" guy had the automatic. That afternoon, Valentino Dixon, 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds, was arrested. His car and clothes were confiscated so they could be tested for gunpowder residue and blood. John Sullivan, 17, who'd been released from the hospital that morning after being treated for a gunshot wound to the leg, signed a statement with police 45 minutes after Dixon's arrest. He didn't see who'd shot him in the leg, but he named Valentino Dixon as the individual who killed Torriano Jackson. The next day the police visited Mario Jarmon (the person the Jackson brothers had been intent on fighting) in the hospital. In addition to being punched and kicked, Jarmon had been shot and couldn't speak because of a tracheal tube. The police report states: "He nodded his head to indicate that the guy that shot him was the dead guy. . . . [He] did not see [Valentino Dixon] with a gun." Two days after the shooting, the police visited Aaron Jackson in the hospital. (The brother of the deceased would spend weeks recovering from his bullet wound.) The detective showed Jackson six mugshots, and Jackson picked No. 4. The identity of No. 4 is absent from the detective's one-page report. Written on the bottom of the report is Jackson's quote: "But I can't be sure, it all happened so fast." That same night, LaMarr Scott confessed to a local TV reporter that he, not Valentino Dixon, had shot Torriano Jackson. According to Scott, the guys in the yellow Geo had made threats throughout the day, which prompted him to ride his bike home and retrieve his 9-millimeter, a gun he had recently bought with cash but hadn't yet fired. When the argument escalated at the parking lot, Scott said Torriano Jackson shot first. "I was scared," Scott told the TV reporter. "I didn't know whether he was gonna kill anybody or not, so I just opened fire back on him. I didn't have any control of the automatic weapon at all, and I panicked at the same time. That's why I kept shooting him as many times as I shot him." But this apparent good news for Valentino Dixon didn't last long. After meeting with the police and Belling, LaMarr Scott recanted what he'd told the TV reporter (and said Dixon's family put him up to the confession) and was not held or charged. Dixon remained in prison the rest of the year. Mario Jarmon recovered, and in January 1992 a grand jury investigated the shooting. In this hearing, Mario Jarmon and another eyewitness, Leonard Brown, 20, corroborated the story of LaMarr Scott shooting an armed Torriano Jackson. Belling charged them both with perjury. At this same hearing, LaMarr Scott testified, "[Torriano] pulled out a gun and shot Mario three times and then Valentino shot [Torriano]." Concerning Valentino Dixon's gun, Scott testified, "I guess he had it. I didn't see the gun with him at the time when we walked to the corner because we was all laughing and giggling and everything. I wasn't paying attention." In June 1992, 10 months after the fight, the murder trial began. Because Jarmon and Brown had been charged with perjury, they were not called as witnesses. "Even if I tried calling them to testify, their attorneys wouldn't have let them because it would've exposed them to additional perjury liability," Joseph Terranova, Valentino Dixon's court-appointed public defender, told Golf Digest in May 2012. "What Belling did was extremely clever, and the right thing to do as a prosecutor." "That sort of witness intimidation by the prosecution almost never happens," says attorney Don Thompson, who worked for a number of years on Dixon's appeal but is no longer involved. "If you're just engaged in a search for the truth, you let the jury have everything and let them sort it out. On the other hand, if you've already decided what the truth is, you try to eliminate any testimony you don't like that isn't consistent with your version." Thompson also believes the perjury indictment might have deterred other witnesses from coming forward. As for why he indicted Jarmon and Brown for perjury, Belling told Golf Digest in February 2012: "A lot of prosecutors would call it a brilliant stroke of tactical genius." Belling says Brown (Dixon's half-brother) and Jarmon (Dixon's friend) both lied to cover for Dixon, who had accidentally shot Jarmon with a stray round. Of the prosecution's six witnesses, three testified they saw Dixon firing a gun. Of the three, Aaron Jackson gave the most vivid account. He was there with his little brother, Torriano Jackson, punching and kicking Jarmon, when he heard shots and felt shells brush his body. Shot in the stomach, he crawled to the yellow Geo with the thought of starting it and running over the shooter. He said he then turned to see Dixon kill his brother. On cross-examination, Jackson was asked to reconcile his current certainty with his statement at the hospital 10 months earlier. Jackson responded, "My memory gets better with time." When questioned why he didn't volunteer Dixon's name (a man he knew) at the hospital, he said, "I don't remember," citing emotional and medical stress. Emil Adams testified he jumped behind a car when he heard gunshots. Consistent with what he'd told police hours after the shooting, he testified he saw two men walk up to the fight, each carrying guns. But unlike before, at trial Adams could give a description of only one: Dixon. In his police statement Adams had said, The "kind of skinny" guy had a handgun, and the "heavyset" guy had the automatic. At trial Dixon was asked to stand, and Adams agreed the defendant was not heavyset. LaMarr Scott, who is now 6-foot-2, 270 pounds, weighed 200 pounds when he was 18. There is controversy over the alleged interaction Emil Adams had with private investigator Roger Putnam in 2000. Working on behalf of Dixon's appeal team, Putnam says he visited Adams several times at a barbershop where Adams worked. Putnam said in an affidavit that Emil Adams indicated that his trial testimony had not been truthful and agreed to meet at Putnam's office to record a statement, but he never showed. (Adams has since sworn to police, "I do not know a Roger Putnam. I never talked to Putnam. I never lied in court or was coerced by the District Attorney's Office.") Bob Lonski is the administrator of the Erie County Bar Association Assigned Counsel Program, which gives public defense to people who cannot afford to retain counsel in criminal matters. In the 18 years Lonski has worked there, Roger Putnam has been a regular investigator for their attorneys. Says Lonski of Putnam: "I've never heard a single mark against his reputation. While some investigators are known as computer sleuths, he's known as a very experienced guy who has a lot of contacts on the streets." Prosecution Witness No. 3, John Sullivan, had a charge pending in Georgia when he was escorted to Buffalo under custody to testify. (He was convicted of sexual battery and simple assault.) Shot in the leg during the fight, Sullivan had fled to the steps of a church 86 yards away (as later measured) when he saw the killing. Sullivan admitted to smoking marijuana sprinkled with cocaine and drinking malt liquor earlier in the day, but he said he slept off the high and wasn't hindered by distance or the quality of the streetlights in identifying Dixon. Jospeh Terranova, Dixon's public defender, waived the opportunity to make an opening statement and called no witnesses. With Jarmon and Brown neutralized by perjury charges, "The witnesses we had left were not that strong," said Terranova after the trial. "If I'd called one or two weak witnesses, the jurors might have asked themselves: Is that all the defense has to offer? He must have done it." The first pages of the trial transcript detail Terranova relaying his client's request for an attorney other than himself. Valentino Dixon claimed Terranova had visited him only once in jail, was unprepared because there were witnesses he hadn't talked to, and was possibly aligned with the prosecution. Terranova says he was prepared. "When you're appointed by the court, it's not unusual that the client has a certain level of frustration and feeling of powerlessness. It's not unusual that they lash out at the only people capable of helping them." In the trial, Terranova tried to impeach the credibility of the prosecution witnesses. He stressed the absence of motive and rested on the fact there was no physical evidence linking Dixon to the victim, Torriano Jackson. The murder weapon was never recovered, and the test results of Dixon's clothes and car had produced nothing to submit. Carl Krahling, now 53, was the foreman and youngest member of the all-white jury that convicted Dixon of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder and third-degree assault. To this day Krahling remains unsettled. "The first vote was 9-3, not guilty, and I was one of those [voting not guilty]," he says. As he remembers, one very vocal juror steadily persuaded the rest over 14 hours. But his most vivid memory is of their 11 p.m. police escort through the chaotic courtroom after the verdict, news cameras flashing and Dixon's mother wailing. On the way out, Krahling says, the judge called him into his chambers and asked, "What took so long?" Two decades later, Krahling's memory of what the judge said is this: "There's a lot you're not allowed to know. Just trust me, you did the right thing on this. The guy lied to the grand jury; he was involved with weapons charges and drive-by shootings, drug dealings. This guy is a menace and should be off the street. Sleep well tonight, you did the right thing." Judge Michael D'Amico says his recollection of the case is faint, but he is certain this never happened. "In the first place, I don't usually talk to individual jurors, and, secondly, I would never say something like that." "In retrospect I should've hung the jury," Krahling told Golf Digest. "All the people testifying seemed like shady characters. And if they were all members of a rival gang, who knows what happened?" Three months after Dixon was sentenced, Jarmon and Brown faced their perjury trial. A key line in the prosecution's opening remarks reads, "The proof in this case is going to show that only one person had a gun that night. That was Valentino Dixon." Jarmon and Brown were acquitted of three of four counts of perjury. In essence, the verdict decreed the two were not lying in saying Torriano Jackson had a gun, shot it, and shot it at Mario Jarmon. But the verdict says they were lying in saying LaMarr Scott was the person who shot back. Judge D'Amico presided over Jarmon and Brown's perjury trial as well as Valentino Dixon's murder trial. LaMarr Scott entered Attica on the heels of Valentino Dixon. He is serving 25 to 50 years for a 1993 shooting after an armed robbery that left his victim a quadriplegic. He has reverted to the original story he told the TV reporter, that he killed Torriano Jackson. Scott told Golf Digest in March 2012, "Each and every day it eats away at me that I allowed them to convince me to do the wrong thing." He's eligible for parole in 2018, so he risks more prison time if the responsibility for Torriano Jackson's murder is switched to him. As a reward for a clean disciplinary record, LaMarr Scott is also one of the 7 percent of Attica inmates who live in "honor block." He encounters Valentino Dixon regularly, and both say their relationship is cordial. "You can't think negative in here," Dixon says. "The more you resent your situation, the quicker you're going to start dying." LaMarr Scott says criminal justice personnel pressured him into changing his story by bringing his foster parents into the meeting room and threatening their well-being after they left. The earliest record of Scott re-confessing is a 1994 interview he had with Dixon's attorney. Again in 2002, Scott took responsibility for Torriano Jackson's death in a sworn statement, but this generated nothing of consequence. On confessing to police detectives two days after the shooting, Scott wrote in his 2002 statement, "I was told that they had who they wanted, and to leave the situation up to them." "No, it didn't happen," Christopher Belling says about pressuring Scott. "[Scott] had his own lawyer, and I don't remember any foster parents being there. . . . [Scott] came to the grand jury, and he told a different story. That was the story the grand jury heard, and that's the story they went with." Valentino Dixon's theory of the case -- and his conviction -- hasn't wavered. He believes criminal-justice personnel saw an opportunity to halt the ostentatious and rising criminality of his cocaine dealing, and seized it. He says he didn't have a gun that night. He believes the prosecution used Sullivan's pending charge as leverage to get him to testify a certain way. The night of the shooting Dixon had been out on bail for 10 months. When he heard shots, he says, he got out of there as fast as he could. Belling says that any criminal charges Sullivan faced had no connection or impact on Dixon's case. "Apples and oranges," says Belling. Besides dealing drugs, Dixon's worst mistake might have been cutting ties with distinguished attorney Don Thompson. "Appeal work goes very slowly. I understood his frustration, but it was a frustrating case for us, too," Thompson says. "Probably for good reasons of their own, the witnesses we were trying to track down didn't want to talk or be found." Of the handful of witnesses who have surfaced since the murder trial, the most compelling might be Tamara Frida, a social worker with a master's degree who was working in a lab at Buffalo General Hospital in 1991. She says she clearly saw LaMarr Scott shoot Torriano Jackson before she scrambled behind her car. That night a bullet punctured the radiator of her red Geo Tracker, and on the drive home it broke down. Fear of gangland retribution, she says, is what kept her quiet until 1998. "[Torriano] fell face down in the street, and LaMarr was behind him, shooting. They were headed right toward my car. It all happened maybe 10 yards away," Frida told Golf Digest in March 2012. A Buffalo police intra-departmental memo dated four days after the shooting documents a phone call from a female who refused to identify herself: "She said Valentino was not the shooter. . . .She was asked if she was the girl from the red Tracker, and she said yes. . . . She would not say if she could identify the shooter. . . . She would think about it and call back later." Tamara Frida says she was the one who made this phone call, but out of fear she didn't call back. There have been wrongful convictions in Erie County. In 2008, prosecutors dropped murder charges against Lynn DeJac of Buffalo after 13 years served. In 2010, Anthony Capozzi of Buffalo was awarded $4.25 million for 22 years served for rapes he didn't commit. New DNA evidence overturned both convictions. Unfortunately for Dixon, the particulars of his case make the chance of new DNA evidence virtually nil. The only "scientific" backing Dixon has is the results of a lie-detector test he passed. The administrator of the test, Malcolm Plummer, 75, a career private investigator who now teaches criminal justice at Onondaga Community College, says he is convinced of Dixon's innocence. As for appeals, Dixon has made three swings, all misses. The best explanation of why his conviction has been upheld is a 100-page report prepared by U.S. Magistrate Victor Bianchini in 2009. The report attempts to sort out which witnesses are telling the truth and which are not. On nearly every matter in dispute the report rules against the prisoner. The report says the statements of investigator Putnam (about Emil Adams) and Tamara Frida both lack "credibility." Magistrate Bianchini writes, "It is quite difficult to believe that [Frida] would stand by silently while Dixon, whom she purportedly knew to be an innocent man, was charged, convicted and imprisoned, based only upon her notion that she might be subject to retribution by persons unknown for reasons unknown." The only statement by LaMarr Scott "which appears to have any reliability, in this Court's opinion, is his sworn testimony before the grand jury, wherein he [said Dixon was the shooter]." For Jarmon and Brown, the report cites their indictment on four counts of perjury and later conviction, yet omits that each was acquitted on three of the counts. The possible implications of this outcome are not addressed. "The Magistrate erred in failing to hold a hearing [to hear new witnesses speak] on any issue in this complex case," wrote Jim Ostrowski in 2009, just one attorney who tried for Dixon. "Instead, he relied virtually verbatim on the highly dubious decision in the state court by Judge D'Amico... In the absence of a hearing where the credibility of witnesses could be judged, the Magistrate nevertheless made credibility judgments about witnesses." Magistrate Bianchini declined to comment with Golf Digest, citing the ethical problem of a judge commenting on a case that is pending. "A bureaucratic system is set up to protect itself, and so it's not in its interest to admit mistakes," says Ostrowski. Serving a 39 years-to-life sentence, Dixon will be eligible for parole in 2030, when he is 60. But he maintains hope he will be freed before then. The Exoneration Initiative, an organization that provides free legal assistance to wrongfully convicted persons in New York, has looked into his case. Of all Dixon's dreams, his most vivid is to a draw a golf course from real life. ||||| After 27 years in prison, a man who loves golf walked free today. Not only that, he was given back his innocence. Of course, the state can regift innocence about as capably as it can 27 years. Nevertheless, the Erie County District Court in Buffalo, N.Y., has vacated the murder conviction of Valentino Dixon, 48, who was serving a 39-years-to-life sentence—the bulk of it in the infamous Attica Correctional Facility—for the 1991 killing of Torriano Jackson. On that hot August night long ago, both were at a loud street party with underage drinking when a fistfight over a girl turned to gunfire. But before we dive into what really happened, a quick refresher on why golfers might care extra about Valentino Dixon. Six years ago, Golf Digest profiled this inmate who grinds colored pencils to their nubs drawing meticulously detailed golf-scapes. Although Dixon has never hit a ball or even stepped foot on a course, the game hooked him when a golfing warden brought in a photograph of Augusta National’s 12th hole for the inmate to render as a favor. In the din and darkness of his stone cell, the placid composition of grass, sky, water and trees spoke to Dixon. And the endless permutations of bunkers and contours gave him a subject he could play with. “The guys can’t understand,” Dixon has said. “They always say I don’t need to be drawing this golf stuff. I know it makes no sense, but for some reason my spirit is attuned to this game.” Pinterest A sampling of Dixon's golf illustrations. It took about a hundred drawings before Golf Digest noticed, but when we did, we also noticed his conviction seemed flimsy. So we investigated the case and raised the question of his innocence. The case is complicated, but on the surface it involves shoddy police work, zero physical evidence linking Dixon, conflicting testimony of unreliable witnesses, the videotaped confession to the crime by another man, a public defender who didn’t call a witness at trial, and perjury charges against those who said Dixon didn’t do it. All together, a fairly clear instance of local officials hastily railroading a young black man with a prior criminal record into jail. Dixon’s past wasn’t spotless, he had sold some cocaine, but that didn’t make him a murderer. Golf Digest’s 2012 article led to further national spotlights on the case by NBC/Golf Channel, CRTV.com, Fox Sports, the Georgetown University Prison Reform Project and others. Alongside this, Dixon’s daughter, Valentina, led a grassroots campaign to raise money for her father’s legal fees by selling his artwork online. Still, the gears of the legal system refused to turn. As of Christmas 2017, appeals exhausted, Dixon’s petitions for pardon or clemency drew no response from New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s office. But now suddenly, a vacated conviction—which means innocence—a far more lofty legal victory. Why now? It rises from a confluence of factors, according to Donald Thompson, who along with Alan Rosenthal, filed Dixon's latest motion (which included the Golf Digest article) pro bono. “Once a case crosses a certain threshold of media attention, it matters, even though it shouldn’t,” Thompson says. “It’s embarrassing for the legal system that for a long time the best presentation of the investigation was from a golf magazine.” Thompson says Golf Digest’s work eventually was eclipsed by the recent report filed by the Erie County district attorney’s wrongful convictions unit, which is a new type of department popping up in various districts these days. Their report was helped by the Georgetown University students, a group of undergraduates who have also created documentaries, websites and social-media campaigns around three other individuals thought to be wrongfully imprisoned, as part of a class. “They did a great job of speaking to witnesses who could still be located, as well as getting Chris Belling [who prosecuted Dixon] to say things at variance with positions he’s argued in the past.” Pinterest Dixon rubbed colored pencils to their nubs while drawing. Also not to be discounted is the value of fresh blood. Frank Sedita III, the longtime Erie County district attorney who’s said that society ought to be more concerned with “wrongful acquittals,” is out. The new man, John Flynn, has been in the job a year, and it’s basically due to his blessing that Dixon was released. Of course, one small matter to be addressed before a man’s guilt is absolved is to place it on someone else. Just before Dixon walked out of the courthouse, LaMarr Scott walked in and officially plead guilty to Jackson’s murder. Scott admitted responsibility the night of the shooting and has for decades since (including to Golf Digest), with the exception of a brief window of time when Belling pressured him to say otherwise. Scott is already serving a life sentence for a 1993 shooting in an armed robbery that left one victim a quadriplegic. Tacking on a concurrent sentence for Jackson’s murder doesn’t change his prospects, other than maybe making any future parole a slimmer possibility. Where’s Dixon heading after the courthouse? “I’m going to Red Lobster to celebrate with my family and my support team, then we’re going to go a park,” he said. The next day he’s going to visit his grandmother, and the day after that he’s going to buy a cellphone and register for a passport at the post office so he can visit his wife of 12 years, Louise, who lives in Australia. She has a golden heart, and the two met because she has spent her life seeking to help those she can. “So many times I’ve come close [to giving up], but God kept giving me the strength to keep on and now I know why," Dixon told me by phone, hours after learning of his impending freedom. The careers of the people who put Dixon away will not be impacted. All have either retired or moved to new positions. “The positive is that this case could serve as a shining example to wrongful convictions units elsewhere,” Thompson says. Lesser men would’ve broken. With his mind and body in tact, Dixon hopefully has some good years ahead. Maybe he’ll even take up golf. ||||| Valentino Dixon smiles outside Erie County Court in Buffalo, N.Y., on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018, following a hearing at which he was cleared of a murder charge that kept him in prison for 27 years. Family... (Associated Press) BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A New York prison artist who never played golf but became known for drawings of lush courses he could only imagine was set free Wednesday after authorities agreed that another man committed the murder that put him behind bars for nearly three decades. Valentino Dixon walked out of Erie County Court into bright sunshine and hugs from his mother, daughter and a crowd of other relatives and friends, ready for a meal at Red Lobster and vowing to fight on behalf of others who are wrongly convicted. "I love y'all," Dixon shouted after trading the green prison uniform he wore in court for jeans and a T-shirt. "It feels great." Earlier Wednesday, a judge agreed to set aside Dixon's conviction in the 1991 shooting death of 17-year-old Torriano Jackson on a Buffalo street corner and accepted a guilty plea from another man who had confessed to the killing two days after it happened. "There was a fight. Shots were fired. I grabbed the gun from under the bench, switched it to automatic, all the bullets shot out. Unfortunately, Torriano ended up dying," Lamarr Scott, who has been in prison for 25 years for an unrelated attempted murder, told the court. "I dropped the gun and ran and it was over and done with." Scott said he had gotten the gun, a Tec-9 semi-automatic, from Dixon and the two men had driven together to the crowded corner where the fighting broke out. Scott was given a sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison, concurrent with his current term. Judge Susan Eagan let stand a count of criminal possession of a weapon against Dixon, and its 5- to 15-year sentence, which she said he had satisfied. "You are eligible for release today," the judge said, igniting applause and shouts from courtroom supporters. "Mr. Dixon is not an innocent man. Don't be misguided in that at all," Erie County District Attorney John Flynn told reporters after the hearing. He described Dixon as "an up-and-coming drug dealer in the city of Buffalo" at the time of the shooting and said Scott was Dixon's bodyguard. "Mr. Dixon is innocent of the shooting and of the murder for what he was found guilty of," he said, "but Mr. Dixon brought the gun to the fight. It was Mr. Dixon's gun." While behind bars, Dixon rekindled his childhood passion for drawing, often spending 10 hours a day creating vivid colored pencil landscapes, including of golf courses, while imagining freedom. Articles in Golf Digest and elsewhere have drawn public attention to Dixon's case, as well as a documentary produced by Georgetown University students as part of a prison reform course last spring. The class worked with Dixon's attorney, Donald Thompson, to have the conviction overturned. "It went so far beyond reasonable doubt that it's pretty outrageous that he would have been convicted and it would have been upheld," said Marc Howard, director of the university's Prisons and Justice Initiative. Howard taught the course with childhood friend, Marty Tankleff, who also spent years wrongfully imprisoned. Dixon said he will keep drawing, while working on behalf of other prisoners. "If you don't have any money in this system, it's hard to get justice because the system is not equipped or designed to give a poor person a fair trial," he said. "So we have a lot of work ahead of us." His daughter, Valentina Dixon, was a baby when her father went to prison. She brought her 14-month-old twins, Ava and Levi, to court from their Columbus, Ohio, home. "We're definitely going to go shopping and go explore life," she said. "I can't wait to get him a cellphone and teach him how to Snapchat." Dixon's mother, Barbara Dixon, said she was in shock after relying on her faith while fighting for his release. "We're going to Red Lobster," she said when asked what was next. "And everybody's invited."

– A New York inmate who has never golfed a game in his life is now a free man, with his innocence restored to him thanks to the game. Golf Digest has the incredible conclusion to the story of Valentino Dixon, a 48-year-old who caught the magazine's attention six years ago, when it profiled the detailed colored-pencil drawings he did of golf courses, a passion that began when a warden asked him to illustrate Augusta National’s 12th hole using a photograph. He spent as many as 10 hours a day drawing, and the magazine dove into his art as well as his story. It seemed off. He was serving a 39-years-to-life sentence for the August 1991 murder of 17-year-old Torriano Jackson at a Buffalo street party, reports the AP. What Golf Digest found when it started digging didn't exactly inspire confidence in the conviction: Though the gun was Dixon's, there was no physical evidence, unreliable witnesses, and another man's confession to the crime just two days after it occurred, among other things. Its 2012 article spurred national media coverage and interest from the Georgetown University Prison Reform Project, but as of 2017, things seemed at a dead end. The article explains the "confluence of factors" that went on to fuel Dixon's vacated conviction, which included the magazine's work and attention on the case from the Erie County district attorney’s wrongful convictions unit. After 27 years behind bars, Dixon was released on Wednesday. Read the full story for more on the man who has now admitted to the shooting and what Dixon plans to do now.

Breaking News National National In a world first, Australian surgeons have successfully transplanted "dead" hearts into patients at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital. The procedure, using hearts that had stopped beating, has been described as a "paradigm shift" that will herald a major increase in the pool of hearts available for transplantation. It's predicted the breakthrough will save the lives of 30 per cent more heart transplant patients. Until now, transplant units have relied solely on still-beating donor hearts from brain-dead patients. Advertisement But the team at St Vincent's Hospital Heart Lung Transplant Unit announced on Friday they had transplanted three heart failure patients using donor hearts that had stopped beating for 20 minutes. Two of them have recovered well, while the third, who recently undertook the procedure, is still in intensive care. Cardiologist Prof Peter MacDonald said the donor hearts were housed in a portable console coined a "heart in a box". Here they were submerged in a ground breaking preservation solution jointly developed by the hospital and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. The hearts were then connected to a sterile circuit where they were kept beating and warm. Cardiothoracic surgeon Assoc Prof Kumud Dhital, who performed the transplants with hearts donated after circulatory death (DCD), said he "kicked the air" when the first surgery was successful. It was possible thanks to new technology, he said. "The incredible development of the preservation solution with this technology of being able to preserve the heart, resuscitate it and to assess the function of the heart has made this possible," he told a press conference on Friday. The first patient to have the surgery done was Michelle Gribilas. The 57-year-old Sydney woman was suffering from congenital heart failure and had surgery about two months ago. "I was very sick before I had it," she said. "Now I'm a different person altogether. "I feel like I'm 40 years old. I'm very lucky." The second patient, Jan Damen, 43, also suffered from congenital heart failure and had surgery about a fortnight ago. The father of three is still recovering at the hospital. "I feel amazing," he said. "I have to say I never thought I'd feel so privileged to wear the St Vincent's pyjamas. "I'm just looking forward to getting back out into the real world." The former carpenter said he often thinks about his donor. "I do think about it, because without the donor I might not be here," he said. "I'm not religious or spiritual but it's a wild thing to get your head around." Prof MacDonald, the director of the Hospital's Heart Lung Transplant Unit, said the team had been working on this project for 20 years and intensively for the past four. "We've been researching to see how long the heart can sustain this period in which it has stopped beating," he said. "We then developed a technique for reactivating the heart in a so-called heart in a box machine. "To do that we removed blood from the donor to prime the machine and then we take the heart out, connect it to the machine, warm it up and then it starts to beat." The donor hearts were each housed in this machine for about four hours before transplantation, he said. "Based on the performance of the heart on the machine we can then tell quite reliably whether this heart will work if we then go and transplant it. "In many respects this breakthrough represents a major inroad to reducing the shortage of donor organs," he said. ||||| Heart transplantation programs around the world face significant challenges in transplantation volume, patient outcomes, and overall cost of patient care. Progress in surmounting these challenges has been limited by the current cold storage heart preservation method. TransMedics developed the OCS™ HEART system to overcome these challenges. This portable, warm perfusion and monitoring system is designed to Increase transplantation volume Improve patient outcomes Reduce cost of patient care The OCS™ HEART is commercially available in Europe and Australia and is in clinical use in leading centers. The system is not available for commercial use in the U.S. It is under clinical investigation in the U.S. OCS™ HEART, a Breakthrough

– For 20 years, the heart transplant unit at Sydney's St. Vincent's Hospital has been working hard to figure out a way to transplant a dead heart into a live patient. Today doctors from the team announced their work had paid off: They have successfully completed three transplants using hearts that had stopped beating for 20 minutes—said to be the first such transplants in the world, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Two of the patients are already up and about, while the most recent recipient is still recovering in intensive care. Heart transplants typically rely on organs taken from brain-dead donors whose hearts are still beating; the Herald reports the new development could save 30% more lives. The surgeon who performed the operations says he "kicked the air" after he realized the first surgery had gone well. The secret to their success lies in cutting-edge technology and the preservation solution in which the nonbeating hearts are immersed. The heart is first placed in a special "heart in a box" machine that warms it up and keeps it beating for about four hours before the transplant operation. The preservation solution, which alone took 12 years to develop, minimizes damage to the organ after it has stopped beating and helps ensure it both survives the surgery and functions in the recipient's body, Sky News reports. Michelle Gribilas, a 57-year-old who had congestive heart failure, tells the Herald that she was "very sick" before having the operation two months ago, and "now I'm a different person altogether. I feel like I'm 40 years old." (This woman wants to live out her heart donor's bucket list.)

Protesters in Portland made it into a Wells Fargo Bank branch Thursday and managed to plant themselves there briefly before being hauled away by police -- the most visible incident in a noisy but largely peaceful march through the city's downtown bank district. Two street marches in Seattle, meanwhile, were poised to get underway in the afternoon near the University of Washington to protest state budget cuts that have chiseled jobs and strangled higher education. The mood in the Pacific Northwest -- a region with a deep tradition of street protest theater -- was raucous, celebratory and so far, except for a bit of shoving, lacking the kind of clashes with police that have erupted in recent days. FULL COVERAGE: Occupy protests around the nation Occupy Portland activists with drums and hand-scrawled signs paraded in tight circles outside the offices of Chase Bank, U.S. Bank and others, but many financial institutions appeared to have locked their doors and hired extra security to guard the windows. "Due to Occupy Portland the building has been locked down until further notice," said a sign on the door of Chase Bank. At one point, a U.S. flag was pulled down and re-raised upside down. "We shut down the banks today because they shut down our economy," a speaker at a rally at Portland's Waterfront Park said before at least several hundred marchers set off through the streets. Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said 25 people were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct earlier in the day when they refused to move off the east end of Steel Bridge. At the Wells Fargo Bank branch, he said, several people -- TV news reports put the number at about 10 -- were taken into custody when they managed to get inside the bank. "They sat down in some kind of protest, and refused to leave," Simpson said in an interview. He said police mainly were focusing on keeping marchers out of the street. "We're trying to contain it to the sidewalks as best we can and get people moving." In Seattle, some confusion arose as two separate marches were planned at mid-afternoon, one commencing from the remnants of the Occupy Seattle encampment at Seattle Central Community College and moving toward the University of Washington, one originating near the university under the auspices of local labor unions and the Washington Community Action Network. Occupy Seattle organizers said that, whatever the routes, the goal was a joint city-wide rally to highlight issues of importance to students. In both Northwest cities, rally organizers were emphasizing the need to avoid violence and keep peace with the police. One Portland activist addressed the appeal via Twitter to the Portland Police Bureau --which regularly tweets its own news of the protests. "Be patient," the post urged. "For no other reason than patience = overtime. Overtime = Awesome holiday shopping." ALSO: New Yorkers spearhead national day of protests New judge named in Penn State child sexual abuse case Devastating storms kill 6 in Southeast, months after earlier deaths -- Kim Murphy in Seattle Photo: Protesters outside a Wells Fargo Bank branch in Portland ,where several were arrested. Credit: Don Ryan / Associated Press ||||| Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com PHILADELPHIA—Authorities have told Occupy Philly protesters to vacate their encampment next to City Hall to make way for a long-planned plaza renovation. The city posted official notices Wednesday at the site, saying the permit granted to protesters in early October expires at the start of the $50 million construction project, which is imminent, though no date was given. The city told people to vacate the plaza and remove all personal belongings immediately. The activists, who have protested against income disparity and were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street group in New York, have been ... ||||| Los Angeles police said Thursday night that 72 people had been arrested in protests downtown. Protesters were arrested on charges that included trespassing, remaining at an unlawful assembly and interfering with a peace officer, the Los Angeles Police Department said. PHOTOS: Day of protest The arrests were primarily made during a morning action on Figueroa Street and at an afternoon demonstration at the Bank of America Plaza on Hope Street. The protesters included members of the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the group MoveOn.org, and Occupy L.A. ALSO: UCLA tells Occupy Wall Street protesters to take down tents West Hollywood officials disappointed by Proposition 8 ruling Faculty strike at Cal State Dominguez Hills, East Bay campuses — Robert J. Lopez twitter.com/LAJourno Photo: Protester is carried away by LAPD near 4th and Figueroa streets. Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times ||||| Kevin Hagen/New York Daily News Officers arrest another Wall St. protestor during day of marches in lower Manhattan. With their expulsion from Zuccotti Park and their numbers dwindling, the future of Occupy Wall Street seemed uneasy at best just two months after its birth. What will likely linger, no matter what happens to the demonstrators, is the anti-greed message they brought to the national agenda. “I sure hope it’s not the end of Occupy Wall Street,” said history professor Jay Moore, 59, who came down from Vermont to witness Thursday’s march on Wall Street. “It’s not just here in New York, it’s all over the place,” he said. “It will take a while to see where it all shakes out. This is history in the making right here.” Others suggested that two months was long enough for the protesters to wear out their Big Apple welcome. Mitchell Moss, NYU professor of urban policy and planning, said it’s time for the protesters to take their show on the road. “At this point, I think they should quickly migrate to the Washington Monument,” he said. “There’s ample space, and close proximity to the decision makers. “That should be the next stop on their magical mystery tour.” Moss said the protesters were successful in bringing attention to the issue of wealth distribution in the U.S. But he felt additional demonstrations like the one aimed at shutting down Wall Street would work against OWS. “New Yorkers are a work-oriented people, and there is only a limited amount of patience with people who want to disrupt the city,” he said. Tourist Bill Lett, 61, of Denver, thought Moss’ idea of a trip to the nation’s capital made sense. “I think Washington, D.C., is going to be the place where it ends up,” said the retiree. “That’s where the power is. The money flows in Washington.” Radio host and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa suggested the group’s future was damaged by their Tuesday eviction from Zuccotti Park. “The lack of a place where people are gathered 24/7 is really going to hamper the movement,” he said. “Now they’re on the go, like Bedouins. “Why not go to Crotona Park in the Bronx?” he suggested. “Nobody’s going to evict you there. But the moment you leave the Wall Street area, things start to dissipate.” Newsstand owner John Suda, 50, watched the protesters Thursday and proclaimed the movement still had legs. “Just look at all the people,” he said. “Even with the rain pouring down, still all these people come out. This amount of people won’t just disappear.” Financial analyst Anthony Lyons, 39, offered a different take. “These characters are a joke,” he said. “All week we hear about how they were going to shut down Wall Street, and what do they do? They walk around in circles, chanting to themselves. “This isn’t a movement. It’s a fad.” Baruch College professor Douglas Muzzio said OWS could be finished in terms of bringing its message to the masses. He noted that on a visit to Thursday’s protest, the NYPD appeared to outnumber the demonstrators. But time, he said, would provide the real test for the movement and its message. “It has resonated,” said Muzzio. “The question is does this resonance lead to results? And I can’t say if it’s going to have long-lasting policy and political impact.” lmcshane@nydailynews.com ||||| Can Occupy Ditch Wall Street for New Tactics, Fresh Territory? ShareThis Counter Email After a volatile day of protests and nearly 300 arrests, Occupy Wall Street rang in its two-month anniversary with a show of force across lower Manhattan on Thursday. But it doesn’t change the essential fact that nobody will be sleeping in Zuccotti Park tonight, or perhaps ever again. The “Day of Action” saw Occupy Wall Street organizers trying new tactics: a roving protest model; continuous, decentralized direct action; and disruptions to New York City that reach beyond the boundaries of downtown’s financial district. The leading occupiers are spinning the eviction as creative destruction, a way to refresh and revitalize a movement that had grown stale and claustrophobic. Amid reports that the recent spate of police raids were nationally coordinated and federally planned, organizers hope to boost coordination themselves — from Oakland to Albuquerque. The new message: Leave the parks and take to the streets; occupy offices, bridges, subways, and Ivy League schools. Harrison Schultz, a central organizer of the protests, has been at the occupation since it was just a handful of people in used sleeping bags. Along with the AdBusters crew, he was among several early arrivals who laid the occupation’s foundations; now, they’re racing to rethink them. “Many of my colleagues and I do think that this is the beginning of a new phase for the occupy movement,” he told New York. “New tactics are in order to respond to a national effort against the occupy movement.” Jackie DiSalvo, a former member of SDS and English professor at Baruch College who has helped coordinate Occupy's dealings with the labor movement, said that unions will intensify their efforts outside of the park. “The labor movement is pretty angry,” she told me. “They're going to get their forces out.” More broadly, DiSalvo said, “things are spreading out.” As Brendan Burke, a security-minded occupier, told the Village Voice, it "doesn't have to be about holding ground anymore." The occupation’s presence will grow in Brooklyn and Harlem. Their motto: “Occupy the Hood.” In Harlem, a group of occupiers are planning on occupying old brownstones. And although many reports alleged that the occupation intends to “shut down” the subways, organizers say the real plan is to “recruit people on the trains.”

– What’s the future of an Occupy movement that doesn't have a space to occupy? Experts offer a range of suggestions for those who have been booted from Zuccotti Park: "At this point, I think they should quickly migrate to the Washington Monument," an NYU professor of urban policy tells the New York Daily News. "There’s ample space, and close proximity to the decision-makers." Efforts like yesterday’s to disrupt a city’s functioning won’t get much sympathy, he notes: "New Yorkers are a work-oriented people." A radio host suggests a location closer to home: "Why not go to Crotona Park in the Bronx? Nobody’s going to evict you there." Trouble is, he acknowledges that "the moment you leave the Wall Street area, things start to dissipate." Of course, the movement isn’t confined to New York: Some 72 protesters were arrested yesterday in Los Angeles for trespassing and staying at an unlawful assembly, the Times reports. In Portland, protesters briefly occupied a Wells Fargo Bank branch before getting arrested; other city banks took preemptive action and closed. Occupy Philly members, who have had a positive relationship with the city government, have been told to pack their bags for a new location ahead of planned construction work at City Hall, notes the Wall Street Journal. For more Occupy updates, head to Daily Intel—or check out how protesters managed to "take over" Manhattan's Verizon building.

Communications and Information Systems Able Seaman Andrew Bailey (L), Communications and Information Systems Seaman Georgina Brooks (C) and Gunner Richard Brown aboard the Australian Navy ship HMAS Perth look towards the HMAS Success during manoeuvres as they continue to... Gunner Richard Brown (L) of Transit Security Element looks through binoculars as he stands on lookout with other crew members aboard the Australian Navy ship HMAS Perth as they continue to search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in this picture released by the... SYDNEY/PERTH, Australia A new acoustic signal was detected in the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Thursday, further boosting confidence that officials are zeroing in on the missing plane after weeks of searching. The signal, which could be from the plane's black box recorders, brings to five the number of "pings" detected in recent days within the search area in the Indian Ocean. The first four signals were detected by a U.S. Navy "Towed Pinger Locator" (TPL) aboard Australia's Ocean Shield vessel, while the latest was reported by an aircraft picking up transmissions from a listening device buoy laid near the ship on Wednesday. "Whilst conducting an acoustic search this afternoon a RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft has detected a possible signal in the vicinity of the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield," Angus Houston, head of the Australian agency co-ordinating the search, said in a statement. The data would require further analysis overnight but it showed the potential of being from a "man-made source", he said. The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared more than a month ago, has sparked the most expensive search and rescue operation in aviation history, but concrete information has proven frustratingly illusive. The black boxes record cockpit data and may provide answers about what happened to the plane, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished on March 8 and flew thousands of kilometres off its Kuala Lumpur-to-Beijing route. But the batteries in the black boxes have already reached the end of their 30-day expected life, making efforts to swiftly locate them on the murky ocean floor all the more critical. "We are still a long way to go, but things are more positive than they were some time ago," Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Board, which is involved in the search mission, told Reuters. NARROWING THE SEARCH AREA Up to 10 military aircraft, four civil aircraft and 13 ships are involved in the search effort that has proven fruitless in identifying any physical evidence of wreckage from the flight. Efforts are now focused on two areas - a larger one for aircraft and ships about 2,240 km (1,392 miles) northwest of Perth and a smaller area about 600 km (373 miles) closer to that west Australian city. The smaller zone is around where the Ocean Shield picked up the acoustic signals and where dozens of acoustic sonobuoys were dropped on Wednesday. Each of the sonobuoys is equipped with a listening device called a hydrophone, which is dangled about 1,000 ft below the surface and is capable of transmitting data to search aircraft via radio signals. "That does provide a lot of sensors in the vicinity of the Ocean Shield without having a ship there to produce the background noise," said Australian Navy Commodore Peter Leavy, operational head of the Australian search. But experts say the process of teasing out the signals from the cacophony of background noise in the sea is a slow and exhausting process. Operators must separate a ping lasting just 9.3 milliseconds - a tenth of the blink of a human eye - and repeated every 1.08 seconds from natural ocean sounds, as well as disturbances from search vessels. An autonomous underwater vehicle named Bluefin-21 is also onboard the Ocean Shield, and it could be deployed to look for wreckage on the sea floor once the final search area has been positively identified. As with so many things in this unprecedented search effort, experts say that will not be easy. "Working near the bottom of the ocean is very challenging because this is uncharted territory; nobody has been down there before," Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at the University of New South Wales, told Reuters. (Editing by Lincoln Feast and Robert Birsel) ||||| Story highlights Search agency: The fifth signal is unlikely to be from the black boxes "There has been no major breakthrough," the head of the agency says Friday's search is focused on a smaller area A U.S. Navy supply ship is joining the search for the missing plane Elevated hopes that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 might soon be found were tempered Friday, when the joint search agency said the latest signal probably isn't from the missing plane. The most recent acoustic signal detected by an Australian aircraft in the search Thursday is "unlikely to be related to the aircraft black boxes," Australian chief search coordinator Angus Houston said in a statement Friday. "On the information I have available to me, there has been no major breakthrough in the search for MH370," Houston said. "Further analysis continues to be undertaken by Australian Joint Acoustic Analysis Centre." But Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters in China on Friday that authorities are "very confident" the signals picked up by acoustic detectors are coming from the black box of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, CNN affiliate Sky News Australia reported. It's unclear whether Abbott was referring to four signals detected earlier this week. As planes and boats scoured the Indian Ocean for more signals and signs of wreckage, a senior Malaysian government official and another source involved in the investigation divulged details about the flight to CNN on Thursday, including new information about what radar detected, the last words from the cockpit and how high the plane was flying after it went off the grid. JUST WATCHED Sources: Malaysia plane dropped altitude Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Sources: Malaysia plane dropped altitude 01:21 JUST WATCHED CNN joins MH370 search over Indian Ocean Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH CNN joins MH370 search over Indian Ocean 02:45 JUST WATCHED Search area for Flight 370 shrinks Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Search area for Flight 370 shrinks 03:48 Photos: The search for MH370 Photos: The search for MH370 Two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, a relative of one of the passengers burns incense in Beijing on March 8, 2016. Flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, as it flew from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. There were 239 people on board. Hide Caption 1 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On July 29, police carry a piece of debris on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. A week later, authorities confirmed that the debris was from the missing flight. Hide Caption 2 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Staff members with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau examine a piece of aircraft debris at their laboratory in Canberra, Australia, on July 20. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had said it was highly likely to have come from Flight 370. Experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane, confirmed that the part was indeed from the missing aircraft. Hide Caption 3 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 In late February, American tourist Blaine Gibson found a piece of plane debris off Mozambique, a discovery that renewed hope of solving the mystery of the missing flight. The piece measured 35 inches by 22 inches. A U.S. official said it was likely the wreckage came from a Boeing 777, which MH370 was. Hide Caption 4 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Relatives of the flight's passengers console each other outside the Malaysia Airlines office in Subang, Malaysia, on February 12, 2015. Protesters had demanded that the airline withdraw the statement that all 239 people aboard the plane were dead. Hide Caption 5 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A police officer watches a couple cry outside the airline's office building in Beijing after officials refused to meet with them on June 11, 2014. The couple's son was on the plane. Hide Caption 6 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of the media scramble to speak with Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 27, 2014. Data from communications between satellites and the missing flight was released the day before, more than two months after relatives of passengers said they requested it be made public. Hide Caption 7 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Operators aboard the Australian ship Ocean Shield move Bluefin-21, the U.S. Navy's autonomous underwater vehicle, into position to search for the jet on April 14, 2014. Hide Caption 8 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks out of a window while searching for debris off the coast of western Australia on April 13, 2014. Hide Caption 9 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The HMS Echo, a vessel with the British Roya; Navy, moves through the waters of the southern Indian Ocean on April 12, 2014. Hide Caption 10 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the search, flies past the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 9, 2014. Hide Caption 11 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A relative of a missing passenger cries at a vigil in Beijing on April 8, 2014. Hide Caption 12 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Australian Defense Force divers scan the water for debris in the southern Indian Ocean on April 7, 2014. Hide Caption 13 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A towed pinger locator is readied to be deployed off the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 7, 2014. Hide Caption 14 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks at a flare in the Indian Ocean during search operations on April 4, 2014. Hide Caption 15 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On March 30, 2014, a woman in Kuala Lumpur prepares for an event in honor of those aboard Flight 370. Hide Caption 16 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The sole representative for the families of Flight 370 passengers leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on March 28, 2014, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions. Hide Caption 17 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Royal Australian Air Force is silhouetted against the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the missing jet on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 18 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Flight Lt. Jayson Nichols looks at a map aboard a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft during a search on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 19 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 People in Kuala Lumpur light candles during a ceremony held for the missing flight's passengers on March 27, 2014. Hide Caption 20 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, delivers a statement about the flight on March 24, 2014. Razak's announcement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH 370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived." Hide Caption 21 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Grieving relatives of missing passengers leave a hotel in Beijing on March 24, 2014. Hide Caption 22 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A passenger views a weather map in the departures terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 22, 2014. Hide Caption 23 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Chinese satellite captured this image, released on March 22, 2014, of a floating object in the Indian Ocean, according to China's State Administration of Science. It was a possible lead in the search for the missing plane. Surveillance planes were looking for two objects spotted by satellite imagery in remote, treacherous waters more than 1,400 miles from the west coast of Australia. Hide Caption 24 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Satellite imagery provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on March 20, 2014, showed debris in the southern Indian Ocean that could have been from Flight 370. The announcement by Australian officials raised hopes of a breakthrough in the frustrating search. Hide Caption 25 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Another satellite shot provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows possible debris from the flight. Hide Caption 26 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A distraught relative of a missing passenger breaks down while talking to reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 19, 2014. Hide Caption 27 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 On March 18, 2014, a relative of a missing passenger tells reporters in Beijing about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet. Hide Caption 28 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 U.S. Navy crew members assist in search-and-rescue operations in the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2014. Hide Caption 29 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on March 13, 2014. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, search efforts expanded west into the Indian Ocean. Hide Caption 30 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Vietnamese military official looks out an aircraft window during search operations March 13, 2014. Hide Caption 31 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian air force members look for debris near Kuala Lumpur on March 13, 2014. Hide Caption 32 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Relatives of missing passengers wait for the latest news at a hotel in Beijing on March 12, 2014. Hide Caption 33 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A member of the Vietnamese air force checks a map while searching for the missing plane on March 11, 2014. Hide Caption 34 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported on March 8, 2014. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10, 2014. Hide Caption 35 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter lands aboard the USS Pinckney to change crews on March 9, 2014, before returning to search for the missing plane in the Gulf of Thailand. Hide Caption 36 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Buddhist monks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport offer a special prayer for the missing passengers on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 37 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 38 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya in the South China Sea on March 9, 2014. Hide Caption 39 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 40 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 41 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Chinese police at the Beijing airport stand beside the arrival board showing delayed Flight 370 in red on March 8, 2014. Hide Caption 42 of 43 Photos: The search for MH370 Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Juahari Yahya, front, speaks during a news conference at a hotel in Sepang on March 8, 2014. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts" with the jet, he said. Hide Caption 43 of 43 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from military radar for about 120 nautical miles after it crossed back over the Malay Peninsula, sources say. Based on available data, this means the plane must have dipped in altitude to between 4,000 and 5,000 feet, a senior Malaysian government official and a source involved in the investigation tell CNN. The dip could have been programmed into the computers controlling the plane as an emergency maneuver, said aviation expert David Soucie. "The real issue here is it looks like -- more and more -- somebody in the cockpit was directing this plane and directing it away from land," said CNN aviation analyst and former National Transportation Safety Board Managing Director Peter Goelz. "And it looks as though they were doing it to avoid any kind of detection." But former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo was not convinced. She said the reported dip could have occurred in response to a loss of pressure, to reach a level where pressurization was not needed and those aboard the plane would have been able to breathe without oxygen, or to get out of the way of commercial traffic, which typically flies at higher altitudes. That would have been necessary had the plane's transponder been turned off and it lost communications. "If you don't have any communications, you need to get out of other traffic," Schiavo said. "We still don't have any motive and any evidence of a crime yet," she said, adding that most radar can track planes at altitudes below 4,000 feet, so the plane's descent may not have indicated any attempt by whoever was controlling it to hide. She held out hope that the black boxes hold the answers and that they will be found soon. New flight details revealed Malaysian sources told CNN that Flight 370's pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, was the last person on the jet to speak to air-traffic controllers, telling them "Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero." The sources said there was nothing unusual about his voice, which betrayed no indication that he was under stress. One of the sources, an official involved in the investigation, told CNN that police played the recording to five other Malaysia Airlines pilots who knew the pilot and copilot. "There were no third-party voices," the source said. The sources also told CNN that Malaysian air force search aircraft were scrambled about 8 a.m. March 8 to the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca, soon after Malaysia Airlines reported that its plane was missing. The aircraft took off before authorities corroborated data indicating that the plane turned back westward, a senior Malaysian government official told CNN. But the air force did not inform the Department of Civil Aviation or search and rescue operations until three days later, March 11, a source involved in the investigation told CNN. Possible signal raises hope The possible signal heard by a search plane was picked up through sonar buoys equipped to receive such electronic data and was detected near the Australian ship Ocean Shield, said the Joint Agency Coordination Centre The Australian Defense Force source said the signal detected was not at the 37.5 kHz frequency consistent with the pingers from flight data recorders but in a range that suggests strongly that it is from something that is man-made. Commodore Peter Leavy of the Royal Australian Navy said Wednesday in Perth that existing technology in RAAF P3 aircraft had been modified to allow the acoustic processor to pick up sounds in the frequency range. Using the technology in this way is experimental, according to the source. The source said four RAAF P3 Orions have been modified with this technology, with the sonar buoys expiring and sinking about eight hours after they are deployed from the aircraft. On Wednesday, Leavy said that each P3 is capable of deploying 84 buoys, laid in a pattern or grid coordinated with the Ocean Shield. Although Leavy said the buoys have sensors that can detect signals "at least" 1,000 feet below the surface, the source is confident that the technology has been tested at a "much deeper depth." Crews have been narrowing the search area in the Indian Ocean. Search areas shrinks Up to 12 military aircraft, three civil aircraft and 13 ships were assigned to assist in Friday's search for the Boeing 777-200ER, which was carrying 239 people when it vanished March 8 on a fight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. There were no sightings reported by search aircraft or objects recovered by ships on Thursday, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said. JUST WATCHED Titanic founder: Search crews are close Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Titanic founder: Search crews are close 04:07 JUST WATCHED See AUV used to scour ocean in search Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See AUV used to scour ocean in search 02:18 JUST WATCHED MH370 passenger's husband speaks out Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH MH370 passenger's husband speaks out 03:40 Friday's search area was about 18,000 square miles (46,700 square kilometers), centered 1,436 miles (2,312 kilometers) northwest of Perth. That's far smaller than the search area's size a few weeks ago. "It's pretty incredible, if you look at where we started, which was virtually the entire Indian Ocean, now getting it down to what's essentially a couple hundred square miles (where the pings have been detected) is pretty miraculous," Marks said. The Ocean Shield first picked up two sets of underwater pulses on Saturday that were of a frequency close to that used by the locator beacons. It heard nothing more until Tuesday, when it reacquired the signals twice. The four signals were within 17 miles of one another. "I believe we are searching in the right area, but we need to visually identify wreckage before we can confirm with certainty that this is the final resting place of MH370," Houston said Wednesday. As the search continues, a U.S. Navy supply ship will help provide supplies and fuel to the ships that are looking for the missing plane. The USNS Cesar Chavez will help supply Australian naval ships involved in the search "in the coming days," the Navy said in a statement. That's likely a sign that search teams are preparing for a lengthy hunt, analysts said. "I think they're getting ready for the long haul," Goelz said. "Even if they do get four or five more pings, once they drop the side-scanning sonar device down, that is going to be painstaking and long. So I think they are settling in for the long search." Friday is Day 35 in the search. Time is of the essence: The batteries powering the flight recorders' locator beacons are certified to emit high-pitched signals for only 30 days after they get wet. "The signals are getting weaker," Houston said Wednesday, "which means we're either moving away from the search area or the pinger batteries are dying."

– An aircraft searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane picked up the fifth "ping" detected in recent days, bolstering hopes that searchers are indeed closing in on the plane's location, Reuters reports. The latest signal appears to be from a "man-made source," says the head of the Australian agency coordinating the search, meaning it could be from the airplane's black box recorders; it will be further analyzed overnight. It was picked up thanks to one of the dozens of "sonobuoys" dropped yesterday; they listen underwater and transmit data to aircraft. More reason to hope the plane will be found soon: CNN reports that the signals picked up over the weekend have been analyzed, and authorities say they likely did come from electronic equipment, not marine life, and they seem to be consistent with signals from a flight data recorder. Meanwhile, Malaysian sources have given CNN more details about the search and the plane's final moments. They say: Police played the recording of the final words spoken from the cockpit to air traffic controllers for five Malaysia Airlines pilots who knew the pilot and co-pilot of Flight 370, and those pilots confirmed it was in fact the captain speaking. "There were no third-party voices," one official source says. Sources add that there was no apparent stress, nor anything else unusual, in his voice. The plane vanished from military radar for about 120 nautical miles after crossing back over the Malaysian Peninsula, meaning it likely went as low as 4,000 feet.

The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Dec 27, 2013 12:05 PM The federal government deported 368,644 people last fiscal year, a 10 percent decrease from the previous year and the first time deportations dropped since President Barack Obama took office in 2008. The latest number includes 34,868 people deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s operations in Arizona, a nearly 12 percent drop from the year before. The decrease comes as Obama has been under growing pressure from immigration advocates and some members of Congress to ease up on record deportations. At the same time, the president has been trying to avoid appearing lax on enforcement in order to persuade Congress to pass reforms that include a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally. Immigrant advocates say, however, that the decrease isn’t enough and vow to continue fighting deportations, while enforcement proponents say Obama’s administration should be deporting more people, not fewer. One of the reasons Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported fewer people in 2013 is that the agency is focusing more attention on catching and removing serious criminals, whose cases take more time, ICE officials said. An increase in the percentage of Central Americans being apprehended at the border after crossing illegally also has reduced overall deportation numbers because they take more time to deport than Mexicans, ICE officials said. But ICE officials emphasized that 98 percent of the 368,644 people deported last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, fit into the agency’s priorities of removing criminals, recent border crossers and repeat immigration violators. “These results clearly demonstrate that ICE is enforcing our nation’s laws in a smart and effective way,” acting ICE Director John Sandweg said in a recent conference call with reporters. For the first time, ICE released a statistical breakdown, showing that ICE deported 133,551 people who had been apprehended from the interior of the country. Of those, Sandweg said, 82 percent had been previously convicted of a criminal offense. The remaining 235,093 people deported last year were apprehended while attempting to enter the country illegally. Overall, nearly 60 percent of all the people deported by ICE last year were convicted of a criminal offense, he said. “We will continue our efforts to focus on the removal of criminals and recent border crossers, promoting public safety, border security and the integrity of the immigration system,’ Sandweg said. Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that favors less immigration and more enforcement, challenged Sandweg’s claim that deportations are down because it takes longer to deport criminals. She said the main reason deportations decreased last year is because, under the Obama administration, ICE has chosen to deport fewer overall people. “Criminals don’t necessarily take longer,” Vaughan said. “In many cases, they are quicker” because, in many cases, they are already detained and so don’t have to be tracked down. What’s more, immigrants convicted of crimes are generally less likely to contest their deportation, because they do not usually qualify for legal status, she said. She noted that ICE has instituted policies in recent years that direct agents not to go after undocumented immigrants with children and other ties to the U.S. The Obama administration also has put in place policies that allow undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, known as “dreamers,” to apply for protection from deportation, further reducing the number of people who can be deported. “They have, by policy, exempted so many cases from their priority hierarchy that they are just looking the other way at the majority of the illegal aliens that their agents are encountering,” Vaughan said. Deportations have represented a political tightrope for Obama, who has made passing immigration reform a top domestic priority. But to do it needs the support of Republicans, many of whom remain unconvinced the president is committed to immigration enforcement despite record levels of deportations, which climbed to 409,849 in fiscal 2012 up from 369,221 in 2008. Earlier this month, at least 28 Democratic House members, including U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, signed a letter asking Obama to stop deporting people who might qualify for legal status and citizenship should an immigration-reform bill pass. A bipartisan bill that included a 13-year pathway to citizenship passed the Democratic-controlled Senate in June, but it remains stalled in the Republican-controlled House. In recent months, immigrant-advocacy groups also have blocked detention buses and staged sit-ins at immigration-enforcement facilities in more than a dozen cities, including Phoenix and Tucson. The protests are part of a national “Not One More Deportation” campaign to pressure Obama to halt deportations until Congress passes immigration reforms that provide a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. A survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center released this month indicated that 55 percent of Hispanics and 49 percent of Asian-Americans believe being able to live and work in the U.S. without the threat of deportation is more important than a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Despite the decrease in deportations, the latest numbers “are still astronomical,” said B. Loewe, a spokesman for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, one of the groups organizing the protests. Loewe said the decrease shows that Obama’s administration has the power to stop deporting people but has instead chosen to deport record numbers of people in hopes of gaining support for immigration reform. “The theory is that deportation was a down payment for immigration reform to bolster his enforcement credentials, but that policy has absolutely failed,” Loewe said. Meanwhile, Loewe said, families continue to be separated. Loewe said his group plans to continue staging protests in the coming year to pressure Obama to ease up on deportations. “A 10 percent drop in already record-number deportations is little salve for the deep wound that his deportation policy has already caused,” Loewe said. ||||| In New Orleans, street sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this year also led to a protest. On Nov. 14, nearly two dozen demonstrators, including 14 immigrants without legal status, tied up midday traffic at one of the city’s busiest intersections for nearly three hours until the local police arrested them. “Our people feel they can’t go to the store to buy food or walk their children to school,” said Santos Alvarado, 51, a Honduran construction worker who joined the protest here even though he has legal papers. “We couldn’t be quiet any longer.” Many immigrants here have been stunned by the arrests, in which some people seemed to be stopped based solely on their Latino appearance, because they had been living here uneventfully since they came in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to work on reconstruction. One of those workers, Jimmy Barraza, was unloading a carful of groceries on Aug. 16 when agents pulled up with pistols drawn, handcuffing him as well as his teenage son, a United States citizen. A mobile fingerprint check of Mr. Barraza, who is also Honduran, revealed an old court order for his deportation. Mr. Barraza, 28, won release from detention but is still fighting to remain. His wife is a longtime legal immigrant, and he has two other younger children who are American citizens. “If they deport me,” he said, “who will keep my son in line? Who will support my family?” Another Honduran, Irma Lemus, was packing fishing rods for a day on the bayou when cruising immigration agents spotted her family and stopped. A fingerprint check revealed that Ms. Lemus, too, had a deportation order. “They handcuffed me in front of my children,” she recalled, speaking of a son who is 2 and a daughter who is 4.

– Immigration officials sent 368,644 people packing in the last fiscal year, a 10% drop from the record 409,849 deported in 2012, the government announced last week. It's the lowest figure ever recorded under President Obama, who has seen deportations rise every year he's been in office, according to the Arizona Republic. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement says it's been deporting fewer people because it's focusing on the more labor-intense task of kicking out serious criminals, and because it's been catching more Central American border crossers, who take longer to deport than Mexicans. ICE says that 98% of those 368,644 were either criminals, had just crossed the border, or were repeat immigration violators. But immigration hawks say criminals should actually be easier to deport, and think Obama is purposely directing the agency to deport less. Immigration advocates, meanwhile, say the deportations are still tearing families apart—the New York Times last weekend ran a piece on the issue, highlighting one case of a man being hauled away from his girlfriend and the children he had helped raise as part of street sweeps in New Orleans. Obama administration officials told the paper that their hands are in part tied by a Congressional requirement that it detain at least 30,000 people a day.

If you want to survive a biological attack, you might want to look into buying a Tesla. The company just officially unveiled the Model X, and Elon Musk shared a rather unexpected feature during the unveiling: a "bioweapon defense mode" button. "This is a real button," said Musk, who was all too ready to have to defend the existence of the outrageous feature. He was in the middle of discussing how clean the Model X is when it comes to air quality both in and out of the car (the air cleanliness is "on the levels of a hospital room," he said) when things got dark. The Model X is 800 times better at filtering viruses than other cars The button should come in handy "if there’s ever an apocalyptic scenario of some kind," he said. All you apparently have to do is push the button and the Model X's air filter — which is about 10 times larger than a normal car's air filter — should be able to keep you safe. The company claims it's 300 times better at filtering bacteria, 500 times better at filtering allergens, 700 times better at filtering smog, and 800 times better at filtering viruses. "We’re trying to be a leader in apocalyptic defense scenarios," Musk continued. Because what else do you want from a futuristic, semi-autonomous, all-electric car that's as fast as a Porsche than the ability to survive biological warfare? ||||| Skip Ad Ad Loading... x Embed x Share One of the most talked about features of the new Tesla X crossover electric car are the foldout “falcon wing doors” says USA TODAY’s Chris Woodyard. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY Tesla is showing its radical new Model X, with an upward opening rear door (Photo: Chris Woodyard/USA TODAY) FREMONT, Calif. — Tesla unveiled its long-awaited electric crossover Tuesday night, a gull-winged beauty that will shake up the luxury vehicle market. The Model X was rolled out by CEO Elon Musk before hundreds of enthusiasts and media near the Tesla factory here, south of San Francisco. Six of the SUVs were being delivered to owners. Model X uses the same electric drivetrain as its hit Model S sedan, allowing similar breakneck acceleration times and about 250 miles of range per charge. It will be billed as the world's quickest SUV — 0 to 60 mph in as little as 3.2 seconds. But it also has the extra space of a crossover, and some key innovations like a windshield that lets you see the sky above you and one of the most sophisticated passenger air filters seen in a car. Top speed is 155 mph. Model X "sets a new bar for automotive engineering," Musk told reporters before the vehicle was formally unveiled. The new vehicle tests whether Tesla can compete against the likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus in a new space — crossovers. It's one of the hottest segments of the automotive market as consumer seek roomier, yet plush, vehicles. The price will be as breathtaking as its performance — $132,000 for the initial "signature" or "founders" version. Model X pushes the limits of its production system and designers. The company delayed the launch for months trying to perfect the vehicle's signature feature, its radical upward-opening "falcon doors" for the second row. They are meant to allow for graceful entries into the rear seats. More practically, they self adjust so they won't bang against the sides of other cars in parking lots. But more than anything, they make a statement that this is no ordinary crossover. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said he wanted to make sure the doors are just right, that they close properly and protect against all the elements. Besides it's novel doors, Tesla is touting other features about the Model X. For instance, it can tow 5,000 pounds. Its electric power gives it a lot of low-end torque, which helps with towing trailers or boats. It also comes with what Tesla describes as one of the largest windshields ever put on a vehicle. The windshield extends all the way past the top of the driver's head. Front passengers will get not only a panoramic view of the road, but of the trees and sky passing by. Tesla also promises that it will have many new safety features. With the batteries placed low in the vehicle, they say that it has low susceptibility to roll over. Tesla has to make sure it can make enough of the new Model X to meet demand. Right now, the wait for one to be delivered is up to 12 months. The company is going to make its Model S sedan and Model X crossover the same production line. It told investors recently that it intends to choose quality over production quotas and if suppliers' parts don't meet specifications or a complication is encountered on the line, it could slow output. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1KKaV87 ||||| Tesla unveiled its new Model X SUV crossover Tuesday night at a massive gathering in Fremont, California. CEO Elon Musk gave a thorough presentation in which he described the many capabilities of the $132,000 electric crossover. Equipped with two electric motors and a 90-kWh battery pack, the Model X P90D equipped with Ludicrous Mode can reach 60 mph in just 3.2 seconds and reach a top speed of 155 mph. In addition, the 5,400-pound P90D can go 250 miles on a single charge. Musk outlined many of the Model X's standout features including its falcon-wing doors, panoramic windshield, intuitive automatic doors, and monopost seats. But the introduction of one surprising feature generated some of the biggest cheers of the night. View As: One Page Slides Musk opened the presentation by going over the practical features of the Model X such as side-impact protection. Eventually he moved on to the crossover's impressive cabin-air filtration system. Though the Model X's innovative air filters can virtually eliminate all harmful particulates and bacteria from the cabin, it didn't quite capture the imagination of the crowd. Then Musk introduced the air-filtration system's Bioweapon Defense Mode. At first the crowd filled with thousands of Tesla customers didn't know how to respond. Tesla is known for using over-the-top names — such as Ludicrous Mode — for some of its cars' features. But when the Tesla CEO confirmed that this was indeed an actual feature found in the car's ventilation system, the crowd erupted in some of the loudest cheers of the night. Tesla says the Model X features three filters capable of scrubbing the air to the cleanliness quality of a hospital operating room.

– USA Today says that Tesla's new electric crossover SUV "will shake up the luxury vehicle market." But what really impressed crowds at the $132,000 vehicle's unveiling Tuesday night in California is the Model X's apparent ability to shake out dangerous contaminants from the vehicle's cabin in case of a bioweapons attack, Business Insider reports. As CEO Elon Musk first introduced the air-filtration system's "Bioweapon Defense Mode," the audience wasn't quite sure what he was getting at, since Tesla "is known for using over-the-top names—such as Ludicrous Mode—for some of its cars' features," the site notes. But then Musk elaborated: The air filters are comprised of three layers of activated carbon to purge the cabin of acidic and alkaline gases and hydrocarbons, "scrubbing the air to the cleanliness quality of a hospital operating room," per Business Insider. "If there's ever sort of an apocalyptic scenario … hypothetically, you just press the Bioweapon Defense Mode button. This is a real button!" Musk said—to which the crowd simply kept cheering. Makes sense, observes the Verge, "because what else do you want from a futuristic, semi-autonomous, all-electric car that's as fast as a Porsche than the ability to survive biological warfare?" (A different Tesla vehicle recently "broke" the Consumer Reports testing scale.)

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. ||||| Mount Huashan Photograph by Vivian Lee Huashan National Park, China Best for: Pilgrims and daredevils Distance: 7.5 miles from the gate to the top of South Peak The path along rickety planks hanging out over the void on China’s Mount Huashan have become a viral video sensation, showing up on "Craziest Hikes" lists everywhere. But that moniker is a bit of a misconception. The perilous, die-if-you-fall hike that looks like it was built by Spanky and the Little Rascals is just one small path on the massive Huashan, which is the westernmost of China’s Five Great Mountains (each of which is named for the cardinal directions and a center peak), ancient imperial pilgrimage sites sacred to Taoists and still drawing spiritual travelers and tourists to the temples perched on them. Huashan is not a single summit but a complex of five major peaks, the highest of which is the 7,087-foot South Peak. The Chang Kong Zhan Dao (or Sky Plank Road) is the boldest way access to the South Peak (which itself consists of three subpeaks). It’s a loony, fun ride of ladders, foot-wide wooden boards, cables, and steps hacked into the cliff—all hanging in the sky. You can rent via ferrata-type gear to protect yourself as you navigate it. Ascending Huashan is a walk into the spiritual history of the mountain and China itself. For millennia—before the cable cars and hordes of tourists who swarm here now along many different paths—the way up Huashan was supposed to be difficult, testing the pilgrim who wished to find the way (or the Tao). Each of the granitic peaks can be accessed by a different hike (and two of them by cable car) or by a new loop trail at the top. Now, just because the Chang Kong Zhan Dao is not necessary to get to the top of all the summits doesn't mean that the other ways up are cozy. The hikes often require ridiculously steep stairs (some of which have been chained off) and holding on to chain railings, on which you may notice hundred of locks attached. These are charms left by couples and families as wishes for love and good luck. Thrill Factor: The Chang Kong Zhan Dao is truly dangerous, even with safety gear. The rest of the mountain is accessed by thousands of tourists (a record 47,000 visited the site in one day in 2013) in varying states of fitness, so you should be able to reach the top even if you don’t want to scare yourself. As of 2014, the Chinese government has also opened a new trail on the top of the peak to make it easier to visit all the peaks and just implemented an $8.3 million-command center so it can monitor the trails through video cameras and keep them from becoming over-congested. Take It Easy: Many visitors hike to the top of the East Peak in the dark to catch the sunrise. It’s not easy but nowhere near as crazy as the Chang Kong Zhan Dao. And of course, the easiest way to the top is to ride the cable car to the North Peak (Yuntai Feng or Cloud Terrace Peak) or, as of 2013, West Peak (Lian Hua Feng or Lotus Peak), from which you can access trails to explore the others, if you wish. ||||| El Caminito del Rey is opening next Saturday, on March 28th, after it went through refurbishment process funded by the County Council of Málaga that gave €5.5m for the boardwalks and its surroundings. County Council President Elías Bendodo have announced today that tomorrow, on February 24th, tickets will be available for booking. They are free, but compulsory to obtain at www.caminitodelrey.info. This web page is available in Spanish, English, French and German. You can choose date and hour of the visit, as well as, the access route, which can be from Ardales or Álora. Each user can obtain maximum 5 passes that will be valid for two months. Visits will be free while the county Council manages the trail, which will probably last for six months, and definitely not more than a year, Mr Bendodo assured. Together with the Mayors of Álora and Ardales, José Sánchez and Juan Calderón, the County Council President explained the regulations which are to be followed during the visit and the booking. The County Council agreed with Antonio Pascual, president of the electric power company Fundación Sevillana Endesa who was also present, on ornamental lightening with led lights of this natural beauty spot. Mr Bendodo said: ‘We have finally finished the project that had seemed impossible to carry out for more than twenty years. It has already become real thanks to the County Council sponsorship and the collaboration of other involved institutions’. The web page is going to be available for booking from tomorrow, 24th February, at 12 o’clock on. Active Tourism There is 6 kilometres distance between two control cabins at the end of each boardwalk in Álora and Ardales. It we take into account the distance between El Chorro Train Station and the King’s Chair, this distance is 8.5 kilometres. Mr Bendodo recommended visitors to come by train. As for the public space and safety regulations, visitors will receive a helmet at the entrance to the path. This hiking route is part of active tourism and certain physical effort is required as it takes few hours to get to the aim. The County Council president emphasized: ‘El Caminito del Rey is not dangerous at all, but it is necessary to be careful due to the characteristics of the spot.’ Adults and children under supervision, older than eight, can access the spot. They must come half an hour before the booked entrance time to the selected access point (Ardales or Álora). It is forbidden to carry children, big bags or backpacks; to light a fire, or to use umbrellas when it rains because the boardwalks are narrow and there is to occupy as less space as possible. As for the timetable, there are timetables for two different seasons. In winter time, from November 1st to March 31st, El Caminito del Rey Path opens from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., while, in summer time, from April 1st to October 31st, it is opened until 5 p.m. It closes on Mondays, on December 24th, 25th and 31st, and January 1st, as well as on days with winds of more than 35 km/h. Apart from individual tickets, from next week on, group visits with no more than 50 people can be planned thanks to the operators specialized in active tourism that co-operate with the County Council. Maximum 600 people a day The path will be able to hold 600 people a day. Fifty people will be able to access the path every half an hour. There will never be more than 400 people on the boardwalks at the same time. All these conditions are written in a Regulation Document that has been approved at a plenary meeting and will be controlled by a Monitoring Committee, which has two members from the County Council, two from Ardales and two from Álora. The Mayor of Ardales highlighted the importance of ‘generosity’ of all the involved institutions when it was about creating this project, and he thanked to the County Council for ‘its effort, dedication and efficiency.’ Mr Calderón believes that the path ‘will stimulate the area’s development, above all, in the case of Álora and Ardales, and the whole province will have benefits out of it.’ The mayor of Álora stressed that all the institutions involved in the project: ‘have done well. They have refurbished a spectacular area, so that companies can create employment inside the area.’ Mr Sánchez added that all of them ‘will help small and medium-sized enterprises to increase their profit’, and he informed in advance that his municipality will invest €300,000 for refurbishing El Chorro Train Station. Decoration with Lightening On the other hand, the Málaga County Council and the company Endesa are going to collaborate in the ornamental lightening of El Caminito del Rey Path. Mr Bendodo praised this agreement, and he pointed out that it ‘will make stronger this initiative which is meant to restore one part of the history of the province’, and it will stimulate economic activity in the Guadalhorce Valley area, and especially in the Towns of Ardales and Álora. Antonio Pascual reminded everybody that the company Fundación Sevillana Endesa is ‘closely connected to El Caminito del Rey’, considering that its property had once been owned by Hydroelectric Power Station, built at the beginning of the 20th century, which joined power stations, waterfalls of Gaitanejo and el Chorro Dam. These Málaga factories were obtained by Endesa Group, which was formerly Sevillana de Electricidad. Advanced techniques and materials are going to be used for ornamental illumination of the path and the tunnel in Ardales. Likewise, Fundación Sevillana Endesa company will place two bronze walls at each entrance point of the path where its refurbishment will be explained.

– The stunning cliffside walkway in Spain once known as one of the world's most dangerous is a lot safer now, authorities say—but still no place for the fainthearted. The recently reopened Caminito del Rey trail includes 2 miles of thin boardwalks that hang 300 feet over the Guadalhorce River gorge, reports the New York Daily News. The famous pathway was officially closed in 2000 after four people fell to their deaths, but authorities launched a major renovation project after daredevils continued to traverse the path, even though parts of it were completely gone and they had to get over big gaps, reports National Geographic, which lists it among the world's most thrilling trails. The trail's website says that after the $6 million renovation project, visitors "aren't risking their lives," but the boardwalks and hanging footbridge, "as well as steep walls, make many visitors feel inevitably dizzy," ABC News reports. It will be free to walk the renovated trail, which started out as a path for hydroelectric workers in 1921, the Daily News reports, but hiker numbers will be limited to 600 per day—and they'll be required to don helmets. (For those with a longer hike in mind, officials are making progress on the 1,000-mile Mountains-to-Sea Trail in North Carolina.)

Animal Welfare: kdaf-animal-cruelty-allegations-at-texas-farm-story The images are gruesome and graphic, sickening to even seasoned animal advocates who thought they had seen it all. "This is sadistic behavior that has got to be stopped. They are using pick axes and hammers to bash in their skulls," Eddie Garza with Mercy For Animals, said. The animal rights group with an office in Dallas, captured undercover video of employees at a West Texas dairy cattle ranch, bludgeoning sick and injured calves with pick axes and hammers. In the video, the calves are seen walling, as they are repeatedly struck. Officials say workers at the E6 Cattle Company in Hart, Texas beat the animals almost daily during a two week stretch in March. "Every day from March 2nd through March 18th, our investigator documented this cruelty." The advocacy group turned over its video evidence to the Castro County District Attorney's office, claiming that even the owner of the ranch knew about the bloody practice. On the video a man can be seen, approving of the use of hammers to kill the calves. Under Texas animal cruelty laws, livestock are considered a special category, according to officials. Authorities say that practices like castration or branding might seem offensive, but aren't illegal because they are considered standard practice in the industry. "This is not a normal livestock industry standard," James Bias, President of SPCA of Texas, said. Bias watched the video noting how employees were using blunt force on the calves instead of striking them with a killing blow. Bias says some ranchers use guns or a machine called a captive bolt to euthanize injured animals, but never farm tools. "There is no defense to prosecution in claiming that this is some kind of industry standard because no one would say that a pick axe is the best way to euthanize downed livestock." Garza's group is opposed to eating animals and advocates a vegetarian diet. He says Mercy For Animals wants consumers to know what happens to the meat before it hits a plate. But, most agree the images captured on video have little to do with lifestyle and everything to do with the law. Calls to the E6 Ranch and the Castro County District Attorney's Office were not returned. ||||| AUSTIN — Undercover footage that an animal advocacy group says reveals abuse, neglect and torture of calves at a dairy operation in a small Panhandle town has sparked a sheriff’s office inquiry. The Castro County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the dairy operation E6 Cattle Co. in Hart after Mercy for

– A tough-to-watch hidden camera video at a Texas dairy farm shows workers bludgeoning calves with pick axes and sledgehammers, reports KDAF-TV. The Castro County Sheriff's Department has opened an animal cruelty investigation after watching the video made at the E6 Cattle Company, notes the Dallas Morning News. The local district attorney also has the video, though no charges have yet been filed. (To see part of the video, click through to the KDAF-TV link.) "There is no defense to prosecution in claiming that this is some kind of industry standard because no one would say that a pick axe is the best way to euthanize downed livestock," said the president of the SPCA of Texas. The animals rights group that made the video, shot over more than two weeks by an investigator posing as a carpenter, goes further. It's "sadistic" and "constitutes torture," says a director of Mercy For Animals.

Get your garlic, crosses and stakes ready: a bloodsucking vampire is on the loose. In this Nov. 30, 2012 photo villager Mico Matic, displays garlic that he carries in his pockets, in the village of Zarozje, near the Serbian town of Bajina Basta. Get your garlic, wooden crosses and... (Associated Press) In this Nov. 30, 2012 photo is a grave of a villager in the village of Zarozje, near the Serbian town of Bajina Basta. Get your garlic, wooden crosses and stakes ready: a bloodsucking vampire is on the... (Associated Press) In this Nov. 30, 2012 photo a woman walks on the road, in the village of Zarozje, near the Serbian town of Bajina Basta. Get your garlic, wooden crosses and stakes ready: a bloodsucking vampire is on... (Associated Press) In this Nov. 30, 2012 photo Milka Prokic is seen at twilight with a garland of garlic and a wooden stake, in the village of Zarozje, near the Serbian town of Bajina Basta. Get your garlic, wooden crosses... (Associated Press) Or so say villagers in the tiny western Serbian hamlet of Zarozje, nestled between lush green mountain slopes and spooky thick forests. They say rumors that a legendary vampire ghost has awakened are spreading fear _ and a potential tourist opportunity _ through the remote village. A local council warned villagers to put garlic in their pockets and place wooden crosses in their rooms to ward off vampires, although it appeared designed more to attract visitors to the impoverished region bordering Bosnia. Many of the villagers are aware that Sava Savanovic, Serbia's most famous vampire, is a fairy tale. Still, they say, better to take it seriously than risk succumbing to the vampire's fangs. "The story of Sava Savanovic is a legend, but strange things did occur in these parts back in the old days," said 55-year-old housewife Milka Prokic, holding a string of garlic in one hand and a large wooden stake in another, as an appropriately moody mist rose above the surrounding hills. "We have inherited this legend from our ancestors, and we keep it alive for the younger generations." Vampire legends have played a prominent part in the Balkans for centuries _ most prominently Dracula from Romania's Transylvania region. In the 18th century, the legends sometimes triggered mass hysteria and even public executions of those accused of being vampires. Sava Savanovic, described by the Zarozje villagers as Serbia's first vampire, reputedly drank the blood of those who came to the small shack in the dense oak tree forest to mill their grain on the clear mountain Rogatica river. The wooden mill collapsed a few months ago _ allegedly angering the vampire, who is now looking for a new place to hang his cape. Some locals claim they can hear steps cracking dry forest leaves and strange sounds coming from the rocky mountain peaks where the vampire was purportedly killed with a sharp stake that pierced his heart _ but managed to survive in spirit as a butterfly. "One should always remain calm, it's important not to frighten him, you shouldn't make fun of him," said villager Mico Matic, 56, whose house is not far from the collapsed mill. "He is just one of the neighbors, you do your best to be on friendly terms with him," he said with a wry smile, displaying garlic from both of his trouser pockets. Some locals say it's easy for strangers to laugh at them, but they truly believe. "Five people have recently died one after another in our small community, one hanging himself," said Miodrag Vujetic, a local municipal council member. "This is not by accident." Vujetic, however, said that "whatever is true about Sava," locals should use the legend to promote tourism. "If Romanians could profit on the Dracula legend with the tourists visiting Transylvania, why can't we do the same with Sava?" Richard Sugg, a lecturer in Renaissance Studies at the U.K.'s University of Durham and an expert on the vampire legends, said the fear could be very real. Stress can bring on nightmares, which makes people's feelings of dread even worse. "The tourists think it is fun _ and the Serbian locals think it's terrifying," he said. ||||| North Korean historical institute 'declares it has discovered unicorn lair belonging to founder of ancient kingdom’ In yet another outlandish claim to come out of North Korea historians have allegedly announced that they have unearthed a unicorn lair. A report released by the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences claims that archaeologists discovered the lair of the mythical animal just outside a temple in the capital Pyongyang. And, unsurprisingly, the lair - according to the report - means that Pyongyang was the focal point of an ancient, united Korea. Odd: The unicorn lair has apparently been discovered just outside Yongmyong temple on Moran Hill, in the capital Pyongyang OTHER UNUSUAL CLAIMS TO COME OUT OF NORTH KOREA At the women's World Cup of football in 2011 the North Koreans put their poor performance down to being struck by lightning. Five of their players later tested positive for steroids. Most of the more unusual claims stem from former leader Kim Jong-il and his biographer. According to the book he reportedly warned the public in North Korea that he could control the weather with his mood. He also claimed his birth had been prophesied and was heralded with a double rainbow and a new star in the heavens. Years late Kim was apparently very busy during university writing no fewer than 1,500 books in three years and composing six operas. But it wasn't just the arts he took a keen interest in. Apparently, in his first and only ever round of golf he shot 38-under with 11 holes in one. Satisfied with his performance, he reportedly immediately declared his retirement from the sport. In what appears to be a suggestion of superiority over nearby enemies South Korea, the report says: 'The discovery of the unicorn lair, associated with legend about King Tongmyong, proves that Pyongyang was a capital city of Ancient Korea as well as Koguryo Kingdom.' The dubious report, released by the state news agency, says the lair clearly belonged to King Tongmyong, founder of the ancient Korean kingdom Koguryo . It goes on to say: 'A rectangular rock carved with words "Unicorn Lair" stands in front of the lair. 'The carved words are believed to date back to the period of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392) . 'The temple served as a relief palace for King Tongmyong, in which there is the lair of his unicorn.' Jo Hui Sung, director of the Institute, told KCNA, the state news agency, that the findings is in keeping with the country's history. He said: 'Korea’s history books deal with the unicorn, considered to be ridden by King Tongmyong, and its lair. 'The Sogyong (Pyongyang) chapter of the old book �?Koryo History’, said Ulmil Pavilion is on the top of Mt. Kumsu, with Yongmyong Temple, one of Pyongyang’s eight scenic spots, beneath it. 'The temple served as a relief palace for King Tongmyong, in which there is the lair of his unicorn.' The legend of unicorns is thought to have stemmed from European folklore, in which the animal resembles a white horse with a single horn. Until the 19th century the beast, considered a symbol of purity and grace, was still thought to exist - even by academics and theologians. But since then there has been little to suggest that there are lairs elsewhere in the world. Discovery: Archaeologists in North Korea have apparently discovered a unicorn lair in the heart of Pyongyang Bold claims: Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was at the centre of some other dubious claims before his death The unbelievable news does however follow a number of bizarre claims to come out of the country. It has been suggested, however, that the release of the story could be in retaliation against a spoof North Korea related story which tricked a newspaper in China.

– North Korea not only has a sexy leader—it also lays claim to a bona fide unicorn lair, the Daily Mail reports. The very serious-sounding History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences released a report about it, saying the unicorn's refuge was outside a temple in Pyongyang. Conveniently, the report added that the lair—which is associated with an ancient legend—proves Pyongyang once played a key role in a united Korea. How did they spot the lair? It has "a rectangular rock carved with words 'Unicorn Lair'" sitting outside, the report said. North Koreans aren't the only ones dipping into old stories: Villagers in the Serbian town of Zarozje say a vampire has been stalking the area since its home, a grain mill, fell over a few months ago, the AP reports. Locals seem divided about whether it's real or just an attempt to boost tourism in an impoverished area, but the legend of blood-sucking Sava Savanovic does date back centuries. "If Romanians could profit on the Dracula legend with the tourists visiting Transylvania, why can't we do the same with Sava?" says a local council member.