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DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines has apologized to two black professional basketball players who were kicked off a plane in Dallas after a flight attendant accused them of stealing blankets. Airline spokesman Joshua Freed said Tuesday that Memphis Hustle guard Marquis Teague and forward Trahson Burrell boarded the flight bound for Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Sunday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The flight was operated by Envoy Air. Two first-class passengers gave the players their blankets as they headed to their seats in coach. But a black flight attendant accused them of theft and forced them off the plane. Freed says an airline manager apologized to the players and that they later flew first class to Sioux Falls. Chief executive Doug Parker told employees last month that American Airlines will implement implicit-bias training. ||||| 5:11 PMDisgraced former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling made his players feel like they were playing out a scene from Jordan Peele’s highly acclaimed movie Get Out. Well, at least according to former Clippers guard Baron Davis. On Thursday, Davis spoke on ESPN’s The Hoop Collective podcast about what it was like playing for Sterling, when he knew Sterling was racist and how he handled working in that environment. Now, if you follow the Golden Globe Awards and know nothing else about the film, you might think it is some sort of funny movie because it’s in the comedy category. Wrong, the movie is about racism, the subtle and overt kind, which brings us back to Sterling, who made racist remarks caught on audiotape, was banned from the league, fined $2.5 million and forced to sell the team. Below is Davis’ comparison of the vanquished owner to the popular film and more. Baron Davis on Donald Sterling and playing for the Clippers: For me, I say this — and I said this a million times — the day at my press conference when I walked up the stage, the head of communications said, ‘Hey, you know, he may say some things to you. Just ignore him.’ And I said, ‘Well, what kind of stuff he gonna say?’ He was like, ‘Man, the dude could say anything. He just don’t have a real good understanding of people or what he says. He’s loopy.’ I said, ‘Man, he better be careful what he say to me, because I ain’t like the rest of them m—–f—–s.’ And I walked off and I didn’t think nothing to it until I was like, ‘Yo. Uh-oh. This dude is racist. I can’t play for no racist.’ You know what I mean? I can’t play for no racist, man. When did you realize Sterling is racist? Yeah, when I start paying attention to like … it was like, you know … you’re in the city and it’s like, ‘Oh, my God!’ and everybody’s excited. And it was almost like … it was almost like the movie Get Out. It was like you walking in training camp, dude, and everybody was like, ‘Yo, what the f— you so happy for?’ And I was like, ‘S—, we about to play a season.’ And it’s like, ‘Nah, he comin’.’ And when he came in, he just sittin’ there, I saw at that moment he had no respect for nobody. You know? He had no respect for nobody. He couldn’t look nobody in the eye. And everything he was saying to people was like stuff you never say to somebody on their first day at the job. And so, for me, he rubbed me wrong from the jump because I ain’t like it. And the way that the whole Clippers system was set up … it was set up to protect him. Protect him from the media. Protect him from us, from saying stuff to us. And so it’s like he at fault, but everybody else at fault, too. You know, [former president of the Clippers] Andy Roeser, fo’ sho. [Former general manager] Mike Dunleavy, for sure. You know what I mean? What was the wildest thing you ever heard Sterling say? Besides the fact of him calling me a bastard and a heathen and a m—–f—– and telling me, ‘F— you! Why are [you] shooting? You shouldn’t be shooting in a f—ing blowout?’ Um, I say … I say the worst thing he probably did was when we lost a game and he came in the locker room. And he walked in the locker room and looked at me. He looked at everybody in the locker, and he went down the row, one by one, and he cussed everybody out. And he picked on Al Thornton, who was a rookie from Georgia. Who didn’t really know what was going on because Mike Dunleavy was puttin’ him out there to just tryna score. You know what I mean? And he dogged Al Thornton cold. And so that’s what I was like, ‘Hold on, dude. This dude ain’t right.’ Like, he don’t even know this kid … he just a kid. And then he went around the room and tried to talk about everybody. But that s— was fallin’ on deaf ears.

– American Airlines has apologized to two black professional basketball players who were kicked off a plane in Dallas after a flight attendant accused them of stealing blankets. Airline spokesman Joshua Freed said Tuesday that Memphis Hustle guard Marquis Teague and forward Trahson Burrell boarded the flight bound for Sioux Falls, SD, on Sunday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, reports the AP. Two first-class passengers gave the players their blankets as they headed to their seats in coach. But a black flight attendant accused them of theft and forced them off the plane. Freed says an airline manager apologized to the players and that they later flew first class to Sioux Falls, but the Undefeated reports they didn't arrive in time to make their team holiday dinner. CEO Doug Parker told employees last month that American Airlines will implement implicit-bias training.

We heard you. We made some mistakes. And we are fixing them. The news of 157 new emojis in 2018 came earlier this month and if it proved one thing: people are passionate about how their emojis look. Each year Emojipedia creates sample images for the new emoji release that display how these new characters might look when they hit phones later in the year. Today we're updating three of these designs to address public feedback: Skateboard, DNA, and Lobster. Skateboard Skateboarding legend (and technology enthusiast) Tony Hawk loves that there is a new skateboard emoji, but wasn't impressed with our design. Speaking to New York Magazine, Tony noted we had plenty of room for improvement: “Firstly, the shape, and the top of it. The way the grip tape is cut, it’s called a die cut — doing grip tape, then leaving a big blank spot in the middle. It just is very much a mid-’80s skateboard, but at a beginner level, and definitely not representative of modern skateboarding” So we invited him on board as an emoji advisor to help us get it right: Hoping to help bring the skateboard emoji closer to 2018 than 1985... https://t.co/TIWWbGk1i2 — Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) February 8, 2018 Above: Tony Hawk comes in to rescue the skateboard emoji. After a helpful DM exchange we settled on a new design to address all of these issues. No more grip tape, no gap in the middle, hopefully more 2018 than 1985: Above: The old skateboard emoji design (left) has been replaced by a newer design (right). This new design is based on Tony's own skateboard, with some minor tweaks to ensure this still works at emoji sizes. When you're given source material like this, it might as well be used to its fullest potential. Above: Tony Hawk's own skateboard (left) was the inspiration behind the updated skateboard emoji design (right). DNA Double Helix Apparently we designed our DNA Double Helix to be left handed. This is, I gather, is the wrong way to show it. So here it is the correct way, shown as a right-handed double-helix: Above: The previous (left-handed) DNA emoji (left) has been replaced with a right-handed DNA emoji (right) on Emojipedia. Lobster Senator Angus King from Maine has certainly been vocal about his love of the lobster emoji, but was kind enough to spare us the indignity of pointing out that we left off two legs. Great news for Maine - we're getting a lobster emoji!!! Thanks to @unicode for recognizing the impact of this critical crustacean, in Maine and across the country. Yours truly, Senator 🐮👑 — Senator Angus King (@SenAngusKing) February 7, 2018 Above: An appreciative US Sentaor appreciates the lobster, with or without the correct number of legs. Reports showed that our lobster emoji is anatomically inaccurate due to the fact that it's missing a pair of legs. We've now updated the design, and the correct number of legs has been restored. Portland Maine's Press Herald goes on to describe the tail as “grossly malformed” but, well, at emoji-sizes we think the correction of the legs is enough to get this one over the line. Hearts One of the new emoji approvals for 2018 is a Unicode character called Smiling Face With Smiling Eyes and Three Hearts which we chose to display with four hearts. Why? To us, it looked better. As with any emoji design, while Unicode sets the names of new emojis, it's up to vendors to decide how to implement them. Take the 🤗 hugging face which looks like jazz hands on so many platforms as an example. Alright @Emojipedia someone forgot how to count 🤣 pic.twitter.com/EGWmIOEP3h — noah fence (@mattballinger9) February 7, 2018 Above: Many people pointed out that our face has four hearts, contrary to the name. The origin of this emoji is from Facebook's “in love” face which can be applied to status updates. We felt that the sentiment could be expressed with any number of hearts. Above: Facebook's “in love face” has three hearts, but ours has four. This one we're going to leave as it is. The average user isn't too concerned with the name of an emoji when using it, but mostly cares how it looks on their phone and others. Release Emojis approved as part of Emoji 11.0 will come to most major operating systems in the second half of 2018. Our latest designs have been released as part of Emojipedia 11.1 and now also appear on the latest Unicode emoji charts. As with all emojis, each vendor will create their own designs when it comes time to implement and these may or may not resemble sample images used at this time. ||||| AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — After an outcry, the organization that controls the release of emojis has added two more legs to the forthcoming lobster emoji to make it correct. The Portland Press Herald reports soon after the Unicode Consortium released proposed images of 157 new emojis to be made available this year, Maine residents took umbrage at the lobster emoji's eight legs instead of the correct 10. Emojipedia Chief Emoji Officer Jeremy Burge wrote Monday the consortium had heard people's complaints and is releasing updated designs for the lobster emoji, alongside updates for a skateboard and DNA emoji. The lobster emoji is expected to be available later this year. ___ Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com ||||| Score one for advocates of anatomically correct emojis. Responding to outrage from lobster leg aficionados and the Accuracy in Emojis movement (OK, not really), the organization that decides which digital images can dress up the world’s emails, texts and tweets has literally given its new lobster emoji two more legs to stand on. Soon after the Unicode Consortium released proposed images of the 157 new emojis expected to be available in 2018, some folks noticed the little red lobster came up a bit short. Lobsters have 10 legs – including their tasty claws – but the proposed emoji showed only eight legs plus a tail that appeared somewhat malformed. While a common mistake even among businesses that should arguably know better (ahem, Red Lobster), an eight-legged lobster even in digital cartoonish form didn’t sit well with some people. “The #lobsteremoji is happening! Hopefully the final version will have the right number of legs,” tweeted the folks from Rockland’s annual Maine Lobster Festival on Feb. 12 above a picture of an anatomically correct, 10-legged version. Well, the reference site that creates emoji images took note. “We heard you. We made some mistakes. And we are fixing them,” Jeremy Burge, chief emoji officer at Emojipedia, wrote in a blog post Monday unveiling changes to the digital icons for lobster, skateboards and DNA. Emojipedia designs the sample images for emojis, which are then displayed by the Unicode Consortium. The new proposed emoji has two more legs just behind the cartoon crustacean’s carapace as well as a slightly tweaked tail. In an email, Burge noted that Emojipedia’s lobster emoji is just a “sample image” of what could eventually be available. The companies that make the emojis available to users, such as Apple and Adobe, could come up with their own versions. “I have to say that I’m a bit embarrassed we didn’t get the leg count right the first time, but I’m happy it was brought to our attention so quickly!” Burge wrote. “I hope to visit Maine one day and will be sure to make liberal use of the lobster emoji when I do.” Of course, Mainers and lobster lovers weren’t the only ones to critique the accuracy of the new emojis. Emojipedia also “fixed” the DNA emoji to show that the double-helix that carries genetic data twists to the right, not to the left as originally proposed. And Burge wrote in his blog post that skateboarding legend Tony Hawk was brought in as an “emoji advisor” to inform Emojipedia’s second attempt at a skateboard after Hawk pointed out a few foibles in the original. U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who pushed hard for an emoji honoring the state’s $500 million commercial lobster fishery, was pleased with the revisions. “Senator King knows that many around the world were rightly steamed by the exclusion of two legs from the original design, and is grateful that Emojipedia took quick action to ensure that Maine’s delicious decapod will be accurately represented when it crawls onto phones in the coming months,” King spokesman John Faherty said in a statement. The updated lobster emoji is expected to be available later this year – hopefully in time for Maine tourists to spice up their tweets, snaps and Facebook posts about chowing down on the real thing. Kevin Miller can be contacted at 791-6312 or at: [email protected] Twitter: KevinMillerPPH ____________________ CORRECTION: This story was updated at 1:56 p.m. on Feb. 20, 2018, to say that Emojipedia designs the sample emojis, which are then displayed by the Unicode Consortium. Share

– After an outcry, the organization that controls the release of emojis has added two more legs to the forthcoming lobster emoji to make it correct. The Portland Press Herald reports that soon after the Unicode Consortium released proposed images of 157 new emojis, Maine residents took umbrage at the lobster emoji's eight legs instead of the correct 10. Emojipedia Chief Emoji Officer Jeremy Burge wrote in a blog post Monday that the consortium had heard people's complaints and is releasing updated designs for the lobster emoji, alongside updates for a skateboard and DNA emoji. (The post has before and after images.) The lobster emoji is expected to be available later this year, per the AP.

We've been told all our lives that we can only call ourselves well-read once we've read the Great Books. We tried. We got halfway through Infinite Jest and halfway through the SparkNotes on Finnegans Wake. But a few pages into Bleak House, we realized that not all the Great Books have aged well. Some are racist and some are sexist, but most are just really, really boring. So we—and a group of un-boring writers—give you permission to strike these books from the canon. Here's what you should read instead. 1. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry Instead: The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford I actually love Lonesome Dove, but I'm convinced that the cowboy mythos, with its rigid masculine emotional landscape, glorification of guns and destruction, and misogynistic gender roles, is a major factor in the degradation of America. Rather than perpetuate this myth, I'd love for everyone, but particularly American men, to read The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford. It's a wicked, brilliant, dark book set largely on a ranch in Colorado, but it acts in many ways as a strong rebuttal to all the old toxic western stereotypes we all need to explode. —Lauren Groff, 'Florida' 2. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger Instead: Olivia: A Novel by Dorothy Strachey I have never been able to fathom why The Catcher in the Rye is such a canonical novel. I read it because everyone else in school was reading it but thought it was totally silly. Now, looking back, I find that it is without any literary merit whatsoever. Why waste adolescents' time? Alternatively, I'd suggest Olivia, the story of a British teenage girl who is sent to a boarding school in France. It is short and written in a kind of levelheaded and deceptively straightforward style. Olivia eventually falls in love with her teacher Mademoiselle Julie T, who in turn, and without reciprocating that love out loud, is equally in love with Olivia. Julie never takes a wrong step, but there are signs for those who know how to read them. I read Olivia many, many times, bought it for many of my friends, and consider it the inspiration for Call Me by Your Name. —André Aciman, 'Call Me by Your Name' 3. Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves Instead: Dispatches by Michael Herr Goodbye to All That, the autobiographical account of Graves's time in the trenches during World War I, is entertaining and enlightening. It's also incredibly racist. Graves includes samples of near unintelligible essays produced by three of his students (“Mahmoud Mohammed Mahmoud,” “Mohammed Mahmoud Mohammed,” and “Mahmoud Mahmoud Mohammed”) from his postwar stint as an English instructor in Cairo. The joke is twofold—all these silly natives have similar-sounding names, and they lack the basic intellectual capacity to grapple with the literature. A better option is Dispatches by Michael Herr. It concerns a different time, country, and war, but this is still, in my mind, the most indispensable personal account of the cruelty and violence of modern warfare. —Omar El Akkad, 'American War' 4. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway Instead: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson My father loved The Old Man and the Sea, so I tried to love it. It left me unmoved. Mostly, I kept hoping the fish would get away without too much damage. (When my grandpa pushed me to catch a trout at a fish farm, I threw the rod into the pond.) I'd rather read Tove Jansson's The Summer Book. This series of vignettes about a grandmother and granddaughter living on a remote Finnish island is not just heartwarming: In its views of both Nature and human nature, it teaches us what it is to be in sync with the world. All of Jansson's adult fiction is deeply humane and beautiful. —Jeff VanderMeer, 'Annihilation' 5. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Instead: Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector Somehow, even at 208 pages, The Alchemist is 207 pages too long. A dude wanders the desert, trying to uncover his Personal Legend (capitalized as such throughout the book) while meeting people who speak in the inane aphorisms of a throw pillow: “Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.” If you're after a book of existential meandering by a Brazilian author, pick up the similarly slim Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector. Unlike the entitled desert wandering of The Alchemist, Wild Heart's contemplations are inward and complex. For Lispector, there aren't easy answers—and her universe sure as hell is not interested in your hopes and dreams. —Kevin Nguyen, GQ senior editor 6. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway Instead: The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard Hemingway's novels—with their masculine bluster and clipped sentences—sometimes feel almost parodic to me. If you want to read about the intersection of love and war, Hemingway's subjects in A Farewell to Arms, consider Shirley Hazzard's The Great Fire, about the fallout of the Second World War. Though it was published in 2003, the book feels both contemporaneous with that period and wholly contemporary. Hazzard just writes so damn well, every sentence a gem. —Rumaan Alam, 'That Kind of Mother' 7. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy Instead: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt I'm a great admirer of Cormac McCarthy's sparer masterpieces, but I'm ambivalent about Blood Meridian, the historical epic often cited as his greatest work. Set in the Old West and written in an impenetrable style that combines Faulkner and the King James Bible, Blood Meridian is a big, forbidding book that earns the reader bragging rights but provides scant pleasure. If you're looking for a more human-scaled, emotionally engaging novel set in the same time period, I'd recommend The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. It's a dark, funny, brutal Western about a pair of hired killers, at least one of whom has a conscience. It covers some of the same ground as Blood Meridian and has a lot more fun along the way. —Tom Perrotta, 'Mrs. Fletcher' 8. John Adams by David McCullough Instead: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard David McCullough is one of our foremost historians, and his books are written with great care and impressive attention to detail. They also happen to be the driest, boringest tomes you'll ever sludge through. One time I read his book about the history of the Panama Canal, and it required about as much sweat and labor as it took to build the actual canal. For some kick-ass history, read Destiny of the Republic, about the assassination of President Garfield, the doctors who tried to save him but actually ended up killing him, and the frantic attempt by a deranged Alexander Graham Bell to invent a machine to find the bullet located in the president's body. All in a relatively tidy 339 pages. At no point will you feel like there's a test at the end. —Drew Magary, GQ contributor 9 & 10. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Instead: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Fredrick Douglass The worst crime committed by Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is that it makes first-time Twain readers think Twain wrote tedious, meandering stories. He did, as is evidenced by this, his book of tedious, meandering stories—but he also wrote a lot of richly entertaining meandering stories that are not constrained by the ham-fisted narration of a fictional backcountry child or suffused with his sweaty imitation of a slave talking. Alternatively, read Frederick Douglass's firsthand account of slavery, which is equal parts shocking and heartbreaking. It's also an invigorating revenge story: Douglass identifies slave owners by name and hometown, detailing their crimes with such specificity that their descendants will be embarrassed forever. While Jim, the affable slave friend of Huck Finn, exclaims things like “Lawsy, I's mighty glad…,” Frederick Douglass makes observations like “I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.” You were saying, Mr. Twain? —Caity Weaver, GQ writer and editor Instead: The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis Mark Twain was a racist. Just read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was a man of his time, so let's leave him there. We don't need him. If you want adventure, or misadventure, read The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, by Alvaro Mutis. It's one of my favorite books: sad, poetic, philosophical, and funny, with some of the best writing I've read. —Tommy Orange, 'There There' 11. The Ambassadors by Henry James Instead: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer Several people described The Ambassadors by Henry James in such a way as to make me impatient to read it, but between those descriptions and my experience of the book lay a chasm of such yawningness that it will never be crossed. Alternatively, I recommend The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer. I suspect that contemporary readers feel no great urge to pick it up because—in a way that doesn't happen with fiction—it has been rendered somewhat obsolete by more recent books on the subject. It's actually still as gripping as any literary classic. —Geoff Dyer, 'White Sands' 12. The Bible Instead: The Notebook by Agota Kristof The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it. Those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced. It is repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned. If the thing you heard was good about the Bible was the nasty bits, then I propose Agota Kristof's The Notebook, a marvelous tale of two brothers who have to get along when things get rough. The subtlety and cruelty of this story is like that famous sword stroke (from below the boat) that plunged upward through the bowels, the lungs, and the throat and into the brain of the rower. —Jesse Ball, 'Census' 13. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger Instead: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather I loved all of Salinger's books when I was young, but now I feel that they're shallow. It's not that Salinger isn't a very accomplished writer, but there's a sort of slick, brittle, midcentury veneer to his work. It's very polished and not very profound. With Franny and Zooey, there's some Buddhist-y stuff in there, and there's stuff about being disenchanted and the real world around you seeming fake, but is that really profound? Instead I'd recommend a hidden gem, Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop. Cather is a beautiful writer. She's very unfashionable, and I love that about her. Death Comes for the Archbishop is about a priest in what I'm pretty sure is Santa Fe. And it's incredibly calm and contemplative and open. It's the opposite of the kind of glossy, slick New York narrative. When you read it, it's like having a spiritual experience. It's not too long, and it's not effortful. —Claire Messud, 'The Burning Girl' 14. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien Instead: Earthsea Series by Ursula K. Le Guin I liked The Hobbit. A lot. But while Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books are influential as exercises in world building, as novels they are barely readable. It never seemed to me that Tolkien cared about his story as much as he cared about rendering, in minute detail, the world he built. Why not instead read Ursula K. Le Guin's magnificent (and as beautifully rendered) stories and novels surrounding Earthsea? Le Guin captures the world of Earthsea through a powerful, dark, gorgeous kind of storytelling that is irresistible. Perhaps Le Guin's work—along with an entire universe of fantasy fiction—wouldn't have been possible without Tolkien's influence behind it, but in its time, Le Guin's books are more influential and make for better reading. —Manuel Gonzales, 'The Regional Office Is Under Attack!' 15. Dracula by Bram Stoker Instead: Angels by Denis Johnson Gothic-horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein always leave me cold. If you want to read a truly terrifying literary gem, try Johnson's Angels. It unspools as a sort of nightmare that begins on a Greyhound bus. Poor Jamie grew up in West Virginia and leaves her abusive husband back in their trailer when she runs off with her two small children. On that fateful Greyhound bus she meets Bill Houston, who's done everything bad except kill someone, although by the end of the book he will have done it all. —Matthew Klam, 'Who Is Rich?' 16. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Instead: The American Granddaughter by Inaam Kachachi I never could get into Joseph Heller's Catch-22. It fails to capture the absurdities and impossible conflicts of war. However, one of the most arresting novels I've read about war is Kachachi's The American Granddaughter. Set at the beginning of the Iraq war, this book tells the story of Zeina, an Iraqi-American who signs up to be an interpreter for the U.S. Army and finds herself stationed in her hometown of Baghdad, where she must hide her work from her formidable grandmother. What follows is a thoughtful, nuanced, and often uproariously funny meditation on war in the 21st century. —Emily Robbins, 'A Word for Love' 17. Life by Keith Richards Instead: The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard I’ve nodded along—or maybe plain lied in agreement—when people extol Keith Richards’s memoir, Life. And I understand what’s to like: the life Life aims to represent has been an incredible one, and Richards affects a revelatory intimacy that, as you might wish, is both amiable and caustic. But his pettiness, and his cockiness and conceit about the wrong things, can be jarring at times; it’s a book that somehow makes me sympathize with Mick Jagger. And for all its great moments, the narrative sometimes seems a little lazy and fraudulent—as I read, I feel too aware of the efforts the ghostwriter has made in collecting “the greatest tales of Keith Richards” and refreshing them at the source. If those stories are new to you, you’ll be well entertained, but I wonder at its status as a modern day masterpiece. Instead, you might try The Worst Journey In The World, a book in which the author spends no time at all trying to convince the reader of his own greatness. Quite the opposite. In 1910, a 24-year-old Cherry-Garrard joined a British expedition to the South Pole. As the title of his book hints, it didn’t go well. Their leader, Captain Scott, was beaten to the Pole by a Norwegian explorer, and those who reached the pole died on their return. And that’s just a part of this story. For instance, Cherry-Garrard’s account of a month-long trek with two companions to collect some emperor penguin eggs is an unforgettable depiction of endurance and suffering in unimaginable conditions. That such a book, nearly a hundred years old, would be a pleasure to read today might seem improbable. But the way Cherry-Garrard writes, without grandiose flourishes but with a stoic and dogged commitment to describe and explain his experiences, is gripping from its very first line: “Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.” —Chris Heath, GQ correspondent 18. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen Instead: Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal Freedom is intolerably boring. The risks of frustration and asphyxiation while reading in bed are equally high with this huge, much vaunted American über-tome. But freedom is at the heart of this tiny Czech novel, Too Loud a Solitude. In around a hundred pages, it tells the story of Hanta, who has found wisdom in his job, compressing paper and books in a totalitarian state. The jokes are funny, and the stories lead us to ever richer revelations. The book is over almost before it has begun. —Richard Flanagan, 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' 19. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon Instead: Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon When young Thomas Pynchon was writing Gravity's Rainbow, he was fixated on the Big Things (punishingly boring and confusing things) of a Big World War II Novel that would announce him as a Big American Writer in 1973. Fortunately for us, nearly four decades later he brought us his recollections of everything else that was swirling around him back then. The world Pynchon conjures in Inherent Vice (published in 2009) is the world he himself was living in while writing Gravity's Rainbow, when he was shacked up in a small apartment in the real-life Gordita Beach. Inherent Vice is where you should start if you want to dine on a small plate of Pynchon's stuff instead of a potluck platter. —Daniel Riley, GQ features editor 20. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Instead: Veronica by Mary Gaitskill When men on dating apps list a book, they invariably list Slaughterhouse-Five. I'd rather not get a drink with a person who's taking his cues from Vonnegut: The few women in Slaughterhouse-Five die early, are porn stars, or are “bitchy flibbertigibbets.” Instead, read Gaitskill's Veronica, in which emotions are so present and sensory they almost hold a physical weight. Gaitskill understands how you can sense a loved one's mood radiating from the next room as clearly as rain out the window. This empathy drives her characters closer to cruelty than to kindness. —Nadja Spiegelman, 'I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This' ||||| CLOSE GQ Magazine placed the bible on a list called “21 Books You Don’t Have to Read.” Veuer's Sam Berman has the full story. Buzz60 The Good Book is not so good, says GQ magazine. (Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images) Well, it appears this group of scribes won’t be greeted very warmly at the Pearly Gates. GQ magazine, a bible of “grooming” tips, gadget suggestions and style advice, has sparked a social media conflagration by calling the Christian Holy Bible “foolish, repetitive and contradictory” and placing it on a list of “21 Books You Don’t Have to Read.” “The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it,” novelist Jesse Ball writes in the magazine. “Those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced.” Instead, Ball recommends reading Agota Kristof's The Notebook calling it “a marvelous tale of two brothers who have to get along when things get rough.” Also on the GQ list are such classics as The Catcher in the Rye, Lonesome Dove, The Old Man and the Sea, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Lord of the Rings. More: Biblical prophecy claims the rapture coming by month's end More: The Museum of the Bible debuts in the nation's capital More: Bible studies are underway at the White House More: Woman allegedly brought drugs into jail, hidden in Bible In an introduction to the piece, GQ editors attempted justify their choices. "We've been told all our lives that we can only call ourselves well-read once we've read the Great Books. We tried," the editors wrote. "We realized that not all the Great Books have aged well. Some are racist and some are sexist, but most are just really, really boring.” Perhaps predictably, the provocative proclamation about the Bible brought instant ire from Christians. "Even if you don't believe this is an inspired word of God, in the last 50 years 3.9 billion have read the book," Fox News religion contributor Father Jonathan Morris told Fox & Friends on Sunday. Morris also labeled the inclusion as “just foolish and a shame.” .@fatherjonathan: It’s ‘foolish’ that the editors of GQ Magazine would claim that the bible is one of the most overrated books of all time pic.twitter.com/rY7vhbTWkx — FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 22, 2018 And evangelist Franklin Graham, in a post on Facebook, said that the Bible is “sharper than a double-edged sword. There’s nothing more powerful, and there’s nothing more needed by mankind than the Word of God.” Graham suggested that the GQ editors need to read it again. “The subject of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is Jesus Christ. And one day soon, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.” On Twitter, a user called Bluestar called GQ “The Most Overrated Magazine Of All Time!” and said the choice was an “epic fail.” Another poster, who identified himself as Eric Metaxas, also slammed the magazine. “If there is a person on the planet who cares what @GQMagazine has to say about literature, I'd love to meet that person,” said. “And pray for him.” If there is a person on the planet who cares what @GQMagazine has to say about literature, I'd love to meet that person. And pray for him. https://t.co/xJlWfH4m5P — Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) April 22, 2018 Meanwhile, Twitter user David D raged that “This Act by GQ is a total disgrace to the Christain (sic) Community.” “I really don't think I'll be buying anymore GQ Mags,” he proclaimed. I just heard GQ Magazine just Bashed the Bible!!! The Bible is God's Holy Word. I really don't think I'll be buying anymore GQ Mags. This Act by GQ is a total disgrace to the Christain Community. — 🇺🇸 David D 🇺🇸 (@luckydbldd) April 22, 2018 And in perhaps the cruelest jab at the magazine, Tweeter Brian Houston declared that the Bible “is way more hip than GQ.” Wow. What a way for GQ to show this irrelevance. The bible is way more hip than GQ. — Brian Houston (@BrianCHouston) April 23, 2018 GQ did not immediately respond to a request for a comment. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2FcPKxa

– If you've ever found yourself struggling through a so-called "classic" book only to find yourself thinking, "How racist/sexist/boring," you're not alone. The editors of GQ, along with some current authors, have put together a list of 21 such books (technically 20, because one of them got two votes) that are simply outdated and should be struck from the "Great Books" canon. The list got itself mentioned on Fox & Friends last weekend, and not in a good way—it includes the Bible, which Jesse Ball calls "repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned," leading Fox News religion contributor Father Jonathan Morris to push back by calling its inclusion on the list "foolish," USA Today reports. Lots of social media users also decried the choice, and evangelist Franklin Graham said the editors "couldn't be more wrong." As for what else made the list, here's a sampling—along with the books the editors and the authors they spoke to think you should read instead: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: This is the book that got two votes. "Mark Twain was a racist. ... He was a man of his time, so let's leave him there," writes Tommy Orange. Instead, he suggests reading The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis; Caity Weaver suggests Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

Protesters listen to speakers at a demonstration against a proposed ban of transgendered people in the military in the Castro District, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in San Francisco. Demonstrators flocked... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military will continue to permit transgender individuals to serve openly until Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has received President Donald Trump's "direction" to change the policy and figured out how to implement it, America's top military officer said Thursday. In a memo to all military service chiefs, commanders and enlisted military leaders, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said "there will be no modifications" to current policy for now, amid questions about Trump's announcement on Twitter that the U.S. government will not "accept or allow" transgender people to serve in any capacity in the military. "I know there are questions about yesterday's announcement," Dunford began, adding that nothing would change until the president's direction has been received by Mattis and Mattis has issued "implementation guidance." "In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect," Dunford wrote. "As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions." The Dunford statement suggests that Mattis was given no presidential direction on changing the transgender policy. Mattis has been on vacation this week and has been publicly silent amid questions about Trump's announced ban. His spokesmen declined to comment Thursday. On Wednesday they said the Pentagon would work with the White House and provide revised guidance to the military "in the near future." Dunford himself was not aware that Trump was going to announce the ban, a U.S. official said. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter and so spoke on condition of anonymity. Trump's announcement caught the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump's "guidance." "Please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," the commander in chief tweeted. Trump wrote that he had consulted with "my generals and military experts," but he did not mention Mattis, the retired Marine general who recently told the service chiefs to spend another six months weighing the costs and benefits of allowing transgender individuals to enlist. At the time, Mattis said this "does not presuppose the outcome of the review," but Trump's tweets appeared to have done just that. The Pentagon has not released data on the number of transgender people currently serving. A Rand Corp. study has estimated the number at between 1,320 and 6,630 out of 1.3 million active-duty troops. Criticism for Trump's action was immediate and strong from both political parties. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and Vietnam War hero, said Trump was simply wrong. "Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving," he said. "There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military -- regardless of their gender identity." Not everyone at the Capitol agreed. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said: "It's about time that a decision is made to restore the warrior culture and allow the U.S. military to get back to business." Transgender people already in uniform were concerned about what comes next. "Everybody is hurt, everybody is scared," said Rudy Akbarian, 26, who is in the military but did not want to identify his branch. Trump's sudden declaration appears to halt a decades-long trend toward more inclusive policies on military service, including the repeal in 2010 of a ban on gays serving openly. President Bill Clinton in 1993 began the push to allow gays to serve. In December 2015, President Barack Obama's Pentagon chief, Ash Carter, announced that all military positions would be open to women. Liberalizing policy on transgender troops was the next step. Just last week, when asked about the transgender issue at a Senate hearing, Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "I am an advocate of every qualified person who can meet the physical standards to serve in our uniformed services to be able to do so." Transgender service members have been able to serve openly since 2016, when Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops could receive medical care and start changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system. Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to join the military if they meet normal standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months. On June 30, Mattis extended the July 1 deadline to next Jan. 1, saying the services should study the impact on the "readiness and lethality of our forces." White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had made "a military decision." She said it was his judgment that allowing transgender service "erodes military readiness and unit cohesion." Sanders said the "president's national security team was part of this consultation" and that Trump "informed" Mattis of his decision immediately after he made it on Tuesday. ||||| CLOSE President Donald Trump said he will reverse former President Obama's policy that allowed transgender troops to serve openly in the military. USA TODAY Protesters gather in front of the White House on July 26, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Trump announced on July 26 that transgender people may not serve "in any capacity" in the U.S. military, citing the "tremendous medical costs and disruption" their presence would cause. (Photo: Paul J. Richards, AFP/Getty Images) WASHINGTON – Military leaders sought to reassure transgender troops Thursday that their jobs and health care are safe – at least for now – after President Trump's tweets a day earlier that implied an immediate end to both. The Navy offered the most specific guidance, saying no transgender sailors will be discharged and the service will continue to provide health care for them, according to an email obtained by USA TODAY. Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, told all the service chiefs in a memo that there will be no changes in transgender policy until Defense Secretary Jim Mattis receives specific direction from the White House. Yet administration officials said that guidance may be weeks or even months away. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said there was no timetable to implement Trump's tweets on Wednesday morning that declared transgender troops would not be welcome to serve in any capacity, and that the military would not pay for their medical treatment. Military leaders acknowledged the tumult created by those tweets, and that they were blindsided by the announcement. The Navy's guidance, which came in an email from Vice Adm. Robert Burke, also acknowledges that Trump's announcement is "causing concern for some of our sailors and that they likely have questions." What's more, Burke indicates that Trump's tweets caught military brass unawares. Burke notes that the office of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is "working to quickly discern the President's intent." Mattis was on vacation when Trump made his announcement. The Defense Secretary, and by extension, the Navy "will not take any personnel actions or change any policy until further guidance from the President is received," Burke wrote, adding that transgender sailors receiving medical care will continue "to receive all necessary medical care" and none would be discharged. He concluded by saying, "treating service members with dignity and respect is something we expect from our Sailors at all times." Related: Trump's decision to ban transgender troops in three tweets left the White House and Pentagon scrambling to determine how to proceed in the immediate aftermath Wednesday. One day later, there has been no formal policy guidance issued from the White House about reversing the policy that started last year under the Obama administration to allow transgender troops to serve openly. In July 2016, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter outlined a plan to allow transgender troops to receive treatment that ranges from counseling to hormone treatment to gender reassignment surgery. Before that, those service members could have been discharged for medical reasons. There may be as many as 6,600 transgender troops on the military's active duty force of 1.3 million, according to a RAND Corp. report. As civil liberties and LGBTQ groups continue to denounce Trump's decision, the White House has been unable to answer questions about whether transgender service members would be dismissed from the military – even if they are currently deployed to conflict zones such as Afghanistan. CLOSE Here is a guide to understanding LGBT terms. Sara Snyder, USA TODAY Explaining his rationale on Wednesday, Trump said the U.S. military "must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail." Yet any saving Trump hoped to achieve by denying transgender troops medical care will be overshadowed by the cost of replacing them. The RAND Corp., a non-partisan think tank commissioned by the Pentagon to study the issue, found that only a few hundred of the estimated 6,600 transgender troops would seek medical treatment in any year. RAND found those costs would total no more than $8 million per year. Replacing them transgender troops would likely be far more costly. The Army, for example, is spending $300 million this year on bonuses and ads to recruit 6,000 soldiers. That does not include the money needed to train, equip and pay them. Though Trump's tweets said he made the decision after consulting "with my generals and military experts," it remains unclear who took part in those discussions. Navy Capt. Greg Hicks declined to comment on whether Trump consulted Dunford on repealing the policy. Those conversations are private and confidential, said Hicks, Dunford’s spokesman. Contributing: David Jackson Related: Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2vaPuxX

– The US military will continue to permit transgender individuals to serve openly until Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has received President Donald Trump's "direction" to change the policy and figured out how to implement it, America's top military officer said Thursday. In a memo to all military service chiefs, commanders, and enlisted military leaders, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said "there will be no modifications" to current policy for now, amid questions about Trump's announcement on Twitter that the US government will not "accept or allow" transgender people to serve in any capacity in the military, the AP reports. "I know there are questions about yesterday's announcement," Dunford began, adding that nothing would change until the president's direction has been received by Mattis and Mattis has issued "implementation guidance." The Dunford statement suggests that Mattis was given no presidential direction on changing the transgender policy. Mattis has been on vacation this week and has been publicly silent amid questions about Trump's announced ban. His spokesmen declined to comment Thursday. On Wednesday they said the Pentagon would work with the White House and provide revised guidance to the military "in the near future." Dunford himself was not aware that Trump was going to announce the ban, a US official said. Trump's announcement caught the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump's "guidance." The Navy is in sync with Dunford's direction: In an email obtained by USA Today, Vice Adm. Robert Burke said transgender sailors will not be discharged and will continue to receive medical treatment until the White House issues clear guidance.

Days after student reporters at Pittsburg High School in Kansas dug into the background of their newly hired principal and found questionable credentials, she resigned from the $93,000-a-year job. “She was going to be the head of our school, and we wanted be assured that she was qualified and had the proper credentials,” said Trina Paul, a senior and an editor of the Booster Redux, the school newspaper. “We stumbled on some things that most might not consider legitimate credentials.” Minutes into a closed special meeting Tuesday night of the Pittsburg Community Schools Board of Education, board president Al Mendez emerged to announce to a packed boardroom that Amy Robertson, the new principal, had resigned. “In light of the issues that arose, Amy Robertson felt it was in the best interest of the district to resign her position,” Superintendent Destry Brown said in a statement after the executive session. Premium content for only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. SUBSCRIBE NOW The board agreed with that decision and said will reopen the principal position Wednesday morning and contact others who had applied for the job to see if they are still interested. “Our goal is to find the best person to be our principal that we can find,” Brown said. “I know the students want that too.” Pittsburg journalism adviser Emily Smith said she is “very proud” of her students. “They were not out to get anyone to resign or to get anyone fired. They worked very hard to uncover the truth.” Students journalists published a story Friday questioning the legitimacy of the private college — Corllins University — where Robertson got her master’s and doctorate degrees years ago. U.S. Department of Education officials, contacted by The Star, confirmed student reports; the federal agency could not find evidence of Corllins in operation. The school wasn’t included among the agency’s list of schools closed since 1986. Robertson earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Tulsa. Students found and The Star confirmed the existence of several articles referring to Corllins as a diploma mill — where people can buy a degree, diploma or certificates. And searches on the school’s website go nowhere. No one from the university responded to emails sent by The Star this week. Contacted by email Friday, Robertson, who has lived off and on for 19 years in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said, “The current status of Corllins University is not relevant because when I received my MA in 1994 and my PhD in 2010, there was no issue.” She also said, “All three of my degrees have been authenticated by the US government.” Robertson declined to comment directly on students’ questions about her credentials, saying, “I have no comment in response to the questions posed by PHS students regarding my credentials because their concerns are not based on facts.” The Pittsburg Board of Education approved hiring Robertson at its meeting March 6. In a news release about the hiring, district spokesman Zach Fletcher said that “Robertson comes to Pittsburg with decades of experience in education.” Robertson is CEO of Atticus I S Consultants, “an education consulting firm where she gained leadership and management experience at the international equivalence of a building administrator and superintendent,” the release said. Robertson, after application reviews and interviews with administrators, faculty and students, “emerged as the best fit” for the job, said Brown. He said the district relies on the Kansas Department of Education to approve a candidate’s credentials. “I felt like she is very knowledgeable about what is going on in education today in college and career readiness, she is very familiar with Common Core, she knows about how a building works and about maintaining a safe environment,” he said. He was surprised students questioned Robertson’s credentials. “The kids had never gone through someone like this before,” Brown said. But he said he encouraged them to seek answers. “I want our kids to have real-life experiences, whether it’s welding or journalism.” Despite questions, Brown said Friday that the district’s school board had “100 percent supported the Robertson hire.” Tuesday night he said he felt bad about how it all turned out. “ I do feel it is my responsibility. As superintendent I feel like I let the teachers and the students down. I publicly admit that.” Robertson, who he said also has a teaching degree from the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, isn’t licensed in Kansas. She would have had to take classes at Pittsburg State University, pass a test and acquire her license before she could officially hold the principal post. That isn’t uncommon for someone hired from outside the state, Brown said. Maddie Baden, a 17-year-old Pittsburg High junior, said the student news staff began looking into Robertson’s background after an electronic search of her name turned up several articles published by Gulf News about an English language school connected to Robertson in Dubai. The 2012 articles said Dubai’s education authority had suspended the license for Dubai American Scientific School and accused Robertson of not being authorized to serve as principal of that school. The private, for-profit school received an “unsatisfactory” rating on Dubai education authority inspection reports every year from 2008 to 2012 and was closed in September 2013. “That raised a red flag,” Baden said. “If students could uncover all of this, I want to know why the adults couldn’t find this..” She had originally interviewed Robertson for a routine school newspaper story “to introduce the new principal to the community,” Baden said. “No one knew who she was.” Pittsburg is about 90 minutes south of Kansas City on U.S. 69. The high school has 900 students. Six students worked about three weeks looking into Robertson’s past work and education. When they went to Corllins University’s website, “We found a website that didn’t work,” Baden said. And a student checking with the Council for Higher Education Accreditation found that Corllins was not listed in its database of 7,600 schools accredited by a recognized accrediting agency in the United States. But officials there told The Star the school could have been accredited in the past. ||||| High school journalists in Kansas investigated their principal and found discrepancies in her credentials, prompting her to resign. Professional journalists like The Post's David Fahrenthold congratulated the kids for asking tough questions. (Monica Akhtar,Victoria Walker/The Washington Post) Connor Balthazor, 17, was in the middle of study hall when he was called into a meeting with his high school newspaper adviser. A group of reporters and editors from the student newspaper, the Booster Redux at Pittsburg High School in southeastern Kansas, had gathered to talk about Amy Robertson, who was hired as the high school’s head principal on March 6. The student journalists had begun researching Robertson, and quickly found some discrepancies in her education credentials. For one, when they researched Corllins University, the private university where Robertson said she got her master’s and doctorate degrees years ago, the website didn’t work. They found no evidence that it was an accredited university. “There were some things that just didn’t quite add up,” Balthazor told The Washington Post. The students began digging into a weeks-long investigation that would result in an article published Friday questioning the legitimacy of the principal’s degrees and of her work as an education consultant. On Tuesday night, Robertson resigned. “In light of the issues that arose, Dr. Robertson felt it was in the best interest of the district to resign her position,” Pittsburg Community Schools announced in a statement. “The Board has agreed to accept her resignation.” The resignation thrust the student newspaper staff into local, state and national news, with professional journalists nationwide applauding the students for asking tough questions and prompting change in their administration. “Everybody kept telling them, ‘stop poking your nose where it doesn’t belong,'” newspaper adviser Emily Smith told The Post. But with the encouragement of the superintendent, the students persisted. “They were at a loss that something that was so easy for them to see was waiting to be noticed by adults,” Smith said. In the Booster Redux article, a team of six students — five juniors and one senior — revealed that Corllins had been portrayed in a number of articles as a diploma mill, a place where people can buy a degree, diploma or certificates. Corllins is not accredited by the U.S. Department of Education, the students reported. The Better Business Bureau’s website says Corllins’s physical address is unknown and the school isn’t a BBB-accredited institution. “All of this was completely overlooked,” Balthazor said. “All of the shining reviews did not have these crucial pieces of information … you would expect your authority figures to find this.” Robertson had been living in Dubai for more than 20 years before she was hired for the position. She said she most recently worked as the chief executive of an education consulting firm known as Atticus I S Consultants there. In a conference call with the student journalists, Robertson “presented incomplete answers, conflicting dates and inconsistencies in her responses,” the students reported. She said she attended Corllins before it lost accreditation, the Booster Redux reported. When contacted by the Kansas City Star after the publication of the students’ article, Robertson said all three of her degrees “have been authenticated by the U.S. government.” She declined to comment directly on students’ questions about her credentials, “because their concerns are not based on facts,” she said. In an emergency faculty meeting Tuesday, the superintendent said Robertson was unable to produce a transcript confirming her undergraduate degree from the University of Tulsa, Smith said. During the course of their reporting, the students spent weeks reaching out to educational institutions and accreditation agencies to corroborate Robertson’s background, some even working through spring break. Their adviser, Smith, had to recuse herself from the story because she was on the committee that hired Robertson. So the students sought the help of Eric Thomas, executive director of the Kansas Scholastic Press Association, and other local and national journalists and experts. Under Kansas law, high school journalists are protected from administrative censorship. “The kids are treated as professionals,” Smith said. But with that freedom came a major responsibility to get the story right, Smith said. It also meant overcoming a natural hesitancy many students have to question authority. “At the very beginning it was a little bit exciting,” Balthazor said. “It was like in the movies, a big city journalist chasing down a lead.” But as the students began delving deeper into the story, keeping notes on a whiteboard, “it really started hitting me that this is a much bigger deal,” Balthazor said. The students were among those packed into a school boardroom Tuesday night when the school board president announced Robertson’s resignation. After the announcement, a parent in the audience stood up and asked school officials if they would be recognizing the student journalists for uncovering crucial details about Robertson’s background. The superintendent said he would be meeting with the students Wednesday to personally thank them. “We’d broken out of our comfort zones so much,” Balthazor said. “To know that the administration saw that and respected that, it was a really great moment for us.” After local news broke that Robertson had resigned, numerous national journalists — including The Post’s David Fahrenthold — tweeted the students’ story, congratulating them for their work. “Holy crap,” Balthazor thought, “why are these people paying attention to this little journalism story from southeast Kansas?” While the high school junior was leaving track practice Tuesday night, he learned in a group message with his newspaper staff that Todd Wallack, a reporter for the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team, had tweeted the students’ story, saying: “Great investigative work by high school journalists.” Balthazor sat in his car in the parking lot and immediately called his mom to tell her the news. “I honestly thought they were joking at first,” Balthazor said. The Booster Redux staff had watched the movie “Spotlight” in class last year, Balthazor said. “It was awesome to know that such respected members of the journalism community had our backs.” After graduation, Balthazor said, he hopes to pursue a degree in creative writing or filmmaking. Even though he doesn’t necessarily plan to stick with journalism, Balthazor said the past few weeks had been “surreal.” “Most high schoolers would never get even close to an opportunity to get to experience something like this,” he said. Read more from Morning Mix: A teen asked his grandmother to her first prom. Too old, said the school. Paper says columnist tried to remove his articles criticizing Trump to get a State Department job. It backfired. America is ‘over-stored’ and Payless ShoeSource is the latest victim ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.

– The hiring committee at Pittsburg High School took Amy Robertson's list of credentials—including supposed master’s and doctorate degrees—at face value. But not the school's students, whose investigation has since led to their new principal's resignation. After Robertson was hired for the job at the Kansas school last month, with an annual salary of $93,000, six student journalists writing for the school's Booster Redux newspaper began to dig into her past—only to find things "just didn’t quite add up," one student tells the Washington Post. For example, Corllins University, where Robertson claimed to have been educated, was accused of selling degrees, had no known physical address, and wasn't accredited by the Department of Education. Robertson told the students she attended Corllins before it lost accreditation, but she also "presented incomplete answers, conflicting dates, and inconsistencies in her responses," the Redux reported. Robertson, who has lived in Dubai for the last two decades, told the Kansas City Star last week that she wouldn't comment on her credentials because the students' "concerns are not based on facts." It was "red flags" about her time in Dubai that turned up during an electronic search of her name that prompted the students' full investigation; initially, one of the student journalists was planning to write a standard article introducing the students to their new principal. Ultimately, Robertson resigned Tuesday after she was unable to verify an undergraduate degree she said she received from the University of Tulsa, a Redux adviser tells the Post. The students are getting plenty of praise for their investigative work from professional journalists. The school superintendent, meanwhile, says it was up to the school board to review Robertson's credentials before approving the hire, which it did.

This website is dedicated to compiling and analyzing the evidence that an out-of-control news media created a false narrative in the Jerry Sandusky story, which effectively framed Joe Paterno for crimes he obviously didn't commit, and of which he may have had extremely limited knowledge (assuming they even happened, which the evidence now strongly suggests they did not). This has resulted in an unjust destruction of a man's entire life's work and legacy, while doing incredible damage to a university and football program which almost certainly did not deserve the unprecedented and illogical punishments they received. This site is NOT a defense of child sexual abuse. This site is also NOT remotely based on a conspiracy theory (the term "Framing" is meant figuratively, and not literally), but rather the notion that an incompetent, ratings-driven media told this story in a way not consistent with the facts, or even basic logic, and are now too invested in their fairytale to ever correct their colossal errors. We ARE dedicated to exposing the truth in this case and this website is the home of a documentary film on this subject, "The Framing of Joe Paterno" as well as our first online book, "The Betrayal of Joe Paterno and our second online book (which is mostly satirical), "Perfect Sense." While this site began as a defense of Paterno, after investigating the case for two years and interviewing Sandusky twice in prison, it became obvious that Sandusky himself has also been done a horrendous injustice. While this revelation will be shocking to people who have not followed the case closely, if you look at the evidence here with an open mind, there is little doubt that you will come to the same conclusion. ************************************************************** John Ziegler Does Awesome Facebook Interview with Glenn Beck's "The Blaze" Network John Ziegler Provides "Blaze TV" With 2 Minute Summary of the Real Story of the Pe​nn State "Scandal" 9/22​/16: Must-Watch! The Most Comprehensive Video Interview Ever Done on the Penn State Case John Ziegler Holds Fiery Press Conference Attacking the Media After Jerry Sandusky's Appeal Hearing Results in Shocking Pro-Sandusky Ruling From Judge! New Video: Inside Scott Paterno's Role in the Fiasco & His New "Revelations" HUGE NEW RELEASE: The REAL Story of How/Why Aaron Fisher & His Mother Dawn Started the Scam (With Crazy Updates On Dawn "Fisher's" Meltdown as Post Goes Viral) MAJOR NEW RELEASE: Recent Top Stories: AIRED VERSION OF MATT LAUER/TODAY SHOW INTERVIEW OF DOTTIE SANDUSKY AND JOHN ZIEGLER MUST-WATCH NEW VIDEO: John Ziegler Previews Today Show Interview From the Sandusky Basement Latest Interviews : WRSC-FM in State College Reviews All the Recent Aaron Fisher Revelations Great New Content from San Diego "Upon Further Review" on Eve of NCAA Convention: Hot Links: Major Website Developments: Our Book Release: Our Sandusky Interview : Recent Events : Hmmmm... Penn State is Fighting Release of Key BOT Emails Ray Blehar on the Real Story of Fina and McGettigan as Not Told by CBS News Ray Blehar on Whether the McQueary Episode Really Was Reported to the Proper Authorities KDKA in Pittsburgh Host Rips Ziegler, Refuses to Have Him On, Changes Mind, and Gets Schooled On Air Ziegler Interview With State College Radio on Sandusky Letter and True Meaning of Settlements Awesome: Penn Stater Makes News By Selling Disney Stock in Protest of ESPN Coverage Spencer Niles Rips PSU BOT for Intimidating Student Member off Paterno Lawsuit PA State Senator Takes PSU BOT to the Woodshed Over Handling of Sandusky Settlements Sandusky Prosecutor Expresses Shock the Media Became Obsessed with the Story Ray Blehar on What the Preliminary Hearing Says About the PR Blunders on November 2011 NCAA Hypocrisy is Further Exposed as They Still Have Paterno Items in Their Store John Ziegler Radio Interview on Recent Developments in the Penn State Case Transcripts from Penn State Preliminary Hearing are Released Great Video Exposing the Fraud that is the "Schultz Secret File" Myth Chairman of of PSU BOT Reveals He Had Spinal Removal Surgery in USA Today Interview Franco Harris Releases Statement Asking For Members of PSU BOT to Resign Get the Popcorn Ready! Graham Spanier is Suing Louis Freeh Onward State Publishes Even More Extensive Transcript of our Blackledge Interview The Morning Call Newspaper Publishes Partial Transcript of our Todd Blackledge Interview What if Freeh Investigated the Patriots Over Hernandez? Petition to Support the Paterno Family Lawsuit Against the NCAA Former PSU Player Tom Donchez Explains Support for Paterno Lawsuit Against NCAA Former PSU Quarterback Defends Football Culture Under Joe Paterno Over 300 Former PSU Football Players, Including ESPN's Blackledge, Publicly Support Paterno Lawsuit Unscientific State College Poll on Sandusky Scandal Yields Some Interesting Results Centre Daily Times Publishes Letter to Editor About Ziegler/Erickson Encounter John Ziegler and Kevin Slaten Discuss the "Meeting" With PSU President Rodney Erickson Ray Blehar's Review of the "Costas Tonight" Special on Freeh Report Shocking: MSM Writer Actually Seems to Understand What is Really Going On Here Poll on Paterno Lawsuit at Anti-Paterno Newspaper Shows There Are a Lot of "JoeBots" Out There Interesting Q and A on the Prospects for the Paterno Lawsuit Against NCAA From the Archives: Sara Ganim Is Forced to Admit in Court that She Brought the State Victim 6 John Ziegler Named 7th Most Notable PSU Person of the Year, Just Ahead of "Squirrel Whisperer" 275 Attend Franco Harris "Upon Further Review' Event In State College Centre Daily Times Previews Franco Harris Event in State College With Typical Bias Former NCAA Investigator Rips Penn State for Accepting Bogus NCAA Sanctions "The Framing of Joe Paterno" Mini Movie Headlines American Documentary Film Festival USA Today Does Far Greater Investigation Into NCAA President than Freeh Did of PSU Book By Lanny Davis Documents How PSU BOT Wet Their Pants In Firing Paterno PSU Lettermen Take PSU BOT to the Woodshed in Press Conference PSU BOT Follow Up Meeting to the "O.J. Meeting" Gets Very Interesting Dick Thornburgh Responds to Frazier's Bizarre Rant, Doesn't Mention O.J. Black PSU BOT Member Doesn't Care About Upcoming Trials Because White People Know O.J. Simpson Was Guilty Emails From Freeh Team Would Be Considered Proof of Conspiracy by Freeh Freeh Contract Reveals Blueprint For Where Investigation Would Go PSU BOT Embarrassments Continue: Now Claiming Paterno Wasn't Fired Brilliant Parody of ESPN Reporter's Incompetence On Sandusky Story Franco Harris Calls On Penn State to "Rebuild Our Wall!" Media Now Reduced to Ripping Franco Harris for His Running Style 250 Brave Snow Storm/Traffic to Learn Other Side of Sandusky Story Slides Franco Harris Uses In His "Upon Further Review" Conferences John Ziegler Tries to Open the Mind of Popular Philly Sports Radio Host Transcript of Franco Harris/Mark Emmert Exchange Video of the Entire First "Franco Harris" Townhall Conference in Pittsburgh THE "FRAMING OF JOE PATERNO" MINI MOVIE! This "Mini Movie" is intended as a small sampling of what the full documentary might look like if we get the support to do it. It has been accepted into the American Documentary Film Festival in Palm Springs and the West Chester Film Festival, both in April. Please Share the Videos Far and Wide! Philadelphia Inquirer Does Relatively Fair Article on Mini Movie Philadelphia Inquirer Does Second Version of Article on Mini Movie Penn State Newspaper Does Story on "Framing Paterno" Mini Movie Pittsburgh Paper On Franco Harris Event Where Movie Debuted Web Site of Patriot News Reviews: Mini Movie is "Required Viewing" Bleacher Report Story on Mini Movie Part One of Our Plan..... Expose the Media Bias.... In order to quantify the impact of the incredibly one-sided media coverage, we commissioned a scientific nationwide poll to determine the public's knowledge of the story. Thanks to remarkable support from those who want to see the truth finally come out here, we were able to fulfill our promise. And now... Our public press release for the poll can be read here. John Ziegler's Op-ed column for several Pennsylvania newspapers can be read here. The Media Research Council's article can be read here. The Penn State student paper article can be read here. Listen to an awesome interview on the poll with KDKA CBS Pittsburgh here Listen to another good PA radio interview dealing with several of our activities here Part Two of Our Plan... We have designed a T-shirt (seen to the right) which, thanks to your donations, we gave away to almost 1,000 Penn State students to wear at the first home game and the rest went to the Rally for Resignations.. Part Three!!! Here is an exclusive MUST SEE VIDEO on the "cover up"!!! This is exactly what would have had to have happened if the Freeh Report is correct. Spread the truth and the laughs! You can listen to Kevin Slaten interview John Ziegler about the video here Part Four... John Ziegler issues $10,000 Charity Challenge to Media on next "Penn State" Trial... Here is our press release. Will the media back up their beliefs for the sake of the victims of sexual abuse?? Read the INCREDIBLE E-mail exchange Ziegler had over this topic with the Program Director at the two biggest talk stations in Philadelphia (both of which have been EXTREMELY anti-Paterno/truth). See his arrogance and ignorance here. Even more remarkably, read about what happened when Ziegler was invited on to one of the very shows that Program Director told him he had been banned from!! Numerous FCC complaints have already been filed because Buzz Bissinger dropped the F bomb!! Part Five... The weekend of Penn State's first home game we will be in State College starting to shoot for our proposed documentary. Articles about this development have been printed in two major local papers, including here and here. THANK YOU FOR YOUR REMARKABLE SUPPORT!! PLEASE KEEP SHARING THE WEBSITE WITH FRIENDS!! Top Opinion & Analysis Just Released: Ray Blehar on Whether NCAA Sanctions Should be Invalidated by Process Eileen Morgan's Chart of Mike McQueary's Evolving Testimony Ray Blehar on Mike McQueary's Ever-Changing Testimony Ray Blehar on How One Year Later the Tide Has Turned Against Freeh Ray Blehar on the Hatchet Job a Pittsburgh Paper Did on Franco Harris Ray Blehar on Who Closed the 1998 Investigation Eileen Morgan on the Cancer Which Afflicts Penn State Ray Blehar on the Mystery of Tom Harmon's Role in All of This Ray Blehar on the Dismissal of Corbett's NCAA Lawsuit Ray Blehar's Part 2 on Importance of "Missing" Documents in Schultz File Eileen Morgan Has Some Fun With the Bogus SI Penn State Hit Piece Ray Blehar on How the Schultz 'Secret File" Could Actually Backfire on the Other Side Golf Announcers do a "Mike McQueary" by Changing Their Accounts of Tiger's Drop Based on Circumstances Academic Paper from University of Arkansas Rips GJ Mention of Paterno What Media Coverage of Boston Bombings Tells Us About PSU/Sandusky Did Cynthia Baldwin Lie Help the Obstruction Justice Case Against PSU Ray Blehar on State College TV to Discuss the Case Ray Blehar On How the Limits of Memory Explains Victim 2's Statement Eileen Morgan On How Real History Following 1998 Disproves Cover Up Eileen Morgan On How the PSU BOT Blew It Ray Blehar On How The Media Botched the Narrative From the Start Part #2 of Ray Blehar's Analysis of the Freeh Report Mainstream San Diego Op-Ed Uses Our Efforts to Attack Freeh Report Detailed Timeline of Events Reveals Absurdity of Cover Up Allegation Someone Writing at CNN Is Clearly A Fan of "FramingPaterno.com" Ray Blehar On How the AG's Office Started the False Narrative Eileen Morgan On Why Penn State Should Not Settle With Victims Yet Important Evidence the Media Totally Ignored: Paterno's Police Interview Eileen Morgan on Why the "Cover Up" Theory Makes No Sense A List of the Most "Under Known" Facts of the Sandusky Scandal The Media Now Sees Pursuing the "Truth" as a Sign of Insanity On Anniversary of Joe Pateno's Death, Todd Blackledge Speaks Out! What Manti Te'o Has Taught Us About How ESPN Determines Veracity John Ziegler Attacks False "Football Cover Up" Media Narrative on TV Patriot News Publishes Our Column on Franco/Emmert Exchange ||||| (Photo Credit: KDKA) PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A letter was apparently mistakenly sent to former coach and convicted child abuser Jerry Sandusky, asking him to renew his season tickets. The athletic department sent the letter last week to the former Penn State coach’s home in State College, Pennsylvania. It asks Sandusky to renew his football season tickets for the 2015 season and even invites him to schedule a “recruiting” visit to an upcoming basketball game. The letter even appears to be signed by new head football coach James Franklin. KDKA obtained these photos of the letter from documentary filmmaker John Ziegler who runs the website http://www.FramingPaterno.com. Ziegler says he obtained the letter from someone inside the Sandusky household, but that it wasn’t from Jerry’s wife Dottie. The letter goes on to read: “Dear Gerald A,” the letter reads. “Congratulations on being identified as one of the elite college football fans in the nation. You have worked diligently to separate yourself by exhibiting unrivaled tenacity, character, and loyalty. Passionate and competitive, you are the leading standard of a first class fan base.” The letter appears to be some sort of automated mass mailing, and it’s likely a stamp used to sign Franklin’s name. Sandusky was convicted in June 2012 of 45 counts of sexual abuse involving 10 children, including incidents on campus. He was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in state prison. He has lost an appeal to the state Supreme Court but maintains he is innocent. Penn State released the following statement about the letter: “Clearly, a mistake was made and our database needs further updating and cross-referencing. This standard form letter was part of a mass mailing sent to approximately 30,000 people who have had season or single game tickets within the past four years, encouraging them to support the team and help fill Beaver Stadium for every game in 2015.”

– "Dear Gerald A: Congratulations on being identified as one of the elite college football fans in the nation. You have worked diligently to separate yourself by exhibiting unrivaled tenacity, character, and loyalty." Not a bad way to start your appeal to a season-ticket holder if you're trying to get him to renew—but perhaps Penn State should've checked its mailing list before sending this one out. The letter was sent to the Pennsylvania home of Jerry Sandusky, the college's former assistant football coach and convicted sex offender, KDKA reports. The letter to Sandusky—who of course isn't at his home because he's in prison for about 60 more years—is signed by head football coach James Franklin. KDKA says it obtained photos of the letter from Joe Ziegler, who runs FramingPaterno.com and says he received the missive from "someone inside the Sandusky household" other than Sandusky's wife. Penn State released a statement about the letter, explaining that a mass mailing went out to about 30,000 people. "Clearly, a mistake was made and our database needs further updating and cross-referencing," says the statement. (NCAA sanctions against Penn State were only recently removed.)

Egypt is frayed, bloody and slipping toward a new revolt.The clashes that erupted for the second day in a row Sunday between police and protesters are the most volatile challenge in months to the nation's military leaders. The anger glimpsed through the tear gas and on the bruised faces of demonstrators marked a dangerous chasm between the Egyptian people and the generals who have refused to relinquish power to a civilian government.What is unfolding in the streets of Cairo, Suez and the coastal city of Alexandria is the compounded anger over the unrealized promise of a revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February but has yet to steer the country toward a new democracy. Five people have been killed across the nation, including three Sunday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, and more than 1,000 have been injured since violence broke out on Saturday.Security forces and military police, swinging batons, firing birdshot and driving armored personnel carriers, stormed the square late Sunday afternoon, chasing out protesters and burning tents. The troops quickly retreated and growing ranks of demonstrators returned to the area, yelling epithets against the military as darkness fell. Protesters numbered as many as 20,000 before midnight."We are on the brink of danger. Those asking for the government to fall are asking for the state to fall," Gen. Mohsen Fangary said in a TV interview.But at times, the military appears in denial, as if the deepening discontent against it can be placated or ignored in the run-up to next week's parliamentary elections.The military is not ready to cede the country's future to an array of political interests, including remnants of the old regime and the dominant Muslim Brotherhood. These forces mistrust one another but they — along with thousands of idle, angry young men — have banded against what they all regard as the larger enemy in the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.But political parties, especially Islamist groups, face a dilemma: They want to tap into the spirit of the protests but do not want violence to jeopardize the country's first significant elections in decades. The Muslim Brotherhood did not endorse the demonstrations but condemned security forces for the bloody crackdown. The ultraconservative Gamaa al Islamiya group told its followers now is "not a suitable time" to take to the streets."I should be at work," said Ashraf Hamed, a food vendor who joined Sunday's rally in Tahrir Square. "But I suffered from life under Mubarak and I refuse to continue suffering and keep watching injustices being done to our revolution."Broken glass, stones and bullet casings littered the square as about 4,000 protesters gathered while riot police battled others on side streets and protected the nearby Interior Ministry. The April 6 Youth Movement and an ultraconservative Islamist presidential candidate announced their support of the protest, but the majority of the demonstrators appeared not to belong to political parties or activist groups."I was against the idea of a sit-in but when I saw the police brutality against demonstrators on TV yesterday I decided to come and join them," said Adel Kassem, a university professor. "These people here are the real Egyptians, without any politicians or banners of Muslim Brotherhood or anyone else who has tried to hijack the revolution."The clashes began early Saturday when several hundred protesters attempted a sit-in after a huge anti-military rally on Friday. The violence resumed Sunday as military helicopters skimmed overhead and shops and businesses closed."Leave, leave just like Mubarak!" protesters chanted."Down with the field marshal!" yelled others, referring to Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, leader of the armed forces.The police and the military are "doing their best to hinder elections while at the same time falsely showing everyone that the revolution will bring change and democracy," said Ali Shahin, a businessman. "But this is all fake. They want to show that the country is not ready for democracy so they make the changes they want."The military expanded martial law in September and has been intent on preventing activists from retaking Tahrir Square, which they occupied during the revolt against Mubarak. But the generals face the prospect of possibly provoking widespread bloodshed and unrest that could draw tens of thousands into the streets amid the political turmoil already surrounding the run-up to parliamentary elections on Nov. 28."Do not leave the square. This square will lead the way from now on," Hazem Salah abu Ismail, the ultraconservative Islamist presidential candidate, told demonstrators. "Tomorrow the whole of Egypt will follow your lead."Egypt has stumbled from the so-called Arab Spring's great inspiration to its lingering disappointment. The euphoric 18 days that led to Mubarak's downfall have been clouded by divisions between secularists and Islamists and by the military, which has repeatedly delayed transition to civilian rule. The generals are reviled by activists but their wide support in the provinces allows them a tight grip on the nation.The most recent violence was sparked by an attempt by the military to consolidate its power by enshrining a larger role for itself in a new constitution. Late Saturday, amid the rising protests, the generals amended the proposals in an effort to calm activists and the Muslim Brotherhood. That kind of appeasement worked in the past, but did little to contain the outrage of the last two days.The nation is unlikely to find respite soon. The military announced that it would not postpone elections. The voting could trigger more bloodshed and is certain to exacerbate differences between liberals and the Muslim Brotherhood, which could win at least 30% of the seats in parliament. Secularists and the military fear the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups are determined to press for a government deeply rooted in, or Islamic law.But, in the short term, the parliament will ultimately be accountable to the ruling military council. A full transfer of power to civilian control is not expected until a president is elected late next year or in 2013. This scenario is certain to lead to more protests even as Egypt struggles with a downward spiraling economy and a shrinking tourism industry.This was on the minds of many in Tahrir Square. Like Kassem, the university professor, they mirrored the Egyptians who protested last winter — not politically driven, just fed up. Kassem stood Sunday amid scorched tires and the tang of tear gas not far from a makeshift hospital in a mosque and a few tents erected in the square's central garden."Mubarak's thieves headed by Tantawi stole our revolution, so did groups using religion," he said. "The ruling system remains the same as it was under Mubarak, practicing the same stupidity as Mubarak's men did." ||||| CAIRO (Reuters) - Cairo police fought protesters demanding an end to army rule for a third day on Monday and the death toll rose to 33, with many victims shot, in the worst violence since the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. As midnight approached, about 20,000 people packed Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the anti-Mubarak revolt early this year, and thousands more milled around in surrounding streets. "The people want the fall of the marshal," they chanted, referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's defense minister for two decades and head of the army council. In a late-night statement, the ruling council urged calm and called for crisis talks with political forces to find a way forward. The council voiced its "deep regret for the victims in these painful incidents", state news agency MENA said. "It called on all sections of the nation to show the greatest degree of self-restraint so that the matter does not lead to more victims and casualties," the agency added. The military council did not say whether it would accept the resignation of the cabinet, tendered on Sunday. A military source said it was seeking agreement on a new prime minister. The resignation of the cabinet, in office since March, was another blow to the military council's authority and casts further uncertainty on Egypt's first free parliamentary elections in decades, which are due to start next Monday. Clashes flared in side-streets near Tahrir. Witnesses said looters, not necessarily connected to the protests, had attacked the American University in Cairo and other buildings. Security forces also battled about 4,000 demonstrators in the port city of Ismailiya on the Suez Canal, witnesses said. Tear gas was also fired at about 2,000 protesters in the northern coastal city of Alexandria. BULLET WOUNDS Protesters have brandished bullet casings in Tahrir Square, where police used batons and tear gas to try to disperse demonstrators on Saturday. Police deny using live fire. Medical sources at Cairo's main morgue said 33 corpses had been received since Saturday, most with bullet wounds. The Health Ministry put the toll at 24 dead and 1,250 wounded. "I've seen the police beat women my mother's age. I want military rule to end," said protester Mohamed Gamal, 21. Army generals were feted for their part in easing Mubarak out, but hostility to their rule has hardened since, especially over attempts to set new constitutional principles that would keep the military permanently beyond civilian control. Police attacked a makeshift hospital in Tahrir Square after dawn but were driven back by protesters hurling chunks of concrete from smashed pavements, witnesses said. "Don't go out there, you'll end up martyrs like the others," protesters told people emerging from a metro station at Tahrir Square. The violence casts a pall over the first round of Egypt's staggered and complex election process, which starts on November 28 in Cairo and elsewhere. The army says the polls will go ahead. INTERNATIONAL CONCERN The United States called for restraint on all sides and urged Egypt to proceed with elections despite the violence. "The United States continues to believe that these tragic events should not stand in the way of elections," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton echoed that message and said the EU was keen to monitor the polls. "The Egyptian authorities have been very clear that they wish to conduct these elections themselves. We believe it would give credibility to them to have international observation," she told British lawmakers in London. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored the loss of life and called on the transitional authorities "to guarantee the protection of human rights and civil liberties for all Egyptians, including the right to peaceful protest". In an apparent sop to protesters, the army council issued a law to bar from political life "those who work to corrupt political life and damage the interests of the nation". The announcement was unlikely to satisfy political parties and activists who have called for a blanket ban on former members of Mubarak's now defunct National Democratic Party. "The council is out of step with the people," said activist Mohamed Fahmy, describing the new law as a "meaningless move". Some Egyptians, including Islamists who expect to do well in the vote, say the ruling army council may be stirring insecurity to prolong its rule, a charge the military denies. Political uncertainty has gripped Egypt since Mubarak's fall, while sectarian clashes, labor unrest, gas pipeline sabotage and a gaping absence of tourists have paralysed the economy and prompted a widespread yearning for stability. ECONOMIC WOES The instability could accelerate Egypt's slide toward a currency crisis, forcing a sharp depreciation of the Egyptian pound in the next few months and conceivably prompting Cairo to impose capital controls, analysts said. "The violence and political noise is going to erode whatever confidence was left in the Egyptian economy, and may result ... in an acceleration of capital outflows," said Farouk Soussa, Middle East chief economist at Citigroup. The military plans to keep its presidential powers until a new constitution is drawn up and a president is elected in late 2012 or early 2013. Protesters want a much swifter transition. The army said on Monday it had intervened in central Cairo to protect the Interior Ministry, not to clear demonstrators from nearby Tahrir Square, whom it also offered to protect. The Interior Ministry, in charge of a police force widely hated for its heavy-handed tactics in the anti-Mubarak revolt, has been a target for protesters demanding police reform. The latest street clashes show the depth of frustration, at least in Cairo and some other cities, at the pace of change. Liberal groups are dismayed by the military trials of thousands of civilians and the army's failure to scrap a hated emergency law. Islamists eyeing a strong showing in the next parliament suspect the army wants to curtail their influence. Analysts say Islamists could win 40 percent of assembly seats, with a big portion going to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Revolution Youth Coalition, an activist group, called for a "million-man march" in Tahrir on Tuesday to back demands for a new national salvation government to run the country in the transition phase, instead of the military council. (Additional reporting by Tim Castle in London, Alister Bull and Steve Holland in Washington and Andrew Torchia in Dubai; writing by Alistair Lyon)

– Protesters in Egypt have held on to Tahrir Square after the latest round of clashes with police, which in three days have left 22 dead throughout the country. Police burned banners and assaulted a field hospital in a raid beginning last night; protesters threw pieces of pavement at authorities; and in unconfirmed Internet videos, protesters were beaten with sticks by police, who appeared to toss a body on a heap of trash. An apparent fire in a nearby apartment building left a woman calling for help, but police shot tear gas at those below, Reuters reports. Though demonstrators were temporarily driven from the square yesterday, they soon returned ahead of another police raid, and the Los Angeles Times reports their ranks grew to 20,000 by midnight. The unrest may complicate the country's plan to hold its first free parliamentary elections in decades; the staggered vote is due to begin next Monday, though Reuters notes that the army will retain its hold on presidential powers until a presidential poll is held, which may not happen until about a year from now; protesters object to that timeline.

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Suspected drug hitmen killed the mayor of a town outside Mexico's northern business city of Monterrey on Thursday, the fourth public official slain in little over a month, police said. Mayor Prisciliano Rodriguez was shot and killed by gunmen as he drove to his ranch in his town of Doctor Gonzalez, 30 miles (50 km) east of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon state, an official at the attorney general's office said. It was not immediately clear why Rodriguez, who won the mayorship last year for the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was targeted, but Nuevo Leon and the neighbouring state of Tamaulipas have become major drug war flashpoints since the start of the year. Another person travelling with Rodriguez was also killed in the attack, Reforma newspaper reported, but police declined to comment. Last month, drug gangs killed a mayor in the Nuevo Leon tourist town of Santiago and another mayor in the Tamaulipas municipality of Hidalgo that lies on a highway to Monterrey. Another mayor was killed by suspected drug gangs in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi this month. President Felipe Calderon, who has staked his presidency on a military-led assault on drug cartels, condemned the two killings in August and has vowed to continue his fight, saying that spiralling violence is a sign that the gangs are desperate and in disarray. Rival hitmen from the Gulf cartel and its former armed wing, the Zetas, are fighting over smuggling routes into the United States. Both gangs increasingly target public officials, police and journalists who stand in their way. Calderon has blamed the surge in violence around Monterrey and in Tamaulipas on the split between the Gulf and Zetas gang, but faces increasing pressure to calm the killings. More than 29,000 people have been killed in drug violence since Calderon sent more than 45,000 troops and federal police across Mexico in 2006 to battle warring drug gangs, prompting fears that bloodshed could undermine tourism and investment as Mexico slowly recovers from its worst recession since 1932. The U.S. government in August told staff at its consulate in Monterrey to send their children out of the city, once considered one of Latin America's safest cities and a top regional business centre. There have been more than 450 drug killings in Monterrey and Nuevo Leon state this year. (Reporting by Tomas Bravo; editing by Mohammad Zargham) ||||| Fed Up, A Mexican Town Resorts To Mob Justice itoggle caption Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images Unprecedented levels of violence in Mexico led residents of a small town in the northern state of Chihuahua to take justice into their own hands. This week an angry mob of citizens pursued and allegedly killed two suspected kidnappers, storming a military base to get at the alleged culprits believed to have nabbed a teenage girl. With police incapable of stopping the violent crime epidemic in Mexico amid the brutal drug war, it seems some locals in the town of Ascension have had enough. Ascension is a farming community of some 15,000 people, about 100 miles south of the border with New Mexico. In the past two years, kidnapping and extortion have been rampant. "Our problems with public security have spoiled our progress in this town," says Rafael Camarillo, the outgoing mayor. The public fury happened Tuesday when an armed group allegedly kidnapped a 16-year-old girl from her family's seafood restaurant. The kidnappers escaped down a gravel road, and word of the missing girl spread quickly. Soon, a group of about 200 residents began the chase. Three of the alleged kidnappers were captured by the Mexican military, who have a presence in the town. If the authorities can't protect us, we must protect ourselves. Three others fled into a nearby cotton field, where one was later found dead. The other two were hunted down and beaten by the mob from Ascension. "When they found them, it was a direct aggression," says Ignacio Rodriguez, a local kitchen-cabinet maker who was elected to head city council next month. The girl was rescued unharmed by the residents. "We are a small community," says Mari Cruz Salazar Soto, the girl's aunt. "In the past year, we've averaged three kidnappings a week." Rodriguez says he knows many people in town whose family members have been kidnapped, and many of them were among the angry crowd. "In that moment there was a lot of resentment mixed with rage," he says. Rodriguez says people in the mob recognized the two alleged kidnappers, 17-year-old boys who grew up in Ascension. "We don't know why they chose to get mixed up in crime," he says. Federal police eventually took custody of the two young men and drove them to the town's small military base. Residents say at least 1,000 people then caught up with them at the base and broke through the gates. The mob got ahold of the suspected kidnappers and beat them a second time. The crowd then held them for seven hours, locked in a hot vehicle where they eventually died. The next day, Mayor Camarillo fired all 14 of the town's police officers and requested assistance from state and federal police. The camera of a local television station captured residents as they stormed city hall on Wednesday morning and demanded the firings. Jorge Leyva, a representative of the Chihuahua state police, said an investigation into the deaths of the two suspected kidnappers is under way. Three other suspects were detained on charges of kidnapping and illegal weapon possession in the case. Rodriguez, the future city councilman, says he's not proud of how his town responded to the kidnapping. Mob violence is not common in Chihuahua, one of the most violent states in the country. Rodriguez says citizens in Ascension are forming a sort of neighborhood watch committee and are still deciding how the committee will operate. "If the authorities can't protect us," he says, "we must protect ourselves."

– At least seven people were killed in Acapulco yesterday in what police believe was a clash between rival drug gangs. Guns and grenades were used to attack a house in a residential part of the resort city, AP reports. Further north, suspected cartel hitmen killed the mayor of a small town outside Monterrey as he drove to his ranch. Mayor Prisciliano Rodriguez is the fourth public official assassinated in Mexico in just over a month, Reuters reports. As cartel violence continues to plague Mexico with no end in sight, mob justice is on the rise, reports NPR. In a small town in Chihuahua state where kidnapping and extortion have soared over the last two years, a mob pursued a gang that had kidnapped a teen girl, killing one and beating two others. Police took the beaten pair to a military base, where a crowd of around 1,000 broke through the gates, seized the men, and locked them in a hot vehicle where they eventually died. The town's mayor fired all 14 of the town's police officers the next day.

SAPD: One dead, seven others injured in fatal jewelry robbery on Northeast Side Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close Image 1 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 2 of 25 Family members reunite after exiting Rolling Oaks Mall, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017 following a shooing inside the mall. Family members reunite after exiting Rolling Oaks Mall, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017 following a shooing inside the mall. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 3 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 4 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 5 of 25 Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects attempted a jewelry store robbery and two good samaritans attempted to intervene. One of the samaritans was shot dead by one of the suspects. One of the suspects got away shooting six people inside the mall. less Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 6 of 25 Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects attempted a jewelry store robbery and two good samaritans attempted to intervene. One of the samaritans was shot dead by one of the suspects. One of the suspects got away shooting six people inside the mall. less Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 7 of 25 Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects attempted a jewelry store robbery and two good samaritans attempted to intervene. One of the samaritans was shot dead by one of the suspects. One of the suspects got away shooting six people inside the mall. less Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 8 of 25 Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects attempted a jewelry store robbery and two good samaritans attempted to intervene. One of the samaritans was shot dead by one of the suspects. One of the suspects got away shooting six people inside the mall. less Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 9 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 10 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 11 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 12 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 13 of 25 Shoppers exit Rolling Oaks Mall after a shooting Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Shoppers exit Rolling Oaks Mall after a shooting Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 14 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 15 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 16 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 17 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 18 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 19 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 20 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 21 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 22 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 23 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 24 of 25 Police from multiple agencies respond to a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Police from multiple agencies respond to a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Image 25 of 25 SAPD: One dead, seven others injured in fatal jewelry robbery on Northeast Side 1 / 25 Back to Gallery One man is dead and seven others wounded following a shooting Sunday at Rolling Oaks Mall. It is unclear if all those injured were by gunshots. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus called it "a robbery gone really, really bad." McManus said two men robbed a Kay Jewelers at the mall. As they were escaping they encountered two citizens who tried to intervene. "There was a fatality," McManus said. "One of the citizens who tried to intervene and stop the robbery, the robbers from escaping, was shot by one of the suspects." RELATED: SAPD: 3 armed men dressed in black rob diamond store at South Park Mall McManus said that is when the second citizen, who had a concealed carry license, pulled his gun and shot that suspect. McManus said he did not know if the two citizens who intervened were there together, or if they just happened to be there at the same time. He later called those two individuals "good Samaritans." The second suspect then ran away through the mall, shooting as he went. Others were injured and the suspect is still at large, though police do not think he is still in the mall. McManus said according to preliminary reports, six other people in addition to the suspect and "good Samaritan" who was shot and killed, were shot by the second suspect as he fled. @SATXPolice & Live Oak PD searching for 2nd suspect in deadly shooting @RollingOaksMall. Plz report any info u may have. @COSAGOV — Mayor Ivy R Taylor (@IvyRTaylor) January 22, 2017 The mall has been locked down, but McManus said everyone who is still in the mall is secure and safe and detectives are questioning witnesses. "We've searched the mall, and we feel as confident as we can feel that, that suspect is not in there," McManus said. He said once everyone is out of the mall they would do a second sweep with K9 units. As of 6:40 p.m., San Antonio police started releasing groups of people from the mall. The San Antonio Fire Department active incidents page reported at least 28 units responded to the mall's address at 3:30 p.m. "We were in the mall, we heard the shots and just started running. It was chaos" said Benjamin Arsate, who was near the food court when he heard the shots. "I mean where do you go to have fun now? This is insane. It's like nowhere's safe anymore," he said. Maggie Hernandez was with her daughter Tera, 18, at the mall when they heard of the shooting. "It was scary," said Tera, who had been crying as they escaped the mall. "We started running out, too. You don't want to be caught inside," said Maggie Hernandez. They the huddled with a group of Dillard's employees behind a car outside, terrified. "It's a learning experience right?" said Maggie. "If you have this experience, then either hide or find a nearest exit." Mayor Ivy Taylor later arrived at the scene and lauded the quick and efficient coordination between law enforcement units. But also lamented violent nature of big cities. "I know here in San Antonio we often feel insulated because we have such a great community, but we've seen an uptick in crime in big cities across the countries and unfortunately we're not immune to that," she said. District 10 Councilman Mike Gallagher said this incident shouldn't be grouped with the active shooting incidences in public places that have made headlines across the country in recent years. "I just urge everyone to remain calm and continue their routines as usual, and to have confidence that law enforcement officials are certainly working diligently to ensure their safety," Taylor said. This report will be updated as more information becomes available. ||||| A robbery inside a San Antonio shopping mall Sunday ended with shots fired on Sunday, leaving one person who tried to intervene dead, three others shot and another two people taken to hospital with non-shooting injuries, police and fire officials said. (Published Monday, Jan. 23, 2017) What to Know Both armed robbery suspects are in custody and face preliminary charges of capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Two victims, a man and a woman, remain hospitalized in an unknown condition following the shooting and robbery. The names of the good Samaritan, two victims and two robbers have not yet been released. Two people are facing capital murder and aggravated assault charges after a robbery and fatal shooting inside a San Antonio shopping mall Sunday ended with one man dead and three others injured, including one of the robbers, police say. Leslie Garza, the director of communications for the San Antonio mayor, told NBC News the robbery took place at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday at a Kay Jewelers inside the Rolling Oaks Mall on the northeast side of the city. As two armed robbers ran the store, one of them fatally shot a "good Samaritan" who got in their way and tried to stop them, according to San Antonio Chief of Police William McManus. Police have not said what the good Samaritan, identified Monday as 42-year-old Jonathan Murphy, tried to do to stop the men. McManus said a witness to the shooting, who was carrying a licensed concealed weapon, shot and wounded the armed robber who killed Murphy. San Antonio police spokesman Officer Doug Greene said Monday the man who shot one of the armed robbers was within his rights to use his gun. "What we have here is a robbery gone really, really bad," McManus said, adding that the fatal shooting was "absolutely senseless." The second robber ran from the mall, firing his weapon and injuring a man and a woman. A witness who spoke to WOAI-TV said she heard as many as six gunshots. San Antonio police and Bexar County Sheriff's Deputies arrived and the mall was locked down while a store-by-store sweep was conducted to search for the second gunman and anyone else who may have been involved. Meanwhile, the injured man, woman and robber were all taken to area hospitals, according to San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood. Two other people not injured by gunfire — a woman who complained of chest pains and a pregnant woman who had labor pains — were also taken to local hospitals. San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor and San Antonio police both tweeted Sunday night that the second robbery suspect had been arrested, though no other details about the arrest were immediately available. "Today's deadly shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall is a tragedy for everyone involved and all of us affected," Taylor said in a statement posted on Facebook. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing and police have not yet released the names of the suspected robbers or the victims injured and killed in the shooting. Authorities said both suspects face preliminary charges of capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Copyright Associated Press / NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth ||||| SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The Latest on the shooting at a shopping mall in San Antonio (all times local): 10:30 p.m. San Antonio police say a second suspect has been arrested in the deadly shooting and robbery that took place in a shopping mall. Police confirm the person was taken into custody Sunday night. Additional details were not immediately available. The shooting occurred Sunday afternoon after authorities said two men robbed a jewelry store at Rolling Oaks Mall. Police Chief William McManus previously said a “good Samaritan” who tried to stop the suspects was shot and killed. The other robber was shot and injured by another individual, who had a licensed concealed handgun. ___ 7 p.m. San Antonio’s police chief is describing the death of a man who was shot as he tried to stop two men after they robbed a jewelry store at a mall as “absolutely senseless.” Police Chief William McManus says the “good Samaritan” came upon the two robbers as they fled a jewelry store at Rolling Oaks Mall on Sunday. The man was shot by one of the robbers. That robber was then shot and injured by another individual, who had a licensed concealed handgun. The second robber fled the mall, firing his weapon and injuring two others. Two women suffered non-shooting injuries. Police are still searching for the second robber. McManus described the incident as “a robbery gone really, really bad.” The dead man’s name was not immediately released by authorities. ___ 5:55 p.m. Authorities in San Antonio say one person is dead and five others have been injured after two men robbed a jewelry store in a San Antonio shopping mall. Police Chief William McManus said that after the two suspects fled the store on Sunday, one of them fatally shot a “good Samaritan” who tried to stop them. Another man, who was carrying a licensed concealed weapon, then shot and wounded that robber. The other robber fled the mall, firing his weapon and injuring a man and a woman. Two other people were taken to the hospital suffering from non-shooting injuries. McManus says police are still looking for the robber who is believed to have left the mall. McManus initially said that six people were injured. ___ 5:20 p.m. Police in San Antonio say they have responded to a shooting at a large shopping mall. Romana Lopez, a spokeswoman for San Antonio police, confirmed that police on Sunday were at Rolling Oaks Mall. Lopez did not immediately provide any other details about the shooting. Video from local television stations showed police cars and at least two ambulances at the mall.

– One person is dead and five more injured in what San Antonio's police chief calls a mall "robbery gone really, really bad." (The number of casualties was in flux.) Police say it began when two men robbed a Kay's Jewelers in the city's Rolling Oaks Mall, then were confronted by two people who tried to stop them as they left, reports MySanAntonio.com. One of the robbery suspects shot and killed one of the Good Samaritans, and the other Good Samaritan then shot and wounded that suspect, reports NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. The second suspect then took off through the mall and began shooting, say police. The AP reports that he injured a man and woman, while two others in the mall sustained non-shooting injuries. Both robbers were thought to be at large.

The case of a police officer and his beautician wife who drowned after leaving a dinner party 35 years ago is getting a fresh look and a $15,000 reward. The 1981 deaths of William and Michelle Becker were deemed an accident, but relatives and colleagues say they have nagging questions. Now, officers at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, where William Becker, 43, worked as a police officer, have put up reward cash in the hopes of getting some answers. "We don't know what happened after they left the dinner party," said DEC Police Maj. Scott Florence, who began looking into the mystery in the 1990s. "Some things at the scene raised a lot of questions." An undated photo of Michelle and William Becker, who drowned in 1981. Courtesy Michael Malkush The Beckers, married for 17 years and parents to three children, spent the evening of March 10, 1981, at a friend's house in Mattituck, Long Island, leaving shortly before midnight. William Becker's body was found in a marina the next morning and the body of Michelle, 36, who owned a local beauty parlor, was discovered the next day. The Suffolk County Police Department said there was no evidence of foul play and the case was officially closed in 1983. Michelle Becker's brother, Michael Malkush, said investigators told him their theory was that the couple went to the marina to find the boat that belonged to the dinner party host and "get romantic." "It made no sense," Malkush said, noting that it was dark and cold, the boat was under repair, his brother-in-law had a fear of water, and the couple's warm home was just a half-mile away. "We just feel that they didn't go down there on their own and accidentally fall in the water and both drown. We're just trying to find out the missing pieces." Florence noted that a kitchen table on the boat had come apart, and Becker's clip-on uniform tie was found on the floor, potential signs of a struggle. "It leads you to believe the tie was pulled off and the table was broken," he said. He said the 35th anniversary of the drownings was seen as an opportunity to bring attention to the case and perhaps dislodge some long-held secrets. The police union and a fraternal organizations came up with the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone who might have been involved in the Beckers' deaths. In a statement, the Suffolk County Police Department said Homicide Squad detectives are "open to receiving any new information anyone had to provide." "I know we can't bring them back," Malkush said. "But there's got to be someone out there who has some answers. It just takes one person." ||||| Thirty-five years after police pulled the bodies of a conservation officer and his wife from Mattituck Inlet, his fellow officers are seeking new leads in a case that has long baffled the couple’s North Fork community. Department of Environmental Conservation officers said Tuesday that, in advance of the 35th anniversary of the case, they are offering $15,000 for new information in the deaths of William and Michelle Becker of Mattituck on the night of March 10, 1981. The case has hung for decades over William’s former colleagues at the DEC and the couple’s relatives, who said they could never quite accept police’s explanation that the pair accidentally drowned. “We’ve always had the case open. We’ve always pondered what happened,” said Maj. Scott Florence, who leads the DEC’s Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigation and probed the Beckers’ deaths in the 1990s. Suffolk County homicide detectives said in a statement Tuesday that they “would be open to receiving any new information anyone had to provide.” Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The DEC officers’ union and fraternal organization raised money for the reward, the largest in the department’s history. advertisement | advertise on newsday Michelle, 36, raised three children while running her beauty salon that, despite changes in ownership, is still called Michelle’s, said her brother, Michael Malkush of Cutchogue. William, 43, he said, was a 15-year veteran of the DEC who took the North Fork assignment after patrolling elsewhere on Long Island. They were last seen leaving a dinner party at the Mattituck home of Arthur Siemerling, a local heating oil dealer, about 11 p.m. on a brisk Tuesday night, police said. William’s body was found 12 hours later in what was then called Matt-A-Mar marina, his foot caught on a boat’s swim platform and his arm tangled in electrical cable, in his forest green DEC uniform. He had a lump on his head, police said. A Suffolk County police diver found Michelle’s body 40 feet from her husband’s about 20 hours later. Her slippers were on the dock near Siemerling’s boat. Police said at the time that it appeared the couple took a detour to the boat on their way home from the dinner party. Yet relatives say a late-night trip to the dock seemed out of character for William, who was cautious and reserved. William seemed to have drowned trying to save Michelle, who could not swim, then-Southold Town Police Chief Carl Cataldo told Newsday in 1981. But Malkush said he felt police came to that conclusion too quickly, just hours after a marina worker found William’s body and before police discovered Michelle’s. “I’m there in shock saying, ‘Why aren’t you out there looking for my sister?’ ” said Malkush, 64, a retired teacher. Timothy Becker, the oldest of the couple’s three children, said he and his siblings are “so disenchanted with how the initial investigation took place” and want closure. advertisement | advertise on newsday “My mother’s body wasn’t even found yet, and Southold Town police detectives already put together exactly what happened and sold it to us as fact,” said Becker, 51, who lives in Southern California. Malkush has hired two private investigators over the years. After 35 years, he said, police risk losing witnesses to old age. “It’s going to take somebody to talk,” he said. “Somebody on their deathbed, or somebody who finds religion, or somebody with a guilty conscience.”

– It's been exactly 35 years since the mysterious March 10, 1981, drowning of a Long Island couple, but their family and community are still calling on somebody—anybody—to come forward with information so they can finally piece together what happened, reports NBC News. The Department of Environmental Conservation officers' union and fraternal organization has even raised $15,000, the largest reward in the department's history, reports Newsday, while homicide detectives say they are "open to receiving any new information." William Becker, who was 43, was a 15-year veteran of the DEC; wife Michelle Becker, 36, owned a beauty salon. Married 17 years, the parents of three had gone to a dinner party in Mattituck that cold winter's night and left shortly before midnight. Police said William's body was found 12 hours later in his forest-green DEC uniform at what was then called Matt-A-Mar Marina with a bump on his head and his arm tangled in electrical cable. By the time Michelle's body was found 40 feet away 20 hours later, her slippers on the dock, police had surmised that the couple had stopped by a friend's boat to "get romantic," Michelle's brother Michael Malkush says, and that William had died trying to save Michelle, who couldn't swim. But many felt this didn't make sense given their fear of the water, the cold, and their home being so nearby. Even an investigator in the late '80s concluded that accidental drowning didn't make sense, reports the Suffolk Times. The Beckers' oldest child says he and his siblings are "so disenchanted" with the police investigation, adding, "It's going to take somebody to talk. Somebody on their deathbed, or somebody who finds religion, or somebody with a guilty conscience." (A man recently confessed to this 1982 cold case.)

UC to bring 600-year-old treasure to the world UC academics and students to bring 600-year-old treasure to the world University of Canterbury staff and students are working to translate and digitise a unique medieval manuscript to make it accessible to the world, and a team of British scientists is visiting Christchurch in January to reveal hidden information about the 600-year-old scroll's origins. The 15th-century English illuminated genealogical scroll, known as the Canterbury Roll, dates to the Wars of the Roses. It was acquired by the University of Canterbury (UC) in 1918 and remains the only genealogical roll in the southern hemisphere. The “Canterbury Roll Project” is designed to make the unique scroll more accessible, medieval historian UC Senior Lecturer Dr Chris Jones says. “Once owned by the original Nurse Maude, Sybilla Maude, the Canterbury Roll is the most significant and substantial medieval artefact in New Zealand. For 100 years, UC has been the guardian of this unique 600-year-old treasure, which tells the history of England from its mythical origins to the late Middle Ages,” he says. “No-one has anything like this in New Zealand or Australia. And it’s utterly bonkers that no-one really knows we have it, because it’s magnificent!” To mark the centenary of its acquisition, UC is releasing a new digital edition and translation of the Canterbury Roll. “Using cutting edge technology that allows users to interact directly with the manuscript, UC is making the Roll available to the world accompanied by a brand new English translation,” says Dr Jones. The digitised Canterbury Roll will be available to the public in 2018. A British scientific research team will visit UC in the second week of January to carry out in-depth testing of the Roll to look for ‘hidden’ writing and any other features. “The UK scientific team will be carrying out a series of tests on the Roll with specialised equipment. The science itself is new: it’s ground-breaking work that has never before been applied to this type of manuscript.” The leader of the UK scientific team is Professor Haida Liang, Head of Imaging & Sensing for Archaeology, Art History & Conservation research group at Nottingham Trent University, UK. About the Canterbury Roll A unique item in the University of Canterbury’s Special Collections, the Canterbury Roll is a unique example of a medieval manuscript in New Zealand and Australia, Dr Jones says. “It’s visually striking. The Wars of the Roses are what ‘Games of Thrones’ is based on, and this is the Wars of the Roses laid out across a 5-metre, visually spectacular document. It is not the only manuscript roll from this period to exist in the world, but, uniquely, it features contributions from both the key players in the Wars of the Roses – it was originally drawn up by the Lancastrian side in the conflict but it fell into Yorkist hands and they re-wrote part of it.” The Canterbury Roll was owned by the famous Cantabrian known as Nurse Maude, Sybilla Maude. “We are unclear how her family acquired it, although the family believed in 1918 that they had owned it since the Middle Ages,” Dr Jones says. Canterbury College professors bought the Roll as part of an effort to help foster a sense of British identity in the closing days of WWI, according to the historian. “The Roll is both an important part of European history and – after a century – an important part of the New Zealand story,” Dr Jones says. “In particular, it embodies the way attitudes to colonialism have changed: it began as celebration of New Zealand as a British colony; from the 1970s it was hidden away as an embarrassing reminder of that colonial past; today, it has been dusted off and is used in comparative teaching to explore differences and similarities between western concepts and whakapapa.” About the Canterbury Roll Project The digital edition of the Canterbury Roll is ground-breaking, Dr Jones says. “People have released ‘digital’ rolls in the UK and the US but they tend to be static photos. This is a fully ‘scrolling’, online and zoomable text. It’s considerably more sophisticated than anything that exists in the world today.” He’s particularly proud of the student involvement in the Canterbury Roll Project. “The digitisation project is a showcase for UC students: The Latin transcription is the work of current and former UC students; the translation is the work of a current UC Master of Arts student. The project is based in the UC Arts Digital Lab but driven through the student internship programme. In 2017 alone we have had 15 UC students working on the project at 300- and 400-level via internships schemes,” he says. “It provides a fantastic way for students to develop transferable skills ranging from team work to direct work in coding. It demonstrates students can learn 'real world' transferable skills relating to group work and coding via Arts projects.” © Scoop Media ||||| When creating his highly detailed fantasy world, George R.R. Martin based much of Game of Thrones on medieval European history. In particular, Martin drew heavily from the War of the Roses, which pitted the honorable North against the cunning South. We've written about how The Red Wedding was based on two historical events. Here are seven more possible historical connections. (We don't know how far you've made it into the show/books, so assume there are spoilers ahead.) 1. King Joffrey is Edward of Lancaster. As evil as he is, King Joffrey's vicious personality seems to be rooted in history. Edward of Lancaster was the son of King Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou—and, like Joffrey, he was rumored to be of illegitimate birth. Also like Joffrey, Edward had a touch of madness, and he shared Joffrey’s affinity for lopping off the heads of his enemies. The Ambassador of Milan once wrote, "This boy, though only 13 years of age, already talks of nothing but of cutting off heads or making war, as if he had everything in his hands or was the god of battle or the peaceful occupant of that throne." History also gave Edward his comeuppance: he was stabbed to death by Edward IV of York, the real-life equivalent of Robb Stark. 2. Theon Greyjoy is George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence. Wikimedia Commons / HBO Theon grew up in Winterfell as a ward to Lord Eddard Stark and a surrogate brother to Robb. Following the outbreak of the War of the Five Kings, Theon was one of Robb’s most trusted advisors. After Robb sent Theon to meet with his father, Balon Greyjoy, Theon turned on his friend and invaded the North. Theon's historical counterpart, George Plantagenet, was brother to Edward IV of York and, like Theon, began the War of the Roses as a staunch York defender. Much like Theon, George Plantagenet turned on his brother during the War of the Roses and defected to the Lancasters. After Edward won the war, George was drowned in a butt of wine for his treason, which is a much kinder punishment than the many atrocities that Theon has endured. 3. The Red Faith is Zoroastrianism. In the show, Stannis follows the advice of the “Red Woman,” Melisandre, who worships a foreign lord of light, R’hllor. The faith of the R’hllor appears to be based on the ancient Persian religion Zoroastrianism. In Zoroastrianism, fire is considered a medium for spiritual awareness and wisdom, with worshipers often praying in the presence of fire or in fire temples. Like the followers of The Lord of Light, Zoroastrianism also stresses a great struggle and the duality between good and evil (in the series it is referred to as “The Lord of Light” and “The Great Other”). As of right now, there is no evidence to suggest that demon shadow babies actually existed. 4. Jaime Lannister is Gottfried von Berlichingen. In Game of Thrones' season four premiere, Jaime Lannister received a shiny new gold hand to replace the one that was hacked off. The Kingslayer, however, follows in the footsteps of Gottfried von Berlichingen, or as he was known, "Gotz of the Iron Hand." Like Jaime, Gotz was born to a noble family before serving as an Imperial Knight. During battle, Gotz's hand was blown off by a cannon. Not easily deterred, Gotz designed a prosthetic iron hand and returned to combat. He's well known for his catchphrase, "er kann mich am Arsche lecken" ("he can lick my arse"), which also makes him a precursor to Futurama's Bender. 5. Lyanna Stark is Lucretia. Lyanna Stark was the sister of Eddard Stark and the one true love of Robert Baratheon. While never depicted in the television show, her alleged kidnapping by Rhaegar Targaryen and the events that followed sparked Robert's Rebellion, which landed him on the Iron Throne. Lucretia is a Roman figure who committed suicide after being raped by the Etruscan king's son, a tragedy that sparked the revolution to overthrow the monarchy and establish the Roman Republic. Her last words, "Pledge me your solemn word that the adulterer shall not go unpunished," also seem to mimic Lyanna's famous final words, "Promise me, Ned..." 6. The Battle of Blackwater Bay is The Second Arab Siege of Constantinople. The Battle of Blackwater Bay—when Stannis Baratheon attempted to siege the capital of King’s Landing—was the focus of the penultimate episode of season two. Stannis was defeated after Tyrion attacked his navy with wildfire, a chemical that burns on water. Tyrion might have gotten this idea from The Second Arab Siege of Constantinople, where Greek Fire, a similar substance, was used to repel invaders. Additionally, in the books, Tyrion employed a giant chain to cut through Stannis’ navy, which is clearly inspired by the Great Chain of Constantinople, also used in The Second Arab Siege. 7. The Red Wedding is from the Kojiki. HBO Game of Thrones' "Red Wedding" is one of the most shocking moments in TV history. In one move, Tywin Lannister (in collusion with the Roose Bolton and Walder Frey) kills Robb Stark and ends the northern rebellion with "The Rains of Castamere." The Red Wedding is said to be based on two British massacres, but it also draws parallels to an ancient Japanese event: the Kojiki, a half-historical, half-mythological text that chronicles the rise of Japan's first ruler, Emperor Jimmu. The second part of the Kojiki describes how Jimmu consolidated his power: by murdering all of his political rivals at a feast. Like the Red Wedding, the start of the massacre was a song, this one sung by Jimmu himself. ||||| Scientists have used digital scanning technologies to virtually unravel an ancient scroll that was once thought destroyed. A TEAM of British scientists are set to make the trip to New Zealand this month, all in the hopes of unlocking the secrets hidden in a 600-year-old scroll. The 15th-century English manuscript, known as the Canterbury Roll, is the only genealogocial scroll in the whole southern hemisphere, making it an extremely unique and prized artefact. Despite being in the care of the University of Canterbury (UC) for over a century, experts believe they are still yet to uncover all of the scroll’s hidden meanings. UC Senior Lecturer Dr Chris Jones says it is crazy that no one really knows about its existence. “The Canterbury Roll is the most significant and substantial medieval artefact in New Zealand. For 100 years, UC has been the guardian of this unique 600-year-old treasure, which tells the history of England from its mythical origins to the late Middle Ages,” he said. “No-one has anything like this in New Zealand or Australia. And it’s utterly bonkers that no-one really knows we have it, because it’s magnificent!” The ancient document dates back to the Wars of the Roses, a series of English civil wars fought for control of the throne of England, which were the inspiration for George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones. The battles spanned over three centuries, sparked by a conflict between two noble British families, the Lancasters and Yorks, with a number of major players in the historic war adapted into characters for the popular fantasy series. “The Wars of the Roses are what Games of Thrones is based on, and this is the Wars of the Roses laid out across a 5-metre, visually spectacular document,” Dr Jones said. “It features contributions from both the key players in the Wars of the Roses — it was originally drawn up by the Lancastrian side in the conflict but it fell into Yorkist hands and they rewrote part of it.” The final secrets harboured in the ancient text could soon be revealed, as the British scientific research team prepares to visit the university in Christchurch next week to carry out in-depth testing of the Roll. They say they’re looking for “hidden” writing and any other features. “The UK scientific team will be carrying out a series of tests on the Roll with specialised equipment,” Dr Jones said. “The science itself is new: it’s groundbreaking work that has never before been applied to this type of manuscript.” In order to make the scrolls secrets more accessible, UC staff and students are working to translate and digitise the medieval manuscript, with the efforts known as the “Canterbury Roll Project”. The full digitised Roll will be available to the public in 2018, with stage one of the digital version already accessible on the university’s website. Dr Jones says the digital version of the Roll will be ground breaking and is set to be more advanced than any other document of its kind. “People have released ‘digital’ rolls in the UK and the US but they tend to be static photos. This is a fully scrolling, online and zoomable text,” he said. “It’s considerably more sophisticated than anything that exists in the world today.” Many important aspects of the project, such as the Latin transcription and English translation, have been spearheaded by students at the University of Canterbury. “The Latin transcription is the work of current and former UC students; the translation is the work of a current UC Master of Arts student,” Dr Jones said.

– A 600-year-old scroll describing the wars that inspired Game of Thrones might not be done making its mark on history. For the first time, the Canterbury Roll—detailing England's history until the Middle Ages—is being published online, making it accessible to the world, reports News.com.au. (The first stage is here, and the rest should be out in 2018.) As New Zealand's University of Canterbury celebrates 100 years since it acquired the 16-foot genealogical scroll, British scientists will begin studying the 15th-century manuscript next week in the hope of discovering hidden features. Using specialized equipment, they'll complete “ground-breaking work that has never before been applied to this type of manuscript,” according to a release. Researchers have so far gathered that the manuscript dates to the Wars of the Roses, a series of wars fought for England's throne by two noble families: the Lancasters and Yorks, who became the Lannisters and Starks in George RR Martin's Game of Thrones, per Mental Floss. Created by the Lancaster side, the "visually spectacular" scroll then "fell into Yorkist hands and they rewrote part of it," says researcher Chris Jones. He notes the University of Canterbury acquired it in 1918 from a Canterbury nurse named Sybilla Maude, whose family claimed to have been keeping it since the Middle Ages, per Radio New Zealand. It's now "the most significant and substantial medieval artifact in New Zealand," Jones says, adding that the public can "interact directly with the manuscript." Check out how here.

... R PAWS Pod and you won’t want to miss the first episode. In episode one released on February 1st, Dr. Amir Khalil, FOUR PAWS veterinarian of 25+ years, provides a first- hand account of our rescue mission to Magic World Zoo near Aleppo, Syria. Relive the joys, the sorrows and the suspense of one of the most famous FOUR PAWS emergency response missions. Have you heard?! FOUR PAWS USA is releasing a podcast called the FOU ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption Lula the bear was suffering from pneumonia when found at the zoo in February The only surviving animals of Mosul zoo have been rescued from appalling conditions in the war-torn Iraqi city. Simba the lion and Lula the bear were found abandoned at the privately-owned zoo in February, still in their cages and covered in dirt and excrement. The charity Four Paws International came to their aid, and on Monday it flew them to a better life in Jordan. Troops are trying to drive Islamic State militants out of Mosul, their last major urban stronghold in Iraq. Almost six months of fierce fighting has caused many civilian casualties, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes. Image copyright AFP Image caption It took Four Paws International weeks to get the necessary permits from the Iraqi authorities The Montazah al-Morour Zoo was nearly destroyed during the battle for the eastern half of the city earlier this year and most of its animals - including a lioness, monkeys and rabbits - were killed or died of starvation. Amir Khalil, an Egyptian-Austrian vet who headed the Four Paws mission, said Simba and Lula were suffering from many diseases caused by malnutrition and lack of care when he first saw them in February. Both had very bad teeth, Lula was suffering from pneumonia and Simba from ill joints. The next month, Dr Khalil started trying to acquire the correct paperwork from the Iraqi authorities so that the animals could be taken abroad for proper care. Dr Amir Khalil speaks to BBC World Service Two weeks later, their first attempt to fly the animals out had to be aborted after a lorry carrying them was detained at a checkpoint. The lorry was stuck at the roadside for nine days until further permits were secured, during which time Simba developed a respiratory problem. Before the plane carrying them to Jordan took off on Monday, Dr Khalil told AFP news agency: "This is a beginning of a new life for the animals." "From now on, they won't have to be part of this war."

– Lula and Simba are headed to a new life in Jordan. The bear and lion, respectively, were discovered in February in the war-decimated Montazah al-Morour Zoo in Mosul, Iraq, apparently the only two animal survivors in the facility, the BBC reports. All of the other creatures had starved to death or were killed during clashes between Iraqi forces and ISIS, and Lula and Simba weren't doing so great themselves: They were found dirty, covered in feces, and suffering from various maladies between them, including bad teeth and malnutrition, Four Paws veterinarian Amir Khalil says. But the Four Paws International charity stepped in to tend to them, and after various paperwork issues, Lula and Simba finally had their big day on Monday: They were crated up and put on a plane to Jordan, where they'll be placed in a "species-appropriate home," per Four Paws' Facebook page. "From now on, they won't have to be part of this war," Khalil told AFP Monday, via the BBC. (These elephants were saved from a muddy demise.)

TRENTON — The Republican field for the White House is growing larger by the day, and that could be a problem for Gov. Chris Christie. With former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush jumping in last week, the formally declared Republican candidates for the White House stands at a dozen, including five former or current U.S. Senators and four current or former governors. There hasn't been a presidential field approaching this size since 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was elected. Christie, who is expected to add his name to the big list in the coming weeks, is already part of a mad scramble of Republicans trying to win national attention and gain the favor of GOP voters responding to presidential polls. That's because Fox News Channel has decided that only the top 10 GOP candidates in the polls will be allowed into its televised Aug. 6 debate (CNN has the same rule for its mid-September debate, although it will hold another one for also-rans in the polls). Christie's well-known rhetorical skills would be on full display in such a forum – but only if he makes the cut. Earlier this month, a Washington Post/ABC News poll illustrated just how slender the difference is between first and last in the crowded field: Only five percentage points divide Christie, in eighth place, from the first place candidates U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. And he was just four percentage points from 12th place. "You're already seeing the party struggling with who gets invited (to the debate) and who doesn't," said Thomas F. Schaller, a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the author of the new book "The Stronghold: How the How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House." Schaller said that to gain traction in the media and improve poll numbers, Christie and his rivals will likely start playing nastier faster than ever. "The things that break though are the really big stories and really big gaffes," he said, "which really puts a premium on earned media and being really critical. ... Big attacks draw media attention." Christie, who specializes in full-contact politics, is already employing a plan of attack. On Friday, he once again took aim at 2016 contender Paul for recently leading the effort to let parts of the Patriot Act, which allowed U.S. officials to collect Americans' phone data, expire. "What Paul has done has made us weaker and more vulnerable," Christie told an audience in Philadelphia. "It's disgraceful. It's made our country a more dangerous place." On Thursday at an ersatz campaign stop in New Hampshire, Christie chided Bush for being "late to the party" with his newly announced economic plan aiming for 4 percent economic growth. "This is one of these areas where I'm really flattered that Jeb Bush is copying me because I spoke three, four weeks ago in New Hampshire about a five-step plan to get to four percent growth," Christie said. "Then I heard Jeb announce on Monday that he's for four percent growth too — that's good. I welcome him to the party. He's a little bit late, but I welcome him." The size of the field and its closely competitive rankings means a different approach to early campaigning is needed, experts say. "As we move into the phase of the campaign where they are debating, the candidates who are shaping the discussion are going to get more (media) attention," said Steve Schmidt, who ran the day-to-day operations of Sen. John McCain's 2008 White House bid, "And so, at a personal level, candidates need to stake out territory, because it's the meat on the bones of why are you running: Do you just want the big house, plane and helicopter, or do you want to get something done for the country?" Christie has followed this roadmap as well, proposing detailed plans for reforms to federal entitlement programs, immigration policy, taxes and education. In a normal race, offering up such specificity early on might cost a candidate some voters, but in such an unusually large field, Schmidt says Christie has a clear advantage by defining his positions. "There's a tendency sometimes among candidates to take what I call a 'preventative defense' that's organized around the principle of not making mistakes or not putting information out there," Schmidt said. "I think it's not a winning strategy. As a candidate, you need to be an 'advocate for' and not a 'hedger against.' He's doing that, and he's also indicating a style of leadership which he'll articulate in the White House: 'I'm not going to be afraid to take on the tough problems, and I'm going to talk truthfully.'" Getting enough attention to make the cut for the GOP debates could be complicated by the summer months, when TV audiences are about 10 percent less than in the winter months, according to Dounia Turrill, a senior vice-president at Nielsen, the TV ratings company. And the large field of candidates makes it even tougher, experts say. "Historically, we've never had so many people who are seriously running for the presidency and who have become part of the daily news cycle," said Joseph Ellis, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning presidential history, "Founding Brothers." Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University, said as a result, "We're going to see more of them and less of them at the same time. There'll be more debates but at the same time, in terms of the major media outlets, each one will have less time and space to be heard." In first primary state New Hampshire, where Christie has spent much of his late spring, lifelong Republican Leonore Moniz, 82, of Manchester, articulated a refrain common to scores of GOP voters interviewed by NJ Advance Media in the Granite State in recent weeks: "There's too many of them." Finding a way to the front of the pack as soon as possible is especially important because top GOP strategists and presidential historians agree that the 2016 campaign could last longer than any in recent memory. Thanks to the 2012 Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which allows unlimited amounts of cash to back presidential candidates, much of the field may stay in the race far longer than usual if hopefuls can find even a single billionaire to champion them. "There's an excellent chance this all goes to May or June of next year," said Ellis. If that happens, it could put in play a state that rarely has a say in presidential primaries: New Jersey, which holds its primary June 7 next year. Richard Davis, who served as the campaign manager for Sen. John McCain's 2008 White House bid, said it could last even longer than that. "The combination of big outside money, a condensed primary timetable and 15 candidates will result in a prolonged nominating process and could result in a brokered convention since no candidate will get to the 1,100 delegates needed," said Davis. "In 2008, McCain wrapped up the nomination by March. In 2012 it took Romney to May. In 2016 it will go to the convention in July. Not only are there a lot more candidates but with the outside money widely distributed there is no incentive to winnow the field," he said. Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @claudebrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. ||||| Chris Christie: No teleprompter for launch Gov. Chris Christie’s launch rally at his high school in New Jersey on Tuesday will include friends who remember his years as class president — but no teleprompter, in an effort to live up to Christie’s campaign slogan, “Telling it like it is.” With the independent-minded voters of New Hampshire the key to his come-from-behind strategy, Christie will spend five straight days in the Granite State, beginning the evening of his announcement day. Plunging into the hand-to-hand campaigning that First Staters relish, he’ll hold at least three town halls and attend a Fourth of July celebration, plus various house and diner stops. Story Continued Below Offering himself as a pragmatic, results-oriented conservative, Christie will signal his willingness to take on tough issues that others duck, notably entitlements. Another key part of Christie’s message will be his ability to win and govern in a blue state, where he did well in his reelection race with women, Hispanics and even Democrats. A top adviser said the announcement tour is meant to showcase a Christie strength: “Communicating to bring people to his side — even people who don’t agree on every issue.” Christie’s wife, Mary Pat, and the rest of his family, along with longtime supporters and friends, will jam the gym at Livingston High School, where he was president for three years, for the 11 a.m. bash. The invocation will be by Joe Carter, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, who has been a key voice for Christie in the African-American community. The adviser said the audience “will see a lot of who he is as a person,” including the middle-class upbringing that shaped him: the influence of his late mother, his Irish father working at the Breyers ice cream plant in Newark to put himself through Rutgers, a grandmother who was a Sicilian immigrant and a single mother. A preview video shows Christie at a town hall, saying that his loud candor has its roots in his loving, trusting family. The adviser said Christie welcomes the discussion about the bridge closing and subsequent investigation at this point. “To get past it, there has to be a little discussion,” the adviser said. “People can see now that everything he said was true. That doesn’t mean that the damage is undone. But people and donors are moving past it for the first time. For the most part, people will be looking to the future, not the past.” After the announcement speech, Christie will fly to New Hampshire for a 6 p.m. Tuesday town hall in Sandown. On Wednesday, he has an endorsement announcement at Mary Ann’s Diner in Derry, then an afternoon house party in Bridgewater, followed by a town hall at the American Legion hall in Ashland, in Grafton County. On Thursday, he has a town hall in Rochester, and he stops by the Pink Cadillac Diner. Then it’s on to a luncheon in Portsmouth, followed by an endorsement announcement and a house party. He’ll remain in New Hampshire on Friday, with events to be announced, and on Saturday will celebrate the Fourth of July with his new best friends in the Granite State. Mike DuHaime, Christie’s longtime strategist, will advise the campaign from the outside. Close adviser Maria Comella has moved to his PAC. Samantha Smith, the PAC’s communications director, and James Garcia, the PAC’s political director, are expected to play similar roles from the campaign, which will be based in northern New Jersey. Subscribe to Playbook here. Follow @politico Authors:

– And then there were 14 ... on the GOP side only, a presidential field that NJ.com reports was last this big when Abraham Lincoln won in 1860. Chris Christie today threw his hat into the ring by way of an announcement made at Livingston High School, his alma mater and the town where "everything started ... for me." Politico reported that Christie's announcement would be made telepromter-free, as befitting his "Telling it like it is" campaign slogan. He kicked things off with stories of his roots—hard work, not much money—and what his mother told him: "God's given you so many gifts. If you just work hard enough, you can be anything." Ten standout lines from there: "Both parties have failed our country." "I wake up every morning knowing I have the opportunity to do something great. That's why this job is a great job, and why president of the United States is an even greater job." "America is tired of weakness in the Oval Office ... and that is why today I'm proud to announce my candidacy." "The lying and stealing has already happened. The horse is out of the barn. We've got to get it back in and you can only do it by force." "After seven years I heard the president say the other day that the world respects" America more "because of his leadership. This is confirmation that Obama lives in his own world, not ours." "We better not turn [this world] over to his second mate Hillary Clinton." "I am not running for president of the United States as a surrogate for being prom king of America. I mean what I say and I say what I mean and that's what America needs right now." "And unlike some people who will offer themselves for the presidency, you're not going to have to wonder if I can do it or not." He promised a campaign "without focus-group-tested answers. A campaign when I'm asked a question I'm going to give an answer to the question that's asked, not the answer my political consultants told me to give backstage." "We are going to tell it like it is today ... the truth will set us free, everybody."

Subglacial Aquatic Environments Over the last several decades, by using ground penetrating radar and other remote sensing tools, scientists have discovered that under the massive Antarctic ice sheets there lies a vast hydrological system of liquid water. This water exists because geothermal heat flow from below, coupled with pressure, movement, and the insulating nature of the ice sheet above, is great enough to maintain some areas at the base of the ice sheet above the freezing point, even in the extreme cold of Antarctica. In topographic depressions there are hundreds of lakes, both large and small; some are isolated, but many are interconnected by water channels and large areas of saturated sediments, the water eventually running out into the Southern Ocean as the ice sheet becomes a floating ice shelf. WISSARD In order to explore one of these hydrological systems at the margin of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, we have organized an interdisciplinary project to access the subglacial environment. The Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling project (WISSARD) is using a variety of tools and techniques to explore Subglacial Lake Whillans and the nearby grounding zone, on the southeastern edge of the Ross Sea. Radar and seismic equipment is used to profile the overlying ice sheet and the underlying water, sediments, and rock, while GPS stations accurately track ice movement. This season our target is the grounding zone, where the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet atop land meets the Ross Sea. This area is considered an important piece of the puzzle for our scientists interested in ice sheet dynamics. The work will help scientists assess the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, most of which sits below sea level. It is the last ice sheet on Earth resting in a deep marine basin and is the most likely player in any future, rapid sea-level rise. If the grounding zone is retreating or primed to retreat, rapid changes in ice behavior could follow over the next century. Work focused on microbial life, biogeochemical cycling, and surrounding geophysical surveys will also continue during the 2014-2015 season. Our intentions are to have 8 days of science in the primary borehole at the Grounding Zone location mid-January. We will deploy all of the WISSARD tools during this period and recover sediment and water samples from the water cavity some 750 meters below the surface of the ice. We also hope to recover about 5 meters of basal ice cores at another borehole very near the primary hole. Image: Rachel Xidis/NIU. ||||| Tomorrow's edition of the journal Nature will include a paper documenting the existence of microorganisms living far beneath Antarctic ice. Special drilling and extraction techniques allowed scientists to tap into an active ecosystem half a mile below the surface of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where life was found in a lake untouched by sunlight or wind for millions of years. The discovery raises the obvious question of what other extreme environments might be able to harbor life on our planet, or beyond. A team led by Montana State University professor John Priscu brought up samples from below the ice that contained single-celled microbes called Archaea, which convert ammonium and methane into energy to survive and grow. “We were able to prove unequivocally to the world that Antarctica is not a dead continent,” Priscu said in a release. Similar expeditions have found sub-ice environments teeming with bacteria in recent years, but questions have been raised about possible contamination in the drilling process. The paper's lead author Brent Christner says with this latest effort, there is now clear proof. “It’s the first definitive evidence that there’s not only life, but active ecosystems underneath the Antarctic ice sheet, something that we have been guessing about for decades. With this paper, we pound the table and say, ‘Yes, we were right.’” The conditions below that Antarctic ice sheet have certain characteristics in common with known places on other worlds in our solar system, leading many to wonder if life might be more inevitable in those distant locales than previously thought. Saturn's moon Titan , for example, is far colder than Earth, but plays host to vast lakes of liquid methane that could be a potential feast for hearty microbes similar to those living under the Antarctic ice sheet. Tidally-heated liquid oceans are also believed to exist beneath the icy shell of Jupiter's moon Europa and other objects in our solar system. Some of the graduate students working on the mission to retrieve microscopic life from beneath Antarctica reportedly joked that they may have reached an early peak in their scientific careers. “Some of the graduate students joke, ‘How do we top this?’ We can’t,” said Montana State doctoral student Alex Michaud. Perhaps not. At least, not if they continue to limit their research to this planet. NASA could launch a mission to explore Europa sometime in the 2020s. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.

– A half a mile below the surface of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, in a lake that hasn’t been touched by sunshine or wind in millions of years, life goes on. A large US expedition called WISSARD, led by a professor at Montana State University, has unearthed a thriving ecosystem of micro-organisms after drilling through the thick ice to reach Subglacial Lake Whillans in January of 2013, according to a university news release. Considered one of the planet's final frontiers, the subglacial environments below Antarctic ice sheets have long been suspected to harbor life of some kind. Many of the micro-organisms found are single-celled organisms, called Archaea, that survive by converting ammonium and methane into energy in a harsh environment similar to those found elsewhere in our solar system, such as on Jupiter’s moon Europa. That has led scientists to wonder whether primitive (but hearty) life thrives there as well, Forbes reports. "It's the first definitive evidence that there’s not only life, but active ecosystems underneath the Antarctic ice sheet, something that we have been guessing about for decades," the lead author says. "With this paper, we pound the table and say, 'Yes, we were right.'" The findings appear today in the journal Nature. (A group of European scientists is already prepping for a mission to search for life on Jupiter's icy moons.)

Britain sent a Royal Air Force plane to crisis-hit Cyprus on Tuesday carrying one million euros ($1.3 million) in emergency loans for British military personnel, the defence ministry said. The cash cargo flight was a "contingency" plan in case banks in Cyprus stopped giving out money as the island deals with the fallout from a controversial eurozone bailout deal, a spokesman said. "An RAF flight left for Cyprus this afternoon with one million euros on board as a contingency measure to provide military personnel and their families with emergency loans," the spokesman said in a statement to AFP. "The MoD is proactively approaching personnel to ask if they want their March, and future months' salaries paid into UK bank accounts, rather than Cypriot accounts." The British government reaffirmed earlier Tuesday that it would fully refund any military or government personnel whose Cyprus bank accounts were subject to an EU levy that was part of the bailout deal. "We're determined to do everything we can to minimise the impact of the Cyprus banking crisis on our people," the spokesman added. Britain does not use the euro, having stuck with the pound as its national currency. Around 3,000 British troops are based at two military bases in Cyprus, which are used by Britain as a strategic foothold in the Mediterranean, with around 500 civilian personnel. ||||| The RAF flight left the UK earlier this afternoon, with the money onboard designated for emergency loans in the event that cash machines and debit cards stop working on the crisis-hit Mediterranean island. The MoD said it is determined to minimise the impact of Cyprus' banking problems on “our people” and it will consider further shipments if required. The announcement comes amid moves by the Government today to re-assure British troops posted to Cyprus that they will be fully compensated for any plans to raid their savings. The MoD said that as well as sending out the emergency fund, it is asking personnel if they would prefer this and future months' salaries to be paid into UK bank accounts. In a statement released today, the MoD said: “An RAF flight left for Cyprus this afternoon with one million euro on board as a contingency measure to provide military personnel and their families with emergency loans in the event that cash machines and debit cards stop working completely...We will keep this under review and consider further shipments if required.“ It added: ”The MoD is proactively approaching personnel to ask if they want their March, and future months' salaries paid into UK bank accounts, rather than Cypriot accounts...We're determined to do everything we can to minimise the impact of the Cyprus banking crisis on our people.” The position of more than 3,000 British service personnel was thrown into doubt yesterday when Treasury Minister Greg Clark only went as far as saying that they would not suffer “unreasonable losses” as a result of the planned levy. However, George Osborne told Cabinet that UK Armed Forces personnel and civil servants posted to Cyprus will be “compensated in full” for any losses as a result of the planned levy on savings. The Chancellor's comments confirm a pledge he made on Sunday that “people who are doing their duty for our country in Cyprus will be protected from this Cypriot bank tax”. The Cypriot government is planning to impose the levy to secure an international rescue of the country's troubled banks. EU ministers and officials have said 5.8 billion euro (£4.9 billion) of the 15.8 billion euro (£13.5 billion) rescue package must be raised by Cyprus. After prompting an outcry from depositors, Cypriot politicians have been considering the possibility that savers with smaller deposits should escape having to pay. The country's banks remain closed until Thursday, and analysts are warning that the plans set a troubling precedent, undermine confidence and could trigger an exodus of money. Outlining today's Cabinet discussion, Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman said: “The Chancellor set out the position that both he and the Foreign Secretary made clear at the weekend, which is that all UK personnel will be compensated in full for any losses as a result of the decisions that may be taken with regard to the Cyprus banking situation. “The Chancellor was clear on Sunday that UK personnel will be compensated in full. He reminded the Cabinet of that position.” Unlike the previous rescues for Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and Spanish banks, the proposed Cypriot bailout is the first one that dips into people's bank accounts to finance the measures. Suggestions have been made that eurozone leaders, particularly in Germany, insisted on the levy because of the large amount of Russian capital kept in Cypriot banks, amid fears of money-laundering. The bailout package involves the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank and European Union. Former UK chancellor Alistair Darling told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the plans involve “everything you shouldn't do when you are trying to solve a problem like this”. He said: “They have actually now said to people 'We will come after your deposits, no matter how small your savings are' and that seems to me to make it more likely that, if you are a saver in Spain or in Italy, for example, and you have just the sniff of the EU or the IMF coming your way, you will take your money out and you will get a run on the bank.” Tristan Cooper, fixed income sovereign credit analyst at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said confidence in the security of bank deposits in Cyprus could have been “fatally undermined”. He said: “This will likely prompt capital flight once the banks reopen and may necessitate the sustained imposition of capital controls in order to stem an escalating banking crisis.” Former Central Bank of Cyprus chief Athanasios Orphanides claimed the government is essentially being “blackmailed” into taking savers' cash. He told Bloomberg Television: “What we are witnessing is the slow death of the European Project... “What we have seen in the last few days is a very serious blunder by European governments that are essentially blackmailing the government of Cyprus to confiscate the money that belongs rightfully to depositors in the banking sector in Cyprus.”

– How's this for a tangible sign of the banking mess in Cyprus: Britain's Royal Air Force is flying in a plane loaded with 1 million euros so its troops stationed there don't get stuck without cash, reports the Independent. The defense ministry made the move after the crisis raised fears that ATMs and debit cards would stop working. Troops also get the option of having their pay deposited into UK bank accounts instead of Cypriot ones. "We're determined to do everything we can to minimize the impact of the Cyprus banking crisis on our people," says a ministry spokesman. Britain, which doesn't even use the euro as its national currency, has about 3,000 troops and 500 civilian personnel in Cyprus, reports Yahoo News.

This story emerged last week as a sad, yet unusual death of a U.S. soldier deployed to Afghanistan. Capt. Bruce Clark, 43, was Skyping with his wife from Tarin Kowt Afghanistan, about 85 miles north of Kandahar, April 30, during one of their scheduled calls when he pitched forward unresponsive. More than 7,000 miles away in their El Paso home, his wife Susan frantically reached out to Tarin Kowt emergency base services, but it took a full two hours before anyone came to her husband's aid and by the time they arrived, he was pronounced dead. Susan originally said only that her husband showed no alarm or discomfort, and she was awaiting the military's decision on the cause of death. But when the Army came out ruling Clark died from natural causes, Susan decided it was time to speak up about what she believes she saw. In a statement released by the family, Susan describes what she witnessed in the moments leading up to her husband's death, and in the two hours their Skype chat remained running. Via Military Times: “Clark was suddenly knocked forward,” the statement said. “The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it. The other individuals, including a member of the military, who rushed to the home of CPT Clark’s wife also saw the hole and agreed it was a bullet hole.” “After two hours and many frantic phone calls by Mrs. Clark, two military personnel arrived in the room and appeared to check his pulse, but provided no details about his condition to his wife,” the statement said. Susan says she released the information to “to honor my husband and dispel the inaccurate information and supposition promulgated by other parties.” The military says it took so long for help to arrive because Susan's calls were routed through several stateside commands before reaching Afghanistan. Officials familiar with the case also announced that while Clark's death was ruled non-suicide and non-combat related, cause of death will not officially be announced until toxicology and an autopsy have been concluded. Clark joined the Army in 2006 after earning his nursing degree from SUNY Brockport. He is survived by his wife and two daughters. By all accounts he was a good guy, a solid soldier, and will be sorely missed by his command and his family. 09:30 May 7: The Army officially announced it found no bullet wound on Capt. Clark's body. While looking for that announcement on Twitter, I noticed speculation over Clark's death is running wild, with some people claiming he was killed by a sniper. Regardless of the military findings it looks like rumor could follow this story for some time. ||||| An Army nurse showed no alarm or discomfort before suddenly collapsing during a Skype video chat with his wife, who saw a bullet hole in a closet behind him, his family said Sunday. This undated photo provided by the U.S. Army shows Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark. The family Clark, a Texas-based Army medic serving in Afghanistan, says Clark's wife witnessed the officer's death, which happened... (Associated Press) Chaplain Col. Dennis Goodwin, left, directs a prayer over the transfer case containing the remains of Army Capt. Bruce K. Clark of Spencerport, N.Y., upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. on Thursday... (Associated Press) Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark's family released a statement describing what his wife saw in the video feed recording her husband's death in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan. It's not clear how the bullet hole got in the closet. "Clark was suddenly knocked forward," the statement from the soldier's family said. "The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it. The other individuals, including a member of the military, who rushed to the home of CPT Clark's wife also saw the hole and agreed it was a bullet hole." The statement says the Skype link remained open for two hours on April 30 as family and friends in the U.S. and Afghanistan tried to get Clark help. "After two hours and many frantic phone calls by Mrs. Clark, two military personnel arrived in the room and appeared to check his pulse, but provided no details about his condition to his wife," the statement said. In the statement, Susan Orellana-Clark said she was providing details of what she saw "to honor my husband and dispel the inaccurate information and supposition promulgated by other parties." U.S. officials in Afghanistan referred questions to the Pentagon, which previously referred questions to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, where Clark was assigned. The Pentagon said previously that Clark's death remains under investigation. Clarence Davis, spokesman for William Beaumont Army Medical Center, declined to comment on Clark's family's statement. Clark, 43, grew up in Michigan and previously lived in Spencerport, New York, a suburb of Rochester, his wife's hometown. He joined the Army in 2006 and was stationed in Hawaii before he was assigned to the medical center in El Paso. He deployed to Afghanistan in March. Clark's body was returned Thursday to Dover Air Force Base. He is survived by his wife and two daughters, aged 3 and 9.

– The sad and strange tale of the US Army captain who died while Skyping with his wife gets even more mysterious: Army investigators say they found no bullet wound or any evidence of foul play in Bruce Kevin Clark’s death, but wife Susan Orellana-Clark has suggested her husband may have been shot. "Clark was suddenly knocked forward," reads a family statement released yesterday. "The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it.” Others, “including a member of the military, who rushed to the home of Clark's wife, also saw the hole and agreed it was a bullet hole." Orellana-Clark says her husband showed no signs of alarm or discomfort before falling forward onto his desk during their Skype chat, which she kept open for two hours as she tried to get assistance for Clark, 43, who was at his base in Afghanistan. "We can positively say that Captain Clark was not shot," says an Army spokesperson, adding that there was no trauma on the body other than a possibly broken nose from when Clark hit the desk, the AP reports. The Army is waiting on complete autopsy results, but has ruled the death from natural causes, Business Insider adds—but speculation is rampant on Twitter, with some wondering if Clark was killed by a sniper.

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A jury on Wednesday sentenced James Miller to 10 years of probation and 6 months in the Travis County Jail. Miller was found not guilty of murder Tuesday afternoon, but guilty of a lesser charge — criminally negligent homicide — in connection with the 2015 stabbing death of Daniel Spencer, 32. Miller, 69, was also found not guilty of manslaughter. He faced two to 10 years in prison or 10 years probation. In addition to the probation and jail time, he will also have to pay $10,000 in fines for restitution, have an alcohol monitor for a year or until a judge decides to remove it, 100 hours of community service and pay off the court costs. The prosecution said Spencer was an upstanding member of our community, "who was killed by the defendant for no good reason." The state called a number of witnesses to the stand, including the victim's mother. "I have a huge hole in my heart. Something's wrong in the world when you lose your child before you go," explained Marsha Spencer. "I'm tortured by the thought of how Daniel died and I'm tortured by the fact that he suffered and that he was alone when he died. It's a loss that cuts deeply." The defense argued that Miller acted in self-defense and so he should be eligible for the minimum punishment associated with the charge. "It was so uncharacteristic of Mr. Miller that for him to engage in this behavior clearly had to be an act of self-defense," said Charlie Baird, Miller's defense attorney. "We're going to ask the jury to accord him probation and to allow him to return to his family and his home, and to the community." The victim and the defendant were playing music and drinking together the night Spencer was killed. The defense argues Spencer came on to Miller, and he stabbed him in self-defense. The prosecution said the evidence does not support the self-defense argument, pointing to blood evidence at the scene they say didn't match Miller's story. Further, prosecutors argued it could have been Spencer who turned down Miller's sexual advances. Austin police were called around 3:45 a.m. on Sept. 21, 2015 from a service station at the 700 block of East 8th Street. Miller told Austin police "I think I killed someone," and, "I stabbed him." The affidavit states that Miller said, "We were playing. We were doing the good music. We were playing back and forth and everything and I just let him know — Hey, I'm not gay. We been playing. We're musicians and all that kind of stuff, but I'm not a gay guy. Then it seemed like everything was alright and everything was fine. When I got ready to go — it seemed like [expletive] just started happening." ||||| A former cop said he killed a man in 'a gay panic' - an actual legal defense that worked The "gay panic" defense is legal in Texas. The "gay panic" defense is legal in Texas. Photo: Norberto Cuenca, Contributor Photo: Norberto Cuenca, Contributor Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close A former cop said he killed a man in 'a gay panic' - an actual legal defense that worked 1 / 1 Back to Gallery After James Miller retired from the Austin Police Department, he took up guitar, strumming the instrument at a nearby musicians' bar, trying to put together a jazz band and getting together at the house of David Spencer, a 32-year-old neighbor and a saxophonist who shared his passion. In September, 2015, after a night of music and drinking at Spencer's house, Miller testified, his younger neighbor made a fatal mistake: He moved in for a kiss. "We were playing back and forth and everything, and I just let him know - Hey, I'm not gay," Miller, 69, said in an affidavit, according to Austin NBC-affiliate KXAN. "We been playing. We're musicians and all that kind of stuff, but I'm not a gay guy. Then it seemed like everything was all right, and everything was fine. When I got ready to go - it seemed like [expletive] just started happening." SENDING A MESSAGE: Police Department's rainbow cruiser raises eyebrows Then, he said, he pulled out a knife and stabbed Spencer two times. Miller showed up at a police station a few hours later, at 3:45 a.m., according to a police report obtained by the Austin American-Statesman: "I think I killed someone. . . . I stabbed him." He was charged with murder. Three years later, the former police officer claims the killing was self-defense, and he was in a "gay panic" after being hit on by another man. Such claims are legitimate, viable defenses in all but two states - California and Illinois - despite the work of LGBT advocates and a resolution by the American Bar Association to have the defense banned. In Miller's case the defense was successful. Jurors did not find him guilty of murder or manslaughter, and while he was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, he will not spend a day in prison. The former police officer was sentenced to six months in jail. He will have to complete 100 hours of community service, pay $11,000 in restitution to Spencer's family and use a portable alcohol monitoring service for at least a year. He will also be on probation for a decade. The case's disposition outraged LGBT advocates, who say the law gives non-straight people second-class citizen treatment. "It's hard to believe that something like this exists," D'Arcy Kemnitz, the executive director of the LGBT Bar Association, told The Washington Post. "This is something from the very darkest of ages, based on the idea that if a gay guy hits on a straight guy, then the straight guy gets to do whatever he wants to do to him, including a homicide." Defense attorneys have an obligation to provide a "zealous defense" of their clients, Kemnitz said, but such defenses are "playing on the fact that LGBT people are considered 'others' or outside what is normative or not as valued as others in society." Miller, who is 5 feet 4, at least eight inches shorter than Spencer was, testified he felt threatened in Spencer's home. "He had height advantage over me, arm length over me, youth over me," Miller said, according to the Austin-American Statesman. "I felt he was going to hurt me." "It was so uncharacteristic of Mr. Miller that for him to engage in this behavior clearly had to be an act of self-defense," said Charlie Baird, Miller's defense attorney. Prosecutors argued the argument was bogus because Spencer never threatened the older man or had any intention of hurting him. Miller told the court he and Spencer never fought. Miller did not have "so much as a scratch on him," prosecutor Matthew Foye said, according to the newspaper. The American Bar Association's resolution urged lawmakers across the U.S. to "curtail the availability and effectiveness of the 'gay panic' and 'trans panic' defense." Kemnitz said there is active legislation in several states to stop defense attorneys from being able to use a gay panic defense. She said the defense re-victimizes a person who has been attacked, but also sends a message to other marginalized members of society. "If there's a secondary chilling effect, when an individual gets to attack or indeed murder someone and walk away with a slap on the wrist or scot free, it tells us that we're still vulnerable," she said.

– A former police employee skirted murder and manslaughter charges in Texas this week when a jury sided with his so-called "gay panic" defense, the Houston Chronicle reports. James Miller, 69, testified that in 2015 he was at the house of neighbor David Spencer, 32, drinking and jamming on their instruments when the younger man tried to kiss him. "We were playing back and forth and everything, and I just let him know—Hey, I'm not gay," Miller says in an affidavit, per KXAN. "Then it seemed like everything was all right, and everything was fine. When I got ready to go—it seemed like [expletive] just started happening." Miller apparently pulled a knife, stabbed Spencer twice, and showed up at a police station in the wee hours saying "I think I killed someone. ... I stabbed him." In his defense, Miller said Spencer was bigger and stronger and might hurt him. Prosecutors argued that Spencer didn't threaten or injure his neighbor, but on Tuesday an Austin jury rejected murder charges and found Miller guilty of criminally negligent homicide, sentencing him to 6 months in jail with 100 hours of community service and $10,000 in fines. Now LGBT advocates are speaking up against "gay panic" defenses, which are legal in every state except California and Illinois. "It's hard to believe that something like this exists," the executive director of the LGBT Bar Association tells the Washington Post. "This is something from the very darkest of ages, based on the idea that if a gay guy hits on a straight guy, then the straight guy gets to do whatever he wants to do to him, including a homicide." (This story has been updated: We originally reported Miller was an ex-cop; he was a civilian employee of the Austin PD.)

Residents began a long wait Thursday for floodwaters to subside and reveal the extent of devastation to Australia's third-largest city, while upstream soldiers picked their way through the debris of washed-away towns looking for more victims from one of the country's worst natural disasters. An unidentified woman uses a hose to pump water out of an office in the city center of Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011. Floodwaters washing through Australia's third-largest city crested... (Associated Press) Local residents walk through floodwater after getting ice and food to take to their flooded residence in the suburb of New Farm in Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011. Floodwaters washing through... (Associated Press) The statue of Queensland's famous former Rugby League star Wally Lewis fitted out with water wings, scuba mask and snorkel is seen outside the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane Australia, Wednesday Jan. 12,... (Associated Press) The remains of a floating restaurant called Drift Cafe is swept down the Brisbane River Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, as floodwaters surge through Brisbane, Australia. At least 22 people have died and more... (Associated Press) An entire suburb is submerged outside Ipswich, west of Brisbane, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. Emergency sirens blared across Australia's third-largest city Wednesday as floodwaters that have torn... (Associated Press) A rescue helicopter flies over a flooded area in South East Queensland, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. Deadly floodwaters flowed onto the streets in Australia's northeastern state of Queensland since drenching... (Associated Press) A farm house destroyed by floodwaters stands in South East Queensland, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. Deadly floodwaters flowed onto the streets in Australia's northeastern state of Queensland since drenching... (Associated Press) A street is flooded in the city center of Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011. Floodwaters washing through Australia's third-largest city crested Thursday just shy of record levels but high... (Associated Press) An unidentified woman climbs onto a wall to see the damage in her property after flood water reached the area in New Farm, Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011. Floodwaters washing through Australia's... (Associated Press) A rescue worker, left, talks to an unidentified home owner as he starts cleaning after flood waters reached his home in New Farm, Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011. Floodwaters washing through... (Associated Press) A shoe floats out of the front door of a flooded residence in the suburb of New Farm in Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011. Floodwaters washing through Australia's third-largest city crested... (Associated Press) A resident walks through floodwater to take food to stranded residents in the suburb of New Farm in Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011. Floodwaters washing through Australia's third-largest... (Associated Press) The remains of a floating restaurant called Drift Cafe is swept down the Brisbane River Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, as floodwaters surge through Brisbane, Australia. At least 22 people have died and more... (Associated Press) A car is wrecked in floodwaters outside the town of Grantham in South East Queensland, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. Deadly floodwaters flowed onto the streets in Australia's northeastern state of Queensland... (Associated Press) A police boat looks for survivors on the Brisbane River, Brisbane, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. Deadly floodwaters that have cut a swath across northeastern Australia flowed onto the streets of... (Associated Press) Debris float in front of a car park entrance in the center of Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011. Floodwaters washing through Australia's third-largest city crested Thursday just shy of record... (Associated Press) A local resident talks on the phone inside his flooded home in Hawthorne in Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011. Floodwaters washing through Australia's third-largest city crested Thursday just... (Associated Press) A car wrecks outside the town of Grantham in South East Queensland, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. The small town was hit by flash flooding causing mass destruction. Deadly floodwaters that have... (Associated Press) A vehicle is swept away in floodwaters in South East Queensland, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. Deadly floodwaters flowed onto the streets in Australia's northeastern state of Queensland since drenching rains... (Associated Press) A cyclist pedals past the Port Office Hotel in the city center of Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011. Floodwaters washing through Australia's third-largest city crested Thursday just shy of... (Associated Press) The waters left behind tractor-trailers snapped in half, concrete slabs where houses used to be and a car hanging from a tree. The slow-motion inundation of Brisbane overnight _ played out live on television before a nation transfixed _ was a critical moment in flooding that has built for weeks as rain fell incessantly across Australia's tropical northeast. The emergency is not over, but Brisbane's escape from what forecasters had predicted would be a flood worse than one that laid waste to much of the city 37 years ago triggered relief nationwide. The death toll stood at 25, including a 24-year-old man who drowned Thursday when he was sucked into a storm drain as he tried to check on his father's home in a swamped Brisbane neighborhood. Officials said they expect to find more bodies farther upstream as they finally got access to hamlets struck by flash flooding on Monday. The deadly floodwaters began to recede Thursday after cresting about three feet (one meter) below the depth of 1974 floods that swept through Brisbane and set a benchmark for disaster. Still, 30,000 homes and business were swamped _ many all the way up to their terra-cotta roof tiles. Skyscrapers stood empty as downtown closed for a for a second day, and thousands remained huddled in evacuation centers or with friends and family on higher ground. "Queensland is reeling this morning from the worst natural disaster in our history and possibly in the history of our nation," a visibly shaken state Premier Anna Bligh told reporters. "We've seen three-quarters of our state having experienced the devastation of raging floodwaters and we now face a reconstruction task of postwar proportions." The flooding across Queensland has submerged dozens of towns _ some three times _ and left an area the size of Germany and France combined under water. Highways and rail lines have been washed away in the disaster, which is shaping up to be Australia's costliest. Damage estimates were already at $5 billion before the floodwaters swamped Brisbane. At least 61 people are still missing, most of them from around Toowoomba, a city west of Brisbane that saw massive flash floods on Monday. Fourteen died in that flood alone, including two whose bodies were found on Thursday. Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart warned that number was likely to rise as search and rescue teams are able to move into more devastated areas. "We've got to brace ourselves for more bad news," Stewart said. With decent access to the region between Brisbane and Toowoomba for the first time, more than 200 police and soldiers fanned out across the stricken Lockyer Valley in buses, helicopters and amphibious military vehicles on Thursday. At Postmans Ridge, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) west of Brisbane, about two dozen soldiers wearing jungle camouflage uniforms and police in dark coveralls picked their way methodically through large trees flattened along a creek banks and a floodplain strewn with debris. Tractor-trailers lay broken in two, boats were crushed and the body of a horse was wedged between a downed tree and the sodden ground. Nearby, Barry and Catherine Bull boiled potatoes and cooked rump steak given to them by a neighbor over a gas-fired camp stove set up outside their house, built of brick and one of few left standing around them. All that remains of the neighbor's wood-framed house is the concrete slab. A car was suspended in the sagging branches of a tree. They fear the elderly woman across the street is one of the people for whom the soldiers are searching. "One of the neighbors went to get her, got her out of the house, but she went back for the dog," Catherine Bull said. "That was the last anyone saw of her. If you'd seen the torrent and the way the water was moving, I think you know the rest." Officials told evacuated Brisbane residents it could be days before it was safe to return to inundated neighborhoods, though no bans were in place preventing people from surveying the damage. Some homes would never be habitable again. Mayor Campbell Newman said 11,900 homes and 2,500 businesses had been completely inundated, with another 14,700 houses and 2,500 businesses at least partially covered in water. Roads were flooded, railway lines were cut and sewage spilled into the floodwaters. People moved about in kayaks, rowboats and even on surfboards. Police officers were patrolling Brisbane's flooded streets around the clock. Three men were charged with looting after police said they tried to steal dinghies from the swollen river. Despite the devastation, many in Brisbane were thankful the river running through the city had spared them the worst of its fury. Lisa Sully, who lives in the nearby suburb of Sherwood, did have some water in her home _ but she still felt lucky on Thursday. "I can handle this," she said. "Mentally, I was prepared for worse." The death toll has shocked Australians, no strangers to deadly natural disasters such as the wildfires that killed 173 in a single day two years ago. Though the full extent of the damage won't be known until the water is gone, even before Brisbane was threatened, Bligh estimated a cleanup and rebuilding to total about $5 billion. Add to that, the damage to economy: Queensland's coal industry has virtually shut down, costing millions in deferred exports and sending global prices higher. Vegetables, fruit and sugarcane crops in the rich agricultural region have been wiped out, and prices are due to skyrocket as a result. ||||| Clive Palmer, the billionaire owner of mining company Mineralogy, initially ordered the helicopter to go to the aid of three staff members who were stuck on the roof of his horse stud farm in Kilcoy, 70 miles northwest of Brisbane. The remote property was inundated by flash floods and the emergency services had not yet responded to calls for help. The group had been unable to escape when a wall of water hit the property and were in danger of being swept away, he said. "An extra metre and it would have got them. They were very lucky - they should have got a quicker response," he told the Courier Mail newspaper. "The important lesson is we need fast reaction times and not slow ones." Mr Palmer said the group had called the emergency services, but 12 hours later when they had still not arrived, he decided to act. "I made the call at four in the morning to get our guys in because we were worried they'd drown," he said. On the way back from picking up the employees, the helicopter passed over another 16 people, including several children, stranded on the roof of a local school. "They'd been waiting for a day for an evacuation too, so our chopper went back and shuttled them all off," Mr Palmer said. By the end of the crisis, the helicopter had saved 60 people, employees said. Murray Sullivan, who was plucked from the roof of the horse stud, said he owed his life to Mr Palmer. "I will never, ever forget what Clive did for me," he told racing website harnesslink.com. "I will definitely be returning to work for him but for now I can't face what is there. The water has subsided but the thought of cleaning up the carcasses of horses I loved so much would be too much for me to take right now." Mr Palmer said he had lost around $1.8 million of farm equipment and about 20 horses had drowned in the flash flood. ||||| Web wide crawl with initial seedlist and crawler configuration from March 2011. This uses the new HQ software for distributed crawling by Kenji Nagahashi. What’s in the data set: Crawl start date: 09 March, 2011 Crawl end date: 23 December, 2011 Number of captures: 2,713,676,341 Number of unique URLs: 2,273,840,159 Number of hosts: 29,032,069 The seed list for this crawl was a list of Alexa’s top 1 million web sites, retrieved close to the crawl start date. We used Heritrix (3.1.1-SNAPSHOT) crawler software and respected robots.txt directives. The scope of the crawl was not limited except for a few manually excluded sites. However this was a somewhat experimental crawl for us, as we were using newly minted software to feed URLs to the crawlers, and we know there were some operational issues with it. For example, in many cases we may not have crawled all of the embedded and linked objects in a page since the URLs for these resources were added into queues that quickly grew bigger than the intended size of the crawl (and therefore we never got to them). We also included repeated crawls of some Argentinian government sites, so looking at results by country will be somewhat skewed. We have made many changes to how we do these wide crawls since this particular example, but we wanted to make the data available “warts and all” for people to experiment with. We have also done some further analysis of the content. If you would like access to this set of crawl data, please contact us at info at archive dot org and let us know who you are and what you’re hoping to do with it. We may not be able to say “yes” to all requests, since we’re just figuring out whether this is a good idea, but everyone will be considered. ||||| McErlean, Tyson said he was heartbroken but proud of his son. "I can only imagine what was going on inside to give up his life to save his brother, even though he was petrified of water. He is our little hero."Rice is being hailed as a hero today after he gave up his life for his younger brother Blake, 10, when his family's car got caught in the floodwaters that have so far killed at least 15 people and left 70 others missing.Warrena passerby who tried desperately to save the family when their white Mercedes began to flood Monday, said he was in awe of Jordan's courage but devastated that he could not rescue the boy or his mother. In an emotional interview, McErlean said he and two others who stopped to help the family were using rope to pull 43-year-old Donna Rice and her two sons to safety when Jordan told them to save his brother and mother first.McErlean said the youngster helped rescuers lift Blake out of the flood waters, then begged them to take his mother next as the rushing waters became stronger."Jordan grabbed [Blake] and helped him onto the car. ... Jordan was getting up but he wouldn't go. He couldn't swim. But he helped his mom onto this guy's back ... the current was so strong," McErlean told Australia's 2UE954 Radio , his voice breaking.

– With floodwaters starting to recede, the toll in Australia is at 25 and expected to climb given the dozens of people still missing, reports the AP. As the state's premier put it: "Queensland is reeling this morning from the worst natural disaster in our history and possibly in the history of our nation. We face a reconstruction task of postwar proportions." As the nation assesses the damage, tales of daring rescues and heroism are emerging: In Toowoomba, 13-year-old Jordan Rice is being hailed as a hero for asking rescuers to get his brother to safety first. By the time they returned to the family's submerged car, it was too late to save Jordan and his mother, reports AOL News, which rounds up local coverage. Click for more on Jordan. When a helicopter owned by mining magnate Clive Palmer set out to rescue three employees near Brisbane, it noticed scores of other people trapped on roofs. It went back, again and again, and ended up saving 60 people, reports the Telegraph. A reddit.com photo popular on BuzzFeed shows a man carrying a small kangaroo to safety. Click for image.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, released some of the department's tapes of the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, which has sparked days of protests across the city. Interested in Keith Lamont Scott? Add Keith Lamont Scott as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Keith Lamont Scott news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest Police Chief Kerr Putney announced the release at a news conference today, saying that other footage will come later. In the dash cam video Scott is seen exiting his car, he then walks backwards with his hands before four shots are heard. It is unclear whether there is anything in his hands. Play The actual shooting is neither seen nor heard in the body cam footage. Officer Brentley Vinson, identified by police as the officer who shot Scott, cannot be seen firing his weapon in either video. The chief says the tapes show that Scott was "absolutely" in possession of a handgun and will offer "indisputable evidence" of the department's account, and he said that at this point, he the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department will not be charging any officer in the shooting. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is also investigating the case. Police also released photos of a handgun and holster and of a marijuana "blunt" that were taken as evidence in the case. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Putney said officers were conducting surveillance related to a warrant they intended to serve on someone else, but their attention was drawn to Scott. They saw marijuana and a weapon in Scott's car and said believed, "this is a safety issue for us and the public," the police chief said. He said Scott was shot after he did not follow police commands to drop his weapon. "At every encounter, people can make a decision to follow loud, verbal commands. They (officers) were reacting to what they saw and they have a duty to do so," Putney said. He added that he believes the footage can now be released without jeopardizing the investigation. Ray Dotch, Scott's brother-in-law, said at a press conference this evening that the family was glad that the body camera and dashcam videos have been released but added that unfortunately the family is left with more questions than answered. Justin Bamberg, a lawyer for the Scott family said, that they appreciate that their request for the video release was heard and that it is another step in the pursuit for all the facts, but said that in his opinion, he does not see Scott look aggressive or lunge at officers. Charles Monnett, another attorney at the press conference said that the community should express their opinions but should do it lawfully and peacefully. The police announcement came after hundreds of people gathered in Charlotte's Marshall Park demanding the release of the police video footage, marching peacefully under the hot sun in, chanting and holding signs that said "Release the Tape." Jason Miczek/Reuters Calls to release the footage had intensified after Scott's family released cell phone video of the moments leading up to and after the shooting Tuesday. A woman identified as Scott's wife, Rakeyia Scott, recorded the incident with her phone and the video was provided to ABC News on Friday by attorneys for the Scott family. In the video, Rakeyia Scott can be heard pleading with police to not shoot her husband, a 43-year-old black man, as officers order the man to "drop the gun." As the encounter continues, the woman yells back at police, insisting her husband is harmless and doesn't have a weapon. "He doesn't have a gun," she says. "He has a T.B.I. [traumatic brain injury]. He's not going to do anything to you guys. He just took his medicine." Police repeatedly scream at Keith Lamont Scott to "drop the gun" and, moments later, multiple gunshots ring out. The actual shooting is not shown on the video as Rakeyia Scott points her cellphone at the ground and screams, "Did you shoot him?" She then runs closer to the scene, angling the cellphone camera this time at the spot where her husband was shot. Scott's body is seen lying in the street surrounded by several officers. The cellphone video was the first footage of Scott's deadly encounter with police to be publicly released. One of the attorneys representing the Scott family, Charles G. Monnett, said they released the video "in the name of truth and transparency." During the rally today in Charlotte, activists and religious leaders joined protesters' calls for investigators to release the videos. Corine Mack, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP, told the crowd amid cheers that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had launched an investigation into the case. The DOJ's Community Relations Service has said it is "is working to maintain open lines of communication and ease tension in Charlotte," but the department has not yet decided whether to open an investigation. A Justice Department spokesman said Attorney General Loretta Lynch's remarks from Thursday, indicating the department is monitoring the case, still stand. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said its officers were searching for a suspect who had an outstanding warrant when they encountered Scott in a vehicle outside an apartment complex around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Police said Scott was not the suspect that officers sought but that he was holding a handgun, which investigators recovered from the scene, and posed a threat because he was not obeying police orders to remain inside his car and drop the weapon. Officer Vinson subsequently fired his gun, striking Scott, who police said was treated immediately and later pronounced dead, police said. Vinson, who has been employed with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department since July 21, 2014, and is currently assigned to the metro division. He has been placed on paid administrative leave while the investigation into Scott's death is ongoing, according to Putney. Vinson, who is black, was not wearing a body camera at the time. Scott's family maintains he was not holding a gun and he was just waiting for his son to be dropped off from school. Justin Bamberg, a lawyer representing Scott's family, said in a statement Thursday that it's "impossible" to detect from the police footage what Scott is holding and at no point did Scott appear or act aggressively. ||||| Play Facebook Twitter Embed Charlotte Police Release Portions of Video of Encounter with Keith Scott 1:14 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Charlotte police on Saturday released portions of bodycam and dashcam footage and a photo of the gun police said Keith Lamont Scott was holding when he was fatally shot by an officer. The dashcam video shows Scott come out of a white SUV while police stand behind another vehicle with their weapons raised and command him to drop the gun. Scott eventually emerges from the SUV slowly and backs away. As he is backing up, four shots can be heard, and Scott can be seen falling to the ground. The bodycam video briefly shows Scott standing outside of the SUV with the door open before he is shot, and then shows officers respond to him while he’s on the ground. Neither video shows whether or not Scott had a firearm in his hand during the incident, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said before the videos were released. He said other evidence concluded that Scott was in possession of a gun. Play Facebook Twitter Embed Charlotte Shooting Videos: a Side-By-Side Comparison 1:27 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Related: Scott Family Says Police Videos Bring More Questions Than Answers The officer who shot Scott was not wearing a body camera, police have said. Along with the videos, police on Saturday released a photo of the handgun and an ankle holster they said were in Scott's possession. Police said a lab analysis showed Scott’s DNA and fingerprints were on the gun. Play Facebook Twitter Embed Watch Portion of Dash Cam Video of Police Encounter with Keith Scott 2:07 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Scott’s family maintains that he did not have a gun at the time of the shooting. An attorney for the Scott family, Justin Bamberg, said the video appears to show Scott walking backwards and not posing a threat before he was shot, and it isn't clear from the footage that he had a gun. A pistol that police said was in the possession of Keith Lamont Scott is seen in a picture provided by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. Sepr. 24, 2016. HANDOUT / Reuters "Do those actions, do those precious seconds justify this shooting?" Bamberg said at a news conference after the video was released. Scott’s shooting death ignited protests in North Carolina’s largest city, fueled in part by criticism of police over the use of lethal force by officers against black men. Only one officer shot Scott, police said, and that officer is also black. Police in the press release Saturday gave a fuller account of what caused police, who were looking for another person, to confront Scott. Police said plainclothes officers were in the parking lot preparing to serve an arrest warrant against someone else Tuesday when an SUV parked beside them. The officers saw Scott rolling a marijuana “blunt,” which they ignored, but then Brentley Vinson, who fired the fatal shots “observed Mr. Scott hold a gun up.” A police officer shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott, 43, near the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. via Facebook "Due to the combination of illegal drugs and the gun Mr. Scott had in his possession, officers decided to take enforcement action for public safety concerns,” police said. The officers left to don marked duty vests and "upon returning, the officers again witnessed Mr. Scott in possession of a gun," police said. An officer tried to use a baton to “breach the window” of the SUV in order to make the arrest, police said. "Mr. Scott then exited the vehicle with the gun and backed away from the vehicle while continuing to ignore officers’ repeated loud verbal commands to drop the gun,” the police statement said. "Officer Vinson perceived Mr. Scott’s actions and movements as an imminent physical threat to himself and the other officers," the statement said. Related: Why Viewing Bodycam Video Isn't Easy Under New N.C. Law Play Facebook Twitter Embed Keith Scott Family: He Was American Citizen Who Deserved Better 1:17 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog The statement said that after Scott was shot, officers rendered first aid and called a medic to the scene. Not all the video was released. Putney said some of the other police video was not relevant to the shooting. The videos were released at around 6:35 p.m. Police had earlier in the week declined to release police video of the encounter. "I have decided that we're at a stage where I can release additional information without adversely impacting [the State Bureau of Investigation's] investigation," Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said at a news conference Saturday afternoon. "Prior to this point, it would have had an impact." A gun holster that police said was in the possession of Keith Lamont Scott is seen in a picture provided by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Sept. 24, 2016. HANDOUT / Reuters "The footage will not prove anything true or not it, only can support the physical evidence," he said, adding that new evidence as a whole would provide "the most complete puzzle" that police could offer. The Scott family was permitted to view the police video Thursday. The Family released cell phone video taken by Scott's wife, Rakeyia Scott, that shows part of the encounter but not the shooting. "He doesn't have a gun. He has a TBI [traumatic brain injury]," Rakeyia Scott says in the video that she took. "He's not going to do anything to you guys. He just took his medicine." Brentley Vinson, the plainclothes officer who fired the fatal shots at Scott, was not wearing a bodycam, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. But three other officers who were at the scene were. A handout picture made available by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) on Sept. 24, 2016 shows a marijuana 'blunt' allegedly recovered from the person of Keith Lamont Scott after he was fatally shot by police officers in Charlotte on Sept. 20, 2016. HANDOUT / EPA Gov. Pat McCrory, who declared a state of emergency after the protests became violent again Wednesday, said in a statement Saturday that he agreed with Putney's decision to release footage. "I have been assured by the State Bureau of Investigation that the release will have no material impact on the independent investigation since most of the known witnesses have been interviewed," he said. Earlier Saturday, the NAACP in Charlotte joined the calls for police to share the footage, calling it "video that is ours." ||||| Police in Charlotte, N.C., released video from one body camera and one dashboard camera on Sept. 24th of the fatal Keith Scott shooting. (Editor's note: This video contains graphic content.) (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department) Police in Charlotte, N.C., released video from one body camera and one dashboard camera on Sept. 24th of the fatal Keith Scott shooting. (Editor's note: This video contains graphic content.) (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department) Police officials here relented amid increasing pressure Saturday and released two videos showing the shooting death of a black man by police five days ago that has sparked several nights of sometimes-violent protests. The videos — one taken from an officer’s body camera and another from the dashboard camera of a police vehicle — show Keith Lamont Scott, 43, exiting his vehicle and falling to the ground. But they do not answer a crucial question about whether Scott was holding a gun as police have said and Scott’s family has denied. The police department also offered fresh insight into how the encounter happened. Plainclothes officers were sitting in an unmarked car at an apartment complex preparing to serve an arrest warrant against someone else when Scott pulled in beside them, the department said. The officers initially noticed that the 43-year-old was rolling a marijuana “blunt” in his car — and then saw him raise a gun, the police said. The combination of the gun and the marijuana created a public safety hazard, the officers concluded. The officers left and returned in vests and equipment that identified them as cops. That is when the encounter began, police say. “There was a crime that he had committed [possessing marijuana] that caused the encounter, and then the gun exacerbated that encounter,” said ­ Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney at a news conference. Putney’s office also released photos of a gun, an ankle holster and a “blunt.” The gun was loaded and had Scott’s fingerprints and DNA, according to police. Rakeyia Scott filmed a cellphone video during her husband Keith Lamont Scott's fatal encounter with Charlotte police officers on Sept. 20. (Editor's note: This video contains graphic images and language.) (Family of Keith Lamont Scott) Scott’s widow, who was standing nearby when the shooting occurred, remains unconvinced that the gun was in her husband’s hand or pointed at officers when he was shot, the family’s attorney said. “Our goal has, from the beginning, been to get the absolute unfiltered truth, and the only way to get that for the police is to release the videos,” said Ray Dotch, Scott’s ­brother-in-law. “Unfortunately, we are left with far more questions than we have answers.” The fatal shooting has turned Charlotte, considered by many the beacon of the “New South,” into the latest U.S. city to face tough questions about the treatment of minorities by police. Hundreds of protesters have descended on the city’s uptown for the past five nights, prompting the state’s governor to call in the National Guard and the city’s mayor to put in place a midnight curfew. The city was still healing from the shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed black man who was shot by a white police officer in 2013 when Scott’s death reopened old wounds, protesters have said. The chief focus of protesters had been the release of the police videos, but now even that doesn’t appear to be enough. “What does marijuana have to do with it? Why did he mention that?” asked Kayla Jefferson, 24, who was among hundreds of protesters listening to the news conference at a park in uptown. “They’re trying to make him look like a bad guy without releasing all of the information.” Neighbors of Keith Scott, the African American man whose fatal shooting by police in Charlotte, N.C. spurred days of protests react to cellphone video of the encounter that was recorded by his wife. (Reuters) Charlotte officials appeared to acknowledge that the controversy surround the shooting would continue. No matter what the police department releases it will not satisfy Black Lives Matter protesters, Bill James, a 10-term commissioner for Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte, said in a Twitter post. “You cannot satiate a mob with facts. Not in Ferguson, Baltimore, or Charlotte,” he said. [GOP lawmakers’ remarks amid unrest in Charlotte point to more alienation from black voters, critics say] Putney, the police chief, said he decided to make the video footage available after confirming that doing so would not hurt an investigation into the shooting being carried out by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. There are other videos and pieces of evidence, including statements by the police officers who witnessed the shooting, that will be released later, he said. The two videos were not enough for some protesters. “We would like to see full transparency,” said Nicole Galloway, 28, who lives in Charlotte and was among the protesters Saturday. “We believe in justice and we believe in full transparency, so we can all see what happened.” The videos show officers in police tactical vests taking up position behind the cab of their white flatbed truck. Scott then exits his own vehicle, which is reverse parked, with his back to the officers. It is not clear if Scott is holding anything in either hand. As he approaches the end of the officers’ truck, he turns slightly to the right, and police open fire. Four gunshots are heard; Scott falls and can be heard moaning. Scott was shot by Brentley Vinson, an African American officer. The release of the videos came one day after footage shot by Scott’s wife, Rakeyia Scott, showing her pleading with officers not to shoot her husband of 20 years, was made public. In the video, Rakeyia Scott can be heard yelling to the officers that her husband was unarmed and had a traumatic head injury. “Don’t shoot him,” she says. Officers say Scott pointed a gun at them; Scott’s family has disputed that he was armed and that, if he was, that he raised the weapon. “Mr. Scott does not appear to be acting aggressive,” attorney Justin Bamberg said of the video. “He doesn’t lunge at the officers. It appears he has his hands by his side. The moment he is shot, he is passively stepping back.” [Read the Charlotte police department’s investigative summary on the Keith Lamont Scott shooting] That dispute is not settled by these videos, and it is unclear how long it will be before the State Bureau of Investigation completes its examinations. Putney said that he has no plans to charge any of the officers involved in the fatal shooting with a crime but left open the possibility that charges could come from the state investigation. “If laws were violated I would be taking different action,” he said. Many stores in uptown Charlotte have been closed since violent demonstrations began Tuesday evening, and even those that are open are seeing little business or closing early. Bank of America and Wells Fargo, which have thousands of employees in the area, told them to stay home most of the week. Restaurants and businesses in the city popular uptown Epicentre closed early, by 4 p.m. in most cases, most of the week. Hundreds of protesters have spent hours snaking their way through uptown Charlotte over the past few days, continuing to demonstrate hours past the city’s midnight curfew. Police officers on bicycles have watched close by, directing traffic away from major highways, and National Guard troops stood in front of major city markers, including Bank of America Stadium, the home of the Carolina Panthers. Unlike the early days of protests, when demonstrators broke windows and police arrested dozens of people, marches over the past several evenings have remained relatively calm. Several local clergy members, who wore yellow ribbons on their arms to distinguish themselves, say that after the initial violence, they are focused on defusing any potential conflicts. “It’s not enough for me to be in the pulpit,” said Byron Davis, leader of Liberation Ministries in Charlotte. “We’re here where Jesus would be.” On Saturday, hundreds of protesters emerged again, this time chanting “release the full tapes.” Instead of satisfying protesters’ questions about the incident, the limited video release generated new suspicions among some. "I feel like they cut out the parts that were most important," said Erin Richards, 25. "I feel like they didn't show anything. They cut out the stuff that mattered. You can't see the shooter, you can't see a gun. You can't see anything." “I’m out here because I have three sons who I do not want to have become a hashtag,” said Verdetta Turner, 40, of Charlotte. Her oldest son, Justus Jenkins, 15, followed not far behind his mother, carrying a sign that declared: “My humanity should not be up for debate. I don’t wanna be a hashtag.” “I’m out here to stand with the cause and make a difference,” ­Justus said. “It’s more than a police problem. I think that it’s a racism problem, it’s a stereotype problem of police fearing black people. . . . They see us and they fear us.” By 1:45 am the crowd had shrunk to about 50 people who continued to march through the streets and chant peacefully. Police continue to follow at a distance. Ann Gerhart in Washington and Sarah Larimer in Charlotte contributed to this report. ||||| Video footage released Saturday shows Keith Lamont Scott taking four steps slowly backward with his arms at his sides when he is hit in a burst of four gunshots from police, then crumples to the pavement. From neither vantage point – a police dashboard camera and a body camera worn by one of the officers on the scene – can it be determined whether Scott is holding a gun. But police can be heard repeatedly shouting “Drop the gun!” at the 43-year-old Scott, who died from his wounds Tuesday as his wife stood nearby. SIGN UP Be the first to know. No one covers what is happening in our community better than we do. And with a digital subscription, you'll never miss a local story. SIGN ME UP! SHARE COPY LINK WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released body and dash-cam videos of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott on Saturday after days of mounting public pressure. In a press conference, Chief Kerr Putney Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney released the videos Saturday after a tumultuous week of protests and two nights of street violence spurred by the shooting. In the dashboard video, a police SUV can be seen pulling into the parking lot where Scott’s white SUV is parked. An officer in a red shirt is visible pointing his weapon at Scott’s vehicle, whose tinted windows are up. In a deadly tableau lasting about three seconds, Scott, surrounded by officers at varying distances, then opens his door, steps out, turns and walks backward, hands at his side. Four shots are heard and he falls. In neither video is the resolution good enough to show whether Scott was holding a weapon. Nor does either show the officer firing at him. A body cam on another officer at the scene shows Scott emerging from the SUV, then lying in the parking lot seconds later. Police handcuff him while Scott’s wife can be heard yelling at police, “He better be alive!” Marijuana keyed action On Saturday, Putney said that Scott drew the attention of officers who were trying to serve an arrest warrant on an unrelated suspect at the Village at College Downs apartment complex in University City because they saw him rolling marijuana in his vehicle. Police were going to let it go and continue on their original mission until an officer spotted a weapon in the vehicle, Putney said. “It was not lawful for him to possess a firearm,” Putney said. “There was a crime he committed and the gun exacerbated the situation.” Officer Brentley Vinson, who Putney said fired four shots at Scott, was not wearing a body cam, so his visual perspective was not part of the footage. Putney said that body cameras are being rolled out across the department and not all tactical officers have them yet. Putney said the footage supports the larger weight of evidence in the case, which includes accounts from officers at the scene, forensics and interviews with witnesses. He said he has found nothing to indicate that Vinson acted inappropriately, given the totality of the circumstances, and he does not think his officers broke the law that day. They were, he said, reacting to what appeared to be an imminent threat. “At every encounter, people can make a decision to follow lawful, loud verbal commands and avert some things like this,” he said. SHARE COPY LINK Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney speaks to the media before releasing footage of a police shooting. Details of encounter Police on Saturday gave this account of the fatal encounter: Two officers in plain clothes were in an unmarked car waiting to serve a warrant when Scott’s white SUV pulled in beside them. They saw Scott roll what they believed to be “a marijuana ‘blunt.’ ” They returned to watching for their suspect, then Vinson saw Scott hold up a gun. They withdrew to a spot nearby and put on duty vests that said “Police” that would identify them as officers. When they came back, Scott still had the gun. They identified themselves as police officers, the department said, and told him loudly and repeatedly to drop the weapon. Scott did not comply. Then a uniformed officer in a marked SUV drove up to assist, and an officer started pounding on the front passenger window. Scott then got out with the gun and backed away from the vehicle, police said, but did not drop the weapon. “Officer Vinson perceived Mr. Scott’s actions and movements as an imminent physical threat to himself and the other officers,” police said in a statement. “Officer Vinson fired his issued service weapon, striking Mr. Scott. Officers immediately rendered first aid and requested Medic to respond to the scene.” Police said multiple witnesses interviewed by homicide detectives heard the police shouting at Scott to drop the gun. Scott’s DNA and his fingerprints were found on the loaded gun recovered at the scene. Scott was wearing an ankle holster, police said. Family response Family members of Scott said they still have more questions than answers. “It does not make sense to us how this incident led to loss of life,” said Scott’s brother-in-law, Ray Dotch, who spoke at a press conference called by the Scott family after the videos were released. “He was an American citizen and he deserved better.” Lawyers for the Scott family said the videos do not clearly identify what, if anything, Scott had in his hands. CMPD said he was holding a handgun, but the family believes he was unarmed, the lawyers said. When CMPD released the videos Saturday night, they also released photos of a handgun, ankle holster and marijuana blunt they said were in Scott’s possession at the time of the incident. The gun was loaded, they said. Debate over release Widespread calls were heard during the week for release of the police video footage from civic and political quarters – and even street protesters who chanted “Release the tapes!” repeatedly outside CMPD headquarters and in marches. On Friday, attorneys for Scott’s family released a dramatic cellphone video taken by Rakeyia Scott during her husband’s shooting. In it, she can be heard pleading with officers not to shoot as they shouted at Scott to drop his gun. Putney said the appearance of that footage had no impact on his decision to release the police videos. He said he decided to release the videos in the interest of transparency and because the State Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the inquiry in the case, had completed key interviews with witnesses and assured him the release would not harm the integrity of their probe. “Doing so before this would have had a negative impact on the investigation,” he said. In the aftermath of Scott’s death, Charlotte was roiled by several nights of protests. After street violence on Tuesday and Wednesday night, dozens of arrests and the death of one man in uptown, Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency. Hundreds of National Guard and State Highway Patrol officers were sent into the city to restore calm and a midnight-to-6 a.m. curfew was announced. McCrory, who recently signed a law, going into effect Oct. 1, that sets new limits on public access to police videos, said he agreed with Putney’s decision to release the tapes. “We have appreciated the ongoing dialogue and teamwork between state and city officials,” McCrory said, “to seek public transparency while protecting the integrity of the investigation and the rights of all parties involved in this case.” ‘A way forward’ U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., whose district includes parts of Charlotte, said she hoped the release would lead to healing dialogue. “We all deserve the truth, justice and a way forward so that we can heal and become an example of a city that emerges stronger and safer because we choose to address our problems,” she said, “even after all the television cameras have gone.” Police had shown Scott’s family two videos Thursday. Through their attorneys, the family requested they be immediately released to the public. Justin Bamberg, one of the family’s lawyers, said after viewing the police tapes that he felt Scott’s demeanor was calm and non-aggressive. Another video that appeared to have been taken by a resident of the apartment complex shooting from a balcony surfaced on social media on Friday. It showed police moving around Scott’s body. Also at issue is a photograph that circulated this week on social media, and was shared by CMPD. It showed a dark shape near Scott’s feet. Some have said the shape is a weapon. That shape is not apparent in Rakeyia Scott’s video. Neither police video shows any weapons on the ground, but they were not well positioned to cover the entire scene. Teddy Kulmala of the Rock Hill Herald and Anna Douglas of the McClatchy Washington Bureau contributed.

– In a reversal of course, police in Charlotte on Saturday released bodycam and dashcam footage from the fatal shooting of Keith Scott. (See it here via the Washington Post.) In addition to the video, police also released a photo of the gun they say was spotted in Scott's vehicle. Some early descriptions: Charlotte Observer: The videos "do not show Keith Lamont Scott raising a weapon toward officers nor a gun in his hand." NBC News: "The dashcam video released shows Scott come out of a white SUV while police stand behind another vehicle with their weapons raised and command him to drop the gun. Scott eventually emerges from the SUV slowly and backs away. As he is backing up, four shots can be heard, and Scott can be seen falling to the ground." AP: "Scott can be seen in police dashboard camera video backing away from his SUV with his hands down, and it's unclear if there's anything in the man's hands. Four shots are heard, and he falls to the ground." ABC News: "The actual shooting is neither seen nor heard in the body cam footage.Officer Brentley Vinson, identified by police as the officer who shot Scott, cannot be seen firing his weapon in either video." Rakeyia Scott released her own video of her husband's shooting Friday.

Global food giant Nestle said it has found that its Thailand seafood suppliers are engaged in abusive labor practices -- a risk many companies face when sourcing from the country's fishing industry. Poor migrants seeking work in Thailand, the world's largest shrimp exporter, are being exposed to hazardous, inhumane living, and working conditions. Some are charged excessive fees, leaving them stuck in debt, in order to get jobs where they catch and process fish that ends up in Nestle's (NSRGF) supply chain, according to a report the company commissioned from Verite, a U.S.-based fair labor advocacy group. Nestle is one of the biggest food companies in the world, and owns brands such as Perrier, Purina pet food, Haagen-Dazs and Nescafe. These labor issues, however, "are not unique or limited to the Nestle supply chain," the report said. "Virtually all companies sourcing seafood in the Thai seafood sector are exposed to the same risks." The report found that workers were lured to work under false pretenses and often had their pay withheld and personal identification documents confiscated. Some laborers also said they were subjected to verbal and physical abuse, and were sold to boat captains needing crews for their ships. Related: CNN's Freedom Project: Seafood from slavery In August, a federal lawsuit was filed in California against grocery retailer Costco (COST), demanding that it label much of the shrimp it sells as the product of human slavery. The lawsuit also wanted Costco to stop buying shrimp from its Thailand suppliers. Thai shrimp commonly sold in the U.S. comes from farms, and the feed for the shrimp is often sourced from slave-staffed fishing boats known as "ghost ships," according to the suit. Workers on those boats are kept in cages to prevent them from escaping, the suit claimed. Related: Lawsuit against Costco: Label shrimp as product of slavery Just one week after the Costco suit was filed, a class action suit was filed against Nestle alleging the company's Fancy Feast cat food -- imported from its partner, Thai Union Frozen Products -- was the product of slave labor. The workers are often trafficked from poorer neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, according to the complaint. Nestle said Monday it would work to improve the situation by finding a way to track the source of seafood ingredients, training boat captains on proper practices, and conducting audits. The company has also promised public updates periodically. "Nestle is committed to eliminating forced labor in our seafood supply chain in Thailand, working alongside other stakeholders to tackle this serious and complex issue," said Nestle's Magdi Batato, executive vice president of operations, in a statement. ||||| Migrant workers toiling in Thailand’s seafood industry to supply global companies such as Nestle SA are subjected to hazardous, exploitative and degrading conditions in which some fishermen are even sold to other boat captains, a report commissioned by the company found. The report conducted by Verite on behalf of Geneva-based Nestle and released Monday found “indicators of forced labor, trafficking, and child labor to be present among sea-based and land-based workers.” The findings, which are consistent with the non-government group’s previous research on Thailand’s fishing industry, “present an urgent challenge to any company sourcing seafood.” Thailand’s seafood industry has come under global scrutiny in recent years following reports from media outlets such as the Associated Press, the Guardian and Global Post that showed widespread abuse of workers, mainly migrants from neighboring Cambodia and Myanmar. The mistreatment was cited by the U.S. in its annual report on human trafficking, in which Thailand fell to the lowest level, as well as in civil lawsuits filed by consumers in the U.S. accusing companies such as Nestle and Costco Wholesale Corp. of selling seafood caught using slave labor. The European Union threatened earlier this year to ban Thai seafood imports if the country fails to improve the regulation of its fishing industry. Thailand’s military government has said it is working to address the concerns. In addition to the commissioned report, Nestle also released its own action plan that it said is designed to stamp out abuses in its supply chain. The plan includes setting up channels through which workers can air grievances, training for boat captains and owners, and establishing better methods of tracing raw materials and verifying labor standards. ‘Complex Issue’ “Nestle is committed to eliminating forced labor in our seafood supply chain in Thailand, working alongside other stakeholders to tackle this serious and complex issue," Magdi Batato, executive vice president of operations at the company, said in a statement. “This will be neither a quick nor an easy endeavor, but we look forward to making significant progress in the months ahead.” Nestle is adopting a strategy it has applied to its chocolate business after receiving criticism about labor issues. In 2001, Nestle and other leading chocolate makers agreed to a plan to try to prevent child labor on farms in West Africa after U.S. legislators Tom Harkin and Eliot Engel highlighted the problem. Nestle agreed to monitoring by the Fair Labor Association in 2012, and the non-profit organization makes random visits to farms that supply Nestle with cocoa. Thailand’s military leader Prayuth Chan-Ocha has said that it is only a few people within the industry giving the country a bad name. “Those that cheat, violate the law or conduct human trafficking, these people have no place in Thai society, let alone any society,” he said in his weekly television address Nov. 6, according to a transcript. “We will continue to prosecute these individuals and sustain progress on this matter.” He said his government will show “no leniency” and is sending teams to inspect fishing vessels and docks and conduct random checks of seafood-processing plants. ||||| Fish and seafood are precious resources for our planet and all who live on it. This is particularly so for people in some of the poorest countries, who rely on healthy fisheries for their source of protein. Our fish and seafood come from a wide variety of sources, including wild fisheries in oceans around the world and from fish farms that breed their own fish. Like meat and poultry, the seafood we procure is used in ready-made and frozen meals, healthcare nutrition products such as sports drinks, and especially pet food. We purchased around 130 000 tonnes of fish and seafood in 2016, most of which is for Nestlé Purina. How we source fish and seafood We understand the importance of having sustainable fisheries and healthy fish farms, as well as the immense challenges we all must overcome to source fish and seafood responsibly. Therefore, we work closely with our suppliers to identify, as far as possible, the sources of our fish and seafood ingredients. Our ambition is to confirm that the fish and seafood we source come from healthy fisheries or farms engaged in improvement projects. By communicating our expectations to our suppliers and following up on their progress, we will increasingly be able to assess our supply chain against our category-specific requirements for fish and seafood – for example, that there is no known sourcing from illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries and vessels, and that there is no known sourcing from operations that are not legally licensed for production and sales. We will also be able to evaluate the sustainability of seafood sources (wild and farmed) and identify projects to enhance the environmental performance of our suppliers. To best identify the origins of fish by-products, our fish and seafood buyers work closely with their vendors to collect data on the species, country of origin and fishery from where the fish originated. We provide all this seafood purchasing information to our independent, not-for-profit NGO partner – the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership ( SFP ) – to identify and assess the wild and farmed fisheries from which our seafood supply comes. Sourcing fish and seafood for pet food Identifying the precise sources for fish and seafood is difficult. For pet foods, which primarily use fish by-products, traceability is even more challenging as the typical traceability mechanisms for human edible fish do not exist. So why do we use fish by-products in our pet food? All of Nestlé Purina’s pet food products follow complete and balanced recipes that meet the nutritional needs of dogs and cats at each life stage and for many health conditions. Over 500 Nestlé Purina pet experts are behind the creation of our recipes to provide perfectly balanced pet nutrition. Some of these recipes include the use of fish by-products, which are nutrient-dense. Fish by-products are parts of a fish that remain after the fish fillets are removed for the human food supply chain. In addition to being nutritionally beneficial, the utilisation of fish by-products represents an environmentally and socially responsible practice, by using all the protein sources of a fish while not competing with the human food supply. We are able to track about 91.7%* of our purchases of whole fish to the vessels that caught them. From there, the SFP provides assessments on the source fisheries. A large percentage of the seafood purchased for nutritious pet food products is a by-product of the process of producing fish for human consumption. Currently, we have identified 223* source fisheries, up from 153* in the previous year. Of those fisheries, 54%* were considered responsibly sourced, meaning they were low or medium risk based on Fishsource.org scores, were certified by a recognised agency such as the Marine Stewardship Council ( MSC ). Our Responsible Sourcing Guideline (pdf, 1.58Mb) ( RSG ) establishes a framework for continuous improvement in our wild caught and farmed seafood supply chain, building towards Responsible Sourcing. We also recognise seafood certified by independent NGOs such as the MSC , the world’s leading certification and eco-labelling programme for sustainable seafood. Fish and seafood supply chain challenges and solutions Overfishing is a global issue within the supply chain. We are working with partners to address this and ensure sustainable practices are used. Labour conditions have also been acknowledged as an issue, in particular in the Thai seafood supply chain, and we are implementing a detailed action plan to tackle this. Fish feed has been identified by the SFP as a large challenge across the aquaculture industry, and feed manufacturers are taking steps to address this. Labour conditions Poor labour conditions has been identified as one of the issues within the fish and seafood supply chain, particular in Thailand’s fishing industry. We commissioned Verité, an independent NGO that works with companies to help understand and tackle labour issues, to investigate allegations of abuses in the Thai fishing industry. They collected information from fishing vessels, ports, mills and farms in Thailand on a range of issues, including trafficking, forced and underage labour, lack of grievance procedures, workplace conditions, and wages and benefits. Following this, we developed an action plan, based on their recommendations, to address these issues. The plan contains initiatives to protect workers from abuses. We continue to work with the Thai Government and other key stakeholders to improve labour conditions in the fish and seafood industry. Overfishing Overfishing is a key issue facing all of us. Nestlé Purina reviews all the species caught to ensure that no critically endangered, or endangered species of fish according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) Red List are included in our seafood purchases. Our annual objectives Fish and seafood supply chain traceability results (for whole fish; by-product is traced only by the number of fisheries) Data table Total volume in scope 130 000 tonnes Percentage of volume* of whole fish that is traceable to the boat 91.7% (2016 target: 99%) Percentage of volume* Responsibly Sourced from one of the 223 fisheries identified by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) 54% (2016 target: 40%) * The figure for total volume is Nestlé-wide and is the same as for 2015 as global volumes for 2016 have not been received. All other figures are for fish and seafood purchased by Nestlé Purina, which receives about 92% of the total volume. Our progress to date We continue to refine our data collection methods to include more data, such as the Latin names of species, to ensure consistency across global zones. We are working with SFP to better understand aquaculture risks in different world areas and the importance of zonal management systems for fish farms. Tackling human rights abuses in the Thai seafood supply chain Following an investigation and report (pdf, 832Kb) by our independent NGO partner Verité, we launched an action plan (pdf, 656Kb) on seafood sourced from Thailand. Focused on 10 key activities, the plan contains a series of actions designed to protect workers from abuses, improve working conditions and tackle unacceptable practices, including juvenile and teenage working. Those actions involve establishing a migrant workforce emergency response team, setting up a grievance mechanism, providing training for captains and boat owners operating in the industry, raising awareness about minimum required labour standards, establishing better traceability of raw materials and enabling verification of labour standards in fishing vessels. The action plan was rolled out throughout 2016, with a dedicated manager based in Thailand to oversee its implementation. Alongside the Thai Government, local seafood suppliers and international buyers, we also continue to participate in the multi-stakeholder ILO Working Group, which is seeking collaborative solutions to improve labour conditions in Thailand’s complex seafood export industry. Looking ahead Human rights abuses have no place in our seafood supply chain. Nestlé was among the first companies to issue a comprehensive plan to work with NGO partners to address this complex issue. As part of this effort to fight human rights abuses in the seafood supply chain, Nestlé bans all fish and seafood caught from IUU (Illegal, Unregulated, Unreported) fishing. To demonstrate further our commitment to fighting human rights abuses, Nestlé Purina committed to a ban on all trans-shipments at sea (where items are transferred from one ship to another) at the end of 2016, and we are updating our RSG to include this prohibition. Trans-shipments at sea enable rogue fishing vessels to engage in IUU fishing and other illegal activities by not returning to port for extended periods of time, up to several years in some cases. We believe the worst forms of human rights abuses may occur aboard such vessels because of the lack of regulation, enforcement and transparency offshore. Due to the opaque nature of offshore fishing practices and worker treatment on vessels, Nestlé Purina supports banning all trans-shipments as a step towards eliminating IUU fishing and preventing human rights abuses at sea.

– Something to ponder about the origins of your seafood: A new report commissioned by food giant Nestle finds that most seafood workers in Thailand—the world's biggest exporter of shrimp—are migrants from Cambodia or Myanmar brought into the country illegally by traffickers and sold to boat captains, who force them to work 16-hour days, seven days a week, reports the New York Times. As expected with such a schedule, they suffer chronic sleep deprivation. They also work in hazardous conditions and face physical and verbal abuse from captains, who withhold their personal documents, the report notes, per CNNMoney. "Sometimes, the net is too heavy, and workers get pulled into the water and just disappear," a Burmese worker says in the report. "When someone dies, he gets thrown into the water." The revelations don't stop there. The report also finds workers—including child workers—have an inadequate supply of water and limited access to medical care. Some toil for over a year before getting paid, while others are charged fees that leave them in debt. Nestle—which is facing a lawsuit claiming its Fancy Feast cat food comes from slave labor—acknowledges that seafood caught under these conditions ends up in its supply chain. But "virtually all companies sourcing seafood in the Thai seafood sector are exposed to the same risks," it says. The company, which encountered similar labor complaints regarding its chocolate business in 2001, has issued an action plan to cut down on abuse, which includes a way for workers to make complaints and training for boat captains, per Bloomberg.

FILE- In this April 17, 2015, file photo a national library employee shows the gold Nobel Prize medal awarded to the late novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Bogota, Colombia. This year’s round of Nobel... (Associated Press) FILE- In this April 17, 2015, file photo a national library employee shows the gold Nobel Prize medal awarded to the late novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Bogota, Colombia. This year’s round of Nobel Prizes begins Monday, Oct. 1, 2018, with the award for medicine or physiology, honoring research... (Associated Press) FILE- In this April 17, 2015, file photo a national library employee shows the gold Nobel Prize medal awarded to the late novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Bogota, Colombia. This year’s round of Nobel Prizes begins Monday, Oct. 1, 2018, with the award for medicine or physiology, honoring research... (Associated Press) FILE- In this April 17, 2015, file photo a national library employee shows the gold Nobel Prize medal awarded to the late novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Bogota, Colombia. This year’s round of Nobel... (Associated Press) STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Latest on the awarding of the Nobel Prizes (all times local): 11:45 a.m. Three scientists from the United States, France and Canada have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for advances in laser physics. The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences on Tuesday awarded half the 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million) prize to Arthur Ashkin of the United States and the other half will be shared by Gerard Mourou of France and Canada's Donna Strickland. The academy says Ashkin developed "optical tweezers" that can grab tiny particles such as viruses without damaging them. Strickland and Mourou helped develop short and intense laser pulses that have broad industrial and medical applications. ___ 7:15 a.m. The Nobel Prize for physics honors researchers for discoveries in phenomena as enormous as The Big Bang and as tiny as single particles of light. This year's award will be announced Tuesday. The 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million) prize, which can be shared by as many as three people, is decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Last year's physics prize went to three Americans who used abstruse theory and ingenious equipment design to detect the faint ripples in the universe called gravitational waves. On Monday, American James Allison and Japan's Tasuku Honjo won the Nobel medicine prize for groundbreaking work in fighting cancer with the body's own immune system. The Nobel chemistry prize comes Wednesday, followed by the peace prize on Friday. The economics prize, which is not technically a Nobel, will be announced Oct. 8. ||||| Image copyright Uni Waterloo Image caption Dr Strickland shared the prize for discoveries in laser physics The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to a woman for the first time in 55 years. Donna Strickland, from Canada, is only the third woman winner of the award, along with Marie Curie, who won in 1903, and Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who was awarded the prize in 1963. Dr Strickland shares this year's prize with Arthur Ashkin, from the US, and Gerard Mourou, from France. It recognises their discoveries in the field of laser physics. Dr Ashkin developed a laser technique described as optical tweezers, which is used to study biological systems. Drs Mourou and Strickland paved the way for the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created. They developed a technique called Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA). It has found uses in laser therapy targeting cancer and in the millions of corrective laser eye surgeries which are performed each year. Speaking to the BBC, Dr Strickland said it was "surprising" it had been such a long time since a woman had won the award. However, she stressed that she had "always been treated as an equal", and that "two men also won it with me, and they deserve this prize as much if not more than me". Image copyright Reuters Image caption Arthur Ashkin and Gerard Mourou were honoured for their contributions to the field The award comes a few days after a physicist gave a "highly offensive" lecture at the Cern particle physics laboratory in Geneva in which he said that physics had been "built by men" and that male scientists were being discriminated against. He has since been suspended by the research centre. Dr Strickland called the physicist's remarks "silly" and said she never took such comments "personally". The last woman to win the physics prize, German-born American physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer, took the award for her discoveries about the nuclei of atoms. Polish-born physicist Marie Curie shared the 1903 award with her husband Pierre Curie and Antoine Henri Becquerel for their research into radioactivity. The award is worth a total of nine million Swedish kronor (£770,686; $998,618). Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre Curie Reacting to her win, Dr Strickland, who is based at the University of Waterloo in Canada, said: "First of all you have to think it's crazy, so that was my first thought. And you do always wonder if it's real. "As far as sharing it with Gerard, of course he was my supervisor and mentor and he has taken CPA to great heights so he definitely deserves this award. And I'm so happy Art Ashkin also won." She added: "I think that he made so many discoveries early on that other people have done great things with that it's fantastic that he is finally recognised." In a statement, the American Institute of Physics (AIP) offered its congratulations to all the winners, adding: "The countless applications made possible by their work, like laser eye surgery, high-power pettawat lasers, and the ability to trap and study individual viruses and bacteria, only promise to increase going forward. "It is also a personal delight to see Dr Strickland break the 55-year hiatus since a woman has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, making this year's award all the more historic." Image copyright SPL Image caption Mourou and Strickland's technique has found several applications, including in laser eye surgery What is the work that has won a Nobel? Before Dr Strickland and Dr Mourou's pioneering work, the peak power of laser pulses was limited because, when cranked up to high intensities, they would destroy the material used for amplifying its energy. To get round this, the researchers first stretched the laser pulses in time to reduce their peak power, then amplified them and finally compressed them. When a laser pulse is compressed in time and becomes shorter, more light is packed into a small space. This dramatically increases the intensity of the pulse. Dr Strickland and Dr Mourou's technique, called chirped pulse amplification (CPA), became standard for high intensity lasers. Arthur Ashkin realised an old dream in science fiction - using the radiation pressure of light to move physical objects. In doing so, he invented the optical tweezers that are today used to grab particles, atoms, viruses and living cells with their laser-based pincers. He first worked on getting laser light to push small particles towards the centre of the beam and hold them there. Then, in 1987, he used the tweezers to capture living bacteria without harming them. The technique is now used widely to study the machinery of life. Follow Paul on Twitter. Previous winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics Image copyright S.Ossokine/A.Buonanno (MPI Gravitational Physics) Image caption A computer simulation of gravitational waves radiating from two merging black holes 2017 - Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish earned the award for the detection of gravitational waves. 2016 - David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz shared the award for their work on rare phases of matter. 2015 - Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald were awarded the prize the discovery that neutrinos switch between different "flavours". 2014 - Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura won the physics Nobel for developing the first blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs). 2013 - Francois Englert and Peter Higgs shared the spoils for formulating the theory of the Higgs boson particle. 2012 - Serge Haroche and David J Wineland were awarded the prize for their work with light and matter. ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| This collection contains official Pacific Union College websites, particularly those associated with the domain name puc.edu. The purpose of this collection is to maintain a record of digitally published information that is necessary to preserve the history of Pacific Union College.

– Three scientists from the United States, France, and Canada have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for advances in laser physics, including the first woman to take home the prize in 55 years. The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences on Tuesday awarded half the $1.01 million prize to Arthur Ashkin of the United States, and the other half will be shared by Gerard Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of Canada, per the AP. Strickland is the third female laureate in physics, but the first in more than half a century, reports the BBC. The academy says Ashkin developed "optical tweezers" that can grab tiny particles such as viruses without damaging them. As the Guardian notes, "this means scientists can hold even living cells in place, allowing them to probe their inner workings." Strickland and Mourou helped develop short and intense laser pulses that have broad industrial and medical applications. The Nobel panel's explanation: "Ultra-sharp laser beams make it possible to cut or drill holes in various materials extremely precisely—even in living matter. Millions of eye operations are performed every year with the sharpest of laser beams." (A CERN scientist just got suspended for saying physics was built by men.)

Standing on their own four feet: New research shows why cats are more independent than dogs Domestic cats do not generally see their owners as a focus of safety and security in the same way that dogs do, according to new research published today.The study by animal behaviour specialists at the University of Lincoln, UK, shows that while dogs perceive their owners as a safe base, the relationship between people and their feline friends appears to be quite different.While it is increasingly recognised that cats are more social and more capable of shared relationships than traditionally thought, this latest research shows that adult cats appear to be more autonomous – even in their social relationships – and not necessarily dependent on others to provide a sense of protection.The research, published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, was led by Professor Daniel Mills , Professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine at the University of Lincoln’s School of Life Sciences , along with Alice Potter – who studied as a postgraduate at Lincoln and now works with the Companion Animals Science Group at the RSPCA.Professor Mills said: “The domestic cat has recently passed the dog as the most popular companion animal in Europe, with many seeing a cat as an ideal pet for owners who work long hours. Previous research has suggested that some cats show signs of separation anxiety when left alone by their owners, in the same way that dogs do, but the results of our study show that they are in fact much more independent than canine companions. It seems that what we interpret as separation anxiety might actually be signs of frustration.”The Lincoln researchers carefully adapted the Ainsworth Strange Situation Test (SST), which has been widely used to demonstrate that the bond between young children or pet dogs with their primary carer can be categorised as a ‘secure attachment’ – where the carer is seen as a focus of safety and security in potentially threatening (or unfamiliar) environments.The study observed the relationships between a number of cats and their owners, placing the pets in an unfamiliar environment together with their owner, with a stranger and also on their own. In varying scenarios, it assessed three different characteristics of attachment; the amount of contact sought by the cat, the level of passive behaviour, and signs of distress caused by the absence of the owner.“Although our cats were more vocal when the owner rather than the stranger left them with the other individual, we didn’t see any additional evidence to suggest that the bond between a cat and its owner is one of secure attachment. This vocalisation might simply be a sign of frustration or learned response, since no other signs of attachment were reliably seen. In strange situations, attached individuals seek to stay close to their carer, show signs of distress when they are separated and demonstrate pleasure when their attachment figure returns, but these trends weren’t apparent during our research,” said Professor Mills.“For pet dogs, their owners often represent a specific safe haven; however it is clear that domestic cats are much more autonomous when it comes to coping with unusual situations. Our findings don’t disagree with the notion that cats develop social preferences or close relationships, but they do show that these relationships do not appear to be typically based on a need for safety and security. As far as we could tell, the cats of owners who considered them to be highly attached did not differ from the others in this regard.”The results of the study reveal that while cats might prefer to interact with their owner, they do not rely on them for reassurance when in an unfamiliar environment, and the researchers believe this is because of the nature of the species as a largely independent and solitary hunter.The paper is now available to view online: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0135109 ||||| The Ainsworth Strange Situation Test (SST) has been widely used to demonstrate that the bond between both children and dogs to their primary carer typically meets the requirements of a secure attachment (i.e. the carer being perceived as a focus of safety and security in otherwise threatening environments), and has been adapted for cats with a similar claim made. However methodological problems in this latter research make the claim that the cat-owner bond is typically a secure attachment, operationally definable by its behaviour in the SST, questionable. We therefore developed an adapted version of the SST with the necessary methodological controls which include a full counterbalance of the procedure. A cross-over design experiment with 20 cat-owner pairs (10 each undertaking one of the two versions of the SST first) and continuous focal sampling was used to record the duration of a range of behavioural states expressed by the cats that might be useful for assessing secure attachment. Since data were not normally distributed, non-parametric analyses were used on those behaviours shown to be reliable across the two versions of the test (which excluded much cat behaviour). Although cats vocalised more when the owner rather the stranger left the cat with the other individual, there was no other evidence consistent with the interpretation of the bond between a cat and its owner meeting the requirements of a secure attachment. These results are consistent with the view that adult cats are typically quite autonomous, even in their social relationships, and not necessarily dependent on others to provide a sense of security and safety. It is concluded that alternative methods need to be developed to characterise the normal psychological features of the cat-owner bond. The extent to which cats demonstrate sociality towards humans appears to be influenced by a wide range of factors [ 30 ], [ 31 ]. Kittens are reported to have a sensitive phase of socialisation towards humans between their second and seventh week of life [ 32 ]. During this time exposure to humans, amount of handling, number of handlers and presence of the queen have all been found to influence sociality towards humans [ 32 ], [ 33 ]. A range of human-related factors also influence the development of the social behaviour expressed by cats towards people [ 34 ], [ 35 ]. Given these findings and the tendency of owners to consider pet cats as part of the family [ 36 ], it seems reasonable to examine whether the typical bond shown by pet cats towards their owners also involves a form of secure attachment that provides additional safety and security. Using a modified version of the Ainsworth SST, Edwards et al., [ 7 ] have claimed, on the basis of a preliminary study, that this is indeed the case. They reported that cats only played in the presence of their owner, vocalised more when left alone, engaged in more locomotion/exploration while the owner was present and were more alert in the presence of the stranger [ 7 ]. However their conclusion that their use of a modified SST demonstrates that the cat-owner bond typically meets the requirements of a secure attachment is questionable on several grounds, due to methodological flaws in their study, which might account for the differences observed. Firstly, the experience of the cat within the procedure in relation to the owner and stranger was not equivalent. For example when analysing the cats’ behaviour towards the owners, Edwards et al., [ 7 ] use data from two episodes within the test, neither of which follow an episode of the cat being alone, whereas the assessment of the cats’ behaviour towards the strangers depends on only one episode which follows an episode of isolation. The different conditions applied to the cats in the time preceding the episode when it is alone with the owner and stranger, may therefore explain differences in the cats’ behaviour towards these individuals rather than the relationship the cat has with each of them. Secondly, Edwards et al., [ 7 ] also fail to control for a possible episode-order effect. Episode-order describes the sequence in which the owner and stranger participate in the procedure and this has the potential to affect the cat’s behaviour, as the cat may alter its behaviour in relation to the strange situation over time, regardless of who is present. The use of a counterbalanced procedure in which the sequence is reversed for half of the subjects can control for this potential confound [ 18 ]. Thirdly, Edwards et al., [ 7 ] did not analyse the data from all episodes, but only four of them (episodes 4–7). This meant their data came from 6 minutes of observation of the cat with the owner, 3 minutes with the stranger and 3 minutes when the cat was alone. This again confounds the ability to ascribe differences in behaviour towards the two types of human subject involved in the test to the relationship, rather than to the methodological features of the study. Finally, it is also assumed by Edwards et al., [ 7 ] that the cat behaviour observed is reliable, (i.e. that a given cat would consistently show this type of response in this type of situation); given the large number of variables assessed, spurious findings due to Type I statistical errors are a risk. Therefore the study reported here re-examined the issue of secure attachment by cats to their carers, in a way that addresses these concerns by using a cross over design experiment with an improved and counterbalanced modification of the Ainsworth SST. Our first aim was to assess the robustness of potential measures of cat attachment within the SST; our second aim was to assess whether those behaviours found to be suitably robust and relevant indicate that the cat-owner relationship meets the requirements of a secure attachment as defined within the SST. The domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus) has recently passed the dog as the most popular companion animal within Europe [ 1 ], [ 2 ]. Ease of care, ability to live in a small residence and the capacity to cope with being left alone for long periods of time have been reported as reasons for this popularity [ 1 ], [ 3 ], [ 4 ], [ 5 ]. Indeed, some have suggested that cats are ‘ideal’ companions for owners who work long hours [ 5 ]. However, there is evidence to indicate that some cats may show signs of separation distress in the absence of their owner [ 6 ] and it has been suggested that the cat-owner bond may be a form of attachment similar to that which exists between a dog or child and its primary carer [ 7 ]. Bowlby [ 8 ] [ 9 ] described attachment as an enduring psychological bond, that serves to improve an infant’s chances of survival by keeping it close to its mother. In this context the term “attachment” has a precise operational definition relating to the provision of safety and security, and is not simply an affectionate bond; it has several objectively definable characteristics: attached individuals seek to maintain proximity and contact with the attachment figure, attached individuals become distressed when involuntarily separated and show signs of pleasure upon their return, attachment figures act as a safe haven to which the attached individual will return when frightened by the environment, attachment figures act as a secure-base from which the attached individual can move off and engage confidently in activities [ 10 ]. None of these alone is sufficient to demonstrate or infer secure attachment, but many of these features are assessed within the Strange Situation Test (SST) developed by Ainsworth [ 11 ] for this purpose. The procedure involves placing a subject in an unfamiliar room (strange situation–to provoke a sense of insecurity) together with its carer (potential attachment figure) and a stranger (social control to which there should be no attachment) followed by a series of episodes of separation from, and reunions with, their carer and the stranger. The normal healthy response in this context involves a differentiation between the carer and the stranger in the support they provide to the subject in this challenging environment. This can be used to imply the type of attachment that exists between the subject and care. In this way a secure attachment style can be operationally defined; other styles of response are considered problematic [ 11 ]. The test was originally developed to investigate mother–infant attachment, but has been used and adapted for studying attachment between other species and their carers e.g. chimpanzees [ 12 ], dogs [ 13 ],[ 14 ], [ 15 ], [ 16 ], [ 17 ], [ 18 ], [ 19 ], [ 20 ] and hand-reared wolves [ 17 ]. Its application to dogs was inspired by the resemblance of the dog-owner bond to that which exists between a child and parent [ 13 ], [ 14 ] and there is now strong evidence to indicate that the typical dog-human bond also includes the requirements of a secure attachment defined in this way [ 18 ]. The well-developed sociality of dogs may be particularly important in this regard [ 14 ]. Nonetheless both cats and dogs appear to show separation related problems, which it has been suggested might be associated with attachment to owners [ 21 ] and it is increasingly recognised that cats (Felis sylvestris catus) are perhaps more social than traditionally thought even with their own species [ 22 ], [ 23 ], [ 24 ], [ 25 ], [ 26 ], [ 27 ], [ 28 ], [ 29 ]. Co-operative colonies of related females arising as a result of the availability of key resources are well documented [ 24 ], [ 25 ], but even male cats, especially those neutered, are known to be social [ 28 ]. Preferred associates may be identified from affiliative behaviours such as allorubbing and allogrooming [ 22 ] and this type of activity may be used to assess the social bond that exists between the individuals involved [ 26 ]. It is therefore clear that cats have the capacity to form social intraspecific relationships, and this may underpin the form of relationship they form with humans, especially those with whom they share a home. In the first instance it was important to establish the reliability of the behaviour that had the potential to be used to assess attachment by cats. The counterbalancing of the procedure and within subjects design of the experiment, meant that it was possible to systematically analyse the data to detect significant differences in the behaviour within subjects in the same circumstances but at different times. This allowed a rigorous assessment of the robustness of each potential measure, using the following process. Comparable measures of behaviour based on either single episodes (e.g. vocalising during A2 versus B6) or combinations of episode (e.g. vocalising in the two episodes A2 and A8 versus B6 and B4) were identified (see S2 File for a full list). Next, in accordance with Jones and Kenward (2003) [ 38 ], the occurrence of a significant interaction between the order in which subjects were tested (test-order) and the condition on a given behaviour was examined first using a Mann-Whitney test. Only if there was no significant interaction could the behaviour be taken forward for further consideration as a potentially useful measure. The next stage of analysis examined if there was a significant test-order effect on the given behaviour. If a significant test-order effect was found then that behaviour could not be used in any analysis of attachment between the two conditions (A versus B). Next, because each social situation was replicated within a condition, the significance of any episode-order effect on the behaviour was examined (i.e. the effect of time within a test). If a significant episode-order effect was found then that behaviour could not be used in any analysis of the behaviour within episodes occurring at a different time but within the same condition. If the behaviour was affected by both test-order effect and episode order then it could not be used as a potential measure to assess attachment. Only behaviour measures that did not meet any of these exclusion criteria were robust enough to assess whether the cats showed signs of attachment in the modified SST. Following a pilot study and review of previous research [ 7 ], a list of behaviours was drawn up for recording (See S1 File ). Continuous focal sampling of video recordings of the cat’s behaviour was undertaken using Solomon Coder (Beta 12.07.10) to record the duration of these behaviours [ 37 ] during each episode of each condition. In order to minimise the subsequent risk of error due to multiple statistical testing, some functionally related behavioural categories were grouped. Specifically ‘passive exploration’, ‘active exploration’ and ‘locomotion’ were grouped into ‘exploration/locomotion’ and ‘approaching/orientation to a person’ and ‘following’ were grouped into ‘proximate owner/stranger’. Behavioural measures were then classified a priori according to their putative relationship to one or more of the operationally definable characteristics of attachment, and only these measures considered for statistical analysis ( Table 2 ). Three characteristics of attachment (proximity/contact seeking, secure-base effect and distress due to separation) could be assessed. Firstly, the owner should be a preferred social companion to the stranger as evidenced by the cat seeking proximity and attempting to maintain proximity/contact more with the owner than with the stranger. Secondly, if the owner acts as a secure base, it was predicted that there should be more passive behaviour, exploration and social play in the presence of the owner compared to the presence of the stranger. Thirdly, cats should be more distressed by the absence of the owner than the stranger, and so it was predicted that cats should vocalise more when separated from the owner compared to the stranger, and show greater vigilance and orientation to the door when the owner is absent compared to the when the stranger is absent. No single measure would be sufficient to conclude that the relationship between the cat and its owner is a secure attachment, rather the evidence from all of these tests would need to be considered overall. All owner-cat pairs participated in both conditions (A and B) in different rooms set up for the procedure, and were tested within 5 minutes of arrival at the test site. Ten subjects were pseudo-randomly assigned to group 1 (condition A followed by condition B) and the other ten to group 2 (condition B followed by condition A). For all subjects a period of at least two weeks elapsed between participation in the two conditions. Two females of similar height, build and appearance were used as the stranger (one for each condition). Testing was conducted over a seven week period between May and July 2012. To accommodate the schedules of subjects the tests were conducted at a variety of times between 09:30 and 19:00 Monday to Sunday. On average tests on the same subject were conducted within an hour of the same time of day on the two occasions (mean difference 51.75 mins, mode = 0). The procedure comprised of two conditions: modified (A) and reversed modified (B) version of the Ainsworth SST both consisting of nine 3 minute episodes in which the cat is either alone or with the owner and/or a stranger in order to assess how it responds to a series of procedures designed to alter the level and form of social support available to it, or trigger seeking out of an attachment figure (see Table 1 for details of the procedures and “Data collection and analysis plan” below for details of the specific predictions made in different circumstances if a cat is securely attached to its owner). Hereafter the convention of a letter followed by a number is used to refer to conditions and episodes as described in Table 1 . Hence, A2 refers to condition A episode 2. The Ainsworth SST was extended from six to nine episodes in order to allow the owner and stranger to take part in an equal number of episodes, separations and reunions with the cat subjects. As with the original Ainsworth procedure the duration of each episode was three minutes. In condition B the episode-order of condition A was reversed. This reversal of episode sequence balanced the order in which the owner and stranger participated in the procedure across the two tests ( Table 1 ). Two similar, plain rooms were used for the study ( Fig 1 ), in order to ensure an equivalent strange physical environment in each test. Test rooms were unfamiliar to all cat subjects. Both rooms were equipped with two chairs (for the owner and stranger), three cat toys (two balls and a string and rod toy) and a small area (approx. 80cm by 75cm by 35cm, with a partially occluded entrance) in which cats could hide. Windows in both rooms were covered to avoid any visual distraction from outside. Within both rooms a video camera (Flip Video Ultra HD) mounted on a tripod was set up to record the test period and a web camera connected through a live feed to a monitor located outside the test room was mounted above each doorway. The web camera allowed both the experimenter to follow the procedure and the owners to observe their cat during episodes in which they were not present. The rooms were divided by strips of white tape into four zones: i) region around owner’s chair, ii) region around stranger’s chair, iii) door, iv) play area ( Fig 1 ). In order to control for any effects of spatial location of owner, the owners were pseudo-randomly assigned to one of the two chairs available ( Fig 1 ) in the first test and then allocated the other chair in the repeat test. The test rooms and all equipment were thoroughly cleaned with an enzymatic cleaner (Urine-Off for Cats and Kittens) before and after each test to remove cat related odours, between tests. A convenience sample of twenty owner-cat dyads was recruited through personal contact and advertisements in local pet related businesses. All participants lived within 5 miles (8km) of the test area. Owners were all adults, with four males and 16 females agreeing to take part. A broad spectrum of ownership lifestyles were represented, with ten of the owners in full-time employment, 3 in part-time employment, 3 students and 2 unemployed. The cat subjects were 13 males and 7 females whose ages ranged between 1–9 years old (mean age ± SD; 5.05 years ± 3.17). One female cat and all males had been neutered, and no entire female was in season. Two cats were pedigree British Shorthairs and the remaining 18 subjects were Domestic shorthairs (15) and Domestic longhairs (3). All cats had been in their current home for a minimum of ten months. Eleven of the cats lived with at least one other cat (range 1–4) and two lived with a dog in the home. Nineteen of the cats had regular access to the outside. All cats were free from either overt or known on-going medical conditions. All but one owner provided information relating to the experience of the cats of strange situations. Only two had much experience of strange situations away from the current owner, since being taken in by the current owner (having lived away from the owner for a period of time), eight were known to have moved home with the owner. All except one of the cats were used to being transported in a cat carrier. No interaction, test-order or episode-order effects were found for the measures ‘exploration/locomotion’ and ‘social play’ (with the owner or stranger) and therefore these parameters were used further to assess attachment. No significant differences were found in the duration of time cats spent expressing exploration/locomotion in the presence of the owner compared to the stranger ( Table 3 ). Likewise there were no significant differences in the duration of time cats spent playing with their owner compared to playing with the stranger. In addition there was no significant difference in the amount cats played with the stranger when the owner was present (A1) and when the owner was absent (A2 or A8) ( Table 3 ). ‘Passive behaviours’ exhibited episode-order effects (A2 vs B6, z = 368.5, p<0.05; A2+A8 vs B6+B4, z = 023.5, p<0.01) but no test order effects. Therefore this parameter was used to assess attachment only in comparisons of the same episode number between conditions. Cats spent significantly more time expressing passive behaviours in the sole presence of the stranger than the owner in one combination of episodes (A4+A6 vs B4+B6, Z = 68.5, N = 18, p≤0.001), but not the other (A2+A8 vs B2+B8). This significant difference in passive behaviours is evident in both of the individual episode comparisons making up this combination i.e. between A4 and B4 after the cat has been left alone for the first time (Z = 2.0, N = 18, p≤0.001) and between A6 and B6 –the first departure in the second half of the test when (Z = 33.5, N = 18, p<0.05). ‘Marking’ behaviour exhibited an episode-order effect (A2+A8 vs B6+B4, z = 1107.5, p<0.05; A1 vs B5 [marking owner], z = 263.5, p<0.05; A1 vs B5 [marking stranger], z = 251.0, p<0.01), but no test-order effect and so these data were used in comparisons relating to the same episodes in the two conditions where relevant to the assessment of attachment. There was no significant difference in the amount cats marked the owner versus the stranger in the first episode of test A, but they marked the owner more than the stranger in the first episode of test B. Cats were found to mark the stranger significantly more than the owner when comparing the first separation (A2 vs B2) and first reunion after the cat was alone (A4 vs B4), with no significant difference, when both were present in episode 5 and following the second separation in the next episode(A6 vs B6), but significantly more marking was directed towards the owner than the stranger at the second reunion after the cat had been alone (A8 vs B8) (See Table 3 for statistical results). Full results from the assessment of behavioural reliability can be found in the S3 File , but in the following sections we consider further the value of the various behaviours that could potentially contribute to the assessment of different facets of attachment, starting with their robustness as potential psychometric measures. To be suitable, measures of the same situation should show no significant interaction between the order in which subjects were tested (test-order) and the condition. The occurrence of a significant test-order effect for the same situation within a condition does not preclude the use of that measure within a condition, but it does preclude its use for making comparisons between the conditions due to the order effect. Likewise, any evidence of a significant episode-order effect for the same situation within a condition precludes the use of that measure from any analysis of episodes occurring at different times within a condition, but does not preclude its use between comparable situations occurring at the same time in the two conditions. However, if both a test-order effect and an episode order-effect are present for the same measure when used in similar situations then that measure cannot be used to make any reliable inferences from the test. Discussion The aim of this study was to use a fully counterbalanced version of the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure to explore the extent to which it can be used to infer that the cat-owner bond constitutes a secure attachment [9]. Overall, the response of the cats indicated that the test environment was generally adequate for invoking the typical scenario desired in the ASST for demonstration of a secure base effect. However the specific results indicate that many aspects of the behaviour of cats in this test are not consistent with the characteristics of attachment, for two main reasons. Firstly, relevant aspects of the behaviour of cats are not reliable enough to be used in an evaluation of attachment (i.e. aspects of the test produce unreliable data). Secondly, even among those measures which are temporally robust, the predictions are not met, except in the case of level of vocalisation if it is a proxy of distress, but this alone is not sufficient to imply secure attachment. The additional controls in the current study compared to the previous study [7], which sought to determine whether the cat-owner relationship constituted an attachment as described by Bowlby [8], [9] explains why we reject this hypothesis. Although, we accept it is possible, if unlikely, that the typical relationship between owners and their cats in Mexico is different to that which generally occurs between owners and their cats in the UK., or that there is a difference in the relationship between owners and cats kept indoors (which formed the population tested by Edwards et al., [7]), and cats with outdoor access (which made up the majority of our population). We do not reject that cats may have social preferences, nor that some cats might form this type of attachment in certain circumstances, nor do we wish to imply that cats do not form some form of affectionate social relationship or bond with their owners (a broader sense use of the term “attachment”), only that the relationship with the primary caregiver is not typically characterised by a preference for that individual based on them providing safety and security to the cat. An alternative explanation for these results might be that the modified SST used here is not an appropriate instrument for measuring attachment, and the finding that the behaviour of cats appears to be very variable (and unreliable across time) may have wider implications for those using behavioural assessments to evaluate cats, such as for rehoming. In relation to proximity/contact seeking, many measures were found not to be robust enough to be used to evaluate this aspect of attachment. However, the data for marking (in the form of body rubbing), which is a specific behaviour that inevitably results in proximity, were useable in this regard despite showing an episode order effect. The results show there was a shift in the focus of marking within a test. Earlier in the test (episodes 2 & 4), cats marked the stranger more than the owner in comparable situations but as the test progressed there was no preference (episode 6) and finally (episode 8) there was a preference for the owner. This suggests that marking preference per se is not indicative of attachment towards the individual being marked, although these results can be explained in another way. It has recently been suggested [39] that marking serves an important function in relation to emotional arousal, with unfamiliar but not overtly threatening objects initially being marked to reduce anxious arousal associated with the uncertainty of the situation, and familiar individuals marked to maintain the social relationship. This allows the efficient allocation of limited attentional capacity. This hypothesis builds on previous suggestions that the purpose of marking between cats is to exchange odours so they become familiarised with one another [23], [29], [40] and laboratory cats have been found to make more direct contacts with an unfamiliar person than with a familiar one [41]. These results are consistent with an expansion of the familiarisation hypothesis that includes a social preference for the owner, as described by Mills et al., [39]. Since the stranger is initially unfamiliar and non-threatening, when the cat is left alone with this individual for the first time (episode 2), due to the departure of the owner, it would be expected that the cat will mark the unfamiliar individual with whom it now finds itself. By contrast in the counterbalanced condition (B), the stranger has just left and the cat finds itself with its owner with whom it is already is familiar. Thus we would predict more marking of the stranger than owner in this episode. Episode 4 represents the first reunion with an individual after the cat has been alone and given the increased familiarity of the owner, the same prediction applies. However, as the test proceeds, the stranger is becoming increasingly familiar to the cat, to the point that by episode 6 the difference that existed in episode 2 is less apparent. Thus in episode 8, which follows the second occasion the cat has been left alone, there is now increased marking of the owner, perhaps because although the two may now both be familiar, the owner is a preferred social contact. Thus the evidence from proximity maintenance/ contact seeking by the cat in support of attachment towards its owner is weak. The secure-base effect is considered the primary factor in identifying an attachment [10], [42]. However no evidence was found to support the use of owners as a secure-base in the current study. No significant difference was found in the amount of exploration/locomotion in the presence of the owner versus stranger, nor the amount of play with the owner versus stranger. In addition, the absence of the owner did not significantly reduce the time spent playing with the stranger as would be expected if the owner functioned as a secure-base [14]. This might reflect the observation that in cats, unlike humans and dogs, much play is typically associated with solitary predatory type activity, and so may not have a social relevance. Passive behaviours, indicative of relaxation, are suggested as a measure of the secure-base effect in children [10]. However, passive behaviour may not be so easy to interpret in cats [43], [44]. Edwards et al., (2007) [7] found that cats were more inactive in the presence of the stranger in their test, and a similar result was found in the current study. Thus it seems that in the context of SST, passive behaviour by domestic cats, may be associated more with a state of anxiety rather than comfort, as has been found in other studies [43], [44]. However, a difference was only found in half of the comparable episodes, and these were the ones in the middle of the test (episodes 4 and 6). If the owner were acting as a secure base within the strange environment, it would be predicted that the effect of their presence over that of the stranger would be greatest at the first separation (episode 2) but this was not the case, since there was no significant difference in the amount of passive behaviour exhibited by the cat at this time. At best it might be argued that the owner has a small effect on the perceived safety of the environment, and this is not strong enough to impact on the behaviour of the cat when it first enters a strange environment, but perhaps as the cat habituates to the environment, the owner’s may have a small effect over that of the stranger. However, this would also indicate that towards the end of the test the cat was sufficiently habituated to the environment, so as not to need the support of another. An alternative and arguably more parsimonious explanation of the finding would relate to the cat’s independence and habituation to the environment and stranger. The strangeness of the environment inhibits the cat (episode 2), and the return of someone after the cat has been alone (episode 4) has a differential effect depending on the identity of that individual. If it is the stranger, then the situation is still novel, whereas if it is the owner it provides a degree of familiarity. The next occasion when a difference is assessed, is episode 6 when either the stranger or owner leaves after they have both been present. The lack of familiarisation with the stranger at this time, would mean the environment is still strange due to their presence, however, by episode 8 (as indicated by the marking behaviour) the stranger has now become familiar and so there is no difference when the cat is left with the owner compared to the stranger. These results examining a potential secure base effect together with those relating to proximity seeking suggest there is a dynamic between the strangeness of the physical environment and the stranger, and that habituation to them occurs at a different rate, occurring to the environment sooner than the stranger, with familiarisation of the stranger being a function of them being marked. The data relating to potential stress when separated are consistent with a preference for interaction with the owner over the stranger, but not with secure attachment. Standing by the door is a particularly robust measure of separation distress in dogs [13], but was found to be inconsistent in cats, as was vigilance behaviour. This suggests either that cats do not show distress in this way, or that the cats are not particularly distressed by the departure of the owner. By contrast, vocalisation was found to be a robust measure, but differences in vocalisation depending on whether the owner or stranger was absent, are not necessarily consistent with the bond with the owner providing a secure base. Although there was a difference in vocalisation when the cat was left with either the owner or stranger after the other had left (episodes 6 versus 8), there was no difference in vocalisation following the return of the owner or stranger after the cat had been alone. This would be consistent with vocalisation occurring in response to frustration at the owner’s departure, perhaps as a result of previous reinforcement of the interaction (as often occurs at feeding [45]), rather than the owner providing comfort in the strange environment. From a neurobiological perspective separation from a secure attachment figure results in engagement of a different affective system (PANIC sensu Panksepp [46] compared to separation from an individual who is associated with physical reinforcements (RAGE sensu Panksepp [46]), although both might result in superficially similar behaviour aimed at reinstating contact. In the case of the cat, vocalisation meets the requirement in both situations and so, this measure alone is not sufficient to infer that the cat is attached to its owner as a source of safety and security. The Ainsworth procedure is suggested to be highly suitable for dogs since it reproduces situations that they are likely to encounter in their everyday lives [14], (potential need for support from their carer). In contrast most cats are unlikely to encounter such situations on a regular basis and it might be argued that this impacts negatively on the validity of the test as it is such an artificial situation. However, in this particular instance and given the theoretical underpinnings of the SST, we suggest that the set-up chosen actually increases the validity of our procedure for the following reasons. The vast majority of cats were home based as is common in the UK and so a novel environment is likely to pose a suitably intimidating challenge to induce the expression of secure attachment related behaviours if they existed [11]. In addition, few of the cats in this study, had much experience of strange situations outside the home. A visit to the vet might be the most likely analogous situation encountered, but none were taken to the vet regularly (for example for treatment of a chronic medical condition); none were reported to be experiencing this type of situation on a regular basis. By contrast, largely outdoor cats who travel a lot to new places, might get used to environmental novelty more readily and this could result in a false negative response. In this regard, it is worth noting that the data from two cat subjects were eliminated from the analysis because their behaviour did not show variation within the test; the hiding and behavioural inhibition observed by these cats are consistent with higher stress levels [43],[44] but it is clear that the presence of the owner was not able to ameliorate these effects, which should be the case if they serve as an attachment figure in the original sense of Bowlby [8], as compared to the wider sense used by some authors [47]. It might be argued that, the behaviours chosen to assess attachment are not biologically relevant given the nature of the cat as a largely independent, solitary hunter. However, this aspect of the cat may be precisely the reason why the relationship with the owner is not characterised by the safety and security features of a classical attachment bond. Even when accounting for a different function in superficially similar behaviour categories between species (such as passiveness), the evidence from the current study refutes the notion that cats normally show attachment to the owner in the way Bowlby defined attachment [8] and has been found in dogs [13] and claimed to occur in cats [7]. Despite this, there is good evidence that some cats can show separation related problems [6] and there are several possible reasons for this. It may be that a sub-population of cats showing clinical signs do become genuinely attached in the way described by Bowlby, but we consider this unlikely if attachment has a strong biological function and in light of some of our unpublished observations. An alternative explanation is that these problems are perhaps more of a response to frustration at owner absence [39]. This hypothesis lays the foundation for further research and the development of more specific intervention protocols as a result. Although cats can be social, sociality is likely to exist on a continuum, varying between individuals, but perhaps skewed towards independency. They have been domesticated for a relatively short time in comparison to dogs and have not been selectively bred to live in close contact with people [27], nor is their natural social system highly dependent on the same type of close social bonds [23]. Indeed, within the human-cat relationship the frequency and duration of interactions have been observed to be low in comparison to dogs [35]. These factors are likely to affect the nature of the relationship that typically forms between cat and owner, and make the formation of cat-human attachment unlikely. Nonetheless, some may be capable of forming very strong attachments, but this would not seem to be the norm. However, cats do seem to have a preference for their owner over an unfamiliar individual but the extent to which this is conditioned or the result of an intrinsic psychological tendency to bond remains unclear.

– There are a lot of cats in the United States. Perhaps close to 95 million live with us as pets, reports the Times-Picayune. But does our affection for these feline friends move in just one direction? New research in the journal PLoS One suggests that domesticated cats are more independent than dogs because they have less "secure attachment" to their owners. In this case, attachment "is not simply an affectionate bond," the researchers write, but relates to "the carer being perceived as a focus of safety and security in otherwise threatening environments." Past research has indicated that some cats whose owners leave them alone display signs of separation anxiety, as dogs do. "But the results of our study show that they are in fact much more independent than canine companions," says lead researcher Daniel Mills. "It seems that what we interpret as separation anxiety might actually be signs of frustration." Behavioral scientists at the University of Lincoln in the UK tested this by observing cats in unfamiliar environments with their owners, with strangers, and alone. They were looking for three distinct characteristics of attachment: the amount of contact a cat sought, its level of passive behavior, and its distress when the owner was absent. Cats were, it turns out, more vocal when their owners left them than when strangers did, but they demonstrated no other signs of attachment, hence the possibility that the vocalization was not one of longing; the researchers posit it could indicate frustration or just be a "learned response." "Our findings don’t disagree with the notion that cats develop social preferences or close relationships," says Mills, "but they do show that these relationships do not appear to be typically based on a need for safety and security." (One woman's attempt to rescue her cat from a cliff didn't go so well.)

“He doesn’t seem to have moved an inch since summer 2011,” said Yezid Sayigh, an analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, noting that Mr. Assad gave “barely the slightest nod” to Mr. Brahimi’s proposals. Coming after days of hints that Mr. Assad might at last be ready to negotiate, his defiant speech on Sunday promised trouble for both his friends and his enemies. Russia may find it harder to stave off international action against Syria, which it has done so far using its veto at the United Nations Security Council, as the chances for a political solution seem to recede. Moreover, Mr. Assad’s defiance may prompt Mr. Brahimi to decline to continue his mission. That would present the “Friends of Syria,” the group of nations supporting the opposition — the United States and its Western allies, Turkey and some Arab countries — with an unpalatable choice: intervene more aggressively or risk allowing the conflict to drag on indefinitely. “Assad is not letting the Friends of Syria off the hook by making it easy for them to declare victory and close the Syria file,” Mr. Sayigh said. “Now what will they do?” Photo The United Nations estimates that more than 60,000 people have died in the civil war, which began as a peaceful protest movement and turned into an armed struggle after security forces fired on demonstrators. Rebels have made gains in the north and east and in the Damascus suburbs, but Mr. Assad’s government has pushed back with deadly air and artillery strikes, and appears to be confident that it can hold the capital. Neither side appears ready to give up the prospect of military victory, though analysts say neither side is close to achieving it. Mr. Assad’s defiant stance on Sunday “means we’re in for a long fight,” said Joshua Landis, a scholar on Syria and Mr. Assad’s minority sect, the Alawites, at the University of Oklahoma. “This is a dark, dark tunnel. There is no good ending to this. Assad believes he is winning.” Victoria Nuland, the spokeswoman for the State Department, said in a statement that Mr. Assad’s speech was “yet another attempt by the regime to cling to power, and does nothing to advance the Syrian people’s goal of a political transition.” She said that even as Mr. Assad “speaks of dialogue, the regime is deliberately stoking sectarian tensions and continuing to kill its own people.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Before the speech, Lebanese media outlets close to the Syrian government reported, citing unnamed sources, that Mr. Assad would be much more conciliatory, offering to share some power with the armed opposition. But if anyone close to Mr. Assad was pushing that view, it did not make it into the speech he delivered. Instead, Mr. Assad repeated his longstanding assertions that the movement against him was driven by “murderous criminals” and terrorists financed by rivals such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia with American blessing. “Who should we negotiate with — terrorists?” Mr. Assad said. “We will negotiate with their masters.” Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. The main opposition body, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, issued a statement calling the speech “a pre-emptive strike against both Arab and international diplomatic solutions.” There was little immediate reaction in Russia, where the speech came on the eve of the Orthodox celebration of Christmas on Monday. But Boris Dolgov of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Eastern Studies said the speech reflected a new push by Russia and other nations to resolve the crisis. Mr. Dolgov told the Voice of Russia radio station that Mr. Assad was correct to assert in his speech that the first step toward a resolution of the civil war must be the cessation of aid for armed rebel groups, adding that the current situation was “complex, but not a dead end.” Photo In Midan, a contested neighborhood of southern Damascus, a shopkeeper said that Mr. Assad’s speech had dashed his hopes that the president would end the conflict. “He divided Syrians in two camps, one with him who are patriots and one against him who are criminals, terrorists and radicals,” said the shopkeeper, who gave only a nickname, Abu Omar, for safety reasons. “He doesn’t see Syrians who are patriots but don’t like him, and want to have another president in democratic, fair elections.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for 42 years, said Sunday that he was open to dialogue with “those who have not sold Syria to foreigners,” most likely a reference to tolerated opposition groups that reject armed revolution, such the National Coordinating Body for Democratic Change. But his speech appeared unlikely to satisfy even those opponents, since it made no apology for the arrests of peaceful activists or for airstrikes that have destroyed neighborhoods. Nor did he acknowledge that his opponents sought anything but ruin for Syria. “They killed the intellectuals in order to inflict ignorance on us,” Mr. Assad said of his opponents. “They deprived children from school in order to bring the country backward.” Some armed rebel groups have used techniques that randomly target civilians, like car bombs, and there are foreign fighters among the rebels. But most of the armed movement is made up of Syrians who took up arms during the uprising or defected from the armed forces. Mr. Assad thanked military officers and conscripts in the speech and vowed to stay by their side, seeking to dispel speculation that he would flee the country. The audience of government officials and university students at the opera house chanted, “With our souls, with our blood, we defend you, Assad,” and vowed to be his “shabiha,” a term that has come to mean progovernment militias that have attacked demonstrators. When the president finished speaking, scores of people rushed frantically to greet him, and his bodyguards formed a phalanx to slowly escort Mr. Assad through the crowd. Several observers noted in social media postings that the opera house seemed a fitting setting for such a speech. “It was operatic in its otherworldly fantasy, unrelated to realities outside the building,” Rami Khouri, the editor of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, wrote on Twitter. ||||| BEIRUT Fighting raged across Syria on Monday with clashes reported just a few miles from where President Bashar al-Assad had unveiled a "peace plan" that Syrians on both sides said would do nothing to end the country's 21-month-old uprising. Hours after Assad addressed cheering loyalists at the Damascus Opera House on Sunday in his first public speech in months, fighting erupted near the road to the city's international airport, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The opposition-linked group said artillery hit the district of Aqraba, 3 miles from the Opera House. Fighting continued all night and into Monday around the capital, as well as in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, it said. In central Syria, the towns of Taybet Imam and Halfaya were bombarded with aerial strikes and artillery, said Abu Faisal, an activist speaking over the internet from Taybet Imam. "Every four to five minutes, we hear the burst from a rocket. We cannot get any wounded out because we are essentially under siege by the shelling," he said, adding that many civilians had fled. Taybet Imam sits on an entrance to Syria's main north-south highway, close to the central city of Hama. The government restricts access by international media and the accounts could not be verified. Damascus residents said Assad's speech, which offered no concessions to his foes, was met with celebratory gunfire in pro-Assad neighborhoods. But even there, some saw no sign peace was closer: a loyalist resident of southern Damascus reached by internet said the speech was eloquent but empty. "It sounded more like gloating than making promises," said the woman, who gave only her first name, Aliaa. "I agree with the ideas but words are really just words until he takes some action. He needs to do something. But even so, everything he suggests now, it is too late, the rebels aren't going to stop." "NO ONE CARES" In the once-affluent district of Mezzeh, scene of several bomb attacks, an Assad critic said people had more pressing concerns than a TV speech. "Here, no one cares about this speech. They care about food and electricity." Another said few people had watched the speech and that Assad's crackdown would not stop: "Military operations will continue in full swing, and he is staying." France, the United States, Britain and Turkey all said Assad's speech, his first to an audience since June last year, showed he had lost touch with reality after unrest that the United Nations says has killed 60,000 people. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland had harsh words for Assad when she was asked whether the United States regarded him as a rational actor and whether he was "evil." "I don't think anybody who is guilty of the kinds of crimes against your own people that he's guilty of could be considered rational," Nuland told reporters in Washington. "I personally consider what he's done evil." Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Assad on Monday of "directing state terrorism". "Bashar al-Assad's speech is further evidence of just how far he has cut himself off from reality in order to justify his repression of the Syrian people," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said. The plan described by the Syrian leader as a new peace initiative proposed an army ceasefire only after rebels halt their operations and summoned Syrians to mobilize for a war to defend the state against "a puppet made by the West". The United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was disappointed that Assad's speech rejected the idea of a transitional government to pave the way to new elections - a central plank of a peace plan promoted by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. "NATIONAL PROGRAMME" Syria's Prime Minister Wael al-Halki called on Monday for a special cabinet meeting to implement the "national program announced by President Bashar al-Assad yesterday to solve the crisis in Syria", the state news agency SANA said. George Sabra, vice president of the opposition National Coalition, said the putative peace plan "did not even deserve to be called an initiative". "We should see it rather as a declaration that he will continue his war against the Syrian people," he told Reuters. Assad's ally Iran defended the speech as offering a "comprehensive political process". "This plan rejects violence and terrorism and any foreign interference," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said. There was no immediate response from Moscow, which has acted as Assad's main protector on the diplomatic stage. Russian state offices were quiet for the Orthodox Christmas holiday. Syrian state television played up the speech, showing footage of convoys of cars driving through main streets in Damascus. People waving the Syrian flag leaned out of car windows and some braved the cold and rain to walk alongside. "It was a victorious speech that respects the martyred Syrian soldiers," said one man on state TV, adding that his brother had been killed fighting the opposition. After six months of advances, rebels now control wide areas of northern and eastern Syria, most of its border crossings with Turkey and a crescent of Damascus suburbs. Assad's government is still firmly entrenched in the capital and controls most of the densely populated southwest, the Mediterranean coast, the main north-south highway and military bases countrywide. Its helicopters and jets are able to strike rebel-held areas with impunity. U.S. military cargo planes carrying equipment and personnel arrived at the Incirlik air base in Turkey on Monday, part of a deployment of NATO Patriot anti-missiles to bolster security along Turkey's 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria. Dutch Patriot missile batteries bound for Turkey left an army base in the Netherlands. (Additional reporting by Ayat Basma in Beirut, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Vicky Buffery in Paris and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; writing by Peter Graff; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Giles Elgood)

– Syria's civil war raged on today, without the slightest pause of acknowledgement for yesterday's rare Bashar al-Assad speech. It was billed as the unveiling of a "peace plan," but Assad offered essentially no concessions and spent much of the speech justifying his bloody crackdown. And there may be repercussions: In it, he dismissed the work of UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, saying, "Everyone who comes to Syria knows that Syria accepts advice, but not orders," and the New York Times predicts such remarks might cause Brahimi to wash his hands of the conflict. That would present the US and other "Friends of Syria" with a quandary: Get more involved, or potentially watch the conflict continue indefinitely. And though celebratory gunfire rang out afterward, even some loyalists were unimpressed. "It sounded more like gloating than making promises," one Assad supporter tells Reuters. "Everything he suggests now, it is too late. The rebels aren't going to stop." Indeed, hours after the speech, fresh clashes broke out along the road to Damascus' international airport, and regime artillery reportedly hit a district just three miles from where Assad spoke. One Assad critic in a hard-hit district agreed that the speech meant little. "Here, no one cares about this speech. They care about food and electricity."

Michael Nolan/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis Boat trips to watch whales and dolphins may increasingly be putting the survival of marine mammals at risk, conservationists have warned. Research published this year shows that the jaunts can affect cetacean behaviour and stress levels in addition to causing deaths from collisions. But some animals are affected more than others and the long-term effects remain unclear, scientists at the International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) in Glasgow, UK, heard last week. “Whale-watching is traditionally seen as green tourism,” says wildlife biologist Leslie New of the US Geological Survey in Laurel, Maryland. “The negative is the potential for disturbance. That disturbance is a worry because we don’t want to do �?death by 1,000 cuts’.” The number of people joining trips has expanded hugely since the 1990s, from 4 million in 31 countries in 1991 to 13 million in 119 countries in 2008, the most recent year for which full data are available. In 2008, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, an animal-protection charity in London, estimated the value of the industry at US$2.1 billion. Although collisions with boats can hurt the animals, researchers are more concerned about effects such as animals failing to feed or using up energy swimming away from the vessels. These seemingly small events can add up, studies suggest. Earlier this year, for example, marine biologist David Lusseau of the University of Aberdeen, UK, and his team showed that minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in Faxaflói Bay in Iceland responded to whale-watching boats as they do to natural predators, upping their speed and respiring more heavily1. But whether this was a direct result of the boats is difficult to pin down: Lusseau, who was not at the meeting, says that soon-to-be-published research by his team shows that behavioural changes are probably not affecting actual numbers of the minke in Faxaflói Bay. “The disturbance is a worry because we don’t want to do �?death by 1,000 cuts’.” But Lusseau’s group has also shown that the bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Doubtful Sound, New Zealand, could be driven to extinction in decades2. The large number of dolphin-watching trips in the sound is driving the animals away from their preferred areas and forcing them to avoid boats instead of feeding. Dolphin numbers declined from 67 in 1997 to 56 in 2005, the team found. Several delegates at the IMCC also described the effects on the roughly 70 endangered Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) living in the Mekong River between Cambodia and Laos, which are hounded by scores of tourist boats. Determining which populations are most at risk could help to fix the problem, says Lusseau. He suggests plugging short-term observational data into longer-term population models to tease out whether behavioural changes are temporary or serious long-term threats. There are enough data on species types and locations to assess, at least roughly, where whale-watching should and should not be allowed, he says. But funding and political support are hampering the creation of detailed, localized plans. “There is a lot of lip service being paid to understanding the challenges tourism poses on wildlife, but in practice there is very little financial interest in finding this out,” he says. Short-term fix Guidelines such as specifying minimum distances between animals and boats, speed limits or no-go areas, can help. But codes vary widely: a 2004 study3 found that just 38% were binding; the rest were voluntary. They are also often inadequate. Even with guidelines in place, boats in the dolphin-watching haven of the Bocas del Toro region of Panama hit and killed at least 10 animals in a population of about 250 in 2012 and 2013, according to research presented to the International Whaling Commission in Cambridge, UK, this year. Greg Kaufman, executive director of the Pacific Whale Foundation — an organization in Hawaii that runs whale-watching and research trips — holds up the Irrawaddy dolphin as a population desperately in need of protection. “They’re basically killing these animals one at a time,” he says. But Brian Smith, a zoologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York who has long studied the Irrawaddy group, says that although cetacean tourism is probably stressful for these animals, the main problem is entanglement in fishing nets. And the alternative to fishing for many people in the region is dolphin-watching. Most of the speakers at the IMCC meeting agreed that more should be done to protect dolphins and whales from tourists. “Although whale-watching is not as bad as whaling,” says New, “it might be that last piece that pushes a species over.” ||||| Watching whales and dolphins in their natural habitats may seem like a good alternative to seeing them in aquariums, but some scientists say that the activity may be putting the marine mammals at risk. Researchers presented their findings at the International Marine Conservation Congress, a symposium held in Glasgow, Scotland, last week. “Whale-watching is traditionally seen as green tourism,” Leslie New, a Maryland-based wildlife biologist who works for the United States Geological Survey, told Nature. “The negative is the potential for disturbance.” More than 13 million people take whale-watching trips each year, generating an estimated $2.1 billion annually. Boat collisions might be the least of the marine mammals’ problems, according to studies presented at IMCC. The effects of whale-watching excursions are unclear, but scientists worry it may cause behavioral changes in whales and dolphins, such as not feeding or swimming away from boats, which takes energy. Vanessa Williams-Grey, head of the Responsible Whale Watch Program at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, told the BBC in 2011 that the industry could be harmful to marine mammals. “Badly run trips can translate into all sorts of negative reactions from the whales,” said Williams-Grey. “They can stop resting or increase their respiratory rate. If they are using more energy, this will have an impact on their health.” Other scientists champion whale watching, saying it inspires conservation efforts. “Presentations in the symposium pointed out much good that whale watching can do if—and that’s a big if—managed appropriately and impacts are minimized or removed completely,” said Chris Parsons, a whale and dolphin researcher at Pacific Whale Foundation, a Hawaii-based nonprofit that also offers whale-watching trips. Emmanuelle Martinez, a senior scientist with the Pacific Whale Foundation, said tourists bear responsibility for behaving properly in the presence of marine mammals. “It is not uncommon to see people on their boats and kayaks approaching too close to the mammals, and Jet Skis doing doughnuts around a pod of dolphins,” she said. “I even witnessed a lady literally launching herself on top of a Hector’s dolphin—an endangered species—that was bowriding the boat she was on.” “Educating the public to choose the best and most compliant tour operator and to follow guidelines is therefore very important if we don’t want to cause death by 1,000 cuts,” Martinez added.

– Gazing at whales from a boat may seem like an animal-friendly pursuit, but new research is questioning that idea. Why? It's not just about the odd collision; whale-watching seems to stress out the whales, Nature reports following a symposium in Scotland. When they spot a boat—whose operators know where the preferred feeding grounds are—the whales may opt to skip a meal or hurry away. In Iceland's minke whales, the rush to escape looks a lot like an effort to flee a predator, with heavy breathing and a boost in speed, researchers say. Meanwhile, dolphins in New Zealand—whose numbers have been dropping, researchers find—appear to be focusing on dodging tourists rather than eating. As for a solution, some areas suggest a distance boats must keep from the creatures, but the standards aren't usually officially required. “Whale-watching is traditionally seen as green tourism,” says a US wildlife biologist. “The negative is the potential for disturbance. That disturbance is a worry because we don’t want to do ‘death by 1,000 cuts.'" Other researchers, however, have seen benefits to whale-watching as a means of encouraging conservation work, Takepart notes. "Presentations in the symposium pointed out much good that whale-watching can do if—and that’s a big if—managed appropriately," says one. (It's not just whales who are on display: Shark watching is also a hit.)

Plants outweigh all other life on Earth Plants pack more heft than any other kingdom of life on the planet, making up 80% of all the carbon stored in living creatures. That’s just one surprise in a comprehensive new survey of Earth’s biomass, which finds that groups with the greatest number of species—such as arthropods—aren’t necessarily the heaviest. version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"? Archaea Viruses Bacteria Protists Fungi Animals Arthropods Molluscs Nematodes Annelids Wild birds Fish Wild Humans Livestock Cnidarians Kingdoms of life Animals Plants 450 GT C 0.1 0.1 0.06 mammals 0.007 0.7 0.002 0.2 0.02 0.2 1 GT C 2 12 4 70 0.2 8 Measured in terms of carbon content (to factor out variable components like water), all life on Earth weighs about 550 gigatons. Of that, plants make up 450 gigatons of carbon (GT C), followed by bacteria at 70 GT C and fungi at 12 GT C, scientists report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Animals comprise a mere 2 GT C, of which half are arthropods—including insects, spiders, and crustaceans. And although humans weigh in at just 0.06 GT C—on par with krill and termites—our impact on biomass since the beginning of civilization has been huge, scientists say. Humans and their cattle, pigs, and other livestock outweigh wild mammals by more than 20-fold; similarly, domesticated fowl surpass all other birds. Humans have also had an impact on plant biomass, which has been cut in half in the past 10,000 years. To figure out the biomass of each creature, quantitative biologists spent 3 years combing the scientific literature. But their ultimate goal wasn’t to figure out how much life weighs—it was to discover the most abundant protein on the planet. They’re still working on that question (subsurface microbes presented them with a particular challenge), but they hope to answer it within the coming year. ||||| In this April 11, 2018, file photo, two boys push their scooters through a park with green blossoming trees in Frankfurt, Germany. When you weigh all life on Earth, billions of humans don't amount to much compared to trees, earthworms or even viruses, according to a study in the Monday, May 21, 2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File) When you weigh all life on Earth, billions of humans don't amount to much compared to trees, earthworms or even viruses. But we really know how to throw what little weight we have around, according to a first-of-its-kind global census of the footprint of life on the planet. Humans only add up to about one ten-thousandth of the life on Earth, measured by the dry weight of the carbon that makes up the structure of all living things, also known as biomass. The planet's real heavyweights are plants. They outweigh people by about 7,500 to 1, and make up more than 80 percent of the world's biomass, a study in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said. Bacteria are nearly 13 percent of the world's biomass. Fungi—yeast, mold and mushrooms—make up about 2 percent. These estimates aren't very exact, the real numbers could be more or less, but they give a sense of proportion, said study lead author Ron Milo, a biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. "The fact that the biomass of fungi exceeds that of all animals sort of puts us in our place," said Harvard evolutionary biology professor James Hanken, who wasn't part of the study. Still, humans have an outsized influence on its more massive fellow creatures. Since civilization started, humans helped cut the total weight of plants by half and wild mammals by 85 percent, the study said. In this Sept. 22, 2017, file photo, John Locke works to move a herd to another field at his family's ranch in Glen Flora, Texas. Now domesticated cattle and pigs outweigh all wild mammals by 14 to 1, while the world's chickens triple the weight of all the wild birds, according to a study in the Monday, May 21, 2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) Now domesticated cattle and pigs outweigh all wild mammals by 14 to 1, while the world's chickens are triple the weight of all the wild birds. Instead of children's books about elephants and lions, a more honest representation of Earth's animals would be "a cow next to another cow, next to another cow next to a chicken," Milo said. Milo and colleagues took earlier research that looked at biomass for different types of life, combined them, factored in climate, geography and other environmental issues, to come up with a planetwide look at the scale of life on the planet. Taking water out of the equation and measuring only dry carbon makes it easier for scientists to compare species. About one-sixth the weight of a human is dry carbon. Humans are about two-thirds water. "Even though short in numbers, we have managed to throw a lot of sand in the air and mess up a lot of things," said noted Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, who wasn't involved in the study. Explore further: Humans may influence cancer in many other species on the planet More information: Yinon M. Bar-On el al., "The biomass distribution on Earth," PNAS (2018). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711842115 ||||| Groundbreaking assessment of all life on Earth reveals humanity’s surprisingly tiny part in it as well as our disproportionate impact Humankind is revealed as simultaneously insignificant and utterly dominant in the grand scheme of life on Earth by a groundbreaking new assessment of all life on the planet. The world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things, according to the study. Yet since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants, while livestock kept by humans abounds. The new work is the first comprehensive estimate of the weight of every class of living creature and overturns some long-held assumptions. Bacteria are indeed a major life form – 13% of everything – but plants overshadow everything, representing 82% of all living matter. All other creatures, from insects to fungi, to fish and animals, make up just 5% of the world’s biomass. Another surprise is that the teeming life revealed in the oceans by the recent BBC television series Blue Planet II turns out to represent just 1% of all biomass. The vast majority of life is land-based and a large chunk – an eighth – is bacteria buried deep below the surface. “I was shocked to find there wasn’t already a comprehensive, holistic estimate of all the different components of biomass,” said Prof Ron Milo, at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who led the work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “I would hope this gives people a perspective on the very dominant role that humanity now plays on Earth,” he said, adding that he now chooses to eat less meat due to the huge environmental impact of livestock. The transformation of the planet by human activity has led scientists to the brink of declaring a new geological era – the Anthropocene. One suggested marker for this change are the bones of the domestic chicken, now ubiquitous across the globe. The new work reveals that farmed poultry today makes up 70% of all birds on the planet, with just 30% being wild. The picture is even more stark for mammals – 60% of all mammals on Earth are livestock, mostly cattle and pigs, 36% are human and just 4% are wild animals. “It is pretty staggering,” said Milo. “In wildlife films, we see flocks of birds, of every kind, in vast amounts, and then when we did the analysis we found there are [far] more domesticated birds.” The destruction of wild habitat for farming, logging and development has resulted in the start of what many scientists consider the sixth mass extinction of life to occur in the Earth’s four billion year history. About half the Earth’s animals are thought to have been lost in the last 50 years. But comparison of the new estimates with those for the time before humans became farmers and the industrial revolution began reveal the full extent of the huge decline. Just one-sixth of wild mammals, from mice to elephants, remain, surprising even the scientists. In the oceans, three centuries of whaling has left just a fifth of marine mammals in the oceans. “It is definitely striking, our disproportionate place on Earth,” said Milo. “When I do a puzzle with my daughters, there is usually an elephant next to a giraffe next to a rhino. But if I was trying to give them a more realistic sense of the world, it would be a cow next to a cow next to a cow and then a chicken.” Despite humanity’s supremacy, in weight terms Homo sapiens is puny. Viruses alone have a combined weight three times that of humans, as do worms. Fish are 12 times greater than people and fungi 200 times as large. But our impact on the natural world remains immense, said Milo, particularly in what we choose to eat: “Our dietary choices have a vast effect on the habitats of animals, plants and other organisms.” “I would hope people would take this [work] as part of their world view of how they consume,” he said. ”I have not become vegetarian, but I do take the environmental impact into my decision making, so it helps me think, do I want to choose beef or poultry or use tofu instead?” The researchers calculated the biomass estimates using data from hundreds of studies, which often used modern techniques, such as satellite remote sensing that can scan great areas, and gene sequencing that can unravel the myriad organisms in the microscopic world. They started by assessing the biomass of a class of organisms and then they determined which environments such life could live in across the world to create a global total. They used carbon as the key measure and found all life contains 550bn tonnes of the element. The researchers acknowledge that substantial uncertainties remain in particular estimates, especially for bacteria deep underground, but say the work presents a useful overview. Paul Falkowski, at Rutgers University in the US and not part of the research team, said: “The study is, to my knowledge, the first comprehensive analysis of the biomass distribution of all organisms – including viruses – on Earth.” “There are two major takeaways from this paper,” he said. “First, humans are extremely efficient in exploiting natural resources. Humans have culled, and in some cases eradicated, wild mammals for food or pleasure in virtually all continents. Second, the biomass of terrestrial plants overwhelmingly dominates on a global scale – and most of that biomass is in the form of wood.” ||||| Significance The composition of the biosphere is a fundamental question in biology, yet a global quantitative account of the biomass of each taxon is still lacking. We assemble a census of the biomass of all kingdoms of life. This analysis provides a holistic view of the composition of the biosphere and allows us to observe broad patterns over taxonomic categories, geographic locations, and trophic modes. Abstract A census of the biomass on Earth is key for understanding the structure and dynamics of the biosphere. However, a global, quantitative view of how the biomass of different taxa compare with one another is still lacking. Here, we assemble the overall biomass composition of the biosphere, establishing a census of the ≈550 gigatons of carbon (Gt C) of biomass distributed among all of the kingdoms of life. We find that the kingdoms of life concentrate at different locations on the planet; plants (≈450 Gt C, the dominant kingdom) are primarily terrestrial, whereas animals (≈2 Gt C) are mainly marine, and bacteria (≈70 Gt C) and archaea (≈7 Gt C) are predominantly located in deep subsurface environments. We show that terrestrial biomass is about two orders of magnitude higher than marine biomass and estimate a total of ≈6 Gt C of marine biota, doubling the previous estimated quantity. Our analysis reveals that the global marine biomass pyramid contains more consumers than producers, thus increasing the scope of previous observations on inverse food pyramids. Finally, we highlight that the mass of humans is an order of magnitude higher than that of all wild mammals combined and report the historical impact of humanity on the global biomass of prominent taxa, including mammals, fish, and plants. One of the most fundamental efforts in biology is to describe the composition of the living world. Centuries of research have yielded an increasingly detailed picture of the species that inhabit our planet and their respective roles in global ecosystems. In describing a complex system like the biosphere, it is critical to quantify the abundance of individual components of the system (i.e., species, broader taxonomic groups). A quantitative description of the distribution of biomass is essential for taking stock of biosequestered carbon (1) and modeling global biogeochemical cycles (2), as well as for understanding the historical effects and future impacts of human activities. Earlier efforts to estimate global biomass have mostly focused on plants (3⇓–5). In parallel, a dominant role for prokaryotic biomass has been advocated in a landmark paper by Whitman et al. (6) entitled “Prokaryotes: The unseen majority.” New sampling and detection techniques (7, 8) make it possible to revisit this claim. Likewise, for other taxa, such as fish, recent global sampling campaigns (9) have resulted in updated estimates, often differing by an order of magnitude or more from previous estimates. For groups such as arthropods, global estimates are still lacking (10, 11). All of the above efforts are each focused on a single taxon. We are aware of only two attempts at a comprehensive accounting of all biomass components on Earth: Whittaker and Likens (12) made a remarkable effort in the early 1970s, noting even then that their study was “intended for early obsolescence.” It did not include, for example, bacterial or fungal biomass. The other attempt, by Smil (13), was included as a subsection of a book intended for a broad readership. His work details characteristic values for the biomass of various taxa in many environments. Finally, Wikipedia serves as a highly effective platform for making accessible a range of estimates on various taxa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)#Global_biomass) but currently falls short of a comprehensive or integrated view. In the past decade, several major technological and scientific advances have facilitated an improved quantitative account of the biomass on Earth. Next-generation sequencing has enabled a more detailed and cultivation-independent view of the composition of natural communities based on the relative abundance of genomes (14). Better remote sensing tools enable us to probe the environment on a global scale with unprecedented resolution and specificity. The Tara Oceans expedition (15) is among recent efforts at global sampling that are expanding our view and coverage. Continental counterpart efforts, such as the National Ecological Observatory Network in North America, add more finely resolved, continent-specific details, affording us more robust descriptions of natural habitats. Here, we either assemble or generate estimates of the biomass for each of the major taxonomic groups that contribute to the global biomass distribution. Our analysis (described in detail in SI Appendix) is based on hundreds of studies, including recent studies that have overturned earlier estimates for many taxa (e.g., fish, subsurface prokaryotes, marine eukaryotes, soil fauna). Discussion Our census of the distribution of biomass on Earth provides an integrated global picture of the relative and absolute abundances of all kingdoms of life. We find that the biomass of plants dominates the biomass of the biosphere and is mostly located on land. The marine environment is primarily occupied by microbes, mainly bacteria and protists, which account for ≈70% of the total marine biomass. The remaining ≈30% is mainly composed of arthropods and fish. The deep subsurface holds ≈15% of the total biomass in the biosphere. It is chiefly composed of bacteria and archaea, which are mostly surface-attached and turn over their biomass every several months to thousands of years (18⇓⇓⇓–22). In addition to summarizing current knowledge of the global biomass distribution, our work highlights gaps in the current understanding of the biosphere. Our knowledge of the biomass composition of different taxa is mainly determined by our ability to sample their biomass in the wild. For groups such as plants, the use of multiple sources to estimate global biomass increases our confidence in the validity of current estimates. However, for other groups, such as terrestrial arthropods and protists, quantitative sampling of biomass is limited by technical constraints, and comprehensive data are thus lacking. Beyond specific taxa, there are entire environments for which our knowledge is very limited, namely, the deep subsurface environments such as deep aquifers and the ocean’s crust, which might hold the world largest aquifer (38). Studies in these environments are scarce, meaning that our estimates have particularly high uncertainty ranges and unknown systematic biases. Main gaps in our knowledge of these environments pertain to the distribution of biomass between the aquifer fluids and the surrounding rocks and the distribution of biomass between different microbial taxa, such as bacteria, archaea, protists, and fungi. Scientists have closely monitored the impact of humans on global biodiversity (39⇓–41), but less attention has been given to total biomass, resulting in high uncertainty regarding the impact of humanity on the biomass of vertebrates. Our estimates for the current and prehuman biomasses of vertebrates are only a crude first step in calculating these values (SI Appendix, Prehuman Biomass). The biomass of amphibians, which are experiencing a dramatic population decline (42), remains poorly characterized. Future research could reduce the uncertainty of current estimates by sampling more environments, which will better represent the diverse biosphere on Earth. In the case of prokaryotes, some major improvements were recently realized, with global estimates of marine deep subsurface prokaryote biomass reduced by about two orders of magnitude due to an increased diversity of sampling locations (7). Identifying gaps in our knowledge could indicate areas for which further scientific exploration could have the biggest impact on our understanding of the biosphere. As a concrete example, we identify the ratio between attached to unattached cells in the deep aquifers as a major contributor to the uncertainties associated with our estimate of the biomass of bacteria, archaea, and viruses. Improving our understanding of this specific parameter could help us better constrain the global biomasses of entire domains of life. In addition to improving our reported estimates, future studies can achieve a finer categorization of taxa. For example, the biomass of parasites, which is not resolved from their hosts in this study, might be larger than the biomass of top predators in some environments (43). By providing a unified, updated, and accessible global view of the biomass of different taxa, we also aim to disseminate knowledge of the biosphere composition to a wide range of students and researchers. Our survey puts into perspective claims regarding the overarching dominance of groups such as termites and ants (44), nematodes (45), and prokaryotes (6). For example, the biomass of termites [≈0.05 Gt C (25)] is on par with that of humans but is still around an order of magnitude smaller than that of other taxa, such as fish (≈0.7 Gt C; SI Appendix, Table S15). Other groups, such as nematodes, surpass any other animal species in terms of number of individuals (SI Appendix, Fig. S2) but constitute only about 1% of the total animal biomass. The census of biomass distribution on Earth presented here is comprehensive in scope and based on synthesis of data from the recent scientific literature. The integrated dataset enables us to draw basic conclusions concerning kingdoms that dominate the biomass of the biosphere, the distribution of biomass of each kingdom across different environments, and the opposite structures of the global marine and terrestrial biomass pyramids. We identify areas in which current knowledge is lacking and further research is most required. Ideally, future research will include both temporal and geographic resolution. We believe that the results described in this study will provide students and researchers with a holistic quantitative context for studying our biosphere. Materials and Methods Taxon-Specific Detailed Description of Data Sources and Procedures for Estimating Biomass. The complete account of the data sources used for estimating the biomass of each taxon, procedures for estimating biomass, and projections for the uncertainty associated with the estimate for the biomass of each taxon are provided in the SI Appendix. To make the steps for estimating the biomass of each taxon more accessible, we provide supplementary tables that summarize the procedure as well as online notebooks for the calculation of the biomass of each taxon (see data flow scheme in SI Appendix, Overview). In Table 1, we detail the relevant supplementary table that summarizes the steps for arriving at each estimate. All of the data used to generate our estimates, as well as the code used for analysis, are open-sourced and available at https://github.com/milo-lab/biomass_distribution. Choice of Units for Measuring Biomass. Biomass is reported in gigatons of carbon. Alternative options to represent biomass include, among others, biovolume, wet mass, or dry weight. We chose to use carbon mass as the measure of biomass because it is independent of water content and is used extensively in the literature. Dry mass also has these features but is used less frequently. All of our reported values can be transformed to dry weight to a good approximation by multiplying by 2, the characteristic conversion factor between carbon and total dry mass (46⇓–48). We report the significant digits for our values throughout the paper using the following scheme: For values with an uncertainty projection that is higher than twofold, we report a single significant digit. For values with an uncertainty projection of less than twofold, we report two significant digits. In cases when we report one significant digit, we do not consider a leading “1” as a significant digit. General Framework for Estimating Global Biomass. In achieving global estimates, there is a constant challenge of how to move from a limited set of local samples to a representative global value. How does one estimate global biomass based on a limited set of local samples? For a crude estimate, the average of all local values of biomass per unit area is multiplied by the total global area. A more effective estimate can be made by correlating measured values to environmental parameters that are known at a global scale (e.g., temperature, depth, distance from shore, primary productivity, biome type), as shown in Fig. 3. This correlation is used to extrapolate the biomass of a taxon at a specific location based on the known distribution of the environmental parameter (e.g., the temperature at each location on the globe). By integrating across the total surface of the world, a global estimate is derived. We detail the specific extrapolation procedure used for each taxon in both the SI Appendix and supplementary tables (SI Appendix, Tables S1–S23). For most taxa, our best estimates are based on a geometric mean of several independent estimates using different methodologies. The geometric mean estimates the median value if the independent estimates are log-normally distributed or, more generally, the distribution of estimates is symmetrical in log space. Fig. 3. General framework for estimating global biomass. The procedure begins with local samples of biomass across the globe. The more representative the samples are of the natural distribution of the taxon biomass, the more accurate the estimate will be. To move from local samples to a global estimate, a correlation between local biomass densities and an environmental parameter (or parameters) is established. Based on this correlation, in addition to our knowledge of the distribution of the environmental parameter, we extrapolate the biomass across the entire globe. The resolution of the resulting biomass distribution map is dependent on the resolution at which we know the environmental parameter. Integrating across the entire surface of the Earth, we get a global estimate of the biomass of the taxon. Uncertainty Estimation and Reporting. Global estimates such as those we use in the present work are largely based on sampling from the distribution of biomass worldwide and then extrapolating for areas in which samples are missing. The sampling of biomass in each location can be based on direct biomass measurements or conversion to biomass from other types of measurement, such as number of individuals and their characteristic weight. Some of the main sources of uncertainty for the estimates we present are the result of using such geographical extrapolations and conversion from number of individuals to overall biomass. The certainty of the estimate is linked to the amount of sampling on which the estimate is based. Notable locations in which sampling is scarce are the deep ocean (usually deeper than 200 m) and deep layers of soil (usually deeper than 1 m). For some organisms, such as annelids and marine protists and arthropods, most estimates neglect these environments, thus underestimating the actual biomass. Sampling can be biased toward places that have high abundance and diversity of wildlife. Relying on data with such sampling bias can cause overestimation of the actual biomass of a taxon. Another source of uncertainty comes from conversion to biomass. Conversion from counts of individuals to biomass is based on either known average weights per individual (e.g., 50 kg of wet weight for a human, which averages over adults and children, or 10 mg of dry weight for a “characteristic” earthworm) or empirical allometric equations that are organism-specific, such as conversion from animal length to biomass. When using such conversion methods, there is a risk of introducing biases and noise into the final estimate. Nevertheless, there is often no way around using such conversions. As such, we must be aware that the data may contain such biases. In addition to describing the procedures leading to the estimate of each taxon, we quantitatively survey the main sources of uncertainty associated with each estimate and calculate an uncertainty range for each of our biomass estimates. We choose to report uncertainties as representing, to the best of our ability given the many constraints, what is equivalent to a 95% confidence interval for the estimate of the mean. Uncertainties reported in our analysis are multiplicative (fold change from the mean) and not additive (± change of the estimate). We chose to use multiplicative uncertainty as it is more robust to large fluctuations in estimates, and because it is in accord with the way we generate our best estimates, which is usually by using a geometric mean of different independent estimates. Our uncertainty projections are focused on the main kingdoms of life: plants, bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, and animals. The general framework for constructing our uncertainties (described in detail for each taxon in the SI Appendix and in the online notebooks) takes into account both intrastudy uncertainty and interstudy uncertainty. Intrastudy uncertainty refers to uncertainty estimates reported within a specific study, whereas interstudy uncertainty refers to variation in estimates of a certain quantity between different papers. In many cases, we use several independent methodologies to estimate the same quantity. In these cases, we can also use the variation between estimates from each methodology as a measure of the uncertainty of our final estimate. We refer to this type of uncertainty as intermethod uncertainty. The way we usually calculate uncertainties is by taking the logarithm of the values reported either within studies or from different studies. Taking the logarithm moves the values to log-space, where the SE is calculated (by dividing the SD by the square root of the number of values). We then multiply the SE by a factor of 1.96 (which would give the 95% confidence interval if the transformed data were normally distributed). Finally, we exponentiate the result to get the multiplicative factor in linear space that represents the confidence interval (akin to a 95% confidence interval if the data were log-normally distributed). Most of our estimates are constructed by combining several different estimates (e.g., combining total number of individuals and characteristic carbon content of a single organism). In these cases, we use intrastudy, interstudy, or intermethod variation associated with each parameter that is used to derive the final estimate and propagate these uncertainties to the final estimate of biomass. The uncertainty analysis for each specific biomass estimate incorporates different components of this general scheme, depending on the amount of information that is available, as detailed on a case-by-case basis in the SI Appendix. In cases where information is ample, the procedure described above yields several different uncertainty estimates for each parameter that we use to derive the final estimate (e.g., intrastudy uncertainty, interstudy uncertainty). We integrate these different uncertainties, usually by taking the highest value as the best projection of uncertainty. In some cases, for example, when information is scarce or some sources of uncertainty are hard to quantify, we base our estimates on the uncertainty in analogous taxa and consultation with relevant experts. We tend to round up our uncertainty projections when data are especially limited. Taxonomic Levels Used. Our census gives estimates for the global biomass at various taxonomic levels. Our main results relate to the kingdom level: animals, archaea, bacteria, fungi, plants, and protists. Although the division into kingdoms is not the most contemporary taxonomic grouping that exists, we chose to use it for the current analysis as most of the data we rely upon does not provide finer taxonomic details (e.g., the division of terrestrial protists is mainly based on morphology and not on taxonomy). We supplement these kingdoms of living organisms with an estimate for the global biomass of viruses, which are not included in the current tree of life but play a key role in global biogeochemical cycles (49). For all kingdoms except animals, all taxa making up the kingdom are considered together. For estimating the biomass of animals, we use a bottom-up approach, which estimates the biomass of key phyla constituting the animal kingdom. The sum of the biomass of these phyla represents our estimate of the total biomass of animals. We give estimates for most phyla and estimate bounds for the possible biomass contribution for the remaining phyla (SI Appendix, Other Animal Phyla). Within chordates, we provide estimates for key classes, such as fish, mammals, and birds. We estimate that the contribution of reptiles and amphibians to the total chordate biomass is negligible, as we discuss in the SI Appendix. We divide the class of mammals into wild mammals and humans plus livestock (without a contribution from poultry, which is negligible compared with cattle and pigs). Even though livestock is not a valid taxonomic division, we use it to consider the impact of humans on the total biomass of mammals. Acknowledgments We thank Shai Meiri for help with estimating the biomass of wild mammals, birds, and reptiles and Arren Bar-Even, Oded Beja, Jorg Bernhardt, Tristan Biard, Chris Bowler, Nuno Carvalhais, Otto Coredero, Gidon Eshel, Ofer Feinerman, Noah Fierer, Daniel Fisher, Avi Flamholtz, Assaf Gal, José Grünzweig, Marcel van der Heijden, Dina Hochhauser, Julie Huber, Qusheng Jin, Bo Barker Jørgensen, Jens Kallmeyer, Tamir Klein, Christian Koerner, Daniel Madar, Fabrice Not, Katherine O’Donnell, Gal Ofir, Victoria Orphan, Noam Prywes, John Raven, Dave Savage, Einat Segev, Maya Shamir, Izak Smit, Rotem Sorek, Ofer Steinitz, Miri Tsalyuk, Assaf Vardi, Colomban de Vargas, Joshua Weitz, Yossi Yovel, Yonatan Zegman, and two anonymous reviewers for productive feedback on this manuscript. This research was supported by the European Research Council (project NOVCARBFIX 646827), the Israel Science Foundation (Grant 740/16), the ISF-NRF Singapore Joint Research Program (Grant 7662712), the Beck Canadian Center for Alternative Energy Research, Dana and Yossie Hollander, the Ullmann Family Foundation, the Helmsley Charitable Foundation, the Larson Charitable Foundation, the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust, Charles Rothschild, and Selmo Nussenbaum. This study was also supported by the NIH through Grant 1R35 GM118043-01 (MIRA). R.M. is the Charles and Louise Gartner Professional Chair. Footnotes Author contributions: Y.M.B.-O., R.P., and R.M. designed research; Y.M.B.-O. and R.M. performed research; Y.M.B.-O. and R.M. analyzed data; and Y.M.B.-O., R.P., and R.M. wrote the paper. The authors declare no conflict of interest. This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. Data deposition: All of the data used to generate our estimates, as well as the code used for analysis, are available on GitHub at https://github.com/milo-lab/biomass_distribution. This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1711842115/-/DCSupplemental. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).

– A first-of-its-kind study reveals that humans make up a minuscule portion of life on the planet. As in 0.01%, reports the Guardian. The flip side of that? Despite the scant figure, humans have reshaped the animal kingdom, helping wipe out about 83% of mammals and half of all plants since civilization began, according to the comprehensive survey in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For this study, researchers weren't counting individual members of species. This is all about weight—they surveyed the Earth's biomass, meaning the carbon content in living creatures. Start with this: All life on the planet weighs about 550 gigatons, notes Science. The new study breaks down that figure, including these highlights: Plants account for an astounding 82% of the planet's biomass Bacteria make up 13%—leaving just 5% for everything else beyond plants and bacteria Fungi (think yeast, mold, and mushrooms) make up 2% Ocean life makes up a surprisingly small 1% Chicken and other poultry make up 70% of all birds on the planet; only 30% are wild Livestock (mostly cows and pigs) make up 60% of all mammals; humans account for 36% of mammals, leaving only 4% as wild "The fact that the biomass of fungi exceeds that of all animals sort of puts us in our place," says Harvard biology professor James Hanken, who wasn't part of the study, per a release at Phys.org.

While Hillary Clinton said she believes she lost the 2016 presidential race because of meddling, she also took an opportunity to rib Donald Trump. "Remember, I did win by more than 3 million votes than my opponent. So, it's like ... really?" Clinton said at the Women for Women International Luncheon in New York. When CNN's Christiane Amanpour said, "I feel a tweet coming," Clinton shrugged, "Well, fine." "If he wants to tweet about me, I'm happy to be the diversion because we've got lots of other things to worry about. He should worry less about the election and my winning the popular vote than doing some other things that would be important for the country," she said. ||||| Story highlights Clinton has two events in New York Tuesday One is a Planned Parenthood dinner New York (CNN) Hillary Clinton delivered her most forceful critique of President Donald Trump's 2016 victory on Tuesday, taking personal responsibility for her failed campaign but also pointed to the timing of a letter from FBI Director James Comey and Russian interference as factors. "If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president," she told CNN's Christiane Amanpour at a Women for Women International event in New York. "I take absolute personal responsibility. I was the candidate, I was the person who was on the ballot. I am very aware of the challenges, the problems, the shortfalls that we had," Clinton said, before adding that she was "on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey's letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me and got scared off." Clinton, who is currently writing a book that partly reflects on her 2016 loss, added, "The reason I believe we lost were the intervening events in the last 10 days." The event marks the latest where Clinton, in a stinging rebuke to Trump, both blames herself for the 2016 loss but also casts the current President as someone aided by outside factors, including the Russian government. Read More

– Hillary Clinton takes "absolute personal responsibility" for losing the 2016 presidential election, CNN reports. "Did we make mistakes? Of course we did," the Guardian quotes Clinton as saying during a Women for Women event Tuesday in New York City. "Did I make mistakes? Oh my gosh, yes." She added: “It wasn’t a perfect campaign. There is no such thing." Still, despite "a barrage of negativity, of false equivalency," Clinton says she was "on the way to winning" until James Comey's Oct. 28 letter to the FBI and "Russian WikiLeaks" frightened voters, CNBC reports. "If the election had been on Oct. 27, I would be your president," Clinton said. Those close to Clinton say she's still locked in on Russian interference during the election. The US government now says the Russian government was responsible for hacking John Podesta's emails and releasing them through WikiLeaks just hours after President Trump's damaging Access Hollywood tape broke. Clinton sees the timing as highly suspicious. Clinton added that misogyny also "played a role" in how the election turned out. Though, she pointed out she did win 3 million more votes than Trump. It doesn't appear Clinton is currently planning another run for office. "I am now back to being an activist citizen and part of the resistance," she said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 resumed in earnest on Saturday as surveillance planes returned to the skies above a newly defined search area in the southern Indian Ocean and spotted floating debris for the second day in a row, and a flotilla of vessels began arriving in the zone to find and identify the objects, the Australian authorities said. Crews on two of the ships pulled several items from the water, but investigators determined that the objects were not from the missing plane, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is overseeing the search. With several more ships en route to the zone early Sunday, the naval contingent of the multinational search force trying to locate the Boeing 777-200 was expected to reach a total of 10 vessels later in the day. A frigate from the Royal Australian Navy was also heading to the area and was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday and another Australian naval vessel was expected to set sail from Perth later Sunday, outfitted with special equipment to detect the plane’s data recorders, or black boxes, the authority said. Continue reading the main story The Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Australia announced on Friday that it had moved the search area nearly 700 miles to the northeast of an area it had been searching for about a week.Full Graphic » Possible flight paths (based on different speeds the plane may have been traveling) Search areas March 28-30 5,000 FT. AUSTRALIA 10,000 FT. 547 m.p.h. 540 m.p.h. 460 m.p.h. Perth About 1,100 miles 10,000 FT. Planned search area for March 31 10,000 FT. Search areas March 19-27 10,000 FT. INDIAN OCEAN WATER DEPTH 15,000 FT. Locations of objects spotted in aerial and satellite images over the last two weeks Possible flight paths (based on different speeds the plane may have been traveling) 547 m.p.h. 540 m.p.h. 460 m.p.h. Search areas March 28-30 AUSTRALIA About 1,100 mi. Perth Planned search area for March 31 5,000 FT. Search areas March 19-27 10,000 FT. INDIAN OCEAN DEPTH: 15,000 FT. Locations of objects spotted in aerial and satellite images over the last two weeks More maps Extreme Challenges Sorting Out the Clues Reconstructing the Path Two aircraft flying over the new search area on Saturday — one from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force and the other from the Royal Australian Air Force — spotted floating debris. Five aircraft flying over the zone on Friday also spotted unidentified objects. But officials involved in the search, mindful of the amount of detritus adrift in the world’s oceans, cautioned that the sightings were inconclusive on their own. “It is not known how much flotsam, such as from fishing activities, is ordinarily there,” the Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement. A new analysis of radar data from March 8, as Flight 370 veered off its intended route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and instead flew west over Peninsular Malaysia and then south over the Indian Ocean, compelled officials to shift the search area on Friday to a zone about 1,100 miles west of Perth. The analysis showed that the plane was moving faster than investigators had previously estimated and therefore it would have burned fuel more quickly and possibly fallen into the Indian Ocean farther north than previously believed, officials said. The new search area is about 700 miles northeast of a zone that had been the focus of search efforts for most of the week. The revision of the search area was based largely on work done by analysts from Boeing in Seattle, part of an international team of experts collaborating with Malaysian investigators, officials here said. They arrived at their conclusions after re-evaluating the radar data and weighing other factors such as the amount of fuel on the plane when it took off from Kuala Lumpur and its altitude as it headed over the south Indian Ocean, Malaysian officials added, offering no further elaboration. The new search area presents more favorable conditions for the search than the previous area, in part because it has less inclement weather and water conditions and is closer to Perth, the departure point for the search planes, officials said. It is also only a fifth of the size of the previous search area, though still large: 123,000 square miles, or 319,000 square kilometers, which is roughly the size of New Mexico or Poland. But Australian and Malaysian officials cautioned that the new zone also posed considerable challenges. “We are trying to find small bits of wreckage in a vast ocean,” said Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia. “And while we are throwing everything we have at it, the task goes on.” Continue reading the main story Advertisement As the search was underway on Saturday, Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s defense minister, stopped by a hotel near Kuala Lumpur to meet with the relatives of Chinese citizens who were aboard Flight 370. The Malaysian government has endured withering criticism by the relatives and friends of Chinese passengers, who have accused it of withholding information about the disappearance of the plane and not doing enough to find it. Speaking to reporters after the closed-door meeting, Mr. Hishammuddin said the families wanted assurances that the search-and-rescue operation would continue. “As long as there is even a remote chance of a survivor, we will pray and do whatever it takes,” he said. “This is the hardest part of my life at the moment, meeting up with the families.” The recovery of debris from Flight 370 would provide final confirmation that the plane had crashed into the ocean and offer at least partial resolution to the families and friends of the passengers and crew. It might also help solve perhaps the most enduring mystery of the plane’s disappearance: What or who caused it to veer so sharply off course? When debris is found quickly enough after a crash into the sea, investigators can trace its drift back to the impact site and conduct an underwater search to recover the plane’s black boxes. But in the case of Flight 370, any debris, if found, might well have drifted hundreds of miles in the three weeks since the plane’s disappearance and be of limited use in locating the crash site. Still, recovered items from the plane might allow investigators to rule in or out certain events that could have precipitated a crash. Scorch marks, for example, might indicate that there was a fire, and the nature of any fire damage could offer clues about its source. In the case of the crash of Air France Flight 447 in 2009, the fact that the oxygen masks had not deployed and that life vests remained in their pouches indicated that those on board had not had time to prepare for an impact. Investigators also deduced from the damage that the plane hit the water at high speed, and they were able to tell which part of the plane hit the water first. The approaching winter in the Southern Hemisphere could present serious obstacles, and some experts said that an underwater search-and-recovery mission would not be possible in the short term as weather conditions deteriorate. But while the wreckage of the plane probably rests in cold, deep waters and is unlikely to degrade significantly in the coming months, experts said, the prospect of a delay would be hard for search experts to explain to the family members and to politicians who want to demonstrate that they are doing everything possible to find out what happened. ||||| PERTH, Australia (AP) — A day after the search for the Malaysian jetliner shifted to a new area of the Indian Ocean, ships on Saturday plucked objects from the sea to determine whether they were related to the missing jet. None were confirmed to be from the plane, leaving searchers with no sign of the jet three weeks after it disappeared. Royal Australian Air Force Flight Lt. Russell Adams speaks to media at Pearce Airbase Saturday March 29, 2014 in Perth, Australia. Five search aircraft yesterday spotted possible debris in the new search... (Associated Press) Australian Air Force Group Commander Craig Heap right, speaks with Royal Malaysian Air Force mission Commander Major Jafri, as a C-130 Hercules taxies behind at RAAF Base Pearce in Perth, Australia, Saturday,... (Associated Press) In this Friday, March 28, 2014 photo released by the Australian Defence, a Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster prepares to land at RAAF Pearce Base to help with the search for the missing Malaysia... (Associated Press) In this image made from TV, released by AMSA (Australia Maritime Safety Authority), a marker flare is deployed into the Indian Ocean from a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) plane searching for debris... (Associated Press) A Royal Malaysian Air Force C-130 Hercules taxies along the tarmac at RAAF Base Pearce to to help with the search for debris or wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Perth, Australia,... (Associated Press) In this Friday, March 28, 2014 photo released by the Australian Defence, a Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster arrives to help with the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 at RAAF... (Associated Press) A photo taken off a computer monitor onboard a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion, shows an object floating in an area within the search zone of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the Southern... (Associated Press) A man, one of the relatives of Chinese passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, rests near a board covered with written wishes at a hotel in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 29, 2014. Some of the... (Associated Press) Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pilot Flight Lt. Russell Adams speaks to the media his AP-3C Orion returned from searching for debris or wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Perth,... (Associated Press) Crew onboard a Royal Malaysian Air Force C-130 Hercules unloads the aircraft after it landed at RAAF Base Pearce to to help with the search for debris or wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight... (Associated Press) Meanwhile, a Chinese military plane scanning part of the search zone, which is roughly the size of Poland, spotted several objects floating in the sea, including two bearing colors of the missing jet. It was not immediately clear whether those objects were related to the investigation into what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, and officials said the second day of searching in the new area ended with no evidence found of the jet. Dozens of relatives of passengers on the missing plane were to fly from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday to seek answers from Malaysia's government as to what happened to their loved ones. Two-thirds of the 229 passengers aboard Flight 370 were Chinese, and their relatives have expressed deep frustration with Malaysian authorities since the plane went missing. Ships from China and Australia on Saturday scooped up items described only as "objects from the ocean," but none were "confirmed to be related" to Flight 370, said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is overseeing the search. A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 plane spotted three floating objects, China's official Xinhua News Agency said, a day after several planes and ships combing the newly targeted area, which is closer to Australia than the previous search zone, saw several other objects. The three objects spotted by the Chinese plane were white, red and orange in color, the Xinhua report said. The missing Boeing 777's exterior was red, white, blue and gray. Investigators have been puzzled over what happened to Flight 370, with speculation ranging from equipment failure and a botched hijacking to terrorism or an act by one of the pilots. The latter was fueled by reports that the pilot's home flight simulator had files deleted from it, but Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said checks, including one by the FBI, had turned up no new information. "What I know is that there is nothing sinister from the simulators, but of course that will have to be confirmed by the chief of police," he said. Newly analyzed satellite data shifted the search zone on Friday, raising expectations that searchers may be closer to getting physical evidence that the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean. That would also help narrow the hunt for the wreckage and the plane's black boxes, which could contain clues to what caused the plane to be so far off-course. The U.S. Navy has already sent equipment that can detect pings from the back boxes, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters in Sydney that the equipment would be put on an Australian naval ship soon. "It will be taken to the most prospective search area and if there is good reason to deploy it, it will be deployed," he said, without giving a time frame. Other officials have said it could take days for the ship — the Ocean Shield — to reach the search area. The newly targeted zone is nearly 1,130 kilometers (700 miles) northeast of sites the searchers have crisscrossed for the past week. The redeployment came after analysts determined that the Boeing 777 may have been traveling faster than earlier estimates and would therefore have run out of fuel sooner. The new search area is closer to the southwestern Australian city of Perth than the previous one, with a flying time of 2 1/2 hours each way, allowing for five hours of search time, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Malaysia Airlines' commercial director, Hugh Dunleavy, said in Beijing late Saturday that around 40 to 45 Chinese relatives of passengers on the missing plane would fly to Kuala Lumpur early Sunday morning. Steve Wang, a representative of some of the Chinese families in Beijing, said the relatives wanted to go to Malaysia to seek more answers because they have been unsatisfied by the responses provided by Malaysian government representatives who have met them in China. "We have demanded that we meet with the prime minister and the transportation minister," said Wang Chunjiang, whose younger brother, lawyer Wang Chunyong, was on Flight 370. "We have questions that we would like to ask them in person." If investigators can determine that the plane went down in the newly targeted search zone — which spans about 319,000 square kilometers (123,000 square miles) — recovery of its flight data and cockpit voice recorders could be complicated. Much of the sea floor in the area is about 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) below the surface, but depths may reach a maximum of up to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet). The hunt for the plane focused first on the Gulf of Thailand, along the plane's planned path. But when radar data showed it had veered sharply west, the search moved to the Andaman Sea, off the western coast of Malaysia, before pivoting to the southern Indian Ocean, southwest of Australia. ___ Wong reported from Kuala Lumpur. Associated Press writers Scott McDonald and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur; Kristen Gelineau in Sydney; Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia; Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand; and Aritz Parra and Didi Tang in Beijing contributed to this report. ||||| The crucial data preserved in the so-called black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 should survive for two years or longer, even if they are submerged in the corrosive salt water of the Indian Ocean. If the black boxes — a cockpit voice recorder that captures the last two hours of the flight, and a data recorder that captures 25 hours — are recovered, technicians can put them in desalinated water to clean out the memory boards, then vacuum-dry them. The recorders can survive salt water immersion up to 20,000 feet, Joe Kolly, director of research and engineering for the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters Friday. The deepest waters of the new search zone for Flight 370 are about 13,000 feet. Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed 1:33 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog The black boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009, were recovered almost two years later, with most of the data intact. If the Malaysian plane did crash into the ocean, crews first have to find the black boxes. They emit sonic pings for roughly 30 days and after that would be much harder to find. Flight 370 disappeared three weeks ago. It has not been determined which government would analyze the black boxes from Flight 370, Kolly said. His lab does a third of its work for foreign governments, he said.

– The search for Flight 370 in its new search zone continues to produce tantalizing sightings, but no links to the plane so far. The latest comes from a Chinese military plane that spotted three suspicious objects today with colors that were at least a rough match for those of the Malaysian jet, reports AP. Australian and Chinese ships were retrieving those and other pieces of debris as quickly as possible for analysis, but it's no easy feat. "It’s an inaccessible place," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the media, reports the New York Times. "We are trying to find small bits of wreckage in a vast ocean, and while we are throwing everything we have at it, the task goes on.” NBC News, meanwhile, offers a glimmer of hope in regard to figuring out what happened: The plane's black boxes should be able to survive about two years even if submerged in salt water 20,000 feet deep, it says. The deepest part of the new search area is about 13,000 feet.

Jon Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” on the Mall Saturday has occasioned handwringing from some devoted fans who worry that he’s losing his outsider credibility, and celebration from some Democrats who hope to channel his energy to advance their electoral prospects. But Stewart is an entertainer and, just as when Glenn Beck led a rally on the mall, this rally will be all about him and his Comedy Central partner Stephen Colbert. Text Size - + reset VIDEO: Obama on Stewart VIDEO: Stewart rally announced POLITICO 44 Their flirtation with political activism carries risks — just as some believe Oprah Winfrey did real damage to her image with a heartfelt endorsement of Barack Obama. But it also carries massive opportunities for Stewart, a man positioning himself as a cultural figure as central to his generation as Johnny Carson was to an earlier, less distracted one. “It’s fantastic for the brand,” said MSNBC analyst Lawrence O’Donnell, marveling at Stewart’s ability to escape the TV section of the newspaper and generate what’s known as off-the-page publicity. “He’s a great comedian extending his work to another stage.” “He knows what he does for a living,” O’Donnell said. “He will stand up there as a comedian and leave as a comedian.” Stewart’s gambit had already proved itself out, perhaps, Wednesday night, when he scored an interview with the president of the United States, whose presence was enough to quiet grumbles from some on the left that an election-eve snark-fest made light of the real dangers of Republican control. But if he's on trial for sycophancy, Stewart appeared set on proving his independence from Obama and the White House, choosing to advance the critique from the left that Obama — who appeared, at times, chastened — had been too cautious and moderate in advancing and selling his presidency. “You ran on very high rhetoric, hope and change, and the Democrats this year seem to be running on, ‘Please baby, one more chance,’ ’’ Stewart quipped to Obama, chiding him for – if anything – a presidency too “timid” as Obama used the interview to plead with his supporters to vote. Stewart repeatedly baited Obama with his own words and his 2008 campaign message. It's " 'yes we can,' given certain conditions," Stewart said. " 'Yes we can,' ’’ Obama replied almost resignedly, “but it's not going to happen overnight." Stewart will navigate two sets of risks Saturday: He will, a handwringing legion of journalists and bloggers worry, cross the once-bright line from commentary to political participation, and find himself stranded, unable to return. And he could — television industry analysts say — alienate portions of an audience for his show that isn’t as polarized as that of the real cable news shows, with viewers divided starkly left and right. The first risk has been the subject of a great deal of prose, much of it in The Washington Post, as TBD.com’s Ryan Kearney catalogued Wednesday. Writers suggest either that Stewart is taking politics too seriously or that his supporters aren’t taking it seriously enough, and those fears are shared by some of Stewart’s most devoted aficionados. “He’s moving to a very new position — and very much runs the risk of alienating some people who liked him because he didn’t seem to be positioning himself as in the mainstream of political life,” said Geoffrey Baym, who actually studies “The Daily Show” at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Stewart, he said, is transforming himself from an “outside figure” to a “mainstream political player. ||||| In search of the surest way to reach and encourage his core constituency during the midterm elections, President Obama visited "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" Wednesday night -- a show that prides itself on never taking anything seriously but still treated him with sympathetic awe. That's how things are done now in the postmodern politiscape: Two men -- Jon Stewart and Barack Obama -- brimming with mutual regard, each of them funny in his own way, but managing to not be very funny together for the show's entire 22 minutes (plus a minute or two). Like any smart "Daily Show" guest, Obama knew the best bet was to play it straight. "This is a nice set," Obama said, looking around at the garish marble columns and other federalesque touches on the set at the Shakespeare Theatre's Sidney Harman Hall, where the show has been taping all week as a way to hype "The Daily Show's" much-buzzed-about Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, which is scheduled for Saturday afternoon on the Mall. "It reminds me of the [Democratic] convention." "We actually bought it," Stewart said. "It was in a warehouse." (MORE on 44: Watch the full Stewart-Obama interview) The laughs belonged mainly to Stewart. Poking gently at the president, Stewart wondered what we all wonder: Can the economy truly recover? Has the White House capitulated to Wall Street and other powerful interests? "Are we the people we were waiting for, or does it turn out those people are still out there?" the ever-meta Stewart joked. "I am feeling great about where the American people are, considering what we have gone through," the president answered, sticking to a list of accomplishments. When he said that Lawrence Summers, who stepped down last month as chair of the National Economic Council, has done a "heckuva" job, Stewart pounced on an obvious opportunity for comic relief. "You don't want to use that phrase, dude," Stewart said. Obama seemed resiliently cool as ever, ready-made for just about anything one can do on television, on any channel, including Stewart's fake news show. But that anything -- a surprise moment, or a difficult question, or a failed attempt at humor -- never quite arrived. It's not much fun to write reviews of "The Daily Show." Woe unto him (and a special, dismissive woe unto old-fashioned critics and op-edders) who attempts to make too much or too little out of the cultural juggernaut it has become. Nothing makes a person look more out of sync with the times than when he or she sits at a keyboard and tries, unwisely, to interpret the layers of irony, meta-irony and complicated satire that form the "The Daily Show's" basis and explain its impact and meaning. You might make a point, but you will be mocked. Serious thoughts about Saturday's gathering (which Stewart is co-hosting with his colleague Stephen Colbert of "The Colbert Report") only invite more quasi-intellectual disaster. In simplest terms, the rally will be a publicity stunt meant to promote two TV shows while harnessing the voices of disenchanted and ultra-bright moderates out there. If I read it right (and that's a big "if") Stewart and company merely wish to lampoon the bitter political divides and noxious mediasphere gases that prevent America from . . . from doing better? ||||| WASHINGTON — If you are president of the United States and you take your campaign get-out-the-vote blitz to a fake news program, do you get tweaked, or do you get a pass? You get tweaked, as President Obama discovered Wednesday, when he made his first appearance as president on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. As the host, Jon Stewart, needled him, the president declared that he never promised transformational change overnight. “You ran on very high rhetoric, hope and change, and the Democrats this year seem to be running on, ‘Please baby, one more chance,’ ” Mr. Stewart said at one point. At another, he wondered aloud whether Mr. Obama had traded the audacity of 2008 for pragmatism in 2010, offering a platform of “Yes we can, given certain conditions.” Mr. Obama paused for a moment. “I think I would say, ‘Yes we can, but —— ” Mr. Stewart, laughing, cut him off. The president pushed ahead, finishing his sentence: “But it’s not going to happen overnight.” The gentle ribbing was perhaps a price the White House was willing to pay for the opportunity to reach Mr. Stewart’s valuable audience — young people who turned out in droves for the president, but who are deeply dissatisfied with him. Mr. Obama is spending the waning days of the election season trying to motivate that crowd to get to the polls, and he closed the interview by urging them to do just that, telling Mr. Stewart he wanted to make “a plug just to vote.” Mr. Stewart, for his part, pressed the president with the standard liberal critique, accusing him of pursuing a legislative agenda that “felt timid at times” — a characterization Mr. Obama fiercely disputed. The president wound up defending his health bill, members of Congress and even members of his administration. When Mr. Stewart asked why Mr. Obama, after promising to shake things up, had brought in old Democratic hands like Lawrence H. Summers, the Clinton Treasury secretary, Mr. Obama offered what, for Mr. Summers, was perhaps an unfortunate reply. “In fairness,” he said, “Larry Summers did a heck of a job.” Late-night television has come a long way since Bill Clinton, then a presidential candidate, played his saxophone for Arsenio Hall in 1992. The lines between entertainment and news are increasingly blurred — in part because Mr. Obama has been willing to take his presidential platform to settings his predecessors might have viewed as unconventional. Mr. Obama has appeared as president on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Late Show with David Letterman”; over the summer, he dished with the doyennes of daytime television on ABC’s “The View.” (“I wanted to pick a show that Michelle actually watches,” he told them.) “The Daily Show” interview was taped in the run-up to a rally Mr. Stewart and his fellow Comedy Central host, Stephen Colbert, are hosting Saturday on the National Mall. It went longer than anticipated — so long, in fact, that the show’s producers decided to cut the original introduction Mr. Stewart taped, which featured a riff of the host fiddling with a pen and tapping his fingers as he pretended to make the president wait in the wings, and his introduction of Mr. Obama as “White House chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Austan Goolsbee’s boss.” In the interview, Mr. Obama conceded that he understands the feeling among his supporters that he has not fundamentally changed the way Washington does business. “When we promised during the campaign ‘change you can believe in,’ it wasn’t ‘change you can believe in in 18 months,’ ” he said. “It was ‘change you can believe in — but we’re going to have to work for it.’ ”

– Critics are predictably split on President Obama's much-hyped Daily Show appearance last night, but no one seems to think he single-handedly saved—or doomed—Democrats: Though Jon Stewart and Obama are both funny in their own ways, they managed "to not be very funny together for the show's entire 22 minutes," writes Hank Stuever in the Washington Post. "Obama seemed resiliently cool as ever, ready-made for just about anything one can do on television ... But that anything—a surprise moment, or a difficult question, or a failed attempt at humor—never quite arrived." Also in the Post, Dana Milbank weighs in: "As in his MTV appearance a couple of weeks ago, Obama didn't try to connect with his youthful audience. He was serious and defensive," and even had "a Brownie moment" when he insisted that "Larry Summers did a heckuva job." But at least "Obama has been willing to bring his presidential platform to settings his predecessors might have regarded as unconventional, to say the least," writes Sheryl Gay Stolberg in the New York Times, noting that "the gentle ribbing was perhaps a price the White House was willing to pay for the opportunity to reach Mr. Stewart’s valuable audience." As far as Stewart is concerned, the president's "presence was enough to quiet grumbles from some on the left that an election-eve snark-fest [Saturday's Rally to Restore Sanity] made light of the real dangers of Republican control," write Ben Smith and Byron Tau on Politico. "Stewart played a comic, not a courtier, to Obama on his set, but he also let the president appear to be in on the joke." To watch the interview, click here.

The latest: HOBOKEN - The New Jersey Transit train that crashed early Thursday killing one and injuring 108 people hit the Hoboken station at high speed, Gov. Chris Christie said. "The train came in a high rate of speed and crashed through all the barriers," Christie said during an afternoon press briefing in Hoboken. A 34-year-old woman was killed and the train engineer was injured, Christie said. The National Transportation Safety Board will serve as the lead investigative agency into the cause of the crash. "We will not speculate about the cause of the accident," Christie said at the press conference with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "The engineer is critical and cooperating with law enforcement officials." "He is at a local hospital and cooperating," Christie said. During a 5 p.m. interview on CNN, Christie said the engineer had been released from the hospital. Christie said he doesn't know exactly how fast the train was going when it struck the station, but the description of the speed was based on eyewitness accounts. The 8:45 a.m. crash sent the Hoboken station into chaos as passengers kicked through windows to escape the mangled wreckage. The person who was killed in the crash was standing on the train platform and struck by debris, Christie said. The majority of people injured were on board the train, Christie said. "The power of the train coming in is devastating at impact," Cuomo said. "We hope there is only one fatality and it stops there." There is no timeframe for resuming NJ Transit service through the Hoboken station, Christie said. The structural integrity of the building must be evaluated, he said. "We have no estimate on when the station will be reopened," Christie said. PATH service, however, is expected to begin again this afternoon, Christie said. NJ Transit has set up a Family Reunification Center at 20 Caven Point Ave., Jersey City, along with a hotline 855-336-1774 for information. Alex Wulwick, a lawyer from River Edge who has been riding New Jersey Transit to his job in Manhattan for 30 years, was in the rear of the first car, standing in front of his rear-facing seat when the crash happened. "Just all of a sudden the lights went out, and everyone was thrown forward" Wulwick said. He was thrown into his seat, but was not injured, he said. "There was a tremendous jolt, and it seemed like we were on a bit of an incline, and then we kept going," Wulwick said. "There was a horrendous sound of crashing, just a loud, scary, hard sound. It seemed like we were going for a little bit. When I got out and saw the damage, it was amazing how far the train went." Wulwick said the speed of the train seemed normal before the crash. "It didn't seem anything out of the ordinary," Wulwick said. "I'm on the train for some 30 odd years. I didn't seem like it was going faster than it should have been." In the immediate aftermath, there was "absolute panic. Screaming. Just screaming and panic." Some were trying to calm down other passengers, and someone kicked out the emergency window on the train, and passengers started to climb through. At the same time, the door of the train opened, and most people left that way, Wulwick said. He didn't see anyone seriously injured, except one man in a torn suit with a large gash to his head who seemed to be in shock. The scene inside the station was equally jarring, Wulwick said. "The ceiling was totally demolished," Wulwick said. "It was collapsed, wires all over the place." ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.

– The only person killed in Thursday's horrific New Jersey Transit train crash has been identified as Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, a 34-year-old lawyer who dropped her 18-month-old daughter off at day care before rushing to the train station where she died. "It's incredibly sad that this child won't know her mother,"a friend tells the New York Daily News. De Kroon, a Brazilian citizen who studied in Florida, had recently moved from Brazil to Hoboken because of her husband's career. She was killed by debris and another 108 people were injured when the train plowed through barriers and crashed into Hoboken Terminal during the morning rush hour. At a press conference Thursday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the train crashed through all the barriers at a high rate of speed, NJ.com reports. "We will not speculate about the cause of the accident," Christie said. "The engineer is critical and cooperating with law enforcement officials." A passenger who has been doing the same commute to Manhattan for 30 years says he was in the first car and was thrown out of his seat but not injured. "There was a horrendous sound of crashing, just a loud, scary, hard sound. It seemed like we were going for a little bit.," he says. "When I got out and saw the damage, it was amazing how far the train went." The NTSB is investigating.

“Phife and Tribe were the soundtrack of my youth,” Arum told BuzzFeed of his inspired tribute. “I was crushed when I heard the news this morning just before we went on the air. I wanted to pay tribute to him somehow, so I just decided to mix in some of his lyrics into my traffic reports.” Arum said he’s been “dropping hip hop lyrics into my reports for years,” but usually only one or two per show. “I decided to let them fly this morning.” ||||| Rapper Malik Taylor, known to fans as Phife Dawg from the critically acclaimed A Tribe Called Quest, died today after complications from diabetes. Many of hip-hop's biggest artists took to social media to pay respects to the beloved rapper. So incredibly sad to hear the Great Phife Dawg of Tribe Called Quest has passed away at only 45 yrs. GREAT MC. Sincere Love and Respect. — ⭐Jill Scott⭐ (@missjillscott) March 23, 2016 Phife-HipHop & Rap word Warrior, simple as that.Breathed it & lined rhyme into Sport.A true fire Social Narrator my bro #RIBeats ATCQforever — Chuck D (@MrChuckD) March 23, 2016 To honor the late, great rapper, a WSB-TV Atlanta traffic reporter, Mark Arum, tributed Phife Dawg’s best lyrics—skillfully weaving references into his traffic update. [Placeholder for https://www.facebook.com/wsbtv/posts/10154225148970695/ embed.] Some of the best references included: “More hits than the Braves or the Yankees” "Are things ludicrously speedy or infectious with the slow-mo?" “Track record's longer than a DC-20 aircraft” “Do that, do that, do do that that that” “Tell your mother, tell your father, send a telegram” “One for the treble, two for the bass, you know the style” And to further celebrate Phife Dawg and A Tribe Called Quest, check out the band's Beats, Rhymes, and Life doc. Screengrab via WSBTV/Facebook

– A Tribe Called Quest rapper Phife Dawg lived in Atlanta for more than a decade, and there are apparently at least a couple Quest fans at Atlanta's WSB-TV. After the rapper's death Wednesday, the station's traffic reporter, Mark Arum, worked an impressive number of Quest references into his traffic report. The video went viral and was shared by sites including the Daily Dot and BuzzFeed, who note some of the best call-outs: "This rush hour comin' on with more hits than the Braves or the Yankees." "Are things ludicrously speedy or infectious with the slow-mo?" "[Interstate-]85 is stacked and packed now, heading into midtown Atlanta with a crash south of 400—tell your mother, tell your father, send a telegram." Anchor Fred Blankenship even got in on the action, noting at one point, "Sometimes the definition of traffic comes sideways and straightways." "Phife and Tribe were the soundtrack of my youth," Arum tells BuzzFeed. "I was crushed when I heard the news this morning just before we went on the air. I wanted to pay tribute to him somehow." He says he's been inserting hip-hop lyrics into his traffic reports for years, but he really "let them fly" Wednesday—he typically only includes one or two a show. Arum and Blankenship also discussed their love for A Tribe Called Quest in a Facebook video Thursday, with Blankenship expressing his amazement that Arum "dropped deep Tribe Called Quest lyrics, and then didn't short-change the traffic."

Facebook, Inc. (Facebook) is engaged in building products to create utility for users, developers, and advertisers. People use Facebook to stay connected with their friends and family, to discover what is going on in the world around them, and to share and express what matters to them to the people they care about. Developers can use the Facebook Platform to build applications and Websites that integrate with Facebook to reach its global network of users and to build personalized and social products. Advertisers can engage with more than 900 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Facebook or subsets of its users based on information they have chosen to share with the Company, such as their age, location, gender, or interests. In September 2013, Mail.Ru Group Limited sold its remaining shares in Facebook Inc. Effective September 25, 2013, Facebook Inc acquired Mobile Technologies, a developer of online applications. In October 2013, Facebook Inc acquired Onavo Inc. ||||| Graph Search: Facebook’s Way of Keeping You Inside of Facebook (Video) At its Menlo Park headquarters on Tuesday, Facebook unveiled its take on search, the social giant’s major push into helping its users find content from within Facebook. For as big as Facebook has grown, something like this has been sorely needed. More than one billion people are on Facebook’s network, with upward of 240 billion photos and more than a trillion connections within the social graph. For anyone looking for a specific topic of information, place or person, that’s a lot of stuff to sort through. “Indexing all this content and making it so you can find it easily is a really hard problem,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. “Graph search is designed to take a precise query and return to you the precise answer.” What does that mean? Essentially, Facebook wants to make it easier for users to find stuff from within a user’s network of social connections, without having to exit the site. A search box topping the page prompts you to enter a search string that returns information relevant to your network. The thesis is this: Web search is about returning links to keywords and phrases. Google made its impact serving up the most relevant Web sites based on Page Rank. But Facebook’s Graph Search is built on the idea that you’re better served by finding content that’s been shared within Facebook. It’s your network of social connections, after all, and the philosophy is that you’d rather see things from that network. The search paramaters are all about the stuff that circulates inside of Facebook — namely, content. Games, videos, pictures and people. Enter a phrase like, “games my friends play,” and you’ll get a list of content spit back out at you based on the connections that you’ve already made within Facebook. Sound familiar? That’s because it is — Google is trying to do this exact same thing with Search Plus Your World. The way that Google+ works, if you or your friends +1 content on Google+, it’ll show up within your Google search results. The idea is, adding that social element into the mix makes users more apt to click on the content. But Google’s problem is that Google+ isn’t as widely adopted or used as much as Facebook is. Facebook has the one-billion-strong network of users to suggest content to one another. This also bodes ill for companies like Yelp, Foursquare and even the small startup Path, all of which aim to serve up recommendations to users based on their history of ratings, “Likes,” visits, etc. That’s problematic for these smaller companies, all of which work on vastly smaller data sets than Facebook’s gigantic network. Looking for something that isn’t on Facebook? There’s an answer to that, too. Facebook has partnered with Microsoft’s Bing search engine to serve up any Web content that isn’t shared within the social network. Yet another slap in the face to Google there. But ultimately that isn’t Facebook’s goal. Facebook wants to keep users inside Facebook to find things. The more stuff we share, use and look for inside of Facebook, the less often we’ll have to leave the network. Good luck with that, Mark. ||||| Bloomberg News Facebook is holding an event at 1 p.m. ET to unveil something new at its Menlo Park campus. It issued an invitation for the mystery event last week, which offered no clues other than to say: “Come see what we’re building.” This press conference could be held for any number of reasons — it could be some kind of new product launch or a redesign of a popular component of Facebook. Many tech pundits are reporting that it could be a new search feature. WSJ reporter Evelyn Rusli will be reporting live from the event.

– Facebook held a major press event today, but kept the media guessing about what it would be unveiling. The answer was what Mark Zuckerberg described as the "third pillar" of Facebook: Graph Search. Basically, the idea is to allow people to search for people, places, and things to do through their networks, the official announcement explains. For example, if you were trying to set up a Game of Thrones viewing party, you might search for "friends in [your town] who like Game of Thrones." Going out? Search "movies my friends like." Dating? Search "friends of friends in [your town] who are single." The system will be "privacy aware," Zuckerberg said, so "you can only search for content that has been shared with you." It will also integrate Bing results, broadening the kind of information it can find—though at one point Zuckerberg added that he "would love to work with Google." The system is being rolled out as a limited beta release starting today. Right now, Zuckerberg says there are no plans to monetize the feature, though he said it "could potentially be a business over time." Some instant reactions: Farhad Manjoo: "This is the most natural-language search I've ever seen. It's a completely different paradigm from searching Google. Phrases, not keywords." Mike Isaac: "Google built web search first, then tried to slap Google+ on top of it for personalization. Facebook taking the backwards approach." (See more from Isaac here.) Henry Blodget: "I don't see how Facebook cashes in with this thing. Search could coin it for them. This, as executed, is just another feature." The stock market: Shortly after the rollout, Facebook's stock was down 2%, according to the Wall Street Journal.

1/43 Designed by Pierpaolo Lazzarini from Italian company Jet Capsule. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. Jet Capsule/Cover Images 2/43 A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Images 3/43 A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Images 4/43 Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images 5/43 Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images 6/43 The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images 7/43 Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images 8/43 Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex 9/43 Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex 10/43 A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters 11/43 A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters 12/43 A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex 13/43 A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters 14/43 A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters 15/43 A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty 16/43 A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty 17/43 Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S Reuters 18/43 The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. This is a production preview of the Jaguar I-PACE, which will be revealed next year and on the road in 2018 AP 19/43 Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Reuters 20/43 Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03' Reuters 21/43 Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Reuters 22/43 Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Reuters 23/43 The interior of Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Reuters 24/43 Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 Reuters 25/43 A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Reuters 26/43 Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo. The Connected company is a part of seven Toyota in-house companies that was created in April 2016 Getty 27/43 A Toyota Motors employee demonstrates a smartphone app with the company's pocket plug-in hybrid (PHV) service on the cockpit of the latest Prius hybrid vehicle during Toyota's "connected strategy" press briefing in Tokyo Getty 28/43 An exhibitor charges the battery cells of AnyWalker, an ultra-mobile chasis robot which is able to move in any kind of environment during Singapore International Robo Expo Getty 29/43 A robot with a touch-screen information apps stroll down the pavillon at the Singapore International Robo Expo Getty 30/43 An exhibitor demonstrates the AnyWalker, an ultra-mobile chasis robot which is able to move in any kind of environment during Singapore International Robo Expo Getty 31/43 Robotic fishes swim in a water glass tank displayed at the Korea pavillon during Singapore International Robo Expo Getty 32/43 An employee shows a Samsung Electronics' Gear S3 Classic during Korea Electronics Show 2016 in Seoul, South Korea Reuters 33/43 Visitors experience Samsung Electronics' Gear VR during the Korea Electronics Grand Fair at an exhibition hall in Seoul, South Korea Getty 34/43 Amy Rimmer, Research Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, demonstrates the car manufacturer's Advanced Highway Assist in a Range Rover, which drives the vehicle, overtakes and can detect vehicles in the blind spot, during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire PA wire 35/43 Chris Burbridge, Autonomous Driving Software Engineer for Tata Motors European Technical Centre, demonstrates the car manufacturer's GLOSA V2X functionality, which is connected to the traffic lights and shares information with the driver, during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire PA wire 36/43 Ford EEBL Emergency Electronic Brake Lights is demonstrated during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire PA 37/43 Full-scale model of 'Kibo' on display at the Space Dome exhibition hall of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Center, in Tsukuba, north-east of Tokyo, Japan EPA 38/43 Miniatures on display at the Space Dome exhibition hall of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Center, in Tsukuba, north-east of Tokyo, Japan. In its facilities, JAXA develop satellites and analyse their observation data, train astronauts for utilization in the Japanese Experiment Module 'Kibo' of the International Space Station (ISS) and develop launch vehicles EPA 39/43 The robot developed by Seed Solutions sings and dances to the music during the Japan Robot Week 2016 at Tokyo Big Sight. At this biennial event, the participating companies exhibit their latest service robotic technologies and components Getty 40/43 The robot developed by Seed Solutions sings and dances to music during the Japan Robot Week 2016 at Tokyo Big Sight Getty 41/43 Government and industry are working together on a robot-like autopilot system that could eliminate the need for a second human pilot in the cockpit AP 42/43 Aurora Flight Sciences' technicians work on an Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automantion System (ALIAS) device in the firm's Centaur aircraft at Manassas Airport in Manassas, Va. AP ||||| An Algerian court sentenced a man who dangled his baby cousin out of a 15th-floor window in the capital Algiers to two years in prison on Monday. The defendant posted on Facebook a photo of him dangling the baby out of a window with the caption, “1000 likes or I will drop him.” The child appeared to be in a state of fear and bewilderment. After watching the video, many Facebook users demanded that the man be tried on child abuse charges. The defendant carried out the horrific act allegedly to gain a high number of views and likes on the social media site. He alleges, however, that the picture was photoshopped. Speaking to Algeria's Ennahar news site, the man said that the balcony had protective bars that were removed by Facebook users in the viral image. The court was not convinced by the man's explanation. Last Update: Wednesday, 21 June 2017 KSA 09:59 - GMT 06:59

– A man in Algeria apparently picked a terrible way to get attention on social media—and now he'll pay for it in prison. On Monday an Algerian court sentenced the unnamed man to two years after he posted to Facebook a photo of himself dangling a baby out of a 15th-story window in an attempt to get "likes," reports Al Arabiya English. The photo shows the baby being held by a single hand outside the apartment building in the capital city of Algiers over the caption "1000 likes or I will drop him." The BBC reports that other social media users quickly denounced the photo, and police charged the man with endangering the life of a child when they arrested him on Sunday. The man, who is a cousin of the baby's, swears the whole thing was a misunderstanding. The Independent reports he told Algeria's Ennahar TV the photo was manipulated by Facebook users to make it look worse than it actually was, claiming the "protective barriers" that were present were digitally removed. The boy's father also said he believed the man was just being playful and asked the court for mercy. Last week another man was jailed over photos shared to Facebook.

As Americans carefully separate the paper and plastics from their trash, most probably don’t realize that their country doesn’t recycle stuff so much as export it to be recycled elsewhere. Specifically, to China. For more than five years, scrap and trash has consistently been the US’s biggest export (paywall), for which China is the number one customer, and the market has doubled in size since 2006. “The public doesn’t realize this, but recycling is made possible by technology and markets—they think it’s just a matter of technology,” an industry insider with expertise in China’s waste management told Quartz. “And we don’t have strong enough markets in the US.” But hints are emerging that American cities and the companies that sell trash are in for a rude awakening. A recent sign of this comes from Oregon, where truckloads of plastic are piling up at recycling depots because Chinese buyers cancelled their orders, as Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. And it’s not just plastic from Oregon. American waste recycling companies are starting to panic. “What I’m hearing from folks in the industry, it’s that just that nothing is going,” the industry insider says. “[China’s] not taking anything anymore. It’s a greenwall.” What’s going on is this: the Chinese government just launched Operation Green Fence, forbidding the import of certain types of solid waste, including unwashed plastics and other illegal waste mixed in with the good stuff. This is a problem for the US because China is the primary source of demand for its to-be-recycled plastic exports (pdf): Resource Recycling, Portland OR China’s share of US exports of plastics for recycling. PE—polyethylene; PS—polystyrene; PVC—polyvinyl chloride; PET—polyethylene terephthalate Of course, you can’t always tell how serious a Chinese government ban will be, and it’s not even clear why China would come down so aggressively. Despite its “trash mountain” woes, it actually needs the plastic resin for manufacturing. Regardless, Green Fence looks like the real deal. Chinese ports have turned away “foreign garbage” by the hundreds upon thousands of tons (links in Chinese). “If China customs found a syringe, even if it’s just one, in a bale of plastic, it’s considered medical waste and the whole shipment would get rejected,” Peter Wang, CEO of recycling exporter America Chung Nam said at a conference recently. The US’s reliance on China to buy up its plastic trash has meant that it’s neglected to keep developing its own plastic recycling capacity, as you can see: Resource Recycling, Portland OR New PE recycling plants opened by region. The drop-off in Chinese demand, and the lack of immediately accessible alternatives, could hit American cities hard, says Quartz’s contact in the industry. “Cities are going to have a huge problem on their hands because they don’t know what to do with this stuff,” she says. “They have made commitments saying it’s recycled—but they didn’t say how or where.” Not that the US couldn’t open new plants. But sorting trash to be recycled is labor-intensive, and therefore expensive. (The US’s failure to sort it properly is why China is turning US trash away.) And while optical sorters exist, those are expensive too. And either will raise costs for US cities. ||||| Oregon recyclers have stopped accepting certain kinds of plastic because China has stopped buying them. Chinese recyclers are no longer buying plastic items with the numbers 3, 6 or 7 on them, and inspectors are checking for and rejecting shipments of mixed plastics from overseas. The list of plastics China no longer wants includes disposable coffee cup lids, PVC pipes, certain kinds of clamshell containers, and garden planters with flexible walls, to name a few. The restrictions have left recycling companies across U.S. without buyers for many of the plastics they have traditionally accepted. They don’t affect curbside recycling items like milk jugs and yogurt tubs, but they are limiting which miscellaneous plastics recycling depots will accept. Far West Fibers president Keith Ristau said 50 trucks worth of mixed plastic from his company’s recycling depots has piled up after orders from China were canceled. It will need to be re-sorted into individual types of plastic before it can be sold, as will the plastics are now being collected at recycling depots. “We used to have just one big bin at our depots, and you threw all the plastics in there, and we just baled it and shipped it to China,” he said. “Now we have to sort it by the specific resin, so we have four or five bins instead of one.” Far West Fibers and other Portland-area recyclers are meeting with officials at Metro next week to find new buyers for the recyclable plastics China won’t take. Metro recycling manager Andy Sloop said there are still good markets for the kinds of plastics accepted in curbside recycling programs. “What’s mostly at issue is low-grade, mixed, rigid plastics that aren’t supposed to go into curbside bins,” he said. “It’s things like lids and toys and swimming pools. It’s not plastic soda bottles or milk jugs.” More From Ecotrope ||||| Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. 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– If your local recycler starts turning away your cans and bottles in the near future, blame China. Beijing has stopped accepting certain shipments of recycled plastic from the US, reports Quartz. (It reportedly will no longer welcome unwashed plastics and improperly sorted shipments; other reports say items like coffee cup lids and PVC pipes are on the no-no list.) This, it turns out, is a huge deal because trash has for years been one of the top American exports to China, explains the Washington Post. If China won't buy it anymore, US cities and recycling companies will be scrambling for alternatives. In fact, that's already happening, reports Oregon Public Broadcasting, which talks to one company that has 50 trucks' worth of plastic sitting around thanks to canceled China orders. One sliver of hope is that China genuinely needs this stuff for its manufacturing industry, so it's possible that business interests will pressure the government into relaxing the new "Operation Green Fence" initiative. Failing that, the US will either need to start recycling more of its own trash or find new buyers. Might we suggest Oslo?

Dr. William Strampel, the former boss of Larry Nassar at Michigan State University, has been arrested. Strampel, 70, is listed as an inmate in Ingham County jail, according to an inmate search on the county's website. No charges are listed. MSU spokeswoman Emily Gerkin Guerrant confirmed Strampel had been arrested, but could provide no other details. Michigan State Police directed calls to the attorney general's office, where a spokesperson did not confirm the arrest. Strampel, the former dean of the MSU's College of Osteopathic Medicine, is facing revocation of his tenure by interim MSU President John Engler, the first step in terminating his employment. The move is in response to Strampel's failure to monitor and enforce clinical practice guidelines put in place for Nassar following a 2014 sexual harassment investigation. His arrest comes the day before a press conference from Bill Forsyth, an investigator hired by Michigan's Attorney General Bill Schuette to investigate MSU's handling of the Nassar scandal. Nassar, a prominent sports medicine doctor at the university, is in prison for possession of child pornography charges and was sentenced on charges that he sexually assaulted multiple women, often under the guise of medical treatment. More than 150 women and girls, including Olympic gymnasts, spoke at Nassar's sentencing hearings in Ingham and Eaton counties, saying he sexually assaulted them - the vast majority patients. Larry Nassar sentenced to 40 to 175 years for sexually assaulting patients Many said they had told coaches, trainers and even police about the assaults, but nothing was done. It was Strampel who, after a 2014 Title IX complaint and police report lodged by Amanda Thomashow, sent an email putting Nassar back to work with a series of conditions, including having another person in the room when he was performing procedures in sensitive areas and using gloves. According to statements from Nassar's more direct supervisors in a March 2017 police report, Strampel did not make Nassar's colleagues aware of the conditions. After Strampel put Nassar back in place, 20 more women say they were molested by him. In all the university employed Nassar for almost two years while he was under investigation by other authorities. ||||| The former boss of convicted sexual abuser Larry Nassar was arrested Monday in Michigan. William Strampel, who served as the dean of Michigan State's osteopathic medical school for most of Nassar's time with the university, was listed as an inmate at Ingham County Jail on Monday night. No specific charges were posted Monday night, and a message left with a spokesman for the state police was not immediately returned. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon. Attorney John C. Manly, who represents more than 150 survivors of Nassar's abuse, issued a statement Monday. "Our clients are encouraged by the Attorney General's action today," Manly said in the statement. "It demonstrates that he is serious about investigating the systemic misconduct at MSU that led to the largest child sex abuse scandal in history and holding the responsible parties accountable." ESPN has obtained copies of former university-conducted performance reviews for Strampel during his time as Michigan State's dean that contained several complaints about his habit of making inappropriate remarks of a sexual nature in professional settings. The reviews include surveys in which respondents paint a picture of Strampel as a capable fundraiser and decisive administrator, but someone who "rules with fear" and regularly interjected sexual innuendo and comments about the appearance of women into conversations with students and co-workers. According to one respondent, Strampel's discussions about his own sexual history and inappropriate comments were "well known and bring down the respect and reputation of the Osteopathic college. I do not think this is a new issue, instead I think it is something that the College has chosen to ignore, for what reason I dare not imagine and cannot fathom." Strampel was a focal point for the attorney general's ongoing investigation into whether any other individuals who worked at Michigan State should be held accountable for allowing Nassar to sexually abuse his patients for nearly two decades as a doctor on the university's campus. Strampel stepped down from his role as dean last December citing medical problems. The university took initial steps in February to have him fired, a process that can take several months or longer. "Interim President John Engler has felt like this is someone who doesn't carry forth the values of the university going forward, and this conduct is not going to be tolerated," university spokeswoman Emily Guerrant said Monday night. Nassar pleaded guilty to state charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct as well as federal child pornography charges. He admitted in court that he used his position as a prominent doctor at Michigan State and within the USA Gymnastics organization to abuse women who came to see him for injuries. Nassar is serving a 60-year sentence for his federal crimes and was sentenced to up to 175 years in state prison for the sexual assault crimes. Strampel came to Michigan State in the late 1990s and was promoted to his position as dean in 2002. He told police last spring that he had little or no interaction with Nassar before 2014, when a recently graduated student lodged a complaint that Nassar touched her inappropriately during an appointment at the MSU Sports Medicine clinic. That complaint, filed by Amanda Thomashow, led to an investigation into Nassar's conduct by university police and the school's Title IX department. Michigan State's Title IX office cleared Nassar of wrongdoing in the summer of 2014, telling Thomashow that she didn't understand the "nuanced difference" between sexual assault and a legitimate medical procedure. The panel of four experts that helped the office reach that conclusion included Nassar's colleagues and one woman described as his protégé and close friend. Strampel told police that he believed the Title IX decision showed Nassar was "cleared of all charges," so he allowed him to resume seeing patients on Michigan State's campus in late July 2014. Nassar remained under police investigation for the same incident until December 2015. Several women say they were abused by Nassar during that time frame. When he returned to the clinic in 2014, Nassar and Strampel agreed to a new set of guidelines to use when he was treating patients in sensitive areas. The guidelines included that Nassar should explain fully what he was doing before touching patients near their genitalia or other private areas, that he should avoid skin-to-skin contact whenever possible, and that a chaperone should be present during any such treatment. Strampel told police he didn't think it was necessary to follow up to make sure Nassar was following the protocol, and he did not inform other employees at the clinic about the new rules. Strampel fired Nassar in September 2016 when he learned that Nassar had been ignoring those guidelines for two years. More than a dozen women and girls say they were abused during that time. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Strampel told a group of medical school students in 2016 that he did not believe the accusations against Nassar. In a written statement obtained by ESPN, one of the students present at that meeting said Strampel told the students -- who were there to discuss a separate sexual assault issue concerning their classmates -- that he did not want to fire Nassar, but felt he had no choice. Several survivors of Nassar's abuse have criticized Strampel for what they say was a flippant and insensitive response to more accusations against Nassar in 2016. Less than a month before Nassar was fired, Rachael Denhollander filed a police report alleging that the former doctor abused her. She also spoke to reporters from the Indianapolis Star for a story that would make her the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual assault. Nassar alerted Strampel that reporters wanted to speak with him about the story. Strampel wished him luck and in an email told him, "I am on your side." After the article was published, Strampel shared it with others at Michigan State, referring to Denhollander's claims as "the cherry on the cake of my day." "Is this the right way to handle disclosures of abuse on MSU's campus?" Denhollander asked during an impact statement she delivered in court last month. The attorney general's office requested Strampel's work cellphone, computer and calendars among other documents, shortly after beginning its investigation of the university two months ago. Strampel is also a co-defendant in dozens of civil lawsuits related to Nassar's abuse. Strampel's attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but have previously declined requests for comment about his actions, saying that the firm does not comment on ongoing civil litigation.

– For the bulk of the time Larry Nassar worked for Michigan State University's osteopathic medical school, William Strampel was the dean of that school. Now, another shared experience for the men: Strampel, 70, was arrested Monday on charges that have not yet been made public. A press conference is scheduled for noon Tuesday, reports the Lansing State Journal. The attorney who represents scores of women who are suing MSU praised the Attorney General's action, saying "it demonstrates that he is serious about investigating the systemic misconduct at MSU that led to the largest child sex abuse scandal in history." Strampel stepped down in December citing medical issues; two months later the school initiated the process of firing him. ESPN details alleged grievances about Strampel that are unrelated to Nassar—per MSU performance reviews it viewed, he was accused of regularly making sex-related remarks—and also documents his timeline with Nassar. Though Strampel became dean in 2002, he says his only true interaction with Nassar began after a complaint was lodged against the doctor in 2014. No wrongdoing was uncovered by Michigan State's Title IX office, and so Strampel reinstated Nassar so long as he followed a new protocol that included stipulations like having a chaperone present during any treatment that occurred near a young patient's genitalia. Strampel says he did not verify Nassar was adhering to the rules, and fired him in 2016 after learning he wasn't. MLive reports 20 women accused Nassar of abusing them during that period.

A British woman who fell from a cruise ship sang to stay alive while she spent 10 hours in the Adriatic Sea, her rescuers said. The passenger, named as Kay Longstaff, was taken to hospital in the city of Pula and said she feels "very lucky" to have been rescued. She fell from an aft deck of the Norwegian Star cruise ship about 60 miles (95km) off Croatia's coast late on Saturday night. A Croatian rescue ship was scrambled and found her swimming not far from where Ms Longstaff was believed to have fallen. Image: She told how she spent 10 hours in the sea after falling off the back of the ship. Pic: MORH/Coast Guard "Luckily for her we saw her immediately because she raised and waved her hands when she saw us," said the vessel's captain Lovro Oreskovic. Mr Oreskovic added that she told the crew that she practices yoga and sang while floating to stay awake, but was exhausted when she was found. "It is a real miracle that she is alive," Mr Oreskovic said. "On the cruiser ship they thought she is not. It's obvious that she's very fit." Image: Kay Longstaff said she felt lucky to have survived The 46-year-old, understood to be from Brighton, gave an interview to the Croatia news service HRT saying she felt "very lucky" to have survived. "I was in the water for 10 hours, so these wonderful guys rescued me," she said. "I am very lucky to be alive. I was sitting at the back of the deck." Mr Oreskovic said she fell from the back of the Norwegian Star cruise ship that was sailing towards Venice, Italy, shortly before midnight on Sunday. The ship launched a search mission in the area of her fall, but could not find her. Image: She used to work as an air steward She was eventually rescued 10 hours later by the Croatian coast guard and taken to a hospital for a 24-hour examination. Hospital director Irena Hristic said Ms Longstaff has suffered stress but was in good health overall. "The woman looks young, healthy and is a sports person," Ms Hristic said. "She said she swam all the time and was conscious." David Radas, a spokesman at Croatia's ministry of maritime affairs, said that by checking CCTV, rescuers knew the exact moment she fell in the water. Image: Kay Longstaff leaves a rescue ship after being saved from the water "Because they knew the time, they were able to know the exact position of the ship," he told The Sun. A Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson said: "In the morning of 19 August, a guest went overboard as Norwegian Star made her way to Venice. "The Coast Guard was notified and a search and rescue operation ensued. "We are pleased to advise that the guest was found alive, is currently in stable condition, and has been taken ashore in Croatia for further treatment. "We are very happy that the individual, who is a UK resident, is now safe and will soon be reunited with friends and family." Image: Ms Longstaff fell from the Norwegian Star cruise ship. Pic: Norwegian Cruise Line The circumstances of the incident are being investigated and the British embassy in Croatia has been informed. Dolores Brenko Skerjanc of the Croatian port authority said that the Adriatic Sea is warm in the summer and could have contributed to Ms Longstaff's survival. "She spent a lot of time in the water, but the sea is now quite warm and the chances for survival are better," he told state broadcaster HRT. ||||| Woman taken to hospital in Pula, Croatia, after being found in sea A British woman has been rescued after spending 10 hours in the Adriatic Sea at night, having fallen from a cruise ship, according to Croatia’s coastguard. The 46-year-old, who gave her name as Kay to local media and was later named Kay Longstaff in UK reports, was taken to hospital in Pula, Croatia, and is understood to be out of danger. It is understood she fell from the Norwegian Star cruise ship about 60 miles (100km) off Croatia’s coast shortly before midnight on Saturday as the vessel was making its way from the port of Vergarola to Venice in Italy. Kay Longstaff. Photograph: Kay Longstaff/Facebook The liner raised the alarm and was joined by coastguard and civilian vessels, plus a PC-9 aircraft, at about 6.30am on Sunday. The woman was spotted at 9.40am and reached by a rescue swimmer from a patrol boat minutes later, Croatian media reported, saying she was about 1.3km away from the spot where she fell in. The rescued passenger told the Croatian news channel HRT: “I am very lucky to be alive. ... I fell off the back of the Norwegian Star and I was in the water for 10 hours, so these wonderful guys rescued me. “I was sitting at the back of the deck and, yeah ... it was bad,” she said before being taken into an ambulance. An unnamed rescuer told the Sun: “She said the fact that she practises yoga helped her as she was fit. And she said she was singing to not feel cold in the sea overnight.” David Radas, a spokesman for the Croatian ministry of maritime affairs, said that by checking CCTV rescuers knew the exact moment Longstaff fell in the water. “Because they knew the time, they were able to know the exact position of the ship,” he told the Sun. The rescue ship’s captain, Lovro Orešković, said the woman was exhausted, adding: “We were extremely happy for saving a human life.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Longstaff after her rescue. Photograph: MORH/Coast guard A Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson said: “On the morning of 19 August a guest went overboard as Norwegian Star made her way to Venice. The coastguard was notified and a search and rescue operation ensued. “We are pleased to advise that the guest was found alive, is currently in stable condition and has been taken ashore in Croatia for further treatment. We are very happy that the individual, who is a UK resident, is now safe and will soon be reunited with friends and family.” The circumstances of the incident are being investigated and the British embassy in Croatia has been informed. Facebook Twitter Pinterest British woman being rescued from the sea. Photograph: MORH/Coast guard It comes weeks after a cruise ship worker fell overboard while travelling on the Norwegian Getaway – also run by Norwegian Cruise Line – in the Gulf of Mexico. The 33-year-old man, believed to be from the Philippines, was rescued 22 hours later after being found 26 miles (42km) outside the coastguard search zone in July. A search was called off in May after an 80-year-old Australian man fell off the Sun Princess cruise ship while journeying from Indonesia to Malaysia.

– A woman on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship got way more exposure to the ocean than she intended, but lived to tell the tale. The 46-year-old British passenger fell off the back of the Norwegian Star ship about 60 miles off the coast of Croatia around midnight Saturday, reports the Guardian. The woman, identified only as Kay, managed to stay afloat for 10 hours in the Adriatic Sea, long enough to be rescued by a Croatian cruise ship that scrambled into action upon getting a coast guard alert, per Sky News. “I am very lucky to be alive," the smiling woman told a Croatian news channel before leaving in an ambulance. "These wonderful guys rescued me." The woman said she "was sitting at the back of the deck," but it's not clear yet exactly how she fell in. She was listed in stable condition and expected to be fine. Norwegian has launched an investigation into the incident. The rescue comes just weeks after a man fell off a different ship operated by Norwegian Cruise Line, and he managed to survive nearly a full day in the water before being rescued.

October 13, 2011 at 2:58 pm by Google engineer Steve Yegge may think some things are messed up at Google. But the search giant continues to deliver, with the company announcing today that net income for the third quarter blew by analysts estimates to $2.73 billion on net revenue of $7.51 billion. The stock is surging in after hours trading as a result, jumping more than six percent to $595. CEO Larry Page said in a release that it was a “great quarter,” and stock analyst Colin Gillis told CNBC that “Christmas came early for Google shareholders.” Page also touted the growth of Google +, the new social networking service that was the partial subject of Yegge’s widely-read rant. There are now more than 40 million people on Google+, with Page saying the numbers are growing rapidly. The report comes amid big changes at Google, including its plan to gobble up Motorola Mobility. But, despite the changes and big moves in mobile, Google is still very much a search advertising-based business. The company reported a 33 percent year-over-year revenue increase to $9.72 billion, largely on back of its advertising revenues. At the end of September, Google — which employs about 1,000 people in the Seattle area — employed 31,353 wordlwide. That was up from 28,768 at the end of June. No wonder the company is expanding its real estate in the Seattle area. Full earnings release can be found here. And here’s a look at the slide deck that Google shared with investors today. google_earnings_slides ||||| Image caption Google boss Larry Page said the company had "a great quarter" Internet giant Google has reported a large rise in profits in the three months to September. The search engine said net income in the third quarter surged 26% to $2.73bn (£1.74bn), up from $2.17bn in the same period last year. Earlier this year, Google launched Google+, a social network to take on Facebook. "People are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate," said Google head Larry Page. The profits were well ahead of market expectations, and shares in the company rose 6% in trading after the market closed. "The real interesting thing here is the expenses weren't as high as the Street was anticipating," said UBS analyst Brian Pitz. "This is the fourth quarter in a row the company has accelerated their revenue on top line." Revenue rose 33% to $9.72bn - just shy of having a quarterly turnover of $10bn. Mr Page, a co-founder of the company, replaced Eric Schmidt as CEO in April. "We had a great quarter," he said. "Google+ is now open to everyone and we just passed the 40 million-user mark." Facebook, around since 2004, has around 800 million users. As well as generating money through advertising based on search, Google also makes the popular Android mobile phone operating system. ||||| Bloomberg News Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is auditing how Google Inc. avoided federal income taxes by shifting profit into offshore subsidiaries, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The agency is bringing more than typical scrutiny to how the company valued software rights and other intellectual property it licensed abroad, said the person, who requested anonymity because the audit isn’t public. The IRS has requested information from Google about its offshore deals after three acquisitions, including its $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube, the person said. The transfer overseas of these kinds of rights rights has enabled Google to attribute earnings to foreign units that pay lower taxes, Bloomberg News reported a year ago. While Google’s potential liability isn’t clear, similar deals between companies and offshore arms are often the subject of disputes over hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, said Daniel Frisch, an economist at Horst Frisch Inc. which advises businesses on transfer pricing -- the allocation of income between units in different countries. In 2006, the IRS settled a case with drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc for $3.4 billion. “The very biggest transfer-pricing tax disputes are over transfers of intangibles to offshore subsidiaries,” said Frisch, whose firm is based in Washington. Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, has cut its worldwide tax bill by about $1 billion a year using a pair of strategies called the “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich,” which move profits through units in Ireland, the Netherlands and Bermuda. Google reported an effective tax rate of 18.8 percent in the second quarter, less than half the average combined U.S. and state statutory rate of 39.2 percent. Tax Holiday “This is a routine inquiry,” said Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google. He declined to comment further. Dean Patterson, a spokesman for the IRS in Washington, said federal law prohibits the agency from discussing specific taxpayers. U.S. companies are sitting on at least $1.375 trillion in earnings in their foreign subsidiaries on which they have paid no federal income taxes, according to a May report by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Companies including Google, Cisco Systems Inc., Pfizer Inc., Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are lobbying Congress for a tax holiday on bringing home those profits, which would otherwise be subject to U.S. income tax at the 35 percent corporate rate with a credit for foreign taxes already paid. The Obama administration is opposed to that tax break and has been stepping up criticism of tax preferences for various industries and millionaires. Last week, Senate Democrats proposed a new surtax on people earning at least $1 million a year, a move that would generate an estimated $453 billion over the coming decade. France Probe The French tax authority also began reviewing Google’s income shifting in December, examining transactions between the company’s French and Irish subsidiaries, according to two people with knowledge of the probe. The French inquiry was prompted by the October 2010 Bloomberg article on the company’s tax-cutting strategy, the people said. A spokesman for the French budget ministry, which oversees the tax authority, declined to comment, saying the agency cannot discuss individual cases. Multinational companies cut their tax bills by shifting earnings into subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, a strategy that is drawing increased scrutiny from the IRS. In May, the IRS appointed its first transfer-pricing director, Samuel Maruca. Last year, it announced the assignment of additional agents and attorneys to examine a few large companies as part of a pilot program. The IRS wouldn’t discuss whether Google is one of those companies. Valuable Patents Moving profit abroad is particularly important for cutting the tax bills of technology and pharmaceutical companies because of their valuable and easily transportable collection of patents and copyrights. Google, Cisco, Facebook Inc., Microsoft and Forest Laboratories Inc., maker of the blockbuster antidepressant Lexapro, have used tax-cutting strategies that move profits into units -- often with no employees or offices -- in havens such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, Bloomberg has reported. In recent years, the IRS has engaged in a number of high profile disagreements with multinational companies over their transfer pricing. In 2006, the agency announced it was settling its dispute with GlaxoSmithKline. In 2009, the IRS lost a closely watched U.S. Tax Court case with Veritas, now a part of computer-security software maker Symantec Corp. In that dispute, over intellectual property rights moved to an offshore subsidiary, the IRS sought $545 million. Enforcement Setback The win for Veritas was a major setback for the IRS’s ability to enforce transfer-pricing rules, according to H. David Rosenbloom, an attorney at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, and director of the International Tax program at New York University School of Law. Income shifting by multinational companies cost the U.S. $90 billion in federal tax revenue during 2008, according to a March article in the trade journal Tax Notes by Kimberly Clausing, an economics professor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Google cuts its tax bill by about $1 billion a year using a technique that allocates profits to a unit managed out of a law firm in Bermuda, where there is no corporate income tax. In 2009, the most recent year for which records are available, this subsidiary collected 4.34 billion euros (about $6.1 billion) in royalties from a Google unit in the Netherlands, according to a Dutch corporate filing. As of June 30, Google held $18.8 billion in cash in its foreign subsidiaries, almost half its total $39.1 billion in cash and marketable securities. ‘Buy In’ The IRS has already approved a major part of Google’s strategy. In 2006, the agency signed off on a 2003 intracompany transaction that moved foreign rights to its search technology to an Irish subsidiary managed in Bermuda called Google Ireland Holdings. That deal -- known as a “buy in” in tax parlance -- meant subsequent profit overseas based on those copyrights has been attributed to foreign subsidiaries rather than to Google in the U.S. where the technology was developed. The IRS approval came in an accord known as an advance pricing agreement. Those arrangements are part of an agency program intended to forestall disputes with companies, including disagreements over the price paid by offshore units for patent and other intellectual property rights. Google Acquisitions That deal between the IRS and Google only covered rights the company held as of the 2003 licensing deal with its Irish unit. It didn’t cover copyrights subsequently acquired by the U.S. parent and then moved abroad. Following that 2003 transaction, Google made several acquisitions, spending $1.65 billion for online-video site YouTube in 2006; $625 million for e-mail security service Postini in 2007; and $3.2 billion for web-advertising company DoubleClick Inc. in 2008. The IRS now is examining the prices paid by the foreign subsidiaries for the rights to software and other intangibles moved offshore that formerly belonged to those three companies. According to U.S. Treasury Department rules, foreign units licensing rights from their U.S. parents are supposed to pay an “arm’s length” price, or the amount that would be paid by an unrelated company. If the offshore subsidiary pays too little, that has the effect of shifting income overseas, thus helping the parent avoid U.S. income taxes. SEC Review Google’s taxes have also drawn government scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last December, the SEC asked the company for “greater detail” about the profit it said it had earned in countries with lower tax rates and the impact on its effective tax rate, according to correspondence released by the agency in March. The SEC said in a February letter that it had completed its review of Google’s filings. It is unclear what action, if any, the agency took. In August, Google announced it was spending $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., the Libertyville, Illinois telecom-equipment and mobile-phone maker. Google said it was doing the deal primarily for Motorola’s collection of valuable patents. Prosser didn’t respond to a question about whether Google would be moving any of those patent rights offshore. --With assistance from Mark Deen in Paris. Editors: Jonathan Kaufman, Lisa Wolfson To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Drucker in New York at jdrucker4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Kaufman at jkaufman17@bloomberg.net

– Hard times elsewhere haven't done any damage to Google's bottom line. The company has announced a whopping 26% year-on-year jump in profits for the third quarter of this year, with net income of $2.73 billion on nearly $10 billion revenue, most of it from advertising, the BBC reports. "The word that springs to mind is 'gangbusters,'" CEO Larry Page boasted, hailing Google+ as a success—although one senior engineer has a different opinion. Google now employs over 2,500 more people than it did three months ago, with a total head count of 31,353 worldwide, GeekWire notes. The news isn't all good for Google, however: The IRS is auditing how the company dodged federal taxes by shifting profits offshore, sources tell Bloomberg. Google is believed to have avoided some $1 billion in taxes worldwide by using a pair of strategies called the “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich."

Authorities say a man is under arrest in connection with the homicide of a college student from Long Island.Nicaragua National Police confirm to ABC News that Orlando Tercero was arrested Tuesday afternoon in connection with the killing of 22-year-old Haley Anderson.Tercero is being transferred to the prison in El Chipote, which is about 40 miles southwest of the capitol, Managua.Earlier this week, Binghamton police said they believed Tercero, Anderson's ex-boyfriend, had left on a flight from JFK in New York to Nicaragua last Friday.Anderson's body was found in a Binghamton off-campus home by police around 1 p.m. Friday.Tercero allegedly "fled the United States via international air to Nicaragua prior to the discovery of Haley Anderson's deceased body," according to a statement released by police.Authorities ruled her death a homicide on Saturday.The circumstances of what led to Anderson's death have not been revealed, but police revealed they had an earlier relationship."The victim and male student had a previous domestic/romantic relationship. The investigation determined that the person of interest has left the United States by international air travel flight, prior to the discovery of Haley Anderson's deceased body," police said in a statement over the weekend.Anderson, a nursing student at the State University of New York at Binghamton, was from Westbury, Long Island.The university released a statement on Facebook:Authorities said they found her body during a welfare check.---------- ||||| International authorities have arrested the former boyfriend of 22-year-old Binghamton nursing student Haley Anderson in connection with her murder. Orlando Tercero, 22, was arrested in Nicaragua Tuesday afternoon and is being transferred to the prison in El Chipote, about 40 miles southwest of Managua, the country's capital, Nicaragua National Police confirmed to ABC News. Further information regarding Tercero's arrest was not immediately available. Facebook/Haley.Anderson.9212 On Friday afternoon, police officers found Anderson's body after they were sent to conduct a wellness check at her home about a mile from the State University of New York, Binghamton, campus, where she was a registered nursing student, authorities said. Her death was ruled a homicide the next day, after an autopsy was performed. Anderson was last seen alive around 4 a.m. on Thursday and was with her roommates before she went missing, police said. The circumstances surrounding her death have not been revealed. Investigators initially named Anderson's former boyfriend, also a nursing student at SUNY Binghamton, as a person of interest in her murder, although they did not immediately release his identity. Authorities suspected that he left the country by "international air travel," according to a statement by police. Police suspected that Tercero chose to fly to Nicaragua because he has family there. WABC Anderson is originally from Westbury, New York, a town on the western half of Long Island. She lived about a mile away from the SUNY Binghamton campus, officials said, and worked as a barista at a local cafe in Binghamton, according to her LinkedIn profile. "Our entire university community extends our deepest condolences to Haley’s family and friends, both here in Binghamton and in her hometown of Westbury," the university said in a statement. WABC ABC News' Aicha El Hammar, Bill Hutchinson and M.L. Nestel contributed to this report. ||||| WESTBURY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) — A man sought for questioning in the killing of a university nursing student from Long Island has been detained in Nicaragua, authorities in the Central American nation said Tuesday. Orlando Tercero, 22, was taken into custody in in Nicaragua after taking a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was being handed over to judicial authorities, National Police Commissioner Francisco Diaz said. “Together, our priority is to bring justice to all involved parties,” said Broome County District Attorney Stephen Cornwell, Jr. Police in New York say Tercero is a person of interest in the killing of 22-year-old Haley Anderson of Westbury. A warrant is being prepared, Cornwell said. A nursing student and senior at Binghamton University, Anderson’s life was cut short. She was discovered murdered Friday at a home near campus. The Westbury native was close to graduation. “She was in her senior year. This year, she did an internship at a hospital here on Long Island and she told me about all the operations that she witnessed,” said neighbor John Doran. “Tragic loss.” Binghamton police quickly classified the case as a homicide and identified Tercero, a romantic partner and fellow student, as a person of interest. As crime scene investigators processed the evidence, detectives say he was on a flight from JFK Airport to Nicaragua. The National Police Force detained him Tuesday. Anderson’s death was a tragic blow to her family in Westbury and her former coworkers at Ralphs Italian Ices. “She was such a bubbly person, opened up to anyone,” said co-worker Emma Derbin. “She was literally like the greatest person ever. She never didn’t have a smile on her face.” Nicaraguan police say Tercero was in possession of a Nicaragua passport when he was arrested. It is believed he has dual citizenship, CBS2’s Magdalena Doris reported. All of the evidence in the case will be presented to a grand jury. If Tercero is indicted, the district attorney will push for a speedy extradition. A wake and funeral for Anderson will be held for this weekend in her hometown. (© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

– An ex-boyfriend has been arrested in Nicaragua over the killing of college student Haley Anderson in New York. Anderson, 22, who hails from Long Island, was found dead in an off-campus house at the State University of New York at Binghamton in upstate New York Friday, WABC reports. The exact circumstances of the nursing student's death have not been revealed, but police consider it a homicide. Police said the suspect, Orlando Tercero, fled to Nicaragua before Anderson's body was found. He was arrested Tuesday and, for now, remains in Nicaragua. Tercero, also 22 and a nursing student, is reportedly from Nicaragua and apparently holds dual citizenship, per CBS New York; ABC News reports he still has family there. "The victim and male student had a previous domestic/romantic relationship," police said in a statement prior to his arrest. A friend of Anderson's tells the New York Post Tercero was "obsessive and crazy." "She was such a bubbly person, opened up to anyone," a co-worker says of Anderson, per CBS. "She was literally like the greatest person ever. She never didn't have a smile on her face."

Cardinal Bergoglio apparently went through the first round of voting, which took place on Tuesday evening, into the conclave as a leading vote-getter, but a number of other eminences garnered some votes, which were handwritten on Latin ballots with Pilot gel pens. Carlo Marroni, who covers the Vatican for Il Sole 24 Ore, reported that Cardinal Bergoglio, Cardinal Scola and Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Canada were the leaders. Ignazio Ingrao, the Vatican expert for the newsweekly Panorama, said that at the beginning cardinals voted for a number of individuals as a “courtesy vote.” But, “Then they went fairly quickly to Bergoglio,” he said. Private conversations in the evening helped put the focus on him, analysts said. In the final round of voting, the future Francis hit 77 — the required two-thirds minimum — before all the votes were counted. Applause broke out, several cardinals said, but the counting continued for completeness. He ended up with “more than sufficient” votes to win, the Brazilian cardinal, Geraldo Majella Agnelo, said. The final tally was kept secret. Cardinal Scola went into the conclave with a solid block of votes, including many of the Americans and Europeans, who saw in him an Italian who was nevertheless at a distance from the intrigues of the Vatican. But it quickly became apparent this was not going to be enough, particularly given what news reports said was the opposition of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the powerful secretary of state under Benedict. “The rapidity with which the choice of Bergoglio was arrived at confirms that the votes that Scola could count on immediately became insufficient,” wrote Massimo Franco, the Vatican expert for the daily Corriere della Sera. The numbers also tell a tale: Latin America had 19 electors, second only to Europe’s 61, and Cardinal Bergoglio may have gotten strong support from the region. While Cardinal Bertone failed to give him support, Cardinal Scola certainly had his share of believers in the Italian Bishops Conference — it sent out a message congratulating him on becoming pope 20 minutes after Francis was named. The conference later blamed a technical glitch. “The Argentine archbishop was elected after the third balloting when Angelo Scola had sent his votes toward him,” wrote Paolo Rodari, La Repubblica’s Vaticanista. Another source of surprise was Bergoglio’s age, 76. A number of cardinals had suggested that a younger man was needed — in the early 60s range — especially after a pope resigned because of waning strength in old age. Cardinal Bergoglio’s age may have cut both ways, said Mr. Ingrao, the Vatican expert for Panorama. Reformers may have believed it would motivate him to act quickly, while cardinals favoring the status quo may have hoped his papacy would be too short to effect much change. “So there were thoughts about looking to someone much younger,” said Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux. “But there were two reasons” to choose Cardinal Bergoglio, he said. “First it was his personality that was the determiner. The other thing was that we remembered that we had popes like John XXIII who was old but he was decisive for the evolution of the church. So the question of age wasn’t such a big factor.” The first public view of Francis was on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, where he asked the crowd in the piazza for their blessing and then wished them a good rest, earning praise from many Catholics for his humble bearing and choice to name himself after the beloved St. Francis of Assisi. On Thursday, his first full day as pope, he prayed at the St. Mary Major Basilica and passed by the clergy residence — where he stayed before the conclave — to pick up his luggage and pay the bill. “I think this is the style of our new pope,” Cardinal Ricard said. ||||| Pope Francis, center, leaves the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome on his first day on the job. (Ciro Fusco, European Pressphoto Agency / ) VATICAN CITY — In private meetings before their conclave to elect a new pope, Roman Catholic cardinals took note when one of their number rose to speak — clearly, quietly and persuasively — about the need to purify the church and streamline its unwieldy bureaucracy. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio seemed to sum up the very themes and challenges the leaders were debating. He was forceful without being abrasive, one cardinal recalled Thursday. By the time they strode solemnly into the magnificent Sistine Chapel and closed away the outside world Tuesday, many of the cardinals had significantly refined their lists of candidates. Scarcely 24 hours later, on a fifth round of voting, at least 77 of 115 prelates chose the unassuming cardinal from Buenos Aires as the 266th pontiff. The choice was historic, making him the first pope from the Americas and the first from a continent other than Europe in more than a millennium. The choice of Bergoglio, who will reign as Pope Francis, also stunned much of the public and many veteran Vatican-watchers. Almost no one predicted that Bergoglio would be elected to replace Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned last month. Cardinals take an oath of secrecy that bars them from discussing in detail the proceedings that lead to the election, but on Thursday details were beginning to emerge slowly, forming an illuminating if partial picture of what happened and how. "Most of us had two or three candidates when we entered" the chapel, Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Mexico said in an interview. "We did not go in with our minds blank." Cardinals often say it is the Holy Spirit that guides them in the conclave. But the real work, the trading of names and weighing of pros and cons, takes place in the days before. Over pasta dinners and informal chats, and especially in the congregations — the meetings where cardinals speak — they air grievances or outline plans and visions. For some, it is as close to a campaign speech as they get. While support coalesced around Bergoglio, other candidates may have peaked or failed to gain traction because of serious criticism by numerous cardinals of the Italian-dominated Vatican bureaucracy. The usually formidable voting muscle of the Italian bloc was weakened by the so-called Vatileaks scandal that pointed to allegations of corruption and infighting in the Curia, as the bureaucracy is known. That might have hurt the chances of the archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola, who had frequently been mentioned as a possible front-runner. Although some considered Scola an outsider, the controversy may have hurt all Italian candidates. Embarrassingly for the Italian clergy, its bishops conference Wednesday night sent a quick message of congratulations to the new pope — addressing it to Scola instead of Bergoglio. In each round of conclave balloting, votes for other candidates dropped off or shifted to Bergoglio until he received the majority needed, Sandoval said. The fact that Bergoglio came in second in the 2005 conclave that chose Benedict may have had an effect. By the third ballot, the trend was clear, cardinals said. Bergoglio became somber. In the 2005 conclave, he had told fellow cardinals he did not want the job. "Cardinal Bergoglio wouldn't have become pope in the fifth ballot if he had not been a really strong contender for the papacy from the beginning," Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn told reporters. The election over, the new pope declined an elevated throne to receive the cardinals' pledges of allegiance. Then he joined them on the charter bus back to their residence rather than allowing himself to be whisked away in a limousine. Later, according to Brazilian cardinals, Pope Francis offered a champagne toast to the group at dinner and commented on their decision: "May God forgive you." "Don't you feel the new energy in the church?" the former archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, said on his Twitter account. Much of the criticism of Vatican management comes from cardinals who do not live in Rome but work in the far corners of the globe. There may have been a concerted push to challenge the standard modus operandi that led to the scandals that tarnished Benedict and his papacy. Bergoglio "brings a new style to the papacy," said John Thavis, an expert on the pontificate. "Yes, the cardinals see him as a manager. But they also see a whole new attitude. They saw it in him and not in the other candidates who pretty much follow in line with the way things have been done [at the Vatican] all along." The less formal, more down-to-earth style became apparent to the public with Francis' simple speech and silent prayer Wednesday night on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. It continued Thursday when he returned to his hotel, picked up his bags and paid the bill. Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., also suggested that many of his colleagues went into the conclave with their minds all but made up. Most of the work was done in the congregations, he said. "We were hoping to keep the focus on what is today a renewal of the emphasis on the spiritual dimension of life … to make people realize they have a relationship with God even in this very, very material world," Wuerl told reporters. "We were looking for someone whose life says that." Several cardinals suggested that Bergoglio, who hews to conservative church doctrine, was theologically unimpeachable while also able to reach out to the developing world, parts of which are the only regions where Catholicism is growing. Born to Italian immigrant parents and raised in Argentina, he is seen as a pastoral teacher who can inspire action without browbeating. "He can bring unity," Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels said at a news conference. "He comes from a different continent and so he comes with positive baggage to be able to do that. He won't be a pope above the people, but with them." Danneels, generally considered among the more progressive of the cardinals, could barely contain his delight at the election of Bergoglio. He was not known as a supporter of the hard-line Joseph Ratzinger, who became Benedict, and seemed to welcome what he sees as a shift. He especially praised that speech during the congregations when Bergoglio urged reform of the Curia. Similarly, Bergoglio is believed to have won the support of many of the 11 U.S. cardinals, among them Mahony, who said he was "ecstatic" at having a Latin American pope, "a great gift." The Belgian cleric accompanied the new pope on the St. Peter's balcony Wednesday night and asked him how he felt. He pledged his service to God, saying he accepted what God had planned for him. "But I can imagine later he burst into tears when he realized what awaited him," Danneels said. "It is a superhuman task." wilkinson@latimes.com Times staff writer Janet Stobart contributed to this report.

– Insiders are beginning to open up about how they chose Jorge Bergoglio as the new pope. For one thing, he wasn't part of the Vatican's troubled Curia hierarchy, but it was believed he could help heal it, the New York Times reports. It also helped that he didn't stake out a high public profile and project himself as a candidate beforehand, which can backfire in the world of Vatican politics. "He is not part of the Italian system, but also at the same time, because of his culture and background, he was Italo-compatible," says the archbishop of Paris. "If there was a chance that someone could intervene with justice in this situation, he was the man who could do it best." Among the questions cardinals asked themselves: "'Is he a man of the faith who connects us to Christ?'" said Chicago's archbishop. "Next, 'Can he govern?'" Lastly, he won points for "the fact that he has a heart for the poor." Bergoglio's pre-vote speech to the private conclave helped his selection, the Los Angeles Times notes; he offered a succinct call for a streamlined church free of corruption. But his selection was by no means a foregone conclusion; indeed, Cardinal Angelo Scola, described as a favorite of reformers, received a mistaken email of congratulations from Italian bishops shortly after Bergoglio's selection. Bergoglio reportedly led after the first round of voting, with Scola and Canada's Marc Oullet behind him. He gradually built his lead in subsequent rounds until reaching the threshold of 77 votes.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Donald Trump calls Irish reporter over for a chat When reporter Caitriona Perry attended a press briefing with US President Donald Trump she probably didn't expect it would spark a debate about workplace sexism. The RTE Washington Correspondent was at the Oval Office on Tuesday to cover a diplomatic phone call between the US leader and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. But as the two leaders discussed Mr Varadkar's new position, and the number of Irish migrants in the US, Mr Trump interrupted the call to compliment Ms Perry's smile. The exchange on social media has been retweeted more than 8,000 times and has sparked a discussion between supporters and critics of the US president. Some described the US president as a "creeper" while others argued his comments were a compliment. Image copyright @CaitrionaPerry/Twitter Image caption Ms Perry tweeted a video of the encounter "It's a working environment & she should be treated as a professional journalist and not reduced to her smile," posted one Twitter user. Another remarked: "There are simply no words to describe how violated I feel for her." Another questioned whether a male reporter would be spoken to in the same way: "I'm sure there's a moment from the event where he called upon a male journalist to explain to 3rd party they're handsome & have a nice smile." 'Can't women take compliments anymore?' In contrast, many also defended Mr Trump's remarks as complimentary: "Can't women take compliments anymore?" asked one Twitter user. Another posted: "So any man that says you're beautiful & you have a nice smile is a creep? I normally take that as a compliment." While one Twitter user asked: "Why can't men compliment females without being deplored? It's just being nice." Image copyright @CaitrionaPerry/Twitter 'I must have caught his eye' Ms Perry has described the exchange as 'bizarre' in a 25-second clip posted by the reporter on Twitter. It begins with Mr Trump mentioning the number of Irish reporters present. "Well we have a lot of your Irish press watching us right now. "He says. "We have all of this beautiful Irish press here." The president then points to Ms Perry and beckons her over: "Come here, come here, where are you from?" "RTE news, Caitriona Perry." she replies. "She has a nice smile on her face so I bet she treats you well," the president tells Mr Varadkar on the phone, as Ms Perry laughs and returns to her seat. You might also like: In an article by RTE the reporter described what happened: "Usually we would shoot from outside the window of the White House and that's what we were expecting today but instead we were invited inside to witness the President's call to the Taoiseach. When we went in he was already on the phone but I must have caught his eye and he called me over." By the BBC's UGC and Social News team You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending. ||||| FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2017 file photo, Anthony Scaramucci, a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, talks to reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. CNN isn't commenting Monday,... (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — For a president seemingly at perpetual war with "fake news," the resignation of three CNN journalists over a retracted story about a Donald Trump Russian connection is a gift from the political gods when the struggling effort to pass a health bill dominates the headlines. The White House quickly took advantage Tuesday with blistering presidential tweets and a media scolding at the afternoon press briefing. Conservative provocateur James O'Keefe piled on by releasing a video with a CNN producer caught on camera talking about the network's Russia coverage being ratings-driven. CNN late Monday accepted the resignations of journalists Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau and Lex Haris over last week's web story about Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci's pre-inaugural meeting with the head of a Russian investment fund. The network retracted the story on Friday and apologized to Scaramucci. Trump has been unhappy with CNN since he was a candidate, and has been particularly annoyed by its reporting on connections with Russia. The misstep on a relatively minor story — it was never mentioned on any of CNN's television networks — left some White House staff members jubilant, believing it handed them a new talking point to use as a cudgel against mainstream media organizations they feel are largely biased against them. That happened quickly Tuesday when Sarah Huckabee Sanders called on a Breitbart News reporter for the first question of the White House briefing. It was about CNN. She said the "constant barrage of fake news" at the president has frustrated Trump. She called stories about Russia and Trump "a hoax" that is distracting from other news. Sanders urged all Americans to watch a video posted by O'Keefe's Project Veritas featuring CNN producer John Bonifield — even though she couldn't vouch for its accuracy. "If it is accurate, I think it's a disgrace to all of media, to all of journalism," Sanders said. "I think that if we have gone to a place where the media can't be trusted to report the news, then that's a dangerous place for America. And I think if that is that place that certain outlets are going — particularly for the purpose of spiking ratings, and if that's coming directly from the top, I think that's even more scary." She was interrupted by reporter Brian Karem of the Sentinel newspapers, who accused Sanders of inflaming anti-media sentiment. "Everyone in this room is only trying to do their job," he said. Sanders ignored CNN reporter Jeff Zeleny's attempt to ask a question before ending her briefing. After Sanders left the stage, she was criticized on Fox News Channel, where Trump-friendly views usually dominate. Wall Street Journal editor John Bussey told Fox's Shepard Smith that "the White House could actually learn from CNN's example" about being forthright when caught saying something untrue. Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that "they caught Fake News CNN cold." He lumped ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post together in the same "fake news" category. He said that "CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!" A spokeswoman for CNN chief Jeff Zucker didn't respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. CNN's public relations staff refuted Trump's notion that the network is hurting, saying it is completing the most-watched second quarter in its history. The president was livid at CNN's story but also felt vindicated because it seemed to confirm his belief that the cable network was trying to undermine his presidency, according to one staffer who demanded anonymity to discuss private conversations. The CNN issue enables the White House to change the subject for what has been a rough stretch for the presidency, with constant questions about the Russia probe and a vote on the Republican health care bill delayed. Aides also believe that highlighting media mistakes could be a useful way of questioning reporters' credibility and convincing supporters that Trump was the victim of a witch hunt. Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted a link to the Bonifield video. Besides talking about ratings, the Atlanta-based producer in CNN's medical unit said the network has no "smoking gun" showing wrongdoing by Trump and that "the president is probably right to say, look, you are witch-hunting me." CNN said in a statement that it is standing by Bonifield. "Diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong," CNN said. "We welcome it and embrace it." O'Keefe told The Associated Press that Project Veritas got the video on Friday and that a portion, in an elevator, was recorded at CNN's headquarters. He said that Project Veritas plans to release another video involving another CNN employee, with the timing dependent on how CNN reacts to the Bonifield material. O'Keefe and Project Veritas have a track record of aiding Republican causes, often by using hidden cameras and hiding identities, and Trump's nonprofit foundation has made two $10,000 donations to the organization. His sting operation led to the downfall of ACORN, a community organizing group that O'Keefe portrayed as engaging in criminal activity via hidden camera. Before last November's election, Project Veritas released a series of heavily edited videos that included a Democratic activist appearing to brag about deploying troublemakers at Trump rallies. The fallout included the two people most prominently featured, Scott Foval and Robert Creamer, cutting ties with the Democratic National Committee. Creamer's firm recently sued Project Veritas alleging the sting violated federal wiretap law. O'Keefe declined to discuss how the Bonifield video came about. O'Keefe said his efforts are journalistic and, since they include video, he contends that it is more believable than media stories based on anonymous sources. The retracted CNN story was heavily dependent upon one anonymous source. One social media exchange about the CNN story indicated how feelings about the network were running strong among Trump supporters. John Podhoretz, a conservative columnist for The New York Post and editor of Commentary magazine tweeted that "CNN published a bad story, pulled it, apologized. 3 journalists quit. That's impressive and decisive action. Yelling 'fake news' is unfair." That drew a quick retort from Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity, an ardent Trump backer. "John wtf has happened to you?" Hannity wondered online. Podhoretz declined to respond to Hannity online and denied an interview request. ____ Associated Press correspondents Julie Bykowicz and Jill Colvin in Washington, and Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report. ||||| RTÉ's Washington Correspondent Caitríona Perry found herself involved in the first official phone call between US President Donald Trump and new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office on Tuesday. Caitríona was in the White House to report on the President’s phone call to congratulate Mr Varadkar on his new position, when the US leader beckoned her over and asked her to say hello to the Irish leader. "We have a lot of your Irish press watching us right now," President Trump told Mr Varadkar, before turning to Caitríona and saying, "We have all of this Irish beautiful Irish press here. Where are you from? Come here, come here . . . "She has a nice smile on her face so I bet she treats you well," the President told the Taoiseach on the phone in a packed Oval Office as Caitríona, who was shooting the scene on her phone, made her exit. "He thanks you for the newspapers, Caitríona," President Trump added. "We have all of this Irish beautiful Irish press here." Picture: Twitter/@markknoller "One minute we were outside the window and the next minute I'm meeting the President of the United States," Caitríona told RTÉ Entertainment after her encounter with the US Commander in Chief. "Usually we would shoot from outside the window of the White House and that's what we were expecting today but instead we were invited inside to witness the President's call to the Taoiseach. When we went in he was already on the phone but I caught his eye and he called me over." ||||| President Trump’s war with CNN took an even more personal turn on Tuesday after the White House used its press briefing to tout a hidden camera video calling the cable news network’s coverage of the Russia controversy “bullshit.” The undercover video from conservative sting artist James O’Keefe showed a CNN producer questioning the network’s coverage and suggesting important stories had been buried to keep the focus on Trump and Russia. ADVERTISEMENT At Tuesday’s press briefing, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders encouraged viewers to watch the O’Keefe video, calling it “a disgrace to all of media, all of journalism.” She also took a dig at CNN President Jeff Zucker, saying the sensationalism and disregard for facts was “coming directly from the top.” CNN is standing by the producer, John Bonifield, who covers health and medicine from the network’s headquarters in Atlanta. In a statement, the network said “diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong.” “We welcome it and embrace it,” a spokesperson told The Hill. A CNN source told The Hill that the tempest over the video will pass, saying it was recorded after an undercover conservative operative approached Bonifield claiming to have had a history of personal hardships and asking to be taken in to a mentoring program. “It’s silly, it’s been spun up as something it’s not,” the CNN source said. “He’s a health unit producer in Atlanta. He has nothing to do with Washington politics or the investigative unit.” The video appeared at a difficult moment for CNN, however, which was just forced to retract a story alleging that one of Trump’s associates had improper dealings with a Kremlin-backed bank. The episode led three of CNN’s reporters to resign and reinforced the notion among many conservatives that the network is hell-bent on taking Trump down. On a Tuesday morning conference call with CNN officials, Zucker stressed that the network has to “play error-free ball” going forward, as all their mistakes will be magnified. “He’s been saying it for months, it’s just unfortunate because there is no more room for mess-ups,” a second source at CNN told The Hill. The feud between Trump and CNN, smoldering for years, had already intensified before the firings and O’Keefe video. It pits against one another two men with a long history: Zucker was the head of NBC when Trump hosted his hit reality show “The Apprentice.” Conservative media outlets such as Breitbart News are now agitating for Zucker’s removal, while Trump let the insults fly on Tuesday. “Fake News CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories,” Trump tweeted. “Ratings way down!” “CNN just posted it’s most-watched second quarter in history,” the network’s communications department shot back. “Those are the facts.” According to Nielsen’s second quarter ratings, released on Tuesday, CNN is up 10 percent year-over-year in prime time and 25 percent overall. It is running third overall in the cable wars, behind Fox News but also MSNBC, the openly liberal outlet that has seen a dramatic 86 percent spike in prime-time ratings. The new round of controversy has rekindled a briefly dormant cable news war between Fox News and CNN, with top talent from both outlets basking in the failings of the other. Last week, CNN anchor John King likened Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” to “state TV.” This week, Fox News anchors Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are flooding the airwaves with coverage of CNN’s controversies, returning the favor after CNN leaned into reporting of former Fox anchor Bill O’Reilly, who left the network amid a slew of sexual harassment allegations. “Hey CNN, when will you fire Zucker?” Hannity tweeted. “He has destroyed the network with lies and VERY FAKE NEWS.” CNN has been registering small acts of protest against the administration by focusing on Trump’s treatment of the press, with chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta leading the charge in demanding more on-camera briefings. The network sent a courtroom sketch artist to do a rendering of White House press secretary Sean Spicer at an off-camera briefing last week. Spicer has repeatedly ignored questions from Acosta and chided him in a tense off-camera exchange on Monday. “There’s no camera on, Jim,” Spicer said as Acosta shouted questions at him. CNN has displayed chyrons at the bottom of the screen accusing the president of lying and is airing a television ad with footage of anchors lecturing White House officials and musing about Trump being impeached. Earlier this year, CNN refused to run a Trump campaign ad because it cast the mainstream media as “fake news.” The network has absorbed withering criticism from the right for its relentless focus on Russia and overwhelmingly negative coverage of Trump. A Harvard study found that CNN’s coverage of Trump was negative 93 percent of the time over the course of his first 100 days in office. CNN has also taken a hit from other controversies; it cut ties with comedian Kathy Griffin for taking a photo with a fake severed head meant to look like Trump. CNN also canceled a series with documentary maker Reza Aslan after he cursed at the president over Twitter. CNN also recently had to walk back a report authored by its top network talent, including anchor Jake Tapper and political analyst Gloria Borger, stating that former FBI Director James Comey would refute Trump’s claims that he was not the target of an investigation. In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey confirmed that he told Trump three times that he was not the target of an investigation. “I think this is the day when the left rues ever coming up with the phrase ‘fake news,’ because now we have the evidence,” Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka said Tuesday on a Breitbart podcast. “We have the consequences of systematic generation of fake news happening at the epicenter of one of the places that was producing the most of it.” The CNN source responded: “They’ve made it fairly clear they view this as a war. We view it as determination to seek truth and hold the powerful accountable regardless of how difficult they try to make it.” ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.

– President Trump's relationship with the media is very much front and center again, most notably after three CNN journalists resigned over a retracted story. Trump himself went after the network on Twitter—"What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!"—and a White House spokesperson on Tuesday pushed an anti-CNN video by right-wing provocateur James O'Keefe. Meanwhile, the president also is publicly feuding again with the New York Times. Here's the latest: CNN mess: The network yanked an online article alleging that Trump confidante Anthony Scaramucci had ties to a Russian investment firm, and the New York Times has more details on what happened and on how the network's respected "Triad" vetting system for sensitive stories failed. (Here is CNN's apology note, which does not specify what was incorrect.) Awful timing: It couldn't come at a worse time for CNN in the "fake news" wars, observes Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi. Despite Trump's suggestion to the contrary, Farhi writes that CNN is not looking at "big management changes." Interesting nugget: He notes that CNN investigations editor Lex Haris, one of the three to resign, was away at a conference when the story ran. O'Keefe video: In a press briefing, White House deputy press chief Sarah Huckabee Sanders pushed an undercover video by O'Keefe showing a CNN producer seeming to question the network's Russia coverage, reports the Hill. "Whether it’s accurate or not I don’t know, but I would encourage everybody in this room, and frankly, everybody across the country to take a look at it." You can see it here. Another coming: O'Keefe tells the AP that another video involving a second CNN employee is coming. Meanwhile, CNN stood by John Bonfield, the producer in the first video: "Diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong, we welcome it and embrace it." Times feud: After the New York Times ran an article suggesting that Trump was not hands-on during the Senate's health bill talks, he tweeted that it was another "false story" about him. "They don't even call to verify the facts of a story," he complained. To which reporter Glenn Thrush responded, "Call your office, sir. @nytimes spoke to many, many, many members of your staff yesterday - & ran everything by your team." 'Nice smile': Trump's relationship with the media isn't all adversarial. While on a call with Ireland's new leader on Tuesday, Trump called over Irish RTE reporter Caitriona Perry and complimented her "nice smile." The BBC has video, and it notes that Trump critics are calling out the move as sexist.

This was the year everyone went gaga for Lady Gaga. The shape-shifting pop star takes home Billboard's top artist of the year honors, just a year after she earned top new artist applause. The last time an act made a move from "new" to "top" faster was in 2006, when Chris Brown snared both titles concurrently. Before that, the last woman to graduate nearly as fast was Whitney Houston, who was our top new artist of 1985 and then became the top artist the following year. See all of Billboard's 2010 Year-End Charts Billboard's year-end music recaps are based on chart performance during the chart year that began with last year's Dec. 5 issue and ended with the Nov. 27, 2010, issue. The year-end Top Artists list ranks the best-performing acts of the year derived from activity on two charts: the Billboard 200 albums tally and the Billboard Hot 100 singles list. Since we created the top overall artist category with our year-end recaps in 1981, only seven women have taken home the trophy, including Gaga. Taylor Swift nabbed it in 2009, preceded by LeAnn Rimes (1997), Alanis Morissette (1996), Mariah Carey (1991), Whitney Houston (1986) and Madonna (1985). Gaga takes the artist of the year honor thanks in part to the chart performance of her first two albums, "The Fame" and "The Fame Monster" (both on Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree/Interscope), which rank at Nos. 4 and 13, respectively, on the year-end Top Billboard 200 Albums tally. Four singles from those albums appear on the Hot 100 Songs roundup, led by "Bad Romance" at No. 8. Swift is 2010's No. 2 artist of the year -- not too shabby for the Big Machine singer who was our top artist last year. With her one-two punch in 2009 and 2010, it marks the first time an act has been one of the top two artists in successive years since Destiny's Child was the top artist in 2000 and 2001. Narrowing the accolade among only soloists, Garth Brooks was the last to do so, when he was the No. 1 act in 1992 and 1993. The last woman? Mariah Carey, who was No. 1 in 1991 and No. 2 in 1992. Over on our year-end Billboard 200 albums tally, four of the top 10 slots are occupied by just two artists: Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. Swift's "Fearless" (2009) is at No. 7 while the just-released "Speak Now" is at No. 9. The Bieb's "My World 2.0" is No. 5 while his 2009 "My World" (EP) is at No. 8. For each, it marks the first time on act has held down two of the top 10 year-end Billboard 200 albums since 1992. That was when Brooks finished the year with "Ropin' the Wind" at No. 1 and "No Fences" at No. 6. "Speak Now" charted for only three weeks during the 2010 chart year, making its No. 9 placing a stunning achievement. Ranking on the year-end tally is determined by a title's weekly charting sales. So, "Speak Now" made up for its short chart life in the chart year with massive sales: It moved 1.6 million units in those three weeks, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Elsewhere, neither Gaga nor Swift charted on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums tally, marking the first time neither of the top two artists of the year have done so since 1997, when Rimes and Spice Girls came in at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on that chart. So, last year Gaga was our new artist and then became the top artist this year. Could Ke$ha, who snags the throne on 2010's Top New Artists list, win the big prize in 2011? This year the Kemosabe/RCA singer celebrates not just her new artist win but also her crowning of the Hot 100 Songs roundup, where her debut charting single "TiK ToK" is tops. The track spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the weekly Hot 100 list. The last time an act's first charting single became the top song of the year was only two years ago, when Flo Rida reigned with "Low." However, since Billboard began producing year-end recaps in 1946, no woman -- until Ke$ha -- had managed the feat. Two steps behind Ke$ha on the new artist tally is Susan Boyle, who earns her ranking mostly on the strength of her two hit albums, "I Dreamed a Dream" and "The Gift." The former spent six weeks atop the Billboard 200 and finishes 2010 as the No. 1 Top Billboard 200 album. At No. 2 on the year-end Billboard 200 albums list is Eminem's "Recovery." All of the rapper's albums -- save for his debut, "The Slim Shady LP" -- have finished among the year-end top 10 Billboard 200 albums. He's ranked in the top two twice before: in 2005 with "Encore" (No. 2) and in 2002 with "The Eminem Show" (No. 1). Eminem also ends 2010 as the No. 3 artist of the year, and with Gaga and Swift at Nos. 1 and 2, he's our top male artist. Country trio Lady Antebellum is the highest-ranking group on the top artist recap, coming in at No. 4. It's the first time a country act is the biggest group of the year. Since Billboard began compiling year-end combined pop artist categories in 1977 (for males, females and duo/groups, respectively) no country act had ever finished the year as the top overall duo/group. Lady A also takes home the No. 2 honor on the Hot 100 Songs recap with its Capitol Nashville single "Need You Now," which spent two weeks at No. 2 on the weekly tally, but lingered for 42 weeks within the top 40 during the eligibility period. A country single last reached such heights on the year-end Hot 100 tally in 2000, when Faith Hill's "Breathe" was the top Hot 100 song. ||||| Billboard Honors Lady Gaga and Ke$ha With Year's Top Awards Email This Gaga ooh la la is right! The meat-wearing songstress has been honored with Billboard's Artist of the Year award for 2010, a prize nabbed by paparazzi darling Despite being ousted from the top spot by Gaga, the 'Speak Now' singer hasn't been left out of the 2010 lineup completely. Swift comes in at number two this year, and is the only solo artist to spend two successive years in the top two spots since Garth Brooks in the early 1990s. Gaga ooh la la is right! Lady Gaga is taking home Billboard 's top honor for 2010.The meat-wearing songstress has been honored with Billboard's Artist of the Year award for 2010, a prize nabbed by paparazzi darling Taylor Swift in 2009. This is not the first time Gaga has received recognition from Billboard -- just last year, the 'Alejandro' singer took home the coveted Top New Artist Award.Despite being ousted from the top spot by Gaga, the 'Speak Now' singer hasn't been left out of the 2010 lineup completely. Swift comes in at number two this year, and is the only solo artist to spend two successive years in the top two spots since Garth Brooks in the early 1990s. Of course, with Gaga vacating the Top New Artist throne, there's room for a new entrant. Cue 'Cannibal' Ke$ha, whose Jack Daniels-doused oral hygiene and songwriting styles have won the hearts of a nation.Boosting her into the honor is her 2010 hit 'Tik Tok,' which spent nine weeks atop the Hot 100 list. Impressively, 'Tik Tok' was Ke$ha's first single to make it on to Billboard's charts.The recipients of Billboard's highest group honor are country crooners Lady Antebellum, whose hit 'Need You Now' spent a whopping 42 weeks of the eligibility period on the Billboard top 40.

– Lady Gaga was Billboard’s top new artist last year, and this year she’s moved on to snag the top artist-of-the-year honors. That’s the fastest any woman has moved from one category to the other since Whitney Houston managed the feat in 1985-86. (Chris Brown managed to snag both titles simultaneously, in 2006.) The ranking is determined based on chart performance. So who’s this year’s top new artist? Ke$ha. For more on the rankings and to see what happened to last year’s top artist, Taylor Swift, click here.

CONSIDERING OPTIONS: There's a chance Murkowski could run as a Libertarian if Miller beats her. The Alaska Division of Elections said Thursday that it has more than 20,000 absentee and questioned ballots left to process from Tuesday's primary election. Most are expected to be Republican primary ballots that will decide the too-close-to-call race between U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Joe Miller. Miller is currently leading Murkowski by 1,668 votes. Elections officials on Thursday evening released the first detailed breakdown of the remaining ballots. The state has received back 11,266 absentee ballots so far out of over 16,000 requested. The ballots had to be postmarked by Tuesday's election but can come in as much as 15 days afterward. There are also 658 early votes not yet counted and 8,972 questioned ballots. A ballot can be "questioned" for several reasons. Often the reason is that the voter cast the ballot in a precinct other than where they live. Miller said in a Thursday interview that he expects to maintain his lead with the help of military absentee voters. He also said Murkowski shouldn't think about a third-party candidacy or an independent write-in effort if she loses in the primary. "If Sen. Murkowski is going to keep her word, she's going to get out -- if the voters decide that in fact I prevail in this primary election. She said at the Kenai forum on Friday that she would respect the will of the Alaskan voter and we're going to hold her to it," Miller said by phone from Fairbanks. Murkowski campaign manager John Bitney responded that Murkowski was focused on the ballots that are left to be counted and "any speculation about anything else is absolutely premature." There is a possibility that Murkowski could run on the Libertarian ticket in the November general election if she loses the Republican primary. The Alaska Libertarian Party is discussing the possibility and its Senate candidate, David Haase, has said he is open to talking to Murkowski about him stepping aside. Andrew Halcro, a Murkowski supporter who served with her in the state Legislature, called Haase on Wednesday and discussed the possibility. Halcro said he was acting on his own and not coordinating with the Murkowski campaign. Halcro said he did bring it up with Murkowski on Thursday morning. "She said what she's told (the media), that she's considering all the options," he said. Halcro said he thinks Murkowski should pursue the Libertarian route if she doesn't win the primary. She has the campaign cash left and a network in place to run a strong statewide campaign, he said. THREE MORE COUNTS The Division of Elections isn't saying how many of the ballots left to count are for the Republican primary and how many are for the Democratic primary. But three times more Republican than Democratic ballots were cast on Election Day in the Senate race. Murkowski campaign manager Bitney watched absentees being sorted at the Division of Elections Thursday and said a "very, very high percentage" of them were Republican. Anchorage attorney Tom Van Flein was at the Division of Elections observing for the Miller campaign. Van Flein is best known as the personal lawyer for Sarah Palin, who endorsed Miller. The Division of Elections plans to count all the absentee ballots on Aug. 31 that it has received by then. Some of the questioned ballots will be disqualified; for example if it turns out the voter really wasn't registered in Alaska. Those that are valid will likely be counted on Sept. 3. Elections officials said they'll do a final count of absentees and any other remaining ballots on Sept. 8. The number of remaining ballots changes daily as more absentees come in and there's no way to know how many will be disqualified. But if all the current number of 20,896 remaining ballots were counted and three-fourths of them voted in the Republican Senate primary, Murkowski would need the vote on roughly 55 percent to win. NATIONAL ATTENTION Both sides are keeping close watch. The Washington Post cited unnamed sources in reporting Thursday that the National Republican Senatorial Committee will be sending lawyer Sean Cairncross to assist Murkowski's campaign during the ballot count. It's not clear what his role will be, but Miller called it questionable. "We're just hoping that the lawyering up that's going on with the National Republican Senatorial Committee isn't going to be resulting in any improper meddling in our primary," Miller said. Miller said he's beating Murkowski because of his volunteer network and "common sense message." "Alaskans are common sense folk, they recognize our nation is at a bankrupt position right now," he said. Murkowski campaign manager Bitney said people should remember "he hasn't won yet." ||||| Joe Miller, the Republican candidate who is poised to knock off Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) in a primary contest, said Thursday he is concerned she will launch a protracted legal battle to save her seat. Miller, an Iraq war veteran who received the backing of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), emerged from the election Tuesday night with a narrow lead over Murkowski, an incumbent who assumed the seat from her father. But officials are still counting absentee ballots in the close race, and a lawyer for the GOP Senate campaign committee is heading to Alaska to assist the senator. ADVERTISEMENT "We are looking right now to make sure that the election — that the votes — are accounted for fairly, without any type of game play," Miller said in an interview on Fox Business Network. "It concerns us any time somebody lawyers up and tries to pull an Al Franken, if you will. We are very concerned that there may be some attempt here to skew the results." Alaska officials will start counting absentee ballots next Tuesday, but observers expect a protracted process to determine the winner. Miller was referring to the 2008 Minnesota Senate contest that pitted now-Sen. Al Franken (D) against then-Sen. Norm Coleman (R). Coleman's razor-thin lead the morning after election night triggered an automatic recount that resulted in an eight-month legal battle. The candidate expressed concern specifically about the lawyer sent to help Murkowski. "You know we are concerned," he said. "We’ve got, I think, some game play going on here with the national Republican Senatorial Committee meddling in our primary election.” Democrats have pounced on the election results, painting them as an example of GOP infighting that could do in the party in the November midterms. They have also portrayed the election as another potential victory for a Tea Party-backed candidate, a group which Democrats have said is outside the mainstream. The primary campaign was contentious and drew national attention in its final days due to Palin's involvement. Murkowski was critical of Palin for writing a Facebook note calling her part of the problem in Washington and referencing the fact that she was appointed to the seat by her father, then-Gov. Frank Murkowski, who was unseated by Palin in 2006. For his part, Miller expressed confidence in the support he has received and predicted he would emerge victorious, barring any "game play." "But, we believe as soon as the votes get counted, if there is not any game play, we are going to come out where we are now.”

– Still no winner in the Alaska Senate race, but Joe Miller retains his slim lead and incumbent Lisa Murkowski continues to deflect (but not deny) speculation that she's considering a third-party run. Also, still no love lost between candidates, notes the Hill: Upon hearing that the GOP Senate campaign committee is sending a lawyer to help Murkowski, Miller declared, "It concerns us any time somebody lawyers up and tries to pull an Al Franken, if you will. We are very concerned that there may be some attempt here to skew the results." With about 20,000 absentee or questioned ballots still to be counted, Miller leads by 1,668 votes, reports the Anchorage Daily News. He's confident of victory, as rumors fly in the state that Murkowski could run against him in the fall on the Libertarian ticket. The party's current candidate says he'd be willing to step aside for her.

A 6-year-old boy with autism is back with his family in Westchester County after he was found driving a motorized toy car on the Bronx River Parkway over the weekend.Officers found the boy on the mini ATV just after 7 p.m. Sunday in Mount Vernon."We just blocked it in, was like a box and he was right in the middle," said Ana Rubio, a Good Samaritan.Ana Rubio still gets emotional as she speaks about the little boy she held in her arms, along the Bronx River Parkway Sunday night."He was like, 'I need to go home, mom, mom,' all he kept saying was 'mom,'" Rubio said.Rubio didn't know the child but thank goodness she and several others including her husband, Joel, were there to help."The first guy who came in contact with the boy, he was almost shaking, he had goose bumps, saying, 'I almost hit the kid,'" said Joel Reyes, a Good Samaritan.The Good Samaritans are now being called angels.Investigators say several drivers slowed down to block the child from other traffic.They spotted the 6-year-old little boy, riding a toy ATV on the Bronx River Parkway, in the far right lane with cars whizzing by, going at least 45 mph."It seemed like the child wanted to continue driving, he was trying to merge on the middle lane of the highway," Rubio said.This twisted tale began roughly two miles from the parkway.Police say the little boy, who is autistic, was with his grandmother near a park on South 7th Avenue.He slipped away, got on his blue battery powered toy, and took off.Witnesses say the boy's mother showed up at the park and frantically start calling for her son."You saw kids going back and forth and I asked them 'Did you find him?' and they said 'No,'" said Genoveva Burgos, a witness.The boy was heading to the parkway, and it's a long journey for such a little guy.As his mother was reporting him missing, police began getting a ton of 911 calls about a boy on an ATV on the parkway.By then, Rubio and several others had safely gotten the 6-year-old to the side of the parkway."It seemed like he didn't know he was on a highway, he just wanted to go home," Rubio said.Then her heart skipped another beat."When he saw the police officer he was ready to run onto the highway but I grabbed him and hugged him and said, 'we're going to help you, the officer will take you home,'" Rubio said.The boy was taken to a hospital for observation and found to be OK. ||||| The Blue miniature battery-powered ATV that a 6-year-old autistic boy drove onto the northbound ramp of the Bronx River Parkway near Oak Street in Mount Vernon Sunday evening. The child was safely taken off the road after three motorists slowed their vehicles to surround and protect the boy from other vehicles that might not have seen him. (Photo: Westchester County police) An autistic 6-year-old boy drove a miniature battery-powered ATV onto the Bronx River Parkway and was pulled over by good Samaritans on Sunday night, authorities said. The trip started off in a city park around 7 p.m. when family members lost track of the boy, who rode off in the toy vehicle. "They realized pretty quickly he was gone but couldn't lay eyes on him," Kieran O'Leary, spokesman for the Westchester County police, said of the Mount Vernon family. Relatives reported the boy missing to Mount Vernon police. At about 7:40 p.m., Westchester County police started receiving 911 calls about the unlicensed driver traveling in his vehicle — made popular by the toy brand Power Wheels — on the parkway. He had driven to Oak Street, from a park about a mile away on South Seventh Avenue, and taken the ramp onto the northbound parkway, police said. The young driver didn't make it very far. Good Samaritan: 'You could barely see him driving by' Three motorists slowed their vehicles to surround the boy and protect him from other vehicles that might not see him, O'Leary said. Someone was able to get out of their vehicle, and grab the boy and his ride off the parkway. "These good Samaritans got him to the safety of the side of the road," the police spokesman said. Police officers arrived shortly after. The child was taken to Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital for observation and found to be OK. He was reunited with his family. The Blue miniature battery-powered ATV that a 6-year-old autistic boy drove onto the northbound ramp of the Bronx River Parkway near Oak Street in Mount Vernon Sunday evening. The child was safely taken off the road after three motorists slowed their vehicles to surround and protect the boy from other vehicles that might not have seen him. (Photo: Westchester County Police) The incident is under investigation. Twitter: @gshilly Read or Share this story: http://lohud.us/1s3texI

– Drivers on the Bronx River Parkway were a little surprised to see a 6-year-old driving his miniature ATV beside them last night. The boy's mom was even more surprised to discover him missing. It started on a family trip to a park in Mount Vernon, New York, where the autistic boy rode off unnoticed at around 7pm, the Journal News reports. "They realized pretty quickly he was gone but couldn't lay eyes on him," a police spokesman said. Bystanders say the mother was frantically calling for her boy as kids ran back and forth looking for him, 7Online reports. Soon he had zoomed onto the northbound parkway and was even trying to merge into the middle lane, police and witnesses say. So drivers boxed him in and grabbed him just as police arrived. "He was like, 'I need to go home, mom, mom,' all he kept saying was 'mom,'" said Ana Rubio, one of the drivers. Another was said to be shaking with goosebumps, telling people, "I almost hit a kid." As for the boy, he seemingly "didn't know he was on a highway, he just wanted to go home," said Rubio. He was taken to a hospital first and "found to be OK," reports 7Online, but police are still investigating. (Read about an autistic boy allegedly kept in a cage.)

Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Hasani Gittens and Ken Dilanian The president-elect has taken yet more swipes at the intelligence community that will be under his command in just a few weeks, once again on Twitter. Donald Trump mocked intelligence officials on Tuesday evening, claiming they had delayed a scheduled briefing on alleged Russian hacking because they "needed more time to build a case." And on Wednesday, Trump continued to cast doubt on intelligence findings as he cited WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange's claim that a "14-year-old kid could have hacked" the emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta. "Also [Assange] said Russians did not give him the info!" Trump added. Trump's tweets came after Assange once again claimed that Russia was not the source of Podesta's stolen emails, published by WikiLeaks. He told Fox News' Sean Hannity that our "source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party" and that "a 14-year-old kid could have hacked Podesta." Intelligence experts both inside and outside of the government say evidence suggests Russia had tried to influence the election. The Obama administration has said the hacking campaign went to the highest level of the Russian government. Trump has previously stated that it's nearly impossible to know who hacked what and when. The president-elect antagonized the intelligence community over the weekend, telling reporters gathered outside his New Year’s Eve party that hacking is a “very hard thing to prove” and that he knows “things that other people don’t know, and so [intelligence officials] cannot be sure of the situation." Trump has promised to reveal what he proclaims to know this week but there has been some confusion over when he will receive new intelligence briefings. He initially said he would be meeting with high-level intel briefers mid-week but that it was delayed. However, a senior U.S. intelligence official with direct knowledge of the situation told NBC News Tuesday night that the heads of the NSA, CIA, FBI and the director of national intelligence were always scheduled to meet with Trump on Friday. Another official had previously told NBC News that the briefing was scheduled for Wednesday, but that was apparently wrong. A senior intelligence official called Trump's tweet disturbing and "adversarial," telling NBC News: "He's calling out the men and women of the intelligence community the way he called out Lockheed and Boeing, but these are public servants." Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the new top Democrat in the Senate, said on MSNBC Tuesday night that Trump was being "really dumb" in taking on the U.S. intelligence community. "You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you," he told Rachel Maddow on her show. CIA Director John Brennan told PBS Newshour Tuesday that his report on Russian hacking was in the “final throes” and would be delivered to President Obama in days. Meanwhile, Trump earlier Tuesday tweeted that he would be holding his first news conference in over five months. The Jan. 11 date is a reschedule from when Trump had promised to hold a press conference in late December, but didn't. The last time Trump held a pre-scheduled open media availability was on July 27, 2016. ||||| Washington (CNN) President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter Tuesday evening to deride the US intelligence agencies due to brief him on alleged Russian hacking of American political groups. The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! It was his latest attack on a key body he will rely on as commander in chief and again put him at odds with the agencies' unanimous conclusion that Russia hacked Democratic Party groups and individuals to interfere in the US presidential election. Trump suggested that intelligence officials postponed an " 'intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' " that they were set to deliver to him this week because they might need more time "to build a case." He called the alleged delay "very strange." Trump tweeted Wednesday , "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!" Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! Trump said last week that he would receive an intelligence briefing on the Russian breaches this week and suggested it would come early on, telling reporters on New Year's Eve that they would know more about the subject "Tuesday or Wednesday." But US intelligence officials disputed Trump's tweet alleging a delay. Top US intelligence officials have been scheduled to brief Trump on the full report on Russian hacking President Barack Obama ordered once it was completed, but the meeting was not set to take place until later in the week, according to US officials. The meeting was never scheduled for Tuesday, as even Obama has yet to receive the full-fledged briefing on the Russian hacking, one US official said. And a US intelligence official told CNN that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was never scheduled to be in New York City, where Trump is, on Tuesday -- and was perplexed about the "delay" Trump claimed was taking place. Trump on Tuesday did receive a classified intelligence briefing -- the Presidential Daily Briefing -- which Trump has elected to receive only sporadically. But it did not dive deeply into the Russian hacking. US officials briefed on the matter said Clapper, National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers, FBI Director James Comey and CIA Director John Brennan are scheduled to attend the meeting with Trump providing him details on the Russian hacking. While Obama met with the heads of US intelligence agencies in his first weeks as president-elect, Trump has yet to do so eight weeks after he was elected, which US officials said was due to Trump's scheduling conflicts. Instead, the President-elect has repeatedly questioned their assessment of Russian cyber activity. Before the election, when 17 US intelligence agencies issued a public statement concluding that Russia orchestrated the hack of the Democratic National Committee, Trump immediately cast doubt on those conclusions, arguing it was impossible to distinguish between a Russian government operative and "somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds." After Obama then slapped a series of sanctions on Russia, Trump issued a statement calling for the country to "move on to bigger and better things" and then tweeted praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin for not retaliating against the sanctions. Trump continued his skepticism on New Year's Eve, telling reporters once again that it "could be somebody else." "I know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove," he said. He added that he also knows "things that other people don't know, so they can't be sure of the situation." On Tuesday, Russia again denied intervening in the US election campaign. Reacting to a US intelligence official who told CNN the administration traced the hack to specific keyboards, which featured Cyrillic characters, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said: "I don't understand what this means exactly but Cyrillic characters can be used everywhere." "Once again I reject any possibility that official Russia can be involved in any way," he added. ||||| Image copyright AP President-elect Donald Trump has backed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in casting doubt on intelligence alleging Russian meddling in the US election. Mr Assange said Russia was not the source for the site's mass leak of emails from the Democratic Party. Mr Trump has now backed that view in a tweet. He wrote: "Assange... said Russians did not give him the info!" The president-elect has repeatedly refused to accept the conclusions of the US intelligence community. Several US agencies including the FBI and the CIA believe Russia directed hacks against the Democratic Party and the campaign of its presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The information, released through Wikileaks and other outlets, was intended to help Mr Trump win the election, say the FBI and CIA. On Tuesday evening, Mr Trump said an intelligence briefing he was due to receive on the issue had been delayed. "Perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" he wrote. But US intelligence officials insisted there had been no delay in the briefing schedule. In an interview with Fox News, Mr Assange repeated his claim that Russia was not behind the leak. He also said a 14-year-old could have carried out one of the hacks, on the email account of John Podesta, a top aide of Mrs Clinton. In 2010, several leading Republican figures were calling for the Wikileaks founder to be imprisoned after his website published thousands of embarrassing diplomatic cables leaked by former Army Pte Chelsea Manning. Mr Trump tweeted twice on Wednesday morning in support of what Mr Assange said on Fox News. Image copyright Twitter Image copyright Twitter However, Mr Trump has previously been critical of the Wikileaks organisation. When asked by a Fox News reporter in 2010 to comment on leaks, he responded: "I think it's disgraceful, I think there should be like death penalty or something." In another development, Mr Trump's pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has agreed he will cut all ties with Exxon Mobil and comply with conflict-of-interest requirements. He departs with a $180m retirement package. Ethics row Meanwhile, Republicans have ditched a plan to gut the independent body that investigates political misconduct after a backlash. The lawmakers' surprise vote to strip the Office of Congressional Ethics of its independence prompted public uproar and a dressing down from Mr Trump on Twitter. The secretive move, which overshadowed the first day of the 115th Congress, was reversed in an emergency meeting. The ethics body was set up in 2008 following a slew of scandals that resulted in several House lawmakers being jailed. Mr Trump made cleaning up corruption in Washington a key theme of his campaign. Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan had argued unsuccessfully against the rule change, which was adopted on Monday night in a closed-door meeting. As the news spread, internet searches for "who is my representative" rocketed, according to Google Trends, and constituents tried to call and email lawmakers to object. House Republicans called an emergency meeting and abruptly voted to undo the change. ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

– Donald Trump launched what the BBC describes as a "fresh assault on America's intelligence community" with a tweet Tuesday night accusing them of delaying a briefing—and putting "intelligence" in quotes. "The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case," Trump tweeted. "Very strange!" Officials, however, tell CNN that the briefing had never been scheduled for Tuesday, and even President Obama has yet to receive the final report from top intelligence officials on the alleged Russian hacking of the presidential election. Officials say Trump or his team may have mistakenly thought his regular intelligence briefing Tuesday would be the Russia-related one. A senior intelligence official tells NBC News that the director of national intelligence and heads of the NSA, CIA, and FBI are among those scheduled to meet with Trump on Friday. The Washington Post reports that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump's attitude toward intelligence services "really dumb" Tuesday night. "Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you," he told Rachel Maddow. "From what I am told, they are very upset with how he has treated them and talked about them." A source tells the Post that the report on Russian hacking could be on Obama's desk as soon as Thursday. A declassified version might be released to the public early next week, the source says. (At least one Trump adviser disagrees with the president-elect's skepticism.)

ATHENS Greece's banking stocks plunged for the second day in a row on Tuesday, holding down the main Athens index which otherwise turned the corner after the previous day's record rout. Nineteen of the exchange's 25 blue-chip stocks rose on the day, and the main index .ATG, of which around 20 percent is banks, was down only 1.2 percent. Officials said they expected the coming days would see trading calm down. With lenders in dire need of recapitalization after a flight of euros from deposits for most of this year, the banking index .FTATBNK closed down more than 29 percent, effectively at its 30 percent daily loss limit at which trading is halted. It was at that limit on Monday. Many non-financial sector indexes gained on Tuesday. The blue chip retail sector .FTATRET, for example, was up more than 11 percent, driven by a similar rise in its main component, international jewelry chain Folie Folie (HDFr.AT). The gains in non-financials suggested that historically low valuations were attracting investors and that fears of further turmoil between Greece and its international lenders were primarily consigned to banks. "The second day of trading showed clear signs we are moving towards a normalization of the market after the long shutdown," said Socrates Lazaridis, chief executive officer of Hellenic Exchanges. Among gainers were gaming group OPAP (OPAr.AT), up 4.2 percent, and Aegean Airlines (AGNr.AT), 8.8 percent. The main index lost 16.2 percent, around 8 billion euros in value, on Monday, the first day of trading after a five-week shutdown taken as a protective measure as indebted Greece sought to hang on to euro zone membership. There was no spillover evident from Greece's bank woes to other European markets. Many investors have cut their exposure to Greece and are focusing more on the state of core markets such as Germany and France. FEAR FOR THE FUTURE Even with Tuesday's non-bank gains, stocks have fallen to roughly the level they were at in 1990 and, while not as low as they were in 2012, are some 52 percent down on last year's high. "Logically the market should be close to bottoming out at these levels after such a fall. Banks have been a drag on the benchmark index, given dilution fears in view of their need to recapitalizes," said Costis Morianos, head of Athens-based Asset Wise Capital Management. Athens is in new bailout talks with its European Union partners and the threat of political and economic instability remains high. There have, however, been signs of progress. Greece said it expects to conclude a bailout deal with international lenders by Aug. 18, with the drafting of the accord starting on Wednesday. Its finance minister went further: "Everything will be concluded this week," Euclid Tsakalotos told reporters after meeting representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the euro zone's rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism. He did not elaborate and it was not immediately clear what level of agreement he was referring to. It has been estimated by both the banks themselves and the creditors that between 10 billion and 25 billion euros ($11 billion-27.5 billion) is needed to recapitalizes Greek banks. The economy, meanwhile, has reversed course and is heading back into recession. The European Commission says it will shrink by 2 to 4 percent this year, a return to the recession that plagued Greece for six years until 2014. A survey on Monday showed Greek manufacturing activity plunged to a record low as new orders plummeted and the three-week bank shutdown caused serious supply problems. At the same time, Greece's economic sentiment hit its lowest in almost three years in July, a monthly report by the IOBE think tank said. ($1 = 0.9108 euros) (Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — Yes, your mutual fund may own some Greek stocks. No, most likely not a lot. An employee of the Athens' Stock Exchange stands behind a reception desk in Athens, Greece, on Monday, Aug. 3, 2015. Greece's main stock index plunged over 22 percent as it reopened Monday after a five-week... (Associated Press) Athens burst back into the spotlight Monday after its main stock index plunged 16 percent. The spasm of selling came after investors got their first chance to unload shares since the Greek stock market shut down five weeks ago. But U.S. investors have relatively little to fear from the crash, even though there's a good chance they're in a mutual fund that has some Greek stocks. That's because funds typically keep only an iota of their portfolios there. Consider funds that specialize in emerging markets, the type where it's most likely to see a Greek company. The average such fund with Greek stocks in its portfolio has just 0.5 percent of its holdings in them, according to the latest data from Morningstar. Across all categories, the average amount is 0.3 percent, not including funds that are entirely clear of Greek stocks. That's why investors are more worried about the effects that Greece's debt problems will have on the rest of Europe than about Greece itself. — WHICH TYPES OF FUNDS TYPICALLY HAVE GREEK STOCKS? International stock funds, unsurprisingly. Roughly 19 percent of them have at least one stock from the debt-wracked country. Nearly 40 percent of emerging-market stock funds have Greek investments. — HOW ABOUT OUTSIDE FOREIGN STOCK FUNDS? Even funds that don't sound like they dabble in foreign markets can have Greek holdings. Consider those specializing in master limited partnerships, which are popular with income investors and usually invest in U.S. pipeline operators. Five of the category's 29 funds have some Greek stocks, mostly shipping companies. Nearly 200 funds that Morningstar classifies as U.S. stock funds have some Greek holdings. But, again, the percentages are small: an average of just 0.4 percent. — WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST GREEK STOCKS? The largest companies in Athens' main index include bottling company Coca-Cola HBC, Hellenic Telecom and the Greek Organization of Football Prognostics, a sports betting and lottery company.

– At this rate, Greek banks may soon start to look like a canny investment. The Athens Stock Exchange had its worst drop on record yesterday when it reopened after being closed for more than a month, and things have not improved in early trading at the main Greek stock market today, reports Reuters. The index as a whole is down 4%, but the four main banks are down almost 30%. That is the maximum single-day fall allowed, and comes on top of a 30% fall yesterday. But US investors don't have too much to worry about, reports the AP: There is a good chance your mutual fund includes some Greek holdings, but even funds that specialize in emerging markets typically have only around 0.5% invested in Greece.

In this photo taken Friday, March 17, 2017, Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, attend a joint news conference... (Associated Press) In this photo taken Friday, March 17, 2017, Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, attend a joint news conference with the president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the East Room of the White House in Washington.... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Cementing her role as a powerful White House influence, Ivanka Trump is working out of a West Wing office and will get access to classified information, though she is not technically serving as a government employee, according to an attorney for the first daughter. Since President Donald Trump took office, his eldest daughter has been a visible presence in the White House, where her husband, Jared Kushner, already serves as a senior adviser. On Friday, she participated in a meeting on vocational training with the president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Jamie Gorelick, an attorney and ethics adviser for Ivanka Trump, said Monday that the first daughter will not have an official title, but will get a West Wing office, government-issued communications devices and security clearance to access classified information. Gorelick said Ivanka Trump would follow the ethics rules that apply to government employees. "Our view is that the conservative approach is for Ivanka to voluntarily comply with the rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not," said Gorelick, who also helped Kushner with the legal strategy that led to his White House appointment. "The White House Counsel's Office agrees with that approach." Ivanka Trump's role has already come under scrutiny because there is little precedent for a member of the first family with this kind of influence. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A person with knowledge of Ivanka Trump's thinking, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations, said she believes she can offer more independent perspective to her father by not serving as a White House staffer. A popular surrogate for her father on the campaign trail, Ivanka Trump moved her young family to Washington at the start of the administration and signaled plans to work on economic issues, like maternity leave and child care. In a statement, she said: "I will continue to offer my father my candid advice and counsel, as I have for my entire life." Federal anti-nepotism laws prevent relatives from being appointed to government positions. But the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel recently said the president's "special hiring authority" allowed him to appoint Kushner to the West Wing staff. Gorelick noted the office also made clear that the president could consult family members as private citizens, arguing that this is what Ivanka Trump will be doing. The first daughter has sought to distance herself from the Trump Organization and her lifestyle brand, which offers shoes, clothing and jewelry. She has removed herself from executive roles and will have a more hands-off approach to the brand — though she will still get certain information and will have the power to veto new deals if they raise ethical red flags. Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor who served as President George W. Bush's chief White House lawyer on ethics, said that Ivanka Trump is effectively working as a White House employee. He said that "means that she, like her husband, has to follow the rules. It's not a huge deal if she stays out of things that affect her financial interests." Painter said that means Trump should avoid anything to do with foreign trade with countries where her products are made, as well as recuse herself from real estate matters, given Kushner's family real estate business. Trump says she will follow ethics rules and some of her financial information will be included in Kushner's official disclosures. She would have to disclose additional financial information if she were in a senior White House role, said Painter. That could include more details about her lifestyle brand, including her contracts and income. Attorney Andrew Herman, who has advised lawmakers on ethics issues, said he thought the administration should make her role official. He said: "I think the right way to do that is to make her a special government employee. But that implicates all kind of formal and disclosure issues." Ivanka Trump continues to own her brand. But she has handed daily management to the company president and has set up a trust to provide further oversight. The business cannot make deals with any foreign state, and the trustees will confer with Gorelick over any new agreements. Ivanka Trump will also be able to veto proposed new transactions. Ivanka Trump has also barred the business from using her image to promote the products in advertising or marketing. To be sure, the trustees are in the family — her husband's siblings Joshua Kushner and Nicole Meyer. But Gorelick said the goal of the trust wasn't to shield Trump from everything, but to remove her from the day-to-day operations. She also acknowledged that the arrangement did not eliminate conflicts, but she said Trump is trying to minimize them and will recuse herself from any administration decision-making that affects her business. With the Trump Organization, Ivanka Trump has stepped down from a leadership role and will receive fixed payments rather than a share of the profits. Ivanka Trump has also written a book, "Women Who Work," that will be released in May. The proceeds and royalties will be donated to charity, Gorelick said. ||||| Ivanka Trump, who moved to Washington saying she would play no formal role in her father’s administration, is now officially setting up shop in the White House. The powerful first daughter has secured her own office on the West Wing’s second floor — a space next to senior adviser Dina Powell, who was recently promoted to a position on the National Security Council. She is also in the process of obtaining a security clearance and is set to receive government-issued communications devices this week. Story Continued Below In everything but name, Trump is settling in as what appears to be a full-time staffer in her father’s administration, with a broad and growing portfolio — except she is not being sworn in, will hold no official position and is not pocketing a salary, her attorney said. Trump’s role, according to her attorney Jamie Gorelick, will be to serve as the president’s “eyes and ears” while providing broad-ranging advice, not just limited to women’s empowerment issues. Last week, for instance, Trump raised eyebrows when she was seated next to Angela Merkel for the German chancellor’s first official visit to Trump’s White House. As her role in the White House grows — a role that comes with no playbook — Trump plans to adhere to the same ethics and records retention rules that apply to government employees, Gorelick said, even though she is not technically an employee. But ethics watchdogs immediately questioned whether she is going far enough to eliminate conflicts of interest, especially because she will not be automatically subjected to certain ethics rules while serving as a de facto White House adviser. "Having an adult child of the president who is actively engaged in the work of the administration is new ground,” Gorelick conceded in an interview on Monday. “Our view is that the conservative approach is for Ivanka to voluntarily comply with the rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not.” A spokeswoman for Ivanka Trump said her role was signed off on by the White House counsel’s office, and the conflict issues were “worked through” with the office of government ethics. A White House spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment about the unique arrangement. People close to Ivanka Trump said that she sees nothing unusual about the arrangement — it’s simply how she has worked with her father for years, as a senior official at the Trump Organization and as Donald Trump’s partner on “The Apprentice.” But in the White House, the unprecedented arrangement for a child of the president has raised new questions about potential conflicts of interest — and about why Ivanka Trump can’t simply join the administration as a government employee. Her husband, Jared Kushner, serves as an official senior adviser in the White House and was sworn in, but his hiring also raised questions of whether it violated anti-nepotism laws. The Justice Department ruled that those laws applied only to agency appointments. Ivanka Trump still owns her eponymous fashion and jewelry brand, even though she stepped down from her position at the company ahead of her father’s inauguration. She is also publishing a book, “Women Who Work,” which is due out in May. "I will continue to offer my father my candid advice and counsel, as I have for my entire life,” Trump said in a statement. “While there is no modern precedent for an adult child of the president, I will voluntarily follow all of the ethics rules placed on government employees." The arrangement, however, was greeted with more questions about what freedoms Trump was trying to preserve for herself — and why. “They're not saying she's going to voluntarily subject herself to ethics rules to be nice,” said Norm Eisen, the former ethics czar in the Obama administration. “There’s recognition that they're in very uncertain territory here. The better thing to do would be to concede she is subject to the rules. It would create some outside accountability, because if she can voluntarily subject herself to the rules, she can voluntarily un-subject herself to the rules.” The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. Under the new rules, Trump has divested her common stock, tech investments, investment funds — and they will all appear on Kushner’s 278 financial disclosure form, required by all Cabinet nominees. Bloomberg News reported on Monday afternoon that Trump and Kushner sold as much as $36.7 million in assets to comply with federal ethics rules, according to the Office of Government Ethics. But when it comes to divesting from her business, however, Gorelick admitted there is no way to make it a conflict-free zone. “The one thing I would like to be clear on: we don’t believe it eliminates conflicts in every way,” Gorelick said. “She has the conflicts that derive from the ownership of this brand. We’re trying to minimize those to the extent possible." Gorelick argued that the area is murky because outstanding contracts with third party vendors mean that Ivanka Trump cannot simply close her business — those vendors could continue using her brand. She also can’t sell the business, her attorney argued, because the buyer would have the right to license her name and potentially create other ethical issues. Instead, Trump will be distancing herself, as much as possible, from the day-to-day operations of the Ivanka Trump brand and convey her interests to a trust. The trust, Gorelick said, will be controlled by her brother-in-law, Josh Kushner, and her sister-in-law, Nicole Meyer, who will be prohibited from entering the brand into any agreements with foreign countries or agencies. Ivanka Trump has appointed Abigail Klem to serve as president of her company, overseeing the day-to-day operations, and prohibited the company from using her image to sell the brand. The first daughter, however, will retain veto power to kill any deals that would be “unacceptable from an ethics perspective.” Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, will also serve as the outside ethics adviser to the trustees. The business will also be prohibited from using her image to market the brand. Under the trust, her attorneys said, Ivanka Trump will receive only the information she needs for disclosure requirements and to facilitate compliance with conflict of interest and impartiality rules. As for the money she will make from her book, Trump is planning to donate the royalties and net proceeds to charities that focus on women in the workforce, with the help of a donor-advised fund. The measures that Ivanka Trump is undergoing to comply with federal ethics laws, ethics watchdogs said, are better than nothing. But they argued they are weak in the face of the flagrant violations of ethics standards by the president. Donald Trump’s hotels and golf courses, for instance, continue to engage in business with foreign and national groups that have interests in front of the White House. “You might be inclined to view this differently and more generously if the White House had shown a stronger commitment to ethics enforcement,” Eisen said.

– Cementing her role as a powerful White House influence, Ivanka Trump is working out of a West Wing office and will get access to classified information, though she is not technically serving as a government employee. Jamie Gorelick, an attorney and ethics adviser for Ivanka Trump, said Monday that the first daughter will not have an official title or receive a salary, but will get a West Wing office, government-issued communications devices, and security clearance to access classified information, the AP reports. Gorelick says Ivanka Trump will follow the ethics rules that apply to government employees. Since President Trump took office, his eldest daughter has been a visible presence in the White House, where her husband, Jared Kushner, serves as a senior adviser. Her role has already come under scrutiny because there is little precedent for a member of the first family with this kind of influence. "Having an adult child of the president who is actively engaged in the work of the administration is new ground,” Gorelick tells Politico. "Our view is that the conservative approach is for Ivanka to voluntarily comply with the rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not." (Ivanka Trump's clothing brand has had a surge in sales so far this year.)

Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story Last week’s major chemical spill into West Virginia’s Elk River, which cut off water to more than 300,000 people, came in a state with a long and troubled history of regulating the coal and chemical companies that form the heart of its economy. “We can’t just point a single finger at this company,” said Angela Rosser, the executive director of West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “We need to look at our entire system and give some serious thought to making some serious reform and valuing our natural resources over industry interests.” She said lawmakers have yet to explain why the storage facility was allowed to sit on the river and so close to a water treatment plant that is the largest in the state. Ms. Rosser and others noted that the site of the spill has not been subject to a state or federal inspection since 1991. West Virginia law does not require inspections for chemical storage facilities — only for production facilities. Some other states do require inspections of chemical storage facilities. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said he was working with Randy Huffman, the secretary of the State Department of Environmental Protection, to come up with recommendations aimed at avoiding future leaks. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported Sunday that a team of experts from the United States Chemical Safety Board asked the state three years ago to create a new program to prevent accidents and releases in the Kanawha Valley, known as Chemical Valley. That came after investigation of the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two workers at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute, W.Va. No program was produced, and another team from the same board is expected to arrive Monday to investigate this accident. Critics say the problems are widespread in a state where the coal and chemical industries, which drive much of West Virginia’s economy and are powerful forces in the state’s politics, have long pushed back against tight federal health, safety and environmental controls. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “West Virginia has a pattern of resisting federal oversight and what they consider E.P.A. interference, and that really puts workers and the population at risk,” said Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a lecturer in environmental health at George Washington University. But Mr. Huffman disputed that accusation, noting that West Virginia’s economy is more heavily dependent than other states on the coal and chemical industries. “Based upon the types of industrial activity, how does it compare to the rest of the country? It’s not in context.” Although he added, “That’s no excuse for any incident where someone gets hurt.” Efforts to clean up the spill showed signs of improvement on Sunday. “The numbers look good, and like last night, they are very encouraging,” Governor Tomblin said in a news conference on Sunday. “I believe we’re at a point where we can say we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel.” Officials said tests conducted at a water treatment plant downstream from the site of the leak showed little to no traces of contamination on Sunday morning, allowing testing to move to the next phase. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Advertisement Continue reading the main story Once the testing is complete, the water company plans to begin lifting the do-not-use ban by zones. The work will start in downtown Charleston and three other “priority zones” that include the city’s four major hospitals and 25,000 customers who use more than half of the company’s water, said Jeff McIntyre, the president of West Virginia American Water. “I don’t believe we’re several days from starting the lift, but I’m saying not today,” Mr. McIntyre said. Government offices and many businesses planned to reopen on Monday, while many schools in the affected areas would remain closed, officials said. “Stores are open,” said Jimmy Gianato, the state director of homeland security. “We’re starting to get back to normal.” Emergency rooms have treated about 169 patients for symptoms related to chemical exposure, said Karen Bowling, the state health secretary. Ten people were admitted to three hospitals with symptoms that were not life threatening, she said. The chemical in last Thursday’s spill was 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, known as MCHM. The leak at the Elk River storage facility came from a ruptured tank storing this chemical, which is used to wash coal. No charges have been filed against Freedom Industries, the company that owns the plant, but the United States attorney’s office has already begun an investigation into the spill. “Whenever you have a discharge of a pollutant or a hazardous substance you have potential violation of the environmental laws,” said Booth Goodwin, the United States attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, according to a news report on WVVA.com. This is not the first chemical accident to hit West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley. After an explosion at a West Virginia chemical plant owned by Bayer CropScience killed two employees in 2008, a 2010 congressional investigation found that managers refused for several hours to tell emergency responders the nature of the blast or the toxic chemical it released. It also found that they later misused a law intended to keep information from terrorists to try to stop federal investigators from learning what had happened. The plant manufactured the same chemical that was being processed at the time of a gas release in 1984 that killed 10,000 in Bhopal, India. West Virginia is also no stranger to accidents in the coal industry. In 2012, federal prosecutors charged David C. Hughart, a top executive at Massey Energy, a West Virginia coal operator, with a felony count and a second misdemeanor conspiracy count related to the deaths of 29 coal miners in a 2009 explosion at West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine. Prosecutors said that Mr. Hughart and others knowingly conspired to violate safety laws at Massey’s mines and worked to hide those violations by giving advance warnings of surprise inspections by the Mine Safety and Health Administration. In 2009, an investigation by The New York Times found that hundreds of workplaces in West Virginia had violated pollution laws without paying fines. In interviews at the time, current and former West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection employees said their enforcement efforts had been undermined by bureaucratic disorganization; a departmental preference to let polluters escape punishment if they promised to try harder; and a revolving door of regulators who left for higher-paying jobs at the companies they once policed. In June 2009, four environmental groups petitioned the E.P.A. to take over much of West Virginia’s handling of the Clean Water Act, citing a “nearly complete breakdown” in the state. “Historically, there had been a questionable enforcement ethic,” said Matthew Crum, a former state mining director at the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. Cindy Rank, chairwoman of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy’s mining committee, said that the coal lobby has wielded great influence in crafting state environmental regulations. “Accidents are always preventable. For the most part I think that’s true in these disasters that keep happening,” she said. She recalled negotiations over a groundwater protection bill from the early 1990s. “We swallowed hard and allowed the coal industry to get away with a lot in that bill,” she said. ||||| Hundreds of thousands of West Virginia residents have gone more than four days without clean tap water after a chemical spill, though officials say that chemical readouts are returning to safe levels. NBC's Anne Thompson reports. The latest tests of poisoned water in West Virginia have shown that the quality is improving “in the right direction,” the state’s governor said Sunday — a hopeful sign for the 300,000 residents currently under a strict tap water ban following a chemical spill four days ago. "We are at a point where we can see a light at the end of the tunnel," Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said at a news conference. But officials stopped short of saying when the do-not-use order would be lifted. "I can tell you we’re not several days from starting to lift, but I’m not saying today," said Jeff McIntyre, president of West Virginia American Water, which runs the water treatment plant. The chemical spill first noticed Thursday on the Elk River has contaminated the water supply in the heart of the state, shutting down schools and businesses across nine counties, and forcing emergency agencies to truck in clean water to the Charleston region. Lt. Col. Greg Grant of the West Virginia National Guard said two tests Sunday morning at the treatment facility show the chemical’s concentration at 0 parts-per-million for water going in and out of the plant. Before the all clear can be given once and for all, water sample test results must consistently show that the chemical’s presence in the public water system is at or below 1 parts-per-million, the level recommended by federal agencies. "That is a very encouraging and allows us to move forward" with the next phase of sampling and testing, Grant said. Sixteen teams were collecting samples from affected areas in the region, and officials cautioned that the ban won’t be lifted until results were in and the state health department signs off. Communities will be given the OK on a zone-by-zone basis. Marcus Constantino / The Daily Mail via AP Members of the West Virginia Army National Guard, along with a member of the Belle Police Department and a volunteer, offload emergency water from a military truck to a forklift as citizens line up Saturday for water at the Belle Fire Department in Belle, W.Va. West Virginia American Water is launching an online map to show which communities can begin using their tap water. The company will also autodial customers when the ban in their zone has been lifted. A hotline is also being made available to them. Schools will also be closed or partially closed in six counties Monday, although officials expect most students to be back in classrooms by Tuesday. The reliance on bottled water is taking its toll on frustrated residents who’ve stripped stores and spent hours in long lines to collect water from tankers set up by the National Guard. Until the water is deemed safe, residents have been asked not to drink, bathe and cook with the tainted tap. The environmental emergency began Thursday morning, when the state Department of Environmental Protection began receiving complaints around 8:15 a.m. of a licorice-type odor in the tap water. It took three hours before officials found the source of the spill. The source turned out to be the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, which had leaked out of a 40,000-gallon tank at a Freedom Industries facility along the Elk River. Freedom Industries didn’t report the leak to a spill hotline until 12:05 p.m. ET Thursday. State officials said Saturday they believe about 7,500 gallons leaked. Some of the chemical was contained before flowing into the river; it’s not clear exactly how much entered the water supply. All told, 169 people have sought treatment at hospitals for symptoms such as nausea. Of those, 10 were admitted to three different hospitals, but their conditions weren’t serious. Federal authorities, including the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, have opened an investigation into Thursday’s spill. According to the state DEP, Freedom Industries is exempt from DEP inspections and permitting since it stores chemicals, and doesn’t produce them. But the DEP ordered Freedom Industries to move its coal processing chemicals to a safer site and said it has 24 hours to start writing a plan on how it will clean up the spill and any soil contamination. The company did not take part in Sunday’s news conference, and Gov. Tomblin said the state hasn’t had much guidance from the company about the chemical in question. "Perhaps they could have been a little bit more forthcoming to offer their assistance about what problems this particular chemical could cause," Tomblin said. Tomblin said he will work with his environmental agency chief on tightening regulation of chemical storage facilities in the current legislative session. Most visitors have cleared out of Charleston while locals are either staying home or driving out of the area to find a hot meal or a shower elsewhere. Orders not to use tap water for much other than flushing toilets mean that the spill is an emergency not just for the environment but for local businesses. Lisa Hechesky / Reuters Boats sit in the Elk River in front of the Freedom Industries plant in Charleston, W. Va., on Saturday. In downtown Charleston, the store Taylor Books usually fills the 40 seats in its cafe. But the cafe was shut down by the state Department of Health on Friday because it said employees had no way to safely wash their hands before serving customers. On Saturday only three people sat in the bookstore using the wireless Internet. Taylor Books' manager Dan Carlisle said he canceled a musician scheduled to play that night and the store was going to close five hours early. “It’s pretty annoying,” Carlisle said about Freedom Industries’ response to the spill. “I feel like you should just be honest with people immediately.” In a statement issued Friday, Freedom Industries said that it was working with government agencies to contain the leak, and “the first priority was safety, containment and cleanup.” The chemical spill has forced West Virginia's residents to examine the state's reliance on the coal and chemical industries. Coal is critical to the economy. Strong coal prices and demand proved vital to the state budget during and after the national recession, from 2009 through 2011. In Gov. Tomblin's recent State-of-the-State speech, he touted the chemical industry, saying it was among those that grew substantially over the last year. The spill that tainted the water supply involved a chemical used in coal processing. But it didn't involve a coal mine — and that's a point state officials are trying to convey to the public. When asked if the emergency is one of the risks of being a state that relies heavily on the coal industry, Tomblin quickly responded: "This was not a coal company incident, this was a chemical company incident." "It's used in processing coal, as I understand it, but obviously it was not a coal company, it was a chemical company that left the breach and the tanks that's holding this particular chemical," he said. The coal industry, too, was saying they should not bear the blame in this case. "This is a chemical spill accident. It just so happens that the chemical has some applications to the coal industry, just that fact alone shouldn't cause people to point fingers at the coal industry," said Jason Bostic, vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

– The chemical spill that has left more than 300,000 people in West Virginia without water appears to be the product of lax regulation in a state where coal and chemical firms have long operated with little oversight, the New York Times finds. A document released over the weekend reveals state authorities were aware that the company responsible was storing up to a million pounds of the coal-cleaning chemical Crude MCHM at a riverside facility near a water treatment plant, but it's not clear whether the treatment plant knew about the risk, reports the Wall Street Journal. "We can’t just point a single finger at this company," says the director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, noting that the site of the spill hadn't been inspected since 1991. "We need to look at our entire system and give some serious thought to making some serious reform and valuing our natural resources over industry interests." A tap water ban is still in place in the Charleston region, where many schools and businesses remain closed, but authorities say they can "see the light at the end of the tunnel" and they expect the ban to be lifted within days, starting in downtown Charleston and other priority zones, NBC reports.

Move Comes as Part of FDA’s Safety Advisory Regarding Grain Craft Flour Recall Hostess Brands, LLC is voluntarily recalling 710,000 cases of select snack cakes and donuts as a direct result of the recent recall by our supplier, Grain Craft, of certain lots of its flour for undeclared peanut residue. The Hostess Brands products subject to the recall were produced using the Grain Craft flour that has now been recalled and, as a result, these products may contain low levels of undeclared peanut residue. More information about the Grain Craft recall can be found on the FDA’s website at: http://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/SafetyAlertsAdvisories/ucm504002.htm. While those who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to peanuts run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume products containing peanut allergens, the amount of peanut exposure from use of the flours and affected products is considered to be low and not expected to cause adverse health effects in the vast majority of peanut allergic consumers. To date, Hostess has received notice of two allergic reactions related to the product covered by this recall. Out of an abundance of caution, we are recalling the specific products listed on the attachment. This recall applies only to the products listed. This recall does not affect any other Hostess Brands products. Variety Item UPC Batch Best Buy Date Chocodile Multi FSH 888109110499 D033124000 6/4/2016 D040624000 6/10/2016 D040724000 6/11/2016 D041324000 6/17/2016 D041424000 7/6/2016 888109110499 D033124000 6/4/2016 D041324000 6/17/2016 D041424000 6/18/2016 Chocodile Multi FZN 888109110499 D033124000 N/A D040624000 N/A D041324000 N/A Chocodile Snack FSH 888109010492 D033124000 6/4/2016 D040624000 6/10/2016 D041324000 6/17/2016 D041424000 6/18/2016 888109010492 D033124000 6/4/2016 D040624000 6/10/2016 D041324000 6/17/2016 Chocodile Snack FZN 888109010492 D040624000 N/A D040724000 N/A D041324000 N/A Ding Dong Multi FSH 888109110611 D032924000 6/2/2016 D033024000 6/3/2016 D040424000 6/8/2016 D040524000 6/9/2016 D040624000 6/10/2016 D041124000 6/15/2016 D041224000 6/16/2016 D041324000 7/6/2016 888109110611 D040424000 6/8/2016 D041124000 6/15/2016 Ding Dong Multi FZN 888109110611 D040424000 N/A D041124000 N/A D041224000 N/A Ding Dong Snack FSH 888109010027 D032924000 6/2/2016 D040424000 6/8/2016 D041124000 6/15/2016 888109010027 D040424000 6/8/2016 D041124000 6/15/2016 Ding Dong Snack FZN 888109010027 D040424000 N/A D041124000 N/A Zinger Chocolate Multi FSH 888109110581 D040124000 6/5/2016 D040824000 6/12/2016 D040924000 6/13/2016 Zinger Chocolate Multi FZN 888109110581 D040124000 N/A D040824000 N/A Zinger Chocolate Snack FSH 888109300036 D040124000 6/5/2016 D040824000 6/12/2016 888109010058 D040124000 6/5/2016 D040824000 6/12/2016 D040924000 6/13/2016 Zinger Chocolate Snack FZN 888109300036 D040124000 N/A D040824000 N/A 888109000202 D040124000 N/A 888109010058 D040824000 N/A 888109000356 D040124000 N/A Zinger Ras Multi FSH 888109110604 D040924000 6/13/2016 D041024000 6/14/2016 D041524000 6/19/2016 D041624000 6/20/2016 Zinger Ras Multi FZN 888109110604 D040924000 N/A D041524000 N/A Zinger Ras Snack FSH 888109010089 D041024000 6/14/2016 D041524000 6/19/2016 D041624000 6/20/2016 Zinger Ras Snack FZN 888109010089 D040924000 N/A D041024000 N/A D041524000 N/A Zinger Van Multi FSH 888109110598 D033124000 6/4/2016 D040124000 6/5/2016 D040724000 6/11/2016 D041424000 6/18/2016 D041524000 6/19/2016 Zinger Van Multi FZN 888109110598 D040724000 N/A Zinger Van Snack FSH 888109300029 D033124000 6/4/2016 D041524000 6/19/2016 888109010119 D040124000 6/5/2016 D040724000 6/11/2016 D040824000 6/12/2016 D041524000 6/19/2016 Zinger Van Snack FZN 888109300029 D041424000 N/A D041524000 N/A 888109010119 D033124000 N/A D040124000 N/A D040724000 N/A D041524000 N/A Chocolate Donut BG FSH 888109150020 D031821000 5/22/2016 D031821001 6/22/2016 D031824001 6/29/2016 D031921000 5/23/2016 D031924000 6/29/2016 D032021000 5/24/2016 D032024000 6/29/2016 D041124000 6/15/2016 D041224000 6/16/2016 888109150020 D031824000 5/22/2016 D032124000 5/25/2016 D032224000 5/26/2016 D032324000 5/27/2016 D032424000 5/28/2016 D032424001 6/22/2016 D032524000 6/22/2016 D032524001 6/22/2016 D032624001 6/22/2016 D032824000 6/1/2016 D032924000 6/2/2016 D040821000 6/12/2016 D041224000 6/16/2016 D041324000 6/17/2016 D041324001 6/29/2016 D041424000 6/29/2016 888109150020 D032121000 5/25/2016 888109110239 D032021000 5/24/2016 D032121000 5/25/2016 Chocolate Donut SS FSH 888109300067 D032121000 5/25/2016 888109050023 D032121000 5/25/2016 888109050023 D032121000 5/25/2016 Chocolate Donut SS FZN 888109300067 D032121000 N/A 888109050023 D032121000 N/A 888109050023 D032121000 N/A Crunch Donut BG FSH 888109110642 D031924000 5/23/2016 D032524000 5/29/2016 D032624000 5/30/2016 D041424000 6/18/2016 D041524000 6/19/2016 888109110642 D031824000 5/22/2016 D031924000 5/23/2016 D032024000 5/24/2016 D032424000 5/28/2016 D032524000 5/29/2016 D041424000 6/18/2016 888109110642 D031824000 5/22/2016 D031924000 5/23/2016 888109110659 D041324000 6/17/2016 Crunch Donut BG FZN 888109110642 D031924000 N/A D032524000 N/A D041424000 N/A Crunch Donut SS FSH 888109300081 D031921000 5/23/2016 888109050054 D031921000 5/23/2016 D032021000 5/24/2016 D040221000 6/6/2016 888109050054 D031921000 5/23/2016 D040221000 6/6/2016 Crunch Donut SS FZN 888109050054 D031921000 N/A D040221000 N/A 888109000332 D040221000 N/A Devils Food Donut BG FSH 888109150037 D040221000 6/6/2016 D040821000 6/12/2016 Glazed Mini Donut Bag FSH 888109110659 D032124000 5/25/2016 D032824000 6/1/2016 D032924000 6/2/2016 D041124000 6/15/2016 D041224000 6/16/2016 888109110659 D032224000 5/26/2016 D032324000 5/27/2016 D032424000 5/28/2016 D032924000 6/2/2016 D041224000 6/16/2016 D041324000 6/17/2016 D041424000 6/18/2016 888109110659 D032224000 5/26/2016 Glazed Mini Donut Bag FZN 888109110659 D032124000 N/A D032224000 N/A D032824000 N/A D041124000 N/A Maple Donut Bag FSH 888109111243 D032424000 5/28/2016 Powder Donut BG FSH 888109150044 D031821000 5/22/2016 D031821001 6/8/2016 D031824000 6/8/2016 D031921000 5/23/2016 D031921001 6/8/2016 D040221000 6/6/2016 D040821000 6/12/2016 888109150044 D032121000 5/25/2016 D040821000 6/12/2016 888109110246 D031921000 5/23/2016 D032021000 5/24/2016 D032121000 5/25/2016 D040821000 6/12/2016 Powder Donut BG FZN 888109150044 D032121000 N/A D040821000 Powder Donut SS FSH 888109050047 D031821000 5/22/2016 D031921000 5/23/2016 888109050047 D031921000 5/23/2016 D040221000 6/6/2016 D040821000 6/12/2016 888109050047 D031821000 5/22/2016 D040821000 6/12/2016 Powder Donut SS FZN 888109050047 D031821000 N/A D040821000 N/A 888109050047 D040821000 N/A The Hostess Brands products affected by the recall include single serve (snack cakes and donuts), multipack boxes and bagged donuts. The products were sold to mass merchandisers, grocery stores, distributors, dollar stores, drug stores, and convenience stores throughout the United States and Mexico. Anyone who has purchased an affected product and who has a sensitivity or allergy to peanuts is encouraged to discard it or return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact 1-800-686-2813 Monday through Friday from 8 am to 8 pm Central time, and Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 7 pm Central time. Consumers may also visit www.hostesscakes.com . FDA Advisory ### ||||| Hostess Brands and Frito-Lay are recalling some popular snack foods because they may contain undeclared peanut residue, which could be hazardous to people with peanut allergies. Hostess is voluntarily recalling 710,000 cases of certain snack cakes and donuts sold nationwide, including Ding Dongs, Zingers, Chocodiles, and chocolate and powdered donuts. A complete list of the recalled products can be found on the FDA's website. Hostess said in a statement that it is recalling the products "out of an abundance of caution" after its supplier, Grain Craft, informed the company of its own recall of certain lots of flour for undeclared peanut residue. The Hostess products subject to the recall were produced using the now-recalled Grain Craft flour. Frito-Lay issued a voluntary recall of four varieties of Rold Gold pretzels, including select sizes of Tiny Twists, Thins, Sticks and Honey Wheat Braided, which were also made with Grain Craft flour. People suffering from peanut allergy or severe sensitivity run the risk of serious and even life-threatening allergic reactions if they eat products containing peanut allergens. However, the amount of peanut residue in the flour of the affected products is thought to be low and not expected to cause adverse health effects in the vast majority of peanut allergic consumers, Hostess says. To date, Hostess has been notified of two allergic reactions related to the products covered by the recall. ||||| HOSTESS BRANDS, LLC ISSUES RECALL ON POSSIBLE UNDECLARED PEANUT RESIDUE IN CERTAIN SNACK CAKE AND DONUT PRODUCTS Move Comes as Part of FDA’s Safety Advisory Regarding Grain Craft Flour Recall June 3, 2016 -- Hostess Brands, LLC is voluntarily recalling 710,000 cases of select snack cakes and donuts as a direct result of the recent recall by our supplier, Grain Craft, of certain lots of its flour for undeclared peanut residue. The Hostess Brands products subject to the recall were produced using the Grain Craft flour that has now been recalled and, as a result, these products may contain low levels of undeclared peanut residue. More information about the Grain Craft recall can be found on the FDA’s website at: http://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/SafetyAlertsAdvisories/ucm504002.htm. While those who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to peanuts run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume products containing peanut allergens, the amount of peanut exposure from use of the flours and affected products is considered to be low and not expected to cause adverse health effects in the vast majority of peanut allergic consumers. To date, Hostess has received notice of two allergic reactions related to the product covered by this recall. Out of an abundance of caution, we are recalling the specific products listed on the attachment. This recall applies only to the products listed in the attachment. This recall does not affect any other Hostess Brands products. The Hostess Brands products affected by the recall include single serve (snack cakes and donuts), multipack boxes and bagged donuts. The products were sold to mass merchandisers, grocery stores, distributors, dollar stores, drug stores, and convenience stores throughout the United States and Mexico. Anyone who has purchased an affected product and who has a sensitivity or allergy to peanuts is encouraged to discard it or return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact 1-800-686-2813 Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Central time. Consumers may also visit www.hostesscakes.com. For a complete list of recalled products please click here. To leave us your information for product replacement coupons, please visit www.hostessinfo.com

– If you have a peanut allergy, you may want to hold off on opening that box of Ding Dongs. Hostess is recalling 710,000 cases of some of its products over undeclared peanut residue they might contain, CBS News reports. In addition to Ding Dongs, the items being recalled include Zingers, Chocodiles, and a number of different kinds of donuts; the FDA has a complete list including UPC and batch numbers. A Hostess supplier, Grain Craft, told the company it was recalling certain lots of flour due to undeclared peanut residue, and Hostess decided to recall its own products made with that flour "out of an abundance of caution," it says in a statement. Two allergic reactions have been reported so far related to the recalled products.

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. ||||| For a growing number of medical startups, the holy grail is to develop technology that can diagnose hundreds of diseases with a single drop of blood. Many people are squeamish about getting their blood drawn by traditional methods, such as inserting a long needle into a vein. And in developing countries, health clinics are eager for "lab on a chip" diagnostics that can be done without piercing a vein. But researchers are finding myriad challenges with relying on a single blood drop. In a recent experiment, scientists at Rice 360° Institute for Global Health took seven drops of blood from 10 individuals. They tested each blood drop for basic health measures, such as hemoglobin and platelet counts, and found a wide range of results between drops that came from the same person. "These data suggest caution when using measurements from a single drop of fingerprick blood," researchers Meaghan M. Bond and Rebecca R. Richards-Kortum concluded in The American Journal of Clinical Pathology. Bond and Richards-Kortum told the New York Times that in order to achieve results as accurate as conventional methods—the venous blood draw—they had to average six to nine drops of blood from each individual. In recent months, Theranos, a company that hoped to revolutionize the blood-testing industry, has come under fire from federal regulators. Theranos's CEO Elizabeth Holmes once promised to detect dozens of medical conditions, from high cholesterol to cancer, based on a few drops of blood. San Diego-based Genalyte is also working on a diagnostics system to produce test results from a single blood drop. But unlike Theranos, Genalyte has generated a number of peer-reviewed studies to validate its approach. The company is focusing initially on autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

– As doctors shift away from drawing vials of blood from patients and rely on lab-on-a-chip diagnostics that identify a myriad of conditions using a single drop of blood, there's now concern that not all of your blood is equal. A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology suggests "caution when using measurements from a single drop of fingerprick blood," write researchers at Rice 360° Institute for Global Health: Our blood can change rather dramatically from one drop to the next. Researchers tested seven drops of blood from each of 10 participants and analyzed them for basic health metrics such as platelet counts and hemoglobin, and found a pretty wide range of results—so much so that they had to average the results from six to nine drops to rival the accuracy of a larger blood draw from a vein, reports the New York Times. "If you’re going to take a fingerprick stick to get your measures, you need to be aware that you’re sacrificing some accuracy," one of the researchers warns. The results have implications for startups like Theranos and Genalyte, which hope to diagnose diseases using only one drop. Unlike Theranos, however, Genalyte has produced results via peer-reviewed studies on tests to find autoimmune diseases such as lupus, reports Fast Company. (The Theranos founder dropped out of college at 19 to start the company.)

Image copyright AFP Image caption Japanese workers often spend a lot of time with colleagues even after leaving the office Death from overwork in Japan is such a longstanding problem it even has its own word, "karoshi". Now the government and business groups are trying to get workers to take a small step to reclaim their lives by leaving work early one day a month. The scheme, dubbed "Premium Friday", suggests companies make staff go home at 15:00 on the last Friday of the month, starting in February. It has been given renewed impetus by the suicide of a woman who was working more than 100 hours overtime a month at Japan's biggest ad agency, Dentsu. Her death was ruled to be a case of "karoshi" and has led to an investigation, an announcement the firm's chief executive will resign and deep concern in Japan at the country's work culture. But with around 2,000 deaths a year linked to overwork, few believe the voluntary scheme represents anything more than a small step towards changing attitudes and it is unclear how many companies will take it up. Image copyright Premium Friday Image caption Premium Friday has its own logo It is not the first time overwork has been seen as a problem nor the first time anyone has tried to do something about it. Among other initiatives, the government has in the past tried to make employees take more of the leave they are entitled to - Japan's labour ministry says they only take about half - without much success. The number of public holidays in Japan this year increased to 16 in part aimed at forcing people to take breaks. The government has also tried to encourage more flexible hours, allowing government workers to start and leave work early in the summer and even switching off the lights in some offices late in the evening, something Dentsu is also now trying. Workers are increasingly taking the initiative to go home on time some days too, even announcing it on social media to encourage others to do the same. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The death of a Dentsu employee has focused attention on a longstanding problem But while this has helped change the idea that working excessive overtime is necessarily a good thing, none has had a made much of a dent in the hours themselves. Around 22% of the population work more than 49 hours a week according to 2014 figures from the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training, behind South Korea at 35% but ahead of the US, where 16% of workers put in those kind of hours. Why change? For the government and business groups, there is an element of self-interest too. Japan's economy has stagnated for more than two decades. The situation has been made worse by low consumption spending and a very low birth rate, both of which are aggravated by workers spending most of their waking hours at a desk. Productivity and efficiency also suffer from firms having staff perpetually on hand, as companies don't invest in labour-saving technologies. Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, told the BBC that private consumption could rise by as much as 124 billion yen ($1bn; £860m) every Premium Friday if "100%" of those eligible headed home at 3pm on those days. But he stresses no one knows how many people will take up the idea and that total participation is unlikely, which could mean a much smaller boost to the economy. Image copyright AFP Image caption Maybe next time dad can come too - increasing family time is one goal Why would companies and workers not take part? Well, being first to make such a change could be painful. Companies face higher costs and Japanese workers often feel guilty at leaving their colleagues behind. "Japanese workers worry about letting down their colleagues" says Mr Nagahama. "They have a strong sense of working as a team." Having employees work less is especially difficult for Japan's many small businesses, which are battling to keep costs down. The fact that many of them are family-run makes an early walk-out even trickier. Even with Premium Friday, Mr Nagahama points out some employees may make up the time on other days or even do other jobs in their newly-gained leisure time, which would nullify the point of the scheme. It is not even clear if the government ministry behind the idea will be participating, though Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko has reportedly promised that he will not have appointments after 15:00 on those Fridays. Image copyright AFP Image caption The rare sight of office workers enjoying themselves while it is still light could become more common Despite doubts about the scheme, supporters hope the modest goal of an early finish once a month combined with the backing of government and industry will encourage uptake, and eventually more fundamental change in workplace culture. The campaign is also promoting commercial opportunities for restaurants, shops, travel companies and other businesses who could benefit, in the hope that firms will see the benefit of increased leisure time for employees. Of course, changing deeply-rooted attitudes to work will be difficult. Many previous attempts have failed. But ironically the effort might be helped by Japanese workers' declining corporate loyalty. Cut adrift by years of restructuring from the lifetime employment bargain that bound their fathers to a single firm, younger Japanese people may find that the chance to head to the izakaya (pub) a bit earlier some Fridays is just the nudge they need to adopt a better work-life balance. Reporting by Simeon Paterson. ||||| The country that coined the word karoshi (death by overwork) wants companies to let workers finish early on the last Friday of every month so that they can go out and have fun. In an effort to curb excessive work hours and to spur consumption, the government and business groups will launch the Premium Friday campaign on Feb. 24. Although it’s unknown how many companies will participate, the nation’s biggest business lobby, Keidanren, is encouraging its more than 1,300 member companies to take part. One indication of just how tough it is to get change in Japan’s rigid work practices: the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which is pushing the idea, hasn’t decided yet if its officials will get to join in. However, METI chief Hiroshige Seko said, “I’m giving my secretaries a strict order not to put in any appointments after 3 p.m.” on the first Premium Friday. There’s a clear relationship between leisure time, holidays and spending, said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. If most workers, including those at small and medium-size firms participate, private consumption could rise by about ¥124 billion on each Premium Friday, according to his calculations. That may provide some boost to private consumption, which makes up about 60 percent of the economy. However, Nagahama said he is concerned workers at smaller companies may have difficulty leaving early, or that they will simply have to make the time up on other days, limiting the campaign’s impact. Japanese workers typically use just half of their annual paid leave entitlements. In part to work around this problem and enforce time away from work, Japan has 16 annual public holidays, more than countries including the U.S. and France. ||||| Japan’s work culture is notoriously punishing. This is, after all, the country that coined the phrase karoshi, or death by overwork. A much trumpeted labor initiative doesn’t look as though it’s going to change things very much, either. Beginning Feb. 24, the Japanese government and participating business groups will launch the “Premium Friday” campaign to let people leave the office a couple of hours early — but not every Friday. Just the last Friday of each month, Bloomberg reports. The scheme is not mandatory, either, so it is unclear how many enterprises will actually take part. The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) has encouraged its members to sign up, but they comprise a mere 1,300 companies. (There are well over 2.5 million registered businesses in Japan according to figures from 2006.) Even the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which is promoting “Premium Friday,” has not signaled if its staff will participate. “Premium Friday” comes at a time when karoshi is back in the spotlight. Earlier this week, the head of Japan’s biggest ad agency Dentsu (dentsu-inc) resigned over the suicide of Matsuri Takahashi, a young employee who leaped to her death in December 2015 after becoming depressed from overwork. “Death by overwork should never happen. I ask executives to take effective measures to redress (the situation.)” said Keidanren chairman Sadayuki Sakakibara following Takahashi’s suicide, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reports. For more on death by overwork, watch Fortune’s video: According to 2014 figures from the Japan Institute For Labor Policy, Japan has the highest percentage of workers working over 49 hours per week among the G-7 nations. However data from the Japan Productivity Center indicates that the country also has the worst productivity among the group. “Japan is still a country where working long hours is considered a virtue,” said Kazunari Tamaki, a lawyer who specializes in karoshi told Japan’s Kyodo. “But we need to focus on improving efficiency within fixed hours to boost productivity.” Unfortunately, with schemes like “Premium Friday” that’s unlikely to happen any time soon.

– Workers in Japan put in notoriously long hours, and the country appears to be paying a price: stressed out workers and resulting health problems, including suicide. As the Japan Times notes, there's even a word for it: "karoshi," or "death by overwork." Now Japan is designating the last Friday of every month as "Premium Friday," with employees encouraged to sign out at 3pm—and maybe do a little shopping to jump-start their weekend and possibly a lagging economy, reports the London Times. The move isn't mandatory for companies, but the nation's biggest business lobby is on board and encouraging its members to take part when it launches on Feb. 24. It doesn't help that most workers in Japan tend to use only half their allotted paid time off, and that an estimated one in eight work 50 hours or more—the highest percentage among G-7 nations. So it remains unclear whether Premium Friday will be a sufficient break for the overworked, or even attainable for those who must squeeze in their work at other times. Fortune is skeptical, calling it an "essentially meaningless" scheme. It quotes a critic who says the bigger issue to focus on is efficiency to cut down on those long work weeks, which are "still considered a virtue." Another problem is that Japan has lots of small, family-run businesses where shortened hours could be a problem, notes the BBC. (A Japanese CEO resigned after a young woman's suicide.)

An adult film star who partied with actor Charlie Sheen hours before he was rushed to the hospital last week claims she saw him splattered with wine stains, had "tennis ball size" chunks of cocaine delivered, and was consuming so much booze and coke that she feared he was on a "suicide binge." Kacey Jordan also said that before she left Sheen after an all-night party with four other women last week, he asked her if she would be willing to move into a mansion he was setting up that would be a 24-hour party. And then, she claims, he asked if she could baby-sit his kids. Sheen is in an undisclosed rehab center today and production on his sitcom "Two and a Half Men" has been put on hold indefinitely. Sheen's publicist said the actor was rushed to hospital with "severe abdominal pains" Thursday. This morning, ABC News has exclusive details about a raucous party inside his Los Angeles home the night before he was wheeled out in a stretcher and transported to the hospital. "I've never seen -- someone so self-destructive and able to take in so much at once," said adult film star Kacey Jordan, who attended Sheen's party. "I thought maybe it was almost like a suicide binge." Jordan said she was offered $5,000 to attend the party at Sheen's home. She described Sheen's disheveled appearance the moment she arrived: "I see Charlie sitting there. He's wearing an all-white shirt…covered in wine stains. All the way down him…down his shirt…his hair's all messed up. He looks up. And he's like…. His eyes are all like squinty," she said. ..I was thinking that I was going to meet the Charlie Sheen that I see on TV. Not the one that's like in shambles and wrecked…" Jordan said there were four other women at the party, at least two of them were porn stars. She said Sheen was very drunk when she came in. "He drinks…any kind of liquor or anything like it's water. He can chug it," she said. At about 3 a.m., Jordan said Sheen asked one of the guests to produce drugs from the night before. "He (Sheen) asked, you know, in the morning, 'where's the drugs? Where's the drugs?'" Jordan said. "She's like, 'oh, you ran out. Don't you remember?' and he's like, 'ran out? Oh, we got to call my boy.'" Then a man comes in with a bag of drugs and dumps tennis ball-sized cocaine on the table, Jordan said. "It's like I thought I was like living…it's like Scarface, you know? I was like, 'Oh my God, I cannot believe it.'" Jordan said throughout the night Sheen used a pipe and repeatedly smoked chunks of cocaine, hitting up his pipe every two minutes. "Light-- all I hear was light, light, light," she said. "He said he only smokes. He never does lines." Bizarre Party Details and Requests In another bizarre detail, Jordan said Sheen offered her a deal to join several other porn stars and move into a newly rented mansion with him. She said his real estate agent was sitting nearby with a signed rental agreement, with monthly rent at $250,000. "He's like, 'you can have anything you want. Anything you want, you name it, it'll be done within an hour,'" she said. Jordan claimed that Sheen offered her a car and just wanted to set up a house with a constant party. "He just wants to have fun…he's just like, 'I'm done. I'm done,'" she said. Jordan also claimed that Sheen asked if she could babysit his children at that mansion. "He's like, 'Can you babysit? I need a girl I can rely on to babysit, you know?'" she said. At the end of the night, Jordan says when she asked to be paid her fee and Sheen wrote her a check for $30,000. The website TMZ obtained copy of the check Sheen allegedly issued to Jordan. The check was made out to "cash" and Jordan said the bank called Sheen to verify it. Jordan said when she left Sheen's home, he was naked in his bed and still smoking cocaine from the pipe, hours before he was rushed to the hospital. "I'm thinking like…'Am I… is this going to be the last time I'm going to see him?'" she said. "I mean, like, 'I felt like something bad was going to happen.'" Sheen Gets Help Just three months earlier Sheen made headlines over what authorities described as an "alcohol-fueled rampage" with adult film star Capri Anderson at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Sheen's representatives released this statement to ABC News about the latest incident: "Charlie is currently seeking the medical attention that he needs and has the full support of his legal team, his agents, and his employers at CBS. It is a shame that during this time, while Mr. Sheen has sought treatment on his own, opportunistic women are trying to take advantage of his celebrity status." Jordan didn't ask to be paid for the interview or for the use of her photo. She said she was never worried about her safety nor did she fear Charlie Sheen. She has no plans to file any criminal complaint or any plans to file civil action. She said she's glad he's sought rehab. ||||| Porn Star Babysitter? Denise Bars Charlie From Alone Time With Kids Email This Porn star Kacey Jordan's shocking claim on 'Good Morning America' that she was asked by "Denise has had enough," the family source tells me. "All this time she has been trying to protect Charlie in the eyes of his daughters, limiting the information they know about his partying ways, but now she knows it's the girls that need protecting, not Charlie." Porn star Kacey Jordan's shocking claim on 'Good Morning America' that she was asked by Charlie Sheen to babysit his kids has pushed the actor's ex-wife over the edge. Sources with knowledge of the situation tell me Denise Richards has effectively barred Charlie from being alone with daughters Sam and Lola until he completes his ( stay-at-home ) rehab."Denise has had enough," the family source tells me. "All this time she has been trying to protect Charlie in the eyes of his daughters, limiting the information they know about his partying ways, but now she knows it's the girls that need protecting, not Charlie." Kacey Jordan's outrageous confession comes after she spent an epic, drug-fueled marathon with Charlie that landed him in the hospital and now in some sort of home rehab. On 'GMA,' she claimed Charlie approached her to babysit his kids. "He's like ... 'I need a girl I can rely on to babysit,'" she said.Naturally, Denise was not amused."If you caught GMA today..FYI.. No 'adult film star' will be babysitting our kids!" Denise tweeted hours after the interview aired. She then added, "I think my kids will be proud how I have handled everything."PopEater was the fist to report that Denise has turned down many lucrative TV offers to tell her side of the story, and although she plans to remain silent, her actions are going to speak louder than words."This is enough. [He] will never be alone with his daughters again," a member of Denise's inner circle tells me after hearing about the porn star's comments. "If losing his two daughters doesn't make him want to man up then nothing will."Denise has been a dedicated mom, as well as a friend and ex-wife to Charlie through hardships, but I'm told she's ready to play tough love after hearing he would entrust a porn star with caring for their children."She genuinely loves Charlie and will always be there for him," her friend adds. "The only thing in the world that means more to her than Charlie is her daughters. And he just crossed that line."Go get him Denise.

– Just how far Charlie Sheen veered off the rails before his hospitalization last week has been revealed by yet another porn star pal, who talks of seeing cocaine chunks the size of tennis balls at the star's last bender. "I've never seen someone so self-destructive and able to take in so much at once," says Kacey Jordan, who attended Sheen's party at his LA home. "It was almost like a suicide binge." Sheen asked her to move in to a mansion he planned to turn into a "24-hour party"—then asked if she would babysit his kids, Jordan tells ABC News. "He drinks any kind of liquor or anything like it's water. He can chug it," says Jordan. Sheen also repeatedly smoked chunks of cocaine, lighting up his pipe every few minutes, she adds. When an assistant finally told him he was out of drugs he told her: "'We got to call my boy.' Then a man comes in with a bag of drugs and dumps tennis ball-sized cocaine on the table," Jordan recalls, describing Sheen as "wrecked and in shambles." His TV series Two and a Half Men is on hold. (Click to read what Denise Richards thinks about a porn star babysitting her kids.)

Oxford Dictionaries made history on Monday by announcing that their “Word of the Year” would not be one of those old-fashioned, string-of-letters-type words at all. The flag their editors are planting to sum up who we were in 2015 is this pictograph, an acknowledgement of just how popular these pictures have become in our (digital) daily lives: “Although emoji have been a staple of texting teens for some time, emoji culture exploded into the global mainstream over the past year,” the company’s team wrote in a press release. “Emoji have come to embody a core aspect of living in a digital world that is visually driven, emotionally expressive, and obsessively immediate.” Oxford University Press—which publishes both the august Oxford English Dictionary and the lower-brow, more-modern Oxford Dictionaries Online—partnered with keyboard-app company SwiftKey to determine which emoji was getting the most play this past year. According to their data, the “Face With Tears of Joy” emoji, also known as LOL Emoji or Laughing Emoji, comprised nearly 20% of all emoji use in the U.S. and the U.K., where Oxford is based. The runner-up in the U.S., with 9% of usage, was this number: Caspar Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Dictionaries, explained that their choice reflects the walls-down world that we live in. “Emoji are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication, one that transcends linguistic borders,” he said in a statement. And their choice for the word of the year, he added, embodies the “playfulness and intimacy” that characterizes emoji-using culture. Though this marks a historic moment of recognition for the pictures plastered throughout tweets and texts, Oxford has not added or defined any emoji in their actual databases. Nor, says a spokesperson for the publisher, do they have plans to do so at this point. The word emoji, however, has been in both the OED and Oxford Dictionaries Online since 2013. Japanese telecommunications planner Shigetaka Kurita is credited with inventing these little images in 1999, taking the emoticons that had been gaining steam on the Internet to an iconic level. Inspired by comics and street signs, the name for the alphanumeric images comes from combining the Japanese words for picture (e-) and character (moji). “It’s easy to write them off as just silly little smiley faces or thumbs-up,” sociolinguist Ben Zimmer told TIME for a story on how emoji fit into humans’ long history of using pictures to communicate. “But there’s an awful lot of people who are very interested in treating them seriously.” Here are the other words that made Oxford’s short list: ad blocker, noun: A piece of software designed to prevent advertisements from appearing on a web page. Brexit, noun: A term for the potential or hypothetical departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Dark Web, noun: The part of the World Wide Web that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable lumbersexual, noun: a young urban man who cultivates an appearance and style of dress (typified by a beard and checked shirt) suggestive of a rugged outdoor lifestyle on fleek, adjective: extremely good, attractive, or stylish refugee, noun: A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster sharing economy, noun: An economic system in which assets or services are shared between private individuals, either free or for a fee, typically by means of the Internet. they (singular), pronoun: Used to refer to a person of unspecified sex. Write to Katy Steinmetz at katy.steinmetz@time.com. ||||| Last year it was vape. The year before that, it was selfie. Every year since 2004, Oxford Dictionaries has selected an official word of the year which, according to its Monday press release is “a word or expression chosen to reflect the passing year in language.” This year, candidates included lumbersexual, on fleek and refugee, but the winner turned out not to be a word at all, at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, Oxford Dictionaries chose an emoji whose verbal description is “face with tears of joy.” “You can see how traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st century communication,” Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Dictionaries, is quoted as saying in the release. “It’s not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps—it’s flexible, immediate, and infuses tone beautifully. As a result emoji are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication, one that transcends linguistic borders,” he added. “They can serve as insightful windows through which to view our cultural preoccupations, so it seemed appropriate to reflect this emoji obsession by selecting one as this year’s ‘word’ of the year.” To determine which emoji would be named “word” of the year, Oxford partnered with SwiftKey, the mobile technology company behind the SwiftKey Keyboard app. According to SwiftKey research on emoji usage, the “face with tears of joy” emoji was the most commonly used around the world this year, including in the U.S. and U.K., where Oxford declares an annual word of the year. (The U.S. and U.K. words of the year are sometimes the same—like in 2013 and 2014—and other times are separate. In 2012, for example, the U.K. word of the year was omnishambles, while the U.S. winner was “GIF (verb).” Every year, Oxford’s selection team—composed of lexicographers and consultants to the dictionary team, and editorial, marketing, and publicity staff—discusses several options and selects a word, expression or in this case, emoji, “that is judged to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of that particular year.” The 2015 shortlist included (definitions according to Oxford Dictionaries press release): ad blocker, noun: A piece of software designed to prevent advertisements from appearing on a web page. Brexit, noun: A term for the potential or hypothetical departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Dark Web, noun: The part of the World Wide Web that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable. lumbersexual, noun: a young urban man who cultivates an appearance and style of dress (typified by a beard and checked shirt) suggestive of a rugged outdoor lifestyle. on fleek, adjective (usually in phrase on fleek): extremely good, attractive or stylish. refugee, noun: A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution or natural disaster. sharing economy, noun: An economic system in which assets or services are shared between private individuals, either free or for a fee, typically by means of the Internet. they (singular), pronoun: Used to refer to a person of unspecified sex. But “face with tears of joy” won out over the rest of the shortlisted candidates as the 2015 “word” of the year for both the U.S. and the U.K. “The Face With Tears of Joy emoji has been in the top 10 emojis viewed on Emojipedia for the entirety of 2015,” Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge tells Newsweek via email. “Even with new emojis like the Hugging Face entering the top 10, the laughing-crying emoji seems to be a crowd favorite.”

– At least it's not an ancient Egyptian pictogram. While this year's Oxford Dictionaries word of the year is not an actual word, it is a popular image: the "face with tears of joy" emoji, Newsweek reports. "You can see how traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st century communication," says Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Dictionaries. "It’s not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps—it’s flexible, immediate, and infuses tone beautifully." Oxford chose this particular emoji by working with SwiftKey, maker of the popular keyboard app, and learning that "face with tears of joy" is the world's most popular emoji. Among the shortlisted 2015 words: ad blocker (noun): the software the stops ads from popping up on websites. Dark Web (noun): that corner of the Internet where website operators and users can go untraced and unidentified. lumbersexual (noun): a youthful urban male who creates a rugged, outdoorsey appearance, usually with checkered shirt and beard. they (singular pronoun): used when mentioning a person who may be male or female. While the "face with tears of joy" emoji took first place, neither it nor any other emoji will be going into Oxford's databases anytime soon, Time reports. (Check out Oxford's word of the year from last year and the year before.)

North Korea on Friday secured its presence at South Korea's Pyeongchang Olympics in February with figure skaters Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik grabbing one of the last qualifying spots on offer at the Nebelhorn trophy. The pair's Olympic qualification is seen as positive development amid an escalating crisis on the Korean peninsula and the potential complications this could have for the Games. The International Olympic Committee was eager to have North Korean athletes at the Games and has been supporting several of them in terms of equipment, travel and accommodation in their efforts to qualify. North Korean speed skaters and Nordic skiers could join the figure skaters with their own qualifiers coming up. The Pyongyang natives successfully completed a solid short program to music by the Beatles on Thursday and produced an even better free skate performance to "Je suis qu'une chanson" to make sure of one of five Olympic qualifying spots on offer. Kim pumped his fists at the end of their routine, hugging his partner before a team official wrapped a jacket over him. The International Skating Union (ISU) confirmed their qualification for Pyeongchang, with Russia and Germany, who were top, having already qualified for the Games in South Korea. The final decision regarding their Olympic participation rests with the North Korean Olympic committee which needs to give the green light. North Korea did not have any athletes at the 2014 Sochi winter Games. Tension on the Korean peninsula has risen in recent weeks as North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump exchanged war-like threats and insults over the North's nuclear and missile development program. The North has accused Trump of declaring war after he warned Kim's regime would not last if he persisted in threatening the United States and its allies, having earlier warned North Korea would be totally destroyed in such an event. South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in July the North will be given until the last minute to decide whether it will take part in the Olympics. ||||| Story highlights Pair are first North Korean athletes to qualify for 2018 Winter Olympics Winter Olympics will be held in South Korea from 9-25 February (CNN) In the small Bavarian ski-town of Oberstdorf, figure skaters Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-sik became the first North Korean athletes to qualify for South Korea's 2018 Winter Olympics -- a development that could have diplomatic implications as well as sporting ones. The pair -- who perform to the music of The Beatles and have been training in Canada -- produced an impressive free-skate performance to secure one of the final Olympic spots up for grabs at the Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany in September. Ryom, 18, and 25-year-old Kim finished 15th at the World Championships last season and spent the summer training in Montreal under French coach, Bruno Marcotte. Their qualification will be welcome news to South Korea's President Moon Jae-in, who earlier this month told CNN that North Korean participation in PyeongChang will "provide a very good opportunity for inter-Korean peace and reconciliation." Read More ||||| The two nations have been on convivial sporting terms this year — North Korea sent its women’s hockey team and a taekwondo team to compete in the South — but the Olympics have never gone forward free of geopolitics. North Korea boycotted the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, the South Korean capital. And North Korea’s current leader, Kim Jong-un, is highly unpredictable. When the skaters were asked minutes after Friday’s performance if they hoped to compete at the Games, their coach, Kim Hyon-son, stepped in and said, “It is up to the North Korean Olympic Committee to decide whether they will participate or not.” The North Koreans appeared relaxed and open — to a point — at a second meeting with reporters after the competition here, the Nebelhorn Trophy, but requested that no questions be asked about the Olympics. Their reluctance probably stemmed from the fact that the decision will not be theirs, said Bruno Marcotte, a prominent French Canadian coach who also works with the skaters. “It’s out of their hands,” he said. Clearly, though, the outcome was important to North Korea. It has invested considerable time and money to make Ms. Ryom and Mr. Kim eligible for the Winter Games and respected at the international level. The skaters trained over the summer in Montreal with Mr. Marcotte, whose wife, Meagan Duhamel, is a two-time world pairs champion. And the pressure of a suitable performance here seemed to weigh on Ri Chol-un, an official with the North Korean skating federation.

– Amid rising nuclear tensions, two figure skaters Friday became the first North Korean athletes to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will be held just 40 miles south of the demilitarized zone in South Korea, CNN reports. According to the New York Times, 18-year-old Ryom Tae-Ok and 25-year-old Kim Ju-Sik, who have been training in Canada with a French coach, finished with a score of 180.09 at the Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany. It was a career-best performance in an international competition for the pair. Kim says they were motivated by their coaches and the people cheering for them. Ryom agreed: "There were many people of different nationalities and backgrounds cheering for us. The fact that we gave them some kind of joy, that was the best part in the performance." While Kim and Ryom's sixth place finish in Germany was enough to nab them one of the final spots in February's Olympics, it remains unclear if they'll actually compete, Reuters reports. The decision rests with the North Korea Olympic Committee. Both South Korea and the International Olympic Committee have been pushing for North Korean athletes to participate in the Games, hoping it will be a diplomatic balm for the countries. The IOC has been providing travel, equipment, and accommodation to North Korean athletes attempting to qualify (North Korean skiers and speed skaters still have a shot), and South Korea's president said North Korea will have as much time as possible to decide if it will participate. North Korea boycotted the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea, but it did send a women's hockey team and taekwondo team to competitions in South Korea this year.

Image copyright A. Klypin/J. Primack/S. Cantalupo Image caption An intense quasar can, like a flashlight, illuminate part of the surrounding cosmic web The hidden tendrils of dark matter that underlie the visible Universe may have been traced out for the first time. Cosmology theory predicts that galaxies are embedded in a cosmic web of "stuff", most of which is dark matter. Astronomers obtained the first direct images of a part of this network, by exploiting the fact that a luminous object called a quasar can act as a natural "cosmic flashlight". Details of the work appear in the journal Nature. The quasar illuminates a nearby gas cloud measuring two million light-years across. In this case we were lucky that the flashlight is pointing toward the nebula and making the gas glow Sebastiano Cantalupo, University of California, Santa Cruz And the glowing gas appears to trace out filaments of underlying dark matter. The quasar, which lies 10 billion light-years away, shines light in just the right direction to reveal the cold gas cloud. For some years, cosmologists have been running computer simulations of the structure of the universe to build the "standard model of cosmology". They use the cosmic microwave background, corresponding to observations of the very earliest Universe that can be seen, and recorded by instruments such as the Planck space observatory, as a starting point. Their calculations suggest that as the Universe grows and forms, matter becomes clustered in filaments and nodes under the force of gravity, like a giant cosmic web. The new results from the 10-metre Keck telescope in Hawaii, are reported by scientists from the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. They are the first direct observations of cold gas decorating such cosmic web filaments. Image copyright S. Cantalupo (UCSC) Image caption The observed portion of the cosmic web (cyan) is about 2 million light-years across The cosmic web suggested by the standard model is mainly made up of mysterious "dark matter". Invisible in itself, dark matter still exerts gravitational forces on visible light and ordinary matter nearby. Massive clumps of dark matter bend light that passes close by through a process called gravitational lensing, and this had allowed previous measurements of its distribution. But it is difficult to use this method to see very distant dark matter, and cold ordinary matter remains tricky to detect as well. The glowing hydrogen illuminated by the distant quasar in these new observations traces out an underlying filament of dark matter that it is attracted to it by gravity, according to the researchers' analysis. "This is a new way to detect filaments. It seems that they have a very bright quasar in a rare geometry," Prof Alexandre Refregier of the ETH Zurich, who was not involved in the work, told BBC News. "If indeed gravity is doing the work in an expanding Universe, we expect to see a cosmic web and it is important to detect this cosmic web structure." In the dark He added: "What is expected is that the dark matter dominates the mass and forms these structures, and then the ordinary matter, the gas, the stars and everything else trace the filaments and structures that are defined by the dynamics of the dark matter." "Filaments have been detected indirectly before using gravitational lensing, which allows us to see the distribution of the dark matter. "Part of the ordinary matter has formed stars, which we can see, but another component is the gas. If the gas is very hot it emits X-rays and can be seen using X-ray telescopes. Other techniques to detect cooler gas now include the method described here." Dark energy and dark matter mysteries Image copyright Other Image caption LUX in South Dakota is the most sensitive dark matter detection experiment yet Gravity acting across vast distances does not seem to explain what astronomers see Galaxies, for example, should fly apart; some other mass must be there holding them together Astrophysicists have thus postulated "dark matter" - invisible to us but clearly acting on galactic scales At the greatest distances, the Universe's expansion is accelerating Thus we have also "dark energy" which acts to drive the expansion, in opposition to gravity The current theory holds that 68% of the Universe is dark energy, 27% is dark matter, and just 5% the kind of matter we know well How close are we to finding dark matter? Sebastiano Cantalupo, lead author of the article, and others have used the same method previously to look for glowing gas around quasars, and had seen dark galaxies. "The dark galaxies are much denser and smaller parts of the cosmic web. In this new image, we also see dark galaxies, in addition to the much more diffuse and extended nebula," Dr Cantalupo, from UCSC, explained. "Some of this gas will fall into galaxies, but most of it will remain diffuse and never form stars. "The light from the quasar is like a flashlight beam, and in this case we were lucky that the flashlight is pointing toward the nebula and making the gas glow. We think this is part of a filament that may be even more extended than this, but we only see the part of the filament that is illuminated by the beamed emission from the quasar." While the observations support the cosmological simulations' general picture of a cosmic web of filamentary structures, the researchers' results suggest around 10 times more gas in the nebula than predicted from typical computer simulations. They postulate that this may simply be due to limitations in the spatial resolution of the current models, or, more interestingly perhaps, may be because the current grid-based models are missing some aspect of the underlying physics of how galaxies form, evolve, and interact with quasars. "We now have very precise measurements of the amount of ordinary matter and dark matter in the Universe," said Prof Refregier. "We can only observe a fraction of the ordinary matter, so the question is what form the remainder takes. These results may imply that a lot of it is in the form detected here." ||||| 300 SHARES Share Tweet Google Reddit Linkedin Mail Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter of the most popular space stories: Astronomers from the University of California – Santa Cruz have found a far-off quasar lighting up a very large nebula of spread out gas, showing for the first time part of the network of filaments believed to link galaxies in a cosmic web. Utilizing the 10-meter Keck I Telescope, the researchers spotted an extremely large, bright nebula of gas spreading approximately 2 million light-years across intergalactic space. “This is a very exceptional object: it’s huge, at least twice as large as any nebula detected before, and it extends well beyond the galactic environment of the quasar,” posited first author Sebastiano Cantalupo, a postdoctoral fellow at UC Santa Cruz, in a statement. The standard cosmological model of structure development in the universe envisions that galaxies are nested in a cosmic web of matter. The web is observed in the findings from computer simulations of the development of structure in the universe, which reveal the dispersion of dark matter on large scales, including the dark matter halos in which galaxies develop and the cosmic web of filaments that link them. Gravity forces ordinary matter to follow the dispersion of dark matter, so filaments of spread out, ionized gas are believed to trace a pattern akin to that observed in dark matter simulations. Prior to this research, these filaments have never been observed. Intergalactic gas has been identified by its absorption of light from bright background sources, but those findings don’t show how the gas is dispersed. In this study, astronomers identified the fluorescent glow of hydrogen gas due to its illumination by intense radiation from the quasar. “This quasar is illuminating diffuse gas on scales well beyond any we’ve seen before, giving us the first picture of extended gas between galaxies. It provides a terrific insight into the overall structure of our universe,” explained coauthor J. Xavier Prochaska, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. The hydrogen gas brightened by the quasar gives off ultraviolet light called Lyman alpha radiation. The distance to the quasar — approximately 10 billion light-years — is so great that the discharged light is “stretched” by the expansion of the universe from an invisible ultraviolet wavelength to a visible shade of violet by the time it’s detected by the Keck Telescope. The astronomers determined the wavelength for Lyman alpha radiation from the distance to the quasar and constructed a special filter for the telescope’s spectrometer to obtain an image at that wavelength. “We have studied other quasars this way without detecting such extended gas,” Cantalupo noted. “The light from the quasar is like a flashlight beam, and in this case we were lucky that the flashlight is pointing toward the nebula and making the gas glow. We think this is part of a filament that may be even more extended than this, but we only see the part of the filament that is illuminated by the beamed emission from the quasar.” The study’s findings were published in the journal Nature. ||||| Computer simulations suggest that matter in the universe is distributed in a "cosmic web" of filaments, as seen in the image above from a large-scale dark-matter simulation (Bolshoi simulation, by Anatoly Klypin and Joel Primack). The inset is a zoomed-in, high-resolution image of a smaller part of the cosmic web, 10 million light-years across, from a simulation that includes gas as well as dark matter (credit: S. Cantalupo). The intense radiation from a quasar can, like a flashlight, illuminate part of the surrounding cosmic web (highlighted in the image) and make a filament of gas glow, as was observed in the case of quasar UM287. (Photo : S. CANTALUPO (UCSC); JOEL PRIMACK (UCSC); ANATOLY KLYPIN (NMSU)) Astronomers have found gas strands that hold galaxies in a cosmic web. The team of astronomers, led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, found a distant quasar (hyperactive galaxies) that was illuminating a nebula of diffuse gas. Researchers believe that this bright nebula of gas, extending 2 million light-years across intergalactic space, could be the web holding all the cosmic matter. "This is a very exceptional object: it's huge, at least twice as large as any nebula detected before, and it extends well beyond the galactic environment of the quasar," said Sebastiano Cantalupo, first author of the paper and a postdoctoral fellow at UC Santa Cruz, according to a news release. Share This Story The filament of the cosmic web was found using 10-meter (33 feet) Keck I telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. What is a Cosmic Web? Leading theories on the structure of Universe say that galaxies are hanging at the ends of a vast "cosmic web." About 85 percent of this cosmic web matter is the invisible dark matter. In 2009, researchers at European Southern Observatory (ESO) had reported seeing part of this cosmic web. Then in October 2012, researchers from France said that they've carried out a three-dimensional study of a cosmic filament of dark matter. Their calculations had shown that the cosmic web must be responsible for half of the mass of the universe. The cosmic filament found in the current study is part of the cosmic web that keeps the galaxy, including our Milky Way together. Researchers hope to study this filament to understand the structure and development of the Universe, National Geographic reported. How did they find it? Quasars or "qausi-stellar radio sources" are the bright centers of very distant galaxies. In the present research, astronomers studying the quasar 'UM287' found that it was illuminating a gas filament. "The light from the quasar is like a flashlight beam, and in this case we were lucky that the flashlight is pointing toward the nebula and making the gas glow. We think this is part of a filament that may be even more extended than this, but we only see the part of the filament that is illuminated by the beamed emission from the quasar," said Cantalupo, according to National Geographic. The study is published in the journal Nature. ||||| Astronomers have for the first time captured a glimpse of the vast, web-like network of diffuse gas that links all of the galaxies in the cosmos. Leading cosmological theories suggest that galaxies are cocooned within gigantic, wispy filaments of gas. This “cosmic web” of gas-filled nebulas stretches between large, spacious voids that are tens of millions of light years wide. Like spiders, galaxies mostly appear to lie within the intersections of the long-sought webs. In observations spied through one of the most powerful telescopes in the world, the 33-foot (10-meter) Keck I Telescope in Hawaii, astronomers led by Sebastiano Cantalupo of the University of California, Santa Cruz, now report that they have detected a very large, luminous filament of gas extending about 2 million light-years across intergalactic space, exactly as predicted by theory. Essentially, the filament reported in the January 19 Nature represents one of the strands of the cosmic web that holds together the galaxy-rich universe. Astronomers hope to understand both the structure of the universe and the development of galaxies such as our own Milky Way by unraveling the secrets of the cosmic web. The discovery came thanks to intense radiation bellowing out of a quasar (a hyper-active galaxy) dubbed UM287, 10 billion light years from Earth. The quasar illuminated the neighboring gas filament, revealing its presence with a glow that resembled a cosmic florescent sign. “This is a very exceptional object: it’s huge, at least twice as large as any nebula detected before, and it extends well beyond the galactic environment of the quasar,” said Cantalupo, in a statement. “The light from the quasar is like a flashlight beam, and in this case we were lucky that the flashlight is pointing toward the nebula and making the gas glow. We think this is part of a filament that may be even more extended than this, but we only see the part of the filament that is illuminated by the beamed emission from the quasar.” Follow Andrew Fazekas, the Night Sky Guy, on Twitter and Facebook.

– Scientists have seen a tendril of dark matter for the first time, and all it took was a "cosmic flashlight." Using the Keck telescope in Hawaii, a scientific team spotted the dark matter in a gas cloud illuminated by the radiation of a distant quasar, the BBC reports. "The light from the quasar is like a flashlight beam," said Sebastiano Cantalupo, lead author of the report. Lit by that beam, the glowing hydrogen of the gas cloud traced out the dark matter lying behind it. This all supports a theory that galaxies are wrapped up in filaments of gas that stretch across space like a web, National Geographic reports. About 85% of the web is said to be dark matter, Nature World News explains, and galaxies sit like spiders on intersections of the web. Gravity is what keeps us, and all matter, sitting on these filaments, and now one has actually been observed. It's "giving us the first picture of extended gas between galaxies," co-author J. Xavier Prochaska tells The Space Reporter. "It provides a terrific insight into the overall structure of our universe."

Actor George Takei took to his Facebook page Thursday night to explain what he meant by calling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas a “clown in blackface,” saying the term was “theater lingo” that “is not racist.” A few fans have written wondering whether I intended to utter a racist remark by referring to Justice Thomas as a “clown in blackface.” “Blackface” is a lesser known theatrical term for a white actor who blackens his face to play a black buffoon. In traditional theater lingo, and in my view and intent, that is not racist. It is instead part of a racist history in this country. I feel Justice Thomas has abdicated and abandoned his African American heritage by claiming slavery did not strip dignity from human beings. He made a similar remark about the Japanese American internment, of which I am a survivor. A sitting Justice of the Supreme Court ought to know better. I have expressed my full thoughts on the matter here. A few thoughts from one of Takei’s (former) fans. 1. No, no one cared if you “intended to utter a racist remark.” They cared that you uttered a racist remark. The outrage stemmed not from the fact that you intended to be racist, but that you seem so utterly clueless that what you were saying was unacceptable. 2. Blackface is a “lesser known theatrical term”? Don’t be condescending. The people who took offense to your comments knew exactly what blackface is, and the entire ugly racist history behind it. On the contrary, you sound like the ignorant one for seriously trying to downplay that ugly history as just some cute theater factoid. 3. So blackface “is not racist,” but “is instead part of a racist history in this country.” I… I won’t even respond to this because it’s literally nonsense. I honestly don’t even know what he’s getting at. 4. “I feel Justice Thomas has abdicated and abandoned his African American heritage…” Let’s pause you right there. Who in God’s name are you that you have the right to tell someone that they have abandoned their entire race? It’s bad enough when conservatives of color get this from people of their own race, but now it’s apparently a racial elimination free-for-all. And what kind of screwed up person believes that someone abandons their entire race because of their politics anyways? What sort of discourse will this country have when people are told that unless they toe the line on certain beliefs, they will be considered traitors to their race and Hollywood actors can shame them without facing any sort of retribution at all? Of course, I suspect that if someone tried to erase George Takei’s entire racial (or sexual) identity in retaliation for an unpopular view he held, he’d have a slightly different take on the matter. 5. “…by claiming slavery did not strip dignity from human beings. He made a similar remark about the Japanese American internment, of which I am a survivor.” Takei had several hours to look up and read Thomas’ dissent to know that he was intentionally taken out of context. Many, many people pointed out that he was wrong. At this point, his stubbornness can only be chalked up to intentional blindness. For God’s sake, Clarence Thomas was born in the rural Jim Crow South. He understands what it’s like to live under the thumb of a racist, oppressive government. Did anyone outside of the most hateful partisans really believe that he’s some sort of slavery apologist, and that he was open about that fact in the most widely read legal opinion for decades? But apparently Thomas’ experiences with racism don’t mean squat, because some actor who scored one significant role and coasted for fifty years ago thinks he isn’t black anymore. And worse yet, judging by the complete silence from nearly everyone on the in Hollywood and on the left side of the aisle, a lot people have no problem with that*. *Shout-out to Marc Lamont Hill, whose been one of the few liberals to date to loudly and publicly condemn Takei. [Image via screenshot] —— >>Follow Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) on Twitter Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com

– George Takei is usually the one doling out criticism for those who step out of line on matters of race or equality. This time, he's the one catching flak from critics. It's over an interview the actor gave to Fox 10 Phoenix in which he called Justice Clarence Thomas a "clown in blackface." Takei, a gay-rights advocate, lit into Thomas because of his dissent in the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling. Yesterday, Takei posted a message on Facebook addressing those who think he went too far, thought he didn't actually back down. He explains the theatrical origins of blackface as a white actor portraying a "black buffoon" and adds: "In traditional theater lingo, and in my view and intent, that is not racist. It is instead part of a racist history in this country." Then he goes after Thomas anew, saying he "has abdicated and abandoned his African American heritage by claiming slavery did not strip dignity from human beings." Thomas "made a similar remark about the Japanese American internment, of which I am a survivor," writes Takei, who thinks that "a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court ought to know better." He's still catching flak, though. "Where in the world does George Freaking Takei get off deciding that he’s the new arbiter of American blackness?" asks Sean Davis at the Federalist. And at Mediaite, Alex Griswold has a scathing critique that, among other things, describes Takei's it's-not-racist explanation as "literally nonsense. I honestly don't even know what he's getting at."

Stocks & Markets President Barack Obama's tough talk against Wall Street rattled stocks on Jan. 21. And, market observers warn, this could be just the beginning of a tough political year for investors. It was Obama's tone as much as his proposal—to limit growth and risk-taking by big financial institutions—that raised eyebrows. The plan would prohibit banks from running proprietary trading operations or investing in hedge funds and private equity funds. News of Obama's plan arrived before the stock market opened Jan. 21, but the broader indexes and affected bank stocks headed solidly lower when Obama actually stepped to the podium before 12:00 p.m. ET. Speaking of the "army of lobbyists" fighting tighter financial regulations, Obama said, "If these folks want a fight, it's a fight I'm ready to have." The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index ended the day down 1.9% to 1116.48, its second consecutive day of steep losses. Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS), which reported a record quarterly profit on Jan.21 fell 4.1% to 160.87, while JPMorgan Chase (JPM) dropped 6.6% to 40.54 and Bank of America (BAC) lost 6.2% to 15.47. "We knew the regulatory environment would provide a headwind for the market as we got closer to the 2010 election," says Quincy Krosby, Prudential Financial (PRU) market strategist. But the Jan. 19 victory by Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate contest seems to have ramped up the political risk for shareholders, she says. By eroding Democrats' chances of easily approving health-care reform, the election seems to have prompted Obama to take aim at politically unpopular Wall Street instead. The Upheaval of Uncertainty When asked, many market experts say they do favor some form of financial regulation. The problem for investors and traders is not so much the proposals themselves, but the uncertainty they create while under discussion. "The market hates uncertainty, [and] any horse-trading involved in passing legislation introduces uncertainty," says independent market strategist Doug Peta. A prime example is health-care insurers, who have seen their stocks hurt by Washington's ongoing discussion of health-care reform. Market participants, who tend to be politically conservative, also fear the impact of government regulations on profits and economic growth. "In general, the market would prefer the government stay out of it," Peta says. The last 10 months have been good to financial stocks, as many banks, helped by low interest rates and rising markets, have returned to profitability. For traders, Krosby says, "the immediate reaction [on Jan. 21] was: Take profits now, ask questions later." Eventually, the market may appreciate Obama's tougher approach, says Jeffrey Hirsch, editor-in-chief of the Stock Trader's Almanac , who believes the proposed changes could over the long term "shore up the integrity of the system." But, on Jan. 21, the market appeared to show a more emotional, knee-jerk reaction to Obama's plan, he says. "It's like a child who is being told not to do something," Hirsch says. " 'Don't take my toy away'—that's a natural reaction." Frank: Regulation Implemented Slowly Obama's six-minute address left traders and investors searching for information on how the proposal would affect financial stocks, says Dave Rovelli, managing director of equity trading at Canaccord Adams. "Who is going to come in and buy a financial stock…if they don't know what the rules are going to be?" he says. At least some uncertainty was lifted when House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told media any regulation would be implemented slowly, perhaps over five years. Otherwise, he told Bloomberg TV, "you create fire-sale conditions," in which banks are forced to sell off assets quickly. "We are aware that you don't want to be doing it all at once." Frank even said he expected Goldman could skirt the new rules by simply ending its status as a bank holding company. After his comments, financial stocks rebounded a bit. Obama's proposal wasn't the only reason markets fell on Jan. 21. In Asia, many investors were worried about a potential overheating of China's economy, and efforts by its government to slow down growth. After significant gains in the last two months, some technical analysts were telling traders the market was due for a pause. It can be a mistake to attribute too much stock market impact to political events. "It may have some short-term effect here and there," says Richard Sparks of Schaeffer's Investment Research. The effects are often limited to particular sectors, like health care or financials. And, Sparks says, "over the longer term, earnings are going to be the engine that drives the market." Other big factors influencing stocks include economic data, the U.S. jobless rate and the direction of interest rates set by the Federal Reserve. Wall Street vs. Washington Still, the stock market seems to have entered a period when discussions in Washington have taken on added significance. "There is a lot of political risk because the [country's] problems are so big," says John Merrill, chief investment officer at Tanglewood Wealth Management. The government has spent decades avoiding fiscal problems, for example. "This is a can that's been kicked down the road for years," he says. The market's Jan. 21 sell-off may be a one-day blip, the reaction to a proposal that—if financial industry lobbyists have their way—may never become law. But it is also a reminder that the factors affecting the stock market are changing. With a fresh wave of regulation looming—and investment bankers the political bad guys of the moment—Wall Streeters will no longer find Washington such a hospitable place. ||||| Web wide crawl with initial seedlist and crawler configuration from March 2011. This uses the new HQ software for distributed crawling by Kenji Nagahashi. What?s in the data set: Crawl start date: 09 March, 2011 Crawl end date: 23 December, 2011 Number of captures: 2,713,676,341 Number of unique URLs: 2,273,840,159 Number of hosts: 29,032,069 The seed list for this crawl was a list of Alexa?s top 1 million web sites, retrieved close to the crawl start date. We used Heritrix (3.1.1-SNAPSHOT) crawler software and respected robots.txt directives. The scope of the crawl was not limited except for a few manually excluded sites. However this was a somewhat experimental crawl for us, as we were using newly minted software to feed URLs to the crawlers, and we know there were some operational issues with it. For example, in many cases we may not have crawled all of the embedded and linked objects in a page since the URLs for these resources were added into queues that quickly grew bigger than the intended size of the crawl (and therefore we never got to them). We also included repeated crawls of some Argentinian government sites, so looking at results by country will be somewhat skewed. We have made many changes to how we do these wide crawls since this particular example, but we wanted to make the data available ?warts and all? for people to experiment with. We have also done some further analysis of the content. If you would like access to this set of crawl data, please contact us at info at archive dot org and let us know who you are and what you?re hoping to do with it. We may not be able to say ?yes? to all requests, since we?re just figuring out whether this is a good idea, but everyone will be considered.

– European leaders today lauded President Obama's plan to limit the size and risk-taking of the nation's banks, but stock markets worldwide were rattled. Asian markets fell sharply today and European markets opened down, following a 213 point drop in the Dow yesterday, its biggest 2-day loss since March. Europeans said they'll seek an international agreement to avoid competing bank policies that, aiming to shore up stability, would put one country at a disadvantage. Bankers fear the proposal, which would prevent commercial banks from running hedge funds and private equity firms, and separate commercial and investment banking within the big firms, will mean an end to huge profits in the financial sector, the Times of London reports. "It's like a child who is being told not to do something," the editor-in-chief of the Stock Trader's Almanac tells BusinessWeek. "'Don't take my toy away'—that's a natural reaction."

The team set out to identify and quantify the respiratory viruses on frequently-touched surfaces in airports. They found evidence of viruses on 10 per cent of the surfaces tested and most commonly on the plastic trays that are circulated along the passenger queue at the hand luggage X-ray checkpoint. The study was carried out by a team of experts from the University of Nottingham and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare who swabbed a variety of surfaces at Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Finland during the winter of 2016. The plastic trays used at airport security checkpoints have been found to harbour the highest levels of viruses at airports, in a new scientific investigation by pandemic experts. Click here for full story The investigation, published in BMC Infectious Diseases, concludes that hand washing and careful coughing hygiene are crucial to the control of contagious infections in public areas with high volumes of people passing through. The study was part of a larger EU-funded research project called PANDHUB which explored the role of airports and other traffic hubs in the spread of serious infections. The findings add weight to previous studies showing that microbes are commonly found on surfaces in public transport vehicles and will strengthen public health advice in preparation for future flu pandemics. At Helsinki-Vantaa airport, the highest concentration of viruses was detected on the security check plastic trays with further viruses detected on shop payment terminals, staircase rails, passport checking counters, children’s play areas and in the air. The most common virus found in the survey was rhinovirus, which causes the common cold but the swabs also picked up the influenza A virus. Interestingly, no respiratory viruses were found on toilet surfaces. Professor of Health Protection, Jonathan Van Tam, from the University’s School of Medicine, said: “This study supports the case for improved public awareness of how viral infections spread. People can help to minimise contagion by hygienic hand washing and coughing into a hankerchief, tissue or sleeve at all times but especially in public places. These simple precautions can help prevent pandemics and are most important in crowded areas like airports that have a high volume of people travelling to and from many different parts of the world.” Virology expert Niina Ikonen from the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare said: “The presence of microbes in the environment of an airport has not been investigated previously. The new findings support preparedness planning for controlling the spread of serious infectious diseases in airports. The results also provide new ideas for technical improvements in airport design and refurbishment.” The airport study was carried out during and after peak passenger density at the airport by a method which detects genetic material from viruses on surfaces and in the air. The results provided by this method do not prove that the viruses found on surfaces and air are alive and cause disease, but previous experimental research has proven that many microbes survive on various surface materials up to several days. — Ends — Our academics can now be interviewed for broadcast via our Media Hub, which offers a Globelynx fixed camera and ISDN line facilities at University Park campus. For further information please contact a member of the Communications team on +44 (0)115 951 5798, email mediahub@nottingham.ac.uk or see the Globelynx website for how to register for this service. For up to the minute media alerts, follow us on Twitter Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham is a research-intensive university with a proud heritage, consistently ranked among the world's top 100. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our 44,000 students - Nottingham was named University of the Year for Graduate Employment in the 2017 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, was awarded gold in the TEF 2017 and features in the top 20 of all three major UK rankings. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement. We are ranked eighth for research power in the UK according to REF 2014. We have six beacons of research excellence helping to transform lives and change the world; we are also a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally. Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest-ever fundraising campaign, is delivering the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future. More news… ||||| (CNN) — What's the most germ-filled spot in an airport? The bathrooms? Those crowded waiting areas? The passport checking counter? Surprisingly, none of the above. A new study from a team of experts from the UK's University of Nottingham and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, published in the BMC Infectious Diseases journal, has revealed those airport security plastic trays are the biggest culprit for spreading germs in airports. So next time you're dumping your phone, passport and laptop into the tray -- it might be worth having the hand sanitizer handy. Revealing study The team monitored germ levels on a variety of surfaces at Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Finland during the winter of 2016. Germaphobes who travel will be horrified to find out they found evidence of viruses on 10% of all the surfaces they tested. Other germ hotspots were shop payment terminals, staircase rails, passport checking counters, children's play areas and -- unavoidably -- in the air. There was evidence of rhinovirus -- the cause of the common cold -- plus some signs of influenza. Surprisingly, their swabs didn't detect respiratory viruses on the toilet surfaces. "This study supports the case for improved public awareness of how viral infections spread," said Professor of Health Protection, Jonathan Van Tram, from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, in a statement. "People can help to minimize contagion by hygienic hand washing and coughing into a handkerchief, tissue or sleeve at all times but especially in public places." Next time you're dumping your stuff in the security trays, best have that hand sanitzer nearby. Alex Wong/Getty Images North America/Getty Images His team-partner, virology expert Niina Ikonen from the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, added: "The results also provide new ideas for technical improvements in airport design and refurbishment." At the end of the study, the team suggest that airports could provide "hand sanitization opportunities where intense, repeat touching of surfaces takes place such as immediately before and after security screening." Related content 1 in 50 people finds love on an airplane, study claims It's also suggested that the trays -- and other frequently touched surfaces -- could be cleaned more regularly. The study pointed out that handling the plastic security trays is almost inevitable for travelers -- unlike using airport store payment points, for example. On board Even if you avoid airport germs, previous studies have shown airplanes are equally as dirty. 2015 study from Travelmath reported that the tray table was the number one offender, with overhead air vents also among the most germ-filled surfaces. Of course, interacting with these surfaces, whether before you fly or on board, is no guarantee of picking up a virus. ||||| LONDON — Airport security is there to protect you, but it may also give you the sniffles — or worse. To all the places and surfaces we’ve been warned are teeming with germs or bacteria — your pets, the subway seat, airplane cabins, the A.T.M. — add the airport security tray. The plastic trays — used at airport checkpoints around the globe and touched by millions of passengers as they drop shoes, laptops, luggage and other items into them to clear X-ray scanners — have been found to harbor a variety of germs, including the ones responsible for the common cold, according to researchers in Europe. Scientists from the University of Nottingham in England and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare swabbed frequently touched surfaces at Helsinki Airport in Finland during and after peak hours in the winter of 2016 and picked up traces of rhinovirus, the source of the common cold, and of the influenza A virus.

– You probably wash your hands after using the airport bathroom—but what about after going through the security line? You might want to start, because a new study from the UK's University of Nottingham and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare found that those trays you put your belongings in as you go through security had more cold germs on them than airport toilets, the New York Times reports. Researchers analyzed a variety of surfaces at Finland's Helsinki-Vantaa airport during peak flu season in 2015-16 and found evidence of respiratory viruses (including the common cold, influenza, and others) on 10% of them, CNN reports. But researchers highlight the security trays as the biggest risk, with 50% of them having respiratory virus germs on them. Respiratory virus germs were also found on surfaces in the children's play area, payment terminals, stair handrails, and a desk and divider glass at the passport check area. No respiratory virus germs were found on toilets—a finding referred to as "interesting" in a press release. "People can help to minimize contagion by hygienic hand washing and coughing into a hankerchief, tissue or sleeve at all times but especially in public places," says a researcher. "These simple precautions can help prevent pandemics and are most important in crowded areas like airports that have a high volume of people travelling to and from many different parts of the world." Researchers also suggest airports install hand sanitization stations near areas of "intense, repeat touching of surfaces."

window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-3', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 3', target_type: 'mix' }); _taboola.push({flush: true}); Photo: Lori Van Buren Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Image 1 of 3 Assemblyman Bill Nojay speaks during an Anti-SAFE Act rally at the West Capitol Park on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union archive) Assemblyman Bill Nojay speaks during an Anti-SAFE Act rally at the West Capitol Park on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union archive) Photo: Lori Van Buren Image 2 of 3 Assemblyman Bill Nojay addresses a press conference at the Legislative Office Building on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 in Albany, NY. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union archive) Assemblyman Bill Nojay addresses a press conference at the Legislative Office Building on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 in Albany, NY. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union archive) Photo: Paul Buckowski Image 3 of 3 Bill Nojay, conservative assemblyman, 59 1 / 3 Back to Gallery Albany State lawmakers reacted with shock to the news of the apparent suicide of Rochester-area Assemblyman Bill Nojay, who according to local law enforcement shot himself Friday morning at the city's Riverside Cemetery. An officer responding to a 9:22 a.m. call to check the welfare of a man spotted in the cemetery saw Nojay shoot himself, Rochester Police investigator Frank Camp said in a news conference. Multiple reports said the 59-year-old Republican lawmaker killed himself at the family cemetery plot. The news was followed by reports that Nojay's death might have been connected to a far more common phenomenon at the Capitol: an criminal investigation. The Daily News reported that his suicide came as Nojay failed to show up in court to turn himself in for fraud charges. The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported those charges were related to a trust fund he handled as an attorney. The newspaper reported earlier in the day that the FBI also had been probing a business deal related to the city's $1.3 billion school modernization program, which Nojay played a central role in. The newspaper had reported earlier this year that Nojay was involved behind the scenes in forming a company that sought a major contract part of the modernization program. In a bizarre twist, the lawmaker also was involved in unrelated business dealings that had fallen under legal scrutiny in Southeast Asia. Cambodian prosecutors sought to question him as part of a fraud investigation in 2014 after a dentist in that nation had accused him of defrauding her of $1 million, according to reports. The trial in that case was delayed earlier this year, according to reports. Nojay was a member of Akra Group, a company promoting agriculture products in Southeast Asia, according to his 2015 financial disclosure form on file with the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics. Nojay was recalled by his colleagues as a staunch and outspoken conservative who was unafraid of attacking opponents regardless of party affiliation. He worked as one of two election attorneys for Assembly GOP Leader Brian Kolb in a hotly contested February 2000 special election that first sent Kolb to Albany. "Quite frankly, I don't think I would have gotten in the Assembly without his assistance," Kolb said in an interview. " ... He's always been a friend, he's been loyal to me as leader of our conference." First elected in 2012, Nojay represented the 133rd Assembly District, which includes Livingston County and parts of Monroe and Steuben counties. He faced a primary challenge on Tuesday from Rick Milne, mayor of Honeoye Falls. Milne and Democratic candidate Barbara Baer both suspended their campaigns Friday. When it came to legislative business, Nojay often went against the grain He voted aye 59 percent of the time in 2016, one of the lowest percentages for any Assembly member, according to an analysis by New York StateWatch. He voted nay 32 percent of the time, the second highest percentage in the chamber. Nojay voted with a majority of his fellow Assembly Republicans 68 percent of the time, again one of the lowest percentages in the Assembly, even with Democrats factored in. As further evidence of his outspoken nature, he also was a vocal critic of the election of Long Island Republican John Flanagan as Senate majority leader in 2015, so much so that earlier this year he said he was seeking GOPers to run against Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Seneca County, who backed Flanagan during the 2015 leadership battle. Nozzolio decided not to seek re-election. Flanagan in a statement Friday called Nojay "an outspoken advocate for conservative values, for his district, and for Upstate New York." An early supporter of Donald Trump's political ambitions, Nojay was among the Legislature's most relentless critics of the SAFE Act gun control law. As such, he was an organizer of the pro-Second Amendment concert called Freedompalooza, held in Altamont in August 2013. A conservative talk radio host, Nojay also listed work as vice president and counsel for Commodity Resource Corp., a California commodity futures advisory and brokerage firm, and as director and president of the Empire Page, a news aggregation website. mhamilton@timesunion.com • 518-454-5449 • @matt_hamilton10 ||||| Suicide is impossible to pin on any one factor, and there was no way to say on Friday what had driven Mr. Nojay, 59, to his. But a number of his business dealings outside the Assembly had drawn the attention of federal investigators, one involving possible fraud in an agricultural marketing business he had started in Cambodia. On Friday, according to The Democrat & Chronicle of Rochester, he was to appear in court to face charges that he had embezzled $1.8 million from a legal client. By the usual laws of Albany, Mr. Nojay, a junior upstate Republican in a legislative chamber dominated by New York City Democrats, should never have come within sniffing distance of prominence. But then, he never limited himself to the backbenches. Not in the Capitol. Not in the headlines. Not in his goals. Even his political-awakening story stood out: He said the moment came when he was 17, during a trip to the first Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, where he listened starry-eyed to President Ronald Reagan’s “city upon a hill” speech and shook Mr. Reagan’s hand. As a teenager, another push into local politics came from his family’s experiences caring for his severely disabled older brother. He got his law degree from Columbia Law School and practiced law in his native Rochester before winning his Assembly seat in 2012. There was his audacious pitch, as a freshman lawmaker, to Mr. Trump: Run for governor of New York, he told Mr. Trump in 2013, and the path to the White House would be clear. (“Springboards to the Presidency,” Mr. Nojay’s four-page memo was called.) Photo Three years later, he was a co-chairman of Mr. Trump’s New York campaign committee. There was his penchant for speaking up for upstate concerns, using his radio show to denounce state leaders in Albany — Democrats and establishment Republicans — for what he called their indifference. Among his signature issues: railing against the SAFE Act, the New York gun-control legislation passed in 2013. “I’m not on the governor’s Christmas card list, and you know something? That’s something I wear as a badge of honor,” he said on Thursday, in one of his final radio interviews. “Because I think that when you forcefully and strongly advocate for your district and you make that mark, even people that disagree with you respect your views.” Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. The force of Mr. Nojay’s advocacy was not lost on anyone in the Legislature: “You knew exactly where he stood,” said Brian Kolb, the Assembly minority leader. “He ruffled feathers because he spoke it as he saw it.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story And there were his far-flung business and nation-building ventures. In Afghanistan, he was an election monitor with the International Republican Institute. In Odessa, Ukraine, he consulted on an election between pro-Western and pro-Russian candidates. In Iran, he held the title “director and secretary/treasurer of the Foundation for Democracy,” according to his Assembly biography. In Cambodia, which he said he had visited for various reasons since the 1980s, he started an agricultural marketing business with three partners, including Sichan Siv, the Cambodian-American former United States ambassador to the United Nations. The Akra Group, as it was called, solicited a $1 million investment from a wealthy Phnom Penh dentist around the end of 2012, said her American lawyer, Robert A. Simon. By 2014, Mr. Simon said, Akra showed no signs of marketing rice or of returning the $1 million, and his client, Dr. Lykuong Eng, filed a fraud complaint in Cambodia. Despite being tried in absentia on and off since 2014, Mr. Nojay had brushed off the Cambodian investigation. “He said there’s nothing to it, just a feud among partners — one of them was disgruntled,” said Bill Reilich, the Monroe County Republican chairman, who knew Mr. Nojay for 20 years. Mr. Nojay was, he added, “kind of nonchalant” about the matter. By this spring, federal agents in Rochester had subpoenaed documents related to the Cambodian investment from Mr. Simon, he said on Friday. “It’s a shock,” said David DiPietro, a Republican assemblyman from the Buffalo area who was close to Mr. Nojay. “All of a sudden, hearing all these rumors, it’s amazing what you don’t know about somebody.” Mr. Nojay faced a primary challenge on Tuesday. He lived in Pittsford, near Rochester, with his wife, Debra, with whom he had three children. At 9:20 a.m. on Friday, a 911 call came in to the Rochester police, asking that they check on someone on at the Riverside Cemetery, a police spokesman said. An officer arrived at the cemetery six minutes later, just as Mr. Nojay’s gun went off.

– A New York state lawmaker running for re-election killed himself Friday, four days before the state's Republican primary, the Democrat and Chronicle reports. Police were called about a distraught man at an area cemetery and arrived to see Bill Nojay shoot and kill himself. He died next to his brother's grave in his family's burial plot. It's unclear what led Nojay to kill himself, but the lawmaker had recently become embroiled in a number of controversies. According to the New York Times, he was accused of embezzling $1.8 million from a legal client and was supposed to be in court on those charges Friday. And federal investigators are looking into an agricultural business Nojay started in Cambodia after he allegedly took a $1 million donation from a Cambodian dentist and had nothing to show for it. He was also being investigated for his role in a $1.3 billion deal to modernize schools, the Albany Times Union reports. The 59-year-old father of three was first elected to the state assembly in 2012. Nojay was known for going against Democrats and Republicans alike and for his anti-gun control work. He hosted a local radio show and had been championing Donald Trump for president since 2013. He also worked on elections in Afghanistan and Ukraine. Nojay will remain on the primary ballot. If he ends up winning Tuesday, party leaders will have to nominate a replacement for the general election. Nojay's Republican challenger, Richard Milne, says he's "devastated" by the news and is "suspending all political activity until further notice."

A 5-year-old girl is being hailed as a hero after recently being caught on home surveillance footage saving her unconscious mother from the bottom of a swimming pool in Portland, Texas. Tracy Anderwald, 34, told ABC News today that she and her daughter, Allison Anderwald, had been "enjoying a mommy-daughter day" in her sister's backyard pool Friday when she suddenly had a seizure, blacked out and sank 4 feet down to the pool's floor. After Allison realized her mom had not come up from the water for over five minutes, she jumped in, pulled her mother to the shallow end of the pool and flipped her body over so her head wasn't in the water. One of the mom’s sisters, Tedra Hunt, said she happened to be walking over to the house when little Allison ran to tell her what happened. Hunt said she immediately called 911 and emergency personnel then took Tracy to CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial in Corpus Christi, Texas. "The doctors explained to us that had Tracy been underwater any longer, she probably wouldn't be with us right now," Hunt, 32, said. "It is truly amazing that this little girl, who’s actually also pretty small for her age, was able to save my sister." KIII Hunt said doctors initially told her they had low expectations for Tracy's recovery and anticipated she might even have neurological damage. But Tracy woke up Saturday morning and after a few tests and assessments, she was deemed OK for release Tuesday afternoon, Hunt said. Courtesy Tracy Anderwald Tracy will be soon following up with a neurologist to try and figure out what caused the seizure, she said, adding that she had never had one before. "Tracy is my sister, best friend, my whole world," Hunt said of her sister. "We lost our dad almost exactly two years ago, and it was so hard to overcome that. I don't know what I would have done if I lost Tracy that day." Courtesy Tracy Anderwald Hunt added she believed their father was a "guardian angel" watching over them that day and that he guided Allison to help save Tracy. Now, Hunt and Tracy said they hope their story helps raise awareness for the importance of teaching kids how to swim and what to do in an emergency at an early age. "Allison's been swimming since she was two-and-a-half," Tracy said. "She's our little mermaid and my little hero." ||||| GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Allison Anderwald, 5, smiles as her mother Tracy talks about how much she likes to swim Tuesday, March 23, 2016, at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi. Allison saved her mother after she suffered from a seizure in the pool at their home. SHARE GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Allison Anderwald, 5, (center) looks at her dad Ryan as he talks with her and her mother Tracy on Tuesday, March 23, 2016, at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi. Allison saved her mother after she suffered from a seizure in the pool at their home. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Allison Anderwald, 5, talks to her mothers friend Amber Blimline on Tuesday, March 23, 2016, at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi. Allison saved her mother after she suffered from a seizure in the pool at their home. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Ryan Anderwald hugs his daughter Allison, 5, (center) as they sit with her mother Tracy on Tuesday, March 23, 2016, at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi. Allison saved her mother after she suffered from a seizure in the pool at their home. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Tracy Anderwald talks about how her daughter Allison Anderwald, 5, enjoys swimming Tuesday, March 23, 2016, at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi. Allison saved her mother after she suffered from a seizure in the pool at their home. By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times It was supposed to be just like any other day. Tracy Anderwald and her daughter, 5-year-old Allison, were swimming in the backyard pool of their home on the outskirts of Portland on Friday. They were having fun splashing around and playing Marco Polo. All of a sudden, Tracy Anderwald blacked out. She woke up in Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial. "I did not know where I was," Anderwald said. "They did not tell me (what happened) for a while." Her sister, Tedra Hunt, finally did when Tracy recovered. Allison was the one to thank. With the shy blond girl in her mother's arms, Tracy Anderwald recounted Allison's heroic actions from her hospital room Tuesday. When Tracy Anderwald fell to the bottom of the pool, Allison knew something was wrong. She swam to the bottom, pulled her mother to the shallow end and lifted her head above water. "It's amazing that she even knew what to do," Anderwald said. Hunt, who happened to be walking over to the house, heard Allison and her siblings screaming for help and immediately called 911. "Allison was very calm through it. She was trying to tell me what happened," Hunt said. Tracy Anderwald described Allison affectionately as a "water bug" who learned how to swim before she was 3. Allison didn't know her mom suffered a seizure, but because she was taught water safety, she knew Tracy Anderwald was underwater for too long. "I believe (Allison) had a greater power telling her what to do," Hunt said. "It's a miracle ... she knew how to react."

– Last Friday was a normal "mommy-daughter" day for Tracy Anderwald and her 5-year-old daughter, Allison. The two were playing Marco Polo in a backyard pool in Portland, Texas, but the next thing Anderwald knew, she was waking up in a nearby hospital without a clue as to how she got there, reports the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Home surveillance footage on YouTube and the shy voice of little Allison tell the story of a close call—Anderwald had suffered a seizure in four feet of water and, after a few minutes lying motionless on the bottom of the pool, Allison knew it had been too long and dragged her mother to the shallow end, where she rolled her body over. Anderwald's sister, Tedra Hunt, was walking to the house as Allison pulled her mother to the shallow end, and footage shows the girl running for help as soon as her mother's face was out of the water. "The doctors explained to us that had Tracy been underwater any longer, she probably wouldn't be with us right now," Hunt, 32, tells ABC News. "It is truly amazing that this little girl, who’s actually also pretty small for her age, was able to save my sister." Hunt says their father, who died two years ago, was a "guardian angel;" Anderwald, 34, will undergo neurological tests to figure out what caused the seizure, which she'd never had before. The sisters are sharing their story in the hopes of demonstrating the importance of teaching children to swim. Allison, their "little mermaid" and "little hero," has been swimming since she was a toddler. (This skilled Dartmouth swimmer drowned.)

As I announced last Tuesday, I’m considering taking Tesla private because I believe it could be good for our shareholders, enable Tesla to operate at its best, and advance our mission of accelerating the transition to sustainable energy. As I continue to consider this, I want to answer some of the questions that have been asked since last Tuesday. What has happened so far? On August 2nd, I notified the Tesla board that, in my personal capacity, I wanted to take Tesla private at $420 per share. This was a 20% premium over the ~$350 then current share price (which already reflected a ~16% increase in the price since just prior to announcing Q2 earnings on August 1st). My proposal was based on using a structure where any existing shareholder who wished to remain as a shareholder in a private Tesla could do so, with the $420 per share buyout used only for shareholders that preferred that option. After an initial meeting of the board’s outside directors to discuss my proposal (I did not participate, nor did Kimbal), a full board meeting was held. During that meeting, I told the board about the funding discussions that had taken place (more on that below) and I explained why this could be in Tesla’s long-term interest. At the end of that meeting, it was agreed that as a next step, I would reach out to some of Tesla’s largest shareholders. Our largest investors have been extremely supportive of Tesla over the years, and understanding whether they had the ability and desire to remain as shareholders in a private Tesla is of critical importance to me. They are the ones who believed in Tesla when no one else did and they are the ones who most believe in our future. I told the board that I would report back after I had these discussions. Why did I make a public announcement? The only way I could have meaningful discussions with our largest shareholders was to be completely forthcoming with them about my desire to take the company private. However, it wouldn’t be right to share information about going private with just our largest investors without sharing the same information with all investors at the same time. As a result, it was clear to me that the right thing to do was announce my intentions publicly. To be clear, when I made the public announcement, just as with this blog post and all other discussions I have had on this topic, I am speaking for myself as a potential bidder for Tesla. Why did I say “funding secured”? Going back almost two years, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has approached me multiple times about taking Tesla private. They first met with me at the beginning of 2017 to express this interest because of the important need to diversify away from oil. They then held several additional meetings with me over the next year to reiterate this interest and to try to move forward with a going private transaction. Obviously, the Saudi sovereign fund has more than enough capital needed to execute on such a transaction. Recently, after the Saudi fund bought almost 5% of Tesla stock through the public markets, they reached out to ask for another meeting. That meeting took place on July 31st. During the meeting, the Managing Director of the fund expressed regret that I had not moved forward previously on a going private transaction with them, and he strongly expressed his support for funding a going private transaction for Tesla at this time. I understood from him that no other decision makers were needed and that they were eager to proceed. I left the July 31st meeting with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving. This is why I referred to “funding secured” in the August 7th announcement. Following the August 7th announcement, I have continued to communicate with the Managing Director of the Saudi fund. He has expressed support for proceeding subject to financial and other due diligence and their internal review process for obtaining approvals. He has also asked for additional details on how the company would be taken private, including any required percentages and any regulatory requirements. Another critical point to emphasize is that before anyone is asked to decide on going private, full details of the plan will be provided, including the proposed nature and source of the funding to be used. However, it would be premature to do so now. I continue to have discussions with the Saudi fund, and I also am having discussions with a number of other investors, which is something that I always planned to do since I would like for Tesla to continue to have a broad investor base. It is appropriate to complete those discussions before presenting a detailed proposal to an independent board committee. It is also worth clarifying that most of the capital required for going private would be funded by equity rather than debt, meaning that this would not be like a standard leveraged buyout structure commonly used when companies are taken private. I do not think it would be wise to burden Tesla with significantly increased debt. Therefore, reports that more than $70B would be needed to take Tesla private dramatically overstate the actual capital raise needed. The $420 buyout price would only be used for Tesla shareholders who do not remain with our company if it is private. My best estimate right now is that approximately two-thirds of shares owned by all current investors would roll over into a private Tesla. What are the next steps? As mentioned earlier, I made the announcement last Tuesday because I felt it was the right and fair thing to do so that all investors had the same information at the same time. I will now continue to talk with investors, and I have engaged advisors to investigate a range of potential structures and options. Among other things, this will allow me to obtain a more precise understanding of how many of Tesla’s existing public shareholders would remain shareholders if we became private. If and when a final proposal is presented, an appropriate evaluation process will be undertaken by a special committee of Tesla’s board, which I understand is already in the process of being set up, together with the legal counsel it has selected. If the board process results in an approved plan, any required regulatory approvals will need to be obtained and the plan will be presented to Tesla shareholders for a vote. ||||| But the episode appears to have been much more extemporaneous. The tweet did not disclose the sum he had supposedly secured, its source, or any terms of the plan — the kind of transaction that would typically be detailed in documents of 200 pages or more. Two people familiar with the chain of events said that in a conversation with an informal adviser about the mess he had gotten himself into, Mr. Musk said he had taken to Twitter impulsively. He said he had done so because he was not the kind of person who could hold things in, and was angry at the company’s critics. A person with direct knowledge of the Tesla board’s thinking said some members of the board had been totally blindsided by Mr. Musk’s decision to air his plan on Twitter. On Monday evening, Mr. Musk took to Twitter again. Signaling that he remained serious about pursuing the potential buyout, he cited two financial firms and two law firms that he said he was “excited to work with” on the proposal. He named Silver Lake Partners and Goldman Sachs as financial advisers, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Munger, Tolles & Olson as legal advisers. The pursuit of a buyout has come at a crucial time for the company, as it struggles to turn out its first mass-market automobile, the Model 3. Tesla has taken on a mounting debt load and has yet to turn an annual profit. And while Mr. Musk has always been synonymous with the brand, he has never been under greater scrutiny. In the past few months, he has mocked industry analysts for asking “bonehead” questions, pursued online tirades against investors betting against the company’s stock, clashed with a government agency investigating a fatal Tesla crash, and accused a disgruntled employee of sabotage. Then he suddenly announced the idea of taking the company private. In his blog post on Monday, Mr. Musk said he had notified the Tesla board on Aug. 2, five days before sending out the tweets, that “in my personal capacity, I wanted to take Tesla private at $420 a per share.” ||||| Elon Musk's market-moving tweet about possibly taking Tesla private is just the latest erratic move in a tumultuous year for the CEO. Photo illustration: Heather Seidel/The Wall Street Journal Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk’s revelations that he has talked to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund to provide the cash to take the company private gives regulators more ammunition to fault how he first disclosed it, securities law experts said. The Securities and Exchange Commission has inquired about Mr. Musk’s basis for writing on Twitter last week that he had “funding secured” for the deal. Mr. Musk’s Monday statement acknowledged that Saudi Arabia’s participation hinges on “financial and other due diligence... ||||| I’m excited to work with Silver Lake and Goldman Sachs as financial advisors, plus Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Munger, Tolles & Olson as legal advisors, on the proposal to take Tesla private

– It sure has been an interesting week for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and things might get worse before they get better. The controversy began last Tuesday when Musk startled his own company board by announcing that he might take Tesla private and, in fact, had "funding secured." Now the SEC is looking into how Musk handled the announcement, and one law professor tells the Wall Street Journal that "the probability that there will be an SEC enforcement action is, I think, quite high." Meanwhile, some bizarre accusations about Musk emerged from rapper Azealia Banks. Coverage: Musk's explanation: On Monday, Musk wrote in a blog that he's been in talks with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund to provide the needed money to take the company private. The post appeared to be an attempt to quell the controversy over his initial tweet, notes the New York Times, which talks to people familiar with the Saudi fund who say a deal is nowhere close. In fact, the story asserts that Musk made his initial tweet with "little forethought." On Monday, Musk also tweeted that he was getting legal and financial advice on a deal from Goldman Sachs and others.

It is the most famous act of self-mutilation in the history of art, but the exact motivation – love? Jealousy? Rage? – for Vincent van Gogh’s decision to cut off his ear has remained unknown for more than a century. According to a new study of his time in Provence, the gruesome procedure was in fact inspired by the news his brother Theo, his most loyal confidant and financial supporter, was about to marry after a whirlwind romance. The research throws doubt on the popular theory that Van Gogh took a razor to his ear after a passionate row with fellow artist Paul Gauguin. It was known that Van Gogh was distressed by news of the marriage – which could have threatened the closeness of their relationship, and also left Theo with a wife and family to support, unable to fund a struggling brother who had yet to sell a single canvas – but it had been thought that he learned of it only after the incident. However, the writer Martin Bailey, for his new book Studio of the South, has uncovered evidence that Van Gogh almost certainly learned of it in a letter from Theo delivered on Sunday 23 December 1888. Later that night there was indeed a quarrel, after the two artists had spent the day working penned up together by continuous rain, and Gauguin would leave the house threatening to return to Paris – but the trigger for Van Gogh’s despair was not that, but the news from his brother, Bailey believes. Theo’s letter enclosed 100 francs, but also the news that only a fortnight earlier he had met an old friend, Jo Bonger, who had previously turned him down. This time, within a week, she had agreed to marry him. Bailey has established that Theo had already written to his mother asking permission to marry, and that Jo had written to her older brother, who responded with a telegram of congratulations that arrived on 23 December. Bailey is sure that Theo would have written to his brother at the same time, and that the news was in the letter that was delivered to the famous Yellow House at Arles, also on the 23rd. The razor slash left Van Gogh bleeding copiously, but he wrapped the piece of ear in paper and walked to his favourite brothel, where he gave it to a young woman he knew. Another recent book, by Bernadette Murphy, suggested that this was not a prostitute, but a local farmer’s daughter working there as a servant. Murphy also uncovered a drawing, made by a doctor long after the event, suggesting that Van Gogh had cut the entire ear off, and not just the lobe. In any event, the poor woman opened the parcel, fainted on the spot, Van Gogh fled, and the police were called. Gauguin returned to the house the following morning, Christmas Eve, where he found the police on the doorstep, and the artist lying in his blood-soaked bed. Theo, who had been hoping to spend a first Christmas with his fiancee, arrived on Christmas Day to visit his brother in hospital. Van Gogh – after briefly being locked in an isolation room – was discharged on 7 January, and wrote to Theo: “Soon the fine days will come and I’ll start on the orchards in blossom again.” Despite a further collapse and another spell in hospital, he continued to paint until he left Arles in April. The paintings from this desperate period in his life are among his best loved, and Bailey has also traced the surprising afterlife of the bed in his famous The Bedroom. It was one of two double beds bought when he was furnishing the rented house to welcome Gauguin, and Bailey touchingly suggests: “The twin pillows in the painting suggest that he still had a lingering hope that he might eventually share his bed with a woman.” In 1890, Van Gogh had the bed sent by rail to Auvers, north of Paris, where he created the last works before his suicide in July. Theo died the following year, and his widow inherited the bed and used it in a small guesthouse she ran in the Netherlands. There was talk of returning it to a museum in the Yellow House, but the building was destroyed in the second world war, and the bed was instead donated by his nephew to an appeal for furniture to help villagers whose homes had been destroyed. Bailey has been unable to trace it further, but speculates that the sturdy wooden bed could still be out there somewhere, unrecognised. Van Gogh is now one of the best known artists in the world, but it is a measure of how obscure he was in the 1880s that of the four contemporary newspaper accounts of the ear mutilation that Bailey has traced, two spelled his name wrong, and a third, which reported that he was “suffering cruelly” from the injury, described him as Polish – “peintre de nationalité polonaise”. • Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence is published by Frances Lincoln, price £25, on November 3. ||||| How I followed the paper trail In 1945 Van Gogh’s bed formed part of a donation to a Netherlands community (© Courtesy of NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Netherlands) Vincent van Gogh’s painting of his bedroom gives a deep insight into his personal life in Arles in Provence, where he accomplished his greatest work. The actual bed depicted in the celebrated work survived until after the Second World War, we can reveal. In 1945, a descendant donated the bed to a community near Arnhem that suffered during the liberation of the Netherlands.Van Gogh bought the bed (and another for a guest) in September 1888, just before Gauguin arrived to stay with him at the Yellow House. Each bed cost 150 francs, a very large sum equivalent to ten months’ rent. The fact it was a double bed suggests that Van Gogh had a lingering hope that he might eventually share it with a woman. Ensconced in the first comfortable home of his own as an adult, he proudly completed a picture of his newly furnished bedroom. “The most beautiful paintings are those one dreams of while smoking a pipe in one’s bed,” he wrote. It was there that he conceived some of his finest works.Gauguin arrived a month after the beds but his stay was abruptly curtailed by the events of 23 December. It was to his bed that the bleeding Van Gogh returned after his notorious self-mutilation and visit to a local brothel where he delivered part of his ear to a girl. From then on he only spent a few nights at home, being mainly confined to the Arles hospital.He had thought of taking his bed to the asylum in Saint-Rémy, where he retreated in May 1889 but instead left it in Arles, and in 1890 had it “flat-packed” and sent by rail to Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris, where he worked for the last weeks of his life. While in Auvers, he wrote to his brother, saying that, like painted portraits, “pieces of furniture one knows… recall memories for a long time”. On 27 July 1890 he shot himself in the wheat fields above the village, dying two days later.Vincent’s brother Theo, who inherited his estate, died of syphilis six months later, and the bed then passed to his widow, Jo. She immediately moved back to Holland, where she set up a small guest house. Van Gogh’s bed came, too, since it would prove useful for the lodgers. Jo died in 1925, and the bed then passed to her son, also called Vincent, who was living in the village of Laren, east of Amsterdam.While working in the archives of the Van Gogh Museum I found an unpublished reference to the bed. In 1937 there were plans to turn the Yellow House into a small museum, and Fernand Benoît, the curator of the Arles museum who championed the idea, wrote to Vincent van Gogh, the artist’s nephew who received Jo’s inheritance, to ask to borrow paintings. Vincent replied positively, adding that “I could give you the bed which appears in the painting of the bedroom”. This letter, written on flimsy paper, which has partly disintegrated, provided the first evidence that the bed had survived. The Yellow House was never turned into a museum. The building was later hit by Allied bombs in 1944 and then demolished.My next step was to contact the son of Van Gogh’s nephew, Johan van Gogh, then aged 93. I visited him at his home outside The Hague in 2015. He remembered the bed in store in his family’s cellar and recalled what had happened in 1945. That year his father had donated the bed to victims of the war who lived “somewhere in the Arnhem area” in the eastern Netherlands.Teun Koetsier, a historian in the town of Laren and author of a book on the Second World War, provided me with further information. In September 1945, the citizens of Laren had collected several truckloads of furniture to donate to Boxmeer, a small town 40km south of Arnhem. Photographs of the lorries arriving in Boxmeer survive.The needy Boxmeer recipient of Van Gogh’s bed would have had no idea of its famous provenance. It would have been nearly 60 years old and its new owner may well have replaced it some years later, when life became easier. But there remains the intriguing possibility that the bed still survives in Boxmeer—a silent witness to the story of Van Gogh in Arles.

– Vincent Van Gogh may have cut off his own ear in response to what most people would consider happy news, according to a writer who has taken a fresh look at one of history's famous self-mutilations. Martin Bailey says Van Gogh didn't take a razor to his ear because of an argument with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, though the two did quarrel that day in 1888, the Guardian reports. Instead, Van Gogh cut his ear off because he had learned that his brother, Theo, was going to get married, Bailey says. He says the struggling artist feared that the marriage would end his close relationship with his brother—and that it would cause Theo to cut off the financial support Van Gogh relied on. Bailey says that Van Gogh didn't learn of the engagement while he was recovering in hospital, as previously thought, but in a letter that was delivered to him in Provence just hours before the self-mutilation. "Had Van Gogh been elated by the engagement, it is virtually inconceivable that he would have sliced off part of his ear a few hours after receiving Theo’s news, whatever other difficulties he was facing," Bailey writes in new book Studio of the South, per the Telegraph. Bailey, writing in the Art Newspaper, says his research into Van Gogh's years in Provence has also yielded clues to the whereabouts of Van Gogh's famous bed. He believes it was donated to needy people in a small Dutch town months after the end of World War II. (This museum grew an ear from Van Gogh DNA.)

People with these conditions should speak with their doctors about how to safely interact with cats and dogs. The Capnocytophaga germs that are common in dogs and cats can be spread to people through a bite or after close contact with dogs or cats. Infections are more often linked to dog bites or dog contact. See the Preventing Dog Bites page for information on how to prevent dog bites and what to do if you are bitten, regardless of your health status. Other Capnocytophaga germs can also be found in human mouths and can cause illness in some people who have the bacteria in their own mouth. People who have weak immune systems get this type of infection more often than healthy people. Most reported infections occur in tissues connected to the mouth and throat, including: Periodontal (gum) disease Respiratory tract infections (infections of the mouth, nose, throat, and lungs) Eye infections In both types of infections—those that spread from animals or from oneself—the bacteria can enter the blood stream, which can lead to infection in various parts of the body. Infection can also cause the following: Septicemia (blood infection) Endocarditis (inflammation of the lining of the heart) Abscesses (collections of pus in the tissue that cause redness and swelling) in various body tissues Inflammation of the eyes, face, lymph nodes, or brain membranes Most contact with dogs and cats does not lead to a Capnocytophaga infection or any illness, even after a bite. But, you should take precautions if you have contact with animals, especially if you have a condition that puts you at higher risk of infection. ||||| On June 27th 2018 the Manteufel family experienced a medical emergency when Greg started feeling ill, within hours of the onset of symptoms, Greg's body started to go into septic shock. Once Greg was admitted to the hospital, they were able to confirm the reason Greg was septic. He had somehow contracted the bacteria Capnocytophaga Canimorsus.This bacteria caused the sepsis in Greg's body that has completely changed not only Greg's life but his entire family's as well. Within days of being admitted to the hospital while still fighting for his life, Greg first lost both feet, after a second surgery to remove more damage on legs, they amputated thru both Knee caps. Surgery is scheduled to remove a portion of both hands as the damage from the sepsis is to extensive.Furthermore all areas of Greg's body and tissue was affected by the bacteria and the sepsis, the Drs say his nose will need extensive repairs, which means he will need plastic surgery to rebuild a new healthy nose. Greg is going to need several more surgeries, lots of healing time and his family by his side to get thru this life changing event.During this process while his family and friends are in panic and chaos Greg has held his head high and is taking all the news like a beast. He is so thankful to be alive today and is taking one day at a time.Capnocytophaga Canimorsus is a normal bacteria that grows in the mouth of up to 60% of dogs and 17% of cats. There have only been about 500 cases logged in the US and Canada since 1976 of this bacterial causing sepsis when no dog bite was found.Any help you can give the family will be greatly appreciated. Greg's recovery will be a very long process and he will need his family by his side, they will need help financially to be able to be with him during the coming months with surgeries as well as waiting to be fitted for leg and hand prosthesis which will allow him to become independent again. ||||| WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW A Wisconsin man has lost his hands and legs after he contracted a life-threatening bacterial infection from a dog. Greg Manteufel loved riding his Harley motorcycle but might not be able to ride it again after his limbs had to be amputated after he got a blood infection which doctors believe he contracted after a dog licked him. A friend of Manteufel’s created a GoFundMe account for him in which it described the motorcycle lover feeling ill on June 27. “Within hours of the onset of symptoms, Greg’s body started to go into septic shock,” the fundraiser post read. “Once Greg was admitted to the hospital, they were able to confirm the reason Greg was septic.” Manteufel had contracted a bacteria known as Capnocytophaga Canimorsus — a bacteria found in healthy dogs and cats that causes “severe sepsis and fatal septic shock, gangrene of the digits or extremities, high-grade bacteremia, meningitis, endocarditis, and eye infections” when a dog bite occurs, according to a study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Greg Manteufel Courtesy Dawn Manteufel The bacteria “hit him with a vengeance,” his wife, Dawn, told Fox 6 Now. “Just bruising all over him,” she said, referring to the blood spots that began appearing all over his body. “Looked like somebody beat him up with a baseball bat.” Days after he was admitted to the hospital, doctors amputated Manteufel’s feet. When more damage was sustained, he underwent a second surgery that amputated his legs through both of his kneecaps, according to his GoFundMe. His hands — all of his fingers down to mid-palm — were also removed, with doctors telling his family his nose would need “extensive repairs” to rebuild it. Greg Manteufel is a dog and Harley lover GoFundMe Dawn told the Washington Post she was not sure which dog transmitted the bacteria to her husband was a dog lover and had been around eight dogs around the time he became ill. “He loves dogs,” she told the newspaper. “He would touch any dog; he doesn’t care.” While he may have lost his limbs, Dawn said Manteufel was determined to remain positive. RELATED ARTICLE: Man Who Smelled So Bad a Plane Had to Make Emergency Landing Dies a Month Later of Necrosis “He told the doctors, ‘Do what you have to do to keep me alive,'” Dawn said. “There’s no negativity from him so far… He said, ‘It is what it is, so we have to move forward.'” “There’s no choice. We have no choice but to be positive and make the best of it,” she added. ||||| The full text of all Editor's Choice articles and summaries of every article are free without registration The full text of Images in ... articles are free to registered users Only fellows can access the full text of case reports (apart from Editor's Choice) - become a fellow today, or encourage your institution to, so that together we can grow and develop this resource ||||| A 48-year-old man from Wisconsin recently contracted a rare blood infection that led to the amputation of his legs and parts of his arms, according to news reports. And the most likely source of the devastating infection was his own dog. Greg Manteufel went to the hospital with what he thought was the flu, local news outlet Fox 6 Now reported yesterday (July 30). But within a week, the doctors had to amputate both of his legs and, later, portions of his hands and forearms. The amputations were necessary after the infection caused Manteufel's blood pressure to drop drastically, which severely reduced blood flow to his limbs and led to tissue death. Blood tests revealed that Manteufel's infection was caused by a bacterium called Capnocytophaga, according to Fox 6 Now. [11 Ways Your Beloved Pet May Make You Sick] These bacteria are found in the mouths of cats and dogs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Up to 74 percent of dogs and 57 percent of cats have Capnocytophaga, but the bacteria don't cause illness in dogs and cats, the CDC says. In humans, however, it's a different story. In very rare cases, the bacteria can spread to humans through bites, scratches or close contact with cats and dogs. The people most at risk for this infection are those with weakened immune systems, according to the CDC. (It's unclear if Manteufel had a weakened immune system). If a person becomes infected with Capnocytophaga, the bacteria can spread to the bloodstream and cause infections in various parts of the body, including a blood infection known as sepsis. Sepsis occurs when the immune system responds overwhelmingly to an infection, triggering body-wide inflammation and, potentially, organ failure. Most people who get sick with the bacteria typically start experiencing symptoms within three to five days of becoming infected, but symptoms may occur anywhere from one to 14 days after infection, according to the CDC. Symptoms include blisters, redness, swelling, pus or pain around the animal bite location (if a bite was involved), fever, diarrhea, headache, vomiting and muscle or joint pain. As in Manteufel's case, the infection can sometimes lead to gangrene, or tissue death, and require amputations to save the rest of the body. Dr. Silvia Munoz-Price, an infectious-disease specialist with Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin told Fox 6 Now that the case is extremely rare. "More than 99 percent of the people that have dogs will never have this issue. It's just chance," she said. Originally published on Live Science. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video WEST BEND -- A West Bend man contracted a blood infection after he was licked by a dog, and in an unusual set of circumstances, he needed multiple amputations. One month ago, Greg Manteufel was a long way from a hospital bed. "He loves riding his Harley," said Dawn Manteufel, Greg's wife. Dawn Manteufel said her husband was perfectly healthy, but what they initially thought was the flu landed Greg in the emergency room. "It hit him with a vengeance. Just bruising all over him. Looked like somebody beat him up with a baseball bat," said Dawn Manteufel. She said life as they knew it changed forever. In late June, blood tests revealed an infection caused by the bacteria capnocytophaga. "It took a week and they were taking his legs," said Dawn Manteufel. The infection very likely entered Greg's system by something common -- getting licked by a dog, probably his own. "This type of bacteria comes from the saliva of dogs. This infection in his blood triggered a very severe response on his body," said Dr. Silvia Munoz-Price, infectious disease specialist with Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin. That response caused Greg's blood pressure to drop and the circulation in his limbs to decrease rapidly. "Sometimes it decreases so much that the arms and legs just die," said Dr. Munoz-Price. Doctors were forced to amputate his limbs. "We can't wrap our heads around it that all of the sudden, he's 48 years old and been around dogs all of his life... and this happens," said Dawn Manteufel. Still, Dawn and Greg Manteufel are focusing on what wasn't taken away. "That's all he kept saying to the doctors -- 'take what you need but keep me alive.' And they did it. Surprisingly enough, they did do it," said Dawn Manteufel. Doctors say Greg's case is simply a fluke. "More than 99 percent of the people that have dogs will never have this issue. It's just chance," said Dr. Munoz-Price. The Manteufel family has created a GoFundMe.com account to raise money for prosthetic limbs for Greg. CLICK HERE to access that account.

– A Wisconsin man has lost his hands and legs after he likely received "the lick of death" from a dog, People reports. Per a GoFundMe created for Greg Manteufel, the 48-year-old house painter from West Bend started feeling sick on June 27; he and his family initially thought he had the flu, FOX6 notes. His symptoms soon worsened, however, and his wife, Dawn, rushed him to the ER, where they noticed his body was covered in bruises, "like somebody beat him up with a baseball bat," she says. Blood tests soon revealed the cause: Manteufel had gone into septic shock from the Capnocytophaga canimorsus bacteria, which Live Science notes is found in the mouths of nearly three-quarters of dogs and 57% of cats, though the animals themselves don't get sick from it. In humans, however, the bacteria can cause a blood infection, or sepsis, which can lead to organ failure and even death. Doctors had to amputate Manteufel's legs at the knees; he also lost his hands, and his nose has to be reconstructed. "He told the doctors, 'Do what you have to do to keep me alive,'" Dawn Manteufel tells the Washington Post. She adds they don't know which dog infected her husband: They counted eight dogs he'd been around at the time he fell sick, including his own. The Manteufels will have to sell their house and look for a one-story home now, and Greg Manteufel will no longer be able to work as a house painter or cruise on his Harley. Still, Dawn Manteufel says, "There's no negativity from him so far." A Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin doctor tells FOX6 what happened to Manteufel was a fluke and that "more than 99% of the people [who] have dogs will never have this issue." The GoFundMe for Manteufel has raised more than $28,000. (Snoozing with your pet can be risky.)

p PDF: A front page in Trump’s America Donald J. Trump’s vision for the future of our nation is as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American. It is easy to find historical antecedents. The rise of demagogic strongmen is an all too common phenomenon on our small planet. And what marks each of those dark episodes is a failure to fathom where a leader’s vision leads, to carry rhetoric to its logical conclusion. The satirical front page of this section attempts to do just that, to envision what America looks like with Trump in the White House. It is an exercise in taking a man at his word. And his vision of America promises to be as appalling in real life as it is in black and white on the page. It is a vision that demands an active and engaged opposition. It requires an opposition as focused on denying Trump the White House as the candidate is flippant and reckless about securing it. Advertisement After Wisconsin, the odds have shrunk that Trump will arrive in Cleveland with the requisite 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright. Yet if he’s denied that nomination for falling short of the required delegates, Trump has warned, “You’d have riots. I think you’d have riots.” Indeed, who knows what Trump’s fervent backers are capable of if emboldened by the defeat of their strongman at the hands of the hated party elite. But the rules are the rules — and if no candidate reaches that magic number, the job of choosing a nominee falls to those on the convention floor. That’s not a pretty picture. But then nothing about the billionaire real estate developer’s quest for the nation’s highest office has been pretty. He winks and nods at political violence at his rallies. He says he wants to “open up” libel laws to punish critics in the news media and calls them “scum.” He promised to shut out an entire class of immigrants and visitors to the United States on the sole basis of their religion. The toxic mix of violent intimidation, hostility to criticism, and explicit scapegoating of minorities shows a political movement is taking hold in America. If Trump were a politician running such a campaign in a foreign country right now, the US State Department would probably be condemning him. Realizing that the party faces a double bind, a few conservatives have been clear-eyed enough to see the need for a plausible, honorable alternative that could emerge from the likely contested convention. Names like Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney have come up. If no candidate gets a majority on the convention’s first ballot, such a nomination might be theoretically possible. Advertisement This would have no modern precedent: Ordinarily, parties put aside their differences after primaries and rally to the front-runner because they share basic common goals and values. In any other election cycle, anti-Trump Republicans would just look like sore losers. But Trump lacks those common values — not just the values of Republicans but, it becomes clearer every day, those of Democrats. House Speaker Ryan spoke to the possible long-term damage with which the party is flirting. “Leaders with different visions and ideas have come and gone; parties have risen and fallen; majorities and White Houses won and lost,” he said. “But the way we govern endures: through debate, not disorder.” The problem is that Trump has already crossed lines that a politician with a sincere commitment to democratic norms must never cross. At some point, after the election, Republicans will also need to ask themselves some tough questions about how their actions and inactions made the party vulnerable to Trump. After all, a candidate spewing anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, authoritarian rhetoric didn’t come out of nowhere; the Tea Party has been strong enough long enough that someone like him shouldn’t be a surprise. Chasing short-term political gains, the GOP missed a lot of chances to fight the hateful currents that now threaten to overwhelm it. Get Today in Opinion in your inbox: Globe Opinion's must-reads, delivered to you every Sunday-Friday. Enter email address: Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here For now, Republicans ought to focus on doing the right thing: putting up every legitimate roadblock to Trump that they can. Unexpectedly, a key moment in American democracy has snuck up on the GOP. When he denounced Trump, Romney said he wanted to be able to say he’d fought the good fight against a demagogue. That’s the test other Republicans may want to consider. Action doesn’t mean political chicanery or subterfuge. It doesn’t mean settling for an equally extreme — and perhaps more dangerous — nominee in Ted Cruz. If the party can muster the courage to reject its first-place finisher, rejecting the runner-up should be even easier. Advertisement The Republican Party’s standard deserves to be hoisted by an honorable and decent man, like Romney or Ryan, elected on the convention floor. It is better to lose with principle than to accept a dangerous deal from a demagogue. PDF: A front page in Trump’s America Discuss: Trump’s vision for America Letters: Readers respond to the editorial ||||| This image shows a portion of a satirical front page of The Boston Globe published on the newspaper's website on Saturday, April 9, 2016. The editorial board of The Boston Globe used the parody to express... (Associated Press) This image shows a portion of a satirical front page of The Boston Globe published on the newspaper's website on Saturday, April 9, 2016. The editorial board of The Boston Globe used the parody to express its uneasiness with a potential Donald Trump presidency. (The Boston Globe via AP) (Associated Press) This image shows a portion of a satirical front page of The Boston Globe published on the newspaper's website on Saturday, April 9, 2016. The editorial board of The Boston Globe used the parody to express its uneasiness with a potential Donald Trump presidency. (The Boston Globe via AP) (Associated Press) This image shows a portion of a satirical front page of The Boston Globe published on the newspaper's website on Saturday, April 9, 2016. The editorial board of The Boston Globe used the parody to express... (Associated Press) BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Globe printed a satirical front page complete with fake stories that show how "troubling" its editorial board says a Donald Trump presidency would be for America. The newspaper's front page is dated April 9, 2017, and its lead story is about Trump calling for deportations. Another article mentions work being halted on a wall at the Mexico border. There's also a short item about backlash Trump received after tweeting a photo of his new dog he named "Madame Peng," after China's first lady Peng Liyuan. In an editorial (http://bit.ly/20qYqoH ), the Globe calls the satire "an exercise in taking a man at his word." The board says Republicans need to put up every roadblock to Trump they can. The Trump campaign hasn't responded to requests for comment.

– The Boston Globe printed a satirical front page complete with fake stories that show how "troubling" its editorial board says a Donald Trump presidency would be for America, the AP reports. The newspaper's front page is dated April 9, 2017, and its lead story is about Trump calling for deportations. Another article mentions work being halted on a wall at the Mexico border. There's also a short item about backlash Trump received after tweeting a photo of his new dog he named "Madame Peng," after China's first lady Peng Liyuan, and a piece about US soldiers refusing orders to kill ISIS families. The front page is "an exercise in taking a man at his word," says a Globe editorial. "And his vision of America promises to be as appalling in real life as it is in black and white on the page. It is a vision that demands an active and engaged opposition. It requires an opposition as focused on denying Trump the White House as the candidate is flippant and reckless about securing it." The Trump campaign hasn't responded to requests for comment.

A report published on Right-wing news website WND on Friday, quoting a defected Iranian intelligence officer, claimed that a massive blast had ripped through the nuclear facility, buried deep within the guts of a large mountain. The alleged blast was said to have erupted at 11.30am last Monday – on the eve of the Israeli election – partially destroyed the nuclear site and trapped 240 people underground. Tehran held Israel responsible, the report said. More than a week later, the report is yet to be verified by a single independent source. If true, it would be the most significant attack on Iranian nuclear capabilities to date and could spark a fierce reaction from the Islamic State. And yet on Sunday evening, Shamseddin Barbroudi, deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, assured Iranian reporters there had been no explosion at the nuclear facility whatsoever. Earlier the same day, Avi Dichter, Israel's home defence minister, had been unable to confirm the unsubstantiated reports but nonetheless, welcomed them. "Any explosion in Iran that doesn't hurt people but hurts its assets is welcome," he said. Speaking privately, officials in Israel's foreign ministry – known to have an extensive surveillance network monitoring Iran's key nuclear sites – claimed they had no reliable intelligence of an explosion at Fordow. One theory put forward by Shlomo Aronson, an expert in Israeli foreign security policy at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, is that Tehran had deliberately leaked false reports about a blast to prevent international inspectors from entering the site. "They [Tehran] are more than capable of inventing such a story – although if it's true, a damaged Fordow would definitely benefit Israel," Mr Aronson conceded. "Israel would do anything within its power to stop the Iranian nuclear programme. This includes tactics that fall just short of, or substitute, a direct attack, such as the cyber war that has been raging for the past few years or acts of sabotage on Iran's nuclear facilities." Buried 300 feet underground, the nuclear fortress at Fordow is immune to air strikes or bunker bombs. It contains more than 2,700 centrifuges enriching uranium to more than 20 per cent. Tehran has repeatedly blamed Israel for a string of explosive disasters that have hit Iranian nuclear targets, including the death of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, one of Natanz's top nuclear scientists, killed when his car exploded in January last year. Whilst pleading ignorance of last Monday's alleged blast, a senior Israeli official conceded that penetrating a fortified facility such as Fordow would be neither impossible nor without precedent for Israeli's intelligence services. "Anything man-made, we can penetrate," one Israeli official told The Daily Telegraph. ||||| DUBAI | DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has denied media reports of a major explosion at one of its most sensitive uranium enrichment sites, describing them as Western propaganda designed to influence upcoming nuclear negotiations. Reuters has been unable to verify reports since Friday of an explosion early last week at the underground Fordow bunker, near the religious city of Qom, that some Israeli and Western media have said caused significant damage. "The false news of an explosion at Fordow is Western propaganda ahead of nuclear negotiations to influence their process and outcome," state news agency IRNA quoted the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Saeed Shamseddin Bar Broudi, as saying late on Sunday. Iran's ISNA news agency quoted military commander Massoud Jazayeri as saying: "I deny an explosion at the Fordow site." In late 2011 the plant at Fordow began producing uranium enriched to 20 percent fissile purity, compared with the 3.5 percent level needed for nuclear energy plants. Several U.N. Security Council resolutions have ordered Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment. Speculation of an explosion at Fordow followed an Iranian news agency report that global powers and Tehran could resume talks on Iran's disputed nuclear program on Monday and Tuesday. The European Union, the lead negotiator on the nuclear talks, said there was no such agreement. Diplomats in Vienna, where the United Nations' nuclear agency is based, said on Monday they had no knowledge of any incident at Fordow but were looking into the reports. One Western diplomat said he did not believe them to be correct. The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which regularly inspects Iranian nuclear sites including Fordow, had no immediate comment. Iran has accused Israel and the United States of trying to sabotage its nuclear program, which the West suspects hides an attempt to develop atom bomb capability. The Islamic republic says its atomic program is entirely peaceful. "BEHAVING LIKE CHILDREN" Tehran has accused Israel and the United States of being behind cyber attacks on its nuclear program and the assassination of its nuclear scientists. Washington has denied any role in the killings, while Israel has declined to comment. No government has taken responsibility for the Stuxnet computer virus that destroyed centrifuges at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility in 2010, but it has been widely reported to have been a U.S.-Israeli project. Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed state, has hinted at possible military action against Iran if sanctions and diplomacy fail to resolve the decade-old dispute. Israeli Civil Defence Minister Avi Dichter told Israel's Army Radio he could not say anything about the reported Fordow blast "beyond what I heard in the media." He added: "Any explosion in Iran which does not harm people but, rather, harms assets, is a blessing." Western governments say the higher-grade enrichment at Fordow is a significant step towards weapons-grade material, even though it is below the 90 percent level required for nuclear bombs. The Islamic state says it is producing 20 percent uranium to make fuel for a research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. Wrangling over dates and location have delayed resumption of talks between global powers and Iran, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday both sides should "stop behaving like little children" and start work. Three rounds of talks last year between Iran and the six powers - Russia, the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany - produced no breakthrough, increasing speculation Israel could attack Iranian nuclear installations. (Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Jon Boyle) ||||| Text smaller Text bigger An explosion deep within Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime. The previously secret nuclear site has become a center for Iran’s nuclear activity because of the 2,700 centrifuges enriching uranium to the 20-percent level. A further enrichment to weapons grade would take only weeks, experts say. The level of enrichment has been a major concern to Israeli officials, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly has warned about the 20-percent enriched stockpile. The explosion occurred Monday, the day before Israeli elections weakened Netanyahu’s political control. Iran, to avoid alarm, had converted part of the stockpile to fuel plates for use in the Tehran Research Reactor. However, days after the recent failed talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iranian officials announced the enrichment process will not stop even “for a moment.” The regime’s uranium enrichment process takes place at two known sites: the Natanz facility with more than 10,000 centrifuges and Fordow with more than 2,700. The regime currently has enough low-grade (3.5 percent) uranium stockpiled for six nuclear bombs if further enriched. Get the inside story in Reza Kahlili’s “A Time To Betray” and learn how the Islamic regime “bought the bomb” in “Atomic Iran.” However, more time is needed for conversion of the low-grade uranium than what would be needed for a stockpile at 20 percent. It takes 225 kilograms of enriched uranium at the 20-percent level to further enrich to the 90-percent level for one nuclear bomb. According to a source in the security forces protecting Fordow, an explosion on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Tehran time rocked the site, which is buried deep under a mountain and immune not only to airstrikes but to most bunker-buster bombs. The report of the blast came via Hamidreza Zakeri, formerly with the Islamic regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and National Security, The blast shook facilities within a radius of three miles. Security forces have enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles, and the Tehran-Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast, the source said. As of Wednesday afternoon, rescue workers had failed to reach the trapped personnel. The site, about 300 feet under a mountain, had two elevators which now are out of commission. One elevator descended about 240 feet and was used to reach centrifuge chambers. The other went to the bottom to carry heavy equipment and transfer uranium hexafluoride. One emergency staircase reaches the bottom of the site and another one was not complete. The source said the emergency exit southwest of the site is unreachable. The regime believes the blast was sabotage and the explosives could have reached the area disguised as equipment or in the uranium hexafluoride stock transferred to the site, the source said. The explosion occurred at the third centrifuge chambers, with the high-grade enriched uranium reserves below them. The information was passed on to U.S. officials but has not been verified or denied by the regime or other sources within the regime. Though the news of the explosion has not been independently verified, other sources previously have provided WND with information on plans for covert operations against Iran’s nuclear facilities as an option before going to war. The hope is to avoid a larger-scale conflict. Israel, the U.S. and other allies already have concluded the Islamic regime has crossed its red line in its quest for nuclear weapons, other sources have said. However, this information was not revealed for security reasons until several days ago when sources said the regime’s intelligence agency, through an alleged spy in the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, had learned of the decision to conduct sabotage on Iran’s nuclear sites on a much larger scale than before. As reported, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called an urgent meeting Tuesday with the intelligence minister, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and other officials to discuss the threat, and now it’s clear the meeting included the sabotage at Fordow. Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in recent years. Last year, saboteurs struck the power supply to the Fordow facility, temporarily disrupting production. And a computer worm called Stuxnet, believed to have originated in the U.S., set Iran’s plans for nuclear weapons back substantially. The 5+1 (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) hope to resume talks with Iran over its illicit nuclear program. The talks ended last year after regime officials refused to negotiate. Sources in the Islamic regime previously have revealed exclusively to WND the existence of:

– Iran today denied reports that an explosion had ripped through its Fordow nuclear site, which is buried 300 feet underground and considered safe from air strikes, the Telegraph and Reuters report. "The false news of an explosion at Fordow is Western propaganda ahead of nuclear negotiations to influence their process and outcome," state media quoted a nuclear official as saying. Seems the story started on a right-wing website called WND, which attributed it to an unnamed "former intelligence officer" in Iran—but that hasn't quelled speculation entirely. "Any explosion in Iran that doesn't hurt people but hurts its assets is welcome," said Israel's defense minister. And an Israeli foreign policy expert said Iran may have cooked up the story to keep inspectors from entering Fordow. After all, the story broke right after Iranian state media reported that talks could resume between Tehran and Western powers, although the EU quickly said no such agreement existed. Also note that Fordow started making uranium at 20% fissile purity in 2011, far higher than the 3.5% needed at nuclear energy plants.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, file photo, model Kendall Jenner has makeup applied backstage before the Michael Kors Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week, in New York. Pepsi... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, file photo, model Kendall Jenner has makeup applied backstage before the Michael Kors Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week, in New York. Pepsi is not saying whether it will continue to run an ad, featuring Jenner, that is being widely criticized... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, file photo, model Kendall Jenner has makeup applied backstage before the Michael Kors Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week, in New York. Pepsi is not saying whether it will continue to run an ad, featuring Jenner, that is being widely criticized... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016, file photo, model Kendall Jenner has makeup applied backstage before the Michael Kors Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week, in New York. Pepsi... (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Pepsi on Wednesday pulled an ad after it was widely mocked and criticized for appearing to trivialize protests for social justice causes. "Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding," the company said. "Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologize." It said it was "removing the content and halting any further rollout." The ad shows Kendall Jenner, a member of the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" reality TV family, stepping away from a modeling shoot to join a crowd of smiling, young protesters. The protesters cheer after Jenner hands a can of Pepsi to a police officer, who takes a sip. PepsiCo Inc. had previously said the ad was created by its in-house team and that it would "be seen globally across TV and digital" platforms. It initially described the spot as featuring "multiple lives, stories and emotional connections that show passion, joy, unbound and uninhibited moments. No matter the occasion, big or small, these are the moments that make us feel alive." That description was also derided on social media. The Purchase, New York, company had stood by the ad late Tuesday. By Wednesday, it was apologizing to Jenner for putting her "in this position." Critics say the image of Jenner handing the officer a Pepsi evoked a photo of Black Lives Matter protester Ieshia Evans approaching an officer at a demonstration in Baton Rouge last year. Others criticized the protesters' signs for being comically innocuous, with messages like "Join the Conversation" and heart and peace signs. The website Gothamist expressed a common sentiment online in calling the ad "gloriously tone-deaf." Among those mocking the ad was Bernice King, who tweeted a photo of her father, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., being confronted by a police officer at a protest march. "If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi," the tweet said. Larry Chiagouris, a professor of marketing at Pace University, said that the backlash was in part because Pepsi was a couple years "late to the party" with its message about unity, making its ad seem exploitive. Still, he also noted that the fallout wouldn't necessarily be that damaging, since a lot of the negative sentiment expressed on social media is "easily washed away overnight." It isn't the first time PepsiCo has backpedaled and apologized for an ad. In 2013, it pulled a Mountain Dew ad that was criticized for portraying racial stereotypes and appearing to make light of violence toward women. It pulled that ad from online channels, and said it was never intended to run on TV. ___ Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi ||||| Yesterday, the Internet was devastatingly angered by Pepsi’s latest Kendall Jenner-starring advert that trivialised the Black Live Matter movement to promote their cola. While the company may have pulled the advert, claiming they “we missed the mark”, that didn’t stop late-night comedians ripping into Pepsi. Kicking things off was Stephen Colbert: “We have a deeply divided nation,” the Late Show host said. “But today, it seems that everyone has come together to join the protest against the new protest ad from Pepsi.” The 52-year-old then began to dissect exactly what happens throughout the advert, barely containing his own laughter: "It starts with a throng of beautiful, multi-ethnic people protesting in the streets of, I’m gonna guess Newport, Rhode Island. Pepsi and Kendall Jenner criticised over new advert that 'co-opts police brutality' “So far, we don’t know what has caused all of America’s hot extras to take to the streets. But I’m guessing it’s a protest for ‘Attractive Lives Matter.’” Black Lives Matter organizes march to Trump tower 15 show all Black Lives Matter organizes march to Trump tower 1/15 Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters 2/15 People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters 3/15 Hawk Newsome, a Black Lives Matter activist, leads a protest outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images 4/15 Hawk Newsome (C) leads a chant during a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, US. January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images 5/15 People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters 6/15 An NYPD officer speaks with a Black Lives Matter leaders during a protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images 7/15 Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters 8/15 An NYPD officer speaks with a Black Lives Matter leaders during a protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images 9/15 Carol Garza, a Black Lives Matter supporter, protests outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images 10/15 People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters 11/15 A Black Lives Matter supporter protests in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images 12/15 Black Lives Matter activists march in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty 13/15 Black Lives Matter activists march in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty 14/15 Black Lives Matter supporters protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images 15/15 Black Lives Matter Kandy Freeman marches in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty Colbert then pointed to the signs each model was holding, commenting in particular on the “Join the Conversation” banner, calling it “the most corporate message ever,” adding it should have read: “We are all the corporate demographic.” One last target: the absurdity of Kendall Jenner doing a fashion shoot seemingly for “aluminium siding” and ripping off her wig. Colbert then zoomed in on the woman Jenner hands the wig too, who Colbert says “is not thrilled about being Kendall’s wig caddie.” Watch below. Meanwhile, Colbert recently had Louis CK on his show, the stand-up comedian calling President Donald Trump “a gross crook dirty rotten lying sack of sh*t” ||||| Uploaded on Apr 5, 2017 Kendall Jenner stars in a Pepsi ad critiicised for co-opting the resistance movement for commercial use. The saccharine setting portrays Jenner as a model who turns into peace maker between smiling protesters and police by offering the beverage to restore harmony while being photographed by a woman wearing a hijab

– Pepsi has given up trying to defend what some people are calling the worst ad of all time. The company has pulled its widely ridiculed ad featuring Kendall Jenner as a model who joins a protest and hands a can of Pepsi to a riot cop, the AP reports. "Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace, and understanding," the company said in a statement. "Clearly we missed the mark, and we apologize." Pepsi also apologized to Jenner for putting her "in this position." The ad, which showed protesters with signs like "Join the Conversation," was strongly criticized for hijacking the imagery of real protest movements like Black Lives Matter to sell soft drinks. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., delivered one of the most powerful criticisms, tweeting a photo of her father being pushed back by police at a protest march and quipping: "If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi." Stephen Colbert was among the late-night hosts poking fun at the ad on Wednesday, the Independent reports. "We have a deeply divided nation," said the Late Show host. "But today, it seems that everyone has come together to join the protest against the new protest ad from Pepsi." He described the "Join the Conversation" banner as "the most corporate message ever."

A psychedelic drink used for centuries in healing ceremonies is now attracting the attention of biomedical scientists as a possible treatment for depression. Researchers from Brazil last month published results from the first clinical test of a potential therapeutic benefit for ayahuasca, a South American plant-based brew. Although the study included just six volunteers and no placebo group, the scientists say that the drink began to reduce depression in patients within hours, and the effect was still present after three weeks. They are now conducting larger studies that they hope will shore up their findings. The work forms part of a renaissance in studying the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelic or recreational drugs—research that was largely banned or restricted worldwide half a century ago. Ketamine, which is used medically as an anaesthetic, has shown promise as a fast-acting antidepressant; psilocybin, a hallucinogen found in ‘magic mushrooms’, can help to alleviate anxiety in patients with advanced-stage cancer; MDMA (ecstasy) can alleviate post-traumatic stress disorder; and patients who experience debilitating cluster headaches have reported that LSD eases their symptoms. Ayahuasca, a sacramental drink traditionally brewed from the bark of a jungle vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaves of a shrub (Psychotria viridis), contains ingredients that are illegal in most countries. But a booming ayahuasca industry has developed in South America, where its religious use is allowed, and where thousands of people each year head to rainforest retreats to sample its intense psychedelic insights. Depression drink? The brew has been studied by anthropologists, social scientists and theologians, but clinical research on ayahuasca has been limited to observation of its effects in mice and rats, and in healthy human volunteers, including brain-imaging studies and retrospective surveys of past use. For the latest study, researchers led by Jaime Hallak, a neuroscientist at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, gave one mild dose of ayahuasca to six volunteers who had been diagnosed with mild to severe depression that was unresponsive to at least one conventional antidepressant drug. None had drunk ayahuasca before. After their drink, the participants sat in a quiet, dimly lit room. Physicians used standard clinical questionnaires to track their depression symptoms. Improvements were seen in two or three hours (though the psychedelic effects of an oral dose take around five hours to wear off)—a rapid effect, as conventional antidepressants can take weeks to work. The benefits, which were statistically significant, continued to hold up in assessments over the next three weeks. Three of the participants vomited, a common side effect of ayahuasca, but otherwise the procedure was well tolerated, Hallak says. “It is a proof of concept of what so many ritual ayahuasca users already know: ayahuasca can help one feel extra well, not just during the experience, but for up to days or weeks after,” says Brian Anderson, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study but has published papers on the drink’s potential. “The relationship between ayahuasca’s psychedelic effects and its therapeutic effects needs to be empirically studied,” he says. James Stone, a psychiatrist at King’s College London who has studied the effects of psychoactive drugs on the brain, says that the study is interesting but should be viewed with caution because it had no placebo group. “Placebo response is a well-documented effect in clinical trials of antidepressants,” he says. “The only things that can really be concluded from this study are that it is tolerated by patients with depression, and in these people did not seem to have any serious side effects following a single dose.” It is biochemically plausible that ayahuasca could treat depression—its plants contain compounds that alter the concentrations of the mood-regulating neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain—as do commercial antidepressants. These compounds include the hallucinogen N,N-dimethyltryptamine, which binds to serotonin receptors, and also the chemicals harmine, tetrahydroharmine and harmaline, which are thought to inhibit an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A and so prevent the breakdown of serotonin and other neurotransmitters. “It is possible that ayahuasca and other serotonergic psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin, may be useful as antidepressants for particular subsets of patients in the future,” says Stone. “We await the results of well-designed, random controlled trials to determine clinical effectiveness.” Further trials are under way. Draulio de Araujo, a neuroscientist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Natal, Brazil, and a co-author of the study, says that his team has already treated 46 (out of a planned 80) patients in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of ayahuasca and depression that began in January 2014. “We hope to finish it by the end of this year,” he says. This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on April 6, 2015. ||||| Deep in the Amazon basin, shaman prepare a natural tea called ayahuasca to bring its drinkers to hallucinogenic states of revelation. People come to the region from all over the world to take ayahuasca in order to make better contact with their emotions within or the spirits beyond--or simply to try the drug recreationally. But more recently scientists have been investigating ayahuasca as a treatment for psychological conditions such as PTSD and anxiety. Now a team of Brazilian researchers is testing the potion to treat depression, with promising preliminary results. They published their work recently in the journal Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria (translation: Brazilian Review Of Psychiatry). Ayahuasca is made from a jungle vine and shrub leaves and contains the chemical dimethyltryptamine, which makes it illegal in most countries (though many allow its consumption for religious purposes). Consuming the brew is notoriously hard on the system, resulting in excessive vomiting, disorientation, and occasionally death, but that doesn’t stop thousands of “ayahuasca tourists” from seeking it out every year. Though ayahuasca and the rituals surrounding it have been studied by social scientists and anthropologists, study of its medicinal properties has been limited to animal studies and a few with healthy volunteers. But researchers suspected that some of the compounds in ayahuasca change the concentration of mood-altering serotonin in the brain, as do commercial antidepressants. In the study, the researchers gave doses of ayahuasca to six participants with depression for whom commercial antidepressants hadn’t been effective. As they sat in a dimly lit room, the researchers asked them questions from clinical questionnaires to track their symptoms. They found that the symptoms of depression decreased three hours after taking the ayahusaca (a typical trip lasts five hours) and they felt the positive effects for up to three weeks. It’s important to note that there was no control group for this study, and there were very few participants, so the results should be taken with a grain of salt. However, the researchers are currently working on a study of similar design with many more participants that will track the symptoms for much longer after the participants take the ayahuasca. ||||| For centuries, Amazonian shamans have been brewing ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant-based tea, for use in traditional healing ceremonies. Now, the substance has caught the attention of not only the American tourists and spiritual seekers traveling to South America to participate ayahuasca retreats, but also medical researchers, who are investigating ayahuasca (also known as the "spirit vine") as a treatment for mental health problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. This week, the results of the first clinical trial investigating ayahuasca as a treatment for depression were published in the Brazilian Review of Psychiatry. Its publication marks a promising early step toward clinical use of the psychotropic substance as a treatment for depression and other mental health problems. For the small study, neuroscientists at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil gave ayahuasca to volunteers who had been diagnosed with depression that proved resistant to at least one type of antidepressant. The researchers observed reduced depression in all participants within two to three hours of ingesting the substance, and also after a three-week follow-up. The preliminary study had a very small sample size of only six participants. The study's conclusions are further limited by the absence of a placebo group, but they do suggest the plant holds promise as a fast-acting treatment for depression. "This is an area that really does merit further work and serious consideration," Dr. Brian Anderson, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, who has also conducted medical anthropological work on ayahuasca, told The Huffington Post. "There's a need for effective treatments that can work in the short term. A lot of our current depression treatments take weeks to use, when we think about pills or psychotherapies." So how does the brew provide both immediate and lingering relief from depressive symptoms? Like pharmaceutical antidepressants, ayahuasca seems to alter concentrations of the mood-boosting neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. “It is possible that ayahuasca and other serotonergic psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin, may be useful as antidepressants for particular subsets of patients in the future,” King's College psychiatrist James Stone, who has studied the effects of psychedelic drugs on the brain, told Nature. Another possible way ayahuasca may alleviate feelings of depression is through its active ingredient, the psychoactive chemical DMT (dimethyltryptamine), which is known to induce spiritual experiences and revelations. Larger, placebo-controlled trials using ayahuasca for depression are already underway. Another group of Brazilian researchers are about halfway through a double-blind trial that will be conducted on 80 participants, Nature reported. Ayahuasca joins other psychedelics including MDMA, LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) as substances scientists are investigating as treatments for depression. However, even in controlled settings, the use of ayahuasca and other psychedelics isn't without risk. There are some case reports of people experiencing psychological distress after using ayahuasca, and it's possible in some cases the hallucinogen could worsen symptoms of depression. Still, the research offers reason for optimism. "This study is helpful because it's actually documenting, in a structured hospital setting, that this is being done safely," Anderson said.

– A psychedelic brew from the jungles of Brazil shows promise as a treatment for depression—in fact, as a treatment for those who don't respond to more traditional medication. Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo have just published the results of the first clinical trial involving the anti-depressant effects of ayahuasca, a centuries-old drink made from jungle vine and shrubs long used in religious ceremonies in South America, reports Scientific American. Patients began to feel better within a couple of hours—conventional medications can take weeks to kick in—and the beneficial effects lasted for three weeks. The "psychedelic" part wore off after about five hours. "This is an area that really does merit further work and serious consideration," a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, not involved with the study tells the Huffington Post. "There's a need for effective treatments that can work in the short term." Like conventional anti-depressant medications, the chemical compounds in ayahuasca seem to alter the brain's level of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood. Popular Science highlights one "grain of salt" aspect of the study: It was small, with just six participants, and it did not have a placebo group. But more studies are under way, and a much larger one at at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte should wrap up this year. (Another study finds that talk therapy is effective at preventing suicides.)

Story highlights Sen. Reid says Romney still isn't coming clean on taxes Paul Ryan gets mixed reception at AARP event Ryan and President Obama accuse each other of being untruthful Obama says leadership means rejecting bad ideas President Barack Obama and GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan on Friday traded sharp criticism over health care reforms and Medicare, with each telling a leading advocacy group for senior citizens that the other was being untruthful. "Contrary to what you've heard and what you may hear from subsequent speakers, Obamacare actually strengthened Medicare," the president told the AARP Liffe@50+ event, using the nickname for the 2010 Affordable Care Act that passed with no Republican support. In particular, he called the claim by Ryan and other Republicans that $716 billion is being cut from Medicare to fund the health care bill "simply not true." Ryan spoke to the same event shortly afterward, saying that Obama's contention that the health care law strengthened Medicare was "just not true," adding that the legislation "turned Medicare into a piggy bank for Obamacare." The debate over Medicare is a major issue in the November election campaign, especially in the vital battleground state of Florida with its large population of senior citizens. Ryan headed to Florida later Friday, while Obama campaigned in Virginia, Vice President Joe Biden spoke in New Hampshire and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney headed to Las Vegas. All four states are considered up-for-grabs in the election less than seven weeks away. In a separate development, Romney released details of his 2011 income tax return that showed he made $13.7 million last year and paid $1.94 million in federal taxes, giving him an effective tax rate of 14.1%, his campaign said. The majority of the candidate's income last year came from his investments, Brad Malt, the trustee of Romney's blind trust, said in a blog post. The Romneys gave just over $4 million to charity. In addition, the Romney campaign said his tax filings from 1990 to 2009 show that he and his wife paid 100% of the federal and state income taxes they owed and that their overall average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.2%. Romney has been criticized by Democrats and even some Republicans for not releasing more than two years worth of taxes. His wealth and investment industry background, as well as his father's decision to release a dozen years of tax records during his presidential run four decades ago, have only raised interest in Romney's returns. Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said in a statement the disclosure "continues to mask Romney's true wealth" and income from the private equity firm he once led, leaving the American people in the dark about critical details of his finances. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, called the new tax information insufficient. "What we don't know is why he refuses to be straight with the American people about the choices he's made in his financial life," according to a statement from Reid, who previously created a stir when he alleged Romney paid no taxes in some years but refused to divulge the source of his accusation. "When will the American people see the returns he filed before he was running for president?" Reid asked. Obama responds to health care attacks In his appearance by satellite at the AARP event in New Orleans, Obama responded to specific attacks on the health care law by Ryan and other Republicans, declaring the 2010 measure cuts waste and fraud in Medicare, provides preventive care to keep people healthier and reduces prescription drug costs for seniors. Savings come from "using the purchasing power of Medicare to say to doctors and hospitals and insurance companies: 'You guys need to work smarter,'" Obama said to applause. "Instead of having five different tests that each of you is charging for, do one test and email it to everybody." Ryan, the conservative House Budget Committee chairman from Wisconsin, has proposed a partial privatization of the entitlement that would provide government subsidies to help senior citizens pay for coverage they would choose from a list of options. He defended the plan Friday in the face of a mixed reception. "The first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare because it represents the worst of both worlds," Ryan said to loud booing. He added: "I had a feeling there'd be mixed reaction so let me get into it ." "It weakens Medicare for today's seniors and puts it at risk for the next generation," Ryan said, repeating the factually challenged claim of $716 billion in Medicare cuts and also targeting a panel created under the health care law charged with recommending ways to reach targeted savings starting in 2014. Ryan also took a swipe at Obama's re-election slogan of "Forward," saying it means "Forward into a future where seniors are denied the care they earned because a bureaucrat decided it wasn't worth the money." In his remarks, Obama argued that Medicare savings come from "using the purchasing power of Medicare to say to doctors and hospitals and insurance companies: 'You guys need to work smarter." "Instead of having five different tests that each of you is charging for, do one test and email it to everybody," he said to applause. With polls showing Romney unable to overtake Obama with less than seven weeks to go until the November election, GOP infighting is showing a rising frustration over the candidate's campaign against a president saddled by high unemployment and a sluggish economy. New figures show Obama and his allies raised nearly $85 million in August, outpacing Romney's haul in the month that included both parties' national conventions. In Wisconsin, conservative candidate Tommy Thompson put some of the blame for his slipping poll numbers on the Romney campaign and conservative commentators, including former GOP speechwriter Peggy Noonan, have depicted the Romney team as floundering. "Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring," Ann Romney said of her husband's critics in an interview on Thursday with Radio Iowa. Romney tweaked his campaign strategy twice this week in response to controversies that distracted from his main message challenging Obama's record as president. On Thursday, he kept up attacks on Obama over a 1998 comment regarding redistribution of wealth, and also claimed the president had given up on changing Washington. The Obama camp fired back that the criticism was off base. At the AARP event Friday, Obama said the Ryan proposal to reform Medicare would make it a voucher program that shifts health care costs to senior citizens. He noted that AARP supported the 2010 health care reform act and opposed Ryan's Medicare proposal. "They know that a voucher program is not going to be a good deal," Obama said. Ryan, however, denied it was a voucher program and insisted that the idea originated in Democratic proposals of the past. "This financial support system is designed to guarantee that seniors can always afford Medicare coverage -- no exceptions," he said to some applause. Members of AARP -- a nonprofit organization and a powerful lobbying group that boasts of having more than 37 million members -- submitted questions to the nominees on their website. Tough stretch for Romney Romney is coming off a tough stretch in the weeks before the three presidential debates in October. Last week, the Romney campaign struggled in its initial response to anti-American violence in Libya and Egypt. Then a left-leaning magazine released secretly recorded clips of Romney speaking at a May fund-raiser in which he said 47% of Americans depended on government help, saw themselves as victims and won't support him. Under criticism for the comments at the fund-raiser, Romney stuck by them and rallied some conservative commentators to his side by emphasizing his message on his allegation that Obama's polices increased public dependency on government. In particular, they accused Obama of favoring wealth redistribution -- code for socialism among conservatives -- based on the 1998 video of the president when he was a state senator in Illinois. "I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution -- because I actually believe in some redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody's got a shot," Obama says in the clip, posted Tuesday on the conservative Drudge Report website. The White House on Wednesday characterized the GOP attacks over the redistribution comment as an effort to divert attention from Romney's remarks at the May fundraiser. Romney also took aim at Obama's comment on Thursday at a Univision "Meet the Candidates" forum in which the president said he was unable to change Washington from within. House Speaker John Boehner continued the Romney attack line on Friday, saying Obama and congressional Democrats lacked the leadership qualities necessary to change the culture of partisan divide and legislative gridlock. "It takes courage, it takes determination and it takes sincerity, and it's called leadership," Boehner told reporters. Asked about the inability to work out compromises with Republicans on deficit reduction and other major issues, Obama blamed GOP intransigence and said he was being a leader by rejecting what he called "bad ideas." He noted that his proposals, including the health care reform measure opposed by every Republican, included some ideas with GOP origins. "Obamacare owes a debt to what was done in Massachusetts by my opponent, Mr. Romney, even though sometimes he denies it," the president said in a jab at his challenger, who passed a similar plan while governor of the state but now vows to repeal the federal version. "The one thing I won't do though is go along with bad ideas that are not helping the middle class," Obama said to applause, adding: "If I hear the only way Republicans in Congress are willing to move forward is to voucherize Medicare, I'll say no." ||||| AARP repeatedly boos Ryan for vowing to repeal ‘Obamacare’ By David Edwards Friday, September 21, 2012 13:35 EST Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was loudly and repeatedly booed by members of the AARP on Friday after he pledged to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. “The first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare,” Ryan said, pausing as the audience in New Orleans booed and shouted, “No!” “I had a feeling there would be mixed reaction,” the candidate said, but the booing continued. “It weakens Medicare for today’s seniors and puts it at risk for the next generation.” That, too, was met with audible groans and jeers. “It funnels $716 billion out of Medicare to pay for a new entitlement that we didn’t even ask for,” Ryan insisted. “No!” people shouted. Although Ryan seemed to be unfazed by the heckling, his explanations and assurances never convinced the AARP audience, who continued booing him throughout the remainder of his speech. During a video appearance at the AARP Life@50+ conference earlier in the day, Obama had told members that Ryan’s claim that $716 billion had been cut from Medicare services was “simply not true.” “Contrary to what you’ve heard and what you may hear from subsequent speakers, Obamacare actually strengthened Medicare,” the president explained. Watch this video from Fox News, broadcast Sept. 21, 2012.

– Paul Ryan evoked boos and jeers from an audience of retirees in New Orleans today when he promised to repeal ObamaCare—but he continued his argument apparently unfazed, Raw Story reports. "The first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal ObamaCare," said Ryan at a meeting of the American Association of Retired Persons, where people reacted by booing and shouting, "No!" Ryan said he "had a feeling there would be mixed reaction,” and went on to claim that ObamaCare would drain Medicare of $716 billion and put seniors at risk. But that only elicited more boos and cries. On a happier note, he earned applause when he talked about his family and mentioned that his 78-year-old mother, Betty Douglas, was in attendance, the Washington Post reports. Ryan's speech was round two of a debate that began earlier in the day when President Obama addressed the crowd by video, reports CNN. "Contrary to what you've heard and what you may hear from subsequent speakers, ObamaCare actually strengthened Medicare," said Obama, who called the $716-billion-cut claim "simply untrue."

"The outpouring of love and generosity that has been displayed to our family throughout these last few weeks has far exceeded anything we could have ever imagined. As we have always known, Christina's life was so very special, not only to us, but to everyone she touched with her joyful heart, beautiful voice and love for life and the Lord. Words cannot express what the many memorials, donations and tributes shared by Christina's fans and those in the media and entertainment industry mean to us. She will live on in our hearts forever. We will take our time in determining the best ways to honor Christina moving forward. Thank you." - Bud, Tina and Marcus Grimmie ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Words cannot begin to describe the pain I am feeling. I learned this business through the eyes of a father and Christina was like a second daughter to me. All I wanted to do was assist her in achieving her musical dreams while protecting her from the pitfalls associated with the business. I never could have imagined this horrific event being one of the pitfalls needing to be avoided. In Christina’s honor I have created a Go Fund Me page to assist her family in their time of need. As family Mother, Father, and Brother made the ultimate family sacrifice to support Christina on her musical journey. They did nothing but love her and support her as family the best they knew how, the only worry I want them to have at this point is that of recovery. Grimms I love you, and miss you beyond comprehension. - Brian Teefey, LH7 Management (Account created by Laura Worley w/LH7 Management) ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Adam Levine Offers to Pay for Christina Grimmie's Funeral Expenses Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine is offering to pay for the late Christina Grimmie's funeral, Grimmie's brother Marcus reported on his Facebook page. Levine -- who was Grimmie's coach when she competed on the sixth season of The Voice -- reached out to her family over the weekend after hearing the news that the 22-year-old was shot and killed by a deranged fan Friday night (June 10). "I found out this morning that Adam Levine personally called my mother and said he will pay for her funeral and her plane flight, and I was blown away," he shared in a post. A Look at Christina Grimmie's Career In addition to Levine's generosity, Marcus said that the GoFundMe page set up by manager Brian Teefey is helping with funeral expenses in this difficult time. At the moment, donations have topped $100,000. "Words cannot express," Marcus wrote. "Words cannot express...literally I have no words. I promise both my parents and I will read every one of these personalized messages. I'm so blown away by everything right now. But all I can say is thank you. And Christina will be missed and never ever forgotten. Grimmie was gunned down by 27-year-old Kevin James Loibl -- who was quickly tackled by Grimmie's brother before shooting himself -- on June 10 after opening for pop-rock band Before You Exit at the Plaza Live. She was signing autographs at a meet and greet after the show when Loibl shot her. Levine shared his grief on Twitter after he heard the tragic news.

– Adam Levine was Christina Grimmie's coach during her time on reality competition The Voice—and now the Maroon 5 singer has offered to pay for her funeral, Billboard reports. Grimmie was murdered after a concert Friday night; her brother, Marcus, wrote on Facebook Sunday night that Levine "personally called my mother and said he will pay for the funeral and her plane flight, and I was blown away." On Saturday, Levine tweeted a picture of himself with Grimmie. "Behati and I are absolutely devastated and heartbroken by Christina Grimmie’s death," he wrote. "Our hearts go out to her family." In his post, Marcus Grimmie added that his sister's manager, Brian Teefey, has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help with expenses; it's raised more than $170,000 so far. Teefey writes on the page that Grimmie "was like a second daughter to me."

Story highlights Immigration agency's "Operation Sunflower" identified 123 child victims of pornography, abuse Some victims were as young as 3; others were abused as children and are now adults Law enforcement officials in six other countries also made arrests in the operation An international operation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement aimed at child pornography and sexual abuse has resulted in the arrest of 245 suspects, officials announced Thursday. All but 23 of the suspects were apprehended in the United States. The agency said that during the course of Operation Sunflower, law enforcement officers identified 123 victims of child exploitation and removed 44 of those children from their alleged abusers with whom they were living. The other cases involved victims who were exploited by people outside their homes or children who were harmed years ago and are now adults. Several of the children were shockingly young. Five were under age 3. Nine were between the ages of 4 and 6. Of the 123 victims, 110 lived in the United States in 19 different states. ICE officials did not identify the six other countries where victims were identified or where some of the arrests were made, citing the need to work discreetly with international law enforcement partners. According to ICE, some of those arrested during Operation Sunflower were registered sex offenders. Operation Sunflower was conducted in November and December, but efforts are continuing on other cases. During a news conference, ICE Director John Morton said the agency was calling on the public to provide tips and mentioned several open investigations. One of those cases involves the sexual molestation of an unidentified girl thought to be around 13. Investigators believe the abuse took place about 11 years ago, but the pornographic images were widely circulated. ICE has posted pictures of an unidentified woman and man suspected of abusing the girl on its website. The woman has some distinctive tattoos that investigators hope will lead to tips about her identity. Based on a forensic analysis of the pornographic images in that case, investigators think the abuse occurred in the Los Angeles or San Fernando Valley area of California. Although the girl may now be an adult, ICE officials want to identify and prosecute the suspects and prevent them from harming new victims. "Forensic analysis technology has become critical in the fight against child exploitation," Morton said. "We are coming across these images on the Internet. They are being produced in one country but shared literally around the world, often in real time." Morton said ICE works with other law enforcement agencies and with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to look for clues in the pictures of abuse to identify where the acts occurred and track down the victims and perpetrators. The name Operation Sunflower was chosen to commemorate a case from 2011 in which Danish law enforcement officials shared images and chat board information about a 16-year-old boy who allegedly planned to rape an 11-year-old girl. One image taken from a moving car showed a road sign with a sunflower on it. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations determined that the road sign was unique to Kansas. Agents were then able to find the exact stretch of road where the picture was taken and to locate the girl. ||||| Federal agents identified 123 sexually exploited children -- some as young as 2 -- and arrested 245 suspected child porn producers in a five-week operation that spanned 46 states and six countries and includes the Bay Area, a federal official announced Thursday. Of the more than 100 abused children identified in Operation Sunflower, 44 were directly rescued from their abusers and 79 were identified as being exploited by others outside their homes or are now adults who were victimized as children. The arrests -- 37 in California, the most of any state -- were mostly executed during the first week of December, but agents are still working on rescuing and identifying victims. In the Bay Area, agents procured five indictments for individuals from their early 20s to early 50s. The four arrested were from San Jose, San Leandro, San Francisco and Sonoma County, and one remains on the lam. Fourteen Fresno-area residents were also arrested and three children from that region rescued, including a 7-year-old girl with disabilities. "Whenever our investigations reveal the production and distribution of new child pornography online, we will do everything we can to rescue the victim and prosecute the abuser even if takes us years or (going) around the world to do it," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton at a Washington D.C. news conference Thursday. Advertisement One of the suspects is Michael Lindsay, 53, of San Jose, arrested Nov. 8 at San Francisco International Airport on suspicion of engaging in child sex tourism. He was boarding a flight to Manila, Philippines. Two months earlier, Lindsay returned from a trip to the Philippines and that country issued a criminal complaint alleging he had sexual contact with a 13-year-old girl. Agents continue to search for additional victims, as evidence suggests Lindsay had sexual contact with additional children, according to ICE. Of the 123 victims (70 female, 53 male) identified in the operation, five were under the age of 3; nine were 4 to 6; 21 were 7 to 9; 11 were ages 10 to 12; 38 were 13 to 15; and 15 were ages 16 to 17. Twenty-four victims were found to be adults now. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations agents dubbed the worldwide investigation "Operation Sunflower" to commemorate the anniversary of a successful operation that rescued an 11-year-old Kansas girl from rape. It was the agency's first case in their new Victim Identification Program. In the 2011 case, Danish police alerted American authorities to a 16-year-old boy soliciting advice on a pedophile chat room and posting images of the 11-year-old girl, saying he planned to rape her. Agents had no idea where the suspect and victim were. Working with high-tech video equipment, law enforcement was able to extrapolate a sunflower-shaped road sign in a video from a moving car that the suspect posted. The yellow freeway sign was determined to be unique to Kansas. For days, pairs of ICE agents drove the Kansas freeways before finding the sign on a rural freeway. From there, with the help of local police, they identified a swimming pool featured in another video and then tracked down the victim before any crime was committed. Last fiscal year, 292 victims were identified or rescued from ICE investigations and 1,655 child predators were arrested. "We are defending the defenseless," Morton said. Morton asked for the public's help in identifying three men and a woman in three unsolved Operation Sunflower cases. In the first case, investigators believe the photographs were taken about 11 years ago with an adult man and woman sexually molesting a girl who looks to be about 13 years old. Agents believe the images may have been taken in Los Angeles, or possibly the San Fernando Valley area. The other two cases involve white male adult suspects abusing pre-pubescent toddlers. Their whereabouts are unknown. Anyone with information or tips that can assist in these investigations can call 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or visit www.ICE.gov/tips. Tips may be reported anonymously. Contact Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow him at Twitter.com/mgafni.

– A massive child-porn bust has led to 245 arrests and the identification of 123 exploited children, some as young as two, reports the Contra Costa Times. The crackdown, dubbed Operation Sunflower, began Nov. 1 and ran for five weeks, and extended to 46 states and six countries, officials revealed yesterday. Of the 123 children, 44 were living with their alleged abusers. Five of the children were three or younger, and 41 were between the ages of four and 12. California led the way with 37 arrests, and all but 23 of those arrested were in the United States, reports CNN. "Whenever our investigations reveal the production and distribution of new child pornography online, we will do everything we can to rescue the victim and prosecute the abuser, even if takes us years or (going) around the world to do it," said ICE's director. Investigators say the are continuing to make arrests and attempting to identify further victims. The operation's name is a nod to the impressive 2011 rescue of an 11-year-old in Kansas; click for the fascinating story of how ICE agents tracked her down.

Archive-It Partner 1067: The Political TV Ad Archive, a project of the Internet Archive, collects political TV ads and social media sites in key 2016 primary election states, unlocking the metadata underneath and highlighting quality journalism to provide journalists, civic organizations, academics, and the general public with reliable information on who is trying to influence them & how. ||||| The FCC has released the final draft of its proposal to destroy net neutrality. The order removes nearly every net neutrality rule on the books — internet providers will be free to experiment with fast and slow lanes, prioritize their own traffic, and block apps and services. There’s really only one rule left here: that ISPs have to publicly disclose when they’re doing these things. In the proposal, the commission calls its 2015 net neutrality ruling a “misguided and legally flawed approach.” It repeatedly states that the 2015 order “erred,” was “incorrect,” and came to “erroneous conclusions.” Removing these rules, the commission now argues, will “facilitate critical broadband investment and innovation by removing regulatory uncertainty and lowering compliance costs.” The FCC argues that web companies are wealthy enough to fend for themselves The proposal also argues that consumer protections simply aren’t necessary because Federal Trade Commission will now have oversight of ISPs. “The transparency requirement we adopt, together with antitrust and consumer protection laws, ensures that consumers have means to take remedial action if an ISP engages in behavior inconsistent with an open internet,” the proposal states. So while blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization may be okay with the FCC, the commission says that ISPs will still have to answer to the FTC, which may or may not be okay with those things. At a bare minimum though, the FTC has to be at least somewhat accepting of them — a court has already ruled that blocking those things outright would treat internet providers like common carriers; and since this proposal removes the common carrier designation from internet providers, that won’t be allowed. Net neutrality supporters have long argued that these policies could unfairly advantage ISPs’ own content. But in the proposal, the FCC says it thinks that won’t happen — simply because some web companies are so much wealthier than ISPs. “It is unlikely that any ISP, except the very largest, could exercise market power in negotiations with Google or Netflix,” the proposal says. It also argues that small web companies need not worry, because any deal made between a large web company, like Google, and an ISP would need to be consistent with antitrust laws. States won’t be allowed to pass their own net neutrality laws Existing antitrust law is the commission’s answer for pretty much every problem that could come up. Why should the FCC have its own rules on the books, it essentially asks, if federal law already covers many of these things? That ignores something important, though: federal antitrust law isn’t used very aggressively, whereas the FCC could have strictly enforced prohibitions on anti-competitive behavior. It’s not a huge leap to say this change is designed to significantly loosen the regulatory leash around ISPs so that they can go off and try new practices, even if they may put consumers at risk. And in a fun twist, the commission also intends to prevent states from passing their own net neutrality laws. Allowing states to implement their own rules, the commission says, “could pose an obstacle to or place an undue burden” on the delivery of broadband service. The order will be voted on next month, at the commission’s December 14th meeting, where it’s almost certain to pass.

– The FCC released the final draft of its proposal to end net neutrality on Wednesday, and the Verge reports it gets rid of "nearly every net neutrality rule on the books" while allowing for "blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization" on the part of internet service providers. The proposal will allow ISPs to create fast and slow lanes, give preference to certain customers, and stop people from accessing apps and services at will. The one net neutrality rule the proposal leaves in place is that ISPs must publicly disclose when they are doing those things. The FCC says removing net neutrality rules will "facilitate critical broadband investment and innovation." Here's what else you need to know:

Hide Transcript Show Transcript Expert: Summer gold rush could be the best in 20 years | Share Copy Link Copy A geologist and gold mining expert said this year’s summer gold rush is expected to be the best in two decades. Advertisement WEBVTT MAX: WE'RE GOING TO BE ONTRAVERSE CREEK, AND THIS IS AWELL-KNOWN AREA TO FIND GOLD.AND AFTER MONTHS OF RAIN ANDSUBSEQUENT FLOODING, THIS WOULDHAVE BEEN THE PLACE TO BE FOR ANEASY SCORE.>> YOU CAN PICK UP, LITERALLYPICK UP, SMALL NUGGETS OF GOLDRIGHT AFTER THE FLOODING.MAX: THOSE AREAS ARE NOW GONE,PICKED OVER BY GOLD PANNERS KEENON THE BEST TIME TO FIND THEMINERAL, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEANYOUR CHANCES AT TREASURE THISYEAR ARE GONE.>> AS FAR GOLD, THE DEPOSITS OFGOLD, THIS IS GOING TO RIVAL ANDCOME CLOSE TO 1997, THE FLOOD OF1997.MAX: COME SUMMER, WHEN THEMOUNTAIN MELTOFF IS UNDERWAY ANDCREEKS, STREAMS, AND RIVERSRECEDE, THE 2017 GOLD RUSH WILLBE ON.>> THIS STREAM RIGHT HERE WILLBE DOWN TO JUST A FEW INCHESDEEP, AND THERE WILL BE PEOPLEIN HERE WITH SLUICE BOXES ANDGOLD PANS AND LOOKING FOR GOLDTO SEE WHAT'S BEEN DEPOSITEDFROM THIS LAST SET OF FLOODS.MAX: BEFORE FINDING THAT IN ANAREA LIKE TRAVERSE CREEK, YOUHAVE TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THERIGHT EQUIPMENT WHEN LOOKING FORGOLD.>> YOU CAN COME OUT WITHSOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS A GOLDPAN.MAX: OR YOU CAN TAKE IT UP ANOTCH WITH A SLUCIE BOX. >> THE GOLD BEING HEAVY IS GOINGTO GET CAUGHT IN THIS BLACK MATAND BEHIND EACH ONE OF THESERIFFLES, WHERE THERE'S AN EDDYCREATED, AND IT ALLOWS THEHEAVIER MATERIAL TO DROP OUT.MAX: AT BLACK SHEEP MINING INSACRAMENTO, BUINESS BOOMS INANTICIPATION OF WHAT MIGHT BEFOUND COME JULY.>> WE'VE SEEN A LOT OF GROUNDTHAT'S BEEN MOVED AROUND ANDEXPOSED TO WHERE PEOPLE HAVEN'TGOTTEN TO IT IN YEARS OR EVER,EVEN.SO WE'RE SEEING A LARGE INCREASEIN BUSINESS.MAX: THOSE PROSPECTORS WILL ENDUP OUT HERE AT PLACES LIKESTIFLE MEMORIAL CLAIM READY FORA DIG GEOLOGIST RICH DVORACEKSAYS WILL BE UNLIKE ANYTHINGWE'VE SEEN IN 20 YEARS.JUST DON'T EXPECT RICH TO TELLYOU WHERE TO LOOK.>> IF YOU DO FIND GOLD, DON'TTRUST ANYBODY TO TELL YOU WHERETHEY GOT IT, TO BE TRUTHFULABOUT IT.I RARELY AM.MAX: IN EL DORADO COUNTY, MAX ||||| JAMESTOWN, Tuolumne County (KPIX 5) — Weeks of rainy weather across Northern California and the storm runoff through the hills of gold country have triggered a new gold rush. “Miner Gary” Thomas said he always finds at least a little gold here on his property near Jamestown in Tuolumne County, but this year, there’s so much more runoff than normal and it’s shaking the gold from these hills. Thomas said it could provide a “Eureka” moment for those inclined to come up here and look for it. “(The runoff) kind of ‘etch-a-sketches’ everything,” said Thomas. “Eveything I had dug up and now my dig spots are all gone.” The known gold digs were washed out, trees uprooted, and landscape eroded. The runoffs have also removed gold out of the old abandoned mines and sent it down the river. “It’s going to bring down more gold,” said Thomas. “It’s going to bring up new areas that I never got to.” Thomas runs tour groups through his property and said now is the optimum time for gold hunting because the storms have just finished churning the landscape. Officials from the Bureau of Land Management say the erosion “concentrates” the gold by removing the lighter rock and soil. You may be wondering if this reporter found any during our time here. We did find some fine flakes of what they call “flour gold” and it was found more quickly than normal in just a couple of panning sessions. “Eureka!” said Thomas.”That’s hard to do.” But not as hard this year, now that Mother Nature has shaken up the motherlode. Thomas said one hot spot this year will be below the Oroville Dam, because the huge water releases from the spillway could reveal some new pockets of gold. ||||| Joey Wilson, left, rings up Curtis Barwick for a gold pan and a portable slough Saturday at Adventures in Prospecting in downtown Oroville. Dan Reidel — Enterprise-Record Oroville >> Now is not the time to quit your day job in hopes of striking it rich. However, people with a new or renewed interest in gold mining may be spending more of their summer weekends near rivers and streams. Joey Wilson owns Adventures in Prospecting in Oroville, where he says there’s been more excitement among his gold mining customers. “There’s always been gold in the Feather River,” he said. What’s new is that the recent floods have moved things around. It’s not just the Feather River. Floods scoured the banks of the American River, the Mokelumne, the Yuba and just about any other waterway where 49ers once got their boots dirty. Curtis Barwick was in Oroville Saturday waiting for the prospecting store to open. He usually looks for gold closer to his home in Anderson, but decided to check out Oroville on his day off. He said gold mining gets him outdoors and helps him “recharge,” after a stressful week at work. It’s a lot like hiking, another of his hobbies, but with gold mining there’s a chance of a reward. “The odds are greater than winning the lottery,” he said. Even on days when he only finds a few flakes, it’s fun to turn over rocks and sand. He’s not alone. In fact, he’s a member of the Shasta Miners and Prospectors Association. Back in the day, miners in the 1850s did not have metal detectors. Barwick bought one a while back and said if “lead was gold, I’d be rich.” He had found more bullet casings than he cares to collect. Other finds include coins, and a 1944 nickel. He gave his girlfriend a ring he found in the dirt, and would recommend that anyone who buys a metal detector have some fun digging around in their own backyard. Others make gold mining an adventure. That’s one of the reasons Wilson named his shop “Adventures in Prospecting.” He sells wet suits and fins, and personally loves to dive when he hunts gold. Finding gold is a common thread for Cindy and Paul Pekarek, who were at the Montgomery Street miner’s supply shop Saturday. The couple belong to the Mother Lode Goldhounds, near Grass Valley, and for fun they travel to new digs, including Oroville. Paul Pekarek is a five-time gold mining champion, he said pointing to a pin on his wide-brimmed, black leather hat. The pin includes a miniature gold pan, pickaxe and shovel, with a real glob of gold in the center. To win the championships, he proved he could pan faster than most others. Advertisement Some people, like Mark Saposnik, are “pretty serious” about gold mining. Saposnik spent his summers during college dredge mining. It’s more difficult to find gold now that dredging is no longer allowed, he said. The recent floods have “rearranged the rivers,” he said, and he’ll spend more time stomping around. Spillway gold? Gold miners can speculate all they want about gold that may or may not have washed down the hillside near the Oroville spillway. Before hydraulic mining was outlawed, hillsides up and down the river were washed away to unearth gold. Gold is heavy, and prospectors would love to discover what is among the debris at the Diversion Pool. However, the area is closed except for the work crew. Recent word from Department of Water Resources acting director Bill Croyle was that he did not know if gold had been found in the area. It’s a moot point because “if anybody gets close to it they will be run off,” said Bob Van Camp, known locally as “Digger Bob.” Van Camp was the spokesman in 2014 when a 5.18 pound gold nugget was found in the Butte foothills. The man who found the nugget has remained anonymous, but Van Camp was allowed to tell the story. As for the spillway debris, Van Camp said he believes there is a gold vein that runs from Potter’s Ravine and south, including the area of the spillway. In addition to panning near waterways, prospectors look for quartz, especially chunks that have been worn smooth by water flow. “Then you go downstream.” He’ll also walk the higher ground with a metal detector, hoping some of that quartz will give him a strong signal. Ninety-nine percent of the time the quartz is just quartz, but “now and again,” the quartz will have “some sort of metal in it.” This might mean manganese or silver, “or there may be gold inside.” Part of the fun in finding gold is knowing it’s something that an old-time gold miner missed, Van Camp said. “I don’t do it for the money. I just do it for the adventure, for the challenge.” He would love to get his hands dirty in the Diversion Pool at Lake Oroville right now. However, he understands that DWR is working night and day to get the water flow back to normal. People will be looking at other areas, where gold panning is allowed. After the floods of the mid 1990s, “it was good getting for those of us who knew how to look,” he said. For an amateur, the adventure could lead to frustration. “But I don’t want to discourage people from learning about history, getting some fresh air and enjoying themselves, even if they don’t find anything.” Right now, the water is still high. When dry times arrive, more streambed will be exposed, he said. “I’m going to have a ball this summer.” Know the rules The rules have changed for gold miners. Suction dredge equipment is no longer allowed, which includes “mechanized or motorized” systems for removing material from the water. Contact reporter Heather Hacking at 896-7758.

– This winter's flooding in Northern California has done more than bring relief after years of drought; it's created the prospect of the best gold prospecting in 20 years. Gold hunters in the area tell the Chico Enterprise-Record the floods have "rearranged the rivers" and "move things around." That means gold veins that have been hidden for 200 years are suddenly exposed. According to CBS San Francisco, the floods also swept gold out of abandoned mines and washed it downriver. While KCRA reports that gold can simply be picked off the ground following major flooding, the best prospecting will come in the summer months when the water has receded. Right now, rivers are still high and government workers are trying to keep would-be prospectors away while they get things under control. But in the summer—which experts say could be the busiest since the one that followed major flooding in 1997—stream beds will be exposed for better gold hunting. "I'm going to have a ball," one prospector tells the Chico newspaper. The epicenter for the new gold rush could be the Oroville Dam, which nearly catastrophically flooded this winter and required the use of an emergency spillway for the first time. (This treasure hunter is seeking $1 billion in gold from a sunken ship.)

ABC News' Sheila Marikar ( @ SheilaYM ) reports: Perhaps this week's lesson in the annals of American history was necessary for Sarah Palin. In Boston yesterday, visiting Paul Revere's house, she offered her own account of the Revolutionairy War hero's midnight ride from Boston to Lexington, Mass.: "He who warned, uh, the ... the British that they weren't gonna be taking away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells and, um, by making sure that as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that, uh, we were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free ... and we were gonna be armed." Of course, Revere was in fact trying to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams about the approaching British army. And he didn't rely on bells. He was on a covert mission. Had he used bells, or had he warned the people with whom America was at war, Palin's tour bus might have chugged through the northeast on the left side of the road. ||||| america's sweetheart Sarah Palin Reveals Fascinating New Account of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride Many Americans think they have a solid understanding of the country's founding. No taxation without representation, tea party, Boston Massacre, George Washington, all that jazz. But, not surprisingly, Über-patriot Sarah Palin knows more than the average American. In fact, she may have more expertise on the subject than anybody else. For example, yesterday she revealed some heretofore unknown facts about Paul Revere's midnight ride. Did you know that he was actually warning the British, through the repeated ringin' of bells? The transcript: He who warned, uh, the the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringin’ those bells and, um, by makin’ sure that as he’s ridin’ his horse through town to send those warnin’ shots and bells that, uh, we were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free and we were gonna be armed.

– Lately, it seems that the history of the American Revolution is not the strong suit of the two most well-known Republican women who could decide to run for president. Back in March, Michele Bachmann stated that "the shot heard 'round the world" at Lexington and Concord was fired in New Hampshire. Then yesterday Sarah Palin made a history error of her own: Stopping in Boston on her bus tour, she stated that Paul Revere warned the British about the American arms locations. ABC News has her comment: "He who warned, uh, the ... the British that they weren't gonna be taking away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells and, um, by making sure that as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that, uh, we were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free ... and we were gonna be armed." Click for more.

As the sad, eerie story of Brittany Murphy really only starts unfolding, Renegade Pictures has just released a trailer for her final movie, “Abandoned.” Brittany’s performance in it is pretty intense. She plays a woman under psychiatric evaluation whose husband has vanished. [Ace Showbiz] Has anyone noticed that in show business, when stars die young, their last movie never seemed to be anything warm and fuzzy? After the jump, let’s look at the almost prescient movies of stars who died young. Heath Ledger‘s last movie, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” is about a troupe of traveling performers who make deals with the devil and their audiences. Eerie. And the images of him from “The Dark Knight” were pretty shocking too, considering that he was already gone when it came out. [IMDb] Aaliyah was a beautiful 22-year-old singer who played the queen of the dead, literally, in “Queen of the Damned.” She died in a plane crash before the movie was released. [Movie Fone] Bruce Lee was 32 when he took a headache pill that caused a fatal cerebral edema. His final film, released five years later, was called “Game of Death. ” [IMDb] Brandon Lee, Bruce’s tragically sexy son, died at 28, from an injury he received from a prop gun, while he played the title role in “The Crow,” about a post-apocalyptic murder victim who won’t stay buried. Yikes. [All Movie Portal] Brad Renfro acted in the title role of “The Client” when he was 11. At 25, he died of a drug overdose, after filming his last movie, “The Informers,” with an ensemble cast of characters each facing some kind of addiction. [Celebitchy] River Phoenix died an even younger overdose death. He expired on the sidewalk in front of the notorious nightclub the Viper Room. River was ninety percent done filming “Dark Blood,” but it was never released. [Movie Moron] Judy Garland, troubled for years by substance abuse and an unhappy personal life, died of a drug overdose days after she turned 47. Her legendary last film, ” I Could Go On Singing,” was the story of a woman trying to get back the life she abandoned while pursuing fame. [Judy Garland Database] What do you think? Don’t they all hit a little close to home? ||||| Redbox It's an eerie and tragic example of life imitating art. In a dreadful case of bad timing, Brittany Murphy's sudden death on Sunday has forced the DVD rental company Redbox to yank box art images from its kiosks nationwide for the actress's latest film, Deadline. The cover shows the 32-year-old's character lying lifeless in a bathtub. Murphy, of course, collapsed in the bathroom of her Hollywood Hills home Sunday morning and, after unsuccessful attempts by family and paramedics to revive her, was pronounced dead at the hospital. And that sent Redbox scrambling when it realized what was on the cover of the straight-to-DVD horror thriller. "We are removing the box art images from our displays," Redbox spokeswoman Laura Dihel tells E! News. "We will continue to carry her film, but we will not be featuring the box art. We have 19,000 locations, and to be honest, I can't tell you if this particular art is up at all the locations." Staffers began removing the Deadline artwork yesterday and hope to complete the task by Jan. 1. The box art was also pulled from the company's website. In the film, Murphy plays a screenwriter who travels to a haunted Victorian mansion to finish a script on deadline, only to stumble upon videos recorded by past residents that lead her to have a psychological breakdown. (Originally published Dec. 23, 2009, at 1:27 p.m. PT) ________ Remember the other roles Brittany Murphy has played in our special gallery.

– In the wake of Brittany Murphy’s death, her latest film roles take on an especially creepy symbolism. The Frisky points to the just-released trailer for her upcoming movie Abandoned, in which she plays a woman under psychiatric care—and E! notes that the box art for another recent film, Deadline, shows Murphy’s character, lifeless, in a bathtub. The Frisky looks back at the final roles of others who died young: Heath Ledger: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is about traveling performers who make deals with the devil—and let’s not forget his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. River Phoenix: He was 90% done filming a movie called Dark Blood before dying of an overdose on the sidewalk in front of the Viper Room nightclub. Aaliyah: The singer died in a plane crash before her last movie, Queen of the Damned, was released. For the complete list, click here.

Jeffrey Zaslow, the West Bloomfield-based author who wrote best-sellers such as "The Last Lecture” about a professor dying of pancreatic cancer and a recent book on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ recovery from a gunshot wound to the head, was killed Friday in a car accident in northern Michigan. Mr. Zaslow, 53, was a Philadelphia native who was married to Sherry Margolis, a Fox 2 Detroit news anchor since 1987, and the father of three daughters. Fox 2 Detroit confirmed Zaslow’s death late this afternoon. The station said Zaslow was killed in auto accident in northern Michigan, according to the Antrim County Sheriff’s Department. It happened around 9 a.m. on M-32, near Elmira. Police said Zaslow lost control of his car and was hit by a semi-truck on a snow-covered road. He had been in Petoskey previously for a book-signing. Supremely outgoing and equally self-deprecating, Zaslow had a knack for ferreting out details that riveted a reader. He wrote books that inspired millions, unleashing the insight of Randy Pausch, the computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon whose lecture about dying from pancreatic cancer and achieving childhood fantasies became “The Last Lecture” (Hyperion, $21.95) in 2008. Another book, “The Girls from Ames” about 11 childhood friends in Iowa and their bonds while growing up, also became a bestseller. Zaslow also profiled Captain Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who successfully landed a distressed airliner full of passengers on the Hudson River in New York in "Highest Duty" (William Morrow, $25.99). Last year, he also documented the saga of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman, as she recovered from a bullet wound to the brain after a gunman shot her and killed six others. Along with Giffords' husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, Zaslow coauthored "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope" (Scribner, $26.99). He first shot to notoriety when, as a Wall Street Journal reporter writing about a national contest to replace Ann Landers, ended up winning the contest to become her replacement at the Chicago Sun-Times. He currently was writing a column about relationships for the Wall Street Journal His latest book is “The Magic Room,” the chronicle of what transpires at Becker’s Bridal in Fowler, near Lansing, a bridal store with nearly 2,500 dresses, owned and operated by fourth-generation bridal shop owner Shelley Becker Mueller. He followed eight brides, including one who had her first kiss the day she became engaged and a widow who found love again, from the bridal store to the wedding altar. And he chronicled the ups-and-downs of the store owner, whose marriage failed. "It's like sitting down with a brother, " Becker Mueller told the Free Press for a story about the book and how she allowed Zaslow to park himself for days while eavesdropping on conversations and searching for brides-to-be with compelling tales. "He's very comfortable to be around. And there was never a feeling that ‘I can't answer this' when he asked a question." Zaslow said the love he has for his own three daughters, Jordan, 22; Alex, 20, and Eden, 16; was the inspiration for “The Magic Room.” In an interview televised last week with Fox 2 Detroit, Zaslow described why he wrote “The Magic Room.” “I realized when I was there. One bride she went in there. She tried on a dress. She looked great, then she left the store and 12 hours later she was in a car accident. She lost fingers on one hand. Her fiancé stood by her,” said Zaslow. “Just to chronicle those kind of stories was very moving to me. And I realized from being in that store, my job as a father is not to tell my daughters what dress to wear, not to tell them what to do. My job is to tell my girls I love them. And Sherry, that I love her, too, obviously.” He said he learned from Prof. Randy Pausch to take more moments with his daughters. When “The Last Lecture” came out, Zaslow said he would email Pausch with links to stories about him popping up on the web. Zaslow said Pausch emailed him back: “Will you stop googling my name and go hug your kids.”. “And when I hug my kids now, what a gift it is to be able to do that. And that’s sort of the story I’m telling in this book,” said Zaslow, “which is we’ve got to hug our kids and make the most of each moment, because you never know.” ||||| Wall Street Journal reporter Jeffrey Zaslow was tragically killed in an automobile accident on Friday. Kelsey Hubbard spoke to Deputy Managing Editor Mike Miller about the beloved journalist, whose work touched and inspired millions of people around the world. Jeffrey Zaslow, a longtime Wall Street Journal writer and best-selling author with a rare gift for writing about love, loss, and other life passages with humor and empathy, died at age 53 on Friday of injuries suffered in a car crash in northern Michigan. He died after losing control of his car while driving on a snowy road and colliding with a truck, according to his wife and the Antrim County Sheriff's Office. The condition of the truck driver wasn't available. McLean & Eakin Booksellers Jeffrey Zaslow giving his last lecture Thursday night in Michigan. In addition to writing hundreds of memorable Journal articles and columns, Mr. Zaslow did a long stint as an advice columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, succeeding Ann Landers—a job he won after he entered a competition for the position as an angle for a Journal front-page feature. At the Journal his subjects ranged from the anguish of losing a car in the Disney World parking lot, to the power of fathers' lunchbox letters to their daughters, to the distinctive pain of watching a beloved childhood stadium go under the wrecking ball. Auditioning for Ann Landers's Job Dear Jeffrey: Take Our Advice, Stick to Reporting 3/25/1987 More recently, he became one of America's best-selling nonfiction writers, known internationally for such books as "The Girls from Ames," the story of a 40-year friendship among 10 women, and "The Last Lecture," about Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor who in 2007 was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given only a few months to live. After Mr. Pausch gave an inspirational multimedia presentation about his life's lessons, Mr. Zaslow—a 1980 Carnegie Mellon graduate—wrote a Journal column about the lecture and posted it on the Journal's website with a video that became an online sensation. The resulting book spent more than a year on best-seller lists and was translated into dozens of languages. He was twice named best columnist by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and in 2000 he received its Will Rogers Humanitarian Award. In a statement Friday to the staff of the Journal, editor Robert Thomson said: "Jeff's writing, for the Journal and in his books, has been a source of inspiration for many people around the world and his journalistic life has been a source of inspiration for all journalists." In 2011, he collaborated with Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, on their memoir, "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope," following the congresswoman's shooting. He is also the author of "Highest Duty," about the airline captain Chesley Sullenberger, who safely landed a damaged jetliner in the Hudson River in New York. "Over the last year we got to know and appreciate the talented and caring professional that Jeff was. He was one of a kind and we feel very fortunate for the time we had with him," Mr. Kelly wrote in an email to the Journal Friday. "He touched so many lives in such a positive way. Gabby and I express our deepest condolences to his wife Sherry Margolis and their three daughters - Jordan, Alex and Eden. We will miss Jeff very much." His latest, "The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for our Daughters," is set in a Fowler, Mich., bridal store where he looked at American weddings. "I found a place with an awful lot of emotion. And I have been writing books with emotion for all these years so I was just grateful to find this place," he told an interviewer. A native of the Philadelphia suburb of Broomall, Mr. Zaslow majored in creative writing in college. The Giffords book In a 2006 feature, Mr. Zaslow wrote about how the rise of iPods meant that everyone could walk around with a personal soundtrack, so he set about creating one for a day in his own life—including a "scene" with his wife, Sherry Margolis. "Aware of my soundtrack project in recent weeks, Sherry wondered what music I'd pick as a tribute to her," he wrote. "No, I didn't choose 'Wind Beneath My Wings' or the 'Jaws' theme. I finally selected Orleans's bouncy 1976 hit, 'Still the One.' Because she is." In addition to being an accomplished stylist, Mr. Zaslow reported his stories in exemplary depth. For "The Last Lecture" he spent weeks talking to Mr. Pausch. "Randy would spend an hour each morning on a stationary bike to try to keep himself fit, and in that hour he'd be on the phone with Jeff," said Robert Miller, who was president of Walt Disney Co.'s Hyperion book-publishing unit when the title was published in 2008. "They never missed a day." But, added Mr. Miller, "He was mindful of Randy's time, because Randy didn't have much left." Mr. Pausch's sister, Tamara Pausch Mason, said Mr. Zaslow learned so much about her brother and his childhood that he became a "vicarious member of the family" who knew all the family's stories and stayed in close contact with them after Mr. Pausch died. During the period in his career when he wrote the advice column, Mr. Zaslow received many letters from people who were lonely—which became the inspiration for the Zazz Bash, an annual party at Chicago's Navy Pier. Thousands would attend. Hot dogs and chips were piled up on tables for singles looking for love. "He got these letters from lonely people and, being Jeff, he thought he should do something. So he orchestrated this enormous party for them," said Neil Steinberg, a longtime friend of Mr. Zaslow's and a columnist at the Sun-Times. Mr. Zaslow is survived by his wife, who is an anchor at a Fox television station in Detroit; three daughters, Jordan, Alex and Eden; and his parents, Harry and Naomi Zaslow. Mr. Zaslow adorned his cubicle in the Journal's Detroit bureau with dozens of photos of his wife and girls. Journal colleagues recalled that while working on columns and books, Mr. Zaslow would collect voluminous notes that he organized in piles that spilled off his desk, sat in uneven rows around his chair and cluttered an empty cubicle adjacent to his. When he took his work home at night, he packed his notes into a wheeled carry-on suitcase. Arrangements for Mr. Zaslow will be handled by Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield, Mich. No details were yet available. —Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg and Jack Nicas contributed to this article. Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com A version of this article appeared February 11, 2012, on page A6 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Journal Columnist Jeffrey Zaslow Dies at 53.

– Author and newspaper columnist Jeffrey Zaslow is dead at age 53 after a car accident in Michigan today, reports the Detroit Free Press and Wall Street Journal. Zaslow is perhaps best known for his book Last Lecture, about the final lecture of the late Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, but he first gained fame in the late 1980s as a writer for the Journal. He wrote a first-person article about the Chicago Sun-Times' search for a replacement for Ann Landers—and ended up getting the job himself over 12,000 applicants. He wrote the advice column until 2001. Zaslow, who had returned to the Journal as a columnist, also co-authored the recent biography of Gabrielle Giffords (Gabby) and wrote a bio of Hudson River hero Sully Sullenberger (Highest Duty). The Free Press recounts Zaslow talking about Pausch's advice to him to hug his three daughters. “What a gift it is to be able to do that. And that’s sort of the story I’m telling in this book,” Zaslow said of his latest, The Magic Room. "We’ve got to hug our kids and make the most of each moment, because you never know.”

"They're trying to profit off of it, and I think it's disgusting," Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter, Alyssa, was killed after being shot 10 times at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, said on Tuesday. "We are trying to prevent this from happening again, and they are encouraging it. It is despicable. It is vile." The computer game was going to be released via the digital marketplace Steam, and was developed by Revived Games, which marketed it as a "dynamic SWAT simulator." It offered the option to play either the shooter or a SWAT team member. Acid, the publisher of the game, addressed the controversy in a confusing blog post last week on Steam's forums, writing: "After receiving such high amount of critics and hate, I will more likely remove the shooters [sic] role in this game by the release, unless if it can be kept as it is right now." The post is attributed to a developer named Arthur Belkin, who lists the Russian Federation as his home country. But on Tuesday night, Valve Corporation, the owner of Steam, announced it had removed the game after an investigation, and found that the developer and publisher was actually "a person calling himself Ata Berdiyev, who had previously been removed last fall." "Ata is a troll, with a history of customer abuse, publishing copyrighted material, and user review manipulation," Valve said. "His subsequent return under new business names was a fact that came to light as we investigated the controversy around his upcoming title. We are not going to do business with people who act like this towards our customers or Valve." Many had called for the game to be pulled, including anti-gun activist Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was killed in the Parkland shooting. "Wow, this is amazing news!!!" he tweeted after learning it had been removed. A disclaimer at the beginning of the game's demo had said it did not intend to glamorize violence. The game's description also said players should "not take any of this seriously" and urged them to get help if they feel like hurting anyone. But many critics had said that was not enough — including Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who called the game "inexcusable" and tweeted, "Any company that develops a game like this in wake of such a horrific tragedy should be ashamed of itself." This isn't the first video game to create such controversy. In 2011, another game, "School Shooter," which portrayed the Columbine school shooting that took place in 1999 in Colorado, was pulled after public outcry. ||||| A video game that let players simulate a school shooting was set to come out on Steam, the PC’s biggest platform for buying and selling games. But Valve Corporation, which runs Steam, has taken it down. Active Shooter, from developer Revived Games and publisher ACID, was set to release next week on Steam. But it drew a lot of negative attention, including from outlets like BuzzFeed and Kotaku, as well as the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Parkland activist Emma Gonzalez tweeted, “Valve Corp shut down this shovelware immediately please.” (Shovelware is software that does nothing new and is a quick cash grab.) Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) called the game “inexcusable.” On Tuesday, a Valve spokesperson told Deadline that the company is removing the game from its online storefront: We have removed the developer Revived Games and publisher ACID from Steam. This developer and publisher is, in fact, a person calling himself Ata Berdiyev, who had previously been removed last fall when he was operating as “[bc]Interactive” and “Elusive Team”. Ata is a troll, with a history of customer abuse, publishing copyrighted material, and user review manipulation. His subsequent return under new business names was a fact that came to light as we investigated the controversy around his upcoming title. We are not going to do business with people who act like this towards our customers or Valve. The broader conversation about Steam’s content policies is one that we’ll be addressing soon. The ill-advised game, based on a video posted on Steam, would let you play either as a SWAT team member focused on stopping the school shooting or as the actual shooter. The game’s developer, it seems, saw this as a selling point — with the developer pointing out on Steam that “[o]nly in ‘Active Shooter’, you will be able to pick the role of an Elite S.W.A.T [sic] member or the actual shooter.” The video showed a shooter running through school hallways and classrooms while killing — with firearms and grenades — police officers and civilians. Through a score counter, the game tracked “civ killed” and “cops killed.” The developer responded to the outrage last week, saying that it “will more likely remove the shooters [sic] role in this game by the release, unless if [sic] it can be kept as it is right now.” But it also defended the game, arguing that there are worse games out there (“Hatred, Postal, Carmageddon and etc.”) and that it “does not promote any sort of violence, especially any soft [sic] of a mass shooting.” For more on America’s gun violence problem, read Vox’s explainer. ||||| Valve Corporation of Bellevue is planning to launch a video game on June 6 that is a school shooting simulator. This is horrific. The company is taking the stand that this game is legal because of free speech and everything else that tech billionaires hide behind when they are doing something the public knows is absolutely, morally corrupt but legally fine - but we cannot stand for this. How can anyone sleep at night knowing that they are profiting from turning deadly school shootings into entertainment? Please sign this petition asking Valve to not launch this game. ||||| Environment & Future Plans Hello everybody!! First of all, I wanted to thank each of you who left any soft of feedback and support for our game and what I do. I really appreciate it!! Now, I wanted to talk more about game's enviroment and future plans. For now, there is only one in-game location where you could exprecience active shooter simulations. This is not where I am stopping. I am planning on adding extra enviroments to the game; Those will include "Shopping Stores", "Gas Stations" and enviroments in this sort. I have to say though, majority of them will depend on active S.W.A.T play rather than the shooter himself, but we will see. Updates with more enviroments will be out for free and within a first month of release. I will definitely try to have at least an extra location available on the day of the release. Other than that, game will continue its course of development and improvement throghout the year. Multiplayer will mostly include 2 teams against each other sort of play. In Co-Op you will be able to choose sides and play as you would normally play in the Single-Player. Hopefully this will clarify a few things for each of you. If there are any questions, feel free to ask them in F.A.Q thread in game's discussion forums. Thanks a lot guys!!

– More than 120,000 people so far have signed a petition calling for a game that simulates a mass shooting inside a school to be pulled from release. Active Shooter allows players to play as either the shooter or a SWAT responder and is due out June 6 on digital platform Steam, although after outcry erupted, its creator insisted in a blog post it is meant to be a "SWAT simulator" and said he might remove the ability to play as the shooter due to the controversy. Many have spoken out against the game, from politicians to activists to survivors of shootings in Parkland, Fla., and elsewhere, NBC News reports. Vox notes that a screenshot of the game shows that when playing as the shooter, stats are kept on the number of police officers killed as well as the number of civilians killed.

Congress has moved to block President Obama’s plan to shift control of the U.S. drone campaign from the CIA to the Defense Department, inserting a secret provision in the massive government spending bill introduced this week that would preserve the spy agency’s role in lethal counterterrorism operations, U.S. officials said. The measure, included in a classified annex to the $1.1 trillion federal budget plan, would restrict the use of any funding to transfer unmanned aircraft or the authority to carry out drone strikes from the CIA to the Pentagon, officials said. The provision represents an unusually direct intervention by lawmakers into the way covert operations are run, impeding an administration plan aimed at returning the CIA’s focus to traditional intelligence gathering and possibly bringing more transparency to drone strikes. The move also reflects some lawmakers’ lingering doubts about the U.S. military’s ability to conduct strikes against al-Qaeda and its regional affiliates without hitting the wrong targets and killing civilians. Those apprehensions were amplified after a U.S. military strike in Yemen last month killed a dozen people, including as many as six civilians, in an 11-vehicle convoy that tribal leaders said was part of a wedding procession. U.S. officials said that the strike was aimed at a senior al-Qaeda operative but that reviews of the operation have raised concern that it failed to comply with White House guidelines requiring “near certainty” that no civilians would be harmed. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) read from a Washington Post story on the Senate floor Thursday, slamming the Senate and House Appropriations committee for amending a spending bill so that it would affect policy with regard to drones. (The Associated Press) On Wednesday, there were reports that another U.S. strike had killed a farmer in Yemen. The extent of the restrictions contained in the drone provision remained unclear. The measure was included by members of the House and Senate appropriations committees, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the legislation. Other senior lawmakers and congressional officials declined to comment on the contents of the classified annex, which details funding for U.S. spy agencies. Still, senior lawmakers have been vocal in expressing concern about the prospect of the CIA ceding responsibility for drone strikes to the military. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Appropriations Committee, said last year that she had seen the CIA “exercise patience and discretion specifically to prevent collateral damage” and that she “would really have to be convinced that the military would carry it out that well.” Feinstein declined to comment on the budget measure this week. But a senior aide said that the senator “stands by her earlier statements” and that the Intelligence Committee has “recently reviewed this issue, and Senator Feinstein believes her views are widely shared on the committee.” Asked about the scope of that review, the aide said the panel “took stock of” the program and “came to a conclusion” but would not elaborate. Among Feinstein’s colleagues on the Intelligence Committee is Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who is chairman of the appropriations panel responsible for the budget bill. A spokesman for that committee declined to comment. There is no mention of the drone provision in the hundreds of pages of the budget blueprint released to the public. A section outlining $572 billion in Pentagon spending notes that “adjustments to classified programs are addressed in the accompanying classified annex.” The Houes voted to adopt the $1.1-trillion measure that funds the government through the fiscal year. (The Associated Press) A person familiar with the omnibus bill confirmed that the annex includes language on the drone program but would say only that the provision is more complicated than merely withholding money to prevent drone operations from being transferred to the Pentagon. Former U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence appropriations process said that aside from placing restrictions on funding, Congress could create other obstacles — for example, requiring the Pentagon to certify that it has matched the CIA’s capabilities and targeting methodology before it is allowed to proceed. Spokespeople for the White House, the CIA and the Pentagon declined to comment. The spending bill sets budgets for agencies across the federal government for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The measure cleared the House late Wednesday. It is expected to be approved by the Senate this week and delivered to President Obama for his signature as soon as Saturday. The move by Congress carries implications for the course of the U.S. efforts against al-Qaeda at a time when its affiliates in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and Syria have become more worrisome to American counterterrorism officials than the terrorist organization’s traditional core. Also at issue is the fundamental mission of the CIA, which during the past decade has morphed into a paramilitary force. Senior officials, including CIA Director John O. Brennan, have warned that the agency’s emphasis on lethal operations deviates from its traditional mission and could impair its ability to focus on gathering intelligence. The administration first signaled its intent to shift control of drone operations to the Pentagon last year, when Obama announced new guidelines for counterterrorism missions — including a pledge of greater transparency — during a speech at the National Defense University. At the time, administration officials briefing reporters said there would be “a preference for the Department of Defense to engage in the use of force outside war zones.” The remark was a reference to Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia — countries beyond the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States has carried out drone strikes against al-Qaeda targets. Obama’s policy shift was expected to mainly affect Yemen, where the CIA and the elite U.S. Joint Special Operations Command conduct overlapping drone campaigns. The overall pace of strikes has diminished significantly in Pakistan and Yemen, and Brennan has held secret meetings with Pentagon officials in recent months to work out logistical challenges and other impediments to shifting control of drone operations. But the CIA still carries out the majority of strikes, and the collateral damage that has accompanied some JSOC strikes has generated growing opposition to removing the agency from such operations anytime soon. The Pentagon has refused to release any details on the Dec. 12 strike carried out by JSOC in Radaa, a district that has become a stronghold for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. Yemen initially insisted that only militants had been killed, but it later acknowledged civilian casualties. The government then delivered rifles and other compensation to victims’ families — payments that a Yemeni official described as a “deposit” to encourage clan leaders to take part in tribal mediation and accept further compensation rather than seek retaliation against the Sanaa government. “There was a [legitimate] target, and then something happened, a misfire,” the Yemeni official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the secrecy surrounding U.S. strikes. “I’ve never been aware of any incident before where a strike targeted such a large convoy of vehicles.” AQAP is responsible for near-miss attacks on the United States, including the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in 2009. The terrorist group has been driven out of territory it had gained over the past two years but is still considered by U.S. officials to pose a serious threat to the United States. In a meeting with U.S., European and Middle Eastern diplomats last week, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi described the security situation as unstable and warned specifically of indications that potential al-Qaeda recruits from European and other Western nations were seeking to enter the country, according to U.S. and Yemeni officials. Lori Montgomery and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report. ||||| Hooria Mashhour is Yemen’s minister for human rights. December 12 was supposed to be a day of celebration for the al-Ameri family. A young bride traveled to her wedding with her relatives in Bayda province, Yemen. But in a few dark seconds their celebrations were eviscerated. A U.S. drone fired at the wedding procession, destroying five vehicles and most of their occupants. Not even the bride’s car, ornately decorated in flowers for the occasion, was spared from the carnage. Senior Yemeni officials later admitted that the strike was a “mistake”. Some mistake: Though the bride survived, the strike is said to have killed at least 14 civilians and injured 22 others, over a third of them seriously. This marks the largest death toll by a drone strike in Yemen since the drone war’s inception. It is also the largest death toll by U.S. strike since December 2009, when a U.S. cruise missile killed 41 civilians in al-Majala, including 14 women and 21 children. In the wake of the killing, a wave of outrage has swept the country. The Yemeni government rushed to meet community elders, seeking to negotiate a quiet settlement for the killing of the bride’s loved ones. But the bereaved villagers rejected the overtures and instead demanded that Yemen’s president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, stop U.S. drones before they would sit at any negotiating table. On its side, rather than forthrightly address its role in these grim events, the U.S. government has issued no admission of responsibility, nor any apology. It has left the Yemeni government to clean up another bloody mess. 1 of 86 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Tom Toles goes global View Photos A collection of cartoons about international news. Caption A collection of Tom Toles cartoons about international news. Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. Only recently,we had cause to hope for better. In November, Yemeni civil engineer Faisal bin Ali Jaber traveled over 7,000 miles to the U.S. in search of answers. He met congressmen, senators, and even some White House officials to tell them how U.S. missiles incinerated his nephew and brother-in-law at his son’s wedding last year. In that strike,the U.S. killed two potential allies – one an imam who regularly preached against al-Qaeda; the other one of the town’s few policemen. Jaber received heartfelt condolences from many lawmakers. Yet no official was prepared to explain why his relatives were killed, or why the U.S. administration would not acknowledge its mistake. This is not the first time a U.S. drone has killed civilians in Bayda. On Sept. 2, 2012, a U.S. plane hit a village shuttle near Radda. The vehicle was full of villagers carrying their day’s shopping. As usual, the initial press coverage labelled the dead as “al-Qaeda militants,” but when the relatives threatened to deliver the bodies to the president’s gates, the Yemeni government was forced to concede that all 12 of those people killed were civilians. Among the victims, a pregnant woman and three children were laid to rest. The use of drones in Yemen might appear a simple, quick-fix option for President Obama. But as Nabeel Khoury, former U.S. deputy chief of mission to Yemen, recently wrote, “Drone strikes take out a few bad guys to be sure, but they also kill a large number of innocent civilians. Given Yemen’s tribal structure, the U.S. generates roughly forty to sixty new enemies for every AQAP [al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] operative killed by drones.” Let me be clear: I, like the vast majority of my countrymen, reject terrorism. All of us were repulsed by recent footage of a gruesome attack on a Yemeni defense ministry hospital. We agree that our fight against extremist groups cannot be won without a variety of efforts, including robust law enforcement. But more often than not, U.S. drone strikes leave families bereaved and villages terrified. Drones tear at the fabric of Yemeni society. Wronged and angry men are just the sort extreme groups like AQAP find easiest to recruit. Our president may reassure the United States of his support for drone strikes but the reality is that no leader can legitimately approve the extrajudicial killing of his own citizens. Moreover, he does so in the face of Yemeni consensus. This August, Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference — which President Obama has praised — decided by a 90 percent majority that the use of drones in Yemen should be criminalised. Yemeni legislators are aware that the drone war is deeply unpopular. Since the Dec,. 12 strike, our parliament has unanimously voted to ban drone flights in Yemeni airspace, declaring them a “grave breach” of the country’s sovereignty. For a country so often divided, this unanimity from Yemen’s most representative bodies testifies to the strength of opinion against drones. But their calls have thus far met only with more bombings from the skies. How can the people of Yemen build trust in their fledgling democracy when our collective will is ignored by democracy’s greatest exponent? ||||| ADEN (Reuters) - A Yemeni farmer was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Wednesday in what witnesses said was an attack apparently intended for suspected Islamist militants in southeastern Yemen. Witnesses said the farmer was killed by shrapnel from two rockets fired by the drone early in the morning as he walked home in the village of al-Houta, near the city of Shibam. A local government official confirmed the report but declined to give further details. The United States has stepped up drone strikes as part of a campaign against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), regarded by Washington as the most active wing of the network. Yemen, AQAP’s main stronghold, is among a handful of countries where the United States acknowledges using drones, although it does not comment on the practice. Last month, at least 15 people were killed and five others injured when a drone mistook a wedding party travelling in the central Yemeni province of al-Bayda for an al Qaeda convoy. Stabilizing Yemen, which is also struggling with southern separatists and northern rebels, is an international priority amid fears of upheaval in a state that flanks top oil producer Saudi Arabia and major shipping lanes.

– Congress' $1.1 trillion spending bill contains a secret provision torpedoing President Obama's plans to pass the drone program from the CIA to the Pentagon. In a classified annex, the bill specifically prohibits any funds being used to facilitate such a transfer, the Washington Post reports. Obama wants to shift the CIA from its paramilitary footing back to an intelligence one, and perhaps bring greater transparency to the drone program. But lawmakers don't trust the military with the keys. One source said the provision was more complicated than simply withholding money for the switch, and former officials said it could contain language forcing the military to demonstrate its targeting procedures were up to CIA standards. Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein last year said she'd "really have to be convinced" that the military could exercise as much "patience and discretion" as the CIA in avoiding civilian casualties, statements she says she stands behind. The military didn't help its case last month either by hitting a wedding party in Yemen; in an op-ed yesterday, Yemen's minister for human rights said that strike had sent a "wave of outrage" across the country. Yesterday also saw a drone strike kill a Yemeni farmer.

An anti-Islam group in the Dallas, Texas, suburb of Irving publicized the names and addresses of over 60 Muslims and Muslim "sympathizers" on its Facebook page. The Bureau of American Islamic Relations’ post targets those who spoke out against a controversial Irving City Council vote on Islamic tribunals. In March, the council backed a state bill that would limit Muslim influence. Mayor Beth Van Duyne accused Irving's Muslim community of using Sharia law to bypass state and federal legislation to mediate disputes through an Islamic tribunal. The Islamic Center of Irving issued a statement that denies the existence of a Sharia court but confirms the existence of a tribunal. BAIR describes itself on its Facebook page as an "organization that stands in opposition (on all levels)" to Islamic groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Alia Salem, executive director of the Dallas/Fort Worth branch of CAIR, said the publication marked the first time she had felt slightly alarmed over anti-Islamic sentiment. “As bad as things have gotten in the past, and especially recently, this is the first time where I see people taking this public," she told the Dallas Morning News. Others on the list fear the consequences of their personal information getting into the wrong hands. The post has yet to be taken down from Facebook, which goes against the website's Community Standards. Facebook policy is to remove content when it presents a "genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety." Neither Facebook nor the Irving Police Department immediately returned requests for comment. BAIR also protested outside of Irving's mosque Saturday, where they toted shotguns and held signs that stated, "Stop the Islamization of America" and "The solution to Islamic terrorism." BAIR spokesman David Wright said they were also protesting Syrian refugees coming to America and that he believes that people are scared. "They're scared to say anything about it," he told Fox 4 News. They're scared to come out to a place like this and stand in front of a mosque and protest Islam. "People should recognize that we are peaceful and we are a group of self defense minded people. There's nothing wrong with that." There has been an alarming increase in Islamophobic incidents since the Nov. 13 attacks on Paris. A mosque in Pflugerville, Texas, was defaced with feces and torn pages of the Quran. In Ontario, Canada, was police said a mosque was deliberately set on fire. CAIR said in a statement that it has received more reports about acts of Islamophobic discrimination, intimidation, threats, and violence targeting American Muslims -- or those perceived to be Muslim -- and Islamic institutions in the week and a half since the Paris attacks "than during any other limited period of time since the 9/11 terror attacks." Irving also happens to be the home of Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old boy of Sudanese origin whose homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb at school. Also on HuffPost: ||||| Today’s armed protest at the Irving Mosque…. More photos and news articles to come. Posted by BAIR on Saturday, November 21, 2015 Days after organizing an armed protest outside the Islamic Center of Irving, Tex., the spokesman for a local anti-Islam group published the names and addresses “of every Muslim and Muslim sympathizer that stood up for … Sharia tribunals in Irving,” according to the the Dallas Morning News. Posted to Facebook on Wednesday by David Wright III, the list has since been removed, the Morning News reported. The list was copy-pasted from an Irving city document containing the personal information of people who signed up to speak against a state bill targeting the influence of Islam in America, according to the Morning News. Wright was identified by the newspaper as the spokesman for the Bureau of American Islamic Relations (BAIR) — a play on the name of a leading Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Last weekend, several members of the group — including Wright — protested in front of the Islamic Center of Irving, a mosque in the Dallas suburb where a ninth-grader was arrested for bringing to school what some thought looked like a homemade bomb but was actually a homemade clock. As The Washington Post’s Justin Moyer wrote of the protesters: “They had guns. They had a flag. They had a Ted Cruz sign and one that read ‘Stop the Islamization of America.'” “It’s a boiling pot,” one man told the local Fox affiliate. “The kettle … the top on this kettle is on really, really tight, and it is going to blow.” Meanwhile, in Texas, there was an armed protest outside a mosque https://t.co/SXiXw249oK pic.twitter.com/XG9BHMTr2g — i100 (@thei100) November 26, 2015 [Armed protesters gather outside mosque in clock kid’s home town] On his personal Facebook page, Wright wrote this week: “We should stop being afraid to be who we are! We like to have guns designed to kill people that pose a threat in a very efficient manner.” He added: “My gun is an assault weapon, it is for the sole purpose of assaulting anyone who tries to hurt or kill me or mine. Why is that wrong? How is that bad? Its a weapon designed to assault people not animals so… I can’t think of any other way to explain it.” A 20 year old protestor who didn't want to be identified because he's enlisting in the military geeks out on his gun pic.twitter.com/2tcSmK6G5b — Avi Selk (@aviselk) November 21, 2015 The members of the armed group that gathered outside the mosque said they were moved to protest after the Paris attacks, the Dallas Morning News noted in an editorial slamming the move. “AR-15s at a place of worship? That is out of bounds, and it shows how very close we are to chaos,” the editorial reads. Editorial: Armed protest at Irving mosque out of bounds | @DMNOpinion https://t.co/ReFcjqozN4 pic.twitter.com/CDq3HQ2A8V — Dallas Morning News (@dallasnews) November 24, 2015 This is far from Irving’s first Islam-related controversy. The city earned international attention in September when 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for his homemade clock that was mistaken for a bomb. The teenager subsequently received support from President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google, among others, and his family is now seeking $15 million from the city. [The history of anti-Islam controversy in Ahmed Mohamed’s Texas city] Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne also attracted the national spotlight this year, when she railed against what she described as a “Sharia Law Court” in her city. Critics say Van Duyne blew out of proportion a voluntary and non-binding dispute mediation service. “Similar religious tribunals have existed for decades in the American Jewish and American Christian faith communities to resolve disputes, most especially within families,” the Islamic Center of Irving said in a statement at the time. Van Duyne subsequently encouraged the Irving City Council to endorse a state bill that critics said unfairly targeted Muslims. The names and addresses published this week belonged to individuals who signed up to speak against that bill at a city council meeting in March. Armed Demonstration in front of the Islamic Center of Irving focused on stopping "Islamization of America" pic.twitter.com/iRQI4eqPjO — Zahid Arab (@ZahidArabFox4) November 21, 2015 “This is the first time I’ve been slightly alarmed,” Alia Salem, executive director of CAIR’s Dallas/Fort Worth branch, told the Dallas Morning News after the list was published. “As bad as things have gotten in the past, and especially recently, this is the first time where I see people taking this public.” Referring to those who spoke at the city council meeting, Salem said: “This is my job to deal with this kind of stuff. But for an everyday citizen who was just exerting their First Amendment rights and their right as an American to speak up and speak out, they were just being good citizens to show up and be a part of the democratic process. Now they are targets.” Read more: Why a ninth-grader’s arrest over a home-built clock struck a chord across America ||||| One final update… I can confirm that Facebook took down the list of names after getting complaints about it. That information from the BAIR spokesman and a complainant, who sent me this: Thanksgiving update by Avi Selk: The list of Muslim names and addresses has been removed from the armed group’s page, and BAIR spokesman David Wright’s personal Facebook page is either down or blocked. It’s unclear whether that was voluntary or the result of complaints about the list to Facebook (from the Huffington Post, among others.) It’s a bit late, anyway. Since we first reported the list’s existence 24 hours ago, it has made headlines from the Drudge Report to MSNBC—where host Chris Hayes spent several minutes last night detailing Irving’s intersections with an anti-Muslim fringe. Turns out, there’s no lack of what BAIR calls “Muslim sympathizers” in the country. RSVPs for a pro-Muslim rally have more than doubled in the last day, with nearly 250 people now committing to brave Saturday’s chilly rain to support Irving’s mosque. The imam of that mosque Facebooked an email from an “old lady school teacher” who offered to guard the building—one of hundreds of goodwill messages the imam said have poured in since a dozen BAIR members brought guns to the worship site last weekend. Meanwhile, a page set up specifically to troll BAIR has in a few days gained nearly as many likes as the anti-Muslim group itself. Group spokesman David Wright got into a running argument with the leader of the troll page yesterday—even as news of his list spread across the country—before finally becoming exasperated and signing off. On another Facebook page that still hosts the list and appears to belong to Wright (I can’t be 100% sure given all the trolling and the fact that he won’t answer messages), a post complains: “I am being attacked and smeared by the liberal media for legally exercising my 1st and 2nd Amendment rights and for using public data to defend my credibility when they make accusations against me. … “If we had a hit list and wanted to run down that list, you would have already seen it on the news.” Original post (Wednesday) by Julie Fancher and Avi Selk: The organizer of a recent armed anti-Muslim protest at an Irving mosque published the names and addresses of dozens of Muslims and “Muslim sympathizers” online Wednesday. David Wright III copied an Irving city document that included the personal information of people who signed up to speak before the City Council voted in March to support a state bill aimed at blocking Muslim influence. Wright, who organized Saturday’s armed protest against the “Islamization of America” outside the Irving Islamic Center, posted on Facebook “the name and address of every Muslim and Muslim sympathizer that stood up for … Sharia tribunals in Irving.” Multiple attempts to reach Wright for comment were not successful. Anthony Bond, an Irving activist who spoke against the state bill before the City Council, said he was shocked to find his name on the Facebook list. “We have a right to disagree, but we do not have the right to target and cause … harm just because we differ in our beliefs,” he said. “That is the goal of this post: to put a bulls-eye on the back of all the people that stood up against the so-called anti-Shariah law bill.” Bond said he had reported his concerns to Irving police. Irving police spokesman James McLellan said he was unaware of any complaints about the list. “If we do receive any contacts or concerns from anyone involved, then of course we will respond appropriately,” he said. Alia Salem, executive director of the Dallas/Fort Worth branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said she was “absolutely concerned” after finding her name on the list. “This is the first time I’ve been slightly alarmed,” she said. “As bad as things have gotten in the past, and especially recently, this is the first time where I see people taking this public.” Salem said that though she was concerned about her personal information being online, she didn’t want to place undue importance on the anti-Muslim protesters. “I don’t want to give them any credibility at all, but at the same time when you are publicizing people’s names … I’m trying to take this in stride,” she said. “It doesn’t seem to be getting much traction, and we are definitely getting support — people are horrified.” Salem said that she had talked to other people on the list who shared her concerns. “This is my job to deal with this kind of stuff,” she said. “But for an everyday citizen who was just exerting their First Amendment rights and their right as an American to speak up and speak out, they were just being good citizens to show up and be a part of the democratic process. Now they are targets.” She said she plans to discuss the situation with the FBI and Justice Department. “We don’t know what this could lead to,” she said. The list Wright posted also contained the names and addresses of people who supported the city’s efforts to limit Muslim influence. Jacqualea Cooley, who said she was unaware her name and address had been posted online, acknowledged Wright’s freedom to post the publicly available information. But she did express concerns. “If it gets into hands of the wrong people … some harm could be done,” she said. “… We have a very volatile Muslim community right now, I don’t know if there are people there that would act on information or not.” Cooley said some opponents had been misidentified as supporters of the city’s efforts, though she said the problems may have originated in the city’s records. “This is how misinformation gets out,” she said. Shortly before Wright posted the list online, he wrote on Facebook: “We should stop being afraid to be who we are! We like to have guns designed to kill people that pose a threat in a very efficient manner.” Wright and other members of his group, the Bureau on American Islamic Relations, say they carry guns only in self-defense and weren’t trying to intimidate anyone at Saturday’s protest. But they are convinced that the U.S. is due for violent conflict with Muslims. At Saturday’s protest, Wright said he’d chosen the Irving mosque in part because area Muslims had threatened to kill Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne — something The Dallas Morning News has found no evidence of. Van Duyne, who has frequently raised concerns about the spread of Islamic influence, said Wednesday that she was in no way affiliated with the group and declined to comment on the list. City Council member David Palmer said that though the names and addresses were public information, posting them online appeared to be an attempt to spread fear. “I don’t know why they would publish this other than for intimidation purposes,” he said. “And whether you’re pro or against, continue to speak your mind.” Palmer said he had stopped by Saturday’s rally after a mosque member raised concerns about the armed protesters. “I went out there … to observe,” he said. “I fully support their right to protest, their or anyone else really, to protest. What I felt uncomfortable about was that they needed to bring weapons to a place of worship.” Another rally is planned Saturday at the Islamic Center to protest Wright’s group and show support for area Muslims. “The mosque in Irving receives a lot of hate and ugliness,” said Tonya Cadenhead, an Irving resident who is organizing the event, which begins at noon at the mosque at 2555 Esters Road. “I decided to do something nice for them and show them not everyone has an ugly heart.” aselk@dallasnews.com; jfancher@dallasnews.com Twitter: @aviselk; @juliefancher

– The group responsible for an armed anti-Muslim protest at a Dallas-area mosque last weekend posted a list containing the names and addresses of dozens of Muslims and "Muslim sympathizers" to Facebook on Wednesday, the Dallas Morning News reports. According to the Huffington Post, the list contained personal information about more than 60 people pulled from an official document of individuals who signed up to speak at a city council debate on "limiting Muslim influence" earlier this year. “This is the first time I’ve been slightly alarmed," the head of a local Islamic group tells the Morning News. "They were just being good citizens to show up and be a part of the democratic process. Now they are targets.” David Wright led the armed protest outside the Irving Islamic Center last weekend and appears to be behind the list, which has since been removed from Facebook, the Morning News reports. While Wright's organization, BAIR, states its intention isn't to intimidate anyone, people whose names were on the list say it couldn't have been meant for any other reason than to put a target on their backs. The Washington Post quotes a number of Facebook posts from Wright this week, including, "We like to have guns designed to kill people that pose a threat in a very efficient manner," and "My gun is an assault weapon ... It's a weapon designed to assault people not animals." The list may have backfired: The Morning News notes RSVPs for a pro-Muslim rally scheduled for Saturday at the mosque had more than doubled in 24 hours.

When your body does not have enough lactase, an enzyme necessary for digestion of the natural sugar found in milk and other dairy products, you are said to be lactose intolerant. Now, a new study comparing pasteurized milk and raw milk, which some people claim can reduce symptoms of the condition, finds that raw milk fails to reduce lactose intolerance symptoms. “These data do not support the widespread claim that raw milk confers benefits in reducing the discomfort of lactose intolerance,” wrote the authors at the conclusion of their research published in Annals of Family Medicine. Nearly 30 percent of Americans are considered to have problems digesting milk and milk products, though some groups are more prone than others. In particular, 90 percent of Asian-Americans and 80 percent of African-Americans are said to be lactose intolerant, while far fewer Americans of northern European descent are bothered by this condition. Older adults as well are more likely to be troubled than those who are younger. Anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours after eating dairy products, a lactose intolerant person will develop stomach cramps and diarrhea, the two symptoms that must be present for an official diagnosis. These symptoms result from a buildup of gas caused by undigested lactose, the natural raw sugar found in milk. To see whether raw milk can reduce symptoms of lactose intolerance, Stanford researchers enrolled 16 adults with confirmed lactose intolerance and lactose malabsorption. Each participant drank three types of milk for eight days each: organic whole raw milk, organic whole pasteurized milk, and plain soy milk. The raw milk was an organic, grade A whole milk produced by Organic Pastures; the pasteurized milk was an organic, grade A whole milk produced by Horizon Organic; and the soy milk was organic, Soy Dream Original Classic brand produced by the Hain Celestial Group. Each eight-day treatment phase was preceded by a washout phase of one week during which time the participants avoided dairy and lactose-containing products. What did the researchers discover? “Raw milk failed to reduce lactose malabsorption or lactose intolerance symptoms compared with pasteurized milk among adults positive for lactose malabsorption,” wrote the authors. “Although other health benefit claims for raw milk are plausible, such claims remain similarly anecdotal and unsubstantiated and should be subjected to appropriately designed controlled trials.” Take-home nugget? Beware the anecdotal claim. Source: Mummah S, Oelrich B, Hope J, Vu Q, Gardner C. Effect of Raw Milk on Lactose Intolerance: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study. Annals of Family Medicine. 2014. ||||| It's not a daft fad to be milk intolerant - it's in our genes For 3 million lactose intolerant Britons a glass of milk it is not welcome But a genetic mutation in the majority means they can enjoy it for years By Guy Walters | When archaeologists investigated two 7,000-year-old corpses unearthed in Spain in 2006, they made two startling discoveries. One of the two Mesolithic hunter-gatherers had carried African and European genes, which meant he had dark skin and blue eyes. But there was an even more amazing revelation from the scientists when they announced the results of their research last month. The man's genes also showed he was lactose intolerant. This is a condition in which the body has difficulty in absorbing the sugar that is commonly found in milk. For 3m people in the UK a glass of cow juice is about as welcome as being force-fed cod liver oil A problem drinking milk? What sort of hunter-gatherer was this? Surely food intolerances are a bit modern and namby-pamby? Well, I can identify strongly with this Mesolithic milk dodger, as I too suffer from lactose intolerance. I'm one of the estimated three million people in the UK for whom a glass of cow juice is about as welcome as being force-fed cod liver oil. Much to my regret, I only discovered that I had the condition last year, when I was going on a punitive three-day hike through the Yorkshire Dales with a good friend. At one point, as we were puffing up a particularly strenuous climb, he turned to me and observed, 'You do realise that you burp ALL the time?' At first, I was in denial. Surely everybody burps a lot? Maybe I was just bad at hiding it. But by the time we reached the peak, I started to wonder - not least for the sake of my friendship - whether I did have something wrong with me. What happened next was like something out of a film, albeit one that goes straight to video. On a distant dale, I saw some cows. There they were, munching away, and the sight of them suddenly made me realise: Of course, it was milk. Wretched milk. Until then, I had dismissed people who claim to have intolerances as being vain and self-important. I'm not talking about those with allergies, which are clearly serious, and can be life-threatening. I'm referring to those annoying people who carp on about being intolerant to this and that, when they are in fact just fussy eaters. A genetic mutation in the majority of the population means the ability to drink milk can be enjoyed for years But it was time to confront my prejudices. I was going to give up milk. No more breakfast cereal, no more milk in my tea and coffee. The idea of giving up my cherished daily bowl of Grape Nuts seemed appalling, but I had to give it a try. Within about two days, my belching had almost vanished. There was no more effervescence, my guts no longer painfully bloated with gas. There was no doubt that milk was the culprit. I had cracked it, although I did curse that I had not kicked the milk churn decades before. All those years of subjecting friends and family to constant burping, all that discomfort needlessly endured, and all because I hadn't tolerated those with intolerances. Initially, I kept quiet about the whole business, as I didn't want to be a dietary bore. And then I came across the startling fact that 75 per cent of the world has some degree of lactose intolerance. It was another cow-on-a-distant-dale moment. Hang on, I thought, you people who can drink milk, it's you who are the weird ones! Not me, I'm the normal one. As it turns out, the ability to tolerate lactose is really only found in people in northern Europe, North America and in pockets in the Middle East and western and southern Africa. If you go anywhere else, you'll find that everybody is like me and Mesolithic Man. Why is this? The answer lies in the enzyme lactase, which breaks down the lactose in milk. Although all of us are born with lactase, after about the age of two, the levels in our small intestines diminish rapidly for most people, which makes it hard for lactose to be broken down, and therefore causes discomfort, which is often manifested by burping. But in countries such as the UK, a genetic mutation in the majority of the population means that lactase persists, and therefore the ability to drink milk can be enjoyed for many decades after infancy. Last month, British scientists who have studied the residue in cooking pots from archaeological digs estimated that this mutation may have taken place 6,000 years ago. Opinion is divided as to why this mutation which allows some of us to drink milk took place. Some suggest that when our ancestors started to consume dairy produce, they built up a tolerance which altered their genes. Others think that the mutation happened before mammalian milk was drunk, and it allowed dairy consumption to take place. 12g The amount of lactose adults with intolerance can cope with in a day. It's equivalent to a glass of milk But for people like me, it doesn't really matter what came first. I want to know the health implications. After all, it's drummed into us from an early age that milk is an essential part of our diet, chiefly because all that calcium is good for our bones. 'There are no serious health consequences of being lactose intolerant,' says Professor John Mayberry, a gastroenterologist at the University Hospitals of Leicester, 'and you should remember that for much of the world it's quite normal. There's no increased risk of any diseases.' You should also remember milk does not have a monopoly on calcium, which is found in broccoli, cabbage, soya beans and nuts. And just because you are lactose intolerant, it does not mean you have to give up cheese, as the fermentation process significantly reduces lactose levels. Although Professor Mayberry confirms that my self-diagnosis is perfectly valid and safe, there are more medically rigorous tests you can take should you suspect lactose intolerance. 'Potentially, you can submit to a whole series of investigations,' says Professor Mayberry. 'But the most simple and least invasive is the hydrogen breath test, in which the level of hydrogen in your breath is measured after you have drunk some lactose solution.' The test is done at a hospital and you need a GP referral. Hydrogen is one of the gases so charmingly emitted by the likes of me after drinking milk - bacteria in the gut produce hydrogen in reaction to unabsorbed food, and if your levels of hydrogen are 20 parts per million higher after drinking the lactose solution, then you're lactose intolerant. In my experience, that figure seems low. At times, I could have sworn I was expelling pure hydrogen. Another common test is to measure the levels of glucose in your blood after drinking lactose. The lactase enzyme breaks down lactose into glucose - so if your glucose either rises slowly, or not at all after drinking lactose, it's a sign of lactose intolerance. Guy has enough lactase in his small intestine to be able to cope with milk in tea Again, this hospital test needs a referral from your GP. Although Professor Mayberry's words are reassuring, for some, a lactose intolerance can actually be a symptom of something more serious. A deficiency of lactase can be caused by inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, but as these also present other more serious symptoms such as weight loss, bleeding and mucus, a diagnosis of lactose intolerance alone is no reason to be alarmed. But those who smugly think they can consume lactose for the rest of their lives should also think again. 'Lactase starts to diminish in a lot of people in their 60s and 70s,' says Professor Mayberry, 'which is why older people find they cannot eat certain food any more. 'Lactose isn't just present in milk, but it's used in all sorts of foods, such as whitener in loaves of bread.' I've now started to reintroduce milk in a small way. I now take it in tea and coffee, and like many with lactose intolerance, I have just enough lactase in my small intestine to be able to cope with these amounts. For the time being, I appear not to have passed on my intolerance to my children, who are both nearly in double figures, and seem able to drink milk with impunity. ||||| A pilot study failed to show something many people believe – that drinking raw milk reduces the symptoms of lactose intolerance or malabsorption. The condition is common worldwide, and can lead to bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhea. But the specific prevalence of lactose intolerance is not known, the researchers from Stanford University said. Current coping strategies include not drinking milk, drinking lactose-free dairy products, taking lactase enzyme tablets and other behaviors, but none of those eliminate the symptoms, the researchers wrote. “Recently, unpasteurized raw milk consumption has increased in popularity and emerged into a nationwide movement despite the acknowledgment of risks associated" with pathogens, the researchers wrote this week in the Annals of Family Medicine. Late last year the American Academy of Pediatrics warned pregnant women and children not to drink raw milk and said it supports a nationwide ban on its sale because of the danger of bacterial illnesses. Still, raw milk sales are legal in many places, including California and 29 other states. Advocates say raw milk is delicious and provides health benefits, including protection against asthma and lactose intolerance. And when the animals are raised properly and the milk is treated carefully, they say, raw milk poses little danger to human health. But the pilot study, conducted in 2010 with 16 people who identified themselves as lactose intolerant and suffering symptoms that were moderate to severe, did not show a benefit from raw milk. The participants, recruited from around Stanford, drank raw whole milk, pasteurized whole milk, and soy milk – all vanilla flavored to prevent them from detecting which was which. They drank specified amounts over eight days and were tested at many points for lactose malabsorption. The trial “provided no evidence that raw milk is better tolerated by adults positive for lactose malabsorption, either objectively or subjectively,” the researchers wrote. Previous studies have shown that unpasteurized yogurt can help sufferers. That could be, the researchers said, because of yogurt’s greater viscosity – which means it takes longer to digest. That gives the the good bacteria in yogurt more time to act on the lactose in the small intestine, they speculated. It’s also conceivable that people need to adjust to raw milk and eight days was not enough, they said. Additional work should be done to test that idea, they wrote. ALSO: Glucosamine promotes longevity in worms and mice, study says Electric stimulation offers new hope for 'reawakening' paralyzed limbs For many teens, formal sex education comes too late, CDC report says Mary.MacVean@latimes.com Twitter: @mmacvean ||||| TIME Health For more, visit TIME Health Only a small population of people drink unpasteurized milk, also known as “raw” milk, but its increasing popularity has some medical groups concerned. Some raw milk advocates argue that it’s healthier for us since raw milk contains no antibiotics or hormones, while others say it’s better for people with lactose allergies. For its part, the FDA advises against drinking raw milk, which can contain bacteria from fecal matter and sometimes be fatal, and has long stated that it doesn’t help with lactose intolerance. But a new study published in the Annals of Family Medicine is definitively poking holes in the allergy theory, by reporting that lactose-intolerant people have the same symptoms from raw and pasteurized milk. Advocates for raw milk claim that it contains good bacteria that can help with lactose absorption. “When I heard that claim it didn’t make sense to me because, regardless of the bacteria, raw milk and pasteurized milk have the same amount of lactose in them,” said study author Christopher Gardner, a professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center in a statement. “But I liked the idea of taking this on since it seemed like a relatively straightforward and answerable question because the symptoms of lactose-intolerance are immediate.” The study was small, with only 16 lactose-intolerant participants. All 16 tried three different types of milk–raw, pasteurized, and soy–over multiple eight-day periods. For eight days, the participants were randomly assigned to one of the three milks, and they drank an increasing amount of that milk as the study period went on. They then reported their allergy symptoms, which were usually gas, diarrhea, and cramping, and rated them on a scale of 0 to 10. Their breaths were also measured for hydrogen, which can indicate undigested lactose in the colon and intolerance. After the first eight days of drinking one type of milk, the participants took a week off where they drank no milk, and then started up again with another eight days of a different type of milk. To mask which type of milk participants were drinking, researchers randomized the order and added sugar-free vanilla syrup. Soy, which doesn’t contain lactose, acted as the control. Researchers found no differences in the hydrogen breath tests between consuming pasteurized or unpasteurized milk. Participants also rated their symptom severity the same, regardless of the type of milk they drank. Although the study is small, it brings into question the benefits of raw milk for people with lactose intolerance. “It’s not that there was a trend toward a benefit from raw milk and our study wasn’t big enough to capture it; it’s that there was no hint of any benefit,” said Gardner in a statement.

– Among lactose-intolerant people—who make up some 30% of Americans, according to Medical Daily—raw milk has become a popular alternative to the pasteurized stuff. The FDA says it's no better for them, and it warns that raw milk can actually be fatal, Time reports. Are raw-milk advocates right? A new study says no. Researchers had 16 self-identified lactose-intolerant subjects drink three kinds of milk: raw, pasteurized, and soy. All were vanilla-flavored so participants couldn't identify them, the Los Angeles Times reports. Over an eight-day period of consuming the milk varieties, subjects were tested for malabsorption; they also reported their allergy symptoms, Time notes. After a weeklong break, they tried another type of milk for eight days. In the end, there was "no evidence that raw milk is better tolerated by adults positive for lactose malabsorption, either objectively or subjectively," researchers say. They acknowledge, however, that more than eight days might be necessary to account for adjustment to raw milk. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail points to the genetics behind lactose intolerance, noting that it was found in a 7,000-year-old man.

A Brenham veterinarian accused of killing a cat with a bow and arrow will not face charges at this time after an Austin County grand jury find returned a “no-bill” in the case. (Photo: KHOU) BELLVILLE, Texas – A Brenham veterinarian who killed a cat with a bow and arrow will not face charges at this time after an Austin County grand jury returned a "no-bill" in the case. A finding of no-bill indicates the grand jury examined all the evidence and determined there was insufficient proof to charge. She was accused of posting a picture to Facebook back in April where's she holding up a dead cat with an arrow through its head, bragging about her kill. The Austin County Sheriff's Office say they received an unsworn hearsay report that the vet was acting to protect her pets from a "potentially rabid stray cat." After a thorough investigation, investigators not able to determine where or when the incident took place. Without that, investigators lacked probable cause to obtain a search warrant for any Austin County properties pertaining to the incident. Investigators said subpoenas to Facebook failed to produce usable evidence since the vet's account had been deleted prior to the Sheriff's Office learning of the incident. Many people were outside the Austin County Courthouse Wednesday protesting and demanding the grand jury indict the veterinarian. A Brenham veterinarian accused of killing a cat with a bow and arrow could find out Wednesday whether she will be charge in the animal's death. (Photo: Lauren Talarico / KHOU 11 News) Since she has not been charged KHOU 11 News are not releasing her name or showing her face. The cat was named Tiger; KHOU 11 News spoke with his pet sitter on Wednesday. "He went missing at the time, and when I saw the picture in my heart I knew it was him," Amy Hemsell said. "I'm hoping that she is punished to the fullest extent for animal cruelty." Protestors say this was about more than this one cat, but animal cruelty as a whole. The veterinarian has since been fired from her job. Posters have been sent from people all over the world voicing their support for Tiger and asking for an indictment. A Brenham veterinarian accused of killing a cat with a bow and arrow could find out Wednesday whether she will be charge in the animal's death. (Photo: Lauren Talarico / KHOU 11 News) Read or Share this story: http://on.khou.com/1NbowVD ||||| Brenham veterinarian accused of killing cat with arrow, posting photo to Facebook won't be charged Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Image 1 of 5 From Kristen Lindsey's Facebook post. From Kristen Lindsey's Facebook post. Image 2 of 5 Austin County veterinarian Dr. Kristen Lindsey has reportedly been fired from the animal clinic at which she works after allegedly posting this photo to her Facebook page of a dead cat she reportedly shot with an arrow. less Austin County veterinarian Dr. Kristen Lindsey has reportedly been fired from the animal clinic at which she works after allegedly posting this photo to her Facebook page of a dead cat she reportedly shot with ... more Image 3 of 5 Dr. Kristen Lindsey, has now been fired from her position at the Washington Animal Clinic in Brenham. Dr. Kristen Lindsey, has now been fired from her position at the Washington Animal Clinic in Brenham. Photo: KBTX-TV Image 4 of 5 Dr. Kristen Lindsey, has now been fired from her position at the Washington Animal Clinic in Brenham. Dr. Kristen Lindsey, has now been fired from her position at the Washington Animal Clinic in Brenham. Photo: KBTX-TV Image 5 of 5 Dr. Kristen Lindsey, has now been fired from her position at the Washington Animal Clinic in Brenham. Dr. Kristen Lindsey, has now been fired from her position at the Washington Animal Clinic in Brenham. Photo: Google Maps Brenham veterinarian accused of killing cat with arrow, posting photo to Facebook won't be charged 1 / 5 Back to Gallery The Brenham veterinarian accused of shooting a cat through the head with an arrow and posting a boastful photo about it on Facebook will not be charged. An Austin County grand jury "no billed" Dr. Kristen Lindsey on Wednesday for the alleged April incident, according to the Austin County District Attorney's Office. The investigation was unable to turn up substantial information implicating Kristen Lindsey in a crime related to the cat slaying. The only real evidence was a single Facebook photo, but according to a press release from the Austin County District Attorney, the Austin County Sheriff's Office was unable to verify when or where the photo was taken. "Without more information, the State lacks proof that this incident even occurred in the state of Texas," the DA said in a press release, noting that cat hunting is legal year-round in Wyoming. Furthermore, investigators couldn't prove the cat was killed in a cruel manner, since guidelines from the American Veterinary Medical Association include a "bolt to the head" as a humane form of euthanasia when done correctly. Sheriff Jack Brandes of the Austin County Sheriff's Office previously told the Chronicle he was alerted April 17 to a now-deleted Facebook photo of Lindsey from that area holding an orange cat with an arrow through its head. The photo appeared to show a smiling Lindsey holding a dead cat up via an arrow show through its head. "My first bow kill [cat emoticon] lol. The only good feral tomcat is one with an arrow through it's head! Vet of the year award...gladly accepted [laughing emoticon]," the post said. Lindsey deleted the Facebook profile after the photo went viral and animal activists online lashed out. Shortly thereafter, she was fired from her position at the Washington Animal Clinic in Brenham. "We are absolutely appalled, shocked, upset, and disgusted by the conduct. We have parted ways with Ms. Lindsey. We do not allow such conduct and we condemn it in the strongest possible manner," the clinic said in the statement." "Please know that when informed of this we responded swiftly and appropriately and please do not impute this awful conduct to the Washington Animal Clinic or any of its personnel."

– A Texas veterinarian may have angered a lot of people, but she won't be charged for allegedly killing a cat with an arrow through the head in April. The investigation into Dr. Kristen Lindsey could find no substantial evidence Lindsey committed a crime. Though she posted a photo of herself with the dead cat on Facebook, which she later deleted, the sheriff's office couldn't verify the photo—and an Austin County grand jury today "no billed" her, the county district attorney's office says, according to the Houston Chronicle. A "no-bill" finding means there's not enough proof to file charges, KHOU notes. A crowd gathered outside the courthouse today to protest the finding. "Without more information, the State lacks proof that this incident even occurred in the state of Texas," the DA says in a press release, adding that investigators also couldn't prove the cat's manner of death was cruel. (The American Veterinary Medical Association itself says a "bolt to the head," performed correctly, is a humane way to euthanize, and, as KBTX notes, the press release also points out that in some parts of the US, hunting stray cats is perfectly legal.) The sheriff's office says it was told that Lindsey was trying to protect her own pets from a "potentially rabid stray cat," but the cat she's accused of killing was reportedly a house pet named Tiger who went missing. Lindsey was fired from her job at an animal clinic after the photo went viral. As for her veterinary license, the DA notes it is "not involved" in the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners' decision on that.

Jerusalem’s largest soccer club announced Sunday that it has changed its name to “Beitar Trump Jerusalem,” in honor of the US president’s recognition of Israel’s capital and moving his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv. In an announcement on Facebook, the team praised the US president. “For 70 years has Jerusalem been awaiting international recognition, until President Donald Trump, in a courageous move, recognized Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel,” the club wrote. “President Trump has shown courage, and true love of the Israeli people and their capital, and these days other countries are following his lead in giving Jerusalem its rightful status.” Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up The announcement comes the day before the official opening of the new embassy in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood, in a ceremony to be attended by US Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan, Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, Adviser Ivanka Trump, and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, as well as ambassadors and officials from all over the world. 70 שנה המתינה ירושלים להכרה בינלאומית, עד שהנשיא דונלד טראמפ החליט לעשות מעשה והכיר בה כבירת הנצח של עם ישראל. הנשיא… Posted by ‎מועדון הכדורגל בית"ר ירושלים – F.C. Beitar Jerusalem‎ on Sunday, 13 May 2018 The soccer club stated that it was permanently changing its name in honor of the occasion. “Beitar Jerusalem, one of the most prominent symbols of the city, are happy to honor the president for his love and support with a gesture of our own,” the Facebook post read. “The chairmen of the club, the owner Eli Tabib and the executive manager Eli Ohana have decided to add to the club’s title the name of the American President who made history, and from now on will be called Beitar Trump Jerusalem.” Beitar, one of Israel’s top soccer clubs, is currently in second place in the premier league. However, the club has a long history of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment, and is the only club in the Israeli league that has never had an Arab Muslim player. Officials on the team have indicated in the past that it is unofficial policy. Earlier this year, the club promised to crackdown on racist fans. It also said it would close down the eastern section of its ground which is infamous for housing the club’s most rabid fans, including the ultra-nationalist “La-Familia” faction. Last year, 19 members of the group were charged with attempted murder, including of rival supporters. ||||| Palestinian protesters burn tires during a protest on the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Monday, May 14, 2018. Thousands of Palestinians are protesting near Gaza's border with Israel, as Israel prepared... (Associated Press) Palestinian protesters burn tires during a protest on the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, Monday, May 14, 2018. Thousands of Palestinians are protesting near Gaza's border with Israel, as Israel prepared for the festive inauguration of a new U.S. Embassy in contested Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) (Associated Press) GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Thousands of Palestinian protesters converged along the border with Israel on Monday, drawing Israeli fire that killed at least 16 people in the bloodiest day of weeks of demonstrations and casting a cloud over Israel's festive inauguration of the new U.S. Embassy in contested Jerusalem. With their anger fueled by the embassy opening, protesters set tires on fire, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the air at several spots along the border, while the Israeli military said protesters assaulted the border fence. By midafternoon, at least 16 Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed while over 500 were wounded by Israeli fire, Palestinian health officials said. In the West Bank, several thousand people gathered in the center of Ramallah, while hundreds marched to the Qalandiya crossing on the outskirts of Jerusalem, where protesters threw stones at Israeli troops. The protest in Gaza was to be the biggest yet in a weekslong campaign against a decade-old blockade of the territory. The march was also directed at the inauguration of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem later Monday. The relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv, a key campaign promise of President Donald Trump, has infuriated the Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as a future capital. "A great day for Israel," Trump tweeted early Monday. Monday marked the biggest showdown in recent weeks between Israel's military and Gaza's Hamas rulers along the volatile border. It is the culmination of a campaign, led by the Islamic militant Hamas and fueled by despair among Gaza's 2 million people, to break the decade-old border blockade of the territory by Israel and Egypt. Since weekly border marches began in late March, 58 Palestinian protesters have been killed and more than 2,300 wounded by Israeli army fire. Hamas leaders have suggested a border breach is possible Monday, while Israel has warned it would prevent protesters from breaking through the barrier at any cost. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said the army had bolstered its front-line forces along the border, but also set up additional "layers" of security in and around neighboring communities to defend Israeli civilians in case of a mass breach. He said there already had been several "significant attempts" to break through the fence. "Even if the fence is breached, we will be able to protect Israeli civilians from attempts to massacre or kidnap or kill them," he said. The timing of Monday's events was deeply symbolic, both to Israel and the Palestinians. The U.S. said it chose the date to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment. But it also marks the anniversary of what Palestinians call their "nakba," or catastrophe, a reference to the uprooting of hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's independence. A majority of Gaza's 2 million people are descendants of refugees, and the protests have been billed as the "Great March of Return" to long-lost homes in what is now Israel. In one of the border areas east of Gaza City, Mohammed Hamami, a 40-year-old civil servant, joined a crowd of hundreds of protesters, along with his mother and five children. "Today we are here to send a message to Israel and its allies that we will never give up on our land," he said. "We will cross the border and impose new realities like the reality Trump imposed in Jerusalem," he added, referring to President Donald Trump's decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and then move the U.S. Embassy there. Some protesters moved to within about 150 meters (yards) of the border fence. A reporter saw two men who tried to advance further being shot in the legs by Israeli troops. Clouds of black smoke from burning tires rose into the air. Earlier Monday, Israeli drones dropping incendiary material had pre-emptively set ablaze some of the tires collected in advance by activists. Protesters have used the thick smoke as cover against Israeli snipers perched on high sand berms on the other side of the border. The army accuses Hamas of using the protests as cover to plan or carry out attacks. Leaflets dropped over Gaza by army jets warned that those approaching the border "jeopardize" their lives. The warning said the army is "prepared to face all scenarios and will act against every attempt to damage the security fence or harm IDF soldiers or Israeli civilians." In Jerusalem, top Trump administration officials attended events linked to the inauguration of the embassy later Monday. Speaking at a celebration hosted by the Orthodox Union, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that it was a U.S. "national security priority" to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump's decision to go forward with a campaign promise to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was welcomed by Israel and condemned by the Palestinians. Previous presidents had signed a waiver postponing the move, citing national security. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community. The Palestinians seek the city's eastern half as the capital of a future state. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cut ties with the Trump administration and declared it unfit to remain in its role as the sole mediator in peace talks. Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide, blasted the Trump administration Monday, saying Trump had violated a promise to hold off on moving the embassy to give peace talks a chance and that his administration is "based on lies." Erekat said the Trump administration has "become part of the problem, not part of the solution." Administration officials have dismissed Palestinian criticism, portraying the embassy opening as an essential step toward an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. However, they have not said how they will move forward without the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump's "bold decision" in upending decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "It's the right thing to do," a smiling Netanyahu told the jubilant crowd at a reception in Jerusalem late Sunday. Although Trump has said his declaration does not set the final borders of the city, his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital has been perceived by both Israel and the Palestinians as taking Israel's side in the most sensitive issue in their conflict. Only two countries, Guatemala and Paraguay, have said they will follow suit. Most of the world maintains embassies in Tel Aviv, saying the Jerusalem issue must first be resolved. In a reflection of the deep sensitivities, dozens of countries — including Britain, France and Germany — skipped a celebration Sunday night at the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Monday's opening will be attended by Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who both serve as White House advisers. Kushner leads the Trump Mideast team. __ Ben Zion reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan contributed to this report. ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Israeli forces killed 58 Palestinians at the boundary fence with Gaza on Monday, local health officials said, a level of bloodshed not seen since the most violent days of Israel’s 2014 war in the territory. The death toll more than doubled the number of Palestinians killed during six weeks of demonstrations, dubbed the “March of Return,” and came on the same day that a new U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of Palestinians had gathered on the edges of the fenced-off and blockaded territory from midmorning. Many came to peacefully demonstrate, bringing their children and carrying flags. Food stalls sold snacks and music blared. But the protests appeared to have a more violent edge than in previous weeks. Some young men brought knives and fence cutters. At a gathering point east of Gaza City, organizers urged protesters over loudspeakers to burst through the fence, telling them Israeli soldiers were fleeing their positions, even as they were reinforcing them. Israeli snipers were determined not to allow a breach, and ambulances soon began screaming back and forth from the fence as gunshots rang out. No Israeli soldiers were injured, though, and Israel drew widespread condemnation for an excessive use of force. More than 2,700 people were injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, including 1,359 from live ammunition. The dead included six children under the age of 18, among them a 15-year-old girl, and a medic, the ministry said. 1 of 30 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Gaza protests turn deadly as U.S. Embassy opens in Jerusalem View Photos Israeli soldiers killed dozens of Palestinians demonstrating along the border fence and wounded more than 1,600 in the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 war with Israel. Caption Israeli soldiers killed dozens of Palestinians demonstrating along the border fence and wounded more than 1,600 in the bloodiest day in Gaza since the 2014 war with Israel. Ibraheem Abu Mustafa Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. The United Nations said that “those responsible for outrageous human rights violations must be held to account,” and Human Rights Watch described the killings as a “bloodbath.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned a continuing “massacre” of the Palestinian people. Turkey and South Africa announced they were recalling their ambassadors from Israel. The Trump administration, however, blamed Hamas for the loss of life. “The responsibility for these tragic deaths rests squarely with Hamas,” deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah told reporters at a briefing. “Israel has the right to defend itself.” The violence was a jarring contrast with the opening ceremony for the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, which drew first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Trump adviser Jared Kushner. In Gaza, Hamas has given its backing to the demonstrations, which have galvanized people around a call to protest the loss of Palestinian homes and villages when Israel was formed in 1948. Palestinians will mark the anniversary of that day — known as the “Nakba,” or “Catastrophe” — on Tuesday, when more demonstrations are planned. More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population is descended from refugees who were displaced at the time of Israel’s creation. At Gaza City’s main al-Shifaa hospital, medics said they were overwhelmed. “I don't know how we will manage,” Ayman al-Sahbani, the head of the emergency department, said as families jostled to get in to see injured relatives. “How long can this go on? How long?” The hospital had set up an additional 30-bed triage area outside, and earlier in the day said it had the capacity to treat 200 or 300 serious gunshot wounds. It had received around 400 injured by about 6 p.m., most of whom had been shot, he said. “We’ve reached the critical point now,” he said. “A lot of people need operations soon, but the operation room is full.” Palestinian women suffering from tear-gas inhalation sit in a medical aid tent during a protest near Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip. (Dusan Vranic/AP) Increasing economic hardship has fueled frustrations in Gaza, along with wider despair across Palestinian territories amid moves by a U.S. administration seen as wholeheartedly on Israel’s side in the decades-old conflict. At least 110 Gazans have been killed over the past six weeks, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures. At the demonstrations east of Gaza City, some said the force used by Israel would only bring further unrest. Standing a few hundred meters from the fence, Nirma Attalah, 29, said her 22-year-old brother had been killed two weeks ago. “My brother was shot in the head in this place,” she said. She had come on Monday with her whole extended family. “We are here for Jerusalem, for Palestinian land,” she said. A truck rolled past carrying young men chanting: “To Jerusalem we go with millions of martyrs” and “Death rather than humiliation.” Drones dropped canisters of tear gas, sending crowds fleeing. Other drones dropped leaflets that urged demonstrators to say back from the fence. “People have come out of the rubble to say we will not forget our rights,” said Yousef Abu Saleh, 25. “The American administration is adopting the Israeli story and stealing our right of return.” While some said they would abide by official calls to keep the demonstrations peaceful, others talked about their enthusiasm to break into Israel and wreak havoc. “We are excited to storm and get inside,” said 23-year-old Mohammed Mansoura. When asked what he would do inside Israel, he said, “Whatever is possible, to kill, throw stones.” Two other young men carried large knives and said they wanted to kill Jews on the other side of the fence. The Israeli military brought two extra brigades to the Gaza border in preparation for the demonstrations and added additional “defense lines” in an effort to prevent any mass invasion into Israeli communities near the border. The military said at least 40,000 people protested in 13 places along the fence — more than twice as many locations as in past weeks of protest. “Especially violent riots” took place near the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where three people were killed after trying to plant an explosive, the military added. The military also said it would “act forcefully against any terrorist activity,” and it carried out an airstrike on Hamas military posts in northern Gaza after Israeli troops came under fire. At demonstrations near the Bureij Camp in central Gaza, Ahmed Loulou, 22, released a cluster of balloons carrying a Palestinian flag. He had written in marker: “We are returning. This is our land.” The load was briefly caught in a power line before bobbing unsteadily toward the border. Loulou said that it was his first time at the demonstrations and that he had been persuaded to come by friends. Meanwhile, young men fired stones from slingshots as they sheltered behind earthen berms. Shortly afterward, the sound of live ammunition zinged through the air over the sound of the afternoon call to prayer. “Sniper! Sniper!” shouted a young boy. A Palestinian man throws leaflets dropped Monday by the Israeli military during Monday’s protests along the Israel-Gaza border. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters) The vast majority of demonstrators were unarmed, but near a parking area, a man pulled out an AK-47 and took aim at an Israeli drone dropping leaflets. He let off a stream of bullets into the air and brought it down. Later, more gunfire was heard as Palestinian factions argued over who would keep the downed drown, onlookers said. As the death toll neared 50, loudspeakers called for protesters to leave the border area. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya was called to Cairo on Sunday night in an apparent attempt to persuade the militant group to quell the demonstrations. No agreement was made, Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nounou said as he attended the protests. “They understood our points. Our people are showing their solidarity with Jerusalem today, and showing their anger with the U.S. administration.” Hamas’s Interior Ministry said seven of its members were killed, including a medic from the civil defense, two internal security staff and a military intelligence official. At least 12 journalists were injured, according to the Health Ministry. The demonstrations have proved to be a welcome distraction for Hamas, refocusing anger against Israel as frustration built against the group in Gaza. At a news conference as evening fell, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayaa said the protests would continue. “This blood will keep boiling until the occupation leaves forever,” he said. At a morgue, the blood was washed off the bodies of those killed before they were taken away by waiting relatives. Dressed in a blue Chelsea soccer shirt, Ahmed Jundiya, 20, was waiting for the body of his 20-year-old cousin. Jundiya himself hadn’t been at the demonstrations. “I wanted to go, but my parents said no,” he said. “You can see the result of participating,” he added, motioning toward the room where his relative lay. Anne Gearan in Washington and Sufian Taha in Jerusalem contributed to this report. Read more Trump’s embassy move has triggered deadly protests. These maps explain why. New U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem: A stone plaque and $400,000 in renovations Trump’s ‘buy now, pay later’ foreign policy ||||| FILE - In this July 1, 2017, file photo, pastor Robert Jeffress, of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, speaks as he introduces President Donald Trump during the Celebrate Freedom event at the Kennedy... (Associated Press) FILE - In this July 1, 2017, file photo, pastor Robert Jeffress, of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, speaks as he introduces President Donald Trump during the Celebrate Freedom event at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. In a tweet Sunday, May 13, 2018, Senate candidate Mitt... (Associated Press) FILE - In this July 1, 2017, file photo, pastor Robert Jeffress, of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, speaks as he introduces President Donald Trump during the Celebrate Freedom event at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. In a tweet Sunday, May 13, 2018, Senate candidate Mitt... (Associated Press) FILE - In this July 1, 2017, file photo, pastor Robert Jeffress, of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, speaks as he introduces President Donald Trump during the Celebrate Freedom event at the Kennedy... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate candidate Mitt Romney of Utah says a prominent Baptist minister shouldn't be giving the prayer that opens the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem because he's a "religious bigot." In a tweet Sunday night, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee criticized Dallas minister Robert Jeffress for his remarks about Jews, Mormons and Islam. Romney said, "Robert Jeffress says 'you can't be saved by being a Jew,' and 'Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell.' He's said the same about Islam." The liberal group Media Matters reports on its website that Jeffress made the remarks cited by Romney in a 2011 speech at the conservative Values Voter Summit. Jeffress responded in a tweet of his own by defending his view that "salvation is through faith in Christ alone." "Historic Christianity has taught for 2,000 years that salvation is through faith in Christ alone. The fact that I, along with tens of millions of evangelical Christians around the world, continue to espouse that belief, is neither bigoted nor newsworthy,: Jeffress said in the tweet, The role of Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, a Southern Baptist megachurch, underlines the significance of the Jerusalem event as an appeal to Christian conservatives, part of President Donald Trump's base of supporters.

– One of Israel's biggest sports teams has given itself a new name in honor of the opening of the new US Embassy in Jerusalem—and the man who made it possible. Soccer club Beitar Jerusalem says it is now called Beitar Trump Jerusalem and the change will be permanent. "President Trump has shown courage, and true love of the Israeli people and their capital," the team said in a statement. The team, which is in second place in Israel's top soccer league, is notorious for anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment, according to the Times of Israel. In other developments: Deadly violence: Israeli soldiers killed 16 protesters near the Gaza border and injured hundreds more ahead of the opening, say Palestinian health authorities, per the AP. That makes Monday the deadliest day of protests since they began six weeks ago, reports the Washington Post. Mitt Romney speaks out. Romney said Sunday night that a Dallas minister shouldn't deliver the embassy's opening prayer because he is a "religious bigot," the AP reports. "Robert Jeffress says 'you can't be saved by being a Jew,' and 'Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell.' He's said the same about Islam," Romney tweeted. In response, Jeffress said it isn't bigoted to teach that "salvation is through faith in Christ alone."

Investigators found another body today buried at the South Carolina property where a woman was found chained in a metal container, Spartanburg officials said tonight. Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said human remains were uncovered in one of the two places that Todd Kohlhepp pointed out as gravesites. He said they have not yet identified the remains or cause of death, and the search for more remains will continue Monday. The investigation is expanding to other properties Kohlhepp currently owns or used to own, and those properties are not limited to South Carolina, the sheriff said. He added that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are also involved in the investigation. Richard Shiro/AP Photo Kohlhepp, who allegedly confessed to killing four people 13 years ago in a South Carolina town, after being charged with the kidnapping of the woman who was found chained at the neck in a storage container, was denied bond today in a South Carolina court. Officials said Saturday that Kohlhepp claimed responsibility for the murders at a motorcycle shop in 2003. He appeared before a magistrate judge in Spartanburg wearing an orange jumpsuit, and declined to speak when the judge offered him the chance to make a statement. He doesn't have an attorney. After Kohlhepp was denied bond, Magistrate Judge Jimmy Henson said a circuit court could revisit the issue of bond later. Kohlhepp was charged with four counts of murder in the 2003 killings, after being charged with the kidnapping of a woman who was held captive on his property. It's possible that the number of charges against Kohlhepp will increase as police investigate his other alleged confessions, prosecutors said. A Spartanburg County Sheriff's investigative report says Kohlhepp "confessed to investigators that he shot and killed" the owner, service manager, mechanic and bookkeeper of Superbike Motorsports, a high-performance motorcycle shop in Chesnee, South Carolina. "Kohlhepp gave details ... that only the killer would know," the report says. Earlier this morning, two relatives of victims from the 2003 murders at spoke to the media, expressing a range of emotions, including relief that a suspect had finally been detained. Terry Guy, who spoke outside of the Spartanburg County jail on his way to the hearing, said he suffered depression in the wake of losing a loved one at the time the crimes took place. "I lost 70 pounds," he said. Regarding his feelings after learning the identity of the killer, Guy said that he was relieved, but also sympathetic for Kohlhepp's family. "My emotions are running from joy to crying, even feeling sorry for the family [of killer] I feel for them," he said. He also said that he would like "to pray" with Kohlhepp, but added that he expected justice to be served in the case. "The gentleman has to pay for what he did," he said. Tom and Lorraine Lucas, who lost their son, Brian, in the quadruple murder, also spoke to the press outside of the courthouse. "We want to see the face. I want to look at him, and I want to try to use that in healing," Tom Lucas said, regarding Kohlhepp. Kohlhepp had a criminal record that preceded his arrest on Saturday. According to South Carolina's sex offender registry, he was required to register as a sex offender in the state after he was convicted of a kidnapping in Arizona in 1987. According to court documents obtained by ABC News, Kohlhepp was arrested when he was 15 years old for allegedly kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl when he was living with his father in Arizona in 1987. Kohlhepp allegedly went to the girl's house, threatened her with a blue steel revolver and forced her to come to his home where he tied her up and taped her mouth shut before raping her. He then walked her back to her house and threatened to kill her family if she told anyone. The girl called police to report the incident with Kohlhepp, whom she said she knew as "Todd Sampsell," using his father's last name, according to court documents. Kohlhepp admitted his guilt to police and told authorities he did it because he was enraged at his father, who divorced from his mother when he was about a year old, according to the documents. Kohlhepp told police he was born in Florida, raised in Georgia and moved around a lot. He eventually became a resident in South Carolina where his mother -- identified in court documents as Regina Kohlhepp -- lived. Kohlhepp's case was moved from juvenile to adult court. The judge who moved his case described Kohlhepp as "very bright and should be advanced academically," but said he is "behaviorally and emotionally dangerous." "At less than the age of 9, this juvenile was impulsive, explosive, and preoccupied with sexual content. He has not changed. He has been unabatedly aggressive to others and destructive of property since nursery school. He destroys his own clothing, personal possessions and pets apparently on whim and caprice," the judge wrote. Kohlhepp pleaded guilty, providing that the sexual assault charge be dismissed. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and was required to register as a sex offender. The Associated Press contributed to this story. ||||| WOODRUFF, S.C. (AP) — Investigators will continue Monday combing for human remains and other clues on the South Carolina property of a man accused of a grisly crime spree stretching more than a decade. Todd Kohlhepp became a suspect in at least seven deaths after a woman was found Thursday chained by her neck and ankle in a metal storage container on his 95-acre property near rural Woodruff. His arrest in that case led to his confession in a notorious quadruple slaying at a motorcycle shop from 2003 in the small town of Chesnee, investigators said. He was denied bond Sunday during a brief court appearance on four murder charges for those slayings. He's also charged with kidnapping the woman, and more criminal counts are expected. Authorities suspect he killed at least three people other than the motorcycle shop victims. A Spartanburg County Sheriff's investigative report says Kohlhepp "confessed to investigators that he shot and killed" the motorcycle shop's owner, service manager, mechanic and bookkeeper, giving details only the killer would know. Now, Sheriff Chuck Wright, who was first elected about a year after the Superbike Motorsports killings, has a wide-ranging investigation of a crime spree over more than a decade. The investigation has expanded to other properties Kohlhepp, a real estate agent, either currently or used to own. Those properties are not limited to South Carolina, Wright said Sunday, declining to be more specific. Both the FBI and Homeland Security are involved, he said. Kohlhepp showed investigators Saturday where he says he buried two other victims on the property he bought two years ago. Human remains were uncovered Sunday at one of those sites, Wright said. "We're not even close" on identifying the remains or cause of death, he said. "We can't tell anything." Kohlhepp did not tell investigators who was buried there. Removing the remains to "preserve every bit of evidence" is a meticulous, time-consuming process, said Coroner Rusty Clevenger. The gravesites Kohlhepp pointed to are in addition to the body found Friday in a shallow grave at the site. Authorities identified that victim as the boyfriend of the woman found Thursday. Clevenger said he died of multiple gunshot wounds. The Associated Press is not naming the woman because the suspect is a sex offender, though authorities have not said whether she was sexually assaulted. On Sunday, Kohlhepp appeared in an orange jumpsuit for the brief bond hearing and declined to make a statement. He didn't have an attorney. After Kohlhepp left the courtroom, Magistrate Judge Jimmy Henson told the family members they would have a chance later to address Kohlhepp in court. "You have something to say. You've been waiting 13 years to say it," he said. The father of Brian Lucas, the 29-year-old slain service manager, thanked the judge. "Your honor, I appreciate your words to us and your counsel," Tom Lucas said as two others put their hands on his shoulders. "We thank you." Before the hearing, Lucas said he wanted to be in court to look Kohlhepp in the eye. "I want to look at him, and I want to try to use that in healing," he said. Before Kohlhepp emerged as a suspect, investigators had said all four victims were killed with the same pistol. They have theorized that the killer came in the back and killed mechanic Chris Sherbert, 26, as he worked. Bookkeeper Beverly Guy, 52, was found just outside the bathroom in the middle of the showroom. Thirty-year-old shop owner Scott Ponder was found just outside the door in the parking lot. He was Guy's son. Brian Lucas was in the doorway of the shop. Melissa Ponder, who was married to Scott Ponder, said detectives told her Kohlhepp was an angry customer who had been in the motorcycle shop several times. "It isn't closure, but it is an answer," Ponder said by phone. "And I am thankful for that." Kohlhepp was released from prison in Arizona in 2001. As a teenager, he was convicted of raping a 14-year-old neighbor at gunpoint and threatening to kill her siblings if she called police. Kohlhepp had to register as a sex offender. But that didn't stop him from getting a South Carolina real estate license in 2006, building a firm and maintaining the appearance of normalcy. In Woodruff on Sunday, scores of people congregated outside the chain link fence that surrounds the wooded property. "Things like this don't happen at home," said Tina Gowan, who lives in Pauline but grew up in Moore, where Kohlhepp lived. "He looked like your everyday Joe." She was among those who prayed at the fence. Frances Bradley, who lives near the 95-acre site, said God answered prayers in solving the 2003 cold case. "I was so awe-struck by the revelation," she said, she felt a need to pray at the fence before going to church. "I thanked God for giving us good out of this." ___ Kinnard reported from Spartanburg, South Carolina. ___ Associated Press writers Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

– Another body was found Sunday on the property of South Carolina kidnap and murder suspect Todd Kohlhepp—and investigators still have plenty of digging to do. The unidentified body was found in one of two locations on the 95-acre property that Kohlhepp, who bought the land two years ago, had identified as graves, ABC reports. The body of a man identified as Charlie Carver—whose girlfriend was found chained up in a storage container on the property—was earlier found in a shallow grave. Police say the 45-year-old Kohlhepp has confessed to killing at least seven people over the last 10 years, including four people who were massacred at a South Carolina motorcycle shop 13 years ago. Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright says the FBI and Homeland Security are now involved in the investigation, which will be looking at other sites Kohlhepp, a realtor, owns or used to own, the AP reports. Kohlhepp declined to make a statement at a brief court hearing on Sunday, where he was denied bond. The Greenville News reports that chilling Amazon.com product reviews from a user believed to be Kohlhepp have surfaced. He reviewed items like knives, padlocks and tactical gear. For a shovel with a folding handle, he wrote: "Keep in car for when you have to hide the bodies and you left the full size shovel at home." (Disturbing details have emerged about Kohlhepp's teenage years.)

Tomorrow is the day LeBron James becomes the most unlikable person in the NBA, and perhaps all of American sports. I used to think he was okay a year ago. No more. He's the villain now. It doesn't matter where he opts to go. If he goes to Chicago, he's a cocksucker. If he goes to Miami, he's a cocksucker. Even if he goes back to Cleveland, he's a goddamn cocksucker. He's a self-aggrandizing sack of shit, and ESPN is a bunch of pussy-whipped enablers for giving him a free hour of airtime tomorrow night and inevitably using 55 minutes of it to let Stu Scott give him a rimjob. Advertisement Look at what Kevin Durant did today. He signed an extension well before he could have filed for free agency, announced the signing, and then went back about his business. He didn't need all this dog-and-pony show bullshit. James does, and that means he's a dipshit. People have been kissing this man's ass SINCE FUCKING MIDDLE SCHOOL, and he still needs this hourlong AFI tribute special? Bullshit. BULLSHIT. And I don't care that he asked ESPN to use the commercial airtime tomorrow night to go to charity. That's the most transparent use of charity for the sake of self-glorification I've seen since I saw some actor do it yesterday. "Hey ESPN, why don't you spend an hour kissing my ass? Oh, don't worry. We'll give the money to AIDS babies. That totally makes me selfless." No, it doesn't. And FUCK YOU to ESPN for going along with this "Bonds on Bonds" redux. If an ESPN reporter found concrete proof tomorrow morning that James was going to Cleveland or somewhere else, do you think ESPN would let him run with it? FUCK AND NO. They'd stick him in a fucking Lucite box and throw him in the cellar until 10PM. They're the whoringest whores that have ever whored. I heard they offered LeBron's crew free blowjobs if he wins a title next year. Wilbon asked to blow him JUST A LITTLE BIT. Not much. Just a little bit. Advertisement LeBron is now the guy you openly root against. If he leaves Cleveland tomorrow night, he'll have needlessly strung along an entire fanbase and given them the middle finger by making their breakup spectacularly public. If he stays, he'll have spent two years cockteasing the rest of the world about going somewhere else when he probably never wanted to leave Ohio to begin with. There's no end result tomorrow that makes LeBron a sympathetic figure. He's already gone past the point of no return. He's a cocksucker. Fitting that his most memorable career moment will come when he doesn't even take a fucking shot. He's a guy that cares more about the end result of playing basketball – massive, unending adulation – than he does actual basketball. I don't begrudge him that attitude. I'd be the same way if I were a basketball player. All I'd give a shit about would be what I make and where I'm drinking tonight. And I don't begrudge him the right to play somewhere other than Cleveland. It's Cleveland. It blows. There's nothing to do in that town except masturbate and cry. But there's a normal way of doing things, and there's the dick way of doing things, and making your own free agency a two-year drama capped off with an infomercial directed by Senor Spielbergo falls squarely in the purview of FLAMING FUCKING DICK MOVES. James is trying to bullshit the world into believing this whole process is some great entertainment he's lavishing upon you. It's not. It's a con. Right now, a lot of people aren't buying the shit this man is selling. And really, that's all LeBron James is these days: a fucking salesman. ||||| Some scoff at LeBron James turning the formal announcement of which NBA franchise will pay him his millions next season into a one-hour prime-time ESPN special Thursday. Because he has yet to earn a championship ring, they say he has not earned center ring in this circus that he and the media created. Like so much of the chatter fueling and fueled by the saga of James' free agency — a distraction of late for even marginal basketball fans — this is just wrong. As was the case in Game 5 of his Cavaliers' ill-fated playoff series against the Celtics, James isn't doing enough. "The Decision," as ESPN and James' LRMR Marketing outfit have branded this 8 p.m. extravaganza, should be bigger. And there's no injury to blame this time, just not enough media savvy from people who no doubt think they're geniuses for figuring out how to embellish this as much as they have. "This is unique, but it's unique because I think there's an insatiable appetite for LeBron," Norby Williamson, ESPN's executive vice president of production, told reporters. "People want to know." News of James' choice may well leak out first without a spoiler alert. But "The Decision" promises to resolve the cliffhanger of whether James is bound for Chicago, New York, New Jersey or Miami, or will stay in Cleveland or decide he will play minor league baseball. ESPN vows to cover James' big reveal to hand-picked interviewer Jim Gray as a news event it will supplement with analysis, reports and its own interview of James by Michael Wilbon. In terms of spin, the James gang likely wants to placate jersey-buyers in cities where hopes of him wearing their team's colors will be dashed. And ESPN has allowed James' LRMR to line up its own sponsors with proceeds earmarked for the Boys & Girls Club of America. But James, his marketing team and perhaps even the Boys & Girls Club would have fared better if he and LRMR had seized control of the drama from the start. It's as if no one in James' camp watches "The Bachelor" or "The Bachelorette," which wouldn't be much of a franchise if ABC and the producers left it to others to let people know what was going on among the competing suitors and build interest for the final rose ceremony. That's where — see if this sounds familiar — much airtime is milked out of finishing the dirty work of kissing off everyone but that special someone. (That final breakup usually comes after the show. Finding true love on reality TV is even more elusive than an NBA title.) If James and company had been on top of this, his Web site would have tracked his whole courtship process. He could have kept an ad-supported video diary, including behind-the-scenes video of meetings with franchises. Of more importance from a business standpoint, fans would have been invited to register to vote for their team and receive updates through e-mail and Twitter, creating a valuable marketing database. Just one problem: James has owned the domain LeBronJames.com since 2002 but hasn't done much with it until recently. Until Tuesday, James also had not used Twitter to address the public directly. So much for a New Media offensive. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has reported its sources said a special had been in the works for months. But Williamson, who indicated he expected James' announcement early in the hour, said James' people approached ESPN only last week. Let people complain this is all out of proportion to its actual importance. This whole story has been. But if news consumers are interested demonstrably in something, far be it for media hoping to remain viable to tell them to go look for it somewhere else. Similarly, whenever Michael Jordan was given a golden opportunity to score, he rarely hesitated to take it. This is something the player who hopes to become America's Next Michael Jordan is only starting to learn. philrosenthal@tribune.com

– LeBron James is taking plenty of flak over tonight's big announcement in the who-does-this-guy-think-he-is vein. (Witness Drew Magary's rant at Deadspin, where he refers to James as a "self-aggrandizing sack of shit" and doesn't think much better of ESPN.) But Phil Rosenthal at the Chicago Tribune thinks James hasn't milked this enough. There's clearly a public appetite for this, he argues, but the James camp mobilized too late to truly capitalize on it. Haven't they ever watched The Bachelor? This is like showing only the final rose ceremony. "If James and company had been on top of this, his web site would have tracked his whole courtship process. He could have kept an ad-supported video diary, including behind-the-scenes video of meetings with franchises." Let people scoff. "If news consumers are interested demonstrably in something, far be it for media hoping to remain viable to tell them to go look for it somewhere else."

British Airways' chief executive is "profusely" sorry for an IT meltdown he revealed has disrupted 75,000 passengers' flights. Alex Cruz told Sky News the airline was "making some progress" towards getting their services back to normal on Monday following the computer outage, which he described as "a tragedy". The airline boss denied claims from the GMB union the problems were down to BA cutting "hundreds of dedicated and loyal" IT staff and contracting the work out to India to save money. Mr Cruz insisted those parties involved in the weekend's problems had "not been involved with any type of outsourcing in any foreign countries". He added: "They've all been local issues around a local data centre who have been managed and fixed by local resources." Mr Cruz said there was "no evidence whatsoever" a cyberattack was behind the computer problems. He instead cited a "power surge" around 9.30am on Saturday morning for the "catastrophic effect" on all of BA's systems. Video: Honeymooners stuck in Heathrow for three days Video: BA boss reacts to honeymooners' delay The IT troubles had led to no compromise of any passenger data or any concerns about access to the terror watchlist for flights, Mr Cruz said. He revealed BA is operating more than 95% of its flights on Monday, with all of its Gatwick services and long-haul flights from Heathrow going ahead. More than 90% of BA short-haul flights from Heathrow would also be operating, while more than two-thirds of passengers affected on Saturday and Sunday would make it to their final destination by the end of Monday. Other passengers whose flights were disrupted over the weekend will have the option to re-book their flights for any time over the next six months. Image: People sleep at Heathrow Airport as a British Airways IT chaos affected 75,000 passengers Responding to the chaos that grounded scores of planes over the weekend, Mr Cruz said: "We do apologise profusely for the hardship that these customers of ours have had to go through. "We know that there have been holidays interrupted and personal events that have been interrupted and people waiting in queues for a really long time. "We absolutely profusely apologise for that and we are absolutely committed to provide and abide by the compensation rules that are currently in place." Mr Cruz promised an "exhaustive investigation" into the meltdown, adding: "We're absolutely committed to finding the root causes of this particular event and we will make sure nothing like this happens to British Airways ever again." Experts predict BA is facing a huge compensation bill, estimated at more than £100m, over the disruption. Customers have been left queuing for hours in packed terminals over the last few days and some had to bed down on terminal floors on Saturday. Many complained of scant information from staff. :: Passengers describe airport pandemonium Mr Cruz was shown a Sky News video of a honeymoon couple who had been stranded for three days at Heathrow, causing them to miss the start of their cruise holiday. He said: "We are extremely sorry and what we will do is make up and follow absolutely our obligations and provide as much flexibility as we can to them and the rest of the passengers that have been affected." The IT outage had a knock-on effect on BA services around the world, while passengers who did get onto flights from the UK reported arriving without luggage. Video: BA worker threatens to call police on passenger Video has emerged of a BA employee at Venice Airport threatening to call the police on a woman who asked about the policy on customers who do not have money to pay for hotel rooms. Stacy Irish, who posted the footage on Twitter on 28 May, said: "I was told it has nothing to with BA if customers can't afford it. She then said she would call the police." Some experts expect the disruption to linger for several days, as planes and aircrew are returned to their positions and the backlog of passengers is cleared. ||||| Alex Cruz, the chief executive of British Airways, has apologised “profusely” to passengers caught up in the travel chaos at the weekend that grounded flights at Heathrow and Gatwick, but denied the disruption had anything to do with cost-cutting in the business. Giving his first media interview since a major outage caused the airline’s IT system to collapse last Saturday, he refused to resign and said the problem was not a result of outsourcing jobs to other countries. “I can confirm that all the parties involved around this particular event have not been involved in any type of outsourcing in any foreign country,” he told Sky News. “They have all been local issues around a local data centre.” He added that no BA passengers’ data had been compromised in the IT meltdown and said there was no evidence it was the result of a cyber attack, promising not to allow such an outage to happen again. The IT failure was caused by a short but catastrophic power surge at 9.30am that affected the company’s messaging system, he said, and the backup system failed to work properly. “We will have completed an exhaustive investigation on exactly the reasons of why this happened,” Mr Cruz said. “We will, of course, share those conclusions once we have actually finished them. “We have no evidence whatsoever that there was any cyber attack of any sort.” BA plans to operate about 95 per cent of its flights on Monday from the two major London hubs, but 27 departures and arrivals were already cancelled on the day, and 58 were delayed. After the outage caused more than 1,000 flights to be delayed or cancelled, including BA’s sister airlines in Spain, Iberia and Air Nostrum, focus quickly turned to Mr Cruz’s handling of the company, having shut down the airline’s computer department last year, slashing 700 jobs in the UK. In pictures: British Airways disruptions 17 show all In pictures: British Airways disruptions 1/17 A passenger looks at a British Airway plane at John F. Kennedy (JFK) international airport in New York Getty Images 2/17 British Airways planes are seen at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters 3/17 Passengers stand at the British Airways check-in desk after the London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports suffered an IT systems failure, at the 'Leonardo da Vinci' airport in Fiumicino, near Rome, Italy EPA 4/17 Arrivals notice boards are displayed at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters 5/17 People wait with their luggage at the British Airways check in desks at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters 6/17 Thousands of passengers face a second day of travel disruption after a British Airways IT failure caused the airline to cancel most of its services Getty Images 7/17 A woman covered in a blanket sleeps in Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 Getty Images 8/17 People sleep next to their luggage at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters 9/17 People sleep at Heathrow Terminal 5 in London Reuters 10/17 A woman sleeps on a luggage trolley at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters 11/17 People queue to enter the terminal at Gatwick Airport Reuters 12/17 People wait with their luggage at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 Getty 13/17 Thousands of passengers face a second day of travel disruption after a British Airways IT failure caused the airline to cancel most of its services Getty 14/17 People queue with their luggage outside Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 Getty Images 15/17 People queue for check-in at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5. Thousands of passengers face a second day of travel disruption after a British Airways IT failure caused the airline to cancel most of its services Getty Images 16/17 People sleep next to their luggage at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters 17/17 People wait with their luggage at Heathrow Terminal 5 Reuters He then outsourced the company’s IT systems to Indian firm Tata Consultancy Services. GMB union’s national aviation officer, Mick Rix, claimed the chaos “could have all been avoided” if BA had not “made hundreds of dedicated and loyal IT staff redundant and outsourced the work to India”. Experts predict the knock-on effect could continue for several days and BA is facing huge compensation costs, with reports suggesting the bill could top £100m. Mr Cruz said the airline was “committed” to following all compensation rules. ||||| In this image taken from the twitter feed of Emily Puddifer, a view of Terminal 5 departure lounge, at London's Heathrow airport after flights were canceled due to the airport suffering an IT systems... (Associated Press) In this image taken from the twitter feed of Emily Puddifer, a view of Terminal 5 departure lounge, at London's Heathrow airport after flights were canceled due to the airport suffering an IT systems failure, Saturday, May 27, 2017. British Airways canceled all flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick... (Associated Press) LONDON (AP) — Travelers on British Airways and its sister airlines in Spain faced a third day of delays and cancellations Monday, mainly on short-haul flights in Europe, after the company suffered a colossal IT failure over the weekend. BA chief executive Alex Cruz said that the airline was running a "near-full operation" at London's Gatwick Airport and planned to operate all scheduled long-haul services from Heathrow. But he said there would still be delays, as well as some canceled short-haul flights. Data from flight tracker FlightAware.com showed BA's sister airlines in Spain, Iberia and Air Nostrum, cancelled over 320 flights on Monday, a bank holiday in the U.K. that sees a high level of air travel. BA itself canceled another 27 flights and had 117 more delayed Monday. The airline, which is part of the broader International Airlines Group, canceled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick on Saturday after the IT outage, which it blamed on a power-supply problem. The glitch threw the plans of tens of thousands of travelers into disarray. Cruz told Sky News Monday the problem started at 9:30 Saturday morning when "there was indeed a power surge that had a catastrophic effect over some communications hardware which eventually affected all the messaging across our systems." He said there was no evidence indicating the airline had come under cyberattack. BA operates hundreds of flights from Heathrow and Gatwick on a typical day — and both are major hubs for worldwide travel. Passengers, some of whom had spent the night at London's Heathrow Airport, faced frustrating waits to learn if and when they could fly out. Some endured hours-long lines to check in, reclaim lost luggage or rebook flights at Terminal 5, BA's hub at Heathrow. Many complained about a lack of information from the airline. Cruz apologized in a video statement, saying: "I know this has been a horrible time for customers." The British union GMB linked the IT problems directly to the company's decision to cut IT staff last year. "This could have all been avoided. In 2016, BA made hundreds of dedicated and loyal IT staff redundant and outsourced the work to India," said Mick Rix, national officer for aviation at the union. ||||| Ryanair is making hay while the sun is not shining on British Airways. BA customers are facing a third day of travel disruption because of a breakdown in the airline's computer system. And Ryanair is making no attempt to hide its schadenfreude: "Meanwhile, over at the @ British_Airways IT department..." said a tweet on the official Ryanair account, along with the hashtag #ShouldHaveFlownRyanair. "Breaking news: BA appoints new head of IT," said another tweet which was pinned to Ryanair's page. Ouch. Some people saw the funny side: @Ryanair I am crying this is bloody brilliant 😂😂😂😂 — Dannii (@Dannii_BJROE) May 28, 2017 Others didn't: @Ryanair Isn't this a bit like a run down corner shop poking fun at Sainsbury's? — Jon Cook (@JonCook188) May 28, 2017 @Ryanair Oh the irony @Ryanair the company with THE worst customer service known to man ... flew once 11 years ago, vowed never again .. and haven't — Sean Elkins (@seanieboyelkins) May 29, 2017 British Airways said 75,000 customers were affected by the technical glitch over the weekend but denied the failure was because the company outsourced its IT operations. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images British Airways is working to restore its computer systems after a power failure caused major disruption for thousands of passengers worldwide. The airline is "closer to full operational capacity" after an IT power cut resulted in mass flight cancellations at Heathrow and Gatwick. Thousands of passengers remain displaced, with large numbers sleeping overnight in terminals. BA has not explained the cause of the power problem. So far on Monday, 13 short-haul flights at Heathrow have been cancelled. Heathrow advised affected BA passengers not to travel to the airport unless their flights had been rebooked, or were scheduled to take off today. Passengers on cancelled flights have been told to use the BA website to rebook. Chief executive Alex Cruz has posted videos on Twitter apologising for what he called a "horrible time for passengers". But no-one from the airline has been made available to answer questions about the system crash, and it has not explained why there was no back-up system in place. Cancellations and delays affected thousands of passengers at both Heathrow and Gatwick on Saturday. All flights operated from Gatwick on Sunday but more than a third of services from Heathrow - mostly to short-haul destinations - were cancelled. Passengers slept on yoga mats handed out by the airline as conference rooms were opened to provide somewhere more comfortable to rest. What went wrong at BA? Rory Cellan-Jones, technology correspondent Image copyright Getty Images BA blames a power cut, but a corporate IT expert said it should not have caused "even a flicker of the lights" in the data-centre. Even if the power could not be restored, the airline's Disaster Recovery Plan should have whirred into action. But that will have depended in part on veteran staff with knowledge of the complex patchwork of systems built up over the years. Many of those people may have left when much of the IT operation was outsourced to India. One theory of the IT expert, who does not wish to be named, is that when the power came back on the systems were unusable because the data was unsynchronised. In other words the airline was suddenly faced with a mass of conflicting records of passengers, aircraft and baggage movements - all the complex logistics of modern air travel. Read the full blog BA said it operated virtually all scheduled long-haul flights on Sunday, but the knock-on effects of Saturday's disruption resulted in a reduced short-haul programme. "We apologise again to customers for the frustration and inconvenience they are experiencing and thank them for their continued patience." Ian Sanderson, one of the affected passengers who is stuck in transit in London, said he was "incandescent with rage" after being unable to rebook his flight, or speak to a member of staff. Image copyright Twitter Image caption Thousands of customers have taken to Twitter to vent their frustration Speaking on Sunday evening, he said: "I've bombarded them with about 100 tweets in the last 24 hours. I know that's annoying but there's nothing else I can do. "We've tried to call them on the numbers they give and all we've got is the same recorded message which then cuts off at the end." Former Virgin Airlines spokesman Paul Charles said: "What seems remarkable is there was no back-up system kicking in within a few minutes system failing. "Businesses of this type need systems backing up all the time, and this is what passengers expect." 'Extraordinary circumstances' BA is liable to reimburse thousands of passengers for refreshments and hotel expenses, and travel industry commentators have suggested the cost to the company - part of Europe's largest airline group IAG - could run into tens of millions of pounds. Shares in IAG listed on the Madrid stock exchange are currently trading down by about 3%. Customers displaced by flight cancellations can claim up to £200 a day for a room (based on two people sharing), £50 for transport between the hotel and airport, and £25 a day per adult for meals and refreshments. Consumer expert Franky Brehany said travellers stranded in a "high-value city" like London may be able to claim more and should keep all receipts. But he added that it might be harder for passengers to claim compensation, as BA may blame "extraordinary circumstances" - "like an act of God or force majeure" - meaning the airline would only have to reimburse hotel and food costs. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Queues built up on Sunday at Heathrow Terminal 5 as passengers waited to speak to BA staff Image copyright Getty Images Thousands of bags remain at Heathrow Airport, but BA has advised passengers not to return to collect them, saying they will be couriered to customers. The airline said there was no evidence the computer failure was the result of a cyber-attack. It denied claims by the GMB union that the problem could be linked to the company outsourcing its IT work. Gatwick Airport said it was continuing to advise customers travelling with British Airways to check the status of their flight with the airline before travelling to the airport. EU flight delay rights

– It's close but no cigar for British Airways. The airline has fully restored all its long-haul services out of Heathrow following Saturday's crippling IT failure, but Monday marks the third day of related delays and cancellations, particularly when it comes to short-haul flights. The AP reports BA axed 27 flights on Monday, and sister airlines Iberia and Air Nostrum cancelled more than 320. The airline didn't offer much in the way of details until Monday when in an interview with Sky News, CEO Alex Cruz faulted a power surge. The Independent reports Cruz also said the backup system didn't kick in as it should have. Cruz brushed away a British union's assertions that the root of the IT issue stretches back a year, when "hundreds" of IT staffers lost their jobs, per the union GMB, with the work outsourced to India. Cruz countered that "they've all been local issues around a local data center who have been managed and fixed by local resources." But that doesn't stop the BBC from speculating that for BA's "Disaster Recovery Plan" to have worked, "veteran staff with knowledge of the complex patchwork of systems built up over the years" would be key, and it's possible some of those people left during last year's shift to India. GMB isn't the only one needling the airline. Mashable reports budget airline Ryanair has been poking fun on Twitter. In one tweet, it proclaims, "Breaking news: BA appoints new head of IT.... #ShouldHaveFlownRyanair"; the picture above features the line "computer says no." See its other tweet here.

POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – The case surrounding rapper Kevin Gates unfolded before a jury in a Polk County courtroom Wednesday. A jury of six women convicted the rapper after a day of testimony, finding him guilty of battery after he was seen kicking a female fan during a concert in Lakeland in a video that went viral. The trial lasted one day. The judge sentenced Gates to 180 days in the Polk County Jail, with credit for any time served, and fines and court costs. In a previous hearing Gates attempted to have the charges dropped using the Stand Your Ground defense. He admitted he kicked a female fan after she reached out and grabbed his pants several times at Rumor’s Nite Club in Lakeland.Lakeland Police charged Gates with simple battery in September 2015. In a previous court hearing Gates testified, “I kicked them, I wanted them off me,” he said, adding that after the girl grabbed him so many times, he kicked her in self-defense. During the trial Joe Hailey, head of security at Rumors Nightclub, testified. He said there were around 20 security guards working the night of the concert. He said the rapper’s security team inspected the club before the concert and did not make any special requests for additional security, or a barricade between the stage and the crowd. He also said there was room on the stage for Gates to back up if he did not want to be touched. The girl’s mom, Kristy Irelan, spoke to News Channel 8 shortly after the incident. She said her 18-year-old daughter, Miranda Dixon, admitted herself to the hospital and had to undergo a CT scan after she was kicked. “She told me that she was excited to see him and next thing she knows she was kicked in the chest and she was passed out,” Irelan told News Channel 8. Dixon admitted to tugging on his pants during the concert saying, “I was trying to get his attention for my friend.” During the trial Dixon’s friend Termeral Redding testified. She was with Dixon at the concert that night. Redding admitted she told Dixon to grab Gates to get his attention “because he is a famous rapper.” Redding said the entire front row was grabbing at Gates. She also testified that when Dixon grabbed the rapper the first time, he kept performing. She said the second time Dixon grabbed him, he “ran and kicked her with force, and her friend fell back into her.” At that point she said she went to get help for her friend. Well-known defense attorney Jose Baez cross-examined Redding about how serious Dixon was hurt. He broguht up that after Dixon left the club, Redding stayed for the remainder of the show. “You continued to videotape the concert after your friend left,” Baez said. Thousands of people signed a petition aimed at banning Gates from Florida venues. Get our hottest stories delivered to your inbox Sign up for News Channel 8’s Noon Newsletter to get updates on the day’s top stories Privacy Policy | Manage Newsletters ||||| Kevin Gates has been sentenced to 180 days in jail after a jury found him guilty of misdemeanor battery on Wednesday. The charges stemmed from an August 2015 incident, in which the 30-year-old rapper was filmed kicking a woman in the chest during his concert in Lakeland, Florida. Prior to this week’s verdict, Gates insisted he was innocent and was simply defending himself under Florida's infamous "Stand Your Ground" law. He claimed the victim, Miranda Dixon, was trying to pull him off stage by repeatedly grabbing his shorts from the crowd. Gates said that Dixon wouldn’t heed his verbal warning, so he used “necessary force” to ensure he wouldn’t be harmed. 5rNmIyNzE60E4jcFLacQk5p6G3b3fKgA Jose Baez, who also represented Casey Anthony, defended Gates during the trial. According to Fox 13 News, the attorney echoed Gates’ claims, stating his client’s alleged kick was in response to Dixon’s battery. Baez also argued that Gates' foot didn’t actually touch Dixon, and that she was simply attempting to gain damages in an upcoming civil trial. “Her credibility is to be questioned and you will not be able to beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt in this case believe her and that is why you should enter a verdict of not guilty in this case," Baez said. The jury, made up of six white women, ultimately found Gates guilty. The state reportedly requested 60 days in jail, with one year of probation, and mandatory anger management classes; however, the judge tripled that sentence with credit for any time served, as well as fines and court costs. Stay tuned as more information comes in. ||||| - Rapper Kevin Gates was sentenced to 180 days in a Polk County jail after being found guilty of kicking a fan at a concert last year in Lakeland. The judge also ordered a one year probation after Gates' jail time. The sentence was three times what prosecutors requested. Cell phone video captured the moment Gates kicked the woman - which happened August 29, 2015 at Rumors nightclub. He was charged with an found guilty of battery for kicking the victim, 19-year-old Miranda Dixon. She testified in court Wednesday. "He lifted his foot up and kicked me," said Dixon. Jurors also heard Gates's testimony in his own defense Wednesday. Gates was represented by Jose Baez, who famously defended Casey Anthony after her young daughter's death. Baez argued Gates was battered by Dixon before he kicked her. Dixon testified she reached out and touched Gates' shorts on two occasions. After the second time, Dixon says Gates kicked her so hard that she fell back and later blacked out. She also complained of pain in her upper stomach for a month after the incident. Baez argued Gates' foot didn't make contact with Dixon at all, and that Dixon was lying in order to gain damages in a separate civil suit against Gates. "Her credibility is to be questioned and you will not be able to beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt in this case believe her and that is why you should enter a verdict of not guilty in this case," said Baez. The jury was made up of six white women, who decided to convict Gates after two hours of deliberation, which included re-watching the video of Gates kicking Dixon, but being denied by the judge testimony records regarding whether Gates testified that he did kick Dixon. The judge told the jurors they would have to rely on their memories.

– A Louisiana rapper was sentenced to six months in jail Wednesday for kicking a female fan during a concert last year in Florida, WFLA reports. A video of the incident went viral. Kevin Gates admitted he kicked the woman—19-year-old Miranda Dixon—but claimed she left him no choice. Gates, attempting to use the Stand Your Ground defense, said Dixon kept grabbing his legs while he was on stage and ignored him when he told her to stop. According to Complex, Gates said he needed to use "necessary force" to protect himself. Dixon admitted to pulling on Gates' pants because she was "trying to get his attention for my friend." Her friend told the court she wanted Gates to notice her "because he is a famous rapper." Dixon said she only grabbed Gates twice before he kicked her, Fox 13 reports. She testified that she blacked out after being kicked and that her stomach hurt for a month. But Gates' attorney said Gates' foot didn't even make contact with Dixon, who he said is lying in order to get money in a separate civil suit. A jury—all white women, Complex notes—found Gates guilty of battery. Prosecutors were only asking for two months in jail, but the judge tripled Gates' punishment.

High-profile Hollywooders, as well as several sports, business and political luminaries, are offering up a string of last-minute, big-dollar contributions both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Zach Galifianakis, Renee Zellweger, Susan Saint James Ebersol and Amanda Seyfried are among the four-figure donors in recent days to Obama’s campaign, according to federal campaign finance disclosures. Text Size - + reset PHOTOS: Stars hit up the swing states Play Slideshow POLITICO’s late night roundup Author Anne Rice, Disney TV Animation Executive Producer Dan Povenmire, and comedy writer Ian Maxtone-Graham are other notable Obama contributors. For Romney, actor Kelsey Grammer, Denver Broncos executive John Elway and former game show host Bob Barker have made 11th hour, four-figure donations. Sarah Palin’s political action committee, SARAH PAC, also chipped in $5,000 last week. Heritage Foundation Executive Becky Dunlop, American Beverage Association Chief Executive Susan Neely, former Mike’s Hard Lemonade President Philip W. O’Neil, the political action committee of the Consumer Electronics Association and the congressional campaign of Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) are among the recent donors of at least $1,000 to Romney’s campaign. ||||| The Obama campaign is using a mailer modeled after online cat memes as part of their final get out the vote push in the crucial battleground state of Ohio. On the mailer, there is a picture of a cat peeking out from behind a laptop decorated with Ohio-themed Obama campaign stickers highlighting the push to get people to vote early. “STOP LOOKING AT CATS ONLINE AND GO VOTE,” text on the flyer says. A user on the social news site Reddit with the handle MollyBloom11 posted a picture of the mailer on the site last night. They were clearly impressed with the campaign’s understanding of internet culture. “The Obama campaign sent me this today…They know their audience,” MollyBloom11 wrote. The Obama campaign confirmed the mailer was real and has been used in Ohio. They were not immediately sure whether similar imaging has been used for online ads or in other states. Follow Hunter Walker on Twitter or via RSS. hwalker@observer.com

– The stars are coming out in a big way as Election Day looms. The latest: Will Ferrell really, really wants you to vote—and he'll do anything to make sure you do, he promises in a new video for President Obama. "Hungry? How about a home-cooked meal? Hope you like angel hair pasta," he says. "You need a guy to help you move a couch? Done. I've even got my own van." But his promises get bigger—and weirder—from there. "If you vote, I'll eat anything you tell me to—garbage, hair, human toenails, underpants, whatever—I'll do it," he swears. The president's name stays out of it until the very end, when Ferrell concludes, while holding a football, "Vote Obama. It's a slam dunk." On Jimmy Kimmel's show last week, Chris Rock offered up a special message to white voters. "In times like these, you need a white president you can trust," Rock explains. "And that white president's name is Barack Obama." His evidence that Obama is actually white? The president used to be called "Barry," he likes to golf, he wears "mom jeans," and he has a Portugese water dog, among other things. Amy Poehler kept her endorsement brief and to the point: "If you can vote, go vote for Obama," she concludes. Obama himself is also urging voters to hit the polls ... and he's doing it cat-meme style. It's not just ads: Celebrities are making last-minute donations to both campaigns, Politico reports. Jake Gyllenhaal, Zach Galifianakis, Renee Zellweger, and Amanda Seyfried all recently made four-figure contributions to Obama's campaign, while Kelsey Grammer, Bob Barker, and John Elway did the same for Romney. Click here, here, or here to see previous celebrity endorsements.

Pool, Getty Images Who's got two thumbs and a Secret Service-approved phone to tweet from? On arriving in Washington on Thursday ahead of his inauguration, Donald Trump handed in his Android device in exchange for an unidentified locked-down phone, according to the Associated Press. The phone comes with a new number that is known only to a limited number of people. This marks a big change for Trump, who's frequently on the line with friends, business contacts, reporters, foreign leaders and politicians. Larry Johnson, who worked at the Secret Service from 1982 to 2006, said a smartphone given to a president would have extremely limited uses. "It's not really good for much," he said. It's possible Trump's Twitter account would be operated from another phone, said Johnson, who now works as an executive at cybersecurity company CyberSponse. But that's not where the phone's limitations would end. "You can't make a phone call, because it's too easy to be intercepted," Johnson said. "I can scare you with how easy it is." The Secret Service declined to comment for this story. Now playing: Watch this: Trump trades in Android for a mystery phone Barack Obama was the first president to use a mobile device approved by security agencies because of hacking concerns. Initially he had a heavily modified BlackBerry and later switched to another phone that had most features disabled. He was not known to use it for making or receiving calls, but it was one of few devices that had access to the @POTUS Twitter account. Trump said earlier this week that he will keep using his existing Twitter account to communicate on social media, in addition the the @POTUS account. Originally published Jan. 20, 2017 3:24 a.m. PT Update, 10:50 a.m. PT: Added comment from retired Secret Service agent Larry Johnson. What does a Trump presidency mean for tech? Some say it might not be as bad you think. Others say his potential influence on the industry is "alarming." Life, disrupted: In Europe, millions of refugees are still searching for a safe place to settle. Tech should be part of the solution. But is it? CNET investigates. ||||| WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump arrived in Washington the day before his inauguration as the nation’s 45th president in a swirl of cinematic pageantry but facing serious questions about whether his chaotic transition has left critical parts of the government dangerously short-handed. Mr. Trump will be sworn in at noon Eastern time on Friday, but his team was still scrambling to fill key administration posts when he got here on Thursday, announcing last-minute plans to retain 50 essential State Department and national security officials currently working in the Obama administration to ensure “continuity of government,” according to Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary. The furious final staff preparations included designating Thomas A. Shannon Jr., an Obama appointee, as the acting secretary of state, pending the expected confirmation of Rex W. Tillerson. As of Thursday, only two of Mr. Trump’s 15 cabinet nominees — John F. Kelly, to head the Department of Homeland Security, and his nominee for defense secretary, Gen. James N. Mattis — had been approved by congressional committees and were close to assuming their posts. In all, Mr. Trump has named only 29 of his 660 executive department appointments, according to the Partnership for Public Service, which has been tracking the process. That is a pace far slower than recent predecessors, falling far short of the schedule originally outlined by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who was Mr. Trump’s transition director before Mr. Trump ousted him 10 weeks ago. None of this seemed to bother Mr. Trump. After arriving from New York, the president-elect trod solemnly down red-carpeted stairs from a government plane at Joint Base Andrews with his wife, Melania, then sped off to deliver a speech at a reception held at his ornate new hotel near the White House. There, he declared, with typical bluster, that his cabinet nominees had “by far the highest I.Q. of any cabinet assembled.” Later, he laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery and attended his Lincoln Memorial inaugural concert, saying that one had never been held there before even though many similar events have taken place in front of the iconic seated statue of the 16th president. “Tomorrow seems to be the big one,” Mr. Trump told a black-tie dinner crowd at Washington’s stately Union Station on Thursday night, referring to his inauguration. In off-the-cuff remarks, he teased his incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, for having a difficult-to-pronounce name, and chided fund-raisers who did not contribute to his campaign until after he won. He also described his political opponents as “going crazy” over his cabinet selections. Mr. Trump campaigned on a platform of shaking up Washington, but his pomp-and-circumstance arrival began with two jarring concessions to a city he may not inhabit full time: This week, he was forced to abandon his cherished “Trump” 757 for an Air Force jet, and, according to people close to the transition, he has traded in his Android phone for a secure, encrypted device approved by the Secret Service with a new number that few people possess. The official rationale was security. But some of Mr. Trump’s new aides, who have often been blindsided when a reporter, outside adviser or officeseeker dialed the president-elect directly, expressed relief. Several of them, however, expect the new president to satisfy his compulsion for continuous communication by calling outsiders and by tramping from office to office in search of gossip and sounding boards. Mr. Trump’s management style places unique strains on his top advisers, including Mr. Priebus, who is stepping into what is traditionally a gatekeeper’s post that has involved restricting the flow of people and paper to the Oval Office. Mr. Priebus is navigating a West Wing crowded with powerful figures in their own right, including the president-elect’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who will always outweigh anyone else regardless of title; the chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon; the counselor Kellyanne Conway; Vice President-elect Mike Pence; and the economic adviser Gary Cohn, the blunt former Goldman Sachs executive who is rising fast in Mr. Trump’s circle. In a conference call with incoming staff this week, Mr. Priebus informed midlevel aides that they should avoid interacting with Mr. Trump without his permission, that they were prohibited from talking to the news media, and that they should carefully restrict their social media posts, according to two people with knowledge of the call. On Thursday, aides released names of more than a dozen appointments to the White House staff. Most of them had worked for Mr. Priebus at the R.N.C. Mr. Trump also named a friend, Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, to be ambassador to Britain. Thursday’s hires notwithstanding, the halting pace of transition has alarmed senior Obama administration officials and some Republican lawmakers, who have repeatedly complained about the Trump team’s unwillingness to coordinate transition planning with them. Since his election on Nov. 8, Mr. Trump has had little interest in the minutiae of his transition, saying it was “bad karma” to get too involved, according to a person who spoke with him at the time. At one point, he wanted to halt the planning altogether, out of superstition, the person said. “In 21 years of covering the State Department and in eight years of serving there, I’ve seen rocky transitions and experienced what feels like a hostile takeover, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, and a former journalist and Bill Clinton administration official. For weeks, transition officials and people close to the process have suggested that the delays are the fault of Mr. Christie, accusing him of botching the preparations during seven months of transition preparation. But copies of Mr. Christie’s plan, some of which were reviewed by The New York Times, were circulated in weekly installments to the transition team before his ouster and were discussed at weekly meetings. They revealed thorough blueprints on a range of core planning issues, from the pace of the transition to what the president-elect’s daily schedule should look like, even 100-day and 200-day plans of action. Each sheet detailing the “landing teams” arriving at agencies had a notation on which advisers had weighed in on the selections. On the list the day of the election was a Senate nomination and confirmation plan, a first-100-days agenda to take to Congress, members of landing teams and their status and interest in jobs at key departments, and a suggested schedule for Mr. Trump that included the presidential daily briefing each day and key meetings. The work was not fully completed; some pages, such as the landing team list for the Small Business Administration, were half-filled and had no input from senior advisers. The work was hobbled by the concern that most Republican policy officials had about working for their nominee. And Mr. Christie’s decision to put some of his own top allies on lists for prime jobs did not wear well with Mr. Trump’s team. Still, there was thought put into the transition and what would come next, including a draft of dozens of executive orders and recommendations for a communications plan to avoid “idle” time in the president-elect’s schedule that the news media would use to describe him as unfocused. There were proposed themes for each week, to lend a “cadence” to the transition. The suggested schedule called for completing cabinet appointments by the first week of December, taking care of the under secretaries and deputies the second week, and naming ambassadors by the third week, just before the holidays. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — A few hours after President-elect Donald Trump was briefed by intelligence officials about Russian meddling in the election, an Associated Press reporter called his cellphone seeking an interview. The call went to voicemail and the reporter did not leave a message. About an hour later, Trump called back. It's hard to imagine many politicians — particularly one about to become president of the United States — calling back an unknown number on their cellphone. With Trump, it's simply how business gets done, whether he's fielding calls from real estate partners and longtime friends or foreign leaders and congressional lawmakers in the weeks after the election. But as Trump prepares to take the oath of office Friday, the future of his ever-present Android smartphone is now a matter of national security. On Thursday, he told a friend that he had given up his phone, as security agencies had urged him to do. It was unclear whether he was following the lead of President Barack Obama, the nation's first cellphone-toting president, who exchanged his personal device for a Blackberry heavily modified for security purposes. The friend who spoke with Trump spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity in order to disclose the private conversation. The presidency has long been a lonely, isolating office, with security concerns keeping the commander in chief at a distance from the public. Under Obama, worries about cyber intrusions — particularly by foreign governments — pulled the president's technology deeper into the security bubble as well. Many of the functions on Obama's Blackberry were blocked and only a handful of people had his phone number or email address. Trump doesn't email, but he uses his phone to tweet — something he's made clear he plans to continue in office. He's known to make calls early in the morning and late at night, often seeking input from multiple sources when making a decision. Sometimes he leaves a voicemail. Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax and a friend of the president-elect, described Trump's phone etiquette, as "just like one of his speeches, it's very stream of consciousness." Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., called Trump "amazingly accessible," saying the president-elect picks up his phone even when he doesn't know who is calling. "My phone says, No Caller ID, so I'm not saying that it has anything to do with me," Corker said. "Nobody knows who it is that's calling when I'm calling." Foreign leaders and diplomats took advantage of Trump's accessibility in the days after his election as they scrambled to find ways to reach him. Some called into Trump Tower hoping to be transferred to the president-elect's office. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull got Trump's cellphone number from the golfer Greg Norman. Trump's accessibility can create headaches for his aides, who can't always control who he's speaking to or what he's saying. After actress Meryl Streep blasted Trump during a Golden Globes speech earlier this month, a New York Times reporter called the president-elect at midnight to get a response. Trump's criticism of Streep dominated the news the following day, overshadowing his team's planned agenda. For Obama, getting to use a Blackberry in office was considered a victory. He later switched to an iPhone that allowed him to send and receive email from a limited group of people, surf websites and read the news. But Obama wasn't known to use his cellphone to make or receive telephone calls, according to individuals familiar with his technology use. Even senior government officials didn't have the number and instead reached the president through the White House switchboard. The president also used the switchboard to place his calls, said the individuals, who weren't authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity. Obama had a phone in his control that he used to tweet, one of the only devices with access to the official presidential Twitter feed due to hacking concerns. But Obama rarely hit "send" on a tweet himself, and never without coordinating it with his staff, the individuals said. If Trump does get rid of his cellphone, it could end up with a home not far from the White House. Curators at the Newseum, which chronicles the First Amendment and the evolution of electronic communication, reached out to Trump's campaign in November about the prospect of acquiring his Android phone. They haven't heard back, said Carrie Christoffersen, the museum's curator of collections. ___ AP writers Julie Bykowicz, Josh Lederman and Ben Nuckols contributed to this report. ___ Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

– Well, it appears the Secret Service has pried Donald Trump's beloved Android phone from his tweeting fingers. An unidentified friend of Trump's tells the AP the new president handed over his phone Thursday on the advice of security advisers. The New York Times reports Trump's Android was replaced by an encrypted device that received Secret Service approval. Barack Obama, the first president to use a mobile device in office, started with a "heavily modified" Blackberry before moving to a mostly disabled iPhone. The devices were used to check email and news sites but rarely—if ever—for phone calls. This is all likely to cramp Trump's style. A Republican senator says the president was known for answering his phone even if he didn't recognize the number. He would even call back strange numbers that didn't leave a message. A former Secret Service agent tells Cnet Trump is unlikely to be able to use his new device for phone calls because they are way too easy to intercept. Trump's aides—some of whom are excited journalists and others won't have direct access to him—say he's likely to instead go office to office in person to get his "gossip" fix. It's possible he'll still be able to tweet. The Newseum in Washington DC has asked Trump about getting his Android to put on display.

PARIS (AP) — The Pompidou Centre in Paris hopes to display a long-vanished Picasso painting in May, now that it has been recovered by U.S. customs authorities. This undated photo provided by the United States Department of Justice, shows a cubist painting entitled “The Hairdresser” by Pablo Picasso. Authorities say the painting worth millions of dollars was... (Associated Press) The 1911 cubist painting "The Hairdresser," worth millions of dollars, was reported missing from a Pompidou storeroom in 2001. It was smuggled into the U.S. in December from Belgium. Pompidou director Alain Seban said the discovery comes as a "true comfort" at a time when the cultural world is reeling from an Islamic State video showing the destruction of statues in Iraq. Seban said in a statement Friday that he hopes the work can be exhibited again publicly in May. U.S. and French authorities have not announced any arrests in the case. ||||| A stolen Picasso worth millions of dollars was shipped to the U.S. in a package that described it as a $37 "art craft" — but it will soon be on its way back to France. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn filed papers Thursday to forfeit the century-old cubist painting, which was swiped from a museum storeroom in 2001. "A lost treasure has been found," U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement. The canvas, titled "La Coiffeuse," was bequeathed to France's National Museum and was placed in storage at the Centre Georges Pompidou, where staffers discovered it was missing when they received a loan request for it. It was shipped by Federal Express from Belgium in December and seized at the Port of Newark. Officials said shipper was identified only as "Robert" and the destination was a climate-controlled storage facility in Queens. Court papers did not indicate whether the sender or intended recipient have been identified. La Coiffeuse, painted by Picasso in 1911. U.S. Department of Justice Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed 0:31 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog IN-DEPTH — Tracy Connor ||||| A Picasso painting missing from Paris for more than a decade resurfaced in the United States, where it had been shipped under false pretenses as a $37 holiday-themed “art craft.” The 1911 painting, “La Coiffeuse,” which translates to “The Hairdresser,” was unearthed in December in a FedEx shipment from Belgium to Newark. The canvas had been smuggled out of a storeroom of the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Paris museum and arts center, and its whereabouts had not been known. On Thursday, Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, filed a civil complaint to forfeit the Picasso and return it to France. Its shipping papers described it as a $37 “art craft/toy” and also read “Joyeux Noel,” French for “Merry Christmas.” When federal Customs and Border Protection officials examined the shipment, though, they found the master artist’s work. Department of Homeland Security officials working from Long Island City, Queens, which is within the Eastern District of New York’s jurisdiction, then took over. The oil painting is owned by the French government; it had been bequeathed to the National Museums of France by one of its former directors. It was last exhibited in Munich in 1998, and then returned to Paris, where it was stored at the Pompidou. Officials there thought it was safe and sound until they received a loan request for it in 2001, searched the storerooms and could not find it. They declared the painting, then valued more than $2.5 million, stolen. On Dec. 17, someone going by “Robert” with an address in Belgium shipped the painting to a climate-controlled warehouse in Long Island City. The next day, the painting arrived at the Port of Newark and was seized. French museum officials came to New York last month to examine the painting in person alongside historical records and photographs, and they confirmed that it was “La Coiffeuse.” Under federal law, imported merchandise can be seized by the government if it was stolen or smuggled. “The market to sell stolen antiquities in the United States is drying up,” Anthony Scandiffio, deputy special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, which seized the painting after border officials flagged it, said in a statement.

– A Picasso painting that was found to have vanished from a Paris museum more than a decade ago has turned up—in the US, in a package shipped from Belgium. Its papers identified it as a $37 "art craft/toy" and also included the line "Joyeux Noel," or Merry Christmas, the New York Times reports. A man named "Robert" attempted to send the package to a climate-controlled warehouse in Queens, New York, in December, but custom officials at the Port of Newark seized what turned out to be Picasso's 1911 La Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser). French museum officials traveled to New York last month and confirmed the find is indeed the missing Picasso work, which the Centre Georges Pompidou realized was missing from its storerooms in 2001 following a loan request; it was then valued at more than $2.5 million. Court documents don't specify whether the sender or would-be recipient have been identified, NBC News reports, but "a lost treasure has been found," US attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement. She filed a civil complaint yesterday that will have the painting returned to France. The Pompidou's director, who called the painting's rediscovery a "true comfort," hopes the painting can go on display at the museum as early as May, the AP reports. (Another Picasso work was stolen days before this one was found.)

The woman accused of posting a photo of a dog with its mouth wrapped in duct tape on Facebook was arrested in North Carolina. On Friday, Katharine F. Lemansky, who uses the name “Katie Brown” on Facebook posted the picture of her chocolate lab-mix with the caption that said “This is what happens when you don't shut up!!!" The woman’s post was shared hundreds of thousands of times, however it appears the post has since been taken off the Facebook page. Police departments and news stations were inundated with phone calls about the post. On Monday, Lemansky was charged with cruelty to animals by the Cary Police Department after she told police that the incident took place in North Carolina. “Taping the dog's muzzle shut was a terrible decision on Ms. Lemansky's part, and charging her with animal cruelty under North Carolina law was the right thing to do," Cary Police Captain Randall Rhyne said in a release on Monday. Police said there are no additional charges pending against Lemansky. "At the same time, it's important to also note that our animal control officers who physically examined both Brown and her littermate found the dogs to be very well cared for, which is why we did not and could not remove them from the owner. The dogs are current on their shots, spayed, and microchipped. They are clean and well-nourished and appear to be comfortable in their surroundings. And there were no signs of injury to Brown's muzzle, not even detectable hair loss,” Rhyne said. The Cary Police Department said they worked with law enforcement officials across two states. On Saturday, Avon police said they went to the address that she had lived at but she reportedly hasn’t lived there for some time. “The Avon Police Department Animal Control Office is actively investigating this case and we want to assure you that we take all cases of animal abuse very seriously,” the Avon Police Department said in a statement on Monday. Torrington police said the incident didn’t happen in town and that she doesn’t live there, and police in South Daytona said the woman hasn’t lived in town for over one year. South Daytona Police Department determined that Lemansky had not lived in their town for more than a year. "It's always horrific to see an animal treated that way,” Amy Harrell with CT Votes for Animals said. But some feel people have gone too far. Martha Hickey owns a dog grooming business, Doggie in the Window, in Simsbury and nasty comments were posted on her businesses Facebook page. They accuse them of animal cruelty because a woman, who works at the grooming business, is friends on Facebook with Katie Brown. The employee told Hickey that she hasn't talked to her in 20 years. “I was astonished when I looked at Facebook yesterday, looking at the postings yesterday,” Hickey said. “How people could even arrive at this." While Facebook can expose bad things, there's a lot we don't know. “All we have is a still photograph, so we don't know the back story," Harrell said. “We don't know what the context was. What was happening at the time." A dispatcher in Avon said one caller demanded police do more and asked the dispatcher how she would feel if her mouth was taped shut. Right now, police want to talk to brown and see her dog. Copyright 2015 WFSB (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved. ||||| The world may now rest easy. Police in North Carolina have charged Katharine F. Lemansky, 45, with animal cruelty after she posted a photo on Facebook of her chocolate lab-mix with its mouth taped shut with duct tape. The misdemeanor is punishable by up to 150 days in jail, a press release said. Officers in Cary, a town just west of Raleigh, were contacted by South Daytona police Monday afternoon and went to her home within an hour. The photo went viral after it was posted Friday to her Facebook page under the name "Katie Brown." It resulted in hundreds of calls, Facebook messages and emails to the South Daytona Police Department from places as far away as Australia, causing the department's email server and computers to crash. The Facebook page said she lived in South Daytona, but officials said she hadn't lived there in more than a year. Tips also said she lived in Connecticut. Lemansky later posted on Facebook that the dog's mouth was only taped for a minute. She told police that the incident happened in Cary. It's not clear how South Daytona police tracked her to Cary. "Taping the dog's muzzle shut was a terrible decision on Ms. Lemansky's part, and charging her with animal cruelty under North Carolina law was the right thing to do," said Cary police Capt. Randall Rhyne. Animal control officers examined the dog and its littermate and determined they were well cared for. There was no sign of injury to the dog's muzzle, Rhyne said. "The dogs are current on their shots, spayed and microchipped," Rhyne said. "They are clean and well-nourished and appear to be comfortable in their surroundings." Because animal cruelty is a misdemeanor charge, Lemansky was not arrested or taken to jail. She must appear in Wake County court on Dec. 14, police said. dharris@tribune.com or 407-420-5471

– A woman who attracted the wrath of animal lovers around the world with a Facebook photo of a dog with its muzzle duct-taped shut has been tracked down. Police in Cary, NC, say Katharine Lemansky, who posted under the name "Katie Brown," was charged with animal cruelty but is being allowed to keep her two dogs because they appear to be very well cared for and are clean, well-nourished, "current on their shots, spayed, and microchipped," WFSB reports. "Taping the dog's muzzle shut was a terrible decision," a police spokesman says, but animal control officers who examined the chocolate-lab mix found no sign of injury, "not even detectable hair loss." Lemansky, 45, is due in court Dec. 14 and could get up to 150 days in jail, the Orlando Sentinel reports. In South Daytona, Fla., where Lemansky used to live, police say they spoke to investigators in two other states after receiving a deluge of complaints about the photo over the weekend. A spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff's Office tells the Daytona Beach News-Journal that the office dealt with more than 1,000 phone calls and a similar number of Facebook messages, which he tried to respond to individually. The "greatest burden fell to our extraordinarily patient dispatchers, who picked up hundreds of repetitive, emotionally charged phone calls, dealt with them appropriately, and continued to run a highly organized and efficient dispatch operation for our entire county," he says. (A Texas woman was arrested after posting photos of her neighbor's diapered dog.)

Article wonders why Chelsea had to miss her daughter’s first day of school and also why Hillary isn’t babysitting Being a woman in 2016 should be easier than this. Every day there’s at least one moment where we want to hurl our computers through a window, because the sexist coverage of this election does not stop. But we may have hit the motherlode today, with an article that laments Chelsea Clinton — a working mom — missing her daughter’s first day of preschool. The article also wonders why her mom, CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, isn’t at home babysitting. “It takes a village! Chelsea Clinton’s husband Marc and their nanny take Charlotte to her first day of preschool – which she misses to campaign for her sick mom,” writes the Daily Mail, in an article that just may be one of the most sexist pieces of garbage you’ve ever read. And that’s saying a lot. A lot. First of all, a father isn’t a member of “the village.” He’s a father — just as capable of handling dropping his kid off at preschool as mom. The article only gets worse after that headline. It actually insinuates that Hillary should be watching her infant grandchild during the drop off. Can you imagine the same being said for Trump and his grandkids? No, you can’t. Because he’s actually admitted that he didn’t even raise his own children. But no one cares about that. He’s a man, entitled to throw money at his kids and call it a day. “Charlotte, who will turn two at the end of the month, was seen heading to her Manhattan school in a stroller being pushed by her nanny while her father Marc Mezvinsky was on his phone,” the article reads. She’s turning two at the end of the month? Okay, so she’s going to daycare. It’s her first day of daycare. Big whoop. “Her mother could not be there for the big day however because she was on the campaign trail for her mother in North Carolina,” garbage continues. “Grandma Hillary also missed Charlotte’s first day of school as she was recovering from pneumonia at her home in nearby Chappaqua.” In case you missed it in the bullet points, Grandma Hillary was “unable to join Charlotte or watch baby Aidan.” Fox 32 Chicago decided to get in on the shaming this morning, and asked its readers this: “SOUND OFF… Should Chelsea Clinton have been there for her daughters first day? Or is it acceptable for one parent to drop the child off?” What planet are we on? How many households have families where both parents can make it to school drop off? That’s not even really a thing. The whole purpose of this article and and subsequent coverage is to remind women that they are somehow going against nature by not being a mom first, all the time. That message is exhausting. And it’s bullshit. Hillary Clinton is running for the office of President of the United States. We don’t need to be constantly reminded that she’s a grandma — especially one who’s expected to babysit. Imagine these sentences written about any male candidate in the history of ever. You can’t. It hasn’t happened. It would never happen. Here’s what happened this morning: a father took his kid to preschool. The end. This is not news. What it is, is a harmful addition to the constant sexist message women are sent: your “job” will never be as important as your role as a mother — and if you try to do both you will always be failing. Well, fuck that. We’ll keep calling these messages out because they are simply not true. And we don’t have to stand for it anymore. We’re about to have a female POTUS, after all. Take that, patriarchy. ||||| Tuesday was a very big day for one of the Clinton ladies as Chelsea daughter's Charlotte had her first day of school in New York City. Charlotte, who will turn two at the end of the month, was seen heading to her Manhattan school in a stroller being pushed by her nanny while her father Marc Mezvinsky was on his phone. Her mother could not be there for the big day however because she was on the campaign trail for her mother in North Carolina. Grandma Hillary also missed Charlotte's first day of school as she was recovering from pneumonia at her home in nearby Chappaqua. Son Aidan meanwhile was presumably home with another nanny while Charlotte was taken to school. Scroll down for video Big day: Tuesday was the first day of preschool for Chelsea Clinton's daughter Charlotte in New York City (above in stroller with a nanny and her father Marc Mezvinsky) In charge: Charlotte's father Marc Mezvinsky and one of the family's nannies took her to school Online: Mezvinsky spent most of the walk on his phone while the nanny pushed Charlotte in her carriage Busy lady: Chelsea was unable to go with her daughter, who turns two next month, because she was campaigning for her mom Hillary in North Carolina (above) After dropping off little Charlotte Marc met up for a friend and enjoyed an hour-and-a-half lunch at a nearby restaurant. He and his male friend could be seen laughing and in animated discussion as they sat inside the restaurant. And though Hillary was not there on Tuesday, she did pay the family a surprise visit on Sunday when she went to her daughter's apartment when she fell ill while attending a ceremony in honor of the 9/11 victims held at Ground Zero. It has been a difficult summer for Mezvinsky, who was forced to shutter one of his hedge funds. Mezvinsky, 38, and his partners, former Goldman Sachs colleagues Bennett Grau and Mark Mallon, raised $25million from investors to buy up bank stocks and debt from Greece, but lost big after betting on the revival of the struggling nation's economy. Back at home: The couple's young son Aiden was not with the family for their outing on Tuesday Growing up: Charlotte is starting school for the first time this year Daddy duty: Marc has more time on his hands after shuttering one of his hedge funds earlier this year Tuesdays are for the boys: Mezvinsky (right) then met up with a friend for lunch (left) after dropping off Charlotte Eaglevale Partners was started in 2011 by Mezvinsky and his partners, with their former boss, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein, one of the first investors. The flagship fund currently manages $330 million and is down 1 percent this year. Mezvinsky was long gone from his job at Goldman in October 2013 when his mother-in-law Hillary was paid to give a speech to executives at the company during a technology conference in Arizona. She was reportedly paid $225,000 for that appearance. Having some fun: The two enjoyed an animated conversation outside the resturant Having a lugh|: mezvisnky could be seen laughin g as the two enjoyed an hour-and-a-half lunch Just for the taste of it: He sipped on some Diet Coke for his meal with his friend Heading off: Marc and his friend went on their separate ways after the lunch Shortly after starting Eagleville, Mezvinsky and Chelsea moved into a $10million New York City apartment opposite Madison Square Park. The four-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot apartment is one of only four residences in the building, which despite the low occupancy rate still has a full-time doorman. The apartment, whose hallways stretch a full city block, also has two dishwashers, two washer and dryers, dressing rooms with double-sided vanity mirrors, and two massive walk-in closets. The bedrooms meanwhile face right into Vera Wang's bridal design studio, who designed Cheslea's dress for her wedding day. Chelsea, 36, has stayed busy this past year campaigning for her mother while also working for the Clinton Foundation. She took a brief break after giving birth to Aiden in June, but was back at it in July when she introduced her mother at the Democratic National Convention. Chelsea spent Tuesday with students at Wake Forest. ||||| Photo by Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images While Hillary Clinton’s campaign as the first female major-party presidential nominee hardly represents the end of sexism as we know it, there is plenty of evidence of progress. As Clinton battles her opponent, courts donors, and presents informed policy positions, it becomes harder and harder to imagine a time when the world saw her political competence and ambition as an anomaly and preferred instead to focus on her cookie-baking skills. But a recent side-eyed takedown of Chelsea Clinton in the Daily Mail for missing her daughter Charlotte’s first day of school suggests that the decline in interest in Hillary’s domestic bona fides may have less to do with evolving attitudes on the responsibilities of mothers, and more to do with the fact that the presidential nominee no longer has school-aged children at home. Advertisement The Mail's story on Chelsea’s great transgression is an remarkably unselfconscious example of mom-shaming. Let’s begin with the headline: “It takes a village! Chelsea Clinton’s husband Marc and their nanny take Charlotte to her first day of preschool—which she misses to campaign for her sick mom.” You know who else Marc is besides Chelsea’s husband? Charlotte’s father, originator of half of her DNA, equal participant in her creation, and equal shareholder in her well-being. The handy bullet points that the Mail places on top of their stories are written in the same “bad mommy!” spirit. In them, the tabloid emphasizes again that it was not-yet-two-year-old Charlotte’s apparently momentous first day of school. They then point out that Chelsea had to miss it because she is campaigning in North Carolina in place of her mother who “was also unable to join Charlotte or watch baby Aidan because she is recovering from pneumonia at her home in Chappaqua.” (Because if she wasn’t sick, of course Hillary would spend a Monday morning with her grandchildren seven weeks before the election.) They end their summary by making it quite clear as to why dads are no substitute for moms: “Marc was seen on his phone while he and the nanny took Charlotte to school” and “[a]fter dropping Charlotte off, Marc enjoyed lunch for an hour-and-a-half with a friend.” Later in the story, we learn that all this took place while son Aidan was “presumably home with another nanny.” Presumably, but with mom far away, grandma sick, and dad off palling around and sipping Diet Coke with one of his “boys,” we’ll never know for certain. Earlier this morning, Fox 32 Chicago posted the Daily Mail story on their Facebook page, asking their readers to “sound off” on whether or not Chelsea Clinton should have been there for her daughter’s first day of school. Was that a major parenting miss, or “is it acceptable for one parent to drop the child off? The best responses will go on air!” Wisely, the station has since deleted the post, which leaves us without an answer to these particular queries, but does provide an answer to the larger question of whether or not anyone should be inquiring into such matters in the first place. They shouldn’t. The fact is, this discussion would have never occurred in the first place if Chelsea were a guy. Male Chelsea’s absence at drop-off would simply not register as news, thanks to the fact that fathers have never been accountable for being there for their children at all times. Moms, on the other hand, are always accountable, even when not physically present. Trump’s announcement of a maternity leave policy, as opposed to a family leave policy, is a testament to the fact that such thinking is alive and well. ||||| ... kissing, snuggling and hugging hedgehogs. Please, don't kiss your hedgehog. Eleven people in eight states have gotten sick with salmonella after

– Chelsea Clinton is the latest target of internet shaming—for skipping her daughter's first day of preschool. In what Slate is calling a "side-eyed takedown," the Daily Mail published a series of photos of Clinton's husband, Marc Mezvinsky, and nanny with 2-year-old Charlotte. "It takes a village!" blared the Mail's headline. "Chelsea Clinton's husband Marc and their nanny take Charlotte to her first day of preschool—which mom misses to campaign for her sick mom." That would be grandma Hillary Clinton, who was recovering from pneumonia, and who the paper noted also missed the tot's big day. Baby brother Aidan was "presumably home with another nanny," the paper speculated, while publishing a photo of Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner walking daughter Arabella to her first day of kindergarten. The Mail goes on to chronicle Mezvinsky's day, noting that he was on his phone while with Charlotte and that he later "enjoyed lunch for an hour-and-a-half" with a friend, suggesting that dads can't quite cut it while filling in for moms. Slate's Elissa Strauss calls the article a "remarkably unselfconscious example of mom-shaming." Maria Guido fumes on Scary Mommy: "The whole purpose of this article and subsequent coverage is to remind women that they are somehow going against nature by not being a mom first, all the time." A Chicago TV station invited readers on its Facebook page to "sound off" on whether it was OK for Clinton to skip the drop-off. But after comments like, "Your coverage of Chelsea Clinton not taking her child to school is appalling," the post came down.

It was their thing: S.A.C. It stood for Sacramento. It stood for Stephon Alonzo Clark. And it also stood for Clark's family: Salena, Aiden, and Ciaro. "We met in Sacramento," said Salena Manni, Clark's girlfriend. "So it has special meaning to us." Clark was shot and killed Sunday night by two Sacramento Police officers. Police were responding to 911 calls of robbery reports in the area. Clark's family said he was just trying to get into his grandmother's home, where he lived. A spokesperson with Sacramento Police said Tuesday night the officers at the scene fired at Clark 20 times. He could not comment on how many times Clark was hit. "He's not coming home to me no more," Manni said through tears. "He's really gone." Manni has been with the man she lovingly knew as 'Zoe' for five years. She is heartbroken, especially for their two children, Aiden and Cairo. "I have to wake up every morning to my kids asking me, 'Where's Daddy? Let's go get Daddy,'" Manni said. "'Daddy's always in our hearts forever. Don't forget that.' Even today, my son he doesn't understand hearts and tummies. He goes 'Daddy's with me. He's in my tummy.'" Sacramento police initially said the two officers involved "feared for their safety," thinking Clark was armed. They later said the object the officers was a 'tool bar.' The night after the shooting, police said they only found Clark's cellphone at the scene. Sacramento man fatally shot by police Stephen Clark and his sister. 01 / 05 Stephen Clark and his sister. 01 / 05 "I know for a fact he was so scared, scared for his life," said Manni. "He had too much to lose... he would never want to leave his kids." Manni said Clark was the love of her life, but she didn't realize how much of an impact he had on other people. "He has a lot of love out there," said Manni. "And I'm grateful for it." Friends have started a memorial fund for Clark's family. Follow the conversation with Frances Wang on Facebook. © 2018 KXTV ||||| MARCH 21 4 p.m. UPDATE: Sacramento Police have released body cam and aerial footage of the shooting. — SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — New details from the Sacramento Police Department were released on Tuesday about the deadly officer-involved shooting in South Sacramento over the weekend. According to police, Stephon Clark was shot at 20 times and was hit multiple times. “It doesn’t seem real. In the heart of California, it doesn’t seem real,” said Stevante Clark, Stephon’s older brother. Still shook up after losing his younger brother, Stevante Clark is trying to understand Sunday night’s deadly encounter. “I know there could have been another way. He didn’t have to die,” said Clark. According to police, Stephon Clark was breaking car windows and a home glass door in South Sacramento when confronted by police in his grandparents’ backyard. Police say he extended his arms with something in his hands. “Fearing for their safety, the officers fired their duty weapon, striking the subject multiple times,” said Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn. In all, 20 rounds were fired. It’s not known how many struck Clark, but he was pronounced dead. No weapon was found. Only a cellphone was recovered at the scene. “He didn’t deserve it,” said Clark. The father of two had a troublesome past. Clark says his brother was arrested several times before for various crimes. Clark also says he recently noticed a difference in Stephon. “He really changed his life. He really changed his life,” said Clark. On Tuesday night, frustrated speakers took on city leaders. “Did Mr. Clark really have to die? It does seem that way to the community,” said Richard Owen. A handful of speakers pled with the city manager to take action against the officers. “We are asking for justice and for those police officers to be arrested,” said Kevin Carter. An oversight committee will review the investigation. Clark’s family will see any and all video from the scene. And the public will also be made aware of the investigation’s findings. “What we can do is make sure that our processes are transparent and open and that we are communicating with the public as well,” said Sacramento City Councilman Larry Carr. There are new policies for transparency, but still, people in the community are demanding justice. “Nothing has changed. We look today to see that it’s the same thing over and over,” said Carter. Police are required to release to the public all video relating to an officer-involved shooting within 30 days of the incident. Hahn says the department plans to show the video to Stephon Clark’s family by the end of the week. The video from the body cameras of two officers and a police helicopter will be made publicly available within a week, well ahead of the requirements. ||||| The 22-year-old black man fatally shot by Sacramento police in his own backyard Sunday night was carrying a cellphone, not a "tool bar," when confronted by officers, the department clarified late Monday. Stephon Clark was killed in the backyard of the south Sacramento home he shared with his grandmother, grandfather and some siblings, his 25-year-old brother Stevante Clark said Monday. The police department said officers were responding to a call of a person breaking car windows nearby. Police said they believed Clark was armed with a gun, though no firearm was found at the scene. Police said instead Clark had a "object" that he "extended in front of him" while advancing towards two officers. Police were unable to immediately give details about the tool bar Monday, and did not identify the item in Clark's hand when he was shot as different from the tool bar until late Monday night. The department said it believed initial information released about the incident was clear that the object Clark was holding when shot was not the tool bar. Be the first to know. No one covers what is happening in our community better than we do. And with a digital subscription, you'll never miss a local story. SIGN ME UP! SHARE COPY LINK WARNING: Graphic content. The Sacramento Police Department has released body cam footage of the shooting of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man, in his grandparents' backyard. This footage is from camera 1. The shooting occurs near the 7:40 mark. Police said Monday night they had concluded their on-scene investigation and the only item found near Clark's body was a cellphone. Police said two items that could be the "tool bar" that deputies in the helicopter saw were recovered from near the broken sliding glass door in the neighbor's yard: a cinder block and a piece of aluminum similar to what might be used for a gutter. On Monday, police said Clark used the tool bar to shatter a sliding glass door one house away from where he was shot. Police also said in a release that they believe Clark broke the windows of at least three nearby vehicles. At 9:18 p.m. Sunday night, officers responded to a call that a thin, 6-foot-1 black man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and dark pants was hiding in a residential backyard after breaking car windows, according to a department media release. Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies circling the area in a helicopter spotted a man in a nearby backyard at about 9:25 p.m. and told police on the ground that he had just shattered a window with a tool bar then run to the front of that house and looked inside a car. The deputies in the helicopter began directing the officers on the ground to his location. Officers entered the front yard of Clark's residence in the 7500 block of 29th Street and spotted him along the side of the house. Department spokesman Vance Chandler said the man tracked by the helicopter was the same person confronted by officers, who said they ordered him to stop and show his hands. That man was later identified as Clark. Police said Clark instead fled from the officers toward the back of the property, where police said he turned and advanced toward the officers with an object in his hands. "Fearing for their safety," the officers fired multiple rounds at Clark at 9:26 p.m., hitting him several times, the department said. The two officers involved in the shooting then held their position for about five minutes until additional officers arrived before approaching the victim. Clark was pronounced dead at the scene. Sequita Thompson, Clark's grandmother, said she was awake and sitting in the home's dining room when she heard four gunshots. “The only thing that I heard was pow, pow, pow, pow, and I got to the ground," she said. Thompson said neither she nor her husband heard police issuing commands prior to the shots being fired. Thompson dropped to the floor and crawled to the spot where her 7-year-old granddaughter slept on the a couch in an adjacent den, telling her to get on the ground as well, she said. Thompson then made her way to her husband, who uses a wheelchair to move around. Thompson said it was normal for Clark and others to enter the home through the backyard because the front doorbell doesn't work and she and her husband, who is in a wheelchair, have poor mobility. People would knock on the back window and ask her to use an automatic opener to raise the garage door to admit them, she said. Thompson said her husband called 911 to report the shots. Police interviewed Thompson for several hours about what she had heard but did not tell her about Clark, she said. She eventually decided to look out a window and saw her grandson's body in her backyard, she said. “I opened that curtain and he was dead," she said. "I started screaming.” Both officers involved with the shooting were placed on paid administrative leave. One has been an SPD officer for four years, the other for two. Each had four years experience with other law enforcement agencies before joining SPD. Body-camera footage of the shooting will be released within 30 days, per a city policy approved in November 2016. Chandler said that video would include footage shot by Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies in the helicopter. The Sheriff's Department does not usually release video, but Chandler said the departments wanted to work "collaboratively." The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, city attorney’s office and the city Office of Public Safety Accountability will investigate the shooting, as will SPD homicide detectives, internal affairs and Crime Scene Investigation units, he said. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said he supported the investigation and Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn's "intent to expediate the release of all relevant video." "I am always sorry when someone loses their young life," Steinberg said. "I am also grateful that the officers were unharmed." A Sacramento High School alumnus with a fondness for sneakers, football and video games, Clark left behind two young sons, Cairo and Aiden, his family said. Though his birth certificate read "Stephen," Clark altered the spelling of his name to differentiate it from that of his father, Stevante said. Many friends also referred to him as "Zoe," short for Alonzo, his middle name. Monday night, about 120 community activists led by Black Lives Matter gathered in front of the Meadowview Light Rail Station off of Meadowview Road for a vigil and protest. The crowd included family members and community leaders. Sacramento Pastor Les Simmons, the former president of a police oversight commission who quit after the fatal shooting of a mentally ill black man in 2016, led a group of family members through prayer at the station’s parking lot. “I think right now is a moment for our community,” he said afterward. “A moment to show real transparency.” Tuesday afternoon, family, friends and activists planned to gather on the steps of the state capitol at 1 p.m. SHARE COPY LINK Sacramento police are investigating an officer-related shooting on March 19, 2018, in South Sacramento in the 7500 block of 29th Avenue. Sgt. Vance Chandler explains at the scene. A GoFundMe page to pay for Clark's funeral expenses was established Monday afternoon. Stevante Clark said the family wanted enough money to bury his younger brother next to another brother killed a few years ago, also by gun violence. "He would not want for us to be sad but to come together," said the elder Clark. "He was a good person. He always had jokes for everybody." Benjy Egel: (916) 321-1052, begel@sacbee.com

– Stephon Clark was killed by California police in his own backyard when officers fired 20 rounds at him, striking him multiple times, CBS Sacramento reports. According to the Sacramento Bee, police in Sacramento were responding Sunday night to reports of a man breaking car windows when they found Clark in his backyard. Police say the 22-year-old man at first fled before approaching officers while holding an "object" that he "extended in front of him." Police say the officers thought it was a gun and, fearing for their safety, opened fire on Clark. Police initially said the object turned out to be a "tool bar" of some kind only to later revise that: Clark was apparently holding only a cellphone. No gun was found at the scene. “I know there could have been another way. He didn’t have to die,” Clark's older brother tells CBS. "He didn't deserve it." Clark's grandmother, who lives at the home, says neither she nor her husband heard officers give Clark any orders before opening fire. Police say Clark used an object, possibly a cinder block or piece of aluminum, to break a neighbor's glass door and the windows of at least three cars in the area before he was killed. Police say they will release body camera and helicopter footage of the shooting within a week. Salena Manni, Clark's girlfriend of five years and mother of his two young children, tells KXTV he wouldn't have threatened officers. "He had too much to lose," she says. "He would never want to leave his kids."

Image caption Mr Dick worked with the newspaper to place the message to his girlfriend A woman has accepted an unusual marriage offer - after her boyfriend proposed using the The Times newspaper's cryptic crossword. Matthew Dick, from London, arranged for puzzle editor Richard Rogan to place the message to his girlfriend Delyth Hughes inside Tuesday's cryptic teaser. It is thought to be the first proposal since the crossword first appeared in the paper 85 years ago. Ms Hughes, who is from Wales, said she was "dumbfounded" by the gesture. The couple were celebrating Ms Hughes' birthday in Cornwall when Mr Dick presented her with the proposal. The clues included "Pretty Welsh girl widely thought not to be all there" with the six-letter answer "Delyth", and "'Will you marry me', say, that's forward also rude!", to which the eight-letter answer was "proposal". 'Hands were shaking' Another clue read: "Draw up a set of biblical books, ending in Matthew", while other answers to clues included "birthday" and "wishes". Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Richard Rogan explains how the clues were set Mr Dick, 38, said: "I underlined the words 'will you marry me' which appeared in the clue, and the answer was proposal. My hands were shaking and I put my hands in my pocket to get the ring to propose. The crossword enthusiast said his girlfriend "looked surprised" and did not say anything for thirty seconds before jokingly saying "No", followed by "Yes". He said Ms Hughes, 39, "thought it was hilarious" but he "thought it was less hilarious". She described the crossword proposal as a "typical" gesture for Mr Dick, who she described as "a smart-arse at the best of times". "I was getting a bit teary and emotional, even if I did joke that I wouldn't marry him. I was dumbfounded that he'd gone to such lengths." Mr Rogan, who lives in Cheltenham, was contacted by Mr Dick on Twitter. He said he believed it was the first time The Times had included a proposal in one of its puzzles. "We won't be doing it again," he added. ||||| LONDON (AP) — It's a case of two down: the aisle. A combo taken on Wednesday June 17, 2015 showing some of the British national newspapers of Tuesday June 16 and featuring at centre the back page of The Times showing it's daily crossword puzzle. A crossword-loving... (Associated Press) A crossword-loving British lawyer hid a marriage proposal in The Times newspaper's daily puzzle. Matthew Dick thought of the cryptic way of popping the question to girlfriend Delyth Hughes and persuaded the newspaper to agree. Tuesday's Times crossword opened with one across: "Pretty Welsh girl widely thought not to be all there." The answer: Delyth. Other clues included "'Will you marry me,' say, that's forward also rude." The answer was proposal. Dick, 38, told Wednesday's edition of the newspaper that he showed Hughes the crossword at breakfast, with some key words underlined, then "reached into my pocket to reveal the ring." "She looked so surprised and didn't say anything for about 30 seconds, before then saying 'No', which she thought was hilarious," he said. "But she did then say 'Yes' and I had to tell her this was the real Times crossword, not something I had printed out myself." Hughes says she was "dumbfounded that he'd gone to such lengths." "It was also bloody typical, as he's a smart-arse at the best of times," she said. "I've heard all the engagement stories but this one trumps them all. It's so special and such a geeky way of doing it." Times crossword editor Richard Rogan said he believed this was the first time the newspaper had included a proposal in a puzzle. He said it was "a one-off" that wouldn't be repeated.

– A British lawyer with a penchant for puzzles decided to pop the question to his girlfriend in what she calls an incredibly "geeky way": in the local paper's crossword. Per the BBC, Matthew Dick contacted the British Times' puzzle editor via Twitter and arranged for yesterday's crossword to spell out his marriage proposal to Delyth Hughes through a series of underlined, personalized clues, including "Pretty Welsh girl widely thought not to be all there" (six-letter answer: Delyth) and "'Will you marry me,' say, that's formal also rude" (answer: proposal). As Hughes pondered the puzzle, Dick took the engagement ring out of his pocket. "She looked so surprised and didn't say anything for about 30 seconds, before then saying 'no,' which she thought was hilarious," he tells the Times, per the AP. Hughes, who did eventually say yes, says she was "dumbfounded that he'd gone to such lengths," adding, "It was also bloody typical, as he's a smart-arse at the best of times. … It's so special and such a geeky way of doing it." (This crossword puzzle possibly contained a code to carry out a hit on Hugo Chavez's brother.)

We can't seem to find the page you're looking for. It's possible the content has expired or has been moved. Please try the search box at the top right of this page or our sitemap below. ||||| Violinist Rachel Barton Pine-star attraction on this balmy night in Santa Fe--is stranded. She yearns to get up from the back-yard lawn chair where her husband has deposited her and stroll to a pool that's shimmering green-blue in the desert twilight. But she instantly realizes that finessing the stone walkways, craggy paths and uneven stairs nearby would be about as practical for her as traversing the face of the moon. So she sits, smiling, for the rest of the evening, her porcelain white skin set against a plume of red hair, feeling almost "like a prisoner," she says later. Meanwhile, Santa Fe socialites flutter around her, asking how she likes their picturesque town so far. Unfortunately, she hasn't seen much of it, and won't. Though she will have plenty free time on this tour, she will not be able to explore the city's lovely boutiques and spacious plazas. The open wound on what remains of her right foot--which was crushed in a notorious, 1995 Metra rail accident that also took her left leg above the knee--is stinging with pain. And walking, which she does only in spurts even when her injuries are in better repair, just will make matters worse. With an eight-hour surgery looming--she has endured more than 40 so far--she's simply hoping that she will be able to fulfill concert dates that were booked a year or more in advance. She's also praying that an incurable but now-dormant bone infection, which she contracted the day of the accident, doesn't reawaken, because it could cost her the already badly damaged right leg. So she tells her admirers outside this sprawling home of a Santa Fe Symphony benefactor that she's too busy to squeeze in any sightseeing, sustaining the illusion of a concert violinist in the pink of good health. The next evening, in fact, she will open the Santa Fe Symphony season brilliantly, reaffirming her gifts as one of the most accomplished violinists of her generation. But she pursues her art in the bittersweet frame of mind that has defined her life since Jan. 16, 1995, when that northbound Metra train shattered not only her legs but also an extraordinarily promising career and, inevitably, rearranged the rest of her life. Before the accident, she was a 20-year-old Chicago violin virtuoso who had surmounted poverty and a troubled family life to acquire a stack of international prizes, positioning herself for global artistic success. After, she suffered "indescribable pain" and struggled to balance glorious music with inglorious medical procedures; broke off contact with her parents for years; strove to regain career momentum that may be forever spent; and endured the myth that her accident made her a musical celebrity when, in fact, it grounded her at the very moment she was about to take flight. At 33, she finds herself performing as splendidly as her earliest fans had expected, but not with the legendary orchestras of Berlin and Paris and New York for which she once seemed destined. Instead, she appears with solid but decidedly less celebrated ensembles in places such as Santa Fe, Danville, Ill., and Youngstown, Ohio, with occasional, treasured engagements overseas. In a way, her predicament in the Santa Fe back yard mirrors the dilemma of her career, which she hasn't yet been able to move into high gear.Instead, she's still battling to become whole again, more than 13 years after the accident. Medically, "It's never over, just because of the complicated nature of the combination of my injuries," she says. Professionally, she still longs to perform with the world's greatest ensembles. "If I didn't get to play with those kinds of orchestras," she adds, "I would be heartbroken." As she contemplates her lawn-chair quandary, her husband, businessman Greg Pine, arrives to rescue her. A tall and rangy former minor-league baseball pitcher, he leads her up and out of the thing, then through the obstacle course of the back yard and onto the driveway, where he has parked their rental van.Tomorrow will be a busy day, and the violinist needs to go to their hotel room to practice and tend to her wounds. If you factor out the pain and anguish Rachel Barton Pine has endured since 1995, she's leading essentially the life she envisioned as a child thunderstruck one indelible Sunday afternoon by the power of music. Seated in a pew with her mother, father and baby sister, Sarah, at St. Pauls United Church of Christ, near Fullerton and Orchard Avenues, 3-year-old Rachel jumped when she heard three schoolgirls playing Bach on tiny violins. "Rachel stood up in the pew and said, 'Mom, I want to do that!' " recalls her father, Terry Barton. Her mother, Amy Barton, later made contact with the girls' music teacher, Christine Due, and signed Rachel up for lessons. "She was an amazing little kid," remembers Due, who watched Rachel devour the class repertoire. Within months, the precocious fiddler was playing Bach at church. Motivated beyond anyone's expectations, Rachel rushed home from kindergarten every afternoon and practiced for three hours, says her mother. When Rachel learned pizzicato-the technique of plucking the strings with the hand rather than stroking them with the bow-she practiced until "her fingers bled," says Due. At first, Amy Barton was wary of allowing her daughter to venture too deeply into this newfound obsession. Rachel's mother considered the violin "a rich child's thing," and money was in desperately short supply in this family. Educated in psychology at the University of Chicago, Amy stayed home to take care of the kids. Her husband, Terry Barton, who also studied psychology at the U. of C., gave up the profession to pursue various business interests, all of which failed. But Rachel's mother soon realized "This is not ordinary, this talent she has." Indeed, a rare, private recording of Rachel playing a Boccherini Minuet at age 5 reveals the graceful, exquisitely shaped phrases of a far more seasoned musician. By the time Rachel was 6, Due had taught her all she could and encouraged her to study with a more noted Chicago teacher. "She was more inquisitive than other children," says Betty Haag, who has been teaching young violinists in the Chicago area for decades. "Technically, she advanced very fast." That's putting it mildly. At 7, Rachel made her orchestral debut performing the Haydn Violin Concerto in G Major with the Chicago String Ensemble. "I was amazed that she had not just fingers but an intellect," remembers veteran conductor Frank Winkler, who led the performance. Before Rachel turned 8, she had learned concertos by Mozart and Bruch. The five to eight hours of practice she started logging daily prompted her mother to home-school Rachel and Sarah, beginning when Rachel was halfway through 3rd grade. "I knew she was a genius-as close as I've ever seen," says Almita Vamos, who became one of Rachel's two most important teachers, along with her husband, Roland Vamos. Rachel began studying with the Vamoses at the Music Center of the North Shore in Winnetka (later renamed the Music Institute of Chicago), when she was 10. Within months, she won the junior division of the first Illinois Young Performers Competition, in 1985, playing live on TV with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. At 12, she became one of the youngest violinists in the history of the Civic Orchestra. And by 14, "I was working enough to be able to help pay for most of the mortgage and groceries and utilities," she says. The money was essential because the phone and electricity frequently were cut off, and another sister, Hannah, had arrived in 1986. "I wasn't always there and wasn't always completing my financial obligation," concedes Terry Barton. Rachel's patience with her father finally ran out in 1992. Realizing that international music prizes are the jet fuel of the modern solo career, she decided to spend much of the year in Europe pursuing them and the large cash prizes they carried. But that meant she couldn't be sure she would be able to pay the bills at home, so she urged her father to take some kind of salaried job. He refused, and she wrote him off. That June, she risked everything to travel to Leipzig, Germany, and promptly became the first American to win the coveted gold medal in the J.S. Bach International Competition, an extraordinary achievement for a 17-year-old playing some of the most austerely demanding string repertoire ever penned. Then she went on a tear, seizing awards at the Joseph Szigeti International Violin Competition in Budapest in September, and the Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition in Vienna in October. The next year, she won both the Paganini Caprice Prize in the Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa and bronze medal at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, remarkable feats for an American with zero connections to the personalities and politics of European culture. Her recording debut, in 1994, earned the kind of reviews emerging musicians fantasize about. "Fabulous fiddling" wrote the noted Washington Post critic Joseph McLellan of her CD "Homage to Sarasate." Though her parents had separated and the financial pressures persisted, Barton was blossoming. In February 1994, she performed with Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Daniel Barenboim at a benefit for the Music Center, the maestro kissing both her cheeks afterward and expressing interest in her future. With Barenboim apparently in her corner, the future seemed limitless. She reveled in her social life, dancing into the morning at clubs that played the heavy-metal music she had adored since age 13. When she wasn't subbing with the Chicago Symphony, she was teaching at the Music Center of the North Shore, another milestone achievement for a 20-year-old violinist. Henry Fogel, then president of the Chicago Symphony, asked for tapes of her performances so he could send them to New York managers. "I thought: 'This is a girl who plays with poise, maturity and a depth of expression that not every young violinist has,' " says Fogel, now president of the League of American Orchestras. So on Friday, Jan. 13, 1995, the violinist brought a stack of recordings to his office at Orchestra Hall. A spectacular career awaited. The following Monday, Jan. 16, was not only the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday but a special moment in the Barton family-Sarah was celebrating her 18th birthday, so she got first dibs on the family car. This meant the violinist would have to take the Metra train to Winnetka to teach her students at the Music Center of the North Shore. She had ridden the northbound commuter train about 15 times before this day-not nearly as often as she had taken the CTA, but enough to have established a kind of ritual. As the locomotive approached the Winnetka station, a few minutes after 11 a.m., she prepared to get up from her seat, loading her bags onto her left shoulder in the same order as always: purse, violin, bag of music and a sack containing food for lunch and dinner. The train pulled into Winnetka at around 11:10 a.m., and it would stand there for 27 to 29 seconds, according to court records. When the doors opened, she proceeded down the stairs. As she reached the station platform, she heard the train doors close behind her and started to turn left, to head south toward the Music Center, at 600 Green Bay Rd. But she couldn't move. Her left arm and shoulder were pinned to the train, and she didn't understand why: The largest of her parcels, a 1617 Amati violin on loan to her from a patron, was still inside the train, attached to her by its strap. Barton did not know, and could not know, that she had only 10 seconds until the train would begin to move. Yet she was not perturbed, presuming this was "not anything that's a big deal," she recalls. All she had to do, she believed, was get the doors to pop open, the way they did on the CTA trains she had ridden all her life. But when she tried, nothing happened. She began pounding on the door and shouting to the engineer. "I was just trying to yell to get his attention, but [there was] no fear, you know?" she says. The train started to move, and Barton, still attached to the northbound car but facing south, instantly was slammed to the ground and dragged alongside. A woman who had been jogging near the train, Theresa Croghan, caught a glimpse of Barton on the ground and began screaming for help. As Barton was being pulled, she "knew it was a distance to the next station, and I had seen old Westerns where they drag people," she remembers. "And I thought: 'Is it more likely that I will be dead by the time I reach the next station if I don't do anything?' I thought: 'First my coat will be scraped off. Then my jeans will be scraped off. Then my butt will be scraped off. Then my spinal cord will be severed.' " She also realized that "if I try to somehow release myself from whatever is holding me there . . . I know I will be thrown under the wheels." She decided that freeing herself was the better of two bleak options. So she "wormed" her fingers underneath the straps holding her left shoulder to the side of the train and gave them "one good shove." As the train pulled forward, the violinist spun away from it, her glasses flying through the air, her upper body buoyed to the right, her lower body swung to the left, placing her legs in the path of the train's remorseless metal wheels. "And that's somehow how my left leg got cut off and the other leg mangled," she said in the deposition for her subsequent trial. While she was blacking out, a "feeling of indescribable peace" came over her, she says today, speaking in her modest downtown apartment. "But the thing that was very personal about what I experienced is that in that moment, God offered me a choice. That, you know, it would be acceptable for me to just stay there, and not go back," she says, losing composure as she describes the event. "Ahh, it's hard to talk about this," she whispers, crying, "but, that, if I wanted to, I could go back. And it was totally my choice, no right or wrong. . . "Just knowing that I only had to go back if I really wanted to, or chose to, and I did choose to, because I felt like there were things I still wanted to do, things I hadn't yet accomplished," she continues, softly. When she returned to consciousness, moments later, she was in such physical agony that "I did not know so much pain could exist," she said at the trial. One of the passengers on the train, Brian McCarthy, heard Barton's screams, slammed a button to get the engineer to stop the locomotive, then ran out to help her. Another passenger, Jim Tuck, followed close behind. The two used their belts to fashion impromptu tourniquets on what remained of Barton's mangled legs. "We both looked at each other," remembers Tuck today, "and I said, 'I hope we're doing this right.' " Barton had been dragged more than 300 feet in a half-sitting position. When paramedics arrived, she felt chilled to her core, the result of exposure to temperatures that hovered between 32 and 33 degrees that morning, and her loss of approximately five pints of blood. Fearing that if she passed out again she might never reawaken, she struggled to keep talking in the ambulance until she arrived at the emergency room at Evanston Hospital. The violinist was in horrendous shape-worse than the public may have realized. In addition to the loss of her left leg, most of the skin and underlying tissue from the front of her right leg were gone as well. A large part of the bone just below her right knee was missing. The lower half of her right knee-the tibial plateau-was smashed; the upper part of the knee was cracked in two. Doctors spent eight hours operating on her. They took skin and bone from her destroyed left leg for future use on her right. They removed the five toes and the bottom half of her right foot because there was not enough skin to cover it or tissue to support it. They placed a "fixator," or metal bar, from the mid-thigh to the ankle of her devastated right leg, to try to stabilize what remained of it. In later surgeries, they would transplant bone from her hip and pelvis to the damaged right leg. When Terry Barton, the violinist's father, showed up in the intensive care unit, Barton refused to see him or to allow him to return. Every 24 to 48 hours for the next several days, she endured further surgeries. "The moment I thought I was alone in the room, I would start panicking and I would go into shock," Barton recalls. So she insisted her mother sleep on a cot next to her for months to come. Whenever orderlies rolled her into an elevator to the operating room, "As soon as I saw a door closing, I would just start to scream and freak out," says Barton, who was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. A child psychiatrist talked Barton down from her fears, but the violinist's belief that at least her hands had been spared in the accident proved incorrect. When she had arrived at the emergency room, technicians had plunged an IV into the wrist of her left arm, a disaster because that's the hand with the fine-motor skills that articulates notes on the fiddle (the other arm moves the bow). The nerve of the carpal tunnel in her left hand had been bruised, leaving three of the fingers numb. Worse, doctors were preparing to do a surgery that would have ruined her ability to play the violin once and for all. They planned to remove muscle from Barton's back to help rebuild her right leg, a potentially catastrophic move for a violinist, because the back musculature supports the entire range of motions required to play a fiddle. "My mom, of course, went hysterical when she heard that," recalls the violinist. An equally vehement protest from Dr. Alice Brandfonbrener, founder of the medical program for performing artists at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, stopped that plan cold. Instead, doctors took the strip of muscle they needed from the violinist's abdomen. Unfortunately, when bone is exposed to air and dirt, the chance of an infection is high, and Barton developed osteomyelitis, an infection of the tibia, below her knee. Though she did not know it, she had become an enormous news story, the tale of a celebrated violin prodigy nearly killed because her instrument was trapped in a train flashed around the world. It soon morphed into the fiction of a violinist who sacrificed her life trying to save her violin. After many surgeries and several weeks at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Barton came home to a severely altered life. She would spend her first days suffering withdrawal from addiction to narcotics she had been given to dull her staggering pain and the next months battling a "black depression," she says. She wondered whether she would be able to walk again, whether she would be able to dance in the clubs she frequented just weeks before. "Will I be able to do my same moves?" she asked herself. "Will I be able to date? Why would anyone want to date me?" Like any other 20-year-old, she obsessed over how she looked, but in her case, the issues were profound. "Actually, the limb loss is not the yuckiest thing about my injuries," she says, noting that she wears long skirts and high boots to mask her legs. "It's all the bits of my flesh that have been transplanted to other bits of me. And I have weird scars and lumps. It just looks like I got chewed up and spit out under my skirt. Blah. "And I have a huge scar running the entire length of my abdomen from that flesh transplant. I've got big gouges in my back from where I was scraped as I was being dragged along. I've got permanent scarring on my chest from the central line [catheter] that was inserted for two years," pumping antibiotics to battle her bone infection. In 1995, she endured 15 operations, 14 prosthetic appointments, 80 rehab appointments and 101 medical appointments. Her mother still slept at her bedside, waking up in the middle of every night and donning gloves and mask to change her antibiotic IV, tend to her right knee and wrap her right leg in antibacterial soaked gauze to treat the bone infection. Her sisters pressed on with their lives, but the household stirred with tension. Rachel and her next younger sister, Sarah, often bickered, recalls their mother. And youngest sister Hannah, who was studying violin, "couldn't play with feeling" for years after the accident, says Amy Barton. If the music became too emotional, "she'd just break down and sob, because the whole thing affected her soul." But Rachel experienced hopeful moments in that first year of her new life too. By chance, in church, she met Greg Pine, a student home on spring break from Pomona College, in California. "There was something about the look on her face," says Pine, who immediately was intrigued. "Just the way she met me, there was a humanity there that really struck me." He asked her out that night; they went to see a movie and talked for hours, but he returned to school and she resumed her struggles. By fall, she was able to reclaim her technical acuity on the fiddle, performing occasional concert dates in 1995 and most of '96 in a wheelchair. Pine moved back to Chicago in the summer of '96 after a brief stint in the minor leagues with the Sierra Nevada Miners, to start a business, and he reconnected with Barton. Within months, he was traveling with her to concert dates, because she couldn't travel alone and didn't want to tour with her mother, as she had as a child. A platonic relationship between Barton and Pine soon became a romantic one. At the end of '96, when the violinist was liberated from the scaffolding on her right leg and the catheter that had been delivering antibiotics (her bone infection was pronounced in remission), she finally could get back on an airplane and try to re-launch a career that barely had gotten started. Signed by a New York talent agency in 1997, Barton decided to leave home and move in with Pine, a blow to her mother that began their schism. "It was very traumatic for her," says Barton. After the accident, "It was like, back to childhood, where my mom is with me every minute of every day. So for me to then leave, it was as if her 8-year-old had suddenly gone. "I think she felt like it was disloyal of me to have left the family. But who would say that a 22-year-old was being disloyal to no longer live with her mother? "I couldn't blame my mother for how she was feeling, but it certainly was not logical, and it did cause me to have to step back from having regular contact with her." Amy Barton, who had divorced her husband in 1995, grieved. "Everything was too intense," she says. "Psychologically, she was really kind of adolescent at that moment. . . . But until a couple months before Greg, I was sleeping on the floor by her bed. . . . She got an opportunity to live with Greg, so she jumped for it and left us kind of in the lurch." Mother and daughter would not speak for five years; the violinist also cut off from her sisters during that period. "That train," says Amy Barton, "hit all of us." Barton ran up $672,570.97 in un-paid medical bills at the time her suit against Metra and the Chicago and Northwestern Transportation Company went to trial, in February 1999. To deliver the services she needed, her medical providers had obtained liens against any future settlement. As the lawyers battled, staging re-enactments of the accident in court, Barton relived the worst day of her life for four weeks. Her post-traumatic stress disorder "got really bad again," she says. The jury decided in her favor, finding damages of $30 million and attributing 62.5 percent of the fault to Northwestern Transportation, 33 percent to Metra and 4.5 percent to Barton. After subtracting that 4.5 percent, the total verdict was $28,736,149.57, plus $859,500 in punitive damages. CNW and Metra appealed, launching a process that would last for years. In January of 2000, the violinist's father attended one of her concerts and approached her afterward, the two renewing their relationship. Barton came to realize, she says, that his lack of support during her childhood "was never motivated by malevolence." The railroad companies settled with Barton in 2002. By then, her medical expenses-including ongoing surgeries-topped $1 million. After her lawyers received their share of the judgment and expenses were deducted and medical liens paid off, Barton received about $15 million, which she has banked, she says. She pays for all of her accident-related medical costs out of these funds, living downtown in a three-bedroom apartment. "That money from the trial is my safety net," she says. "If I didn't have that money, and if Greg died and my bone infection came back, I would probably be in a nursing home for 50 years and [would be] unable to go and play the violin." With legal issues finally resolved, she and Pine married. Guests at the Fourth Presbyterian Church on June 5, 2004, wept when they saw her proceed gingerly down the aisle without crutches for the first time in public. Because mother and daughter had not yet come to terms, Amy Barton and the violinist's two sisters did not attend the wedding. But Amy and Rachel had begun speaking again around 2003 and were regularly talking on the phone and going out to lunch. Hannah studies violin at the Peabody Conservatory, in Baltimore, and maintains close contact with her sister. Sarah, who is married, does not speak with the violinist and declined to comment for this article. Even amid her extraordinary personal triumphs, Pine has not achieved a fraction of the acclaim that once seemed within her reach. The years she would have spent basking in her competition wins and playing international concerts in their wake were lost to years of recovery and rehab. Nevertheless, she suffered the myth that the accident had boosted her career rather than wounded it. "Would 22-year-old violinist Rachel Barton be booked solid for the next couple seasons had a tragic Metra accident not claimed one of her legs?" wrote a critic in the Chicago Reader. "Probably not." What's more, she struggles to be heard in a shrinking classical music world that's vastly overcrowded with talent. Earlier violinists such as Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman became household names, but today's pop-culture firmament-which lavishes fame and riches on rap performers and rock personalities-creates precious few classical superstars. "Rachel is a very fine violinist, no question in my mind," says Fogel, the former CSO president. "But there are more very fine violinists than there are opportunities for playing at the very top level." On her New Mexico tour, Pine pursues a schedule that might exhaust someone in Olympic condition. She and her husband wake at dawn to start promoting her concert. As always, her husband helps her in and out of the rented van, chauffeurs her to all of her appearances and aids her in finessing the often perilous backstage areas of concert halls. In those that are too difficult for her to navigate (the Americans with Disabilities Act does not require backstage areas to be handicapped-accessible), Greg Pine picks up his wife and carries her up and down stairs leading to and from the stage. On this morning, the couple arrive at a local rock station at 7:15, and she regales listeners with the slash-and-burn music of Metallica, which she plays on the multimillion-dollar, 1742 Guarneri del Gesu on loan to her. "Imagine all these violin licks with an orchestra behind it!" she exclaims on the air, hoping to lure young listeners to the weekend's Santa Fe Symphony season opener. Next she plays high-brow repertoire at a classical station, then on to a local violin shop, where she persuades the owner to contribute extra rosin, strings and other fiddle paraphernalia for her Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation, which distributes the goods to musicians in need from Chicago to Africa. For all her palpable energy and drive, however, she moves gingerly, constantly studying the ground beneath her, looking for potentially hazardous bumps, ridges, inclines, declines and other dangers that can send her tumbling onto her face. "I've seen that happen," says Greg Pine. "She'll fall in hotels, where the floor is slick and she doesn't realize it. . . . Any time she's standing, any time she's walking, she's on stilts," adds her husband, who often doubles back to extend an arm to her when he realizes there's tricky terrain ahead. As always, her husband carries the precious Guarneri del Gesu fiddle. She can't, because it's too heavy, and because of her PTSD. "As soon as something is sitting on my shoulder, even, say, a strap on my shoulder, [I feel] I'm going to die," she explains. When it's time for the big concert, she walks, smiling, onto the stage of the Lensic Performing Arts Center, in downtown Santa Fe, hobbling a bit to center stage, bowing, then leaning up against a custom-made stool she has brought with her from Chicago and drags along wherever she goes. She half-sits on it while playing, almost giving the impression that she's standing, as any other concert violinist would do. Though she's one of just three soloists on the program, only she receives a standing ovation, and only she plays an encore-her own Paganini-meets-the-blues version of "Sweet Home Chicago." But throughout this performance, it's obvious that she far outshines the orchestra. And she realizes that ensembles such as Santa Fe's, while impressive for such a small town, do nothing to promote the kind of top-rank, international career she once was close to achieving. "I find it really good to play with an orchestra like this, and play for all these wonderful people," she says on the way to the airport. "But when I play with an orchestra on the next level, it's such a deeper experience, and I have this longing for that." As soon as she returns to Chicago, she is swept up in the next round of medical appointments, as she prepares for another round of surgeries. If they succeed, she should develop fewer sores, endure less pain and spend less time at home, recovering from the physical rigors of life on the road. Yet being a perpetual work-in-progress strains the psyche."I spent the whole morning at the doctor's office," she says, near tears, back in her Chicago apartment, two days after Santa Fe. "And it just takes up so much time, you know? And I think about all the things I could do if I wasn't running around to all these stupid appointments." Though she takes pride in rarely canceling a concert date, though she thrives on squeezing so much teaching, chamber music and lecturing into her work life, she laments the sacrifices she's still forced to make. "I can't even consider starting a family until I've had [more] surgeries," she says, pointing out that the painkillers and other drugs she requires are unhealthy for a baby in gestation. "It really makes me mad." At home at night, she tools around her apartment in a motorized wheelchair to take weight and pressure off of her legs. Though for years she had preferred to tough it out with a manual wheelchair, violinist Perlman, who suffers the effects of childhood polio, "gave me this huge lecture," she recalls. "He was like: 'You have to stop using that now!' " When she did, she noticed that she gained new stamina.

– A renowned Chicago musician is going public with her airline spat over a piece of carry-on luggage—because that piece of luggage happens to be a 1742 violin insured for almost $20 million. Rachel Barton Pine says an American Airlines captain refused to let her bring the Joseph Guarneri "del Gesu" violin aboard a Wednesday flight from O'Hare to New Mexico, where she was scheduled to perform, because he deemed it too big, reports the Chicago Tribune. When Pine, a frequent traveler, pointed out that the FAA—and American Airlines itself—allows instruments such as hers on a first-come basis as long as they fit in the overhead bin or under a seat, he still wouldn't budge. "It is not going on because I say so," she quotes him as saying. Instead of checking it as the crew suggested, she opted not to board at all. "These are so delicate and breakable that if you check your violin, it will get broken," Pine tells KOB 4. "There's no maybe it will get broken. It definitely will get broken." American ticket agents got her on another flight, violin and all, and the airline says in a statement that it "has reached out to Ms. Barton directly to apologize for the inconvenience." She has the violin courtesy of a lifetime loan from an anonymous patron. Last year, Pine spent the night in a Phoenix airport terminal after a similar disagreement with US Airways, notes a post at Violinist.com. In a far more serious incident, back in 1995, the 1617 Amati violin Pine was carrying got trapped in a Metra train door; she was secured to it by its strap and dragged more than 300 feet. She was able to free herself, but the train's wheels took her left leg and mangled her right. (Read the story of how a stolen Stradivarius surfaced after 35 years.)

Story highlights Authorities have opened preliminary investigations Weiner is alleged to have exchanged sexually explicit text messages with a purportedly underage girl Washington (CNN) Prosecutors in the office of US Attorney Preet Bharara have issued a subpoena for Anthony Weiner's cell phone and other records, according to law enforcement officials. The FBI and the New York Police Department have opened preliminary investigations of allegations that the former New York Democratic congressman exchanged sexually explicit text messages with a purportedly underage girl. Spokespersons for the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan and the FBI declined to comment. The allegations first surfaced in the Daily Mail The online sexting relationship allegedly went on for months between Weiner and a girl claiming to be just 15. The Daily Mail reported she said he sent her numerous photos, one of him in a pool and at least one bare-chested. Read More ||||| FILE - In this July 24, 2013 file photo, New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner leaves his apartment building in New York. Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner has acknowledged he communicated... (Associated Press) FILE - In this July 24, 2013 file photo, New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner leaves his apartment building in New York. Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner has acknowledged he communicated... (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Online communications between disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner and a 15-year-old girl are being investigated by law enforcement agencies in New York and North Carolina, officials said Thursday. The office of Jill Westmoreland Rose, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina in Charlotte, has "begun investigative efforts," a spokeswoman said. An FBI task force in New York designed to combat the sexual exploitation of children also is investigating, according to a law enforcement official who wasn't authorized to discuss an ongoing case and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The investigations were launched after an online outlet, DailyMail.com, on Wednesday published an interview with the girl in which she describes online and text exchanges with Weiner that went on for several months this year. The girl said that during a Skype chat Weiner asked her to undress and touch herself. Weiner, a Democrat who resigned from Congress in 2011 amid a sexting scandal, didn't return text or email messages seeking comment on Thursday. But in a statement he gave to The Associated Press on Wednesday he said he had "likely been the subject of a hoax," and he provided an email written by the girl in which she recants her story. He also apologized, noting he had "repeatedly demonstrated terrible judgment about the people I have communicated with online and the things I have sent." The girl, whose identity the Daily Mail didn't reveal, said she told her father and a teacher about the relationship. She said she wrote the email because Weiner asked her to but never sent it. A spokeswoman for the FBI and a spokesman for federal prosecutors in Manhattan declined to comment. Weiner is married to Huma Abedin, an aide to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and has a young son with her. He resigned from Congress after it was revealed he had been exchanging sexually explicit messages with multiple women. He then unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2013 and was leading several polls until it was revealed he had continued his questionable behavior. Abedin left him this month after revelations he had sent more sexually charged messages to another woman. ||||| Anthony Weiner carried on a months-long online sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl during which she claims he asked her to dress up in 'school-girl' outfits for him on a video messaging application and pressed her to engage in 'rape fantasies', DailyMail.com can exclusively report. The girl, whose name is being withheld by DailyMail.com because she is a minor, said the online relationship began last January while she was a high school sophomore and before Weiner's wife, Hillary Clinton's aide Huma Abedin, announced she was ending their marriage. Weiner was aware that the girl was underage, according to DailyMail.com interviews with the girl and her father, as well as a cache of online messages. SCROLL DOWN TO HEAR THE TEEN ON TAPE Anthony Weiner carried on a months-long sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl online, and even sent her photos of himself, including one of him in a pool The high school girl, whose name is being withheld by DailyMail.com because she is a minor, said the online relationship began last January In one message, he tells the girl he was 'hard' after thinking of her that morning In another message, both Weiner and the girl tell each other they feel like they can tell each other anything The pair even joke about nicknames for each other, and Weiners old name of 'Carlos Danger.' But he says he wants her call her 'mine' In one Confide message - which deletes the sender's name after the first message is open, Weiner tells the girl 'I would bust that tight p***y. 'The app is designed for confidentiality, and automatically deletes messages and images after the first time they are read or viewed. However, the girl took photos of a few of the messages and images from last February and March, which she shared with the Dailymail.com. He goes on to say that he would 'bust' it 'so hard and so often that you would be limp for a week' 'I have repeatedly demonstrated terrible judgement about the people I have communicated with online and the things I have sent,' Weiner told DailyMail.com In the online messages, Weiner, 51, sent bare-chested photos of himself to the underage girl, repeatedly called her 'baby' and complimented her body, and told her that he woke up 'hard' after thinking about her, according to copies of the conversations. In one particularly lewd message, he told the teen: 'I would bust that tight p***y so hard and so often that you would leak and limp for a week.' When confronted with the claims, Weiner did not deny exchanging 'flirtatious' messages with the teen. He declined to comment on the specifics of the allegations on the record, but provided copies of two emails the girl sent him that he contends raised questions about her claims. DailyMail.com publishes them below. He gave a statement to DailyMail.com in which he says, in part: ' I have repeatedly demonstrated terrible judgement about the people I have communicated with online and the things I have sent. I am filled with regret and heartbroken for those I have hurt.' WHAT ANTHONY WEINER TOLD DAILYMAIL.COM 'I have repeatedly demonstrated terrible judgement about the people I have communicated with online and the things I have sent. 'I am filled with regret and heartbroken for those I have hurt. 'While I have provided the Daily Mail with information showing that I have likely been the subject of a hoax, I have no one to blame but me for putting myself in this position. 'I am sorry.' The revelation comes just weeks after Weiner's wife Huma Abedin announced that they had separated in the wake of another sexting controversy. In August, the New York Post reported on sexual chats between Weiner and a 40-year-old woman, during which the former congressman sent her provocative shirtless photos of him while his four-year-old son was curled up next to him in bed. Weiner has faced a number of sexting scandals since 2011, when he was forced to resign from Congress after his online sexual messages with a female college student were revealed. Another sexting scandal in 2013, involving 22-year-old Sydney Leathers, derailed his bid for New York City mayor. In the course of that scandal, his alias Carlos Danger was disclosed. The former congressman has faced scrutiny over online chats with minors in the past. In 2011, he admitted to sending five private Twitter messages to a 17-year-old girl, but said the messages 'were neither explicit nor indecent'. The girl's family told the New York Times that the conversation appeared to be harmless. DailyMail.com reached out to the 15-year-old girl's family earlier this month after receiving information about her relationship with Weiner. Although the girl said she did not want to press charges because she believes her relationship with Weiner was consensual, she and her father agreed to sit down for an interview out of concern that Weiner may be sexting with other underage girls. Weiner and Abedin, still living in the same apartment despite their split, left separately Wednesday morning before the DailyMail.com story was posted online Huma left to meet Hillary Clinton to fly to Orlando to campaign; Weiner went for a walk The girl first reached out to Weiner on the evening of January 23, 2016, when she noticed his Twitter page allowed non-followers to contact him through private messages Weiner sent the teen a bare-chested picture of himself with his hand on his crotch 'If there's anybody out there that has a similar story that they can come forward, maybe use my daughter's example to have the courage to come forward,' said her father, whose name is also being withheld to shield the girl's identity. He explains that he did not contact authorities to report Weiner because his daughter asked him not to. 'I agreed because her mental health is in jeopardy and I didn't want to exacerbate anything that she has mentally going on.' Through interviews and a collection of online messages from applications such as Twitter, Facebook, Kik, and Confide, DailyMail.com has pieced together a timeline of Weiner's relationship with the underage girl. The girl first reached out to Weiner on the evening of January 23, 2016, when she noticed his Twitter page allowed non-followers to contact him through direct private messages. She told DailyMail.com she was interested in politics and had heard about his sexting scandals, and was curious to see what he was like. It was clear from the messages that she was encouraging Weiner to engage with her in a sexual manner. She told DailyMail.com she didn't consider Weiner her boyfriend, but thought the relationship was a 'romantic' one. She acknowledged during interviews that she had developed an obsession with Weiner, and sought him out on Twitter in January while trying to write a book about him. She said she continued to write the book as their relationship developed. 'Why did I message you [in January]?' the girl wrote in an email to Weiner last week. 'I was studying you- for a book of course. You were my Hannibal Lecter. 'I wanted to know what made you tick. As we chatted, I pretended to not know EVERYTHING about you. I didn't want to appear suspicious.' She also told Weiner: 'I was obsessed with you.' Weiner quickly messaged her back, and they struck up a conversation about the large snowstorms that had hit New York and the girl's home state. The messages started out as small talk, and during their conversation the girl noticed that Weiner had also found her profile on Facebook and sent her a friend request. 'Where do you go to school?' Weiner asked her. '[Redacted] High School,' she responded. Still sexting? Weiner was out and about at the park with his son on Tuesday, but took time out to engage with his phone Closest aide: Huma Abedin is Hillary Clinton's closest aide and vice-chair of her campaign. The two's closeness goes back to when Abedin was a teenage White House intern. Huma Abedin announced that they had separated in the wake of another sexting controversy. when the former congressmen sent a 40-year-old woman provocative shirtless photos of himself while his toddler son was curled up next to him in bed Early the next morning, Weiner found the girl on Facebook, sent her a friend request and they began messaging Weiner sent the teen a picture of himself - with this undershirt rolled up to expose his stomach - and his son. In one Facebook message, the girl tells Weiner that she's 'very good at keeping a secret' from her parents 'You are kinda sorta gorgeous,' Weiner told her, before asking around midnight why she wasn't with a boyfriend that night. 'My dad is overprotective,' said the girl. '[Boyfriends] couldn't be at my house this late.' The next morning, the girl woke up to find a private message from Weiner on Facebook asking how her night had gone. 'How did you sleep?' the girl asked him. 'Not great. Woke up very, uh, eager,' he replied. He continued to send her flirtatious messages throughout the day, saying he was 'imagining' her when she was in the shower and saying she must get a lot of male attention at the gym. At one point, Weiner indicated that he knew the conversation could be a problem. '[I]f anyone would get the wrong impression we should say goodbye now,' said Weiner. However, he did not stop the conversation. Instead he told the girl they could talk over other chat applications that would not be monitored by her parents. They began talking on Kik, an instant message app, where Weiner used the screen name 'T Dog.' He sent her photos of himself shirtless, including one photo of him in a hot tub that showed his face. 'Maybe delete that. Hehe,' he wrote after sending it. In many of the messages, they discussed Weiner's trips to the gym and love of hockey, and the girl's school activities and her newly acquired learner's permit. But in a number of them, Weiner steered the conversation toward sex. The pair eventually move to another app, called TK, for conversing, in which they share several photos After sending a snap from a pool, Weiner tells the girl, 'Maybe delete that. Hehe.' She then tells Weiner that she doesn't think she would 'look good naked' at the time of messaging She says she is 'pale' and wants 'to work out more', but Weiner says the flaws 'would no doubt be overlooked' 'I thought of you this am. Hard,' he wrote in one. The girl asked if she was the reason. 'Yes. And the solution,' responded Weiner, adding an emoji image of squirting water. 'Your body is pretty insane,' he told her at another point. When the girl told Weiner she'd just gotten home from the gym, he wrote back, 'Hard. Again'. Several of the messages involve finding times to talk over Skype, a video messaging application, when the girl's parents were asleep or out of the house. 'Skype may have to be a tomorrow thing,' the girl wrote in one message. 'if I skyped you tonight id have to play music as we talked so that my parents couldn't hear me talking and I'd have to keep the lights off.' 'No prob baby,' replied Weiner. 'Some other time. When it's easier.' The girl told DailyMail.com that she and Weiner first started talking on Skype a few days into the relationship. '[Weiner's] son was in the bathtub at the time just downstairs,' she said. 'So he would yell at his son to check on him, and then he asked me to take my clothes off, and just started saying these really sexual things.' Afterward, Weiner sent her a message with a heart-eyed emoji, writing 'I caught a glimpse of your body' and indicating he would like to keep talking over Skype. She claimed the conversations grew more explicit as time went on, with Weiner allegedly asking her to undress and encouraging her to masturbate over video chat. She said Weiner would not get fully nude, but was usually shirtless and wearing boxers. 'He would tell me to say his name as I was touching myself,' said the girl. 'He would ask me to take my clothes off. 'He would just have his shirt off. Sometimes he would grab his lower region, but that was about it,' she added. Although Weiner did not get undressed on video, she alleges that he did send her nude photos of himself when they would sext over a messaging app. The app, which is called Confide, is designed for confidentiality, and automatically deletes messages and images after the first time they are read or viewed. However, the girl took photos of a few of the messages and images from last February and March, which she shared with Dailymail.com. Shirtless: One of the messages from Kik, where Weiner used the alias T Dog At one point, the girl asks Weiner if she was the reason he 'woke up so eager', and he said she was also 'the solution' TEXT OF LETTER WEINER ASKED TEEN TO SEND TO TEACHER The teen wrote this letter but sent it to a fake email address and sent a copy to Weiner. Parts of the letter that might identify her are redacted. The teen told DailyMail.com what she had done. Weiner provided a copy of the letter in his belief it was sent to her teacher. Dr. XXXXX Thank you for being the perfect mentor. I remember the first time we met. I was a 'wise 92 year old stuck in a 13 year old's body' as you described me. I was a rising freshman. Above your door was a sign that said 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.' At that moment I knew that I'd love your class. I walked in and noticed a stack of all of my favorite literary works. Anything from Martin Amis to Albert Camus. We began chatting and I felt like I had known you my whole life. My freshman year [redacted]. I was the first freshman invited and I was thrilled. I started learning [redacted] at the age of 8 years old. I somehow managed [redacted]. You have brought me sooooo many projects. We started on the writing resources center. You and I would travel to the university to bring students to tutor kids at our school that were having a difficult time learning. I had the opportunity to work with some of the sweetest students at our school. I was able to earn 4 extra English course credits. We [redacted]. The student reporting labs have been an educational and a fun hands on experience. Aside from the plethora of knowledge you have graciously provided me with we have also had our deep, meaningful conversations. We share our writings with each other at least once a week. I have enjoyed reading your writings and I have been thankful for the feedback you have given me on mine. I recently shared with you a story about a former congressman. I contacted Anthony Weiner. Our online chats were never inappropriate, he was always very helpful and kind. I wanted to publish my story. He was the best candidate to pin the story to. The story needed a hoax to ride on. Speaking of candidates the election is coming up and his wife is Hillary Clinton's chief of staff. He doesn't have any credibility, I assumed no one would question the allegations. It was unfair to lie to you and my father. It was unfair to spread this false accusation against Anthony Weiner. He has done nothing to deserve this. I am sorry for lying to you, I hope this doesn't affect the bond we have formed over the years. Sincerely [Redcated] 'When we would Skype, he would tell me that he was very lonely and that it had been a year since he and his wife [Huma] had sex, and that she really didn't pay him any attention,' said the girl. 'We would talk, just chatting for about 30 minutes and it would lead to more sexual things…asking me to undress…he'd comment on my body. He asked me about masturbation, and that kind of thing.' Sometimes, she claims, Weiner would ask the girl to dress up in plaid skirts and pretend he was her school teacher, she said. 'He would pretend like he was a teacher and I was a student. And he'd talk about me sitting in the front of his class, and him taking me after school,' she said. He also shared pornographic videos with her, she added. The girl said she was not uncomfortable with the sexting, except for when Weiner would try to engage her in 'rape fantasies'. 'He had some rape fantasies. It would just be him showing up at my house when my dad was out of town,' she said. 'And just start undressing me, being forceful, asking me if I want to be dominated, strange questions.' She said when she told him she was uncomfortable with this, he quickly agreed to change the subject. The girl said she started feeling guilty about hiding the relationship, and told her father and a teacher about it in late April. When Weiner asks if the girl's boyfriend is 'bigger than' him, she says he's a 'skinny nerdy boy' Weiner sent the girl a picture of his chest with welts he said he got from his heart check up 'I was scared. I felt bad for talking to [Weiner],' she said. 'I felt a little guilty and I wrote [my dad] a letter telling him.' But the girl also continued to talk to Weiner. The former congressman pressured her to write two more letters to her father and teacher saying that she lied about the natures of their relationship and the two of them were just friends. She told Weiner that she would do this, and she sent them to bogus email addresses and sent a copy to Weiner. 'After I told my teacher about the relationship, [Weiner] wanted me to email my dad and my teacher and tell them that was I said was false,' she said. 'That the conversations were appropriate and were never inappropriate, and he was very helpful.' Weiner sent DailyMail.com a copy of the letter he believed she sent to her teacher. The girl said she continued to talk to Weiner until July. 'After seeing what he did with his son having him in the picture that was released, I think that he's very disgusting and he needs help,' she said. She said she never viewed him as her 'boyfriend', and that he made this clear by talking to her about his relationships with other women. 'He talked about women he would meet up with and have sex with, women he would meet at the gym, women he would chat with online,' she said. 'He would also talk about going to different gyms, and getting different gym memberships, just to go watch 18-year-olds work out that would go to NYU and different schools in New York,' she added. In August, the New York Post reported on sexual chats between Weiner and a 40-year-old woman, during which the former congressman sent her provocative shirtless photos of him while his four-year-old son was curled up next to him in bed After the girl tells Weiner that Skype will have to wait because her parents would hear, Weiner says 'No prob baby' When the girl says that she'll 'work out all of the time' if it 'turns you on', Weiner tells her that her 'body is pretty insane' However, she said he never mentioned relationships with other underage girls. 'I actually asked him if he talked to other minors and he said not that he knew of, which is the risk that he kind of takes when he's talking to women on the internet,' she said. The girl's father said he was horrified when he learned 51-year-old Weiner had been speaking with his daughter over Skype. 'I couldn't stomach that,' he said. 'That really was the worst part I think, was knowing that inappropriate behavior was available to my daughter by this man.' He said if he ever met Weiner: 'There wouldn't be any words. There would be no words. I hope I never come in contact with him. I'll be in jail if I come into contact with him.' While the girl said she does not regret the relationship, her father said the experience has changed her. 'She's gone through some depression, we've sought counselling and been able to help her work through it,' he said. 'She's a bright girl, very smart, so this has somewhat dulled the light that she had previous to this…it's gut-wrenching to see somebody take that away.' HOW I FELT: THE LETTER THE 15-YEAR-OLD SENT TO WEINER The teen wrote this letter to Anthony Weiner after her interview with DailyMail.com. Weiner gave it to DailyMail.com to publish, which he says indicates that he 'could have been the subject of a hoax.' The teen told us why she wrote it, saying: ' A few months ago Anthony asked me why I wanted to share my story, and I couldn't really give a good answer so I wanted to explain to him why I was doing it.' 'Don't be ashamed of your story. It will inspire others.' This quote lingered in my mind as my posture was consciously congruent to the hard back of my chair. The air was stale. All eyes were on me. My father's eyes wanted me to lie. At that moment, I had the moral backbone of an eclair. Why was I here? I didn't personally know Anthony Weiner. I felt myself hover over my own body. I was watching myself from above. I was not the same girl that I was when I walked into the hotel. Who was I becoming? Did I just sell my soul to the devil at fifteen? We're the middle children of history. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war's a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that we'd all be millionaires and movie Gods. But we won't. And I'm learning that fact as my lips move. Fear blocked every rational thought. After leaving the hotel, I attempted to justify my every action. It wasn't a difficult task. Anthony continues to make the same mistake and expects a different result each time, he needs to learn his lesson. His wife is already leaving him, what I have done will not tear him apart. He fell in love with something and is letting it kill him. He needs to let go. The list continued to grow. Afterwards, I began to cry. I felt physically ill. I made the decision to not go to school the next day, I felt guilty, guilt is guilt. It doesn't go away. It can't be nullified. It can't even be fully understood, I'm certain- it's roots run too deep into private and long- standing karma. About the only thing that saves my neck when I get to feeling this way is that guilt is an imperfect form of knowledge. Just because it isn't perfect doesn't mean that it can't be used. The hard thing to do is to put it to practical use, before it gets around to paralyzing you. I messaged Anthony. He was trying to play victim... AGAIN! He treats me like I'm an invalid. I never call him out. I am used to his manipulative techniques, I know them very well. I used them long before he tried them on me. I see myself in him. I continue to talk to men online. My parents were not surprised that I contacted him. My dad started rattling off all the other occupations of these other guys.. First it was the teacher.. Yada, yada, yada.. They asked me when I would ever stop this kind of behavior. Why did Anthony and I do these ridiculous things? The only difference was that I didn't have to send out a press release every time that I did something like this. I was losing my soul. If you're losing your soul & you know it, then you still have a soul to lose. 'Apology': Why did I message you? I saw that your direct messages were open. I thought you had fallen off the face of the earth. I assumed you would have deleted your twitter for your wife's sake. I had watched a video of you that same night. I was studying you- for a book of course.You were my Hannibal Lecter. I wanted to know what made you tick. As we chatted, I pretended to not know EVERYTHING about you. I didn't want to appear suspicious. Why did you message me? I asked you the other day, you didn't return the question. You never do. You don't care enough about other people. 'It had been my job to get into Anthony's brain, but after nine months, I realized he didn't know a thing about me. I approached him at our post-campaign party and asked, 'Do you know I'm a single mom?' I wanted acknowledgment of what my family and I had sacrificed. He didn't know. 'You must feel good about yourself, accomplishing all of this,' he said, missing my point. Then the conversation turned back to him: 'I'm 50 years old, and I need to find a new career.' I smiled, same old Anthony. I said good night, and I haven't seen him since.' ( Provenz, Jessica. 'I Was Anthony Weiner's Longest-Serving Campaign Staffer. This Is What His Mayoral Run Was Really Like.' Daily Intelligencer. N.p., 2016. Web. 08 Sept. 2016. ) It doesn't just stop here, you did this with me on a numerous amount of occasions. You didn't inspect the emails to my teacher and my father. I made two fake emails. I used a ten minute mail, and created a Gmail. You believed me. I talked to you about committing suicide. You didn't try to stop me. I confided in you. I told you about older men taking advantage of me. You called me a liar. I offered proof. You rejected. It's like you don't want to know the answer to things. I believe that you don't go to therapy for that reason. Why do you continue to sext? Is it an addiction? Is it something psychological? Your brother was addicted to drugs. Does addiction run in your family? I can't fully grasp why I do it. I know that it's nice to feel worshipped. Sydney listed you as one of her heroes. You took advantage of her young, naive mind. She was infatuated with you.You should be glad that I am one of the most disensitized teenagers. I don't think I could ever been in love with someone I met over the internet. I did, however, enjoy listening to your podcasts, watching interviews, C-Span, etc. Talking to you helped me write my book about you. I was obsessed with you, the way one obsesses over a character in a book . One day you're going to mess with the wrong teenager, that has the wrong set of parents. Do yourself a favor and try to prevent that. It doesn't matter that you sext. It matters that you sext women you don't know. You tell me that you're in enormous pain (not sure if you're being honest, or playing victim), you read books such as 'So You've been publicly shamed'. It seems as if you have let these scandals consume you. Why do you let these women brand you with scandals. You WEAR your scandal. You were great at trying to change the world around you, why not try to change yourself?? You were a pleasant guy to talk to when you meditated. We fall in love with things, and we let it kill us. You don't have to do that. You're married to sexting and your wife is married to Clinton. If HRC jumped off of a bridge, your wife would be chasing after her, clutching Hillary's purse and jumping with her. Your image is going to affect your son, even Hugh Hefner has children. If you and your wife are truly being sincere about being dedicated to your son's best interest, pay attention to him. Don't photograph him as you sext. Don't give HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON ALL OF YOUR ATTENTION! You're ruining his life before it has even begun. STOP MANIPULATING PEOPLE!!!! You asked me to lie to my teacher, my father, Sydney Leathers, and anyone that asked about this story. It's sick. You only care about yourself. You play victim ALL OF THE TIME. You attempted to make me feel bad about telling my teacher. You pretended that you were my friend. You said 'I trusted you.I skyped you. I told you that my dad was in the hospital. I sent you pictures of my son.' yada, yada, yada. How many women have seen pictures of your kid??? Every woman in your life? STOP MAKING PEOPLE FEEL BAD FOR YOUR SCANDALS. It's not their fault you make the same mistakes. I am worried about you. You are messaging anyone that flirts with you online. I am 15 years old. You got catfished by a dude! It will only get worse. It's time to retire. I want you to know that I'm not releasing the story for money. I am doing this to teach you a lesson. I want you to get help. I don't care if you hate me. I don't hate you, I care about you very much. I think this story will help you become a better person. I hope at least. I am also worried about myself. I talk with a lot of men online. I am fifteen years old! I catfish people, including you. I think it's time that I retire too. I think that by releasing this story I am teaching myself a lesson as well. I need to get help. I hate myself. I am trying to make this story into something positive. In order for a flashlight to work properly it requires a battery. The battery requires a negative and a positive, the negative is always larger.. It doesn't have to be that way. Sorry, I'm not sorry. I wish you the best! At one point, when Weiner questions them talking, the girl says she could give him '100 good reasons as to why we should keep talking'

– Anthony Weiner's sexting wrecked his political career, his comeback attempt, his media career, and his marriage—and now even his freedom could be at stake. The AP reports that the former congressman's alleged online relationship with a 15-year-old girl is being investigated by authorities in New York and in North Carolina, where the girl lives. A spokeswoman for the US attorney's office in North Carolina says they've "begun investigative efforts," and sources tell CNN that prosecutors in New York have already subpoenaed the 52-year-old's phone records and other communication. An FBI task force in New York is also looking into the matter, a law enforcement source says. According to the Daily Mail, which first reported Weiner's communication with the underage girl, Weiner's explicit messages included one where he told the high school sophomore he would "make her limp for a week." The girl says Weiner—who allegedly called himself "T Dog" this time instead of "Carlos Danger"—asked her to undress and touch herself, and the New York Daily News notes that encouraging a child under 17 to "engage in a sexual performance" can carry a 15-year sentence in New York. Weiner has admitted communicating with the girl and demonstrating "terrible judgment" online, but he also claims to have been "the subject of a hoax."

An Afghan policeman stands near a vehicle which carried the deputy governor of Kandahar province, Abdul Latif Ashna, in Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011. A suicide bomber... (Associated Press) An Afghan policeman stands near a vehicle which carried the deputy governor of Kandahar province, Abdul Latif Ashna, in Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011. A suicide bomber... (Associated Press) A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed into a car carrying the deputy governor of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Saturday, killing him and wounding three of his bodyguards, the Interior Ministry said. The attacker struck as the official, Abdul Latif Ashna, was being driven to work in the provincial capital, said a ministry spokesman, Zemeri Bashary. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. In a text message to reporters, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef said the suicide bomber killed the deputy governor as well as three of his body guards and his driver. U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, who was traveling in Kandahar, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the assassination. Kandahar, located in the Taliban's traditional southern stronghold, has been the scene of several attacks recently. Two weeks ago a bicycle bomb targeting police vehicles near the city center wounded at least 10 people _ six civilians and four police. Last month, a suicide car bombing in the city center killed three people and wounded 26 others, most of them police. "The enemies of Afghanistan cannot stop the Afghan people from development and progress by killing such personalities," Karzai said in a statement. "There are thousands of other brave Afghans who will stand against the enemy and serve the people." Also on Saturday, Karzai expressed his sadness over the deaths of six members of a prominent Afghan family who were killed when a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up Friday at Kabul supermarket frequented by affluent Afghans and foreigners. In a statement, Karzai said Dr. Massoud Yama, a young doctor at a military hospital, his wife, Hamida Barmaki, a political science professor at Kabul University, and their four children died in the attack. She was an activist and served on the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. Yama's mother and Barmaki's mother-in-law is former Afghan senator Maboba Hoqiqmal, who currently is Karzai's legal affairs adviser. Afghan police officials said initially that two or three foreigners were among eight people killed in the bombing. However, the Kabul Police Department released a statement Saturday evening saying that no foreigners died in the incident. So far, no foreign embassy has confirmed the death of any foreign victims. Mohammad Zahir, the chief of criminal investigation for the Kabul police, said one man, one boy and six females _ all Afghan _ died in the blast. Fifteen other people were injured in the explosion _ 10 Afghans and five foreigners, he said. The Taliban said their target was an official with the U.S.-based Xe security contractor, formerly known as Blackwater. A representative for USTC Holdings, which recently bought the North Carolina-based Xe, said no one associated with the company was killed or wounded in the bombing. A senior international intelligence official in Kabul said Saturday that the Taliban's Haqqani network, which has ties to al-Qaida, carried out the attack, but that there was no intelligence to suggest that the security contractor was being targeted. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the information. Elsewhere in the capital, more than 200 demonstrators rallied at the Iranian Embassy to protest the execution of Afghans in Iran and call on Tehran to release Afghan political prisoners. Similar protests, all organized by the National Solidarity Party, attracted hundreds of other demonstrators in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and Herat in the west. Protesters in Kabul carried signs that said "Death to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," showed photographs of Afghans held in Iran and depicted blood dripping from the red stripe of the Iranian flag. Afghan lawmakers have claimed that as many as 45 Afghans had been executed in Iran, but the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that number is exaggerated. The ministry, which has raised the issue with Iranian officials in Tehran, has confirmed the execution of six Afghans in Iran but has not provided details about why they were killed. "The ones fighting for freedom have been jailed in Iran," said Mohammad Yama, who helped organize the protest in Kabul. "We are here to show our unity. We wanted to burn down our effigy of Ahmadinejad, but the Afghan police took it away." In a ceremony at the Afghan Ministry of Defense, the deputy chief of staff for operations of the U.S.-led coalition, John W. Nicholson, was promoted to the rank of major general and will now be the force's point man for transferring the responsibility for security from international forces to Afghan ones by the end of 2014. The Afghan Army's Chief of Operations, Lt. Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, pinned the second star on Nicholson during the ceremony attended by Gen. David Petraeus, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan. Nicholson, who has served as a brigade commander in the east and deputy commander for the south, directed the Joint Staff's Pakistan-Afghanistan coordination cell before returning to the country last month. ___ Associated Press writers Heidi Vogt in Kandahar and Deb Riechmann and Patrick Quinn in Kabul contributed to this report. ||||| A motorcycle-borne suicide bomber killed the deputy governor of strategic Kandahar province Saturday, raising fears that insurgents were reigniting a campaign of assassinations of public servants that terrorized the south's main urban hub for much of last year.The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed Abdul Latif Ashna and injured three of his bodyguards as he was driving to work in Kandahar city. It was the highest-profile strike of its kind in months.A wave of political assassinations in and around Kandahar -- including that of the city's deputy mayor last April as he prayed in a mosque, and his successor, six months later -- spiked in the spring and summer of 2010. But the killings had subsided in recent months as NATO and Afghan forces consolidated their grip on several key districts surrounding the city.Western military officials hope that improving security in the province, the traditional heartland of the Taliban, will pave the way for better governance and public services, and in turn help build backing for the beleaguered administration of President Hamid Karzai while sapping support for the insurgency. But the insurgents' killing of public officials, tribal elders and other influential figures undermines that goal.Karzai condemned the attack, as did U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry and the NATO force. Eikenberry, offering condolences while on a visit to the province, called it a "vicious assassination" and a setback to efforts to stabilize Kandahar.U.S. military officials say their operations in Kandahar are pivotal to the overall war effort, now in its 10th year. Much of last year's troop surge, which brought American forces in the country to 100,000, was centered in Kandahar and neighboring Helmand province. Last year was the deadliest of the war to date for U.S. and other Western troops, with the spike in casualties attributed to grappling with the Taliban movement on its home turf.Senior Western commanders have acknowledged that it will not be known until spring whether U.S.-led forces will be able to consolidate what they described as significant and hard-fought military gains in three districts surrounding Kandahar city.Taliban fighters usually use the winter months to rest and regroup across the border in Pakistan, but U.S. commanders say the insurgency has been considerably weakened by targeted strikes, mainly carried out by special operations forces, which have decimated movement's midlevel field command. Even so, the Taliban last year made inroads in some previously calm areas of the country, and the movement's leaders have rebuffed efforts to bring them to the bargaining table.

– A suicide bomber on an explosives-laden motorbike rammed the car of Kandahar's deputy governor today as he was on his way to work, killing him and wounding three of his bodyguards. The Taliban have claimed responsibility, reports the AP, but the Los Angeles Times notes that Abdul Latif Ashna's slaying raises the specter of last year's wave of political assassinations around Kandahar. The province is seen as vital in the Afghanistan war. "The enemies of Afghanistan cannot stop the Afghan people from development and progress by killing such personalities," said President Hamid Karzai in a statement condemning the attack. "There are thousands of other brave Afghans who will stand against the enemy and serve the people."

Plane 'taxied down main street to Newman pub' Updated A Pilbara resident has spoken of his surprise at seeing a plane parked outside his local pub after its owner apparently taxied it down the main street so he could get a drink. Officers were called to the Newman Hotel, also called the Purple Pub, about 2:00pm on Friday. Witnesses told police the light aircraft, with its propeller running, had taxied from one end of the mining town to the other. The aircraft did not have wings and was later towed from the pub. Newman resident Beau Woolcock said he and his five-year-old daughter watched on as the plane was towed away. "On the way back through [town] ... here's a plane parked outside the Purple Pub," he said. "Even more special [was] seeing one of the local coppers poking his head in the door of the plane looking like he was asking for a licence. "Even though no-one was in the plane at the time, I was like, what the hell?" Police have charged the 37-year-old plane's owner with an act likely to endanger the life, health or safety of a person. He also had his plane impounded and was due in the Newman Magistrates Court on November 18. Newman Sergeant Mark Garner said the incident was being treated very seriously because there were children walking home from school at the time. He said police had CCTV footage and had spoken to the plane's owner. "When we arrived we found a Beechcraft two seater prop-driven plane parked in one of the bays," Sergeant Garner said. "There was no-one there. The wings were off the plane. "We made some inquires with some of the people in the pub and witnesses nearby and ended up speaking to a 37-year-old male." He said the fact that the plane did not have a steering wheel made the situation very dangerous, and the propeller could also have caused significant damage. "The danger obviously taxiing a prop plane down Newman Drive, bearing in mind that kids have just come out of school," he said. "It's a busy Friday afternoon. I know it's Newman, but we do get a fair bit of traffic." Mr Woolcock said the plane had attracted a crowd. "The plane was empty but they had the fire brigade and the jaws of life there and stuff one of the local guys rocked up with his tow truck and ended up putting it up on there," he said. "There were people sitting around by the Caltex with their phones up taking snapshots... as they would be... you don't get to see that every day." Witnesses have been asked to contact police. Topics: police, newman-6753 First posted ||||| A Newman man is set to face a charge of endangering life, health or safety, later this month after allegedly taxiing an airplane with no wings and no steering wheel to the local pub. The 37-year-old man was charged on Monday night after allegedly taking the propellor driven Beechcraft two-seater aircraft through Newman to the Purple Pub on Friday October 31 at 2.10pm, Sam Dinnison said. SHARE Share on Facebook SHARE Share on Twitter TWEET Link Police say the plane had its propeller running, its wings removed and was being steered by foot pedals. Photo: Newman Police Police allege the man had purchased the aircraft from a man on the other side of town and was taking it home before deciding to stop in at the pub. An examination of the plane revealed the fuel line, hanging from the side of the aircraft, was attatched to a jerry can in the cabin enabling the plane to run, and when the man stopped at the pub he left the ignition on. SHARE Share on Facebook SHARE Share on Twitter TWEET Link Despite having no wings or a steering wheel, this plane was taxied at a Newman pub The man does not hold a pilot's license, and roads were busy with other vehicles and pedestrians at the time. He will appear in Newman Magistrates Court, facing the charge of endangering life, health or safety, on November 18.

– Buying a plane must be thirsty work: Police in Newman, Western Australia, say a man who had just purchased a two-seater Beechcraft decided to drive it home and stop for a beer at a pub on the main street on the way. A resident says he was astounded to see the plane, which had no wings or steering wheel, parked outside the Purple Pub. Even more special was "seeing one of the local coppers poking his head in the door of the plane looking like he was asking for a license," he tells ABC Radio. "Even though no one was in the plane at the time, I was like, what the hell?" After some initial puzzlement over what, if anything, the driver should be charged with, police settled on a charge of "endangering life, health, or safety," reports WAToday. A police spokesman says the incident is being taken very seriously because there were children walking home from school at the time that the man—who doesn't have a pilot's license—was taxiing through the town, using the plane's foot pedals to steer. He passed a breath test at the scene, but police decided to impound the plane.

(CNN) Because of John Wayne Gacy, John Doe No. 89 now has a name. It's Andy Drath, who as a teenage boy fit the profile of many of the serial killer's victims. Authorities don't think Drath was one of them, though investigators looking into Gacy's past did manage to put two and two together in a major breakthrough in a 36-year-old cold case and major relief to Drath's family. "You should never lose hope in finding your loved one." said Dr. Willia Wertheimer, Drath's half-sister who submitted DNA that proved pivotal. "... John Doe No. 89 now will come home to his kid sister with his own name -- Andy." A ward of Illinois' Department of Children and Family Services, Drath was a 16-year-old boy when he was last seen in late 1978 or early the next year, the Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday. He'd gone west to San Francisco, hoping to have his guardianship transferred there. It was in that Northern California city, in June 1979, that police found a male's body with multiple gunshot wounds in a homicide. They didn't know who he was, much less who killed him. And, according to authorities, his case went cold. At least until Gacy entered the picture. Gacy investigators sought help Gacy was arrested in December 1978, and about 14 months later, he went on trial. It ended with his conviction for raping and killing 33 boys and young men who he had lured into his home over a span of six years. To get them there, he'd promised them construction jobs, drugs and alcohol or by posing as a police officer or by offering money for sex. Photos: Infamous serial killers John Wayne Gacy killed 33 men and boys between 1972 and 1978. Many of his victims, mostly drifters and runaways, were buried in a crawlspace beneath his suburban Chicago home. Here's a look at some other notorious convicted serial killers. Hide Caption 1 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Jeffery Dahmer was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms for the murders of 17 men and boys in the Milwaukee area between 1978 and 1991. Dahmer had sex with the corpses of his victims and kept the body parts of others, some of which he ate. Dahmer and another prison inmate were beaten to death during a work detail in November 1994. Hide Caption 2 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Law enforcement officers meet in San Francisco in 1969 to compare notes on the Zodiac Killer, who is believed to have killed five people in 1968 and 1969. The killer gained notoriety by writing several letters to police boasting of the slayings. He claimed to have killed as many as 37 people and has never been caught. Hide Caption 3 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Authorities said DNA recovered from the body of Mary Sullivan matches that of her suspected killer, the confessed Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo. After a sample was secretly collected from a relative, DeSalvo's body was exhumed in July 2013 for more DNA testing. From mid-1962 to early 1964, the Boston Strangler killed at least 13 women. DeSalvo was stabbed to death in 1973 while serving a prison sentence for rape. Hide Caption 4 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Ed Gein killed at least two women and dug up the corpses of several others from a cemetery in Wisconsin, using their skin and body parts to make clothing and household objects in the 1950s. Hide Caption 5 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers In 1973, Juan Corona, a California farm laborer, was sentenced to 25 consecutive life sentences for the murders of 25 people found hacked to death in shallow graves. Hide Caption 6 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Joseph Paul Franklin was convicted in 1997 of murdering Gerald Gordon outside a St. Louis synagogue in 1977. Franklin was also convicted of at least five other murders, receiving a string of life sentences, but he suggested that he was responsible for 22 murders. He was best known for shooting Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, who was paralyzed from the attack. Franklin was executed in November 2013. Hide Caption 7 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers In 1977, David Berkowitz, also known as Son of Sam, confessed to the murders of six people in New York City. Berkowitz, now serving six consecutive 25-to-life sentences, claimed that a demon spoke to him through a neighbor's dog. Hide Caption 8 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Cousins Kenneth Bianchi, seen here, and Angelo Buono were charged with the murders of nine women between 1977 and 1978. Also known as the Hillside Stranglers, the cousins sexually assaulted and sometimes tortured their victims, leaving their bodies on roadsides in the hills of Southern California. Hide Caption 9 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Wayne Williams killed at least two men between 1979 and 1981, and police believed he might have been responsible for more than 20 other deaths in the Atlanta area. Williams was convicted and sentenced to two life terms in 1982. Hide Caption 10 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers After serving 15 years for murdering his mother, Henry Lee Lucas was convicted in 1985 in nine more murders. Lucas was the only inmate spared from execution by Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Hide Caption 11 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Richard Ramirez, also known as the Night Stalker, was convicted of 13 murders and sentenced to death in California in 1989. The self-proclaimed devil worshiper found his victims in quiet neighborhoods and entered their homes through unlocked windows and doors. Hide Caption 12 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers During a routine traffic stop, a police officer found a dead U.S. Marine in the front seat of a car driven by Randy Steven Kraft. Kraft was linked to 45 murders and sentenced to death in 1989. He would pick up hitchhikers, give them drugs and alcohol, sexually assault them and then mutilate and strangle them. Hide Caption 13 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Ted Bundy raped and killed at least 16 young women in the early to mid-1970s before he was executed in 1989. A crowd of several hundred gathered outside the prison where he was executed, and they cheered at the news of his death. Hide Caption 14 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Joel David Rifkin was stopped by police for driving without a license plate when a body was found in his pickup. Rifkin killed 17 women in New York between 1991 and 1993 and was sentenced to life in prison. Hide Caption 15 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Charles Ng, seen here, and accomplice Leonard Lake tortured, killed and buried 11 people in northern California between 1984 and 1985. After the men were arrested for shoplifting, police found bullets and a silencer in their car and took them into the police station for questioning. Lake killed himself there with a cyanide pill. Ng was later sentenced to death. Hide Caption 16 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Robert Lee Yates Jr. killed 15 people, most of them between 1996 and 1998. He buried one of them in a flower bed by his house in the Spokane, Washington, area. Most of his victims were prostitutes or drug addicts he killed in his van. He is on Washington's death row. Hide Caption 17 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Gary Leon Ridgway, also known as the Green River Killer, confessed to 48 killings after his DNA was linked to a few of his victims. Remains of his victims, mostly runaways and prostitutes, turned up in ravines, rivers, airports and freeways in the Pacific Northwest. Hide Caption 18 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Aileen Wuornos was executed in Florida in 2002 for the murders of seven men whom she had lured by posing as a prostitute or a distressed traveler. Hide Caption 19 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Derrick Todd Lee was accused of raping and killing six women in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, between 2001 and 2003. He was arrested in Atlanta for the murder of Charlotte Murray Pace, convicted in 2004 and sentenced to death. Hide Caption 20 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Danny Rolling pleaded guilty to the 1990 murders of five students he raped, tortured and mutilated in Gainesville, Florida. Rolling was also found responsible for a 1991 triple homicide in Shreveport, Louisiana, and was executed in 2006. Hide Caption 21 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Angel Maturino Resendez, also known as the Railway Killer, was a drifter from Mexico. During the 1990s, he would rob and kill his victims near railroad tracks on both sides of the border and then hop rail cars to escape. Resendez was executed in 2006. Hide Caption 22 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Pig farmer Robert Pickton was charged with 26 counts of murder after police found the bodies of young women on his farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. He was convicted of six murders in 2007, and he is serving a life sentence. Hide Caption 23 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers The BTK Strangler, Dennis Rader, killed 10 people between 1977 and 1991 in the Wichita, Kansas, area. He was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms in 2005. Rader named himself BTK, short for "bind, torture, kill." Hide Caption 24 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Police found the decomposing and buried bodies of 10 women and the skull of another woman at the Cleveland home of ex-Marine Anthony Sowell. He was convicted and given the death penalty in 2011. Hide Caption 25 of 26 Photos: Infamous serial killers Chester Dewayne Turner was sentenced to death for murdering 14 women and one victim's unborn fetus in the Los Angeles area between 1987 and 1998. Turner was later convicted and sentenced to death for four more murders. Hide Caption 26 of 26 Twenty-eight bodies were found in and around the serial killer's Chicago home, most of them in a 40-foot crawl space beneath his house and garage. Four others had been thrown into the Des Plaines River. Yet while authorities believed and the jury agreed that Gacy was responsible for all these deaths, that didn't mean they knew who all of them were. That was the case in 2011, seven years after the serial killer was executed, when the Cook County Sheriff's Office launched a new effort to identify eight of the victims. This time, they'd use new technology to obtain DNA profiles, an effort they hoped would provide closure to families looking for their loved ones for decades. Sheriff: Case shows 'never give up' Only of those eight Gacy victims, William George Bundy, has been positively identified as a result. The Cook County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Wednesday that 12 cases have been closed as a result of Gacy-related leads, in part because relatives of missing people from that era and area came forward with new information at the urging of authorities. William George Bundy was nearly 19 when he was reported missing in October 1976. Decades later, authorities determined that John Wayne Gacy had killed him. In five cases, once-missing people were found alive and were reunited with their families. Two others died of natural causes after they were reported missing. And there was some resolution for four other instances -- Drath being one of them. Wertheimer, his maternal half-sister, reached out to the Sheriff's Office and submitted DNA thinking that Drath -- as a young white male from Chicago's North Side -- fit the profile of Gacy's other victims. Investigators weren't able to link her to any of Gacy's known victims, but her information was uploaded to a federal DNA database. DNA from Darth's tissue samples was uploaded in late 2014, though it wasn't until May 2015 that this was matched with Wertheimer. Dental records and a tattoo with the name "Andy" confirmed the connection. Wertheimer learned of the link on September 10, and San Francisco police are now trying to find the killer -- not of John Doe No. 89 but of Andre "Andy" Drath. "I'm thankful that Andy Drath will be brought home and laid to rest with the dignity he deserves," Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said. "This breakthrough illustrates that we should never give up on a cold case, no matter how hopeless it appears." ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.

– The effort to identify all of John Wayne Gacy's victims has solved another decades-old disappearance, and while it isn't exactly a happy ending, Andy Drath's relatives now know that he wasn't murdered by the notorious serial killer. Drath was 16 when he was last heard from in Illinois in 1978, and DNA submitted as part of the Gacy probe helped investigators discover that he was "John Doe No. 89," who was shot dead in San Francisco in 1979, CNN reports. His half-sister, Dr. Willa Wertheimer, submitted her DNA to the Gacy investigation because he fit the profile of the Chicago killer's dozens of victims. "You should never lose hope in finding your loved one," Wertheimer said in a release issued by the office of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, per the Los Angeles Times. "He could still be living, or at least your heart can know the peace of bringing him home." John Doe No. 89, she says, "now will come home to his kid sister with his own name—Andy." Now that Drath has been identified, authorities in San Francisco are taking another look at the cold case in the hope of finding the killer, CNN reports. The identities of seven of Gacy's 33 known victims are still unknown. (The probe has found five missing people alive, including a man in Montana who lost touch with his family after getting "caught up in the '70s lifestyle.")

Keith Urban is no stranger to sexy selfies—but unlike some stars, he's only sharing them with wife Nicole Kidman. Instead of posting them online a la Nicki Minaj, Urban and his spouse of seven years keep things hot by sexting each other when their jobs force them to be on separate sides of the globe. Urban, 45, is currently touring and taping American Idol in the United States, while Kidman, 46, is shooting a movie in London. "We never text. We never email," Urban says during the Monday, Oct. 28, episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "Phone calls only, which I really love." ||||| Photos: Nicole Kidman’s Style Evolution “I was so young,” Nicole Kidman tells Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner in the December-issue cover story, reflecting back on her marriage to Tom Cruise when she was just 23 years old. “And you know, with no disrespect to what I had with Tom, I’ve met my great love now. And I really did not know if that was going to happen. I wanted it, but I didn’t want it for a while, because I didn’t want to jump from one relationship to another. I had a lot of time alone, which was really, really good, because I was a child, really, when I got married. And I needed to grow up.” Kidman, who was playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours at the time of her divorce from Cruise, recalls shooting Woolf’s suicide scene, walking into the River Ouse over and over again, as electric fans whipped up the river’s waves. “Walking into the river with those stones in my pockets—I chose life,” she says. “At the time, I was at a low point, and by playing her, it put me into a place of appreciating life.” Photos: Nicole Kidman in Vanity Fair Throughout the Years When asked about the unreal level of fame she endured during her marriage to Cruise, Kidman says, “There is something about that sort of existence that, if you really focus on each other and you’re in that bubble, it’s very intoxicating, because it’s just the two of you. And there is only one other person that’s going through it. So it brings you very close, and it’s deeply romantic. I’m sure Brad and Angelina have that—because there’s nobody else that understands it except that person who’s sleeping right next to you.” Kidman tells Kashner, “Having experienced extreme fame and now getting to a place where it’s not so dominating in my life, I’m always surprised when I go somewhere and people know who I am.” She explains that when it’s seen through the eyes of her children “it jars me again, because they ask, ‘Why do they want a photo?’ and ‘Why is that person saying hello to you when you don’t know them?’ All of that stuff has to be explained to a five-year-old. So I see it through a different perspective.” Kidman, who now lives in Nashville with her husband, Keith Urban, and their two daughters, tells Kashner she doesn’t miss Hollywood. “The whole business side of it—it’s too present. It doesn’t suit me,” she explains. “There’s an enormous amount you have to give up if you want to have a family. You can have a certain career, but you can’t be living in Hollywood, [where] absolutely everything, everything revolves around it. That wasn’t my choice. I’d rather revolve around somebody else’s career and then still find my own.” Kidman says she loves living in Nashville, “because I can kind of have a very odd, idiosyncratic kind of path. I have stepped away from the fame part of it. I didn’t find what I was looking for in fame. So I went, O.K., this is not for me. And it was such a blessing that I found somebody who said, ‘Well, are you willing to move to Tennessee?’ And I was ‘Oh, am I willing to move!’” Photos: Tom Cruise in Vanity Fair Throughout the Years Kidman talks to Kashner about how having children has affected her marriage with Urban, saying it “gives you some glue, [so] you’re both kind of in there together and you’re having to work through raising them, which brings up an enormous amount of personal things in terms of history and your own life. Yet if you kind of move into each other, you discover and heal a lot of things in each other, too. Well, that’s what I’ve found for us—very, very healing, when it’s gently, gently done.” Though Kidman calls her marriage “very, very peaceful,” she admits to Kashner that she struggles between “giving my life to my lover and my children” and “giving my life to my artistic desires.” Kidman says that’s always going to be her struggle “because I’m passionate, so I want to be able to give completely to both, and that doesn’t work always.” She tells Kashner “it’s a push-pull. It’s uncharted. My husband and I are in uncharted territory because we’re trying to find artistic expression but also we’re incredibly connected as a family—we’re very, very tight, very, very close, and I have a very, very primal protection of my family.” To read the full version of this story, and the rest of the December issue, download Vanity Fair’s digital edition (available for your tablet device or iPhone) with Amazon’s one-click shopping.

– Nicole Kidman continues her recent trend of dishing about her marriage to Tom Cruise in a new cover interview with Vanity Fair. "I was so young," she says of marrying Cruise at age 23. "I was a child, really, when I got married." That's why she was alone for some time after her divorce. "I needed to grow up," she says, and she also "didn't want to jump from one relationship to another." As for what it was like to be in a relationship with such a high-profile person, well, there's one other couple that likely understands, Kidman says. "There is something about that sort of existence that, if you really focus on each other and you’re in that bubble, it’s very intoxicating, because it’s just the two of you," she explains. "And there is only one other person that’s going through it. So it brings you very close, and it’s deeply romantic. I’m sure Brad and Angelina have that—because there’s nobody else that understands it except that person who’s sleeping right next to you." But she wouldn't call Cruise her "great love"—that's current husband Keith Urban, she says, adding, "No disrespect to what I had with Tom." As for Urban, E! reports that he yesterday admitted to Ellen DeGeneres that he and Kidman engage in "nice sex texting" maybe once "a year." Also: "I'm a little red right now."

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. ||||| FILE--In this Sept. 29, 2016, file photo, attorney Anthony Douglas Rappaport, left, speaks at a news conference with his clients, Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn, right, in San Francisco.... (Associated Press) FILE--In this Sept. 29, 2016, file photo, attorney Anthony Douglas Rappaport, left, speaks at a news conference with his clients, Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn, right, in San Francisco. The couple that police detectives wrongly accused of fabricating the woman's kidnapping from their... (Associated Press) VALLEJO, Calif. (AP) — A couple reached a $2.5 million settlement with a Northern California city and its police department after investigators dismissed the woman's elaborate and bizarre kidnapping as a hoax. Police in the city of Vallejo initially discounted a report by Denise Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, that a masked intruder drugged them in their home and then kidnapped her in 2015. The assailant sexually assaulted Huskins and released her two days later outside her family's home in Southern California. The Associated Press doesn't normally name victims of sexual assault, but Huskins has frequently spoken publicly about the case in the past. Police realized the couple were telling the truth after a disbarred Harvard University-trained attorney, Matthew Muller, was implicated in another crime and tied to the abduction. He pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and is serving a 40-year prison term. Quinn's mother, Marianne Quinn, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the settlement in the lawsuit was reached Thursday. Vallejo police had apologized after discounting the outlandish kidnapping. Muller used a drone to spy on the couple before he broke into their home with a fake gun, tied them up and made them drink a sleep-inducing liquid, prosecutors said. They were blindfolded while Muller played a recorded message that made it seem as if there was more than one kidnapper. He put Huskins in the trunk of his car, drove her to his home in South Lake Tahoe and held her there for two days. Investigators said they found videos of Muller arranging cameras in a bedroom and then recording himself twice sexually assaulting his blindfolded victim. During and after the kidnapping, Muller used an anonymous email address to send messages to a San Francisco reporter claiming that Huskins was abducted by a team of elite criminals practicing their tactics. After she was released in the city of Huntington Beach, Vallejo police called the kidnapping a hoax and erroneously likened it to the book and movie "Gone Girl," in which a woman goes missing and then lies about being kidnapped when she reappears. Muller was arrested in an attempted robbery at another San Francisco Bay Area home. Authorities said they found a cellphone that they traced to Muller and a subsequent search of a car and home turned up evidence, including a computer Muller stole from Quinn, linking him to the abduction. Huskins sued police, and a judge ruled last year that the lawsuit could proceed. "The conduct plaintiffs allege goes beyond defendants being skeptical, investigating alternate theories, and expressing skepticism," U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley wrote in his 22-page decision, adding that, "A reasonable jury could find that defendants engaged in conduct that was extreme and outrageous." ___ Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com ||||| - The city of Vallejo has agreed to pay a $2.5 million settlement for a federal lawsuit filed by a couple in a bizarre kidnapping case from 2015. An attorney for Denise Huskins and her fiance Aaron Quinn said his clients are "grateful." James M. Wagstaffe, the couples attorney, issued a statement Thursday that said, "One can only hope that the message of this settlement will be that victims are to be believed and that the police will accept a woman’s highly credible report that she was kidnaped and raped.” He added that the "nightmare" experience has concluded. The lawsuit accused the city and two police officers of defamation and inflicting emotional distress. The ordeal began in March, 2015 when Huskins, 30 at the time, was forcibly taken from her Mare Island home by an unknown abductor and a ransom demand was made. Police did not believe the story, initially saying the case was a hoax and many compared it to the film 'Gone Girl', in which a woman goes missing and then lies about being kidnaped when she reappears. Police eventually apologized for their mistake. In March of 2017, two days after Huskins' kidnaper, ex-lawyer Matthew Muller was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison, the couple got engaged and posted photos publicly on Facebook. During the trial, the couple gave gut-wrenching testimony against their tormentor. They said he drugged them and bound them in their home in an elaborate kidnapping that involved spying on them with a remote-controlled drone. Muller, the kidnaper, even came to Huskins’ defense, blasting police for not believing her story. He went as far as writing a series of bizarre emails and a manifesto, including writings to KTVU's Henry Lee, outlining what he had done. The City of Vallejo admits no wrongdoing in the settlement. The @CityofVallejo has agreed to pay $2.5M to settle federal lawsuit filed by Denise Huskins & bf, who said cops faked her kidnapping, when in fact she was abducted by Matthew Muller. Couple’s attorney sends statement to @KTVU: pic.twitter.com/eoZCqONAjZ — Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) March 16, 2018

– A California woman whose kidnapping and rape were dismissed by police as a hoax akin to Gone Girl has settled with the City of Vallejo and its police department for $2.5 million, her family tells KGO. In 2015, Denise Huskins and boyfriend Aaron Quinn were drugged inside their home by a masked intruder, who kidnapped the then-30-year-old woman. Huskins was released outside her family's home two days later after being sexually assaulted. At the time, their claims were dismissed by police, who accused Huskins of making up the kidnapping. They only came around after the kidnapper, Matthew Muller, a Harvard-trained attorney and former Marine, was implicated in a different crime. He claimed to be part of a gang of "gentlemen criminals." While police eventually apologized to Huskins and Quinn, a federal judge rejected the city's effort to toss the couple's lawsuit. The settlement was reached Thursday, the AP reports. An attorney for Huskins and Quinn says the couple is "grateful." "One can only hope that the message of this settlement will be that victims are to be believed and that the police will accept a woman’s highly credible report that she was kidnapped and raped," KTVU quotes James Wagstaffe as saying. As part of the settlement, the City of Vallejo admits no wrongdoing. Muller, who pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and even criticized police for not believing Huskins, is serving a 40-year prison sentence.

Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP)/AFP/File / Handout Premchai being arrested for poaching Thai officials will test human faeces found at a campsite in a wildlife sanctuary to try to prove their case against a tycoon accused of poaching a leopard. Construction magnate Premchai Karnasuta has denied poaching charges levelled against him and three others. They were arrested earlier this month in the sanctuary in western Thailand where rangers stumbled on their camp and found guns and animal carcasses. Rich and influential Thais have a habit of avoiding justice. The junta which seized power in 2014 is on the back foot over a luxury watch scandal that has engulfed the defence minister, and allegations that the ex-police chief borrowed nearly $10 million from a fugitive brothel owner. Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, head of a special task force with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said the discovery of the excrement was important because it was near the campsite and he did not believe Premchai would wander deep into the woods for such a purpose. He said the excrement was suspiciously close to spent bullet casings and the location where the panther was skinned. "It can prove that he was there, he cannot say he was not there," Chaiwat said, adding that the waste would be tested for Premchai's DNA. Premchai, president of Italian-Thai Development Company which built Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport among many other major projects, denied poaching after his arrest. He and his camping colleagues have been bailed while the case is under investigation. The Thungyai Naresuan national park where Premchai was arrested is in tourist-friendly Kanchanaburi province. The slain animals at the campsite were a black leopard, a Kalij pheasant and a red muntjac or barking deer -- protected species under Thai conservation law. ||||| 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.

– It's not every day that a tycoon's feces are tested by the authorities, but such is the case in Thailand. Wildlife officials accuse Premchai Karnasuta—ranked by Forbes as the country's 35th richest person, with an estimated net worth of $240 million—of poaching a leopard and other animals in the Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in the country's west. AFP reports rangers came up on the camp set up by Premchai, 63, and three others and found 10 carcasses of protected species, including a black leopard, a Kalij pheasant, and a red muntjac. The group was arrested Feb. 4, reports the Bangkok Post. Human excrement was found there, too, and officials say that its presence near the camp is noteworthy. They don't believe Premchai—who made his fortune in construction and heads the Italian-Thai Development Company, which erected Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport—would have strayed far from the camp when nature called. It's not the only test being conducted: Elephant tusks found in his Bangkok home will be analyzed to determine whether they came from Africa illegally. The Post reports on another potential clue: Two pellets identified via X-ray in the pheasant carcass will be tested and compared to the firearms taken from the suspects, who have denied the allegations. Premchai has a March 26 court date; wary of any potential attempt to flee, Thailand's immigration checkpoints have been told to keep watch for him. (This billionaire is involved in his own poop situation.)

A husband and wife returned home from a Caribbean cruise with identical souvenirs from their vacation: parasitic infections that caused itchy, red rashes on the couple's backsides, according to a report of their case. After sunbathing on a sandy beach in Martinique one afternoon, the wife said she felt a burning sensation on her rear end. By the next day, this irritation had blossomed into an extremely itchy rash with "red pinprick marks," according to the report, which was published Jan. 13 in the journal BMJ Case Reports. The woman's husband also developed a rash on his backside after spending time with his wife on the beach. So, the British couple sought help from the medical staff on the cruise ship, who prescribed antibiotics and anti-fungal medications, as well as a steroid cream to relieve the rash and quell the itchiness, the report said. [8 Awful Parasite Infections That Will Make Your Skin Crawl] But these treatments didn't help, so when the couple returned home from the cruise, they went to the hospital. By this point, it had been 10 days since they'd sat on the Martinique beach. When doctors at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, England, examined the 52-year-old woman, they saw a wavy, red rash on her bottom. Her husband had a similar-looking rash on his backside, and doctors diagnosed both of them with "cutaneous larva migrans," according to the case report. This is a skin condition caused by a hookworm infection. The most common culprit for the infection in the Caribbean is the hookworm Ancylostoma braziliense, according to the case report. People can pick up the parasite after encountering hookworm larvae; these can be excreted in the feces of an infected animal, typically a dog or cat, onto sandy beaches or moist soil, the report said. A high percentage of dogs and cats are infected with hookworm, especially strays, said Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who was not involved in the couple's case. When these animals defecate on the beach, hookworm larvae can easily migrate through the sand, he said. But Caribbean beaches aren't the only places you can find hookworms; some beaches along the Gulf Coast of the U. S. and the Atlantic seaboard may also be teaming with the parasites, Hotez told Live Science. [10 Ways the Beach Can Kill You] For a person to become infected with hookworm, there has to be direct contact between the skin and the larvae of the worm, Hotez said. That means that walking barefoot on contaminated beach may cause the infection. Hotez said he speculates that this couple may have sat bare-bottomed on the sand, or the sand may have gotten into their bathing suits. Once a hookworm larva penetrates a person's skin, it can burrow around, leaving a trail-like rash of inflamed skin known as a "creeping eruption," Hotez said. Sometimes, the rash can have a winding appearance, as was the case for this couple, or sometimes it can look like lines on the skin, he noted. (The species of hookworm that is thought to have infected the couple can't reproduce in humans; as a result, when the worms infect humans, they typically burrow around in the skin until they die, Live Science previously reported.) Doctors prescribed anti-parasitic medication to the husband and wife, according to the report. But five days later, the woman went to the emergency room because she was experiencing shortness of breath, a dry cough and chest pain. Her husband also developed a dry cough. A small percentage of people with cutaneous larva migrans may get symptoms in their lungs, Hotez said. When this occurs, it means the larvae got into the bloodstream and were carried to the lungs, he said. A chest X-ray can show if the larvae have infiltrated the lungs, Hotez said. And indeed, there was evidence of this in both the man and the woman, according to the case report. Lung-related symptoms tend to happen when there is significant exposure to hookworm larvae, Hotez noted; in other words, a person would have to be infected with a large number of larvae. The couple was given a second dose of anti-parasitic medication, and the treatment quickly helped clear up their skin as well as their lungs, according to the case report. Originally published on Live Science. ||||| 1/50 27 February 2018 Icicles hang from a frozen elephant fountain in Colchester. Freezing weather conditions dubbed the "Beast from the East" has seen snow and sub-zero temperatures hit the UK. Getty Images 2/50 26 February 2018 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn makes a keynote speech as he sets out Labour's position on Brexit, at the National Transport Design Centre in Coventry. Jeremy Corbyn's Brexit speech confirmed that a Labour Government would negotiate full tariff-free access to EU markets for UK business. Getty 3/50 25 February 2018 Victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles come together to take part in the Time for truth march through Belfast city centre against the stalled efforts in dealing with Northern Ireland's legacy issues. Rex 4/50 24 February 2018 Oxford University Boat Club race in preparation for The Cancer Research UK Boat Race 2018, Oxford University Boat Club race Oxford Brookes University in London, England. Getty 5/50 23 February 2018 Former BHS owner Dominic Chappell leaves Barkingside Magistrates Court after being given a £87,170 fine in Barking, England. Mr Chappell, who was in charge of BHS for a year before it went bust, was found guilty of failing to provide information demanded by The Pensions Regulator. Getty 6/50 22 February 2018 Youths chase after the leather ball during the annual 'Fastern Eve Handba' event in Jedburgh's High Street in the Scottish Borders in Jedburgh, Scotland. The annual event, which started in the 1700's, takes place today and involves two teams, the Uppies (residents from the higher part of Jedburgh) and the Doonies (residents from the lower part of Jedburgh) getting the ball to either the top or bottom of the town. The ball which is made of leather, stuffed with straw and decorated with ribbons is thrown into the crowd to begin the game. Getty 7/50 21 February 2018 An anti-Brexit campaign battle bus drives through Westminster in London, England. The crowd-funded coach is to tour the country making 33 stops two years after the Vote Leave campaign drove a similar bus around the UK with the now famous slogan: 'We send the EU £350 million a week let's fund our NHS instead'. Getty 8/50 20 February 2018 Sarah Clarke is introduced as the new Black Rod to the House of Lords. She is the first female Black Rod in the 650-year history of the role and will be known as the Lady Usher of the Black Rod. PA 9/50 19 February 2018 Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson holds a rhinoceros horn as he visits a Metropolitan Police wildlife crime unit facility in London. The Foreign Secretary's visit was to help him learn more about the work they do internationally to tackle the illegal wildlife trade (IWT). AFP/Getty 10/50 18 February 2018 Allison Janney, Daniel Kaluuya and Gary Oldman clutching their BAFTA awards Rex 11/50 17 February 2018 Lizzy Yarnold of Great Britain celebrates after winning the gold medal during the Women's Skeleton on day eight of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games Getty 12/50 16 February 2018 Models walk the runway at the Richard Malone show during London Fashion Week Ian Gavan/BFC/Getty 13/50 15 February 2018 Dame Vivienne Westwood walks the runway to model in the #INEOSVTHEPEOPLE catwalk presentation outside fracking giant INEOS’s headquarters in London Getty 14/50 14 February 2018 Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson delivers his speech: Road to Brexit, a United Kingdom, as part of the Government’s road map on Brexit, at the Policy Exchange, London PA 15/50 13 February 2018 England and Durham cricketer Ben Stokes, 26, leaving Bristol Magistrates' Court, where he was told he will face a crown court trial over an altercation outside a nightclub PA 16/50 12 February 2018 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meets with local party supporters and residents in Penicuik, Midlothian, before speaking at a campaign rally at the town's Miners Welfare Hall PA 17/50 9 February 2018 Volunteers create a heart shaped collection of plastic bottles littering the foreshore of the River Thames at Queenhithe Dock in central London, in an event organised by the #OneLess campaign and Thames21 to draw attention to the impact that single-use plastic water bottles are having on the environment. PA 18/50 8 February 2018 Florist Hank Roling poses with a Vanda orchid during a press preview of the Thai Orchid Festival at Kew Gardens, London Getty 19/50 7 February 2018 A staff member poses behind a moon jellyfish tank during the annual stock-take at London Zoo. AP 20/50 6 February 2018 Prime Minister Theresa May joins female Members of both Houses at the Palace of Westminster, to mark the 100th anniversary of the passing of the Representation of the People Act, which gave certain women over the age of 30 a vote and the right to stand for Parliament. UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/PA 21/50 5 February 2018 Lauri Love outside the Royal Courts of Justice after a judge ruled against extraditing him to America in a case where he was accused of hacking thousands of US government computers. AP 22/50 4 February 2018 A statue of suffragette Alice Hawkins being unveiled in Market Square, Leicester. Ms Hawkins, a shoe machinist, was jailed five times while leading the Suffragette campaign in the city in the early 20th Century. PA 23/50 3 February 2018 Demonstrators gather on Gover Street in central London ahead of a march towards Downing Street to protest against underfunding and privatisation of the NHS and demand an end to the winter crisis in the health service. Rex 24/50 2 February 2018 Millicent Fawcett by Annie Swynnerton, newly on display at Tate Britain. Fawcett was a leading figure in the suffragist movement and campaigned relentlessly to get the vote for women in this country. The portrait of her is on display at Tate Britain to mark the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, which gave women over 30 the right to vote. Rex 25/50 1 February 2018 British Prime Minister Theresa May and husband Philip May visit the Forbidden City in Beijing during her three-day visit to China. Getty 26/50 31 January 2018 A super moon rises behind blocks of flats in north London. Reuters 27/50 30 January 2018 Members of the Jarl Squad dressed in Viking suits after marching through the streets in Lerwick on the Shetland Isles during the Up Helly Aa Viking Festival. PA 28/50 29 January 2018 Travis Frain (left) and Dan Hett from the Survivors Against Terror Group talk to students at Manchester Enterprise Academy. Frain survived the Westminster attack in March 2017, while Hett’s brother Martin was one of the 22 who died in the Manchester attack in May 2017. PA 29/50 28 January 2018 Members of the English Civil War Society take part in the King's Army Annual March and Parade, in London, as they commemorate the execution of Charles I. The route follows the route taken by Charles I from St James Palace on the Mall to the place of his death at the Banqueting House in Whitehall. PA 30/50 27 January 2018 Will Grigg celebrates scoring Wigan's second goal from the penalty spot during the Emirates FA Cup, fourth round match against West Ham at the DW Stadium. League One Wigan knocked out the Premier League side 2-0. PA 31/50 26 January 2018 US entrepreneur and co-founder of the Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates and Britain's International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt meet vet Andy Hopker and students Vanya Lalljee and Jennifer Hunt during an event to launch the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security at the University of Edinburgh. AFP/Getty 32/50 25 January 2018 President Donald Trump meets with British Prime Minister Theresa May at the World Economic Forum in Davos. AP 33/50 24 January 2018 Alun Wyn Jones of Wales, Guilhem Guirado of France, Dylan Hartley of England, Rory Best of Ireland, John Barclay of Scotland and Sergio Parisse of Italy pose with the trophy during the 6 Nations Launch event at the Hilton in London. Getty 34/50 23 January 2018 Kyle Edmund reacts after winning his men's quarter-final match against Grigor Dimitrov at the Australian Open. He will play sixth seed Marin Cilic in the semi-final. Rex 35/50 22 January 2018 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson next to US Ambassador to Britain Woody Johnson on a visit to the new embassy in London, a discreet move after criticism of US President Donald Trump who refused to inaugurate it. AFP/Getty 36/50 21 January 2018 Women's rights demonstrators hold placards and chant slogans during the Time's Up rally at Richmond Terrace, opposite Downing Street. The Time's Up Women's March marks the one year anniversary of the first Women's March in London and in 2018 it is inspired by the Time's Up movement against sexual abuse. The Time's Up initiative was launched at the start of January 2018 as a response to the #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Getty 37/50 20 January 2018 Britain's Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland perform in the pairs ice dance free dance event at the European figure skating championships in Moscow. AP 38/50 19 January 2018 Sheep graze in a field in Thornhill, Scotland. Forecasters have issued a new warning of snow and icy conditions in Southern Scotland with the police advising people to leave work early in affected areas. Getty 39/50 18 January 2018 French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May look up at a military fly past at Sandhurst Military Academy in Camberley. Theresa May is expected to make an announcement as part of the Anglo-France Summit at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where she will discuss Britain's strong and wide-ranging bilateral relationship with President Macron. EPA 40/50 17 January 2018 A jackknifed lorry is recovered on the M74, following motorists spending the night stranded on the motorway in Abington, Scotland. Mountain rescue teams spent the night helping drivers following heavy snowfall in the Dumfries and Galloway region. Getty 41/50 16 January 2018 Carillion, which has a variety of private and public service contracts in Britain and employs 43,000 staff worldwide, announced its immediate liquidation on Monday after the heavily-indebted company failed to secure a last-ditch financial rescue from the government and banks. Carillion held a £335 million contract to build the new Liverpool city hospital, the delivery of which was already delayed by the time the company went into liquidation. AFP 42/50 15 January 2018 Dolores O’Riordan, frontwoman of the iconic Irish grunge-rock band The Cranberries, died suddenly at the age of 46. A spokesperson for O’Riordan said she died “suddenly” in London, where she had travelled for a short recording session. Rex 43/50 14 January 2018 Glen Durrant celebrates with the trophy after victory during day nine of the BDO World Professional Darts Championship 2018 at The Lakeside. PA 44/50 13 January 2018 The Whittlesea Straw Bear festival in Cambridgeshire celebrates the old Fenland plough custom of parading straw bears around the town every January. This Festival happens on the first weekend after Plough Monday. The procession, led by the Straw Bear, has over 250 dancers, musicians and performers. They perform traditional Molly, Morris, Clog and Sword dancing. Rex 45/50 12 January 2018 Workers look at the Madame Tussauds wax figure of US President Donald Trump outside the new US Embassy in Nine Elms, London, after Mr Trump confirmed he will not travel to the UK to open the new building - and hit out at the location of the 1.2 billion dollar (£886 million) project. Writing on Twitter, Trump said he thought the embassy's move from Grosvenor Square in the prestigious Mayfair district of central London to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, was a "bad deal". PA 46/50 11 January 2018 British Prime Minister Theresa May watches birds from inside a bird hide with school children at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust's (WWT) ahead of a speech to launch the government's environment plan in London. Campaigners on January 11 criticised Theresa May's plan to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste within 25 years, calling it a "missed opportunity" that lacked the necessary urgency. The government will extend a charge on plastic bags to all businesses and encourage supermarkets to introduce plastic-free aisles, May said in speech. AFP/Getty 47/50 10 January 2018 Cirque du Soleil 'OVO' dress rehearsal at the Royal Albert Hall. Rex 48/50 8 January 2018 Journalist Carrie Gracie speaks to the media outside the BBC in London after she turned down a £45,000 rise, describing the offer as a "botched solution" to the problem of unequal pay at the BBC. Gracie said she told the corporation she wanted equality, rather than more money, and was determined not to help the organisation "perpetuate a failing pay structure by discriminating against women". PA 49/50 9 January 2018 Prime Minister Theresa May leads her first cabinet meeting of the new year at 10 Downing street. PA ||||| Web archive data from a crawl of open access PDF URLs provided by Unpaywall. ||||| An estimated 576-740 million people in the world are infected with hookworm. Hookworm was once widespread in the United States, particularly in the southeastern region, but improvements in living conditions have greatly reduced hookworm infections. Hookworm, Ascaris, and whipworm are known as soil-transmitted helminths (parasitic worms). Together, they account for a major burden of disease worldwide. Hookworms live in the small intestine. Hookworm eggs are passed in the feces of an infected person. If the infected person defecates outside (near bushes, in a garden, or field) of if the feces of an infected person are used as fertilizer, eggs are deposited on soil. They can then mature and hatch, releasing larvae (immature worms). The larvae mature into a form that can penetrate the skin of humans. Hookworm infection is mainly acquired by walking barefoot on contaminated soil. One kind of hookworm can also be transmitted through the ingestion of larvae. Most people infected with hookworms have no symptoms. Some have gastrointestinal symptoms, especially persons who are infected for the first time. The most serious effects of hookworm infection are blood loss leading to anemia, in addition to protein loss. Hookworm infections are treatable with medication prescribed by your health care provider. Image: L: Filariform (L3) hookworm larva in a wet mount. R: Hookworm rhabditiform larva (wet preparation). Credit: DPDx ||||| Medical and scientific journals withdraw or retract articles on a regular basis, usually because of errors discovered or questions raised about the research described. A few days ago, however, a highly unusual “correction” appeared in the prestigious British Medical Journal announcing the withdrawal of a case study titled “Cutaneous larva migrans with pulmonary involvement.” The article, which was not retracted, contained no errors. The BMJ simply said in the undated note that “with no admission of liability, BMJ has removed this article voluntarily at the request of the patient concerned.” Here’s what happened. While sunbathing on a beach in Martinique, a British woman suddenly felt a burning sensation on her backside. The next day, she woke up to find a nasty rash of “red pinprick marks” on her bottom. Soon her husband broke out with the same rash in the same unfortunate place. While they received treatment in Martinique in the form of steroid cream, antibiotics and antifungal medication, the irritation did not subside. The voyage home, 10 days on a cruise ship, must have been uncomfortable. Nor was the rash gone when they got home. So they went for treatment at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, England. Doctors there found their backsides “infested by worms,” as the Cambridge News reported. The couple found relief from a combination of medications. The doctors thought their case so interesting they wrote it up for the British Medical Journal. The journal did not use the name of the patients. But as journals often do in case studies, it accompanied the text with photos — in this case, of their backsides, from different angles, in full color. The couple gave their permission and were warned that journal articles were often read by journalists as well as medical professionals, the BMJ said in an email to The Washington Post. But the couple apparently had not anticipated the potential for tabloid interest. By mid-January, their buttocks were spread across Britain and, indeed the world, with headlines such as “Til Rash Do Us Part” in The Sun and “Caribbean getaway leaves a nasty souvenir” in the Daily Mail. These were not your typical titillating tabloid photos. They were shots from various distances of behinds bearing inflamed red blotches. Many tabloid readers found them gross. “A description would have done,” commented one reader of Britain’s Daily Mail, adding that “we didnt need to see the evidence.” “Does the DM pixelator have a day off today?!?,” wrote another. “Thanks — that’s put me right off my cheese & ham toastie,” wrote a third. Like the journal article, the stories did not include the names of the patients or say where they lived or when they visited Martinique. But there was enough information — the age of the woman, the island, the cruise, the hospital — that the couple apparently felt that acquaintances conceivably could have made the connection. One of the patients — the journal didn’t say which one — got in touch with BMJ and “explained that they were concerned about being identified by close friends and/or colleagues, as a result of the subsequent media coverage,” the publication said in a statement emailed to The Post. “Prior to publication of the article, written consent from the patient was obtained,” said the statement. “By signing the consent form, the patient indicated their understanding that complete anonymity could not be guaranteed and it was also made clear in the consent form that BMJ publications are viewed by many non-doctors, including journalists.” “The patient’s concerns did not amount to a legal threat,” it added. “… Nevertheless, the journal took the editorial decision to remove the article, because of the distress the patient had suffered. ” … To be clear, the removal of the article does not amount to a retraction and the journal stands by its factual content.” A spokesman for the hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals, also issued a statement: “The case study was shared with the BMJ with the aim of medical advancement, to aid other clinicians, and potentially help the treatment of future patients with similar conditions. Because the article was being picked up in nonmedical publications, a request was made for it to be removed.” In fairness to the tabloids, there was some news and public service value to the stories useful to people planning on visits to tropical or subtropical beaches. The diagnosis, as described by Livescience, quoting the no-longer-accessible case study, was “cutaneous larva migrans,” otherwise known as a hookworm infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people pick up this nasty parasite from the feces of dogs and cats. If those dogs and cats leave their waste on a beach, sunbathers can contract the infection. In the case of the British couple, the infection found its way into their lungs, causing coughing, and in the woman, shortness of breath and pain. The advice from the CDC for those visiting such beaches: “wear shoes and use protecting mats or other coverings to prevent direct skin contact with sand or soil.” More from Morning Mix: Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf tipped off immigrants about ICE raid and isn’t sorry she did Flawed drug tests used to remove scores of Canadian children from their parents, report finds

– After suffering painful red rashes on their backsides, a husband and wife were left red in the face—so much so that a case study of their ordeal has now been pulled from the prestigious British Medical Journal. As BMJ tells the Washington Post, the British pair whose bottoms became infested with hookworm larvae on a beach in Martinique initially agreed to the Jan. 13 publication of their case, as well as photos of "red pinprick marks" on their backsides. Though their names were never mentioned, the pair "indicated their understanding that complete anonymity could not be guaranteed" and were warned journalists might pick up the story, BMJ says. But when that happened—with headlines like "His and Her Hookworm: Same Rash Strikes Couple on the Rear"—the pair had a change of heart. With the spread of photos and case details—including the woman's age, the couple's Caribbean destination, the cruise line on which they traveled, and the Cambridge hospital they visited—one of the pair asked that the article be withdrawn over concerns "about being identified by close friends and/or colleagues," BMJ says. In what the Post calls a "highly unusual 'correction,'" the journal then announced it was pulling the article despite standing by its content. As the Independent reports, the article was meant to helpful in combating a lack of familiarity in the medical community with hookworm infections. According to the CDC, such infections can be passed through contact with soil or sand contaminated with feces. As the BMJ study explained, the British couple were infected when they sat on a sandy, and apparently unsanitary, beach.

One woman is dead, dozens of people were hospitalized and three remain in critical condition after the upper level of the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station in southeast D.C. filled with smoke Monday afternoon. Transportation Alternatives to Metro A Virginia-bound Yellow Line train was in the tunnel just south of the station around 3:20 p.m. when it stopped for unknown reasons. Dozens of people were trapped inside the train's cars as the tunnel filled with thick, black smoke. "People could barely breathe," passenger Denzel Hatch said. "They had to evacuate us through the tunnel and walk back through the front. No electricity, no visibility, nothing. Couldn't see anything at first." "You're hearing other people crying, you're seeing people passing out... it was a horrific thing to witness," passenger Adjoa Adofo said. A young black man had a seizure. Thank God the firefighters had made it on to the train by then. We were trying to escape through the back A video posted by Adjoa, Inc © (@adjyb) on Jan 12, 2015 at 2:13pm PST Firefighters gained access to the tunnel at one of the evacuation points at Ninth Street and Maine Avenue SE. One injured firefighter was transported from that location by ambulance. A young black man had a seizure. Thank God the firefighters had made it on to the train by then. We were trying to escape through the back A video posted by Adjoa, Inc © (@adjyb) on Jan 12, 2015 at 2:15pm PST Pro-ISIS Hackers Hit U.S. Military Twitter, YouTube Accounts According to D.C. Fire and EMS, 84 patients were taken to hospitals. Three are in critical but stable condition, two of them at George Washington University Hospital. More than 200 people were evaluated. "There was a woman who was in distress on that train, and I'm sorry to say she's passed away," Metro General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Richard Sarles said. The woman's cause of death and identity remain unknown. "We are all saddened by today's fatality aboard the Metrorail, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the passenger who passed away," a statement from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser read. L'Enfant Metro Evacuated Over Smoke Though an exact cause of the smoke and fire is unknown, NTSB investigators said there was an electrical arcing involving the third rail and the power supply cables to that rail prior to the fire. There was water along the tracks near the accident scene, which would have helped facilitate smoke along the third rail, investigators said. "It was just very smoky in there," passenger Fitz Carter said from aboard a Metro bus while waiting to be taken to a hospital. "We couldn't see anything. The visibility was poor. Right now, there's a lot of burning in my throat and my chest. Everybody got as low as they possibly could to the ground, because that's where the best possibility for oxygen was." The FBI is assisting Metro Transit Police in determining a cause, which is standard procedure for incidents in the capital region. Metro Riders Exit Tunnel at L'Enfant For Smoke in Tunnel News4's Jackie Bensen reports live outside L'Enfant Metro station Monday afternoon, as rescue crews helped dozens of riders out of the system's tunnels. (Published Monday, Jan. 12, 2015) Md. Woman Accused of Stealing Birthday Cake Green Line trains are operating on a normal schedule Tuesday. Blue Line trains will replace the Yellow Line from Huntington to Largo Town Center; trains will run every 12 minutes. Metro Evacuates L'Enfant Station for Smoke News4's Scott MacFarlane has the latest on the closure of the L'Enfant Metro station in downtown DC, after reports of smoke in the tunnels. (Published Monday, Jan. 12, 2015) Sarles is set to retire Friday as Metro's general manager. ||||| Passengers were removed from a Yellow Line Metro train Monday afternoon after it filled with smoke. A rider reports that the train operator said, "there's a problem, nobody move," then the car quickly began to fill with smoke. (Saleh Damiger/Jonathan Rogers) The latest: 1 dead, dozens hurt after Metro car fills with smoke Earlier coverage from Monday: Updated at 8:13 p.m. The L’Enfant Plaza Metro station has reopened for Orange, Silver and Blue line service. Green and Yellow line service will remain suspended through the end of the day between the Gallery Place and Navy Yard/Pentagon stations. It wasn’t known if service would be restored for the Tuesday morning commute. Updated 7:59 p.m. A total of 84 people were hospitalized due to the Metro tunnel filling with smoke, including one patient who died, D.C. fire department spokesman Tim Wilson said. Up until about 6:30 p.m., D.C. fire officials were saying that only six people had been injured. That number increased sharply when Metro officials briefed reporters. Wilson would only say that the officials responsible for briefing reporters were trying to accurately tally the numbers and wanted to wait to confirm them before making public statements. Metro Transit Police said that the National Transportation Safety Board would be investigating. Updated 6:47 p.m. Metro General Manager Richard Sarles said one of the passengers injured in the tunnel incident has died. The woman has not been identified pending notification of next of kin, he said. In addition, Sarles said two people were in critical condition at George Washington Hospital; 40 were transported by bus to Howard University Hospital, and another 20 to 25 people were taken to Washington Hospital Center. Sarles said that since the incident involved a fatality, the Metropolitan Police Department would now be involved in the investigation. Updated: 5:54 p.m. Six people were injured, one critically, when smoke filled a Metro tunnel Monday afternoon. Tim Wilson, a spokesman for D.C. Fire and EMS, said one person has been transported to an area hospital with a critical injury but he did not know the cause or severity of the injury. Another five people were transported with minor injuries. (Related: Scenes of a chaotic day at L’Enfant Plaza) A Metrobus at 7th and D streets SW held people from the tunnel and the train station. About 20 appeared to be on board, some being treated by firefighters with oxygen. Jonathan Rogers was aboard the Yellow Line train when it came to an abrupt halt as it headed to the Pentagon Station. “You could see smoke coming through the doors,” he said. “It started to get scary pretty quick.” He said the train operator got on the loudspeaker and urged people to remain calm. He said the plan was to back up the train to the platform of the L’Enfant station. 1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × ‘Yelling, screaming, kicking’: Images from the smoke-filled train and rescues View Photos One person died in the January Metro incident after scores of riders were trapped aboard a train as it filled with smoke. The probe into the case continues. Caption One person died in the January Metro incident after scores of riders were trapped aboard a train as it filled with smoke. The probe into the case continues. Jan. 12, 2015 Passengers react Monday afternoon as smoke fills a Metro train in a tunnel outside L’Enfant Plaza Metro station. Saleh Damiger Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. “We’re going to move the train backwards,” Rogers recalled the driver saying. But after more time, it became apparent that strategy wasn’t going to work. He said passengers remained relatively calm, but as the smoke grew thicker, some began to panic. (Related: Alternatives for Metro riders affected by the closure of L’Enfant Plaza station) “People started praying,” he said. “Smoke was coming in pretty steadily. Some people were fine and some people were just hurting pretty quickly.” He said a man standing next to him, started having breathing problems and sank to the floor. Passengers watched out for each other, sharing inhalers with those who were having trouble breathing, he said. After a few more minutes, another woman standing near him said she couldn’t breathe and then passed out. Rogers and other passengers took turns giving her CPR. “We just kept doing (CPR), maybe 25 minutes . . . we just kept going. Somebody helped carry her toward the back of the train – that was before the fire fighters arrived.” Rogers said it took about 40 minutes before firefighters arrived and began evacuating the train. Passengers walked through the tunnel back to L’Enfant station. He said the air in the tunnel was easier to breathe than the air on the train. On the train, he said the smoked had a chemical smell, but in the tunnel it had the distinct smell of burning wood. Once they got to L’Enfant he saw a lot of ambulances and fire trucks. Rogers, who works for the D.C. Department of Transportation, took a Capital BikeShare bike back to his office near the Navy Yard. Normally, he would have taken BikeShare back to his office, but opted to take Metro because it was raining. And then, he’d gotten aboard the Yellow Line by mistake. He meant to catch a Green Line train. “The only scary part was not knowing if the smoke was going to stop,” he said. Adjoa Adofo, 30, had just gotten off work as a public relations consultant and was on the Yellow line headed to Virginia to go shopping. A few minutes after pulling out of the station and into the tunnel, she said the train came to an abrupt halt and smoke came in thorough the closed doors. She said the train was crowded but not packed, with room in the center aisle “People were panicking,” said Adofo, who lives nearNavy Yard. “We didn’t know what to do and and we weren’t getting a lot of information.” She said the train operator told them there was no fire, just smoke. “That calmed people down a little bit ,” she said. “But smoke continued to come in. The driver told us not to open the doors. That was the big thing. More smoke would come in. But people were panicking. They were trying up open the doors anyway.” She said people sat down on the floor to get away from the smoke. She said all the lights were out. “It was black. Pitch black.” She said one young man suffered a seizure and an older man began banging on the doors screaming profanities. She said they were there about 30 to 40 minutes. She said the operator told them they were waiting for a train in the station to move so they could return but communication had broken down. Finally she said metro personnel and firefighters got everyone out and they marched single fine back to the station. Adofo emerged nearly in tears and said she prayed — Hail Marys and Our Fathers. “I’m just glad that I’m out of there.” Saleh Damiger and Sirwan Kajjo said they thought they were “going to die” when they Yellow Line train they were on Monday afternoon filled with smoke. Damiger, 43, and Kajjo, 28, both Voice of America employees, got on a Yellow Line train headed toward the Pentagon about 3 p.m. They said the six-car train had gone about 200 feet when it stopped. The train operator said “there’s a problem, nobody move”. The men said the car quickly began to fill will smoke. “The train stopped and all of a sudden it filled with smoke. … There was no fire. Lots of smoke only. … People were choking. People were yelling, Damiger said. “It was a lot of smoke. We couldn’t see each other. … One woman, she started to pray. .. We felt like we were almost going to die.” Metro employees quickly got onto the train and told passengers to get low to the ground to avoid the smoke. “They told us to get down, get down in the floor, stay low … Of course it was dark too,” Kajjo said. “The lights were gone. We couldn’t see.” The men said they saw at least two people who appeared to be unconscious. They said they waited about an hour before firefighters arrived and began escorting them off the train and led them out of the tunnel. They described the experienced as “harrowing”. Metro train riders are seen being shuttled on a Metrobus after commuters were evacuated from the L’Enfant Metro Station when smoke filled a Metro car on Wednesday. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) No cause of the smoke has been determined. Around 5:40 p.m., Metro spokeswoman Caroline Laurin said that the smoke has now cleared from the station. That is at least in part due to the tunnel fans that Metro workers turned on, she said. But in the event that the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction – which workers have not yet confirmed – the smoke may also have abated because Metro shut down the third rail at L’Enfant Plaza. As of 5:40 p.m., Green/Yellow line service has been restored at Gallery Place Station for service to/from stations north (toward Greenbelt). Green/Yellow service remains suspended between Gallery Place and Navy Yard/Pentagon. Yellow Line riders traveling between Virginia and DC should use the Blue Line as an alternate. Andrew Ames, spokesman for the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said the FBI responded to the incident. He said it is standard protocol to respond. “At this point it doesn’t appear to be anything other than a fire.” Original post L’Enfant Plaza Metro station is closed after officials evacuated it for smoke Monday afternoon, shutting down rail service for a large portion of the Green and Yellow lines. Green Line service is suspended between Navy Yard and Mt. Vernon Square. Yellow Line service is suspended between Pentagon City and Mt. Vernon Square, Metro said. Blue, Orange and Silver lines trains are bypassing L’Enfant Plaza, but service is not affected at other stops. That was easily the worst metro ride of my life pic.twitter.com/a5EnGeRzMQ — Jonathan Rogers (@JRogers202) January 12, 2015 D.C. fire department spokesman Tim Wilson said that firefighters are on the scene but had found no fire. On Twitter, the firefighters’ union said that a second alarm had sounded. Although the event has been labeled a “mass casualty event” that refers strictly to the number of people involved and is not a suggestion that there are numerous injuries or deaths. D.C. Fire and EMS reported via Twitter that people are being removed from a disabled train inside a tunnel and that no serious injuries have been reported. Metro spokeswoman Caroline Laurin said that Metro did not know the cause of the smoke. Roads near the station were also closed. Yellow Line riders can use the Blue Line instead. For Green Line riders, who do not have another Metro option, Metro said at 4:16 p.m. that it was sending shuttle buses to L’Enfant Plaza and Navy Yard. Twitter and Instagram users posted smoky photos. @IAFF36 L'Enfant Plaza metro scene right now pic.twitter.com/9rHivfPd9y — Kealy Erin Gordon (@Keals2005) January 12, 2015 ||||| One woman died Monday after a Metro station in the nation's capital filled with smoke. An untimely House of Cards tweet has earned criticism following an incident at a Washington, D.C., subway station. A woman died and 84 people were hospitalized Monday after smoke filled the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station in the nation's capital. The crisis came on the same day that the Netflix series' Twitter page posted a message referencing a storyline on the show in which one character pushes another in front of a subway train. Read more 'Sleepy Hollow' PR Firm Apologizes for Poorly Timed Headless Day Campaign "Consider the slate clean," read the House of Cards tweet. It was accompanied by an image of a fake newspaper headline that stated, "Train Traffic Tragedy." A number of Twitter users criticized the show for the timing of the tweet, which has since been deleted. A Netflix rep declined to comment. Read more Golden Globes: Kevin Spacey Bleeped While Accepting Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama The tweet can be seen below. Email: Ryan.Gajewski@pgmedia.org Twitter: @_RyanGajewski ||||| The train, which had eight cars, stopped about 800 feet south of the station, and many of the passengers “self-evacuated” before firefighters arrived, Mr. Flanigon said. Some jumped out of the train cars, walked through the darkened tunnel to a vent shaft and climbed a three- or four-story-high staircase to get to ground level. In order for them to do so, the electricity for the third rail was turned off. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The train did not derail, and there was no fire onboard, Mr. Flanigon said. Emergency crews helped the rest of the passengers leave the smoke-filled train, with riders walking through the tunnel leading back to the busy station, which serves as a transfer point for five of the system’s six lines. L’Enfant Plaza station was evacuated and closed for several hours, and some service on the Yellow and Green Lines was suspended through the end of the day. Mayor Muriel Bowser met with some of the injured passengers at George Washington University Hospital on Monday night. “We are all saddened by today’s fatality aboard the Metrorail, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the passenger who passed away,” the mayor said in a statement. “I want to thank our brave first responders who assisted passengers during the evacuation and with treatment at the scene.” Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Officials at MedStar Washington Hospital Center said on Monday night that 11 patients had been treated there and released and that seven remained at the hospital, including one in critical condition and another in serious condition. One firefighter was injured, emergency officials said. L’Enfant Plaza stop is near offices for the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Communications Commission and several Smithsonian museums. Mr. Flanigon said that investigators would remain at the scene for about a week and that it would take six months to a year for a final report, unless the safety board concludes immediate action is necessary. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority posted a message on its website to inform riders of planned changes to rail service for Tuesday. There was still confusion at L’Enfant Plaza station around midnight as dozens of riders were forced to exit trains and had trouble finding the shuttle buses waiting for them on the street. One rider, Dashawn Grimes, said there was no announcement on her train saying there had been an accident. She wandered around looking for a shuttle bus before an employee sent her in the right direction. She boarded the last shuttle bus, which departed around 12:07 a.m. “It’s cold out here and there’s no one here, and no one told me where the shuttle bus is,” she said. “It’s just really annoying.”

– One person died and at least 83 others were hospitalized after smoke filled a Washington, DC, subway station and tunnel during the afternoon rush hour yesterday. Hundreds of people were evacuated from L'Enfant Plaza station—one of the Metro network's busiest—and from a Yellow Line train that was stuck in a tunnel, the Washington Post reports. At least two of the injured are in critical condition, and officials say the name of the woman who died will not be released until next of kin have been notified. The NTSB's investigator in charge says the cause appears to have been an "arcing event" in which electricity jumped from the system's third rail, reports the New York Times. Water in the tunnel may have been a contributing factor, he says. Passengers who were on the stuck train described scenes of panic as the smoke grew thicker before firefighters arrived to help them escape by walking through the tunnel back to the station. "We couldn't see anything. The visibility was poor," a passenger waiting to be taken to a hospital told NBC. "Everybody got as low as they possibly could to the ground, because that's where the best possibility for oxygen was." One firefighter is among the injured. Meanwhile: The Hollywood Reporter picks up on a social media oops from Netflix series House of Cards. In a nod to a season 2 episode, it last night tweeted, "Consider the slate clean," alongside a photo of an empty DC subway station and a fake news headline reading "Train Traffic Tragedy." An odd coincidence: New York City's Penn Station was forced to delay trains early today on the heels of a three-alarm fire that has been dubbed "suspicious." It occurred at a construction site near the Long Island Rail Road concourse's west end around 2:30am. NBC New York reports service was restored to normal three hours later.