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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 ||||| MADISON, Wis. - The Wisconsin Air National Guard will be conducting training flights the rest of the week, according to an operations alert. The 115th Fighter Wing of the Wisconsin Air National Guard will be conducting training flights at night Monday through Thursday, officials said. Residents may see or hear F-16 fighter jets taking off or landing until about 10 p.m., according to the alert. Training flights normally happen during the day, but pilots and maintenance personnel are required to conduct nighttime operations as a part of their readiness training, officials said. Pilots will be following flight paths designed to minimize noise to area residents, according to the alert. ||||| Freezing temperatures Tuesday night might have caused something called a "frostquake" in southern Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service in Sullivan. Though frostquake is a geological rather than a meteorological term the boom felt in an area from about Columbus to Fox Lake and Johnson Creek to Oconomowoc prompted some people to call the weather service to report the event, meteorologist Justin Schultz said. "It would sound like someone drove into your house, but as far as we know it didn't cause any damage," Schultz said. Can confirm the frostquake. It shook the house here in Beaver Dam. @madisontraffic @NWSMKX — Bob Lesh (@Bob_Lesh) January 13, 2016 According to Schultz, the phenomenon occurs when water that drains into the ground freezes, expands and places stress on the surrounding ground. "The fracturing of the soil and rock creates the frostquake," Schultz said of the seismic event that is actually called a cryoseism. "This one was maybe a brief rumbling, but a very loud boom was the primary characteristic of this frostquake." Frostquakes are relatively rare events, Schultz said, but not unheard of in Wisconsin. "Of all the states that have reported cryoseisms, Wisconsin is among them," Schultz said.

– A weather event that a National Weather Service meteorologist says "[sounds] like someone drove into your house" likely took place in southern Wisconsin on Tuesday night, and it wasn't a tornado, lightning strike, or earthquake. Instead, it was what's called a "frostquake," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, a rare happening in the Badger State that takes place when water that seeps into the ground freezes and expands, fracturing the ground around it. Although no damage has been called in from the so-called cryoseism, that didn't stop the extreme-weather occurrence from frightening locals. "[Loud] boom and house rumbling at 8:30 here outside of Beaver Dam WI. Crazy. Kids were scared," one resident tweeted. One other possibility for those who heard noises: "[Booms] could have been from Air Force planes on exercise per media," tweeted NWS Milwaukee. (Meanwhile, here's what El Niño has in store for the rest of us this winter.)

Image copyright NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Image caption The dark patch and white spot magnified on the right are likely the impact site and parachute The gouge in the ground probably made by Europe's Schiaparelli probe as it hit the surface of Mars on Wednesday has been imaged by a US satellite. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has identified a large dark patch in the robot's targeted landing zone consistent with a high-velocity impact. Schiaparelli is widely thought to have crashed and been destroyed. Data transmitted from the probe before it lost contact indicated that its descent systems did not work properly. Its parachute was jettisoned too early and its retrorockets, designed to slow the robot to a hover just above the surface, fired only for a few seconds. They should have operated for half a minute. The MRO imagery is not quite definitive because the resolution is low - just six metres per pixel. Its context is persuasive, however. The roughly 15m by 40m dark patch, which is probably dust and rock fragments thrown out from the impact, is sited some 5.5km west of Schiaparelli's expected touchdown point in the equatorial Meridiani Plain. Tellingly, the feature is not present in previous MRO pictures of the location. The clincher, though, may be the artefact 1km to the south of the patch. This white blob looks to be Schiaparelli's 15m-wide parachute which would have floated down behind the probe. Again, this was not present in earlier pictures. Image copyright ESA Image caption Artwork: Things started to go wrong at the end of the descent's parachute phase The European Space Agency (Esa) and MRO's operator, the US space agency (Nasa), are confident the features described do indeed represent the scene of Schiaparelli's contact with the surface. Engineers continue to analyse the telemetry the probe transmitted through the various phases of its descent before dropping radio contact unexpectedly about 50 seconds before the anticipated touchdown time. They want to establish precisely why the parachute and rocket thrusters behaved the way they did. In due course, they hope also to be able to identify the height above the surface that each event occurred. Ultimately, the investigation should tell us at what stage in the descent sequence Schiaparelli went into freefall - somewhere between two and four km up - and the speed with which it smacked into the ground. This is estimated to be greater than 300km/h. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Schiaparelli's landing sequence - stage by stage Further photographic insights will come from MRO next week when it flies back over the scene with its high-resolution (HiRISE) camera. Generally, this can distinguish objects on the ground a mere 30cm to 60cm across, and can achieve even better when special processing techniques are employed. Schiaparelli was part of Esa's ExoMars programme - a joint venture with the Russians - which is endeavouring to search for evidence of past or present life on the Red Planet. The 600kg robot was conceived as a technology demonstrator - a project to give Europe the learning experience and the confidence to go ahead with the landing on Mars in 2021 of an ambitious six-wheeled rover. This future vehicle will use some of the same technology as Schiaparelli, including its doppler radar to sense the speed and distance to the surface on descent, and its guidance, navigation and control algorithms. Esa director-general, Jan Woerner, said the fact that Schiaparelli returned 80% of its anticipated descent telemetry makes it a success, irrespective of what happened in its last seconds. "[The 80%] means we will obtain information from a close analysis of the data that Schiaparelli was built for, notably on the performance of elements such as the heat shield, parachute, radar, thrusters and so on," he wrote on his blog. "This information can subsequently be used to improve the design of the [2021] Exomars mission, since in that mission the survival of the descent module will be of real scientific relevance." Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos ||||| Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter view of Schiaparelli landing site Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter views Schiaparelli landing site NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has identified new markings on the surface of the Red Planet that are believed to be related to ESA’s ExoMars Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing technology demonstrator module. Schiaparelli entered the martian atmosphere at 14:42 GMT on 19 October for its 6-minute descent to the surface, but contact was lost shortly before expected touchdown. Data recorded by its mothership, the Trace Gas Orbiter, are currently being analysed to understand what happened during the descent sequence. In the meantime, the low-resolution CTX camera on-board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) took pictures of the expected touchdown site in Meridiani Planum on 20 October as part of a planned imaging campaign. The image released today has a resolution of 6 metres per pixel and shows two new features on the surface when compared to an image from the same camera taken in May this year. Schiaparelli landing site One of the features is bright and can be associated with the 12-m diameter parachute used in the second stage of Schiaparelli’s descent, after the initial heat shield entry. The parachute and the associated back shield were released from Schiaparelli prior to the final phase, during which its nine thrusters should have slowed it to a standstill just above the surface. The other new feature is a fuzzy dark patch roughly 15 x 40 metres in size and about 1 km north of the parachute. This is interpreted as arising from the impact of the Schiaparelli module itself following a much longer free fall than planned, after the thrusters were switched off prematurely. Estimates are that Schiaparelli dropped from a height of between 2 and 4 kilometres, therefore impacting at a considerable speed, greater than 300 km/h. The relatively large size of the feature would then arise from disturbed surface material. It is also possible that the lander exploded on impact, as its thruster propellant tanks were likely still full. These preliminary interpretations will be refined following further analysis. A closer look at these features will be taken next week with HiRISE, the highest-resolution camera onboard MRO. These images may also reveal the location of the front heat shield, dropped at higher altitude. MRO image of Schiaparelli – before Since the module’s descent trajectory was observed from three different locations, the teams are confident that they will be able to reconstruct the chain of events with great accuracy. The exact mode of anomaly onboard Schiaparelli is still under investigation. The two new features are located at 353.79 degrees east longitude, 2.07 degrees south latitude on Mars. The position of the dark mark shows that Schiaparelli impacted approximately 5.4 km west of its intended landing point, well within the nominal 100 x 15 km landing ellipse. Meanwhile, the teams continue to decode the data extracted from the recording of Schiaparelli descent signals recorded by the ExoMars TGO in order to establish correlations with the measurements made with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), an experimental telescope array located near Pune, India, and with ESA’s Mars Express from orbit. A substantial amount of extremely valuable Schiaparelli engineering data were relayed back to the TGO during the descent and is being analysed by engineers day and night. MRO image of Schiaparelli – after The ExoMars TGO orbiter is currently on a 101 000 km x 3691 km orbit (with respect to the centre of the planet) with a period of 4.2 days, well within the planned initial orbit. The spacecraft is working very well and will take science calibration data during two orbits in November 2016. It will then be ready for the planned aerobraking manoeuvres starting in March 2017 and continuing for most of the year, bringing it into a 400-km altitude circular orbit around Mars. The TGO will then begin its primary science mission to study the atmosphere of Mars in search of possible indications of life below the surface, and to act as a telecommunications relay station for the ExoMars 2020 rover and other landed assets. For further information, please contact: Thierry Blancquaert ExoMars EDM Manager Email: Thierry.Blancquaert@esa.int Markus Bauer ESA Science and Robotic Exploration Communication Officer Tel: +31 71 565 6799 Mob: +31 61 594 3 954 Email: markus.bauer@esa.int ||||| Italian Space Agency President Roberto Battiston holds a pamphlet reading in Italian 'Colonize Mars, Friday, Oct. 19, 2016, in front of a rendering showing the Schiaparelli Space Module and the planet... (Associated Press) BERLIN (AP) — Europe's experimental Mars probe hit the right spot — but at the wrong speed — likely ending up in a fiery ball of rocket fuel when it struck the surface at high speed, scientists said Friday. Pictures taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a black spot in the area where the Schiaparelli lander was meant to touch down Wednesday, the European Space Agency said. The images end two days of speculation following the probe's unexpected radio silence 50 seconds before the planned landing. Schiaparelli was meant to test technology for a more ambitious European Mars landing in 2020, and scientists say the data it sent back before going silent will prove highly useful for that mission. ESA also stressed that Schiaparelli's mother ship was successfully placed into orbit Wednesday and will begin analyzing the Martian atmosphere in search for evidence of life. Still, the crash-landing is a painful reminder of how hard it is to put a spacecraft on the surface of the red planet. Europe's Beagle 2 probe reached the surface in 2003 but failed to deploy properly. Only NASA has repeatedly succeeded in landing several robotic vehicles on Mars, including the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers. ESA said that, according to what its scientists have been able to piece together so far, Schiaparelli suffered problems during the last 50 seconds of its descent through the harsh Martian atmosphere. Instead of achieving a soft landing it probably plummeted the last 2-4 kilometers (1.4-2.4 miles) onto the surface, therefore impacting at a considerable speed, greater than 300 kilometers (186 miles) per hour. The pictures taken by NASA suggest that the probe's thrusters — which were meant to slow its final descent — failed, causing it to hit the surface with almost fully loaded tanks of rocket fuel and explode on impact. While Schiaparelli was able to beam back some 600 megabytes of data before the crash, scientists won't get any of the close-up photos the probe took during its descent. Those were meant to be transmitted after the landing. ___ ExoMars mission: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars

– We now have the most definitive sign yet—courtesy of a NASA orbiter—that the European Space Agency's Mars lander crashed onto the planet's surface in what the AP describes as a "fiery ball of rocket fuel." ESA lost contact with the Schiaparelli lander Wednesday, approximately 50 seconds before it was supposed to land on Mars. What exactly happened to the lander has been a mystery, but a crash seemed likely. Now, images from a NASA orbiter released Friday show an approximately 6,500-square-foot dark patch on the Martian surface a few miles from where the lander was supposed to touch down, the BBC reports. That spot is likely the result of an exploding lander. ESA reports the lander's parachute deployed then released as planned (it's probably the small light spot in the new image). But the lander's nine thrusters fired for only a few seconds instead of half a minute for some reason. The lander probably free-fell for up to 2.5 miles before hitting Mars at more than 185mph. And since the thrusters didn't use much of the stored rocket fuel, a decent-sized explosion was probably the result. NASA plans to get a better picture of the crash site next week. The lander was meant to be testing technology for another ESA landing in 2020. Its failure means NASA is still the only agency to successfully land a robotic vehicle on Mars, having done so several times.

Today, Jennifer Herold, Candidate for The Ohio House of Representatives-7th District, issued a statement regarding Tom Patton’s insulting and discriminatory comments made on “America’s Workforce Radio” on January 18th. “On January 18th, Mr. Patton appeared on a local radio show and attempted to disqualify me as a candidate due to the fact that I am the mother of 2 children when he made the following comment: ‘The gal that’s running against me is a 30 year old, you know, mom, mother of 2 infants. And you know, I don’t know if anyone explained to her you have to spend 3 nights a week in Columbus. So, how does that work out for you? Umm, I waited until I was 48 til my kids were raised, and at least adults, before we took the opportunity to try.’ He questioned my intelligence, insinuating I was not aware of the requirements of the State Representative Position. Mr. Patton also specifically implied that I am precluded from running for office until my kids were adults. The decision to run for State Representative is one that my family and I took very seriously when we made it. We realize the sacrifice that is involved in holding such a position. However, Tom Patton has crossed a line by trying to turn the fact that I am a mother of two children, into a negative campaign issue. It’s insulting for my opponent to suggest that “motherhood” is a liability. In fact, my experience as a Mom is perhaps my greatest strength. There are numerous examples of women with children who have admirably served our nation. Sarah Palin was on the Presidential ticket in 2008. At the time she had 5 non adult children, including a newborn. Cathy McMorris Rodgers is the 4th highest ranking member of the Republican Leadership in the in the US House of Representatives, and has had two children while in office. Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor has two sons she has raised while serving in her current role, as well as during her time in the Ohio House and as State Auditor. Ohio House Representative Christina Hagan just welcomed her daughter last December and is now back serving her constituents. I would also be remiss if I did not recognize the men who also serve while they have children at home. For example, our own Governor John Kasich has two teenage daughters. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s three children have all been born while he has been in Congress. He commutes weekly between Washington D.C. and his home in Janesville, Wisconsin. So I ask Mr.Patton, by your logic, are you saying that 2 Vice Presidential nominees, the highest ranking woman in The House Leadership Team, our sitting Governor and Lieutenant Governor and a colleague in the Ohio Legislature are all unfit to serve? Further, are your colleagues in the Ohio Legislature, the majority whom have had young children while serving, aware of your views? Do you draw a distinction between whether that representative is a mother or a father who is serving? I call on The Cuyahoga County Republican Party, The Ohio Republican Party, and any other organizations endorsing a candidate in this race to seriously consider whether Tom Patton’s comments reflect your own values. By choosing to my support my opponent, you are tacitly endorsing his beliefs regarding the inability of parents of children to also serve in the legislature. In a district that is composed of over 50% women, with many parents who successfully balance demanding jobs as well as a family, there is no place for this kind of anti-working parent mentality. And once last thing, Tom, only one man in my life is allowed to call me “sweetie.” From now on, I respectfully ask you to refer to me as Jen, Jennifer, Ms. Herold, or your opponent.” Ms. Herold encourages those who denounce Tom Patton’s comments to make their voices heard by signing our petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ISupportJen. In addition, they may tweet support using the Hashtag #ISupportJen. Follow Jen on Twitter @Herold4Ohio. For more information, please visit our website at www.HeroldForOhio.com. For Media inquiries contact the campaign directly at 440-606-6623, or email to HeroldForOhio@GMail.com. ||||| COLUMBUS, Ohio--Senate Majority Leader Tom Patton, now running for the Ohio House, suggested in a radio interview that his primary opponent Jennifer Herold shouldn't be running for office because she is a young mother. "The gal that's running against me is a 30-year-old, you know, mom, mother of two infants," said Patton, a 62-year-old Republican from Strongsville, in a recent radio interview . "And I don't know if anybody explained to her we've got to spend three nights a week in Columbus. So, how does that work out for you? I waited until I was 48 and my kids were raised, and at least adults, before we took the opportunity to try." Patton referred to Herold as a "young gal" and, while talking about his role in bringing additional school funding to his area, said, "I want to tell her, 'Hey Sweetie, I just got 27 percent of the pie in just my district, which is nine times what should have been done.'" In a release, Herold -- who has two sons, ages 1 and 3 -- said Patton's remarks were "insulting and discriminatory," noting that politicians such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, and state Rep. Christina Hagan have all served in office while raising a family. On Wednesday, Hagan brought her one-month-old baby while testifying before a Senate committee that Patton serves on. Ohio Sen. Tom Patton's comments about rival are 'not sexist or out of line,' Cuyahoga GOP chair says "In a district that is composed of over 50 percent women, with many parents who successfully balance demanding jobs as well as a family, there is no place for this kind of anti-working parent mentality," she said in a statement, questioning whether Patton would have made the same statement about young fathers in the legislature. Herold, who is married, added: "Only one man in my life is allowed to call me 'sweetie.'" In a statement, Patton said his comments "appear to have been misunderstood." "As a widower who raised five daughters, it was not my intention to suggest that a young mother couldn't serve ably in the legislature," he said. "I used a poor choice of words to express what I know first-hand - raising young children and working is tough. Millions of women do just that every day, including my own daughters. I would ask to be judged on my hard work and advocacy for working families. I sincerely apologize if my words were misplaced on this matter." The winner of the House District 7 GOP primary on March 15 will face Democrat David Thurau, a former Berea School Board member, in November. Patton made the remarks Jan. 18 on the "America's Work Force" radio show, broadcast on WERE 1490 AM. His comments about Herold being a young mother start around the 32:00 mark. His "sweetie" remark is at 38:40.

– Ohio state Sen. Tom Patton is a term-limited Republican who's now going after an Ohio House seat, and he's running against a real "sweetie." At least, that's what the 62-year-old called his chief Republican opponent in a radio interview last week, but it's a separate comment he made about Jennifer Herold that has drawn the most fire. In a Jan. 18 interview with Ed Ferenc on the America's Work Force radio show, he questioned why Herold is running while being a young mother, reports the Columbus Dispatch. "The gal that's running against me is a 30-year-old, you know, mom, mother of 2 infants," he said. "I don't know if anybody explained to her you have to spend three nights a week in Columbus. So, how does that work out for you? I waited until I was 48, 'til my kids were raised, and at least adults." Herold, who has 1-year-old and 3-year-old sons, took to Facebook with a lengthy response in which she asked whether the current legislators with children, mothers and fathers alike, are "all unfit to serve." She added: "Tom, only one man in my life is allowed to call me 'sweetie.' From now on, I respectfully ask you to refer to me as Jen, Jennifer, Ms. Herold, or your opponent." Cleveland.com reports Patton has followed up with his own statement in which he "sincerely" apologizes and says his comments were "misunderstood." He notes that "millions of women" balance work and family every day, including his own daughters: "I used a poor choice of words to express what I know first-hand—raising young children and working is tough." The two will face off in the March 15 GOP primary.

Ever since the surprise season 3 premiere of Rick and Morty, fans have been jonesing for special edition Szechuan dipping sauce released by McDonald’s in 1998 to promote Disney’s Mulan. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, start here.) Some fans tried making their own version of the sauce, while others made ovations to McDonald’s to re-release it. And at least one person with a bunch of money and very little patience apparently dropped $14,700 on a 20-year-old tub of original Mulan sauce on Ebay. The seller wrote, “I just bought a really old car, while cleaning it I found a packet of this sauce. After watching the recent episode of Rick and Morty I went online to see if it was worth anything. Turns out it was.” The buyer topped 186 other bids for the sauce, giving the seller enough cash to ditch that lucky 20-year-old clunker and upgrade to something new or close to it. The seller’s only request was “I hope somebody who wants to eat some 20 year old gnarly sauce gets this. I would prefer not to sell it to a collector.” Buddy, for that price it should be kept in a bank vault. We think it’s only fair to point out that while it’s a cool stroke of luck for the seller, buying a packet of McNugget sauce for $14,700 is not a very Rick thing to do. Don’t get me wrong, Rick wants the sauce. But it’s more his style to win it in an intergalactic singing competition or gambling with some creepy-looking aliens. At the very least he’d use Jerry’s credit card. He’d also definitely eat the sauce. So how about it, new owner of rare McDonald’s Mulan dipping sauce. Are you squanchy enough to be a Rick? Or are you gonna be a loser like Jerry. (P.S. Don’t sue us if you actually eat decades-old expired fast food.) H/T Time ||||| Soda gets its own bedroom in Brian Florence's house in Glens Falls, New York. And there might be a few extra cases stacked in his office. All right, and a couple more in the kitchen. But that's it, for now. Florence estimates he has around 400 12-packs of canned soft drinks in his home right now. (If you lined those up end to end, they'd span the length of a football field... plus an Olympic-size swimming pool.) Florence is the curator of Sodafinder.com, the website he built to catalogue and sell the sodas he collects by driving all over the country to hunt down unique regional varieties. During peak shipping season, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, his stock balloons to around 600 cases. His earnings from the retail site mostly fund his road trips. But he's recently begun making a small profit, though not nearly enough to quit his full-time job at an insurance company. "I don't want it to be work," he says. "I try to make it as fun as possible." Florence may be the king of a community of online buyers, sellers, consumers, and collectors of rare, hard-to-find, or discontinued food and beverage items, but he's not alone. There's a market for these products —€” usually, for snacks people remember from childhood. Dunkaroos, for example, enjoy a healthy demand on Amazon ever since they've been discontinued in the U.S. For vendors like Patrick Meynders of Alberta, Canada, where the '90s lunchbox treat of packaged cookies and frosting is still available in stores, Dunkaroos are one of his top sellers. From his (currently offline) storefront, Canadian Sweets Treats and Other Specialties, he can move upwards of 60 five-serving boxes in a given week to U.S. customers. In 2012, another soda seller, Josh Nichols of Fort Worth, Texas, had just begun selling Dr. Pepper on eBay when the soda company announced it would stop production of Dublin Dr. Pepper, a regional favorite made with real cane sugar. He joined the mad rush of buyers who hoarded cases to sell online. Customers bought bottles even after they expired, he said, just to have as collectors' items. Others, like Toledo, Ohio's Pam Lloyd-Camp, stake their business on the demand for vintage foods. Lloyd-Camp runs a robust eBay candy shop called junk-it-junction, the online outpost of her brick-and-mortar business, Boyd's Retro Candy Store, where she sells old-timey favorites like giant Jawbreakers, candy cigarettes, and Sugar Daddies. She even has a small supply of discontinued Clark's Teaberry Gum. In a 2008 Press Publications interview, Lloyd-Camp, a baby boomer, said that she opened a candy shop "to help our generation relive their childhood memories and to give their kids happy memories, too." Then there are the few casual opportunists like eBay user batwatcher, who says he had extra Diablo hot sauce from Taco Bell lying around his house when he heard it had been discontinued — and that there was a market for it online. "If someone wants it, they will buy it. If they don't," he says, "I will take it down and probably use it on my own tacos." Likely thanks to their sturdy shelf lives —€” and their role in fond childhood memories — sodas, candies, and other packaged snacks dominate this niche market. Some sellers and buyers are drawn to the hunt and the novelty of collecting rare products. Others are searching for flavors of their youth. All together, they make up a fan base with unique appreciation and reverence for shelf staples that otherwise don't get much respect in the grocery world. And when it comes to building a business on these products, vendors have their process down to a science. Florence remembers the first time he bought a Mr. Pibb in the late ‘90s from an Iowa rest-stop vending machine. "I was like, I don't know what that is, I've never heard of that," he says. He liked it, but it was more a novelty than a delicacy. Soon afterward, he began collecting cases of unfamiliar sodas during road trips from his home in upstate New York to Nebraska. He was never a fanatical soda drinker, but he couldn't resist the search for new things. "It was more like the scavenger hunt just to find them. It's the challenge." When Florence amassed more than he could drink or give away, he took to the web, and launched his website Sodafinder.com in 2002. He's since dabbled in selling on eBay, but never got many bids, and he won't consider selling on Amazon Marketplace, which charges 99 cents per item sold or a $39.99 monthly subscription fee. Today, Sodafinder lists over 150 varieties of hard-to-find soft drinks, including 10 discontinued flavors that come with a warning label: "This item is out of date. Drink at your own risk!" His best sellers include Wink, a refreshing grapefruit-based citrus soda popular in the ‘60s that has since been relegated to a few regional bottlers in the Southeast U.S. (Florence gets his supply near Charlotte, North Carolina); Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale, which Florence describes as "the spiciest you'll ever have in your life," produced by one independent bottling company in Birmingham, Alabama; Tom Tucker Mint Ginger Ale from Pennsylvania; as well as the simple but deliciously scarce Coca-Cola made with real sugar. The kind Florence buys and sells is made with sucrose, which some consider a step below the cane sugar formula used in Mexican Coke (which Florence also sells by the single glass bottle), but it's a major improvement over high-fructose corn syrup. "Corn syrup is a syrup —€” you can tell on your tongue," Florence says. Sugar tastes more natural. Discontinued flavors are sold with a warning label reading "This item is out-of-date. Drink at your own risk!" The majority of Florence's customers want sodas to consume, not collect, but that doesn't make their motivations any less nostalgic. "It's not just soda," Florence says. "The taste ties into all your senses and brings back memories." He sees evidence of this in customer reviews. "My mother was a fan of Wink soda growing up, so I bought her two two-liters of Wink for Mother's Day," wrote one shopper. "She was super happy and she said it tasted just as she remembered!" Meynders, the Amazon Dunkaroos salesman, started his storefront with the assumption that people would pay to relive childhood memories. The son of an Indonesian mother and a Dutch father, he often drives an hour-and-a-half to a European deli in order to buy ingredients, like Conimex Ketjap, to recreate the dishes of his youth. According to Meynders, he soon realized that "I can't be the only one that is looking for things of my past," and opened his storefront in 2015. Indeed, customers who buy Dunkaroos from him leave reviews like, "Same great taste & brings back childhood memories for my grown kids." People feel nostalgia when "we reflect on on a time that we think was — and probably was — somewhat simpler, calmer, and pleasant," says Darrel D. Muehling, chair of the Washington State University Carson College of Business' department of marketing and international business, who has researched the use of nostalgia in advertising. "If we can capture a piece of that past by buying a product or reflecting on something, that tends to generate a positive feeling." Muehling points out that we often see the past through rose-tinted glasses, remembering only the good parts. He says generating that childhood yearning for products is a balancing act for advertisers, who need to be careful not to over-promise an experience from years gone by. "There's this twist on nostalgia, that you really can never return to your past," he says. "You can consume a product, but you can't consume a product as a seven-year-old." What tasted good to your elementary-school palate might not be as delicious several decades later; this can lead to disillusioned shoppers, like the one who a review for Meynder saying the cookies-and-icing "tastes nothing like American Dunkaroos used to, so beware if you are ordering on the basis of nostalgia." Still, people seem determined to try to recapture those moments, and sometimes, it's a challenge for vendors to keep up. At least once a week, Meynders drives across the border three hours to a post office in Sweet Grass, Montana to get a better price on shipping his products to U.S. customers. Still, he says selling scarce foods on Amazon is his passion project —€” he hides the store's landing page whenever he's out of town or unable to ship product. Florence maintains his stock with three road trips a year —€” two shorter jaunts during three- or four-day weekends, and one week-long journey. He rents to save his own car from the wear and tear, and so he can get a van with a solid rear axle that keeps the tires from buckling inward under the soda weight. Florence has learned where to get his supply by trial and error, putting in the miles. On his most recent trip, he traveled a 4,000-mile route through State College and Pittsburgh to Cleveland, Chicago, then the Quad Cities, Des Moines, Omaha, and down through Springfield and Columbus on the way home. Of the approximately 175 12-packs and 85 two-liter bottles of soda he unloaded when he returned, the trophy of the trip was Nehi Grape soda, which Florence was surprised to find at an independent bottler in Evansville, Indiana. Sometimes he gets tips from his fans on the Soda Finder Facebook page, but for the most part, he just shows up at grocery stores, Walmarts, convenience stores, and bottling companies along his routes. His trips are also how he monitors the ebb and flow of products on the market. He thinks Pepsi is phasing out Sierra Mist, for example, but he hasn't read that anywhere. He's just been seeing less of it. Florence sold his last case of dnL, a lemony, caffeinated drink by the makers of 7 Up, for $140. Getting the product is one thing — the dance between legally purchasing items then pricing them for a profit is another art altogether. Nichols, the Dublin Dr. Pepper eBay vendor, says he forged a direct relationship with the soda company. Today, he special-orders fresh cases of Dr. Pepper made with pure cane sugar, just not bottled in Dublin anymore. He says he has never changed his price of $29.99 for a six-pack of eight-ounce glass bottles. People are willing to pay for it. "A lot of people buy them to put in vending machines from the ‘50s and that's the only thing that fits," he says. Florence has his own system. He assumes the big soda companies know he's around —€” he's seen coca-cola.com and pepsi.com on his site's IP log —€” but they've never given him trouble, he says, because he buys the drinks as a customer and pays sales tax; he never tries to buy wholesale. To set his prices, Florence used to add up the cost of soda, gas, car rental, and food and divide it by the number of items he'd purchased. Now he does a little better than breaking even because he adjusts according to demand. He sells most soft drinks for $15 to $25 for a case of 12 cans. He has regulars who order from him every few months, usually basic flavors or regular, real-sugar, and diet sodas. One customer buys Nehi Grape with real sugar three times a year. Other buyers are willing to pay big bucks for discontinued sodas. Florence sold his last case of dnL, a lemony, caffeinated drink by the makers of 7up, for $140. His priciest listings ever were twin 12-packs of discontinued Pepsi Blue and the original Mr. Pibb, after Pibb Xtra replaced it, for $600 each. "I never sold them, but it would always get me attention," he says. He did succeed, though, in eventually off-loading individual cans of Pepsi Blue as collectors' items for $25 each. The next soda-hunting trip on Florence's schedule is a Southern run, maybe around the Fourth of July. He'll swing through Philadelphia for flavored Canada Dry, pick up Sunkist Fruit Punch in DC, Northern Neck ginger ale in Virginia, and Wink in the Carolinas. Maybe he'll make a stop at the Buffalo Rock bottler in Alabama for that spicy ginger ale, and with luck he'll pick up some Pibb Xtra and unique flavors of Fanta like peach and pineapple while he's down there. Florence is transparent about where he buys most of his products. His customers pay for the convenience of having a scarce soda shipped to their doors, not because he has secret hookups or hidden sources. Except one. Before he got married, he says, he had all the fridge space he could want for his personal soft drink supply. Now, he chills a single 12-pack of his favorite: Coke with real sugar. And he won't say where he buys it. That's his sweet secret. Andrea Marks is a freelance writer based in New York City. Editor: Erin DeJesus ||||| 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. ||||| Someone on eBay placed a bid worth $14,700 for a pair of 19-year-old McDonald’s McNugget sauces that the seller recently found in “an old car.” One of these condiments, the “Szechuan teriyaki dipping sauce,” was released as a tie-in for the Disney movie Mulan, but it hasn’t been available since the film came out in 1998. People shell out big bucks for nostalgic food products on eBay all the time, but this is an unusually high price tag. Its popularity can only be explained by a viral stunt that the creators of Adult Swim animated comedy Rick and Morty launched a few weeks back. Please God, I don't ask for much, please let us gain enough cultural influence to force McDonald's into bringing back that fucking sauce. — Rick (((and Morty))) (@RickandMorty) April 2, 2017 To coincide with the debut of their April Fools’ Day episode, which had a plot line about the Mulan sauce, the Rick and Morty team started a Change.org campaign asking McDonald’s to bring back the dip. As of press time, this campaign has received over 20,000 signatures. The team even had some success engaging with McDonald’s on social media: Rick and Morty fans also flooded the comments of the YouTube video of the commercial for the sauce with references to the show: Although McDonald’s has not announced any official plans to bring the sauce back, a spokesperson recently remarked: “We never say never, because when our customers speak, we listen.” Until the chain’s head honchos decide to put the sauce back into commission, fans can continue to troll eBay, hoping and praying that someone else in the world discovers a lost packet of “Szechuan dip.” Currently, one eBay seller is offering another packet of the sauce for the comparatively low buy-it-now price of $1,000: • Man makes more than £11,500 after selling rare vintage Asian-style dipping sauces from McDonald's [Mirror] • Get Mcdonalds to bring back the Szechuan Mcnugget Dipping Sauce for the new Mulan movie [Chang.org] • The Secret World of Selling ‘Nostalgic’ Food [Eater]

– This is either a big fan of the cartoon Rick and Morty, a hopeful collector, or a very brave and nostalgic soul: A packet of 1998 McDonald's Szechuan sauce has sold for $14,700 on eBay, reports Time. The strange background: McDonald's put out the dipping sauce in that year as a publicity tie-in for the Disney movie Mulan, and it received a giant nostalgic push when the character Rick from the popular Adult Swim show pined for it in a recent episode. That led to a viral campaign for McDonald's to bring it back, complete with multiple Change.org petitions. The company has hinted it might do so, and hopeful fans have noted that a remake of Mulan is in the works for next year. But the eBay sale is the strangest component yet. "I just bought a really old car, while cleaning it I found a packet of this sauce," the listing stated. "After watching the recent episode of Rick and Morty I went online to see if it was worth anything. Turns out it was. Also this comes with a packet of wasabi as well." A post at Eater notes that what it calls "nostalgic food" is popular on eBay, "but this is an unusually high price tag." No word yet on the identity of the buyer, or plans for the sauce, but the Daily Dot is issuing a challenge: The character Rick would definitely eat the stuff, "so how about it, new owner of rare McDonald’s Mulan dipping sauce. Are you squanchy enough to be a Rick?" (A brother recently drove his sister to McDonald's, which is notable only because they have a combined age of 11.)

UPDATE, 11:45 a.m. ET: Contrary to a new report from the Associated Press, Madonna says she has not applied to adopt two more children from Malawi. "I am in Malawi to check on the children's hospital in Blantyre and my other work with Raising Malawi, and then heading home," she tells Us Weekly in a statement. "The rumors of an adoption process are untrue.” Original story below: Her Madgesty is hoping to expand her dynasty. Madonna has applied to adopt two more children from Malawi, the Associated Press reports. According to the AP, government spokesman Mlenga Mvula says the 58-year-old superstar appeared before a High Court judge on Wednesday, January 25. The decision to grant Madonna the adoption order remains in the hands of the court. The AP reports that the “Living for Love” singer will have to wait one week before finding out if she is able to move forward with the adoptions. The pop diva, who adopted son David and daughter Mercy James, both 11, in 2008 and 2009, respectively, founded her Raising Malawi foundation in 2006 to benefit the orphans and underprivileged children living in the impoverished nation. During an October 2006 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Madonna shared why she was inspired to adopt from Malawi. “To see 8-year-olds in charge of households. To see mothers dying, with Kaposi's sarcoma lesions all over their bodies. To see open sewages everywhere. To see what I saw. It is a state of emergency. As far as I'm concerned, the adoption laws have to be changed to suit that state of emergency,” she said at the time. “I think if everybody went there, they'd want to bring one of those children home with them and give them a better life." The Queen of Pop also told Winfrey about the struggle of adopting a child from the southern African country. "I assure you it doesn't matter who you are or how much money you have, nothing goes fast in Africa," she explained. "There are no adoption laws in Malawi. And I was warned by my social worker that because there were no known laws in Malawi, they were more or less going to have to make them up as we went along. And she did say to me, 'Pick Ethiopia. Go to Kenya. Don't go to Malawi because you're just going to get a hard time.'" Madonna adopted David with ex-husband Guy Ritchie, whom she divorced in 2008 after eight years of marriage. She shares 16-year-old son Rocco with the British filmmaker too. The Grammy winner is also mom of Lourdes, 20, with ex Carlos Leon. Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption The star previously adopted two children from Malawi with ex-husband Guy Ritchie Pop star Madonna has denied "rumours" she has applied to adopt two more children in Malawi. It comes after a Malawian government spokesperson told news outlets the 58-year-old singer had appeared in court and had "filed an application expressing interest" to adopt. Madonna is currently in the African country, but said her visit was strictly for charity purposes. "The rumours of an adoption process are untrue," she said in a statement. "I am in Malawi to check on the children's hospital in Blantyre and my other work with Raising Malawi and then heading home." Court spokesman Mlenga Mvula had told news agencies earlier on Wednesday the singer had appeared in High Court, applying to adopt two children. "As a court, we adjourned the matter for a ruling (in the next two weeks). The court will either grant the adoption order or might not," he said. Image copyright AFP Image caption Madonna with her children (L-R): David, Madonna, Lourdes, Mercy and Rocco visiting Malawi in 2013 Madonna previously adopted two children from the African country: David Banda in 2006 and Mercy James in 2009. The star's relationship with Malawi dates back to 2006, when she established the Raising Malawi charity, with the goal of improving children's lives. She initially planned to build a $15m (£12m) girls' academy, but later changed strategy, and used the money to fund a number of schools. The charity also provides scholarships to female students, and is currently building the country's first paediatric intensive care unit at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, in Blantyre. Madonna visited the project last summer, and took David and Mercy to visit the orphanages where they lived before being adopted. The star has two other children - Lourdes and Rocco - from previous relationships. Last year saw her involved in a custody dispute over Rocco with ex-husband Guy Ritchie. She eventually lost the case, with the 16-year-old moving to London to live with his father. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. ||||| The Secret Service isn’t happy with Madonna’s remarks about “blowing up the White House.” In a passionate speech on Saturday, Madonna went on a rampage about her feelings toward Donald Trump’s presidency. “Yes, I’m angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House,” she said at a Women’s March protest in Washington, D.C. “But I know that this won’t change anything. We cannot fall into despair.” RELATED: Kellyanne Conway weighs in on the Women’s March: “I frankly didn’t see the point” According to Page Six, her comments got the attention of federal law enforcement and the Secret Service is reportedly investigating. On Sunday, the “Material Girl’ singer took to Instagram to clarify her comments. “I want to clarify some very important things. I am not a violent person, I do not promote violence and it’s important people hear and understand my speech in it’s entirety rather than one phrase taken wildly out of context,” Madonna wrote. “One of the singers said she wanted to blow up the White House. I mean, can you imagine saying that about President Obama,” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told “Fox News Sunday.” RELATED: The Dunkin’ Donuts employee who wrote the NSFW poem Ashley Judd recited at the Women’s March is defending her words An official U.S. spokesperson said that the statement will be evaluated for it’s seriousness. “It’s all about intent. Is she intending to do harm to the White House or President Trump? Otherwise it will be characterized as inappropriate,” the official said to The Post. “If it’s characterized as inappropriate, then there won’t be any discussions with the U.S. Attorney. If it’s determined that there’s intent on her part, then there will be discussions with the U.S. Attorney and they’ll take it from there.” ||||| Madonna is applying to adopt two more children from Malawi, a government spokesman has confirmed. The singer appeared in court in Lilongwe today after filing her application and must wait a week to decide if the court will grant an adoption order. She flew into the country yesterday, fresh from the Women’s March in Washington. She already has two children from the African country - David, adopted from an orphanage in 2006, and Mercy, adopted in 2009. Both are aged 11. Her other children are Lourdes, 20, from a relationship with Carlos Leon, and Rocco, 16, by her former husband Guy Ritchie. Lilongwe High Court officials said Madonna appeared before Justice Fiona Mwale. According to local reports, Madonna was spotted after the hearing carrying one child, while one of her entourage carried another.

– Scratch that: Outlets including the BBC and the AP reported that Madonna had applied to adopt two children in Malawi, but the Material Girl has since refuted those reports. "I am in Malawi to check on the children's hospital in Blantyre and my other work with Raising Malawi, and then heading home," she tells Us. "The rumors of an adoption process are untrue." Madonna, 58, flew into Malawi on Tuesday and a government spokesperson had confirmed to the aforementioned news outlets that she appeared in High Court in the country's capital on Wednesday. Citing local reports, the Telegraph said she was seen carrying one child after the hearing, while another person from her group carried a second child. A court spokesperson had also said that the singer, who has already adopted two children from Malawi, would need to wait a week before learning the court's decision. (The Secret Service is rumored to be investigating Madonna.)

An oil platform exploded and caught fire Thursday off the Louisiana coast, the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. All 13 crew members were rescued from the water in protective "Gumby suits." Boats are seen spraying water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, of the coast of Louisiana., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. All 13 crew members were rescued. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Associated Press) Boats are seen spraying water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. All 13 crew members were rescued. (AP Photo/Gerald... (Associated Press) Boats are seen spraying water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. All 13 crew members were rescued. (AP Photo/Gerald... (Associated Press) Boats are seen spraying water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, of the coast of Louisiana., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. All 13 crew members were rescued. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Associated Press) The Coast Guard initially reported that an oil sheen a mile long and 100 feet wide had begun to spread from the site of the blast, about 200 miles west of the site of BP's massive spill. But hours later, Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said crews were unable to find any spill. The company that owns the platform, Houston-based Mariner Energy, did not know what caused the blast. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Mariner officials told him there were seven active production wells on the platform, and they were shut down shortly after the fire broke out. The Coast Guard said Mariner Energy reported the oil sheen. But the company said in a public statement that an initial flyover of the platform did not reveal any spilled oil. Photos from the scene showed at least five ships floating near the platform. Three of them were shooting great plumes of water onto the machinery. Light smoke could be seen drifting across the deep blue waters of the gulf. By late afternoon, the fire on the platform was out. The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay. Its location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 5,000 feet where BP's well spewed oil and gas for three months after the April rig explosion. Responding to any oil spill in shallow water would be much easier than in deep water, where crews depend on remote-operated vehicles access equipment on the sea floor. A homeland security update obtained by The Associated Press said the platform was producing 58,800 gallons of oil and 900,000 cubic feet of gas per day. The platform can store 4,200 gallons of oil. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration has "response assets ready for deployment should we receive reports of pollution in the water." Crew members were found floating in the water, huddled together in insulated survival outfits called "Gumby suits" for their resemblance to the cartoon character. "These guys had the presence of mind, used their training to get into those Gumby suits before they entered the water," Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said. The crew was being flown to a hospital in Houma. The Coast Guard said one person was injured, but the company said there were no injuries. A company report said the well was drilled in the third quarter of 2008. There are about 3,400 platforms operating in the Gulf, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Together they pump about a third of the America's domestic oil, forming the backbone of the country's petroleum industry. Platforms are vastly different from oil rigs like the Deepwater Horizon. They are usually brought in after wells are already drilled and sealed. "A production platform is much more stable," said Andy Radford, an API expert on offshore oil drilling. "On a drilling rig, you're actually drilling the well. You're cutting. You're pumping mud down the hole. You have a lot more activity on a drilling rig." In contrast, platforms are usually placed atop stable wells where the oil is flowing at a predictable pressure, he said. A majority of platforms in the Gulf do not require crews on board. Many platforms, especially those in shallower water, stand on legs that are drilled into the sea floor. Like a giant octopus, they spread numerous pipelines across the sea floor and can tap into many wells at once. Platforms do not have blowout preventers, but they are usually equipped with a series of redundant valves that can shut off oil and gas at different points along the pipeline. Numerous platforms were damaged during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The storms broke pipelines and oil spilled into the Gulf. But the platforms successfully kept major spills from happening, Radford said. "Those safety valves did their job," he said. Federal authorities have cited Mariner Energy and related entities for 10 accidents in the Gulf of Mexico over the last four years, according to safety records from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. The accidents range from platform fires to pollution spills and a blowout, according to accident-investigation reports from the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service. In 2007, welding sparks falling onto an oil storage tank caused a flash fire that slightly burned a contract worker. The Minerals Management Service issued a $35,000 fine. Mariner Energy Inc. focuses on oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf. In April, Apache Corp., another independent oil company, announced plans to buy Mariner in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $3.9 billion, including the assumption of about $1.2 billion of Mariner's debt. That deal is pending. On Friday, BP was expected to begin the process of removing the cap and failed blowout preventer, another step toward completion of a relief well that would put a final seal on the well. The Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 people and setting off a three-month leak that totaled 206 million gallons of oil. ___ Associated Press writers Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans, Chris Kahn in New York, Eileen Sullivan, Matthew Daly and Gerry Bodlander in Washington, Garance Burke in Fresno, Calif., and researcher Monika Mathur in New York contributed to this report. ||||| The Coast Guard says there is no sign of an oil leak after the latest Gulf platform fire, but crews are continuing to monitor the situation. Enlarge By Gerald Herbert, AP Boats spray water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana on Thursday. Enlarge By Patrick Semansky, AP Two oil rig workers, left, walk away from the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter that rescued them after an oil production platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday. The helicopter landed on the roof of Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma, La. All 13 crew members survived the explosion. An offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that exploded Thursday did not leak a significant amount of oil into the water, the Coast Guard said. All 13 rig workers donned bright orange survival gear — known as "Gumby suits" — and scrambled into the Gulf after the explosion. They were rescued by a supply ship, Coast Guard Capt. Peter Troedsson said. None were seriously injured. The owner of the oil and gas platform, Mariner Energy of Houston, reported that a mile-long slick was visible on the water near the rig. When the Coast Guard reached the scene a short time later, there was no evidence of any leaks, Troedsson said. "The boats and the aircraft on scene cannot see a sheen," he said. The outcome of the explosion was very different from the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig 200 miles to the east. That well, owned by oil company BP, spewed crude oil and natural gas for nearly three months in the worst offshore environmental disaster in U.S. history. About 206 million gallons of oil polluted the Gulf. The Vermilion Oil Rig 380 that exploded Thursday sat in 340 feet of water and was approved to collect oil and gas from existing wells, according to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. It was undergoing maintenance and was not producing at the time of the accident. ON DEADLINE: Oil rig explosion news as it happens DEEPWATER SPILL: Engineers retrieve failed blowout preventer FULL COVERAGE: Tracking the oil spill By contrast, the Deepwater Horizon was operating in more than 5,000 feet of water and was drilling into extremely deep reservoirs under high pressure. Thursday's explosion was reported at 9:19 a.m. by a nearby rig, Troedsson said. The blast occurred 92 miles south of Vermilion Bay, La., west of New Orleans and the Mississippi River Delta. Dan Shaw, the captain of the Crystal Clear supply boat that rescued Vermilion's workers, said the employees huddled together in the water, holding hands. They were hungry and tired after floating for two hours, he said. Mariner Energy describes itself on its website as "one of the leading independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the Gulf." The company was involved in 13 accidents in the region since 2006 and was fined $85,000, according to federal records. In seven of the incidents, inspectors cited possible safety violations. Thursday's explosion prompted swift reactions from environmentalists. "This is one other piece of evidence that demonstrates the human and environment risks of our appetite for offshore oil," said Susan Farady, director of the Marine Affairs Institute at Roger Williams University School of Law in Rhode Island. She said there have been more than 800 offshore explosions and fires in the Gulf since 2001 and 55 deaths. Meanwhile, workers took another step Thursday toward permanently plugging BP's well. They prepared to remove the well's giant blowout preventer from the seafloor as soon as Thursday night, said retired admiral Thad Allen, head of the federal government's response. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more ||||| The Coast Guard is reporting that the Gulf oil rig explosion has left a sheen of oil that is 100 feet wide and about a mile long, Chief Warrant Officer Barry Lane said. "We're monitoring the oil sheen to make sure it's not growing,'' he said. Lane said the Coast Guard has received reports from some of the crew members on the platform that the crew was able "to initiate shutdown procedures before the explosion.'' He said those reports are still being confirmed. At 2:15 p.m. a Coast Guard helicopter arrived at the roof of Terrebonne General Hospital, followed by another one a few minutes later. Two people emerged, walking under their own power, from the first helicopter at the hospital. Six or seven emerged, also walking, from the second helicopter. A third Coast Guard helicopter arrived at the hospital around 2:35 p.m., and two people got out of it, walking on their own. A fourth Coast Guard helicopter arrived at 2:50 p.m.but it wasn't clear how many people got out of it. The Coast Guard was unable to determine at this point whether the sheen was from a leaking well or some other source connected with the rig's production.

– Confusion reigns in the aftermath of today's oil platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. This much good news stands: All 13 crew members were rescued from the water. Everything else is changing quickly. The Coast Guard spoke of a mile-long oil slick at the site but now says it can't find evidence of any oil in the water. Early reports said the platform wasn't producing any oil or gas, but Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal now says it had seven active wells. The Coast Guard hasn't confirmed reports that crew members were able to shut them down before bailing. The platform, owned by Houston's Mariner Energy, was producing 59,000 gallons of oil and 900,000 cubic feet of gas per day and could store 4,200 gallons of oil, reports the AP, citing federal figures. If there is a spill of some sort, the relatively shallow depth of 340 feet should make cleanup easier. More coverage in the Times-Picayune and USA Today.

Bodies believed to be of Japanese WWII soldiers discovered in Palau cave sealed off for 70 years Updated The bodies of six soldiers, believed to be Japanese troops who fought in World War II, have been discovered in a reopened cave in the tiny Pacific nation of Palau. The site — one of around 200 sealed caves on the island of Pelileu — was recently opened again for the first time in nearly 70 years. The caves were used when US and Japanese forces fought a fierce battle on the island's beaches in September 1944. Steve Ballinger, operations director with non-government organisation Cleared Ground Demining, said the bodies of the six soldiers would be repatriated. "The cave itself is in an area known as the promontory which is the defining point on the west coast of the island of Pelileu," he told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program. "At that location was an anti-tank gun in a heavily fortified concrete bunker and it took a number of days actually to capture this fortified position. "It's my understanding that those [bodies] were the crew, perhaps the officer and his men that were manning that gun ... a number of US soldiers died in that vicinity as well." Mr Ballinger said other war relics were also found in and around the cave. "During the detection and investigation we located hand grenades, large projectiles, small arms ammunition and (an) array of explosive remnants of war," he said. The decision to open the caves in Palau comes ahead of an imperial visit next week by Japanese emperor Akihito and empress Michiko. The team tasked with making the caves safe for anthropologists to investigate has been operating in Palau to clear remnants of WWII ordnance for six years. It is made up of 18 Palauans, two Britons and one person each from South Africa and Australia. Mr Ballinger said the team had been concerned about possible booby traps when they first entered the cave. "[We] had to check in the floor and the entrance of the cave to allow Japanese and US anthropologists and archaeologists in there," he said. "It was very tight, it was a very difficult entrance to the cave, a very harsh environment to work in." He said the cave the remains were found has since been resealed. "A lot of field caves will contain considerable quantities of human remains and as such you could designate them as graves and wouldn't be appropriate to use as tourist attractions," he said. An estimated 10,000 Japanese soldiers died during the fighting in the country, and the remains of some 2,600 troops have never been found. Topics: world-war-2, history, unrest-conflict-and-war, archaeology, palau, pacific, japan, united-states First posted ||||| On a remote coral island in the tiny Pacific nation of Palau , officials have been inching through foliage littered with explosives to open up a network of sealed caves and search for thousands of bodies believed to have lain inside since the Second World War . The grim and painstaking task, undertaken by a team of local and Japanese archaeologists and munitions experts, is aimed at finding the remains of Japanese soldiers trapped inside by United States forces during one of the toughest battles of the war. The Japanese used the caves, connected via tunnels and narrow passageways, as a base for their defence of Peleliu, a narrow island only six miles long. More than 10,000 Japanese soldiers died, but the bodies of 2,600 were never found. Now, Palau has agreed to open about 200 remaining sealed caves to try to locate the remains ahead of a visit early next month by Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. The macabre task is risky and involves clearing a way into the caves through thick forest littered with unexploded ordnance. A team of experts took five days last week to clear their way into just one small cave with a 7ft opening. Archaeologists found a set of bones which are believed to be human and will be taken back to Japan for testing. "They found some bones while they were clearing the entrance of the cave," Bernadette Carreon, a local journalist, told ABC Radio. "They did not use heavy equipment because they have to make it clear of heavy ordnance. When it's clear, the archaeologists can go in and start bone collection." Marines smoke cigarettes, but keep their weapons close in a blasted landscape of Peleliu Island, Palau during WWII The attempt to find the bodies has been welcomed in Japan and is part of an effort to end a brutal chapter from the war, in which US marines were pitted against Japanese troops who had set up their defences in the intricate labyrinth of heavily fortified caves and underground bunkers. It is still regarded as one of the harshest conflicts in the history of the marines. Unlike previous battles in the Pacific, the Japanese did not focus their defence on using suicide charges to prevent the Americans from establishing a beachhead. Instead, the Japanese forces largely allowed the marines to land but staged their defence from inside the caves. The Japanese, who had occupied Palau for about 30 years, had spent decades using dynamite and axes to enlarge existing caves on Peleliu and blast out new ones. The caves and their entrances were then heavily camouflaged. • Japan receives biggest warship since Second World War • Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen: 'I've found wreck of long-lost WWII Japanese battleship' The US forces expected the battle in September 1944 to last only four or five days. "It will be a hard-fought quickie," predicted William Rupertus, the US marine commander. It took more than 10 weeks. More than 1,600 US soldiers were killed during the battle, which ended with the marines blowing up many of the caves, leaving thousands of the enemy trapped inside. Shortly before the Americans finally seized the small island in late November, Col Kunio Nakagawa, the Japanese commander, atoned for his defeat by committing ritual suicide in his post. About 35 Japanese soldiers remained hiding in the caves until April 1947, more than 18 months after the war officially ended. They were the last troops to surrender. Keiji Nagai, 93, and Kiyokazu Tsuchida, 95, two of the 35 soldiers who surrendered in 1947, met the Japanese emperor and empress earlier this month to provide an account of the hand-to-hand combat they experienced during the battle. The empress quietly told Mr Nagai: "You went through a lot." Authorities began collecting the remains at various locations around the island in 1953, but Japanese authorities say 2,600 soldiers have yet to be found. The bodies are believed to be holed up inside about 200 caves which were deemed dangerous and left sealed to prevent public access. About 450 Japanese soldiers survived the battle and later helped to direct the authorities to the site of graves. The island of Peleliu (Alamy) The entire island has become something of a monument to the battle, with unexploded bombs a constant threat to residents and tourists. Following the war, Japan created a peace park which included a Shinto shrine with the inscription "To all countries' unknown soldiers". Officials in Palau have worked closely with Japan to try to recover the remaining bodies and return them to the families of the soldiers. Some representatives of the families of the Japanese soldiers have assisted with the search. Sachio Kageyama, from a group representing families and fellow soldiers of those who fought on the island, told The Japan Times: "I hope the forthcoming visit by the emperor will pave the way for [further] collection of remains." Palau, a remote cluster of islands east of the Philippines with a population of about 21,000, was the scene of heavy fighting during the war. The fierce battle at Peleliu was over an airfield now deemed of questionable strategic value by most historians. The search for the bodies has also focused on a long-lost mass grave on the western side of the island, close to where the current cave search is being conducted. US military documents indicating the cemetery's location were found two years ago at a naval museum in California. The documents included a map created in January 1945 which says "Japanese cemetery" and points to the centre of the island. A separate report from a construction battalion says that logs were placed on the site to prevent people disturbing the graves. US officials reportedly told Palau in 1994 that a mass grave was located near Nakagawa's grave. US experts have also been searching Palau's coral reefs, lagoons and islands for planes that were lost in the conflict. Last year, underwater robots were used to find two warplanes on the ocean floor.

– The island nation of Palau is preparing for a visit from Japan's Emperor Akihito next week with an unusual and grim task: It's investigating long-sealed caves on the island of Peleliu to look for the remains of Japanese soldiers from World War II. The remains of six soldiers have been discovered so far, but that's just the start. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports they were found in one of about 200 sealed caves on Peleliu. An estimated 10,000 Japanese men were killed in a weeks-long battle with US troops during the war, and the bodies of 2,600 of them were never found. The Japanese used a network of caves and tunnels during the 1944 fighting, recounts the Telegraph, and largely "staged their defense" from within the caves. About 1,600 American troops were killed, but the US military blew up many of the caves (essentially sealing the Japanese within) and eventually gained control. The six newly found bodies were found in the vicinity of an anti-tank gun, and "it's my understanding that those [bodies] were the crew, perhaps the officer and his men that were manning that gun," says one of the search officials. "A number of US soldiers died in that vicinity as well." The task is painstaking because searchers need to guard against booby traps or the detonation of old munitions. An interesting side note from the Telegraph: Some 35 Japanese soldiers who had been hiding in the caves surrendered in April 1947—more than a year after the war's end. (In other WWII news, Anne Frank likely died earlier than thought.)

Story highlights Militant group will accept its identity as a French territory, the group says The separatist group has sought independence since 1976 After nearly 40 years, a militant group on the island of Corsica says it is abandoning its armed struggle for independence from France. The banned National Liberation Front of Corsica, also known an FLNC, said Wednesday in a statement obtained by CNN affiliate France 3 that it had made the decision with no preconditions and had started the process of demilitarization. The birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, Corsica is located in the Tyrrehenian Sea, part of the Mediterranean, between the coasts of France and Italy. It has been under French control since the 1700s. The island has been plagued by terrorism -- including bombings, robberies, and assaults -- since 1976, with the FLNC in the throes of a long, low-intensity military campaign against French targets on the island. In 1997, several banks and government offices were targeted in more than 50 bomb explosions in one day, for which FLNC claimed responsibility. France's government launched a ferocious crackdown in Corsica after a top French official there was gunned down in 1998 on the street of Ajaccio. This spurred a series of nationalist protests, followed by a string of FLNC attacks against French targets. A branch of the separatist group announced in 2003 that it would suspend its military actions. But attacks by FLNC continued, although with less frequency. ||||| Corsica’s largest armed independence group has said it will lay down its weapons in favour of conventional political channels to further its ambitions on the French Mediterranean island. The unexpected decision by the National Liberation Front of Corsica signals an end to almost 40 years of armed struggle for Corsican independence that began with a series of attacks in May 1976. It also comes just a few months after Eta, the militant Basque separatist organisation, revealed in February that it had agreed to decommission some of its cache of weapons and explosives, taking a further step towards drawing a line under decades of bloody conflict in Spain. In a communiqué issued on Wednesday evening, the FLNC said: “Without prior notification and without ambiguity, our organisation has unilaterally decided to start a demilitarisation process and a progressive exit from clandestine activities.” It added: “The time has come for our organisation to intensify the fight in the public arena.” Gilles Millet, a journalist at Corsica, a monthly publication that has had contact with the armed group in the past, said that the 14-page communiqué was authentic. The group, which Mr Millet said comprised more than 100 members and whose independence cause still enjoys support among many of the island’s 320,000 residents, said that part of the reason for disarmament was several recent advances via conventional means. In April, the local assembly approved a bill limiting land and property purchases to those who have been a Corsican resident for at least five years. The idea was to put an end to a wave of speculation-driven inflation in real estate prices on the island in recent years. An estimated 40 per cent of properties on the island are second homes owned by non-residents. Now a popular tourist destination, Corsica was conquered by the French in the 18th century. Ajaccio, the capital, was the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. The FLNC said on Wednesday that measures such as the property-owning restrictions “on subjects prohibited for so many years, trace the outlines of a political solution . . . we are moving from a phase of combat and resistance to a phase of the construction of a true Corsican political power”. Thousands of attacks have been carried out in Corsica and the French mainland since the separatist movement was founded, with the FLNC claiming responsibility in many cases. The attacks have included the murder of policemen, the bombing of banks in Paris and rocket attacks on government buildings.

– There is now one less armed separatist group in Europe: After nearly 40 years and thousands of attacks, including bombings and assassinations, the National Liberation Front of Corsica has decided to call it a day, CNN reports. The banned militant group, which launched its violent campaign for independence from France in 1976, says it has begun the process of demilitarization without preconditions and will pursue its goals through political channels. The group's cause still has plenty of support on the island of 320,000 people, where at least 40% of homes are second properties owned by non-residents, the Financial Times finds. The regional assembly recently restricted property purchases to those who have been residents for at least five years, and the militants say that move and similar ones show that "we are moving from a phase of combat and resistance to a phase of the construction of a true Corsican political power."

Doubt — and a reportedly royal severed head — haunts a murky corner of forensic science these days, as researchers squabble over an unearthed packet of mummified remains thought to have belonged to King Henry IV of France. The mystery has produced a frightful case of regret among two researchers who were part of the first team to investigate the purportedly royal noggin. This week, French pathologist Geoffroy Lorin de la Grandmaison and Leslie Eisenberg, an American forensic anthropologist, wrote to the British Medical Journal and urged the retraction of the 2010 study that first identified the disembodied head as belonging to Henry. At the heart of the macabre drama is an embalmed head with several vertebrae still attached. The remains were found in 1919 in the Royal Basilica of St. Denis outside Paris and reportedly secreted away by a civil servant. Reappearing almost a century later, the specimen still had its soft tissue and organs intact, right down to the open mouth and partially closed eyes. On the basis of CT imaging and digital facial reconstruction, French medical examiner and forensic osteo-archaeologist Philippe Charlier and a multidisciplinary team — including Eisenberg and Lorin de la Grandmaison — in 2010 identified the head as that of the charming and rakish monarch known variously as "the Green Gallant" and "Good King Henry." Even a mushroom-like growth on his nose and evidence of a pierced right ear seemed to point to King Henry IV. Though beloved by most of his people, the Bourbon monarch was assassinated in 1610 after 21 years on the throne. That was just the beginning of his misfortune. In 1793, marauding revolutionaries sacked Paris' churches and desecrated the graves of many a purported royal. Legend had it that Henry's remains got the same treatment that befell his descendant Louis XVI: Dead or not, it was off with his head. But researchers from the University of Leuven in Belgium were not so sure the head belonged to Good King Henry. Obtaining a sample of the mummified tissue, they conducted a genetic analysis and compared it with DNA samples given by three male descendants of the House of Bourbon. Analyzing the Y chromosome of the three descendants, as well as genes that reveal matrilineal descent, they found clear similarities among the three descendants. But none of those matched the DNA of the disembodied head. The team further compared the Y chromosome taken from the mysterious head with that taken from a blood-soaked handkerchief said to contain the genetic material of Louis XVI. (That "sample" was collected on Jan. 21, 1793, when a spectator at La Place de la Revolution in Paris thrust out the cloth to capture blood gushing from Louis' headless body.) The two samples did not match. Though widely used in genealogical research, paternity testing and forensics, the Y chromosome's pattern of repeated DNA letters is not as definitive a test of genetic relatedness as are the patterns found on other chromosomes. So perhaps this still was Henry's head? "Impossible!" declared Jean-Jacques Cassiman, an emeritus professor at the University of Leuven and coauthor of the Belgian team's study, whose results were published in the European Journal of Human Genetics this month. The findings came on top of an earlier dismissal by French historian Philippe Delorme. Among other things, Delorme noted that the head bore no sign of craniotomy, as would be typical for a member of the royal family at that time. In such an esteemed person, craniotomy incisions would have been made in life (as a treatment for infection, head trauma and other ills) and in death (as a means to harvest "rondels," diskettes of bony tissue that were subsequently worn around the neck as an amulet). Charlier, the lead investigator of the 2010 study, has been stout in defense of his findings. Illegitimacy — not of his methods but among many princelings of the French court — may explain the genetic mismatch, Charlier has argued. Extramarital liaisons among members of the court make it "hopeless," he said, to ascertain lineage using DNA tests over so many generations. Such protests have failed to discourage defections from Charlier's team of researchers. Hence this week's letter by two of Charlier's coauthors and two others who have challenged the 2010 findings, saying that "robust scientific arguments ... negate the conclusions." "The retraction of the article is now justified, as a rigorous scientific anthropological study should have excluded the hypothesis (and the findings) that the head belonged to" Henry, the four wrote. Nailing down the identity of long-lost bones is tricky, and disputes among forensic scientists are common, said Alison Galloway, a forensic anthropologist at UC Santa Cruz who has followed, but not been involved in, the royal kerfuffle. "The original analysis looked good," Galloway said. But Charlier's team should have known that its conclusions would be challenged, she said. "If you had a group of 100 skulls — all men of European ancestry, let's say — and you had a photograph of a person, about 10 of those skulls could superimpose pretty well on that photograph," she said. Although facial reconstruction makes for great visuals in a TV drama, "it's a technique much better used to exclude somebody" than to identify him definitively. With grieving relatives, criminal defendants and judges looking on, forensic scientists typically stick with conclusions that will hold up in a court of law. Only rarely do their disputes become the object of royal speculation and historical ghost stories. Charlier's investigation, and the ensuing fracas, may be more of a divertissement than a serious professional debate, Galloway said. "Why are we so worried about whether it's Henry's head?" melissa.healy@latimes.com ||||| Crawl of outlinks from wikipedia.org started March, 2016. These files are currently not publicly accessible. Properties of this collection. It has been several years since the last time we did this. For this collection, several things were done: 1. Turned off duplicate detection. This collection will be complete, as there is a good chance we will share the data, and sharing data with pointers to random other collections, is a complex problem. 2. For the first time, did all the different wikis. The original runs were just against the enwiki. This one, the seed list was built from all 865 collections. ||||| This photo dated Thursday Dec. 16, 2010 and provided by Galaxie Presse shows what is believed to be the head of former French King Henry IV pictured in the 1930s. A 400-year-old skull that French researchers believe was the head of celebrated King Henri IV was squirreled away for decades in the attic of a now-retired public servant, and now has been handed over to one of his Bourbon dynasty descendants. (AP Photo/Galaxie Presse) NO SALES Three years ago, French researchers declared that a centuries-old mummified head was that of the beloved King Henri IV. But now a new study says, "Non!" The original conclusion was based largely on facial reconstruction techniques and signs the skull had injuries similar to those suffered by the monarch. The new study looked at DNA instead. It found a genetic mismatch between the head and three living male relatives of the 17th-century French king. The researchers concluded the head didn't come from anybody in the royal lineage. Henri IV was one of France's best-loved kings, credited with bringing religious peace to the country and building Parisian landmarks like the Pont Neuf bridge during his reign from 1589 to 1610. He was the first of the Bourbon monarchs and grandfather of the Sun King Louis XIV. It's "impossible" that the head belongs to Henri IV, said Jean-Jacques Cassiman, an emeritus professor at the University of Leuven, one of the authors of the new study. The research was published online Wednesday in the European Journal of Human Genetics. The same study also found a blood sample previously attributed to King Louis XVI, one of Henri's descendants, lacked any royal ties. Louis XVI died on the guillotine during the French Revolution and many spectators reportedly soaked their handkerchiefs in the king's blood. But Cassiman and colleagues found the lingering traces of powdered blood on the handkerchief they tested did not match the Bourbon family DNA. Cassiman said he wasn't sure who the head or the blood sample belonged to. The DNA from both failed to match samples from other royal families on record. This is a schematic representation of the paternal line of the three living Bourbons and the French kings Henry IV and Louis XVI. Credit: KU Leuven Amid the frenzy of the French revolution, the royal tombs at Saint Denis near Paris were dug up and some accounts claim Henri IV's head got chopped off and stolen. Cassiman and his co-authors dispute that Henri was decapitated and believe the king is still buried in Saint Denis after the tombs were resealed in 1817. "That is impossible to verify," said Michael Rowe, a senior lecturer in European history at King's College London, who was not connected to either study. He said there wasn't much evidence one way or the other to suggest what happened to Henri's head. But Rowe said that Henri IV's reputation as one of France's best kings might have saved his body from decapitation. "If the revolutionaries were going to spare any of the kings, it would have been Henri IV." This is a schematic representation of the maternal line of the French kings Henry IV and Louis XVII. Credit: KU Leuven Philippe Charlier, author of the 2010 study that identified the head as Henri IV, dismissed the new research. He said he and colleagues have found an exact match between a three-dimensional comparison of the ancient head and Henri IV's death mask. He said the work will be published soon in a forensic journal. Charlier added there were numerous doubts about the paternity of various kings in the Bourbon line, which might explain why there was no link between the DNA of modern-day descendants and the ancient head. "It is hopeless to try to match a family tree and a series of genetic links (over) such a long period," he said in an email. Frank Ruehli, of the University of Zurich and the Swiss Mummy project, agreed there could be questions about paternity in the Bourbon line and also raised concerns about the authenticity of the ancient DNA samples, as he said it was very difficult to get good data from a sample several centuries old. "The best would be to look at (Henri IV's) heart as well," he said. "If you have multiple tissues from the same body showing the same results, that would be a positive identification," he said. Ruehli said given the lack of complete data, it was impossible to know for sure whom the head belonged to. Charlier said the mummified head is currently in a Parisian bank vault awaiting reburial but that there are no exact plans yet. Explore further: Dried squash holds headless French king's blood, study finds More information: www.nature.com/ejhg

– Forensic researchers have a royal dispute on their hands: They can't agree on whether a mummified head belongs to France's Henry IV, explains the Los Angeles Times. The question seemed settled in 2010 when a team of researchers used facial-reconstruction techniques to conclude that it was indeed "Good King Henry," who was assassinated in 1610. But now a second team of scientists says it isn't so because DNA tests don't match Henry's living relatives. They wrote this week to the British Medical Journal urging a retraction of the earlier study, and, in fact, two members of the 2010 team agree that their conclusions were faulty. Not so, says the lead researcher from 2010. He explained to phys.org in an earlier story that it's useless to make conclusions based on DNA results in part because the French royals were such philanderers. "It is hopeless to try to match a family tree and a series of genetic links (over) such a long period," he said. Until things get settled, the mummified head is resting in a bank vault in Paris. (In other mummified news, click to read about a big find in Peru's capital.)

Off Message 5 takeaways from the first presidential debate She hits him where it hurts, and his defensiveness makes him seem wimpy. There were a couple of not-so-very-subtle signals here inside of Hofstra University that Donald Trump lost Monday night’s highly-anticipated debate against Hillary Clinton, and badly. The first was the audible sound of groaning by some of his supporters (picked up by my attentive colleague Steve Shepard) inside the debate hall as Trump meandered self-defensively through a succession of answers against a very focused, very energized and very well-rehearsed Hillary Clinton. Story Continued Below Another tell: After the 90-minute sparring match finished, Clinton’s team practically bounded into the spin room – more in glassy-eyed disbelief than visible elation that things had gone so much better than expected. The GOP nominee’s people, by contrast, dribbled into the media pen like surly seventh-graders headed for homeroom the day before summer vacation. “F—k, let’s do this,” a prominent Trump surrogate said before diving into a scrum. Trump and his new-ish messaging team have labored mightily to turn the avatar of populist rage into a reasonable facsimile of someone who you could see sitting in the Oval Office. But this best-laid plan unraveled on Monday – amid Clinton’s steely assault and the dignified interrogation of NBC’s Lester Holt, who struck a deft balance between facilitator, BS detector and lion tamer. Within minutes of the opening bell, Clinton’s attacks forced domesticated Donald to go feral – he bellowed, interrupted her repeatedly, grunted, and toward the bedraggled end, became muted and pouty. “It was bizarre,” said Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe, who, like many Clinton allies, seemed visibly relieved. “He was clearly rattled, and clearly focused on defending himself, which I’m told narcissists are prone to do, and he clearly faded at the end. It’s not like she’s going to jump out to a 10-point lead, but this was good.” Whether or not this reverses Trump’s momentum, or reestablishes Clinton's control of the race is an open question. Who won is not. Here are five takeaways. Trump was wimpy when defensive. He is supposed to be the big meanie but it was Clinton who hit him where it hurt most. It doesn’t take a Jung (or even Dr. Phil after a couple of Bud Lights) to figure out that the GOP nominee – who boasts like a barfly – just might be over-compensating. Hence, Clinton, who started the debate a little tentatively, quickly launched into a carefully planned program of Freudian mind-games, contrasting her own middle-class businessman dad (who had his own issues) with Trump’s imperious, larger-than-life father Fred who launched his son’s business career but also was said to be extremely tough on him. First she started in with a paean to her father’s running a small printing business in Chicago (This might be the first time a candidate has described, in detail, the silk-screen squeegee process on a debate stage) – then she pivoted to mocking supposedly self-made Trump’s start in the real estate business. “You know, Donald was very fortunate in his life and that's all to his benefit. He started his business with $14 million, borrowed from his father,” she said icily. “My father gave me a very small loan in 1975 and I built it into a company that's worth many, many billions of dollars,” he responded weakly – and so it went on a range of topics. Whether it was because Clinton was so well prepped, and Trump was so breezily unprepared – or had a simple case of opening night jitters – the bully-boy nominee abandoned his most effective mode of debate combat, answering an attack with a harsher one. She went right for Trump’s ego – questioning his questionable $11 billion net worth, his boastful record on job creation and picking apart his tough talk on fighting ISIS. View The 10 most memorable moments of the presidential debate Here are the most memorable and important moments of the night from the first presidential debate at Hofstra University on Monday. In 2007, preparing for a primary race she’d eventually lose, Clinton told me that the key to presidential political campaigns was understanding that the most effective attacks weren’t about exploiting someone’s weaknesses but challenging an opponent’s perceived strengths. When confronted with that assault, Trump wilted and offered a series of meandering answers that had his Republicans wincing. “It was a draw,” former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown said. “But he was on the defensive far too much. That’s a direct result of his inexperience.” What about the Clinton Foundation? The former secretary’s debate team (including longtime aide Phillippe Reines, who snapped a pre-debate photo in a Trump circled-finger pose) expected him to savage her on the various questions raised about her family’s foundation. They were worried about it. While he hammered her ever-so-briefly on emails, he was so engaged in self-justification, he flat-out forgot to pursue an attack that could have made the night a lot less lousy. His “30 years” attack worked – and he’ll use it again. Trump may have lost the first debate, but he’s proven to be a fast learner, and is likely to come back stronger in early October for the second debate, a town hall style affair, in St. Louis. And there were a few gold nuggets strewn in the wreckage of Hofstra – the most valuable an assault (demonstrable and fact-checker-friendly) on Clinton’s effectiveness in 25-plus years of public life. The been-there-not-done-that argument was particularly useful when coupled with his usual slams on Bill Clinton’s passage of the increasingly unpopular NAFTA agreement from the 1990s and Hillary Clinton’s election-year flip-flop from TPP booster to opponent. “When she started talking about this, it was really very recently,” Trump said of her opposition to the trade deal. “She's been doing this for 30 years. And why hasn't she made the agreements better? The NAFTA agreement is defective. Just because of the tax and many other reasons, but just because of the fact.” When Clinton claimed that she planned to “really work to get new jobs and to get exports that helped to create more new jobs.” He scoffed, and shot back, “But you haven't done it in 30 years or 26 years.” Clinton effectively attacked his business career. Trump’s attempt to head off debate-night questions about his five-year campaign promoting the birther slander against Barack Obama was a humbling face-plant. His attempt to pin the origin of the charge against Clinton associate Sid Blumenthal was semi-effective with the political press, but it withered under the insistent interrogation of an African-American moderator determined to extract an apology or reasonable explanation. Trump offered neither – and suggested Obama should actually be grateful he pursued the canard because it’s now been resoundingly put to rest. Politically, his tortured explanation helps energize black voters – who already oppose him in historic numbers. But later in the debate, Clinton plucked the strains of what could be a genuine crossover hit this fall among ever-elusive white working-class voters and independents: Trump’s failure to turn over his tax returns. Clinton went there with a vengeance – engaging in a little Trump-esque fact-free speculation about the motives of the billionaire developer-turned-reality TV star. “So you've got to ask yourself, why won't he release his tax returns?” Clinton mused, with relish. “And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he's not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be. Third, we don't know all of his business dealings... Or maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax.” Trump’s answer did more harm than good: “That makes me smart,” he said – referring to his business, not his political, acumen. Her most effective attack – and his worst answer. If the GOP nominee needed any more proof that preparation trumps bombast in a general election debate, he got it when Clinton launched a merciless attack on his habit of stiffing contractors who have labored on his construction projects over the years. Again, Clinton brought it back to her father, describing how bad he would have felt if one of his clients had accepted his work without paying his bill. "I’ve met dishwashers, painters, architects, marble installers, drapery installers, who you refused to pay when they finished the work you asked them to do,” Clinton said, delivering a carefully scripted attack. “We have an architect in the audience who designed one of your clubhouses at one of your golf courses. It's a beautiful facility. It immediately was put to use. And you wouldn't pay what the man needed to be paid, what he was charging you to do.” This is a particular dangerous issue for a candidate whose entire campaign is rooted in fighting for the working class -- and his flippant response, yet again, gave comfort to his enemies. “Maybe he didn't do a good job and I was unsatisfied with his work,” Trump quipped. ||||| Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump succeeded in differentiating themselves in the first presidential debate of the 2016 election on Monday, but they also both missed some opportunities. WSJ's Gerald F. Seib explains. Photo: AP It took but a few minutes into Monday night’s presidential debate for the two contenders to distill the essence of the case they are making for taking over the White House. And they did so in no uncertain terms. Democrat Hillary Clinton portrayed herself as the woman with a plan, who has been around the block in Washington, who is ready to hit the rich and battle “trickle-down economics”—and who, by the way, wasn’t going to be afraid to go after her opponent, who, she said, “has called women pigs, slobs and dogs.” ... ||||| 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.

– The Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump showdown on Monday night was billed as the most anticipated in many years, and it did not disappoint, according to the Hill, which describes the clash as one between "the more incisive and prepared Clinton and Trump, who leaned heavily on instinct and combativeness." Five other takes on the debate, which many analysts are calling a win for Clinton: Glenn Thrush at Politico calls it a clear loss for Trump, who "became muted and pouty" toward the end. Clinton "went right for Trump's ego," and he "wilted and offered a series of meandering answers" when challenged on things like his wealth and his record of job creation, writes Thrush, who believes Trump "flat-out forgot to pursue" a line of attack on the Clinton Foundation. FiveThirtyEight kept track of the number of interruptions, and Trump comes out way ahead on that score: He had three full-fledged interruptions, where he seized the floor, compared to zero for Clinton, and 24 "fleeting interjections" while his rival kept talking, compared to five for Clinton. The biggest contrast may have been between styles, not policy positions, according to Alexander Burns at the New York Times. "He shouted, interrupted, and sniffed. She kept a level tone and wielded prefab one-liners," writes Burns, who thinks Clinton prevailed on issues of race, gender, and national security, while Trump was strongest when portraying himself as a political outsider. Paul Farhi at the Washington Post takes a look at the moderation and finds that NBC News anchor Lester Holt played a "largely passive role," declining to intervene as "Trump interrupted Clinton and made a series of questionable assertions," though he did seem "to push harder on the Republican businessman" than on Clinton. Farhi notes that Holt's questions didn't cover issues such as "Supreme Court nominations, Social Security, gun control, abortion, student loans, military affairs and health care, especially the Affordable Care Act." It was a debate that highlighted the stark choice voters face, and one where the "two contenders did, in fact, play to their strengths," decides Gerald F. Seib at the Wall Street Journal. "He to his ability to connect with voters on visceral terms, she on her ability to move smoothly from subject to subject with an air of authority." Trump, however, sometimes "seemed a bit too eager to interrupt and play the part of the bully," he writes, while Clinton "occasionally seemed on the verge of appearing smug." (Click for 12 of the debate's standout back-and-forths.)

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni signs an anti-homosexual bill into law at the state house in Entebbe, 36 km (22 miles) southwest of the capital Kampala February 24, 2014. WASHINGTON The United States on Thursday cut aid to Uganda, imposed visa restrictions and canceled a regional military exercise in response to a Ugandan law that imposes harsh penalties on homosexuality. The White House said in a statement the measures were intended to "reinforce our support for human rights of all Ugandans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity." Homosexuality is taboo in most African countries and illegal in 37, including in Uganda where it has been a crime since British rule. Uganda's new law, signed by President Yoweri Museveni in February, imposes jail terms of up to life for "aggravated homosexuality" which includes homosexual sex with a minor or while HIV-positive. Widely condemned by donor countries, the law also criminalizes lesbianism for the first time and makes it a crime to help individuals engage in homosexual acts. Western donors, including the United States, had halted or re-directed about $118 million in aid to the east African nation's economy before Thursday's announcement. The White House said on Thursday the United States would impose visa restrictions on Ugandans it believes have been involved in human rights violations, including gay rights. The United States will halt $2.4 million in funding for a Ugandan community policing program in light of a police raid on a U.S.-funded health program at Makerere University and reports of people detained and abused while in police custody. In addition, Washington will shift some funding for salaries and travel expenses of Ugandan health ministry employees to non-governmental agencies involved in health programs. It will also reallocate $3 million in funding for a planned national public health institute in Uganda to another African country, which it did not name. A National Institutes of Health genomics meeting would be moved from Uganda to South Africa, the White House said. It also canceled plans for a U.S.-sponsored military exercise in Uganda that was meant to include other East African countries. A date had not yet been set for the exercise. Uganda is a key Western ally in the fight against Islamic extremism in Somalia, where Ugandan troops for the backbone of the African Union force battling al Qaeda-aligned militants. U.S. special forces have also been involved in the hunt for Joseph Kony, the elusive rebel commander seeking to topple the Ugandan government. Kony is believed to be hiding in the jungles of central Africa. In Kampala, a government official asked about the U.S. measures said that Uganda would not alter its decision to toughen laws against homosexuals. "Uganda is a sovereign country and can never bow to anybody or be blackmailed by anybody on a decision it took in its interests, even if it involves threats to cut off all financial assistance," government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said. U.S. President Barack Obama previously told Museveni the law would complicate relations between the two countries. Since then Washington has been reviewing its funding to Uganda, while privately pressing Museveni's government to repeal the law. (Additional reporting by Elias Biryabarema in Kampala; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Cynthia Osterman) ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is imposing visa bans on Ugandan officials who are involved in corruption and are violating the rights of gay people and others. The Obama administration did not identify the targeted officials. Uganda passed a law in February that strengthened criminal penalties for gay sex and made life sentences possible for those convicted of breaking the law. Human rights groups have reported a surge in rights abuses of gay people since the law took effect. "LGBT rights are human rights and the steps taken today make clear that the United States will take action to defend those rights," U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power said in a statement. "The discriminatory law in Uganda that criminalizes homosexual status should be repealed, as should laws and policies in the more than 76 countries around the world that criminalize homosexuality. We will do everything we can to work with governments and our non-government partners to end anti-gay discrimination around the world." The U.S. already has said it would discontinue or redirect several million dollars in assistance to Uganda. The Pentagon also canceled a training exercise in Uganda. ___ Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report. ||||| Story highlights U.S. pulls funding from Uganda's government Move is in response to Uganda's anti-gay law Washington also cancels a planned military exercise Uganda's President signed measure earlier this year Uganda's government institutions will lose U.S. funding as punishment for a law signed earlier this year by President Yoweri Museveni that makes some homosexual acts punishable by life in prison. In addition, the White House said Thursday that Washington will cancel a planned military exercise with Uganda and deny entry to certain Ugandan citizens, including those "involved in serious human rights abuses, including against LGBT individuals." The United States will not end its humanitarian support for Uganda or its cooperation to stamp out the Lord's Resistance Army, led by the elusive Joseph Kony "We will seek to advance these interests even as we continue -- in Uganda and around the world -- to oppose discriminatory practices and champion human rights for all," read the statement by White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden. Uganda's anti-homosexuality act, first introduced in 2009, originally included a death penalty clause for some such acts. It was briefly shelved when Britain and other European nations threatened to withdraw aid to Uganda, which relies on millions of dollars from the international community. JUST WATCHED Gay Ugandan speaks out about new law Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Gay Ugandan speaks out about new law 05:56 JUST WATCHED Branson to boycott Uganda over law Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Branson to boycott Uganda over law 03:36 JUST WATCHED Gay Ugandans committing suicide Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Gay Ugandans committing suicide 02:30 Museveni signed the bill into law in February, two months after Uganda's Parliament passed it after replacing a death penalty provision with a proposal of life in prison for "aggravated homosexuality." This includes acts in which one person is infected with HIV, "serial offenders" and sex with minors, according to Amnesty International. The law calls for the imprisonment of those who counsel or reach out to gays and lesbians -- a provision that would ensnare rights groups and others providing services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Museveni's position on the law changed several times before he signed it. At one point, he said he wouldn't sign the bill, describing homosexuals as "sick" people who needed help, not imprisonment. He said he changed his mind after scientists had determined that there is no gene for homosexuality and that it is merely a choice to embrace abnormal behavior.

– Uganda's harsh new anti-gay law—which makes "aggravated homosexuality" punishable by life in prison—is costing the country: The US yesterday cut aid to Uganda over it, and didn't stop there. It slapped visa restrictions on Ugandans believed by the US to have been involved in human rights violations or corruption, the AP reports; a planned National Institutes of Health meeting will be moved from Uganda to South Africa; and a planned military exercise with Uganda has been axed. Among the aid cuts: $2.4 million that was meant to fund a Ugandan community policing program has been halted, and $3 million planned to fund a national public health institute will be reallocated to another unnamed African country. The moves "reinforce our support for human rights of all Ugandans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity," the White House said in a statement, according to Reuters. But a government spokesperson in Uganda was unswayed: "Uganda is a sovereign country and can never bow to anybody or be blackmailed by anybody on a decision it took in its interests, even if it involves threats to cut off all financial assistance," he says. And Uganda has experienced more than threats: Before yesterday's announcement it had already seen $118 million in aid from Western donors pulled. The US will continue its involvement in the hunt for Joseph Kony, CNN notes.

Complaints against Brown, who was Donald Trump’s first ambassadorial appointment after coming into office, surfaced after a trip to Samoa The US ambassador to New Zealand Scott Brown has admitted he has been investigated over allegations he made inappropriate comments on his inaugural trip to Samoa, of which he is also the US representative. Brown told New Zealand media on Wednesday he wanted to address “innuendo and rumour” about his visit to Samoa in July to celebrate 50 years of the peace corps in the country. Brown – speaking with his wife, Gail Huff, by his side – confirmed he was the subject of an official administration inquiry by the US state department, which sent investigators to Wellington to look into what took place on the trip. Brown said the official complaints related to comments he had made at a party in the Samoan capital, Apia, where he told attendees they looked “beautiful” and could make hundreds of dollars working in the hospitality industry in the US. Brown and Huff said they had “no idea” the comments would be regarded as offensive. “I was told by my people that you’re not Scott Brown from New Hampshire any more, you’re an ambassador, and you have to be culturally aware of different cultures and sensitivities,” Brown said. “We are in a different culture: even though we all speak English, sometimes when we say one thing it means the complete different thing.” Brown went on to say “politics is a blood sport” and there were a lot of people at the event who did not like US president Donald Trump. Brown was Trump’s first ambassadorial appointment after he took office. Huff said the “takeaway” from the incident was: “We are going to be very, very careful about what we say and how it’s perceived.” The Guardian understands that complaints against Brown came from two serving female members of the peace corps. The Guardian first contacted the US state department in Washington, the US embassy in Wellington and the US high commission in Samoa in August, requesting details of the ambassador’s trip to Samoa and comment on the complaints. All requests have gone unanswered. On Wednesday a spokesperson for the US embassy in Wellington said: “Ambassador Brown has nothing to add to the comments he made in this afternoon’s interview.” ||||| 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 US ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa is blaming the "blood sport" of politics for the kerfuffle he's in over comments he made while visiting the latter islands. Per the New York Times, witnesses told local media that former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown acted "obnoxiously" at a July Peace Corps event in Apia. Brown confirmed Wednesday to New Zealand's Stuff that there had indeed been an "administrative inquiry" by the US State Department into his behavior and that he'd been warned to be more "culturally aware." The Guardian reports the complaints apparently came from two female Peace Corps members. The remarks revolve around him telling guests at the event they looked "beautiful," as well as noting to a waitress she could make "hundreds of dollars" if she were a waitress in America. But while Brown says he did compliment guests on their appearance, he says he'd seen them before the event looking "dirty and grungy" and that they'd cleaned up so nice he felt compelled to compliment them. He also says he made comments about both women and men, and that his wife, Gail Huff, made similar remarks. As for the waitress, he says he was simply noting she was doing a "great job," per the Times. Why he thinks the complaints against him are politically motivated: He's a Trump supporter said to have the president's ear. "At this event there were a lot of people [who] didn't like [Trump]," he told Stuff. "Sadly, it's politics, and it is what it is." He did note, however, he'll try to be more culturally sensitive in the future. Huff says the experience "has been a real learning curve" and that she was by her husband's side at all times and "literally saw nothing. It's absurd."

A Clayton County teen who was abducted from her home early Tuesday morning is now back with her family. A neighbor told Channel 2 Action News she saw Ayvani Perez, 14, return to the family home in Ellenwood early Wednesday night. However, Channel 2 Action News has learned Ayvani did not spend the night at the home that she was abducted from nearly 48 hours earlier. Investigators announced in a new conference Wednesday that they had arrested Wildrego Jackson, 29, and Juan Alberto Rodriguez, 40, in connection to Ayvani's abduction. Police said two armed men broke into Ayvani's home early Tuesday and kidnapped her after asking her mother for money and jewelry. Police said Rodriguez and Jackson are not the same men that were pictured in the sketches investigators released on Tuesday. They said the men in the sketches are the ones that carried out the abduction, and they remain on the loose. "We believe those two suspects in the drawings are still at large," said Special Agent Rick Maxwell with the FBI. Clayton County Police Chief Greg Porter said Ayvani was in seemingly good health when police found her and she had been evaluated after police said they located her at a home in Conyers. Federal agents wouldn't say how they came to find Ayvani at the Conyers home. Porter said the suspects were captured "through hardcore police work." "I want to thank the community as a whole for supporting the Clayton County Police Department and all the collaborations between the agencies," Porter said. After digging into both men's criminal background, Channel 2 Action News learned there was a connection between one of the men arrested and Ayvani's mother, Maria Corral. ICE agents confirmed to Channel 2 Action News that Rodriguez was arrested in December 2012 in Henry County under the name of Juan Aberto Contreras-Ramirez, and was charged with trafficking marijuana. Channel 2's Erica Byfield confirmed that Ayvani's mother was also arrested in that same incident. Drug agents said they found 500 pounds of marijuana in the Henry County home where the Rodriguez and Ayvani's mother were arrested. Charges against both were later dropped but the case indicates this week's kidnapping may not be as random as authorities first believed. Rodriguez is currently being held on immigration-related charges. Jackson faces conspiracy to commit kidnapping charges. Channel 2 Action News dug into Jackson's record and found he has an extensive criminal background dating back to at least 2001. Records show multiple arrests through the years on charges that include assault, child cruelty, sale and distribution of cocaine, marijuana possession, and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He was also arrested on obstruction charges. Neighbors told Byfield they are very happy the teen was returned safely. "We have just been praying as a community for her safe return and so I'm so excited," said neighbor Fran Pond. Pond said she doesn't know the girl but in the day and a half she saw Ayvani's picture all over the place, she felt a connection. "My heart goes out because I'm a mom, so my heart went out to her mom," Pond said. Lucille Howard lives two doors down from Ayvani and her family. Howard just moved to the seemingly quiet neighborhood three days ago. She made a point to hug the teen Wednesday evening shortly after Ayvani returned home safely. "Something like that really shook me up. But I'm going to find out more about this thing because some things don't make sense to me," Howard said. "She smiled, she gave me the biggest smile, she said thank you." Howard says the teen looked calm but tired and glad to be home. Now H oward and other neighbors have questions about the circumstances surrounding Ayvani's kidnapping "Just meeting her today, it doesn't matter what happened, since she is home safe. That's my main concern," Howard said. ||||| Just One More Thing... We have sent you a verification email. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your profile. If you do not receive the verification message within a few minutes of signing up, please check your Spam or Junk folder. Close

– Authorities are still keeping quiet about just how they managed to find a kidnapped girl "at a residence" in Conyers, Ga.; they're calling it "hardcore police work," WSB-TV notes. In the meantime, however, new information is emerging about the circumstances of the kidnapping. One of the suspects had previously been arrested along with victim Ayvani Hope Perez's mother, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Juan Alberto Contreras-Ramirez—called as Contreras-Rodriguez in the kidnapping arrest—was nabbed in a 2012 drug trafficking case involving the seizure of 500 pounds of marijuana; Perez's mom, Maria Corral, and several others were also busted. Corral's charge was quickly dropped; in January, charges against Contreras-Ramirez were, as well, following a home search deemed unconstitutional. As for Corral, "I think she just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," says Contreras-Ramirez's lawyer in the drug case. She was "talking in the driveway" with Contreras-Ramirez when the arrests occurred. As for Perez, "she looked tired, but not shaken up" upon arriving home, says a neighbor. "She was smiling. A look of relief was all over her."

In his first interview since his "conscious uncoupling" with Gwyneth Paltrow last month, Chris Martin shed new insight into the demise of their marriage. The Coldplay frontman addressed their surprising separation—and touched on his own personal issues—while speaking to BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe. Did his relationship breakdown with Paltrow inspire the band's new album, Ghost Stories? "I wouldn't use the word breakdown," Martin said. "This was more a realization about trying to grow up basically. Like I said, if you can't open yourself up, you can't appreciate the wonder inside. So you can be with someone very wonderful, but because of your own issues you cannot let that be celebrated in the right way. What changed for me was—I don't want to go through life being scared of it, being scared of love, being scared of rejection, being scared of failure. Ever since our band came out, we have been a very polarizing group because we do a certain thing very well...About two years ago I was a mess really because I can't enjoy the thing that we are good at and I can't enjoy the great things around me because I'm burdened by this—I've got to not blame anyone else and make some changes." ||||| Singer Chris Martin is taking the blame for his split from wife Gwyneth Paltrow, saying his own demons ruined their 10-year marriage. The “Coldplay” frontman broke his silence on his marital woes in an interview with BBC Radio 1. “About two years ago I was a mess, really, because I can’t enjoy the things that we are good at and I can’t enjoy the great things around me because I’m burdened by this,” Martin said in the interview to be broadcast Monday in Britain. “I’ve got to not blame anyone else and make some changes,” he said. Paltrow, 41, and Martin, 37, who have two young children, announced in March that they were separating, or as they put it, “conscious uncoupling.” I’ve got to not blame anyone else and make some changes. Martin said his personal issues caused him and Paltrow to grow apart. “I wouldn’t use the word breakdown — this was more a realization about trying to grow up, basically,” Martin said. “If you can’t open yourself up, you can’t appreciate the wonder inside. So you can be with someone very wonderful, but because of your own issues you cannot let that be celebrated in the right way,” he said. He said his band’s new album, “Ghost Stories,” allowed him to be honest and get to the root of his problems. “I think in life everyone needs to be broken in some way. I think everyone in their life goes through challenges, whether it’s love or money, kids or illness,” Martin said. “You have to really not run away from that stuff,” he said. “Life throws these colorful challenges at you ... what we decided to do on 'Ghost Stories' was to really be honest about it and say, this is what’s been happening.” He said he now realizes what he needs to work on in life to make himself a better person, although it’s likely too late to salvage his marriage to Paltrow. “If you don’t let love really in, then you can’t really give it back,” he said. “You’ve got to open yourself up to love and if you really do, of course, it will be painful at some times, but then it will be great at some point.” Chris Martin broke his silence on the split, telling BBC Radio 1 that his personal issues ended their marriage. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage) Paltrow, 41, and Martin, 37, married 10 years ago and have two young children. (Craig Barritt/Getty Images) Besides getting himself in mental shape, Martin has taken up boxing to improve his physical condition. He recently hired a $215-an-hour personal trainer recommended by rapper Jay Z to whip him into shape, the Sunday Mirror reported. “Chris is a big fan of boxing and loves nothing better than working out with a punch bag,” a source told the Mirror. On a mobile device? Click to watch the video. Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! ||||| Chris Martin says his break-up with Gwyneth Paltrow inspired the writing process for Coldplay's latest studio album. In an interview with Radio 1's Zane Lowe, the singer also admitted he was feeling hopeful despite the split. "I think in life everyone needs to be broken in some way," he said. "I think everyone in their life goes through challenges, whether it's love or money, kids or illness. You have to really not run away from that stuff." Martin and Paltrow separated last month after a decade of marriage. The singer says the issues the pair were having influenced the writing on Ghost Stories, which is due out in May. "Up to a certain point in my life I wasn't completely vulnerable and it caused some problems," he said. "If you don't let love in then you can't really give it back. "So what Ghost Stories means to me is like, you've got to open yourself up to love and if you really do, of course it will be painful at times, but then it will be great at some point." I think everyone in their life goes through challenges, whether it's love or money, kids, or illness. You have to really not run away from that stuff Chris Martin Paltrow, 41, and 37-year-old Martin announced their break-up in March on her blog in a post titled Conscious Uncoupling. "It is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate," the couple wrote. The band's lead single, Magic, was released in March and was one of the tracks played on their Radio 1 Live Lounge set last week. Describing the song, Martin said: "It's not a question of you either really love someone or you really hate someone, it's more nuanced than that - especially with the modern world's complications - like travelling and all the stuff that comes to life, and illness and addiction and all that sort of thing. "It's just saying - ultimately - there is magic between two people no matter what anyone else thinks." The pair, who married in December 2003, have two children - Apple, nine, and Moses, seven. I'm saying One Direction are brilliant and I'm not kidding. You know why? Because their songs are really good Chris Martin In the message on Paltrow's Goop.com website, the couple said they had "come to the conclusion that while we love each other very much, we will remain separate". Speaking about the break-up, he said: "I wouldn't use the word breakdown, this was more a realisation about trying to grow up. "If you can't open yourself up, you can't appreciate the wonder inside. "You can be with someone wonderful, but because of your issues you can't let that be celebrated in the right way." The musician also explained his decision to go on Zane Lowe's radio show. "The reason I wanted to do this was because I love your Kanye interview," said Martin. "That guy is amazing and I think he is misunderstood by people who only look on the surface. I understand what he is talking about and I understand what he means." Last week the band appeared on Fearne Cotton's Radio 1 show to reveal they would be headlining the Saturday night at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Glasgow. Earlier today Nick Grimshaw confirmed One Direction would be opening the main stage that day. "I think One Direction are the biggest band in the world, their songs are great," said Martin. "I'm saying One Direction are brilliant and I'm not kidding. You know why? Because their songs are really good and I don't think that any of them are going to go solo. "Harry has come to a couple of our shows. I was too enamoured with his hair cut. I was having a hot flush." Meanwhile, Coldplay are to reveal the lyrics for all nine songs from their upcoming Ghost Stories album by hiding Chris Martin's handwritten lyric sheets in libraries across the world. The lyrics will be hidden in ghost story books in libraries in nine countries. Clues to the exact locations of the lyrics will be posted from Monday on the band's Twitter account using the hashtag #lyricshunt. One of the hidden envelopes will contain a special golden ticket, giving the finder and a guest a free trip to London to see Coldplay perform at the Royal Albert Hall on 1 July. The full hour-long interview with Chris Martin will be broadcast at 20:00 BST on Monday night on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show. You can listen live on BBC Radio 1, via mobile and the BBC iPlayer radio app and you will also be able to watch the interview on Radio 1's YouTube channel after 21:00 BST on Monday. Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter ||||| 'I've got to not blame anyone else': Chris Martin reveals how his own personal issues contributed to 'conscious uncoupling' from Gwyneth Paltrow Singer hinted his personal issues and insecurities played a big part in breakdown of marriage Said everyone goes through 'challenges' in their lives 'whether it’s love or money, kids, or illness' New album Ghost Stories is about is his attempt at being 'honest' about everything that is happening Chris Martin has spoken about how his personal issues played a part in his marital split from Gwyneth Paltrow. In a revealing interview with BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe, the Coldplay frontman gave the first real insight into troubles within his ten-year marriage to the actress. ' About two years ago I was a mess really because I can't enjoy the thing that we are good at and I can't enjoy the great things around me because I'm burdened by this,' the 38-year old said. 'I've got to not blame anyone else and make some changes.' Scroll down for video Ready to talk: Coldplay frontman Chris Martin - seen outside his hotel in Germany on Saturday - has spoken about his split from Gwyneth Paltrow in a new interview Brave face: Gwyneth Paltrow showed off her slim pins in patterned shorts as she posed with Paris Photo Director Julien Frydman at his exhibition on Sunday He continued: 'I wouldn’t use the word breakdown, this was more a realisation about trying to grow up basically. 'If you can’t open yourself up, you can’t appreciate the wonder inside. So you can be with someone very wonderful, but because of your own issues you cannot let that be celebrated in the right way. 'What changed for me was - I don’t want to go through life being scared of it, being scared of love, being scared of rejection, being scared of failure.' Moving on: Gwyneth was spotted stepping into her car after apparently getting her chakras balanced in Los Angeles on Friday It's getting real: Removal men were seen at the London home of Gywneth and Chris earlier this week Chris appeared to be shouldering the blame for how the couple's troubles began. He said: 'Up to a certain point in my life I wasn’t completely vulnerable and it caused some problems.' He added: 'If you don’t let love really in then you can’t really give it back. 'So what Ghost Story means to me is like you’ve got to open yourself up to love and if you really do, of course it will be painful at times, but then it will be great at some point. ' Happier times: The musician spoke exclusively to BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe about how the 'breakdown' of his ten-year-marriage inspired his new album, Ghost Stories The musician took part in an hour long interview, which will air on Monday evening, and while he did not mention his estranged wife by name, he spoke about candidly about his love and life. Chris mused: 'I think in life everyone needs to be broken in some way. 'I think everyone in their life goes through challenges, whether it’s love or money, kids, or illness... You have to really not run away from that stuff. 'Life throws these colorful challenges at you … what we decided to do on Ghost Stories was to really be honest about it and say, this is what’s been happening.' Hard to love: Chris revealed that his inability to let in love has caused problems in his life Speaking about his new single Magic, Chris explained: 'It’s about saying this person is really awesome and is magic, and of course certain parts of it have to change because that’s life but not everything has to be black or white or clear cut and that’s okay. 'It’s not a question of you either really love someone or you really hate someone, its more nuanced than that - especially with the modern world’s complications – like travelling and all the stuff that come to life, and illness and addiction and all that sort of thing. While the video sees Chris saving a damsel from an unhappy relationship, Chris said: 'It’s just saying - ultimately there is magic between two people no matter what anyone else thinks.' The couple, who were considered one of Hollywood's most solid partnerships, stunned the showbiz world when they confirmed their split less than two months ago on March 25. Conscious uncoupling: Gwyneth and Chris are parents to Apple, eight, and Moses, six The interview also saw Chris reveal his admiration for pop boyband One Direction. Chris admitted: 'I think One Direction are the biggest band in the world, their songs are great. 'I’m saying One Direction are brilliant and I’m not kidding. You know why? Because their songs are really good and I don’t think that any of them are going to go solo. I think they appreciate their chemistry from watching their movie. He spoke candidly about his appreciation of Harry Styles as he added: 'Harry has come to a couple of our shows, I think I probably said the same thing about chemistry. 'I can’t remember - I was too enamored with his hair cut. I was like this: ‘I was pretty sure I was a straight guy before’ - I was having a hot flush.' He also shared his admiration for Kanye West. 'That guy is amazing and I think he is misunderstood by people who only look on the surface. I understand what he is talking about and I understand what he means.' ||||| One month after his dramatic split from actress Gwyneth Paltrow, singer Chris Martin is opening up about the end of his marriage. The Coldplay frontman, 37, sat down with BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe for an extended interview about his band's new album, his thoughts on One Direction, and his very public private life. PHOTOS: Biggest splits of 2014 "I wouldn't use the word breakdown," Martin told Lowe about the dissolution of his marriage. "This was more a realization about trying to grow up basically… if you can't open yourself up, you can't appreciate the wonder inside. So you can be with someone very wonderful, but because of your own issues you cannot let that be celebrated in the right way." Martin and Paltrow, 41, announced the end of their 11-year marriage in a blog post on Paltrow's lifestyle website, Goop, on March 25. The pair titled the post "Conscious Uncoupling," and wrote, "It is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate." Sources told Us Weekly that the end of the marriage was sparked by clashes over parenting strategies, disagreements over plans for the family, and even the strain of Paltrow's strict dietary rules. Tensions also escalated over ongoing rumors of infidelity. PHOTOS: Chris and Gwyneth through the years The Grammy winner, who is the father to two children with Paltrow, continued to Lowe: "What changed for me was, I don't want to go through life being scared of it, being scared of love, being scared of rejection, being scared of failure… About two years ago I was a mess really because I can't enjoy the thing that we are good at and I can't enjoy the great things around me because I'm burdened by this -- I've got to not blame anyone else and make some changes." Martin went on to elaborate on his own issues, saying, "Up to a certain point in my life I wasn't completely vulnerable and it caused some problems. If you don't let love really in then you can't really give it back." PHOTOS: Gwyneth's bikini body The sit-down was also a chance for the musician to plug Coldplay's latest album Ghost Stories. The project is due out May 19.

– A few quotes from Chris Martin's new interview with BBC's Radio 1, airing tonight, are being touted as his first public explanation of his "conscious uncoupling" from Gwyneth Paltrow ... but we really have no clue what he's saying. (E!, for example, points out that he doesn't directly mention Gwyneth, but it's "easy to read between the lines.") Want to try and decipher it yourself? Here are the relevant lines: "About two years ago I was a mess really because I can't enjoy the thing that we are good at and I can't enjoy the great things around me because I'm burdened by this. I've got to not blame anyone else and make some changes. I wouldn’t use the word breakdown, this was more a realization about trying to grow up basically." "If you can't open yourself up, you can’t appreciate the wonder inside. So you can be with someone very wonderful, but because of your own issues you cannot let that be celebrated in the right way. What changed for me was—I don't want to go through life being scared of it, being scared of love, being scared of rejection, being scared of failure. Up to a certain point in my life I wasn't completely vulnerable and it caused some problems. If you don’t let love really in then you can’t really give it back." "[The single 'Magic' is] about saying this person is really awesome and is magic, and of course certain parts of it have to change because that's life but not everything has to be black or white or clear cut and that’s OK. It’s not a question of you either really love someone or you really hate someone, it's more nuanced than that." The consensus seems to be that Martin is taking the blame. Sample headlines: Daily Mail: "Chris Martin reveals how his own personal issues contributed to 'conscious uncoupling' from Gwyneth Paltrow" New York Daily News: "Chris Martin says he's to blame for separation from Gwyneth Paltrow" Jezebel: "Chris Martin Says Conscious Uncoupling From Gwyneth Was All His Fault" PopSugar: "Chris Martin Blames His 'Own Issues' For Gwyneth Paltrow Split" Us: "Chris Martin on Gwyneth Paltrow Split: My 'Own Issues' Contributed to End of Marriage"

A 3-year-old North Carolina girl has been missing since her mom put her to bed Sunday night in their Jacksonville home, officials confirm to PEOPLE. The following morning at about 6:45 a.m., the girl’s mother, Kristy Woods, called officials to report her daughter Mariah was missing, officials said. Get push notifications with news, articles, and more! “My last memory of her was feeding her and putting her to bed,” Woods told local station Channel 12. “I told her I loved her and she loved me.” • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Officials began ground and air searches for the girl, who is 2 feet 9 inches and has brown hair and blue eyes. As of Tuesday, the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department, and multiple agencies including the FBI, were still searching, says department spokesperson Maj. Chris Thomas. “We’re conducting an investigation,” Thomas tells PEOPLE, who declined to elaborate about details of the case. “We’re still following tips and leads from the AMBER Alert and other sources.” Woods told reporters her daughter wears braces on her legs to help her walk, and added she doesn’t believe she would’ve walked away from their house on her own. “It’s not making sense to me about where she could be at,” said Woods, “or who she could be with.” • For more compelling True Crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard Woods pleaded to be reunited with her child. “I love her and I’ll never let her go again,” she said. “I just want to hold her tight and see her smile.” If you have any information about Mariah, call the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office at 910-989-4070. ||||| Authorities in North Carolina are asking for the public's assistance for information to aid in the search of a 3-year-old girl who disappeared from her home Sunday night. Mariah Woods was last seen at her Jacksonville, North Carolina home Sunday night by her mother, who put her to bed, North Carolina ABC affiliate WCTI reported. Officials would not confirm those details to reporters during a press conference Tuesday afternoon in order to protect the integrity of the investigation. "We know what the answer is, but we won’t reveal it at this point," said Onslow County Sheriff Hans Miller. The Onslow County Sheriff's Office and the FBI overnight Wednesday released surveillance pictures taken Monday morning of a woman and child at a North Carolina Walmart. They are attempting to determine whether the child is Mariah Woods and are asking for the public's help in identifying both the woman and child. FBI/ONSLOW COUNTY SHERIFF FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Stanley Meador said investigators are especially interested to speak to "anyone who has had contact with the family" since Sunday, while Miller said that any clue, such as children's clothes, can be helpful. "We will explore every investigative lead that comes to our attention," Miller said. .@FBICharlotte is asking for the public's assistance to locate 3-year-old Mariah Woods, missing since November 27, 2017: https://t.co/MuJOfZH2rR #FBI pic.twitter.com/UVcz2P6gQj — FBI Most Wanted (@FBIMostWanted) November 28, 2017 Miller assured the public that authorities were using "every available resource" to search for Mariah, including drones as well as helicopters provided by the Marine Corps, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol and a neighboring sheriff's department. The first priority is to find Mariah, bring her back and then find out what happened to her, Miller said. After Mariah's disappearance, her mother, Kristy Woods, reached out to the public with an emotion-filled plea. “Please, bring her back ... my baby. She’s my everything,” said Woods. “Just to be able to touch her and hold her and not let her go again, I’d give anything." An amber alert was issued for Mariah soon after she was reported missing at approximately 6 a.m., according to Jacksonville Sheriff Hans Miller. #AMBERAlert Update! Mariah was last seen on November 26, 2017 at 11:00 p.m. at 2404 Dawson Cabin Road in Jacksonville, #NorthCarolina.https://t.co/D2vblnGoy9 — NCMEC (@MissingKids) November 28, 2017 Mariah is described as a white female with brown hair and blue eyes, about 2 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing 30 pounds. "[Officials are] working everything that can be worked to find this little girl,” Miller said Monday. Four volunteer fire departments, the Onslow County Sherriff’s Department and K9 units conducted a search in the wooded area behind the girl’s home as well as surrounding wooded areas, WCTI reported. "We don’t know what happened," Miller said Monday. "It’s entirely premature to try to determine what happened." Miller said they will continue to search in "expanding circles" as the investigation continues. Officials have interviewed both Woods’ mother and her live-in boyfriend and conducted a search of their home and vehicle, WCTI reported. The Onslow County Sheriff’s Department is also asking neighbors in the area to check their yards, sheds and other areas for any evidence of a little girl. Mariah's biological father, Alex Woods, expressed skepticism about his daughter's disappearance when speaking to WCTI. "For someone to just walk right up in there, grab the 3-year-old out of bed, she didn't cry, she didn't scream, nobody heard nothing?" Alex Woods said. "Four people in the house, two adults and two kids. Somebody just comes up and snatches baby and walks out?"

– Law enforcement officers and volunteers have flooded the area around a North Carolina home in the search for a 3-year-old girl whose mother says she vanished after she was put to bed Sunday night. Mariah Kay Woods was reported missing around 6:45am Monday after her mother discovered she was gone from their home in Jacksonville, Onslow County, People reports. "My last memory of her was feeding her and putting her to bed," mother Kristy Woods told reporters. "I told her I loved her and she loved me." Woods said her daughter wears leg braces to help her walk, meaning she would have been unlikely to wander off alone. An Amber Alert was issued early Monday and the FBI has now joined the search, ABC reports. Wooded areas around the home have been searched and neighbors have been asked to thoroughly check their yards and sheds for any sign of a little girl. Mariah is described as white, 2 feet, 9 inches tall and 30 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. WRAL reports that the FBI has released surveillance images of a woman and a little girl taken Monday morning in a Walmart in Morehead City, NC, around 40 miles away from Jacksonville. Authorities are trying to determine whether the girl, whose face is seen in profile, is Mariah.

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the kingdom’s top international businessmen, was released from detention on Saturday, more than two months after he was taken into custody in a sweeping crackdown on corruption. His release came hours after he told Reuters in an interview at Riyadh’s opulent Ritz-Carlton hotel that he expected to be cleared of any wrongdoing and be freed within days. A senior Saudi official said Prince Alwaleed was freed after he reached a financial settlement with the attorney general. “The attorney general has approved this morning the settlement that was reached with Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and the prince returned home at 1100 a.m. (0800 GMT),” the official told Reuters, without giving details of the terms. The decision to free him, and the release of several other well-known tycoons on Friday, suggested the main part of the corruption probe was winding down after it sent shockwaves through Saudi Arabia’s business and political establishment. In his first interview since being detained, conducted hours before his release, Prince Alwaleed told Reuters he maintained his innocence of any corruption in talks with the authorities. He said he expected to keep full control of his global investment firm Kingdom Holding Co 4280.SE without being required to hand assets to the state. He said he had been able to communicate with executives at his business while detained. Prince Alwaleed, who is in his early 60s, described his confinement as a “misunderstanding” and said he supported reform efforts by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “There are no charges. There are just some discussions between me and the government,” he said. Prince Alwaleed had been confined at the Ritz-Carlton since early November, along with dozens of other senior officials and businessmen, part of the crown prince’s plan to reform oil superpower Saudi Arabia and consolidate his position. FOREIGN INVESTOR CONCERNS When asked if the attorney general was convinced of Prince Alwaleed’s innocence, the senior Saudi official said: “I will not negate or confirm what he says. Generally this falls back to those who concluded the settlement, and for sure there is no settlement unless there are violations, and they are not concluded without the accused admitting it in writing and promising not to repeat it.” The source declined to give further details, but confirmed that Prince Alwaleed would remain head of Kingdom Holding. A Gulf banker who deals with Saudi Arabia said the authorities appeared keen to conclude the probe partly because foreign investors were concerned their assets or local business partners could be targeted in the wide-ranging crackdown. Prince Alwaleed’s detention was particularly worrying for foreigners because of his international prominence as an investor in top Western companies such as Twitter (TWTR.N) and Citigroup (C.N), and in top hotels including the George V in Paris and the Plaza in New York, the banker said. “The government is signaling that it wants to move to a new phase now, away from the crackdown and into other economic reforms,” the banker said. Outside Prince Alwaleed’s Riyadh palace, dozens of cars lined the entrances as a huge Saudi flag flapped above. Guards cracked jokes and drank coffee. His office said the prince was out visiting family, but declined to give any details. Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal sits for an interview with Reuters in the office of the suite where he has been detained at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia January 27, 2018, REUTERS/Katie Paul The attorney general said earlier this week that 90 detainees had been released after their were charges dropped, while others traded cash, real estate and other assets for their freedom. The authorities were still holding 95 people, he said. Some are expected to be put on trial. “NOTHING TO HIDE” An official Saudi source said on Friday that several prominent businessmen had reached financial settlements with the authorities, including Waleed al-Ibrahim, owner of regional television network MBC, who was released. Terms of his settlement were not revealed. Saudi authorities have said they expect to raise some $100 billion for the government through such settlements - a huge windfall for the state, which has seen its finances squeezed by low oil prices. Some private analysts think that target will be hard to hit, given how many suspects have seen charges dropped. Allegations against Prince Alwaleed included money laundering, bribery and extorting officials, a Saudi official told Reuters in November. The prince’s net worth has been estimated by Forbes magazine at $17 billion. While declaring his innocence in the Reuters interview, the prince appeared greyer and thinner than in his last public appearance, a television interview in October, and had grown a beard while in detention. “I have nothing to hide at all. I’m so comfortable, I’m so relaxed. I shave here, like at home. My barber comes here. I’m like at home, frankly speaking,” he said, adding he had been able to communicate with family members while in detention. He granted the 30-minute interview to Reuters, including a tour of his suite, partly to disprove rumors about mistreatment and that he had been moved from the hotel to a prison. Prince Alwaleed showed off the comforts of his gold-accented private office, dining room and kitchen, which was fully stocked with his preferred vegetarian meals. In the corner of his office sat tennis shoes, which he said he used regularly for exercise. A television played business news programs, and a mug with an image of his own face on it was perched on the desk. Slideshow (5 Images) After being released, Prince Alwaleed said, he would stay in Saudi Arabia and would return to the challenge of juggling his global business interests. “I will not leave Saudi Arabia, for sure. This is my country.” ||||| DUBAI—Saudi authorities on Saturday released billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, more than two months after he was detained in a widespread purge of the kingdom’s elite. Saudi officials said Saturday that Prince al-Waleed came to an undisclosed settlement with the government that allows him to remain chairman of his company, Kingdom Holding Co., one of the country’s biggest conglomerates. He is also a major investor around the world, including large stakes in Twitter Inc. and the Four Seasons hotel chain. The status of...

– One of the richest men in the world is once again a free man, but it may have cost him a fortune. Saudi billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal walked out of prison Saturday after being arrested on corruption charges as part of a sweeping roundup in November, reports Reuters. More precisely, he walked out of the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton, which has been turned into a prison of sorts for Saudi elite accused of wrongdoing. Prior to his release, Saudi authorities were reportedly seeking a financial settlement of $6 billion—yes, billion—from al-Waleed, though it is unclear what, if any, amount he paid, reports the Wall Street Journal. Neither the prince nor Saudi authorities have provided details about his release, including whether he has been cleared of wrongdoing. The corruption crackdown set in place by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is widely regarded as more of a bid on his part to consolidate power as he institutes wide-ranging reform throughout the country. So far, the government has secured about $100 billion in settlements from those rounded up, though nearly 100 have not paid and face prosecution.

Story highlights Voters in Colorado resoundingly supported taxing marijuana on Tuesday Voters in 6 states will consider 31 ballot measures Tuesday Voters in 11 Colorado counties are considering the question of secession New Jersey voters are being asked to raise their state's minimum wage to $8.25 per hour Last year, voters in Colorado approved legalizing recreational marijuana, and on Tuesday night, they resoundingly supported taxing it. With nearly all votes counted, 65% supported the new tax, while 35% opposed it. The measure would impose a special 15% excise tax on marijuana to help fund school construction, along with a 10% sales tax to bolster marijuana-related law enforcement efforts. The passage was widely expected, despite opponents arguing it's unfair to single out marijuana for higher taxation than products such as beer. Strong support for the measure is pegged largely to the money it is expected to bring in. The nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council projects that the measure will generate nearly $70 million in additional state tax revenue next year. There were 30 other measures on the ballot in six states Tuesday, all of which were too early to call for CNN. Here are highlights from a few: Colorado: secession Voters in 11 counties in northern Colorado are being asked if they want to secede from the state. Ten counties in conservative, rural northeastern Colorado would theoretically form a 51st state known as North Colorado. Moffat County, located in the northwest corner of the state, would become a panhandle for neighboring Wyoming. JUST WATCHED Colorado conservatives want to secede Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Colorado conservatives want to secede 02:44 The plan has no chance of becoming reality. Among other things, it would also require statewide and congressional approval. But approval or even a close vote at the county level would send a loud message of growing grassroots conservative anger toward a more liberal Denver-based Democratic establishment that has taken up controversial measures related to gun control, gay rights and green energy. With more than 50,000 votes counted in Weld County, the most populated county of those trying to secede, 58% of votes were against secession and 42% were in favor of it. CNN, however, does not yet have a projection on this measure. Similar secession measures have been floated in a number of other states in recent years in a reflection of the country's growing ideological and partisan divide. Washington: Labeling genetically modified food Voters in Washington state are considering a hotly contested initiative that would require labeling all foods containing genetically modified ingredients. The measure pits local consumer advocates, who argue that the measure is needed for consumers to make better informed choices, against large agribusinesses such as Monsanto, which argue that such a law would spook potential customers and unfairly imply that such products are unsafe. Washington is the second state to consider such a ballot measure. A similar proposal was narrowly rejected by California voters last year. With more than 800,000 votes counted, 53% of Washington State voters opposed the labeling, while 47% supported it. It is still, however, too early for CNN to call this race. According to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures, 95 bills relating to the issue have been introduced in various legislatures so far this year -- a reflection of growing public interest in the controversy surrounding genetically modified foods. Other noteworthy measures Voters in New Jersey are considering whether to amend their constitution to raise the state minimum wage from the federal level of $7.25 to $8.25 per hour. Future annual increases would be tied to changes in the cost of living. Eighteen states have a minimum wage that exceeds the federal requirement, according to the NCSL. New York voters are being asked to revise their constitution to allow the legislature in Albany to authorize seven casinos, with the goal of generating new revenue for public schools and potentially cutting property taxes. ||||| A A SEATTLE - Initiative 522 would change the law only in Washington state, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the lists of campaign donors. Of the $22 million raised to oppose the proposal to label genetically engineered food, exactly $550 has come from individuals and companies based in Washington, according to the Public Disclosure Commission. The initiative’s proponents, although more locally funded, have received $5.8 million of their $8.4 million from outside Washington. “This is really out-of-state interests fighting over how to influence law in our state,” said Matt Barreto, a political science professor at the University of Washington. It’s a phenomenon that has rarely been seen here on such a large scale. But in this unusual year, with several nationally watched issues on the ballot and few big-ticket campaigns in other states, the influx of outside cash is arising in different ways, including in local races dominated by out-of-city or out-of-county funding. Political insiders and experts said the pattern could threaten the core promise of the initiative process and representative democracy itself - that citizens get to decide the laws that govern them and politicians who represent them. Consider: In SeaTac, population 26,909, the groups supporting and opposing a $15 local minimum wage have spent nearly $2 million, with large contributions from out-of-state groups and very little from city residents. On the Kitsap Peninsula, a state Senate campaign has drawn the attention of a California billionaire. And in Whatcom County, state and national environmentalists have contributed about $300,000 to County Council races and been answered by more than half that from international-coal corporations. “It’s something that’s happening more and more all around the country,” said former state Sen. Debbie Regala, a Tacoma Democrat known for how little she spent in a 2008 campaign. “And it’s a sad commentary on our political system, but it’s a reality.” National experts said outside spending is indeed on the rise nationwide. They and locals offered varying explanations. Sarah Bryner, research director at the national Center for Responsive Politics, said the 24 states with initiative processes are increasingly being used as testing grounds for issues that could be implemented around the country. “Certain states can be leaders on certain issues, and if you are a person who’s passionate about an issue, you may see it as being in your interest to support early adapters with the hope that it may trickle down to your own state or other states,” she said. Western Washington University Professor Todd Donovan agreed that national actors are using the statewide genetically modified food-labeling debate and the SeaTac minimum-wage proposition “as sort of a platform to get greater visibility for their issue.” “And then there’s the Tom Steyer guy,” said Donovan, referring to the billionaire businessman who has contributed to a special state Senate election and four Whatcom County Council races through his NextGen Climate Action Committee. A Steyer spokesman did not return a telephone message. The GMO and minimum-wage ballot measures could have major economic ramifications for companies. They are also seen as part of national movements. Initiative 522 is a replay of a $53 million battle that took place in California last year, where a pro-labeling campaign lost. This year, the biggest “no” donor has been the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a Washington, D.C.-based food-industry group that revealed its donors after state Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued last month. It has put in $11 million. Monsanto, a St. Louis-based biotech company, has given more than $5 million. The $22 million total to combat Initiative 522 is the most ever raised for one side of an initiative election. Dana Bieber, a No on 522 spokeswoman, said “The funders of our campaign are supporting their customers, who are all in the state of Washington.” She said the main concern for voters is not campaign funders but how the proposal would affect them. But Elizabeth Larter, a spokeswoman for the other side, said the lack of in-state donors shows that the “no” side doesn’t have in-state support.

– Could "North Colorado" soon become the 51st state? Voters in 11 northern Colorado counties will get to weigh in tomorrow on whether or not they'd like to secede from the state, CNN reports. Ten of the conservative-leaning counties would become North Colorado, while the other would become a panhandle for Wyoming. Of course, CNN thinks there's zero chance this actually happens, because the entire state and congress would have to vote to approve the move. But it still stands as one of the more intriguing ballot measures up for vote tomorrow. Others include: Colorado is also voting on whether or not to impose a 15% excise tax on now-legal marijuana sales, which would go to fund school construction, and an additional 10% sales tax to fund marijuana enforcement laws. Washington state has a measure that would require special labeling for genetically-modified food—a proposal that met with ardent opposition and eventual defeat in California last year. Sure enough, out-of-state opponents have poured money into this race as well, the Seattle Times reports; of the whopping $22 million raised in opposition, $550 has come from Washingtonians. New Jersey will consider a constitutional amendment to raise the state's minimum wage to $8.25 an hour. New Yorkers are considering whether or not to allow the construction of seven casinos, with the proceeds going towards education and/or cutting property taxes. New Jersey is also considering a gambling bill of sorts, the Star-Ledger reports, allowing veterans' groups to raise money via Bingo games, raffles, and similar games.

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. ||||| A space nation, independent of countries on Earth, could be founded after a team of engineers, scientists and legal experts put forward proposals for an extra-terrestrial state. The project, which is led by Russian scientist Dr Igor Ashurbeyli, Chairman of UNESCOs Science of Space committee, aims to create an area in space which is beyond the control of individual nations. Under current space law, government’s must authorise and supervise space programmes run from their own countries even if they are commercial. But the group of scientists say that by creating a new nation, space activities can ‘flourish free from the tight restrictions of state control that currently exist’ The team has named the new state ‘Asgardia’ – derived from Asgard, one of the nine world’s in Norse mythology. ||||| Aiming to open up access to space technology, protect Earth from cosmic threats and foster peace, proposals for a new space nation have been unveiled Will you become a citizen of Asgardia, the first nation state in space? Proposals for the “first nation state in space” have been unveiled by a team of scientists and legal experts, who say the move will foster peace, open up access to space technologies and offer protection for citizens of planet Earth. Dubbed “Asgardia” after one of the mythical worlds inhabited by the Norse gods, the team say the “new nation” will eventually become a member of the United Nations, with its own flag and anthem devised by members of the public through a series of competitions. According to the project website, Asgardia “will offer an independent platform free from the constraint of a land-based country’s laws. It will become a place it in orbit which is truly ‘no man’s land’”. Initially, it would seem, this new nation will consist of a single satellite, scheduled to be launched next year, with its citizens residing firmly on terra firma. Speaking to the Guardian through an interpreter, the project lead Igor Ashurbeyli, said: “Physically the citizens of that nation state will be on Earth; they will be living in different countries on Earth, so they will be a citizen of their own country and at the same time they will be citizens of Asgardia.” “When the number of those applications goes above 100,000 we can officially apply to the UN for the status of state,” he added. According to the project website “Any human living on Earth can become a citizen of Asgardia,” with the site featuring a simple registration form. At the time of writing more than 1000 individuals had already signed up. Facebook Twitter Pinterest An artist’s impression of an Asgardia shield, protecting the Earth from man-made and natural threats ranging from asteroids to space junk. Illustration: James Vaughan When asked why people should register to become citizens of Asgardia, Ashurbeyli said: “I do believe that as soon as this country becomes a part of the UN family, citizenship of that country will be really quite prestigious.” A Russian businessman and nanoscientist who also founded the Vienna-based Aerospace International Research Center and is currently chairman of Unesco’s Science of Space committee, Ashurbeyli says the project aims to open up a conversation about regulations surrounding space activity. At present, the Outer Space Treaty that underpins international space law states that responsibility and liability for objects sent into space lies with the nation that launched them. But the project team claim that Asgardia will set a new precedent, shifting responsibility to the new “space nation” itself. “The existing state agencies represent interests of their own countries and there are not so many countries in the world that have those space agencies,” said Ashurbeyli. “The ultimate aim is to create a legal platform to ensure protection of planet Earth and to provide access to space technologies for those who do not have that access at the moment.” Christopher Newman, an expert in space law at the UK’s University of Sunderland, said the project reflects the fact that the geopolitical landscape of space activity has changed since the Outer Space Treaty was drawn up in the 1960s. But, he added, it was not clear how Asgardia would fit into current international regulations, with the project facing significant hurdles, from getting UN recognition for Asgardia, to issues around liability. “It is an exciting development in many ways because it will be interesting to see how this goes,” said Newman. “But there are formidable obstacles in international space law for them to overcome. What they are actually advocating is a complete re-visitation of the current space law framework.” Ashurbeyli says the hope is that Asgardia will eventually become an official “launch state”. But, he admits, at least in the short term cooperation from other countries will be required . While the project’s proposals remain vague, the vision for Asgardia is lofty. The team say that one of their early plans is to create “a state-of-the-art protective shield for all humankind from cosmic, manmade and natural threats to life on earth.” Such threats, they say, include the dangers posed by space junk, and even asteroids. But, at present, details remain hazy about what form such a shield could take. And while the project does not currently include plans to set up an Asgardian settlement in space, Ashurbeyli believes life beyond Earth will be vital to the future of humankind. “We are laying the foundations to make that possible in the distant future,” he said. ||||| Plans to create the first "nation in space" were unveiled in Paris on Wednesday. They are nothing if not ambitious. The new nation will launch its own satellite in 2017 and dedicate itself to opening up access to space. The goal is to foster world peace, as well as protect earth from rogue asteroids and space debris. The new space country will be called "Asgardia," named for the city in the skies ruled by Norse god Odin. We aren't talking about an actual orbiting city or space station where humans will live. Instead, it's more a scientific, legal and technological experiment being led by Russian nanoscientist Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli, founder of the Aerospace International Research Center and newly appointed chairman of UNESCO's Science of Space committee. "Asgardia is also unique from a philosophical aspect -- to serve entire humanity and each and everyone, regardless of his or her personal welfare and the prosperity of the country where they happened to be born," Ashurbeyli said in a release. A rather simple website for Asgardia launched after a press conference Wednesday to kick off crowdsourcing the new country's flag, insignia and anthem. It will also allow wannabe Asgardians to register their interest for citizenship. The idea is that once Asgardia has 100,000 people applying for citizenship, it is then eligible to apply to the United Nations for official nation status, according to Ashurbeyli. Supposedly all Asgardians would remain physically in their current resident nations, but also be citizens of this other country with its sole territory in the galaxy being a satellite circling the Earth. It's the access to space the satellite represents that is really the point of the whole thing. "The mission of Asgardia (is) to create opportunities for broader access to space, enabling non-traditional space nations to realize their scientific aspirations is exciting," said Professor David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute at Rice University. The way space works now is that there's something called the Outer Space Treaty that most (but not all) nations have signed. It essentially says that whatever country sends a mission to space is then responsible for that mission. So if NASA or an American company like SpaceX sent up a satellite that crashed into and destroyed a Russian satellite, Russia can hold the United States Government accountable. In turn, this means the US Government has to regulate American companies working in space to avoid such international incidents. James Vaughan / Asgardia.space So it's easy to see Asgardia as simply a way to either side-step the Outer Space Treaty or perhaps do an end-run around government regulations that are a key part of making the treaty work by forming a new government accountable to nobody but the space enthusiasts that formed it. I contacted space lawyer (yes, that's a thing) Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz, who is editor-in-chief Emerita of the Journal of Space Law, and she told me that Asgardia is likely to have trouble in its quest to be recognized as a country. "Under international law, there are specific criteria for an entity to be recognized as a nation. It must have territory and a population, and be recognized as a nation by other nations, among other things. Just declaring that a nation exists is not enough," she told me via e-mail. "There are (a) number of entities on Earth whose status as an independent nation have been a matter of dispute for a long time. It is reasonable to expect that the status an unpopulated object that is not on Earth will be disputed." There's also at least one other independent nation in space that's already been declared and disputed. In 1949, American James Mangan filed paperwork with Cook County, Illinois laying claim to all of space beyond Earth, declaring it the "Nation of Celestial Space" (also known as "Celestia") with himself as founder and representative. Mangan had similar designs on securing peace in space and quickly set about defending his claim by notifying the US, Soviet Union and a few other nations that his country had banned atmospheric nuclear tests. In the early days of the space race he would also send letters to the Americans and Soviets protesting their encroachment on his territory. The world, including the United Nations, politely ignored Mangan's persistent requests for acknowledgment for decades. He passed away in 1970 and little has been heard from Celestia since. Asgardia has the benefit of the internet to organize its claim to existence and perhaps raise funds for the satellite that would give it a physical territory in the universe and some basic utility for its "citizens" to rally around. It still remains to be seen if the United Nations and the rest of humanity will see Asgardia as any more legit than Celestia, but that hasn't stopped over 4,000 potential Asgardians from registering their interest in under 12 hours.

– If your chosen candidate doesn't win on Nov. 8, there's perhaps no need to decamp to Canada or Russia: Become a citizen of Asgardia instead. That's the name of the newly proposed "first nation state in space." Named after a world in Norse mythology that's located in the sky, the would-be extraterrestrial state stems from a project led by Russian scientist Igor Ashurbeyli, who heads UNESCO's Science of Space committee, reports the Telegraph. There's no terra firma for Asgardian citizens to travel to: The Guardian reports Asgardia appears to "consist of a single satellite," planned to be launched by the project next year. Ashurbeyli explains "physically the citizens of that nation state will be on Earth," meaning they'll be a citizen of their own country and Asgardia simultaneously. CNET frames Asgardia as a "scientific, legal, and technological experiment," with Ashurbeyli planning to petition the UN for the status of state once 100,000 people have applied to be citizens on the Asgardia website, which launched Wednesday. Among the project's ambitious goals: to create a state-of-the-art protective shield to keep space debris and asteroids from reaching Earth's surface. Space regulation is another focus: Since the late 1960s, the Outer Space Treaty has assigned liability for objects sent into space on the nation launching them. Asgardia could in theory "do an end-run around government regulations that are a key part of making the treaty work by forming a new government accountable to nobody but the space enthusiasts that formed it," observes CNET. (See what NASA did in space earlier this year.)

Hire Us PPP offers the highest quality polling at the most affordable price of any company out there. Contact Tom Jensen at tomj@publicpolicypolling.com or 919-744-6312 to discuss your project. ||||| WASHINGTON -- Some progressive organizations have been making a push in recent days for incoming congressional Republicans to drop their government-sponsored health care on the grounds that keeping the plans would be hypocritical. The incident started after incoming Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) complained loudly during freshmen orientation that his coverage wouldn't start immediately upon taking office. It took a new turn when Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Penn) and Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.) both said they would, in fact, forgo the coverage. It escalated even further when White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called out Harris for the "irony," and the municipal workers union AFSCME applied a similar charge to the whole GOP shortly thereafter. "These Republicans want to repeal health reform, putting the insurance companies back in charge and putting affordable coverage out of reach of millions of Americans," said AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee. "If they enroll in the taxpayer-funded health care system provided to members of Congress, they deserve to be denounced as hypocrites." There is an apparent double standard with respect to lawmakers trying to reduce health care for American workers while taking a subsidy for health care for themselves. And in a Public Policy Poll released on Tuesday, a full 53 percent of respondents (and 58 percent of Republicans) said that if a congressman is opposed to the president's health care reform law, he or she should decline to participate in government-sponsored health care. But another cudgel sits there on the sidelines waiting to be used by trouble-making Democrats. If the incoming Republican Congress is so concerned about the use of taxpayer funds, it could start by foregoing taxpayer-funded health care. How much money that would save is impossible to pinpoint with great accuracy. But it's possible to make some reliable estimates. According to the Los Angeles Times, "the plan most favored by federal workers is Blue Cross Blue Shield, which covers a family for about $1,030 a month." Of that total, "taxpayers kick in $700." So far there are 242 Republicans set to be seated in the incoming House of Representatives (that could only go higher) and 47 Republicans in the Senate. The taxpayer bill for insuring all those members over the course of a single year comes to just over $2.4 million ($700 X 12 months X 289 members). Chump change? Yes, it is. That said, chump change seems to always at the heart of the most provocative political battles. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made a big issue over the fact that $1 million was being appropriated for a Woodstock museum in upstate New York. UPDATE: Pete Sepp, the Executive Vice President of National Taxpayers Union -- one of the ultimate penny-pinching organizations in the D.C. area -- calls opting out of health care a "symbolic and not insignificant" gesture for congressional Republicans. "If lawmakers are looking for ways to say that they feel solidarity with the American people this might be one way to do it," said Sepp. "And, again, if you are looking at dollar amounts that's equivalent or a little more of equivalent to [congressmembers] taking a pay cut of about five percent. And, again, we have heard a lot of pledges to reduce the overall budget of Congress by ten percent. So opting out of health care coverage is one place to start." ||||| One of the country’s largest labor unions has demanded Republican lawmakers skip congressional health insurance because the party voted against the health-care overhaul. The argument: If you don’t support government health care, you shouldn’t enroll in government health care, says the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “These Republicans want to repeal health reform, putting the insurance companies back in charge and putting affordable coverage out of reach of millions of Americans,” AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said in a statement. It’s a bit more complicated than that. The debate over the health overhaul largely centered over how much Washington should get involved in health insurance for those employed in the private sector. Lawmakers, by contrast, take home a salary from the federal government. Most House members get $174,000 a year. “This has nothing to with ObamaCare,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for presumptive House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio). “Boehner, like Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi, Sen. [Harry] Reid and tens of millions of Americans, receives health coverage through his employer.” Still, the issue has become a rallying cry for liberal activists after GOP Congressman-elect Andy Harris, a doctor from Maryland, complained he would have to wait four weeks until his new insurance took effect. The White House got involved this week when Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Mr. Harris faces a “particularly interesting dilemma.” Incoming GOP Rep. Bobby Schilling of Illinois said during his campaign he wouldn’t take health insurance as a congressman in an effort to save taxpayers money. His son and spokesman, Terry Schilling, said the decision had nothing to do with the health-care law.

– Progressives are issuing a challenge to incoming Republican House members: If they are so dead-set on repealing health care reform, they shouldn't accept the taxpayer-funded congressional health plan. The fracas started when newly elected Rep. Andy Harris made a fuss during an orientation because his coverage didn't begin right away, notes the Huffington Post. If all Congressional Republicans declined, it would save an estimated $2.4 million. "Chump change? Yes, it is," writes Sam Stein at HuffPo. "That said, chump change seems to always at the heart of the most provocative political battles." Others: The issue may be opening for Democrats to "create tension between the newly elected officials and the Tea Partiers who put them there by highlighting the disconnect between the freshmen Republicans' rhetoric and their actions," writes Tom Jensen for Public Policy Polling. Republicans, however, say Democrats are distorting the issue—they want employer-based coverage to be the dominant system, and members of Congress are employed by the government, notes the Wall Street Journal. "Still, the issue has become a rallying cry for liberal activists," writes Danny Yadron.

VIEW GALLERY So...how’s the hangover? That’s the question on the world’s lips after news of Middlesbrough lads Phillip Boyle and Jamie Blyth’s last-minute trip to Thailand made headlines across the globe. But - perhaps surprisingly - the pair are feeling pretty dapper. “I’m feeling okay now,” says Phillip, speaking to The Gazette after their booze-fuelled jaunt to Thailand. “I was worse when we came!” Jamie and Phillip with his upgraded bag “It’s been crazy,” says 33-year-old company director Phillip from Nunthorpe. The Gazette first broke news of the story on Monday after learning that the pair - who started their Friday night at The Southern Cross in Marton for a ‘quiet pint’ - had ended up jetting out to Thailand in a drunken haze. But the boozy plan paid off and - despite a few moments of hesitation as the drink wore off - they’ve had the time of their lives. “It was around the bend there,” says Phillip of the holiday resort of Pattaya. “It’s been non-stop as we were only there for a couple of days. “We went out for meals and to bars and didn’t really sleep that much. “If we were there for a week or so we might have travelled around a bit. “I have fallen behind with a few things at work though,” admits Phillip. Phillip had initially jetted out with just a carrier bag stuffed with a few T-Shirts and pairs of boxer shorts. But he did manage to upgrade - buying a new backpack and a pair of trainers whilst out there, that were unfortunately swiped. Phillip forced to wear work shoes after trainers were pinched Pal Jamie, 33, a rigger from Marton and instigator of the trip, said: “On the way out there we sobered up on the flight and thought ‘what have we done!’ “We were a bit confused in Abu Dhabi at the stop over but just thought ‘We’re here now so we should just make the most of it'. “The guys that we knew from school were shocked to see that we’d turned up! “It’s been great.” Jamie, who has a new girlfriend, said: “She was a bit annoyed, but it was only two days - a short break. “She’s just been laughing about it and thought we were daft.” And Phillip has some advice for others wanting to follow in their footsteps. “I would recommend it - it’s been brilliant fun.” ||||| Anyone who sat through the mess that was The Hangover Part II remembers that Bradley Cooper and his brohams woke up in Bangkok, with one shaved head, one facial tattoo and one chain-smoking capuchin monkey. Phillip Boyle and his friends managed to avoid the worst aspects of that movie, but the part about going out drinking and waking up in Thailand? Yeah, they did that. Boyle and several friends went out on Friday night for a few drinks, picked up a few more drinks at a gas station and then stayed up all night throwing back the finest alcoholic beverages that Northern England has to offer. At 11 the next morning, Boyle’s friend Jamie Blyth started asking if he had his passport, then called a cab to take the whole hungover group to the Manchester Airport. Boyle told GazetteLive When we got in the taxi we didn’t even have flights. It’s a last minute bad idea – but one of those bad ideas that turns into a good idea. I nearly canceled when [we were] on the way to Manchester Airport and realized this is all a bit rash and nothing was booked. But they followed their best (worst?) instincts and bought tickets to Pattaya, Thailand, two seven hour flights interrupted by a layover in Abu Dhabi. Boyle said that he didn’t even pack a real suitcase, he just stuffed some t-shirts and some clean underwear in a grocery bag. After 14 hours and 6,750 miles, the group landed in the beachside city, where they planned to stay until Tuesday. “No one’s misbehaved,” he said. Phillip Boyle went out for a few quiet beers and ended up on a plane to Thailand http://t.co/xO6KgmjppO pic.twitter.com/vEEnf4DGrS — HuffPost UK (@HuffPostUK) March 24, 2015 British teenager Luke Harding pulled a similar – if shorter – stunt after a night of drinking. The then-19-year-old was “well and truly plastered” in a cab heading home when he realized that he’d never seen the Eiffel Tower. He told the cabbie to take him to the Manchester Airport (which must have special boarding area for Drunken Travelers), bought a $150 flight to Paris and staggered onboard the 6 a.m. flight. He didn’t fully realize what he’d done until he woke up, beyond hungover in a bathroom at Charles De Gaulle airport. Harding said When I woke up I initially didn’t know where I was but then I remembered a bit about being in Manchester airport and booking the flight to Paris – and thinking ‘oh sh*t.’ The moral of this story seems to be “don’t drink in the north of England.” At least not without packing a bag first.

– We don't want to know how many pills it took to kill this hangover: Two buddies went out for a few drinks at a pub in Marton, England, last Friday. Hours later, they were in Thailand, a la Hangover II. The idea for the spontaneous trip sprouted around 11am Saturday at Phillip Boyle's place. The men had headed there from the pub around 1am for a "quiet night" after picking up a "few drinks from the petrol station," Boyle, 33, tells GazetteLive in a story spotted by USA Today. Friend Jamie Blyth "asks if I have my passport handy and comes up with the idea of us going to Thailand straight away," says Boyle. "Then we got into a taxi he'd phoned and—apart from the short delay of picking up Jamie's passport—we were off." It was "all a bit rash," says Boyle, whose luggage consisted of a grocery bag containing a few shirts and some underwear. The men booked two seven-hour flights spanning 6,750 miles, heading for the beachside city of Pattaya; they apparently "knew some guys from school" in Thailand. "On the way out there we sobered up on the flight and thought 'what have we done!'" Blyth tells GazetteLive. But they made the most of the adventure, which ran through Tuesday. It was "brilliant fun," Boyle says. "We went out for meals and to bars and didn't really sleep that much." He adds, "I'm feeling okay now." The guys admit they did face consequences. "I have fallen behind with a few things at work," Boyle says. Blyth adds his new girlfriend "was a bit annoyed," but "she's just been laughing about it and thought we were daft." (A night of drinking didn't end so well for one Qatar Airways employee.)

Less than a week after the U.S. noted an absence of "provocative acts" by North Korea, Kim Jong Un's regime fired a ballistic missile over Japan. Coming soon after the launch of shorter-range missiles over the weekend, Tuesday's move increases the likelihood of more sanctions on North Korea's foreign trade, experts say. "This latest provocation will increase support in the U.S. and among its allies to take further steps to squeeze Pyongyang and the governments and firms that do business with it," Scott Seaman, a director at the Eurasia Group, wrote in an analysis note. Related: Markets rattled by North Korean missile launch Just last week, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he was pleased Kim's regime had "demonstrated restraint" since the U.N. Security Council passed its latest round of sanctions on August 5. Those measures aimed to kill a billion dollars' worth of North Korean exports by hitting major industries such as coal, iron ore and seafood. But analysts warned at the time that the latest sanctions were unlikely to be enough to make Kim back down on North Korea's rapidly advancing nuclear weapons program. So what's left for President Trump to go after? Related: New North Korea sanctions are unlikely to make Kim blink Textiles China is estimated to account for about 90% of North Korea's foreign trade, providing a vital link between Kim's regime and the global economy. The latest U.N. sanctions have already banned three of the top five product categories that China buys from its smaller, poorer neighbor. The remaining two involve textiles and apparel. What's not clear is how well North Korea's textile industries are doing. Analysts say some trade data indicates exports for those sectors fell last year. Related: North Korea's economy grew fast last year but slowdown looms But a recent in-depth report by Reuters from near the Chinese-North Korean border suggested Chinese companies are stepping up their use of North Korean factories to make clothes that are then labeled as "Made in China" and exported overseas. The apparent size of the North Korean textiles business makes it a potential target for future sanctions, experts say. "I can't help thinking if I were some kind of Chinese entrepreneur, I wouldn't want to be sinking more money into North Korea right now," Kent Boydston, a research analyst at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told CNNMoney last week. Oil North Korean exports to China provide the regime in Pyongyang with an important source of income. And Chinese exports to North Korea include goods that the isolated country needs to keep functioning. High on that list is crude oil, which some experts have argued should have been included in previous U.N. sanctions. Related: China is squeezing North Korea - but not too hard But it's become impossible to accurately keep tabs on how much crude China sells to North Korea since Beijing stopped including it in customs data a few years ago. "With no data being reported, oil might be a way to either squeeze -- or support -- the regime without any outsiders being able to scrutinize what they are doing," Boydston said in a recent blog post. That kind of lack of transparency fuels the skepticism of experts, who dispute China's claims that it rigorously implements U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Related: More North Korea sanctions? They haven't worked so far Chinese banks Doubts about the willingness of China and Russia to really put the squeeze on North Korea has prompted calls for the U.S. to crack down harder on companies from those countries that do illicit business with Kim's regime. The Trump administration has already taken some action on that front, including sanctioning a bunch of Chinese and Russian entities last week over their alleged North Korean dealings. In June, the Treasury Department blocked a regional Chinese bank accused of having illicit North Korea ties from accessing the U.S. financial system. But former Treasury official Anthony Ruggiero said that much stronger action could be taken against Chinese banks, including major fines. Related: U.S. targets Chinese, Russian entities linked to North Korea "Chinese banks are integral to the operation of these illicit networks and the Trump administration will need to target them to move its pressure campaign to the next level," Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said in an opinion article for Fox News. But other experts say that China will never push North Korea far enough toward the economic brink to make Kim change course on nuclear weapons. Chinese leaders want to preserve the regime in Pyongyang as a strategic buffer against U.S. influence in East Asia and avoid the chaotic collapse of a neighboring country. By ramping up the pressure on Beijing, some experts warn, Trump could provoke a Chinese backlash against U.S. businesses in the region. ||||| FILE - In this file image made from video of an Aug. 14, 2017, broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un receives a military briefing in Pyongyang. Conventional... (Associated Press) TOKYO (AP) — Conventional wisdom says that if North Korea were ever to use its nuclear weapons, it would be an act of suicide. But brace yourself for what deterrence experts call the "theory of victory." To many who have studied how nuclear strategies actually work, it's conceivable North Korea could escalate to a nuclear war and still survive. Tuesday's missile test suggests once again it may be racing to prepare itself to do just that — but only if forced into a corner. Every missile North Korean leader Kim Jong Un launches comes at a high cost. North Korea doesn't have an unlimited supply, and they aren't easy or cheap to build. So when Kim orders his strategic forces to launch, it's safe to assume it's a move calculated to achieve maximum political, technical and training value. Tuesday's launch of a ballistic missile over Japan and into the open Pacific Ocean, once again blowing past warnings from the United States and its allies, is a prime example. There is a solid strategy hidden in each launch. From Kim's perspective, here's what it looks like. ___ HOW THE NORTH COULD SURVIVE North Korea has never suggested it would use its nuclear weapons to attack the United States or its allies completely out of the blue. But, like Washington, it has stated quite explicitly that if it is either attacked or has reason to believe an attack is imminent, it has the right to launch a retaliatory or even a pre-emptive first strike. The trigger for North Korea could be unusual troop movements in South Korea, suspicious activity at U.S. bases in Japan or — as the North has recently warned — flights near its airspace by U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers out of their home base on the island of Guam. If Kim deemed any of those an imminent attack, one North Korean strategy would be to immediately target U.S. bases in Japan. A more violent move would be to attack a Japanese city, such as Tokyo, though that would probably be unnecessary since at this point the objective would be to weaken the U.S. military's command and control. Going nuclear would send the strongest message, but chemical weapons would be an alternative. North Korea's ability to next hit the U.S. mainland with nuclear-tipped missiles is the key to how it would survive in this scenario. And that's why Kim has been rushing to perfect and show them off to the world. "The whole reason they developed the ICBM was to deter American nuclear retaliation because if you can hold an American city or cities at risk the American calculation always changes," said Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a nuclear strategy specialist. "Are we really willing to risk Los Angeles or Chicago in retaliation for an attack on a U.S. military base in the region?" he asks. "Probably not." That, right there, is Kim's big wager. If "no" actually is the answer, then North Korea has a chance — though slim and risky — of staving off a full-scale conventional attack by the United States to survive another day. ___ USE 'EM OR LOSE 'EM Kim isn't paranoid. He has good reason to fear an attack by the United States. It's highly unlikely Washington would unilaterally start a war. But if it did, North Korea would face a far stronger and better equipped enemy able to — literally — bring the fight right to Kim's front door. A successful U.S. first strike could within hours or days take out North Korea's leadership, or at least seriously disrupt its chain of command, and destroy a good portion of the country's fighting power. So North Korea has a very strong incentive to escalate fast, before all is lost. Under Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il — Kim's grandfather and father — North Korea relied on conventional artillery just north of the Demilitarized Zone to keep Washington at bay, figuring the U.S. wouldn't make any moves that might risk an attack on South Korea's capital, Seoul, and the tremendous casualties and destruction that would bring. Kim, fearing "decapitation strikes," has brought missiles and nukes into the mix for an added layer of protection. His strategy is to neutralize Washington's military option by holding both Seoul and an American city hostage while building up his own ability to withstand a first strike or a massive wave of retaliation. To do that, North Korea is developing an array of missiles that can be launched by land or from submarines and easily hidden and transported to remote, hard-to-detect sites. Reasonably enough, countries with big arsenals are generally considered less likely to feel the need to use them or lose them. North Korea is believed to have an arsenal of perhaps several dozen nuclear weapons, growing by maybe a dozen or so each year. That's a lot, but some analysts believe it may take a few hundred to cure Kim of the itchy trigger finger syndrome. ___ THE 'MADMAN STRATEGY' In deterrence circles, ambiguity is considered a must. But confusion can be deadly. In any confrontation, it's best that an opponent knows better than to cross the line — but not to know exactly where that line is. That fosters caution. Confusion, on the other hand, creates the incentive to make a move either out of frightened self-defense or confident opportunism. That's what North Korea appears to be doing now, though it's not clear whether the motive is fear or arrogance. Over the past several weeks, U.S. President Donald Trump has promised fire, fury and power like the world has never seen should North Korea issue even a vocal threat — which it did almost immediately, with no major consequences. Trump's Cabinet members walked that back, but in the process set or seemed to erase red lines of their own. Some have suggested this is a deliberate "madman strategy." Inspired by the writings of Machiavelli, President Richard Nixon gave this ploy a go against Vietnam in the late 1960s. His idea was to make the Vietnamese and their Communist allies think that Nixon would do anything, including use his nuclear weapons, to end the war. But if Trump is doing the same, he isn't doing it very well, Narang said. While Kim's government speaks with one voice and maintains consistency, which is what gives the madman approach its credibility, it's "really hard for Trump to make these crazy statements and not have them walked back by someone in his administration." "At some point," Narang said, "the blurriness goes away and we just look incoherent." ___ Eric Talmadge has been the AP's Pyongyang bureau chief since 2013. Follow him on Twitter at EricTalmadge and on Instagram @erictalmadge. ||||| A day after North Korea launched a missile over Japan, Tokyo Bureau Chief Anna Fifield answers one of the questions she gets most often about North Korea: "Are we going to war?" (Anna Fifield/The Washington Post) A day after North Korea launched a missile over Japan, Tokyo Bureau Chief Anna Fifield answers one of the questions she gets most often about North Korea: "Are we going to war?" (Anna Fifield/The Washington Post) North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile over Japan was unprecedented, but President Trump’s response Tuesday was not — a renewal of his warning that “all options are on the table.” His tough talk may only serve to remind that the possibility of military action has not yet deterred North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The missile launch seemed designed to wreak just the right amount of havoc: enough for Kim to show that he would not be cowed but not so much as to invite the “fire and fury” that Trump warned could follow continued North Korean threats. The launch early Tuesday was the first test of such a sophisticated weapon over the landmass of a U.S. ally and an obvious warning to the United States that North Korea could easily target U.S. military facilities on Guam or elsewhere in the Pacific region. It came during annual joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea that have infuriated the nuclear-armed communist regime. It also came despite recent offers of talks from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior,” Trump said in an early morning statement. North Korea launched a ballistic missile that passed over northern Japan’s Hokkaido island on Aug. 29, before dropping into the Pacific Ocean. (Shin Takizawa/Twitter) “Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world,” he said. “All options are on the table.” The United States requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which this month unanimously approved the strictest economic sanctions to date on a nation that already is one of the most heavily sanctioned in the world. “No country should have missiles flying over them like those 130 million people in Japan. It’s unacceptable,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said. North Korea has “violated every single U.N. Security Council resolution that we’ve had, and so I think something serious has to happen,” she added. “Enough is enough.” [ North Korean missile flies over Japan, prompting an angry response from Tokyo ] There was no indication that Kim was intimidated by the White House reaction. The state Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday morning local time that the North Korean leader had been present for the missile launch and had called it “a meaningful prelude to containing Guam.” According to the agency, Kim said he had gone ahead with the missile launch because the United States proceeded with “the bellicose war exercises” with South Korea. International outrage over the latest North Korean missile went well beyond Washington. Trump spoke by phone with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hours after the launch, and the two leaders “committed to increasing pressure on North Korea, and doing their utmost to convince the international community to do the same,” according to a White House statement. People watch a television news screen showing file footage of a North Korean missile launch, at a railway station in Seoul on Aug. 29, 2017. (Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images) That was a reference to stiff international sanctions that so far have failed to stop North Korea from developing working nuclear bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The United States claims North Korea could not evade those sanctions if other countries including China enforced them more stringently. Asked about the effectiveness of sanctions and international denunciation, given that North Korea does not seem to care about the moves, deputy British U.N. envoy Jonathan Allen insisted such actions have merit. “They send that really important message of the entire world being united, and they do have an impact on North Korea,” Allen told reporters at the United Nations. The missile appeared to be a Hwasong-12, the intermediate-range ballistic missile that North Korea has been threatening to shoot into the waters near the U.S. territory of Guam. But North Korea did not shoot it southeast toward Guam. Instead, it lobbed the missile in a northeasterly direction, over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. It was, as Stephan Haggard, a political scientist and Korea expert at the University of California at San Diego, described it, “perfectly calibrated to create political mischief.” “The launch shows how Kim Jong Un is weirdly conservative, calibrating tests so that they are difficult to counter, flying just beneath the radar of a required kinetic response,” Haggard said. Taro Kono, Japan’s foreign minister, acknowledged as much. “If North Korea had launched the missile to the south, the U.S. might have viewed it as a considerable provocation and responded accordingly,” Kono told reporters after the launch. North Korea’s action also seemed designed to drive a wedge between its neighbors. In Japan, Abe called it “an unprecedented, grave and serious threat.” Abe wants to beef up Japan’s military capabilities, and missile launches like this provide ammunition for his controversial cause. South Korea’s liberal president, Moon Jae-in, who has promoted engagement with Pyongyang, immediately denounced the launch and sent his fighter jets to drop bombs on a shooting range near the border with North Korea. Both reactions appear to have rattled China, where officials called on all sides to take a step back. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying characterized the North Korea situation as “at a tipping point, approaching a crisis.” She repeated China’s call for talks between North Korea and the United States. [ North Korea launches three missiles into sea, heightening tensions ] Tillerson had stressed Sunday that the offer of talks remained open, and he encouraged Kim to choose “a different path.” For weeks, U.S. officials have sought to assure Kim that Washington does not want to topple him or invade his country, a message also meant to appeal to North Korea’s protector, China. Trump said last week that North Korea was finally “starting to respect us,” although he added that his threat to answer the country’s provocations with “fire and fury” might not have been strong enough. Tillerson also had publicly praised North Korea last week for showing “restraint” since the U.N. Security Council vote and in the face of the annual military drills. Although North Korea had not test-launched any missiles for nearly a month at that point, it has done so twice since Tillerson spoke. North Korea fired rockets over the Japanese mainland in 1998 and 2009 — but it described them as satellite launch vehicles and gave Japan advance warning in the second case. Tuesday’s missile launch was purely military and “demonstrated a direct threat,” said Narushige Michishita, an expert on Korean Peninsula security issues at the Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. “From a military point of view, they have demonstrated an ability to use a very mobile, agile missile against targets anywhere in Japan,” he said. [ In a dangerous time, the Pentagon prepares for a war game on the Korean Peninsula ] Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said that the United States would shoot down any missile North Korea fired at Guam or a U.S. ally. Fifield reported from Tokyo. Read more North Korea mocks Trump’s ‘ego-driven’ Twitter posts as military exercises continue North Korea could cross ICBM threshold next year, U.S. officials warn in new assessment Kim Jong Un’s rockets are getting an important boost — from China Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news ||||| Trump’s most recent threats against North Korea came this month after the UN Security Council unanimously voted to tighten international sanctions against Pyongyang. Shortly after that development, news reports said North Korea had succeeded in miniaturizing a nuclear warhead that could be fitted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. Trump then said “any more threats” by North Korea would be met with “fire and fury,” words he later said weren’t “tough enough,” prompting fears of a military response. He also tweeted the U.S. nuclear arsenal “is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before,” adding he hoped the U.S. would never have to use it. North Korea’s response: a detailed plan to fire an intermediate-range ballistic missile at Guam, the U.S. territory in the Pacific that is home to military bases. When the North did not follow through on that plan, Trump tweeted: “Kim Jong Un of North Korea made a very wise and well reasoned decision. The alternative would have been both catastrophic and unacceptable!” Trump was noncommittal Tuesday when asked what he was going to do about the latest North Korean test: “We'll see. We’ll see,” was all he said before traveling to Texas to inspect the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he spoke to Trump for 40 minutes on the issue, saying the two countries were in “total agreement” that the UN Security Council must increase pressure on North Korea. For her part, Trump’s UN ambassador Nikki Haley declared that “something serious has to happen” following the latest missile test, but did not elaborate. “President Trump and Prime Minister Abe committed to increasing pressure on North Korea, and doing their utmost to convince the international community to do the same,” the White House said in a readout of the call between Trump and Abe, suggesting the U.S. was planning coordinated diplomatic action. But any such action against Pyongyang must include China, a permanent veto-wielding member of the Security Council, which is also North Korea’s main benefactor. Trump has during his presidency said Beijing is doing “nothing” on North Korea, cited increased trade between North Korea and China, and said China’s attempt to persuade Kim to change his behavior “has not worked out.” (China says its influence over Kim is limited, and points to reduced trade between the two countries.) Nor is Trump the only person in his administration whose rhetoric on North Korea has fluctuated. On July 5, Haley urged Russia and China to vote for tougher sanctions on North Korea, warning: “If you choose not to, we will go our own path.” On July 30, she said there was no point to an emergency Security Council session “if it produces nothing of consequence.” (The U.S. ultimately succeeded in persuading China and Russia to sign on to the sanctions—though it’s unclear what impact those sanctions will actually have on Pyongyang, which has found multiple ways to evade sanctions in the past, as I’ve reported here.) Rex Tillerson, Trump’s secretary of state, had declared the Obama-era policy of “strategic patience” with North Korea over, though the Trump administration’s stated policy of ‘maximum pressure and engagement’ resembles the Obama-era approach. Tillerson, who has spent much of the past month dialing down Trump’s North Korea-related rhetoric, has also said the U.S. is willing to talk to North Korea and is not interested in regime change. On the other hand, in April when Pyongyang tested a medium-range ballistic missile, he said: “The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.” By Tuesday, that rhetoric, too, had shifted. In the morning, Tillerson said: “We’ll have more to say about it later.” ||||| The U.S. and South Korea are to blame for North Korea’s latest missile launch over Japan, and further sanctions on the regime will not ameliorate the situation, Russia said Tuesday. In defiance of U.N. resolutions banning its missile testing and fresh international sanctions drafted by the U.S., North Korea carried out another missile test on Tuesday morning, the fourth in as many days, this time directly over Japan for the first time. The regime has already traded barbs with President Donald Trump due to its repeated missile testing and expanding range, including a direct threat made at U.S. pacific territory Guam. That threat prompted the U.S. to rally its allies and, with China and Russia on side, impose new sanctions on the rogue state. Anticipating more of the same to follow, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told journalists on Tuesday that U.S. actions were pushing the regime toward more tests, not halting it, state news agency Itar-Tass reported. “If we go by how colleagues from the U.S. and other western countries have acted in the past, then of course we can expect new steps towards tightening the sanctions, but this will not solve the problem,” Ryabkov said. “It is now obvious to everyone that the resources for influencing North Korea with sanctions have run out.” Ryabkov referred to the joint military exercises the U.S. is currently holding with ally South Korea. The latest Ulchi Freedom Guardian activity involved computer-simulated warfare and took place over the weekend. The drill aims to strengthen the ability to respond to an potential attack from the North and continues until the end of August. The Russian minister called it “a trend of escalation,” a reiteration of China and Russia's previous arguments in favor of limiting U.S. military presence in the Asia Pacific neighborhood. The North regularly protests U.S. drills in the region, and in his statement Ryabkov appeared to refer to Ulchi Freedom Guardian directly, taking a more sympathetic approach to the North’s tests. Read More: After U.S. travel ban, North Korea is courting Russian tourists with new agency “We consider the joint drills that went ahead anyway, albeit in a lighter mode compared to the initial agenda, made an impact in terms of provoking Pyongyang to make the new launch. We are highly concerned by the general developments,” he said. In principle both Russia and China oppose widespread nuclear proliferation. Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Chinese President Xi Jinping for a trade summit next month, where the pair will discuss North Korea. Public statements of concern aside, though, the two countries maintain a similar approach of suggesting that more U.S. disarmament in the region will help curb the North’s nuclear proliferation goals. ||||| NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major U.S. stock indexes ended higher on Tuesday after recovering from steep early losses triggered by fears that hostilities in the Korean Peninsula could escalate. The S&P; 500 fell as much as 0.66 percent after U.S. President Donald Trump warned that all options are on the table for the United States to respond after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over a Japanese island in a new show of force. “When the president says ‘all options are on the table,’ the best strategy for investors is sometimes to do nothing,” said Brian Jacobsen, senior investment strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Market analysts were relieved that the rift did not escalate further, with Trump’s focus on the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Harvey, which was the most powerful hurricane to strike Texas in 50 years when it made landfall last week. “While it’s possible all these unfortunate events can add up to something more consequential, the (U.S.) economy is pretty darn big and resilient,” Jacobsen said. The storm shuttered refineries across the U.S. energy hub in Texas but energy shares were little changed, with declines in oil services companies mostly offset by gains in refiners and some producers. Ernesto Ramos, head of equities at BMO Global Asset Management in Chicago, described the market reaction to the flooding in Houston and surrounding areas as a “very stock-specific situation.” Shares of insurers fell on uncertainty over their storm-related liabilities. An index of industry stocks .KIX dropped 0.5 percent to end at its lowest in two months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 56.97 points, or 0.26 percent, to 21,865.37, the S&P; 500 .SPX gained 2.06 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,446.3 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 18.87 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,301.89. Gains in the Nasdaq were led by the largest names, with Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon, the biggest U.S. companies by market value, all higher. Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) tumbled 11.9 percent to $55.02 after the No.1 U.S. consumer electronics retailer warned its strong quarterly sales performance should not be seen as a new normal. United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) rose 2.9 percent to $118.70 as it made progress in talks to acquire aircraft component manufacturer Rockwell Collins Inc COL.N in order to bulk up its aerospace business. Rockwell’s shares rose 2.1 percent to $130.74. Nike (NKE.N) fell 1.9 percent to $52.73 after Morgan Stanley cut its price target by $4, to $64. FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., July 19, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.05-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.08-to-1 ratio favored advancers. Nearly 285 issues across U.S. exchanges hit their lowest in 52 weeks on Tuesday, more than the average over the last year of close to 230, while 355 hit a 52-week high, far below the average of almost 490 for every day over the last year. About 5.3 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 5.9 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. ||||| Sirens blared out, trains stopped and residents took cover as missile fired by North Korea soared over Japanese territory for two minutes It was the early morning wake-up call millions of people in northern Japan had been warned about for months but which most had hoped would never arrive. The first inkling that their fears had been realised came with a government text just after 6am local time informing them that four minutes earlier, North Korea had fired a missile that was soon expected to pass through the skies over Japan’s northern regions. The short distance between the two countries means people were given less than 10 minutes to follow official instructions to take cover, either in scarce underground shelters or in sturdy buildings. The reason, the text message said: “Ballistic missile launch.” Moments later, the public broadcaster NHK and other TV networks broke off from regular programming to give live coverage of sites beneath the flight path and missile defence batteries ready to shoot down the missile if it was deemed a threat to public safety. Sirens blared out in towns close to the missile’s path as it soared over Japanese territory for two minutes before crashing into the Pacific. Yumi Asada (@yumi_asada) Siren & announcement that #NorthKorea fired a missile. Local people say "but I don't know where to evacuate..." https://t.co/leF8WMtz5L “Missile passing. Missile passing,” warned an official text message sent to people across the north of Japan. And then the danger – which was most likely to have come from a mid-flight malfunction – had passed, the only concern now the possibility that debris from what is believed to be a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile was hurtling towards Earth. “A short time ago, a missile apparently passed above this area. If you find suspicious objects, please don’t go near them and immediately call police or firefighters. Please take cover in secure buildings or underground.” Please take cover in secure buildings or underground. Official text message North Korea’s launch towards Japan – a key US ally and the Korean peninsula’s former colonial ruler – marked a huge escalation by Pyongyang amid tensions over its weapons ambitions. Experts have said that North Korea sent the missile over Japan as a warning to the US but, perhaps fearing serious reprisals, stopped well short of carrying out its recent threat to target waters off the US Pacific territory of Guam. For the first time since the diplomatic temperature on the Korean peninsula soared earlier this summer, Japanese citizens found themselves worryingly close to the frontline of Pyongyang’s ballistic brinkmanship. Joe (@jtnarsico) I woke up with a Siren and an announcement that North Korea launched a missile that would possibly hit cities within Hokkaido. pic.twitter.com/RGiflzTqJT Morning commuters in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost prefecture, were greeted by warning signs at train stations. Many rail services were brought to a halt, although flights in the region were reportedly unaffected. At one metro station in Sapporo, a city of nearly 2 million, passengers were warned there would be delays. “All lines are experiencing disruption,” said one sign. “Reason: Ballistic missile launch.” Some commuters followed the government’s emergency advice to the letter. “Some passengers came down to take cover in a couple of subway stations,” a Sapporo subway spokesman said. ‘What can you do? Hide? But where?’ Ai Onodera, a Hokkaido resident, switched on the TV as soon as she was awoken by the text alert and immediately called her husband, who was away on a business trip. “I was terrified that I wouldn’t see him again,” she said. Others had little choice but to carry on with their usual schedule. They included the crews aboard 15 fishing vessels that had already left port off southern Hokkaido in an area beneath the missile’s path. “I was surprised that it went above our area. This has never happened before,” Hiroyuki Iwafune, an official at the local fishery co-op, said. “I was worried. Everyone felt the same. But what can you do? Hide? But where? “We called those who were at sea. But then they said: ‘Even with this [warning], what are we supposed to do?’” Others still on land were similarly dismissive about their chances of seeking refuge in such a short space of time. “The alert told me to evacuate, but I couldn’t think of any building that could withstand missiles inside the town. I didn’t know where to go,” Ichiro Kondo, a fisherman from Erimo, on the east coast of Hokkaido, told Kyodo news. In the end, the official response brought more disruption to the daily lives of Hokkaido residents than the missile itself. Local police received dozens of emergency calls, many from people asking where they should flee to, Kyodo added, while more than 40 schools on the island and other parts of north-east Japan cancelled or postponed classes. In Tokyo, more than 700km (435 miles) south of the missile’s flight path, some train services were temporarily halted, even though the area had not been subject to the emergency alert. “Currently, a North Korean missile is flying above Japan,” announcements at stations in the capital that run bullet train services said, minutes after the launch. “It is very dangerous. Please take cover at the waiting areas or inside the trains.” At a US military base in Tokyo, Japan deployed a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile defence system as part of a previously scheduled drill. “Practising this kind of drill allows us to maintain our fast response system in the event of a ballistic missile launch and to strengthen the force of persuasion, not only by our country but also by the US-Japan alliance,” Hiroaki Maehara, the commander of Japan’s air self-defence forces, told a press briefing. Fourteen minutes after it was launched from a site near Pyongyang, the missile fell without incident into the Pacific, 1,180km east of Cape Erimo in Hokkaido. Andrew Kaz, a 24-year-old American working as an assistant language teacher in the eastern Hokkaido city of Kushiro, said he was worried about how Japan and the US might respond to the launch. “I know this happened before but I feel small and rudderless,” he said. “Everything seems like business as usual, but you can tell people are shaken up.”

– "Are we really willing to risk Los Angeles or Chicago in retaliation for an attack on a US military base in the region? Probably not," nuclear strategy specialist Vipin Narang tells the AP. And that's exactly the calculation that gives North Korea a small shot at "winning" in a nuclear conflict, challenging the assumption that launching a nuclear weapon would be automatic suicide for the country. If North Korea feels threatened to the point of using a nuclear weapon, a first target would likely be a US military base in Japan; North Korea would then use its long-range nukes to threaten the US mainland and avoid a retaliatory strike. Experts say this is Kim Jong Un's "theory of victory"—one that President Trump may be attempting to combat with an unsuccessful version of the "madman strategy." Here's what else you need to know about North Korea's most-recent missile launch: Tuesday's missile launch over Japan seems likely to result in even more sanctions against North Korea. But after UN sanctions Aug. 5 targeted millions of dollars in seafood, coal, iron ore, and more, is there anything left to sanction? CNN reports two options are oil and Chinese banks. After Tuesday's missile launch, Trump said "all options are on the table." This was, all things considered, a "measured" response from the president, according to the Atlantic. It was an official statement instead of a tweet, didn't threaten "fire and fury," and avoided calling Kim Jong Un a "wack job." The Guardian reports on the scary morning had by residents of Japan, who were awoken around 6am Tuesday by a government missile warning on their phones. They were given less than 10 minutes to get to a shelter or sturdy building as sirens and special broadcasts blared. The missile test impacted US markets, with the Dow dropping more than 100 points Tuesday morning, Reuters reports. The stock market would recover by the afternoon as the threat passed. Korea expert Stephan Haggard tells the Washington Post that Tuesday was another example of how "weirdly conservative" Kim Jong Un is—carrying out provocative actions with just enough restraint to avoid an actual response. For example, pointing the missile toward Japan, not Guam. Finally, Russia's deputy foreign minister blamed the US and South Korea for Tuesday's nuclear test and came out against further sanctions against North Korea, saying they haven't prevented missile tests in the past and won't in the future, Newsweek reports.

The 2012 Republican primary is about to enter the elimination round. When the GOP presidential candidates meet in Michigan Wednesday for a CNBC debate on the economy, they’ll no longer be looking to make a first impression. With less than two months to go before the Iowa caucuses, there’s a much more urgent objective: survival. Text Size - + reset Allen on GOP debates POLITICO 44 Herman Cain may not be viable much longer, unless he can manage to move the 2012 conversation away from the allegations of sexual harassment that have plagued his campaign. Flagging conservatives such as Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann can’t afford to muddle aimlessly through another candidate forum. If Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum can’t take advantage of this chaotic moment, they may never get another chance. And Jon Huntsman is running out of time to connect with his attempt at a maverick message. With the exception of front-runner Mitt Romney — and perhaps Ron Paul, the libertarian congressman whose devoted base of support never really diminishes or grows — nearly every candidate in the race is almost one misstep away from political death. “Voters have formed general impressions of most of the candidates by this point, but a mixed or poor impression hasn’t been fatal,” said Dan Schnur, a former adviser to John McCain’s 2000 campaign. “Going forward, any problems become much more damaging because the clock is ticking.” Schnur, who now directs the University of Southern California’s Unruh Institute of Politics, said Cain had helped speed up the winnowing process: “We were probably going to get to this point pretty soon anyway, but the controversy surrounding Cain’s campaign may be serving as a reminder to voters of the stakes involved here.” Michigan Republican National Committeeman Saul Anuzis, a Romney supporter, suggested debates were increasingly about “which people make the mistakes and have the most to lose, not the most to gain.” “Usually there’s a loser in a debate, not necessarily a winner,” said Anuzis. “I think there will be a desire by all the candidates to stay on [economic] issues and focus on those issues. The question is whether we will get pulled away by the Cain stuff or something else.” Cain signaled in a press conference Tuesday that he hopes to move on from battling charges of personal misconduct and get back to talking about policy. With his poll numbers holding up in the low-20 percent range, it’s clear that some of his fans have been giving him the benefit of the doubt so far. The CNBC debate – the ninth of the year, and the sixth involving the full GOP presidential field – will test Cain’s ability to hold on to those supporters and turn the page on the worst week of his campaign. ||||| article The CNBC debate kicks off tonight in the shadow of the Cain circus. Will the other candidates ignore the elephant in the room, and will Gingrich finally reach the top tier? David A. Graham on what to look for. Plus join Howard Kurtz for a live chat during the debate, starting at 8pm ET. After three weeks’ respite, the packed Republican presidential debate season is about to return to full tilt. The GOP field will convene in a Detroit suburb on Wednesday for a debate hosted by CNBC. Using a traditional setup, the debate is supposed to focus on economic issues, including taxation, jobs, and the deficit, but fireworks are likely on a few other topics as well. Here’s what to watch for Wednesday night. 1. Will the Herman Cain Allegations Take Center Stage? Last time around, Herman Cain was a target because his fortunes were rising, along with the popularity of his 9-9-9 plan. Much has happened since, and although his polls numbers have flat-lined, not tanked, repeated allegations of sexual harassment or worse seem to be on their way to derailing the Cain train. How will his rivals handle it? They could attack him directly; even the usually detached Romney edged that way Tuesday, saying the allegations against Cain were serious. But that might be unnecessary and counterproductive. Focusing on Cain’s circus rather than, say, high unemployment is bad for the Republican brand, so they may instead let him bleed slowly as they avert their eyes. 2. Will the ‘Not-Mitt’ Movement Dent Romney’s Armor? Although it’s long been clear that Mitt Romney was the man to beat in the Republican field, the last two weeks have seen the anybody-but-Mitt movement crystallizing like never before. Bookended by scathing attacks by George Will and Erick Erickson—the voices of the Old Republican Establishment and the Upstart Activist Right, respectively—and peaking with the creation of the website Not Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor’s opponents have come together, Transformers-style. But behind whom? With most of the rest of the field fading or too damaged to take up the standard, Jon Huntsman Jr., whose once-promising candidacy hasn’t even gotten as far as spinning its wheels, is making a late play, producing his own anti-Romney ad. Can Huntsman or some other challenger dent Romney’s armor? Or will the unflappable frontrunner parry all blows with the effortless, bland approach he’s used so far? 3. Will Newt Gingrich Finally Join the First Tier? With Cain potentially on the outs, could Newt Gingrich finally be having his moment? The former House speaker could appeal to the same voters as Cain (they agree on plenty, as demonstrated by their lovefest on Saturday), he’s experienced, and his campaign seems to have come back from several prematurely declared deaths. Indeed, he’s rising in some polls. But Gingrich’s previous debate performances have been polarizing. While some of the more cerebral Republican pundits gushed over his oratorical and rhetorical talents, he has a tendency to come across as petulantly contrarian and needlessly pedantic. If he can temper those tendencies, the debate could propel him to the first tier of the race. 4. Will Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann Show Up? Long, long ago—if you can remember that far back—both Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry were first-tier candidates. Their chances at returning to the top tier are slipping away quickly, though Perry’s ample war chest is a crutch. It will be interesting to see how they try to claw back—if at all. Will Perry come across as giddy and drunk, as he did in New Hampshire last month? Will Bachmann figuratively show up? She has been a nonfactor for several debates, but could try to expand on outreach to moms or maybe go big on religion. 5. Will Serious Economic Plans Finally Make an Appearance?

– With Iowa just two months away, the stakes are high for tonight’s GOP debate. Politico describes it as an “elimination round,” with everyone except Mitt Romney—and maybe the seemingly immovable Ron Paul—“one misstep away from political death." Here’s what to watch for: Will anyone touch Herman Cain’s scandal? Focusing on that circus might hurt the GOP brand, the Daily Beast points out, “so they may instead let him bleed slowly as they avert their eyes.” Who can be the Not-Mitt? Anti-Romney sentiment coalesced this week, but has no standard bearer. Newt Gingrich is gaining some buzz, especially after his heart-to-heart with Cain, so some speculate that he's next. Who matters? “For Huntsman, Santorum, and Bachmann, the debate is totally about relevance and trying to maintain some respectability,” an ex-Huntsman campaign manager says. “Not much more, I don’t think.” Will Rick Perry be sober? Perry is reeling after his, um, interesting New Hampshire speech. Perry can come off “like a deer caught in headlights,” says one strategist. “He’s got to decide, what are the two or three messages I’m going to drive?” What about Mitt? “Romney can begin to play ball-control politics,” says a former McCain adviser. “He just needs to be reassuring and not say anything really dumb."

This story appears in the December 12, 2017 issue of Forbes. Subscribe Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg Fresh off a tour through Thailand, Laos and China, United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross Jr. picked up the phone on a Sunday afternoon in October to discuss something deeply personal: how much money he has. A year earlier, Forbes had listed his net worth at $2.9 billion on The Forbes 400, a number Ross claimed was far too low: He maintained he was closer to $3.7 billion. Now, after examining the financial-disclosure forms he filed after his nomination to President Donald Trump's Cabinet, which showed less than $700 million in assets, Forbes was intent on removing him entirely. Ross protested, citing trusts for his family that he said he did not have to disclose in federal filings. "You're apparently not counting those, which are more than $2 billion," he said. When asked for documentation, the 79-year-old demurred, citing "privacy issues." Told that Forbes nonetheless planned to remove him from the list for the first time in 13 years, he responded: "As long as you explain that the reason is that assets were put into trust, I'm fine with that." And when did he make the transfer that allowed him to not disclose over $2 billion? "Between the election and the nomination." So began the mystery of Wilbur Ross' missing $2 billion. And after one month of digging, Forbes is confident it has found the answer: That money never existed. It seems clear that Ross lied to us, the latest in an apparent sequence of fibs, exaggerations, omissions, fabrications and whoppers that have been going on with Forbes since 2004. In addition to just padding his ego, Ross' machinations helped bolster his standing in a way that translated into business opportunities. And based on our interviews with ten former employees at Ross' private equity firm, WL Ross & Co., who all confirmed parts of the same story line, his penchant for misleading extended to colleagues and investors, resulting in millions of dollars in fines, tens of millions refunded to backers and numerous lawsuits. Additionally, according to six U.S. senators, Ross failed to initially mention 19 suits in response to a questionnaire during his confirmation process. Nearly a week before this article went to press, both Ross and his team at the Commerce Department were sent a detailed list of questions. "Secretary Ross has filed all required disclosures in accordance with the law and in consultation with both legal counsel and ethics officials at the Department of Commerce and Office of Government Ethics. As we have said before, any misunderstanding from your previous conversation with Secretary Ross is unfortunate." They declined to provide further answers on the record. But Ross' questionable assertions to Forbes, combined with a recent controversy about a multimillion-dollar stake in a shipping company that does big business with close associates of Vladimir Putin, paint a clearer picture of the commerce secretary's tactics. His slippery statements during his confirmation hearings--"I intend to be quite scrupulous about recusal and any topic where there is the slightest scintilla of doubt"--came as no surprise to those who have known Ross for decades. "Wilbur doesn't have an issue with bending the truth," says David Wax, who worked alongside Ross for 25 years and served as the No. 3 person in his firm. Another former colleague, who requested anonymity, was less circumspect: "He's lied to a lot of people." Listen to Wilbur Ross apparently lie to Forbes: Twenty-six years before Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Wilbur Ross disappeared. It was 1990, corporate America was sick on junk bonds, and Ross was a top bankruptcy negotiator. But one November day, he failed to show up at an important meeting to brief bondholders in a furniture company's bankruptcy. They didn't know where he had gone. Until they went home and turned on the television. There was Ross, with Donald Trump, announcing a deal to recapitalize Trump's Taj Mahal casino, which was then careening toward bankruptcy. They were technically adversaries, with Ross representing one group of bondholders--at one point Trump asked them to fire Ross after he dismissed a Trump proposal to keep 100% of his equity, saying, "It's too early for Christmas." But Ross eventually brokered a deal among Trump, debt holder Carl Icahn and Ross' own clients that allowed Trump to keep a 50% stake. "I think [Ross] is very talented, a fantastic negotiator," Trump said at the time. The son of a judge, he always has been. He grew up in New Jersey, attended Yale and then Harvard Business School and eventually wound up as the bankruptcy work-out specialist at the investment bank Rothschild, where he was known for his ability to quickly distill complex situations. "He was very, very sharp," says someone who worked with him back then. "Very tough." By the early 1990s, his unit was bringing in around $18 million a year, with Ross personally pocketing more than a third of that. Ross was an extremely well-paid professional, but he yearned for the big money and big spotlight that come with having your own shop. "People knew of him," says another former colleague, "but not on his own." At first, he worked within Rothschild, raising $200 million for an internal private equity fund that would leverage his bankruptcy expertise to pick up companies on the cheap. Three years later, in 2000, he bought out the fund and slapped his name on the door. At 62, when most investment bankers start dabbling in golf and vineyards, Ross was poised to claim some glory for himself. Says Wax: "He viewed it as an opportunity to have a pulpit, to name something after himself and to potentially make a lot of money." Ross quickly accomplished all three of those things. In 2002, his firm invested in the bankrupt steelmaker LTV. According to a Harvard Business School case study, LTV had put $1.2 billion into new plants and equipment but laid off 7,500 union employees and faced a $3.4 billion pension burden. As a master of work-outs, Ross knew he could get the federal government to take over the pensions. According to people who worked at the firm then, Ross told the unions he'd buy the business if they let him hire back just 3,500 workers. Figuring 3,500 jobs were better than none, the union agreed, and WL Ross picked up most of LTV's assets, without the pension headaches, for $135 million and about $165 million in annual environmental liabilities. Ross' timing was impeccable. One week later, President George W. Bush issued a stiff tariff on steel imports, sending U.S. prices soaring and making Ross look like a genius. He rolled up several more steel companies, including Bethlehem Steel, into International Steel Group, which filed for an IPO in 2003. Ross was technically the beneficial owner of nearly $1 billion worth of the stock. But most of that belonged to his investors, not Ross personally. In 2005, Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal bought the business for around $4.5 billion in cash and stock. Ross personally invested only about $3 million in his firm's first two funds, according to former employees. Buoyed by International Steel Group, he roughly tripled that money, but the bigger payout came from carried interest--the manager's cut of overall profits, typically 20%. In all, Ross made an estimated $260 million. A huge score, yes, though not nearly enough to be one of the 400 richest people in America. But when a Forbes reporter reached out to Ross, apparently crediting him with his investors' money, the future commerce secretary did nothing to clarify the situation, according to notes at the time. "I just spoke to Ross," the reporter wrote. "He's one of the easiest new guys I've put on [The Forbes 400] in a while. Very low-key, said he didn't really want to be on, but at the same time wasn't going to fight success. He says he doesn't want to juice up his numbers at all." "I told him we're going to start him at $1 billion," added the reporter, who no longer works at Forbes . "And he said 'Yep, fine, thank you.' " Ross appeared on The Forbes 400 for the first time in 2004, with a net worth listed at $1 billion. It was nearly four times as much as he was likely worth. "Everyone that I knew that worked with Wilbur knew it wasn't true," says a former colleague of Ross. A legend was born, and like most legends, this one had its roots in a myth. Within days of that fateful issue of Forbes, Ross married for the third time at a beachside church in Southampton, New York. His bride, Hilary, 12 years younger, had spent much of her life in the Hamptons and Palm Beach, two of the East Coast's most famous billionaire playgrounds. "She brought him a certain kind of prominence, socially," says David Patrick Columbia, who publishes Hilary's musings on his website, New York Social Diary. "It was a perfect merger." Adds another contemporary: "She wants her husband to be on The Forbes 400." Life began to change for Ross. Once known for quirky suspenders, he now wore impeccable suits. A workaholic for most of his career, he began spending much of the year outside of New York. He started flying private, built up a collection of paintings by the Belgian artist René Magritte and bought a Palm Beach estate for $13 million. His fundraising kept pace with his spending. In 2005, he raised a $1.1 billion flagship fund, his largest yet. The next year, he sold WL Ross & Co. to the publicly traded investment-management company Invesco for $100 million up front and the ability to earn an additional $275 million, depending on how much money he was able to raise in later funds. With Invesco and a big incentive behind him, Ross raised a massive $4.1 billion fund in 2007, putting roughly $70 million of his own money into that one and the 2005 predecessor, according to three former employees. His net worth at this time was likely around $400 million, thanks to the sale of WL Ross & Co. But when contacted by Forbes that year, he gave valuations for his firm's investments as if the money belonged to him. The myth, with Forbes compounding it based on our original mistake and Ross' exhortations, got bigger. Now Forbes listed Ross with a net worth of $1.7 billion. That wasn't enough. "I would say the total now is a bit more than $2 billion," Ross wrote in a 2011 email, according to notes taken at the time. In 2013, a different Forbes reporter realized that prior estimates seemed to include not just Ross' money but that of the investors in his funds. Ross strung us along, leading us to believe he would provide evidence of his assets, but never did. Just months later, he was insisting that he was even richer, and Forbes continued to largely fall for it. "2.75 [billion] is a bit low but probably close enough," he wrote in an email around the start of 2014. In September, he was arguing for a valuation of $3.45 billion but begrudgingly accepted a smaller figure: "3.1 [billion] is low, but I understand why you wish to be conservative." Why wouldn't Ross be satisfied with $400 million? "You're talking about someone as egotistical as they come," Wax says. Five other former employees add a more tangible reason: The more money Ross appeared to be worth, the more money investors seemed willing to give him. "Really, for us, it was a bet on him, " says Sam Green, who helped put $300 million into Ross' funds on behalf of the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, citing his personal wealth as one factor. "I don't know of any better indicator of future success than having been successful in the past." Ross had seemed to figure out how to make fake numbers generate real assets. In 2010, Ross set out to raise a new private equity fund, hoping to come up with another $4 billion. It was an audacious goal in the wake of the financial crisis, far more than many of his partners thought would be possible. After two years of fundraising, Ross closed it with just $640 million of investments. Still, he told the media he had raised $2.2 billion. Technically true but also misleading. Most of the other $1.6 billion or so came from other funds or accounts that paid little or no fee to Invesco. Given that shareholders might assume that the firm had an extra $2.2 billion of assets generating fees for its private equity arm, which was not true, Invesco later clarified the matter on an earnings call. There were also charges related to transparency inside the funds. In August 2016, the SEC announced a settlement with Invesco-owned WL Ross after investigating whether the firm had charged its investors improper fees from 2001 to 2011. WL Ross agreed to pay a $2.3 million fine, without admitting or denying the findings of the investigation. It also agreed to refund $11.8 million to investors. And that was small potatoes: Buried in its 2015 annual report, Invesco disclosed that it had paid an additional $43 million in reimbursements and regulatory expenses associated with its private equity business in the previous two years. The filings don't explicitly connect that money to WL Ross--and these payments have never before been reported--but four former employees said they were all tied to Wilbur Ross' firm. Invesco declined to comment for this story. In 2012, Ross' longtime No. 2, David Storper, left the firm but said he retained interests in many of the funds. Three years later, Storper alleged in a lawsuit that the firm sent him inaccurate financial information after his departure and that Wilbur Ross stole his interests outright. Ross denied the allegations, and the lawsuit remains ongoing. A few years earlier, a vice chairman of WL Ross sued Wilbur Ross for more than $20 million, alleging that Ross tried to cut him out of interest and fees he had been promised. The parties had reached a settlement by 2007, which former employees say cost about $10 million. The Storper case has other ex-employees looking back to be sure they were sent proper information. Joseph Mullin, a former member of WL Ross' 15-person investment team, filed his own suit against WL Ross & Co., also alleging that Ross took his interests after he left. The firm filed a motion to dismiss in February, but the case remains active. A third ex-colleague, who is not in litigation, argues that Ross' tactics went beyond hard-nosed negotiating: "Everybody does some cheating, everybody does some lying. Not everybody steals from their employees." On November 8, 2016, the night that upended American politics, Wilbur Ross was with Donald Trump, his family and top backers in New York City. The relationships inside this inner sanctum ran deep. Billionaire Phillip Ruffin, the president's Las Vegas partner who had Trump serve as best man at his wedding, was there. So was Icahn and apparently Richard LeFrak, the real estate tycoon who was part of the Palm Beach circle that included Trump and Ross. But Ross was the only one who left his day job to join Trump in government. "I'd rather hang myself," Ruffin told Forbes earlier this year. "I don't know why Wilbur took it." But viewed in the context of Ross' career arc, it makes perfect sense. The steel deal made him rich, but his returns have been mediocre since, so much so that WL Ross filed documents to raise a sixth flagship fund last year, but nothing seemed to come of it. Trump, the guy he kept afloat 26 years before, offered his fellow attention-seeking dealmaker a lifeline to relevance. Ross' appointment as secretary of commerce came with one catch: He had to disclose his assets, providing evidence that he was not as rich as he had long claimed. In 2015, he sent Forbes a detailed breakdown of his supposed holdings, listing $1.25 billion in partnership interests, $1.1 billion in municipal bonds, $500 million in equities, $200 million in art, $110 million in real estate and $200 million in cash, for a fanciful total of $3.4 billion, according to notes taken at the time. We eventually listed him at $2.9 billion. Last year, Ross' assistant claimed $3.7 billion; we stuck with $2.9 billion. His former colleagues saw the moment of reckoning coming as soon as he accepted a Cabinet role. "It was surprising because he would have to reveal to the world that he wasn't a billionaire," one ex-employee said. "I was surprised that he would take that risk." But Ross was ready to double down, even while he was a Cabinet member, telling Forbes about the putative $2 billion asset transfer to his family members after the election. That opened up a storm of questions from ethics and tax experts. If Ross had owned $2 billion of additional assets before the election, wouldn't they have produced income that he was required to disclose, even if he no longer owned the assets? And why would someone apparently transfer $2 billion to his family, thereby triggering more than $800 million in gift taxes, especially with a president in the White House who was prepared to eliminate the estate tax and therefore much of the cost of transferring fortunes to later generations? "I am aware of the ethics and tax rules and have complied with all of them," Ross wrote in an October email to Forbes . "Aren't you going a bit overboard on this? I have explained my situation to you and am surprised and disappointed by the seemingly accusatory tone of your email. For more than 50 years I have had a good relationship with your publication and with the Forbes family. And never have had a bad experience with either. In fact I was just the featured speaker at your magazine's hundredth anniversary CEO conference in Hong Kong." After Forbes published an online story on October 16 laying out those questions, six Senate Democrats wrote a letter to the top ethics official in the federal government, asking him to figure out what was going on with Ross' finances. "It is imperative that Congress and the Office of Government Ethics know the full extent of Mr. Ross's holdings to ensure he is not putting personal gain ahead of the interests of the American people." The Department of Commerce issued a statement saying the $2 billion gift never happened. "Contrary to the report in Forbes, there was no major asset transfer to a trust in the period between the election and Secretary Ross's confirmation." The only problem with that statement: The person who told Forbes that the transfer had taken place, that it had happened after the election and that it had meant more than $2 billion of family assets weren't on the disclosure was none other than the sitting secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross. ||||| Defending his appointment of a billionaire to promote the country’s economic growth, Donald Trump has said that he does not want poor people to hold economic roles in his administration. Speaking at a rally in Iowa, the President declared: “Somebody said why did you appoint a rich person to be in charge of the economy? No it’s true. And Wilbur’s [commerce secretary Wilbur Ross] a very rich person in charge of commerce. I said: ‘Because that’s the kind of thinking we want.’” Mr Ross, an investor, has a net worth of about $2.5bn. The president explained that Mr Ross and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn “had to give up a lot to take these jobs” and that Cohn in particular, a former president of investment bank Goldman Sachs, “went from massive pay days to peanuts”. Trump added: “And I love all people, rich or poor, but in those particular positions I just don’t want a poor person. Does that make sense?” Donald Trump's most controversial quotes 18 show all Donald Trump's most controversial quotes 1/18 On Mexicans “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bring crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people.” AFP/Getty Images 2/18 On Senator McCain “He’s not a war hero... He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Getty Images 3/18 On Megyn Kelly “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.” AFP/Getty Images 4/18 On Vladimir Putin “He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country.” Getty Images 5/18 On his popularity “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” AFP/Getty Images 6/18 On torture "I would bring back waterboarding and I'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding." Getty Images 7/18 On his body “Look at those hands, are they small hands? And, [Republican rival Marco Rubio] referred to my hands: ‘If they’re small, something else must be small.’ I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee.” AFP/Getty Images 8/18 On president Obama “He is the founder of Isis.” Getty Images 9/18 On the Second Amendment "Hillary wants to abolish — essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know." AFP/Getty Images 10/18 On Hilary Clinton's emails “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” AFP/Getty Images 11/18 On sexual assault In a statement regarding the release of a 2005 video in which he can be heard boasting about sexual assault: “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course.” Getty Images 12/18 On tax loopholes "I absolutely used it, and so did Warren Buffett, and so did George Soros and so did many people who Hillary is getting money from." AFP/Getty Images 13/18 On his accuser “Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you.” Getty Images 14/18 On Hillary Clinton “Such a nasty woman” Getty Images 15/18 On his pro-life stance “Based on what she's saying ... you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day, and that's unacceptable” Getty Images 16/18 On his accusers "Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.” Getty Images 17/18 On the 'rigged' election system “I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election — if I win.” Getty Images 18/18 On Hillary Clinton “I hate to say it but if I win I'm going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. There has never been so many lies, so much deception. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” Getty Images “If you insist, I’ll do it. But I like it better this way, right?” Mr Trump has frequently touted himself as a champion of the “forgotten men and women” across the country. During his inauguration speech in January, he said, “For too long, a small group in our nation's Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.” Mr Trump proceeded to appoint millionaires and billionaires to fill cabinet positions, making his administration the wealthiest in US history. Ahead of the rally, the President touched down in rainy Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and headed to a local community college, where he got a look at agriculture technology innovations before leading a campaign-style rally. He revelled in Georgia Republican Karen Handel's congressional victory in an election viewed as an early referendum on his presidency. “We're 5-0 in special elections,” Mr Trump said in front of a boisterous crowd that packed a downtown arena. “The truth is, people love us ... they haven't figured it out yet.” He also applauded Republican Ralph Norman, who notched a slimmer-than-expected win in a special election to fill the South Carolina congressional seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney, his budget director, and mocked Handel's challenger, Jon Ossoff, saying the Democrats “spent $30 million on this kid who forgot to live in the district.” Mr Trump, no stranger to victory laps, turned his visit to a battleground state he captured in November into a celebration of his resilience despite the cloud of investigations that has enveloped his administration and sent his poll numbers tumbling. With the appearance in Cedar Rapids, he has held five rallies in the first five months in office. Associated Press contributed to this report

– Earlier this year, President Trump noted "I just don't want a poor person" in charge of economic posts in his administration, then touted Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as "a very rich person" who was up to the task. But just how rich Ross really is is now up in the air, Forbes reports, noting it's yanked Ross off its billionaires list after a one-month probe revealed that $2 billion or so or Ross' alleged fortune "never existed," and that Ross had engaged in an "apparent sequence of fibs, exaggerations, omissions, fabrications, and whoppers" with the magazine going back 13 years. The discovery came when Ross, 79, contacted Forbes in October to refute his ranking: Last year he was listed with a net worth of $2.9 billion on the Forbes 400; he claimed he was worth closer to $3.7 billion. Then Forbes talked with 10 of Ross' ex-employees at his private equity firm, who noted a "penchant for misleading" that affected fellow workers and investors and spurred big fines, suits, and refunds to backers. "Wilbur doesn't have an issue with bending the truth," one longtime colleague says, while another is more blunt: "He's lied to a lot of people." The magazine delves into Ross' back story, including how, when he first made the Forbes billionaires list in 2004 with a net worth of $1 billion, "everyone that I knew that worked with Wilbur knew it wasn't true," per a former colleague. When Forbes told Ross he was being removed from its billionaires club, Ross retorted the magazine wasn't counting family trusts that he wasn't obligated to inform the feds about—in the amount of "more than $2 billion," assets Ross said he put into the trusts sometime "between the election and [my] nomination." When Forbes asked to see a paper trail proving that, Ross cited "privacy issues"—and the magazine lays out other problems with Ross' story on the supposed $2 billion transfer. Read the in-depth findings here.

He's a bloodhound for the digital age. A rambunctious black Labrador named Bear — one of only five dogs in the nation trained to sniff out electronic data devices — played a key role in the arrest of former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle on child-porn charges. The 2-year-old rescue pooch nosed out a thumb drive that humans had failed to find during a search of Fogle's Indiana house in July, several weeks before he agreed to plead guilty to having X-rated images of minors and paying to have sex with teenage girls. Bear has taken part in four other investigations, including this week's arrest of Olympics gymnastics coach Marvin Sharp. And he's just been sold to the Seattle Police Department to help investigate Internet crimes. Steven DeBrota, a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Indianapolis, said when he first heard about Bear's olfactory abilities, he was skeptical. “I thought I was being punked, but it does work," said DeBrota, who was the lead prosecutor on the Fogle case and calls Bear "a key part of the team." Read NBC News' coverage of the Jared Fogle case Bear's dog whisperer, Todd Jordan, gave NBC News a demonstration of how he works his magic, walking him through an apartment while repeatedly giving him the command "Seek!" The dog zeroed in on a kitchen drawer, which Jordan opened to reveal a device. "Good boy!" he told Bear, giving him a handful of food. ||||| ANDERSON, Ind. (WISH) — Investigators analyzed thousands of text messages, emails, pictures and videos to bust Jared Fogle and Russell Taylor. To be sure they got all the evidence, they sent an electronic-sniffing dog through Fogle’s home last month. The K-9’s owner said there are four dogs in the country trained to sniff out electronics, including computers, iPads, jump drives, and even small memory cards. Officials said the dog found devices in Jared’s house that helped the investigation. He’s a black dog named Bear, and he’s a lot like any other two-year-old lab. He likes to play, and he loves his treats. But most other dogs have never searched Jared Fogle’s property. “I had no idea until the morning of what house I was actually going to,” owner and trainer Todd Jordan said. “Once I found out who it was, yeah, it makes a little more nerve racking for us.” Two weeks before the raid, investigators called Jordan and said they’d need his help. They knew what Bear was capable of. To show off Bear’s skills Thursday, Jordan hid electronic devices throughout a room and put Bear to work. In less than ten minutes, the dog found a small memory card in a book bag, a flash drive in a box, and an iPad in a filing cabinet. “It’s just like any other K-9 training, like with the narcotics or explosives or anything,” Jordan said. “You get the dog used to the odor and reward them as they indicate on it.” Bear’s reward is food. Jordan keeps a pouch of dog food with him as he guides the dog. Jordan and Bear have been a team for a year now. But when Jordan’s dogs are fully trained, he sometimes sells them to law enforcement agencies that need the help. After the Fogle raid, Seattle PD reached out to Jordan. Now Bear is headed west. “It’ll be bittersweet,” he said. “It’s sad to see him go, but the type of work he’s doing, it’s very rewarding.” “He’s probably one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever worked with,” Jordan said. Bear is moving to Seattle this month. The Fogle investigation was the fifth case he has worked on. Jordan said he’s currently training two more dogs to sniff out electronics.

– There are only five dogs in America trained to sniff out electronic devices, and one of them played a major role in Jared Fogle's downfall. Bear, a 2-year-old black Labrador, was able to sniff out a thumb drive that human investigators missed during a search of the former Subway spokesman's home last month, reports NBC News, which describes Bear as a "porn-sniffing dog." He can detect tiny memory cards easily and was trained with methods associated with "any other K-9 training, like with the narcotics or explosives or anything," his trainer tells WISH-TV. "You get the dog used to the odor and reward them as they indicate on it." The lead prosecutor on the Fogle case tells NBC that Bear is a "key part of the team," though he doubted the pooch's abilities at first. "I thought I was being punked, but it does work," he says. The evidence, along with that gathered by an FBI informant, helped secure Fogle's guilty plea on child-porn and underage sex charges. Bear has been a busy dog: NBC reports that he also played a role in the arrest of Olympic gymnastics coach Marvin Sharp. Bear's trainer, a deputy fire chief, sells dogs to law enforcement agencies when their training is completed, and Bear will soon be on his way to Seattle, where the police department contacted the trainer after hearing about the Fogle case. (Fogle's charitable foundation appears to have been a sham.)

The home in the 1200 block of Blanchard Ave in East Price Hill where a man shot and killed his 14-year-old son. (Photo: Patrick Brennan) It was a call that can only be described as wrenching. "I just shot my son by accident," a distraught father sobbed to a Cincinnati police 911 operator. "Oh God. Get here quick." "Please hurry." The man, believing his 14-year-old son was at school, fatally shot the boy in the neck when he mistook him for an intruder at their East Price Hill home Tuesday morning. Police say they are investigating the shooting. The shooting at 1216 Blanchard Ave. occurred around 6:30 a.m. The father, whose name has not been released, had recently dropped his son, Georta Mack, off at the school bus stop but the teen returned home, police said. After hearing a noise in the basement, the father grabbed a handgun to investigate. Georta startled the man, according to the frantic 911 call, and was accidentally shot in the neck. Throughout the call Georta's father begs police to hurry, asking God why this has happened. He tells police his son is struggling to breathe as he held a cloth to his neck to slow the bleeding. Shortly after, he exclaimed that his son stopped breathing. Georta was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Shortly after 8:15 a.m., the boy was pronounced dead at Children's Hospital. Police Lt. Steve Saunders says the father is being interviewed by police and has been cooperative. A father mistook his 14-year-old son for an intruder and shot him in the neck, killing him, at a East Price Hill home on Tuesday morning, according to Cincinnati police. Neighbors were seen crying as they shared the news of the shooting on snow-covered Blanchard Avenue hours later. "He's only 14 years old," one woman said through tears. Neighbors said Georta lived in the home with his 73-year-old father. They said the two seemed to get along well. Angela Roberts, who has lived in the neighborhood in a friend's home there for about a year, said Georta was a "good kid,'' who would often mow her friend's lawn and help with yard work. "From everything I knew, he was a pretty good kid." Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac called the shooting a "terrible, terrible tragedy'' at a press conference Tuesday. "It's unimaginable really.'' ​ Isaac said the father told police the teen returned home to skip school. Isaac said the teen had some recent trouble at school but did not elaborate. Isaac said that while owning a gun is an individual choice, that gun owners should be responsible, prepared and well-trained. He also said the everyone in the home should be aware that guns are kept in the home. Officers were discussing the case with the Hamilton County Prosecutor's office. Isaac said he did not know if the father would be charged in the case. Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1P6McK1 ||||| CINCINNATI (AP) — Police in Cincinnati say a man has fatally shot his 14-year-old son in their home, thinking he was an intruder. Police say the man thought his son had caught the bus for school Tuesday morning, but the teen returned home soon afterward. Police say the man heard a noise in the basement and checked on it with a gun in his hand. Police say the father fired after apparently being startled, hitting the boy in the neck. Authorities say the father called 911 and the boy was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, where he died Tuesday morning. Police Lt. Steve Saunders says the father is being interviewed by police and has been cooperative. No names were released immediately.

– Police say a Cincinnati father, thinking he heard an intruder in his basement, fatally shot his 14-year-old son Tuesday morning, the AP reports. According to the Cincinnati Inquirer, the father dropped his son off at the bus stop before returning home. When he heard a noise in his basement, he assumed his son was at school and got a gun to check it out, the AP reports. Police say he fired a shot "after apparently being startled," and his son was hit in the neck. The teen was taken to the hospital, where he died from his injuries, the Inquirer reports. No charges have been filed, and the names of the father and son haven't been released. According to the AP, the father is cooperating with the police investigation. (In December, a Florida mother fatally shot her 27-year-old daughter she mistook for an intruder.)

Please enable Javascript to watch this video DENVER -- The teenager accused of killing a 7-year-old boy and hiding his body will be charged as an adult, the Denver District Attorney's Office said Monday. The girl’s identity will not be released because she is a juvenile, but the Denver Police Department said the victim was her nephew. Police said the 16-year-old girl intentionally killed Jordan Vong, then wrapped his body in a blanket and hid him in a portable closet in her basement bedroom. According to a probable cause statement, the suspect lived in the basement of the victim's home in the Montbello neighborhood. On the day Vong died, Aug. 6, the statement said the teen was upset after having a fight with her girlfriend. About 12:43 p.m., the child came downstairs and asked her to play video games with him. The teen told police that she instructed the child to go upstairs but instead he went to sit on her bed, upsetting her. She said she pushed the 7-year-old off the bed and he hit his face on the floor. When the boy began to cry, the child's aunt said she placed her hand over his mouth and plugged his nose, holding down the struggling child until he stopped moving. The 16-year-old told police she put the body under her bed before wrapping him in a blanket and placing him in one of the two portable closets in her room. Vong was reported missing about 4:30 p.m. from the 4900 block of Fairplay Street near Chambers Road and Bolling Drive. Police combed through neighborhoods. Hundreds of posters were put up and officers searched a 20-block radius around the home. The FBI was also called in. The next night, police revealed Jordan’s body was found. The 16-year-old was arrested the next morning. "It was intentionally concealed, and it took some time to find it," said Joe Montoya, division chief of investigations. The teen "didn't tell any of her family what she had done to Jordan because she was afraid," according to the statement. ||||| After a 16-year-old girl killed her 7-year-old nephew, she wrapped his body in a blanket and stored it in a portable closet in her basement bedroom in the family’s Montbello home, according to court documents released Monday. The teenage girl will be charged as an adult in Jordan Vong’s death. The Denver District Attorney’s Office said Monday that the girl, who was not immediately identified by name, is being charged on suspicion of murder in the first-degree after deliberation and child abuse resulting in death. Jordan Vong was reported missing the afternoon of Aug. 6, sparking an extensive search by police and neighbors. Two days later, after police obtained a search warrant for the house in the 4900 block of Fairplay Street, a Denver police detective found Jordan’s body in the closet. The coroner’s office was called to the home and the boy was pronounced dead at the scene. On Monday, the coroner’s office ruled his death a homicide, but the cause of death has not been determined. According to a probable cause statement, the teenage girl was in her basement bedroom on Aug. 6, upset about an earlier argument with a girlfriend. Jordan went to her room and asked if she wanted to play video games. “She told Jordan she didn’t want to play with him and told him to go upstairs,” the court document said. Jordan lay down on her bed. He refused to leave the room. Then, according to the document, the girl pushed him off the bed, causing him to strike his face on the floor. “Jordan began to cry,” the statement said. “She placed her hand over Jordan’s mouth and plugged his nose as Jordan began to struggle for a few minutes.” Jordan stopped moving and she slid his body under her bed. The suspect later took the body from under the bed, wrapped it in a blanket, and placed it in one of two portable closets in her room, the document said. “She didn’t tell any of her family what she had done to Jordan because she was afraid,” the statement said. “Nor did she tell any of her family where she had hid Jordan.” When a search warrant was executed at the home on Wednesday, a detective found the body at 8:46 p.m., according to the court document. Paramedics with Denver Health Medical Center at the home on Wednesday said in the statement that Jordan’s body had a towel and comforter wrapped around his head and “biological matter” and blood around his nose. An unknown imprint was on his chest. The defendant’s first appearance in district court has not yet been scheduled.

– A 16-year-old girl killed her 7-year-old nephew, then concealed the secret and his body as a community frantically searched, according to police. Denver's Jordan Vong was reported missing around 4:30pm on Aug. 6, hours after his mother had last seen him, prompting officers to search a 20-block radius, reports KDVR. The boy's body was discovered in one of two portable closets in the basement bedroom of his 16-year-old aunt during a second search two days later, the Denver Post reports. Police say the teen admitted to pushing the boy off her bed, causing him to hit his head and start crying, then using her hands to cover his mouth and nose until he stopped moving, reports KUSA. Authorities say the teen was upset because Jordan came into her room and asked to play video games, and he wouldn't leave when she refused. The teen, to be charged as an adult with murder and child abuse, first hid the body under her bed before wrapping it in a blanket and moving it to the closet, authorities say.

(CNN) The sounds recorded on one of the "black boxes" recovered from downed Germanwings Flight 9525 firms up investigators' theory that the co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and then crashed the plane. "For God's sake, open the door!" Capt. Patrick Sondenheimer screamed as he banged on the cockpit door, pleading with the co-pilot. Thirteen minutes later, the plane slammed into the French Alps. The audio from the plane's cockpit voice recorder has not been released, but the German newspaper Bild published Sunday what it claims is a summary of the transcript from the recording. France's accident investigation agency, BEA, told CNN that the agency is "dismayed" by the voice recording leak to Bild. Martine Del Bono, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the leak could not have come from a BEA agent. She said the agency considers the report mere "voyeurism." According to Bild's report, Sondenheimer told co-pilot Andreas Lubitz that he didn't manage to go to the bathroom before takeoff. Lubitz tells him he can go anytime. Lubitz is believed to have locked the pilot of Flight 9525 out of the cockpit before putting the plane on a rapid descent into the mountains, French authorities have said. The flight took off 20 minutes late. After reaching cruising altitude, Sondenheimer asked Lubitz to prepare the landing. Once that's finished, Lubitz again tells the captain he "can go anytime." There is the sound of a seat being pushed backward after which the captain says, "You can take over." At 10:29 a.m., air traffic radar detects that the plane is starting to descend. Three minutes later, air traffic controllers try to contact the plane and receive no answer -- shortly after which an alarm goes off in the cockpit, warning of the "sink rate," Bild reported. Next comes the banging. Sondenheimer begs Lubitz to let him in. Passengers then begin to scream, according to the transcript obtained by Bild. Another three minutes pass. A loud metallic bang is heard at 7,000 meters (almost 23,000 feet). A minute and half later and 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet) lower to the ground, an alarm says "Terrain -- pull up!" "Open the damn door!" the pilot says. It's 10:38, and the plane is at 4,000 meters (about 13,000 feet). Lubitz's breathing can still be heard on the voice recorder, according to Bild's report. Two minutes later, investigators think they hear the plane's right wing scrape a mountaintop. Screams can be heard one final time. 'Unbelievable' leak Cockpit recordings are some of the most sensitive and closely held parts of aviation crash investigations. They're never officially released, according to CNN aviation reporter Richard Quest. Quest called it "unbelievable" that the black box audio would be leaked in this manner. Communications between air traffic control and a plane's cockpit can be downloaded privately, but that's less common in Europe than it is in the United States. An edited and redacted version of the transcript is usually published in part of a final report on an incident. Although search teams have recovered the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder remains missing. That device could reveal crucial details about what happened during the final moments of the flight. What authorities know Jean Pierre Michel, lead investigator for the French inquiry, said on Saturday that investigators are not ruling out any scenario with respect to the crash out at this point. But French authorities have said that Lubitz appeared to have crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately into the Alps on Tuesday as it flew from Barcelona, Spain, toward Dusseldorf, Germany, with 150 people on board. Much attention has focused on Lubitz's state of mind since then, with suggestions that he may have had mental health issues. Lubitz, 27, passed his annual pilot recertification medical examination in summer 2014, a German aviation source told CNN. An official with Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, said that the exam only tests physical health, not psychological health. JUST WATCHED Police search Germanwings co-pilot's home for clues Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Police search Germanwings co-pilot's home for clues 00:10 The official also said that the company was never given any indication Lubitz was depressed, and that if he went to a doctor on his own, he would have been required to self-report if deemed unfit to fly. A Dusseldorf clinic said he'd gone there twice, most recently on March 10, "concerning a diagnosis." But the University Clinic said it had not treated Lubitz for depression. The speculation about Lubitz' mental state is based on a letter found in a waste bin in his Dusseldorf apartment. The note, which was "slashed," said Lubitz was not able to do his job, city prosecutor Christoph Kumpa said Friday. The fact that investigators found "ripped, recent medical leave notes, including for the day of the offense, leads to the preliminary conclusion that the deceased kept his illness secret from his employer and his professional environment," prosecutors said. Germanwings corroborated that assertion, saying it had never received a sick note from Lubitz. Anxiety, burnout and depression A handful of publications, citing unnamed sources, have reported that Lubitz suffered from various psychological maladies. CNN has not been able to confirm these reports. Lubitz suffered from "generalized anxiety disorder," and from severe depression in the past, Le Parisien newspaper reported Sunday, citing sources close to the investigation. In 2010, Lubitz received injections of antipsychotic medication, the paper said. He was also prescribed a medication that influences neurotransmitters, but it's unclear when that happened, according to Le Parisien. The newspaper said investigators found a handful of pills in his apartment in addition to two sick notes, which forbade him from working from March 16 to March 29. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported Friday that Lubitz suffered from mental illness and kept his diagnosis concealed from his employer. A subsequent report from the Times on Saturday, citing two officials with knowledge of the investigation, said Lubitz sought treatment before the crash for vision problems that might have put his career at risk. However, an official with Lufthansa, said that if Lubitz had vision problems, they would have been discovered during his pilot recertification medical examination. Authorities have not ruled out the vision problems could have been psychosomatic, according to the Times. Citing an unidentified senior investigator, German newspaper Die Welt said that Lubitz suffered from a severe "psychosomatic illness" and that German police seized prescription drugs that treat the condition. Lubitz suffered from a "severe subjective burnout syndrome" and from severe depression, the source told the newspaper. News reports also stated that antidepressants were found during the search of his apartment. Investigators are expected to question his relatives, friends and co-workers as they try to pin down what could have prompted the co-pilot to steer a jetliner full of people into a mountainside. Lubitz had a girlfriend, a teacher at a school in Dusseldorf not far from his apartment, according to German media. 'This is a man whose life is totally broken' Dozens of people attended a remembrance ceremony Saturday for the victims of the crash at a church in a nearby town, Digne-les-Bains, France. Most of the people on the plane were from Germany and Spain. Relatives of the victims and local residents also gathered Saturday afternoon by a simple stone memorial set up near the crash site, in the village of Le Vernet. Flowers have been laid there, in the shadow of the snow-covered peaks of the French Alps. The mayor of one local community said he had seen Lubitz's father on Thursday evening, describing him as "a man in deep distress." "We get the impression that that man is bearing the whole weight of the disaster on his shoulders," Bernard Bartolini, the mayor of Prads-Haute-Bleone, said Saturday. "I can tell that this is a man whose life is totally broken," Bartolini said. "He had so much emotion in him." ||||| MONTABAUR, Germany (AP) — The pastor of the Lutheran church in Andreas Lubitz's hometown said Sunday that the community stands by him and his family, despite the fact that prosecutors blame the 27-year-old co-pilot for causing the plane crash that killed 150 people in southern France. Buses of the French gendarmerie, park and mask the homage ceremony with family members of Japanese victims in the area where the Germanwings jetliner crashed in the French Alps, in Le Vernet, France,... (Associated Press) Pope Francis delivers his blessing at the end of a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, March 29, 2015. Pope Francis has walked solemnly through St. Peter's Square in a Palm... (Associated Press) The German, left, and Japanese flags are deployed during an homage ceremony with family members of Japanese victims in front of a stele, a stone slab erected as a monument, set up in memory of the victims... (Associated Press) The German, left, and Japanese flags are deployed during an homage ceremony with family members of Japanese victims in the area where the Germanwings jetliner crashed in the French Alps, in Le Vernet,... (Associated Press) In this still image photo taken from video, people leave the protestant Luther church in the hometown of co-pilot Andeas Lubitz, in Montabaur, Germany, Sunday, March 29, 2015. A church service was held... (Associated Press) In this still image photo taken from video, Priest Michael Dietrich, from the hometown of co-pilot Andeas Lubitz talks during an interview with AP Television, in Montabaur, Germany, Sunday, March 29,... (Associated Press) The town of Montabaur has been rattled by the revelation that Lubitz, who first learned to fly at a nearby glider club, may have intentionally caused Tuesday's crash of Germanwings Flight 9525. "For us, it makes it particularly difficult that the only victim from Montabaur is suspected to have caused this tragedy, this crash — although this has not been finally confirmed, but a lot is indicating that — and we have to face this," pastor Michael Dietrich said. He spoke to The Associated Press after holding a church service Sunday to commemorate the crash victims and support their families. "The co-pilot, the family belong to our community, and we stand by this, and we embrace them and will not hide this, and want to support the family in particular," Dietrich said. He added that there is no direct contact with the family at the moment, but that he believes they are receiving good assistance. French prosecutors haven't questioned the family yet "out of decency and respect for their pain," Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said. Authorities are trying to understand what made Lubitz lock his fellow pilot out of the cockpit and ignore his pleas to open the door before slamming the plane into a mountain on what should have been a routine flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. French officials refused to confirm or deny a partial transcript that German newspaper Bild am Sontag said it had obtained of the cockpit recording. The paper reported Sunday that the pilot left for the toilet shortly before 10:30 a.m. and was heard trying unsuccessfully to get into the cockpit again a few minutes later, then shouting "for God's sake open the door." After several more minutes in which the pilot could be heard trying to break open the door, the plane crashed into the mountainside, according to Bild am Sonntag, which didn't say how it obtained the report. Brice, the Marseille prosecutor said that none of the bodies recovered so far have been identified, denying German media reports that Lubitz's body had been found. Tests on the body of the co-pilot may provide clues on any medical treatment he was receiving. Germany prosecutors said Friday that Lubitz was hiding an illness and sick notes for the day of the crash from his employer. Dietrich, the pastor, said he knew Lubitz as a teenager, when he attended religious education 13 years ago, and his mother, who worked as a part-time organist in the community. "When I worked with her or talked to her, it was very good and very harmonious. We had good conversations," Dietrich said. "I know her and her family. This does not make sense. It is incomprehensible for me, for us, for everyone who knew her and the family." "From what I've heard, there were no obvious signs that there is anything in the background that could lead to this," he added. In Rome, Pope Francis on Sunday prayed for the victims of the plane crash, citing in particular the 16 German students returning from an exchange trip to Spain. Francis offered the prayer after Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square at the start of Holy Week. In Le Vernet, a town near the crash site, families and friends of those killed were still coming to terms with what had happened. "Members of the family shed tears as they went to see the site," said Ippei Yamanaka, co-worker of Japanese passenger Junichi Sato who died in the crash. "It was particularly moving to see Mr. Sato's father asking the leader of the Kempeitai (a Japanese military rescue team), with many tears in his eyes, for them to continue the search operation and for it to finish earlier even by just one day." "His wife says she still she cannot believe what has happened, saying that it almost feels like her husband is away on his business trip and that it still feels like he is going to return soon," Yamanaka said. ___ Frank Jordans in Berlin, Philippe Sotto in Paris and Frances D'Emilio in Rome, contributed to this report. ||||| In an interview published on Sunday, Airbus chairman Tom Enders sharply criticized some television discussions about Tuesday's crash, in which an Airbus 320 came down in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. "What we should critically examine is the mischief that some 'experts' get up to, especially in TV talk shows," Enders told the weekly Bild am Sonntag. "Sometimes people there speculate, fantasize and lie with no basis in fact," he said, describing many of the opinions expressed as "outrageous nonsense" that constituted "mockery of the victims." Referring to reports that the co-pilot of the plane appeared to have deliberately flown Germanwings flight 4U9525 into a rocky mountainside, Enders said it was important not to think that the exception was the rule. "One black sheep does not constitute a herd," he said, adding that the overwhelming majority of pilots were "very reliable" and "excellently" trained. 'Meaningless explanations' Leading figures in the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) have also called for caution with regard to speculation on the causes of the crash. "We will perhaps never know exactly what happened, and we should simply not say anything," Margot Kässmann, the former council chair of the EKD, wrote in an article for the same newspaper. Kässmann says we may never know what happened She said journalists should heed the same advice and "stop giving us explanations that explain nothing." The current EKD council chair, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, also warned in the Sunday edition of the Berlin paper BZ against seeing the co-pilot's actions as being evidence of supernatural evil. "We should not attribute people's acts to some dark powers or other," he said, adding that "no one knows what abysses of the soul led to this iniquitous act." Case still open The mayor of the co-pilot's home town of Montabaur has also called on journalists to exercise restraint toward the man's parents. "Regardless of whether the accusations against the co-pilot are true, we sympathize with his family and ask the media to be considerate," Edmund Schaaf said, alluding to the crowds of reporters that have gathered in the town. German state prosecutors and police spokespeople have said there will be no official statements on the case before Monday, and a chief French investigator, General Jean-Pierre Michel, told French media on Saturday that other hypotheses on the cause of the crash must also be examined. "[We] have no right today to rule out other hypotheses, including mechanical hypotheses, as long as we haven't proved that the plane had no (mechanical) problem," he said. The European Cockpit Association (ECA), which represents European pilots, said on Saturday that leaks of data from the crashed plane's voice recorder to the media - which led to the allegations that the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane - were a "serious breach of fundamental and globally accepted international accident investigation rules." tj/sms (dpa, Reuters, AFP, epd, dpa) ||||| Rescuers still to find plane’s flight data recorder, leading to growing calls for caution in blaming co-pilot Andreas Lubitz for deliberately downing the aircraft Forensic teams have identified 78 distinct DNA strands from body parts spread across the remote mountainside in the French Alps where Germanwings flight 4U9525 crashed, killing all 150 people on board. Rescuers are still, however, to locate the plane’s second black box — its flight data recorder — six days after the Barcelona to Düsseldorf flight crashed into a rocky ravine at 435 miles (700km) per hour. Between 400 and 600 body parts have been located and are currently being examined. “We haven’t found a single body intact,” said Patrick Touron, the deputy director of the police’s criminal research institute. Identification experts were using dental records, DNA samples from family members, fingerprints, jewellery and bits of ID card to help the process. The black box, which is actually orange and weighs around 10kg, was originally in a protective casing, but only the empty casing has been found. Captain Yves Naffrechoux, a mountain ranger, told Agence France-Presse: “If it has not been completely destroyed or pulverised, the black box will be under the rubble and debris. We must work with caution and a lot of precision. We have to look under every last bit of plane and lift every rock.” An access road was being built to the site to allow all-terrain vehicles to remove some of the larger parts of the plane. Prosecutors in France and Germany have suggested that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately crashed the plane. They have retrieved a torn-up sicknote from his flat in Düsseldorf, which was dated for the day of the disaster. Lubitz, who is from the small German town of Montabaur, had a history of depression which he hid from his employer and colleagues, they said. The suicide-mass murder theory is based on the cockpit voice recorder retrieved from the crash site near the village of Le Vernet. According to Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper, the captain, Patrick Sondheimer, asked Lubitz to prepare the plane to land in Düsseldorf. Lubitz responded “laconically”. Sondheimer then left the cockpit to go to the toilet, telling his co-pilot: “You can take over.” There was a sound of a seat being pushed back, and the door clicking shut. According to Bild, the plane then went into a steady descent. Minutes later there is a loud knocking and the voice of the captain saying: “For God’s sake open the door.” In the final moments the screams of passengers can be heard. German and European pilots’ associations urged caution last week in stating the cause of the crash until the second black box was discovered and the air accident investigation brought to a conclusion. Jean-Pierre Michel, the head of the French investigation agency, said that some technical details of what precisely happened to the Airbus A320 aircraft were still missing. “At the moment we can’t rule out the hypothesis of a technical fault,” Michel told the French channel BFM TV. The German chief executive of the Airbus Group, Tom Enders, expressed his irritation on Sunday and criticised TV talkshow coverage of the disaster. “There has been speculation without facts, fantasy and lies,” Enders said. Such “outrageous nonsense” mocked the victims, he added. In Montabaur, where Lubitz lived part of the time with his father, mother and younger brother, prayers were said on Sunday for the victims of the crash, and for the co-pilot and his grieving family. Hundreds of worshippers packed into St Peter’s Catholic church on the town’s cobbled main street, on a morning of pouring rain. Many there believed that investigators had been too quick to blame Lubitz for the disaster. Candles and flowers have been left outside the church, and one note read: “We think of all victims of this tragic crash, and their families and friends, in these difficult hours.” The priest expressed sympathy for Lubitz’s parents whom, he said, had found themselves “at the centre of attention”, the families and friends of the victims, and the rescue workers in France. ||||| Andreas Lubitz, 27, was living with the unnamed 26-year-old woman in his Düsseldorf apartment up until the crash last Tuesday, Germany’s Bild newspaper and Der Spiegel magazine reported. She worked as a teacher at an unnamed comprehensive school in the state of North Rhine Westfalia and Bild said she had told her pupils that she was pregnant. Lubitz had also recently ordered two new cars for them. The woman – given the pseudonym, Sabine L, by Bild to protect her identity – visited the crash site last week, discovering on the way there that Lubitz had deliberately crashed the plane, killing himself and 149 others. Sabine was said to have met Lubitz when the two were school students doing holiday jobs at a hamburger restaurant. “Eventually they no longer kept their relationship a secret,” the former manager was quoted as saying. It is thought that Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane because he was deeply depressed and was being treated for vision problems that could have ended his flying career. Some sources suggested he was suffering from a detached retina. The reports came as a transcript of the last voice recordings was revealed yesterday, which reveals that Lubitz urged the pilot to go to the toilet, leaving him alone in the cockpit. Passengers can be heard screaming uncontrollably for minutes before the crash, according to details published by Bild am Sonntag. Over the course of the transcript, Lubitz can be heard telling Captain Patrick Sondheimer that he is ready to take over “any time”. As Capt Sondheimer orders Lubitz to prepare the plane for landing in Düsseldorf, Lubitz appears to give clues about what he is about to do, responding with “hopefully” and “let’s wait and see”. He then tells Capt Sondheimer: “You can go now”. Two minutes later, the Captain says, “you can take over now” and the sound of a cockpit seat sliding backwards is followed by the clicking of the cockpit door. Shortly after, Lubitz puts the aircraft into descent mode. Air traffic controllers can then be heard trying to contact the plane and the automatic “sink rate” alarm starts sounding. Seconds later, there is thudding on the cockpit door. Capt Sondheimer can be heard shouting, “For God’s sake open the door!” Behind him, passengers can be heard screaming. Among the last sounds appear to be attempts by Capt Sondheimer to break down the door with the aircraft’s emergency axe, as he shouts: “Open the goddam door.” But to no avail. Shortly after, the plane’s wing is heard scraping the side of a mountain. French officials have refused to confirm or deny the transcript.

– Investigators carrying out the grim task of recovering wreckage and human remains from the Germanwings crash say they have not found an intact body—or the flight data recorder. To aid the search, an access road is being built to the remote site in the French Alps, where forensic teams have so far recovered DNA belonging to 78 of the 150 people killed, the Guardian reports. Investigators say that so far, only the empty protective casing of the black box has been found. In other developments: Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz is believed to have deliberately crashed the plane, but with the failure to find the flight's second black box, some in the aviation world are saying it is too early to rule out other causes. Airbus chairman Tom Enders slammed TV coverage of the crash in an interview published yesterday, Deutsche Welle reports. "Sometimes people there speculate, fantasize, and lie with no basis in fact," he said, calling some of the reporting "outrageous nonsense" that was a "mockery of the victims." The cockpit voice recorder was recovered soon after the crash, and German newspaper Bild has published what it says is a leaked transcript. Capt. Patrick Sondenheimer (also spelled Sonderheimer or Sondheimer, depending on the source) can be heard pleading for Lubitz to let him back in the cabin, shouting, "Open the goddamn door!" as passengers scream minutes before impact, according to the transcript. A spokeswoman for France's accident investigation agency tells CNN that investigators are "dismayed" by the leak. Over the weekend, there were reports that Lubitz suffered from a psychomatic illness that may have been linked to a vision problem. German newspapers, including Bild, also reported that Lubitz's girlfriend, a teacher, was pregnant and the couple had planned to marry, according to the Independent. In Lubitz's hometown of Montabaur, the local Lutheran pastor tells the AP that despite mounting evidence that Lubitz caused the crash, he was still part of the community and the church is standing by his family. He says Lubitz's mother is a part-time organist for the church and he knew the co-pilot as a teenager. "This does not make sense. It is incomprehensible for me, for us, for everyone who knew her and the family," he says.

The winner of the unusually spirited Republican contest was Joseph J. Lhota, a no-nonsense former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He defeated John A. Catsimatidis, a voluble billionaire who ran an often whimsical campaign. Mr. Lhota, who served as deputy mayor to Rudolph W. Giuliani, will carry his tough-minded approach to crime-fighting and city spending into the general election on Nov. 5. A vocal supporter of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s policies, Mr. Lhota called his victory “the first step in continuing a strong future for our city.” By contrast, Mr. de Blasio’s vow to make a clean break from the Bloomberg era struck a chord with Democratic voters worried about jobs and schools. Roughly three in four wanted to move the city in a different direction after 12 years with Mr. Bloomberg, an exit poll found. In the unexpectedly heated race for the unglamorous office of city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, repelled a last-minute comeback attempt by Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor over his use of prostitutes. And in the Democratic primary for public advocate, Letitia James, a City Council member from Brooklyn, will face Senator Daniel L. Squadron of Brooklyn in a runoff election. Photo In the race for mayor, Mr. de Blasio had until a few months ago been a distant fourth in a crowded Democratic field, well behind Christine C. Quinn, the longtime front-runner, who rose to prominence as the speaker of the City Council and a close ally of Mr. Bloomberg. Mr. de Blasio, propelled by an unrelenting critique of the mayor, frustrated Ms. Quinn’s painstakingly cultivated effort to become the first woman and the first openly gay person to lead the city. Mr. Thompson, who nearly unseated Mr. Bloomberg in 2009, struggled this time to win over nonwhite voters who were crucial to his campaign strategy as the only black candidate in the race. Mr. de Blasio, a white Brooklynite who frequently showcased his biracial family, built a broad coalition of support among nearly every category of Democratic primary voters on Tuesday, according to the exit poll by Edison Research. His critique of a city divided between rich and poor — tried in the past by other candidates in New York and nationally with little success — resonated. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I love his message about the tale of two cities, the big inequality gap,” said Jelani Wheeler, 19, a politics student at St. John’s University in Queens. “We can start correcting many important issues the city is facing, issues often ignored by the Bloomberg administration,” he added. Though Democrats outnumber Republicans in New York by six to one, the city has not elected a Democratic mayor since David N. Dinkins in 1989. But the white voters who helped elect Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Bloomberg are a less potent political force in a city where ethnic and racial minorities now make up a majority of the population. Mr. de Blasio, who worked for Mr. Dinkins, this year inspired Democrats angry about how the economy and police practices affected them personally, as well as those who felt uncomfortable on their behalf. 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. He promised to end racial profiling, overhaul the stop-and-frisk practice and replace Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. His critique of the police went further than that of either Ms. Quinn or Mr. Thompson — and he memorably deployed his teenage son, Dante, to make his case in a compelling television advertisement. Addressing widespread concerns about the gap between the city’s rich and poor, Mr. de Blasio also proposed a tax on the wealthy to pay for universal prekindergarten — though his rhetoric made it sometimes seem unclear which was the end and which the means. His tax-the-rich proposal was dismissed by his rivals, who said it would never be approved in Albany. But at times Ms. Quinn and Mr. Thompson were left in the unwelcome position of sounding like proponents of the status quo, at a moment when voters made clear they were impatient to be led in a different direction. Photo Mr. de Blasio gained support from black voters like Jennifer Ward, 59, of Brownsville, Brooklyn, who on Tuesday helped her 85-year-old mother, in a flowing white dress with black polka-dots, up the steps of the Brownsville Beacon Community Center and into the big gymnasium. “He’s strong and he fights,” said Ms. Ward, a nurse, who was impressed by Mr. de Blasio’s efforts to prevent the closing of local hospitals. “Even if he has to stand alone, he fights for us.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Democrats had been jockeying for position ever since Mr. Bloomberg squeezed out a narrower-than-expected victory over Mr. Thompson four years ago. The presumptive favorite a year ago was Ms. Quinn, given her close ties to Mr. Bloomberg and the business community; in the spring, the race shifted with the entry of Anthony D. Weiner, a former congressman, who briefly led the field before sinking over revelations that he had continued sending sexually explicit online messages even after resigning. Ms. Quinn’s defeat was crushing for a politician whose career as speaker was built on a belief that helping Mr. Bloomberg carry out his agenda would give her a record of accomplishments to run on. Her crucial role in making Mr. Bloomberg’s third term possible antagonized a huge swath of Democratic voters who showed they were unwilling to forgive and forget. Mr. Thompson relied on a campaign strategy built on old-fashioned New York City identity politics and electoral arithmetic. He worked hard to enlist support from establishment political players, while obtaining important municipal union endorsements. The police, the firefighters, the transit workers and, most important, the teachers all lined up behind Mr. Thompson; the teachers’ union alone spent about $2.6 million on his behalf. Pointing to his record as a behind-the-scenes power broker as school board president and as a fiscal steward while city comptroller, Mr. Thompson positioned himself as the adult in the Democratic field, running well to the right of Mr. de Blasio — and even campaigning with former Senator Alfonse M. D’Amato, once the state Republican kingpin. In the event of a runoff, Mr. de Blasio would begin with an fund-raising advantage of about $400,000 over Mr. Thompson. Each would be able to spend a maximum of $3.123 million, under a spending limit imposed by the city’s campaign finance program. But on Tuesday night, Mr. de Blasio was celebrating. As guests ate schnitzel with shallots and ginger served on soft pretzel heros, the crowd focused on the now-familiar sight of Dante’s outsized Afro, which Mr. de Blasio’s daughter, Chiara, affectionately caressed. A moment later, when Mr. de Blasio took the stage, he paid his own form of tribute to his son’s hair, telling supporters that Dante had to fend off strangers trying to touch it. “Security was ready to intervene,” he said. ||||| Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who ran an upstart campaign pledging to fight New York City's economic inequality, emerged as the surprising top choice in the Democratic mayoral primary, but could still face weeks _ and another electoral fight _ before becoming his party's nominee. Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, right, kisses his wife Chirlane McCray after casting his primary vote on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013, at the Park Slope Public Library in Brooklyn, N.Y. New Yorkers head... (Associated Press) Democratic mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner holds his son Jordan as he leaves the voting booth after casting his vote at his polling station during the primary election in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013.... (Associated Press) City Council Speaker and New York City Democratic mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn, right, embraces her wife, Kim Catullo, after Catullo voted in the primary election, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013, in New York.... (Associated Press) The swirling, chaotic campaign to replace billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which featured former congressman Anthony Weiner's latest sexting scandal and at least three lead changes in the polls, was fittingly plunged into uncertainty again after the votes were tallied in Tuesday's primary. With 97 percent of precincts reporting, de Blasio had about 40.2 percent of the total vote, which puts him a whisker above the 40 percent threshold needed to avoid triggering an automatic Oct. 1 runoff. If he cannot maintain that, he will face former city Comptroller Bill Thompson, who has 26 percent, for a potentially grueling three-week, one-on-one showdown, with the winner advancing to face Republican nominee Joe Lhota, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, in the general election on Nov. 5. But it may take a week or more before it is known whether that battle will be fought at all. The campaign will take a pause Wednesday as the city stops to observe the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Later this week, election officials will recount all the ballots cast Tuesday. It will likely take until early next week before they tabulate an additional 30,000 or more votes as absentee ballots arrive by mail and paperwork comes in from voters who had problems at the polls. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the early front-runner who was seeking to become the city's first woman and openly gay mayor, finished third at 16 percent, followed by current city Comptroller John Liu at 7 percent and Weiner at 5 percent. De Blasio, who was flanked by the interracial family he made a centerpiece of his campaign ads, made no mention of the potential runoff in his speech to supporters late Tuesday. "We are better as a city when we make sure that everyone has a shot," de Blasio told the raucous crowd. "We begin tonight." The winner of the mayor's race in November will assume the helm of the nation's largest city which has been led for 12 years by Bloomberg. The election comes at a critical juncture as the city experiences shrinking crime rates yet widening income inequality, and as the nearly completed One World Trade Center building symbolizes a new era after the terrorist attacks of 2001. With de Blasio so close to 40 percent, Democratic leaders may pressure Thompson to drop out of the race in the name of party unity. Exit polling shows that de Blasio would handily defeat Thompson in a runoff, 52 to 34 percent, with 9 percent saying they would stay home. But Thompson made it clear Tuesday he would compete in a potential runoff. "Three more weeks! Three more weeks!" chanted Thompson, the party's 2009 nominee. "This is far from over." De Blasio's rise in the race to succeed Bloomberg was as sudden as it was unexpected. Not even two months ago, he was an afterthought in the campaign but surged in part thanks to an ad blitz that centered on his interracial family, his headline-grabbing arrest while protesting the possible closure of a Brooklyn hospital and the defection of Weiner's former supporters in the wake of another sexting scandal. Weiner was leading in the polls until a gossip website revealed that he used the online handle Carlos Danger to continue to send X-rated messages to women even after he resigned from the House of Representatives in 2011 for similar behavior. The exit polling showed the appeal of de Blasio, the city's elected public advocate, to be broad-based: He was ahead in all five boroughs; was ahead of Quinn, the lone woman in the race, with female voters; and ahead of Thompson, the only African-American candidate, with black voters. The voter interviews were conducted by Edison Media Research for The Associated Press and other news organizations. Lhota, the ex-transit authority chairman and former deputy mayor to Rudolph Giuliani, defeated billionaire grocery magnate John Catsimatidis for the Republican nomination. Both Republican candidates largely pledged to follow Bloomberg's lead, focusing on maintaining the city's record low crime rates. Another scandal-scarred politician, Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as New York's governor in 2008 after paying for sex with prostitutes, tried to run a self-financed campaign for the lesser office of city comptroller. But his distant, television-heavy campaign struggled to connect with voters and he lost to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent. Bloomberg, the businessman Republican-turned-independent, is completing his third term. While the city's registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 6 to 1, the Republican Party's recent success in mayoral elections has been largely attributed to a crime epidemic, the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks or other extraordinary circumstances. Nearly three-quarters of Democratic primary voters said the next mayor ought to move away from Bloomberg policies, according to the exit polls. De Blasio, 52, has fashioned himself as the cleanest break from the Bloomberg years, proposing to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund universal pre-kindergarten and change city police practices he says discriminate against minorities. De Blasio, who worked in Bill Clinton's White House and Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign before being elected to the city council and then public advocate, became the front-runner in the race's final weeks. Quinn was the front-runner for much of the year, boasting the biggest campaign war chest and strong establishment backing. But she was dogged by her support to change term limits to let Bloomberg run again in 2009, a decision unpopular with liberals who make up the bulk of Democratic primary voters.

– As expected, Bill de Blasio will easily finish first in New York City's Democratic primary for mayor, reports the AP. What's unclear is whether he will get the necessary 40% to avoid a runoff with the second-place finisher. With 97% of returns in, de Blasio had 40.02%, Bill Thompson 26%, and Christine Quinn 15%. Trailing those three were city comptroller John Liu (7%) and, yes, Anthony Weiner (5%). The eventual Democratic winner will face former MTA chief (and Rudy Giuliani deputy) Joe Lhota in the general election in November. He won the GOP race over billionaire John Catsimatidis. There will be a recount of yesterday's ballots, and some 30,000 votes, including absentee ballots, still need to be counted a first time. A final result may not be known for 10 days and Thompson has made it clear that he won't drop out in the name of party unity: He chanted "Three more weeks!" at his election night event, referring to a time before a potential runoff, which polls show he would lose. Exit polls showed that de Blasio, the city's public advocate, did well with a wide swath of voters from different ethnic groups and locales, reports the New York Times. More so than the other candidates, he advocated a clean break from Michael Bloomberg, making a particular issue of Bloomberg's stop-and-frisk policy. The mayor interjected himself into the campaign when he accused de Blasio of running a "racist" campaign—in part because the candidate featured his Afro-sporting teen son in a TV ad. De Blasio is white, his wife is black, and he would be first city mayor with an interracial family, notes the Times.

Canned foods may contain BPA because the chemical leaches from the liner into the food. Credit: Canned food photo via Shutterstock View full size image The chemicals bisphenol A and phthalates are linked to obesity and insulin resistance in adolescents in two new studies, but the findings cannot yet answer whether the hotly debated hormone-like compounds are causing the negative health effects they are linked with, experts say. In one study, the researchers measured the levels of DEHP, a phthalate found in processed foods, in the urine of 766 adolescents ages 12 to 19. They found that teens with higher amounts of DEHP in their urine had increased rates of insulin resistance, a condition that can lead to Type 2 diabetes. The results held when the researchers controlled for some other risk factors for insulin resistance, such as the teens' calorie intake and weight. The researchers didn't find an association between insulin resistance and other kinds of phthalates that are found in cosmetics and personal care products such as shampoos. "In laboratory studies, phthalates influence the expression of genes related to how we respond to sugar ingestion with insulin secretion," said study researcher Dr. Leonardo Trasande, professor of environmental medicine and pediatrics at New York University. "A previous study has identified an association between phthalates and insulin resistance in adult males," so in the new study the researchers examined this relationship in adolescents, Trasande said. [9 Weird Ways Kids Can Get Hurt] However, the study does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. It is possible that insulin-resistant teens tended to eat food with higher phthalates content, or that they excreted more DEHP in their urine compared to healthy children, the researchers said in their study, which was published today (Aug. 19) in the journal Pediatrics. Evidence for BPA and obesity link Another study published in the same journal examined the relationship between bisphenol A (BPA) and obesity in more than 10,000 children ages 6 to18. Children with the highest amounts of BPA in their urine had double the risk of being obese, compared with children with the lowest urinary BPA levels. In this study too, the researchers recommended cautious interpretation of the results. BPA is found in higher concentrations in fat tissue compared to other body tissues, so it is possible that people with more body fat store more BPA from food, and excrete more in urine, said study researcher Dr. Joyce Lee, professor of pediatrics and endocrinology at University of Michigan. Another possibility is that people who are obese are merely eating more BPA-containing food, Lee said. [5 Ways to Limit BPA in Your Life] Still far from a consensus Both BPA and phthalates have been the focus of intense research in recent years because of concerns raised over their potential to act like hormones in people who are expose to them through food packaging, but studies have been inconclusive and scientists have not reached a consensus. In a commentary published along with the new studies, Dr. Robert Brent, professor of pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University and an expert on environmental toxicology, questioned the methods commonly used in studying exposure to such chemicals, particularly BPA. He said that chemical content of the urine may not be a good measure of a person's actual exposure to the chemical. Humans metabolize BPA rapidly and eliminate it via the urine, keeping only low amounts of the chemical in the blood, which is where it can have biological effects, Brent said. Previous studies have tested people who ate foods with high BPA content, and saw that even though they excreted higher amounts of BPA through their urine, their blood levels of BPA were still at the lowest detectable amounts, Brent wrote in the commentary. Moreover, research has suggested that metabolism destroys the ability of BPA to disrupt the endocrine (hormone) system. "After it gets into the blood, it doesn't even have the ability to attach to an endocrine receptor," Brent told LiveScience. "Yet, it's shown to be linked with a whole host of diseases. Autism, diabetes, genital malformation, cancer, you name it." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has maintained that toxicity tests show current levels of adults' exposure to BPA is low and safe. However, in July 2012, the agency announced a ban on using BPA in baby bottles and cups after the chemical industry requested the ban, and as the industry was phasing out BPA use. BPA is more highly regulated in several countries, including Canada, as precautionary measures, but officials also generally acknowledge the lack of evidence about BPA's effects. Email Bahar Gholipour or follow her @alterwired. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience. ||||| There are many reasons why the world is ensnared in an obesity epidemic, and they don't only involve the quantity of food people are eating (though that's a big part of it). In some cases, toxic substances found in products we encounter everyday are contributing to the problem--along with genetically modified food, forks, and countless other factors. Today's obesity epidemic has also led to a diabetes epidemic--today, 25.8 million people in the U.S. (that's more than 8% of the population) have diabetes. In a study published recently in the journal Pediatrics, researchers from New York University School of Medicine found a strong link between insulin resistance in U.S. teens and their urinary concentration of DEHP, a chemical (specifically a type of phthalate) used in medical equipment and packaged food. Researchers have previously seen links between insulin resistance--a precursor to diabetes that can trigger weight gain--and DEHP levels in both adults and animals. When the body becomes insulin resistant, it's akin to having rusty keys that won't turn. Using a national survey, the researchers collected data from a sample of teenagers related to glucose levels, fasting insulin, height, weight, poverty, ethnicity, and other factors. Phthalate levels were measured using a urine sample. Their results: Higher phthalate levels were linked to insulin resistance. The researchers write that more studies are needed: While dietary sources are likely to be the chief source of exposure, given the uses of DEHP in other products, we cannot rule out nondietary sources as contributors to the associations identified here...Knowledge gaps also persist in understanding food contamination with DEHP. A comprehensive review suggests that most studies are dated and may not represent current exposures. Insulin resistance is, according to diabetes educator Gary Scheiner, "the root cause of almost all cases of Type 2 diabetes." Insulin (a hormone generated in the pancreas) regulates the amount of sugar in the bloodstream by directing glucose into fat, muscle, and liver cells. It's like a key that unlocks access to these cells, Scheiner explained to the Chicago Tribune. When the body becomes insulin resistant, it's akin to having rusty keys that won't turn--glucose can't get into cells, and the body panics at the rise of blood sugar in the pancreas, producing even more insulin. Blood sugar eventually rises to untenable levels, and diabetes occurs. In a study earlier this year, Dr. Leonardo Trasande--the lead author on the DEHP paper--also found that low-molecular weight phthalates, often found in cosmetics, lotion, and creams, are linked to increased body mass among African American children. Phthalate exposure, the report explained, could be responsible for a 1.7 pound increase in body weight in children. There are ways to avoid phthalate exposure in daily life. Don't use unnecessary personal care products, for starters. And the researchers suggest that it's possible to avoid some DEHP exposure by opting for fresh foods instead of foods that are canned or wrapped in plastic--a move that can reduce DEHP metabolites up to 56%. Certain kinds of packaging, like wax paper and aluminum wrap, don't contain DEHP at all.

– It might not just be the foods teens are eating that lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes, but the wrappers and cans they come in, two studies published recently in Pediatrics suggest. In one, researchers found that higher levels of DEHP, a phthalate found in processed foods, their packaging, medical equipment, and other products, correlated strongly with greater insulin resistance, a key precursor to diabetes. The other linked the infamous-yet-ubiquitous BPA with obesity, LiveScience reports. The DEHP link held true even after correcting for things like economic status, ethnicity, and glucose levels. "While dietary sources are likely to be the chief source of exposure, given the uses of DEHP in other products, we cannot rule out nondietary sources," researchers wrote, according to Fast Company. But both teams added that their results didn't prove causation, and one doctor commenting on the study complained that they relied on urine analysis, which isn't necessarily indicative of how much of the chemicals remained in the blood.

Centers for Disease Control recorded 918 cases of syphilis in infants in 2017, a 46% increase on the previous year Number of babies born with syphilis in US hits 20-year high, report finds Nearly 1,000 babies were born with syphilis in the United States last year – a number that has more than doubled in just four years, new statistics show. The spike in babies born with the dangerous but easily curable disease is one face of a sexually-transmitted disease (STD) crisis that has worsened across the country, with diagnoses hitting a new record high in 2017. US opioids: number of addicted women giving birth quadrupled over 15 years Read more There were 918 cases of syphilis in infants in 2017 – a 20-year high, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up 46% from the 628 cases the year before, and up from 362 in 2013. “It’s just a systemic public health failure,” David Harvey, the executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, told the Guardian. “It’s shocking that this has come roaring back in the United States.” The spike in the disease, known as congenital syphilis in infants, comes even as the US has come close to eliminating the transmission of HIV from mothers to children. The 918 cases last year included 64 babies who were stillborn, and 13 who died as infants. It is easily preventable: women who test positive for syphilis while pregnant can be treated and cured with penicillin, and won’t pass the disease on to their babies. But some women never get tested, while others test negative but then contract the disease during their pregnancy. Left untreated, there’s an 80% chance a woman will pass the disease on to her baby. “When passed to a baby, syphilis can result in miscarriage, newborn death and severe lifelong physical and mental health problems,” said Dr Jonathan Mermin of the CDC. “No parent should have to bear the death of a child when it would have been prevented with a simple test and safe treatment,” Mermin said. The spike in infant cases comes amid a jump in syphilis infections overall – there were 30,644 diagnoses in 2017, a 76% increase from the previous year. Gay and bisexual men make up a large majority of people diagnosed with syphilis. But for the last five years, syphilis rates among women have been rising as well. The syphilis rate went up 143% among reproductive age women since 2013, according to the CDC, bringing with it a jump in babies born with the disease. Infants born with syphilis were reported in 37 states, with western and southern states the hardest hit. Louisiana had the highest rate of congenital syphilis of any state. Harvey said the increase reflects a failure to make sure women are tested for the disease at the correct times in their pregnancies, and a lack of access to prenatal care overall. The opioid epidemic has also contributed to the uptick, with women who use drugs more likely to engage in risky sex and less likely to get proper treatment. “A small number of women are trading sex for drugs,” Harvey said. “There is a very real intersection between congenital syphilis and substance abuse.” Total STD diagnoses have reached a record high – with nearly 2.3m cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in 2017, according to the CDC’s report. That’s an increase of more than 200,000 cases from the previous year, and the fourth straight year there has been a sharp increase. “Not that long ago, gonorrhea rates were at historic lows, syphilis was close to elimination, and we were able to point to advances in STD prevention,” Dr Gail Bolan, the director of the division of STD prevention, said in the CDC’s report. “That progress has since unraveled.” The infections have surged as STD prevention funding has dwindled, and condom use has declined. Harvey is pushing the Trump administration and Congress to declare the issue a public health emergency. “This field is starved for resources. It’s become a crisis,” he said. ||||| This crawl of online resources of the 115th US Congress was performed on behalf of The United States National Archives & Records ||||| The number of babies born with syphilis surged from 362 in 2013 to 918 in 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. (Photo: Orbon Alija, Getty Images) The number of babies born with syphilis has more than doubled since 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a trend that medical professionals said shows the need to be vigilant about testing and treating the rare but potentially disease. The number of babies born with syphilis rose from 362 in 2013 to 918 in 2017, the CDC reported Tuesday. The greatest number of cases were in the South and West. Syphilis is a bacterial infection that is easily cured with penicillin. But women with untreated syphilis can pass it on to their fetuses during pregnancy or to their babies during birth. If transmitted, it can cause miscarriage, stillbirth or newborn death. Syphilis caused 77 stillbirths or newborn deaths in 2017, the CDC reported. For babies who survive, it can lead to an assortment of physical and mental health problems. More: Sexually transmitted diseases surge for the 4th straight year, CDC reports More: STDs reach all-time high in California, leading to spike in stillbirths due to syphilis, state health authorities say More: Washing hands and other ways to protect newborns from deadly herpes virus David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, called the surge "a systemic failure." "We are failing pregnant women in the United States," he said. "We are seeing almost 1,000 babies born with syphilis that can easily be prevented." The United States has made HIV transmission from mothers to newborns extremely rare, in part through the federal Ryan White Part D program, which funds community programs that provide care to pregnant women with HIV. Harvey's organization wants a similar program to prevent the mother-to-newborn transmission of syphilis. Harvey said pregnant women should be tested for syphilis as early as possible and later in their pregnancies. According to the CDC, mothers of one in three babies born with syphilis in 2016 were tested during pregnancy. But they were either infected after getting tested, or they were not treated in time to prevent passing the infection to the baby. Thirty-seven states reported cases in 2017. Louisiana ranked first with 93.4 cases for every 100,000 births. "We're not proud of these numbers," said Dr. Rebekah Gee, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health. "Every case of syphilis should be preventable." Gee said Louisiana has worked to reduce the number of new cases. The state examines every case of newborn syphilis to lean steps that could prevent future cases, she said. One trend they discovered was moms who initially tested negative for the infection or were treated in their first trimesters contracted syphilis during later stages of pregnancy. Louisiana requires doctors test pregnant women for both syphilis and HIV in the first and third trimesters. The health department has also assigned case managers to Baton Rouge and Shreveport, the two regions with the highest number of cases. They work to raise awareness among doctors about the need to test. Case managers and doctors also warn pregnant moms who have been tested or treated that they can contract the infection again, said DeAnn Gruber, the department's director of infectious diseases. "Education is really important," Gruber said. The Arizona health department's newly formed maternal morbidity review board identified congenital syphilis as a growing problem. Arizona's 36 cases so far in 2018 already have surpassed last year's total, state health officials said. Six babies have died at or shortly after birth this year. California had the most cases of congenital syphilis in the nation, and the third highest rate, according to the CDC. One of the state's biggest challenges is reaching people who don't have access to prenatal care, said Heidi Bauer, chief of STD control for the California Department of Public Health. Bauer said common barriers are poverty and unstable housing. Some moms are struggling with substance abuse, and may avoid drug testing or interaction with government agencies such as Child Protective Services. California public health officials have attempted to reach out to at-risk people through needle exchanges and in prisons, Bauer said. "Syphilis is one of those ancient diseases that tends to reemerge where people are largely marginalized," Bauer said. Preliminary figures reported by the CDC last month showed new cases of the most common treatable sexually transmitted diseases – chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis – spiked nearly 10 percent in 2017 to an all-time high. These infectious diseases have continued a four-year climb. Analysts cited changing sexual behavior and a lack of awareness. 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– The CDC's director of STD prevention says that "not long ago" syphilis was close to elimination. But some troubling new statistics show that a lot of ground has been lost in the fight against STDs, and it's affecting some of the most vulnerable members of society. According to a new CDC report, 918 babies were born with syphilis in the US in 2017, the Guardian reports. That's a 20-year high. For context, there were 628 cases of syphilis in infants in 2016. In 2013, there were 362. Of the 2017 cases, 77 resulted in stillbirths or newborn deaths, per USA Today. Western and southern states had the most cases of congenital syphilis in 2017, per the report, with Louisiana having the highest rate. "It's just a systematic public health failure. It's shocking that this has come roaring back in the United States," David Harvey of the National Coalition of STD Directors tells the Guardian. Syphilis is easily treated with antibiotics, and women can be treated while they are pregnant to prevent the disease from being passed on to their child. But, per the Guardian, some women do not get tested, and others contract the disease while pregnant after testing negative. In some cases, there is a connection to drug use. Overall, there were 30,644 syphilis diagnoses in the US in 2017—up 76% from the year before.

SOMERSWORTH, N.H. (AP) — A high school senior says the private Christian school in New Hampshire that he attended since kindergarten told him he was no longer welcome because of his gender identity and suggested he get counseling. Stiles Zuschlag, of Lebanon, Maine, told Seacoast Media Group (http://bit.ly/2xPYU2b ) he had excelled academically and in sports and had many friends at Tri-City Christian Academy in Somersworth when he made it known in 2015 that he was transgender. He was on track to be valedictorian at the school this year, he said, before he and his mother met with the school administrator in August to talk about Zuschlag's transition from female to male. Zuschlag said the administrator, Paul Edgar, told him that he was no longer welcome at the school, that he was "going down the wrong path" and he should confess his sins and stop testosterone treatments. The teenager said he was told that he could not return to the school campus but could consider options, such as homeschooling and Christian counseling. He decided then to transfer to Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine, where he said he now feels accepted. He was nominated for "Prince of Homecoming" at his new school. And while he misses his old school, he is hopeful he can be who he is at Noble. "It's a big loss, I mean they lost a big student," he said. But "I'll just bring my excellence here then. I'll just excel here." Edgar declined to speak about the former student, citing privacy issues. "To protect the privacy of our families, TCCA admissions decisions and any reasons for these various decisions, are not considered matters for public disclosure," Edgar said. Lori Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Department of Education, said Tri-City Christian Academy doesn't receive federal funds through the state office. New Hampshire education attorney Andru Volinsky told Seacoast religious schools can legally ask a student to leave regardless of whether the school receives federal funding. ||||| SOMERSWORTH — A top student on track to be valedictorian at Tri-City Christian Academy in Somersworth said he was told he was no longer welcome at the school he had attended since kindergarten because he is transgender. Stiles Zuschlag, of Lebanon, Maine, who was known as Alija before his transition, claims he was told during the final week of August that he could not return to the campus of the private school on West High Street. Zuschlag said he and his mother had a meeting with Paul Edgar, administrator of Tri-City Christian Academy, to talk about Zuschlag's transition from female to male. During the meeting, Zuschlag sought confirmation the school was aware he was transgender and that it would not be a problem for him to be educated at the school for his senior year. Zuschlag, who started to go by the male name Stiles Maverick Zuschlag when he transitioned to male in 2015, knew the school was aware of his gender change, but wanted to be clear that he was no longer going to be identified as Alija. Zuschlag said during the meeting with Edgar, the administrator told him he was no longer welcome at the school because he was transgender and planned to continue that journey. According to Zuschlag, Edgar told him he was “going down the wrong path,” and that he should confess his sins, renounce that he was a male and stop testosterone treatments. It was suggested he take Christian counseling. Zuschlag claims he was told homeschooling was an option, but attending TCCA was not, and his dream of being valedictorian was crushed. “I had a 3.89 GPA,” he said, “and was planning on being the valedictorian.” Not only would Zuschlag be denied valedictorian honors, he was banned from the school, he said. TCCA's administration would no longer allow him to physically attend the private, religious institution. He said he was told he could not be on the campus. Edgar declined to speak about Zuschlag's case citing privacy issues. “To protect the privacy of our families, TCCA admissions decisions and any reasons for these various decisions, are not considered matters for public disclosure. Therefore, we have no comment. Thank you.” Lori Kincade, public information officer with the N.H. Department of Education, said TCCA receives no federal funds through the state office. It is not known if TCCA receives federal funding through other means. Kincade declined to shed light on whether the receipt of federal funds requires private schools to adhere to non-discriminatory policies. Kincade declined to speak to Seacoast Sunday on the matter. "The NH DOE is not in the position to provide legal advice," she wrote in an email Friday. New Hampshire District 2 Executive Councilor and top New Hampshire education attorney Andru Volinsky on Friday said religious schools such as TCCA can legally ask a student to leave regardless of whether it receives federal money. "In this day and age, the rights of a religious school are paramount to the rights of a student who goes there because the student always has the remedy of going to another school," Volinsky said. He called the DOE's lack of response to questions about the matter "troubling." "These are the kind of general statements that the Department of Education should be able to distribute in a timely fashion," he said. "As an executive councilor, I am troubled that you couldn't get a reasonable response in a timely fashion. The department should know the legal parameters with respect to their private schools." Volinsky called the facts of Zuschlag's case "heart-breaking." He and other experts he talked to about the story said Zuschlag's only option was to leave the school. Starting over When it became apparent TCCA was not an option for his senior year, Zuschlag applied to Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine. During the initial interview, he told the interviewer at Noble that he was a transgender male and the school's response made him comfortable right away. He was promptly asked which pronoun would he like to be called, which gender bathroom preferred and which locker room he wanted to used. Zuschlag said he misses the school he attended all his life, but is happy at Noble. “They care,” he said. Zuschlag is finally comfortable with himself. For so many years, when he was living as Alija, it didn't feel right. “I never felt comfortable as a girl,” he said. “I never wore dresses and always admired men and wanted to be like them,” he said, recalling he even went to one school event in full tuxedo. Zuschlag was born in 2000 and given the name Alija. He said he had a very standard youth. As a young girl, Zuschlag was marked by friends and family as a tomboy. “I was about 10 years old when I started realizing that I felt like a boy, I never felt as if I was a female," he said. "I hung out with the boys and wore male attire, and even acted like a boy." By the time Zuschlag was 13 or 14 in eighth and ninth grade, he started dressing like a girl and trying to act like one. “I didn't understand why I didn't fit in," he said. "Why was I abnormal and no one understood me?” Zuschlag recalls feeling lost and confused and clearly didn't understand how to be what was defined as a female. Zuschlag's mother, Mara Stupelis, observed the confusion her child was going through and gradually understood. “There was no shock effect,” Stupelis said. “It is a little bit confusing to discuss; it was a process.” It was about that time when Zuschlag started researching online about different sexual orientations and discovered transgender. “Suddenly a light bulb went on in my head; I was a boy trapped in a girl's body.” That was in 2015 and Stupelis knew her daughter was becoming a boy. Summer came and he had chosen Stiles as his new name. Because of her relationship with her child, “It was not unusual for me. She acknowledges being taken back a bit, but, her "mother's instinct was to support and love this child,” she said. Becoming Stiles was so liberating for Zuschlag. He said he was “finally able to be myself, cut my hair and just go for it.” Although his change of appearance was important for his own self identity, it was less jarring for those around him. “There wasn't much to change. Everyone had been accustomed to my masculine tendencies, so my coming out wasn't much of a surprise. It was more of a ‘Finally, I was waiting for you to come out,'” Zuschlag said. In August 2016, with the advice and care of a physician specializing in transgender medicine, Stiles started taking the male hormone testosterone. “It was the best day of my life,” he said. "I won't be mis-gendered anymore.” Zuschlag said he was happy he would finally be properly identified and not be called a girl any more. His mother was a great support then and now. “She had been used to my male tendencies throughout my whole life," he said. "I really had been the boy of the family growing up." His mother knew that the transition was going to happen sooner or later, she said. For Stupelis, the past year or so has been a time of change and a time for both to experience the variety of people's reactions, some positive, some not so positive from some Christians. Zuschlag's younger sister, Hope, 12, was sympathetic to her brother's transition. The big adjustment was calling him Stiles, after having a sister all her life. Hope was fine with it, saying Stiles fit easily into the male role. Stupelis said her journey as her son transitions is much the same as any parent's journey as they see their child growing to adulthood. There is a strong urge to keep him safe. “Stiles is still transitioning into a compassionate, empathetic, supportive, creative and hard working adult. That's my reaction today, to protect the precious.” As with many transgender teens, Zuschlag's transition didn't come easy. Most of Zuschlag's classmates had been with "Alija" from the beginning of their school years at TCCA. Zuschlag said they had sensed a difference and eventually he told them about the plan to transition to male. Most agreed to call Zuschlag by his new name and accepted him. Although challenges were to come, they did not dissuade Zuschlag. “It was obvious to me that God wants me to do this,” he said. Zuschlag was bullied in school and on social media by several fellow students quoting biblical references “which were wrong,” said Zuschlag, who said he was known as the best biblical scholar at TCCA, as well as the highest ranking student scholastically. Zuschlag is now happily settled at Noble High School and is working on finding his way in the world. He wants to become a model or stage performer. He doesn't know if it is possible to be the valedictorian at Noble since he is a transfer student and only has one year there to show his academic prowess. He said he will continue to work hard at school and see what happens. Noble, as a public school, accepts all students regardless of religion, race and sexual orientation. Several local communities, including Dover, recently passed transgender policies to protect students in the schools. Most of those local policies are close to Dover's policy with the stated purpose of providing a safe and supportive environment for all students that is free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and intimidation. The policy at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, a private, Catholic School in Dover, is less clear. In response to an inquiry from Seacoast Media Group about the school's transgender policy, Principal Kevin Collins issued this statement: “St. Thomas Aquinas High School does not have a specific policy with respect to transgender students. However, in all of its policies and procedures, the school is guided by the light of the gospel and our Catholic faith, which teaches us that all people are to be treated with dignity and respect.” For Zuschlag, dignity, respect and acceptance is what he wants as he goes through his senior year. He recently felt a measure of acceptance when he was nominated for "Prince of Homecoming" at Noble. He still feels stung about TCCA's decision to ban him, he said, but he's hopeful of living his life without hiding who he is at Noble. "It's a big loss, I mean they lost a big student; I mean, whatever, I'll just bring my excellence here then. I'll just excel here."

– A high school senior says the private Christian school in New Hampshire that he'd attended since kindergarten told him he was no longer welcome because of his gender identity and suggested he get counseling, the AP reports. Stiles Zuschlag, of Lebanon, Maine, tells Seacoast Media Group he'd excelled academically and in sports and had many friends at Tri-City Christian Academy in Somersworth when he made it known in 2015 that he was transgender. He was on track to be valedictorian at the school this year, he says, before he and his mother met with the school administrator in August to talk about his transition from female to male. Zuschlag says the administrator, Paul Edgar, told him he was no longer welcome at the school, that he was "going down the wrong path," and that he should confess his sins and stop testosterone treatments. The teen says he was told he couldn't return to the school campus but could consider options like homeschooling and Christian counseling. Zuschlag decided then to transfer to Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine, where he says he now feels accepted. He was nominated for "Prince of Homecoming" at his new school, and while he misses his old school, he's hopeful he can be who he is at Noble. "It's a big loss, I mean they lost a big student," he says. "[But] I'll just bring my excellence here. ... I'll just excel here." Edgar declined to speak about the ex-student, citing privacy issues. A spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Department of Education says Tri-City Christian Academy doesn't receive federal funds through the state office. A New Hampshire education attorney says religious schools can legally ask a student to leave regardless of whether the school receives federal funding.

Obituary for Michael James Rogan Michael James Rogan, 42, died on Friday, April 17, 2015 in the Emergency Room of Ministry St. Joseph’s Hospital, Marshfield, following an auto accident. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 am on Saturday, April 25, 2015 at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Oratory, Wausau, with Canon Aaron Huberfeld, Rector, officiating. Burial will take place in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Marathon, Wisconsin where military rites will be conducted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6352 of Stratford. The visitation will be held on Friday from 4:00 pm until 8:00 pm at Sauter / Rembs Funeral Home, Stratford and on Saturday from 9:00 am until service time at St. Mary’s Oratory, Wausau. Michael was born on March 20, 1973 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Ronald and Susan (Rogan) Bornbach. He was a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and after his honorable discharge he returned to Stratford. He married Nicole S. Richardson on July 11, 1998 at St. John’s Catholic Church, Marshfield. For the past 8 years he owned and operated Arnie’s Farm Care and he assisted organic farmers all across the state. He was a member of St. Mary’s Oratory, the church choir and The Holy Name Society. He enjoyed beer making, hunting, and spending time with his children in the woods. He was a good and loyal friend and loved his faith. Mike is survived by his wife, Niki and their children, Anne, Jon, Claire, Ben, Luke, Jacob, Gemma and Blaise. He is also survived by his parents, Ron and Sue Bornbach, a sister, Beth Bornbach and her daughter, Johanna, and brothers, Joseph and Gabriel Bornbach, all of Rozellville. He is further survived by his mother-in-law, Kathleen Richardson of Marshfield. He was predeceased by his grandparents, John and Sylvia Rogan, an aunt, Sharon Nikolai, uncles, Charles Rogan and John Rogan, Jr., a cousin, Michele LaPorte and his father-in-law, Arnold Richardson. A memorial will be established for the support of Michael’s widow and children. Condolences may be sent online to www.rembsfh.com Previous Events Visitation 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM Sauter/Rembs Funeral Home 901 S. Weber Ave., Stratford, WI 54484, United States Visitation 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM St. Mary's Oratory 325 Grand Avenue, Wausau, Wisconsin 54403, United States Service 10:00 AM St. Mary's Oratory 325 Grand Avenue, Wausau, Wisconsin 54403, United States Cemetery Details ||||| MILWAUKEE (AP) — A father driving his pregnant wife and children to the hospital for the birth of the couple's eighth child was killed when a deer struck their van in central Wisconsin, according to sheriff's officials and relatives. Michael Rogan, 42, was killed when the deer crashed through his van's windshield on a rural highway Friday in Marathon County. His wife, Niki, and their seven children, ages 2 to 15, suffered minor injuries, according to local sheriff's officials. Michael Rogan was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield. His wife gave birth hours later to a healthy son named Blaise, relatives and friends said Monday. "His greatest love was his family," Tami Richardson said of her brother-in-law. "He was strong and patient with the children." Another vehicle struck the deer on Highway 97 in the Town of Cleveland, throwing the animal into the Rogans' windshield, according to sheriff's Lt. Ted Knoeck. Rogan's wife was able to steer the van to some soft soil in a shallow ditch, Richardson said. One of the couple's longtime friends, Dominic Gruetzmacher, said he was amazed to see Niki Rogan and the children at their Wausau church two days later. Blaise was baptized Sunday. Michael Rogan was active in the church, sang in the choir and helped with a boys' group, Gruetzmacher said. Rogan also served in the U.S. Marines and was a reserve member following his active duty. "He was a strong guy. He dove into the world head on and approached it with enthusiasm," Gruetzmacher said. Richardson said Rogan took over his father-in-law's organic seed and fertilizer business after her father died about eight years ago. Family and friends are stepping forward to help. "The seeds need to be delivered. We just have to identify who the customers are," she said. "We've been humbled by the support that has been offered." Gruetzmacher, who is leading a fundraising effort for the family, said Niki Rogan home-schools the children. ___ Family fundraiser on gofundme.com http://bit.ly/1H8TpdS ||||| Our long-time friends from church, Mike and Niki Rogan, were driving to the hospital early this morning [4/17/2015] with their seven children, in anticipation of welcoming an eighth child into their beautiful family.On the way, an oncoming car hit a deer which was thrown into the Rogans' vehicle. Mike did not survive the accident. Niki and the children survived with only minor injuries. Niki gave birth to their son, Blaise, hours after the accident.Mike served as a corporal in the US Marine Corps and was promoted to sergeant while remaining on with the Reserves. He applied the motto, "Semper Fi" to all aspects of his life, faithfully serving God, country, and family. He was a small business owner, providing organic supplements to dairy farmers.Niki is a stay-at-home mom and homeschools her children who range in age from newborn to 15 years, and is left with providing for her family aided by only a minimal life insurance policy.Please help us reach out and support this family in this time of profound loss. Your donations will be used to buy a replacement vehicle, to pay for funeral and medical expenses, and to create a safety net for the future welfare of the family. All donations will be transferred directly to Niki.If you have any questions about the family, this campaign, or to make donations by mail, please reach out to us at roganfund@gmail.com.You may also make donations by mailing checks in the name of Niki Rogan to:Rogan FundPO Box 5132Wausau, WI 54402-5132Dominic and Cecilia GruetzmacherWausau, WIGlenn Beck coverage -- also links to similar fatality of a Michael Draper from Texas. Michael also died in a traffic accident, just two days before Mike Rogan. His wife is also named Nikki. They also have eight children. There has been some confusion between the two fundraisers, but Michael Draper's case was posted before ours, it is legitimate, and you are encouraged to support it:WSAU Radio, Wausau, WI, Chris Conley commentary:Relevant Radio 4/22/2015 primetime coverage (12-minute interview and follow-up calls begin at 0:30 and continue through 24:00 of this audio file):WSAW TV news coverage (several videos):WSAW TV news coverage (several videos):WSAW Van Donation coverage:WSAW TV original accident coverage:WAOW TV news coverage (several videos):Wausau Daily Herald news coverage: http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/story/news/local/2015/04/20/thousands-raised-for-stratford-crash-victim-michael-rogan-family/26070195/ Associated Press coverage:Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund's coverage:Accident Data Center (dashboard) coverage:HML.be German translation of story:Viva.co.id Indonesian translation of story:National CBS coverage:National ABC coverage:USA Today coverage:New York Daily News coverage:Demanjo (online national news) coverage:Daily Mail UK coverage:The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia coverage:WSBTV Atlanta, rebroadcasted on WGNTV Chicago coverage:WLUK Fox 11, Green Bay, WI coverage:WWIS Radio, Black River Falls, WI coverage:Antigo Daily Journal, front-page coverage:WMTV News, Madison, WI coverage:The Inquisitr coverage:Church Militant (Catholic media) coverage:The Remnant (Catholic magazine) coverage:Fr. Z's Blog coverage:The Badger Catholic blog coverage:Beautiful Womanhood coverage:Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, WI coverage:Channel 3000 TV 3 Madison, WI coverage:

– What should have been a joyful trip turned tragic early Friday, when a central Wisconsin man died while driving his pregnant wife to the hospital to deliver their eighth child. Michael Rogan, 42, was driving a van with his wife and seven children aboard when another car hit a deer, sending the animal into the van's windshield. Wife Niki was able to steer the van into a shallow ditch, the AP reports. Rogan died of his injuries later at a Marathon County hospital; everyone else received only minor injuries, and Niki gave birth to a son named Blaise that afternoon—the new baby was baptized, as planned, Sunday at the family's church, the Wausau Daily Herald reports. A friend explains to WSAW that she doesn't think Niki has ever missed a mass due to a child's birth: "She wanted to go." "It was a very teary morning," says the reverend, who notes that about 100 people came together at a nearby home after the baptism. Faith was important to Rogan, and the former Marine could typically be found at St. Mary's Oratory in Wausau, which he had attended for at least 15 years, about three times a week, the reverend says. Friends have stepped forward to help with Rogan's organic seed and fertilizer business, and a GoFundMe campaign has so far raised more than $270,000 for the family he left behind. Niki is a stay-at-home mom and homeschools the kids—who, besides the newborn, range in age from 2 to 15—and the money raised will be used to allow her to continue to do that as well as cover the costs of a new van, medical expenses, and the funeral this weekend.

Style Meet the first model with Down syndrome to walk the runway at Fashion Week Feb. 11, 2015 at 4:48 PM ET When Jamie Brewer strides down the catwalk during New York Fashion Week, she'll not only be showing off an original design by Carrie Hammer, but she will also become the first woman with Down syndrome to grace the runway. “Young girls and even young women … [see me] and say ‘hey, if she can do it so can I,’” says Brewer, an actress known for her work on “American Horror Story” and an advocate for people with intellectual disabilities. “It’s a true inspiration being a role model for any young women to [encourage them] in being who they are and showing who they are.” Courtesy of Michael Hansel Brewer is modeling as part of Hammer’s “Role Models Not Runway Models,” a campaign the designer started when she was first asked to show her line at Fashion Week a year ago. Hammer wanted to represent the women who bought her designs and realized that featuring her clients—leaders of multibillion dollar businesses, heads of global nonprofits, pioneers of cutting-edge research, and women who just rock—would do exactly that. For her first show, she invited her friend, Danielle Sheypuk, who uses a wheelchair, to be a model. “I called up my existing clients who were all incredible women and one of them happened to be a doctor and a sex therapist who happened to be in wheelchair,” Hammer told TODAY.com. “It was never intended to be this incredible statement.” But it was. Hundreds of women and girls contacted Hammer to thank her. One email stuck out: Every time Hammer read it, she cried. It was from Katie Driscoll, co-founder of Changing the Face of Beauty, a nonprofit that encourages media to include people with disabilities. She wrote: “Thank you for being the change that is long overdue. I could literally cry every time I read an article talking about your decision to include a model who just happens to have a disability! YOU are what this world needed!” Driscoll’s daughter Grace was born with Down syndrome. After sharing her story with Hammer, Driscoll asked a favor. Courtesy of Cindy Brewer “She asked if I would have a role model for Grace,” Hammer says. “Role Models Not Runway Models” took off, and Hammer received hundreds of nominations for women to model in her shows—including one from Karen Crespo, who lost her limbs to bacterial meningitis and longed to walk the runway to boost her self esteem. She appeared in Hammer’s fall Fashion Week show. But the designer didn’t forget about Grace. She asked Driscoll to suggest a good role model, and the mom immediately named Brewer. “I explained to her how important it is for my daughter to have role models like [Brewer] to see that [anything] is possible,” says Driscoll. While most recognize Brewer for playing Addie in “American Horror Story: Murder House,” Nan in “American Horror Story: Coven,” and Marjorie in “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” she has long worked as an advocate for people with intellectual disabilities. At 19, she was elected to the State of Texas ARC Board; she also worked on the Executive Board for the State of Texas ARC and the Governmental Affairs Committee for the State of Texas, where she was the only member with a disability. “Jamie is an activist for intellectual disabilities, she is a writer and artist and amazing actress,” says Hammer. Hammer designed a dress that she hopes plays up Brewer’s fabulous qualities. “‘American Horror Story’ is dark, scary, bewitching so we had to go with black and Jamie has a beautiful body with a teeny waist and curves and we went with an A-line,” she says. The dress is also special for another reason—Hammer hopes that First Lady Michelle Obama will wear it. For her part, Brewer feels excited for her spin down the runway. “It’s amazing, it’s really neat. Many women have many sides to their personality, this dress fits...mine,” she says. “I am honored to be in it.” ||||| Actress Jamie Brewer walks the runway during the 'Role Models Not Runway Models' Carrie Hammer show. (Photo: Brian Ach, Getty Images) Actress Jamie Brewer, best known for her roles on American Horror Story, appeared Thursday on a catwalk during New York Fashion Week. Brewer was the first model in the show with Down syndrome. Brewer wore clothing by designer Carrie Hammer as part of Hammer's "Role Models Not Runway Models" show, a project that invites inspiring women to showcase Hammer's work. "We feature incredible influential women on the runaway. CEOs, executives, activist, actresses, anyone who is the top of the field, top of their game," Hammer told USA TODAY Network. "Jamie is an absolute star," Hammer said, adding that the actress is also an activist for people with intellectual disabilities. All of the women in the show wore clothing designed especially for them. Brewer played a witch on American Horror Story so Hammer put her in black with an A-line cut. "Jamie has this beautiful figure with a small waist. A-lines really compliment that," Hammer said about the design. The show took place at Lightbox, a digital arts and events space in New York City. Brewer tweeted images of herself getting ready Thursday morning: Follow @lagrisham on Twitter Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1Dlb26X

– Visitors to New York Fashion Week will see a first today: a model with Down syndrome walking the runway, reports USA Today. Actress Jamie Brewer, best known for her work on American Horror Story, will do the honors, wearing an original by designer Carrie Hammer as part of Hammer's Role Models Not Runway Models show. “Young girls and even young women … [see me] and say, ‘Hey, if she can do it so can I,’” Brewer tells Today. Hammer explains that the idea came from Katie Driscoll, a woman whose daughter Grace has Down syndrome. “She asked if I would have a role model for Grace,” Hammer says. Brewer was an easy pick, given that she's not only an actress but an activist for others with disabilities. The actress tells Bustle she understands why it's taken this long for the milestone: “A lot of people have a certain image of what perfect is until they actually see or hear something that’s extremely different in the media."

Fifteen former staff members of the Church committee, the 1970s congressional inquiry into illegal activity by the CIA, wrote jointly to the US president The campaign to persuade Barack Obama to allow the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to return home to the US without facing prolonged prison time has received powerful new backing from some of the most experienced intelligence experts in the country. Edward Snowden downplays Trump victory: he's 'just the president' Read more Fifteen former staff members of the Church committee, the 1970s congressional investigation into illegal activity by the CIA and other intelligence agencies, have written jointly to Obama calling on him to end Snowden’s “untenable exile in Russia, which benefits nobody”. Over eight pages of tightly worded argument, they remind the president of the positive debate that Snowden’s disclosures sparked – prompting one of the few examples of truly bipartisan legislative change in recent years. They also remind Obama of the long record of leniency that has been shown by his own and previous administrations towards those who have broken secrecy laws. They even recall how their own Church committee revealed that six US presidents, from Franklin Roosevelt to Richard Nixon, were guilty of abusing secret powers. “There is no question that Snowden broke the law. But previous cases in which others violated the same law suggest leniency. And most importantly, Snowden’s actions were not for personal benefit, but were intended to spur reform. And they did so,” the signatories write. The Church committee, or the US Senate select committee to study government operations with respect to intelligence activities, to give it its full name, sat in 1975-76 at a time of deep public anxiety about the rogue work of federal agencies. The aftershocks of Watergate were still being felt, and Seymour Hersh had exposed in the New York Times mass illegal activities by the CIA, including routine surveillance of anti-war groups. As the 15 staff members point out, the committee investigation led to the disclosure of jaw-dropping illegal acts including the planting of an FBI informant inside the civil rights group the NAACP, attempts to push Martin Luther King into killing himself, and Cointelpro, the vast program run secretly by the FBI to disrupt progressive organisations in the US. The lead signatories of the Obama letter are Frederick Schwarz, who was chief counsel to the Church committee and is now at the Brennan Center for Justice, and William Green Miller, the committee’s staff director who went on to become US ambassador to Ukraine in the 1990s. Together with their fellow former staffers, they add heft to a campaign to pardon Snowden that has already attracted the support of prominent public figures including the co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak, philanthropist George Soros and Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the world wide web. Privacy experts fear Donald Trump running global surveillance network Read more In their letter, which they have also sent to the US attorney general, Loretta Lynch, the 15 cite the former CIA director David Petraeus as an example of the kind of official leniency that has so far eluded Snowden. Petraeus violated both the law and national security by leaking confidential information to his biographer and lover, then lied about it to the FBI. “Yet he was allowed to plead guilty to just one misdemeanor for which he received no jail time,” the letter says. The reference to Petraeus is pointed at a time when the former military commander is being actively considered by President-elect Donald Trump to become US secretary of state. Trump gains no mention in the former staffers’ plea to Obama, but he is the elephant in the room. The letter writers state euphemistically: “As the US relationship with Russia deteriorates, the risk to all interests involved increases.” They stop short of adding that Trump’s close ties to Russia, and his notorious flattery towards Vladimir Putin, could imperil Snowden’s current asylum in that country. ||||| Members of a committee that investigated the CIA during the Watergate era have urged President Obama to show leniency on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and strike a deal to allow him to return home. 15 former members of the 1970s Church Committee, led by its former chief counsel Frederick Schwarz Jr. and ex-staff director William Green Miller, sent an eight-page letter to the President and Attorney General Loretta Lynch arguing that Snowden’s actions were a catalyst that helped change secret service policy for the better. “There is no question that Edward Snowden’s disclosures led to public awareness which stimulated reform. Whether or not these clear benefits to the country merit a pardon, they surely do counsel for leniency,” the letter reads. Snowden has been living in Russia since he fled the U.S. via Hong Kong in 2013. He is charged with espionage for leaking internal NSA documents to the press and could face 30 years in jail should he return to American shores. While Obama has refused to pardon him, even in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump nominating a man who once said Snowden should be executed for head of the CIA, the Church committee group said Snowden’s disclosures have been instrumental in enacting much-needed change. The group argued that the information he brought to the public domain resulted in reform of the Patriot Act, a change in how the NSA gathers data from foreigners, and it more broadly alerted the American people to “what intelligence agencies acting in our name had been up to.” “When intelligence agencies operate in the dark, they often have gone too far in trampling on the legitimate rights of law-abiding Americans and damaging our reputation internationally. We saw this repeated time and time again when serving as staff members for the U.S. Senate Select Committee… that in 1975-76 conducted the most extensive bipartisan investigation of a government’s secret activities ever, in this country or elsewhere,” the letter further argued. Of course, Snowden did break the law with his actions. On the part, the group put forward examples of past cases around the misuse of classified documents, such as National Security Advisor Sandy Berger and CIA Directors David Petraeus and John Deutch. They argued that Snowden acted in a more selfless way than others who were shown leniency for their actions, and that this should be given due consideration. “Snowden’s explicit intent was to raise public awareness about activities that he believed (and that all three branches of government have to varying degrees affirmed) were illegal, or overbroad, so that there could be a robust public discussion about the proper scope of government surveillance. “Snowden did not try to mask his identity, or lie to the FBI. He knew he would pay a personal price. As he has,” the group added. Back in September, activists and lawyers from a number of human rights organizations came together to present Obama with a case to pardon Snowden. This time around, the former Church committee group is asking for leniency since it doesn’t believe that a full pardon is a feasible outcome. It closed its message to the President with the hope that authorities can “negotiate a settlement with Edward Snowden of the charges against him that both sides can accept.” ||||| Fifteen staff members who worked on a well-known bipartisan intelligence watchdog committee wrote to President Barack Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday requesting the administration negotiate a plea agreement with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. “There is no question that Edward Snowden’s disclosures led to public awareness which stimulated reform,” wrote the staffers who served on the U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operation with Respect to Intelligence Activities — called the Church Committee, after its chairman, Idaho Sen. Frank Church. “Whether or not these clear benefits to the country merit a pardon, they surely do counsel for leniency,” the authors continued. Frederick, or “Fritz” Schwarz, Jr., the Church Committee’s chief counsel who now heads up policy and legal advocacy organization the Brennan Center for Justice, penned the letter alongside the committee’s staff director, William Green Miller, and 13 other co-signers. Schwarz, who published a book last year on the allure of government secrecy called Democracy in the Dark, says he has been captivated by Snowden since the former National Security Agency contractor first made his disclosures. “I’ve known many whistleblowers starting when I was chief counsel of the Church Committee, and they’re often praise worthy … but [Snowden] seemed straightforward and genuine,” he said during a phone interview with The Intercept. In the 1970s, the Church Committee conducted an unprecedented investigation that uncovered abuses by the intelligence community and led to reforms. Schwarz recalled, during a recorded interview with the Brennan Center’s Michael German, being involved in the first and “most comprehensive” investigation into the intelligence community, which was aimed at being “open and rigorous” — challenging senators who willfully turned a blind eye to the nation’s spies and their misdeeds. The climate at the time, wracked with scandals like Watergate and leaks like the Pentagon Papers, “led to a pent up interest in what the secret government had been doing,” he said. The committee uncovered the NSA’s practice of retaining copies of telegrams sent overseas, the CIA’s experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs and use of domestic surveillance, and the FBI’s widely discredited program under J. Edgar Hoover, called COINTELPRO, involving the monitoring of constitutionally protected activities. Yet that climate of support for reform and investigation has changed, the authors argued. “The government has all but stopped making bipartisan reforms,” they wrote, arguing that this has left whistleblowers to take matters into their own hands. Snowden, who provided a massive trove of documents about the government’s worldwide surveillance regime to journalists in 2013, served as the spark to inspire lawmakers to reach across the aisle and amend the Patriot Act, ending the bulk collection metadata program in the summer of 2015, they wrote. And, his revelations uncovered the extent of overseas spying, which the Church Committee staffers note led President Obama to promise stronger privacy protections for foreigners. If Snowden hadn’t come forward, Americans might never have known about the abuses taking place, the authors argue. “We know first hand that lack of disclosure can cause just as many, if not more, harms to the nation than disclosure,” they wrote. “When intelligence agencies operate in the dark, they often have gone too far in trampling on the legitimate rights of law-abiding Americans and damaging our reputation internationally.” They also noted that the government has been lenient towards senior national security officials who have been involved in divulging secrets, like former CIA Director David Petraeus, who provided classified information to his biographer, with whom he was having an affair, and pled guilty to a simple misdemeanor. Petraeus is now reportedly being considered for a role in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. “In all these cases, recognition of the public service the individuals had provided weighed against strict enforcement of the law, to come to a fair and just result,” the authors wrote. Meanwhile, the harsh treatment of other whistleblowers, like Thomas Drake and Chelsea Manning, may have inspired Snowden to take the route he did, they suggest. The authors directly challenged several assertions made by the House Intelligence Committee in a short unclassified excerpt of its investigation into Snowden’s motivations and actions, which concluded in September. The full contents of the House’s investigation remain classified, though the committee has submitted it for declassification and publication. Notably, the former Church Committee staffers did not advocate for a pardon, something President Obama has rejected as a possibility. Instead, they urged the government to consider offering Snowden a deal. “Under current law, the only way to weigh the public benefits of Snowden’s leaks and account for his aim to help America is for the government to mitigate the charges through settlement discussions,” they concluded. “I felt a flat pardon as opposed to what we call for, a negotiation with leniency, was very unlikely to happen,” Schwarz explained. When asked if the current political climate might stifle further reform, given the incoming administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s known volatility, Schwarz was diplomatic: “I think we need to be eternally watchful.”

– “Snowden did not try to mask his identity, or lie to the FBI. He knew he would pay a personal price. As he has,” 15 former staff members of the Church Committee write in an 8-page letter to President Obama. The Church Committee investigated illegal activity by intelligence agencies in the 1970s, and now its experts are asking for leniency for Edward Snowden, the Guardian reports. According to the Intercept, the group argues that Snowden, acting selflessly, "stimulated reform" through his actions. The letter writers say that without Snowden, Americans may still not know “what intelligence agencies acting in our name had been up to," TechCrunch reports. The letter gives more weight to the movement to get Snowden pardoned, though the members of the Church Committee don't go that far; they want Snowden to strike a deal with the government. “There is no question that Snowden broke the law," they write. "But previous cases in which others violated the same law suggest leniency." They point to former CIA director David Petraeus, currently being considered by Donald Trump for secretary of State. He leaked confidential information in violation of national security but received no jail time after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. In contrast, Snowden is facing a sentence of 30 years if he returns to the US from Russia, where he has been living in exile.

Image caption Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed died after leaving the Ritz Hotel in Paris on 31 August 1997 The Metropolitan Police is assessing new information it has recently received about the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed in 1997. Scotland Yard said it was "scoping" the information and "assessing its relevance and credibility". It said it was "not a re-investigation" into the deaths of the couple in a Paris car crash on 31 August 1997. An inquest in 2008 found they had been unlawfully killed, partly due to the "gross negligence" of their driver. In a statement on Saturday evening, the Metropolitan Police said the assessment would be carried out by officers from the specialist crime and operations command. It added that the deaths had been "thoroughly investigated and examined" by the inquest held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Reports in several British Sunday newspapers suggest there are allegations the military was involved and that information had been passed to the police by an Army source. A Met Police spokesman said that the force would "not discuss the source of the information" it was assessing. A royal spokeswoman also said there would be no comment on the matter from Prince William or Prince Harry, or from Clarence House. A spokesman for Dodi's father Mohamed Al Fayed said he had no comment to make, but said he would be "interested in seeing the outcome", adding that he trusted the Met to investigate the information "with vigour". Paparazzi on motorbikes Scotland Yard said its assessment did not come under Operation Paget - the police investigation into allegations that the princess and Mr Al Fayed, her boyfriend, were murdered. Image caption The car carrying Princess Diana crashed in a tunnel It was a theory endorsed at the time by Mohamed Al Fayed, the then owner of London store Harrods. But in December 2006, the report into Operation Paget said it had found no evidence of murder and dismissed all conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths. Operation Paget concluded, just like the French investigation in 1999, that driver Henri Paul had been drunk and driving at excessive speed. Dai Davies, a former head of royal protection, told ITV news the deaths were "an accident by any definition, and three separate inquiries... have come to the same independent conclusion". He added: "I am absolutely convinced this was an accident so I'm mystified, after 13 years, how any new information can possibly allege anything other than that this was a tragic accident." Unlawful killing Princess Diana, the former wife of the Prince of Wales and the mother of Princes William and Harry, was 36 when she died alongside Mr Al-Fayed, 42. Mr Paul was driving when their hired Mercedes crashed into a pillar in Paris's Pont de l'Alma tunnel. The crash happened after the couple had left the Ritz Hotel and were pursued by paparazzi on motorbikes. Mr Al-Fayed's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor. At the inquest into their deaths, the jury found the couple had been unlawfully killed and the deaths were the result of "gross negligence" on the part of Mr Paul and the paparazzi. The paparazzi pursuit, Mr Paul's drink-driving and a lack of seatbelts contributed to the deaths, the jury said. The inquest lasted more than three months and heard from 250 witnesses. After the hearing it was announced that its cost had reached £4.5m, with a further £8m spent on the Metropolitan Police investigation. ||||| British police say they are examining newly received information relating to the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, and that officers are assessing the information's "relevance and credibility." Scotland Yard declined to provide details about the information, only saying Saturday in a statement that the assessment will be carried out by officers from its specialist crime and operations unit. The force stressed that it was not reopening the investigation into the 1997 deaths of Diana and Fayed, who were killed in a car crash in Paris. In 2008, a British jury ruled that Diana, the Princess of Wales, and her companion, Fayed, were unlawfully killed due to reckless speed and drinking by their driver, and by the reckless pursuit of paparazzi chasing them.

– Wha? Scotland Yard is sure to set the conspiracy theories in motion with an unusual statement today that it is taking a look at new information about the death of Princess Diana. It wouldn't divulge details, except to say that it was "assessing its relevance and credibility," reports the BBC. Scotland Yard stressed that this doesn't mean the investigation into the 1997 car crash is being reopened, and it added that the new assessment doesn't come under the umbrella of "Operation Paget," a previous police investigation into foul play. But those distinctions probably won't do much to tamp speculation. Enter Sky News, swinging for the fences: "The information, thought to include the allegation that the Princess of Wales, Dodi al Fayed and their driver were killed by a member of the British military, will be assessed by officers from the Specialist Crime and Operations Command." A British jury in 2008 blamed recklessness on the part of Diana and Fayed's driver and on the paparazzi chasing them, notes AP.

The ex-lover of a former New York City schoolteacher has been arrested on murder charges after the woman and their 4-year-old son were found dead in her Manhattan apartment Monday. News 4's Ray Villeda reports. (Published Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016) What to Know The bodies of 36-year-old Felicia Barahona and her 4-year-old son were found in a Manhattan apartment Monday Barahona was found strangled; her son was found unresponsive in a bathtub Isaac Duran, a former student of Barahona's and the father of her baby, was arrested on murder charges UPDATE: Ex-Student Who Fathered Teacher's Child Killed in Anger Over Boy Being Dressed in Girl's Clothing; Video Shows Him Pacing Outside Apartment on Day of Killings: NYPD The ex-lover of a former New York City schoolteacher has been arrested on murder charges after the woman and their 4-year-old son were found dead in her Manhattan apartment Monday. Isaac Duran Infante, 23, was taken into custody Tuesday in the deaths of 36-year-old Felicia Barahona and their 4-year-old son Miguel, and confessed to killing them, a law enforcement source told NBC 4 New York. The medical examiner has determined Barahona died from strangulation by the electrical cord, and her son died of asphyxia from neck compression. Ex-Lover Arrested in Deaths of Mom, Son Found in Apartment Isaac Duran Infante, 22, the ex-lover of a former New York City schoolteacher, has been arrested on murder charges after the woman and their 4-year-old son were found dead in her Manhattan apartment Monday. (Published Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016) Duran Infante was a former student of Barahona's, and their son was born from their affair, which began when he was 17 years old. A source told NBC 4 New York that Duran Infante, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, confessed to the double killing in part because he was dissatisfied with the way his son was being raised by Barahona. Duran Infante said nothing to reporters as he was led in handcuffs from the police stationhouse where he was interviewed. His anguished grandmother, who lives in the Bronx, told NBC 4 New York in Spanish she wanted justice and that she knows her grandson is innocent of the charges. Former Student in Custody in Deaths of Ex-Schoolteacher, Son: Source The ex-lover of a former New York City schoolteacher has confessed to killing the woman and their 4-year-old son, who was born after an affair that started while the young man was a student, a law enforcement source says. Chris Glorioso reports. (Published Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016) Another relative of Duran Infante, Janiel Santana, said, "It's hard to believe they're dead. When we heard the news, we thought this has got to be a mistake." The couple shared custody of the child, relatives said. Miguel's father's side of the family was expecting to see the boy for New Year's Eve to give him his Christmas presents. Barahona lost her job as a science teacher at DeWitt Clinton High School in 2013, shortly after she became pregnant and school administrators learned of her illicit relationship with a student. Felicia Barahona was found dead, an electrical cord wrapped around her neck, on the living room floor of her West 153rd Street apartment in Hamilton Heights around 8:15 a.m. Monday after the building super was alerted about a smell, police said. Her son Miguel was found unresponsive in a bathtub, police said. Investigators believe the duo had been dead several days. Boy, Mother Found Dead in Manhattan Apartment: NYPD The bodies of a 36-year-old woman and a young boy were found inside a Manhattan apartment Monday morning, police say. (Published Monday, Dec. 26, 2016) Neighbors described Miguel as a sweet boy. "It's sad. It's a little life," said Elia Flores, adding of his mother, "I've known her for a lot of years that she live here." ||||| The charges against Mr. Duran Infante made for a shocking turn in a story that, until her death, had cast Ms. Barahona as a malefactor or a punch line. Her photograph has appeared in The New York Post and The Daily News in recent years, as the tabloids chronicled a spate of prohibited, and often illegal, student-teacher relationships. One law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss a continuing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Duran Infante had given detectives a statement, although its contents were not immediately known. The details of the intimate relationship between the two are laid out in a 2012 memorandum by the office of the special commissioner of investigation for New York City’s schools. It was not immediately clear how closely they had been involved in each other’s lives since then. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Duran Infante’s family could not immediately be reached for comment. It appears that he lived in the Bronx as well as in Pennsylvania in recent years. On Tuesday, law enforcement officials and relatives of Ms. Barahona offered differing versions of his surname, with some calling him Isaac Duran and others, including the police in the news release announcing the charges, referring to him as Isaac Duran Infante. Ms. Barahona’s half brother, Jaime Bravo, said she and Mr. Duran Infante argued over how Miguel was being raised. “It was over who gets the kid, how do we figure out what payments are done, if he’s going to pay support or not,” Mr. Bravo said. Mr. Bravo said he believed Mr. Duran Infante had paid child support and had visitation rights. According to Mr. Bravo and other relatives, Ms. Barahona had been moving on with her life. “She had a fall from grace and was piecing things back together,” Mr. Bravo said, adding that she was studying forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and worked there as well. A more distant relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Ms. Barahona was quite busy given her involvement with the Coast Guard Reserve, working and studying at John Jay and raising Miguel and a daughter who was around 8. “It’s horrible,” the relative said, adding, “whatever her transgressions, she certainly didn’t deserve a death sentence.” “Little Miguel certainly didn’t do anything wrong,” this person said. Mr. Bravo described the boy as “your basic, happy 4-year old,” and a fan of Thomas the Tank Engine who was always reaching for his mother’s phone. Photo Miguel and his mother were found dead in their West 153rd Street apartment on Monday morning, the police said. Ms. Barahona, 36, was found on the living room floor with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck; Miguel was in the bathtub, the police said. Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said in an email that both deaths had been ruled homicides. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Detectives continued on Tuesday to try to track Mr. Duran Infante’s actions in recent days. The 2012 memo written by school district investigators offers an account of the relationship between Ms. Barahona and Mr. Duran Infante, although his name is redacted and he is identified as Student A in the version obtained by The New York Times. The report indicates that Ms. Barahona had been his teacher. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. On Halloween 2011, the memo says, Ms. Barahona and the student met to take her daughter trick-or-treating in Manhattan. Within a few weeks, Ms. Barahona and the student had begun to have sex, according to the memo. Soon, Ms. Barahona was pregnant and the student was accompanying her to doctor appointments. The student moved in with Ms. Barahona in January 2012. They lived together for five days, in Ms. Barahona’s telling; Mr. Duran Infante said it was three weeks, according to the memo. They argued about alcohol, about a comment Mr. Duran Infante had made to Ms. Barahona’s daughter, and about whether Mr. Duran Infante would take their son to visit his relatives. “Barahona responded that Student A was not going to take the baby anywhere and they argued,” according to the memo. Before long, they split up, the memo says. The relationship came to the attention of the authorities in February 2012 based on a tip from someone who had talked to Mr. Duran Infante. When investigators contacted him, he acknowledged that he had “fallen in love” and had had a sexual relationship with Ms. Barahona. He told investigators that she was pregnant. “He embraced the idea of being a father,” the memo says. ||||| A former high school teacher’s former student has been accused of killing both her and their young son — born from an affair that made headlines in 2013 — a New York City police source tells PEOPLE. An NYPD spokesperson declined to comment on the case, but the department source says Isaac Duran was charged Tuesday with two counts of murder in the deaths of former Dewitt Clinton High School teacher Felicia Barahona and her 4-year-old son, Miguel. The 36-year-old mother and Afghanistan War veteran was found dead Monday morning in the living room of her Manhattan apartment, according to the police source, who confirms that she was strangled with an electrical cord and Miguel was drowned in the bathtub. The boy was found face-down, floating in the filled tub, the source says. Their bodies were first discovered by the apartment building’s superintendent, who checked on Barahona after noticing a foul odor that seemed to be coming from her unit. Duran was taken into custody later Monday, according to the source. Under “intense questioning,” PEOPLE’s source alleges that Duran “owned up” to the killings — at one point “referencing Satan.” • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Duran’s custody status was not immediately available Tuesday afternoon. It was unclear from court records if he had been before a judge yet, entered a plea to his charges or whether a bail amount had been set for him. It was unknown Tuesday if Duran had retained an attorney who could comment on his behalf. According to the NYPD source, Duran initially denied having any involvement in the deaths and told detectives he hadn’t been to Barahona’s apartment building since 2012, when their son was born. However, police discovered that Duran was spotted on surveillance video entering and leaving the building over several days. • Pick up PEOPLE’s special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenét Ramsey and more. Barahona’s relationship with Duran first became public in March 2013, after an internal investigative report was obtained by multiple local news outlets. According to those reports, Barahona began having sex with Duran after he turned 18, though they later split in early 2012 before Miguel was born. Barahona was fired from Dewitt Clinton High in August 2012. Her family could not immediately be reached. ||||| Felicia Barahona, 36, was found dead with her 4-year-old son Monday morning. View Full Caption Composite: DNAinfo/Carolina Pichardo; inset: Facebook/Felicia Barahona HAMILTON HEIGHTS — A former student who fathered a boy with his science teacher four years ago has admitted killing her and their son in her Uptown apartment, sources told DNAinfo New York. The suspect, Isaac Duran, 23, confessed to strangling Felicia Barahona, his former DeWitt Clinton High School teacher, with an electrical cord and fatally choking their 4-year-old son, Miguel, in the bathtub, sources said. The bodies were found early Monday when the superintendent was alerted to a smell coming from Barahona's apartment in her West 153rd St. building near Riverside Drive. Officials believe they had been dead several days. Barahona was discovered in the living room with an intact electrical cord wrapped around her neck. The cord was not attached to anything, there was no suicide note and no signs of forced entry at the scene, according to sources. Barahona's cause of death was ligature strangulation and its been deemed a homicide, according to a spokeswoman for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Miguel was asphyxiated to death, killed by neck compression, the spokeswoman added. Duran, who was picked up Monday, confessed during questioning that he killed her and the child because he said he was upset at the way his son was being dressed and raised, sources said. He was arrested on murder charges Tuesday, police said. Their ill-fated relationship began in 2011 when he was still a student at DeWitt Clinton High School. Barahona, an Afghanistan war vet, was his science teacher. After becoming friends on Facebook, Barahona took the student trick-or-treating on Halloween along with her daughter. They ate at McDonald's and visited the Disney store in Times Square during the outing, according to a 2012 report from the Special Commissioner of Investigation. The report says that Barahona later invited Duran to her home on his birthday, where they had the first of what would be several sexual encounters. The teacher told the teenager not to worry about condoms and that she didn’t like using them, according to investigators. When Barahona became pregnant, Duran accompanied her to a doctor's appointment, and he even moved in with her for a few weeks in January of 2012 before the pair split up later that month, according to the report. Barahona admitted the relationship to city investigators, telling them she was in love with Duran and had planned to marry him, according to the report. She was fired from her $73,000 teaching job in August of 2012, a Department of Education spokesman said. The couple split before Miguel's birth. Building resident Nelson Jaque said he lived a floor below the woman and often saw her playing with her young son. "I would see her often, being very protective and almost obsessed with the boy," Jaque said. "As a matter of fact, I saw her early last week and I saw her calling for him. I told her to let him run, to let him have fun and she replied back, 'No!'" Jaque said he told his wife about three days ago that he smelled something strange, but didn't think much about it until Monday when he was walking his dog and the smell was stronger. "I'm just distraught for the child," Jaque said.

– A man who as a teenager had an affair and subsequent child with his high school science teacher is now accused of killing them both. A building superintendent alerted to a foul smell found Felicia Barahona, 36, strangled with an electrical cord in her Manhattan apartment on Monday, while Barahona's 4-year-old son, Miguel, had been drowned in a bathtub, reports People. Miguel's father, Isaac Duran, 23, was arrested later Monday and initially denied any involvement, saying he hadn't been to Barahona's apartment since their son was born. However, police sources say Duran "owned up" to the murders after police found surveillance video showing him entering and exiting the building on several occasions, reports the New York Post. He was charged Tuesday with two counts of first-degree murder, reports the New York Times. Duran and Barahona had started a relationship in 2011, reportedly after Duran turned 18 but while Barahona was his teacher at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City. Barahona, who was later fired, became pregnant, though her relationship with Duran ended before Miguel was born in 2012, per DNAInfo. Duran had shared custody of Miguel, relatives tell NBC News, but he was reportedly angry about how Barahona was raising the boy. His half-brother tells the Times of frequent arguments. “It was over who gets the kid, how do we figure out what payments are done, if he’s going to pay support or not." (Teachers caught having sex with students often avoid prison.)

Posted Tuesday, November 21, 2017 5:27 pm How to help ... Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call Pittsfield Police Officer Brenna Dorr at 413-448-9700, ext 384. PITTSFIELD — Two men are facing charges for allegedly participating in a citywide prostitution ring involving multiple women — one of whom may have been as young as 15 — who were allegedly plied with drugs and threats. Joseph E. Van Wert, 65, of Becket, and Randy W. Lambach, 45, of Pittsfield, are being held on charges including human trafficking pending dangerousness hearing Nov. 29 to determine if bail should be set and in what amount. The investigation began in the spring of 2017 after police began receiving calls and complaints regarding apparent increases in prostitution throughout the city. Most of the activity seemed to be centered around the areas of First, Adam, North, Linden and Wahconah streets, police said. Many of the women had been recruited by a white male named "Randy." Randy would seek out women with a drug addiction, photograph them and post advertisements online, seeking clients for sexual services, police were told. While conducting patrols around First and Second streets, police interviewed multiple women, many of whom admitted to being prostitutes, but declined to identify who "tricked them out." One told police she didn't "street-walk," but instead got her "dates" through ads on backpage.com. Police also began receiving reports of suspected prostitution from a North Street senior living facility, where Randy had driven at least five women to and from Van Wert's third-floor apartment. Police were provided the plate number of the blue station wagon used to shuttle the women and identified Lambach as its owner. And witnesses identified Lambach via photographs as the man they knew as Randy. One woman told police she was prostituted by Lambach for about a year and had sex with him for money or to pay off a debt on multiple occasions. Lambach photographed her and placed advertisements on backpage.com. Men would contact Lambach via cellphone and a date, time, location and fee would be agreed upon. Rates were typically $80 for 30 minutes or between $160 and $200 for an hour. Lambach would then contact the woman and drive her to the appointment, police said. He would sometimes wait outside or watch from a closet or doorway. He would collect the money and keep anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of it. Sometimes he would keep all of the money and pay the woman with a few bags of heroin or some crack cocaine instead. One of the women told police Lambach would drive her to appointments outside of Pittsfield, and on at least one occasion, outside of the state. He allegedly recruited and transported about 10 other women in a similar manner and provided narcotics to those that used drugs to get them high before having sex. Lambach allegedly threatened to turn the women in if they stopped working for him, and warned them the police would not believe them because they were, "drug addicts and whores." Police were told some of the women Lambach had recruited used to be his foster children. He would host meetings between women and customers at Van Wert's apartment. Van Wert allegedly paid for sex with the women and was paid by Lambach in cash and drugs for use of his apartment. Another witness told police that Lambach approached her in August, telling her he ran a prostitution ring and showed her several photographs of women he said worked for him. That witness said it appeared several of the women in those photos were very young and estimated the age of one at about 15. Lambach allegedly said he also drives women to Springfield, where they prostitute themselves from a strip club. Another witness told police Lambach may have been involved in prostitution and trafficking for about 10 years. Other witnesses told police Lambach would threaten the women if he thought they were giving information to the police. By mid-November, police felt they had enough probable cause to arrest the men. Lambach was picked up without incident about 4 p.m. Nov. 14. Van Wert was arrested at his apartment shortly thereafter. Lambach has pleaded not guilty in Central Berkshire District Court to four counts of human trafficking. Van Wert has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit human trafficking, deriving support from prostitution, maintaining a house of prostitution and sexual conduct for a fee. The investigation remains ongoing and additional charges may be coming. The Pittsfield Police Department detective bureau, anti-crime unit, drug unit as well as members of the state police detective unit assigned to the District Attorney's Office, are assisting with this investigation. Reach Bob Dunn at bdunn@berkshireeagle.com, at @BobDunn413 on Twitter and 413-496-6249. ||||| Two men were arrested for running a prostitution ring out of an apartment in a Massachusetts senior living facility, police said. Joseph VanWert, 65, and Randy Lambach, 45, of Berkshire County, were arrested and held on human trafficking charges ahead of a hearing later this month, according to Pittsfield Lt. Michael Maddalena. Police, who received reports of increased prostitution in Pittsfield earlier this year, said Lambach sought out women with “severe” drug addictions and advertised their services on social media. Lambach, who allegedly ran the prostitution ring for several years, would set up meetings and rates with prospective “johns”, police said. Violent pimp gets 12 years in prison after beating prostitute VanWert would allow some of the meetings to take place in his third-floor apartment at the facility in exchange for drugs and cash, according to the Berkshire Eagle. Lambach also worked as a chauffeur, transporting the women to and from specific locations and waiting until they were done, police said. He crossed state lines on at least one occasion, one of the prostitutes said. Lambach would take a significant cut of the women’s money — or pay them in heroin, cocaine or prescription drugs in lieu of cash, Maddalena said. Some of the women he recruited were formerly his foster children. A witness, whom Lambach reportedly approached with photos of the prostitutes, said the victims looked to be as young as 15. Pussycat Dolls deny band member’s ‘prostitution ring’ claims Police, who had been investigating for several months, arrested VanWert and Lambach last week. Lambach pleaded not guilty to four counts of human trafficking, while VanWert pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit human trafficking, deriving support from prostitution, maintaining a house of prostitution and sexual conduct for a fee. 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– Two men have been charged with human trafficking after police arrested them for running a prostitution ring out of a senior living facility in Pittsfield, Mass. Police say Joseph Van Wert, 65, and Randy Lambach, 45, will face a hearing later this month, the New York Daily News reports. Lambach would allegedly seek out women with drug addictions and post their pictures online, then arrange meetings with clients. Some of these meetings took place in Van Wert's apartment in a senior facility. Van Wert offered his apartment in return for cash or drugs. The Berkshire Eagle reports that the police investigation began last spring in response to citizen complaints about increased prostitution across the city. Lambach would allegedly keep up to 90% of the money the women made, sometimes refusing them cash altogether and paying them in heroin or crack cocaine instead. At least one woman said Lambach drove her to an "appointment" across state lines. Police estimated one of the victims was 15 years old. They were also told that some of the women were Lambach's former foster children. Both men have pleaded not guilty, Lambach to four counts of human trafficking and Van Wert to conspiracy to commit human trafficking, deriving support from prostitution, maintaining a house of prostitution, and sexual conduct for a fee.

Aid groups warn situation in eastern Ghouta could unfold into worst atrocity of war so far Almost 200 civilians have been killed in dozens of airstrikes and shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in eastern Ghouta over two days of “hysterical violence”, which has led to warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe that could eclipse past atrocities in the seven-year war. The surge in the killing in the besieged region came amid reports of an impending regime incursion into the area outside Damascus, which is home to 400,000 civilians. More than 700 people have been killed in three months, according to local counts, not including the deaths in the last week. This is Eastern Ghouta, where hundreds are being killed and injured by Assad's forces Read more Amnesty International said “flagrant war crimes” were being committed in eastern Ghouta on an “epic scale.” Diana Semaan, the charity’s Syria researcher, said: “People have not only been suffering a cruel siege for the past six years, they are now trapped in a daily barrage of attacks that are deliberately killing and maiming them, and that constitute flagrant war crimes.” Seven hospitals have also been bombed since Monday morning in eastern Ghouta, which was once the breadbasket of Damascus but has been under siege for years by the Assad government and subjected to devastating chemical attacks. Two hospitals suspended operations and one has been put out of service. “We are standing before the massacre of the 21st century,” said a doctor in eastern Ghouta. “If the massacre of the 1990s was Srebrenica, and the massacres of the 1980s were Halabja and Sabra and Shatila, then eastern Ghouta is the massacre of this century right now.” Quick guide What is happening in eastern Ghouta? Show Hide Where is it and why is it important? Eastern Ghouta is a rebel-held enclave that borders the city of Damascus. Once a breadbasket of the Syrian capital, since 2013 it has been under a siege that has tightened severely over the last year. In 2013 the area was targeted in a chemical attack by the Syrian regime that killed more than a thousand civilians and nearly prompted a US intervention in the war. Who controls it? The enclave is controlled by a mix of rebel groups dominated by the Islamist leaning Jaysh al-Islam, though the day-to-day affairs of the towns in the area are run by local civilian councils. How bad is the humanitarian situation? The situation is catastrophic for the 400,000 civilians who still live in eastern Ghouta. Prices for basic foodstuffs have skyrocketed and medical supplies are mostly absent because of the siege. Treating the injured is especially difficult because of the repeated bombing of hospitals and clinics. An estimated 700 civilians have been killed in the area in the last three months alone, not including those killed over the last week of escalation. The first aid convoy to the region in months arrived a week ago but did not do much to alleviate the suffering. Photograph: Hamza Al-Ajweh/AFP He added: “A little while ago a child came to me who was blue in the face and barely breathing, his mouth filled with sand. I emptied it with my hands. I don’t think they had what we do in any of the medical textbooks. A wounded child breathing with lungs of sand. You get a child, a year old, that they saved from the rubble and is breathing sand, and you don’t know who he is. “All these humanitarian and rights organisations, all that is nonsense. So is terrorism. What is a greater terrorism than killing civilians with all sorts of weapons? Is this a war? It’s not a war. It’s called a massacre.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Smoke rises from buildings following bombardment on the village of Mesraba in the rebel-held besieged eastern Ghouta region. Photograph: Hamza Al-Ajweh/AFP/Getty Images The Syrian civil defense, a search and rescue organisation, said 61 people were killed on Tuesday alone, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said 194 people had died in the last 48 hours– a toll that encapsulated the unbridled violence of the war in Syria. After seven years and interventions by regional and global powers, the humanitarian crisis has heightened instead of abating, as forces loyal to Assad’s regime and his Russian and Iranian backers seek an outright military victory instead of a negotiated political settlement. Exact death tolls were difficult to obtain owing to ongoing rescue operations and because some families buried their dead without taking them to local hospitals. Rebel groups responded with a wave of artillery bombardment targeting Damascus, killing 12 people and wounding 50 in government-controlled areas, according to the Observatory. Aid workers said the latest violence in eastern Ghouta, where 1,300 people died in 2013 after the Assad regime deployed sarin gas, has included the use of notorious barrel bombs. The weapons are so inaccurate that their use is seen as a war crime by human rights watchdogs. The regime has also used fighter jets and artillery bombardment, on top of the punishing siege. Eastern Ghouta is another Srebrenica, we are looking away again | Simon Tisdall Read more “The situation in eastern Ghouta is akin to the day of judgment,” said Mounir Mustafa, the deputy director of the White Helmets, the volunteer group that rescues people from under the rubble of bombed buildings. The White Helmets said one of its volunteers, Firas Juma, died on Monday while responding to a bombing. In Geneva, the UN children’s fund issued a blank “statement” to express its outrage at the casualties among Syrian children, saying it had run out of words. Medical organisations said at least five clinics and hospitals, including a maternity centre, were bombed on Monday, some of them multiple times. An anaesthetist was killed in the attacks. Another two facilities were hit on Tuesday. “The bombing was hysterical,” said Ahmed al-Dbis, a security official at the Union of Medical and Relief Organisations (UOSSM), which runs dozens of hospitals in areas controlled by the opposition in Syria. “It is a humanitarian catastrophe in every sense of the word. The mass killing of people who do not have the most basic tenets of life.” Mark Schnellbaecher, the Middle East director for the International Rescue Committee, said: “Once again we are seeing civilians in Syria being killed indiscriminately. Once again we are seeing medical facilities attacked. We have long feared eastern Ghouta will see a repeat of the terrible scenes observed by the world during the fall of east Aleppo and these fears seem to be well founded.” Sonia Khush, an official with Save the Children, described the situation as “absolutely abhorrent.” “The bombing has been relentless, and children are dying by the hour,” she said. “These families have nowhere left to run – they are boxed in and being pounded day and night.” Elsewhere in Syria on Tuesday, pro-government fighters started entering the northern Kurdish enclave of Afrin, where Turkish troops have been on the offensive for a month. The development came a day after Turkey said it would hit back at the troops if their goal was to protect the Kurdish fighters. Syrian state media said Turkish troops fired on the pro-government militiamen, a development that risks widening an already complicated war. ||||| Hammuriyeh, Syria: The United Nations (UN) has demanded an end to the targeting of civilians in Syria after a heavy bombardment killed 106 civilians, including at least 20 children, in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, as regime forces appeared to be preparing for an imminent ground assault. The escalation came as pro-government forces were also expected to enter the northern Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin, to take a stand against a month-old Turkish assault. On Monday, 127 people died in the same area following attacks by regime forces. Held by rebels Held by rebels since 2012, Eastern Ghouta is the last opposition pocket around Damascus, and Bashar Al Assad has deployed reinforcements in an apparent concerted effort to retake it. Ghouta’s fate is unknown. We’ve got nothing but God’s mercy and hiding out in our basements.” - ALa’a Al Deen | Hammuriyeh town resident As a barrage of air strikes, rocket fire and artillery slammed into several towns across Eastern Ghouta on Monday, the UN warned that the targeting of civilians in Eastern Ghouta “must stop now”. “It’s imperative to end this senseless human suffering,” Panos Moumtzis, the UN’s Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 100 civilians, 20 of them children, were killed in the bombardment, the highest death toll in the enclave since early 2015. “The regime is bombing Eastern Ghouta to pave the way for a ground offensive,” said Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman. UN children's agency says its outrage goes beyond words after more than 100 civilians die in Syrian regime attacks on Eastern Ghouta https://t.co/cvSWzkmf6c pic.twitter.com/I80ErXo96U — CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) February 20, 2018 The main opposition National Coalition, which is based in Turkey, denounced the “war of extermination” in Eastern Ghouta as well as the “international silence”. It also accused regime ally Russia of seeking to “bury the political process” for a solution to the conflict. Syrian boy Mohammad cries as he receives treatment at a makeshift hospital in Kafr Batna after being wounded with his mother in air strikes on the town of Jisreen in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region. An AFP correspondent saw residents of Hammuriyeh rushing indoors in panic at the first sound of jets. Alaa Al Deen, a 23-year-old Syrian in Hammuriyeh, said civilians were afraid of a potential government ground offensive. “Ghouta’s fate is unknown. We’ve got nothing but God’s mercy and hiding out in our basements,” he said. Shelling also hit the town of Douma, where an AFP correspondent saw five toddlers brought to a hospital, covered in dust and wailing uncontrollably. The hospital was full of distraught civilians — one father slapped his forehead after finding his two dead children. Most of Eastern Ghouta is held by two Islamist factions, while extremists control small pockets, including one directly adjacent to the capital. The Observatory and Syrian daily newspaper Al Watan had said negotiations were under way for the evacuation of fighters from Eastern Ghouta. 260 rockets were fired into besieged Eastern Ghouta on Sunday Wael Olwan, spokesman for the Failaq Al Rahman rebel group in Eastern Ghouta, said there had been heavy bombing throughout the day. “There are no ground invasions in the field and clashes, but there is very big shelling and preparatory fire,” he said. The United Nations said last week Syria was seeing some of the worst fighting of the war, which is entering its eighth year. Malnutrition has increased sharply in Eastern Ghouta with hardly any food aid reaching the residents, the UN office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) says. Rising violence reportedly pushed some 15,000 civilians to flee their homes last month, taking refuge in makeshift shelters or basements in the enclave, OCHA said. But the escalating bombardment suggests the regime might opt for a ground assault instead, the monitor said. Regime troops carried out a relentless five-day bombing campaign on the enclave earlier this month that killed around 250 civilians and wounded hundreds. After days of relative calm, the government sent more than 260 rockets crashing into the enclave on Sunday. The regime is keen to regain control of the area to halt deadly rebel rocket and mortar fire into Damascus. About half a dozen rockets hit the capital on Sunday night, AFP correspondents said. State news agency SANA reported that one person was killed. More than 20 civilians have been killed by rebel fire this month alone in regime-held Damascus. All was quiet in the capital on Monday but since rumours of an imminent assault on Eastern Ghouta started spreading, people living close to the rebel enclave started packing their bags. Jawad Al Obros, 30, said he was looking to move to a hotel in the western sector of the city to escape his home in an east Damascus neighbourhood that has been regularly hit by rockets from Ghouta. “We’re tired of this situation. It seems that there’s no solution but a full-blown military one,” he said. More than 400,000 people have been killed since the civil war erupted in 2011 after protests against Al Assad’s regime were brutally crushed. It has since evolved into a war that has carved up the country into rival zones of control among the regime, rebels, extremists and Kurdish forces. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) control the northwestern region of Afrin, target of a month-old assault by the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels. Ankara sees the YPG as a “terror” group linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a deadly insurgency in southeastern Turkey since 1984. The YPG has controlled Afrin since 2012, when Syrian troops withdrew from it and other Kurdish-majority areas. Syrian state media said on Monday that pro-regime forces were preparing to enter the area to “join the resistance against the Turkish aggression”. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned against any intervention in support of the YPG, saying it would not prevent Ankara from pressing on with its offensive. “If the regime is entering (Afrin) to oust the PKK, YPG, there is no problem. But if they are entering to protect the YPG, then no one can stop us and Turkish soldiers,” he said. ||||| This photo released on Tuesday Feb. 20, 2018 provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Ghouta Media Center, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows... (Associated Press) This photo released on Tuesday Feb. 20, 2018 provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Ghouta Media Center, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows an injured Syrian man who was wounded by the shelling of the Syrian government forces, waits to receive... (Associated Press) BEIRUT (AP) — Intense Syrian government shelling and airstrikes of rebel-held Damascus suburbs killed at least 98 people in what was the deadliest day in the area in three years, a monitoring group and paramedics said Tuesday. A day after Monday's government barrage, retaliatory shells rained down on the capital Damascus, killing at least one person on Tuesday. The targeted suburbs — scattered across an area known as eastern Ghouta — have been subjected to weeks-long bombardment that has killed and wounded hundreds of people. Opposition activists say government forces have brought in more reinforcements in recent days, suggesting a major assault is imminent to recapture the area that is the last main rebel stronghold near Damascus. Monday's bombardment that killed nearly 100 people saw the use of warplanes, helicopter gunships, missiles as well as artillery, in a major escalation of violence near President Bashar Assad's seat of power. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was the deadliest days in eastern Ghouta since 2015, adding that 20 children and 15 women were among those killed. The opposition-affiliated Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, said the shelling and airstrikes killed 98 and that some people are still under the rubble. It said the dead included one of the rescue group's members, Firas Jomaa. Both the Observatory and the White Helmets reported more airstrikes and shelling on Tuesday in eastern Ghouta as rebels pounded Damascus with mortar shells. Rebels retaliated by hitting some Damascus neighborhoods with mortar shells, killing one person and wounding six people, according to the state news agency SANA. On Tuesday morning, Damascus residents reported shelling on areas in central Damascus. "Shells are falling like rain. We are hiding in the corridor," a Damascus resident told The Associated Press, asking that her name not be mentioned for her own safety. She spoke while hiding in the corridor of an office building. Videos have surfaced from the eastern suburbs showing paramedics pulling out the injured from under the rubble while others are seen franticly digging through the debris in the dark, in search for survivors. "The humanitarian situation of civilians in East Ghouta is spiraling out of control," said Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, in a statement late Monday. "It's imperative to end this senseless human suffering now. Such targeting of innocent civilians and infrastructure must stop now," he said. ___ Associated Press Writer Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

– The name Eastern Ghouta may not be a familiar one, but the neighborhood near the Syrian capital of Damascus is now making international headlines for all the wrong reasons. The enclave of 22 communities happens to be the last opposition-controlled region near the capital, and it's been the target of fierce bombing by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On Monday, airstrikes and artillery shelling killed about 100 people, including 20 children, reports the AP, citing stats from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the civil defense group known as the White Helmets. The details: Assad's strategy: With the civil war now in its seventh year, Assad is looking to reclaim rebel-held territory through "an outright military victory instead of a negotiated settlement," per the Guardian. The bombardment could be paving the way for a ground assault against the two Islamist factions that control the neighborhood of about 350,000 people, reports Gulf News. One problem: This is a suburb with no international borders and thus is of little strategic value to world powers, explains the Washington Post. "As a result, there is no power broker such as Turkey, Russia or the United States to deploy ground troops or strike a backroom deal."

Former Spokane, Washington NAACP chapter president Rachel Dolezal appears on NBC News on June 16, 2015. (Screenshot) Former civic activist Rachel Dolezal went from claiming she is black to questioning whether she is actually part of a white family in an interview aired on Tuesday night with NBC News host Savannah Guthrie. “I haven’t had a DNA test. There’s been no biological proof that Larry and Ruthanne are my biological parents,” said Dolezal, referring to the couple who exposed her last week, resulting in widespread criticism and her decision to step down as the head of the Spokane chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “There’s a birth certificate that has your name and their names on it,” Guthrie replied, over footage of the document. “I’m not necessarily saying that I can prove they’re not,” Dolezal said. “But I don’t know that I can actually prove they are. I mean, the birth certificate is issued a month and a half after I’m born. And certainly there were no medical witnesses to my birth.” A 2012 profile of Dolezal stated that she was “born in a teepee.” but her parents revealed last week that she is actually of Czech, Swedish and German descent. Dolezal has continued to argue that she is black. “Nothing about being white describes who I am,” she said. “So, what’s the word for it? The closest thing that I can come to is, if you’re black or white, I’m black. I’m more black than I am white.” While she has “experimented” with her hair, she told Guthrie, she has not altered her skin. “Some days I might spray on bronzer, if I want to get a glow,” Dolezal said. “Other days, I don’t.” Watch footage from the interview, as posted online on Tuesday, below. ||||| She would not backpedal, and “I guarantee you she never will,” said her uncle, who took her in more than a decade ago as her marriage crumbled. “That’s part of her persona, never backing down — always forward, totally sure of herself.” On Tuesday, Matt Lauer of NBC’s “Today” show asked her, “When did you start deceiving people?” But Ms. Dolezal, who stepped down on Monday as president of the Spokane N.A.A.C.P. chapter, pushed back. “I do take exception to that because it’s a little more complex than me identifying as black, or answering a question of, ‘Are you black or white?’ ” she said. Over the course of the day, she also described herself as “transracial” and said: “Well, I definitely am not white. Nothing about being white describes who I am.” Her story has set off a national debate about the very meaning of racial identity, with some people applauding her message and goals and others deploring her methods and actions. It was one thing for Ms. Dolezal to identify with, appreciate and even partake in black culture, some critics said, but it was another thing for her to try to become black, going so far as to change her physical appearance. “It taps into all of these issues around blackface and wearing blackness and that whole cultural legacy, which makes it that much more vile,” said Baz Dreisinger, an English professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and author of the book “Near Black: White-to-Black Passing in American Culture.” The term transracial has long been associated with adoptions of a child by a family of a different race. Angela Tucker, a black woman born in Tennessee and adopted by a white family in Bellingham, Wash., said it was “absolutely maddening” to associate the term with Ms. Dolezal’s story. “It means a lot to those of us who call ourselves transracial adoptees,” said Ms. Tucker, 29, a social worker who lives in Seattle. “We have grown up in a culture different than what we physically represent. We’ve had to seek out our roots. What Rachel has done is misappropriate that.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Some people who have known Ms. Dolezal only as a black woman said they felt hurt and misled. “The issue for me has been the deception, the lie, portraying herself as someone she isn’t,” said Dorothy Webster, a longtime member of the Spokane N.A.A.C.P. and former deputy manager for the city of Spokane. “I cannot rationalize it.” Clashing Versions of Past Although her advocacy work has admirers, serious questions have been raised about Ms. Dolezal’s credibility — and not just about her race. Her public statements about her family and upbringing have been challenged by relatives, including her parents, creating the odd spectacle of dueling interviews, with her making claims on one network, and them denying them on another. Over the years she has reported numerous complaints with the police of racially motivated harassment and intimidation, though the police have said that none have so far proved credible enough for charges to be brought. She is estranged from her parents, Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal, and in Spokane, she has represented a friend, an older African-American man, as her father. When Rachel Dolezal was a teenager, her parents adopted four black children, one of whom now lives with Ms. Dolezal and her son, whom she had with her former husband, Kevin D. Moore, who is black. She is also estranged from her biological brother, Joshua, who is facing charges in Colorado that when he was 19 years old, he sexually molested one of his adopted brothers, who was 6 or 7 at the time, in their parents’ home, which was then in Clear Creek County, Colo. Ruthanne Dolezal told People magazine that the molestation charges are not true and were initiated by Rachel. An Unorthodox Path Ms. Dolezal’s path to this curious point has been unorthodox, beginning with her childhood in a remote corner of northwestern Montana, in and around the little town of Troy. Earlier this year, she told a news organization at Eastern Washington University, where she taught, that she had been born in a tepee, that her mother and stepfather had beaten her and her siblings, that “they would punish us by skin complexion,” and that they lived for a time in South Africa. Family members say none of this is true. All agree that she has no stepfather, that this was one of several attempts she has made to deny the existence of her real father, Lawrence. Her parents moved to South Africa after Rachel was grown and out of the house. Video As for the abuse allegations, “that’s just false,” her father said in an interview on Friday. “That’s the most hurtful.” There was a tepee, her uncle, Daniel said, but that was years before Rachel was born, in the early 1970s, when her parents were first married. “Larry and Ruthanne were kind of the quintessential Jesus people, hippies, back to nature, and they set up a tepee and lived in it for a year,” Daniel Dolezal said. “Drove my parents crazy, but nobody was born in the tepee.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ms. Dolezal said Tuesday on “Today” that at age 5, “I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon, and the black curly hair, you know.” Her parents, appearing later on Fox News, denied that. Daniel Dolezal said Tuesday that her recollection of her 5-year-old self did not ring true. “She probably wouldn’t have known any black people” then, he said. (Efforts to reach Rachel Dolezal, Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal, and Joshua Dolezal on Tuesday were not successful.) There is no hint of childhood racial tension in a memoir that her brother Joshua, an English professor at Central College in Iowa, wrote. The book, “Down From the Mountaintop: From Belief to Belonging,” describes a childhood blending religious fervor with a frontier lifestyle. “My father reads from the book of Jeremiah,” he wrote. “The cover of his Bible is made of tanned elk hide that my mother sewed into the binding after cutting away the commercial hardback.” 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. Rachel was home-schooled for at least part of the time she was in high school, her uncle said. And when she was between the ages of 15 and 17, her parents adopted four black infants. “She immediately was drawn to them,” her father said. “Ever since then she’s had a tremendous affinity with African-Americans.” Ms. Dolezal said Tuesday that at the time, she thought of herself as white, but that began to change with the arrival of her new siblings, as she wondered, “Who is going to be the link for the kids in coming to the family?” She learned of John M. Perkins, a Mississippi minister who preached racial reconciliation and social justice and, along with his son, Spencer, built what he called “intentional Christian communities,” including one called Antioch, in Jackson, Miss. Based largely on that connection, she chose to attend Belhaven College, a small Christian school in Jackson, and frequently visited Antioch, a home with about 25 other people near the Belhaven campus. Black in a ‘White Body’ “She adopted us as surrogate parents, and we adopted her as surrogate daughter,” said Ronald Potter, a brother-in-law of Spencer Perkins, who lived at Antioch and taught religion at Belhaven. Mr. Potter said, “We got very close with her.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story He described Ms. Dolezal as someone who was “extremely” socially conscious, much more so than the other students seemed to be. The first time he met her, he said, she reminded him of “a black girl in a white body,” like “hearing a black song by a white artist.” But she was “snow white, white-white, lily white,” he said. “I had no idea that years later, she would match the body with the soul.” Ms. Dolezal graduated from Belhaven in 2000 and that year married Mr. Moore. They moved to Washington, D.C., where she enrolled as a graduate student in art at Howard University, a historically black school. In 2002, she received a master’s degree in fine art, and days later, she gave birth to her son. At Howard, as at Belhaven, her art focused on the black experience and racial reconciliation, but there was still no question about her own identity; in college and in graduate school, she was known as white. In fact, Ms. Dolezal sued Howard, claiming that it had discriminated against her, in part for being white. She said she was denied financial help because the university’s attitude was, “You probably have white relatives that can afford to help you with your tuition,” she said on “Today.” Howard declined to comment on the case. She and her husband, a physical therapist, moved to the tiny town of Bonners Ferry in far northern Idaho, not far from her parents. But in 2004, her uncle said, she left her husband, and moved in with him in Coeur d’Alene, living for several months in the basement. She found various kinds of work, including selling her art, and teaching art, and she became involved in minority rights causes in Coeur d’Alene and nearby Spokane. Within a few years, family members said, they began to hear from others that Ms. Dolezal was identifying herself as something other than white. They said her background was European, except for a small fraction that is Native American. In police reports around the region about complaints she made beginning in 2005, she is identified as white. By 2009, the reports call her a black woman. Former co-workers at the education institute and the N.A.A.C.P. said she told them she was partly black. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In 2008, she was hired as the education coordinator at the North Idaho Human Rights Education Institute and worked there until 2010. “Ms. Dolezal portrayed herself as African-American at that time,” the institute said in a statement on Tuesday. “She was extremely gifted and produced very, very powerful exhibits for the institute” recalled Tony Stewart, a retired North Idaho College professor and longtime civil rights activist. He said he and others who met Dolezal in 2008 were left with the clear impression she was black. “Yes, we did think she was a person of color,” Mr. Stewart said Tuesday. She taught courses at North Idaho College, and later also at Eastern Washington University, where she worked in the Africana studies program. She became an adviser to black student groups. About five years ago, she also took guardianship of one of her adoptive siblings, Izaiah, who was then a teenager. “She decided that he was being abused, so she basically showed up and took him, and essentially said if you want him back, you’re going to have to sue,” her uncle said. But questions about Ms. Dolezal, if not suspicion that she was not exactly everything she purported to be, were never far away either. In her neighborhood of mostly modest homes south of downtown, one neighbor, Tony Berg, a hydraulics technician who was sitting on his front step with a cigarette on a recent morning across the street from her house, said he saw Ms. Dolezal’s appearance change and at first thought someone else had moved in. “She was blond — dreadlocks down to here and white skin,” Mr. Berg said, drawing a line across his waist. “Then a year or two later, I began seeing a darker-skinned woman go into the house. She had changed.” Growing Suspicions And some of the questions, or doubts, about her racial identity were also being deliberately spread. A columnist at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Shawn Vestal, said that he and other people at the paper were approached by a private investigator in early June, more than a week before the first news reports about Ms. Dolezal’s racial identity. “He did have some of the evidence, or said he did, about what her parents would say about her identity,” said Mr. Vestal, who said he had agreed with the investigator that his name would not be made public. In the “Today” interview on Tuesday and one that followed on a sister network, MSNBC, Ms. Dolezal, remarkably composed despite harsh criticism aimed at her, stuck to her insistence that racial heredity does not equal identity, and she would not answer questions about whether she had changed her self-identification to merely gain advantage. Mr. Lauer asked if she could have been as successful an activist if she had portrayed herself as white. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I don’t know,” Ms. Dolezal said. “I guess I haven’t had the opportunity to experience that in those shoes, so I’m not sure.”

– The Rachel Dolezal story got even stranger during an NBC interview last night in which, as Raw Story puts it, she went "full-scale birther" on herself. Asked by Savannah Guthrie whether she thought it was misleading to identify as black, Dolezal responded, "I haven't had a DNA test. There's been no biological proof that Larry and Ruthanne [Dolezal] are my biological parents." When reminded that her name and their names are on her birth certificate, Dolezal said she couldn't prove they're not her parents, but "I don't know that I can actually prove they are. I mean, the birth certificate is issued a month and a half after I'm born. And certainly there were no medical witnesses to my birth." "I definitely am not white," Dolezal continued. "Nothing about being white describes who I am. The closest thing that I can come to is if—if you're black or white, I'm black. I'm more black than I am white." Dolezal said she hasn't changed her skin color, but she does spray on bronzer some days. It isn't clear whether there were any "medical witnesses" to her birth, or whether she really believes her parents may not be her parents. Dolezal has claimed to have been born in a tepee, but her uncle tells the New York Times that isn't true. "Larry and Ruthanne were kind of the quintessential Jesus people, hippies, back to nature, and they set up a tepee and lived in it for a year," he says. "Drove my parents crazy, but nobody was born in the tepee."

Decades from now, cinephiles will look back on the early 2000s as the Superhero Era — and they’ll be able to pinpoint the moment when the bubble burst. As with all trends, it’s only a matter of time. It happened with film noir and then westerns, it happened to the spy movies of the 1960s, and then to the gritty crime dramas of the ’70s. And that’s why Warner Bros.’ plan to produce 10 DC Comics movies between 2016 to 2020 seems so short-sighted. The company is so focused on dethroning Marvel as the reigning box office champ that it’s missing the big picture: Superheroes may be invincible on screen, but their popularity won’t last forever. And the upcoming glut of movies might just speed their demise. The saturation is no joke. Studios have already slated 22 titles over the next five years, not including the handful Marvel has promised with release dates but without any details. That also doesn’t count second cousins like the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” sequel and “The Lego Batman Movie” in 2017. The spandex industry must be thrilled. Can this man rescue Warner Bros.? Henry Cavill plays Superman in “Man of Steel.” (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures, Clay Enos) While Marvel has enjoyed hit after hit, from “Iron Man” to “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Warner Bros. has had a spotty past with its DC Comics adaptations. Batman and Superman can deliver predictably big box-office numbers, but beyond those guys, all bets are off. Remember the “Catwoman” catastrophe of 2004? Not to mention the two consecutive bombs “Jonah Hex,” in 2010, and “The Green Lantern” the following year. Warner Bros. is doubling down on its golden boys: In addition to “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” with Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne, Warner plans to release two other Justice League movies. The directive is clear: Replicate the success of Marvel’s “Avengers” franchise, and pray that Affleck doesn’t pull a Clooney. The 2016 release of “Suicide Squad” is another copycat move. The comic book features a crew of antiheroes, who are sprung from jail to become covert operatives for the good guys. Sound familiar? Here’s the problem: The great asset of Marvels movies like “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Iron Man” and “Captain America” is their sense of humor. Warner’s superheroes lean much more somber. And the fact that David Ayer, the man behind dark action films like “Fury” and “Training Day,” is set to direct “Suicide Squad” doesn’t suggest a fun romp. Marvel’s casting has also been exceptional. Warner Bros., meanwhile, is betting big on newcomers. First there’s Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman — and, credit where it’s due, good for them for finally making a female superhero movie. Also noteworthy: Warner has hired openly gay actor Ezra Miller to star in “The Flash” (to be released in 2018). Though acclaimed for “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” few multiplex-goers know who he is. Jason Momoa, the “Game of Thrones” warlord lined up to play Aquaman, has only slightly better name recognition. Though, hey, at least there’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson cast as Black Adam in “Shazam.” In other news, Warner will reboot “Green Lantern,” in 2020, not even a decade after the Ryan Reynolds incarnation bombed. If at first you don’t succeed. . . Director James Gunn brings "Guardians of the Galaxy" that follows a motley team of otherworldly misfits, including a talking raccoon, led by Chris Pratt's character. The film opens Friday. . (Walt Disney Pictures) Of course, the superhero genre might hang on for another decade. Westerns delighted audiences for ages. But box office numbers overall are down for the year. “Guardians of the Galaxy” is the number one movie so far, but with a little more than $326 million, that’s not as impressive as last year’s top superhero movie, “Iron Man 3” ($409 million), which wasn’t even number one domestically. “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” brought in more than $424 million. How many more times will people pay to see Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark or a muscled Hugh Jackman with mutton chops as Wolverine? It looks like Warner Bros. is running hard to catch up when it might be smarter to focus on the next big thing. ||||| Well played, Warner Bros. Just when everyone thinks that Robert Downey Jr.’s potential return as Tony Stark is the biggest news of the week—well, if someone can return before they’ve actually left, considering he’s still signed up for the next two Avengers movies—you go and drop the names, dates, and casting announcements for no fewer than 10 movies during a conference call. Well played indeed. Here are the highlights of the week’s superhero movie news. SUPER IDEA: Warner’s Making a Lot of Superhero Movies Over The Next Five Years Warner Bros. has finally unveiled plans for its DC Comics properties on the big screen. We all knew that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was coming in 2016, but during a conference call yesterday Warners CEO Kevin Tsujihara announced it’ll be joined by a Suicide Squad movie directed by David Ayer. In 2017, there will be a solo Wonder Woman movie and the first of two Justice League movies. The following year Warner Bros. will release The Flash and Aquaman, with Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa in the lead roles, respectively. In 2019, we’ll get Shazam and Justice League Part Two (Really, that’s the title), with 2020 offering up a new Green Lantern movie and a solo Cyborg movie, starring Ray Fisher. Yes, we’re already talking about movies that’ll be coming out six years from now. Why this is super: Beyond the simple fact of Warner’s stepping up and declaring its intentions, there’s a lot to unpack here. Warner Bros. has beaten Marvel to the punch of not only a solo female-led superhero movie, but also superhero movies with non-white leads: Aquaman and Shazam, and possibly even Green Lantern, depending which Lantern they choose to focus on. More to the point, the scale of this announcement shows that Marvel will very soon have a serious competitor in the superhero movie business, one that’s in it for the long haul and may even outpace Marvel in terms of production. The official announcement of these movies hinted that even more DC projects could be revealed for the time period, including solo Batman and Superman projects. The race is on. Or, rather, it will be on in 2016. SUPER IDEA … MAYBE: Captain America 3 Will Have Cap Take on Iron Man So it turns out that Robert Downey Jr. might not be making a fourth Iron Man movie—because he’s actually in talks to appear in the third Captain America instead … as the bad guy, oddly enough. According to Variety, the Marvel movies are expected to follow the direction of the 2006 comic book series Civil War, with Stark and Cap coming to blows over whether or not superheroes should register their identities with authorities. (This is a heavy-handed gun control metaphor, everyone.) Is this super?: On the plus side: More Robert Downey Jr. playing himself in a suit of superheroic armor! On the slightly more ambivalent side: There’s a risk in bringing the Civil War storyline to movies, and not just because the comic book was about as subtle as someone dropping an anvil on your head. For one thing, it arguably turned Iron Man into a bad guy and turned many readers against him for awhile, and that seems like a road that movie audiences might not appreciate. For another, do we really want to see another movie where Cap fights against a corrupt system he’s already entirely complicit with, using only his unshakable moral system, chiseled jaw, and utter lack of personality? Wasn’t that exactly what happened last time, as good as it was? For now, let’s chalk it up to “To Be Continued,” instead of passing judgment. Isn’t that how superhero stories should end, anyway? SUPER IDEA: Michael Keaton Becoming Batman Again In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Michael Keaton said he’d play Bruce Wayne again “in a heartbeat”—as long as Tim Burton was directing. “He started everything, and some of the guys who have done these movies since then don’t say that, and they’re wrong,” Birdman star added. Why this is super: There are many who feel that Christopher Nolan did the best Batman movies, but Burton definitely made the most interesting ones (Batman Returns, anyone?). The idea of Burton and Keaton re-teaming now to do another one is very exciting indeed, even if it is almost entirely unlikely to happen considering that whole Ben Affleck thing. But we can dream… SUPER IDEA: Hawkeye In A Solo Movie? Sure, Why Not? During a Reddit AMA, Jeremy Renner backtracked on earlier comments about his Marvel character going it alone. “Am I interested?” he wrote in response to the prospect being raised. “Always have been interested. I always love Clint, and in the last Avengers: Age of Ultron, we got to dive into him some more. Very excited about the outcome of it, and where it can go in the future.” It’s ultimately up to Marvel, he said. “It all comes down to … how the puppeteers at Marvel can manifest a story that’s worthy of a solo movie. Not sure what that is, or how that is, but I’m confident they can do whatever they want, if they want to do it.” Why this is super: If someone at Marvel Studios hasn’t thought about trying to adapt Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye series for the big screen yet, we’d be very surprised. And if they haven’t, it’s clearly time to start. SUPER IDEA: Darkness. No Parents. Nevermind all the other DC news: A movie featuring Will Arnett’s Lego Batman is being fast-tracked, according to reports. It’s going to be directed by Chris McKay, who was the animation supervisor on The Lego Movie, with that movie’s writers acting as executive producers. It’s likely to hit theaters in 2017. Why this is super: If you saw The Lego Movie, you know why. If you didn’t, then you should really watch The Lego Movie, because it is—if you’ll pardon the cliche—awesome. More importantly, you’ll get to meet the none-more-dark Batman, who is as vain, lacking in self-awareness, and hilarious as you’ve always suspected the Dark Knight would be. More of that just might be the best movie news of the year.

– News that Warner Bros. is planning no fewer than 10 DC comics movies in the next six years is great news for superhero fans, yes? No, writes Stephanie Merry at the Washington Post. In fact, the announcement might just herald the end of the genre. "Decades from now, cinephiles will look back on the early 2000s as the Superhero Era—and they’ll be able to pinpoint the moment when the bubble burst," she writes of the studio's announcement. This kind of bubble-bursting happens with any film trend, from film noir to westerns to spy movies, and the move by Warner Bros. seems likely to speed things up. The studio is desperately trying to overtake Marvel (Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy) as king of the superhero flicks, but in doing so it will only worsen the glut of such movies, writes Merry. People are going to get bored. "It looks like Warner Bros. is running hard to catch up when it might be smarter to focus on the next big thing," she concludes. Those looking for antidote to the skepticism can check out Graeme McMillan at Wired, who loves most of the new DC Comics lineup. With Wonder Woman, for example, "Warner Bros. has beaten Marvel to the punch of not only a solo female-led superhero movie, but also superhero movies with non-white leads: Aquaman and Shazam." Taken as a whole, the 10-movie schedule is, in a word, "super," and the heightened competition could lead to bigger, better movies from both studios. Click for McMillan's full column, or for Merry's full column.

Anissa Weier is brought into court for a hearing last month. On Thursday, her attorney said she would plead not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in the Slender Man case. She and Morgan Geyser are accused of stabbing another girl. (Photo: Michael Sears / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) Anissa Weier plans to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in the Slender Man stabbing case next week. Weier's co-defendant, Morgan Geyser, had already entered such a plea, often referred to as NGI, at a hearing last month. At the time, prosecutors pressed the judge to inquire whether Weier might go the same route, since it requires the court to appoint doctors to examine the defendant and report whether their condition would support the plea. One of Weier's attorneys, Maura McMahon, said the defense had not yet decided. But in a pleading filed this week, McMahon indicated that Weier now wants to change her not guilty plea to the insanity plea. A hearing was set for Sept. 9 for that change of plea. Weier and Geyser, both 14, were 12 when prosecutors say they plotted and attempted to kill their sixth-grade classmate and friend Payton Leutner in May 2014. ARCHIVE: Slender Man case coverage Leutner was stabbed 19 times and left for dead in a Waukesha park the morning after a sleepover party for Geyser's 12th birthday, but managed to crawl near a path, where she was found by a passing bicyclist. Both defendants later told police they were trying to either impress or avoid the wrath of Slender Man, a fictional internet boogeyman the girls said they believed would harm them or their families if they didn't kill their friend. They remain charged as adults with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, after efforts to have their cases transferred to juvenile court were denied. A defendant entering an NGI plea contends that at the time she committed a crime, a mental disease or defect prevented her from appreciating the wrongfulness of her action, or from conforming her conduct to the law. Someone found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect is typically committed to a state mental hospital for treatment. Geyser, who has been diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia, has already spent months at Winnebago Mental Health Institute under a separate civil commitment. During earlier hearings, mental health experts testified that Weier was competent to proceed with the case, but had not done more extensive evaluations required for an NGI review. She remains at a West Bend juvenile detention center. No trial date has been set in the case. Read or Share this story: http://on.jsonl.in/2civi3X ||||| Two girls accused of trying to kill a classmate to please horror character Slender Man want jurors from outside their home county to decide their trials. Morgan Geyser's attorneys filed a motion this week seeking jurors from outside Waukesha County because of heavy media coverage. Geyser has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. A letter the other girl's defense attorneys submitted to the court seeks outside jurors as well. The letter noted that girl plans to plead not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. Investigators say Geyser and Anissa Weier, who were 12 at the time of the 2014 attack, plotted for months before luring the victim, who also was 12, into some woods and repeatedly stabbing her. The girls hoped killing her would please Slender Man, a demon-like character in online stories. The victim crawled out of the woods to get help. Both girls face an attempted homicide charge in adult court. Their attorneys had been fighting to move them into juvenile court but a state appeals court in July ruled they should remain in adult court.

– Both girls in Wisconsin's disturbing "Slender Man" case will now be pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. Attorneys for 14-year-old Anissa Weier signaled this week that they want to change her plea in the attempted murder case from not guilty to "NGI," meaning that she's likely to be committed to a state mental hospital for treatment if found not guilty, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Co-accused Morgan Geyser, who is also 14, has been diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia and has already entered an NGI plea. Both girls were 12 years old in 2014 when they allegedly stabbed a 12-year-old classmate 19 times and left her for dead in what they told investigators was an attempt to please the online horror character "Slender Man." In July, an appeals court ruled that they should be tried as adults for the attempted killing. WISN reports that lawyers for both girls are seeking to have the case heard by jurors from outside Waukesha County, where the attack took place, because of heavy media coverage.

“It’s a big breakthrough,” said Paul F. Walker, an arms control expert with the environmental group Green Cross International who has helped in efforts to demilitarize the American and Russian chemical weapons stockpiles since the 1990s. “Even though Libya’s chemical stockpile was relatively small, the effort to destroy it was very difficult because of weather, geography and because it’s a dangerous area with warring tribes, increasing the risks of theft and diversion,” he said. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Libya’s last two tons of chemical weapons were dwarfed by the 1,300 tons that Syria has agreed to destroy. But American and international arms experts say the need for easily transportable and efficient technology to wipe out the Libyan arms became a model for the Syria program now underway. For Libya’s fragile transitional government, such collaboration with the West on security matters is a delicate issue. It gives the country’s leaders desperately needed assistance to defuse internal threats, but also risks accusations of compromising national sovereignty. Asked about the American efforts to destroy the chemical weapons, Libyan security officials in Tripoli initially issued sweeping denials. One later briefly acknowledged the operation on the condition of anonymity, and then officials stopped returning phone calls. Advertisement Continue reading the main story On Sunday, the White House said that it would ensure that the Syrian government complied with an accord to give up its chemical arsenal despite missed deadlines and delays in carrying out the deal. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The White House chief of staff, Denis McDonough, said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation” that the deal was “not falling apart, but we would like to see it proceed much more quickly than it is.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story The disposal of the last of Libya’s chemical weapons closes a chapter that Colonel Qaddafi began in early 2004, when his government turned over a vast cache of nuclear technology and chemical stockpiles to the United States, Britain and international nuclear inspectors. At that time, Libya declared for destruction 24.7 metric tons of sulfur mustard, a syrupy liquid that when loaded into bombs or artillery shells and exploded creates a toxic mist that penetrates clothing, burns and blisters exposed skin, and can kill with large doses or if left untreated. The chemical was used extensively in World War I. Libya had destroyed about half of these stocks when civil war broke out in 2011. Western spy agencies closely monitored the destruction site in the Libyan desert to ensure the stockpiles were not pilfered by insurgents. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. When the new government took control in Tripoli that fall, it signaled its intent to finish the job. Libyan officials also surprised Western inspectors by announcing the discovery in November 2011 and February 2012 of two hidden caches of mustard, or nearly two tons, that had not been declared by Colonel Qaddafi’s government. That brought the total declared amount of chemical to 26.3 tons. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Unlike the majority of Libya’s mustard agents, which were stored in large, bulky containers, the new caches were already armed and loaded into 517 artillery shells, 45 plastic sleeves for rocket launchings and eight 500-pound bombs. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The new stockpiles immediately posed huge challenges for the fledgling Libyan government, which had no ability to destroy the combat-ready chemical weapons, as well as for its American and European allies called upon to help. The disposal site is deep in the desert, in an area where Islamist militants hostile to the West wield growing influence. It also sits on the front line of the struggle between Libya’s eastern and western provinces over political power and oil revenue. A defining issue in post-Qaddafi politics, the regional rivalry has often spilled out into armed blockades of the national highways and crucial oil-export terminals as well. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Using $45 million from the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which has helped rid the former Soviet Union of thousands of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War, the Pentagon and its Defense Threat Reduction Agency tapped the Parsons Corporation, a construction firm based in Pasadena, Calif., to work with Libya to oversee the rebuilding and safeguarding of the Libyan disposal site, which had been ransacked during the civil war. Remarkably, the mustard agents stored in bulk containers at the site were untouched and their inspection seals unbroken, American and international officials said. These have all been destroyed, too. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Canada donated $6 million to help restore water, sewage service and electricity to the site, and to build living quarters for Western and Libyan contractors. Germany agreed to fly international inspectors to the site. The project has relied on a custom-built device from Dynasafe, a Swedish company, to destroy the weapons. It is essentially a giant, high-tech oven called a static-detonation chamber. The munitions were fed through an automated loading system into a gas-tight chamber, where the toxic materials were vaporized at temperatures between 750 and 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Gases created in the process were scrubbed by special filters. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “The destruction of these munitions was a major undertaking in arduous, technically challenging circumstances,” Ahmet Uzumcu, the director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, whose inspectors supervised the destruction of the chemical weapons, said in a written statement. Although American officials acknowledge that Libya is awash with conventional arms, they expressed confidence that the vast Libyan desert holds no other secret caches of unconventional arms for jihadis to exploit. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Andrew C. Weber, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, said, “This is the culmination of a major international effort to eliminate weapons of mass destruction from Libya and to ensure that they never fall into the hands of terrorists.” ||||| Image copyright Other Since Muammar Gaddafi's ignominious death at the hands of a rebel mob in October 2011 much has been written and said about him. But now a new film, with unprecedented access to those close to Gaddafi, provides a comprehensive study of Libya's brutal and contradictory long-time leader. Ali Aujali, Gaddafi's former ambassador to the United States, is an exceptionally charming man. Gaddafi and the airliners Image copyright AFP Pan Am flight 103 from London to New York destroyed by a bomb on 21 December 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (pictured), was jailed for the bombing in 2001, released in August 2009 suffering from cancer and died in May 2012 On 9 September 1989 UTA flight 772 was travelling from Brazzaville to Paris when it was blown up over the Sahara desert. All 156 passengers and 14 crew members were killed In 1999 a French court found six Libyans guilty in absentia of planting a bomb and sentenced them to life imprisonment On 22 December 1992 - four years and a day after Lockerbie - 157 people died when a Libyan airliner disintegrated as it came in to land in Tripoli There have been calls for the crash to be reinvestigated and now Ali Aujali has claimed Gaddafi was responsible The Gaddafi family tree UTA 772 memorial seen from space He is also something of a magician. He began his career in the Libyan diplomatic service a couple of years after Gaddafi seized power in 1969. In a series of postings from London to Latin America, he explained away the excesses of the Gaddafi regime. So I was rather surprised to sit with Mr Aujali surrounded by the staggeringly ornate Libyan embassy in Washington and hear him tear the colonel to pieces. Mr Aujali defected to the rebels in February 2011 and became their ambassador to the United States. According to him, there was literally nothing good about the man whose regime he had served most of his adult life. Secret after secret spilled out. We checked as many of his claims as we could. There were anecdotes we could not follow up, such as his claim that a young man had been tied to two cars and ripped in half after complaining that Gaddafi had had sex with his wife. But there were other claims we could check. One was that on 22 December 1992, almost four years to the day after Pan Am 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, a Libyan Arab Airlines 727 was shot down on Gaddafi's orders. A total of 157 people - Libyans and foreigners - had died. Its flight number, curiously, was 1103. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The wreckage of Flight 1103 on the outskirts of Tripoli After Gaddafi fell, the British wife of one of the victims tried to get the new Libyan government to open an enquiry. Reporters pieced together statements made by pilots of military jets in the area, air traffic controllers and airline employees. But what was important about Mr Aujali's statement to us was that it was the first time a true insider had spoken out. Was he sure? "100%," he said. A bomb with a timer had been placed on board the plane. When it failed to detonate, Gaddafi ordered the plane to be knocked out of the sky, near Tripoli airport. Find out more Image caption Ali Aujali switched sides in 2011, after representing Gaddafi for 40 years Watch Mad Dog: Gaddafi's Secret World on BBC Four at 22:00 GMT on Monday 3 February or catch it later on iPlayer. Mad Dog: Gaddafi's Secret World Why? Mr Aujali said his motive had been to show the West - via Libya's state-controlled media - how international sanctions imposed after Lockerbie were hurting ordinary Libyans. Unable to buy spare parts, the story went, Libyan Arab Airlines could not fly its planes safely. The dead were victims of what Gaddafi liked to represent to visitors as Western terrorism. The official explanation varied. Eventually the regime jailed the pilot of a Libyan Air Force MiG and his instructor, claiming they had collided with the plane. The instructor, Majid Tayari, agreed to meet us in a Tripoli hotel. There was no collision, he insisted. He saw part of the tail of the 727 hurtling towards him. Something hit the MiG from underneath, then fire broke out. Both pilots ejected. According to him the 727 had been hit first. Pieces of fuselage rained down at very high speed and punctured the skin of the MiG. Libyan Arab Airlines' air safety manager in 1992, Mahmud Tekalli, also disputes that a mid-air collision was the cause. He believes flight 1103 was deliberately destroyed. Image caption Frank Terpil ran a murder-for-hire business for Gaddafi until his cover was blown 30 years ago We went to the crash site and then negotiated our way past the militia guarding Tripoli airport. A back road runs past elderly planes. Off the road we found the wreckage of Flight 1103 in eerily good condition, protected by the desert climate, ready to lay bare its secrets to crash investigators. Mr Aujali was not the only insider we met on our travels. On a private island in the Pacific Ocean, we talked to Lutz Kayser, a German rocket designer who worked for Gaddafi in the 1980s. Mr Kayser says: "He was a very nice, modest person and I had the impression he was hiding his weakness behind a facade." Mr Kayser's wife, Susanne, says Gaddafi was "charming and could charm the birds out of the trees" but she said he later became disillusioned when he failed to set up a "utopia" in Libya. In Havana we interviewed Frank Terpil, an American fugitive from justice who ran a "Murder Incorporated" operation for Gaddafi in the 1970s, killing Libyan dissidents abroad. Mr Terpil said: "Gaddafi thought that anybody who was a dissident was going to be eliminated. He had contracts out on a bunch of people in London." Image caption Urs Tinner, who was tracked down to Switzerland, said he feared for his life And after pursuing him for months, we finally reached Urs Tinner, a Swiss engineer who worked for Abdul Qadeer Khan, once called the most dangerous man in the world. Mr Khan developed nuclear weapons for Pakistan and later offered nuclear technology to any country with the money to pay. Gaddafi was his most lucrative client. Mr Tinner says he was not aware Mr Khan was a "nuclear proliferator" but when he realised he tipped off the CIA, who intercepted a ship with final parts for a centrifuge. We also unearthed evidence of Gaddafi's sexual abuse of young girls. And one of his female bodyguards, who now lives in hiding, told us she ended up fearing him: "[One night] we were going to witness the execution of 17 students. They did not hang them. They shot them. We were forbidden to scream. We were ordered to cheer." Finally we found Gary Peters, an Australian bodyguard for the Gaddafi family, who had fled to Niger with the ex-leader's son Saadi, while Gaddafi made his last stand in Sirte. He said: "He stood to the last because he thought he could possibly reclaim his status." Watch Mad Dog: Gaddafi's Secret World on BBC Four on Monday 3 February at 22:00 GMT or catch it later on catch it later on the BBC iPlayer.

– The destruction of Syria's chemical weapons continues to hit delays—but a secret effort to rid Libya of chemical weapons has been a success, the New York Times reports. The US and Libya have been destroying what was left of Moammar Gadhafi's stockpile, including hundreds of weapons containing a mustard agent. The three-month project, which wiped out two tons of arms using what the Times calls a "giant, high-tech oven," ended last week. "It’s a big breakthrough," says an expert, noting that the process—a basis for the much larger effort in Syria—"was very difficult because of weather, geography, and because it's a dangerous area with warring tribes, increasing the risks of theft and diversion." In 2004, Gadhafi had provided some 24.7 metric tons of chemical weapons to the West for destruction, but only half were gone by the time civil war began in 2011. The post-Gadhafi Libyan government sought to rid itself of the remainder, as well as almost two tons of additional material it had found—agents already installed in bombs and artillery, the Times notes. The destruction effort, which used funds from the Pentagon as well as Canada, saw the weapons vaporized in an oven created by Swedish firm Dynasafe. Meanwhile, the BBC is airing old Gadhafi secrets in a special tonight; among them, a former ally who says the strongman ordered a plane shot down near Tripoli in 1992, killing 157 passengers in a demonstration against sanctions.

Subscriber Content Read Preview Beijing, U.S. Unveil New Korean Sanctions The U.S. and China introduced a new round of sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations that the U.S. said would significantly impede the development of Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, in response to its test last month of an atomic bomb. ||||| GMO corn falls prey to bugs it was supposed to thwart CHICAGO — A voracious pest which has long plagued corn farmers is devouring a widely-used variety that was genetically modified to thwart the rootworms, raising fears of a new superbug. So far, there is no evidence that a significant number of rootworms have developed a resistance to the corn's protective toxin. However, experts warn that farmers may be forced to resume the heavy use of pesticides if resistant bugs become widespread. They also caution that farmers may be using genetically modified crops in ways that hasten the development of resistant bugs. "The western corn rootworm is one of the most significant insect pests of corn in the United States and has a potential to become a very significant insect in Europe," said Michael Gray, a crop scientist at the University of Illinois. Farmers used to be able to manage the pests by rotating which crops they planted in their fields. But rootworms started to lay their eggs on soybeans -- the most common substitute -- which meant farmers had to use pesticides to get rid of them. The hardy and adaptive bugs have also developed resistance to some pesticides, Gray said Monday. Monsanto released the first seeds that were genetically-modified to protect themselves from rootworms in 2003. US farmers used this type of seed for 45% of the US crop in 2009. Evidence of the first resistant rootworms was found in four Iowa fields that suffered extensive damage from the pests in 2009. Gray is currently investigating whether rootworms which devoured genetically modified corn in Illinois this year have also developed a resistance. Laboratory testing published last month confirmed that the bugs collected from the Iowa fields were able to pass a resistance to the crop's toxins on to their offspring. "These results suggest that improvements in resistance management and a more integrated approach to the use of Bt crops may be necessary," wrote lead researcher Aaron Gassmann of Iowa State University. The fields where the resistant rootworms were found had been planted with the genetically modified seeds for at least three consecutive years. That could have helped the bugs develop a resistance, Gassmann wrote. Another contributor could be the insufficient use of "refuges," he concluded. Farmers are supposed to plant 20 percent of their fields with corn that doesn't have the genetic modification so that if resistant bugs develop they will end up breeding with non-resistant rootworms drawn to the unprotected plants and lessen the chance of passing resistance on to the next generation. Monsanto is already working to make it easier for farmers to comply with these government-mandated "refuges" by selling bags that contain a mix of unprotected and protected seeds. It also has several other products already on the market which could work as a substitute if significant resistance develops and has several new products in the pipeline, said spokesman Lee Quarles. But while Monsanto is taking the study results "seriously" there is no reason for farmers to stop using the current seeds, he said. "Today's products work," Quarles told AFP. "They continue to provide tremendous performance to farmers and we're seeing that performance on greater than 99% of all acres planted." Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| The second involved crop-eating insects. We've isolated the toxic gene of a commonly used bacterial pesticide called Bt, Monsanto announced, and spliced it directly into crops. Along with corn and soy, you will literally be growing the pesticide that protects them. Plant our seeds, and watch your crops thrive while their pests shrivel and die. The first involved weeds. Leave the weed management to us, Monsanto insisted. We've engineered plants that can survive our very own herbicide. Just pay up for our patented, premium-priced seeds, spray your fields with our Roundup herbicide whenever the fancy strikes, and—voilà!—no more weeds. Over the past decade and a half, as Monsanto built up its globe-spanning, multi-billion-dollar genetically modified seed empire, it made two major pitches to farmers. Monsanto focused its technology on three widely planted, highly subsidized crops: corn, soy, and cotton. Large-scale farmers of these commodities, always operating on razor-thin profit margins, lunged at the chance to streamline their operations by essentially outsourcing their pest management to Monsanto. And so Monsanto's high-tech crops essentially took over the corn/soy- and cotton-growing regions of the country. But now the pitches are wearing thin. Dumping a single herbicide onto millions of acres of farmland has, predictably enough, given rise to weeds resistant to that herbicide. Such "superweeds" are now galloping through cotton and corn country, forcing farmers to resort to highly toxic herbicide cocktails and even hand-weeding. More than 11 million acres are infested with Roundup-resistant weeds, up from 2.4 million acres in 2007, reckons Penn State University weed expert David Mortensen. And now insects are developing resistance to Monsanto's insecticide-infused crops, reports the Wall Street Journal. Fields planted in Monsanto's Bt corn in some areas of the Midwest are showing damage from the corn rootworm—the very species targeted by Monsanto's engineered trait. An Iowa State University scientist has conclusively identified Bt-resistant root worms in four Iowa fields, the Journal reports. The findings are not likely isolated to those fields—just like spotting a cockroach on your kitchen floor probably signals an infestation, not that a lone cockroach randomly stumbled in for a visit. Sure enough, farmers in Illinois are also seeing severe rootworm damage in fields planted in Monsanto's Bt corn. And it's not just in the United States: In 2010, Monsanto itself acknowledged that in industrial-agriculture regions of India, where Monsanto's Bt cotton is a dominant crop, a cotton-attacking pest called the bollworm had developed resistance. Just as Roundup-resistant superweeds rapidly bloomed into a major problem after first appearing in the mid-2000s, Bt-resistant superinsects may be just getting started. Colleen Scherer, managing editor of the industrial-ag trade magazine Ag Professional, put it like this: "There is no 'putting the genie back in the bottle,' and resistance in these areas is a problem that won't go away." So what does all of this mean for Monsanto? If its main attraction for farmers—the promise of easy pest management—is turning to dust in a quite public way, should we expect the company be on the verge of getting crushed under the weight of its failures? To get a glimpse of how the publicly traded company is faring, I looked at how its stock has been performing over the past year, compared to the broader stock market. Early Monday afternoon, Monsanto's shares were trading at about $71—a more than 25 percent gain over the past 12 months. Over the same period, the S&P 500—a broad gauge of US stocks—is up just over 10 percent. That means investors have high hopes for Monsanto going forward, despite the high-profile failures. Like weeds and bugs in farm fields, Monsanto shares have developed resistance to toxic tidings. What gives? The Wall Street Journal article provides a clue: The [Bt-resistance] finding adds fuel to the race among crop biotechnology rivals to locate the next generation of genes that can protect plants from insects. Scientists at Monsanto and Syngenta AG of Basel, Switzerland, are already researching how to use a medical breakthrough called RNA interference to, among other things, make crops deadly for insects to eat. If this works, a bug munching on such a plant could ingest genetic code that turns off one of its essential genes. In other words, Monsanto claims it has the answer to the trouble it's cooking up on corn, soy, and cotton fields: more patent-protected GM technology. It has managed to shove US farmers on a kind of accelerating treadmill: the need to apply ever more, and ever more novel, high-tech responses to keep up with ever-evolving pests. And while farmers run ever faster to stay in place, Monsanto just keeps coming up with highly profitable "solutions" to the problems it has generated. Investors have embraced Monsanto's pitch. Large-scale farmers, battered and desperate for relief, probably will too. But the broader citizenry, in the form of the regulatory agencies that ostensibly guard the public interest, should start asking hard questions.

– Farmers in Iowa who planted corn seeds genetically modified to fend off the dreaded corn rootworm are seeing a troubling sign: The rootworm is apparently developing a resistance to the Monsanto seeds and gobbling up cornfields again, say Iowa University researchers. It's still just a small percentage of rootworms that have adapted, reports AFP, but the development is renewing fears that biotech crops will create superbugs. "These are isolated cases, and it isn't clear how widespread the problem will become," an Iowa State entomologist tells the Wall Street Journal. "But it is an early warning that management practices need to change." At Mother Jones, blogger Tom Philpott thinks Monsanto has put farmers on a "treadmill" of sorts: "the need to apply ever more, and ever more novel, high-tech responses to keep up with ever-evolving pests."

Army Sgt. Maj. Greg Lowery, left, playing the part of President-elect Donald Trump, and Army Spc. Sara Corry, playing the part of Melania Trump, walk along the parade route during a dress rehearsal for... (Associated Press) Army Sgt. Maj. Greg Lowery, left, playing the part of President-elect Donald Trump, and Army Spc. Sara Corry, playing the part of Melania Trump, walk along the parade route during a dress rehearsal for Inauguration Day, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is set to take the oath of office Friday, but on Sunday, an Army band member stood in for the soon-to-be 45th president during an inauguration dress rehearsal at the Capitol. Band vocalist Greg Lowery — a 53-year-old sergeant major — says his role was to "look the part as much as possible," and he says he bought a red tie for his assignment. Another band member, Sara Corry, was standing in for Melania (meh-LAH'-nee-ah) Trump, a native of Slovenia. The Army specialist is from Capistrano Beach, California. The goal of the rehearsal was to practice events so everything goes off as flawlessly — and on time — as possible for the real thing Friday. ||||| WASHINGTON (WUSA9) - What do you think? Is there a striking resemblance? The following is a picture of the Present-elect, Donald Trump and his wife, as-well-as the Vice President-elect and his wife’s stand-in’s for the 2017 Inauguration Dress Rehearsal. What do you think, doppelgängers? At Fort McNair talking to the PEOTUS, FLEOTUS, Mr. & Mrs. VP Elect #inaug2017 rehearsal stand-ins @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/o0GUt0u3ny — Stephanie Ramirez (@RamirezReports) January 12, 2017 "I believe he's much handsomer than I but, I'm honored to be a part of this,” said President-Elect stand-in, SGT. MAJ. Greg Lowery. The four United States Army members were ‘elected’ by command and then went through an audition process to play these roles. Some may share a small resemblance to their counterparts, but that’s not why the four U.S. Army members were chosen. It’s actually because their height matches the prospective person they’ll be standing-in for. They group will have to re-enact everything from the swearing in, to moving around with security detail. It's all smiles now but come rehearsal, it's all business because everything they do could not only impact the safety of the people they're impersonating, but also how it airs to the world. "It's crucially important because the escorts to the President and First Lady will need to know their route. So they'll need to rehearse escorting someone and they'll need to set the heights of the microphones and the lighting, the camera angles to make sure that everything's perfect for the day of the inauguration so that all goes without a flaw,” said MSG Neil Ewachiw, playing the role of Vice President-elect, Michael Pence. The Joint Task Force National Region is directing rehearsals they and the stand-ins have once chance to fix any kinks at the one and only dress rehearsal to be held this Sunday, Jan. 15th. The stand-in’s are also part of the United States Army Band, “Pershing's Own.” As band members, they participated in their fair share of inaugurations … but never like this! "To take part in it, I just think it's thrilling,” said M SGT Leigh Ann Hinton, who plays the role of Karen Pence. "The peaceful transfer is really, it's the keystone of our Democracy so what we're celebrating is that act,” said MSG Ewachiw. Oh and on rehearsal day, they also have to dress the part, says ‘Melania Trump.’ "It's really going to be really fun to wear a nice pair of heels and have some camera time,” said SPC Sara Corry before everyone smiled. (© 2017 WUSA)

– Donald Trump is set to take the oath of office Friday, but the AP reports that on Sunday, an Army band member stood in for the soon-to-be 45th president during an inauguration dress rehearsal at the Capitol. Band vocalist Greg Lowery—a 53-year-old sergeant major—says his role was to "look the part as much as possible," and he says he bought a red tie for his assignment. "I believe he's much handsomer than I but, I'm honored to be a part of this," Lowery told WUSA9 earlier. Another band member, Sara Corry, was standing in for Melania Trump, a native of Slovenia. The Army specialist is from Capistrano Beach, Calif. The goal of the rehearsal was to practice events so everything goes off as flawlessly—and on time—as possible for the real thing Friday. The military foursome chosen to stand in for Trump and Pence and their respective wives weren't picked so much for their looks as they were for their height, notes WUSA9. "It's crucially important because the escorts to the president and first lady will need to know their route. So they'll need to rehearse escorting someone and they'll need to set the heights of the microphones and the lighting, the camera angles to make sure that everything's perfect for the day of the inauguration so that all goes without a flaw," says Neil Ewichiw, who's standing in for Mike Pence.

It’s been 31 years since May 31, 1986 — the last World Cup that didn’t feature the United States. That’s 11,456 days of progress for a sport that’s come so far in a country that still hasn’t fully embraced it. All of that gone. With U.S. soccer’s dreadful 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago on the final day of CONCACAF’s qualifying hexagonal for the 2018 World Cup, next summer’s tournament will not feature the USMNT. No Christian Pulisic. No Tim Howard. No Michael Bradley. With that loss, the USMNT gave a nation the lowest point in its sporting history, and it’s not really close. CONCACAF is a grind, but compared to the other qualifying regions, the 3.5 World Cup spots out of six teams mean that the United States should be a lock to qualify. When it beat Panama, 4-0, on Friday, the U.S. put itself in position to escape a lackluster qualifying round with a spot in the tournament. All it really needed to do was take care of business at lowly Trinidad and Tobago. They couldn’t even do that. With no sense of urgency, USMNT players and coaches had to watch as their CONCACAF counterparts did them no favors. Four years after the USMNT saved Mexico’s World Cup dreams, El Tri instead blew a lead to Honduras and helped seal the USMNT’s fate. Costa Rica also blew a lead to Panama on a goal that shouldn’t have counted and gave up a late winner as the U.S. decided to score-watch rather than take matters into its own hands. A mostly empty stadium in Couva, Trinidad and Tobago, felt even emptier on this night. It’s really difficult to quantify how bad this loss was for U.S. Soccer. Sunil Gulati and Bruce Arena should both be gone. Tim Howard, whose last World Cup appearance was a legendary performance, will likely leave U.S. Soccer with the lasting image of his worst performance with the national team. As bad as things got for the USMNT, the possibility of missing the World Cup didn’t actually seem real. It’s that arrogance that likely brought the team to where it is right now — out of the World Cup. When U.S. soccer legend Alexi Lalas called out the USMNT, its biggest star, Pulisic, laughed off the attempted gut-check rant. But when it comes down to it, though, the sport of soccer in the U.S. is going to feel the lasting effects the most. Every World Cup is an opportunity to grow the sport on the biggest stage. Even the growth from 2010, to 2014, to now has been tremendous. A nation went crazy when Landon Donovan sent the USMNT into the Round of 16 with his late winner in 2010 (a loss would have meant an early trip home). A nation went crazy when John Brooks put the U.S. ahead against Ghana in 2014, as he ran around not fully processing what he had done. Those moments forge memories and make lifelong fans of the sport. It creates momentum that makes it possible for an MLS team to draw 71,000 fans for a regular season match. Those moments inspire a young fan to kick around a soccer ball rather than throw a football. Those moments make it possible for a 19-year-old wonderkid to break through into the next level of international stardom. That’s not happening anymore. It’s five years — at best — of the USMNT out of the forefront of American sports. All because U.S. soccer let 95 minutes of arrogance erase 31 years of progress. And that is truly a shame. ||||| Ashley Allen/Getty Images The United States Men's National Team lost to Trinidad & Tobago, 2-1, on Tuesday night and were eliminated from the 2018 World Cup as a result. There is plenty of blame to go around, including to a phantom goal that helped Panama jump the Americans in the standings, but the brunt of it should and will be placed on the players and coaches who underperformed for the better part of a year of CONCACAF qualifying play. The loss is devastating to the US men's soccer program, which had not missed a World Cup since 1986. But some executives at Fox Sports are surely just as upset with the result as coach Bruce Arena and his players. To win a bidding war with ESPN, Fox agreed to pay $400 million for the English-broadcast rights to the World Cup in 2018 and 2022. With the Americans eliminated from 2018 contention, those broadcasts are most likely significantly less valuable than previously imagined. If the US had made next year's finals, Fox would've gotten the chance to broadcast three group-stage games for the US side, with the possibility of more if the Americans were able to make a run into the knockout round. Instead, Fox will have to dig a bit deeper to find compelling storylines for American fans in the biggest tournament in the world. While there will still be plenty of interest in Russia 2018, it's no doubt disappointing to both American soccer fans and Fox that the US will not be a part of the competition. USMNT supporters had hoped that this World Cup would be a swan song for some of the stars who had brought so them much joy, including Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, and Tim Howard. It was also supposed to serve as a coming-out party and passing of the torch for the American wunderkind Christian Pulisic, the 19-year-old who scored the Americans' lone goal Tuesday night and who is clearly the future of the team's success if it's to have any. But rather than a final goodbye to beloved superstars and a grand welcome to the future of the sport, the American men's soccer machine will have to collect itself, lick its wounds, and figure out a way to recover. And for Fox's initial investment to be worth anywhere near what it had anticipated, the USMNT must find a way to figure itself out ahead of 2022. ||||| On the final day of World Cup qualification Tuesday, Argentina needed a win in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, to advance to Russia. With everything to lose and a soccer mad country on pins and needles, the legendary Lionel Messi recorded a hat trick and Argentina was safe. It’s crazy to compare Argentina to the United States because one country has the history and youth system to remain an international force. And we certainly don’t have and perhaps never will have a player on the level of Messi. But the mission and the pressure were the same. And all Bruce Arena’s team had to do was earn a tie against tiny Trinidad and Tobago to keep the USA’s World Cup dream alive. And we failed. Spectacularly. A shocking 2-1 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago, the worst team in the final round of CONCACAF regional qualifying and already eliminated, means no 2018 World Cup for the Red, White and Blue next summer. No trip to Russia. No grand stage for Christian Pulisic. And no luck for Fox Sports, which paid a fortune for the television rights. It took 90-plus minutes for United States soccer to regress 30 years. “It’s a blemish for us,” U.S. coach Bruce Arena said. “We should not be staying home for the World Cup.” The U.S. finished fifth in the group. CONCACAF sends three teams automatically to the World Cup: Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama. The fourth, Honduras, heads to a playoff against an Asian confederation team, Australia. It took 90-plus minutes for United States soccer to regress 30 years. (Ashley Allen/Getty Images) The political backdrop was impossible to ignore. Mexico gave up an 88th minute goal and lost, 3-2, to Honduras. A Mexico draw would have moved the U.S. into fourth place and a playoff with Australia. The United States needed help from Mexico. Imagine that. We didn’t get it. But really, the United States has only itself to blame. A tie would have secured third place and spot in Russia. It wasn’t asking much. “We had everything there for us today,” Arena said. “No excuses for us not getting a second goal and at least a point.” The U.S. was poor throughout qualifying. Jurgen Klinsmann was fired as coach 11 months ago after losing at home to Mexico and getting embarrassed, 4-0, in a loss at Costa Rica over a four-day stretch. Arena, who led the U.S. to the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup, was installed as head coach. But a home loss to Costa Rica, followed by a draw against Honduras, put the team in the danger zone. The U.S. last missed the World Cup in 1986. It clinched a berth in 1990 by winning at Trinidad and Tobago on the last day of qualification. That watershed victory sparked a growth for soccer in this country. Youth participation exploded, Major League Soccer started in 1996 and the popularity of the sport grew. Even our player development improved. The best example is Pulisic, the 19-year-old budding star who scored the lone goal after the U.S. had fallen behind, 2-0, in the first half. But we didn’t have enough players to replace some of our aging stars. Tim Howard, a world class goalie five years ago, simply doesn’t have it anymore. Clint Dempsey is no longer capable of playing 90 minutes. Michael Bradley has lost a step. And our center back play was abysmal. Poor Omar Gonzalez, burned last month for Honduras’ goal, had his attempted clearance sail over Howard and into the net for an own goal. The U.S. last missed the World Cup in 1986. (Ashley Allen/Getty Images) “It’s one that will haunt me forever,” Gonzalez said. The fallout from this will be epic. Heads will roll. Arena is done. Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, could be in trouble. Maybe the United States needed a major setback to move forward. Good teams, even great teams, have missed the World Cup. England and France didn’t qualify in 1994. The Netherlands is out of the 2018 World Cup. Italy has to win a playoff to get in. But it’s also much tougher to qualify in Europe. Same with South America. The United States has a geographic advantage, especially with the financial resources and population. The players are here. We just haven’t discovered enough of them. And we haven’t developed enough of them. It’s time for a reboot. And now we have until 2022 to get it right. ||||| COUVA, Trinidad and Tobago — On the most surreal and embarrassing night in U.S. soccer history, the U.S. men’s national team lost 2-1 to Trinidad and Tobago (the worst team in the CONCACAF Hexagonal) and was eliminated from contention for World Cup 2018. The doomsday scenario happened. All the U.S. needed to do to qualify for the World Cup was to win or tie. And they lost, a deserving defeat that ended a miserable qualifying campaign—three wins in 10 Hexagonal games—and will raise enormous questions about the overall direction of the U.S. Soccer Federation, the players and coach Bruce Arena. The U.S. loss opened the door to Panama and Honduras, which both needed to win to ensure the U.S. elimination, which was exactly what happened. Honduras rallied from two deficits to beat Mexico in San Pedro Sula, while Panama rode a controversial Blas Perez opener and a Roman Torres late winner to beat Costa Rica in Panama City. Here are three thoughts on the USA's ouster: The U.S. should be utterly embarrassed On a night when Arena’s team had control of its own destiny, the Americans had one of the most infamous belly-flops in U.S. soccer history, losing to the already-eliminated Trinis with everything on the line for the United States. In a pitiful first-half performance, the U.S. lacked urgency and went through the motions while the hosts looked like the ones who had a chance to qualify for the World Cup. Trinidad and Tobago took a 2-0 halftime lead on an own-goal by Omar Gonzalez and a golazo from distance by Alvin Jones, and the U.S. response was tepid at best. This was a team with players acting like they thought they had already qualified for the World Cup, and it showed. Only one U.S. player had a decent game Christian Pulisic pulled one back for the Americans early in the second half with a laser from outside the box. Pulisic was largely bottled up otherwise, but at least he had one dazzling moment. His teammates could hardly say the same. Forwards Jozy Altidore and Bobby Wood were nonexistent. Wings Darlington Nagbe and Paul Arriola were invisible. Goalkeeper Tim Howard could have been in better position on both goals. And Gonzalez showed with his own-goal and what should have been called a penalty soon thereafter that he was a poor choice by Arena to be on the field, especially with Premier League starter Geoff Cameron on the bench. Tear it all down The far-reaching impacts of this colossal failure will be felt for a long time, not just by the figures on the field on Tuesday but also by the millions and millions of dollars lost by any number of stakeholders in the sport in the United States. The men’s World Cup only comes around once every four years, and the missed opportunity to create millions of new soccer fans in the U.S. is a crushing blow. Missing the World Cup won’t cripple the sport in the U.S., but it will be a huge step back for a sport that had been on the rise for a long time. ||||| So the U.S. men's national team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup on Tuesday, but there is reason to believe they shouldn't have been eliminated. Panama beat Costa Rica 2-1 to clinch the final spot and send the U.S. crashing out, but the Panamanian's first goal didn't even go in. As to whether it can be appealed remained to be seen. CBS Sports reached out to U.S. Soccer about whether an appeal could be filed. Press Officer Michael Kammarman said in an email, "As far as I know there is no recourse. Decisions of the referee are final." It all comes from Gabriel Torres's phantom goal that made it 1-1. You'll see here, the ball never crossed the line: Estados Unidos se queda fuera del Mundial por un gol de Panamá que ni entró pic.twitter.com/k2JojPf7bq — Joaquín López-Dóriga (@lopezdoriga) October 11, 2017 Shocking. No goal-line technology, and this is what happens. An unbelievable scene, and certainly unfair. Yes, there's the human error part in any officiated match, but what recourse does the U.S. have? Rules from CONCACAF say an appeal can be filed for "parties directly affected by a decision" and that there are 21 days to file it -- whether this would fall under that remains to be seen: Article 54. Jurisdiction of CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland) as an appeals arbitration body 1. As an appeals arbitration body, CAS shall be entitled to hear appeals against final decisions passed by CONCACAF. 2. Only parties directly affected by a decision may appeal to CAS. However, where doping-related decisions are concerned, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) may appeal to CAS. 3. The time limit for appeal to CAS shall be twenty-one (21) days from the receipt of the decision in question. 4. An appeal before CAS may only be brought after CONCACAF's or FIFA's internal procedures and remedies have been exhausted. 5. An appeal shall not have any suspensory effect as a stay of execution of a disciplinary sanction, subject to the power of CAS to order that any disciplinary sanction be stayed pending the arbitration. 6. CAS shall not take into account facts or evidence which the appellant could have submitted to an internal CONCACAF body by acting Now, it's certainly a long shot for anything like this to be overturned. CAS usually sees more cases about doping and was involved in CONMEBOL qualifying. The goal will almost certainly stand, but the U.S. would be wise to do whatever it takes to have its voice heard after this decision. It's the difference between the U.S. going still having a chance to go to the World Cup or sitting at home and watching it. ||||| The biggest failure in American soccer history is as complex as it is damaging. There is no one source, no single target for blame. The list of culprits exceeds five, 10, 20 and even 100. The building blocks of a national soccer team are nearly infinite. Every single one of those building blocks will be smashed to bits by criticism following Team USA’s 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago, a defeat that eliminated it from World Cup contention. And rightly so. Much of the criticism is long overdue. Scroll to continue with content Ad But some of the blocks that will crumble are bigger than others. Some are massive. Here are the five most blameworthy culprits of a failure that touched every level of the sport in the United States, in descending order, beginning with the least culpable of the five. 5. Jurgen Klinsmann The former national team boss is far from the biggest culprit. But he’s not exempt here. He dug the U.S. a qualifying hole with losses to Mexico and Costa Rica 11 months ago. But Klinsmann’s faults were spread out over much more than 180 minutes last November. He ran the program into the ground with aimless tactics, a stale vision and constant ill-preparedness. He stunted players’ development by playing them out of position, and generally didn’t fulfill the promises he made when he took over as manager in 2011. Despite all that, though, his team cruised through qualification last time around, and outperformed expectations at the World Cup. His successor couldn’t even get there … 4. Bruce Arena Arena, previously in charge of the national team from 1998 to 2006, was brought in to dig the U.S. out of Klinsmann’s hole. And the odd thing is that, well, he did. He got eight points from his first four qualifiers, and had the U.S. in position to qualify with ease. Story continues Then it all went wrong. Horribly, painfully, catastrophically wrong. Not all of the wrongdoing was Arena’s. In fact, not much of it was even when the U.S. picked up just one point from two September games against Costa Rica and Honduras. Those were primarily on the players. Perhaps all of this is primarily on the players. But more on them later. Arena cleaned up some of Klinsmann’s mess. But he created messes of his own, and those messes caught fire in Trinidad. His close-mindedness when it came to squad selection – his outright refusal to even care about replenishing an aging squad – came back to haunt him. His lineup philosophies were also two-faced. He seemingly believed in rotation and freshness over consistency, which worked in Mexico City in June, and barely did again in Honduras in September. But then he stuck with an unchanged starting 11 Tuesday in Trinidad, presumably thinking he had found a winning formula. He hadn’t. Instead, he found a tactically naive method to engineer the U.S.’ failure. Tuesday’s task was fundamentally different from Friday’s in every possible way. On Friday, Arena went all-out attack at home with the U.S. needing a win against Panama. Understandable. On Tuesday, with the U.S. needing only a point in substandard conditions away from home, he inexplicably chose attack again over solidity and control. He effectively played three strikers and two wingers, leaving the U.S. disjointed as a unit. He also benched his best center back – a center back who played 90 minutes the previous weekend for Stoke City in the English Premier League, and who has been doing just that, and doing it well, consistently for a while now. With that center back, Geoff Cameron, sitting on the bench, the mistake-prone Omar Gonzalez made a horrendous error that ultimately cost the U.S. a spot at the World Cup. But he never should have been in that position in the first place. Arena had one job. He didn’t do it. And he’s now coached his last game with the national team. U.S. Soccer Sunil Gulati has his first contested election coming up in February – if he decides to run. (Getty) 3. Sunil Gulati It is impossible to shy away from criticism of the man who hired No. 4 and No. 5 on this list as well. The head honcho. United States Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati. His hires aren’t the only issue. But they’re the most easily identifiable. He had courted Klinsmann basically ever since the former German World Cup-winning striker managed his native land to third at the 2006 tournament on home soil. Gulati finally got him in 2011. It was an ambitious choice. A pricey one too. But it was probably always misguided. Nonetheless, Klinsmann performed somewhat admirably, at least initially. The issue was that the allure of his stature in world soccer was too much for Gulati to assess his performances accurately. The president, for some reason, rewarded his manager with a long-term contract extension before the 2014 World Cup, then clung to the coattails of a regime going backward for too long thereafter. When he did pull the trigger and axe Klinsmann 11 months ago, Arena was the right choice. The wrong choice was letting Klinsmann survive as long as he did. The wrong choices were also many other things. Gulati’s presence in powerful positions has probably been a net positive for soccer in America. But, among other failures, one of them the mishandling of Klinsmann, he has not adequately invested in youth development. In the building blocks that allow a national team to sustain consistent success. He and the federation have invested in them, but haven’t devoted enough attention to actually solving real problems. They are sitting on millions of dollars that could be used to address the problems. Those dollars haven’t been used for that purpose. And Gulati himself could pay. A U.S. Soccer presidential election looms in four months. Gulati, for the first time, has challengers. There will be louder calls for change than ever before. 2. The players Gulati, though, didn’t make defensive errors. Arena didn’t misplace passes in midfield. Klinsmann didn’t waste chances in front of goal. The players, in the end, are to blame for what just transpired. They were deserving of praise on several specific occasions. On the whole, they, as a collective, were sub-par. And then on Tuesday, they were worse than that. Far worse. Not all of them were at fault. Christian Pulisic is and was special. Michael Bradley carried a massive burden and handled it fairly well. But the rest … most of them were mediocre at best. Jozy Altidore was too inconsistent. The back four were disorganized and generally underwhelming, whoever the four were. Darlington Nagbe didn’t live up to his creative billing. Tim Howard made several mistakes throughout the Hex, and in his prime might have kept out both of Tuesday’s goals. The players did not perform up to the standard expected of them. At times, circumstances could be used as legitimate excuses. But none of them excuse 12 points from 10 games against mostly inferior opposition. The natural follow-up question, then, is this: Did the players underperform? Or are they simply not good enough? 1. A broken system The answer is both. The second item on this list speaks to the underperformance. The first, this one, speaks to the inadequacy. The U.S. player pool is strong. Stronger than it was two decades ago. But the obvious point is the broad one: That player pool is nowhere near what a nation of 325 million should be able to produce. The reasons for this are deep-seated and poisonous. The main one is the youth soccer model that was established in the U.S. decades ago. Whereas talented young players in many other countries are given scholarships to soccer academies, the vast majority of children in the U.S. “pay to play.” This slashes the size of the player pool into a fraction of what it could be, because kids from low-income families can’t afford the hefty registration fees and travel-related costs. Elite coaching eludes them. The issue is far too complex for this forum, but it’s a major hindrance. Talent identification and youth coaching have also been severely lacking. Scouting efforts ignore many under-served communities. Potential pros slip through the cracks at young ages. In many cases, kids aren’t educated properly, because they’re taught by teammates’ dads who don’t know the game. The kids, therefore, don’t develop the most relevant and applicable skills. Again, the root causes are impossible to explain in two paragraphs. But they’ve plagued the U.S. for years. The symptoms of the problems are easier to explain. As American Soccer Now’s Brian Sciaretta explored just last week, there is a glaring gap in the age profile of the current U.S. squad. There are talented youngsters and accomplished veterans. But the 23-27 age range – made up of players born in the years 1990-1994, players who came through the system before youth development reform truly took effect – is alarmingly bereft. A generation of players that should be spearheading the national team is absent. The “Missing Years,” as Sciaretta called them, more than anything else, explain why the U.S. shockingly couldn’t beat Trinidad and Tobago, a nation 1/230 its size. With MLS academies growing, other revamped youth systems producing and problems gradually – very gradually; too gradually – being addressed, this won’t happen again. Or at least it shouldn’t. But the failures in scouting and coaching have left a massive hole in the men’s national team. A hole that not even Klinsmann could dig. And one that the U.S. finally tripped into Tuesday in Trinidad. – – – – – – – Henry Bushnell covers soccer – the U.S. national teams, the Premier League, and much, much more – for FC Yahoo and Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Question? Comment? Email him at henrydbushnell@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @HenryBushnell. Read more from Yahoo Sports: • Trump, once again, is wrong about NFL, Roger Goodell • Jerry Jones makes new enemy in anthem battle • Red Sox fire manager after disappointing playoff loss • D-III player kicked off team after kneeling for national anthem

– The short version is easy enough: Trinidad and Tobago upset the US Mens National Team in soccer Tuesday night, and the 2-1 loss means that the Americans won't qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986. But just how bad a loss is this? The defeat is "the most surreal and embarrassing night in US soccer history," writes Grant Wahl for Sports Illustrated. "Unthinkable," declares the New York Times. "With that loss, the USMNT gave a nation the lowest point in its sporting history, and it’s not really close," writes Andrew Joseph for USA Today. "It took 90-plus minutes for United States soccer to regress 30 years," writes Frank Isola at the Daily News. The kicker is that two other games fell the wrong way in unexpected fashion, one on a "phantom goal," sealing the US fate. Honduras rallied from two goals down to beat Mexico, and Panama rallied from one goal back to beat Costa Rica. Had either of those games gone the other way, or had the US even tied Trinidad and Tobago (which had previously been eliminated from qualifying), the Americans would have secured a spot in Russia for the 2018 competition. Of note: Phantom goal: The winning goal scored by Panama against Costa Rica didn't cross the goal line, per CBS Sports, which has video here. The story raises the faint hope that the US could appeal the goal ruling, but it seems unlikely. "As far as I know, there is no recourse," says a US soccer official. Pity Fox Sports: The network paid $200 million, outbidding ESPN, for the rights to televise the 2018 World Cup and showcase teen phenom Christian Pulisic, notes Business Insider. It's now going to be tough for that investment to pay off. Five culprits: Yahoo Sports looks at what went wrong in the US game, and why Bruce Arena has almost certainly coached his last game for the team.

MORE VIDEO Arrest made in Midwest City disappearance case Palma now in Oklahoma County Jail Midwest City Police think they've had a break in an 18-year-old homicide case. On Tuesday FOX 25 learned more about the man police say kidnapped and murdered a young girl. 56-year-old Anthony Palma is now in police custody. Kirsten Hatfield was kidnapped out of her bedroom window in her Midwest City home in 1997. That home is located on Jet Drive, near S.E. 15th and Air Depot Blvd. Police found her ripped panties with blood on them left on the window sill of her bedroom. She hasn't been heard from since and police never made an arrest until now. "We want to take this opportunity to let all of our family and friends know that we're OK and please continue to pray for us," said Kirsten's step-father Chris Hazen. Hazen along with Kirsten's mom Shannon say they're tired but hopeful this nightmare they've been living in for 18 years could soon be over. "We have worked continuously on this case for 18 years," said Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes. "We're emotionally invested in this case." Midwest City Police revealed in a press conference on Tuesday that DNA evidence links Palma to Kirsten's disappearance. The connection comes from evidence taken the day Kirsten was taken. Police kept cigarettes, a syringe, a beer bottle and blood found on both Kirsten's panties and her windowsill. Police say none of that evidence was DNA tested and could say why it wasn't. "We're realizing more and more as technology advances, we see the ability to conduct more sensitive testing," said OSBI director Stan Florence. With the DNA in hand, Midwest City Police tracked down at least ten men associated with the case and re-interviewed them and obtained their DNA samples. In July of 2015, the OSBI revealed the DNA from the scene and Palma's DNA matched. Police arrested Palma this past Monday night. "This is the initial stage of this case," said Chief Clabes. "We have a lot more work to do in reference to this case." Police are confident that Palma killed Kirsten, but her body has never been located. Her family is hoping that's the next step in this investigation. "I wanted to say thank you to all the police, law enforcement that's helping solve this case because it's just been a terrible nightmare to my wife ever since it happened," Hazen said. Palma will be tranported to the Oklahoma County Jail. He faces charges of kidnapping and first degree murder. ||||| An arrest has been made in the case of Kirsten Hatfield, who went missing in 1997. KOCO learned Monday that Anthony Palma had been arrested in connection with her disappearance after 18 years of investigation. Video: Kirsten Hatfield's family members speak on break in investigation Palma was arrested on complaints of first-degree murder and kidnapping. He has been transferred to Oklahoma County Jail. READ: Affidavit released in Midwest City cold case According to court documents, on July 22, a DNA sample matching Palma was found in evidence collected in 1997. The match came after items were sent to OSBI for testing that had not been tested before, according to the court documents. Investigators said they believe Palma targeted Hatfield for sexual assault. They said evidence supported that claim, including his blood being on her partially ripped underwear and her window sill. Video: Authorities discuss arrest in investigation of Midwest City's girl's disappearance “It’s proverbial needle in a haystack -- how fortunate, lucky we were in this case,” Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said. Police said because Hatfield has not been sighted since 1997, it can be concluded that she was killed shortly after her abduction. Hatfield went missing on May 14, 1997. Midwest City police said evidence indicated that she had been taken from her bedroom window. Police said the trail went cold, but on June 13, 2015, an officer was assigned to follow up on the cold case. The officer said he went through all the evidence previously collected and decided to re-submit some evidence for testing. The investigators continued working the case and said they collected DNA from all men they interviewed. On June 1, investigators said they interviewed Palma, who was also interviewed twice in 1997. The investigators said his interview was inconsistent with information gathered in 1997. Officers said Palma's DNA match to evidence found at the scene was one in 293 sextillion. Video: Midwest City neighborhood where girl was kidnapped continues to be at center of investigation Midwest City police are continuing to investigate the case, and say there could possibly be additional suspects. Investigators said Palma had been under their surveillance for some time. Chris Hazen, who married Hatfield's mother, Shannon, two years after Kirsten disappeared, spoke briefly to the media Tuesday, and called the situation a "terrible nightmare for my wife." ||||| Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed Police: Suspect's DNA Match is One-in-293 Sextillion 2:18 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog A suspect was arrested in the 1997 disappearance of 8-year-old Oklahoma girl Kirsten Hatfield only because the new investigator on the case discovered that crucial evidence was never tested 18 years ago, court documents show. Anthony Joseph Palma, 56, was arrested Monday at his home in the town of Midwest City — just two homes down the street from the house Kirsten's family was living in when she vanished in May 1997. He was being held without bond on suspicion of first-degree murder and kidnapping. Kristin is still missing but her family was "hopeful" and "grateful" for news of the arrest, said Chris Hazen, the current husband of Kirsten's mother, Shannon. Kirsten Hatfield in 1997 at age 8 and in a computer projection of what she would have looked like in 2013 at age 24. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children "We're OK," Hazen said, according to NBC station KFOR of Oklahoma City. "This has just been a terrible nightmare to my wife ever since it happened." The break in the case came when it was reassigned in June to Midwest City police Detective Darrell Miller. According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed Monday in Oklahoma County District Court, Miller requested FBI assistance in reviewing all of the old evidence and discovered that several key pieces — most notable among them bloodstains on Kirsten's underwear, which was found in the backyard, and on her bedroom windowsill — either went untested or came back inconclusive because the technology to test it at the time was limited. Anthony Palma in an undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Midwest City, Oklahoma, Police Department via AP The State Bureau of Investigation's crime lab found a DNA match to Palma in July, putting its odds of certainty at 263 sextillion to 1, according to the affidavit. "The evidence shows that Kirsten may have been targeted by Palma for sexual assault," Miller wrote in the affidavit. "It is likely that Palma has been motivated to stay in the same home to conceal evidence of the crime and/or the location of Kristen's body." State corrections records show that Palma — who has lived at the same Midwest City address since 1991 — was convicted of assault and/or battery with a dangerous weapon in the early 1980s and was released from prison in 1986. Details of that conviction weren't immediately available.

– Investigators believe an ex-con in an Oklahoma City suburb murdered his 8-year-old neighbor and got away with it for 18 years. Kirsten Hatfield disappeared from her bedroom in Midwest City on the night of May 14, 1997, and Anthony Palma, who lived two houses away, was arrested this week on charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder, KOCO reports. The breakthrough in the cold case came after a new investigator took over in June and discovered that key pieces of evidence—including bloodstains on the girl's bedroom window sill and on her underwear, found in her backyard—were never tested for DNA, reports NBC News. Palma, who was released from prison in 1986 after serving time for assault with a dangerous weapon, still lives in the same home, and an arrest warrant states that he probably stayed there "to conceal evidence of the crime and/or the location of [Kirsten's] body," reports NBC. Fox 25 reports that the 56-year-old was interviewed after the 1997 disappearance and provided a DNA sample this year when investigators finally tested the evidence and spoke to 10 suspects in the case. Court documents state that the DNA match to the evidence was 293 sextillion to 1. Police believe Palma targeted the girl for sexual assault and killed her soon after her abduction, reports KOCO. Her body has never been found. (A woman thought to have been murdered in 1984 was found alive and well in Dusseldorf.)

Gunmen shot a Kansas City couple looking to buy their teenage son a car listed on Craigslist, then robbed them of $3,000, police say. The 53-year-old father suffered four wounds to his chest, stomach and legs when he tried to shield his wife after two men pulled guns about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. One bullet shattered his 55-year-old wife's upper-right arm, KCTV reported. Their 16-year-old son witnessed the attack but as not hurt. The family was not identified. Police said that after the father and son finished test driving a 2007 Hyundai Sonata with a third suspect, the gunmen appeared and demanded money. They opened fire when the father stepped in front of his wife, then grabbed her purse and fled. Police later found the abandoned Hyundai and purse, minus the cash. Some news accounts said the robbers stole the family's vehicle, which was not identified. Police say the shooting may be connected to an armed robbery hours earlier of a man answering a Craigslist ad for an Xbox, the Kansas City Star reported. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1mmglGZ ||||| The robbery and shooting of two people in southeast Kansas City on Wednesday night may be related to another robbery a few hours earlier. In both cases, the victims were held up while meeting someone to conduct a sale or purchase of items advertised on Craigslist, according to police reports. The robberies occurred within two miles of each other and involved three people armed with black handguns. The first robbery was reported about 4:20 p.m. Wednesday in the 8800 block of Crystal Avenue. The victim told police that he had gone to that location to sell an Xbox and accessories he had advertised on Craigslist. According to police, one man approached the victim and was looking at the merchandise when two other people came up behind him. One showed a gun and they took his property and ran into nearby woods. The second incident occurred just before 7:30 p.m. at an apartment complex in the 5500 block of East 84th Street. A Liberty couple and their teenage son had gone there to look at a 2007 Hyundai Sonata advertised for sale on Craigslist. They talked to a man who identified himself as “AJ,” according to the police report. The victims took the car for a test drive and started talking to “AJ” about buying it. He told them he had to call his wife and had walked away when two other people approached them, pulled black handguns and demanded their money. When they pointed the guns at the woman, her husband stepped in front of her and the robbers began shooting. One grabbed the woman’s purse and shot the man one more time before they fled in the Hyundai, which was later found abandoned. The man was shot four times. At the time of the report late Wednesday night, he was in surgery. The woman’s right upper arm was “shattered” by one shot, according to reports. Their son was not injured. Kansas City robbery detectives said Thursday they were working on both cases. Liberty-based Ferrellgas announced later Thursday that it has contributed $5,000 toward a reward to help catch the robbers. A total of up to $7,000 is now being offered for information leading to an arrest in the case. Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477. Callers can remain anonymous. To reach Tony Rizzo, call 816-234-4435 or send email to trizzo@kcstar.com. ||||| Detectives are questioning four people about the shooting of a couple who were robbed while trying to buy their teenage son's first vehicle. A father valiantly tried to shield his wife and teenage son from gunfire as they were robbed while responding to a car ad on Craigslist. The Liberty couple was shot, robbed and had their vehicle stolen Wednesday night, and were left bleeding on the ground, police said. Empty shell casings were found near where they collapsed. The 16-year-old boy was badly shaken up but he was not hit by the barrage of bullets thanks in part to his father's actions. The family was trying to purchase the teen's first vehicle. The 53-year-old man was shot four times in the chest, stomach and legs and underwent surgery overnight. The 55-year-old woman's right upper arm shattered when she was struck by a single bullet. Detectives released little about the four including when the four were taken into custody. Police do say the four are persons of interest in the crimes. A couple who live in the Stone Haven Apartments in southeast Kansas City came to the couple's aid. "I heard screaming so I ran up the hill to see what was going on and that's when I found the kid on his cell phone," said "J," who asked not to be identified since the suspects are still on the loose. J turned to his girlfriend, Amber, who is a lifeguard. "She told me to grab her rubber gloves," he said. For what seemed like an eternity, they pressed down on the couple's wounds as they waited for police to arrive. "It was scary but they needed help," Amber said. "I'm sure they showed up as fast as they could. The woman kept saying, 'I wish they would get here.'" J tried to keep the man conscious but his injuries were devastating. "I would talk to him and ask him questions then he would open his eyes and answer me and once again start to fade," J said. Unfortunately, they said some people stood around watching but didn't provide any assistance. "I was hoping someone else would join in but I'm just glad she (his girlfriend) was there telling me what to do," J said. According to police, the family came to look at a white 2007 four-door Hyundai Sonesta they had spotted online. The father and teen test drove the vehicle with a suspect who called himself "AJ," according to a Kansas City Police Department report. After completing the test drive, the victims and the suspect returned to the apartment complex. As the victims discussed purchasing the vehicle, the suspect said he needed to call his wife. He walked away from the family while on the phone. Two men then approached armed with black handguns. "The suspect stated, 'Give me the money!' When the victims stated they did not have any money, the suspects stated, 'I know you have the money, now, give me the money,'" according to the police report. The teen told police that when the suspects pointed their weapons at his mother that his father stepped in front of her. The suspects then opened fire. The second suspect reached into the vehicle and grabbed the woman's purse, which contained $3,000. As he turned to leave, the suspect pointed his gun at the father's chest "and fired one last time," according to the Kansas City Police Department report. The suspects fled in the Hyundai. The incident was reported about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the area of East 84th Terrace and Drury Circle, located west of Interstate 435. Police recovered the Hyundai in the 4200 block of East 68th Street, which is nearby the original crime scene. The three suspects remain at large. The police report only identifies the suspects as three black men who were in their late 20s or early 30s, but does not provide additional details. Police have not released a detailed description of the suspects or said why four were detained rather than three. Police advise when meeting someone for an online sale to use caution and trust your instincts. You shouldn't go to unknown places but should go to a crowded area, a business or a police station. Don't bring cash. Instead, use money orders or cashiers checks. Anyone with information is urged to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS. The normal $2,000 reward for tips has been increased to $7,000. Liberty-based Ferrellgas has made a $5,000 donation to Crime Stoppers. The injured man works for the company. Ferrellgas' Scott Brockelmeyer said the company already worked with Crime Stoppers, but wanted to do more to help catch those responsible for the horrific crimes. "You see those type of reports on the news and it's like that never happens to a friend," he said. "And it did in this case. It opened our eyes, and like I said, it prompted us to do something that I'm very proud that we did." Brockelmeyer said his co-worker is a kind and considerate man and a great father. "You start to think about people like that and you hear people describe people like that as somebody who'll take a bullet for you and I'll be darned if he didn't do that. He's a hero. He's an absolute hero," he said. Copyright 2014 KCTV (Meredith Corp.) All rights reserved.

– A Kansas City couple who went to check out a car they saw on Craigslist were shot and robbed Wednesday night, USA Today reports. They had wanted to purchase the vehicle for their 16-year-old son, who was with them but not injured. Police say the 53-year-old dad and his son had test-driven a 2007 Hyundai Sonata and were discussing payment when the seller said he had to call his wife and momentarily walked away, according to KCTV. That’s when two other men reportedly approached the family and demanded cash, then started shooting. As the dad tried to keep his wife and son out of the barrage of bullets, he was shot four times in the chest, stomach, and legs, while his 55-year-old wife took a bullet to her upper right arm, which was “shattered,” reports the TV station. The men took the wife's purse, which had $3,000 in cash for the car purchase, say police. Authorities believe the incident may be related to an earlier armed robbery that day in which a Kansas City man says he tried to sell his Xbox and gaming accessories to a man who saw his ad on Craigslist, reports the Kansas City Star. As the potential buyer was examining the wares, two other men reportedly arrived sporting a gun; the three men then lifted the Xbox and other items and ran into nearby woods, police say.

The document isn't clear on whether the IRS misled Congress. 5 takeaways from IRS report The most hotly anticipated IRS probe since Watergate didn’t exactly live up to the hype. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report leaked on Tuesday evening doesn’t nail anyone for lying to Congress. It didn’t out rogue liberal IRS agents with an ax to grind against nonprofit tea party groups. Story Continued Below But the watchdog report did break new ground, clearly declaring that the IRS crossed the line in asking about donors to conservative groups. It reveals the IRS to be a stubborn agency that isn’t ready to fix all the problems in the report. And it warns that a crackdown on these 501(c)(4) groups isn’t coming any time soon. ( PHOTOS: 10 slams on the IRS) Here’s the top five things takeaways from the Inspector General report: IRS agents weren't partisan Republicans looking for a smoking gun on partisan motive will have to keep looking — the report stops short of calling the IRS intentionally partisan, even if the questions might have been inappropriate. Most of the report focuses on reprimanding the IRS for choosing ineffective criteria that could be construed as partisan rather than focusing on a partisan motive. Only about 15 percent of the potential cases had the terms “Tea Party,” “patriots” and “9/12” in their organization name. The remaining cases were flagged for other reasons. The report found that the narrow focus of the criteria “gives the appearance that the IRS is not impartial in conducting its mission.” “Using the names or policy positions of organizations is not an appropriate basis for identifying applications for review by the team of specialists,” the inspector general said. ( Also on POLITICO: Watchdog: IRS used 'inappropriate criteria') The report never directly accuses the IRS of bias, just the appearance of impropriety. Despite the inappropriate search criteria, the majority of applications flagged by the Cincinnati office had indications of significant violations of tax policy. The report found that about 69 percent of the fully documented cases on the list were properly identified. Unclear on whether the IRS misled Congress The report remains silent on what is emerging as the biggest Republican grievance — how Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller and former Commissioner Doug Shulman failed to disclose to Congress what they learned about the targeting program after May 2012. Miller wrote letters to the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Republicans months after he was briefed but never disclosed that the agency was giving an extra critical eye to conservative groups. Government oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) also accused division head Lois Lerner of misleading Congress after her June 2011 discovery. “It appears that you provided false or misleading information on four separate occasions last year in response to the committee’s oversight of the IRS’s treatment of conservative groups applying for tax exempt status,” Issa and committee member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote. But you won’t read about that in the IG report. The controversial answers from Miller on why top agency employees did not tell Congress about the extra scrutiny will likely come forth during the Ways and Means hearing this Friday. Asking about donors crossed the line If tea party groups thought the questions were intrusive, even the Inspector General agrees that asking about donors and books read was a bridge too far. The Inspector General said donor lists and details were an unnecessary, burdensome request in the vetting process. That may be the biggest victory for frustrated conservatives. The report also makes clear that the IRS knew that it overstepped its bounds when it asked for donor records. “Officials informed us that they decided to destroy all donor lists that were sent in for potential political cases that the IRS determined it should not have requested,” the report said. ||||| This just out: The Treasury Department's Inspector General report argues that the IRS developed “inappropriate criteria” in focusing on conservative groups. Here are the key findings: The IRS used inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions instead of indications of potential political campaign intervention. Ineffective management: 1) allowed inappropriate criteria to be developed and stay in place for more than 18 months, 2) resulted in substantial delays in processing certain applications, and 3) allowed unnecessary information requests to be issued. And here's the full report: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2013/05/201310053fr-revised-redacted-1.pdf My colleagues Juliet Eilperin and Zachary Goldfarb have a write-up of the report as well. ||||| "Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review." That's the title of the Inspector General's report on the IRS's treatment of tea-party related groups. It's not a very good title. A better one might be "How a group of I.R.S. employees created a politically biased test for 501(c)(4) applicants, got smacked down, quietly created another politically biased test, and then got smacked down even harder -- but in the process, created a lot of delays and trouble for the groups caught in their net." Okay, so that's not such a good title, either. The key story of the report seems to be this: In the summer of 2010, in response to a huge surge in 501(c)(4) applications and media stories that some of these groups were illegally acting like political organizations, a group of IRS officials developed inappropriate criteria for identifying overly politicized 501(c)(4)s applicants. Those criteria included looking for the words "tea party" or related terms. In July 2011, the director of the IRS told them to knock it off and use more politically neutral criteria that focused on the activities of the group rather than the name or ideology of the group. Here's where things get interesting: In January 2012, that same group of IRS officials goes rogue and changes the test back without getting management approval. According to the IG report, "they believed the July 2011 criteria were too broad." They're found out three months later and, in May 2012, a new IRS director again demands the test is revised to "more clearly focus on activities permitted under the Treasury Regulations." That's the test the IRS is using now, and the IG seems comfortable with it. Management, however, isn't happy with what's been going on. They issue "a memorandum requiring all original entries and changes to criteria...be approved at the executive level prior to implementation." So that's the core of the story. But it's not the whole story. Much of the report is about confusion, incompetence, and unacceptable delays in the IRS unit that manages questionable 501(c)(4) applications. There's no allegation here of politicization. But it's nevertheless unacceptable: Many organizations waited much longer than 13 months for a decision, while others have yet to receive a decision from the IRS. For example, as of December 17, 2012, the IRS had been processing several potential political cases for more than 1,000 calendar days. Some of these organizations received requests for additional information in Calendar Year 2010 and then did not hear from the IRS again for more than a year while the Determinations Unit waited for assistance from the Technical Unit. For the 296 potential political cases we reviewed, 33 as of December 17, 2012, 108 applications had been approved, 28 were withdrawn by the applicant, none had been denied, and 160 cases were open from 206 to 1,138 calendar days (some crossing two election cycles). Those aren't reasonable delays. Then there's this charming tidbit: Some of the "letters requested that the information be provided in two or three weeks (as is customary in these letters) despite the fact that the IRS had done nothing with some of the applications for more than one year." Imagine you're the director of a hopeful 501(c)(4) that applied to the IRS a year ago, got no response, and then all of a sudden you receive a letter demanding tons of information within two or three weeks. It's absurd. These delays impose a real cost, too. It's been noted that none of the groups caught in this net were rejected for 501(c)(4) status. That's true. But many of them are still waiting for a ruling, and others saw their activities held up for over two years. Some of the information the IRA requested was also inappropriate, and could've revealed donor information that the 501(c)(4) designation is designed to keep secret. Again, quoting the IG report: "The Determinations Unit requested donor information from 27 organizations that it would be required to make public if the application was approved, even though this information could not be disclosed by the IRS when provided by organizations whose tax-exempt status had been approved." The key question related to the political test remains: Why hasn't anyone been fired? It's not definitive whether there's any evidence that the IRS employees who created the tea-party-focused test and then recreated it after the director objected did so for political reasons. It certainly seems possible. And even if their actions were entirely non-political there was a lot of incompetence and a bit of insubordination. What were the consequences? The key procedural questions related to uncertainty and delays in the 501(c)(4) designation process are laid out in the report. Of the IG's nine recommendations, the IRS has agreed to implement seven of them, and has proposed alternatives for the remaining two (the disagreements are over how to document the reasons that applications are chosen for review and how to train IRS specialists on the issue). Unless significant further evidence comes out, however, this doesn't look like the rot went particularly deep. The most cynical interpretation of the facts of the case laid out by the IG are that a group of mid-level IRS employees created a politically motivated screening process for 501(c)(4) applications. They were stopped, twice, by IRS management, and procedures were put in place to ensure they couldn't do anything like it again. The employees failed, but the system seems to have worked, though not before a lot of groups received some pretty shabby treatment.

– The inspector general's IRS report is out (read it in full at the Washington Post, if 54 pages of dry analysis and liberal use of the underline function sound like your thing), and some pundits say it's not exactly as jaw-droppingly scandalous as it was made out to be. The delays for organizations seeking tax-exempt status caused by the IRS heaping extra scrutiny on them is certainly unacceptable, writes Ezra Klein at the Washington Post, but there's "no allegation here of politicization," he writes. Just confusion and incompetence. "The most hotly anticipated IRS probe since Watergate didn't exactly live up to the hype," write Kelsey Snell and Lauren French at Politico, offering some takeaways from the report: First, they agree IRS agents weren't motivated by partisanship, but asking organizations for donor records was burdensome and unnecessary. And the IRS has more work to do to fix the problems: The report makes nine recommendations, but the agency has agreed to only seven. One it hasn't agreed to is drafting new guidelines for how it should investigate politically-oriented groups. But given how touchy the subject is right now, it may not be able to for some time, say Snell and French—and that means it may now be impossible to actually police which groups really are crossing the line.

“Restoring opportunity for all has to be our priority, making sure the economy rewards hard work for every single American. Because when women succeed, America succeeds,” Obama said in a speech to mark the signing of the order. “We are going to work to make sure that our daughters have the same chance to pursue their dreams as our sons,” he added, urging businesses and the government to do more to hire women and achieve gender equality in a bid to lift families out of poverty and allocate more resources to child care, college tuition and retirement savings. “We don’t have second-class citizens in this country,” Obama said. Tuesday’s signing coincides with National Equal Pay Day, serving as a reminder that more than 50 years after the Equal Pay Act was made law, women still earn less then men. On average, women earn only about 77 cents on the dollar compared with men. African-American women and Latinas take home even less, just 64 cents and 54 cents, respectively, for every dollar earned by white men, according to the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC). Obama called the numbers “embarrassing,” and “wrong.” “It is good to move the ball forward on improving our equal pay policies,” Fatima Graves, NWLC vice president for education and employment, told Al Jazeera. “It’s important because right now workers are left in the dark about wage disparity information.” “Penalizing pay secrecy is an important step that sends a strong message,” she said. But, Graves added, Obama’s order, which affects only federal contractors and does nothing to protect female employees in the private sector, “doesn’t complete the job.” “What we really need is for Congress to pass the Fair Paycheck Act which would get at all workers,” she said. A Senate vote on that act, slated for Tuesday, would extend the order’s requirements to most other employers. However, the bill has already failed to pass twice, despite evidence that pay transparency can reduce the gender wage gap. In the federal government, for example, where pay rates are publicly available, the gender wage gap is much smaller than in the private sector, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. ||||| President Obama will take two executive actions Tuesday aimed at narrowing the wage gap between men and women, forcing federal contractors to let their workers discuss their earnings with one another and to disclose more information about what their employees earn. The push by Obama, who also is commemorating Tuesday as “National Equal Pay Day,” is part of a broader effort by Democrats to increase turnout among female voters during the 2014 midterm elections, which party strategists consider critical to limiting Republican gains this fall. One of the new measures is an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against workers who discuss their salaries with one another. The other is a presidential memorandum ordering new rules for contractors to file data with the federal government showing how they compensate employees, including by sex and race. White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said Monday that the two policies aim to address the “pay secrecy” that often keeps workers from seeking more equitable compensation. “Unfortunately, pay inequity is a real and persistent problem that continues to shortchange women, their families and our economy as a whole,” she told reporters in a conference call. Senate Democrats are hoping paycheck policy will be a smart play by focusing attention on the fight for equal pay. However, opponents say it's less about the wage gap and more about politics. (Pamela Kirkland/The Washington Post) The first bill that Obama signed into law in 2009 was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which gave employees more time to file discrimination claims. Jarrett said the administration is disappointed that Republicans in Congress have opposed another bill, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which includes reforms like the ones that Obama is applying to federal contractors. But Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, wrote in an e-mail that the Paycheck Fairness Act is “a desperate political ploy and Democrats are cynically betting that Americans aren’t smart enough to know better.” Kukowski said the proposal “cuts flexibility in the workplace for working moms and ends merit pay that rewards good work — the very things that are important to us.” Obama and his aides often say that women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn, which compares the annual earnings of women working full-time jobs over the course of a year with the earnings of men working the same amount of time. Some academics argue that the gap between the sexes is smaller if you account for a number of variables, including an employee’s length of time in the workforce, specific occupation and education level. Even the most conservative estimates, however, suggest that women earn 5 to 12 percent less for doing similar jobs as men. “I don’t think there’s a better figure,” said Betsey Stevenson, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, who also spoke to reporters on the conference call with Jarrett. “What we do know is there are more things we can do to close that gap.” Fatima Goss Graves, vice president for education and employment at the National Women’s Law Center, said in an interview that the new requirements could spur companies to take voluntary measures to equalize salaries. View Graphic Women in the United States earn about 81 cents for every dollar that a man earns. “One of the problems in the law is pay discrimination goes undetected,” she said, “This is going to put employers in a place where they’re going to take the right steps, and look for pay disparities and correct them immediately.” One of the reasons women continue to earn less than men on average is that they work in lower-paying fields, Goss Graves said. Roughly two-thirds of all workers who were paid minimum wage or less in 2013 were female, she added. “A big part of the wage gap stems from the fact that women-dominated jobs simply pay less,” she said. The White House itself is not immune to inequalities: An analysis by the conservative American Enterprise Institute found that the median salary for female White House staffers was 12 percent lower than that for male staffers. White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that the number “is better than the national average” and said women who work the same jobs as men at the White House are paid the same. He said the two deputy chiefs of staff at the White House — one man and one woman — earn the same salary, while more than half of 16 department heads are women. “What I can tell you is that we have as an institution here have aggressively addressed this challenge,” he said. Mark Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan at Flint who wrote the AEI study, said the wage gap might reflect women and men having different roles within the White House, rather than discrimination. A senior administration official said the White House makes it a priority to hire women and diverse talent at all levels. “While we still have work to do, we believe that our focus on hiring more young talent, especially women, to work in the White House is the right thing to do to build a strong and diverse staff that can advance in this and future administrations,” said the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss personnel matters. “We have also made an effort to advance women through the ranks within the White House, as shown by the number of women in senior positions whom have been promoted from within,” the official said.

– On National Equal Pay Day, President Obama is taking action to fight the gender wage gap among federal contractors. Today, he signed an executive order requiring the companies to publish their wage data by gender and race, thus pushing them to adhere to laws on equal pay, al Jazeera America reports."Penalizing pay secrecy is an important step that sends a strong message," says a VP for the National Women's Law Center. The move doesn't apply to private companies, though a Senate vote today could help change that. But the bill in question has twice failed to get through Congress, al Jazeera notes. Meanwhile, a second executive order today bars federal contractors from retaliating against workers who exchange information on their salaries, the Washington Post notes. "Pay inequity is a real and persistent problem that continues to shortchange women, their families, and our economy as a whole," says Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending. The states led by New York are asking the high court to preserve Montana's state-level regulations on corporate political expenditures, according to a copy of a brief written by New York's attorney general's office and obtained by The Associated Press. The brief will be publicly released Monday. The Supreme Court is being asked to reverse a state court's decision to uphold the Montana law. Virginia-based American Tradition Partnership is asking the nation's high court to rule without a hearing because the group says the state law conflicts directly with the Citizens United decision that removed the federal ban on corporate campaign spending. The Supreme Court has blocked the Montana law until it can look at the case. The Montana case has prompted critics to hope the court will reverse itself on the controversial Citizens United ruling. The 22 states and D.C. say the Montana law is sharply different from the federal issues in the Citizens United case, so the ruling shouldn't apply to Montana's or other state laws regulating corporate campaign spending. But the states also said they would support a Supreme Court decision to reconsider portions of the Citizens United ruling either in a future case or in the Montana case, if the justices decide to take it on. Legal observers say don't count on the Supreme Court reconsidering its decision. "It is highly unlikely that the Court would reverse its decision in Citizens United," said law professor Richard L. Hasen of the University of California-Irvine. At best, the court would listen to arguments and might agree a clarification is needed to allow the Montana law to stand. But even that is a long shot, Hasen said. Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock argues that political corruption in the Copper King era led to the state ban on corporate campaign spending. A clarification of Citizens United is needed to make clear that states can block certain political spending in the interest of limiting corruption, he said. American Tradition Partnership argues that the state bans unfairly restrict the ability of corporations to engage in the political process that also affects them. Bullock wrote in a brief to be released Monday that the state does not "ban" corporate political speech, rather, it regulates that speech by requiring the formation of political action committees. The Democrat, who is running for governor, said the upstart political corporations hoping to take advantage of unfettered spending are merely "an anonymous conduit of unaccountable campaign spending." Montana and the other states are asking the court to either let the Montana Supreme Court decision stand or to hold a full hearing. They argue laws like the one in Montana that bans political spending straight from corporate treasuries are needed to prevent corruption. The other states, many with their own type of restrictions hanging in the balance, argue local restrictions are far different than the federal ban the court decided unconstitutionally restricted free speech. Further, state elections are at much greater risk than federal elections of being dominated by corporate money, requiring tailored regulation, the states' court filing says. "The federal law struck down in Citizens United applied only to elections for President and U.S. Congress," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman wrote on behalf of the states. "By contrast, Montana's law applies to a wide range of state and local offices, including judgeships and law enforcement positions such as sheriff and county prosecutor." The joining states, unlike Montana, ask the court to go further and reconsider core findings in Citizens United. They argue, for instance, it was wrong for the court to say unlimited independent expenditures rarely cause corruption or the appearance of corruption. And other critics of the Citizens United decision who believe the court was wrong to grant corporations constitutional rights, have intervened and asked the court to reverse itself. "There is a growing bipartisan consensus that Citizens United needs to be overturned, and Montana is leading the way," said Peter Schurman, spokesman for a group called Free Speech For People. "The Supreme Court has an opportunity to revisit Citizens United here. That is important because there is evidence everywhere that unlimited spending in our elections creates both corruption and the appearance for corruption." On Friday, Montana's case was given a boost when U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., signed on in support. The senators argue evidence following the Citizens United decision, where millions in unregulated money has poured into presidential elections, shows that large independent expenditures can lead to corruption. The states who filed the brief in support of Montana are New York, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. ___ Associated Press writer Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| Nearly half of US states have thrown their weight behind a legal defence of local laws restricting corporate money in politics by asking the supreme court to revisit its widely-criticised ban on similar national legislation. The states filed a brief with the supreme court on Monday in support of a century-old law in Montana – the Corrupt Practices Act – against companies pumping money into elections. The law was struck down by a Montana court following the US supreme court ruling two years ago in the Citizens United case, which lifted most restrictions on corporations spending money on political advertising. However, the Montana supreme court has since upheld the state law, putting it in conflict with the Citizens United ruling. If the supreme court agrees to take up the case, it is not likely to overturn Citizens United, but it could hand down a decision that would give state legislatures greater leeway in limiting corporate money in politics. The states argue that corporate money can have an even more corroding effect at a local level than on national politics. The Montana supreme court ruled that the ban was justified because of a history in the state of powerful corporate interests, copper mining companies, distorting politics with money. The ban was passed by a referendum in 1912. That position has been challenged by a conservative interest group, American Tradition Partnership, which has asked the US supreme court to overturn the Montana ruling. The court blocked its implementation in February and is now considering whether to hear arguments in the case or simply issue a ruling reversing the Montana judgement. In a submission to the supreme court on Monday, attorneys general from 22 states and Washington, DC representing both major parties called for the Montana law to be upheld. "The Montana law at issue here, like many other state laws regulating corporate campaign expenditures in state and local elections, is sharply different from the federal law struck down in Citizens United, and the Court need not revise its ruling in Citizens United in order to sustain the challenged Montana law," wrote New York's attorney-general, Eric Schneiderman, in the brief. The challenge over the Montana action has been backed by Senator John McCain, who authored the campaign finance law struck down by the US supreme court in Citizens United. In that ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion said that money does not "give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption". In his brief in the Montana case, McCain argued that there is already evidence since the Citizens United ruling that large sums of money thrown into the political process is having a corrupting effect. "A problem does exist. Evidence from the 2010 and 2012 electoral cycles has demonstrated that so-called independent expenditures create a strong potential for corruption and the perception thereof. The news confirms, daily, that existing campaign finance rules purporting to provide for 'independence' and 'disclosure' in fact provide neither. "Regulatory filings show that much of the funding for independent expenditures comes from shell companies, pass-through entities, and non-profit organizations that conceal the true source of the individuals and companies supporting them," said McCain's brief. But ATP said in its petition to the supreme court said there is no evidence Citizens United has corrupted the political process and that Montana's history of past abuses has no bearing on the law today. "Citizens United has not proven unworkable, as evidenced by those who have exercised their liberty under it. Lower courts, except for the decision below, have uniformly followed this court's holding, and legislatures and government agencies, with few exceptions, have implemented the protections of Citizens United," it said. "Is this court going to limit the right of speakers to engage in core political speech because they spend huge sums in doing so? Or because the state they happen to be in had corruption problems, or a corporation employed a lot of people, over a century ago? Or because the same corporation owned a lot of newspapers in the state in the 1950s? Or because the state they happen to be in has few people, a tradition of low-cost elections, or considerable candidate-voter contact?" Two of the supreme court justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, have welcomed the opportunity to revisit the Citizens United case. "Montana's experience, and experience elsewhere since this court's decision in Citizens United … make it exceedingly difficult to maintain that independent expenditures by corporations 'do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption,'" Ginsburg wrote. She added that a further supreme court hearing "will give the court an opportunity to consider whether, in light of the huge sums currently deployed to buy candidates' allegiance, Citizens United should continue to hold sway".

– Montana's attorney general is fighting to preserve his state's ability to curb corporate political spending, and almost half of America's states are backing him. Some 22 states and the District of Columbia have filed a brief urging the Supreme Court not to use its Citizens United decision to strike down Montana's law limiting corporate money in politics, reports the Guardian. Montana's century-old Corrupt Practices Act, which was introduced to curb the power of copper barons, has been upheld by the state's highest court, putting it in conflict with Citizens United. The states, led by New York, argue that laws like Montana's are needed to prevent corruption at the state level. They say the court should reconsider some of its findings in the Citizens United case, arguing that the court was wrong when it claimed that unlimited independent political spending does not "give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption," AP reports. Experts say that while it is highly unlikely that the court will reconsider Citizens United, it may clarify the ruling to allow Montana's law to stand—or simply issue a ruling reversing Montana's decision to uphold its law.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told France's BFM TV on Monday that there was "without a doubt" at least one accomplice to the deadly attacks in Paris and vowed that "the hunt will go on." It was not clear whether he was talking about Boumeddiene or an additional suspect. Turkish foreign minister told Anadoluthe country's intelligence services tracked Boumedienne from her arrival in the country on Jan. 2. French officials also alerted the Turkish government that Boumedienne had traveled to Turkey with a companion named as Mehdi Sabri Belhoucine, an official close to the investigation and a member of the police told NBC News on Monday. Turkish intelligence then tracked Boumedienne via her cellphone and listened to her conversations, discovering that she had arrived in Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen International Airport stayed on the Asian side of the city, the sources said. CCTV video from the airport emerged on Monday that officials say shows the duo at the airport's passport control office. Boumedienne and Belhoucine stayed at Bade Otel, a small and relatively cheap hotel in a middle-class neighborhood,the Turkish police source said. During their time in Istanbul, the two moved around the city like tourists and did nothing to arouse officials’ suspicions, the Turkish sources added. Intelligence officials followed her telephone signals until she and Belhoucine went to the Turkish city of Sanliurfa near the border with Syria on Thursday, after which they lost track of the pair, they added. The discrepancy between the foreign minister's comments and the sources account could not immediately be explained. Boumedienne's common-law husband Amedy Coulibaly is believed to have killed a French policewoman on Thursday, the day before he killed four hostages at a kosher supermarket. Police have described her as an accomplice in the officer's killing. Video emerged Sunday purporting to show Coulibaly pledging allegiance to ISIS and defending the attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. A man who looks like Coulibaly is shown exercising, with a gun and giving speeches with an ISIS banner. The SITE Intelligence Group said it had verified the video. The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| PARIS (AP) — France on Monday ordered 10,000 troops into the streets to protect sensitive sites after three days of bloodshed and terror, amid the hunt for accomplices to the attacks that left 17 people and the three gunmen dead. People wave national flags and hold placards that read "I am Charlie" at the Place de la Nation in Paris, France, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. More than 40 world leaders, their arms linked, marched through... (Associated Press) A man holds up a placard that reads "I am Charlie" at the Place de la Nation in Paris Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. More than 40 world leaders, their arms linked, marched through Paris Sunday to rally for unity... (Associated Press) A girl holds up a placard that reads "I am Charlie" in several languages at the Place de la Nation in Paris Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. More than 40 world leaders, their arms linked, marched through Paris... (Associated Press) FILE - This photo provided by the Paris Police Prefecture Friday, Jan. 9, 2015 shows Hayat Boumedienne the suspect in the kosher market attack. Turkey's foreign minister said Monday Jan.12, 2015 that... (Associated Press) Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the search is urgent because "the threat is still present" after the attacks that began Wednesday with a massacre on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and ended when the three attackers were killed Friday in nearly simultaneous raids by security forces. Meanwhile, France's defense minister said Monday the country is mobilizing 10,000 troops to protect the population. Jean-Yves Le Drian said the deployment will be fully in place by Tuesday, and will focus on the most sensitive locations. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 4,700 security forces would be assigned to protect France's 717 Jewish schools. The common-law wife of one of the attackers crossed into Syria on Thursday, the day after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and the same day her husband shot a policewoman to death on the outskirts of Paris, according to Turkey's foreign minister. Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu Agency on Monday that Hayat Boumedienne arrived in Turkey from Madrid on Jan. 2, ahead of the attacks and stayed at a hotel in Istanbul with another person before crossing into Syria on Thursday. Video emerged on Sunday of her husband, Amedy Coulibaly, explaining how the attacks would unfold. Police want to find the person who shot and posted the video which was edited after the attacks were over. "The work on these attacks, on these terrorist and barbaric acts continues ... because we consider that there are most probably some possible accomplices," Valls told BFM television. Turkish intelligence tracked Boumeddiene from her arrival on Jan. 2. She and her traveling companion, a 23-year-old man, toured Istanbul, then left Jan. 4 for a town near the Turkish border, according to a Turkish intelligence official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. Her last phone signal was on Jan. 8 from the border town of Akcakale, where she crossed over apparently into Islamic State-controlled territory. Their Jan. 9 return tickets to Madrid went unused Survivors say the Charlie Hebdo attackers, brothers from Paris, claimed they were from al-Qaida in Yemen, the group the U.S. considers the most dangerous offshoot of that network. In the video, Coulibaly pledges allegiance to the Islamic State group. Ties among the men date back to at least 2005, when Coulibaly and Cherif Kouachi were jailed together. It later emerged that Cherif's older brother, Said, fought with or was trained by al-Qaida in Yemen; Cherif, was convicted in 2008 along with several others in a network that sent jihadis to fight American forces in Iraq. ___ Associated Press writers John-Thor Dahlburg in Paris; Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; and Desmond O. Butler in Istanbul contributed. ||||| CLOSE USA TODAY'S Editor at Large/Media Columnist Rem Rieder discusses Charie Hebdo's new magazine cover that came out today and the mag to come out on Wednesday. USA TODAY A handout released on January 12, 2015, in Paris by French newspaper Charlie Hebdo shows the frontpage of the upcoming "survivors" edition of the French satirical weekly with a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed holding up a "Je suis Charlie" ('I am Charlie') sign under the words: "Tout est pardonne" ('All is forgiven'). (Photo: HO, AFP/Getty Images) The latest issue of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, published by survivors of last week's deadly terror attack, features a cover cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed holding a sign that says "Je suis Charlie,'' an echo of the slogan of support for freedom of speech that spread across the globe after the tragedy. The news agency Agence France-Presse on Monday distributed a copy of the new cover, which carries a caption that reads "Tout est pardonne,'' which translates into English as all is forgiven. USA TODAY traditionally does not show images of Mohammed to avoid offending Muslim readers. But the magazine cover has enough news value to warrant its publication in this case. Remaining Charlie Hebdo staff on Tuesday said an unprecedented run of 3 million copies of the next issue Wednesday were planned. "Three million people will have Mohammed's, the prophet's drawing, at home," Zineb El Rhazoui, a columnist for the newspaper, told the BBC. The remaining staff previously said that a million copied would be published. "We will not give in. The spirit of 'I am Charlie' means the right to blaspheme," lawyer Richard Malka told France Info radio. The press run is a huge jump from the normal circulation of 60,000 copies and reflects the strong outpouring of support from the public, including a show of solidarity by 1.5 million people in central Paris on Sunday. Meanwhile, as many as six terror-cell members may still be at large after the Paris terrorism attacks, French police say. Two French police officials, who were not identified by name, said one of the at-large cell members has been spotted driving a car registered to the widow of one of the slain attackers, Associated Press reported from Paris. Paris police are searching for a Mini Cooper car registered to the widow, Hayat Boumeddiene, who Turkish officials say is now in Syria. The two gunmen who attacked the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris last week, killing 12 people, had shouted that their mission was to avenge the newspaper's publication of what they said were denigrating cartoons about Islam. The bloody attack triggered three days of terror in France, climaxing Friday in the fatal shooting of the Chérif Kouachi, 32, and his brother, Said, 34, by security forces in a town north of Paris, and the killing of an associate, Amedy Coulibaly, 32, who had taken over a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris, killing four people. Some 10,000 security forces are being mobilized to protect the population against other possible terrorist attacks. "The threat is still present," said Prime Minister Manuel Valls. He told BFM television on Monday that France is at war against "terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam." The unity rally Sunday featured a procession led by French President Francois Hollande, who was joined by other world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, is wanted in connection with the attacks in France. (Photo: Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire) The security forces will be deployed beginning Tuesday at the country's most vulnerable locations, including Jewish schools, said Jean-Yves Le Drian, France's defense minister. On Friday morning, only hours before his death, Coulibaly told BFM television that he had coordinated his attacks with the Kouachi brothers. He claimed to be a member of Islamic State, the extremist organization that has taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq. Chérif Kouachi, in a separate interview, said the attacks were planned and financed by Al-Qaeda in Yemen. Authorities initially believed that Coulibaly's common-law wife, Hayat Boumediene, 26, was involved in a policewoman's death and the supermarket takeover. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu Agency on Monday, however, that Boumediene arrived in Turkey from Madrid on Jan. 2, ahead of the attacks, and stayed at a hotel in Istanbul before crossing into Syria on Thursday. In another development, a Yemeni reporter told the Associated Press on Monday that in 2010 he met Said Kouachi who claimed to have lived with the Nigerian who tried to carry out the failed al-Qaeda "underwear bomb" plot five years ago. Yemeni journalist and researcher Mohammed al-Kibsi said he first met Kouachi in the capital, Sanaa, while the gunman was studying Arabic. Al-Kibsi told the AP on Monday: "He was very polite and had a sense of humor so for me I could not expect that a few years later he would be the suspect of a terror attack." The journalist said that Kouachi said that he had lived with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, convicted of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner. In addition, a senior French police officer investigating the attack on Charlie Hebdo killed himself only hours after the bloody terrorist act, France 3 reports. Commissioner Helric Fredou, 45, shot himself in his police office in Limoges last Wednesday night, the radio station reported. "On this particular day of national mourning, police commissioners are hit hard by the tragic death of one of their own," said a spokesman for The Union of Commissioners of the National Police, The Daily Mirror reports. Colleagues told France 3 that Fredou was overworked and "depressed," The Mirror said. Contributing: William M. Welch, USA TODAY; Associated Press Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1BST4rK

– The 26-year-old woman sought by French police as the widow and potential accomplice of Paris deli shooter Amedy Coulibaly is in Syria, Turkey's foreign minister confirmed today. The timeline that Mevlut Cavusoglu is offering up indicates that Hayat Boumeddiene crossed over into Syria after Wednesday's slaughter at Charlie Hebdo, but potentially before her husband's killing spree began: Citing "telephone recordings," Cavusoglu says that Boumeddiene flew from Madrid to Turkey on Jan. 2, then entered Syria on Thursday, reports NBC News—the day her common-law husband is accused of killing a French policewoman. "We provided [French authorities] with the information as soon as we got it, without them even asking," he says. Germany, at least, is unimpressed; its domestic spy chief said today that Turkey is a "key country" that needs to do more to stem the tide of radicals crossing through it into Syria, USA Today reports. It's estimated that north of 90% of extremists headed to Syria cross through Turkey. France confirmed today that it's still seeking at least one probable accomplice, with PM Manuel Valls saying that "the threat is still present" and "the hunt will go on." The AP has more on Boumeddiene's movements: She apparently stayed at an Istanbul hotel with an unnamed 23-year-old man before heading for Turkey's border with Syria. Her last cell transmission came from a border town on Thursday, and she apparently crossed over into ISIS-controlled territory. Meanwhile, video emerged yesterday of Coulibaly declaring his allegiance to ISIS.

Teacher Bonuses Don’t Increase Test Scores, Study Says Written By Daniel Adair on Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010 A new three-year study released on Tuesday reveals that even significant bonuses to teachers for raising student test scores fails to yield significant results. The discovery, conducted by Vanderbilt University’s National Center on Performance Incentives in the metropolitan Nashville school system, compromises the view that merit pay for teachers is a viable method of increasing student performance in the classroom. The study examined about three hundred teachers of fifth to eighth-grade math teachers and the results their students received on the Tennessee standardized exams. Matthew Springer, lead researcher on the study, discusses the results: “I think most people agree today that the current way in which we compensate teachers is broken. But we don’t know what the better way is yet.” The results are a blow against the Obama administration’s new focus on linking teacher salary and tenure to their students’ performance. The Department of Education was critical of the study, claiming it “only looked at the narrow question of whether more pay motivates teachers to try harder,” whereas the goal of the DoE is to “change the culture of teaching,” only one part of which is rewarding high-performing teachers in difficult to staff schools. The American Federation of Teachers, on the other hand, praised the study, using it to emphasize their points that teachers need better training and more support administrators to better do their jobs. Merit pay is currently effectively illegal in many states, with only a handful of districts currently employing such a system. Part of the Obama administration’s goal with its “Race to the Top” grant competition is to get more states to pass merit pay laws. Other stories that readers found helpful: ||||| Offering big bonuses to teachers failed to raise students' test scores in a three-year study released Tuesday that calls into question the Obama administration's push for merit pay to improve education. The study, conducted in the metropolitan Nashville school system by Vanderbilt University's National Center on Performance Incentives, was described by the researchers as the nation's first scientifically rigorous look at merit pay for teachers. It found that students whose teachers were offered bonuses of up to $15,000 a year for improved test scores registered the same gains on standardized exams as those whose teachers were given no such incentives. "I think most people agree today that the current way in which we compensate teachers is broken," said Matthew Springer, executive director of the Vanderbilt center and lead researcher on the study. "But we don't know what the better way is yet." The study comes as the Obama administration encourages school systems to link teacher pay and tenure to how students perform on tests and other measures of achievement. The researchers looked at fifth- through eighth-grade math teachers from 2007 to 2009. A group of about 300 teachers started out in the study; half were eligible for the bonuses, the other half were not. The bonuses were given out based on improvements in scores on Tennessee's standardized exam, which is used by the state as part of the federal No Child Left Behind requirements. Springer was quick to point out that his study looked only at individual bonuses, not extra pay doled out to teams of teachers or an entire school. He said more research is needed. "Some people were initially disappointed when they saw the results, but quickly turned around and said, 'Well, at least we finally have an answer,'" he said. "It means pay can't do it alone." The U.S. Education Department called the study too narrowly focused. "It only looked at the narrow question of whether more pay motivates teachers to try harder," said spokeswoman Sandra Abrevaya. "What we are trying to do is change the culture of teaching by giving all educators the feedback they need to get better while rewarding and incentivizing the best to teach in high-need schools, hard-to-staff subjects." The American Federation of Teachers praised the study and argued that teachers need other resources, including better training and more supportive administrators. "Merit pay is not the panacea that some would like it to be. There are no quick fixes in education," said union president Randi Weingarten. "Providing individual bonuses for teachers standing alone does not work." Teachers unions have historically opposed merit pay, arguing that test scores are not an accurate measure of student achievement, that financial rewards could pit teachers against each other, and that administrators could use bonuses to reward favorites and punish others. Jennifer Conboy, a high school social studies teacher in Miami, called merit pay a "baseless fad." "Merit pay is an excuse to resist the attempt of teachers to get fair pay in the first place," the 37-year-old Conboy said. "On a personal level, merit pay would do nothing to me. I took this job because I think education is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and if I cared about democracy _ which I do _ then I had a responsibility to do whatever I could to strengthen education." Only a few schools and districts across the country have merit pay, and in some states the idea is effectively illegal. The Obama White House hoped to encourage more states to pass merit pay laws with its $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" grant competition. Some states tried to enact merit bonuses for teachers, but most, like Georgia, were unable to get the necessary laws passed. Colorado passed a controversial law that ties teacher pay to student performance and allows the state to strip tenure from low-performing instructors, but the state did not win the Race to the Top grant money it was counting on to help carry out the law. Only about half of the 300 teachers originally in the Nashville study were left at the end of the three years because some retired, moved to other schools or stopped teaching math. About 40 teachers got bonuses each year. Overall, the researchers said, test scores rose modestly for both groups of students during the three-year study, suggesting that the financial incentives made no difference. "It's not enough to say, 'I'll pay you more if you do better.' You've got to help people know how to do better," said Amy Wilkins, vice president of the Education Trust, a Washington think tank. "Absolutely we should reward them once they do better, but to think merit pay alone will get them there is insane." (This version CORRECTS amount of Race to the Top program.)

– The way to increase test scores is not to give bonuses to teachers, say researchers at Vanderbilt University. A three-year study found that offers of bonuses as high as $15,000 did little to change results. The report leaves open the question of what will increase test scores, but it casts doubt on the notion of merit pay, one of the solutions being pushed by the Obama administration. “I think most people agree today that the current way in which we compensate teachers is broken," says the lead researcher. "But we don’t know what the better way is yet.” The American Federation of Teachers agrees with the study and says training is one of the key factors that needs to be improved. Story here and from AP here.

Video released by Rosemont police Friday depicts Kenneka Jenkins staggering alone through a deserted hotel kitchen and disappearing around a corner — the last time she's seen alive. Though it doesn't capture her entering the walk-in freezer where her body was found, video taken by what appears to be a motion-activated camera shows that no one else came into that area until her body was found. Village officials released the video after days of speculation about the death of the 19-year-old Chicago woman and pressure by community activists dissatisfied with the investigation. Attorneys Larry Rogers Jr. and Sam Adam Jr., who represent Jenkins' family, said at a news conference Friday afternoon that they will conduct their own investigation and perhaps seek a second autopsy. The hotel "never checked. They never searched, they never did anything while a young, 19-year-old disoriented girl was sitting in their freezer," Adam said. "Now there has to be an answer to how that happened. Better yet, there has to be an answer to why that happened." On Friday afternoon, the village released six video clips from the early morning of Sept. 9, when Jenkins went missing. The first two videos, from early Saturday, show Jenkins, her gait steady, walking with three others through a public part of the hotel. But in the next clip, about two hours later, she gets off an elevator alone, so unsteady she has to support herself on a wall. Larry Rogers Jr. and Sam Adam Jr., attorneys for Kenneka Jenkins' mother, Tereasa Martin, said at a news conference Sept. 15, 2017, that they will conduct their own investigation and perhaps seek a second autopsy. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) Larry Rogers Jr. and Sam Adam Jr., attorneys for Kenneka Jenkins' mother, Tereasa Martin, said at a news conference Sept. 15, 2017, that they will conduct their own investigation and perhaps seek a second autopsy. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) SEE MORE VIDEOS Two minutes later, in another clip, she reels down a hallway. Then she wanders around another passage, clearly disoriented. Finally, she totters through an empty kitchen, around a corner and out of sight. The same surveillance camera, which appears to be motion-activated, next picks up activity at 8:34 p.m., when a person briefly enters the frame, looks around and leaves. No one else enters the picture until 12:23 a.m. on Sept. 10, when a man goes around the same corner where Jenkins was last seen. A few seconds later, he walks quickly out of the frame and returns with a police officer. More officers soon arrive, hustling toward the corner. Jenkins was pronounced dead at 12:48 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The video shows a body bag being removed at 4:53 a.m. Kenneka Jenkins, 19, was pronouced dead early Sept. 10, 2017, after she was found in a walk-in freezer at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Rosemont. Since then, controversey has surrounded her death. (Tribune and Cook County medical examiner's office photos) (Tribune and Cook County medical examiner's office photos) Jenkins had attended a party in a room of the Crowne Plaza that stretched into the early hours of Sept. 9. Her sister said she last spoke to her around 1:30 a.m. Jenkins' mother, Tereasa Martin, said that about 4 a.m. she received a call that Jenkins had gone missing. In a 911 recording, Martin can be heard speaking to a police dispatcher a few hours later, relaying a version of events provided by Jenkins' friends: "They said they went upstairs to get (a) cellphone … and (Jenkins) was standing in the lobby," she said. "When they came downstairs, she wasn't there anymore." Martin asked if police could review surveillance footage from the hotel. She said she was worried because her daughter, who had a light tolerance for alcohol, had evidently been drinking — "One cup is too much for her" — and that the teen wasn't the type to disappear. The dispatcher, noting that Jenkins was an adult and had been missing only a few hours, advised patience, saying it would take a while for detectives to get hold of the video. "What I would recommend is just go home, relax a little bit, give it some time," he said. "(For) all we know she very well still could be in the room. She could just be passed out. You know how it is. You're drinking the night before, you get — you know what I mean." The family ended up filing a missing persons report later that morning, Rosemont spokesman Gary Mack said, and police notified the hotel about 1:15 p.m. The hotel looked in all public areas and the floor on which the party was held but didn't find Jenkins, Mack said. The family returned to the hotel about 6 p.m. and knocked on guest doors, trying to find witnesses. The hotel called police, and Martin said the officers who responded reviewed surveillance video and saw Jenkins "staggering" through the hotel about 3:20 a.m. A second search ensued. That's when she was found dead in the freezer. The medical examiner's office has yet to pronounce a cause or manner of death. A spokeswoman has said that determination might not come for weeks, pending further tests and investigation. The case has been the subject of intense speculation on social media, with amateur detectives combing through videos apparently shot in the room before Jenkins disappeared. Many have suggested online that she was murdered, but Rosemont police have consistently said they are conducting a death investigation, not a homicide probe. At the news conference, Rogers suggested that Jenkins' life could have been saved, or at least that she would have been found more quickly, had hotel staff listened to her friends and mother when they came seeking help. Jenkins' friends and family "were not given the assistance they needed. Assistance that probably, I suspect — I don't know — may have prevented us from being here today," Rogers said. Martin, sitting between her attorneys, thanked everyone for their love and support. "But I also want to know what happened," she said in a hushed voice. "I want to see it all. I want to see her actually walking into this freezer and closing herself within this freezer and freezing to death." Chicago Tribune's Bob McCoppin contributed. jkeilman@chicagotribune.com wlee@chicagotribune.com Twitter @JohnKeilman Twitter @MidnoirCowboy ||||| Video released by Rosemont police Friday depicts Kenneka Jenkins staggering alone through a deserted hotel kitchen and disappearing around a corner — the last time she's seen alive. Though it doesn't capture her entering the walk-in freezer where her body was found, video taken by what appears to be a motion-activated camera shows that no one else came into that area until her body was found. Village officials released the video after days of speculation about the death of the 19-year-old Chicago woman and pressure by community activists dissatisfied with the investigation. Attorneys Larry Rogers Jr. and Sam Adam Jr., who represent Jenkins' family, said at a news conference Friday afternoon that they will conduct their own investigation and perhaps seek a second autopsy. Activist misrepresented family of teen found dead in freezer: mom The hotel "never checked. They never searched, they never did anything while a young, 19-year-old disoriented girl was sitting in their freezer," Adam said. "Now there has to be an answer to how that happened. Better yet, there has to be an answer to why that happened." On Friday afternoon, the village released six video clips from the early morning of Sept. 9, when Jenkins went missing. The first two videos, from early Saturday, show Jenkins, her gait steady, walking with three others through a public part of the hotel. But in the next clip, about 2 hours later, she gets off an elevator alone, so unsteady she has to support herself on a wall. Two minutes later, in another clip, she reels down a hallway. Then she wanders around another passage, clearly disoriented. Finally, she totters through an empty kitchen, around a corner and out of sight. Activist claims video shows Kenneka Jenkins enter freezer alone The same surveillance camera, which appears to be motion-activated, next picks up activity at 8:34 p.m., when a person briefly enters the frame, looks around and leaves. No one else enters the picture until 12:23 a.m. on Sept. 10, when a man goes around the same corner where Jenkins was last seen. A few seconds later, he walks quickly out of the frame and returns with a police officer. More officers soon arrive, hustling toward the corner. New video shows Kenneka Jenkins in her final moments caught on tape. (Facebook) Jenkins was pronounced dead at 12:48 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The video shows a body bag being removed at 4:53 a.m. Cops interview 12 people about puzzling death of Chicago teen Jenkins had attended a party in a room of the Crowne Plaza that stretched into the early hours of Sept. 9. Her sister said she last spoke to her around 1:30 a.m. Jenkins' mother, Tereasa Martin, said that about 4 a.m. she received a call that Jenkins had gone missing. In a 911 recording, Martin can be heard speaking to a police dispatcher a few hours later, relaying a version of events provided by Jenkins' friends: "They said they went upstairs to get (a) cellphone … and (Jenkins) was standing in the lobby," she said. "When they came downstairs, she wasn't there anymore." Martin asked if police could review surveillance footage from the hotel. She said she was worried because her daughter, who had a light tolerance for alcohol, had evidently been drinking — "One cup is too much for her" — and that the teen wasn't the type to disappear. Police trying to track down friends of teen found in freezer The dispatcher, noting that Jenkins was an adult and had been missing only a few hours, advised patience, saying it would take a while for detectives to get hold of the video. "What I would recommend is just go home, relax a little bit, give it some time," he said. "(For) all we know she very well still could be in the room. She could just be passed out. You know how it is. You're drinking the night before, you get — you know what I mean." Jenkins, 19, died after walking into a freezer at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel. (Facebook) The family ended up filing a missing persons report later that morning, Rosemont spokesman Gary Mack said, and police notified the hotel about 1:15 p.m. The hotel looked in all public areas and the floor on which the party was held but didn't find Jenkins, Mack said. The family returned to the hotel about 6 p.m. and knocked on guest doors, trying to find witnesses. The hotel called police, and Martin said the officers who responded reviewed surveillance video and saw Jenkins "staggering" through the hotel about 3:20 a.m. Cops reviewing Facebook Live video showing teen found in freezer A second search ensued. That's when she was found dead in the freezer. The medical examiner's office has yet to pronounce a cause or manner of death. A spokeswoman has said that determination might not come for weeks, pending further tests and investigation. The case has been the subject of intense speculation on social media, with amateur detectives combing through videos apparently shot in the room before Jenkins disappeared. Many have suggested online that she was murdered, but Rosemont police have consistently said they are conducting a death investigation, not a homicide probe. Teen found dead inside freezer after hotel party At the news conference, Rogers suggested that Jenkins' life could have been saved, or at least that she would have been found more quickly, had hotel staff listened to her friends and mother when they came seeking help. Jenkins' friends and family "were not given the assistance they needed. Assistance that probably, I suspect — I don't know — may have prevented us from being here today," Rogers said. Martin, sitting between her attorneys, thanked everyone for their love and support. "But I also want to know what happened," she said in a hushed voice. "I want to see it all. I want to see her actually walking into this freezer and closing herself within this freezer and freezing to death." Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! With Bob McCoppin ||||| Videos catch glimpses of Kenneka Jenkins’ final hours at Crowne Plaza She arrived at the hotel to party with her friends. She stumbled down a hallway. And she walked unsteadily through a hotel kitchen, disappearing around a corner. Those were among the images of 19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins captured on surveillance video at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where she was found dead in a walk-in freezer last weekend. Rosemont police released nine video files Friday afternoon. One video shows her walking alone in the hotel kitchen around 3:30 a.m. Saturday but does not directly show her walking into the freezer where she was found dead. Among the clips, Jenkins can be seen arriving at the hotel with three other people shortly after midnight on Saturday. Subsequent clips show her stumbling off elevators and walking alone through hallways. The release of the videos came hours after the lawyer for Jenkins’ mother said “serious questions remain” about the circumstances involving Jenkins’ death — and capped a week of apparent miscommunication between several of the parties involved. Rosemont police opted to make the videos public during a press conference held by Jenkins’ mother’s attorneys — during which those attorneys repeatedly said they had been shown only a few “snippets” of video from the night Jenkins died. A day earlier, the Crowne Plaza had issued a statement offering to show Jenkins’ family all 36 hours of footage in private. Jenkins left her home near the United Center at 11:30 p.m. Friday to go to a party in a room of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, according to Rosemont Police. Jenkins’ sister last heard from her via text message about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. About 4 a.m., Jenkins’ friends called her mother to tell her they could not find her, longtime Chicago anti-violence activist Andrew Holmes has said. An hour later, Tereasa Martin — who had recently undergone a double mastectomy — was at the hotel. She filled out a police report and Jenkins’ sister reported her missing. Jenkins was last seen at a party on the ninth floor of the hotel in the early hours of Saturday, police said. She was reported missing at 1:16 p.m. that afternoon. Police told Martin that surveillance footage showed Jenkins inebriated near the front desk, according to Holmes. Hotel staff and management searched the hotel and discovered Jenkins inside a freezer at 12:24 a.m. Sunday, police said. Rosemont police released a statement Friday evening saying detectives had interviewed 25 people so far during their investigation. Of those, 16 were in the hotel room during the party. Police continue trying to locate and interview another 15. It was also determined, police said, that the room used for the party was paid for with a “fraudulent credit card obtained through identity theft.” Since the weekend, Twitter and Facebook have been deluged with theories about Jenkins’ death — with many believing she was murdered. Rosemont police have said Jenkins’ death is considered noncriminal and that there was “no credible evidence at this point” that would prompt police to reclassify Jenkins’ death as a murder. Her autopsy was inconclusive pending further study. Village officials on Friday also released 911 calls and police radio dispatches related to the search for Jenkins. Martin called 911 from the hotel about 7:15 a.m. Saturday asking for police to help get the hotel to turn over security camera footage. The dispatcher advised her to wait a few hours in case her daughter turned up elsewhere. A little before 6 p.m., another female, who didn’t indicate her relationship to Jenkins, made a tearful 911 call to file a missing person report; the dispatcher tells her a report already had been filed. Police said Jenkins was formally reported missing about 1:15 p.m. Officers were dispatched to the hotel by 2 p.m., and they spent hours canvassing floors and trying to figure out on which floor Jenkins was last seen, according to radio transmissions. At one point, the hotel’s front desk called police to remove Jenkins’ mother from the premises, saying she was going door-to-door throughout the building looking for her daughter. At 12:25 a.m. Sunday, an officer radioed from a kitchen near a loading dock in the rear of the hotel. “I have the subject in a kitchen in a freezer,” the officer said. “She is frozen solid.” Thursday, the Crowne Plaza released a statement saying the hotel would allow Jenkins’ family to watch, in private, all 36 hours of video from more than 40 different cameras. The hotel also offered to cover funeral expenses. At Friday’s press conference, Martin’s attorneys said they were not aware of any such offer. Glenn Harton, a Crowne Plaza spokesman, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Thursday’s offers were relayed to three well-known community activists in Chicago: Jedidiah Brown, Ja’Mal Green and Andrew Holmes. Harton said that as of Thursday, the hotel didn’t know if Martin had retained an attorney and the three activists were told of the offers because “they all identified themselves as spokespeople for the family.” It was not known if Brown, Green or Holmes relayed the message to Martin. None of the three responded to requests for comment Friday evening. Friday afternoon, Harton said the family had not taken the hotel up on its offers. In a statement Friday afternoon, Martin’s attorneys said: “No other person is or has been authorized to speak on behalf of the family.” Shortly after the offer was made Thursday, Holmes said he saw surveillance footage and said Jenkins went into the freezer by herself, without being forced inside. “We all was wondering and wanted to know did anybody pull her down there?” Holmes said, contradicting Rogers’ statement. “Did anybody force her down there? Was anybody on the other side in that room when she got down there? And the answer to that is ‘no.’” Sam Adam Jr., one of Martin’s attorneys, said Friday: “I don’t know what Mr. Holmes saw or he didn’t. Quite frankly, to our investigation, it’s irrelevant.” “At the end of the day,” Adam said, “we have a child who is dead and a mother who doesn’t know why.” Contributing: Mitchell Armentrout ||||| Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

– Police have released surveillance video of Kenneka Jenkins, the Chicago teen whose death in a walk-in hotel freezer after a party last weekend has led to protests and theories that she was murdered. The footage, which appears to be from a motion-activated camera at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Rosemont, Ill, doesn't capture the moment the 19-year-old entered the freezer, but it shows her walking, alone and apparently disoriented, through a disused hotel kitchen on the way there, reports the Chicago Tribune. The video shows that nobody else entered the kitchen area until her frozen body was found early Sunday morning, almost 24 hours after friends said she was missing. Video from early in the evening shows Jenkins with friends, but a later clip shows her emerge from an elevator alone and so unsteady that she had to hold on to a wall, the New York Daily News reports. Another shows her wandering down a hotel hallway. Police say they have interviewed 25 party guests and they have no reason to believe Jenkins was murdered, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Sam Adam Jr., an attorney for the Jenkins family, says lawyers will carry out their own investigation. The hotel "never searched, they never did anything while a young, 19-year-old disoriented girl was sitting in their freezer," he told reporters Friday. "Now there has to be an answer to how that happened. Better yet, there has to be an answer to why that happened."

For those of you who were offended by a very genuine attempt at fostering a civil discussion, I apologize. About 10 or 15 minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its 5-4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made gay marriage legal across the country, including the 13 states that up until now had banned it, a colleague of mine walked into the PennLive newsroom. A smile lit up her face and there were tears in her eyes. Up until about 10 a.m. on Friday, my gay colleague sat on pins and needles, waiting to see if nine lawyers were about to throw the life and her and her partner into absolute upheaval. We embraced and I offered my congratulations. And then I sat down and thought about what had just happened and what it meant to my other gay and lesbian colleagues who were rightfully celebrating Friday's ruling as a victory for both love and equal protection under the law. And as the comments on our main story about the ruling -- many of them openly hostile -- began to pile up, I decided I wanted to send the strongest possible message that the Opinion pages of PennLive and The Patriot-News would be space for civil discussion of one of the most important civil rights rulings of our lifetime. I came up with three sentences, which currently read like this: "As a result of Friday's ruling, PennLive/The Patriot-News will very strictly limit op-Eds and letters to the editor in opposition to same-sex marriage. "These unions are now the law of the land. And we will not publish such letters and op-Eds any more than we would publish those that are racist, sexist or anti-Semitic. "We will, however, for a limited time, accept letters and op-Eds on the high court's decision and its legal merits." What almost immediately followed was an object lesson in the law of unintended consequences. And, sadly, the strongly worded message included in our editorial was lost. By day's end, I'd received dozens of emails and several phone calls -- not to mention the hundreds of comments appended to the editorial -- accusing me (and this news organization) of being "fascists" opposed to both the First Amendment and the right to freedom of expression. And those were just the polite ones. And as I rolled it over in my head yesterday, after hearing from professional colleagues and good friends on the right and left who questioned our policy, I reached a number of conclusions: First: No one at PennLive and The Patriot-News is an opponent of the First Amendment. It's a right that's foundational to us as a people. And it's a right for which many brave and noble men and women have given their lives. And I would never trample on that legacy or dishonor their sacrifice by limiting our readers' right to express themselves in a civil way. Second: And I cannot stress this one enough -- that's in a civil way. More than once yesterday I was referred to as "f****t-lover," among other slurs. And that's the point that I was trying to make with our statement: We will not publish such slurs any more than we would publish racist, sexist or anti-Semitic speech. There are ways to intelligently discuss an issue. The use of playground insults is not among them. And they are not welcome at PennLive/The Patriot-News. Third: I fully recognize that there are people of good conscience and of goodwill who will disagree with Friday's high court ruling. They include philosophers and men and women of the cloth whose objections come from deeply held religious and moral convictions that are protected by the very same First Amendment that allowed me to stick my foot in my mouth on Friday. They are, and always will be, welcome in these pages, along with all others of goodwill, who seek to have an intelligent and reasoned debate on the issues of the day. These pages, I remind myself finally, belong to the people of Central Pennsylvania. I'm a conduit, I recognize, for them to share their views and to have the arguments that make us better as a people. And all views are -- and always will be -- welcome. My mom -- and probably yours too -- once told me what the road to hell was paved with. Yesterday, I was reminded of the truth of that lesson. I stand with my gay and lesbian friends who, on Friday, were extended the same protections under the law that the rest of us take for granted. But for those of you who were offended by what was intended as a very genuine attempt at fostering a civil discussion, I apologize. ||||| You simply have to love Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler whenever they get together on TV to do one of their hilarious “Really?” Saturday Night Live-style segments. And while they’re not on SNL anymore, the duo reprised their “Really?” roles to shame a Sports Illustrated contributor who took to Twitter to say that women’s sports – not just soccer – aren’t really worth watching. Yeah, he said that on the Internet, while this was happening. DON’T MISS: The Secret Sites Cord Cutters Use to Stream Pay TV and Movies for Free Meyers had Poehler performed the bit on the Late Night with Seth Meyers show, and the video dedicated to Sports Illustrated’ Andy Beniot follows below. Everything started when Mark Mravic tweeted that “And here some people (ahem, @Andy_Benoit) argue that women’s soccer isn’t worth watching,” pointing out to a stupendous goal scored in the women’s soccer World Cup – you’ll see the goal it in the following clip, too. Benoit, probably not realizing that his fingers were actually typing something that would go up online in seconds, replied that “Not women’s soccer, [but] women’s sports in general [are] not worth watching.” Rest assured, Poehler gave Benoit advice on using Twitter, in addition to thoroughly mocking his answer together with Meyers. “Another thing,” she said. “No more tweeting, Benoit, you’re too dumb.” The full “Really?” clip follows below. ||||| Wal-Mart is apologizing for a store in Slidell, La., which refused to bake a cake designed as the Confederate battle flag but accepted a request to bake a cake that looked like the ISIS battle flag. Chuck Netzhammer, a local resident, presented his story in a YouTube video Friday, saying, “Alright, Wal-Mart, you’ve got some explaining to do. I went to go buy a cake from you all the other day with this image on it and y’all wouldn’t do it. I went back yesterday and managed to get the ISIS battle flag [cake instead].” Netzhammer shows the ISIS battle flag cake to the camera as well as the rejection letter Wal-Mart gave him for the confederate flag cake request. Netzhammer also shows the receipt that went along with the ISIS battle flag cake that Wal-Mart agreed to bake. WATCH: “Wal-Mart, can you please explain why you’re alienating Southern Americans with this trash that you allow to be sold at your store, while at the same point Confederate flag memorabilia is not allowed?” Netzhammer asks. The Daily caller was contacted by Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, who said in an email, “Our local store made a mistake. The cake in the video should not have been made and we apologize.” Hargrove later explained to TheDC, “We made the decision to stop selling Confederate flag related items promoting the flag’s image. For that reason we did not make the cake. [Netzhammer] brought in the other image of ISIS and really, what happened, was our associate didn’t recognize what that image was and what it meant or it wouldn’t have been made.” Merchandise that is associated with the Confederate flag was pulled off Wal-Mart and other retailers store shelves this past week following the Charleston, S.C., shooting massacre of nine parishioners at a black church. Photos later showed the gunman, Dylan Roof, posing with the Confederate flag. ||||| TOKYO — For the first time since a crisis erupted over deadly defects in airbags made by his family’s company, the reclusive chief executive of the Japanese supplier Takata publicly addressed the issue on Thursday. He offered an apology but defended Takata’s products as fundamentally safe. “I apologize from my heart to those who have died or been injured,” the chief executive, Shigehisa Takada, said after bowing deeply in a show of remorse. “I feel a heavy responsibility.” Yet Mr. Takada, the 49-year-old grandson of the company’s founder, did not explain why he had remained all but absent during the crisis that has been at full boil for more than a year. Even after Toyota and Nissan said on Thursday that they would recall 2.86 million more vehicles equipped with Takata airbags than first announced, Mr. Takada dismissed suggestions that he should resign over what has become the largest automobile safety recall in history. So far, about 35 million vehicles worldwide have been affected. Takata admitted last month that faults in its airbags could cause their inflaters to explode with too much force when they deploy, endangering the drivers and passengers that the safety devices are intended to protect. At least eight deaths and 130 injuries have been linked to the defect. Mr. Takada made his remarks at a news conference after Takata’s annual shareholder meeting. He had briefly addressed the airbag issue at the last meeting a year ago, where he apologized to the company’s investors. But until Thursday, he had not spoken directly to the public or taken questions from the news media. Mr. Takada shed little new light on the nature of the defects, and he acknowledged that Takata was making slow progress with its investigation. The company said it had identified manufacturing failures, which it says have since been resolved, as being responsible for faults in about 10 million airbag inflaters. Defects traced to the manufacturing problems, mainly careless handling of inflater components at two North American factories, were called “alpha cases” inside the company, Takata executives said on Thursday. Questions still surround what the company calls “beta cases,” involving inflaters that were not subject to any known mishandling during production but that ruptured anyway. Prolonged exposure to heat and humidity is suspected to be a contributing factor to the failures, but Takata said it was still trying to pinpoint the exact cause or causes. Mr. Takada and other executives rejected the theory, put forward by some experts, that the basic design of Takata’s inflaters was dangerous because the company uses an explosive propellant, ammonium nitrate, that other airbag manufacturers have avoided because it is deemed potentially unstable. Continue reading the main story Danger in the Steering Wheel Airbags made by the Takata Corporation have a potential defect when they deploy. Some have ruptured, sending metal fragments into the car. At least eight deaths and more than 100 injuries have been linked to the problem. INFLATER/CANISTER PROPELLANT Cutaway view INFLATER/CANISTER STEERING WHEEL AIRBAG HOW IT WORKS: Inside the canister, pellets of a propellant based on ammonium nitrate, a common compound used in fertilizer, are ignited and generate the nitrogen gas that inflates the airbag in a fraction of a second. THE PROBLEM: Takata has said manufacturing problems, together with exposure to moisture in cars in humid regions, can cause the propellant to degrade. This can make the propellant burn too strongly when the airbag is deployed, rupturing the inflater and sending metal fragments into the car’s interior and injuring the driver or passengers. “We have been working with ammonium nitrate for more than 10 years, and have tested it in a variety of ways,” Mr. Takada said. “As far as I’m concerned, it is safe and reliable.” Some of Takata’s replacement inflaters also use ammonium nitrate, meaning that if the chemical turns out to be part of the problem, devices in cars that have been recalled and repaired may ultimately fail as well. Takata met with harsh criticism from American lawmakers at a congressional hearing this week, as well as with questions about the replacement airbags. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Advertisement Continue reading the main story One automaker, Fiat Chrysler, told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that it would no longer use Takata inflaters in replacement of driver’s side airbags in its cars, citing Takata’s use of ammonium nitrate. In a technical presentation on Thursday, Hiroshi Shimizu, a senior vice president at Takata, said it was likely that a combination of factors was behind the “beta cases.” “There is no evidence that the gas destabilizes on its own,” he said. The Takada family took the airbag manufacturer public nearly a decade ago, but it still controls a majority of shares, mostly through a family-owned holding company. And the family has tightened its grip over the course of the airbag crisis. Photo In December, the Takata board voted to replace Stefan Stocker, the Swiss citizen who became president in 2013, and handed responsibility for day-to-day operations to Mr. Takada, who was then in a more symbolic role as chairman. Mr. Takada is now both chairman and president. The move has had little obvious effect on Takata’s response to the crisis, which has been criticized as slow and poorly communicated. Takata had planned to allow journalists to observe the shareholder meeting on Thursday, but it denied access at the last moment. Takata’s share price has fallen about 40 percent since the shareholder meeting a year ago. The company suspended dividend payments after it reported a net loss of 29.5 billion yen, or $238 million, for the fiscal year that ended in March. The company’s official forecast is for a return to profit this year, but with lawsuits in North America and no clear end to the recalls in sight, analysts say the outlook is most likely too optimistic. Asked on Thursday if he would resign to take responsibility for the crisis, Mr. Takada said he would not. “My first responsibility is to ensure customers’ safety by making sure the company responds firmly to the problem,” he said.

– The biggest apology of the week came from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, but it was hardly the only one to make headlines: Shamed: “I apologize from my heart to those who have died or been injured. I feel a heavy responsibility.”—Shigehisa Takada, chief executive of the Japanese supplier Takata, over his company's air bag issues. Unsportsmanlike: "I got carried away responding to playful ribbing ... and, in my stupidity, overcompensated by saying something ignorant and extreme. 100% mistake on my part, for which I'm deeply sorry."—Andy Benoit of Sports Illustrated, after tweetiing that women's sports weren't worth watching. He then got skewered by Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler. Flag gaffe: “Our local store made a mistake. The cake in the video should not have been made and we apologize.”—Walmart spokesperson, after a store in Louisiana made a cake adorned with an ISIS flag, ordered by someone trying to make a point about the chain's ban on the Confederate flag. Civil discourse: "But for those of you who were offended by what was intended as a very genuine attempt at fostering a civil discussion, I apologize."—John Micek, opinion editor at PennLive, after announcing a decision to "strictly limit" letters in opposition to same-sex marriage in the week of this week's Supreme Court ruling. The site is affiliated with the Patriot News of Harrisburg, Pa. Celebrity interference: “I sincerely regret not discussing my editing rationale with our partners at PBS and WNET, and I apologize for putting PBS and its member stations in the position of having to defend the integrity of their programming."—Henry Louis Gates Jr., after PBS said it would postpone his Finding Your Roots series because of its Ben Affleck miscue.

HUNTINGTON BEACH – When Diana Carrillo, her sister and two friends decided to try the Saint Marc Pub-Cafe in Pacific City last week, they were hoping for a nice shared experience. They got a shared experience, but not one they would have expected. When they were seated, 24-year-old Carrillo of Irvine, said the waiter asked her, “Can I see your proof of residency?” Carrillo said she was shocked. “I already had my ID out. I couldn’t say anything,” she said. She turned to her sister, Brenda Carrillo, and friends and said, “Did he just ask me that?” Carrillo said the waiter asked the other three women the same thing, saying “I need to make sure you’re residents before I serve you.” After talking with the manager, who apologized, the four left the restaurant. Carrillo related her experience, on Saturday, March 11, on social media, which has since taken on a life of its own. The restaurant posted an apology three days later that said in part, “This type of behavior is not representative of the St. Marc brand and will not be tolerated.” Kent Berden, the senior director of operations at the restaurant, said Wednesday that he fired the waiter, whose name was not disclosed. He said the waiter’s actions were unacceptable and not reflective of the restaurant. “The individual didn’t follow corporate policy by any stretch of the imagination,” Berden said. He said this was the first such complaint the restaurant has had since it opened in 2015. Carrillo, whose parents are immigrants, said the interaction was part of what she fears is going to be a growing trend. “I feel that’s the direction we’re headed in, given who’s the president,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons I posted it on social media rather than just dealing with the restaurant.” Berden said the waiter told him he thought the question was asked “in a joking fashion.” Carrillo isn’t buying it. She said the waiter showed no hint of humor, just a “bad vibe.” The restaurant contacted Carrillo and offered to donate 10 percent of this weekend’s sales to a charity of her choice and invited the four women to be VIP guests. Carrillo said she declined the invitation but did accept the restaurant’s donation offer, asking that it go to Orange County Immigrant Youth United. The restaurant said it would comply. Contact the writer: 714-796-7964, gmellen@scng.com ||||| 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.

– You can expect your waiter to ask all kinds of questions when he approaches the table, but, "Can I see your proof of residency?" is not among them. Nevertheless, that's what four female diners experienced at the upscale Saint Marc restaurant in Huntington Beach, Calif., earlier this month, reports the Orange County Register. One of them, 23-year-old Brenda Carrillo, recalls to the Los Angeles Times that she was dumbfounded as the waiter elaborated, "I need to make sure you're from here before I can serve you." The four women complained to a manager and left the restaurant, and Carrillo's sister, Diana, then posted about their treatment online. After the post began drawing reactions, the restaurant apologized online and said the waiter had been fired. "In no way are the actions of this former employee representative of the Saint Marc brand nor are they reflective of the opinions of anyone else on our team, including executive management," said a restaurant statement. A Saint Marc exec says the waiter explained that he meant the question as a joke, but the women say he clearly did not. Saint Marc offered to bring the women back for VIP treatment and donate 10% of the night's proceeds to a charity of their choice. They declined the first but asked that the money go to a group that helps undocumented immigrants. The Carrillo sisters, described by Brenda as "light-skinned Latinas," do not fall into that category, for the record. They were born and raised in California. "It sends a chill through your entire body," says Diana of the incident. (Read another story of dining-gone-wrong in California.)

EARLY NEXT YEAR. MORE BREAKING NEWS WE ARE FOLLOWING. A JUDGE RULED THE THREE SIBLINGS OF A 19 MONTH OLD BABY BURNED TO DEATH WILL STAY IN FOSTER CARE. CATH YEAR HERNANDEZ WAS INSIDE THE COURTROOM FOR THE HEARING. WHAT ELSE ARE WE LEARNING FROM THAT? Reporter: CPS CALLED THIS EMERGENCY HEARING TODAY AFTER THEY BELIEVE THAT THOSE CHILDREN ARE IN DANGER. AND THOSE CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE IN THE CUSTODY OF THEIR PARENTS. SO TODAY THAT JUDGE AGREED. TODAY IN A HEARING A JUDGE ORDERED A FIVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL AND HER THREE-YEAR-OLD BROTHER AND SISTER TO STAY IN FOSTER CARE. WHILE THEY WERE HOME ALONE MONDAY NIGHT, THEIR 19-MONTHS-OLD SISTER MANAGEELED TO GET INSIDE THE OVEN AND IT WAS TURNED ON. SHE DIED FROM SEVERE BURNS. CPS TOLD THE JUDGE THE FIVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL HAS GONE BACK AND FORTH, BUT CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN SLEEPING WHEN IT ALL HAPPENED. THE CASE WORKER ALSO SAYS ONE OF THE THREE-YEAR-OLDS TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR PUTTING THE BABY IN THE OVEN. CPS SAYS IT WILL CONTINUE TALKING WITH THE THREE CHILDREN. WE'RE STILL GOING TO BE WORKING WITH THE CHILDREN. PART OF THAT'S GOING TO BE THE COUNSELING TO SEE IF WE CAN HELP THEM DEALING WITH THOSE MEMORIES AND WHAT HAPPENED. Reporter: INVESTIGATORS SAY THE MOTHER WAS AT WORK MONDAY NIGHT AND LEFT THE FOUR CHILDREN WITH HER BOYFRIEND. POLICE QUESTIONED THE MOTHER, WHO HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF PREVIOUS CPS CASES, ALONG WITH HER BOYFRIEND. IT'S UNCLEAR IF THEY'LL FACE CHARGES. THE ATTORNEY FOR THE CHILDREN SAYS BOTH THREE-YEAR-OLDS ARE IN ONE HOME AND THE FIVE-YEAR-OLD IS IN ANOTHER. THE NEXT HEARING TO TALK ABOUT THE CUSTODY OF THE CHILDREN IS DECEMBER 2. REPORTING LIVE IN DOWNTOWN HOUSTON - Three siblings of a 19-month-old girl who was burned to death inside a northeast Houston apartment on Monday will be placed in foster care. Case workers from Child Protective Services filed an emergency hearing to take custody of the three children. According to CPS, there have been previous reports made concerning the mother. According to homicide detectives from the Houston Police Department, the mother was at work and left her three children with her boyfriend at the Angel Ridge Apartments off the 8600 block of Sterlingshire Street. The children -- a 5-year-old, two 3-year-olds and a 19-month-old girl -- were home alone when they started to play with the oven. Emergency crews arrived after midnight, but there was nothing they could do to save the baby, J'zyra Thompson. "Upon their arrival they found a deceased 1-year-old," HPD homicide detective Ronda Pemberton said. "We found the baby next to the oven. It appears to be accidental." On Wednesday, authorities focused on her three siblings who were a 5-year-old girl, 3-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy. "The court found that there was an immediate danger to those three children and granted us emergency custody," said County Attorney Amy Strickland. "Both of them had left the children home alone. What was reported was that they had left to get a pizza. The children were left at home for an extended amount of time and that's when obviously the child somehow managed to be inside an oven," said Estella Olguin with CPS. "She was a sweet baby," said Gina Dennis, the child's grandmother. "This is unexplainable. I have no words." CPS told the judge the 5-year-old girl claims to have been sleeping when it happened. The case worker also said one of the 3-year-old children took responsibility for putting the baby in the oven. "We're still going to be working with the children. Part of that is going to be counseling to see if we can help them deal with those memories and what happened," said Strickland. The children's attorney said the 5-year-old was in one home and the other two children were in another home. Police questioned the mother and her boyfriend. It's unclear if they'll face charges. The next hearing was set for Dec. 2. ||||| Fredrick Price came to the apartment complex on Sterlingshire looking for his two kids Thursday morning, both three years old. When Eyewitness News first talked to him, he had no idea they were among the children left alone in unit 115 Monday night. That's where 19-month-old J'Zyra Thompson died after being placed in an oven."I need to know where they are, I haven't heard from my children in months," said Price. " I've been trying to contact Racquel."Price is the ex-boyfriend of Racquel Thompson. Police believe she left her four kids, all under five years old, home alone Monday night. That's when little J'Zyra, seen on Thompson's Facebook page with big eyes and a bright smile, ended up in the oven. The toddler burned to death with three other kids in the home. She died without ever knowing a father."She was a cute little baby, I just didn't know if that was my daughter or not," said Price, who has never taken a paternity test relating to her ex-girlfriend's youngest child.Court records obtained by Eyewitness News show Child Protective Services are concerned with a number of issues relating to Thompson and her boyfriend. Records show Thompson told officials she often left the kids home alone to drive her boyfriend to work at a pizza place. Monday night, Thompson and her boyfriend left to go get Dominos Pizza for takeout, and stopped at Walgreens to pick up a prescription. Case workers say the couple left the four kids home alone without telling a grandmother who lived in the same apartment complex."It's very irresponsible, someone should have been here or I should have gotten a phone call, come and get my children." Price says his two children had been staying with Thompson because he lost his job a few months ago. He says he has since tried to contact Thompson on the phone and via Facebook, but she has not responded.Court records show prices two kids, just three years old, told investigators that one of them put the baby in the oven, and the other turned it on. Records show the children told CPS workers they made the oven "hot", and that the baby was kicking the oven door while inside. Records also show Thompson tried CPR when she got home. But it was too late, the child had multiple burns.CPS said no suitable relatives can care for the three surviving children from the home, so they are currently in foster care. Thompson also has an older child who lives with his father. In addition, she is seven months pregnant with her current boyfriend's child. Thompson apparently also drove the kids without a license nor car seats.Meanwhile, Price asked Eyewitness News about his two children. We told him they are in foster care, and he told us he will contact CPS to see if he can take custody of the children."I have to go get them. I have to go and get them," he said.No charges have yet been filed against Thompson or her boyfriend, though CPS workers said in their court filings that criminal charges are expected.

– An absolutely awful story out of Houston, where police say four children were left alone Monday night and their mother came home to find one of them dead. The two 3-year-old siblings of the 19-month-old little girl who died, J'Zyra Thompson, told authorities that one of them put the baby in the oven and the other one turned it on and made it "hot," ABC 13 reports. J'Zyra, they said, kicked the oven door while she was trapped inside. The oldest sibling, 5, was apparently asleep at the time, Click2Houston reports. When Racqual Thompson, the children's mother, returned home from going out with her boyfriend to get takeout pizza and pick up a prescription, she attempted CPR, but it was too late. J'Zyra died of multiple burns. Police say Racqual Thompson had left the children without informing a grandmother who also lived at the apartment complex. The three surviving children are in foster care, as CPS could not find suitable relatives to care for them. Criminal charges are expected, though none have yet been filed. (In Kentucky, an arrest has been made in the killing of a girl who went missing at a football game.)

(Sept. 24) -- The Texas State Board of Education approved a resolution today that requires publishers to correct a " pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias " in future world history textbooks.The resolution , which narrowly passed 7-6, cites instances of an alleged emphasis on unfavorable events in Christian history as told in school textbooks, while claiming that the same textbooks gloss over similar events in Islamic history."What we're trying to do is prohibit and send a clear message to the publishers that [the bias] should not happen in the future," board member Terri Leo said.The Lone Star State has a reputation for dictating what publishers, which must abide by state policy or probably forfeit significant sales, can include in textbooks. Nevertheless, because all of the textbooks cited in the resolution have not been used in Texas schools since 2003, it is unclear what immediate effect the policy will have on publishers."This is a cosmetic exercise," board member Mavis Knight told the Austin American-Statesman Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network , a liberal organization opposed to the potential policy, said afterward that the resolution was politically motivated."Board members rejected numerous opportunities today to pass a resolution that called on publishers to treat all religions with balance and accuracy in their textbooks," Miller said in a statement . "It is hard not to conclude that the members who voted for this resolution were solely interested in playing on fear and bigotry in order to pit Christians against Muslims." ||||| AUSTIN — The State Board of Education today instructed publishers to curtail positive coverage of Islam and include more favorable treatment of Christianity in future world history textbooks. Social conservatives on the board joined to pass a resolution saying that pro-Islamic, anti-Christian bias will not be tolerated in new social studies books, which are now scheduled for approval in two years. The resolution, adopoted on a 7-6 vote, said those future textbooks must devote more coverage to Christianity and other non-Muslim faiths. The resolution said increased investment by "Middle Easterners" in the textbook publishing industry could encourage biased treatment of religion in the texts used in Texas schools. An attachment to the resolution cited a past investment by the Dubai royal family in a major U.S. textbook publisher. Three Democrats and three moderate Republicans voted against the resolution. Two Democratic board members were absent. “This resolution will ensure upfront that potential biases are taken care of before these books reach the board,” said Chairwoman Gail Lowe, R-Lampasas, who supported the resolution. She noted that the resolution is not legally binding on publishers, but does state the will of board members to have more balanced social studies books. Opponents, who tried to derail the resolution with a series of parliamentary maneuvers, called the proposal a waste of time that will further undermine the reputation of the board. “This makes us look cuckoo. It’s crazy,” said board member Rick Agosto, D-San Antonio. “We are allowing ourselves to be distracted by this narrow-minded resolution, which is itself biased. We should have taken the higher ground on this.” Board member Lawrence Allen, D-Houston, who practices Islam, called the language in the resolution “offensive.” He said supporters of the resolution were making accusations about pro-Muslim bias without any proof. “These are baseless accusations, and this resolution is unfair,” he said. But Terri Leo, R-Spring, said the measure was necessary to send a “clear message” to publishers that past bias against Christianity and other religions “should not happen in the future.” While some books have credited Islam for treating women better than other religions, Leo said, there have been instances of Muslim woman getting fingers chopped off for using fingernail polish and being threatened with violence for not wear burkas in public. The resolution states that “diverse reviewers have repeatedly documented gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions in social studies texts” across the United States, and that past social studies textbooks in Texas have been “tainted” with pro-Islamic, anti-Christian views. It also notes that past world history books - no longer used in Texas schools - devoted far more lines of text to Islamic beliefs and practices than to Christian beliefs and practices. The resolution concludes with a warning to publishers that the “State Board of Education will look to reject future prejudicial social studies submissions that continue to offend Texas law with respect to treatment of the world’s major religious groups by significant inequalities of coverage space-wise and by demonizing or lionizing one or more of them over others.” Members of the board's social conservative bloc asked for the resolution after an unsuccessful candidate for a board seat called on the panel to head off any bias against Christians in new social studies books.

– The Texas Board of Education issued a warning to textbook publishers today: It wants future social studies books to fix what it sees as a pro-Islam and anti-Christian bias, reports the Dallas Morning News. "What we're trying to do is prohibit and send a clear message to the publishers that (the bias) should not happen in the future," said one board member who voted with the majority in the 7-6 decision. Proponents say current books whitewash negative aspects of Muslim culture, and they say it's because "Middle Easterners" have big investments in the publishing industry. As for opponents: “This makes us look cuckoo,” said a board member on the losing side. "It's crazy. We are allowing ourselves to be distracted by this narrow-minded resolution, which is itself biased. We should have taken the higher ground on this.” More details at AOL News.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer is being praised for her integrity after she returned $120,000 to its rightful owner after finding it on the roadside. The sergeant, who asked not to be identified in the media, was driving in Concord, Calif., in September when she had to swerve to avoid two large bank deposit bags in the road. She took a U-turn to pick them up and found a large amount of cash equalling more than $120,000. She reported the money and the police were able to track down the owner. Her friend and children could not believe she returned the money but the officer, who was raised by a single mother in Los Angeles, said it was an opportunity to be an example for her children and teach them a lesson. "There was no one on that street after I had come back, nobody would have known," she said. "But that's what determines a person's integrity, it's what you do when nobody is looking." The sergeant was praised by her superiors. "On too many occasions our personnel do not pause to be recognized as they feel they were simply doing their job." said CHP Golden Gate Division Chief Avery Browne. ||||| By Paul Chambers KTVU and Wires A man's life savings were recovered after an off-duty California Highway Patrol sergeant found over $120,000 in cash in the middle of a Concord roadway and turned the money over to authorities, CHP officials said Monday. While driving in a personal car on Concord Boulevard last month, the sergeant had to swerve around two bank deposit bags in the roadway to avoid hitting them, according to the CHP. The sergeant made a U-turn and went to retrieve the two bags, which had tire marks on them, and looked inside to find "a lot of cash," CHP Contra Costa area spokesman John Fransen said. CHP officials said the off-duty officer, a 20-year CHP veteran who has asked to remain anonymous, immediately alerted authorities and handed over what amounted to more than $120,000 in cash to Concord police. "I thought 'What in the world? This can't be happening,'" the sergeant said in an interview Monday afternoon. "It was two bags that said Bank of America and I thought, 'I wonder if it was from some type of bank robbery or something?' I opened it enough just to see there were stacks of $100 bills," the sergeant remembered. Police were later able to locate the owner of the lost cash and returned the money to him. The sergeant told KTVU that some people she knew were surprised at her honesty. "I have a lot of friends that have said 'What are you thinking? Why did you turn that in? I would take it home,'" said the sergeant. CHP Golden Gate Division Chief Avery Browne seized the opportunity to praise the sergeant, noting that, "On too many occasions our personnel do not pause to be recognized as they feel they were simply doing their job."

– It could have been easy money. But when an off-duty sergeant with the California Highway Patrol found two bags stuffed with $120,000 in cash, she reported the find instead, reports UPI. The unidentified 20-year veteran says she had to swerve to avoid hitting the bank-deposit bags while driving in a personal car, reports KTVU. She made a U-turn, opened them up, and saw they were packed with $100 bills. Police in Concord were able to track down the owner and say the money turned out to be the life savings of a man who had reported the loss. "There was no one on that street," she tells ABC7. "Nobody would have known. But that's what determines a person's integrity—it's what you do when nobody is looking."

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– Roughly 27% of people worldwide have paid a bribe to a government agency in the last 12 months, according to the latest Global Corruption Barometer report from Transparency International. The survey covered more than 114,000 people across 107 countries, the Wall Street Journal reports, and on the bright side, two-thirds said they refused to pay up when asked for bribes. "Bribe-paying levels remain very high worldwide," the group's chair said. "But people believe they have the power to stop corruption." Of course, the numbers are skewed by the most corrupt nations; Sierra Leone took the cake with 84% of people paying up, while upright Japan, Australia, and Denmark each had only 1%. The US came in at 7%, but all is hardly hunky dory here, with 76% saying they believed the political parties were affected by corruption.

A tired Ben Friberg (L) rests after arriving in Key West, Florida, following an 111-mile paddleboarding voyage from Cuba across the Florida Straits to the Florida Keys August 2, 2013. KEY WEST, Florida A Tennessee musician on Friday became the first paddleboarder to cross the Florida Straits between Cuba and the United States, making the 110 mile journey in 28 hours as his father watched from a support boat. Ben Friberg, 35, arrived in Key West dehydrated and exhausted but otherwise in good shape. Before leaving Cuba on Thursday, Friberg said he was "doing this to promote peace and understanding between Cuba and the United States and to promote a healthy lifestyle." The guitarist and band leader from Chattanooga stood on his 14-foot-long board for most of the trip, sitting only for quick snacks. The crew of the support boat that accompanied him on the journey included a medic and a navigator. Friberg was decked out with a long-billed cap for protection from the sun, close-fitting long sleeve shirt, open fingered gloves and shorts cut off below the knee. Special socks shielded his feet. Last year, Friberg broke the record for the longest distance stand-up paddleboard journey in 24 hours, traveling 238 miles on Canada's Yukon River. Friberg is believed to be the first person to cross the entire Straits on a paddleboard. At least two Cubans have made the trip by surfboard. In 1992, Cuban-born doctor Ernesto Barral completed the journey on a wind surfing board in 19 hours, navigating by the stars at night. In 2011, Miami lifeguard Cynthia Aguilar made the crossing by paddleboard from 14 miles off Cuba's coast. She was unable to set off from dry land because she did not have a Cuban government visa. Unlike Friberg, Aguilar completed the crossing on her knees, using her hands to paddle. Several swimmers have attempted the journey but only Australian Susan Maroney has succeeded, making the crossing in 1997 with the help of a shark cage. (Writing by David Adams; Additional reporting by Tom Brown and Marc Frank; Editing by Toni Reinhold) ||||| The diver, who could only drink liquids during the six-day dive, lost 30 pounds Jerry Hall shows his shriveled hands and feet after he surfaced from South Holston Lake near Bristol, Tenn., Friday, Aug. 2, 2013. Hall set a new world record for the longest fresh water dive of six days, one hour and 42 minutes. (Photo: David Grace, AP) Story Highlights A diver in Tennessee has set a freshwater diving record Jerry Hall spent six days submerged in South Hoston Lake The previous record of five days was also set by Hall NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee scuba diver has set what is believed to be a record freshwater dive of more than six days. Jerry Hall emerged from South Holston Lake in Tennessee's northeast corner at 1:42 p.m. EDT on Friday after going under the surface at noon July 27. The dive lasted six days, one hour and 42 minutes. His trainer, Ella Helton, described Hall as emotional as he surfaced, especially as he hugged his son. "He's in great spirits, very, very weak, very emotional," Helton said by cellphone from the lakeshore. Hall, 49, set an earlier record of five days in 2008 that was certified by Guinness World Records, but a Florida diver later said he bested the mark. The record was broken at 12:25 p.m. on Thursday. Hall, who is 49, then stayed down another day to extend the mark. The dive was also used as a fundraiser for the children's charity of Bristol Motor Speedway. The diver had not yet weighed out, but handlers expected him to lose about 30 pounds from lack of food. He was on only liquids during the dive. Hall had intentionally gained about 15 pounds prior to the dive in anticipation of the weight loss. Asked to describe Hall as he emerged, the trainer replied, "He's very, very cold, very wrinkled and gray." From the dive platform, Hall had told his team he wanted "a hot dog, a beer and a hot shower" as soon as he got out of the lake. Other divers took turns staying with Hall on the dive platform around the clock, watching over him as he slept. He was never alone during the event. Medical personnel were nearby and his condition was constantly monitored. Hall, who works at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, watched a lot of movies to pass the time while under the surface. Helton said Hall wanted the mark to stand for a long time. "This will be his last one," she said, noting his age. The time of the dive will be submitted to Guinness for certification. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1cx6s81

– Ben Friberg is far from the first person to paddle from Cuba to the US. He is, however, the first person to paddleboard from Cuba to the US, a feat he accomplished yesterday via a 28-hour, 110-mile journey. Friberg, a 35-year-old musician from Tennessee, stood up on his 14-foot-long paddleboard for almost the entire trip to Key West, though he sat down for quick snacks, Reuters reports. Friberg says he made the journey "to promote peace and understanding between Cuba and the United States and to promote a healthy lifestyle." Friberg is not the only Tennessean to set a watery record this week: a Gate City man spent more than six days underwater to set a world record for the longest freshwater scuba dive. Jerry Hall, 49, went under South Holston Lake last Saturday, and emerged yesterday afternoon, reports the AP. Hall gained 15 lbs before the dive and subsisted only on liquids while underwater. "He's very, very cold, very wrinkled and gray," says his trainer. Hall says he now wants a hotdog, beer, and a shower.

Doh! 404! These are not the droids you are looking for! ||||| Republican Tim Pawlenty says he won't sign a pledge written by a conservative Iowa group that asks presidential candidates to denounce same-sex marriage rights, pornography and forms of Islamic law. Pawlenty said Wednesday he agrees with the principles behind the Family Leader's Marriage Vow. But he says he prefers "to choose my own words, especially seeking to show compassion to those who are in broken families through no fault of their own." The former Minnesota governor is the second major candidate to decline the pledge, following former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's decision Tuesday. Two Republicans, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, have signed it. Pawlenty's announcement coincides with the release of a new radio ad and web video where he and his wife discuss their faith.

– Tim Pawlenty released a statement today saying he wouldn’t be signing the “Marriage Vow” that got Michele Bachmann in so much trouble, the AP reports. Pawlenty said he supports “the core principles of the Family Leader’s Marriage Vow Pledge,” but that “rather than sign onto the words chosen by others, I prefer to choose my own words, especially seeking to show compassion to those who are in broken families through no fault of their own.” (Time has the statement here.) He joins Mitt Romney in refusing to sign. Pawlenty released a six-minute video (left) in which he and his wife discuss their faith, and run through a host of socially conservative talking points, saying that God “values traditional marriage as between one man and one woman,” that the founders would want us to be pro-life, and that separation of church and state was “intended to protect people of faith from government, not government from people of faith.”

Raul Ramirez to be sentenced to three years in prison for case with similarities to Stanford sexual assault case for which Brock Turner will serve only six months The embattled judge in the Stanford sexual assault trial is presiding over a similar case in which a Latino man is facing a much harsher sentence than Brock Turner, raising questions about how the former student may have benefited from his privileged background. Raul Ramirez, a 32-year-old immigrant from El Salvador who admitted to sexually assaulting his female roommate in a case that has similarities with the Stanford case, will be sentenced to three years in state prison under a deal overseen by judge Aaron Persky, according to records obtained by the Guardian. The three-year-prison sentence, part of a plea agreement signed in March, provides a sharp contrast to the outcome for Turner, a white 20-year-old former Stanford swimmer who Persky sentenced to probation and six months in county jail after he was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Ex-Stanford swimmer gets six months in jail and probation for sexual assault Read more The parallel cases, which include similar felony charges of sexual assault, could lend weight to what critics of Persky allege are biases in his courtroom. Others, however, argue that Persky’s actions were reasonable and that the divergence in punishments stems from broader disparities in the criminal justice system. “What’s happened with Mr Ramirez is standard,” said Alexander Cross, a defense attorney who briefly represented Ramirez when his family could afford a private lawyer. “The anomaly is the Stanford case.” ‘He wanted to say sorry’ The details of the Stanford sexual assault conviction have become well known since the case received global attention. On 18 January 2015, two passersby on campus spotted Turner “thrusting” on top of a motionless woman lying on the ground outside of a fraternity house by a dumpster. Turner, from Dayton, Ohio, admitted to fingering her, but claimed it was consensual. A jury disagreed and convicted him of assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. Instead of sentencing him to the minimum of two years in state prison prescribed by law, Persky made an exception for Turner, determining that his case was “unusual” and that prison would have a “severe impact” on him. After the victim’s impact statement went viral, the judge’s controversial sentencing decision, which will result in Turner spending three months in jail, received international scorn. Critics slammed the judge for being sympathetic to Turner and concluding that there was “less moral culpability” because he was intoxicated at the time. Persky is now facing a recall campaign led by a Stanford law professor, and lawmakers have called for an investigation. Court documents show that although the allegations in Ramirez’s case mirror the Stanford assault in several ways, the defendant had a very different experience at multiple stages of the court process. Ramirez was arrested at his home in Santa Clara County in November 2014 after his roommate called 911 to say that he had sexually assaulted her, according to police reports. Stanford sexual assault case: victim impact statement in full Read more Ramirez gave the woman a “love letter” and later entered her bedroom and fingered her for about five to 10 minutes against her will, according to a police report, and stopped only when she started crying. When police arrived, he admitted to the assault. “Ramirez knew what he did was wrong and he wanted to say sorry,” one officer wrote. Ramirez, who has used a Spanish interpreter in court, had his bail set at $200,000 – significantly higher than the $150,000 bail set for Turner. Ramirez could not be reached for comment, and multiple attorneys who have represented him declined to connect him to the Guardian. ‘A question of lifestyle’ Judge Persky handled the hearings and negotiations in the Ramirez case, according to Santa Clara county prosecutors. Terry Lynn Harman, assistant district attorney, said that the judge agreed with the prosecutors’ position throughout the process – that Ramirez should receive a state prison sentence. According to records of the plea deal that Persky oversaw, Ramirez agreed to plead guilty to a felony of sexual penetration by force. Under the terms of the deal, he will spend three years in state prison, the minimum punishment for the offense. Persky is expected to formalize the three-year sentence at a later date, Harman said. The prosecution had no objections to Persky’s handling of the case, she added. In the Turner case, the Santa Clara district attorney slammed Persky’s sentencing decision. Ramirez, like Turner, has no criminal record of convictions for serious or violent felonies, according to court records. Because Ramirez ultimately pleaded guilty to a felony offense that does not have an option for probation or a lighter sentence, Persky was limited in the sentence he could approve for the specific conviction. But critics say that Persky, a former Stanford athlete himself, bent over backwards to make an exception in the Turner case, and that if he wanted to give Ramirez the same favorable treatment, the judge could have utilized his discretion and recommended a less harsh prosecution. Specifically, Persky could have approved or helped negotiate a bargain in which Ramirez only pleaded guilty to the lesser of two charges he was facing – assault with intent to commit rape. If the more serious charge was dropped – as was the case with Turner, who had two rape charges dropped – Ramirez could have potentially avoided prison. Michele Landis Dauber, the Stanford professor leading the recall, said the Ramirez case was further evidence that the judge should be removed. “This just shows that our concern about Judge Persky’s ability to be unbiased is justified. We continue to think that he abused his discretion in giving an unduly lenient sentence to Turner,” he said. Ramirez’s three-year deal “shows that Turner got consideration not available to other defendants who aren’t as privileged”, added Dauber, who is also a family friend of the Stanford victim. Persky is barred from commenting on pending cases. While the Ramirez case and the Stanford assault have clear differences in race and class – Cross said Ramirez is “very poor” – the two stories also diverge in the defendants’ responses. Turner has continued to blame his assault on a “party culture” of “drinking”, claiming that the woman consented, even though police and others confirmed that she was unconscious. Ramirez pleaded guilty and, according to police accounts, apologized. In court, Persky said Turner should not be faulted for refusing to admit to the assault: “I’m not convinced that his lack of complete acquiescence to the verdict should count against him.” Cross said that when privileged defendants can pay a private attorney and articulate the ways in which a prison sentence would have a severe impact – destroying a promising athletic career, for example – they fare better than average working class people. “It’s really a question of lifestyle.” Persky had dozens of letters from Turner’s friends and family attesting to his character and outlining what it would mean to be separated from him if he went to prison. Cross said that in a case like Ramirez’s, “society is not exactly suffering a loss. At least, that’s not how it’s looked upon”. Experts also note that it’s not surprising a low-income defendant of color would face a worse outcome than a white man in comparable cases. “Whether due to implicit bias or other factors, race still plays a role in sentencing outcomes,” said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform group. Research has repeatedly shown that black and Latino people sentenced in state and federal courts are much more likely to face incarceration than white offenders in similar circumstances – and they receive longer sentences. Persky’s defenders In the wake of the intense backlash against Persky, public defenders and other criminal justice reform advocates have come to his defense, arguing that judges must have discretion to issue lenient sentences when appropriate. An Associated Press review of 20 criminal cases for which Persky has issued sentences also concluded that there didn’t appear to be any racial biases in his decisions. Gary Goodman, a supervising attorney for the Santa Clara County public defender’s office, who has spoken up in favor of Persky, was one of several lawyers who represented Ramirez. He pointed out that the distinct outcomes in the two cases stems from the way that California law treats sexual assault of a conscious person as a more serious offense than attacking an unconscious victim. Goodman also said that Persky played a passive role in Ramirez’s plea negotiations. Cross, too, said that although he believes that the system favors wealthier, privileged defendants, he did not fault Persky. “I’ve found him to be one of the fairest judges.” ||||| First, we are proud of your leading role in advocating for reform of how society responds to sexual violence. Rape and other forms of sexual assault are urgent problems that are too often neglected or obscured by euphemisms, silence, and shame. The best scholars use their expertise to shine light on pressing civic issues like these: they articulate their visions of a more just society, and they engage with policymakers and the public to spur and shape reform. We’ve been privileged to learn at a place where faculty like you take up that mantle. We’d also like to emphasize our agreement with your goals. We, like you, believe that members of the Stanford community — indeed, of every community — should be doing all we can to confront the problem head on, by preventing sexual violence in the first place, ensuring that those who experience it receive support and healing, and insisting that those responsible face consequences that reflect the seriousness of their actions. We, like you, are disturbed by the six-month jail sentence that Turner received, which appears lenient when measured against the relevant sentencing guidelines, the much-longer sentences many thousands of Americans are serving for less-serious crimes, and the trauma that the target of his assault so bravely described at Turner’s sentencing hearing. And we, like you, are especially troubled by our suspicion that race and privilege explain those discrepancies. Accountability means little when we demand it only from the already-disenfranchised, and the transformative power of mercy is diminished when we reserve it only for the privileged. At the same time, one aspect of your recent advocacy troubles us: the nascent campaign you have championed to recall Judge Aaron Persky, who sentenced Turner. We have deep reservations about the idea of a judge — any judge — being fired over sentencing decisions that the public perceives as too lenient. As we’ve learned during our time at the law school, judicial independence is a cornerstone of due process and an essential prerequisite of a fair criminal justice system. Judges are entrusted with immense power over the life and liberty of criminal defendants from all walks of life, and they need latitude to exercise that power judiciously. After decades of mass incarceration driven by mandatory minimums and other punitive sentencing regimes, we believe that judicial leniency is already too scarce, even though we strongly disagree with how it was applied to Turner. And in a world where judges believe they are one unpopular sentencing decision away from an abrupt pink slip, it will only grow scarcer. A high-profile campaign to recall Judge Persky because he showed too much solicitude for a defendant convicted of odious crimes would evoke an ugly chapter of California’s history: when three justices of our state’s highest court were recalled from the bench because they voted to oppose the death penalty, in accordance with the dictates of justice and the constitution as they understood them. Though the values underlying that effort were different from the ones animating the current recall debate, the chilling effect on judicial independence would be the same. To be clear, our hesitation about a recall campaign does not stem from a belief that Judge Persky’s decision to give Turner a below-guidelines sentence was correct or that his stated justifications for doing so were sound. Many of us, like you, believe that justice called for a stiffer sentence in his case. But we think humility requires us to recognize that we won’t always be able to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate exercises of judicial mercy. If you or we claim the power to make that decision, how can we credibly deny it to anyone else? If we demand that Judge Persky immediately hand over his gavel for acting on his empathy for this defendant, how we can we credibly assure any other judge that her hand need not waver when the human circumstances of a case seem to call for compassion? This is not an abstract concern: many of us count our work with Stanford’s Three Strikes Project as one of the most powerful experiences we had at SLS. Through the project, we represented clients serving life sentences for non-violent felonies as they petitioned for early release under Propositions 36 and 47 — transformative ballot measures championed by your Stanford colleagues, which have begun to roll back the worst excesses of California’s punitive sentencing laws. In that role, we had to ask county judges like Aaron Persky to grant early release to men and women serving life in prison because the people of California once believed that our clients’ mistakes made them irredeemable. Even when an inmate has made great strides in prison, and even though statistics show that people resentenced under Propositions 36 and 47 pose little danger of recidivism, granting that second chance is a delicate decision that requires courage on the part of judges: they have to bear the risk, however remote, that the petitioner will abuse that mercy in ways that provoke public backlash against their decision. We believe it would send a powerful message to these judges and others making similar decisions around the country if, while continuing to critique Judge Persky’s sentencing decisions and calling for a different approach in future cases, you abstained from your effort to recall him from the bench and instead focused on other avenues of response and reform. These might include educating future judges and jurors about the realities of sexual assault, or pressing for systemic changes in how these cases are handled. We simply ask that you withhold your support for a recall campaign that would set a dangerous precedent against the exercise of merciful discretion in our criminal justice system. Sincerely, Akiva Freidlin, Emi Young, Ginny Halden, Jeannie Lieder, Madeleine McKenna, Michael Skocpol, Nick Rosellini, and Vina Seelam (Drafters) ||||| In the midst of ongoing controversy over former Stanford student Brock Turner’s six-month jail sentence for sexual assault, a group of 53 recent graduates of Stanford Law School (SLS) have come forward with an open letter to SLS’s Frederick I. Richman Professor of Law Michele Dauber that criticizes Turner’s lenient sentencing but at the same time urges Dauber to reconsider her efforts to recall Judge Aaron Persky ’84 A.M. ’85. The recall movement that has thrust Persky into the national spotlight includes several online petitions that called for his removal from the bench after many criticized his sentence for Turner as too light. Dauber has blasted the sentence in several media outlets. In her article for the Washington Post, she responds to Roderick O’Connor, a deputy public defender who has opposed the recall movement. “Brock Turner’s sentence for three violent sexual felonies isn’t merely shocking, it’s dangerous,�? she writes. “It reinforces the myth that sexual assault is not a serious crime, particularly when it is perpetrated by young white male athletes in elite universities.�? Dauber has been an active organizer for the recall efforts, spearheading the official California recall movement. And she has long been a prominent figure in the legal community for campus sexual assault. From 2011 to 2013, Dauber co-chaired Stanford’s Board on Judicial Affairs and helped to lead the first University process that reformed Stanford’s policy on sexual assault. The law graduates’ open letter neither supports nor defends Persky’s decision, but rather focuses on issues of judicial independence and warns of a recall’s potential impact on future jurisdiction, according to several drafters. Although the dictionary term of judicial independence applies to federal judges (Persky is a state court judge), the letter-writers and signers are concerned with the consequences of a public majority recalling any judge. “Judicial independence is a cornerstone of due process and an essential prerequisite of a fair criminal justice system,�? the letter states. The SLS graduates emphasize that they are just as troubled as Dauber by the case’s handling of the issues of race, privilege and sexual assault– and that they do not believe that Persky’s decision was correct. However, they argue that judges must be allowed discretion: …humility requires us to recognize that we won’t always be able to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate exercises of judicial mercy. If you or we claim the power to make that decision, how can we credibly deny it to anyone else? If we demand that Judge Persky immediately hand over his gavel for acting on his empathy for this defendant, how we can we credibly assure any other judge that her hand need not waver when the human circumstances of a case seem to call for compassion? Nicholas Rosellini ’12 J.D. ’16, who helped draft the letter, discussed the recall as a dangerous precedent to set. He said that to ensure due process, judges must be able to examine facts without fear of an angry public. Rosellini, who participated in SLS’s Three Strikes Project, worries that erosions in judicial independence could affect the future of disenfranchised people. He said that judges are the last stop for “unpopular people�? such as the incarcerated, the convicted, the accused, and minorities. “Once you do that [recall process], it’s really hard to credibly deny that to the next group of people who are angry for another reason that might be unjustified,�? Rosellini said. Another drafter of the letter, Akiva Freidlin J.D. ’16, explained the motivation and planning of the letter. He, like many others across the country, were frightened by the implications of the sexual assault case. “But I started to see the response taking shape as a ‘we should get rid of this particular judge,’ who appears to have applied the law legally,�? Freidlin said. “[This] goes against the principles that allow us to have a system where an independent judiciary applies laws that they don’t make.�? Both Freidlin and Rosellini urged other avenues of advocacy to replace a recall. The letter concludes by asking Dauber to pursue different reform tactics such as “educating future judges and jurors about the realities of sexual assault, or pressing for systemic changes in how these cases are handled.�? The SLS graduates are not the only judicially-minded voice of opposition to the recall efforts. A number of California public defenders have launched their own online petition, while SLS Professor Emerita Barbara Bobcock recently criticized the recall effort in her own open letter. In response to these viewpoints, Dauber has pointed out in other news outlets that, under the California constitution, judges are elected and therefore “accountable to the people.�? She argues that recall is a constitutional right for citizens of Santa Clara county, emphasizing that the recall efforts are not accusing Persky of illegal action, but rather are using the process provided in the state constitution for dealing with a judge’s misuse of his discretion. In an email to The Daily, Dauber said she has to “respectfully disagree�? with the law students who wrote the letter. “In their view, both victims and defendants in Judge Persky’s courtroom simply have to endure biased treatment in order to avoid a hypothetical and highly unlikely set of consequences,�? Dauber wrote, after noting that the law students agreed that the sentencing was unjust. “This argument does not take seriously these actual people who will not receive justice.�? “I wonder if they would make this same argument if Turner had been convicted of a violent crime based on race or sexual orientation or gender identity rather than sex,�? she added. But the law students remain fearful of a recall’s future consequences. “At the end of the day, someone has to make the decision as to what [constitutes] justified or unjustified anger,�? Rosellini said. “The recall effort inevitably puts that responsibility on the majority of the voting public. And the voting majority, sometimes they get it right, as in this case, but other times, they might not.�? Contact Isabela Bumanlag at isabela7 ‘at’ stanford.edu. This article has been updated to reflect Michele Dauber’s comments to The Daily. ||||| A new poll about the potential recall of Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky -- whose June 2 sentence of former Stanford University student-athlete Brock Turner for sexually assaulting an unconscious and intoxicated woman sparked an uproar across the globe and on social media over its brevity -- shows how some county residents would vote in an actual recall election. Sixty-six percent of the 776 respondents said they would vote to recall Persky, according to the poll conducted June 20-22 by Sextant Strategies & Research, a Claremont-based consulting and research firm, for Capitol Weekly, a publication that covers California government and politics. The 776 responses were collected from 226,420 registered voters in Santa Clara County who have provided their email addresses to the Registrar of Voters. The results were "weighted to reflect the overall demographics of all voters, not just those for whom we have email addresses," pollster Jonathan Brown wrote in an email. There are some 788,063 voters registered in the county. An official recall campaign launched by Stanford University Law professor Michele Dauber and backed by the Progressive Women Silicon Valley State PAC is currently raising funds and plans next spring to gather the signatures needed to mount a special election in Santa Clara County to put Persky's recall to voters. Brown noted in a Capitol Weekly column on the poll that such a "recall is not going to be won or lost based on the number of likes and retweets, speeches given, or how many times the victim's letter is re-read. "It comes down to the narrow universe of actual voters in Santa Clara County participating in a future, likely low intensity, local election." The poll found that Turner's sentence -- six months in county jail and three years of probation -- was "widely understood by voters and violated their sense of justice," Brown wrote in the Capitol Weekly column. (Editor's note: The poll actually misstated the sentence, telling voters that the length of probation was three months, not three years. Brown wrote in an email to the Weekly that while he regrets the "inadvertent human" error, he feels "quite comfortable that the length of the jail sentence is the driving factor in these results.") Sixty-three percent of voters believe that the Turner sentence demonstrates that Persky cannot be fair in any case, rather than a "one-time lapse" on a high-profile case, Brown wrote. Women, and especially younger women, expressed more than 4-to-1 support of the recall, Brown wrote. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said the following aligns most closely with their opinion of the sentence: "This sentence is a sign that Judge Persky might have problems with ethics or an ability to be a fair judge in all cases." Thirty-three percent, however, thought that the sentence represents a "single error of judgment ... a flaw in one stand-alone case." The implications of race and privilege in this case have been raised by many. More than three-quarters (77 percent) of respondents in the poll agreed that if Turner had been African American or Latino, he would have received a tougher sentence. After reading a pro-recall statement provided in the survey that calls Persky's sentencing decision an "insult to victims of sexual assault and women," respondents supported the recall in slightly greater numbers -- by an increase of 2 percent. Support dropped to 59 percent, however, after respondents read an anti-recall message that argues "removing a judge of a single, high-profile case sets a very dangerous precedent that will cause judges to pay more attention to public opinion than following the law and their best judgment." Voters 55 years and older — whom Brown wrote "tend to dominate low-turnout off-year elections, which is what this recall would be" — were split on their final recall vote: 51 percent of male respondents 55 years and older said they would support it as well as 55 percent of women in that age group. Respondents were split evenly by gender (49 percent male and 51 percent female) and were primarily Caucasian. The age groups with the most participation were 18 to 24 years old (24 percent) and over 65 years old (23 percent). The poll results are available here. --- The Palo Alto Weekly has created Storify pages to capture ongoing coverage of the Brock Turner case as well as sexual-assault issues at Stanford University. To view them, go to storify.com/paloaltoweekly. Follow the Palo Alto Weekly/Palo Alto Online on Twitter @PaloAltoWeekly and Facebook for breaking news, local events, photos, videos and more.

– The Brock Turner controversy rumbles on: A defendant from a very different background than the former Stanford student received a much harsher sentence from the same judge in a similar case, the Guardian reports. According to court records, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky oversaw a plea deal earlier this year involving Raul Ramirez, a 32-year-old man from El Salvador who sexually assaulted his female roommate. Ramirez, who needed an interpreter in court, agreed to plead guilty in a deal that will see him spend three years in state prison, while Turner will spend just six months in county jail. Critics say that if Persky had treated Ramirez as leniently as he treated Turner, a white 20-year-old, the Latino man would have ended up with a much lighter sentence or even have avoided prison. The deal "shows that Turner got consideration not available to other defendants who aren’t as privileged," says Michele Landis Dauber, a Stanford professor leading a campaign to recall Persky, who's a former Stanford student. Persky's days on the bench may be numbered—a recent poll found that 66% of people in Santa Clara County would vote for his recall, Palo Alto Online reports—but a group of Stanford law grads is urging Dauber to reconsider the recall campaign, the Stanford Daily reports. In an open letter, they argue that it will be more effective to fight for "educating future judges and jurors about the realities of sexual assault, or pressing for systemic changes in how these cases are handled." (Persky was removed from another sexual assault case earlier this month.)

Story highlights They join over 1,500 other players who claim that the NFL hid concussion dangers The NFL has denied these allegations "We weren't aware of the long-term ramifications," a former NFL player says More than 100 former professional football players, including former Atlanta Falcons Jamal Anderson, Chris Doleman, and O.J. Santiago, are adding their names a growing list of players suing the NFL. They join more than 1,500 other players who claim that the National Football League hid the dangers of concussions from them. The latest lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta by attorney Mike McGlamry, states that the NFL "repeatedly refuted the connection between concussions and brain injury." It goes on to assert that the organization failed "to take reasonable steps necessary to protect players from devastating head injuries. Moreover, the NFL has downplayed and misrepresented the issues and misled players concerning the risks associated with concussions." Regarding these claims, the NFL has repeatedly stated that player safety is a priority. The NFL has said that "any allegation that the NFL intentionally sought to mislead players has no merit." JUST WATCHED Seau's family donates brain to science Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Seau's family donates brain to science 02:19 JUST WATCHED Former NFL great on concussions Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Former NFL great on concussions 05:55 JUST WATCHED Explain it to me: Concussions Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Explain it to me: Concussions 02:38 Similar suits against the NFL have already been consolidated for trial in Philadelphia, but a trial date has not been set. The filing cites recent scientific studies that have found a connection between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease that results in Alzheimer's-like symptoms, including memory loss and mood swings. CTE results only from repeated blows to the head, and can be diagnosed only after death. According to the lawsuit, 12 cases of CTE have been detected in deceased NFL players. Former Green Bay Packer Dorsey Levens, who McGlamry also represents, says that when he played in the mid-1990s, he had no idea of the consequences the game could have. He filed suit in December 2011. At the time of the filing, Levens told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, "I wasn't worried at all, you know, because that's the way you play the game of football. We weren't aware of the long-term ramifications of concussions like we are today. So I didn't worry about it when I played." ||||| Posted by Michael David Smith on May 3, 2012, 9:38 AM EST Boston University’s Center for Traumatic Encephalopathy has studied the brains of many deceased football players and almost always found injuries consistent with repeated blows to the head. Now the Center wants to examine the brain of Junior Seau. Peter King reports that the researchers in Boston are attempting to obtain Seau’s brain. The death of Seau, who killed himself with a gunshot to the chest, has reminded many of the death of former NFL player Dave Duerson, who also killed himself with a gunshot to the chest and who left a note asking for his brain to be examined to see whether the depression that plagued him late in life could be linked to brain damage he suffered on the football field. The Boston researchers determined that Duerson did, in fact, show signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma. One of the rather shocking developments in football over the last couple years has been the way the words “chronic traumatic encephalopathy” have seeped into the lexicon. It’s long been accepted that if you follow football you know that ACL stands for anterior cruciate ligament and MCL stands for medial collateral ligament. Knowing that CTE stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy feels different, feels like something we can’t just accept as part of the cost of doing business in the NFL. If the Boston researchers find that Seau suffered from CTE, and if they believe that CTE precipitated Seau’s suicide, that could be a watershed moment in the way we view the sport, and its effect on those who play it. This is research that should be done, even if it reveals information that makes all of us very uncomfortable about the game we love.

– Did Junior Seau have football-related brain damage? The Boston University Center for Traumatic Encephalopathy wants to look at his brain to find out, Peter King reports on Twitter today. The Center has studied the brains of a number of deceased football players, and almost every time it's found evidence of repeated head trauma, according to Pro Football Talk, which suspects that a Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy diagnosis on Seau would be a "watershed moment." As if to underscore the news, more than 100 ex-NFL players today jumped onto a lawsuit against the NFL alleging that it "repeatedly refuted the connection between concussions and brain injury," and failed to "take reasonable steps necessary to protect players" from them, CNN reports. A total of more than 1,500 players have now joined on the suit.

He shoots, he scores! Putin takes to the ice rink to show off his hockey skills (but it doesn't look like there was much opposition) Russian president took to the ice at All-Russia Festival of Night Hockey League in Sochi wearing number 11 shirt He missed several goals - and sporting celebrities nudged in the puck for him instead - until he finally scored Putin often does macho publicity stunts and has shot a whale, hugged a polar bear and ridden a horse topless He's the president who has ridden a horse topless, hugged a polar bear and 'found' (fake) Greek vases while scuba-diving. Now Vladimir Putin is at it again - playing ice hockey with sporting legends in front of thousands of apparently adoring fans. But the Russian premier, 61, was not without a little help - he missed several goals by a whisker, leaving his celebrity teammates to give the puck a gentle nudge in the right direction, before finally hitting home on his own. Scroll down for video Sports star: Vladimir Putin triumphed in a game of ice hockey in Sochi First attempt: The Russian president takes a shot at the goal (left) – but it bounces away. A team-mate to the left of the net (right), catches the rebounding puck and taps it into the goal. Putin is said to have scored five assists Bold attempt: On his next attack (left), Putin flicks the puck towards the net… but he puck clatters against the crossbar of the goal (right) without going in Deadly approach: Putin flies down the middle of the rink (left), and takes another shot at goal - and scores when the puck smashes into the back of the net (right) Sporting the number 11 jersey, Putin returned to the Winter Olympics host city of Sochi today for the All-Russia Festival of Night Hockey League. Joining the 'NHL Stars' team, the premier took a break from crisis talks with the West about his annexing of Crimea to play alongside retired former Soviet hockey legends, including Vyacheslav Fetisov and Pavel Bure. At least two of his team-mates were Olympic medal winners, including Aleksey Kasatonov, who won two golds for the Soviet Union in 1984 and 1988, and Valery Kamensky, who also took gold in 1988. His opponents, meanwhile, were reportedly amateurs. Even so, the 62-year-old premier's teammates were apparently eager to help him. In at least two attempts, Putin just missed the goal, but the puck went in after a gentle tap from another player. And in one sequence, shown on the state-linked English-language channel RT, the premier eventually scored, to the delight of the crowd. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and the head of Tatarstan Republic, Rustam Minnikhanov, were both at the festival for the league, which was created in December 2011. It began as a casual event for over-40s but has grown and this year was attended by 108 teams including from 11 other countries. Putin took part in a gala match between amateur hockey players in a successful games for the Russians - who topped the table ahead of Norway, Canada and the USA with 33 medals. Sadly for Putin, however, his side was knocked out by Finland at the quarter-final stage. But the upbeat president reportedly told the crowd: 'There are no winners or losers here. This is a friendly game. 'It’s a show and everyone enjoyed it. All this [the Night Hockey League] was invented to give an additional boost to the development of sports and physical culture.' Victorious: A proud-looking Putin bumps fists with his amateur rivals Adoration: He was also seen shaking hands with ecstatic members of the crowd According to state broadcaster The Voice of Russia, the President 'netted six goals and five assists'. The bold claims are, as yet, not fully confirmed. It is the latest in a long line of macho publicity stunts by the Russian president, who last took to the ice in January, shortly before the Winter Olympics in Sochi. On a horse: The Russian president was pictured in this macho pose while travelling the Siberian mountains in 2007 Stunts: Putin has also been seen plucking (fake) ancient vases from the deeps (left in 2011) and presiding over a tranquilised polar bear (right in 2010) He has previously cuddled a tame snow leopard and a tranquilised polar bear, and shot harmless crossbow darts at a whale as part of scientific research. One more bizarre report last year suggested he was inviting the boy band Boyz II Men to a Moscow gig - to boost the country's birth rate. And in 2011, a spokesman was forced to admit that a scuba-diving exhibition in which he 'found' the remarkably intact remains of two 1,500-year-old Greek vases was staged. ||||| Most Popular Speed Reads About Speed Reads Speed Reads is TheWeek.com's continuously updated collection of the most interesting, important, and trending things on the internet – delivered with concision, intelligence, and wit. Contact us at speedreads@theweek.com.

– What's a newly divorced Russian strongman to do when most of the world wants to throttle him and he's getting no respect from his own supporters? Play a little hockey, that's what. And pretty badly, reports the Week in a look at Vladimir Putin's foray onto the ice yesterday at something called the "All-Russia Festival of Amateur Teams of the Night Hockey League" in Sochi. Even with a less-than-motivated opposition goalie and near-assists from NHL players, Putin choked several times. Yet somehow, reports the Daily Mail via the Voice of Russia, Putin managed to score six times and had five assists. Despite his, er, heroics, Putin's team eventually lost, but no hard feelings, says the president: "There are no winners or losers here. This is a friendly game." Click for the Week's GIF of Putin attempting to put his helmet on—backward.

3 Salinas kids found starving, abused, deputies say (03-21) 19:30 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Three Salinas children are in protective custody after authorities discovered that their mothers had starved and neglected them and chained up the oldest child to prevent her from getting food, Monterey County sheriff's officials said Friday. The women, who are domestic partners, were arrested Saturday. Eraca Dawn Craig, 31, and Christian Jessica Deanda, 44, remain in Monterey County Jail. They were arraigned this week on numerous child abuse charges. The 8-year-old girl and two boys, ages 5 and 3, were discovered March 14 when sheriff's deputies were conducting a welfare check at their Salinas home, said sheriff's Commander John Thornburg. The officers noticed signs of abuse, including there being little food at the home, which was "cluttered and dirty," authorities said. The three children were taken into protective custody that day. Police determined the 8-year-old girl had been chained to a wall at times. Thornburg said she was hospitalized for four days but has been released. The boys did not need hospitalization, he said, but all three children showed signs of neglect as well as physical and emotional abuse. ||||| SALINAS, Calif. (AP) — Three starving children — including one who was chained to the floor to prevent her from getting food — were found last month in the squalid home of a Northern California couple, authorities said. All three — two boys and a girl — were taken into protective custody, and one was hospitalized, Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller said Friday. Authorities discovered them in the Salinas, Calif., home on March 14 after two of the young people missed appointments, according to several published reports. "It was a particularly heinous case," Miller told the Monterey Herald. The children had "hardly eaten for months." The boys are 3 and 5 years old, and the girl is 8, authorities said, and they all exhibited bruises and signs of other physical as well as emotional abuse. The girl, who appeared to have suffered the most extreme abuse, was chained to the floor to prevent her from getting any food, they said. "It seems that the little girl was the major target of this abuse," Miller continued, adding that she looked "like a concentration camp victim." The girl was in the hospital for about five days, he said, and seemed "traumatized." There was evidence that she was may have been put in the closet as well as that she was sometimes shackled at the ankle and at other times by a collar around her neck, Miller said. Eraca Dwan Craig, 31, and Christian Jessica Deana, 44, were both arrested at the scene on suspicion of felony child cruelty, false imprisonment and other charges. The women, who are domestic partners, do not appear to have criminal records in Monterey County. They were both arraigned in Monterey County Court on Tuesday and are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on March 28. Authorities said the women seemed to be making preparations to leave before they were arrested. Investigators found little food inside the home, which was cluttered and dirty, according to reports. The girl and the older boy were adopted children, and the younger boy is the biological son of one of the women, Miller said. ___ Information from: The Monterey County Herald, http://www.montereyherald.com ||||| Salinas: One of two women arrested is former correctional officer Click photo to enlarge « 1 2 3 4 » One of two women accused of starving, chaining and abusing three children in Monterey County is a former correctional officer, while the other was a businesswoman and counselor at clinics in California and New Mexico, according to their online professional profiles and court filings. Sheriff's deputies rescued three children from the couple's residence on Russell Road north of Salinas on March 14, citing horrific conditions and an "emaciated" 8-year-old girl who looked like "a concentration camp" victim, said Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller. Also taken from the home were two boys, ages 3 and 5. Miller said Eraca Dawn Craig, 31, and Christian Jessica Deanda, 44, are accused of felony child cruelty, false imprisonment and other charges. Deputies conducted a welfare check at the house after the children didn't show up for an unspecified appointment, detectives said. They found the children, who were home-schooled, living in squalid conditions and "fairly dire straits," Miller said. The girl was the most abused, deputies said, though all three had bruises and other marks and appeared to be malnourished. Officers said they found signs the girl had been chained to the wall and said she may have been held in a closet. Investigators believe she was shackled at times at the ankle and at other times by a collar around her neck. One deputy reported the girl was chained "to keep her from obtaining food." Miller said it appeared she had "hardly eaten for months." The girl and the 5-year-old boy were legally adopted children, he said, while the 3-year-old boy is the biological son of one of the women, who are domestic partners. The rescued 8-year-old was immediately hospitalized for about five days, Miller said, and appeared to be "very traumatized." The children were placed in foster homes. "It seems that the little girl was the major target of this abuse," he said. "It was a particularly heinous case." He said there were indications the women were preparing to leave the area soon. Detectives said moving boxes were packed and the women told them they were planning to move to the Fresno area. Miller said when children are rescued from terrifying conditions, they are not usually "jumping up and down in joy. They may have forgotten what joy is like." Law enforcement officers' description of the grim scenario stands in contrast to the women's online business profiles. Posting as Cristian Deanda-Craig on LinkedIn.Com, Deanda wrote about her cactus nursery in New Mexico: "I am currently in a place that makes me happy both personally and professionally. I left me (sic) job to be home with my kids. I loved gardening and soon found myself selling flowers to neighbors. So my partner and I started our business — the best decision ever! I enjoy watching my kids grow and my flowers!" Under previous jobs, she lists work as an HIV prevention case manager at John XXIII AIDS Ministry in Salinas from 2001-04, and later as a psychosocial therapy manager at Valencia Counseling Services in Estancia, N.M. Deanda was a program manager at a transitional housing facility for men in Gallup, N.M., according to the profile. Public records show she lived in Castroville and Salinas as well as New Mexico. Deanda and Craig were scheduled to be married March 29, according to an online gift registry. Craig, whose profile is listed under Eraca Craig-Deanda, earned a degree in auto mechanics management from Hartnell College in 2013, according to the site. Before that, she was a detention officer at the Navajo County, Ariz., sheriff's office in 2005-06 and a corrections officer at a New Mexico corrections facility from December 2006 to May 2010. More recently, her occupation was listed as auto mechanic. Records show she left New Mexico in May 2010, moving to the Russell Road address in Salinas. Soon after moving back to Salinas, Craig filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Almost immediately, she began defaulting on agreed-upon monthly payments, federal court records show. The case was ultimately thrown out for failure to pay two days before her arrest. Craig earned about $36,000 a year as a New Mexico correctional officer, according to her filing, but was receiving unemployment assistance and food stamps in Salinas at the time of her bankruptcy petition. The children were listed as her dependent sons and daughter in the filing, which was made when her youngest son was 6 months old. Neither woman appears to have a criminal record in Monterey County. Asked why his office delayed announcing the arrests, Miller said officials were investigating the case and wanted to wait until after the women were charged by the District Attorney's Office and arraigned in court. They were arraigned in Monterey County Court on Tuesday and are being held at Monterey County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail each, although Miller said late Friday officers were in court asking for the bail amounts to be raised. Deanda and Craig are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on March 28. Julia Reynolds can be reached at 648-1187 or jreynolds@montereyherald.com. Donations · Send donations to: Monterey County Association of Families Caring for Children, P.O. Box 2283, Salinas, CA 93902 · Clothing, toys and other new items can be dropped at the association office, Hartnell College, Bldg D, Room 120.

– It's "a particularly heinous case," says the sheriff in California's Monterey County. Police rescued three young children who showed signs of starvation and abuse from their home in Salinas, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Their mothers, who lived together as domestic partners, are in custody. The oldest child, an 8-year-old girl, had been chained at times to keep her from getting food, and she looked like a "concentration camp victim," says Sheriff Scott Miller. The girl was hospitalized for four days and is now recuperating in a foster home. The other two children are boys ages 3 and 5, and they, too, were malnourished, bruised, and showed signs of emotional abuse, reports AP. But the girl apparently bore the brunt of the abuse, with investigators saying she was shackled at the ankle or by a collar at times, and may have been held in a closet. Eraca Craig, 31, and Christian Deanda, 44, are accused of felony child cruelty, false imprisonment, and other charges, reports the Monterey Herald. They home-schooled the kids and were scheduled to be married next week.

Thousands of Native Americans chanted in protest against the Washington Redskins name outside the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium Sunday, where the team will play the Minnesota Vikings. (McKenna Ewen and Divya Jeswani Verma/The Washington Post) Thousands of Native Americans chanted in protest against the Washington Redskins name outside the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium Sunday, where the team will play the Minnesota Vikings. (McKenna Ewen and Divya Jeswani Verma/The Washington Post) — At what was hailed by organizers as the largest-ever protest of the Washington Redskins’ name, a group of Native Americans stood outside the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium in a plaza built as a tribute to 11 of the state’s tribes. A man in the middle held up a sign painted in bold black letters: “RACIST.” For more than an hour Sunday, hundreds of Washington Redskins fans on their way to the game against the Minnesota Vikings shuffled past the voices of condemnation, some with their Redskins’ caps stuffed in their pockets and their jerseys covered by zipped up jackets. “Who are we?” the demonstrators yelled. “Not your mascots!” On a broad grassy patch behind them, a throng of Native Americans, students and other activists chanted, sang, banged drums and waved banners: “Change the Name Now” and “Stop Racism in the NFL.” University of Minnesota police put the estimated crowd at 3,500 to 4,000. Organizers estimated it at 5,000. More than two dozen speakers from across the country addressed the noisy but peaceful gathering. They consider the Redskins moniker deeply offensive, while team owner Daniel Snyder argues that it honors Native Americans and has vowed never to change it. 1 of 15 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Protesters march outside stadium before Redskins game against Minnesota View Photos Native American groups and other activists decried the use of the team’s mascot and its imagery. Caption Native American groups and other activists decried the use of the team’s mascot and its imagery. Nov. 2, 2014 Native Americans protest the Redskins�? name outside the stadium in Minneapolis before the team played the Minnesota Vikings. John McDonnell/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. The interactions between protesters and Redskins fans never turned violent, but they were often tense and sometimes profane. Samuel Wounded Knee, 35, a Crow Creek Sioux with square shoulders and long dark hair, carried a sign that read “Wake Up Snyder” and confronted nearly every Redskins fan he saw, cursing at one who cut through the rally and taunted protesters. “We don’t want to be your mascot,” he yelled. “My son doesn’t want to be your mascot.” Nearby, his 3-year-old sat on the grass in a maroon-and-yellow shirt that hung down to his ankles and said simply on its front: “REPLACE.” Preparations for the rally were underway for months, with organizers determined to make it even larger than one held more than two decades ago. In 1992, when the Buffalo Bills played Washington in the only Super Bowl hosted in Minnesota, an estimated 3,000 demonstrators turned out at the now-demolished Metrodome to denounce the team’s name. Last November, when the Vikings hosted the Redskins for the first time since 2007 at the Metrodome, more than 700 people protested outside. But the debate about the name has grown much more intense over the past year, with a parade of Native American leaders, lawmakers, civil rights activists and sports commentators condemning it. The name retains its support among a majority of Americans, with 71 percent saying it should not be changed in a poll conducted for ESPN in September. How the nation’s 5.2 million Native Americans feel is impossible to know. A 2004 Annenberg Public Policy Center poll found that 9 out of 10 Native Americans were not offended by the moniker, but that survey is now 10 years old, and many activists question its methodology. On Sunday, the speakers were united in their opinion. “We are here to tell the NFL there is no honor in a racial slur,” Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) told the demonstrators. “Here in Minnesota, we have 11 proud tribal nations, but only 150 years ago, their ancestors, men and women, elders and children, were hunted and murdered for profit. This was a government-funded policy of genocide. The pain of this brutal and shameful history is still with us.” She said, “If there is any decency in the NFL, the time is now — change the mascot.” Vikings fan Larry Gibson, 54, a factory worker from St. Paul, Minn., was dismissive of the rally as he paused to watch, expressing his disgust to a Redskins fan beside him. “It could be the Vikings next, who knows?” Gibson said. Tony Cansler, who wore a custom Redskins jersey along with a Redskins hat, ear muffs and mittens, shook his head. “I mean, how far do you go with this, you know?” he replied. Cansler, a 53-year-old maintenance worker, had driven six hours from his home in Iowa to watch his beloved Redskins play. “To me, the name is respectful,” he said. Native Americans “should take pride in the name.” Controversy had swirled around the Vikings game since August because of demands by the University of Minnesota to limit use of the Washington team’s name and logo inside the stadium. But university administrators insisted that they could not dictate behavior to the Vikings organization, which is paying the university $300,000 a game to use the stadium while its new facility in Minneapolis is being built. After the protest – as the public address announcer bellowed the name over and over inside the stadium – a school official told a group of reporters that the Vikings had ignored their repeated requests. Unlike many NFL cities where Native Americans have little presence, their influence in the Twin Cities – and throughout Minnesota – is robust. More than 1,100 students throughout the University of Minnesota system identify themselves as Native Americans, and TCF Bank Stadium was built with the help of a $10 million donation from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. At the time, it was the largest private gift to Gophers athletics. The stadium also honors Minnesota’s 11 federally recognized tribes with the plaza where, on Sunday, protesters confronted fans. Joseph Keller, wearing a Chris Cooley Redskins jersey, walked through it, stopping in front of a group of screaming teen protesters. He blew them kisses, then dropped his cigarette on the pavement and stepped on it. A young woman snatched it from the ground and dropped it down the back of his jersey. He stopped, reached back to remove it and kept walking. “So I’m racist because I like the Redskins?” he said to his friend, a Vikings fan, as the two men stood in line. Keller, a former Marine who lives just outside Minneapolis, said he doesn’t understand Native Americans’ issue with the name, insisting that it’s a tribute to their warrior culture. “That’s the way I look at it,” he said. Moments later, the national anthem boomed from the stadium, drowning out the chants of protest behind him. ||||| The University of Minnesota wants the Washington Redskins to wear throwback jerseys without the team name or logo for the Nov. 2 game against the Minnesota Vikings being held at the college’s stadium. The college, which is leasing its TCF Bank Stadium to the Vikings as the team’s new stadium gets built for a scheduled 2016 opening, has also asked that the game not have any Washington apparel or paraphernalia sold on the premise; that the word “Redskins” not be uttered by the game’s public address announcer; and that the team’s moniker not appear on the scoreboard or in the program guide or other game-related print or digital material. Vikings officials appeared receptive to the university’s appeal during a meeting in late July, according to Katrice Albert, the college’s vice president in the office of equity and diversity. “They said they’d make that request of the Washington team, but were not sure how it would be received,” she said. “The two Vikings officials said they are part of the NFL and don’t have the authority to force the hand to change the Washington name but understand it’s offensive to some members of our community. The Vikings have a great working relationship with the tribal nations of Minnesota, and they’re very understanding of how this team name and logo impacts our community.” The university’s stadium features a Tribal Nations Plaza dedicated in honor of the 11 Native American tribes in Minnesota. It was built with a $10 million donation from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community — the largest private gift ever to Gophers athletics. On Thursday, the tribe released a statement saying that it and other Minnesota tribes oppose the Redskins’ name “and other sports-related logos, mascots and names which degrade a race of people.” The community is working with the university to prepare “appropriate responses” to the NFL game and “minimize the damage that could be done by invoking the name in a place that respects and honors the Minnesota Native American community.” A Vikings spokesman told The Post on Wednesday that the team was still trying to determine how it would handle the school’s request. Last year, hundreds of Native Americans and their supporters gathered outside the Metrodome before the Vikings played the Redskins to denounce the name of Washington’s team. Redskins spokesman Tony Wyllie said Wednesday that the team disagrees with the school’s effort to bar the Redskins’ name at TCF Bank Stadium. “We have met many Native Americans from Minnesota who agree with our position and feel we are using the term correctly and honorably,” Wyllie said. University officials said the use of the Redskins name at their stadium violates the institution’s affirmative action, diversity and equal opportunity policy. More than 1,100 students identify themselves as Native American throughout the University of Minnesota system. Chuck Tombarge, a university spokesman, said the school has no recourse if the Vikings refuse to satisfy its requests. “Obviously, the Vikings are a good partner to Minnesota. We’ve outlined our suggestions and trust they will give them due diligence and will work on this as much as possible,” he said. The Vikings and school officials are slated to meet again this month, with more meetings between then and game day. The school is not the only entity pressuring the Vikings. Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum (D) sent a letter in June to Vikings owner Zygi Wilf urging him to condemn the Redskins’ team name and suggested he bears some responsibility to take a stand because NFL teams equally split the sales of every team’s licensed merchandise. McColllum’s letter was carbon copied to the University of Minnesota’s president, Eric W. Kaler. He replied to her last week. Joel Barkin, the spokesman for the Oneida Indian Nation, which has worked with McCollum frequently in its campaign against the team’s name, applauded the school’s proactive stance and said the word should be banned at professional stadiums, too. “Many of these professional stadiums receive large forms of public subsidies, so we plan on writing to each of the teams to follow the lead of Minnesota,” Barkin said. “It’s inappropriate for taxpayers to be subsidizing the endorsement of a racial slur.” ||||| MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Two buses transporting the Washington Redskins to their game against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday collided on a highway exit ramp while driving to TCF Stadium. The Redskins tweeted that the team had arrived safely at the stadium and team spokesman Tony Wyllie said that the accident will not affect the game. "Everyone is fine. No one was injured," Wylie said. Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske said one of the Minneapolis police squads escorting two buses crashed into a guard rail and ended up in front of the buses. He said the first bus braked but the second bus rear ended the first bus on the ramp. He said the accident call came in around 8:15 a.m. Roeske said the officer in the squad car was taken to the hospital. He added there were minor injuries like scrapes and bruises on at least one bus passenger, but he didn't know how many sustained injuries. Washington wide receiver Pierre Garcon tweeted a photo from inside one of the buses and said in a message "So this just happened. But we are ok." Garcon's photo shows a broken front windshield. There is a police car parked in front of the bus and emergency workers, one pushing a stretcher on wheels, standing in the road. The Redskins and Vikings were scheduled to kick off at noon.

– The Washington Redskins are having a rough time of it today: Things started with a crash this morning involving two of the team's buses, which were en route to play the Vikings in Minneapolis, reports the AP. A police escort in Minnesota crashed into a guardrail around 8:30am; the team bus immediately behind it braked to avoid hitting the cop car, but second bus rear-ended the first. No injuries. Arriving in Minneapolis, the team was met with chants of "Who are we? Not your mascot!" from some 3,200 protesting Native Americans who were none too happy with the "Redskins" moniker. "My Hubby Did Not Fight in Iraq To Be Called A 'Redskin,' read one sign. The protest raised familiar arguments, with one Redskins fan calling the name a "respectful" one in which Native Americans should "take pride." The name is nothing more than "a racial slur," counters one Democratic rep at the protest, citing Minnesota's "11 proud tribal nations. This was a government-funded policy of genocide." Indeed, as the Washington Post reports, Minneapolis is home to a sizable Native American presence, perhaps contributing to the size of the demonstration. The issue is compounded by the University of Minnesota, which currently leases its football stadium to the Vikings for a hefty $300,000 per game. With 1,100 students who identify as Native American, the university had in August demanded that the Redskins limit use of the mascot, logo, and team name during today's game.

"Now this important project can go forward!” President Donald Trump wrote online. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images Trump welcomes border ruling from judge he attacked President Donald Trump on Tuesday celebrated a “big legal win” delivered by a federal judge against whom he once leveled racial criticism. Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected lawsuits brought by environmentalists and the state of California related to the Trump administration’s efforts to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Story Continued Below “Big legal win today. U.S. judge sided with the Trump Administration and rejected the attempt to stop the government from building a great Border Wall on the Southern Border. Now this important project can go forward!” the president wrote online. Trump made no mention in his Tuesday tweet of his previous feud with Curiel, which dates back to the summer of 2016, when the then-GOP candidate characterized the federal judge as a “Mexican” whose heritage meant he could not capably oversee a lawsuit against Trump, even though Curiel was born in Indiana. 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. The president’s criticism of Curiel prompted significant backlash at the time, with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) labeling Trump’s remark as the “textbook definition of a racist comment." ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the parts of a proposed border wall he says California wants will not be built until the entire southern wall is approved, although state officials have said they are strongly opposed to the plan. Construction workers raise the 30-foot high bollard style wall, at the US-Mexico border to replace a section of the border wall near Calexico, California. REUTERS/Earnie Grafton “I have decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved,” Trump said in a tweet. A U.S.-Mexico border wall, a key item promised by Trump to his political base of supporters, has become a sticking point in talks to keep alive a federal program protecting young people brought to the United States illegally as children from deportation. A U.S. judge on Tuesday had sided with Trump’s administration and rejected an attempt by California and environmental groups to stop the federal government from building a wall on the state’s border with Mexico. California currently has some sections of existing barriers. The lawsuit filed in a San Diego federal court alleged that Trump’s proposed wall violates federal environmental standards and constitutional provisions regarding the separation of powers and states’ rights. The plaintiffs asked U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel to stop the administration from pursuing the barrier until it demonstrates compliance with environmental laws. “Big victory yesterday with ruling from the courts that allows us to proceed. OUR COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY!” Trump added in a tweet on Wednesday. It was unclear what Trump meant about parts of the wall California wants built, given the state’s opposition to the whole idea. Attorney General Xavier Becerra said after the ruling his office remained opposed to the border wall and would evaluate its options. Trump is scheduled to visit California in mid-March to see prototypes for the proposed border wall, administration officials have said. A week ago the federal government began work to replace a section of barrier built in the 1990s in the border town of Calexico with a 30-foot (9.1-meter) high stretch of bollard-style wall. That was the first wall contract awarded by the Trump administration apart from eight prototypes built last year in San Diego. In his latest budget proposal to Congress, Trump requested $23 billion for border security, most of it for the wall. Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto postponed plans for the Mexican leader’s first visit to the White House, after a testy phone call in which Trump would not agree to publicly affirm Mexico’s position that it would not fund construction of the wall. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By James Rainey The federal judge once slammed by President Donald Trump as being a “Mexican” who was incapable of being impartial has sided with Trump in his bid to move ahead with construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel on Tuesday rejected arguments by the state of California and a coalition of environmental groups, who said the Trump administration had improperly ignored environmental laws in its push to build the wall. Judge Gonzalo Curiel San Diego Superior Court Curiel said in his 101-page ruling that such decisions should be left to other branches of government, not the judiciary. He quoted U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in saying political matters "are entrusted to our Nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them. It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.” Related: Who is Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel? Curiel, who was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama, made it clear his ruling centered on whether the administration had the authority to build a border wall, not on the wisdom of that decision. He described the "heated political debate" surrounding the project and added: "In its review of this case the Court cannot and does not consider whether underlying decisions to construct the border barriers are politically wise or prudent." The case grew out of a 1996 law, and its amendments, that gave the executive branch power to construct a wall in and near San Diego and to waive environmental review when "necessary to ensure expeditious construction." The law also limited any federal court reviewing challenges to the construction to only consider Constitutional violations, not challenges based on the environmental laws. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly called for a waiver of the environmental reviews last August and the plaintiffs--California, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Animal Legal Defense Fund all sued, saying the Kelly had overstepped his authority. Experts provided declarations for California and the environmental groups, suggesting that the construction — on 15 miles of border in San Diego and another three miles near El Centro — could harm the Tijuana Estuary, along with rare, threatened and endangered species. Border Patrol agents patrol the US-Mexico border prior to an Easter mass at the fence separating the two countries at Friendship Park on April 16, 2017 in San Ysidro, California. Sandy Huffaker / AFP - Getty Images file Curiel said the state and environmentalists did not meet the high threshold for holding up the construction: showing that Kelly had acted in excess of his powers. The plaintiffs had argued that Trump’s Department of Homeland Security had violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Coastal Zone Management Act, by not properly consulting with California and other stakeholders on the environmental consequences of the construction in the Golden State. Curiel agreed that the "belated contact with stakeholders reduces the practical benefit of the consultation process." But he said that the failures were not enough to show that Kelly and an interim director of Homeland Security had overstepped their authority. “While unlimited judicial review would assure compliance with all legal requirements,” wrote Curiel, who sits on the U.S. District Court in San Diego, “it would defeat the purpose of the law to expedite the construction of border barriers and roads in areas where they are needed. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra renewed his complaint that the Trump White House was “ignoring laws it doesn’t like in order to resuscitate a campaign talking point of building a wall on our southern border." Related: Environmentalists sue to block Trump border wall "A medieval wall along the U.S.-Mexico border simply does not belong in the 21st century.” Becerra said in his statement, noting that California officials were reviewing their options. Another plaintiff in the case, the Center for Biological Diversity, announced that it would appeal. “The Trump administration has completely overreached its authority in its rush to build this destructive, senseless wall,” said Brian Segee, a senior attorney with the group. "They’re giving unprecedented, sweeping power to an unelected agency chief to ignore dozens of laws and crash through hundreds of miles of spectacular borderlands. This is unconstitutional and shouldn’t be allowed to stand.” Related: Taco trucks to bad hombres: 7 times Latinos figured in Trump's campaign Trump had said in June 2016, during the presidential campaign, that Curiel could not fairly judge a pair of class-action lawsuits brought against the real estate magnate for the operation of his for-profit Trump University. The candidate said Curiel would be biased, because he was a Mexican and would be upset by Trump's positions on immigration. Trump also branded him a "hater" and "very hostile." Curiel was born in Indiana to parents who were immigrants from Mexico. Trump's remarks prompted outrage from critics, who said he was refusing to acknowledge the judge was an American and capable of impartiality, merely because of his ethnic roots.

– President Trump says California won't get its border wall until the entirety of the wall is approved for construction. California is almost certainly OK with that. “I have decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved,” Reuters quotes Trump as tweeting on Wednesday. But it's unclear exactly why Trump thinks California wants a border wall, as the state sued the federal government to stop construction of said wall. In fact, in the very same tweet Trump referred to the lawsuit after a federal judge ruled against the state of California and environmental groups. “Big victory yesterday with ruling from the courts that allows us to proceed," he tweeted. "OUR COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY!” California and environmental groups argued John Kelly, then secretary of Homeland Security, overstepped his powers when he waived environmental reviews for the border wall, which experts say could harm threatened and endangered species, NBC News reports. US District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled they weren't able to prove that. If the name sounds familiar, it's because Curiel is the same "Mexican" judge Trump claimed couldn't be objective because of his heritage, according to Politico. Trump also called Curiel, who was born in Indiana, a "hater" and "very hostile." Curiel ruled a decision on the wall should be left up to politicians, not the courts. "It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices,” he wrote in his decision.

Washington (CNN) The leaders of the Republican and Democratic national committees on Wednesday weighed in on the prospect of an independent presidential run by Michael Bloomberg. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz suggested that the former New York City mayor's priorities are already "well cared-for" in the Democratic platform, while RNC leader Reince Priebus welcomed the idea, saying Bloomberg would siphon off votes from the Democratic candidate. The billionaire recently told the Financial Times he found "the level of discourse and discussion distressingly banal and an outrage and an insult to the voters," and that he was "looking at all the options." With two nominating contests gone and outsider candidates like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump -- the two winners in New Hampshire -- looking like legitimate contenders, the likelihood of a Bloomberg bid could be growing. Asked about the prospect by CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Wasserman Schultz sought to ease the wealthy media mogul's concerns, saying that Bloomberg's priorities are "well cared-for in the Democratic nominees' priorities and the Democratic Party 's agenda." "(They are) certainly not cared-for by any of the Republicans that are running right now," the Florida congresswoman continued. "On the contrary, they would roll back progress on issues like education and consumer protection and gun safety and protecting people from people who would do them harm." Wasserman Schultz's GOP counterpart Priebus, who spoke to Blitzer minutes later, took a different view of the question, saying he would welcome Bloomberg to the race, but only because he views the billionaire as a spoiler who would cull most of his support from the eventual Democratic nominee. "I don't really view it as a third party (candidacy). I just view it as another Democrat," he said. "So you'll have two Democrats running and splitting their vote." Priebus sought to pigeonhole Bloomberg as a "liberal Democrat" who "wants to take all the guns away" and "tax Slurpees and sodas," references to his calls for greater gun control and efforts to impose caps on soft drink sizes during his time running New York City. "He can't get to 270 electoral votes. It's not even possible," Priebus added. "Even if he did win a few electoral votes, then he would put the race in the hands of (House Speaker) Paul Ryan and I would imagine Paul's going to choose the Republican." If no candidate clinches a majority of electoral votes in the general election, the tiebreaker is put in the hands of the House of Representatives, which would likely put Ryan and his GOP colleagues in the position of picking the next president. ||||| Far from the New Hampshire primary, aides to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg eyed the solid victories Tuesday by Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump as potential boosts to a Bloomberg candidacy. The results, Bloomberg advisers said, were a fresh sign he may have an opening, as Democrats and Republicans embraced candidates the aides said were unlikely to resonate with voters in a general election. Steve... ||||| Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire media owner and former New York mayor, has stated for the first time that he is considering a run to become US president, a move that would dramatically reshape the 2016 race for the White House. Speaking to the Financial Times, the founder of the eponymous financial information group criticised the quality of the debate so far. He said ​he was “looking at all the options” when asked whether he was considering putting his name forward. “I find the level of discourse and discussion distressingly banal and an outrage and an insult to the voters,” Mr Bloomberg said in an interview, before adding that the US public deserved “a lot better”. His comments follow a New York Times report​ last month that said the billionaire had told advisers to draft a plan for a run as an independent candidate that could see him spending as much as $1bn of his​ estimated​ $39bn fortune. The first confirmation by Mr Bloomberg, who has considered running for the Oval Office in previous elections, comes as Donald Trump, the bombastic billionaire running a populist​ campaign, dominates​ the Republicans’ race. The property mogul has a significant lead in polls ahead of Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire. In the Democratic race, Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-declared socialist senator from Vermont, boasts a sizeable lead over Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state. Mr Bloomberg told the FT that he would need to start putting his name on ballots across the US at the beginning of March. “I’m listening to what candidates are saying and what the primary voters appear to be doing,” he said. His entry would radically affect the election, which has already been upended by the anti-establishment campaigns of Mr Trump and Mr Sanders. Many experts believe that Mr Bloomberg would help the Republican nominee by drawing more support from Democrats over Republicans because of his liberal stance on issues such as gun control and the environment. Highlighting the steep climb that Mr Bloomberg ​would ​probably ​face, a poll conducted by his own news organisation and the Des Moines Register ahead of the Iowa caucuses found that only 9 per cent of Republicans had a favourable view of him, while 17 per cent of likely Democratic voters in the state ​had a favourable opinion. Mr Trump ​has said he would be “very happy” if Mr Bloomberg entered the race, while Mr Sanders ​has ​criticised the prospect, saying it would confirm that the US was “moving away from democracy to oligarchy”. ​ ​​Mr Bloomberg reportedly also has reservations about the campaign of Mrs Clinton, who has dismissed the threat of his possible candidacy by arguing that he would only ​enter ​the race if she was not the Democratic nominee. But the strong challenge being posed by Mr Sanders raises the chances that the Democratic nominee will not be chosen by early March, the point at which Mr Bloomberg would need to make a decision about entering. While experts believe that an independent candidate would struggle in a system that is heavily skewed to favour those from the two ​main ​parties, the 2016 race has already proved the danger of ​accepting conventional wisdom. A year ago, most ​experts predicted that the election would see Mrs Clinton face Jeb Bush, the former Republican governor of Florida, or Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor. But Mr Walker ​dropped out early, and Mr Bush is struggling to save his campaign as he languishes in fifth place in the New Hampshire polls after doing badly in Iowa. The World Blog White House countdown: Bloomberg weighs his options Jumping into the 2016 race would radically alter an election that has already been completely upended by Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Mr Bloomberg was speaking as he launched the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, which was created to improve how companies report their exposure to climate change. He chairs the group, which was announced by Mark Carney, Financial Stability Board chief, at the recent climate change summit in Paris. Mr Bloomberg has taken an increasingly hands-on role at his company since leaving the mayor’s office in 2014. He had been expected to pursue his philanthropic endeavours, such as his work fighting climate change and his push for tighter gun control legislation. But the former mayor grew restless and went back to work full time at the company he co-founded in 1981. His return was followed by upheaval in the upper echelons of the financial information company, with Dan Doctoroff, a long-time confidant, among the first to leave. I’m listening to what candidates are saying and what the primary voters appear to be doing - Michael Bloomberg Mr Doctoroff was Bloomberg’s chief executive, a role that Mr Bloomberg took himself. Several figures from the news and editorial side of the business have also left or stepped back, notably Matt Winkler, the bow tie-wearing father of the company’s news operation and Mr Bloomberg’s right-hand man for 25 years. He was replaced by John Micklethwait, editor of The Economist. The shake-up in editorial came as part of a greater focus on the company’s data terminals. Bloomberg is facing new competitors on multiple fronts, notably Symphony, a messaging service owned by some of Wall Street’s biggest banks, and low-cost operators, such as Money.net. The Cruz campaign welcomed the possible entry of Mr Bloomberg into the race. Rick Tyler, spokesman for Ted Cruz, said: “Please run!” Brian Fallon, spokesman for the Clinton campaign, declined to comment, as did the Rubio campaign. Michael Bloomberg urges companies to reveal climate change impact Companies must better explain to staff and investors how they are affected At a Sanders rally in Derry, New Hampshire, supporters said Mr Bloomberg’s entry into the race was unlikely to change their vote. Christopher Anderson, a 49-year-old art dealer who described himself an independent voter, said of Mr Bloomberg: “I don’t care for him. There’s not much difference between him and Hillary — they’re all in bed with Wall Street and big corporations.” James Coll, s 43-year-old teacher in US history from New York, added: “If he runs as an independent, how would he govern after getting support from Democrats and Republicans?” Additional reporting by Sebastian Payne in Derry, New Hampshire

– The New Hampshire primary may have boosted the prospects of a politician who wasn't even on the ballot: Michael Bloomberg. Stories about a possible run have been circulating for a while, and the victories by Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have only ramped up speculation. Bloomberg is "itching to do it," an anonymous confidant tells the New York Post. The former New York City mayor is reportedly unlikely to run if Hillary Clinton is the nominee, but she got trounced by 21 points. "There's a big opening in the middle of the electorate, and Bloomberg is on point in that space," a former John McCain adviser who's not working with Bloomberg tells the Wall Street Journal. A Sanders-Trump race "would open a path for an independent candidate." On Monday, Bloomberg told the Financial Times he was "looking at all the options" and found "the level of discourse and discussion distressingly banal and an outrage and an insult to the voters." He added he'd probably announce by early March. Aides say the results of Super Tuesday on March 1 will help him make his decision. But even if Bloomberg does run, one professor says he'll have a tough go. "It still is difficult to come in from out of the blue and get the traction you need, even when things are really seemingly divisive and there's a great deal of disenchantment, even when you're a billionaire," he says. The Republican National Committee believes Bloomberg would steal votes from the Democratic candidate, notes CNN. The DNC's chair says Bloomberg's priorities are "well cared-for."

University of WisconsinArchive-It Partner Since: Aug, 2007Organization Type: Colleges & UniversitiesOrganization URL: http://archives.library.wisc.edu This collection currently includes two distinct sub-collections: The UW-Madison Collection and The Stem Cell Research Archives Project.The UW-Madison Collection includes University of Wisconsin Web sites that document many aspects of campus life including university administration, colleges, departments, and major campus organizations, student life, research, buildings, and special and ongoing events. We also crawl UW System and Colleges administration and UW Extension Web sites.The Stem Cell Research Archives Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries collects, preserves, and provides access to records of stem cell research at UW-Madison and reactions in Wisconsin to work accomplished or underway at UW-Madison.For more information about these collections or UW campus history, visit http://archives.library.wisc.edu or contact uwarchiv@library.wisc.edu. On Wisconsin! ||||| New York is no longer the city with the biggest super-rich population. Hong Kong overtook the Big Apple to become the top destination for the planet's wealthiest people last year, according to a study published Thursday by research firm Wealth-X. The number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) residing in the Asian financial hub rose by almost a third in 2017 to 10,000, the study said. New York had held the top spot since Wealth-X first started ranking cities in 2011. The firm defines a UHNWI as a person worth $30 million or more. It said the rise in the number of ultra rich in Hong Kong was propelled by its booming stock market and growing financial links with the broader Chinese economy. China's rapid economic growth in recent decades has helped drive a dramatic increase in the number of ultra-rich people in the region. Among Hong Kong's most prominent billionaires are Li Ka-shing, whose Cheung Kong (CKHUY) empire controls ports, telecommunications networks and energy companies across the globe. No single city in mainland China made it into Wealth-X's top 10 in terms of its number of super-rich individuals. It said that was because Chinese wealth was not concentrated in any one area, but distributed around the country. Its wealthiest citizens include tech tycoons Jack Ma and Pony Ma who founded internet juggernauts Alibaba (BABA) and Tencent (TCEHY), respectively. "The dynamism of wealth creation across China's vast landscape is nevertheless staggering," the report read. Overall, the United States remains the preferred country for the world's richest and is home to almost a third of the world's ultra-high-net-worth individuals. But Asia, and China in particular, are catching up. Last year the number of ultra-rich people in Asia rose by 20%. Rising Asian wealth has been helped by increasing consumer spending, more investment in infrastructure and economic reforms, among other factors, Wealth-X said. "Asia-Pacific is forecast to close the ultra-wealth gap with other regions over the next five years," the report added. For the past four years, the region's tally of people with $1 million in investable assets has been higher than anywhere else in the world, according to another study by consulting firm Capgemini. And by one estimate, China alone already has more billionaires than the United States. But things could get tougher in 2018. China faces headwinds from its trade war with the United States and the huge levels of debt in its financial system. Chinese stocks entered a bear market this year, while its currency has plunged versus the dollar. Globally, the number of ultra-rich individuals rose by 13% last year to more than 250,000. Their combined total wealth hit $31.5 trillion, boosted by an upturn in the global economy and good performances of stock markets. Other cities in the top 10 for global wealth included Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris and London.

– Looking to hobnob with the rich but not necessarily famous? Although New York City used to be where you'd be find the largest population of super-rich people in the world, Hong Kong has taken over the top spot this year, CNNMoney notes. That's per a new report from research firm Wealth-X, which looked for how many UHNWIs (ultra-high-net-worth individuals) reside in cities around the globe. To qualify as an UHNWI for this study, an individual had to be worth $30 million or more, and thanks to its robust stock market and ties to a burgeoning Chinese economy, Hong Kong now claims more than 10,000 of these super-rich residents. The Big Apple falls to second place with nearly 8,900. Here, the top 10 cities and the number of UHNWIs in each:

Attorney General Eric Holder told residents of Ferguson, Missouri — the scene of heated protests since the death of an unarmed teen — that he understands their mistrust of law enforcement, saying as a black man, he too has been confronted by police. “I understand that mistrust. I am the attorney general of the United States. But I am also a black man,” Holder said at a meeting Wednesday with community leaders and students at the Florissant Valley Campus of St. Louis Community College, according to excerpts of his speech. Text Size - + reset Holder spoke to Brown family 'as a father' Holder meets Police Chief Ron Johnson Holder recounted to the group of 50 how he was stopped in New Jersey twice, accused of speeding as officers searched his car. “I remember how humiliating that was and how angry I was and the impact it had on me,” he said. (Also on POLITICO: Why Obama can’t go there) Holder also recalled how he and his cousin were stopped in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., while heading to a movie, and his cousin started “mouthing off.” “I’m like, ‘This is not where we want to go. Keep quiet.’ I’m angry and upset. We negotiate the whole thing and we walk to our movie,” the attorney general said. “At the time that he stopped me, I was a federal prosecutor. I wasn’t a kid. I was a federal prosecutor. I worked at the United States Department of Justice. So I’ve confronted this myself.” Of the events in Ferguson, Holder said there is a history to it, adding that the “history simmers beneath the surface in more communities than just Ferguson.” The town has been rocked by tensions and unrest for nearly two weeks following the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was shot Aug. 9 by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Holder, emphasizing the federal investigation into Brown’s death, said dialogue is not enough. “We are starting here a good dialogue. But the reality is the dialogue is not enough. We need concrete action to change things in this country,” Holder said, pointing to the federal inquiry. (Also on POLITICO: Pols on Ferguson: Sound of silence) Holder arrived in the St. Louis suburb Wednesday morning where met with community leaders as well as FBI investigators and prosecutors from both the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. During his time in Ferguson, Holder did not hold a news conference. Holder met with Brown’s parents later in the day; he previously called them last week to expressed his condolences. They met privately for 20 minutes and asked Holder about the federal investigation, to which Holder pledged it would be “fair and independent. Brown’s mother also viewed her son’s body at a local morgue for the first time since the shooting. The attorney general also met with Missouri lawmakers including Gov. Jay Nixon, Reps. Emanuel Cleaver and Lacy Clay and Sens. Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt. While meeting with local residents, Holder, who hoped his presence will have a calming influence, also promised change. “We can make it better,” Holder, responding to a local mayor, said while meeting diners at a local restaurant. The Holder’s meeting at the community college was closed to the press, but the Justice Department said Holder spoke to the group for 15 minutes before taking questions. He told the group he wished they were meeting under better circumstances and that he assigned the department’s “most experienced agents and prosecutors” to the investigation into Brown’s death. (Also on POLITICO: Holder's big test: Ferguson) It’s not the first time Holder has spoken about his experience in Georgetown and New Jersey. The attorney general spoke of the incidents last year at the NAACP convention in Orlando, Florida, where he also addressed the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Holder “promised things were going to change,” said one student who attended the meeting, according to a pool report. Holder also asked the group to work together to improve the relationship between protesters and local law enforcement. The meeting was arranged by the department’s Community Relations Service, an agency created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The service has held numerous meetings in Ferguson since protests began. Afterward at a local restaurant, Holder met Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, telling the officer to “get some rest,” according to a pool report. Johnson was asked whether Holder’s visit gave him reassurance regarding the local investigation. “Holder, by being here, is a guarantee on that,” Johnson said, according to a pool report. The attorney general was joined Wednesday by officials from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Later in the day at the local FBI headquarters, Holder spoke before an investigative briefing. “Our investigation is different,” Holder said in a meeting room filled with local federal officials. “We’re looking for possible violations of federal civil rights statutes.” Holder’s visit to Ferguson was announced earlier this week by President Barack Obama, who in his own remarks Monday, called for a reduction in tensions and for people “to seek some understanding.” Ahead of his arrival, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an op-ed by Holder, who wrote that the Justice Department’s investigation into Brown’s death will be full, fair and independent. Holder added that it will be coordinated by the agency’s Civil Rights Division as well as the FBI and will bring some “measure of calm.” He said the additional autopsy he called for earlier this week was conducted on Monday. Holder called Brown’s parents last week to express his condolences. After heated protests last week, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced the Missouri Highway Patrol would take over security in Ferguson, led by Johnson. However, by Monday, Nixon announced a state of emergency, bringing in the National Guard after earlier imposing a temporary curfew. But protests escalated yet again by Monday evening, with dozens of people arrested and a handful shot. Regarding the handling of the local investigation, including the release of security footage of Brown prior to the shooting, Holder in a statement earlier this week said the “selective release of sensitive information that we have seen in this case so far is troubling to me.” ||||| ST. LOUIS (AP) — To reassure the people of Ferguson, Attorney General Eric Holder reached into his own past, recalling the times he had been stopped by police officers who seemed to target him because of his race. Attorney General Eric Holder speaks with Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol at Drake's Place Restaurant, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. Holder arrived in Missouri on Wednesday,... (Associated Press) Protesters stand in the street as lightning flashes in the night sky in Ferguson, Mo. on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014. A grand jury has begun hearing evidence as it weighs possible charges against the Ferguson... (Associated Press) Protesters march in the street as lightning flashes in the distance in Ferguson, Mo. on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014. On Aug. 9, 2014, a white police officer fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year... (Associated Press) Protesters march to the Buzz Westfall Justice Center Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014, in Clayton, Mo. A grand jury has begun hearing evidence as it weighs possible charges against the Ferguson police officer... (Associated Press) Spiritual teacher Iyanla Vanzant, right, consoles Shirley Scale, a resident at the Canfield Apartments, at the shrine to Michael Brown where he was shot and killed on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014, in Ferguson,... (Associated Press) Attorney General Eric Holder, left, listens during his meeting at the U.S. Attorney's office in St. Louis, Mo., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014. Sitting with clockwise from the far left, Richard Callahan, US... (Associated Press) People stand in prayer after marching about a mile to the police station to protest the shooting of Michael Brown Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. Brown's shooting in the middle of a street... (Associated Press) Attorney General Eric Holder stops to shake hands with a patron at Drake's Place Restaurant, before his meeting with local community leaders, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014 in Ferguson, Mo. Holder arrived in... (Associated Press) On a visit to the St. Louis suburb that has endured more than a week of unrest, Holder sought to build confidence in the investigation into the death of the black 18-year-old who was shot by a white officer. The trip also underscored the priority to the Obama administration of civil rights in general and the Michael Brown case in particular. The attorney general said Wednesday that he understands why many black Americans do not trust police and that he has experienced many of the same frustrations. He described being stopped twice on the New Jersey Turnpike and accused of speeding. Police searched his car, looking through the trunk and under the seats. "I remember how humiliating that was and how angry I was and the impact it had on me," Holder said during a meeting with about 50 community leaders at the Florissant campus of St. Louis Community College. Once while living in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, Holder was running to catch a movie with his cousin when a squad car rolled up and flashed its lights at the pair. The officer yelled, "Where are you going? Hold it!" Holder recalled. His cousin "started mouthing off," and Holder urged him to be quiet. "We negotiate the whole thing, and we walk to our movie. At the time that he stopped me, I was a federal prosecutor. I wasn't a kid," he said. Holder also met with federal officials investigating Brown's Aug. 9 death and with Brown's parents. Before getting briefed at the local FBI headquarters, he said he hoped the visit would "have a calming influence" on the area. In addition, the attorney general met briefly with Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who has been in charge of security in Ferguson for nearly a week. The National Guard is also helping to keep the peace. Asked whether he had confidence in the local investigation of the police officer, Johnson said Holder's presence "is a guarantee on that." In nearby Clayton, a grand jury began hearing evidence to determine whether the officer, Darren Wilson, should be charged in Brown's death. A spokesman for St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch said there was no timeline for the process, but it could take weeks. Outside the St. Louis County Justice Center, where the grand jury convened, two dozen protesters gathered in a circle for a prayer, chanted and held signs urging McCulloch to step aside. McCulloch's deep family connections to police have been cited by some black leaders who question his ability to be impartial in the case. McCulloch's father, mother, brother, uncle and cousin all worked for the St. Louis Police Department, and his father was killed while responding to a call involving a black suspect. The prosecutor, who is white, has insisted his background will have no bearing on the handling of the Brown case, which has touched off days of protests that have sometimes turned violent at night, when authorities used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the streets. On Wednesday, police said an officer had been suspended for pointing a semi-automatic assault rifle at demonstrators, then cursing and threatening to kill one of them. A protester captured the exchange on video Tuesday and posted it to YouTube and other websites. Some protesters returned to the streets Wednesday evening but in diminished numbers. They marched around a single block as a thunderstorm filled the sky with lightning and dumped rain. Police still stood guard, but many wore regular uniforms rather than riot gear. Johnson said there were six arrests, compared to 47 the previous night, and called it "a very good night." Johnson also said the visit by Holder let people know their voices had been heard. The Justice Department has mounted an unusually swift and aggressive response to Brown's death, conducting an independent autopsy and sending dozens of FBI agents to Ferguson in search of witnesses to the shooting. Brown's funeral is set for Monday in St. Louis. His uncle, the Rev. Charles Ewing, will deliver the eulogy. The Rev. Al Sharpton will also speak. Brown will be buried at St. Peter's Cemetery in St. Louis County. Holder said the Obama administration has been working to achieve change through the Justice Department's civil rights division. "The same kid who got stopped on the New Jersey freeway is now the attorney general of the United States," he added. "This country is capable of change. But change doesn't happen by itself." ___ Associated Press writers Jim Salter in St. Louis, David A. Lieb in Jefferson City and Nigel Duara in Ferguson contributed to this report.

– In his visit to Ferguson, Mo., yesterday, Eric Holder told residents that he understands their frustration about police. "I am the attorney general of the United States," he said. "But I am also a black man,” Holder recounted being stopped by police on a Washington street while he and his cousin ran to catch a movie, reports Politico. "I was a federal prosecutor," he said. "I wasn't a kid." He also recalled being pulled over twice in New Jersey and accused of speeding as cops searched his car, reports Fox News. "I remember how humiliating that was and how angry I was," he told the crowd, and later in the day said, "We can make it better." While he praised the "good dialogue" going on about race relations, he added that "dialogue is not enough. We need concrete action to change things in this country." Holder also met with Michael Brown's parents for about 20 minutes and promised a "fair and independent" investigation. Meanwhile, Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson said last night was "a very good night" in Ferguson, with just six arrests, reports the AP.

Caught overnight at Las Vegas' McCarran Airport with practically no one else around, Richard Dunn could have taken a cab back to the strip and partied until his flight in the morning. Instead, he whipped out his iPhone and made this gloriously cheesy music video for Celine Dion's 1996 cover of "All By Myself." And he really did make it all by himself, with an ingenious repurposing of the airport's escalators and moving walkways. "I had a person behind a ticket counter give me a roll of luggage tape before she left. I then used a wheel chair that had a tall pole on the back of it and taped my iPhone to that. Then I would put it on the moving walkway for a dolly shot. I also used the extended handle on my computer bag and taped the iPhone to my handle. I would tuck different stuff under the bag to get the right angle. For the escalator shot I had to sprint up the steps after I got my shot so the computer bag didn't hit the top and fall back down. Quite fun!" That's all pretty clever, but it was recreating the Flashdance scene using a water bottle that really put the video over the top. Update: Now Celine Dion wants to hang out with him. [H/T Reddit] ||||| LAS VEGAS, June 10 (UPI) -- A man waiting overnight in Las Vegas' McCarran Airport recorded a cell phone video of himself lip-syncing Celine Dion's 1996 single "All By Myself" while he waited alone for his flight. Using just his smartphone, a wheelchair and water bottle, Richard Dunn spent the evening shooting himself lip-syncing the ballad around various locations of the nearly deserted airport with no help from other would-be passengers. "I had a person behind a ticket counter give me a roll of luggage tape before she left," Dunn said on his Vimeo page. "I then used a wheelchair that had a tall pole on the back of it and taped my iPhone to that. Then I would put it on the moving walkway for a dolly shot. I also used the extended handle on my computer bag and taped the iPhone to my handle. I would tuck different stuff under the bag to get the right angle. For the escalator shot I had to sprint up the steps after I got my shot so the computer bag didn't hit the top and fall back down." Not content with a single dated pop-culture reference, about four-and-a-half minutes into the video Dunn uses a water bottle to recreate the iconic waterfall silhouette shot from the 1983 film Flashdance. Uploaded earlier today, the video already has nearly 500,000 views.

– Richard Dunn recently found himself stuck, apparently all alone, overnight at Las Vegas' McCarran Airport—so, naturally, he created an incredible music video of himself lip-syncing to Celine Dion's cover of "All By Myself" in various locations around the terminal. It even includes a shot of Dunn re-creating the iconic waterfall scene from Flashdance using a chair and a water bottle, UPI notes. Dunn explains, per Gawker, that his tools were his iPhone, a wheelchair with a tall pole on the back, a roll of luggage tape, his own computer bag, and the airport's escalators and moving walkways. He taped the iPhone to the pole or the extended handle of his computer bag, sometimes tucking "different stuff under the bag to get the right angle," he says, and then placed it wherever he needed it to be, including the aforementioned escalators and walkways. "For the escalator shot I had to sprint up the steps after I got my shot so the computer bag didn't hit the top and fall back down," he says. "Quite fun!"

Harvey Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan is facing arrest after airport police found traces of narcotics in belongings she left behind at Washington Dulles International Airport after she arrived on a flight from Los Angeles earlier this year. McGowan has accused Weinstein of raping her in 1997, and claims that one of the disgraced producer’s close associates offered her $1 million to remain silent about the assault. “Are they trying to silence me?” McGowan tweeted earlier today about the warrant for her arrest. “What a load of horseshit.” “Her personal belongings that were left behind from a flight arriving on Jan. 20 tested positive for narcotics,” said Rob Yingling, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department. “Our police have attempted to contact Ms. McGowan so that she can appear in a Loudoun County Virginia court to respond to the charge.” The charge against her, he told Deadline, is a felony. Airport police, he said, “have been issued a bench warrant and entered it into a national law enforcement database.” “Refusing Weinstein’s hush money, Rose McGowan calls out Hollywood,” she later tweeted. And then, in response to recent allegations against Kevin Spacey – and other uncorroborated allegations against other prominent gay men in Hollywood – she tweeted: “Spacey Singer Spacey Singer Ancier Geffen good afternoon. How are you today?” “We are an army of thorns,” she added.

– Rose McGowan has been among the most vocal in speaking up about Harvey Weinstein. Now she's raising her voice about some trouble she's in with the law, and she's amplifying her outspokenness with a sprinkling of profanity. "Are they trying to silence me? There is a warrant out for my arrest in Virginia. What a load of HORSES---," she tweeted Monday, referencing what a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department spokesman tells Deadline is a felony charge against her. That charge apparently involves some of her personal items left behind at Dulles International Airport on Jan. 20 after she flew in from Los Angeles—items cops say contained traces of drugs. "Her personal belongings … tested positive for narcotics," says MWAA rep Rob Yingling. Yingling adds that airport cops have been given a bench warrant for McGowan and that it has been plugged into "a national law enforcement database." The AP notes the MWAA received the warrant on Feb. 1, and cops say they've been trying to touch base with McGowan since so they can get her to make an appearance in Loudon County, Va., to answer the charge. The Washington Post notes that while McGowan hasn't clarified who the "they" is in the alleged silencing attempt, others are piling onto the conspiracy, with one radio host calling it "shockingly transparent retaliation." When writer Ashlee Marie Preston suggested on Twitter that headlines about McGowan's arrest would never have emerged had McGowan taken the $1 million in hush money she alleges Weinstein offered her, the actress retweeted that comment with her own one-word response: "FACT."

Co-host Ainsley Earhardt stated that Trump’s policy is in place to “vet who’s coming across the border, in case it’s MS-13 or drugs.” Kilmeade went on, “Somebody has to deal with this issue. It doesn’t matter who the president is. If you don’t like his policy, he’s also open to your policy, rather than just criticizing his. He’s trying to send a message to the other countries, ‘this is not the way you do it,’ because this is a country that has rules and laws. We just can’t let everybody in that wants to be here.” On Wednesday, the president signed an executive order he claimed would end the immigration policy he initiated that separated thousands of children from their parents at the United States-Mexico border. However, the executive order also aims to increase the government’s ability to detain kids with their parents indefinitely. MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle ripped apart Kilmeade’s remarks on air, saying that she wanted to “point something out to our colleagues over at ‘Fox & Friends.’” ||||| 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 ||||| 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 ||||| On Friday’s Fox & Friends, Brian Kilmeade defended President Donald Trump‘s border policies at one point by more or less saying, Hey, at least he’s not taking American kids away from their parents. As Kilmeade spoke with his colleagues about the ongoing debate surrounding the immigration compromise bill being floated through Congress, he expressed support for Trump broadcasting a deterrent for Latin American migrants who wish to seek shelter in the United States. This tied in with a broader show of support for how Trump is enforcing the rule of law by taking border security seriously. “Somebody has to deal with this issue,” Kilmeade said. “We just can’t let everybody in that wants to be here.” Shortly after that, Kilmeade topped off his commentary with this statement: “Like it or not, these aren’t our kids. Show them compassion, but it’s not like he is doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country and now people are saying that they’re more important than people in our country who are paying taxes and who have needs as well.” UPDATE: Kilmeade has offered a clarification for his remarks. Watch above, via Fox News. [Image via screengrab] — — >> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| Black Customer Racially Profiled In High End Store | What Would You Do? | WWYD - Duration: 9:07. What Would You Do? 14,116,744 views ||||| 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

– The controversy over separating immigrant children from their parents continues, this time thanks to words from a Fox & Friends co-host. Per Mediaite, Brian Kilmeade took to the airwaves Friday morning, staunchly defending President Trump's moves on dealing with immigrants trying to enter the US. "He's trying to send a message to the other countries: This is not the way you do it, because this is a country that has rules and laws," he said to co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Steve Doocy. But it was his remarks on the separations specifically that raised the ire of many. "Like it or not, these aren't our kids," he noted. "Show 'em compassion, but it's not like [Trump] is doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country." Twitter erupted in slams, while, per HuffPost, MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle addressed any insinuation that those opposed to Trump's moves care more about migrant kids than US kids: "Please … your propaganda, that anyone is putting the life of a migrant child ahead of the life of an American child, is simply nonsense. It's ignorant. It's stupid. It's wrong." Kilmeade later clarified his comments on Twitter, tweeting, "Of course-I didn't mean to make it seem like children coming into the U.S. illegally are less important because they live in another country. I have compassion for all children, especially for all the kids separated from their parents right now." He also said he was pleased kids were "on their way" to being reunited with their parents and put up a clip from his Fox News Radio show, where he reiterated, "All kids are important. All kids are special."

(Reuters) - Diebold Nixdorf Inc and NCR Corp, two of the world’s largest ATM makers, have warned that cyber criminals are targeting U.S. cash machines with tools that force them to spit out cash in hacking schemes known as “jackpotting.” The two ATM makers did not identify any victims or say how much money had been lost. Jackpotting has been rising worldwide in recent years, though it is unclear how much cash has been stolen because victims and police often do not disclose details. The attacks were reported earlier on Saturday by the security news website Krebs on Security, which said they had begun last year in Mexico. The companies confirmed to Reuters on Saturday they had sent out the alerts to clients. NCR said in a Friday alert that the cases were the first confirmed “jackpotting” losses in the United States. It said its equipment had not been targeted in the recent attacks, but that it was still a concern for the entire ATM industry. “This should be treated by all ATM deployers as a call to action to take appropriate steps to protect their ATMs against these forms of attack,” the alert said. Diebold Nixdorf said in a separate Friday alert that U.S. authorities had warned the company that hackers were targeting one of its ATM models, known as Opteva, which went out of production several years ago. A confidential U.S. Secret Service alert sent to banks said the hackers targeted stand-alone ATMs typically located in pharmacies, big box retailers and drive-thru ATMs, Krebs on Security reported. FILE PHOTO: A man types on a computer keyboard in front of the displayed cyber code in this illustration picture taken on March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo Diebold Nixdorf’s alert described steps that criminals had used to compromise ATMs. They include gaining physical access, replacing the hard drive and using an industrial endoscope to depress an internal button required to reset the device. Reuters was unable to obtain a copy of the Secret Service report and an agency representative declined comment. Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation could not immediately be reached. Russian cyber security firm Group IB has reported that cyber criminals remotely attacked cash machines in more than a dozen countries across Europe in 2016. Similar attacks were also reported that year in Thailand and Taiwan. ||||| ATM “jackpotting” — a sophisticated crime in which thieves install malicious software and/or hardware at ATMs that forces the machines to spit out huge volumes of cash on demand — has long been a threat for banks in Europe and Asia, yet these attacks somehow have eluded U.S. ATM operators. But all that changed this week after the U.S. Secret Service quietly began warning financial institutions that jackpotting attacks have now been spotted targeting cash machines here in the United States. To carry out a jackpotting attack, thieves first must gain physical access to the cash machine. From there they can use malware or specialized electronics — often a combination of both — to control the operations of the ATM. On Jan. 21, 2018, KrebsOnSecurity began hearing rumblings about jackpotting attacks, also known as “logical attacks,” hitting U.S. ATM operators. I quickly reached out to ATM giant NCR Corp. to see if they’d heard anything. NCR said at the time it had received unconfirmed reports, but nothing solid yet. On Jan. 26, NCR sent an advisory to its customers saying it had received reports from the Secret Service and other sources about jackpotting attacks against ATMs in the United States. “While at present these appear focused on non-NCR ATMs, logical attacks are an industry-wide issue,” the NCR alert reads. “This represents the first confirmed cases of losses due to logical attacks in the US. This should be treated as a call to action to take appropriate steps to protect their ATMs against these forms of attack and mitigate any consequences.” The NCR memo does not mention the type of jackpotting malware used against U.S. ATMs. But a source close to the matter said the Secret Service is warning that organized criminal gangs have been attacking stand-alone ATMs in the United States using “Ploutus.D,” an advanced strain of jackpotting malware first spotted in 2013. According to that source — who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak on the record — the Secret Service has received credible information that crooks are activating so-called “cash out crews” to attack front-loading ATMs manufactured by ATM vendor Diebold Nixdorf. The source said the Secret Service is warning that thieves appear to be targeting Opteva 500 and 700 series Dielbold ATMs using the Ploutus.D malware in a series of coordinated attacks over the past 10 days, and that there is evidence that further attacks are being planned across the country. “The targeted stand-alone ATMs are routinely located in pharmacies, big box retailers, and drive-thru ATMs,” reads a confidential Secret Service alert sent to multiple financial institutions and obtained by KrebsOnSecurity. “During previous attacks, fraudsters dressed as ATM technicians and attached a laptop computer with a mirror image of the ATMs operating system along with a mobile device to the targeted ATM.” Reached for comment, Diebold shared an alert it sent to customers Friday warning of potential jackpotting attacks in the United States. Diebold’s alert confirms the attacks so far appear to be targeting front-loaded Opteva cash machines. “As in Mexico last year, the attack mode involves a series of different steps to overcome security mechanism and the authorization process for setting the communication with the [cash] dispenser,” the Diebold security alert reads. A copy of the entire Diebold alert, complete with advice on how to mitigate these attacks, is available here (PDF). The Secret Service alert explains that the attackers typically use an endoscope — a slender, flexible instrument traditionally used in medicine to give physicians a look inside the human body — to locate the internal portion of the cash machine where they can attach a cord that allows them to sync their laptop with the ATM’s computer. “Once this is complete, the ATM is controlled by the fraudsters and the ATM will appear Out of Service to potential customers,” reads the confidential Secret Service alert. At this point, the crook(s) installing the malware will contact co-conspirators who can remotely control the ATMs and force the machines to dispense cash. “In previous Ploutus.D attacks, the ATM continuously dispensed at a rate of 40 bills every 23 seconds,” the alert continues. Once the dispense cycle starts, the only way to stop it is to press cancel on the keypad. Otherwise, the machine is completely emptied of cash, according to the alert. An 2017 analysis of Ploutus.D by security firm FireEye called it “one of the most advanced ATM malware families we’ve seen in the last few years.” “Discovered for the first time in Mexico back in 2013, Ploutus enabled criminals to empty ATMs using either an external keyboard attached to the machine or via SMS message, a technique that had never been seen before,” FireEye’s Daniel Regalado wrote. According to FireEye, the Ploutus attacks seen so far require thieves to somehow gain physical access to an ATM — either by picking its locks, using a stolen master key or otherwise removing or destroying part of the machine. Regalado says the crime gangs typically responsible for these attacks deploy “money mules” to conduct the attacks and siphon cash from ATMs. The term refers to low-level operators within a criminal organization who are assigned high-risk jobs, such as installing ATM skimmers and otherwise physically tampering with cash machines. “From there, the attackers can attach a physical keyboard to connect to the machine, and [use] an activation code provided by the boss in charge of the operation in order to dispense money from the ATM,” he wrote. “Once deployed to an ATM, Ploutus makes it possible for criminals to obtain thousands of dollars in minutes. While there are some risks of the money mule being caught by cameras, the speed in which the operation is carried out minimizes the mule’s risk.” Indeed, the Secret Service memo shared by my source says the cash out crew/money mules typically take the dispensed cash and place it in a large bag. After the cash is taken from the ATM and the mule leaves, the phony technician(s) return to the site and remove their equipment from the compromised ATM. “The last thing the fraudsters do before leaving the site is to plug the Ethernet cable back in,” the alert notes. FireEye said all of the samples of Ploutus.D it examined targeted Diebold ATMs, but it warned that small changes to the malware’s code could enable it to be used against 40 different ATM vendors in 80 countries. The Secret Service alert says ATMs still running on Windows XP are particularly vulnerable, and it urged ATM operators to update to a version of Windows 7 to defeat this specific type of attack. This is a quickly developing story and may be updated multiple times over the next few days as more information becomes available. Tags: atm jackpotting, atm logical attacks, Daniel Regalado, Diebold Nixdorf, Diebold Opteva, endoscope, FireEye, NCR Corp, Ploutus.D, U.S. Secret Service, Windows 7, Windows XP

– With just the press of a button, "cash out crews" have been attacking ATMs around the world, and now apparently in the US. Reuters reports that two big ATM makers, Diebold Nixdorf and NCR Corp., have issued warnings about the so-called "jackpotting" scheme, which has made its way to US machines—usually stand-alone units in pharmacies, drive-thrus, or big-box stores, per a US Secret Service alert cited by Krebs on Security—for the very first time. "This is the first instance of jackpotting in the United States," site owner and security guru Brian Krebs tells the Washington Post. "It's safe to assume that these are here to stay at this point." And it's become an increasingly sophisticated money-grabbing maneuver, as he explains on his site. Per the Secret Service alert, an on-the-street crew decked out to look like ATM technicians uses an endoscope like you'd see at the doctor's office to access an ATM's innards and connect the ATM's computer with their own laptop. The ATM will then seem to be out of service when other potential customers show up to use it, and "co-conspirators" can then send an SMS or use an external keyboard to command the ATM to start spitting out cash "like slot machines" to a "money mule" lying in wait, per the Post. In past hacks, also known as "logical attacks," the ATMs would churn out the bills "at a rate of 40 bills every 23 seconds," per the Secret Service alert, cleaning out the ATM unless the "Cancel" button was pressed. The mule then leaves and the "technicians" come back to disconnect their equipment. "This should be treated by all ATM deployers as a call to action," NCR warns.

The seed for this crawl was a list of every host in the Wayback Machine This crawl was run at a level 1 (URLs including their embeds, plus the URLs of all outbound links including their embeds) The WARC files associated with this crawl are not currently available to the general public. ||||| Katie Holmes Going Back to Work on Film About Single Mom From art-museum outings with 6-year-old daughter Suri to a guest appearance on Project Runway – and a little ice cream in between Katie Holmes has maintained a busy schedule since filing for divorce from Tom Cruise last week.And she's not slowing down as she shifts her career into a higher gear.Next week, Holmes, 33, is due to begin production on a new film, Molly, which she co-wrote and is co-producing. In a case of life imitating art, the plot follows the life of a single mother and her daughter, according to a source. (Holmes is seeking sole legal custody of Suri.)Filming is scheduled to last until about August in New York City, where Holmes recently moved into a new three-bedroom apartment with Suri.The actress, who wrapped a modern film retelling of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in May, is then due on set in the fall to shoot Responsible Adults, a romantic comedy about a guy ( Chace Crawford ) who discovers that his crush was his babysitter 15 years earlier.She's also planning her first-ever show at New York's Fashion Week in the fall for her clothing line, Holmes & Yang.Amid her jam-packed schedule, Holmes and Cruise's lawyers are currently working on a divorce settlement between the two stars."Neither of them wants this to be hashed out in public," a source told PEOPLE ||||| Long before he embraced Scientology, Cruise studied for the priesthood. Michael Daly talks to the priests who instructed the future star about his surprising religious leap. Before Tom Cruise was a Scientologist, he was as devout a Roman Catholic as was his now estranged wife, Katie Holmes. And just in time for Cruise’s 50th birthday and just as his third marriage was unraveling, the priest who recruited him for the seminary more than three decades ago mailed him a photo. “I found an address online in Los Angeles,” says Father Ric Schneider of the Order of Friars Minor. “Probably an agent, I guess.” Father Ric took the photo of Cruise at the age of 14, when the man who is now the most famous of Scientologists was still among the best of Catholics and known by his family name, Mapother. Not that Father Ric was sending Cruise a message. The priest just thought the star might enjoy this captured memory of him in earth shoes and an unbuttoned shirt, standing beside another boy by a pond. A smiling Cruise is holding a radio-controlled boat the boys built in the hobby shop at St. Francis Seminary just outside Cincinnati in Mt. Healthy, Ohio. “A cute little kid,” Father Ric says. Cruise, like most of his classmates at St. Francis, attended the seminary more for the education than out of any serious thought of becoming a priest. But they had all shared the devout routine of those headed for ordination. “You went to daily Mass, you went to morning prayer, you went to evening prayer, you prayed before meals, you prayed after meals,” Cruise’s classmate Don Weller recalls. “He was well indoctrinated ... For him to totally shut himself off was just amazing.” Cruise went to the seminary after hearing Father Ric give a talk at St. Raphael the Archangel school in Louisville, Ky. Cruise’s mother had moved there with her son and three daughters after leaving his father. The departure had been preplanned, with the mother instructing her children to have their bags packed and hidden but ready. The father is said to have followed his family to Louisville and sought a reconciliation that was not forthcoming. The couple divorced shortly after Cruise’s 13th birthday. Courtesy of Father Ric Schneider The next step for Cruise was to have been his father’s alma mater, St. Xavier High School, in Louisville. He saw an alternative when Father Ric ended his talk at St. Raphael’s by asking if anybody was interested in attending the seminary. Cruise—then still Mapother—expressed interest. Father Ric visited the boy’s home and spoke to the mother. “Nice home, nothing fancy,” the priest recalls. The priest administered the usual IQ test to determine if a candidate was likely capable of college-prep-level studies. “He just made it,” Father Ric says. As with all recruits, Father Ric drove Cruise up to the seminary on a Friday to get a firsthand look. Cruise attended class on Saturday and stayed there through Sunday, when Father Ric drove him back home. Cruise liked it well enough that he decided he wanted to enroll. He did not strike Father Ric as somebody likely to become a priest. “It was pretty obvious,” Father Ric says. “I think he went there to get an education. I didn’t get a sense he was serious about the priesthood or the religious life.” The priest adds, “He might just have wanted to get away from it all.” In the fall of 1976, Cruise joined 67 other freshmen at the seminary. The Superior, the friar in charge, was Father John Boehman. He remembers Cruise as “basically a good kid” who was always smiling, but also “one of the ones more likely to get into trouble.” “If he could trip somebody or do something like that, it would be right down his alley,” Father John says. Cruise hardly seemed the stuff of a future movie star, with modest stature and in sore need of an orthodontist. One of his snaggled front teeth was chipped. “His teeth were different than they are today,” Father John notes. Cruise was not among the top students in academics. The instructor who appeared to make the biggest impression on him was Father Aubert Grieser, former chaplain to the New Mexico School for the Deaf and a passionate musician who prized three small stones he took from Beethoven’s grave and whose own compositions included a four-movement Mass, “Wa Ma Wa Ta,” that blended Gregorian chants with pop sounds. Father Aubert, the speech and drama teacher, would get students up on the stage and push them to overcome whatever was inhibiting them from letting go. “I think he did more for Tom Cruise than maybe anybody else did at that time to help him,” Father Hilarion Kistner says of Father Aubert. “He could just bring somebody out of themselves, get over their inhibitions and act and sing.” At St. Francis, Cruise played soccer and basketball for the Saints, where his teammate Weller remembers the future star could sometimes be “a little bit of a jerk. He was overcompensating for his height and his musculature. The upperclassmen kept him in his place.” Paul White / AP Cruise shared with the others the bonds of working, playing, eating, and praying together, as well as sharing a dormitory and living under a code that was strict, though not harsh. But he did not seem to form any deep friendships. “I don’t think he was particularly close to really anybody,” Weller says. “Basically more of a loner, I guess.” But even then, Cruise showed the cockiness that would animate many of his starring roles. “That’s what he was as a freshman in high school,” Weller says. “He had that kind of persona. But he wasn’t big enough to make it stick, and he kind of became a little bit of a whipping boy.” Weller goes on to say, “He was always trying to prove something.” Cruise did not return after his freshman year, enrolling instead at St. Xavier’s in Louisville. The friars and his seminary classmates were not surprised, as whatever calling he had seemed decidedly secular. The only reason for leaving he has ever voiced was, “I started to realize I love women too much to give all that up.” Weller stayed and in a sign of changing times his was the last class to graduate before the seminary closed. Weller says that the boy they knew as Mapother left his former classmates with no sense of where life might take him. They were astonished when he began to appear on screen, with a new name and new teeth but that same cockiness, now big enough via the magic of film to make it stick. “We were stunned: ‘Oh my God, that’s Mapother!’?” Weller recalls. “None of us had any idea that’s what he’d grow up to be.” When the speech and drama teacher Father Aubert saw Risky Business, he suggested to a TV interviewer that Cruise had lost a little too much inhibition. “Tommy was such a fine young man,” Father Frank Jasper recalls Father Aubert saying. “And now it’s disgusting. He’s making these dirty movies and jumping all over the furniture in his underwear. It’s totally disgusting!” The classmates might have understood if such attitudes had combined with general changes in society to nudge Cruise into lapsing from his faith. Total rejection was something else. “With only 68 people in the whole class, you got to know everybody pretty well,” Weller says. “To see him go over to Scientology was really kind of a shocker.” Just before the Cruise-Holmes break-up, Weller attended a St. Francis Seminary reunion, the shuttered institution being among those that have escaped any public manifestations of the sex-abuse scandals that have rocked the church. Father Ric put on a slide show during a pizza party. The long-ago photo of the two boys holding the radio-controlled boat flashed on the screen. “Somebody said, ‘Oh, there’s Tom!’” Father Ric recalls. Afterward, he decided to mail a copy to Cruise. And, by the kind of fortuitous chance for which Franciscans have a knack, it should have arrived just as the star was arriving at a bleak 50th birthday. His wife had slipped away from him with their daughter just as his mother had slipped away from his father with him. Holmes fled after taking full measure of what it might mean for a child to be raised in Scientology rather than in the faith that she and the seminarian turned star shared before they met. Her escape was managed by her father, who, along with the rest of her family, remains a prominent fixture at Christ the King parish in her native Toledo, Ohio. ||||| 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. ||||| Katie Holmes Suri in Aisle 5 While some women hit the clubs after filing for divorce,continued to enjoy the single life by going food shopping at Whole Foods in NYC for the second time this weekend ... this time bringingalong for the ride.She really enjoys tasting her freedom. ||||| Posing in his G-string and with a temper like fury... Tommy Cruise before I won him fame Different man: Eileen Berlin, Tom Cruise's manager from 1980-1983 reveals how the star has turned his life around She became his surrogate mother and mentor when he was on the cusp of fame. And, as one of the few outsiders to whom Tom Cruise has ever been close, his former personal manager, Eileen Berlin, says that she knew from the start that his relationship with Katie Holmes was doomed. Breaking her silence for the first time since she signed the actor as her client soon after his 18th birthday, Mrs Berlin said last week that she blamed his pent-up anger created by an abusive childhood for his three broken marriages. As a child, the star, born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, suffered from dyslexia, was bullied by his peers, and beaten and then abandoned by his father. At 15, he entered a seminary, intending to become a priest. Mrs Berlin, now 77, ran a New York film and theatrical management agency with her late husband and met Cruise some three years later, after he dropped his surname and made acting his calling instead. ‘His mom had asked him to leave her house, I think because he had had a teenage drinking problem,’ Mrs Berlin said. ‘She had remarried and he harboured a lot of anger and resentment at his natural father, who had deserted him and his three sisters. ‘Every time I saw him, he would be with a girl, but I never saw him with the same girl twice. It was almost like he had to prove he was wanted – or maybe he wanted to feel loved. ‘I wasn’t surprised Katie broke up with him. I was just surprised it lasted as long as it did. I was surprised when he married his first wife, Mimi Rogers, and I was surprised it lasted ten years a second time, with Nicole Kidman. ‘Tom was moody and would get angry in a snap of your fingers. It was like something was smouldering and it would boil up and explode.’ Carrying a guitar and a duffle bag stuffed with a few possessions, Cruise moved into the manager’s Manhattan apartment for three months after he signed up with her company. In 1981, he signed the contract for his breakthrough action film, Taps. Mrs Berlin arranged for him to pose for publicity portraits. In one of them, dressed in tight jeans and a tank top, he strikes a belligerent pose and flexes his muscles but in others, he smiles with innocent charm. Close: Proof sheets of a photo shoot of Tom Cruise taken in 1981 when Eileen Berlin was his manager; on top is birthday note he wrote to Eileen ‘By the time I met him, he had decided he could be a star,’ she said. ‘He wanted to be treated like a star and he acted like a star. He would walk around my house in a little G-string strap and nothing else. I had a mirrored wall and he would stand in front of it, flexing his biceps and admiring himself. ‘I was a bit embarrassed but he liked to show off his body. He had a great pride in it.’ Cheeky: Some posed shots Tom Cruise sent of himself to former manager Eileen Berlin Though he could be moody, the young lodger also had a charming side. Mrs Berlin said: ‘He was sweet, respectful and mannerly to a fault. He always addressed me as “ma’am” and my husband as “sir”. But he was so private, he couldn’t show his true feelings. You would get so far and he would close down. I am sure his wives would have come up against that barrier.’ ‘He would channel his rage into his roles,’ Mrs Berlin said. ‘For Taps, he locked himself in the closet. He said he thought about someone raping his sister before he filmed a scene where he blasted a machine gun. Once, my husband and I took him out for lunch while they were on location and a waitress said, “Are you one of the actors?’’ Tom said to us, “Please tell her not to ask me any questions. I’m still in character.” ’ Another time, a row broke out when Mrs Berlin gave him a surprise birthday present – an album in which she had pasted photos of him from fan magazines. Mrs Berlin said: ‘He screamed, “I didn’t want to be in the teen mags.” He threw the album hard at me and it hit me on the cheek.’ THEIR professional relationship ended in 1983 but they stayed in touch and during a subsequent dinner, he mentioned the Church of Scientology, crediting it with helping him overcome his childhood learning disorder. Mrs Berlin says she started to receive invitations to church events. ‘I think Tom was the perfect candidate for Scientology,’ she said. ‘He didn’t believe in therapy but he obviously needed help. He just couldn’t have a relationship and I think that was because you have to open yourself up and he’d been too hurt by his father to do that.

– Apparently we've reached the point in the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce where people start coming out of the woodwork with bizarre dirt from the past. In today's edition, a former manager and mentor says Cruise used to strut around the house they shared wearing nothing but a G-string, proud as he was of his muscular body. "I had a mirrored wall and he would stand in front of it, flexing his biceps and admiring himself," she tells the Mail. Another weird revelation: Cruise was a devout Catholic before he became a Scientologist, and as a teen he had a vague interest in becoming a priest, Father Ric Schneider tells the Daily Beast. As for Katie Holmes, she's not letting this divorce get in the way of her career—and her upcoming project seems quite telling. She'll start production on Molly next week, a film she co-wrote and is co-producing about a single mother and her daughter, People reports. As for Holmes' actual daughter, it seems Suri could be a sticking point when it comes to the settlement talks Tom and Katie are starting. Cruise won't make a deal unless it includes "meaningful, significant contact with his daughter," sources tell TMZ. For more, click to see pictures of Katie Holmes in Whole Foods or … Katie Holmes in Whole Foods yet again.

"I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats have to change their law." Evan Vucci / AP President Donald Trump said Friday morning that his administration was separating immigrant children from their parents at the border because it's "the law" and a law created by Democrats — which is not true. "I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats have to change their law. That's their law," Trump said during an impromptu press conference outside the White House on Friday morning. Fox News There is no law that determines children must be taken away from their parents when they cross the border. Crossing the border illegally is a federal misdemeanor, and recrossing illegally is a felony, but there is no law mandating the separation of families that cross the border illegally. Instead, the increase in family separation, which has seen hundreds of immigrant children detained and kept apart from their parents, comes from a zero-tolerance policy introduced by the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump instead blamed Democrats. "The children can be taken care of quickly, beautifully, and immediately. The Democrats forced that law upon our nation. I hate it. I hate to see separation of parents and children," Trump inaccurately said. Previously, the policy of the Homeland Security Department was that children would be removed from parents if the parents were referred for criminal prosecution. The new zero-tolerance policy means everyone crossing the border illegally is being prosecuted. But with Trump hoping that Democrats will agree to an immigration bill that would include funding to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, he continued to blame Democrats publicly. "That is a Democrat bill. That is Democrats wanting to do this," said Trump. On Thursday, other Trump administration officials also repeatedly declared the administration policy "the law," including Sessions and White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a heated argument with reporters. The president crossed the White House lawn on Friday morning for a surprise TV appearance on Fox and Friends. Donald Trump walking down the White House lawn so he can make a surprise live appearance on his favorite TV show is just completely bonkers https://t.co/3VzN44TlKQ ||||| (CNN) President Donald Trump blamed Democrats for the separation of families at the US border Friday, a response he's repeatedly made to criticism his administration has faced since it adopted a policy that results in far more children being separated from their parents. "The Democrats forced that law upon our nation," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I hate it. I hate to see separation of parents and children. The Democrats can come to us as they actually are in all fairness, we are talking to them, and they can change the whole border security. We need a wall. We need border security. We've got to get rid of catch and release." The President's comments are significant given how his administration is operating and what Congress is trying to do to address a variety of immigration and border security issues. Just 24 hours ago, House Republicans unveiled legislation aimed at both addressing Trump's priorities on immigration as well as possibly make changes to protocol to address family separation (more on that below). To add some clarity here given this morning's (and the last few weeks) comments, here's where things stand: On the 'compromise' GOP legislation, and the 'fix' on separation Yes, a compromise bill worked out by House GOP leaders, moderates and conservatives addresses the issue of separating parents from their children, through overturning a settlement that stipulates children cannot be detained more than three weeks so that families are kept together but doing so would allow entire families to be detained indefinitely. House Speaker Paul Ryan cited that settlement on Thursday as the reason this was happening in the first place. But -- and this is a key: the bill does nothing to prohibit the criminal prosecution of parents who cross the border illegally, i.e. the current Trump Administration policy that is driving the separation (children can't be brought into the criminal justice system). In other words: It does nothing to stop the current policy. It just requires the government to keep them together when in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security. So here's the bottom line: the bill touches on the issue, but it's hardly a fix. As one Democratic staffer told CNN: "The answer to separating families is not to put them behind bars." Where are Democrats on the separation policy and new legislation? Democrats want the administration to reverse the policy. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday she sees "no prospects" for a legislative fix. Democrats aren't even talking to Republicans about a legislative fix -- neither in the broader immigration bills to be considered next week or in a more targeted manner. They are going to the border to highlight the issue. They have marched to highlight the issue. This is a very motivating issue for them. But they see the mechanism for addressing it sitting purely with the executive branch. Is this the fault of Democrats, as Trump has continued to claim falsely for weeks? No. This was a deliberate policy shift by the Trump administration. They have the power to unilaterally reverse it. It's legal, no question, but it's purely the administration's decision. The more nuanced point from the administration is that this is something that can and should be addressed by broader immigration legislative efforts, and that Democrats are blocking those efforts. It's correct that Democrats aren't in the room on the current House effort. But this is far more a Republican issue than Democrat one. Here's why: 1. The President's immigration bill got all of 39 votes in the Senate (the bipartisan effort also fell short of the 60 votes needed to move forward, but received more support.) 2. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has explicitly said the Senate won't take up any immigration legislation again unless the House passes it and the President is explicit he will sign it (more on that below). 3. The House Republican effort has been a purely partisan one -- Democrats aren't in negotiations, being consulted, or expected to provide any "yes" votes given the conservative turn even the compromise bill has taken 4. Even the GOP-only effort in the House, which is scheduled to be considered next week, is a long way away from having enough to pass at this point. 5. The President, in Friday's Fox News interview, said he's opposed to the GOP moderate-negotiated House bill. This is a kill shot to the entire House exercise, whether they manage the scrounge together the votes or not. Bottom line: The Trump administration implemented the current separation policy. While it's designed, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions describes it, to have a deterrent effect, it's also a negotiating play to try and force Democrats to the table on immigration legislation the President favors. But Democrats aren't in the room on those legislative efforts and the President just nuked the lone House GOP effort that had a shot at passage. And the Senate wants no part of this. So its prospects -- and any effort in the near future to prevent families from being separated at the border -- aren't looking good. ||||| “We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law. It’s a horrible thing where you have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law and they don’t want to do anything about it.” — President Trump, in a round table on sanctuary cities in California, May 16, 2018 “Yet this administration is separating kids from their parents and unable to account for 1,500 lost children! Shame.” — Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), on Twitter, May 27, 2018 Trump blames Democrats for a law that separates undocumented immigrant children from their families. Some Democrats blame Trump’s administration for losing track of nearly 1,500 immigrant kids. None of this is accurate. We’ve fact-checked many claims about the border, and it’s clear that the latest spin from both sides deserves a turn under the microscope. However, since this is a roundup of multiple claims, we won’t be giving Pinocchio ratings. Let’s dig in. The Facts These claims mostly revolve around “catch and release,” the practice by U.S. authorities of releasing children and asylum seekers into the community while they await immigration hearings. Many fail to show up for their hearings and remain in the country without legal authorization. The Trump administration says these legal “loopholes” abet the trafficking of children while allowing smugglers and bad actors to profit. Immigration and civil rights groups say that it’s misleading to portray the asylum process as a loophole and that, in recent years, thousands of people legitimately have sought refuge in the United States from the violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. ‘We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law.’ Trump says his administration’s policy of separating children from their families can be traced back to a Democratic immigration law. But as we’ve reported, catch and release is not a single law so much as a collection of policies and court rulings spanning Democratic and Republican administrations. We gave the president Three Pinocchios in April when he tweeted that catch and release was a “liberal” and “Democrat” law. In a briefing with reporters on May 29, Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser to Trump, explained the president’s rationale for pinning these policies on Democrats. The gist of it is that these laws may or may not be Democratic creations, but Democrats own them because they don’t support Trump’s more-restrictive immigration agenda. Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018 “It’s a pretty straightforward issue,” Miller said. “Near-unanimous Republican agreement about the need to change law and policy in order to close those loopholes, and the Democrats are opposing them.” It’s quite a stretch to say there’s “near-unanimous Republican agreement” on this agenda or unified opposition by Democrats. The Secure and Succeed Act, sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), failed 39 to 60 in the Senate in February. The White House backed this proposal, which got 36 of 51 GOP votes and three Democratic votes, far short of passage. Three other immigration proposals, backed by broader mixes of Republicans and Democrats, each got more than 50 votes — enough to pass if there had not been a procedural vote requiring 60 votes. Miller mentioned the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, a law signed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. The TVPRA is meant to give safe harbor to victims of human trafficking and says unaccompanied children “are exempt from prompt return to their home country,” unless they come from Canada or Mexico, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Children fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are covered by this law. Miller also mentioned the “Flores settlement” from 1997. This legal agreement struck by President Bill Clinton’s administration requires the federal government to release rather than detain undocumented immigrant children, first to their parents if possible, to other adult relatives if not, and to licensed programs willing to accept custody if no relatives are available. As a last resort, U.S. officials may place children in the “least restrictive” setting available. A federal judge in California ruled in 2015 that the Flores settlement covered all children in immigration officials’ custody, regardless of whether they were apprehended at the border alone or with family members. The judge’s ruling also covered any accompanying parents. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed the latter part of the ruling and said the Flores settlement required only that children, not parents, be released. Therefore, the government is required to keep immigrant children and their parents together only for a limited time. But none of these legal developments requires the Trump administration to separate children from their families. Instead, separations are rising in large part because of a “zero tolerance” policy implemented by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In April, Sessions directed prosecutors to charge as many illegal entry offenses as possible. Devin O’Malley, a Justice Department spokesman, said in the May 29 briefing that people charged with these offenses often are sentenced to time served and transferred to the Department of Homeland Security for deportation. So, on one hand, the Flores settlement and the TVPRA require that children be released. On the other, Sessions’s zero-tolerance policy subjects any accompanying parents to criminal prosecution and eventual deportation. Laying this on Democrats does not track with reality. The TVPRA was signed by Bush, and the Flores settlement is a court-approved agreement, not a law. Nothing required the Trump administration to separate children from their families until Sessions’s zero-tolerance policy made it a practical necessity. Miller also mentioned a Supreme Court ruling from 2001, Zadvydas v. Davis. The court ruled that immigrants who were under deportation orders — but whom no other country would accept — generally could not be detained by U.S. officials for more than six months. Congress cannot pass a law that overturns this court ruling. It would require a constitutional amendment or a new Supreme Court ruling overturning Zadvydas. Republican senators introduced legislation to narrow the scope of the ruling in 2014, allowing the Department of Homeland Security to retain custody of some individuals past the six-month deadline in special circumstances, including when the individual was deemed a threat to national security or had a highly contagious disease. Parts of this bill were folded into the Secure and Succeed Act. The president asked Congress to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “to retain custody of illegal aliens whose home countries will not accept their repatriation,” so long as it is “consistent with the Constitution,” according to a statement of principles and policies he sent to Congress in October 2017. “The administration has repeatedly advocated for the closure to federal immigration loopholes that would allow for the swift, safe, and expeditious return of illegal alien minors, adults, and families at the southern border,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said. “However, the Democratic Party has repeatedly opposed these loophole closures in favor of preserving ‘catch-and-release’ policies that make a mockery of national sovereignty.” A White House official said that “from October 2017 to this February, DHS saw a staggering 315 percent increase in illegal aliens using children to pose as family units to gain entry into the country, compared to the same time frame the previous year.” The official also pointed to a column in the National Review by Rich Lowry. “Separation happens only if officials find that the adult is falsely claiming to be the child’s parent, or is a threat to the child, or is put into criminal proceedings,” Lowry wrote. “It’s the last that is operative here. The past practice had been to give a free pass to an adult who is part of a family unit. The new Trump policy is to prosecute all adults.” ‘This administration is separating kids from their parents and unable to account for 1,500 lost children!’ This startling claim has spread like wildfire online; Kaine is not alone in tweeting it. Did the government suddenly lose track of 1,500 children? In a word, no. The Department of Health and Human Services resettled 7,635 children in the United States from October 2017 through December 2017, most of whom were fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. As I worshipped in Hampton Roads this morning, I couldn’t help but consider how Scripture commands compassionate treatment of migrants and refugees. Yet this administration is separating kids from their parents and unable to account for 1,500 lost children! Shame. https://t.co/oSyMYcS3y3 — Tim Kaine (@timkaine) May 27, 2018 As we noted, the Flores settlement requires that these children be placed with parents if they’re available, with other relatives if not, then in licensed programs or “least restrictive” settings if all else fails. The HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement will place these children even with family members who themselves may be undocumented. “We’re not able to deny placement just because parents or family members are in the country illegally,” Steven Wagner, the acting assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families at HHS, told reporters in the May 29 briefing. All 7,635 children were resettled by HHS. After 30 days, the department called the parents or guardians to check up on things. But these calls were not required by law, and in 1,475 cases, the parents or guardians did not respond, perhaps because they feared being targeted for deportation, Wagner said. Wagner testified in April to a Senate subcommittee that, of the 7,635 children, 6,075 remained where they were placed, 52 had moved, 28 had run away and five were deported. That left 1,475 migrant children. Just because their parents or guardians did not return HHS’s phone calls after 30 days does not mean the children are missing, he said. “We are not in custody of the children at that point,” Wagner said. “If you call a friend and they don’t answer the phone, you don’t assume that they’ve been kidnapped.” Kaine’s tweet suggests the 1,500 children were separated from their families and then lost. That’s not what happened, since all 7,635 children were unaccompanied minors when they crossed the border and were resettled. “Senator Kaine has serious concerns about the Trump administration’s policies that threaten to put kids in harm’s way, including the separation of parents and children at the border, the widely reported failure to account for nearly 1,500 children who came to the U.S. as unaccompanied minors, and the lack of protections for kids in the U.S. whose parents are arrested or detained by immigration authorities,” a Kaine representative said, adding later, “He was clearly listing facts about two separate Trump administration policies in his tweet, not conflating the two.” It’s not the first time the government lost track of children in these situations. According to Wagner, in the past fiscal year, covering the tail end of Obama’s term and most of Trump’s first year, 14 percent of HHS calls were not returned. (About our rating scale) Send us facts to check by filling out this form Keep tabs on Trump’s promises with our Trump Promise Tracker Sign up for The Fact Checker weekly newsletter Share the Facts 2018-05-30 12:06:22 UTC Washington Post -1 -1 -1 Washington Post Rating: False Washington Post Rating: “We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law. It’s a horrible thing where you have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law and they don’t want to do anything about it.” Donald Trump President https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-roundtable-sanctuary-california-may-16-2018 in a round table in California Wednesday, May 16, 2018 2018-05-16 Read More info ||||| The “compromise” immigration bill released Thursday night by Republicans in the House of Representatives is set to come to the House floor next week, alongside a more conservative alternative. It’s a sweeping plan that covers everything from border security (including a promise of $25 billion for Trump’s border wall); to a way for immigrants who are facing the loss of their protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to apply for legal status and ultimately (possibly) green cards and citizenship; to cuts to legal family-based immigration that are partially offset by expanding permanent employer-based immigration. But House Speaker Paul Ryan and others are emphasizing a different aspect of the bill. They claim it would prevent the Trump administration from separating children from their parents at the US-Mexico border — a practice the administration made widespread in early May and that has resulted in the separation of hundreds of families a week. They’re lying. The Republican bill doesn’t outlaw family separation. It doesn’t stop the Trump administration from choosing to prosecute asylum seekers who enter the US between ports of entry (official border crossings) for illegal entry, which results in parents being sent into criminal custody without their children. And it doesn’t even force the government not to separate parents who do present themselves legally for asylum from their children — something that has also been happening, though isn’t as widespread. What the House bill does is get rid of the extra legal protections that children and families have in immigration detention: a requirement that children be kept in the “least restrictive” conditions possible, and that they not be detained any longer than necessary. This means that if the family is kept together, their parents must be released with them. The Trump administration calls those protections “loopholes,” and blames them for “forcing” the administration to keep asylum-seekers in custody by separating families. If the House bill passed, the Trump administration probably would stop separating families. Instead, it would be able to keep children and parents in ICE detention until their cases were resolved — that is, they could be in held in detention indefinitely. The House bill allows kids and families to be detained by ICE indefinitely — which is what Trump has wanted all along The Republican summary of the new bill (as reported by Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC) claims that it ends family separation: “Accompanied alien minors apprehended at the border must not be separated from their parent or legal guardian while in DHS custody.” There is no language like that in the bill. What exists, however, in a section called “Clarification of Standards for Family Detention,” is a provision allowing ICE to detain immigrant children who come to the US with their parents or guardians in the same way it would detain adults: There exists no presumption that an alien child who is not an unaccompanied alien child should not be detained, and all such determinations shall be in the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security. That sentence would overrule a court agreement that’s been in place for the past 20 years, called the Flores agreement, that puts strict limitations on when the government can keep children in immigration detention. The Flores agreement requires that kids be released “without unnecessary delay,” and that they are kept in the meantime in the “least restrictive” conditions possible. Courts have interpreted that agreement to mean that ICE can’t detain families for more than 20 days in most cases. The Flores agreement doesn’t require the government to separate families. It just requires the government not to indefinitely detain children. But the Trump administration has decided to maximize the detention of asylum seekers, including parents, to prevent people from disappearing into the US as unauthorized immigrants after they’re released. (This is the so-called “catch and release” policy Trump has railed against.) Rather than release parents with their children, therefore, the administration is separating families so the parents can be detained while the children (sent to the custody of HHS as “unaccompanied alien children”) are ultimately placed with sponsors. The House bill allows the administration to keep families in immigration detention indefinitely. It doesn’t even specify that there are any additional conditions on how children can be detained — there’s nothing preventing the Trump administration from simply putting children in existing ICE detention centers for adults, rather than expanding detention centers designed for families. Nothing in the bill requires ICE to keep parents and children together in detention. In fact, the mechanism that the Trump administration has generally been using to separate families — referring parents into the custody of the Department of Justice for prosecution — isn’t even addressed in the bill. The only reason the House bill could possibly end the separation of families would be if the Trump administration decided that because they now didn’t have to release children from detention, they would stop prosecuting parents, and they would make an effort to keep families together in ICE detention. But even then, that just means that children would be held in facilities that are essentially jails with their parents for months, or even years, until they ultimately received legal status — or, more likely, until they were finally deported. ||||| President Trump Donald John TrumpJimmy Fallon responds to Trump: I'll donate to pro-immigrant nonprofit in his name South Carolina GOP candidate expected to make full recovery after car accident Official: US to present North Korea with timeline, 'specific asks' MORE on Friday again blamed Democrats for his administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border. In an impromptu interview on “Fox & Friends,” Trump said he “hates” the policy, and claimed the Democrats could change the “law” if they voted with Republicans on immigration reform. “Democrats forced that law on the nation,” he said. ADVERTISEMENT Trump’s Attorney General, Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsMigrants told they’ll be reunited with children if they sign voluntary deportation order: report Christie: Trump 'enormously ill-served' by DOJ on 'zero tolerance' policy 'Occupy ICE' protests emerge across the country MORE, enacted a “zero tolerance” policy at the border last month, mandating that everyone apprehended illegally entering the U.S. will face criminal charges. The policy is resulting in parents being separated from their children while facing legal prosecution. Sessions says the measure is necessary to increase border security. Trump has blamed Democrats in the past for the policy, citing inaction on immigration reform. The policy has drawn significant criticism from lawmakers and immigration advocates, who have raised concerns about the treatment of migrant children in custody. The White House has repeatedly defended the policy. Trump said on Friday during the same interview that he would refuse to sign the more “moderate” of two immigration bills proposed by the House GOP. Republican leaders agreed to hold two votes next week on a compromise immigration bill that included a measure that would end the separation of migrant children and parents at the border, and on a more hard-line immigration measure.

– Lawmakers from both parties have been criticizing the Justice Department's tough new policy that requires immigrant children to be separated from their parents at the border. On Friday, President Trump joined the critics, with a familiar caveat. "I hate it," he said. "I hate to see separation of parents and children." But he suggested the administration had no choice, asserting that "the Democrats forced that law upon our nation." A host of outlets, including BuzzFeed, CNN, and the Washington Post say Trump is incorrect about that. Under the administration's new zero-tolerance policy, every adult caught crossing the border illegally is being prosecuted, and the children are being separated while their parents await their legal cases to play out. Related coverage: Compromise in peril: House Republicans were poised to float two immigration plans, the more moderate of which would hit many of Trump's wishes (including $25 billion for border security) while ending the separation policy, reports the Hill. (See below for more on the latter.) However, Trump may have torpedoed its chances Friday when he told Fox that he wouldn't sign it, reports the AP, which now sees "eleventh-hour confusion" on the issue.

A Ford logo (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) The company that put Americans in cars affirmed Wednesday that those vehicles are going the way of the Model T and it will focus ever more on trucks and SUVs. Ford, during its announcement Wednesday that it had a first-quarter profit of $1.7 billion, said its traditional car lineup soon will be trimmed to just the Mustang and a new Focus Active crossover that comes out next year. By 2020, nearly 90% of Ford's product lineup in North America will be trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles. For the first quarter, the Dearborn automaker said it earned 43 cents per share, beating Wall Street analysts' average expectations by 2 cents per share. Ford's revenue worldwide increased 7% to $42 billion for the quarter. The 9% increase in quarterly profit can be almost entirely attributed to a drop in the automaker's effective tax rate to 9% from 28.6%, Ford officials said. The automaker's pretax profit fell 14% from a year ago to $2.2 billion for the quarter. Read more: Ford also unveiled plans to pare an additional $11.5 billion in costs between 2019 and 2022. These reductions would come on top of the $14 billion in cuts that the automaker previously announced in the fall. The latest planned reductions will come from areas including engineering, materials costs, marketing and sales. Ford Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks told reporters it is too early to say whether the additional cuts and "efficiency opportunities" would result in layoffs or staffing reductions. CLOSE Ford Motor Co. unveiled its new Ford Focus compact car in China and Europe on Tuesday Detroit Free Press “We have looked at every single part of the business," Shanks said. "It’s a little bit of everything, and I don't think they’re done yet.” Additionally, Ford said it expects to put $5 billion less into capital expenditures from 2019 to 2022 than it once anticipated. Shanks said that rising costs for commodities, such as aluminum, steel and copper, were a nearly $500-million drag on Ford's performance for the quarter. For the year, higher commodity costs are expected to be a $1.5-billion "head wind," Shanks said. Ford’s decision to pull back on car production reflects a shift in consumer sentiment that has had an impact across the automotive industry. The full-size Taurus, midsize Fusion, small Fiesta and wagon-like C-Max will no longer be sold in North America, Ford officials said. Exactly when these models will stop being sold in the market hasn't been announced. In 2016, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced it would end production of the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 to focus even more on SUV and trucks. The company, which does still produce some car models, shuffled production and preserved factory jobs. It is seeing sales grow at its Jeep brand, with vehicles such as the Compass SUV and a new Wrangler. Michelle Krebs, executive analyst at AutoTrader.com, said Ford’s move is no shock. “Ford’s announcement to pretty much get out of the car business ... comes as no surprise. Ford’s car sales have been dismal for the past couple of years, and there’s no end in sight to the decline of traditional cars,” Krebs said. 2019 Ford Fusion sedan (Photo: Ford Motor Company) Dave Sullivan, manager of product analysis for AutoPacific, Inc., called the move bold but also not surprising. “This might be the boldest move Ford has made in many years as they pin their hopes on future products that no one has seen," he said. "Obviously, this has done well for brands such as Subaru. The competition isn't standing still and we'll see more jacked up cars, wagons, and crossovers on the market every few months for the next few years." In North America, Ford's biggest market, the automaker's pretax profits were down $200 million to $1.9 billion. Shanks said the higher commodity prices were largely to blame. Europe was the only other region where Ford was profitable — a $149-million pretax profit. Ford reported losses of $149 million in South America, $119 million in the Asia/Pacific region and $54 million in the Middle East and Africa. Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl. Read or Share this story: https://on.freep.com/2FgScmi ||||| Ford today announced it will phase out most cars it sells in North America. According to its latest financial release, the auto giant “will transition to two vehicles” — the Mustang and an unannounced vehicle, the Focus Active, being the only traditional cars it sells in the region. Ford sees 90 percent of its North America portfolio in trucks, utilities and commercial vehicles. Citing a reduction in consumer demand and product profitability, Ford is in turn not investing in the next generation of sedans. The Taurus is no more. The press release also talks about a new type of vehicle, though it sounds like a crossover. This so-called white space vehicle will “combine the best attributes of cars and utilities, such as higher ride height, space and versatility.” Currently, Ford sells six sedans and coupes in North America: the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, C-Max, Mustang and Taurus. This lineup hits multiple segments, from the compact Fiesta to the mid-size Focus, C-Max and Fusion to the full-size Taurus. The Mustang stands alone as the lone coupe. It’s likely Lincoln’s sedans will also disappear, though this was not explicitly stated in today’s press release. Lincoln currently sells the mid-size MKZ and full-size Continental — both share platforms with Ford counterparts. If Ford is phasing out development of sedan platforms, Lincoln will likely suffer, too. This reduction in traditional cars was a long time coming. North America consumers have increasingly turned to crossovers, trucks and SUVs over sedans and small cars. A trip to any parking lot will likely produce more evidence to this movement. There are several factors involved, from more fuel-efficient and better-equipped trucks and SUVs to improved safety ratings and ride qualities of these vehicles. Ford also today reaffirmed its commitment to bringing hybrid-electric powertrains to the F-150, Mustang, Explorer, Escape and upcoming Bronco. This announcement comes several weeks after Ford explained in broad terms its love affair of trucks and SUVs. Ford estimates that SUVs could make up as much as half the entire U.S. industry’s retail market by 2020, and that’s why it’s shifting $7 billion in investment capital from its cars business over to the SUV segment. By 2020, Ford also aims to have high-performance SUVs in market, including five with hybrid powertrains and one fully battery-electric model. With this big hybrid push on the SUV side, Ford expects to go from second to first-place in the U.S. hybrid vehicles market by sales, surpassing current leader Toyota by 2021, thanks also to the forthcoming hybrid Mustang and F-150. The sedan was long a staple for Ford. The Lincoln Continental defined the ’60s. And then there was the Ford Galaxy, which was available in countless variations for nearly 20 years. Then in the ’80s came the LTD, Crown Victoria and Taurus. Ford even went rally racing with its cars, namely the Escort and later Focus. But while all these nameplates rose and fell, there was another always present: The Mustang. Ford’s little pony turned 54 in April 2018. The Mustang has been in production since 1964 and seems ready for yet another generation of drivers. The car has been reinvented several times and will likely be reinvented several more before its nameplate is retired. For now, though, the Mustang is here to stay.

– Some 110 years after the first Model T rolled off the line, Ford has decided to start phasing out car sales. The company announced Wednesday that it "will not invest in next generations of traditional Ford sedans for North America." In a financial release, Ford said that it plans to transition to just two cars over the next few years: the Ford Mustang and the new Ford Active, a "crossover" vehicle to be released next year. Ford currently sells the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, C-Max, Mustang, and Taurus sedans and coupes in North America reports TechCrunch, which notes that the Lincoln sedans are also expected to vanish. Ford hasn't said exactly when the Taurus and other models will be phased out, but the company's statement says almost 90% of its North America portfolio will be trucks, utilities, and commercial vehicles by 2020. Auto industry experts say the move is a bold one, but not totally unexpected, given the continuing shift among consumers away from cars and toward SUVs. " Ford’s announcement to pretty much get out of the car business ... comes as no surprise," says analyst Michelle Krebs, per the Detroit Free Press. "Ford’s car sales have been dismal for the past couple of years, and there’s no end in sight to the decline of traditional cars."

Monday. According to a recent study by Orsama and colleagues, that’s the day when most people experience their maximum body weight. And your lowest body weight? That’s most likely to be recorded on Friday. The weekend certainly seems to play some havoc on our energy balance. The 7 day week cycle has an impact on many of our behaviors. Take sleep, for example. During the week, we get up regularly at the sound of our alarm, but come Saturday, the alarm clock may be turned off and you allow yourself to sleep in. Your physical activity level is also likely to oscillate based on the day; individuals who actively commute to work may become more of a couch potato on the weekend. People may also be more likely to go out and have a few drinks over the weekend. All these behaviors can have an impact on a person’s energy balance, and subtly, on their body weight. And apparently, that’s exactly what happens. In the study published earlier this year, Orsama and colleagues explored the weekly rhythm of weight to understand the normal variation of weight which occurs during the week. The researchers analysed daily self-reported body weight in 80 adults (BMI: 20.0–33.5 kg/m2; age: 25–62 years). To avoid intra-day variation in body weight individuals were instructed to record their daily weight immediately after waking up and before breakfast. The length of each individual’s time series of recorded weight varied from 15 to 330 days. As I’ve already summarized in the first couple of sentences, body weight tended to be highest following the weekend (Sunday/Monday) and lowest just before the weekend (Friday). As a potential explanation of this weekly weight fluctuation, the authors propose that meal sizes and calorie intake tend to increase while physical activity tends to decrease during weekends. Indeed, many people who eat a clean diet during the week allow themselves a cheat day over the weekend. Evidence seems to favor such a flexible approach to diet management, by contrast to the all or none approach. The former approach allows you to enjoy some highly-favored but potentially calorie-dense foods in relative moderation, potentially increasing long-term adherence to a diet. By contrast, the latter approach, which outright forbids certain foods, may result in dietary boredom, and complete discontinuation of the healthy diet. This also leads us to the other interesting finding in this study. Variation in body weight was also analysed according to whether the participants lost weight (greater than 3% reduction), gained weight (greater than 1% increase), or maintained weight (weight change between –3 and 1%). What is interesting, as illustrated in the figure below, is that the biggest fluctuation in weight occurred in those who lost weight over time. This would suggest that successful weight losers were allowing themselves some serious dietary leniency over the weekend. Maybe this is exactly what allowed them to persist on their respective diet for a longer duration. What are the implications of this research? First, if you like to regularly weight yourself, best to compare the same day of the week (and same time of day). Secondly, allowing yourself a few indulgences over the weekend may in fact help you stick with eating better and managing your weight over the long term. Peter Reference: ||||| You've been eating well all week: oatmeal for breakfast, a salad for lunch and grilled chicken with vegetables for dinner. Then the weekend hits. Suddenly your taste buds want French fries at the bar and Mom's cheesy lasagna is calling your name during Sunday dinner. Not to worry. A new study suggests small weight gains on weekends are normal, and as long as you can compensate during the week, indulging a bit may even help you lose weight long-term. “There is a clear weekly rhythm to weight variation for most people,” says one of the study authors, Anna-Leena Orsama, a research scientist with VTT Technical Research Center of Finland. “On the weekends there is more variability and unpredictability in what we eat.” The study, “Weight Rhythms: Weight Increases during Weekends and Decreases during Weekdays,” was published this week in the journal Obesity Facts. The study Researchers analyzed data from 80 adults, ranging in age from 25 to 62 years old, who recorded their weight each day after waking up. The participants were grouped according to their weight changes over the study period: weight losers who lost at least 3% of their body weight; weight gainers who put on at least 1%; and weight maintainers who stayed in between those minimums. The results All three groups, the losers, gainers and maintainers, recorded higher weights on Sundays and Mondays than other days of the week. But those who successfully lost weight had lower weights during the week, with their lowest generally recorded on Friday. This shows they managed to compensate for the weekend gain during the work week, researchers say. Limitations The sample size for this study was relatively small. Only 10 people were in the gain group; only 18 were in the loss group. The data was also all self-reported, meaning the study participants could have made a mistake or purposefully altered their recorded weights. Also important to note is that the researchers are talking about slight caloric increases. This is not a free pass to eat your weight in cookie dough. The takeaway Long-term habits may make more of a difference than short-term splurges, the study authors say. And a flexible eating pattern - i.e., allowing yourself that brownie or beer on Friday night - may help you sustain overall healthy eating habits over time. Weight loss success depends primarily on your ability to compensate for those splurges on other days of the week. “The big difference between those who gain weight over time and those who lose or maintain weight is directly related to the way they eat from Monday to Friday," said Cornell University behavioral economist Brian Wansink, one of the study authors. "Some indulging during weekends makes no harm but for successful weight loss it is important to notice these rhythms and take steps to reverse the upward trends." ||||| Abstract Background/Aims: The week's cycle influences sleep, exercise, and eating habits. An accurate description of weekly weight rhythms has not been reported yet - especially across people who lose weight versus those who maintain or gain weight. Methods: The daily weight in 80 adults (BMI 20.0-33.5 kg/m2; age, 25-62 years) was recorded and analysed to determine if a group-level weekly weight fluctuation exists. This was a retrospective study of 4,657 measurements during 15-330 monitoring days. Semi-parametric regression was used to model the rhythm. Results: A pattern of daily weight changes was found (p < 0.05), with higher weight early in the week (Sunday and Monday) and decreasing weight during the week. Increases begin on Saturday and decreases begin on Tuesday. This compensation pattern was strongest for those who lost or maintained weight and weakest for those who slowly gained weight. Conclusion: Weight variations between weekends and weekdays should be considered as normal instead of signs of weight gain. Those who compensate the most are most likely to either lose or maintain weight over time. Long-term habits may make more of a difference than short-term splurges. People prone to weight gain could be counselled about the importance of weekday compensation. © 2014 S. Karger GmbH, Freiburg Introduction Obesity is a powerful, prevalent predictor of poor health. In 2010, 475 million adults were obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) [1] and the number is estimated to grow to 1,115.8 million by 2030 [2]. Harmful health consequences are manifold: Obesity increases the risk of type II diabetes and cardiovascular diseases [3], osteoarthritis [4], gallstones [4], colon and breast cancer [5], and the incidence of mental disorders [6]. While it is driven by excess intake of energy and inactivity [7,8], a better understanding of weight gain patterns could provide useful insights into the prevention and treatment of obesity. Human behaviour and physiology exhibit variations according to biological and environmental factors. For instance, circadian rhythms that are seen in the recurrence of our daily activity and rest are also found in the fluctuations of several physiological variables such as body temperature, blood pressure [9], and glucose metabolism [10]. Menstrual cycles are an example of biological monthly rhythms. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of certain rhythms on health. These have included how disruptions in the circadian rhythm influence the development of type II diabetes [11] along with other adverse health consequences [12]. The 7-day cycle of a week also has a strong impact on life [13] that is more environmental and behavioural than biological. For instance, days of the week are known to determine our sleeping patterns [14], physical activity [15,16,] and eating habits [16,17]. There is early indication that weight is higher during weekends and lower during weekdays [18,19,20]. However, it is unclear if this phenomenon is visible on a population level and how it is related to successful weight management in the long term. This research examines the variation of weight across the days of the week and also examines this pattern across three segments of people - those who maintain their weight, gain weight, and lose weight. Specifically, by combining self-monitored weight measurements from four earlier studies, we endeavoured i) to find out whether there is group level variation in weight within a week or whether the weight variation is independent from days of the week; ii) to study the form of the dependence between weight and days of the week; and iii) to initially explore how this might vary across weight losers, weight gainers, and weight maintainers. Material and Methods Retrospectively Collected Weight Data Self-recorded weight measurements were aggregated from four earlier data collection efforts [18,20,21,22] in which individuals were instructed to self-monitor and record their daily weight, immediately after waking up and before breakfast. Studies 1, 3, and 4 involved health management intervention and were approved by local ethics committees. The focus of Study 2 was usability and feasibility of a mobile phone application and, thus, no approval was needed. Table 1 describes the goals and durations of the four studies as well as the demographics and size of the study populations. Table 1 In total, the four studies involved 178 subjects and resulted in 7,408 self-recorded weight measurements (from 154 individuals). Two inclusion criteria regarding the frequency of weight measurements and the length of the monitoring period were established for the data. Only measurements taken on a minimum of 7 sequential days were included to prevent describing a biased rhythm that could result from unreported measurements. The minimum acceptable duration of monitoring was 14 days. These restrictions resulted in the inclusion of 80 adults and 4,657 weight measurements. The length of each individual's time series varied from 15 to 330 days. Derivation of Variables Based on the original data set, the individuals were divided into three subgroups according to their relative weight change. Relative weight changes were calculated as a difference between the averages of self-measured weights on the first and last week of monitoring. The categories of the corresponding group variable were the following: ‘LOSS' - weight change more than -3%; ‘GAIN' - weight change more than 1%; ‘MAINTAIN' - weight change between -3 and 1%. A weight trend component was estimated by applying a two-sided moving average filter [23] with the length of 7 days. Detrended weight measurements were normalised with respect to each individual by mean centring according to one's average weight. The response variable was derived by subtracting trend from weight time series of each individual to eliminate the effects of linear weight gain or linear weight loss. A rapidly decreasing trend may cause weight to appear higher in the beginning of each week-long period which could confound the underlying ‘real' rhythm. For the day of the week variable, days were labelled in an ordinal scale as follows: 1 = Sunday, 2 = Monday, 3 = Tuesday, 4 = Wednesday, 5 = Thursday, 6 = Friday, 7 = Saturday. Statistical Methods Semi-parametric regression [24] was used for analysing the weekly rhythm in the weight measurement data. The method is based on the combination of non-parametric smoothing and parametric linear mixed-effects (LME) models [25]. LME models are widely used in the analysis of longitudinal data due to their ability to account for within-subject variation. Splines are continuous piecewise-defined linear functions that are formed by dividing the range of the covariate into p subintervals and modelling each of the intervals with an appropriate slope [26]. The subintervals are tied together at their cut points to make the final curve contiguous. Splines are unrestricted to parametric assumptions and, thus, enable flexible shapes for the curves. As a semi-parametric method, the splines were formulated as LME models and further estimated in the LME framework using the restricted maximum likelihood method (REML). Student's t-test and restricted maximum likelihood ratio test (RLRT) were used for model comparisons. The RLRT is constructed by comparing maximized likelihoods of two models. The larger the difference between the likelihoods, the stronger the evidence that the smaller model is inadequate. Significance tests were conducted with the risk level α = 0.05. Analyses were done using R version 2.15 [27]. Application The general formula for modelling the dependence between weight and day of the week was the following: weight = f (day of the week) + ε(1). First, f (day of the week) was determined as a linear function of day of the week and later extended to a linear penalised spline. The formula of the spline model was: On the right hand side, the first two terms form the linear basis for the spline (the formula is similar to the ordinary linear regression model). b r+1 's are the slope estimates for the truncated line functions that handle the departures from the linearity to obtain the appropriate form for the curve. In our models, days of the week were used as placements for the cut points (τ's) leading to six subintervals to be modelled with a different slope. The LME model presentation, y = Xβ + Zb [25,] for the spline curve was obtained by partitioning the spline model components in formula (2) into two LME model components, i.e. fixed effects (Xβ) and random effects (Zb). One of the LME model assumptions holds that slope estimates of the random part are distributed with zero mean [25]. This property is exploited in the estimation to control the roughness of the curve. The advantage of the LME presentation is that it is straightforward to extend the spline model further to account for the within-subject variation that is present in repeated measures data. The random effect structure was extended to individual-specific intercepts and slopes by extending the Zb component and its corresponding covariance matrix [28]. As a first step, an individual-specific intercept was added to the group-level model where component u i1 is an intercept for i-th individual: Further, the model was enlarged with individual-specific linear lines with the day of the week as a covariate. As a final step, the model was extended with individual-specific splines, meaning that each individual had their own spline curve that describes the deviation from the group-level curve. The deviation curve was not restricted to being linear; it could be of any shape. This model was expressed as weight = f (day of the week) + g i (day of the week)(4). where g i 's were constructed as presented in formula (2) but with fewer cut points, i.e. four in our models. Hypotheses Figure 1 shows the initial illustration of the weekly profile curves derived as an averaged detrended normalized weight on each day of the week. Based on the figure, three hypothesis set-ups were formulated. These resulted in the construction of six different models. Primarily, we modelled the group-level data that included the entire sample of 80 subjects. These models were denoted as M1 ALL to M6 ALL . Additionally, each hypothesis set-up was tested in the subgroups of weight losers, weight gainers, and weight maintainers. The models were denoted as M1 LOSS to M6 LOSS , M1 GAIN to M6 GAIN , and M1 MAINTAIN to M6 MAINTAIN . Fig. 1 Day of the Week Effect The first hypothesis involved testing whether the day of the week had a linear effect on weight when starting from Sunday, or whether the expected weight is constant and does not depend on the day of the week. The following hypothesis was tested: H₀: weight = β₀ (M1 ALL , M1 LOSS , M1 GAIN , M1 MAINTAIN ) H a : weight = β₀ + β 1 × day of the week (M2 ALL , M2 LOSS , M2 GAIN , M2 MAINTAIN ). To assess the superiority of M2, the significance of β 1 was tested using the t-statistic. Form of the Dependence The second question consisted of two parts, 2A and 2B. In 2A, the form of the dependence between weight and day of the week was explored. It was tested whether the linear curve was adequate to describe the weekly rhythm or, alternatively, whether there was some degree of nonlinearity. M2 models were tested against their extensions, i.e. linear penalised spline models (M3) that correct departures from the linearity. The following hypothesis was tested: RLRT was used to assess the significance of the difference between the M2 and M3 models. The comparison involved testing if all the six truncated line coefficients b r 's in M3 differed from zero. This is equivalent to testing if σ b 2 is significantly different from zero. Thus, the hypothesis was simplified as the following: H₀: σ b 2 = 0 versus H a : σ b 2 > 0. The testing problem is non-standard because weight measurements are not independent and because the RLRT statistic under the null hypothesis is zero, which is on the boundary of its parameter space [29]. To overcome this problem, we used RLRsim library [30] in R that exploits parametric bootstrap with 10,000 repetitions to simulate and test the hypothesis. Effect of Longitudinal Nature of the Data In order to take the longitudinal nature of the data into consideration, the dependence in measurements made by the same individual was accounted for in 2B. The fitted population level curves were extended with individual-specific intercepts and slopes. The following models nested to their random effect structures were fitted: The hypothesis concerning the models was whether the added random component improves the fit. The comparison was done by RLRT. The significance of the difference between the two models was tested using Self-Liang approximation [31] which says that asymptotical RLRT follows ½ χ2 q + ½ χ2 q+1 - distribution where q is the number of fixed effects. However, the distribution holds under the assumption that y's are independent which is not the case in the longitudinal data. Therefore, the results were confirmed by comparing the most adequate model with the population average model by using RLRsim library. The observed RLRT's were compared to the 95th percentile of ½ χ2 0 + ½ χ2 1 - distribution, which is 1.921. Results The descriptive data of the entire sample and each of the subgroups, i.e. weight losers, weight gainers, and weight maintainers, are shown in table 2 along with the number of measurements obtained from individuals. Table 3 presents how often the minimum and maximum weight observations occurred on different days of the week. In the LOSS group, there was a clear difference between days of the week that have the highest proportions for minimum and maximum weight. The minimum weight of the week was most frequently observed on Friday and, in 60% of the cases, the week's minimum weight occurred either on Friday or Saturday. Correspondingly, the maximum weight was reached most often on Sunday or Monday, i.e. in 59% of the cases. In the GAIN and MAINTAIN groups there was more variability. Both the minimum and maximum weight of the week was most frequently measured on Sunday in both subgroups. The second highest occurrence in maximum weight was seen on Monday. The distribution on other days of the week was similar. Table 2 Table 3 When examining the day of the week effect with a linear regression model, day of the week was a significant predictor of weight in all study groups (p < 0.001 for the entire sample, for LOSS, and for MAINTAIN; p = 0.002 for GAIN). The slopes that describe the rate of weight change were all negative: β 1 = -0.0004 for the entire sample, β 1 = -0.0006 for LOSS, β 1 = -0.0003 for GAIN, and β 1 = -0.0003 for MAINTAIN. The linear association of day of the week on weight was not adequate to explain the weekly variation of weight but it was significantly better explained by a spline curve that allowed a more flexible shape (p < 0.001 for the entire sample, p < 0.001 for LOSS, p = 0.021 for MAINTAIN, p = 0.065 for GAIN). Therefore, the spline model was used to test the 2B hypothesis. The weekly rhythm-fitted plots with their variability bands are shown in figure 2. The upper panel shows fitted profile plots of the weekly rhythm of weight with their variability bands. Equivalent plots are fitted in the lower panel together with scatter plots of weight measurements of each group to illustrate the explorative role of rhythm curves in the weight variation. Fig. 2 Table 4 shows the test statistics of RLRT to assess the most adequate fit that takes into account the within-subject variation in the data. The model that included subject-specific lines (M5) was the most adequate model in the LOSS, GAIN, and MAINTAIN subgroups. In all cases, the likelihood ratio statistic for assessing M5 over M4 was greater than 1.921. Further extension of the random effect structure to the individual-specific splines made no improvement. The superiority of M5 over M3 models (that did not account for individual effects) was confirmed by simulations using RLRsim. The bootstrapped p-values were: p = 0 for LOSS, p = 0.056 for GAIN, and p = 0 for MAINTAIN. For the entire sample, the most adequate model was the M6 that included individual-specific splines. The bootstrapped p-value of comparing the superiority M6 ALL against M3 ALL was 0. The addition of individual-specific trajectories to population level models significantly decreased the unexplained variability in this weight data. However, the extensions did not change the shape of curves but they remained similar to the population level curves. The fitted values of the models are plotted as separate points in figure 2. We see hardly any difference from the population level curves that are drawn as contiguous lines. Table 4 Discussion The purpose of this study was to explore the weekly rhythm of weight to understand the normal variation of weight which occurs during the week. In addition, we described the rhythm profiles in different weight management groups. It was found that the day of the week has a significant effect on weight: weight was higher in the beginning of the week, i.e. on Sunday and Monday, and decreased toward the end of the week. In addition, there was a slight increase in the end of the week, i.e. during Saturdays and Sundays. This phenomenon was also observed in the subgroups of weight losers and weight maintainers, but not among weight gainers. This observation may appear contradictory but is explained by the fact that we removed any linear weight change prior to analysing the effect of day of the week - therefore, it is possible for the GAIN group to exhibit this pattern. The detected shape of the weekly rhythm of weight is consistent with the results of other studies regarding day of the week effects on human behaviour. Meal sizes and calorie intake have been found to increase [16,17] and physical activity to decrease during weekends [15], specifically on Sundays [16]. The increased calorie intake and reduced amount of exercise are indicators that are associated with weight gain. Correspondingly, we detected weight gain during weekends. The shape of the weekly rhythm curves were consistent with the findings of Racette et al. [16] who found a decreasing trend during weekdays but increased weight during weekends. Our analysis reveals that the decreasing trend is continued until Friday after which weight starts to increase over the weekend, being highest on Sunday and on Monday. Based on the subgroup analyses, our results suggest that weekly variation of weight might be associated with weight management. Figure 2 shows that the magnitude of the weekly weight variation is greater in the LOSS group than in the GAIN group. This suggests that individuals in the GAIN group have less consistent weight differences between days of the week and that their weight varies with less regularity. This is also noticeable in table 3: In the LOSS group, the minimum weight of the week is most often observed at the end of the week while the week's maximum weight is most often seen either on Sunday or Monday. In the GAIN group, maximum and minimum weights of the week are distributed more evenly to all days of the week. Similar findings can be seen in the research of Racette et al. [16]. In both of their intervention groups, significant decreases in weight (-8.0 ± 0.9 kg and -6.4 ± 0.9 kg) were detected whereas in the control group the average weight change was -1.3 ± 0.9 kg. Correspondingly, both of the intervention groups had decreasing weight during weekdays and stable or increasing weight during weekends whereas the control group did not show significant weight changes on weekends or weekdays. Based on the subgroup analysis, it appears that successful weight control (weight maintenance or weight loss) is not distracted by slight increases in weight during weekends. Instead, their success seems to be related to their ability to compensate and turn down the upward trend. This compensation mechanism thwarts minor weight regains, which Phelan et al. [32] found difficult for many people to recover from. However, relapses are expected and likely to occur in weight management. Successful weight loss strategies have indicated that flexible dietary restraint involves less pressure on diet and a stronger understanding of how diet and energy balance relate to sustained weight loss [33]. Flexible eating regulation patterns that allow one to enjoy all foods and compensate for more caloric meals are more likely to be sustained in a long-term rather than a dichotomous way of thinking (‘all or nothing' or ‘allowed/forbidden foods') [33]. Similarly, Dohm et al. [34] reported that when dietary lapses occur, successful weight maintainers are more likely to use direct coping. Allowing more flexibility on weekends and holidays might be more realistic from a long-term perspective because it avoids dietary boredom [35]. Indeed, according to a study by Smith et al. [36], the most common reasons for stopping a weight loss regimen were ‘boredom/loss of interest' and ‘missing certain foods'. Therefore, contrary to the conclusions of Racette and co-authors [16], slight variations - including increases in weight during the weekend - may have a positive role in supporting long-term successful weight management. One limitation of this study pertains to the threshold value of the GAIN group (1% of weight increase). Whether 1% is an actual increase or merely a part of daily weight variation may be discussed. However, to eliminate day-to-day fluctuations in weight, the individuals were classified according to weight change that was calculated as an average of weight self-measurements over one week. Secondly, as self-monitoring relates to weight loss and successful loss maintenance [37,38,39], individuals showing early signs of weight gain despite regular self-monitoring were classified in the GAIN group of this study to emphasize their deviation from the expected pattern. Despite this low threshold, our sample size of the GAIN group was small, which limits the generalizability of the results and highlights the overall challenge of learning more about weight gainers. It is difficult to find people who are committed to consistently monitoring their weight with frequency and continuity even in the presence of unfavourable outcomes. The threshold value for the LOSS group was set to a decrease of weight of >3%. For obese people (BMI > 30 kg/m2), a moderate weight reduction of 5% is generally considered to be beneficial for health [40]. In this study, individuals were on average overweight (mean BMI 27.3 kg/m2) but not obese and the monitoring time was relatively short, i.e. 80 days on average. Therefore, we expected smaller weight loss and considered a decrease of 3% sufficient. This threshold is also supported by Stevens et al. [41]. A challenge that we faced in the analysis was the depletion of data. The unbalance of the data and the self-selected nature of weight measurements make the data sensitive to bias. To achieve generalizable results, certain requirements were established for the measurement frequency and consistency to avoid the slightest fluctuations of weight. As a result, the number of weight measurements decreased from 7,408 to 4,657. Due to the small sizes of GAIN and LOSS groups (10 and 18 individuals, respectively), the suggested relationship between the weekly rhythm and weight management success should be considered preliminary. The findings of this study suggest that weight should not be expected to be constant throughout the week. Slight increases during weekends can be treated as normal weight variation instead of signs of weight gain. However, the slight weight gain over weekends needs to be compensated during weekdays to avoid an increasing long-term trend. Based on the indicators of this study, a clear weekly rhythm may be favourable, allowing for more flexible eating patterns. However, more research is needed to confirm these results across a broader range of ages and life circumstances. The results were inherited from a retrospective set-up, and none of the studies was primarily planned for the analysis of weekly variation of weight. Future studies require careful consideration to obtain a sufficient amount of data regarding weight gainers while at the same time retaining the free-living set-up to obtain generalizable results. Conclusion This study found that there is a clear weekly rhythm to weight variation. Weight was at the highest point after weekends, on Sunday and Monday, and decreased toward the end of the week. The beginning of the weekend stopped the decrease and weight started to increase after Friday. Additionally, there is preliminary evidence that those people who show the largest compensating change from the weekend to the weekdays are those who - over time - are most likely to either lose weight or maintain their weight. It appears that long-term habits make more of a difference than short-term splurges. Based on the findings of this study, we can expect weight to rise during weekends and treat it as a normal variation. Our results provide scientific support to the tenet that in weight management, allowing more flexibility during weekends and holidays might be more realistic and successful in the long term than a strict regimen. Acknowledgments AO, EM, ME, MV, BW, and IK conceived and designed the study. AO, EM, ME, MV, and IK collected and analysed data. AO, BW, and IK wrote the manuscript. Julia Hastings-Black provided editorial assistance. Disclosure Statement This work was done as a part of the ITEA2 Care4me project. The project is funded by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes) and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. References Author Contacts Dr. Brian Wansink Charles S. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University 15 Warren Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850 (USA) foodandbrandlab@cornell.edu Article / Publication Details Received: May 14, 2013 Accepted: September 04, 2013 Published online: January 31, 2014 Issue release date: February 2014 Number of Print Pages: 12 Number of Figures: 0 Number of Tables: 0 ISSN: 1662-4025 (Print) eISSN: 1662-4033 (Online) For additional information: https://www.karger.com/OFA Open Access License / Drug Dosage / Disclaimer Open Access License: This is an Open Access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC) (www.karger.com/OA-license), applicable to the online version of the article only. Distribution permitted for non-commercial purposes only. 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– For most of us, weekends are a time to relax and indulge—maybe through more sleep, more couch time, or more calories in the food and beverages we consume. The result is that we tend to weigh slightly more on Sunday and Monday, but then slightly less again by Friday, reports the Smithsonian. And enough of us do this that scientists say they've observed the general weight trend in a small study published in the journal Obesity Facts. The researchers analyzed the recorded daily weights of 80 adults ages 25 to 62 and found weight "increases begin on Saturday and decreases begin on Tuesday." Before we all fall into a pit of despair in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, one doctor stresses on PLOS' Obesity Panacea blog that it's not a bad thing to "cheat" diets and habits on the weekends. In fact, it "allows you to enjoy some highly-favored but potentially calorie-dense foods in relative moderation, potentially increasing long-term adherence to a diet." The study's authors agree, telling CNN that "some indulging" does no harm. (Meanwhile, if you want to lose weight, research indicates you shouldn't forgo fats.)

The parents of a New Jersey couple are now planning funerals instead of a wedding. Last week the couple was on their way to Pittsburgh the day before their dream wedding, when they got caught up in a tractor trailer crash in Berks County. Roseanne Colletti from our sister station in New York talked with a family friend. NJ Couple on Their Way to Their Wedding Killed in I-78 Crash What to Know Loved ones are mourning a New Jersey couple who died in a chain reaction crash on I-78 in Berks County while driving to their wedding. Kathryn Schurtz, 35, and her fiancé, Joseph Kearney, both died in the accident which involved their vehicle and five tractor trailers. The couple was on the way to their wedding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the time of the crash. Loved ones are mourning a New Jersey couple who died in a chain reaction crash on I-78 while on the way to their wedding. Kathryn Schurtz, 35, and her fiancé, Joseph Kearney, were driving on I-78 westbound in Windsor Township, Berks County, on Wednesday around 2:30 p.m. when the accident occurred. Traffic was heavy at the time in both westbound lanes due to an earlier crash at mile marker 32.5. A tractor-trailer traveling westbound was unable to stop for the traffic ahead. It struck the couple’s vehicle, which was then pushed into the back of another tractor-trailer and set off a chain reaction crash that included three more tractor-trailers. The couple’s vehicle and two of the tractor-trailers caught fire. Schurtz and Kearney were both killed in the crash while three other people were hurt. Schurtz and Kearney were on their way to their wedding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the time of the accident. Schurtz was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and grew up in Fanwood, New Jersey. She graduated from Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. She then attended George Washington University, where she received her liberal arts degree before earning her MBA from Notre Dame University. Schurtz worked as the Head of Platform Partnerships for Oracle Data Cloud in New York City and was residing in Jersey City, New Jersey, at the time of her death. Her mother also served as a councilwoman in Fanwood. Loved ones say they’ll remember Schurtz for her “voracious appetite of reading, love of cooking, and trailblazing new adventures” with her fiancé Joseph Kearney. A visitation will be held at Immaculate Heart of Mary R.C. Church, 1571 Martine Avenue in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, on Monday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. followed by a mass at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to the Kathryn M. Schurtz Scholarship Fund at Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. ||||| MORE: Engaged couple killed on way to their wedding remembered by friends and family A New Jersey couple on their way to get married in Pittsburgh were killed in a fiery chain-reaction crash last week on Interstate 78 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Kathryn M. Schurtz, 35, and Joseph D. Kearney, both of Jersey City, died in the collision Wednesday afternoon in Windsor Township. Their car was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer and pushed into another tractor-trailer, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Three other tractor-trailers were also involved. Kearney is originally from Pittsburgh, according to his Facebook profile. Schurtz is a 2001 graduate of Union Catholic High School who grew up in Fanwood. She earned her bachelor's degree at George Washington University according to an obituary published Sunday. Schurtz went onto receive a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Notre Dame. She worked as the head of platform partnerships for Oracle Data Cloud in New York. Schurtz is survived by her parents Joseph and Karen as well as two sisters, brother-in-law and nephew. Visitation will be held Monday at Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church in Scotch Plains from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday and 10 to 11 a.m. Tuesday. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Kathryn M. Schurtz Scholarship Fund at Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains. Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct Schurtz's survivors. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. ||||| Friday November 16, 2018 08:20 AM Traffic was tied up for hours, with vehicles being diverted off the interstate. Windsor Township, PA — Two people were killed and three were injured in a fiery chain-reaction crash on Interstate 78 in Windsor Township on Wednesday. The fatal accident was the second crash within minutes on the busy highway. The first occurred about 2:30 p.m. in a single westbound lane in Tilden Township. Two tractor-trailers and one passenger vehicle were involved, said Trooper David C. Beohm, public information officer for Reading-based Troop L. No injuries were reported in that crash. The crash slowed and stopped traffic in both westbound lanes around mile marker 29. Minutes later, a westbound tractor-trailer, unable to stop for traffic ahead, struck a passenger vehicle at mile marker 32.5. The impact pushed that vehicle into the rear of another tractor-trailer, according to Beohm. The chain reaction involved five tractor-trailers and one passenger vehicle, Beohm said. Two of the tractor-trailers and the passenger vehicle were involved in the fire. The highway was shut down for several hours between Hamburg and Lenhartsville in Windsor Township. One lane of eastbound traffic began moving about 7 p.m. The westbound lanes opened at 3 a.m. Thursday. Troopers said that both westbound lanes would be closed indefinitely for the investigation and cleanup. Further information on the crash victims was unavailable. The crash created traffic headaches for motorists. Late Wednesday, a steady stream of tractor-trailers that had been diverted off I-78 rumbled through downtown Hamburg on Old Route 22. Lt. Howard Olsen of the Hamburg Fire Police was sandwiched between tractor-trailers crossing the intersection of Fourth and State streets in both directions. The line of trucks stretched from Hamburg east to Lenhartsville, turning the normally dark roadway into a giant illuminated snake. "I've been here since around 3:30 p.m.," Olsen said matter-of-factly. "This isn't the worst I've ever seen." When they left Douglassville about 7 p.m., Mike and Stephanie Rehrer had no idea that they'd end up driving down dark country roads and limping into Rutter's in Hamburg with not much more than fumes in the gas tank, "We literally coasted in here," said Stephanie, filling the tank of the family's Honda Odyssey minivan. Mike chimed in, "The fuel indicator was on zero for the last 10 miles." The Rehrers were among hundreds of motorists diverted from their destinations by the two accidents. On their way to Lenhartsville to buy Harley-Davidson T-shirts, the Rehrers were in sight of their destination when they were diverted in a two-hour odyssey that landed them at the Rutter's. A steady stream of weary motorists, some tied up for hours, sought refuge in the gas station, convenience store and restaurant off Route 61, a mile or so south of I-78. Gassing up their 2017 Corvette at 9:30 p.m., Daniel and Barbara Hotko said that they had left Durham, N.C., 12 hours earlier. "It's an eight-hour drive to our home in New Jersey," said Daniel, a retired General Motors worker. Diverted off I-78 at Shartlesville, the Hotkos said that they were not allowed on Old Route 22. Meandering over dark country roads, they finally found a different, permitted way onto Old Route 22 and drove into Hamburg. A patron at Rutter's directed them to Route 662 at Shoemakersville, a path to Route 222 and east to Allentown. Jared Ney of Hamburg said that his daughter, a fourth-grader at Tilden Elementary School, didn't get home from school until after 5 p.m. "That's a five- or 10-minute ride, and it took two hours," said Ney, 32, district manager for Red Wing Shoes. It was also a long day for volunteer firefighters and fire police. Hamburg Fire Company personnel worked through most of the night, assisting in diverting traffic, cleaning up spilled vehicle fluids and providing manpower to state police investigators as they pulled apart the wreckage. The last crew returned to the station at 4:45 a.m. Thursday, Deputy Chief Jarrod K. Emes said. Hamburg's roughly 25 volunteers were stretched to the limit. �We had crews going to three different accidents within a 12-mile stretch of I-78,� Emes said. Contact the City Desk: 610-371-5012 or news@readingeagle.com.

– Kathryn Schurtz and Joseph Kearney were on their way to their wedding when the unthinkable happened Wednesday. The New Jersey couple was driving to Pittsburgh for the nuptials when a crash occurred ahead of them on I-78 in Windsor Township, Pa. Traffic slowed, but a tractor-trailer behind the couple wasn't able to stop in time and hit their car, pushing it into the back of another tractor-trailer. That crash caused a fiery chain reaction ultimately involving the couple's car, which caught on fire, and five tractor-trailers, the Reading Eagle reports. Three other people were injured, NBC Philadelphia reports. Now, instead of a wedding, family will be attending funeral services. Schurtz, 35, "will be remembered for her voracious appetite for reading, love of cooking, and trailblazing new adventures with Joseph," says her obituary. Born and raised in New Jersey, she graduated from George Washington University before getting her MBA at Notre Dame. She was working for Oracle Data Cloud in New York City, and living back in New Jersey, when she was killed. Little information was available on her fiance, but NJ.com reports that per his Facebook profile, Kearney was originally from Pittsburgh. (This couple was married just one and a half hours before tragedy struck.)

Published on Aug 11, 2016 Help end this abuse: http://cok.net/tyson. A Compassion Over Killing investigator worked inside several Tyson facilities in Virginia. This footage offers a shocking, never-before-seen look behind the closed doors of chicken breeding factory farms, known as “broiler breeder” farms. ||||| This video from Compassion Over Killing alleges mistreatment of chickens at a Tyson's chicken (Compassion Over Killing) This video from Compassion Over Killing alleges mistreatment of chickens at a Tyson's chicken (Compassion Over Killing) An animal rights group has released graphic video that appears to show the mistreatment of chickens by Tyson Foods employees in Virginia, leading to at least two Animal Control investigations. Compassion Over Killing, a Washington-based animal-advocacy organization, said the video was taken by an undercover investigator for the group in May and June at four facilities where Tyson employees process chickens. The video depicts Tyson employees throwing, punching and kicking chickens as well as sticking plastic rods through their beaks in a process known as “boning.” Workers also wrung birds’ necks, ran over them with forklifts and left injured birds in “dead piles,” as the video’s narrator put it, to die. One worker, discussing standing on a chicken’s head and letting it suffocate, mentioned that the behavior would look bad if caught on tape. “You can’t let nobody see you do that,” the man said, describing the act as “inhumane.” “A stranger . . . you don’t know if he’s working for the Animal Rights.” Compassion Over Killing, which says it “focuses on cruelty to animals in agriculture and promotes vegetarian eating,” has undertaken undercover investigations before. On Wednesday, it condemned the workers’ behavior. [“That one was definitely alive”: An undercover video at one of the nation’s biggest pork processors] “This level of violence and abuse is so egregious, it violates Virginia state animal protection laws,” Erica Meier, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement. “The company should be held accountable — and consumers deserve to know the truth about the horrors inflicted upon these animals.” She added: “Tyson, the titan of this industry, is literally crushing the life out of birds.” In a statement, Tyson, the largest chicken-processing company in the United States, called the behavior “inexcusable” and said that it fired 10 people who were members of the crew depicted in the video. The company also said it discontinued the process of “boning” — which it described as “a historical way the industry has used to keep males from eating food intended for females” — at two of the facilities in the video after its release. The process had already been ended at its other facilities in the United States, the company said. “I’m disgusted and outraged by what’s shown in this video,” Christine Daugherty, vice president of sustainable food production for Tyson Foods, said in a statement. “We do not tolerate animal abuse. . . . The people shown in the video by Compassion Over Killing were all trained in proper animal handling, yet chose to ignore it and failed to alert management about the despicable treatment on these farms.” Daugherty added: “Animals in our care deserve to be treated humanely.” Two of the facilities shown in the video are in Virginia’s Mecklenburg County, one is in Buckingham County and one is in Lunenburg County. Animal Control officials in Mecklenburg and Buckingham counties confirmed that they were investigating the allegations but said they couldn’t comment further. An Animal Control official in Lunenburg County did not return a request for comment. The Compassion Over Killing employee, who filmed the video while working undercover at Tyson, said the company’s processing facilities are part of a system that desensitizes people to suffering. “They are not building a system to ensure animal welfare is a top priority. Or employee welfare,” said the worker, who asked to remain anonymous. News of the mistreatment comes weeks after Perdue, the nation’s third-largest chicken producer, announced plans to kill chickens using carbon dioxide or argon gas — a method some hailed as more humane. [This could be the start to a whole new world of chicken] Compassion Over Killing questioned whether there is any way to humanely kill and eat animals. “The best way we can protect chickens and all animals is simply to leave them off our plates,” the video’s narrator says. ||||| CLOSE Animal advocacy group Compassion Over Killing presents an undercover investigation into cruelty at Tyson Foods chicken farms. Video courtesy of Compassion Over Killing In this Jan. 29, 2006, file photo, a car passes in front of a Tyson Foods Inc., sign at Tyson headquarters in Springdale, Ark. (Photo: APRIL L BROWN, AP) In the face of new allegations of ghastly animal abuse by its employees, Tyson Foods says it's retraining all of its live poultry workers on the company's animal welfare policies. The move by one of the world's largest meat producers came as the animal rights group Compassion Over Killing released secretly-recorded footage on Thursday that shows Tyson workers stomping, kicking and suffocating breeder chickens at facilities in three Virginia counties. Tyson says it has fired ten workers who can be seen in the video, and a senior company executive, Christine Daugherty, described the employees' actions as "disgusting." “The people shown in the video by Compassion Over Killing were all trained in proper animal handling, yet chose to ignore it and failed to alert management about the despicable treatment on these farms,” said Daugherty, vice president of sustainable food production for Tyson Foods. “Animals in our care deserve to be treated humanely. It’s our responsibility to ensure that everyone who works for our company behaves properly. Our management team is dedicated to continue fostering a culture of proper animal handling.” The latest video marks at least the fifth time in roughly 13 months that advocates for various animal rights groups have been able to infiltrate Tyson-connected facilities and secretly record footage of workers abusing chickens and cramped living conditions for chickens before they are slaughtered. The activists typically apply for work at the facilities and are able to surreptitiously record the footage. In the video released Thursday, a Tyson worker is caught on tape warning the undercover investigator that "you can't let nobody see you do that" as he stepped on a chicken's head, suffocating it. "You don't know if he's working for the animal rights," the worker says. "It is inhumane standing on his head and let them suffocate. They'll take you to court for that." The footage also shows workers punching, kicking and roughly tossing birds. In the past, the company has responded to the abuse seen in such videos as inexcusable, while stressing that the abusers were not reflective of Tyson’s institutional commitment to animal welfare. But with the latest video, Tyson said in a statement, “we believe we haven’t gone far enough and must do more to stop this inexcusable behavior.” The company, which made more than $10 billion in poultry sales last year, says it is now evaluating further steps it can take to ensure animal well-being procedures are being followed throughout its operations. The new video has also spurred Tyson to discontinue the practice of inserting plastic tubes in rooster's beaks, something known as beak modification, that helps chicken growers prevent males from eating females' feed. Compassion Over Killing, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., said it recently made formal complaints about the abuse to prosecutors and animal control officers in Mecklenburg, Lunenburg and Buckingham counties. No charges had been filed as of Wednesday. "We believe that Tyson as a company needs to be held accountable," Erica Meier, the group’s executive director, told USA TODAY. “This is too common of a problem being documented for Tyson's to be pushing this aside as a few rogue workers or bad apples. This is a systemic problem.” Worth Sparkman, a Tyson spokesman, said the company has also been in touch with local authorities about the video, but declined to say whether the company wants to see the employees charged. He said that the retraining will impact hundreds of Tyson’s employees working in live chicken production. Tyson said in a statement that it has begun meeting with every employee in its chicken operations that handles live birds “to aggressively re-emphasize the importance of proper animal handling and the consequences of not complying with the company’s animal welfare policies.” The company also said it conducted a video conference on Thursday in which Tyson's senior management will discuss handling of live birds with managers at the company’s facilities. "We take animal well-being very seriously, and we are going to get to the bottom of this," Daugherty said. Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2bhE4i4

– Chicken giant Tyson Foods says it will retrain all of its workers who deal with live birds after an animal rights group released hidden footage from within its facilities on Wednesday, USA Today reports. According to the Washington Post, the video from Compassion Over Killing shows workers choking, punching, and kicking chickens, plus running them over with forklifts and leaving them in piles to die. One worker in the video says it's "inhumane" to kill a chicken by stepping on its head while he kills a chicken by stepping on its head. Tyson calls the behavior "inexcusable" and says it fired 10 employees at the Virginia facilities shown in the video. Animal rights activists have infiltrated Tyson Foods to film such videos at least five times in a little over a year.

Español Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced important proposed steps ‎to protect public health by preventing the use of sunlamp products (also commonly known as indoor tanning beds) by minors and reducing the risk of using these devices for adults. The FDA is committed to protecting public health by informing consumers of the risks of indoor tanning. “Today’s action is intended to help protect young people from a known and preventable cause of skin cancer and other harms,” said acting FDA Commissioner Stephen Ostroff, M.D. “Individuals under 18 years are at greatest risk of the adverse health consequences of indoor tanning.” Indoor tanning is a known contributor to skin cancer, including melanoma (its most deadly form), and other skin damage. Yet, 1.6 million minors indoor tan each year, increasing their risk of skin cancer and other damage (based on data in the 2013 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey). According to the American Academy of Dermatology, those who have been exposed to radiation from indoor tanning are 59 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who have never tanned indoors. In addition, the effects of exposure to UV radiation add up over one’s lifetime. Therefore, UV radiation exposure in children and teenagers puts them at a greater risk for skin and eye damage later in life. The FDA is issuing two proposed rules today. The first proposed rule would restrict use of sunlamp products to individuals 18 and older. In addition, before their first tanning session and every six months thereafter, adult users over age 18 would have to sign a risk acknowledgement certification that states that they have been informed of the risks to health that may result from use of sunlamp products. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of more than 3,000 emergency department room visits occur for injuries related to indoor tanning each year in the U.S. (based on 2003-2012 data). The FDA also issued a second proposed rule today that would require that sunlamp manufacturers and tanning facilities take additional measures to improve the overall safety of these devices. Specifically, some of the key proposed changes would include: making warnings easier to read and more prominent on the device; requiring an emergency shut off switch, or “panic button”; improving eye safety by adding requirements that would limit the amount of light allowed through protective eyewear; improving labeling on replacement bulbs so tanning facility operators can make sure they are using the proper replacement bulbs, reducing the risk of accidental burns; and prohibiting dangerous device modifications, like installing stronger bulbs, without re-certifying and re-identifying the device with the FDA. “The FDA understands that some adults may decide to continue to use sunlamp products,” continued acting FDA Commissioner Stephen Ostroff, M.D. “These proposed rules are meant to help adults make their decisions based on truthful information and to ensure manufacturers and tanning facilities take additional steps to improve the safety of these devices.” The proposed device restriction would apply to manufacturers and tanning facility operators. There are approximately 18,000 to 19,000 indoor tanning salons and 15,000 to 20,000 other facilities, such as health clubs, spas, and other commercial establishments, that offer tanning services in the U.S. The FDA has information for consumers and businesses via the Division of Industry and Consumer Education (DICE). Also, additional guidance and information for industry is included in the proposed rules. The proposed restriction and updated performance standards are two of the latest steps the Department of Health and Human Services is taking to reduce the risks associated with skin cancer. In July 2014, the Office of the Surgeon General issued a Call to Action to Prevent Skin Cancer, which included strategies for reducing indoor tanning among minors. The proposed rules are available online at www.regulations.gov for public comment for 90 days. How to Comment on the Proposed Rules To comment on the Restricted Sale, Distribution, and Use of Sunlamp Products: Read the proposed rule. Starting Tuesday, December 22, submit comments on the proposed rule on Regulations.gov. Comment Now To comment on the Amendment to the Performance Standard for Sunlamp Products: Read the proposed rule. Starting Tuesday, December 22, submit comments on the proposed rule on Regulations.gov. Comment Now The comment period closes March 21, 2016. The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products. ### ||||| The FDA is proposing an indoor tanning ban for teens under age 18, citing cancer risks. (Photo: for USA TODAY) Tanning beds will be off limits for teenagers and children if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has its way. Proposed regulations made public Friday by the FDA would ban children under 18 from patronizing indoor tanning facilities and would require adult customers to sign strongly-worded new consent forms every six months.The FDA says tanning beds and sun lamps can cause skin cancer, burns and eye damage. The public has 90 days to comment on the new rules. After that, the FDA could make them official. "Today's action is intended to help protect young people from a known and preventable cause of skin cancer and other harms," acting FDA Commissioner Stephen Ostroff said in a statement. "Individuals under 18 years are at greatest risk of the adverse health consequences of indoor tanning." The proposed regulations also require new safety features, including easier-to-read warnings and emergency shut-off "panic buttons." Medical groups immediately applauded the aggressive moves, which come about 18 months after the FDA put new warning labels on the devices used by millions of people each year at tens of thousands of tanning salons, health clubs and other facilities. About 1.6 million of those users are minors, FDA said. Indoor tanners are 59% more likely than non-users to develop melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. The proposed rules are "a monumental step to protect the public's health," said academy president Mark Lebwohl. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network said the changes would reduce skin cancer cases and save lives. The American Academy of Pediatrics said the proposal "sends a loud and clear message: tanning beds are dangerous and should not be used by anyone under age 18." "Fifteen or 20 years ago, it was very unusual to see someone their 30s with a melanoma, and now we constantly see women in their late teens and 20s with melanoma and almost all of them have an extensive tanning bed history," said Darrell Rigel, a clinical professor of dermatology at New York University. The tanning ban on minors could prevent many such cases in the future, he said. "This is a free country, so as an adult, you can make these decisions, just as you can choose to smoke," Rigel said. "But minors need to be protected." Eleven states and Washington, D.C., already ban indoor tanning by minors, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Indoor Tanning Association, representing many tanning bed manufacturers and salon owners, said in a statement that the proposed rules are unneeded: "The indoor tanning industry is heavily regulated at both the federal and state levels and our customers are well aware of the potential risks of over exposure." The group said that "the decision regarding whether or not a teen suntans, whether indoors or outside, is a decision for his/her parents, not the government." Another industry group, The American Suntanning Association, said requiring adults to sign a form acknowledging the risks of tanning every six months “smacks of both government overreach and harassment.” It also said many of the proposed safety standards for tanning equipment already are in place or endorsed by the industry. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1lWw2g4 ||||| The Food and Drug Administration proposed unprecedented new rules Friday that would bar anyone under 18 from using a sunlamp or indoor tanning device. The proposed new rules also would require anyone over 18 who uses a tanning salon or other product to sign a certification saying they understand the risks — which include skin cancer and severe burns. And the FDA, which regulates the tanning beds and sunlamps as medical devices, said it would force manufacturers to make already required warning labels more prominent, add a "panic" button to turn the lamp off, and make other safety modifications. Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed 0:42 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Too many people still believe that indoor tanning is somehow safer than being out in the sun. It isn't, said Dr. Vasum Peiris, chief medical officer in the FDA's division that regulates medical devices for children. "Indoor tanning is designed to deliver large amounts of UV (ultraviolet) radiation in a short time," Peiris told reporters. Some of the lamps can deliver 10 to 15 times the intensity of the midday sun, he said. "The FDA's long-awaited tanning device proposals are an important step that will help to reduce skin cancer diagnoses and deaths," the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network, which advocates in Washington on health issues, said in a statement. "Once it spreads, almost nothing works...I know I'm looking at a virtual death sentence." "We commend the FDA for educating the public about the dangers of exposure to harmful ultraviolet radiation and restricting use for our nation's youth. Indoor tanning devices are not safe." The FDA has been gradually ratcheting up the warnings on tanning beds and lamps. They must already carry a "black-box" warning saying they should not be used by people under 18. The Indoor Tanning Association, which does not conduct its own research into the health effects of tanning, told the Associated Press that decisions about tanning should be left to parents, not the government. "We are concerned that the proposed requirements will burden our members with additional unnecessary governmental costs in an already difficult economic climate," the group representing makers of tanning beds told the AP. Peiris said the FDA has not made final decisions on how it would enforce the rules. The agency can seize products that don't meet standards, and can also work with the Justice Department, state and local government and other agencies to bring civil and criminal charges against repeat offenders. "The FDA understands that some adults may decide to continue to use sunlamp products," continued acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Ostroff. "These proposed rules are meant to help adults make their decisions based on truthful information and to ensure manufacturers and tanning facilities take additional steps to improve the safety of these devices." Tanning beds send hundreds of Americans to emergency rooms each year with burns, including to their eyes. And melanoma rates are up by 200 percent since 1973. Melanoma kills 10,000 Americans a year. "The risk of developing melanoma increases by 59 percent for individuals who have been exposed to UV (ultraviolet) radiation from indoor tanning, and the risk increases with each use," the American Academy of Dermatology said in welcoming the proposed rules. "Once it spreads, almost nothing works," Dr. Darrell Rigel of the New York University Medical Center and a member of the Academy, told NBC News. "A melanoma the size of a dime on your skin has a 50 percent chance of having already spread. We have these women who come in who've got a melanoma that big and feel perfectly fine, but I know I'm looking at a virtual death sentence." And it's affecting young women the most. "Nearly 70 percent of tanning salon patrons are Caucasian girls and young women, and melanoma is increasing faster in young women 15-29 years old than in young men of the same age," the Academy said. "Indoor tanning is a known contributor to skin cancer, including melanoma." About 4 percent of adults use tanning beds, but they're popular among college students. "Indoor tanning is a known contributor to skin cancer, including melanoma (its most deadly form), and other skin damage. Yet, 1.6 million minors indoor tan each year, increasing their risk of skin cancer and other damage," the FDA said. Skin cancer takes time to develop, and the younger a person is when exposed to damaging UV light, the more time there is for tumors to grow. The public has 90 days to comment on the proposals, which FDA says apply to manufacturers of sunlamps and tanning beds and to tanning facility operators. "There are approximately 18,000 to 19,000 indoor tanning salons and 15,000 to 20,000 other facilities, such as health clubs, spas, and other commercial establishments, that offer tanning services in the U.S.," the FDA said. Thirteen states and Washington, D.C. already ban minors from using tanning salons and booths.

– Minors hoping to get their tan on will have to choose the kind that comes in a bottle or get their rays from the sun, according to proposed rules from the FDA. Outlined Friday, the rules would bar those under 18 from using a sunlamp or indoor tanning device, reports NBC News, which calls the rules "unprecedented." Adult users would need to sign what USA Today calls a "strongly worded" document acknowledging the risks of tanning, including skin cancer, before using indoor tanning devices, which the FDA wants modified to include a "panic" off switch and larger warning labels. Doctors and cancer researchers are celebrating the move, per USA Today. The public has 90 days to comment. (Tanning beds send thousands to the ER each year.)

Drew Peterson once grabbed his wife around her neck and asked, "Why don't you just die?" according to a friend of Kathleen Savio's who testified in Peterson's murder trial today. Peterson, 58, is on trial for killing Savio, his third wife, and making it look like an accident. She was found dead in her bathtub in 2004 and the death was initially ruled an accidental drowning. After Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished from their home in 2007, police exhumed Savio's body and reexamined it for signs of murder, finally charging Peterson. Today, Savio's friend Mary Parks testified about conversations the two women had regarding Peterson. "Kathy told me that her husband, Drew Peterson, said he could kill her, make her disappear," Parks said on the stand, according to ABC News affiliate WLS. Parks teared up as she recalled the conversation about Peterson grabbing Savio's neck. Savio told Parks that her estranged husband told her, "Why don't you just die?" "She unzipped the top, it opened and I saw marks on her neck," Parks said. According to her testimony, Parks took nursing classes with Savio, but did not see her again after their graduation in December 2003. Savio died in February 2004. When Parks heard of the death, she called the Will County State's Attorney's Office and asked if the case were being investigated, she testified today. The testimony today marked the second day hearsay statements were allowed into the court transcript, following a significant decision Wednesday by Judge Edward Burmila to allow Savio's friends to testify about Peterson's alleged threats. Kristen Anderson, who lived in Savio's basement after Savio and Peterson split up, said that Savio slept with a knife under her mattress because she was so afraid of Peterson. "She showed me a knife that she kept in between her mattresses for protection," Anderson said. Anderson recalled a conversation in which Savio confessed that Peterson once told her, "I could kill you and make it look like an accident." After the statement, Anderson broke down in tears and had to leave the courtroom, according to WLS. She returned later and continued testifying about Peterson's threatening behavior, including an incident in which Peterson broke into the home, dressed in SWAT gear, and held a knife to Savio's throat while threatening her. Anderson said she called police three times about Savio's case in 2004, but those calls were never returned. Burmila's decision to allow the testimony was hailed by the prosecution, which has no physical evidence tying Peterson to the scene of the crime. "Judge Burmila made an historical ruling today," prosecutor James Glasgow told WLS. Defense attorney Michael Lopez said his client was disappointed in the ruling. "He's upset," Lopez said, according to the report. "But you have to deal with the cards they give you." ||||| Drew Peterson's third wife told a friend a year before she was found dead in her bathtub that the former suburban Chicago police officer once broke into her home, grabbed her by the throat, pinned her down and asked a threatening question, the friend testified Thursday. FILE - In this May 8, 2009 file photo, former Bolingbrook, Ill., police officer Drew Peterson leaves the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., after his arraignment on charges of first-degree murder... (Associated Press) FILE - In this May 7, 2009 file booking photo provided by the Will County Sheriff's office in Joliet, Ill., former Bolingbrook, Ill., police officer Drew Peterson is shown. Peterson is charged with first-degree... (Associated Press) "She said that her husband said, "`Why don't you just die?'" Mary Parks told jurors, her voice quivering as she delivered more of hearsay evidence that's at the heart of the state's case. Peterson, an ex-Bolingbrook police sergeant, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 2004 death of his third wife, 40-year-old Kathleen Savio, who once studied nursing with Parks. As Savio recounted the attack, she unzipped a top she was wearing to show dark red bruises on her neck, saying they were a result of Peterson's attack, Parks testified. "She looked as if she was in shock," Parks told jurors. She said Savio told her the incident occurred on the stairs of her suburban home the night before the women spoke around Thanksgiving in 2003. A year later, Savio's body was found in a dry bathtub at her home _ a gash on the back of her head. Her death was only reclassified from an accident to a homicide after Peterson's fourth wife, 23-year-old Stacy Peterson, vanished in 2007. Peterson, now 58, is a suspect in her disappearance but hasn't been charged. Parks and Savio spoke again in October 2003, with Savio describing another encounter with Peterson. "Kathy told me that her husband ... had told her that he could kill her and make her disappear," she said. At one point, Parks began sobbing and the judge asked jurors to leave while she regained her composure. The hearsay testimony is critical because police who investigated when Savio was found dead quickly decided it was an accident and didn't collect any physical evidence. Illinois adopted a law in the wake of Peterson's case _ dubbed "Drew's Law" _ that allows hearsay evidence in rare circumstances. Peterson, who has looked on intently during testimony, suddenly beamed when his and Savio's son, Kristopher, walked into court and sat behind him to chat during a break. The 18-year-old and other Peterson children are on a witness list and cannot sit in on testimony. During the cross-examination of Parks, defense attorney Steve Greenberg suggested Savio was paranoid, and that her descriptions of clashes with Peterson may have been exaggerated to elicit sympathy. But Savio's friend stood her ground. "Everything that she told me, I had no reason to doubt," Parks said. Before the trial began, Judge James Burmila left open the possibility he could prohibit most or even all of the hearsay prosecutors wanted to enter as evidence. But in recent days, he has permitted several such statements, potentially boosting the odds of a conviction. Thursday morning, Burmila refused a defense request to bar Parks' hearsay testimony. She went on to testify for more than four hours and was the sole witness of the day. In contentious exchanges Thursday, Greenberg said Parks' accounts of what Savio told her have been inconsistent. He even asked Parks why she kept looking to her left at jurors as she answered questions. Parks shot back, "Is it inappropriate for me to do that?" After Parks asked the attorney another question, Burmila admonished her, saying "Don't fence with counsel, ma'am." Constant legal arguments about the hearsay have slowed the trial. Jurors are frequently asked to leave the courtroom so attorneys can argue over the admissibility of hearsay statements. If Peterson is convicted, defense attorneys have said they could appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court on grounds the hearsay should have been barred. There was some levity amid the otherwise weighty proceedings. As the trial got under way in the morning, Burmila announced he had received a letter from an Illinois inmate who claims to have information about a link between Peterson and Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The judge said the unnamed inmate asked him to follow up with him if he wants more details. "I won't be communicating with him," Burmila said, prompting laughter in the courtroom. ___ Follow Michael Tarm at www.twitter.com/mtarm

– Former suburban Chicago cop Drew Peterson once choked his wife, and then asked her: "Why don't you just die?" a friend of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, testified yesterday. Peterson is on trial for allegedly killing Savio and trying to make it look like an accidental drowning in her bathtub. Peterson's fourth wife mysteriously vanished from their home after police opened an investigation into the death of Savio. Savio's pal, Kristen Anderson, also testified that Savio once described how Peterson boasted that he could kill Savio and "make it look like an accident." It was the second day that hearsay testimony from Peterson's late wife was allowed by the judge in the case, reports ABC. There's no physical evidence linking him to her murder. A police officer testified that Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, was very distraught as they questioned her about Savio's death, and that Peterson "corrected" her answers as she spoke, reports AP.

For the past 3 years Lauriann has been cared for at home by her husband and kids. Mike has been unable to work due to caring for his sweet wife 24-7. He also has to care for his children. The older kids have been able to help out financially and physically but with the older 2 married and out of the home there are a lot of burdens placed upon Mike and the kids. They are worried about losing their home and keeping up with every day expenses. We are increasing the total to help with that. If you would like to know the whole story continue reading on and check the updates. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!! Over 3 years ago on August 30th Lauriann went to the hospital with a bleeding ulcer. The doctors cauterized it but due to it's proximity to an artery she lost a lot of blood. They rushed her to emergency surgery to stop the bleeding but during that time she lost oxygen to her brain. This caused an unknown amount of brain damage and left her in a coma. Mike her faithful husband rarely leaves her side. They have 6 beautiful children. As you can imagine medical costs continue to accumulate and so this is a way to help ease the financial burden placed upon their family. Lauriann is an amazing person filled with love and kindness toward all. Any assistance, prayers, and shares are so appreciated. Even if you are unable to donate at this time please share! Thank you for your generosity. Help spread the word! Share Tweet 913 total shares total shares ||||| (CNN) Taylor Swift is helping a fan of hers in need. The singer donated $15,500 to a GoFundMe page that is raising money for the family of a mother, Lauriann Bartell, who has been in a coma for the past three years. Bartell's 19-year-old daughter, Sadie Bartell, tweeted a link to the GoFundMe page and said that her mother went into a coma two days before she went to see Swift in concert. "Hey guys. I'm really nervous to post this. Please help if you can and pray for my family. I'm sorry I never said anything sooner and that I'm suddenly asking for help. I love you guys so much," she wrote in a message she posted with the tweet. She added, "I'm grateful to Taylor for keeping me afloat through it all." Read More ||||| Taylor Swift has become well known for lending a hand whenever she can. Most recently, the songstress donated $15,500 a 19-year-old fan whose mother has been in a coma for the past three years. The act of generosity is just of Swift's many financial contributions. Billboard has rounded up all the times the pop star donated her money to a good cause. See below for her philanthropic timeline. October 2011 - She donates $70,000 in books to her hometown library In the midst of her Speak Now tour, the star donated 6,000 books to the Reading Public Library in Pennsylvania. The books were all new and geared towards children and teens, according to the local Reading Eagle. January 2015 - A lucky fan gets some help paying for student loans Swift spread the holiday cheer by sending personalized "Swiftmas" presents to fans all over the world. Rebekah, a college graduate who wrote via Tumblr about her student loans concerns, got a donation of $1,989 (like her album name) to help her start payments. February 2015 - Swift gives $50,000 in song proceeds to NYC schools At the time, the singer just moved to New York and released the ode to her new home, the 1989 tune, "Welcome to New York." In celebration, she announced that she would donate proceeds from the single to the city’s schools. September 2015 - "Wildest Dreams" video proceeds go to animal foundation In another 1989 song-related donation, Swift gave money made from her wildlife themed "Wildest Dreams" video to the African Parks Foundation of America (APFA), which focuses on eradication of poaching, nature conservation, community engagement and the development of sustainable tourism. February 2016 - Swift supports Kesha with $250,000 Two days after a judge ruled against the "Tik Tok" singer in a case in which she asked to record music independently of producer Dr. Luke, Swift gave money to her fellow songstress during the "trying time." August 2016 - She thanks doctors who saved Jaime King's son's life "At 20 weeks our son was diagnosed with Transposition of the Great Arteries AKA TGA," Jaime King wrote on Instagram at the time. "He had a major heart surgery, that was terrifying, and traumatic for us as parents, for our family." She then continued to thank Swift. "As the Godmother of Leo Thames for his birthday she gave an incredible donation to the people that saved his life Dr. Allistar Phillips and his brilliant team." August 2017 - Swift donates to Joyful Heart Foundation for survivors of sexual assault After winning a countersuit against a former Denver DJ who allegedly groped her in 2013, she gave back by making a "generous" pledge to actress Mariska Hargitay's Joyful Heart Foundation, which helps those victimized by sexual assault. September 2017 - Hurricane Harvey survivors get a helping hand Following the devastation that led to multiple deaths and extreme damages, Swift donated to the Houston Food Bank in honor of her mother, Andrea Finlay Swift, who graduated from the University of Houston. The organization soon thanked her for her "very sizable" donation. April 2018 - Singer thanked by RAINN for donation during Sexual Assault Awareness Month "Thank you @TaylorSwift13 for always standing with survivors," the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network wrote on Twitter. "Your generous donation this week during #SAAPM ensures that survivors and their loved ones get the help they need and deserve." Thank you @TaylorSwift13 for always standing with survivors. Your generous donation this week during #SAAPM ensures that survivors and their loved ones get the help they need and deserve. — RAINN (@RAINN) April 5, 2018 July 2018 - Swift donates Reputation tour tickets to mourning Massachusetts police departments After Weymouth Sgt. Michael Chesna was shot and killed while investigating a car crash, Swift tried to ease the pain by donating “a significant number of tickets” to the police department for her shows in Foxborough, according to The Patriot Ledger. October 2018 - Swift meets boy with autism she donated $10,000 to for a service dog Two years after she donated $10,000 to a boy with autism for a service dog, Swift invited 8-year-old Jacob Hill, his dog Reid and his family to her show at NRG Stadium in Houston. ||||| × $15,500 gift from Taylor Swift inspires more donations for Utah family in need Taylor Swift donated $15,500 to a Utah family in need, and her charitable act is inspiring others to do the same. According to a GoFundMe spokesperson, Taylor Swift made a $15,500 donation to the Bartell family on October 20. The donation came with the caption “Love, Taylor, Meredith and Olivia Swift.” Meredith and Olivia are the names of Swift’s cats. The Bartell family is facing medical hardship, as Lauriann has been in a coma for more than three years. She suffered a bleeding ulcer in August of 2015 and suffered brain damage before going into a coma. Lauriann and her husband have six children and the GoFundMe page states Mike has stayed home to care for them full-time the last three years. Swift’s donation was liked 155 times. “Now, inspired by Taylor Swift, other fans are coming together to support the Bartells,” a GoFundMe spokesperson stated. As of Tuesday, the campaign had raised about $26,000 of its $40,000 goal. To learn more about the Bartell family or to donate, click here.

– A Utah woman owes big thanks to Taylor Swift and her two cats. Over the weekend, Swift fan Sadie Bartell tweeted a link to a GoFundMe page raising money for her mother, Lauriann Bartel, who's been in a coma for three years since suffering brain damage linked to a bleeding ulcer, per Fox 13. "I'm grateful to Taylor for keeping me afloat through it all," wrote 19-year-old Bartell, who has five siblings being cared for full-time by their father, per CNN. Prompting disbelief, Swift not only saw the tweet, but donated $15,500 to the campaign, which has now raised $26,714 of a $40,000 goal. "Love, Taylor, Meredith and Olivia Swift," signed the singer, giving the names of her two cats. Billboard lists more generous acts by Swift, like this $1 million donation.

On His Way to Speak At FBI, Trump Slams The Bureau And Opens Door To Pardoning Flynn Enlarge this image toggle caption Evan Vucci/AP Evan Vucci/AP President Trump, minutes before heading to speak at the FBI's National Academy, lashed out at the bureau, saying, "It's a shame what's happened with the FBI" and claiming there are "a lot of very angry people that are seeing it." Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, Trump said, "We're going to rebuild the FBI" after what he described as "really, really disgraceful" documents. He appeared to be referring to text messages the Justice Department provided Congress this week in which a senior agent described candidate Trump as an "idiot" and made other political remarks in the course of the presidential campaign. Trump's comments are the latest in a barrage of criticism he has directed at the FBI. Earlier this month, he declared on Twitter that the bureau's reputation is "in Tatters — worst in History!" That assessment came days after special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, secured a guilty plea from Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Trump opened the door Friday to pardoning Flynn. "I don't want to talk about pardons with Michael Flynn — yet," Trump said. "We'll see what happens. Let's see." Flynn has not been sentenced and appears to be a cooperating witness as part of Mueller's Russia probe. Trump called the investigation a "Democrat hoax," "an excuse for losing the election" and claimed again "there is absolutely no collusion." toggle caption Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Later, White House lawyer Ty Cobb said, "There is no consideration at the White House of a pardon for Michael Flynn." Trump's remarks on his way to Quantico, Va., carried new potency given the president's audience Friday morning: the latest graduating class at the FBI's National Academy for law enforcement managers. In his speech, the president refrained from attacking the FBI. He made only passing references to the bureau in his remarks before U.S. and international law enforcement officers who were graduating from a program at the FBI's prestigious training center. Instead, Trump's speech focused on his "law and order" agenda, and he echoed comments Attorney General Jeff Sessions has frequently made since Inauguration Day: The administration backs the police. "With me as your president, America's police will have a true friend and loyal champion in the White House. More loyal that anyone else can be," Trump said. "You very rarely get the recognition you deserve." He promised to work with law enforcement to crack down on drug cartels and gangs, such as MS-13, whose members he referred to as "savages." "We'll get rid of them completely, very soon, right?" Trump said as he turned and pointed to Sessions. "To any member of MS-13 listening: We will find you; we will arrest you; we will jail you; we will throw you the hell out of the country." While Trump refrained from criticizing the FBI in his speech, his comments earlier in the day hung over his appearance in Quantico — and dominated TV news coverage leading up to his address. That is because it's unusual for a president to blast the bureau — the premier law enforcement agency in the country. In fact, over the past 15 years, it has been the other way around. President Barack Obama famously visited bureau headquarters a few months after he took office in 2009, donning an FBI baseball cap and sharing "the thanks of a grateful nation." A year earlier, President George W. Bush praised "the character and courage of those who carry the badge." The appearance at the FBI had already promised to be complicated for Trump, given his record of derogatory public statements and negative tweets about the FBI this year. Recently, Trump tweeted that the FBI's reputation was in "Tatters - worst in History!" He called popular former FBI Director James Comey, whom he fired in May, "a liar" and "a leaker." Trump also accused the FBI, without providing any evidence, of illegally wiretapping Trump Tower in 2016. And he continues to cast doubt on a conclusion by the bureau and other intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in last year's presidential election. On Friday morning, Trump reaffirmed to reporters, "there is absolutely no collusion. I didn't make a phone call to Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia. Everybody knows it. That was a Democrat hoax. It was an excuse for losing the election." Another source of awkwardness: the FBI's longtime former leader, Mueller, is the man running the ongoing special counsel probe into election interference — and into whether anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign took part. So far, Mueller's team has secured indictments against Paul Manafort, Trump's onetime campaign chairman, and won guilty pleas from a campaign foreign policy official and Flynn. That last development, on Dec. 1, prompted a new wave of attacks from Trump and his supporters on the integrity of the FBI and the Justice Department, fueled by the disclosure that the Justice Department Inspector General had uncovered text messages in which a senior agent working on the Russia probe had called Trump an "idiot" during the campaign. While Mueller removed the agent from the investigation months ago, one of Trump's lawyers, Jay Sekulow, has cited the matter to call for a second special counsel to investigate conflicts of interest at the bureau. In response to a stream of harsh criticism this month, the FBI Agents Association mounted a rare public defense. "Every day, FBI special agents put their lives on the line to protect the American public from national security and criminal threats," President Tom O'Connor tweeted. "Agents perform their duties with unwavering integrity and professionalism and a focus on complying with the law and the Constitution. This is why the FBI continues to be the premier law enforcement agency in the world." Trump's pick to lead the FBI, former Justice Department official Christopher Wray, also raised his voice to defend the workforce in congressional testimony last week. "Let me start by saying that it is for me the honor of a lifetime to be here representing the men and women of the FBI," Wray said. "There is no finer institution than the FBI and no finer people than the men and women who work there and are its very beating heart." Trump appeared on stage with Wray to welcome the new class of National Academy graduates at what is known as the agency's "police training center." The program puts attendees through a series of academic and physical challenges, building partnerships between police and the FBI. Nearly 10 years ago, Mueller told an FBI graduating class at Quantico, "For the past 100 years, the FBI has stood for the best of America." It remains to be seen whether the new president agrees. ||||| President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd at the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017, in Quantico, Va. Trump said Friday "it's a shame what's happened" with the FBI, calling... (Associated Press) President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd at the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017, in Quantico, Va. Trump said Friday "it's a shame what's happened" with the FBI, calling the agency's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation "really disgraceful." The comments... (Associated Press) QUANTICO, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump laced into FBI leadership Friday, while proclaiming his loyalty and support for law enforcement in an address at the agency's training academy. "It's a shame what's happened" with the FBI, the president said as he left the White House for a speech at the FBI training academy in Quantico, Virginia. He called the agency's handling of Hillary Clinton's email investigation "really disgraceful" and told reporters "we're going to rebuild the FBI." Shortly afterward, Trump lavished praise on graduates of a weeks-long FBI National Academy program and their families, touting their accomplishments and pledging his unwavering support. Trump told law enforcement leaders he is "more loyal than anyone else could be" to police. "Anti-police sentiment is wrong and it's dangerous," he added. "Anyone who kills a police officer should get the death penalty." Trump used the speech to promote his administration's tough-on-crime policies, delivering a stern warning to members of the international gang MS-13 that his administration will root them out and arrest them. He also celebrated his decision to make it easier for local police forces to purchase surplus military equipment, and questioned rising violence in Chicago. "What the hell is going on in Chicago? What the hell is happening there," he asked. Hours before, White House Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox News Channel that edits to former FBI Director James Comey's statement on Clinton's private email server and anti-Trump texts from a top agent are "deeply troubling." "There is extreme bias against this president with high-up members of the team there at the FBI who were investigating Hillary Clinton at the time," Gidley charged, as special counsel Robert Mueller pushes on with a probe of possible Trump campaign ties to Russia. Gidley says Trump maintains confidence in the FBI's rank-and-file. Edits to the Comey draft appeared to soften the gravity of the bureau's finding in its 2016 investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state. "It is very sad when you look at those documents, how they've done that is really, really disgraceful, and you have a lot of really angry people who are seeing it," Trump said of the document. Gidley said the disclosure of politically charged text messages sent by one of the agents on the Clinton case, Peter Strzok, were "eye-opening." Strzok, who was in the room as Clinton was interviewed, was later assigned to special counsel Robert Mueller's team to investigate potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. He was re-assigned after the messages were uncovered this summer. About 200 leaders in law enforcement from around the country attended the weeks-long FBI National Academy program aimed at raising law enforcement standards and cooperation. Coursework included intelligence theory, terrorism and terrorist mindsets, law, behavioral science, law enforcement communication, and forensic science.

– President Trump laced into FBI leadership Friday, while proclaiming his loyalty and support for law enforcement in an address at the agency's training academy. "It's a shame what's happened" with the FBI, the president said as he left the White House for a speech at the FBI training academy in Quantico, Virginia. He called the agency's handling of Hillary Clinton's email investigation "really disgraceful" and told reporters "we're going to rebuild the FBI," per the AP. Shortly afterward, Trump lavished praise on graduates of a weeks-long FBI National Academy program and their families, touting their accomplishments and pledging his unwavering support. Trump told law enforcement leaders he is "more loyal than anyone else could be" to police. Trump used the speech to promote his administration's tough-on-crime policies, delivering a stern warning to members of the international gang MS-13 that his administration will root them out and arrest them. He also celebrated his decision to make it easier for local police forces to purchase surplus military equipment, and questioned rising violence in Chicago. "What the hell is going on in Chicago? What the hell is happening there," he asked. In his comments before the speech, Trump also mentioned former national security adviser Michael Flynn. "I don't want to talk about pardons with Michael Flynn—yet," Trump said, per NPR. "We'll see what happens. Let's see."

In an unruly, unpredictable and chaotic election year, no group has asserted its presence and demanded to be heard more forcefully than the tea party. The grass-roots movement that was spawned with a rant has gone on to upend the existing political order, reshaping the debate in Washington, defeating a number of prominent lawmakers and elevating a fresh cast of conservative stars. But a new Washington Post canvass of hundreds of local tea party groups reveals a different sort of organization, one that is not so much a movement as a disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings that do surprisingly little to engage in the political process. The results come from a months-long effort by The Post to contact every tea party group in the nation, an unprecedented attempt to understand the network of individuals and organizations at the heart of the nascent movement. Seventy percent of the grass-roots groups said they have not participated in any political campaigning this year. As a whole, they have no official candidate slates, have not rallied behind any particular national leader, have little money on hand, and remain ambivalent about their goals and the political process in general. "We're not wanting to be a third party," said Matt Ney, 55, the owner of a Pilates studio and a founder of the Pearland Tea Party Patriots in Pearland, Tex. "We're not wanting to endorse individual candidates ever. What we're trying to do is be activists by pushing a conservative idea." The group, with 25 active members, meets to discuss policies and listen to speakers, Ney said. "We provide opportunities for like-minded people to get together," he said. The local groups stand in contrast to - and, in their minds, apart from - a handful of large national groups that claim the tea party label. Most of those outfits, including FreedomWorks and Tea Party Express, are headed by longtime political players who have used their resources and know-how to help elect a number of candidates. The findings suggest that the breadth of the tea party may be inflated. The Atlanta-based Tea Party Patriots, for example, says it has a listing of more than 2,300 local groups, but The Post was unable to identify anywhere near that many, despite help from the organization and independent research. In all, The Post identified more than 1,400 possible groups and was able to verify and reach 647 of them. Each answered a lengthy questionnaire about their beliefs, members and goals. The Post tried calling the others as many as six times. It is unclear whether they are just hard to reach or don't exist. Mark Meckler, a founding member of the Tea Party Patriots, said: "When a group lists themselves on our Web site, that's a group. That group could be one person, it could be 10 people, it could come in and out of existence - we don't know. We have groups that I know are 15,000 people, and I have groups that I know are five people." 'We can't always agree' There is little agreement among the leaders of various groups about what issue the tea party should be most concerned about. In fact, few saw themselves as part of a coordinated effort. The most common responses were concerns about spending and limiting the size of government, but together those were named by less than half the groups. Social issues, such as same-sex marriage and abortion rights, did not register as concerns. ||||| The Tea Party has no leader. It has no address, no phone and no Washington headquarters. It is everywhere and nowhere. For Barack Obama, the Tea Party is the quintessential asymmetrical enemy, much like the Taliban in Afghanistan. The president stands a chance of losing on both fronts. The Post set up a posse and went in search of the Tea Party. Of the 2,300 local groups claimed by one Tea Party organization, The Post could verify or reach only 647. As for the rest, "it is unclear whether they are just hard to reach or don't exist," The Post said. Most of the known groups back no candidate, have no platform, raise little money and are not exactly sure of what they stand for. This is pretty close to what Will Rogers said of his own political allegiance: "I am not a member of any organized party. I am a Democrat." The difference between being an early-20th-century Democrat and an early-21st-century Tea Party member is the Internet. With it, the middleman is eliminated -- in this case an actual political party, Republican or Democratic, which was once called the organization because it actually organized. Now that's done laptop to laptop so like-minded people can get together, even if they do not actually get together. The Tea Party exists in the vapors. For Obama, it's a refutation of what Joe Louis said before his 1941 bout with Billy Conn: "He can run, but he can't hide." The Tea Party can do both. As a result, the vexed Obama has been swinging wildly, punching at ghosts. He has tried elevating the colorless John Boehner as a worthy opponent, but his face is as unrecognizable as his name is unpronounceable. Obama tried to make the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Public Enemy No. 1, but to most Americans the chamber is a group of guys in short-sleeve shirts and clip-on ties who sponsor the July 4 parade. He has tried going after Big Business and Evil Finance, but they are where the jobs are -- or used to be -- and while they are both more or less disliked, the message is mixed. Obama is stuck in the classic dilemma of asymmetrical warfare: Who and where is the enemy? In Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus carrots-and-sticks the Taliban -- battling them while also inviting them to peace talks. The strategy might work and, if it does, Obama might wonder why he did not do something similar. "Why should he be negotiating with the Taliban and not with the Tea Party?" the Democratic political consultant Douglas E. Schoen asked me. The Post's survey of the Tea Party movement suggests Schoen is on to something. Despite a repellent stream of racism in the Tea Party ranks -- The Post found that 11 percent of the Tea Party members said that Obama's race, religion or ethnic background was either "very important" or "somewhat important" for the movement -- the overriding emotion is anger. Anger is ugly to behold, but it is both understandable and widespread. Who besides the odd walrus was not angered by the bridge to nowhere? Who is not angry about earmarks and exorbitant government pensions and lousy roads and awful schools and taxes that seem too high -- in other words a political system in dire need of reform? The desire for change -- an emotion one step short of anger -- was what propelled Obama into the White House. As the Tea Party gained attention, he could have made common cause with it -- not on social issues, of course, but these are not as important as economic ones. Those and a general distrust of government are what motivate most Tea Party members, The Post discovered. Their allegiance to any political party is minimal. Obama, with almost no political record, might have made inroads with these people. Instead, he managed to become the personification of Big Government -- not just with his programs (necessary though they might be) but with his persona and isolation in the White House. He banned lobbyists but managed to transform himself into the biggest one of all. He blew it. The Tea Party is here to stay if only because the Internet is here to stay. But its emotions and its grievances can be co-opted, engulfed, absorbed and made part of the engine of change that Obama himself once both personified and promised. As I recall, the original Tea Party was open to anyone. All you needed for admittance was anger. cohenr@washpost.com

– The Tea Party is mad as hell and ... that's about it, writes Richard Cohen in the Washington Post. Beyond anger, the Tea Party "has no leader. It has no address, no phone, and no Washington headquarters. It is everywhere and nowhere." When a Post posse tried to track down 2,300 local tea-drinking groups, it could verify only 647. Cohen writes that "the Tea Party exists in the vapors," bound only by anger and the Internet. The latter eliminates the middleman—"in this case an actual political party, which was once called the organization because it actually organized." "Now that's done laptop to laptop so like-minded people can get together, even if they do not actually get together." This creates an "asymmetrical," impossible-to-nail-down enemy for Obama, but it's an enemy who is seeking change—which is exactly what pushed Obama into the presidency. "The Tea Party is here to stay if only because the Internet is here to stay. But its emotions and its grievances can be co-opted, engulfed, absorbed and made part of the engine of change that Obama himself once both personified and promised. As I recall, the original Tea Party was open to anyone. All you needed for admittance was anger."

ROME — If the paragon of all Christmas trees is the one in front of the Rockefeller Center in New York — first erected, mind you, by an Italian in 1931 — the prize for most pitiful must go to the one that stands in Rome’s Piazza Venezia this year. Just days after it was put up, it began to gray and shed its needles, and soon it had become nearly see-through. The tree cuts so sad and forlorn a figure that it has been nicknamed Spelacchio, or Mangy. Spelacchio arrived in Rome early this month from the Trentino region, near Italy’s border with Austria, and what with transport expenses and decorations, the 70-foot fir is estimated to have cost Italian taxpayers 48,000 euros, or $57,000. It’s not clear what has ailed it. Maybe Spelacchio was unsettled by the trip; perhaps it was ill on departure. By way of explanation, Antimo Palumbo, a tree historian who was standing by Spelacchio’s side on Friday morning, pointed at the concrete all over its roots. “You see that?” he told me. “They decided to pour the concrete to keep it steady, but that killed it instead.” There isn’t enough time, money or political will to replace the tree, and so Spelacchio the Mangy will stay in Piazza Venezia through the holidays, and for many locals it has already become a metaphor for what’s wrong with the city, and the country. Traffic in Rome is chronically congested, public transport is inefficient, trash collection is slow and sporadic. Early hopes about Virginia Raggi, who was elected mayor last year on an anti-establishment agenda, promptly faded amid familiar allegations of corruption and nepotism. ||||| Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below. Gehiago jakin Add this video to your website by copying the code below. Gehiago jakin Hmm, arazo bat egon da zerbitzariarenera iristeko. Berriro saiatu? Gehitu Txio gurasoak Media gehitu Zure webgunean edo aplikazioan Twitter-eko edukia kapsulatzean, Garatzaile Akordioa eta Garatzaile Politika onartzen dituzu. Aurreikusi ||||| ROME — No sooner had workers hoisted a 72-foot tall Norway spruce in Rome’s central Piazza Venezia this month than the mocking began. The tree was quickly nicknamed Spelacchio, or Mangy, because so many of its dead needles were dropping off, leaving the tree looking a bit bare. Chatter spread quickly on social media where Romans traded jokes about the spruce and criticized its sad appearance. Insults quickly turned to intrigue as the Italian media plumbed the tree’s costs, questioned how it had been transported to the city and analyzed its state of health. “It has clearly been traumatized,” one expert declared. A consumer rights group asked an administrative court, which has oversight over government spending, to investigate what it described as a “shameful spectacle for citizens and tourists” and demanded that the tree be removed immediately. ||||| Published on Dec 15, 2016 Created in 1965, this show is 51 years old and still going strong! What would we do without Charlie Brown and Linus and Snoopy and the gang?

– Rome wasn't built in a day, but it looks like its Christmas tree may have been. The "toilet brush" of a tree now standing in one of the city's busiest public squares and being roundly mocked in Italy and around the world makes Charlie Brown's Christmas tree look lush by comparison. The New York Times reports that the 72-foot-tall Norway spruce erected in the Piazza Venezia and nicknamed "Spelacchio," or "Mangy," will cost the city about $57,000 in all—and locals are outraged that so much money was outlayed for a tree that one expert says "has clearly been traumatized." Thrillist documents some of the online reaction to the sad, needle-sparse spruce, which it calls a "balding network of pines and brittle branches." "Maybe the dogs drank all the water in the tree stand?" one amused viewer tweeted, while another offered a backhanded compliment: "Big fan of Rome's Christmas tree for looking how we all feel." Others defend the tree, saying it looks OK when it's lit up at night. "We are all Spelacchio!" one supporter told a local paper. Per the Times, the tree even has a few Facebook accounts and a Twitter handle in its name, with one tweet proclaiming: "I have more followers than branches." A consumer rights group that calls the tree a "shameful spectacle for citizens and tourists" is lobbying to have the tree taken down and has asked a local court to scrutinize the tree's costs. Rome's mayor says her office is also looking into TreeGate.

Reynolds American Inc. agreed to acquire Lorillard Inc. in an ambitious and risky $25 billion deal that would reshape the landscape of U.S. tobacco and make Newport menthols an even more formidable rival to Altria Group Inc.'s top-selling Marlboro. The transaction would add Lorillard's Newport, the No. 2 U.S. cigarette brand, to Reynolds's portfolio, which includes Camel and Pall Mall cigarettes, giving Reynolds a commanding... ||||| Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) agreed to buy rival Lorillard Inc. (LO) for about $25 billion excluding debt, a deal that would leave the 400-year-old U.S. tobacco industry with two competitors controlling 90 percent of the market. Reynolds, the maker of Camel and Pall Mall cigarettes, will pay cash and stock valuing Lorillard at $68.88 a share, according to a statement. British American Tobacco Plc (BATS) will fund $4.7 billion of the transaction, letting it maintain a 42 percent stake in Reynolds. BAT’s U.K. rival Imperial Tobacco Group Plc (IMT) will acquire brands such as Kool and Blu e-cigarettes for $7.1 billion in a bid to assuage antitrust concerns. Modernized Cigarette Seeks Respectability Decades of anti-tobacco health campaigns have hurt demand and put pressure on the industry to consolidate. Acquiring Lorillard, the U.S. industry’s third-largest competitor, would help Reynolds cope with the slowdown and give it the Newport menthol line, which is popular in urban areas. Still, the deal faces challenges, and investors signaled that they’re uncertain it will close in its current form. Lorillard shares slid to $60.17 in New York, 13 percent below the purchase price. “There’s a lot of risk,” said Owen Bennett, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in London. “There are a lot of factors involved.” Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg Lorillard Inc. brand Newport cigarettes aa a store in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Close Lorillard Inc. brand Newport cigarettes aa a store in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Close Open Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg Lorillard Inc. brand Newport cigarettes aa a store in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Including debt, the purchase is valued at $27.4 billion. The new company will have annual revenue of more than $11 billion -- almost two-thirds the yearly sales of U.S. market leader Altria (MO) Group Inc. -- and operating income of about $5 billion. Market Share Reynolds shares also fell, dropping 6.9 percent to $58.84. Imperial Tobacco declined 3.7 percent to 2,638 pence in London, while BAT fell 1.8 percent to 3,532 pence. Altria dropped 3.7 percent to $41.76. Reynolds said the combined company will account for almost 33 percent of the U.S. industry. That leaves the U.S. with two competitors -- Reynolds and Altria -- selling nine out of every 10 cigarettes. Imperial said its market share will more than triple to 9.5 percent from 2.5 percent. The companies will fight for customers in an industry where health concerns and smoking restrictions have eroded sales. Total U.S. cigarette shipments fell by a median of 2.9 percent in the first quarter among the nation’s top tobacco companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Industries. Yet even amid the slump, the companies have remained profitable, with Altria, Reynolds and Lorillard all boosting net income last year. Lorillard Drops The deal -- which followed months of intermittent talks -- will have to pass antitrust hurdles. As part of the effort to overcome those challenges, Imperial will acquire well-known brands such as Salem, Winston and Maverick. Getting the Blu lineup also gives Imperial a foothold in the emerging market for e-cigarettes -- battery-powered devices that can deliver nicotine and other substances through vapor. “The most surprising element is that Imperial is taking the e-cigarette business from Lorillard,” said Philip Gorham, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Amsterdam. “It was probably the sweetener that convinced them to buy what is essentially a selection of third-tier brands.” Including the Blu brand in the deal was needed to get Imperial to the table and reduced antitrust concerns from having the products in the same company as Reynolds’s Vuse e-cigarettes, said a person familiar with the matter. E-Cig Sales U.S. e-cig sales were forecast by Euromonitor International to triple last year to $1.5 billion and then double annually through 2018. Still, the products face uncertainty as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration explores how to regulate them while cities and employers debate where they can be used. Reynolds is “absolutely confident” in the future of its Vuse e-cig brand, Chief Executive Officer Susan Cameron said today in an interview. Reynolds said cost savings from the deal will be about $800 million and that it will add to earnings in the first year. Cameron will continue as CEO of Reynolds after the acquisition, and the company will remain headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Murray Kessler, chairman, president and CEO of Greensboro, North Carolina-based Lorillard, will join Reynolds’s board. Reynolds and BAT also agreed to share next-generation tobacco technology, including heat-not-burn cigarettes and vapor products. Imperial will acquire Lorillard’s manufacturing and research facilities in Greensboro and about 2,900 employees, including a national sales force. Newport Brand Lorillard’s biggest product, Newport, will give Reynolds fresh ammunition against Altria, whose brands account for more than half of the U.S. retail cigarette industry. Altria’s Marlboro by itself has market share in the U.S. of about 44 percent, according to the company’s website. Newport is the second-most-popular brand among all U.S. cigarettes and the leader among menthol smokes, which account for about a third of the $90 billion U.S. cigarette market. The brand was the main selling point for Reynolds, and recent signals that the FDA won’t institute overly onerous regulations on menthols gave the company confidence to move ahead with the purchase, said a person familiar with the situation. Lazard served as lead financial adviser to Reynolds, which also consulted with JPMorgan Chase & Co., while Centerview Partners and Barclays Plc advised Lorillard. Jones Day LP provided legal counsel to Reynolds, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as Lorillard’s legal adviser. Imperial Tobacco, which said it will fund its portion of the transaction entirely through debt, is being advised by Credit Suisse Group AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Months Talking Reynolds, Lorillard and London-based BAT have been in talks since last fall to reach an agreement that would satisfy all three parties, people familiar with the matter have said. Those discussions got a boost when Cameron returned as Reynolds’s CEO in May, Kessler said in an interview. She was instrumental “in getting this transaction from what was sort of out there and theoretical to a very compelling transaction that our board could support,” Kessler said. “She was extremely helpful in bringing that home.” The companies made a tentative deadline of July to reach a deal because of an agreement by BAT not to raise its stake in Reynolds without the approval of Reynolds’s board until this month, people familiar have said. BAT’s agreement keeping it from increasing its stake in Reynolds dates back to the merger of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. with Brown & Williamson Tobacco. Hard Look The Federal Trade Commission is likely to take a hard look at the latest proposed transaction, according to David Balto, a Washington attorney and former policy director for the FTC who litigated BAT’s merger with Reynolds in 2004. The FTC allowed that deal to go through because Brown & Williamson was losing market share and Lorillard was still a viable competitor, according to the FTC. The market is more consolidated now, and this deal will face serious scrutiny, Balto said. Selling off the minor brands to Imperial, and even unloading a bigger name like Camel, may not be enough, he said. “I wouldn’t put any number on the likelihood of this deal being approved,” Balto said in an interview. “I think it would need to be more substantial than Camel.” To contact the reporters on this story: Duane D. Stanford in Atlanta at dstanford2@bloomberg.net; David Welch in New York at dwelch12@bloomberg.net; Gabi Thesing in London at gthesing@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net; Mohammed Hadi at mhadi1@bloomberg.net Kevin Orland

– Reynolds American, the maker of Camel and Pall Mall cigarettes, has agreed to buy Lorillard, the maker of Newport menthols, in a deal that will make it a strong second to Marlboro manufacturer Altria in the US tobacco market, the Wall Street Journal reports. Reynolds will pay a combination of cash and stock amounting to about $27.4 billion. It will also sell off its Kool, Salem, Winston, Maverick, and Blu eCigs brands to Imperial Tobacco Group for $7.1 billion, in the hopes of easing antitrust concerns—though analysts say regulators will be taking a hard look at the deal anyway. Altria controls about half of the US cigarette market, while Reynolds and Lorillard controlled 25% and 15%, respectively, before the tie-up. "It’s transformative because it creates a duopoly in the US," one analyst tells Bloomberg, which will help dull the pain of a longstanding downward sales trend. The deal also serves to boost Reynolds' presence in tobacco's fastest-growing product categories, menthols and e-cigarettes, the New York Times points out.

THURSDAY, Aug. 18, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Unsafe use of contact lenses -- such as sleeping with them in place or using the same pair for too long -- is triggering serious eye injuries for many Americans, a new report finds. In fact, eye damage occurred in nearly 20 percent of contact lens-related eye infections reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over 10 years, researchers say. "Improper wear and care of contact lenses can cause eye infections that sometimes lead to serious, long-term damage," Michael Beach, who directs the Healthy Water Program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an agency news release. One eye specialist believes many Americans don't take contact lens hygiene seriously enough. "There is a serious health crisis with contact lens-related eye injuries," said Dr. Mark Fromer, an ophthalmologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "Unfortunately, many of the 41 million contact lens users in the United States do not think of a contact lens as a medical device they are placing on the surface of their eye." In the study, CDC researchers analyzed nearly 1,100 cases of eye infections related to use of contact lens that were reported to the FDA between 2005 and 2015. According to the researchers, nearly 1 in 5 patients had either a scarred cornea, required a corneal transplant or had other types of eye damage because of the infection. More than 10 percent of the patients had to go to a hospital ER or urgent care clinic for immediate treatment. "While people who get serious eye infections represent a small percentage of those who wear contacts, they serve as a reminder for all contact lens wearers to take simple steps to prevent infections," said study author Dr. Jennifer Cope. She's a medical epidemiologist in CDC's Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch. Even when lens-related eye infections are minor, they can still be painful and disruptive. For example, patients may have to make daily visits to an eye doctor or use eye drops every hour to treat the infection, Cope's team said. ||||| Contact lens wearers must be vigilant in taking proper care of their lenses in order to prevent infections, the CDC warns in a new report. About 41 million Americans wear contact lenses. While they are a safe and effective alternative to glasses, contact lenses can lead to serious problems if not handled properly. In fact, the CDC reports that nearly one in five lens-related eye infections reported to a federal database involved a patient who experienced eye damage. “Contact lenses are a safe and effective form of vision correction when worn and cared for as recommended,” said Michael Beach, Ph.D., director of CDC’s Healthy Water Program, in a statement. “However, improper wear and care of contact lenses can cause eye infections that sometimes lead to serious, long-term damage.” For the report, researchers reviewed more than 1,000 contact lens-related infections reported to the FDA between 2005 and 2015. The infections included patients who had a scarred cornea, needed a corneal transplant, or otherwise suffered a reduction in vision. More than 10 percent of the incidents involved a visit to an emergency department or urgent care clinic. The researchers point out that even minor damage can be painful and disrupt daily life. For example, many of the reports describe the patients needing to make daily visits to an eye doctor or hourly administration of eye drops to treat the infection. Furthermore, the report found that more than one in four of the reports mentioned easily avoidable behaviors that increase the risk of infection, such as wearing lenses while sleeping and wearing them longer than recommended. Experts urge that proper contact lens care is paramount to maintaining good eye health. “While patients, especially younger patients, are really excited about being fitted with contact lenses, I stress to them that contact lenses are medical devices that have to be properly fitted, evaluated and that they must adhere to proper contact lens care,” said Dr. Andrea Thau of the American Optometric Association (AOA). “If they don’t follow my guidance, they can end up with serious eye problems.” Thau was not involved in the CDC study. The AOA recommends the following tips to safely wear and care for contact lenses. Visit your eye doctor every year. Annual in-person eye examines determine whether or not your prescription changed and evaluate eye and overall health. An optometrist can diagnose eye diseases (such as glaucoma diabetes strokes Buy your contact lenses from a trusted source. Contact lenses and lens care products are medical devices regulated by the FDA, yet some online retailers sell them without prescriptions and sometimes ship contact lenses of the wrong prescription. Poorly fitted contact lenses can cause significant damage to the eye’s function, which could lead to irreversible sight loss. Don’t panic if your lens is “lost” in your eye. Sometimes rubbing your eyes can cause a contact to move around, but it is not possible for it to get lost behind your eye due to a membrane — the conjunctiva — that covers the eye and the inside of the eyelids. If the lens has moved and is not visible, stay calm and instill a few drops of saline solution to moisten the eye, look away from where you feel the lens and lift your eyelid. When you see the lens, use the tip of your finger to remove the lens. If this happens repeatedly, make an appointment with your eye doctor to check the fit of your lenses. Don’t ever share contacts. Sharing contacts means sharing germs and bacteria, which increases the risk of infection and complications. Additionally, friend’s contacts may not be the right size or fit for your eyes leading to serious problems. Never use tap water to clean and rinse lenses. Contact solutions remove mucus, secretions, films or deposits that can build up during use and lead to bacterial growth if not removed properly. Use the disinfecting solution that your doctor prescribed each night to keep contacts clean and safe. When you find yourself at a last-minute overnight stay and don’t have your solution, don’t rely on tap water as it contains bacteria and other microorganisms that have been proven to cause serious eye infections. Keep your lens case clean. After you insert your reusable, disinfected contact lenses, rinse your case with solution, and store it upside down and open to dry fully. Every three months, toss your old case and replace it with a fresh, new one. No matter how tired you are, do not sleep in your contacts. While some lenses are approved for continuous overnight use, sleeping in lenses does increase the risk of an eye infection. If you regularly fall asleep with your lenses in, talk to your optometrist during your next appointment about extended wear contact lenses. ||||| This website is archived for historical purposes and is no longer being maintained or updated. Press Release Embargoed Until: Thursday, August 18, 2016, 1:00 p.m. ET Contact: Eye Wise: Contact Lenses 101 Entire infographic Nearly 1 in 5 contact lens-related eye infections reported to a federal database involved a patient who experienced eye damage, according to a report published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The infections, submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Medical Device Report Database, included patients who had a scarred cornea, needed a corneal transplant, or otherwise suffered a reduction in vision. These contact lens-related eye infections can lead to long-lasting eye damage but are often preventable. “Contact lenses are a safe and effective form of vision correction when worn and cared for as recommended,” said Michael Beach, Ph.D., director of CDC’s Healthy Water Program. “However, improper wear and care of contact lenses can cause eye infections that sometimes lead to serious, long-term damage.” Contact lens manufacturers, eye care providers, and patients can report adverse events related to contact lens use to the FDA, which regulates contact lenses as medical devices. The report reviewed 1,075 contact lens-related infections reported to FDA between 2005 and 2015. More than 10 percent of the reports indicated that the patient went to an emergency department or urgent care clinic for immediate care. Whether eye infections are minor or lead to long-lasting damage, they can be painful and disrupt daily life. For instance, the reports describe patients’ daily visits to an eye doctor or hourly administration of eye drops to treat the infection. The MMWR was released in advance of Contact Lens Health Week, which runs August 22-26 and promotes healthy wear and care practices that can help contact lens wearers reduce their chances of getting an eye infection. Contact lens wearers can help prevent infections by properly using lenses and supplies and following directions on the lens labels. More than 1 out of 4 reports of infections mentioned easily avoidable behaviors that increase the chance of getting an eye infection, such as wearing contact lenses while sleeping and wearing them longer than recommended. “Around 41 million people in the United States wear contact lenses and benefit from the improved vision and comfort they provide,” said Jennifer Cope, M.D., M.P.H., medical epidemiologist in CDC’s Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch. “While people who get serious eye infections represent a small percentage of those who wear contacts, they serve as a reminder for all contact lens wearers to take simple steps to prevent infections.” The findings in this report highlight the need for contact lens wearers to take good care of their lenses to help prevent contact lens-related eye infections. Three recommendations related to commonly reported and risky behaviors: Don’t sleep in contact lenses without discussing with your eye doctor. Sleeping in contact lenses increases the chance of an eye infection by 6 to 8 times. Don’t top off, or add new contact lens solution to old solution that has been sitting in the case. Adding new solution to used solution can lower germ-killing power. Replace your contact lenses as often as recommended by your eye doctor. People who do not replace their lenses as often as recommended have more complications and report more eye problems than those who follow the replacement recommendations. ### U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

– Sleeping with contacts in or forgetting to swap in a new pair according to schedule may be the unintended result of a harried lifestyle, but it could also lead to long-term eye damage, a new CDC study reports. Researchers looked at 1,075 cases of eye infections reported to an FDA medical device database over a 10-year period ending in 2015, and of those infections, almost 20% of them ended up causing more serious eye injuries, a CDC release reports. Those injuries ranged from scarred corneas and cornea transplants to other forms of vision problems. And of those who reported infections, the issue was bad enough for more than 10% of them to go to the ER or an urgent-care clinic for treatment. Yet most people don't give a second thought to the perfunctory way in which they handle their contacts, a Lenox Hill Hospital ophthalmologist tells WebMD. "Unfortunately, many of the 41 million contact lens users in the United States do not think of a contact lens as a medical device they are placing on the surface of their eye," Dr. Mark Fromer says. In addition to replacing contacts as recommended, users should also follow other recommendations from the American Optometric Association to keep eyes healthy, per CBS News, including not sharing contacts with anyone, not using tap water to clean contacts, and no snoozing with them in, which the CDC says can raise the risk of an eye infection between six to eight times. (And then there are the eyeball-devouring amoebas.)

DHAKA, March 2 Bangladesh's anti-terrorism unit said it had arrested on Monday the main suspect in the killing of a U.S. blogger who was hacked to death in Dhaka last week in the latest attack on critics of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority nation. Forces from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Farabi Shafiur Rahman, who was previously jailed for his ties to the extremist Hizbut Tahrir Islamist group, at a bus stop in Dhaka, a RAB spokesman told reporters. The spokesman said Farabi had confessed to threatening to kill blogger Avijit Roy. Farabi was still being interrogated. Roy, an engineer of Bangladeshi origin, was killed by machete-wielding assailants on Thursday while returning from a book fair. His wife and fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed suffered head injuries and lost a finger. She remains in hospital. The police said Farabi was arrested in 2013 for social media comments that supported the murder of another blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, but he was later released on bail. Last year, Farabi posted on Facebook: "It's a holy duty of Bangalee Muslims to kill Avijit", the police added. Roy's killing comes amid a crackdown on hardline Islamist groups, which have increased activities in recent years in the South Asian nation. In 2013, religious militants targeted several secular bloggers who had demanded capital punishment for Islamist leaders convicted of war crimes during Bangladesh's war for independence. Media group Reporters Without Borders rated Bangladesh 146th among 180 countries in a ranking of press freedom last year. (Editing by Miral Fahmy) ||||| Story highlights Police say the suspect posted photos of the crime scene He also threatened Roy in social media posts, his family said Dhaka, Bangladesh (CNN) Bangladesh authorities say they have arrested the prime suspect in the murder of American blogger Avijit Roy who was hacked to death on a Dhaka street last week. The person, Farabi Shafiur Rahman, had called for Avijit Roy's death in numerous Facebook posts, according to Roy's parents. And within minutes after the Thursday attack, Rahman posted photos of the crime scene, said Col. Ziaul Ahsan of Bangladesh's elite anti-crime unit, the Rapid Action Battalion. In a Facebook comment last year, Rahman allegedly wrote, "Avijit Roy lives in America. So it's not possible to kill him now. But when he returns home, he will be killed then." In an earlier post, the same person wrote, "It's a Bengali Muslims holy duty to kill Avijit." Read More

– The top suspect in the brutal killing of a Bangladeshi-American blogger has been apprehended, Reuters reports. Farabi Shafiur Rahman, who was arrested at a bus stop in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has confessed to threatening blogger Avijit Roy, officials say. "It's a holy duty of Bangalee Muslims to kill Avijit," he wrote on Facebook last year, according to police. Farabi was jailed in the past in connection with an Islamic extremist organization; Roy battled extremism in his writings. Farabi was also arrested last year over social media comments backing another blogger's death, though he was released in that case. That blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, was similarly hacked to death, CNN reports.

Crawls performed by Internet Archive on behalf of the National Library of Australia. This data is currently not publicly accessible. ||||| Most psychologists agree that a person's basic personality—whether they are an introvert or extrovert, for example—remains the same throughout life. What we might see as personality changes are actually just responses to external factors, such as getting a job, getting married or becoming a parent. That said, research does indicate that our personalities become more solidified, or stable, as we get older. That change is not linear, however. New research indicates that our personalities become increasingly stable as our 20s melt into our 30s, 40s and even 50s, but that that stability then often begins to taper off in old age, Research Digest reports. Researchers in New Zealand recruited 4,000 men and women aged 20 to 80 to complete a personality questionnaire twice, with a gap of two years in between. The survey measured a person's honesty-humility factor as well as five major personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience, Research Digest writes. They compared how people's scores varied between years, and analyzed how all of the participants personalities related to one another, depending on age. Most people's personalities were generally stable, they found, but the stability of those trait followed a bell curve over time, peaking at middle-age and then dropping again. For certain traits—conscientiousness, openness to experience, and honesty-humility—Research Digest writes, the oldest participants' personality stability matched those of the youngest. Other interesting finds included "domain specific" variations, or ones that seem to be linked to what a person is dealing with at a particular point in their life. People in their 30s, for example, showed high levels of neuroticism, but by the time they reached their 50s that had tapered off and had been replaced by conscientiousness, openness and honesty-humility.

– There's no doubt about it: The human body goes through major changes in youth and old age. And these biological and social changes may be the reasons behind what researchers are calling less stable personalities at those life stages. In fact, according to a study of almost 4,000 New Zealanders between the ages of 20 and 80, the stability of one's personality increases through youth and into middle age and peaks in our 50s, before we slide back into less stable versions of ourselves, reports Research Digest. As the Smithsonian puts it, "in some ways, our 80-year-old selves mirror our 20-year-old selves." Some traits peaked at different times; the most stable traits in one's 30s are extraversion and neuroticism, while in the late 40s and early 50s it is openness, honesty-humility, and conscientiousness. The only trait that showed "gradually reduced stability" throughout life was agreeableness; apparently we are simply less and less agreeable as we pack the years on. Still, one's most basic personality—introvert vs. extrovert, for example—tends to remain consistent throughout one's life, even if the stability of traits waxes and wanes, notes the Smithsonian. (Other researchers have even calculated the country's most extroverted city.)

MERIDEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- In the cold and the snow, it's easy to imagine what it was like 26 years ago today when a newborn boy was found dead in Meriden. "The child was found on the ground near a tree, wrapped in a blanket on the morning of January 2, 1988," retired Detective Sergeant Keith McCurdy said. On a day colder than today, the baby soon froze to death. The local clergy named him David Paul, which means God's beloved little man. The police department took up a collection for his burial. "The Meriden Police Department unofficially adopted this child and cared for this child's burial," McCurdy said, "and we think David Paul represents all the children who are abused, neglected or abandoned." David Paul was blond, blue-eyed, and full term. The former Chief says he would have gladly adopted him into his family. Police never found his mother, never identified him, and never charged anyone in his death. But every year since 1988, they've come here to pay their respects and remember. "It shows our commitment to the baby and to the children that we represent every day in the community," said Lt. Salvatore Nesci, Meriden Police Department, said. Since then, the state has made it clear that new moms can go to any hospital and they will take care of the baby no questions asked. As for the idea that David Paul has come to represent all the kids police have sworn to protect, they say that is even more important this year, just a little over a year since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. ||||| Meriden police, church remember abandoned baby 26 years later By Lauren Sievert Record-Journal staff MERIDEN — Members of the police department and a local church gathered in the freezing weather to remember the baby boy abandoned in a parking lot in 1988. Retired Police Chief Robert E. Kosienski attended the memorial service at Walnut Grove Cemetery with about 20 members of the Meriden police department and the Rev. Alden Barnes, pastor of First United Methodist Church. Kosienski said he remembered the morning he got the call about the baby found abandoned in a South Meriden parking lot on Jan. 2, 1988. “He was found frozen to death,” Kosienski said. “Why would a woman do that?” Kosienski said his first reaction when he got the call was shock. He later found out the mother carried the baby to full term, and he had blonde hair and blue eyes. Kosienski said the massive effort to find the mother was not to punish her, but because the police believe there was “some kind of trauma” that led her to abandon the child. The baby was named David Paul, which means “God’s beloved little man” in scripture, and was officially adopted by the city police department. The child was buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery. Barnes said this year at the memorial service he read a prayer for children, keeping in mind the recent one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy as well. “This death put a light on how vulnerable children are at all ages in this society,” Barnes said. Barnes said a man attended the memorial service and said he was interested in the Safe Haven law that was passed in Connecticut in 2000. Mothers can voluntarily drop off infants under 30 days old at a hospital with no requirement to identify themselves. The infant will go into the custody of the Department of Children and Families.

– It's a 26-year tradition now in Meriden, Conn., and one with a somber start: On Jan. 2, 1988, police found a newborn boy frozen to death outside. He had been wrapped in a blanket, but the full-term baby with blond hair and blue eyes stood no chance in the frigid weather. Police took up a collection and paid for his burial, reports WTNH, and members of the local clergy named him David Paul. Today, as they have on every Jan. 2 since then, police and others in the community gathered at the cemetery where the baby is buried. "The Meriden Police Department unofficially adopted this child and cared for this child's burial," says a retired detective sergeant, "and we think David Paul represents all the children who are abused, neglected, or abandoned." The local Record-Journal notes that Connecticut has since passed a Safe Haven law that allows a mother to leave her baby at a hospital within 30 days of birth, no questions asked.

115 349 Union St Hudson , NY 12534 (518) 828-0958 My wife and I decided to go on a little trip last minute (within 2 hours of the decision, we packed up and went) on New Years Day. We found Union Street Guest House using a combination of Yelp and Google and saw they had a vacancy and we were able to book a room on line. Union Street is located one block away from the shops on Warren Street. It is Hudson's Main street where there are numerous antique and boutique shops. The only suite available was there "Gallery Suite' aka "The Presidential Suite". Chris at the front desk said, "You'll know why when you get up there." The price was fair being $200/night. But this was for three rooms. All other places to stay in Hudson that night were A) more expensive and B) only one room, so we went with it. This place consists of two buildings. The house to the right serves as the check in lobby and above it is a beautifully decorated lounge area. Antique furniture centers the lounge with the far side having a small library along with a ladder. Exposed brick and aged wood decorated the walls and ceilings nicely. The other side had a mini honor bar with various liqours. If you want beer downstairs there is a fridge with beer in it. Just leave some money in a metal box to help restock the bar. Parking is street parking. Make sure you leave your car across the street and not on the side of the guest house cause there is no parking there almost all the way down Union St. The guest house is to the left. As you enter, you will see two doors and you'll follow the one to the left. It is mostly all hardwood floor with the occasional area rug so the place does creek in some areas. We were able to hear walking or closing of doors of other guests in the house. A downside. The Gallery suite was upstairs and the only suite on the second floor. When you step inside you walk into a large living area with two vintage chairs and paintings. To the left is the study that is full of pictures of past presidents along with a library that is mostly about our US presidents. To the right of entering is the kitchen. No stove here, but there's a microwave and large fridge. Coffee maker and water heater for brewing up a cup. The bathroom was beautifully lit with a ivory tub and wrap around curtain. The three rooms weren't as decorated as the rest of the suite. One was pretty small and looked like a walk in closet. There is another small room similar to a doll room. Nice to sit and chat with friends. Overall, beautifully decorated and most important, clean. There is free wifi but doesn't seem fast (used to Verizon Fios) and sometimes had some connection problems Not a bed and breakfast place because there is no breakfast being served. Creeky floors and thin walls may be an issue if you're looking peace and privacy but It definitely gives you a feeling of home. Was considering a stay here but now learning about their "$500" bad review policy, im out. Good luck with your establishment from here on out. We can only hope you've learned something from this. This is the 7th time I had to write this review on this deplorable company. Stop paying to make your image better, stop charging LOYAL customers $500 for not agreeing with your terrible and unethical business practices. Union House should be renamed "Screw you Because We have Your Credit Card information and we're going to charge you $500 multiple times just to spite you." Horrible company, even worst service, and to top it off ... Extremely bad management. I knew that this place has a reputation for poor service when I booked a stay here for a wedding, and like some of the five star reviews below say, that is exactly what I was looking for. So i couldn't have been more pleased when I called to change my reservation, and was promptly berated over the phone for asking to checkout a day earlier. The management, to my delight, even charged me a bonus fee for the inconvenience. I should mention that I am REALLY into hospitality masochism, and found out about USGH on a site for people like me called sadisticservice.com. Unikn Street has become known as a mecca for self-abusive people like me seeking a perfect place to get away, pay a fortune, and suffer abuse both verbally and physically. I knew I was in for a (mis)treat(ment) when I first arrived. Instead of finding convenient parking, i circled the potholed and poorly lit lot until settling for a spot on the street a few blocks away. First impressions can be deceiving, so I didn't let this get my hopes up. But prospects only got better (worse) after i shlepped my luggage back over to the lobby. I was greeted at the door by the the foulest smelling dog turd I have had the pleasure to step in since my stay at the El Paso Motel 6 (which I also highly recommend). One of the owner's adorably odious dogs had deposited the feces ON the threshold, in an ingenious location, so that the action of the door smeared the dog's noxious refuse across the taupe doormat, making an unavoidable obstacle of odor. At the front desk, the manager demonstrated that he was no less skilled than the dog in the art of misanthropy. He was engaged in a heated argument with a guest about the bill, so he waved me off, giving me the opportunity to admire the lobby's decor. Taxidermy animal heads, abstract art with thick paint brush smears (all for sale!), big vases filled with dessicated reeds, and small, wobbly tables to sit and sip burnt coffee. Once the fracas with the other guest reached its bitter conclusion, I introduced myself to the manager: a short, monobrowed, igor of a man with a stained butler vest and permanent scowl. He promptly informed me that Union House had no record of my reservation. I showed him the email confirmation, which elicited an indignant huff of consternation. He grudgingly inspected his ledger again and found my room had been rented to another couple. He informed me, with a note of feindish delight, that there was NO room for me, and that I would have to leave or else be defenestrated manually. Naturally I chose the latter option. I give the USGH a one star review because, after roiling me up in sick anticipation of a grueling three night confinement in service hell, I was sent away and forced to endure cloying hospitality at the insufferably pleasant Croff House a few blocks away. Fortunately, USGH did keep all my money, as a consolation for failing to provide the gulagesque internment I had been guaranteed. And of course I was still able to take advantage of their offer to charge me $500 to review them poorly on Yelp. This is not about the $500 fee for a negative review. I got to Hudson a little late, traffic can get prickly. I was exhausted and wanted to just hit the hay. The kind woman at the front gave me my room, no problem. I got to my room, and someone had defecated next to the toilet. Not on, not in - next to. My fiancé thought this was done by a horse, but a horse could not fit in the small room to begin with. Upon further examination, the feces were left by a human. I inquired the manager, if this is normal. He did not believe me and said that "I was responsible for this" and that "I was the "poopertrator". I am incredibly frustrated and angry at this establishment. That do not take their guests seriously or even seem to care. I would give this place 2 stars because I wanted to give it a chance, thinking some circle jerk redditors sunk the review base here. But for once they are right. This is just a bad business. This "business" is ridiculous. You have to book two nights if you go to ANYONE wedding in the area?!? What the heck kind of rule is that? These owners should not be in this hospitality business as they haven't been educated on how hospitality works. It's dirty and ill taken care of. The "honor" bar has OPEN bottles of booze where anyone could contaminate or drug because there's nobody safeguarding the bottles. What would happen if a freaking roofie was put into the whiskey??? Don't go here. Go anywhere else. These guys think they are too legit to quit. They are fools and don't deserve a dime of your hard earned money. And then threatening guests for negative reviews?? How is that not sleazy and or ineffective? Perhaps one should question why they want to run a hotel if they are misanthropists?!?! My IDEA would be that they run some kind of illegal business. Of course that's just a guess on my part due to their actions and I have zero proof. It's just a feeling not a statement and not slander. This place is like those restaurants where the staff is "mean" to you but you know ahead of time and it's more of a performance. This place is full of wannabe thugs with no self respect. Having a wedding here in my opinion would be just asking for bad luck. I'm sure that some sorcery has cursed this place! We come to Hudson quite frequently to escape the city and always have a great time up here. We decided to stay at The Union Street Guest House for our last weekend getaway and was not thrilled with this hotel. The place is definitely unique, but not the type of unique that they seem to pride themselves on. Antique furniture is "cool" and "hip" in theory but when you neglect the dust build up long enough for "Jaden" to write their name in a few times then the charm wears off pretty quick. My biggest problem, our bill was $468.95, which is a reasonable rate for the weekend except the charge appeared as $4,689.50 on my Amex. Assuming this was just a simple human error, we called the front desk and they agreed and said that they would revert the charges and adjust accordingly. We waited a week, and still the error had not been corrected, so we emailed multiple times with no response. Calls to the front desk always were met with the same line, that they were going to adjust the rate accordingly. After three weeks of attempts to revert the accidental premium we were charged I finally called Amex and they happily removed the charges and are taking care of the Union Street Guest House. 5-Stars goes out to Amex for fixing a sub 1-Star experiment in mediocracy, my next trip to Hudson will include an event celebrating the closure of the Union Street Guest House, with accommodation elsewhere. If I could rate this place less than 1 star, I would. It isn't because the accommodations were bad...it is because they owe me $952.00. Here is the story: I stayed here for my good friend's wedding in May 2014. Due to a room change at the last minute (not Union's fault- my friend the bride, had to rearrange rooms to better accommodate her guests), I was told by Union that I needed to pay for the second room in full and then I would be refunded for the first room. I paid $952.00 for the first room and $728.00 for the second room so I should have been refunded for the $952.00 for the first room (my other friends ended up staying in the first room and I know for a fact that they paid the full amount for their stay up front). Long story short, I have yet to see the $952.00 in my bank account. Yep, they never refunded me. The last communication of any kind from them is an email reply dated 7/16/14 after I asked them to please confirm that I was credited because I didn't see it on my cc statement. The reply states: "Yes, you were credited." After that, I emailed again asking for the date of the refund and last four digits of the credit card they supposedly refunded (because, again, I couldn't find the refund on my statement). The reply? RADIO SILENCE. Since that time I have written 5 POLITE emails (I would copy and paste them all here, but trust me they were very polite- I assume the best of people) and left numerous polite voicemails (including one where I pleaded with them to find it within themselves not to take my hard earned money.) The reply? RADIO SILENCE. I am still in disbelief that I was taken advantage of in this way. Though, I have come to understand through my friend (the bride)'s experience (they owe her $2500 from her deposit), as well as others on here (and the whole "joke" about their policy of keeping $500 if you write a bad review- google it if you haven't yet and see how shady/not funny it is)- that these people are shady and this is a shady business. My next step is reporting them to the better business bureau and then letting go of hopes that I will ever get my refund. Please stay elsewhere (there are a bunch of great places in the town where other people stayed) and don't support this dishonesty. Thank you for reading! We stayed three nights in the Union Street Guest House's Bainbridge Suite, after pre-paying for four. Due to a medical emergency we had to leave before the last night. We released the room at 9:30am. Leaving aside the owner's refusal to refund any portion of the final night's $250 charge due to our forced departure, here is what we found during our three days: -- Two dogs, belonging to either the owner or the owner's renter in an apartment next door, barked and woke us up and kept us awake. -- Clearly heard the owner or his tenant, yelling and yawning, through the wall. Owner later told us: "Some of the guests came into the back kitchen & laundry area to watch a game." -- -- A neighbor in an adjoining apartment speaking loudly or shouting. -- Doors slamming. -- A tenant having very loud phone conversations, (punctuated with lots of loud, "No, he didn't!"s) on the other side of a thin wall. -- A rumbling washing machine on the other side of said wall, in adjoining apartment. Upon arrival on a Thursday afternoon, we found: -- A McDonald's sack, a Kraft Cream Cheese carton and other trash lining the walk, from Union Street to the Bainbridge Suite entrance. -- Peeling paint on the master bedroom's radiator. -- Poor quality pillows. -- One-ply toilet paper. -- Heat cycling off during the night, leaving the rooms cold. -- A view of a half dozen dog feces on the grass behind each bedroom window. -- One of four lamps not working. -- One of four venetian blinds missing equipment. -- Our "light snack en suite," consisting of a bag of mini-Oreo's, a bag of Goldfish and four Keebler crackers. Do yourself a favor, and look elsewhere for accommodation in the Hudson area. If you expect a quiet, problem-free stay, our warning is: Don't. The owner believes peace and quiet are guaranteed only at higher price points i.e. a more expensive suite. Regarding our discomfort, he said: "Please remember that even though we do work hard to create complete privacy for our guests, we are pretty much full all the time and this is a public place...If you ever decide to stay with us again, I highly recommend the Gallery Suite. It is a little bit more but for that many nights, especially with children, you have much more space and you are above the fray as it were." For $150-$250 a night, we don't expect to find ourselves in the midst of any "fray." Nor do we expect guests coming over to "watch a game" next to a room that is far from soundproofed. The duplicitous, dishonest, disingenuous owner told the world after our stay: "We are so sorry these guests did not like our cancellation policy. if there's any way to make it up we would have but it wasn't to be...." "We would have"? They could have made a $250 refund or they could have offered another night's stay. No offer of any kind was ever made. Although the property is "pretty much full all the time," the owner feels no compunction charging you for a room you have released to him at 9:30 a.m., and charging someone else the same rate for the same evening, grossing $500. Avoid this establishment with every fiber in your body. I've never had a more pitiful staff. Never touch this place it is so dirty. Why do they have to be so unprofessional. It is more like an untrained staff that is completely rude. Never again. This was the worst hotel experience of my life. I am not exaggerating and I have never even written a review before.... when I looked up this disgusting place, that's when I saw that this place has other horrible reviews. STAY AWAY! - Dogs and dog crap everywhere. - LOUD drunk guests that are friends of the owners. - toilet paper so cheap we bought our own. - peeling paint and things that don't work. - RUDE STAFF! Honestly the list goes on and on.... Also, everything is cheap.The furniture. Fake plants. Everything....like it's from the 70s. TAKE A CLOSE look at the pictures and you can actually tell....and then remind yourself that these are the BEST pics that this place could muster. STAY AWAY. I stayed here for a wedding in May. Let's just say this was the worst experience I've ever had at a "hotel". The whole place smelled old and damp which I later found out was mold. The staff rubbed both myself and my gf the wrong way with their unhelpful, rude and inhospitable manor. The bed felt lumpy and the rooms were way to hipster for my tastes. I ultimately had to sleep in a sleeping bag to avoid the lumps. Heck I would have had a better experience if I just camped out on the lawn outside. The worst part, however, was the "hotel" policy about reviews. So in an effort to ensure that the bride and groom (whom are two of my best friends) don't get charged I felt it best to whip out my rarely used 2nd yelp account. I challenge this place to now figure out which wedding that I attended should receive your policy wrath. HAHAHAHA!!!!!! It would be an amazing place to stay if the staff and management wasn't so unhelpful, rude, and apathetic towards the most basic of requests. Save your money and frustration. I'm sure there is somewhere else you'd like to stay. I gave this place a neutral (2 star) review after having my wedding here, and they told me that it was negative feedback and that they're going to kept $500 from my deposit after the wedding to cover the damages to their image. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY UNLESS YOU WANT THEM TO STEAL YOUR DEPOSIT. Stayed here a few years ago - this place looks like my first apartment, except that I could get a full month for what I paid for two days here. Find yourself a cardboard box and choose the urine-stained street instead! The management of this hotel had the gall to email us twice to threaten us financially about the negative review! Here is an excerpt from their first email: "please note that your recent on-line review of our Inn will cost the wedding party that left us a deposit $500. This money be charged via the deposit they have left us unless/until it is removed. Any other or future reviews will also be charged to the wedding party (bride & groom) from the guarantee they have provided us. " Disgusting! Instead of taking responsibility and striving to improve their customer service, they instead resort to intimidation! After not using Yelp for over a year, I figured this was worth getting on. This is a horrible establishment. The stay was bad, the food was bad, the service was bad. Was there anything good about the stay? Yeah when I left and got the hell out. Don't support a business like this. Very unprofessional and rude. I will stay at a Motel 6 next time before I Stay here. Or maybe just lay out in the park under a bench. At least a homeless person there might offer me a sheet or towel or something. More then I can say about this place. I've never even stayed here, but read about all this on Reddit. Probably like many of you. My rating's the same, though: Don't go here. Don't reward them for trying to keep human beings from voicing their discontent. Pretty disgusting that rather than try and better their service, this place tries to intimidate people to shut their mouths. Like the mob. Congrats on your suicide, Union Street Guest House. I have never stayed here and wouldn't want to stay here based on this story alone: http://pagesix.com/2014/08/04/hotel-charges-500-for-every-bad-review-posted-online/?_ga=1.41385890.145819513.1358069560 If this place really stands by their products and offerings, then they shouldn't be charging $500 when they get a negative review. If they screw up, they should fix whatever is wrong. No company in their right mind would charge someone for telling about how bad (or good) their experience was. I wouldn't be surprised if this place went under because of this story alone. By the way, if the owners want this review changed, then respond to the news paper's request for comment, own up to your business decisions. When I see a follow-up story denoting your responses, then I'll update this review. ||||| HUDSON, NY (PIX11)– A fancy hotel located in upstate New York is charging its guests for bad reviews. Union Street Guest House in Hudson is known for its mix of luxury and classic sensibility, but apparently it can’t handle some criticism when it comes to weddings or event bookings at their site. The classy inn says on its website, “there will be a $500 dollar fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH place on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding even if you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a negative review on any internet site you agree to a $500 fine for each negative review.” Outraged guests certainly didn’t take it lightly. “This was worst hotel I have ever encountered,” Michael G from Manhattan said. “Rude customer service, unclean, terrible odor. Then they had the audacity to tell me they would charge me $500 from my deposit if I posted a negative review online…have they heard of the freedom of speech?” One customer posted an excerpt of the hotel’s email after being threatened twice. “Disgusting!” Rabih Z of Alexandria said. “Instead of taking responsibility and striving to improve customer service, they instead resort for intimidation.” Other guests had positive reviews, raving about the place’s vintage amenities. “Fabulous place!” fellow New Yorker Elizabeth C. said. “Looking forward to another weekend getaway.” However, if the bad review gets taken off, the hotel will refund this fee.

– The Union Street Guest House in Hudson, NY, wants you to keep your crummy opinions to yourself. So if you post something about the hotel’s "rude customer service, unclean, terrible odor," as NY Pix 11 quotes one reviewer, the hotel will collect a $500 fine. It’s right in their policy, which states that customers who’ve booked weddings or other events at the hotel will have their deposit deducted for every negative review written by their guests. Want your money back? Remove the review(s), the NY Post reports. But woe to the reviewer who doesn’t remove his complaints—the owners tend to get defensive. When a guest said staff was rude when they asked for ice, the hotel posted a response: "I know you guys wanted to hang out and get drunk for 2 days ... I was so so so sorry that our ice maker and fridge were not working and not accessible." Despite the hotel’s efforts, it still has a poor average rating on Yelp.

The skull, daubed with "household gloss" paint, is entitled Hallucinatory Head and comes in a limited edition run of 50. The eye-watering prices were unveiled days after critic Julian Spalding dismissed Hirst's work as "con art" and urged owners of his spot paintings to sell quickly before "the penny drops" and they plummet in value. For those who cannot stretch to the £36,800 skull, there is a set of 12 china plates for £10,500, a spotted skateboard for £480, a deckchair for £310 and a butterfly-print umbrella for £195. Butterfly-print wallpaper costs £700 a roll. The gift shop is the final room in the Hirst exhibition, the first major retrospective of the artist's work in Britain. It includes all of Hirst's greatest hits, from the shark suspended in formeldahyde to the bisected animals and spin paintings. Visitors will be assaulted by the smell of A Thousand Years (1990), an installation in which flies emerge from maggots and feed on a rotting cow's head. They can also catch a whiff of Horror at Home (1995), consisting of a giant ashtray filled with cigarette butts. In And Out Of Love (1991) features a room filled with live butterflies feeding on bowls of fruit. On the preview day for the show, at least one butterfly escaped by settling on a visitor's coat and accompanying them out. Downstairs in the Turbine Hall, visitors queue to enter a pitch-dark room housing two security guards and For The Love Of God, the human skull covered in 8,601 diamonds and said to be worth £50 million. Hirst, said to be Britain's richest living artist, defended the price of his work. He said: "A painting probably has the most shocking increase in value, from what it costs to make to what you sell it for. But you'd never look at a Rembrandt and say, 'That's just wood and canvas and paint - how much?!' "It’s all about how many people want it. It works on a pair of jeans as well - they're just material and stitching and as soon as you walk out of the shop, they’re worth nothing." Asked if the gift shop skull would hold its value, he replied: "Maybe on eBay you might be all right for a bit." :: Damien HIrst runs from 4 April - 9 September ||||| Other Criteria Hallucinatory Head, by Damien Hirst What would you pay for a plastic skull covered in house paint? If the name Damien Hirst is on it, a minimum of £36,800, or about $58,000, appears to be the asking price. That’s how much the limited-edition skulls will be selling for in the gift shop of the artist’s latest exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. According to the Telegraph, the garishly colored skulls titled Hallucinatory Head are styled off of Hirst’s “spin” paintings, and are just one of many featured items inspired by the Englishman’s famous art pieces. Other items include a £10,500 ($16,650) set of plates and a £700 ($1,110) roll of butterfly wallpaper. Hirst co-founded Other Criteria, which produces his limited-edition items. How much influence the artist himself had on creating the souvenirs remains to be seen, but the mere connection to his name seems basis enough for the starting prices. The gift shop is the final room in Damien Hirst’s first major UK exhibition. (MORE: 10 Questions for Damien Hirst) His most famous works will be on display, including The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, which showcases a shark suspended in formaldehyde. A Thousand Years features a rotting cow’s head with feeding maggots, while For the Love of God presents a platinum human skull covered in 8,601 diamonds, said to be worth an estimated £50 million ($79 million), and perhaps the inspiration behind the limited-edition souvenir skulls. The exhibit opens after a scathing review from critic Julian Spalding, showing the controversy surrounding Hirst goes beyond his souvenirs. Spalding dismisses him as a con artist, advising the buyers of his work to “sell while they can.” Hirst defended his art to the Telegraph. “A painting probably has the most shocking increase in value from what it costs to make to what you sell it for. But you’d never look at a Rembrandt and say ‘That’s just wood and canvas and paint- how much?’ said the artist. “It’s all about how many people want it.” And clearly, people want Hirst, who is said to be Britain’s richest living artist. PHOTOS: Damien Hirst Ascendant

– We get it. You've always dreamed of owning Damien Hirst's diamond-encrusted human skull, or maybe his diamond-encrusted baby skull, but you just don't have the scratch. Well if you swing by Damien Hirst's new exhibit at the Tate Modern, you can now have the next best thing: a plastic skull doused in "household gloss" paint. Dubbed Hallucinatory Head, the skulls are supposed to reference both Hirst's famous skull and his spin paintings, and they're on sale in the gift shop for just $58,370, the Telegraph reports. There are 50 "unique multiples" of the head to choose from, which you can see at the website of Other Criteria, the company that makes all of Hirst's limited edition souvenirs (others available include a $16,660 set of plates, a $761 spotted skateboard, and a $1,110 roll of butterfly wallpaper). Hirst co-founded Other Criteria, but Time points out that it's unclear how much influence he has in making these items.

In a resignation letter, Sebastian Gorka cited "forces" that do not support President Trump's "MAGA promise" as being ascendant in the White House. White House aide Sebastian Gorka ousted from post Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to the president who was closely aligned with former chief strategist Steve Bannon, was ousted from the White House, officials said Friday. In a resignation letter, published Friday night by The Federalist and confirmed by POLITICO, Gorka cited “forces” that do not support President Donald Trump’s “MAGA promise” as those that drove him out of the White House. Story Continued Below But a White House official indicated in a statement that Gorka had been forced out: "Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works at the White House," the official said. In the resignation letter, Gorka wrote: “Regrettably, outside of yourself, the individuals who most embodied and represented the policies that will ‘Make America Great Again,’ have been internally countered, systematically removed, or undermined in recent months,” Gorka wrote. A second White House aide said Gorka's departure was a continuation of new White House chief of staff John Kelly's effort to shape president's staff. "Questions remain," the aide said, about whether Sebastian Gorka's wife, Katie Gorka, an official at the Department of Homeland Security, would stay on after her husband's White House departure. Gorka's departure came one week to the day after Bannon was fired from his White House position. 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. The latest high-profile resignation from the populist faction of Trump’s ideologically divided West Wing erupted over a major policy disagreement about Afghanistan. Gorka, a White House official said, disagreed with Trump’s decision to dispatch more American troops to Afghanistan, a tortured decision the president outlined in his first national security address, on Tuesday night. In his resignation letter, Gorka wrote that “the fact that those who drafted and approved the speech removed any mention of Radical Islam or radical Islamic terrorism proves that a crucial element of your presidential campaign has been lost.” The news of Gorka’s departure was greeted with resignation by Trump loyalists, who believe the president has handed over too much power to military officers and former generals — including his new chief of staff, John Kelly, and national security adviser H.R. McMaster — and is losing any connection to the base that elected him. “I guess that means the seven-day-in-May crowd is making steady progress and trying to convert the Trump administration to George Soros-style globalism,” said political operative Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser and confidant. “The decision over Afghanistan was very disappointing. I’m sorry that Gorka is leaving. He’s one of the few people who actually voted for Trump and understands Trump’s worldview.” Stone, who helped Trump think through his presidential bid, warned that while he is not yet throwing in the towel on the Trump presidency, “I can find another candidate for 2020 who can win the primary, believe me.” Gorka was closely aligned with Bannon, and often attended meetings as Bannon’s surrogate and worked with his former Breitbart colleague in his West Wing office. Internally, Bannon was his biggest defender against skeptics who accused him of holding anti-Semitic views and playing up his intellectual status by insisting on going by “Dr. Sebastian Gorka.” But he was not seen as a power player in the administration other than as an effective television surrogate. That role endeared him to Trump but made him thin-skinned about the media that covered him: He often blocked mainstream-media journalists from following him on Twitter. It was not clear whether Gorka, like Bannon, would return to Breitbart News, where he previously served as national security editor. Eliana Johnson and Tim Starks contributed to this report. ||||| A pair of House Democrats unveiled proposals on Friday to cut off the salaries of controversial White House aides Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka. California Democratic Reps. Jared Huffman and Barbara Lee submitted amendments to a government spending package expected on the House floor after Labor Day. The language of their amendments prohibit the use of federal funds to pay the salaries of Miller and Gorka, specifically naming both aides in the legislative text. ADVERTISEMENT Miller makes $179,700 annually as an assistant to the president and senior adviser for policy, while Gorka earns $155,000 as a deputy assistant to the president and strategist, according to an official list of White House salaries. The lawmakers submitted their amendments a week after Stephen Bannon resigned as President Trump’s chief strategist and returned to his post leading Breitbart News, which he once described as “the platform for the alt-right.” Miller previously worked as communications director for Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsWarren: Trump should have fired Pruitt ‘28 scandals ago’ Judge rejects Trump administration's request to block California sanctuary laws Texas nonprofit helping to reunite migrant families calls Trump an 'incompetent loser' MORE while he was serving in the Senate. Gorka, meanwhile, was a former national security editor at Breitbart. Huffman and Lee accused Miller and Gorka of encouraging white supremacists, citing Miller’s involvement in Trump’s travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries and Gorka's work at Breitbart. "The removal of Steve Bannon is an important first step in rooting racism from the White House. But, Sebastian Gorka and Stephen Miller's continued presence in the West Wing ensure that Steve Bannon's sick ideology will persist in this Administration. Now is the time for Congress to take a clear stand against hate and refuse to authorize salaries of White House officials who embrace the views of white supremacists, white nationalists and Neo-Nazis,” Lee said in a statement. Richard Spencer, a prominent white nationalist, told Vanity Fair that he mentored Miller while they were both at Duke University. But Miller has disputed that account and told Mother Jones in 2016 that “I completely repudiate his views, and his claims are 100 percent false.” Gorka drew controversy for wearing a medal from a Hungarian order, Vitezi Rend, that was founded by an ally of Adolf Hitler. But he has said he wore the medal to honor his late father, who was awarded it for fighting communism. The House Rules Committee, which is controlled by the majority party leadership, will meet when Congress returns to Washington after Labor Day to decide if the amendments submitted by Huffman and Lee will get floor votes. Given GOP leaders’ desire to publicly stay out of Trump’s personnel controversies or stage uncomfortable votes relating to the president, the amendments are unlikely to be granted time on the House floor. ||||| Sebastian Gorka is resigning his post as Deputy Assistant to President Trump, multiple sources familiar with the situation have told The Federalist. In a blunt resignation letter, the national security and counterterrorism expert expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the Trump administration. “[G]iven recent events, it is clear to me that forces that do not support the MAGA promise are – for now – ascendant within the White House,” Gorka wrote. “As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People’s House.” Gorka’s letter expressed unhappiness with the direction the Trump administration’s foreign policy has taken, as signaled by the president’s recent speech on Afghanistan: “Regrettably, outside of yourself, the individuals who most embodied and represented the policies that will ‘Make America Great Again,’ have been internally countered, systematically removed, or undermined in recent months. This was made patently obvious as I read the text of your speech on Afghanistan this week… “The fact that those who drafted and approved the speech removed any mention of Radical Islam or radical Islamic terrorism proves that a crucial element of your presidential campaign has been lost… “Just as worrying, when discussing our future actions in the region, the speech listed operational objectives without ever defining the strategic victory conditions we are fighting for. This omission should seriously disturb any national security professional, and any American who is unsatisfied with the last 16 years of disastrous policy decisions which have led to thousands of Americans killed and trillions of taxpayer dollars spent in ways that have not brought security or victory.” During his time in the Trump administration, Gorka focused on issues such as countering the Muslim Brotherhood, the crisis in Qatar, supporting efforts to draft a new long-term national security strategy, and combatting China’s economic warfare. Before coming to the White House, Gorka was the Major General Matthew C. Horner Chair at Marine Corps University and also contributed to Breitbart News. Gorka’s tenure at the White House was marked by unusually vociferous attacks against him and his family by left-leaning media organizations and the Democratic Party. This includes personal attacks against his wife, mother, and son. A source close to the White House said of his decision, “This was more or less going to be a done deal when Bannon submitted his resignation. Not because he didn’t have a protector, but because there is no point in having your life ruined every day if you’re not going to get much accomplished.” The same source said that what did change after Bannon left was that anti-Bannon factions began erecting bureaucratic road blocks to undermine Gorka internally. The Forward has written dozens of attack pieces against Gorka, including several attempting to align him with Nazism. Most recently that publication retracted a story about his son’s schoolwork. Gorka strenuously objected to allegations he had ties to Nazi groups in his family’s home country of Hungary, where he had previously been involved in national politics. Even detractors eventually acknowledged the Nazi accusations were unfair smears. In his letter, Gorka made clear that he believes in the promise of the Trump presidency despite being concerned about its present direction. “Your presidency will prove to be one of the most significant events in modern American politics. November the 8th was the result of decades during which the political and media elites felt that they knew better than the people who elect them into office. They do not, and the MAGA platform allowed their voices to be heard,” he wrote, adding, “Millions of people believe in, and have chosen, you and your vision of Making America Great Again. They will help eventually rebalance this temporary reality.” UPDATE: In response to this story, an anonymous White House official reportedly said, “Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works at the White House.”

– Will Steven Miller be next? Controversial Trump aide Sebastian Gorka, an ally of Steve Bannon, is out of the White House. He appears to have been ousted as part of chief of staff John Kelly's push to clean house, reports the New York Times. "Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works at the White House," a White House official tells Politico. Even if the 46-year-old Gorka didn't officially resign, he was clearly preparing to do so—the conservative Federalist ran portions of his resignation letter in which he expressed disappointment over what he sees as the White House's new direction. "It is clear to me that forces that do not support the MAGA promise are—for now—ascendant within the White House,” Gorka wrote. “As a result, the best and most effective way I can support you, Mr. President, is from outside the People’s House.” In the letter, Gorka took particular exception to the new Afghanistan strategy unveiled by the president. Like Bannon, Gorka opposes sending new troops. And “the fact that those who drafted and approved the speech removed any mention of Radical Islam or radical Islamic terrorism proves that a crucial element of your presidential campaign has been lost." Gorka had focused on national security issues in his role as deputy assistant to the president and had plenty of critics. In fact, two House Democrats recently unveiled legislation seeking to bar Gorka and Miller from collecting White House salaries, reports the Hill. The lawmakers accused the pair of encouraging white supremacy. Gorka had been a contributor to Breitbart News before joining the White House, and it wasn't clear whether he would rejoin Bannon there now that he's out.

Mr. Fateh told investigators that the houses in Swat, Haripur and Abbottabad were organized by their Pashtun hosts, identified as two brothers named Ibrahim and Abrar, whose families stayed with them throughout. Ibrahim is believed to refer to Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, a Pakistani-born Pashtun who grew up in Kuwait and who was known for a time to American intelligence as “the courier,” because he carried the Qaeda leader’s messages. When Navy SEAL commandos stormed the Abbottabad house last May, they killed Bin Laden and shot Ms. Fateh, who was in the same room, in the leg. She survived but four others were killed in the raid: the courier, his wife Bushra, his brother, Abrar, and Bin Laden’s 20-year-old son, Khalid. Bin Laden’s three wives are now confined to a rented house in Islamabad. On Tuesday, a cousin of Ms. Fateh’s in Yemen claimed that she was being held in a basement. “She limps from a bullet wound in her knee, and she’s suffering from psychological trauma and very low blood pressure,” Hameed al-Sadeh told Reuters. Ms. Fateh’s account, if proven, suggests that American military forces came tantalizingly close to Bin Laden in late 2005. In October of that year, a giant earthquake struck northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 73,000 people. For weeks afterward, American Chinook helicopters, diverted from Afghanistan and carrying relief supplies, passed overhead on their way into the quake zone. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, then a close ally of the Bush administration, repeatedly asserted that Bin Laden was sheltering across the border inside Afghanistan. The Pakistani decision to prosecute the three wives and two children goes against an earlier recommendation from the police that they be deported to Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Pakistani analysts said that suggested that Pakistani intelligence may have hidden reasons for detaining the family. “I think the government wants to hang on to them through a trial procedure so that the investigation can be completed,” said Riffat Hussain, a defense analyst. “And I think the Americans are quite keen to have access to Osama’s wives, too.” Scott Shane contributed reporting from Washington. ||||| ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Osama bin Laden spent nine years on the run in Pakistan after the Sept. 11 attacks, during which time he moved among five safe houses and fathered four children, at least two of whom were born in a government hospital, his youngest wife has told Pakistani investigators. The testimony of Amal Ahmad Abdul Fateh, Bin Laden’s 30-year-old wife, offers the most detailed account yet of life on the run for the Bin Laden family in the years preceding the American commando raid in May 2011 that killed the leader of Al Qaeda at the age of 54. Her account is contained in a police report dated Jan. 19 that, as an account of that frantic period, contains manifest flaws: Ms. Fateh’s words are paraphrased by a police officer, and there is noticeably little detail about the Pakistanis who helped her husband evade his American pursuers. Nevertheless, it raises more questions about how the world’s most wanted man managed to shunt his family between cities that span the breadth of Pakistan, apparently undetected and unmolested by the otherwise formidable security services. Bin Laden’s three widows are of great interest because they hold the answers to some of the questions that frustrated Western intelligence in the years after 2001. They are currently under house arrest in Islamabad, and their lawyer says he expects them and two adult children — Bin Laden’s daughters Maryam, 21, and Sumaya, 20 — to be charged on Monday with breaking Pakistani immigration laws, which carries a possible five-year jail sentence. The wives have cooperated with the authorities to varying degrees. Investigators say the older women, named in court documents as Kharia Hussain Sabir and Siham Sharif, both citizens of Saudi Arabia, have largely refused to cooperate with investigators. However, Ms. Fateh, who was wounded in the raid that killed her husband, has spoken out. The report, by a joint investigative panel made up of civilian and military officials, was first noted by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn on Thursday; The New York Times later obtained a copy of the filing. In Washington, United States officials said that while they could not confirm every detail of the report, it appeared generally consistent with what is known and believed about Bin Laden’s movements. In the report’s account, Ms. Fateh said she agreed to marry Bin Laden in 2000 because “she had a desire of marrying a mujahid.” She flew into Karachi in July that year and, months later, crossed into Afghanistan to join Bin Laden and two other wives at his base on a farm outside Kandahar. The Sept. 11 attacks caused the Bin Laden family to “scatter,” the report said. She returned to Karachi with her newborn daughter, Safia, where they stayed for about nine months. They changed houses up to seven times under arrangements brokered by “some Pakistani family” and Bin Laden’s elder son, Saad. Other senior Qaeda figures were also in Karachi, a sprawling city of up to 18 million people. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, claims to have personally killed the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl there during this period; he was captured at a house in Rawalpindi in March 2003. Ms. Fateh said she left Karachi in the second half of 2002 for Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, where she was reunited with her husband. The American pursuit of Bin Laden was running high: Qaeda operatives had attacked an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya and nightclubs in Indonesia, and with C.I.A. intelligence resources not yet diverted to Iraq, the search was firmly focused on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area. Bin Laden, according to his wife, took his family deep into rural mountain areas of northwest Pakistan — but not, notably, into the tribal belt where much Western attention was focused. First they stayed in the Shangla district in Swat, a picturesque area about 80 miles northwest of the capital, Islamabad, where they stayed in two different houses for eight to nine months. Then in 2003 they moved to Haripur, a small town even closer to Islamabad, where they stayed in a rented house for two years. Here, Ms. Fateh gave birth to a girl, Aasia, in 2003 and a boy, Ibrahim, in 2004 — both of whom were delivered in a local government hospital. The police report states that Ms. Fateh “stayed in hospital for a very short time of about 2-3 hours” on each occasion. A separate document states that she gave fake identity papers to hospital staff. Finally, in mid-2005, according to Ms. Fateh, Bin Laden and his family moved to Abbottabad, 20 miles east of Haripur, where she gave birth to another two children: Zainab in 2006 and Hussain in 2008. Scott Shane contributed reporting from Washington.

– During the nine years Osama bin Laden spent in hiding in Pakistan after 9/11, he made his way between five different homes in the country and fathered four children, according to his youngest wife. As recounted by a Pakistani police report, Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah revealed that two of the children were born in government hospitals, and these new details have the New York Times wondering how her husband was able to traverse the country with family in tow without being caught by Pakistani's powerful security forces. The bin Laden family split up after 9/11, but Abdulfattah joined her husband in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in 2002, she said. The family hid in rural northwest Pakistan, not far from Islamabad, though not in the tribal regions where Western authorities were searching. In 2003, they moved to Haripur, nearer to Islamabad, where Abdulfattah had two children in government hospitals, apparently under a fake name. They moved to Abbottabad, where bin Laden was killed, in 2005. Two more children were born there. Click for the full account of bin Laden's movements, including a near miss by US forces.

For politics fans, it’s easy to get caught up in fun Electoral College scenarios — ones in which small states make a big difference or in which the House of Representatives has to decide the election. The alternative — endlessly repeating that “Florida is important; Ohio is important” — can get tiresome. That said, Ohio is important, and Florida is super important. Florida has a 19 percent chance of providing the decisive vote in the Electoral College according to our polls-only forecast. It’s the most likely “tipping-point state,” in FiveThirtyEight parlance. That’s up from 16 percent just two weeks ago. There’s only one other state with a better than 10 percent chance of casting the decisive electoral vote: Pennsylvania, at 12 percent. Florida tends to be a crucial battleground state in presidential elections (more on this in a moment), but it’s become even more pivotal in recent weeks in the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Clinton has improved her position nationally and in Florida, but she’s made a bit more progress in the Sunshine State, moving it closer to the national average. Clinton leads by about 3 percentage points nationally and by about 1 point in Florida. That’s made it more plausible that Clinton could hold onto Florida while losing some light-blue states. Let’s say, for example, that on Election Day, Clinton underperforms with white voters without college degrees even more so than she is doing now. Her support would collapse in the Midwest, and her troubles in Maine would likely bleed over into New Hampshire. But Florida is more diverse, with one of the largest groups of Latino voters of any battleground state and a sizable African-American population. So, in this scenario, the nonwhite vote in Florida might allow Clinton to hold onto the state even if she were to lose Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio and Wisconsin. And that’s a winning map: If Clinton wins Florida, Michigan and New Hampshire, she can afford to lose Pennsylvania, where she’s held a lead even as she’s trailed Trump in next-door Ohio. Indeed, winning Florida opens up so many electoral paths for Clinton that it’s probably a must-win for Trump. If he loses Florida, Trump wins the presidency only 5 percent of the time according to our polls-only forecast. (Clinton, on the other hand, wins the election 33 percent of the time without a victory in Florida.) Considering that Clinton has led in every post-debate survey in Florida and has a small lead there in our polls-only forecast, you can understand why Clinton is currently a favorite to win the election. Florida has two basic things going for it that make it so pivotal. The first, as I mentioned, is how closely the state mirrors the national vote. It’s about 2 or 3 percentage points more Republican-leaning than the country at the moment. Nevada and Wisconsin are about as equally close to the national margin, and the only states closer are Colorado (the current tipping-point state according to our forecasts), New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Considering that the election is a little more than a month away and the inherent error in any forecast, it’s possible that the vote margin in Florida ends up as close or closer as in these other states. The other factor that makes Florida important is its large population. None of the states listed in the previous paragraph besides Florida has more than 20 electoral votes. Florida has 29. It’s possible, therefore, for a candidate to lose smaller swing states and make up for those losses by winning in Florida. No single state guarantees victory. The notion of a “must-win” state tends to be overplayed — instead, the states tend to move in concert, and the winner of the national popular vote almost always wins in the Electoral College. But Florida is about as close to an all-important state as we’re likely to see. ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is making the unprecedented assertion that the general election "is going to be rigged," and many people who are drawn to his presidential campaign have major doubts about the accuracy of the Nov. 8 vote. Only about one-third of Republicans say they have a great deal or quite a bit of confidence that votes on Election Day will be counted fairly, according to a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Half the people who have a favorable opinion of the Republican nominee say they have little to no confidence in the integrity of the vote count, the poll finds. "Trump has finally said something that that I've been thinking for years," said Jonathan Robinson, 30, a Trump supporter from Columbia, Missouri. "I don't think the votes have been counted properly for years. There's voter fraud and attempts to game the system. I don't trust it at all." Such fears of voter fraud are unfounded. There is no evidence it is a widespread problem in the United States. A study by a Loyola Law School professor found that out of 1 billion votes cast in all American elections between 2000 and 2014, there were only 31 known cases of impersonation fraud. Still, among people overall, only 4 in 10 have a lot of confidence in votes being counted accurately, though an additional 3 in 10 say they're at least moderately confident. Fifty-nine percent of those who have a favorable opinion of Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, have quite a bit or a great deal of confidence, compared with just 29 percent of those who have a favorable opinion of Trump. Overall, 35 percent in the poll say there's a great deal of voter fraud in American elections, 39 percent say there's only some and 24 percent say there's hardly any. About half of Republicans, but only about one-quarter of Democrats, say they think there's a great deal of voter fraud. Also, 58 percent of those who have a favorable opinion of Trump think there's a great deal of fraud, while just 18 percent of those who like Clinton say the same. Some Trump supporters said they are taking their cue from the candidate. In August he made the extraordinary claim — one he did not back up with any evidence — that the election will be fixed. That assertion threatens the American tradition of peacefully contested elections and the essence of a fair democratic process. Trump has continued to make the charge at other rallies. In Michigan on Friday, for example, Trump urged supporters to vote and then go to a different polling place with friends and make sure "it's on the up and up." He said voter fraud is "a big, big problem in this country" but "nobody has the guts to talk about it." While raising such unsubstantiated concerns about the fairness of the election, Trump said in Monday's first general election debate that he would abide by its result. Though he initially dodged moderator Lester Holt's question about accepting the outcome, Trump eventually said of Clinton, "If she wins I will absolutely support her." But in a New York Times interview, Trump indicated he was reconsidering that statement. "We're going to have to see. We're going to have to see what happens. We're going to have to see," he was quoted Saturday as saying. The poll also found that nearly 8 in 10 people say they favor requiring voters to provide photo identification in order to vote, while just 1 in 10 are opposed. "Any objection to having to show voter ID is just wrong," said Etan Markowitz, 76, a Democrat from Culver City, California, who is crossing party lines to vote for Trump. "I think there is voter fraud: people voting more than once, and early voting and absentee ballots give too many opportunities for fraud. We need extensive reform." Democrats worry that strict voter ID laws could lead to the disenfranchisement of poor, often minority voters who don't have ID. While most Americans feel that new technologies have made vote counting more accurate overall, many have at least some concern about hackers interfering with the election. Forty-one percent say they're extremely or very concerned and 35 percent who say they're somewhat concerned. Fifty-two percent of Republicans and 35 percent of Democrats say they're extremely or very concerned. The top Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence committees say they've concluded Russian intelligence agencies were trying to influence the U.S. presidential election. On Friday, a Homeland Security Department official told the AP that hackers have targeted the voter registration systems of more than 20 states in recent months. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and requested anonymity. Julio Carmona, a 31-year-old Clinton supporter from Bridgeport, Connecticut, asked: "If these people can go into the DNC and hack, who is to say that that can't get there and sway the vote to Trump? What if the Russians really can do something like that?" ___ The AP-NORC poll of 1,022 adults was conducted Sept. 15-18 using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone. ___ Online: AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/ ___ Follow Jonathan Lemire and AP Polling Editor Emily Swanson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/JonLemire and http://twitter.com/El_Swan

– Another year, another election, and Florida still continues to be one of the most influential states in the Electoral College. Political pundits have paid special attention to this swing state after its unique role in determining the winner of the 2000 election, and the story isn't any different this cycle. Polling and statistics site FiveThirtyEight—which correctly predicted the entire Electoral College map in 2012—estimates Florida is the most likely "tipping point" state for the 2016 election. Currently, Hillary Clinton holds a 1-point lead in Florida. Florida's large allotment of 29 electoral votes means Clinton could afford to lose several other states if she was able to hold on to Florida. Trump, data shows, does not have that luxury. The businessman needs Florida to put together any sort of plausible electoral win—at least according to current polls. Trump has made no secret that he doesn't trust the polls, and according to the AP, neither do his supporters. So at least in Trump-land, there may be more paths to victory that don't include Florida. But for now, experts say Trump and his campaign should be spending a lot of time down South in the sun. Read FiveThirtyEight's full post here.

LOS ANGELES -- A woman who owns a business that claims to be California's largest landlord of marijuana businesses sued the city of San Bernardino to overturn its pot regulation ordinance that could bar her from the industry. CBS Los Angeles reports that Stephanie Smith, who describes herself as a real estate developer by way of Boston College and UCLA, was accused of running a weed "fortress" from three San Bernardino buildings. In January, she said she was just the owner of the properties, insisting her tenants' activities were legal under California law. Smith, the owner of a business called Bubba Likes Tortillas, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in San Bernardino County Superior Court that the city's new law could create monopolies and also prevent her from renting property to pot growers and other marijuana operations. The dispute dates back to December when a fortified building Smith owns was raided, cultivation operations her clients were operating were shut down and 35,000 marijuana plants were seized. Smith was not involved with pot growing and she was not arrested or charged, her attorney Ben Eilenberg said. After the raids, a judge invalidated a voter-approved measure to regulate marijuana operations and San Bernardino City Council passed its own measure to replace it earlier this month. At the time, CBS Los Angeles reported her attorney released a statement which read, in part: "As a professional real estate developer with several million square feet of commercial and industrial space throughout California, I provide the infrastructure for all types of industry to operate and prosper, including the cannabis industry. I am a well-known and recognized leader in large-scale cannabis real estate development and I am proud of the State of California's position on cannabis." Stephanie Smith, 43, and a pot farm that she allegedly operated. San Bernardino Police Dept./CBS News The new rules said anyone - from a permit applicant or an employee of a cannabis business to the owner of a property - could be barred from the commercial cannabis business in the city if they had violated local or state laws related to the industry or if they had failed to report income from it. Smith is concerned that could apply to tenants - or even her company - because the businesses raided in December were in the process of being licensed, Eilenberg said. They received approval letters to operate a week after they were shut down, but the law appears to make them ineligible to get licenses. "This misguided ordinance is a backdoor ban that continues the city's illogical campaign against a legal product," Smith said in a statement. "Any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market under this ordinance. It is not what the voters want and it makes no sense." Eilenberg said it could also apply to businesses that operated in the murky days when medical marijuana was loosely regulated. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have given priority to license businesses that operated under medical marijuana regulations to get into the broader retail market that opened Jan. 1. "San Bernardino is taking the opposite tack and guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market," Eilenberg said. The lawsuit said the ordinance would violate the constitutional right to due process by disqualifying tenants or Smith without ever granting them an administrative or criminal hearing. The lawsuit also claimed the city law could create monopolies of certain types of marijuana operating licenses. The ordinance would allow 17 commercial marijuana businesses in the city, but there are 19 different types of licenses that could be issued - everything from growing pot, to transporting it, testing it and selling it. A city spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the case. ||||| FILE - This Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017, file photo provided by the San Bernardino Police Department shows a shut down marijuana operation of some 35,000 plants they believe was bringing in millions of dollars... (Associated Press) FILE - This Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017, file photo provided by the San Bernardino Police Department shows a shut down marijuana operation of some 35,000 plants they believe was bringing in millions of dollars a month in San Bernardino, Calif. The woman who owns the operation who claims to be California's... (Associated Press) LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who owns a business that claims to be California's largest landlord of marijuana businesses sued the city of San Bernardino to overturn its pot regulation ordinance that could bar her from the industry. Stephanie Smith, the owner of a business called Bubba Likes Tortillas, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in San Bernardino County Superior Court that the city's new law could create monopolies and also prevent her from renting property to pot growers and other marijuana operations. The dispute dates back to December when a fortified building Smith owns was raided, cultivation operations her clients were operating were shut down and 35,000 marijuana plants were seized. Smith was not involved with pot growing and she was not arrested or charged, her attorney Ben Eilenberg said. After the raids, a judge invalidated a voter-approved measure to regulate marijuana operations and San Bernardino City Council passed its own measure to replace it earlier this month. The new rules said anyone — from a permit applicant or an employee of a cannabis business to the owner of a property — could be barred from the commercial cannabis business in the city if they had violated local or state laws related to the industry or if they had failed to report income from it. Smith is concerned that could apply to tenants — or even her company — because the businesses raided in December were in the process of being licensed, Eilenberg said. They received approval letters to operate a week after they were shut down, but the law appears to make them ineligible to get licenses. "This misguided ordinance is a backdoor ban that continues the city's illogical campaign against a legal product," Smith said in a statement. "Any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market under this ordinance. It is not what the voters want and it makes no sense." Eilenberg said it could also apply to businesses that operated in the murky days when medical marijuana was loosely regulated. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have given priority to license businesses that operated under medical marijuana regulations to get into the broader retail market that opened Jan. 1. "San Bernardino is taking the opposite tack and guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market," Eilenberg said. The lawsuit said the ordinance would violate the constitutional right to due process by disqualifying tenants or Smith without ever granting them an administrative or criminal hearing. The lawsuit also claimed the city law could create monopolies of certain types of marijuana operating licenses. The ordinance would allow 17 commercial marijuana businesses in the city, but there are 19 different types of licenses that could be issued — everything from growing pot, to transporting it, testing it and selling it. A city spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the case. ||||| LOS ANGELES -- Police in Southern California raided a weed "fortress" on Wednesday, seizing 35,000 marijuana plants and shutting down an operation they believe was bringing in millions of dollars a month. San Bernardino Police say eight people were detained Wednesday when police and federal agents raided the warehouse that was converted into a multi-level grow house. Investigators first turned their sights on the illegal grow operation about two months ago after receiving complaints from neighbors. They found the once-abandoned warehouse had been outfitted with a 12-foot metal rolling fence, "fortified doors," a large concrete wall around the parking lot and surveillance cameras. Inside the four-story warehouse, police found thousands of plants stacked next to one another under heat lamps on wood tables and an advanced irrigation system. The electric bill for the property was about $67,000 per month, police said. "In my 26 years, it was the biggest grow that I've ever seen," San Bernardino police Lt. Mike Madden said. "There were all different rooms for different processes and hydration, filtration and ventilation. It was pretty extensive." CBS Los Angeles reports that police are investigating the owner, identified as 43-year-old Stephanie Smith. She was not arrested or charged with a crime. A telephone number for Smith could not be located in public records. San Bernardino Police Dept./CBS News Police and federal investigators raided two other properties owned by Smith and seized 18,000 pounds of marijuana in total. Eight people who were working in the warehouse in downtown San Bernardino were detained by police, but no charges have been filed in the case, Madden said. California voters have approved the legalization of marijuana, but growers must receive licenses and permits from local governments and the state. Recreational pot sales start in California on Jan. 1, joining the long-running medical cannabis industry. "Marijuana has been legalized, but there are stringent requirements," Madden said. "It's not that you just get to set up shop where you want to set up." The Los Angeles City Council voted Dec. 6 to license sales beginning next year. After months of debate and political snags, the council approved rules to usher in commercial sales and cultivation set to begin in less than a month under an initiative approved by state voters. California is among 29 states where pot is legal, either for medical or recreational use. Medical marijuana has been legal in the state for two decades. With the new year just weeks away -- and the holidays coming -- industry experts say it's not clear how many businesses, if any, will be ready to open their doors on Jan. 1 to hordes of anxious customers. Under the Los Angeles regulations, residential neighborhoods would be largely off-limits to pot businesses, and buffer zones would be set up around schools, libraries and parks. ||||| PACIFIC PALISADES (CBSLA) — Stephanie Smith, who describes herself as a real estate developer educated at Boston College and UCLA, made news in December, when police accused her of running a multimillion-dollar marijuana grow operation in San Bernardino. The blonde and blue-eyed 43-year old mother of five with a huge smile made headlines around the world after San Bernardino police raided three buildings she owned and confiscated thousands of marijuana plants all seen on video. Investigators got suspicious when a $67,000 electric bill popped up at one of her properties thought to be vacant and red-tagged it. Smith lives 80 miles from San Bernardino in Pacific Palisades, where police showed up on her doorstep. Smith posted security camera photos online from that day and wrote, “Raiding a woman and toddlers with SWAT in full gear and guns is absurd.” Smith declined an interview but through a statement from her attorney she says she’s “a well-known and recognized leader in large-scale cannabis real estate development.” She insists she just owns the buildings saying: “The tenants in my buildings were compliant with the laws of the State of California and had applied for licenses from the City of San Bernardino multiple times. only to have their applications rejected for technical reasons. “These raids certainly inconvenienced me, but they devastated my tenants, who are small-business operators, destroyed over 100 local jobs that paid excellent wages, squandered badly needed local tax revenue.” San Bernardino Community Development Director Mark Persico is in charge of permitting marijuana businesses and says the city is an attractive spot for marijuana businesses. They already have 50 applications in the works because of Measure O, which passed in 2016. “The measure sets up a permitting process for both the cultivation of marijuana as well as the sales, testing, distribution. … It sets up a whole permit structure,” said Persico, Police say the operators of the business did not have the proper permits to run a business of this scale. The plants will be destroyed, and the operators could be charged with misdemeanors. If Smith looks or sounds familiar, she was the subject of a story CBS2 ran in 2008. Back then, her last name was Darcy and she was accused of performing liposuction on patients in Dr. Craig Alan Bittner’s Beverly Hills office, even though she didn’t have a medical degree. Three patients sued Smith and Bittner, but the cases were dismissed. You might recall Bittner also made headlines for turning fat into biodiesel for his SUV. The two now work together in real estate development. A Statement From Smith: As a professional real estate developer with several million square feet of commercial and industrial space throughout California, I provide the infrastructure for all types of industry to operate and prosper, including the cannabis industry. I am a well-known and recognized leader in large-scale cannabis real estate development and I am proud of the State of California’s position on cannabis. Clearly the Mayor of San Bernardino and I feel differently about cannabis. I’m strongly on the side of the majority voters in San Bernardino and elsewhere who demand the regulation and taxation of commercial cannabis. The tenants in my buildings were compliant with the laws of the State of California and I had applied for licenses from the City of San Bernardino multiple times only to have their applications rejected for technical reasons. In raiding buildings that I own, the Mayor of San Bernardino opposed the will of the voters, wasted city resources and in the process squandered well over $1 million of potential annual city taxes from the businesses of my tenants. These raids certainly inconvenienced me, but they devastated my tenants who are small business operators, destroyed over one hundred local jobs that paid excellent wages, squandered badly needed local tax revenue and violated the will of the voters of San Bernardino. As for the marijuana investigation, the feds helped San Bernardino police with their investigation but say it’s up to police if they want to move forward with pressing charges. Again, Smith hasn’t been arrested. ||||| The cannabis company owned by a Pacific Palisades woman whose marijuana growing operation was uprooted by San Bernardino police late last year is suing the city to overturn a new ordinance addressing commercial cannabis businesses. The suit – filed Friday by Bubba Likes Tortillas, which owns a lot of property used for cannabis businesses – says the ordinance violates Prop. 64 and other California laws. The San Bernardino City Council unanimously approved the ordinance March 7. Stephanie Smith, owner of Bubba Likes Tortillas, claims the ordinance creates a monopoly for certain cannabis license types and bans “any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis … from entering the legal market.” City Attorney Gary Saenz said by phone Monday, March 26, his office had received the lawsuit earlier in the day and hadn’t had time to review it and offer a comment. The ordinance – one of three passed earlier this month – says the city can award only 17 cannabis business licenses in this first year; with 19 different cannabis license types available under California law, certain businesses can hold a monopoly on the marketplace, the suit says. State law grants cities the authority to limit cannabis businesses as they choose. Additionally, Smith claims, the ordinance disqualifies any cannabis-related enterprise previously labeled as non-compliant with city law from holding a commercial license. And a renewal could be denied if a business owner is found to have operated in violation of city or state law. Cities such as Los Angeles and Oakland are going the opposite direction and giving priority in licensing to business owners who’ve had cannabis-related convictions in the past. Such social equity programs have been created to help undo some of the historic harms from the war on drugs. San Bernardino’s requirements violate due process, the suit says. They do “not require a conviction, administrative hearing, or any other process other than that the City of San Bernardino has determined that the actions occurred.” “This misguided ordinance is a backdoor ban that continues the City’s illogical campaign against a legal product,” Smith said in a statement. Smith made headlines late last year when San Bernardino police seized nearly 25,000 marijuana plants at three Bubba Likes Tortillas locations as part of an intensive investigation. One of the locations was less than a block from the rear of the police station. Smith’s home also was raided. She was not arrested, though eight men at the sites were arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana. Less than a week later, nearly 4.5 tons of marijuana was seized at another warehouse owned by Smith. Smith did not have a permit to grow in the city, authorities said. San Bernardino’s marijuana laws have been murky for a while. Voters in 2016 passed Measure O, a ballot measure requiring the city allow marijuana dispensaries in certain areas. Three permits were awarded, including one to the Flesh Showgirls strip club on Hospitality Lane. Measure O’s validity later was challenged in court, putting those permits in limbo. Smith’s operations were uprooted Dec. 13 and 19. On Dec. 20, city leaders passed a temporary moratorium on certain marijuana activities not covered by Measure O. Nine days later, a San Bernardino County Superior Court judge tentatively ruled Measure O invalid for spot zoning – that is, singling out parcels of land for uses benefiting their owners at the expense of others in the surrounding area. Under Measure O’s zoning restrictions, Judge David Cohn wrote, only two locations in city – one being the Flesh Club, which is not associated with Bubba Likes Tortillas – would be allowed to sell marijuana. Captain Jack’s, a dispensary at the Flesh Club address, opened to the public in January with a city and a state license. On Feb. 1, the City Council extended the temporary moratorium up to 10 months and 15 days. At the end of the month, Cohn declared Measure O invalid in his final, written decision. An appeal was filed on behalf of the Flesh Club owner, and Saenz said the court ruled Monday that dispensaries operating with a Measure O permit and a state license can continue operating in the city until at least April 27. The court at that time is expected to make a determination on the city’s new commercial cannabis ordinance, Saenz said. “There’s a lot going on in the cannabis world as far as San Bernardino is concerned right now.”

– A Los Angeles mom accused of running a multimillion-dollar marijuana grow operation in San Bernardino is now suing the city to overturn its pot regulation ordinance, the AP reports. Stephanie Smith, a 43-year-old real estate developer and mother of five, owns three buildings in San Bernardino that were raided by police in December. Thousands of marijuana plants were confiscated, CBS Los Angeles reported at the time. Smith was not arrested or charged, but police accused her of being in charge of the pot "fortress"; she said she was simply the landlord and that her tenants' activities were legal. In her lawsuit, she argues San Bernardino's ordinance "is a backdoor ban that continues the city's illogical campaign against a legal product," CBS reports. California legalized recreational marijuana last year, but sales did not begin until Jan. 1, CBS reported at the time. Smith, who says she is the biggest landlord of marijuana businesses in the state, argues that under the San Bernardino ordinance—which was passed by the city council after Smith's buildings were raided—"any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market," per the San Bernardino Sun. That's because Smith says her tenants were in the process of being licensed when they were raided, and got approval to operate a week after authorities shut them down, but the ordinance bars anyone who has violated local or state laws related to the cannabis industry from ever entering the commercial cannabis business in the city. "San Bernardino is ... guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market," her attorney says. Smith says that could result in monopolies forming in the cannabis industry, and could also prevent her from renting to those in the industry.

Several cards were placed among the flowers at a memorial at Warren Hills’ football stadium – one branded with a large Superman emblem. It was clear on Saturday morning that Evan Murray was a superhero, and more, to the Warren County community. The high school senior died on Friday night after being injured during a home football game against Summit. Faculty, students, friends and family gathered at Warren Hills to mourn and remember the teenager who’d touched so many people. “Everyone honored him, and they should because he deserves it,” said Anthony Veneziano, a classmate of Murray, as he left the stadium. “They should continue to honor him forever.” The specific circumstances of Murray’s death weren’t revealed by school district administrators on Saturday. The Blue Streaks community, in the meantime, is grieving. “It was complete shock,” said Veneziano, who attended Friday night’s game and was on the basketball and baseball teams with Murray. “He’s one of the greatest kids in this whole community. It’s unbelievable. I still don’t believe it.” Tragedy at Warren Hills: Full coverage of Evan Murray's death Murray was a three-sport performer, gifted with versatile athleticism. It was his character, however, that drew peers toward the senior. “There’s a lot of things that I’m going to remember about Evan, mostly his leadership and the young gentleman that he was,” baseball coach Mike Quinto said, “not just an athlete, but the person he was.” “He was one of the best leaders,” said Veneziano, who noted that Murray was honest and levelheaded. “He believed in us. He got the job done in all three sports.” The teenager was also dedicated, filling his free time with football, basketball or baseball, according Quinto. “That’s just the way he was, and he would lead others to do the same, and that’s why we love him,” he said. Quinto, who also coaches boys soccer at the school, said the Warren Hills students are devastated. It’s another blow to a community that has been hard-hit by tragedy of late. Colin Matthew Cudworth Jr., a 17-year-old Warren Hills student, died in an auto accident in July. Kinsey Fredericks-Bishow, a 2012 Warren Hills graduate, died after contracting bacterial meningitis while studying abroad in Paris over the summer. “The (students) that I met with here today are having a tough time,” Quinto said. “The baseball players that I spoke with, I just told them to please stick together; that we’ll get through this. We’ve dealt with some tragedy throughout the last year and we’ll get through this one, too.” “They lost a leader and they lost somebody that … a lot of kids look up to, and a lot of staff and teachers look up to,” Quinto said. The Blue Streaks have lost their Superman, but more importantly, they’ve lost part of their family. “He was a brother to us,” Veneziano said. “We’re all brothers. We’re going to be brothers forever.” Kyle Craig may be reached at kcraig@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KyleCraigSports. ||||| UPDATE: Confusion, disbelief amid Evan Murray's death The quarterback at Warren Hills Regional High School died Friday night after being injured in a varsity football game. The entire school community was mourning the death of Evan Murray, a senior, said interim schools Superintendent Gary Bowen. Bowen said grief counselors would be available for students at the Warren County high school at 9 a.m. Saturday. Murray was a three-sport athlete at Warren Hills and starting quarterback for three years. He also played baseball and basketball. RELATED: Evan Murray takes leadership role at Warren Hills The circumstances of his injury at Warren Hills' home stadium weren't immediately clear. "We're all very deeply saddened by the passing of Evan Murray," Bowen said. "Warren Hills Regional High School is making available grief and crisis counselors who will be available to speak with the students this weekend so that moving forward they can access the services." Warren Hills played Summit and completed the game, which Summit won 14-12. Warren Hills coach Larry Dubiel after midnight said officials were still trying to process and determine what happened. "We lost a fine kid," he said. Jim Deegan may be reached at jdeegan@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @jim_deegan. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook.

– A star high school athlete is dead in New Jersey after being injured in a football game last night, reports Lehigh Valley Live. It's not clear exactly what happened to Evan Murray, the quarterback for Warren Hills Regional High School. Witnesses say the 17-year-old took a hit but walked off the field under his own power, reports the Daily News. He reported feeling groggy, however, and was put on a gurney to head to the hospital. "He tried giving a thumbs-up to the rest of the team, and all of us cheered," says a 16-year-old cheerleader at the school. "Our coach was telling us he was going to be all right." Murray was taken to a local hospital, where he died after being treated. An autopsy was scheduled for today. Meanwhile, the Warren Hills community is devastated, reports NJ.com. Murray had been the starting QB for three years, and he also played baseball and basketball. “It was complete shock,” says a classmate. "He’s one of the greatest kids in this whole community. It’s unbelievable. I still don’t believe it.”

He said he'll be back, and now he's keeping his promise: Arnold Schwarzenegger is plotting a movie return. Originally a body builder before making a transition to action movies, Schwarzenegger won the 2003 recall election to become Governor of California. Now, Schwarzenegger's time in office is over, and so he's looking to move back to film. Schwarzenegger tweeted today: "Exciting news. My friends at CAA have been asking me for 7 years when they can take offers seriously. Gave them the green light." CAA refers to the talent agency that represents him. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, Schwarzenegger, who is best known for his "Terminator" films, took on a number of bit parts in films throughout his governorship. Those included the 2004 "Around the World in 80 Days" remake, as well as summer 2010's action extravaganza "The Expendables." Schwarzenegger had previously mused on his film return, saying that he was reading and considering three different scripts. One would see him star as a kind hearted Nazi soldier that eschews orders to kill a group of kids, instead returning them to safety. That sounds action-packed, but he's realistic about his big screen limitations this time around. "In the future I have to adapt my roles to my age," he told an Austrian newspaper. "Clint Eastwood also has done it in the same way. Extreme fighting or shooting is not possible anymore. I want to be more encouraged as an actor and I believe that I can manage this challenge. I am like a sponge, which is absorbing all the knowledge and always be willing to learn all new things." WATCH a popular viral video chronicling the best of Schwarzenegger's movie lines: ||||| Exciting news. My friends at CAA have been asking me for 7 years when they can take offers seriously. Gave them the green light today. We all know the catchphrase that has been associated with Arnold Schwarzenegger since he starred in the 1984 movie "The Terminator." He even committed it to concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood when his handprints and footprints were enshrined there as a major star of major motion pictures.Now those words may apply to him again. Schwarzenegger may return to the big screen.With the exception of some cameo roles like the one in the 2010 movie "The Expendables," Schwarzenegger has not had parts in any movies since he was elected governor of California in October 2003. In recent years, the Republican has had his hands full as California and the rest of the United States have struggled through the recession.When Schwarzenegger first took office as governor, his popularity was high and there was even chatter about the possibility of a run for the presidency. As President Barack Obama and his opponents known as "birthers" are well aware, a citizen must have been born in the United States to be eligible for the job.Although Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria, would be ineligible for the presidency, legislation has been introduced at various times to amend the Constitution to allow residents who have lived in the United States for at least 20 or 25 years to become commander in chief, assuming they win the election. One bill, introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, even became known as "the Schwarzenegger amendment."But talk of higher office has subsided. Although he had favorability ratings of 79 percent in 2003, according to the Gallup Poll, his approval rating fell to 25 percent in January, according to Public Policy Polling.And Schwarzenegger has indicated that he would like to return to Hollywood. In a Twitter post on Thursday, he made a reference to the Creative Artists Agency, where his agents work, writing:Funny, he didn't think to use his catchphrase in the post.

– Arnold Schwarzenegger apparently meant it when he said, "I'll be back:" The ex-Governator is picking up his old day job, acting, reports the AP. "Exciting news," he tweeted. "My friends at CAA have been asking me for seven years when they can take offers seriously. Gave them the green light today." No word yet on whether any remakes of Terminator or Kindergarten Cop are in the works. Click here or here for more.

French soldiers patrol at Charles de Gaulle airport, outside of Paris, Friday, May 20, 2016. The search continued on Friday for missing EgyptAir flight 804, which disappeared from the radar while carrying... (Associated Press) CAIRO (AP) — Smoke was detected in multiple places on EgyptAir flight 804 moments before it plummeted into the Mediterranean, but the cause of the crash that killed all 66 on board remains unclear, the French air accident investigation agency said on Saturday. Agency spokesman Sebastien Barthe told The Associated Press in Paris that the plane's automatic detection system sent messages indicating smoke a few minutes before the plane disappeared from radar while flying over the east Mediterranean early on Thursday morning. The messages, he explained, "generally mean the start of a fire," but he added: "We are drawing no conclusions from this. Everything else is pure conjecture." Looking for clues to whether terrorists may have brought down the Airbus A320, investigators have been poring over the passenger list and questioned ground crew members at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, from which the plane took off. The aircraft had been cruising normally in clear skies on a nighttime flight to Cairo early Thursday when it suddenly lurched left, then right, spun all the way around and plummeted 38,000 feet (11,582.4 meters) into the sea, never issuing a distress signal. Search crews are scouring for further wreckage of the aircraft. Experts said answers will come only with an examination of the wreckage and the plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders, commonly known as black boxes. Planes and vessels from Egypt and five other countries — Greece, Britain, France, the United States and Cyprus — continued searching a wide area of the eastern Mediterranean on Saturday, a day after the Egyptian military found debris from the passenger jet in the sea 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. The waters in the area are 8,000 to 10,000 feet deep (2,440 to 3,050 meters), and the pings from the black boxes can be detected up to a depth of 20,000 feet (6 kilometers). On Saturday, the Egyptian military released photographs of the debris from EgyptAir flight 804. The photos were posted on the Facebook page of the chief military spokesman. They appear to show the heavily-damaged remains of plane seats, life jackets — one of which was seemingly undamaged — and a scrap of cloth that looks to be part of a baby's purple and pink blanket or sleeping bag. The spokesman's Facebook page later posted a brief video that showed more debris, including what appeared to be a piece of blue carpet, seat belts, a shoe and what looked like a woman's white handbag. The short clip opened with aerial footage of an unidentified navy ship followed by a speed boat with five service members aboard heading toward floating debris. Egyptian authorities said they believe terrorism is a more likely explanation than equipment failure, and some aviation experts have said the erratic flight suggests a bomb blast or a struggle in the cockpit. But so far no hard evidence has emerged. No militant group has claimed to have brought down the aircraft. That is a contrast to the downing of a Russian jet in October over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula that killed all 224 on board. In that case, the Islamic State group's branch in Sinai issued a claim of responsibility within hours. On Friday, IS issued a statement on clashes with the Egyptian military in Sinai, but said nothing about the plane crash. Three European security officials said on Friday that the passenger manifest for Flight 804 contained no names on terrorism watch lists. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation. The manifest was leaked online and has not been verified by the airline. Further checks are being conducted on relatives of the passengers. French aviation investigators have begun to check and question all baggage handlers, maintenance workers, gate agents and other ground crew members at Charles de Gaulle Airport who had a direct or indirect link to the plane before it took off, according to a French judicial official. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. Whatever caused the aircraft to crash, the tragedy will most likely deepen Egypt's difficult predicament as it struggles to revive a battered economy and contain an increasingly resilient insurgency by Islamic militants. In the five years since the country was first mired in turmoil caused by a popular uprising against longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, the lucrative tourism sector has been decimated, the value of the local currency has progressively fallen and domestic debt has mushroomed. While the latest tragedy may not reflect directly on security at Egypt's airports, as the Russian jet crash did in October, the country's association with another air disaster will impact negatively on tourism and the flow of foreign investment. In Paris, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Saturday that he and other officials — including representatives of Paris Aeroport, the French prosecutor, EgyptAir, and the Egyptian ambassador to Paris — had met with about 100 family members to express "our profound compassion" over the crash. In a statement delivered to reporters following the meeting, he said: "All the hypotheses are being examined — none are being favored." "In the name of France, once more, I am expressing my solidarity, but also our affection ... for all those people who learned that a loved one, or even an entire family, have drowned in the sea — and who want to know, to know to be able to grieve. It's a difficult moment, a painful moment. I wanted to say it again: We're on their side." ___ Satter reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Angela Charlton and Philippe Sotto in Paris and Paisley Dodds in London contributed to this report. ||||| The January 25th Revolution Web sites collection provides access to blogs, Twitter feeds, local and regional media coverage, and other sites related to the January 25th Revolution. It is maintained by the American University in Cairo Rare Books and Special Collections Library and features Web sites suggested by AUC students, faculty, and staff as well as other contributors to the University on the Square: Documenting Egypt's 21st Century Revolution project.

– Smoke was detected in multiple places on EgyptAir Flight 804 moments before it plummeted into the Mediterranean, but the cause of the crash that killed all 66 on board remains unclear, the French air accident investigation agency says. Agency spokesman Sebastien Barthe tells the AP that the plane's automatic detection system sent messages indicating smoke a few minutes before the plane disappeared from radar while flying over the eastern Mediterranean early on Thursday morning. The messages, he says, "generally mean the start of a fire," but he adds: "We are drawing no conclusions from this. Everything else is pure conjecture." The aircraft had been cruising normally in clear skies early Thursday when it suddenly lurched left, then right, spun all the way around, and plummeted 38,000 feet into the sea. Aviation experts have said the erratic flight suggests a bomb blast or a struggle in the cockpit. But so far no hard evidence has emerged. Search crews found floating debris and human remains on Friday, and photos posted on the Facebook page of Egypt's chief military spokesman appear to show the remains of plane seats, life jackets, and a scrap of cloth that looks to be part of a baby's blanket. Search crews from Egypt and five other countries—Greece, Britain, France, the US, and Cyprus—are searching a wide area of the eastern Med for further wreckage.