This year, at least three major long-awaited virtual reality headsets will go on sale: the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive, and Sony's PlayStation VR.
But Facebook-owned Oculus VR already has a huge advantage over those rival products and companies: awareness.
Take a look at this chart provided by Google Trends, which measures the popularity of search terms on Google.
As you can see, the Oculus Rift is far and away the most popular virtual reality headset on Google, at least in terms of search volume.
Sony's PlayStation VR headset, formerly called "Project Morpheus," and HTC's Vive headset, are some of the lesser-searched headsets on Google — in fact, people apparently search for the Oculus Rift about 7.5 times more than the HTC Vive or the PlayStation VR. This is somewhat surprising, considering the overwhelmingly positive reviews for the HTC Vive and the massive popularity of Sony's PlayStation 4 game console, which will support PlayStation VR.
Obviously, this chart isn't an indicator of quality or potential sales. In fact, only one of these headsets — the Gear VR, which is super cheap to begin with — is available to buy right now, and it'll take some time before these other headsets are affordable or accessible enough for most folks. Still, it's interesting to see which VR headsets people search for the most. Facebook and the Oculus team should be very happy about the level of awareness surrounding their products so far.


The prolonged oil slump has led to losses at energy companies and oil-producing countries alike.
While it might have left countries like Venezuela close to economic collapse, it's also left gaping holes in the national budgets of oil-dependent Gulf states.
Those deficits will have to be filled by borrowing, but as HSBC analysts led by economist Simon Williams note, their ability to do this cheaply will be complicated by the need to refinance existing debt that matures this year and next year.
As we have noted at length in previous reports, the slump in oil prices looks set to leave the GCC oil producers with aggregate fiscal and current account shortfalls of USD260bn and USD135bn over 2016-17 respectively, the equivalent of 8.7% and 4.5% of GDP.
We remain confident that these funding gaps will be covered. However, expectations that they will be part financed through the sale of sovereign US dollar debt (in some cases for the first time) will complicate efforts to refinance existing paper that matures over 2016-17.
And there's a lot of existing debt that needs refinancing over the next few years.


John Polidora is an artist at Blizzard. You like Mercy's Halloween skin? He did the concept for that. And loads of others, of course. As a senior concept artist and character designer working on the game, that's literally his job. I just thought I'd mention Mercy because as someone who mains as Mercy it is a very good skin that I in no way have complicated feelings about whatsoever.
You can see of Polidora's work at his personal site and ArtStation page.


Legislators are considering the establishment of a strategic environmental assessment system to evaluate the consequences of governmental policies and planning on the environment and to ensure sustainable development in the country.
Such a system will be legalized by a draft law on environmental consequence assessments which was debated by legislators attending the 19th session of the Ninth National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee on December 27.
Environmental consequence assessment refers to the analysis, anticipation and evaluation of possible consequences that certain policies, planning and projects will have on the environment. It also encompasses solutions to prevent negative impacts upon the environment and methods for follow-up inspections.
The draft law states that governments at and above city level should organize environmental consequence assessments and submit reports on them before making regional exploitation, industrial development and natural resource exploitation policies or plans that might bring about negative environmental consequences.
Under the same scrutiny will come land use schemes, city planning projects and other specific industrial, agricultural, forestry, energy, water resource, communication and tourism plans, as well as construction.
The 1979 Environmental Protection Law legalized environmental consequence assessments on construction projects. Consequently over 90 percent of projects constructed between 1991 and 1995 were evaluated using environmental protection standards, said NPC sources.
The new draft law was proposed by the NPC Environmental and Resources Protection Committee at the ongoing session for preliminary readings. A draft can become a law after legislators have participated in three readings, according to the Legislative Procedure Law.
“The law will offer solid support to the policy-making process. This is especially important as the country starts its strategic exploitation of its western landlocked regions,” said legislator Dai Zhengliang.
To ensure the assessments are fair and honest, Xie proposed that all assessment work be handled by professional evaluation agencies.


Rapid growth in Las Vegas has caused tension between urban and rural areas about the strain on Nevada's natural resources. The battle over water and energy use has raised debate about the need for conservation and alternative sources of energy.
For years, Las Vegas has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. In the latest Big Picture report, local business leaders discuss the role economic issues are playing in the 2008 presidential campaign.
States are looking to move up their primaries and caucuses in the 2008 presidential race in order to attract the candidates and have them address regional issues. Political analysts discuss the push to be at the front of the line.


President Anwar al-Sadat of Egypt has broken all relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria and South Yemen.
He has ordered their diplomats to leave Egypt within 24 hours and recalled his envoys from the countries.
The move is in retaliation to the four nations and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation signing the Declaration of Tripoli.
The document is an official pledge to "freeze" relations with the Egyptian Government.
Hostilities have been growing between Egypt and her former allies in the region after Mr Sadat visited Israel last month and became the first Arab leader to recognise the state.
The agreement in Tripoli is said to have formed a unified military front against Egypt which includes sanctions against any Egyptian company or individual doing business with Israel.
The coalition is also considering moving the headquarters of the Arab League from Cairo.
It called on all Arab states to give full financial, political and military assistance to Syria as the main confrontation state and it condemned Mr Sadat's visit to Israel as "high treason".
Egypt is now expected to expel an estimated 200 diplomats with the Syrians leaving first.
It is not yet known if Egypt will take any action against Iraq which walked out on the talks in Tripoli.
Iraqi president Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr refused to agree to the declaration because the remit was too vague and he wanted tougher sanctions against Egypt.
The Egyptian move is seen as a damper on the forthcoming visit to the Middle East by the US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.
Mr Vance will be seeking Arab support for Mr Sadat's peace initiative and his plans for preliminary talks on the subject in Cairo.
The following September the Egyptian and Israeli leaders met with American president Jimmy Carter and signed the Camp David Peace Accords.
That same year President Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize.
But when the peace treaty between the two countries was signed in March 1979 Egypt was condemned by the other Arab nations and excluded from the Arab League.
In October 1981 Present Sadat was assassinated by Islamic militants angered by his deal with Israel.
Since then Egypt has regained favour with Arab states and become pivotal to diplomacy throughout the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.


The European Union won’t require its member countries to ban Huawei from their wireless networks, despite the U.S.’s warning that the Chinese tech giant poses an intelligence threat. Cybersecurity expert Morgan Wright reacts to the EU’s decision.
A U.K. watchdog is raising concerns that the use of Huawei Technologies equipment in the country’s telecom network could pose long-term national security risks, according to a report published Thursday.
Huawei – one of the world’s largest telecommunications firms -- has faced international scrutiny over its close ties to the Chinese government. The Trump administration is seeking to persuade allies to block the use of the company’s equipment in pending fifth-generation wireless networks.
While some, like Australia, have implemented measures to ban Huawei, others -- including the U.K. and Germany -- are still weighing whether to take action. The new analysis from the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre’s Huawei Oversight Board, however, could renew calls for the government to take action.
“Even this limited assurance is possible only on the basis that…the defects in Huawei equipment are fairly well understood in the UK,” the report reads.
The U.S. recently banned federal agencies from using products from the company. Huawei is suing the government over the statute, passed as part of last year's defense spending authorization law.
The Trump administration also previously hit the firm with a slew of criminal charges related to the attempted theft of trade secrets and violations of sanctions against Iran.
Huawei executives have attempted to discredit the White House campaign, arguing it's over fear that the National Security Agency's information collection efforts would be hindered if more countries use the firm's equipment.


Originally a row of small, stone buildings, the inn was the center of a once busy mining town 50 miles north of Tonopah. Its original tenants included a mining company, the Nye County sheriff, a courtroom and a newspaper. Since, the building had been used as a telegraph office, a boarding house and a stagecoach stop. There’s a thick, rectangular slab of granite out front that was used to help people onto the stages.


Nights with Steve Price reviews the day’s news and current affairs and follows the breaking news of the night.
Every night the program features one of the country’s most popular columnists, Rita Panahi, discussing the news and politics of the day.
Listen to the full show podcast of Nights with Steve Price for Thursday April 18.
Dr Harry Nespolon talks the College’s election campaign.
The Australian’s John Lethlean talks the week in his culinary adventures.
Rita Panahi & Steve Price talk the day’s politics.
Listen to the full show podcast of Nights with Steve Price for Wednesday April 17.
Andrew Bolt & Steve Price talk the day’s politics.
Andrew Clennell joins Steve Price to discuss the latest in politics.
Every Tuesday night Steve Price is joined by Brett Stene from Jacaranda Financial Planning to answer all your financial questions.
Dr Larry Benge from the Malo Clinic Sydney joins Steve Price each Wednesday night at 9.45pm for the 2GB Dental Health Show. The Dental Health show provides a platform for listeners to receive dental advice from Dr Larry Benge on reconstructive, aesthetic and implant dentistry, plus general and preventative dental care.


(Reuters) - British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt dismissed as a sham the appearance on Russian state TV of two Russians resembling men London accuses of jetting to England to try to murder a former spy.
“Time to stop the fake TV shows – the world has found Russia out on this”, Hunt said in a tweet.
The two Russians said that they were tourists who had flown to London for fun and visited the city of Salisbury to see its cathedral.


Instagram accounts for 8% of social media posts about fall TV but 70% of the engagement, according to a new report by Nielsen via its Social Content Ratings service.
As social media continues to grow in importance as a tool for building awareness for TV shows, networks are looking for the best ways to deploy resources across social platforms. Nielsen is increasing its capabilities for measuring what it calls Owned Content Performance across social media.
As evidence of the need, the company sifted through social data from a three-week period ahead of the fall TV season. The total added up to 142,000 pieces of content on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram generating more than 154 million engagements (likes, comments, re-posts, etc.).
The numbers on Instagram were particularly revealing. While the Facebook-owned platform had just 8% of all posts, it had a 70% share of engagement.
Nielsen began accounting for social media in its measurement in 2016, adding Instagram last January.
While text-only posts remain the most common media type created by owned accounts, with 35% of the owned content total, they captured only 8% of owned engagements. Video and static images, by comparison, comprise about 56% of owned content but make up 83% of all owned engagements.
Content creators must be able to curate posts that harness the distinct benefits of each platform. Video posts on Facebook and Twitter are more than 10% and 20% more engaging than images, respectively, but it’s reversed on Instagram; image posts on Instagram overtake video posts by more than 30% in terms of engagements.


ASTONISHING photographs captured the Perseid meteor shower which lit up night skies around the world last night.
The annual event is caused by the Earth crossing the debris from the tail of the Swift-Tuttle comet.
Dust and rock jettisoned from comet burn up as they enter our atmosphere, appearing as shining lights shooting across the night sky.
The shower appears to come from the direction of the Perseus constellation from which it gets its name.
It technically began on July 17 but reached its most spectacular stage last night when up to 80 meteors an hour rained down on earth - double what was experienced last year.
Jane Houston Jones from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said: "The famous and reliably active Perseid meteor shower peaks in the morning hours of August 12th.
"The moon, which paired up so nicely with Mars and Saturn on the 11th, is bright enough to blot out some of the meteors, but-lucky for you it sets about 1 a.m. on the morning of the 12th, just at the peak time for the best Perseid viewing."
"Though you'll see the most meteors after moonset on Friday morning August 12th, the days on either side of the peak have elevated rates too, and even a week before and after the 12th you'll see some Perseids."
Although the natural fireworks display peaked last night it will continue for a few more days.
Those in areas with low light pollution may want to have deck chair and a blanket ready to drink in one of nature's most stunning events.


Twitter just officially launched its “retweet with comment” feature, which it began testing last summer.
“Retweet with comment” allows users to embed a tweet in their own tweets, which lets them get around Twitter’s 140-character limit when they write their own commentary. The feature is now available on Twitter’s site and iPhone app and will be available on its Android app soon.
Twitter previously let users embed quoted tweets by cutting-and-pasting its URL, but “retweet and comment” lets you do that by just pressing a button. The feature’s arrival has been heralded with much (somewhat ironic) rejoicing by Twitter users. Unfortunately, you can’t embed the full retweet and comment, as I just found out to my disconcertment while preparing this post (click on the embedded tweets to see how they look in the wild).
As my colleague Sarah Perez pointed out last year, however, the feature serves a serious purpose. For one thing, it allows people to share and comment on tweets without having to shorten the original tweet, which means that its context and meaning is preserved.
Forcing users to truncate their rambling thoughts into pithy soundbites was one of Twitter’s original charms, but as the platform matures, many influential users have been devising ways of getting around the character limit so they can use Twitter as their main public communication platform instead of, say, a blog. Hence the rise of “tweetstorms,” which were initially derided by many long-time Twitter users, but show no signs of abating.
Another popular way of getting around Twitter’s enforced brevity is posting screenshots of quotes from articles. This inspired the app OneShot, made as a side project by Twitter veteran Jason Goldman, a former VP of product at Twitter.
Of course, hacking Twitter’s character limit is nothing new. Users have been figuring out ways to enable their loquacity since the platform was launched with products like TwitLonger and JumboTweet. The official rollout of Twitter’s “retweet with comment” feature just puts an imprimatur on one kind of longform tweet.
Unfortunately, the feature only lets you quote one layer of tweets, so if you’re out of luck if you were hoping to perform a retweetception.


In a statement Friday, President Donald Trump declared victory after the ICC rejected a request to investigate US personnel for actions in Afghanistan.
I thought they always were being that over 70 yrs of war crimes, human rights violations and being literally founded by terrorists they never once were held to account and when “resolutions” are put on them, they simply ignore them and America steps in to defend with our soldiers, politicians and tax dollars. #MAGA!


The story isn't over for babies who suffered at the hands of abortionist Kermit Gosnell.
The Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office could retain their bodies for up to 10 years. Protesters on August 26 again called attention to the babies murdered by Gosnell, and noted that city officials may take their time in disposing the bodies.
The rally, preceded by a vigil the evening before, was phase two of "A Cry For Dignity." During the event, protesters carried signs with names assigned to the some 45 babies brutalized by Gosnell, who was convicted of murdering three babies in May. The protestors are calling for "a proper and dignified funeral and burial service."
Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins bashed the City of Philadelphia, arguing, "Can you imagine if they did that -- if I died today and the City of Philadelphia said they weren't going to release my body for 10 years? We would say that's inhumane. We would say that's barbaric."
Hawkins concluded, "I think what they're trying to do is kind of hold them hostage a little bit and threaten us. But we're not going to go away. We're going to keep coming back to Philadelphia, keep talking about Kermit Gosnell, and we're going to keep talking about these babies who are now being vitimized for a second time by the medical coroner."
Several notable pro-life speakers attended the event, including Christian Defense Coalition's Rev. Patrick Mahoney and Stand True Ministries' Bryan Kemper.
The protest followed an earlier rally, where the Medical Examiner's Office refused to accept a letter from pro-life activists asking about the babies' remains.


WASHINGTON, July 31 (AP) —The Government charged the Armco Steel Corporation today with using illegal reciprocalpurchase arrangements with suppliers and customers.
The Middletown, Ohio, concern, which is the United States’ fifth‐largest steel producer, was named in a civil antitrust suit and accompanying consent order filed by the Justice Department in Federal District Court in Cincinnati.
Attorney General John N. Mitchell, who announced the actions in Washington, said the suit alleged that Armco had had reciprocal agreements with customers and suppliers since 1958. Such agreements are illegal under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
As a result of the alleged agreements, Armco's competi tors have been closed off from selling substantial quantities of goods and services to Armco's customers and rival suppliers have been prevented from selling goods and services to Arm co, the suit alleged.
Armco is the fourth large steel concern to be cited by the Justice Department for alleged reciprocal buying‐selling agreements. Similar suits have been filed within the last year against the United States Steel Corporation, the Illland Steel Company and the Republic Steel Corporation.
The proposed consent judgement submitted with the suit would prohibit for 10 years purchases by Armco on the condition that such purchases would he based on Armco's sales to the supplier. The judgment becomes final in 30 days unless the Government withdraws its agreement to its terms.


Trade turnover between Russia and its second largest trade partner, Germany, increased 8.4 percent and reached nearly €62 billion ($70 billion) in 2018 compared to previous year, according to the German trade lobby.
Year-on-year imports from Russia to Germany expanded 14.7 percent, amounting to €36 billion ($40 billion). Export to Russia rose by 0.6 percent to €25.9 billion ($29 billion), the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce, which represents over 800 German firms, reported on Monday citing the Federal Statistical Office.
This is despite sanctions against Moscow and threats from the US to penalize German companies involved in the Russia-led Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
“German business has successfully increased exports to Russia despite the market difficulties, sanctions and counter-sanctions. This has also improved our expectations for 2019,” the chairman of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce, Matthias Schepp, said in a statement.
At the end of last year, Schepp said German firms boosted their investment in the Russian economy in spite of economic sanctions, adding such an investment volume has rarely been seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Speaking to RT at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in May, the head of the German trade lobby said that it's not only car manufacturers investing heavily in Russia but medium-sized businesses as well.
Germany is Russia's second largest trade partner, behind China. The trade turnover between Beijing and Moscow also surged last year by 24.5 percent to $108.3 billion, with $56.1 billion of it amounting to Russian exports to China. This is the first time since 2006 that Russia has had a trade surplus with its Eastern partner.


The cloud-based accounting platform's growth continued, with 193,000 new subscribers added in the half. But it came at a cost, with net losses widening.
US private equity firm KKR has sweetened its bid for accounting software platform MYOB to $3.77 a share, valuing the company at $2.2 billion.
The barbarians are at the MYOB gates. Chairman Justin Milne and the board will have to decide whether to let them inside the building.
Founder Rod Drury has stepped back to ensure a smooth succession for chief executive Steve Vamos.
Businesses are scrambling to digitise their wage systems as the Tax Office rolls out Single Touch Payroll.
Xero board member Craig Winkler has sold a whopping $120 million worth of the company's shares since May last year.
JP Morgan chairman Rob Priestley takes his Banking and Finance Oath very seriously.
Move over, pavlova, Australia is quickly laying claim to another Kiwi icon.
Steve Vamos will take over as chief executive of the accounting software company.
Cloud accounting software provider Xero's net loss for the first half has ballooned by 82 per cent, despite a surge in subscribers.
Xero may be the poster child for publicly listed technology start-ups, but its founder and chief executive learned the hard way it's not for the faint-hearted.


In the San Antonio Independent School District, the focus is on breaking down - school size that is, as the Texas city seeks to turn its eight large public high schools (average enrollment: 2,000) into clusters of small academies or magnet schools with between 400 to 600 students each.
The city hopes to find a way to weave together some of the best of the small-school experience with certain benefits of large schools. The small schools within each large school plan to continue to support one large football team and one large marching band.
"People want to keep the advantages of the big institutions," says Tom Gregory, professor of education at Indiana University in Bloomington. "They want that broad-based curriculum and that big football team."
In some Indianapolis suburbs, says Dr. Gregory, efforts to break down large schools have caused parental unhappiness. "They say the community is now less united and there are no more top-flight orchestras."
At the 125-pupil Heath Elementary School in Heath, Mass., principal Philip O'Reilly says small schools have their pros and cons.
On the plus side: "Every teacher takes ownership of every student that walks through the door." On the negative side: "There are fewer support services."
Some educators warn against expecting too much from a simple change in school size.
"Size isn't everything," says Joann Manning, director of field services at the laboratory for school success at Philadelphia's Temple University. "[A smaller school] doesn't necessarily mean people are teaching in more powerful ways. But it does organize the school in a way that's useful."


Jalen Ramsey (pictured) and Tashaun Gipson did not practice Wednesday and Thursday, but were limited participants Friday.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The Jacksonville Jaguars could be without two starting defensive backs Sunday against Indianapolis.
Cornerback Jalen Ramsey (knee) and safety Tashaun Gipson (ankle) are listed as questionable on the team’s injury report. Ramsey and Gipson did not practice Wednesday and Thursday, but were limited participants Friday.
Ramsey and Gipson are two of seven Jaguars listed as questionable against the Colts. The others: cornerback Tre Herndon (ankle), safety Cody Davis (hamstring), cornerback Quenton Meeks (knee), defensive end Lerentee McCray (hamstring) and left tackle Josh Walker (foot/ankle).
Receiver DJ Chark (quadriceps) was ruled out for the second straight week.


Brighton UK 28th April 2015 - Runners enjoy the sunny Spring weather on the South Downs Way at Ditchling Beacon just north of Brighton this morning.Photograph taken by Simon Dack..
ROBERT Halfon MP recently publicised the issue of elderly residents from his Essex constituency ringing his office for news updates because their local paper is no longer available in printed format.
This clearly makes an argument for people to support papers such as this.
However, beyond the issue of how valuable The Argus and many other Sussex papers that are published mostly on a weekly routine are is a more important message that emerges in between the lines.
I read about Halfon’s comments from a news piece on the BBC website which explains that according to the Government a quarter of all regional and local newspapers (about 320) have closed in the past ten years.
The Government has commissioned an independent review into finding a sustainable future for journalism, chaired by Frances Cairncross who has worked for The Times, Guardian and Observer. Whatever the outcome of the review, the fact that the Government has committed so much time to developing online mechanisms for communicating with people who clearly don’t have access to the internet should be another focus.
There are many public services that can now only operate in a cost effective manner online, yet we need to avoid public services being lost to communities that do not have access to such resources.
Clearly one possible way forward is for the Government to work alongside commercial publications which might help lessen the closing down of papers, but there is a limit to what can be achieved in this manner, particularly in settings like Harlow where it seems local newspapers have already ended their print form.
It is of course fascinating for those of us who observe the messages from governments that back in December 2012 one of Robert’s next door neighbours in constituency terms, Eric Pickles, sent out a Christmas message to local authorities with a “gift” that was called “fifty ways to save – examples of sensible savings in local government”. The 35th way was entitled “Reduce the number of publications and media monitoring” which Eric used to glorify the cost savings made in his department and then three ideas later he suggested “Scrap the Town Hall Pravda: Local authority newspapers undermine an independent local press.
Councillors can still issue their own local ward newsletters using political party funds to help keep in touch with local residents.
Perhaps Halfon and indeed all Tory MPs and councillors could take on board the issues he has made public and begin to question if online communication and printed party political newsletters are sufficient ways of the public sector maintaining contact with residents, particularly in settings where the news media is restricted to online communication.
Although I suspect Halfon will not criticise or question the wisdom of his Tory colleague who now spends his time in the House of Lords, rather than in the Commons, he is clearly someone who is willing on occasions to stand up against the approach taken by their party.
Around the same time as he was letting the BBC know about his busy phone lines he was also declaring to them that the way in which early years education is provided to families who are on low incomes and lacking in working opportunities or skills is clearly a mistake.
This relates to the decision by David Cameron and George Osborne to extend the 15 hours of free early years education provided to all families to double that time providing that the families concerned earn less than £100,000 per parent or carer and work more than 16 hours a week.
As Robert Halfon admitted, the most vulnerable families may well work fewer hours because they are struggling to gain the skills or jobs in the first place and in any case the children concerned are potentially the ones who have most to lose as the children from low income families are four months behind those on higher incomes at the start of primary education and nine months behind when they are transferred to secondary education.
This extends even further when they reach the end of their educational opportunities.
Sadly, he failed to point out that along with the lack of access granted to needy families, that the funding approach for the additional 15 hours means that early years providers are facing major challenges and indeed the sector is currently in meltdown for this very reason.
Perhaps along with Robert Halfon some of our Sussex MPs and councillors could raise this with their party policy makers.


A high-risk traffic stop that took place downtown on Tuesday afternoon ended with a 24-year-old woman in police custody and three young children being cared for by Mobile Crisis Services.
The woman has been charged with attempted robbery, robbery, possession of stolen property over $5,000, carrying a weapon dangerous to the public and assault with a weapon — many of the charges stemming from two incidents that took place just after 8 a.m. in the College Park and Grosvenor Park neighbourhoods.
During the arrest, which took place just after 1 p.m. north of the intersection of 2nd Avenue North and 23rd Street East, officers located three young children inside the vehicle and called Mobile Crisis Services to care for them.
According to a police news release, police first responded to two reports that a woman armed with a knife and driving a Ford Escape — which officers discovered had also been stolen — between 8 and 8:30 a.m. In the first incident the suspect attempted to rob a woman of her belongings but was unsuccessful. In the second incident the suspect stole another woman’s purse.
Neither of the victims were injured in the robberies which took place on the 200 block of Lake Crescent and in the area near Acadia Drive and Harrington Street.


In this photo taken President Barack Obama rides in his limousine as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Joint Base Andrews tweets that the base is on lockdown due to a report of an active shooter. The tweet sent Thursday instructs all personnel at the base in Washington’s Maryland suburbs to shelter in place and says more information will be released as it comes.
People with arms raised people are lead out of the Malcolm Grow Medical facility on Andrews AFB in Morningside, Md., when the base wasplaced on lockdown after an active shooter was reported, Thursday. Officials say reports of an active shooter at the military post stemmed from someone who made a distress call Thursday after seeing security forces doing a routine inspection.
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. >> The military base outside Washington where the presidential plane Air Force One is stationed was temporarily locked down Thursday after an “active shooter” report that turned out to be a false alarm.
The report stemmed from someone who made a distress call after seeing security forces doing a routine inspection. The confusion was heightened by a planned active shooter drill at Joint Base Andrews that had not yet begun. Officials said in a Facebook post Thursday that there was no shooter and no threat to the base or workers there.
The base had been placed on lockdown about 9 a.m. after an active shooter was reported. The base is home to Air Force One and is about 20 miles from Washington.
About an hour and a half later, the military post tweeted that the lock down had been lifted, except for the medical building where the active shooter was reported.
A law enforcement official said no active shooter was found at the post. The law enforcement official was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to leave from Andrews on Thursday morning, but his trip was delayed by the lockdown.
The vice president’s office said he was waiting out the delay at his residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington.
Biden was due in Columbus, Ohio, for a midday campaign event for former Gov. Ted Strickland, who is running for Senate.
The president, vice president and other senior government officials fly in and out of Joint Base Andrews.
Emergency vehicles in the area of the base had on lights Thursday, but no sirens. At least three people in camouflage and helmets could be seen walking working dogs around the three-story building. About 10:15 a.m., a few people could be seen walking out of the building, including a person being moved in a wheelchair.
Rodney Smith, the patient advocate at the Andrews medical facility, said an active-shooter exercise was scheduled for Thursday morning, and then he was told it was a “real-world” situation.
“First it was an active-shooter exercise. Then it came back ‘real world,’” Smith said by phone Thursday morning.
Smith said the situation was unfolding at the newer of two buildings at the Malcolm Grow Medical Facility. He was in the older building.
Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press Writers Sarah Brumfield and Ben Nuckols in Washington contributed to this report.


The body representing judges in Chile has made an unprecedented apology for the actions of its members under military rule in the 1970s and 1980s.
In a statement, it said the judiciary at the time had abandoned its role as protector of basic rights.
“The time has come to ask for the forgiveness of victims… and of Chilean society,” said the judges.
BBC reports that more than 3,000 people were killed under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990.
The statement by the National Association of Magistrates of the Judiciary comes a week before the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Gen. Pinochet to power.
It said its members, and in particular the Supreme Court, had failed in its duty to protect victims of state abuse.
The magistrates’ association acknowledged that the Chilean judiciary could and should have done much more to safeguard the rights of those persecuted by the dictatorship.
It said the judges had ignored the plight of victims who had demanded their intervention.
Chilean courts rejected about 5,000 cases seeking help on locating missing loved ones abducted or killed by the authorities.
Critics say their usual response was they had no information about their fate.
Chile’s current centre-right government has said the country will officially recognise the anniversary of the coup.


As David Terenzoni, director at Public Services moves to head the Water Department, the search is on for a new director.
The Public Services director has lots of responsibility in a city of 53,000 residents, with paving, plowing, and potholes just the tip of the iceberg.
The City Council approved upping the maximum salary for the position to $135,000 a year, up from $119,000 at the request of the mayor.
By upping the maximum salary, Bettencourt said the city can ensure it attracts qualified candidates for the job. While the maximum salary for the director is $119,000, Terenzoni’s salary is $114,000.
The new Public Services director would not necessarily be hired at $135,000, but raising the upper limit gives the city flexibility, the mayor said. The position is scheduled to be advertised today.
Councilor-at-Large Anne Manning-Martin supports the mayor’s request. But she suggested the educational requirements be raised so a Bachelor’s degree would be required and a Master’s preferred.
“If we do want the best candidates, we should match the quality or experience to the maximum salary,” she said.
The council also approved an increase in the maximum salary for the assistant public services director to $95,000 from $85,500.
“The assistant director does not get overtime rates like others in the department do, and he works more hours than anybody,” said Bettencourt.
In other business, the council last Thursday also recommended an $1,100 raise for the Peabody Municipal Light Commissioners to $5,100 per year. The last time the elected commissioners got a raise was in 1996.
The pay bump will now have to be approved by Legislature.


How interesting are you? As in, if you’re stuck in a room with someone for an hour, are you able to carry on an informative and entertaining discussion or is it just 60 minutes of awkward smiling? The reality is probably somewhere in the middle, but there’s always a whiff of paranoia it might be more of the latter. And that’s where The Economist comes in.
In its new ad by agency eyeball, we see a man getting on the elevator, waiting to exhale after a stressful meeting, when in walks Google executive chairman–and Economist board member–Eric Schmidt. You can practically hear the poor guy’s flop sweats starting. But if he had read The Economist, he’d be able to wax academic on things like the Japanese prime minister’s economic plan or tax reform in India. Or at least the ability to move beyond mind-numbing small talk.
The ad’s a remake of a 1996 spot with the same premise, except, it was on an airplane with former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger. Chances are he wouldn’t want to talk about this, but perhaps The Economist could help.
It’s a campaign and idea that could live for a long time, limited only by the number of potentially awkward social situations they can think of and celebrated minds they can recruit. Maybe next time it’ll be Joe Biden on the AmTrak, or Kanye at the dentist’s office.


Watch for European leaders to make moves to — hopefully, in their minds — charm and disarm Trump during his consequential visits to the NATO summit and to the United Kingdom for his first visit there.
Another storyline: German Chancellor Angela Merkel mentioned several times last week that German defense spending levels need to go up. Watch for her to make a good faith statement at NATO along similar lines.
The Brits have arranged Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom with the apparent goal of keeping him as far as possible from the massive protests against him being planned in central London.
London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, has approved a giant blimp, depicting Trump as an angry baby, to fly over Parliament during Trump's U.K. visit.
Meanwhile, British officials will host Trump at events far away from 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. Sources familiar with the planning tell me they want Trump out of sight and earshot of the protesters.
British Prime Minister Theresa May will host the president and first lady for a black-tie dinner at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. It's the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, and Trump will be able to say he's the first American president in recent memory — possibly ever — to be hosted there.
Trump will meet the Queen at Windsor and will head to Chequers — the Prime Minister's country estate in Buckinghamshire — for bilateral talks with May.
Between the lines: European officials tell me they're setting a low bar for their meetings with Trump. In their wildest dreams, he'd enthusiastically endorse the NATO alliance, commit to staying the course in Syria, and speak out boldly against Russian aggression. But they'll happily settle for none of that, so long as Trump keeps his ally-bashing to a minimum.


Having publicly argued the church case in recent national debates on euthanasia and stem cells as well as on Aboriginal and refugee rights, I hope I can be seen as one with a consistent life ethic and a consistent approach on the primacy of the formed and informed conscience. In light of my experience as a participant in the national debate on embryonic stem cell research, let me offer some constructive and respectful reflections on the happenings here in Sydney this last fortnight.
The public consternation has focussed on the comments of Cardinal Pell and the reaction of the politicians to his initial press conference. So that will be my focus, but with a view to drawing some general conclusions applicable to all pastors and church leaders in relation to all issues debated in the public square.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have gone to some pains to avoid the Murdoch press’s initial depiction of a conflict between Cardinal Pell and myself as “divisions between church heavyweights over the primacy of conscience”. I am pleased to note that the Murdoch press then reported under the headline “Jesuit priest raps cardinal’s critics”.
New South Wales MPs have used a debate on new stem cell legislation to attack the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, after he warned parliamentarians against supporting the bill.
NSW Emergency Services Minister Nathan Rees accused the Cardinal of blackmailing Catholic MPs.
"He can apologise, or he can invite further comparisons with that serial boofhead, Sheikh Al Hilali," he said.
State Planning Minister Frank Sartor says the comments border on zealotry.
"The days when the church burnt people in pots of oil are over," he said.
Health Minister Reba Meagher says they were disturbing.
"That the Cardinal would choose to intervene and threaten Catholic MPs in New South Wales demonstrated just how out of touch he has become," she said.
The previous day, the New South Wales Catholic bishops had issued a statement opposing a NSW bill which would permit the creation of human embryos only for destructive experimental purposes. The NSW bill was similar to laws passed previously by the Commonwealth and Victorian Parliaments. The bishops said, “"No Catholic politician - indeed, no Christian or person with respect for human life - who has properly informed his conscience about the facts and ethics in this area should vote in favour of this immoral legislation.” At his press conference on the release of the bishops’ statement, Cardinal Pell went on to warn “It is a serious moral matter, and Catholic politicians who vote for this legislation must realise that their voting has consequences for their place in the life of the church.” Some politicians read this as a threat. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Cardinal later classed it as “hinting at sanctions for Catholic legislators who reject important teachings”.
I agree with the New South Wales bishops that persons with respect for human life should vote against this legislation. As an aside, I note my own preference for the style of statement made by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference at the time of the national stem cells debate. It was directed to all politicians and not specifically at Catholic politicians. Advocating a law for all citizens is a different exercise from preaching morality to the Church faithful.
If I were a politician I would be voting against this law because it will permit scientists to create human life for the purpose of destroying that life, while admittedly hoping to achieve good for others. However, I will continue to respect the conscience of those politicians who say that they have to legislate for all citizens including those who do not share their religious and philosophical presuppositions. Many Australians claim to respect human life while supporting embryonic stem cell research, distinguishing between human life, human beings and human persons.
There will be some politicians who respect human life who will be prepared in our pluralistic society to permit individuals to make their own decisions about the sacredness of the human embryo. I concede to them that there is a world of difference between voting for a law to remove criminal sanctions from morally contested behaviour by others and committing those morally contested acts yourself.
Recently Pope Benedict said the Catholic Church’s social doctrine “has no intention of giving the Church power over the State. Even less is it an attempt to impose on those who do not share the faith ways of thinking and modes of conduct proper to faith. Its aim is simply to help purify reason and to contribute, here and now, to the acknowledgment and attainment of what is just.” The same must go for the Church’s moral teaching based on contested philosophical questions about the status of the human embryo.
Truth enjoys primacy. The problem is when truth is contested. What then is to enjoy primacy of method for the individual Catholic wanting to act in accordance with the truth? Is primacy to be accorded to the formed and informed conscience of the individual or to the non-infallible statement of the Pope, Vatican dicastery or bishop? I opt for the former, insisting that the conscientious Catholic would seek guidance from the latter while not acting in accordance with the latter should such a directive be contrary to the individual’s formed and informed conscience. I have not seen this merely as a personal view but as an expression of Church teaching.
-- that we should avoid coercing people's consciences: People should if possible be persuaded rather than forced to live well and so be given a certain latitude."
In good conscience I have to decide what to do, once I have given due weight to the views of religious authorities. I am one priest who is delighted to learn that the New South Wales Premier attends mass and communion from time to time. I hope he keeps doing so. If Mr Iemma or Malcolm Turnbull (A Catholic Federal Minister who supported similar legislation) were to attend any mass at which I was presiding, I would not have the least hesitation in giving them communion.
The religious consequences of these politicians’ voting patterns in Parliament should first and foremost be private, pastoral matters for discussion with their pastors. I presume that there will be no problem or embarrassment if Mr Iemma or Mr O’Farrell present themselves for communion from Pope Benedict at Randwick Race Course on World Youth Day, despite their voting behaviour on embryonic stem cells. If any pastor were seriously wanting either of them to consider abstaining from communion, surely he would first take the initiative and engage in private pastoral conversation.
When considering the Church's voice in the public square, we need to distinguish questions of principle, prudence and pastoral solicitude. On an issue such as embryonic stem cell research, a church leader is surely entitled to take a stand on principle, informed by his religious tradition, opposing legislation aimed at permitting scientists to create human life for destructive experimentation.
We move from questions of principle to issues of pastoral solicitude when a church leader chooses publicly to give hints of sanctions against co-religionist legislators as Cardinal Pell and Archbishop Hickey have done this past month. Some pastors, myself included, think such suggestions should take the form of private advice rather than public hints; and public hints should always be preceded by private dialogue. There is also the pastoral consideration to be paid to those legislators and scientists who, in good faith, do not share our theological and philosophical presuppositions. There are good pastoral reasons for not classing them as “anti-lifers” and for avoiding analogies between a church and a political party, suggesting that “just as members of a political party who cross the floor on critical issues don't expect to be rewarded and might be penalised, so it is in the church”.
Then there is the prudential side of every such public dispute. Media attention is more assured if one simplifies the protagonist's position as Cardinal Pell did again this week when speaking of “today's fashionable notion of the primacy of conscience, which is, of course secular relativism with a religious face.” But is it prudent to so simplify the protagonist's position as to caricature it? Is it prudent to hint in the public square at internal church sanctions when that could distract from, and even drown out, the coherent church statements of principle addressing a legislative or policy proposal?
Persuasion by argument, not coercion by authority, should be our religious hallmark in the public square. Greater ecumenical co-operation usually ensures that our message in the public square is more marked by persuasion than coercion.
Greater dialogue within the church could only enhance the prospects of our message being heard and taken up beyond the confines of our own pews.
This is the text of a talk given on June 19 at the Parramatta Clergy Dinner.
Frank Brennan's clear and objective article clearly demonstrates that he would make a much better Archbishop of Sydney than the present incumbent. I can only hope that Pope Benedict calls Cardinal Pell to head some dicastery in Rome and gives us an Archbishop, who is able to use argument and persuasion to present the Catholic position on any issue as Frank Brennan is so obviously able to do.
The weakness in Fr Brennan's position is that he does not articulate the circumstances in which he believes the Church can or should bring about consequences for legislators (such as witholding Communion).
Are there any circumstances in which such an action would be right? What if, for example, someone founded a political party whose policies were unequivocably based on the racial supremacy of Europeans. Would the Church be wrong to deny that person Communion until he or she had publicly repented?
In my view, the Church would be clearly justified in so acting in those circumstances. Catholic legislators should - of course - vote in accordance with their consciences and we must respect that. But the flip side of this is that the Catholic legislators should expect to face the consequences of their actions. If their actions are wrong and public, it creates a situation of scandal (in the technical, not the common sense of the term). The Church would be perfectly entitled (and perhaps compelled) to take public action to correct the legislator.
Of course, this action should only be taken in very serious circumstances. But legislation permitting the killing of unborn human life certainly meets this criterion.
The impression is left that Cardinal Pell has the far superior grasp of what is at stake here.
In response to Chris A's inquiry about when it would be right to impose consequences on politicians at the altar, I refer him to Chapter 3 of my recent book "Acting on Conscience" (UQP 2007) which contains a detailed treatment of this question. The chapter is entitled "Lessons from the United States in Election and Selection Mode".
Fr Frank's statement is cogently presented. He writes : "In the public square, church authorities are armed only with public argument informed by and consistent with their religious tradition." Even then, church leaders are themselves subject to the same logic about formed and informed consciences. They act in good faith, and may themselves be wrong in their presentation of the church's traditional position. I write as an Anglican, and can see that principle looking different in our tradition, but I believe the principle holds in each tradition.
The consciences of politicians voting for cloning at present must be objectively in error if truth (ie Catholic teaching on cloning) enjoys primacy. They can be wrong either ‘invincibly’ (ie through no fault of their own) or ‘voluntarily’ (ie through their own fault, negligence perhaps). Bishop Fisher says ‘we must follow the last and best judgment of our conscience even if, unbeknownst to us, it is objectively in error’. But in view of the very public proclamation of Church teaching on this issue and the very obvious responsibility for legislators to be informed, for politicians claiming to be Catholic at least, the fact that their consciences are in error cannot be ‘unbeknownst’ to them. Note that the Catholic Bishops’ statement mentions properly informing conscience. Some would say that it is too much to suggest that that the consciences of these politicians are voluntarily in error, but it is hard to draw any other conclusion. And if Church leaders remain silent this does a disservice to truth.
It's a misuse of language (but more newsworthy) to call a warning a threat. It's ridiculous to call a warning blackmail. When a bishop (or anyone in a position of power) says that doing a certain thing would render someone liable to certain sanctions, he is warning. If he said he was intending to apply those sanctions he would be threatening.


NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jerry Reed, a popular country singer and movie actor whose larger-than-life storytelling and flashy guitar work vividly evoked Southern life, died early Monday morning at his home here. He was 71.
The cause was emphysema, said Butch Baker, Reed”s friend and song publisher.
Best known in later years for his role in the movie “The Waterboy,” starring Adam Sandler, and in the three “Smokey and the Bandit” adventures of the late ”70s and early ”80s, in which he played Burt Reynolds” gear-shifting sidekick the Snowman, Reed was first and foremost a musician.
Reed accompanied himself on the three dozen Top 40 country hits he recorded under his own name from 1967 to 1983.
“Amos Moses” earned Reed a 1971 Grammy nomination for best male country vocal performance, an award that he won the following year with “When You”re Hot, You”re Hot.” He and the producer and guitarist Chet Atkins received a Grammy in 1971 for best country instrumental performance, for their album “Me and Jerry.” Reed and Atkins won another Grammy in that category, for their CD “Sneakin” Around,” in 1993.
The Country Music Association named Reed musician of the year in 1970 and 1971.
As an in-demand session guitarist in Nashville during the 1960s and ”70s, his staccato finger-picking could be heard on Elvis Presley”s “Guitar Man” and “U.S. Male,” both of which were written by Reed, and on hits by the singer Waylon Jennings, among others.
Jerry Reed Hubbard was born in March 20, 1937, in Atlanta. The son of cotton mill workers, he began playing the guitar in elementary school, later graduating to nightclubs and bars in and around Atlanta as a teenager.
After dropping out of high school to play with country stars like Faron Young and Ernest Tubb, Reed, then 16, was introduced to Atlanta music publisher Bill Lowery, who helped him secure a writing and recording contract with the country division of Capitol Records.
He parted ways with Capitol in the late 1950s and, after serving in the Army, moved to Nashville in 1962 to pursue a career as a songwriter, immediately finding success when Porter Wagoner had a No. 1 country hit with his song “Misery Loves Company.” Reed started doing work as a session guitarist for Atkins at RCA, where his syncopated mix of fretted and open strings galvanized hits by everyone from Bobby Bare to Presley.
After signing with RCA in the mid-”60s, Reed began having hits of his own. He began making regular appearances on the primetime TV variety shows hosted by Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell, and his affable presence led to roles in Hollywood movies.
The first, in “W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings,” began a series of collaborations with Burt Reynolds that included the popular “Smokey and the Bandit” movies. Their soundtracks featured Reed”s music.
Reed is survived by Priscilla Reed, his wife of 49 years, and by two daughters, Sedina and Lottie, and two grandchildren, all of Nashville.
Baker said Reed was especially proud of his final project, “The Gallant Few,” an album made to raise funds for wounded veterans.


WANT to find out more about kids' radio programs in your area?
There are a few things you can do. Since many of the programs are on public radio, call your local public radio station and ask them if they air any shows for kids.
Some shows are for very young kids and others are for older kids, so you might want to ask what the "target ages" are for a particular show as well as what day and time it airs. You can also check local newspapers and magazines, or ask your teachers if they've heard of any programs for kids.
07645 `Kidspace' is a place on the Home Forum pages where kids can find stories that will spark imaginations, entertain with a tall tale, explain how things work, or describe a real-life event. These articles appear twice a month, always on a Tuesday.
First Look Who is the gun-toting politician that negotiated with Oregon occupiers?


Thanks for hanging out and thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. Sorry if you were just at home, refreshing, during that server hiccup today. Sorry for a lot of reasons, if that was the case. We'll have more tonight, more tomorrow, and incrementally more the day after that, until we have too much. Have a good Saturday.


For the Rangers, Monday’s six-hour flight to Vancouver should be a pleasant one.
The Blueshirts, coming off a 1-4-1 skid, rode a two-goal night from center Derick Brassard and toppled the Ottawa Senators, 4-1, Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.
With the Rangers leading 2-1 in the third period, Brassard raced ahead of the field to collect a bouncing pass, fired from the top of the left circle and beat goalie Craig Anderson at 10:08.
It certainly qualified as a breakout evening for Brassard, who had only one goal in the previous nine games.
Jesper Fast added an empty-netter with 1:31 left.
Defenseman Ryan McDonagh also had a big night offensively with a goal and two assists, which tied a career high.
The Rangers (18-7-3) tightened their defense in the third, allowing Ottawa only three shots on Henrik Lundqvist in the final 20 minutes.
The Rangers are 12-4-1 at home but play the next three on the road in Western Canada. It also was a rare win here over the Senators, who came in 8-0-1 in their last nine games at the Garden.
With the Rangers having scored only six goals in the previous four games, coach Alain Vigneault juggled his lines. The Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the first period, not five-on-five but on power-play goals.
With Chris Kreider screening Anderson, McDonagh fired a high one-timer from the left point that opened the scoring at 8:40. The captain’s fourth goal of the season was the first by a Rangers defenseman in 10 games.
When the Senators’ bench drew an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty, apparently for repeated chirping to an official, McDonagh’s wrister from near the same spot was deflected by Brassard, also above Anderson’s glove, at 13:47.
It was only the second game all season in which the Rangers had more than one power-play goal. They had two against Carolina on Nov. 30 during a stretch of nine games in 15 days in which they slumped, posting a 3-5-1 mark.
Lundqvist, who finished with 23 saves for his 14th win, had to be sharp, and a little fortunate, early in the second. He made an acrobatic stop on Bobby Ryan, whose rebound hit the side of the net. Ryan then was held and dumped by J.T. Miller, but the Rangers fended off the man-advantage.
Marc Methot’s shot, which deflected off Staal’s stick and past Lundqvist at 6:01 of the second, brought the visitors within one.
On Sunday night, the Blueshirts, coming off a 1-4-1 skid, rode a two-goal night from center Derick Brassard and toppled the Ottawa Senators at Madison Square Garden, 4-1.
With the Rangers leading 2-1 in the third period, Brassard raced ahead of the field to collect a bouncing pass, wound up and fired from the top of the left circle and beat goalie Craig Anderson at 10:08. It certainly qualified as a breakout evening for Brassard, who had just one goal in the last nine games. Defenseman Ryan McDonagh also had a big night offensively, with a goal and two assists, which tied a career high. Jesper Fast added an empty-netter with 1:31 left .
The Blueshirts (18-7-3) tightened their defense in the third period, allowed the Senators just three shots on Henrik Lundqvist in the final 20 minutes. The Rangers are now 12-4-1 at home, but play the next three on the road in Western Canada. It also was a rare win here over the Senators, who came in 8-0-1 in their last nine games at the Garden.
After scoring just six goals in the last four games, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault juggled his lines, but the Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the first period, not 5-on-5, but on power-play goals. With Chris Kreider screening Anderson, McDonagh fired a high one-timer from the left point that opened the scoring at 8:40. The captain’s fourth goal of the season was the first by a defenseman in 10 games.
When the Senators’ bench drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, apparently for repeated chirping to an official, McDonagh’s wrister from near the same spot was deflected by Brassard, also above Anderson’s glove, at 13:47. It was only the second game all season that the Rangers had more than one power play goal. They had two against Carolina on Nov. 30, as part of a nine game in 15 days stretch when they slumped, posting a 3-5-1 mark.
Lundqvist, who finished with 23 saves for his 14th win, had to be sharp, and a little fortunate, early in the second. He made an acrobatic stop on Bobby Ryan, whose rebound hit the side of the net. Ryan was then held and dumped by J.T. Miller, but the Rangers fended off the man-advantage. But Marc Methot’s shot, which deflected off Marc Staal’s stick and past Lundqvist at 6:01 of the second, brought the visitors within one.
The Blueshirts had to thwart another power play stemming from a thoughtless interference penalty from Kreider on Alex Chiasson in neutral zone with 5:24 left.
With 57 seconds left in the second, Dylan McIlrath, who received more ice time than usual, blocked a shot and was prone with the puck under him, but David Dziurzynski scooped it out and whipped a shot that Lundqvist lunged at and snared with his glove.
In the third, Anderson, starting his 11th straight game, stopped two great opportunities by Oscar Lindberg and Kevin Hayes around the five-minute mark.


Cardiff striker Fraizer Campbell marked his home debut with two goals as the npower Championship leaders moved 11 points clear at the top with a 2-1 win over Bristol City.
The home side's first-half dominance was rewarded in added time when the January acquisition from Sunderland clipped Tommy Smith's clever through ball past former Bluebird Tom Heaton.
And 12 minutes into the second half the full debutant scored his third for the club, more than he managed in the whole of last season for Sunderland, after a mammoth long throw from Aron Gunnarsson. A bizarre own goal from Ben Nugent reduced the deficit in added time but it was too little too late for the struggling Robins.
Bristol City, backed by 2,200 vocal travelling fans, had a chance in the 18th minute when Steven Davies' clipped cross found Jon Stead and his volley flew over the crossbar.
After Heaton did well to smother Craig Bellamy's low cross the keeper was just a spectator as Bellamy fired in a thumping 30-yard free-kick that clipped the bar.
Heaton then received the congratulations of his team-mates for a fine stop to push away a Campbell drive.
And just when it looked like Sean O'Driscoll's organised Robins would make it to the break level, Campbell struck. Tommy Smith's threaded pass found him inside the box and he made no mistake with a right-footed finish across goal.
David Marshall had been a virtual spectator during the opening 52 minutes but he did have a worried glance over his shoulder when Liam Kelly's ambitious volley from 35 yards dropped onto the roof of his net.
Five minutes later Campbell, who scored just twice in 18 games for the Black Cats last season, grabbed his second, sending Heaton the wrong way after Gunnarsson hurled the ball into his path.
City grabbed a consolation in added time when, under no pressure, Nugent nodded the ball past his own keeper but this is a fixture that seems increasingly unlikely to take place in next season's npower Championship.


Prior to the shooting death of Const. Daniel Woodall on June 8, 2015, the last murder of an Edmonton police officer came on June 25, 1990, when Const. Ezio Faraone was killed when he approached a pair of bank robbers in a central alleyway. The murder previous to that one came 71 years before and involved the first known time an airplane had been used in a police manhunt.
EDMONTON – Prior to the shooting death of Const. Daniel Woodall on June 8, 2015, the last murder of an Edmonton police officer came on June 25, 1990, when Const. Ezio Faraone was killed when he approached a pair of bank robbers in a central alleyway.
The murder previous to that one came 71 years before and involved the first known time an airplane had been used in a police manhunt.


First, and most basic, what exactly is US policy in Syria? President Donald Trump said just two weeks ago in a speech in Ohio that the US would "be coming out of Syria like very soon." Now, Trump has presided over a large-scale bombing operation aimed at three chemical weapons production and storage targets in Syria, including in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
So what is the Trump administration policy? Is it that Syrian leader Bashar al Assad must go, which has been the stated policy of the United States going back to the early days of the Syrian civil war under President Barack Obama? Or is there simply just a red line on Assad's use of chemical weapons, but not much more?
The answer is far from clear. When President Trump announced the US-led strikes on Friday he emphasized the latter, while his own ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said earlier this week that there is no political solution in Syria with Assad still in power.
Second, beyond responding to the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons, does the Trump administration have a plan to protect Syrian civilians in the war that has destroyed much of their country over the past seven years?
Nearly half a million Syrians have died in the war, of which chemical weapons have only killed a tiny fraction. On the campaign trail, candidate Trump sometimes raised the idea of creating "safe zones" for Syrian civilians.
Is the next step for the Trump administration the creation of such zones? And how would these work? Such safe zones would require "no fly zones" because the Syrian air force has hitherto enjoyed total air superiority allowing them to drop chemical weapons, "barrel bombs" and other munitions more or less at will. Enforcing such a no fly zone is complicated by the fact that there are considerable numbers of Russian aircraft flying over Syria.
Friday's strikes by American, British and French missiles evaded Syria's sophisticated air defenses and they also encountered no Russian interference with the operation. Does this open the door for a more proactive effort by the US-led coalition to protect Syrian civilians from the Assad regime? Hitherto objections to such an effort have generally centered on the sophistication of Syrian air defenses and not wanting to create a deeper conflict with the Russians.
Third, might Trump's laudable concern about civilian casualties caused by chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war change his view about Syrian refugees entering the United States? Right now the Trump administration has effectively banned the entry of Syrian refugees into the US, despite the fact that most are women and children.
Fourth, do the strikes mark some kind of turning point between Trump and Russia? The President had been loathe to critique Russia President Vladimir Putin, yet on Friday he had harsh words for the Russians, saying: "To Russia, I ask: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women, and children?"
Fifth, when US Secretary of Defense James Mattis spoke at a press conference at the Pentagon on Friday night he said the legal authorization for the strikes was under the president's Article 2 authority in the Constitution as commander in chief. Many legal experts -- as well as a number of members of Congress -- would beg to differ. Attacking Syrian regime targets, as opposed to ISIS targets has not been authorized by Congress which is supposed to sanction US military actions, although recent presidents have tended to minimize the role of Congress in such matters.
Sixth, is there a bit of "Wag the Dog" to all this? This was the accusation, adapted from the title of a popular movie, against President Bill Clinton who, in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky affair, launched military strikes against al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in August 1998 following al Qaeda's bombing of two US embassies in Africa.
As Mark Twain is supposed to have observed, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."


TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey has approved a request from a national atheist group's president for a license plate with the word atheist after a brief flap.
The Motor Vehicle Commission said Thursday a clerk had wrongly told David Silverman of New Jersey-based American Atheists Inc. he couldn't use the word on his plate.
Spokeswoman Elyse Coffey says the clerk had exceeded her authority.
Silverman says the clerk told him his proposed plate was offensive, which he called "outrageously discriminatory."
Custom plates with language deemed offensive are prohibited. Coffey says it was determined there was "nothing offensive" about it.
Silverman's plate will have the number one in place of the letter "i."
The MVC says "atheist" spelled with an "i" was taken. It's on an old license plate hanging in Silverman's office.


The Secretary-General strongly condemns the terrorist bombings today in Brussels. He extends his heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families, and expresses his solidarity with the people and Government of Belgium.
The despicable attacks today struck at the heart of Belgium and the centre of the European Union. The Secretary-General hopes those responsible will be swiftly brought to justice. He is confident that Belgium's and Europe’s commitment to human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence will continue to be the true and lasting response to the hatred and violence of which they became a victim today.


President Donald Trump’s travel ban could exacerbate a looming shortage of primary care doctors in the United States, which may hit the Dayton area harder than other regions because of its high concentration of medically under-served areas that have historically attracted foreign-born doctors.
One in 10 Dayton-area residents lives in a Health Professional Shortage Area — designated as having shortages of primary medical care, dental or mental health providers, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Foreign-born doctors have flocked to these areas to complete their graduate medical training because it allows them to stay in the U.S. if they commit to working there for a certain period. And many medical schools offer free or discounted tuition on the same basis.
Britta Hakkila, who will graduate next month from the international medical school at St. George’s University in Grenada, West Indies, has already been selected for the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Wright State University’s Boonshoft School of Medicine. But some of her classmates have been rejected for similar assignments in the United States, which she attributes to the travel ban.
Uncertainty surrounding the fate of a revised temporary ban on travel from six predominantly Muslim countries, has already begun to impact those areas, said the 28-year-old Hakkila.
“A lot of my classmates are from countries that are being affected by the ban, and it has influenced their Match Day placements because a lot of programs are hesitant to take them on because they don’t know what will happen with the ban,” she said.
President Trump established the ban with an executive order that was blocked by two federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland last week. But a judge in Virginia on Friday ruled in favor of the travel ban, although the ruling doesn’t have an immediate effect on the ban.
It may, however, affect the National Resident Matching Program, a private, nonprofit organization that each year places graduating medical students from all over the world in residency programs at teaching hospitals throughout the U.S. The Medical Colleges Association estimates that about 1,000 foreign medical school graduates from the seven banned countries have applied for American residency and fellowship programs this year.
Many more students would likely have applied for U.S. residencies if the travel ban weren’t an issue, Hakkila said.
The travel ban, which Trump has said is necessary because of terrorism concerns for particular areas, comes at a time when the demand for doctors from those countries has never been greater. By 2025 there will be a shortfall of between 46,100 and 90,400 doctors, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
A sizable share of the doctors being counted on to fill the void in Ohio are foreign-born, according to a recent analysis by the left-leaning Policy Matters Ohio, which found about one in 14 Ohio doctors come from countries that could be subjected to the travel ban.
“Ohio needs doctors. Doctors from Muslim-majority countries have responded to that need. It seems likely that a Trump travel ban will turn that win-win into a loss,” Policy Matters researchers wrote in a recent blog post.
The judges that blocked the ban cited Trump’s own statements about Muslims and noted that his campaign referred to the travel restrictions as a “Muslim ban,” which would be unconstitutional on the grounds of religious freedom.
Trump called their rulings “overreach,” and said he will take the case to the Supreme Court, which could ultimately determine whether the ban remains in place.
“If it does stay in place, it’s going to negatively impact the access to prmiary care for a lot of areas of the country that depend on these international graduates to provid their health care,” Hakkila said.
90,400: Shortfall of doctors in U.S. by 2025.
7: Percent of Ohio doctors who come from countries that could be subjected to the travel ban.
33: Percent of doctors who will be age 65 in next 10 years.
Association of American Medical Colleges.


I'm not sure what you'd call this series. The Powerpuff Women sounds...weird. But whatever they'd call it, if it were real, I'd watch it.
Artist Stanley Lau - who we've featured on Kotaku before for his Street Fighter work - calls them the Power Puffing Ladies. That could work.


No American concession ever empties President Obama’s appeasement reservoir or satisfies Iran’s appetite. So on drone the negotiations toward a disastrous deal that would end sanctions against the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism while paving its way to a nuclear-weapons arsenal.
In that connection, as Patrick Brennan noted on the Corner Friday, Senator Ben Sasse has penned a letter to the president that makes a compelling case against a key aspect of the contemplated Iran deal.
Specifically, on the critical matter of establishing violations by Iran that would theoretically trigger reinstatement of the sanctions, Senator Sasse objects that Obama is foolishly shifting the burden of persuasion. The deal, he argues, would require the United States to prove Iranian violations rather than forcing Iran to prove it is in compliance.
So here’s my problem: Since the obviously perspicacious senator grasps how critical the burden of persuasion is, why did he support the Corker bill? That legislation, co-sponsored by Sasse and enacted as the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, shifts the burden of persuasion away from President Obama and onto opponents of the Iran deal, thus making the deal virtually impossible to stop or undo.
Sasse could not be more right that, in a dispute, the question of who carries the burden of proof can be just as significant as the question of what must be proved. This is best illustrated by our criminal-justice system. How do we put into action the proud boast that we’d rather see the guilty go free than the innocent wrongly convicted? By imposing the burden of persuasion on the state, not the accused. This establishes a presumption of innocence that often makes all the difference: Even if jurors believe the accused has probably committed the charged crime, they must acquit him if the state fails to carry its burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Iran, of course, is not just an accused party; it is an incorrigible recidivist. In overt contempt for our nation and president, Tehran is already in flagrant violation of the “Joint Plan of Action” it agreed to with the administration. The mullahs see that, even as they systematically flout this interim deal, Obama is hell-bent on looking the other way. It is therefore certain that they will violate the final deal — which will be so frontloaded with carrots (e.g., a $150 billion signing bonus in the form of immediate sanctions relief) that the sticks can be laughed off.
So Senator Sasse is right: In the final deal, the burden of persuasion is key. If Iran must prove its compliance to earn concessions, that is one thing; but if the United States must prove violations — not to an impartial jury but to hostile players such as Russia and China, and to Europeans as anxious as Obama to capitulate — then the sanctions are dead and buried.
In light of how crucial the burden of persuasion is, however, would it not have been better to leave in place the one the Constitution imposes on the president? The one that could have prevented Obama from making a legally enforceable deal in the first place?
Under the Constitution, the president must persuade a two-thirds supermajority of senators to approve an agreement with a foreign power. That is, as I’ve repeatedly contended in connection with the Iran negotiations, the Constitution’s presumption is against legally binding international pacts.
Of course, a president may make a legally non-binding agreement with a foreign sovereign, and he may act on it to the extent allowed by his broad constitutional power to conduct foreign affairs. This, however, does not enable him to ignore valid laws, such as international sanctions, that Congress properly enacts pursuant to its constitutional powers. To undo those, a president must either persuade the Senate to ratify a treaty or persuade the full Congress to repeal the sanctions by ordinary legislation — bills passed by a majority of both houses and signed by the president.
Under the Constitution’s burden of persuasion, then, the Iran deal did not have a prayer of becoming law.
Senator Sasse is right: In the final Iran deal, the burden of persuasion is key.
Enter the Corker legislation. It undermined the Constitution’s presumption against international agreements by shifting the burden of persuasion: Rather than forcing the president to persuade two-thirds of the Senate to approve the deal, it imposes on opponents the burden of persuading two-thirds of the full Congress to reject it.
Sasse’s letter observes that Obama “administration officials have all but admitted that the sanctions relief will be used by Iran at some level to support terrorism.” Yup.
Sasse warns that “the message [Obama is] sending to other countries is that they can cheat and defy the international community and get away with it.” Indeed.
The senator forcefully adds that in the absence of “anywhere-anytime inspections and verification measures, full disclosure of previous weaponization efforts, gradual and conditional sanctions relief, and automatic snap-back of sanctions” — all of which Iran has rejected with the Obama administration’s apparent acquiescence — “Congress should reject the deal and ensure that both sanctions and military action remain on the table.” Exactly.
So, with Republicans in control of both houses of Congress and seemingly unified against Obama’s awful Iran deal, what was the point of supporting and enacting legislation that has made it exponentially harder for Congress to reject the deal, preserve the sanctions, and keep the military option on the table?
It is good that Senator Sasse recognizes the importance of the burden of persuasion. The problem is that President Obama recognized it back when the Corker bill was being considered. That’s why he signed it.


New Craiglist ads are now offering the services of Pokemon trainers who will help level up players willing to pay around $20 per hour.
Too busy with your real life to play the hit augmented reality game Pokemon Go? For a price, some entrepreneurs will play the game for you.
New ads are popping up on Craigslist nearly every day from people who say they will log on to your Pokemon Go account and effectively run up your score while you are stuck at work or sitting in class.
On a recent July afternoon, two 24-year-old Pokemon trainers, Lewis Gutierrez and Jordan Clark, walked through Brooklyn's Prospect Park with their eyes glued to their phones, tapping and swiping away to catch virtual Pokemon for clients paying about $20 per hour for the service.
Gutierrez, who described himself as a welder and writer, said he began by helping relatives with the game after it was released in the U.S. in early July. Then he put a post on Craigslist advertising his services professionally.
He said he was immediately inundated with requests from potential customers and had to recruit Clark, a part-time wine purveyor, to help.
"I couldn't even do it by myself," Gutierrez said. "I had two phones. I was doing, like, ten-hour days and I got my friend Jordan to come along with me. And now it looks like we are going to have to hire another person. So, it's just been booming."
The two college friends liken the service to dog walking and call themselves Pokewalkers.
And they aren't the only ones getting in the game. One trainer in London offers to boost your Pokemon account up to Level 20, which is very high, for a price of $185. Others offer Uber-like driving services with the promise of taking a player to some of the hottest Pokemon hunting grounds around the city.
Played on smartphones, Pokemon Go has been a phenomenon since its release. The game involves going to real-world locations to chase virtual characters from the classic Nintendo game.
Paying people to play a game for you might seem to defy common sense, but Gutierrez and Clark say clients come to them mainly for two reasons.
They want to compete in the game at a high level, but they don't have time to roam the city and play the game all day. Or, they are getting ready for a "Pokedate."
"It's a good first date for Tinder," said Clark, referring to the location-based dating app. "A lot of people are meeting up that way." Some want to impress their potential partners by being in the game at a respectable level.
Leveling-up services aren't unique to Pokemon Go.
The clandestine practice already occurs with online multiplayer role-playing games such as World of Warcraft and Destiny, where paid professionals help clients gain the necessary experience and resources in the game to compete at a high level when they are actually playing for themselves.
Publishers of such titles deem the act cheating and warn they'll cancel accounts of users who enlist outside assistance to mine for virtual currency or level up their characters. The terms of service in Pokemon Go explicitly forbid the practice of transferring access to an account to a third party.


A dying man in Nebraska was comforted by 3,500 strangers he never knew as his family kicked off the #SkyBluePink campaign after he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Brian Curtis decided to forgo chemotherapy, as he also suffered from Parkinson’s disease, and doctors gave him about a year to live.
His son Brandon, 30 started the #SkyBluePink campaign to bring comfort to Brian during his last very painful days and he got an incredible response. Sky Blue Pink is a color Brian Curtis’ mother used to describe the way the sky looked during a sunrise or sunset.
Brandon lives in Los Angeles and traveled for business frequently. When Brian was first diagnosed he came home to spend time with his dying father, but encouraged by him decided to go back to his normal life.
Communication between the two was frequent, via Skype, after dad found out the grim news on April 24, 2012 during a business trip in Austria.
At that point the dying man had six months to live. This was not the first family member was lost because of a deadly disease.
Brandon and the rest of the family decided to launch the #SkyBluePink campaign in an effort to bring some sort of happiness to the terminally ill father on his last days, while keeping the family connected. The response was unmistakable.
“We ask you to help fill his life with love, support and #SkyBluePink” by sending a card, tweeting a note on Twitter or sharing a photo on Instagram read the original announcement on Brandon’s site Imgur.
Brian wasn’t informed right away, but the family received 500 messages within a 168-hour time period.
“It was enough to cover an entire wall at his hospice care center,” says Brandon.
On May 7 they decide to finally share the incredible response with the dying man and he was overwhelmed, while Brandon and sister Cindy read messages from around the world to their dad.
The #SkyBluePink is a massive success thanks to family members spreading the word on their social networks.
By this time Brandon is having a hard time deciding whether he should request a leave of absence from work, since the family is unsure of how long Brian has.
However the dying man didn’t want his son to stop living his life because of him.
Brandon travels with a suit he bought for the dying man’s memorial service everywhere he goes and it’s a tough reminder of the short time he will have his father around.
On August 12, 2013, Cindy calls him. She is calm, but her voice has an edge and she connects Brian and Brandon on a Skype video call.
At around 1:30 am Brandon walks into his dad’s hospice room, dimly lit, but showing more than 3,500 messages from people responding to the #SkyBluePink call.
As they talk, Brian is in a lot of pain and after a while Cindy and Brandon decide to let him sleep. He passes away a few hours later surrounded by his kids and uplifting messages from strangers all around the world.
This is the moving story of the dying man who was comforted by 3,500 people to whom he had no connection, except a computer and a will to do something kind for someone in need thanks to the #SkyBluePink campaign started by his kids.


This year marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. To mark the occasion, PBS is airing a remastered edition of Ken Burns' landmark documentary series "The Civil War."
The nine-part series will air on five consecutive nights, from Sept. 7-11, the month that will mark the 25th anniversary of the series' first airing on PBS.
The new version of the series has been scanned frame-by-frame for a new high-definition print, which is touted as the first time viewers will get to see the series the way Burns originally shot it.
Burns was an established and Oscar-nominated documentarian when "The Civil War" first aired in 1990, but that series made him a household name. The first episode set a ratings record for PBS, with an approximate 38.9 million people tuning in. It went on to win a total of 40 awards, including two Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a Peabody and the Lincoln Prize.
This is the second time the series has been remastered. It was previously digitally touched up for its DVD release in 2002.
According to Daniel J. White, the man responsible for the restoration, new details will become visible in the hundreds of black-and-white photos used in the film.
1:15 p.m.: A previous version of this article referred to the man responsible for the latest restoration of "The Civil War" as David J. White. He is Daniel J. White.


weeks at C$1.2976, traded in a range of C$1.2984 to C$1.3027.
start of the week, the most since April.
view of solid economic expansion in the third quarter.
declined 28 Canadian cents to yield 2.360 percent.


Have you been thinking about buying an electric car? This may get you more energized.
State legislators have resurrected a rebate program to encourage Texans to purchase electric cars. During the just-completed state legislative session, lawmakers revived the Texas Emissions Reduction Program, which includes a $2,500 rebate for buying an electric car. Coupled with a federal tax credit of up to $7,500, the rebate makes an electric car more affordable compared to a traditional gas-powered car.
Legislators created the rebate program in 2013, but failed to reauthorize it during their next session in 2015. The rebates are set to return during state government’s 2018-19 budget period, according to Environment Texas. The legislation caps the number of cars that can qualify for the rebates at 2,000.
From 2011 through 2016, nearly 16,300 electric cars were sold in Texas, according to CleanTechnica.


Chesters Dancing Academy back in 1997.
A well-known Fleetwood dance school celebrates its 80th anniversary this year.
And Christine Cheeseman, principal of Chesters Dancing Academy, is hoping former members can help make the celebrations extra special.
When Chesters stages its latest dance spectacular at Thornton Little Theatre on May 8 and 9, Christine hopes to have a montage of vintage photographs and programmes of the dance school on display.
She said: “We do not seem to have a great many photographs of the earlier decades and we would love to have some on display. We are hoping former members can let us borrow some we can copy.
Chesters has helped train more than 1,000 young dancers since it was founded eight decades ago.
It was established by dancer and pantomime performer Chic Chester in 1935, and its first panto, Red Riding Hood, was staged at the Marine Hall in January 1936.
Chic’s husband, Fred Nielson, was producer, with Chic playing the Principal boy and the couple’s daughter, under the stage name Hazel Doreen, playing the Principal Girl.
At first, the school was based at the former Imperial Cafe on Queens Terrace, and moved to the Apex Building on Kent Street. It is currently based in premises on Victoria Street, Fleetwood.
Chic died in 1937 and was succeeded by daughter Hazel (Nielson) who ran the dance school for more than 50 years, until she retired in 1989.
She died two years later.
Since 1989, Christine has kept the fine tradition going, having first joined in 1974.
Post pictures to 12 Saer Close, Fleetwood (including return address details), or email chestersdancingacademy@gmail.com.


In protest of the brutal tactics of Syria’s government, members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous have defaced the website of the Middle Eastern country’s Ministry of Defense, causing the site to completely shutdown on Monday.
“To the Syrian people: The world stands with you against the brutal regime of Bashar Al-Assad. Know that time and history are on your side – tyrants use violence because they have nothing else, and the more violent they are, the more fragile they become. We salute your determination to be non-violent in the face of the regime’s brutality, and admire your willingness to pursue justice, not mere revenge. All tyrants will fall, and thanks to your bravery Bashar Al-Assad is next.
Anonymous also replaced the official homepage with one featuring the group’s logo, along with images that link to videos of Syrian police and military brutalities and examples of citizen unrest that continues to enveloped the oppressed country. At the bottom of the page, Anonymous provided links to its various Facebook pages and Twitter profiles.
As The Next Web reports, the source code for the webpage says the URL was “seized for the people by Poppy,” who was presumably the Anonymous member responsible for the defacement, though there has been no official word from any of the official Anoymous outlets that this is the case.
Anonymous, along with its partner in cyber-protest, Lulz Security (LulzSec), have been involved in an increasing number of politically motivated hacks. Just this weekend, members of Anonymous and LulzSec released a 10GB cache of documents that reveal personal information about police officers from more than 50 law-enforcement agencies across the United States.
Entitled “Shooting Sheriffs Saturday,” the data dump contains more than 300 email accounts, police training videos and the identities of individuals who submitted information to authorities via a supposedly anonymous tip system.


Lesley Turner, general manager of Cote, Alison Shaw and Stephanie Kerr, of BID Leamington.
Love will be in the air for visitors to Leamington’s town centre shops and restaurants this month.
The town’s retailers and restaurateurs have teamed up to support BID Leamington’s annual Love Leam month - which showcases Leamington and all it has to offer - and this year the challenge is to be the kindest town in the country.
Inspired by the random acts of kindness movement, which encourages people to perform selfless acts to brighten others’ days, traders are basing this year’s extravaganza around spreading goodwill.
To help things along they will be donating meal and drink vouchers, chocolates, surprise prizes and flowers to give to people at random.
So far around 20 businesses are contributing to the campaign, including Côte, a newly opened French bistro based in Regent Court, and Neal’s Yard, an organic health and beauty store in Regent Street which will be offering free facials and drop-in sessions – and more are joining every day.
The Love Leam month will kick-start on Sunday when businesses work to paint the town red by staging red window displays and placing hundreds of red balloons around the town centre.
Highlights of the Love Leam Month include Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Spa Centre, a flower workshop, film showings, wine tastings, and a meet and greet with artist and TV personality, Timmy Mallett, at Whitewall Galleries in Regent Street.
Stephanie Kerr, executive director of BID Leamington, said: “The idea behind Love Leam is to showcase lots of different aspects of the town and help people discover new things to enjoy in a fun and light-hearted way.
“As we look to build on spreading the goodwill that began at Christmas time, we loved the idea of random acts of kindness and felt it was an ideal theme to help us highlight the best the town has to offer.
A new addition this year is the ‘Love Leam Challenge’, which will run from Sunday to Sunday March 13.
Entrants are invited to take part in a set of fun challenges around the town centre, which highlight Leamington’s rich retail, dining and culture, in a bid to win a shopping spree worth £250.


Prime Minister John Key saying the death of a New Zealand soldier in Afghanistan affected the handling of the limousine controversy is "repugnant", Labour leader Phil Goff says.
"The BMW saga was in the news well before the soldier's tragic death," he said.
Mr Key today told NewstalkZB the Government did not handle the BMW limos issue well because it was preoccupied by the death of Private Kirifi Mila and the visit of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said the "excuse" was new low for Mr Key.
"New Zealanders deserve more than feeble excuses from a prime minister who is prepared to be so extravagant," she said.
"And if he is going to be so extravagant and benefit his ministers with brand new limos, then he needs to be up front about that. Not hide behind other issues, certainly not hide behind the death of a New Zealand soldier."
A decision to replace the Government's 34 three-year-old BMW limos with new ones sparked anger last week, with the move seen as hypocritical against a backdrop of ministerial calls for spending restraint.
Mr Key said he had asked for full information, and if Crown Law approved, he would release details this afternoon.
"...We didn't cover ourselves in glory, it wasn't terribly well handled but probably when you see the facts, if I can release them, I think people will be surprised why we bought them but they won't be surprised when they see the facts," Mr Key said.
The new cars sell commercially for about $200,000 each but the Government gets a discount for bulk buying. The actual cost has not been stated, for commercial reasons. The former Labour Government bought the cars and the Internal Affairs Department agreed to a clause to renew them.
Mr Key said he never knew about the agreement. In Parliament last week, Cabinet Minister Gerry Brownlee admitted Finance Minister Bill English was told about the deal on December 17 - although that was after Internal Affairs signed.
Labour has said Mr Key must have approved the spending but his office said that was not the case.
Mr Goff said Mr Key should stop being dishonest and take responsibility.
"I find it difficult to believe any prime minister could be so much in the dark about what's happening in his own administration, even if he wasn't paying attention, so that just leaves the option of making up stories to try to put himself in a better light," he said.


I frankly don't see how that problem can be solved. It's like the First Contact problem (Alice and Bob trying to prove themselves to each other without anything, even a Trent, in common between them). Basically, if you can't trust your environment, you can't trust your work in it, period. Meaning all the bad guys need to win is to install a perpetual paranoia.