On Tuesday night, the President tweeted that "SPYGATE is in full force," referencing December 2015 texts from former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page allegedly about a "counter-intelligence operation into the Trump Campaign," despite former FBI Director James Comey's assertion that the FBI's Russia investigation did not begin until July 2016.
Where it came from: A single tweet from an anonymous Twitter account promoting the allegation made its way through Reddit's conspiracy board to a far-right website known for spreading false stories — ultimately gaining the attention of mainstream conservative pundits before landing in a presidential tweet.
June 4, 12:22 pm: The theory first appeared on an anonymous right-wing Twitter account, which drew attention to the fact that one word — "lures" — had been previously redacted from released texts between FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. The author claimed this as evidence that proved there were multiple spies planted in the Trump campaign at the end of 2015.
Yes, but: The texts make no mention of Trump or his campaign — plus, these "BOMBSHELL" documents were released by a Senate committee back in February. (The text in question was redacted on page 30 of the Senate document dump but left unredacted on page 159.) And, as the left-leaning news site ThinkProgress pointed out, in government parlance, a “lure" is an individual who attracts a someone from a foreign country to the U.S. so that they can be arrested.
Later that day, Gateway Pundit — a far-right, pro-Trump website known for often promoting thinly-sourced and false stories — posted its own story based on the tweet. At the same time, the image from the tweet made its way to r/conspiracy, Reddit's conspiracy forum.
Fox Business pundit Lou Dobbs, who, according to The Daily Beast, Trump places on speakerphone during Oval Office meetings, made reference to the allegations set forth in the initial tweet, linking directly to the Senate's February document dump.
8:37 p.m.: About an hour after Dobbs' tweet, Trump tweeted the allegations himself.
10:07 p.m.: Fox News' Laura Ingraham brings up the allegations on "The Ingraham Angle," falsely asserting that the documents had been released by the Senate earlier that day. Her guest, Rep. Ron DeSantis responded that the FBI's official timeline for the investigation is "clearly...not true."
Parkland survivor and activist David Hogg had been coached on anti-Trump rhetoric, which the site linked to his father, a former FBI agent.
The Washington Post paid Roy Moore's sexual misconduct accusers for their claims that derailed his Alabama Senate campaign.
It misidentified the Las Vegas shooter as a liberal Democrat with no connection to the incident.
It misidentified the driver of a car who killed Heather Heyer during the Charlottesville marches, prompting a defamation lawsuit.
The FBI began the investigation into the Trump campaign after the Australian government tipped them off in mid-2016 to the fact that George Papadopoulos had told a top Australian diplomat that Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton, according to The New York Times.
James Comey confirmed that the investigation began in late July 2016 in his testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee in March last year.
President Trump's claims that the FBI placed "spies" in his campaign have not been verified — and top Republicans Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy both have dismissed Trump's allegations.
Get more from Axios by signing up for our daily morning newsletter, Axios AM.


Nicole Kidman can turn any event into her own red carpet!
The Lion star was the guest of honor at Flaunt and Vionnet's event at celebrity hot spot Catch LA in West Hollywood, California, on Saturday, as Kidman is featured in the magazine's "The Nocturne Issue."
The Australian actress looked like a Greek goddess in a beige Vionnet gown that featured tan piping, cut-outs in the bodice, and a crepe skirt, which she paired with glamorous ruby-and-gold drop earrings, silver jewels, and a black clutch. She completed her look with a side pony, pale smoky eye, and red lips.
Plenty of celebs came out to support Kidman, including Pamela Anderson, Jhene Aiko, and Lydia Hearst.
Anderson, 49, got almost as much attention as the honoree, thanks to her eye-popping pink dress.
The Baywatch alum showed off major cleavage in the pastel, floral embroidered mini. She nearly spilled out of the frock, which she paired with a beaded clutch and black pumps. Though Anderson forewent accessories, the actress did match her mani perfectly to the dress' pale hue.
Kidman has been making some interesting fashion choices in recent weeks, but her ethereal look over the weekend was one of our favorites.
This summer, however, she bared some skin -- despite being covered head-to-toe -- when she stepped out in a floor-length Valentino number in Shanghai, China. Check out that eccentric dress in the video below.
Nicole Kidman Stuns in Abs-Baring Sheer Dress -- See the Pic!


Professional/medical/dental offices in downtown Millville for lease! Two units are available (925 sq.ft. and 1,136 sq.ft). Unit #1 has sink hook up available in each room ideal for medical/dental offices. The building has new 3 phase electric and new HVAC, new windows, new roof, and have separate entrances. There is also basement storage if needed for supplies, equipment or patient files. Easy ingress and egress and is a corner property. There is also signage in the front for your business. Next to major business, medical facility, and highway.


ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Washington Capitals maintained their lead in the Metropolitan Division when T.J. Oshie scored his second goal of the game 1:52 into overtime for a 5-4 win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.
Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick and Marcus Johansson had four assists for Washington (50-17-8), which has won five consecutive games and remained three points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Columbus defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 on Tuesday.
"It's six games left. You try to be in the best shape, try to do as best as we can to feel comfortable be in the playoffs because every moment, every situation can change the game," Ovechkin said.
Ovechkin passed Johnny Bucyk for 26th place on the NHL all-time scoring list with 558 career goals. He scored all three of his goals on the power play and has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in his past eight games.
"I think a lot of [our success] has to do with [Ovechkin's] work ethic and how hard he's been playing lately," Oshie said. "A guy that dynamic, when he's working that hard, it's just going to start stuff up so he's doing good for us. … When he's rolling, it's fun."
Eric Staal tied the game with 26.6 seconds left in the third period, but the Wild (44-23-8) lost their fourth straight and are 1-7-2 in their past 10 games. They are seven points behind the Blackhawks for first place in the Central Division and Western Conference.
"It's always darkest before the dawn," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "It's getting better. … For 65 games we were in a pretty good groove, and now we're sort of in a rut, trying to get out of that rut. When you score on the best defensive team in the League, two goals in the last five minutes, it's cause for hope, I guess."
Oshie gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 11:36 of the first period. He has eight points (six goals, two assists) in his past four games.
Jason Pominville made it 1-1 at 2:17 of the second period.
Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead at 7:31 with a power-play goal. He scored another power-play goal at 12:28.
Martin Hanzal made it 3-2 at 15:43 when he put a rebound past Braden Holtby. Hanzal has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in 14 games.
Ovechkin scored his third of the game at 12:29 of the third period, but Jared Spurgeon made it 4-3 at 15:03.
"We're 17-0 when [Ovechkin] scores a hat trick," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. "It's the release … he gets it off real quick and it's hard to pick up off his stick for goaltenders. He has the ability to pick the corners and pick areas. It's a gift."
Holtby made 26 saves for his 40th win of the season. He has won at least 40 games in three consecutive seasons, joining Martin Brodeur and Evgeni Nabokov as the only goaltenders in NHL history to have three straight 40-win seasons.
"It's pretty special. It's the one stat that I care about and that you want to succeed in every year," Holtby said. "Obviously a lot of the circumstance has to do with the team we've had here and the coaching, the last three years have been elite and we've had success that way. This year, I think, has been our best team yet going into the playoffs."
Devan Dubnyk made 15 saves. He is 1-6-1 in his past nine games.
Ovechkin took a cross-ice feed from along the right wall from Nicklas Backstrom and sent a low wrist shot past Dubnyk to give the Capitals a 4-2 lead.
Dubnyk robbed Ovechkin of his fourth goal on a breakaway one minute into overtime.
Staal found himself open in the slot to tie the game at 4-4 and force overtime.
Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner blocked three shots in 21:46 of ice time.
Wild forward Zach Parise left 12:10 into the game and did not return after Capitals forward Tom Wilson caught him in the face with a high-stick. Boudreau said Parise is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. … Backstrom had three assists, giving him 60 this season. … Staal has 11 points (eight goals, three assists) in his past 10 games.


Donald Trump, I cannot really call you my president.
Please consider taking a helicopter ride and just say farewell the White House.
You a very minor individual, having caused worldwide chaos and anxiety.
Please admit your incompetence and fascist ambitions. Why put our country through this horrible period?
Man-up, you bully, and just leave.


The Knoxville area reeled in $32.2 million in economic impact during the Bassmaster Classic, more than projections for some March Madness host cities.
Knoxville and East Tennessee reeled in $32.2 million in economic impact during the GEICO Bassmaster Classic last month — “far exceeding” the projected economic impact for cities hosting the first weekend of March Madness, according to news reports cited by the event's organizers.
The two rounds of games in Tulsa brought 17,000 visitors to the city and had a $9 million impact on the local economy, according to preliminary estimates cited by the Tulsa World.
Columbia, South Carolina, projected the same $9 million impact prior to hosting its tournament games.
The impact generated in East Tennessee far exceeded the impact made in Greenville and Anderson, South Carolina, during last year’s Bassmaster Classic. The 2018 championship brought the cities $24 million and a record attendance of 143,000.
That record was shattered this year in Knoxville, where officials counted 153,000 people at various Bassmaster venues around Knoxville.
The classic, which Knoxville native Ott DeFoe won after coming from behind on the final day, took place March 15-17.
The $32.2 million breaks down into a direct economic impact of $17.7 million and an indirect boost of $14.5 million in business sales, according to a report by the Visit Knoxville Sports Commission.
Roughly $2.75 million was generated in state and local tax revenue, including taxes on sales, restaurant purchases and lodging, according to the release.
Attendees from nearly every state and from countries as far as Australia, Italy and Japan paid for 29,232 nights in local hotels, according to Visit Knoxville.
In addition to media that work for B.A.S.S, the event organizer, more than 250 credentialed media members from 28 states and six foreign countries attended the event.
Of the 153,000 people who attended the Bassmaster Classic, a record 92,819 people attended the Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo at the Knoxville Convention Center and World’s Fair Exhibition Hall, according to turnstile counts.
The expo is considered the “biggest consumer show in sportsfishing,” the release said.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee toured the expo on opening day and First Lady Maria Lee went fishing with Knoxville pro angler Brandon Coulter.
“Drawing record-breaking crowds for the Bassmaster Classic, bass fishing’s largest event of the year, Knox County once again shines in the national spotlight,” Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs said in the release.
Bumpas hopes that excitement and the crowds continue after thousands of people were exposed to Knoxville.
“What’s really exceptional about the Classic is how Knoxville was positively affected not only during the event, but we expect to see continuing visitation as a result for years to come,” she said.


Richard Coles and Suzy Klein with TV presenter Kate Humble, Nicki Chapman on why she loves dressage, John McCarthy in the baths of Budapest, and Desmond Morris' Inheritance Tracks.
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein are joined by tv presenter Kate Humble, Mark Boyle who lived without money for 3 years, and Philip Geddes who brought a stuffed penguin from Antarctica to Hampshire. Pop Idol judge Nicki Chapman shares her love of dressage, John McCarthy takes a dip in the baths of Budapest and Desmond Morris shares his Inheritance Tracks.
Richard and Suzy with studio guest Kate Humble.


The Walking Dead has a lot of ground to cover as it enters the second half of Season 8. Two communities – The Kingdom and Alexandria – have been destroyed. Ezekiel is a captive. Carl is about to die after being bit by a zombie. Negan is on the loose once again and is deadlier than ever. For Rick and his group, things have looked better. But with Season 8 almost upon us, Walking Dead star Norman Reedus is excited about one storyline in particular.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Reedus revealed that he is most interested in how things will unfold between Daryl and Dwight. Before the break, Dwight hit Daryl over the head and imprisoned him. Daryl eventually got free and helped Dwight and the other Saviors escape. Dwight then stole Daryl’s crossbow, shot him, and took off on his motorcycle (bad move).
But then Dwight snuck Daryl out of the Sanctuary and aided in Rick’s efforts to take down Negan. To say that their relationship is complicated is a bit of an understatement.
And for Reedus, it’s the most interesting storyline in the second half of Season 8.
Based on that, it sounds like Daryl and Dwight might become friends after the war is over. Although the two are similar in certain ways, Reedus pumped the brakes on calling them friends.
In fact, Reedus doesn’t believe that Daryl will ever accept Dwight for who he is, even though he understands him. The actor also compared Dwight to a snake and said that Daryl just flat out hates him.
Daryl and Dwight drama aside, Reedus also chatted about the fate of one Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs). During the mid-season finale, we learned that Carl was bitten by a walker and is expected to die when the show returns this month.
When asked about Carl’s shocking demise, Reedus revealed that he was extremely unhappy with how things unfolded, mainly because he’s watched Riggs – who has been on the show since Season 1 – grow up on the set. The actor views Riggs as part of the show’s family and said that it hurt saying goodbye to the young man. He also admitted that he always thought Carl would make it to the very end of the show.
Reedus, of course, isn’t the only person who was shocked by Carl’s death. In the comics, Carl is still alive, though creator Robert Kirkman recently revealed that Carl doesn’t play a big part in the story moving forward.


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Gwyn Morgan, chairman of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., makes his opening remarks at the company's annual meeting in Montreal, Thursday May 1, 2008.
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. chairman Gwyn Morgan takes to heart the meaning of the word "group" in the company's name.
The globe-girdling engineering and construction firm - at the top of this year's Board Games corporate governance survey - is well known for a strong corporate culture that emphasizes collegiality and commitment to teamwork inside its different divisions.
Even the president and chief executive officer works within the framework of a 10-member Office of the President, made up of senior executives.
So when it comes to executive compensation, the board makes a point of regularly fine-tuning its pay policy according to what it believes are fair-minded, down-to-earth principles, Mr. Morgan says.
"SNC-Lavalin has a reputation for being conservative in that area," he said. "Certainly our executives think so," he adds jokingly.
"We've never been out there with what are regarded of as extravagant things and golden parachutes and all this stuff.
"If the people at the top are recognized inequitably [with huge pay packages] with the whole group it's a disincentive," he said.
"I'm always amazed at the crazy kinds of compensation at the top levels in some sectors - the financial sector in the U.S., especially - that are a huge disincentive for those who are actually pulling the freight every day."
With shareholder pressure growing on pay at public companies, Mr. Morgan and his fellow board members are acutely aware of the need to constantly reassess the company's compensation policy.
"The next thing we're going to do is examine longer periods of holding back incentive shares and putting more emphasis on long-term performance, even more than there has been."
Fostering nimble decision-making means the board needs a judicious mix of generalists and experts, says Mr. Morgan, the former CEO of EnCana Corp.
As the issues become more complex, it makes sense to get experts in their fields, besides the need for SNC-Lavalin to have some directors with engineering backgrounds, he said.
The board recently recruited Ian Bourne, the former chief financial officer at TransAlta Corp. He's "a real financial expert who is going into our audit committee," Mr. Morgan says. The board is currently looking for a new director with a more international profile, "hopefully from Europe," who can bring a global perspective to a company that oversees projects in more than 100 countries.
The ideal generalist candidate would be a former CEO, he says. "Someone who really knows what it's like to put together a business, a strategy, be accountable every day for running a business and been successful at it."
Alas, such candidates "are not easy to get."
Mr. Morgan says the board is wary of putting in place a formal policy regarding the recruitment of women; there are now three women of 11 directors, which is not bad by Canadian standards, but the board prefers an informal process that ensures strong female candidates aren't overlooked.
After the recent appointment of a new CEO - insider Pierre Duhaime took over from Jacques Lamarre in May - the board is satisfied it has a workable succession process in place, Mr. Morgan says.
"The succession-planning process goes on every year. It's pretty well standard practice."


After a deliberate shift in police training, excessive force complaints against the Dallas Police Department dropped by 64% between 2009 and 2014. The number of arrests and officer-involved shootings also declined in recent years.
At least five police officers were killed and seven more wounded by snipers in Dallas on Thursday night during protests over two separate police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota this week.
The attacks have shined a tragic light on a police department that has seen decreases in excessive force complaints, arrests, and officer-involved shootings.
"This police department trained in de-escalation far before cities across America did it," Mayor Mike Rawlings told reporters on Friday morning. "We’re one of the premier community policing cities in the country and this year we have the fewest police officer-related shootings than any large city in America."
Dallas Police Department Chief David Brown has credited this progress to a shift in training and practices, which put greater emphasis on de-escalation and community policing.
As the Dallas Morning News reported last year, instructors taught officers to “slow down” when engaging with a suspect and to speak calmly rather than immediately shouting. The department has also doubled the amount of training for officers on patrol.
The dramatic decline in excessive force complaints and arrests trace back to the year Brown, who is black, took over the department in 2010. In 2009, the department received 147 excessive force complaints and made 74,000 arrests. Within three years, arrests were down to 61,000, and within five years excessive force complaints were down to 53. As the number of excessive force complaints and arrests declined, so did the city’s murder rate, which reached its lowest point in more than 80 years in 2014, before ticking back upward in 2015.
The city has also seen a decline in officer-involved shootings. From 2010 to 2014, Dallas officers fatally shot 34 people — more than half of whom were black — a higher per capita rate than Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.
In 2012, a year in which 10 people were killed by police, an officer fatally shot James Harper, an unarmed black man, sparking heated protests in the city. Chief Brown defended the shooting. The officer was not indicted. In 2013, another officer shot and killed another unarmed black man, Clinton Allen. That officer was also not indicted. That same year, however, Brown fired two other officers involved in shootings. And in the years since 2012, when police shot 23 people, the number of police shootings has decreased each year, down to 11 in 2015. According to the data, Dallas police officers have shot one person this year.
After a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, fatally shot Michael Brown in August 2014, Chief Brown wrote a column in the Dallas Morning News explaining that, in the aftermath of a police shooting, it was important for his department to “immediately” inform the public about “all the facts as we knew them,” release the names of the victim and the officer involved, and, “perhaps most important,” decrease the number of officers in the neighborhood around the shooting scene.
Unlike many departments across the country, the Dallas Police Department has tracked and publicized its number of officer-involved shootings. Following one of the 2013 police shootings, the department published a spreadsheet listing a decade’s worth of statistics showing the yearly numbers of suspects killed and injured by officers. This year, the department released its most comprehensive report on its use of force, detailing how often officers used takedowns, pepper spray, batons, Tasers, and firearms.
The department’s tactics for covering protests reflected its community policing focus. “You have a community that is upset, that feels wronged. It’s important to establish trust with them,” Maj. Max Geron told the Washington Post. "The ideal police response to a protest is no response at all."
And so on Thursday night, the officers around the protest wore normal uniforms, without helmets or heavy vests.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mayor Rawlings said he wished to "brag" about the progress his police department has made in de-escalation training.
"We are working hard to improve and there’s always room for improvement, but we are best in class, we feel," Rawlings said.


Is Texans GM Rick Smith the New Matt Millen?
XLog.com writer and NFL scout Jayson Braddock has labeled Houston Texans GM Rick Smith as the “New Matt Millen.” Millen, a four-time Super Bowl winner, is most notably known for his seven-season general manager stint with the Detroit Lions. In Detroit, Millens’ Lions went 31-81 and encountered some of the worst management moves the NFL has ever seen under one general manager. His draft failures include Joey Harrington, Kevin Jones, Drew Stanton and receivers Charles Rogers, Roy Williams and Mike Williams in back-to-back-to-back first round picks from 2003 to 2005.


The breach may have compromised employee personal information in less than 1 percent of email inboxes.
The State Department detected unusual activity in its unclassified email system that may have compromised some employees’ personal information, a department spokesperson confirmed to Nextgov Tuesday.
The “activity of concern” affected less than 1 percent of State employee email inboxes, the spokesperson said. There’s no evidence of unusual activity affected State’s classified email system, the spokesperson said.
The breach was first reported by Politico.
The department is providing three years of free credit monitoring and identity protection services to affected employees, the spokesperson said.
State has received consistently poor marks on information security audits, including a recent General Services Administration report, which found the department had only deployed multi-factor authentication—a standard protection against phishing attacks—across 11 percent of agency devices.
Another report from State’s inspector general found only one-third of overseas missions were conducting basic cybersecurity checks.
Those reports prompted a letter last week from a bipartisan group of senators asking how State is fixing its cyber vulnerabilities.
Among other things, the letter asked for statistics about successful and unsuccessful breach attempts against State Department computer systems located abroad during the past three years.


Ottis Allen, resident of Fort Scott, died Monday, December 21, 2015, at the K.U. Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas. Services for Ottis Allen will be announced by the Cheney Witt Chapel, 201 S. Main.


The Wildcats (24-1, 10-0) matched their best start in league play since 2005 thanks to three freshmen starters who have jelled into a formidable defense to go along with their high-powered offense.
Davis added 16 points for Kentucky, which won its 16th straight overall and ended Florida’s run of seven consecutive wins.
Kenny Boynton led the Gators (19-5, 7-2) with 18 points, but the team with the nation’s most 3-pointers this season went 6 of 27 from behind the arc and shot 34.9 percent overall from the field.
One of the last remaining questions for a team that continues to believe it can play for a national championship in just under two months had been the quality of opponents the Wildcats had faced after not meeting a ranked team in over a month.
Florida scored the first two baskets of the second half to cut it to 38-30, but Kentucky answered with an 11-0 run sparked when Teague and Darius Miller hit consecutive 3-pointers.
Florida freshman Bradley Beal then drove to the hoop only to have Davis reject his shot and Davis swatted another from Patric Young on the possession for good measure.
Miller added another jumper and Kidd-Gilchrist spun, hit a basket and was fouled. He completed the three-point play that made it 49-30 as Florida missed eight straight shots before snapping the skid.
Coach John Calipari compared Kidd-Gilchrist to his biggest star when he coached at Memphis.
The lead reached 20 points when Lamb buried a 3-pointer from the left corner with 11:27 left and by as many as 21 late.
“It’s fun winning by 20,” Teague said.
Beal scored 14 points and Young added 12 for the Gators.
Florida insisted before the game all the pressure was on the Wildcats, but this group that starts three freshmen and two sophomores doesn’t appear to get rattled easily. Their only blemish is a one-point loss in December at Indiana.
David Bote avoided the traditional super-soaking from his Cubs teammates Sunday after coming through with a ninth-inning RBI single to walk off a 2-1 win over the Diamondbacks.


We study the climate. We chose not to fly to D.C. for a conference on it.
This week, more than 20,000 Earth and planetary scientists from all over the world are converging on Washington for the annual gathering of the American Geophysical Union. They come together to celebrate the wonder of our planet and to swap clues about the evolution of the Earth system from the deep past to the distant future. It is a treasured geo-family reunion. But to avoid the carbon-dioxide emissions from flying, one of us will travel to Washington by train, and two of us have decided not to attend.
As Earth scientists, we understand the urgency of climate change better than anyone. Our findings are inscribed in international and national reports dating back several decades, each more urgent than the last. The most recent report points out that humanity must be halfway to a 100 percent carbon-free economy within a decade if we are to avoid the most devastating climate effects.
We grieve for the lives lost to record-breaking storms and wildfires, for the ongoing deterioration of Earth’s coral reefs, for our children’s future in a hot, unstable world. For us and for many other Earth scientists, dramatically reducing our personal carbon footprint has become a moral imperative and a lifelong pursuit.
When we first assessed our own carbon footprints, we found air travel to be the largest culprit, constituting roughly three-quarters of the total. And we are not alone. Most academics fly as a core part of our jobs; there are conferences to attend, proposals to review on panels, invited lectures to give, collaborations to advance, field data to collect.
Unfortunately, flying is extremely carbon-intensive. One round-trip flight between Los Angeles and London emits three metric tons of carbon dioxide. For context, the average citizen of China generates five tons of CO2 per year. In Bangladesh, that number falls to one ton per year, equivalent to the emissions from a typical round-trip flight within the United States. To us, these data make it clear that an addiction to air travel is inconsistent with a stable climate. So we made the difficult decision to fly less - a lot less.
We started on this journey at different times and have settled on different paths toward our shared goal. In each case, we struggled with an increasing awareness that the climate damage from our flight emissions far outweighed the tangible benefits of most scientific meetings. In response, two of us have gone from flying 100,000 miles per year to flying less than 30,000, and one of us has not flown in years.
In our personal commitments to fly less, we are bucking cultural norms in Earth science, and in academia more generally. When one of us recently chose not to fly across the country to receive an award for climate research, the decision generated mixed reactions among fellow climate scientists. In other instances, invited talks were rescinded when we requested to present remotely to save carbon emissions. We have chosen to bear the professional costs of reduced networking opportunities and less visibility for our work, and, in many cases, the personal costs of missed family vacations to far-flung destinations.
We know that these individual choices to fly less will not “save the planet.” To address climate change on the rapid time scale outlined in the recent climate assessments, collective steps such as adopting a carbon fee at the federal level and enhancing renewable portfolio standards at the state level, among others, will be essential.
However, collective action requires collective urgency. Although we fly less primarily to reduce our emissions, we also recognize that individual action shifts norms and can catalyze collective action, including institutional change at our universities and professional societies.
We envision a future in which scientists can attend conferences remotely, engaging with their colleagues during online presentations and grabbing a virtual coffee with that long-lost mentor. While there will certainly be growing pains, we see this as an opportunity to create more inclusive collaborative meeting models, allowing those without travel funding or with family-care responsibilities to participate, for example. With thoughtful design and iteration, zero-carbon 21st-century meeting models could increase connectivity and productivity for scientists and nonscientists alike.
Each year, as climate impacts worsen and the timeline for action shrinks, a growing number of Earth scientists and other academics are choosing to fly less. We encourage our universities and professional societies to invest in the technical infrastructure and to develop the online meeting models that will accelerate our shift away from frequent flying as a professional necessity.
In the meantime, we are content to go by ground — or not at all.
Kalmus is a climate scientist and the author of “Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution.” Cobb is the Georgia Power chair and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and director of the global change program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Romps is the Goldman distinguished chair in the physical sciences and professor in the department of Earth and planetary science at the University of California at Berkeley.


BENGHAZI, Libya — The United States has temporarily withdrawn some of its forces from Libya due to “security conditions on the ground,” a top military official said Sunday as a Libyan commander’s forces advanced toward the capital of Tripoli and clashed with rival militias.
Footage circulating online showed two apparent U.S. Navy transport craft manoeuvring off a beach in Janzour, east of Tripoli, sending up plumes of spray as American forces were ferried from the shore.
Fighting was underway Sunday at the international airport, some 24 kilometres (15 miles) from central Tripoli, after Hifter claimed to have seized the area. The airport was destroyed in a previous bout of militia fighting in 2014. Hifter said his forces had launched airstrikes targeting rival militias on the outskirts of Tripoli.


At least 1 inch of snow an hour is predicted after 6 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
A two-day winter storm packing everything from sleet and ice to heavy snow is hitting Michigan, forcing schools to cancel classes and knocking out power to parts of the state.
In ice-covered metro Detroit, 1-3 inches of snow is expected to fall by 10 a.m., according to the National Weather Service in White Lake.
After 6 a.m., "peak snowfall rates will approach 1 inch per hour through 10 a.m., with peak ice accretion rates of 0.05 inch per hour," according to a special weather statement from the agency.
A winter weather advisory remains in effect until 3 p.m. Wednesday as another round of snow, sleet, and freezing rain moves into southeast Michigan, leaving a total snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches and up to three-tenths an inch of ice accumulation.
Rain and snow is expected to return Thursday after 1 p.m., carrying into the weekend.
Drivers are warned of icy roads and blowing snow that could alter visibility. Wind gusts are expected to hit between 25 and 35 miles per hour.
A gale warning was issued Tuesday across the central Great Lakes through 4 p.m. Wednesday. According to the warning, gales of about 45 knots are expected across the northern portion of Lake Huron.
In Grand Rapids, the weather service said blowing and drifting snow is making travel treacherous and urged motorists to stay off the roads until at least mid-afternoon.
Ice and wind also is resulting in widespread power outages in Van Buren and St. Joseph counties, according to Fox17.
And northern Michigan is getting blanketed with snow. The farther north you drive, the higher the forecast totals.
By 7 a.m. Wednesday, places like Cadillac and Gladwin will see 2-3 inches total snow accumulation from the storm, while Sault Ste. Marie will see 4-5 inches and Rogers City will see 6-7 inches, according to the National Weather Service in Gaylord.


Remember those assurances that the Iraq War would pay for itself, once those oil revenues began gushing forth from a liberated Iraq? Well, a decade later, the Iraq War is paying off after all — for China.
"We lost out," said Michael Makovsky, a former Defense Department official in the Bush administration. "The Chinese had nothing to do with the war," he told the New York Times, "but from an economic standpoint they are benefiting from it, and our Fifth Fleet and air forces are helping to assure their supply."
China is the biggest customer of Iraq's oil, buying nearly 1.5 million barrels a day, close to half the oil Iraq produces, the Times reported. Beijing is looking to increase that share as it bids for a stake now owned by Exxon Mobil in one of Iraq's largest oil fields.
"The Chinese are the biggest beneficiary of this post-Saddam oil boom in Iraq," said Denise Natali, a Middle East expert at the National Defense University in Washington. "They need energy, and they want to get into the market."
With an estimated 143.1 billion barrels in extractable oil reserves, Iraq is the second largest exporter of oil among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), trailing only Saudi Arabia. China has recently become the world's biggest importer of oil and is investing in oil and gas fields around the world, having spent $12 billion in that effort in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Department. More than half of China's oil imports come from the Middle East, even while the West's economic sanctions against Iran over that nation's nuclear program have reduced the amount of oil available from that source.
Iraq was already one of the world's leading exporters of oil before the U.S.-led sanctions against the Saddam Hussein regime over violations of UN resolutions crippled the nation's economy, including its oil industry. Part of the rationale given for the invasion and "regime change" in Baghdad, in addition to Saddam's alleged "weapons of mass destruction," was to revive the oil industry to pre-sanction levels or higher. The WMD were never found, but the increased production of oil in Iraq, much of it pumped by Chinese workers, has added to the world supply, offsetting the effect of reduced exports from Iran. U.S.-led sanctions against Iran are based on claims the nation's nuclear program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, though all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies have reported no evidence that the Tehran government has made that decision.
China National Petroleum is looking to expand its production in Iraq with its bid for a 60-percent share, now held by Exxon Mobil in a large oil field in southern Iraq. The U.S.-based company has so far refused to sell, but China National recently said it would be interested in forming a partnership with the American oil giant. Exxon Mobil may be forced to divest, the Times reported, because of its oil interests in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurds are said to offer more generous terms than the Baghdad government, which is reportedly unhappy with companies making separate deals in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
The Chinese companies aggressively seek new contracts with Baghdad and are willing to accept lower profits to get them. "We don't have any problems with them," an Iraqi Oil Ministry official said, "They are very cooperative. There's a big difference: the Chinese companies are state companies, while Exxon or BP or Shell are different."
One big difference is that the American companies are profit-making enterprises. The state-owned Chinese firms don't answer to shareholders, pay dividends, or necessarily make a profit. As a result they can make higher bids than their Western rivals as they strive to secure a steady and expanding supply of oil for their nation's growing and energy-hungry economy.
Despite the violence and turmoil that has continued to plague Iraq since the 2011 departure of the combat units of the United States and its coalition partners, China has bet heavily on a steady supply of oil from the post-Saddam regime. In the desert near the Iran-Iraq border, China has built its own airport to fly workers in to Iraq's oil fields. Chinese officials expect to have direct flights going from Beijing and Shanghai to Baghdad in the near future.
The Chinese have also done their homework on the language and culture of the nation where they have invested so much in the future of their energy supplies. "Chinese executives impress their hosts not just by speaking Arabic, but Iraqi-accented Arabic," the Times reports. And they don't interfere in local or national affairs. "They are practical people," an Iraqi oil official said. "They don't have anything to do with politics or religion. They just work and eat and sleep."
A boom in American domestic oil and gas production in newly discovered shale fields, meanwhile, has reduced U.S. dependence on Middle East oil. Perhaps it will reduce as well the political temptation to conjure up reasons to go to war in that part of the world. The American people might be more than a little reluctant to back another war to make the Middle East safe for Chinese oil supplies.


ALBANY -- A man plunged three stories to his death Monday morning on Western Avenue.
Police and fire department paramedics were summoned to 570 Western Ave. around 11 a.m., where they found a 44-year-old man dead on the ground on the west side of the building, police said.
Police said the man was alone at the time of the apparent fall and that authorities discovered that part of the open third-floor window's sill had fallen out as well.
That prompted officers to summon the city's Department of Building and Codes to the scene as part of the investigation.
Police did not release the dead man's name.


Mariah Carey accidentally mistook The Chainsmokers to be One Direction and we are all here for it.
The We Belong Together hit-maker thought the duo were two members of 1D rather than the DJ duo and after being outed for her mishap, she couldn’t help but poke fun at herself on Twitter.
You know, own your mistakes and all that.
Alex Pall recalled the time he and his bandmate Andrew Taggart first met pop queen Mariah and she made the hilarious gaffe.
Of course Mariah’s fail ended up all over Twitter, but proving she has a sense of humour, the star was quick to reply.
Nicely done, Mariah. Nicely done.
That one is bound to entertain the Lambily – Mariah’s fanbase – just like Nick Cannon did when he referenced ex-wife Mariah’s former feud with Jennifer Lopez.
Nick entertained Mariah fans by proving he’s still the singer’s number one fan, despite their split, while appearing on The Wendy Williams Show.
He jokingly threw shade at Mariah’s ‘rival’ J.Lo and referenced the time Mariah famously claimed she ‘didn’t know’ Jennifer in an interview back in 2000.
Nick was listing his top three celebrity crushes over the age of 40 and said: ‘Number one, Mariah. The amazing mother, superstar singer.
Nick and Mariah divorced in 2016 after six years of marriage. They share seven-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe and have remained good pals since separating.


Finocchiaro’s decision to crush his tomatoes into the dirt is indicative of the fruit and vegetables segment of South Florida’s agriculture industry, which has steadily declined since the ’90s, leaving local farmers with tough choices about what to do with their crops.
So why are South Florida’s crop-growing regions disappearing? Experts largely blame a combination of the lingering effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the ongoing project to restore the Everglades, and to a lesser extent, the impact of development.
“The industry will continue declining. The forces are inevitable; there are overwhelming forces in place,” said Alan Hodges, an extension scientist at the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida.
What you’re seeing is a decrease in cropland and groves yet an increase in nurseries and greenhouses.
“As long as we keep competing against lower costs of production and the constant growing population, as well as the need for new urban development, and still battle other resource constraints like the availability of fresh water, it will no doubt keep declining,” Hodges said.
Charles LaPradd, Miami-Dade County’s agriculture manager agrees. He says the signing of the North American Trade Agreement [NAFTA] has played a big role in the industry’s decline. Pests and plant diseases, as well as natural disasters like Hurricane Andrew and other severe storms, have also played a role, he said.
The area, he said, used to have more than 20,000 acres of tomato crops. Now it has fewer than 4,000.
“We’ve seen tomato-growing go from being No. 1 in our vegetable segment to a minor player,” he said, adding that the production cost of growing tomatoes is one of the highest of all field crops in South Florida — about $15,000 per acre.
Tomatoes are Miami-Dade County’s most diminished affected crop, followed by peppers, officials say.
NAFTA, a trade pact between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, was signed in 1993 by former President Bill Clinton. The agreement eliminated virtually all tariffs and trade restrictions between the three nations. The pact took effect in 1994. And since then, Florida has significantly declined in its crop sales. In 2012, Miami-Dade’s agriculture industry saw $604 million in sales compared to $661 million in 2007, according to the most recent Census data.
Although the trade agreement has benefited farming in many states, that’s not the case in Florida, according to farmers and experts in Florida’s agricultural industry. The lower prices of produce from Mexico in particular are the reason for the decline, forcing farmers to quit farming or change to other crops like yellow squash, zucchini, green beans, sweet corn, okra and boniato (tropical sweet potato).
In the past two decades, Miami-Dade County has lost about 45 percent of its cropland and about 18 percent of its fruit and nut groves due to foreign competition, some development, and pests and diseases, according to the county’s Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources. In 2016, at least four farms closed after an oriental fruit fly infestation and major flooding.
In the past decade, though, the amount of agricultural land has stayed more or less the same. What has changed is what that acreage is used for — poultry, horse stables, wheat, for example — and most notably, nurseries.
In 2017, Miami-Dade County had a total of about 63,175 acres of total farmland. In 2012, it was 63,475, and in 2007 it was 68,691 acres. In 1994, the county boasted 88,765 acres.
Most of the farms in Miami-Dade County are family-owned, even the larger operations like Costa Farms, DiMare Fresh and Brooks Tropicals. There are currently around 20,000 industry employees. That number has not fluctuated over the past few decades. The average pay is about $10 an hour, LaPradd said.
In Palm Beach County, one of the country’s largest sugar-cane growing regions, acreage devoted to that crop has declined 7 percent since 1990 while tomatoes, peppers and other row crops have diminished by almost half. Palm Beach doesn’t grow many tomatoes, but peppers have been hit the hardest. Fruit and nut groves are almost all gone, with acreage plummeting from 19,482 acres in 1990 to 991 acres last year — a loss of about 95 percent.
And although some acreage has been lost to development, experts in both Miami-Dade and Palm Beach say it isn’t a whole lot.
“Our biggest battle right now is foreign competition, not development,” LaPradd said.
Monroe and Broward Counties don’t have major crop industries. Monroe County specializes in fish farming, while Broward has a few ranches, nurseries and community gardens.
“We’re pretty much all built out,” said Michael Orfanedes, a commercial horticulture agent with the University of Florida’s Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension in Broward County.
Orfanedes added that there are about 350 nurseries that range from being the size of a small backyard or up to four to five acres.
“It’s not very large, but it is valuable and productive. We also have some horse ranches and significant park and recreation land holdings,” he said.
Florida, which once accounted for almost half of U.S. citrus production, has been fighting pests and diseases for almost two decades.
Citrus greening is one of them — an incurable bacterial disease that the state has battled since the 2000s. The epidemic caused citrus production to plummet in the state about 70 percent since the 1990s, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
This season, the state’s orange crop dropped about 14 percent due to the effects of citrus greening, which has led to loss of production (dying trees). Last year, it dropped 16 percent for the same reason.
Since 2007, Miami-Dade lost its last remaining 1,500 acres of citrus, according to Census data, after the state and federal government implemented a citrus canker eradication program, which called for the removal of trees that were either infected or within 1900 feet of an infected tree. Citrus canker is a highly contagious bacterial disease of citrus that causes premature leaf and fruit drop.
From 2002 to 2007 — the Census’ most recent data — Palm Beach lost about 35 percent of its 13,000 acres for the same reasons.
Avocados are not faring much better, due to the ambrosia beetle, which first came from Asia to the U.S. in 2002, apparently hidden inside packing material. The beetle spreads a fungal disease called laurel wilt. Now, millions of the tiny beetles have infested 8,000 acres of Miami-Dade’s avocado groves and are responsible for killing more than 13,000 commercial avocado trees in South Florida since 2012. The avocado, Miami-Dade County’s leading tree crop measured by acres grown, brings in more than $50 million a year in revenue.
Many farmers whose avocado groves were destroyed have replaced them with mamey, longans, dragon fruit and papaya, according to the the county’s extension office.
A $1.9 billion project — paid for by the state and federal governments, intended to restore the flow of water into the Everglades to keep marshes healthy and help fend off saltwater intrusion — has also affected South Florida’s agriculture industry. With the hope of restoring the region, federal officials over the years have purchased farmland.
“There has been a significant amount of acreage that over the past few years has gone out of agriculture and into native lands for Everglades restoration,” LaPradd said.
But some environmentalists have argued that the farming industry has adversely affected the Everglades.
Hodges, who works for the University of Florida’s agricultural department, does not disagree.
In Palm Beach County, about 120,000 acres, mainly sugar fields along with some citrus groves and fields for row crops, have been acquired by the government, several times by eminent domain, according to the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences in Palm Beach.
In the past 15 years in Miami-Dade, about 12,000 acres have been acquired for the project as well as for the expansion of Everglades National Park, according to the Miami-Dade County extension service. Most of the acres held row crops and a few tree farms.
Almost half — 5,200 acres, mostly in tomatoes and beans — was land owned by James Humble, a former South Miami-Dade farmer, in addition to several other shareholders, along Ingram Highway and the L31 canal. After a decade of legal battles, the federal government ultimately acquired the land through eminent domain for $55 million.
While South Florida’s fruit and vegetable industry is struggling, its agricultural industry as a whole — including grains, plants, cotton, poultry, cattle, hogs, horses and other livestock — is strong, according to data from the U.S. Census of Agriculture.
However, Census records show 2012 sales in Miami-Dade had dropped 9 percent since 2007. The average farmer lost about $62,000 in crop sales in 2012 compared to 2007. In Palm Beach, the average farm lost about 4 percent of its income in 2012 compared to 2007.
Sam Accursio, owner of Sam S Accursio & Sons Farms Homestead, said he has felt the economic burn, so much so that he is questioning whether the family business, which started in the 1940s, will be viable in the next decades. The farm specializes in cucumber, snap beans, yellow straightneck squash, zucchini, okra and sweet corn.
Accursio says that with booming populations in South Florida, “we should be growing more food, not less.
But not all agricultural business are hurting. Data shows the acreage used for plant nurseries has doubled since the 1990s from 8,916 acres to 16,136 acres.
“Here in South Florida, most of your communities require landscaping when you do any development. That does drive that market to some degree obviously, but the indoor plant market is mainly driven by people’s growing desire for beautification,” LaPradd said.
Plant nurseries have virtually no foreign competition, mainly because foreign countries aren’t permitted to import soil into the U.S.
LaPradd says that to stay in the game, farmers must be willing to make adjustments according to the unpredictable and shifting market.


Facebook is holding a Developer Garage today at its offices in Palo Alto, and a number of new app policies will be formally announced. Some of the changes, though, are so dramatic that Facebook has briefed the bigger app developers in advance. And those developers are, to say the least, more than a little worried about the effect the changes will have on traffic and usage. One source we’ve spoken with estimates that the changes may drop usage on their apps by 70% or more (more on that below, some developers may use the changes to their advantage).
Like previous changes, Facebook is moving to clean up their user interface and try to get application spam under control. The changes will roll out over the next six months, we’ve heard.
Last week Facebook changed the way it publishes the news stream to users. For the last few months users have seen a constant Twitter-like stream of news from friends. Now the default view is algorithmic. A lot of applications (especially these guys) encourage users to add a status update every few minutes with what they’re up to – and when there was a constant stream of this stuff the apps benefited from all the extra traffic. That’s all muted now, and developers we spoke with say traffic and usage has declined 20% – 30% from just that one change.
And today Facebook will hit developers even harder. An even more lucrative traffic stream for apps comes from notifications – the pop up box in the lower right hand corner of Facebook that tells you when people leave comments or “like” your links and updates, etc. Today apps have free reign to publish into notifications without even telling the user. And they do it. A lot. When the changes go into effect, we’ve heard, apps will no longer be able to publish to notifications. There goes another 40% of traffic for the apps that use it heavily, say our sources.
Instead, developers will get apps back on the home page of users in the left sidebar, along with notifications of new messages from the application in that sidebar. There will also be a new channel in the messaging inbox for notifications from apps. And developers are also encouraged to create direct email relationships with users and communicate with them off-Facebook.
The overall plan will be to let users get notifications from apps they use and/or their friends use when they want them, but to get them out of the news feed, messages and notifications where they’re spammy. One source we spoke with says that developers who use the new tools properly may even get better quality communications with users. “Innovating developers will adjust,” said our source.
There are lots of other changes coming today as well, but our understanding is the notification prohibition is the big hit to developers. As a Facebook user, I’m ecstatic. But App developers aren’t. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus had to cancel a talk at Harvard Business School last week to get back with him team and figure out how they’ll deal with the changes.
Here’s the other big change today: Facebook is apparently a little tired of making and then endlessly changing developer rules to plug loopholes and keep the user experience tolerable. So instead of trying to put in writing everything that developers can and cannot do to spread word about their apps, they’ll move to more of an Apple/iPhone model. Meaning they’ll reserve the right to just say “we don’t like what you’re doing” and take action against the app. It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean applications need to pre-approved like they are on the iPhone.


Late last week my Twitter and Instagram were blowing up with photos of President Obama, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and entrepreneur/"Shark Tank" star Daymond John on the Stanford campus. Those three were among the 1,500 or so people who came to the university for the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and there was clearly a lot of excitement.
The global summit offered participants a wide range of workshops, panels, exhibitions and networking sessions, with one of the highlights being an in-depth panel discussion on the future -- and societal benefits -- of artificial intelligence.
"In my own area of health and biomedicine, the opportunities [for AI] are ridiculously exciting," panel co-chair Russ Altman, MD, PhD, said during his opening remarks Thursday evening. He noted that the amount of biomedical data that electronic health records and "the little devices we wear" generate have become "far too big for us to interpret without intelligent assistance."
Smith touched on how government is using artificial intelligence, machine learning and similar techniques in tasks ranging from planning space missions to forecasting job growth. But given the potential effects of these technologies on culture and the economy, she said government’s larger challenge is to bring “humanity’s greatest talent” to bear on the development and direction of AI by throwing open the discussion.
“How are we going to make sure we are bringing everyone into this conversation?” Smith asked, previewing an initiative that the White House is expected to formally announce Monday that will offer literally anyone a way to register an opinion or view on this emerging technology.
Smith's talk and others are available on the School of Engineering's Facebook page. The panel was co-hosted by Stanford's One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence.


ARSENE WENGER has vowed to "fight 100 per cent" for Jack Wilshere's Arsenal career if he thinks it's in his best interest to stay at the club.
The midfielder is one of several Gunners stars - including Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez - whose contracts are due to expire at the end of the season.
The England international went out on loan to Bournemouth last year in a bid to prove his fitness and win back a place in the Arsenal team.
But he has played just 48 minutes of Premier League football this term, all from the bench.
And Wenger says that remaining fit – rather than earning a new contract – is what the 25-year-old should be concentrating on at the moment.
"For him, it's just about being fit and considered like any other player in the squad," Wenger said.
"He's at that level now where every opportunity is a good chance for him to commit to his long-term future.
"I don't think about the long term. For him I always consider his interest because he's an Arsenal player since he was a kid and I think about what's best for him, regardless of the decision I make.
"If I think it right and in his best interests for him to stay here, then I fight 100 per cent for him to stay because he's a top-quality guy and is back fit now.
Wilshere has been ravaged by injuries over the last three years, but he is fit ahead of Arsenal's match with Huddersfield tonight (7.45pm).
Wenger also commented on the fact he has substituted Alexandre Lacazette 10 times in the Premier League this season.
He said: "First of all, I'd like to say that you sub strikers more than defenders because they have to create, provoke and be incisive.
"But I think he has adapted physically to the Premier League and I am very happy with him.
"I also do it [substitute Lacazette] because I have options on the bench who are fresh and can give us other variations in attack.
"Physically, the Premier League is very demanding and demands a lot of work. If you look at other teams they also change strikers after 70 or 80 minutes."


2.30PM: POLICE officers pulled a man and his dog from their burning vehicle, after it ran off the road and into a grass fire.
A Queensland Police Service spokesperson said the crash, which happened at 10.55am, occurred 65km north of Rockhampton.
Just five minutes before, a caravan rollover had been called in, just 40km south on the Bruce Hwy.
A man and a woman were taken to Rockhampton Hospital following that crash.
The highway was reportedly flowing well again by 12.45pm.
11AM: TRAFFIC is being controlled on the Bruce Hwy north of Rockhampton after a vehicle ran off the road, into a grass fire.
Emergency services crews are rushing to the scene, 65km north of Rockhampton, where a vehicle towing a trailer has run off the road.
Initial reports suggest the vehicle clipped the rear of a truck while driving through heavy smoke as the result of ongoing grass fires in the area.
It is understood the driver lost the steering and ran off the road, where the vehicle is understood to have been consumed by the fire.
The 75-year-old driver and a dog in the vehicle are understood to have safely made it out of the vehicle and are being examined for minor injuries.


Photo sharing site 500px announced on Friday plans to roll out Creative Commons licensing on the service.
While photos on the site will default to an “all rights reserved” setting, 500px users will now have the ability to select Creative Commons licensing as an option when uploading new photos to the site or editing existing images.
A licensing option already available to photographers on some other photo-sharing sites such as Flickr, Creative Commons allows photographers to designate certain photos as images that they are willing to share with others. Sites such as Mashable, for instance, might use a photo with a Creative Commons license to accompany a news post.
Users will be able to search through photos on the site based on licensing, allowing for quick access to the types of photos they’re looking for.
A longstanding request from 500px users, CEO Oleg Gustol told Mashable that the company decided to add the functionality in order to create the maximum value for the site’s community.
"We want to give our photographers as much flexibility as possible to spread their work and build their profiles and businesses," says Gutsol. “Our move to offer Creative Commons licensing is another way we’re providing additional services and value to meet the needs of our growing community."
Gustol says the move is not only a positive one for current 500px users, but also an incentive for more people to join. “Giving our users the option increases the talent pool we can bring to the platform,” he says.
Creative Commons licensing is available on 500px now.
Recently, 500px was the first company to take advantage of Klout's KloutPass SDK. The company, which lets you buy and sell photographs in addition to sharing them, now offers discounts based on your Klout score. For instance, someone with a Klout score of 90 or above can get a 100% discount on a purchase from the site.


Poor countries have won historic recognition of the plight they face from the ravages of climate change, wringing a pledge from rich nations that they will receive funds to repair the "loss and damage" incurred.
This is the first time developing countries have received such assurances, and the first time the phrase "loss and damage from climate change" has been enshrined in an international legal document.
Developing countries had been fighting hard for the concession at the fortnight-long UN climate change talks among 195 nations in Qatar, which finished after a marathon 36-hour final session.
Ronald Jumeau, negotiating for the Seychelles, scolded the US negotiator: "If we had had more ambition [on emissions cuts from rich countries], we would not have to ask for so much [money] for adaptation. If there had been more money for adaptation [to climate change], we would not be looking for money for loss and damage. What's next? Loss of our islands?"
Ruth Davis, political adviser at Greenpeace, said: "This is a highly significant move – it will be the first time the size of the bill for failing to take on climate change will be part of the UN discussions. Countries need to understand the risks they are taking in not addressing climate change urgently."
Ed Davey, the UK energy and climate secretary, said: "It's about helping the most vulnerable countries, and looking at how they can be more resilient."
But the pledges stopped well short of any admission of legal liability or the need to pay compensation on the part of the rich world.
The US had strongly opposed the initial "loss and damage" proposals, which would have set up a new international institution to collect and disperse funds to vulnerable countries. US negotiators also made certain that neither the word "compensation", nor any other term connoting legal liability, was used, to avoid opening the floodgates to litigation – instead, the money will be judged as aid.
Key questions remain unanswered, including whether funds devoted to "loss and damage" will come from existing humanitarian aid and disaster relief budgets. The US is one of the world's biggest donor of humanitarian aid and disaster relief, from both public and private sources. It will be difficult to disentangle damage inflicted by climate change from other natural disasters.
Another question is how the funds will be disbursed. Developing countries wanted a new institution, like a bank, but the US is set against that, preferring to use existing international institutions. These issues will have to be sorted out at next year's climate conference, in Warsaw, where they will be bitterly contested.
Davis said: "This [text] is just the beginning of the process – you need to have a finalised mechanism. But it will concentrate minds on the fact that it is in the best interest of countries all over the world to start cutting their emissions quickly." Governments also rescued the Kyoto protocol, the initial targets of which run out at the end of this year. The EU, Australia, Norway and a handful of other developed countries have agreed to take on new carbon-cutting targets under the treaty, running to 2020.
A separate strand of the negotiations, set up to accommodate the US because of its refusal to ratify Kyoto, was closed. This will allow unified discussions to begin on a global climate treaty that would require both developed and developing countries to cut their emissions. The treaty is supposed to be signed in 2015, at a conference in Paris, and come into effect in 2020.
The next three years of negotiations on the treaty will be the hardest in the 20-year history of climate change talks because the world has changed enormously since 1992, when the UN convention on climate change was signed, and 1997, when the Kyoto protocol enshrined a stark division between developed countries – which were required to cut emissions – and developing countries, which were not.
China was classed then as a developing country, and although it still has about 60 million people living in dire poverty, it is now the world's biggest emitter and will soon overtake the US as the biggest economy. It has made clear its determination to hang on to its developing country status, and that the countries classed as developed in 1997 must continue to bear most of the burden for emissions cuts, and for providing funds to poor countries to help them cut emissions and cope with climate change.


MEXICO CITY – A senior U.S. official says there is strong circumstantial evidence that Mexican federal police who fired on a U.S. Embassy vehicle, wounding two CIA officers, were working for organized crime in a targeted assassination attempt.
"That's not a 'We're trying to shake down a couple people for a traffic violation sort of operation. That's a 'We are specifically trying to kill the people in this vehicle'," a U.S. official familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. "This is not a 'Whoops, we got the wrong people.' "
The Mexican official said one line of investigation is that members of the Beltran Leyva Cartel were interested in attacking the people in the car because some of their lookouts had seen them passing through the area and presumed they were investigating the cartel. It's possible they didn't know they were Americans.
The rural road near Cuernavaca where the attack took place is known territory of the remnants of the Beltran Leyvas, a once-powerful cartel now run by Hector Beltran Leyva since the Navy killed his brother, drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva, in Cuernavaca in late 2009. Beltran Leyva was once aligned with Mexico's powerful cartel, Sinaloa, headed by fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. But the groups split in 2008 and continued government hits on Beltran Leyva leadership since then have splintered that cartel into small gangs warring for the area.
A Mexican federal police spokesman said last month that the officers may not have noticed the diplomatic plates. The official said police focused on the unusual sight of a bulletproof sport utility vehicle traveling at high speed on a rural road, not on the car's distinctive diplomatic plates.
But Raul Benitez, a security expert at Mexico's National Autonomous University, said Mexican military sources have told him that "the attack was not an error," and "the objective was to annihilate the three passengers in the car."
"I don't think we're yet in a position to say definitively who did it, who paid them and why they did it," the U.S. official said. "We have been assured repeatedly in private and in public that the government of Mexico will investigate this to the end and provide a final answer as to what occurred, and I think our posture at this stage is we take them at their word."
Mexico's federal police agency, which President Felipe Calderon calls the most professional and highly trained of the country's law enforcement, has been hit with allegations of wrongdoing in recent months. In August, all 348 officers assigned to security details at the Mexico City International Airport were replaced in the wake of a June shooting of three federal policemen, who were killed by a fellow officer believed to be involved in trafficking drugs through the terminal.
That could be the result of the break-up of larger cartels, said Andrew Selee of the Washington-based Mexico Institute, noting that historically drug traffickers didn't want the attention that a hit on U.S. personnel normally brings.
"The lower level leaders in the cartels are making decisions the more seasoned leaders wouldn't," he said. "It's the lower level leaders who feel empowered to order hits."


Thanks to playing a number of iconic roles throughout his career, Samuel L. Jackson will long be remembered for an impressive number of memorable lines. Unquestionably included on this list is his very memorable warning to his co-stars in Jurassic Park, telling them to "Hold on to your butts!" This line in particular apparently left a significant impression on director Jordan Vogt Roberts, because when Jackson was added to the cast of Kong: Skull Island, the filmmaker simply felt compelled to sneak the famous line into the script.
That was written specifically with him [in mind]. It was one of those things where I, the writer, put it in the script, and I honestly was expecting Sam to say, 'I'm not saying that.' And then the day came on set. He didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. It just came, and it made me really regretful because I really wanted to work in John Goodman saying, 'Mark it zero' or something like that. And I could never find a place that totally made sense, but yeah.
Given that there are many stars who aren't big on referencing their past work in new projects, Jordan Vogt Roberts' timidity here is justifiable -- and it's fun to know that Samuel L. Jackson was game for it (there's simply no way he didn't recognize the dialogue). That being said, approaching John Goodman about the proposed Big Lebowski reference could have been a completely different ballgame, so it's probably for the best that the filmmaker walked away from Kong: Skull Island with a perfect batting average and a fun little reference in his movie.
Audiences will catch this Jurassic Park reference in Kong: Skull Island when the film arrives in theaters this Friday, March 10th, but as alluded to earlier, this is far from all I learned from my interview with Jordan Vogt Roberts. CinemaBlend will have a lot more great stories in the next few days about the process of making the blockbuster, so stay tuned!


Recall now the I Like Ike era that was a backdrop for our youngest years at camp. Set the stage with camp directors, senior.
In the foreground, picture Wonder Bread-eating boys and girls—first generation Americans in many cases, pre-Beatles and a good dozen years before acid rock, the military draft, napalm raids, bodybag airlifts and Power to the People.
So it was with sincerity, pride and a sense of duty that we sang about purple mountain majesties and other symbols of America  particularly in that safe and secure summer home, where the adults seemed to enrich our morning anthem with postwar-decade emotions and energy we didn’t yet fully appreciate or understand.
But we sure couldn’t miss noticing them. When director Gerry Bucky squeezed his accordion vigorously and belted out God Bless America energetically, the oceans weren’t the only places white with foam.
This wasn’t a rushed recitation in the style of “Happy Birthday.” This was a strong, colorful thread in a patriotic tapestry we wove all season. Our vacation brought a break from weekday Pledge of Allegiance routines, but not from lessons about liberty and flag-waving.
It was an honor, not a chore, to stand alongside the main flagpole—rope in hand—and hoist or lower the red, white and blue. In an example of the inclusiveness that let youngsters of every age share a role in all activities, that task was rotated among campers. “Don’t let it touch the ground,” short-legged flag handlers were reminded. The day-ending ceremony included a military-style folding of the flag into a tight triangle.
This was part of a summer-long pageant, one of many regular gatherings that included Friday night services, socials, campfires, musical theater rehearsals and productions. Looking back, a larger purpose, a more serious motivation can be seen behind the flagpole ceremonies.
Some of our community’s oldest members, as we understood better in later years, had deep and dark reasons to embrace each sunrise with a patriotic song. This was an adopted land that they loved, having fled a country where they had been targets of hatred and worse  as was true of many campers’ European-born parents.
So July Fourth wasn’t just another day of softball and swimming, at least not until we heard a poignant pre-breakfast “sermon” giving thanks for the blessings of democracy that were won in 1776 and that attracted a good number of our families to sail past the Statue of Liberty—not necessarily on a ferry.
Even the youngest first-time campers could tell something different was up when “Uncle” Gerry would pause at the flag-raising, look up and begin speaking about what Independence Day meant. We heard about freedoms, about voting and about immigration. He stood alongside one of the smallest boys, costumed by head counselor director Lilo Hanauer as an undersized Uncle Sam—complete with cotton beard and a tall hat in red, white and blue.
Hokey? You bet. But also heartfelt.
The fact that I can picture those mornings now, more vividly than those daily stand-and-deliver classroom pledges, speaks to the solid foundation they built for appreciating this land that’s our land.
Love of family, love of religious culture, love of country. Hey kid, what’d you learn at computer camp last summer?


While Israel has complained about other countries failing to return looted artwork, it was one of the last to pass a law requiring restoration.
Israel is lagging behind the rest of the world in locating and returning works of art stolen from their owners during the Holocaust, Stuart Eizenstat, an expert on restoring Holocaust art to the original owners and a former U.S. deputy secretary of the treasury, said in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
Speaking at a Tel Aviv conference organized by Israel’s Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets, Eizenstat, who was appointed by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton in the 1990s to research stolen Nazi artwork, said the Israeli government could have played a significant role in returning the looted art, but did not do so.
Elinor Kroitoru, who heads the asset location and information division at the restitution company, said in an interview that Israel could learn something from Germany on this matter. She said Germany has shown it can research the provenance of art and take responsibility for Nazi-era theft, but added that Israel cannot expect Germany to do all the work.
“They need to be partners, to share information, but not to work in our stead,” she said.
The Nazis looted some 600,000 works of art from Jewish collectors and gallery owners during World War II, most of which have never been returned to the owners or their heirs. Some are exhibited in museums all over the world and others are in the hands of private collectors. In recent years, a number of international conferences have been called in an attempt to deal with the problem and initiate legislation on the matter.
A number of these works were brought to Israel after World War II and are now at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, as well as other museums around the country.
Indeed, while Israel has repeatedly complained that other countries have failed to return artwork stolen during the Holocaust, it was one of the last countries to pass a law requiring the return of looted art, Reuven Merhav, the chairman of the executive committee of the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, told Haaretz.
In 1998 Eizenstat co-chaired the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, at which 44 countries committed to act to locate looted artworks and to identify the original owners. Israel, however, did not pass the Holocaust Victims’ Assets Law until 2006.
A number of Israeli museums have acted to return such art to the original owners, and the Israel Museum has returned 10 works of art, including several important and valuable paintings, to their legal owners.
The question of stolen art hit the headlines recently after it was revealed that Germany had found a huge trove of art, estimated to be worth about 1 billion euros ($1.36 billion), which also includes works suspected of having been looted during the Holocaust or shortly before.
A special investigative team is still examining the provenance of these works and will try to return any looted art to its lawful owners, and Israel and Germany signed an agreement this month governing bilateral cooperation on researching the background of artworks suspected of having been stolen.
Israel’s restitution company says there is still a lot of work to be done. Dozens of curators from all over the country will gather this week for a training seminar on how to research the provenance of paintings confiscated during the Holocaust.
The restitution company began searching for looted art only last year, and has yet to have a major success.
Kroitoru has a staff of 30 people, but not all are involved in the restitution of stolen art. They sometimes use the help of outside experts and cooperate with Jewish communities overseas to share information.
It will take years of hard work to say Israeli museums have no looted artwork in their collections. “We want to be the catalyst, to create a process, to arouse public awareness, and to bring about appropriate legislation in the Knesset,” said Kroitoru.


Andrew Gillum’s Done Feeling Sorry For Himself. A Presidential Run Could Come Next.
The Florida gubernatorial candidate is making the rounds in Democratic politics.
His meeting with Barack Obama went over schedule. He and Beto O’Rourke have spoken. Not long ago, he thrilled 300 well-heeled political donors hungry to win in 2020. But no one seems to know, except for Andrew Gillum, if he’s actually thinking about running for president.
The door is open for Gillum to explore a run for the presidency, strategists familiar with the rigors of organizing presidential campaigns said. Gillum has not ruled it out. But according to interviews with nearly a dozen friends, former aides, or associates for this story, he is on his own schedule. He intends to do what’s most effective for Democrats to beat President Donald Trump in 2020 and is said to be unfazed by the people pushing him to run for the Democratic nomination.
“The thing you have to understand about Andrew is he’s been told he’s going to be president someday his entire life,” an aide who worked on his campaign for governor and has spoken to Gillum recently told BuzzFeed News.
Donors and activists have spoken to Gillum trying to gauge his interest, in some cases asking for even a wink and a nod, but they’ve been unable to get a sense of Gillum’s thinking one way or another, the campaign aide said. Privately, though, Gillum is telling friends and associates that he’s finding it hard to get into the right frame of mind to make another monumental decision, after the challenge of running for office in a state as big as Florida.
Gillum is an avatar of the frenetic pace of politics, and an example of how a young politician can struggle to adapt to lofty expectations, and the demands and deadlines of a party desperate to beat Trump. Unlike in an ordinary climate, when most losing candidates would be licking their wounds, Gillum has felt compelled to launch into a flurry of political activity. In public appearances and on Twitter, he looks and sounds more like an aspirant rather than as a defeated malcontent. This is all after losing a race many political observers believed he’d win going away, and a messy weeklong period during which he first conceded the race, then walked that back, and then reconceded once it became clear there was no way he’d overcome his small margin of defeat.
He told BuzzFeed News in a November interview that he felt he had a responsibility to the voters who supported his vision for Florida, but that he was “detached” from the chatter over his political future. (Asked if he was thinking about seeking the presidential nomination, Gillum said, “Come on, give me a break. No, really. Give me a break.”) He shed tears on the Sunday after the election. Flanked by his wife, R. Jai, he publicly thanked his home church, Bethel A.M.E., and solicited prayers, “because it’s never easy when you give everything you have.” He added, in the interview with BuzzFeed News, that he was excited to do something he hadn’t done in two years while on the campaign trail — take his kids to their soccer games. “I can’t even think about anything else,” he said.
Gillum after voting with his children on Nov. 6, 2018, in Tallahassee, Florida.
His recent political activity, more than a month later, suggests that now he can.
The sharp, dark suits and monochrome neckties are back. As is the optimism and upbeat demeanor that defined his campaign for governor. Unburdened with the task of putting together an administration (he had already tapped a seasoned political director to lead the transition in the Tallahassee mayor’s office), he’s publicly previewing what he thinks needs to be done in Florida for Democrats to win in 2020. He’s even sprinkling in a synopsis of his patented “stick and move” Trump strategy that led Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez to declare that Gillum was “a rock star yesterday, he’s a rock star today, and he will be a rock star in the future” when introducing him to the party’s top donors.
Gillum’s busy schedule has dovetailed with the revelation that he was likely not the target of an FBI investigation into corruption in Tallahassee after prosecutors slapped a city commissioner with a 44-count indictment, including bribery, extortion, fraud, and racketeering.
“The bottom line is he did a lot of things in the race that Democrats really need to be thinking about,” said a political strategist who did not want to be on record about possible candidates. Indeed, the cachet that came with star power has created opportunities.
Soon after he met with Obama, Gillum spoke by phone with Beto O’Rourke, who is weighing his own presidential run after losing Texas’s Senate race in November. Deval Patrick, a close Obama friend who speaks with him frequently, told BuzzFeed News the only difference between Gillum and O’Rourke is that the latter has political experience at the federal level. On that point, Patrick and Obama agree, the source said.
But it’s anyone’s guess how long the goodwill will last before Gillum will be expected to make a decision. Perhaps no development was more intriguing than the opportunity Gillum had to present before DNC donors in a private setting at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington earlier this month. A source familiar with the inner workings of the DNC said the organization is trying to stay away from associating too closely with likely candidates for president in 2020. But some of those in attendance remained convinced they were looking at a potential top-tier presidential hopeful, anyway. Gillum received a standing ovation.
“Mayor Gillum was honored to be invited to talk to the DNC finance committee about how we can keep a progressive movement that lifts up young and diverse voices,” Kirsten Allen, Gillum’s spokesperson, told BuzzFeed News in an email.
According to a source who heard the speech, Gillum gave his traditional stump speech highlighting his biography. Shifting a bit, Gillum spoke about commitment and compared the relationship between donors and Florida to a marriage that needs to be invested in year round. “What we need you to do is put a ring on it,” the source recalled Gillum saying.
The chance to speak to 300 well-heeled donors is not something every national Democrat gets to do. But people around Gillum are beginning to signal their belief that Gillum is a generational talent more than worthy of consideration.
One of those people seems to be Kevin Cate, the genteel, boyish communications strategist for Gillum’s gubernatorial campaign. Knowing his candidate's fate wouldn’t change, he stood to his feet and buttoned his jacket to congratulate fans of Ron DeSantis at a panel discussion held deep in the bowels of Florida State University’s basketball arena. That wasn’t all. Shifting gears, Cate told Tallahassee’s political elite that history would not fondly remember Florida’s election of a clone of a “racist, womanizing, embarrassment of a president.” Through groans and applause, Cate insisted the positive vision for Florida espoused by his candidate was the future. Andrew Gillum had won, he said.
Obama and Gillum on Nov. 2, 2018, in Miami.
In reality, Gillum, who had been an elected official since he was a college student, was about to be a private citizen. A theme emerged after huddling to debrief and plan Gillum’s next steps: Gillum’s political constituency, his advisers believed, was no longer confined to just Florida. In trying to get him to think about exploring a run for the presidency, they said he had national popularity, a wide donor base, and, as the campaign showed, a story to tell.
Gillum’s ascendance in the party — and why he is an intriguing prospect to people like Obama and Patrick — is related to the fact that his candidacy electrified a coalition of first-time voters, young people, and people of color. To other supporters, believing in Gillum made sense to poor Floridians, people to whom voting in elections can sometimes be amorphous.
Democrats say Gillum’s youth and authenticity are badly needed for their party. Beginning in 2014, as Democrats began to look forward to the next presidential election, the party openly lamented how a thin and inexperienced Democratic bench that made Clinton’s 2016 nomination all but inevitable. In a much better place now, national Democrats roundly laud Gillum’s effort in his race, saying that talent-wise, senior strategists like his smoothness: It’s rare for a politician to come off as clearly smart without opening themselves up to be caricatured as a know-it-all, and as telegenic but with an ability to present as an average person. Tiffany Cross, cofounder of the Beat DC (think Politico’s Playbook, but for people of color) said that Gillum’s emergence represents a healthy shift for the Democratic Party, part of a new class of politicians expanding what it means to be electable.
While "electable" was once a term synonymous with having appeal to white swing voters, Cross said Gillum’s success means it now could indicate a politician might have the capacity to build a big grassroots campaign attractive to the Democratic Party’s core constituency.
The last several election cycles have also shown that even if you’re a little green, waiting your turn to run for president can be ruinous.
“You run when you’re hot and you go when the spirit moves you. Chris Christie is the example that comes most to mind. If he had run in 2012, he probably would have been the Republican nominee. But by 2016, he flamed out pretty early,” said Simmons.
Gillum’s window is open, even after a losing campaign. And he knows as well as anyone that it can close quickly.


Former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton showed up for a community sporting event at a high school in Virginia.
Clinton was spotted in the stands at James Madison High School for a community football game. A very bundled-up Clinton took selfies with students and wore black sunglasses for the event. Contacted by the Daily Caller, school officials didn’t know why Clinton was on campus this weekend and said her presence at the moderately attended community football game was unexpected.
The school Twitter account posted images of Clinton with the students and in the stands.
Clinton was defeated by President Donald Trump in 2016, but seems to have weighed the possibility of running again in 2020.


Pres. Trump’s National Security Advisor, former Gen. Michael Flynn, was moved to resign because he engaged in unethical communications with a Russian official as a private citizen. This is an apparent violation of the Logan Act of 1799, meant to keep private citizens from gumming up international relations between the US and other countries. It is reported that Flynn deceived Vice Pres. Pence and that Pres. Trump eventually asked for Flynn’s resignation.
Democrats, seething over this story, say they are upset because of the national security implications. FOX News’ Sheppard Smith – a Leftist so far from being “fair and balanced” the words curdle coming off his lips – is thumping the scandal drum; fueling the quest of the establishment political opportunists to entangle the Trump Administration in a “Russian Scandal” meant to damage Mr. Trump’s reform agenda.
In reality, the Democrats are enraged because Vladimir Putin didn’t respond with action against outgoing Pres. Barack Obama’s sanctions, which were imposed because of a perceived skewing of the US election to Donald Trump through Russian interference.
First, anyone who believes that the Russians don’t routinely attempt to skew the results of elections in the United States is living in an information deprived fantasy land. Without doubt they didn’t live through, or were aware during, the Vietnam protest era when Communist and Socialist forces –masquerading as anti-war protesters and financed by both the Chinese and the Russians – absolutely influenced the outcomes of elections.
Secondly, we, as a nation, must always operate believing that nefarious forces are trying to skew our elections. It is for this reason that it is the duty of every American to vet disinformation (read: fake news) and to seek the truth beyond the babblings of the mainstream media. It has been proven time and time again that the mainstream media has – both purposefully and unwittingly – carried the water for those who would seek to influence the outcomes of elections.
More important in all of this is the reality that Flynn’s contact with the Russian official literally saved the United States from retaliatory action by the Putin Regime meant to counter Barack Obama’s reckless imposition of sanctions.
From the moment it became apparent that Hillary Clinton was not going to win the presidency, Democrats and Progressives desperately attempted to advance the false-narrative that Vladimir Putin and his regime were to blame for her demise. It wasn’t that the country had finally awakened from their love affair with a Socialist and self-serving Clinton empire; it had to be the Russians who stole the election, delivering it to a Putin ally, Donald Trump.
From that defining point, the Obama Administration did everything they could to provoke Vladimir Putin into confrontation with the United States. The Obama Administration’s hope (and this has Valerie Jarrett’s stink all over it) was to bequeath a budding military and economic confrontation with Russia to the new Trump Administration; an administration on record as determined to roll-back anything and everything that Obama “achieved” over his eight-year reign.
It took little more than a discussion between Flynn and the Russian official to reiterate the fact that the Trump Administration was not inclined to come to confrontation with the Russians, as the Obama Administration has hoped, to avoid international conflict. For this, Gen. Michael Flynn was forced to resign. For this, Democrats are celebrating Flynn’s demise.
Democrats insist in an overt consternation, that Flynn violated the Logan Act. But each of those howling today were noticeably silent when then-Senator Barack Obama went to Egypt and Germany, among other places overseas, and telegraphed his intentions for the direction of American foreign policy. The result of those speeches was the Arab Spring, which has claimed more lives to date than all of the more recent military conflicts in which the US military has engaged.
Flynn’s actions prevented confrontation and Obama’s was the genesis for bloody confrontation. Flynn had to resign because of an 18th Century law most irrelevant to today’s reality, and Obama was elected to two terms. Democrats and Progressives vilify Flynn while they disingenuously attempt to lionize Obama.
Technically, Gen. Flynn may have transgressed the Logan Act, but his actions resulted in an avoidance of conflict with a world power. Meanwhile, Flynn’s resignation has delivered to the political opportunists of the Washington establishment exactly what it sought, a hollow man scandal to thump for the next four years.
If reform is to happen in Washington under the Trump Administration these “media bait” events must be kept to a minimum and when they do occur the Trump Administration must use the events as “cover” to move dramatic and radical reforms while the powers of Progressivism are otherwise preoccupied.
It’s called taking a page from the opposition’s playbook. We have learned over the last eight years that their tactics work.


Couldn’t get through to Mario at his Hancock Street Café (3354 Hancock Street, between Old Town and the Sports Arena area).
Turns out he has a new number (619-408-2101). I wanted to get to him to see if he’d heard: Herbie Hancock, his jazz piano-playing hero, is coming to town, late summer.
See, most of Mario’s café is studio, with pianos, guitars, drums. He’s a heckuva musician, but his dream has always been to invite the great Herbie Hancock himself to come play here. Heck, that’s why he chose this location, on, yeah, Hancock Street.
I’ve always gone for good value Italian chow (Mario’s oh-so Italian, from New York), but I've also come here to Mario's for the talk, and the music. Most days, he’s open from 8:00 to around 2.30 p.m. Friday, Saturday that extends to about two in the morning. It's food, wine, good vibes.
Specially late, when you’ll likely catch Mario and friends making music. Who knows, if the great Herbie himself turns up, come September, Mario may have a thing or two to teach him about tickling those ivories.