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Charlotta Turner, professor in Analytical Chemistry, received a text message from her student Firas Jumaah in 2014 telling her to to assume he would not finish his thesis if he had not returned within a week. He and his family were, he told her, hiding out in a disused bleach factory, with the sounds of gunshots from Isis warriors roaming the town reverberating around them. Jumaah, who is from Iraq, is a member of the ethno-religious group Yazidi hated by Isis. "I had no hope then at all," Jumaah told Lund's University Magazine LUM . "I was desperate. I just wanted to tell my supervisor what was happening. I had no idea that a professor would be able to do anything for us." Jumaah had voluntarily entered the war zone after his wife had rung him to say that Isis fighters had taken over the next-door village, killing all the men and taking the women into slavery. "My wife was totally panicking. Everyone was shocked at how IS were behaving," he said. "I took the first plane there to be with them. What sort of life would I have if anything had happened to them there?" But Turner was not willing to leave her student to die without trying to do something. "What was happening was completely unacceptable," she told LUM. "I got so angry that IS was pushing itself into our world, exposing my doctoral student and his family to this, and disrupting the research." She contacted the university's then security chief Per Gustafson. "It was almost as if he'd been waiting for this kind of mission," Turner said. "Per Gustafson said that we had a transport and security deal which stretched over the whole world." Over a few days of intense activity, Gustafson hired a security company which then arranged the rescue operation. A few days later two Landcruisers carrying four heavily-armed mercenaries roared into the area where Jumaah was hiding, and sped him away to Erbil Airport together with his wife and two small children. "I have never felt so privileged, so VIP," Jumaah told LUM. "But at the same time I felt like a coward as I left my mother and sisters behind me." Firas Jumaah and his former PHD supervisor Charlotta Turner. Photo: Kennet Ruona Luckily the rest of his family survived Isis occupation, while Jumaah back in Sweden completed his PhD and now works for a pharmaceuticals company in Malmö. The family has almost finished paying the university back for the rescue operation. "It was a unique event. As far as I know no other university has ever been involved in anything like it," Gustafson said. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. By Yuliya Talmazan On an August day four years ago, Swedish chemistry professor Charlotta Turner received a surprising text message that would change the life of one of her graduate students. Firas Jumaah had returned to his native Iraq days earlier, fearing for the safety of his wife and two children who had traveled there for a family wedding. He had initially stayed behind to complete his lab work at Lund University in southern Sweden. While with his family in Iraq, Jumaah sent his supervisor a text message asking her to remove him from the doctoral program if he wasn’t back in Sweden within a week. Firas Jumaah Charlotta Turner Surprised by the message, Turner, 48, called Jumaah. It was then that she found out that his family was facing a life-and-death situation. “He was very sad and crying,” Turner told NBC News. “I could hear that the situation was hopeless and they had to flee.” Jumaah's family had returned to visit their home country of Iraq before violence began. But while he was there the so-called Islamic State conducted a deadly offensive in northern Iraq. On Aug. 3, ISIS attacked the city of Sinjar near to where Jumaah’s family was, massacring and enslaving thousands of Yazidis — a religious minority to which Jumaah and his family belong. “He realized one day that things were getting really serious there,” Turner said. “He was very worried and he just left.” Jumaah’s plan was to go in and bring his family back to Sweden, but when he arrived, most borders were closed because of a mass exodus of refugees. He also couldn’t go back to the airport. So they waited. But the situation only grew worse because ISIS kept advancing — and, at one point, came within 12 miles of their house. Over the phone, Jumaah told Turner that he and his family were preparing to go into hiding in Iraq’s northern mountains. She told him not to give up and started looking for ways to rescue the family. “It was very spontaneous,” she said. “For me, it was obvious that I should help and bring them home.” She approached the university’s security chief at the time, who found a company that could go in with armed men and rescue Jumaah and his family.

– Four years ago, a chemistry professor got a text from her grad student: If I'm not back in a week, cut me from the doctoral program. Charlotta Turner called him right away: "He was very sad and crying,” the 48-year-old prof at Lund University in Sweden tells NBC News. "I could hear that the situation was hopeless and they had to flee." The student, Firas Jumaah, was visiting his native Iraq to help family members during a brutal 2014 ISIS attack targeting Yazidis—a religious minority that includes his family. The terror group had just enslaved and massacred Yazidis by the thousand in nearby Sinjar. Now Jumaah and family were planning to flee to the mountains. "I had no hope at all," says Jumaah, per the Local. "I was desperate." But Turner took action. She spoke to Lund University's then-security chief, who contacted a company that sent mercenaries into northern Iraq. Only days later, four armed mercs on two Landcruisers blazed into the place where Jumaah was hiding, and rushed him to Erbil Airport with his wife and two young kids. "I have never felt so privileged, so VIP," he says. "But at the same time I felt like a coward as I left my mother and sisters behind me." Seeing his colleagues back in Sweden, he was speechless: "I just cried," he says. Yet Jumaah finished his PhD and found work at a Malmo pharmaceuticals company, and his family survived. The bill: roughly 60,000 kroner ($6,613), which his family has nearly finished paying. “If they told me to pay 200,000 kronor, I would,” says Jumaah. (The UN is finding fresh ISIS horrors.)

Anonymous The international hacking collective Anonymous has begun posting alleged personal information of suspected ISIS extremists. This comes just a few days after Anonymous declared "war" on ISIS, after the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks in Paris last weekend. Anonymous has already collected lists of Twitter accounts and websites belonging to ISIS in order to take them down, and the group claims to have already successfully taken some of those sites and accounts down. The group also leaked alleged personal information about suspected ISIS members. In one instance, an Anonymous Twitter account on Monday evening shared a bunch of names found from an alleged "jihadist site," preceding that list with a message: "ISIS we are coming for you." Anonymous has been busy shutting down social media accounts and websites linked to ISIS since January, when the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo was attacked by terrorists. Shortly after that event, Anonymous claimed to have taken down nearly 800 Twitter accounts and 50 email addresses associated with ISIS. However, Anonymous has wrongly identified people, including alleged extremists from ISIS and Al Qaeda, in the past. So, it's important to not begin a witch hunt for these people based on this information alone. Anonymous operates almost exclusively online and does most of its "activist" work through hacking and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which basically overload servers with tons of bogus requests. Anonymous has also been known to inundate phone networks with spammy phone calls, among other things, in order to disrupt communications. ||||| Anonymous has begun leaking the personal information of suspected extremists, after it "declared war" on Isis in the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris. The activist collective is assembling lists of the Twitter accounts and websites of extremists, in an attempt to have them taken down. At least one post seen by The Independent contains details including the physical address of a person it claims is an Isis recruiter in Europe. Activists claim to have successfully had accounts and sites taken down already. Accounts associated with the group claimed that it was responsible for the removal of more than 5,500 accounts. The group appears to have stepped up its tactics for what it called its "biggest operation" ever, in response to the attacks that left 129 dead. Previously it had largely focused on social media accounts. None of the details that have been shared could be independently confirmed, and Anonymous activists have wrongly identified alleged extremists in the past. But if true the details shared include the physical addresses and names of those the activists claim are involve in recruitment. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Saint-Denis raid Show all 33 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Saint-Denis raid 1/33 A man is arrested by police officers at the site where a raid happened in the city center of Saint-Denis, near Paris 2/33 Hooded police officers detain a man in Saint-Denis, near Paris 3/33 Hooded police officers detain a man in Saint-Denis, near Paris 4/33 Police officers detain a man on the ground inside a shopping mall in Saint-Denis 5/33 Police officers arrest a man in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris 6/33 French police officers storm a church after a raid in Paris suburb Saint-Denis 7/33 Police officers at work at the site where a raid happened in the city center of Saint-Denis 8/33 Some people are being transferred to a local hospital near the site of this morning police raid in Saint-Denis 9/33 Residents are evacuated in Saint-Denis 10/33 Inhabitants are evacuated from a security perimeter set in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis city center 11/33 Families are evacuated by police members at the site were a police raid happened in the city center of Saint-Denis 12/33 Rescue teams take care of an injured police officer at the site where a police raid happened in the city center of Saint-Denis 13/33 Members of special French RAID forces with a police dog and French riot police (CRS) secure the area during an operation in Saint-Denis 14/33 Police forces operate in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris 15/33 French riot police (CRS), soldiers, firefighters and health workers stand at the scene in Saint-Denis 16/33 French riot police (CRS) secure the area as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis Reuters 17/33 Rescue teams and police gather at the site where raid happened in the city center of Saint-Denis 18/33 Soldiers operate in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris AP 19/33 Police officers take up positions in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris AP 20/33 Police and Ambulance vans are parked in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris AP 21/33 A resident is being searched by police officers in Paris suburb Saint-Denis AP 22/33 Members of French police special forces in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis city center, as French Police special forces raid an appartment, hunting those behind the attacks that claimed 129 lives in the French capital 23/33 Anti-terrorist police raid apartment in Saint Denis, Paris. Reports suggest the target of the police siege in Saint-Denis is Abdelhamid Abaaoud, thought to be the mastermind behind the Paris attacks. Three suspected terrorists have barricaded themselves in an apartment gunfire has been exchanged between the men and dozens of armed police Rex 24/33 French special police forces secure the area as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis Reuters 25/33 French police evacuate residents in Saint-Denis Reuters 26/33 Police officers take up positions in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris AP 27/33 Police forces prepare in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris AP 28/33 French spolice stop and search a local resident as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis 29/33 French police members participate in an raid in the city center of Saint-Denis EPA 30/33 French special police forces secure the area as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis Reuters 31/33 Firemen wait for the develop of the operation in the city center of Saint-Denis EPA 32/33 French police secure the area as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis Reuters 33/33 French special police forces secure the area as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis Reuters 1/33 A man is arrested by police officers at the site where a raid happened in the city center of Saint-Denis, near Paris 2/33 Hooded police officers detain a man in Saint-Denis, near Paris 3/33 Hooded police officers detain a man in Saint-Denis, near Paris 4/33 Police officers detain a man on the ground inside a shopping mall in Saint-Denis 5/33 Police officers arrest a man in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris 6/33 French police officers storm a church after a raid in Paris suburb Saint-Denis 7/33 Police officers at work at the site where a raid happened in the city center of Saint-Denis 8/33 Some people are being transferred to a local hospital near the site of this morning police raid in Saint-Denis 9/33 Residents are evacuated in Saint-Denis 10/33 Inhabitants are evacuated from a security perimeter set in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis city center 11/33 Families are evacuated by police members at the site were a police raid happened in the city center of Saint-Denis 12/33 Rescue teams take care of an injured police officer at the site where a police raid happened in the city center of Saint-Denis 13/33 Members of special French RAID forces with a police dog and French riot police (CRS) secure the area during an operation in Saint-Denis 14/33 Police forces operate in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris 15/33 French riot police (CRS), soldiers, firefighters and health workers stand at the scene in Saint-Denis 16/33 French riot police (CRS) secure the area as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis Reuters 17/33 Rescue teams and police gather at the site where raid happened in the city center of Saint-Denis 18/33 Soldiers operate in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris AP 19/33 Police officers take up positions in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris AP 20/33 Police and Ambulance vans are parked in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris AP 21/33 A resident is being searched by police officers in Paris suburb Saint-Denis AP 22/33 Members of French police special forces in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis city center, as French Police special forces raid an appartment, hunting those behind the attacks that claimed 129 lives in the French capital 23/33 Anti-terrorist police raid apartment in Saint Denis, Paris. Reports suggest the target of the police siege in Saint-Denis is Abdelhamid Abaaoud, thought to be the mastermind behind the Paris attacks. Three suspected terrorists have barricaded themselves in an apartment gunfire has been exchanged between the men and dozens of armed police Rex 24/33 French special police forces secure the area as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis Reuters 25/33 French police evacuate residents in Saint-Denis Reuters 26/33 Police officers take up positions in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris AP 27/33 Police forces prepare in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris AP 28/33 French spolice stop and search a local resident as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis 29/33 French police members participate in an raid in the city center of Saint-Denis EPA 30/33 French special police forces secure the area as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis Reuters 31/33 Firemen wait for the develop of the operation in the city center of Saint-Denis EPA 32/33 French police secure the area as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis Reuters 33/33 French special police forces secure the area as shots are exchanged in Saint-Denis Reuters Anonymous began its campaign against Isis in earnest after the killings at Charlie Hebdo in January. That work included launching attacks on extremist websites and finding extremist accounts on Twitter so that the social network could take them down. It has continued that work this time around. Its attacks on websites seem to use a distributed denial of service, a technique that overloads a site's servers until they go offline. The Twitter accounts are taken down by the network itself, in response to requests the activists make once they are found. ||||| The hacker collective Anonymous on Sunday released a list of more than 1,000 Twitter accounts that it claims Islamic State supporters use to spread propaganda. That was just the first salvo of an intensified campaign against the terror group following last Friday's Paris attacks. The question, however, is whether Anonymous' effort and that of a growing number of like-minded digital vigilantes in recent months will have any impact on the militants' digital networks, or are they only hindering government efforts to disrupt the jihadi group. In a YouTube video Monday, an individual wearing the collective's trademark Guy Fawkes mask promised that Anonymous activists from around the world would hunt down the Islamic State. "We are going to launch the biggest ever operation against you," the masked individual warned. "Expect very many cyberattacks." (A slightly different English language version of the video is available here.) Following the deadly attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo earlier this year, Anonymous launched a campaign dubbed #OpISIS to expose and destroy websites, social media accounts, and e-mail addresses of those it considered as affiliated with the terror group. Since then, it has claimed credit for shutting down several websites, and exposing e-mails, private networks, Internet addresses, and more than 9,000 Twitter accounts allegedly being used by Islamic State (ISIS) activists. It's unclear how exactly Anonymous plans on escalating that effort with it new #OpParis campaign launched over the weekend. According to Anonymous, it has already taken down more than 3,800 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts following the Paris attacks. Members of the collective are now apparently working on setting up teams for intelligence gathering, intelligence analysis and dissemination as part of a broader, more organized effort to hit ISIS capabilities online. Supporters and sympathizers of ISIS have used social media channels and the Internet extensively to communicate, to recruit, and to coordinate supporters across continents. By going after the online accounts used by members and supporters of the group, Anonymous hopes to degrade and diminish the ability for ISIS to communicate and proselytize using the Internet. But its penchant for doling out vigilante style justice replete with hyperbolic messages of vengeance and retribution may not be quite what’s needed now, say analysts. For one thing, regardless of how successful Anonymous might prove in exposing Twitter accounts and shutting down websites, it's simple for ISIS supporters to reestablish new ones. In fact, many ISIS supporters are likely using the same tactics that members of Anonymous and other hacktivist groups use to stay ahead of those following them, says Joe Gallop head of the hacktivism intelligence practice at iSight Partners. The group behind the Paris attacks, for instance, may have used encrypted chat technology to communicate with each other, a tactic that hacktivists have long used to stay under the law enforcement radar, Mr. Gallop said. "Terrorist organizations are just taking a page out of the hacktivist playbook," he says. In the same way that it's hard to take down Twitter accounts belonging to groups such as Anonymous, it's hard to completely curtail the ability to terror groups to communicate simply by shutting down Twitter accounts and taking down websites. "What they are doing is more of simple harassment. In the end it is not going to help law enforcement to prevent an actual physical attack like what happened in Paris," Gallop said. There's also the question of whether efforts by Anonymous and others to take down sites and channels that terrorist supporters might be using to communicate could actually disrupt law enforcement investigations. When such activities are not undertaken in coordination with counterterrorism practitioners from within government, the actions of groups such as Anonymous can become counterproductive, says Michael Smith II, principal and chief operating officer at Kronos Advisory, a strategic advisory firm. "Unless these activities are being coordinated with investigators who possess the authority to disrupt terrorists’ activities, there is a good chance these activities will prove disruptive in relation to ongoing investigations," Mr. Smith warns. Smith currently acts as an intermediary in funneling ISIS-related data, collected by a group called Ghost Security Group, to government counter-terrorism officials. The focus is on passing along information gathered by the group related to ISIS attack plots and recruitment efforts. Members of Ghost Security Group previously belonged to GhostSec, a group of hacktivists that like Anonymous has been working to disrupt the online activities of Islamic terror groups such as ISIS, Al Qaeda and Al Shabab. In fact, GhostSec was one of two hacktivist groups that worked with Anonymous to expose the Twitter accounts of ISIS supporters, following the Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this year. By setting up Ghost Security Group, some members of GhostSec have deliberately distanced themselves from Anonymous and its legacy of hooded figures and Guy Fawkes masks. The goal in shedding the outlaw image is to get government counter terrorism officials to pay more attention to the data they are collecting on ISIS and other terror groups. The effort is paying off, Smith claimed. In July 2015, Ghost Security Group handed over information to federal authorities that was used to disrupt a plan to attack Jews and British citizens in Tunisia. Since September, Smith has acted as an intermediary between Ghost Security and the government, supplying official with information on the Islamic State’s use of certain communications platforms that are more difficult to monitor than Twitter or Facebook. "Data collected by Ghost Security Group and passed to law enforcement and intelligence professionals by me has added value to counterterrorism operations," Smith said, pointing to an article in Foreign Policy before the Paris terror attacks in which former Gen. David Petraeus is quoted as saying information provided by organizations like Ghost Security Group could be of value to government. Governments have been overwhelmed by the Islamic State's prolific use of Internet technologies to coordinate jihadist activities, in the West in the Middle East and North Africa. So there's plenty of room for outside support, Smith said. "However, any activities which are not coordinated with government officials who possess the authority to go out and make arrests, or direct other actions against the Islamic State can inadvertently serve to benefit the enemy." ||||| The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) released a statement on Monday responding to Anonymous’s declaration of “total war,” calling the hacker group “idiots” and offering guidance to pro-ISIS supporters to protect against cyber attacks. Anonymous threatened that it would launch its “biggest operation ever” against ISIS in response to the wave of shooting and suicide bomb attacks in Paris that left at least 129 people dead. The “Islamic Cyber Army” posted a response to Anonymous’s video release on its purported official channel on the privacy app Telegram, giving a series of tips to ISIS supporters. The post was shared by Anonymous-affiliated accounts on social media, such as the group’s Venezuelan arm. Jihadi monitoring network SITE Intelligence also confirmed the post. “The Anonymous hackers threatened in new video release that they will carry out a major hack operation on the Islamic State (idiots),” ISIS’s post read. “What they gonna hack...all they can do is hacking twitter accounts, emails etc…” The militant group then listed a series of steps that its supporters should follow online, including not opening suspicious links, changing their locations using workaround technology on their phones and computers, avoiding contact with unknown people on their phone and computers and to renaming their email addresses. The post says: “Do not talk to to people u don’t know on telegram and block them if u have to cause there are many glitches in telegram and they can hack you by it. Don’t talk to people on twitter DM cause they can hack u too. “Do not make your email same as your username on twitter this mistake cost many Ansar (helpers) their accounts and the kuffar published their IP so be careful.” Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now Anonymous’s two-minute video threatening ISIS has amassed more than five millions views since it launched on Saturday. "War is declared. Get prepared," a masked figure warned the group in the video. "The French people are stronger than you and will come out of this atrocity even stronger,” the figure added. “Anonymous from all over the world will hunt you down. You should know that we will find you and we will not let you go.” The hacker said that the infamous group will use its cyber skills to "unite humanity" and said that terrorists should "expect massive cyber attacks." Anonymous has targeted ISIS for a number of months following the attacks on the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and its hack of U.S. CENTCOM's Twitter account. The group has uncovered the Twitter accounts of ISIS members and hacked a number of the group's sites. The hacktivist group has dismantled at least 149 of ISIS’s affiliated websites, flagged approximately 101,000 Twitter accounts and nearly 6,000 propaganda videos, U.S. magazine Foreign Policy estimates. This story has been updated to clarify that the targeting of ISIS by Anonymous followed ISIS's attacks on Charlie Hebdo and U.S. CENTCOM's Twitter account.

– Anonymous is following through with its promise to target ISIS in a cyber war after the Paris terror attacks. Operating under the hashtags #opISIS and #opParis, the group has begun leaking the personal details of alleged ISIS recruiters, reports the Independent. Anonymous also has compiled lists of social media accounts linked to extremists in an attempt to have them removed, and at least one post reveals the physical address of a suspected recruiter in Europe. Another list, spotted by Tech Insider, includes more than 80 names, though the site notes that Anonymous has wrongly identified extremists before. The group is also working to take down ISIS-affiliated websites using denial-of-service attacks to overload servers. ISIS, however, seems unperturbed. "All they can do is hacking (sic) Twitter accounts, emails etc.," the terrorist group said in a statement Monday, calling Anonymous a bunch of "idiots." Still, ISIS shared tips with supporters about how to avoid cyberattacks, including altering email addresses, changing a computer's shared location, and ignoring suspicious links, per Newsweek. While Anonymous' attacks could hinder communications between ISIS supporters, analysts tell the Christian Science Monitor that they're unlikely to do much good. "What they are doing is more of simple harassment," one says. "In the end it is not going to help law enforcement to prevent an actual physical attack like what happened in Paris." (ISIS has a 24-hour help desk for jihadis having tech trouble.)

Play Facebook Twitter Embed Watch the Full, Unedited Donald Trump Interview 28:52 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Donald Trump said Wednesday that he believes he will win the Latino vote, slamming Hillary Clinton for promoting what he called an immigration policy that would “let everybody come in… killers, criminals, drug dealers.” “I have a great relationship with the Mexican people. I have many people working for me – look at the job in Washington – I have many legal immigrants working with me. And many of them come from Mexico. They love me, I love them,” the 2016 GOP contender said in an interview with NBC News. “And I’ll tell you something, if I get the nomination, I’ll win the Latino vote.” Trump said that “there’s nothing to apologize for” in relation to his controversial comments about Mexico, arguing that he’ll win the support of Latinos because of his record creating jobs. Play Facebook Twitter Embed Donald Trump Surges in Polls, Loses in Business Deals 5:03 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog “Hillary Clinton is not going to be able to create jobs, I will tell you right now,” he said. “Neither is Jeb Bush going to be able to create jobs. I will create jobs and the Latinos will have jobs that they don’t have right now. And I will win that vote.” He added that Hillary Clinton’s immigration policy would be to “let everybody come in… killers, criminals, drug dealers.” “Hillary’s weak on immigration,” he said. “I might be divisive on immigration, but she’s weak on immigration, which is far worse." Play Facebook Twitter Embed Trump: Hillary Clinton ‘Worst Secretary of State’ In U.S. History 0:29 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog "If you listen to Hillary, she is so weak on immigration, we will have a crime rate like you've never seen," he added. Trump also labeled Clinton “the worst secretary of state in the history of our nation.” “The world blew up around us,” he said of her tenure at the helm of the State Department. The real estate mogul continued to state that he will build an "impenetrable" wall between the United States and Mexico and that he would "make" the Mexican government foot the bill. "Mexico's making a fortune off the United States," he said. "I would get them to pay for the wall. Believe me." Play Facebook Twitter Embed Trump: Mexico Is Forcing U.S. to Take Criminals 0:32 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Trump dismissed the idea that his business has been hurt by companies backing away from him as a result of his controversial comments. Macy's, Serta, NBC Universal and Univision have announced that they've severed business ties with him. "This is too important. Yeah, I’m losing some contracts. Who cares?" he said. "They're weak and they want to be politically correct. Some of them have already apologized to me and said they made a mistake." Trump was also asked about a Washington Post report that quoted undocumented immigrants working on his hotel project in Washington, D.C. "We have a very strong system," he replied, saying that the newspaper did not reference any of the workers by name. "I have a contractor that is one of the biggest in the nation, they're doing it. So far, they're doing a very good job. We have a very strong verification system." In a statement, Trump's campaign said: Trump International Hotel, Washington DC has hired Lend Lease, a globally recognized construction management firm, to oversee construction at the Old Post Office and requires all contractors performing work at the project to follow all applicable federal, state and local laws. Our contractors are required to have prospective employees produce documentation that establishes identity and employment eligibility in compliance with immigration law. Lend Lease and the Trump Organization have worked on many large development projects together and have always used best in class practices above and beyond what is required by law." Trump’s controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants came during his unscripted announcement speech last month. “When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best,” he said during the speech. “They're not sending you, they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they're telling us what we're getting." NBC Universal announced on June 29 that it was cutting ties with Trump as a result of the comments. "At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values," NBC’s statement read. "Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump." NBC News is owned by NBC Universal. ||||| Donald Trump insulted a female NBC News reporter during a live on-air interview Wednesday, calling her naïve. When Katy Tur stumbled over a question about immigration and crime, Trump cut her off and said, “Come on, try getting it out.” Trump continued: “Don’t be naïve. You’re a very naïve person,” he told her when she referred to the Pew Research Center as an independent source. He then followed up by telling her, “I mean, I don’t know if you’re going to put this on television, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Trump stuck to his guns on immigration and bashed Hillary Clinton as the “worst [secretary of state] in the history of the United States.”

– This will likely come as a surprise to Latino voters, but Donald Trump tells NBC News that he would win the Latino vote. As for his comments about Mexican immigrants largely being a bunch of rapists and drug dealers, he sees nothing to apologize about: "I have a great relationship with the Mexican people ... I have many legal immigrants working with me. And many of them come from Mexico. They love me, I love them. And I'll tell you something, if I get the nomination, I'll win the Latino vote." Trump says he would do so by creating jobs. He also doubled down on his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border, and he vowed to make Mexico pay for it. For good measure, he slammed Hillary Clinton as the worst secretary of state in history and as weak on immigration, because she would "let everybody come in … killers, criminals, drug dealers." During the interview, Trump called NBC's Katy Tur "naive," and the Daily Beast accuses him of sexist mansplaining. (Actress America Ferrara, for one, is probably not swayed by this win-the-Latino-vote assertion.)

Arguably the world’s most famous painting, da Vinci's Mona Lisa has now been copied onto the world’s smallest canvas at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Associate Professor Jennifer Curtis' "Mini Lisa" is one-third the width of a human hair, with details as small as one-eighth of a micron. Mini Lisa demonstrates the flexibility of a new nanolithography technique that can vary the surface concentration of molecules on very small portions of a substrate. Mini Lisa was rendered using an atomic force microscope and a new process called ThermoChemical NanoLithography (TCNL). The Georgia Tech team formed the image pixel by pixel. The cantilever and tip of an atomic force microscope were heated, and then lowered to the desired location of a pixel. The molecular canvas is a plastic whose surface contains active chemical sites which are initially protected from chemical reaction by capping them with protecting molecules. The heat of the cantilever triggers a confined nanoscale chemical reaction, in which more heat produces a greater local concentration of new surface molecules. More heat produced the lighter shades of gray, as seen on the Mini Lisa’s forehead and hands. Less heat produced the darker shades in her dress and hair seen when the molecular canvas is visualized using fluorescent dye. Each pixel is spaced by 125 nanometers, and the overall image has 240 x 320 pixels. “By tuning the temperature, our team manipulated chemical reactions to yield variations in the molecular concentrations on the nanoscale,” said Jennifer Curtis, an associate professor in the School of Physics and the study’s lead author. “The spatial confinement of these reactions provides the precision required to generate complex chemical images like the Mini Lisa.” Generating chemical concentration gradients and variations on the sub-micrometer scale is difficult to achieve with other methods. At present the Georgia Tech TCNL system is limited to production of chemical gradients of amine and carboxyl groups, but it is expected that other material chemistries will be compatible with the new process. “We envision TCNL will be capable of patterning gradients of other physical or chemical properties, such as conductivity of graphene,” Curtis said. “This technique should enable a wide range of previously inaccessible experiments and applications in fields as diverse as nanoelectronics, optoelectronics and bioengineering.” This simple technique renders high spatial resolutions at a speed faster than other existing methods. While one obvious area of application is in making specialized surfaces for "lab on a chip" development, Professor Curtis is hopeful that TCNL will provide the option of nanoscale printing integrated with the fabrication of large quantities of surfaces or everyday materials whose dimensions are more than one billion times larger than the TCNL features themselves. These would indeed by smart materials. Source: The Georgia Institute of Technology ||||| Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a reproduction of the 'Mona Lisa' that is no wider than a third of the width of a human hair. North Korea missile launch toward S. Korea failed. How often does that happen? Could this be the end of Sears and Kmart? Parent company raises red flag. Georgia Tech researchers have created the "Mini Lisa" on a substrate surface approximately 30 microns in width. The image demonstrates a technique that could potentially be used to achieve nano-manufacturing of devices because the team was able to vary the surface concentration of molecules on such short length scales. Most people who visit the Mona Lisa at the Louvre are surprised at how small it is. Leonardo da Vinci's iconic painting measures just 30 inches by 21 inches. But even this minuscule masterpiece looks huge next to what researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created. Using a tiny heated probe, a team of scientists have 'painted' a grayscale replica of the Mona Lisa that is more than 25,000 times smaller than the original. The "Mini Lisa," as it is known, is just 30 millionths of a meter wide. That's roughly 0.001 inches, or one third of the width of a human hair. According to a study published online by the journal Langmuir, the team created it using a powerful microscope and a process known as ThermoChemical NanoLithography, or TCNL. Using a microscopic cantilever, an anchored beam with a tiny, downward-facing point at one end, a patient Georgia Tech doctoral candidate named Keith Carroll, heated tiny spots on a surface to create a series of chemical reactions to create new molecules: The more heat Mr. Carroll applied, the more molecules he created, making the surface appear lighter. Each "pixel" was 125 billionths of a meter wide – smaller than the smallest known bacteria – and Carroll and the rest of the research team went pixel-by-pixel to create the reproduction. Their efforts were more than just an attempt to create a nanoscale artistic movement: “We envision TCNL will be capable of patterning gradients of other physical or chemical properties, such as conductivity of graphene,” said Georgia Tech physics professor Jennifer Curtis, the study's lead author, in a press release. “This technique should enable a wide range of previously inaccessible experiments and applications in fields as diverse as nanoelectronics, optoelectronics and bioengineering.”

– Leonardo da Vinci used oil-based paint to create his Mona Lisa. The folks at Georgia Tech used ThermoChemical NanoLithography to create their version, dubbed the "Mini Lisa," reports the Christian Science Monitor. The result? An almost indescribably small gray-scale copy. Think one third the width of a human hair, or .0001 inches wide. The idea here wasn't so much to create art as to demonstrate the potential of nanotechnology, says Popular Science. "This technique should enable a wide range of previously inaccessible experiments and applications in fields as diverse as nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, and bioengineering," says a physics professor at the school. The process involved a microscopic beam and the meticulous application of heat to create lighter or darker shades of gray. Gizmag has a detailed description with illustrations. (Is this better than beaming the Mona Lisa to the moon?)

Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com ||||| Article Excerpt As Congress debates the federal budget, a Democratic senator strongly backed by Nevada casino interests and a Republican senator staunchly opposed to betting are working together to push an online-gambling bill into the mix. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl are seeking language in a legislative package during the lame-duck session that could expand some forms of online wagering and would limit others. Among other things, the bill would create an Office of Online Poker Oversight under the Department of Commerce. The initiative has long been discussed behind closed doors but never publicly introduced. It ...

– Papa needs a new pair of … cows? Zynga yesterday filed the first salvo of paperwork necessary to obtain an online gambling license in Nevada, the Wall Street Journal reports. But don't expect to be betting on Farmville (or more likely titles like Zynga Poker) anytime soon. The document filed yesterday was a request for the state to decide if Zynga is even potentially suitable for a license, and that decision alone is expected to take 12 to 18 months. It's unclear how long after that final approval would come. The move comes amidst a rapidly changing legal landscape around online gambling. Nevada became the first state to legalize online poker earlier this year. Though it has handed out a few licenses already, none of the companies' online poker games is up and running yet. And when they are, they'll be limited to state residents. But that could soon change: Harry Reid and Jon Kyl are working on a bill that would legalize online poker nationwide and even create an Office of Online Poker Oversight, the Journal reported yesterday. However, the bill would simultaneously ban most other forms of online gambling.

The comedy series on which Crews stars as Sgt. Terry Jeffords was saved from an untimely death by NBC after it was canceled by Fox on Thursday. Terry Crews on Saturday morning thanked Mark Hamill for helping to save Brooklyn Nine-Nine. "@HamillHimself I want to personally THANK YOU Mark for using the power of the force to save Brooklyn Nine Nine! *Wipes dirt off shoulder*," Crews tweeted, referencing a Luke Skywalker moment in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. He also thanked a number of other celebrities who also shared their disappointment via social media, including Sean Astin and Lin-Manuel Miranda. The comedy series on which Crews stars as Sgt. Terry Jeffords was saved from an untimely death by NBC after it was canceled by Fox on Thursday. Created by Dan Goor and Michael Schur, the show premiered on Fox in September 2013. Fans were outraged and heartbroken over the news of the cancellation; among those was the Star Wars icon. Hamill, who has amassed millions of followers on his social media platforms, shared his disappointment over Fox pulling the plug on the sitcom centered around the goofballs of the New York Police Department's Brooklyn 99th precinct. "Oh NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" Hamill tweeted on Thursday when he read the news. "I'm SO not ready to say #ByeBye99. Be forewarned @FOXTV-when networks dump shows I love, I'm known for holding grudges a long, L-O-N-G time. I'm still mad @CBS didn't renew #SquarePegs! #EverythingILikeGetsCancelled." Hamill also shared a classic scene from the show in which a police lineup sings the Backstreet Boys. "Oh my god, I forgot about this scene! #RenewB99," Hamill wrote. When he learned the series received a 13-episode sixth season order from NBC, Hamill tweeted, "Good News: #NBC Renewed @Brooklyn99 in a pick-up from @FOXTV. Better News: If @FOXTV renewed #GreatNews in a pick-up from #NBC. In Other News: I've finally forgiven #ABC for cancelling #TheTexasWheelers." ||||| FILE - In this June 22, 2016, file photo, Terry Crews, left, and Andy Samberg attend "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" FYC Event held at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles. NBC is turbo-charging the trend... (Associated Press) FILE - In this June 22, 2016, file photo, Terry Crews, left, and Andy Samberg attend "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" FYC Event held at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles. NBC is turbo-charging the trend of reviving canceled comedies with its pickup of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine." The network quickly swooped... (Associated Press) FILE - In this June 22, 2016, file photo, Terry Crews, left, and Andy Samberg attend "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" FYC Event held at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles. NBC is turbo-charging the trend of reviving canceled comedies with its pickup of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine." The network quickly swooped... (Associated Press) FILE - In this June 22, 2016, file photo, Terry Crews, left, and Andy Samberg attend "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" FYC Event held at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles. NBC is turbo-charging the trend... (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — NBC is turbo-charging the trend of reviving canceled comedies with its pickup of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine." The network quickly swooped in after Fox dumped it last week, adding it to NBC's midseason schedule. While the fan outcry was heartening, NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said Sunday that because of business considerations, the pickup already was in the works. The show is made by an NBC Universal-owed studio. Greenblatt said if he had known earlier in the series' development that Andy Samberg was going to star in "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," NBC's studio never would have sold it to Fox in the first place. "It was a missed opportunity for us from the beginning," he said. "We jumped on it really quickly, and we're thrilled to have it." He said he believes it's a better fit for NBC's brand of comedy than it ever was for Fox. NBC succeeded this past season with a reboot of "Will & Grace," while ABC's revival of "Roseanne" has been an even more spectacular success. That's left network executives scouring old cast lists for shows that can be brought back. ___ SEASON KICKOFF NBC says it will introduce five new dramas and two new comedies next season. It's the only one of the four biggest broadcast networks with more viewers than last season, although that would not have been the case without the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl. Broadcast television's schedule week is a whirlwind of star-studded presentations and parties for advertisers, who will use what they see to decide where to buy billions of dollars' worth of commercial time. It is, however, becoming less significant for consumers. Twenty-five years ago, the decisions announced influenced the evening habits of millions more people. In those days, 71 percent of televisions in use during prime time were tuned to either ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox, the Nielsen company said. Today, it's roughly half that. During last season, 40 percent of the TVs were watching those channels, along with other broadcasters like the CW, Univision and Telemundo, Nielsen said. ___ SIMON AND THE ROCK NBC was admittedly "treading water" in the winter between editions of "The Voice," during the last few years, Greenblatt said. He's taken steps to rectify that and will start a winter edition of the summer hit "America's Got Talent," with judge Simon Cowell on board. The format will be a championship tournament of past favorite performers and winners from international editions of the show. Dwayne Johnson also will be a part of "The Titan Games," a competition from the producers of "American Ninja Warrior." Ellen DeGeneres also will return with "Ellen's Game of Games." The drama "Blacklist," said to be on the fence to return, is on the midseason schedule. ___ CHICAGO: WEDNESDAY NBC is taking viewers to the Midwest on Wednesdays, where the dramas "Chicago Med," ''Chicago Fire" and "Chicago P.D." will fill out the network's prime-time schedule. All are products of television veteran Dick Wolf's production studio. Wolf's long-running "Law & Order: SVU" will launch its 20th season on Thursday nights. ___ CHEERS The midseason comedy "Abby," centered around a bar in San Diego, can boast of one thing unique. It's believed to be the first sitcom to be shot outdoors in front of a live audience. ___ NEW THIS FALL NBC's schedule includes three series that will premiere in the fall. The Monday night drama "Manifest" is a time-traveler series about passengers who get off a bumpy plane flight only to find it's five years later and all of their friends and relatives assumed they were dead. "New Amsterdam," on Tuesday, is a medical series based in New York's Bellevue Hospital. "I Feel Bad" — not a medical series — is a comedy about a working mom who is "perfectly OK with being imperfect," according to NBC's description. Amy Poehler is one of the behind-the-scenes figures on the Thursday night show. ___ BYE-BYE Hope you didn't get too attached to series like "The Brave," ''Law & Order True Crime," ''Rise" or "Great News." All landed on the scrap heap. Greenblatt said decisions are due soon on the fate of "Timeless" and "Champions."

– Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews has a lot to be thankful for now that his show has been rescued by NBC after Fox nixed the beloved series last week. Crews seemed especially grateful to several actors who voiced their support for the show along with its many fans. On Saturday, he name-checked some fellow celebrities to thank them for amplifying the show's cause, including Star Wars actor Mark Hamill. "I want to personally THANK YOU Mark for using the power of the force to save Brooklyn Nine Nine! *Wipes dirt off shoulder*," Crews tweeted. Per the Hollywood Reporter, Crews also gave shout-outs to actor Sean Astin and Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda. By Sunday, however, it began to seem like Crews' gratitude may have been misdirected. While the fan outcry was heartening, NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt told the AP that because of business considerations, the pickup already was in the works. The show is made by a studio owned by NBC Universal. Greenblatt said if he had known earlier in the series' development that Andy Samberg was going to star in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, NBC's studio never would have sold it to Fox in the first place. "It was a missed opportunity for us from the beginning," he said. "We jumped on it really quickly, and we're thrilled to have it."

A timeline of the over-medication scandal and subsequent investigation at the Tomah VA Medical Center Where to go for help The Tomah VA has sent letters to 592 patients treated over the past year by a dentist who was found to be improperly sterilizing his tools. Patients can call a 24-hour hotline with questions or to schedule an appointment for blood tests. Testing is available through Dec. 22 at Building 400, room #1054 on the Tomah campus weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. Call 888-598-7793 for questions or to schedule an appointment. ||||| Nearly 600 veterans who received care at the Tomah VA may have been infected with several types of disease due to violations in infection control procedures. VA administrators made the announcement Tuesday afternoon at a press conference. The Tomah VA says it's in the process of notifying 592 veterans that they may be infected with Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, or HIV after they received care from one particular dental provider. Acting Medical Center Director Victoria Brahm said the dentist was using his own equipment, then cleaning it and reusing it, which violates the VA's regulations. The Tomah VA says it uses sterile and disposable equipment. The VA says he did this for one year, from October 2015 through October 2016. It came to light when someone filling in for his assistant noticed what was going on and reported it. That dentist has been removed from patient care and is now working in an administrative role. The VA also referred the case to the inspector general for assessment of any criminal charges. "It was purposeful that he was violating VA regulations," Brahm said. "During all of the orientation, he used all of our equipment. He used it appropriately, so it was very purposeful from what we found in our investigation that he knew exactly what he was doing, and preferred to use his own equipment against procedure." Brahm told reporters that the Tomah VA has made improvements but still has others to make. "We have clear evidence that we are moving forward and the people that remain here are very vested and here for the mission of taking care of veterans," she said. "There are pockets of improvement that need to occur they still need to I'll be honest, and we are aware of where they are and we are dealing with them as quickly as we can." The VA is offering free screenings to those veterans and will provide free medical treatment to those who test positive for an infection. The news is very alarming to a lot of people, especially veterans in Western Wisconsin. Several veterans WEAU 13 News spoke with Tuesday on and off camera say me they were surprised and concerned to hear the news out of the Tomah VA. While all of them said they have received care at the medical center, none of them received dental care. Army vet Jan Gross says he uses many of the services offered through the Tomah VA. While his experience has been good, he has seen others become frustrated with the medical center. Gross says that the level of care provided to vets at the Tomah VA isn't where it should be. He said he is concerned the clinic isn't keeping enough seasoned staff around to provide the best care. "I don't think they are paying them enough to keep good support staff and keep the main stay help for the VA so we suffer. People get frustrated, I see guys sick and tired of just waiting that they just walk out and don't come back," Gross said. This isn't the first time the Tomah VA has come under fire for its medical practices. In recent years, the center has been under investigations on allegations doctors there over prescribe prescription painkillers to patients. TOMAH, Wis. (WEAU) -- Almost 600 veterans who received care at a medical center may have been infected with several types of disease because of what it describes as “lapses in established infection control procedures.” The Tomah VA Medical Center made the announcement that the people may be infected with Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon. The facility says it all happened at its dental clinic from Oct. 2015 to Oct. 2016. The center claims the infection risk is low and is limited to patients of a single care provider, though that provider was not named in a statement from the Tomah VA. The facility investigated the situation. It says that work was finished Oct. 31. It goes on to say that the provider was immediately removed from patient care. Staff at the Tomah VA are reviewing patient records to be sure they are "thoroughly inspected and verified.” The VA is calling and mailing 592 veterans it says may be affected. If affected veterans test positive, the VA will provide the necessary care and treatment at no cost. The center calls the screenings precautionary, saying there is no indication that any patients have contracted an infection. Veterans can ask questions by calling (888) 598-7793. The center also has a designated follow-up testing site in Building 400, Room #1054 on the Tomah VA campus. It's open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. until noon. The site will be open until Dec. 22 and will be closed on holidays. ||||| According to a troubling report from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, one health care provider’s violation of VA protocol may have infected hundreds of veterans. A dentist at the Tomah, Wisconsin VA used his own equipment, cleaning it between patients, Acting Medical Center Director Victoria Brahm said. VA rules require the use of disposable instruments, throwing them out after use. This practice went on for one year, from October 2015 to October 2016, and now 592 veterans are at risk of having contracted Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, or HIV. It was only reported when someone substituting for the dentist’s regular assistant saw what was going on and notified authorities. Brahm said that this wasn’t a matter of the dentist not knowing proper VA procedure, but a conscious decision to break the rules. “It was purposeful that he was violating VA regulations,” she said, according to WEAU. “During all of the orientation, he used all of our equipment. He used it appropriately, so it was very purposeful from what we found in our investigation that he knew exactly what he was doing, and preferred to use his own equipment against procedure.” So far, there is no report that anyone was infected, but the VA is offering free screenings to the 592 people who they determined are at risk. If anyone tests positive, the VA will provide free treatment. Those who have so far gone in for screening have been told it could take two to three weeks to get results. The dentist is now working in an administrative role, and is no longer treating patients. The inspector general’s office is reportedly looking into whether criminal charges are appropriate. [Image via WEAU screengrab]

– The VA is offering free testing to nearly 600 veterans in Wisconsin who may have been infected with hepatitis or HIV by a rogue dentist, Law Newz reports. The dentist providing care at the VA in Tomah was using his own dental instruments. And while the dentist sterilized the tools between uses, VA rules say he was supposed to use disposable instruments and throw them away after each use. Acting medical center director Victoria Brahm tells WEAU that the dentist's actions were "purposeful." "He knew exactly what he was doing and preferred to use his own equipment against procedure," she says. The dentist was using his own tools between October 2015 and October 2016. An assistant subbing for the dentist's normal assistant ratted him out to authorities. On Tuesday, the VA started contacting the 592 vets who received treatment from the dentist, offering free testing for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV, the La Crosse Tribune reports. There have been no reports of infections stemming from dental work at the Tomah VA. “Out of an abundance of caution it’s still the proper thing to do," a VA spokesperson says regarding free testing. The dentist is no longer treating patients but is still working at the VA; he may face criminal charges. His regular dental assistant is also being investigated. The Tomah VA was recently under investigation for over prescribing painkillers in connection with the deaths of at least two vets. "I don't think they are paying them enough to keep good support staff ... so we suffer," one vet tells WEAU.

Actors Alyssa Milano and Matt Damon (Photo: Getty Images, WireImage) Alyssa Milano is not here for Matt Damon's comments on sexual harassment. The actress, who has been a vocal part of the #MeToo movement, took to Twitter on Saturday to call the actor out for his controversial statements made during an interview with ABC News Thursday about the sex scandals wracking Hollywood. In the interview, Damon says there is a "spectrum" to behavior, and that we live in a "culture of outrage." "All of that behavior needs to be confronted, but there is a continuum. On this end of the continuum where you have rape and child molestation or whatever, you know, that’s prison," he said. "That’s criminal behavior and it needs to be dealt with that way. The other stuff is just kind of shameful and gross... I just think that we have to start delineating between what these behaviors are." Milano spoke up about Damon's comments in a series of tweets addressed to the actor. Dear Matt Damon, It’s the micro that makes the macro. (Thread) — Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 16, 2017 "We are in a 'culture of outrage' because the magnitude of rage is, in fact, overtly outrageous. And it is righteous," she wrote. We are not outraged because someone grabbed our asses in a picture. We are outraged because we were made to feel this was normal. We are outraged because we have been gaslighted. We are outraged because we were silenced for so long. — Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 16, 2017 "We are not outraged because someone grabbed our asses in a picture. We are outraged because we were made to feel this was normal," she continued. "We are outraged because we have been gaslighted. We are outraged because we were silenced for so long." She ended the tweets, which referred to sexual misconduct and violence as a "systemic disease," with the hashtag #MeToo. Milano wasn't alone in calling Damon out for his comments — his Good Will Hunting co-star Minnie Driver called him "tone deaf" on Twitter on Friday. Gosh it’s so *interesting how men with all these opinions about women’s differentiation between sexual misconduct, assault and rape reveal themselves to be utterly tone deaf and as a result, systemically part of the problem( *profoundly unsurprising) — Minnie Driver (@driverminnie) December 15, 2017 "Gosh it’s so *interesting how men with all these opinions about women’s differentiation between sexual misconduct, assault and rape reveal themselves to be utterly tone deaf and as a result, systemically part of the problem( *profoundly unsurprising)," she wrote. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2Bwhqz3 ||||| Actor calls former co-star’s remarks about ‘spectrum of behaviour’ in sexual misconduct ‘Orwellian’ and questions defence of disgraced comedian Louis CK The actor Minnie Driver has told the Guardian that men “simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level” and should not therefore attempt to differentiate or explain sexual misconduct against women. Clarence Thomas accuser Anita Hill to spearhead fight against harassment in Hollywood Read more Driver was discussing comments by Matt Damon, whom she once dated and with whom she starred in the Oscar-winning 1997 film Good Will Hunting. In an interview with ABC News this week, Damon said alleged sexual misconduct by powerful men involved “a spectrum of behaviour”. Damon said there was “a difference between patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation. Both of those behaviours need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated.” He added that society was in a “watershed moment” and said it was “wonderful that women are feeling empowered to tell their stories and it’s totally necessary”. But he said: “We live in this culture of outrage and injury, that we’re going to have to correct enough to kind of go, ‘Wait a minute. None of us came here perfect.’” In her first response to Damon, Driver wrote on Twitter: “God God, seriously? “Gosh it’s so interesting (profoundly unsurprising) how men with all these opinions about women’s differentiation between sexual misconduct, assault and rape reveal themselves to be utterly tone deaf and as a result, systemically part of the problem.” Driver’s response to Damon was shared widely on social media, alongside that of the actor Alyssa Milano, who said: “There are different stages of cancer. Some more treatable than others. But it’s still cancer.” On Saturday, Driver told the Guardian: “I felt I desperately needed to say something. I’ve realised that most men, good men, the men that I love, there is a cut-off in their ability to understand. They simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level. “I honestly think that until we get on the same page, you can’t tell a woman about their abuse. A man cannot do that. No one can. It is so individual and so personal, it’s galling when a powerful man steps up and starts dictating the terms, whether he intends it or not.” Driver’s comments come more than two months into a radical national reappraisal of gender relations begun by accusations against Harvey Weinstein, an executive producer of Good Will Hunting who denies allegations including sexual assault and rape. Speaking to ABC, Damon compared allegations against Weinstein, Al Franken, Kevin Spacey and the comedian Louis CK, whom he commended for his remorseful response. “That’s the sign of somebody who – well, we can work with that,” Damon said, adding: “I don’t know Louis CK. I’ve never met him. I’m a fan of his, but I don’t imagine he’s going to do those things again. You know what I mean? I imagine the price that he’s paid at this point is so beyond anything ... ” Driver said that as accusations, suspensions and firings first swept through Hollywood, she initially refrained from comment. She was now moved to expand her initial response to Damon. “I don’t understand why Matt would defend Louis CK,” she said. “It seems to me that he thinks that because he didn’t rape somebody – so far as we know – that what he did do wasn’t as bad.” The comedian was accused of misconduct including masturbating in front of a number of women. In response, he said “these stories are true” but did not specifically apologise. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Matt Damon attends a screening in New York. Photograph: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP “That’s a problem,” Driver continued. “If good men like Matt Damon are thinking like that then we’re in a lot of fucking trouble. We need good intelligent men to say this is all bad across the board, condemn it all and start again.” Driver argued that men should not be granted the power to interpret abuse inflicted on women without the risk of redoubling an injustice they can scarcely understand. “I felt that what Matt Damon was saying was an Orwellian idea, we are all equal except that some us are more equal than others,” she said. “Put abuse in there … that all abuse is equal but some is worse.” She added: “There is no hierarchy of abuse – that if a woman is raped [it] is much worse than if woman has a penis exposed to her that she didn’t want or ask for … you cannot tell those women that one is supposed to feel worse than the other. “And it certainly can’t be prescribed by a man. The idea of tone deafness is the idea there [is] no equivalency. Peter Jackson: I blacklisted Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino under pressure from Weinstein Read more “How about: it’s all fucking wrong and it’s all bad, and until you start seeing it under one umbrella it’s not your job to compartmentalise or judge what is worse and what is not. Let women do the speaking up right now. The time right now is for men just to listen and not have an opinion about it for once.” Since the first publication of allegations against Weinstein, a number of women have come forward to detail abuse they have suffered. This week, the actor Salma Hayek wrote a long essay for the New York Times about her treatment by Weinstein. “There is not a woman I know,” Driver said, “myself included, who has not experienced verbal abuse and sexual epithets their whole fucking life, right up to being manhandled and having my career threatened several times by men I wouldn’t sleep with.” Driver did not elaborate on the persons or circumstances involved. But she expressed optimism that as the culture of harassment and abuse that has existed is exposed, men will find a way to support women. “In the same stereotypical way that we see women being supportive of men in their endeavors,” she said, “I feel that’s what women need of men in this moment. They need men to lean on and not question. “Men can rally and they can support, but I don’t think its appropriate, per se, for men to have an opinion about how women should be metabolising abuse. Ever.” ||||| Matt Damon addressed the sexual allegations against Harvey Weinstein, saying, “I knew I wouldn’t want him married to anyone close to me.” Interested in Harvey Weinstein? Add Harvey Weinstein as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Harvey Weinstein news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest “But that was the extent of what we knew. I mean, and that wasn’t a surprise to anybody. So when you hear Harvey this, Harvey that — I mean, look at the guy. Of course he’s a womanizer,” Damon continued in an interview for ABC News’ “Popcorn With Peter Travers.” Damon, who stars in the upcoming film “Downsizing,” worked with Weinstein on his Oscar-winning film “Good Will Hunting,” which was produced by Weinstein’s production company Miramax. In the past year, several women have publicly accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct. Weinstein has acknowledged inappropriate behavior but has denied any allegations of nonconsensual sex. “Any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances,” his spokesman previously said. In a wide-ranging discussion with Travers on Tuesday, Damon opened up about Weinstein and others inside and outside the entertainment world who have been publicly accused of sexual misconduct this year. Read part of Damon’s conversation with Travers below. Maryellen McGrath/ABC Peter Travers: We live now in a different age, in a political age. There’s a lot of dissidence that goes on in the world that could affect you as an actor. We’re also in the age of people charged with sexual misconduct. This is everywhere. How do you react to that? Especially you, as the father of four girls. Matt Damon: I think we’re in this watershed moment. I think it’s great. I think it’s wonderful that women are feeling empowered to tell their stories, and it’s totally necessary … I do believe that there’s a spectrum of behavior, right? And we’re going to have to figure — you know, there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right? Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated, right? You know, we see somebody like Al Franken, right? — I personally would have preferred if they had an Ethics Committee investigation, you know what I mean? It’s like at what point — you know, we’re so energized to kind of get retribution, I think. And we live in this culture of outrage and injury, and, you know, that we’re going to have to correct enough to kind of go, “Wait a minute. None of us came here perfect.” You know what I mean? … The Louis C.K. thing, I don’t know all the details. I don’t do deep dives on this, but I did see his statement, which kind of, which [was] arresting to me. When he came out and said, “I did this. I did these things. These women are all telling the truth.” And I just remember thinking, “Well, that’s the sign of somebody who — well, we can work with that” … Like, when I’m raising my kids, this constant personal responsibility is as important as anything else they learn before they go off in the world. And the fear for me is that right now, we’re in this moment where at the moment — and I hope it doesn’t stay this way — the clearer signal to men and to younger people is, deny it. Because if you take responsibility for what you did, your life’s going to get ruined … I mean, look, as I said, all of that behavior needs to be confronted, but there is a continuum. And on this end of the continuum where you have rape and child molestation or whatever, you know, that’s prison. Right? And that’s what needs to happen. OK? And then we can talk about rehabilitation and everything else. That’s criminal behavior, and it needs to be dealt with that way. The other stuff is just kind of shameful and gross, and I just think … I don’t know Louis C.K.. I’ve never met him. I’m a fan of his, but I don’t imagine he’s going to do those things again. You know what I mean? I imagine the price that he’s paid at this point is so beyond anything that he — I just think that we have to kind of start delineating between what these behaviors are. PT: It’s harder, isn’t it, though, when you actually know someone who gets accused? We both know Harvey Weinstein. I’ve worked with him. But I didn’t see any of this. MD: When you see Al Franken taking a picture putting his hands on that woman’s flak jacket and mugging for the camera, going like that, you know, that is just like a terrible joke, and it’s not funny. It’s wrong, and he shouldn’t have done that … But when you talk about Harvey and what he’s accused of, there are no pictures of that. He knew he was up to no good. There’s no witnesses. There’s no pictures. There’s no braggadocio … So they don’t belong in the same category. PT: I think it becomes for all of us, too, that are in any way around it, even though we’re not seeing it, is, what’s our responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen? MD: A lot of people said, ‘Well, Harvey — everybody knew.’ As you were saying, that’s not true. Everybody knew what kind of guy he was in the sense that if you took a meeting with him, you knew that he was tough and he was a bully, and that was his reputation. And he enjoyed that reputation, because he was making the best movies out there … [With regard to the rape allegations,] nobody who made movies for him knew … Any human being would have put a stop to that, no matter who he was. They would’ve said absolutely no. You know what I mean? … I knew I wouldn’t want him married to anyone close to me. But that was the extent of what we knew, you know? And that wasn’t a surprise to anybody. So when you hear Harvey this, Harvey that — I mean, look at the guy. Of course he’s a womanizer … I mean, I don’t hang out with him. PT: But you can’t live his life for him. Or be responsible for his life. MD: Right. So the question is, at what point does somebody’s behavior that you have a professional relationship with … away from the profession bother enough that you don’t want to work with them? For me, I’ve always kind of, you know, as long as nobody’s committing a crime — well, that’s your life, and you go live it. I don’t need to be spending time with you, away from my professional life, at least. Maryellen McGrath/ABC PT: [We’ve seen] Ridley Scott, who directed you in “The Martian,” having to erase Kevin Spacey from “All the Money in the World” and having to replace him with Christopher Plummer. MD: That was smart. That was a total business decision by Ridley. I haven’t talked to him, but … it wasn’t a creative choice for Ridley. Ridley has a big movie coming out … and nobody right now is in the mood to see a Kevin Spacey movie. And I think he’s right about that. He’s one of the few directors who could just turn on a dime and shoot for a week a month before a movie comes out and, you know, expunge an actor. And I don’t disagree with his decision to do that. I mean, that movie, I think, will do much better without Kevin in it. [Editor’s note: In response to the allegations against him made by Anthony Rapp, Kevin Spacey released a statement on Oct. 29, saying, in part, “I’m beyond horrified to hear his story. I honestly do not remember the encounter … But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” In November a spokesperson for Spacey said he was “taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment.”] PT: When it’s in that gray area and it’s friends of yours or people that you do know, do you try to talk to them afterwards and say, “What’s going on? Can I help?” MD: It depends on what the accusation is. It depends what’s going on. If it’s a friend of mine, I’m always talking to them. I know the real story if it’s my friend. If it’s a colleague … I don’t know … I guess it depends on the situation and the allegation and how believable I think it is. PT: We’re going to see the change in the making of movies now with people being so aware. MD: I also think the day of the confidentiality agreements is over. I think it’s just completely over. Ten years ago, you made a claim against me and I had a big movie coming out, OK? I have $100 million or I have a movie that is personally important to me coming out, and close to the release of that film, you say, “Matt Damon grabbed my butt and stuck his tongue down my throat.” We would then go to mediation and organize a settlement. I’d go, “I don’t want this out there. Peter’s going to go out and talk to the press and run his mouth, and it’s going to be overshadowing the opening of this movie. How much money do you want?” The lawyers would get together, and they do this cost-benefit analysis, and they’d go, “Oh, this is what it’s worth.” And I look at the number and go, “OK, I’ll pay it, but you can never talk about this again. You’re f------ lying about this, but never talk about this again. Now … with social media, these stories get — it’s like they get gasoline poured on them. So the moment a claim is made, if you make that same claim today to me, I would be scorched earth. I’d go, “I don’t care if it costs $10 million to fight this in court with you for 10 years, you are not taking my name from me. You are not taking my name and my reputation from me. I’ve worked too hard for it. And I earned it. You can’t just blow me up like that.” So I think once a claim is made, there will no longer be settlements. That’s just my prediction, I mean, just based on what I’ve seen. PT: Isn’t that a good thing? Women have been doing it, and they’ve been told they can’t express what happened to them. MD: One hundred percent … I think that it’s important, especially in that, you know, we believe every woman who’s coming forward with one of these stories needs to be listened to and heard. I think one of the surprising things for me has been the extent to which my female friends, as, I think, of all the ones I’ve talked to in the last year since all this stuff started happening — I can’t think of any of them who don’t have a story at some point in their life. And most of them have more than one. PT: I don’t know how old your daughters are, but how do you deal with them living in this world where even they, whatever ages they are, can’t escape this in the headlines? MD: You just have to raise children with, like, self-esteem, because you’re not going to be there to make all of their decisions for them. And you have to just hope that they have enough self-respect to make the best decisions they can. I mean, the Harvey situation is particularly horrible, because, you know, those women — when you say, “Hey, let’s take a meeting in a hotel room.” I mean, we auditioned, you know, for “Good Will Hunting” in a hotel room. Like, it’s common to take meetings in a hotel room. And this is the most powerful man in the movie business at the time, like in the ’90s, like Harvey was. That was the place to be. And if you get a thing from your agent on the letterhead of your agency that says, “Go meet Harvey Weinstein, the rainmaker, the guy that makes these great movies, at the Peninsula Hotel,” you’re going to that meeting … You don’t go into that meeting thinking something bad is going to happen to you … I don’t know who’s taking meetings in hotel rooms now. I mean, sometimes you’re in a different city and you just don’t have anywhere to meet. But, so no matter how smart my daughters are, no matter how prepared they are, there’s still those situations that that’s the nightmare kind of scenario. Play PT: Do you worry about your daughters less because of the change in the industry? MD: With social media, you know, and a Twitter account, you have the same platform as The New York Times now, so there aren’t secrets. It’s harder to do this type of thing. I would like to point out, though, that even though it feels like there’s this avalanche of men … Well here’s my optimistic spin, this is like 1 percent of the guys who are losing their careers. It’s not everybody. It just feels like it. There’s so many great men and women in the movie business. So many great people. It’s such a wonderful collection of people overall. And these rotten horrible apples are getting weeded out right now. And that’s fine. That’s a good thing. That’s progress. But again, when we go back to talking about our own growth and development as human beings. We have to get to a place where we’re looking at one end of the spectrum and saying, “Well, let’s deal with this with some reflection and dialogue and some reconciliation, and let’s all grow together and move on.” And then I’ll think we’ll be making progress. Watch part of Matt Damon’s interview in the video above, and tune in for the full ABC News’ “Popcorn With Peter Travers” interview on Dec. 27, on ABCNews.com. Download the "Popcorn With Peter Travers" podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Tunein, Google Play Music and Stitcher. Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. ||||| I have been a victim of each component of the sexual assault spectrum of which you speak. They all hurt. And they are all connected to a patriarchy intertwined with normalized, accepted--even welcomed-- misogyny.

– Matt Damon opined this week that the wave of sex harassment and assault claims sweeping Hollywood and society at large include "a spectrum of behavior" and that "none of us came here perfect," and the woman he once dumped on Oprah wasted no time in shutting him down. "Gosh it’s so interesting (profoundly unsurprising) how men with all these opinions about women’s differentiation between sexual misconduct, assault and rape reveal themselves to be utterly tone deaf and as a result, systemically part of the problem," Minnie Driver tweeted. She further unloaded to the Guardian: "I’ve realized that most men, good men, the men that I love, there is a cut-off. They simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level. I honestly think that until we get on the same page, you can’t tell a woman about their abuse. ... It is so individual and so personal, it’s galling when a powerful man steps up and starts dictating the terms, whether he intends it or not.” Damon was also getting zero sympathy from Alyssa Milano, reports USA Today, who tweeted that, "as a victim of each component of the sexual assault spectrum of which you speak," "they all hurt." "We are not outraged because someone grabbed our a---s in a picture. We are outraged because we were made to feel this was normal. We are outraged because we have been gaslighted. We are outraged because we were silenced for so long." (Damon has said he had no idea that Harvey Weinstein routinely sexually harassed and assaulted women; his full interview this week with ABC News is here.)

Brew Guru® The Path to Good Beer Built for homebrewers and beer lovers, Brew Guru delivers homebrew recipes, money-saving deals and local info on breweries, beer bars and homebrew supply shops. Follow the path to good beer! Start your 30-day free trial and enjoy AHA member benefits. No payment information required. Get the App ||||| Bell’s Two Hearted Ale was named number one in the 15th annual Best Beers in America survey, conducted by Zymurgy magazine. Cheers for the Best Beers (And a New #1!) Boulder, CO • June 19, 2017—The streak is over! After eight straight years of Russian River Brewing Company’s double IPA Pliny the Elder dominating the top spot, Bell’s Two Hearted Ale was named number one in the 15th annual Best Beers in America survey, conducted by Zymurgy magazine. “As homebrewers, Zymurgy readers have more refined palates than most for tasting beer,” said Gary Glass, director, American Homebrewers Association. “The Best Beers in America survey reveals which beers are leaving the biggest impression on the minds—and mouths—of these discerning beer drinkers.” Members of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA)—which publishes Zymurgy—were able to choose up to 20 of their favorite commercial beers available for purchase in the United States in an online voting system. “This is an incredible honor for us. We got our start as homebrewers—that’s how my dad got going—so we really identify with the homebrewing community,” said Laura Bell, CEO, Bell’s Brewery, whose father, Larry, started the brewery in 1985 in Kalamazoo, Mich. “We take a lot of that spirit into what we do today.” Top-Ranked Beers (T indicates Tie): 1. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale 2. Russian River Pliny the Elder 3. Founders Breakfast Stout 4. Three Floyds Zombie Dust 5. Bell’s Hopslam T6. Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) T6. The Alchemist Heady Topper T8. Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA T8. Sierra Nevada Celebration 10. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA Top-Ranked Breweries: 1. Bell’s Brewery, Inc., Comstock, Mich. 2. Founders Brewing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. 3. Russian River Brewing Co., Santa Rosa, Calif. 4. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, Calif. and Mills River, N.C. 5. Stone Brewing, Escondido, Calif., Richmond, Va., and Berlin, Germany 6. Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Paso Robles, Calif. 7. Deschutes Brewery, Bend, Ore. 8. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, Del. 9. Lagunitas Brewing Company, Petaluma, Calif. and Chicago, Ill. 10. Ballast Point Brewing, San Diego, Calif. Top-Ranked Beer Portfolios (T indicates Tie): 1. Stone Brewing (31 beers) 2. Bell’s Brewery, Inc. (27 beers) 3. Firestone Walker Brewing Co. (25 beers) 4. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (24 beers) T5. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (22 beers) T5. Lagunitas Brewing Company (22 beers) T7. Boulevard Brewing Co. (21 beers) T7. Founders Brewing Co. (21 beers) 9. Avery Brewing Co. (19 beers) T10. New Glarus Brewing Co. (18 beers) T10. Odell Brewing Co. (18 beers) The complete list of Zymurgy’s Best Beers in America is available at HomebrewersAssociation.org. For homebrewers interested in replicating some of the winningest beers at home, the AHA also provides clone recipes in Zymurgy. Contact: Jacob Streiter, on behalf of the American Homebrewers Association, (646) 695-7047 About the American Homebrewers Association: The American Homebrewers Association has worked on behalf of the homebrewing community since 1978 and celebrates a membership of more than 46,000 homebrewers. The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) organizes events including Homebrew Con and the National Homebrew Competition. The AHA also publishes Zymurgy magazine and offers the Brew Guru™ mobile app. The AHA is part of the Brewers Association, whose Brewers Publications division is the largest publisher of contemporary and relevant brewing literature for today’s craft brewers and homebrewers. Beer lovers and anyone interested in making their own homemade beer are invited to learn more at HomebrewersAssociation.org. Follow the AHA on Twitter, and join us on Facebook and Instagram. The Brewers Association is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital/familial status. The BA complies with provisions of Executive Order 11246 and the rules, regulations, and relevant orders of the Secretary of Labor. ###

– A new king of beers has been crowned in Zymurgy magazine’s 15th annual Best Beers in America survey. Conducted by the American Homebrewers Association, the competition awarded Bell’s Brewery’s Two Hearted Ale first place, knocking reigning champ Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing Company out of the top spot for the first time in eight years, reports Brewers Association. Bell’s describes its winning IPA as "bursting with hop aromas ranging from pine to grapefruit." Here are the beers that made the top 10 list: Bell’s Two Hearted Ale Russian River Pliny the Elder Founders Breakfast Stout Three Floyds Zombie Dust Bell’s Hopslam 6. (tie) Founders KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) 6. (tie) The Alchemist Heady Topper 8. (tie) Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA 8. (tie) Sierra Nevada Celebration 10. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA Check out the Brewers Association for a full list of brewery and beer portfolio winners.

More than three dozen Pennsylvania college students spending spring break in Kentucky on a mission trip were safe Friday after becoming lost for hours when a sightseeing mountain hike unexpectedly stretched into the night, officials said Friday. Rescuers were able to find them _ hungry and cold _ after an hours-long effort in rough terrain and freezing temperatures. Most of the hikers were seen in the emergency room at Appalachian Regional Hospital in Whitesburg, with one woman admitted and listed in good condition, spokeswoman Dena Sparkman said Friday. The few who declined to be seen at the hospital "were like, `feed me and we're good,'" Sparkman said. "I think the best medicine we gave them was chicken soup," Sparkman said. The group was made up of 37 students and three staff members from La Salle University on an annual mission trip called Project Appalachia, said John Caroulis, spokesman for the Philadelphia school. Caroulis said the group was helping build houses in Harlan, about a half-hour from Whitesburg, and had gone on a hiking trip that was made every year on the trip. Rescuers said the group got disoriented when it got dark while they were hiking near Bad Branch Falls, an area on the Bad Branch Nature Preserve. A search began about 7 p.m. EST Thursday, and it took until 3:30 a.m. Friday to get the entire group off the mountain, said Mayking Volunteer Fire Chief Tony Fugate, who helped. "It's pretty rough country back in there," Fugate told The Associated Press. Fugate said the group apparently hiked to a popular spot above the Bad Branch Falls waterfall, but it got dark and they couldn't find the trail back. When they got disoriented, they called 911 from their cellphones and were able to talk rescuers toward them. They were on a 5-mile trail shaped like a lollipop headed to an area called High Rock, which is known for its breathtaking views, according to Shad Baker, a local resident who created many of the public trails used in the area and helped guide rescuers via cell phone. "Rescuing 37 people is a monumental undertaking," Baker said. "So the fact that they got them out is really good." The trail, lined with hemlock trees and rhododendron bushes, takes hikers immediately into the deep woods. A sign at the trail head warns hikers to stay on the trail. A visitor log at the entrance to the trail was signed "La Salle University" for March 8. Baker said the hikers didn't arrive at High Rock until 5 p.m., it began to get dark, and much of the trail was covered by trees, branches and snow. He said the group would have had to cross three streams to reach the destination, and rescuers said by the time they arrived, many of the hikers said their feet were numb. "I think once they got up there, there's 37 footprints going every which direction. ... I think they couldn't figure out which way they came from," Baker said. Baker said to make things more confusing, the trail that would have taken them down the mountain actually goes uphill before it goes downhill. "It's counterintuitive," he said. He said the group was not dressed for the weather, with most of them wearing just sneakers, jeans and light jackets as temperatures began dropping into the 20s. Fugate said only a few of the students had flashlights. The group had to be walked down the mountain using an alternate route that had fewer obstacles but took more time, Baker said. National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Ray said temperatures in the Pine Mountain area dipped into the low 20s overnight. He said the high Thursday reached only into the mid-20s. Caroulis said the group was expected to return to Pennsylvania on Saturday as scheduled. ___ Associated Press writers Rebecca Yonker and Janet Cappiello contributed to this report. ||||| One hiker remained hospitalized Friday morning after 37 Pennsylvania college students and three staff members were rescued Thursday night from Pine Mountain in Letcher County, police said. The hikers from La Salle University in Philadelphia called for help about 7 p.m. Thursday and were found by 11 p.m., Kentucky State Police trooper Tony Watts said. The group, which was hiking near Bad Branch Falls at a place called High Rock, stayed together near a campfire and stayed in contact with police and rescue workers by cellphone after that first call, Watts said. The hikers had to leave the mountain by foot, and that took until 3:45 a.m. Friday, Letcher County Fire and Rescue Ambulance Service Director Gary Rogers said. All 40 of the hikers were taken to Whitesburg Appalachian Regional Hospital, where one remained Friday, hospital spokeswoman Hollie Phillips said. The remaining hiker is in stable condition and is expected to be released Saturday, said Dena Sparkman, Community CEO for Whitesburg ARH. The students were treated for possible hypothermia, dehydration and exhaustion, Sparkman said. One hiker had strained knees, she said. In addition to medical treatment, she said, hospital staff provided the cold, wet students with chicken noodle soup, dry hospital scrubs and pajama pants. "The other thing was loaning them cellphones so that they could call their parents. That was an emotional time," Sparkman said. LaSalle spokesman Jon Caroulis said the person who was hospitalized Friday was there for observation because of a pre-existing condition. Caroulis declined to elaborate. The group was expected to return to Philadelphia on Saturday. Caroulis said the group, including three non-faculty staff members, was on an alternative spring break trip to Eastern Kentucky that the university has offered for several years. The students had stayed in Harlan County, where they were volunteering for a non-profit organization, Caroulis said. The students had hiked during previous trips, but this time, they took the wrong path down the mountain, he said. Blake Enlow, executive director of a Harlan-based group called Christian Outreach with Appalachian People, said the college group was helping to remodel a home and build another. "Thankfully, they are all OK, just worn out," Enlow said. Valarie Honeycutt Spears: (859) 231-3409. Twitter: @vhspears.

– It is not your typical lost-hiker story: For one thing, it was a group of 40 hikers who could not find their way down a remote mountain in Kentucky as night fell and freezing temperatures set in, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. Luckily, they still had phone reception. The group of 37 students and three staffers from La Salle University in Pennsylvania called for help about 7pm yesterday, and rescuers got them off the trail about 3:45am. All were checked out for hypothermia, and only one was admitted to a local hospital. She is expected to be out tomorrow. "It's pretty rough country back in there," one rescuer tells the AP of the Bad Branch Nature Preserve. The main treatment provided by hospital staffers was, yep, chicken soup. "The other thing was loaning them cellphones so that they could call their parents," says a hospital official. "That was an emotional time." The students are in the area to build houses for Project Appalachia.

'Please Help Me!' American Caught In Venezuelan Prison Riot Pleads On Video Enlarge this image toggle caption Fernando Llano/AP Fernando Llano/AP Joshua Holt — a Mormon missionary from Utah jailed in Venezuela's most notorious prison — has uploaded an emotional video plea for his freedom, saying that his life is under threat amid an ongoing riot by fellow inmates. Holt, 26, who traveled to Venezuela in 2016 to marry Thamara Candelo, a woman he met online, has spent the past two years in the El Helicoide prison without charge after police said they found weapons in the couple's Caracas apartment. As we reported last year: "After their honeymoon last year, the couple settled into Candelo's apartment in a housing project on the outskirts of Caracas. They had planned to move to the U.S. with Candelo's two young daughters, and were waiting for approval for her U.S. visa. But on June 30, an anti-gang police squad burst into Candelo's apartment, where agents claimed to find an AK-47 assault rifle and a grenade. Holt and Candelo were hauled off to jail." In two 20-second videos shot on a cellphone and posted on his Facebook page, Holt says he has "been begging my government for two years. They say they're doing things but I'm still here." "Please, my fellow Americans don't allow me to continue suffering in Venezuela," Holt said in a written message, also posted on his Facebook page. "I am not a political pawn I am a human being a child of God and I just want to live happy with my wife and children. I have NEVER done anything wrong in my life. Please help me!" Although the extent of the unrest was not known, in another Facebook post, Holt says, "the prison where I am at has fallen and the guards are here and people are trying to break in my room and kill me. WHAT DO WE DO?" Chief Prosecutor Tarek William Saab announced in a tweet that he had sent a commission to the prison and that the parties had expressed a "willingness to carry out the respective coordination ... in order to resolve the situation." The Associated Press reports: ||||| (CNN) Inmates have revolted and taken control of a notorious prison in Venezuela, as the volatile country braces for presidential elections decried as illegitimate by regional leaders. Men identifying themselves as prisoners posted videos online saying they had taken over a detention center in the Helicoide ("the Helix"), the headquarters of intelligence agency Sebin in the capital, Caracas, because of torture and human rights violations. The US embassy in Venezuela expressed concern over the incident, after an American political prisoner Joshua Holt, a former Mormon missionary from Utah , posted a video on social media saying he feared for his life. ALERT If the United States does not promptly rescue Joshua Holt he could be lynched by Maduro's regime agents on next hours. Keep in mind, the rule of law DOES NOT exist in Venezuela... @POTUS @VP @SecPompeo pic.twitter.com/fNAGyGOnmA Venezuelan authorities later said they had "normalized" the situation at the prison, but inmates refuted the claim. Venezuelans will head to the polls Sunday to elect a new president as the country is roiled by an economic and social crisis, with millions suffering food and medicine shortages, hyperinflation and growing insecurity. In a statement released on Monday, representatives from 10 Latin American countries along with Spain and the United States reiterated their "condemnation of the authoritarian regime" of President Nicolas Maduro. The group also issued a final request for the government to suspend the elections. There have been repeated calls from leaders in the region to suspend the election because it is "illegitimate" and lacking in "credibility." The Helicoide prison's inmates include jailed opponents of Maduro, as well as US citizen Holt, many of whom have expressed fears over their safety and asked to be freed in postings on social media "Joshua Holt and other political prisoners are in danger," the embassy tweeted on its verified account . "The Venezuelan government is directly responsible for their safety and we will hold them responsible if anything happens to them." Estamos muy preocupados por el motín en El Helicoide. Joshua Holt y otros ciudadanos estadounidenses están en peligro. El gobierno de Venezuela es directamente responsable por su seguridad y le haremos responsables si algo les sucede. — US Embassy, VE (@usembassyve) May 16, 2018 Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek Saab later stopped short of claiming the government had regained full control of the detention center in the capital, saying the situation had "normalized". Speaking to CNN Espanol , Saab said the uprising was "a protest on behalf of the prisoners" and that he had sent a delegation to hold dialogue with the prisoners, which had reached a "positive agreement". Saab rejected prisoner claims of torture, extortion and minors being held inside the center. Prisoners, speaking to CNNE, denied that the authorities were in control. "Inside the prison, all the prisoners are in control. And at that this moment, the people from the government who have approached us have not offered any solutions, none," Daniel Ceballos, a prisoner and former opposition mayor said, adding they were all resisting and asked that for the public to resist alongside them. Todd Robinson, US Embassy charge d'affaires in Venezuela, told reporters outside the country's foreign ministry Wednesday: "The truth is we don't know anything and it seems like the authorities don't know anything either."

– As Venezuela gears up for its presidential election Sunday, the economic and social turmoil there continues. But for one American, trapped in the Helicoide prison in Caracas, the stakes are especially high. NPR and CNN report on the plight of Utah's Joshua Holt, a Mormon missionary jailed there in 2016 with his wife, Thamara Candelo, a Venezuelan Mormon Holt met online before heading to Venezuela to marry her. They were waiting on paperwork for Candelo so they could move back to the US, along with her two young daughters, when they were detained in an anti-gang raid in June 2016 and hit with weapons charges. Now, prisoners are rioting in the Helicoide, and Holt, 26, is using social media to plea for help. "The prison where I am at has fallen the guards are here and people are trying to break in my room and kill me. WHAT DO WE DO?" he posted on Facebook Wednesday. Holt's trial on the weapons charges was set to start Tuesday, but he and his wife were never brought to the courthouse, per the AP. "They want to kill me and paint the walls with my blood," he added in another post, begging the US to help him and noting Venezuela's intelligence agency said it won't let him go "as long as my government continues attacking this government." He also uploaded two short video clips making similar pleas, saying, "I've been begging my government for two years. They say they're doing things but I'm still here." On Thursday, the US Embassy in Venezuela tweeted that it's concerned about the situation at the Helicoide and that Holt and other Americans there are in peril. "The Venezuelan government is directly responsible for its security and we will hold it responsible if something happens to them," the embassy added. (The "illegal" closing of a Kellogg factory there.)

Fox halted production Dec. 1, saying it was because of the "unexpected unavailability" of the helmer. Bryan Singer has been fired from the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, 20th Century Fox has told The Hollywood Reporter. “Bryan Singer is no longer the director of Bohemian Rhapsody," the studio said Monday in a statement. The decision reflected an escalating clash between Singer and actor Rami Malek and was caused by the helmer being missing from the set, necessitating the Dec. 1 production shutdown of the film in which Malek stars as Freddie Mercury, frontman of the rock group Queen. The pic has been shooting in London. In announcing the shutdown last week, producers Fox, New Regency and Graham King initially said filming was being suspended because of Singer's "unexpected unavailability." Denying he acted unprofessionally, Singer claimed the studio refused to allow him to tend to "a gravely ill parent" as well as to his own health. “I wanted nothing more than to be able to finish this project and help honor the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen," he said in a statement, "but Fox would not permit me to do so because I needed to temporarily put my health, and the health of my loved ones, first.” Trouble began when Singer went missing during production on several occasions. His no-shows resulted in cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel having to step in to helm some of the days while Singer was absent. Tom Hollander, who plays Queen manager Jim Beach, also is said to have briefly quit the film because of Singer's behavior, but was persuaded to return, according to one source. Malek complained to the studio, charging Singer with not being present on set, unreliability and unprofessionalism. Singer had been warned before production began by both Fox Film chairman and CEO Stacey Snider and Fox Film vice chairman and president of production Emma Watts that they wouldn't tolerate any unprofessional behavior on his part. A representative from the Directors Guild of America also arrived on set to monitor the situation. The growing tension led to a confrontation between Singer and Malek, which, while it did not become physical, did involve Singer throwing an object. Subsequently, however, the two are said to have settled their differences and filming was expected to resume. But then Singer did not return to the set after the Thanksgiving break and is believed to have been in the U.S. for about the last 10 days, according to one source. In his absence, Sigel stepped in to helm several days of shooting before the production was shut down. Singer's prolonged absence was the final straw, and so the studio decided to terminate him under his pay-or-play contract. According to another insider, Singer has claimed he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the tensions on the set. In his statement, Singer said, "“Rumors that my unexpected departure from the film was sparked by a dispute I had with Rami Malek are not true. While, at times, we did have creative differences on set, Rami and I successfully put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving.” The studio, which has about two more weeks of principal photography remaining on the film, is expected to name a new director within the next few days. Dec. 4, 7:10 p.m. Singer's statements added. (Aaron Couch contributed to this report.) ||||| The filmmaker, who was helming 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' was terminated by the studio because of his absence from the set. Bryan Singer has struck back against charges he was terminated for being unprofessional on the set of Bohemian Rhapsody, the Queen biopic he was directing for Fox and New Regency. Instead, the filmmaker says he was terminated because Fox would not let him deal with the grave illness of one of his parents. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Singer said, “I wanted nothing more than to be able to finish this project and help honor the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen, but Fox would not permit me to do so because I needed to temporarily put my health, and the health of my loved ones, first.” Fox on Monday terminated Singer after a series of confrontations with Rami Malek, who is playing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. The director also was accused of acting unprofessionally in taking prolonged absences from the set. When production has halted Dec. 1, the studio cited the “unexpected unavailability” of the filmmaker. Said Singer in the statement: “Bohemian Rhapsody is a passion project of mine. With fewer than three weeks to shoot remaining, I asked Fox for some time off so I could return to the U.S. to deal with pressing health matters concerning one of my parents. This was a very taxing experience, which ultimately took a serious toll on my own health. Unfortunately, the studio was unwilling to accommodate me and terminated my services. This was not my decision and it was beyond my control." Singer claims that he and Malek had patched up their differences after clashing. “Rumors that my unexpected departure from the film was sparked by a dispute I had with Rami Malek are not true," said the director. "While, at times, we did have creative differences on set, Rami and I successfully put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving." ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Bryan Singer's past directing credits include The Usual Suspects and Superman Returns The director of the new Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, has been fired due to "unreliable behaviour". In a statement, Twentieth Century Fox said Bryan Singer was no longer the director of the film. A source told the BBC the main reason for the firing was "a pattern of unreliable behaviour on the set". But Singer said his firing came while he was ill and that the studio was "unwilling to accommodate" him during his illness. The Hollywood Reporter reported on Monday that Singer had clashed with lead actor Rami Malek and failed to show up for filming on multiple occasions. The studio had earlier said production had been suspended so Singer could deal with "a personal health matter". In a statement issued through his lawyer to the BBC, Singer - the director of The Usual Suspects, four X-Men movies and Superman Returns - said he was disappointed not to be able to finish the film, "a passion project of mine". Image copyright PA Image caption Rami Malek has so far made no public comments on the latest developments "With fewer than three weeks to shoot remaining, I asked Fox for some time off so I could return to the US to deal with pressing health matters concerning one of my parents," he said. "This was a very taxing experience, which ultimately took a serious toll on my own health. Unfortunately, the studio was unwilling to accommodate me and terminated my services. This was not my decision and it was beyond my control." He added that rumours of clashes with Malek, the star of the Mr Robot TV series, were not true. "While, at times, we did have creative differences on set, Rami and I successfully put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving," he said. Filming has been taking place in the UK, with Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello and Gwilym Lee starring as Queen's other members. The movie is still expected to be released in December 2018 as planned. As well as directing, Singer is listed as a co-producer, alongside Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor, among others. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

– Bryan Singer, the director who faced allegations of sexual assault before the dawn of the #metoo movement, has been fired from Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. In announcing the dismissal Monday, 20th Century Fox blamed the "unexpected unavailability" of Singer, noting production had come to a halt on Dec. 1. Sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that Singer was absent from the London set several times prior to December, leading actor Tom Hollander to temporarily quit. There was also reportedly an altercation between Singer and Rami Malek, who plays Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, in which Singer is said to have thrown an object. But sources say the dispute had been resolved and Hollander had agreed to resume his role as Queen manager Jim Beach when Singer failed to return to set after the Thanksgiving break. Singer says there was a very good reason he didn't return: he was caring for an ailing parent in the US. "I asked Fox for some time off ... to deal with pressing health matters concerning one of my parents ... which ultimately took a serious toll on my own health," Singer said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the studio was unwilling to accommodate me and terminated my services." He also confirms he had "creative differences" with Malek but the pair "put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving." With only two weeks left of filming, 20th Century Fox says it will name a new director to the film, which will keep its December 2018 release date, per the BBC.

The 60 pupils Waqar Ullah Khattak was supervising had barely started working through their test papers when the sound of gunfire began echoing around the chilly examination hall at the army public school in Peshawar. In the terror-wracked capital of one of Pakistan’s most violent provinces, Khattak and his fellow invigilators immediately recognised the sound of AK-47 assault rifles. “We had received some training on how to deal with unexpected attacks,” he said. “I told the students to hide on the floor.” It was to be the deadliest terrorist attack in Pakistan in memory. By the early evening, 141 people had been killed – 132 children and nine staff. The army’s spokesman said that 125 people had been injured, including seven army rescuers. The attack started before 10am, when seven terrorists wearing suicide bomb vests under their clothes crossed over the undefended back wall at the school in the upmarket military Cantonment area. One official said the men had parked a lorry next to the school and simply hopped across from the roof of the vehicle. Workers in the school’s kitchen said they initially mistook the heavily armed group for pupils late for classes, attempting to slip in unobserved. The entrance of the Army Public School in Peshawar. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Once inside, the men began a pitiless killing spree, going from classroom to classroom in the male-only section of the academy, which educates 1,000 boys aged five to 18, many of them the sons of army officers. “As soon as we entered the hall, firing started behind us in the hall. Our teacher said close the doors,” one pupil was quoted as telling NDTV. “We closed the doors and suddenly they entered, breaking the doors … As soon as we hid under tables, they fired bullets at our legs and our heads and then they burned our madam. They burned our madam. The firing continued but we didn’t move because whoever moved got shot at.” A spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as the country’s main Taliban franchise calls itself, claimed the attackers were under orders to kill only boys beyond the age of puberty. But Akbar Khan, the father of a 17-year-old student, Omar, said they shot indiscriminately. “As a school prefect he was with a group being trained in first aid by the army when the terrorists burst in,” Khan said of his son. He said the firing triggered a stampede. “He [Omar] was hit in the elbow but managed to rush from the area and was among the first children to be brought to the hospital.” Although teachers did their best to protect their students, locking doors and barricading windows, the death toll rose throughout the day as elite Special Services Group commandos attempted to gain control of the site. In the mid-afternoon, two loud blasts echoed across the city – most likely the sound of bomb vests being detonated by men who, according to some witnesses, spoke to each other in Arabic. A soldier escorts children from the Army Public School in Peshawar. Photograph: Khuram Parvez/Reuters Groups of pupils still wearing their smart green blazers were rescued by soldiers or managed to escape and were ferried to hospital. Anxious parents tried to break through the army cordon. Some said security at the school had been insufficient given the level of threat. “Every second house we have a dead body and the entire city is in gloom,” said Akbar Khan, arguing that while the front of the school had an army guard, the back wall should have been guarded too. “Some people are cursing the [local] government, some people the national government, and some are blaming the army chief.” Later the Pakistani government launched what it called “massive air strikes” in the Khyber region against Taliban outposts. At Peshawar’s two hospitals, people flocked to try to donate blood after stocks ran low, and parents searched desperately for their children. “My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now,” one man, Tahir Ali, told Associated Press as he came to collect the body of 14-year-old Abdullah. “My son was my dream. My dream has been killed.” Irshadah Bibi, whose 12-year-old son was among the dead, beat her face in grief and threw herself against an ambulance, Agence France–Presse reported. “Oh God, why did you snatch away my son?” she wept. “What is the sin of my child and all these children?” Crowds outside the Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar. Photograph: Bilawal Arbab/EPA Khattak, the exam invigilator, said a scene of carnage awaited him when, midway through the fighting, rescuers reached him and his pupils and escorted them to safety. “As we were running out we saw blood and dead students lying around on the floor – I will never forget it,” he said. A student who survived the attack said soldiers came to rescue students during a lull in the firing. “When we were coming out of the class we saw dead bodies of our friends lying in the corridors. They were bleeding. Some were shot three times, some four times.” Shahrukh Khan, a 15-year-old student at the school who was shot in both legs, said he witnessed the murder of one member of staff. “One of my teachers was crying, she was shot in the hand and she was crying in pain,” Khan told Reuters, lying on a bed in the city’s Lady Reading hospital. “One terrorist then walked up to her and started shooting her until she stopped making any sound. All around me my friends were lying injured and dead.” The teenager said he had decided to play dead after being shot, stuffing his tie into his mouth to prevent himself from screaming. “The man with big boots kept on looking for students and pumping bullets into their bodies. I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get shot again,” he told Agence France-Presse. “My body was shivering. I saw death so close and I will never forget the black boots approaching me – I felt as though it was death that was approaching me.” ||||| Story highlights Children "are dying on the frontline in the war against terror," Pakistan's defense minister says The death toll has climbed to 145 people, included 132 children and the school's principal Attackers gunned down students taking an exam in an auditorium, military spokesman says Attack was on a school mostly for soldiers' children; many of the dead between 12 and 16 "'God is great,'" the Taliban militants shouted as they roared through the hallways of a school in Peshawar, Pakistan. Then, 14-year-old student Ahmed Faraz recalled, one of them took a harsher tone. " 'A lot of the children are under the benches,' " a Pakistani Taliban said, according to Ahmed. " 'Kill them.' " By the time the hours-long siege at Army Public School and Degree College ended early Tuesday evening, at least 145 people -- 132 children, 10 school staff members and three soldiers -- were dead, military spokesman Gen. Asim Bajwa said. More than 100 were injured, many with gunshot wounds, according to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani. The death toll does not include the terrorists who attacked the school, bursting into an auditorium where a large number of students were taking an exam and gunning down many of them within minutes, Bajwa said. Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Soldiers patrol the streets in Peshawar, Pakistan, near a school that was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday, December 16. Militants stormed the military-run school in northwest Pakistan, killing more than 140 people, most of them children. More than 100 people were injured. Hide Caption 1 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Relatives carry the body of a victim during his funeral procession. Hide Caption 2 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A victim's coffin is carried from an ambulance. Hide Caption 3 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – The uncle and cousin of injured student Mohammad Baqair comfort him as he mourns the death of his mother, a teacher who was killed in the attack. Hide Caption 4 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A man comforts a student who survived the attack. Hide Caption 5 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Parents escort their children away from the school. Hide Caption 6 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A wounded student receives treatment at a Peshawar hospital. Hide Caption 7 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Pakistani soldiers hold positions close to the school. All the militants in the attack were eventually killed, a police official said. Hide Caption 8 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Pakistani soldiers take position near the site of the attack. Hide Caption 9 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A student is wheeled into a hospital in Peshawar. Hide Caption 10 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A man and woman rush to a Peshawar hospital treating victims of the attack. Hide Caption 11 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Family members wait outside the school. Hide Caption 12 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – People gather at a hospital where victims were being treated. Hide Caption 13 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Pakistani soldiers position themselves at a fence near the besieged school. Hide Caption 14 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A Pakistani soldier clears the area outside the school. Hide Caption 15 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – An injured student lies in bed at a Peshawar hospital after the attack. Hide Caption 16 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A hospital security guard helps an injured student at the school. Hide Caption 17 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Parents leave with their children near the site of the attack. Hide Caption 18 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A plainclothes officer escorts rescued students away from the school. Hide Caption 19 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Pakistani troops reach the site of the attack. Hide Caption 20 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Volunteers carry a student at a hospital in Peshawar. Hide Caption 21 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – An injured girl gets rushed to a hospital in Peshawar. Hide Caption 22 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A man comforts a student standing at the bedside of an injured boy. Hide Caption 23 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A Pakistani soldier takes position on a bunker close to the besieged school. Hide Caption 24 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Relatives of a student killed in the attack mourn over the student's body. Hide Caption 25 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Hospital staff transport an injured student in Peshawar. Hide Caption 26 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – The body of a victim lies at a hospital in Peshawar. Hide Caption 27 of 27 Map: Peshawar, Pakistan JUST WATCHED Students thought Taliban attack was drill Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Students thought Taliban attack was drill 02:23 "They started shooting indiscriminately," Bajwa said, "and that's where maximum damage was caused." Pakistani Taliban spokesman Mohammed Khurrassani said the militants scaled the school's walls around 10 a.m. (midnight ET), intent on killing older students there. The Taliban had "300 to 400 people ... under their custody" at one point, said Khurrassani, whose group is called Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. But Bajwa said there was no hostage situation, as the attackers' focus was shooting to kill rather than taking captives. They were eventually met by Pakistani troops who pushed through the complex building by building, room by room. By 4 p.m., they'd confined the attackers to four buildings. A few hours later, all the militants -- seven of them, according to Bajwa -- were dead. Pakistani authorities spent Tuesday night inside the school in Peshawar, a city about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the country's capital, Islamabad, looking for survivors, victims and improvised explosive devices planted to worsen the carnage. JUST WATCHED World leaders condemn Pakistan attack Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH World leaders condemn Pakistan attack 01:38 As they searched, they discovered that the school's principal was among the terrorists' victims. The attack drew sharp condemnation from top Pakistani officials, who vowed that the country wouldn't stop its war against the Taliban. "We are undeterred. ... We will not back off," Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told CNN. But he said the ambush at the school is another example of how great his nation's sacrifices have been in fighting that's raged for more than a decade. "Even the children are dying on the frontline in the war against terror," he said. "The smaller the coffin, the heavier it is to carry. ... It's a very, very tragic day." Minister: Most of the dead were 12 to 16 years old On a typical day, the Army Public School and Degree College is home to about 1,100 students and staff, most of them sons and daughters of army personnel from around Peshawar, though others attend as well. Their nightmare began in late morning, when a car exploded behind the school. Pakistani education minister Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman explained to CNN that the blast was a ruse, meant to divert the attention of the school's security guards. It worked. Gunmen got over the walls and walked through where students in grades 8, 9 and 10 have classes and fired randomly, said Dr. Aamir Bilal of Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, citing students. They came in with enough ammunition and other supplies to last for days and were not expecting to come out alive, according to a Pakistani military official. Seventh-grader Mohammad Bilal said he was sitting outside his classroom taking a math test when the gunfire erupted. He fell into bushes before running to the school's gates to safety. Ahmed, the 14-year-old student, remembered being in the school's auditorium when four or five people burst in through a back door "and started rapidly firing." After getting shot in his left shoulder, the ninth-grader lay under a bench. JUST WATCHED Malala: Taliban school attack 'senseless' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Malala: Taliban school attack 'senseless' 01:26 JUST WATCHED Pakistan takes on Taliban militants Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Pakistan takes on Taliban militants 02:04 "My shoulder was peeking out of the bench, and somebody was following," Ahmed recalled. "They went into another room, (and when) I ran to the exit, I fell." Bajwa told reporters that Pakistani security forces reached the school 15 minutes after the attack began. They found, he said, "the children ... drenched in blood, with their bodies on top of each other." Most of those killed were between the ages of 12 and 16, said Pervez Khattak, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital. But some adults in the school also were targets, like a 28-year-old office assistant who was shot and then burned alive, police official Faisal Shehzad said. Violent past Pakistan has seen plenty of violence, much of it involving militants based in provinces such as South Waziristan, North Waziristan and the Khyber Agency -- all restive regions in northwest Pakistan near Peshawar along its border with Afghanistan. It is the home base of the TTP, an organization that has sought to force its conservative version of Islam in Pakistan. The group has battled Pakistani troops and, on a number of occasions, attacked civilians as well. Peshawar, an ancient city of more than 3 million people tucked right up against the Khyber Pass, has often found itself in the center of it all. Militants repeatedly targeted the city in response to Pakistani military offensives, like a 2009 truck bombing of a popular marketplace frequented by women and children that killed more than 100 people. And the Taliban hasn't hesitated to go after schoolchildren. Their most notable target is Malala Yousafzai, who was singled out and shot on October 9, 2012 as she rode to school in a van with other girls. The teenage girl survived and, last week, became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote education and girls' rights in Pakistan and beyond. Yousafzai was "heartbroken by this (latest) senseless and cold blooded act of terror in Peshawar," saying Tuesday that "innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this." "I call upon the international community, leaders in Pakistan, all political parties -- everyone -- (to) stand up together and fight against terrorism," the 16-year-old added in another statement. "And we should make sure that every child gets a safe and quality education." Taliban: Revenge for killing of tribesmen Still, even by Pakistan and the Taliban's gruesome standards, Tuesday's attack may be the most abominable yet. This is the deadliest incident inside Pakistan since October 2007, when about 139 Pakistanis died and more than 250 others were wounded in an attack near a procession for exiled former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, according to the University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database Even the Taliban in Afghanistan, with which the TTP is closely affiliated, criticized the "deliberate killing of innocent people, women and children (as being) against Islamic principles" and expressed condolences to the attack's victims, according to spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. It comes after peace talks between the Pakistan Taliban and Pakistan's government as recently as last spring. The government released 19 Taliban noncombatants in a goodwill gesture, in fact. But talks broke down under a wave of attacks by the Taliban and mounting political pressure to bring the violence under control. In September 2013, choir members and children attending Sunday school were among 81 people killed in a suicide bombing at the Protestant All Saints Church of Pakistan. A splinter group of the Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility, blaming the U.S. program of drone strikes in tribal areas of the country. And for the past few months, the Pakistani military has been conducting a ground offensive to clear out militants, spurring violence that's displaced tens of thousands of people and sparked deadly retaliations. Khurrassani, the Pakistan Taliban spokesman, told CNN that the latest attack was revenge for the killing of hundreds of innocent tribesmen during repeated army operations in provinces including South Waziristan, North Waziristan and the Khyber Agency. The TTP spokesman challenged that ordinary citizens were targeted, saying that five army vehicles are routinely stationed at the school. "We are facing such heavy nights in routine," Khurrassani said, rationalizing the siege shortly before it ended. "Today, you must face the heavy night." ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Mishal Husain was one of the first broadcasters to go inside the school The Pakistani city of Peshawar is burying its dead after a Taliban attack at a school killed at least 132 children and nine staff. New images from the school show the brutality of the attack, with pools of blood on the ground and walls covered in pockmarks from hundreds of bullets. Mass funerals and prayer vigils for the victims are currently under way. Gunmen had walked from class to class shooting students in the Pakistani Taliban's deadliest attack to date. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared three days of mourning over the massacre, which has sparked national outrage. He also announced an end to the moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism cases, which correspondents say is a move aimed at countering a view held by many Pakistanis that many terror suspects end up evading justice. World leaders have also voiced disgust at the attack, which even the Afghan Taliban have criticised. Image caption Images taken by a BBC team inside a classroom show the level of destruction Image caption An office belonging the school principal was hit by a suicide bomber Separately, Pakistan's army says it launched air strikes at militants in the Khyber and North Waziristan areas, although it is not yet clear if this was a direct response to the school attack. An offensive against the militants has been going on since June. At the scene: Mishal Husain, BBC News It is a very eerie atmosphere. These are premises that should be alive at a time of day like this to the sound of hundreds of children who studied here and began school as normal on Tuesday. But it is desolate now. The army has been working through the night to clear the premises of explosives. I am standing now at the bottom of the white stone steps that lead up to the auditorium. There are blood stains running right down the steps and towards the auditorium itself. There is a child's shoe on one of the steps. The auditorium, where children were taking exams, was one of the places within the school grounds that the militants first targeted. As I peer in now, the chairs that the children were sitting on are upturned, the place has been turned upside down and again I can see the blood stains on the floor right around me. Mr Sharif also convened a meeting of all parliamentary parties in Peshawar to discuss the response. Afghan role Meanwhile, Pakistan's army chief General Raheel Sharif is in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on a surprise visit to discuss security co-operation aimed at tackling the Taliban insurgency. Pakistani Taliban (TTP) leader Mullah Fazlullah is believed by the Pakistani authorities to be hiding in Afghanistan and media reports in Pakistan suggest the school attack may have been co-ordinated from Afghanistan. But the TTP said the attack had been masterminded by its military chief in the Peshawar region, who it said had been in touch with the gunmen throughout the assault. A TTP spokesman told the BBC they had deliberately killed older pupils and not targeted "small children". BBC correspondents say the Taliban statement is being seen as damage limitation after the attack was universally condemned in Pakistan for its brutality. The TTP also repeated its earlier claim that only six attackers were sent, contradicting official accounts that seven gunmen were killed. The militants say the attack was revenge for the army's campaign against them, and that they chose the school as a target because their families had also suffered heavy losses. Scenes of devastation Reporters visiting the school for the first time saw pools of blood marking the floor and torn notebooks, clothing and shoes among the debris. "This is not a human act,'' military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said during a tour of the school, the Associated Press reports. "This is a national tragedy." Image copyright AP Image caption Upturned chairs and blood stains left in the wake of the attack at the school's auditorium Image copyright EPA Image caption Funerals for the victims began hours after the attack on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday Image copyright AP Image caption Many schools in Pakistan closed as a mark of respect, with those remaining open holding special prayers Seven Taliban attackers wearing bomb vests cut through a wire fence to gain entry to the school, before launching an attack on an auditorium where children were taking an exam. Gunmen then went from room to room at the military-run school, shooting pupils and teachers where they found them in a siege that lasted eight hours, survivors say. A total of 125 people were wounded at Peshawar's Army Public School, which teaches boys and girls from both military and civilian backgrounds. All seven attackers were killed, while hundreds of people were evacuated. Image copyright AFP Image caption Some wounded students remain at the main hospital in Peshawar Image copyright AFP Image caption Soldiers are guarding the gates of the school in Peshawar after the siege Image copyright Getty Images Image caption There was anger at this candlelit vigil for the victims in Karachi, Pakistan Mohammad Hilal, a student in the 10th grade, was shot three times in his arm and legs when the gunmen stormed the school auditorium. "I think I passed out for a while. I thought I was dreaming. I wanted to move but felt paralysed. Then I came to and realised that actually two other boys had fallen on me. Both of them were dead," he told the BBC. Zulfiqar Ahmad, 45, the head of the mathematics department who was shot four times during the attack told the BBC he did not believe any of the 18 students in his class had survived. The victims are also being mourned elsewhere, with India's parliament observing a minute's silence in their honour. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his country's "deepest condolences". Mr Sharif pledged to avenge a "national tragedy unleashed by savages". Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban for championing girls' rights to education, also condemned "these atrocious and cowardly acts". Image copyright AP Image caption School pupil Mohammad Baqair lost his mother, a teacher, in the attack Pakistani embassies worldwide have lowered their flags to half-mast and opened books of condolences. Image copyright AFP Image caption Some of the injured were carried to hospital in people's arms Deadly attacks in Pakistan Image copyright AFP 16 December 2014: Taliban attack on school in Peshawar leaves at least 141 people dead, 132 of them children 22 September 2013: Militants linked to the Taliban kill at least 80 people at a church in Peshawar, in one of the worst attacks on Christians 10 January 2013: Militant bombers target the Hazara Shia Muslim minority in the city of Quetta, killing 120 at a snooker hall and on a street 28 May 2010: Gunmen attack two mosques of the minority Ahmadi Islamic sect in Lahore, killing more than 80 people 18 October 2007: Twin bomb attack at a rally for Benazir Bhutto in Karachi leaves at least 130 dead. Unclear if Taliban behind attack Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Taliban has a history of targeting large crowds of civilians in Pakistan In Afghanistan itself, the local Taliban described the school attack as un-Islamic and said they were sending condolences to the families of the victims. The Afghan Taliban are currently stepping up their own attacks in Afghanistan and share roots with the Pakistani Taliban and usually share the same ideology too, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge reports from Kabul. Hundreds of Taliban fighters are thought to have died in the recent Pakistan army offensive in the Khyber area and North Waziristan, regions close to the Afghan border. ||||| PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistanis mourned as mass funerals got underway Wednesday for 142 people, most of them children, killed the day before in a massacre by the Taliban at a military-run school in the country's troubled northwest. Pakistani students head to their school in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. Pakistan is mourning as the nation prepares for mass funerals for 141 people, most of them children, killed in... (Associated Press) Mourners and relatives of Pakistani teacher, Saeed Khan, a victim of a Taliban attack in a school, carry his body, during his funeral procession in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban... (Associated Press) Relatives of Pakistani teacher, Saeed Khan, a victim of a Taliban attack in a school, gather around his body, during his funeral procession in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen... (Associated Press) People look at lists of attack victims displayed at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban attack on a school that killed more than 100 people. Nobel Peace Prize winner... (Associated Press) Pakistani journalists and civil society members hold a candle light vigil for the victims of a Taliban attack on a school, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run... (Associated Press) People visit survivors of a Taliban attack on a school at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern Pakistani city... (Associated Press) Pakistani blood donors wait their turn to donate blood for victims of a Taliban attack on a school, at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run... (Associated Press) A man comforts a child who survives a Taliban attack on a school that killed more than 100 people, admits at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run... (Associated Press) Pakistan's army spokesman Major-General Asim Bajwa briefs the media about a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the... (Associated Press) People who survived a Taliban attack on a school, receive treatment at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern... (Associated Press) People who survived a Taliban attack on a school receive treatment at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern Pakistani... (Associated Press) Mourners and relatives of Pakistani teacher, Saeed Khan, a victim of a Taliban attack in a school, pray around his body, during his funeral procession in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban... (Associated Press) A Pakistani injured student who survived a Taliban attack on a school that killed more than 100 people, admits at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Nobel Peace Prize winner... (Associated Press) Prayer vigils were held across the nation and in other schools, students spoke of their shock at the carnage in the city of Peshawar, where seven Taliban gunmen, explosives strapped to their bodies, scaled a back wall using a ladder to get into the Army Public School and College in the morning hours on Tuesday. Students were gunned down and some of the female teachers were burned alive. The attack was the deadliest slaughter of innocents in the country and horrified a nation already weary of unending terrorist assaults. Army commandos fought the Taliban in a day-long battle until the school was cleared and the attackers dead. The government declared a three-day mourning period, starting Wednesday. Overnight, the body of the school principal, Tahira Qazi, was found among the debris from the rampage. Her death raised further the earlier reported death toll of 141. Some of the funerals were held overnight, but most of the 132 children and 10 school staff members killed in the attack were to be buried Wednesday. Another 121 students and three staff members were wounded. "They finished in minutes what I had lived my whole life for, my son," said laborer Akhtar Hussain, tears streaming down his face as he buried his 14-year-old, Fahad. He said he had worked for years in Dubai to earn a livelihood for his children. "That innocent one is now gone in the grave, and I can't wait to join him, I can't live anymore," he wailed, banging his fists against his head. The Taliban said the attack was revenge for a military offensive against their safe havens in the northwest, along the border with Afghanistan, which began in June. Analysts said the school siege showed that even diminished, the militant group still could inflict horrific carnage. The attack drew swift condemnation from around the world. President Barack Obama said the "terrorists have once again showed their depravity." Pakistan's teenage Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai — herself a survivor of a Taliban shooting — said she was "heartbroken" by the bloodshed. Even Taliban militants in neighboring Afghanistan decried the killing spree, calling it "un-Islamic." Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged to step up the campaign that — along with U.S. drone strikes — has targeted the militants. "We will take account of each and every drop of our children's blood," said Sharif, who rushed to Peshawar shortly after the attack to offer support for the victims. In neighboring India, which has long accused Pakistan of supporting anti-India guerrillas, schools on Wednesday observed two minutes of silence for the Peshawar victims at the urging of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called the attack "a senseless act of unspeakable brutality." ___ Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Peshawar, Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Tim Sullivan in New Delhi contributed to this report.

– "We will take revenge for each and every drop of our children's blood," Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed as funerals began for 132 children slaughtered in a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar yesterday. Sharif said there would be three days of national mourning for the massacre at a military-run school, in which 10 staff members were killed, as well as all seven attackers, the BBC reports. Sharif also said he would reinstate the death penalty for terrorism. More: The attack was condemned worldwide, with Pakistan's archrival India, whose president called the attack "a senseless act of unspeakable brutality," observing two minutes of silence in schools, reports the AP. Even the Taliban in Afghanistan spoke out against the atrocity, calling it "un-Islamic." There are signs that the attackers—some of whom reportedly spoke in Arabic to each other—had intended to stay for a long siege, with some of them carrying stores of food, the New York Times reports. A security official, however, says they never attempted to take any hostages. "They were there to kill, and this is what they did," he says. One official tells the Guardian that the attackers accessed the school via an unguarded back wall. They may have parked their vehicle next to it and then just climbed on the roof of the vehicle and over the wall. A Pakistani Taliban spokesman says the attack was revenge for a military offensive against the militants in areas including North Waziristan, where he says hundreds of innocent people have been killed. The country's defense minister tells CNN that the country will not back off from the offensive, but that the slaughter is another example of the sacrifices Pakistan has made in its battle against the militants. "The smaller the coffin, the heavier it is to carry," he says. "It's a very, very tragic day."

Image caption Bernard Glesser (left) and Michel Dheilly have been held captive at the Goodyear plant Workers at a Goodyear tyre factory in Northern France have been holding two managers captive in a dispute over plans to close the plant. The director of production at the plant in Amiens, Michel Dheilly and human resources chief, Bernard Glaser have not been allowed to leave the plant. Staff and management have been negotiating for years over how to deal with the loss-making plant. The union is pushing for a redundancy plan with more generous payoffs. Franck Jurek of the factory's works council described the atmosphere at the plant as a "calm". "If there is no buyer, (we want) a plan for voluntary redundancies for everyone with loads of money," he said. French workers have a history of holding managers captive, although so called "bossnappings" were more common during the height of the financial crisis. Companies including, 3M, Sony and Caterpillar were affected in 2009. Generally workers have not been prosecuted for holding their bosses captive. According to the CGT union, the two managers have been given water and still have their mobile phones. "This kind of initiative, always to be condemned, is especially inopportune and counterproductive at a time when we should concentrate on the future of employees affected by the restructuring, after several years looking for a solution," Goodyear said in a statement. ||||| PARIS (AP) — Two Goodyear bosses held captive by workers spent the night inside a factory in northern France that the company wants to close. A worker at the Goodyear tire factory guards the human resources chief, Bernard Glesser, left, and the firm's production manager Michel Dheilly, right, who have been blocked from leaving the plant in... (Associated Press) Workers of the Goodyear tire factory gather at the plant in Amiens, northern France, Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. Two Goodyear managers, production manager Michel Dheilly and Human Resources director Bernard... (Associated Press) The plant, which Goodyear has tried to sell or shutter for five years, has become an emblem of France's labor issues, and the seizure Monday morning of the two managers — the plant's director and human resources chief — resurrected the once-common practice of boss-napping. Sylvain Niel, a labor lawyer who has worked on similar issues, said the tactic fell away because any agreements under pressure were later voided in courts. "It's a reaction of despair," Niel said. "They have no room to maneuver in the closing of the factory." The Amiens plant has an especially contentious past. Goodyear's attempts to close it have been stalled by violent protests with huge tire bonfires, government concerns and France's prolonged layoff procedures. Boss-nappings typically have lasted from a few hours to a couple of days. They are punishable under French law by five years in prison and a 75,000-euro ($102,000) fine — as long as the boss goes free in under a week. But generally the workers are not prosecuted, and in many cases they have tried to make the manager's time in captivity more comfortable. Mickael Wamen, a union leader, told the Courrier Picard newspaper that the managers had refused offers of mattresses and blankets overnight. "Things were sometimes animated, sometimes calm, but without any meanness," Michel Dheilly, the captive plant manager, told reporters allowed inside the factory. The other captive manager, Bernard Glesser, was less sanguine, saying he would not give any statements under duress. Niel said police rarely get involved, hoping to avoid inflaming the situation. "These are basically honest people, in despair," he said. ||||| PARIS—Workers at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. factory in northern France prevented two managers from leaving the facility on Monday, the latest in a string of protests by union members who were accused by a U.S. executive last year of doing little work. The site director and the director of human resources at the Goodyear plant in Amiens were being held in a room whose access is controlled by union representatives and employees,...

– Furious French workers at a Goodyear tire factory have revived the practice of "boss-napping" and seized two managers amid a dispute over the plant's closure. The site's director of production and human resources chief are being held at the factory and union leaders say they won't be released until workers get a satisfactory response to their requests, which include more generous severance packages, the Wall Street Journal reports. The bosses were held overnight at the plant and refused offers of mattresses and blankets, the AP reports. "Things were sometimes animated, sometimes calm, but without any meanness," one captive plant manager told reporters, while the other said he would not give any statements under duress. Boss-napping was more common during the height of the financial crisis and while it is punishable by up to five years in prison, workers are rarely prosecuted for holding managers captive, the BBC notes.

The council's decision is part of a broader national effort to alleviate poverty, said Maria Elena Durazo, former head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Raising the wage in L.A., she said, will help spur similar increases in other parts of the country. "Without a doubt, it was a very big victory," said Durazo, now with Unite Here, the hotel and restaurant workers' union. Some labor leaders have expressed dissatisfaction with the gradual timeline elected leaders set for raising base wages. But on Tuesday the harshest criticism of the law came from business groups, which warned lawmakers that the mandate would force employers to lay off workers or leave the city altogether. "The very people [council members'] rhetoric claims to help with this action, it's going to hurt," said Ruben Gonzalez, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce's senior vice president for public policy and political affairs. He predicted that many businesses would absorb their new labor costs by laying off employees, reducing work hours or moving out of the city entirely. "It's simple math," Gonzalez said. "There is simply not enough room, enough margin in these businesses to absorb a 50-plus percent increase in labor costs over a short period of time." Councilman Mitchell Englander, the council's only Republican, cast the lone opposing vote. In a statement, he said the council action could "make it impossible for entire industries to do business" in Los Angeles. "The very last thing that we should be doing as a city is creating a competitive disadvantage for our businesses with those in neighboring cities," said Englander, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley. The council's vote followed months of public debate and back-room lobbying on an issue that has animated City Hall like few others over the last year. Unlike some of the neighborhood-specific political dust-ups that occupy city officials, the pay increase would directly affect workers and businesses throughout the city. "That's a monumental change in wages," said Jerry Newman, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Management. "It's going to have both an economic impact and a social impact." The stakes for some low-wage Angelenos were reflected Tuesday in testimony from workers such as Juan Moran, a line cook in Little Tokyo. Moran told the council the current statewide minimum wage of $9 per hour isn't enough to live on. "Sometimes I have to walk half an hour from work to get to my apartment because money's not enough to pay a ride on the bus," the Boyle Heights resident said. "Or I work 12 hours straight without stop … just to pay rent." Backed by well-organized labor activists at the national level, the campaign to raise the minimum wage has become a focus of Democrats seeking to revive their party's focus on income inequality. Once Los Angeles' wage hike is finalized, the city will join other West Coast cities that have enacted higher minimum wages in the last two years. New York City and Washington, D.C., are also weighing $15-an-hour minimum wage proposals. Jaime Regalado, emeritus professor of political science at Cal State L.A., said L.A.'s move on the minimum wage fits in with California's experimentation with left-leaning policies such as regulating greenhouse-gas emissions. The state "has been out front on a variety of things that are not as rapidly moving nationally," Regalado said. L.A.'s proposed wage increase, he said, is "consistent with what we've seen as California has grown increasingly blue, especially urban centers like Los Angeles." In L.A., the move toward a higher citywide minimum wage gathered steam last year as council members pursued a plan to raise the base pay for workers at the city's large hotels to $15.37 per hour. That measure passed last fall. Newly elected council members representing diverse areas of the city — Mike Bonin from an affluent coastal district, Curren Price from South Los Angeles and Nury Martinez from the San Fernando Valley — led the push for the hotel pay increase, which proponents saw as a precursor to a citywide minimum wage hike. Last summer, minimum-wage advocates found a key ally in Garcetti, who put forward his own proposal to raise base pay to $13.25 an hour. In a telephone interview from New York City, where he was speaking at Columbia University, the mayor praised the measure passed by the council. ||||| City follows Seattle and San Francisco in raising minimum wage to $15 by July 2020, with city council members voting overwhelmingly in favour of legislation Los Angeles became the largest US city to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour on Tuesday, as a wage increase bill passed the city council by a vote of 14-1. It is now up to city attorney Mike Feuer to draft an ordinance to implement the new minimum wage requirements. The ordinance will then return to the council for a final vote before becoming law. Under the proposed legislation, the city’s minimum wage would increase to $10.50 in July 2016, and would increase incrementally every year until it reaches $15 in July 2020. For small businesses with 25 or fewer employees, the wage hike would come on a modified schedule with the incremental increases starting in July 2017 and the minimum wage reaching $15 by July 2021. Seattle workers hail 'historic moment' as city sets course for $15 minimum wage Read more The current minimum wage in California is $9 an hour and is set to increase to $10 in January 2016. In the past year, two other US cities have approved similar wage increase measures. In June 2014, Seattle moved to increase its minimum wage to $15 by 2017. Last November, San Francisco voted to increase its minimum wage to $15 by 2018. Other cities, including New York and Chicago, are considering raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour. In February,New York City mayor Bill de Blasio called for a $15 minimum wage by 2019 in his state of the city address. The shift toward raising the minimum wage by local lawmakers comes at a time when the fight for $15 movement has swelled into the largest protest by low-wage workers in US history. On 15 April, some 60,000 workers in more than 200 US cities took part in the Fight for $15 demonstrations. Many of them were low-wage employees of companies like Walmart and McDonald’s, which have since pledged to increase their workers’ pay by $1-$2 an hour, a raise activists said is still not enough. Who would oppose a $15 minimum wage? Sometimes your neighbour Read more “By voting to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the Los Angeles City Council has just shown what workers are capable of when we stick together. People used to think we had no chance, but we are steadily winning the fight by demanding $15 an hour to lift our families out of poverty,” said Albina Ardon, 29, a mother of two and an active member of the Fight for $15 in Los Angeles. Ardon, who has worked for McDonald’s for 10 years, earns $9.05 an hour and relies on food stamps and Medi-Cal to make ends meet. “My life would be completely different if I were paid $15 an hour. I could afford groceries without needing food stamps, my family could stop sharing our apartment with renters for extra money, and I’d be able to provide my daughters with some security.” The federally mandated minimum wage has stayed at $7.25 since June 2009. While the unemployment rate has dropped to 5.4% – a seven-year low – and the number of jobless claim is at a 15-year low, wages remain stagnant. President Barack Obama previously called on Congress to raise it to $10.10 . Democrats, led by Washington senator Patty Murray and Congressman Bobby Scott recently introduced a bill that would raise federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020. Advocates for higher minimum wage like Unite Here and Raise the Wage attended the Los Angeles city council hearing on Tuesday. Prior to the vote, the council opened the proposal to debate and allowed each of the sides 25 minutes to make their arguments for and against the $15 minimum wage. Those on the opposing side included small business owners and restaurant owners, who said that higher minimum wage would force them to increase prices or let go of some of their staff. Genaro Molina (@GenaroMolina47) Members of Unite Here wait for Los Angeles City Council to vote on plan to raise the minimum wage. pic.twitter.com/ucr0plYtpa Council member Bernard Parks has previously expressed concern about $15 minimum wage leading to higher unemployment in the area. “Every minimum wage increase that we’ve seen, if it’s too high, causes unemployment,” Parks told NPR in February. “If you have a big city like Los Angeles doing something, you’re going to find a lot of people will fall in line without any thought, because they believe that we’ve done the research. The fact is, we have not done the research.” The city has commissioned a report from the Institute for Research on Labor Employment from University of California, Berkeley. The report found that by increasing minimum wage to $15.25 by 2019, as some city council members had suggested in the past, would affect 542,000 workers by 2017. “By 2019, we estimate that 609,000, or 41.3% of the covered workforce, will receive a wage increase from the proposed law,” the researchers wrote in March 2015. “Average annual earnings will increase by 30.4%, or $4,800 in 2014 dollars.” While higher pay may lead to higher prices and to a drop in consumer spending, those who will get a pay raise thank to the new bill are more likely to spend more, according to the researchers. These findings did not appease opponents of the $15 an hour minimum wage, who have said that the report is not independent. Since the institute conducted a similar study on the effects of increasing the minimum wage to $13.25 by 2017 as proposed by the Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti last year, the opponents felt that commissioning the institute to conduct this years study was a conflict of interest. “I asked for an independent study. Selecting UC Berkeley again for this independent analysis does not pass the smell test with me,” city councilman Mitch O’Farrell said in January. Both Seattle and San Francisco have populations of less than one million, whereas Los Angeles population is more than 3.88 million people. The effects of increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour on that large of a scale remain unknown, which is something that continues to worry Los Angeles lawmakers. “This is an experiment,” Paul Koretz said during Tuesday’s hearing. “If anyone tells you they know exactly how this is going to go … they’re not being honest with you.” Despite concerns about the possible effects of increasing minimum wage to $15 an hour, two hours into Tuesday’s hearing, the proposal passed. Worker rights advocates declared the vote a win for the low-wage workers. “By a vote of 14 to 1, the council directed L.A.’s city attorney to prepare legislation setting a $15 wage floor,” said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project. “Today, Los Angeles becomes the latest and largest city to throw its support behind the legions of workers who ask for nothing less than to be paid a fair and decent wage.” ||||| “The effects here will be the biggest by far,” said Michael Reich, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was commissioned by city leaders to conduct several studies on the potential effects of a minimum-wage increase. “The proposal will bring wages up in a way we haven’t seen since the 1960s. There’s a sense spreading that this is the new norm, especially in areas that have high costs of housing.” Image Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, right, on Monday. He said in an interview on Tuesday that “we’re leading the country.” Credit Nick Ut/Associated Press The groups pressing for higher minimum wages said that the Los Angeles vote could set off a wave of increases across Southern California, and that higher pay scales would improve the way of life for the region’s vast low-wage work force. Supporters of higher wages say they hope the move will reverberate nationally. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced this month that he was convening a state board to consider a wage increase in the local fast-food industry, which could be enacted without a vote in the State Legislature. Immediately after the Los Angeles vote, pressure began to build on Mr. Cuomo to reject an increase that falls short of $15 an hour. “The L.A. increase nudges it forward,” said Dan Cantor, the national director of the Working Families Party, which was founded in New York and has helped pass progressive economic measures in several states. “It puts an exclamation point on the need for $15 to be where the wage board ends up.” The current minimum wage in New York State is $8.75, versus a federal minimum wage of $7.25, and will rise to $9 at the end of 2015. A little more than one-third of workers citywide and statewide now make below $15 an hour. Los Angeles County is also considering a measure that would lift the wages of thousands of workers in unincorporated parts of the county.

– The push for a higher minimum wage just got a major boost courtesy of Los Angeles. The city council has approved raising it to $15 an hour by 2020, reports the Los Angeles Times. Under the plan, the rate will rise from $9 to $10.50 in July 2016, then tick up annually to $12, $13.25, $14.25, and $15. Businesses with 25 or fewer workers will get an extra year to phase it in. Though a handful of other cities have voted for a $15 rate, including Seattle, Los Angeles is the biggest city to do so. The move doesn't become official until the city attorney's office drafts an ordinance and sends it back to council members for their approval, but once it does, it's going to affect a lot of people, notes the New York Times. The newspaper cites one study showing that about 40% of workers in the city make less than $15 an hour. The city's chamber of commerce predicts layoffs as a result. "It's simple math," says one official. "There is simply not enough room, enough margin in these businesses to absorb a 50-plus percent increase in labor costs over a short period of time." But one longtime McDonald's worker, a mother of two now making $9.05 an hour, tells the Guardian that the move is overdue. “My life would be completely different if I were paid $15 an hour," she says. "I could afford groceries without needing food stamps, my family could stop sharing our apartment with renters for extra money, and I’d be able to provide my daughters with some security.”

GOP Eyes Gains As Voters In 11 States Pick Governors Enlarge this image toggle caption Jim Cole/AP Jim Cole/AP Voters in 11 states will pick their governors tonight, and Republicans appear on track to increase their numbers by at least one, with the potential to extend their hold to more than two-thirds of the nation's top state offices. Eight of the gubernatorial seats up for grabs are now held by Democrats; three are in Republican hands. Republicans currently hold 29 governorships, Democrats have 20, and Rhode Island's Gov. Lincoln Chafee is an Independent. Polls and race analysts suggest that only three of tonight's contests are considered competitive, all in states where incumbent Democratic governors aren't running again: Montana, New Hampshire and Washington. While those state races remain too close to call, Republicans are expected to wrest the North Carolina governorship from Democratic control, and to easily win GOP-held seats in Utah, North Dakota and Indiana. Democrats are likely to hold on to their seats in West Virginia and Missouri, and are expected to notch safe wins in races for seats they hold in Vermont and Delaware. Holding Sway On Health Care While the occupant of the governor's office is historically far less important than the party that controls the state legislature, top state officials in coming years are expected to wield significant influence in at least one major area. And that's health care, says political scientist Thad Kousser, co-author of The Power of American Governors. "No matter who wins the presidency, national politics is going to be stalemated on the Affordable Care Act," says Kousser, of the University of California, San Diego. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision giving states the ability to opt out of the law's expansion of Medicaid, the federal insurance program for poor, disabled and elderly Americans, confers "incredible power" on the states and their governors, Kousser says. Just look at what happened when the Obama administration in 2010 offered federal stimulus money to states to begin building a high-speed rail network. Three Republican governors, including Rick Scott of Florida and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, rejected a share of the money citing debt and deficit concerns. "A [Mitt] Romney victory would dramatically empower Republican governors," Kousser says. State-By-State View North Carolina: One-term incumbent Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue, the first woman to hold the state's top office, announced in January that she would not seek re-election after polls showed her with high disapproval ratings and trailing Republican candidate Pat McCrory. The seat is expected to be won by McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor, who is facing Perdue's lieutenant governor, Walter Dalton. McCrory lost a close race to Perdue in 2008, when then-presidential candidate Barack Obama became the first Democrat to win North Carolina in more than three decades. The Real Clear Politics average for the race has McCrory maintaining a 14.3 percentage point lead. Montana: Popular Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer — he won his last election with 65 percent of the vote — has reached his two-term limit. The state's Democratic Attorney General Steve Bullock is trying to keep the seat in his party's column by associating himself with Schweitzer's legacy. He's in a tough race with former two-term GOP Rep. Rick Hill. New Hampshire: Former Democratic state Sen. Maggie Hassan has also promised a continuation of the policies of her predecessor, retiring Democratic Gov. John Lynch. Her opponent is lawyer Ovide Lamontagne, a Tea Party conservative who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1996 and for the U.S. Senate in 2010. The national parties have invested in the campaigns, which have focused on fiscal and women's health care issues. Washington: The state's governorship has been in Democratic hands for 32 years, and former U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee is in a dead-heat battle to keep it that way. His opponent is the state's Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna. McKenna has a proven ability to win statewide, but working in Inslee's favor are Obama's poll numbers. The Real Clear Politics average shows Obama with an average 13.6 percentage point lead over Romney; Inslee is leading McKenna by an average of 1 percentage point. Pretty Much Sure Things Republican Govs. Jack Dalrymple in North Dakota and Gary Herbert in Utah, and GOP Rep. Mike Pence in Indiana are expected to win. So are Democratic Govs. Peter Shumlin in Vermont and Jack Markell in Delaware. Democrats are also hoping to hold on to the governorship in Missouri, where Jay Nixon is running for a second term against Republican Dave Spence; and in West Virginia, where Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, former state senate president, is running for his first full term after winning a special election in 2011. GOP businessman Bill Maloney is his opponent, as he was last year. Nixon has been consistently outpolling Spence by an average of about 7 points in Missouri. Tomblin is seen as likely to retain his seat, even in a state where Romney is leading Obama by double digits. ||||| GOP Eyes Gains As Voters In 11 States Pick Governors Jim Cole / AP i Jim Cole / AP Voters in 11 states will pick their governors tonight, and Republicans appear on track to increase their numbers by at least one, and with the potential to extend their hold to more than two-thirds of the nation's top state offices. Eight of the gubernatorial seats up for grabs today are now held by Democrats; three are in Republican hands. Republicans currently hold 29 governorships, Democrats have 20; and Rhode Island's Gov. Lincoln Chafee is an Independent. Polls and race analysts suggest that only three of tonight's contests are considered competitive, all in states where incumbent Democratic governors aren't running again: Montana, New Hampshire and Washington. While those state races remain too close to call, Republicans are expected to wrest the North Carolina governorship from Democratic control, and to easily win GOP-held seats in Utah, North Dakota and Indiana. Democrats are likely hold on to their seats in West Virginia and Missouri; and expected to notch safe wins in races for seats they hold in Vermont and Delaware. Holding Sway On Health Care While the occupant of the governor's office is historically far less important than the party that controls the state legislature, top state officials in coming years are expected to wield significant influence in at least one major area. And that's health care, says political scientist Thad Kousser, co-author of The Power of American Governors. "No matter who wins the presidency, national politics is going to be stalemated on the Affordable Care Act," says Kousser, of the University of California-Berkeley. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision giving states the ability to opt out of the law's expansion of Medicaid, the federal insurance program for poor, disabled and elderly Americans, confers "incredible power" on the states and their governors, Kousser says. Just look at what happened when the Obama administration in 2010 offered federal stimulus money to states to begin building a high-speed rail network. Three Republican governors, including Rick Scott of Florida and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, rejected a share of the money citing debt and deficit concerns. "A [Mitt] Romney victory would dramatically empower Republican governors," Kousser says. State-by-State View North Carolina: One-term incumbent Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue, the first woman to hold the state's top office, announced in January she would not seek re-election after polls showed her with high disapproval ratings and trailing Republican candidate Pat McCrory. The seat is expected to be won by McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor, who is facing Perdue's lieutenant governor, Walter Dalton. McCrory lost a close race to Perdue in 2008, when then-presidential candidate Barack Obama became the first Democrat to win North Carolina in more than three decades. The Real Clear Politics average for the race has McCrory maintaining a 14.3 percentage point lead. Montana: Popular Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer — he won his last election with 65 percent of the vote — has reached his two-term limit. The state's Democratic Attorney General Steve Bullock is trying to keep the seat in his party's column by associating himself with Schweitzer's legacy. He's in a tough race with former two-term GOP Rep. Rick Hill. New Hampshire: Former Democratic state Sen. Maggie Hassan has also promised a continuation of the policies of her predecessor, retiring Democratic Gov. John Lynch. Her opponent is lawyer Ovide Lamontagne, a Tea Party conservative who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1996 and for the U.S. Senate in 2010. The national parties have invested in the campaigns, which have focused on fiscal and women's health care issues. Washington: The state's governorship has been in Democratic hands for 32 years, and former Rep. Jay Inslee is in a dead-heat battle to keep it that way. His opponent is the state's Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna. McKenna has a proven ability to win statewide, but working in Inslee's favor are Obama's poll numbers. The Real Clear Politics average shows Obama with an average 13.6 point lead over Romney; Inslee's leading McKenna by an average of 1 percentage point. Pretty Much Sure Things Republican governors Jack Dalrymple in North Dakota and Gary Herbert in Utah, and GOP Rep. Mike Pence in Indiana are expected to win. So are Democratic governors Peter Shumlin in Vermont and Jack Markell in Delaware. Democrats are also hoping to hold on to the governorship in Missouri, where Jay Nixon is running for a second term against Republican Dave Spence; and in West Virginia, where Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, former state senate president, is running for his first full term after willing a special election in 2011. GOP businessman Bill Maloney is his opponent, as he was last year. Nixon has been consistently out-polling Spence by an average of about 7 points in Missouri. Tomblin is seen as likely to retain his seat, even in a state where Romney is leading Obama by double digits.

– It's a race for the governor's mansion in 11 states today, and the GOP could end the night at the helm of more than two-thirds of the 50 states. The GOP currently controls 29 of the country's top state offices; it's expected to keep the three Republican ones that are up for grabs (Utah, North Dakota, and Indiana), and wrest North Carolina from the Dems. That brings its toll to 30, with the potential to take three more, reports NPR. Races in Montana, New Hampshire, and Washington are still too close to call, and in all three, Democrat incumbents aren't seeking reelection. The results could have a big impact on health care, since a Supreme Court ruling grants states the ability to opt out of ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion. "A Romney victory would dramatically empower Republican governors," said one analyst. Click for NPR's state-by-state breakdown of what could happen.

In this Nov. 14, 2018, photo, CNN's Jim Acosta walks into federal court in Washington, to attend a hearing on a legal challenge against President Donald Trump's administration. A judge is expected to... (Associated Press) In this Nov. 14, 2018, photo, CNN's Jim Acosta walks into federal court in Washington, to attend a hearing on a legal challenge against President Donald Trump's administration. A judge is expected to announce Friday whether he will order the Trump administration to return the White House press credentials... (Associated Press) In this Nov. 14, 2018, photo, CNN's Jim Acosta walks into federal court in Washington, to attend a hearing on a legal challenge against President Donald Trump's administration. A judge is expected to announce Friday whether he will order the Trump administration to return the White House press credentials... (Associated Press) In this Nov. 14, 2018, photo, CNN's Jim Acosta walks into federal court in Washington, to attend a hearing on a legal challenge against President Donald Trump's administration. A judge is expected to... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to immediately return the White House press credentials of CNN reporter Jim Acosta. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly, an appointee of President Donald Trump, announced his decision following a hearing in Washington. The judge said Acosta's credentials would be returned immediately and reactivated to allow him access to the White House. CNN had asked the judge to force the White House to immediately hand back the credentials that give Acosta, CNN's chief White House correspondent, access to the White House complex for press briefings and other events. CNN asked for Acosta's credentials restored while a lawsuit over his credentials' revocation goes forward. The judge granted CNN's request for a temporary restraining order. A lawsuit that CNN brought against the Trump administration over the issue is continuing. The White House revoked Acosta's credentials after he and Trump tangled during a press conference last week. The judge said the government could not say who initially decided to revoke Acosta's hard pass. The White House had spelled out its reasons for revoking his credentials in a tweet from White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and in a statement after CNN filed its lawsuit. But the judge said those "belated efforts were hardly sufficient to satisfy due process." The judge also found that Acosta suffered "irreparable harm," dismissing the government's argument that CNN could just send other reporters to cover the White House in Acosta's place. The judge told attorneys to file additional court papers in the case by Monday. Trump has made his dislike of CNN clear since before he took office and continuing into his presidency. He has described the network as "fake news" both on Twitter and in public comments. At last week's press conference, which followed the midterm elections, Trump was taking questions from reporters and called on Acosta, who asked about Trump's statements about a caravan of migrants making its way to the U.S.-Mexico border. After a terse exchange, Trump told Acosta, "That's enough," several times while calling on another reporter. Acosta attempted to ask another question about special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and initially declined to give up a hand-held microphone to a White House intern. Trump responded to Acosta by saying he wasn't concerned about the investigation, calling it a "hoax," and then criticized Acosta, calling him a "rude, terrible person." The White House pulled Acosta's credentials hours later. The White House's explanations for why it seized Acosta's credentials have shifted over the last week. Sanders initially explained the decision by accusing Acosta of making improper physical contact with the intern seeking to grab the microphone. But that rationale disappeared after witnesses backed Acosta's account that he was just trying to keep the microphone, and Sanders distributed a doctored video that made it appear Acosta was more aggressive than he actually was. On Tuesday, Sanders accused Acosta of being unprofessional by trying to dominate the questioning at the news conference. ||||| A federal judge on Friday ruled in favor of CNN and reporter Jim Acosta in a dispute with President Trump, ordering the White House to temporarily restore the press credentials that the administration had taken away from Acosta last week. In a victory for the cable network and for press access generally, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly granted CNN’s motion for a temporary restraining order that will prevent the administration from keeping Acosta off the White House grounds. The White House revoked the reporter’s press pass last week after a heated exchange between him and Trump and a brief altercation with a press aide at a news conference. Acosta, CNN’s chief White House correspondent, is the first reporter with a “hard pass” granting White House access to be banned. CNN sued Trump and other White House officials Tuesday over the revocation. Kelly’s ruling was the result of the first legal skirmish in that lawsuit. It has the immediate effect of sending Acosta back to the White House, pending further arguments and a possible trial. The litigation is in its early stages, and a trial could be months away. Hours after the judge’s decision, Acosta resumed his post at the White House. Kelly, whom Trump appointed to the federal bench last year, handed down his ruling two days after the network and government lawyers argued over whether the president had the power to revoke a reporter’s access. President Trump and CNN’s Jim Acosta square off at a Nov. 7 news conference. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) In explaining his decision, Kelly said he agreed with the government’s argument that there was no First Amendment right to come onto the White House grounds. But, he said, once the White House opened up the grounds to reporters, the First Amendment applied. Kellly’s ruling, however, primarily emphasized evidence indicating that the White House’s decision to boot Acosta had violated the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees due process in government actions. He said the White House’s decision-making was “so shrouded in mystery that the government could not tell me . . . who made the decision.” The White House’s later written arguments for banning Acosta were belated and were not sufficient to satisfy due process, Kelly said. “We are gratified with this result and we look forward to a full resolution in the coming days,” CNN said in a statement. “Our sincere thanks to all who have supported not just CNN, but a free, strong and independent American press.” Acosta added: “I just want to thank all my colleagues in the press who supported me this week. I want to thank the judge [for this ruling]. And let’s go back to work.” In comments made in the Oval Office afterward, Trump said the White House would write rules to satisfy the court’s due-process concerns. He also suggested his administration would keep up the legal fight with CNN. “We will end up back in court, and we will win,” he said. “We want total freedom of the press,” Trump said. “. . . But you have to act with respect when you’re at the White House, and when I see the way some of my people get treated at news conferences, it’s terrible. So we’re setting up a certain standard, which is what the court is requesting.” He added, “We always have the option of leaving, . . . and the other media and press in the room won’t be happy.” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement after the ruling that “the court made clear that there is no absolute First Amendment right to access the White House,” although the judge actually said reporters have such rights once admitted. Sanders announced Acosta’s “indefinite” suspension last week after the confrontation at the news conference. Trump and Sanders have had several run-ins with Acosta, stretching back to before Trump became president. Acosta watched Friday’s proceedings from the courtroom in Washington, joined by a team of attorneys who included Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general in George W. Bush’s administration, and Theodore Boutrous, a star litigator and media-law specialist. CNN had argued that the ban on Acosta violated his First Amendment rights because it amounted to “viewpoint discrimination” — that is, the president was punishing the reporter for statements and coverage he did not like. The network has also said the action violated Acosta’s Fifth Amendment rights because his exclusion followed no written guidelines or rules and had no appeal or review procedures. CNN had requested “emergency” relief from the judge, arguing that Acosta’s rights were being violated with each passing hour. Until the White House’s action last week, no reporter credentialed to cover the president had ever had a press pass revoked. A government attorney, James Burnham, argued in a hearing before Kelly on Wednesday that the president was within his rights to ban any reporter from the White House at any time, just as he excludes reporters from interviews in the Oval Office. He said Acosta could report on the president “just as effectively” by watching the president on TV or by calling people within the White House. Burnham also said CNN would not be injured by Acosta’s exclusion, since CNN has dozens of other journalists credentialed for the White House. Burnham said Trump’s rationale for Acosta’s ban was his “rudeness” at last week’s news conference, in effect arguing that Acosta’s conduct, not his right to free speech, was the relevant issue. The assertions drew a rebuttal from Boutrous, CNN’s attorney, who described the ban on the reporter as arbitrary, capricious and unprecedented. He said that White House reporters need access to the premises to meet with officials and to report on un­televised “gaggles,” impromptu discussions with press aides and other officials, and that banning reporters from the grounds harms their ability to do their jobs. Media organizations have been alarmed by the White House’s treatment of Acosta, saying that revoking his “hard pass” to enter the White House is a threat to other journalists who might be similarly banned. Trump has suggested other reporters could face a similar fate if they displease him in some unspecified way. Thirteen news organizations, including The Washington Post and Fox News, jointly filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting CNN’s position. The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents journalists in their negotiations over access to the president, filed a brief Thursday that urged the court “to roundly reject the president’s dangerous legal position.” It disputed the government’s claim that the president has “absolute, unbridled discretion to decide who can report from inside the White House.” During the presidential campaign in 2015 and 2016, Trump banned more than a dozen news organizations from his rallies and public events, including The Post. He said he would not do something similar as president. Last week, he went back on that statement. Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign has used the CNN lawsuit to drum up contributions, portraying the suit as evidence of “liberal bias” — an assertion Boutrous brought up Wednesday in asserting that Trump had political reasons for banning Acosta. “CNN is SUING President Trump, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Secret Service agent, and other White House officials,” the fundraising email says. “ . . . All because they REVOKED Jim Acosta’s press badge after his continuous grandstanding and inappropriate refusal to yield to other reporters. “President Trump will NOT put up with the media’s liberal bias and utter disrespect for this Administration and the hardworking Americans who stand with us.”

– Score one for CNN over the White House. A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to immediately return the White House press credentials of reporter Jim Acosta, per the AP. US District Court Judge Timothy Kelly, an appointee of President Trump, announced his decision following a hearing in Washington. CNN had asked for Acosta's credentials restored while a lawsuit over his credentials' revocation goes forward. “I just want to thank all my colleagues in the press who supported me this week," said Acosta, per the Washington Post. "I want to thank the judge [for this ruling]. And let’s go back to work.” The White House revoked Acosta's credentials after he and Trump tangled during a press conference last week. The judge said the government could not say who initially decided to revoke Acosta's hard pass. The White House had spelled out its reasons for revoking his credentials in a tweet from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, who accused Acosta of "placing his hands" on a female intern trying to take away his microphone. But the judge said those "belated efforts were hardly sufficient to satisfy due process." The judge also found that Acosta suffered "irreparable harm," dismissing the government's argument that CNN could just send other reporters to cover the White House in Acosta's place. (Video of the dispute was controversial, too.)

ATHENS (Reuters) - Political leaders in Greece have agreed on most of the austerity measures demanded by its creditors and are now eyeing pension and wage cuts to find the final 1.5 billion euros of savings still needed, a source close to the talks said on Sunday. Greece must find savings worth 11.5 billion euros for 2013 and 2014 to satisfy its increasingly impatient lenders, who are currently visiting Athens to evaluate the country's progress in complying with the terms of its latest bailout. A finance ministry source said the lenders, who were due to leave Athens at the end of July, would now stay until the savings plan was nailed down. "We want to help and we will stay as long as it takes and until the plan is finalized," IMF mission chief Poul Thomsen has told the Greek finance minister, according to a Greek official. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's government last week managed to draw up a list of measures to achieve those savings, but the three parties in his conservative-led administration failed to agree on them, and are due to resume talks on Monday. "The political leaders don't disagree on anything, there are just alternative proposals being discussed to protect those with low pensions or incomes in the public sector," said the source, who is involved in the talks. "We need measures worth 1.5 billion euros to finalize the 11.5 billion euro package." Near-bankrupt Greece is fighting an increasingly desperate battle to convince skeptical European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders it has turned over a new leaf and is ready to push through long-delayed reforms to overhaul its recession-hit economy. But the lenders have so far appeared far from convinced, and officials have told Reuters Greece is likely to require a new debt restructuring that the euro zone - faced with market turmoil in Italy and Spain as well - can ill afford. Greek media have reported that the country's leaders are discussing possible layoffs of contractors in the public sector, a cap on pensions, cuts in welfare benefits, reductions in tax exemptions, and lower salaries for public employees as well as raising the retirement age by a year to make up the shortfall in savings. PRESSURE ON CASH RESERVES A decision on a new tranche of aid for Greece is not expected until September, and the country's already dire financial position appears to be getting increasingly precarious. "The fact that we have not received the agreed aid installments has put pressure on our cash reserves. Until then, we are taking extra care in managing our cash," Deputy Finance Minister Christos Staikouras told Real News weekly. The troika of EU, European Central Bank and IMF lenders, whose departure date is now uncertain, is due to return in September to complete its assessment of whether Greece deserves more aid. A fifth year of recession, record unemployment, and repeated waves of austerity cuts have fuelled growing anger towards the troika and the austerity medicine it has insisted on. Summing up the dark public mood, the GSEE union lambasted the troika after talks with it on Friday for heaping misery on Greeks. "We agreed on one thing - that we disagree on everything," GSEE leader Yannis Panagopoulos said in a statement. "The troika men came to Greece as doctors and prescribed the medicine that would save the Greek economy and people, but in the end they proved to be charlatans." (Writing by Deepa Babington; Editing by Tim Pearce) ||||| Germany's finance minister says he can't see room for further concessions to Greece and is insisting anew that the country must implement far-reaching reforms and cut its budget deficit. International debt inspectors are scrutinizing Greece's finances and its progress in implementing budget cuts and reforms demanded in exchange for its rescue loan program. Greek officials have called for more time to implement the measures, but patience among creditors is running extremely short. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted Sunday as telling the Welt am Sonntag newspaper: "The aid program is already very accommodating. I cannot see that there is still scope for further concessions." If the inspectors' report, expected in September, is damning, Athens could stop receiving rescue loans and face a disorderly bankruptcy and exit from the euro.

– Greece blinked today: In a showdown with creditors, the crisis-wracked country agreed to find the final $1.85 billion needed to reach the $14.2 billion in cuts required to get desperately needed aid money in September, reports Reuters. Greece had been asking for more time, but fed-up German and EU donors in turn threatened to pull the plug on the whole bailout. Instead, Greece will further cut pensions and wages. Germany's finance minister reiterated today that Greece was out of wriggle room, reports the AP. "The aid program is already very accommodating. I cannot see that there is still scope for further concessions," he said. But Greek unions and labor groups continue to buck hard against the austerity program. "We agreed on one thing—that we disagree on everything," said the head of Greece's leading union umbrella organization, calling the newly elected government "charlatans."

Four of the five people shot to death in the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, including the al-Qaida leader himself, were unarmed and never fired a shot, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday — an account that differs markedly from the Obama administration's original claims that the Navy SEALs came under heavy small-arms fire in a prolonged firefight. According to the officials' account, as the first SEAL team moved into the compound, they took small-arms fire from the guest house in the compound. The SEALs returned fire, killing bin Laden's courier and the courier's wife, who died in the crossfire. It was the only time the SEALs were shot at. The second SEAL team entered the first floor of the main residence and could see a man standing in the dark with one hand behind his back. Fearing he was hiding a weapon, the SEALs shot and killed the lone man, who turned out to be unarmed. As the U.S. commandos moved through the house, they found several stashes of weapons and barricades, as if the residents were prepared for a violent and lengthy standoff — which never materialized. The SEALs then made their way up a staircase, where they ran into one of bin Laden's sons. The Americans immediately shot and killed the 19-year-old son, who was also unarmed, according to the officials. Hearing the shots, bin Laden peered over the railing from the floor above. The SEALs fired but missed bin Laden, who ducked back into his bedroom. As the SEALs stormed up the stairs, two young girls ran from the room. One SEAL scooped them up and carried them out of harm's way. The other two commandos stormed into bin Laden's bedroom. One of bin Laden's wives rushed toward the Navy SEAL, who shot her in the leg. Then, without hesitation, the same commando turned his gun on bin Laden, standing in what appeared to be pajamas, and fired two quick shots, one to the chest and one to the head. Although there were weapons in that bedroom, bin Laden was also unarmed when he was shot. Instead of a chaotic firefight, the U.S. officials said, the American commando assault was a precision operation, with SEALs moving carefully through the compound, room to room, floor to floor. In fact, most of the operation was spent in what the military calls “exploiting the site,” gathering up the computers, hard drives, cellphones and files that could provide valuable intelligence on al-Qaida operatives and potential operations worldwide. The U.S. officials describing the operation said the SEALs carefully gathered up 22 women and children to ensure they were not harmed. Some of the women were put in “flexi-cuffs” the plastic straps used to bind someone’s hands at the wrists, and left them for Pakistani security forces to discover. But despite the fact that only one of those killed was armed, everyone was considered a serious threat, the U.S. officials said. Accounts of the operation had varied widely in the first few days after it was completed. White House officials initially suggested bin Laden had been holding a gun and perhaps firing at U.S. forces. There was a report that he used his wife as a human shield. The Associated Press quoted U.S. officials on Tuesday as saying that the SEALs shot him after they saw him appear to lunge for a weapon. CIA Director Leon Panetta told "PBS NewsHour" that bin Laden "made some threatening moves" that "represented a clear threat to our guys" but was not more specific about what the he did. ||||| President Barack Obama ordered grisly photographs of Osama bin Laden in death sealed from public view on Wednesday, declaring, "We don't need to spike the football" in triumph after this week's daring middle-of-the-night raid. The terrorist leader was killed by American commandos who burst into his room and feared he was reaching for a nearby weapon, U.S. officials said. Pakistani security officers stand guard near the perimeter of the compound of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 4, 2011. Many of the residents of Abbottabad seem... (Associated Press) White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tells reporters that President Barack Obama will not release photos of Osama bin Laden's body, Wednesday, May 4, 2011, during the daily briefing at the White House... (Associated Press) The National September 11 Memorial and Museum is under construction, lower right, Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at the World Trade Center site in New York. President Barack Obama will meet at the memorial Thursday... (Associated Press) Local residents walk past the compound of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 4, 2011. The residents of Abbottabad seem to be confused and suspicious about the killing... (Associated Press) Several weapons were found in the room where the terror chief died, including AK-47 assault rifles and side arms, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they offered the most recent in a series of increasingly detailed and sometimes-shifting accounts of bin Laden's final minutes after a decade on the run. Obama said releasing the photographs taken by the Navy SEAL raiders was "not who we are" as a country. Though some may deny his death, "the fact of the matter is you will not see bin Laden walking this earth again," the president said in an interview taped for CBS' "60 Minutes." He said any release of the photos could become a propaganda tool for bin Laden's adherents eager to incite violence. White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president's decision applied to photographs of bin Laden, said to show a portion of his skull blown away from a gunshot wound to the area of his left eye, as well as to a video recording of his burial several hours later in the North Arabian Sea. The president made no public remarks during the day about the raid, apart from the taped interview. But he arranged a visit for Thursday to ground zero in Manhattan, where the World Trade Center twin towers once stood. After two days of shifting accounts of the dramatic raid, Carney said he would no longer provide details of the 40-minute operation by the team of elite Navy SEALs. That left unresolved numerous mysteries, prominent among them an exact accounting of bin Laden's demise. Officials have said he was unarmed but resisted when an unknown number of commandos burst into his room inside the high-security compound. The officials who gave the latest details said a U.S. commando grabbed a woman who charged toward the SEALs inside the room. They said the raiders were concerned that she might be wearing a suicide vest. Administration officials have said bin Laden's body was identified by several means, including a DNA test. Members of Congress who received a briefing during the day said a sample from the body killed at the compound in Pakistan was compared to known DNA from bin Laden's mother and three sons. After two days of speculation about releasing the photographs, there was no detectable public debate in the U.S. about the merits of the raid itself against the man behind the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress the operation was "entirely lawful and consistent with our values" and justified as "an action of national self-defense." Noting that bin Laden had admitted his involvement in the events of nearly a decade ago, he said, "It's lawful to target an enemy commander in the field." Holder also said the team that carried out the raid had been trained to take bin Laden alive if he was willing to surrender. "It was a kill-or-capture mission," he said. "He made no attempt to surrender." Bin Laden had evaded capture for nearly a decade, and officials said he had currency as well as two telephone numbers sewn into his clothing when he was killed, suggesting he was prepared to leave his surroundings on a moment's notice if he sensed danger. Administration officials said the two dozen SEALs involved in the operation were back at their home base outside Virginia Beach, Va., and the extensive debriefing they underwent was complete. Saluted as heroes nationwide, they remained publicly unidentified because of security concerns. In addition to bin Laden's body, the SEALs helicoptered out of the compound with computer files, flash drives, DVDs and documents that intelligence officials have begun analyzing in hopes the information will help them degrade or destroy the network bin Laden left behind. In New York on Thursday, Carney said, Obama will lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site and hold a private meeting with relatives of some of the victims of the attacks, in which jetliners hijacked by terrorists were flown into the side of first one tower, then the other. The buildings collapsed within minutes, dooming office workers as well as rescuers who had run in hoping to save them. A few days later, then-President George W. Bush stood amid the rubble and spoke through a bullhorn. When one worker yelled, "I can't hear you," the president responded, "I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people _ and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!" A decade _ and long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan later _ Obama said he had no intention of gloating. Obama's decision not to release any photographs was unlikely to be the final word, though. Some members of Congress have been shown at least one photo of bin Laden, and others have asked to see it, an indication of the intense interest generated by the raid. The Associated Press on Monday requested through the Freedom of Information Act photos of bin Laden's body as well as other materials, including video taken by military personnel during the raid and on the USS Carl Vinson, the ship that conducted bin Laden's burial at sea. The government has 20 days to respond. Some family members of those who died in the 9/11attacks have pressed to have the photographs released to document bin Laden's death, as have some skeptics in the Arab world. But many lawmakers and others expressed concern that the photographic images could be seen as a "trophy" that would inflame U.S. critics and make it harder for members of the American military deployed overseas to do their jobs. Obama said he had discussed his decision with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates "and my intelligence teams, and they all agree." Despite fears of revenge attacks, officials have yet to raise the national threat level. The disclosure that bin Laden was living in relative comfort inside Pakistan in Abbottabad has provoked some administration officials and lawmakers to question the Pakistani government's commitment to the decade-long search for the terrorist leader. Publicly, Pakistan issued a statement on Monday taking the U.S. to task for an "unauthorized unilateral action" that "cannot be taken as a rule." But privately, according to one official, Pakistani Army chief Ashfaq Kayani offered congratulations when Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called to inform him after the operation, and urged a public release of the news. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the conversation. The White House also announced Obama would visit Fort Campbell, Ky., on Friday to greet troops returning from Afghanistan, which the United States attacked in 2001 after its leaders refused to turn over members of the al-Qaida leadership living there. ___ Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo, Nedra Pickler, Nancy Benac, Jim Kuhnhenn, Julie Pace, Donna Cassata and Alan Fram contributed to this report. ||||| This account differs from an official version of events issued by the Pentagon on Tuesday, and read by the White House spokesman, Jay Carney , which said the Seal members “were engaged in a firefight throughout the operation.” In a television interview on PBS on Tuesday, Leon E. Panetta , the director of the C.I.A. , said, “There were some firefights that were going on as these guys were making their way up the staircase of that compound.” Photo Administration officials said the official account of events has changed over the course of the week because it has taken time to get thorough after-action reports from the Seal team. And, they added, because the Special Operations troops had been fired upon as soon as they touched down in the compound, they were under the assumption that everyone inside was armed. “They were in a threatening and hostile environment the entire time,” one American official said. When the commandos moved into the main house, they saw the courier’s brother, who they believed was preparing to fire a weapon. They shot and killed him. Then, as they made their way up the stairs of the house, officials said they killed Bin Laden’s son Khalid as he lunged toward the Seal team. When the commandos reached the top floor, they entered a room and saw Osama bin Laden with an AK-47 and a Makarov pistol in arm’s reach. They shot and killed him, as well as wounding a woman with him. The firefight over and Bin Laden dead, the team found a trove of information and had the time to remove much of it: about 100 thumb drives, DVDs and computer disks, along with 10 computer hard drives and 5 computers. There were also piles of paper documents in the house. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. The White House declined to release any additional details about the operation, saying that further information would jeopardize the military’s ability to conduct clandestine operations in the future. The administration’s reticence came after it was forced on Tuesday to correct parts of its initial account of the raid, including assertions that Bin Laden had used his wife as a “human shield.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story “We’ve revealed a lot of information; we’ve been as forthcoming with facts as we can be,” Mr. Carney said. Mr. Carney said the president expressed doubts early on about releasing the photos, but consulted his senior advisers. All of them, Mr. Carney said, voiced concerns about the risks. Based on its monitoring of worldwide reaction to the announcement of Bin Laden’s death, Mr. Carney said, the administration also concluded that most people viewed the reports of his death as credible and that publicizing photos would do little to sway those who believed it was a hoax. Video Mr. Obama was direct in an interview with the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” to be broadcast Sunday, according to a transcript released by the network. “It is very important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence — as a propaganda tool.” “That’s not who we are,” Mr. Obama added. “You know, we don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.” He said, “We don’t need to spike the football.” “Certainly there’s no doubt among Al Qaeda members that he is dead,” he said on “60 Minutes.” “And so we don’t think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference. There are going to be some folks who deny it. The fact of the matter is, you will not see Bin Laden walking on this earth again.” The deliberations were reminiscent of Mr. Obama’s decision in May 2009 to fight the release of photos documenting the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan by American military personnel. The administration said originally that it would not oppose releasing the pictures, but the president decided he would fight making them public after his military commanders warned that the images could provoke a reaction against troops in those countries. The White House said Mr. Obama would take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the site of the Sept. 11 memorial in Lower Manhattan on Thursday. He is also to meet with relatives of the victims of the terrorist attacks, but he will not make a speech. The next day, he is to travel to Fort Campbell in Kentucky to speak to troops returning from Afghanistan. Seeking to quell any legal questions about the raid, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said, “It was justified as an act of national self-defense,” citing Bin Laden’s role as the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. There were divided opinions on Capitol Hill about the photographs, with some lawmakers saying the United States needed to show proof that Bin Laden was dead, while others worried about the possibility of blowback against American troops. Advertisement Continue reading the main story

– There was fire, but no real firefight. That's the latest revision in the White House's version of events during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. The fire came from some 20 Navy Seals who shot dead bin Laden and three other men and a woman, only one of whom was armed, officials say now. Bin Laden's courier, Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, fired on the Seals as they launched the raid. After he and his wife were shot dead, the Americans weren't fired on again, reports AP. The others were killed because US forces believed they all posed a "serious threat," said a federal source. Initially, White House officials said the special forces came under heavy, prolonged small-arms fire as they moved into bin Laden's hideout. Instead of chaos amidst a hail of gunfire, the team moved methodically from room to room in what the New York Times characterizes as a "one-sided" 40-minute operation, confronting bin Laden aides and gathering some 22 children and women, some of whom were placed in plastic handcuffs. The US forces ended up in bin Laden's bedroom, shooting his wife in the leg and the apparently pajama-clad al-Qaeda leader in the head and chest, reports MSNBC. Bin Laden was shot as he appeared to be reaching for a nearby weapon, said a spokesman. CIA Chief Leon Panetta had reported that the men were "engaged in a firefight throughout the operation." White House officials said all details of the raid were not initially clear. "They were in a threatening and hostile environment the entire time," one official told the Times.

A 24-year-old woman is under house arrest in Plano after trying to transport three high-tech night vision scopes to Russia without a license. Anna Fermanova Anna Fermanova Acting on a tip, federal officials searched the luggage of Anna Fermanova at New York’s JFK International Airport on March 1 and found a Raptor night vision weapons sight and two advanced rifle sights stuffed in a pair of UGG boots. Officials confiscated the scopes and allowed Fermanova to continue on a flight to Moscow, where she lives with her husband. The scopes are among items on the U.S. Munitions List that require a license from the Department of State before they can be exported. Fermanova was arrested earlier this month when she returned to the United States to visit family. She is under house arrest at her parents’ home in Plano until her case can be heard in New York. National media have dubbed Fermanova “America’s newest sexy Russian spy,” playing off the news of the arrest last month of Anna Chapman and nine others on suspicion of working for a Russian spy ring. “She is quite sexy, you could say, but she is not a spy,” said Fermanova’s Addison-based attorney, Scott Palmer. And though she was born in Latvia, Fermanova is a U.S. citizen, Palmer said. Palmer said she bought the scopes legally online. He said they were for her husband, who wanted them for a friend who is a hunter. ||||| The 24 year-old, who lives near Dallas, was apprehended after attempting to take state-of-the-art night-vision scopes and other restricted items to Russia . The items were confiscated when she attempted to board a flight to Moscow earlier this year. She was arrested when returning to America this month. The case is being compared to that of Anna Chapman , a suspected Russian spy who was arrested in New York and then returned to Russia under a "spy swap exchange" earlier this month. There is no evidence that the two women knew one another. It has been reported that Miss Fermanova was arrested on July 15th for "knowingly and intentionally" attempting to export "defense articles on the United States Munitions list." The night-vision goggles and scopes cannot be exported without approval from the US State Department, as they are considered to be sophisticated military weapons. Among the items she was caught with were a Raptor 4X Night Vision Weapons Sight, which she had bought online. A customs agent claimed that the sight's ID numbers "had been covered with black marker pens". Miss Fermanova is under house arrest and has had her passport confiscated. She is expected to attend court in New York later this month where she faces up to 10 years in prison. Scott Palmer, the woman's lawyer, said that the charges were "false allegations" and "too sensitive to be discussed." It was reported that Ms Fermanova's husband intended to resell the night-vision scopes to hunters. Miss Fermanova is thought to split her time between Moscow and Dallas, Texas. She teaches English in the Russian capital. According to her Facebook page, she is a 2005 graduate of the Ogle School of Hair Skin and Nails. She holds a cosmetologist licence in Texas. She came to America as a child with her parents from Latvia. There is growing concern in America over the actions of apparently "cold-war style" spies, several of whom were caught last month living apparently ordinary lives in suburban America. Earlier this month, 10 suspected spies including Chapman, pleaded guilty to federal charges and were deported as part of Cold War-style spy exchange. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, signed a decree pardoning four Russians convicted of spying for the US.

– A beautician who splits her time between Russia and Texas has emerged as America's latest sexy spy since she was busted for trying to smuggle high-tech night vision scopes to Moscow, according to the FBI. Federal officials acting on a tip confiscated the scopes from Anna Fermanova, 24, at New York's JFK Airport earlier this year. She was arrested this month when trying to return to the US, and is being held under house arrest, the Telegraph reports. Fermanova, a Latvian-born US citizen, has been charged with "knowingly and intentionally" trying to export the items without the necessary State Department approval, and faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted. Her lawyer calls the charges "silly," and says the scopes were for her husband, who planned to sell them to hunters. "She is quite sexy, you could say, but she is not a spy," he tells the Dallas Morning News. Fermanova was arrested just two weeks after femme fatale Anna Chapman was sent back to Russia after the feds busted up her spy ring.

A member of the St. Louis County Police Department points his weapon in the direction of a group of protesters in Ferguson, Mo. in August. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) The Pentagon program that sends excess military equipment to police across the country has been under scrutiny since August, when civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo., came to a head and the tactics of police there came under fire by civil rights advocates. But the controversy appears to have prompted change: after years of declining to do so, the Defense Department has released a detailed breakdown of what it has supplied to police departments. The results range from the mundane (battery chargers), to the powerful (armored mine-resistant vehicles), to the surprising (trumpets?). It also includes everything from helicopters to robots designed to help bomb squads. The Pentagon’s Excess Property Program, sometimes known as the 1033 Program, has supplied police departments across the country with more than $4.3 billion in gear since 1997, including $449 million in 2013, Pentagon officials said. The data was quietly posted on a Freedom of Information Act reading room for the Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency on Nov. 21, as the Marshall Project noted today. It’s a significant change in policy: The Defense Department has repeatedly rejected FOIA requests for a full accounting of the 1033 program’s recipients. The spreadsheets, captured here for Checkpoint, highlight the sheer volume of equipment the Pentagon is giving away — and that many of the departments receiving it are not big-city departments, but small police forces. There are hundreds of organizations that have received armored mine-resistant vehicles, for example. Designed to protect combat troops from gunfire, rockets and roadside bombs, they have been sent to police departments who are ostensibly concerned about terrorism. Recipients include: The Val Verde Sheriff Office in Del Rio, Texas, which protects a rural county of about 50,000 people near the Mexico border. The Washington Police Department in Iowa, which has 10 sworn officers in a town of about 7,000. The Rehoboth Police Department in Massachusetts, which serves a town of about 10,000 along the Rhode Island border. The Saddleback College Police in California, which work at a community college. Perhaps predictably, among the most common items issued were rifles, both in 5.56mm and 7.62mm caliber. They were supplied to departments large and small in a variety of quantities. Police in Long Beach, Calif., for example, have received 200 5.56mm rifles. On the unexpected side: the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department in southern California received 500 pairs of snowshoes, the Clayton Township Police Department in Michigan and the North Kingsville Police Department in Ohio each received a French horn, and more than 372 televisions were supplied to police across the country, designated “for personal/home use.” In Cherokee County, Ala., the sheriff’s department also received 15,000 metal fence posts. Total value: more than $127,000. Previously on Checkpoint: Pentagon defends program supplying military gear to Ferguson police Military gear beyond Ferguson: A look at how the Pentagon’s equipment has spread Military veterans see deeply flawed police response in Ferguson Video: Breaking down the military gear used by Ferguson police Steven Rich contributed to this report. ||||| The gear was listed in data recently released by the department detailing the transfer of surplus military equipment to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the country. More than $160 million in equipment has gone to agencies in California, with some small towns like Santa Maria receiving grenade launchers, the data show. The vast majority of the equipment was given since 2006.

– Just what Los Angeles County police need: 500 snowshoes and 1,600 parkas. Need aside, that's what they were handed by the Defense Department in March, according to a breakdown of $4.3 billion in surplus military supplies sent to police departments across the country since 1997. Think that's bizarre? Some other strange deliveries, per the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post: 86 M14 rifles to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife; grenade launchers to small California communities; French horns for Ohio's North Kingsville Police Department and Michigan's Clayton Township Police Department; a $4.4 million boat to Alameda County police; and 372 TVs, designated "for personal/home use."

East Texas county tells residents 'GET OUT OR DIE!' Emergency Management officials in Tyler County in East Texas posted a harrowing Facebook message Wednesday evening warning residents of imminent and deadly flooding. "The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has advised the Tyler County office of Emergency Management that the flood gates were opened to 100 feet at 3:00 pm CSDST," wrote Tyler County Judge Jacques Blanchette. "River levels will rise to near seventy nine feet. With additional rain fall accumulations, a potential elevation could reach near eighty two feet." The alarming message said residents near the area must evacuate immediately. STORM DEATHS: Death toll from Harvey flooding exceeds 30 "Anyone who chooses to not heed this directive cannot expect to be rescued and should write their social security numbers in permanent marker on their arm so their bodies can be identified," wrote Blanchette. "The loss of life and property is certain." The emergency advisory ended with the words "GET OUT OR DIE!" along with a phone number for anyone needing boat assistance or rescue. Tropical Storm Harvey made a second landfall in Louisiana early Wednesday. Along the way, it has dumped rain on east Texas communities, including Tyler County. AFTER HARVEY: How to help victims of the Texas storm According to the National Weather Service, communities in Southeast Texas received between 8-15 inches of rainfall as Harvey slowly made its way to Louisiana. In Harris County, an average of 27 inches fell on the region between Friday and Monday, with some spots receives a record 50 inches. See photos of the destruction and flooding caused by Harvey above. ||||| Evacuees escaping the floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center that has been set up as a shelter in Houston, Texas, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. (AP Photo/LM Otero) (Associated Press) HOUSTON (AP) — Major dangers for the U.S. Gulf Coast area loomed after an explosion at a Texas chemical plant early Thursday and the threat of major flooding further east near the Texas-Louisiana line as Harvey's floodwaters began receding in the Houston area after five days of torrential rain. Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, struggled with rising water as the area was pounded with what remained of the weakening storm, while Houston's fire department said it would begin a block-by-block search Thursday of thousands of flooded homes. Assistant Fire Chief Richard Mann said the searches were to ensure "no people were left behind." The confirmed death toll climbed to at least 31, including six family members — four of them children — whose bodies were pulled Wednesday from a van that had been swept off a Houston bridge into a bayou. "Unfortunately, it seems that our worst thoughts are being realized," Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said after the van that disappeared over the weekend was found in 10 feet of muddy water. The Houston-area chemical plant that lost power after Harvey engulfed the area in extensive floods was rocked by two explosions early Thursday, the plant's operator said. The Arkema Inc. plant had been left without refrigeration for chemicals that become volatile as the temperature rises. The Harris County Sheriff's Office said in a tweet that a deputy was taken to the hospital after inhaling fumes. Nine other deputies drove themselves to the hospital as a precaution. The company shut down the Crosby site before Harvey made landfall last week, but a crew of 11 had stayed behind. That group was removed and residents living within a 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) radius were told to evacuate Tuesday after the plant lost power. Another threat was emerging east of Houston where weather conditions deteriorated close to the Louisiana line. Beaumont and Port Arthur worked to evacuate residents after Harvey completed a U-turn in the Gulf of Mexico and rolled ashore early Wednesday for the second time in six days. It hit southwestern Louisiana as a tropical storm with heavy rain and winds of 45 mph. When Harvey paid its return visit to land, it hit near Cameron, Louisiana, about 45 miles from Port Arthur. Port Arthur found itself increasingly isolated as floodwaters swamped most major roads out of the city. More than 500 people — along with dozens of dogs, cats, a lizard and a monkey — took shelter at the Max Bowl bowling alley in the city, said the establishment's general manager, Jeff Tolliver. "The monkey was a little surprising, but we're trying to help," he said. Floodwaters also toppled two oil storage tanks in South Texas, spilling almost 30,000 gallons of crude. It was not immediately clear if any of the spilled oil was recovered. More damage to the oil industry infrastructure is expected to emerge as floodwaters recede. Forecasters downgraded Harvey to a tropical depression late Wednesday from a tropical storm but it still has lots of rain and potential damage to spread, with 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) forecast from the Louisiana-Texas line into Tennessee and Kentucky through Friday. Some spots may get as much as a foot, raising the risk of more flooding. For much of the Houston area, forecasters said the rain is pretty much over. "We have good news," said Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District. "The water levels are going down." Houston's two major airports were up and running again Wednesday. Officials said they were resuming limited bus and light rail service as well as trash pickup. At Hermann Park, south of downtown, children glided by in strollers and wagons, joggers took in midday runs and couples walked beside cascading fountains and beneath a sparkling sun. People pulled into drive-thru restaurants and emerged from a store with groceries. At the same time, many thousands of Houston-area homes are under water and could stay that way for days or weeks. And Lindner cautioned that homes near at least one swollen bayou could still get flooded. Officials said 911 centers in the Houston area are getting more than 1,000 calls an hour from people seeking help. Altogether, more than 1,000 homes in Texas were destroyed and close to 50,000 damaged, and over 32,000 people were in shelters across the state, emergency officials reported. About 10,000 more National Guard troops are being deployed to Texas, bringing the total to 24,000, Gov. Greg Abbott said. In Orange, Texas, about 30 miles east of Beaumont, residents of a retirement home surrounded by thigh-deep water were rescued by National Guardsmen and wildlife officers, who carried them from the second floor and put them aboard an airboat. Harvey initially came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane in Texas on Friday, then went back out to sea and lingered off the coast as a tropical storm for days, inundating flood-prone Houston. Harvey's five straight days of rain totaled close to 52 inches, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S. ___ Associated Press writers Frank Bajak, Matt Sedensky and Michael Graczyk in Houston; Diana Heidgerd and David Warren in Dallas; Seth Borenstein in Washington; Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas; and Tammy Webber in Chicago contributed to this report. ___ Sign up for AP's daily newsletter showcasing our best all-formats reporting on Harvey and its aftermath: http://apne.ws/ahYQGtb . ||||| As Tropical Storm Harvey continues to deluge homes and sweep vehicles off roads in Texas and Louisiana, at least 38 deaths have been reported. Officials in affected counties are starting to learn the victims’ identities and piece together the circumstances around their deaths. Here are details on some of those who died. This article will be updated. Image Andrew Pasek Andrew Pasek, 25, was always bringing home stray animals. There was Mali the puppy, his mother recalled, a tabby he called Blu and a Tibetan spaniel named Coco. So it surprised no one that on Tuesday, Andrew set out to retrieve his sister Alyssa’s cat, D’Artagnan, who had been left behind as the floodwaters rose in Houston. Andrew drove to the home with his childhood friend, Sean Stuart, and they began wading through several feet of water toward his sister’s two-story house. Suddenly, the two felt the jolt of an electrical current in the water, said Andrew’s mother, JoDell Pasek. “Years ago, Andrew had had an accident and broken his ankle severely, and he had plates and pins in his ankle,” she said. “All of that electricity started going to everything in his ankle and he started jumping around.” Andrew fell into a mailbox on a metal post. “He told Sean, ‘Get away from me, I’m dying,’” Ms. Pasek said, through tears. “He knew immediately that if Sean touched him, he would be electrocuted too.” Officials in Harris County attributed his death to accidental electrocution, the ninth confirmed storm death in the county. Sean’s mother called Ms. Pasek to tell her what had happened. “I get that phone call, my son is no longer alive,” she said. “I just started screaming. We’ve been friends since the kids were in kindergarten, so I know it was the hardest thing she had to do.” Gathered at home in Houston, Andrew’s family was left wondering if they could have stopped him from trying to rescue D’Artagnan. “We’ve all decided that no matter what we would have said, he would have gone anyway,” Ms. Pasek said. “That was just his nature.” Donald and Rochelle Rogers Thelma Hooker has barely begun to mourn her brother, Donald Rogers, 65, and his wife, Rochelle, 58, who drowned in floodwaters on Wednesday while driving their Toyota pickup truck to check on a relative. “It just don’t feel real,” she said. Ms. Hooker is mostly worried about their 91-year-old mother, Lola, who lives at home and is in poor health. The family has yet to tell her the news. Not today, they are thinking, not till they figure out how to say it. “I don’t want my mom to get sicker,” Ms. Hooker said. “We just can’t tell her right now.” Until then, they are screening phone calls and keeping the television turned off. Reports of the couple’s death have been on the news — he was a minister, a well-liked man, she said. Rochelle Rogers worked at a flower shop and was devoted to the couple’s church. On Wednesday, Mr. Rogers called Ms. Hooker to see how she was doing, telling her that he and Rochelle would be heading over to an uncle’s house to make sure he was safe. Somehow they drove into the raging floodwaters, the authorities said. They called 911 from the pickup, pleading for help. Ms. Hooker knows they cannot delay telling her mother much longer. “I know my mom, and she has an instinct,” she said. “She’s getting worried. It’ll have to be tomorrow.” The Saldivar family ||||| This 2014 photo provided by Virginia Saldivar shows her grandchildren Daisy, from left, Xavier and Dominic Saldivar, three of the four children presumed dead after their van sank into Greens Bayou on... (Associated Press) HOUSTON (AP) — Now that the sun is finally shining and the murky, brown floodwaters are slowly receding in much of the Houston area, grim reality is setting in. Harvey is about to release its dead. In Texas, the official death toll surpassed 30 on Wednesday and was expected to climb as authorities investigated several other deaths to determine whether they were storm-related. Officials fear that the number of fatalities will climb sharply in coming days as neighbors, emergency workers and family members search for the missing — and discover the bodies of people trapped in waterlogged homes or encased in underwater graves inside cars. And the death toll might rise even further in the recovery phase, from car crashes, carbon monoxide poisoning or other accidents during cleanup. "Historically all estimates of deaths are wrong in the beginning," said Craig Fugate, who was the Federal Emergency Management Agency director from 2009 until earlier this year. Already, the nation is shocked by the horrors revealed as the storm moves out of the area and east toward Louisiana and points north. The first confirmed fatality came early: A man in the Gulf coastal city of Rockport was killed in a fire late Friday as the storm raged ashore. On Wednesday, officials located a submerged van that seven members of a Houston family had been traveling in when it was swept off a bridge and into a storm-ravaged bayou. Samuel Saldivar told police he was trying to bring his elderly parents and his brother's four grandchildren to safety from their flooded home on Sunday when the van he was driving was tossed by a strong current into the bayou as it crossed the bridge. He escaped through a window but the six others were trapped when the van's partially submerged sliding door wouldn't open. Also Wednesday, authorities said 65-year-old Donald Rogers and his 58-year-old wife, Rochelle, drowned when they were swept away by a current after driving their pickup truck into floodwaters in a rural area southwest of Houston. Fort Bend County Sheriff's Maj. Chad Norvell said the couple was on the phone with 911 asking for help when the line went silent. When officers found the truck, it was completely submerged. On Tuesday afternoon, a 3-year-old girl was found alive in a rain-swollen canal, clinging to the body of her drowned mother in Beaumont, Texas. A second woman was confirmed dead in Beaumont on Wednesday. Earlier Tuesday, the body of 61-year-old Houston Police Sgt. Steve Perez was found in his car. He'd been swept down a flooded road as he drove to his precinct, determined to serve his community. Eleven other confirmed deaths, some of which were listed on a Harris County database, showed people were found floating in waters — some in homes or businesses, others near cars. Among those victims was Ruben Jordan, a high school basketball coach, who was last seen late Saturday helping people through floodwaters. His family was informed on Monday that he had died in the floods. "The sad thing is, of the deaths we've seen, we're going to see more, unfortunately," said Jeff Schlegelmilch, the deputy director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. "That number doesn't stop moving up until we're well into the recovery phase." No official number of the missing has been released, and a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office, where Houston is located, said there isn't a specific strategy in place to look for additional bodies. "We are going to go out and try to find any potential victims that may be there," said the spokesman, Jake Smith. "We are also encouraging the public if they come across anything, we strongly urge them to call 911 if they find a body or a potential victim." Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the department had received 47 missing persons reports since Harvey inundated the city and 27 of those individuals have been located. Photos with pleas for help have been posted on social media, cut-and-pasted and retweeted by thousands of people as desperate family members seek loved ones they fear may be dead — but who may only have a cellphone without power. The uncertainty is terrifying. One of the worries, said Schlegelmilch, is that many of the severely flooded neighborhoods weren't in evacuation areas. Additionally, the people most likely to be found dead are the elderly, the infirm and the people who were isolated from others — along with folks who didn't have the means or wherewithal to flee. Sometimes it's a matter of having the strength to wade through floodwaters a few blocks to safety, or to pull one's self up onto a roof. "Those who are the most vulnerable when the sky is blue, they are also the most vulnerable when the sky is gray," Schleglemilch said. Fugate, the former FEMA head, said it's also common for people to die during the recovery phase, when stress levels are high and people aren't making clear-headed decisions. "Stay safe, stay home, stay off the roads if you can. Don't go sightseeing," he warned. Still, experts say there is some good news: They don't expect the death toll from Harvey to come anywhere close to that of Katrina, when 1,800 people died. Many of those flood-related fatalities came when a levee broke and water inundated New Orleans. People were stranded in extreme heat and the federal response was slow. Emergency managers learned painful lessons during Katrina, and have put those lessons to use in this storm. Residents of New Orleans during Katrina saw top-to-bottom failures at every level, experts said. During Harvey, "state and local officials and FEMA were mobilizing, water rescue teams were prepared, in anticipation of this," said Fugate, adding that safe shelters were almost immediately in place for Texas residents, unlike New Orleans. "That provided faster rescues." One other thing seems to have helped Houston in its time of need: the residents themselves. "Neighbors helping neighbors," Fugate said. "That will keep the death toll down." ___ Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at Http://twitter.com/tamaralush

– A Facebook warning from emergency management officials in Texas' Tyler County shows just how dire the effects of Harvey continue to be. Citing rising flood levels, the post late Wednesday warned everyone in affected areas to evacuate immediately. "Anyone who chooses to not heed this directive cannot expect to be rescued and should write their social security numbers in permanent marker on their arm so their bodies can be identified," the message read, per the Houston Chronicle. "The loss of life and property is certain," it continued. The final words read, "GET OUT OR DIE!” though they have since been removed. In Fort Bend County, officials also announced mandatory evacuation orders near Buffalo Bayou early Thursday, per the AP. Harvey, downgraded from a tropical storm to a tropical depression late Wednesday, is still expected to deliver 4 to 8 inches of rain into parts of Texas and Louisiana as well as Tennessee and Kentucky through Friday. The death toll continues to climb and now stands at 38, reports the New York Times. "The sad thing is, of the deaths we've seen, we're going to see more," the deputy director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness tells the AP. "That number doesn't stop moving up until we're well into the recovery phase." With floodwaters receding in Houston, officials have begun searching thousands of flooded homes for bodies. The effort could take up to two weeks with 911 centers still fielding more than 1,000 calls per hour, the AP reports.

936 SHARES Share Tweet *** Join it LIVE here ! *** *** Join it LIVE here ! *** Next 31 Jan. 2018, the Moon will offer an amazing total eclipse, well visible from Australia and western USA. As in the past, the Virtual Telescope Project will partner with some great astro-imagers there to bring to you the stunning beauty of such a unique event. Yes, it will be somewhat unique: the 31 Jan, 2018 Full Moon will be a Supermoon and will be a Blue Moon, too! So far, the Super Blue Moon Total Eclipse team is as below: astrophotographer: Dean Hooper (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia); astrophotographer: John Stevenson (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia); astrophotographer: Chris Stockdale (Latrobe Valley Astronomical Society, “Hazelwood Observatory”, near Morwell, Victoria, Australia) astrophotographer: John W. Johnson, Nebraska, USA astrophotographer: Andrew Wall, Adelaide, South Australia astrophotographer: Ron Delvaux, Arizona, USA astrophotographer: James McCue, New Mexico, USA astrophotographer: Gerard Lazarus, Australia coordinator and live comment: astrophysicist Gianluca Masi (The Virtual Telescope Project, Italy). We will also use “Pearl” the amazing telescope available at Tenagra Observatories, in the framework of our partnership. The online, free lunar total eclipse session is scheduled for 31 Jan. 2018, staring at 11:30 UT. But this is NOT enough! Later the same day, we will show the Supermoon rising above Rome, something which made us very popular worldwide. We will show the SuperBlueMoon rising above the legendary monuments of Rome on 31 Jan. 2018, starting at 16:00 UT. Both the events are Back to “Upcoming Events” Please wait while you are redirected...or Click Here if you do not want to wait. Support The Virtual Telescope Project! If everyone reading this right now would donate something, our fundraiser would be done in a few days. Please, donate and receive stunning, LIMITED EDITION panel showing the evolution of comet 46P/Wirtanen over the last weeks and more amazing images, specifically made for supporters like you! donate now (you can adjust the amount later) Comments , featuring our unique images of the stars above the legendary monuments of Rome! comments ||||| The moon turns blood-red in this image of a total lunar eclipse from 2004. A total eclipse of a "blue moon" will occur on Jan. 31, 2018. The first eclipse of 2018 will be a lunar one that comes at the very end of the month, on Jan. 31. It will be a total eclipse that involves the second full moon of the month, popularly referred to as a Blue Moon. Such a skywatching event hasn't happened for more than 150 years. The eclipse will take place during the middle of the night, and the Pacific Ocean will be turned toward the moon at the time. Central and eastern Asia, Indonesia, New Zealand and most of Australia will get a fine view of this moon show in the evening sky. Heading farther west into western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the eclipse will already be underway as the moon rises. [Super Blue Blood-Moon 2018: When, Where and How to See It] To the east, Alaska, Hawaii and northwestern Canada will see the eclipse from start to finish. Moonset will intervene for the rest of North and Central America, however. Below, we provide a timetable for the main stages of the moon's passage through the Earth's shadow for six time zones — one for Hawaii (HST), one for Alaska (AKST) and four across the U.S and Canada: Pacific (PST), Mountain (MST), Central (CST) and Eastern (EST). All times are a.m. Timetable for the main stages of the Jan. 31, 2018, blue moon total lunar eclipse, for six time zones. Credit: Joe Rao/Space.com Along the U.S. West Coast, the total phase begins at 4:51 a.m. PST. The farther east you go, the closer the start of the partial phases will coincide with moonrise. Along the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard, for instance, the moon will have only just begun to enter the darkest part of Earth's shadow, the umbra, at 6:48 a.m. EST when it will disappear from view below the west-northwest horizon. The duration of the total phase is 77 minutes, with the moon tracking through the southern part of the Earth's shadow. So, during totality, the moon's lower limb will appear much brighter than the dark upper limb. [In Photos: The Snow Moon Lunar Eclipse & Comet 45P Encounter] How unusual are Blue Moon eclipses? To answer that question, we consulted the reference book Canon of Lunar Eclipses, 1500 B.C. - A.D. 3000, by Bao-Lin Liu and Alan D. Fiala (Willmann-Bell Inc., 1992). This NASA chart by eclipse expert Fred Espenak details the visibility range and times for the Jan. 31, 218 total lunar eclipse, which also occurs during a blue moon and near a supermoon. Credit: NASA After this year, the next time that a Blue Moon passes through Earth's umbra will be on Dec. 31, 2028, and, after that, on Jan. 31, 2037. Both of these eclipses will be total. Before 2017, there was an 8 percent partial eclipse on Dec. 31, 2009, but, for a total eclipse of a Blue Moon, we have to go all the way back to March 31, 1866. So, the upcoming eclipse on Jan. 31 will be the first total eclipse of a Blue Moon in nearly 152 years! We will have more to say about January's eclipse here at Space.com in the coming weeks. Editor's note: If you capture an amazing photo of the Jan. 31 total lunar eclipse and would like to share it with Space.com for a story or gallery, send images and comments to: spacephotos@space.com. Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for Verizon Fios1 News, based in Rye Brook, NY. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. ||||| Visible supermoons—full moons that appear when the moon is at its closest orbital point to Earth—aren’t very rare. Having three in a row certainly is. And that’s exactly what astronomy fans are being treated to this winter. The first supermoon appeared when the moon swung by Earth 26,500 km (approximately 16,500 miles) closer than usual on Dec. 3. It will reappear as a visible supermoon on New Year’s Day 2018 and again on Jan. 31. Visible supermoons appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter than full moons that occur at the farthest point in the moon’s orbit. If you only have time to catch one episode of the trilogy, NASA recommends catching the last one, which will be extra special. Not only is the second full moon of a month considered a blue moon, the Jan. 31 supermoon will also feature a total lunar eclipse, with totality visible from eastern Asia across the Pacific to western North America. During the eclipse, the moon will slowly lose its brightness and take on a reddish hue because of the way the atmosphere bends the light, says NASA. As a result, totally eclipsed moons are sometimes also called “blood moons.” When can I see the supermoons and the lunar eclipse? The best time to enjoy either supermoon is right after moonrise and before sunrise, when the moon is sitting on the horizon. It will appear its biggest and brightest because of a “moon illusion” effect that’s created when you are able to compare the lunar body to other objects for scale, like buildings and foliage. Check your local moonrise time here. Don’t worry if you miss the moonrise—you can continue to enjoy a larger-than-average moon for a few more days. It just won’t be a full moon. On the night of Jan. 31, the lunar eclipse will begin at 11:48am UTC and reach its maximum at 1:30pm UTC. That means viewers who live in eastern North America will need to wake up early to catch the partial eclipse. Here’s a map of where you can see the eclipse. Ruaraidh Gillies/Wikimedia Commons From supermoon to blood moon. Can I see the supermoon and lunar eclipse without going outside? If it’s too cloudy, or too cold to go outside, there are options to beam either celestial event straight to your living room. The Virtual Telescope project provides a livestream of the Jan. 1 supermoon rise over Rome’s skyline, beginning at 4:00pm UTC, and the Jan. 31 eclipse from Australia, beginning at 11:30am UTC. What’s the best way to photograph the supermoon or lunar eclipse? To take a picture of the supermoon or the lunar eclipse with a smartphone, tap on the moon on the screen and hold your finger in place to lock the camera’s focus. Then adjust the exposure slider that appears next to your finger to get the right balance of light for your shot. If you’re using a DSLR, NASA’s senior photographer Bill Ingalls recommends that you use the daylight white balance to adjust for the sunlight being reflected off the moon. He says that it’s important to keep in mind that the moon is a moving object. “It’s a balancing act between trying to get the right exposure and realizing that the shutter speed typically needs to be a lot faster.” Bill Ingalls/NASA A supermoon behind the Colorado State Capitol Building on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015. To get an original shot, Ingalls suggests taking a picture that puts the moon in context of a local landmark, something that gives your photo a sense of place. “Don’t make the mistake of photographing the moon by itself with no reference to anything,” say Ingalls. “Everyone will get that shot.” Do I need special glasses to watch the supermoon or the lunar eclipse? Fortunately, unlike the solar eclipse, the supermoon and the lunar eclipse are safe to view with the naked eye! There’s nothing to worry about if you find yourself enthralled and staring up into the sky for a very long time.

– Look up at the sky on Jan. 31 and you may witness a sight unseen for 150 years. For the first time since 1866, a total lunar eclipse will occur with the blue moon, or second full moon of the month, which—like the one visible on New Year's Day—will also be a supermoon. Got all that? When the moon is at or near the closest point to Earth in its orbit (aka, a supermoon), it appears 14% bigger and 30% brighter than full moons that occur at the farthest point in the moon's orbit, though the moon will lose brightness as it enters Earth's shadow, according to NASA. Because of the way Earth's atmosphere bends light, the eclipsed moon will take on a reddish hue, something often referred to as a blood moon, making this rare celestial event "a super blue blood moon eclipse," according to the Miami Herald. The next blue moon eclipse won't occur until 2028. The eclipse will last for 3.5 hours, with the total eclipse stretching for 77 minutes, reports Sky & Telescope. Those along the Pacific Rim from Alaska and northwestern Canada to central and eastern Asia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Australia will get the best view of totality during the middle of the night. However, partial phases of the eclipse should be visible under a clear sky in central North America, western Asia, India, the Middle East and eastern Europe, per Space.com. North American viewers should look up as the moon sets on the morning of Jan. 31, while those on the opposite side of the world should see a partial eclipse as the moon rises. Not in an ideal viewing area? The Virtual Telescope plans to livestream the total eclipse from Australia, which you can watch here, per Quartz. (Bogus glasses damaged a solar eclipse viewer's eyes.)

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Dennis Rodman was mobbed by the press at Beijing airport en route to Pyongyang Controversial US basketball star Dennis Rodman is returning for a visit to North Korea. The former NBA player is travelling as a private citizen. "I'm just trying to open the door," he told reporters at Beijing airport, en route to the reclusive state. He made headlines after befriending North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on previous trips to Pyongyang in 2013 and 2014. Mr Rodman has called him his "friend for life". The US state department said it is aware of his visit. "We wish him well. But we have issued travel warnings to Americans and suggested they not travel to North Korea for their own safety," said US Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, according to Reuters news agency. Mr Rodman told reporters, "My purpose is to actually see if I can keep bringing sports to North Korea, so that's the main thing." It is unclear whether he will also bring up the detention of US citizens in the country. Image copyright AFP / Getty Images Image caption North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and Dennis Rodman watched basketball together in 2013 US and North Korean tensions have intensified under President Donald Trump, who has said he fears a "major, major conflict" breaking out between the two countries. However, the president has also said he would be "honoured" to meet Mr Kim, in the right circumstances. Trump's old apprentice Speaking at the airport on Tuesday, Mr Rodman said: "I am pretty much sure that he [Trump] is happy with the fact that I am over here trying to accomplish something that we both need." When asked about Mr Rodman's North Korea visits in 2013, Mr Trump told Fox News: "You look at the world, the world is blowing up around us. Maybe Dennis is a lot better than what we have." Mr Rodman had been a contestant on Mr Trump's reality TV show The Celebrity Apprentice that same year. In 2014, Mr Trump flatly dismissed rumours that the pair might travel to North Korea together. Image copyright Twitter / Donald Trump Image caption Donald Trump's 2014 tweet The former Chicago Bulls star also once encouraged former US President Barack Obama to "pick up the phone and call" Mr Kim, emphasising that the two leaders both liked basketball. His trips have been referred to as "basketball diplomacy" in the US press. In 2014, Mr Rodman told luxury lifestyle magazine DuJour he had approached the US government for support but was rejected. Tears and favours He has previously broken down in tears during TV interviews, saying he has had death threats over his trips, which have been condemned by human rights activists. Although at one point he did tweet Mr Kim to ask if he would "do me a solid and let Kenneth Bae loose" - referring to a US-Korean missionary who served two years in prison for trying to overthrow the government. Mr Bae later thanked Mr Rodman for raising public awareness of his case. On Twitter on Tuesday, Mr Rodman said his latest trip was being sponsored by a company that provides digital currency for the marijuana industry. He wore fully branded clothes to the airport. A previous trip to the country was sponsored by a betting company. ||||| 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 ||||| Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman, center, is greeted by North Korea's Sports Ministry Vice Minister Son Kwang Ho, right, upon his arrival at Sunan International Airport on Tuesday, June 13, 2017,... (Associated Press) PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Dennis Rodman, the former NBA bad boy who has palled around with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, flew back to Pyongyang on Tuesday for the first time in Donald Trump's presidency. He said he is "just trying to open a door" on a mission that he thinks his former "Celebrity Apprentice" boss would support. Rodman, one of the few people to know both of the nuclear-armed leaders, sported a black T-shirt advertising a marijuana cybercurrency as he talked to reporters briefly before his flight from Beijing to the North Korean capital. Asked if he had spoken to Trump about his trip, he said, "Well, I'm pretty sure he's pretty much happy with the fact that I'm over here trying to accomplish something that we both need." Rodman has received the red-carpet treatment on four past trips since 2013, but has been roundly criticized for visiting during a time of high tensions between the U.S. and North Korea over its weapons programs. His entourage includes Joseph Terwilliger, a professor who has accompanied Rodman on previous trips to North Korea. Rodman said the issue of several Americans currently detained by North Korea is "not my purpose right now." In Tokyo, a visiting senior U.S. official said Rodman is making the trip as a private citizen. "We are aware of his visit. We wish him well, but we have issued travel warnings to Americans and suggested they not travel to North Korea for their own safety," U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon told reporters after discussing the North Korean missile threat and other issues with Japanese counterparts. In 2014, Rodman arranged a basketball game with other former NBA players and North Koreans and regaled leader Kim with a rendition of "Happy Birthday." On the same trip, he suggested that an American missionary was at fault for his own imprisonment in North Korea, remarks for which he later apologized. A North Korean foreign ministry official said Rodman would stay until Saturday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the ministry had not issued a formal statement. Any visit to North Korea by a high-profile American is a political minefield, and Rodman has been criticized for failing to use his influence on leaders who are otherwise isolated diplomatically from the rest of the world. Americans are regarded as enemies in North Korea because the two countries never signed a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War. Thousands of U.S. troops are based in South Korea, and the Demilitarized Zone between the North and South is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. A statement issued in New York by a Rodman publicist said the former NBA player is in the rare position of being friends with the leaders of both North Korea and the United States. Rodman was a cast member on two seasons of Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice." Rodman tweeted that his trip was being sponsored by Potcoin, one of a growing number of cybercurrencies used to buy and sell marijuana in state-regulated markets. North Korea has been hailed by marijuana news outlets and British tabloids as a pothead paradise and maybe even the next Amsterdam of pot tourism. But the claim that marijuana is legal in North Korea is not true. The penal code lists it as a controlled substance in the same category as cocaine and heroin. Americans have been sentenced to years in North Korean prisons for such seemingly minor offenses as stealing a political banner and likely could not expect leniency if the country's drug laws were violated. ___ Associated Press journalists Mark Schiefelbein in Beijing and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report. ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| 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.

– One of the world's weirdest bromances appears to be alive and well: Dennis Rodman has returned to Pyongyang for his first visit to North Korea since his former Celebrity Apprentice boss became president, the BBC reports. Rodman, who has described dictator Kim Jong Un as a "friend for life," told reporters he was "just trying to open a door" and he is sure President Trump will be "happy with the fact that I'm over here trying to accomplish something that we both need," the AP reports. In a tweet, Rodman thanked Potcoin, a cybercurrency used in marijuana transactions, for sponsoring his trip. He wore a Potcoin T-shirt at the airport. Rodman's visit, the first since early 2014, comes at a time of growing US-North Korea tensions. "I know the Trump administration has been trying half-heartedly to start a dialogue with the North Koreans," analyst Joel Wit tells the Los Angeles Times. "It would be strange to use Dennis Rodman as an intermediary," he says, "but under the Trump administration a lot of things are possible that wouldn’t have been with other administrations." When Rodman suggested in 2014 that Trump was interested in visiting Pyongyang, Trump tweeted: "Dennis Rodman was either drunk or on drugs (delusional) when he said I wanted to go to North Korea with him. Glad I fired him on Apprentice!"

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A Chilean mother says a hospital is restricting her right to see her newborn daughter because she acknowledged smoking marijuana days before she gave birth. Sindy Melany Ortiz says she smoked pot to alleviate pain in one of her arms. She says she's only allowed to see her daughter two hours a day and isn't allowed to breast-feed her. Hospital officials in the southern city of Talcahuano say they were just following protocol when they alerted a local court that tests found traces of substances that could put the baby at risk. The court ordered the baby to remain at the Las Higueras hospital until it takes a decision during a hearing on Thursday. ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption Currently, Chileans are allowed to consume marijuana in private, but it is illegal to sell or grow the drug. A Chilean mother says a hospital is restricting her access to her newborn baby because she said she smoked marijuana. Sindy Melany Ortiz said she smoked pot for medicinal reasons to alleviate pain in one of her arms. She says she is not being allowed to breast-feed her daughter and can only see her for two hours a day. Hospital officials in the southern city of Talcahuano said they were following protocol and the baby was at risk. "They have violated my rights as a mother," said Ms Ortiz, "I use this drug only for the pain in my arms, it was recommended by a medical professional to me and I am absolutely not a drug consumer." "They started to ask me if I smoked or took anything and I told them. When my daughter was born they said she would stay a little with me but I couldn't breastfeed her because I had consumed marijuana which is bad for the baby." The hospital said it had alerted a local court that tests had found substances that could harm the child. The court has ordered that the baby remain in the Las Higueras hospital until it takes a decision on Thursday. In July Chile's Congress approved by a wide margin a bill that seeks to decriminalise personal use and cultivation of marijuana. The law, if passed, currently allows the possession of up to 10g of cannabis and the growing of up to six plants. It is being seen as a way to stop the persecution of medicinal users and to allow them to access a medicine they can grow in their gardens. Santiago, Chile's capital, was the site of Latin America's first medical marijuana farm earlier this year. Chile's marijuana bill will move to the full Chamber of Deputies before passing to the Senate, a legislative process that could take years.

– A mother in Chile claims a local hospital is keeping her away from her newborn daughter simply because she smoked marijuana a few days before giving birth, the AP reports. "They have violated my rights as a mother," the BBC quotes Sindy Ortiz. "I use this drug only for the pain in my arms, it was recommended by a medical professional to me, and I am absolutely not a drug consumer." According to the AP, Ortiz says the hospital is only letting her see her infant for two hours per day and won't allow her to breastfeed her. This is all standard protocol, according to the hospital. The hospital states it was required to alert a local court when Ortiz tested positive for substances that could be harmful to her baby, the AP reports. The hospital is maintaining custody of Ortiz's daughter, at least until a hearing scheduled for Thursday. According to the BBC, Chile's congress easily approved a bill to decriminalize the personal use of marijuana earlier this year. But it could still be years until the law is put into place.

A U.K. soldier killed by a Taliban bomb in Afghanistan will be posthumously giving 32 of his friends the vacation of a lifetime. As the Sun is reporting, British Royal Marine David Hart took out a 250,000 pound (or about $400,000) insurance policy before he was deployed with instructions that $150,000 of that amount should go toward a Las Vegas holiday for his pals and their girlfriends. According to friend Andy Hare, the Vegas vacation will serve as a particularly fitting tribute, as Hart -- described by fellow officers as "the perfect Marine" -- looked forward to his "lad's holidays" each year, the Daily Mail reports. "He loved going away with his mates -- it was always the best two weeks of the year," said Hare, 25. "In his letter David said he had had a great life and had no regrets about anything. He always said he would do something like this if something bad happened. He said, 'Go and have a good time and spend all this money'. All the lads said, 'What a guy'." Hart's parents didn't seem to mind the stipulation, as Hart's friends have been very supportive of the family since his death. "Since his death, all of his friends have been round to see us," father Chris is quoted as saying. "It's nice they have been there to support us." But the insurance money will also go toward funding ventures other than gambling. Hart, 23, also reportedly stipulated that $80,000 would go toward a charity group of injured Marines, while his family will also receive $160,000. Family and friends have also planned to embark on a charitable U.K. bike ride to raise money in Hart's memory this fall. View their fundraising page here. ||||| 'Go and have a good time': Soldier killed by Taliban bomb leaves £100,000 to send 32 mates on trip to Las Vegas Hero: Royal Marine David Hart was killed by a Taliban bomb while on patrol in Helmand A Royal Marine who was killed serving in Afghanistan left £100,000 in his will to send 32 friends on the holiday of a lifetime to Las Vegas. David Hart took out life insurance before he was killed in a bomb blast while on patrol in the town of Sangin, in lawless Helmand province. And he made sure all his pals and their girlfriends would get to celebrate his life in style by ensuring a big chunk of the £250,000 insurance payout went on giving them a party trip to remember. His friend Andy Hare, 25, told the Sun newspaper: 'He loved going away with his mates - it was always the best two weeks of the year. They were lads' holidays and great times. 'In his letter David said he had had a great life and had no regrets about anything. He always said he would do something like this if something bad happened. 'He said, 'Go and have a good time and spend all this money'. All the lads said, 'What a guy'.' David, who lived with his parents Chris, 60, and Dilys, 54, in Poppleton, near York, was killed a day before his 24th birthday. He left £50,000 to his favourite charity for injured Marines as well as a sum to his family. Dad Chris told the Sun: 'Since his death, all of his friends have been round to see us. Generous: David, who had taken out a £250,000 life insurance policy before he was deployed, stipulated that in the event of his death, his friends should travel to Las Vegas As well as sending his mates to Vegas he left £50,000 to his favourite charity for injured Marines as well as a sum to his family 'It's nice they have been there to support us.' His sister Sarah, 27, added: 'He was the best brother I could have wished for. He was caring, funny and had an infamous grin. 'He would always be there for you. I'm proud to have been his sister and of his career as a commando.' David joined the Royal Marines in 2009 and served with 40 Commando. Shortly before his death he had qualified as a combat medic. His Commanding Officer Lt Col Paul James described him as 'a perfect commando' He said: 'He was a young and deeply impressive marine who was fiercely courageous and always thinking of others before himself.' Chris, Sarah and David's pals are embarking on a 170 mile charity cycle ride in September to raise cash for the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund.

– A British marine killed in Afghanistan left 32 of his closest friends a hefty parting gift: $150,000 for a Las Vegas vacation, reports the Huffington Post. Before David Hart left for duty, he took out a life insurance policy for roughly $400,000, and gave strict instructions that a portion of that money should send his friends and their girlfriends to Sin City, saying ‘Go and have a good time and spend all this money.” Hart was a big fan of holidays himself, a friend remembers, saying their "lad's holidays" were “always the best two weeks of the year.” The remainder of his policy will go to charity for injured Marines, and to his family, who isn’t at all put off by their late son’s support for a good time. Hart, described by his fellow officers as ‘the perfect Marine,’ was killed in Afghanistan after a Taliban bomb explosion, on the day before his 24th birthday, reports the Daily Mail.

George Herbert Walker Bush led the U.S. to a swift and decisive victory in the first Persian Gulf War and presided over the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union and unification of Germany, before a painful recession cost him a second term as president. He died on Friday at age 94. His wife of more than 70 years, Barbara, died at the age of 92 earlier this year. Mr. Bush was the last American president to serve in World War II, a fight that helped shape his life and the lives of many in his generation. He went on to build a sterling resume—businessman, member of Congress, envoy to the United Nations and China, head of the Central Intelligence Agency—before becoming Republican Ronald Reagan’s vice president in 1980 and then succeeding him in the White House in the election in 1988. He lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992, after a campaign in which he was hampered by two years of disappointing economic performance and an insurrection among his own party’s conservatives over a decision to raise taxes. The loss was a bitter personal disappointment, but one he handled with the kind of grace that allowed him to become friends with Mr. Clinton in later life. In subsequent years, historians have been far kinder regarding the Bush presidency than were voters at the time. Mr. Bush also won some degree of vindication when his eldest son, George W. Bush, won the White House in 2000, making Mr. Bush the only American since John Adams to be both a president and father of a president. George H.W. Bush was born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Mass. His father, Prescott Bush, was a successful Wall Street executive and, later, a U.S. senator from Connecticut. The son appeared set to follow his father’s steps from elite prep school to Yale and on to a career in the financial industry when World War II broke out. The younger Mr. Bush joined the Navy and, when sworn in on his 18th birthday, became its youngest pilot. He flew 58 missions in the Pacific, piloting an Avenger torpedo bomber—with his girlfriend Barbara’s name painted on its side—from an aircraft carrier. He was shot down and was rescued by a submarine, a rescue captured in what became a famous bit of grainy film footage. Two other crewmen died; Mr. Bush was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Photos: The Life of President George H.W. Bush The 41st president served from 1989 to 1993 and was the father of a president and a former Florida governor. Mr. Bush, arriving from a day trip to Columbia, S.C., on Feb. 15, 1989, waved to the White House balcony where first lady Barbara Bush was waiting for him. Charles Tasnadi/Associated Press 1 of 20 • • • • • 1 of 20 Show Caption Mr. Bush, arriving from a day trip to Columbia, S.C., on Feb. 15, 1989, waved to the White House balcony where first lady Barbara Bush was waiting for him. Charles Tasnadi/Associated Press Upon returning from the war, he married that girlfriend, the former Barbara Pierce, and finished his education at Yale, but eschewed the path to Wall Street that his family ties offered. Instead, with the help of a dose of family money, he moved to Midland, Texas, where he became a businessman in the oil-field supply, exploration and production businesses. Later, he co-founded Zapata Petroleum, which pioneered offshore oil-drilling platforms. The Bush family eventually moved to Houston, where he began his political career as chairman of the Harris County Republican Party. After an unsuccessful run for a Senate seat, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966 and served two terms. He then lost another race for a U.S. Senate seat, a defeat that might well have ended his political career. But he was rescued by President Richard Nixon, who named him ambassador to the United Nations. A series of other top appointments followed, including chairman of the Republican National Committee, envoy to China and director of the CIA. That string of jobs made Mr. Bush a sufficiently prominent figure in the Republican Party, and he decided to seek the presidency in 1980. For a time he was the leading contender, particularly after scoring a surprise win in the Iowa caucuses. He had long embraced his father’s brand of moderate Republican politics, and labeled the tax-cut plans of his main conservative foe, Mr. Reagan, as “voodoo economics.” But a conservative wave was sweeping the GOP, and it carried Mr. Reagan to the nomination. At a dramatic convention in Detroit, Mr. Reagan flirted with asking a former president, Gerald Ford, to serve as his running mate, before deciding that wouldn’t be a workable plan. At the last minute, he asked Mr. Bush to run with him. It was a potentially uncomfortable fit, but Mr. Bush was unswerving in his loyalty to Mr. Reagan. He embodied what former Secretary of State George Shultz called in a memoir “the loyal lieutenant role,” intimately involved in the councils of power and serving as a confidential adviser to the president. He also left few traces of his own influence. When the Iran-Contra scandal rocked the Reagan administration in 1986, Mr. Bush escaped censure by claiming he had been “out of the loop” when decisions were made to trade arms for hostages. He attended so many state funerals that some joked his motto was “You die, I fly.” Mr. Bush’s shining moment as vice president came in the aftermath of the 1981 assassination attempt on Mr. Reagan, when the president lay near death in the hospital and the nation seemed leaderless. While Secretary of State Al Haig memorably declared himself “in charge,” Mr. Bush slid into place, easing the crisis atmosphere without seeming to arrogate power to himself. He ran to succeed Mr. Reagan, won the nomination and announced to the 1988 Republican convention that he envisioned a “kinder and gentler nation.” That was a rhetorical signal of at least a slight shift to the center after the Reagan years. But, in an effort to deflect skepticism among some conservatives, Mr. Bush also declared, “Read my lips: No new taxes,” a fateful promise that came back to haunt and eventually help undo his presidency. As the economy and the nation’s fiscal condition deteriorated, Mr. Bush abandoned the no-tax-hike pledge and signed a tax-raising measure. The decision evoked anger and a sense of betrayal among conservatives and led to a primary challenge from the right’s firebrand Pat Buchanan. Mr. Bush also was hurt by a weak base in Washington; he was only the second American president to serve a full term without party control in either chamber of Congress. Earlier Former first lady Barbara Bush has died at the age of 92. She was the wife of 41st president George H.W. Bush, mother of 43rd president, George W. Bush, and 2016 candidate Jeb Bush. During and after her time in the White House she championed the cause of improving literacy rates among Americans. Photo: Reuters Mr. Bush was far more in his element on international affairs. After Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Mr. Bush—aided by his close associates, Brent Scowcroft as national security adviser and James Baker as secretary of state—patiently wove a diplomatic and military web that trapped the Iraqi leader and led to a lightning war that successfully drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. When the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, the Bush administration delicately handled the immediate potentially explosive political fallout among old adversaries and, through patient diplomacy, helped pave the way for a largely peaceful series of revolutions in Eastern Europe that culminated in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Mr. Bush proved himself willing to use American military might elsewhere. He first took military action in 1989, when he ordered the removal of Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. After success in the 100-hour Persian Gulf War, the greatest U.S. military victory since World War II, Mr. Bush seemed the captain of an American juggernaut. His approval rating approached 90%. He and advisers began talking about a “new world order” of international equilibrium. But the American electorate turned fickle in the face of high unemployment and a sluggish economy, and Mr. Buchanan mounted a primary challenge to his re-election in 1992. He never fully recovered and lost the election to Mr. Clinton. Mr. Bush inspired generations of Americans to public service, President Trump said in a statement early Saturday. “Along with his full life of service to country, we will remember President Bush for his devotion to family—especially the love of his life, Barbara.” In retirement, Mr. Bush undertook a few diplomatic missions and celebrated his birthday into his mid-80s with a parachute jump. He developed postpresidential friendships with former foes, including Bob Dole, a fellow World War II veteran. And he built a strong bond with Bill Clinton, which began when the two former presidents worked together to raise money for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and continued as they occasionally joined forces on other projects. While his son George W. Bush was elected president and managed to win the second term that had eluded him, Mr. Bush stayed largely in the background. Later, Mr. Bush again stayed largely in the background while his wife, Barbara, gave interviews supporting son Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign. Mr. Bush found a way, though, to signal his unhappiness with the man who vanquished his son in the 2016 election, Donald Trump. He stayed away from his party’s 2016 convention. When Barbara Bush died, Mr. Bush’s office described the former president as heartbroken but strong and stoic. Of her passing, Mr. Bush said: “We have faith she is in heaven, and we know life will go on—as she would have it. So cross the Bushes off your worry list.” Write to Gerald F. Seib at jerry.seib@wsj.com ||||| “It is my considered judgment that you should now resign. I expect in your lonely, embattled position this would seem to you as an act of disloyalty from one you have supported and helped in so many ways. My own view is that I would now ill serve a president, whose massive accomplishments I will always respect and whose family I love, if I did not now give you my judgment.” August 1974, speaking to President Richard Nixon shortly before he resigned, when Bush was Republican national chairman. ___ “And my opponent won’t rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again. And I’ll say to them: Read my lips. No new taxes.” 18 August, 1988, during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. George HW Bush, former US president, dies aged 94 Read more ___ “We know what works: Freedom works. We know what’s right: Freedom is right. We know how to secure a more just and prosperous life for man on Earth: through free markets, free speech, free elections and the exercise of free will unhampered by the state.” 20 January, 1989, during his inaugural address. ___ “Look to the very heart of Europe, to Berlin, and you will see a great truth shining brighter with each passing day: The quest for freedom is stronger than steel, more permanent than concrete.” November 1989, as the Berlin Wall was crumbling. ___ “I do not like broccoli, and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.” 22 March, 1990. ___ “Five months ago, Saddam Hussein started this cruel war against Kuwait. Tonight, the battle has been joined. ... Our goal is not the conquest of Iraq. It is the liberation of Kuwait.” 17 January, 1991, when the first Gulf War began. ___ “The fact that he is black, a minority, has nothing to do with this. He is the best qualified.” July 1991, on announcing he had selected federal appeals court judge Clarence Thomas for the US supreme court. ___ “I plan to put something back into society, and not at the head table, not always in the glamour, certainly not with a lot of news attention.” January 1993, days before leaving office. George HW Bush obituary Read more ___ “To those who say we no longer need a CIA, I say you’re nuts. To those who want to dismantle CIA or put it under some other department ... you’re nuts, too. And to those who feel the right to know takes precedence over legitimate classification of documents or over protecting our most precious asset, our people, the same to you. You’re nuts, and so’s the horse you came in on.” 17 September, 1997, at ceremony marking the 50th birthday of the CIA. ___ “Though I might be tempted to utter a few words of encouragement to anyone who is considering my boy, I will heed the immortal words of Dana Carvey: ‘Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.’” Early 2000, citing a line from the Saturday Night Live comedian while attending a nonpartisan event as his son sought the GOP nomination. ___ “I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life.” 11 June, 2004, at the funeral for former President Ronald Reagan. ___ “Who would have thought that I would be working with Bill Clinton, of all people? ... It’s been an eye-opening and enjoyable experience for me to work with him on something truly apolitical.” 25 October, 2005, discussing his work with a former rival on tsunami and hurricane relief. ||||| This is a set of web collections curated by Mark Graham using the Archive-IT service of the Internet Archive. They include web captures of the ISKME.org website as well as captures from sites hosted by IGC.org.These web captures are available to the general public.For more information about this collection please feel free to contact Mark via Send Mail

– With George HW Bush dead at 94, coverage of the life of the 41st president is plentiful. Here are some early highlights: The broad strokes: For a thorough obituary and assessment, start with the Washington Post. Its story notes that while Bush served just one term as president, it was a consequential one. "The Berlin Wall fell; the Soviet Union ceased to exist; the communist bloc in Eastern Europe broke up; the Cold War ended." And Bush's "firm, restrained diplomatic sense helped assure the harmony and peace with which these world-shaking events played out, one after the other." Great detail: In its obituary, the Wall Street Journal notes that Bush flew 58 missions in the Pacific as a Navy pilot in WWII, all with the name of his girlfriend—Barbara—on the side of the plane. He once got shot down, with this video capturing the rescue. Bush is also the only American besides John Adams to be both president and the father of a president. Read his lips: The Guardian recounts some of his Bush's famous quotes, including his "read my lips" pledge to not raise taxes. He also dissed broccoli.

For the first time in 146 years, the National Weather Service documented no snow on the ground in Chicago in January and February — a record that put a spring in the step of some but weighed down others worried about climate change. Because the snow measurement is taken at 6 a.m. at O'Hare International Airport, small amounts of snow that may have fallen later in the day and melted were not recorded, said Amy Seeley, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. This occurred Feb. 25 when there was a trace of snow and Jan. 30 when there was 0.1 inch. The weather service has been keeping data on snow on the ground for 146 years. The record near-snowless start was overshadowed Tuesday by severe storms moving through the state. The National Weather Service forecast large hail, winds, localized flooding and tornadoes Tuesday evening. A tornado hit Ottowa on Tuesday evening, killing one person, and the weather service said its spotters had reported a number of other tornadoes. More stormy weather was forecast for the week, including possible snow. WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling said he believes the 146-year streak in Chicago is part of climate change and emphasized that it does not occur linearly, meaning that there is potential for cold winters in the future. Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune A woman pushes a stroller on a balmy Tuesday at Maggie Daley Park. A woman pushes a stroller on a balmy Tuesday at Maggie Daley Park. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) "This is occurring against a backdrop of a changing climate," Skilling said. "I think the door is open to additional unusual weather events as we go forward." Other climate scientists say blips of weather, such as warm spells or snowless months, are too short of a time period to assign a true cause, and meteorologists point out that there are natural variances in weather over time that have nothing to do with climate change. Patricia Orta, 56, of Archer Heights, who was walking back from lunch Tuesday on Michigan Avenue with an umbrella on her arm, said she was enjoying the warmer weather. "I hope it happens more often," Orta said with a laugh. "While it lasts, this is great!" Skilling said Tuesday was the 73rd consecutive day that Chicago has not seen more than an inch of snow. He also said it is not unlikely to see snow in March. "Warm as it's been, we're not out of the period where it's inconceivable to have snow," Skilling said. "The rain shower in the morning could turn into snow in the afternoon." Typically, January and February are the snowiest months of the year, said Jim Angel, state climatologist at the University of Illinois' Illinois State Water Survey. "It's pretty impressive for any place in the northern part of the state to go both January and February with no snow on the ground," he said. Angel said warm air and ground temperatures contributed to the lack of snow accumulation, and this has affected trees, insects and animals. "The biggest issue is because it's been so warm all through the winter, it's really encouraging the trees and shrubs and perennials to come out a little bit too early for their own good," Angel said. "For example, we might have fruit trees that might be in dormancy right now, leaf out and their buds will start to swell and open and that makes them highly vulnerable to frost later on." This phenomenon occurred in 2012 and 2007 when an April frost destroyed blooming trees during a similar time period, costing orchards millions of dollars in losses for apple, peach and cherry crops, Angel said. "It's a real risk, not only cosmetically for things in your backyard, but it also has tremendous economic damage for fruit growers," Angel said. "It can really set an orchard back a couple years to get into this situation. The problem is there's not much they can do it about it. You can't slow down the trees. At this point, you just have to ride it out." Insects also have a higher likelihood of surviving and more opportunities to reproduce, Angel said. However, increased rainfall in the spring could mitigate this. And the warmer weather could affect migrating bird species. "Some of that timing can be very tricky," he said. "You don't want to migrate into a new area before the food sources are available." However, the overall effect on people is usually beneficial, with lower heating bills, fewer weather-related accidents, increased shopping and additional construction, Angel said. "In the past mild winters, we've seen that net benefit from the economics side, unless you're selling snow shovels," Angel said. Record-breaking temperatures draw Chicagoans outdoors. The least amount of snow in a Chicago January was in 1928 with 0.2 inches. This January had 0.5 inches. This February is tied for the least amount of snow with 1987 and 1998, with all of them having just a trace of snow, Seeley said. Some experts predicted another "snowpocalypse" this winter, but Skilling and other analysts predicted a warmer-than-average winter because of the warm summer and autumn in 2016. Orta bought a long jacket last year in preparation for a brutal winter. "You always try to prepare for what you think is coming because it usually does," Orta said. "This year, it's a nice surprise, but I'm not going to sell my coat yet." Twitter @GraceWong630 gwong@chicagotribune.com ||||| 00:45 Stunning Ice on Lake Superior Shards of breaking ice on Lake Superior present a stunning winter view at Duluth, Minnesota. At a Glance Winter Storm Stella ended a record streak without an inch of snow on the ground in Chicago. Not a single January or February day had an inch of snow on the ground. That was a first in the city's records, dating back to Reconstruction. Winter Storm Stella finally ended Chicago's record-long streak without at least one inch of snow on the ground that extended back to Christmas Day. (MORE: Winter Storm Stella Recap ) Stella brought light snowfall to the Windy City from March 12-13. Then lake-effect snow developed thanks to northeast winds across Lake Michigan after Stella moved east, causing major travel problems throughout the metro area into much of March 14, 2017. Chicago O'Hare International Airport had officially picked up 7.7 inches of snow through 7 p.m. CDT March 14 from Stella and the lake-effect snow. A snow depth of 6 inches was measured at 7 a.m. CDT Tuesday morning. This March snow event is on par with the heaviest of the season in Chicago, which was 7.8 inches Dec. 10-11. Chicago went through January and February without so much as an inch of snow on the ground for the first time in recorded history. Oddly enough, March 14 was the latest in the season the Windy City had 6 inches on the ground in 18 years . According to the National Weather Service in Romeoville, Illinois, Christmas morning was the last day O'Hare reported at least an inch of snow on the ground prior to Stella. (INTERACTIVE: When Spring's Last Snow Typically Falls ) Never before in records dating to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 has an official Chicago reporting station failed to measure at least one January or February day with at least an inch of snow cover in the same winter. The Windy City also set a record-long winter streak without a one-inch snowfall . The last such occurrence prior to Stella was the weekend before Christmas on Dec. 17. The winter started impressively snowy in Chicago, with 17.7 inches of snow falling in two weeks from Dec. 4-18, more than double the average for the entire month (8 inches). (MORE: Winter Storm Central ) Then, the snow essentially shut off. From Dec. 18 to March 11, O'Hare measured a pathetic 0.7 inches of total snowfall. Average Chicago snowfall from Dec. 19 through the beginning of March is more than 2 feet. Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been an incurable weather geek since a tornado narrowly missed his childhood home in Wisconsin at age 7.

– The arrival of March brings a weird milestone to Chicago this year: The city recorded no snow on the ground in January and February for the first time in at least 146 years, reports the Weather Channel. In fact, the last snowfall of more than an inch occurred on Dec. 17, days ahead of the official start of winter, which means the city has been virtually snow-free all season. The Chicago Tribune notes that flurries were seen on a few days, but not enough to register when the official morning tally was taken at O'Hare International Airport. It's possible the streak goes back longer, but the 146-year mark reflects the start of National Weather Service data. Forecasts called for possible snow this week. Winter wraps up on March 20.

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – A Trader Joe’s store assistant manager was killed by gunfire from Los Angeles police officers during a chase and shootout with a suspect in Silver Lake Saturday. LAPD Chief Michel Moore told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that investigators have determined that one of two officers accidentally shot 27-year-old Melyda Corado while engaging in a shootout with the suspect, 28-year-old Gene Evin Atkins. “I’m sorry to report that we’ve now determined through our forensic investigation, that one of the officers’ rounds struck Ms. Corado as she was exiting the market and was in close proximity to Atkins,” Moore said. “Ms. Corado ran back into the store and collapsed behind the manager’s desk.” According to Moore, Atkins’ car had slammed into a light pole outside the entrance of the Trader Joe’s, located in the 2700 block of Hyperion Avenue. Upon hearing the crash, Corado was one of several people who ran to the front door of the store, at the same time that an armed Akins himself ran towards the entrance. “As he did so, witness statements and physical evidence from the scene support that Atkins fired multiple rounds from a semiautomatic pistol at the officers,” Moore said. “The two Los Angeles police officers who had been pursuing Atkins returned fire in defense of their lives and to protect Atkins from harming other individuals.” The officers fired eight rounds in returning Atkins’ gunshots, Moore said. The fatal bullet first hit Corado’s arm, then entered her body. Atkins appeared in court Tuesday to face more than 30 charges, including one count of murder, six counts of attempted murder, 13 counts of false imprisonment of hostages and one count of felony evading. His arraignment was postponed to Aug. 14. His bail was set at $18.7 million. The slaying is attributed to Atkins even though he did not fire the fatal bullet because he is held to have caused the entire situation. Moore also released dash-cam video leading up to the chase. Watch it below. Before Saturday’s shootout at Trader Joe’s, Atkins allegedly shot and wounded his grandmother, who remains hospitalized, and 17-year-old girlfriend. He then led police on a chase, ending at the store. The Trader Joe’s store remained closed Monday, while a memorial of signs and flowers in memory of Corado continued to grow outside the building. Although Atkins was booked on suspicion of murder, he could potentially face charges including attempted murder for the roughly 1:30 p.m. Saturday shooting of his 76-year-old grandmother — Mary Elizabeth Madison — in the home they shared in the 1600 block of East 32nd Street. Authorities said the woman was shot as many as seven times and remains hospitalized in critical condition. Atkins’ cousin, Charleo Egland, said she didn’t know exactly what prompted the shooting, but said the grandmother did not want Atkins’ girlfriend in the home, and that likely led to a fight that ended with the shooting. Police said Atkins’ girlfriend was also wounded in the shooting, and Atkins forced her into his grandmother’s car then drove away with her in the passenger seat. Using a LoJack system, police traced the 2015 Toyota Camry sedan to the Hollywood area and gave chase, leading to Silver Lake, where Atkins crashed the Toyota into a power pole around 3:30 p.m. in front of the Trader Joe’s supermarket, Moore said. Atkins got out of the car and ran into the store, firing toward officers as he ran, police said. A short time later, a woman now known to be Corado was seen being dragged away from the store’s entryway and then unsuccessfully treated by paramedics trying to revive her. Moore said about 40 people were in the store when Atkins entered. As Atkins ran inside, employees and customers inside scrambled for cover. Some were seen escaping through a window toward the rear of the business and crawling down a ladder to safety. Police were also seen carrying several children away from the building. Atkins’ girlfriend, who had been in the passenger seat of the Toyota when it crashed in front of the store, was taken to a hospital in fair condition. Fire officials described her as a 20-year-old woman. Police amassed outside the store, and around 5:30 p.m., at least three people who appeared to be customers came out of the store with their hands in the air — apparently hostages who were released or shoppers who had managed to elude the gunman. Atkins surrendered at about 6:30 p.m. He was taken to a hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound to his left arm. Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department said paramedics treated 10 people at the scene of the Trader Joe’s, including Atkins, his girlfriend and Corado. A 12-year-old boy, a 41-year-old woman, a 70-year- old woman and an 81-year-old woman were hospitalized with minor injuries and listed in fair condition, Stewart said. Three other people were evaluated, but declined to be taken to hospitals. Moore returned to the crime scene Tuesday to be among the mourners. “This is about, frankly, an opportunity to pay some respects to a family and to a loss,” Moore said, appearing to become emotional at times. “This young lady, by every description, had so much to live for, and to a father that has lost, I’m sure it’s (indescribable).” Reaction to the revelation that officers had accidentally killed Corado was mixed. “I kind of blame the police because they were shooting directly towards the store,” nearby business owner Peter Hakopyan said. Hakopyan told CBS2 he knew Corado and witnessed the shootout. “It’s a grocery, and there’s people around,” Hakopyan added. “I would think the police would have more restraint.” Still, some appreciated the precarious situation in which the officers found themselves. “The police did what they felt they had to do in the moment. They couldn’t know,” said longtime Silver Lake resident Miranda Birch. “I think it’s tragic, but I think it’s a mistake to blame the police.” A GoFundMe page set up to help cover Corado’s funeral expenses had raised nearly $25,000 as of midday Monday. (©2018 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.) ||||| 2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with details on Atkins’ appearance in court. 12:15 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from the victim’s brother, a statement from Trader Joe’s and details of the charges against the suspect. 11:40 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from Mayor Eric Garcetti and details from police camera footage. 8:50 a.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from Chief Moore. This article was originally published at 8:15 a.m. ||||| A Trader Joe's employee killed during a crime-spree in Los Angeles last weekend was struck by a police bullet -- not the suspect's bullet -- Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said at a news conference Tuesday. Moore said the officers are "devastated" that Trader Joe's employee Melyda Corado, 27, died from their efforts to stop the gunman. "I believe my officers' actions were taken to defend themselves and in direct response to the deadly threat," Moore said. "I believe it's what they needed to do in order to defend the people of Los Angeles." The chief said the officers will forever in their minds debate their actions. Damian Dovarganes/AP "I am truly sorry," Moore said. "As a father, as an individual, it is unimaginable, the pain of the Corado family, and everyone that knew her. And we share that pain today." Moore called it a "heartbreaking reminder" of the split-second decisions officers make every day. "I believe it's what they needed to do in order to defend the people of Los Angeles," he said of the officers. AP The suspect, 28-year-old Gene Atkins, first shot his grandmother and a teenage girl on Saturday before kidnapping the teenage girl, police said. Atkins then led police on a 15-minute car chase as he fired his gun through the back window at the pursuing officers - who did not return fire at that time, authorities said. Atkins then crashed into a light-pole outside a Trader Joe's in Los Angeles' Silver Lake neighborhood, stormed the store and continued to fire at officers, police said. That's when police returned fire and Corado was fatally shot, according to Moore. Corado, who heard the car crash, had been fleeing the store as Atkins was going inside, Moore said. She was hit by one round that went from her left arm and into her body, Moore said. AP Atkins, meanwhile, held a standoff inside the Trader Joe's for three hours until he surrendered to authorities, police said. During that time several employees and customers were able to escape and Atkins released others at various points during the ordeal, police said. The teenage girl was rescued from the car and was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to her head, police said. The grandmother was also hospitalized. The LAPD on Tuesday also released dramatic body camera and dash camera video from the deadly encounter, showing officers in pursuit while the suspect was firing at them through his back window. The two officers involved were not named on Tuesday. They have been with the department for two years and six years. Thirty-one counts were filed against Atkins, including murder, premeditated attempted murder and kidnapping. Atkins, who was shot in the arm during the shootout, appeared in court on Tuesday for an initial appearance. Atkins' bail was set at $18.775 million and his next court appearance is scheduled for August 14. It was not immediately clear whether or not Atkins had retained an attorney. "We remain heartbroken over the tragic death of Melyda Corado and the trauma our Crew Members and customers have suffered," Trader Joe's said in a statement. "Mely was a valued and beloved Crew Member. Our sole focus remains on supporting her family and those involved in Saturday’s horrible ordeal."

– Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore had the toughest of jobs Tuesday: to announce that the Trader Joe's employee killed during a shootout in Los Angeles on Saturday lost her life to a bullet fired by police, not the suspect. "I am truly sorry," Moore said about 27-year-old Melyda Corado's death. "As a father, as an individual, it is unimaginable, the pain of the Corado family, and everyone that knew her. And we share that pain today." He said the officers involved will forever wrestle with the choices they made, though he believes "my officers' actions were taken to defend themselves and in direct response to the deadly threat" and therefore were appropriate. An investigation into the officers' actions is ongoing. ABC News reports he also detailed a timeline of the crime, which was allegedly sparked by a feud between a man and his grandmother over his girlfriend staying at the grandmother's home. Moore said Gene Atkins, 28, shot his grandmother several times and ultimately led police on a chase that ended when his vehicle crashed into a pole outside the grocery store. Moore said Atkins fired at cops as he ran toward the entrance; Corado had come to the same entrance upon hearing the crash and was struck in her left arm in the process. The bullet entered her body. "Miss Corado ran back inside the store and collapsed behind the manager’s desk," Moore said, per the Los Angeles Times. CBS Los Angeles reports that, among other charges, Atkins faces one count of murder in connection with Corado's death.

A bit of a startling moment happened near the end of Monday night's CNN debate when a hypothetical question was posed to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). "What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn't have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? Are you saying society should just let him die?" Wolf Blitzer asked. "Yeah!" several members of the crowd yelled out. Paul interjected to offer an explanation for how this was, more-or-less, the root choice of a free society. He added that communities and non-government institutions can fill the void that the public sector is currently playing. "We never turned anybody away from the hospital," he said of his volunteer work for churches and his career as a doctor. "We have given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves, assume responsibility for ourselves ... that's the reason the cost is so high." ||||| TAMPA, FL -- The morning after a sometimes-rocky appearance in front of a Tea Party debate audience, Gov. Rick Perry said he was "taken aback" by cheers from some crowd members on a hypothetical question of whether a young man who decides not to buy health insurance should be refused care if he develops a life-threatening illness and be left to die. "I was a bit taken aback by that myself," Perry told NBC News and the Miami Herald after appearing at a breakfast fundraiser in Tampa. "We're the party of life. We ought to be coming up with ways to save lives." Perry distinguished from that the issue of "justice," reiterating his strong support and "respect" for the death penalty on a state-by-state basis. "But the Republican party ought to be about life and protecting, particularly, innocent life," he added. Perry also responded to the crowd's negative reaction to his support for allowing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, saying his campaign has "the right message" on opportunities for children who were brought to the United States illegally "by no fault of their own." "This issue is about education, it's not about immigration," he said. "These kids showed up in our state by no fault of their own, some 2-3 years of age. And they've been in our schools, they've done their work, they've prepared themselves good, they want to be contributing members of society. So it would be I think the wrong message to say somehow or another that you can't go to our colleges, or we've going to punish you because of the sound of your last name." "When people really think about it, I think they'll understand what we did in Texas was the right thing for Texas," he said. Last night's debate also featured shots at Perry from both Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum on the issue of Gardasil, a vaccine that Perry mandated to be given to 12-year-old girls to prevent HPV - a disease linked to cervical cancer. Bachmann said on NBC's TODAY Show this morning that she was approached by a woman after the debate whose daughter had suffered mental retardation as a result of getting the vaccine. Perry dismissed that idea as similar to debunked theories linking vaccinations to autism. "You heard the same arguments about giving our children protections from some of the childhood diseases, and they were, autism was part of that. Now we've subsequently found out that was generated and not true." "I would suggest to you that this issue about Gardasil and making it available was about saving people's lives," he added.

– Count Rick Perry among those "taken aback" at the reaction of some in the crowd during a debate question about health insurance last night. (A handful shouted "Yeah!" and cheered to a hypothetical question about whether someone who forgoes insurance should be allowed to die. See the video here.) Asked about it today, the Texas governor replied, "I was a bit taken aback by that myself," reports NBC News. "We're the party of life. We ought to be coming up with ways to save lives." He made clear, however, to draw a distinction with the death penalty, which he supports as a matter of "justice," he said. "But the Republican party ought to be about life and protecting, particularly, innocent life," he added.

Korn Lead Singer's Wife Dead at 39 Deven Davis, Wife of Korn Lead Singer Jonathan Davis, Dead at 39 EXCLUSIVE The wife of the lead singer of Korn has died Friday ... and it comes on the heels of a request for a domestic violence restraining order and major drug issues ... TMZ has learned. Deven Davis was the estranged wife of Jonathan Davis. Deven was a former porn star who married Jonathan in 2004. They had 2 kids together. Jonathan filed for divorce in October 2016, citing irreconcilable differences. Jonathan filed for a domestic violence restraining order today -- August 17, 2018. The judge issued a temporary order blocking any child custody or visitation by Deven. The restraining order also prohibits her from having contact with the family dog, Chaos. Our sources say Deven was unaware Jonathan filed the restraining order ... she had not even been served. Jonathan alleged in the docs Deven was deep into drugs -- something she had struggled with for more than 20 years. He alleged her drug use was causing emotional harm to the kids through neglect. He says in his court declaration she has been dependent on both prescription and illegal narcotics. She'd been to rehab 6 times and "is constantly under the influence of the nitrous oxide, cocaine and Norco." Jonathan claimed she had a drug dealer boyfriend who was recently passed out on her living room couch when he brought the kids to her house. Jonathan says he found a heroin pipe and cocaine floating in the toilet bowl and found Deven passed out on the floor upstairs. And there's this ... Jonathan claims when she binged on drugs she would "routinely bring home unsavory characters, including strangers. Some of these people are random fans of my music who she allows to come into the house, go into the master bedroom closet and try on my clothes." According to the docs, Deven had been in a sober home but went AWOL last Friday and hadn't been seen for a week. At this point we do not know the cause of death. Story developing ... ||||| Korn frontman Jonathan Davis’ estranged wife Deven Davis has died PEOPLE confirms. She was 39. “The Davis family is brokenhearted over the devastating loss of Deven Davis,” the family said in a statement to PEOPLE. “We ask that you respect their privacy — and the privacy of those close to the family — and allow them the space to mourn in private. We thank you for your love, understanding and prayers of support during this difficult time.” The 39-year-old former model’s cause of death has not yet been revealed, however, she reportedly suffered with sobriety and substance abuse throughout her life, according to TMZ. In 2016, Jonathan, 47, filed for divorce from Deven and on Friday filed for a domestic violence restraining order, the outlet reports. Jonathan was reportedly granted a temporary order, which prohibits Deven from visiting their two children or having any contact with the family’s dog. Jonathan and Deven Davis Stephen Lovekin/FilmMagic In the documents, obtained by TMZ, Jonathan claimed Deven has struggled with drug abuse for over 20 years. Jonathan alleged Deven was addicted to prescription and illegal narcotics and has been around their children while under the influence. He also claimed his estranged wife “is constantly under the influence of the nitrous oxide, cocaine and Norco,” according to TMZ. RELATED ARTICLE: Korn Singer Felled By Blood Illness Although Deven has battled addiction for many years, she was recently sober, but relapsed last Friday, Jonathan alleged in the documents, the outlet reports. Jonathan and Deven got married in Hawaii in 2004. They welcomed their first child together, Pirate in 2005. Jonathan and Deven had another child together in 2007 — a boy named Zeppelin. Before Deven, Jonathan was married to Renee Perez and they share son Nathan, 22. If you or someone you know is in need of help, please contact the SAMHSA substance abuse helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.

– The wife of Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis died Friday—the same day Davis issued a domestic violence restraining order against her, People reports. "The Davis family is brokenhearted over the devastating loss of Deven Davis," says the family in a statement. "We ask that you respect their privacy." The cause of death is unknown, but TMZ reports that 39-year-old Deven had lifelong substance abuse problems and had gone to rehab six times. Jonathan, who had two children with the former porn star, doesn't hold back in his court declaration: Deven "is constantly under the influence of ... nitrous oxide, cocaine and Norco," the document reads. Jonathan adds that when she got high, she would "routinely bring home unsavory characters, including strangers. Some of these people are random fans of my music who she allows to come into the house, go into the master bedroom closet and try on my clothes." He also accuses her of having a drug-dealer boyfriend who was recently unconscious on her sofa when Jonathan brought over the kids. Jonathan, 47, had filed for divorce in 2016 and the pair remained estranged. Deven apparently went missing from a sober home last week and hadn't been in contact with Jonathan since. Sources tell TMZ she never even saw the restraining order.

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 ||||| 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. ||||| Ever get annoyed by people on social media who share 'profound' quotes, or use meaningless, intelligent-sounding soundbites in arguments? A new study has shown that there is a link between these people and low intelligence. It found that those who are receptive to pseudo-profound, intellectual-sounding 'bulls***' are less intelligent, less reflective, and more likely to be believe in conspiracy theories, the paranormal and alternative medicine. PhD candidate Gordon Pennycook and a team of researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, published a study entitled 'On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bulls***'. It mentions the word 'bulls***' over 200 times. They tested hundreds of people to find the link between being impressed by 'bulls***' quotes and low intelligence. Examples of 'bulls***' were given, as it is a hard term to define. Essentially, it means grand-sounding statements which mean nothing - many people post such things on Instagram. An example was: "Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty." The paper says: "Although this statement may seem to convey some sort of potentially profound meaning, it is merely a collection of buzzwords put together randomly in a sentence that retains syntactic structure." "Bulls***, in contrast to mere nonsense, is something that implies but does not contain adequate meaning or truth." Pennycook used a website that would randomly generate these pseudo-profound sentences from a string of words. This website is active, and serves up wise-sounding aphorisms like "This life is nothing short of an unveiling quantum leap of mythic rejuvenation" and "We are at a crossroads of transformation and desire" at the click of a button. Almost 300 test subjects were asked to rate the profundity of these sentences on a scale of one to five. They were asked to differentiate between philosophy quotes, "bulls***", and mundane sentences. Most recognised the mundane as mundane, but rated the made-up quotes on similar levels of profoundity to tweets posted by Deepak Chopra, a writer. OK ? ?? A photo posted by @24january_ on Dec 3, 2015 at 4:56am PST As well as this. he researchers looked into a number of other personality traits, examining how the participants think about themselves and the world around them. The paper said that those who were more receptive to the bulls*** statements and who tended to rate them higher were "less reflective, lower in cognitive ability(i.e verbal and fluid intelligence, numeracy,) and are more prone to ontological confusions and conspiratorial ideation." It also said they were more likely to "hold religious and paranormal beliefs, and are more likely to endorse complementary and alternative medicine." As they say, "our findings are consistent with the idea that the tendency to rate vague, meaningless statements as profound is a legitimate psychological phenomenon that is consistently related to at least some variables of theoretical interest."

– This has to rank among the best opening statements ever in a study abstract: "Although bullshit is common in everyday life and has attracted attention from philosophers, its reception (critical or ingenuous) has not, to our knowledge, been subject to empirical investigation." And so researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario set out to study "pseudo-profound bullshit," and who believes it. Reporting in the journal Judgment and Decision Making, the researchers asked subjects to rate quotes that are philosophical, mundane, or simply BS—the latter consisting, in their words, of "seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous"—on a profundity scale. The team also tested participants' cognitive and reasoning ability. The researchers found that those who are "more receptive" to BS have lower "verbal and fluid intelligence" and are more likely to believe in the paranormal, conspiracy theories, and alternative medicine. For actual examples of readily propagated BS, Forbes reports PhD candidate Gordon Pennycook and his team turned to the Twitter feed of Deepak Chopra, highlighting tweets such as "Attention and intention are the mechanics of manifestation." The Telegraph reports the researchers also used this website, which composes made-up pseudo-profound statements like this one: "Growth is the richness of life, and of us." The researchers found that participants assigned the website-generated BS and Chopra's tweets similar profoundness ratings. As for who was good at sniffing out BS, Forbes reports it was those who tend to "have an analytic cognitive style and be skeptical about paranormal phenomena." Chopra's response to it all? He tweeted, "I thank the authors for the study. Their # bullshit is getting me more speaking engagements & new book offers." (Read about another unusual study: Scientists have decided there are 4 kinds of drunks.)

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Archaeologists have uncovered a stone tool at an ancient rock shelter in the high desert of eastern Oregon that could turn out to be older than any known site of human occupation in western North America. The find was announced Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which controls the land on which the site was found. University of Oregon archaeologist Patrick O'Grady, who supervises the dig, says the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter outside Riley has not been fully excavated. But the tool, a hand-held scraper chipped from a piece of orange agate not normally found in eastern Oregon, was found about 8 inches below a layer of volcanic ash from an eruption of Mount St. Helens that has been dated to 15,800 years ago. The depth was about 12 feet below the surface. Bureau of Land Management archaeologist Scott Thomas said that if the age of the site holds up to scrutiny, it would be the oldest west of the Rockies, and another predating the so-called Clovis culture, once generally believed to be the first people to migrate from Asia into North America. The earliest Clovis artifacts, known for distinctive and elegant stone points, are dated to about 13,000 years ago. O'Grady called the find "tantalizing," but he added that they want to continue digging this summer to see whether the volcanic ash covers the entire area. Donald K. Grayson, professor of archaeology at the University of Washington, said the scientific community would be skeptical. "No one is going to believe this until it is shown there was no break in that ash layer, that the artifact could not have worked its way down from higher up, and until it is published in a convincing way," he said. "Until then, extreme skepticism is all they are going to get." Two pre-Clovis sites are well documented and generally accepted by scientists, Grayson said. One is Paisley Cave, located about 60 miles southwest of the Rimrock site. The other is Monte Verde in Chile. Both are dated about 1,000 years before the oldest Clovis sites. If the date of Rimrock holds up, it would put people at the site about 1,500 years earlier, at the end of the Pleistocene era, when mastodons, mammoths, camels, horses and bison roamed the area. The find has yet to be submitted to a scientific journal for publication, but it has been reported in newsletters and at conferences, Thomas said. Thomas found the site several years ago, while taking a break from carrying supplies to a session of the University of Oregon Archaeological Field School nearby that O'Grady was overseeing. Thomas said he noticed an outcropping of an ancient lava flow, with some very tall sage brush growing in front of it, indicating very deep sediment deposits. The soil was black in front of the rock, indicating someone regularly built cooking fires there for a long time. An ancient streambed ran by, which would have given people more reason to stay there. And on the surface, he found a stone point of the stemmed type, found at sites both older and younger than Clovis. Similar points have been found at Paisley Cave Volunteers looking around the surface found some 30 stemmed points, and the field school started excavations in 2011, O'Grady said. Uncovered above and below the volcanic ash layer were fragments of teeth believed to be from ancient camels. Tests by Archaeological Investigations Northwest Inc. of Portland on blood residue on the agate scraper were consistent with the bovid family of animals, Thomas said. The most likely bovine animal living in Oregon at that time would have been an ancestor of the buffalo. ||||| PORTLAND, Ore. - Near the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter outside of Riley in southeast Oregon, archaeologists recently discovered evidence suggesting one of the oldest known human occupations in the western United States, officials said Thursday. Archaeologists with the Bureau of Land Management and the University of Oregon Archaeological Field School have been excavating at the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter since 2011. Their discoveries have included a number of stone projectile points and tooth enamel fragments likely belonging to a prehistoric camel (Camelops sp.) that became extinct approximately 13,000 years ago. But what has the archaeological community most excited is a small stone tool found below a layer of volcanic ash. Near the bottom of a 12-foot deposit, archaeologists discovered a layer of ash that was identified as volcanic ash from a Mt. St. Helens eruption about 15,800 years ago. Beneath the layer of volcanic ash, archaeologists discovered a small orange agate tool believed to have been used for scraping animal hides, butchering, and possibly carving wood. A blood residue analysis of the tool revealed animal proteins consistent with bison, the most likely species being Bison antiquus, an extinct ancestor of the modern buffalo. “The discovery of this tool below a layer of undisturbed ash that dates to 15,800 years old means that this tool is likely more than 15,800 years old, which would suggest the oldest human occupation west of the Rockies,” said Scott Thomas, BLM Burns District archaeologist. Presently, Oregon’s Paisley Cave, also managed by the BLM, is considered home to the earliest known residents of North America based on human physical evidence. In 2008, a team of archaeologists, led by Dr. Dennis Jenkins with the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History, discovered coprolites - dried feces - containing human DNA dated over 14,000 years old. Dr. Patrick O’Grady, with the University of Oregon Archaeological Field School, has been directing the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter excavations since they began. “When we had the volcanic ash identified, we were stunned, because that would make this stone tool one of the oldest artifacts in North America. Given those circumstances and the laws of stratigraphy, this object should be older than the ash,” said O’Grady. "While we need more evidence before we can make an irrefutable claim, we plan to expand our excavation this summer and hopefully provide further evidence of artifacts found consistently underneath that layer of volcanic ash. That’s the next step,” he added, The University of Oregon Archaeological Field School, in partnership with the BLM and volunteers from the Oregon Archaeological Society, will begin its fifth season this summer, offering students, researchers and volunteers invaluable field experience. Stan McDonald, BLM Oregon/Washington lead archaeologist, explained the potential this discovery has for the archaeological community. “For years, many in the archaeological field assumed that the first humans in the western hemisphere were the Clovis people – dating to around 13,000 years ago," McDonald said. "While a handful of archaeological sites older than Clovis cultures have been discovered in the past few decades, there is still considerable scrutiny of any finding that appears older.” “With the recent findings at Rimrock Draw Shelter, we want to assemble indisputable evidence, because these claims will be scrutinized by researchers," he said. "That said, the early discoveries are tantalizing.” Flickr photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/blmoregon/sets/72157651118216896/

– A small stone tool unearthed in eastern Oregon appears to be so ancient that the history of humans in the area may have to be rewritten, archaeologists say. The agate scraper found at a rock shelter was below a 15,800-year-old layer of ash from Mount St. Helens, making it potentially older than any other evidence of human occupation west of the Rocky Mountains, reports the AP. Analysis of the tool—which is made from orange agate not usually found in the area—revealed it had been used to butcher an animal believed to be the extinct buffalo species Bison antiquus, KTVZ reports. University of Oregon archaeologist Patrick O'Grady says the team plans to keep excavating the site after the "tantalizing" find, which may be older than any other find predating the Clovis people once thought to be the first in North America, NBC News reports. University of Washington professor of archaeology Donald K. Grayson, however, predicts there will be a lot of skepticism about the find. "No one is going to believe this until it is shown there was no break in that ash layer, that the artifact could not have worked its way down from higher up, and until it is published in a convincing way," he tells the AP. "Until then, extreme skepticism is all they are going to get." (Experts believe they have found evidence of a long-lost civilization in the Honduran rainforest.)

Breaking news out of the Black Rock Desert: Burning Man is infested with huge, biting bugs. The weeklong festival — which has become increasingly popular among the tech elite in recent years — hasn't started yet. Still, horrifying photos of swarms of unidentified bugs have surfaced on Twitter over the last few days. The infestation was confirmed by John Curley on the Burning Man blog: You may have seen the bug rumors on the internet. We are here to tell you that they are all true. Well maybe not all of the rumors, but the bugs are real. They're everywhere. They bite. They crawl all over you. They get up and in you. ... What's going on? We don't know. We don't know how the little critters survive in the heat and the sun. All we know is that if you pick up some wood, you're likely to uncover hundreds or thousands of the things. They've blown up inches deep against the sides of the Commissary tent. They've covered the carpets at the Depot. They're all over the Man Base. So it's not a localized occurrence. It's everywhere. We don't know where they came from, but there are two main theories: One is that all the spring and summer rain has hatched critters that lie dormant, or usually come to life at a different time of year. Or maybe they hitchhiked in on a load of wood from somewhere. Or maybe, as Shade postulated out at Man Base, there's a Johnny Bugseed making the rounds at night, sprinkling them anywhere and everywhere. ||||| click to enlarge Black Rock City Playa Info/Facebook A new breed of Burner. Marcia said that one had flown into her mouth gotten lodged between her teeth. She reports that they are quite bitter to the taste...Twin Peaks, who’s leading the construction of the Center Café, was talking about how bad they are when she jumped a little and pulled her t-shirt away from her body. A good-sized green bug fell to the ground. It had crawled into her bra...Metal Shop Heather wears a welding mask most of the day. Bugs have crawled up inside her visor and nestled around her eyes. Burning Man is being invaded by something more grotesque than techie billionaires. According to the Voices of Burning Man blog, the playa is crawling with voracious bugs. “We don’t know where they came from, but there are two main theories: One is that all the spring and summer rain has hatched critters that lie dormant, or usually come to life at a different time of year. Or maybe they hitchhiked in on a load of wood from somewhere,” blogger John Curley writes.It’s a been a warm, dry season for the Burning Man build — ideal conditions for bugs to spawn. Insects are reportedly blowing up "inches deep" against the commissary tent. They’re embedding in carpets like spilled rice. And judging by a picture on the blog , they're bloodthirsty.Life in Black Rock City has turned into a David Cronenberg movie:A self-described entomologist on the blog identified the creatures as winged ants and stink bugs. Another commenter, alias Dan Fox, wrote that he was “eaten alive the first few days of the Trojan Horse build in 2011” but the plague then “faded away to nothing.”Another commenter read the whirlwind of bugs as a bit of poetic justice:“Perfect! This is mother natures answer to all the rich [fucks] who have brought the default world to BM and have changed it from an alternative to mainstream. They’ll need to hire extra sherpas to follow them with a fly swatter."Or, as Champagne Lounge wrote on its Burning Man community page on Facebook, you could always pack bats alongside your bug spray. ||||| Burning Man is a lot of things, and every time we try to say what it is or isn’t, we fail. But we do know that there are some things that are undeniably true. One of them is that Burning Man is a family affair. The latest example we present is Audrey Pickney, one of only two second-generation DPW workers. (Welboy’s son, Corey, is the other, but he’s not able to be here this year.) Audrey is in her second year of working DPW, after three years working with Gate, Perimeter and Exodus. Her mom, Ridge, is a longtime DPW worker who’s also taking a year off this year, so Audrey is holding down the family presence. She goes to the School of the Art Institute of the Chicago, where she is studying fashion and fibers, the art of sewing. It’s wildly expensive, but a variety of fellowships and grants have her about a semester and a half from graduation. You’d think it would be a stretch to come out here after the urban art world in Chicago, but she’s been doing it for so long, it seems perfectly normal. Her first year was 2002, when she was nine years old. That’s right, nine, so she’s kind of a poster child for young Burners, too. Her mom started coming to Burning Man in 2001, and she loved it, and she thought that Audrey would like it, too. So she brought her, and she’s been coming ever since. She’s missed a Burn here and there for school reasons, but still. That’s a lot of her youth spent in the desert. “I love it here,” she says down at the Depot as the day winds to a close and the heat is finally letting up. “All my people are here. … I love doing work with my hands, I love the desert … like, why would I not?” She has an infectious laugh, and her manner is easy and open. She seems so natural at an age, 22, when so many others are still trying to figure out who they are, trying on different personas. But she seems as free of artifice as the desert hills. Did coming out to the Burn help her learn how to deal with stressful conditions with grace and humor? Hard to say, but it seems pretty clear that it didn’t hurt. Does she think that Burning Man, or coming out to work on the build, is the kind of thing that could last for generations? Could it be handed down, complete with legends and stories and oral histories? “Well, I don’t know,” she says indulgently. “But my grandpa comes here, too.” That would be Donovan, whom we met last year at one of the most raucous events of Burning Man, the DPW parade. We made sure to take a picture of all three generations who were attending. And we’d seen that before, the multi-generational experience. But we hadn’t heard of many second-generation DPW workers. The event has a wild reputation, and deservedly so. You can find a lot of what you’re looking for out here, be it personal growth, sexual exploration, spiritual connection. We can say that Burning Man has earned its reputation, so one could arrive expecting to have a completely wild and racy time. But it’s not always like that. “It’s like a family and a community of people,” Audrey says. “You know, in the real world, we’re all a bunch of fucking weirdos, and we’re all probably kind of a little bit antisocial. But out here, we’re all like that, like, let it all hang out.” She laughs easily again. “You know?” Yes, we know. “It’s like the perfect little niche. It’s not for everybody, but if it is for you, you definitely know it.” In other news: You may have seen the bug rumors on the internet. We are here to tell you that they are all true. Well maybe not all of the rumors, but the bugs are real. They’re everywhere. They bite. They crawl all over you. They get up and in you. Twin Peaks, who’s leading the construction of the Center Café, was talking about how bad they are when she jumped a little and pulled her t-shirt away from her body. A good-sized green bug fell to the ground. It had crawled into her bra. Metal Shop Heather wears a welding mask most of the day. Bugs have crawled up inside her visor and nestled around her eyes. Cammy and Stinger needed some help from the medical team to deal with the infestation; Stinger’s back was covered with nasty red welts from the bites. What’s going on? We don’t know. We don’t know how the little critters survive in the heat and the sun. All we know is that if you pick up some wood, you’re likely to uncover hundreds or thousands of the things. They’ve blown up inches deep against the sides of the Commissary tent. They’ve covered the carpets at the Depot. They’re all over the Man Base. So it’s not a localized occurrence, it’s everywhere. We don’t know where they came from, but there are two main theories: One is that all the spring and summer rain has hatched critters that lie dormant, or usually come to life at a different time of year. Or maybe they hitchhiked in on a load of wood from somewhere. Or maybe, as Shade postulated out at Man Base, there’s a Johnny Bugseed making the rounds at night, sprinkling them anywhere and everywhere. We’ve been blessed by fair skies so far during the build. For the first time in the past several years, there’s been no rain or lightning or hail or high winds to bring things to a crawl. But maybe we are making our way around the various plagues, and this year it’s time for pestilence. Marcia said that one had flown into her mouth gotten lodged between her teeth. She reports that they are quite bitter to the taste. We don’t know how long it will last. Cobra Commander said at the morning meeting that high temperatures will be with us again today, and the hope is that the heat and the dryness will knock down the bug population. “Because otherwise we’re gonna have to nuke the city” to get rid of them.

– There's a burning question in the days leading up to this year's Burning Man: Who let the bugs out? And while that may seem like an ordinary question at the start of any Burning Man, this year it's particularly literal as early-arriving Burners photograph an apparent infestation ahead of the festival's start on Aug. 30, reports Business Insider. The complaint originated on the Burning Man blog, where John Curley wrote: "It’s not a localized occurrence, it’s everywhere. We don’t know where they came from, but there are two main theories: One is that all the spring and summer rain has hatched critters that lie dormant, or usually come to life at a different time of year. Or maybe they hitchhiked in on a load of wood." The bugs are clearly bloodthirsty, reports SF Weekly, with images of bites now making the rounds. One woman reportedly had a bug fly into her mouth and lodge itself between her teeth. (Apparently they taste bitter.) Another wrestled one out of her bra. A self-described entomologist is calling them winged ants and stink bugs. Time will soon tell if the bugs put a damper on the impending festivities, because the critters are clearly no picnic. "They bite," Curley writes. "They crawl all over you. They get up and in you." And so far, they don't seem to mind the burning hot desert sun. (Check out what revelers at a Burning Man knock-off in Israel accidentally torched.)

A top U.S. Navy admiral on Monday called for a swift and thorough investigation into Monday's collision of the USS John S. McCain into an oil tanker near Singapore-- marking the second deadly mishap that occurred in the Pacific in the past three months. Adm. John Richardson ordered an operational pause in all the fleets around the world while the Navy works to determine the factors behind the collision. Richardson tweeted that the Navy will conduct a wide investigation, including a review into the possibility of "cyber intrusion or sabotage." Adm. Phil Davidson, the head of the Navy's Fleet Forces, will lead the investigation. Richardson made clear that there is no evidence of a hacking at this point, but some cyber experts have raised to possiblity given the location of the warships. Jeff Stutzman, an ex-information warfare specialist in the Navy who works at a cyber threat intelligence company, told McClatchy that “there’s something more than just human error going on." "When you are going through the Strait of Malacca, you can't tell me that a Navy destroyer doesn't have a full navigation team going with full lookouts on every wing and extra people on radar," he said. Richardson called for a review of the 7th Fleet’s maintenance, personnel and equipment in the region. He called on a new focus on surface warfare training, which includes tactical and navigational proficiency. The USS John S. McCain suffered “significant damage” to its hull after a collision with an oil tanker on Monday near Singapore. The 7th Fleet said in a statement that damage to the guided missile destroyer's hull flooded nearby compartments including crew berths, machinery and communications rooms. Ten sailors are missing and four were hospitalized in Singapore with injuries after being evacuated by helicopter. A multinational search and rescue effort involving Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the U.S. is underway. On June 17, the USS Fitzgerald was badly damaged in the collision off the coast of Japan. The waters off Japan are considered congested and considered to be challenging to navigate. The seas were relatively calm, and visibility was unrestricted. The bow of the container ship, the Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal, slammed into the Fitzgerald's right side above the waterline, quickly flooding several areas inside the ship, including a berthing, or sleeping, area. Seven sailors drowned. The New York Times reported that there were radar officers working on the bridge and combat information center below and “should have spotted the freighter’s image on their screens.” One sailor wrote the paper: “All I can say is, somebody wasn’t paying attention.” The top three leaders aboard the USS Fitzgerald were removed from duty. Aside from the USS McCain and USS Fitgerald incidents, the Navy cruiser USS Antietam ran aground dumping more than 1,000 gallons of oil in Tokyo Bay in February. In May, another cruiser, USS Lake Champlain, hit a South Korean fishing vessel. Itay Glick, the founder of a cyber security firm called Votiro, told News.com.au that his initial reaction to news of the USS McCain collision was that it may have been hacked. Glick worked in the cyber-warfare unit of the Israeli intelligence agency and pointed to the possibility of involvement from Russia and China. “I don’t believe in coincidence,” Glick said. “Both USS McCain and USS Fitzgerald were part of the 7th Fleet, there is a relationship between these two events and there may be a connection.” The Associated Press contributed to this report Edmund DeMarche is a news editor for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @EDeMarche. ||||| The destroyer USS John McCain has arrived at Changi Naval Base in Singapore after a collision with a civilian oil tanker. Pictures show a large, gaping gash in the warship's port side, which caused extensive flooding. Ten sailors remain missing and five were medically evacuated in the second collision in two months involving a U.S. Navy destroyer and a civilian tanker,. And where there's a pattern—there's a conspiracy. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The McCain collided with the Liberia-registered Alnic MC, a 600 foot long, 30,000 gross ton tanker, in the early morning hours of August 21st, resulting in a large gash on the destroyer's port (left) side. The hole flooded the ship's interior, including crew berthing, machinery, and communications rooms. Damage control teams on the ship reportedly prevented further flooding. Navy divers are on scene at Changi and further assessing damage. Closer view of the damage. Note eight Harpoon missile launchers on deck. Getty Roslan Rahman Most Popular The Strait of Malacca waterway is one of the busiest waterways in the world, with 80,980 transits by ships of all kinds , military and civilian, in 2015. The strait enables ships plying the route between Europe and Asia to shave three days and 1,000 miles off their trip, and traffic has exploded with the growth of China's economy. The USS John McCain is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer. Based at Yokosuka, Japan, it is part of the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet and one of several destroyers modified to shoot down ballistic missiles. The destroyer was returning from a freedom of navigation exercise in the South China Sea, during which it sailed within six nautical miles of Mischief Reef, an artificial island created and claimed by China. Singaporean Navy frigate RSS Intrepid escorts USS McCain into Changi Naval Base. Getty Roslan Rahman Already, conspiracies are beginning to make the rounds that the USS McCain—and the USS Fitzgerald earlier this summer—were the victims of GPS sabotage. The theory goes that some unfriendly power interfered with the U.S.-owned, satellite-based Global Positioning System. Military and commercial ships worldwide utilize GPS to determine their locations in relation to other ships. So-called "GPS spoofing" causes GPS trackers to misidentify a ship's location, presumably confusing ships and causing accidents. GPS sabotage does exist. America's potential adversaries, realizing the U.S. military's dependence on the system for everything from daily navigation to weapons targeting, have been working to devise ways to jam or spoof GPS signals. North Korea periodically jams GPS signals in South Korea , interfering with ship and aircraft navigation, while drivers in Moscow have reported GPS problems in the central part of the Russian capital. Even more ominously, in a case of actual "spoofing," last month sailors in the Black Sea reported that their GPS-based systems were misreporting the location of their ships 25 nautical miles from their actual location. The spoofing was reported off the coast of Novorossiysk, Russia. Could the McCain's collision be the result of GPS spoofing? It's very unlikely. Assuming a hostile power wanted to spoof the American destroyer, the signal it would have to broadcast to cause an accident would be wide enough to affect dozens, if not hundreds of ships in the region and someone would have noticed it. (After all, it was ordinary civilian mariners on the Black Sea that reported the spoofing campaign off Novorossiysk.) There are enough nearby islands that a meaningful deviation from what ships crews were seeing with their own eyes would have been glaringly obvious. Furthermore, the conspiracy ignores the fact that GPS is not the only means U.S. Navy ships use for navigation. Watchstanders on the McCain should have been posted to keep an eye out for unexpected obstacles, ships not broadcasting an AIS transponder signal, and other potential hazards. ||||| 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 collision of a second US warship this year points to the possibility of cyber espionage, an expert has warned. The US Navy ordered an investigation Monday into its entire 7th Fleet, based in the Pacific, after the USS John S McCain was involved in a run-in with an oil tanker near Singapore. The incident left a gaping hole in the destroyer’s hull, injured five sailors and left 10 sailors still missing. It was the second major collision in the last two months involving the 7th Fleet. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship collided in waters off Japan. US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis announced a pause in operations of the fleet so officials can take a deeper look at its performance, including personnel, navigation capabilities, maintenance, equipment, surface warfare training, munitions, certifications and how sailors move through their careers. Navy Admiral John Richardson later clarified in a Twitter post that the review would include the possibility of cyber intrusion or sabotage, although there were “no indications right now”. “But review will consider all possibilities,” he said. Speculation has been building that the USS McCain was hacked ever since news broke about the collision. Itay Glick, founder of cyber security firm Votiro said he had immediately become interested in the potential for cyber interference when he heard about the accident yesterday. “I don’t believe in coincidence,” Mr Glick told news.com.au. “Both USS McCain and USS Fitzgerald were part of the 7th Fleet, there is a relationship between these two events and there may be a connection.” Mr Glick worked in the cyber-warfare unit of the Israeli intelligence agency for seven years and he believes countries like Russia and China may have the capability to launch an attack on the warships. “China has capabilities, maybe they are trying things, it is possible,” he said. He believes there are two main ways the warship could have been interfered with, including an attack on its GPS that impacted its navigation, or a malware attack on its computer network that gave it incorrect information which may stopped it from seeing the tanker. Some have dismissed the idea the warship could have been subjected to a GPS spoof as unlikely, because the signal would have to be wide enough to affect dozens, if not hundreds of ships in the region. But Mr Glick said there had already been evidence of this type of technology being used to set at least 20 ships off track in the Black Sea near Russia, and experts have speculated there is potential for it to be isolated to just one target. “There is already a lot of interest in cyber protection of cars and autonomous vehicles, we can deduce from that, there might be a way to control ships and airplanes,” Mr Glick said. “Whenever control of the vessel is done by computer, or navigation is done by computer, there is a big risk for a cyber attack on that computer.” While investigation of the USS Fitzgerald’s collision in June has not been completed, it has already pointed to some human error. The captain has since been relieved of his command and other sailors were punished after the Navy found poor seamanship and flaws in keeping watch contributed to the collision. But Mr Glick said unless the warships were at a high readiness level, they were probably relying more on the computer for navigation than on human eyes. “Blaming a human is often easier than considering the possibility of a cyber attack,” he said. He believes the latest collision strengthens the case for the possibility of cyber espionage. “There might definitely be, because it’s not the first incidence.” The USS McCain had been heading to Singapore on a routine port visit after conducting a sensitive freedom-of-navigation operation last week by sailing near one of China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea. The accident happened at the start of a designated sea lane for ships sailing into the Singapore Strait, one of the world’s busiest. Admiral Richardson, the chief of naval operations, said the comprehensive review of the 7th Fleet would look at operational tempo and trends in personnel, matériel, maintenance and equipment. 2 clarify Re: possibility of cyber intrusion or sabotage, no indications right now...but review will consider all possibilities — Adm. John Richardson (@CNORichardson) August 21, 2017 Adm. Richardson wants to ensure there aren’t bigger problems in the fleet that may be masked by the high pace of operations and budget uncertainties, according to a Navy official. He has directed Admiral Phil Davidson, head of the Navy’s Fleet Forces, to lead the investigation. “This review will be on a very tight timetable,” Richardson said. “I want to get frequent updates. This requires urgent action and we need to get to it and take corrective action.” — With AP charis.chang@news.com.au | @charischang2

– As the Navy tries to figure out what caused its latest collision, two of the most common theories involve human error or some kind of electrical glitch in the navigation system. But another idea has surfaced as well, and the Navy isn't ruling it out: hacking. "2 clarify Re: possibility of cyber intrusion or sabotage, no indications right now...but review will consider all possibilities," tweeted Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, per Fox News. The idea is that some foreign power, perhaps China or Russia, interfered with the USS John S McCain's GPS navigation, and perhaps did the same before the deadly June collision involving the USS Fitzgerald. Here's a look at what experts are saying: 'Very unlikely': At Popular Mechanics, Kyle Mizokami tosses cold water on the idea that "GPS spoofing" is to blame. For one thing, broadcasting such an interference signal would likely have affected dozens of ships in the area, not just the USS McCain, and there's no indication of that. Plus, Navy ships don't rely solely on GPS: Human spotters should have seen the hazard. It's fishy: "There’s something more than just human error going on," a former information warfare specialist for the Navy tells McClatchy, referring to the string of Navy accidents. The story notes that on June 22, hackers appear to have manipulated the GPS signals of 20 ships in the Black Sea, the first such instance of GPS misdirection, or spoofing. The ships' GPSes actually told them they were on land, and the best guess is that the interference came from Russia. It's fishy, take II: "I don’t believe in coincidence," a former member of Israel's cyber-warfare unit tells news.com.au. In addition to interfering with GPS signals, hackers also could have planted malware in the ships' computer network, he says. "China has capabilities, maybe they are trying things, it is possible." The USS McCain had been returning from a patrol in the South China Sea, where it sailed by one of China's contested man-made islands, when the collision occurred. Remains of some of the 10 missing sailors from the USS McCain have been found on the ship itself.

The other half of the proposed bill creates a package of incentives and new programs aimed at improving prison conditions and preparing prisoners for re-entry into their communities. It would require the Justice Department to create a risk and need assessment system to nudge prisoners toward better outcomes. And it would expand time credits that reward good behavior and create new ones for participating in job-training and other programs that allow offenders to reduce their time behind bars. The legislation would also improve conditions for incarcerated women, prohibiting the shackling of female inmates while pregnant, and would require the Bureau of Prisons to locate prisoners in facilities close to their homes, if possible. The Fraternal Order of Police, the country’s largest police organization, said last Friday that it would support the bill, and the National Sheriffs’ Association appeared to have dropped some previous objections after exceptions were made to block certain fentanyl offenders from eligibility for “good-time credits” included in the prison overhaul portion of the bill. But powerful pockets of opposition remain among some law enforcement officials and conservative lawmakers — like Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas — who argue that sentencing changes like those proposed pose a risk to public safety. However, they lost a powerful ally within the administration when Mr. Trump fired his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, last week. Mr. Sessions’s temporary replacement, Matthew G. Whitaker, has signaled that he is more open to the changes. Mr. Trump himself is leery of appearing weak on crime, and he has been susceptible to arguments from opponents of a sentencing overhaul that endorsing one could arm his critics. Still, Mr. Kushner has pressed the issue for months, and some of the president’s advisers say they think the effort could help improve his anemic standing with African-American voters, even if only marginally. In his remarks on Wednesday, Mr. Trump tried to address both points, saying that the legislation would be tougher on hardened criminals. But in a reference to the tough-on-crime policies embraced by President Bill Clinton, Mr. Trump also said that the legislation would begin to roll back portions of the “Clinton crime bill” that had a “very disproportionate and very unfair” effect on black Americans. ||||| Donald Trump boosted hopes of federal criminal justice reform on Wednesday by announcing his support for the First Step Act, which seems increasingly likely to get a floor vote in the Senate before the end of the year. California rethinks life sentences for thousands of non-violent third-strike offenders Read more “We’re all better off when former inmates can re-enter society as law-abiding, productive citizens,” Trump said at the White House. “Americans from across the political spectrum can unite around prison reform legislation that will reduce crime while giving our fellow citizens a chance at redemption.” The act would expand rehabilitative opportunities for people in prison; ban some of the most startling correctional practices, such as the shackling of pregnant women; and reduce mandatory minimum sentences for a number of drug-related crimes. Sign up for the new US morning briefing The rare bipartisan effort was bolstered by a letter to senators from public figures including Van Jones, Mark Cuban, Patricia Arquette, Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West. A copy obtained by the Guardian called on Congress to “recognize the humanity” of inmates and declared that “186,000 people in federal prison and their family members” were counting on elected representatives to act. “The time is now,” the letter said. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, must now decide whether to bring the bill up for a vote. He has promised to do so if 60 votes for it can be expected – the amount needed to clear a filibuster. He also said, however, that he will have to see how the legislation “stacks up” with other priorities in the limited time before recess. As with previous iterations of the bill – which has been in the works since 2015 – negotiations have concerned two components: prison reform and sentencing reform. Prison reform, which focuses on improving conditions in federal prisons and programs to facilitate re-entry into society, enjoys broad bipartisan support. Sentencing reform, which would remove some harsh sentencing minimums imposed in the 1990s, is favored by Democrats but has fractured Republicans. First Step passed the House in May with only prison reform included, earning support from virtually all Republicans and more than two-thirds of Democrats. Generally speaking, those Democrats who held out did so on the principle that criminal justice reform legislation must include sentencing reform. A number of prominent senators, including the Republican judiciary committee chairman, Chuck Grassley, and progressive Democrats, blasted the bill for not including sentencing reform. But the bill had its all-important supporter: Trump. Early in his administration, Trump tasked his top aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner with orchestrating the administration’s work on the issue. At a bipartisan forum on criminal justice reform at the White House, the president promised he would sign the First Step Act. In the six months after the passage of the House bill, Senate lawmakers led by Grassley set about drafting their own version that could include sentencing reform without alienating Trump or Republican supporters. That effort appears to have been successful. Late last week the bill earned the support of the national Fraternal Order of Police, which may have helped convince otherwise wavering Republicans. “We could not have gotten here without the support and feedback of law enforcement,” Trump said on Wednesday. While conservatives have largely joined progressives in seeking criminal justice reform – it is now a significant plank in the platform promoted by mega-donors Charles and David Koch – many on the right nonetheless remained fearful of being seen as anti-law enforcement. Jessica Jackson-Sloan, national director for reform advocacy group Cut50, said the process of earning diverse endorsements was delicate and involved substantial concessions on all sides. “They say bipartisanship is dead and they say working with unlikely allies is dead,” she said. “But I think this bill really shows that when you roll up your sleeves, you negotiate, and you both compromise, this is what can happen.” The conservative case for criminal justice reform Read more The proposed sentencing reform would get rid of so-called “three strikes” mandatory life sentences for defendants facing a third drug conviction, except for those with a prior “serious violent felony”, and eliminate “stacking” regulations that make it illegal to posses a firearm while committing a crime, even if the firearm is not used. It would also effectively reduce a slew of federal mandatory minimum sentences by allowing judges to circumvent them for non-violent offenders when they see fit. The bill would also retroactively extend the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, a move that could affect thousands of drug offenders serving disproportionately long sentences for crack cocaine versus the powder variant. Some advocates say the prison reform could release 4,000 people currently serving long sentences, give elderly and terminally ill inmates a path home and invest tens of millions in re-entry programming. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on a rewrite of criminal justice sentencing laws (all times local): 4:45 p.m. President Donald Trump says he's "thrilled" to support a bipartisan bill to reform federal sentencing guidelines. The legislation is the first major rewrite of the nation's criminal justice sentencing laws in a generation. Lawmakers reached agreement this week on legislation that would boost rehabilitation efforts for federal prisoners and give judges more discretion when sentencing nonviolent offenders, particularly for drug offenses. Trump says he's "thrilled to announce my support for this bipartisan bill." Speaking in the Roosevelt Room to announcing his backing for the bill, he joked: "Did I hear the word bipartisan? Did I hear that word? That's a nice word." It is unclear whether the Senate will move to take up the bill during the lame-duck session. __ 1:40 p.m. President Donald Trump is planning to support the first major rewrite of the nation's criminal justice sentencing laws in a generation. That's according to a senior White House official familiar with the president's plans who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Lawmakers reached agreement this week on legislation that would boost rehabilitation efforts for federal prisoners and give judges more discretion when sentencing nonviolent offenders, particularly for drug offenses. The official said Trump was briefed on the deal and plans to support it publicly during an event at the White House Wednesday afternoon. Criminal justice reform has been a priority of Trump's son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner. Trump is expected to push for swift passage of the legislation, potentially during the lame-duck session of Congress.

– "Did I hear the word bipartisan?" President Trump asked Wednesday as he announced his support for a major reform of prison and sentencing laws. The First Step Act, which the AP calls the "first major rewrite of the nation's criminal justice sentencing laws in a generation," was created by a bipartisan group of senators and will remove some of the harsher minimum sentencing laws passed in the 1990s. "We're all better off when former inmates can re-enter society as law-abiding, productive citizens," Trump said. "Americans from across the political spectrum can unite around prison reform legislation that will reduce crime while giving our fellow citizens a chance at redemption." The bill, which builds on one the House passed in May, includes a boost to rehabilitation efforts for federal prisoners and bans practices including the shackling of pregnant women, the Guardian reports. It's not clear whether it will go to a vote during the lame-duck session of Congress, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says it will go to the floor if 60 votes can be guaranteed—depending on how it "stacks up" with other priorities. The bill is opposed by some conservatives, though its broad range of support includes both the ACLU and the Koch brothers, the New York Times reports. It earned the support of the national Fraternal Order of Police last week. (Last year, Jeff Sessions brought back tougher drug sentences.)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — As tension rose here in the battered Haitian capital, relief workers scrambled on Friday to deliver desperately needed food, water and medical care, recover survivors still trapped in the rubble and collect thousands of decaying bodies from the streets. An immense relief operation was under way, with cargo planes and military helicopters buzzing over the crowded Toussaint Louverture International Airport. But three days after the earthquake struck, with many cries for help going silent, not nearly enough search and rescue teams or emergency supplies could make it here. The United Nations said it had fed 8,000 people, while two million to three million people remained in dire need. Patience was wearing thin, and reports of looting increased, as another day went by with no power and limited fresh water. “For the moment, this is anarchy,” said Adolphe Reynald, a top aide to the mayor of Port-au-Prince, as he supervised a makeshift first aid center that was registering long lines of wounded people but had no medicine to treat them. “There’s nothing we can do. We’re out here to show that we care, that we’re suffering along with them.” The United Nations said that 9,000 people had been buried in mass graves — and collecting bodies had become one of the few ways to earn money. “They pay me $100 a day,” Valencia Joseph, 32, said Friday at 2 a.m., as he was called to tug a body free of wires. “We must have picked up 2,000 bodies.” He added, “And there’s more.” In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would visit Haiti on Saturday to show support for the victims of the 7.0-magnitude quake. The Obama administration, cautioning that it would take time for all the aid to reach those in need, granted Haitians living in the United States protection from deportation for 18 months and permission to work. Mr. Obama said he had spoken with the Haitian president, René Préval, and pledged the United States’ full commitment in helping rebuild from a quake that, according to United Nations estimates, destroyed at least 30 percent of the capital and half the buildings in some neighborhoods. “As I told the president, we realize that he needs more help and his country needs more help — much more,” Mr. Obama said. “And in this difficult hour, we will continue to provide it.” The United States, in fact, took firmer control of the emergency operation on Friday. After three days of chaos and congestion at the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s government ceded control of it to American technicians, to speed the flow of relief supplies and personnel. The Federal Aviation Administration, which began managing air traffic into Haitian airspace, issued a stern warning to allow aid to flow in a more orderly way: no planes from the United States, military or civilian, would be allowed to land without express permission from the agency. Exceptions to the new rule would be granted only to humanitarian aid planes, based on arrival times and on the availability of space at the airport, a notice from the agency said. The F.A.A. warned pilots that fuel still was not available at the airport, and that any aircraft bound here would need to have enough fuel to circle in the air for at least an hour. Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that 9,000 to 10,000 American troops were expected in Haiti, on shore and off, by Monday, and that the Pentagon was poised to send more. Speaking at a Pentagon news conference, Admiral Mullen said that about 5,000 would be ground troops, who would help with security and logistical support, among other duties; the rest would be on ships. He said that an American aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson, arrived off Haiti early Friday with 19 helicopters aboard, and that it would serve as a staging area for relief flights, purified water and other supplies. Port-au-Prince, volatile in normal times, remained relatively calm, but the United Nations reported that one of its food warehouses in the capital had been looted. It called the theft limited and said it had recovered most of its provisions. Looting of houses and shops increased Friday, and anger boiled over in unpredictable ways: residents near the city’s overfilled main cemetery stoned a group of ambulance workers seeking to drop off more bodies. Some people were bracing for the worst. Harold Marzouka, a Haitian-American businessman who was hustling his family onto a private jet to Miami, said he could feel the tension rising and feared that hunger and desperation might prompt an explosion of violence. “If aid doesn’t start pouring in at a significant level, there will be serious consequences on the streets,” he said. “People are in the shocked and frightened phase. But the next phase will be survival.” In New York, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said he recognized that the slow pace of the relief effort could make people in Port-au-Prince restive. ||||| Up to 100,000 people may have died in the Haiti earthquake, the Pan American Health Organisation has said, as the UN launches an appeal for more than $550m (£337m) in aid. "A variety of sources are estimating the numbers [at] between 50,000 and 100,000," said Jon Andrus of PAHO, the Americas arm of the World Health Organisation. Barack Obama said the US would do everything it could to get the country back on its feet. "The scale of the devastation is extraordinary ... and the losses are heartbreaking," he said at the White House. In Britain, the Disasters Emergency Committee has launched an appeal for aid. The British Red Cross said £1m was raised in the first 36 hours of its appeal. Initial estimates spoke of 45,000 to 50,000 deaths, and the sharp rise comes as peacekeepers in Haiti warn that security has become an urgent priority amid fears of a breakdown in order. UN troops patrolling the capital said there was rising anger that aid had not been distributed quickly. The Brazilian military advised that aid convoys should add security to guard against looting. "Unfortunately they're slowly getting more angry and impatient," said David Wimhurst, spokesman for the Brazilian-led UN peacekeeping mission. "I fear … we're all aware that the situation is getting more tense as the poorest people who need so much are waiting for deliveries. I think tempers might be frayed." Fevil Dubien, an aid worker, said some people were almost fighting over the water that he handed out from a truck in a northern Port-au-Prince neighbourhood. Security was the biggest problem, Delfin Antonio Rodriguez, the rescue commander from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, told the AFP news agency. "Yesterday they tried to hijack some of our trucks. Today we were barely able to work in some places because of that." The UN World Food Programme partly retracted a statement that looters had raided one of its warehouses containing 15,000 tonnes of food aid. In the new statement it said 6,000 tonnes of food remained in the building. A spokesperson said looting was not unusual in disaster situations when people were without the most basic supplies such as water. The UN said it would launch a flash appeal this afternoon in New York for $550m in aid. A flash appeal is a way of structuring a co-ordinated humanitarian response. The former US president Bill Clinton said he would try to model a disaster assistance fund along the same lines he and former president George Bush Sr pursued for victims of the Asian tsunami. Barack Obama has asked Clinton, a UN special envoy to Haiti, to work with George Bush, the previous president, on a fundraising effort. Hundreds of US troops and an aircraft carrier arrived in Port-au-Prince, raising hope that the situation would improve in the coming hours. "We have much more support on the way," said the US commander in the capital, Lieutenant General Ken Keen. "Our priority is getting relief out to the needy people, to mitigate the suffering that the Haitian people are experiencing right now." The US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson arrived off Haiti's shores overnight with 19 helicopters. It started flights from its deck this morning. The carrier has water purifying equipment and three surgical operating rooms, and can do medical evacuations as well as ferrying supplies and people to and from land. The arrivals added to more than 300 military personnel who had already landed in Haiti. The 82nd Airborne was sending another 800 troops and aiming for a full brigade of 3,500 on the ground by the end of the weekend. Jan Egerland, a former UN humanitarian chief, said he expected the arrival of aid to speed up. "We are in a very classic development. Days three, four and five are the most frustrating. Everybody knows that the whole world is mobilising and everyone has heard the promises. But it takes time to reach the beneficiaries. The infrastructure has either gone or totally clogged up," he told the BBC. He said the inability of the Haitian government to direct relief operations and the death of the head of the UN mission in the country meant the US was effectively in charge of the situation. The small airport in Port-au-Prince has struggled to cope with the stream of aid flights. Some have been turned away and little of the aid that has landed has arrived in the most needy areas. Bodies lay all around the hilly city, with people covering their mouths and noses with cloth to block out the smell. Corpses were piled on pickup trucks and delivered to the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, where the hospital director, Guy LaRoche, estimated there were 1,500 bodies piled outside the morgue. More than 48 hours after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck, people clamoured for food and water and continued digging for relatives missing under the rubble. "We need food. The people are suffering. My neighbours and friends are suffering," said Sylvain Angerlotte, 22. "We don't have money. We don't have nothing to eat. We need pure water." Aid workers warned that time was running out for the thousands still trapped in the rubble. One described his frustration at hearing the cries of trapped people but being unable to help them because of a lack of heavy machinery. Rezene Tesfamariam, the Haiti director of charity Plan International, said people were using their bare hands or basic tools such as shovels and pick-axes to dig for their loved ones. "There are people still alive underneath [rubble], you can hear them crying for help, but time is running out. It is beyond the means of individuals to reach them. They are trying to move concrete with their hands. What is desperately needed is proper machinery and equipment to lift the rubble." Tesfamariam said vehicles and equipment were urgently needed to remove the tens of thousands of bodies. "I have been travelling round the city to find where we can provide assistance and I see dead bodies lying in the street everywhere."

– Earthquake survivors desperate for food broke into a UN warehouse in Port-au-Prince today, a sign of the growing frustration at delays in relief. UN officials say they've recovered nearly all of their stocks, however, and pledged to hand out 6,000 tons of food shortly. But with necessities such as water, medical supplies, and heavy moving equipment slow to arrive, anger and despair are rising among the tens of thousands of survivors in the capital. "We're all aware that the situation is getting more tense as the poorest people who need so much are waiting for deliveries," a Brazilian peacekeeper tells the Guardian. "They are slowly getting more angry," a UN official tell the New York Times. In other developments: Cuba gave the US permission to use its airspace for relief flights. About 4,000 inmates who escaped from the main prison remain at large. About 7,000 bodies have been buried so far in a mass grave. Two big aftershocks rattled the capital again today.

Kim Jong Un has agreed to allow Nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations, and to permanently dismantle a test site and launch pad in the presence of international experts. In the meantime there will be no Rocket or Nuclear testing. Hero remains to continue being........ ||||| This video has been removed. This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason. Moon Jae-in says leaders have agreed to steps they say will lead to a nuclear-free peninsula, and Kim pledges to visit Seoul North Korea will shut down key missile test facilities in the presence of “international experts” and is willing to close its only known nuclear complex if the United States makes reciprocal measures, South Korean president Moon Jae-in has announced in a joint press conference with Kim Jong-un. The two leaders also agreed during a three-day summit in Pyongyang to connect two rail lines, on the east and west side of the peninsula, across one of the most militarised borders in the world. Kim also said he would visit Seoul in the “near future”, a move that would make him the first North Korean leader to visit the South’s capital. 'Ashamed': South Koreans chilled by Kim Jong-un's cuddles Read more North and South Korea agreed that the Korean Peninsula should turn into a “land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats”, Moon said. Any transport links would require the approval of the US-led United Nations Command, which oversees the border region. “There is not only going to be a smooth road ahead, there will be challenges and trials, but the more we overcome them the stronger we will become,” Kim said. “We are not afraid of future challenges.” The agreement signed in Pyongyang “will open a higher level for the improvement in relations” between the two Koreas, Kim added, describing it as a “leap forward” toward peace. Donald Trump described the meeting as “Very exciting!” in a tweet, and claimed Kim had “agreed to allow nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations”. He later said US relations with North Korea were much improved since he took office. “We’re making tremendous progress with respect to North Korea. Prior to becoming president, it looked like we were going to war with North Korea and now we have a lot of progress,” he told journalists at the White House. “A lot of tremendous things but very importantly no missile testing, no nuclear testing.” Under the agreement signed by the men, North Korea will shut down the Dongchang-ri missile engine testing facility and missile launch pad, according to Moon. It was not immediately clear what North Korea meant by “reciprocal measures” the US could take so that it would shut its nuclear complex, but it is unlikely Washington would agree to give up any part of its own nuclear arsenal. Handshakes and high hopes: the inter-Korean summit – in pictures Read more Kim did not mention denuclearisation at any point in his own remarks. The lack of steps specifically on the nuclear issue could worry officials in Washington, and talks between the US and North Korea have stalled in recent weeks. Mintaro Oba, a former US diplomat who focused on North Korea policy, said: “I think we can expect a two-tiered response where President Trump remains enthusiastic about engaging with Kim Jong-un, but we also see continued scepticism from US officials about both the purported progress on denuclearisation. “But if one thing is clear, it’s that North Korea continues to outmanoeuvre the United States through its willingness to take initiatives that shape the global public narrative and force Washington to choose between engaging on Pyongyang’s terms or looking like it is acting in bad faith.” The two Koreas also agreed to establish a joint military committee to resolve any potential conflicts, and each side will withdrawal 11 guard post from the demilitarised zone by the end of the year. The two militaries agreed to a range of measured to prevent accidental clashes, including a no-fly zone near the border and suspending test firing in the area. South Korea will allow its citizens to visit the Mount Kumgang tourist region in the North for the first time since 2008, when a North Korean soldier shot and killed a tourist from the South. The two sides will also establish a permanent venue for families divided by the 1950-53 Korean war to meet more frequently. In the past most families could see relatives for only a few hours, and usually only once. The two sides also plan to bid to jointly host the 2032 Summer Olympics. ||||| WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States said it was ready to resume talks with North Korea after Pyongyang pledged on Wednesday to dismantle its key missile facilities and suggested it would close its main Yongbyon nuclear complex if Washington took unspecified actions. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, first lady Kim Jung-sook, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju pose for photographs beside the Heaven Lake of Mt. Paektu, North Korea, September 20, 2018. Pyeongyang Press Corps/Pool via REUTERS U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had invited North Korea’s foreign minister to meet in New York next week, with the aim of completing its denuclearization by January 2021, after a Pyongyang summit between the leaders of the two Koreas. The United States appeared eager to seize on commitments by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at his talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in even as critics said the steps did little to put Pyongyang on a course for irreversible denuclearization. North Korea will allow experts from “concerned countries” to watch the closure of its missile engine testing site and launch pad at Tongchang-ri, Moon said at a joint news conference with Kim after their meeting in the North Korean capital. North Korea will also take additional steps such as closing its main Yongbyon nuclear complex if the United States undertook unspecified reciprocal measures, Moon added. The sudden revival of diplomacy followed weeks of doubts in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration’s about whether North Korea was willing to negotiate in good faith after a June summit between Trump and Kim yielded few tangible results. The January 2021 completion date was the most specific deadline set in what is expected to be a long process of trying to get the North to end its nuclear program, which may threaten U.S. allies South Korea and Japan as well as the U.S. homeland. In addition to inviting North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho to meet when both are in New York next week for the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders, Pompeo said Washington invited Pyongyang’s representatives to meet the U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, in Vienna at the “earliest opportunity.” China, North Korea’s most important economic backer and diplomatic ally, said it warmly welcomed the agreement reached in Pyongyang and strongly supported it. “We absolutely cannot let this hard to come by opportunity for peace slip away once again,” the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said in a statement. SKEPTICISM Some U.S. officials were deeply skeptical. Speaking before Pompeo’s announcement, two senior U.S. officials involved in U.S.-North Korea policy voiced fears Kim was trying to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul. At the summit, the two Koreas agreed on plans to resume economic cooperation, including working to reconnect rail and road links. They agreed as well to restart a joint factory park in a border city of Kaesong and tours to the North’s Mount Kumgang resort, when conditions are met. U.S. officials suggested Kim was trying to ease the economic pressure on him to curb his nuclear programs and to undercut the rationale for U.S. troops being based in South Korea by improving relations with Seoul. The United States has some 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea to deter North Korean attack. Pyongyang has long sought their withdrawal and Trump has questioned their rationale and cost. “There is nothing the North has offered so far that would constitute irreversible movement toward denuclearization, however you define that, by January 2021 or any other time, or even a reduction of the military threat it poses to the South and the region,” said a U.S. intelligence official. “Everything that’s out there now is conditional on U.S. actions that would reduce the pressure on the North to cooperate or (is) filled with loopholes and exit ramps,” added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. U.S. officials said the ambiguity about what Washington was supposed to do for the North to close its nuclear complex at Yongbyon gave Kim room to argue that Washington had not done enough for North Korea to follow through on its pledges. TRUMP: ‘HE’S CALM, I’M CALM’ Even if North Korea were to shut down Yongbyon, officials and experts believe it has other secret nuclear facilities. South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said the reciprocal U.S. steps could include an end-of-war declaration. South Korea and the United States remain technically at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty. Though Wednesday’s inter-Korean agreement failed to stipulate the North’s commitment to declare nuclear and missile facilities for inspection and eventual decommissioning, Seoul has been in talks with both Pyongyang and Washington over the issue, a senior South Korean official said. “What North Korea really wants and their priorities may be different from ours,” the official told reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity. “We’re talking about a package that would carry many elements, including the declaration of the facilities, Yongbyon and Tongchang-ri, which are of U.S. interest, and from the North side, the issues of normalizing relations, ending the war and easing sanctions.” Despite the doubts of U.S. officials and outside analysts, North Korea’s pledge at the summit with the South Korean president drew an enthusiastic response from Trump. Speaking before Pompeo’s comments, Trump‏ welcomed Kim’s pledges, calling them part of “tremendous progress” with Pyongyang on a number of fronts, and hailing “very good news” from the summit between the Koreas. “He’s calm, I’m calm - so we’ll see what happens,” Trump, who last year threatened to destroy North Korea, told reporters. ‘THEATRICAL PROMISES’ Kim pledged to work toward the “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” during two meetings with Moon earlier this year and at his summit with Trump. But discussions over how to implement the vague commitments have since faltered and North Korea has consistently refused to give up its nuclear arsenal unilaterally. Washington has demanded concrete action, such as a full disclosure of North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities, before agreeing to Pyongyang’s key goals, including an easing of international sanctions and an official end to the Korean War. While North Korea has stopped nuclear and missile tests in the past year, it did not allow international inspections of its dismantling of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in May, drawing criticism that its action was for show and could be reversed. The day after the June 12 Trump-Kim summit, Pompeo said he hoped to achieve “major disarmament” by North Korea by the end of Trump’s first term in January 2021. His latest statement that the process “should be completed by January 2021” may be a signal Washington will not wait forever. “The statement clearly implies that inter-Korean summits and theatrical promises to dismantle the odd facility simply can’t substitute for a negotiating process on the nuclear issue,” said the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Daniel Russel. “Invoking the end of Trump’s term in January 2021 is another way of saying to the North that American patience is not unlimited and that Kim Jong Un won’t be able to sidestep denuclearization indefinitely,” Russel added. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption North Korea's agreed to shut one of the country's main missile launch sites. Laura Bicker considers what might happen next. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has agreed to shut one of the country's main missile testing and launch sites. He signed a pledge to permanently close the Tongchang-ri facility, after talks in Pyongyang with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in. Both leaders also "agreed on a way to achieve denuclearisation" on the Korean peninsula, Mr Moon said. Mr Kim said he hoped to "visit Seoul in the near future" - he would be the first North Korean leader to do so. China has welcomed the outcome of the inter-Korean summit, saying both sides had found "new and important common ground". What was agreed on denuclearisation? The main focus of the summit was the issue of denuclearisation. While the US and North Korea agreed in broad terms earlier this year to work towards that goal, negotiations have stalled. Pyongyang has now sought to reconfirm its commitment. Mr Kim expressed a readiness to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facility - where North Korea is believed to have produced the material used in its nuclear tests - if the US took some reciprocal action. The details of that were not specified. But he went further on Tongchang-ri, saying the engine missile testing and launch facility would be permanently closed "in the presence of experts from relevant nations". The BBC's Seoul correspondent Laura Bicker said the announcement is a major step forward. Satellite images suggest Tongchang-ri is in the process of being destroyed, she added, but the declaration will allow inspectors to verify the process. Tongchang-ri has been North Korea's main satellite launch facility since 2012, according to monitoring group 38 North. It has also been used for testing engines for North Korean missiles capable of reaching the US. Read more on North Korea's missile and nuclear programme Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The war that never officially ended North Korea blew up its main nuclear testing site at Punggye-ri shortly before Mr Kim's meeting with US President Donald Trump in June. "The outcome is a big win for Moon Jae-in, who has managed to extract a series of positive headlines from Kim Jong-un related to denuclearisation," Ankit Panda, editor of The Diplomat, told the BBC. "None of the concessions are truly costly to Kim and won't help move North Korea toward short-term disarmament, but provide a further basis for confidence building on which US-North Korea talks can move forward." What about North-South relations? The two countries also made advances on inter-Korean ties, announcing plans to link up their railways, allow more reunions for families separated by war and co-operate on health care. Mr Moon invited the North Korean leader to Seoul, suggesting the visit should take place before the end of this year. They will also seek to co-host the 2032 Summer Olympics. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption How North Korea welcomed the South Korean leader The South's defence minister and the head of the North Korean army also signed an agreement to reduce military tensions, with a buffer zone to be established along the border to prevent accidental clashes. The signing came mid-way through a three-day visit to Pyongyang by Mr Moon. While it is the first trip to the North Korean capital in a decade by a leader from the South, it is Mr Moon's third meeting with Kim Jong-un since their historic summit in April. What does this mean for the US? Efforts towards denuclearisation between the North and the US had recently hit a deadlock and this week's Pyongyang summit will bolster the South's role as a mediator. Mr Trump was quick to tweet his applause for the Moon-Kim summit. The US and North Korea held their own historic meeting in June when Mr Trump and Mr Kim agreed in broad terms to work towards denuclearisation. Since then, however, there has been little progress, with no clear process nor timeline laid out. Image copyright Reuters Image caption The June Trump-Kim summit has so far yielded limited results Most observers warn that so far the North has taken no meaningful steps to end its controversial nuclear weapons programme and that this week's summit might not be enough to convince them otherwise. "For instance, the commitment to shutting down the Yongbyon complex is premised on reciprocal US measures, which raises difficulties," warns Mr Panda. "Washington will have to help move the needle here and it's unclear if the Trump administration can do that." Mr Trump recently said that he and Mr Kim would "prove everyone wrong", after he received an invitation from the North Korean leader for a second summit. Both sides say they are working on making that meeting happen.

– The leaders of the two Koreas have signed what President Trump calls a "very exciting" agreement on the second day of a three-day summit in Pyongyang. South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced in a joint press conference with Kim Jong Un that they had agreed to turn the peninsula into a "land of peace without nuclear weapons," the Guardian reports. Moon said Kim had agreed to permanently close the Tongchang-ri missile launch facility in the presence of international experts, reports the BBC. The Yongbyon nuclear site could also be closed, depending on "reciprocal action" from the US. The leaders also agreed to file a joint bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics. Trump praised the agreement in a tweet. Kim has "agreed to allow Nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations, and to permanently dismantle a test site and launch pad in the presence of international experts," he said. "In the meantime there will be no Rocket or Nuclear testing. Hero remains to continue being returned home to the United States." Analysts described the agreement as a small step in the right direction. "Remember that North Korea is still taking baby steps," Melissa Hanham at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies tells Reuters. "We don't have a timeline, and we also don’t have any guarantees about the larger nuclear and missile programs."

The Gilmore Girls follow-up movies are officially cleared for production after securing six cast members from the original series, led by stars Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham. After lengthy negotiations, Graham and Bledel have closed deals to reprise their roles as the mother-daughter duo of Lorelai and Rory. The Gilmore Girls lead quartet is returning intact, with Scott Patterson and Kelly Bishop signed to reprise their roles as Luke and Emily alongside Bledel and Graham. Also, returning are Gilmore Girls co-star Sean Gunn (Kirk) and Keiko Agena (Lane). The Gilmore Girls revival, whic h Netflix is treating as a farewell season of the cult show, consists of four 90-minute movies. The Gilmore Girls creator/exec producer Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino, a fellow Gilmore Girls executive producer, are writing and directing the four films, which are set in present day and unfold over a calendar year, each covering a different season. There had been a sense of missing closure among Gilmore Girls fans because Sherman-Palladino was not on board for its final season of the series and was not able to finish it the way she had originally planned. Netflix confirmed the movies were going ahead with a tweet featuring a famous line from the show and a “see you on the set” call-0ut to Sherman-Palladino, Graham and Bledel: The beloved series was a critical and commercial hit for the WB, being able to hold its own airing against then-biggest show on television, NBC’s Friends. The revival, whose exact title is still TBD, is produced by Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Here is Graham’s tweet about the revival,which has just done a table read for the first film: I CAN NOW CONFIRM: it's time for me, and this jacket I stole in 2007, to return to work.@netflix #GilmoreGirls pic.twitter.com/tBb07J9oO1 — Lauren Graham (@thelaurengraham) January 29, 2016 Graham followed Gilmore Girls with a starring role on another well received, long-running drama-comedy, Parenthood, while Bledel has done mostly features, including The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants franchise. Bledel is with CAA, Graham with ICM Partners, Patterson with Genesis Entertainment and Morris Yorn, Bishop with Abrams Artists Agency. ||||| Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images Start building up your caffeine tolerance and grab your best mug—after several months of (occasionally harrowing) rumors, Netflix confirmed Friday afternoon that a “final season” of Gilmore Girls will find a home on the streaming-and-chill platform. The original series, which aired for seven seasons from 2000-2007, followed Lorelai Gilmore, her daughter Rory, and the residents of Stars Hollow—the show’s fictional New England town. Now, nine years later, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is returning to the helm as executive producer, joined by her husband Daniel Palladino (also an EP). Together, they’ll write and direct all of the episodes in this final season. Advertisement Netflix confirmed that many of the original series’ core cast members are returning, including Lauren Graham (who played Lorelai Gilmore), Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore), Kelly Bishop (Emily Gilmore), Scott Patterson (Luke Danes), Sean Gunn (Kirk Gleason), and Keiko Agena (Lane Kim). Notable exclusions from the list, however, include Liza Weil (Paris Gellar), Yanic Truesdale (Michel Gerard), and Luke’s ever-present baseball cap. But the latter, at least, is a good bet. Less clear? Melissa McCarthy, once Lorelai's friend Sookie St. James, now a movie star. There’s no final word on the title or premiere date for the season, and Netflix hasn’t yet doled out confirmed details on number of episodes or where, exactly, this final season fits into the Gilmore Girlsiverse. Will Luke and Lorelei find their happy ending nearly a decade later? What becomes of Luke’s Diner? Is Lane touring the world and making some boy with long hair carry her drums? No matter the events of the final season, though, there’s one issue Sherman-Palladino must solve, and that’s the problem of Rory’s Exes. All intolerable in their own right (yes, even Jess), they displayed varying degrees of awfulness but shared a single common trait in that none of them deserved Rory. If the new season’s going to win hearts and make itself a worthy successor, Gilmore Girls must finally find Rory a worthy partner or—God forbid—no partner at all.

– If you're out on the road, feeling lonely and so cold, all you have to do is…come inside and log onto Netflix, because the streaming service is bringing back Gilmore Girls. Slate reports the return of the popular show—which ran from 2000 to 2007—about a grumpy New England diner owner forced by fate to provide sweets to a fast-talking mother and daughter had been rumored for months before being officially confirmed by Netflix on Friday. With the confirmation comes the announcement that six of the series' main stars will be reprising their roles: Lauren Graham (Lorelai), Alexis Bledel (Rory), Scott Patterson (Luke), Kelly Bishop (Emily), Sean Gunn (Kirk), and Keiko Agena (Lane), according to Deadline. The revival, which is being called a "final season," will comprise four 90-minute movies taking place over the course of a single year, Deadline reports. After being absent for the final televised season, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino will be back to write and direct the movies, giving her a chance to end the series on her terms. According to Slate, those terms better include finding a "worthy partner" for Rory, as her boyfriends throughout the series were "all intolerable in their own right" and "displayed varying degrees of awfulness." No premiere date for the first Gilmore Girls movie has been announced.

Image copyright Rex Features Image caption The image of the cockatoo was widely shared A bedraggled cockatoo that was pictured stripped of its feathers in a cyclone-hit Australian forest has died. The bird - dubbed "Debbie", after the cyclone - was rescued among broken twigs in Queensland on Tuesday. A photograph of the cockatoo, by the Townsville Bulletin's Alix Sweeney, became a ubiquitous image of the storm. The newspaper reported that the bird had been found dead in its box on Thursday and was returned to the forest where it had been buried. The cockatoo had probably suffered injuries during the cyclone, a wildlife carer said. On Tuesday, Ms Sweeney said she "couldn't miss" the white bird among the greenery. "There was a whole group of cockatoos sitting way up in the trees just clinging on during the gale force winds," she said. ||||| A dead shark found in Ayr, Queensland, Australia after Cyclone Debbie made landfall this week (Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Twitter) The Australian state of Queensland was hit hard this week by a vicious tropical cyclone. And while there has been property damage, thankfully no one was seriously injured by Cyclone Debbie. Well, no one, unless you count this 5-foot long shark that was found dead this morning near the floodwaters. The bull shark was found in a puddle in the town of Ayr, just north of where Cylcone Debbie made landfall. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services shared photos of the poor shark on Twitter, warning people to stay out of the flood waters that are currently swamping the area. Advertisement But nobody seems to want to call this what it is: a real life sharknado. The sharknado is, of course, when a cyclone that has become infested with sharks exacts destruction on a populated area. The rare phenomenon gained public attention after the 2013 documentary Sharknado. Heavy rains are continuing in the region and emergency crews are still performing rescue operations for people trapped in the flooding. The hardest hit areas of Queensland have seen over 15 inches of rain and roughly 50,000 homes have been without power. As many as 400 schools will remain closed tomorrow. Advertisement Sharks and schools aside, Australians were perhaps most devastated when they learned that the chaos of Cyclone Debbie had caused the beloved XXXX Brewery to catch fire on Tuesday. But Australians have been told not to worry—the fire won’t affect the beer supply. Which is good. Because after the flood water recedes everyone is going to need a drink to tell the story of where they were when a sharknado hit Australia. Because it did. This was a sharknado. Don’t question science. [7 News Australia]

– Emergency crews traipsing through the Australian town of Ayr after Cyclone Debbie made landfall came across a rather odd sight Thursday: a shark roadblock. The 5-foot-long bull shark, surrounded by little more than a puddle, had washed up on a road and died, reports the West Australian. And it wasn't the only high-profile animal to succumb to the storm, which Gizmodo is now calling "a real life sharknado." A battered cockatoo that became famous around Australia after a photographer rescued it from a tree on Tuesday has also died, though it initially showed signs of improvement, reports the BBC.

Global Crop Diversity Trust via Flickr Update 5/22: Recently, media reports emerged of water leaking into the entryway of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a facility that stores backup seeds for other seed banks all over the world. The facility is designed to be a backup for the backups. In an e-mail to Popular Science, Hege Njaa Aschim—communications director of the Norwegian Government-led organization Statsbygg, confirmed that the leaks happened last fall, during a time of high temperatures and unusual rainfall in the Svalbard area. “This fall—October 2016—we had extreme weather in Svalbard with high temperatures and a lot of rain—very unusual. This caused water intrusion into the tunnel leading to the seed vault. The seeds and the vault was never at risk. This was no flooding, but more water than we like. So we are doing measures to improve and secure the entrance and tunnel,” Aschim said. Aschim added that this year, no water has leaked into the entryway. In October, the water made it about 15 meters into the 100 meter tunnel and then stopped, freezing solid. The volume of the water that leaked in is unknown. Even before the events of October 2016, Statsbygg had already planned to take measures to waterproof the tunnel, which had an established tendency to let water in during the spring melt. While the tunnel is overlain by soil and permafrost, subject to the vagaries of weather and climate changes, the seeds themselves are stored in a vault built into the rock of the mountain—about 110 meters from the entrance to the tunnel. Initially, the people working on the project thought that the permafrost near the tunnel entrance would re-form (or re-freeze) after construction of the tunnel disturbed the layer of frozen Earth. It did not. Our original post from Friday continues below. A failure at a fail-safe vault. The irony is delicious, but that’s not the whole story. On its website, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is described by Crop Trust—the nonprofit that runs it—as “a fail-safe seed storage facility, built to stand the test of time—and the challenge of natural or man-made disasters.” It holds backups of seeds from seed banks around the world, with the goal of preserving a legacy of crop diversity in the face of changing climate, natural disasters, and human conflicts. It’s operated for a little over nine years. Then, on Friday, news spread that water from melting permafrost had gushed into the tunnel and frozen, making the floor slick with ice but not impacting the seeds. It would seem the fail-safe had failed. Or had it? “Flooding is probably not quite the right word to use in this case,” says Cary Fowler, who helped create the seed vault. “In my experience, there’s been water intrusion at the front of the tunnel every single year.” Fowler wasn't at the seed vault this year when the flooding (or 'flooding') in question took place, but has extensive knowledge of the project and facilities. He explains that a 100 meter long tunnel leads into the heart of the mountain where the seed vault is stored, running at a slight downward slope. At the base of the slope are two pumping stations to remove any water that might get in. Then there's a slight uphill section before you reach the doors to the vault itself, where the seeds are kept at 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit or -18 Celsius. “The tunnel was never meant to be water tight at the front, because we didn’t think we would need that,” Fowler says. “What happens is, in the summer the permafrost melts, and some water comes in, and when it comes in, it freezes. It doesn’t typically go very far.” Permafrost is a frozen layer of Earth that's meant to be permanent, but it can be damaged if temperatures rise, or if humans dig into it and create more ways for heat to enter. In this case, the area has been going through a record heatwave, and the construction of the tunnel nine years ago dug into the permafrost and made it more vulnerable. The combination means that near the entrance to the tunnel—where the overlying soil is thinner—meltwater can indeed make its way through. That’s why the designers installed the pumps in the first place. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault Global Crop Diversity Trust via Flickr ||||| OSLO (Reuters) - Syria’s civil war has prompted the first withdrawal of seeds from a “doomsday” vault built in an Arctic mountainside to safeguard global food supplies, officials said on Monday. Television crews stand outside the Global Seed Vault before the opening ceremony in Longyearbyen February 26, 2008. REUTERS/Bob Strong The seeds, including samples of wheat, barley and grasses suited to dry regions, have been requested by researchers elsewhere in the Middle East to replace seeds in a gene bank near the Syrian city of Aleppo that has been damaged by the war. “Protecting the world’s biodiversity in this manner is precisely the purpose of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault,” said Brian Lainoff, a spokesman for the Crop Trust, which runs the underground storage on a Norwegian island 1,300 km (800 miles) from the North Pole. The vault, which opened on the Svalbard archipelago in 2008, is designed to protect crop seeds - such as beans, rice and wheat - against the worst cataclysms of nuclear war or disease. It has more than 860,000 samples, from almost all nations. Even if the power were to fail, the vault would stay frozen and sealed for at least 200 years. The Aleppo seed bank has kept partly functioning, including a cold storage, despite the conflict. But it was no longer able to maintain its role as a hub to grow seeds and distribute them to other nations, mainly in the Middle East. Grethe Evjen, an expert at the Norwegian Agriculture Ministry, said the seeds had been requested by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA). ICARDA moved its headquarters to Beirut from Aleppo in 2012 because of the war. ICARDA wants almost 130 boxes out of 325 it had deposited in the vault, containing a total of 116,000 samples, she told Reuters. They will be sent once paperwork is completed, she said. It would be the first withdrawal from the vault, she said. Many seeds from the Aleppo collection have traits resistant to drought, which could help breed crops to withstand climate change in dry areas from Australia to Africa. Syria’s four-year civil war has killed an estimated 250,000 people and driven more than 11 million from their homes, with 7.6 million displaced within Syria.

– "This is supposed to last for eternity," says the operator of the so-called Doomsday Vault, which since 2008 has been tucked within a mountain on a Norwegian island 800 miles from the North Pole where the soil is always frozen—or is supposed to be. The Guardian reports the Global Seed Vault "has been breached," with meltwater pouring into its entrance. This though Reuters in 2015 reported that the location on the island of Spitsbergen was supposed to be so cold that in the event of power failure the nearly 1 million packets of crop seeds within the vault would be preserved for at least 200 years. The issue now is skyrocketing temperatures (roughly 45 degrees above normal in late 2016) that replaced light snow with rain and melting, and their effect on the permafrost that surrounds the vault. "It was not in our plans to think that the permafrost would not be there," explains Norwegian government rep Hege Njaa Aschim. Also not in the plans: watching the vault 24/7, as they are doing now. But now all the reasons not to panic: That water didn't make it to the vault, and new waterproofing work is underway. One of the vault's creators (who wasn't present during the incident) tells Popular Science "in my experience, there’s been water intrusion at the front of the tunnel every single year." He explains the protective mechanics of the path to the seeds: a 330-foot tunnel, two pumping stations, and a brief uphill slant before the vault, whose 0.4-degree Fahrenheit temperature would freeze any water that made it that far. (The vault saw its first withdrawal in 2015.)

Gov. Bill Haslam (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) SHARE By Erik Schelzig, The Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has decided not to veto a resolution demanding a lawsuit be filed over the federal refugee resettlement program in Tennessee. The governor announced Friday that despite his concerns about the measure, he was allowing it to go forward without his signature. "I have constitutional concerns about one branch of government telling another what to do," Haslam said in a written statement to lawmakers. Haslam said he had asked state Attorney General Herbert Slatery to clarify whether lawmakers have the authority to hire outside attorneys to represent the state. Sponsors of the resolution have said that the Thomas More Law Center in Michigan has agreed to represent the state on a refugee lawsuit free of charge if the attorney general declines to sue. Immigrant and refugee rights organizations who oppose the measure say it makes the state look unwelcoming. They also have argued that the true intention of the law is to stop or limit Muslim refugee resettlement in Tennessee. Stephanie Teatro, co-executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said the group was disappointed the governor didn't veto the measure, which she called constitutionally suspect. "As the global refugee crisis persists, we urge Governor Haslam to act with greater moral authority and courageous leadership," she said in a statement. "We must counter fear and discrimination toward people fleeing persecution and provide greater investment in the life-saving work of refugee resettlement programs." Fears about refugees in Tennessee came into focus after terrorist attacks last year in Paris and San Bernardino, California. Supporters say the lawsuit is necessary because they believe refugees are not being properly vetted by President Barack Obama's administration. Alabama and Texas have sued the federal government over the refugee rights program. Tennessee pulled out of the federal refugee resettlement program in 2008, Andrea Helling, a spokeswoman for the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, said in an email. Catholic Charities of Tennessee has been administering the program since that time, she said. "Since the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980, over 3 million refugees from more than 70 countries have been given safe haven in the U.S., along with the possibility of a new beginning, and freedom from persecution and displacement," Helling said. ___ Associated Press Writer Sheila Burke contributed to this report. ||||| (Photo: WKRN) NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – A resolution that allows the state of Tennessee to sue the federal government over refugee placement has been approved. Governor Bill Haslam returned the resolution without his signature, saying he trusts the Attorney General “to determine whether the state has a claim in this case or any other.” Fears about allowing refugees into Tennessee came about after terrorist attacks last year in Paris and San Bernardino. The Paris attacks were claimed by ISIS and both Syrian and Egyptian passports were found near the bodies of two perpetrators. Despite Haslam deciding against a veto of Tennessee’s resolution, he said he has “constitutional concerns” about one branch of the government telling another what to do. He requested the Attorney General clarify “whether the legislative branch actually has the authority to hire outside counsel to represent the state.” “I also question whether seeking to dismantle the Refugee Act of 1980 is the proper course for our state,” Haslam added. Last November, a state representative requested Attorney General Herbert Slatery issue an opinion on the proposed lawsuit regarding refugees. Slatery said the state cannot refuse to accept people the federal government has admitted to the country as refugees. He explained that “such a refusal would impinge on and conflict with the federal government’s authority to regulate the admission of aliens to the United States and thus would violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.” The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition responded Friday, saying while they are disappointed Haslam chose not to veto the resolution. “We agree with his assessment that the resolution itself is constitutionally suspect and that the legislature has overstepped its authority. We also agree that attempting to dismantle the refugee resettlement program will not make our communities any safer.” Click here to read their full statement. Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee, also responded and released the following statement: We are disappointed that the governor has chosen to allow this discriminatory resolution to become law. We share his concerns that this measure allows an unconstitutional power grab by one branch of government, undermining the separation of powers that is at the very heart of the Tennessee Constitution. This fear-driven attempt to halt refugee resettlement in our state by targeting families who are themselves fleeing violence and terror does not make our state safer. We will monitor implementation of this resolution to ensure that all residents of our state are treated fairly, equally and compassionately.

– Tennessee is poised to be the first state to sue the federal government to prevent the settlement of refugees, the Tennessean reports. On Friday, Gov. Bill Haslam refused to sign—but also refused to veto—a resolution passed resoundingly by the Tennessee legislature earlier this year. That lack of action allows the rest of the state government to move forward with a lawsuit against the federal government. The resolution calls on the state attorney general to sue the federal government. If the attorney general decides not to, the resolution says the legislature will hire its own lawyers to do so. Supporters of the resolution say they'll use a law firm that has previously challenged “abortionists, pornographers, those against school prayer, those against the Ten Commandments, those against God.” Haslam has expressed a number of concerns about the resolution in the past, including whether or not the legislature has the authority to hire outside counsel to represent the state and letting a branch of the government tell the attorney general what to do, the AP reports. The attorney general's office hasn't said whether it will follow through on the lawsuit. But attorney general Herbert Slatery has in the past said the state legally can't refuse to accept refugees mandated by the federal government, according to WKRN. Opponents of the resolution say it will make life harder for refugees already living in Tennessee. “Attempting to block refugee resettlement blames refugees for the very terror they are fleeing," the Tennessean quotes an ACLU executive director as saying. The resolution was supported through an online petition titled "Don't let potential terrorists come to Tennessee."

Microsoft’s new version of Windows is fantastic, jarring, and risky at the same time. Fantastic because it marks the clearest sign yet that Microsoft is embracing the future, shifting from the device that defined the company—the personal computer—to the new era of mobile machines. Windows 8, which is being released on Wednesday as an unfinished “consumer preview” (download yours here!), is an excellent touchscreen operating system. A few days ago Microsoft loaned me a prototype Samsung tablet running the new OS, and I’ve found the interface to be just as good as—and in some ways even better than—the iPad’s OS. If hardware companies begin making decent tablets to run Windows 8, the new operating system could make for the first worthy rival to Apple’s unstoppable machine. What’s jarring, though, is Windows 8’s split personality. While it is optimized for touchscreens, the new OS is also meant to run on the billions of laptops and desktops that have long been Microsoft’s bread and butter. The company has tried to make the system work in both places by giving Windows two completely different interfaces that you can use side by side. First, there’s the Windows you grew up with, called the Desktop in Windows 8. In the Desktop, Windows lives up to its name—all your programs run in windows that you can position anywhere on your screen. When you run any program designed for today’s Windows in the new OS, it will show up in the Desktop interface. But the Desktop isn’t how Windows 8 greets you. When you turn a Windows 8 PC on for the first time, you’ll see a Start page that’s composed of a series of brightly colored program tiles. These tiles are the gateway to Windows’ new interface, known as Metro, which was inspired by Microsoft’s wonderful Windows Phone. I found the Metro interface easy to get the hang of, and for the most part I enjoyed using it. But make no mistake: Metro is the most radical transformation in Windows’ history, an interface so novel that I’ll likely need a few weeks to feel comfortable with it. I bet this will be true for many people, especially those of us who’ll be using it on a big-screen PC rather than a tablet (meaning almost everyone). Hence the risk: Metro may represent a much-needed upgrade to an aging OS, but will Windows’ adherents consider it too much change, too fast? Advertisement The new interface offers several advantages over the traditional Windows model that will prove especially useful for touchscreen devices. As with Apple’s tablet, you won’t be able to download Metro programs from just anywhere on the Web—a change that’s certain to flummox longtime Windows users. The new interface can only run specially designed apps, which are only available through Microsoft’s built-in Windows Store. By limiting apps to those you download from a centralized store, and by strictly governing the level of access that those apps get to your computer’s resources, programs will be easier to install and malware will become less pervasive. (You can still download traditional Windows programs, though they’ll run in the Desktop view.) Metro also disposes with windows. Yes, really. By default, all Metro programs take up the full screen. And the maximum number of Metro programs you can display on your screen at the same time is two—and even then, one window occupies almost the full screen, with the second program squeezed to a narrow band on the side. In the shot below, for instance, I’ve got a PDF displayed on the right side while the Finance app is scrunched on the left. It’s not quite right to say that Windows 8 kills windows, because as Microsoft takes pains to point out, most Windows 8 machines will still be able to run every Windows program ever written. (The exception will be a new breed of Windows tablets that use mobile-friendly ARM processors—those will be able to run all Metro apps, but very few traditional programs.) Still, it’s clear that Microsoft believes Metro is the future of Windows. You get the sense that the company is keeping the Desktop interface around in the same way that it included a command prompt in Windows 95—as a way to keep the old guard placated until they adjusted to the new way of doing things. Is getting rid of windows so bad for Windows? It depends. On a touchscreen, the Metro interface is just about perfect. Although I sometimes noticed a few hiccups in performance—sometimes my swipe gestures didn’t work and sometimes scrolling and switching between apps was jerky—I chalked those up to the imperfect hardware and the fact that the OS is still in beta mode. Still, I noticed several design advances over Apple’s mobile OS. Windows 8 allows you to switch between applications with a single swipe from the edge of the screen. Apple recently added a four-finger swipe to let you switch between apps on the iPad, but I find that two-step move more cumbersome than the Windows 8 app-switching gesture.* I also like how Windows 8 displays one skinny app and one wide app on the screen at the same time. That’s another improvement on the iPad, in which every app occupies the full screen. On Windows 8, I can keep an eye on my inbox in the small pane while I browse the Web in the large one, an extremely handy touch. Finally, I’m a big fan of “live tiles,” a feature that Windows 8 borrowed from Windows phone. The Start screen’s tiles constantly surface new information without you opening them up: The email tile shows you new messages, for example, while the calendar tile displays your upcoming appointments. It’s an advance I wish Apple would copy. When you run Windows 8 on a desktop computer, though, the Metro interface is tougher to bear. For a few hours on Tuesday, I plugged the Samsung tablet into my 24-inch display, attached a keyboard and mouse, and tried to write this column using Metro apps. Microsoft hasn’t put out a Metro version of Word, so instead I opened up Microsoft’s online Word app in the Metro version of Internet Explorer. It loaded perfectly, but I nevertheless had a problem: The 24-inch screen was just too large for a single word-processing task. When I write, I like to have my notes and Web browser open on the screen as well. Metro, though, wouldn’t allow me to look at all of that stuff at the same time, and I had to keep switching back and forth. I felt like I was wasting a lot of my display. ||||| The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is only just becoming available to the public, but we’ve had the opportunity to use it for a few days on a Samsung slate nearly identical to the one we sampled at the BUILD conference for developers last year. While the device we’re using is nearly the same, the operating system itself has undergone a lot of refinement since our initial report last September. We can’t wait to install the Consumer Preview on a wide variety of current PCs and tell you all about how well it does or does not work, as well as provide tips and tricks for those of you installing it for yourselves. We know you don’t want to wait, so we offer our initial impressions of the release based on several days with a Microsoft-provided, Samsung-built slate running the same release the public will download. There’s only one major difference: the Store is not yet functional, so these impressions are based only on the apps built into the Windows 8 Consumer Preview itself. Jason Cross says: This is definitely not the flaky, feature-light version of Windows 8 released for developers last year. It’s dramatically smoother and more responsive. Apps snap open, and flipping between them is immediate. The People and Photos hubs are there, showcasing Windows 8’s integration with multiple services like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Flickr. Using these new apps and hubs with a touchscreen is a joy. They could all use a little polish and a few more features, though. It needs to be easier to save photos locally from Facebook or Flickr in the Photos hub, for instance. Everything is big, bright, smooth, and beautiful. I confined myself to a bluetooth keyboard and mouse for awhile, and the experience is definitely diminished. That’s not to say the keyboard and mouse experience is bad, mind you. I’m actually quite delighted at how well the whole Metro-style interface works with them. Microsoft has made some very welcome tweaks to accommodate the hundreds of millions of users with no touchscreen. It’s just so...new. I spent a good hour just discovering how to do things I’ve known how to do in Windows for over a decade. It’s usually a good feeling, because when I figure out how Windows 8 does something differently (like display all installed programs), I’m usually impressed by its speed and elegance. Let me say that again: I’m impressed by the speed and elegance of a Microsoft interface. Really! [Related: Windows 8 Consumer Preview: A Visual Tour] Unfortunately, I think it’s going to get rough welcome. People often don’t like change at first. Just look at the way every little tweak to the Facebook interface is received. It takes a little time, and a little trial and error, to discover where everything is, how it works, and how to get around. Then it takes a little more poking around to get really fast at it. We all know how the Internet works: there are people who will use something for two minutes (or not at all) and spend the rest of the day complaining about it on forums, comments, message boards, and social networks. I can sympathize. It’s unsettling to see such basic tenets of the Windows user experience shifted so dramatically. Windows 8 wants me to do a lot of things through the Metro interface that I used to do on a desktop interface, and there was some natural resistance to that at first. I only had to look for something in the wrong place once to become frustrated, and it took a little time to unlearn all I had learned since Windows 95. The good news is: there’s a payoff for sticking with it. It doesn’t take long, and before you know it you’re using new shortcuts and flying around the OS like an old pro. I can’t wait for the Store to launch, because much to my surprise, I find myself really valuing the Metro-style applications and they way they operate, even when using a keyboard and mouse. I want Metro apps for Spotify and Evernote, a great Twitter client and a native Facebook app. I want a Metro-style front end for Steam. I have some concerns about how well everything scales to a large monitor, but more and more, as I spent time with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, I just wanted the OS to be done and on the market already. So I suppose that’s “mission accomplished” for the folks in Redmond. Nate Ralph says: Touch has always been an interesting novelty, but I kept the slate running the Consumer Preview docked, relying on the keyboard and mouse to get around. And every so often, I found myself trying to nudge the cursor along with the spacebar, wondering where my trackpad had gone. Eventually I’d give up and use a finger to tap on the particular app I’d been trying to get to, all the while oblivious to the mouse idling beside my hands. That’s the right sort of disorienting. Tablets imply limitations: consider Android and iOS, operating systems explicitly designed to meld well with your hands. Grids of fixed, finger-friendly icons are all but mandatory, to ensure the user experience is a fluid one. Windows 8 abandons any such notions; the device melts away, and you’re left with a canvas that responds to your interactions. Gestures make sense, whatever your input preference: I slid effortlessly between dragging my finger across the screen, clicking around with the mouse, and tapping at the keyboard, depending on whatever made sense at the moment. This versatility is going to be key for users trying to make sense of the bold new interface. And then I remembered the stylus. Windows has offered phenomenal, native handwriting recognition since the halcyon days of XP – but good luck finding an application or device to take advantage of it. Hopefully, the push for Windows 8 tablets is going to alleviate that issue. But this is yet another facet of that uncompromising design that's driving everything about the Windows 8 experience: I typed on a keyboard when the slate was at my desk, but took the stylus to meetings and wrote notes by hand. Bizarre, that in light of all of the new features I reach for something as archaic as a stylus. But I’ve waited years for this – an operating system that works with me. The device is largely irrelevant – I happen to like taking notes with a pen, but use a combination of the touchscreen and a keyboard. Windows 8 leaves every option on the table, and that's fantastic. I’m still a little concerned about how this will translate onto larger screens – especially once the apps start to pile on. But things are shaping up nicely-- consider me smitten. It looks like Windows 8 is certainly going to take some getting used to. But underneath that daunting new interface are a wealth of smart decisions that go a long way towards dragging the behemoth that is Windows into the future. Perhaps most promising is the stuff we haven't looked at yet: the apps, and the way multiple Windows 8 PCs and tablets sync together. What we see here has us excited, but it doesn't have the level of polish that makes us think it's just about ready to go. Judging by the quality here, it looks likely to release this fall, though Microsoft has made no official announcement. If you want to see for yourself, download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and let us know what you think of it in the comments. Have you downloaded Windows 8 Consumer Preview? Or do you have no interest in changing to a new version of Windows? Either way, we'd like to hear your opinion. Please take PCWorld's Windows 8 Survey. It'll take five minutes or less. Follow Jason Cross and Nate Ralph on Twitter. For more blogs, stories, photos, and video about Microsoft Windows 8, check out PCWorld's complete Windows 8 coverage. ||||| I'm writing this article on a Windows 8 tablet. Thankfully, I've got a wireless keyboard and mouse as well as a dock to help the Samsung developer tablet act more like a regular PC. Microsoft made the Windows 8 Consumer Preview available this morning to everyone who wants to check it out. It was also kind enough to give Mashable a sneak peek. What exactly is a consumer preview? I can tell you this: It definitely means it's not ready for general release. It's been a challenge trying to separate issues that are due to the inherent bugginess of a pre-release, changes that I'm just not used to, and things that are real problems. But here goes. First, a little background: Windows 8 is a complete re-imagining of Windows. And it's also the same. Its schizophrenic nature is due to its two modes: the familiar (yet subtly different) desktop that we're all used to, and the Metro interface. Metro, borrowed from the Windows Phone platform, takes a hard right turn from traditional Windows: Instead of files and folders, there are touchable tiles that fire up your apps, and those apps take up the whole screen. That's really just scratching the surface of Metro, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. For this look at Windows 8, I'm going to focus mainly on the bigger-picture features and what's new since the initial developer release from last fall. Microsoft says that where the developer build was about emphasizing touch, with the consumer preview (Build 8250 for those scoring at home) it focused on showing how the mouse and keyboard is just as friendly to Metro. My first impression: Almost, but not quite. Metro With a Mouse & Keyboard Microsoft has a vision, a dream even. It wants to have the same operating system running across all its devices. It's a laudable goal, with many advantages for both Microsoft and its customers. The thing is people use different gadgets differently — you don't do all the same things on a tablet that you do on a PC, and when you do, the experience is different. Microsoft knows this, so Windows 8 is highly adaptable. It responds differently to touch than it does to a mouse. For example, to bring up your Settings menu with your finger, just slide in from the edge; if you have a mouse, you aim for the corner. Making the corners the key points when operating Windows 8 with a mouse is a good choice — they're pretty unmissable and you don't need to be precise. However, some of the subtleties in the interface appear to be poorly thought out. For starters, the icons don't follow standard web "mouseover" rules. Take one example: When you point toward the lower left corner, Windows 8 (either Metro or desktop) calls up the Start screen. Or rather, it calls up an icon for the Start screen, but if you hover your mouse over it, it disappears. This goes against what websites have trained people to do for a decade: call up menus by holding your mouse over icons, then navigating through the menu by staying on top of it. It sounds like a minor point, but it's actually not, and the same problem bubbles up time and again from Windows 8: unintuitiveness. Metro is a beautiful and powerful interface, but it's hard to get used to, sometimes needlessly so. Another example: the Start screen allows you to scroll left and right simply by pushing your mouse icon right up against the edges of the screen. Yet several apps (like Photos) incomprehensibly don't do this, instead forcing you to use a scrollbar (or the mouse scroll wheel). Again, it sounds minor, but it's everything. Also, Metro is all about scrolling left and right. Apps like Finance look beautiful, with amazing layouts and great landscape pictures. So why have the top and bottom edges do nothing at all when you mouse against them? We're all used to calling up docks or menus when pressing against the edge, and Metro even lets you do this via touch. It would have been helpful to keep some of that functionality when using the mouse. Working with a keyboard was better, with intuitive navigation via arrow keys. There are some nice keyboard shortcuts (like screengrab) that you can't replicate via touch, so it definitely opens up the experience. There was occasionally a little lag with the wireless keyboard Microsoft supplied us with, but it was something I could live with. (lots more after the gallery) Windows 8 Consumer Preview: The Good and the Bad Sharing Sharing — from any app — is built directly in to Windows 8. It's like having that suite of sharing icons (like the ones you see on every news website, including Mashable) at the ready at all times. "Share" is ever-present in your options menu, no matter what app you're in. Sharing in Windows 8 is an incredibly powerful feature, making Apple's Twitter integration in OS X Mountain Lion look like a pathetic baby step. At least that's the theory. Sharing is app-based, and so far there are no apps that work with it. When you hit Share in an app, all that's on the list is a lonely Mail icon. In fairness, this is the consumer preview, and the Windows Store — where all those Metro sharing apps will be available — hasn't even launched yet. It's important to note that sharing in Windows 8 is based on what are called contracts. Contracts are little pieces of software that an app uses to tell Windows that something in the app is shareable. Then Windows knows to call up the apps that have the ability to share when the time comes. Contracts makes it super easy for a developer to create an app that can share stuff. So why, then, is the ability absent from so many apps? I understand the Finance app not being able to share, but People? I might want to email a contact to someone — you're going to make me copy-and-paste, Windows? And you can forget about sharing anything from the classic desktop. Quibbles aside, sharing in Windows 8 could be its best feature, but we'll have to wait for the apps to come that integrate the feature. Contracts support a lot more than sharing — they also determine whether the content in an app is searchable and enable apps to interact with other apps. A contract could, for example, allow Facebook to take stories from a news reader. There's lots of potential here, but it's up to developers to unleash it. Cruising in Metro Metro is a very pretty interface. The tiles beg to be clicked and touched, and many of the apps are extremely pleasing to look at and interact with. Finance, as I mentioned, makes great use of the horizontal scroll. The Xbox Live app looks amazing, too, which is expected since the Xbox 360 is already moving toward Metro. Bing Maps is flat-out hot. Some apps need work, however. People, which appears to be a social hub that integrates your feeds from places like Facebook and Twitter is about as far from Flipboard as you can imagine. It's not even MotoBLUR. The Photos app did a good job importing my pics from Facebook and Microsoft's own cloud service, SkyDrive, but Flickr failed to load, despite many attempts (likely a bug). Mail is a bit clunky: although it easily lets you sync multiple accounts, I shouldn't need to click twice to go back to the accounts page. The Metro Start screen is very customizable... again, in theory. In practice, rearranging tiles in any precise way is virtually impossible. Once you move one, it moves others in unpredictable ways, making the whole exercise more like solving a Rubik's Cube than decorating your desktop. You can make tiles out of websites, but you can't change the size of those tiles like you can with apps. Opening Windows? You might think from my many yellow and red flags that I'm rooting against Windows 8. (Disclosure: I've used a Mac as my primary computer for more than a decade.) I'm not. I'm pulling for Microsoft with its bid to reinvent its core software for the mobile era. I think Windows is ripe for a revamp, the market needs more innovation, and Metro has already proven to be an excellent phone interface. Still, after using Metro as mouse-and-keyboard inteface, I'm more wary. As beautiful as Metro is, I think some of the decisions Microsoft has made in how it works on a traditional (that is, a non-touchscreen) PC are questionable. There's still plenty of time for Microsoft to tweak it before the general release this fall, though I'm starting to wonder if the approach of one OS for all devices — desktop, laptop, tablet, touch screen and non — is fundamentally flawed. It makes sense that, If you're going to use the same device as a tablet and a traditional PC, it would react differently to your different tools. But in practice, it flies in the face of intuition. Your gadget "muscle memory" gets confused if your mouse pointer solicits a different menu from what your finger gets via the same movement. In the end, Microsoft isn't just asking you to get used to a different interface for Windows. It's asking you to get used to multiple interfaces within the same OS. I'm not sure how many people have the patience for that. Still, Windows 8 can only get more stable and easier to use while it slowly advances toward a general release, and Metro is gorgeous enough to keep me looking forward to Windows 8's final act.

– Microsoft unleashed Windows 8 on the world today, in the form of a "Consumer Preview" (read: Open Beta), and it's definitely not business as usual. The OS is designed to work on both tablets and PCs, and that means that, while it still has a familiar Windows "Desktop" mode tucked inside, its default is a bold new "Metro" system that (gasp) does away with "windows" entirely. Apps, which must be purchased from the Windows Store, all run essentially full screen. Here's what people are saying: Farhad Manjoo of Slate calls it "fantastic, jarring, and risky at the same time." Microsoft clearly thinks Metro is the future—"You get the sense that the company is keeping the Desktop interface around the same way it included the command prompt in Windows 95"—but he found it awkward on his desktop. "I felt like I was wasting a lot of my display." "It's by far the most integrated and most capable operating system Microsoft has ever put out," gushes Seth Rosenblatt of CNET. "There's a speed and responsiveness to Windows 8 that no other version of Windows has ever had." His assessment: "It would be beyond shocking if Windows 8 landed like Vista did." But Peter Pachal for Mashable "the same problem bubbles up time and again in Windows 8: unintuitiveness. Metro is a beautiful and powerful interface, but it's hard to get used to," and lots of little things don't work the way you'd expect. "I think it's going to get rough welcome," predicts Jason Cross of PC World. "People often don't like change at first." But he likes it. "I'm impressed by its speed and elegance. Let me say that again: I'm impressed by the speed and elegance of a Micrsoft interface. Really!"

Advertisement Continue reading the main story WASHINGTON — Americans overwhelmingly favor installing video surveillance cameras in public places, judging the infringement on their privacy as an acceptable trade-off for greater security from terrorist attacks, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. A week after the Boston Marathon attack, which was unraveled after the release of video footage of the two suspects flushed them out of hiding, 78 percent of people said surveillance cameras were a good idea, the poll found. The receptiveness to cameras on street corners reflects a public that regards terrorism as a fact of life in the United States — 9 out of 10 people polled said Americans would always have to live with the risk — but also a threat that many believe the government can combat effectively through rigorous law enforcement and proper regulation. For all that confidence, there are lingering questions about the role of the nation’s intelligence agencies before the attacks, with people divided about whether they had collected information that could have prevented them (41 percent said they had; 45 percent said they had not). The murkiness of the case — the Tsarnaev brothers’ ties to the Caucasus; the warnings from Russian intelligence about potential extremist sympathies — has clearly left an impression on the public. A majority, 53 percent, said the suspects had links to a larger terrorist group, while 32 percent said they had acted alone. President Obama, in a White House news conference on Tuesday, defended the performance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security, saying the agencies had done their job, while acknowledging, “This is hard stuff.” The poll suggested that Americans are willing to tolerate further tough measures to foil future attacks. Sixty-six percent said information about how to make explosives should not be allowed on the Internet, where it would be available to aspiring terrorists, even if some would view that as a form of censorship. Thirty percent said it should be permitted in the interest of free expression. More broadly, only 20 percent of people said they believed the government had gone too far in restricting civil liberties in the fight against terrorism, while 26 percent said it had not gone far enough and 49 percent said the balance was about right. In 2011, the share of those worried about losing civil liberties (25 percent) was larger than that favoring more intrusive government approach (17 percent). “I know some people are paranoid about the government intruding on their privacy,” Judith Richards, a retired teacher from New Paltz, N.Y., said in a follow-up interview. “But with all the horrible things that have been happening, I think you have to trust this as a way to protect our well-being.” Jennifer Lopez, 26, a saleswoman in Pembroke Pines, Fla., said: “There are cameras in stores and supermarkets. Our families would be safer and surveillance cameras would provide evidence to help agencies pursue people, like they just did in Boston.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Advertisement Continue reading the main story The nationwide poll of 965 adults was conducted on landlines and cellular phones from April 24 to April 28, five days after the manhunt for the surviving suspect in the Boston bombings, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, ended with his capture in a backyard in Watertown, Mass. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. Polls taken in the aftermath of terrorist attacks often show spikes in the public’s fears of another attack. In a CBS News poll a year ago, just 10 percent of people said another attack in the United States in the next few months was “very likely,” while 27 percent said it was “somewhat likely.” In the most recent survey, 24 percent said it was very likely and 42 percent somewhat likely. There is also evidence that fears about immigrants have increased modestly. Forty-nine percent said the risk of terrorism had risen in the United States because of legal immigration. The last time that question was asked, in 2007, the percentage was 42 percent. Still, other responses were unchanged since the Boston bombings: Twenty-three percent said they were very concerned about a terrorist attack in the area in which they live, about the same as said so in 2010. Fifty-six percent said they approved of Mr. Obama’s handling of terrorism, essentially unchanged from a CBS News poll in February. Mr. Obama said the law enforcement system had functioned as it should in the days after the bombings. He also said the F.B.I. had properly handled the information it received from Russian intelligence agencies about the older of the two suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, even as Mr. Obama conceded the difficulty of preventing attacks. “People, I think, understand that we’ve got to do everything we can to prevent these kinds of attacks from taking place,” Mr. Obama said. But he added, “We’re not going to stop living our lives because warped, twisted individuals try to intimidate us.” Underscoring the president’s point, a large majority of those polled, 72 percent, said they did not plan to avoid large public events to reduce their exposure to potential terrorist attacks. That confidence came even as people were divided about whether their state and local authorities were prepared to deal with such an attack (48 percent said they were prepared; 41 percent said they were not). Federal and local law enforcement agencies won high praise in the poll for their handling of the bombings — 84 percent approved — and some people in follow-up interviews seemed to regard the way the F.B.I. worked with the Boston and other police forces as a template for the future. “If we’re going to have to live with the threat of terrorism, I think it is incredibly important that it be controlled at the local level,” said Lynn Francis, 52, a retired insurance agent in Rowlett, Tex. “If there is national intelligence, it needs to be shared with local government as quickly as possible and followed up on. National and local authorities should work together.” Kath Buffington, a retired teacher from Rochester, N.Y., said she was rattled by the images of a locked-down Boston, even if it was warranted in this case. But she said that in a country dealing with the threat of terrorism since the September 2001 attacks, the fight against it should not be a pretext for more pervasive forms of surveillance. “I don’t have a problem with cameras as long as they are public,” Ms. Buffington said. “But wiretapping without a warrant goes too far, now that the immediate 9/11 crisis is over.” ||||| Poll analysis by Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto and Fred Backus In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, 66 percent of Americans now think another terrorist attack in the U.S. is at least somewhat likely in the next few months, according to a new CBS News/ New York Times poll, up from 37 percent last year. Before the April 15 attack, nearly 12 years had passed without a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Americans are split over whether the bombings could have been prevented, according to the poll, conducted April 24-28. At the same time, they give the president and law enforcement high marks for their response to the attack. As many as 68 percent of Americans approve of Mr. Obama's response to the bombings, and 56 percent approve of his handling of terrorism generally. However, his overall job approval is lower, at 47 percent -- similar to last month. Many Republicans give the president credit for his handling of the Boston attacks (47 percent approve), but just 12 percent approve of the overall job Mr. Obama is doing as president. Obama: U.S. officials did their jobs investigating Boston bombing suspect Mr. Obama said Tuesday that law enforcement did an "exemplary job responding to the bombings, and Americans seem to agree: 84 percent said they approve of the way federal and local law enforcement handled the attack. On the other hand, some think more could have been done to prevent it: 41 percent of Americans think U.S. intelligence agencies had information that could have prevented the bombings at the Boston Marathon, but 45 percent do not. Republicans and independents are more likely than Democrats to say U.S. intelligence could have prevented the attacks. While investigations into the Boston bombings are ongoing, more Americans (53 percent) think the suspects in the attacks were connected to a larger terrorist group than think they acted alone (32 percent). Americans across the political spectrum are inclined to hold this view. Most Americans are following news about the Boston bombings, including 45 percent who are following it very closely. More attacks? Americans continue to see terrorism as part of life in the U.S. Nine in 10 agree with the statement: "Americans will always have to live with the risk of terrorism." At the same time, just a quarter are very concerned about an attack in their own area. That number was higher in the years following the 9/11 attacks. Northeasterners are more concerned than those living in other regions about an attack where they live. And while 25 percent of Americans say they are less likely to attend large public events because of terrorism, most (72 percent) are not less likely to do that. A majority of the public, 70 percent, has at least a fair amount of confidence in the federal government's ability to protect its citizens from terrorism. Confidence has dipped slightly since November 2010. Most Americans think the U.S. is prepared to deal with another terrorist attack, but they are less confident in their state and local governments. no previous page next

– Public opinion is firmly behind having more surveillance cameras in public places in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, according to a new CBS/New York Times poll. Some 78% of people called the cameras—which helped identify the suspects—a good idea, and only 20% said the government had gone too far in restricting civil liberties to fight terrorism, the poll found. "There are cameras in stores and supermarkets," one respondent, a saleswoman in Florida, said in a follow-up interview. "Our families would be safer and surveillance cameras would provide evidence to help agencies pursue people, like they just did in Boston." The poll found that 66% of Americans believe another terrorist attack is at least somewhat likely in the next few months, up from just 37% at this time last year, according to the poll, which also found that the public gave law enforcement agencies high marks for their handling of the bombings. Some 84% approved of how law enforcement dealt with the attacks, and 68%—including 47% of Republicans—approved of President Obama's response.

Japanese writer Haruki Murakami receives the ''XXIII Premi Internacional Catalunya'' prize from Catalunya's Regional President Artur Mas during an awards ceremony in Barcelona, June 9, 2011. TOKYO Worried about your future, the meaning of life or the realness of unreal things? Ask Japanese author Haruki Murakami for enlightenment - or as much as a surrealist can give. Though a perennial favorite for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Murakami is so notoriously reclusive that nobody knows for sure where in the world he lives, and he has joked about biting fans who get too close. But for a short period this spring, the global bestselling author, 65, will take any and all questions posed to him by readers, answering those that pique his interest, his publisher Shinchosha said on Tuesday. "He likes to engage with readers, but there's so much interest it's hard for him to interact well. This should be smoother," a company spokeswoman added. The company will take questions from Jan 15 to 31, and Murakami's responses will run until the end of March on a special page called "Murakami's Place" on the company's website. Born in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto to schoolteachers, Murakami's often surreal books have been translated into more than 50 languages and feature characters bonding through pain. He has lived in self-imposed exile for years and is often a harsh critic of his home country. His most recent novel, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage", was an instant bestseller that had Japanese fans queueing to buy it at a midnight release in 2013. Murakami is known to be a passionate runner, fan of cats and devout supporter of Tokyo's Yakult Swallows, a perennially cellar-dwelling baseball team, and questions are likely to touch on these topics as well as literature, the spokeswoman said. "We expect there to be some rather strange questions as well," she added. "Which ones he answers depends on him." (Editing by Tony Tharakan) ||||| This article is over 3 years old Publisher for the Japanese novelist says he will answer ‘questions of any kind’ from readers on his own website Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami is to offer advice to troubled readers in an agony uncle column on his website, his publisher said Tuesday. The website, named “Murakami-san no tokoro” or “Mr. Murakami’s place” will solicit problems from fans of the surrealist, whose novels are published in dozens of languages around the world. The publicity-shy writer will pen answers to queries, offering his opinions and advice on how to tackle all manner of difficulties, said Shinchosha Publishing. “He will receive questions of any kind,” a company spokesman said, adding that he will answer queries written in a variety of languages. Murakami will also answer fans’ questions on his likes and dislikes - including cats, a favourite animal of his, and the Yakult Swallows, the Japanese baseball team he supports. Problems and queries will be accepted until the end of January, and Murakami’s answers will be published over the following two months. The scheme echoes a similar project in 2006, and offers a rare chance for Murakami’s legions of fans to communicate directly with a writer who spends much of his time hiding from the glare of the media. “After so long, I want to exchange emails with readers,” Murakami was quoted by the publisher as saying. Murakami is one of Japan’s best known writers and has repeatedly been tipped as a future Nobel Literature laureate. The 65-year-old, who reportedly spends much of his time in the United States, has a cult following for his intricately-crafted tales of the absurdity and loneliness of modern life, and peppers his work with references to pop culture. The website’s URL or email address for questions is not yet available, the publisher’s spokesman said. ||||| Candy Windows He runs in slow-mo with a wall of flame Boiling behind him like Valhalla’s fall In Götterdämmerung. He made his name From being bulletproof. He summons all His skills to get the girl from Bucharest To Rome or Paris or wherever suits The budget. Somewhere she can get un-dressed: The only scene for which we give two hoots. The heavies blast the road or bomb the train. The dialogue is dreck, the plot inane. They make love. Breasts and bottoms fill the frame When suddenly the whole motel explodes: The bad guys in a tank. Devoid of shame, He frisks her lovely corpse for the launch codes Of the secret anthrax time-bomb missile thing. They’re tattooed on her thigh. But look, she stirs. The soundtrack fills with strings that soar and sing. When has he ever seen a face like hers Since his last movie? They run for the car, She is the jail-bait, he the veteran star. The enemy is an army: all the same He kills the lot, but finds himself alone. The girl is gone, and gradually the game Changes. He fails to steal the new nose-cone His HQ wants, and where once he could burst Through candy windows, now he fears they might Be real glass, and – much worse, the very worst – The gathering night could really be the night When he, immortal once, but not again, Must bruise, and bleed, and die like other men. Published in the NS of 31 July. Clive James’s most recent collection is Sentenced to Life (Picador). His Collected Poems will be published in spring 2016. Fred “Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were sexy, but only with their feet, like butterflies.” – Clive James Forget dancing backwards in high heels and all that jazz – I’ve told you before, I want to be Fred. A sparrow of a chap turned shining black- bird, magpie-tuxed, woodpecker heel and toe, but gliding swallow-tailed, smooth as you please. Mr Anti-Gravity. Impossible geometries of flair and speed. No map. I ache for the ease, the froth of her skirt, the gloss of his shoes. And yet am sick of so much breeziness, balsawood plots, paper plane trajectories. She can fluff those ostrich feathers up all she likes, if he’s in love with anything it’s the steps. Sometimes in a solo, there’s a glint, a glimpse – of what? All of this perfect lightness. Where on earth did you find it, Mr Auster-litz? Published in the New Statesman of 9 January 2015. Isobel Dixon’s col-lections include A Fold in the Map (Salt). “Fred” appears in Double Bill: Poems Inspired by Popular Cul-ture (Red Squirrel Press). All illustrations by Max Gregor The Glen April morning, rising mist, last fugitive snow-drifts cooried below the dykes’ north sides; a naked mountain ash tree next a tumbling burn . . . Ay, it’s a different season here, different world . . . So if you don’t mind, heather of the hillside, and it’s alright by you, small invin-cible bird, I’ll lean on this here boulder by the old drove road, and get my eye in, lighting on this and that. “It’s nothing to us” you might shrug, – and you’d be right. Under the bright-hemmed clouds above the ridge a dozen jackdaws chack. Published in the NS of 27 March 2015. “The Glen”, which fea-tured in the Bristol Festival of Ideas new Lyrical Ballads project, also appears in Kathleen Jamie’s latest collection, The Bonniest Companie (Picador). The adulteress was her joke name for herself though unfashionable & (except in the literal sense) incorrect. She had to stop attending dinner parties as someone would inevitably say something like, “I didn’t know which husband to expect tonight!” or “Your husband” this/ “Your husband” that with her partner sitting right there. She did not view herself as a joke & yet this joke word “adulteress” was in her head so she said to her daughter who was learning to sew, “Can you make a big red A & sew it on my black dress?” Her daughter said, “Which black dress?” & the woman said, “Every black dress.” Published in the NS of 2 October 2015. Kathryn Maris’s most recent collection is God Loves You (Seren). Origi-nally from New York, she now lives in London. Words I know that when the words are clear and bright nothing else is, as the milk of street lamps dims out the stars, but I can only keep echoing my own footsteps longing for brightness, for streets lit by the stars alone, dark and shining. I want to learn the language of these trees that line my streets, dreaming upright all through the dark till light wakes in them and crows slowly make their own blacks out from the dawn. But the words of trees are so large we cannot hear them. I want to make them out from the hungry waking-up of the crows in the dawn coming from the bay, like a song of the light itself. I’m stranded in our dream of learning ceaseless ripple-waves of language I cannot quite but always almost can make out the words of. Words care-fully, like marsh waders in silvery after-dawn light as the tide comes in meandering to shore, picking their way towards us. Published in the NS of 5 June 2015. Patrick Daly lives in California. His work has been published in the New York Times and his chapbook Playing With Fire (Jacaranda Press) won an Abby Niebauer Memorial prize. On approaching Pendle Hill The path up to Pendle. The sleeping beast. The purple skies. Folk tell of witches burned or branded or drowned or hung up there. They tell of failed crops, stillborn calves, murrain. Always the women. Always the witches. Never the men. Never the frost, never mastitis or scours or footrot; never blackthorn or angel trumpet, hemlock, ragwort or lupine. Never in drink or lust or fear or guilt. Never in penance or madness. It’s always the women. It’s always the witches. The path past Pendle. The buried bones. The violaceous skies. Published in the NS of 24 April 2015. Benjamin Myers’s novels in-clude Pig Iron and Beast-ings. “On Approaching Pendle Hill” features in his collection Heathcliff Adrift (New Writing North).

– Who better to offer advice to the lovelorn, the beleaguered, and the downtrodden than a hermit-like Japanese novelist? That's the plan for Haruki Murakami, known recluse and one of Japan's most famous writers, his publisher said today, per the Guardian. According to Shinchosha Publishing, the 65-year-old surrealist author will serve as what the Brits call an "agony uncle" on a page called "Murakami's Place" on its website, dispensing wisdom in response to questions submitted by readers from Jan. 15 through Jan. 31, Reuters reports. He'll tackle "questions of any kind," a company rep says per the Guardian. "After so long, I want to exchange emails with readers," Murakami is quoted as saying by Shinchosha, with the rep adding to Reuters that "he likes to engage with readers, but there's so much interest it's hard for him to interact well. This should be smoother." Marukami once referred to himself as "an endangered species [that] may get intimidated and bite" if people got too close to him, the New Statesman reported in 2013. No one's sure where the self-banished Murakami—often brought up as a possible Nobel Prize candidate—lives, though the Guardian notes he "spends much of his time" in the US; the New Statesman claims he resides in both Japan and Hawaii. Some of the Qs he may receive will likely touch on some of his favorite topics, including cats and the Yakult Swallows, a pro Japanese baseball team. Or they may be more fitting for a writer known for what the Guardian calls "intricately-crafted tales of the absurdity and loneliness of modern life": "We expect there to be some rather strange questions," the rep says, per Reuters. "Which ones he answers depends on him." (Hopefully it will turn out better than this lad-mag column.)

traffic Iowa’s New Anti-Texting Thumb Bands Misunderstand How Teenagers Work To stop residents from driving while texting, Iowa police have basically created the next Silly Bandz. As part of its "X the TXT" campaign, the state has ordered 30,000 thumb bands in black, blue, and bright pink with words "TXTING KILLS," giving them away at the Iowa State Fair and high school football games. Hey, take a picture of me driving with this thing on so I can tweet that shit. Seriously, have you ever seen a kid in a D.A.R.E. shirt that wasn't stoned? [WSJ] ||||| Iowa police are on the lookout for drivers who send text messages behind the wheel. So far, the effort is all thumbs. Instead of tickets, police are giving texting drivers colorful bands to wear on their thumbs that say: "TXTNG KILLS." View Full Image Iowa Department of Public Safety A 'TXTNG KILLS' thumb band being handed out by Iowa police. The bands are part of a statewide campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of texting while driving under a new law prohibiting the practice that took effect July 1. For the first year, police can give scofflaws warnings only. Next year, fines will kick in. Deputy Craig LaKose of the Cerro Gordo County Sheriff's Department in northern Iowa was given half a dozen of the bands in blue, black and bright pink at the beginning of October, but has yet to catch anyone in the act. "It's hard to grab somebody when you're in a marked squad car," he said. "In your own personal car, you can see it going down the road—how many people are doing it." Courtney Greene, spokeswoman for Iowa's Department of Public Safety, said even state police have trouble catching texters in the act. After a few stops, she said, "the kids text out, 'Watch out, put your phones down.' " The state ordered 30,000 of the bands and plans to order another 30,000. State employees have been distributing them at events such as the Iowa State Fair, high-school football games and the Iowa-Iowa State college football game. "A lot of people want them for their kids," Ms. Greene said. "It's a fun way to get across a serious message about not texting and driving." Several national groups are handing out similar thumb bands, including insurance giant Allstate Corp., whose "X the TXT" campaign has persuaded more than 100,000 people to pledge to stop texting while driving since last November. Thirty states ban texting while driving, including 11 that enacted laws this year, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that in 2008 nearly 6,000 people died in crashes involving some type of distracted driving, including cellphone use and texting. In Iowa, 16 people have died in accidents involving cellphones since 2001. Sheriff Kevin Pals in Cerro Gordo County, population 47,000, said he received about 150 of the bands, which he gave to his deputies to hand out during traffic stops or to anyone who asks for one. "I got a call from a woman in Des Moines who wanted them for her nieces and nephews," he said. "I'm optimistic they'll go fast." Write to Joe Barrett at joseph.barrett@wsj.com

– Iowa drivers caught texting while driving under a new law aren't getting tickets. Instead, police are handing out brightly colored thumb bracelets that bear the phrase TXTING KILLS, reports the Wall Street Journal. The idea is to raise awareness, with fines kicking in next year. State employees are also distributing the bracelets at fairs and football games. So far, authorities say they're not having much luck catching drivers in the act. Once a few stops are made, "the kids text out, 'Watch out, put your phones down,'" says a spokesman for the Public Safety office. The Daily Intel blog at New York magazine is a wee bit skeptical of the bracelet approach. "Seriously, have you ever seen a kid in a DARE shirt that wasn't stoned?"

James Howells, an IT worker living in the United Kingdom, knows exactly where his misplaced 7,500 bitcoins are but the city council where he lives won't let him retrieve them. They say it's against the law. According to a report published in The Telegraph, Howells began mining bitcoin on his personal laptop in 2009. In 2013, though, "after I had stopped mining, the laptop I had used was broken into parts and sold on eBay," Howells tells The Telegraph. He kept the drive he used to collect the bitcoins, "so if bitcoin did become valuable one day, I would still have the coins I mined." But, while cleaning his home in 2013, he mistakenly put it into a waste bin at his local landfill site in Newport, South Wales, where it got buried. Now, with bitcoin's value hovering just above $17,000 Wednesday, according to digital-currency website CoinDesk, Howells' 7,500 lost bitcoins are worth more than $127 million. CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index tracks prices from digital currency exchanges Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Coinbase and itBit. More than four years' worth of garbage have poured into the dump since his mistake, which would make any recovery effort a significant undertaking. "A modern landfill is a complex engineering project and digging one up brings up all sorts of environmental issues, such as dangerous gasses and potential landfill fires," Howells says. "It's a big, expensive and risky project." ||||| Newscast/UIG via Getty Images What does it feel like to lose $75,000,000 in bitcoin? James Howells tries not to let it get to him. And strictly speaking, he knows where his coins are — they're under 200,000 tonnes of garbage at a landfill in Newport, South Wales. Back in 2009, Howells set an old laptop to mining bitcoin – back before you needed specialised hardware – eventually totting up 7,500 coins. He later broke up the Dell M1710 into parts to sell on eBay, but kept the hard drive tucked away in a drawer in case bitcoin ever did take off. Four years later, he'd forgotten about his horde, and during a clean out, the hard drive was accidentally binned, presumably landing in Newport landfill. Advertisement At that time, his bitcoin stash was already worth millions. Thanks to the digital currency's value skyrocketing from between $300 and $1,000 in 2013 to more than $10,000 this week, his pile is now worth $75 million. Why isn't he frantically digging through refuse? For that matter, why aren't you? The council won't allow it – it's dangerous and difficult. "I haven’t actually tried to search for the hard drive yet as I haven’t been given permission to look despite having financial backing in place and engaging the local council a number of times," Howells tells me via email. "Digging up a landfill is not as easy as just digging a hole in the ground." It would require diggers, plenty of specialist help, and, Howells says, be the first such excavation that wasn't related to a criminal investigation in the UK – though such an effort has been done in the US to retrieve dumped ET Atari cartridges. Read next Another week, another bitcoin hack, another huge price drop Another week, another bitcoin hack, another huge price drop A spokesperson for Newport City Council said it has been "contacted in the past about the possibility of retrieving a piece of IT hardware said to contain bitcoins". But the costs of digging up the landfill, and storing and treating the waste, would run into the millions and cause a "huge environmental impact on the surrounding area". And there's no guarantee the drive would be found or still work. The landfill contains around 350,000 tonnes of waste, with 50,000 added annually, the spokesperson said. "It is likely that the hardware would have suffered significant galvanic corrosion due to the presence of landfill leachates and gases," they added. Millions in costs, dangerous conditions, no promise of a reward... but what a reward if found. Newport City Council has faced budgetary concerns this year – the head of the council has warned that council tax will increase amid services cuts – and Howells believes bitcoin will eventually be worth so much they will have no choice but to let him search. "And obviously they would get a nice percentage as a gift or donation." If this all makes you want to hop a train to Newport with a shovel in hand, be warned that aside from being dangerous, the landfill is not open to the public and "any potential treasure hunters" would be committing a criminal offence, the council spokesperson noted. And the effort required to search for the drive means you're sure to be noticed. Advertisement Howells still has the public address, so he can check that his coins haven't moved; if you do find the hard drive, note that the data is encrypted, so you'll need his help either way. "If they ever moved I would know," he says. "It's a little like looking at your bank account containing millions of dollars but not being able to spend it." If you doubt his good humour about the whole story, he follows that statement with a "lol". Howells is always aware of the bitcoin price, but not because of his missing treasure. "I have multiple tickers running with prices in different fiat currencies, but that's not because I’m obsessed with the price because of my lost coins," he said. "I’m still active in the bitcoin space and still involved with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies on a day-to-day basis promoting, tweeting, trading, development, research, learning." His interests now lie in Bitcoin Cash, the result of a hard fork in August, and he has plenty more to say about the post-fork discussion and the future of digital currencies than he does the lost coins. If he had access to his digital fortune, he believes he'd have sold up some of it by now anyway, partially to invest in rival currencies. "Who knows for sure... honestly I probably would have sold 30 per cent or 40 per cent at around $1,000 in 2013 to invest in property and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and kept the rest in bitcoin," he says. "I know for sure I would not have sold them all because I believe the bitcoin price will be much higher than $10,000 long term. Even $100,000 is a conservative figure." If that ever happens, his missing bitcoin will be worth $750m – which may well be enough to get Newport Council's attention.

– When covering the story four years ago, Newser's headline read, "$7.5M Bitcoin Fortune Buried in Landfill." That fortune ended up in a Welsh landfill after James Howells threw out a hard drive over that summer while cleaning up his workspace. On it was the cryptographic "private key" he needed to access his 7,500 Bitcoins—which are now worth far, far more. With bitcoin valued at roughly $17,000 as of Wednesday, those 7,500 lost bitcoins are worth more than $127 million, reports CNBC. He tells the Telegraph that he hasn't "sat here crying about it, accidents happen." But that hasn't deterred him from hoping he'll one day get to go searching at the Newport landfill, something the Newport City Council currently won't allow. It would be a novel undertaking: "A landfill has never been excavated in the UK before" for non-criminal reasons, he says, "so we’re in uncharted territory with regards to regulations, local authorities and environmental agencies." And there are plenty of risks, from deadly gases to the possibility of landfill fires, not to mention the cost. But "the higher the value goes, the more chance I have to recover it," he says. Wired spoke with a rep from the city council, and the upshot isn't too optimistic, with the rep citing the huge costs of doing the excavating and storing the waste, plus the "huge environmental impact on the surrounding area"—and after all that, the hard drive might not be found or usable, though Howells has brushed off naysayers who argue the drive would be destroyed by corrosion at this point. (Read about a bitcoin crime.)

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." —Margaret Thatcher With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people's money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us. While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone: • Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees' Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness. Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully. Our plan's costs are much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a very high degree of worker satisfaction. • Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair. • Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable. • Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying. • Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care. • Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor's visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us? • Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility. • Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter? Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any. This "right" has never existed in America Even in countries like Canada and the U.K., there is no intrinsic right to health care. Rather, citizens in these countries are told by government bureaucrats what health-care treatments they are eligible to receive and when they can receive them. All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments. Although Canada has a population smaller than California, 830,000 Canadians are currently waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment, according to a report last month in Investor's Business Daily. In England, the waiting list is 1.8 million. At Whole Foods we allow our team members to vote on what benefits they most want the company to fund. Our Canadian and British employees express their benefit preferences very clearly—they want supplemental health-care dollars that they can control and spend themselves without permission from their governments. Why would they want such additional health-care benefit dollars if they already have an "intrinsic right to health care"? The answer is clear—no such right truly exists in either Canada or the U.K.—or in any other country. Rather than increase government spending and control, we need to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for his or her own health. Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices. Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age. Health-care reform is very important. Whatever reforms are enacted it is essential that they be financially responsible, and that we have the freedom to choose doctors and the health-care services that best suit our own unique set of lifestyle choices. We are all responsible for our own lives and our own health. We should take that responsibility very seriously and use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health. Doing so will enrich our lives and will help create a vibrant and sustainable American society. Mr. Mackey is co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc. ||||| Health Whole Foods CEO: Obamacare Is ‘Like Fascism’ In an interview with NPR, Whole Foods CEO and self-professed libertarian John Mackey revived his previous criticism of Obamacare — but this time, with a new twist. While Mackey incorrectly denounced the landmark health reform law as “socialism” in a controversial 2009 Wall Street Journal op-ed, the multimillionaire CEO has revised his assessment and now considers Obamacare — also incorrectly — to be closer to “fascism”: “Technically speaking, it’s more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it, and that’s what’s happening with our healthcare programs and these reforms.” Although fascist nations do often control their “means of production,” Mackey seems to have forgotten that they usually utilize warfare, forced mass mobilization of the public, and politically-motivated violence against their own peoples to achieve their ends. By contrast, Obamacare regulates some of the insurance industry’s shoddiest practices and imposes a small tax penalty on Americans who refuse to purchase government-subsidized private insurance. That hasn’t stopped other conservative critics of Obamacare from making similar statements. In 2011, former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum decried that America was falling into the throes of fascism, and that the health reform law was its “final death knell.” ||||| Eating And Health Whole Foods Founder John Mackey On Fascism And 'Conscious Capitalism' i itoggle caption Harry Cabluck/AP Harry Cabluck/AP UPDATE at 12:35 p.m., ET, Jan. 17: Many of you wrote in to tell us you were taken aback by Whole Foods top executive John Mackey characterizing the health law as fascism in an NPR interview, and apparently, he's feeling a little sheepish. About three minutes into his otherwise amiable chat with CBS This Morning hosts on on Thursday, Mackey walked back his comments in response to a direct question from Norah O'Donnell: "Well, I think that was a bad choice of words on my part ... that word has an association with of course dictatorships in the 20th century like Germany and Spain, and Italy. What I know is that we no longer have free enterprise capitalism in health care, it's not a system any longer where people are able to innovate, it's not based on voluntary exchange. The government is directing it. So we need a new word for it. I don't know what they right word is," Mackey says. i itoggle caption Whole Foods Market/Courtesy Harvard Business Review Press Whole Foods Market/Courtesy Harvard Business Review Press Part 1 of his interview with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep is linked above, and you can hear him discuss the president's health care plan and his other philosophies here in Part 2, which aired Thursday. Our Original Post: No doubt, Whole Foods has played a key role in propelling organic foods into the mainstream. The specialty supermarket chain has more than 300 stores and plans to continue expanding. But Mackey is not the crunchy granola liberal one might conjure while perusing aisles of earnestly labeled blue corn chips and gently misted red peppers. He's a self-styled libertarian: a vegan who sells sustainably raised meat, a man who compares the government's health care overhaul to "fascism" but wants to improve American diets. And he thinks big businesses have an obligation to change customers' perception that big corporations are "primarily selfish and greedy." (Not that he's opposed to profits. In fact, Whole Foods posted a 49 percent boost in quarterly earnings in November.) Mackey sat down with Inskeep to discuss his philosophy and the new book he co-authored, Conscious Capitalism. Mackey tells Inskeep that companies must have a higher purpose than just making money. For example, when Whole Foods decided it wanted to stop selling overfished species of cod and octopus at its seafood counters, it didn't just abruptly cut off its suppliers. Instead, the company gave its suppliers three years to come up with a better way of fishing; during that time, the seafood stayed for sale — but with a label of "unsustainable." In the end, Whole Foods, working with the Marine Stewardship Council (we'll have much more on them later), was able to find one supplier of sustainable cod. "You take a risk when you do that because some of your customers ... who don't care about sustainability, they're going to go shop at your competitor's store who has the fish, so you lose some business that way," Mackey says. "But it was the right thing to do." What he doesn't think is right is President Obama's health overhaul and the new costs that coverage requirements will place on businesses. When Inskeep asks him if he still thinks the health law is a form of socialism, as he's said before, Mackey responds: "Technically speaking, it's more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn't own the means of production, but they do control it — and that's what's happening with our health care programs and these reforms." Still, Mackey sees room to cooperate with the administration on another front: efforts to reform the American diet, a pet project of first lady Michelle Obama. "People in America are addicted to sugar, and to fat and to salt," he says, and as a nation, it's holding us back. "Food is intensely pleasurable, and people are afraid that if they change the way they eat, they'll stop having pleasure." Still, he acknowledges how hard it can be to stick to a health-conscious diet. Restaurant meals, he says, rarely meet his personal dietary rules — not just no meat, but also no oil or refined flour. Luckily, Mackey jokes, there's a Whole Foods to be found wherever he travels. So our question to you, dear readers, is this: How big a role does a business leader's personal philosophy play in your decision to buy products from his or her company? Tell us in the comments section below.

– Thought Whole Foods founder John Mackey would be an Obama-loving liberal? Not so much. The self-described libertarian, who has compared ObamaCare to socialism in the past, now says "it's more like fascism." The quote comes from a new interview with NPR, and continues: "Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it—and that’s what’s happening with our healthcare programs and these reforms." But, writes Sy Mukherjee on ThinkProgress, Mackey has apparently forgotten that fascist nations also "usually utilize warfare, forced mass mobilization of the public, and politically motivated violence against their own peoples to achieve their ends." ObamaCare, on the other hand, "regulates some of the insurance industry’s shoddiest practices and imposes a small tax penalty on Americans who refuse to purchase government-subsidized private insurance."

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's state-run news agency says prosecutors are seeking more than four years in prison for NBA player Enes Kanter on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Anadolu Agency says an indictment prepared by the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office accuses the New York Knicks center of insulting the president in a series of tweets he posted in May and June 2016. Kanter, who is in the United States, would be tried in absentia. Turkish prosecutors are seeking a four-year prison term for Knicks player Enes Kanter, who sent a series of tweets that the government deemed insulting. John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports Kanter said on Wednesday that he isn't bothered by the potential indictment. "You guys were seeing today that I was just out there having fun, playing basketball and practicing with my teammates," Kanter said. "... You guys are going to say, 'How do you get used to, like, prison, this and that, whatever?' I think it's just nothing to me, man, because I'm in America. I'm good. My focus right now is just going out there, playing basketball, having fun with my teammates and just winning, and just thinking about playoffs. I don't really think about all this stuff, whatever. They can do whatever they want to do." Kanter, who grew up in Turkey, is a vocal supporter of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric blamed by Turkey for last year's failed military coup. Kanter was detained in Romania on May 20 because his Turkish passport was canceled. He said he was able to return to the United States after American officials intervened. The Knicks center said he found out about the indictment on Wednesday morning. "I was like, 'Oh, four years.' I was like, 'That's it? Only four years? All the trash I've been talking?' I said I promise you guys, it doesn't really bother me a little, even one bit," he said. "My thing is just going out there and just playing basketball." Kanter was asked Wednesday if he hopes the situation in his country can change. "The only thing you can do is just pray for all these innocent people in Turkey," he said. "People don't understand. They're saying your family is still back in Turkey -- why are you doing all of this? Why are you talking? I'm just trying to be the voice of all of these innocent people, man. Because all of these innocent people are just going through really tough times. Journalists, innocent people in jail getting tortured and killed and kidnapped. And it's pretty messed up." He added that the Knicks' success on the court would be a good way to answer back to the government. "If we make playoffs, then that will drive him crazy, so that's what I'm really focused on right now, just make the playoffs and drive this dude crazy," he said. Of Erdogan, Kanter added: "That dude is maniac. Think about it. I mean, America ... you've got freedom of whatever you want to say. I mean, it's a free country. But it's not like that in Turkey. You cannot criticize or you cannot even say nothing bad about the dude, Erdogan. Just, like, say he's a bad guy and you're in a prison. It's politics. People can choose or say whatever they want to say. I think right now the situation there is pretty messed up." ESPN's Ian Begley and the Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| Enes Kanter is one of the more outspoken players in the N.B.A., riffing about LeBron James or Kevin Durant or just about anything else that grabs his attention. But the Knicks center is never more passionate than when speaking out about his home country of Turkey. And in recent years, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has amassed more and more power, Kanter has emerged as one of Erdogan’s louder and more prominent critics. Kanter’s decision to be vocal has come at a cost. Out of caution, he has not visited Turkey in years, and in May he was detained for hours at an airport in Romania after the Turkish government canceled his travel documents. On Wednesday, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported that prosecutors were seeking more than four years in jail for Kanter on charges that he has insulted Erdogan on Twitter. It should be noted that Kanter has 526,000 followers on Twitter, giving him a sizable audience when he has something to say.

– New York Knicks center Enes Kanter took news that prosecutors in Turkey want to imprison him about as well as a person could. "Four years? That's it?" he said on Wednesday, per the New York Times. "For all of the trash I've been talking?" Turkish media reported earlier Wednesday that the "fugitive" would be tried in absentia on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with prosecutors seeking four years in prison, reports Hurriyet Daily News. Kanter—who was born to Turkish parents in Switzerland and grew up in Turkey before moving to the US—is a vocal supporter of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who's been blamed for last year's failed military coup in Turkey, reports ESPN. He continued to bash the leader Wednesday, telling reporters he's a "maniac." "I'm just trying to be the voice of all of these innocent people," said Kanter, who hasn't visited Turkey in years, per the Times. "Journalists, innocent people in jail getting tortured and killed and kidnapped. And it's pretty messed up." The first sign of Turkey's displeasure at his comments came in May, when Kanter's Turkish passport was canceled. He was temporarily detained in Romania before US officials intervened. Kanter has said his family home in Turkey was also raided. The New York Daily News reports Kanter's father publicly disowned him while apologizing to Erdogan in August. The charges now laid against Kanter are "just nothing to me, man, because I'm in America. I'm good," Kanter said. "It's a free country. But it's not like that in Turkey." Acknowledging laws banning criticism of Erdogan, he added, "They can do whatever they want to do."

Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. The body of a Massachusetts honeymooner who was swept away by floodwaters in Costa Rica in front of his wife has been recovered, the man's family said in a statement to NBC News affiliate WESH. Josh Byrne, 30, and his wife, Bianca, who were married earlier this month, were in Playa Dominicalito when he went missing last week when the vehicle they were traveling in was caught in a flash flood while trying to traverse a bridge, WESH reported. Bianca was able to swim to shore, but Josh was swept away by the river. Josh Byrne in a photo posted to his Facebook account. via Facebook "It is with heavy hearts that we have concluded our search for Josh," the Byrne family said in a statement to WESH. "After working around the clock, our search and rescue mission ended today with the recovery of Josh’s remains." Byrne's father and brother flew to Costa Rica on Friday to search for him. His remains were found the following day, according to WESH. Mike Ciprari, the CEO of SJC Custom Drums, where Byrne was employed, confirmed his death to NBC News and said the company learned of Byrne's death from his family. "His even keel attitude allowed us to get through the many growing pains and transitions we have faced," Ciprari wrote in a post to Instagram. "We were lucky to have Josh by our side for so many years, and we will cherish those memories forever." The Byrne family said Josh Byrne would be remembered for his "helpful and caring demeanor," his skills making friends, and "his love for his wife, Bianca." CORRECTION (4:22 p.m. ET October 15, 2018): An earlier photograph with this article mistakenly said it was of John Byrne. It was not of him. The current photograph shows Byrne. ||||| Josh was swept away in a flash flood while on his honeymoon in Costa Rica on Friday, October 12."It is with heavy hearts that we have concluded our search for Josh," a statement from the family said. "After working around the clock, our search and rescue mission ended today with the recovery of Josh’s remains.""Josh holds a special place in all of our hearts and will always be remembered for his helpful and caring demeanor, his ability to make friends in any setting, and his love for his wife, Bianca," the family said.The family offered its thanks to the local community, Massachusetts political leaders, the Red Cross and the U.S. Embassy and State Department for their help.Please help donate help the family cover costs for the logistics of a proper recovery and services.Thank you for your support.When we close the Go Fund Me, Josh' father, Paul Byrne, will withdraw the Go Fund Me funds and use to help pay for Josh' services and other family matters. ||||| Family members said the body of Josh Byrne, who was swept away by flood waters while on his honeymoon in Costa Rica, was discovered Saturday. The 30-year-old Byrne, a Hudson, Massachusetts, native, was married to his wife, Bianca, last weekend on a farm in New Hampshire. Advertisement The newlyweds were honeymooning on the west coast of Costa Rica, in an area known as Playa Dominicalito, when they were caught up in a flash flood as they were trying to cross a bridge. Bianca was able to swim to shore, but Byrne was swept away. Josh's father and brother flew to the country Friday to help locals search along the banks of the river for him. "It is with heavy hearts that we have concluded our search for Josh," a statement from the family said. "After working around the clock, our search and rescue mission ended today with the recovery of Josh’s remains." "Josh holds a special place in all of our hearts and will always be remembered for his helpful and caring demeanor, his ability to make friends in any setting, and his love for his wife, Bianca," the family said. The family offered its thanks to the local community, Massachusetts political leaders, the Red Cross and the U.S. Embassy and State Department for their help. AlertMe

– Josh and Bianca Byrne were married on a New Hampshire farm the first weekend in October. Their new life together was cut tragically short during their honeymoon in Costa Rica, when Josh was swept away in a flash flood on Oct. 12. His body was found the following day, WESH reports. The couple was in a vehicle trying to cross a bridge in Playa Dominicalito when the flood hit; Bianca was able to swim to shore but Josh wasn't, NBC News reports. "It is with heavy hearts that we have concluded our search for Josh," says a statement released by his family. "After working around the clock, our search and rescue mission ended today with the recovery of Josh’s remains." A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for Byrne's family.

The Force Awakens may have been released before Christmas but Star Wars mania is still going strong. Fortunately, a new movie has been scheduled every year for at least the next five years, including spin-off films focusing on the lead characters’ backstories. Dates are subject to change but for now, you can pencil the below into your diary and look forward to more lightsaber action. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, 16 December 2016 Directed by Garth Edwards, this movie is set after the foundation of the Galactic Empire, when a “wayward band of Rebel fighters comes together to carry out a desperate mission”. They must steal plans for the Death Star before it is used to strengthen the Emperor’s rule. Stars Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Riz Ahmed and more. Star Wars Episode VIII, 15 December 2017 Directed and written by Rian Johnson and set to star many of The Force Awakens cast from Daisy Ridley to Mark Hamill. No synopsis yet but long-serving Star Wars screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan promises that Johnson is “going to make some weird thing”. The good kind, hopefully. Star Wars Anthology: Hans Solo, 25 May 2018 Just a working title at this stage, luckily, as it’s rubbish. The Lego Movie’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller are directing, with Lawrence and Jon Kasdan writing. The cast is yet to be announced, but this film will see fans learn how young Han Solo became who he was when Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first met him in the cantina at Mos Eisley. Star Wars Episode IX, 2019 No official release date for this one yet but Jurassic World’s Colin Trevorrow is directing so expect it to be epic in scale. Rion Johnson is the man with the pen again, so here’s hoping everyone enjoys Episode VIII enough to want more from him. Star Wars Anthology: Boba Fett, 2020 This is the vaguest of the lot - all we know is that it’s reportedly arriving sometime in 2020. Josh Trank was once on board to direct but has since abandoned spaceship. Start sourcing the ultimate Star Wars costume now, because less than a year is not long to wait, especially as it’s been 32 years since Return of the Jedi. ||||| You just saw The Force Awakens and want more next-gen Star Wars. Well, you’re going to get more. A lot more. Regularly and steadily, for many years to come. But when, specifically, will each new title be released? Below is Disney’s not-quite-top-secret plan. Obviously, these dates are subject to change. Thankfully, no Bothans died to bring us this information … Director: Gareth Edwards Written by: Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, and Alan Tudyk Logline: Following the foundation of the Galactic Empire, a wayward band of Rebel fighters comes together to carry out a desperate mission: to steal the plans for the Death Star before it can be used to enforce the Emperor’s rule. Release: Dec. 16, 2016 (So, yes, a long full year. But given we had to wait a decade for The Force Awakens — or, depending on your feelings about the prequels, 32 years since Return of the Jedi — sitting back for just one year doesn’t seem all that bad …) RELATED: Star Wars: The Force Awakens: An Exclusive EW Gallery of New Photos Written and directed by Rian Johnson Starring: Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac (reportedly) Release: Dec. 15, 2017 (pushed back seven months from its original release date of May, 2017) Logline: Unknown (working title) Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Written by: Lawrence and Jon Kasdan Starring: Not yet announced Logline: How young Han Solo became the smuggler, thief, and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley. Release: May 25th, 2018 RELATED: Star Wars: The Force Awakens: A collection of cameos and Easter eggs Director: Colin Trevorrow Writer: Rian Johnson Starring: Not yet announced Logline: Unknown Release: 2019 Director: Not yet announced Writer: Not yet announced Starring: Not yet announced Logline: Unknown Release: 2020 (reportedly) So if all this goes according to plan, we’ll get five Star Wars films in four years … after getting “only” seven Star Wars films over 38 years. Not bad! This post has been updated with new release date information since its original publication.

– Hate Star Wars spoilers? Click away now ... because five more Star Wars films are coming in what Entertainment Weekly calls "Disney’s not-quite-top-secret plan." Without further ado: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. With a cast including Felicity Jones and Diego Luna, it chronicles a group of Rebel fighters trying to find plans for the Death Star before it's too late. Coming Dec. 16, 2016. Star Wars: Episode VIII. Apparently starring Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, and Oscar Isaac, it's due on May 26, 2017. Star Wars Anthology: Han Solo (tentative title). Written by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, it will chronicle Han Solo's rise to full-fledged smuggler and scoundrel. Coming in 2019. Star Wars: Episode IX and Star Wars Anthology: Boba Fett are scheduled for 2019 and 2020, respectively, but little else is known. Not too shabby, considering it took 38 years to produce the first seven Star Wars films. As the Independent puts it, "Start sourcing the ultimate Star Wars costume now, because less than a year is not long to wait." (See how George Lucas walked back his "epic slam" on Disney.)

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump and congressional lawmakers signaled on Tuesday that more steps need to be taken to rein in North Korea's rapidly developing nuclear program despite the United Nations Security Council's unanimous vote to pass additional sanctions on the rogue nation. Trump noted the 15-0 UN vote during a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, but said they are "just another very small step, not a big deal" and suggested that he doesn't know "if it has any impact." Trump added that the sanctions pale in comparison to "what ultimately will have to happen" to North Korea. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday that the UN resolution represented "the strongest set of sanctions" so far, adding that "that's significant." Trump, she suggested, was conveying that tougher measures can still be taken because the international community is not "at the ceiling" of what can be done. The North Korean Foreign Ministry condemned the sanctions "in the strongest terms," calling them a "heinous provocation aimed at depriving the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name) of its legitimate right for self-defense." "The 'resolution' was fabricated by the US employing all sorts of despicable and vicious means and methods," the statement said, according to a report in North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). That statement followed a similar message from Monday, in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported Pyongyang would respond to any sanctions by inflicting upon the United States "the greatest pain and suffering it had ever gone through in its entire history," KCNA reported. Frustration in the House Trump's remarks came just hours after House lawmakers from both parties expressed frustration that the US isn't exerting greater pressure on China to stop North Korea's march toward developing nuclear weapons capable of striking the continental United States. "We don't threaten China, even a little bit, with country sanctions because that would be difficult, politically," to do, said Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat. China, North Korea's closest diplomatic ally and largest trading partner, is seen as key to solving the standoff with Pyongyang. The committee chairman, Republican Rep. Ed Royce of California, said he agreed with Sherman and urged more sanctions against Chinese banks that do business with North Korea. "It's been a long, long time of waiting for China to comply with the sanctions we pass and, frankly, the sanctions the United Nations passes." Meanwhile, Democrats charged that Trump is exacerbating the increasingly tense standoff with North Korea with his belligerent comments and tweets. "He talked about the response of the United States of 'fire and fury,'" said Democratic Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia. "Frankly, the policy looks more like fecklessness and failure." JUST WATCHED Critics: N. Korea sanctions draft watered down Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Critics: N. Korea sanctions draft watered down 03:01 The lawmakers aired their frustration as US officials outlined ways in which China and Russia are failing to do everything they can to rein in North Korea, even as the nuclear threat from the rogue regime grows more intense. China's leaders are looking the other way as DPRK uses its banking system and front companies to do business, while Russian companies continue to provide support to Pyongyang, said Marshall Billingslea, assistant secretary in the Treasury Department's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "It is essential that the international community work together to increase economic pressure on North Korea," Billingslea told the committee. But "DPRK bank representatives operate in Russia in flagrant disregard of the very resolutions adopted by Russia at the UN," he said in prepared remarks. And while China accounts for 90% of North Korean exports, Billingslea said he "cannot assure the committee today that we have seen sufficient evidence of China's willingness to truly shut down North Korean revenue flows, expunge the North Korean illicit actors from its banking system, and expel the North Korean middlemen and brokers who are establishing webs of front companies." Pressure on China Both Billingslea and Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary for the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said that the administration is pushing China to act. "We are determined to induce the Chinese to help solve this problem," Billingslea said. Thornton added that "we're certainly looking at every option to put pressure on China." But when asked about cutting off trade, she offered a caution. "That would be a huge step and there are lots of ramifications on that." Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with China's most senior diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi Tuesday, where the subject undoubtedly came up. Neither official took questions from reporters during a photo op at the State Department. Meanwhile, Ambassador Joseph Yun, who serves as special representative for North Korea Policy at the State Department, is in Moscow for meetings on North Korea. Billingslea said the US is "capable of tracking North Korea's trade on banned goods... and we will act even if China does not." He said that the US has recently caught North Korea trying to disguise the origin of ships it's using -- and added that cracking down on North Korean ship traffic will be crucial to enforcing sanctions. These vessels have been spotted entering North Korean ports with their transponders turned off in violation of international law, Billingslea said. They have then been seen loading cargo such as coal, sailing to a Russian port where the coal is offloaded and then put on a vessel bound for China. JUST WATCHED Why does North Korea keep launching ICBMs? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Why does North Korea keep launching ICBMs? 01:14 Thornton said greater international cooperation in enforcing existing sanctions and applying pressure will be crucial to Tillerson's "peaceful pressure" campaign to isolate North Korea diplomatically and economically to force them to the negotiating table. It's already yielding some successes, she said, pointing to the Philippines announcing it will cut all trade, and other countries, including Mexico and Egypt, taking steps to scale back links to Pyongyang. And she pointed to new UN sanctions, pushed through by the US. On August 5, the US drafted a UN resolution that embargoed all imports of North Korean coal, iron, lead and seafood and required nations to cap employment of DPRK workers. On Monday, a second US-drafted UN resolution targeted North Korea's textile exports, further cut its ability to send workers overseas, curbed refined petroleum products going to Pyongyang and banned all joint ventures with it. Tools in the toolbox US officials have also hinted that they are ready to do more. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking Tuesday at CNBC's Institutional Investor Conference Delivering Alpha, said that the US has "sent a message that anybody that wanted to trade with North Korea, we consider them not trading with us. We can put economic sanctions to stop people trading." Citing the latest UN resolution, he said he was "very pleased with the resolution that passed. This is some of the strongest items. We now have more tools in our toolbox and we will continue to use them to put additional sanctions on North Korea until they stop this behavior." In the meantime, Thornton said the US remains ready to counter any threat with force, even as it pushes for a diplomatic solution. "Our military, together with our allies, remains prepared to respond immediately and resolutely to any attack or threat of attack," Thornton said. She added that "we've been clear we're not seeking regime change or collapse in North Korea, or reunification." JUST WATCHED McCain open to nuclear weapons for South Korea Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH McCain open to nuclear weapons for South Korea 02:02 "There should be no doubt about our resolve to defend our allies and our homeland," Thornton said, adding that "we are ready to respond if necessary. Meanwhile, we remain open to diplomacy, but the DPRK must show it is ready for serious engagement. We have not seen any such indication." Indeed, the pace of North Korea's missile testing has increased dramatically. This year alone, it has conducted 16 missile tests, including two intercontinental ballistic missiles, which could reach the US. On August 28, it launched a missile directly over Japan, endangering Japanese airspace and "and clearly was meant as a blatant threat to the people of Japan, and to us and our armed forces stationed there," said Billingslea. And on September 3, the DPRK conducted its sixth test of a nuclear device -- the most powerful its ever detonated -- marking "an unacceptable provocation," Billingslea said. ||||| SEOUL, South Korea — The last time South Korea is known to have plotted to assassinate the North Korean leadership, nothing went as planned. In the late 1960s, after North Korean commandoes tried to ransack the presidential palace in Seoul, South Korea secretly trained misfits plucked from prison or off the streets to sneak into North Korea and slit the throat of its leader, Kim Il-sung. When the mission was aborted, the men mutinied. They killed their trainers and fought their way into Seoul before blowing themselves up, an episode the government concealed for decades. Now, as Mr. Kim’s grandson, Kim Jong-un, accelerates his nuclear missile program, South Korea is again targeting the North’s leadership. A day after North Korea conducted its sixth — and by far most powerful — nuclear test this month, the South Korean defense minister, Song Young-moo, told lawmakers in Seoul that a special forces brigade defense officials described as a “decapitation unit” would be established by the end of the year. ||||| South Korea is forming a hit squad to take out North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Following North Korea’s successful test of its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb earlier this month, the South Korean military has announced it’s creating an assassination unit called the Spartan 3000 to carry out night raids in North Korea. Once in the North, the group could be tasked to kill the leadership — primarily Kim. It could go in early and preempt a North Korean attack on the South, or fight in the middle of a war. South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo told lawmakers of the government’s intention to build the “decapitation unit” on September 4, the day after the recent nuclear test. The administration wants the team ready by the end of the year. The unit is central to a longstanding plan to fight North Korea if necessary — called “Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation.” In September 2016, the North tested its fifth nuclear weapon, which at that point was the largest bomb it had detonated. Two days later, the South Korean military noted it had the option to kill North Korean leadership, including Kim. South Korea’s previous president, the hawkish Park Geun-hye, planned to have the unit ready by 2019. But it appears the administration of the dovish Moon Jae-in wants it ready to go much sooner — likely because Moon needs to show he’s pushing back on a more aggressive North. “I think this may be more in response to domestic pressure on the Moon administration to reintroduce US tactical nuclear weapons than an escalation with North Korea,” Troy Stangarone, an expert at the Korea Economic Institute, told me in an interview. Last week, Song floated that idea in front of political leaders, but Moon has repeatedly said he doesn’t want those weapons in South Korea. “This has been getting quite a bit of play over the last few days, so [the administration] need[s] to be seen as taking strong steps to defend South Korea in the absence of a nuclear option,” Stangarone continued. “This is about deterrence.” The announcement seems to have the approval of former South Korean military leaders. “The best deterrence we can have, next to having our own nukes, is to make Kim Jong Un fear for his life,” Shin Won-sik, a South Korean three-star general who retired in 2015, told the Times. The Spartan 3000 will be a modern version of a ragtag assassination team the South Koreans created in the 1960s. Back then, the South Korean military secretly trained prisoners and others to go into North Korea and kill then-leader Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather. But the new unit is officially recognized by the Moon government. And it’s not the only military moves this administration has made in recent days. South Korea is preparing for an unlikely war “We cannot rely only on our ally for our security,” Moon said in a nationally televised speech on August 15, alluding to the United States. “When it comes to matters related to the Korean Peninsula, our country has to take the initiative in resolving them.” And take the initiative he has. On September 5, Moon told Trump that South Korea wants to build a nuclear submarine. Seoul also wants to increase the payload on its missiles so they can do more damage, and has temporarily deployed the last four THAAD missile defense systems that it bought from the US. And Moon plans to buy more military equipment from the United States now that President Donald Trump has approved the sales. The New York Times also reports that South Korea has three ongoing war plans: “Kill Chain,” in which South Korea would preemptively launch missiles at North Korea if it detected Pyongyang was about to shoot projectiles of its own at the South; “Korea Air and Missile Defense,” which aims to take out any rockets shot by North Korea’s artillery force, which is the largest in the world; and “Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation,” where the goal is to destroy the area in Pyongyang Kim hides in to avoid assassination. South Korea is naturally worried about what North Korea can do. In case of a war, South Korea would be one of Pyongyang’s first targets. Seoul, South Korea’s capital with a metro area that hosts around half of the country’s 50 million people, is only about 35 miles from the inter-Korean border. That’s near where around 70 percent of North Korea’s ground forces are stationed. One war game convened by the Atlantic back in 2005 predicted that a North Korean attack would kill 100,000 people in Seoul in the first few days alone. Others put the estimate even higher. A war game mentioned by the National Interest predicted Seoul could “be hit by over half-a-million shells in under an hour.” Critics may still see Moon as a dove on North Korea. But that description doesn’t seem to fit after some of these latest militaristic moves — which Moon wants to do to stave off a North Korean attack.

– South Korea has taken the unusual step of publicly speaking about plans to assassinate Kim Jong Un and other North Korean leaders in the event of conflict. After North Korea's latest nuclear test, South Korean Defense Minister Song Young Moo told lawmakers that he was speeding up the creation of a "decapitation unit" capable of crossing the border for nighttime missions against North Korean facilities and its "wartime command," the New York Times reports. Officials say the special forces unit, which will apparently be comprised of members of the "Spartan 3000" unit, will be capable of striking anywhere in the Korean Peninsula within 24 hours. Song has said he wants to have the unit ready by the end of the year. The creation of the unit is part of South Korea's "Massive Punishment and Retaliation" plan for possible war with the North, Vox reports. Analysts say that by disclosing facts about the "decapitation unit," Seoul appears to want to make Pyongyang nervous enough to think twice about its nuclear program and return to the negotiating table. "The best deterrence we can have, next to having our own nukes, is to make Kim Jong Un fear for his life," says retired Gen. Shin Won Sik, formerly the South Korean military's chief strategist. President Trump, meanwhile, said Tuesday that tough new sanctions are "no big deal" compared to "what ultimately will have to happen" to North Korea, CNN reports.

Previous record-holder Frank Giannino Jr. helped hold the finish-line banner at New York City Hall. After Pete Kostelnick ran through it, Giannino presented a gold baton to him, a symbolic passing of the record. Photo: Courtesy of Hoka One One, Justin Britton When Pete Kostelnick set out from San Francisco on Sept. 12, his goal was to break a record that had withstood every challenge for 36 years. To do it, he hoped to run at least 70 miles a day for more than two months to New York City, a feat of physical and mental endurance that some believed was nearly impossible. But on Monday, Oct. 24, Kostelnick not only broke the record, he crushed it by roughly 4 days. Kostelnick, 29, jogged onto the steps of New York City Hall late Monday afternoon in 42 days, 6 hours and 30 minutes, beating the mark of 46 days, eight hours and 36 minutes set in 1980 by Frank Giannino Jr. For the new record Kostelnick averaged just over 72 miles per day, covering a total of 3,067 miles. Accompanied by a small group of runners who escorted him through the streets of Manhattan, Kostelnick looked almost fresh in his bright blue shirt, sunglasses and backward baseball cap as he finished off an 87-mile last leg that began at midnight. He finished his run at City Hall, the same location where Giannino finished his run decades ago. After climbing the steps, accompanied by his wife, Nikki, they shared a kiss and a long, emotional hug. “I am not running back!” Kostelnick said to those who had gathered. “I think it was more mentally and emotionally challenging then physical,” he added. “Everyone who came out was incredible. That’s what got me through this run, meeting so many awesome people across this country. I couldn’t have done it without them … It was an incredible journey.” Giannino, who was there to see the record-breaking finish among a crowd of Kostelnick’s family, friends and runners, had known for weeks that his record would fall. “He’s at the top of his game,” Giannino said on Monday. “He has this thing completely measured.” Giannino, in fact, helped hold the finish-line banner. After Kostelnick ran through it, he presented a gold baton to him, a symbolic passing of the record. “Congratulations, brother!” Giannino said as he handed it over. The run didn’t start out smooth for Kostelnick, a financial planner originally from Iowa. After six days, he needed to take a rest day because of problems with his ankles and shin. But after that, Kostelnick got back on the road and kept churning. As time went on, he said he felt stronger and stronger. RELATED: Strava Data for Pete Kostelnick’s Record Run Five years ago, Kostelnick first started thinking about going after the record when he met standout ultra runner Marshall Ulrich at a race in Colorado and they talked about Ulrich’s cross-country run. Kostelnick said recently that he knew he wasn’t ready to attempt it then, but he kept the idea in the back of his mind. This year—after winning the Badwater Ultramarathon for a second straight year—he felt he was ready. Ulrich didn’t know who Kostelnick was when he first met him. “I didn’t know him from Adam,” Ulrich said—but he followed his running progress with interest the last couple of years. Now Ulrich, who ran across the U.S. himself in 52 days back in 2008 at the age of 57, says it’s hard to explain how amazing Kostelnick’s feat is. “I’m in awe of it,” he said. “It almost makes me speechless.” The fact Kostelnick chose to run essentially the same route that Giannino had run in 1980 is also impressive. Ulrich explained that route is longer and more difficult—because of crossings through the Sierra and Rockies—than a more southerly route. Ulrich also said he thought someone might come along to beat Giannino’s record, but he never believed anyone could shatter it the way Kostelnick did. “I’ll tell you what, this is probably, at least in my book, the most significant running feat that has taken place in probably the last three decades,” he said. “The combination of physical and mental challenges to run more than 3,000 miles is a high hurdle. “The big question was: Did he have the mental prowess overall? And he’s proven over and over that he does,” Ulrich said. Nikki Kostelnick hadn’t seen her husband since August. But she was there to greet him at City Hall on Monday. She’d stay in contact with him, making phone calls along the way, but it was hard to connect because of Kostelnick’s running and sleeping schedule. Just before Kostelnick finished, she said Pete had been feeling “pretty rough” and “ready to be done.” But she said she always knew he could break the record once he started. “Once he gets into his rhythm, he has no problems,” she said. At the moment, Nikki says her husband is not going to be running anywhere for a while. “I’m going to force him to rest,” she said. “He needs to take at least a month off.” RELATED: Strava HeatMap Tracking of Kostelnick’s Record Run ||||| For the comic character Pheidippides, see the Clouds Pheidippides (Greek: Φειδιππίδης) or Philippides (Φιλιππίδης) is the central figure in the story that inspired a modern sporting event, the marathon race. Pheidippides is said to have run from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of a military victory against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. Story [ edit ] Luc-Olivier Merson, 1869 Painting of Pheidippides as he gave word of the Greek victory over Persia at the Battle of Marathon to the people of Athens. The first recorded account showing a courier running from Marathon to Athens to announce victory is from within Lucian's prose on the first use of the word "joy" as a greeting in A Slip of the Tongue in Greeting.[1] ... Philippides, the one who acted as courier, is said to have used it first in our sense when he brought the news of victory from Marathon and addressed the magistrates in session when they were anxious how the battle had ended ; "Joy to you, we've won" he said, and there and then he died, breathing his last breath with the words "Joy to you". – Lucian translated by K.Kilburn.[2] ... The modern use of the word dates back to Philippides the dispatch-runner. Bringing the news of the victory at Marathon, he found the archons seated, in suspense regarding the issue of the battle. 'Joy, we win!' he said, and died upon his message, breathing his last in the word Joy ... – Lucian Pro lapsu inter salutandum (translated by F.G. and H.W. Fowler, 1905)[3] The traditional story relates that Pheidippides (530–490 BC), an Athenian herald or hemerodrome[1] (translated as "day-runner" (Kyle 2007),[4] "courier" (Larcher 1806),[5][6] "professional-running courier" (Sears 2003)[1] or "day-long runner" (Miller 2006)[7]), was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon, Greece. He ran about 240 km (150 mi) in two days. He then ran the 40 km (25 mi) from the battlefield near Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word νικῶμεν (nikomen[8] "We win!"), as stated by Lucian chairete, nikomen ("hail, we are the winners")[9] and then collapsed and died. Most accounts incorrectly attribute this story to the historian Herodotus, who wrote the history of the Persian Wars in his Histories (composed about 440 BC). However, Magill and Moose (2003) suggest that the story is likely a "romantic invention." They point out that Lucian is the only classical source with all the elements of the story known in modern culture as the "Marathon story of Pheidippides": a messenger running from the fields of Marathon to announce victory, then dying on completion of his mission.[10] Robert Browning gave a version of the traditional story in his 1879 poem Pheidippides. So, when Persia was dust, all cried, "To Acropolis! Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due! Athens is saved, thank Pan, go shout!" He flung down his shield Ran like fire once more: and the space 'twixt the fennel-field And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through, Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine through clay, Joy in his blood bursting his heart, - the bliss! ("Fennel-field" is a reference to the Greek word for fennel, marathon, the origin of the name of the battlefield.) This poem inspired Baron Pierre de Coubertin and other founders of the modern Olympic Games to invent a running race of 42 km called the marathon. In any case, no such story appears in Herodotus. The relevant passage of Herodotus (Histories, Book VI, 105...106 →[11]) is: Before they left the city, the Athenian generals sent off a message to Sparta. The messenger was an Athenian named Pheidippides, a professional long-distance runner. According to the account he gave the Athenians on his return, Pheidippides met the god Pan on Mount Parthenium, above Tegea. Pan, he said, called him by name and told him to ask the Athenians why they paid him no attention, in spite of his friendliness towards them and the fact that he had often been useful to them in the past, and would be so again in the future. The Athenians believed Pheidippides's story, and when their affairs were once more in a prosperous state, they built a shrine to Pan under the Acropolis, and from the time his message was received they held an annual ceremony, with a torch-race and sacrifices, to court his protection. On the occasion of which I speak - when Pheidippides, that is, was sent on his mission by the Athenian commanders and said that he saw Pan - he reached Sparta the day after he left Athens and delivered his message to the Spartan government. "Men of Sparta" (the message ran), "the Athenians ask you to help them, and not to stand by while the most ancient city of Greece is crushed and subdued by a foreign invader; for even now Eretria has been enslaved, and Greece is the weaker by the loss of one fine city." The Spartans, though moved by the appeal, and willing to send help to Athens, were unable to send it promptly because they did not wish to break their law. It was the ninth day of the month, and they said they could not take the field until the moon was full. So they waited for the full moon, and meanwhile Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, guided the Persians to Marathon. The significance of this story is to be understood in the light of the legend that the god Pan returned the favor by fighting with the Athenian troops and against the Persians at Marathon. This was important because Pan, in addition to his other powers, had the capacity to instill an irrational, blind fear that paralysed the mind and suspended all sense of judgment—panic. Herodotus, writing about 30 to 40 years after the events he describes, did, according to Miller (2006) in fact base his version of the battle on eyewitness accounts,[7] so it seems altogether likely that Pheidippides was an actual historical figure, although the same source claims the classical author did not ever in fact mention a Marathon-Athens runner in any of his writings. Whether the story is true or not, it has no connection with the Battle of Marathon itself, and Herodotus's silence on the subject of a herald running from Marathon to Athens suggests strongly that no such event occurred. The first known written account of a run from Marathon to Athens occurs in the works of the Greek writer Plutarch (46–120), in his essay On the Glory of Athens. Plutarch attributes the run to a herald called either Thersippus or Eukles. Lucian, a century later, credits one "Philippides." It seems likely that in the 500 years between Herodotus's time and Plutarch's, the story of Pheidippides had become muddled with that of the Battle of Marathon (particularly the story of the Athenian forces making the march from Marathon to Athens in order to intercept the Persian ships headed there), and some fanciful writer had invented the story of the run from Marathon to Athens. Modern times [ edit ] Monument in Sparta with names of Spartathlon winners Spartathlon [ edit ] Based on this account, British RAF Wing Commander John Foden and four other RAF officers travelled to Greece in 1982 on an official expedition to test whether it was possible to cover the nearly 250 kilometres in a day and a half. Three runners were successful in completing the distance: John Foden (37:37), John Scholtens (34:30) and John McCarthy (39:00). Since 1983, it has been an annual footrace from Athens to Sparta, known as the Spartathlon, celebrating Pheidippides's at least semi-historical run across 246 km of Greek countryside. Course records References [ edit ] Sources [ edit ] Aubrey de Sélincourt and A. R. Burn. Herodotus - The Histories. Penguin Classics, 1954, 1972. Further reading [ edit ] ||||| Though it's an election year, only one person can truly say they've run the country, and his name is Pete Kostelnick. Kostelnick, a 29-year-old from Nebraska, became the fastest person to run the width of the United States on Monday, when he completed his 3,100-mile run from San Francisco to New York City in 42 days, 8 hours and 34 minutes. Kostelnick's run is still waiting to be verified by the Guinness Book of World Records, but current record-holder Frank Giannino, who did the California-to-New York run in 46 days in 1980, was on hand Monday and greeted Kostelnick by saying, "Congratulations, brother." Kostelnick said he fell twice during his journey and went through eight pairs of sneakers, and though he's not quite a modern-day Forrest Gump, he said he was occasionally joined by fans. "Awesome people ... they drove 10 hours to run with me for 5 miles," Kostelnick said of his supporters. Though a two-time winner of the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race that starts in California's Death Valley, Kostelnick took up running a few years ago in an attempt to lose weight. After he'd canvassed the country, Kostelnick said he wanted two things: to spend time with his wife, Nikki, and drink a beer. ||||| “Run, Pete, run!” Manhattan celebrated its very own Forrest Gump on Monday, when 29-year-old Pete Kostelnick reached City Hall, landing in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest man to ever run across the country. Just like Tom Hanks’ beloved character in the 1994 classic “Forrest Gump,’’ Kostelnick started on one end of the US — on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall on Sept. 12, his birthday — and just kept running. By the time he hit the Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge on Monday, exactly 42 days and about 2,900 miles later, he had gathered a mob of 10 fans who started running with him. As with Hanks’ character, when Kostelnick stopped for a minute, such as to retrieve a dropped water bottle, the crowd stopped. When he moved, they all did. The group gathered steam as it ran south of West 125th Street and along Central Park, growing to about 25 people. As Kostelnick neared Midtown, several men in business suits joined his journey, running for several blocks with him. Bystanders chanted, “Run, Pete, run!” and “Forrest Gump!” The fleet-footed financial researcher, an Iowa native who now lives in Nebraska, said he had been to Manhattan before and felt right at home running on Sixth Avenue — because he had once chased a bus along the street on foot. When Kostelnick reached City Hall at around 5:45 p.m. — after 42 days, 6 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds on the road — he had shattered the previous record of 46 days. As he crossed the line marking the end of his odyssey, Kostelnick quipped, “Well, I’m definitely not going to run back. “All I want is a beer and my wife,” he said. By Kostelnick’s own admission, he hardly began as a running prodigy. ‘I would run 72 miles a day. So I’d break it up into 18 holes of golf, and every four miles was another hole.’ He dipped his feet into the sport initially to lose weight but found that not only did he like to run — he was pretty good at it. He swiftly conquered the marathon and found his true calling was super-long-distance ultrarunning. One of the first races Kostelnick entered as an ultrarunner was the RAGRBRAI fund ride across Iowa — for bikes. He ran 423 miles in seven days, finishing ahead of some cyclists. He has since won the prestigious Badwater135 Ultramarathon two years in a row, setting the course record in 2016, and ran 163.68 miles in 24 hours in 2015. Kostelnick then set his sights on running across country — and shattering the Guinness record while he was at it. His route had spanned the altitudes of the Rockies, the windswept mid-American plains and the severe ups and downs of the Poconos before he hit the mean streets of Manhattan. He ran at a consistent nine minutes per mile, occasionally walking up hills or slowing toward the end of the day to let his muscles cool down. Kostelnick said he passed the time by thinking about sports and numbers. “I would run 72 miles a day. So I’d break it up into 18 holes of golf, and every four miles was another hole,” he told a Post reporter who ran with him his first five days and then his final three. For the past six weeks, Kostelnick and his crew assumed a workmanlike approach, but with no allowed vacation or sick days. Kostelnick would typically rise at 3 a.m., consume a breakfast of plain oatmeal and milk and a protein-powder shake. He would then hit the pavement at 3:30 a.m., run about 40 miles, and then eat a second breakfast, this time high-protein and high-fat, usually including eggs, bacon and different carbs such as mashed potatoes or lasagna. Kostelnick would then cover another 30 miles before stopping for the night around 6:30 or 7 p.m. and inhaling dinner. It usually included a meat such as steak or meatloaf, a carb including mashed potatoes or pasta and a possible legume and protein shake. He allowed himself only two 15-minute breaks during his long stretches — to eat. He estimates that he consumed roughly 15,000 calories per day — including 12 cans of Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew and A&W Root Beer. He also guzzled water and Gatorade. Kostelnick also burned a lot of rubber, going through eight pairs of running shoes. At night, he would get a massage from professional masseuse, chef and RV driver Cinder Wolff, then enter a fitful sleep interrupted by bouts of hunger and restless legs. Kostelnick’s veteran race crew of Dean Hart and Chuck Dale tracked his mileage and caloric intake while driving ahead of him and stopping either every mile or at every turn in order to ensure the runner stayed on course. His data was confirmed by several GPS devices, a detailed physical mileage log kept by his crew and a Bible-thick stack of witness testimonials. He sported two GPS watches and one satellite tracker at all times. The detailed recording was necessary to satisfy not just the Guinness Record organization but also legions of doubters. The former record holder, Frank Giannino, who ran a similar route cross country in 46 days in 1980, said he was happy to see his achievement beaten by “an athlete at the top of his running game.” “Records are meant to be broken,” he said. In a testament to Kostelnick’s running prowess and mental perseverance, several all-time endurance athletes, including “Running Man” author Charlie Engle, have attempted a record crossing and failed. Kostelnick said he was secretly hoping actor Hanks would show up at City Hall in Manhattan to cheer his feat. As a consolation, he already has another trip planned — but it doesn’t involve running. Kostelnick said he wants to drive the course next time — because he didn’t get to enjoy any of the sights. “I eat, run, sleep,” he said.

– Philippides, who? Pete Kostelnick has just made the Greek legend's marathon race look like a quaint sprint. Keeping an average pace of 73 miles per day, the Nebraska ultrarunner, 29, landed at New York City Hall on Monday having raced 3,100 miles from San Francisco in just 42 days, six hours, and 34 minutes, reports the New York Post. He smashed the previous record time for the trek, set by Frank Giannino in 1980, by four days, though Guinness World Records has yet to confirm the time. Kostelnick, who started running several years ago to lose weight, fell twice, per ESPN, but the only real casualties were the eight pairs of shoes he burned through running 15 hours per day, starting at 3:30am, with two 15-minute breaks. A financial planner and two-time winner of the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon, per Competitor, Kostelnick drew comparisons to Forrest Gump, not only because of his Bubba Gump hat. Like the fictional character, he was joined by fans—"awesome people ... [who] drove 10 hours to run with me for 5 miles," he says. When he reached Manhattan on Monday to chants of "run, Pete, run," a crowd of 25 was running with him, including men in business suits. "As with [Tom] Hanks' character, when Kostelnick stopped for a minute, such as to retrieve a dropped water bottle, the crowd stopped. When he moved, they all did," per the Post. "Well, I'm definitely not going to run back," Kostelnick said at the finish line. "All I want is a beer and my wife." (A runner just set an Appalachian Trail record.)

Image copyright AFP Image caption Bana, who is now in Turkey, Bana Alabed, the seven-year-old Aleppo girl known worldwide for her tweets from Aleppo, has written an open letter to Donald Trump. "You must do something for the children of Syria because they are like your children and deserve peace like you," she wrote. Bana escaped Aleppo with her family in December during the mass evacuations, and is now living in Turkey. Her twitter account became famous for its messages from besieged east Aleppo. Her mother, Fatemah - who helps run the account - sent the text of the letter to the BBC. She said Bana wrote it days before President Trump's inauguration, because "she has seen Trump many times on the TV". Bana Alabed's letter to President Trump Dear Donald Trump, My name is Bana Alabed and I am a seven years old Syrian girl from Aleppo. I lived in Syria my whole life before I left from besieged East Aleppo on December last year. I am part of the Syrian children who suffered from the Syrian war. But right now, I am having a peace in my new home of Turkey. In Aleppo, I was in school but soon it was destroyed because of the bombing. Some of my friends died. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Seven year-old Bana Alabed: "We had to face falling rocks and heavy suffocating smoke" I am very sad about them and wish they were with me because we would play together by right now. I couldn't play in Aleppo, it was the city of death. Right now in Turkey, I can go out and enjoy. I can go to school although I didn't yet. That is why peace is important for everyone including you. However, millions of Syrian children are not like me right now and suffering in different parts of Syria. They are suffering because of adult people. Image copyright Twitter / AlabedBana Image caption Since arriving in Turkey, Bana's Twitter account has turned to calls for fighting to end I know you will be the president of America, so can you please save the children and people of Syria? You must do something for the children of Syria because they are like your children and deserve peace like you. If you promise me you will do something for the children of Syria, I am already your new friend. I am looking forward to what you will do for the children of Syria. Turkey, where Bana and her family now live, supports the Syrian opposition. But President Trump's position is not yet clear. The US president has repeatedly stressed his desire for a strong relationship with Russia, and endorsed Vladimir Putin - who supports Syria's President Assad. During the campaign, he spoke of ceasing aid to the rebels - but more recently, he has also spoken of the need for Syrian "safe zones", which would help rebel forces. Bana's appeal to the new US president comes as Iran, Russia, and Turkey have jointly pledged to enforce a three-week ceasefire in Syria amid peace talks. But without agreement from Assad's government or rebel forces, it is not clear how long any agreement will hold. ||||| Girl known for tweets from Aleppo tells president she will be his friend if he can do something: ‘They are like your children and deserve peace like you’ Bana al-Abed, the seven-year-old girl whose tweets from Aleppo gave devastating insights into the Syrian war, has pleaded with Donald Trump to “do something for the children of Syria” in an open letter. Bana amassed hundreds of thousands of followers for her messages from war-torn Aleppo sent with the help of her mother, Fatemah. The family were evacuated to Turkey in December and met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan just before Christmas. From her new home Bana has written to the US president pleading with him to take action to save Syrian children like her. Her open letter was shared with the BBC by her mother. Dear Donald Trump, My name is Bana Alabed and I am a seven years old Syrian girl from Aleppo. I lived in Syria my whole life before I left from besieged East Aleppo on December last year. I am part of the Syrian children who suffered from the Syrian war. But right now, I am having a peace in my new home of Turkey. In Aleppo, I was in school but soon it was destroyed because of the bombing. Some of my friends died. I am very sad about them and wish they were with me because we would play together by right now. I couldn’t play in Aleppo, it was the city of death. Right now in Turkey, I can go out and enjoy. I can go to school although I didn’t yet. That is why peace is important for everyone including you. However, millions of Syrian children are not like me right now and suffering in different parts of Syria. They are suffering because of adult people. I know you will be the president of America, so can you please save the children and people of Syria? You must do something for the children of Syria because they are like your children and deserve peace like you. If you promise me you will do something for the children of Syria, I am already your new friend. I am looking forward to what you will do for the children of Syria. The BBC reported that Bana had written the letter in the days before Trump’s inauguration. US military is 'not coordinating airstrikes with Russia in Syria', Pentagon says Read more Trump’s position on Syria is not clear but he has made no secret of his admiration for the Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, who supports the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in its six-year war against rebellion. The Pentagon – now run by Trump appointee James Mattis – issued a statement on Monday that denied US warplanes had conducted a joint combat mission with Russia in Syria but the White House signalled it was open to doing so in principle. The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said Trump would “work with any country that shares our interest in defeating Isis”, including “Russia or anyone else”. Two days of peace talks sponsored by Russia, Iran and Turkey in Kazakhstan this week concluded with a resolution to set up a trilateral monitoring body to enforce the ceasefire that came into effect in December. More than 300,000 people – including at least 15,000 children – have been killed in the Syrian conflict, with thousands of others displaced. The Syrian Network For Human Rights reported that nearly 2,000 children were among the estimated 16,913 civilians who died in 2016 alone.

– A 7-year-old Syrian girl whose tweets from Aleppo showcased the horrors of war has appealed to President Trump to "do something for the children of Syria." Now living in Turkey, Bana Alabed wrote a letter to the new president days before his inauguration, the BBC reports. "Dear Donald Trump," she writes, "I lived in Syria my whole life (and) ... I am part of the Syrian children who suffered from the Syrian war." Although she is now safe, "millions of Syrian children are not like me," she writes. "They are suffering. … I know you will be the president of America, so can you please save the children and people of Syria?" Bana's mother, Fatemah, sent the text to the BBC. (Read the full letter here.) Bana opted to make her plea in writing after seeing Trump "many times on the TV," Fatemah says. Like Trump, Bana has a penchant for tweeting—she has 362,000 followers—although hers drove home the terror in besieged Aleppo before her family was evacuated last month as government forces regained control of the city. More than 300,000 people, including 150,000 children, have been killed in the six-year civil war, reports the Guardian. Trump's position on Syria is not yet known. A White House spokesman said the president would "work with any country" committed to fighting ISIS, per the Guardian. The Pentagon, meanwhile, denied on Monday that US warplanes aided a Russian mission in Syria. Russia supports the government of President Bashar al-Assad. (Bana "befriended" JK Rowling.)

The day before he went missing Breckenridge resident Jack McAtee crashed his car into Dillon Reservoir at around 6:40 p.m. on Sept. 18. His black sedan veered onto the paved bicycle path, cutting through a 10-foot opening between a steel guardrail and a concrete highway barrier, according to a Colorado State Patrol report. The car left the path, rolling for about 135 feet across dirt and gravel along the reservoir. It went airborne for 110 feet, turning end over end, before it crashed into the water. His car was almost entirely submerged. Miraculously, he swam to the surface, with only a laceration above his left eye. McAtee claimed he had fallen asleep at the wheel. A state trooper interviewing McAtee said he did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. In fact, McAtee had recently stopped taking his medication for bipolar disorder, according to family members. The state trooper did not know that as he took McAtee to St. Anthony Summit Medical Center for medical clearance and then to the Summit County jail for a mental evaluation. The trooper just knew that McAtee was acting erratically, his moods swinging from irritated to chatty. At one point, McAtee asked the trooper if hitchhiking was legal in Colorado. Within certain guidelines, it can be, the trooper explained. McAtee then asked him where he would hitchhike if heading west on Interstate 70. Just making conversation, the trooper said, “Moab.” The trooper left McAtee in a holding cell at the jail. At first, McAtee was in high spirits. Then he cried in his cell. Then, before the trooper departed, McAtee seemed to be in a good mood again. The next day McAtee met with a psychologist. He was released at around 11 a.m. on Sept. 19. He was wearing a red hoodie and a tan hat. He had $67 in his pocket. His friends and family haven’t seen him or heard from him since. McAtee, a gregarious and adventuresome 27-year-old who had lived in Breckenridge for about 5 years, had gone missing three times after going off his medication, but never for this long. Picking up on the hitchhiking theme in the troopers report, his family quickly assembled a team of volunteers, getting the word out to truck stops stretching from Salt Lake to St. Louis, where the McAtee family is from. The Moab Times-Independent published a story on McAtee’s disappearance just in case he followed up on the trooper’s suggestion. The story generated more than 10,000 clicks, but no one there has yet to report a sighting. However, a trucker in the Wheat Ridge area near Denver was convinced he saw McAtee. Because of that tip, and the fact McAtee has made no bank transactions since his disappearance, the family is now focusing efforts closer to home. They now believe it’s possible he is still in the Summit County area. Posters have been put up all over town and along trailheads. McAtee’s father, Steve McAtee, is currently leading search efforts from Breckenridge. “In case you are reading this, Jack, your mother and I and your four sisters Megan, Maddy, Katherine, and Ali love you with all our hearts,” he wrote in an email. “And we want to be with you now, more than ever. We love you. Come home.” Summit County sheriff’s spokeswoman Taneil Ilano told the Moab Times-Independent that McAtee’s disappearance is being investigated as a missing-person case. Anyone who has seen McAtee — who is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighs 170 pounds and has green eyes — or who has information concerning his whereabouts is asked to call the Summit County Sheriff’s Office at (970) 668-8600. ||||| Today March 25th, Easter 2016, marks 598 days since Jack’s disappearance into the Colorado wilderness from Frisco, Colorado on September 19, 2014 – 171 days since Jack’s skull was found on Peak One on the Ten Mile Range stretching south from Frisco. Our hearts brim with gratitude for the love from so many, the throngs of you that joined hands with our family during this entire time. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Nearly 75,000 people from around the world connected to this site and followed our family’s search for a son and brother we all cherish. Continual readership at this site is as a result of the multiple digital news articles published around the world that lead peple here. (If this is your first visit, see the “About” tab above-read the story, then come back.) Though at times there are dark shrouds of sadness that periodically descend upon us, we also see a bright light of joy – experiencing first hand how God is bringing beauty out of the ashes with Jack’s Life and his story because of hundreds that came forward to donate to Living Water International in Memory of Jack - this heals our hearts. Thank you. We have now exceeded our initial goal of $50,000 and the donations continue to come in at www.water.cc/jack-mcatees-well-of-love. With an increased goal now to raise $100,000, We will continue to build additional wells in Jack's name thru Living Water International in Kenya for as long as the donations continue to flow in. Of vital importance in order to accomplish this, we are humbly asking each of you to share this on your Facebook page and ask your friends to do the same to extend this message of hope to a hurting world. Our loving God has brought beauty out of the ashes. ||||| Update number 14 - July 8, 2015 Today, July 8th, marks 293 days since Jack's disappearance from Frisco, Colorado on September 19, 2014. Jack's status remains unchanged, missing. The website –www.findjackmcatee.com has almost 40,000 hits. It was a long cold winter for our Family as we waited to hear some word of Jack. Winter turned to spring, spring to summer, and still no solid leads. I do not know how we possibly could've gotten this far without all of the great friends we have.Thank you for all of the prayers that have been lifted up and are continually being lifted up for Jack and our entire family. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Even in light of the fact that Jack has now been missing for such a long time,we remain vigilant, hopeful, and thankful for you - even in the face of despair. All we want to do is find Jack and bring him back to good mental health. And if that's not possible, we desire closure. After eight months of careful review of all the evidence, Jack's personal profile and everything that has been done using social media and an incredibly talented group of people on the ground here in Summit County - expert consensus is that there is a 50-50 chance that Jack is still alive. There is a 50% chance that Jack wandered off into the wilderness and attempted to survive. There is a 50% chance that Jack successfully left the area either hitchhiking or on his mountain bike and resumed Life with a new identity- a new life in another part of the country, living under the grid most probably in the western United States. We are covering both aspects. Both locally here in Summit County and now again stretching out west, we are going to extend our search considerably at this time using social media. And this is where I will ask for your help later in this message to help, once again in spreading the information about Jack. First - Summit County, Colorado. Colorado experienced record snowfalls this spring with some 89 inches fallen between April 16th and May 31st. This delayed any kind of restarting of the search locally in Summit County until such time that the snows were sufficiently melted. Our family deeply appreciates the thousands of man hours that Is continually being spent and will be by the Summit County Sheriff's Department, it's coordination with the internationally acclaimed Summit County Rescue Group (SCRG) including 65 active members and seven mission coordinators and the Summit County Flight-For-Life team. After months of careful analysis of all the evidence that has been collected about Jack, the Summit County Sheriff department and (SCRG) has developed an extremely comprehensive and accurate profile of Jack utilizing the statistics of thousands of cases in order to narrow a search plan locally this summer for Jack in Summit County based on his profile as it pertains to a missing person's behavior, to narrow the geographic focus of the search in the area. We have identified a specific geographic area immediately adjacent to the hospital where Jack was last seen as a renewed focus. Also, the entire 10 Mile Range which stretches from Frisco to Copper Mountain, Colorado. Jack loved this area, knew it well, and it contains some very high spires of rock which Jack loved to climb. This range has 14,000 foot peaks. We are specifically interested in the upper terrain and interested in searching the bottom of the bowls. This area takes a technical person to actually navigate and is far from the area that is populated by recreational tourists.This is an area that through Jack's profile, we understand would be attractive to him. TO EVERYONE living in Breckenridge, Frisco, and Dillon, CO. One of the things that remains a great mystery to all of us- The location of Jack's bike. Jack had a very good mountain bike – a blue TREK, with a split seat. This particular bike is the bike of choice for very serious mountain bikers, and Jack was never without it, having explored endless trails throughout the mountain ranges within Summit County. We have been unable to locate the bike, having searched every bike repair store in Breckenridge, Frisco, Silverthorne, and Dillon. The bike is missing and remains a key piece of evidence. If he had had his bike, he could've made it very far into the mountains. This would be good to know. If he sold his bike, he could've easily quickly sold it for from $800-$1200 and avoid using his bank account, which has several thousand dollars in it with no withdrawals. This is a key point because this would've allowed to Jack to assume a new identity and not be traced through electronic transactions. So therefore, I'm asking everyone in Breckenridge and the entire area to post this on their Facebook page and start a conversation about the blue TREK. Has anyone seen it? Does anyone know of anyone who purchased a bike like this in August or September, 2014?Any information about this bike would be very much appreciated now. Please report any information about the bike to the Summit County Sheriff. Thank you in advance. Second - Everywhere Else I am continually amazed the more that I find out about the forgotten tens of thousands of people in this country that live under the grid, intentionally. I've learned a lot about the migration habits of these individuals to places seasonally which provide them the opportunity decent amount cash in a short period of time. ALASKA - Fishing season is in high gear right now in Alaska. And the Alaskan fishing industry offers individuals under the grid the opportunity to make a large amount of cash in a short period of time. The labor for many of the thousands of boats that participate in the fishing season right now, is provided by individuals such as Jack who have migrated up from the lower 48. And Jack knows Alaska, having spent several weeks flying throughout the state in a private airplane. He could easily get to Alaska and around Alaska by hitching rides from private airports, Jack knows the aviation world. I am asking all of my personal friends in Alaska to post this on their Facebook page and ask their friends to do the same, notifying anyone they know who is in the fishing industry of www.findjackmcatee.com. And I am asking everyone else to creatively approach The many Alaskan fishing websites, advertising for jobs to be filled, with an Embed of the link quickly providing penetration of the Alaskan fishing industry via the web with a notification to go to: www.findjackmcatee.com SLAB CITY - Slab City or The Slabs, is a campsite in the Sonoran Desert 156 miles northeast of San Diego, California. Several thousand campers use the site during the winter months. These people stay for only the winter before migrating north in the spring to cooler climates. This was noted as a destination for Chris McCandless in the book "Into The Wild". This was Jack's favorite book and therefore we suspect that he may have had it on his radar heading west. Please send this update to everyone that you know that lives in Southern California or the Southwest, ask them to post it on their Facebook page. Ask them to think of individuals they may know that would have some sort of connection to slab city. The website is: www.slabcity.org to discern creative ways to provide the link to www.findjackmcatee.com BURNING MAN FEST - August 30 - September 7,2015. Burning Man is a weeklong festival that is held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada. The event begins on the last Monday in August and ends the first Monday in September. This particular event is a magnet for people that are living off the grid and each year attracts approximately 50,000 people. It's website is: burningman.org. Take a creative approach to post on "off the grid "blogs or websites and embed a link to Jack's website: www.findJackmcatee.com. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Once again, Of particular Geographic interest in the state of California is Mendocino County. Such small towns that we are asking you to direct a link to the website in Northern California include the following: Ukiah, Willits, Boonville, Point Arena, Mendocino, Ferndale, Fortuna, Eureka, and Arkata. Essentially, the targeted area are all the small towns on US Highway 101 stretching north from Santa Rosa, California. Also, Placerville, California is of particular interest which is located just to the east of Sacramento. If you know anyone living in Northern California including any area in San Francisco to the north, please send instructions and respectfully request them to post the link to the website www.findjackmcatee.com on their Facebook pages and request that anyone actually living in those towns mentioned please print out the poster from the website and physically post it somewhere on the edge of town. Again, we are focusing in an area where there is a significant subculture of people that wish to remain off the grid. By the way, a great way to do this efficiently is to call the library and each of these towns, speak with the librarian, and ask Kylie if you could forward to her the link to Jack's website and ask her or him to post it on their Facebook page there. Finally, Jack, if you happen to be following all of this, just know that all we want is knowledge of your well-being. Please give us a call, we love you more than you would ever imagine. I will be leaving the mountains today and journeying back to St. Louis. When I arrived here some 10 days ago, I looked at my inspirational journal and couldn't believe what it said, "You have journeyed up a steep, rocky path in recent days. The way ahead of you is shrouded in uncertainty. Look neither behind you nor before you. Instead, focus your attention on me, your constant companion. Trust that I will equip you for life whatever awaits you on your journey. " I have been holding onto those words for the past 10 days. God is in control. I'm not. No matter what happens, our family knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that God has Jack in the palm of His hands, wherever he is. If just one person in the world, as a result of all of this,would come to the Lord, it would all be worth it. We want to express our love to all of you as we wait to see how God will end the story. Love, The McAtee Family Update number 13 - December 19th, 2014 ​Today, December 19th marks 101 days since Jack's disappearance from Frisco, Colorado on September 19th. Jack's status remains unchanged, missing. The website – www.findjackmcatee.com now approaching 31,000 hits due to the gracious help of our core friends and colleagues who have helped by drilling down the information on their Facebook pages or sharing the link via email to their friends and directing traffic as instructed by periodic updates. Our efforts to make sure we unturn each stone in our search for Jack remain in full force and unabated. States of Colorado, Utah and California have been absolutely saturated by the efforts of this website. We feel adequately covered in all places there and beyond. Our optimism remains vitally strong that Jack is still alive. We have one more assignment for you listed below as we request you to re-post a link to the website www.findjackmcatee.com. The other night after dinner, my oldest brother Jack for whom I have great respect and after whom our son is named, said son Jack would be calling us on Christmas day. Brother Jack went on to conclude not surprisingly with a smile on his face that he was never wrong. We thanked him for the hopeful thought as it was exactly what we needed. As Ellen and I drove off, in my heart I said to God, "In my darkest night you brighten up the sky." You see we have the hope and knowledge that God is up to something and the best is yet to come. I love my son's heart! I recently came across an incredible picture of him streaking across the Alaskan skies as co-pilot in formation with a group of fighter pilots passing closely by the mid section of Mount McKinley at approximately 11,000 feet on a perfectly clear day in a Diamond formation of high-speed experimental aircraft. This has been a biannual Sport Aviation expedition lead by my brother Tucker accompanied by a storied group of ex-fighter pilots for the past eight years. Passing right in front of Mount McKinley on a perfectly clear day, staring at that picture, I realized how much I love the heart of my son Jack, known for his quest for adventure and fearless expedition. There's no one I have ever met in my life that has a more tender heart for God than our Jack. A couple of years ago during this Christmas season in December, Jack was in the midst of a 30 day stint volunteering at a homeless shelter downtown.Living there 24 /7.He loved being there, helping and encouraging the homeless, making them feel better about themselves. Giving them a feeling of self worth and light at the end of the tunnel. Hope. That is the kind of heart he has. Always holding out hope for others. Perhaps at times so much so to the negation of his own hope. Gregarious, lovable, brilliant: all words commonly used to describe Jack by those who have known him. So here is the assignment and our humble request to our friends and colleagues if history repeats itself as is so often does, it is quite possible that Jack was drawn back into a shelter for this very experience once again during this Christmas season.. A homeless shelter is a great place to remain anonymous. Accordingly, we are asking that you post links to the website on your Facebook page and/or just share this email with as many people as you know in the following cities with the instructions to repost the link on their Facebook page as well as to any and all institutions which happen to either be related to or are shelters for the homeless. The cities include Denver, Salt Lake, Houston, Dallas, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Reno, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Kansas City, and St. Louis. We are targeting all homeless shelters in the cities. And Jack, if you're reading this, we want you to know that your story has had such a huge impact on thousands of people in the past 100 days. You are loved beyond what words can describe. I ask myself, "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts?" Day after day, with sorrow in my heart, wondering where you are. Wondering if you're even alive. Longing for that call, as we remember the incredibly relished times we have spent together over the last several decades, your family is reaching out to you with an indescribable love with full appreciation of just how valuable you are to us. We long for the moment to gather and remember what God has done. Worshiping Him in the middle of this storm same as we worship Him on a cloudless day. He is up to something and His timing is perfect. Looking at this through the eyes of infinity, this Christmas we celebrate with eager expectation the advent of Christ. And we anticipate that whatever is broken within you will be repaired and that God has made a way back. For Jesus was born as a light into a backdrop of darkness. Christmas is God lighting a candle and the darkness cannot overcome the light. God can't stop thinking about the day you're going to come home. Nor can we. Give us a call on Christmas Day and keep Uncle Jack's track record 100%. To all of you our friends and colleagues: Love from our family goes out to each and everyone of you at this incredibly special time of the year. We cannot adequately express how grateful we are for all of you uniting behind us in this effort to find Jack. And WHATEVER HAPPENS,we know that God will bring beauty out of the ashes. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. ​With much love, The McAtee Family ​Update Number 12 ​ Today, Thanksgiving 2014, marks the 69th day since Jack's disappearance from Frisco, Colorado on September 19th. Jack's status remains unchanged, missing. The website – www.findjackmcatee.com now exceeds 27,000 hits due to the gracious help of our core friends and colleagues who have helped by drilling down the information on their Facebook pages and directing traffic as instructed by periodic updates. ​Because of your protection, your trust, your hopes and perseverance, we feel your love. Whatever happens, we are still patiently awaiting an answer to our search for Jack. Colorado has been and continues to be searched very thoroughly. As illustrated in detail on previous updates, The search has been and continues to be a full-court press. We have put the word out even to the smallest of towns, posting the picture of Jack everywhere. Still, no solid leads. Our search using this website in Colorado has been exhaustive and even according to the authorities with whom we have been working very closely, it's effectiveness in getting the word out is unprecedented in any other case that they've ever worked on. ​While the search in Colorado continues, we want to intensify our search in the State of California. Through our investigation, we have discovered several things that give us an indication that Jack may very well have headed in that direction. Although his bank account has not been touched, he did have enough money in his pocket to hitchhike to the coast. We are hoping that he may have gotten a job there and perhaps decided to change his identity. Jack could have utilized the name _John Pearson _for his new identity. Of particular Geographic interest in the state of California is Mendocino County. Such small towns that we are asking you to direct a link to the website in Northern California include the following: Ukiah, Willits, Boonville, Point Arena, Mendocino, Ferndale, Fortuna, Eureka, and Arkata. Essentially, the targeted area are all the small towns on US Highway 101 stretching north from Santa Rosa, California. Also, Placerville, California is of particular interest which is located just to the east of Sacramento. If you know anyone living in Northern California including any area in San Francisco to the north, please send instructions and respectfully request them to post the link to the website www.findjackmcatee.com on their Facebook pages and request that anyone actually living in those towns mentioned please print out the poster from the website and physically post it somewhere on the edge of town. Again, we are focusing in an area where there is a significant subculture of people that wish to remain off the grid. Thanks so much for your help here. ​At times, it's a bit like being in the wilderness ourselves, at times the lack of hope and feelings that it may be all over, that Jack may be dead and never found. And yes, we all understand that very well could be the case, however, WHATEVER HAPPENS, we profess our love for you and what that love has done for our family. For love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, It keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. ​Our family has felt this love from you, and we continually thank God for it. It helps us persevere and so thoroughly illustrates our ache for relationship during this time and all the time for that matter. Our ache for our son Jack who we love so very very much. On this day of Thanksgiving, as you sit at the table, look around at each other and realize that each and every person sitting at the table today are so very precious to your life. Tell them that you love them. Take the opportunity to hold hands in a circle and pray for each other as you give thanks. And if you're so inclined, please include Jack and our family in your prayers today. We love you all, God bless you. Happy Thanksgiving 2014! The McAtee Family Update Number 11 - November 8th Today marks the 50th day since Jack's disappeared from Frisco, Colorado on September 19th. Jack's status remains unchanged, missing. The website – www.findjackmcatee.com now exceeds 20,000 hits and between 2000 and 3000 Facebook shares just from the site alone. Honestly, there have been days in recent weeks during which it seems all hope is vanishing. However, just when it gets dark internally, someone from among you sends us a letter, a note, an email that lifts us up and keeps us proactive with hope. While there have been a myriad of notes from personal friends, much of this communication comes from people whom we have never met. For this, the McAtee family is eternally grateful because it keeps us moving forward, putting one foot in front of the other, looking under every stone, not stopping and remaining ever hopeful. During the past 50 days, each and every member of our immediate family-my wife Ellen and our daughters Megan, Maddy, Katherine, and Ali has traveled to Colorado and spent significant time and effort working in conjunction with the local authorities who have spent thousands of man hours searching for Jack. We have also spent approximately 10 days in Moab, Utah mountain biking, hiking the various places that Jack loved in this area. We also spent a couple of days flying low and slow over the coordinates of places Jack loved to hike there in Moab to get a Birdseye view of the off - trail sites that Jack was known to frequent. We have traveled the highways and the byways. We have searched the urban shelters.The mountains which are continuing to be searched by hunters. We have mountain biked trail after trail stopping people located at the edge of the wilderness areas giving them a poster showing Jack, and telling them the story. As mentioned in the prior update, there is a network of people that call themselves "travelers"that migrate from place to place within the state of Colorado. These individuals do not appear evident to tourists who visit Colorado, but are rather very much under the radar. One specific example of this type includes the "Rainbow People".The rainbow people are a band of what most people would call hippies which have decided to live off the grid. And as you can imagine because of the recent change in drug laws in Colorado, many additional like minded souls are streaming into the state. The temperature in the mountains now falls to about 15° to 20° each night and has been doing so for at least the past four weeks-far too cold to make any hopeful assumptions that Jack may still be alive if he is in the wilderness area high elevations. However, there are a host of cities that are lower in altitude down on the plateau that are still warm enough as well as some small mountain towns ideal for "Travelers" this time of the year. This, for now, continues to be our target. So therefore, I am asking once again for each of you who has any connections in Colorado to forward a link to the website – www.findJackMcAtee.com asking them to post it on their Facebook and likewise forward the link to anybody that they know who lives in a small town in Colorado. I have personally visited many small towns in Colorado but by no means have exhausted the search there. We can use the website for this purpose. The Colorado towns I'm specifically interested in drilling down on the include the following: Alma, Fairplay, Leadville, Buena Vista, Crested Butte, Creed, Del Norte, Pagosa Springs, Durango, Bayfield, Silverton, Ouray, Ophir, Telluride, Ridge Way, Montrose, Cortez, Dove Creek, Fruita, Grand Junction, Parachute, Rifle, Silt, New Castle, Glenwood Springs, Gypsum, Eagle, Avon, Fraser, Granby, Gunnison, Pueblo, and also Fort Collins. Since the vast majority of these "Travelers" have neither a cell phone nor access to the Internet, please request anyone in these towns to post on their Facebook page and, if possible, to kindly print out the "Missing" poster from the website and take it out to someone they may know who is living on the fringes or simply physically post it somewhere on the edge of town where the migratory individuals may walk by. This is the only way we're going to get the word out effectively to this community of "travelers". The leaves on the Aspen trees comprising the vast Aspen stands across Colorado and Eastern Utah have now fallen. However, each and everyone of the trees is still connected to the overall system of roots which Will continue to keep each tree alive until the new spring leaves begin to sprout. This is the story of our family and this mission because of you. You are our root system. You have been our strength, we have felt the hand of God through you. We are eternally grateful. Thank you. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. ​ We simply cannot express in words our love for our son Jack whose heart for God is Immense. We wanted to make sure that there was something on the website that if Jack were to go into a library somewhere and access the Internet, that he would see letters from each of us. This is our prayer. There is a new section in the "About" tab on the website entitled " Message to Jack from the Family". And Jack, in case you happen to be reading this instead of pushing the link on the "About" page, following are those letters: Dear Jack, This is Katherine. I think about you every day wondering where you are, and what you are doing. Sometimes I pick up my phone and try to call you, and then remember that I can not talk to you. We are all really hurting without knowing where you are, and hoping that you are okay. Each night before I go to bed, I pray that we find you soon. There are days that go by when I wish I could just hear your voice, and laugh about things with you. The Lugos and I were talking about so many funny childhood stories growing up with you, and how you are such an incredible person. Jack, you have no idea how many people love you, and miss you. So many people ask me about you, and how our family is. My heart doesn’t feel full with you being gone. You are our only brother out of the five of us. I really could not of asked for a truer, smarter, wiser, or loving brother. You are such a good person Jack. When I say that, I think it’s really rare to be a genuinely good person. You have such a kind heart that cares for people. There are a lot of people that you will meet along your path in life that come and go, but family is always there. We want you back with us! We want to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas and the rest of the year with you! We miss you. Things are truly not the same and never will be without you. You complete our family. I love you so much! There are so many incredible stories about you, which makes you such a unique and interesting person. Please keep hope if you are in danger, but if not and still do not want to come home, just call or email someone We just want to know that your okay! I love you Jack sooo much more than words can ever express. I just want to give you a hug, and laugh with you. I want to hear about the stories from the adventure you are on right now. I miss you! Sincerely, Katherine Jack, I miss you so much and have tried SO hard to find you. I even loaded up my 8 week old Augie and brought him to Colorado with me to look for you. I am so baffled as to where you are and what could have possibly happened. There is not one hour that goes by that I don't think of you. I am heartbroken not knowing where you are. I call your phone and FB message you often hoping to get in touch with you. If you are traveling on your own adventure, there is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about...please just let us know where you are. I have felt like I have been so close to finding you so many different times just to feel you slip through my grasp. Please come home and tell me about your adventures and where you have been. There are no words to describe the agony of having a missing sibling. I LOVE YOU. Maddy Dearest Jack, We miss you more than you will ever know. Your absence has left a huge hole in the family that can never be repaired until you come home. I want you to know that I love you so very much. God gave us the most amazing brother, I can’t imagine a life without you. You make us laugh, your fill our hearts with joy, you have so much to give. The boys are ready to start skiing lessons from you, we need you home! Ali has her season pass, ready to ski with you every day. Katherine needs her friend to talk to and Maddy and I need to hear your amazing story of this adventure you have been on. I’m sure you will make us laugh, cry and shout with joy that you are back. We all wake up every morning with a prayer that today will be the day you come home to us. Mom and Dad are desperate to find you. Come home buddy, come home for the Holidays.I love you from the bottom of my heart. Love, Meg Hey buddy, "Not sure where you went man but it's not the same town when your not around. I miss you so much, and moved out here to be with you. I hope you didn't think I was mad at you, this summer with you was a blast. Every single person I see around town "even people I've never meet" ask about you. This town loves you man. But it's not the same without you and I don't think I'm going to stick around if your not coming back. " I'm sorry I didn't have time to help you set up your fish tank with you a few days before you left. I really hope you didn't think I was mad at you because I love you so much and you mean the world to me. Your the best brother anyone could ask for. Love you so much, hope your ok somewhere. If you want to stay off then grid we'll all respect that but just a phone call to let us know your ok somewhere.Your are the smartest, most genuinely kind hearted person I know. And I know I'm not alone when I say I love you, I miss you, come home. Love you so much, Ali Dear Jack, Please watch the attached message from your crash site at Lake Dillon: http://vimeo.com/108730089 Love, Mom & Dad Thank you. All of you. And may God bless you greatly and hold you in the palm of His hand. The McAtee Family Update Number 10 - Oct 21st First, our family wants to reiterate our appreciation for the incredible care and love that you have shown us during this difficult time. Without you, we would've fallen flat on her face weeks ago. With you, we continue the search and we remain hopeful that Jack is going to eventually emerge and come back onto the grid. Today marks the 32nd day since Jack's disappearance from Frisco, Colorado on September 19th. His missing status remains unchanged. In my journeys throughout Colorado and Utah, I reread jack's favorite book "Into the Wild" wanting to rediscover the thought process of Christopher McCandless , the central character in the book, when he decided to vanish into the wilderness. Truth is, Jack and McCandless share many similar character traits. The difference being that Jack comes from an exceptionally close family and has always remained very tight with all of us. The myriad of stories as result of this investigation of Jack's many friends who knew Jack well in Breckenridge, substantiates something that we've always known, an incredible character and similarity that Jack shares with McCandless. One key difference is that Jack has a very confident view of life through the eyes of Christ. Only this can explain the incredible antic adventures Jack embarked while living in Breckenridge. Things like climbing Mount Baldy near Breckenridge in the middle of a horrific snowstorm at midnight on skis with "Skins"with another adventurous friend and then skiing down in the darkness through the deep powder. Things like swinging through the Corona Arch in Moab on a bungee cord that Jack himself tied to the top of the arch. I will never forget standing on the runway and Spirit of St. Louis airport watching Jack solo at age 16. Later that year, Jack joined a group of a pilots including my brother Tucker and he spent 18 days flying throughout Alaska in formation with a group of military pilots. Having done this myself numerous times, I can only express that the wonder of flying low and fast over the glaciers in and around mountains as spectacular as Mount McKinley, was fuel for Jack's soul. But beyond that, Jack's fearlessness stems I think in large part from what he knows about his destiny in terms of heaven. With each unspeakable adventure, it's almost as if he was giving God an open invitation to invite him there sooner than later. Jack's landlord called me to tell me that whenever it was extremely cold and Jack would find someone on the streets there that was really down on their luck, he would bring them back to the apartment and let them sleep in the loft. Jack, at times on his days off, would sometimes go down to Denver with several close friends from his church and serve food in shelters there. This is Jack's heart. So why am I telling you all of this? Well quite frankly because many of you have reached out to me and have wanted to know more about Jack. If you have followed the story, you know that we have been very purposeful in our search for Jack utilizing the website www.findJackmcatee.com. The website has had almost 15,000 hits and is approaching 2000 Facebook shares. People are very aware of this. However, Jack, If still alive, is off the grid here. What I would like to do now is to ask you to direct a link to this website to anyone you know who lives in a small town in Colorado. Truth is, there are many places where one can just go off the grid here in the state. And I pray that is what the case is now with Jack. And there is a subculture of people here that just lives out in the wilderness area. There are many shelters, for example, in areas that are very far away from the major cities. Shelters that just open themselves up to people who are wanting to vanish into anonymity. So this is our hope, and even though Jack left Frisco Colorado on that day with $64 in his pocket, that he managed to find a place where people will be willing to protect him from outside contact. These circles of people are very difficult to reach since indeed they are off the grid. In many cases, no telephone no Internet no TV no outside communication with the world. I have become very proficient at sizing up small towns and who is the right person to speak with in a short period of time. I have found that the local libraries are an excellent source of people who are willing to make the link available on their webpage and ask others to do the same. But if we can get this link onto Facebook pages in small towns across Colorado and Eastern Utah, asking each person that you may know there to post it on their Facebook page and request that their friends posted on their Facebook page, etc. this could be very helpful at this point in time. Hunting season here in Colorado remains in effect until approximately December 1. We feel relatively confident that most hunters by now are aware of Jack. So far we have had no leads from hunters. In any event, this is good news because it leads us to think that he is in Colorado off the grid protected perhaps in a shelter somewhere. So Jack, this is for you should you be reading this. We, all of us, want you to know how much you mean to each of us. We love you. We admire your faith. And we want you to know that you should not feel bad about giving us a call. It's time now to come home. We can start over. You are an incredible human being with incredible talents with an incredible heart for God. Your story and life is a light too many. As you may have forgotten, God has a great plan for you. Love, Dad. And to our dear friends, the countless miles of shockingly bright yellow Aspen stands are so evident in my mind. As I drive through them, I think of all the wonderful people that have been so helpful during this time. Thank you. In the not-too-distant future I will be returning to St. Louis to resume my responsibilities at work. We will continue to use the website creatively to help us in our search for Jack. Many friends have been made along the way and many remain vigilant. All we can say is thank you from the bottom of our hearts for Your prayers, love, and support. And even though at times it's easy to look at life through shrouds of darkness while going through this, in the end, the reality is that we know that Jack's fate is sealed. This is the peace that we speak of that we know and that we feel because of you and because of Him. And quite frankly because of what happened at Calvary. With much love, The McAtee Family Update number eight - Oct 3rd Fortunately the weather is still relatively warm up here in the mountains with a prediction that it should be good for the next five or six days. High temperatures will be around 75°Day and night around 40° and although the wind is blowing rather briskly there still a good chance that Jack has been able to survive in the wilderness because he's has good skills in this area. He is very familiar with the area. He has camped many times on the Gore range which stretches about 40 miles north from Frisco, Co. Hunters are now coming up from Denver in droves. The tactic of getting this information into the hands of Colorado hunters is working very well. With your help by getting this information out to as many Colorado hunters as possible, all I can say is that I feel God's hand. The Colorado wildlife and game commission has been extremely cooperative in getting the word out to all of their on ground personnel with the instructions to tell any hunters they see about Jack and forward to their phone a link to the website. As of last night, we are certain that 100% of the trailhead's leading into the Gore range and the various trailheads around Dillon, Frisco, and Breckenridge as well have all been posted with Jack's missing poster. This is a massive area, again, all we are searching for is a clue and we have teams of dogs ready to roll. Please note that there is now a $10,000 reward to anyone responsible for Jack's safe return to his family. This has been updated on the www.findJackmcatee.com website. May God bless you for continuing to send the above link out to as many hunters that you may know in Colorado, again asking them to forward it to their network of Colorado Hunter friends using Facebook. I cannot begin to express the gratitude that our family has for your prayers, love, and support. We thank you and we love you for all of your prayers. We are holding up and vow to continue the search tirelessly to find our son Jack, whom we love and who is loved by so many others. Thank you. May God bless you and may He be glorified through all of this. Steve McAtee Update number seven- Oct 1st First let me thank all of you who have been such a continuing source of encouragement to our family. I am holding onto the faith that God will have a good ending to the story. We are holding firm in our search and request your help – The effort of getting The link below to as many Colorado hunters right now. The rifle season has just begun and thousands of hunters are coming up from Denver and entering into this area through various trailheads. . We now feel there is a high likelihood that Jack just wandered off into the wilderness near Frisco,Colorado. If this were not hunting season, there would be far less possibility that we would find Jack. We are proactively targeting COLORADO HUNTERS cell phones. All we are searching for is a clue and we have a several teams of dogs which are already on the ground ready to roll. We need the eyes and ears of the hunters to give us the tip. If you know anyone living in Colorado whom you suspect may have a network including hunters, please forward them this link for the Summit County Sherrifs Office Press Release to Colorado hunters.... www.findjackmcatee.com. Send it to their email first And ask them if they could, would they please text it onto their hunting friends asking their hunting friends to forward it onto their hunting friends as well. and so on. All via text since that is the more likely way of receiving the message up here in the mountains. Thank you for your love and attention at this hour. Our family feels your love and thanks you for it. May God bless you. Steve McAtee Update number six- Sept 29th Good morning. Weather is reasonably good up here in the mountains where we will focus our search today. The temperature is about 65° during the day and gets down to as low as about 40° at night. The media has extensively covered Jack's situation. Everyone here knows of the situation. The Moab Times Independent article published Wednesday has now between 14,000 and 15,000 hits. The Denver Post carried a front page story in yesterday, Sunday's paper on Jack. We were successful in getting CBS Channell 4 in Denver to air about Jack right after the NFL football game ended yesterday at 5 PM locally. CBSis continuing to air this piece now. With the help of some churches with boots on the ground in Denver, a continual search is being made for Jack throughout the shelters the roadways along Highway interstate 70 truckstops is being made. His posters being posted throughout the city of Denver. On the roads nationally, due to the efforts of Prime trucking, Werner Enterprises, and Dot foods, as well as many independent drivers, there are well over 10,000 sets of eyes right now on the road watching for Jack along the highways of America with the missing poster posted on their cell phones. We have posters at virtually every truck stop on interstate 70 between Salt Lake and St. Louis. This morning will be concentrating our search near the area immediately south of Summit County medical center where Jack was last seen. We are organizing a foot search with search dogs along the Minors Creek Trail which extends six or 7 miles out into the wilderness and begins at the back door basically of the Summit County medical center. We are hopeful today to get the Civil Air Patrol based in Grand Junction Colorado to give us some air surveillance along the 10 mile trail between Frisco and Vail. Jack is very familiar with this trail as he is hiked it several times before. It is essentially a trail along the mountain peaks from Frisco to Vail. Weather is relatively clear and the flying should be good today for the most part. This is the big picture – Jack is either going to be reunited with me his earthly father or he's going to be reunited with God, his heavenly Father. Either way he's coming home. I want to thank everyone for your continued fervent prayer for the situation. As we continue through all this now, I feel a certain peace knowing that Jack is beyond a shadow of a doubt a son of the one true living God and right now God is holding him in the palms of his hands either in heaven or here in the mountains. I love you all and appreciate everything that is being done by so many wonderful people around the country to help find Jack. We are holding up well and our spirits remain strong and our outlook hopeful. Below is a list of articles published to date: Most Recent 10/04/14:Summit Daily Other articles: 1) Summit Daily 9/27 2) Moab Times 9/27 4) Saint Louis Post Dispatch 10/2 5) Fox 31 Denver 10/3 6) Summit Daily 08/11/2015 ||||| The Tenmile Range in Colorado, where a skull belonging to Jack McAtee was found. ( rjones0856 via Flickr) It had been weeks since Jack McAtee was last heard of, and his father was feeling desperate. He reached out to local police, printed fliers featuring pictures of his son — brown hair, green eyes, toothy grin — delved into hiking books and traveling blogs to figure out where the outdoors-loving 27-year-old might have gone next. And over and over again, Steve McAtee read his son’s favorite book: “Into the Wild,” Jon Krakauer’s grim chronicle of another young man who vanished into the wilderness and then died there. Hoping for an answer. Hoping that story wouldn’t soon become Jack’s. Jack McAtee, a St. Louis native living in the ski town of Breckenridge, had been driving amid the mountains of Colorado when his car swerved off the road and tumbled more than 100 feet into a river below, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The car was totaled, but, miraculously, McAtee swam to the surface and escaped with only a scratch above his left eye. He had fallen asleep at the wheel, he told a state trooper that Thursday evening last September. But the trooper’s suspicions were roused by the young man’s odd behavior — he seemed carefree one moment, erratic the next — so he took McAtee to the hospital, then to protective custody at the local jail, then to a mental health facility at Summit Safe Haven in Frisco, Colo., a mountain town at the northern end of Colorado’s Tenmile Range. The next morning, according to Colorado newspaper the Summit Daily News, McAtee walked out of Safe Haven with just $67 and the clothes on his back. And that was the last anyone saw of him. There were no more phone calls, no bank withdrawals, no run-ins with the police. Nothing. Until this August, when a pair of French hikers bushwhacking down a mountain near Frisco came across a skull on the rugged, steep slopes. The skull, DNA tests revealed, was Jack’s. “Our search has come to fruition,” Steve McAtee wrote on a Web site set up to find his son. “Our closure is at hand.” His son was gone, he continued, “There’s nobody now who saw just what Jack saw, knows what he knew, remembers what he remembered, loves what he loved.” But the McAtees tried. During the year they spent wondering what had become of Jack, the McAtee family tracked him across the country in an attempt to see what he saw, to know what he knew, convinced that being in the mountains he loved would tell them something about why he had vanished. Friends,Please go to: www.findjackmcatee.comThis is an update we would like to get out to all the wonderful people… Posted by Steve McAtee on Friday, October 9, 2015 They began in the spot where he was last seen: the gravel cliff above the Dillon Reservoir. Standing before the mountain-ringed reservoir, Steve McAtee recorded a short video for his son, panning the camera across the pristine landscape. At the end, he turned the lens toward himself. “I love you Jack,” McAtee said. “Wherever you are.” He left no physical evidence behind, but the family had a few leads. According to the Summit Daily News, McAtee had asked the state trooper who responded to his crash if hitchhiking was allowed in Colorado. Within certain guidelines, the trooper explained. Then McAtee asked the trooper the best destination to hitchhike to using nearby Interstate 70. “Moab,” the man responded. Moab, Utah. Lead No. 1. Steve McAtee and one of his four daughters traveled to the desert city and got the local newspaper to run an article on Jack. They flew low over peaks he used to rave about, eyes straining for some kind of sign of where he’d been. Then there were the leads from Jack’s own history, which Steve McAtee hashed out endlessly on the FindJackMcAtee Web site. His sense of adventure — he used to fly planes in Alaska. His commitment to service — he once spent a month living and working at a homeless shelter. His admiration for Chris McCandless, the focus of “Into the Wild,” who, like McAtee, grew up in the suburbs but then fled into the wilderness, where he lived for a time on the strength of his survival skills and a Thoreauvian desire to disconnect. Perhaps he was piloting flights for fishermen in Alaska, or volunteering at a shelter in a big city like San Francisco or Houston. Perhaps he’d just gone deep into the wild around Frisco, where 10- and 12- and 14-thousand-foot mountains and endless acres of trees would shield him from the outside world. Alaska, shelter, mountains. Leads 2, 3 and 4. Steve McAtee reached out to his contacts in Alaska. He posted Jack’s missing poster on the Facebook pages of homeless shelters in cities across the West and Midwest. All six of the McAtees flew out to Summit County and ensured that signs about their brother and son were posted at every trailhead. Riding a mountain bike up and down the steep slopes, the family stopped every hiker they came across and held up Jack’s photo. Have you seen this man? During the winter months, when it was impossible to stay in Colorado and scour the mountains, Steve McAtee devoted himself to reading about lives lived off the grid. “Travelers,” or “Rainbow people,” as he called them, migrated from town to town without cell phones, jobs, permanent housing or bank accounts. He studied these drifters ceaselessly, trying to figure out what might have appealed to Jack — the creative chaos of Burning Man? the California winter campsite “Slab City,” where McCandless had once stayed? Then there was the other lead, the one the McAtees didn’t want to think about. Jack had stopped taking medicine for bipolar disorder just before the crash, the family told the Summit Daily News. It had happened before, and on three of those occasions he’d gone missing for a short while. Usually he popped back up again. But the state trooper who met Jack McAtee wrote in his report on the incident that he believed the crash might have been intentional, according to the Summit Daily News. Maybe he was trying to die. Maybe he was already dead. “At times, it’s a bit like being in the wilderness ourselves,” Steve McAtee wrote on Thanksgiving, 2014. “At times the lack of hope and feelings that it may be all over, that Jack may be dead and never found. And yes, we all understand that very well could be the case.” His updates from this summer are more optimistic. “It was a long cold winter,” McAtee wrote during a visit to Colorado in July, “… Even in light of the fact that Jack has now been missing for such a long time,we remain vigilant, hopeful and thankful for [friends and family] — even in the face of despair.” When the Summit County Sheriff’s Office called Steve McAtee in August to alert him about the skull, he tried not to assume the worst. “We don’t have any information yet,” he told the Summit Daily News. “I would call it inconsequential at this stage.” Two months later, the information came: Jack had died. What’s still not clear is when, or how. Taniel Ilano, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, told the Denver Post the investigation into McAtee’s death is ongoing. But in his message on his Web site, Steve McAtee doesn’t ask those questions. The biggest one, the one that’s dogged him for the past year, already has an answer: “A person, an irreplaceable person, is gone.” Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly identified Jack McAtee’s father. His name is Steve McAtee. More from Morning Mix Great white shark devours a seal on camera as Alcatraz tourists watch in awe ||||| Jack McAtee's skull was found on Peak 1 in August by hikers Breckenridge resident Jack McAtee, 27, went missing in Frisco on Sept. 19, 2014. A skull found near the summit of Peak 1 matched his identity according to recent DNA test results. (Summit County Daily) Summit County authorities said Monday a skull found by hikers in August is that of a 27-year-old Breckenridge man who went missing in September 2014. Jack McAtee's skull was the only of his remains located on Peak 1, according to officials. The county sheriff's office said the positive identification was done using DNA. McAtee, whose family said he was bipolar, disappeared a day after he drove his car into Dillon Reservoir and swam to safety with only minor injuries. A Colorado State Patrol report said his black sedan veered onto the paved bicycle path, cutting through a 10-foot opening between a steel guardrail and a concrete highway barrier, according to a Colorado State Patrol report. The car left the path, rolling for about 135 feet across dirt and gravel along the reservoir. It went airborne for 110 feet, turning end over end, before it crashed into the water. The car was almost entirely submerged, the report said. McAtee was taken to a hospital by authorities and then evaluated by a psychologist because he was acting erratically. He was then released and never heard from again. Advertisement "Our search has come to fruition," McAtee's family said in a statement posted on a website aimed at finding the missing man. "Our closure is at hand, albeit we acknowledge it will be a lifelong process." There was an expansive search for McAtee after he went missing, which included the Breckenridge Search and Rescue Team who "dedicated thousands of man hours," the statement on findjackmcatee.com said. Family members initially believed McAtee possibly had been hitchhiking. Searchers sought the help of truckers and truck stops throughout the state and beyond, widely circulating McAtee's picture. Taniel Ilano, spokeswoman for the Summit County Sheriff's Office, said an investigating into McAtee's death remains active and ongoing. "There's been no determination on manner or cause of death," she said. Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or @JesseAPaul The Associated Press contributed to this report.

– Jack McAtee crashed his car into a reservoir in the mountains of Colorado on Sept. 18, 2014. He survived with only a scratch and told a police officer he'd fallen asleep at the wheel. The officer suspected the crash might've been intentional and the 27-year-old spent a night at a mental health facility in Frisco. A day later, the Breckenridge man was released and disappeared, reports the Washington Post. His family told the Summit Daily News McAtee had 10 days earlier stopped taking his medication for bipolar disorder, just as he had done a few times before when he dropped out of sight, but he always resurfaced. Over the next year, they scoured the country in search of him, thinking perhaps he'd gone off the grid like Chris McCandless, the subject of his favorite book, Into the Wild. They reached out to contacts in Alaska, where McAtee had flown planes, and homeless shelters, where they thought he might volunteer, but found no sign of him. In July, McAtee's father wrote online that "there is a 50% chance that Jack wandered off into the wilderness and attempted to survive." But a month later, two hikers found a skull near the top of the Peak One, immediately south of Frisco; DNA confirmation that the skull was McAtee's came earlier this month. "Our search has come to fruition," McAtee's family wrote. "Our closure is at hand, albeit we acknowledge it will be a lifelong process." It's still not clear how or when McAtee died. His skull was all that was found of his remains, reports the Denver Post. What is certain: "A person, an irreplaceable person, is gone," his family says. But "the story's not over," McAtee's father adds. The family is hoping to raise $50,000 to build wells in Kenya in McAtee's memory. Nearly $15,000 has been raised so far. (The Into the Wild author has revised his McCandless death theory.)

FILE - In this April 17, 2018 file photo, Amy Schumer arrives at the world premiere of "I Feel Pretty" at the Westwood Village Theater in Los Angeles. Schumer says don’t look for her in a Super Bowl... (Associated Press) FILE - In this April 17, 2018 file photo, Amy Schumer arrives at the world premiere of "I Feel Pretty" at the Westwood Village Theater in Los Angeles. Schumer says don’t look for her in a Super Bowl... (Associated Press) Don't look for Amy Schumer in any Super Bowl LIII commercials this time around. She's sitting this one out as she stands with Colin Kaepernick and his take-a-knee protest against racism and police brutality. The comedian and "I Feel Pretty" actress explained her stance at length Friday on Instagram, challenging white NFL players to kneel as well. Addressing them directly, she wrote: "Otherwise how are you not complicit?" Of her plan to steer clear of Super Bowl ads, she said: "I personally told my reps I wouldn't do a Super Bowl commercial this year. I know it must sound like a privilege ass sacrifice but it's all I got." Diddy, Jessica Seinfeld and Christie Brinkley offered her support among more than 8,000 comments left on her post. It was not immediately clear whether she had been approached to appear in an ad during the big game. In 2016, Schumer appeared with Seth Rogen in a political-themed campaign for Bud Light, "Raise One to Right Now," during Super Bowl 50. "Hitting the nfl with the advertisers is the only way to hurt them," Schumer wrote of her ban. "I know opposing the nfl is like opposing the nra. Very tough ..." ||||| There's some exciting news in Hollywood: Amy Schumer is expecting her first child and she's expecting you to head to the polls this November. The comedian teased a big announcement on Instagram on Monday, while also directing her followers to go to Jessica Yellin's Instagram page. On her page, Yellin shared that Schumer is pregnant, as she promoted her #NewsNotNoise campaign. (When Bustle reached out for comment, Schumer's rep directed us to Yellin's Instagram page.) Along with a photo of her and husband Chris Fischer's faces photoshopped on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's bodies (who are also expecting their first child), Schumer wrote on Instagram: "About to announce some exciting news on @jessicayellin insta page. Please follow her for up to the minute #newsnotnoise she breaks down what’s really going on. She agreed to post a lil noise today for me! Follow her and VOTE!!" Over on Yellin's page, she shared Schumer's picks for candidates in the upcoming midterm elections — but that's not all. In a series of videos on her Instagram Story, the former CNN Chief White House Correspondent explains, "We are 15 days out from the midterms and there is a lot going on ... I wanted to share some news from our community. Maybe it's noise, but it's happy noise... These are the recommendations of Amy Schumer, one of the most consistent and early supporters of #NewsNotNoise. Now, read all the way to the bottom. You'll see there's some news down there. Congratulations, Amy." As Yellin hinted, at the very bottom of the lengthy list, the note reads: "I'm pregnant-Amy Schumer." Leave it to Schumer to double her pregnancy announcement as a political one. She likely knew the baby news would spark attention regardless, so she harnessed that platform to remind everyone about the midterms. Honestly, it's perfectly strategic. As for #NewsNotNoise, a quick look at Yellin's Instagram page explains what the movement is all about: "Political Jargon: Say What?! Lean Blue. Lean Red. Trump state. Blue wave. Early voting. Early returns. • What political jargon do you want explained? Post your question in comments. • I’ll pick a few and in the lead up to the election I’ll do a bunch of posts to help you better understand what it all means!" Considering how passionate Schumer is about politics, it's not all that surprising that she's supporting an effort to educate people about what they need to know, versus what noise they can tune out. (Even if celebrity baby news might sometimes fall in the latter category, as Yellin said herself, it's "happy noise.") The Trainwreck star isn't one to back down from her beliefs. Earlier this month, Schumer was reportedly detained and arrested for protesting Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, according to CNN. Over the years, she's also been a vocal advocate for gun control, as well as other causes she cares about. In the last week alone, she's spoken out about supporting the transgender community, in the wake of the Trump Administration's memo reported on by the New York Times. She also supported Colin Kaepernick's peaceful protest of the NFL by urging Maroon 5 to pull out of the Super Bowl Halftime Show as Rihanna reportedly did. Suffice to say, Schumer commits to political causes. And that's exactly why tying her baby announcement to a voting announcement isn't the least bit surprising — but it is pretty great.

– Amy Schumer took the long way around to announce she's pregnant with husband Chris Fischer. The comedian and actress broke her baby news Monday on the Instagram stories of friend and journalist Jessica Yellin, the AP reports. Yellin, of the site NewsNotNoise.org, showed at the end of a list of Schumer's recommended congressional and gubernatorial candidates the line: "I'm pregnant-Amy Schumer." Schumer had teased the announcement on her own Instagram page, captioning a photo of hers and Fischer's heads atop Prince Harry's and Meghan Markle's bodies, "About to announce some exciting news on @jessicayellin insta page. Please follow her for up to the minute #newsnotnoise she breaks down what’s really going on. She agreed to post a lil noise today for me! Follow her and VOTE!!" "We are 15 days out from the midterms and there is a lot going on," Yellin explained before going into Schumer's "lengthy" list of recommendations, per Bustle. "I wanted to share some news from our community. Maybe it's noise, but it's happy noise," Yellin continued. "These are the recommendations of Amy Schumer, one of the most consistent and early supporters of #NewsNotNoise. Now, read all the way to the bottom. You'll see there's some news down there. Congratulations, Amy." Schumer is known for her liberal politics: She was recently arrested protesting the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. The 37-year-old married Fischer, a chef, in February. (Here's why Schumer won't appear in any Super Bowl ads.)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shake hands in the Treaty Room Wednesday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared to get irritated with reporters at the State Department in Washington on Wednesday, sarcastically remarking on the firing of FBI Director James Comey. "Was he fired? You're kidding?" Lavrov told reporters. "You're kidding." Appearing with Lavrov, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was more measured, and made no specific comment on Comey. He stressed that the purpose of Lavrov's trip to Washington was "to continue our dialogue and our exchange of views that began in Moscow… on a very broad range of topics." Lavrov meets with President Donald Trump at the White House later Wednesday. ||||| Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reacts to a reporter's question after posing for photos with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the Treaty Room of the State Department on May 10. | Getty Russian foreign minister jokes about Comey: 'Was he fired? You’re kidding' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sarcastically acted surprised Wednesday when asked a question about the firing of FBI Director James Comey during a visit to Washington. “Was he fired? You’re kidding, you’re kidding,” he said during a brief press conference at the State Department before making a face, shaking his head and leaving the room. Story Continued Below Lavrov was briefly addressing the media with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The Russian diplomat is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump Wednesday as well. Comey, who was investigation the ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, was dramatically fired by Trump Tuesday night. ||||| As scrutiny intensifies around investigations into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump emphasized his hope for better relations between the U.S. and the Kremlin in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday. Trump described the meeting to a group of reporters on Wednesday as "very, very good." But the critical issue of Russian election interference was not discussed, according to Lavrov. In a press conference after the Oval Office meeting, the Russian Foreign Minister said he and Trump "discussed specific issues and we didn’t raise those absurd issues” about election tampering. Instead, Lavrov pointed to Trump’s own comments — frequently relayed via Twitter — that the Russia story is "fake news." "There is not a single fact, there is no compelling evidence given to anyone regarding Russia’s intervention and that is it," Lavrov said. Play Facebook Twitter Embed Pres. Trump Meets Russian FM Lavrov in the Oval Office 1:50 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Russian government social media accounts tweeted out images of Trump with Lavrov, as well as with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak whose attendance, his government said, is considered protocol. U.S. press was not allowed into either meeting nor has the White House released any photos. Kislyak’s role is critical in the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who met with the ambassador during the Trump transition and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the two men’s discussions on Russian sanctions levied by the Obama administration. Those sanctions were not discussed Wednesday, Lavrov said in a press conference at the Russian embassy after the meeting. But Lavrov called the Obama administration's expulsion of Russian diplomats from the U.S. in retaliation late last year “pitiful” and a “dirty” trick.” Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump are slated to meet in July on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Lavrov's meeting with Trump and Tillerson in Washington comes less than 24 hours after news of the firing of FBI Director James Comey, which ushered in a wave of criticism from Democrats and some Republicans with renewed calls for an independent investigator into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, including alleged collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. The meeting also comes at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are seen by the administration as "at a low point." U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as they meet for talks in the Oval Office at the White House on May 10, 2017. Russian Foreign Ministry Lavrov arrived at the White House after the Tillerson meeting and ahead of a press conference at the Russian Embassy. The meeting with Trump, billed on the White House schedule as an Oval Office meeting, was closed to reporters. During his meeting with Trump, Lavrov discussed efforts by Russia, Turkey and Iran to set up "de-escalation zones" in opposition-held areas of Syria, a plan enacted on Saturday. Still, stark differences remain on the best way forward in the six-year Syrian war which has left more than 500,000 dead and displaced millions. Washington has long said Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad can't remain in power if the war-torn nation is to move forward. Russia supports Assad. "We do not have a notion of an exit strategy," Lavrov said during the press conference at the Russian embassy on Wednesday. The "obsession with ousting particular leaders — look what it has led to. Why don't we try to learn from our mistakes, focus on process, defeating terrorism." The two governments also still disagree on Assad's role in last month's chemical gas attack, which left dozens of civilians dead and spurred Trump to retaliate by launching 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase. And as the Trump administration mulls sending as many as 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan to join the fight there, Lavrov stressed that his nation's government is not supporting the Taliban. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) shakes hands with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after a press conference on April 12, 2017 in Moscow. File Alexander Nemenov / AFP - Getty Images "Those who are working on Afghanistan have not found a single expert to say we're transferring arms," Lavrov said. Lavrov and Trump also discussed the ongoing violence in Ukraine where, since 2014, the U.S. has found itself on opposite sides of the conflict with Washington backing the Western-leaning Ukrainian government and Moscow backing pro-Russia separatists. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, reacted to the meeting with a warning, urging Trump to be careful and aware of who Lavrov represents. "The president's meeting with Lavrov today. It's okay to want to work with the Russians, but I hope, Mr. President, you know who you're dealing with," Graham told CNN. "You're dealing with a man who represents a government that is brutal, that tried to undermine our elections and, be careful, these are not teddy bears you're dealing with." ||||| CLOSE When reporters asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the firing of FBI Director James Comey, Lavrov asked them a question back. USA TODAY President Trump is pictured walking on the South Lawn of the White House. (Photo: Ron Sachs, Getty Images) President Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday, just one day after firing James Comey, the FBI director overseeing an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump and Lavrov discussed paths to resolving the Syrian civil war, the Russian incursion into Ukraine, and the Middle East conflict, according to a statement from the White House. They also discussed ways to improve relations between the two countries, the statement added. "The President further emphasized his desire to build a better relationship between the United States and Russia." In brief comments to reporters, Trump said the Comey case had no effect "at all" on his meeting Lavrov, and he defended the firing of the FBI director because "he wasn't doing a good job." The FBI, along with several congressional committees, are focusing on whether there was any collusion between Trump campaign associates to Russia during the last year's election. The U.S. intelligence community has accused Moscow of carrying out a campaign of cyberattacks against Democratic political institutions to influence the American election, and leaking stolen material to be published on websites such as WikiLeaks. Trump has denied any connections and described the Russia story as a "hoax." The timing for the meeting drew special attention since Lavrov, who last visited Washington in 2013, is the highest-level Russian official to meet with Trump since he took office in January. The White House meeting also featured a key figure in the investigation: Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States. Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was fired after misleading his colleagues about his conversations with Kislyak before the inauguration. Meanwhile, in Russia, President Vladimir Putin told CBS News that the Comey firing would have "no effect" on U.S.-Russian relations. "We have nothing to do with that," Putin said. WATCH: Russia President Vladimir Putin responds to Comey firing: "We have nothing to do with that." https://t.co/fvTW6W3DnFpic.twitter.com/riP7EFr3xR — CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) May 10, 2017 Lavrov also met earlier Wednesday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the State Department. As he welcomed Lavrov in the Treaty Room, Tillerson said he looks forward to continuing a dialogue the two began in Moscow “on a very broad range of topics.” Before reporters assembled there, Lavrov appeared to make a joke about Comey's firing. When a reporter asked if the sudden firing Tuesday “cast a shadow over your talks,” Lavrov responded with a deadpan joke. “Was he fired?” He asked. When the reporter answered in the affirmative, Lavrov quipped: “You are kidding. You are kidding.” He then waived his hand with a dismissive nod of his head, and walked away with a smiling Tillerson. Tillerson met with Putin at the Kremlin last month amid tensions over a U.S. airstrike against a Syria air base blamed for a chemical attack by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a Russian ally. The attack killed scores of civilians. Trump said following that meeting that relations between the U.S. and Russia "may be at an all-time low.” "The world's two foremost nuclear owners cannot have this kind of relationship," Tillerson said at the time. CLOSE The White House reports Comey's dismissal comes after he was found in the middle of several political controversies like Russia's possible election interference and Hillary Clinton's handling of classified e-mails. USA TODAY Wednesday's meetings could signal progress between the two nations since then. On Wednesday, Tillerson and Lavrov will discuss Ukraine, Syria, and "bilateral issues," the State Department said. "On Ukraine, the sides will discuss the need to stop the violence in eastern Ukraine and resolve the conflict through the full implementation of the Minsk agreements. On Syria, the Secretary intends to discuss efforts to de-escalate violence, provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people, and set the stage for a political settlement of the conflict," the department said in a statement. Contributing: Oren Dorell Read more: Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2puIjcI ||||| SOCHI, May 10. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump’s decision to dismiss FBI Director James Comey will not affect relations between Russia and the United States, that’s Washington’s internal affair, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked how this decision again raising the issue of Russia’s alleged involvement in the US election, could affect the bilateral ties. James Comey will be replaced by someone who will do a far better job, bringing back the spirit and prestige of the FBI. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 10 May 2017 "We hope that it will not affect them at all. That's the United States’ internal affair. That’s the US president’s independent decision, which has nothing to do and should have nothing to do with Russia," he said. The White House said earlier in the day that Trump had fired FBI Director, James Comey. A statement from Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Comey had been removed from office on the recommendations of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The search for a new FBI director will begin immediately, the White House said. ||||| Trump Hosts Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov And Ambassador Kislyak At White House Enlarge this image toggle caption Alexander Shcherbak/TASS/Getty Images Alexander Shcherbak/TASS/Getty Images President Trump hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday, one day after firing the man whose agency is investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election that brought Trump to power. Trump fired now-former FBI Director James Comey, who told Congress earlier this year that his agency has been investigating Russia's actions — and possible ties to anyone associated with the Trump campaign — since July. As NPR's Domenico Montanaro reports, the firing of Comey with more than six years left on his term in office has prompted a flurry of questions about the president's motives — and about what's next. Lavrov's meeting with the president was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET, and it was declared closed to the press. Russian agencies tweeted photos from the Oval Office showing that in addition to Lavrov, Trump shook hands with Russia's ambassador to America, Sergey Kislyak — a key figure in the investigation into Trump's ousted national security adviser, Michael Flynn. After the Lavrov session had concluded, members of the U.S. media were allowed into the Oval Office, where they found the president sitting with Henry Kissinger, who served as President Richard Nixon's secretary of state. The meeting hadn't been listed on the president's official schedule. Trump said he and Kissinger had met to talk "about Russia and various other matters," according to the pool report. To a question about Comey, Trump reportedly replied, "He wasn't doing a good job. Very simply. He was not doing a good job." The president also said the issue had not affected his meeting with Lavrov. Lavrov arrived in Washington on Tuesday. He met with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the White House early Wednesday, ahead of his visit to the Oval Office. Tillerson and Lavrov made a brief appearance Wednesday morning for a photo-op, and as Tillerson began to lead his guest back behind closed doors, Lavrov responded to a question about Comey's firing. When a reporter asked whether the dismissal has "cast a shadow" over their talks, Lavrov stopped and seemed to look genuinely quizzical when he responded, "Was he fired?" — but then adopted a deadpan tone as he told the reporter, "You are kidding, you are kidding." With a theatrical twitch of his head, the Russian diplomat then followed his American counterpart away from the media. The exchange was not included in the State Department's brief video snippet from the photo-op that it posted to Twitter. Tillerson's office said his talks with Lavrov would focus on "Ukraine, Syria, and bilateral issues." But the Russians' visit to the White House also came as the Kremlin made its first public comments on Comey's removal. When Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked how the firing might affect U.S.-Russia relations, Peskov replied, "We hope that it will not affect them at all. That's the United States' internal affair. That's the U.S. president's independent decision, which has nothing to do and should have nothing to do with Russia." Comey's dismissal has sparked new calls for an independent probe into Russia's attempts to influence last year's U.S. presidential election — despite the Trump administration's assertion that Comey was removed over his handling of the investigation into Clinton's private email server. "This is nothing less than Nixonian," said Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Announcing Comey's abrupt firing Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the president "acted based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions."

– US News says he "appeared to get irritated," while Politico and NBC note he was being sarcastic, but if Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov didn't know about President Trump firing FBI Director James Comey before Wednesday morning's presser at the State Department, he does now. Lavrov, who's in town to meet with Trump, appeared with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell asked, "Does the Comey firing cast a shadow over the talks, gentlemen?" That sent Tillerson to the door while Lavrov lingered. "Was he fired?" he asked. "You're kidding—you're kidding!" Lavrov made a dismissive gesture with his head and exited the room with Tillerson. Per the State Department, Lavrov's sit-down with Trump on Wednesday was to focus on Syria, the conflict in Ukraine, and "bilateral issues," USA Today reports. NPR notes that even though the Lavrov-Trump meeting was closed to the US press, Russian agencies tweeted pictures of Trump with Lavrov and also with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, who was not mentioned on the original itinerary. When the American media was allowed into the Oval Office, they found Trump sitting with Richard Nixon's secretary of state, Henry Kissinger—also a surprise appearance. Meanwhile, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he didn't think the Comey firing would impact the US-Russia relationship, calling it an "independent decision" by Trump that "has nothing to do and should have nothing to do with Russia," per the TASS news agency.

If you were to get high and make a list of people who, hypothetically, you would not want to text with a request for weed, "probation officer" would probably be near the top. Right up there with Simon from Alvin and the Chipmunks and former president George H.W. Bush. But knowing you shouldn't hit up your P.O. when you're trying to buy drugs is only half the battle. You also have to not accidentally type "You have some weed?" in a message to that person, and then hit "send." This was too much for Albany, Ga., man Alvin Cross, Jr, whose unfortunate misdirected text resulted in a raid on his house, where he was rearrested and charged with possession of a bag of cocaine. He pleaded guilty Monday and will serve one year in prison. Should have blamed it on ducking autocorrect. [Photo: WALB, h/t: The Root] ||||| Dopey: Alvin Cross texted the wrong person and ended up in jail We’ve all had that heart-stopping moment after realising we sent a text to the wrong person but few of us would expect to end up in jail for it. Hapless Alvin Cross Jr was not so lucky after the dopey criminal sent a text message to probation officer asking if they had any drugs. Dopey Cross was on probation for an unknown offence when he accidentally sent his appointed officer a text message asking: “you have some weed?” According to US news channel WALB, upon getting the message, the probation officer contacted police who then raided the criminal’s home and discovered a bag of cocaine. Cross reportedly pleaded guilty on Monday to cocaine possession and was given one year in jail and another year for violating his probation. ||||| Share this article with Google Plus Alvin Cross Junior probably regretted sending this text (Picture: Dougherty County Police Dept) Sometimes people become so desperate that they don’t know where to turn. When prospects look dire and family and friends neglect them, some folks resort to dialing the dealer. However, one man decided to avoid this route, opting to contact a far more unusual confidant instead. According to WALB, Alvin Cross Jr, of Albany, Georgia, texted ‘you have some weed?’ to his probation officer. That’s right, Alvin asked the man supervising his probationary period following a stint in prison if he had any drugs to sell. After the text was received, drug agents raided Cross’ home and found a bag of cocaine. Unsurprisingly, he will now be returning to prison. ||||| 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 don't have to be stupid to go to prison, but it helps. A few news articles I read today prove that maxim. In Albany, Georgia, a man who texted "You have some weed?" to his probation officer will soon be a lot closer to drug dealers. Alvin Cross, Jr., will spend another year in prison for violating terms of his probation and another year for having a "bag" of cocaine in his house when the probation officer he texted came knocking with drug agents and a search warrant, writes WALB.com. The WALB article doesn't tell us why Cross was on probation, how much cocaine he had, or why a man with cocaine can't trade it for marijuana without a text message to his probation officer. Recommended for you Recommended for you Recommended for you Most read The second case of stupid comes out of Alabama. Inmate Anthony Warren claimed to have been beaten by police when they arrested him after he rolled his vehicle during a high-speed chase. The city of Birmingham has agreed to settle the civil lawsuit for $460,000, but Warren will only get $1,000. His attorneys will be paid $359,000 in fees and $100,000 in expenses, says AL.com. Warren, who endangered many lives when he fled from a narcotics officer in 2008, hit a school bus, police car and police officer during the 20-minute high-speed chase. While placing him under arrest, police hit Warren for 10 seconds, according to video . Warren won't have much opportunity to spend his $1,000. He's serving a 20-year attempted murder sentence for hitting the police officer with his car. Meanwhile, on the "good guy" side of the law, a prison guard who gave drugs to female inmates before sexually assaulting them was sentenced to probation. More news you may find worthy: ||||| This could happen to any of us. Well, if any of us was serving probation. This was the case with Alvin Cross Jr. of Albany, Ga. Cross Jr. seems to have gotten his wires crossed — or, more accurately, his fingers — when he reportedly texted who he thought was his drug dealer. The accitext? “You have some weed?” The recipient? His parole officer. As WALB-TV reports, Cross’s parole officer may or may not have been cross, but the authorities were informed. His home was raided. Cocaine was found. Cross reportedly pleaded guilty on Monday to cocaine possession. He was given one year in jail and another year for violating his probation. (It’s not clear what he was on probation for.) You may or may not have sympathy with Cross Jr. or with America’s drug laws. But the immediacy offered by cellphones, and the automatic way in which we use them, has surely caused many relationships and even careers to falter. It’s always worth taking those extra two seconds before you press Send. Those two seconds could save you two years. MORE TECHNICALLY INCORRECT

– A guy in Albany, Ga., texted his probation officer by mistake asking, "You have any weed?" The probation officer then showed up at the errant texter's house with drug agents who found a bag of cocaine, reports WALB. And that's why Alvin Cross is not only going back to prison for violating his parole, he's serving an extra year. The story seems to have hit a sweet spot of dumb criminal/tech gaffe, because Cross is the butt of a lot of jokes out there: Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "You don’t have to be stupid to go to prison, but it helps." Gawker: "If you were to get high and make a list of people who, hypothetically, you would not want to text with a request for weed, 'probation officer' would probably be near the top." Death and Taxes: "Here’s a little pro-tip: If you find yourself on probation from jail, under no circumstances should you text your probation officer the message, 'You have some weed?'" CNET: "This could happen to any of us. Well, if any of us was serving probation." Metro: This UK (!) outlet takes a more narrative approach: "When prospects look dire and family and friends neglect them, some folks resort to dialing the dealer. However, one man decided to avoid this route, opting to contact a far more unusual confidant instead." And on and on. (The guy who butt-dialed 911 during a drug deal seemed to get better treatment.)

The United States ended 75 years of frustration in Mexico, winning at its southern neighbor and regional rival for the first time Wednesday night when Michael Orozco Fiscal's goal in the 80th minute and Tim Howard's late sprawling saves provided a 1-0 victory. U.S Michael Orozco celebrates after scoring during a friendly soccer game against Mexico in Mexico City, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) (Associated Press) U.S Michael Orozco, front, celebrates after scoring during a friendly soccer game against Mexico in Mexico City, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) (Associated Press) U.S. Michael Orozco celebrates with teammates after scoring during a friendly soccer game against Mexico in Mexico City, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) (Associated Press) U.S Michael Orozco, right, celebrates with teammate Terrence Boyd after scoring after scoring during a friendly soccer game against Mexico in Mexico City, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) (Associated Press) Dominated for most of the night, the Americans went ahead on a move created by a trio of second-half substitutes. Brek Shea cut inside Severo Meza on the left flank and crossed to Terrence Boyd at the top of the 6-yard box. With his back to the goal, Boyd took a touch with his left foot and with his right made a quick backheel pass to Orozco Fiscal, who with his left foot poked it from 3 yards past goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa and defender Jorge Torres Nilo for his first international goal. "The goal was for the U.S. fans and the whole U.S. We made history," said Orosco Fizcal, a 26-year-old defender from Orange, Calif., who plays in Mexico for San Luis. He entered in the 77th minute for his fifth international appearance and first since October. Shea, back with the team for the first time since February following a season of turmoil in Major League Soccer, came on a minute later. Boyd had entered to start the second half. "Just happy we won and made history," Shea said. "It's something we haven't done in a long time. Just to be on the roster is cool." Howard preserved the lead, changing directions to stop a deflected shot by Javier Hernandez in the 85th, then pawing away a 4-yard downward header by Chicharito in the 89th. "I think it's huge. It's huge for I think all American fans, it's huge for the team, and it's historic," U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. "We were very well aware that we've never won here at the Azteca Stadium. This is an amazing experience for the all the players. We told them before the game: This moment is for you, go and grab it. We are all aware that it was a lot, a lot of work." The U.S. had been 0-23-1 against El Tri in 75 years of games at Mexico, including 0-19-1 in the thin air at altitude in Mexico City _ where they had been outscored 81-14. "Tim Howard kept us in the game I don't know how many times," said Klinsmann, who has been trying to change the defensive mindset the American had at times under Bob Bradley. "It's a mental aspect of it. Eventually, you need a little bit of luck, too, and I think in some instances we were lucky tonight." Mexico outshot the U.S. 15-6 and had a 10-0 advantage in corner kicks. But the Americans came away with their second big win this year, following February's first-ever victory over Italy, in a friendly at Genoa. With the European clubs seasons getting under way, the U.S. used a half-strength roster and a makeshift central defense. Mexico also was below strength following the Olympics _ Carlos Salcido, its regular left back, started in Sunday's win over Brazil in the gold-medal game. El Tri dominated possession but failed to connect on several open shots as the Americans paired Maurice Edu and Geoff Cameron in the center of their back line. The game marked the start of the Americans' second year under Klinsmann, who replaced Bradley last summer after Mexico overcame a two-goal deficit to win the CONCACAF Gold Cup final 4-2. The U.S. figures to have a lineup closer to full strength for a pair of World Cup qualifiers against Jamaica next month, on the road on Sept. 7 and at Columbus, Ohio, four days later. Mexico plays Costa Rica on those same days. "We know we have to improve in many, many elements," Klinsmann said. "We have to keep the ball longer. We have to create more chances. We have to do a lot of work still. But I think this gives us a lot of confidence." Landon Donovan, searching for his 50th international goal, left at the start of the second half because of a tight hamstring and DaMarcus Beasley came in for his 97th international appearance. Boyd came in at the same time to replace an ineffective Jose Torres. Cameron got his head on a cross from Elias Hernandez in the 56th minute, preventing Hernandez from an open shot in front. A minute later, Jesus Zavala put an open header over the crossbar. With Ochoa off his line, Kyle Beckerman put a long, sliding shot just over the crossbar in the 60th. Andres Guardado hooked a free kick just wide to Howard's right post in the 65th after Cameron fouled Hernandez just outside the penalty area. Hernandez then sent an open header wide in the 76th off a cross from Hernandez. "It was very difficult in high altitude, with many of them flying in from Europe two days ago," Klinsmann said. "But we had a plan, and we tried to execute that plan and getting that win here, I mean it's quite enjoyable." ||||| Javier Hernandez (left) was stuffed twice by Tim Howard in the final minutes. Roberto Maya/AFP/Getty Images United States 1 Mexico 0 Final :: Mexico City Orozco Fiscal 80' MEXICO CITY -- On the night the U.S. made history, goalkeeper Tim Howard walked slowly up the tunnel of the Estadio Azteca, one of the most famous stadiums in sports and a house of horrors for U.S. Soccer from the time it was built more than 40 years ago. As he moved forward, Howard passed by all the signs that have been posted on the tunnel walls, one per country, showing the all-time records of Mexico against its international opponents. Howard was headed toward the U.S. bus, but he decided to stop at the sign bearing the Stars and Stripes flag, "Estados Unidos," and a string of misery in the form of U.S. results here over the decades. U.S. kit man Jesse Bignami pulled out his cell phone and snapped a picture of Howard in a triumphant pose next to an artifact that was no longer accurate. "Time to change the sign," Howard said, wearing a proud smile. "Time to change the sign." CREDITOR: U.S. player ratings Until Wednesday, the U.S. had never beaten Mexico in Mexico in 24 games over 75 years going back to 1937. Until Wednesday, the U.S. tally read 23 losses, one tie and zero victories. Until Wednesday, the thought of this U.S. team finally winning in Mexico seemed close to impossible, not least because so many regulars were missing from the quickly assembled squad: Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Jozy Altidore. And let's be honest: For most of Wednesday's game, it seemed likely that the U.S. would go home on the losing end again. Mexico dominated possession, spent most of its time in the U.S. end and forced the U.S. back line into a near-constant protect-and-defend mode. But the U.S. held firm, absorbing the pressure, with center back Geoff Cameron in particular having a standout game shutting down Mexican star Javier (Chicharito) Hernández. In just his sixth U.S. appearance, Cameron played like taking on Mexico in the Azteca was no big deal. "I tried not to think about it much, because the more you think about it the more worried and nervous you get," said Cameron, who just joined Stoke City of the English Premier League from Houston. "I was sweating profusely coming into the game, but I just tried to focus on myself and do the things I know how to do well." As the second half progressed and the score remained 0-0, Howard thought maybe, just maybe, the U.S. could hold on for a tie. "I was saying to myself at 75 minutes: If someone wants to stop the game, we'll take it," he said. WAHL: U.S.' defensive stand, more post-match thoughts But everything changed in the 80th minute. After a U.S. throw-in, Kyle Beckerman passed to Brek Shea on the left wing. After a breakout year in 2011, Shea had fallen back to earth hard in 2012, so much so that he was a surprise pick to even be on this U.S. squad. When he's on his game, though, Shea runs right at defenders like a Texas-bred running back, and that's exactly what he did, nutmegging Mexico's Severo Meza, barreling into the box and firing a pass to fellow substitute Terrence Boyd. Boyd, a supremely confident German-American, surprised the Mexicans with an audacious back heel in the box that found Michael Orozco Fiscal free in space. It's fair to say that Orozco Fiscal had dropped off the U.S. radar even more than Shea had, and it's likely he was selected for this team mainly because he plays in Mexico. Orozco Fiscal had come upfield for the throw-in, and even though he's a defender, he stuck around in the Mexican penalty area. "Shea took him one-v-one," said Orozco Fiscal, "and I was like, 'I'm gonna stay here and see what happens.'" His first-time shot beat Mexican goalie Guillermo Ochoa, sparking a raucous U.S. celebration at the corner flag. Mexico 0, United States 1. The Mexicans staged a mad scramble to come back. Yet Howard ended those hopes with two remarkable saves on Hernández, including a point-blank header. "I just tried to get a full hand on it, and it ended up hitting the top of my thumb, which gave it spin," Howard said. "I thought, 'Here we go again.' But we deserved a little bit of luck." The ball stayed out of the U.S. net. For years we wondered: What would the scene be like in the Azteca when the U.S. finally won a game here? When the whistle blew, we finally knew. The restless murmurs in the gigantic thunderdome dissipated into an eerie quiet. Some areas of the stadium turned angry, hurling projectiles onto a small U.S. fan section until police had to evacuate the American supporters. But outside the stadium the majority of Mexican fans merely set about going home. The general anger would likely have been higher had it been a World Cup qualifier instead of an exhibition game. Years from now, though, people won't remember that Mexico had more possession in this game, or that it was "just a friendly." They'll remember one thing: on Aug. 15, 2012, the U.S. beat Mexico on Mexican soil for the first time in 25 tries. There's value in that for coach Jurgen Klinsmann as he tries to build a team that can compete at World Cup 2014, not just when it comes to playing good soccer but also when it comes to having the mentality to win difficult games. "It's important to us to understand that we can compete with big teams at their stadiums," Klinsmann said. "With Azteca it's like when you play at Wembley in England or the Stade de France or in Berlin. Those are very special locations, and I want the players to appreciate that. I want the players to understand and take it all in, because you never know if you'll get another occasion like that. We told the players: You have nothing to lose here. Give it all you have." In March, Klinsmann's U.S. men pulled off a 1-0 victory against Italy in Genoa, a historic result in a tough environment. And on Wednesday they did it again in the Azteca. Next year, results willing, the U.S. will return to the Estadio Azteca for a World Cup qualifier, and things will be different as a result of this memorable night -- on the field, in the players' minds and, not least, on a specific piece of printed posterboard in the stadium tunnel. It's time to change the sign.

– The US men's soccer team stunned Mexico Wednesday night by beating them on their home turf for the first time. Going into the game at Mexico City's Estadio Azteca, one of the game's most intimidating and highest-altitude arenas, America's record against Mexico in 75 years of games was 23 losses, one tie, and zero wins. The Americans were dominated by Mexico for most of the game but won the friendly 1-0 with a late goal from Michael Orozco Fiscal, the AP reports. Mexico scrambled to get back in the game but were defeated by a pair of remarkable saves from goalkeeper Tim Howard. "The goal was for the US fans and the whole US. We made history," said Orosco Fizcal, a defender from Orange, California. "It's important to us to understand that we can compete with big teams at their stadiums," US coach Jurgen Klinsmann told Sports Illustrated. "With Azteca it's like when you play at Wembley in England or the Stade de France or in Berlin. Those are very special locations, and I want the players to appreciate that. I want the players to understand and take it all in, because you never know if you'll get another occasion like that. We told the players: You have nothing to lose here. Give it all you have." The team is back in action for a pair of World Cup qualifiers against Jamaica next month.

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about Science. NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address. ||||| If you're watching videos with your preschooler and would like to do so in a safe, child-friendly environment, please join us at http://www.sesamestreet.org Big Bird recites a poem about whistling. Sesame Street is a production of Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization which also produces Pinky Dinky Doo, The Electric Company, and other programs for children around the world. ||||| The arrival 36 years ago of a strange bird to a remote island in the Galapagos archipelago has provided direct genetic evidence of a novel way in which new species arise. In this week's issue of the journal Science, researchers from Princeton University and Uppsala University in Sweden report that the newcomer belonging to one species mated with a member of another species resident on the island, giving rise to a new species that today consists of roughly 30 individuals. The study comes from work conducted on Darwin's finches, which live on the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The remote location has enabled researchers to study the evolution of biodiversity due to natural selection. The direct observation of the origin of this new species occurred during field work carried out over the last four decades by B. Rosemary and Peter Grant, two scientists from Princeton, on the small island of Daphne Major. "The novelty of this study is that we can follow the emergence of new species in the wild," said B. Rosemary Grant, a senior research biologist, emeritus, and a senior biologist in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. "Through our work on Daphne Major, we were able to observe the pairing up of two birds from different species and then follow what happened to see how speciation occurred." In 1981, a graduate student working with the Grants on Daphne Major noticed the newcomer, a male that sang an unusual song and was much larger in body and beak size than the three resident species of birds on the island. "We didn't see him fly in from over the sea, but we noticed him shortly after he arrived. He was so different from the other birds that we knew he did not hatch from an egg on Daphne Major," said Peter Grant, the Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, and a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, emeritus. The researchers took a blood sample and released the bird, which later bred with a resident medium ground finch of the species Geospiz fortis, initiating a new lineage. The Grants and their research team followed the new "Big Bird lineage" for six generations, taking blood samples for use in genetic analysis. In the current study, researchers from Uppsala University analyzed DNA collected from the parent birds and their offspring over the years. The investigators discovered that the original male parent was a large cactus finch of the species Geospiza conirostris from Española island, which is more than 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) to the southeast in the archipelago. The remarkable distance meant that the male finch was not able to return home to mate with a member of his own species and so chose a mate from among the three species already on Daphne Major. This reproductive isolation is considered a critical step in the development of a new species when two separate species interbreed. The offspring were also reproductively isolated because their song, which is used to attract mates, was unusual and failed to attract females from the resident species. The offspring also differed from the resident species in beak size and shape, which is a major cue for mate choice. As a result, the offspring mated with members of their own lineage, strengthening the development of the new species. Researchers previously assumed that the formation of a new species takes a very long time, but in the Big Bird lineage it happened in just two generations, according to observations made by the Grants in the field in combination with the genetic studies. All 18 species of Darwin's finches derived from a single ancestral species that colonized the Galápagos about one to two million years ago. The finches have since diversified into different species, and changes in beak shape and size have allowed different species to utilize different food sources on the Galápagos. A critical requirement for speciation to occur through hybridization of two distinct species is that the new lineage must be ecologically competitive -- that is, good at competing for food and other resources with the other species -- and this has been the case for the Big Bird lineage. "It is very striking that when we compare the size and shape of the Big Bird beaks with the beak morphologies of the other three species inhabiting Daphne Major, the Big Birds occupy their own niche in the beak morphology space," said Sangeet Lamichhaney, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and the first author on the study. "Thus, the combination of gene variants contributed from the two interbreeding species in combination with natural selection led to the evolution of a beak morphology that was competitive and unique." The definition of a species has traditionally included the inability to produce fully fertile progeny from interbreeding species, as is the case for the horse and the donkey, for example. However, in recent years it has become clear that some closely related species, which normally avoid breeding with each other, do indeed produce offspring that can pass genes to subsequent generations. The authors of the study have previously reported that there has been a considerable amount of gene flow among species of Darwin's finches over the last several thousands of years. One of the most striking aspects of this study is that hybridization between two distinct species led to the development of a new lineage that after only two generations behaved as any other species of Darwin's finches, explained Leif Andersson, a professor at Uppsala University who is also affiliated with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Texas A&M; University. "A naturalist who came to Daphne Major without knowing that this lineage arose very recently would have recognized this lineage as one of the four species on the island. This clearly demonstrates the value of long-running field studies," he said. It is likely that new lineages like the Big Birds have originated many times during the evolution of Darwin's finches, according to the authors. The majority of these lineages have gone extinct but some may have led to the evolution of contemporary species. "We have no indication about the long-term survival of the Big Bird lineage, but it has the potential to become a success, and it provides a beautiful example of one way in which speciation occurs," said Andersson. "Charles Darwin would have been excited to read this paper." ### The study was supported by the Galapagos National Parks Service, the Charles Darwin Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Swedish Research Council. The study, "Rapid hybrid speciation in Darwin's finches," by Sangeet Lamichhaney, Fan Han, Matthew T. Webster, Leif Andersson, B. Rosemary Grant and Peter R. Grant, was published in the journal Science on Nov. 23, 2017. Uppsala University contributed to the content of this press release. ||||| For the first time, scientists have been able to observe something amazing: the evolution of a completely new species, in the wild, in real-time. And it took just two generations. Now, genomic sequencing and the analysis of physical characteristics have confirmed the new species of Darwin's finch, endemic to a small island called Daphne Major in the Galápagos. Its discoverers have nicknamed it Big Bird. There are at least 15 species of Darwin's finches, so named because their diversity helped famed naturalist Charles Darwin figure out his theory of evolution by natural selection - that is, mutations can help species become better adapted to their environment, and be passed down to subsequent generations. It's two of these species that came together in what is called species hybridisation to create an entirely new one. Here's what Big Bird looks like. (© P. R. Grant) While on expedition on the Daphne Major island, Peter and B. Rosemary Grant, biologists at Princeton University, noticed the presence of a non-native interloper, Geospiza conirostris. It's also known as the large cactus finch, and is native to other Galapagos islands, namely Española, Genovesa, Darwin, and Wolf. As one of the larger species of Darwin's finches, and with a different song than the three native Daphne Major species, the newcomer - a male - stood out. "We didn't see him fly in from over the sea, but we noticed him shortly after he arrived. He was so different from the other birds that we knew he did not hatch from an egg on Daphne Major," Peter Grant said. But then it mated with two females of one of those native species, Geospiza fortis, the medium ground finch. And the mating produced offspring. Mating between different species that results in offspring isn't that unusual - famous examples include mules, the product of mating between a male donkey and a mare. There are also ligers, a cross between a male lion and female tiger. G. conirostris (left) and G. fortis (right). (© K. T. Grant and B. R. Grant) But hybrid species are often sterile, or reproduce with difficulty - and that did not prove to be the case with these new chicks. A new lineage began - it had to. The birds had a different song from G. fortis, as well as different beak size and shape, and these are what the finches use to attract mates. Reproductively, the new species was completely isolated, and had to mate within its own kind to survive. But it was an uphill battle. During droughts on the island in 2002-2003, when the new lineage was in its fourth generation, all but two of the birds died. Then they rallied. "When the rains came again, the brother and sister mated with each other and produced 26 offspring," Rosemary Grant said in an interview last year. "All but nine survived to breed - a son bred with his mother, a daughter with her father, and the rest of the offspring with each other - producing a terrifically inbred lineage." Because the hybrid finches were bigger than the native populations, they were able to access previously unexploited food choices, and survive. At the Grants' most recent visit to the island in 2012, they counted 23 individuals and 8 breeding pairs of the birds. This success means, the researchers noted, that hybridisation could have occurred many times in Darwin's finches in the past, resulting in new species that either became extinct or evolved to become the species we know today. "A naturalist who came to Daphne Major without knowing that this lineage arose very recently would have recognised this lineage as one of the four species on the island," said Leif Andersson of Uppsala University in Sweden, who conducted the genetic analysis. "This clearly demonstrates the value of long-running field studies." Charles Darwin would have been delighted. If you want to read more about the Grants' work, you can't go past the Pulitzer-winning The Beak of the Finch. And you can find the new paper in the journal Science. ||||| Image caption This is an image of the Big Bird lineage, which arose through the breeding of two distinct parent species: G. fortis and G. conirostris A population of finches on the Galapagos has been discovered in the process of becoming a new species. This is the first example of speciation that scientists have been able to observe directly in the field. Researchers followed the entire population of finches on a tiny Galapagos island called Daphne Major, for many years, and so they were able to watch the speciation in progress. The research was published in the journal Science. The group of finch species to which the Big Bird population belongs are collectively known as Darwin's finches and helped Charles Darwin to uncover the process of evolution by natural selection. In 1981, the researchers noticed the arrival of a male of a non-native species, the large cactus finch. Professors Rosemary and Peter Grant noticed that this male proceeded to mate with a female of one of the local species, a medium ground finch, producing fertile young. Almost 40 years later, the progeny of that original mating are still being observed, and number around 30 individuals. "It's an extreme case of something we're coming to realise more generally over the years. Evolution in general can happen very quickly," said Prof Roger Butlin, a speciation expert who wasn't involved in the study. What makes a species? This new finch population is sufficiently different in form and habits to the native birds, as to be marked out as a new species, and individuals from the different populations don't interbreed. Prof Butlin told the BBC that people working on speciation credit the Grant professors with altering our understanding of rapid evolutionary change in the field. In the past, it was thought that two different species must be unable to produce fertile offspring in order to be defined as such. But in more recent years, it has been established that many birds and other animals that we consider to be unique species are in fact able to interbreed with others to produce fertile young. "We tend not to argue about what defines a species anymore, because that doesn't get you anywhere," said Prof Butlin. What he says is more interesting is understanding the role that hybridisation can have in the process of creating new species, which is why this observation of Galapagos finches is so important. The researchers think that the original male must have flown 65 miles from the large cactus finches' home island of Española. That's a very long way for a small finch to fly, and so it would be very unlikely for the bird to make a successful return flight. Image caption A member of the G. fortis species, one of two that interbred to give rise to the Big Bird lineage Image caption A finch belonging to the G. conirostris species. It's the other half of the pairing that gave rise to the Big Bird population By identifying one way that new species can arise, and following the entire population, the researchers state this as an example of speciation occurring in a timescale we can observe. In most cases, the offspring of cross-species matings are poorly adapted to their environment. But in this instance, the new finches on Daphne Major are larger than other species on the island, and have taken hold of new and unexploited food. For this reason, the researchers are calling the animals the "Big Bird population". To scientifically test whether the Big Bird population was genetically distinct from the three species of finch native to the island, Peter and Rosemary Grant collaborated with Prof Leif Andersson of Sweden's Uppsala University who analysed the population genetically for the new study. Prof Andersson told BBC News: "The surprise was that we would expect the hybrid would start to breed with one of the other species on the island and be absorbed… we have confirmed that they are a closed breeding group." Due to an inability to recognise the songs of the new males, native females won't pair with this new species. Image copyright FRANS LANTING, MINT IMAGES / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Image caption The finches led Darwin to his theory of natural selection, as outlined in On The Origin of Species And in this paper, new genetic evidence shows that after two generations, there was complete reproductive isolation from the native birds. As a result, they are now reproductively - and genetically - isolated. So they have been breeding exclusively with each other over the years. "What we are saying is that this group of birds behave as a distinct species. If you didn't know anything about [Daphne Major's] history and a taxonomist arrived on this island they would say there are four species on this island," said Prof Andersson. There is no evidence that they will breed again with the native medium ground finch, but even if they did, they now have a larger size and can exploit new opportunities. Those advantageous traits may be maintained by natural selection. So hybridisation can lead to speciation, simply through the addition of one individual to a population. It may therefore be a way for new traits to evolve quickly. "If you just wait for mutations causing one change at a time, then it would make it more difficult to raise a new species that way. But hybridisation may be more effective than mutation," said Prof Butlin. Follow Rory on Twitter.

– After four decades of work, researchers published the origin of Big Bird (not that one) in Science this week—and it's scientifically unprecedented. The BBC reports that for the first time ever, researchers were able to watch the rise of a new species play out in nature. "It's an extreme case of something we're coming to realize," a speciation expert says. "Evolution in general can happen very quickly." According to a press release, in 1981 an interloper arrived on Daphne Major, a tiny island in the Galapagos archipelago where Peter and B. Rosemary Grant were studying Darwin's finches. The new bird, bigger than the three species living on the island, was a large cactus finch that had apparently flown from an island more than 60 miles away. Unable to return, it mated with a local medium ground finch. The resulting offspring, nicknamed the Big Bird lineage for their size, were unable to attract partners from the local finch population due to their weird song and unusual beak size and mated only among themselves. B. Rosemary Grant calls it a "terrifically inbred lineage," Science Alert reports. Within just two generations, the Big Birds were a distinct species, as confirmed by genomic sequencing and their own unique physical characteristics. An expert says if a naturalist came to the island today, they would simply believe there were four native finch species with nothing giving away the Big Bird as a recent addition. It was touch-and-go there for a minute—droughts in 2002 and 2003 killed all but two Big Birds—but there are now 30 or so members of the hybrid species living on Daphne Major. (The savior of the Galapagos tortoise is a dirty, dirty old man.)

JAKARTA An aircraft with 54 people on board crashed in Indonesia's remote and mountainous region of Papua on Sunday, a government official said, the latest in a string of aviation disasters in the Southeast Asian nation. "The latest information is that the Trigana aircraft that lost contact has been found at Camp 3, Ok Bape district in the Bintang Mountains regency," Air Transportation Director General Suprasetyo told reporters. "Residents provided information that the aircraft crashed into Tangok mountain." There was no immediate word on whether anyone survived. Earlier, the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) said a twin-turboprop plane had lost contact with air traffic control as it flew over the forested area of eastern Indonesia but efforts to trace it were difficult because of failing light. Trigana Air Operations Director Beni Sumaryanto said that within 30 minutes of hearing that the aircraft was missing, the airline sent another plane to scour the same flight path but it had found nothing because of bad weather, local media reported. According to the official BASARNAS Twitter account, the aircraft, a short-haul ATR 42-300 airliner belonging to Trigana Air Service and built in France and Italy, was carrying 44 adult passengers, five crew and five children and infants. The plane was flying between Jayapura's Sentani Airport and Oksibil, due south of Jayapura, the capital of Papua province. Air transport is commonly used in Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province, where land travel is often impossible. According to the Aviation Safety Network, an online database, the ATR 42-300 that went missing made its first flight 27 years ago. ATR is a joint venture between Airbus (AIR.PA) and Alenia Aermacchi, a subsidiary of Italian aerospace firm Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI). The airline has been on the EU's list of banned carriers since 2007. Airlines on the list are barred from operating in European airspace due to either concerns about safety standards or the regulatory environment in their country of registration. The airline has a fleet of 14 aircraft, according to the airfleets.com database. These include 10 ATR aircraft and four Boeing 737 Classics. These have an average age of 26.6 years, according to the database. Trigana has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, according to the Aviation Safety Network. Excluding this latest incident, it has written off 10 aircraft. Airline officials were not immediately available to respond to enquiries from Reuters. Indonesia has a patchy aviation safety record and has seen two major plane crashes in the past year, including an AirAsia flight that went down in the Java Sea, killing all on board. The AirAsia crash prompted the Indonesian government to introduce regulations aimed at improving safety. Indonesia's president promised a review of the ageing air force fleet in July after a military transport plane crashed in the north of the country, killing more than 100 people. (Additional reporting by Siva Govindasamy in Singapore; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Dale Hudson) ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption The missing plane, pictured in 2010 The wreckage of an Indonesian plane which went missing with 54 people on board has been spotted in the remote western Papua region, officials say. The Trigana Air flight lost contact at 14:55 local time (05:55 GMT) on Sunday as it flew from the provincial capital, Jayapura, to the town of Oksibil. Indonesia's transport minister said the aircraft had been found by local people in the Bintang highlands region. A search plane has also now spotted suspected debris. Indonesia's postal office has told the BBC that the plane was carrying four bags containing cash, about 6.5 billion rupiah ($486,000; £300,000), for villagers living in remote places in Papua. "Our colleagues carry those bags to be handed out directly to poor people over there," said the head of Jayapura's post office, Haryono, who goes by only his first name. 'Pray together' The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and infants, and five crew. It is not yet known if anyone survived. It took off from Sentani airport in Jayapura at 14:21, but lost contact with air traffic controllers half an hour later. Bintang Mountains Regency Police Chief Yunus Wally told the Antara news agency that the debris was seen near a waterfall by a search plane on Monday, and that ground teams were preparing to head to the area. Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia's national search and rescue agency, told AP news agency that "smoke was still billowing" from the debris spotted by their plane. He said bad weather and rugged terrain were hampering efforts to reach the site. Villagers had earlier told officials that a plane had crashed into a mountain. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has expressed his condolences on Twitter and called for the country to "pray together" for the victims. Image copyright EPA Image caption Family members have been waiting for news of their loved ones Oksibil, which is about 280km (175 miles) south of Jayapura, is a remote, mountainous region, which is extremely difficult to navigate. Bad weather is believed to have been a possible reason for the crash. The search plane was forced to turn back on Sunday because of dangerous flying conditions. On blacklist Trigana Air has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, losing 10 aircraft in the process, according to the Aviation Safety Network. It has been on a European Union blacklist of banned carriers since 2007. All but four of Indonesia's certified airlines are on the list. Indonesia has suffered two major air disasters in the past year. Last December an AirAsia plane crashed in the Java Sea, killing all 192 people on board - and in July a military transport plane crashed in a residential area of Medan, Sumatra claiming 140 lives. Have you been affected by this story? You can share your comments by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

– Wreckage of the Indonesian passenger plane that went missing today has been found, a transportation official tells Reuters, and early indications are that it crashed into a mountainside in remote terrain in eastern Papua. The Trigana Air Service plane, a twin turboprop, issued no distress signal before it went down, reports CNN, and it may have run into bad weather in the mountainous region. The BBC notes that a second plane sent to look for the missing one was forced back by dangerous conditions. Villagers reported seeing the plane crash into the side of a mountain; it's not yet known if there are any survivors.

Pressure is building on the Metropolitan police to expand their phone-hacking inquiry to include a notorious private investigator who was accused in the House of Commons on Wednesday of targeting politicians, members of the royal family and high-level terrorist informers on behalf of Rupert Murdoch's News International. Guardian inquiries reveal that the former prime minister Tony Blair is among the suspected victims of Jonathan Rees, who was involved in the theft of confidential data, the hacking of computers and, it is alleged, burglary. According to close associates of Rees, he also targeted: • Jack Straw when he was home secretary, Peter Mandelson when he was trade secretary and Blair's media adviser Alastair Campbell; • Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex, and the Duke and Duchess of Kent, all of whom are said to have had their bank accounts penetrated, and Kate Middleton when she was Prince William's girlfriend; • The former commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir John Stevens, and the current assistant commissioner, John Yates, who later supervised the failed phone-hacking inquiry for 19 months; • The governor and deputy governor of the Bank of England, whose mortgage account details were obtained and sold. Rees, who worked for the Mirror Group as well as the New of the World, is also accused of using a specialist computer hacker in July 2006 to steal information about MI6 agents who had infiltrated the Provisional IRA. According to a BBC Panorama programme in March, Rees was commissioned by Alex Marunchak, then the News of the World's executive editor, to hack the information from the computer of Ian Hurst, a former British intelligence officer in Northern Ireland who had stayed in contact with several highly vulnerable agents. Marunchak has denied the allegations. The Guardian has previously identified other suspected targets of Rees, including Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, George Michael, Linford Christie, Gary Lineker, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, and the family of the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe. None of these cases has been officially confirmed or even investigated. With many of them, it is not yet clear precisely what form of surveillance Rees and his agency, Southern Investigations, were using. Answers may lie in the "boxloads" of paperwork the Metropolitan police are believed to have seized from Rees. But the Labour MP Tom Watson told the prime minister on Wednesday the head of the Operation Weeting inquiry into the News of the World's investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, had told him that it may be beyond its terms of reference to investigate this evidence. "Prime minister, powerful forces are attempting a cover-up," Watson said. "Please tell me what you intend to do, to make sure this doesn't happen." While Glenn Mulcaire worked for the News of the World as a full-time employee from 2001, Rees worked freelance for the Mirror Group and the News of the World from the mid 1990s. His agency was earning up to £150,000 a year from the News of the World alone. In 1999, he was arrested and sentenced to seven years for conspiring to plant cocaine on a woman so that her husband would get custody of their children. After his release in May 2004, the News of the World continued to hire him under the editorship of Andy Coulson, who went on to become David Cameron's media adviser. Rees's targets during this period included Prince William's then girlfriend, Kate Middleton. On Wednesday, a News International spokesperson said: "It is well documented that Jonathan Rees and Southern Investigations worked for a whole variety of newspaper groups. With regards to Tom Watson's specific allegations, we believe these are wholly inaccurate. The Met police, with whom we are co-operating fully in Operation Weeting, have not asked us for any information regarding Jonathan Rees. We note again that Tom Watson MP made these allegations under parliamentary privilege." Scotland Yard is believed to have collected hundreds of thousands of documents during a series of investigations into Rees over his links with corrupt officers, and over the 1987 murder of his former business partner, Daniel Morgan. Charges of murder against Rees were dismissed earlier this year. Daniel Morgan's brother, Alastair, who has been gathering information for a book, told the Guardian he was aware from his own investigations and from material revealed in court hearings that the Metropolitan police was holding "boxloads" of evidence on Rees's activities. Guardian inquiries suggest that this paperwork could include explosive new evidence of illegal news-gathering by the News of the World and other papers. According to journalists and investigators who worked with him, Rees exploited his position as a freemason to make links with masonic police officers who illegally sold him information on targets chosen by the News of the World, the Sunday Mirror and the Daily Mirror. One close contact, Det Sgt Sid Fillery, left the Metropolitan police to become Rees's business partner and added more officers to their network. Fillery was subsequently convicted of possession of indecent images of children. Some police contacts are said to have been blackmailed into providing confidential information. One of Rees's former associates claims that Rees had compromising photographs of serving officers, including one who was caught in a drunken coma with a couple of prostitutes and with a toilet seat around his neck. Rees claimed to be in touch with corrupt Customs officers, a corrupt VAT inspector and two corrupt bank employees. An investigator who worked for Rees claims he was commissioning burglaries of public figures to steal material for newspapers. Southern Investigations has previously been implicated in handling paperwork which was stolen by a professional burglar from the safe of Paddy Ashdown's lawyer, when Ashdown was leader of the Liberal Democrats. The paperwork, which was eventually obtained by the News of the World, recorded Ashdown discussing his fears that newspapers might expose an affair with his secretary. The Guardian has confirmed that Rees also used two specialist "blaggers" who would telephone the Inland Revenue, the DVLA, banks and phone companies and trick them into handing over private data to be sold to Fleet Street. One of the blaggers who regularly worked for him, John Gunning, was responsible for obtaining details of bank accounts belonging to Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex, which were then sold to the Sunday Mirror. Gunning was later convicted of illegally obtaining confidential data from British Telecom. Rees also obtained details of accounts at Coutts bank belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Kent. The bank accounts of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, are also thought to have been compromised. The Guardian has been told that Rees spoke openly about obtaining confidential data belonging to senior politicians and recorded their names in his paperwork. One source close to Rees claims that apart from Tony Blair, Straw, Mandelson and Campbell, he also targeted Gaynor Regan, who became the second wife of the foreign secretary, Robin Cook, the former shadow home secretary, Gerald Kaufman; and the former Tory minister David Mellor. It is not yet known precisley what Rees was doing with these political targets, although in the case of Peter Mandelson, it appears that Rees obtained confidential details of two bank accounts which he held at Coutts, and his building society account at Britannia. Rees is also said to have targeted his brother, Miles Mandelson. Separately, for the News of the World, Glenn Mulcaire was hacking the voicemail of the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, Straw's successor as home secretary, David Blunkett, the media secretary, Tessa Jowell, and the Europe minister, Chris Bryant. Scotland Yard has repeatedly refused to reveal how many politicians were victims of phone hacking, although Simon Hughes, Boris Johnson and George Galloway have all been named. The succesful hacking of a computer belonging to the former British intelligence officer Ian Hurst was achieved in July 2006 by sending Hurst an email containing a Trojan program which copied Hurst's emails and relayed them to the hacker. This included messages he had exchanged with at least two agents who informed on the Provisional IRA – Freddie Scappaticci, codenamed Stakeknife; and a second informant known as Kevin Fulton. Both men were regarded as high-risk targets for assassination. Hurst was one of the very few people who knew their whereabouts. The hacker cannot be named for legal reasons. There would be further security concern if Rees's paperwork confirmed strong claims by those close to him that he claimed to have targeted the then Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir John Stevens, who would have had regular access to highly sensitive intelligence. Sir John's successor, Sir Ian Blair, is believed to have been targeted by Glenn Mulcaire, although it has not been confirmed that Mulcaire succeeded in listening to his voicemail. Assistant commissioner John Yates was targeted by Rees when Yates was running inquiries into police corruption in the late 1990s. It appears that Yates did not realise that he himself had been a target when he was responsible for the policing of the phone-hacking affair between July 2009 and January 2011. Targeting the Bank of England, Rees is believed to have earned thousands of pounds by penetrating the past or present mortgage accounts of the then governor, Eddie George, his deputy, Mervyn King, who is now governor, and half-a-dozen other members of the monetary policy committee. According to police information provided to the Guardian in September 2002, an internal Scotland Yard report recorded that Rees and his network were engaged in long-term penetration of police intelligence and that "their thirst for knowledge is driven by profit to be accrued from the media". Operation Weeting has been investigating phone hacking by the News of the World since January. The paper's assistant editor, Ian Edmondson, chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, and former news editor James Weatherup have been arrested and released on police bail. On Wednesday, A police spokesman said: "[We] can confirm that since January 2011 the MPS [Metropolitan police service] has received a number of allegations regarding breach of privacy which fall outside the remit of Operation Weeting. These allegations are currently being considered." ||||| Kate Middleton 's account was accessed in 2005, when she was the girlfriend of Prince William , by Jonathan Rees, a private investigator who once worked for the News of the World, it was alleged. Other high-profile individuals said to have been targets for Mr Rees, who was cleared of murder earlier this year, include Tony Blair, Jack Straw, the Duke and Duchess of Kent and John Yates, the Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner who once headed the phone hacking inquiry. The allegations were made after Mr Rees was named by Tom Watson MP. He told the House of Commons yesterday that Scotland Yard had evidence against the investigator but have said it falls outside the scope of their investigation. Detectives at Scotland Yard are understood to have been in touch with the Duchess of Cambridge to warn her that her bank details may have been accessed. On Wednesday night the Met confirmed it had received “a number of allegations” and the force was considering investigating. It is understood that the reason the allegations fall outside the scope of the investigation, codenamed Operation Weeting, is because they do not relate to phone hacking, but other forms of illegal intrusion. A St James’s Palace spokesman said they were unable to comment. In March this year, Mr Rees was cleared of the murder of Daniel Morgan, who was found with an axe in his head in a pub car park on March 10, 1987. After his acquittal, it was disclosed that Mr Rees, who was a private investigator for Southern Investigations — the company established by Mr Morgan, had worked for a number of media outlets. In 1999, Mr Rees was sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiring to plant cocaine on a woman. After his release in May 2004, the News of the World hired him under the editorship of Andy Coulson, who went on to become David Cameron’s media adviser. It is in the following year that Mr Rees is alleged to have accessed the Duchess of Cambridge’s bank account details. Last night, Mr Rees’s solicitor did not respond to enquiries from The Daily Telegraph. A Met spokesman added: “Since January 2011 the Metropolitan Police has received a number of allegations regarding breach of privacy which fall outside the remit of Operation Weeting. “These allegations are currently being considered.” A spokesman for News International, the News of the World’s parent company, said: “It is well documented that Jonathan Rees and Southern Investigations worked for a whole variety of newspaper groups. “With regards to Tom Watson’s specific allegations, we believe these are wholly inaccurate. The Met Police, with whom we are co-operating fully in Operation Weeting, have not asked us for any information regarding Jonathan Rees. “Tom Watson MP made these allegations under parliamentary privilege.”

– The News of the World hacking scandal just got even more royal: Kate Middleton was a victim. But it was her bank account, not her phone, that was hacked, so the incident falls outside Operation Weeting, Scotland Yard’s phone hacking investigation. Middleton’s account was allegedly accessed in 2005 by Jonathan Rees, a private detective who had worked for Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid, the Telegraph reports. Rees also targeted Tony Blair and other high-profile victims, a member of parliament told the House of Commons yesterday. The MP wants the phone hacking inquiry expanded, and the Metropolitan Police force is considering investigating the new allegations. Rees was hired by NOTW first in the 1990s and again in 2004, after serving prison time for a drug conspiracy charge, but the tabloid’s parent company notes that Rees worked for a number of other newspapers as well. Click for much more on Rees’s alleged crimes in the Guardian.

In this photo taken Monday night, Nov. 30, 2015, DJ Thomson, right, and Joyce Levine light candles on Kennedy Street after hearing about the death of Mayor Stephen "Greg" Fisk in Juneau, Alaska. Fisk,... (Associated Press) JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The police chief in Alaska's capital city defended his department's response after the newly elected mayor was found dead at home, bruised and bloodied, and speculation ran rampant as to the cause of his death. The speculation was fueled — and the attention surrounding the case grew — when police did not immediately rule out foul play in the death of Mayor Stephen "Greg" Fisk, 70. Police deferred until autopsy results came back. Sometimes, it's obvious at the scene that a person died of natural causes. "In this case, we just can't confirm that yet or rule anything out," police spokeswoman Erann Kalwara said Tuesday. Fisk's death made national headlines this week and garnered notice far outside Juneau's remote location. On Wednesday, preliminary autopsy results indicated that Fisk, who went by Greg, died of natural causes and that the injuries he sustained were consistent with falling or stumbling into objects. During a news conference, police chief Bryce Johnson said Fisk had a history of heart problems. He said it's believed that Fisk had some issues with his heart and fell. No one had witnessed the death, and when the first person to find Fisk, his son, saw the injuries and blood at the scene "the first assumption was someone had done something to him," Johnson said. Police proceeded not knowing the cause and had an obligation to rule out all the possibilities, Johnson said. He said he noted multiple times that it also was possible that Fisk had fallen. But there was a period of time where authorities didn't have answers, he said. "And people being people, they run with the unknown for that couple of days, and it's Juneau, Alaska, it's an exotic location. It's a newly elected mayor. And so it was an intriguing story," he said. But in reality, it was a tragic story for the family and for Juneau, Johnson said. A police statement Monday night, after Fisk's body was found, said police were aware of rumors that an assault had occurred but called those rumors speculation. There was no sign of forced entry into Fisk's home. Prior to the autopsy, police also said there was no apparent gunshot wound and nothing to suggest drugs were involved or that it was a suicide. Fisk had scheduled appointments Monday and when he missed them, his adult son, Ian, went to his father's home. Fisk lived alone. Fisk, a fisheries consultant, was sworn in as mayor in October after ousting the incumbent. Deputy Mayor Mary Becker was named acting mayor. Ian Fisk previously stated in an email that his family is grieving privately. ___ Dan Joling contributed to this report from Anchorage, Alaska. ||||| 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 first assumption was someone had done something to him," but the reality is much less nefarious: Juneau Police Chief Bryce Johnson on Wednesday announced that the city's newly installed mayor died of natural causes, reports the Alaska Dispatch News. Though the AP notes Greg Fisk was found "bruised and bloodied," the injuries he sustained—which Johnson specified were on his face—resulted from a fall, not an attack, per preliminary autopsy results. The 70-year-old is believed to have hit a counter and "other objects" as he fell; Fisk was found dead Monday by his son after he was a no-show at morning appointments. Police believe Fisk died that same morning, and while the specific cause of death hasn't been given, Johnson did note that Fisk's health history included heart issues. Fisk had been in the job since October; Deputy Mayor Mary Becker has been named acting mayor.

ELK RIVER, Minn. — The verdict from Washington last week was swift and bipartisan: Michele Bachmann was out of line. Accusing two prominent Muslims — State Department aide Huma Abedin and Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota — of being tied to the Muslim Brotherhood was a step too far, even for the conservative firebrand. Text Size - + reset But the Northeast corridor’s stunned disbelief at what it saw as a loony conspiracy theory is replaced with hollers of support among Bachmann’s many devoted fans here in the exurbs north of the Twin Cities that she represents. (Also on POLITICO: Republicans line up to rip Michele Bachmann) If anything, the uproar seems to have galvanized her base. And the contrasting reaction demonstrates why Democrats will have a hard time in their latest effort to unseat the GOP lightning rod. Supporters like Duane Halstad, a 69-year-old who was sitting on a porch watching a parade here, said Bachmann is the “only one telling the truth about this thing.” He also said he believes President Barack Obama vacations on Martha’s Vineyard to observe the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. Obama is a Christian. Rachel Olson, a 41-year-old from Isanti said flatly that she doesn’t “think [Bachmann] would make something up.” The theme that emerged in roughly two dozen interviews over the weekend — at parades and a county fair — is echoed within Bachmann’s inner circle. (PHOTOS: Moments from Bachmann's political career) Bachmann has long been drawn to the idea that Muslim Brotherhood agents are infiltrating the government — even before she landed a seat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Ron Carey, former chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party and Bachmann’s chief of staff in 2010, said he was present during a private briefing in her office about the group. Bachmann is simply “privy to information that you and I don’t have.” “It was very sobering, some of the information this individual was sharing in this private meeting about the Muslim Brotherhood,” Carey said. “I think she’s been exposed to a lot of discussion on the Hill, and it’s been an area of tremendous interest with her.” And just like that, the outlines of the post-presidential profile of Bachmann became abundantly clear. A year ago, the 56-year-old tea party favorite was flying high. Campaigning last year in Iowa, she was, for a time, the front-runner for the presidential nomination. Her campaign came apart at the seams, and she faded into the background of Republican politics. Many wondered if she’d run for office again. But now, her political star has risen once again on the far right. She’s become an annoyance for House Republican leaders, who say her conspiracy theories tarnish the party’s brand and run afoul of their economy-focused message. Meanwhile, the left is again targeting her for defeat. Democrats spent millions in an unsuccessful bid to beat Bachmann in 2010. They had largely written her off this cycle, thinking a stronger Republican district would make her invincible. But the party seems to be focusing on Democrat Jim Graves, a wealthy Minneapolis businessman who is looking to cast himself as the moderate alternative to the unpredictable Bachmann. The slogan of his campaign is “Getting back to business.” ||||| Police and federal officials have placed security around ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, after a New Jersey man threatened her, law-enforcement sources said. An individual, described as a Muslim man, made the unspecified threat after Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) last week claimed Abedin’s family had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and asked for a probe to see if she is helping the Islamist organization. The man was questioned by the NYPD and the State Department and has not been charged, sources said. ||||| Report cited by Bachmann claims Norquist linked to Muslim Brotherhood By Eric W. Dolan Sunday, July 22, 2012 11:11 EDT Like Raw Story on Facebook Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist helped the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrate the U.S. government, according to the report that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) cited in an attack on top State Department aide Huma Abedin. Earlier this month, Bachmann and four other Republicans sent a letter to inspectors general in the State, Homeland Security, Defense and Justice departments calling on them to investigate “potential Muslim Brotherhood infiltration” of the Obama administration by Abedin, an aide to Secretary Clinton and wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). As evidence of their claims, the five Republicans cited “The Muslim Brotherhood in America: The Enemy Within,” a ten-part video course produced by the Center for Security Policy. The movies claim that the “Muslim Brotherhood was helped in its efforts to achieve information dominance over the George W. Bush administration” by Norquist, a Christian. The influential anti-tax activist is also accused of using “various organizations to promote Islamist agendas.” Nearly every Republican in Congress has signed Norquist’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge, vowing to oppose any and all tax increases. Only 14 Republican members of 112th Congress have refused to sign the pledge. Bachmann has been widely criticized for her attack on Abedin. Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner, Arizona Sen. John McCain, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Bachmann campaign manager Ed Rollins have all condemned the Minnesota congresswoman. But she has insisted the matter needs to be investigated. “The letters my colleagues and I sent on June 13 to the Inspectors General of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the Department of State – and the follow up letter I wrote to Rep. Ellison on July 13 – are unfortunately being distorted,” Bachmann said last week. “I encourage everyone, including media outlets, to read them in their entirety. The intention of the letters was to outline the serious national security concerns I had and ask for answers to questions regarding the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical group’s access to top Obama administration officials.”

– The latest fallout from Michele Bachmann's Muslim infiltration conspiracy theory: Now Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin—whose family, Bachmann claims, is vaguely connected to the Muslim Brotherhood—has been threatened by a New Jersey man. Abedin is under police protection following the threat, and the man—a Muslim—has been questioned, the New York Post reports. Also tangled up in Bachmann's theory: Grover Norquist. The Raw Story reports that a 10-part video cited by Bachmann and her cohorts in their report claims the conservative anti-tax crusader helped the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile, Bachmann may not have found much support in DC—John Boehner, John McCain, and others roundly condemned her call for a probe into Abedin and others in government—but she has quite a bit of backing in her home state of Minnesota, Politico reports. In fact, her supporters seem even more energized now, which is why this incident almost certainly will not be Bachmann's undoing. Politico has quotes like these from about two dozen interviews with Bachmann supporters: Bachmann is the "only one telling the truth about this thing," or Bachmann wouldn't "make something up."

Reuters Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen talks at a news conference Wednesday following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen spoke for an hour at her press conference Wednesday, but the market only heard three words: “around six months.” She was asked how long the Fed would wait after the tapering ends before it begins to raise interest rates. Her answer: “So the language that we used in the statement is ‘considerable period.’ So I, you know, this is the kind of term it’s hard to define. But, you know, probably means something on the order of around six months, that type of thing.” Hilsenrath: Fed tweaks rate guidance (5:51) Jon Hilsenrath joins the News Hub with analysis of the Federal Reserve's move to alter its guidance on the likely path of interest rates, putting less weight on the unemployment rate as a signpost for when rate increases will start. Photo: Getty Images. She added lots of qualifiers to that, including the assessment of the labor market and the inflation outlook, but the markets only heard “around six months.” Markets sold off. The taper of the Fed’s bond purchases is on course to end in October or November. Six months after that would be April or May. So Yellen said the first rate hike could come in April or May, depending on how the economy is doing. Before this Fed meeting, the market had been expecting the first rate hike to come toward the end of 2015, perhaps in October or December. The updated forecasts provided by the Fed’s “dot plot” would point to a first rate hike in September or October of 2015, just a little faster than the market had been expecting. Now we’ve heard from the Fed chair that the first hike could — emphasize could — come two or three meetings before that. Listen to What a 2015 rate hike would mean to you. Did Yellen mean to be that specific? No, the Fed has always loosely defined “considerable period” as about half a year. It’s supposed to be a little vague. She probably didn’t intend to give any hints about timing beyond what the “dot plot” said. No Fed chair is going to confidently tell markets that it’s going to raise rates in 14 months. But now that she’s leading the Fed, the markets will react to what she said, not what she means. Now it’s up to Yellen and her colleagues to walk this back, if they don’t like what the market heard. Also read these MarketWatch stories: Stocks drop after FOMC Fed shifts criteria for rate hike and market sours ||||| Communication Janet Yellen may have just committed the first substantial blunder of her chairmanship of the Federal Reserve. The mistake: being specific when the occasion called for generality. “The more experienced [Ben] Bernanke knew to avoid clarifying deliberately vague statement language,” Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase, wrote in a client note after the financial markets reacted badly. Investors are dying to know when the Federal Reserve will start raising its target for the federal funds rate, which has been stuck on the floor at zero percent to 0.25 percent since December 2008. The Fed has repeatedly refused to be pinned down. In its statement today, for example, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said “it likely will be appropriate to maintain the current target range for the federal funds rate for a considerable time after the asset purchase program ends [emphasis added].” At her first press conference since becoming Fed chair in February, Yellen was asked what the Fed meant by “a considerable time.” The correct answer to this question is, “We weren’t specific for a reason. Go away.” Yellen, having been connected with the Fed in one capacity or another for most of the past 20 years, should have known that. Instead, she said, “You know, this is the kind of term it’s hard to define, but, you know, it probably means something on the order of around six months or that type of thing.” That was a bit quicker than markets had been expecting, so interest rates rose and stocks fell. The comment “sent equity markets into something of a tailspin,” wrote Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics. Michael Wallace of Action Economics in Colorado called Yellen’s specificity a “gaffe.” He wrote that Yellen made “the mistake of �?taking the bait’ and providing a time reference for the purposefully ambiguous phrase.” It wasn’t the only factor in the market selloff today—new economic projections by members of the FOMC were also a factor—but it did make a difference. It’s a fair bet that other FOMC members will be suggesting to Yellen that she stick closer to the script next time she addresses reporters. ||||| There is good reason to hope that Janet Yellen may go on to become one of the great leaders of the Federal Reserve: she’s a first-rate economist, a gifted explicator of complicated concepts, and an experienced hand at navigating Washington. (At her first appearance as Fed chief on Capitol Hill, last month, the Republican senators may not have been eating out of her hands, but they treated her with unusual deference.) In policy terms, she’s on the side of the angels: passionately committed to getting the economy growing and bringing down unemployment, particularly for the long-term jobless, who have been the biggest victims of the Great Recession and its aftermath. On Wednesday, though, at her first press conference as chairwoman of the Fed, Yellen had an awkward time, conveying a message that she may well not have intended to, and spooking the markets. This may not be a big deal: Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke made similar errors in their early days and quickly recovered. But it did indicate some of the challenges Yellen faces in extricating the Fed from the emergency policy actions it has taken during the past five years. Her first task was to explain a U-turn in the Fed’s communications strategy. In December, 2012, in an effort to keep down long-term interest rates, particularly mortgage rates, the Federal Open Market Committee, a policy-making body that Yellen heads, publicly stated that it wouldn’t even consider raising the short-term interest rate that it sets—the federal funds rate—until the unemployment rate had fallen to 6.5 per cent. At the time, the jobless rate was 7.8 per cent, and the 6.5-per-cent threshold for a possible interest-rate hike seemed a long way off. But unemployment has fallen rapidly in the past year, and the rate is now down to 6.7 per cent. The markets wanted to know what the Fed would do if it reached 6.5 per cent. Yellen’s answer today was that it almost certainly wouldn’t do anything, but we’d have to trust the judgment of her and her colleagues on it. In place of its firm “forward guidance” regarding the 6.5-per-cent figure, the F.O.M.C. said, in a statement, that its assessment of when to start raising rates would “take into account a wide range of information, including measures of labor market conditions, indicators of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and readings on financial developments.” The statement also said that the committee believed that it would be appropriate to maintain its rock-bottom target for the funds rate (between zero and a quarter of one per cent) for “a considerable time” after its policy of quantitative easing—printing money to buy bonds—ends, which, at the current pace of drawdown, is likely to happen in October. This change in language wasn’t wholly unexpected. However, it caused some confusion. Like most other observers, I initially read it as a dovish document: it appeared to be designed to give Yellen and her colleagues the leeway to keep the funds rate low even well beyond the date when the unemployment rate drops below 6.5 per cent. But the bond markets reacted differently. There was a significant sell-off after the statement was released, and market interest rates rose—indicating a belief among investors that an early rise in the funds rate was more, and not less, likely. So what, you might say: markets are always bouncing around, and they usually settle down eventually. That’s true, but it matters a great deal to the Fed how investors on Wall Street, and in other financial markets around the globe, interpret its public statements. These days, the primary way that monetary policy works is by influencing expectations about future changes in policy. If bond-market investors believe that a rise in the funds rate is likely to come earlier than they had been expecting, they will be apt to sell now. That can cause an immediate tightening in monetary conditions, which can hit the housing market and other interest-sensitive sectors of the economy. Last summer, Bernanke inadvertently caused a substantial rise in mortgage rates by appearing to suggest that the Fed was already intent on drawing down its asset purchases. During her press conference, Yellen got the opportunity to explain what the statement really meant, but instead of clarifying the situation she made it worse. She started out well enough, stressing that the change in wording didn’t mean that the policy stance had changed in any way. Issuing forward guidance had served a useful purpose, she insisted. But, as the unemployment rate had fallen faster than expected, it had created uncertainty about what would happen when the threshold was reached. That’s why she and her colleagues had decided to drop the 6.5-per-cent figure and replace it with the “qualitative guidance” that the Fed would consider a much wider range of metrics than simply the unemployment rate. Yellen also pointed to the bit in the statement about keeping rates constant for “a considerable time” after the policy of quantitative easing ends. That’s where she got into trouble. Ann Saphir, a Reuters reporter, bluntly asked her how long the gap would be between the end of the Fed’s asset purchases and the first interest-rate hike. A more experienced central-bank head would have obfuscated and said something vague: policymakers generally believe it is imperative to leave themselves some discretion. But Yellen again referred to the phrase “considerable period,” saying, “It’s hard to define but, you know, probably means something on the order of around six months.” To this viewer, it sounded like an offhand comment, but that wasn’t how the markets interpreted it. Six months from October is next April—about a year away. Wall Street hadn’t been expecting a rate change until the second half of 2015 at the earliest. Yellen, inadvertently or not, had changed the timetable—or so it seemed. The stock market, which had recovered a bit after the release of the Fed statement, immediately gapped down. The Dow, which was down about forty points, fell another hundred and fifty points. In the bond markets and the futures markets, prices shifted sharply to reflect the increased likelihood of an interest-rate rise in the spring of next year. Yellen, although she couldn’t have known of the market reaction, appeared to realize that she had erred. Any decision to raise rates, she stressed, would depend “on what conditions are like” at the time. She and her colleagues would look at how fast the labor market was moving toward full employment, and whether the inflation rate, which has been dangerously low the past couple of years, was moving back toward the Fed’s two-per-cent target. If inflation was persistently running below the target, that would be a good reason to keep the federal funds rate where it was, she added. These were excellent points, and they added to my impression that Yellen has no intention of raising interest rates until she is entirely convinced that the economy is finally growing normally, or something very close to it. Unfortunately, though, the communications error had been made. On the newswires and on Wall Street, the message was that the Fed is getting ready to start raising rates, not immediately, but within a year or so. Traders had already seized upon a set of economic projections released alongside the F.O.M.C. statement, which appeared to indicate that some members of the committee had slightly raised their interest-rate forecasts since their previous meeting. Yellen, in her answers, tried to downplay these projections, saying that people should focus on the statement itself. But it all added to the selling pressure in the markets. Once again, this is not the end of the world, and Yellen didn’t do anything wrong. To the contrary, she delivered a cogent and persuasive explanation of why the Fed’s ultra-accommodative interest-rate polices need to be maintained for a considerable time to come: inflation is too low, and there’s lots of slack left in the labor market. But she allowed her message to be garbled, which is something she’ll have to address going forward. With the gradual pickup in the economy and the drawing down of quantitative easing, Wall Street’s attention is beginning to focus on the eventual normalization of interest-rate policy, and what impact that will have on the markets. An inflection point in policy is a tricky time to be Fed chairman. There’s always a lot of uncertainty—and provisional statements, which are heavily qualified, can be seized upon as firm expressions of policy. Bernanke had his troubles with this last year; it looks like Yellen may experience some of the same problems. Welcome to the hot seat, Madame Chair. Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty. ||||| It wasn't the debut Janet Yellen had hoped for. During her first press conference as Federal Reserve chairman, she said something she almost certainly hadn't meant to, and the markets took it badly. The misunderstanding was more their fault than hers. Even so, it's yet another illustration of the perils of forward guidance. Yellen was asked how long the Fed expected to wait before starting to raise interest rates once it has brought quantitative easing to an end: What did the official formula of "a considerable period" mean? She said, "It's hard to define but, you know, it probably means something on the order of around six months or that type of thing." The markets seized on this as actionable information. At the present rate of tapering, QE will end in October. Add six months and you get to next spring. Previously markets had expected rates to start rising a few months later than that. So Yellen was judged to be tightening policy, stock prices fell and bond yields rose. That was a remarkably dumb conclusion for investors to draw from a press conference that had otherwise been at pains to say that the expected policy track was unchanged. Aside from the six months comment, Yellen gave no indication whatever that the Fed intended to tighten policy, relative to what the markets were expecting. What she should have said when asked what "a considerable period" meant was, "It's hard to be more precise; it all depends on what happens." After all, the Fed has explicitly moved away from attaching dates to information about its policy intentions, preferring to say that policy will be guided by conditions. The length of the considerable period will depend on conditions. Enough said. The fallacy about forward guidance that repeatedly tripped up Ben Bernanke, Yellen's predecessor, and caused her to stumble at her first outing is the idea that more information -- more words, more numbers, whatever -- must be good. No. It's valuable to be told that the Fed will keep interest rates very low while there is still some slack in the labor market, inflation is suppressed, and market expectations of inflation are well-anchored. Yellen said all that. It's also valuable to be told that the Fed will consider a range of indicators in judging labor market conditions -- as opposed to relying solely on a numerical threshold for the unemployment rate (which the Fed has now rightly dropped from its guidance). She said that too. But since the Fed doesn't have a fixed formula for labor market slack -- that's a judgment call -- there's really nothing more to be said. Nothing useful, I mean. Investors always want more information, but they're not always good at sifting useful information from noise. The Fed could help them by recognizing that sometimes less is more. (Clive Crook is a member of the Bloomberg View editorial board. Follow him on Twitter @clive_crook.) Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.net. To contact the writer of this article: Clive Crook at ccrook5@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this article: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.net.

– Janet Yellen is getting a lot of grief over her first news conference as leader of the Federal Reserve for, of all things, speaking too clearly. As Rex Nutting at MarketWatch observes, Yellen spoke for an hour yesterday, "but the market only heard three words: 'around six months.'" Those words came when Yellen was asked when the Fed might start raising interest rates once its tapering strategy ended. The official Fed statement on the matter was predictably vague, but Yellen wasn't: “You know, this is the kind of term it’s hard to define, but, you know, it probably means something on the order of around six months or that type of thing.” The markets interpreted that to mean interest rates would go up sooner than expected and immediately tanked. "A more experienced central-bank head would have obfuscated and said something vague," writes John Cassidy at the New Yorker. He calls Yellen's debut "awkward," but notes that Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan got similarly tripped up in their early days. Yellen wasn't trying to change policy, and investors drew a "remarkably dumb conclusion" in thinking otherwise, writes Clive Crook at Bloomberg. Still, Yellen needs to be careful in what she says. "Investors always want more information, but they're not always good at sifting useful information from noise," he writes. "The Fed could help them by recognizing that sometimes less is more." Adds Peter Coy at BusinessWeek, referring to the Fed's rate-setting committee: "It’s a fair bet that other FOMC members will be suggesting to Yellen that she stick closer to the script next time she addresses reporters."

Polar vortex may help winter come in like a lamb, go out like a lion Irregularity in polar winds may create warm start, cold end to winter Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 Andrea Lang, an assistant professor of atmospheric and environmental science at the University of Albany, studies the polar vortex. She said the vortex, which pens in Arctic cold, is strong now, but could weaken later this winter. less Andrea Lang, an assistant professor of atmospheric and environmental science at the University of Albany, studies the polar vortex. She said the vortex, which pens in Arctic cold, is strong now, but could ... more Polar vortex may help winter come in like a lamb, go out like a lion 1 / 1 Back to Gallery Albany The polar vortex that brought strong winters to the Capital Region the last two years is showing signs that while winter won't come early this season, it might grow fierce enough later to keep the groundhog in his den, according to a national expert based in the University at Albany. Now stronger than average, the vortex — made up of high-speed, high-altitude winds that spin around the North Pole each winter — should keep Arctic cold penned in through the start of the Christmas season or so, according to Andrea Lang, an assistant professor of atmospheric and environmental science who studies the vortex. As Weather Channel buffs may already know, there are such vortexes above the planet's two polar regions; faster winds form a tighter circle, acting as a kind of fence to hold in extreme cold from flowing southward. While the polar vortex became a common term during the harsh winter of 2013-14, the science behind the vortex has its beginnings in the 1940s. Retreating sea ice around the North Pole seems to be causing that vortex to weaken and loosen its shape, which the last two winters allowed extreme cold to plunge much farther south in the Northeast, including the Capital Region, while places untouched by the vortex, like Alaska, saw record heat and little snow. More Information Watch University at Albany climate expert Andrea Lang talk about the polar vortex on the Weather Channel online at: http://bit.ly/1l2rtjk http://bit.ly/1k2WL9L A warmer winter matches up with national long-range weather forecasts, which credit a stronger El Nino warming effect in the Pacific Ocean. But Lang said a stronger-than-average polar vortex at the start of winter has a greater chance to grow increasingly unstable as the season progresses, making it more likely that the vortex could become more misshapen, sending late blasts of cold air and snow to some southerly regions. The vortex is usually at its weakest — and thus prone to wander — from late December through February. "There is a statistical likelihood that the vortex could become more volatile later in the winter," Lang said. "We will keep watching it." But whatever the vortex does this season, consumers should remain snug in their homes without facing costly heating bills — prices for propane, heating oil and natural gas are near record lows and inventories are overflowing. In New York, about a quarter-million homeowners, primarily in rural areas, heat with propane. Two years ago, a vortex-driven cold snap coincided with a nationwide propane shortage and rising prices, which added about $100 million to the heating bills in the state. "Inventories of propane are at record highs. We have 100 million barrels waiting for winter, where normally we would have 50 million to 60 million," said Tucker Perkins, chief of business development for the Washington, D.C.-based Propane Education & Research Council. State energy officials are also predicting that home heating bills should be lower for people who heat with propane (down 18 percent from last year), heating oil (down 25 percent) and natural gas (down 10 percent). According to a report this week by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the average home propane bill — which in 2013-14 was more than $4,300 — should be about $3,300 this year. For heating oil, the decline would be from $3,500 to about $2,300. For natural gas, the average bill for the period should drop from about $1,030 to about $930. Propane users should breathe easy for the next few years, said Perkins. Supplies of propane, a byproduct of natural gas, are increasing, largely due to natural gas hydrofracking in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states. Since 2008, propane production in Eastern states has gone up more than 600 percent, about 10 times the rate of propane production overall, according to a report this week from the U.S. Department of Energy. "For New York, we have more propane coming from the Marcellus Shale (in Pennsylvania). Now, we have a large supply, and flat demand," said Perkins. "Prices are down this year, and we expect prices to remain flat the next four to five years, which should give people who use propane some comfort." He encouraged homeowners to start the season with full propane tanks and have a dealer lined up through the winter to ensure timely deliveries. bnearing@timesunion.com • 518-454-5094 ||||| Lane Turner/Globe Staff LEXINGTON — Judah Cohen is positively giddy that we got hammered this winter. He loved the idea of a snowfall record, but more than that he loves being right. “I’m really happy,” he says with a grin, sitting in his small, neat office dominated by a huge computer screen that seems in constant motion as he pulls up this weather map or that satellite image. “I thought we did a very good job predicting it.” In fact, his forecast proved better than that of the federal government. Cohen, 52, a self-described “weather weenie,” is director of seasonal forecasting for Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), a Lexington weather-consulting company that counts NASA among its clients. Local weather enthusiasts might recognize him as Harvey Leonard’s go-to guy for long-range forecasts on WCVB-TV (Channel 5). Advertisement And Cohen isn’t at all sure that we’re through with winter yet — or rather, that winter is through with us. “The possibility of more snow will continue for at least the next two weeks,” he says. Get The Weekender in your inbox: The Globe's top picks for what to see and do each weekend, in Boston and beyond. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Perhaps Cohen’s biggest claim to fame comes from the fact that he and his team’s seasonal forecasts of “temperature and precipitation anomalies” have been right 75 percent of the time, a rate that tops those of the major government weather centers, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal government’s main weather forecaster. (In fact, Cohen and his team, who have been making predictions for 15 years, bestedNOAA this winter.) “In the scientific literature our model remains the most accurate to date,” he says. Cohen’s meteorological prescience is not the only thing that sets him apart. His reliance on the snow cover in Siberia to predict wintry outcomes in America and Europe is unique. Each October, Cohen looks at the amount and the rate of snowfall in Siberia that month to determine how snowy the eastern United States and Europe will be come winter. “The snow cover is the most efficient reflector of sunlight out into space, so more snow cover creates dense air masses that stay close to the ground,” he says. That cold, dense air spreads over the North Pole into North America and westward into Europe. Advertisement Cohen proceeds to go into more detail than the average human can stand, or understand, with terms like “The Aleutian Low” and “The Siberian High”. But for him and us, the bottom line is that this past October was Siberia’s second most extensive snowfall on record, and Cohen knew the implications for Boston and other East Coast cities. In a nutshell, that’s the way Cohen works. His analysis embraces multitudes of facts and figures, but his forecasts describe big-picture trends. Like the Farmers’ Almanac, you may ask. Not exactly, he laughs. “The Farmers’ Almanac is not scientifically credible and should only be viewed for entertainment value.” Cohen, by the way, has never been been to Siberia. His research, largely funded by the National Science Foundation, is all computer-based. “The closest I got was Moscow,” he says. He went when the Russian government wanted a winter forecast for 2007-08. Cohen grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and attended Columbia University, where he earned a PhD in atmospheric science. He has loved snow since he can remember, and his office bookshelf is crammed with titles such as, “Blizzard! The Great Storm of ’88,” “Snow and Climate,” and “The North Atlantic Oscillation.” At 52, the father of three teenagers still takes childlike pleasure in the white stuff. “I have a hard time sleeping during snowstorms,” he admits. “It’s a passion. People say, ‘Yeah, I used to love it, and then I grew up.’ I guess I never grew up.” Advertisement Cohen has been at AER since 1998, after finishing a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT, where he advises graduate students in the civil and environmental engineering department. Though he’s very proud of this winter’s prediction, he wasn’t as happy with last year’s. “I predicted it would be mild, but it was a cold, snowy winter,” he says. “It’s the only time I’ve had a miss.” ‘It’ll be an active and interesting winter. We’re predicting above normal precipitation for right along the East Coast. So a wet winter. But I’m especially bullish over the possibility of an above-normal snowfall.’ For the past four years, Leonard has hosted Cohen twice a year for his long-term outlooks: in the fall for the winter forecast, and in the spring for the summer forecast. On Nov. 25, before Boston had any snow, here’s what Cohen told Leonard: “It’ll be an active and interesting winter. We’re predicting above normal precipitation for right along the East Coast. So a wet winter. But I’m especially bullish over the possibility of an above-normal snowfall.” The rest, as they say, is history. Cohen’s thoughts these days are turning to summer; specifically, the forecast he’ll make on WCVB-TV before Memorial Day. Summer is always easier than winter. “We’ve always been right,” he says. “And right now, we’re forecasting a warmer-than-normal summer.” He pulls up a map that is so red it practically glows. “There’s a robust, bullish signal for June, July, and August.” Pushed for specifics, he’ll only say: “We’re predicting a one-degree warmer temperature for the three-month average, but it’s still early.” Just after he tapes Leonard’s show in May, Cohen is headed to Ireland on a Fulbright Scholarship where he and faculty at the University of Limerick will provide weather information to farmers in Europe. Despite his stellar track record, Cohen knows that long-term climate predictions are tough calls. “I do climate,” he explains. “Weather is what you get. Climate is what you expect.” His is a difficult field with a “very low bar for success,” he says. Still, he laughs as he describes how friends constantly bug him for weather advice — “I get asked all the time” — and when he’s wrong, “I hear about it forever.” Bella English can be reached at english@globe.com

– Snowfall in Siberia during October has proved to be a remarkably accurate indication of how cold winters in the US will be, according to meteorologist Judah Cohen—and it looks like this winter could be a doozy. Siberia experienced record snowfall and its worst blizzard in 10 years this October, meaning the "Arctic Oscillation" pattern could once again cause the polar vortex to put the US' Northeast in a deep freeze, reports USA Today. But Cohen, an Atmospheric and Environmental Research scientist who describes himself as a "weather weenie," says the very strong El Nino pattern has made this year more complicated than most and for now, he predicts mild weather in the short term. "The snow cover is the most efficient reflector of sunlight out into space, so more snow cover creates dense air masses that stay close to the ground," Cohen told the Boston Globe earlier this year while explaining why such an immense amount of snow had fallen on the city, and how Siberian snow predicted it. University of Albany polar vortex expert Andrea Lang tells the Albany Times Union that while mild weather may lie ahead until around Christmas this year, the vortex is currently stronger than usual, which raises the risk of it becoming weaker than usual later in the season, sending fiercely cold weather south. (The Old Farmer's Almanac says the coming winter will be incredibly cold, while the NOAA believes it could be balmier than usual in a lot of places.)

PARSIPPANY, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey authorities say a driver fled the scene of an accident with a fire hydrant stuck to his car and then tossed it in the trash. Parsippany police say the motorist drove off after his car struck the hydrant and a mailbox Tuesday. Police followed a trail of water from the scene to a township home, where they found the car and the hydrant. The driver was found in a nearby diner. Police say 27-year-old township resident Domingo Moreno has been charged with criminal mischief, hindering apprehension and tampering with evidence, and was turned over to federal immigration officials. It wasn't known Saturday if he's retained an attorney. Police are investigating the cause and other details of the crash. ||||| PARSIPPANY -- Police say a fluid trail and a broken yellow fire hydrant led them to the driver responsible for a hit-and-run crash on Edwards Road on Tuesday. Domingo Moreno, 27, of Parsippany, is facing criminal mischief, tampering with evidence, and other charges after he allegedly crashed a 1999 Nissan Quest into a mailbox and a fire hydrant on Edwards Road at about 1 a.m. and fled the scene, police said in a news release. Officer John Garza responded to the scene to investigate the reported property damage and determined a hit-and-run crash had occurred. The fire hydrant was also missing, police said. Garza then followed a fluid trail from the crash site to the a residence on Norman Avenue where he found Moreno's vehicle and a yellow fire hydrant lying among the garbage cans, police said. Moreno was located at a nearby diner and placed under arrest. Besides criminal mischief and tampering with evidence, he was also charged with hindering apprehension, failure to report an accident, unlicensed driver, careless driving, reckless driving and failure to maintain lane. Moreno was remanded to the Morris County Correctional Facility pending a court appearance. Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

– New Jersey authorities say a driver fled the scene of an accident with a fire hydrant stuck to his car and then tossed it in the trash. Parsippany police say the motorist drove off after his car struck the hydrant and a mailbox Tuesday. Police followed a trail of water from the scene to a township home, where they found the car and the hydrant. The driver was found in a nearby diner, reports NJ.com. Police say 27-year-old township resident Domingo Moreno has been charged with criminal mischief, hindering apprehension, and tampering with evidence, and was turned over to federal immigration officials, reports the AP. It wasn't known Saturday if he's retained an attorney. Police are investigating the cause and other details of the crash.

Story highlights U.S. Customs and Border Protection seizes 2,493 pounds of marijuana Packages discovered in shipment of carrots (CNN) These aren't the carrots Bugs Bunny was chomping on. U.S. border officers seized more than a ton of marijuana stuffed into fake carrots tossed in with the real thing, officials said. Officers in Pharr, Texas, on Sunday found 2,493 pounds of suspected marijuana concealed within a commercial shipment of fresh carrots entering from Mexico. "Once again, drug smuggling organizations have demonstrated their creativity in attempting to smuggle large quantities of narcotics across the U.S.-Mexico border," Port Director Efrain Solis Jr. said in a statement. Seized marijuana in U.S. law enforcement trucks. The truck hauling the produce crossed the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge along the Texas-Mexico border near the Gulf of Mexico. The imaging inspection system flagged the vehicle for a secondary examination, where agents found the smuggled drugs, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection statement. ||||| Border agents in Texas intercepted a cargo shipment of marijuana concealed inside carrots Sunday, authorities said in a news release. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers patrolling the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge cargo facility stopped a tractor-trailer carrying what was perceived to be a shipment of fresh carrots to the U.S. from Mexico on Jan. 10, according to the release Wednesday. After an image scan, the agents brought out a canine unit to further examine the cargo. The second examination uncovered 2,817 carrot-shaped packages of marijuana, which agents said carries an estimated street value of $499,000. “Once again, drug smuggling organizations have demonstrated their creativity in attempting to smuggle large quantities of narcotics across the U.S./Mexico border,” said Port Director Efrain Solis Jr. “Our officers are always ready to meet those challenges and remain vigilant towards any type of illicit activities.” The agency said Homeland Security is assisting in the investigation. The New York Daily News reported the police stopped drug smugglers at the same bridge on Dec. 2 from bringing in more than $1 million of drugs that were disguised as both carrots and cucumbers.

– Just how everyone likes their carrots: fake, stuffed with marijuana. Um, maybe not. Authorities say they seized 2,493 pounds of pot hidden inside a shipment of carrots at the Texas-Mexico border on Sunday, reports CNN. While some carrots turned out to be the real deal, nearly 3,000 carrot-shaped packages were found concealing marijuana worth about $499,000, per Fox News. "Once again, drug smuggling organizations have demonstrated their creativity in attempting to smuggle large quantities of narcotics across the US-Mexico border," said Port Director Efrain Solis Jr. Though the imaging inspection system flagged the vehicle, authorities might've had reason to suspect the veggies anyway: In November, some $2 million worth of drugs was also found in packages of carrots and cucumbers.

BOSTON (CBS) – One of the people killed in the explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line Monday was an 8-year-old boy from Dorchester. Martin Richard was killed in the bombing. His mother and sister were also injured in the blasts. Hundreds attended a vigil Tuesday night for Martin at Garvey Park in Dorchester. His mother Denise reportedly sustained a head injury and his 7-year-old sister has a serious leg injury, according to the Dorchester Reporter. Both are in area hospitals. Martin’s father Bill Richard released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying: My dear son Martin has died from injuries sustained in the attack on Boston. My wife and daughter are both recovering from serious injuries. We thank our family and friends, those we know and those we have never met, for their thoughts and prayers. I ask that you continue to pray for my family as we remember Martin. We also ask for your patience and for privacy as we work to simultaneously grieve and recover. Thank you. Martin was reportedly at the race to watch his father, a community leader in Dorchester, according to the paper. WBZ-TV’s Michael Rosenfield was outside the Richard home in the Ashmont section where some people had stopped Tuesday morning to drop off flowers and candles. Neighbor Dan Aguliar said he can’t believe it happened in Boston. “It’s still unreal, it’s amazing you see this happen in other places and as cliche as it is you always think it’s never going to happen in your backyard,” Aguliar said. “To know that little boy will never come home again will keep me up at night and will probably keep me up some more nights.” Aguliar told WBZ-TV the family has lived in the home for around 14 years. The word “peace” was written on the sidewalk, outside the home. Family members have declined to comment. Martin Richard was a former student at Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy. The school released a statement Tuesday morning. “The Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy community is offering its every prayer for the Richard family during this heartbreaking time. Martin was a former student of the Academy and was a kind, caring, and loving young boy who had great excitement for learning. We are deeply saddened by this tragedy.” ||||| In a hospital mix-up, a Medford family was told their daughter had survived her injuries from the Marathon bombings, only to later learn she was dead. The parents of Krystle Campbell, 29, were first told by doctors that she had survived, but that her friend, Karen Rand, was killed. When William and Patty Campbell were finally allowed in to see the patient, they realized it was not their daughter. “I said, ‘That’s not my daughter, that’s Karen! Where’s my daughter?’" Patty Campbell said. Krystle Campbell was waiting near the Boston Marathon finish line to cheer on a friend who was running, Patty said. (In this photo, Krystle Campbell is seen on the left and Karen Rand is one the right.) Patty Campbell said she and her husband are still struggling to believe that her daughter was killed. "This is just a waste," she said. "She loved pets and she loved people," Campbell said, adding that her daughter worked 16-hour days in the food service industry. Krystle Campbell graduated from Medford High School in 2001, according to her Facebook page, and attended UMass Boston. Eight-year-old Martin Richard was the second of the three people killed in the explosions to have been identified. ||||| CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share FBI officials say there are no known additional threats following the Boston Marathon bombings. They told the press Tuesday morning that they will "go to the ends of the Earth" to find whoever is responsible. VPC "We're going to make sure the city pulls together," Mayor Thomas Menino says. A worker returns a bag containing a runner's personal effects near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 16. (Photo: Charles Krupa, AP) Story Highlights Student was watching race with 2 friends near finish Name withheld pending family's permission Second victim was Krystle Campbell, 29, a restaurant manager from Medford, Mass. BOSTON — This rattled city was grappling Tuesday with the painful process of identifying its dead, a strong police presence on its streets, and a firm resolve to heal and move forward. One day after two bombs rocked the finish line of the Boston Marathon and the nerves of residents and tourists here, police promised "significantly enhanced" security at bus and train stations and airports. And the mayor promised that the city won't be intimidated by terror. "We're going to make sure the city pulls together," Mayor Thomas Menino said Tuesday. "Boston's a strong city. ... Boston will overcome." Tuesday evening, the third victim was identified as a Boston University graduate student from China who was watching the race with two friends near the finish line. The Chinese Consulate in New York confirmed the student's death, the Associated Press reported Tuesday night. The university did not release the student's name or gender, pending family approval. But the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that relatives have requested that the student not be identified. One friend was injured and listed in stable condition at a Boston hospital. The other friend was not hurt. Earlier Tuesday, restaurant manager Krystle Campbell, 29, was the second fatality identified. Martin Richard, 8, was identified Monday. Campbell's father said the Medford, Mass., resident had gone to the finish line Monday afternoon to photograph a friend completing the run. William Campbell said his daughter, who worked at a restaurant, was "very caring, very loving person, and was daddy's little girl." Tuesday afternoon, Campbell's grief-stricken mother, Patricia, spoke briefly from the front steps of their home in the Boston suburb of Arlington. "Everybody that knew her loved her," she said, weeping, supported by a young man. "You couldn't ask for a better daughter.... I can't believe this has happened. It doesn't make any sense." Across the city, the Salvation Army mobilized four mobile kitchens and more than 30 people to provide food, drinks, and emotional and spiritual care. The First Corps of Cadets Armory in downtown Boston, unofficially known as "The Castle," became a staging area for runners looking for their gear bags, trying to find lost phones and passports or trying to make travel arrangements. Valerie Kelly, 28, a schoolteacher who lives in Boston, stopped in at the armory. She said the course was closed before she could finish the race. Fortunately, none of her students at the finish line to greet her were injured. "It was really hard to register. You work so hard for this moment of glory, and you're going through so many emotions," she said. "Then you go from that to you can't finish and then you immediately go from that to 'Oh my God, are my family and students OK?' " Still, there were small signs of a return to normalcy Tuesday. The sealed crime scene centered at the intersection of Boylston and Exeter streets shrank from 15 blocks to 12. Planes, trains and automobiles were running at or near normal operating schedules. Airlines at Boston's Logan International Airport were even waiving change fees for customers scheduled to fly there during the next few days. Some runners, their gait a little off from their brutal run a day before, took recovery runs Tuesday to work out the kinks. Others, wearing the blue and yellow running jackets issued to runners, walked the streets of Back Bay, about a quarter mile from the finish line. They made their way past a chorus line of Boston police, state police and ATF agents and barricades. A handful of people wearing business clothes moved along sidewalks too, although most businesses remained closed and the mood was subdued. A pall also hung over the wood-frame Dorchester home of victim Martin Richard. His mother and sister were seriously injured. On Tuesday, neighbors or even strangers walked or drove up to leave flowers or balloons on the front steps. Police set up yellow tape to prevent the press from getting too close, and a Boston police sergeant took gifts to the home for the visitors. One group of people — two adults and two children — who left balloons held onto one another as they walked away. The blasts occurred just before 3 p.m., just hours after Ethiopia's Lelisa Desisa won the 26.2-mile race Monday. Bloodied spectators were carried to a medical tent intended for runners. Organizers stopped the race and locked down the marathon headquarters. The Federal Aviation Administration announced a temporary flight restriction over Boston. The tragedy brought words of encouragement and solidarity from across the nation — and around the world. President Obama praised first responders and others who helped the injured. "If you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil, that's it: selflessly, compassionately, unafraid," he said. The president will travel to the city Thursday for an interfaith service. Pope Francis sent word Tuesday to Cardinal Sean O'Malley, archbishop of Boston, that he was "deeply grieved" by the bombings. The pope said he "invokes God's peace upon the dead, his consolation upon the suffering, and his strength upon all those engaged in the continuing work of relief and response." Francis also prayed that all would be "united in a resolve not to be overcome by evil, but to combat evil with good, working together to build an ever more just, free and secure society for generations yet to come." In Boston, District Attorney Daniel Conley couldn't agree more. "Moments like this, and our response to them, define who we are," Conley said "In the past 24 hours, the city of Boston has shown strength, compassion and determination to see justice done." Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: Cooper Allen, David Leon Moore, Ben Mutzabaugh and Cathy Lynn Grossman; The Associated Press Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/10aArQc

– Another fatality in the Boston bombings has been identified: The family of 29-year-old Krystle Campbell says she was killed as she and a friend were cheering on another friend who was racing, reports WCVB. "This is just a waste," says her mother. “Everyone that knew her loved her. She was always smiling. You couldn’t ask for a better daughter. She was the best.” Campbell was a restaurant manager, reports the Boston Herald, which notes an especially wrenching detail: Her father was initially told she was alive, but when he got to the ICU, he realized it was his daughter's friend who had survived. Campbell is the second of the three people killed to be identified. The first was 8-year-old Martin Richard, and his father, Bill, released a statement today thanking supporters and asking for privacy, reports WBZ. "My dear son Martin has died from injuries sustained in the attack on Boston. My wife and daughter are both recovering from serious injuries. We thank our family and friends, those we know and those we have never met, for their thoughts and prayers. I ask that you continue to pray for my family as we remember Martin. We also ask for your patience and for privacy as we work to simultaneously grieve and recover. Thank you." The third victim was a grad student at Boston University, but the person's identity is being withheld until the family says it's OK to release, reports USA Today.

A long time ago, Mary Anne Huntsman and Kris Humphries (Kim Kardashian's soon-to-be-ex and former Utah Jazz player) saw Elf together and he ate a big tub of popcorn. There was no second date, this is not really newsworthy, and yet it somehow blows our minds. Did the fates know they were destined to be lower-tier, supporting-actor celebrities in roughly the same news cycle? ||||| In early November, the Jon2012girls were in New York City getting their hair and makeup done for a karaoke-themed photo shoot at a Chinese restaurant on the Lower East Side. Mary Anne, Abby, and Liddy Huntsman are the twentysomething daughters of presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr., which means that the sisters—who've become celebrities over the past few months for tweeting snarky updates from the campaign trail at @Jon2012girls—are sort of unofficially running for first daughters. Which makes this technically a campaign stop, even though there are no voters here and we're in a banquet room that smells like old rice. As a stylist feathered Mary Anne's hair with a curling iron, Liddy cued up "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips on her iPhone. Lately they've been playing this song to get psyched up before watching their dad debate. Despite all the free media attention his daughters have garnered on his behalf, as of this writing Huntsman remains a margin-of-error candidate. So decide for yourself if their rallying cry of Hold on for one more day is touching or painfully ironic. Still—when they break into perfect three-part harmony, they totally crush it. Would-be first daughters (from left): Liddy, Mary Anne, and Abby Huntsman. The Huntsman daughters' three-headed social-media presence is a mischievous, seemingly unfiltered corrective to the stage-managed sneering of the campaign. A few months ago, the Herman Cain campaign posted a bizarre ad in which Mark Block, Cain's mustachioed chief of staff, enumerates his boss's virtues in tough-guy close-up. At the end, he takes a defiant, Denis Leary–ish puff on a cigarette. Even in the context of a Republican race already shaping up as the Battle of Who Can Come Off Like a Bigger Assclown Before Losing the Nomination to Mitt Romney, this was weird. Liddy, the youngest Jon2012girl, whose dream is to work for a show like Saturday Night Live someday, couldn't believe it. "I was stunned that this was a legit commercial," she says. Plus, she was home from college and bored. So she and her sisters shot a Funny or Die–style parody of the ad that doubled as a Huntsman spot. They wore fake mustaches; instead of smoking, they blew bubbles. It went viral, and for at least the length of a news cycle, they were more famous than Jon Huntsman himself. Even Mark Block was impressed. When Mary Anne ran into him before a debate in South Carolina, she told him how much she loved his ad. "I loved your ad," he responded. Today the touch-screen menus on the karaoke machine are user-unfriendly, and most of the songs are in Chinese. A determined Liddy pokes at one until it coughs up Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl"—the girls sing shhhh when Gwen says shit—and gradually, despite the presence of a photographer, sisterly goofiness ensues. This is definitely not the first time they've sung LeAnn Rimes's "Can't Fight the Moonlight." Afterward they talk (shrewdly yet idealistically) about using new technology to reach young voters disillusioned by Obama's failure to deliver all that hope and change he promised the Facebook generation, and how off-the-cuff sass is the only way to speak to an audience that gets its news from Jon Stewart and Twitter. They explain, politely, that no, they're not angling for gigs on Fox ("I'm not blonde," Abby points out sagely), nor are they trying to be the Kardashians of politics. Abby, who used to be in PR and works hardest to keep her sisters on-message, explains that their parents raised them to give back. Every night, she says, "they'd ask us what we'd done that day to make someone's life a little better, to make someone smile or whatever. I know that sounds cheesy—but that's the philosophy we were raised with." Campaigning for Dad is their way of doing that. Before the girls arrived, Huntsman's campaign spokesman called to warn me that Liddy has yet to fully grasp what "on the record" means, although he needn't have bothered. When I mention the Kardashians, it's Liddy who volunteers the information that Mary Anne once went on a date with Kim's now estranged husband, Kris Humphries, when he was on the Utah Jazz. "Liddy!" Mary Anne says, mortified. But it's true. They saw Elf; Humphries bought a bucket of popcorn the size of a garbage can. Mary Anne never heard another thing about him until he turned up on E!, dating a reality-TV queen. "You're gonna get me in trouble," Anne says. Liddy takes a sip of water. "I'm just trying to make someone smile."

– Today in Completely Random Celebrity Couplings: Kim Kardashian ex Kris Humphries once went on a date with Jon Huntsman’s daughter, Mary Anne. Her sister, Liddy, reveals that little tidbit in a new GQ profile, to a horrified reaction ("Liddy!" says Mary Anne). Humphries was playing for the Utah Jazz at the time; the two saw Elf, ate popcorn, and never saw one another again. Writes Noreen Malone in New York, “This is not really newsworthy, and yet it somehow blows our minds.”

Darmstadt, Germany, November 1, 2016 - Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, and the American Cancer Society (ACS) today released a report that shows all four of the top causes of cancer deaths in women worldwide are mostly preventable or can often be detected early, when treatment is more successful. The report, titled "The Global Burden of Cancer in Women," is the first tangible output from an innovative partnership between Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and the American Cancer Society focused on raising awareness and strengthening advocacy around women's cancers. "We are proud to partner with the American Cancer Society to address the impact cancer has on women worldwide," said Belén Garijo, member of the Executive Board and CEO Healthcare at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. "This collaboration is a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership that recognizes that no one sector can tackle this challenge alone. Improving women's health and well-being has an uplifting ripple effect on our world, and we know when women do better, our communities do better." The research examines the increasing impact of cancer among women in low- and middle-income countries - and outlines potential solutions to minimize the economic and societal impact of the disease for women, their families and healthcare systems. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in women, with breast, colorectal, lung and cervical cancers claiming the most lives each year. With cancer rates on the rise as the global population grows and ages, the number of women who will lose their lives to cancer is expected to increase, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In 2012, there were 3.5 million deaths among women due to cancer; by 2030, that number is expected to increase to 5.5 million deaths - a more than 57 percent increase in less than two decades. Increased education and prevention efforts will be essential to addressing this growing global health crisis. "It's incumbent upon both the public and private sectors, as members of the global health community, to find ways to reduce the impacts of cancer on women by increasing prevention and treatment, saving the lives of women across the globe," said Ambassador Sally Cowal, senior vice president, global cancer control at the American Cancer Society. In addition to the physical challenges women with cancer and their families experience, the burden of cancer also extends to the economy. The study found that in 2009, the global economic burden of cancer was estimated at about $286 billion, and much of that cost was due to premature death of members of the workforce. In the United States alone in 2008, years of productive life lost due to cancer in women corresponded to $82 billion, not to mention the many professional achievements that might have been realized. The report was released at the World Cancer Congress during a panel moderated by Ambassador Cowal. Other participants included HRH Princess Dina Mired of Jordan; Dr. Alise Reicin, Head of Global Clinical Development in the biopharma business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany; and Dr. Edward L. "Ted" Trimble, director, Center for Global Health at the National Cancer Institute. This partnership will also catalyse the evolution of the American Cancer Society's' All of Me Young Scholars program, which aims to educate and cultivate health and civil society professionals in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and India to affect meaningful change in prevention and early detection of cancers among women in low- and middle-income countries. This report is part of the involvement of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, with the Healthy Women, Healthy Economies initiative, which explicitly links the issue of women's health and well-being with economic growth. The full "Global Burden of Cancer in Women" report is available http://www. cancer. org/ research/ cancerfactsstatistics/ global-burden-cancer-in-women . ### About the Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Initiative Merck KGaA, Darrmstadt, Germany, is a founding partner of the Healthy Women, Healthy Economies initiative, which brings together the evidence about women's health and well-being and its impact on economic growth with the best practices that governments, employers and non-governmental organizations can follow. It aims to identify and implement policies that advance women's health and well-being to increase their economic participation in the societies in which they live. About the American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society is a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers saving lives and fighting for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. As the largest voluntary health organization, the Society's efforts have contributed to a 20 percent decline in cancer death rates in the U.S. since 1991, and a 50 percent drop in smoking rates. Thanks in part to our progress, nearly 14 million Americans who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will celebrate more birthdays this year. We're determined to finish the fight against cancer. We're finding cures as the nation's largest private, not-for-profit investor in cancer research, ensuring people facing cancer have the help they need and continuing the fight for access to quality health care, lifesaving screenings, clean air and more. For more information, to get help, or to join the fight, call us anytime, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org About the American Cancer Society's All of Me Young Scholars Program The American Cancer Society's All of Me Young Scholars program aims to educate and cultivate young health and civil society professionals around the world to bring their energy, voice and new ideas to the new and growing field of integration of women's cancer prevention and early detection. About Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany All Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, press releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the EMD Group Website. In case you are a resident of the USA or Canada please go to http://www. emdgroup. com/ subscribe to register again for your online subscription of this service as our newly introduced geo-targeting requires new links in the email. You may later change your selection or discontinue this service. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 50,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life - from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2015, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, generated sales of € 12.85 billion in 66 countries. Founded in 1668, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, holds the global rights to the Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials. ||||| By mid-day online correspondent | Posted 02-Nov-2016 A latest report warned that cancer will kill nearly 5.5 million women by 2030. Amongst all forms of cancer responsible for this deadly cause, breast cancer seems to be the major one. An analysis conducted by the American Cancer Society released this report at the World Cancer Congress in Paris. The study suggested that as population will grow and age, the highest toll will be on women, especially those belonging to poor and middle income countries. Another report suggested that total number of women diagnosed with breast cancer can solely double up to 3.2 million a year by 2030 from 1.7 million in 2015. Though factors like postponing motherhood, inactivity and obesity are major causes of cancer, especially breast and cervical cancers, there are ways by which we can lower the risk of the disease occuring in different parts of the body. Here is what you need to do: 1. Avoid tobacco: Female body is highly sensitive to tobacco and tobacco use is the sole greatest risk factor for cancer mortality globally. Though smoking is highly linked to lung cancer, it also leads to cancer of oesophagus, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach and cervix. 2. Participate in cancer screening tests: Women should undergo Papanicolaou (pap) smear tests to detect if they are suffering from cervical cancer. This form of cancer can be staved off by vaccination against the cancer causing human papillomavirus (HPV). Women aged between 50- 74 years should get a mammogram done in every two years. Women below this age group should consult doctors about when to start and how often to get a mammogram, a breast cancer screening test. Such cancer screening tests need be undertaken as per to recommended guidelines. 3. Balanced and healthy diet: A healthy diet consisting of ample fruits and green vegetables are prerequisite for a healthy life. Cutting down on processed and canned food also lowers the risk of certain types of cancer. 4. Exercise regularly: Regular physical activity cuts down the risk of obesity and types of cancers caused by obesity. Maintaining a healthy weight is necessary to stay fit and live long. 5. Protect skin from the sun damage: This is important for preventing skin cancer. It is good to avoid midday sun and to use a sunscreen with sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15 while going out. World Health Organisation (WHO) states that at least one-third of all cancer cases are preventable. A person himself/herself can reduce the risk of cancer to a great extent by adopting as well as maintaining a good lifestyle.

– Two disturbing reports were issued this week on the cancer front, with one noting women will see a spike in cancer deaths over the next decade or so—5.5 million cancer deaths by the year 2030. The other report adds that women afflicted with breast cancer alone could nearly double from 1.7 million diagnosed last year to 3.2 million by 2030, the Guardian reports. The first report, compiled by Merck and the American Cancer Society and released at the World Cancer Congress in Paris on Tuesday, says the predicted surge in cancer deaths would amount to a 57% increase, per a press release. The same report notes all four top cancers—breast, lung, colorectal, and cervical—are mostly preventable or easily detected early on, aiding treatment. The second report, based on three papers in the Lancet, adds cervical cancer may rise by as much as 25% by 2030, leading to 700,000 diagnoses. That report also notes women in low- and middle-income countries carry much of the burden of breast and cervical cancers, with less access to quality care and a greater likelihood of dying from their illnesses than women in richer nations. Perhaps a bit ironically, some of the cancers in the lower-income countries used to be prevalent only in higher-income ones, but as the poorer countries started going through "rapid economic transition," the women there began experiencing risk factors like their more affluent counterparts, including "physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, obesity, and reproductive factors" like putting off having kids, per an ACS VP. "The global community cannot continue to ignore the problem—hundreds of thousands of women are dying unnecessarily every year," Richard Sullivan, co-author of the Lancet report, says in the release. (Good news on the pancreatic cancer front.)

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. ||||| Mel Gibson's Dad Allegations of Elder Abuse Mel Gibson's Dad Hutton Gibson -- Allegations of Elder Abuse EXCLUSIVE 's father -- who filed for divorce Monday -- believes his wife has been abusing him, and Mel has jumped to his dad's aid ... TMZ has learned.We're told Mel and his family have been tending to 93-year-old, who is seriously ill with a panoply of ailments. Hutton is taking a slew of medications for his conditions, but we're told his wife,(who is in her 70's) believes her husband's family is prolonging his suffering and wants to discontinue all medicines to accelerate his death. She also believes that's what Hutton wants.We're told Mel has taken the lead to ensure his dad is getting his meds, and believes Joye is guilty of elder abuse by her conduct. Sources say Mel wants Joye out of his dad's house -- stat.As we first reported, Hutton personally filed for divorce and even signed the divorce docs in shaky handwriting.We're also told Joye is going to fight it out with Mel -- possibly in court.The animosity between Mel's family and Joye is intense.

– So much for enjoying one's golden years. Mel Gibson's 93-year-old dad yesterday filed for divorce from his 70-something wife of 10 years. Though TMZ reports that Hutton Gibson marked the typical "irreconcilable differences" on his filing, the site also reports that the Gibsons apparently believe Teddy Joye has been abusing the patriarch. The row apparently boils down to the many medications the "seriously ill" Hutton is on. Mel & Co. want to make sure he's taking his medicine, while Teddy apparently thinks medicating him is just dragging out his pain, and wants to call it quits on the meds so he'll die faster. That apparently has the younger Gibson crying elder abuse. TMZ adds that Hutton Gibson is seeking spousal support. The million-dollar question: Is this parent-of-celeb mess juicier than this one?

If you have siblings, you are likely to have had the ongoing debate about who is mom's favorite. But according to a new study, winning that title is not necessarily a good thing; it may increase the risk for depression. Adult children who felt they were emotionally closer to their mother than their siblings were more likely to show signs of depression. Adult children who felt they were emotionally closer to their mother than their siblings were more likely to show signs of depression. Study coauthor Jill Suitor, a professor of sociology at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, and colleagues publish their findings in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. The study involved 725 adult children from 309 families who were a part of the Within-Family Differences Study - a longitudinal project that aims to gain a better understanding of the relationship between parents and their adult children. Mothers in each family were aged between 65-75 in 2001 when the study began, and data on children's perceptions of favoritism and disfavoritism from mothers were assessed 7 years apart. Specifically, the researchers looked at data on four measures of favoritism and disfavoritism: children's perception of emotional closeness with their mother, their perception of conflict, their perception of pride from their mother, and their perception of disappointment. The team also assessed depressive symptoms among the children. Sibling rivalry due to favoritism may induce depressive symptoms The team found the highest reports of depressive symptoms came from children who believed they were emotionally closer to their mother than their siblings and those who believed they were the sibling their mother was most disappointed in. The team also analyzed their findings by race; they explain that previous studies have demonstrated higher levels of closeness between older mothers and adult children in black families. Around a quarter of the families in the study were black. "What we found suggests that the black offspring were particularly distressed when they, as opposed to their siblings, were the children in whom mothers were most disappointed," says Suitor. Commenting on the take-home message from their results, the authors say: "These patterns suggest that the association between psychological well-being and both favoritism and disfavoritism can be accounted for by processes involving social comparison rather than equity for both black and white adult children in midlife." Next, the team plans to investigate whether similar results arise from studying adult children's perceptions of favoritism and disfavoritsm from fathers. They also want to study whether they can predict favoritism between mothers and adult children. In September, Medical News Today reported on a study that suggests young children of parents who are warmer and less controlling are more likely to have greater life satisfaction and mental well-being in adulthood. And more recently, a controversial study reported by MNT suggests children of religious parents are less likely to be generous than those of non-religious parents. ||||| 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. ||||| Are you your mother’s favorite? While that may seem like an advantage, think again, say Purdue University researchers. Their new study indicates you are not guaranteed psychological resilience as a result of protective love. “Adult children who reported that they were most emotionally close to their mothers also reported higher depressive symptoms,” wrote the authors of the new study. Apparently, no one gets off easy, because it wasn’t only the mama’s boys and mommy’s girls who grew up to be sad adults. “Depressive symptoms were also higher when respondents identified themselves as being the children with whom their mothers had the greatest conflict, and in whom the mothers were most disappointed,” wrote the authors. The One Thing Moms Never Tell Though a good mother would never admit it, she really does have a favorite child, according to previous studies conducted by the research team. Dr. Jill Suitor, a professor of sociology at Purdue, and Dr. Karl Pillemer, a professor of gerontology in medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College, first began their collaboration on the Within-Family Differences Study (WFDS) in 2001. Their goal was to achieve a greater understanding of relations in aging families. The researchers collected data from 725 adult children (average age of 49) within 309 families in which mothers were between the ages of 65 and 75 when the project began. The study occurred in two phases seven years apart. The researchers analyzed the adult children and their relationships with their mothers, looking in particular at four dimensions of favoritism/disfavoritism: emotional closeness, conflict, pride, and disappointment. Surprisingly — or possibly not — the siblings continued to compare themselves to each other well into middle age. The constant appraisal and judgments, the researchers discovered, were the root cause of unhappiness. Apparently, those adults who were perceived to be closer to the mother experienced more tension from their siblings, while also feeling greater responsibility for taking care of their aging mothers. Meanwhile, those who argued with their mothers or felt they’d disappointed her also suffered. In particular, disappointing Mom affected black adult children more than white adult children. However, this was the single racial difference discovered by the researchers. The study results also indicate no differences based on gender. Both sons and daughters felt the weight of their mother’s opinion, whether good or bad, equally. Source: Suitor JJ, Gilligan M, Peng S, Jung JH, Pillemer K. Role of Perceived Maternal Favoritism and Disfavoritism in Adult Children's Psychological Well-Being. Journal of Gerontology Social Sciences. 2015. ||||| This article explores whether understanding of the effects of children's problems on older parents' well-being can be advanced by exploring differences in parent-child relationships within families. Using data from a study in which mothers reported on all adult children, we addressed the question: Do patterns of maternal favoritism moderate the impact of children's problems on psychological well-being? Based on the literature on the effects of children's problems and on parental favoritism, we hypothesized that problems in the lives of favored adult children will have a more detrimental impact than when they affect unfavored offspring. Results revealed strong and detrimental effects of any offspring's problems on mothers' well-being; these effects occurred, however, regardless of parental preference for an adult child. The findings suggest that the well-documented effects of parental preference may be limited in domains such as problems and difficult transitions in adult children's lives. © The Author(s) 2015.

– Always hoped you're mom's favorite? A new study out of Purdue University finds that the favorite child is actually more prone to be depressed as an adult, researchers report in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. Looking at 725 adult children from 309 families in the Within-Family Differences Study—a longitudinal project documenting various aspects of relationships between parents and their adult children—they say that depressive symptoms were most common in the adult children who claimed to be emotionally closer to their mother than their siblings, reports Medical News Today. That also held true for "the children with whom their mothers had the greatest conflict, and in whom the mothers were most disappointed," write the authors. Interestingly, the study found no difference between male and female children, but it did find a racial disparity, notes Medical Daily. Adult black children felt their mother's disappointment more acutely than their white counterparts. Researchers hypothesize that sibling rivalry may be behind the depression, meaning more attention or support from mom doesn't necessarily beat out the negative attention from jealous siblings. Or that the favorites are more often asked to help the aging mother, which is its own source of stress. (The adult children in the study had mothers who were 65 to 75 when interviewed.) And yet a third possibility is posed by Bustle: A mother's attention may naturally drift toward the weakest or most sensitive child, thus her favoritism doesn't necessarily cause depression. Researchers plan to look at whether similar results play out with fathers, and whether it's possible to predict favoritism. (One study finds that young kids in religious households are less willing to share stickers.)

Tens of thousands of fans take part in the Golden State Warriors 2015 NBA championship parade and rally in downtown Oakland on June 19, 2015. (Photo: MONICA M. DAVEY, EPA) OAKLAND — Tuesday, it was Christmas in July for this hard-knocks city still giving thanks for an NBA championship in June. Looking to help "underserved" residents, an anonymous benefactor has donated $34 million for education, jobs, health care, housing and technology skills. The gift will help build 731 affordable housing units, create about 2,500 jobs and channel millions for early-childhood education and African-American student achievement. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation and former Oakland administrator, told a news conference. Mayor Libby Schaaf thanked the "generous soul," saying, "Government can't do it alone." The foundation, which will disburse the funds to non-profit organizations, received a call in February from a donor who wanted the money "on the streets" by summer. "We have never gotten a phone call like that in the past." said Blackwell, an Oakland native with deep experience in community development on both sides of the bay. As the tech boom drives up housing prices and forces out San Franciscans, Oakland is experiencing the spillover effect. As people seek cheaper living across the bay, rents are rising quickly, pushing out poor and lower-income residents, particularly in East and West Oakland. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1MsI6MR ||||| Lighthouse Point offers an incredible opportunity to own one of the most beautiful parcels of land in The Bahamas. A stunning peninsula with incredible beaches on both sides of the property, 3 interior lakes and 50 ft elevations make this a one of a kind opportunity in The Bahamas. Lighthouse point offers over 4 miles of beachfront and iron shore with deep water access in the protected south east corner of the property. Lighthous ... Lighthouse Point offers an incredible opportunity to own one of the most beautiful parcels of land in The Bahamas. A stunning peninsula with incredible beaches on both sides of the property, 3 interior lakes and 50 ft elevations make this a one of a kind opportunity in The Bahamas. Lighthouse point offers over 4 miles of beachfront and iron shore with deep water access in the protected south east corner of the property. Lighthouse Point is ideal for the creation of a residential resort development, including marina and golf course, or a private estate. This property is simply the best development opportunity in The Bahamas. ||||| Fred Blackwell, CEO of The San Francisco Foundation, calls up nonprofit and city government leaders before announcing a $34 million anonymous donation to the City of Oakland through The San Francisco Foundation during a press event at the East Oakland Youth Development Center in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, July 14, 2015. (Laura A. Oda) It was the call that philanthropists dream of. An anonymous donor wanted to give $34 million to benefit underserved residents in Oakland. And the donor wanted that money "in the streets" by the summer. The staffer at the San Francisco Foundation who answered the phone in February knew this was big -- for the foundation, but mostly for Oakland. A $34 million cold call to benefit the Bay Area's most embattled city was unheard of, said Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, which was founded in 1948, has a $1.3 billion endowment and gives about $90 million annually in grants to nonprofits across the Bay Area. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Blackwell said at a Tuesday news conference at the East Oakland Youth Development Center attended by dozens of community leaders in government and other nonprofit community groups. "We have never gotten a phone call like that in the past." The money will be invested in jobs, housing, education and health care across Oakland, with a full $6 million to support Oakland's public schools on early childhood education, African-American student achievement and adding community coordinators. About one-third of the funds are earmarked for nonprofits specifically focused on East Oakland. The foundation estimates 813 jobs will be created and 136 new affordable housing units built in those neighborhoods. Advertisement Councilman Larry Reid said he's never seen such a large investment during his time at City Hall. He was pleased that several groups in his district -- deep East Oakland -- received help. The East Oakland Youth Development Center, which was granted $1 million, is a safe refuge for kids to take shelter from the storm. "If they aren't finding love at home, they can be loved and nurtured here," Reid said. "This could be the difference between young people dying on the streets or doing something constructive with their life." Citywide, the money will help fund 731 new affordable housing units and create about 2,500 jobs. News of the cash infusion was music to the ears of Mayor Libby Schaaf, who thanked the "generous soul" who recognized the potential of the city. Officials would not provide any additional information on the mystery donor. Schaaf said the foundation -- and the donor -- share the city's vision for an equitable, vibrant Oakland where all citizens can find economic independence. Partnering with like-minded philanthropists is vital for the region, especially as rents rise and more people flock to the city, Schaaf added. "Government can't do it alone," she said. And there are shameful disparities in Oakland. Schaaf said the prosperity must be shared across the city to "make sure Oakland stays our Oakland," she said. A good portion of the money was focused on technology opportunities. Oakland Codes, housed at the San Francisco Foundation, received $4 million. Money was also given to support community re-entry programs for ex-cons and other housing initiatives. The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, for example, received $1 million to create a restaurant worker training program to help formerly incarcerated residents find jobs that pay a livable wage. This isn't the first effort to revitalize East Oakland, which although economically diverse, houses some of the city's most crime-ridden and poorest neighborhoods. Dr. Tony Iton oversees a California Endowment initiative, Building Healthy Communities, to create better conditions in 14 low-income communities throughout the state, including East Oakland. More than $15 million has been directly granted to support East Oakland initiatives in the past five years, Iton said. That doesn't include any indirect support, which includes lobbying regional and state agencies to affect policies in Oakland. Iton, who quit his job as Alameda County public health director in 2009 to take the job with the California Endowment, said the anonymous gift is "absolutely fantastic." His organization already supports about 70 percent of the nonprofits who will receive money from the San Francisco Foundation. Those combined efforts -- along with support from local government -- should help the city modernize and prosper. "It's timely and exciting, and we're looking forward to leveraging these investments and building on the capacity of these organizations," Iton said. Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley joked that Blackwell, who left his job as Oakland's city administrator last year after just one month to join the San Francisco Foundation, had kept his promise to keep working in Oakland. "I mean, Fred definitely delivered here," Miley said. Blackwell said after the news conference that "it always feels great to help out Oakland." "This is where I grew up, where my family is, friends that I've known for years," he said. "It was a privilege and an honor to be in the position I was before, and it's still a privilege and honor to be in the position I'm in to be able to help the city." For a full list of the organizations receiving money, visit http://sff.org/oaklandannouncement. Mike Blasky covers Oakland City Hall. Contact him at 510-208-6429. Follow him at Twitter.com/blasky.

– What to do with a spare $34 million? You could buy a private jet, a good-sized Caribbean island—or you could help countless people in one of California's most troubled cities. An anonymous donor went for the latter option, offering the San Francisco Foundation the cash to help "underserved" Oakland residents in areas including education and housing, Inside Bay Area reports. Foundation CEO Fred Blackwell says the donor, who called up out of the blue earlier this year, wanted the money "in the streets" by this summer. The funds will create around 2,500 jobs and more than 700 new affordable housing units, according to Inside Bay Area. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Blackwell told reporters yesterday. "We have never gotten a phone call like that in the past." The money will go to at least 17 nonprofit organizations, including health clinics, early childhood education initiatives, programs that train young people for technology jobs, and programs that help ex-cons back into the work force, reports ABC7. Officials haven't provided any more information on the donor, whom Mayor Libby Schaaf describes as a "generous soul," reports USA Today. (An immigrant couple left their entire fortune to "America.")

Three of Harvey Weinstein’s most outspoken accusers — Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek and Annabella Sciorra — together presented a video montage on equality and representation at the 90th Academy Awards on Sunday evening. “Hi, it’s nice to see you all again, it’s been a while,” Sciorra said before the crowd applauded. “It’s an honor to be here tonight. This year, many spoke their truth and the journey ahead is long, but slowly a new path has emerged.” “The changes we are witnessing are being driven by the powerful sound of new voices, of different voices, of our voices. Joining together in a mighty chorus that is finally saying time’s up,” Judd said. Hayek added, “So we salute those unstoppable spirits who kicked ass and broke through the biased perceptions against their gender, race and ethnicity to tell their stories.” “And we look forward to make sure that the next 90 years empower these limitless possibilities of equality, diversity, inclusion, intersectionality. That’s what this year has promised us,” Judd continued. Rob Latour/REX/Shutterstock The video included people like Mira Sorvino, Kumail Nanjiani, Greta Gerwig and others speaking on the importance of representation in Hollywood. “This entire fall, the Time’s Up movement, everyone is getting a voice to express something that has been happening forever, not only in Hollywood, but in every walk of life,” Sorvino said. Judd was one of the women who initially spoke out against Weinstein in an explosive expose published by The New York Times. The actress claimed Weinstein showed up to their business meeting at a Los Angeles hotel wearing a bathrobe and later asked her to watch him shower. “I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask,” Judd told the NYT. “It was all this bargaining, this coercive bargaining.” In a New York Times op ed, Hayek 51, detailed her experiences with Weinstein through the course of the making of the 2002 Miramax Frida Kahlo biopic Frida — claiming, among other things, that he had once threatened to kill her when she refused his advances. “The range of his persuasion tactics went from sweet-talking me to that one time when, in an attack of fury, he said the terrifying words, ‘I will kill you, don’t think I can’t,’ ” she claimed. To donate to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which will provide subsidized legal support to women and men in all industries who have experienced sexual harassment, assault, or abuse in the workplace, visit its GoFundMe page. Learn more about Time’s Up, an organization of women in entertainment combating sexual harassment and inequality, on its website. Be sure to check out PEOPLE’s full Academy Awards coverage to get the latest news on Hollywood’s big night. In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for Weinstein previously denied “all of the sexual allegations as portrayed by Salma” — though he did admit to “boorish behavior.” Sciorra, spoke to The New Yorker in a expose about her harrowing encounters with Weinstein. In it, she recounted one specific night during the 1990s when the Oscar-winning producer allegedly barged into her apartment after dropping her off. “[Weinstein] walked in like it was his apartment, like he owned the place, and started unbuttoning his shirt. So it was very clear where he thought this was going to go,” said Sciorra, who claimed she told him to leave her apartment. “He shoved me onto the bed, and he got on top of me,” she said of Weinstein, who allegedly locked her arms over her head with one hand and forced sexual intercourse on her. “Then he attempted to perform oral sex on me. And I struggled, but I had very little strength left in me,” Sciorra also claimed. Harvey Weinstein, 65, was one of the most powerful and influential figures in Hollywood before being accused of sexual harassment and assault by dozens of women. He has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex, as well as claims that he retaliated against women who rebuffed him. The 2018 Oscars were held at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center on March 4 and were telecast live on ABC. ||||| Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra and Salma Hayek took the stage at the 2018 Oscars to reflect on the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. "It's an honor to be here tonight, this year many spoke their truth and the journey ahead is long but slowly a new path has emerged," Sciorra said. "The changes we are witnessing are being driven by the powerful sound of new voices, of different voices, of our voices, joining together the mighty chorus that is finally saying, time's up," Judd told the audience. "So we salute those unstoppable spirits who kicked ass and broke through the biased perceptions against their gender, their race and ethnicity to tell their stories," Hayek continued. "And on this 90th anniversary evening when the Oscars celebrates timeless classics, we also look forward as well," Sciorra shared.

– Jimmy Kimmel referenced Harvey Weinstein in his opening monologue for the 90th Academy Awards, but it got more personal when three of Weinstein's accusers stepped out onto the stage Sunday night to introduce a video montage on gender equality in Hollywood, per People and E! Online. "It's nice to see you all again, it's been a while," said Annabella Sciorra, who was joined onstage by Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek. "This year, many spoke their truth and the journey ahead is long, but slowly a new path has emerged." Judd added, "The changes we are witnessing are being driven by the powerful sound of new voices, of different voices, of our voices. Joining together in a mighty chorus that is finally saying time's up." And Hayek: "We salute those unstoppable spirits who kicked ass and broke through the biased perceptions against their gender, their race, and ethnicity to tell their stories." The video montage included Weinstein accuser Mira Sorvino, who noted that "everyone is getting a voice to express something that has been happening forever, not only in Hollywood, but in every walk of life." Also speaking out in the segment (and attracting online attention): Big Sick star Kumail Nanjiani, who said, "Some of my favorite movies are by straight white dudes about straight white dudes. Now you can watch my movies and relate to me. It's not that hard." Also making waves with a dramatic moment: Frances McDormand, who won best actress for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and had every female nominee stand up in the audience before leaving with two words: "Inclusion. Rider."

PARMA, Ohio- Doug 'Deo' Odolecki stood on a street corner Friday night with sign warning drivers about an upcoming drunken-driving checkpoint, but two words on the sign cost him a citation and an upcoming trial. The sign, white poster-board with black letters, read: "Check point ahead! Turn now!" Parma Police Lt. Brian McCann asked him to remove the part of the sign that told drivers to "turn now" because it was obstructing police business. Odolecki refused and was given a ticket by officer James Manzo, who was involved in a $40,000 police-brutality lawsuit earlier this year. McCann and Manzo were out of the office and not available for comment. Police must alert residents a week before a drunken-driving checkpoint starts, and a few hours before, the exact location, start and end times must be available to the public. A bill pending in the Ohio House of Representatives would make it legal for drivers to warn others of upcoming checkpoints by flashing their headlights. Odolecki said McCann and Manzo "tried to be a civil as they could knowing they were violating someone's rights." He said he was standing on the sidewalk at the intersection of Brookpark Road and State Road, a half mile away from a drunken-driving checkpoint that was at Tuxedo Avenue and State Road. Odolecki, who has a record that includes a disorderly conduct conviction from 2013, said he used the same sign for two years, and officers never had a problem with it until Friday night. He warned drivers about the checkpoint from 9 p.m. until 10 p.m., when McCann approached him about the sign. His attorney, John Gold of Sandusky, said he decided to take the case, pro bono, because he supports what Odolecki does. "I support the police accountability activist movement," Gold said. "Mr. Odolecki's case is interesting because it's an unsettled area of law and the incident violates civil rights." He said if his client was obstructing an investigation or causing a hazardous situation, such as standing in the middle of the road, then the officers would have been justified. However, he said Odolecki was standing on the sidewalk, and there was no active investigation, just a drunken-driving checkpoint. "The problem here is not the sign in general. It's the part of the sign that instructed drivers to turn that the officers had an issue with," Gold said. "But I think regardless it's protected speech under the First Amendment." Odolecki said he'll be back warning drivers the next time there is a checkpoint. Check out the video below for Odolecki's interaction with McCann and Manzo. See 20 seconds to 2:40 and 14:39 to 16 minutes. ||||| Ohio man warns drivers of DUI checkpoint, as police are required to — then they ticketed him By Travis Gettys Tuesday, June 17, 2014 11:57 EDT Police ticketed an Ohio man who warned drivers of a drunken-driving checkpoint – although police departments are required by law to notify the public. Doug “Deo” Odolecki stood Friday night on a street corner in Parma with a white poster board marked with black letters reading: “Check point ahead! Turn now!” Lt. Brian McCann asked him to remove the portions urging drivers to turn around, reported the Cleveland Plain Dealer, saying it was obstructing police business. But Odolecki refused, and he was issued a ticket by Officer James Manzo – who was involved earlier this year in a $40,000 police brutality lawsuit. Odolecki said he’s used the same sign for two years without incident, and he said Manzo and McCann “tried to be a civil as they could knowing they were violating someone’s rights.” His attorney said he decided to take the case because he supports the police accountability activist movement. “The problem here is not the sign in general,” said attorney John Gold. “It’s the part of the sign that instructed drivers to turn that the officers had an issue with. But I think regardless it’s protected speech under the First Amendment.” Gold said the citation would have been justified if Odolecki were obstructing an investigation or presenting a safety hazard, but he said his client was standing on a sidewalk and there was no active investigation – just a drunken-driving checkpoint. Ohio law requires police officers to alert the public a week before setting up drunken-driving checkpoints, and the exact location, start time, and end times must be made available a few hours before. A bill is pending in the state House of Representatives to allow drivers to legally warn others of upcoming checkpoints by flashing their headlights. Watch video of the incident posted online by greaterclevelandcopblock:

– An Ohio man warning drivers about a looming DUI checkpoint would have avoided a ticket if not for the last two words on his sign, reports Raw Story. "Turn now!" Doug "Deo" Odolecki got the citation Friday night while standing on a street corner with his sign that began, "Check point ahead!" Police, who are obligated to make such checkpoints public in Ohio, were OK with the sign in general but told Odolecki to remove the advice to "turn now," reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. When he refused, officers gave him the ticket on the grounds that he was obstructing police business. (Ohio is poised to let drivers flash their lights at one another to warn of police, and judges elsewhere in the country have blessed that move in the name of free speech.)

Police say a pet pig might have stopped home intruders in Indianapolis, IN. (Source: WXIN via CNN) INDIANAPOLIS (WXIN/CNN) – A homeowner in Indianapolis has a different kind of anti-theft system: her pet pig, which police said might have scared away intruders during a recent home break-in. The back door of the home is now boarded up after crooks shattered the glass and kicked their way inside. "They completely damaged my entire door. The entire door is ruined," said the homeowner, a single mother with four kids who asked not to be identified. She said luckily the family wasn't home during the break-in. Because the would-be thieves didn't actually steal anything, police suggested the criminals might have been scared away by "Dumplin," the family's pet pig. "They were guessing whenever the person broke in, they were probably surprised I had a pig, and were like, 'We don't want to deal with this,'" the homeowner said. Dumplin's owner said she rescued the full-grown swine earlier this year. "The moment I saw him I knew. He loved me instantly. He's perfect. He's the perfect animal," she said. Unfortunately, home break-ins are nothing new in the neighborhood. Dumplin's family bought the east side home just a few weeks ago. Including the break-in at Dumplin's home, a search of police reports shows there were three home burglaries on the same day, separated by just two blocks. "I guess it's something that I should have looked into," the homeowner said. "I was excited to be buying my first home." Dumplin's owner is just relieved the pig didn't get hurt during the crime. She said she wishes more people would adopt pet pigs, even if they won't always keep the bad guys away. "There's tons of miniature pigs that are in shelters and rescues that don't have homes, and they're great animals," she said. There's no word yet on if police have found the suspects. Copyright 2018 WXIN via CNN. All rights reserved. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- An Indianapolis pet saved a family’s bacon during an unusual home break-in on Indy’s east side this week. Police say the crime may have been thwarted by a pet pig. The would be thieves smashed their way into the home through the back door. “They completely damaged my door. The entire door is ruined,” said the homeowner. That homeowner asked not to be identified, but the single mom with four kids says the family wasn’t home at the time of the break-in. “It’s scary to think about what if my kids and I would have been home,” she said. “It’s definitely terrifying you don’t want anything like that to happen.” Because the would be thieves didn’t actually steal anything, police suggested the criminals have may been scared away by the family’s pet pig, Dumplin. “The officers were guessing when the person broke in they were probably surprised I had a pig and were like, ‘We don’t want to deal with this,’” said the homeowner. “The cop was like we definitely think they got in and made it to where Dumplin was and thought, ‘Nope. We don’t want no part of this.’” Dumplin’s owner says she saved the full-grown swine from a rescue earlier this year. “The moment I saw him I knew he loved me instantly. He’s the perfect animal,” said the homeowner. Unfortunately, home break-ins are nothing new in the neighborhood near Michigan and Sherman. Dumplin’s family bought the east side home just a couple of weeks ago. Including the break-in at Dumplin’s home, a search of police reports shows there were three home burglaries on the same day separated by just two blocks. “I guess it’s something I should have looked into. It’s common in the neighborhood. I didn’t think about it. I was excited to be buying my first home,” said the homeowner. Dumplin’s owner is just relieved the pig didn’t get hurt during the crime and says she wishes more people would adopt pet pigs, even if they won’t always keep the bad guys away. “There’s tons of pigs in shelters that don’t have homes and they’re great animals,” said the homeowner. Dumplin’s owner hopes the suspects are caught before they break into anyone else’s home. In the meantime, anyone with information on the case can always contact Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS.

– Beware of pig: Authorities in Indianapolis are crediting a family's full-grown pig with scaring off a burglar or burglars who broke into a home just weeks after the property was purchased. Per Fox 59, the intruder smashed through the back door but left without taking anything, apparently after encountering the pig known as Dumplin, who was adopted from a rescue shelter. "[Police] were guessing whenever the person broke in, they were probably surprised I had a pig, and were like, 'We don't want to deal with this,'" the homeowner, a single mom with four kids, tells WXIN. Though she wasn't home at the time, she adds an officer informed her the intruder had made it as far as Dumplin's location. "He's the perfect animal," she says.

“This is not the kind of tourism we should be encouraging in Scotland, let alone allowing to happen in the 21st century.” A 2015 report shows that country sports tourism in Scotland brings in 155 million pounds, or almost $200 million, to the economy every year, according to the Scottish Country Sports Tourism Group. But hunting, or rather the display of animal trophies, has become a reviled activity in some corners of social media, as well-heeled individuals, including the older sons of President Trump, proudly display their trophies for the world to see on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The killing of Cecil the lion by an American dentist, Dr. Walter J. Palmer, in Zimbabwe in 2015 set off an international outcry and drew new scrutiny to the practice of paying to kill big game. Two years later, the lion’s son Xanda was killed in a trophy hunt near the same park. Since then, photographs of hunters posing triumphantly with the bodies of animals such as giraffes and a family of baboons have stirred global condemnation. In the latter case, the Idaho fish and game commissioner seen grinning with an array of carcasses from an African hunting trip resigned. While many defenders of hunting see it as an honorable, skilled and bonding experience, others denounce it as unnecessary waste in the modern age and detrimental to the environment and to the animals who roam in the wild. But the issue is more complex than a clash of cultures. Some countries like Zimbabwe encourage big-game hunting as a source of income, and others allow the activity to keep down herd populations through managed hunting trips and as a way to pay for the upkeep of game reserves. ||||| An American media personality and avid hunter caused an uproar after killing wild goats in Scotland and posing with their carcasses. Larysa Switlyk, who hosts the online hunting show "Larysa Unleashed," received a barrage of tweets after she shared a number of photos from a recent hunting trip in Islay, Scotland. One photo shows Switlyk holding up the head of a wild goat she shot. "We hunted hard for a big one for 2 days and finally got on this group. Made a perfect 200 yard shot," she wrote. A second photo showed one of her hunting partners with another dead wild goat. Several Twitter users said the photos Switlyk shared were "disgraceful" and "sickening." Some Twitter users tagged Scottish legislators, receiving responses from the first minister and secretary for environment. “A unique hunt?” Disgraceful. It’s a goat. And it’s in Scotland. On a beautiful island. Stop this pls @scotgov. 🤬 https://t.co/7UE7QYSW94 — judy murray (@JudyMurray) October 24, 2018 "Totally understandable why the images from Islay of dead animals being held up as trophies is so upsetting and offensive to people. @scotgov will review the current situation and consider whether changes to the law are required," First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted. Others defended Switlyk, arguing that hunting serves as population control for wild goats, which don't have any other natural predators on the island of Islay. For the pig ignorant. Estates offer wild goat hunting, as with deer. As man is the only predator for both species, this is essential for herd management, population control and thus preventing environmental damage caused through overgrazing. https://t.co/IgnFNPiOLj — Geoff the Goat (@Ronniesoak) October 24, 2018 Both Sturgeon and Secretary for Environment Roseanna Cunningham said hunting wild animals such as deer and goats is not illegal, but they understood the concerns raised by the images. Cunningham said she will review the laws and consider if changes should be made. In response to concerns about the goat hunt on Islay: pic.twitter.com/HfA3pconIt — Roseanna Cunningham 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 (@strathearnrose) October 24, 2018 Totally understandable why the images from Islay of dead animals being held up as trophies is so upsetting and offensive to people. @scotgov will review the current situation and consider whether changes to the law are required. https://t.co/SIQxcEYBzR — Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) October 24, 2018 Switlyk, a former accountant from California, responded to the backlash on Instagram. She shared a photo of a small plane, writing she was on the way to her next hunting adventure and will be without service for two weeks. "Nothing better than disconnecting from this social media driven world and connecting back with nature," she wrote. "Hopefully that will give enough time for all the ignorant people out there sending me death threats to get educated on hunting and conservation." "FYI, I was in Scotland over a month ago," Switlyk added. Some critics took umbrage with this post as well. "How does "connect with nature" relate to killing it? Unbelievable," one Twitter user wrote. "Hope you're 'out of service' for a lot longer than that!! You clearly haven't got the hint from Twitter today have you???" said another. ||||| Beautiful wild goat here on the Island of Islay in Scotland. Such a fun hunt!! They live on the edge of the cliffs of the island and know how to hide well. We hunted hard for a big one for 2 days and finally got on this group. Made a perfect 200 yard s… https://ift.tt/2NWIGsw pic.twitter.com/x2FzvTF7No

– It's a predictable cycle: A hunter posts a photo of themselves beaming over the carcass of a fresh kill only to become the target of international condemnation (like this, this, and this, to recall a few). This time, the ire-inducing image shows American Larysa Switlyk, host of Larysa Unleashed on the Wild Television Network, posing with a goat she'd just shot on Scotland's Island of Islay, the New York Times reports. "Such a fun hunt!!," Switlyk writes in the Twitter post. "Hunted hard for a big one for 2 days." Additional photos posted to Switlyk's Twitter account show hunters posing with other dead animals. Sarah Moyes, spokeswoman for animal advocacy group OneKind calls the photos "utterly shocking," saying, "This is not the kind of tourism we should be encouraging in Scotland, let alone allowing to happen in the 21st century." Some commenters on social media are more blunt about their displeasure, including "So basically you enjoy killing things? Scary but sad." Others are speaking up to support Switlyk, with one saying, "What’s the problem with going and hunting a goat … and using all parts of the goat, it's quite beautiful." Still others say that hunts are an important part of keeping animal populations in check. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham both acknowledge that the images may be disturbing, but say that hunting wild animals is not illegal, ABC reports, with Cunningham saying she will review the laws. As for Switlyk, she posted on Instagram that she's heading back into the wild for two weeks, "Hopefully that will give enough time for all the ignorant people sending me death threats to get educated on hunting and conservation."

A very smart speech by Speaker Boehner By Ezra Klein If you spent the afternoon watching C-SPAN, as I did, you heard applause. A lot of it. Over and over again. And when John Boehner took the podium to be sworn in as Speaker of the House of Representatives, it swelled back up, and stayed there. No one Republican member of Congress wants to be the first to stop applauding the new speaker. Luckily, Boehner did it for them. “It’s still just me," he said with a smile. Traditionally, politicians overpromise in these moments. If you look back to Nancy Pelosi's speech upon becoming speaker in 2007, or Newt Gingrich's speech upon becoming speaker in 1995, you'll see broad, ambitious, ideologically-charged agendas. Gingrich wanted "to find a way to truly replace the current welfare state with an opportunity society." Pelosi sought "a new America that declares our energy independence, promotes domestic sources of renewable energy, and combats climate change." Boehner promised almost nothing at all. He certainly didn't set himself up as a foil to President Obama, or anoint himself leader of a new conservative moment in American politics. Rather, his speech had two themes: Humility, and comity. He called his chamber "the people's house," and said "we are carrying out their instructions." He spent a lot of time on the "scar tissue" that has built up under "some of the rituals that have come to characterize this institution under majorities Republican and Democratic alike." He promised a new era of openness and minority cooperation in the House. He emphasized his recognition that he held the gavel not because American liked him or his party, but because they were angry at the government and the Democrats who ran it. It was, I think, as smart a speech as I've seen a politician give -- in part because it was savvy about what it didn't say, which is a rare virtue in Washington. Of course, the speech is the easy part. The rules Boehner is pushing through the House make it vastly easier to increase the deficit through tax cuts, an outcome that won't sit well with Boehner's repeated pledge to hold down the debt. Moreover, Republicans are already having to break their rules to pursue the repeal of health-care reform without paying for it -- a procedural offense in favor of a symbolic vote that, in addition to increasing the deficit, won't exactly usher in a new era of respect and esteem between the two parties. That's to be expected, perhaps. Many speakers before Boehner have entered the House promising more openness and cooperation and given up on those promises when they began to conflict with more action. And Boehner himself has not always been able to "disagree without being disagreeable." It's when the going gets tough that speakers turn hard. So we'll see. But thus far, Boehner's political instincts have been quite impressive. The White House may have a more able opponent in him than they thought. Photo credit: Alex Brandon / AP. ||||| Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) today delivered the following remarks to the opening session of the 112th Congress. A link to the video and the full remarks as prepared are below: CLICK TO PLAY “Madam Speaker, thank you for your kind words, and thank you for your service. I’d like to welcome our new colleagues and their families. My own family is here as well: my wife, Debbie, our daughters, Lindsay and Tricia; my brothers and sisters, brothers-and-sisters-in-law, and their children. “I am honored and humbled to represent a great, hard-working community in Congress. The people of Ohio’s Eighth Congressional District continue to afford me the privilege to serve, for which I am deeply grateful. “We gather here today at a time of great challenges. Nearly one in ten of our neighbors are looking for work. Health care costs are still rising for families and small businesses. Our spending has caught up with us, and our debt will soon eclipse the size of our entire economy. Hard work and tough decisions will be required of the 112th Congress. No longer can we fall short. No longer can we kick the can down the road. The people voted to end business as usual, and today we begin carrying out their instructions. “In the Catholic faith, we enter into a season of service by having ashes marked on our foreheads. The ashes remind us that life in all its forms is fragile – our time on this Earth, fleeting. As the ashes are delivered, we hear those humbling words: ‘Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ “The American people have humbled us. They have refreshed our memories as to just how temporary the privilege to serve is. They have reminded us that everything here is on loan from them. That includes this gavel, which I accept cheerfully and gratefully, knowing I am but its caretaker. After all, this is the people’s House. This is their Congress. It’s about them, not us. What they want is a government that is honest, accountable and responsive to their needs. A government that respects individual liberty, honors our heritage, and bows before the public it serves. “Let’s start with the rules package the House will consider today. If passed, it will change how this institution operates, with an emphasis on real transparency, greater accountability, and a renewed focus on the Constitution. Our aim will be to give government back to the people. In seeking this goal, we will part with some of the rituals that have come to characterize this institution under majorities Republican and Democratic alike. We will dispense with the conventional wisdom that bigger bills are always better; that fast legislating is good legislating; that allowing additional amendments and open debate makes the legislative process ‘less efficient’ than our forefathers intended. “These misconceptions have been the basis for the rituals of modern Washington. The American people have not been well served by them. Today, mindful of the lessons of the past, we open a new chapter. “Legislators and the public will have three days to read bills before they come to a vote. Legislation will be more focused, properly scrutinized, and constitutionally sound. Committees, once bloated, will be smaller, with a renewed mission, including oversight. Old rules that have made it easy to increase spending will be replaced by new reforms that make it easier to cut spending. We will start by cutting Congress’ own budget. “Above all else, we will welcome the battle of ideas, encourage it, and engage in it – openly, honestly, and respectfully. As the chamber closest to the people, the House works best when it is allowed to work its will. I ask all members of this body to join me in recognizing this common truth. “To my colleagues in the majority, my message is this: we will honor our Pledge to America, built through a process of listening to the people, and we will stand firm on the Constitutional principles that built our party, and built a nation. We will do these things, however, in a manner that restores and respects the time-honored right of the minority to an honest debate and a fair, open process. “To my friends in the minority, I offer a commitment. Openness – once a tradition of this institution, but increasingly scarce in recent decades, will be the new standard. There were no open rules in the House in the last Congress. In this one, there will be many. With this restored openness, however, will come a restored responsibility. You will not have the right to willfully disrupt the proceedings of the People's House. But you will always have the right to a robust debate in open process that allows you to represent your constituents. . .to make your case, offer alternatives, and be heard. “In time, this framework will, I believe, restore the House of Representatives as a place where the people’s will is done. It will also, I hope, help rebuild trust among us and the people we serve, and in so doing, provide a guidepost for those who follow us in the service of our nation. “To our new members – Democratic and Republican – as you take the oath today, I know you will do so mindful of this shared goal, and the trust placed in you by your constituents. As Speaker, I view part of my job as helping each of you do your job well, regardless of party. My hope is that every new Member – and indeed, every Member – will be comfortable approaching me with matters of the House. “We will not always get it right. We will not always agree on what is right. A great deal of scar tissue has built up on both sides of the aisle. We cannot ignore that, nor should we. My belief has always been, we can disagree without being disagreeable to each other. That’s why it is critical this institution operate in a manner that permits a free exchange of ideas, and resolves our honest differences through a fair debate and a fair vote. We may have different – sometimes, very different – ideas for how to go about achieving the common good, but it is our shared goal. It is why we serve. “Let us now move forward humble in our demeanor, steady in our principles, and dedicated to proving worthy of the trust and confidence that has been placed in us. If we brace ourselves to do our duty, and to do what we say we are going to do, there is no telling what together we can accomplish for the good of this great and honorable nation. More than a country, America is an idea, and it is our job to pass on to our posterity the blessings bestowed to us. “I wish you all the very best. Welcome to the people’s House. Welcome to the 112th Congress.”

– Incoming House speakers have a long tradition of overreaching in their opening speeches, writes Ezra Klein at the Washington Post. John Boehner took the opposite approach today with his themes of "humility and comity," and that's why Klein loved it. Boehner didn't gloat on behalf of himself or his party, and he didn't set himself up as the savior of conservatives or the "foil" to the White House. He even pledged to try to heal the "scar tissue" between the parties with more openness. "It was, I think, as smart a speech as I've seen a politician give—in part because it was savvy about what it didn't say, which is a rare virtue in Washington," writes Klein. Time will tell whether he can follow through, "but thus far, Boehner's political instincts have been quite impressive. The White House may have a more able opponent in him than they thought." Click here to read the full text of Boehner's speech.

Ted Cruz campaigns yesterday in San Diego. (Bill Wechter/AFP/Getty Images) THE BIG IDEA: The Drudge Report has aggressively portrayed Ted Cruz’s sweep of all the delegates from Colorado’s Republican convention as a corrupt power grab. The site named for Matt Drudge, who broke the story of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and still runs it, links to nine stories this morning with salacious headlines about the convention. Among them: “Savage: Cruz should disavow rigged Colorado election … Buchanan: Apparatchiks thieve delegates for Ted … 1 MILLION REPUBLICANS SIDELINED … Border Patrol Agents: Colorado Voters Disenfranchised.” Keep in mind that this is three days after the Colorado convention. Our analytics partners at Zignal Labs say the Drudge attacks are breaking through on social media in a significant way. This word cloud, which tracks all Cruz mentions since Saturday, shows the extent to which Drudge has shaped the conversation about Cruz’s win in Colorado. Note the prominence of the words “cheating” and “drudge”: This kind of squabbling will only get louder as the delegate wrestling and wrangling intensifies. And it has clearly gotten under Cruz’s skin. In a radio interview yesterday, the Texas senator ripped into Drudge as an arm of Donald Trump’s campaign. “In about the past month, the Drudge Report has basically become the attack site for the Trump campaign,” he told conservative host Mike Slater. “So every day they have the latest Trump attack. They’re directed at me. … Most days they have a six-month-old article that is some attack on me, and it’s whatever the Trump campaign is pushing that day will be the banner headline on Drudge.” “By the way, they no longer cover news,” Cruz added of Drudge. “When we win a state, suddenly the state doesn’t matter. You know Colorado — there was no red siren on Drudge when we won all 34 delegates in Colorado.” Drudge responded by posting a link to a January Fox News interview in which Cruz praised the conservative site for breaking the mainstream media’s “stranglehold." Matt Drudge. (Photo by Lucian Perkins) It’s never good to pick a fight with a guy who buys ink by the barrel, as they say. Or whatever the 2016 version of that line is. If it was just Trump complaining about the “crooked” system, it would seem like sour grapes from a guy who got out-hustled. But The Donald’s allies in the right-wing media, including Drudge and Breitbart, are trying to make Cruz’s wins seem illegitimate in the eyes of the conservative base. If Cruz wins the nomination at a contested convention in Cleveland, he will need these grass-roots activists to rally around him. If regular Drudge readers believe he did not win fair and square, they will be less inclined to do so. Interestingly, the increasing scrutiny from Drudge comes as the Democratic National Committee begins to train more of its fire at Cruz. After focusing almost single-mindedly on Trump for months, the DNC held a press call yesterday to blast the Texan ahead of campaign stops in California. Ironically, they pushed a similar message as Drudge: “Cruz’s campaign is proving to be just as divisive for the Republican Party as his tenure in the Senate has been for our country,” said the DNC communications director. “That’s why there just isn’t a whole lot of excitement for Cruz being the Republican nominee.” Ayn Rand, the Russian-born American novelist, in Manhattan circa 1962. (AP Photo) – Donald Trump says he identifies with Howard Roark from Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.” He praised the novel and its protagonist in a broader interview with USA Today that posted yesterday. “It relates to business, beauty, life and inner emotions. That book relates to ... everything,” the GOP front-runner told the paper. Columnist Kirsten Powers writes that she pointed out that “The Fountainhead” is “in a way about the tyranny of groupthink.” Trump reportedly sat up and told her, “That’s what is happening here.” For those who haven't read the book since high school, Roark is an architect who dynamites a housing project he designed because he is angry about changes that others made to his blueprints. He’s then put on trial for arson, but a jury acquits him after he delivers an eloquent speech about the need to always stay true to one’s self. Gary Cooper delivered the courtroom monologue in the 1949 film adaptation: Bottom line, Roark is a self-centered individualist who steadfastly refuses to submit to the will of others. “He is presented as the author's version of an ideal man — one who embodies the virtues of Rand's objectivist philosophy,” the CliffNotes character analysis explains. “Roark is an example of free will — the theory that an individual has the power, by virtue of the choices he makes, to control the outcome of his own life. A man's thinking and values are not controlled by God or the fates or society or any external factor — but solely by his own choice.” Is The Donald threatening to blow up the Republican Party if he’s spurned in Cleveland? He almost certainly has not thought through the implications of publicly identifying with Roark and embracing objectivism. But it’s nonetheless another revealing window into his psyche. It’s also a reflection of how Trump does not play by the same rules that normal politicians must. In 2012, Paul Ryan tried hard to distance himself from Rand, whose work he had often praised. “I adored her novels when I was young, and in many ways they gave me an interest in economics,” he told the New York Times Magazine in 2014. “But as a devout, practicing Catholic, I completely reject the philosophy of objectivism.” WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: -- Forty percent of former NFL players show signs of traumatic brain injuries, according to a groundbreaking study that will be presented at next week’s American Academy of Neurology. This is one of the largest studies performed on living NFL players, and it offers “the most conclusive evidence yet” of a definitive link between brain injury and playing football. Travis M. Andrews explains that the study is based on sensitive MRI scans called diffusion tensor imaging. GET SMART FAST:​​ Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $5 billion to settle allegations that it sold shoddy mortgages in the period leading up to the financial crisis. (Renae Merle) Brazilian scientists linked Zika to another neurological disease in adults, sparking new concerns about the potential scope and complexity of the mosquito borne virus. (Ariana Eunjung Cha) Meanwhile, the CDC urged Congress to provide additional funding to combat Zika. “Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought,” the deputy director said during a White House briefing. (Time) Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) will run for Republican Policy Committee Chairman. The #4 post in GOP leadership has been held by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) since 2012. ( Washington Examiner ) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was charged with securities fraud after allegedly recruiting investors to a tech startup while serving as a state legislator. Paxton was indicted for similar misdeeds last year, and could face years in prison if convicted. (Texas Tribune) A former Energy Department employee was sentenced to 18 months in prison after plotting a cyberattack on federal government computers. (Spencer S. Hsu) Tesla Motors is recalling its Model X sport utility vehicles, agreeing to replace more than 325,000 pre-orders after strength tests revealed issues with the car’s third-row seats. (Bloomberg) Boeing and Lockheed are planning to launch commercial “space habitats” for tourists and researchers. (Christian Davenport) To recognize Equal Pay day, President Obama is naming a national monument to honor women’s equality. The designation will protect the Belmont-Paul house that has served as the headquarters for the National Woman’s Party since 1929. (Juliet Eilperin) As the Supreme Court prepares to make a ruling in a case challenging Texas’s stringent abortion regulations, more than 200 women (on both sides of the issue) have filed friend-of-the-court briefs detailing their private abortion experiences. ( Theresa Vargas) A congressional committee in Brazil voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, bringing the ouster of the embattled leader one step closer. The vote will go to the full lower house at week’s end. (AP) Support for the Islamic State is declining among young Arabs, according to a 16-country survey. Nearly 80 percent ruled out any possibility of supporting the militant group – even if it were to renounce its brutal tactics -- compared with 60 percent the year before. (Joby Warrick) Two California teens were arrested after they produced a video threatening a black student with a noose and a gun. (Emma Brown) MORE ON THE REPUBLICAN RACE: Trump speaks last night during a campaign event in Albany, N.Y. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) -- Phyllis Schlafly is facing backlash after endorsing Trump last month, including an attempt to oust her as the head of the Eagle Forum, the conservative group she founded 44 years ago to stop the Equal Rights Amendment. From David Weigel: "Ed Martin, who Schlafly elevated to president of Eagle Forum in 2015, told [the Post] that Schlafly had not been ousted yet, but that it was clearly the plan of Eagle's board. In an interview with WorldNetDaily, which publishes her work, the 91-year-old Schafly speculated that her Trump endorsement and opposition to the idea of a National Convention of States had roiled her opponents." -- John Kasich, speaking today in Manhattan, will call his candidacy the GOP's only way out of a “path to darkness.” “Without naming Cruz or Trump, Kasich plans to indict them both,” writes Weigel, who reviewed the planned remarks. -- Ben Carson continues to be the worst surrogate of the cycle. He admitted yesterday that his support for Trump is “purely pragmatic" and said he'd probably oppose him “if the stakes weren’t so high.” (BuzzFeed) -- Trump told USA Today he could envision putting Marco Rubio in his cabinet. “Yes. I like Marco Rubio. Yeah. I could,” he said. “There are people I have in mind in terms of vice president. I just haven’t told anybody names. ... I do like Marco. I do like Kasich. … I like [Scott] Walker actually in a lot of ways. I hit him very hard. ... But I’ve always liked him. There are people I like, but I don’t think they like me because I have hit them hard.” -- MORE DELEGATE SETBACKS FOR TRUMP, in addition to the ones outlined in yesterday's 202. Per Ed O'Keefe, Trump also got outgunned last weekend in: VIRGINIA: Trump won the southernmost, 9th congressional district overwhelmingly on March 1, but he got just one of three delegates at the district-level convention on Saturday. The two other delegates say they will support Cruz after the first round. The two other delegates say they will support Cruz after the first round. INDIANA: The Hoosier State uses one of the most exclusive, closed delegate selection methods in the nation. That appears to have cost Trump dearly.… News reports say party leaders picked delegates who are less likely to support Trump in later ballots at the national convention. With few connections to state party leaders, the Trump campaign concedes it dropped the ball here. ( Trump aide s pointed to ALABAMA, where they won a majority of eight committee assignments .) Delegate scoreboard since Rubio got out: Cruz 120 Trump 65 Uncommitted 29 Kasich 0 — Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) April 11, 2016 MORE ON THE DEMOCRATIC RACE: Clinton arrives to a Conversation on Gun Violence Prevention event in Long Island. (Yana Paskova/The Washington Post) -- THREE NEW YORK POLLS: With one week until the primary, Trump and Clinton are dominating: Trump holds a commanding 43-point lead, and Clinton is up 13 points (50-37), according to a new NY1/Baruch College poll. The GOP front-runner is supported by 60 percent of likely Republican voters, followed by Kasich with 17 percent and Cruz with 14 percent. The GOP front-runner is supported by 60 percent of likely Republican voters, followed by Kasich with 17 percent and Cruz with 14 percent. The NBC-Marist survey has Trump up 33 (with Kasich at 21 and Cruz at 18). Clinton leads by 14 (55-41). A Monmouth University poll puts Clinton up 12 (51-39). The candidates are basically tied among white primary voters, while Clinton enjoys a large lead over Bernie Sanders among African Americans and Hispanics. So much for home-field advantage: That Monmouth survey finds only 29 percent of voters consider Clinton -- who has lived in the state for 16 years and served as senator for eight years -- to be a “real New Yorker,” while 28 said the same for Sanders, who left the state after high school. -- Tensions continued to escalate in the battle for New York: Clinton devoted a Long Island campaign event entirely to gun control, all but blaming Sanders for crime in New York City. From Philip Rucker and Abby Phillip: “Clinton convened a round table-style discussion … where she, along with the local congressman, Rep. Steve Israel (D), and gun-safety advocates hammered Sanders.... 'Here’s what I want you to know: Most of the guns that are used in crimes and violence and killings in New York come from out of state. The state that has the highest per-capita number of those guns that end up committing crime in New York come from Vermont,’ Clinton said, eliciting gasps.… ‘So this is not, ‘Oh, no, I live in a rural state. We don’t have any of these problems.'" The Post's Fact Checker gives Clinton Three Pinocchios for this line of attack: "Clinton has carefully crafted the talking point to find the particular government data that support her point, which gives a wildly different view than how trafficking flows are tracked," Michelle Ye Hee Lee writes. "We do not find the per capita measure as a fair assessment of gun flows from Vermont into New York. The difference between this point using per capita calculation and the raw number (1 percent of crime guns with source states identified in 2014 came from Vermont) is so stark that it creates a significantly misleading impression to the public." Sanders called for a national ban on fracking. The Vermont senator released a new ad to highlight his opposition, narrated by actress Susan Sarandon. "Do Washington politicians side with polluters over families?" asks Sarandon. "They sure do, because Big Oil pumps millions into their campaigns. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate for president who opposes fracking everywhere." -- Joe Biden said Sanders calling Clinton "unqualified" was not sexist but something said in the heat of a campaign. During an interview with Mic.com, the vice president was asked about Sanders’ comment and if he thought Hillary is held to a higher standard because she is a woman. “No, I don’t think she’s held to a higher standard,” he replied. “This country’s ready for a woman,” Biden elaborated. “There’s no problem. We’re going to be able to elect a woman in this country.” When the female interviewer asked Biden if he’d like to see a woman elected, a male aide to the VP interrupted from off camera and tried to end the interview. “That’s it,” he said. “I would like to see a woman elected,” Biden said. “I don’t mind,” he told the staffers standing off camera. “The president and I are not going to endorse because we both when we ran said, ‘let the party decide.’ But gosh almighty, they’re both qualified,” he added. “Hillary is overwhelmingly qualified to be president.” -- “Past cases suggest Hillary won’t be indicted," by Politico's Josh Gerstein: A review of dozens of recent federal investigations "suggests that it’s highly unlikely, but not impossible. The examination … found some parallels to Clinton’s use of a private server for her emails, but, in nearly all instances that were prosecuted, aggravating circumstances [existed] that don’t appear to be present in Clinton’s case. The relatively few cases that drew prosecution almost always involved a deliberate intent to violate classification rules as well as some add-on element … a Boeing engineer who brought home 2000 classified documents and whose travel to Israel raised suspicions; a [NSA] official who removed boxes of classified documents and also lied on a job application form. And former prosecutors, investigators and defense attorneys generally agree that prosecution for classified information breaches is the exception rather than the rule.… 'They always involve some ‘plus’ factor,’ one former federal prosecutor said.” -- Bill de Blasio intimated in an interview with Katie Couric that his kids are supporting Sanders, even though he’s backing Clinton. “My kids will speak for themselves,” he told the Yahoo anchor, “but I’ll say this much, they’re the kind of young person that is going to fight for change, no matter what. And absolutely will support the Democratic nominee, whoever it is.” (Watch the full interview here.) WAPO HIGHLIGHT: Hundreds of refugees walk in the Southern Jutland motorway in Denmark. (AP/Martin Lehmann) -- “Denmark, a social welfare utopia, takes a nasty turn on refugees,” by Griff Witte: "Lise Ramslog was out for a stroll in Denmark when she stumbled upon hundreds of exhausted asylum seekers. 70-year-old Ramslog instantly decided to help, transporting several refugees to Sweden. Many would consider Ramslog a good Samaritan. But the Danish government has a different term for her: convicted human smuggler. Denmark is celebrated as a social-welfare utopia. Ranking high in its pantheon of heroes are those who protected Jews during the Holocaust, or who helped oppressed during the Cold War. But when it comes to those fleeing 21st-century conflicts, Denmark has gone into overdrive to broadcast hostility … While Germany continues to welcome asylum seekers, and others held doors open for as long as they could, Denmark has taken a hard line almost from the beginning. Now ordinary Danes are getting caught up in the crackdown, punished for quintessentially good deeds. 'I’m proud of what I did and will never regret ... it,' said Ramslog, her eyes welling with tears. 'But I don’t want to be known as a criminal.'" -- Meet Trump’s “Beltway establishment guy” -- campaign lawyer and former FEC chairman Donald F. McGahn II. By Ben Terris: "The night Trump notched his first presidential win, he took the stage and lit into special interests that he declared corrupted Washington. Over his shoulder, a ruddy-faced man licked his teeth. He appeared out of place and seemed to know it. McGahn is one of [the country’s] top election lawyers, a job so highly specialized that its practitioners are almost unavoidably ‘Washington insiders’ by definition.... For a while, McGahn's colleagues either didn't know the firm was representing Trump or didn't mind. That changed late last month when McGahn organized a meeting between the candidate and more than a dozen lawmakers at the firm [Jones Day].… Many current employees just about lost their minds.” SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ: Lesson learned: if you tweet to Ernest Moniz about his hair, he might tweet back: I know it's time for my kid to get a haircut when he starts looking like Energy Secretary @ErnestMoniz pic.twitter.com/qRcPlwIFwj — Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) April 10, 2016 I say grow it out. Nothing wrong with looking like a scientist. https://t.co/6TYn6Wqjge — Ernest Moniz (@ErnestMoniz) April 11, 2016 There was a cash bar at Cruz's event in Orange County: Not messing around for Ted Cruz's 11:30 a.m. event in Irvine, Calif. pic.twitter.com/RffwBrgxc0 — Katie Zezima (@katiezez) April 11, 2016 Looks like Shailene Woodley is for Sanders: The scaffolding keeps coming down around the Capitol dome: More than 400 arrests were made yesterday at the Capitol in connection with Democracy Spring demonstrations. (Martin Weil) At #DemocracySpring. Crowd at protest. The arrests have begun. Very strong showing! pic.twitter.com/WDxOXkIePu — Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) April 11, 2016 Sanders tweeted his support: We must overturn Citizens United if we are serious about maintaining the foundations of American democracy. #DemocracySpring — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 11, 2016 Americans understand that our gov't is dominated by big money. Glad to see people taking action to restore democracy. #DemocracySpring — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 11, 2016 Former senator Carl Levin now has a ship named after him: Was pleased to attend the Navy ship-naming ceremony in honor of former Senator Carl Levin. Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/aKyejZdELp — Senator Gary Peters (@SenGaryPeters) April 11, 2016 What a well deserved tribute for such a wonderful man. Congratulations, @SenCarlLevin! pic.twitter.com/7Xy7aaQFWl — Sen. Debbie Stabenow (@SenStabenow) April 11, 2016 Cindy McCain hung out with Heidi Heitkamp and Cory Booker over the weekend: Love these two. @senatorheitkamp and @corybooker It was a great weekend of the Sedona Forum @mccaininstitute A photo posted by Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) on Apr 11, 2016 at 4:21pm PDT Lawmakers celebrated National Pet Day: Mac #nationalpetday A photo posted by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (@repkevinmccarthy) on Apr 11, 2016 at 10:23am PDT Happy #NationalPetDay to all of our friends who make our days brighter. A photo posted by Senator David Perdue (@sendavidperdue) on Apr 11, 2016 at 10:09am PDT Happy #nationalpetday from Lily (📷 credit AP) A photo posted by Representative Jeff Denham (@repjeffdenham) on Apr 11, 2016 at 10:36am PDT Happy #NationalPetDay to my favorite canine policy advisor, Cowboy! pic.twitter.com/srKKc6RiRy — Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) April 11, 2016 In honor of #NationalPetDay, meet our rescues Aspen & Denver. Hope you are enjoying the day with your #pets #NV03 pic.twitter.com/Z5fkeCmede — Congressman Joe Heck (@RepJoeHeck) April 11, 2016 My two Cavanese (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel + Havanese) puppies, Rey and Finn, when we first met one month ago! pic.twitter.com/KtRcR4Elcn — Justin Amash (@justinamash) April 11, 2016 We adopted our cat Hemic from @hawaiianhumane more than 20 years ago, and he's been a member of our family ever since #nationalpetday A photo posted by Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) on Apr 11, 2016 at 1:31pm PDT Happy #NationalPetDay. A photo posted by Barack Obama (@barackobama) on Apr 11, 2016 at 11:45am PDT The old Washington Post building is almost gone: I'm a Washington Post romantic, so this is a somewhat melancholic sight: pic.twitter.com/kkBkP04s7N — Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) April 11, 2016 GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE: -- CBS, “Meet the ‘Trump Bros,’” by Jacqueline Alemany: "Eighteen-year-old Jack Rowe sat in the front row of a Trump rally sandwiched between friends. Rowe had some thoughts on Trump's rhetorical treatment of women, which had been dominating headlines. 'Misogyny was an issue about maybe 60, 80 years ago,' said Rowe. 'You know, ISIS is chopping off heads … We’ve got bigger fish to fry.' Young men like Rowe are a common sight at Trump rallies: Mostly white, they travel in packs. They are dudes, jocks, preps … On the campaign trail, they’re known simply as 'Trump Bros.' David Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, said Trump's appeal to young men speaks to anxiety over creeping 'political correctness.' 'It's an F-U to society, who is telling us we are a bad guy because we like hooking up with girls on spring break,' he added. And they see Trump sticking up for that. Manas, a young entrepreneur … whose Twitter bio reads 'Bros do Bro Things' and who made a point of checking himself out in his iPhone camera in selfie mode before speaking with a reporter, piped in enthusiastically. 'I love women!' he said. Trump took the stage, and they screamed." -- New York Times, “Trump and New York Tabloids Resume Their Elaborate Dance,” by Michael M. Grynbaum: “As newspaper assignments go, this was a delicate one. Fly to Florida. Walk into Trump’s hospital room. Witness the birth of his second daughter. Linda Stasi, a gossip columnist for The Daily News, did as she was told. ‘I called Donald, and he said, ‘You can’t come to the hospital!’’ she recalled 22 years later. ‘I said, I know, but I’m coming anyway.’ ‘O.K.,’ Trump replied. ‘Then come.’ As the presidential spotlight swings to New York … Trump is reuniting with the press corps he knows best, a boisterous tabloid culture that spawned and nurtured [his] outsize Trump personality. It is also the ink-stained caldron in which Trump, over decades, honed the method of media management, cajoling, combating, at times dissembling, that he has unleashed … in this year’s national campaign. Some Americans have been caught off guard by [Trump’s style] but New York’s media veterans detect the old playbook at work. ‘We’ve had that advantage throughout the whole campaign,’ said Daily News editor Jim Rich.” HOT ON THE LEFT: "New York City Is About To Be Overrun By Trump Protesters,” from Think Progress: “Inside the 4-star Grand Hyatt New York on Thursday evening … Trump is scheduled to speak at the New York state Republican Gala, a high-status, black tie fundraising dinner that costs $1,000 to attend. Outside the hotel, thousands of people are scheduled to protest the event — with the explicit intention of shutting it down. ‘Trump’s rhetoric is an instigation to racist, anti-migrant and misogynist violence,’ said Kalisa Moore, part of the Stop Trump Coalition." HOT ON THE RIGHT “Power Is A LOT More Expensive Under Obama,” from the Daily Caller: “The average American’s electric bill has gone up 10 percent since January, 2009, due in part to regulations imposed by President Barack Obama and state governments, even though the price of generating power has declined. Record low costs for generating electricity thanks to America’s new natural gas supplies created by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, haven’t translated into lower monthly payments for consumers due to new regulations … The biggest price increase in the U.S. was in Kansas, where prices rose … by 39 percent. States like Idaho, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Missouri, Utah, and Ohio saw enormous increases in the price of electricity as well.” DAYBOOK: On the campaign trail: Everyone but Clinton is in New York. Here's the rundown: Clinton: Miami, Miami Beach, Manalapan, Fla. Sanders: Rochester, Syracuse, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Trump: Rome, N.Y. Kasich: New York, N.Y. At the White House: President Obama speaks at the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument. In the evening, Vice President Biden speaks at the World FoodProgram USA McGovern-Dole Leadership Award at the Organization of American States. On Capitol Hill: The Senate meets at 10 a.m. to resume work on the FAA bill. The House meets at 2 p.m. for legislative business. Four suspension votes are expected at 6:30 p.m. QUOTE OF THE DAY: Trump said he forgives his kids for missing New York’s deadline to register as Republicans, which means they will not be able to vote for him on Tuesday. “They were, you know, unaware of the rules, and they didn't register in time, so they feel very, very guilty — they feel very guilty," Trump said on Fox News. “But … I mean, I understand. I think they have to register a year in advance, and they didn't." NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.: -- A damp and cloudy morning followed by sunshine through the rest of the week. “Scattered showers with a few heavier downpours are possible this morning, bringing our early starting temperatures in the 60s back down into the 50s," the Capital Weather Gang forecasts. "Rainfall should be from a tenth to a quarter inch with locally heavier totals. Clouds are slow to depart and hence temperatures slower to warm back up vs. yesterday. We’ll aim for partly sunny skies by mid to late afternoon with afternoon highs in the low-middle 60s.” -- The Wizards beat the Nets 120-111. -- The Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves 6-4. -- Police are seeking the killer of a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed to death yesterday at the Deanwood Metro stop in Northeast. No word yet on motive. (Clarence Williams and Peter Hermann) -- Maryland lawmakers eliminated mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, marking a major shift to dependency-based treatment and education as alternatives to incarceration. (Ovetta Wiggins, Josh Hicks and Fenit Nirappil) -- In the final hour of Maryland’s session, legislators passed a “Noah’s law.” The safe-driving bill was named after a slain Montgomery County police officer and expands the use of ignition locks for convicted drunk drivers. (Ovetta Wiggins and Josh Hicks) -- Terry McAuliffe has now vetoed more legislation than any Virginia governor since 1998, nixing bills from the Republican legislature on hot button issues like gay rights and women's access to health care. (Jenna Portnoy) -- The latest of those vetoes: McAuliffe blocked a bill that would require the use of the electric chair if Virginia could not obtain lethal injection drugs. The governor instead offered a “secrecy measure” that shields the identity of pharmacies who supplied the drugs. (Laura Vozzella and Mark Berman) -- A 35-year old Woodbridge woman was accused of stabbing a three-month-old baby with a kitchen knife. (Martin Weil) -- Police arrested a Metrobus rider in Silver Spring after he began assaulting other passengers and attempted to kick open the bus door. (Faiz Siddiqui) VIDEOS OF THE DAY: Excited about baseball season? Watch this kid bust a move on first base: A rare black rhino was euthanized in Zimbabwe after a poacher attack: Watch a baby wallaby peek out from his mom's pouch for the first time: Finally, check out SNL's Clinton impersonators through the years: ||||| Cruz told The Mike Slater Show that while the "Drudge Report over the years has done a good job highlighting the excesses of the left," it's become critical of him recently." “In about the past month, the Drudge Report has basically become the attack site for the Donald Trump campaign,” Cruz said. “So every day they have the latest Trump attack, they're directed at me. Most days they have a six-month-old article that is some attack on me, and it’s whatever the Trump campaign is pushing that day will be the banner headline on Drudge." “By the way, they no longer cover news,” Cruz continued. “When we win a state, suddenly the state doesn’t matter. You know Colorado, there was no red siren on Drudge when we won all 34 delegates in Colorado.” Drudge responded by posting a link to a January interview where Cruz remarked positively, "We have got the internet, we have got the Drudge Report." Drudge also linked to a Washington Post article headlined, "Ted Cruz’s war with Matt Drudge could become a huge problem for his campaign." ||||| Ted Cruz says the Drudge Report has become propaganda for Donald Trump’s campaign. “Drudge Report over the years has done a good job highlighting the excesses of the left and the excesses of liberalism, and about the past month the Drudge Report has basically become the attack site for the Donald Trump campaign,” Cruz said on the Mike Slater Show on Monday. “And so every day they have the latest Trump attack, they’re directed at me. By all appearances, Roger Stone now decides what’s on Drudge. And most days, they have six-month-old article that is some attack on me and it’s whatever the Trump campaign is pushing that day will be the banner headline on Drudge.” Cruz said Drudge doesn’t put election results on his site anymore now that he has started to win primaries and caucuses. “When we win the state, suddenly the state doesn’t matter,” Cruz said. “There was no red siren on Drudge when we won all 34 delegates in Colorado. That wasn’t news.” ||||| “Fury as Colorado has no primary or caucus!” shrieked a scandalized Drudge Report on Monday morning. That would be news to the roughly 60,000 Republicans who caucused across the state on March 1, many of whom attended Saturday’s GOP State Assembly. Matt Drudge was channeling the phony indignation of his chosen candidate as Donald Trump spent the evening on Twitter and the morning on Fox News complaining that Colorado’s delegate selection process was “a crooked deal.” (If it strikes you as odd that a “news” site has an obvious bias toward a particular candidate, you might not be alone.) The real crooked deal, and perhaps the reason that Trump and friends are so frenzied in waving around the shiny object of faux corruption, is Donald Trump’s so-called charity: According to an analysis by the Washington Post released Sunday night, 2,900 of the 4,844 reported charitable contributions by Mr. Trump from 2009 through 2014 were free rounds of golf at his golf courses. Others were such things as “175 free hotel stays, 165 free meals and 11 gift certificates to spas.” Higher-valued “charity” included conservation easements granted on property he owned — likely to have been conditions of receiving permits for land development. According to the Post, not a single item of charity in the “93-page document compiled by the Trump campaign” is a “cash gift from Trump himself.” At the risk of playing into Mr. Trump’s distraction from the faux-charity bombshell, let’s return to the Centennial State: Despite the rules of the contest having been set months ago and available for all to read and understand, and despite the votes of thousands of previously elected delegates on Saturday, Mr. Trump has the cojones to say on national television that in Colorado “there was no voting. I didn’t go out there to make a speech or anything…” In fact, Donald Trump was invited to speak to the roughly 7,000 party faithful at the assembly but declined, having a surrogate, Stephen Miller, do so in his place, while Ted Cruz came to Colorado Springs and continued his domination of Mr. Trump in circumstances in which political organization and base-motivating have been determinative. During the event, Mr. Miller said to the assembled delegates that no state has treated the Trump campaign as fairly as Colorado has, under the leadership of State Republican Party Chairman Steve House. Mr. Trump seems so incapable of developing tactics around relatively easy-to-understand political rules that one wonders how he has succeeded in real estate development. Perhaps the difference is that Trump can’t actually corrupt and manipulate the Republican Party the way he wishes he could (I guess the GOP doesn’t need a conservation easement) — and the way he has succeeding in corrupting and manipulating the media. (See Fox’s Steve Doocy mindlessly parroting Trump, “It’s rigged!”) Which brings me back to the reprehensible Monday performance of the Drudge Report. Consider the four headlines “above the fold” on Drudge’s web page just after 8 AM Eastern Time: Let’s consider the relevance and accuracy of this “news” aggregation, taking each story in turn: The first link is a wildly misleading rewording of a headline in the 7-month-old article it links to, which reported that the state GOP changed its rules for the caucus to remove a binding presidential straw poll and instead elect unbound delegates to the state convention. Yes, the process is arcane and no, it’s not the best way for Colorado to select delegates (which is why the next time around we will likely have a primary election rather than caucuses). In any case, to reword the true headline in order to imply, as Drudge did, that somehow Colorado would not participate in a presidential election borders on journalistic malpractice. Actually, it’s well across the border. It’s an illegal alien in the land of ethical political news coverage and, per Mr. Trump’s own wishes, should be deported immediately. Drudge’s second headline implies that large numbers of Colorado Republicans were so disgusted by this weekend’s proceedings that there was a mass burning of voter registration forms. Instead the video links to one bitter man burning a form that he claims is some sort of GOP registration. However, the man in the video is the same man who posted another anti-GOP video which appears to be, to put it plainly, a pack of lies. Even if this man were genuine in his anger and behavior, a single person lighting a single piece of paper on fire hardly qualifies for Drudge’s plural headline, “Voters burn registrations in protest.” But wait, there’s more! The next headline, “1 million Republicans sidelined,” suggests that Colorado made efforts to disenfranchise masses of Republican voters. In fact, with the possible exception of Iowa, it is reasonable to assume that participation in any state’s caucuses is lower than participation would be if the state had a primary election because the former requires effort. Republicans were not “sidelined” in Colorado any more than they are in the dozen or so other states and territories that utilize caucuses, nor are Republicans sidelined any more than Democrats are due to a state’s choice to have a caucus. It is fair to note that Colorado’s rule change away from a binding straw poll diminished caucus participation but that was a voluntary choice made by those who could have attended. Anybody registered as a Republican or a Democrat prior to January 4 was eligible to participate in this year’s Colorado caucuses for their respective parties. And then there’s Drudge’s final headline which links to another dated Denver Post story, this one an editorial from February in which the paper’s editorial board correctly notes that Colorado’s rules this year did shift some of the delegate selection process into the hands of more active Republicans rather than ordinary caucus-goers. There are items to quibble with in the piece, but the real issue is that Messrs. Trump and Drudge are obviously complaining only because they lost. They didn’t just lose. They got utterly walloped. Skunked. Shut out. Aced. Wiped off the state’s electoral map. But it wasn’t because the game was rigged or because Ted Cruz cheated. It was because Trump simply didn’t play. Trump didn’t come to Colorado; Cruz did. Trump fired his local staffer just days before the assembly, giving his replacement an impossible organizational task. Trump’s staff printed delegate guides with errors (compounded by a printing error on the ballot itself, which was not the Trump campaign’s fault). The Cruz campaign created a website to aid supporters; Trump’s didn’t. And so it goes. The complaining by Donald “Sore loser” Trump and his pet propagandist Matt Drudge about what happened in Colorado might be worth a moment of consideration if there were important differences between the results here and those from other caucuses, the majority of which Trump also lost. But there aren’t. Was Utah’s process — in which Cruz, as in Colorado, won every single delegate — a “crooked deal”? Or Kansas’s? Or any other caucus state? The answer to each is a resounding no, yet in those cases Mr. Trump was (at least relatively) silent. So why the furor over Colorado? Donald Trump is squawking about his Colorado loss more than any other is to distract consumers of social media and gullible Fox News couch-sitters, perhaps the biggest donors of free air time to the phone-it-in campaign of The Donald, from the devastating revelation that Donald Trump’s “millions of dollars” in charity over the last several years may not have involved opening his own wallet a single time. Colorado’s caucus and assembly process in 2016 left much to be desired — which is why it is all but certain to change — but Donald Trump’s whinging about his loss here has nothing to do with delegates and everything to do with distraction.

– Matt Drudge and his Drudge Report have become a big focus of the Republican race this week. Things really took off Monday when Ted Cruz told a conservative radio host that Drudge's website "has basically become the attack site for the Trump campaign," reports BuzzFeed. Cruz took exception to several headlines on the site suggesting that he had won in Colorado over the weekend thanks only to insider politics by party leaders bent on defeating Donald Trump. "And most days, they have six-month-old article that is some attack on me, and it’s whatever the Trump campaign is pushing that day will be the banner headline on Drudge," said Cruz. He added that "they no longer cover news." As the Hill reports, Drudge has responded by linking to a January story in which Cruz sounded pleased with the site: "We have got the Internet, we have got the Drudge Report," he said at the time. Drudge also linked to an analysis in the Washington Post headlined, "Ted Cruz’s war with Matt Drudge could become a huge problem for his campaign." In that piece, James Hohmann writes that a "word cloud" from social media shows that Drudge is making an impact, with the words "cheating" and "drudge" showing up among mentions of Cruz's Colorado win. This should worry Cruz because it could make his victories seem illegitimate to conservatives. "If Cruz wins the nomination at a contested convention in Cleveland, he will need these grass-roots activists to rally around him," writes Hohmann. "If regular Drudge readers believe he did not win fair and square, they will be less inclined to do so." A blogger at the American Spectator, meanwhile, dismisses the "reprehensible" coverage on Drudge as "cheap tabloid tricks." Trump is looking for a "distraction" from the reality that he was beaten soundly in Colorado, where the rules were clear, writes Ross Kaminsky.

Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com Americans are not ideologues. They think ideology is something squished down on their heads from on high, something imposed on them by big thinkers who create systems we're all supposed to conform to. Americans are more interested in philosophy, which bubbles up from human beings, from tradition and learned experience, and isn't imposed. Lately we are hearing a bit about ideology, but the work of a great political philosopher, Edmund Burke, is more pertinent. Burke respected reality, acknowledged human nature, and appreciated political context. In "Reflections on the Revolution in France," he wrote, "Circumstances (which with some gentlemen pass for ... ||||| Vice-presidential picks are always judged by their effect on the coming election. They rarely have any. They haven’t had a decisive influence since Lyndon Johnson carried Texas for John Kennedy in 1960. (That and Illinois put Kennedy over the top.) This time, however, the effect could be significant. The Democrats’ Mediscare barrage is already in full swing. Paul Ryan, it seems, is determined to dispossess Grandmother, then toss her over a cliff. If the charge is not successfully countered, good-bye Florida. Republicans have a twofold answer. First, hammer home that their Medicare plan affects no one over 55, let alone 65. Second, go on offense. Point out that President Obama cuts Medicare by $700 billion to finance Obamacare. It’s a sweet judo throw: Want to bring up Medicare, supposedly our weakness? Fine. But now you’ve got to debate Obamacare, your weakness — and explain why you are robbing Granny’s health care to pay for your pet project. If Mitt Romney and Ryan can successfully counterattack Mediscare, the Ryan effect becomes a major plus. Because: (a) Ryan nationalizes the election and makes it ideological, reprising the 2010 dynamic that delivered a “shellacking” to the Democrats. (b) If the conversation is about big issues, Obama cannot hide from his dismal economic record and complete failure of vision. In Obama’s own on-camera commercial — “the choice . . . couldn’t be bigger” — what’s his big idea? A 4.6-point increase in the marginal tax rate of 2 percent of the population. That’s it? That’s his program? For a country with stagnant growth, ruinous debt and structural problems crying out for major entitlement and tax reform? Obama’s “plan” would cut the deficit from $1.20 trillion to $1.12 trillion. It’s a joke. (c) Image. Ryan, fresh and 42, brings youth, energy and vitality — the very qualities Obama projected in 2008 and has by now depleted. “Hope and change” has become “the other guy killed a steelworker’s wife.” From transcendence to the political gutter in under four years. A new Olympic record. While Ryan’s effect on 2012 is as yet undetermined — it depends on the success or failure of Mediscare — there is less doubt about the meaning of Ryan’s selection for beyond 2012. He could well become the face of Republicanism for a generation. There’s a history here. By choosing George H.W. Bush in 1980, Ronald Reagan gave birth to a father-son dynasty that dominated the presidential scene for three decades. The Bush name was on six of seven consecutive national tickets. When Dwight Eisenhower picked Richard Nixon in 1952, he turned a relatively obscure senator into a dominant national figure for a quarter-century, appearing on the presidential ticket in five of six consecutive elections. Even losing VP candidates can ascend to party leader and presumptive presidential nominee. Ed Muskie so emerged in 1968, until he melted down in New Hampshire in 1972. Walter Mondale so emerged in 1980 and won the presidential nomination four years later. (The general election was another story.) Winning is even better. Forty percent of 20th-century presidents were former VPs: Theodore Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Bush (41). Before Aug. 11, Ryan already was the party’s intellectual leader and de facto parliamentary leader — youngest-ever House Budget Committee chairman whose fiscal blueprint has driven congressional debate for two years. Now, however, he is second only to Romney as the party’s undisputed political leader. And while Romney is the present, Ryan is the future. Romney’s fate will be determined on Nov. 6. Ryan’s presence, assuming he acquits himself well in the campaign, will extend for decades. Ryan’s importance is enhanced by his identity as a movement conservative. Reagan was the first movement leader in modern times to achieve the presidency. Like him, Ryan represents a new kind of conservatism for his time. Reagan rejected the moderate accommodationism represented by Gerald Ford, the sitting president Reagan nearly overthrew in 1976. Ryan represents a new constitutional conservatism of limited government and individual opportunity that carried Republicans to victory in 2010, not just as a rejection of Obama’s big-government hyper-liberalism but also as a significant departure from the philosophically undisciplined, idiosyncratically free-spending “compassionate conservatism” of Obama’s Republican predecessor. Ryan’s role is to make the case for a serious approach to structural problems — a hardheaded, sober-hearted conservatism that puts to shame a reactionary liberalism that, with Greece in our future, offers handouts, bromides and a 4.6 percent increase in tax rates. If Ryan does it well, win or lose in 2012, he becomes a dominant national force. Mild and moderate Mitt Romney will have shaped the conservative future for years to come. The cunning of history. Or if you prefer, its sheer capriciousness. letters@charleskrauthammer.com

– Assuming Paul Ryan doesn't flop over the next three months, then, win or lose, "he could well become the face of Republicanism for a generation," declares a happy Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. Ryan is the natural leader of a "new constitutional conservatism" in America, just as Reagan was in his time. And, oddly, the credit for shaping this "conservative future" goes to none other than Mitt Romney. As for 2012, the success of Romney-Ryan will hinge on which party controls the message on "Mediscare," writes Krauthammer, who wants the GOP to push the theme that Ryan's plan will save it while ObamaCare will gut it. Another prominent voice on the right, Peggy Noonan, suggests a campaign ad showing a "Clark Kent" character—that would be Ryan—saving Granny from going off a cliff. She also thinks that Ryan and Romney should campaign together all the time, against tradition, and that Ryan should do long, substantive interviews frequently. "Romney just threw a long ball," she writes in the Wall Street Journal. "Fine. The GOP will have to play an audacious, longball game." Read Noonan's full column here, Krauthammer's here.

Like many California families who choose to home-school their children, the Turpins registered with the state Department of Education. Beginning in 2010, when the family lived in Murrieta, David Turpin filed paperwork to run a private school out of his home, putting himself down as principal of what he called the Sandcastle Day School. For several years, he described it as a full-time, religious school unaffiliated with any denomination, but recently he wrote that it was nonreligious. ||||| The 13 Perris children who authorities say suffered stunted growth because of torture and neglect by their parents likely face a long rehabilitation, both physically and psychologically, an expert suggested. Sophia Grant, medical director of the child abuse and neglect unit at Riverside University Health System, has not treated the children. But at a Riverside County sheriff’s news conference Tuesday, Jan. 16, she spoke about similar cases. At the half-hour briefing, where media crowded shoulder-to-shoulder into a conference room at the Perris sheriff’s station, the girl who snuck out of the home and alerted authorities was praised for her bravery. Also, the CEO of the hospital where the seven adults — initially mistaken for minors because of their malnutrition — are being treated said the patients “feel safe” and are stable. And a sheriff’s captain promised a “meticulous investigation” but couldn’t provide any new insights into what motivated David Allen Turpin, 56, and Louise Ann Turpin, 49, to treat their children a way that resulted in the couple’s arrest Sunday. The parents remained jailed Tuesday with bail set at $9 million each. Unless they post bail, under state law they must be charged by Thursday or freed from jail. Meanwhile, neighbors on Muir Woods Road in the suburban Riverside County city continued to express shock about the case, which has drawn media interest from such far-flung locales as New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. Also Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Department cautioned well-meaning people to donate to fundraising websites for the children with caution. Some may be phony. Physical, psychological damage Deputies who discovered the six minors and seven adults Sunday inside the dark, smelly home initially believed that all 13 were minors because they appeared so small. Three were chained and padlocked to furniture, authorities said. Grant indicated that in cases like this, such poor health would not have occurred in a short time. Stunting of growth, in general, would have been caused by malnourishment over “a prolonged period,” Grant said. The recovery will be gradual, she said. “You can imagine the post-traumatic stress disorder if you’ve been deprived of nutrition, if you’ve been deprived of normal childhood activities, normal interactions and the people who should have been providing for you have failed to do so — that is going to cause some psychological damage,” Grant said. “Children who have been malnourished over a prolonged period will have growth stunting, will have nutritional deficiencies, they can suffer complications if you try to feed them, so it requires close monitoring of them when introducing proper nutrition to these kids. … The psychological support is going to be ongoing and longterm.” The adults – five women and two men — are being treated at Corona Regional Medical Center and are being kept together and guarded by security. Hospital CEO Mark Uffer said he could not describe their conditions other than “stable” because of privacy laws. He described them as friendly and cooperative. “I think they feel safe,” he said. “I believe they are hopeful that life will get better for them.” Uffer said he had never seen a case like this. “It’s hard to think of them as adults when you first see them. They’re small and it’s very clear that they’re (malnourished). … The way my staff has responded, I think they were horrified. I think they are very focused on improving the quality of their existence.” The minors are being treated at Riverside University Health System Medical Center in Moreno Valley. What’s next? Susan von Zabern, director of the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services, said the county plans to go to court to get authorization to oversee and care for the children. The minors could be placed with relatives after background checks, she said at the news conference. The adults’ needs will be assessed and they will be offered services. Child Protective Services had never visited the home, von Zabern said. She urged people to report suspicions of abuse and neglect. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department also had not previously been called to the Turpins’ home, said Capt. Greg Fellows, the commander of the Perris station. Investigators plan to dig into their background and want to know when the alleged mistreatment of their children began and what the motive was. “We’re going to conduct a meticulous investigation and we’re going to get answers to all these questions,” Fellows said at the news conference. He added that sheriff’s officials believe that the couple are the biological parents of all 13 children. The Turpins have lived in Perris since about 2014, Fellows said. Before that, they lived in Murrieta, and before that in Texas. Media in Texas have reported that the Turpins lived in Tarrant and Johnson counties. There were no records of criminal cases involving the Turpins in those counties. CPS officials in Texas had no contact with the Turpins, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. James and Betty Turpin of West Virginia told ABC News that their son David and his wife had so many children because “God called on them.” In a brief statement to the Southern California News Group, they said they knew nothing about any mistreatment. Girl’s courage praised The secrets being kept inside the four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 2,388-square-foot home were revealed Sunday when a 17-year-old girl escaped through a window carrying a cellphone she snatched. Fellows described it as “deactivated,” but many phones allow someone to call 911 even when they’re locked or not activated. When deputies arrived, the girl – who they thought looked about 10 years old – showed them photos that convinced them her 12 siblings were being held captive. “We do need to acknowledge the courage of the young girl who escaped from that residence to bring attention so they could get the help they so needed,” said Fellows, who said he did not have any additional details on the escape. Not far from the station, Muir Woods Road residents were still in disbelief that such a sensational case could unfold in their neighborhood. “It still feels like a dream, it’s not reality,” Perris resident Ricardo Ross said Tuesday, adding: “I woke up this morning and it’s just devastating. Devastating news.” Rosemberg Salgado has lived across the street from the Turpins since August 2016. “You would have never thought in this kind of neighborhood you could find out that there was some people who can do that to kids,” he said. “That is just insane and crazy.” The Turpins apparently lived largely out of sight. For one, they had been teaching six of their children in a private, in-home, state registered school, Sandcastle Day School, of which David Turpin was listed as principal. The state Department of Education said in a statement Tuesday that under California law, the agency does not have the authority to monitor or inspect private schools. State Assemblymember Jose Medina (D-Riverside), in emailed statement Tuesday, called for more oversight of private and home schools. “I am extremely concerned,” he said. Staff writers Shane Newell, Craig Shultz, Christopher Haire, Roxana Kopetman, Beatriz E. Valenzuela and Richard K. De Atley contributed to this report. Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct David Turpin’s age and Louise Turpin’s middle name.

– The 13 siblings rescued from captivity in a California home were so badly treated that mental and physical recovery is likely to take a very long time, experts say. Corona Regional Medical Center CEO Mark Uffer says his staff was horrified by the condition of the seven adults in the group, who were so malnourished that they were mistaken for children. Sophia Grant, medical director of the child abuse unit at Riverside University Health System, tells the Press-Enterprise that such stunting of growth would have required malnourishment over a long period. She says recovery will be a gradual process for the siblings, who have likely suffered psychological damage from being deprived of normal interaction and from being mistreated by the parents who were supposed to provide for them. In other developments: Home-schooling. Father David Turpin, a former engineer at the Northrop Grumman aerospace company registered to run a private school out of his home, was required only to submit a form every year. Advocates for greater oversight of home-schooling in California say the abuse could have been exposed much earlier if the children had been required to have annual checkups from doctors and teachers, the Los Angeles Times reports. "Current law provides nothing to stop families like the Turpins from using home-schooling to isolate and imprison their children," says Rachel Coleman of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education.

OUT OF THIS WORLD | Earth, Space And The Stuff In Between - a daily journey through weather, space and science with meteorologist/science writer Scott Sutherland See the eta Aquarid meteor shower from anywhere. Here's when Find Your Forecast Search for a location Meteorologist/Science Writer Scott Sutherland Monday, May 2, 2016, 1:57 PM - Famous Halley's Comet is bringing a pre-dawn meteor shower to our skies on Thursday and Friday, and here's how you can watch it from anywhere, no matter what the weather is like. Twice every year, Earth's orbit around the Sun carries it through streams of debris in space, left behind by the passing of Comet Halley. When the the tiny flecks of dust and ice that make up these streams plunge into Earth's atmosphere, they are moving fast enough to produce glowing trails through the sky, resulting in meteor showers. On the mornings of May 5 and May 6, we will be able to see the first of these two Halley's Comet meteor showers - the Eta Aquarids. Watch from anywhere The meteor shower's radiant - the point in the sky where the meteors appear to emerge from - rises along with the constellation Aquarius, in the very early morning hours. The meteor shower should be visible from about 3 a.m. local time, until dawn, on both mornings. The eta Aquarid radiant in the eastern sky, at 4 a.m. on May 5 and May 6, 2016. Credit: Stellarium/S. Sutherland While it's not considered one of the strongest meteor showers that occur during the year, anyone with clear skies and far away from sources of light pollution should be able to see between 10 and 20 meteors per hour. According to NASA, the morning of May 5 may be the better of the two days for viewing, with slightly more meteors visible in the sky, and the exact peak of the meteor shower is expected during daylight hours on May 5. Below are maps of the expected cloud conditions for the two mornings (check back for updates to this forecast). THE BIG REVEAL: Will a developing La Niña affect our summer as much as El Niño affected our winter? Tune in for the Summer Forecast on May 24 at 9pm EST and we'll help you plan your summer. If the weather fails to cooperate with you on these two mornings, or the timing doesn't really work with your sleep schedule, the Slooh Community Observatory is hosting a live show, which can be viewed via the embedded video at the bottom of this article. The Slooh show begins at 8 p.m. EDT, on the night of Thursday, May 5. Meteor trains! One of the remarkable things about the eta Aquarid meteor shower is that they can produce what are known as "persistent trains" - colourful, faintly glowing streaks that can persist in the sky from a few seconds to several minutes after the meteor has winked out. Some have even been observed for hours afterward. What causes this is the exceptional speed of the meteoroids in the stream of cometary debris. When a typical meteoroid passes through the Earth's upper atmosphere, it's travelling at around 100,000 km/h, and it compresses the air molecules directly in its path to the point where they heat up and glow. This glow persists for as long as the meteoroid exists (the heat vapourizes ice particles and smaller bits of dust) and as long as it's travelling fast enough to continue compressing the air (since the compressed air pushes back against the meteoroid, slowing it down). The particles in the eta Aquarid stream hit Earth's atmosphere travelling at more like 240,000 km/h. This produces the bright meteor flash, and sometimes there's an added bonus. After the meteor has winked out, a glowing trail can be left in the air. Since these have only rarely been recorded, there's still some uncertainty about exactly how this is caused, however there are two basic ideas behind this effect. The first says that the meteoroids are travelling fast enough to actually strip electrons from the air molecules, ionizing them. As the air molecules reclaim those liberated electrons, the energy they release in the process is emitted as light. Since this process can take much longer than the original meteor flash, the "train" persists in the air afterward. The second says that metals vapourized off the fast-moving meteoroids chemically react with ozone and oxygen to produce the glow via chemiluminescence. One of these explanations may account for these "trains" or both may cover different occurrences, at different times, and even between individual meteors. It will take more sightings of these to fully explain them. Sources: NASA | Slooh | With files from The Weather Network Watch Below: The Slooh Community Observatory eta Aquarid show starts at 8 p.m. EDT, Thursday, May 5. ||||| Twice every year Earth collides with a ring of debris left behind by Halley’s comet, creating a pair of sibling meteor showers that can dazzle in the night sky. This entire week you can catch the first of the two displays, called the Eta Aquarids. It began on April 19, and will peak on May 5 before ending around May 28. The Eta Aquarids is one of the fastest meteor showers. Its specks pierce the sky at about 148,000 miles per hour.

– The Eta Aquarids meteor shower happens when Earth passes through the debris left behind by Halley's Comet, and it's peaking this week, the New York Times reports. The Weather Network reports that most everyone will have a good view of the shower Thursday and Friday. About 10 to 20 meteors per hour will be visible between 3am and dawn local time, just to the left of the constellation Aquarius, those mornings. Those wanting the best view may want to avoid clouds and light pollution. Oh, and don't blink. “If you blink, you’re not going to see them. They move that fast,” a NASA astronomer tells the Times. The meteors, which are typically about the size of a grain of sand, are traveling approximately 148,000mph when they hit the atmosphere.

A dam that burst at an iron-ore mine in south-eastern Brazil on Thursday is thought to have killed at least 15 people, devastating a nearby town with mudslides and leaving officials in the remote region scrambling to assess casualties. Forty-five people were still missing after the disaster at the Germano mine near the town of Mariana in Minas Gerais state, a local union told the G1 news portal. The mine is operated by Samarco, a joint venture between the Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton and the Brazilian company Vale. Andrew Mackenzie, the chief executive of BHP, said in Melbourne: “Most of what happened there has been under the cloak of darkness. “At daybreak, clearly we will do an awful lot more and give you further updates.” The company would “take all steps” to ensure the safety of the workers and communities affected by the disaster. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cars and homes were destroyed after an iron mine dam burst in Minas Gerais state. Photograph: Oglobo Video footage on the G1 website showed houses of a village destroyed by flood waters and clay-red mud that surged down valleys in the mountainous region. Large vehicles lay tossed on their sides. There was no official confirmation on the total number of dead and missing. A city hall official confirmed one death and 16 injuries, adding that dozens more were still missing. Civil defence authorities in Mariana said they were evacuating about 600 people to higher ground from the village of Bento Rodrigues, about 7km (just over 4 miles) beneath the dam that burst, which was flooded as a result of the accident. Television footage showed dozens of homes destroyed by the mudslide. A car rested on top of a wall where the roof of a building had been ripped off. Authorities said the flood had also reached another village further down the hill, Paracatu de Baixo, and that inhabitants there were also being evacuated. Rescue crews continued to search the muddy waters after nightfall. Brazilian army units nearby stood ready to help the search and rescue effort and the minister of national integration, Gilberto Occhi, planned to visit the state on Friday to provide assistance, according to a note from the presidency. Facebook Twitter Pinterest People gather at the Arena Mariana, in Mariana, after a dam burst, forcing residents from their homes. Photograph: Douglas Magno/AFP/Getty Images Samarco said in a statement it had not yet determined why the dam burst or the extent of the disaster. BHP Billiton said in a statement that it was “concerned for the safety of employees and the local community ... We are in the process of obtaining more details from Samarco Mineracao.” Vale directed media questions to Samarco. Authorities said the dam was built to hold back water and residue from mining operations, a mixture that can often be toxic. The dam was holding so-called tailings, a mining waste product of metal filings, water and occasionally chemicals. It was located near the Gualaxo do Norte river, fuelling fears of potential water contamination. Rescue teams were searching for survivors or bodies, and residents living nearby were told to evacuate to higher ground. Site of the burst dam in Minas Gerais state. Site of the burst dam in Minas Gerais state. Samarco said in a statement on its website that it was making “every effort to prioritise care to people and mitigate damage to the environment”. “It is not possible at this moment to confirm a cause,” it added. A statement from the city hall of Mariana, a city of about 40,000 people 300km (185 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro, said the dam ruptured at 4.20pm in an area roughly 20km from the city centre. The disaster comes as both Vale and BHP are battling a collapse in iron ore prices and a wider slump in the industry. The Germano mine is a 50-50 joint venture between the world’s largest iron miner and the largest mining company. Iron ore is transported down a slurry pipe to Espirito Santo in south-eastern Brazil, where it is turned into pellets. Samarco produces around 30 million tonnes per year, according to its website. Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. ||||| RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A dam burst at a mining operation in southeastern Brazil on Thursday, submerging nearby homes and vehicles. Authorities said there are dead and missing but have not yet given any figures. Rescue teams were searching for survivors or bodies, and residents living in an area downhill from the dam were told to evacuate to higher ground. The Civil Defense agency of Minas Gerais state confirmed there were dead and missing from the dam burst — but said it could not yet give a number. Images from Globo TV showed the area of the operation overrun with water and clay-red mud, and large vehicles tossed on their sides. A small cluster of homes and about 400 people live in the small town of Bento Rodrigues, about 7 kilometers (just over 4 miles) beneath the dam that burst. Images showed the town overrun with mud and water. Authorities said the dam was built to hold back water and residue from mining operations, a mixture that can often be toxic. The Samarco mining company said in a statement on its website that it was making "every effort to prioritize care to people and mitigate damage to the environment." "It is not possible at this moment to confirm a cause ... nor if there are victims," it added. Police, firefighters and city officials also said they could not confirm any victims. A statement from the city hall of Mariana, a city of about 40,000 people 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro, said the dam ruptured at 4:20 p.m. in an area roughly 20 kilometers (over 12 miles) from the city center.

– A small town in Brazil was buried in a sea of mud after a dam burst at an iron-ore mining operation Thursday, killing an unknown number of people. At least 16 people and possibly many more are believed to be missing in Minas Gerais state in the southeast of the country, where the homes in the town of Bento Rodrigues were destroyed by mud and water that had probably been rendered toxic by the mining operations, the BBC reports. Residents in the area downhill have been told to head for higher ground, reports the AP. The chief executive of mine operator BHP says most of the disaster "has been under the cloak of darkness" and "an awful lot more" will be done at daybreak, per the Guardian.

A young Indian girl sits on a bed in a hospital in this image taken from video in Bahraich northern India Thursday April 6, 2017. Indian police are reviewing reports of missing children from recent years... (Associated Press) A young Indian girl sits on a bed in a hospital in this image taken from video in Bahraich northern India Thursday April 6, 2017. Indian police are reviewing reports of missing children from recent years to try to identify the girl who was found in a forest with a group of monkeys. The girl, believed... (Associated Press) LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Indian police are reviewing reports of missing children to try to identify a girl who was found living in a forest with a group of monkeys. The girl, believed to be 10 to 12 years old, was unable to speak, was wearing no clothes and was emaciated when she discovered in January and taken to a hospital in Bahraich, a town in Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. She behaved like an animal, running on her arms and legs and eating food off the floor with her mouth, said D.K. Singh, chief medical superintendent of the government-run hospital. After treatment, she has begun walking normally and eating with her hands. "She is still not able to speak, but understands whatever you tell her and even smiles," Singh said. Some woodcutters spotted the girl roaming with monkeys, police officer Dinesh Tripathi told The Associated Press on Thursday. They alerted police. "They said the girl was naked and was very comfortable in the company of monkeys. When they tried to rescue the girl, they were chased away by the monkeys," the officer said. She was rescued later by a police officer in the Katarniya Ghat forest range. "When he called the girl, the monkeys attacked him but he was able to rescue the girl. He sped away with her in his police car while the monkeys gave chase," Tripathi said. He said police are trying to determine how the girl got into the forest and who her parents are. She will be sent to a home for juveniles until she is identified, Singh said. ||||| Image caption The condition of the little girl, who reportedly struggles to communicate, is said to be improving Police in northern India are searching lists of missing children to try to identify a girl believed to have been living with monkeys. The little girl, aged between eight and 10, was found a few weeks ago in a forest in Uttar Pradesh. Doctors said she could not communicate and displayed "monkey-like" traits. A senior police official told BBC Hindi she had been playing with a pack of monkeys and imitating their behaviour when police went to rescue her. The little girl was spotted by villagers in the Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary, on the Indian border with Nepal. The police official, Suresh Yadav, said the monkeys attacked his squad when they arrived to take her away. Doctors said she was malnourished when she was brought in, with long hair and nails, and wounds on her body. She was also unable to communicate but would screech and initially walked on all fours. Her condition is said to be much better now, however, and in the long term she is expected to be handed over to child welfare agencies and other medical specialists to slowly reintroduce her to the world. The hospital's chief medical officer, DK Singh, told BBC Hindi that although she was still in hospital, she would be transferred to the Lucknow Medical College once she had been given a clean bill of health so that she could get better medical care. Local District Magistrate Ajaydeep Singh has also visited the girl in hospital and has named her "Forest Durga", a reference to a Hindu warrior goddess. Many in India are comparing the little girl to Mowgli, the character from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book who was raised by wolves. It is not clear, however, how long the little girl has been living in the forest. ||||| Lucknow: A ten-year-old girl, now known as the ‘Mowgli girl’, has been brought to a hospital in Bahraich district after she was found living in the Katraniaghat forest area in the company of monkeys. The girl, who has apparently been brought up by monkeys, does not speak or behave like humans. The girl was first spotted two months ago by some villagers who had gone to collect firewood in the forest. The girl, without any clothes, was seen scampering around with a group of monkeys. When a villager tried to get close to the girl, the monkeys surrounded him and forced him to beat a retreat. The villager returned and informed the local people but each time the locals went to rescue the girl, who was apparently injured, the monkeys would attack them. Gradually the number of monkeys guarding the girl also increased. A police team also ventured into the jungle but could not find the girl. Later, a team of UP 100 service was passing through the forest area when they spotted the girl. The cops managed to pick up the girl and put her into the car and brought her to the primary health centre. The girl was reportedly semi-conscious and she was then shifted to the district hospital. “We are not allowing visitors because the girl reacts violently if she sees someone. She growls like a monkey and tries to claw them. She has become familiar with a doctor and some nurses. She refuses to eat in a plate and spreads the food on the bed or the floor before she eats it,” said Dr D.K. Singh, CMS in the district hospital. The girl, who had long tangled hair and long unkempt nails when she was rescued, is gradually improving. Her hair has been washed and cut and her nails have been clipped. The wounds on her body are healing and her behavior is also slowly changing. She now walks on two feet, but eats directly from her mouth and cannot speak. Dr Singh said that it is not known how long the girl has been living in the jungle and the police are trying to see if she is in the missing persons’ list. The local people feel that she may have been abandoned by her parents because she is a girl child. “Her behavior shows that she has spent several years in the jungle in the care of monkeys,” he added. Officials in Lucknow who were unaware of the ‘Mowgli girl’ till now, are now preparing to put her in a special medical facility when she can be treated psychologically be a team of medical experts. However, this will take some time before she is removed from the hospital in Bahraich.

– Unbelievable as it may sound, authorities in northern India say they've rescued a young girl who appears to have been living with monkeys. Villagers first spotted the naked child looking "very comfortable in the company of monkeys" in January in the Katarniya Ghat forest range, a police officer tells the AP. They tried to approach but the monkeys chased them away, reports the Deccan Chronicle. Police were later able to seize the girl, though monkeys also chased an officer as he "sped away with her in his police car," the officer says. The "highly aggressive" girl was then taken to a hospital in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, where doctors say she initially walked on all fours, ate off the floor with her mouth, and ran from humans, per the Telegraph. She's described as being wound-covered, with long hair and nails. She is now walking upright, eating with her hands, and responding to humans, authorities say. She doesn't appear to speak any language (the Telegraph says she makes only "unintelligible muttering[s]"), but is warming up to her doctors and nurses—a possible sign that she retains memories of living with humans, a doctor says. A psychological assessment also indicates she likely had human contact before her time with monkeys, according to doctors. Though media outlets are calling the child Mowgli in a nod to Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, doctors have given her the name of Durga, after the Hindu warrior goddess. Doctors believe she is 8 to 12 years old. Officials say they're reviewing missing child cases in the hope of identifying the girl, per the BBC. (Kipling admitted something about his book in this 1895 letter.)

Advertisement Continue reading the main story In a new sign of tumult within Anthony D. Weiner’s embattled political operation, his campaign manager has quit, leaving his already skeletal team without a day-to-day leader. According to two people told of the decision, the campaign manager, Danny Kedem, no longer wished to oversee Mr. Weiner’s bid for New York mayor after a week of bruising revelations about the candidate’s latest online conduct. The two people, who have close ties to the campaign, did not want to be identified because they were disclosing confidential conversations. Mr. Kedem, 31, informed Mr. Weiner of his decision in the last 24 hours, the two people said. Mr. Weiner confirmed the news on Sunday morning outside of a Brooklyn church where he was campaigning. “Danny has left the campaign. He did a remarkable job,” Mr. Weiner said. The move suggests that even as Mr. Weiner vows to press ahead with his candidacy, there are mounting doubts about its political viability within his own campaign. Mr. Weiner’s staff was jolted by his admission last week that his habit of sending raunchy online photographs and messages to women had persisted long after he resigned from Congress in 2011. The disclosures clashed with Mr. Weiner’s claims that he had been rehabilitated after undergoing therapy and his suggestion that such behavior had long ago stopped. Mr. Kedem had helped guide Mr. Weiner’s candidacy, originally considered a long shot, to the top of the polls in the mayoral field before last week. Not long ago, Mr. Kedem made clear he had no qualms about his new job. He sent an e-mail to dozens of his associates in late June seeking volunteers and financial contributions for Mr. Weiner’s mayoral bid. “I am really proud to work for Anthony,” he wrote. His departure is a hit to a campaign that was short of experienced staff members, because of Mr. Weiner’s scandal and his reputation as a difficult boss. On Sunday, Mr. Weiner insisted that “we have an excellent staff,” and that volunteers were still flocking to his campaign. Before working for Mr. Weiner, Mr. Kedem had managed the re-election of John DeStefano Jr. to a 10th term as mayor of New Haven in 2011, according to his online profile, and worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. Video ||||| Anthony Weiner needs to "go away" and will not be the next mayor of New York City, Democratic strategist David Axelrod said Sunday. Voters don't need to hear any more from Weiner over his explicit, online relationships with women, said President Barack Obama's longtime political counselor. "At this point it's absurd. He is not going to be the next mayor of New York. He is wasting time and space," Axelrod said on NBC's "Meet the Press." The former Democratic congressman from New York, now running for New York City mayor, was plunged back in scandal last week over revelations that he continued sending inappropriate messages online after leaving Congress. Axelrod said enough is enough. "It's time for him to go away and let New York have its mayor's race," Axelrod said. Read more about: David Axelrod, Anthony Weiner, Meet The Press, New York City ||||| Rep. Peter King said Sunday Anthony Weiner should step out of the New York City mayoral race, saying he has a “pathological problem.” “He should do himself and everybody a favor and step to the sidelines. He is not psychologically qualified to be mayor of the city of New York,” the Republican congressman from New York said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” King said the fact Weiner is still pulling top poll numbers is a “terrible aberration” and that there was never a way Weiner could have won the race even before the recent revelations. “I just think it was sort of a perverse celebrity factor for a while to have his numbers up there," King said. "I just can't see any way, even if this latest scandal would not have come out, that Anthony Weiner could have won." Read more about: Anthony Weiner, Peter King

– Huma Abedin is thus far still standing behind her man, but the guy running Anthony Weiner's campaign for New York City mayor is not. Weiner's 31-year-old campaign manager, Danny Kedem, has quit, reports the New York Times, in the latest tire to blow out for an increasingly battered and bare-bones campaign. Weiner confirmed Kedem's departure this morning, noting, “Danny has left the campaign. He did a remarkable job." Kedem put his long-shot candidate atop the polls—before the latest round of sexting emerged. It's not the only blow for Weiner today, as top politicians raced to the Sunday shows to throw Weiner under the bus. A sampling: David Axelrod, as per Politico: "At this point it's absurd. He is not going to be the next mayor of New York. He is wasting time and space. It's time for him to go away and let New York have its mayor's race." Peter King: "He should do himself and everybody a favor and step to the sidelines. He is not psychologically qualified to be mayor of the city of New York. I just can't see any way, even if this latest scandal would not have come out, that Anthony Weiner could have won." Mayoral rival Christine Quinn: "When you see scandal after scandal about this, what it does is create even more distrust and maybe even disgust in government. We really need to move beyond that." And further: "Has he disqualified himself? Yes. He disqualified himself, but not just because of these scandals. He didn't have the qualifications when he was in Congress. He was in Congress for 12 years, he passed one bill." Former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers: The Clintons "would like to see this go away. It's very painful for the Clintons. They are genuinely very close to Huma." And it's all over but the singing anyway: “He may still be in the race, but his campaign is over. Voters are willing to forgive people as long as the person is genuinely sorry and tries to change. Anthony Weiner's played voters for fools.”

The New Year has a lot brought with it lots of celebration, lots of fiscal cliff drama and probably, lots of determined resolutions. 2013 also comes with a slew of strange new laws, and some of them might crush a few dreams. Always wanted to a pop a wheelie on your motorcycle in Illinois? Now, sadly, you’re out of luck. You also better think twice before you decide steal some cooking oil or use a plastic water bottle. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Study up and check out of 8 of the strangest new laws of 2013, below. You are seeing this message because you have javascript disabled. To use our slideshows you need to enable javascript. There's no cross domain hackery or tracking voodoo, it's just some sweet jQuery animations. Please, think of the animations. In the meantime, enjoy the html version below. I guess. If that's your thing. Visiting An Illinois Strip Club? You're Doing A Good Deed! Strip clubs in Illinois must now charge $3 at the door and even better, all the proceeds must go to charity. It's called a “skin” tax and all the proceeds will go to rape crisis centers. Kentucky Says Wild Pigs Can't Be Released Into...The Wild Apparently, Kentucky wants to make wild pigs the next "man's best friend." Domesticated pigs? Sure! Starting today, it's illegal to send the wild little guys, well, back to the wild! Don't Even Think Of Stealing That Unused Cooking Oil In NC! In North Carolina, stealing unused cooking oil worth more than $1000 is now a felony. I guess they really had to crack down on all that culinary theft. CA: No Driver? No problem! In California, it's now legal for "driverless" cars to go on the road. Who does this law effect, you ask? I'm not really sure but don't get too excited: a human must always be in the passenger seat of all computer-driven cars. Five Cats In Kansas? One Too Many! In Wellington, Kansas, a new law limits each household to no more than four cats. Want to adopt more homeless kitties? Too bad! Plastic Bottle? In MA, You're In Trouble With The Law Concord, Massachusetts took a big environmental leap forward and outlawed plastic bottles today. Watch out with your Poland Spring at the gym: they're now considered contraband. Sad Bikers In Illinois Did you ever dream of moving to Illinois, buying a motorcyle and popping a wheelie? (Because, really, who doesn't?) Well, it's a little too late for your dream because Illinois outlawed motorcycle wheelies, starting today. No More Shark Fin Soup In Illinois Although Illinois doesn't appear to be close to any major shark fishing outlets, there's good news for the Hammerheads and Great Whites: the state has banned the sale and trade of shark fins. — >> Follow Anjali Sareen (@AnjaliSareen) On Twitter Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| While much attention has been paid to the ‘fiscal cliff’ and the federal legislation behind it, thousands of new state laws took effect more quietly at the start of 2013. As global ocean is confirmed for Saturn moon, scientists hope for new mission The Los Angeles Unified School District All-City Honor Band marches in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day 2013. Starting Tuesday, California hunters better not get caught using their dog to chase a bear or bobcat. Kentuckians should think twice about releasing a feral hog, and New Yorkers can get slapped with a $1,000 fine for selling even electronic cigarettes to minors. While much attention has been paid to the federal legislation poised to kick in Jan. 1 – the automatic spending cuts and tax hikes collectively known as the “fiscal cliff” – thousands of new state laws took effect more quietly at the start of 2013. “Each legislative session, lawmakers pass laws that range from extremely important to ridiculous,” says Robert Stern, former president of the Center for Governmental Studies in California, in an e-mail. Overall, he notes, fewer laws are being enacted these days, primarily because tea party legislators campaigned on a platform of getting government out of the lives of ordinary people. In 2009, 40,697 state laws were passed, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But in 2012, under 30,000 went through. “Many bills are passed to clean up past mistakes or to eliminate archaic laws passed decades ago,” Mr. Stern writes. Indeed, Kentucky just got around to deleting phrases from its constitution that spell out guidelines on pensions for Confederate soldiers. In many other cases, state legislation can offer a window into what’s on the public’s mind. Here are some new laws that analysts say came out of recent, wide concerns: • Prompted by the case of former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys, California coaches and administrators in K-12 schools and higher-education employees who have regular contact with children are now mandated to report suspected child abuse. • “Caylee’s Laws” take effect in both California and Illinois. The legislation – named after the 2-year-old daughter of Florida’s Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of the girl’s murder despite waiting a month before reporting her disappearance – imposes strong penalties for a parent or guardian who fails to report the disappearance or death of a child within 24 hours. • Gay marriage becomes legal in Maryland, following the same move this past Saturday in Maine. Same-sex couples from other states are also now recognized in Maine. • New Hampshire enacts a ban on so-called “partial-birth abortions,” and Montana now requires parental notification for any minor who wants to have an abortion. • California becomes the first state to write into law expanded official authority to investigate mortgage fraud. Also, large lenders are now prohibited from foreclosing while evaluating a homeowner request for loan modifications. "Homeowners in all 50 states deserve these same strong protections and more," said Norma Garcia, Consumers Union financial services manager, in a statement. • Pennsylvania now requires that contractors on public-works projects use the E-Verify system to confirm employees’ citizenship. E-Verify measures take effect in several other states as well. Also, Montana moves to withhold state services from illegal immigrants. • After civil liberties groups and others criticized the practice of employers asking job applicants for passwords to their Facebook and Twitter accounts, that is now illegal in Illinois. Some say that such a list is evidence that state governments are indeed addressing public concerns, despite polls showing that voters have extremely low opinions of their legislatures. “For anyone who says our representatives do nothing, just have them take a look at all of the new state laws going into effect on Jan.1. Many of our state lawmakers do a whole lot of something,” says Jessica Levinson, former director of political reform for the Center for Governmental Studies, in an e-mail. But one question is “whether legislation is the proper avenue through which to fix or solve that problem,” adds Ms. Levinson, who is now a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

– While everyone fretted about the fiscal cliff, thousands of new state laws quietly took effect at midnight. The Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, and Mediaite run down a few notable ones, from the weird (feral hogs?) to the more conventional: Caylee's Law: Legislation named after Caylee Anthony took effect in California and Illinois. Parents now face big penalties if they don't report the disappearance or death of a child within one day. Abortion: Partial-birth abortions are now banned in New Hampshire. In Montana, minors wanting an abortion must notify their parents. Illegal immigration: Employers in some states are now required to use the E-Verify system to confirm citizenship of their employees. Facebook: Employers can no longer ask job applicants for Facebook or Twitter passwords. Food safety: In Maryland, it's now illegal to use chicken feed that includes arsenic. Though it's the first state to pass such a ban, the practice is already illegal in Canada and the EU. Driverless cars: Are now legal on California roads, though a human must always be in the passenger seat. Weirder laws: No releasing feral hogs in Kentucky, and no using a dog to chase a bear or a bobcat in California. Strip clubs in Illinois must now charge $3 at the door and donate it to rape crisis centers. Also in Illinois, motorcycle wheelies are now banned. Also today, same-sex marriage became legal in Maryland.

Gwyneth Paltrow may want to prepare herself for the worst. Despite her reported efforts to prevent Vanity Fair from doing an article about her, the influential pop culture magazine is moving forward with what many expect to be an epic takedown piece on the Oscar-winning actress. "We started a story on her," editor-in-chief Graydon Carter told the Times of London on Sunday, Oct. 13. (Quotes via Radar Online.) "We have a very good writer and it'll run." PHOTOS: Gwyneth Paltrow's most outrageous quotes Carter's confirmation comes just a little over a month after the New York Times issued a report claiming that the 40-year-old Iron Man 3 star was feuding with the 100-year-old publication. The report alleged that the actress had written an email to her celebrity friends in which she asked that they not speak to the magazine if contacted about her. PHOTOS: Gwyneth through the years "Vanity Fair is threatening to put me on the cover of their magazine," Paltrow reportedly wrote in May of this year, per a witness who saw the email in question. "If you are asked for quotes or comments, please decline. Also, I recommend you all never do this magazine again." The Times speculated at the time that Paltrow and other stars had taken issue with Vanity Fair's criticism of Hollywood; recent articles include a piece about the role of Scientology in Tom Cruise's love life, and a report about the behind-the-scenes problems that plagued Brad Pitt's World War Z. PHOTOS: Gwyneth's celeb BFFs Carter defended his magazine's coverage of those issues, however, and told the Times it was just business. "We wouldn't be doing our job if there wasn't a little bit of tension between Vanity Fair and its subjects," he said. "In any given week, I can expect to hear from a disgruntled subject in Hollywood, Washington, or on Wall Street. That's the nature of the beast." PHOTOS: Celebrity feuds He also told the Times of London that he felt more compelled to run the Paltrow piece after her alleged email went public. "Well, she sort of forced my hand," he explained. "Some famous people believe that they live in a cone of celebrity that protects them," he was quoted as saying. "But it doesn't really exist anymore in L.A. unless they stay in." ||||| Gwyneth Paltrow is shaking in her (probably very expensive) boots. Despite her complaints and a very public email-campaign to her A-list BFFs, Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Graydon Carter has confirmed that his magazine is set to publish a blockbuster takedown piece revealing the true Paltrow once and for all. “We started a story on her,” he told The Times of London in an interview published this weekend. “We have a very good writer and it’ll run.” The GOOP queen had previously emailed friends warning them not to cooperate with the author of the piece, and further, never to work with Vanity Fair again. Apparently, her pleas fell on deaf ears, because BFF Jay Z is the November cover boy, and she’ll grace the mag herself soon enough. In fact, Carter says, Paltrow’s tantrum has made him even more determined to publish the piece. He explained, “Well, she sort of forced my hand.” PHOTOS: Gwyneth Paltrow Kisses Justin Bieber At The Bambi Awards Despite its cushy reputation, Vanity Fair does not grant celebrities pre-publication approval of photos or text, Carter claims, explaining that publicists are “all p***ed off at us, but I can live with that.” And if Paltrow, who recently moved back to L.A. from England, expects any differently, Carter says, she’s got a rude awakening coming to her. “She’ll find Los Angeles very different and very difficult,” he says. “Some famous people believe that they live in a cone of celebrity that protects them … But it doesn’t really exist any more in L.A. unless they stay in.” That has a lot to do with new 24/7 reality TV celebrities like the Kardashians, of whom Carter is no fan. PHOTOS: Gwyneth Paltrow Goes Braless In Chicago “Why are they ‘stars’?” he complains. “They are tabloid oddities who will disappear in ten minutes. I’m just weary of the phenomenon. And it’ll go away on its own.” ||||| First photographed for Vanity Fair’s 1995 Hollywood Issue at age 22, Gwyneth Paltrow has had five V.F. covers and appeared numerous times in the magazine. See our photo survey of the always regally attired GOOP goddess.

– Not besties: Gwyneth Paltrow and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. The latter has announced that his magazine will indeed go ahead with the story it started on Paltrow ... a story that Us Weekly calls an "epic takedown." Carter told the Times of London: "We have a very good writer and it'll run." This follows the news that Paltrow emailed her friends asking them to stay mum. What she is said to have written: "Vanity Fair is threatening to put me on the cover of their magazine. If you are asked for quotes or comments, please decline. Also, I recommend you all never do this magazine again." (Radar points out that one friend was unable to comply: Jay-Z will be on the November cover.) That email, says Carter, "sort of forced my hand." Paltrow hasn't always had such an icy relationship with the mag—she's been on its cover five times. See images here.

After emerging from a lengthy closed-door meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders late Sunday afternoon, Reid (D-Nev.) was asked whether he expects a vote on the deal tonight. “I hope so,” he told reporters. But sources in both parties said all sides were close to signing off on the emerging agreement except House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). While the reason for the hangup was not immediately clear, the framework has the potential to trigger big cuts in the defense budget. Defense cuts are likely to be problematic for many of the veteran Republicans Boehner will need to push a compromise through the House. A Boehner spokesman did not immediately respond to questions. Meanwhile, as expected, the Senate failed to break the 60-vote threshold to end debate on a bill by Reid’s (D-Nev.) bill to raise the debt ceiling by $2.2 trillion in an early afternoon vote on Sunday as the outlines of the deal between Senate leaders and the White House began to take shape. Fifty senators voted to end debate on Reid’s bill and 49 opposed stopping it. The winds began shifting towards a deal shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday night when Reid announced that talks between McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Biden had made significant progress, prompting Reid to delay a vote that had been scheduled for 1 a.m. Sunday on his own debt-limit measure. “Relief” is the way Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) described the mood on Capitol Hill on CNN’s State of the Nation Sunday morning. “Default is far less of a possibility now then it was even a day ago, because the leaders are talking and talking in a constructive way.” But, Schumer added, “There are lots of things that are not filled in.” On the same show, McConnell echoed that “we had a good day yesterday” and the parties “were very close” to crafting a deal framework that he could “soon” recommend that Senate Republicans support. “We’re not going to have default,” McConnell stated. “There are negotiations going on at the White House to avert a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt,” Reid said, after announcing that the vote had been pushed back to 1 p.m. Sunday. “There are many elements to be finalized, and there is still a distance to go before any arrangement can be completed. But I believe we should give everyone as much room as possible to do their work.” He added: “I’m glad to see this move toward cooperation and compromise. I hope it bears fruit.” ||||| Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is in active negotiation with the White House on a debt ceiling deal, and Democrats agreed late Saturday night to postpone a partisan-tinged cloture vote to give time for both sides to find a compromise. “There are many elements to be finalized, and there is still a distance to go before any arrangement can be completed,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “But I believe we should give everyone as much room as possible to do their work.” Text Size - + reset POLITICO 44 “I’m glad to see this move toward cooperation and compromise. I hope it bears fruit.” Just hours before Reid had sparred on the floor with McConnell over the seriousness of his efforts, and Reid’s change of tone — and tactics — suggested that real progress had been made. “We’re getting close,” said one GOP leadership aide, with knowledge of the discussions. “In the category of getting serious, I have spoken to both the president and the vice president within the last hour,” McConnell had told reporters earlier in day in a joint appearance with Speaker John Boehner. “We are now fully engaged, the speaker and I, with the one person in America out of 307 million people who can sign a bill into law. I’m confident and optimistic that we’re going to get an agreement in the very near future and resolve this crisis in the best interests of the American people.” Boehner echoed McConnell’s statement, saying he believed that “we are going to be able to come to some sort of agreement.” But the speaker appears to have had no contact himself with President Barack Obama Saturday, while McConnell spoke to the president and reached out to Biden, after which the two men engaged in at least four back-and-forth phone calls through the day. The biggest two outstanding issues are the Republicans’ insistence on “dollar-for-dollar” deficit reductions –without new tax revenues—to match any increase in the Treasury’s borrowing authority. And second, what enforcement mechanism is best to ensure that a new joint House-Senate committee will be able to come up with an estimated $1.6 trillion in savings by the end of this year. Boehner has said that if the panel fails to meet its target, Obama can’t raise the debt ceiling— a concession that the president refuses to make since it only means more instability six months from now. The White House wants to substitute some alternative trigger that would still be action-forcing but not a threat to the whole economy. Biden is exploring options with McConnell, but even if a compromise is found, the cuts demanded by Boehner now are far larger than what the speaker had been willing to accept from Obama just last week. One trigger option that has gained favor would impose across-the-board cuts on spending with the idea of inflicting enough pain that both parties would have an interest in meeting the joint committee's deficit target. Since Republicans have opposed any such sequester impacting revenues, the compromise now is likely to include deep defense cuts, a second priority for the GOP and therefore something of a lever. Democrats are fearful that their own priorities—more revenues and fewer Medicare savings—will get lost in the process. And Reid didn’t hide his skepticism after returning from a 90 minute meeting with Obama, Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi at the White House. “Boehner won’t even negotiate and McConnell is going backward,” said one aide close to the situation. And Reid bluntly accused McConnell of engaging more for show that real compromise. “The Republican leader says he’s engaged,” Reid said ruefully. “Fortunately, members of his caucus, at least as far as I’m concerned, are more engaged than he is. There are meaningful talks going on with some of his members with my senators.” McConnell shot back, “I actually cut short a conversation with the vice president” to come to the floor. The Democrats bigger worry is Boehner, who shows signs of simply running-out-the-clock, playing hard-to-get with Obama and hoping the White House will give into his demands. ||||| The vote was 246-173. It was a pre-emptive vote in the high-stakes political fight as the Senate still hasn't voted on the measure from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The measure would raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion while cutting spending by $2.2 trillion. The vote could set the stage for negotiations on a compromise just three days before the Treasury says it will be unable to pay all the nation's bills. Debate on the measure was often testy and reflected the growing frustration among lawmakers. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi pleaded for an end to "this theater of the absurd" and said "it's time for us to get real."

– It's Harry Reid's turn to hit legislative turbulence. The House today rejected the Senate leader's plan to raise the debt ceiling in a move seen largely as symbolic, reports AP. The real fight, however, is taking place in the Senate, where GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a letter to Reid signed by 43 Republicans vowing to oppose his plan when it comes up for a vote set for 1am EST Sunday. Those numbers guarantee that Reid would not be able to fend off a filibuster, reports the Washington Post. “It isn’t going to pass,” said McConnell, who demanded that the White House rejoin negotiations. “Let’s get talking to the administration.” The big hope to avoid a default is that Reid and McConnell can somehow forge a bipartisan compromise, but the two were mainly sniping at each other today, notes Politico. “We welcome compromise,” Reid said. “As recently as yesterday, I asked my friend, the Senate minority leader, to help make this Senate compromise more palatable, but we have heard very little from Republicans.”

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met North Korean officials in Pyongyang on Friday, hoping to “fill in” details on how to dismantle the North’s nuclear program and recover the remains of U.S. troops missing from the Korean War. Pompeo met Kim Yong Chol, who played a key role with Pompeo in arranging last month’s summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, according to a pool report by reporters traveling with him. The talks lasted nearly three hours and it was uncertain whether Pompeo would meet Kim Jong Un. He will spend the night in Pyongyang, his first overnight stay in North Korea. “We just wrapped our first meeting of the day,” Pompeo told reporters. “I’m proud of my team’s work.” At the Singapore summit, Kim Jong Un made a broad commitment to “work toward denuclearization”, but fell short of details on how or when he would dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program, which it has pursued in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. “The President told me he believes that Chairman Kim sees a different, brighter future for the people of North Korea. We both hope that’s true,” Pompeo said on Twitter after a phone call with Trump as he headed for North Korea. “Next stop: Pyongyang. I look forward to continuing my meetings with North Korean leaders. There’s much hard work ahead but peace is worth the effort.” Pompeo said he was seeking to “fill in” some details on North Korea’s commitments and maintain the momentum towards implementing the agreement from the summit, according to the pool report. Pompeo would try to agree on at least an initial list of nuclear sites and an inventory that could be checked against the available intelligence, U.S. intelligence officials told Reuters. Also high on the agenda is the issue of the remains of U.S. soldiers missing from the 1950-53 Korean War. Trump said after the Singapore summit that Kim had agreed to send the remains back to the United States. Both issues are considered essential tests of whether Kim is serious about negotiations. North Korean officials have yet to demonstrate that in working-level talks, the intelligence officials said. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a meeting with North Korean Director of the United Front Department Kim Yong Chol at the Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 6, 2018. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS “If they’re serious, then we can get down to the business of defining the terms of final denuclearization,” said one official. But the U.S. ability to verify the accuracy of any North Korean list is limited due to the lack of a “high confidence” accounting of the North’s nuclear arsenal, such as the number of warheads and uranium enrichment facilities, especially if they are not operational, they said. While, in the past, the Pentagon has said North Korean officials have indicated they had the remains of as many as 200 U.S. troops, a U.S. military official familiar with the procedures for handling remains said it was not clear what North Korea might hand over. “BUILDING TRUST” Pompeo will stay in the Paekhwawon, or 100 Flowers Garden, a prestigious guesthouse where former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun stayed during his summit with Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, in 2007. “This is your third visit to our country so I guess you are used to it now,” Kim Yong Chol told Pompeo at the guesthouse, according to the report. “The more you come, more trust we can build between one another.” Some officials in the State and Defense Departments and in U.S. intelligence agencies are worried that Trump has put himself at a disadvantage by overstating the results of the Singapore summit. Ahead of the summit, Pompeo said Trump would reject anything short of “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization”. But following talks on Sunday between U.S. envoy Sung Kimand North Korean counterparts, this “CVID” language appears to have disappeared from the State Department lexicon. It says pressure will remain until North Korea denuclearizes, but in statements this week, it redefined the U.S. goal as “the final, fully verified denuclearization” of the country. Some U.S. officials and experts have said the change in language amounted to a softening in approach. The State Department said its policy remains unchanged. Pompeo’s talks, which resume on Saturday, will be closely watched in the region. He is due to meet officials from allies South Korea and Japan in Tokyo also on Sunday. Slideshow (11 Images) A spokesman for South Korea’s presidential office would only say South Korea and the United States were working to formulate “constructive measures” on North Korea’s denuclearization. ||||| When Mike Pompeo meets Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, he will reportedly attempt to smooth a path towards denuclearisation with a gift that playfully references a low point in relations between the North Korean leader and Donald Trump: a CD of Elton John’s Rocket Man. The US secretary of state will present Kim with the CD along with a letter from Trump, who memorably turned the song’s title into an epithet after the North stepped up its ballistic missile tests last year. Play Video 2:26 Trump: I’ll handle ‘little rocket man’ Kim Jong-un – video Quoting unnamed sources in Washington, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper said the gifts reflected Trump’s belief that Kim would follow through on commitments the leaders agreed at their summit in Singapore last month. Several times last year, Trump referred to the dictator as “little rocket man,” while Kim reciprocated by labelling the president a “mentally deranged dotard”. Trump raised the rocket man reference during their meeting, the newspaper said. Kim said he had never heard the song, it added, prompting the president to ask Pompeo to take the CD with him to Pyongyang on what is his third trip to North Korea since April. Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) Next stop: Pyongyang. I look forward to continuing my meetings with North Korean leaders. There's much hard work ahead but peace is worth the effort. pic.twitter.com/eozwL3Mx28 Pompeo was met on Friday at Pyongyang airport by Kim Yong-chol, a senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, and foreign minister Ri Yong Ho. While still en route, his spokeswoman Heather Nauert said he was “seeking to fill in some details on these [denuclearisation] commitments and continue the momentum towards implementation of what the two leaders promised each other and the world. I expect that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] is ready to do the same.” The CD is not the first bizarre White House offering to Pyongyang. During their summit, the US and North Korean delegations watched a four-minute video, made in the style of a Hollywood trailer, setting out the North’s stark choice: conflict with a powerful enemy or a peaceful and prosperous future as America’s (denuclearised) partner. The film, a copy of which was given to Kim, casts him and Trump as the architects of a new chapter in world history – “two men, two leaders, one destiny”. As concerns grow that North Korea is upgrading its nuclear capability, despite agreeing to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, Pompeo said he expected the North to “fill in some details” outlined in the leaders’ Singapore declaration. Pompeo said: “Since the summit the consultations have continued. On this trip I’m seeking to fill in some details on these commitments and continue the momentum towards implementation of what the two leaders promised each other and the world. I expect that [North Korea] is ready to do the same.” In an earlier tweet Pompeo said Trump believes Kim wants a “different, brighter future” for North Koreans. “I spoke with @POTUS while we were both in the air. The President told me he believes that Chairman Kim sees a different, brighter future for the people of North Korea. We both hope that’s true,” he said. ||||| Donald Trump applauds while delivering a State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. Donald Trump made his way to Great Falls, Montana, on Thursday (July 5), primarily to slam Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and accuse him of failing to live up to his promises in Washington. However, among the digs at Tester, Trump made a particularly interesting comment, originally noted by Deadline. He compared his oral skills to the talent of the great Elton John. "I’ve broken more Elton John [attendance] records, and I don’t have a musical instrument," he boasted. "I don’t have a guitar, or an organ. This is my only musical instrument–the mouth–and hopefully the brain is attached to the mouth. The brain is so much more important.” The President and the music icon have had a bit of history during the 2016 campaign. Trump used "Rocket Man" during a lot of his rallies, and often refers to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un as the song title. “I don’t really want my music to be involved in anything to do with an American election campaign. I’m British,” John told The Guardian at the time. “I’ve met Donald Trump, he was very nice to me, it’s nothing personal, his political views are his own, mine are very different, I’m not a Republican in a million years.” ||||| HONG KONG — When President Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea and mocked its leader, Kim Jong-un, as “Rocket Man” in a speech on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly, the rhetorical retaliation from Pyongyang was inevitable. That Mr. Kim would call Mr. Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” on Friday was something more of a surprise. The word “dotard” in particular sent people to the dictionary to look up the arcane put-down. ||||| U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left for North Korea on Thursday for denuclearization talks and brought two gifts for leader Kim Jong-un. One is a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump and the other an Elton John CD with his song "Rocket Man." Sources in Washington said the gifts reflect Trump's expectations that Kim will follow through on the pledges in an agreement the two signed at their summit. One diplomatic source in Washington said, "The 'Rocket Man' CD was the subject of discussion during Trump's lunch with Kim. Kim mentioned that Trump referred to him as 'rocket man' when tensions ran high last year" after a series of nuclear tests and missile launches by the North. "Trump then asked Kim if he knew the song and Kim said no." Trump remembered the conversation and told Pompeo to take a CD with the song for Kim. He reportedly wrote a message on it and signed it. Pompeo arrives in Pyongyang on Friday for a two-day visit. This is his third trip to North Korea. He is accompanied by Sung Kim, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines and seasoned nuclear negotiator, Allison Hooker, a National Security Council adviser, Randall Schriver, an assistant secretary of defense for Asia Pacific security affairs, and Andrew Kim, the head of the CIA's Korea Mission Center. Six reporters are also on the plane. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo boards a plane at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Thursday. /AP-Yonhap Trump softened his approach to denuclearization since the summit. Reuters on Wednesday said Trump appears to have "shelved an 'all or nothing' approach to North Korean denuclearization. The U.S. State Department furtively shifted its insistence on a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID) to a finally, fully-verified denuclearization (FFVD) after the North bristled against the former approach. Pompeo is expected to discuss the return of the remains of U.S. soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. Although the North agreed to return their remains, details need to be ironed out, and North Korea has not yet taken delivery of some 100 coffins that are waiting at the border. The two sides will also discuss the timing of the North's dismantlement of the Tongchang-ri missile engine test site and whether to allow U.S. monitors to observe the process. From left, Andrew Kim, Sung Kim, Allison Hooker and Randall Schriver But the key is whether Pompeo can get Kim to act on his vague denuclearization pledge, agreeing to dismantle a specified amount of nuclear warheads by a given date. U.S. officials remain skeptical whether Pompeo's visit will produce palpable results. North Korea experts in Washington are unconvinced of the North's sincerity, and U.S. intelligence reports leaked last week suggest that North Korea is hiding nuclear facilities and suggest it has no real intention of giving up its nuclear arsenal. Read this article in Korean ||||| Photo: Getty President Trump gave a speech at the United Nations in September of 2017 where he famously called Kim Jong Un, “rocket man.” Now, in one of the most bizarre stories we’ve heard this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will deliver a CD of Elton John’s song “Rocket Man” to the North Korean dictator today. Our world is truly beyond parody. When President Trump and Kim met during their historic photo-op on June 12th, Trump reportedly asked Kim if he’d ever heard Elton John’s 1972 hit song. According to the South Korean media outlet Chosun Ilbo, the 34-year-old Kim replied that he’s never heard “Rocket Man.” So now Trump is sending a signed copy of the CD to Kim. Not signed by Elton John, mind you. The CD is reportedly signed by Donald Trump. Advertisement Trump repeatedly called Kim both “rocket man” and “little rocket man” on Twitter and at his “campaign-style” neo-fascist rallies over the past year. Mike Pompeo arrived in North Korea today for a two-day planning visit with officials from North Korea. The meeting is the third for Pompeo as they begin to lay the groundwork for another meeting between Trump and Kim. But skeptics wonder if this next meeting will actually accomplish anything. So far, the United States is the only side that has given any concessions by agreeing to cease military drills in the region. North Korea has supposedly agreed to work towards denuclearization, something the country has agreed to many times before but never actually done. Experts have been cautiously optimistic that the meetings have staved off a Trump-created crisis, as he’s repeatedly threatened war against North Korea. But they also worry that Trump is setting expectations for disarmament that won’t be met. Advertisement Photo: AP “On this trip, I’m seeking to fill in some details on those commitments and continue the momentum toward implementation of what the two leaders promised each other and the world,” Secretary Pompeo said in a written statement from the State Department. “I expect that (North Korea) is ready to do the same.” For whatever it’s worth, Rocket Man is a damn good song. But Elton John hasn’t given Trump any kind of endorsement. Advertisement Trump’s obsession with the song “Rocket Man” predates his presidency. Trump used the song repeatedly during his 2016 campaign at numerous rallies. But Elton John insists he never gave permission for use of the song. “I don’t really want my music to be involved in anything to do with an American election campaign. I’m British,” Elton John said at the time. “I’ve met Donald Trump, he was very nice to me, it’s nothing personal, his political views are his own, mine are very different, I’m not a Republican in a million years.” [Chosun Ilbo] Update, July 7, 2018, 11:10am: The U.S. State Department has come out denying that this story is true. Advertisement From the Washington Post: Speaking as Pompeo arrived in Tokyo, Nauert told reporters that the only thing Pompeo had left in Pyongyang was a letter to the North Korean leader from President Trump. “He didn’t leave anything behind other than a letter,” Nauert said. But when Pompeo was asked about the CD directly he didn’t confirm or deny the story: Pompeo was asked about the CD earlier by a journalist accompanying him to North Korea; the secretary of state laughed but did not confirm or deny the report. Advertisement So, I guess, make of that what you will. Update, July 10, 2018: President Trump has confirmed the existence of the CD but said that Pompeo didn’t deliver it yet. “They didn’t give it. I have it for him. They didn’t give it. But it will be given at a different period,” Trump told pool reporters before departing for Europe this morning. “I actually do have a little gift for him, but you’ll find out what that gift is when I give it.” ||||| The Chinese Envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man. Hard to believe his people, and the military, put up with living in such horrible conditions. Russia and China condemned the launch.

– President Trump is about to dredge up what the Guardian says was a "low point" in his relationship with Kim Jong Un, but this time around as a wry attempt to suggest "no harm, no foul" to the North Korean leader. At least, that's what appears to be the reason behind a gift Trump is reportedly giving Kim, to be delivered via Secretary of State Mike Pompeo while he's in North Korea this week: a CD with Elton John's song "Rocket Man," per the Chosun Ilbo's sources. Late last year, Trump often referred to Kim—and not in a complimentary way—as "Rocket Man" or "Little Rocket Man" in tweets and speeches, leading Kim to fire back that Trump was a "mentally deranged US dotard." Apparently the "Rocket Man" epithet came up when the two leaders met at last month's summit in Singapore, and Trump discovered that Kim had never heard the Elton John song. And so the CD (reportedly signed by Trump) ended up in Pompeo's luggage, along with a letter to Kim. Gizmodo, which calls "Rocket Man" a "damn good song," notes Trump seems fixated on the 1972 hit, which became a staple of sorts at his rallies while he was campaigning for the presidency. On Thursday, Trump once again referenced the British superstar, per Billboard, noting at a rally in Montana that "I've broken more Elton John [attendance] records, and I don't have a musical instrument. … This is my only musical instrument—the mouth—and hopefully the brain is attached to the mouth. The brain is so much more important."

Sleep-deprived New Yorkers make switch to beef jerky to get caffeine fix Rosier/News Gabriel Colinesco gives Perky Jerky smile of approval. Put down that espresso. And forget about chugging another Red Bull. Sleep-deprived New Yorkers have a new way to get their caffeine fix: beef jerky. Tribeca inventor Matt Keiser, 38, came up with what he thinks is the world's first caffeinated beef jerky after spilling a can of Red Bull on the meaty snack while skiing in Utah four years ago. Perky Jerky hit the Internet in August and will be sold in Sports Authority shops beginning next week. "This is a great combination," said Keiser, who founded the company with his ski partner, Brian Levin, 37. "It is like vodka and orange juice, or peanut butter and chocolate," Keiser said. The odd treat sells for $2.99 for a 1 oz. bag and $4.99 for a 2 oz. bag. Each ounce contains 60 mg of caffeine - the same as slurping down a small cup of coffee or about one can of Red Bull. The Daily News took the jerky to the streets, asking caffeine freaks to try the peppy - and peppery - snack. Brave barista Keyon Revels, 24, walked away from working a Wall Street espresso machine to chomp on some Perky Jerky. "Ewww," Revels yelped. "It is disgusting. I like beef jerky. I like caffeine. But it is not a good combination." Engineer and gym rat Sal Bouseliman, 41, said the jerky gave him an extra jolt while lifting weights at New York Sports Club. "I didn't crash after the workout like I do with Red Bull," he said. simonew@nydailynews.com ||||| Ready to step up your game? Perky Jerky is the fuel to take you to the next level. This ultra-premium jerky powers professional adults to keep them focused and alert all day long. As an all natural, high-protein, low-fat snack, Perky Jerky is perfect for active lifestyles. It's also the best tasting jerky on the planet: Perky Jerky is created from premium strips of tender beef, given a teriyaki-pepper flavoring, and finished with a hint of Guarana for a unique boost you won't find in any other snack.

– Next time you’re tired and hungry, don’t waste time pounding a Red Bull and a snack—get both fixes with some Perky Jerky. Available on the Internet and coming next week to Sports Authority outlets in New York, each ounce packs as much caffeine as one cup of coffee or a can of Red Bull. “This is a great combination,” a company founder tells the Daily News, “like vodka and orange juice, or peanut butter and chocolate.” Matt Keiser says the idea was born on a Utah ski slope 4 years ago, when he slopped Red Bull on some jerky. It got mixed person-on-the-street reviews, however. “It is disgusting,” one New Yorker says. “I like beef jerky. I like caffeine. But it is not a good combination.” But, says another, “I didn’t crash after the workout like I do with Red Bull.”

Please enable Javascript to watch this video MIDDLESEX COUNTY, Va. -- Middlesex Sheriff's Major Michael Sampson said it was too soon to say whether or not missing mother TerriLynn St. John was abducted from her Mill Wharf Road home. This, as the search for the 23-year-old Middlesex County mother of two extended into its second day. "This is a missing person, under suspicious circumstances," Major Sampson said during a Wednesday afternoon update. Investigators have interviewed four persons of interest about St. John's disappearance. "A person of interest could be acquaintances, whether they be personal acquaintances -- friends, family," Major Sampson said. "Miss St. John had a boyfriend at the time. He is obviously a person of interest." Those persons of interest have been cooperative and submitted DNA samples to investigators, Sampson said. That evidence was sent to the crime lab in Richmond where it is being tested. A K9 unit and air surveillance joined the search for St. John after she was reported missing Tuesday morning. When family members were notified St. John never showed up for work, they went to her home and discovered her children -- ages three and one -- unharmed, but home alone. Family members said they believed St. John struggled with someone in her front yard, near her car, around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. "They looked through the woods and you could definitely tell there has been a struggle beside my daughter's car," her father Terry St. John said. "Jewelry was all around, like it had been broken off, her cell phone was found in the bushes." Investigators hope someone was up early Tuesday morning, noticed something unusual, and will call in a tip. "We're hoping someone can come up and say something that they did not think about at the time," Sampson said. "This is a tight community. Our community works together." He also asked those in the community to stop trying to solve the missing person's case on Facebook. "Social media, for us, is a little bit of a double edged sword," he said. "We get a lot of information there that we can follow up on, but people need to be mindful of what they put on there because when they put up something, we have to investigate." That, he said, sometimes takes investigators away from the primary investigation. "Before you put it on social media, please give us a call," he said. TerriLynn is described as a white female, 5'6" tall, 130 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue Outer Banks hoodie. Anyone with information was asked to call the Middlesex Sheriff's Office at 804-758-5600. Witnesses can send news tips here. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video MIDDLESEX COUNTY, Va. -- Investigators have identified persons of interest in the disappearance of a Middlesex County mother from her front yard, according to Crime Insider sources. Those sources confirm those persons are being questioned. Early Tuesday morning, at a corner house on Mill Wharf Road, family members believe someone was watching TerriLynn St. John, 23, prepare her car to take her kids to daycare. The mom was last heard from around 7:30 a.m., when she went to her car in her front yard. That’s when family members believe there was a struggle. "They looked through the woods and you could definitely tell there has been a struggle beside my daughter's car," her father Terry St. John said. "Jewelry was all around, like it had been broken off, her cell phone was found in the bushes." Even more troubling, St. John’s two children were seemingly abandoned. "My granddaughter is three and my grandson is one,” said Terry. The children were found by their grandparents, alone in the house. Family members said there was no way TerriLynn would leave her kids alone. "We’re definitely treating it as suspicious," said Maj. Michael Sampson. From the start, Middlesex County investigators said they knew the mystery of the missing woman was serious. "We've contacted family and friends. We've done searches throughout the area by air and on foot, and we've called neighboring jurisdictions out to assist with K9s," said Sampson. "We know it is all over social media right now and if anybody has any information about this to please call the sheriff's office," said Sampson. "I know I've got to keep myself together and do my best, so they can find TerriLynn," said her father. TerriLynn is described as a white female, 5’6’’ tall, 130 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She has multiple tattoos including R.J.M. on her right wrist, a princess crown on her left wrist, and a cross on her ring finger. TerriLynn was last seen wearing a blue Outer Banks hoodie as seen in the photo below. Family members believe she was wearing the same hoodie when she disappeared Tuesday morning. The search for TerriLynn will resume Wednesday morning. Crime Insider sources say Virginia State Police are on stand-by if Middlesex deputies need more manpower. If you have any information about the whereabouts of TerriLynn St. John, contact the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office. Please share and spread the word! 37.604011 -76.525701

– A Virginia community is imploring anyone with information about the disappearance of a young mom to come forward after she vanished while getting ready to go to work Tuesday. ABC7 reports that 23-year-old TerriLynn St. John never showed up to her job that day, and when her father was notified, he went to her home in Wake and found a disturbing sight: the front door open, St. John's 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son alone inside the house, and no sign of St. John, per Maj. Michael Sampson of the Middlesex County Sheriff's Office. "You could definitely tell there [had] been a struggle beside my daughter's car," Terry St. John tells WTVR. "Jewelry was all around, like it had been broken off, her cellphone was found in the bushes." Her car was still in the driveway. The younger St. John, last heard from around 7:30 that morning, was going to drop her kids off at day care before heading to work, Sampson says, per ABC7. Although he notes it's too soon to say if St. John was abducted, Sampson says at least four persons of interest have been questioned. "This is a missing person, under suspicious circumstances," he said Wednesday, per WTVR. St. John is described as 5-foot-6 and 130 pounds, with blond hair, blue eyes, and several tattoos, including "RJM" on her right wrist. She's believed to have last been wearing a blue Outer Banks hoodie. Wesley Moody, IDed by WRIC as the father of St. John's children, has his own theory on her disappearance. "There's no way it was just one person," he says. Meanwhile, her dad clings to hope. "Hold on, girl, we're going to find you," he says, per the Rappahannock Record. (Read about the mysterious disappearance of a CDC doctor.)

The change comes as card fraud has more than doubled in the U.S. over the last 15 years while falling in much of the rest of the world where chip-enabled cards have been in place for much of that time. ||||| Advertisement Recently received a new credit card that has a microchip on its front? Wondering about the change? Credit cards with security chips are a part of the new card processing system being adopted by the U.S., whereby the card used by a consumer will have a special microchip that will need to be inserted in a reader rather than swiped at a checkout terminal to close a transaction. The new credit cards look like any old credit card except that they have a tiny metallic chip on the front. The chip-embedded cards deploy EMV microchips, which is short for Europay, MasterCard and Visa. This system is already in use in several parts of Europe. The microchip basically contains a user's payment information, which so far was contained on the magnetic strip. The microchip also gives a novel code which is different for every purchase. The transition to chip-enabled credit cards will make life more difficult for criminals as they are more secure than magnetic strip-only cards. How? Because the microprocessor in the microchips - which is like a mini computer - adds an additional layer of security for each transaction. According to Visa's Stephanie Erickson, Head of Authentication Product Integration, while criminals were able to make counterfeit physical copies of magnetic strip-based cards, the chip-based cards will make the process more difficult. Since the chips contain data relating to a specific purchase, their reproduction is tough. "They can't create a counterfeit card which is two-thirds of the fraud we see in the system," says Erickson. Moreover, Erickson opines that countries which shifted to this technology within two years of the transition, saw the counterfeit reduce by 60 to 70 percent. Some may argue that the unique transaction code generated by the chip every single time the credit card is used may lead to a compromise. However, experts alleviate the fear by assuring that even if the code was gotten hold of by a thief it would be worthless. One, however, would still be required to sign even when deploying a chip-based card. While the new system promises more safety, a downside of the new microchip-based credit cards is that they take longer to process when compared to the older system. If an old swipe transaction took three to five seconds, then this "dip" method takes between five to ten seconds. The increased time for transaction would impact the lines at the checkout and could be a problem especially during high-traffic periods such as Black Friday. On Oct. 1, merchants - not card issuers - will be responsible for fraudulent transactions if they don't upgrade their payment terminals. © 2016 Tech Times, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. ||||| On Thursday, merchants who cannot process chip-enabled cards could become liable for fraudulent transactions at their stores. MasterCard and Visa set the deadline for the new rules, which are part of their agreements with the retailers and banks that use their networks. American Express will shift liability on Oct. 16. Consumers, however, will not be caught in the middle. Federal law requires banks to reimburse consumers for different types of fraud. The only difference is that, come Thursday, banks could go after retailers that have not properly updated their equipment. Not everyone will have chip-enabled cards by the deadline. While most customers at the big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America will receive their cards by the end of the year, some will not get new cards until 2016. Some issuers will also wait until customers’ existing cards are close to expiring. Credit and debit cards without chips will continue to work until they expire, or until consumers activate their new cards. And they will still work at payment terminals that have been updated to accommodate chips. But new machines will prompt users who swipe a chip card to dip it instead. “You should always use the chip device, not the swipe device,” said Ed Mierzwinski, the consumer program director of U.S. PIRG, the federation of state public interest groups.

– Credit card purchases are about to get a little slower and a lot more secure. Consumers have been receiving new cards with fraud-prevention chips and on Thursday, a lot more retailers will be asking customers to put their card in a reader instead of swiping it, reports the Los Angeles Times. Oct. 1 is the day that the credit card industry will start shifting liability for fraudulent transactions to issuers and merchants that haven't adopted the new technology, which is already used in much of the rest of the world and is credited with dramatically reducing fraud by making it harder to duplicate cards. Cards without chips will continue to work until they expire, though experts tell the New York Times that consumers who have the choice should always opt to dip a card in a reader instead of swiping it. The chips in the new cards use a system known as EMV, for creators Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. They contain buyer information and add an extra level of security by creating a new code for every purchase, Tech Times explains. In Europe, consumers need to enter a PIN, but US retailers will only require signatures. Around 70% of cards will have chips by the end of this year, according to the LA Times, though the full switch is expected to take years. Retailers worry that the extra few seconds per purchase will slow down businesses at peak times—and that more fraud will now take place online. "It's like closing the front door but leaving the back door open," a National Retail Federation exec tells the New York Times. "The thieves will figure out that the back door is unlocked."

Well, that was certainly worth the wait. On Thursday night (March 11), after months of anticipation, leaked on-set photos and rather excellent adventures in hairstyling, Lady Gaga's epic video for "Telephone" finally premiered during E! News, and, honestly, if there's something she didn't cram into the clip, well, then we missed it. Part hyperkinetic pop-culture joyride — nods to everything from films like "Caged Heat" and "Kill Bill" to seizure-inducing Japanese television and the color-drenched photography of David LaChapelle — part electric dance extravaganza, "Telephone" is nine-plus minutes of everything you could possibly love about Gaga (and Beyoncé, who, we're sure you know by now, co-stars in the clip), only amped up to the Nth degree. It's ambitious, funny and clever, playing much more like a short film than a music video. There are opening and closing credits — it's important to know that the video was written by Gaga and director Jonas Åkerlund, after all — elaborate, over-the-top (or barely there) costumes, and a whole lot of celebrity cameos. This cost money, this took time, this was a work of love and blood and sweat and tears (and a whole lot of hairspray). This was worth it. Opening in an ominous women's prison, we first see Gaga being led to her cell by a pair of, well, let's just call them "beefy guards." She is stripped of her impossibly shoulder-padded dress and left nude, while the other inmates howl, and as the guards shut the door behind them, the one cracks to the other, "I told you she didn't have a di--" (a joking nod to those nasty hermaphrodite rumors, of course). From there, we get glimpses of Gaga's life behind bars — make-out sessions in the exercise yard (where she is inexplicably wearing sunglasses made out of half-smoked cigarettes), the occasional catfight in the commissary — and then, after nearly three minutes of introduction, Gaga takes a phone call and the song finally begins, first with just some gentle electronic notes and LG's tender vocals, then morphing into a stuttering electro-pop stomper, complemented by a dance sequence (Gaga and her inmates strutting and climbing dressed only in studded underwear, fishnets and stiletto heels) that's sure to make the censors rather nervous. Gaga is then bailed out, but not before she busts a Michael Jackson shuffle while one of the guards surfs around on the dating site PlentyOfFish.com (a scene which isn't even the strangest example of product placement in this video). Waiting for her outside the gates is none other than Beyoncé, driving the so-called "P---y Wagon" from "Kill Bill." The two engage in some seriously stilted dialogue — "You know what they say: Once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger" — though Gaga's dead-eyed stares at the camera make it very clear that it's all intentionally bad (as the acting in all good "women in prison" flicks should be). They then go screaming off into the desert. They pull into a diner, where Beyoncé pours herself into a booth opposite Tyrese Gibson, who is a total jerk — so much so that B poisons his coffee. We then cut to a delightfully campy sequence titled "Let's Make a Sandwich" featuring Gaga standing in a kitchen wearing a folded-up telephone on her head while dancers cavort behind her, wielding salad tongs and assorted cutlery. She then, well, makes a sandwich, being sure to show off the Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip logos (this is the strangest example of product placement), whips through a tightly choreographed — and, really, pretty clever — dance sequence and then chomps down on the sandwich. And when was the last time you got to see her do something like that? It turns out she also makes poison, which she dumps into some honey and delivers to Beyoncé's booth, dressed as a towering waitress with a telephone dangling in her eye. Gibson smothers his breakfast in the stuff and dies. Unfortunately, everyone else in the joint — including Gaga's pals the Semi Precious Weapons — does the same, and they all suffer the same fate. Gaga and Beyoncé begin the video's third over-the-top dance number, popping and strutting while the dead bodies lay around them. It's sort of creepy, to be honest. The two then pile back into the Wagon and head out onto the highway (not before Gaga does a solo performance in front of the vehicle while dressed in an ultra-tight leopard-print number), and as the video reaches its conclusion, they deliver some more of those cheesy lines, join hands and zoom toward the horizon, police sirens wailing in the background. The last thing we see onscreen is text, which promises us "To Be Continued ... " because, hey, why not? So now that it's finally here, what else can really be said about the "Telephone" video? To be honest, I'm not sure. It is electric and excellent and alive. It is certainly the best big-budget clip since, well, Gaga's last big-budget clip and probably the best video you'll see all year (well, either that or OK Go's new one). It more than lived up to the hype, which, frankly, few thought it would. But, perhaps most notably, it is an event. You will remember where you were when you first saw it. And when was the last time you could say that about a music video? With "Telephone," Gaga has entered the rarest of pop stratospheres, up there with the Madonnas and the, gasp, Michael Jacksons. I'm not comparing talent, just ability: ability to wow, to enthrall and put on a show — one I can only hope is continued sometime very soon. What did you think of the "Telephone" video? Was it all you wanted and more? Sound off below! ||||| You must be logged in to view this video. The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as being potentially offensive or inappropriate. Viewer discretion is advised. Please confirm that you wish to view this video. This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as determined by the video uploader. To view this video or group, please click here to sign in or sign up and verify that you are of the appropriate age. This video requires that you log in to verify your age. Please confirm that you wish to view this video.

– Lady Gaga lays to rest rumors that she's mixed gender and replaces them with visions of masochistic lesbian love in her latest eye-popping music video. "I told you she didn't have a dick," one buff female prison guard tells another after stripping Lady G in a cell in the video (watch it here) for Telephone. "Too bad," remarks the other. Gaga then struts her stuff in a barely-there thong (or just evidence tape) with little space to hide anything along with a chorus of cons and later Beyoncé, who kills off a male lover with the help of an über-vamped-up Gaga. MTV dubbed the high-budget, 9-minute extravaganza a "hyperkinetic pop-culture joyride" with homages to films like Caged Heat and Kill Bill. In fact, Bill director Quentin Tarantino acted as a kind of consultant on the video. "There certainly is a Tarantino-inspired quality in the video," Gaga explains to E! Online. "I was telling him about my concept for the video and he loved it so much he said, 'You gotta use the Pussy Wagon'"—which is what Beyoncé uses to whisk Gaga out of prison.

Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Police are warning people not to dress as clowns and scare people in the street as bizarre craze sweeps the region. There have been several sightings of clowns across Greater Manchester and Cheshire with reports on social media that some are scaring people in the street. A spokesman for GMP said the force received a call at about 8.35pm Thursday after children were scared by people with clown masks in Park Road, Stretford. He said: “We received a call at 8.35pm saying that somebody was pulling up to people while driving a car wearing a clown mask.” On Facebook, Nicola Ince said: “A white car with peeps dressed as clowns driving round Stretford have just chased my girls and left them petrified on Park Rd. “If anyone is out and about and knows of the same thing report it please.” Why are we all so afraid of clowns? The M.E.N. previously reported on how a ‘scary clown’ was spotted in Ashton-under-Lyne, and there were also reported sightings in Leigh. Officers in neighbouring Cheshire revealed they have received a small number of reports, and declared it unacceptable for people to dress up as clowns to scare others. A spokesman said: “We are aware of the current trend in America of people dressing up as clowns, which has reached the UK and received some publicity in the media. “We have received a very small number of reports relating to this phenomenon, here in Cheshire, and we’re also aware of rumours that are circulating on social media. “While we appreciate Halloween is just a short time away, scaring people - especially children and vulnerable people - in this way is completely unacceptable and could constitute an offence. “Anyone who sees any suspicious activity, or who has been intimated or upset by this behaviour, should call Cheshire police immediately on 101.” Parents claim children left terrified and in tears by clowns 'scaring pupils outside schools' Worried parents took to the M.E.N.’s Facebook page to speak out over the craze. Samantha Yessam said: “Why would someone buzz off scaring people. I don’t find it funny at all.” Elaine Bailey said: “My daughter had trouble sleeping after hearing about this yesterday! “She thought they make break in our house when we’re asleep! “I had to reassure her and say they’d have to go through me first, your totally safe sweet!” Kimberley Hand said: “My child was petrified to walk to school on his own today we spend all our time telling them there aren’t such things as evil clowns - so pack it in you idiots its not brave making kids feel scared.” ||||| LONDON (AP) — British police have warned about people in clown outfits acting suspiciously and sometimes wielding knives as they follow people. The warning Saturday follows a string of incidents in recent days in an apparent effort to copy clown-related threats in the United States. Police in Gloucestershire said there have been six reports of clowns acting suspiciously and sometimes in a threatening way. Police say no arrests have been made because the people dressed as clowns have left the scene before police arrived. The incidents in Gloucestershire followed earlier reports of disturbances in other parts of Britain. Police said a masked man with a knife jumped out and threatened children in Durham on Friday and that several people dressed as clowns chased a young boy the day before in Suffolk.

– British police have warned about people in clown outfits acting suspiciously and sometimes wielding knives as they follow people. The warning Saturday follows a string of incidents in recent days in an apparent effort to copy clown-related threats in the United States, the AP reports. Police in Gloucestershire said there have been six reports of clowns acting suspiciously and sometimes in a threatening way. Police say no arrests have been made because the people dressed as clowns have left the scene before police arrived. The incidents in Gloucestershire followed earlier reports of clown-related disturbances in other parts of Britain. Police said a masked man with a knife jumped out and threatened children in Durham on Friday and that several people dressed as clowns chased a young boy the day before in Suffolk. "We are aware of the current trend in America of people dressing up as clowns, which has reached the UK and received some publicity in the media," a Cheshire police spokesperson tells the Manchester Evening News. "While we appreciate Halloween is just a short time away, scaring people—especially children and vulnerable people—in this way is completely unacceptable and could constitute an offense." (Police in Utah say you can't shoot clowns just for being dressed as clowns.)

Joe Jackson, Father and Early Manager of the Jackson Family, Dies at 89 Joe Jackson, father and early manager of the Jacksons, has died at age 89 on Wednesday (June 27) morning after a battle with cancer, as AP confirms and TMZ first reported. The Jackson family patriarch was born in 1928 and married wife Katherine in 1949. He went on to have 11 children. As a manager, Jackson launched the career of son Michael Jackson -- along with Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Tito -- out of Gary, Ind., as the Jackson 5 in the 1960s. The Jackson 5 signed with Berry Gordy's Motown Records, and in 1970, their first four singles ("I Want You Back," "ABC," "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There") all went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. They were the first act to see their first four singles top the Hot 100. Son Jermaine Jackson tweeted about his father's health on June 21. "My father's health is not good, but 'dying' is a harsh word chosen by headline writers, not me," he wrote at the time. "For however long he has left, my mother, siblings, and relatives want to be with him, without hindrance." But on June 24, a more ominous update was posted on Joe Jackson's Twitter page: "I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see. The sun rises when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time comes." Shortly after that tweet went out, Paris Jackson -- Michael's daughter -- tweeted, "this is a beautiful tweet. though it upsets me to see whoever is in charge of this account taking advantage of it. my grandfather did not tweet this. i’m not sure if he’s ever used this account." Daughter Janet Jackson spoke of her father on June 22 in a speech at the Radio Disney Music Awards in Hollywood, where she was honored with the Impact Award, now known as the Janet Jackson Award. “It’s beautiful, it’s humbling to be recognized as someone that has had a positive impact, but if I have been fortunate enough to impact others it is only because I, myself, have been greatly impacted by positive people in my life,” she said. “My mother nourished me with the most extravagant love imaginable. My father, my incredible father, drove me to be the best that I can." Jackson suffered a stroke while visiting Brazil in 2015 and was again hospitalized after a car he was riding in was involved in an accident in Las Vegas in 2017. Although Jackson was known for his iron-fisted management of his children, in 2002, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honored him as Best Entertainment Manager of All Time. "I'm glad I was tough, because look what I came out with," Jackson said in an interview in 2013. "I came out with some kids that everybody loved all over the world. And they treated everybody right." ||||| (CNN) Joseph "Joe" Jackson, the patriarch who launched the musical Jackson family dynasty, died Wednesday at a Las Vegas hospital, a source close to the family tells CNN. He was 89. Jackson was the father of and at times manager to pop stars Michael and Janet Jackson, along with the sibling singing group, The Jackson 5. No cause of death has been released, but Jackson had reportedly been in ill health. "I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see," read a tweet posted Sunday from Jackson's official Twitter account. "The sun rises when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time comes." I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see. The sun rises when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time comes. pic.twitter.com/PGcmbulzyC — Joseph Jackson (@Joe5Jackson) June 24, 2018 His daughter, La Toya Jackson, tweeted about her father Wednesday. "I will always love you! You gave us strength, you made us one of the most famous families in the world," she wrote on her official Twitter account. "I am extremely appreciative of that, I will never forget our moments together and how you told me how much you cared. #RIP Joe Jackson." I will always love you! You gave us strength, you made us one of the most famous families in the world. I am extremely appreciative of that, I will never forget our moments together and how you told me how much you cared. #RIP Joe Jacksonhttps://t.co/F5UfYjEgYx — La Toya Jackson (@latoyajackson) June 27, 2018 Some of Jackson's grandchildren also paid tribute on social media, writing that he "made everything possible." RIP to the king that made everything possible!!! I love you grandpa 🖤🖤 pic.twitter.com/SI1C7lUuG6 — RANDY JACKSON (@randyjacksonjr) June 27, 2018 Jackson married his wife, Katherine, in 1949. They moved into into a home on Jackson Street in Gary, Indiana, the following year, where they welcomed their first of 10 children, Maureen "Rebbie" Jackson. Rebbie was followed by Sigmund "Jackie" Jackson in 1951, Toriano "Tito" Jackson in 1953, Jermaine Jackson in 1954, La Toya Jackson in 1956, Marlon Jackson in 1957, Michael Jackson in 1958, Steven Randall "Randy" Jackson in 1961 and Janet Jackson in 1966. Marlon's twin, Brandon, died soon after birth. With a large family to support, Joe Jackson surrendered his dreams of becoming a boxer and secured a job as a crane operator for US Steel. He and his brother Luther formed a band in the mid-1950s called The Falcons, intent on booking gigs for extra money. The band only lasted a few years, but Jackson had developed an ear for music and believed he had found some talent in his children. He formed The Jackson Brothers in 1963 -- with sons Tito, Jackie and Jermaine -- and began entering them in local talent shows. With the addition of Marlon and Michael, The Jackson 5 was born in 1966. Two years later, they signed with Motown Records. They went on to become one of the most successful R&B groups in history, with their father initially acting as their manager. At the height of their stardom, The Jackson 5 sold millions of records and had their own CBS variety show. "Joseph's role as manager dwindled however as Motown CEO Berry Gordy began to take more charge on his act, a role that reverted back to Joseph when he began managing the entire family for performances in Las Vegas," according to Jackson's official site. "Joseph also helped his sons seal a deal with CBS after leaving Motown." The success of The Jackson 5 led to Michael Jackson going solo, becoming such a major star that he was later dubbed the King of Pop. Youngest daughter Janet also became a hugely successful recording artist. The elder Jackson managed daughters Rebbie, La Toya and Janet in the early 1980s until they, like their brothers before, struck out on their own. Joe Jackson was criticized at times for being a harsh taskmaster. His children told stories about their father being hard on them growing up. In 2013 interview with CNN, Jackson was asked about Janet's complaint that the children were not allowed to call him "Dad," instead referring to him as "Joe." "You had all those kids running hollering around," Jackson said. "They're hollering, 'Dad, Dad, Dad,' you know, and it gets to be -- it sounds kind of funny to me. But I didn't care too much about what they called me, just as long as they (were) able to listen to me and what I had to tell them, you know, in order to make their lives successful. This was the main thing." Jackson admitted that he disciplined his children physically, but said he had no regrets. "I'm glad I was tough, because look what I came out with," he said. "I came out with some kids that everybody loved all over the world. And they treated everybody right." Jackson also weathered some controversy after his wife documented his alleged extramarital affairs in her book, "My Family, The Jacksons." The couple split more than once and lived apart for decades, but they reportedly never divorced. The couple presented a united front when Michael died in 2009 from an overdose of propofol. The elder Jackson told CNN his son had tried to reach him before his death, but they didn't connect. "He says, 'Call my father.' This was before he passed. 'He would know how to get me out of this,'" Joe Jackson said. "But they didn't get in touch with me. They said they couldn't find me, but I was right there." Just this past weekend, Janet Jackson hailed her father during an acceptance speech at a Radio Disney awards ceremony. "My mother nourished me with the most extravagant love imaginable," she said. "My father, my incredible father drove me to be the best I can. My siblings set an incredibly high standard, a high bar for artistic excellence." ||||| Story highlights Joe Jackson said he was strict because he wanted the best for his family "This was Gary, Indiana, and I had to make sure that they didn't get in any type of trouble" Jackson tells CNN's Piers Morgan he heard about Michael Jackson's death from a fan On his son's jailed doctor: "I blame a lot of people, not just Conrad Murray" The stories have been around for decades -- sometimes disquieting ones about the strict upbringing of Joe and Katherine Jackson's nine children in a high-pressure, showbiz family. Joe Jackson addressed those stories and his family's past in an interview with "Piers Morgan Tonight" that aired Wednesday night, saying that yes, he did physically discipline his children. Why did he do it? "I had to be like that way because during those times, it was hard, and you have a lot of gangs there, you know, in the area where we were living," Jackson told Piers Morgan. "This was Gary, Indiana, and I had to make sure that they didn't get in any type of trouble, and things of that sort." Does he have any regrets about his approach to parenting? Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest at age 50 on June 25, 2009, sending shockwaves around the world. Look back at photos from his illustrious career. Hide Caption 1 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop The Jackson 5 perform on a TV show circa 1969. From left, Tito Jackson, Marlon Jackson, Michael Jackson, Jackie Jackson and Jermaine Jackson. Hide Caption 2 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Michael Jackson quickly became the standout star of the family group. Here he performs onstage circa 1970. Hide Caption 3 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Michael Jackson poses during a portrait session in Los Angeles in 1971. Hide Caption 4 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Michael Jackson performs with The Jacksons in New Orleans on October 3, 1979. Hide Caption 5 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Jackson achieved superstardom with his solo career in the 1980s. Here Jackson is shown onstage in Kansas in 1983. Hide Caption 6 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Michael Jackson performs onstage circa 1990. Hide Caption 7 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Jackson broke a world record during the Bad tour in 1988, when 504,000 people attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium in London. Hide Caption 8 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Jackson performs in concert circa 1991 in New York. Hide Caption 9 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Known for his dance moves, Jackson is seen here jumping while performing during the Dangerous tour in 1992. Hide Caption 10 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Jackson performs in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Hide Caption 11 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Jackson performs with his brothers. Hide Caption 12 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Jackson performs during the Bad tour at Wembley Stadium in London. Hide Caption 13 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Jackson performs during the taping of "American Bandstand's 50th: A Celebration" in 2002. Hide Caption 14 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Michael Jackson earned the Legend Award during the MTV Video Music Awards in Tokyo in 2006. Hide Caption 15 of 16 Photos: Michael Jackson: King of Pop Jackson is seen in a photo provided by AEG Live on June 23, 2009, two days before his death, rehearsing at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Hide Caption 16 of 16 "I'm glad I was tough, because look what I came out with. I came out with some kids that everybody loved all over the world. And they treated everybody right. "You know, Michael, he was a nice guy. ... The world (doesn't) know anything too much about Michael as far as how he was brought up. But he was brought up. I made sure that he respected the older people." Morgan said that Janet Jackson -- probably the second-most-famous sibling of the six brothers and three sisters -- in particular has lamented about not being allowed to call Joe Jackson "Dad" and noted almost all of the children have said their father was a strict disciplinarian. "You had all those kids running hollering around," Jackson said. "They're hollering, 'Dad, Dad, Dad,' you know, and it gets to be -- it sounds kind of funny to me. But I didn't care too much about what they called me, just as long as they (were) able to listen to me and what I had to tell them, you know, in order to make their lives successful. This was the main thing." They were brought up to respect people, he said. They never joined gangs or went to jail. Joe and Katherine Jackson are still married. Jackson also spoke about his relationship with his superstar son, Michael, when he was a child. "Michael was the type of kid, you know, he was a good kid... and by him being that way, he was able to be Michael Jackson. "He looked good on stage and when he performed, everybody loved the way he did it, because he was that good," Jackson said. Jackson recalled where he was when he found out his son had died on June 25, 2009: "I was in Las Vegas. I got a call ... from a fan. And he says, 'Mr. Jackson,' he says, 'Something is wrong.' He said, 'I see an ambulance there at Michael's place and the ambulance took off. And the fire department is following the ambulance. Something is wrong.' Jackson said Michael had tried to reach out to him shortly before he passed away. "The saddest part about the whole thing was Michael tried to reach me," Jackson said. "He says, 'Call my father.' This was before he passed. 'He would know how to get me out of this.' But they didn't get in touch with me. They said they couldn't find me, but I was right there." Jackson also said there were people in Michael's life who drove a wedge between the King of Pop and his family toward the end. "They treated him like Howard Hughes, you know?" Jackson said. "They couldn't -- the family couldn't get to him, you know, like they should have." Jackson also addressed Michael's 2005 child sex abuse trial. "Well, you know that there was a reason why that happened," Jackson said. "They were trying to take control over Michael's life. Michael has paid out a lot of money, you know, what is it? Something like $22 million, you know, to keep this thing hushed down." Michael Jackson was acquitted of all charges. How did Joe Jackson feel about his son's behavior around children -- specifically his sleepovers with young boys? Jackson defended his son as "a big old kid himself" who "had the mind of a kid." Morgan asked Jackson whether he regrets not doing more for Michael toward the end. "I tried very hard," Jackson said. "I couldn't get to him, just like I told you earlier, that they treated him just like Howard Hughes." What does Jackson hope Michael's legacy will be? "I'd like his legacy to be what he wanted to be," Jackson said. "I want everybody to care about him and to love him and keep doing the things that he wanted to do -- and he wanted to make people happy all over the world." ||||| Joe Jackson Dead at 89 Joe Jackson Dead at 89 After Battle With Pancreatic Cancer EXCLUSIVE 10:30 AM PT -- Family sources tell TMZ, Joe died at a hospice in Las Vegas. The hospice is connected to a hospital where Joe was admitted. We're told he was moved to the hospice a day and a half ago. Joe Jackson -- the patriarch of the Jackson family -- has died ... TMZ has learned. Family sources tell TMZ, Joe passed away at 3:30 AM Wednesday. We broke the story ... Joe was hospitalized in June with terminal cancer. His family had been flocking to his bedside since. His wife, Katherine, had been at his bedside as were some of Joe's children and grandchildren. Joe had been battling health problems for some time now. He was hospitalized back in 2016 after coming down with a high fever. But, he bounced back not long after and was seen partying in Vegas. His health was also fragile after a stroke and 3 heart attacks back in 2015. Doctors implanted a pacemaker. Joe may have been the most successful parent managing his children in the history of music. He, with a little help from Diana Ross, engineered the careers of The Jackson 5, and then Michael and Janet Jackson as solo artists. The elder Jackson took a lot of heat from Michael and his siblings for abusing parenting and management practices, including physical brutality. Joe copped to it but, far from apologizing ... he said his methods made his kids successful and kept them out of jail. Michael's dad stood by him during his molestation trial. After Michael's death, Joe was criticized for trying to make money off his son's memory. A rep for Michael's estate tells us, "We are deeply saddened by Mr. Jackson’s passing and extend our heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Katherine Jackson and the family. Joe was a strong man who acknowledged his own imperfections and heroically delivered his sons and daughters from the steel mills of Gary, Indiana to worldwide pop superstardom." Joe had 10 kids with Katherine, his wife of more than 60 years. The 2 did not live together and had a strained relationship for the last years of his life, but they frequently interacted. Joe was 89.

– Joe Jackson, the iron-fisted Jackson family patriarch and manager, died Wednesday at age 89 from cancer, reports Billboard and TMZ. The father of Michael Jackson, Joe Jackson launched the Jackson 5—which included Michael and brothers Jackie, Marlon, Jermaine, and Tito—in Gary, Ind., in the 1960s. The group went on to sign with Motown Records, and they quickly scored four No. 1 singles with "I Want You Back," "ABC," "I'll Be There," and "The Love You Save." The Jackson 5 sold millions of records, had their own variety show, and would go on to become one of the most successful R&B groups of all time. Jackson later guided the careers of Michael and sister Janet Jackson when they embarked on solo careers. Over the years, Jackson had a rocky relationship with his wife, Katherine, with whom he had 10 children, according to CNN. They separated several times but never divorced. Katherine described his alleged extramarital affairs in the book My Family, The Jacksons. Jackson was also roundly criticized by his children and others for allegedly abusive parenting, which included physical punishment. He acknowledged that he was a strict disciplinarian but was unapologetic about his behavior. "I'm glad I was tough because look what I came out with," he told CNN in 2013. "I came out with some kids that everybody loved all over the world. And they treated everybody right."

TROY WILL BE BACK TO PINPOINT THE TIMING OF TODAY'S STORMS. THAT'S COMING UP IN LESS THAN TWO MINUTES. PATROLS ARE BEING STEPPED UP AT ONE TROUBLED COMPLEX IN ORANGE COUNTY AFTER A SPIKE IN DRUG OVERDOSES. POLICE SAY AT LEAST ONE OF THEM WAS DEADLY. THIS IS NEAR THE BEACHLINE AND ORANGE BLOSSOM TRAIL. DEPUTIES SAY IN THE LAST 24 HOURS, AT LEAST 11 PEOPLE OVERDOSED ON HEROINE IN THAT AREA. THE SHERIFF SAYS SOME OF THE VICTIMS ARE ONLY IN THEIR 20'S. WHILE IT IS AN OLD DRUG, IT IS NEW TO MANY PEOPLE. PEOPLE DYING OF HEROINE OVERDOSES AND WHAT HAVE YOU, THEY ARE IN THEIR 20'S, 30'S, THEIR 40'S. THESE ARE NOT INDIVIDUALS USING IN THE '60S, THE '70S AND THE '80S. ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - The Orange County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that at least 11 heroin overdoses were reported in a 24-hour span in the area of Blossom Park. Deputies said many of the overdose victims have ended up in the hospital, and some of the victims have died. OCSO said deputies were sent to the the area to ensure there is a high visibility of law enforcement in hopes of preventing the sale and usage of heroin in the area. ||||| CEDAR RAPIDS — One narcotics law enforcement officer says taking heroin is similar to grabbing a loaded gun and spinning the chamber. Even worse, he added, heroin use is spreading in Iowa, and its deadly reach is likely to continue to grow. Heroin overdoses, for example, have surged in Cedar Rapids in the past five years. In 2009, authorities responded to nine reported heroin-related deaths and non-fatal overdoses, which represented 45 percent of all overdoses in Cedar Rapids. Through June 5 of this year, there have been 52 reported overdoses in the city, 44 of which were heroin-related. Heroin has accounted for 85 percent of all overdose calls this year. “It's a serious issue — not just the presence of heroin, but the effects that heroin is having on the users,” Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman said. “The number of overdoses and the number of overdose deaths is very concerning.” Cedar Rapids is not alone in facing a growing heroin epidemic. One way to gauge the prevalence of heroin in Iowa and where it is being found is through samples, or exhibits, submitted to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Criminalistics Laboratory. According to statistics provided by the crime lab, 37 of Iowa's 99 counties have submitted suspected heroin to the lab for testing since 2005. However, three Eastern Iowa counties make up a majority of the cases sent to the DCI lab. Of the 47 exhibits submitted to the lab in the first third of 2015, seven were from Johnson County and eight were from Linn County. Collectively, they account for nearly a third of all heroin cases submitted to the lab this year. Scott County leads the state with 16 submitted cases through the first four months of the year. Not only is heroin becoming increasingly common, but authorities warn that it's becoming deadlier, thanks to the presence of a synthetic opioid with 80 times the potency of heroin. And one Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement agent warns that heroin shows no sign of slowing down in Iowa. “I think it's going to be on the upswing,” DNE special agent-in-charge Dan Stepleton said. “I think it's going to get worse and worse.” Metro hubs Heroin is a highly addictive opioid produced from opium poppy. Usually injected by the user, heroin also can be smoked and is a powerful painkiller. It is similar to fellow opioid morphine, but 10 times as powerful. The heroin found in Iowa is produced by Mexican cartels and distributed through metropolitan hubs, such as Chicago, which helps to explain why Scott, Linn and Johnson counties in Eastern Iowa see more heroin cases than the more populous Polk County. “Because you have a predominant heroin source of Chicago and those are the closest three counties to Chicago in Iowa and they're metropolitan counties,” Stepleton explained. Stepleton said heroin usually is distributed by gang members with Chicago affiliations. Criminal investigations often begin with an overdose death, he explained. “Unfortunately it's usually already a done deal when we get involved,” said Stepleton, who covers a 24-county swath of Eastern Iowa. “We are working toward the source of supply and not just waiting for an overdose to happen. We're trying to avert those as much as possible.” According to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control last month, heroin use is rising across all demographics, with women and 18-to-25-year-olds seeing the biggest increases in recent years. Experts point to the rise of prescription drug abuse, especially among young people. “What we're seeing is young people — high school and college age — will get addicted to Vicodin, oxycotin,” Stepleton said. “When they run out of the prescriptions, they'll resort to heroin because it's 10 times the potency of that drug. Unfortunately you're already hooked at that point. Related story: Change in law makes heroin death convictions more difficult to prosecute “It doesn't take long to make the switch from oxycotin to heroin, which in essence is going to make you a lifelong addict.” Heroin is not a high-volume drug — it lags far behind more common illegal substances in Iowa such as marijuana and methamphetamine — and it's highly expensive. One ounce of heroin is a “huge amount,” Stepleton said, and most dealers work in shipments of 10 to 50 grams. Heroin is purchased for about $200 to $250 per gram and is usually sold for about $50 for a 10th of a gram. “It's a very expensive habit,” he said. “That's why most of your heroin users have to be dealers. You just can't afford to get the drug.” Because of its expensive and addictive nature, heroin abuse often is associated with property crimes such as thefts and burglaries. “Addicts will do what they need to do to obtain the next fix,” Jerman said. Lethal While there is no definitive ranking in Iowa on the most lethal drugs, heroin probably would be near the top of the list in terms of deaths with respect to the number of actual users, according to one state official. “It would appear that heroin is more lethal than many other substances,” said Dale Woolery, associate director for the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy. Woolery said it appears that a greater proportion of heroin users experience overdoses than users of more common drugs in Iowa, such as methamphetamine. “There are a lot of Iowans that have a strong appetite for methamphetamine,” he said. “But it's rare, if it ever occurs ... that you hear of a methamphetamine-overdose death. I think it does occur, but I'm talking very few.” Heroin typically is sold at a purity of three percent to five percent, Stepleton said. “After that, it gets very, very lethal,” he said. However, it's not an exact science and some dealers might not be as careful about diluting their drugs. “There's no FDA involved in this,” Stepleton said. “He might dilute it down to 7 to 8 percent ... Taking it at 3 percent and taking it at 8 percent is a big freaking difference.” Heroin is becoming even more lethal with the introduction of a drug called fentanyl. A synthetic opioid painkiller, fentanyl is 80 times as potent as heroin and a single piece of pure fentanyl the size of the grain of salt can kill a fully grown man. “Now they're lacing heroin with fentanyl,” Stepleton said. “Now you have two drugs together and one is very much more powerful than the other. If I'm taking the same drug dosage unit and it's laced with fentanyl, now I end up with really severe problems ... You don't have long for this world.” Stepleton said fentanyl and fentanyl-laced heroin has hit the East Coast hard in recent years, resulting in 2,500 to 3,500 overdoses in major cities. And it's making its way to Iowa. Bruce Reeve, administrator for the DCI crime lab, said technicians have been seeing fentanyl in the form of patches prescribed for chronic pain relief for years. But more recently they are seeing heroin laced with fentanyl. In January, the lab examined one case of heroin mixed with fentanyl. In April, there were three more. In May, half of the labs 10 heroin cases had samples cut with fentanyl. “I think we're starting to see that a lot more in Iowa,” Reeve said. “It's a trend that's alarming. Fentanyl is a dangerous drug if it's not handled right.” Stepleton puts it more bluntly. “I think it's going to be an extreme problem,” he said. “I can't stress that enough. There is no FDA in illicit drug distribution. It's a crapshoot on what you're going to be buying and putting in your body. ... It's like putting a loaded gun in your hand and spinning the chamber every time.” In July, the Cedar Rapids Police Department announced it had received federal funding that would allow it to hire another officer. Having that additional officer will allow the department to place a seasoned professional with the Eastern Iowa Prevention, Treatment and Prosecution Initiative. The officer will emphasize heroin-prevention efforts while also working on the investigation and prosecution of heroin-related crimes. “From decades ago, (heroin) seemed to be confined to different areas,” Jerman said. “Now we see there are no boundaries ... It's making its way into all segments of society. “Whether it's lower middle, upper middle or the upper class, that's what we're seeing.” Change in law makes heroin death convictions more difficult to prosecute A grieving mother displayed a photo of her son in a casket during a February sentencing of a man who had sold her child heroin, saying it's all she has left to remember him. Stacy Iberg likely is one of many mothers over the past five years in Eastern Iowa who have either lost a child or had a child overdose on heroin. Her son, Dustin Legrand, died from a heroin overdose last year after Ramon Freeman, 35, of Chicago, sold to someone who provided the heroin to Legrand. Freeman is now serving 30 years in federal prison. Federal prosecutors say Freeman is only one of 75 people charged in U.S. District Court in the past five years for distribution of heroin, and 38 of those have been in Linn County. From 2011 to 2015, 14 defendants in the Northern District have been charged in cases involving heroin deaths and six have been charged with bodily injury that resulted from heroin overdoses. But prosecuting these dealers has become more difficult after a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving an Iowa case in the Southern District, he said. That case set a higher standard for prosecutors to meet in distribution cases involving death, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Chatham said. There must be sufficient evidence the heroin is what caused the death, according to the law. Prosecutors previously only had to prove the heroin was a “contributing cause.” In many of these cases, users may take other drugs along with the heroin. In an overdose causing bodily injury, Chatham said, there has to be evidence that the user was at high risk to die without medical intervention. Some cases haven't been able to meet that standard to convict for a heroin death, but Chatham and Patrick Reinert, also an assistant U.S. attorney, said they can argue in sentencing for more time based on other factors, such as previous convictions, purity of heroin or how close the dealer is to the main source. In the sentencing for Freeman in February, Chatham argued for more prison time based on the purity — in that case, 68 to 73 percent — of heroin he was selling, and Freeman's position in the chain of distribution. Dealers with higher purity levels typically are closer to the main source, he said. Chatham said the overdoses usually occur because the purity is so much higher than what the user is used to. In the past, the heroin might have been cut with another substance, so the dealers could have more product and make more money. Chatham said there also are cases in the district where users have overdosed because it's mixed with another drug such as fentanyl, used to treat severe pain and often used after surgery. There were two defendants indicted in June from Cedar Rapids for distribution of heroin/fentanyl and conspiracy to distribute heroin/fentanyl that resulted in bodily injury. ||||| Related video from New Jersey 101.5: This week, we're taking a special look at heroin's increasing grip on the Garden State. On Thursday, we'll conduct a special town hall — including a live chat where you can get your questions about addiction and treatment answered by New Jersey experts. It starts at 7 p.m. on NJ1015.com . Authorities tell us New Jersey's heroin epidemic isn't letting up — even with powerful new tools like the antidote Narcan to battle overdose deaths . The numbers back them up. Heroin use is spiking throughout the state — and it's making its way into the suburbs, as once-sleepy towns find themselves hotbeds of drug activity. Here's a look at the statistics : 781 It's a troubling number that just keeps on rising. In 2014, there were 781 heroin-related overdose deaths in New Jersey, according to data by the state Department of Criminal Justice. That's more than twice as many as in 2010. A report last year by New Jersey Advance Media notes that the per-capita rate of 8.3 heroin-related deaths per 100,000 people is more than triple the national rate reported by the Centers for Disease Control. In addition, heroin "now eclipses homicide, suicide, car accidents and AIDS as a cause of death in the state," according to the report. For years, New Jersey's heroin death toll stayed comparatively stable, hovering in the mid-300s to mid-400s, and even getting as low as 306 in 2010. But it's been steadily increasing ever since then. 28,332 According to a report released by the Department of Human Services Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services last year , in 2014, 28,332 people were admitted into substance abuse treatment programs with heroin or another opiate listed as the individual's primary drug. That's nearly half of the 64,766 people entering treatment programs for substances overall in New Jersey. Both figures are down from 2013, when 72,864 entered substance treatment, 32,607 for heroin or other opiates. 3,688 Of those seeking treatment for heroin or opiates, the most were in Ocean County. The 3,688 admitted for treatment in Ocean accounted for 13 percent of all those admitted through the state, even though Ocean only accounts for about 6.5 percent of the total state population. But when the figures are broken down per 100,000 people, Cape May County leads the state for those entering treatment — at 1,138 (because of a statistical quirk, the per-capita number is greater than the raw number in Cape May; there are slightly less than 100,000 people in the county). Click on your county in the interactive map below to see how your county fares. Darker shades mean higher incidences of heroin and opiate treatment. 1,176 In 2014, 1,176 people in Newark sought treatment for heroin addiction — more than in any other municipality — according to a breakdown of the state treatment report by Patch.com . While the top cities for heroin use were urban centers — Paterson, Jersey City, Atlantic City and Camden round out the top 5 — there are several suburban communities among the top 20. Toms River was in sixth place, with 436 reported admissions, and Brick in seventh with 426. Central Jersey communities of Middletown and Lacey are on the list, as are Millville and Lower Township in South Jersey. Patch notes Bloomfield, "long considered one of the safest neighborhood communities in Essex County," made its yearly analysis of the data for the first time, in 20th place 16.1% A 2011 state breakdown found more non-Hispanic white people , per capita, dying from drug use than blacks or Hispanics. According to the report, 16.1 per 100,000 white people died of drug-related causes — compared with 9.8 for black people and 5.1 for Hispanic people. That wasn't always the case — in 2000, more blacks died of drugs per capita (14.5 per 100,000 than whites (10). But drug deaths among whites have been steadily increasing, and blacks steadily decreasing — 2007 was the last time black deaths from drug-related causes outpaced white deaths. 1,000 Nalaxone, an opiate antidote marketed under the name Narcan, was deployed more than 1,000 times in 2014, according to Gov. Chris Christie's office . Ocean County Prosecutor Joe Coronato told New Jersey 101.5 that it's been a help in his county — in 2013 there were 112 heroin deaths in Ocean County, and that number dropped to 101 in 2014. But he stressed it's a "temporary save," saying "there’s been several individuals that we’ve sprayed two or three times already,” he said. But sometimes by the third time they’ve not survived, they’ve died. That’s not truly addressing the problem. The problem is the addiction.” 2% The 2013 New Jersey Student Health Survey (the most recent available) found that 2 percent of high school students had used heroin at some point in their lifetimes. That's about half as many as in 2001, though the figure's held steady for several years. Also according to the survey: • 7 percent had used Ecstasy; • 6 percent had used hallucinogens; • 5 percent had used cocaine; • 3 percent had used methamphetamines; • 2 percent had used a needle to inject an illegal drug. 15% The 2013 New Jersey Student Health Survey also found 15 of students had attended school under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the previous 12 months. — Note: This is an update of a report first run in the summer of 2015. Related video from New Jersey 101.5: ||||| A view of Washington, Pa. Last week, Washington County recorded 16 overdoses in 24 hours and 25 over two days. Three people died. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) The first call came at 7:33 p.m. last Sunday: Two people had overdosed on heroin in a home just a few hundred yards from the station where firefighters were awaiting their nightly round of drug emergencies. Six minutes later, there was another. A 50-year-old man had been found in his bedroom, blue from lack of oxygen, empty bags of heroin by his body. At 8:11, a third call. Then another, and another, and another and another. By 8:42 — 69 minutes after the first report — a county of slightly more than 200,000 people had recorded eight overdoses, all believed to be caused by heroin. There would be a total of 16 overdoses in 24 hours and 25 over two days. Three people died. Many of the others were saved by a recent decision to equip every first responder with the fast-acting antidote naloxone. The toll wasn’t from a supply of heroin that had been poisoned on its journey from South America to southwestern Pennsylvania. Nor was there an isolated party where careless junkies miscalculated the amount of heroin they could handle. Last week was simply an extreme example of what communities in parts of the country are enduring as the heroin epidemic rages on. Valerie Mack, left, is comforted by family friend Carla Stormy Efaw in Washington, Pa. Mack lost her brother, Sammy Mack, to a heroin overdose. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) “It’s absolutely insane. This is nuts,” said District Attorney Eugene A. Vittone, a former paramedic who is trying to hold back the tide of drugs washing across Washington County, a Rust Belt community 30 miles south of Pittsburgh. On any day, Vittone said, the county averages five to eight overdoses, almost all from heroin. More are recorded each day in towns just over the county line. “There’s been a progressive increase in overdoses the last two years, and it just went out of control,” added Rick Gluth, supervising detective on Vittone’s drug task force. “I’ve been a police officer for 27 years and worked narcotics for the last 15, and this is the worst. I’d be glad to have the crack epidemic back.” [Cheap fix: Heroin’s resurgence. ‘And then he decided not to be’] The United States averages 110 overdose deaths from legal and illegal drugs every day. The heroin death toll has quadrupled in the decade that ended in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By all accounts, it has only grown worse since. In Washington County, there have been more than 50 fatal overdoses this year. The national drug-death total, larger than that from auto accidents, is disproportionately concentrated in the Rust Belt, the Great Lakes region and the Northeast. “There is a growing sense of community outrage that we can’t accept this like we are accepting it,” said David J. Hickton, U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania and co-chair of the National Heroin Task Force established by the Justice Department in April. “We just can’t go on like this.” In this working-class community near the Monongahela River, where drilling for gas deposits has begun to stoke an economic revival, there is little sign that anything will change soon. This man who only wishes to be identified as Sonny, learned that his daughter had a heroin overdose at a nearby Walgreens store in Washington, Penn. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) “I’m destroyed. I’m totally destroyed,” Valerie Mack said Thursday on the front porch of the home she shared with her brother and several other people on a modest block here. Her brother, Sammy Mack, the second overdose victim in the Sunday night skein, was found dead in his bedroom, curled in a fetal position. Near his body were “stamp bags” of heroin — small paper packets that most closely resemble chewing gum wrappers. They bore the supplier’s brand, “MADE IN COLOMBIA.” The label is one of two flooding the area, Gluth said. The other is stamped “BLACK JACK.” Authorities are still investigating but believe both types of heroin are laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate that increases the drug’s potency and may have contributed to the rash of overdoses. Sammy Mack had long had problems with alcohol and was not unknown to law enforcement authorities. But as so many others have, his sister said, he turned to heroin after treatment with narcotic painkillers prescribed for an ankle injury he suffered a few months ago. Mack’s divorce was recently finalized, she said. His four children are living with his ex-wife not far away. [When life begins in rehab: A baby heals after a mother’s heroin addiction] As he began to use heroin, Mack’s habits and personality changed, she said. He became withdrawn, spending more time in his room. That Sunday, she was fixing him a chef’s salad and became suspicious when he didn’t respond to her calls. She tried to push open his bedroom door but couldn’t. A neighbor finally forced his way in. Mack’s prized possession, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, still sits in the home’s back yard. He had promised it to his 14-year-old son upon his high school graduation. “I’ll just have to follow through,” Valerie Mack said. With so much awry in Sammy Mack’s life, his sister said, “Maybe the Lord intervened and decided just to take him.” Jessica Neal, 26, another of last week’s overdoses, is still alive after a close call. She was found unconscious in a bathroom at a local Walgreen’s on Monday, her 2-year-old strapped in a stroller in the stall with her. She was revived with naloxone. Her father, Sonny, who has a different last name that he requested not be used to protect his privacy, said he threatened to have her committed to the psychiatric unit of the local hospital that same day after Neal spoke of committing suicide. Instead, she agreed to sign herself in. She was released Friday and headed to jail. The child is in her father’s care, he said. “She doesn’t need jail,” Sonny said outside the home where the two lived with Sonny’s wife, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), until last week. “She wasn’t out stealing or doing crimes. What she needs is help. She needs to be in rehab. And after rehab, she needs to be in a halfway house.” Nationally, there are only a small fraction of the inpatient drug rehab beds needed for addicts, but Hickton, in an increasingly common stance for prosecutors, has agreed that users need help more than they deserve incarceration. Even as he has stepped up prosecution of dealers, he is taking a multifaceted approach to the current problem. “If they’re using and trafficking, I prosecute them,” he said. “If they’re just using, they need help.” Hickton promises to bring homicide charges against any seller he can link to a death. But that is easier said than done. There are no open-air drug markets in this epidemic like the ones that captured public’s attention during drug outbreaks of past decades. Much of the commerce is conducted on cellphones and by word of mouth. With many more middle-class people addicted via prescription opioids this time around, heroin is bought and sold in bars, nightclubs, homes and more unlikely places, said Neil Capretto, an addiction psychiatrist and medical director of Gateway Rehabilitation Center, which has 20 locations in the Pittsburgh area. Gluth said he has undercover detectives all over the streets making buys, painstakingly working their way up the chain in search of bigger dealers. He believes the latest load of heroin came from New Jersey, but Washington County’s location makes it particularly vulnerable to drug traffic. Not far from the Ohio and West Virginia borders, it sits at the intersection of Interstates 70 and 79, east-west and north-south conduits for drugs and everything else. Vittone said the county receives drugs from New York, Newark, Washington, Chicago, Detroit and elsewhere. “We’re kind of like ground zero,” he said. On the streets here, prescription drugs are selling for about $1 per milligram, or $20 for a single dose. Heroin is much cheaper, at about $8 a stamp bag, Gluth said. It is also much more potent than the heroin of previous eras, Capretto said. Users often start with a single bag, but as their resistance grows, they need increasing amounts. All of which signals more overdoses and deaths, at least until authorities can find ways to stem the demand and the supply. “If we had a serial killer killing one-tenth as many [people], we’d have the National Guard here,” Capretto said. “We’d have CNN here every night.” ||||| Ravages Of Heroin Addiction Haunt Friends, Families And Whole Towns Enlarge this image toggle caption Maddie McGarvey for NPR Maddie McGarvey for NPR Marion, Ohio, just north of Columbus, used to be an idyllic place to grow up. Kelly Clixby and Beth Carey remember what it was like a generation ago, when they were young. "I lived across the street from one of the big parks here," Clixby says. "We would rip n' run all day and all night and come in when the street lights were on." "It was just a nice place to live," Carey says. Today, Marion is different. It's grappling with a full-blown heroin epidemic, one that derailed Kelly Clixby's life and killed Beth Carey's twin sister. This week on For The Record: one small town copes with the ravages of addiction. Enlarge this image toggle caption Maddie McGarvey for NPR Maddie McGarvey for NPR Nationwide Crisis, Personal Cost Deaths from heroin have been skyrocketing over the last few years — among all age groups, across all races and in all regions of the U.S. According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control, more than 8,000 Americans died of heroin-related overdoses in 2013 — nearly three times as many as died in 2010. But the risk hasn't dented demand. Heroin is cheap, abundant and accessible, and communities across the nation, from big cities to small rural towns, are struggling with the consequences. In Marion, Ohio — once a thriving steel town — the trouble arrived around 2007, when the police started seeing balloons of heroin during routine traffic stops. Since then, heroin has changed many lives in Marion. It took Chrystina Carey's. Enlarge this image toggle caption Maddie McGarvey for NPR Maddie McGarvey for NPR Beth Carey had started worrying about her sister when they were in their early 20s. At that point, Chrystina was hanging around a different crowd than her twin, taking ecstasy while working as a dietary manager. "She was on call all the time," Beth Carey says. "She said, about the ecstasy ... she was taking it to stay up when we would go out on the weekends." At some point, Chrystina switched from ecstasy to the painkiller OxyContin — and then, eventually, to heroin. "She OD'd and went to the hospital three times," Beth Carey says. "Out of the six or seven years [she was on heroin], she was probably incarcerated a good two, 2 1/2 years. "But still continued to use drugs." The last time Chrystina Carey got out of prison, she went to stay at an addiction recovery house in the next town over. Kelly Clixby was living there, too, grappling with an addiction that began with prescribed painkillers and led to heroin. She knew Chrystina well. "That was my best friend," she says. Clixby remembers the night before Chrystina Carey died. She was heading out with someone known to be wrapped up in drugs and Kelly was worried. "I said, 'If you leave with that person, you're probably going to die tonight.' And I was being sarcastic ... by no means did I mean it. "And she left. And at 8 o'clock the next morning I woke up to a phone call that she had died. She had overdosed, after seven months of sobriety." Witnessing the death of her friend had a profound impact on Clixby's own sobriety. "It terrified me," she says. "For a long time after that I stayed clean just ... so I wouldn't disrespect her, or so her death wouldn't be in vain." Enlarge this image toggle caption Maddie McGarvey for NPR Maddie McGarvey for NPR 'Burnt Every Bridge They've Ever Had' Marion Police Chief Bill Collins has witnessed many overdoses like the one that killed Chrystina Carey. Back in May of this year, he said his team was responding to as many as two or three in a single hour. "You walk in and you know, you see somebody that's blue. I mean, to you they appear to be dead," he says. Then the officers would administer a drug called Narcan. "It's like a miracle drug," Collins says. "Within 30 seconds they snap out of it. They wake up. They look at you like they don't know what happened." Collins would tell survivors how lucky they were to be alive, how close they came to death. "We would get called to the same house and people had just seen somebody overdose and they would still do it," he says. Enlarge this image toggle caption Maddie McGarvey for NPR Maddie McGarvey for NPR Collins remembers several years ago when all he had to worry about in Marion was crack cocaine. And at least crack addicts, he says, could somehow hold a life together. It's a different story with heroin users, he says. "These people are not able to hold a job," he says. "They steal their family blind to the point where the family just pretty much disowns them. "It doesn't take long for you to end up seeing a heroin addict that has burnt every bridge they've ever had." The drug is the root cause for many of the other problems his department faces, he says. "All of the property crimes we have — the shoplifting, the thefts, the robberies — all go back to one thing, and that's heroin." Opiate Blockers Offer Some Aid Narcan can save the lives of heroin users on the brink of death, but another drug, Vivitrol, helps addicts avoid getting there in the first place. Vivitrol is a big reason Marion has been able to get some sort of grip on its heroin epidemic. The drug is an extended-release opiate blocker. Kelly Clixby, Chrystina Carey's friend and a recovering heroin addict, explains how it works. Enlarge this image toggle caption Maddie McGarvey for NPR Maddie McGarvey for NPR "I get a shot every four weeks and what it does is it sits on the opioid receptors in the brain," she says. "And if I were to use heroin or an opiate, it wouldn't be able to attach to that receptor, so I wouldn't get high — so it's basically a waste of time." It's a powerful tool for helping addicts keep from relapsing, but Clixby is clear about its limits. "A lot of people think it's a cure-all," Clixby says. "It's not." Enlarge this image toggle caption Maddie McGarvey for NPR Maddie McGarvey for NPR And, because Vivitrol only blocks the effects of opiates like heroin, Collins says addicts dead set on getting high are looking elsewhere. "We've seen a pretty big increase back into the crack cocaine market, because they can be on probation and be on the Vivitrol shot and still use crack cocaine and get high," he says. "So they're still feeding their addiction: They've just switched to something different again." Police, Recovering Addicts And Families Fight Onward It's been almost eight years since heroin showed up in Marion, Ohio. Since then, Chief Collins says public awareness campaigns have helped with the problem, and more funding for drugs like Narcan and Vivitrol has saved lives. A couple of months ago his department brought down a major drug dealer. They're not the aunt or uncle or daughter or son or sister that you used to know. They're a shell of a person that used to be great. "You feel like you're in the ocean without a life jacket," he says. "And I at least feel like I have a life jacket on now." After years of fighting her own heroin addiction, Kelly Clixby's life is on more stable footing. She's got her own apartment. She's regained custody of one of her five kids and she is working on her second marriage, although her husband is still battling his own addiction. "I've really learned just to stay on my track and just keep trudging forward despite what he's doing," she says. "If he uses, I can't, no matter what." And Beth Carey, for her part, thinks about her twin sister every day. Chrystina Carey left behind two daughters. One is now 15 years old and lives with Beth's grandmother. Beth is raising the younger girl — Jazlen, age 3. Enlarge this image toggle caption Maddie McGarvey for NPR Maddie McGarvey for NPR She calls Beth Carey "Mommy." "When I first got her ... I was letting her call me Aunt Beth," Carey says. "And then after a while, she was going to daycare, and she would hear other people cry out for mommy. So she started calling everyone mommy, cause she didn't understand what that meant. "And I knew that she needed to associate that word with someone." Beth Carey is trying to look forward, but it's hard when so many other families in her community are also suffering the effects of heroin. Sometimes loved ones die, like her sister, and other times they just slip away. Enlarge this image toggle caption Maddie McGarvey for NPR Maddie McGarvey for NPR "They're just zombies at this point. They're just on a mission and lying and stealing and manipulating and cheating," she says. "They're not the aunt or uncle or daughter or son or sister that you used to know. They're a shell of a person that used to be great."

– The Washington Post takes a look at the country's surging heroin epidemic by zeroing in on Pennsylvania’s Washington County, a place one local detective refers to as "ground zero" for heroin in the area. Last Sunday, in less than 70 minutes, eight heroin overdoses were recorded in the county of about 200,000 people. By a day later, that number had jumped to 16; by two days later, 25—three of which were fatal. As the Post notes, this period of time wasn't an isolated case but rather "an extreme example of what communities in parts of the country are enduring." In a Florida community earlier this month, 11 people overdosed on heroin in a 24-hour span, WKMG reported; this year, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, had seen 44 heroin overdoses by June 5, the Gazette reported; New Jersey saw 781 overdose deaths related to heroin last year, 101.5 reported. Just yesterday, NPR ran a story on Marion, Ohio, a small town whose police chief says that his team sometimes responds to as many as three overdoses in just one hour. One of the reasons heroin is booming: It's cheap—cheaper than the prescription drugs that, for some, start them down the road of addiction. And one of the reasons there are so many overdoses? Nowadays, the drug is even more potent. The US attorney for western Pennsylvania is one of a growing number of prosecutors who aren't interested in jailing users, the Post reports: "If they're using and trafficking, I prosecute them. If they’re just using, they need help," he says. But finding dealers—including any linked to fatal overdoses, who will be charged with homicide—is no easy task, as these days drugs are sold via cellphone or even, with more middle-class people addicted now, in unlikely locations like homes. The county's supervising detective sums up the "out of control" heroin problem: "I'd be glad to have the crack epidemic back." Click for the full Post article.

Sandra Bullock Home Intruder May Have Kept Diary About Her It may not have been a random act of misfortune when Sandra Bullock's home was broken into early Sunday morning The 39-year-old intruder, identified as Joshua Corbett, may have been obsessed with the Oscar-winning actress, law enforcement sources tell Today . Corbett, who was arrested on suspicion of burglary after rummaging through her personal belongings, might have even kept a diary devoted to Bullock.The break-in came just hours after Bullock, whose security is considered among the best in Hollywood, celebrated her win at Saturday's Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards. Officers responded to the call of a prowler around 6:30 a.m.At the time of the encounter, the actress was inside her home with 4-year-old son Louis."She is unharmed and is fine," her rep told PEOPLE at the time. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

– An intruder broke into Sandra Bullock's home early yesterday—and the actress was home at the time, along with her 4-year-old son. Law enforcement sources tell Today that suspect Joshua Corbett, 39, may have been obsessed with Bullock and kept a diary about her. He allegedly rummaged through her belongings before police responded to a call about a prowler at 6:30am and arrested him on suspicion of burglary. Bullock "is unharmed and she is fine," her rep tells People.

Congrats to Jodie Foster and her new wife Alexandra Hedison. I can exclusively reveal that the Oscar winner and her photographer girlfriend of almost a year got married this past weekend. A rep for Foster confirms the happy news. As E! News first reported, the two started dating sometime last summer. "It's pretty serious," a source told us in September. "They're totally in love." Internet chatter about the two began in the summer when the two were photographed together at a technology seminar at Fox Studios in Los Angeles and out to dinner with friends a few days later. Both were at the opening of Alan Cumming's Macbeth in NYC back about a year ago, but they weren't photographed together. ||||| Surprise! Jodie Foster is a married woman, PEOPLE has confirmed. The Oscar-winning actress wed photographer Alexandra Hedison over the weekend after dating for almost a year. E! Online first reported the news of the couple’s nuptials. In 2013, Foster, 51, gave a stirring speech at the Golden Globes that many interpreted as her coming out. “This is not going to be a big coming-out speech tonight because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age – in those very quaint days when a fragile girl would open up to trusted friends and family and coworkers and then gradually proudly to everyone who knew her,” she said during the awards, before thanking her ex-partner Cydney Bernard, the mother of her two sons. • Reporting by JULIE JORDAN PHOTOS: Surprise! We’re Married!

– Jodie Foster may have come out as gay only last year, but today she's a married woman. The 51-year-old Oscar winner married photographer girlfriend Alexandra Hedison, 44, over the weekend, reports E! Online. The two had been dating almost a year, notes People. Earlier this month, a report surfaced suggesting things were serious: Foster reportedly gave up booze because Hedison is a recovering alcoholic. Foster has two sons from her previous relationship with ex-partner Cydney Bernard, while Hedison previously dated Ellen DeGeneres for three years.

Archive-It Partner 1067: The Political TV Ad Archive, a project of the Internet Archive, collects political TV ads and social media sites in key 2016 primary election states, unlocking the metadata underneath and highlighting quality journalism to provide journalists, civic organizations, academics, and the general public with reliable information on who is trying to influence them & how. ||||| See more of Brooke Francev on Facebook ||||| “I wore it for fun because I’m just one of those people, I like to go all out,” Lacey told KTLA. His classmates loved the costume and asked to take selfies with him. ||||| MENIFEE: Boy ordered to remove Elsa ‘Frozen’ costume Share Pin It More Galleries This image released by Disney shows a teenage Elsa the Snow Queen in a scene from the animated feature "Frozen." A male student at Ethan A. Chase Middle School in Menifee was told to remove the Elsa costume he wore for a Disney-themed school spirit day Thursday because it was causing a disruption. UNCREDITED , UNCREDITED AP Related article » A Menifee middle school student wearing an Elsa costume to a school spirit day was ordered to remove his gown and wig by school officials who said it was causing a disruption. The incident occurred before school Thursday in one of the school’s quad areas and involved a large number of students, many snapping pictures, on a day they were encouraged to dress up as Disney characters, according to Romoland School District Superintendent Julie Vitale. The Ethan A. Chase Middle School student – identified as Austin Lacey, 13, in a KTLA report – and his mother said they were surprised by the reaction of school officials. “I wore it for fun because I’m just one of those people,” Austin told KTLA. “I like to go all out.” In a statement issued on Friday, Vitale said: “At no time was there an indication that the student was expressing any particular message by his actions and the (principal’s) action was based upon the need to stop a general disruption.” Vitale said the student does not face any discipline for the incident and completed the school day. After school Friday, several students said the incident was not a big deal. “It wasn’t a disruption,” said Kassandra Melara, 14. “Everybody was taking pictures with him. Nobody had a problem with it.” Another eighth-grader, Natalia Alvarez, said she knew Austin and supported his campaign for ASB president. “He’s a really good kid,” she said. “He’s helpful. He’s a straight-A student. He gets along with everybody.” Contact the writer: 951-368-9682 or tsheridan@pe.com ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video Students at Ethan Chase Middle School in Menifee were encouraged to wear Disney costumes for spirit day on Thursday. Austin Lacey, 13, chose to dress as Elsa from the movie "Frozen." The eighth-grader told KTLA that his classmates loved the idea and asked him to pose for selfies. But, the school principal apparently felt it was inappropriate and told him to take off the costume. A statement from Romoland School District Superintendent Dr. Julie Vitale read in part: "This action was taken in accordance with district policies. At no time was there an indication that the student was expressing any particular message. The Principal's action was based upon the need to stop a general disruption to the school environment," Vitale stated.

– Students are in an "uproar"—in the words of one parent—after a middle school principal in California forced a 13-year-old to change his clothes Thursday. When students at Ethan Chase Middle School were given the opportunity to dress as a Disney character for spirit week, eighth-grader Austin Lacey went "all out," KTLA reports. "I'm just one of those people," he says. Austin showed up to school in a sparkly blue dress and long blonde wig, unmistakably the trademarks of Elsa from the popular film Frozen. But he was almost immediately told to take the costume off by his principal. "The principal's action was based upon the need to stop a general disruption to the school environment," KTLA quotes a statement from the district's superintendent as saying. But BuzzFeed reports that's not what Austin's mother, Brooke Francey, heard. Lacey "was informed the principal does not agree with boys dressing like girls," she writes on Facebook. And she says the principal told her the same. "The statement made to me was, 'It is not okay for boys to dress like girls or girls to dress like boys.'" Austin, who was told to remove the costume before school even started, says classmates were cool with it and were posing for photos with him. "It wasn't a disruption," a fellow student tells the Press-Enterprise. "Nobody had a problem with it." According to a second Facebook post from Francey, students are passing out flyers encouraging everyone to cross-dress next week to support the LGBT community. "This is a real problem, and as students it is our job to fix this," the flyer states. (These boys were asked to leave school after dressing as Nikki Minaj and Miss America for spirit week.)