Datasets:

tau

/

multi_news

like 0

Follow

Tel Aviv University 27

Talk about a shrinking population. A survey of Japanese people aged 18 to 34 found that almost 70 percent of unmarried men and 60 percent of unmarried women are not in a relationship. Moreover, many of them have never got close and cuddly. Around 42 percent of the men and 44.2 percent of the women admitted they were virgins. The government won’t be pleased that sexlessness is becoming as Japanese as sumo and sake. The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has talked up boosting the birthrate through support for child care, but until the nation bones up on bedroom gymnastics there’ll be no medals to hand out. Far from getting together and getting it on, the sexes are growing apart. There are now many more virgins than in 2010, when the last study was conducted and when only 36.2 percent of men and 38.7 percent of women said they had never had sex. The study, released Thursday, was conducted by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. The institute has conducted the same survey every five years since 1987, when the proportion of unmarried men and women who said they had no partner stood at 48.6 percent and 39.5 percent, respectively. There was no accounting for the discrepancy between the genders, except perhaps for the age-old problem of men and women having different understandings of the word “commitment.” The surveys did not ask about same-sex partners. The institute said the increase in singles was particularly sharp for people in their late 20s, the age at which science tells us women are most fertile. Asked about their hopes for the future, there seemed to be recognition that families are what humans are destined for. Nearly 90 percent of the respondents said they want to get married “sometime in the future.” But 30 percent of the 2,706 men sampled and 26 percent of the 2,570 female respondents said they were not currently looking for a relationship. “They want to tie the knot eventually. But they tend to put it off as they have gaps between their ideals and the reality,” said Futoshi Ishii, head of the NIPSSR’s population dynamics research department. “That’s why people marry later or stay single for life, contributing to the nation’s low birthrate.” Boosting the birthrate is one of the coveted goals of the Abe administration, which has declared it will raise the fertility rate from the current 1.4 to 1.8 by 2025 or so. The government hopes to achieve this by making it easier for families to raise children, such as by increasing the places available at nursery schools. The survey suggests it may also have to find a way to play cupid. Meanwhile, the same study found that the number of children among couples who have been married for between 15 and 19 years averaged a record-low 1.94. But in a plus for female empowerment, it also showed the ratio of women who returned to work after having their first child exceeded 50 percent for the first time. The study, conducted in June last year, covered 8,754 single people and 6,598 married couples across the country. ||||| That's according to a government survey published last week, claiming that 42% of men and 44.2% of women -- almost half of Japan's millennial singles aged between 18 to 34 -- are virgins. While some prefer it that way, others would like their fortunes to change, with 85.7% of men and 89.3% of women harboring hopes of marriage in the future. The survey did not look at same-sex partners. Japan's lack of interest in sex is blamed on everything from a stagnant economy to Japanese manga fans favoring fantasy over reality. Changing social norms The latest government survey found that 42 % of men aged between 18 to 34 were still virgins. Japan has one of the world's lowest birthrates and is home to a severely aging population, with a recent survey finding 34.6 million Japanese aged over 65. But despite, the government's attempts to boost the number of marriages and children, this year's survey results from the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, don't reveal a swerve in the right direction. Nancy Snow, a professor of public diplomacy from the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, told CNN that changing social and economic norms contributed to the decrease in relationships between men and women. "Men are making about a third to half of what they used to make during Japan's economic boom years in the 1980s. Some men's sense of self is tied to their salary and they feel threatened by women who are empowering themselves," said Snow. She explained that the income decrease made men in Japan feel less confident in attracting Japan's increasingly successful class of women, who have become used to earning their own money and putting themselves first. "While men are going from a cradle to grave trajectory, there are a lot of professional women with disposable incomes, who think that marriage might not just be worth it," said Snow. 'Solving the virgin problem' Photos: Inspiring Japan's middle-aged virgins A nude sketching class in Tokyo aims to help Japan's middle-aged virgins by allowing them to spend time with a real female body. Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: Inspiring Japan's middle-aged virgins A Japanese government survey in 2010 found that one in four Japanese men in their thirties who've never been married are virgins. The figures were only slightly less for women. Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: Inspiring Japan's middle-aged virgins A flyer for the nude art class. Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: Inspiring Japan's middle-aged virgins The classes are offered bimonthly in Tokyo by the non-profit White Hands. Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: Inspiring Japan's middle-aged virgins White Hands offers a course and textbook on how to graduate from virginity. Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: Inspiring Japan's middle-aged virgins Sexual apathy is extremely troubling for Japan, which has the world's most rapidly aging population and is where citizens are not producing enough children to sustain a healthy economy in the coming years. Hide Caption 6 of 6 There are support groups for men who want to overcome their anxiety of approaching women. White Hands, a Tokyo-based non-profit offers regular nude art classes, where mostly middle-aged men sketch naked female models. The classes, complete with textbooks, also try to help people feel more comfortable with their sexuality. Class organizer Shingo Sakatsume, who calls himself a "sex helper," understands how growing interest in the fantasy world of anime is leading single men to choose entertainment over real love and sex. "By solving the virgin problem, I think we can solve many other problems related to sex," Sakatsume, told CNN in 2015. JUST WATCHED Japan's virtual high school Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Japan's virtual high school 02:43 Snow asserted that such nude art classes could potentially be more helpful if there were also women on hand to draw naked male models. "Here's an opportunity to bring men and women together -- they could have wine to break the ice and communicate more," said Snow. "To just make it men looking at a female model perpetuates the problem." Is 35 the new 25? Though the Japanese population is aging at a breakneck speed, Snow said that the latest survey only looked at young people as data sets and didn't take into account their specific stories or circumstances. "If you're living until you're 90, then putting off having a dating partner till your thirties until you've found yourself might seem rational -- there's a lot more self-exploration going on," said Snow. ||||| A group of friends walk along Takeshita Street in Harajuku on May 25, 2010, in Tokyo. (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images) Japan's demographic challenges are well-known: It's home to the world's oldest population and has a shrinking birthrate and an astonishing number of single people. And it seems that, despite government efforts to incentivize marriage and child-rearing, things aren't quite trending in the right direction. According to the Japan Times, a new survey of Japanese people ages 18 to 34 found that 70 percent of unmarried men and 60 percent of unmarried women are not in a relationship. It gets worse: Around 42 percent of men and 44.2 percent of women admitted that they were virgins. The study is carried out by Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research every five years. The organization has noted a marked trend since its first foray on questions of relationships and sex in 1987, when it found that 48.6 percent of men and 39.5 percent of women surveyed were unmarried. In 2010, 36.2 percent of men and 38.7 percent of women in the 18-34 age bracket said they were virgins. The number of children among couples who have been married for between 15 and 19 years averaged a record low this year. The Japanese government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said it wants to raise the nation's fertility rate from 1.4 to 1.8 by 2025. It's offering better child-care services and tax incentives for married couples, though such programs have yet to bear statistical fruit. Most people surveyed said they want to get married at some point. It's just not clear when. "They want to tie the knot eventually. But they tend to put it off as they have gaps between their ideals and the reality," Futoshi Ishii, head researcher for the study, told Japan Times. "That’s why people marry later or stay single for life, contributing to the nation’s low birthrate." This is not unique to Japan — in various parts of the developed world, economic uncertainty is reshaping the way millennials and other young people conceive of their sex lives and marital choices. But it's particularly pronounced in the Asian nation, where experts and government officials have spent the better part of a decade fretting over the country's population decline and, as WorldViews once put it, "sexual apathy." A booming industry surrounds Japan's growing condition of loneliness, a phenomenon at once quite particular to the Japanese, yet also a glimpse into a future where many people live atomized lives mediated exclusively through personal technology. There was one clearly positive indicator in the survey: For the first time, the proportion of women returning to work after having their first child in Japan's once notoriously patriarchal society exceeded 50 percent. More on WorldViews Lonely Japanese men protest the 'blood-soaked conspiracy' of Valentine's Day In Tokyo, the 'war on Christmas' is led by lonely, single men In Japan, the elderly are committing more crimes than teenagers |||||

– While America might more typically worry about what its youth are doing, Japan spends a lot of time worrying about what they're not doing, and what they're not doing is having sex—at all, apparently. A new government survey suggests that the country's millennials are not only in no hurry to marry, but apparently aren't in any rush to do the deed. To wit, a whopping 44% of women and 42% of men, amounting to nearly half of the country's millennial singles ages 18 to 34, say they are still virgins, reports the Washington Post. But the percentage of these singles who say they hope to marry in the future is up close to 90%. "People marry later or stay single for life, contributing to the nation’s low birthrate," the head researcher tells the Japan Times. "They want to tie the knot eventually, but they tend to put it off as they have gaps between their ideals and the reality." With an aging generation of baby boomers weighing down what is already the world's oldest population, Japan has for years been trying to encourage its dwindling number of young people to marry and have children. But complicating this quandary, CNN reports that the apparent lack of interest in engaging in actual sex could result in part from the country's many manga fans choosing fantasy over reality. Plus more women are making more money and choosing to marry later or not at all, while many men report feeling intimidated by them. "They feel threatened by women who are empowering themselves," one expert says. (A quarter of young men and almost half of young women in Japan go so far as to say they despise sexual contact.)

The earliest Mesolithic encampment at Stonehenge has been discovered and it will reveal how Britain’s oldest ancestors lived – but it could be damaged if Government plans for a tunnel at Stonehenge go ahead. A 1.8 mile tunnel is part of a £2bn plan to make the nearby A303 a dual carriageway. Charcoal dug up from the encampment, a mile and a half from Stonehenge, has been scientifically tested and reveals that it dates from around 4,000BC. The dig has also unearthed evidence of possible structures, but further investigation is needed to see in more detail what these features in the only untouched Mesolithic landscape in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site contain. There is also evidence of feasting – burnt flints and remains of giant bulls – aurochs – eaten by early hunter gatherers, as well as tools. A previous dig at the site, led by the University of Buckingham, revealed Amesbury is the longest continually-occupied place in the country and that burnt frogs’ legs from 7,000 years ago were a delicacy here long before the French took a liking to them. The highest density of Mesolithic burnt flints and tools anywhere in the UK was found in one small area at the site in a previous dig. A natural spring at Blick Mead would have been the attraction for both people and animals. The combination of a water of a constant temperature and a rare algae also produced the only colour-changing stones, which change from brown to pink, found at any archaeological site in the country. Archaeologist David Jacques, who made the discovery on a dig which launched the University of Buckingham’s MA in Archaeology in October, said: “The PM is interested in re-election in 140 days – we are interested in discovering how our ancestors lived six thousand years ago. British pre-History may have to be rewritten. This is the latest dated Mesolithic encampment ever found in the UK. Blick Mead site connects the early hunter gatherer groups returning to Britain after the Ice Age to the Stonehenge area all the way through to the Neolithic in the late 5th Millennium BC. Britain is beginning across this time period. Blick Mead connects a time when the country was still joined to the mainland to it becoming the British Isles for the first time. “Was Stonehenge built in part as a monument to the ancestors from the deepest part of Britain’s past? Blick Mead could explain what archaeologists have been searching for for centuries – an answer to the story of Stonehenge’s past. But our only chance to find out about the earliest chapter of Britain’s history could be wrecked if the tunnel goes ahead.” Professor Tim Darvill, of Bournemouth University has described this as “This is the most important discovery at Stonehenge in over 60 years.” Andy Rhind-Tutt, of Amesbury and chairman of the Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust, added: “Traffic congestion to one of the country’s most visited attractions will not be solved by a tunnel with one exit lane – the current tailback can extend five miles and can take two hours to get through. Any tunnel would need to be motorway standard, and even with four lanes there would still be tailbacks. “Concerns have been raised about the water table. Due to the chalkland landscape the tunnel would effectively become a dam, which would change the water course, causing problems. Kilometers of chalk would have to be extracted. Air conditioning, water pumps, lighting and maintenance costs would be colossal. A much more practical solution would be to reroute the A303 supporting South Wiltshire as well as the West Country.” What we already know about how and when Stonehenge came to be built is examined in a new Stonehenge MOOC, launched today(Friday) and run by the University of Buckingham. For more details: https://iversity.org/en/courses/stonehenge University of Buckingham ||||| Archaeologists have discovered the earliest settlement at Stonehenge - but the Mesolithic camp could be destroyed if government plans for a new tunnel go ahead. Charcoal dug up from the ‘Blick Mead’ encampment, a mile and a half from Stonehenge, dates from around 4,000BC. It is thought the site was originally occupied by hunter gatherers returning to Britain after the Ice Age, when the country was still connected to the continent. Experts say the discovery could re-write history in prehistoric Britain. There is also evidence of feasting - burnt flints and remains of giant bulls – aurochs – as well as flint tools. The dig has also unearthed evidence of possible structures, but the site could be destroyed if plans for a 1.8 mile tunnel go ahead. Earlier this month David Cameron, the prime minister, visited Stonehenge, in Amesbury, Wiltshire and announced plans to dual the A303 and build a new tunnel to take traffic away from the world heritage site. But archaeologists want more time to assess the importance of the site and record new findings. "The PM is interested in re-election in 140 days - we are interested in discovering how our ancestors lived six thousand years ago,” said archaeologist David Jacques, who made the discovery on a dig for the University of Buckingham. “British pre-History may have to be rewritten. This is the latest dated Mesolithic encampment ever found in the UK. A shard of bone found at the site “Blick Mead site connects the early hunter gatherer groups returning to Britain after the Ice Age to the Stonehenge area all the way through to the Neolithic in the late 5th Millennium BC. “Britain is beginning across this time period. Blick Mead connects a time when the country was still joined to the mainland to it becoming the British Isles for the first time.” The experts believe that the site could show the Stonehenge was built as a monument to the ancestors of Neolithic Britons. “Our only chance to find out about the earliest chapter of Britain’s history could be wrecked if the tunnel goes ahead,” added Mr Jacques. A previous dig at the site, led by the University of Buckingham, revealed Amesbury is the longest continually-occupied place in the country. They discovered that frogs’ legs from 7,000 years ago were a delicacy here long before the French took a liking to them. Archaeologists believe that early Britons were drawn to the site because of a natural spring. A The combination of a water of a constant temperature and a rare alga also produced the only colour-changing stones, which change from brown to pink, found at any archaeological site in the country. Professor Tim Darvill, of Bournemouth University has described this as “This is the most important discovery at Stonehenge in over 60 years.” Experts are calling on the government to rethink plans to build on the critically important landscape. Andy Rhind-Tutt, of Amesbury and chairman of the Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust, added: “Traffic congestion to one of the country’s most visited attractions will not be solved by a tunnel with one exit lane – the current tailback can extend five miles and can take two hours to get through. “Any tunnel would need to be motorway standard, and even with four lanes there would still be tailbacks. “A much more practical solution would be to reroute the A303 supporting South Wiltshire as well as the West Country.” ||||| Mesolithic encampment at Blick Mead offers chance to find out about earliest chapter of Britain’s history, say archaeologists Experts have hit out at plans for a road tunnel under Stonehenge, warning it could damage the oldest encampment discovered near the stones. Charcoal dug up from the Mesolithic encampment at Blick Mead in the world heritage site, around one and a half miles from the stones, has been tested and dated to around 4,000 BC, archaeologists said. A dig by the University of Buckingham has also unearthed evidence of possible structures, but more investigation is needed to see what the site contains. There is also evidence of feasting, including flints and giant bulls known as aurochs, the experts said. They warn that the chance to find out about the earliest chapter of Britain’s history could be damaged by the plans for the 1.8-mile tunnel as part of efforts to relieve the A303 bottleneck at Stonehenge. The £2bn scheme would see the road put into a dual carriageway tunnel past Stonehenge, reducing congestion and improving the setting of the stones - giving the public greater access to the wider prehistoric landscape and benefiting wildlife, supporters say. But archaeologist David Jaques, who made the discovery of the encampment, said: “The prime minister is interested in re-election in 140 days – we are interested in discovering how our ancestors lived six thousand years ago.” He added: “Blick Mead could explain what archaeologists have been searching for for centuries – an answer to the story of Stonehenge’s past. “But our chance to find out about the earliest chapter of Britain’s history could be wrecked if the tunnel goes ahead.” |||||

– Researchers are exploring a settlement near Stonehenge dating to about 4000 BC, making it the area's oldest, the Telegraph reports. The Blick Mead encampment, as it's known, is from the Mesolithic period and was likely home to hunter-gatherers who headed to the spot before Britain became an island. It's the "latest dated Mesolithic encampment ever found in the UK," says archaeologist David Jacques, and findings, including apparent structures and evidence of feasting, mean that "British pre-history may have to be rewritten." Another expert calls the encampment Stonehenge's greatest revelation in 60 years. "Was Stonehenge built in part as a monument to the ancestors from the deepest part of Britain’s past?" Jacques wonders, per Heritage Daily. "Blick Mead could explain what archaeologists have been searching for for centuries": the real story behind the site. But the encampment is already in trouble—from plans for a highway that's actually intended to make Stonehenge a nicer place to visit. A nearly two-mile tunnel aims to reduce a traffic bottleneck in the area, the Guardian reports. But it could also obscure history. Prime minister David Cameron, who announced the plans, "is interested in re-election in 140 days; we are interested in discovering how our ancestors lived 6,000 years ago," says Jacques. The site "connects the early hunter-gatherer groups returning to Britain after the Ice Age to the Stonehenge area all the way through to the Neolithic in the late fifth millennium BC," he notes, and "our only chance to find out about the earliest chapter of Britain’s history could be wrecked if the tunnel goes ahead." Recent reports also pointed to a "super henge" underneath the stones.

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. -- A middle school is under fire for its reaction to a violent brawl between a teacher and a staff member inside a classroom that was caught on video by a student. CBS affiliate WGCL-TV reports the fight broke out on May 19 at Stone Mountain Middle School, northeast of downtown Atlanta. WGCL obtained video of the dramatic incident, which shows two women punching each other and pulling each other's hair while students scream for them to stop. WGCL reports one woman is a teacher and the other is a teaching assistant. "From what I think I know the teachers were arguing about a teacher, a male teacher, and they started arguing and it went on for about three to five minutes," one student told WGCL. Close WGCL-TV The fight was eventually broken up by another adult. Students told WGCL that officials came into the classroom after the incident and forced them to delete any evidence of the brawl on their cell phones. "Nobody apologized. They just came in and were like, 'Who videotaped this?' and stuff like that," one student said. "I think they were trying to push it under the rug so nobody would know about it and the school's reputation wouldn't be messed up." The DeKalb County School District (DCSD) told WGCL it was not aware of school officials examining students' phones. After WGCL sent the video to DCSD's communications director, the district issued a statement saying the staff members involved in the fight would be disciplined. "Those staff members that participated in the conduct have been removed from the learning environment," the statement read. "Following our process, DCSD will act swiftly and decisively to hold those employees accountable for their actions." Dr. Vincent Hinton, principal of Stone Mountain Middle School, eventually sent a letter home to parents about the confrontation. "Safety and security procedures are in place to help maintain a safe campus," Hinton wrote. "Anyone who creates an unsafe learning environment for our students receive swift disciplinary actions." Julia Berry, whose daughter was in the classroom at the time of the fight, told WGCL she wants the teacher and the assistant fired. Berry said failure to fire those responsible would send a message that "it's OK to fight if you can't deal with a problem. This is how you deal with it -- you punch the teacher in the face." ||||| STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (MEREDITH/CBS46) -- Georgia middle school students screamed in science class as a teacher and a staff member got into a fist fight right in front of their desks. “Everyone was screaming like stop, stop, stop,” A student said. The brawl happened on May 19 at Stone Mountain Middle School, which is northeast of downtown Atlanta. A student recorded most of the fight on her cell phone. The women are throwing punches and pulling hair, and another adult had to get in the middle to break it up. “From what I think I know the teachers were arguing about a teacher, a male teacher, and they started arguing and it went on for about three to five minutes,” A student said. CBS46 asked if any of the students were concerned for their safety. “I would say about two students who were really close to them. One of them was pushed up against the wall because they were so close to hitting her,” A student said. Julia Berry's daughter was inside the classroom and watched the fight unfold. Berry wants these women fired, saying that they set a horrible example for students. After the fight was finally broken up, students say school officials came into the classroom, went through their cell phones and made them delete any evidence of it. “Nobody apologized they just came in and were like who videotaped this and stuff like that,” A student said. “I think they were trying to push it under the rug so nobody would know about it and the school’s reputation wouldn’t be messed up." The DeKalb County School District says it's not aware of staff going through the student's phones. The communications director did say he would send CBS46 a statement, but only after we sent him a copy of the video so he could review it. The statement says, in part, for those involved in the fight, "Those staff members that participated in the conduct have been removed from the learning environment. Following our process, DCSD will act swiftly and decisively to hold those employees accountable for their actions." The school district confirmed that the two employees involved in the incident had been disciplined, but would give details. After CBS46 kept pressing the school for answers, Berry says Stone Mountain Middle School sent out a letter saying, "Safety and security procedures are in place to help maintain a safe campus. Anyone who creates an unsafe learning environment for our students receive swift disciplinary actions." “I couldn’t believe it because they’re supposed to be role models, they’re supposed to set an example for us and they always tell us violence is never the answer,” A student said. CBS46 contacted the chairman of the DeKalb County School Board Melvin Johnson for a statement and he did not respond. We also reached out to the Organization of DeKalb Educators who represent thousands of school system employees and they did not want to comment. Copyright 2017 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved. Read more: http://www.cbs46.com/story/35492172/fight-between-teacher-staff-member-caught-on-video#ixzz4hwgeHeBD |||||

– A brawl broke out in a middle school classroom in Georgia last week—not between students, but between a teacher and a staff member. Students say the two women were arguing about a male teacher for a few minutes before things got physical. "Everyone was screaming like stop, stop, stop," one Stone Mountain Middle School student tells CBS 46, which obtained video of the fight from a student's cell phone; the women—one of whom was reportedly a teacher's assistant, per CBS News—are seen punching and pulling hair. Parents are now speaking out about the May 19 incident, calling for the employees to be fired and criticizing the school for how it handled the aftermath. Students say another adult ultimately broke up the fight, and then school officials entered the classrooms and went through students' cell phones, forcing them to delete any recordings of the fight. "Nobody apologized," one student says. "I think they were trying to push it under the rug so nobody would know about it." Parents say no letter was sent home about the incident until CBS 46 started questioning the school district. The district says it isn't aware of staff going through student phones and that the employees involved "have been removed from the learning environment." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that they have also been charged with disorderly conduct.

ONTARIO (KTLA) -- A college student who overstepped a safety railing fell into Niagara Falls over the weekend and searchers looking for her body on Monday found an unidentified male body instead.The 19-year-old international student from Japan was presumed drowned after she plunged into the fast-flowing waters near the brink of Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of the falls at about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, according to Canadian park police.She had climbed over a railing and straddled it while enjoying the view with a friend, police said."The young woman stood up in what appeared to be an attempt to climb back over when she lost her balance and fell," reads a statement from Canadian park police.The incident was reportedly captured on surveillance video.No foul play is suspected in the incident, police said.Officials say the swift current swept her over the falls.The woman's identity was withheld pending notification of her family in Japan.With a helicopter hovering above, an international search party scoured Niagara Falls Gorge for her body. On Monday, she remained missing but searchers instead spotted an unidentified male body at the base of the falls in an area known as the whirlpool, police said.Authorities were working with the coroner's office to identify the body, which was not thought to be connected to Sunday's accident. ||||| Donna Radlicz keeps both hands on son Vincent, 3, as he peers over Niagara Falls Monday afternoon. Radlicz and her husband Mike and well as their other sons Zach, 12, Max, 9 and Alexander, 9, are visiting from Chicago. A 19-year-old international student is presumed dead after being swept over Niagara Falls Sunday evening. Niagara Falls 2.jpg Galit Rodan/TORONTO STAR Donna Radlicz keeps both hands on son Vincent, 3, as he peers over Niagara Falls Monday afternoon. Radlicz and her husband Mike and well as their other sons Zach, 12, Max, 9 and Alexander, 9, are visiting from Chicago. A 19-year-old international student is presumed dead after being swept over Niagara Falls Sunday evening. Jayme Poisson Staff Reporter NIAGARA FALLS—Michael Conner saw her just before she fell. Dressed in a bright red hoodie and wearing big sunglasses, the woman was talking and taking pictures with a friend. She had climbed up on one of several rock posts, straddling the metal railing that ran between them. Below, water rushed over the brink of Horseshoe Falls. In that fleeting moment, Conner thought about telling the woman to climb down. The Maryland teen, who’s been coming to Niagara Falls with his family since he was a toddler, had told people to get off the railing before. But this time, he didn’t. He was with his little brother. The girls seemed to speak no English. And so, he kept walking. “I knew I should have said something when I saw her over there doing the same thing,” Conner, 19, said late Monday afternoon, pointing to one of several rock posts. “It’s just a tragedy.” A 19-year-old international student who was attending school in Toronto is still missing and presumed dead after being swept over the falls on Sunday evening. On Monday, police said they were working with the Japanese consulate to notify her family. No names have been released. Police said surveillance footage from the nearby visitors centre showed a woman straddling the safety rail while looking out over the falls. The woman, holding an umbrella, was apparently having her picture taken, said Niagara Parks Police Chief Doug Kane. When she stood up, seemingly to climb back over the rail, she slipped, falling about 25 metres into the current below. Conner said he realized something was wrong when he heard sirens and saw a group of people peering into the water. The girl’s shell-shocked friend, who had called 911, ran from the visitors centre with a police officer. Within about 20 minutes, he said, rescue crews were searching the lower Niagara River with flashlights. Five police and fire departments on both sides of the border spent Sunday evening and Monday morning looking. Later Monday, police said they were scaling back their search. The incident, which took place during the height of tourist season, was one of three over the course of about 24 hours that reminded visitors how dangerous the falls can be. During the search Monday, the remains of an unidentified male were found in the lower Niagara River. And early Sunday morning, a 27-year-old London, Ont., man climbed over the safety wall just north of the Rainbow Bridge and fell into the Niagara River gorge, fracturing his leg. The injured man and a friend who went in after him were pulled out by the fire department. Kane said climbing over the wall is prohibited by the Niagara Parks Act. “Millions of visitors have viewed the scenic Niagara Falls and the Niagara River gorge while respecting the safety wall without incident,” he said, adding charges under the act are pending in the incident. Along the falls Monday, thousands of visitors snapped photos from a safe distance. Many climbed up on the stone base of the 1.2 metre high barrier and a few perched on the rock posts with their backs to the falls. Officers on bicycles patrolled the walkway. Danger signs are placed intermittently along the railing. Many visitors, like Pamela Aqui, 55, from Mississauga, expressed shock that such a terrible thing could happen at such a beautiful natural wonder. “That’s all we thought about when we were coming here,” she said. Questions of whether the barrier and signage were adequate drifted into a conversation about balancing the need for safety with allowing visitors an unobstructed view. “No matter what structure we put up people will still try to get over it,” said Kane, who believes the barrier is adequate. Ron Miller, 46, from Harrisburg, Pa., echoed the sentiment. “Do you put cars on rails because people die in car accidents?” he asked. Alf Kozak, 57, of Toronto said there should be a double row of fence where there are no natural rock ledges. Kinjal Merai, 22, visiting from the U.S., said the wall should simply be higher, so people can’t climb it. Conner spent Monday telling people sitting or leaning over the railing to think twice. They obliged once he explained a person had fallen over. “People are just not thinking about it,” he said of the risks. “They’re having a good time, not a care in the world.” With files from Zoe McKnight and Amanda Kwan Deadly Niagara Falls • Since 1903, only seven deaths involving people going over the Falls have been determined to be accidents. The only person to ever survive an accidental plunge was Roger Woodward, in 1960. • 16 people have gone over the Falls as daredevils. Eleven of them survived. Most years, between 20 and 25 cases of suicide happen at the Falls. • The Falls’ height is 57 metres on the Canadian side and 34 metres on the American side. • The water speed at the Falls is estimated at 40 km/h. • 168,000 cubic metres (6 million cubic feet) of water go over the crestline of the falls every minute. Sources: Niagara Falls Reporter and Niagara Parks |||||

– An odd footnote to the sad tale of the 19-year-old student swept over Niagara Falls on Sunday. An international search team dispatched in a helicopter to look for her body in Niagara Falls Gorge instead turned up the body of an unknown male. Authorities are working to identify him, reports KTLA. Meanwhile, more details are emerging about the tragic weekend incident: The woman, presumed drowned, was an international student from Japan. The Toronto Star talks to a witness who saw her posing on the railing for a photo moments before she fell, wearing a bright red sweatshirt and holding an umbrella. The paper notes that earlier the same day, a 27-year-old man scaled a safety wall and tumbled into Niagara River Gorge; he and a friend who went in to save him were rescued, though the man fractured his leg.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video PAYSON, Utah - A mother unexpectedly gave birth in Walmart while shopping with her family Sunday morning. “In about 15 minutes we went from having a little bit of stomach problem to delivering a baby,” said Dustin Haight, store manager at Payson Walmart. Employees at Walmart say register 11 will never be the same. “I think we’ve renamed it register baby - so whenever we call for help on register 11 it will be now register baby,” Haight said. Employees say a woman was shopping with her husband and family on Sunday morning, when she told a manager she wasn't feeling well. She went to register 11 to pay for her items while that manager called 911 and told the woman not to worry about paying. They could tell she was in labor. “The funny thing is that the customer was down on her knees and she insisted on paying for her merchandise and we’re like you know that’s just not important. You know, we were going to take care of her on it,” Haight said. “…Literally right after she paid for her merchandise, they rolled her over and she began to give birth,” Haight said. Walmart employees and customers helped. They grabbed towels and blankets. Some also held up sheets as the woman delivered a baby boy. “By the time the EMTs got here she had paid for her merchandise and had a baby,” Haight said. One of the responding EMTs said he’s never seen anything like it. After 20 years of working in the field, Terry Reilly, assistant chief with Payson Fire Rescue, said he’s never seen a baby born in such a public place. “She was very calm she did very well -- it was her third child so she had experienced childbirth before so I don’t think she was as nervous about it other than it was at Walmart,” Reilly said. He added everyone at the store did a good job. Mom and baby were taken to the hospital in good condition. “We’re happy for mom and for baby and the whole family… I’m sure they’ll have quite the story to tell someday,” Reilly said. Walmart has been in contact with the mother and they say they’re happy to report mom and baby are doing well. “So we’re gonna buy her a whole bunch of goods like diapers and formula, that type stuff when the mother comes in so, and this time we won’t make her pay,” Haight said. ||||| Close Get email notifications on Kurt Hanson daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. Whenever Kurt Hanson posts new content, you'll get an email delivered to your inbox with a link. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. |||||

– Paper, plastic, or diaper bag? A woman shopping Sunday morning at a Walmart in Payson, Utah, surprised workers and customers when she approached Register 11, dropped to her knees, clutched her stomach, and … pulled out her wallet. She was in labor, ABC News reports, but she insisted on paying for her items first before she took care of her next transaction: having the baby right there in the store. "We weren't really interested in taking her money at [that] point, but she insisted," says Walmart manager Dustin Haight, who KSTU notes called 911 and implored her not to worry about the tab. "It wasn't like she was like, 'OK, let's get this baby out and [then] I'll pay.' She paid and then had the baby." As soon as the woman, identified as Cecelia Rivas by the Daily Herald, had paid up, employees and customers sprang into action, with some hunting down towels and blankets while others held sheets up to give her privacy. "By the time the EMTs got here, she had … a baby [boy]," Haight tells KSTU. "She was very calm," an assistant chief from the local fire department adds. "It was her third child … so I don't think she was as nervous about it other than it was at Walmart." Rivas admits she actually was "really scared," though she tells the Herald as soon as she saw her new son, "I was so happy." A spokesman for the hospital where Rivas and baby Matias were taken says they're both "doing well," per ABC. And Haight is counting on a new repeat customer. "Hopefully we'll be part of his life forever," he tells ABC. (A text-messaging conversation about this Walmart shopping trip went viral.)

MIAMI - The Coast Guard is searching for a woman who reportedly went overboard Wednesday from the Carnival Ecstasy cruise ship approximately 27 miles southwest of Freeport, Bahamas. Missing is Rina Patel, 32, from Interlaken, New York. Watchstanders with the 7th Coast Guard District command center received notification from the Carnival Ecstasy crew that a 32-year-old woman was reportedly seen going overboard at approximately 2:30 a.m. Wednesday from the 11th deck wearing a white dress with pink floral. A Coast Guard Air Station Miami MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew, an Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane crew and the Coast Guard Cutter Gannet crew are assisting in the search. The Carnival Ecstasy's last port of call was in Nassau, Bahamas on Tuesday. Their next port of call is scheduled to be in Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday. For breaking news follow us on Twitter @USCGSoutheast ||||| MIAMI -- Authorities searched in the Bahamas for a U.S. citizen who went overboard from a cruise ship before dawn Wednesday. The U.S. Coast Guard said the 32-year-old woman reportedly fell from the 11th deck of the Carnival Ecstasy around 2:30 a.m. as the ship passed near the island of Grand Bahama. Carnival Cruise Line reported that she apparently jumped overboard. The Coast Guard identified the woman as Rina Patel of Interlaken, New York. The agency said she was reportedly “wearing a white dress with pink floral.” A statement from the cruise company said emergency procedures were initiated immediately and the crew began to search for the woman. The Coast Guard dispatched aircraft and two ships to an area about 27 miles southwest of Freeport on Grand Bahama to look for her. The cruise ship had left Nassau, Bahamas, and was en route to Charleston, South Carolina, at the time. The cruise line said the Coast Guard released the ship to resume traveling to Charleston at 9 a.m. “The company’s CareTeam is providing assistance and support to the missing guest’s family on board and our thoughts and prayers are with her and family and loved ones during this difficult time,” the statement said. |||||

– A 32-year-old woman "was witnessed jumping overboard" from the 11th deck of a Carnival cruise ship before dawn Wednesday, the cruise line says in a statement to CBS News. The Ecstasy was about 15 miles off the coast of the island of Grand Bahama at the time, and the US Coast Guard is now searching for the passenger in the Bahamas. The ship had left the Bahamas on its way to Charleston, South Carolina, when the woman jumped around 2:30am, and the Coast Guard allowed it to continue heading to Charleston at 9am. No other details about the woman were released, but she apparently has family aboard the ship.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption German Chancellor Angela Merkel says reform plans must continue in Greece Greek conservative Antonis Samaras has three days to form a coalition, faced with EU warnings to keep to the tough terms of international bailouts. Two-thirds of Greek voters backed parties opposed to the EU/IMF deal, renewing fears that Athens may default on its debts and leave the eurozone. Germany's Angela Merkel has made clear that Greece's reforms must go on. But her focus on austerity has taken a knock with the election in France of pro-growth Socialist Francois Hollande. Mr Hollande campaigned on a platform of renegotiating the terms of the EU fiscal pact to concentrate more on reviving economic prosperity than simply reducing budget deficits. 'Utmost importance' Analysis New Democracy will try to form an austerity-supporting pro-European coalition government, perhaps with a third party, because it would not gain enough with Pasok to form an absolute majority. But the anti-bailout party Syriza will also try to form an alternative coalition government. There could be a clash of the two - we could be facing fresh elections within weeks. This country is now placed into a period of intense political instability - and by extension the eurozone as a whole. A majority of Greeks have voted against the bailout and against the austerity, which will make it very difficult for the EU or IMF to call for yet more austerity here. The success of the new-right Golden Dawn party indicates how comprehensive a rejection of the political mainstream, the bailout and austerity there has been. The stability and the future of Greece are now in doubt once again. That will bring a lot of dismay to the financial markets and to the eurozone as a whole. Mrs Merkel said she would meet France's next president next week "with open arms" but told a news conference that "we in Germany are of the opinion, and so am I personally, that the fiscal pact is not negotiable". The German chancellor added that the Greek debt reforms were of "utmost importance". That message was underlined by European Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, who said Brussels "hopes and expects that the future government of Greece will respect the engagement that Greece has entered into". Any political instability in Greece may prompt fresh questions over the country's place in the eurozone. Under Greece's current bailout plan, a further 11bn euros of cuts in spending is due to be found next month. News of the Greek vote and the election of Francois Hollande sent the euro falling to its lowest level against the dollar since January. Shares on the Athens stock market tumbled, with the Athex index sliding more than 7% in morning trading. Political revolution Although a protest vote against the stringent austerity measures enforced on Greeks had been widely expected, in the event the two main parties that had agreed the bailout terms, New Democracy (ND) and socialist Pasok, attracted less than a third of the vote. For Greece, it amounts to a political revolution as the country has been run by either one party or the other since the 1970s. Since November, they have been in a coalition, led by technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, which secured this year's 130bn euro deal. Pasok was also in power when Greece negotiated the terms of its 2010 bailout of 110bn euros (£88bn; $143bn). New Democracy's support on Sunday slipped from 33.5% to less than 19% of the vote while Pasok's share plummeted from 43% to just over 13%. A radical left coalition, Syriza, came second, in front of Pasok, with 16.8% and a party of ultra-nationalists - Golden Dawn - polled almost 7%. Having polled the most votes, ND leader Antonis Samaras has begun talks to try to convince other parties to join a new coalition, but only Pasok are so far thought likely to show interest. Pasok's leader and former Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos has called for a broad coalition government of pro-European parties. "A coalition government of the old two-party system would not have sufficient legitimacy or sufficient domestic and international credibility if it would gather a slim majority," he said. 'Tragedy' Allowed only three days to seek a deal by President Karolos Papoulias, the centre-right leader has pledged to keep the country in the euro, although he has promised to try to amend the bailout terms in order to boost growth. His first meeting with Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, the runner-up in the election, came to nothing. Mr Tsipras, speaking on Greek TV, said the bailout deal was a "tragedy", and he held out the possibility of a coalition involving "the forces of the left". He has already described the parties that signed the EU/IMF bailout as "de-legitimised" by the public. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Greek voters voice their concerns over the instability in the country Mr Samaras went on to have talks with Pasok's Evangelos Venizelos. He is also due to talk to Fotis Kouvelis from Democratic Left, who has already made clear his objection to a coalition agreement with Mr Samaras. In fourth place were the new right-wing Independent Greeks with 10%. Their leader, Panos Kammenos, has already ruled out co-operation with either Pasok or New Democracy, Athens News reported. The extremist Golden Dawn party is on course for at least 20 seats in parliament. "It is time for those that betray [Greece] to be afraid," its leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos warned. "We are coming. We are Greeks, nationalists, and we will allow no one to doubt this." Deal in doubt If Mr Samaras fails to reach a coalition deal, the party in second place, Syriza, can try to form a coalition, and if still unsuccessful, the third party will receive the mandate. If still no coalition emerges, Greece will hold another election - a prospect which would alarm the country's international creditors. The ability of any new government to carry on with the austerity programme will be crucial for Greece's continued access to bailout funds from the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - the so-called troika. ||||| Voters in Greece sent tremors across the eurozone on Sunday by recording a massive protest vote against EU-dictated austerity. Parties that had participated in an emergency government tasked with passing deeply unpopular belt-tightening measures in return for rescue loans to prop up the near-bankrupt Greek economy were routed at the ballot box. Instead, with the recession-hit country lurching deeper into poverty and despair, voters backed groups on the left and right that had virulently opposed the deficit-reduction policies demanded by international creditors. "This is a message of change, a message to Europe that a peaceful revolution has begun," said Alexis Tsipras, who heads Syriza, a coalition of radical left and green groups that took 16.6% of the vote – the second largest share. "German chancellor Angela Merkel has to know that the politics of austerity have suffered a humiliating defeat." The reaction from Brussels and the Washington-based International Monetary Fund, which have provided bailouts worth €240bn, was silence. With no single party winning enough support to form a government, a period of uncertainty lies ahead as political leaders attempt to form a coalition. Analysts did not rule out fresh elections in June if a new administration cannot be formed. The spectre of political unrest and market turmoil prompted many to ask why the elections had taken place at all. Voters went out of their way to "punish" mainstream parties widely blamed for years of fiscal mismanagement. "How can we vote for parties to be part of the solution when they got us in this mess in the first place?" asked Poppi Stathera, a mother of two, who said she had been out of work for the past year. "We've been completely destroyed. Our country is in ruins." Economic freefall and social disintegration also prompted Greeks to vote for the far right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn), which campaigned on an anti-immigration ticket. The ultra-nationalists, who poured into the streets holding blazing torches, captured 7% of the vote – enough to place 19 deputies in the 300-seat house for the first time since the collapse of military rule in 1974. The conservative New Democracy party came in first but with 18.9% of the vote, according to figures released by Greece's interior ministry. Pasok, the socialist party led by Evangelos Venizelos, the former finance minister who had been the architect of many of the unpopular policies, won 13.4%, compared to 40% in the last national poll, in 2009. "Support for the two main parties literally nosedived in the provinces," said Dimitris Keridis, professor of political science at Athens' Panteion University. "We are talking about a complete collapse of the party system as we have known it, which opens up new concerns about Greece's ability to govern itself." In a sign of the political tumult that lies ahead, Antonis Samaras, New Democracy's leader, said he would seek to create a "government of national salvation" that would attempt to amend the loan agreement Greece had signed with its "troika" of creditors, the EU, European Central Bank and IMF. "We are ready to assume the responsibility of forming a government of national salvation with two goals," he said, "keeping [Greece] in the euro and amending the policies of the memorandum [outlining the terms of the country's rescue loans] so that there can be development and relief for society." Appealing to pro-European forces to consider his offer, he added: "I understand people's rage but our party cannot allow Greece to remain ungoverned." If the conservatives are unable to forge consensus, it will fall to Tsipras, as leader of the second biggest party, to try to do so. The leftist leader said he would act on his pre-election pledge to form a government of "the united left", citing his party's spectacular rise in the polls as proof that Greeks wanted such an administration to steer them out of the crisis. "With their vote the Greek people have given the mandate for a new day in our country without the cruel bailout measures," he said. "The loan agreement that was signed without their consent has been de-legitimised by popular vote." But the spectre of political unrest and market turmoil prompted many to question the snap poll. Athens has been told in no uncertain terms that failure to uphold the conditions of the financial rescue programs will result in a freezing of funds and default. "It was a grave mistake to hold this election in such an atmosphere and time of crisis and before the economy was stabilized," said Keridis. "This result couldn't come at a worse time for Greece." |||||

– A long period of instability looms for Greece after voters furious about tough austerity measures gave the two governing parties a hammering at the polls and boosted extremists at both ends of the political spectrum. The Coalition of the Radical Left, which opposes the terms of Greece's bailout, surged to second place with around 17% of the vote while the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, which ran on an anti-immigration platform, is poised to enter Parliament for the first time after taking around 7% of the vote, reports the BBC. New Democracy and Pasok, the center-right and center-left parties that had governed in a coalition since last November, saw their support collapse. New Democracy took 19%, down from 33.5% in 2009, and its leader says he aims to form a "government of national salvation." The parties have three days to form a governing coalition but analysts say that Parliament is now so fragmented that a deal may be impossible and new elections will be required. "We are talking about a complete collapse of the party system as we have known it, which opens up new concerns about Greece's ability to govern itself," a professor of political science in Athens tells the Guardian.

Hustler publisher Larry Flynt took out a full-page ad in Sunday's Washington Post. (Katy Winn/Associated Press) Larry Flynt’s ad in the Sunday edition of The Washington Post is hard to miss. For one, it takes up a full page. And there are no pictures — just bold, all-caps text dominating the top third of the page: “$10 MILLION FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO THE IMPEACHMENT AND REMOVAL FROM OFFICE OF DONALD J. TRUMP.” Flynt, best known as the publisher of the pornographic magazine Hustler, outlined numerous reasons he felt President Trump needed to be removed from office, charging him with everything from “compromising domestic and foreign policy with his massive conflicts-of-interest global business empire” to “telling hundreds of bald-faced lies” to “gross nepotism and appointment of unqualified persons to high office.” That was why, Flynt wrote, he was seeking information from anyone who could provide a “smoking gun” — perhaps buried in Trump's tax returns or in some other investment records — that would lead to his impeachment. “Did he make some financial quid pro quo with the Russians?” the ad states. “Has the business of the United States been compromised to protect the business of the Trump empire? We need to flush everything out into the open.” An advertisement Larry Flynt placed in the Sunday October 15, 2017 edition of The Washington Post. (click to enlarge) At the end of the ad, there is a toll-free number and an email address, along with a reassurance that Flynt fully intends to pay the full sum of $10 million for good information. “Impeachment would be a messy, contentious affair, but the alternative — three more years of destabilizing dysfunction — is worse,” Flynt wrote. “ . . . I feel it is my patriotic duty, and the duty of all Americans, to dump Trump before it’s too late.” Kris Coratti, a spokeswoman for The Post, declined to say how much a full-page ad costs or how far in advance one would have to notify the newspaper to run such an ad in a Sunday edition. “We give advertisers wide latitude to have their say,” Coratti said. “Generally, if the ads are not illegal or advocating illegal actions, we try not to place limits on speech or content.” On Saturday afternoon during a call to the hotline listed in the ad a man told The Post the number would be staffed on weekdays, between 8:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. PT, for the next two weeks. The man declined to give his name but said he was not Flynt. In a subsequent phone interview, Flynt told The Post that he expected to get information “within a few days” and said he would release any legitimate information right away. He also defended offering a cash reward for information. “Just because you pay for it does not mean it’s not any good,” Flynt said. “I don’t think you can live as recklessly as Trump has for 30 years and not leave some baggage along the way . . . I can't think of something more patriotic to do than to try to get to get this moron out of office.” It’s not the first time Flynt, who endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in last year’s presidential race, has offered a monetary reward with the aim of taking down a politician. In 2007, he offered $1 million, also through a full-page ad in The Post, seeking evidence from anyone who had had an illicit sexual encounter with a member of Congress or other government official. He had done the same in 1998, and the information that emerged reportedly influenced the resignation of Republican Congressman Bob Livingston, who was in line to be speaker of the House. In 2012, Flynt again dangled a $1 million reward in public, this time for then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax returns. Read more: Five reasons the GOP won’t dump Trump I’m one of the Central Park Five. Donald Trump won’t leave me alone. Angered by gun control, this lawmaker drafted a bill to require licenses for journalists Score one for Kellyanne Conway. The New York Times plans to toughen its Twitter policy. ||||| This will appear next to all of your comments This will NOT appear anywhere on Newser |||||

– Pornography publisher Larry Flynt has apparently had it with the current administration and is offering "up to $10 million" to anyone who produces information that leads to President Trump's impeachment and removal from office, reports the AP. He lays out the offer in a full-page ad in the Sunday edition of the Washington Post. During last year's presidential campaign, Flynt dangled $1 million to anyone who could turn over video or audio capturing Trump behaving in an illegal or sexually demeaning manner. That followed the release of the 2005 Access Hollywood video in which Trump bragged of sexually assaulting women. The ad, notes the Post itself, is less than subtle and hard to miss, reading at the top third of the page: "$10 MILLION FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO THE IMPEACHMENT AND REMOVAL FROM OFFICE OF DONALD J. TRUMP." The fine print details Trump's alleged offenses as ranging from "compromising domestic and foreign policy with his massive conflicts-of-interest global business empire" to "telling hundreds of bald-faced lies" and "gross nepotism and appointment of unqualified persons to high office." The White House didn't comment.

JIM SLOTEK | QMI AGENCY For The Simpsons, the 21st century began with the death of Maud Flanders. Now after 14 years, the producers intend to kill off another regular character. Executive producer Al Jean admitted as much in a recent phone conference with the press, promoting Sunday's 25th season debut of The Simpsons. "I'll give you a clue that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character, but I won't say who it is," Jean said cagily. In fact, virtually all the major characters have been rewarded with an Emmy over the years. He was much more forthcoming about the season premiere, Homerland, a spoof of, yes, Homeland. In it, Lisa believes that Homer has been "turned" by terrorists for his access to nuclear secrets at the Springfield plant. Fittingly enough, Homeland's third season premiere and the Simpsons spoof air on the same Sunday night. "It was a complete accident," Jean says of the timing. "But we're very friendly. The producers at Homeland have offices that are literally 100 feet away. They were really helpful with DVDs. Our composer, Alf Clausen, talked to their composer, Sean Callery about how they do that show." Among other revelations about the upcoming season: -Guillermo del Toro is contributing the opening to the annual Treehouse of Terror episode, which airs Oct. 6. "I would say - and I've met some people who like scary things - he is the greatest expert on horror movies that I have ever encountered. There are so many references in that opening, it's really brilliant." -The season finale will be a Simpsons/Futurama cross-over episode, which has already had a table-read. "I've been here 25 years, and we had a read yesterday where the excitement was as high as I've ever seen. We had John DiMaggio and Billy West and (Canadian voice-over king) Maurice LaMarche from Futurama, as well as our cast, and I thought that's got to be the greatest voiceover talent assembled at one read. It was really, really great to see Bender interacting with Homer." -The Comic Book Guy gets married. "The wedding is performed by Stan Lee. We have Stan Lee playing himself and (sci-fi legend) Harlan Ellison playing himself in that episode. What was funny was that they both wanted to be funnier than the other. It was really exciting for me, as a nerd." -Celeb voices in Season 25 include Kristen Wiig (in the opener), Zach Galifianakis and Elisabeth Moss. "In that (Elisabeth Moss) episode, Homer is stuck on an elevator with a pregnant woman and delivers her baby. She's grateful and she doesn't have a husband, so she names the baby Homer Jr. And Homer actually bonds with the baby better than his own (children)." -Still unfulfilled from the producers' wishlist - a U.S. president (though they did once use a recording of Teddy Roosevelt's voice). "We approached Nixon - no. This was back at the beginning of the show. Gerald Ford? No. Jimmy Carter - we actually did a joke about him being reviled as history's greatest monster, which he saw before we sent him the script. So he said no. Reagan said no, but wrote us a nice letter. The first Bush said no. Clinton we approached really hard and he said ... it would demean the presidency. So we gave up." ||||| "The Simpsons" may be going strong in its 25th season, but a major character from the long-running animated series will soon meet his or her maker. In a conference call with reporters last week, executive producer Al Jean revealed plans to kill off a character in the season ahead. "We’re actually working on a script where a character will pass away," Jean said. "I’ll give a clue that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character, but I won’t say who it is." FALL TV 2013: Watch the trailers "Simpsons" fanatics will know that this hint doesn't exactly narrow things down: Nearly every member of the core ensemble of voice-over performers has won an Emmy, including Dan Castellaneta (Homer, Barney, Krusty), Julie Kavner (Marge, Patty, Selma), Hank Azaria (Apu, practically everyone else on the show), Nancy Cartwright (Bart) and Yeardley Smith (Lisa). Even a few guest stars have picked up Emmys for "Simpsons" appearances, including Anne Hathaway for voicing Princess Penelope and Kelsey Grammer for Sideshow Bob. In other words, pretty much anyone could go. Death has come to Springfield in the past, most recently with the untimely passing of Maude Flanders, wife of the Simpsons' preternaturally cheerful next-door neighbor Ned, who bit the dust after falling off a grandstand at the racetrack. PHOTOS: Hollywood Backlot moments The 25th season of "The Simpsons" premiered Sunday night with a "Homeland" spoof guest starring Kristen Wiig. In the press call, Jean also teased some other highlights in the season ahead, including a "Futurama" crossover episode set to air sometime in May and a wedding, officiated by Stan Lee, for Comic Book Guy. ALSO: 'Homeland' secures premiere ratings record with Season 3 opener Guillermo Del Toro directs 'Simpsons' Halloween couch gag Jimmy Fallon, the Roots and Muppets perform 'Sesame Street' theme Twitter: @MeredithBlake |||||

– The Simpsons began its 25th season on Sunday, and it will end said season one character light. Producer Al Jean revealed in a conference call with reporters that a well-known character will meet his or her demise this season, reports the Sun News. "I'll give you a clue that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character, but I won't say who it is," said Jean. That happens to be the world's worst clue, explains the LA Times, because just about everyone on the show has scored an Emmy at this point. That covers not only only the regulars—voice actors Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, and Yeardley Smith—but also Anne Hathaway for Princess Penelope and Kelsey Grammer for Sideshow Bob. (Click to read about how the show's writers cram it full of obscure math jokes.)

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and his wife Mary Pat Christie visited the One Nucleus life science company headquarters in Cambridge on Monday. REUTERS/Neil Hall CAMBRIDGE, England – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walked back comments he made here Monday morning calling for "balance" on the measles vaccine debate to allow for parental choice, asserting that "there is no question kids should be vaccinated." "The Governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated," Christie's office said in a statement. "At the same time different states require different degrees of vaccination, which is why he was calling for balance in which ones government should mandate." With the latest measles outbreak spreading fast, you may be surprised by the state with the best child vaccination rate in the country. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) Earlier Monday, Christie waded into the vaccination debate during his visit to the United Kingdom, telling reporters in Cambridge that he believes U.S. government must "balance" public health interests with parental choice. In a break with President Obama, Christie said parents should have "some measure of choice" about immunizing their children from measles and other viruses and diseases. The potential Republican presidential candidate's comments, which came amid a measles outbreak in the United States and a day after Obama urged all parents to get their kids vaccinated, quickly caused a stir. “Mary Pat and I have had our children vaccinated and we think that it’s an important part of being sure we protect their health and the public health,” Christie told reporters here Monday. But the likely Republican presidential candidate added: “I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that’s the balance that the government has to decide.” Christie’s initial comments came after a laboratory tour at MedImmune, a biologics company that makes vaccines in Cambridge. Christie is on a three-day tour of Britain designed to promote trade with New Jersey businesses and round out his foreign policy resume ahead of a likely 2016 run for the White House. [‘Get your kids vaccinated,’ Obama tells parents doubting ‘indisputable’ science] Christie was asked to weigh in on the debate in the United States over the measles outbreak. On Sunday, Obama told NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie, “You should get your kids vaccinated.” “I understand that there are families that, in some cases, are concerned about the effect of vaccinations,” Obama said. “The science is, you know, pretty indisputable. We’ve looked at this again and again. There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren’t reasons to not.” Christie, however, said, “There has to be a balance and it depends on what the vaccine is, what the disease type is, and all the rest.” He added, “Not every vaccine is created equal and not every disease type is as great a public health threat as others.” [Amid growing vaccination debate, measles continues to spread and is now in New York state] Christie also took the unusual step of criticizing the president on foreign soil, saying Obama had been a poor negotiator, specifically regarding the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. “You need an effective negotiator at the top, and, as I’ve said before, I think the president has shown over and over again that he’s not the most effective negotiator, whether you’re talking about the Iranian nuclear talks or whether you’re talking about his recent foray into Cuba,” Christie said. “The president has not proven himself to be the most adept negotiator, in my opinion, on behalf of American interests.” Later Monday, Christie was scheduled to be in London for a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street followed by a private dinner with members of Cameron’s cabinet. At the morning news conference, Christie was complimentary of Cameron, who is up for reelection this spring, and said some of the austerity measures he had taken in Britain were similar to ones Christie implemented in New Jersey. Christie and Cameron met in 2011, during Christie’s first term as governor. “We were comparing notes pretty feverishly back in 2011,” Christie said. “So I hope that part of what we’ll do today is compare notes on progress as well and I think that the prime minister has led some really great progress economically here, especially when you compare it to the rest of Europe.” While in Cambridge, Christie and his wife, Mary Pat, laid several wreaths at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, the burial site for several thousand U.S. service members in World War II. The couple knelt at the nave of the cemetery’s chapel for a moment of silent tribute to the fallen soldiers. RELATED: The Disneyland measles outbreak and the disgraced doctor who whipped up vaccination fear Anti-vaccine doctor revels in his notoriety Why this baby’s mom is so angry at the anti-vaxxers ||||| Chris Christie is pro-choice again—at least when it comes to vaccines. The New Jersey governor said Monday that he believes that parents “need to have some measure of choice” over vaccinating their children against measles, despite a recent outbreak of the virus that was caused by parents not vaccinating their children. What a world! While visiting Cambridge, England, Christie was asked about vaccinations, according to The New York Times. He said that although he and his wife had vaccinated their children, “It’s more important what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official. I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that’s the balance that the government has to decide… Not every vaccine is created equal, and not every disease type is as great a public-health threat as others.” Statements like this have long kept Christie on the good side of the anti-vaccination crowd. While running for governor in 2009, Christie wrote a letter wherein he seemed to acknowledge a link between autism and vaccinations—a theory for which there is no scientific proof. “I have met with families affected by autism from across the state and have been struck by their incredible grace and courage. Many of these families have expressed their concern over New Jersey’s highest-in-the-nation vaccine mandates. I stand with them now, and will stand with them as their governor in their fight for greater parental involvement in vaccination decisions that affect their children.” Also in 2009, Christie told The Don Imus Show that he struggled with then-Gov. Jon Corzine’s flu-shot mandate and the problems some parents have with vaccines. Later Monday, a Christie spokeman issued a statement urging vaccinations for viruses like measles. “To be clear: The governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated. At the same time different states require different degrees of vaccination, which is why he was calling for balance in which ones government should mandate.” Asked to confirm whether Christie believes it’s possible that vaccines cause autism, his office did not respond. (It surfaced Monday that then-candidate Barack Obama said in 2008: "We've seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it's connected to the vaccines. This person included. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it.") It’s easy to forget, given Christie’s reputation as a no-nonsense pragmatist, but he often finds himself at odds with the medical establishment and basic common sense on issues of health. During the Ebola outbreak in October, Christie quarantined a nurse who had just returned from West Africa for three days. Everyone from the Centers for Disease Control to the Obama administration protested Christie’s decision to keep the woman in a tent, but Christie was unapologetic, saying it was his duty to protect the health of the people of New Jersey. Too bad she didn’t have the measles. ||||| In remarks that may be too much even for the political party that consistently denies the existence of climate change, Chris Christie says that it's important to strike a "balance" when it comes to vaccinations. Damn, I knew Republicans like to harken back to the 1950s, but bringing back measles as a rite of passage seems extreme. Advertisement Just yesterday, Barack Obama (in keeping with the recommendations of the CDC, the agency responsible for ensuring we don't all die of preventable bullshit) recommended unequivocally that you vaccinate your children, so fer chrissakes please stop talking about "toxins" and also the study that originally suggested a link between vaccines and autism has SINCE BEEN DISCREDITED and its author driven from the medical profession in shame and disgrace. Well, apparently the election cycle has become such a cat-5 hurricane of crap that somebody just HAD to disagree. Ironically, that somebody was Chris Christie of the famous Ebola freakout. I guess he's only worried about scary African diseases, not good old-fashioned American diseases like measles. According to MSNBC, he said: Advertisement "We vaccinate ours [kids], and so, you know that's the best expression I can give you of my opinion," Christie said when asked if he would urge Americans to vaccinate their children. "You know it's much more important what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official. And that's what we do. But I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that's the balance that the government has to decide." When the reporter followed up, asking whether he thinks vaccines are actually dangerous, he replied with this wishy-washy garbled bit of WTF: "I didn't say that – I said different disease types can be more lethal so that the concern would be measuring whatever the perceived danger is by a vaccine and we've had plenty of that over a period of time versus what the risk to public health is. And that's exactly what I mean by what I said." YOU IRRESPONSIBLE, PANDERING SHIT-HEAD. We're not even talking about tax cuts or school vouchers, here, some traditional conservative small-government talking point—we're talking about throwing the car in reverse and accelerating away from one of the greatest achievements of the twentieth century toward the goddamn Middle Ages. Your average ancestor circa 1810 would probably rip every hair out of your head if she thought you were seriously considering turning your back on an invention that renders a great scourge powerless. Sponsored The worst part is, Christie clearly thinks vaccines are safe and important enough that he's gotten them for his own kids and yet here he is, abrogating his responsibility as a public figure with this kind of sure-do-whatever talk. Your opinion as a parent is NOT what matters most here. 2016 is gonna be great, you guys!!!!!!!! Let's hope the ghost of Jonas Salk bursts into a presidential debate, screaming like a banshee about herd immunity. ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| AP/Patrick Semansky Liberals, conservatives, and almost everybody in between are hammering New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) after he defended parents' "choice" to not vaccinate their kids against the measles. "It's more important what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official," Christie said Monday when asked about recent measles outbreaks in the US, according to The New York Times. "I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that's the balance that the government has to decide." The comment drew immediate rebuke from observers who accused Christie of embracing anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists. Some parents say measles vaccines are linked to autism and choose not to vaccinate their kids; this idea has been widely debunked by the federal government and medical community, which say the anti-vaccine movement has contributed to a resurgence in measles cases. Former CNN anchor Campbell Brown was one of many who predicted Christie's comment would actually doom his potential 2016 presidential campaign. "Insane. Christie is done," Brown wrote on Twitter. Republican strategist Rick Wilson fired off several tweets declaring Christie just "disqualified" himself from the White House. "I'm as libertarian as it comes, but the social contract includes not letting your kids die of preventable diseases or spread them to others," Wilson said. "Not dinging Christie because I have another dog in the 2016 fight. It's because this statement is wildly irresponsible for a public figure." The media also joined in on the Christie criticism. "Wow, I'm getting really sick of politicians who deny basic science," Political Wire's Taegan Goddard wrote. Noah Rothman, of the right-leaning news site Hot Air, contrasted President Barack Obama's "correct" stance on vaccinations with Christie's. Obama said in a pre-Super Bowl interview Sunday that "the science is indisputable" and that parents should definitely vaccinate their kids. "This comment was a bizarre one," Rothman said of Christie. "It is an unforced error. It has hurt his political brand and made Barack Obama appear a model of guileless honesty in comparison. What was Christie thinking?" Business Insider asked Christie's office if it wanted to clarify or add additional context to the governor's remarks. A representative said Christie had nothing to add. According to The Daily Beast, this is not the first time Christie defended those who do not want to vaccinate their kids. Christie reportedly wrote a letter in 2009 allying himself with anti-vaccine advocates who opposed "New Jersey's highest-in-the nation vaccine mandates." "I have met with families affected by autism from across the state and have been struck by their incredible grace and courage," Christie reportedly said then. "I stand with them now, and will stand with them as their governor in their fight for greater parental involvement in vaccination decisions that affect their children." Update (10:25 a.m.):Christie's office subsequently sent a statement to reporters with the full transcript of his vaccination comments on Monday. Kevin Roberts, a Christie spokesman, added: "To be clear: The Governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated. At the same time different states require different degrees of vaccination, which is why he was calling for balance in which ones government should mandate." Update (10:39 a.m.): With The Daily Beast report. NOW WATCH: Disneyland Measles Outbreak Shows Why We Should Ban Unvaccinated Kids From Schools |||||

– NJ Gov. Chris Christie is now pulling back on statements he made earlier today—in response to the recent measles outbreak—that parents should have a "choice" whether to get their kids vaccinated. "The Governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection, and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated," a statement from his office read this morning, as per the Washington Post. But the outrage from his call for "balance" had already been incited, as evidenced by the following reactions: At the Daily Beast, Olivia Nuzzi says statements like the ones Christie originally made today keep him "on the good side of the anti-vaccination crowd"—extra support that may come in handy if he runs for president next year—and reminds readers of a letter he wrote during his gubernatorial run in 2009 that seemed to acknowledge a link between autism and vaccines. As Sam Biddle writes on Gawker, Christie believed "public health [trumped] individual discomfort" in the case of Kaci Hickox, the nurse he involuntarily quarantined as a precaution against Ebola. "Except in the case of the Ebola nurse, it was unfounded and unscientific," Biddle notes. "If only Christie could take his 'I'm the boss, f---in' deal with it' stance against paranoid, negligent anti-vaxx parents, instead of a nurse with a fever." Some of the strongest criticism against Christie comes from Kelly Faircloth at Jezebel, who calls him an "IRRESPONSIBLE, PANDERING S---HEAD" (all-caps hers) and writes, "I guess he's only worried about scary African diseases, not good old-fashioned American diseases like measles." Faircloth adds, "Your average ancestor circa 1810 would probably rip every hair out of your head if she thought you were seriously considering turning your back on an invention that renders a great scourge powerless." Other heated responses, as per Business Insider, include GOP media guru's Rick Wilson's Twitter feed this morning (in which he calls Christie "wildly irresponsible," among other things), as well as that of Taegan Goddard of Political Wire, who posted, "Wow, I'm getting really sick of politicians who deny basic science." Former CNN news reporter Campbell Brown kept her tweet short and sweet: "Insane. Christie is done."

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea says the unprecedented deployment of three U.S. aircraft carrier groups "taking up a strike posture" around the Korean peninsula is making it impossible to predict when nuclear war will break out. North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Ja Song Nam said in a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres Monday that the joint military exercises are creating "the worst ever situation" around the peninsula. He also said the U.S. has reactivated round-the-clock sorties with nuclear-capable B-52 strategic bombers "which existed during the Cold War times." Ja said "the large-scale nuclear war exercises and blackmails, which the U.S. staged for a whole year without a break ... make one conclude that the option we have taken was the right one and we should go along the way to the last." ||||| UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea complained to the United Nations on Monday about joint military exercises by the United State and South Korea, describing it as “the worst ever situation” because U.S. nuclear war equipment had been deployed ready to strike. FILE PHOTO - A North Korean flag flutters at a guard post near the propaganda village of Gijungdong in North Korea, in this picture taken near the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea, September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, seen by Reuters, North Korean U.N. Ambassador Ja Song Nam said the United States was “running amok for war exercises by introducing nuclear war equipment in and around the Korean Peninsula.” Three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups have been involved in the joint exercise in the Western Pacific in a rare show of force as President Donald Trump visits Asia. The last time three U.S. carrier strike groups exercised together in the Western Pacific was in 2007. South Korea has said the joint drill, due to finish on Tuesday, was in response to North Korean nuclear and missile provocations and to show any such developments by Pyongyang can be repelled with “overwhelming force.” FILE PHOTO - North Korea's Ambassador to the United Nations Ja Song Nam attends a ministerial meeting at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S. September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith However, Ja said Washington was to blame for escalating tensions and accused the U.N. Security Council of ignoring “the nuclear war exercises of the United States who is hell bent on bringing catastrophic disaster to humanity.” Ja asked Guterres to bring to the attention of the 15-member council - under the rarely used Article 99 of the U.N. Charter - “the danger being posed by the U.S. nuclear war exercises, which are clearly threats to international peace and security.” Tensions have soared between the United States and North Korea following a series of weapons tests by Pyongyang and a string of increasingly bellicose exchanges between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that Kim had insulted him by calling him “old” and said he would never call the North Korean leader “short and fat.” The United States has said that all options, including military, are on the table to deal with North Korea, although its preference is for a diplomatic solution. The U.N. Security Council has unanimously ratcheted up sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs since 2006. |||||

– North Korea says the unprecedented deployment of three US aircraft carrier groups "taking up a strike posture" around the Korean peninsula is making it impossible to predict when nuclear war will break out, the AP reports. North Korea's UN ambassador, Ja Song Nam, said in a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres Monday that the joint military exercises are creating "the worst ever situation" around the peninsula. He also said the US has reactivated round-the-clock sorties with nuclear-capable B-52 strategic bombers "which existed during the Cold War times." Ja said the "large-scale nuclear war exercises and blackmails, which the US staged for a whole year without a break ... make one conclude that the option we have taken was the right one and we should go along the way to the last." The three aircraft carrier groups have been taking part in a joint exercise with South Korea while Donald Trump visits Asia, Reuters reports. The last time so many carrier groups exercised together in the western Pacific was 2007. The North Korean letter came a day after Trump tweeted that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had insulted the American president by calling him "old."

North Korea is building a missile that is even bigger than the long-range missile it is preparing to launch this month, sources claimed Monday. South Korean and U.S. officials believe the North will unveil the missile at a military parade on April 15, nation founder Kim Il-sung's centenary, or on April 25, which marks the founding day of the North's Army. A government source here said U.S. reconnaissance satellites recently spotted a 40-m missile at a research and development facility in Pyongyang that is larger than the existing Taepodong-2 missile. "It remains uncertain whether this missile is functional or is just a life-sized mock-up," the official added. The rocket North Korea is preparing to launch soon is apparently 32 m long, the same as the Taepodong-2 that was launched in April 2009 with a maximum range of 6,700 km. The new missile is believed to be larger and equipped with a bigger booster that gives it a maximum range of more than 10,000 km, making it capable of reaching the continental U.S. ||||| There are about 10,000 people working on missiles in North Korea, three times more than in the South, a high-ranking South Korean military officer said Monday. He added they have "considerable research skills." North Korea started developing ballistic missiles in the mid-1970s. It produced Scud-Bs with a range of 300 km and Scud-Cs with a range of 500 km and deployed them along the frontline in the 1980s. The South Korean military estimates that North Korea has spent US$3.1 billion on developing and testing long-range ballistic missiles so far. The rocket North Korea plans to launch this month is likely to cost $850 million which, according to a South Korean official, is equivalent to a year’s food supply for 19 million people in the impoverished country. The South Korean military believes that even more money was spent on training missile specialists. In contr ast, South Korea has about 2,000 rocket propulsion experts in the civilian and public sectors excluding the military, some 200 of them at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. A defense industry insider said, "Even counting the military workforce, the total capacity for missile research is far behind from North Korea's with a mere 3,000 experts." |||||

– North Korea is working on a rocket so big that it makes the long-range Taepodong-2 missile it's preparing to test-launch look modest, South Korean government sources tell the Chosun Ilbo. Based on satellite images, they've determined that the North is working on a missile with a booster so large that it could fire more than 6,200 miles, meaning it would be capable of reaching the continental US. The officials aren't sure if the missile is functional, or "a life-sized mockup," but they suspect it will be unveiled either during a military parade on April 15, or during the army's April 25 centennial celebration. The North has around 10,000 missile experts with "considerable research skills," a source said in a separate report, and has spent some $3.1 billion on developing long-range ballistic missiles so far. For reference, South Korea has about 3,000 rocket experts total between the public and private sectors.

Officials have identified the woman found trapped in an overturned Hummer in near Adelanto as Ridgecrest resident Barbara McPheron. McPheron, 69, was rescued after an hourlong operation to extricate her from the vehicle after it apparently rolled down a hill on Torosa Road Saturday, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. She had been missing for five days from her home in Ridgecrest. McPheron is currently being treated at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and is in serious condition but expected to recover from her injuries. It appears she had been trapped in the vehicle nearly a week. McPheron was reported missing under suspicious circumstances on Oct. 23 around 12:50 p.m. after she used the OnStar in her Hummer H3 to call 911, according to a press release from the Ridgecrest Police Department. The agency said it received a 911 call transferred from the Kern County Sheriff’s Department regarding McPheron stating “ditch on Highway 395, Stater Bros. and Kashmir Street.” The areas indicated were searched but McPherson was not found, police said. Sheriff’s deputies also conducted an air search on Highway 395 and the China Lake Police Department searched from Highway 178 to Trona. She was rescued around 6 p.m. Saturday after the San Bernardino County Fire Department received a call about an overturned vehicle. 34.582770 -117.409215 ||||| Barbara McPheron is seen in a photo released by the Ridgecrest Police Department. Fire crews rescued a woman who had been missing for almost a week when she was found Saturday evening trapped inside of an overturned SUV in Adelanto.Authorities had been searching for Barbara McPheron, 69, since she used the OnStar feature on her red 2007 Hummer to contact 911 on Oct. 23, according to the Ridgecrest Police Department in Kern County.Crews with the San Bernardino County Fire Department headed out to reports of a traffic crash near Torosa Road, west of Highway 395, around 6:11 p.m. Saturday. When crews arrived, they found the Hummer rolled over.Using rescue struts and a rope system, they were able to stabilize the vehicle. McPheron was extracted within an hour. Authorities said during the rescue operation, it was discovered that she had been reported missing days earlier.A medical helicopter transported the woman to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. Her condition was reported as serious but not life-threatening. |||||

– A woman who'd been reported missing five days earlier was found alive Saturday, trapped inside a Hummer that had crashed in the Mojave Desert. San Bernadino County Fire reports on Facebook that search and rescue teams had to use off-road vehicles to reach the SUV, which had rolled down a slope in a desert area. They stabilized the Hummer to prevent it from rolling further and were able to free the woman, who was flown to a medical center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The woman is being identified as 69-year-old Barbara McPheron, reports KTLA. The circumstances under which she disappeared remain unclear. ABC 7 reports that the Ridgecrest Police Department in Kern County, roughly 80 miles north, say that McPheron was reported missing on Oct. 23, when she used the OnStar feature on her red 2007 Hummer to reach 911. A search at the time failed to turn up McPheron. (A rescuer ended up suing a woman he helped pull from a burning Hummer.)

President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable on immigration policy in California in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Wednesday, May 16, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday hammered California for its so-called sanctuary immigration policies, in what appeared to be his latest push to embolden his base leading into the midterm elections. As the debate over immigration heats up on Capitol Hill, Trump surrounded himself with mayors, sheriffs and other local leaders from California who oppose the state's immigration policies and who applauded his administration's hard-line efforts. "This is your Republican resistance right here against what they're doing in California," said California Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, coopting a term used by Democrats opposed to Trump's presidency. She, like others, said the president and his policies were far more popular in the state than people realize. "It's a crisis," Melendez said of the situation. They were responding to legislation signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last year that bars police from asking people about their immigration status or helping federal agents with immigration enforcement. Jail officials can transfer inmates to federal immigration authorities if they have been convicted of one of about 800 crimes, mostly felonies, but not for minor offenses. Brown insists the legislation, which took effect Jan. 1, doesn't prevent federal immigration officials from doing their jobs. But the Trump administration has sued to reverse it, calling the policies unconstitutional and dangerous. Some counties, including San Diego and Orange, have voted to support the lawsuit or passed their own anti-sanctuary resolutions. Republicans see backlash to the law as a potentially galvanizing issue during the midterm elections, especially with Trump's anti-immigrant base. And Trump has held numerous events in recent months during which he's drawn attention to California's policies. During Wednesday's session, Trump thanked the officials, saying they had "bravely resisted California's deadly and unconstitutional sanctuary state laws." He claimed those laws are forcing "the release of illegal immigrant criminals, drug dealers, gang members and violent predators into your communities" and providing "safe harbor to some of the most vicious and violent offenders on earth." Trump also claimed opposition to the policies was growing, insisting, "There's a revolution going on in California." He referred to some who cross the border illegally as "animals," not people. Brown responded on Twitter, writing that Trump "is lying on immigration, lying about crime and lying about the laws of CA." The Democratic governor added: "Flying in a dozen Republican politicians to flatter him and praise his reckless policies changes nothing. We, the citizens of the fifth largest economy in the world, are not impressed." The event came as top House Republicans worked to head off an attempt by party moderates to force roll calls on four immigration bills. Republican leaders privately warned GOP lawmakers Wednesday that such a drive could damage the party's prospects in the fall's congressional elections by dispiriting conservative voters, according to people at the closed-door meeting. The House leaders fear the winning legislation would be a compromise bill backed solidly by Democrats but opposed by most Republicans, an outcome that could anger conservatives, according to Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., a leader of the effort to force the immigration votes. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., issued the warning, said a second person who was in the room and spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private conversation. Asked about his remarks, McCarthy said his objection to the procedure was that it would in effect "turn the floor over" to Democrats. House Speaker Paul Ryan said the petition would be "a big mistake" that would "disunify our majority." He said the leaders were "working with the administration." The moderates said later Wednesday that House leaders were trying to end the immigration standoff and that they could soon see a specific proposal on how to do that. "We're willing to see what this looks like," said Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., a leader of the lawmakers trying to force the House to address the issue. Conservatives had their own session with party leaders and also suggested there had been movement, but offered no specifics. Many of the legislators demanding action face potentially competitive re-election races in congressional districts with large numbers of Hispanic, suburban or agriculture-industry voters with pro-immigration views. Earlier this year, competing bills aimed at protecting young immigrants and toughening border security — including one backed by Trump — collapsed in the Senate. The measures never received House votes. The discussion also comes as the Trump administration is under fire for a new policy that is expected to increase the number of children separated from their parents when families cross the border illegally. Trump, in his remarks, wrongly blamed Democrats for forcing his administration's hand. "I know what you're going through right now with families is very tough," he told Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, "but those are the bad laws that the Democrats gave us. We have to break up families ... because of the Democrats. It's terrible." But no law "the Democrats gave us" mandates the separation of children from their parents at the border. The administration is using protocols described in a 2008 law designed to combat child trafficking that gave special protections to Central American children at the border. While the bill was authored by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, it unanimously passed both houses of Congress and was signed by Republican President George W. Bush as one of his last acts in office. Nielsen on Tuesday defended the practice, telling a Senate committee that removing children from parents facing criminal charges happens "in the United States every day." Trump also told Nielsen that she was "doing a good job," one week after berating her during a cabinet meeting for failing to halt border crossings. Feinstein issued a statement accusing the Trump administration of "once again attempting to divide Californians and all Americans with today's White House meeting." "Their decision to convene this meeting is about fueling fear of immigrants and scapegoating entire communities," she said. __ Associated Press writers Alan Fram in Washington, Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| CLOSE President Donald Trump is hammering California for its sanctuary policies in his latest push to resist the "resistance" to his presidency. (May 15) AP President Trump speaks during a meeting with California leaders and public officials who oppose California's sanctuary policies in the Cabinet Room of the White House Wednesday. (Photo: Olivier Douliery / POOL, EPA-EFE) WASHINGTON — President Trump used extraordinarily harsh rhetoric to renew his call for stronger immigration laws Wednesday, calling undocumented immigrants "animals" and venting frustration at Mexican officials who he said "do nothing" to help the United States. “We have people coming into the country or trying to come in, we're stopping a lot of them, but we're taking people out of the country. You wouldn't believe how bad these people are," Trump said. "These aren't people. These are animals." Trump's comments came in a freewheeling, hour-long White House meeting with local California leaders opposed to so-called "sanctuary city" policies. "California's law provides safe harbor to some of the most vicious and violent offenders on Earth, like MS-13 gang members putting innocent men, women, and children at the mercy of these sadistic criminals," he said. His comment about "animals" came after Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims complained that state law forbids her from telling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about undocumented immigrants in her jail — even if she suspects they're part of a gang. "There could be an MS-13 member I know about. If they don’t reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about it," she said. Trump's remarks were reminiscent of his first press conference as a presidential candidate in 2015, when he said the United States had become a "dumping ground" for people other countries didn't want. "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he said then. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." Trump has been particularly vocal in opposing so-called "sanctuary city" policies, in which some jurisdictions have refused to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities. On Wednesday, he highlighted California cities who do cooperate, inviting mayors and sheriffs opposed to the state's predominant policy. "Each of you has bravely resisted California's deadly and unconstitutional sanctuary state law," Trump told them. In other comments, Trump: ► Called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for warning undocumented immigrants of an upcoming sweep by immigration agents. "You talk about obstruction of justice, I would recommend that you look at obstruction of justice for the mayor, Jeff," the president said. ► Expressed frustration at his southern neighbor for not doing more to stop the flow of refugees and immigrants into the United States. "Mexico does nothing for us, they do nothing for us. Mexico talks, but they do nothing for us, especially at the border," he said. "Certainly don’t help us much on trade." ► Blamed Democrats for a policy of separating children from their parents when undocumented families enter the United States. "I know what you're going through with families is very tough," he told Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. "But those are the bad laws the Democrats gave us. We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law. It's a horrible thing we have to break up families." Alan Gomez reported from Miami. David Jackson contributed. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2rNiDvb |||||

– "These aren't people. These are animals." It was a reference to some undocumented immigrants made Wednesday by President Trump during an hour-long meeting at the White House that USA Today characterized as studded with "extraordinarily harsh rhetoric" from the president. He was meeting with California leaders who are also against the state's so-called "sanctuary city" immigration policies, and that statement came after one of them made a reference to suspected gang members. The AP framed Trump's comments as his "latest push to embolden his base leading into the midterm elections." Trump described those present as having "bravely resisted California's deadly and unconstitutional sanctuary state laws," which are providing "safe harbor to some of the most vicious and violent offenders on Earth." The comments garnered a response from Gov. Jerry Brown, who tweeted Trump "is lying on immigration, lying about crime and lying about the laws of CA." USA Today notes Trump also called upon Jeff Sessions to investigate Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for "obstruction of justice" over her February move and swung at Mexico for what he described as its inaction at stopping the entry of people into the US. "Mexico does nothing for us, they do nothing for us. Mexico talks, but they do nothing for us, especially at the border." (The Justice Department has sued California over laws that provide protection to undocumented immigrants.)

BERLIN (AP) — For 70 years since the Nazi defeat in World War II, copyright law has been used in Germany to prohibit the publication of "Mein Kampf" — the notorious anti-Semitic tome in which Adolf Hitler set out his ideology. FILE - In this Dec. 11, 2015, file photo, different editions of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" are on display at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich. For 70 years since the Nazi defeat in World... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Dec. 11, 2015, file photo, a 1939-edition, right, and different other editions of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" are on display at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich. For 70... (Associated Press) That will change next month when a new edition with critical commentary, the product of several years' work by a publicly funded institute, hits the shelves. While historians say it could help fill a gap in Germans' knowledge of the era, Jewish groups are wary and German authorities are making it clear that they still won't tolerate any new "Mein Kampf" without annotations. Under German law, a copyright expires at the end of the year 70 years after an author's death — in this case, Hitler's April 30, 1945, suicide in a Berlin bunker as the Soviet army closed in. That means Bavaria's state finance ministry, which holds the copyright, can no longer use it to prevent the work's publication beyond Dec. 31. The book has been published in several other countries; in the U.S., for example, Bavaria never controlled the copyright. In Germany, many argue that holding back "Mein Kampf" merely created mystique around the book. The idea of at least a partial version with critical commentary for the German market dates back as far as the late 1960s. The Munich-based Institute for Contemporary History, which is behind the new version, sought and was denied permission to produce the book in the mid-1990s when it published a volume of Hitler's speeches. Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf" — or "My Struggle" — after he was jailed following the failed 1923 coup attempt known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Millions of copies were printed after the Nazis took power in 1933. The rambling tome set out Hitler's ultranationalist, anti-Semitic and anti-communist ideology for his National Socialist German Workers Party, or Nazi party, airing the idea of a war of conquest in eastern Europe. "The book should not be underestimated as a historical source and also as a key to understanding the history of National Socialism," the director of the Munich institute, Andreas Wirsching, said ahead of the new edition's mid-January publication. "Among serious historians in Germany, you won't find one who is against a commented edition and hasn't been calling for one for years," said Sven Felix Kellerhoff, a journalist with the daily Die Welt and a historian who has written about "Mein Kampf" himself. "That goes from conservatives to the left." Jewish opinion varies. The head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, says that knowledge of "Mein Kampf" is important in explaining Nazism and the Holocaust — so "we do not object to a critical edition, contrasting Hitler's racial theories with scientific findings, to be at the disposal of research and teaching." One of his predecessors is more critical. Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor who heads Munich's Jewish community, says she trusts the expertise of the institute's researchers but doubts that the new edition will achieve its aim of "demystifying and taking apart 'Mein Kampf.'" It is likely to awaken interest "not in the commentary, but the original — and that remains highly dangerous," Knobloch said. "It could still have an impact because both of the core ideas are timeless: ultranationalism and racism." Given that "Mein Kampf" is already widely available in university libraries and on the internet, "we don't see a need to print more copies of it and thus ensure mass distribution, including of an annotated version," said Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress. The publishers say they understand the objections, while noting that the book is already freely available secondhand and online, not to mention in other languages, without annotations. Christian Hartmann, who led the team putting together the heavily annotated version, says that "we are linking Hitler's text and our commentary firmly together — we are practically encircling Hitler with our remarks." Hartmann said they have attempted "the most intensive examination and rebuttal that is possible" of "Mein Kampf." Amid disagreement over the annotated edition's merits, there is wide agreement that Hitler still shouldn't be left to speak uncontradicted. In mid-2014, Germany's federal and state justice ministers agreed that new editions without commentary should continue to be prevented after the copyright expires, likely using laws against incitement. It remains to be seen whether their resolve will be tested. There are currently no known plans to publish a Hitler-only "Mein Kampf" in Germany. After the end of World War II, the Allies turned over what remained of Hitler's assets — the Nazi leader was officially registered as living in Munich — to the Bavarian government. Those included the copyright of the German original of "Mein Kampf." Authorities in Munich subsequently ensured it wasn't republished, though there was no official ban on the book. That use of the copyright "of course had its reasons," Wirsching said. In the early years of West Germany, "there were any number of Hitler admirers; there wasn't just neo-Nazism, there was also old Nazism." But "this is a different generation, a different political culture, a solid political democracy that in my view can definitely withstand an edition with commentary." That Bavarian government took the same view when, in 2012, it said it would put 500,000 euros ($545,000) into backing the project and was even considering a version specifically aimed at students. But the following year, governor Horst Seehofer did an about-turn, arguing that supporting publication of "Mein Kampf" didn't fit with Bavaria's participation in a drive to have modern Germany's main far-right party banned. However, the Institute for Contemporary History insisted that it would go ahead, Bavarian officials then indicated that they wouldn't object, and the researchers didn't have to return the funding. The new edition of "Mein Kampf," which has expanded to nearly 2,000 pages with the Munich institute's commentary, roughly double the length of the original, doesn't appear likely to fly off the shelves. With a print run of up to 4,000 copies, it costs 59 euros ($64). There won't be an e-book, since the edition's layout can't be adapted to the format, but publishers are considering an online edition, perhaps in 2017. Any proceeds will go to charity, Wirsching said, but given the costs of dedicating historians to the task and producing the voluminous tome, he doesn't expect any. "In the end, I think this will be an entirely nonprofit enterprise," he said. ||||| Berlin (AFP) - The copyright of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" expires Friday, with plans by several publishers for annotated reprints sparking fierce debate over how one of the world's most controversial books should be treated seven decades after the defeat of the Nazis. The southern German state of Bavaria was handed the copyright of the book in 1945, when the Allies gave it the control of the main Nazi publishing house. For 70 years, it refused to allow the anti-Semitic manifesto to be republished out of respect for victims of the Nazis and to prevent incitement of hatred. But "Mein Kampf" -- which means "My Struggle" -- falls into the public domain on January 1, meaning that the state of Bavaria can no longer challenge reproductions or translations of the inflammatory work. For several European countries that were under Nazi occupation, including Austria and the Netherlands, the expiration of copyright will have little impact as reprints and sales of Hitler's diatribe remain banned there. But in Germany, historians have readied an annotated version to hit the bookstores on January 8, while in neighbouring France, publisher Fayard will go ahead with a new French version, sparking chagrin in some quarters. View gallery A German edition of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle) is pictured at the Berli … Some scholars argue in favour of the reprints, saying they will serve to demystify the notorious 800-page document, particularly given that the tract is freely available in many parts of the world, and just a few clicks away on the Internet. In India and Brazil, the book is easily found, while in Japan even a manga version of the tract is available. In Turkey, more than 30,000 copies have been sold since 2004 and the book is not prohibited in the United States. Nevertheless, opinion is split, particularly among Jewish groups, some of which want a ban maintained while others see reason in a scholarly version being made available for educational purposes. - Deconstructing Hitler - No country is as torn over the book as Germany, where all reprints have been halted since 1945 although the sale and possession of the book is not banned. View gallery Andreas Wirsching (L) -- director of the Institute of Contemporary History of Munich, which will put … Partly autobiographical, "Mein Kampf" outlines Adolf Hitler's ideology that formed the basis for Nazism. He wrote it in 1924 while he was imprisoned in Bavaria for treason after his failed beer hall putsch. The book set out two ideas that he put into practice as Germany's leader going into World War II: annexing neighbouring countries to gain "lebensraum", or "living space", for Germans; and his hatred of Jews, which led to the Holocaust. Some 12.4 million copies were published in Germany until 1945, and copies can be found in academic libraries. Germany's Jewish community leader Josef Schuster said "the despicable propaganda pamphlet 'Mein Kampf' should remain banned" although he did not oppose a scholarly version with explanations for educational and research purposes. Such an annotated version is what historians at the Institute of Contemporary History of Munich (IFZ) have prepared. View gallery A man holds a French (L), a Finnish (C) and a Danish (R) edition of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Ka … The IFZ version, running to 2,000 pages in two volumes including the added commentary, has been in the works since 2009 and aims to "deconstruct and put into context Hitler's writing". The book, to retail at 59 euros ($65) from January 8, will look at key historical questions, the institute said, including: "How were his theses conceived? What objectives did he have? And most important: which counterarguments do we have, given our knowledge today of the countless claims, lies and assertions of Hitler?" Education Minister Johanna Wanka has argued that such a scholarly version should be introduced to all classrooms across Germany, saying it would serve to ensure that "Hitler's comments do not remain unchallenged". "Pupils will have questions and it is only right that these can be addressed in classes," she said. But Charlotte Knobloch, who is president of the Jewish community in Munich and Upper Bavaria, warned that even this version carries certain risks as it "contains the original text" and that it was also "in the interest of right wing militants and Islamists to spread these ideas." - 'Bedside reading?' - To these fears, Andreas Wirshing, the IFZ's director, argued that each passage of the original text is accompanied by a commentary, forcing readers "to notice the commentaries and take them into account". "Any Hitler sympathisers who might be interested in the book are better off looking elsewhere," he said in an interview with Deutsche Welle. In neighbouring France, the president of the council of Jewish institutions, Roger Cukierman, called the planned French reprints "a disaster". "Such horror can already be found on the Internet. What would happen if 'Mein Kampf' also becomes bedside reading?" he said. In Israel, where reprints have been banned, the expiration of copyright would not lift a deep-seated taboo against the anti-Semitic screed. Murray Greenfield, founder of Gefen Publishing, which focuses on books about Judaism and its history, said he wouldn't publish it "even if they paid me". |||||

– Mein Kampf is coming back. The copyright on Hitler's "anti-Semitic manifesto" expires Friday, and with the book in the public domain, several publishers are planning new editions. The German state of Bavaria has held the copyright in Germany since 1945 and has forbidden the book from being republished. But there is much debate as to whether the new, annotated reprints are a good idea, AFP reports. A version will hit shelves in Germany on Jan. 8, and another is planned in France. And while some want a ban on the book's publication, others point out that it's already available in many places around the globe—and the Internet. (Bavaria, for example, never held the copyright for the book in the US, the AP explains.) Even a Jewish community leader who wants the book banned does not oppose a scholarly version of the book with annotations, and that's what will be out in Germany on Jan. 8. The aim of the $65, 2,000-page text is to "deconstruct and put into context Hitler's writing," and to provide counterarguments to his ideas. Germany's Education Minister thinks such a version should be studied in classrooms so that "Hitler's comments do not remain unchallenged" and students' questions are answered. But another Jewish community leader warns that, even though it is accompanied by commentary, the original text is contained in the annotated version, and "right wing militants" could attempt to spread Hitler's ideas. Others argue that it's the limits on publication up til now that have served to fuel the "mystique" surrounding the book.

Two women who were retrieved by the Navy after they were stranded in a damaged sailboat with their two dogs for five months have, at long last, stepped foot on land. Yet, as questions arise about their story, the two admitted Monday they had a functioning rescue beacon on board they did not use. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava were taken to the White Base Naval Facility in southern Japan on Monday after the two were picked up by the Navy on October 25, adrift some 900 miles off the coast of Japan. The friends left their homes in Hawaii on May 3 for what was supposed to be about a month-long sailing trip to Tahiti in Appel’s sailing boat, the Sea Nymph, but the two quickly ran into trouble from a storm that flooded their engine, damaged their mast and cut off their communication systems. “The crew of the USS Ashland saved our lives,” Appel, 48, told press during a briefing on Monday, according to ABC News. “Had they not been able to locate us we would have been dead within 24 hours.” Koji Ueda/AP Appel, who is an experienced sailor, stocked up on a year’s worth of food for the trip in case of an emergency, living off a supply of pasta and oatmeal that was about 90 percent depleted by the time they were rescued. The two-woman crew sent out distress signals for 98 days but did not receive a response, and endured two separate attacks from groups of tiger sharks that rammed their boat. Sarah Villegas/U.S. Navy “When I saw the gray ship on the horizon, I was just shaking,” Fuiava told PEOPLE and other reporters during a conference call on Friday. “I was ready to cry. I was so happy. I knew we were going to live.” Yet, a Coast Guard spokeswoman told the AP that the women had an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) on board, which could have been used to alert search and rescue services via satellite at any point during their five-month journey. During a conference call with the AP and PEOPLE on Friday, Appel did not include an EPIRB when asked what communication devices she had on board. “We asked why during this course of time did they not activate the EPIRB. She had stated they never felt like they were truly in distress, like in a 24-hour period they were going to die,” Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer 2nd Class Tara Molle said. Jonathan Clay/U.S. Navy Appel and Fuiava’s account has garnered much criticism from the boating community from the start. “I think most cruising sailors found the story just really odd,” Linus Wilson—an associate professor of finance at the University of Louisiana, who took up sailing in 2010 and has since logged more than 10,000 nautical miles—tells PEOPLE. “My initial thought when I heard the story was that Jennifer was very irresponsible for not checking the weather reports.” Appel says a Force 11 storm slammed into their boat within days of leaving Hawaii, but Wilson’s suspicions led him to research if any Force 11 storms—which can cause exceptionally high 30- to 50-foot waves and can dramatically reduce visibility—formed around Hawaii at the start of May. The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) told him they have no record of a storm occurring at that time. PEOPLE followed up with the NOAA and confirmed this information. Wilson says he is worried their story may scare away people who are interested in sailing. “To have people afraid they’re going to be lost at sea, or that they’re going to be attacked by sharks, I think it’s a terrible picture for the sailboat cruising community,” he says. “Sailors who have been out on the water and have cruised long distances, their comments about the story are negative—there are so many holes in it that it just doesn’t make any sense.” ||||| Jennifer Appel, right, and Tasha Fuiava speak on the deck of the USS Ashland at White Beach Naval Facility in Okinawa, Japan Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. The U.S. Navy ship arrived at the American Navy base,... (Associated Press) Jennifer Appel, right, and Tasha Fuiava speak on the deck of the USS Ashland at White Beach Naval Facility in Okinawa, Japan Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. The U.S. Navy ship arrived at the American Navy base, five days after it picked up the women and their two dogs from their storm-damaged sailboat, 900 miles... (Associated Press) HONOLULU (AP) — Two Hawaii women who say they were lost at sea never activated their emergency beacon, the U.S. Coast Guard said, adding to a growing list of inconsistences that cast doubt on this harrowing tale of survival. The women previously told The Associated Press that they had radios, satellite phones, GPS and other emergency gear, but they didn't mention the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB). A Coast Guard review of the incident and subsequent interviews with the survivors revealed that they had an EPIRB aboard the Sea Nymph, but never turned it on. Jennifer Appel said in an interview Tuesday that in her experience the beacon should only be used when you are in imminent physical danger and going to die in the next 24 hours. "Our hull was solid, we were floating, we had food, we had water, and we had limited maneuverable capacity," Appel said in an interview in Japan, where the U.S. Navy took them. "All those things did not say we are going to die. All that said it's going to take us a whole lot longer to get where we're going." Previously, Appel and Tasha Fuiava had said they were close to giving up when the U.S. Navy rescued them last week, thousands of miles off course. The EPIRB communicates with satellites and sends locations to authorities. It's activated when it's submerged in water or turned on manually. The alert signal sends a location to rescuers within minutes. A retired Coast Guard officer who was responsible for search and rescue operations said that if the women used the emergency beacon, they would have been found. "If the thing was operational and it was turned on, a signal should have been received very, very quickly that this vessel was in distress," Phillip R. Johnson said Monday in a telephone interview from Washington state. Johnson described the device as sturdy and reliable, but added that old and weak batteries could cause a unit not to function. Appel and Fuiava also said they had six forms of communication that all failed to work. "There's something wrong there," Johnson said. "I've never heard of all that stuff going out at the same time." The two women met in late 2016, and within a week of knowing each other decided to take the trip together. Fuiava had never sailed a day in her life. They planned to take 18 days to get to Tahiti, then travel the South Pacific and return to Hawaii in October. They set off on May 3 and were rescued by the U.S. Navy last week, thousands of miles off course. Key elements of the women's account are contradicted by authorities, and are not consistent with weather reports or basic geography of the Pacific Ocean. The discrepancies raised questions about whether Appel and her sailing companion, Tasha Fuiava, could have avoided disaster. On their first day at sea, May 3, the two U.S. women described running into a fearsome storm that tossed their vessel with 60 mph (97 kph) winds and 30-foot (9-meter) seas for three days, but meteorologists say there was no severe weather anywhere along their route during that time. After leaving "we got into a Force 11 storm, and it lasted for two nights and three days," Appel said of the storm they encountered off Oahu. In one of the first signs of trouble, she said she lost her cellphone overboard. "We were empowered to know that we could withstand the forces of nature," Appel said. "The boat could withstand the forces of nature." But the National Weather Service in Honolulu said no organized storm systems were in or near Hawaii on May 3 or in the days afterward. Archived NASA satellite images confirm there were no tropical storms around Hawaii that day. The pair said they thought about turning back, but the islands of Maui and Lanai didn't have harbors deep enough to accommodate their sailboat. At 50 feet (15 meters) long, the vessel is relatively small, and both islands have harbors that would have accommodated them. Plus, the Big Island — the southernmost island in state — has several places to dock. "I had no idea that we were going to be in this thing for 80 solid hours," Appel said of the storm of which there is no record. Still, they pressed on. Days later, after parts of their mast and rigging failed, they sailed up to another small island, still with a working motor, but decided against trying to land, believing the island was mostly uninhabited with no protected waters. "It is uninhabited. They only have habitation on the northwest corner and their reef was too shallow for us to cross in order to get into the lagoon," Appel said. But Christmas Island, part of the island nation of Kiribati, is home to more than 2,000 people and has a port that routinely welcomes huge commercial ships. "We could probably nurse it down to the next major island in Kiribati," Appel said. Then we'll be able to stop there and seek safe haven and get up on the mast and fix it." The island has at least two airfields, and women had flares aboard to alert people on land. Plus, its widest point spans about 30 miles (48 kilometers), a day's hike to safety from even the most remote area. When asked if the small island would have been a good place to land and repair their sails, Appel said no. "Kiribati, um, one whole half of the island is called shipwreck beach for a reason." Christmas Island has a place called Bay of Wrecks on its northeast side. So, instead of stopping for help, they say they set a new destination about 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) away and a few hundred miles beyond their original target of Tahiti. They were headed to the Cook Islands. "We really did think we could make it to the next spot," Appel said. Then, they say, another storm killed their engine at the end of May. The Coast Guard made radio contact with a vessel that identified itself as the Sea Nymph in June near Tahiti, and the captain said they were not in distress and expected to make land the next morning. More than five months after they departed, they were picked up in the western Pacific about 900 miles (1,448 kilometers) southeast of Japan. The two women and their dogs were all in good health when picked up by the U.S. Navy. ___ AP writer Ken Moritsugu contributed to this report from Naha, Japan. |||||

– The story of two women from Hawaii rescued after being lost at sea for five months is beginning to seem incredible—as in difficult to believe. After they were picked up by the USS Ashland 900 miles southeast of Japan last week, Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava said they faced storms and shark attacks and that there were times when they "absolutely" thought they would die. They didn't mention that they failed to use their Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, which would have immediately alerted rescuers to their location. A Coast Guard spokeswoman says the women claim they never used the emergency beacon because they never felt "truly in distress, like in a 24-hour period they were going to die." Multiple other inconsistencies in the account have surfaced, including some that conflict with the "basic geography of the Pacific Ocean," the AP reports. The women say they departed Hawaii bound for Tahiti on May 3 and ran into a fearsome Force 11 storm the same day that "lasted for two nights and three days," but the National Weather Service says there were no storm systems near Hawaii around that time. The women have said their mast and motor failed, along with multiple methods of communication, though the Coast Guard says it made radio contact with their sailboat, the Sea Nymph, near Tahiti in June and they said they weren't in distress. One long-distance sailor tells People that many sailors find the women's story odd, because "there are so many holes in it that it just doesn't make any sense." (The two women are now back on land.)

This image released by Boneau/Bryan-Brown shows a performance of "Mean Girls," in New York. The Tony Awards race is dominated by big established brands, including Disney's “Frozen,” J.K. Rowling's “Harry... (Associated Press) This image released by Boneau/Bryan-Brown shows a performance of "Mean Girls," in New York. The Tony Awards race is dominated by big established brands, including Disney's “Frozen,” J.K. Rowling's “Harry Potter” franchise, Tina Fey's “Mean Girls” and Nickelodeon's “SpongeBob SquarePants.” The nominations... (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Tina Fey's musical "Mean Girls," which she adapted from her much-beloved and oft-quoted 2004 high school comedy movie, and the goofy undersea adaptation from the cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical" lead the Tony Award nominations with dozen nods each. A British revival of "Angels in America," Tony Kushner's monumental, two-part drama about AIDS, life and love during the 1980s, grabbed 11 nominations — the most for any play — 25 years after it first appeared on Broadway. The shimmering, grown-up musical "The Band's Visit" also earned 11 nods. J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" franchise extended its magical touch to Broadway, with a two-part stage play featuring the bespectacled wizard earning 10 nominations, as did a revival of "My Fair Lady." Best new musical category is filled by "The Band's Visit," ''Frozen," ''Mean Girls" and "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical." Those musicals that failed to make the cut were the Hal Prince revue "Prince of Broadway," the Jimmy Buffet musical "Escape to Margaritaville" and "Summer," about disco diva Donna Summer. The two-part "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," which picks up 19 years from where Rowling's last novel left off and portrays Potter and his friends as grown-ups, won nine Olivier Awards in London before coming to America and bewitching critics and audiences alike. It now will face "The Children," ''Farinelli and The King," ''Junk" and "Latin History for Morons" for best new play. Best male acting nominations for a play include Denzel Washington, starring in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's epic "The Iceman Cometh." The 2010 Tony winner for "Fences" will have to face-off against Andrew Garfield in "Angels in America," Tom Hollander of "Travesties," Jamie Parker of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" and Mark Rylance in "Farinelli and The King." Amy Schumer, who made her Broadway debut in Steve Martin's comedy "Meteor Shower," won a nomination for best actress in a play. Others in the category include Glenda Jackson from "Edward Albee's Three Tall Women," Condola Rashad in "Saint Joan" and Lauren Ridloff in "Children of a Lesser God." "Carousel," ''My Fair Lady" and "Once on This Island" make up the best musical revival category, mostly because they're only eligible nominees. The best play revival category is filled by "Angels in America," ''Three Tall Women," ''Lobby Hero," ''Travesties" and "The Iceman Cometh." Bruce Springsteen, whose solo show mixes songs and stories from his best-selling memoir "Born to Run" and has been banking over $2 million each week he's onstage, will be granted a special, non-competitive Tony, along with John Leguizamo for "Latin History for Morons." Plenty of nominations don't necessarily lead to actual wins on Tony night. While "Hamilton" was nominated for 16 awards in 2016 and went on to win 11, just last year "Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812" earned a leading 12 nominations but got just two technical awards on the big night. ___ Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits ||||| This image released by Boneau/Bryan-Brown shows a performance of "Mean Girls," in New York. The Tony Awards race is dominated by big established brands, including Disney's “Frozen,” J.K. Rowling's “Harry... (Associated Press) This image released by Boneau/Bryan-Brown shows a performance of "Mean Girls," in New York. The Tony Awards race is dominated by big established brands, including Disney's “Frozen,” J.K. Rowling's “Harry Potter” franchise, Tina Fey's “Mean Girls” and Nickelodeon's “SpongeBob SquarePants.” The nominations... (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Select nominations for the 2018 Tony Awards, announced Tuesday. Best Musical: "The Band's Visit;" ''Frozen;" ''Mean Girls;" ''SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical" Best Play: "The Children;" ''Farinelli and the King;" ''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two;" ''Junk;" ''Latin History for Morons" Best Book of a Musical: "The Band's Visit;" ''Frozen;" ''Mean Girls"; "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical" Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theater: "Angels in America"; "The Band's Visit;" ''Frozen"; "Mean Girls"; "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical" Best Revival of a Play: "Angels in America;" ''Three Tall Women;" ''The Iceman Cometh;" ''Lobby Hero"; "Travesties" Best Revival of a Musical: "Carousel;" ''My Fair Lady;" ''Once on This Island" Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play: Andrew Garfield, "Angels in America"; Tom Hollander, "Travesties"; Jamie Parker, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two"; Mark Rylance, "Farinelli and The King"; Denzel Washington, "The Iceman Cometh" Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play: Glenda Jackson, "Three Tall Women"; Condola Rashad, "Saint Joan"; Lauren Ridloff, "Children of a Lesser God"; Amy Schumer, "Meteor Shower" Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Harry Hadden-Paton, "My Fair Lady"; Joshua Henry, "Carousel"; Tony Shalhoub, "The Band's Visit"; Ethan Slater, "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical." Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Lauren Ambrose, "My Fair Lady"; Hailey Kilgore, "Once On This Island"; LaChanze, "Summer: The Donna Summer Musical"; Katrina Lenk, "The Band's Visit"; Taylor Louderman, "Mean Girls"; Jessie Mueller, "Carousel" Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play: Anthony Boyle, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two"; Michael Cera, "Lobby Hero"; Brian Tyree Henry, "Lobby Hero"; Nathan Lane, "Angels in America"; David Morse, "The Iceman Cometh" Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play: Susan Brown, "Angels in America"; Noma Dumezweni, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two"; Deborah Findlay, "The Children"; Denise Gough, "Angels in America"; Laurie Metcalf, "Three Tall Women" Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical: Norbert Leo Butz, "My Fair Lady"; Alexander Gemignani, "Carousel"; Grey Henson, "Mean Girls"; Gavin Lee, "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical"; Ari'el Stachel, "The Band's Visit" Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical: Ariana DeBose, "Summer: The Donna Summer Musical"; Renee Fleming, "Carousel"; Lindsay Mendez, "Carousel"; Ashley Park, "Mean Girls"; Diana Rigg, "My Fair Lady" ___ Online: http://tonyawards.com |||||

– Tina Fey's musical Mean Girls, which she adapted from her much-beloved and oft-quoted 2004 high school comedy movie, and the goofy undersea cartoon adaptation SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical lead the Tony Award nominations with a dozen nods each. A British revival of Angels in America, Tony Kushner's monumental, two-part drama about AIDS, life, and love during the 1980s, grabbed 11 nominations—the most for any play—25 years after it first appeared on Broadway. The shimmering, grown-up musical The Band's Visit also earned 11 nods. JK Rowling's Harry Potter franchise extended its magical touch to Broadway, with a two-part stage play featuring the bespectacled wizard earning 10 nominations, as did a revival of My Fair Lady, per the AP. The best new musical category is filled by The Band's Visit, Frozen, Mean Girls, and SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical. Amy Schumer, who made her Broadway debut in Steve Martin's comedy Meteor Shower, won a nomination for best actress in a play. Others in the category include Glenda Jackson from Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, Condola Rashad in Saint Joan, and Lauren Ridloff in Children of a Lesser God. Best male acting nominations for a play include Denzel Washington, starring in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's epic The Iceman Cometh. The 2010 Tony winner for Fences will have to face off against Andrew Garfield in Angels in America, Tom Hollander of Travesties, Jamie Parker of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Mark Rylance in Farinelli and The King. A fuller list is here.

A 31-year-old man underwent a knee-disarticulation amputation in 2009, approximately 36 hours after a motorcycle collision. During the amputation surgery, two nerve transfers were performed to prevent neuroma formation. 1 The severed sciatic nerve was separated into its tibial and common peroneal branches. Small nerve branches to the distal portions of the residual semitendinosus muscle and the long head of the biceps femoris muscle ( Figure 1 Figure 1 Natively Innervated and Surgically Reinnervated Residual Thigh Muscles.) were located and cut where the nerves entered their respective muscles. The tibial nerve branch was then sewn over the motor point on the semitendinosus, and the common peroneal nerve branch was sewn over the motor point on the long head of the biceps femoris, thus allowing the transferred nerves to reinnervate these hamstring muscles. This surgery is analogous to targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) surgery that is performed as part of arm amputation to improve the control of motorized arm prostheses. 2 As expected from our experience with TMR, discrete contractions in reinnervated muscles developed after a few months. When the patient attempted dorsiflexion of his missing foot, a contraction could be seen and palpated in the distal semitendinosus. Similarly, contraction of the distal long head of the biceps femoris occurred when he attempted plantarflexion of his missing foot. Thirteen mechanical sensors are included in the mechanical design of the prosthesis (a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, and sensors for vertical load, knee and ankle position, torque, and velocity). EMG and mechanical-sensor data were processed with the use of a phase-dependent pattern-classification method before heel contact and before toe off. 7 A dynamic Bayesian network was used for classification. 8 The patient ambulated freely around the laboratory and completed 10 additional circuits, during which transitions between ambulation modes in the prosthesis were performed automatically under two conditions: with the use of both EMG and mechanical-sensor data to control the prosthesis and with the use of mechanical-sensor data alone to control it. To investigate the effect of adding EMG control during various ambulation activities, the patient was first taught to walk with a robotic prosthesis that is designed to have a set of impedances (joint stiffnesses) for each ambulation mode, as described by our collaborators at Vanderbilt University. 5,6 The prosthetic leg, including the battery and embedded control system, has a mass of 4.7 kg. The knee and ankle joints are actuated in the sagittal plane with the use of two Maxon EC30 motors (Maxon Motor). The patient wore a socket with a supracondylar suspension system. During a 3-hour accommodation session, the prosthesis was configured so that the patient could ambulate safely and comfortably in each of the following modes: walking on level ground, walking up or down a ramp with a 10-degree slope, and ascending or descending a set of stairs with a reciprocal gait. In a separate session, the patient completed 20 repetitions of a circuit that included all ambulation modes, during which a researcher remotely transitioned the prosthesis between modes when the foot made contact with the ground (heel contact) and was lifted into the air (toe off), using a wireless key fob. To evaluate the contribution of EMG signals from natively innervated and surgically reinnervated muscles to robotic prosthesis control, a pattern-recognition system was tested in a virtual environment with the patient in a seated position. 4 Ten bipolar surface electrodes were placed over eight natively innervated residual limb muscles (proximal biceps femoris, rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, sartorius, gracilis, adductor magnus, and tensor fasciae latae) and the two reinnervated muscle segments. The patient performed the attempted movements described above as well as femoral rotation (in and out) and tibial rotation (in and out). The patient's ability to control the virtual device in real time (i.e., the percentage of completed motions in the virtual-environment test) with the use of a pattern-recognition system was compared with previously reported data on four persons who had undergone transfemoral amputation without TMR surgery (non-TMR amputees). 4 The patient gave written informed consent for participation in the institutional review board–approved experiments described here, which took place between January 2010 and October 2012. The quality of the EMG signals from the patient's residual limb was investigated with the use of high-density EMG, which has been used to interpret EMG signal quality in upper-limb amputees after TMR. 3 A cylindrical grid of 96 electrodes, with a center-to-center distance between adjacent electrodes of approximately 25 mm, was placed on the distal residual limb. EMG signals were collected with the use of a TMS Refa 128 measurement system (Twente Medical Systems International) as the patient attempted knee flexion, knee extension, ankle plantarflexion, and ankle dorsiflexion. Contractions were held for 5 seconds at medium intensity and were repeated 10 times. The root-mean-square EMG signal measured at each electrode for each contraction type was color-coded according to amplitude for qualitative interpretation. When mechanical-sensor data only were used, the majority of errors caused relatively small perturbations that were noticeable to the patient. Critical errors — defined as errors resulting in perturbations that might cause the patient to fall — occurred during 2% of trials. No such critical errors occurred with the use of the TMR-enhanced control system. With the use of this TMR-enhanced combination of mechanical-sensor and EMG information, the patient was also able to walk safely outdoors and to climb and descend multiple flights of stairs with the robotic leg prosthesis ( Figure 3 Figure 3 Stair Ascent with Reciprocal Gait with the Use of the TMR-Enhanced Control System. and Video 2 ). EMG data from the residual limb and mechanical-sensor data produced a unique stride pattern for each ambulation mode. The inclusion of EMG information increased the accuracy of the control system. With the use of mechanical-sensor data only, the overall real-time error rate (i.e., the rate of movement misclassification) across all ambulation modes was 12.9%. The real-time error rate decreased to 2.2% when EMG information from the natively innervated muscles was added. The error rate decreased further, to 1.8%, when the EMG information from reinnervated muscles was added, and the patient was able to ambulate robustly and transition seamlessly between ambulation modes with the use of this TMR-enhanced, intuitive control system. The classification accuracy of the patient's attempted movements was 96.0% with a virtual system configured to control ankle plantarflexion and dorsiflexion and knee flexion and extension, and the accuracy was 92.0% with a system additionally configured to control tibial rotation and femoral rotation. Classification accuracies for these attempted movements were 91.0±4.7% and 86.8±3.0%, respectively, in non-TMR amputees. 4 This translates into an improvement in absolute accuracy of 5.0 percentage points and 5.2 percentage points, respectively — and, more important, into a 44% and 39% reduction in the error rate; these findings indicate that TMR improves real-time pattern-recognition control. The patient also completed virtual movements much faster than did the non-TMR amputees ( Figure 2E and 2F ) and could reliably reposition both a virtual avatar (i.e., a graphical representation of the joint) and a robotic knee-and-ankle prosthesis in real time ( Video 1 , available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org). Discussion To change the ambulation mode in commercially available motorized prosthetic knees, the user must press buttons on a key fob or perform a set of predefined, exaggerated motions.9,10 Furthermore, these devices must be manually repositioned when users are seated. The leg prosthesis used in this study showed control accuracy with mechanical sensors alone, albeit when controlling a limited number of ambulation modes, but several errors occurred that could put users at risk of falling. User safety is of paramount importance; thus, error rates must be very low, and prevention of even a few errors has clinical significance. With the control strategy that we used, EMG signals from natively innervated muscles were decoded with a pattern-recognition algorithm and combined with data from sensors on the prosthesis to interpret the patient's intended movement. This resulted in a reduction in the error rate from 12.9% to 2.2%. We expected a reduction in the error rate with the use of EMG data from natively innervated muscles, because all ambulation modes required activation of knee muscles; however, we were surprised by the magnitude of the reduction. The error rate was further reduced, to 1.8%, with the use of the TMR-enhanced control system. The errors that did occur affected the patient's stability to varying degrees. Each ambulation mode was set up with the use of an impedance-control paradigm to generate the knee and ankle torques.11 The control system predicted the patient's desired ambulation mode, which in turn instantaneously dictated the impedance settings. The degree of disturbance created by system error corresponded to the level of mismatch between the impedance settings for the actual activities and those for the predicted activities. Because the impedance settings for some ambulation modes were very similar, this resulted in a very forgiving control system: many errors, such as misclassifications between walking and ramp ascent, were not noticeable to the patient. Moderate disturbances that the patient noticed but could tolerate occurred during misclassifications between walking on level ground and descending stairs or a ramp. Errors that caused moderate disturbances were reduced with the use of the TMR-enhanced system, as compared with the use of EMG signals from natively innervated muscles only. Thus, although the additional reduction in the error rate was small, the improvement was clinically relevant. Finally, errors during the transition from any ambulation mode to stair ascent caused large, critical disturbances that were difficult for the patient to recover from safely. This type of error did not occur when EMG data — either from natively innervated muscles only or from the TMR-enhanced muscle set — were added to the control system. The patient perceived that the TMR-enhanced system provided intuitive control during ambulation and non–weight-bearing activities. The reduced error rate enabled him to ambulate confidently and transition seamlessly among all modes with near-normal gait kinematics. The patient provided especially positive feedback when he ambulated freely outside the laboratory and entered adjacent buildings without difficulty, without using handicapped-accessible entrances. In the non–weight-bearing mode, he could reliably control both joints, which is useful for repositioning the prosthesis to increase comfort, dressing, and preparing for transfers into or out of chairs or vehicles. Obtaining robust EMG-control information is difficult, because surface EMG signals are more variable and noisy than mechanical-sensor data. Some EMG channels, such as those from the rectus femoris, were contaminated by substantial motion artifact at heel contact, resulting in large-amplitude noise at the start of each stride. Real-time filtering techniques may be used to alleviate this noise; because it was a consistent part of the EMG patterns across trials, it did not adversely affect system accuracy. The overall patterns of EMG activity for each ambulation mode were distinct, and the low rates of classification errors indicate that the patterns of EMG activity were repeatable. Although this study establishes the feasibility of using EMG signals to improve the control of robotic leg prostheses, several challenges remain in making the control system clinically viable. First, the system relies on the recording of high-quality EMG signals through electrodes, which must remain in full contact with the residual limb during walking, without becoming uncomfortable for the user. This is challenging, because movement of the residual limb with respect to the socket creates movement artifact in EMG signals and can cause chafing or pressure sores at electrode contact points after prolonged use. Second, improvements in the pattern-recognition classification algorithms and the mechanical sensor system are necessary. Finally, the robotic prosthetic leg must be made more reliable, quieter, smaller, and lighter to benefit larger numbers of amputees. ||||| Researchers say that 32-year-old Zac Vawter successfully controlled movements of a motorized artificial leg using only his own thoughts. Video: Rehab Institute of Chicago. In an advance that could eventually improve the mobility of thousands of people living with amputations, researchers said a 32-year-old man successfully controlled movements of a motorized artificial leg using only his own thoughts. Aided by sensors receiving impulses from nerves and muscles that once carried signals to his missing knee and ankle, the patient was able to climb and descend stairs and walk up and down inclines much as he could with a natural leg, based on directions that came from his brain. Importantly, he was able to flex the device's ankle, enabling a near-normal gait, something not possible with current prosthetics. Photos View Slideshow Andrew A. Nelles for The Wall Street Journal Zac Vawter walked down stairs with his bionic leg. "It's night and day" between the experimental bionic leg and the mechanical prosthetic limb he uses every day, said Zac Vawter, a software engineer from Yelm, Wash., who lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident four years ago. "Going upstairs with my normal prosthetic, my sound leg goes up first for every step," he added. "With this I go foot-over-foot up the stairs and down the stairs." Researchers said Mr. Vawter is the first person to have been able to control such a prosthetic by brain signals alone. Current state-of-the-art devices involving both the knee and the ankle require pressing a remote-control button at, say, the bottom of a flight of stairs to rock and kick the leg back to make the step up, said Levi J. Hargrove, a researcher at the Center for Bionic Medicine, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. For Mr. Vawter, Dr. Hargrove said, "it's all intuitive. He can walk up or descend stairs in stride." Dr. Hargrove is lead author of a report on the technology, published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. More than a million Americans are living with amputations, including some 1,600 soldiers who returned from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during the past decade having lost at least one limb. The current project is supported by an $8 million grant from the U.S. Army as part of an effort to address life-limiting injuries in soldiers, said Col. John Scherer, head of clinical and rehabilitative medicine research at the army's Medical Research and Materiel Command in Fort Detrick, Md. A goal of the bionic-leg project is to enable young soldiers to "participate in life" and even return to active duty. Researchers call the device bionic because of its ability to interact intelligently with a human. Despite associations of "bionic" technology with superhuman strength, the prosthetics "don't necessarily need to be strong," Dr. Hargrove said. "They need to be smart." Dr. Hargrove and his colleagues developed the electronics for the device, including a software algorithm that receives signals from electrodes attached to skin on what remains of the amputated leg and converts those signals to knee and ankle movement on the prosthetic. The electrodes get the signals from muscles attached to nerves in the residual leg, including nerves that before the amputation carried brain signals to the ankle. Those nerves were implanted in Mr. Vawter's hamstring muscle shortly after the accident. "When Zac wants to try to move," Dr. Hargrove said, the brain sends signals down the spinal cord to muscle that hasn't been damaged. "We have electrodes that are listening to those signals. The algorithm decodes patterns "to figure out what he was thinking," translating the results into movement such as straightening the knee while sitting or flexing the ankle. In experiments typically involving 700 to 1,000 steps, Dr. Hargrove said, minor errors such as scuffing the foot occurred in about 2% of steps with the signals coming from the brain. Mr. Vawter didn't experience any more-serious errors that could have resulted in a fall, he said. The accomplishment "takes us closer to the point where we're going to have robust commercial products that use signals from a person's brain to let them walk," said Daniel Ferris, a professor in the school of kinesiology and department of biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan, who wasn't involved in the current research. Mr. Vawter said one drawback is that the device isn't fit for running, which he can do with his regular prosthetic. Other needed improvements, Dr. Hargrove said, are making the 10-pound device quieter and smaller. Write to Ron Winslow at [email protected] A version of this article appeared September 26, 2013, on page A3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Brain Power Enough to Control 'Bionic' Leg. ||||| The act of walking may not seem like a feat of agility, balance, strength and brainpower. But lose a leg, as Zac Vawter did after a motorcycle accident in 2009, and you will appreciate the myriad calculations that go into putting one foot in front of the other. Taking on the challenge, a team of software and biomedical engineers, neuroscientists, surgeons and prosthetists has designed a prosthetic limb that can reproduce a full repertoire of ambulatory tricks by communicating seamlessly with Vawter's brain. A report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine describes how the team fit Vawter with a prosthetic leg that has learned — with the help of a computer and some electrodes — to read his intentions from a bundle of nerves that end above his missing knee. For the roughly 1 million Americans who have lost a leg or part of one due to injury or disease, Vawter and his robotic leg offer the hope that future prosthetics might return the feel of a natural gait, kicking a soccer ball or climbing into a car without hoisting an inert artificial limb into the vehicle. Vawter's prosthetic is a marvel of 21st century engineering. But it is Vawter's ability to control the prosthetic with his thoughts that makes the latest case remarkable. If he wants his artificial toes to curl toward him, or his artificial ankle to shift so he can walk down a ramp, all he has to do is imagine such movements. The work was done at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago under an $8-million grant from the Army. The armed forces hope to apply findings from such studies to the care of about 1,200 service personnel who have lost a lower limb in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We want to restore full capabilities" to people who've lost a lower limb, said Levi J. Hargrove, lead author of the new report. "While we're focused and committed to developing this system for our wounded warriors, we're very much thinking of this other, much larger population that could benefit as well." The report describes advances across a wide range of disciplines: in orthopedic and peripheral nerve surgery, neuroscience, and the application of pattern-recognition software to the field of prosthetics. Weighing just over 10 pounds, the leg has two independent engines powering movement in the ankle and knee. And it bristles with sensors, including an accelerometer and gyroscope, each capable of detecting and measuring movement in three dimensions. Most prosthetics in use today require the physical turn of a key to transition from one movement to another. But with the robotic leg, those transitions are effortless, Vawter said. "With this leg, it just flows," said the 32-year-old software engineer, who spends most of his days using a typical prosthetic but travels to Chicago several times a year from his home in Yelm, Wash. "The control system is very intuitive. There isn't anything special I have to do to make it work right." Before Vawter could strap on the bionic lower limb, engineers in Chicago had to "teach" the prosthetic how to read his motor intentions from tiny muscle contractions in his right thigh. At the institute's Center for Bionic Medicine, Vawter spent countless hours with his thigh wired up with electrodes, imagining making certain movements on command with his missing knee, ankle and foot. Using pattern-recognition software, engineers discerned, distilled and digitized those recorded electrical signals to catalog an entire repertoire of movements. The prosthetic could thus be programmed to recognize the subtlest contraction of a muscle in Vawter's thigh as a specific motor command. Given surgical practices still in wide use, the prospects for such a connection between a patient's prosthetic and his or her peripheral nerves are generally dim. In most amputations, the nerves in the thigh are left to languish or die. Dr. Todd Kuiken, a neurosurgeon at the rehabilitation institute, pioneered a practice called "reinervation" of nerves severed by amputation, and Vawter's orthopedic surgeon at the University of Washington Medical Center was trained to conduct the delicate operation. Dr. Douglas Smith rewired the severed nerves to control some of the muscles in Vawter's thigh that would be used less frequently in the absence of his lower leg. Within a few months of the amputation, those nerves had recovered from the shock of the injury and begun to regenerate and carry electrical impulses. When Vawter thought about flexing his right foot in a particular way, the rerouted nerve endings would consistently cause a distinctive contraction in his hamstring. When he pondered how he would position his foot on a stair step and ready it for the weight of his body, the muscle contraction would be elsewhere — but equally consistent. Compared with prosthetics that were not able to "read" the intent of their wearers, the robotic leg programmed to follow Vawter's commands reduced the kinds of errors that cause unnatural movements, discomfort and falls by as much as 44%, according to the New England Journal of Medicine report. Vawter said he had "fallen down a whole bunch of times" while wearing his everyday prosthetic, but not once while moving around on his bionic leg. He said he could move a lot faster too — which would be helpful for keeping up with his 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. But first, Vawter added, he needs to persuade Hargrove's team to let him wear it home. [email protected] ||||| Zac Vawter, a software engineer who lives in the Seattle area, already knew about advances in bionic technology when a motorcycle wreck led to the amputation of his right leg just above the knee in 2009. As doctors at Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle battled for three days to try to save his leg, Vawter asked about the method that uses the mind to move a prosthetic limb. The technology had previously been used only in arms. Four years and an $8 million grant from the U.S. Army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center later, Vawter is considered the “test pilot” of the bionic leg that can tackle slopes, stairs and in-chair movement markedly better than existing devices. A team of researchers led by Levi Hargrove from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago’s Center for Bionic Medicine reported their results with the novel prosthetic in the New England Journal of Medicine. “In my mind, it’s still the same thing in terms of moving my ankle down or up, or extending my leg forward or back,” Vawter said in a telephone interview. “It’s just walk like I would normally walk. It’s not special training or buttons or tricks. That’s a big piece of what I think is groundbreaking and phenomenal about this work.” Additional refinements are needed to make the thought-controlled bionic leg commercially viable, Hargrove said in a telephone interview. Vawter is allowed to use the machine only a week at a time during visits every few months to the clinic in Chicago. Freedom Innovations LLC, a closely held company based in Irvine, California, is working on making the motorized machine smaller, quieter and more robust. Prosthetic Evolution It’s been an evolutionary process. Most prosthetic legs work like a walking stick with springs, giving the patient something on which to balance. The next step up, robotic prosthetics, are further advanced with remote controls and embedded sensors that measure how much weight they must bear, the knee position and the way a person is turning, like mobile phones determine orientation. The thought-controlled device goes further, harnessing nerves that formerly regulated the leg’s movement to maneuver the prosthetic leg. The new leg allows Vawter to seamlessly transition between walking and standing, with the biggest difference showing up when he is climbing stairs. With a standard prosthetic leg, Vawter always steps up first with his healthy left leg, then pulls the right leg along. With the thought-controlled leg, he is able to walk foot-over-foot, he said. Someone watching him climb wouldn’t know he had a prosthesis based on his gait, Hargrove said, though they may hear the motor whirring. ‘Dramatic Improvement’ “It’s still a prosthetic, but it’s in between the leg I wear every day and prior to amputation,” said Vawter, who can’t yet jump to the rim of a basketball net with the robotic leg, as he could before the amputation. “It’s a dramatic improvement over my current prosthetic, but there is still a long way to go.” The rate of errors, including the risk of falls, was shaved to just 1.8 percent with the new device, down from 12.9 percent with the standard robotic leg prosthesis. The new device may be available within three to five years for the 1 million Americans with leg amputations, Hargrove said. The approach may benefit the 1,200 soldiers injured while serving in the U.S. military, many of whom are young and want to continue active lives. It may also help older people who want to remain at home, particularly those who have trouble standing and caring for themselves because of amputations, he said. The researchers started with an advanced motorized knee and ankle prosthesis developed at Vanderbilt University. Their goal was to improve the “steering” of the device, using only the mind. Natural Signaling The first thing was to recreate the natural signaling process used to move, which was disconnected when the leg was severed. The signal in the brain that moves through the spinal cord, down the peripheral nerves and into the muscles remains intact until the spot of the amputation, Hargrove said. The researchers “rewired” Vawter, redirecting two of the critical severed nerves into his hamstring, the muscle at the back of the leg. When he thinks about moving his knee or ankle, those nerves still fire, releasing a tiny burst of electricity. Sensors taped on to the legs capture the signals. That data is added to a pattern-detection computer system that takes information from the robotic leg to predict the patient’s intended movement. While the researchers expected the additional information to make the leg operate more smoothly, the magnitude of the benefit was unexpected, they wrote in the New England Journal. Many errors weren’t even noticeable. The researchers measured nine muscles in the leg and analyzed the activities that were most important for regular function, Hargrove said. When Vawter performs any of those activities, the computer program predicts what he is doing. Reinnervation Expert Vawter became the test pilot of the device through his surgeon, Douglas Smith. A contributor on the paper, Smith is an expert on the use of targeted muscle reinnervation, when the nerves are repurposed to improve the control of a motorized arm prosthesis. He performed Vawter’s amputation, and identified him as a good candidate for helping develop the thought-controlled leg prosthesis. The researchers adjusted the leg and the computer systems based on Vawter’s feedback. It has gone through major revisions of the hardware and many little changes to the software, said Vawter, who works at Engineered Software Inc. in Lacey, Washington. Current prosthetic legs cost a few thousand dollars, with robotic devices as much as $100,000, Hargrove said. There is no price target yet for the thought-controlled bionic leg, he said. “The value it will provide to the people who use it will be enormous,” Hargrove said. “We feel we’ve been able to eliminate the vast majority of safety critical errors. You can never predict how they will use these devices in their own lives, but we are making fantastic progress.” To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at [email protected] |||||

– Zac Vawter imagines movements that his leg mimics just like everyone else. When going up an incline, he visualizes his ankle moving as needed, and it does. But there's something remarkable about that moment: It's actually "a marvel of 21st century engineering," reports the Los Angeles Times. Vawter, 32, is the "test pilot" for a new bionic leg—the first of its kind to communicate with the brain (though the technology has been used with arm prostheses). It uses sensors to harness "reinnervated" nerves; they're essentially nerves that, rather than being allowed to die, are surgically "rewired" to control his right thigh muscles; the bionic leg is then programmed to read the contractions of those muscles. The comparison to his other prosthesis is "night and day," Vawter tells the Wall Street Journal. The error rate (that includes things like the risk of falling) is shaved, from 12.9% with a robotic leg, down to just 1.8%, Bloomberg reports via a New England Journal of Medicine report. Weighing about 10 pounds, the bionic leg is the work of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which saw an $8 million boost from the US Army. The latter hopes the leg can one day benefit some 1,200 Iraq and Afghanistan vets who could use it. But there's much broader appeal: About 1 million Americans are without lower limbs and the device could be available to them in three to five years, Bloomberg reports. "The value it will provide to the people who use it will be enormous," the study's lead author said. "We are making fantastic progress."

Auf wiedersehen, indeed. Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, the stars who turned “Project Runway” into one of the first and biggest cable reality-TV hits of the previous decade, are saying goodbye to that venerable series and making the leap to streaming. The duo has signed a deal to develop a new fashion-oriented reality show for Amazon Studios. Details of the new program are not yet known, and no producers are yet attached. Sources tell Variety that Amazon will open a competitive process for production companies to vie to oversee the new show. Klum and Gunn’s Amazon deal throws into question the future of “Project Runway,” whose season-16 finale aired last year on cable channel Lifetime. Bravo, the show’s original network home, made a surprise announcement in May that the series would return to the NBCUniversal-owned channel for its next season with longtime production company Magical Elves again on board. “After 16 incredible seasons, I am saying ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to ‘Project Runway,’ a show that I was honored to host and help create,” said Klum. “I am incredibly proud of the show, and it will always have a special place in my heart. I am so appreciative of the dedicated fans, and most of all, I am grateful that we could shine a light on creativity and help launch so many talented designers’ careers. I’m most excited that my journey with my dear friend and colleague, Tim Gunn, is far from over. We will be partnering with Amazon for a new show, and we’re excited for everyone to see what we’re designing next!” Related 'Suspiria' Plans Big Expansion After Roaring Start Amazon's Jennifer Salke Teases Blake Lively Scripted Series Gunn added: “I am grateful to ‘Project Runway’ for putting me on a path I never, in my wildest dreams, thought my career would take me! I am so proud to have been a part of the groundbreaking process that showcased talented young designers as never before. Most importantly, I am indebted to our incredible fans, they are the heart and soul of what we do, and continue to inspire us to raise the bar in this arena. I’m excited for them to see what’s next, as I partner with Amazon and Heidi Klum on our next great ‘fashion’ adventure.” The deal with Klum and Gunn is the most recent with high-profile talent for Amazon under Jenifer Salke, the former NBC exec who became head of the tech giant’s entertainment division earlier this year. Amazon has in recent months set deals with Nicole Kidman, Jordan Peele, and Barry Jenkins. “Heidi Klum completely changed the television landscape by developing a competitive reality fashion series that was unproven and different from what was popular on-air,” Salke said. “The show became wildly successful, and in turn Klum and Tim Gunn have become an iconic pop culture duo. Their drive to deliver fashionably entertaining, engaging and trendsetting content speaks for itself, and we believe their next iteration in this space will find an even larger audience on our global Prime Video runway.” Gunn is represented by CAA and attorney Eric Weissler. Klum is represented by CAA, Harvey Markowitz, and attorneys Daniel Passman and Harold Brown. Designer Zac Posen, who has served as as a judge on the six most recent seasons of “Project Runway,” is also leaving the show. “Working alongside Heidi, Nina and Tim as a judge for six seasons of ‘Project Runway’ was one of the greatest experiences of my career. I will cherish the opportunity the show gave me to learn from and grow with my co-judges, the producers, crew and designers. Runway has led to incredible opportunities and I am currently at work on some new projects that I am very excited to share with you soon. I wish the show and everyone much success always.” Bravo and producer Magical Elves are in the process of recasting “Project Runway.” “Bravo is proud to bring ‘Project Runway’ back where it all began, and Heidi and Tim will always be a huge part of the legacy,” a Bravo spokesperson said in a statement. “The series will continue its iconic impact with Bravo’s reboot for the next generation of designers and fans. We are excited to announce our new host and mentor very soon.” ||||| "Project Runway" (Bravo to Lifetime to Bravo): The competitive reality show, hosted by Heidi Klum, spent five seasons on Bravo before a dramatic move to Lifetime in 2009, where the show aired for 10 seasons. However, in drama that is fitting for "Project Runway," the show will return to Bravo. (Photo: Barbara Nitke, Lifetime) Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn are saying "auf wiedersehen" to "Project Runway" after 16 seasons. They're developing a new fashion series for Amazon, which plans to sell clothes featured on the new reality project. Amazon provided few details except to say the series will be available globally, in 200 countries and territories, and promises a "fresh take" that will "continue the stars' commitment to making fashion accessible to a wide audience." "Runway," which has aired on Lifetime since 2009, is returning to its original network, NBC-owned Bravo next year – without two key stars – after its owner, The Weinstein Co., was sold. In a statement, Klum described "Runway" as a show she was "honored to host and help create. I am incredibly proud of the show, and it will always have a special place in my heart. I am so appreciative of the dedicated fans, and most of all, I am grateful that we could shine a light on creativity and help launch so many talented designers' careers," she said. "I’m most excited that my journey with my dear friend and colleague, Tim Gunn, is far from over.” Gunn also said he was "grateful" for the show's influence in his career. "I am so proud to have been a part of the groundbreaking process that showcased talented young designers as never before. Most importantly, I am indebted to our incredible fans, they are the heart and soul of what we do, and continue to inspire us to raise the bar in this arena," he said. "I’m excited for them to see what’s next as I partner with Amazon and Heidi Klum on our next great ‘fashion’ adventure.” More: 'Project Runway' designer and finalist Mychael Knight dies at 39 More: 'Project Runway' is breaking barriers in body inclusivity with new season, thanks to Tim Gunn Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2MX1z2X |||||

– Project Runway may never look the same. Mainstays Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn are leaving the show after 16 seasons to start a new fashion series for Amazon, reports USA Today. The format of the new series is still unclear, but viewers will apparently be able to buy clothes featured on it. Project Runway, meanwhile, is set to move from Lifetime back to its original network, Bravo, next year. Variety notes that Amazon's entertainment division is making some aggressive moves under its new leader, former NBC exec Jennifer Salke. The division recently signed other deals with Nicole Kidman and Jordan Peele, among others.

Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| Photo: Mireya Acierto Ashley Judd has made quite the commitment. Like, as in the years-long kind that will put her in the single-digit percentage of the educated population. We’re talking, of course, about some serious PhD-getting business here. The actress and humanitarian announced in a Facebook Live video on Monday that she will be getting her third degree at UC Berkeley starting this fall. Judd was accepted into a rigorous PhD program for public policy at the Northern California university, where she said she hopes to “do some good thinking, some rigorous research and fill it with my typical heart and soul and see how I can continue to do my little part to make the world a better place.” But she’s also experiencing some normal first day of school jitters. “Sometimes I’m really excited, sometimes I’m like ‘What have I gotten myself into?!’” she added. Judd’s desire to pursue a PhD places her in a minority among those in Hollywood and the population at large. It’s not unheard of for universities to sometimes bestow an honorary degree on a celebrity, but that tends to happen for musicians for their creative works over the years. Seeing a relatively well-known actress decide to dedicate years to a post-doc program is pretty darn rare. Still, Judd’s acceptance into the competitive program at Berkeley, which only accepts a handful of students every year, shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Judd graduated from the University of Kentucky, and in 2009, she enrolled in an itty-bitty school by the grand old name of Harvard. Her master’s there was in public administration with a focus on gender equality, two issues that have been been dear to Judd’s heart for some time. Judd has often used her celebrity status to speak candidly about the tough choices women and girls face around the world when it comes to their sexuality. At the Democratic National Convention this year, Judd spoke openly about her choice to have an abortion after she was raped in a state where, had she carried to term, the rapist could have held parental rights. Judd has also used her fame and platform to speak about the importance of education worldwide. As an UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador for the Empowerment of Adolescent Girls, she focused on traveling to 150 countries to bring attention to women’s right’s violations and lack of educational opportunities, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Her studies at Berkeley will continue in the same vein of women’s rights with a focus on the role gender plays in human trafficking, according to People. Given that Judd was awarded also awarded the Dean’s Scholars Award at Harvard for a paper in a class titled “Gender Violence, Law and Society,” we have a feeling that she’ll fit right in among the academic crowd. |||||

– Ashley Judd might soon be a doctor—and no, she won't be playing one on screen. The actress, 48, says she'll attend the University of California Berkeley this fall as one of a few candidates accepted into a PhD program in public policy, reports New York. Judd—who has a Master's in public administration with a focus on gender equality from Harvard—says she'll focus on "the injustices of gender inequality" in human trafficking, reports People, via a Facebook Live video. The actress, who spoke at the DNC this year about her decision to have an abortion after she was raped, says her goal is "to make the world a better place."

The White House said President Donald Trump is “refreshing” his list. | Win McNamee/Getty Images Trump releases updated short list of potential Supreme Court nominees President Donald Trump released a new list of potential Supreme Court justices on Friday, adding five new judges to his previous compilation of 20 jurists. The White House said Trump, who was “elected to restore the rule of law and to Make the Judiciary Great Again,” is “refreshing” his list. Story Continued Below “President Trump will choose a nominee for a future Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise, from this updated list of 25 individuals,” the White House said in a statement. “The president remains deeply committed to identifying and selecting outstanding jurists in the mold of Justice Gorsuch. These additions, like those on the original list released more than a year ago, were selected with input from respected conservative leaders.” As the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump initially released a list of 11 potential justices in May 2016. He added 10 names during the general election in September, including Neil Gorsuch, the man Trump successfully tapped in January to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the high court. The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. In the September announcement, the campaign said Trump had committed to picking any nominees for future vacancies from that final list. However, shortly before the Senate confirmed Gorsuch in April, administration officials said the president did not feel bound to pick a second Supreme Court justice from his campaign list. The updated roster omits Gorsuch and adds judges Amy Coney Barrett of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Britt Grant of the Georgia Supreme Court; Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Kevin Newsom of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; and Patrick Wyrick of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. White House counsel Don McGahn announced the new additions in remarks to a lawyers convention hosted by the Federalist Society later Friday. McGahn said the jurists all “have a demonstrated commitment to originalism and textualism.” “They all have paper trails. They all are sitting judges,” McGahn said. “There’s nothing unknown about them. What you see is what you get.” The Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo played an outsize role in helping vet Trump’s original list of judges, as well as in selecting Gorsuch for the Supreme Court seat left vacant by Scalia’s death in 2016. “Our opponents of judicial nominees frequently claim the president has outsourced his selection of judges. That is completely false,” McGahn argued. “I’ve been a member of the Federalist Society since law school — still am. So, frankly, it seems like it’s been insourced.” “But seeking advice from Leonard Leo and many members of the Federalist Society is not outsourcing the judicial selection process,” he added. “The fact is we all share the same vision of the judicial role, and we welcome input from many sources.” ||||| CLOSE Footage of the Supreme Court group photo, featuring new addition Neil Gorsuch. The court sits for a new portrait shortly after swearing in a new member. Time President Trump added five new names to his list of potential Supreme Court nominees on Friday. (Photo: Eric Thayer, Getty Images) WASHINGTON – President Trump added five names Friday to his list of potential Supreme Court justices in a move that precedes the possible, but still unannounced, retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. The biggest new name was that of Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Many Supreme Court justices have come from that circuit, and Kavanaugh tops the list of judges most often named as Trump's next pick. Like Justice Neil Gorsuch of Colorado, who was confirmed to the high court in April, Kavanaugh is a conservative who once clerked for the more moderate Kennedy. When Trump selected Gorsuch for the late Justice Antonin Scalia's empty seat, it was viewed as a move that might entice Kennedy, 81, to step down. "The president remains deeply committed to identifying and selecting outstanding jurists in the mold of Justice Gorsuch," the White House said in a statement. "These additions, like those on the original list released more than a year ago, were selected with input from respected conservative leaders." The White House released the list on the second day of the conservative Federalist Society's annual meeting in the nation's capital, a confab that attracts many of the nation's leading conservative legal thinkers. It appeared to come out of the blue; no Supreme Court vacancies are known to be imminent. “There’s no inkling of any vacancy, but the fact of the matter is that you would be foolish to wait for one,” said Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society and a top adviser to the White House on judicial nominations. "You never know when there will be a vacancy.” The move also was a not-so-subtle signal to Trump’s core supporters that the president may still have the ability to deliver on his promise to nominate conservative justices. It comes amid ongoing confirmation battles over his lower court nominees. Trump has won confirmation of eight appellate judges in his first year, more than any president since Richard Nixon, despite nearly unanimous opposition from Democrats. Another possible motive: Democrats have increased their likelihood of picking up a Senate seat in Alabama, where Republican Roy Moore is embroiled in a sexual harassment controversy. Republicans now have 52 votes in the Senate and would need at least 50 to confirm a new justice, with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Pence. The other new names on Trump's list are Amy Coney Barrett, a former Notre Dame law professor just confirmed last month to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit; Kevin Newsom, confirmed in August to a seat on the 11th Circuit court of appeals; Georgia Supreme Court Justice Britt Grant, a former state solicitor general; and Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Patrick Wyrick, also a former state solicitor general. Aside from Kavanaugh, Barrett was the most notable addition to Trump's original list of 20 judges and one U.S. senator, Mike Lee. She drew sharp questions about her Catholic faith from Democrats during her confirmation hearings, prompting Republicans to complain about "Catholic bigotry." Kavanaugh was left off the original list of 21 in part because his jurisdiction is Washington, D.C., and Trump was elected as an outsider. When Trump's first two lists were released last year, totaling 21 names, they tilted heavily toward judges from "red" states, including many state Supreme Court judges with no federal court experience. One name that remained missing from the president's new list of 25 is former U.S. solicitor general Paul Clement, another favorite of legal conservatives who worked in George W. Bush's administration and has been mentioned for years as a logical Supreme Court nominee for a Republican president. Trump's choices won instant acclaim from conservatives. "These men and women have spent years in the trenches of state and federal government fighting for the Constitution and the rule of law," said Carrie Severino, general counsel at the Judicial Crisis Network. "They represent a diverse range of backgrounds, including both state and federal judges, three who were former state solicitors general with first-hand experience protecting our constitutional balance of powers.” Liberals were not impressed. "It’s obvious that any of these nominees, if they replaced Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court, would demolish large portions of his legacy," said Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way. "Trump’s nominees all fit the same pattern: narrow-minded elitists who protect corporations and the wealthy over the rights of all Americans." Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2irFhVX ||||| The White House announced Friday that President Trump has added five judges to his running list of possible Supreme Court nominees, touting Trump's successful nomination of conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch to the bench. The updated list of 25 judges includes Judge Amy Coney Barrett from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, a former clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Barrett, a vocal opponent of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision who has referred to it as an "erroneous decision," was confirmed to her post by the Senate in October. Trump also added Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the appeals court for the District of Columbia, the nation's second most powerful court, who clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh has been rumored before as a possible Republican nominee for the high court. ADVERTISEMENT The list includes two state Supreme Court justices: Britt Grant of Georgia and Patrick Wyrick of Oklahoma. Grant previously clerked for Kavanaugh at the D.C. Appeals Court. Former Alabama Solicitor General Kevin Newsom is another recently confirmed judge on the list. He currently serves as the judge for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director for the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, was quick to praise Trump for the additions, calling the candidates the "best and brightest judges in the nation." “These men and women have spent years in the trenches of state and federal government fighting for the Constitution and the rule of law," she said. "They represent a diverse range of backgrounds, including both state and federal judges, three who were former state solicitors general with first-hand experience protecting our constitutional balance of powers,” she said. The Judicial Crisis Network spent $10 million on an ad campaign to get Trump's first Supreme Court appointee, Gorsuch, confirmed to the bench. Trump's update of the list comes after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) said Friday that she would vote for Senate candidate and former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (R) despite the sexual assault allegations against him, saying that he would help appoint Supreme Court justices. The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment. ||||| Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Keith Blackwell of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia Charles Canady of Florida, Supreme Court of Florida Steven Colloton of Iowa, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Allison Eid of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Britt Grant of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia Raymond Gruender of Missouri, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Joan Larsen of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Mike Lee of Utah, United States Senator Thomas Lee of Utah, Supreme Court of Utah Edward Mansfield of Iowa, Supreme Court of Iowa Federico Moreno of Florida, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Kevin Newsom of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit William Pryor of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Margaret Ryan of Virginia, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces David Stras of Minnesota, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Diane Sykes of Wisconsin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Amul Thapar of Kentucky, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Timothy Tymkovich of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Robert Young of Michigan, Supreme Court of Michigan (Ret.) Don Willett of Texas, Supreme Court of Texas Patrick Wyrick of Oklahoma, Supreme Court of Oklahoma |||||

– President Trump's Supreme Court shortlist just got a little longer. Should another vacancy on the high court arise, Trump on Friday added five new judges to his existing list of 20 possible replacements, Politico reports. "These additions, like those on the original list released more than a year ago, were selected with input from respected conservative leaders," the White House said in a statement that also noted Trump was "elected to restore the rule of law and to Make the Judiciary Great Again." USA Today notes that Trump's move "precedes the possible, but still unannounced, retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy." Trump's initial list, released in May 2016, had 11 names on it; in September 2016 he added 10 more, and he ultimately chose Neil Gorsuch from that list to replace Antonin Scalia once he was elected president. The new judges added to the list are Amy Coney Barrett of the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals, Britt Grant of the Georgia Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Kevin Newsom of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, and Patrick Wyrick of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. A director at the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, which spent $10 million on a pro-Gorsuch ad campaign, calls the new additions the "best and brightest judges in the nation," the Hill reports. The full list is here.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – LeBron James is now trying to help Akron adults get their GEDs by using the same basic principles his charitable foundation designed to help children stay in school and graduate. Under a new partnership announced Thursday with Project Learn of Summit County, which exists to help adults get their GEDs, parents of the children enrolled in the LeBron James Family Foundation's scholastic mentorship program can get financial and emotional support to obtain high school equivalency credentials and learn other life skills. Since 2011, James' foundation has targeted poor, at-risk Akron school children and their families to help keep the students in school and the parents engaged in their children's education. That program, called Wheels for Education (for grades 3-5) and the Akron I PROMISE Network (sixth grade and up), now has more than 1,000 enrolled and free college scholarships to attend the University of Akron waiting for those who graduate from an Akron high school and fulfill some additional requirements beginning in 2021. James seeks to inspire the children by writing to them personally and engaging them on social media. Children and their families are also eligible for prizes, often in the form of gifts (from one of James' corporate sponsors, such as a Samsung tablet) or cash for groceries. The new program for adults is called "I PROMISE, Too" and so far counts nine adults – who will be taught by instructors from Project Learn. Again, only parents or guardians of children in James' mentorship program are eligible. In the new program, enrollees received an inspirational letter from the Cavaliers superstar basketball player, HP laptop computers that they can keep if they finish the classes, and free bus passes and parking to attend class. Participants will also have covered the $6 cost to take the GED practice test and $120 cost for taking the entire, official GED exam. The foundation will also provide prizes for good attendance, work progress, and other achievements. For instance, six adults who attended an informational meeting received music speakers from Beats by Dre. "We are so excited about the I PROMISE, Too program because a huge part of our foundation's work (with children) centers around parent involvement," Michele Campbell, executive director of the LeBron James Family Foundation, said in a news release. "This is an opportunity to help our parents make strides in their own academic careers so they are better equipped to help our students keep their educational promises. "We can't reach our students without their parents' support, so this program is monumental for our families and their futures." Alexia Harris, communications manager for Project Learn, said between 1,300 and 1,400 adults either take classes and/or the GED test through her organization each year. She said 110 GEDs were awarded out of Project Learn last school year, which was down slightly from previous years. "It takes a lot of courage to start classes to earn GED once you've been out of school for years, even decades," Harris said. "Definitely, things can get in the way of completing the process, things like work or family issues. With the LeBron foundation, we're working with these parents to be as accommodating as we can, and the incentives can help. The laptops, for instance, that's a cost to them that they won't have to bear." The James foundation spends at least $1 million per year on education. According to federal filing documents required of all non-profit organizations, the foundation spent $903,000 on its Wheels for Education program in 2013 – the last year for which data was available. At that time, James' program had roughly 600 students – compared with 1,000 now – and of course no adult literacy program. The James foundation will not cover the costs for those college scholarships in 2021 -- as erroneously reported by some other outlets. Instead, the University of Akron will pick up the tab. ||||| LeBron James, basketball star, movie star and philanthropist, announced last month that he would be helping up to 2,300 students get through school, but he's not stopping there — he's going to help their parents, too. James announced last week that he and his foundation, in partnership with Project Learn of Summit County, will help parents of children enrolled in the LeBron James Family Foundation's mentorship program who want to obtain their GEDs. The LeBron Foundation, which mentors poor, at-risk children in James's native Akron, Ohio, last month announced a partnership with the University of Akron to pay college tuition costs for students under its tutelage with the "I PROMISE" initiative. The new program, called "I PROMISE, too," will give the parents of those students "financial and emotional support to obtain high school equivalency credentials and learn other life skills," reports Cleveland.com. Under the program, those enrolled will have costs covered for their GED practice exams as well as for the exam itself, and will receive HP laptops (which they can keep if they finish the classes), free bus passes and parking to attend class, as well as prizes for progress and attendance — in fact, six of the nine adults currently enrolled got Beats by Dre speakers for attending an informational meeting. "It takes a lot of courage to start classes to earn GED once you've been out of school for years, even decades," Alexia Harris, communications manager for Project Learn, told Cleveland.com. "Definitely, things can get in the way of completing the process, things like work or family issues. With the LeBron foundation, we're working with these parents to be as accommodating as we can, and the incentives can help. The laptops, for instance, that's a cost to them that they won't have to bear." "We are so excited about the I PROMISE, Too program because a huge part of our foundation's work (with children) centers around parent involvement," Michele Campbell, executive director of the LeBron James Family Foundation, added in a press release to The Huffington Post. "This is an opportunity to help our parents make strides in their own academic careers so they are better equipped to help our students keep their educational promises." "We can't reach our students without their parents' support, so this program is monumental for our families and their futures." |||||

– Through his foundation, LeBron James spends at least $1 million every year to educate the poor and at-risk children of his native Akron, Ohio, Cleveland.com reports. Now, he's doing something for their parents, too. Last week, the LeBron James Family Foundation announced a partnership with Project Learn of Summit County to help the parents of kids in the foundation's mentorship program get their GEDs, according to Mashable. James' foundation will pay for the GED exam and practice tests, as well as provide free bus passes, parking, and laptops the parents can keep if they finish classes. And participants will get prizes for progress and attendance. For example, six enrollees who attended an informational meeting received Beats by Dre speakers. "This is an opportunity to help our parents make strides in their own academic careers so they are better equipped to help our students keep their educational promises," the foundation's executive director says in a press release. Cleveland.com reports more than 1,000 children are enrolled in the foundation's mentorship program, and nine parents are already participating in the new GED program. It's been an education-focused summer for James, to say the least. Last month, the basketball superstar announced a partnership with the University of Akron to cover tuition for 2,300 students beginning in 2021.

Laura Dern I've Had It Divorce Back On Laura Dern -– I've Had It, Ben Harper Divorce Back On EXCLUSIVE has thrown in the towel in her marriage to– she has filed legal papers reactivating the dormant divorce ... TMZ has learned.Dern filed her formal legal response to Harper’s divorce petition Friday in LA County Superior Court. In the docs, filed by Disso Queen, Dern is asking for primary physical custody of the couple’s two kids and joint legal custody. She is also seeking spousal support, child support, and attorneys fees.As TMZ first reported,with divorce papers back in 2010 after 5 years of marriage and two children. But the divorce was never finalized and earlier this year they tried reconciling.Sources tell us that the reconciliation was “very rocky” and Dern now wants out.FYI – Dern is already the primary caregiver for the couple’s two kids. But we're told she also plays a significant role in raising Harper's two other children from a prior marriage. ||||| Ben Harper & Laura Dern Check Yo'self Before You RECONCILE Yo'self [Update] Ben Harper and Laura Dern -- Check Yo'self Before You Reconcile Yo'self [UPDATE] Estranged husband and wifeandmay not be so estranged after all ... the former couple kicked it together in Bev Hills yesterday ... more proof they're trying to get back together.TMZ broke the story ... Harper blindsided Dern with divorce papers back in 2010 ... after 5 years of marriage and two children.But last month, the two were spotted arm-in-arm at a Golden Globes after party ... and yesterday they looked pretty coupley strolling around Beverly Hills.2nd time's the charm?-- Sources connected to the couple tell us ... THEY'RE OFFICIALLY BACK TOGETHER!!!As far as the divorce goes, we're told the papers have not been formally withdrawn ... but it seems it's only a matter of time. |||||

– The first time around, Ben Harper was the one to file for divorce from Laura Dern—but nearly two years later, it's Dern filing to reactivate the divorce. The divorce was never finalized, TMZ explains, and the couple attempted to reconcile earlier this year (click to see a photo of them together in February). Apparently, that didn't work out, based on Dern's Friday filing in LA. She wants primary physical custody of their two children, joint legal custody, spousal support, child support, and attorney fees. Click for more on the split.

Remember that diamond commercial with the young couple in the park looking longingly at the elderly couple walking past them holding hands? Someone’s gone and turned it into a feature film — splicing in a good chunk of “Under the Tuscan Sun’’ for insurance — and what was touching at 30 seconds is a groaner at 105 minutes. That’s not entirely fair. You don’t have to be 13 and a tapioca-brained romantic to enjoy “Letters to Juliet.’’ But it would help. The movie’s the second heart-tugger in three months to feature Amanda Seyfried (“Dear John’’), the latest ingenue to be anointed an up-and-coming star. Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with “Juliet’’ that a better, deeper actress wouldn’t fix. (And a script. A script would be nice.) With her platinum waterfall of hair and big tweety-bird eyes, Seyfried offers a vision of youthful loveliness that ceases the moment she opens her mouth to deliver lines in the broad, affectless tones of a weather girl. She plays Sophie, a fact-checker at a spurious Hollywood version of The New Yorker (Oliver Platt’s her harrumph-y boss) who heads to Verona on a pre-honeymoon with her fiancé and gets sidetracked on a story. Drawn to the lonelyhearts notes pinned to the courtyard wall at the Casa di Giulietta — supposedly the home of the real Juliet Capulet of “Romeo and Juliet’’ — Sophie discovers a 50-year-old letter hidden behind a brick and decides to answer it. The letter was written by a young Englishwoman named Claire, heartbroken over leaving her Italian one true love. On receiving Sophie’s reply, Claire descends upon Verona in the person of Vanessa Redgrave, who exudes so much grace, talent, and class that Seyfried is immediately reduced to an acting-school Munchkin. Really, the movie itself never quite recovers. Claire has brought along her skeptical grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan), and the threesome scour Tuscany by car for the lost love, one Lorenzo Bartolini. It turns out there are many, many Lorenzo Bartolinis in the area, and the best joke in the movie is that they’re all willing to pick up with Claire where they never left off. Sophie and Charlie hate each other, of course, which means that they love each other, of course. “Letters to Juliet’’ clanks along the tracks of romantic-comedy confusion with grim predictability: The moon is always full and the Italian locations are gorgeous, or would be if they weren’t overlit like a trattoria poster. But maybe it’s wrong to expect Continental nuance from a film that ends with a Taylor Swift song. The larger problem is that the central duo is just plain dull. Egan’s Charlie is a wooden Englishman and Sophie is a gauche, underwritten character that only an Anne Hathaway might (I say might) be able to flesh out. When Claire asks her grandson, “How many Sophies do you think there are on the planet?’’ it’s difficult not to think, About 6 million on the East Coast alone. That’s probably why the movie will be a hit. Adding to the general air of absurdity, the fiancé — an excitable, self-absorbed chef named Victor — is played by the Mexican actor-hunk Gael Garcia Bernal, and we’re asked to believe that any sane woman would throw this guy over for the stiff-backed Egan. Victor loves wine, cheese, truffles, life, and for that the movie punishes him. It punishes us with dialogue to make a Nicholas Sparks fan wince (“When we’re speaking of love, it’s never too late . . . ’’) and Gary Winick’s mechanical, uninspired direction. Late in the going we’re treated to a reunion of Redgrave with Franco Nero, the Lancelot to her Guenevere in 1967’s “Camelot,’’ and the ease with which these two portray mature passion is deeply touching. If only the movie were interested. “Letters to Juliet’’ makes the case that even boring young nincompoops deserve love. For the rest of us there’s always Tuscany. Ty Burr can be reached at [email protected]. © Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company. ||||| "Letters to Juliet" is a by-the-numbers romantic comedy -- and I mean that in a good way. Sure, the story merely puts attractive, likable people in a pretty setting and lets love take its course. But lordy, that is a breathtakingly refreshing change from the spate of recent rom-coms hell-bent on delivering flinty females and douchebag dudes in situations that require lots of yelling. In contrast, "Letters" gives us the radiant Amanda Seyfried as Sophie, an aspiring writer who does not need to be taken down a peg. On vacation in Verona with her restaurateur fiancé Victor (Gael García Bernal), Sophie discovers a 50-year-old letter to Shakespeare's tragic heroine nestled in the city's famous romantic wailing wall -- and impulsively replies. What follows are two sweetly engaging romances -- the quest of British pensioner Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) to reunite with her long-lost soul mate, and her uptight grandson and chaperone Charlie's (Christopher Egan) blossoming affection for would-be cupid Sophie. "Bride Wars" director Gary Winick isn't exactly reinventing the form here -- "Letters" will hardly go down as the funniest or sharpest caper of the year. And I confess I had a hell of a time getting past the conceit that the sexy, exuberant, feeds-his-girlfriend-delicious-cheese Gael García Bernal is somehow supposed to not be the leading man here. (Note to Hollywood: If you made a movie just about Gael García Bernal and cheese, it'd do better than "Avatar.") Are we really supposed to believe Sophie would lose her heart to the relentlessly bland Egan, a performer my screening room companion noted "doesn't look like he has pubes"? |||||

– Critics aren't exactly head-over-heels for Letters to Juliet, a predictable romantic comedy about a young woman helping an older one reconnect with a lost love, but it has its charms. Here's what they're saying: “Letters will hardly go down as the funniest or sharpest caper of the year,” writes Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon, but it's a “breathtakingly refreshing change” from the “flinty females and douche-bag dudes” that populate most recent rom-coms. “Letters to Juliet makes the case that even boring young nincompoops deserve love,” writes Ty Burr of the Boston Globe. Maybe, maybe , a better actress could have made it work, but Amanda Seyfried “delivers lines in the broad, affectless tones of a weather girl.” This movie is “an insult to common sense and the hacks over at Team Harlequin,” writes Kyle Smith of the New York Post . “Not to be left unsaid are lines like, 'Destiny wanted us to meet again,' 'An angel brought you to me,' and 'When we are speaking of love, is never too late.'” But that's fine, writs Kerry Lengel of the Arizona Republic. It's not date-night material, but “Letters to Juliet is a guilty pleasure for the ladies, perfect Blu-ray fodder when their significant others turn them into World of Warcraft widows for the evening."

"Happiest Night of my life last night!" 's beau put a ring on it! The 30-year-old made the big announcement on Twitter Saturday. “I’M ENGAGED!!!!! I wanted y’all to know!! Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever:)” That greatest man ever is Brandon Blackstock, who has been dating the American Idol winner since February 2012. While the couple have been dating for less than a year, Clarkson and Blackstock have known each other for a long time. The 35-year-old is the son of the “Catch My Breath” singer’s longtime manager Narvel Blackstock and the stepson of Reba McEntire. kelly clarkson lists texas ranch for $1.5m The engagement comes just one month after Clarkson told Life & Style that there was “no rush” to get hitched to her talent manager boyfriend. “We will totally get married in the future.” The two currently live together in Nashville. What do you think of Kelly Clarkson’s big announcement? Share your well wishes below! Celebuzz Single Player No Autoplay (CORE) No changes are to be made to this player ||||| Now that’s a diamond ring. Hours after announcing her engagement on Twitter Saturday night, Kelly Clarkson shared a personal snapshot of her giant sparkler (after the jump). “Everyone has been asking about my engagement ring, so here it is :)” she wrote on her WhoSay account. “It’s a yellow canary diamond with diamonds around it and Brandon designed it with Jonathan Arndt! They did an amazing job! I can’t wait to make Brandon’s ring with Jonathon as well!” Clarkson’s talent manager beau Brandon Blackstock got down on one knee on Friday night, after dating the American Idol winner for some 10 months. Kelly Clarkson on WhoSay On Saturday, Clarkson, 30, made sure her fans were one of the first to know about her big news. “I’M ENGAGED!!!!! I wanted y’all to know!! Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever:)” she wrote on Twitter. The “Stronger” singer and Blackstock have known each other for quite some time. The 35-year-old is the son of Clarkson’s longtime managerand the stepson of country legend On Sunday, Clarkson will join a slew of the music industry’s hottest female performers for the annual VH1 Divas show in Los Angeles. Kelly Rowland, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato are all set to make appearances, along with Pitbull, Metric andhost Adam Lambert. What do you think of Kelly Clarkson’s engagement ring? Weigh in below. Celebuzz Single Player No Autoplay (CORE) No changes are to be made to this player ||||| Kat Tattoos Gaga Kat Von D puts some new ink on Mother Monster. MORE >> isn’t the only celebrity who got engaged this weekend. Kat Von D is also a bride-to-be, after accepting an online proposal from her Canadian beau DJ Deadmau5. “I can’t wait for Christmas so…. Katherine Von Drachenberg, will you marry me?” Deadmau5, whose real name is Joel Zimmerman, wrote on Twitter Saturday. Zimmerman also included a photo of the engagement ring, which had a caption explaining what the final project will look like: “Changing the diamond to a black diamond FYI . . . .theyll finish the actual ring soon i hope.” After a tweet of exclamation marks, Von D, 30, thanked her fans for their “lovely congratulations.” “Please excuse me while I go squeeze the hell out of my fiancé!” The tattoo artist’s engagement to her 31-year-old boyfriend comes some five weeks after the couple announced their split , also on Twitter. The pair, who cited that things “happened too fast,” got back together shortly after. Von D was previously engaged to Sandra Bullock’s ex Jesse James. What do you think of Kat Von D and DJ Deadmau5’s online engagement? Weigh in below. Celebuzz Single Player No Autoplay (CORE) No changes are to be made to this player ||||| Add a location to your Tweets When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more |||||

– How romantic: Kat Von D and Deadmau5 are engaged, after the Canadian DJ proposed to his tattoo artist and reality star girlfriend ... over Twitter. "I can't wait for Christmas so.... Katherine Von Drachenberg, will you marry me?" tweeted Deadmau5, real name Joel Zimmerman, on Saturday. He also posted a picture of the engagement ring, which will be a black diamond buffeted by two skulls. Von D responded by tweeting simply, "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" followed by a declaration that she needed to "go squeeze the hell out of my fiancé!" Celebuzz reports that the two also tweeted that they were splitting up ... just five weeks ago. (Priceless line, from Von D: "But at least he made it a no-brainer to break that off.") Perhaps Jesse James' engagement spurred Kat's change of heart? Von D wasn't the only celeb with something to celebrate this weekend: Kelly Clarkson and Brandon Blackstock got engaged, too, Celebuzz reports. Blackstock, son of Clarkson's longtime manager and stepson of Reba McEntire, has been dating the former American Idol since February. "I'M ENGAGED!!!!! I wanted y'all to know!! Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever :)," she tweeted. Click to see a picture of her ring, which is yellow.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video A female pilot who was pulled unconscious from her burning aircraft after the small plane crashed near Hawthorne airport Monday afternoon later died, according to police. The crash was reported shortly after noon in the 3600 block of 120th Street, just south of the 105 Freeway, according to Capt. Keith Mora of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. A crew working on a private well project nearby saw the plane coming toward where their truck was parked. "My partner just started yelling, 'There's a plane coming, a plane coming,'" said witness Byron Mayes. "It looked like the plane just veered up, lost control and hit a couple feet away from the truck, a couple feet away from us." Three workers rushed to the wreckage, finding the pilot unconscious, with her legs burning. Fire spread to their work truck and up hoses they were using, Mayes said. "Our first thought was getting her out, making sure she was OK," he said. Responding firefighters were able to halt the flames, and paramedics performed "life-saving measures" and took the pilot to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The unidentified pilot did not survive the crash, the Hawthorne Police Department posted on its Facebook page. The small aircraft -- a light-sport, weight-shift-control plane -- was departing Hawthorne Municipal Airport when it crashed, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said. The Airborne XT-912 had only the one person on board, the FAA spokesman said. Aerial video showed the wreckage was significant and the plane was in pieces. Meanwhile, a police vehicle crashed near 119th Street and Prairie Avenue, a few blocks west of the plane crash. The black-and-white police SUV appeared to have collided with another SUV. The officer was responding to the report of the plane down when he was involved in a crash, a Hawthorne Police Department official said. KTLA's Jennifer Thang contributed to this article. Please enable Javascript to watch this video ||||| Erin Storm, a pilot who competed on Season 12 of ABC's "The Bachelor," has reportedly died in a plane crash. Several outlets reported Monday that a female pilot was killed in a fiery crash when her Airborne XT-912 ultralight plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Hawthorne Municipal Airport around noon. Us Weekly and TMZ identified the pilot as the 41-year-old "Bachelor" contestant on Tuesday. KTLA-TV Channel 5 The crash occurred about noon Monday after an Airborne XT-912 departed Hawthorne Municipal Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The crash occurred about noon Monday after an Airborne XT-912 departed Hawthorne Municipal Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. (KTLA-TV Channel 5) (KTLA-TV Channel 5) Police and fire officials told The Los Angeles Times and the Daily Breeze that the motorized hang glider was fully engulfed in flames when officers arrived and that the woman aboard it was in "traumatic full arrest" when she was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. However, they did not identify the pilot. See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >> ---------- For the record, 6:40 a.m., March 23: An earlier version of the photo caption atop this post quoted officials as saying the pilot of the plane was injured in the crash. She died of her injuries. ---------- "As soon as the plane hit the curb, it blew up and it just kept getting bigger and bigger, but the engine was still running and eventually the engine blew and the fire got even bigger," Best Drilling and Pump Inc. employee Byron Mayes, who was working in a nearby area, told KNBC-TV Channel 4 and KTLA-TV Channel 5. "All of a sudden, my partner started yelling, 'Watch out, there's a plane coming!' and it looked like the plane veered up, lost control and hit a couple feet away from the truck, a couple feet away from us." Mayes said he and his fellow employees found the pilot unconscious with her legs on fire and pulled her out of the plane. Eyewitnesses told NBC that the pilot had been flying a Pacific Blue Air plane and was wearing the training facility's blue jumpsuit when she crashed. See more of Entertainment's top stories on Facebook >> Storm was among the slew of women who vied for British bachelor Matt Grant's affections on the ABC dating show in 2008. She was eliminated in the third week, and Grant ultimately gave his final rose to Shayne Lamas. Storm's occupation was listed as "hot dog vendor" at the time, according to Us Weekly. Grant told Entertainment Tonight that he was "massively shocked" and devastated for Storm's family and friends. "We were lucky to have Erin on Season 12. She was genuine, self-assured, beautiful and hilarious," he added. "Somehow you knew from the first minute of being with her that Erin could pretty much go and do anything." The 2008 bachelor also said that Storm was "a smart, entrepreneurial cookie." Reps for the ABC dating series also released a statement regarding her death. "Once a member of the 'Bachelor' family, always a member of the 'Bachelor' family. It is a tragedy that Erin is no longer with us, and we would like to extend our sincere condolences to her family and friends." Twitter: @NardineSaad ALSO Phife Dawg, hip-hop innovator with A Tribe Called Quest, dies at 45 Caila Quinn is apartment-hunting in New York, fueled by 'Bachelorette' buzz Celebrities react to Brussels terror attacks Kim, Kourtney and Khloe hit with Kardashian Beauty breach of contract lawsuit Kesha's contract with Sony, Dr. Luke likened to slavery, appeal argues ||||| Erin Storm, a contestant on season 12 of The Bachelor and a pilot, died in a plane crash in Los Angeles on Monday, March 21, multiple outlets are reporting. Storm competed on Matt Grant’s season of the hit ABC reality dating show in 2008. ABC According to the reports, Storm was flying an Airborne XT-912 light-sport, weight-shift control plane and crashed soon after taking off from the Hawthorne Municipal Airport. Byron Mayes, a Best Drilling and Pump, Inc. employee who was working on a tank near the airport, told NBC that he witnessed the crash. "All of a sudden, my partner started yelling, 'Watch out, there's a plane coming!' and it looked like the plane veered up, lost control and hit a couple feet away from the truck, a couple feet away from us," Mayes said. Mayes told NBC that he and his coworkers ran over to the burning plane and pulled Storm out of the aircraft. According to NBC, Storm’s legs were on fire, and she was in cardiac arrest when rescue crews arrived; after she was transported to a trauma center, she was pronounced dead. Storm worked as a pilot for Pacific Blue Air, an aircraft training facility based at Hawthorne Airport. According to witnesses, Storm was dressed in a blue Pacific Blue Air jumpsuit for her final flight. The Venice, California, resident was eliminated during week 3 of British Bachelor Grant’s season, in which reality star Shayne Lamas coveted the final rose. At the time, Storm’s occupation was listed as a “hot dog vendor.” Our thoughts go out to her friends and family. Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics, and more delivered straight to your inbox! |||||

– Erin Storm, a former contestant on The Bachelor, was killed Monday when the small plane she was piloting crashed soon after takeoff in Los Angeles, US Magazine reports. Storm, a pilot working for an aircraft training facility at the Hawthorne Municipal Airport, appeared on the popular reality show's 12th season in 2008. She was piloting an Airborne XT-912 ultralight plane—the Los Angeles TImes describes it as a "motorized hang glider"—when she crashed. Three people working near the crash site pulled Storm—her legs on fire—from the wreckage, according to KTLA. Emergency responders transported her to the hospital, where she died from her injuries. When Storm appeared on The Bachelor, she listed her occupation as "hot dog vendor."

U.N. inspectors said Monday there is "clear and convincing evidence" that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in an attack last month in Syria that killed hundreds of people. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, left, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, second right, pose for the media prior to a meeting on Syria at the... (Associated Press) This photo released by the United Nations shows professor Ake Sellstrom, head of the chemical weapons team working in Syria, handing over the report on the Al-Ghouta massacre to Secretary-General Ban... (Associated Press) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, left, listen to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius speak at a news conference after a meeting on Syria, at the... (Associated Press) French President Francois Hollande, left, welcomes U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for a meeting on Syria at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) (Associated Press) From left, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, French President Francois Hollande and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, pose in the lobby of the Elysee... (Associated Press) This photo released by the United Nations shows professor Ake Sellstrom, head of the chemical weapons team working in Syria, handing over the report on the Al-Ghouta massacre to Secretary-General Ban... (Associated Press) From left, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French President Francois Hollande, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius pose upon their arrival at the Elysse... (Associated Press) French President Francois Hollande, left, gestures as he talks to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, upon his arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) (Associated Press) The inspectors said "the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used ... in the Ghouta area of Damascus" on Aug. 21. The report mentioned the areas of Ein Tarma, Moadamiyeh and Zamalka. "The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic ... against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale," the inspectors said on the first page of their report to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Ban was scheduled to present the report to the U.N. Security Council later Monday morning. The Associated Press saw the first page of the report. The Aug. 21 chemical attack unfolded as a U.N. chemical weapons team was in Syria to investigate earlier reported attacks. After days of delays, the inspectors were allowed access to victims, doctors and others in the Damascus suburbs. The inspectors were mandated to report on whether chemical weapons were used and if so which ones _ not on who was responsible. The rebels and their Western and Arab supporters blame President Bashar Assad's regime for the attack in the rebel-controlled area of Ghouta. The Assad regime insists that the attack was carried out by rebels. Chief weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom handed over the report to the secretary-general on Sunday amid a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at getting Syria to put its just-acknowledged stockpile of chemical weapons and chemical precursors under international control for destruction. In Geneva, the chairman of a U.N. war crimes panel on Monday said it is investigating 14 suspected chemical attacks in Syria, dramatically escalating the stakes after diplomatic breakthroughs that saw the Syrian government agree to dismantle its chemical weapons program. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said the Geneva-based U.N. panel he heads has not pinpointed the chemical used in the attacks and is awaiting evidence from a separate team of U.N. chemical weapons inspectors expected to be made public later Monday. That report is expected to add momentum to a deal to eradicate Syria's chemical weapons program. Pinheiro also said the panel believes Assad's government has been responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, while rebel groups have perpetrated war crimes but not crimes against humanity "because there is not a clear chain of command." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ended a weeklong diplomacy tour in Paris on Monday. Just a week ago, he was there lobbying for global support for military strikes against Assad, but after a breakthrough with Russia, Kerry's latest visit was intended to secure support from allies for the deal to secure and then eradicate Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. Kerry and his French and British counterparts laid out a two-pronged approach in Syria, calling for enforceable U.N. benchmarks for eradicating the chemical weapons program and an international conference bolstering the moderate opposition. France and the U.S. insisted that a military response to the Aug. 21 poison gas attack that killed hundreds remained on the table, and were pressing for a U.N. resolution reflecting that in coming days. "If Assad fails to comply ... we are all agreed, and that includes Russia, that there will be consequences," Secretary of State John Kerry said. But Russia's foreign minister said ongoing attempts to threaten the use of force against Syria would provoke the opposition and disrupt a chance for negotiations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in a news conference with his Egyptian counterpart Nabil Fahmy, responded to comments by French President Francois Hollande that the "military option" against Syria was not off the table. Meanwhile, invitations were going out Monday to top members of the Syrian National Coalition _ the main umbrella opposition group _ for an international conference in New York timed to coincide with next week's U.N. General Assembly meeting, French officials said. Bolstering the Western-backed SNC is just as crucial to Syria's future as Assad's agreement to give up chemical arms, said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. "He must understand that there is no military victory, no possible military victory for him," Fabius said. He acknowledged that broad popular support for the rebels has been hampered by fears that Islamic militants are now playing a major role in the 2 1/2-year-old uprising. In briefing the allies, Kerry was pressing for support for the ambitious agreement that averted threatened U.S. military strikes. It calls for an inventory of Syria's chemical weapons program within one week, with all components of the program out of the country or destroyed by mid-2014. Those who blame Assad for the chemical attack and supported military strikes say it is up to Assad to uphold his end of any deal. "It is extremely important that there are no evasions, that there is no cat and mouse game going on over these weapons," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. Kerry acknowledged the chemical arms deal would have little immediate effect on the bloodshed in Syria, which has killed more than 100,000 people, but he said full compliance was a key first step. In Geneva, Pinheiro said the "vast majority" of casualties in Syria's civil war came from conventional weapons like guns and mortars. ___ Associated Press writers John Heilprin in Geneva and Matthew Lee in Paris contributed to this report. ||||| Story highlights Syria findings "beyond doubt and beyond the pale," Ban says U.S. to provide chemical protective gear to opposition, inspectors Sarin report demands "a unified and decisive response," Syrian opposition says Syria says helicopter was shot down after straying into Turkish airspace U.N. weapons inspectors returned "overwhelming and indisputable" evidence of the use of nerve gas in Syria, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday, calling the findings "beyond doubt and beyond the pale." The inspectors' 38-page report was released after Ban briefed Security Council members on its contents. The team found what it called "clear and convincing evidence" that the nerve agent sarin was delivered by surface-to-surface rockets "on a relatively large scale" in the suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on August 21. "It is the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja in 1988, and the worst use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century," Ban said. "The international community has a responsibility to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare," he said. Ban called the attack "a war crime" and a violation of treaties banning the use of chemical weapons that date back to 1925. But the inspectors' mandate did not include assigning blame for the attack, and Ban would not speculate on who launched the attack. The team did identify two types or rockets it said were used to deliver the gas and their trajectories, and international observers have said those weapons are not known to be in the hands of rebels battling the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. JUST WATCHED EXCLUSIVE - Inside the Syria weapons lab Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH EXCLUSIVE - Inside the Syria weapons lab 01:35 JUST WATCHED Inside the Syria weapons deal Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Inside the Syria weapons deal 05:38 JUST WATCHED Inside the Syria weapons deal, part 2 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Inside the Syria weapons deal, part 2 06:06 JUST WATCHED Inside the Syria weapons deal, part 3 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Inside the Syria weapons deal, part 3 03:30 Australian U.N. Ambassador Gary Quinlan, who is currently serving as president of the Security Council, said the report bolsters his country's stance. It "confirms, in our view, that there is no remaining doubt that it was the regime that used chemical weapons." And Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador, said a preliminary review of the report points toward forces loyal to al-Assad. "The regime possesses sarin, and we have no evidence that the opposition possesses sarin," Power said. "It defies logic" to think members of the opposition would have infiltrated a regime-controlled area to fire on opposition-controlled areas. Britain, France, and NATO have also said al-Assad's regime was behind the attack. But Russia is Syria's leading ally, and Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin maintained Moscow's stance that Syrian rebels might be to blame. Such suggestions "cannot be simply shrugged off," Churkin said, and statements insisting that the opposition could not have launched the attack "are not as scientific and grounded in reality as the actual situation could be." He questioned why rebel forces didn't report major losses in the August 21 chemical attack, which the United States says may have killed more than 1,400, including hundreds of civilians. Samples examined The August 21 attack led to U.S. calls for military action against Syria, which denies its forces unleashed chemical weapons and blamed rebel fighters for the deaths. Syria has since agreed to join the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention and hand over its chemical arsenal to international inspectors, with the United States and Russia laying out a fast-paced framework for Damascus to follow. Monday's report presents a stark picture of the damage that can be inflicted by a nerve agent like sarin, one of three types of poison gas Syria is believed to have stockpiled "Survivors reported that following an attack with shelling, they quickly experienced a range of symptoms, including shortness of breath, disorientation, eye irritation, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting and general weakness," Ban said. "Many eventually lost consciousness. First responders described seeing a large number of individuals lying on the ground, many of them dead or unconscious." The weather made things worse. Falling temperatures at the time of the attack meant the downward movement of air, allowing the gas "to easily penetrate the basements and lower levels of buildings and other structures where many people were seeking shelter," Ban said. Inspectors interviewed survivors and first responders, collected hair, urine and blood samples and took soil and environmental samples from the sites where the rockets fell. The secretary-general said the team "adhered to the most stringent protocols available for such an investigation, including to ensure the chain of custody for all samples." More than 100,000 people had already been killed in Syria before August 21, according to the United Nations. Another 2 million have fled the country, most of them taking refuge in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq. JUST WATCHED Concern over jihadists in Syria Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Concern over jihadists in Syria 03:07 JUST WATCHED Syria: Shadow of Iraq Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Syria: Shadow of Iraq 03:40 JUST WATCHED Is Syrian government moving weapons? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Is Syrian government moving weapons? 03:04 JUST WATCHED Al-Assad applauds Russian diplomacy Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Al-Assad applauds Russian diplomacy 03:47 It was not immediately clear how the report would affect events on the ground. The opposition Syrian National Coalition said the findings "demand a unified and decisive response by the international community." "If the world does not act now, this war will continue, and thousands more will die," Najib Ghadbian, the coalition's representative to the United Nations, said in a written statement. "The people of Syria look to the U.N. Security Council to do everything in its power to stop this conflict and hold the Syrian regime responsible for its criminal actions." In Washington, the White House announced that President Barack Obama would waive restrictions on exporting chemical protective gear to provide that equipment to the opposition and train "select, vetted members" in its use. American equipment will also be provided to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons , the international body that monitors compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. It will be OPCW inspectors who are likely to carry out Syria's promised disarmament. Also Monday, Turkish fighter jets downed a Syrian helicopter near the border between the two countries Monday, Turkey's semiofficial Anatolia News Agency reported, citing Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc. Syria's state news agency SANA said the helicopter was watching for "terrorists" crossing the border and erroneously strayed into Turkish airspace, but was on its way back across the border when shot down. Russia slams U.S. remarks on agreement Even as the world awaited the U.N. inspectors' report Monday, Russia openly bickered with the United States about the agreement they struck in Geneva over the weekend. The framework they laid out calls for a U.N. resolution demanding that Syria's chemical weapons be placed under international control. Security Council powers are now trying to put that framework into a resolution. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday accused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry "and his Western allies" of misunderstanding the deal, according to Russia's state-run Itar-Tass news agency. Lavrov said the deal does not say the U.N. resolution will be under Chapter VII of the U.N. charter, which potentially authorizes the use of force -- and comments by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that the any resolution will need to include the possibility of force "show unwillingness to read the document" that Russia and the United States endorsed. The agreement states that if there is noncompliance "or any use of chemical weapons by anyone in Syria, the U.N. Security Council should impose measures under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter." But it does not specifically state that the resolution being sought now will be under that chapter. Russia holds veto power on the council. But Kerry told reporters Monday that "Should diplomacy fail, the military option is still on the table." "If the Assad regime believes that this is not enforceable, then they will play games," he said. According to the plan, Syria must submit a full list of its chemical weapons stockpile within a week. International inspectors must be on the ground in the country by November, and all production equipment must be destroyed by the end of November. ||||| The head of a U.N. commission investigating war crimes in Syria says it investigating who was responsible for 14 suspected chemical weapon attacks. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, left, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, second right, pose for the media prior to a meeting on Syria at the... (Associated Press) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, left, listen to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius speak at a news conference after a meeting on Syria, at the... (Associated Press) French President Francois Hollande, left, welcomes U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for a meeting on Syria at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) (Associated Press) From left, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, French President Francois Hollande and British Foreign Secretary William Hague, pose in the lobby of the Elysee... (Associated Press) From left, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French President Francois Hollande, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius pose upon their arrival at the Elysse... (Associated Press) French President Francois Hollande, left, gestures as he talks to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, upon his arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) (Associated Press) Commission chairman Paulo Sergio Pinheiro says the Geneva-based U.N. probe has not yet determined the exact materials used but is awaiting evidence from a separate team of U.N. chemical weapons inspectors expected to be made public later Monday. He emphasizes the "vast majority" of casualties in Syria's civil wars is from conventional weapons like guns and mortars. Pinheiro told reporters Monday the commission believes that President Bashar Assad's government has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, while it believes that rebel groups have perpetrated war crimes but not crimes against humanity "because there is not a clear chain of command." THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. The U.S. and its closest allies laid out a two-pronged approach in Syria on Monday, calling for enforceable U.N. benchmarks for eradicating the country's chemical weapons program and an international conference bolstering the moderate opposition. The top diplomats from the United States, France and Britain stood side by side Monday to pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad to uphold his end of any deal on securing and destroying Syria's chemical weapons. France and the U.S. insisted that a military response to the Aug. 21 poison gas attack that killed hundreds remains on the table, and were pressing for a U.N. resolution reflecting that. The United Nations Security Council is set in coming days to take up the resolution laying out plans for the agreement brokered by the United States and Russia. "If Assad fails to comply ... we are all agreed, and that includes Russia, that there will be consequences," Secretary of State John Kerry said ahead of meetings in Paris with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, two of the strongest proponents for military action against Assad. Meanwhile, invitations were going out Monday to top members of the Syrian National Coalition _ the main umbrella opposition group _ for an international conference in New York timed to coincide with next week's U.N. General Assembly meeting, French officials said. Bolstering the Western-backed SNC is just as crucial to Syria's future as Assad's agreement to give up chemical arms, said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. "He must understand that there is no military victory, no possible military victory for him," Fabius said. He acknowledged that broad popular support for the rebels has been hampered by fears that Islamic militants are now playing a major role in the 2 1/2-year-old uprising. In briefing the allies, Kerry was pressing for support for the ambitious agreement that averted threatened U.S. military strikes. It calls for an inventory of Syria's chemical weapons program within one week, with all components of the program out of the country or destroyed by mid-2014. Those who blame Assad for the chemical attack and supported military strikes say it is up to Assad to uphold his end of any deal. "It is extremely important that there are no evasions, that there is no cat and mouse game going on over these weapons," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. The United Nations is set to take up a resolution would lay out the specific terms of the agreement, detailing how Syria can secure and destroy its stockpile. The content of that was under discussion Monday. Kerry acknowledged the chemical arms deal would have little immediate effect on the bloodshed in Syria, which has killed more than 100,000 people, but he said full compliance was a key first step. "This deprives Assad of a weapon," Kerry said. "If you can translate this into that kind of negotiated settlement you can actually win peace." Kerry's journey began a week ago in Paris. At that time he was trying to build support for military strikes on Assad. After an extraordinary series of events and marathon negotiating sessions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Kerry is now back in Paris building support for diplomatic initiatives to strip Assad of his chemical weapons, boost support for the opposition and push a political solution to end the conflict. The trip was wrapping up Monday with a private meeting with Kerry's Turkish counterpart and lunch with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal. The Aug. 21 attack unfolded as a U.N. chemical weapons team was in Syria to investigate earlier reported attacks. After days of delays, the inspectors were allowed access to victims, doctors and others in the Damascus suburbs afflicted by the poison gas. The U.N.'s chief weapons inspector turned over his team's report on Sunday, and the Security Council is due to take it up in a closed session Monday. The Assad regime insists that the attack was carried out by rebels. The inspection team led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom was mandated to report on whether chemical weapons were used and which ones they were, but not on who was responsible. |||||

– There's "clear and convincing evidence" that surface-to-air rockets loaded with sarin gas rained down on the Ghouta area of Damascus last month, UN weapons inspectors announced today. The panel concluded that chemical weapons have been used "against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale." The inspectors were only tasked with determining whether chemical weapons had been fired, not who fired them, the AP explains; though CNN reports that the report will cover "signs of culpability." Earlier today, a separate UN commission said it was investigating reports of 14 chemical attacks, but that it had already determined that both sides had committed war crimes, with or without chemicals. The Assad regime has committed both war crimes and crimes against humanity, the commission determined. The rebels hadn't committed crimes against humanity only "because there is not a clear chain of command." The reports follow Syria's admission that it has chemical weapons, as part of a deal to disarm. Some recent fallout of that deal: The Assad government called the disarmament deal a "victory," and the rebels seem to agree, the New York Times reports. They expect Assad to break his word, and to step up his conventional weapons offensives. Indeed, the violence escalated appreciably last week, the Washington Post points out, with some towns facing their first airstrikes in weeks, and more than 1,000 killed. Now that the threat from the US has evaporated, "the regime has regrouped and is back on the offensive with a vengeance," one expert on the region says. Some rebels said arms shipments from foreign backers had increased, but complained that they were light weapons, and speculated that their backers only want to see the war drag on. "We won't get advanced weapons," a spokesman for a brigade in Aleppo says, "Because that would mean we would achieve victories."

Concussions Linked to Alzheimer's Risk in Study Brain scans found seniors with both poor memory and prior head injury have more plaque buildup WebMD News from HealthDay WebMD News Archive By Kathleen Doheny HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, Dec. 26, 2013 (HealthDay News) -- Older adults with memory problems and a history of concussion have more buildup of Alzheimer's disease-associated plaques in the brain than those who also had concussions but don't have memory problems, according to a new study. ''What we think it suggests is, head trauma is associated with Alzheimer's-type dementia -- it's a risk factor," said study researcher Michelle Mielke, an associate professor of epidemiology and neurology at Mayo Clinic Rochester. "But it doesn't mean someone with head trauma is [automatically] going to develop Alzheimer's." Her study is published online Dec. 26 and in the Jan. 7 print issue of the journal Neurology. Previous studies looking at whether head trauma is a risk factor for Alzheimer's have come up with conflicting results, she noted. And Mielke stressed that she has found only a link or association, not a cause-and-effect relationship. In the study, Mielke and her team evaluated 448 residents of Olmsted County, Minn., who had no signs of memory problems. They also evaluated another 141 residents with memory and thinking problems known as mild cognitive impairment. More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Plaques are deposits of a protein fragment known as beta-amyloid that can build up in between the brain's nerve cells. While most people develop some with age, those who develop Alzheimer's generally get many more, according to the Alzheimer's Association. They also tend to get them in a predictable pattern, starting in brain areas crucial for memory. In the Mayo study, all participants were aged 70 or older. The participants reported if they ever had a brain injury that involved loss of consciousness or memory. Of the 448 without any memory problems, 17 percent had reported a brain injury. Of the 141 with memory problems, 18 percent did. This suggests that the link between head trauma and the plaques is complex, Mielke said, as the proportion of people reporting concussion was the same in both groups. Brain scans were done on all the participants. Those who had both concussion history and cognitive [mental] impairment had levels of amyloid plaques that were 18 percent higher than those with cognitive impairment but no head trauma history, the investigators found. ||||| Having a serious concussion could be a risk factor for developing Alzheimer's decades later – though not everyone with head trauma will lose their memory, a new study suggests. PET scan of a brain in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. (Photo: Gary Small, UCLA School of Medicine) Story Highlights Study shows link among those who had head injuries and later had memory problems Scientists say more research needed to understand the relationship Brain scans measure buildup of protein called beta amyloid Having a serious concussion could be a risk factor for developing Alzheimer's decades later – though not everyone with head trauma will lose their memory, a new study suggests. A team from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minn., conducted brain scans on 448 older Minnesotans who had no signs of memory problems and 141 who did. Roughly 17% in both groups had had a brain injury earlier in life involving some loss of consciousness or memory. Those who had no signs of memory problems had normal brain scans, regardless of their history of brain injury. Scans of those with memory problems and a history of brain injury were five times more likely to show a buildup of a brain protein long associated with Alzheimer's Disease, says study author Michelle Mielke, an associate professor of epidemiology and neurology at the Mayo Clinic. The study, published online today in the journal Neurology, examined people in their 70s and 80s who reported having an earlier head trauma – in most cases 50 or 60 years earlier when they were adolescents. In those days, only the sickest people went to the doctor, so the head injuries were probably quite significant, Mielke says. This is one of the first studies to take advantage of new technology, allowing brain scans to measure the buildup of a protein called beta amyloid, long associated with Alzheimer's. Most previous studies of the connection between Alzheimer's and head injury had looked only at cadavers. "In my view, these findings are consistent with the idea that traumatic brain injury may lead to amyloid accumulation and Alzheimer's disease," says Richard Lipton, director of the Division of Cognitive Aging and Dementia and the Montefiore Headache Center at Albert Einstein College Of Medicine in New York City. More research is needed, he cautions, to help explain how one causes the other. "To more fully explore the causal links, we need not just brilliant snapshots but the movies which track brain changes and cognitive changes over time." For people worried about their own head injuries, the study provides some comfort, Lipton says. Both groups of older adults – impaired and normal – had the same rate of head injury. So, clearly, not every head injury leads to Alzheimer's disease, he says. Most head injuries are accidents and therefore unavoidable, though helmets and seat belts can make a difference in some cases. Lipton says he hopes that learning more about the connection between head injury and Alzheimer's will lead to interventions to protect injured brains from long-term damage. "Drugs that block the development of amyloid or increase its removal from the brain may help protect persons with traumatic brain injury from Alzheimer's disease, though that has not been demonstrated," he says. Until then, the best strategy is to minimize known risk factors for Alzheimer's – high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol – by eating a healthy Mediterranean diet and exercising both mind and body, he says. |||||

– If you've ever suffered a concussion, a new study suggests you may have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease—or not. Mayo Clinic researchers performed brain scans on 141 people in their 70s and 80s who had memory problems and 448 who didn't. Some 18% and 17%, respectively, reported at one time suffering a brain injury in which they lost consciousness or memory. The latter group's scans came back normal, head injury or not. But the group with memory issues and a previous concussion were five times more likely to have an Alzheimer's-associated plaque buildup in the brain, the study author explains, per HealthDay News. Since both groups had the same rate of injury and only some showed a buildup of the protein beta amyloid, the findings show the link between head trauma and the plaque is complex and not all brain injuries lead to the disease. "If you do hit your head, it doesn't mean you are going to develop Alzheimer's," the study author says, but "it may increase your risk." A medical director agrees, and tells USA Today, "In my view, these findings are consistent with the idea that traumatic brain injury may lead to amyloid accumulation and Alzheimer's disease."

Garver was last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans. He is believed to be on foot and officials do not know if he is armed. Garver is a 5-foot-8, 250-pound white man with brown hair. Sheriff’s deputies captured psychiatric hospital escapee Anthony Garver on Friday night after two hectic days of searching for the killer in the Mount Spokane foothills. With the help of a search dog, Spokane County deputies and U.S marshals found Garver at 8:15 p.m. dehydrated and hiding beneath a pile of debris in the 17600 block of East Judkins Road less than a mile from his parents’ home. He was not armed and did not resist arrest. “It was plain and simple good old fashioned police work,” said Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich. “They were out there beating the brush.” As deputies and marshals narrowed the search, the Sheriff’s Office used a reverse 911 call program to urge homeowners on East Judkins to stay inside. Deputies Jason Hunt and Sgt. Jack Rosenthal found him with the help of Hunt’s police dog, Gunnar. Garver escaped from Western State Hospital sometime Wednesday evening with another psychiatric patient. The two quickly split and Garver used cash he had within the Lakewood hospital to buy a $50 Greyhound Bus ticket to Spokane. He arrived in Spokane around 5 a.m. Thursday and by afternoon had visited his parents, who called police. Garver then left as searchers, with the help of helicopters, dogs, SWAT team members and others, cast a dragnet over the area of pine forest and rolling wheat and hay fields. Garver was found nearby. Knezovich said he wasn’t notified until after 6 a.m. Thursday that Garver escaped. The12-hour lapse between escape and notification of Spokane law enforcement drew sharp words from Knezovich, who said the state needs to “get a clue” when it comes to keeping dangerous patients secure and working with local agencies when there’s a problem. “My hope is that the State of Washington finds a way to make sure this dangerous criminal does not escape again,” he said. “The last time he got out he killed a young lady.” Garver is thought to have escaped through a locked window. Knezovich said his dispatch center received an emailed news release from the Lakewood Police Department notifying them of Garver’s escape just after 6 a.m. Thursday. A Lakewood detective called a few hours later to follow up. Even before it was confirmed that Garver bought a Greyhound bus ticket to Spokane, it was assumed he’d head this direction since he’d done so in previous escapes from custody, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Deputy Mark Gregory said. “I don’t think we found out about the bus until around noonish,” Knezovich said on Friday. “It would have been nice to have received a call Wednesday night from somewhere.” Deputies spent Thursday morning talking to Garver’s friends and family, including his parents, and canvassing the area, Gregory said. Around 3:30 p.m., Garver’s stepfather called 911 to report that Garver was at their home in the area of MacMahan Road and Offmy Lane, in the foothills of Mount Spokane. “He wanted his passport because he wants to go to Morocco,” Knezovich said. “His stepdad slipped away and called us.” Garver told his family that he knew police had been called and that it was “futile,” Knezovich said. The 28-year-old quickly left the home without the passport. There were deputies in the area when Garver’s stepfather called, Gregory said. Despite the quick response, Garver could not be located and an extensive search was launched. Garver, who is something of a survivalist, previously told officials that he had weapons and equipment hidden in the woods in the Forker Road area. Some weapons were recovered the last time Garver was found there, Knezovich said. “We never did recover all those caches,” he said. Garver moved from forensic to civil ward Garver was a patient in the psychiatric hospital’s locked civil ward. When he first arrived at Western State Hospital, he had been housed in the hospital’s forensic ward, for people being treated in an effort to make them competent to stand trial. But Garver was ruled not competent to help with his own defense on a charge of killing a Snohomish County woman, who was bound with electrical cords and stabbed to death. The criminal charges were dismissed and he was ordered held as a danger to himself or others. Under revisions to the involuntary treatment act passed in 2013, he was ordered held on a civil commitment and moved to a different ward for those patients. Patients have personal accounts with the hospital that hold money they may have had when they arrived at Western State, that family or friends might send them, or that they can earn for jobs they do as part of their treatment, said Norah West, spokeswoman for the state Department of Social and Health Services. Although the amount can vary for some patients depending on recommendations from staff, most can withdraw $15 in cash per week from their account, she said. A bus ticket from Tacoma to Spokane on Wednesday evening would have cost about $47, leaving at 8:25 p.m. and arriving at 5:10 the next morning. That would have been slightly more than three weeks worth of withdrawals. Garver arrived at Western State Hospital in February 2015, the same day as Mark Alexander Adams, who escaped with him Wednesday evening. Adams was later caught in Des Moines, Washington. �?Very dangerous individual’ Knezovich said again Friday that he’s frustrated Garver is able to keep escaping from custody. Local and federal law enforcement spent a month searching for Garver in 2009 when he failed to show up for his required work release. He had been convicted in 2006 of threatening to blow up a Department of Social and Health Services office in north Spokane. Federal agents finally found him hiding in the same area where authorities are now searching. He also escaped from a halfway house, and in 2013 he failed to check in with his probation officer after being released from federal prison. Just a few weeks later, he is accused of killing 20-year-old Phillipa S. Evans-Lopez in Snohomish County. The affidavit filed by police in the death of Evans-Lopez said Garver is “anti-government, has history of military style weapons and explosives, and he has threatened to shoot anyone who confronts him.” One of his previous convictions came after 100 rounds of Russian-made ammunition were found in his Spokane home. The affidavit also said Garver smiled when confronted with a blood-stained knife police found on him when he was arrested, then denied killing the woman. Said Knezovich on Friday, “He is a very dangerous individual. Mental illness does not equate to a lack of intelligence.” ||||| A Spokane County Sheriff's helicopter searches for Anthony Garver, 28, near Forker Road in Spokane Valley, Wash., Thursday, April 7, 2016. Garver, 28, escaped from a Washington state psychiatric hospital Wednesday night with Mark Alexander Adams, 58, a patient who had been accused of domestic assault... (Associated Press) SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A man who escaped from a Washington state psychiatric hospital where he was held after being found too mentally ill to face charges that he tortured a woman to death was found hiding under a pile of debris in the woods and apprehended without incident. Anthony Garver, 28, was taken into custody Friday night by law enforcement in Spokane, Washington State Patrol spokesman Todd Bartolac said. Garver crawled out a window of a locked, lower-security unit on Wednesday with another patient, Mark Alexander Adams, 58, who was caught the next day. The escapes intensified federal scrutiny on Western State Hospital, Washington's largest psychiatric facility. Western State had already been under investigation for attacks on patients and staff and a failure to improve safety. Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said two police officers tracked Garver with the help of a police dog and found him about 8:15 p.m. in trees above the home of his parents. Garver was hungry and dehydrated and receiving medical treatment before being transferred to jail, the sheriff said. Garver was charged in 2013 with tying a 20-year-old woman to her bed with electrical cords, stabbing her 24 times in the chest and slashing her throat, prosecutors said. He had been moved to a lower-security unit of the hospital after a judge said mental health treatment to prepare him to face criminal charges was not working and ordered him held as a danger to himself or others. Garver has a history of running from law enforcement, and Knzeovich had strong works for state officials about the fact that he was able to make another run for it. "The state of Washington needs to get a clue," the sheriff said. "This cannot happen again." On Friday, the hospital revealed another patient was missing. That patient, who authorities did not consider an immediate danger to the public, has not been found since failing to return from a group outing the same day the other two men escaped. The hospital did not identify the patient. The incidents did not appear related. U.S. regulators already were investigating a recent violent attack on a hospital worker and a patient-on-patient sexual assault at Western State Hospital. A workplace inspection released this week found a series of missteps that posed safety risks, including unlocked rooms, unattended items that could be used as weapons and workers who abandoned their posts instead of watching patients. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has repeatedly cited the facility over safety concerns and threatened to cut millions in federal funding. An agency spokesman says the hospital is under additional scrutiny over the escapes and recent assaults. Garver, who bought a bus ticket from Seattle to Spokane after he escaped, had last been seen on Thursday in the Spokane area where his parents live after his father called authorities to report his son had stopped by briefly. Authorities used SWAT teams, dogs and helicopters to search for him. Mark Alexander Adams, who escaped with Garver, had been charged with domestic assault in 2014. Like Garver, he was found too mentally ill to stand trial and a judge ordered him held at the hospital. State officials would not explain why Garver, an ex-felon with a history of running from authorities, was kept in a lower-security area. Some high-security units require patient checks every 15 minutes, but Garver was not placed in one, staffers say. "He was in a locked area with locked windows and hourly checks," said Kathy Spears, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Health Services, which oversees the state's mental health care. The history of violence at the facility stretches back years. Hundreds of employees have suffered concussions, fractures and cuts in assaults by patients, resulting in $6 million in workers' compensation claims between 2013 and 2015. Patients also have attacked other patients, causing serious injuries. Most recently, a patient with a history of violent behavior choked and punched a mental health technician on March 26, according to an internal report. A March 23 report said a male patient slipped out of his monitors and was found in a bathroom with another male patient, who said he was sexually assaulted. The hospital faces new scrutiny after the two attacks and escapes, said Steven Chickering, associate regional administrator of a division of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In addition, the hospital's safety and emergency management manager sent a memo to staff Thursday citing numerous violations observed during a recent review. Some of the problems involved how the hospital is laid out, "but they also observed actions by staff that could pose a safety and/or security risk," Pamela Rieta's memo said. Her team saw a patient wearing a long necklace, telephones with long cords, an unattended chair and other items that could be used as weapons left at the nurse's station, the memo said. Cabinets and lockers in activity rooms and kitchen areas were unlocked and unattended. Patients returning from ground privileges were not scanned for contraband. Several kitchen doors were propped open without staffers present, allowing patients to enter, the memo said. The team also saw staff leave their posts "to hang out and talk ... not observing the patients." ___ Associated Press writer Lisa Baumann contributed from Seattle. |||||

– A man who escaped from a Washington state psychiatric hospital where he was being held after being found too mentally ill to face charges that he tortured a woman to death is back in custody. Anthony Garver, 28, was apprehended without incident Friday night by law enforcement in Spokane after he was found hiding under a pile of debris in the woods, a Washington State Patrol spokesman tells the AP. Garver crawled out a window of a locked, lower-security unit on Wednesday with another patient, Mark Alexander Adams, 58, who was caught the next day. Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich says two police officers tracked Garver with the help of a police dog and found him in woods less than a mile from the home of his parents, who called police after he visited them on Thursday. Garver was hungry and dehydrated and received medical treatment before being transferred to jail, the sheriff says. Garver has a history of running from law enforcement, and Knzeovich has strong words for state officials about the fact that he was able to make another run for it. "The state of Washington needs to get a clue," he says. "This cannot happen again." The sheriff tells the Spokesman-Review that despite the fact that Garver had headed toward Spokane after previous escapes, local law enforcement was not notified until at least 12 hours after the escape.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Flooding in the Marshall Islands in 2014 caused extensive damage and left hundreds homeless About 1,000 Bikini islanders have applied to relocate to the United States as rising seas threaten their adopted home. The residents were moved from their Pacific atoll as result of atomic bomb tests in the 1940s. But their new home, on another of the Marshall Islands, is struggling against huge tides and increasing storms. The islanders have now asked Washington to change the terms of a trust fund to allow them settle in the US. In 1946 several hundred islanders were moved from Bikini Atoll by the US government, which wanted to test atomic weapons on the remote atoll. The people of Bikini came back to us and asked us to take this proposal to the US Tony de Brum, Foreign Minister, Marshall Islands Some 23 nuclear tests were conducted including the huge Bravo hydrogen bomb, the largest weapon detonated at that time by the US. King tides The islanders moved to a nearby island in the Marshall chain called Kili in 1948. Under an agreement with the US, a resettlement trust fund was eventually established to help the Bikini residents. This would pay for construction of homes within the Marshall Islands. But now the islanders say that their homes are being swamped by the increased ingress of sea water during king tides. There was widespread flooding in 2011 and again this year. Salt is also creeping up from beneath Kili, threatening agriculture and water supplies. In the early part of this year the island's runway was entirely flooded, cutting off the residents. "The people of Bikini came back to us and asked us to take this proposal to the US, to request the resettlement trust fund be used to settle people in the US not just the Marshall Islands," said Tony de Brum, Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands. "We have not seen the final text of the legislation but the request that went in was on the basis of Kili being uninhabitable because of climate change." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Bikini Atoll was used for extensive atomic bomb tests by the US from 1946 The US Department of the Interior is supporting the islanders and is now proposing legislation in Congress that would change the terms of the resettlement trust. Under an agreement between the Marshalls and the US, islanders have the right to live, work and study in the US without restrictions on the duration of their stay. "This is an appropriate course of action for the United States to take regarding the welfare and livelihood of the Bikinian people, given the deteriorating conditions on Kili and Ejit Islands in the Marshall Islands - with crowding, diminishing resources, and increased frequency of flooding due to King Tides on their islands," said Assistant Secretary of the Interior Esther Kia'aina. The Marshall Islands government says the experience of the Bikini islanders shows the need for a new global agreement on climate change. They believe that a new deal can be agreed at a global conference in Paris that begins at the end of November. One key element for the island state is that the agreement stipulate that global temperature rises be kept under 1.5 degrees C from pre industrial levels. Minister de Brum said that from the point of view of small islands and atoll states, two degrees "cannot remain as the absolute cap for everything we are trying do in limiting global warming". Follow Matt on Twitter: @mattmcgrathbbc ||||| An atomic cloud forms July 25, 1946, from the underwater Baker Day Explosion over Bikini Lagoon. The United States relocated inhabitants of Bikini Atoll before exploding 23 nuclear weapons in Bikini between 1946 and 1958. (Photo: National Archives) HAGÅTÑA, Guam — Displaced residents of Bikini Atoll, relocated to the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the late 1940s because of U.S. nuclear weapons tests, are asking for the option of leaving the country without losing millions of dollars the U.S. paid them in relocation costs. Rising sea levels have destroyed crops in the Marshall Islands and raised concerns about residents' health and safety, according to the Department of the Interior, which has proposed making it easier for displaced Bikini Atoll residents to relocate to the United States or elsewhere. Federal treaties, called compacts of free association, already allow residents of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau to live and work in the United States. The Interior Department's Office of Insular Affairs is asking Congress to write a bill to allow the people of Bikini to use existing federal resettlement and relocation money even if they leave the Marshall Islands, officials said Wednesday. Bikinians now are restricted from spending the money outside the Marshall Islands. As of the end of fiscal 2012, the Resettlement Trust Fund for the People of Bikini had a balance of $69 million, according to audited financial statements. The fund generates revenue from investments, and about $6 million a year is spent on wages, improvement projects on the islands of Kili and Ejit, scholarships, travel, and other costs, according to the financial statements. “This is an appropriate course of action for the United States to take regarding the welfare and livelihood of the Bikinian people given the deteriorating conditions on Kili and Ejit Islands in the Marshall Islands with crowding, diminishing resources, and increased frequency of flooding.” Esther Kia'aina, Interior Department "This is an appropriate course of action for the United States to take regarding the welfare and livelihood of the Bikinian people given the deteriorating conditions on Kili and Ejit Islands in the Marshall Islands with crowding, diminishing resources, and increased frequency of flooding due to King Tides on their islands," Esther Kia'aina, assistant secretary for insular affairs, said in a statement. In 1946, 167 Bikinians were relocated to the Marshall Islands, and the U.S. exploded 23 atomic and hydrogen bombs at the Bikini Atoll between 1946 and 1958. The Bikinians were returned to their home in 1969 but were evacuated again in 1978 because of high levels of radioactive elements found in their bodies. The proposed change to the spending rules would "provide the people of Bikini better options and the necessary resources for habitable and sustainable living to improve their quality of life and to plan for their future," Kia'aina said. The proposal comes at the request of the Kili/Bikini/Ejit Local Government Council, which passed a resolution in August. Most Bikinians live on Kili, an island about a third of a square mile in size without a lagoon, rendering their traditional skills useless. More than 5,300 Bikinians live in the Marshall Islands and throughout the United States, according to the resolution. The islands of Kili, almost 500 miles from Bikini, and Ejit, more than 500 miles away, have been covered by waves at least five times during the past four years, contaminating all wells on both islands, the resolution states. "Because of ongoing deterioration of conditions on Kili and Ejit islands, many of the people of Bikini living on these islands want to move out of the Marshall Islands, primarily to the United States," the resolution states. Guam, 1,400 miles east of Bikini Atoll, has been the top U.S. destination for migrants from the compact states, followed by Hawaii, 2,500 miles to the northeast. But a 2011 congressional report said Hawaii is the top destination for migrants specifically from the Marshall Islands. More than 3,500 went to Hawaii compared to 549 in Guam. Use the minus button on the map to see where Kili and Ejit islands, Guam and Hawaii are in relation to Bikini Island. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1RZNURe |||||

– Their first home was destroyed by nuclear testing. Their new home is being threatened by climate change. Now the former residents of Bikini Atoll want to use their million-dollar government trust fund to resettle in the US, USA Today reports. More than 150 residents of Bikini Atoll were moved 500 miles away to Kili and Ejit in the Marshall Islands in 1948 so the US could conduct nearly two-dozen atomic tests. They tried to move back in 1969 but had to be relocated again because of radiation. According to the BBC, the US set up a resettlement trust fund to help the displaced Bikini islanders rebuild their lives. However, that fund offers little protection from the life-threatening rising seas brought on by climate change. The BBC reports there was widespread flooding on Kili in 2011 and 2015, and encroaching salt water is killing crops and ruining fresh water supplies. Both Kili and Ejit were covered by waves at least five times in the past four years, according to USA Today. The islanders, who are already allowed to live and work in the US, passed a resolution in August asking the US government to let them take their resettlement trust fund—which has a balance of around $69 million—with them to the US, the BBC reports. The Department of Interior is supporting the islanders and taking their proposal to congress. "This is an appropriate course of action for the United States to take regarding the welfare and livelihood of the Bikinian people, given the deteriorating conditions on Kili and Ejit," the assistant secretary of the Interior says in a statement.

Computer evidence shows Lanza's interest in pedophilia Photo: Connecticut State Police Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Image 1 of 8 This photo released by the Connecticut State Police on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, and contained in a document titled "Sec 4 -Scene Search Day 3," shows a room in the home where Adam Lanza lived with his mother in Newtown, Conn. Lanza gunned down 20 first-graders and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, after killing his mother inside their home. Lanza committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived at the school. (AP Photo/Connecticut State Police) ORG XMIT: BX122 less This photo released by the Connecticut State Police on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, and contained in a document titled "Sec 4 -Scene Search Day 3," shows a room in the home where Adam Lanza lived with his mother in ... more Photo: Connecticut State Police Image 2 of 8 This December 2012 photo released by the Connecticut State Police on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, shows a shattered window at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Adam Lanza gunned down 20 first-graders and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle at the school on Dec. 14, 2012, after killing his mother inside their home. Lanza committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived at the school. (AP Photo/Connecticut State Police) ORG XMIT: BX151 less This December 2012 photo released by the Connecticut State Police on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, shows a shattered window at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Adam Lanza gunned down 20 first-graders ... more Photo: Uncredited Image 3 of 8 This Dec. 14, 2012 photo released by the Connecticut State Police shows what the evidence report describes as a view of a second floor bathroom and its contents including a photo identification of Adam Lanza and a cellular phone with battery removed, in the house where Adam Lanza lived with his mother in Newtown, Conn. The photo was released as part of the evidence gathered by police during their investigation after Adam Lanza gunned down 20 first-graders and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown. (AP Photo/Connecticut State Police) less This Dec. 14, 2012 photo released by the Connecticut State Police shows what the evidence report describes as a view of a second floor bathroom and its contents including a photo identification of Adam Lanza ... more Photo: HOPD Image 4 of 8 This photo released by the Connecticut State Police on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, from a document titled "Sec 8 - Autopsy," shows evidence pertaining to the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Adam Lanza gunned down 20 first-graders and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle at the school after killing his mother inside their home. Lanza committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived at the school. (AP Photo/Connecticut State Police) less This photo released by the Connecticut State Police on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, from a document titled "Sec 8 - Autopsy," shows evidence pertaining to the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in ... more Photo: HOPD Image 5 of 8 This photo released by Connecticut State Police on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013 shows an aerial view of the home where Adam Lanza lived with his mother in Newtown, Conn. Lanza gunned down 20 first-graders and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, after killing his mother inside their home. Lanza committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived at the school. (AP Photo/Connecticut State Police) less This photo released by Connecticut State Police on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013 shows an aerial view of the home where Adam Lanza lived with his mother in Newtown, Conn. Lanza gunned down 20 first-graders and six ... more Photo: HOPD Image 6 of 8 This evidence photo contained in a document titled "Sec 15 - Firearm Survey - Enfield," in a report of an investigation released by the Connecticut State Police, Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, shows a weapon. Adam Lanza gunned down 20 first-graders and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, Conn., after killing his mother inside their home. Lanza committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived at the school. (AP Photo/Connecticut State Police) less This evidence photo contained in a document titled "Sec 15 - Firearm Survey - Enfield," in a report of an investigation released by the Connecticut State Police, Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, shows a weapon. Adam ... more Photo: HOPD Image 7 of 8 This Dec. 16, 2012 photo released by the Connecticut State Police shows what the evidence report describes as a "Volunteer Thank You Card" for Mrs. Lanza with a pamphlet for a 5th grade "Stepping Up Ceremony" dated June 10, 1999 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, found in the house where Adam Lanza lived with his mother in Newtown, Conn. The photo was released as part of the evidence gathered by police during their investigation after Adam Lanza gunned down 20 first-graders and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown. (AP Photo/Connecticut State Police) less This Dec. 16, 2012 photo released by the Connecticut State Police shows what the evidence report describes as a "Volunteer Thank You Card" for Mrs. Lanza with a pamphlet for a 5th grade "Stepping Up Ceremony" ... more Photo: HOPD Image 8 of 8 Computer evidence shows Lanza's interest in pedophilia 1 / 8 Back to Gallery NEWTOWN -- Adam Lanza had an interest in pedophilia. On his computer hard drive was a screenplay, "Lovebound," that describes a relationship between a 30-year-old man and a 10-year-old boy, as well as documents advocating for "pedophiles' rights and the liberation of children." He also discussed with a friend how it was "a disease that needed to be treated and not looked at as evil," according to the State Police report on the shooting released late last month. Smiggles, a screen name state police said Lanza used, made hundreds of posts on a now-defunct online forum, "Shocked and Beyond," that focused on mass shootings after Columbine. In a post dated Dec. 30, 2009, Smiggles said, "I used to think I was asexual, but the primary reason why I thought that was because my BMI (body mass index) was 14." At the time of his death nearly three years later, he was 6 feet tall and weighed 112 pounds. Smiggles also posted on the forum, "I castrated myself when I was 15 to rebel against society." Danbury State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky said he was "unaware of any information" about Lanza attempting to castrate himself. While there is still no concrete evidence that Lanza was a pedophile -- or a victim of one -- the material does point to an internal conflict that may have plagued Lanza in the years before he walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and took the lives of 20 young children and six educators before killing himself the morning of Dec. 14, 2012. "Certainly, there isn't enough evidence to come to a firm conclusion," said Dr. Fred Berlin, director of the sexual behaviors consultation unit at Johns Hopkins University, "but it sounds like he was conflicted about these issues. It's possible he had an attraction (to children) or he knew people who had them and he was trying to sort it out. But it's still a long way from explaining what he did." Berlin said one could speculate that Lanza, if he had pedophilia tendencies, could have targeted the elementary school in an attempt to eliminate temptation. "The idea is that someone who has a strong desire for something and they're forbidden to act upon it, they can be angry at the source of temptation," he said. "It's not unreasonable, given what happened. There must have been a tremendous amount of rage inside of him." He stressed, however, that the idea is just a hypothesis and there isn't enough evidence at this point to either refute or support the claim. "It's just more pieces to an incredibly complex puzzle," he said. It's a puzzle that may never be solved. Despite a nearly yearlong investigation and thousands of documents investigators have examined in a search for answers, what motivated Lanza to walk into Sandy Hook Elementary School that day remains a mystery. Mary Ellen O'Toole, a retired FBI behavioral analyst whose expertise is in mass homicides and school violence, said there is a compulsive aspect to many pedophiles that isn't apparent in the evidence released to date on Lanza. "These urges come back repeatedly, and they aren't satisfied by one instance," she said. "I would expect to see a more compulsive nature to the inquiry. When searching a home, you would expect to find volumes of material on the subject." She added that investigators would expect to see some kind of searches pertaining to a sexual curiosity on most 20-year-olds' computers. Lanza's hard drive, however, was filled with documents pertaining to his research of mass shootings, images of Lanza holding a handgun to his head and a smattering of information related to the rights of pedophiles. While additional evidence hasn't surfaced in the Lanza case, O'Toole said that doesn't mean it didn't exist. "It could mean the investigators didn't find it or it was part of what was destroyed," she said. Lanza made every effort to destroy his hard drive before his rampage, which included killing his mother in her bed at home. He also redacted a number of comments he left on social media forums that may have discussed the topic. Dr. Charles Herrick, the head of psychiatry at Danbury Hospital, said it is difficult with the information released to date to know if Lanza's interest in pedophilia had any influence on his behavior. "The material related to his obsession with mass shootings is far more compelling about what is driving his behavior," he said. Herrick said that while perpetrators of any kind of abuse tend to have been abused themselves, there is no indication that Lanza was molested. "That's pretty common," he said, "but they don't usually think about it in such a intellectual way. If abused, why would someone seek to justify it?" Dr. Harold Schwartz, chief of psychiatry at the Institute for Living in Hartford and part of the 16-member Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, said there was not enough information in the documents to say whether Lanza may have been a victim himself of a pedophile. Members of the commission, appointed by the governor last year to make recommendations on school safety, mental health and gun violence after the shooting, have been openly critical of the state police report on the shooting, saying the report released late on a Friday afternoon was all but indecipherable. The report is so disorganized that the commission has accepted the help of a Hartford law firm to turn the 6,700-page file -- an online collection of hundreds of individual documents without a table of contents or index -- into a searchable database. "I think all of us have gone into the document pages and were just never quite sure whether we missed something or have gotten to the thing that matters most to us," said Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson, chairman of the commission. Staff writer John Pirro contributed to this report. ||||| Newtown An unearthed recording of the Sandy Hook shooter and his chatroom postings raise more troubling questions about the answer we don’t have: Why he targeted little kids. Among the thousands of documents generated by the police investigation into the Sandy Hook Massacre is one noting that Adam Lanza adopted the username Smiggles on an online forum favored by fans of mass-shooting videos. In one of his postings on ShockedBeyondBelief.com, Smiggles announced that he had called into a radio talk show in Oregon. He even posted a link to an archived recording of his on-air chat with radio host John Zerzan. Thanks to blogger Reed Coleman, who first tracked it down, and to the New York Daily News for confirming it was indeed Lanza, we can listen to the killer’s voice and get a measure of a madness that was all the more horrifying because he was remarkably articulate and seemingly logical. Babbling and raving would have been less disturbing than hearing Lanza calmly explain why Travis the chimp attacked his trainers not because of his feral nature, but because he was raised much in the way of a human child. “His attack can be seen entirely parallel to the attacks and random acts of violence that you bring up on your show every week, committed by humans, which the mainstream also has no explanation for,” Lanza said. “I just don’t think it would be such a stretch to say that he very well could have been a teenage mall shooter or something like that.” But Lanza himself was not just another mall shooter, or school shooter. What made Lanza different was that he targeted young kids. You can listen to that tape a hundred times and it will still not tell you why. But there are hints in some of the other Smiggles postings. A Dec. 20, 2011, exchange between Smiggles and two other posters, with the usernames Gluth and Ivan, jumped out at me. Smiggles: “Literature is simply another coping mechanism for children who’ve been mindfucked by culturapists. They’re carried to other worlds in the stream of semen.” Gluth: “Doesn’t anybody else notice that Smiggles sometimes sends huge ‘I AM A PEDOPHILE’ signals?” Gluth is implying that this is not the first time. He goes on. Gluth: “No offense buddy but children in a semen stream? What the hell did you smoke?” Smiggles responds with only a smiley face. Ivan approves. Ivan: “I like Smiggles, he talks about children in a sexual way and is a cool guy.” Get The Beast In Your Inbox! Daily Digest Start and finish your day with the smartest, sharpest takes from The Daily Beast Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of news and must-reads from The Daily Beast and across the Web By clicking "Subscribe," you agree to have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Subscribe Thank You! You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason Ivan is also suggesting that this is not the first time. I have to wonder if there are other such exchanges among the many that Lanza deleted from the forum just prior to embarking on the massacre in which he would murder 20 children and six adults. The reason that I took note to this surviving exchange with Gluth and Ivan goes back to when the Connecticut State Police released their report. I had until then figured that Lanza was likely bullied at the school and that he might have felt it more keenly because he was a new kid whose family had just moved to Connecticut from New Hampshire. But the state police report suggested that he harbored no particular anger toward Sandy Hook Elementary or its students. “The shooter indicated that he loved the school and liked to go there,” the report said. The report further suggested that Lanza’s motive may remain a mystery. “Unfortunately, that question may never be answered conclusively, despite the collection of extensive background information on the shooter through a multitude of interviews and other sources,” the state police allowed. “The evidence clearly shows that the shooter planned his actions, including the taking of his own life, but there is no clear indication why he did so, or why he targeted Sandy Hook Elementary School.” I had been writing about gun violence for 30 years and I had covered literally hundreds of murders involving young victims. I had covered Columbine and Virginia Tech. But I had never encountered anything like the massacre at Sandy Hook and it seemed to me unacceptable not to try to at least understand how this could have possibly happened. I then saw in the state police report that among the items detectives found in Lanza’s room were “materials regarding the topic of pedophilia and advocating for rights for pedophiles.” There was also a “screenplay or script” titled Lovebound “describing a relationship between a 10-year-old boy and a 30-year-old man.” I had always felt there had to be a sexual component to the fascination with guns and I had noted that Lanza himself called it a “fetish.” I commenced to write a piece suggesting that the Sandy Hook killer may have been acting out of some kind of homicidal pedophilia. I sought to make clear from the first sentence that I was engaging in speculation. “So maybe 20-year-old Adam Lanza was a kind of pedophile whose idea of having sex with kids was to shoot them,” I wrote. I then settled back into reporting on the contents of the report. I described the remarkable courage of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis when Lanza’s gun jammed. Lewis used a moment when he could have saved himself to call to a group of classmates. “Run!” he said. Some time after the article was posted, I received a call from a woman who identified herself as a media liaison for the families of the murdered children, presumably including Jesse Lewis. She informed me that the families had been deeply offended and greatly distressed by what I had written. I assured the woman that, other than the families themselves, nobody could feel worse than I did that I had caused them any added pain. She asked why I had written such a thing. I could only think to say that I had gone from killing to killing to killing for year after year after year and I had I had felt compelled to address another why, that being the one the state police seemed to have taken pains to avoid. I told woman I would write the families a letter, but afterward I decided it would be better to offer a more public explanation. I did so in an article about the first anniversary of the shooting and what the Founding Fathers might think about the massacre of 20 school kids. The explanation did not make me feel any better about having distressed the families. I did not mind that even people at The Daily Beast had objected to my speculation as to Lanza’s motive. The Columbia Journalism Review, which did not even manage to spell my name correctly, charged that I had been unethical. As I said in an email to the CJR writer, “I am not saying I am always close to right. But I always make an entirely honest effort.” Even with Smiggles, I am not close to certain that Lanza was indeed a kind of homicidal pedophile. I do believe his postings confirm there are legitimate grounds for considering it. ||||| Newtown Report Monday’s report doesn’t conclusively name a reason for the shooting last December, but we know why Adam Lanza was at the elementary school: He wanted to shoot kids. So maybe 20-year-old Adam Lanza was a kind of pedophile whose idea of having sex with kids was to shoot them. A hint at that is in the report on the Sandy Hook Elementary School murders released on Monday by the Connecticut state attorney’s office in Danbury. Among the items the report says detectives found in Lanza’s room were “materials regarding the topic of pedophilia and advocating for rights for pedophiles.” The report adds, “Not child pornography.” But maybe Lanza’s equivalent of kiddie porn was a five-second dramatization of children being shot that was found among this things at home. He also had a POV video game called School Shooter that allows the player to gun down students with gruesome results. In the game, the shooter wears fingerless black gloves, just like Dylan Klebold did at the Columbine High School massacre that the report says Lanza was fixated on. Only Lanza went after much younger victims at Sandy Hook, a choice the report indicates cannot be easily explained by any particular unpleasant experience, real or imagined, that Lanza seems to have had when he was at student there. In preschool before he arrived at Sandy Hook, Lanza is said by the report to have exhibited such worrisome signs as “repetitive behaviors, temper tantrums, smelling things that were not there, excessive hand washing and eating idiosyncrasies.” But of his time at Sandy Hook, the report says: “The early school years have him portrayed as a nice kid, though sort of withdrawn. He loved music and played saxophone.” “He would attend play groups and parties,” the report says. The report—which calls Lanza “the shooter,” just like in his game—adds, “The shooter indicated that he loved the school and liked to go there.” Get The Beast In Your Inbox! Daily Digest Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast. Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't). By clicking "Subscribe," you agree to have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Subscribe Thank You! You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason One thing that seems notable in retrospect is the book Lanza made as part of a class project in the fifth grade. He titled it Big Book of Granny. The hero has a cane that is really a gun and uses it to shoot numerous people, children among them. As he proceeded on to sixth grade and middle school, he was said by a teacher who was interviewed by the detectives to have gotten As and Bs, done his homework, and had at least some friends. He was never in any trouble of note. The big change seems to have come in the seventh grade. A teacher described him as “intelligent but not normal?” He was said to have had “antisocial issues,” withdrawing and refusing to participate in class. He appeared to have a violent nature. His writing assignments were filled with “a disturbing level” of mayhem, war, and death. During this same period, his mother, Nancy Lanza, noted that her son had given up sports and stopped riding his bike and climbing trees and playing the saxophone in the school band. He did join the tech club in high school and even had a LEN (pizza and computer games) party at his home. And while he continued to write about violence, the report notes that he also wrote about “human nature, perception, judgment, morality, lack of control, prejudice, empathy, suicide, mental illness, existential crisis, urban exploration of abandoned areas, hiking and cookies.” He turned unexpectedly lyrical when he was asked to write a poem. But school was becoming ever more a struggle, and he was becoming ever more withdrawn. The report waxes clinical as it says: “His school issues related to his identified emotional and/or Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) spectrum behaviors. His high level of anxiety, Asperger’s characteristics, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) concerns and sensory issues all impacted his performance to a significant degree, limiting his participation in a general education curriculum. Tutoring, desensitization and medication were recommended.” The report goes on, “The shooter refused to take suggested medication and did not engage in suggested behavior therapies.” He was extremely picky about what he ate and insisted that foods be arranged in a particular order on his plate. He would only eat certain things with certain utensils. He washed his hands again and again, just as he had in preschool, and he repeatedly changed clothes, leaving his mother to do his laundry every day. Nobody was allowed in his room, where the windows were covered with black garbage bags secured with duct tape. Deliverymen were asked not to ring the doorbell lest the noise disturb him. He required others to open doors for him because he so abhorred touching the knobs or other metal objects. “Often going through a box of tissues a day to avoid contact,” the report says. He also did not like birthdays or holidays, and he refused to let his mother put up a Christmas tree, which she took as a sign that he lacked emotion. He did not like the family cat, so the mother gave it away. “When the shooter had his hair cut, he did not like to be touched and did not like the sound of clippers, so they were not used much,” the report says. “He would sit with his hands in his lap and always look down, giving one-word answers if the cutter tried to engage him in conversation.” The mother told people that because her son had Asperser’s he was unable to experience emotion. She asked him if he would feel badly if something happened to her. “No,” he said. He had a cell phone, but he neither made nor accepted calls, apparently using it only for emails and texts. He ceased speaking to his mother in person, communicating with her only by email even when they were both in the house. Oddly, what he did venture out to do, what he apparently loved even more than School Shooter, was a game called Dance Dance Revolution. From 2011 right up until his final month, he would play an arcade version in a local movie theater lobby on most Fridays and Saturdays, always wearing a specific outfit that featured a gray hoodie, staring at the video screen and moving his feet in time with the flashing lights for hours, showing no sign of fatigue until he was suddenly exhausted. He kept videos of himself playing Dance Dance Revolution along with the video clip of school kids being shot. He also had selfies that featured him holding a handgun to his head, holding a rifle to his head, and posing with a rifle and a shotgun, his pockets stuffed with 30-round magazines. His mother was of the unfortunate opinion that firearms would teach him responsibility and give him confidence. She long been taking him to shooting ranges, and together they had taken the NRA gun safety course. She apparently tried to impart a little holiday spirit in him when she wrote him a check dated “Christmas Day” of 2012 and bearing the notation “CZ83,” meaning for a CZ83 pistol. She remained an unshakably devoted mother and made sure to cook his favorite meals to get him through her absence as she embarked on December 10, 2012, for a three-day trip to see family in New Hampshire. He bumped his head before he left and it bled a bit, but she could not have taken it as a portent. He seemed fine when she departed. He had bought himself a GPS, and investigators say it shows he drove in the vicinity of Sandy Hook Elementary School on the afternoon of December 13. His mother returned home around 10 p.m. that night. She was in bed the next morning when Adam Lanza entered with the one kind of object he apparently had no trouble touching: a firearm. He placed a .22 caliber rifle to her head and curled his finger around the metal of the trigger four times. “Someone in the area reported hearing ‘two or three’ gunshots in the neighborhood between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m,” the report says. “That person thought them to be from hunters, though the person indicated the shots did ‘sound unusually close.”’ Lanza then set off with a Bushmaster assault rifle, two pistols, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, all of it having been purchased by his mother. He does not seem to have been propelled by some monstrous psychosis as had apparently driven the Washington Navy Yard shooter. “It is important to note that it is unknown, what contribution, if any, the shooter’s mental health issues made to his attack,” the report says. “Those mental health professionals who saw him did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior.” But there is a suggestion of a blindness on the part of the investigators along with the mental health folks when the report says, “He was undoubtedly afflicted with mental health problems; yet despite a fascination with mass shootings and firearms, he displayed no aggressive or threatening tendencies.” How can a fascination with mass shooting and firearms not be a predicator of somebody using a firearm to perpetrate a mass shooting? A fascination with guns almost has to be sexual on some displaced and pathetic level—Freud was only wrong about women. And Lanza proved his predilection by his actions in the same way as any pedophile, by targeting children. As the otherwise insightful report notes, he does not seem to have gone to the school seeking vengeance for some long-ago wrong. The report adds, “He was never assigned to the classrooms where the shootings occurred.” He was there because he wanted to shoot kids. He began by killing the 47-year-old principal, Dawn Hochsprung and the 56-year-old school psychologist, Mary Sherlach, because they came into the hallway after he shot his way in through the locked front doors with eight rounds. In Classroom 10, he began by shooting the teacher, Victoria Soto, to get her out of the way. Six-year-old Jesse Lewis was standing next to her and was apparently grazed in head by a bullet fragment, but he stayed on his feet, facing the gunman. Lanza was proceeding to do what he really wanted, to kill children, when the rifle jammed. Jesse could have used this moment to try to save himself, but he was the kind of kid who always imagined himself a peacekeeper and protector when he played soldier, sometimes patrolling his family’s yard in a plastic helmet, other times arranging his toy troopers in the bathtub to protect the rubber duckies. His mother, Scarlett Lewis, would later note in her fine book, Nurturing Healing Love: A Mother’s Journey of Hope & Forgiveness, that he had inscribed “I love you” along with several hearts in the frost on the car door when he left for school that morning. He now called to nine children who were on the other side of the classroom, holding hands. “Run!” he told them. The others dashed out of the room to safety just as Lanza got the gun cleared. Lanza then shot Jesse in the forehead. Lanza also killed behavioral therapist Anne Marie Murphy, firing through her to kill the child she was trying to protect with her body in her own display of remarkable courage. Lanza killed three more youngsters there. In Classroom 8, he killed the teacher, Lauren Rousseau, and her assistant, Rachel D’Avino, along with 15 youngsters, riddling them with bullets. Investigators recovered 80 spent shell casings from Classroom 8. The 49 expended rifle shell casings back in Classroom 10 were joined by a single shell casing from a Glock semi-automatic pistol as Lanza placed it to his head just like in the selfies and took his own life as the first police officers arrived at the school. He was found to have 253 live rounds on his person. The rifle was found nearby, one end of the sling having become detached from the butt. The safety was set to “fire.” As for the shooter, “He was wearing a pale green pocket vest over a black polo style short sleeve shirt over a black t-shirt. He had yellow colored earplugs in each ear. He was wearing black cargo pocket pants, black socks, black sneakers, a black canvas belt and black fingerless gloves on each hand.” The gloves were just like those Dylan Klebold had worn at Columbine High School. The difference was that this was at an elementary school. “The obvious question that remains is: ‘Why did the shooter murder twenty-seven people, including twenty children?’” the report says. “Unfortunately, that question may never be answered conclusively.” One thing is for sure. The motive must have had something to do with the age of most of the victims. |||||

– Adam Lanza, pedophile? The 20-year-old who perpetrated the Sandy Hook massacre and killed himself on Dec. 14, 2012, kept documents on his hard drive showing an interest in pedophilia, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Topping the list is a screenplay, Lovebound, that depicts a relationship between a 10-year-old boy and a 30-year-old man. There are also documents in support of "pedophiles' rights and the liberation of children." What's more, Lanza told a friend that pedophilia was "a disease that needed to be treated and not look at as evil," according to a police report on the shooting. Appearing as Smiggles in an online forum, Lanza posted that children are duped by "culturapists" and "carried to other worlds in the stream of semen," reports the Daily Beast. Someone responded: "Doesn’t anybody else notice that Smiggles sometimes sends huge 'I AM A PEDOPHILE' signals?" If Lanza was battling pedophilic urges, that's "still a long way from explaining what he did," said Fred Berlin, an expert in sexual behavior, but he doesn't rule it out. Michael Daly puts it more bluntly at the Daily Beast: "So maybe 20-year-old Adam Lanza was a kind of pedophile whose idea of having sex with kids was to shoot them." (A seven-minute call Lanza made to an Oregon radio station in 2011 grabbed headlines last week.)

A A Oregon State Police said investigators have identified a 15-year-old Vancouver boy as a suspect in the Eagle Creek Fire. The agency said Tuesday investigators think he and others were using fireworks in the woods along the Eagle Creek Trail on Saturday, sparking the fire. The boy was contacted by law enforcement in the parking lot of the trail head and interviewed. No arrests have been made and no formal charges have been filed in connection with the fire, according to the Oregon State Police, which did not identify the boy. Oregon State Police said investigators were looking for witnesses and anyone with helpful information about the fire’s cause. The agency asked anyone who heard fireworks or other explosions in the area of the Eagle Creek Trail and Punch Bowl Falls on Saturday between 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to contact the Oregon State Police at 503-375-3555. The investigation surrounding the Eagle Creek Fire was ongoing. ||||| Ian McCluskey/OPB A Portland woman says the young hikers suspected of starting a fire now consuming the Columbia River Gorge giggled as one threw a firecracker into Eagle Creek Canyon. One suspect has been identified as a 15-year-old male from Vancouver, Washington. Oregon State Police spokesman Bill Fugate said if charged, the suspect could face the same state charges as an adult. Fugate said OSP will release the suspect’s name if and when charges are filed. It is believed he and others may have been using fireworks which started the forest fire along the Eagle Creek Trail. The suspect was then contacted by law enforcement in the parking lot of the trailhead and was interviewed by law enforcement. Liz FitzGerald, who lives in Portland, was seeking relief from the heat Saturday afternoon by hiking to Punch Bowl Falls when she came upon a group of young people, including teenagers, stopped on the trail above a high drop off. “I saw this kid throw a smoke bomb — just lobbed it and dropped it down into the woods. … I saw him throw something that was on fire. Then we all looked over the edge and saw smoke,” she said. “I said, ‘Do you realize how dangerous this is?’” FitzGerald kept walking but then ran into an older couple. She told them what she’d seen, and they told her they’d also seen a group of teenagers lighting fireworks. That scared her and she turned around to head back to her car. On her way, she passed the spot where she’d seen the fireworks thrown. “It was billowing smoke. I could distinctly smell fire,” she said. “It smelled like the fire in my fireplace. It was very clear that this was not the smell of a firecracker.” She ran back to the parking lot, telling people she passed on the trail to turn around. She found a U.S. Forest Service officer and told him her story. She said she pointed out the group she’d seen throwing the firecracker. FitzGerald says she blames the entire group she encountered. “Even though that kid threw the firecracker, all of those kids he was with are complicit. All of them watched, all of them did nothing. They all were a part of it. One filmed it,” she said. “When I came upon them, and the guy threw the firecracker, I’m pretty sure I heard a couple of them giggle. The guy was filming it like it was another thing to film, no big deal. The whole complacency of that group, I find it so disturbing.” Oregon State Police spokesman Bill Fugate would not comment on whether other members of the group could face charges in addition to the main suspect. The Eagle Creek Fire is now burning more than 10,000 acres and has forced several towns along the Gorge to evacuate. More than 150 hikers were forced to shelter in place near Tunnel Falls Saturday night due to the wildfire. The hikers were successfully rescued Sunday morning. The fire also jumped the Columbia River early Tuesday morning, sparking the 25-acre Archer Mountain Fire. The Oregon State Police is seeking witnesses or those with information about the cause of the fire to come forward. Anyone who heard fireworks or other explosions in the area of the Eagle Creek Trail/Punch Bowl Falls on Saturday between 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. is urged to contact OSP at 503-375-3555. Amanda Peacher contributed to this report. ||||| We started walking, and it was about twelve paces that we took, and I saw a minivan go by. It was all tinted windows in the back windows but I saw the female in the passenger side and I did not recognize her but she had an expression on her face that looked like she was getting away with something. She looked like she was having fun and she was excited about getting away. That's what my gut told me. I looked at them and I said 'I think that they're in that car.' |||||

– A wildfire that started over the weekend in Oregon torched at least 10,000 acres, stranded more than 150 hikers, and forced the evacuation of multiple towns—and officials think a teen fooling around with firecrackers may be to blame. The Columbian reports that a 15-year-old boy from Vancouver, Wash., has been named a suspect but not arrested in the Eagle Creek fire that sparked on Saturday. A Portland woman witnessed the scene and sounded the alarm, she tells Oregon Public Broadcasting. Liz FitzGerald was hiking to Punch Bowl Falls on Saturday when she came across a group of young people and "saw this kid throw a smoke bomb" into a ravine. She admonished the kids but forged ahead, only to reconsider. "If I get stuck in a wildfire because I was so determined to get to this watering hole, I would feel like a total idiot," she tells Willamette Week. She doubled back, and as she passed the spot where she'd seen the group, she saw "billowing smoke" and "could distinctly smell fire." She says she then came upon the teens and told them they had started a forest fire. She says one shot back, "Well, what are we supposed to do about it now?" FitzGerald notified a US Forest Service official, who she says apprehended the teens' minivan. FitzGerald, though, doesn't think the one who tossed the firecracker should bear sole responsibility for the group's "complacency. ... All of them watched, all of them did nothing." Oregon State Police are looking for more witnesses to help them determine their next move. Late Tuesday night, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office indicated on Twitter that the fire "has slowed way down for now."

LAKE SELIGER Russia/KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine called on Friday for full membership in NATO, its strongest plea yet for Western military help, after accusing Russia of sending in armored columns that have driven back its forces on behalf of pro-Moscow rebels. Russian President Vladimir Putin, defiant as ever, compared Kiev's drive to regain control of its rebellious eastern cities to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in World War Two. He announced that rebels had succeeded in halting it, and proposed that they now permit surrounded Ukrainian troops to retreat. Speaking to young people at a summer camp, Putin told his countrymen they must be "ready to repel any aggression towards Russia." He described Ukrainians and Russians as "practically one people," language that Ukrainians say dismisses the very existence of their thousand-year-old nation. The past 72 hours have seen pro-Russian rebels suddenly open a new front and push Ukrainian troops out of a key town in strategic coastal territory along the Sea of Azov. Kiev and Western countries say the reversal was the result of the arrival of armored columns of Russian troops, sent by Putin to prop up a rebellion that would otherwise have been near collapse. Rebels said they would accept Putin's proposal to allow Kiev forces, who they say are surrounded, to retreat, provided the government forces turn over weapons and armor. Kiev said that only proved that the fighters were doing Moscow's bidding. Russia drew a fresh rebuke from French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who told French television station France 24 that Russia could face more sanctions from the European Union. "When one country sends military forces into another country without the agreement and against the will of another country, that is called an intervention and is clearly unacceptable," he said. In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after speaking with his Ukrainian counterpart: "The border violations we are seeing – yesterday and even more so the day before yesterday – make us fear that the situation is increasingly getting out of control." In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Russia's footprint was undeniable in Ukraine. "We have regularly marshalled evidence to indicate what exactly is happening, despite the protestations of the Russian government that for some reason would have us all believe otherwise," he said. "The fact is, those denials are completely without any credibility, and, you know, we've been pretty candid about that." Full Ukrainian membership of NATO, complete with the protection of a mutual defense pact with the United States, is still an unlikely prospect. But by announcing it is now seeking to join the alliance, Kiev has put more pressure on the West to find ways to protect it. NATO holds a summit next week in Wales. In 2008 NATO denied Ukraine and Georgia a fast track towards membership. Russia invaded Georgia a few months later. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he respected Ukraine's right to seek alliances. "Despite Moscow's hollow denials, it is now clear that Russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border into eastern and southeastern Ukraine," Rasmussen said. "This is not an isolated action, but part of a dangerous pattern over many months to destabilize Ukraine as a sovereign nation." In Donetsk, one of the main separatists strongholds, several shells exploded in the area of the railway station on Friday, one hitting the station building and another striking a trolleybus. Rebel fighters quoted medics as saying emergency services had taken away four wounded people, and an unknown number had been ferried away in private cars. Powerful explosions could be heard again in the center of town. A trolleybus was on fire on the square outside the station. Thick smoke filled the area. The station has not been working for several days because damaged tracks are preventing trains from running. Kiev said it was rallying to defend the port of Mariupol, the next big city in the path of the pro-Russian advance in the southeast. "Fortifications are being built. Local people are coming out to help our troops, to stop the city being taken. We are ready to repel any offensive on Mariupol," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said. So far, the West had made clear it is not prepared to fight to protect Ukraine but is instead relying on economic sanctions, first imposed after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March and tightened several times since. Those sanctions seem to have done little to deter Putin, leaving Western politicians to seek tougher measures without crippling their own economies, particularly in Europe which relies on Russian energy exports. European foreign ministers met in Milan on Friday ahead of a weekend EU summit. They made clear the bloc will discuss further economic sanctions against Moscow. Some said that was no longer sufficient, and other measures to help Kiev should be discussed. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said countries that had tried so far to mediate now needed to explain "what their ideas (are) to stop President Putin and save Ukraine as she is". Sweden's Carl Bildt said: "Sanctions alone are not enough: he (Putin) is prepared to sacrifice his own people." Poland denied permission for Russia's defense minister to fly over its air space after a trip to Slovakia, forcing him to return to Bratislava. Warsaw said he could fly if he reported the status of his plane as civilian rather than military. 'BEST NOT TO MESS WITH US' Moscow still publicly denies its forces are fighting to support pro-Russian rebels who have declared independence in two provinces of eastern Ukraine. But the rebels themselves have all but confirmed it, saying thousands of Russian troops have fought on their behalf while "on leave". NATO has issued satellite photos of what it says is artillery fielded by more than 1,000 Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. Kiev has released interviews with captured Russian troops. Reuters has seen an armored column of Russian troops on the Russian side of the frontier, showing signs of having recently returned from battle with no insignia on their uniforms. Members of an official Russian human rights body say as many as 100 Russian soldiers died in a single battle in Ukraine in August. Encouraged by state media, Russians have so far strongly backed Putin's hard line, despite Western sanctions that have hurt the economy, the Kremlin's own ban on imports of most Western food, and now reports of Russian troops dying in battle. In a statement released by the Kremlin overnight, Putin pointed to the rebels' gains of recent days on the battlefield: "It is clear that the rebellion has achieved some serious successes in stopping the armed operation by Kiev." "I call on the militia forces to open a humanitarian corridor for encircled Ukraine servicemen in order to avoid pointless victims, to allow them to leave the fighting area without impediment, join their families," he said. Putin's lengthy public appearance on Friday and his overnight statement on the conflict appear to be an acknowledgment that the war has reached a turning point, potentially requiring greater Russian sacrifice. Putin answered questions from young supporters, some of whom waved banners bearing his face, at a pro-Kremlin youth camp on the shores of a lake. Wearing a grey sweater and light blue jeans, he looked relaxed but his tone grew intense while he spoke about Russia's military might, reminding the crowd that Russia was a strong nuclear power. "Russia's partners ... should understand it's best not to mess with us," Putin said. Putin compared Kiev's assault on the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk to the 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad in which 1 million civilians died, perhaps the most powerful historical analogy it is possible to invoke in Russia. "Small villages and large cities surrounded by the Ukrainian army which is directly hitting residential areas with the aim of destroying the infrastructure," he said. "It sadly reminds me the events of the Second World War, when German fascist ... occupiers surrounded our cities." He said the only solution to the conflict was for Kiev to negotiate directly with the rebels. Kiev has long refused to do so, arguing that the rebels are not a legitimate force on their own but proxies for Moscow, which must agree to rein them in. RADICALLY DETERIORATING Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the main rebel group, told a Russian television station his forces were ready to let the encircled Ukrainian troops pull out, provided they leave behind their heavy armored vehicles and ammunition. In Kiev, President Petro Poroshenko held an urgent meeting with security advisers overnight, after cancelling a trip to Turkey due to the "radically deteriorating situation".Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk told a government meeting on Friday the cabinet would "bring before parliament a law to scrap the non-aligned status of the Ukrainian state and establish a course towards membership of NATO". Were NATO to extend its mutual defense pact to Ukraine, it would be the biggest change in the security architecture of Europe since the 1990s. After the Cold War, NATO defied Russian objections and granted its security guarantee to ex-Communist countries like Poland, Hungary and Romania. But it largely stopped at the border of the former Soviet Union, admitting only the three Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. This year, after Putin annexed Crimea, NATO countries including the United States have repeatedly said they would be prepared to go to war to protect any member, but not to defend non-member Ukraine. Kiev hopes to get its message across to Russians that their government is waging war without telling them. Ukrainian Defence Minister Valery Heletey said many Russian soldiers had been captured and killed: "Unfortunately, they have been buried simply under building rubble. We are trying to find their bodies to return them to their mothers for burial." Russia's Defence Ministry again denied the presence of its soldiers in Ukraine: "We have noticed the launch of this informational 'canard' and are obliged to disappoint its overseas authors and their few apologists in Russia," a ministry official told Interfax news agency. (Additional reporting by Lisa Jucca, Francesca Landini, Maria Tsvetkova,; Anton Zverev, Gabriela Baczynska, Polina Devitt, Vladimir Soldatkin, Thomas; Grove, Adrian Croft, Andreas Rinke, Steve Holland and Pavel Polityuk; Writing by; Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood, Bill Trott, Sandra Maler and Andrew Hay) ||||| MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on pro-Russian separatists to release Ukrainian soldiers who have been surrounded by the rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, meets with South African President Jacob Zuma in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin,... (Associated Press) Pro-Russian rebels hold their guns as they patrol the Lenin square in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko called an emergency meeting of... (Associated Press) People observe damage done to a house after shelling in the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014. Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko called an emergency meeting of the nation's... (Associated Press) Putin's statement came several hours after Ukraine accused Russia of entering its territory with tanks, artillery and troops, and Western powers accused Moscow of lying about its role and dangerously escalating the conflict. NATO said at least 1,000 Russian troops are in Ukraine and later released what it said were satellite photos of Russian self-propelled artillery units moving last week. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the accusations of an invasion in a televised news conference on Friday, saying that Moscow "has not been presented with any facts" proving that it had happened. For the second day, Russian markets reacted nervously to the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine with the Russian ruble diving to the all-time low of 37.10 rubles against the U.S. dollar in early morning trading, but recovered later to 36.90 rubles. Markets dropped on Thursday on reports of Russia's apparent invasion in Ukraine, sparking investors' fears of further economic sanctions directed at Moscow. The ruble lost 1.4 percent against the dollar and the MICEX benchmark shed 1.6 percent. "I'm calling on insurgents to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian troops who were surrounded in order to avoid senseless deaths," Putin said in the statement published on the Kremlin's web-site in the early hours on Friday. Putin did not address the claims about Russia's military presence in Ukraine. Instead, he lauded the pro-Russian separatists for "undermining Kiev's military operation which threatened lives of the residents of Donbass and has already led to a colossal death toll among civilians." Putin's statement could be referring to Ukrainian troops who have been trapped outside the strategic town of Ilovaysk, east of Donetsk, for nearly a week now. Protesters rallied outside the Ukrainian General Staff on Thursday, demanding reinforcements and heavy weaponry for the troops outside Ilovaysk, most of whom are volunteers. A top rebel leader in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk promptly reacted to Putin's appeal but said the Ukrainian troops would have to lay down the arms before they were allowed to go. "With all our respect to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the president of a country which gives us moral support, we are ready to open humanitarian corridors to the Ukrainian troops who were surrounded with the condition that they surrender heavy weaponry and ammunition so that this weaponry and ammunition will not be used against us in future," Alexander Zakharchenko said on Russia's state Rossiya 24 television. The U.N. human rights office on Friday accused both sides of deliberately targeting civilians. Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine have carried out murders, torture and abductions along with other serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, according to the mission's field work between July 16 and Aug. 17. The report also said Ukraine's military is guilty of human rights violations such as arbitrary detentions, disappearances and torture. U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic, who visited Kiev on Friday, said the death toll had reached nearly 2,600 by Aug. 27, and described the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine as "alarming." Simonovic condemned rebels for preventing people from leaving cities caught up in the fighting. He also pointed to reports of violations by volunteer battalions under government control. In a talk Friday afternoon, Putin compared Ukrainian troops firing at civilians and surrounding cities in eastern Ukraine to Nazi invaders who laid siege to the Soviet siege of Leningrad in 1941-1944. He said residents of Ukraine's east were "suppressed with force" because they disagreed with what he called a coup in Kiev in February. To stop the bloodshed, the Kiev government should open talks with the rebels who took up arms in defense, he said. Two columns of tanks and other equipment entered southeastern Ukraine at midday on Thursday, following heavy shelling of the area from Russia that forced overmatched Ukrainian border guards to flee, according to Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's national security council. European Union foreign ministers met in Milan Friday to weigh the 28-nation bloc's stance amid increasing calls to beef up economic sanctions against Russia. Their discussion was expected to prepare possible further steps to be announced at a summit of the bloc's leaders Saturday in Brussels. U.S. President Barack Obama spoke Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been a key power broker between the West and Russia, and they agreed Russia must face consequences for its actions. Obama said Russia's activity in Ukraine would incur "more costs and consequences," though these seemed to be limited to economic pressure that will be discussed when Obama meets with European leaders at a NATO summit in Wales next week. In a phone conversation with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko late Thursday, Merkel assured the Ukrainian leader of her support for "decisive actions" that could be taken Saturday, Poroshenko's press office said. In Donetsk, the largest city under rebel control, the mayor's office reported sustained shelling across town on Friday morning. No casualties were immediately reported. __ Jim Heintz contributed to this report from Kiev, Ukraine. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen: "Russia is blatantly violating Ukrainian sovereignty" Nato has accused Russia of a "blatant violation" of Ukraine's sovereignty and engaging in direct military operations to support pro-Russian rebels. Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that "despite hollow denials", it was now clear that Russia had illegally crossed Ukraine's border. He said Nato would respect any Ukrainian decision on security, after its PM said he was putting the country on course for Nato membership. Russia denies sending troops and arms. Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the Ukrainian government for the crisis, comparing its siege of two cities held by separatists, Donetsk and Luhansk, to the siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany in World War Two. "It is necessary to make the Ukrainian authorities start substantial talks [with the rebels]," he said. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Putin: "The situation sadly reminds me of the Second World War" Nearly 2,600 people have been killed since April, the UN says, when Russia's annexation of Crimea prompted the rebels to take control of large parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Heavy fighting is continuing near Ukraine's strategic port of Mariupol, on the Azov Sea. Rebel forces are trying to capture the city but Ukrainian government troops are digging in. The rebel advance there has raised fears that the Kremlin might seek to create a land corridor between Russia and Crimea. On Thursday the separatists seized the nearby town of Novoazovsk. Separatists are also reported to have surrounded government soldiers in several places further north, near Donetsk city. Ukrainian forces near the town of Ilovaysk say they are cut off and have been urgently asking for supplies and reinforcements. Image copyright AFP Image caption Ukraine has long insisted Russian is sending troops and hardware to support eastern rebels Image copyright AFP Image caption Residents of Mariupol are digging trenches to help Ukrainian soldiers defend the strategic port city Image copyright AP Image caption An anti-war rally was held in Mariupol on Thursday Image copyright Reuters Image caption Many buildings have been destroyed in heavy fighting in Donetsk region Earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said the government was reopening the question of Nato membership. He said it was sending a bill to parliament calling for Ukraine's non-aligned status to be cancelled, in effect paving the way for Ukraine to join Nato. 'Dangerous pattern' Speaking at a news conference after an emergency meeting of Nato ambassadors, Mr Rasmussen said that it was clear Russia was engaged in direct military operations in Ukraine. "This is not an isolated action, but part of a dangerous pattern over many months to destabilise Ukraine as a sovereign nation," he said. "This is a blatant violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. It defies all diplomatic efforts for a peaceful solution." On Thursday, Nato had released satellite images it said showed columns of Russian armed forces inside Ukrainian territory, adding that more than 1,000 Russian troops were operating inside Ukraine. Image copyright Reuters Image caption This satellite image provided by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe shows what Nato identifies as Russian self-propelled artillery in Ukraine Mr Rasmussen called on Russia to cease military action, stop supporting the rebels and "take immediate and verifiable steps towards de-escalation of this grave crisis". Mr Rasmussen indicated Nato was open to considering Ukraine's application to join if it met the conditions. In 2008, Ukraine applied for Nato membership under then-President Viktor Yushchenko. But the plans were shelved two years later when Viktor Yanukovych came to power and ended Ukraine's Nato ambitions in favour of mending relations with Russia. Mr Rasmussen said on Friday: "I am not going to interfere with political discussions in Ukraine, but let me remind you of Nato's decision taken at the Bucharest Summit in 2008 according to which Ukraine will become a member of Nato, provided of course that Ukraine so wishes and provided that Ukraine fulfils the necessary criteria." Analysis: Paul Adams, BBC News Ukraine's prospects for Nato membership seem dim. The 2008 pledge, made at the insistence of then-US President George W Bush, was criticised at the time. Some saw it as rash and needlessly provocative towards Moscow, which has long argued that the West broke a promise not to extend the alliance into the former Soviet bloc after the end of the Cold War. Georgia's brief war with Russia, in the summer of 2008, convinced sceptics that for Nato to embrace countries with unresolved territorial disputes with Russia was not worth the risk. And while the Ukrainian government wants it, what evidence is there that enough Ukrainians share the same enthusiasm? Opinion polls in 2008 suggested only about 30% of the population favoured membership. In the midst of Ukraine's worsening civil war, opinion is unlikely to be less divided. Image copyright AFP Image caption A new UN report says civilians are being deliberated targeted in the fighting A UN report released on Friday found that serious human rights abuses had been committed by rebels and Ukrainian forces. The abuses include the deliberate targeting and killing of civilians trapped in urban areas or trying to flee the fighting via government-established "safe corridors", the study found. It said that an average of around 36 people had been killed on a daily basis between 16 July and 17 August. War in eastern Ukraine: The human cost At least 2,593 people had been killed since mid-April, not including the 298 passengers and crew of the Malaysian Airlines MH17 shot down in the area, a UN report on 7 August said 951 civilians have been killed in Donetsk region alone, the official regional authorities said on 20 August Official casualty counts only record certified deaths while in some particularly dangerous parts of the war zone, such as Luhansk region, victims are said to have been buried informally, for instance in gardens Rebels (and some military sources) accuse the government of concealing the true numbers of soldiers killed 155,800 people have fled elsewhere in Ukraine while at least 188,000 have gone to Russia. Have you been affected by what's going on in Ukraine? Tell us your story by emailing us at [email protected] |||||

– Moscow continues to insist it's got nothing to do with the Russian soldiers and tanks that have entered Ukraine to bolster pro-Russian separatists, but Vladimir Putin today made a point to praise the separatists' military moves. They have "achieved serious successes in stopping the armed operation by Kiev," said the Russian president in a message on the Kremlin website, reports Reuters. He also urged the rebels to let trapped Ukrainian soldiers retreat safely, reports the AP: "I call on the militia groups to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian service members who have been surrounded, so as to avoid any needless loss of life, giving them the opportunity to leave the combat area unimpeded and reunite with their families, to return them to their mothers, wives, and children, and to quickly provide medical assistance to those who were injured in the course of the military operation." The rebels appear ready to comply with what the New York Times calls a "rare direct address" from Putin. "With all respect to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the president of the country, which has helped us very much with moral support, we are ready to grant humanitarian corridors to the Ukrainian divisions surrounded in these pockets," said one leader. NATO, meanwhile, accused Russia of a "blatant violation" of its neighbor's sovereignty, reports the BBC, much as President Obama did yesterday. Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen dismissed Moscow's "hollow denials" that it hadn't deliberately sent troops over the border. Further sanctions will be on the table at an EU summit this weekend.

America Edward Snowden Tells SXSW He'd Leak Those Secrets Again Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has leaked large amounts of classified information about the agency's electronic surveillance programs, spoke via video to a sympathetic audience at South By Southwest Interactive on Monday. Snowden, who is wanted for prosecution in the U.S., was in Russia, where he's been given temporary asylum. Repeating things he's said before, Snowden declared Monday that he would do what he did all over again because he had seen the Constitution being "violated on a massive scale." The Obama administration disagrees, though Snowden's revelations did begin a process that earlier this year led the president to say he wants the NSA to stop holding on to massive amounts of "metadata" about the phone calls and electronic communications of millions of people around the world. We posted some highlights from Snowden's comments. As you'll see, he faced no tough questions. Earlier today, All Tech Considered previewed his SXSW appearance. Update at 1:02 p.m. ET. Would He Do It Again? "Absolutely Yes": The last question to Snowden is about whether he would do what he's done again. "Absolutely yes," he says, adding that he "took an oath to support and defend the Constitution and I saw the Constitution ... being violated on a massive scale." The surveillance programs, he adds, take the Constitution's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures and turn it into "any seizure is fine, just don't search it." Update at 12:59 p.m. ET. The Problem With Contractors: Snowden has worked both inside the government and for contractors outside it. The problem with contractors, he says, is that "they aren't accountable." Update at 12:50 p.m. ET. A Tor Endorsement: A Twitter query about what the average person can do to protect their online communications prompts Snowden to talk about Tor, the "mixed routing network" that can make it much harder to track online activity. Update at 12:45 p.m. ET. Another Question For Snowden From The Web. Who Are You To Decide? "On what basis do you get to be the person to unilaterally decide what material remains classified & what gets released?" (Tweeted here.) We'll watch to see if that's asked. Update at 12:40 p.m. ET. Question From The Web. What About Crimea? Questions for Snowden can be posted with the Twitter hashtag #asksnowden. Tom Risen, a tech and business reporter for U.S. News, poses this topical query: "What are you doing in Russia now that the Crimea situation is escalating?" We'll watch to see if that's asked. Update at 12:30 p.m. ET. Does Mass Surveillance Distract The Security Agencies? Snowden argues that "we've actually had tremendous intelligence failures because we're monitoring the Internet ... everybody's communications, instead of the suspects' communications." His example: Tips about the brothers' accused in the Boston Marathon bombings may not have been thoroughly pursued because the surveillance programs were given priority. Update at 12:25 p.m. ET. Says He's Not Weakening Nation's Security, NSA Is: It's pointed out to Snowden that the NSA believes his revelations have harmed national security. His response? The NSA has "elevated offensive operations — that is, attacking — over the defense of our communications." And that, in Snowden's view, has made the nation less secure. He makes the case that without a well-defended communications system, "our economy can't succeed." Update at 12:15 p.m. ET. The Constitution As A Backdrop: The background behind Snowden (presumably thanks to a "green screen" projection), is an image of the U.S. Constitution. Note: NPR is not a SXSW sponsor, but our friends on the Music Desk are webcasting music from there and some NPR staff are appearing on some SXSW panels. ||||| Story highlights "Would I do it again? Absolutely," Edward Snowden says of leaking documents "We need a watchdog that watches Congress," the NSA leaker says from Russia "There's a political response that needs to occur," but also "a tech response" He speaks via teleconference to SXSW tech conference in Texas In a rare public talk via the Web, fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden urged a tech conference audience Monday to help "fix" the U.S. government's surveillance of its citizens. He spoke via teleconference from Russia to an audience of thousands at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin. The event marked the first time the former National Security Agency contractor has directly addressed people in the United States since he fled the country with thousands of secret documents last June. In response to a question, Snowden said he had no regrets about his decision to leak the NSA documents, which showed the intelligence agency has conducted secret monitoring of Americans' phone and Internet behavior in the name of national security. "Would I do it again? Absolutely. Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to," he said. "I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. And I saw the Constitution was being violated on a massive scale," he added, to applause from the 3,000 people in the auditorium at the Austin Convention Center. JUST WATCHED The trick behind Snowden leaks revealed Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH The trick behind Snowden leaks revealed 01:59 JUST WATCHED Edward Snowden a no show at Sochi Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Edward Snowden a no show at Sochi 01:16 JUST WATCHED Boss: Snowden worst spy in U.S. history Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Boss: Snowden worst spy in U.S. history 00:31 "South by Southwest and the tech community, the people in the room in Austin, they're the folks who can fix this," Snowden said earlier. "There's a political response that needs to occur, but there's also a tech response that needs to occur." He appeared on video screens with a copy of the U.S. Constitution as a backdrop. The live stream was slow, repeatedly freezing Snowden's image onscreen. The pair of American Civil Liberties Union lawyers who hosted the discussion said Snowden's video, ultimately delivered via Google Hangouts, was streamed through several routers for security. Snowden also said Internet users need more awareness, and better tools, to help them secure their online information from prying eyes. While tech geeks may have no problem using encryption tools to scramble their messages or accessing the more-private "deep Web" via clients like Tor, Snowden said the average Web user should be able to access similar protections. "This is something that people have to be able to interact with, and the way we interact with it now is not that good," he said. Snowden took questions from two moderators -- the ACLU's Chris Sogohian and Ben Wizner, his legal counsel -- from the audience, and from Twitter. The first, fittingly, came from Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web 25 years ago this week. Berners-Lee asked Snowden what he would change about the nation's surveillance system. "We need public oversight ... some way for trusted public figures to advocate for us. We need a watchdog that watches Congress, because if we're not informed, we can't consent to these (government) policies." Asked about the difference between government surveillance and snooping by private Internet companies, Snowden said he considers government surveillance more insidious because "the government has the ability to deprive you of rights. They can jail you." Snowden, a former CIA employee and NSA contractor who fled the United States after leaking details of the American government's spy programs, was granted temporary asylum in Russia last year. He faces felony charges of espionage and theft of government property in the United States, and he has said he won't return until the U.S. changes its whistleblower protection laws. Reaction among SXSW audience members to Snowden's comments appeared mixed. "I think it was right on," said Michael Chalcraft, a retired software entrepreneur from Seattle. "There's always a balance between what the government should know about us and what we would expect to be private. "If we're not constantly protecting that privacy, then we give it up." But Megan Betterman, a health-care marketer from Minneapolis, didn't hear everything she wanted from Snowden. "I wanted to hear about what his life is like there (in Russia), and whether he'll ever come back to the U.S.," she said. "It (his talk) was very encryption-heavy." More than 30,000 attendees are currently in Austin for the 10-day SXSW festival, which began Friday and wraps on March 16. The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit media organization, live streamed the session. Also scheduled to speak at the tech-themed conference Monday afternoon -- although in person -- was journalist and civil-liberties lawyer Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story about Snowden's leaks of classified NSA documents. Snowden's call for developers to create secure, private networks for their users is less of a no-brainer at South by Southwest than it may have once been. Having emerged from the counter-culture of the early Web, SXSW Interactive has exploded in recent years as more businesses have sought to tap into successful startups' millions of users. In the same Austin convention hall where Snowden called for new privacy tools, other sessions were helping entrepreneurs learn how to make money with the data they collect about the users of their products. |||||

– By leaking NSA data, Edward Snowden forced himself into exile—but he'd "absolutely" do it again, he said today during a video talk broadcast at SXSW. He spoke from Russia, saying that he "took an oath to support and defend the Constitution," NPR reports. "I saw the Constitution ... being violated on a massive scale," he continued. And for what? He argued that the US has "actually had tremendous intelligence failures because we're monitoring ... everybody's communications, instead of the suspects' communications." He pointed to the Boston Marathon bombings as an example, arguing that tips about the terrorists may have been overlooked while investigators focused on the surveillance programs. How to "fix" the system? "There's a political response that needs to occur, but there's also a tech response that needs to occur," Snowden said, according to CNN. "We need public oversight ... some way for trusted public figures to advocate for us. We need a watchdog that watches Congress, because if we're not informed, we can't consent to these (government) policies." He also suggested Internet users protect themselves, and suggested using a "mixed routing network" to make online activity more difficult to track. Today is the first time Snowden has directly addressed US citizens since fleeing the country.

Image caption This Torah scroll may be more than 850 years old The University of Bologna in Italy has found what it says may be the oldest complete scroll of Judaism's most important text, the Torah. The scroll was in the university library but had been mislabelled, a professor at the university says. It was previously thought the scroll was no more that a few hundred years old. However, after carbon dating tests, the university has said the text may have been written more than 850 years ago. The university's Professor of Hebrew Mauro Perani says this would make it the oldest complete text of the Torah known to exist, and an object of extraordinary worth. The university says that in 1889 one of its librarians, Leonello Modona, had examined the scroll and dated it to the 17th Century. However, when Prof Perani recently re-examined the scroll, he realised the script used was that of the oriental Babylonian tradition, meaning that the scroll must be extremely old. Another reason for the dating is that the text has many features forbidden in later copies under rules laid down by the scholar Maimonides in the 12th Century, the university says. ||||| An Italian expert in Hebrew manuscripts said Wednesday he has discovered the oldest known complete Torah scroll, a sheepskin document dating from 1155-1225. It was right under his nose, in the University of Bologna library, where it had been mistakenly catalogued a century ago as dating from the 17th century. In this undated photo provided by Alma mater Studiorum Universita' di Bologna, part of a document that an Italian expert says to be the oldest known complete Torah scroll. An Italian expert in Hebrew... (Associated Press) In this undated photo provided by Alma mater Studiorum Universita' di Bologna, a document that an Italian expert says to be the oldest known complete Torah scroll. An Italian expert in Hebrew manuscripts... (Associated Press) The find isn't the oldest Torah text in the world: the Leningrad and the Aleppo bibles _ both of them Hebrew codexes, or books _ pre-date the Bologna scroll by more than 200 years. But this is the oldest Torah scroll of the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, according to Mauro Perani, a professor of Hebrew in the University of Bologna's cultural heritage department. Two separate carbon-dating tests _ performed by the University of Salento in Italy and the Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign _ confirmed the revised dating, according to a statement from the University of Bologna. Such scrolls _ this one is 36 meters (40 yards) long and 64 centimeters (25 inches) high _ are brought out in synagogues on the Sabbath and holidays, and portions are read aloud in public. Few such scrolls have survived since old or damaged Torahs have to be buried or stored in a closed room in a synagogue. In a telephone interview Wednesday, Perani said he was updating the library's Hebrew manuscript catalogue when he stumbled upon the scroll in February. He said he immediately recognized the scroll had been wrongly dated by the last cataloguer in 1889, because he recognized that its script and other graphic notations were far older. Specifically, he said the scroll doesn't take into account the rabbinical rules that standardized how the Pentateuch should be copied that were established by Maimonides in the late 12th century. The scroll contains many features and markings that would be forbidden under those rules, he said. The 1889 cataloguer, a Jew named Leonello Modona, had described the letters in the scroll as "an Italian script, rather clumsy-looking, in which certain letters, as well as the usual crowns and strokes show uncommon and strange appendices," according to the University of Bologna release. Perani, however, saw in the document an elegant script whose square letters were of Babylonian tradition, the statement said. Perani told The Associated Press it was "completely normal" for a cataloguer to make such a mistake in the late 1800s, given the "science of manuscripts was not yet born." Outside experts said the finding was important, even though older Hebrew bibles do exist. "It is fairly big news," said James Aiken, a lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament studies at Cambridge University. "Hebrew scholars get excited by very small things, but it certainly is important and clearly looks like a very beautiful scroll." However, Giovanni Garbini, a leading expert on ancient Semitic languages and retired professor at Rome's La Sapienza university, said the discovery doesn't change much about what the world knows about Hebrew manuscripts. "It's an example of an ancient scroll, but from the point of view of knowledge, it doesn't change anything," he said in a telephone interview. But Stephen Phann, acting president of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem and an expert in ancient Jewish manuscripts, said if accurately dated, the scroll is a rare and important find. "We don't have anything much from that period," Phann said. There are far older scraps of Torah scrolls that can be dated back to the 8th century, but Phann said it was rare to find a complete manuscript. The find was also emotionally important, he said because the scroll, as opposed to a bound book, is used for reading Torah portions throughout the year in synagogue. "It's almost a friendship _ that they have come to know the Torah scroll in their midst, and they draw their knowledge and focus on worship on how they live their daily life," Phann said. Perani said it remains a mystery how the scroll came to be part of the Bologna university library but that he anticipated further study would now begin. The scroll remains in the library and doesn't require any extra conservation precautions beyond what it already has, he said. ___ Diaa Hadid contributed from Jerusalem. ___ Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield |||||

– An Italian researcher has found what is believed to be the oldest scroll from Judaism's most important text, and he didn't have far to look. The professor at the University of Bologna found the 850-year-old Torah scroll in the school library, where it had been mistakenly labeled a century ago, reports the BBC. That long-ago cataloguer thought the scroll dated back to the 17th century, but Hebrew professor Mauro Perani immediately recognized the error as he was doing some re-organizing of the library. Carbon-dating confirmed his hunch. "It is fairly big news," a Cambridge expert tells the AP. "Hebrew scholars get excited by very small things, but it certainly is important and clearly looks like a very beautiful scroll." The manuscript is 40 yards long and 25 inches high. Further study will be done to see whether it yields any new information from the period it was written, somewhere around 1155 to 1225.

Dozens of tornadoes ripped through the South, flattening homes and businesses and killing at least 248 people in six states in the deadliest outbreak in nearly 40 years. Residents survey the destruction after a tornado hit Pratt City, Ala. just north of downtown Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday, April 27, 2011. A wave of severe storms laced with tornadoes strafed the South... (Associated Press) A tornado has flattened Pleasant Grove, Ala., a subdivision of Mountain Grove, Thursday, April 28. 2011. Dozens of tornadoes spawned by a powerful storm system wiped out entire towns across a wide swath... (Associated Press) Tamisha Cunningham, who suffered a leg injury when her home was destroyed, looks over the damage while waiting for medical care, near Athens, Ala., Wednesday, April 27, 2011. Homes in the area were completely... (Associated Press) First responders carry an elderly woman away after they rescued her from the rubble of her home, after a tornado struck Wednesday, April 27, 2011 in Phil Campbell, Ala. (AP Photo/TimesDaily, Daniel Giles) (Associated Press) Concrete steps lead to remains of a tornado demolished mobile home in Preston, Miss., Wednesday, April 27, 2011. The home and one next to it were blown about 100 feet away into a cow pasture. Three related... (Associated Press) A tornado moves through Tuscaloosa, Ala. Wednesday, April 27, 2011. A wave of severe storms laced with tornadoes strafed the South on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people around the region and splintering... (Associated Press) As day broke Thursday, people in hard-hit Alabama surveyed flattened, debris-strewn neighborhoods and told of pulling bodies from rubble after the storms passed Wednesday afternoon and evening. "It happened so fast it was unbelievable," said Jerry Stewart, a 63-year-old retired firefighter who was picking through the remains of his son's wrecked home in Pleasant Grove, a suburb of Birmingham. "They said the storm was in Tuscaloosa and it would be here in 15 minutes. And before I knew it, it was here." He and his wife, along with their daughter and two grandchildren, survived by hiding under their front porch. Friends down the street who did the same weren't so lucky _ Stewart said he pulled out the bodies of two neighbors whose home was ripped off its foundation. Alabama's state emergency management agency said it had confirmed 162 deaths, while there were 32 in Mississippi, 32 in Tennessee, 13 in Georgia, eight in Virginia and one in Kentucky. President Barack Obama said he would travel to Alabama on Friday to view storm damage and meet with the governor and affected families. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports into Wednesday night. Some of the worst damage was in Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 that is home to the University of Alabama. Neighborhoods there were leveled by a massive tornado caught on video by a tower-mounted news camera that barreled through late Wednesday afternoon. "When I looked back, I just saw trees and stuff coming by," said Mike Whitt, a resident at DCH Regional Medical Center who ran from the hospital's parking deck when the wind started swirling and he heard a roar. On Thursday morning, he walked through the neighborhood next to the hospital, home to a mix of students and townspeople, looking at dozens of homes without roofs. Household items were scattered on the ground _ a drum, running shoes, insulation, towels, and a shampoo bottle. Streets were impassable, the pavement strewn with trees, pieces of houses and cars with their windows blown out. Dr. David Hinson was working at the hospital when the tornado hit. He and his wife had to walk several blocks to get to their house, which was destroyed. Several houses down, he helped pull three students from the rubble. One was dead and two were badly injured. He and others used pieces of debris as makeshift stretchers to carry them to an ambulance. "We just did the best we could to get them out and get them stabilized and get them to help," he said. "I don't know what happened to them." Back from an aerial tour Thursday morning, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox said the tornado tore a streak as many as 4 miles long and a half-mile wide of "utter destruction." There are at least 36 people dead in the city's police jurisdiction, and searches continue for the missing. "We have neighborhoods that have been basically removed from the map," he said. Because the city's emergency management building was destroyed, authorities are using Bryant-Denny Stadium at the University of Alabama as a command post. University officials said there didn't appear to be significant damage on campus, and dozens of students and locals were staying at a 125-bed shelter in the campus recreation center. The storm system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out. The governors of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia issued emergency declarations for parts of their states. Dave Imy, a meteorologist with the prediction service, said the deaths were the most since a tornado outbreak killed 315 people in 1974. In Alabama, where as many as a million people were without power, Gov. Robert Bentley said 2,000 national guard troops had been activated and were helping to search devastated areas for people still missing. He said the National Weather Service and forecasters did a good job of alerting people, but there is only so much that can be done to deal with powerful tornadoes a mile wide. Obama said he had spoken with Bentley and approved his request for emergency federal assistance. "Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster," Obama said in a statement. The storms came on the heels of another system that killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi earlier this week. Less than two weeks earlier, a smaller batch of twisters raced through Alabama, touching off warning sirens, damaging businesses and downing power lines in Tuscaloosa, but there were no deaths there then. In Kemper County, Miss., in the east-central part of the state, sisters Florrie Green and Maxine McDonald, and their sister-in-law Johnnie Green, all died in a mobile home that was destroyed by a storm. "They were thrown into those pines over there," Mary Green, Johnnie Green's daughter-in-law, said, pointing to a wooded area. "They had to go look for their bodies." In Smithville in northeastern Mississippi, the police station, post office, city hall, an industrial park with several furniture manufacturing facilities and a grocery store were among dozens of buildings ripped apart. A church was cut in half, and pieces of tin were wrapped high around the legs of a blue water tower. Jessica Monaghan, 24, walked through the wreckage with her 9-month-old son, Slade Scott, strapped to her back, and the baby's father, 23-year-old Tyler Scott, by her side. Their house was still standing, though the home belonging to Tyler Scott's mother was flattened. He was at work _ he's a firefighter in nearby Tupelo _ and Monaghan was at home watching TV when broadcasters warned the town could be hit within 10 minutes. By then, she said, the storm was there about that time. "The baby was already in the closet. I grabbed the cat and got in the closet, too," Monaghan said. "You could just feel the pressure. It really was like a freight train." And in Pleasant Grove, Samantha Nail surveyed the damage in the blue-collar subdivision where hers was the only home still intact. The storm slammed heavy pickup trucks into ditches and obliterated tidy brick houses, leaving behind a mess of mattresses, electronics and children's toys scattered across a grassy plain where dozens used to live. "We were in the bathroom holding on to each other and holding on to dear life," Nail said. "If it wasn't for our concrete walls, our home would be gone like the rest of them." ___ Reeves reported from Tuscaloosa. Associated Press Writers Holbrook Mohr in Smithville, Miss.; Anna McFall and John Zenor in Montgomery; Meg Kinnard in Colombia, S.C.; Bill Fuller and Alan Sayre in New Orleans; Dorie Turner in Atlanta; and Bill Poovey in Chattanooga, Tenn., contributed to this report. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Tornado video - first clip courtesy Chris England/Crimson Tide Productions The Alabama city of Tuscaloosa has been among the hardest-hit by fierce storms which have battered the southern United States. A massive tornado - some estimates put it at a mile wide - tore through the city on Wednesday. Meteorologists say it could have been the worst in the state's history. As the twister's approach was broadcast on local television, one presenter on WMBA told viewers: "That is something that you pray that you never, ever ever see." The full scale of the destruction in Tuscaloosa is not yet clear, but more than 16 people are known to have been killed. Even on the ground floor of our two-storey apartment building, we could hear the wildness above us Will Nevin, Tuscaloosa resident The twister "cut a path of destruction deep into the heart of the city," said Mayor Walter Maddox. "What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," Mr Maddox told reporters. "We have hundreds of homes and businesses destroyed and hundreds more damaged." 'Roof flying off' The city's hospital is running on emergency generators after a nearby electricity substation was knocked out by the storm. But staff said they had still taken in more than 100 patients and were operating in full disaster mode. "All the stuff you need to be a hospital are fine: just not necessarily all the things you need to run an office," spokesman Brad Fisher told Tuscaloosa News. Image caption Several towns were hit by powerful tornadoes, including Tuscaloosa in Alabama, where Mayor Walter Maddox said a twister had "cut a path of destruction deep into the heart of the city". In pictures: Deadly US storms Police stations and the offices of the Emergency Management Agency (EMA) were also damaged. Grocery manager Mike Honeysutt described cowering with his customers at the back of the shop while the storm passed overhead. He had been monitoring its progress on the radio until he saw it through the window, bearing down on his shop. "The power went out and the building started shaking," he told the Associated Press. "The windows were shaking and part of the roof was flying off the building - the windows came into the front and then the wind started blowing stuff off of the shelves. Will Nevin told local newspaper the Birmingham News: "My wife and I were watching the weather coverage until the monster was right up on us." "Then it was the mad dash to the bathroom where the lights flickered, pulsed and finally gave up. "Even on the ground floor of our two-storey apartment building, we could hear the wildness above us." Student James DiNiro told the BBC the damage in the city was comparable to "photos from cities in World War II." "Me and a few of my friends helped pull a woman with a very severe head wound out of the rubble of her house and get her to the hospital," he said. "Her situation, like many others, appears grave." There was relief when a child was found alive beneath one pile of debris and was carried away by firefighters. But officials have warned that with more storms forecast in the coming days, the danger is not yet over for the town. |||||

– A wave of tornado-spawning storms ripped through six states yesterday, killing at least 269 people and flattening buildings. Some 180 people died in Alabama alone, many of those in college-town Tuscaloosa, where a mile-wide tornado tore through the city's downtown, the AP reports. There were 33 casualties in Mississippi, 33 in Tennessee, 14 in Georgia, eight in Virginia, and one in Kentucky. President Obama has spoken with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and approved his request for federal emergency assistance, including search and rescue teams. Tuscaloosa's mayor estimates "hundreds of homes and businesses (were) destroyed and hundreds more damaged" around the University of Alabama campus, reports the BBC, and the city's infrastructure has been devastated. "What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," he told reporters.

Gutsy "American Idol" contestant Jessica Sanchez took on Whitney Houston's biggest hit, delivering a performance that awed the show's judges. In this March 1, 2012 image released by Fox, the remaining 13 contestants from the singing competition series, "American Idol," are shown in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Fox, Michael Becker) (Associated Press) When host Ryan Seacrest asked the panel to name Wednesday night's top two singers among the 13 finalists, Steven Tyler was ready. "Jessica Sanchez and Jessica Sanchez," Tyler said. The 16-year-old San Diego high school student's assured version of "I Will Always Love You" was "just amazing. I don't even know what to say," Jennifer Lopez exclaimed during the performance show. "Jessica, you may be the one. You just made 40 million people cry," Tyler said (adding a dose of hyperbole by roughly doubling the show's biggest Wednesday night audience for the season so far). Randy Jackson didn't hold back either, calling Sanchez "one of the best talents in the whole country." On the Fox show's 400th episode, the men tackled Stevie Wonder's catalogue and the women choose from Houston's hits, a tribute to the singer who died Feb. 11, on the eve of the Grammy Awards, at age 48. "I Will Always Love You" was played at the conclusion of Houston's New Jersey church funeral last month. The "American Idol" finalists performed as the Fox show marked its 400th episode. In a twist, the male and female singers who rank lowest in the audience vote will be announced Thursday and the judges will decide which of the two will be bounced. Others who impressed the judges included Joshua Ledet, 19, of Westlake, La., with his version of "I Wish"; Hollie Cavanaugh, 18, of McKinney, Texas, with "All the Man I Need," Colton Dixon, 20, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., with "Lately," and Phillip Phillips, 21, of Leesburg, Ga., with "Superstition." Areosmith frontman Tyler offered Phillips an intriguingly enigmatic review. "You're a very interesting character, man. You got a lot of `fuhgeddaboutit' in your voice. There's no words for it. You just are. You know what I'm saying," Tyler said. Skylar Laine's version of "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" was another standout. "You're a country girl .... But what you just proved, you can sing any song," Jackson told the 18-year-old from Brandon, Miss. The judges were not uniformly kind. Elise Testone, 28, of Charleston, S.C., who performed "I'm Your Baby Tonight," fell short with the panel, which praised her talent but not what Lopez called her "unsure" performance. Shannon Magrane, 16, of Tampa, Fla., let her nerves get in the way on "I Have Nothing," Jackson said, and Tyler suggested she might be in trouble in the audience vote. ___ Fox is a unit of News Corp. ___ Online: http://www.americanidol.com ||||| You know how every year at the end of American Idol, the finalists get the chance to perform with some random artist who may or not may be their musical hero? That's now going to be an entire TV show. In another sign that TV's musical competition arms race is not abating, ABC today will take the wraps off of Duets, a talent hunt in which established stars Kelly Clarkson, Robin Thicke, Lionel Richie, and Jennifer Nettles of country group Sugarland crisscross the country in search of musical mates. These won't be random hookups, however: The goal of Duets seems to be finding a pairing of celeb and amateur actually capable of selling records. According to ABC, the four star singers "will individually set out on a journey across America looking for undiscovered talent worthy to be their protégés." The hunt will culminate with each star picking two finalists as their duet partners, resulting in eight pairings that will be put to the test weekly via live performance shows. Presumably, audiences will decide which celeb-amateur combos will move forward each week, leaving one duo as the ultimate winner of a contract with Disney-owned Hollywood Records (and perhaps a hit single). ABC says it's fast-tracking the project to debut this summer, perhaps in time to quash whatever small chance the CW's just-announced Queen Latifah–led musical star search had of finding an audience. This is not the first time the networks have played around with the idea of duets in a reality format. Six years ago, Simon Cowell produced the short-lived Fox series Celebrity Duets; that show, however, was more like Dancing With the Stars, with B-level figures randomly singing off-key with a slightly better known professional singer (such as Lucy Lawless and Richard Marx). A couple of years later, CMT tried connecting amateurs with other amateurs on the only slightly more successful Can You Duet?, which lasted two seasons before it was axed. So could ABC's Duets be a contender? Well, unlike past duet shows, it's the first major broadcast network series to try the pro-amateur approach. ABC has also found a respectable celeb foursome to mentor its contestants, giving the show a healthy amount of credibility. (Clarkson, by the way, seems to be going out of her way to dis alma mater American Idol: She's currently helping coach contestants on NBC's The Voice.) On the other hand, with Idol and Voice plus Fox's The X Factor and NBC's heavy-on-music America's Got Talent, it's worth wondering whether or not we're reaching a saturation point in terms of music competition shows. CBS is now the only broadcaster without a performance-based reality series — though perhaps it's not too late to hope for a season of Big Brother in which all of the houseguests dream of musical superstardom! |||||

– Sixteen-year-old Jessica Sanchez "made 40 million people cry" last night when she performed Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" on American Idol, judge Steven Tyler told her. The San Diego high school student enjoyed a standing ovation after her performance and reaped praise from all three judges; Randy Jackson called her "one of the best talents in the whole country." Last night's Idol featured Stevie Wonder songs for the male contestants and Houston songs for the females, the AP notes. In other Idol news, Vulture notes that first-season winner Kelly Clarkson has signed on to "ABC's version of Idol," a talent competition called Duets that involves famous singers searching the country for amateur musical partners.

Health officials urged consumers to cook chicken thoroughly and take other precautions after an 18-state salmonella outbreak that has made hundreds sick in recent months. A public health alert was issued for raw chicken packaged at three Foster Farms facilities in California as some 278 people have fallen ill since strains of Salmonella Heidelberg were first detected in March, the United States Department of Agriculture said in a statement Monday. The strains were associated with chicken distributed to retail outlets in California, Oregon and Washington state, the USDA said. The illnesses have been predominantly in California but the salmonella has reached people from 18 states, the statement said. The outbreak appears to have begun in March and the USDA was notified of the illnesses in July, said Dan Engeljohn of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Investigators had a difficult time pinpointing the source of the illnesses, Englejohn said. A spokesman for Foster Farms said no recall was in effect and that the infections were caused by eating chicken that was undercooked or improperly handled. The three facilities that packaged the chicken were all in California's Central Valley _ one in Livingston and two in Fresno. The USDA has not directly linked the outbreak of illnesses to a specific product or production period. The USDA mark on suspect packages would read: P6137, P6137A and P7632. State health officials were not planning a recall, but said it is essential that chicken be cooked to 165 degrees. "This is the important public health issue," Anita Gore, spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health. "Chicken can carry bacteria, and chicken needs to be fully cooked." Gore also said people need to thoroughly wash their hands after handling raw meat, and anyone who believes they were infected and is showing symptoms like diarrhea and abdominal cramps should contact doctors immediately. Salmonella is a pathogen that contaminates meat during slaughter and processing, and is especially common in undercooked chicken. The Centers for Disease Control, which monitors the microbes that signal multi-state outbreaks of food poisoning, was working with a barebones staff because of the federal government shutdown, with all but two of the 80 staffers that normally analyze foodborne pathogens furloughed. It was not immediately clear whether the shortage affected the response to the salmonella outbreak. ||||| Late-breaking news, and I’ll update as I find out more: While the government is shut down, with food-safety personnel and disease detectives sent home and forbidden to work, a major foodborne-illness outbreak has begun. This evening, the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the US Department of Agriculture announced that “an estimated 278 illnesses … reported in 18 states” have been caused by chicken contaminated with Salmonella Heidelberg and possibly produced by the firm Foster Farms. “FSIS is unable to link the illnesses to a specific product and a specific production period,” the agency said in an emailed alert. “The outbreak is continuing.” (Updates to this post are at the bottom.) This is the exact situation that CDC and other about-to-be-furloughed federal personnel warned about last week. As a reminder, a CDC staffer told me at the time: I know that we will not be conducting multi-state outbreak investigations. States may continue to find outbreaks, but we won’t be doing the cross-state consultation and laboratory work to link outbreaks that might cross state borders. That means that the lab work and molecular detection that can link far-apart cases and define the size and seriousness of outbreaks are not happening. At the CDC, which operates the national foodborne-detection services FoodNet and PulseNet, scientists couldn’t work on this if they wanted to; they have been locked out of their offices, lab and emails. (At a conference I attended last week, 10 percent of the speakers did not show up because they were CDC personnel and risked being fired if they traveled even voluntarily.) In case it seems like this is not a big deal (just 300 illnesses, just some raw chicken): foodborne illness can have lifelong consequences that range from arthritis to kidney trouble to heart disease. And: The number of illnesses that can be identified in any foodborne outbreak are almost always an under-estimate. In its statement, FSIS said: Raw products from the facilities in question bear one of the establishment numbers inside a USDA mark of inspection or elsewhere on the package: “P6137” “P6137A” “P7632” The products were mainly distributed to retail outlets in California, Oregon and Washington State. It is the second time this year that the firm at the center of this alert, Foster Farms, has been linked to a nationwide Salmonella outbreak. In July, according to the CDC, 134 people in 13 states were made ill by chicken linked to two Foster Farms slaughterhouses. More to come on this, I am sure. Updates, Oct. 8: Taylor Dobbs, an excellent reporter at Vermont Public Radio, has identified the 18 states where cases have been found: Arizona, Arkansas, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin. Big thanks to him for sharing his results. There were many other overnight and early-morning stories on this; I liked JoNel Aleccia‘s at NBC News. Foster Farms, the company named yesterday by the USDA, has issued a press release. An interesting point, which I hope to follow up on: They refer in the first paragraph to the previous outbreak this summer as having affected their “Pacific Northwest operations earlier this year.” The alert yesterday referred to California operations. If that is not a miscommunication and there are in fact different plants involved, it raises the question of whether there is a common source for the various slaughterhouses/packing plants. Food-safety attorney Bill Marler reminds me that two of the salmonella strains in the earlier outbreak this summer were antibiotic-resistant. The CDC’s original outbreak report describes them as “resistant to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, ampicillin, cefoxitin, ceftiofur, and ceftriaxone. The two patients with resistant isolates both were aged <12 months and required hospitalization… Resistance to third-generation cephalosporins (e.g., ceftriaxone) is clinically important because extended-spectrum cephalosporins are commonly used for treatment of severe salmonellosis in children.” If you’re curious why the CDC’s absence from this outbreak is so critical, this description of how the CDC works in multi-state outbreaks — by organizing the investigation and deploying lab resources that no other agency possesses — is helpful. Finally, a number of commenters have asked why this outbreak is even an issue, assuming that people are only at risk if they undercook their chicken. That assumes that people are only becoming sick from their own actions and not, for instance, eating the chicken in someone else’s home or in a restaurant. It also fails to account for salmonella’s nimbleness at spreading off raw meat to other niches in professional or home kitchens — a cutting board, a counter, a towel, a sponge, the cook’s hands — and then from there in an undetected manner to other foods. And, finally, it fails to acknowledge that some members of the population — toddlers, elderly, people with immune systems weakened by various medical treatments — are more vulnerable than others. There’s no question people should behave self-protectively. But in our regulatory system, food safety is a shared responsibility, federal, commercial and individual — and it only works when every party in that chain works to the highest standard they can. ||||| (Above PDF is the Spanish translation.) Congressional and Public Affairs (202) 720-9113 Richard J. McIntire CDC Update: This outbreak investigation continues. Previously, the outbreak appeared to be over, but recent findings indicate otherwise. The number of reported infections from all seven outbreak strains of Salmonella Heidelberg returned to baseline levels in January and the outbreak appeared to be over, as noted in the previous update on January 16, 2014. However, the investigation continued and ongoing surveillance in February identified that infections from two of the previously rare outbreak strains have again exceeded the number of infections expected to be reported to PulseNet during this time of year. For more information visit CDC. WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2013 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing a public health alert due to concerns that illness caused by strains of Salmonella Heidelberg are associated with raw chicken products produced by Foster Farms at three facilities in California. At this point in the investigation, FSIS is unable to link the illnesses to a specific product and a specific production period. Raw products from the facilities in question bear one of the establishment numbers inside a USDA mark of inspection or elsewhere on the package: “P6137” “P6137A” “P7632” The products were mainly distributed to retail outlets in California, Oregon and Washington State. This public health alert is being issued after an estimated 278 illnesses were recently reported in 18 states, predominantly in California. The outbreak is continuing. The investigations indicate that consumption of Foster Farms brand chicken and other brand chicken produced at Foster Farms plants are the likely source of this outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg infections. Illnesses were linked to Foster Farms brand chicken through epidemiologic, laboratory and traceback investigations conducted by local, state, and federal officials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is partnering with state health departments to monitor the outbreak while FSIS continues its investigation. The investigation is ongoing and FSIS is prepared to take additional actions or expand the investigation based on new evidence. FSIS reminds consumers to properly handle raw poultry in a manner to prevent contamination from spreading to other foods and food contact surfaces. FSIS further reminds consumers of the critical importance of following package cooking instructions for frozen or fresh chicken products and general food safety guidelines when handling and preparing any raw meat or poultry. In particular, while cooking instructions may give a specific number of minutes of cooking for each side of the product in order to attain 165 °F internal temperature, consumers should be aware that actual time may vary depending on the cooking method (broiling, frying, or grilling) and the temperature of the product (chilled versus frozen) so it is important that the final temperature of 165 °F must be reached for safety. Please do not rely on the cooking time for each side of the product, but use a food thermometer. All poultry products should be cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165° F as determined by a food thermometer. Using a food thermometer is the only way to know that food has reached a high enough temperature to destroy foodborne bacteria. Consumption of food contaminated with Salmonella can cause salmonellosis, one of the most common bacterial foodborne illnesses. Salmonella infections can be life-threatening, especially to those with weak immune systems, such as infants, the elderly and persons with HIV infection or undergoing chemotherapy. The most common symptoms of salmonellosis are diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within eight to 72 hours. Additional symptoms may be chills, headache, nausea and vomiting that can last up to seven days. Consumers with food safety questions can "Ask Karen," the FSIS virtual representative available 24 hours a day at AskKaren.gov. The toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) is available in English and Spanish and can be reached from l0 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday. Recorded food safety messages are available 24 hours a day. # Related Information: Questions and Answers (Oct 16, 2013) |||||

– A salmonella outbreak involving chicken has sickened about 300 people in 18 states, most of them in California, reports the AP. Authorities issued an alert for chicken packaged at one of three Foster Farms operations in California with a USDA mark of P6137, P6137A, or P7632. Here's the fun part: The CDC has a skeletal staff because of the government shutdown. "That means that the lab work and molecular detection that can link far-apart cases and define the size and seriousness of outbreaks are not happening," writes Maryn McKenna at Wired. The government alert is here.

In this photo taken by Alexey Avanesyan, Alexander Kuznetsov, Russian rapper also known as Husky waits for a court hearing in Krasnodar, Russia, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018. The Russian rapper is facing two... (Associated Press) In this photo taken by Alexey Avanesyan, Alexander Kuznetsov, Russian rapper also known as Husky waits for a court hearing in Krasnodar, Russia, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018. The Russian rapper is facing two weeks in jail for performing on a car after prosecutors banned his gig for going against the government.... (Associated Press) MOSCOW (AP) — A popular Russian rapper was sentenced Thursday to 12 days in jail for performing on a car after prosecutors banned his gig. Husky, who has a wide following among young Russians with his videos scoring up to 6 million views on YouTube, was arrested Wednesday. A court in the southern city of Krasnodar sentenced Husky on charges of hooliganism. The 25-year-old rapper, known for his songs mocking authorities and police brutality, was due to perform in Krasnodar when local prosecutors warned the venue that his act had elements of what they termed "extremism." Russian authorities have in recent years used the vaguely worded law on extremism to go after Kremlin critics and dissenters. Wednesday's gig was moved to another club, where the power was shut off and Husky's fans poured outside. Videos posted online showed the rapper, whose real name is Dmitry Kuznetsov, reading his verses on top of a car with the fans chanting in unison. Police officers let him finish the song and then detained him, but had trouble driving away as crowds of fans blocked the police vehicle, demanding his release. Police eventually persuaded them to disperse. Local police also said that the owner of the car on which Husky performed filed a complaint for property damage, a charge that may carry a longer prison term. It wasn't immediately clear if authorities were going to press those charges. The rapper told the court that he was forced to perform on the street because his concert had been canceled without explanation. He said he was willing to pay compensation for any damage to the vehicle. "I acted in such a way because I faced a situation when I felt an obligation to talk to the people who had bought tickets," he told the court. Husky's black-and-white videos mock a political regime that expects tacit compliance from its citizens. A new wave of Russian rap musicians is widely credited for channeling young Russians' frustration with the political system and lack of economic prospects. Authorities in other Russian regions have also moved to ban Husky's gigs. Husky said in a social media post last month that officials in several Russian cities are pressuring venues to shut down his shows because his songs allegedly offend Christian believers and promote promiscuity. ___ Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report. ||||| Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. |||||

– A popular Russian rapper was sentenced Thursday to 12 days in jail for performing on a car after prosecutors banned his gig. Husky, who has a wide following among young Russians with his videos scoring up to 6 million views on YouTube, was arrested Wednesday. A court in the southern city of Krasnodar sentenced Husky on charges of hooliganism. The 25-year-old rapper, known for his songs mocking authorities and police brutality, was due to perform in Krasnodar when local prosecutors warned the venue that his act had elements of what they termed "extremism." Russian authorities have in recent years used the vaguely worded law on extremism to go after Kremlin critics and dissenters, reports the AP. Wednesday's gig was moved to another club, where the power was shut off and Husky's fans poured outside. Videos posted online showed the rapper, whose real name is Dmitry Kuznetsov, reading his verses on top of a car with the fans chanting in unison. Police officers let him finish the song and then detained him. Local police also said that the owner of the car on which Husky performed filed a complaint for property damage, a charge that may carry a longer prison term. It wasn't immediately clear if authorities were going to press those charges. The rapper told the court that he was forced to perform on the street because his concert had been canceled without explanation. He said he was willing to pay compensation for any damage to the vehicle. "I acted in such a way because I faced a situation when I felt an obligation to talk to the people who had bought tickets," he told the court.

Washington, DC (July 21, 2014) - It seems common practice. After a long day at work, sometimes you just want to turn on the TV or play a video game to relax, decompress. This is supposed to make you feel better. But, a recent study published in the Journal of Communication, by researchers at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, and VU University Amsterdam, found that people who had high stress levels after work and engaged in television viewing or video game play didn't feel relaxed or recovered, but had high levels of guilt and feelings of failure. Leonard Reinecke (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) and Tilo Hartmann and Allison Eden, (VU University Amsterdam) surveyed 471 participants to think about the preceding day and report how they had felt after work and what media they had used. The researchers found that people who were particularly fatigued after work or school showed a higher tendency to feel that their media use was a form of procrastination. They felt that they succumbed to their desire of using media instead of taking care of more important tasks. As a result, they had a higher risk of feeling guilty about their media use. These feelings of guilt diminished the positive effects of media use and reduced recovery and vitality after media use. The results also suggest a paradoxical pattern between depletion and media-induced recovery: Those depleted individuals who could have benefitted the most from recovery through media use, instead experienced lower levels of recovery because they took their media use as a sign of their own self-control failure. Prior research has shown that the use of entertaining media produces a "recovery experience", that helps us to psychologically detach from work stress and relax, but also provides mastery experience (e.g., when you beat a computer game or watch a thought-provoking movie) and a feeling of control during leisure time. As a result, people feel energized and more vital after media use and even show stronger cognitive performance thanks to media-induced recovery. "We are beginning to better understand that media use can have beneficial effects for people's well-being, through media-induced recovery. Our present study is an important step towards a deeper understanding of this. It demonstrates that in the real life, the relationship between media use and well-being is complicated and that the use of media may conflict with other, less pleasurable but more important duties and goals in everyday life," said Reinecke. "We are starting to look at media use as a cause of depletion. In times of smartphones and mobile Internet, the ubiquitous availability of content and communication often seems to be a burden and a stressor rather than a recovery resource." ### "The Guilty Couch Potato: The Role of Ego Depletion in Reducing Recovery Through Media Use," by Leonard Reinecke, Tilo Hartmann and Allison Eden; Journal of Communication Contact: To schedule an interview with the author or a copy of the research, please contact John Paul Gutierrez, [email protected]. About ICA ||||| Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. |||||

– It seems natural to reach for the remote to take a breather after a taxing day of conference calls and TPS reports, but a new study warns that especially work-weary folks who flick on the TV or play video games may feel incredibly guilty and like failures afterward, reports the Independent. Instead of letting the media do its ostensible job of mitigating any 9-to-5 stress, scientists found that certain “ego-depleted individuals” regard these activities as procrastination from more critical tasks and fault themselves for a lack of self-control. The German and Dutch researchers asked 471 subjects to talk about how they felt after their 9-to-5 toil the previous day, as well as what media they used to veg out, according to a post at Eureka Alert. Even though the study’s authors say that media has been shown in previous research to offer a “recovery experience” for stressed-out working stiffs, this survey seems to indicate the opposite: that worn-out workers who could probably use a decompression session of Orange Is the New Black the most end up feeling like the biggest losers because they think they should be reading Crime and Punishment or cleaning out the garage instead. “In times of smartphones and mobile Internet, the ubiquitous availability of content and communication often seems to be a burden and a stressor rather than a recovery resource,” says one of the co-authors. (Click to read how food can affect your stress level, too.)

China was once again the world's top executioner in 2016, according to a report by rights group Amnesty International. (AFP/Getty Images) The United States was among the world's 10 largest executioners in 2016, coming in at No. 7, according to a new report. The U.S. dropped out of the top five global executioners for the first time in a decade. The country executed 20 people in 2016, the lowest number since 1991. In its annual death penalty report, "Death Sentences and Executions 2016," rights group Amnesty International found at least 1,032 people were executed in 23 countries in 2016, not including figures from China. The total figure represents a 37 percent decease from 2015, when the group recorded 1,634 executions in 25 countries. Execution methods worldwide in 2016 involved beheading, shooting, lethal injection and hanging. China was once again the world's top executioner, according to the group. While the country doesn't publish any figures on the death penalty, "available information indicates that thousands of people are executed and sentenced to death in China every year," the report says. James Clark, senior death penalty campaigner for Amnesty International USA, says the group uses multiple sources, including news reports and accounts from family members, to produce its estimates. In descending order, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan followed China to complete the top five countries that recorded the greatest number of executions. If China is excluded, those four nations comprised about 90 percent of all executions worldwide, the report said. Iran alone accounted for 55 percent of all executions, though executions in the country dropped by 42 percent from the previous year. Countries that rounded out the top 10 executioners included Egypt (No. 6), the U.S. (No. 7), Somalia (No. 8), Bangladesh (No. 9) and Afghanistan (No. 10). Egypt and Bangladesh doubled the number of executions in 2016 and Iraq more than tripled its number of capital punishments. While the number of executions in the U.S. fell in 2016, the country was still the only nation to execute anyone in all of the Americas. The number of countries carrying out executions has decreased in recent decades. While 23 countries executed people in 2016, in 1997, 40 countries did so, according to the report. In total, 104 countries have abolished the death penalty in law for all crimes. In 1997, only 64 countries were fully abolitionist. "Countries all over the world are seeing that the death penalty doesn't work," Clark says. "It doesn't provide the safety or deterrent factors people claim that it does. It's a clear violation of human rights to execute anyone and that is being recognized more and more around the world." ||||| The number of death sentences handed down in the US, 32, was the lowest since 1973 and the number of executions, 20, meant the country is now no longer among the world's five biggest executioners US death penalty sentences fell to a historic low last year and executions also dropped sharply, contributing to a global slump of over a third from 2015, Amnesty International said Tuesday. The number of death sentences handed down in the US, 32, was the lowest since 1973 and the number of executions, 20, meant the country is now no longer among the world's five biggest executioners. Salil Shetty, secretary general of the London-based international human rights watchdog, said the US decline was "a sign of hope for activists who have long campaigned for an end to capital punishment". "The debate is clearly shifting," he said in the group's annual global review of the death penalty, which showed a 37 percent decline overall. Amnesty said it was "a clear sign that judges, prosecutors and juries are turning their back on the death penalty as a means of administering justice". The report also noted sharp drops in the number of executions in Iran -- down 42 percent to at least 567 -- and Pakistan -- down 73 percent to 87. There were also fewer executions in sub-Saharan Africa, although the number of death sentences handed down more than doubled to 1,086, largely due to a rise in Nigeria to 527 from 171. - China 'leading' in executions - Overall Amnesty recorded 1,032 executions worldwide last year -- a 37-percent decline from 2015. In 2015, Amnesty said worldwide executions had reached 1,634 -- the highest recorded since 1989. The statistics exclude China which Amnesty said executes more people than the rest of the world combined but keeps the precise numbers secret. "China wants to be a leader on the world stage, but when it comes to the death penalty it is leading in the worst possible way -- executing more people annually than any other country in the world. "It is high time for China to lift the veil on this deadly secret and finally come clean about its death penalty system," Shetty said. Amnesty found public news reports of at least 931 people executed between 2014 and 2016, which it said was a fraction of the total executions believed to have taken place in China. But it said only 85 of the executions were registered in a state database. The five biggest executioners in 2016 were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan. Egypt came in sixth place with a doubling of executions to 44 in 2016 from 22 in 2015. "Under (President) Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's rule Egypt has witnessed an unprecedented increase in mass death sentences after unfair trials," Amnesty said. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced a three-month state of emergency following twin church bombings by the Islamic State group that killed dozens of people on Palm Sunday, the deadliest attacks on the minority in recent memory. |||||

– The US is no longer one of the top five executioners in the world, AFP reports. In 2016, both death sentences and executions dropped in the US; only 20 people were put to death, which dropped the US to the No. 7 spot globally, per US News & World Report. And just 32 people were sentenced to death, the lowest number since 1973. Amnesty International, which reported the news, is hailing the trend, with the secretary general of the human rights organization calling it "a sign of hope for activists who have long campaigned for an end to capital punishment." And it's not just the US—globally, there has been a 37% decline in the death penalty since 2015, the year that saw the highest recorded number of executions worldwide (1,634) since 1989. But China, which keeps its numbers secret, was not included in Amnesty's tally. "China wants to be a leader on the world stage, but when it comes to the death penalty it is leading in the worst possible way—executing more people annually than any other country in the world," the organization states, calling on the country to start publicizing its numbers. Amnesty says China is the biggest executioner in the world, followed by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Pakistan. But two of those, Iran and Pakistan, saw significant drops in the number of executions (42% and 73% respectively) in 2016.

Attention Alfred Angelo Customers We know how much goes into planning a wedding, and we're happy to help those affected by Alfred Angelo's store closures. With dream wedding dresses for every style, size, and budget, plus bridesmaid dresses in sizes 0–30, David's Bridal can ensure that every bride has the wedding of her dreams. ||||| In a business collapse that disrupted wedding plans nationwide, dressmaker Alfred Angelo Bridal closed its doors and filed to liquidate its operations in bankruptcy court in West Palm Beach on Friday after failing to find a buyer for the company. The shutdown left brides-to-be across the country locked out and with little information about their time-sensitive wedding purchases. A lawyer for a Miami law firm retained to manage the case said she will work with a court-appointed trustee to release bridal dresses being held by the stores, which closed Thursday. Patricia Redmond of Stearns Weaver Miller, Weissler Alhadoff & Sitterson, said in a telephone interview she had received more than 3,500 emails from panicked brides. Alfred Angelo operated at least 60 locations in the U.S., and maintained stores in Canada, Europe and Japan. Its dresses were placed with 1,400 retailers worldwide. In South Florida, its stores in Boynton Beach, Sunrise and Coral Gables are all closed. The headquarters offices at 1625 S. Congress Ave. in Delray Beach are also shut. All of the stores posted “closed” signs, directing customers to contact Stearns, Weaver via email at [email protected] for more information. Misty-eyed Yadira Castro, 27, was one of the brides seeking answers. Standing outside Alfred Angelo’s Boynton Beach store on Friday, she was desperate to learn about her wedding dress. Her wedding is a week from Saturday. “I don’t have the money to buy a new dress. I have no time to buy a new dress,” said Castro, showing a picture of the Disney character Princess Jasmine-inspired dress she had purchased from Alfred Angelo for more than $800. With veil and accessories, she has nearly $1,250 invested in wedding attire at the store, she said. Castro is among countless brides and bridesmaids who are scrambling after the Delray Beach-based wedding dress company closed its doors. There were reports from multiple cities of brides appearing at stores to pick up their wedding gowns, only to find the locations closed. Redmond said she will ask a court-appointed trustee for the case to release dresses being held in the stores awaiting pickup by brides-to-be, and will do her best to persuade the trustee to release a $1.2 million shipment coming from China, so brides can receive the dresses they ordered. All told, the business filed voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions for nearly 20 related companies in the U.S. and abroad. Top creditors of Alfred Angelo, the main company, are Czech Asset Management of Connecticut, a portfolio company, for $54 million; and CardConnect, a credit card processor for up to $5 million, Redmond said. After that, there will likely be dress manufacturers in China filing claims, she said. The cases are assigned to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul Hyman in West Palm Beach. Alfred Angelo’s board of directors met July 10 by telephone to authorize the bankruptcy filings and to retain Stearns Weaver Miller, court documents show. The business started more than 80 years ago by Alfred Angelo Piccione and Edythe Vincent Piccione, according to the corporate history on the company’s website. Alfred Angelo’s current CEO is Richard Anders, named in 2016. He could not be reached for comment on Friday. Anders previously was president of retail at Nautica, a brand of VF Corp., and held positions before that at J. Crew and Old Navy, according a January 2016 story in the Sun Sentinel. He joined Alfred Angelo in 2014. In Coral Gables, bride-to-be Jessica Ringler whose Disney Belle dress, veil and belt were inside the store, stood outside the store Friday morning seeking any information. “It just sucks. I don’t even understand what happened,” said Ringler, 33, who ordered the $2,500 dress in March for her wedding next February. “It’s beautiful...It was supposed to be my dream dress,” she said. Ringler said “it would have been nice if they had given some kind of heads up. Now I can’t get my dress. This is somebody’s future.” Alfred Angelo’s store on Miracle Mile is a prime destination for brides-to-be, along with other bridal and wedding-related stores. Nora Ares, an employee at nearby Bijou Bridal & Special Occasion store, said she would often refer customers to Alfred Angelo. “You would never think that something so drastic would happen to a chain like that,” she said. “It’s going to be devastating for those brides.” Chris Phillips of Boynton Beach arrived at the local Alfred Angelo store to check on the news for his son, whose wedding party has bridesmaid dresses at the store. His son, 25, is scheduled to get married in September. Phillips was on his cellphone telling family members it was time to shop elsewhere. “It’s a done deal,” he said, adding that he is concerned about finding new dresses in time. David’s Bridal had told the family they were too late when they went shopping a few months ago. But the family may get a reprieve. On Friday, David’s Bridal tweeted that it was offering discounts to brides-to-be who have been impacted by the Alfredo Angelo closings. David’s Bridal said it will offer a 30 percent discounts on replacement wedding gowns to those with an Alfred Angelo receipt and 20 percent discounts for bridesmaid dresses. It also said it is waiving rush fees on alterations for those with wedding dates around the corner. In Sunrise, the David’s Bridal shop at 12605 Sunrise Blvd. took a higher than usual volume of calls, many from affected Alfred Angelo customers in search of replacement wedding or bridesmaid dresses, said store manager Heather Dadic. Bridal apparel and formal dress retailer Camille La Vie, which has South Florida outposts in Sunrise, Pembroke Pines and Doral is also offering discounts to help displaced Alfred Angelo customers. “We are happy to accommodate those brides/bridesmaids affected by the @AlfredAngelo closing with a discount. Visit stores for assistance!,” Camille La Vie said in a tweet around 2:30 p.m. Friday via Twitter. The news of Alfredo Angelo’s closing was upsetting to wedding planners as well. “Those poor brides,” said Carmen Mesa, a master wedding planner for the Association of Bridal Consultants in Cooper City. “You hear sometimes about venues closing, but I have not heard of a national bridal chain this huge closing and leaving people in the lurch. It breaks my heart that these people are not going to get their gowns in time.” Other bridal salons are trying to step in to help, she said. ||||| A private company based in Delray Beach, Fla., Alfred Angelo sold its dresses at 1,400 other retailers, in addition to operating its own stores, according to its website. Like other bridal companies, it has faced pressure from bridal fashion start-ups and traditional retailers pushing low prices. In its bankruptcy filing, the company said it had no more than $50,000 in assets, but more than $50 million in liabilities. Competitors were rushing to capitalize on the company’s demise. David’s Bridal offered discounts to Alfred Angelo customers if they can show a receipt from the store, as well as free rushed alterations. Alfred Angelo’s failure led Alex Pacifico and her co-workers at the company’s bridal store near Dayton, Ohio, to spend Thursday essentially running a guerrilla retail operation. They scrambled to get customers gowns they had ordered and told customers to take sample items they had on hand. “If we had what customers needed in the store, they were more than welcome to take it with them,” she said. But other brides-to-be and members of their wedding parties were not so lucky. Christine Danielle, who also lives in Houston, ordered a dress from the bridal retailer in May to wear to a wedding. As of Friday afternoon, she had been unable to figure out where the $195 dress was. “There’s no dress in sight, no refund in sight,” Ms. Danielle said. Along with the brides, employees at Alfred Angelo were also left in the lurch. Pacifico worried that she would not get paid for hours worked this week and will lose out on sales commissions. She said the closing left some customers angry, blaming the workers for the situation. The employees at the Dayton store worked for about 12 hours that day — for no pay — trying to help customers, Ms. Pacifico said. ||||| Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below. Saber máis Add this video to your website by copying the code below. Saber máis Vaites, produciuse un problema na conexión co servidor. Queres tentalo de novo? Incluír o chío pai Incluír multimedia Ao inserires contido de Twitter no teu sitio web ou na túa aplicación, aceptas o Acordo de programadores e a Normativa de programadores. Previsualizar |||||

– Wedding dress retailer Alfred Angelo shuttered stores nationwide on Friday, sending brides-to-be into a panic. The Sun Sentinel reports the Florida-based company filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to find a buyer. The chain has at least 60 shops in the US, and its dresses are sold in more than 1,400 spots worldwide. Little information was available for angry brides who vented on social media after finding they were shut out of shops holding their gowns. "I'm glad orange is my wedding color because I'm gonna be married in jail if I can't get my dresses," one woman tweeted. Alfred Angelo hasn’t commented, but company lawyer Patricia Redmond tells the Sun Sentinel she has been bombed with more than 3,500 emails from worried brides. Redmond says the chain will work with a court-appointed trustee to release all the gowns in the shops. With her wedding a week away, Yadira Castro, 27, was no doubt hoping that was the case. "I don’t have the money to buy a new dress," she tells the newspaper, after paying $1,200 for an ensemble featuring a gown inspired by the Disney character Princess Jasmine. Some customers blamed Alfred Angelo workers for not being honest, but one mother tells the New York Times an employee in the Houston shop found her daughter’s dress and "gave us one hour" to pick it up Friday morning. "We have a happy ending," she says. Meanwhile, competitors liked David's Bridal rushed to offer discounts and alterations for betrayed brides and bridesmaids. (This wedding registry is not for everyone.)

Data crawled on behalf of Internet Memory Foundation . This data is currently not publicly accessible.from Wikipedia The Internet Memory Foundation (formerly the European Archive Foundation) is a non profit foundation whose purpose is archiving web content, it supports projects and research which include the preservation and protection of multimedia content. Its archives form a digital library of cultural content. ||||| This morning, I will begin living on a food budget of $30 a week / $4.32 per day. This is the financial equivalent of the budget provided to people participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, in the State of New Jersey. I will live only on a SNAP equivalent food budget for the next seven days. Undertaking what is referred to as the #SNAPChallenge began with a social media-based conversation on Twitter. A Twitter user tweeted me her opinion that "nutrition is not the responsibility of the government". This comment caused me to reflect on the families and children in my community who benefit from SNAP assistance and deserve deeper consideration. In my own quest to better understand the outcomes of SNAP assistance, I suggested to this specific Twitter user that we both live on a SNAP equivalent food budget for a week and document our experience. A simple conversation on Twitter drew me into the #SNAPChallenge I am beginning today. My goals for the #SNAPChallenge are to raise awareness and understanding of food insecurity; reduce the stigma of SNAP participation; elevate innovative local and national food justice initiatives and food policy; and, amplify compassion for individuals and communities in need of assistance. Over the next seven days, I plan to highlight the voices of people involved in local food policy, the SNAP program, and other related initiatives. As I begin this journey, I am doubling down on my commitment to the Food Justice Movement that is gaining awareness and participation in this country. We have much work to do at the local level to address a legacy of structural inequities in the American food system. As more and more working people and families - many holding down more than one job - face greater and greater challenges to juggle housing, medical, and transportation costs, meeting nutritional needs becomes a serious problem and a social justice issue. The struggle of children, seniors, and families to have access to essential nutrition is a struggle we are all invested in and we all benefit when families succeed. Now more than ever we are all in this together. Throughout this week, I will document my #SNAPChallenge experiences and reflections on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and through video on #waywire. If you are interested in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, I encourage you to click the reference links below. Originally posted on Linkedin REFERENCE LINKS ||||| NEWARK — In Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s career of glitzy photo shoots, this was by far the most humble. He stood in his kitchen Tuesday, glumly assessing the 17 cans of beans, seven yams, two bags of frozen vegetables and two apples that will constitute his diet for the next seven days as he embarked on a week-long effort to shed light on the plight of roughly 46 million Americans who rely on food stamps to survive. Tuesday was day one. And though the normally caffeinated mayor was trying to be upbeat, the look on his face suggested it’s going to be a long week without his two signature vices: Diet Pepsi and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. He’s already learned a few lessons about shopping on a budget. "If I could go back and do it over again, I definitely would have gotten a dozen eggs and I would have clipped coupons," he said. Yet behind the publicity stunt, Booker says, there’s a bigger purpose at hand. "People have a real lack of understanding of the struggles that many families have to go through — hard working families that play by the rules," Booker said when he first set up the challenge last week. "One of my main goals will be to shine light on programs like this and dispel stereotypes that exist." Booker spent $29.78 on groceries Tuesday, the average weekly bill of a single person who receives food stamps as part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. For the next seven days, and at a time when Congress is considering $16 billion in cuts to the federal program, Booker will put himself in the same position as 850,000 other New Jerseyans who receive food stamps each month. Since the Food Research and Action Center, a national advocacy group, began tracking SNAP challenges in 2006, hundreds of mayors, city councilors and advocates for the poor have spent a week living on the equivalent of what they would qualify for in food stamps. Though Booker is among the most high profile officials to take the challenge, he is not the first in New Jersey. Jennifer Velez, commissioner of the Department of Human Services, took the challenge last year. "It was a tough week. Not just because of the Food Stamp Challenge but because it was busy and stressful and nearing the holiday, which creates a whole different kind of chaos," Velez wrote in the daily diary of her week. "What I realized ... is that hunger affects everything: energy, patience, mood and sleep." While Booker has been chided by some for turning the challenge into a publicity stunt, Nicole Brossoie, a spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, said that’s the point. "You cannot get the full experience of a person who is a SNAP recipient from a seven-day experience," she said. "What you do is raise awareness." That much Booker has done. Media outlets from CNN to the Christian Science Monitor have picked up on the challenge since one of Booker’s 1.3 million Twitter followers got a little mouthy with him in a debate over the government’s role in nutrition assistance. "Why is there a family today that is ‘too poor to afford breakfast? Are they not already receiving food stamps?" wrote the unnamed tweeter who goes by the handle "TwitWit." Booker told the North Carolina woman to put her money where her tweets are. "Let’s you and I try to live on food stamps in New Jersey (high cost of living) and feed a family for a week or month. U game?" Booker tweeted. STAY CONNECTED 24/7 Download our Download our free NJ.com mobile and tablet apps to keep up with the latest New Jersey news, sports and entertainment. This weekend, Booker took a shopping trip with Elizabeth Reynoso, Newark’s Food Policy Director, and bought just under the weekly limit for an individual on food stamps. The average monthly food stamp benefit was $133.26 per person in New Jersey in fiscal year 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s a little more than $33 per week, or $4 per day. Generally, a single person with a gross income of $1,723 a month would qualify. Each additional person in the household bumps up that requirement by about $600. But Brossoie said there are numerous caveats that affect that income level. As of August, there were 842,973 New Jerseyans on food stamps, up 7 percent from 2011. In the third-wealthiest state in the nation, more than a third of all households are unable to provide basic necessities, according to the United Way of New Jersey. And while the acronym says the assistance is "supplemental" many anti-hunger advocates say between bigger expenses, like housing and transportation, that’s a misnomer. "For many people, the food stamp allotment is your food budget," said Alexandra Ashbrook, Director of Washington D.C. Hunger Solutions, who has taken the challenge several times. "It’s insufficient, but it’s also critical to defend against hunger." Follow @starledger |||||

– Cory Booker began his food stamp challenge yesterday, showing off his decidedly modest grocery haul for the week to the New Jersey Star-Ledger. The vegetarian mayor spent $29.78 on an assortment that included 17 cans of beans, seven yams, two bags of frozen vegetables, and two apples. "If I could go back and do it over again, I definitely would have gotten a dozen eggs and I would have clipped coupons," he says. Booker says he's hoping to foster compassion for people living on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) food stamps, even as Congress considers cutting the program. "People have a real lack of understanding of the struggles that many families have to go through," he says. In a blog post about the challenge he says he's "doubling down on my commitment to the Food Justice Movement." He promised to document the experience on social media, and indeed, this morning he tweeted an image of his chickpea-and-lettuce breakfast.

MADRID (AP) — They booked banquets for hundreds of guests. They ate, drank, danced and even set off fireworks. But when desserts arrived, they drove away in the blink of an eye, leaving behind unpaid bills amounting to thousands of euros. A trail of similar recent incidents in various restaurants in northwestern Spain is being investigated by police, who have detained one man from Romania whose identity matches some of the bookings, authorities said on Tuesday. "We had just served the cake and they left just like that, without insults, without being rude to us. They got in their cars and sped out," said Antonio Rodriguez, who was the first restaurateur to alert authorities after staff in his Carmen Hotel found themselves with an unpaid bill of 2,200 euros ($2,300). The reservation for Feb. 27 in Bembibre, a town in northwestern Castile and Leon region, was to celebrate the christening of two boys with appetizers, pork chops, dessert and alcohol for 120 guests, said Rodriguez. The cake was on its way when the guests left "in a stampede," he said. A few days later, another establishment in Ponferrada, only 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) away, served food and alcohol in a wedding banquet for a value of around 10,000 euros ($10,600) — with the same outcome. Rodriguez says that at least one other similar incident has emerged in the northern region of Galicia since he told his story to local media. When the banquet was almost finished, guests came out of the dining hall to set off fireworks but never returned. The owner of Carmen, who says he has never seen anything similar in almost four decades in the business, had been paid a deposit of 900 euros, but he expresses little hope of recovering the remaining debt. "What's really worse is that it feels like they are pouring cold water onto you, seeing them leaving and knowing that there's nothing that you can do because these were huge men with muscles," Rodriguez told The Associated Press. A spokesman with the Interior Ministry in Leon, the province where the first two cases were reported, confirmed the arrest on Monday of a first suspect. A second man who is on the run could have left the country already, according to a spokesman with the Civil Guard, and more suspects have been identified. But no further details would be released to avoid tipping the fraudsters off. Both officials spoke anonymously in line with internal policy. ||||| The group had paid a €900 deposit at the El Carmen restaurant in Bembibre, in El Bierzo region in Castilla y Leon near the border with Galicia, but promised to settle the bill at the end of the meal. Instead, they all jumped up en masse and fled without paying the €2,000 balance. Or rather, they snaked out of the restaurant dancing a conga and then jumped in their cars and sped away. "It happened in the space of a minute," restaurant owner Antonio Rodriguez told El Pais. "It was something they’d planned." It has now emerged that the same group, described by the restaurant owner as Roma from Romania, have a history of not paying their bill. The same group of family and friends, dubbed the ‘kings of simpa’ – a diminutive of ‘sin pagar’ meaning without paying, are thought to be responsible for “doing a runner” earlier this year after celebrating a wedding banquet for a young couple at another restaurant in the region. The owners of El Rincón de Pepín, a restaurant in nearby Ponferrada believes they fell victim to the same fraudsters in February when a group of 200 wedding guests “stampeded” out of the dining room just before the coffees were served. “They had made a reservation for 100 but there was close to 200 people present,” one of the workers there told El Confidencial. “Just after eating their desserts when I was on my way to make coffee, they all upped and left.” They left an outstanding bill of more than €10,000. The restaurant claims to have tracked some of the culprits down after finding photographs of the occasion posted on Facebook and have lodged a complaint with the Guardia Civil who are investigating the incident. ||||| Image copyright El Rincon de Pepin Image caption The owner of El Rincon de Pepin said the mystery guests owed €10,000 Police are investigating whether a gang who ate thousands of euros of food in a restaurant in Spain before fleeing had targeted another eatery. Last week, about 120 diners, who had consumed about 2,000 euros of food and drink, left a restaurant in northern Spain as dessert was due to be served. It has now emerged a second restaurant only 10km (six miles) away was previously targeted in the same way. The owners said they believed they were the victims of the same group. In the first case, the group, purporting to be celebrating a baptism, paid a deposit of €900 ($950; £770) to eat at the El Carmen restaurant in Bembibre, in the north-western Castile and Leon region. "It happened in the space of a minute," owner Antonio Rodriguez said. "It was something they had planned and they left in a stampede." El Carmen's case felt more than a little familiar to Laura Arias, the owner of El Rincon de Pepin, a restaurant in nearby Ponferrada. The group told her they were celebrating a wedding, she said, and ordered a fairly basic menu. They paid €1,000 as a deposit, but consumed €10,000 ($10,600; £8,600) worth of food and drink. "There were 160 of them and they all disappeared. Suddenly. Within five minutes," Laura told the BBC. "That was the unusual thing. "Usually people leave over time, and you expect someone to come to talk to you and say they will settle the bill the next morning or something. But they didn't say anything, they just disappeared." The unusual crime has been reported to police, but Ms Arias is in no doubt who is responsible. "It's the same people. We can tell from the photos." Reports in northern Spain quoted witnesses as saying the group was from eastern Europe. On Monday, the Diario del Leon newspaper reported (in Spanish) that two ringleaders had been identified and that police were working to establish firm links between the two cases. |||||

– All hail the new kings of the dine and dash. Authorities and restaurateurs in northwest Spain are on the lookout after a huge group of hungry people is suspected of skating out on massive bills around the region. One such incident happened Feb. 27 at the Carmen Hotel in Bembibre, where 120 diners were celebrating the christening of two boys, the AP reports. Owner Antonio Rodriguez says the diners racked up a $2,300 bill then left "in a stampede" before the cake showed up. According to the Local, the diners actually danced the conga out the door and to their cars. Rodriguez says it was like "something they'd planned," but there wasn't anything he could do "because these were huge men with muscles." Within days and a few miles of the Carmen Hotel incident, a wedding party of between 160 and 200 guests skipped out on a $10,600 bill at El Rincon de Pepin in Ponferrado. The guests reportedly went outside to set off celebratory fireworks after the meal but before coffee and never returned. "They didn't say anything," El Rincon de Pepin owner Laura Arias tells the BBC. "They just disappeared." It's believed the same group is responsible for both incidents, as well as a potential third. Authorities started investigating after restaurateurs claimed to have identified some of the dine-and-dashers through photos posted on Facebook. A man from Romania believed to be a ringleader has been arrested. (These dine-and-dashers allegedly hit their waitress with a car, too.)

A review of euthanasia or assisted suicide (EAS) cases among patients with psychiatric disorders in the Netherlands found that most had chronic, severe conditions, with histories of attempted suicides and hospitalizations, and were described as socially isolated or lonely, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry. The practice of EAS has been around for decades in the Netherlands, although formal legislation was not unacted until 2002. Scott Y.H. Kim, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., and coauthors describe the characteristics of patients receiving EAS for psychiatric conditions and how the practice is regulated in the Netherlands. Summaries of cases of EAS for psychiatric conditions were made available online by Dutch regional euthanasia review committees. The study authors reviewed 66 cases for 2011 to 2014. Of the 66 cases, 46 of them were women (70 percent); 32 percent of patients (n=21) were 70 or older; 44 percent (n=29) were 50 to 70 years old; and 24 percent (n=16) were 30 to 50 years old. Among the patients, 52 percent (n=34) had attempted suicide and 80 percent (n=53) had been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons. Most patients had more than one psychiatric condition and depressive disorders were the primary psychiatric issue in 55 percent (n=36) of cases. Some patients had undergone electroconvulsive therapy for difficult-to-treat depression. However, in the case of one woman in her 70s with no health problems, she and her husband had decided years earlier that they would not live without each other. After he died, she described her life as a "living hell" and "meaningless," although the women reportedly "did not feel depressed at all" and ate, drank, and slept well, according to the study. About 52 percent (34 of 66) of patients had personality-related problems, although sometimes without a formal diagnosis and more than a majority of patients had at least one coexisting illness, including cancer, cardiac disease, diabetes, stroke and others. Reports on 37 patients (56 percent) mentioned social isolation and loneliness, including one patient who "indicated that she had a life without love and therefore had no right to exist" and another described as "an utterly lonely man whose life had been a failure." Some of the patients had a history of EAS refusal. Among them, 21 patients (32 percent) had been refused EAS at some point but physicians later changed their mind about three of them and performed EAS, while the remaining 18 patients had physicians who were new to them perform the EAS. In 14 cases, the new physician was affiliated with a mobile euthanasia practice End-of-Life Clinic. In 27 cases (41 percent), the physician performing EAS was a psychiatrist but in the rest of the cases it was usually general practitioners. Consultation with other physicians was extensive but in 11 percent (n=7) of cases there was no independent psychiatric input and 24 percent (n=16) of cases involved disagreements among physicians. Euthanasia review committees found only one case failed to meet the criteria for legal due care among all 110 reported psychiatric EAS cases during 2011 to 2014, the study reports. "The retrospective oversight system in the Netherlands generally defers to the judgments of the physicians who perform and report EAS. Whether the system provides sufficient regulatory oversight remains an open question that will require further study," the study concludes. (JAMA Psychiatry. Published online February 10, 2016. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.2887. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media. jamanetwork. com .) Editor's Note: The research costs of this study were supplied by the Intramural research Program, Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc. Editorial: Physician-Assisted Deaths for Patients with Mental Disorders "Although the data by Kim and colleagues can serve as indicators of problems with the Dutch system, it would be good to keep their data limitations in mind. Based as they are on reports filed by the physicians most directly involved in these cases, the accuracy of the information reported is unknown. For many variables, data had to be abstracted from narrative summaries translated from another language. The available sample did not reflect all cases involving psychiatric disorders. It is unclear why some reports were either not filed or not made publicly available or how the data might have differed if they were. Finally, because these cases are exclusively drawn from instances in which assisted death took place, we cannot conclude anything about the effectiveness of the screening process in excluding inappropriate cases. At the least, however, these data suggest the desirability of a more thorough examination of the Dutch process where patients with psychiatric disorders are concerned," writes Paul S. Applebaum, M.D., of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York. (JAMA Psychiatry. Published online February 10, 2016. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.2890. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media. jamanetwork. com .) Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc. ### To contact study corresponding author Scott Y.H. Kim, M.D., Ph.D., call Molly Freimuth at 301-594-5789 or email [email protected]. To contact editorial author Paul S. Applebaum, M.D., call Rachel Yarmolinsky at 646-774-5353 or email [email protected]. ||||| Importance Euthanasia or assisted suicide (EAS) of psychiatric patients is increasing in some jurisdictions such as Belgium and the Netherlands. However, little is known about the practice, and it remains controversial. Objectives To describe the characteristics of patients receiving EAS for psychiatric conditions and how the practice is regulated in the Netherlands. Design, Setting, and Participants This investigation reviewed psychiatric EAS case summaries made available online by the Dutch regional euthanasia review committees as of June 1, 2015. Two senior psychiatrists used directed content analysis to review and code the reports. In total, 66 cases from 2011 to 2014 were reviewed. Main Outcomes and Measures Clinical and social characteristics of patients, physician review process of the patients’ requests, and the euthanasia review committees’ assessments of the physicians’ actions. Results Of the 66 cases reviewed, 70% (n = 46) were women. In total, 32% (n = 21) were 70 years or older, 44% (n = 29) were 50 to 70 years old, and 24% (n = 16) were 30 to 50 years old. Most had chronic, severe conditions, with histories of attempted suicides and psychiatric hospitalizations. Most had personality disorders and were described as socially isolated or lonely. Depressive disorders were the primary psychiatric issue in 55% (n = 36) of cases. Other conditions represented were psychotic, posttraumatic stress or anxiety, somatoform, neurocognitive, and eating disorders, as well as prolonged grief and autism. Comorbidities with functional impairments were common. Forty-one percent (n = 27) of physicians performing EAS were psychiatrists. Twenty-seven percent (n = 18) of patients received the procedure from physicians new to them, 14 of whom were physicians from the End-of-Life Clinic, a mobile euthanasia clinic. Consultation with other physicians was extensive, but 11% (n = 7) of cases had no independent psychiatric input, and 24% (n = 16) of cases involved disagreement among consultants. The euthanasia review committees found that one case failed to meet legal due care criteria. Conclusions and Relevance Persons receiving EAS for psychiatric disorders in the Netherlands are mostly women and of diverse ages, with complex and chronic psychiatric, medical, and psychosocial histories. The granting of their EAS requests appears to involve considerable physician judgment, usually involving multiple physicians who do not always agree (sometimes without independent psychiatric input), but the euthanasia review committees generally defer to the judgments of the physicians performing the EAS. ||||| Also Meets CME requirements for: Accreditation Information The American Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The AMA designates this journal-based CME activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM per course. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Physicians who complete the CME course and score at least 80% correct on the quiz are eligible for AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM. Note: You must get at least of the answers correct to pass this quiz. I have read the full article associated with this CME. Please click the checkbox indicating that you have read the full article in order to submit your answers. Your answers have been saved for later. You have not filled in all the answers to complete this quiz The following questions were not answered: Sorry, you have unsuccessfully completed this CME quiz with a score of The following questions were not answered correctly: Commitment to Change (optional): Indicate what change(s) you will implement in your practice, if any, based on this CME course. Your quiz results: The filled radio buttons indicate your responses. The preferred responses are highlighted ||||| The study, led by Dr. Scott Y. H. Kim, a psychiatrist and bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health, looked at records of most of the cases of doctor-assisted death for psychiatric distress from 2011 to mid-2014. In 37 of those 66 cases, people had refused a recommended treatment that could have helped. The study did not evaluate cases of people who had been denied assistance. Depression was the most common diagnosis, but loneliness was also a frequent theme. “The patient was an utterly lonely man whose life had been a failure,” read one account. In another, a woman in her 70s said she and her husband had decided years earlier that they would not live without each other. She had no health problems, but after her husband died, she described her life as “a living hell.” Five states in this country have laws allowing doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to mentally competent, terminally ill adults: Oregon, Vermont, Montana, Washington, and California. The California law is expected to take effect this year. By contrast, laws in several European countries allow such assistance for any competent person with “unbearable suffering” — regardless of the cause. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Last year, a team of doctors in Belgium, where laws are similar to those in the Netherlands, reported that most people who sought doctor-assisted death for psychiatric problems had depression, personality disorders or both. The new study of the Netherlands fills out that picture considerably, detailing the agonizing decisions by both doctors and patients in cases that went forward, ending in voluntary death. The researchers, who included Dr. John Peteet of Harvard Medical School and Raymond De Vries of the University of Michigan and Maastricht University in the Netherlands, found that 46 of the patients had been women, most 60 or older. The depression was often mixed with other problems, like substance abuse, mild dementia or physical pain. More than half had received a diagnosis of a personality disorder, like avoidant or dependent personality, which are typically bound up with relationship problems. The group also included people with diagnoses of eating disorders and autism spectrum conditions. Many reported being intensely lonely. “The Dutch system is really the idealized setting in which to try something like this,” said Dr. Kim, in an interview. “But still, you can see that there are many cases that make us question whether this is the right practice.” In the Dutch system, consulting doctors review petitions for assistance in dying. In one quarter of the cases, the study found, the doctors disagreed. Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion and Choices, which advocates compassionate end-of-life care, said the debate over people with psychiatric conditions was not relevant to laws in the United States, which have been modeled on Oregon’s 1997 Death With Dignity Act. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I have seen no parallel movement or discussion at any level in this country,” Ms. Coombs Lee said. “I don’t know of anyone ever proposing this here, or of any poll supporting anything but self-administration by mentally competent, terminally ill adults.” ||||| By Andrew M. Seaman (Reuters Health) - Laws permitting assisted suicide may justify the right of even psychiatric patients to end their lives in theory, but the reality of implementing such programs is messy, a study of the Netherlands finds. Complex medical histories and disagreements among doctors were common elements among the Dutch cases of psychiatric patients who chose legalized assisted suicide or euthanasia, say the researchers who analyzed them. “When you actually try to implement it even in a setting where there is excellent healthcare, there are a lot of red flags that need to be investigated further,” said lead study author Dr. Scott Kim, a psychiatrist and bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. In some form, assisted death is legalized in Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Canada and a few U.S. states, Kim and his colleagues write in JAMA Psychiatry. “In Belgium and The Netherlands they have a much more expansive law that doesn’t regard diagnosis as important,” Kim told Reuters Health. The ambiguity allows the law to also apply to patients with psychiatric illnesses. People with treatment-resistant depression tend to be the focus of debate over assisted suicide for psychiatric illnesses, the researchers note. But little is known about who actually uses the 2002 law that formalized euthanasia practices in the Netherlands. For the new study, the researchers examined case summaries from Dutch regional euthanasia review committees posted online by June 2015. The committees are charged with ensuring that “due care” was given by the doctors involved in each case. There were 66 summaries of psychiatric assisted suicide cases that took place between 2011 and 2014, representing the majority of assisted suicides involving psychiatric patients known to have occurred during that period. Overall, about a third of the people helped to end their lives were age 70 years or older, 44 percent were between ages 50 and 70 and about a quarter were 30 to 50 years old. Seventy percent were women. While fully 55 percent of patients were diagnosed with depression, the others had a number of different conditions, including psychosis, posttraumatic stress disorder or anxiety, neurocognitive issues, pain without any physical cause, eating disorders, prolonged grief and autism. About a quarter of patients’ suicides were assisted by psychiatrists, and about one in five patients were treated by unfamiliar doctors - the majority from a mobile assisted suicide clinic funded by a Dutch right to die organization. The researchers also found that about one in 10 patients receive no outside input from psychiatrists, and about a quarter of cases involved disagreement between the doctors treating the patient. Dr. Paul Applebaum writes in an accompanying editorial that the findings “raise serious concerns about the implementation of physician-assisted dying for psychiatric patients.” For example, over half of the cases also had personality disorders, which raises questions about “the stability of the expressed desires to die,” writes Applebaum, of the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry in New York City. When one considers the subjective criteria used to determine a person’s eligibility for assisted suicide or euthanasia in The Netherlands, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty said, it’s no surprise to see such a wide range of ages and psychiatric diagnoses among the patients who choose to end their lives this way. “To me that’s very concerning,” said Kheriaty, a psychiatrist and director of the Medical Ethics Program at the University of California, Irvine. Some of the conditions listed in the cases are potentially treatable, he said. “I think when we open the door to assisted suicide for psychiatric patients, we risk abandoning patients when there may be hope,” said Kheriaty, who was not involved with the new study. Kim said there is currently no standardized system for reporting these cases, and the availability of data varies by country. “I think there needs to be a lot more transparency of what actually happens when assisted suicide or euthanasia is provided,” he said. “Right now the Dutch system is the most transparent.” SOURCE: bit.ly/1SgP7Xs and bit.ly/1SgPaTp JAMA Psychiatry, online February 10, 2016. |||||

– Euthanasia is itself not without controversy; the euthanasia or assisted suicide (EAS) of the mentally ill even more so. It's an infrequent practice but one on the rise in the Netherlands, which is thought to have seen no more than five such cases in 1997 but 42 in 2013. Still, "little is known" about these cases, write researchers in a report published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry. And so they reviewed the particulars of 66 patients who opted for EAS in the country from 2011 to 2014. Depression was the most common psychiatric disorder, but there was also psychosis, PTSD, and anxiety and long-term eating disorders (most had more than one condition). About half had attempted suicide; almost all had a comorbidity (ranging from cancer to arthritis), though the study calls out one healthy 70-year-old woman who simply found her life a "living hell" in the year after her husband's death. As for how they came to end their lives, "the reality of implementing such programs is messy," Reuters notes. In 32% of the cases, the patient had been refused EAS. The physicians for three of those 21 patients ultimately reversed their decisions; the other 18 got approval from a new physician. In 24% of the cases, there was physician disagreement, per a press release, and the New York Times points out that while most patients had long treatment histories, 56% had turned down at least some treatment. In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Paul S. Applebaum sees further "red flags," among them the 20% who had never been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons, the "ratio of women to men (2.3 to 1), and the 56% of cases in which social isolation or loneliness was important enough to be mentioned," raising "the concern that physician-assisted death served as a substitute for effective psychosocial intervention." (Belgium granted a depressed 24-year-old the right to die.)

With the impact of the horrific attack on a Connecticut elementary school still fresh, a grieving nation turns to an equally grief-stricken media in the hopes of making sense of this nightmare. What they find, though, is a lamentable parade of falsehoods and half-truths. With the true villain in this story having robbed the nation of its desire for revenge, media figures and politicians alike are casting about for an antagonist. Since Sunday, a target has emerged in violent video games, and an emotional media is venting their powerless anger on the entertainment industry. But to indict entertainment, and video games in particular, is a self-serving instinct and irresponsible broadcasting. A disturbing number of public figures have lashed out at video games since the atrocity committed at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday. A bipartisan group of legislators embraced this scapegoating on the Sunday news programs; from Democrats like Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) to Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. They were joined by members of the media – sadly, too many to count. On MSNBC on Monday, Chris Jansing asked her guests what connection Adam Lanza’s interest in video games had to his murderous shooting spree. She quoted senior White House advisor David Axelrod who tweeted “shouldn’t we also quit marketing murder as a game?” Liberal contributor Goldie Taylor revealed that she refused to let her child play games until he was 14-years-old. “Exposure to that kind of content is just simply not good for children,” Taylor said. “I think that it’s important to guard our children and keep them safe from some of these messages that are simply destructive.” She noted that music, movies, games, and even cartoons, are responsible for… something. On Fox & Friends on Monday, legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. delivered an offensively sermonizing renunciation of entertainment producers and videogame makers who are “clinging to guns economically.” “They are glamorizing guns in this country. They are the scourge in terms of these guns,” Johnson Jr. said of game and filmmakers. “Guns can kill if people have evil intentions, but don’t tell our children that it’s acceptable to mow down people in malls, in churches, in schools, on the street – they don’t know better. They know what they’re taught. And we’re teaching them wrong.” “Death should not be the byproduct of our entertainment,” Johnson Jr. concluded. Johnson Jr. cites a study which purports to show prolonged exposure to violent video games over the course of three straight days made the subjects show “increases in aggressive behavior and hostile expectations.” But Johnson Jr. is guilty of cherry-picking data to support his conclusion. A 2009 study showed that video games which focus on driving make the subjects more aggressive than violent games in where the player is primarily shooting at targets. Another study showed that just thinking about violent video games can make males more aggressive. Given the ever-expanding target demographic for games, gun violence should be on the rise. In fact, the opposite is occurring. Violent crime, and gun crime in particular, has decreased as videogame playing has increased. Are the two conditions related – that is unlikely. Myriad factors are responsible for the decrease in violent crime; videogame proliferation is probably not among them. Likewise, there is no causal link between being a videogame player and exhibiting violent tendencies. The Economist tackled this subject in 2005, and the wisdom they committed to print still pertains: It’s the classic struggle of the old versus the new that has video games in policymakers’ crosshairs: “The opposition to gaming springs largely from the neophobia that has pitted the old against the entertainments of the young for centuries. Most gamers are under 40, and most critics are non-games-playing over-40s.” The horror that unfolded in Connecticut on Friday was an unspeakable atrocity. It was not, as some have said, a tragedy. Tragedies are so often beyond control, but gun violence is not an inevitable consequence of living in a free society. Politicians feel the need to do something — anything — in the wake of such a disaster to assuage the inevitable public cries for action. Media figures, however, have a different responsibility. Theirs mission is not to advocate but to inform – unfortunately, that kind of responsible broadcasting is fast becoming an anachronism on cable news. It is unlikely that any reasonable law would have prevented this attack without negatively impacting millions of law-abiding citizens. No amount of reverence for an almighty God would have made this killer think twice about his actions. No movie or videogame drove Lanza to murder 20 first graders in cold blood. Broadcasters used to feel it was their mission to speak these cold truths to their audiences when disaster struck, lest the electorate reach for emotionally-driven and overreaching remedies to jarring events. Today, broadcasters pull on emotional triggers and further aggravate their viewers with baseless scapegoating. I do not know if there is an immediate solution to that condition. Now that is a tragedy. > >Follow Noah Rothman (@Noah_C_Rothman) on Twitter Have a tip we should know? [email protected] ||||| Thirty-one years ago, when a man named Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II, the arrest and the trials that followed were dominated by a question: Who sent the would-be assassin? The Soviets? The Bulgarian secret police? Turkish fascists? John Paul was asked if he had a view, and he said it didn’t matter. In his biography “Man of the Century,” Jonathan Kwitney reported John Paul’s conversation with a close friend Cardinal Andrzej Maria Deskur. “I know well that the responsible one was the devil,” the pope said. “And whether he used the Bulgarian people or the Turkish people, it was diabolical.” I thought of that story for days after the first bulletins of 20 children shot in Newtown, Conn. Whatever we find out about the thinking, habits and sickness of Adam Lanza, it was the evil one who sent him to kill those children. And evil is part of life. But there are three obvious public policy ideas that come to the forefront after Newtown, and what happened there can push them forward quickly. First, broadly, we must provide more treatment options for parents of children whom they know to be mentally unstable and potentially dangerous. If your child is hungry, you can get food. If your child breaks his leg, the hospital is there. But if your child is psychologically sick or mentally unbalanced and beginning to show signs of violent behavior, you’re more or less on your own. We have to change this. We are making more sick teenagers and young men now, not fewer, and this is going to continue as our culture breaks up. I think we all know this, deep down. Second, Congress should move quickly—really, right away—to ban something almost every member would ban next week if they were given a clean, short, unambiguous piece of legislation. Two years ago, after Tucson, I urgedPresident Obama to make such a bill a priority in his 2011 State of the Union Address. A hot subject then was the polarizing nature of our political rhetoric. But I wrote: Normal people are not afraid of a lowering of discourse in political speech. They don’t like it, but it’s not keeping them up nights. Normal people are afraid of nuts with guns. That keeps them up nights. They know our society has grown more broken, families more sundered, our culture more degraded, and they fear it is producing more lost and disturbed young people. They fear those young people walking into a school or a mall with a semiautomatic pistol with an extended clip. What civilian needs a pistol with a magazine that loads 33 bullets and allows you to kill that many people without even stopping to reload? No one but people with bad intent. Those clips were banned once; the president should call for reimposing the ban. . . . The president should seize the moment and come out strong for a ban. My reasoning at the time: many Republicans on the Hill were ambivalent at best about extended clips. Few would go to the wall to defend them. The problem, as I saw it, was the Democratic Party, which had overreached after the assassinations of the 1960s, talked about banning all handguns, and suffered a lasting political setback. (Bill Clinton bucked the trend and paid a price for it.) The Democratic Party got burned and didn’t want to mention gun control anymore, even when it came to obvious things like extended clips. My reasoning now: Newtown changes everything. Move. What I fear is that the Democrats will overreach and put together some big, comprehensive gun bill that will bog down in useless disagreement, debate and acrimony. But they can get extended ammunition clips banned tomorrow with a brief and limited bill, and they can use that victory to gain momentum and launch a bigger debate on gun violence. A quick victory now would be good for the country: At least something good, one small thing, would have come from the disaster in Newtown, and would have come quickly. Third, everyone who has warned for a quarter-century now that our national culture has become a culture of death—movies, TV shows, videogames drenched in blood and violence—has been correct. Deep down we all know it, as deep down we know our culture has a bad impact on the young and unstable who aren’t sturdy enough to withstand and resist sick messages and imagery. When Hollywood wants to discourage cigarette smoking it knows exactly how to do it, because it knows exactly how much power it has to deliver cultural messages. When Hollywood wants to encourage environmentalism it knows how to do it. But there’s a lot of money to be made in violence… |||||

– Everyone's talking about the need for gun control and mental health treatment in the wake of the Newtown school shooting, and Peggy Noonan is on board with reform in both areas. But there's a third area she thinks sorely needs to be addressed: "our national culture ... of death." Violent movies, TV shows, and video games have "a bad impact on the young and unstable who aren’t sturdy enough to withstand and resist sick messages and imagery," Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal. Republicans can't get anything changed, because Hollywood doesn't respect them—but if President Obama "tells Hollywood it has made America sicker, Hollywood will be forced to listen." () But while Noonan isn't the only one blaming Hollywood, others aren't buying it: On Mediaite, Noah Rothman rounds up the "lamentable parade of falsehoods and half-truths" currently winding through the media. "To indict entertainment, and video games in particular, is a self-serving instinct and irresponsible broadcasting," he writes. In fact, violent crime—particularly gun crime—has gone down as video game playing has gone up. "No movie or video game drove Lanza to murder 20 first graders in cold blood," Rothman writes, and to blame the entertainment industry is "baseless scapegoating." () Quentin Tarantino feels similarly. He's apparently tired of having to defend his violent films: At a press conference for Django Unchained Saturday, he said, “I just think you know there's violence in the world, tragedies happen, blame the playmakers. It's a western. Give me a break." He added that only the perpetrators should be blamed, the Independent reports. Django saw its premiere tonight canceled in light of the shooting.

Indiana University mourns the passing of grad student and former rower Karlijn Keijzer July 18, 2014 EDITOR'S NOTE, 3 p.m. Friday, July 18, 2014: This release has been updated throughout. Please note: An earlier version mistakenly reported that Keijzer had received her master's degree from IU. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Karlijn Keijzer, a Dutch citizen who was a doctoral student in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, was among the passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down Thursday, July 17, over Ukraine, leaving no survivors. Keijzer, 25, also had been a member of the women’s rowing team during the 2011 season. “On behalf of the entire Indiana University community, I want to express my deepest sympathies to Karlijn’s family and friends over her tragic death,” Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie said. “Karlijn was an outstanding student and a talented athlete, and her passing is a loss to the campus and the university. Our hearts also go out to the families of all the victims of this senseless act.” "We are heartbroken by the tragic death of our student, Karlijn Keijzer," said Larry Singell, executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "Karlijn was, by all accounts, a bright star in the IU constellation, a gifted student and athlete, and a talented researcher with a passion for making the world better through science. This is a profoundly sad day in the College. We offer our deepest condolences to her family, colleagues and friends." In the chemistry department, Keijzer was part of a research team that uses large-scale computer simulations to study small-molecule reactions involving certain metals. She was co-author of a research article published this year in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. "Karlijn was a bright, talented doctoral student, a diligent researcher and a dear friend to all of us who worked with her in our research group," said her doctoral advisor, Mu-Hyun Baik, associate professor of chemistry and informatics. "She was a kind, happy young woman full of ideas about the future. She inspired us all with her optimism about how science will make Earth a better place." She also served as an associate instructor in the chemistry department, teaching introductory organic chemistry as well as 400-level courses in biochemistry and biosynthesis. "She worked on several research projects, all related to improving human health," Baik said. "The last piece of research work she completed before heading out to catch her flight to her short summer vacation was preparing a computer simulation on bryostatin, an anti-cancer drug and a promising drug candidate for treating Alzheimer's disease. "We are devastated and mourn the loss of a brilliant, beloved member of IU's chemistry family." "It's a very sad day for the department," added David Giedroc, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry. "She had a lot of friends in the community, and they'll take this news very hard." Giedroc said he met Keijzer when she arrived at IU in 2010 and, over the years, watched her become part of an increasingly cohesive group of students. About 200 graduate students are in the department, and Keijzer was registered to take classes this fall. "She struck me right then as a very smart, very confident young woman who had a passion for science and for sports that we don't often see," he said. "She was always just a delightful individual." The "stroke" of Varsity 8 boat Keijzer was a member of IU’s Varsity 8 boat during the 2011 season, helping them to a 14-5 record. A talented rower in the Netherlands, she was recruited to row at IU even though she had only one year of eligibility. She earned Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete honors as well as Academic All-Big Ten accolades following the 2011 season. A decorated junior rower, Keijzer participated in the European Rowing Junior Championships in 2006 and the World Rowing Junior Championships in 2007. “The Indiana Rowing family is deeply saddened by the news of Karlijn’s sudden passing,” Indiana head rowing coach Steve Peterson said. “She came to us for one year as a graduate student and truly wanted to pursue rowing. Our condolences go out to her family and friends in this very tough time.” Her impact was impressive. “Karlijn was the ‘stroke’ of the Varsity 8 boat for us," Peterson said. "That is the person who sets the rhythm for the boat and everyone follows her. She was unquestionably the leader of the best boat we had that year. It was the first boat that got us into the national rankings and had a great season. It also helped propel our program towards the success that we had this past season, and we all know that we can trace it back to that boat that was led by Karlijn. “Academically, she was straight A student, so she was outstanding there. But her biggest strength was her personality on the team. Any picture she you see of her, she was always smiling or happy or joking around with someone. She was extremely supportive of her teammates and had a tremendous enthusiasm. She was exactly the type of student-athlete any coach would want on their team. Peterson said that when he met with Keijzer after she finished her eligibility, all she wanted to talk about was the future of the rowing program. “She knew that we were headed in the right direction, and she was genuinely excited about it. Then this past year, we saw that come to fruition and she contacted me and said ‘I told you so.’ So she was as excited as anyone else for us as a program and the success we had.” ||||| “I’m not an overly emotional person,” says Steve Peterson, the head women’s rowing coach at Indiana University. But late Friday afternoon, while talking about Karlijn Keijzer (pronounced Kar-line Kite-ser)–a former Indiana University rower who was killed on Malaysia Airlines Fight 17 on Thursday–Peterson reached his breaking point. She was 25. “One of my favorite memories that keeps popping into my head, and it makes me so sad to say this,” Peterson says, unable to continue his words. Between several pauses to let the tears pass, he explains why he can no longer hide his grief. It was such a small thing, really, but it meant so much. After every season, Peterson conducts exit interviews with his athletes. Keijzer was from the Netherlands, and under NCAA rules was eligible to row only one year while she pursued her graduate studies in chemistry. Keijzer was a key recruit for Peterson, who was looking to draw more international athletes, with more experience, to help keep Indiana competitive in the Big Ten. Keijzer was a terrific fit. She had competed in prestigious events, like the European Rowing Junior Championships and the World Rowing Junior Championships. She had Olympic aspirations. During that 2011 season, she helped transform the Indiana program, leading the Hoosiers to a 14-5 record. She rowed with the Varsity 8 – “the big cheese,” says Peterson – and sat in the “stroke” position. In rowing, the stroke sits closest to the coxswain, and is not unlike the boat’s quarterback. “The stroke sets the rhythm, the pace,” says Peterson. “The best rower sits in the stroke seat.” Peterson calls Keijzer one of the best rowers he’s ever coached, and he’s been at it for 30 years. But during that exit interview that Peterson can’t bear to describe, Keijzer didn’t want to talk about her own performance. “She was just encouraging me, telling me, “Your on the right path, keep doing what you're doing,” says Peterson. Smitten with Bloomington, Keijzer wound up staying on the IU campus, ditching a potential rowing career for the school’s PhD program in chemistry. So this season, she saw Peterson’s team make it all the way to the NCAA championships for the first time in school history. Peterson traces this success directly back to Keijzer’s boat, which made IU nationally relevant and helped bolster recruiting. “After we finally made it, she says ‘I told you you can do it,'” says Peterson. “She was just so ridiculously supportive.” The Malaysia Flight 17 tragedy has already cost so much. In Keijzer, a senseless act cost of group of rowers a beloved teammate, her fellow chemistry students a popular colleague, and the world a scientist intent on fighting cancer and other diseases. David Giedroc, professor and chair of Indiana’s chemistry department, remembers Keijzer walking into his office as soon as she got on campus. She asked if he would advise him. “Here was this confident young lady, passionate about science and sports,” says Giedroc. “High level science and high level NCAA sports – that’s a fairly exotic combination for a graduate student.” During her first year at IU, when she was both rowing and studying, Keijzer would sometimes fall asleep in her lab chair. Still, she somehow managed to make the 6:00 am practices. “We’d be in the locker room at 5:30, it would be windy, rainy," says Jaclyn Riedel, one of Keijzer’s teammates. "But she was kind of leading the charge, cheering everyone on. She was just infectious.”The Amsterdam girl took to Indiana, calling herself a “Dutch Hoosier.” To fit in, she came to one party dressed as an ear of corn. “She wore black spandex, a long yellow shirt with frayed edges, and her hair was green,” says Riedel. Her teammates would ask her for informal Dutch lessons, and when they found out the word for garden gnome – kabouter – a select few, including Keijzer and Riedel, started calling themselves “the kabouters.” They headed to Home Depot to pick up a few statuettes. The gnomes became good luck charms. Riedel would carry one in her backpack, “though it never went into the boat,” she says. After wrapping up her rowing career, Keijzer kept pursuing her doctorate. “As a computational chemist, she had enormous potential,” says Giedroc. This summer, Keijzer was working in the Netherlands, collaborating with researchers at VU University Amsterdam on simulations of anti-tumor drugs. At IU, she was working on developing a computer program that calculates how anti-cancer molecules interacted with partner proteins that might play a role in cancer or Alzheimer's disease. “She was so passionate pharmacological chemistry, and helping people that way,” says Meghan McCormick, Keijzer's lab mate for four years. “Cancer was just one obstacle she was tackling. She also took on a project seeking better HPV vaccines.” Keijzer and McCormick were co-authors on a study just published in the Journal of the American Chemistry Society , titled: “Understanding Intrinsically Irreversible, Non-Nernstian, Two-Electron Redox Processes: A Combined Experimental and Computational Study of the Electrochemical Activation of Platinum(IV) Antitumor Prodrugs.” McCormick offers the lay explanation: “Many second and third generation cancer drugs aren’t working as well as they could be. We think we can make better ones, based on the methodology and tools that we used.” “She was just a strong woman,” says McCormick. “As a woman in science, a woman in chemistry, she was a big inspiration. We always felt like we had to prove ourselves a little bit more, to fight through the biases. We fed off each other’s strengths.” McCormick starts tearing up. “It’s certainly going to take a very long time to walk into that lab, and not see her sitting next to me,” says McCormick. “I’m so used to seeing her smiling at me, drinking coffee, giving me encouragement.” Keijzer was on the Malaysia Airways flight with her boyfriend, bound for a summer vacation in Indonesia before she returned to Indiana. Kuala Lumpur was a layover. When Peterson, her old coach, got word from a former rower on Thursday that Keijzer was most likely on the plane, he was in a car with his family, on his way to visiting a friend in northern Ohio. He didn’t want to believe it. When he saw the confirmation on Keijzer’s Facebook page, the devastation set in. “She was such an optimist,” says Peterson. “Not just for herself, but for her team, and for everybody around her. She was always there, smiling, a best friend. That's now all cut way too short. That’s what really makes me sad.” |||||

– Just one American was among the 298 killed on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, but also among the victims was an Indiana University doctoral student. Karlijn Keijzer, a 25-year-old Dutch citizen, was a chemistry researcher and, in 2011, a member of the women's rowing team. "Karlijn was, by all accounts, a bright star in the IU constellation, a gifted student and athlete, and a talented researcher with a passion for making the world better through science," says the executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in a press release. "This is a profoundly sad day in the College." She came to IU in 2010, and was currently a member of a chemistry research team and an associate instructor in the chemistry department. Under NCAA rules, Keijzer was only eligible to row for one year, but that was enough to make an impact on the head women's rowing coach. He tells Time she was one of the best he's coached in three decades, and she helped propel the school on the path that took it to the NCAA championships for the first time this season. She was registered for classes this fall, but was en route for a summer vacation in Indonesia with her boyfriend when she was killed. The American killed on the flight, 19-year-old Quinn Schansman, was born in the US but spent most of his life in the Netherlands while keeping his dual citizenship, the New York Times reports. A business student and soccer player, he was on his way to meet his family for a vacation in Indonesia, where his grandfather was born.

WHAT'S AT STAKE? has cancelled her first public appearance since she split from husbandhas learned. The 33-year-old ex Dawson's Creek star was scheduled to walk the red carpet at this Saturday's Dizzy Feet Foundation gala and attend an event during the day at downtown Los Angeles, Calif. new Grand Park. However, Holmes' rep has confirmed the actress has decided against appearing in support of the foundation that promotes dance education throughout the U.S., which she started three years ago alongside Nigel Lythgoe, Adam Shankman and Carrie Ann Inaba. Why did Katie avoid making an appearance? A source close to the situation told Celebuzz: "Katie was really excited about attending the event, but in the end, her security team had concerns about the situation, especially the daytime event given it was being held in a public park." "Katie is devastated at the turn of events," the close source said. "She was really looking forward to it." Katie Holmes through the years The source added there was no specific threat made against Holmes. "The organizers had beefed up security but even after doing all of that, the decision was made because her team couldn't guarantee Katie's safety," said the source, who was briefed on the situation but could not speak publicly because they was not authorized to. Holmes, who has one child with Cruise, six-year-old daughter Suri, filed for divorce on June 28 after nearly six years of marriage. Celebuzz Single Player No Autoplay (CORE) No changes are to be made to this player ||||| TOM Cruise is apparently "redoubling his efforts" to spoil his daughter Suri. The Hollywood star spent quality time with the six-year-old in New York last week. The pair went to the beach and enjoyed a helicopter ride, before Suri returned to her mum. She is also believed to have had her wardrobe restocked with a whole new line of designer clothes and shoes. Cruise is determined to maintain his close bond with his daughter following his high-profile divorce from Katie Holmes. “He’s always spoilt Suri. But now he’s likely to be redoubling his efforts because he misses her,” a source told UK magazine Look. “What that means for Katie is that while she’s trying to instil a routine and introduce more discipline, Tom could swoop in with a fun-only policy.” It has also been reported that the Mission Impossible actor may even consider relocating to New York City for the sake of Suri and Scientology. Although the he is based in Los Angeles, there is speculation he could move to the east coast. “During the divorce proceedings, apparently no rules were laid out about where either party could live,” a source told UK magazine Grazia. “Until now, Scientology has been a very LA-centric movement, but another reason Tom will be keen to relocate… is to focus on developing the church in Manhattan.” ||||| Photography by: FilmMagic JOHN TRAVOLTA is disgusted that fellow Scientologist TOM CRUISE “rolled over” in his divorce from KATIE HOLMES, say insiders – and he’s now jockeying to claim the top spot in the controversial church. Although the two actors have long maintained a friendly facade because of their association with the Church of Scientology, sources say that Travolta has unleashed a vicious attack on Tom behind the scenes over the way he’s handled his recent split. In fact, pals say John, 58, is so outraged by Tom’s “weak” behavior, he believes that he, and not the 50-year-old “Oblivion” star, should be getting top billing as the church’s most influential celebrity, say sources. “John is at war with Tom – it’s a HUGE blowup,” an insider told The ENQUIRER. “John believes that Tom has looked very weak in his divorce from Katie. “John insists that neither he nor his wife, Kelly Pres­ton, would ever give up on their marriage so quickly.” AND if anyone’s marriage had been tested recently, it’s Travolta’s. In early May, two masseurs accused the actor of sexual battery in two separate lawsuits filed in federal court, sparking a very humiliating gay scandal that threatened to rip his union apart. As The ENQUIRER reported EXCLUSIVELY, a male pilot confessed to carrying on a six-year affair with Travolta before the actor married Kelly – and Travol­ta’s former personal assistant confirmed to us that the “Pulp Fiction” star is gay. Despite the sordid accusations, John has still managed to keep his marriage intact. But he owes no thanks to Tom, whose silence on the matter fueled John’s current outrage, says the insider. “John was hurt that Tom didn’t stand up for him,” the insider maintained. “While others in the church got be­hind him, he was seething that Tom, who’s considered Scientology’s top celebrity, didn’t say even one nice word about him. “So when Katie blindsided Tom with the divorce fil­ing, and he seemed to give in without any type of fight, John went on the attack.” According to one friend, John accused Tom of mak­ing “a laughingstock” of Scientology. “He thought Tom didn’t ‘man up,’” the friend con­tinued. “In fact, John thought something was going to explode in that marriage – and it did.” Tom was in Iceland working on his film “Oblivion” when Katie filed for divorce in New York on June 28. They reached a settlement in less than two weeks. The friend divulged: “John told a pal that if Tom was in front of him, he’d tell him to his face: ‘You’re weak. This never would have happened to me!’” In sharp contrast, Kelly has stood by John’s side despite the rumors of gay escapades that have followed him for years. “John has always managed to rebound from his scandals by whisking Kelly off on exotic vacations,” continued the insider. “He’s repaired their marriage and done it in a very public fashion.” And he’s done it again, taking Kelly to the Greek island of Mykonos – a popular tourist spot – where the two were spotted walking hand-in-hand and eating ice cream. Meanwhile, John believes that Tom settled with Katie too quickly, said the source. “John now thinks that Tom should be put on the back burner in Scientology, and that he should be the one in the spotlight.” Throughout the years, Tom has been the poster boy for the church, in part because of his close friendship with Scientol­ogy leader David Miscavige. “They’ve treated Tom like he’s a demigod,” the insider noted. “The church has given him gifts like nickel-plated motorbikes, an aircraft hangar and a luxury bus.” In the meantime, John feels he’s been left out in the cold. “It’s been gnawing at him all these years,” added the in­sider. “Now he feels it’s HIS turn to be on top.” ||||| Exclusive Yes, it's true ... this afternoon outside Taverna Tony in Malibu, our photog asked Tom how he was doing ... and he said, "Good."It's not much, but it is the first time Tom has talked on camera since his split from Katie Holmes ... who just last night topped Tom by uttering three words to our photog in NYC.A chatty bunch, aren't they? ||||| Katie Holmes SPEAKS!!!!! EXCLUSIVE Yes, it's true ... last night outside the NoMad Hotel in New York City, our photog asked Katie how dinner was and she said, "Great, thank you." It's not much, but it's the first time Katie has talked on camera since her split from Tom Cruise. It counts, right?The video is also interesting because Katie walked out with no security and no car waiting for her -- she hopped in a cab instead.Ain't freedom grand? |||||

– By all accounts, Katie Holmes "won" when it came to her divorce settlement with Tom Cruise—but that doesn't mean Tom can't get a little satisfaction of his own. Cruise's plan is to totally spoil 6-year-old daughter Suri, thus thoroughly annoying Holmes. "While she’s trying to instill a routine and introduce more discipline, Tom could swoop in with a fun-only policy," a source tells Look magazine in an article picked up by Australia's News Network. Cruise recently took Suri on a helicopter ride and, reportedly, bought her a bunch of designer clothes and shoes. He may even move to New York City to be closer to his daughter, a source tells Grazia. "Until now, Scientology has been a very LA-centric movement, but another reason Tom will be keen to relocate … is to focus on developing the church in Manhattan." Speaking of the church, fellow Scientologist John Travolta is disgusted by Cruise's "weak" behavior, believing he "rolled over" in the aforementioned divorce settlement and failed to "man up," thus making "a laughingstock" of Scientology, a source tells the National Enquirer. And what is Holmes up to? Well, she canceled her first public appearance since the split, a red carpet walk at an event for a foundation that promotes dance education, which Holmes co-founded. "Her security team had concerns about the situation, especially the daytime event given it was being held in a public park," a source tells Celebuzz. Meanwhile, TMZ is very, very excited that not just one but both halves of the former couple actually spoke to its photographers. Click to see what Katie said or what Tom said.

PARIS — In an amateur video that was widely circulated online after the shooting Wednesday at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper offices in Paris, two gunmen could be seen killing a police officer as he lay wounded on the ground. “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad!” they shouted as they walked back to their getaway car parked nearby. “We have killed Charlie Hebdo!” The officer, Ahmed Merabet, was the second police officer to be killed that day; another officer assigned to protect Charlie Hebdo’s editorial director was also killed. On Thursday, a third police officer was killed in a seemingly unrelated shooting south of Paris in another blow to the police forces here. Image Ahmed Merabet But the killing of Officer Merabet stood out: The #JeSuisAhmed hashtag — “I am Ahmed” in French — sprang up on social media alongside #JeSuisCharlie, as users of social media stood up for the slain officer. ||||| Colleagues pay tribute to Muslim officer who was shot at point blank range during raid on Paris magazine It was a Muslim policeman from a local police station who was “slaughtered like a dog” after heroically trying to stop two heavily armed killers from fleeing the Charlie Hebdo offices following the massacre. Tributes to Ahmed Merabet poured in on Thursday after images of his murder at point blank range by a Kalashnikov-wielding masked terrorist circulated around the world. Charlie Hebdo attack: Dammartin-en-Goele sealed off in major police operation – live updates Read more Merabet, who according to officials was 40, was called to the scene while on patrol with a female colleague in the neighbourhood, just in time to see the black Citroën used by the two killers heading towards the boulevard from Charlie Hebdo. “He was on foot, and came nose to nose with the terrorists. He pulled out his weapon. It was his job, it was his duty,” said Rocco Contento, a colleague who was a union representative at the central police station for Paris’s 11th arrondissement. Video footage, which has now been pulled from the internet, showed the two gunmen get out of the car before one shot the policeman in the groin. As he falls to the pavement groaning in pain and holding up an arm as though to protect himself, the second gunman moves forward and asks the policeman: “Do you want to kill us?” Merabet replies: “Non, ç’est bon, chef” (“No, it’s OK mate”). The terrorist then shoots him in the head. After the rise in online support for the satirical magazine, with the catchphrase “Je Suis Charlie,” many decided to honour Merabet, tweeting “Je Suis Ahmed”. One, @Aboujahjah, posted: “I am not Charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so.” Another policeman, 48-year-old Franck Brinsolaro, was killed moments earlier in the assault on Charlie Hebdo where he was responsible for the protection of its editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, one of the 11 killed in the building. A colleague said he “never had time” to pull his weapon. Brinsolaro’s twin brother, Philippe – a senior police officer in the Marseille region – said on Thursday that all French people should unite to condemn the massacre. “The whole of France must mobilise against the horror that struck our country yesterday. You can’t attack freedom of expression, attack the authority of the state in this way,” he was quoted as telling reporters. “Sometimes you get the feeling that the police are misunderstood by [French] people but it must not be forgotten that yesterday’s gesture shows that a policeman is ready to intervene at any time when he has to protect the nation.” Franck Brinsolaro, also from Marseille, had recently married a journalist, Ingrid, who ran a weekly newspaper in Normandy. Her newspaper chain issued a statement saying that editors “will never yield to threats and intimidation of the untouchable principles of freedom of expression”. But it was the image of Merabet’s killing on a Paris pavement that most shocked French police and the wider public. French police unions, which carried the now-universal message of solidarity in support of Charlie Hebdo #jesuischarlie, posted on their websites and on Twitter black banners proclaiming #jesuispolicier in memory of their two dead colleagues. Nicolas Comte, the deputy secretary general of Merabet’s union, Unité SGP Police, said colleagues had been “deeply affected by the video” and the assassination of the policeman “who was slaughtered like a dog”. Flowers and messages of condolence were piled outside Merabet’s police station, in a side street which was blocked off by metal barriers on Thursday morning. Armed police stood guard on the street and there were further barricades outside the police station entrance. Its telephone line played sombre music all day – an official day of mourning in France – and a policewoman said that Merabet’s colleagues were “very sad” at his passing. Merabet had been a policeman for eight years and had just qualified to become a detective. Rocco Contento, who as Paris regional secretary of the union knew Merabet personally, spent time with him at a course at the end of the year. He described him as quiet and conscientious. His family came originally from Tunisia, he said. Officials at the Bobigny business registry office said a person with the same name and age as Merabet ran a cleaning company between 2003 and 2006 in Livry-Gargan, a north-east Paris suburb where he went to school. The headteacher at the local lycée, Marie-Pierre Pillet, confirmed he had been a pupil from 1989 to 1995, but nobody remembered him because of the 20-year time lapse. Merabet was officially described as single, although he had a girlfriend, according to Contento. “Now we’re on a war footing,” said the head of the union France Police, Michel Thooris. “They’re out there with AK47s, the weapons of war.” On Thursday, a 25-year-old police officer, Clarissa Jean-Philippe, was killed in an attack in the south Paris suburb of Montrouge. The tragedy was not linked by her colleagues to the Charlie Hebdo atrocity. Thooris said that once the dust had settled and those responsible for both armed attacks were brought to justice, the police would be demanding action from the government. “Now isn’t the time to criticise, but for decades there have been no-go zones in the council estates where there are arms caches and drug running,” he said. “We must terrorise the terrorists.” ||||| PARIS—Ahmed Merabet, the 40-year-old policeman whose killing was caught on video, is emerging from the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine as a heroic figure. Mr. Merabet, a Frenchman who many assume is a Muslim based on his name, died at the hands of terrorists targeting a satirical magazine because of its frequent lampooning of Islam. ... |||||

– Ahmed Merabet was "slaughtered like a dog" in the street by the Charlie Hebdo gunmen, the police union says—but the slain officer is being mourned as a hero. The 40-year-old, who is believed to have been a Muslim, pulled out his weapon when he encountered the gunmen outside the newspaper's offices and was shot in the groin when they emerged from their car, the Guardian reports. In video footage that shocked France, one gunman approached him as he lay on the sidewalk and shot him in the head. Merabet's parents are Muslim immigrants from Tunisia, although it's not clear whether he practiced the religion himself, and police say his family doesn't want media attention, reports the Wall Street Journal. Merabet, an eight-year veteran of the force, "was killed in a cowardly way by people who had misinterpreted their sacred text," a police union spokesman says. "Yet he himself was from an immigrant background." The #JeSuisAhmed hashtag has sprung up on social media alongside #JeSuisCharlie, and some are praising the officer as a symbol of the fight for free speech, reports the New York Times. Franck Brinsolaro, the officer assigned to protect Charlie Hebdo's editor, was also killed in the attack, and colleagues say he never had a chance to pull his weapon. A policewoman in south Paris was shot dead yesterday in what authorities believe was an unrelated attack, although the gunman is still at large.

This image illustrates how the study participants learned about the habitat and the diet of eight animals, such as the cytar (not its real zoological name). The set of habitat brain regions (A-green) and diet (B-red and blue) regions where the new knowledge was stored. (L refers to left hemisphere of the brain.) Courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University Cutting-edge brain imaging technology has offered the first glimpse into how new concepts develop in the human brain. The research, carried out at Carnegie Mellon University and published in Human Brain Mapping, involved teaching people a new concept and observing how it was coded in the same areas of the brain through neural representations. The "olinguito" -- a largely fruit-eating carnivore species that lives in rainforest treetops, newly discovered in 2013 -- was initially used as a concept. Marcel Just, a professor of cognitive neuroscience in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, commented: "When people learned that the olinguito eats mainly fruit instead of meat, a region of their left inferior frontal gyrus -- as well as several other areas -- stored the new information according to its own code." The findings revealed that this new knowledge of the olinguito was encoded in exactly the same parts of the brain by everyone who learned it, indicating that the brain may operate its own kind of universal filing system. In the latest research, 16 study participants were taught information about the diet and dwelling habits of eight extinct animals, in order to study the growth of the neural representations of these concepts in their brains. Drawing on the previous findings, the team predicted where this new knowledge would be stored. Just and Andrew Bauer, lead author of the study, then used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor these concepts emerging in the brain, and found that each new concept developed its own "unique activation signature". This allowed a computer program to effectively work out which of the eight animals a participant was thinking about at any given time -- essentially allowing the scientists to read their minds. Don't miss Interestingly, the animals with close similarities (such as habitat) had closely matched activation signatures, and once a property of an animal had been learned, it stayed intact in the brain even after new ones had been taught -- providing a new insight into the neural durability of the things we learn. Bauer commented: "Each time we learn something, we permanently change our brains in a systematic way. It was exciting to see our study successfully implant the information about extinct animals into the expected locations in the brain's filing system." It's hoped that the research may be able to help shape future teaching methods in schools, and also give a clearer picture of how knowledge is "lost" as a result of serious brain injuries and conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease. ||||| Thanks to Carnegie Mellon University advances in brain imaging technology, we now know how specific concrete objects are coded in the brain, to the point where we can identify which object, such as a house or a banana, someone is thinking about from its brain activation signature. Now, CMU scientists are applying this knowledge about the neural representations of familiar concepts by teaching people new concepts and watching the new neural representations develop. Published in Human Brain Mapping, the scientists have - for the first time - documented the formation of a newly learned concept inside the brain and show that it occurs in the same brain areas for everyone.This image illustrates how the study participants learned about the habitat and the diet of eight animals, such as the cytar (not its real zoological name). The set of habitat brain regions (A-green) and diet (B-red and blue) regions where the new knowledge was stored. (L refers to left hemisphere of the brain.) Credit: Carnegie Mellon University Thanks to Carnegie Mellon University advances in brain imaging technology, we now know how specific concrete objects are coded in the brain, to the point where we can identify which object, such as a house or a banana, someone is thinking about from its brain activation signature. Now, CMU scientists are applying this knowledge about the neural representations of familiar concepts by teaching people new concepts and watching the new neural representations develop. Published in Human Brain Mapping, the scientists have—for the first time—documented the formation of a newly learned concept inside the brain and show that it occurs in the same brain areas for everyone. This novel research merges brain science and instructional innovation, two of Carnegie Mellon's university-wide initiatives—BrainHub, which focuses on how the structure and activity of the brain give rise to complex behaviors, and the Simon Initiative, which aims to measurably improve student learning outcomes by harnessing decades of learning science research. Marcel Just, a leading neuroscientist, pointed to the Smithsonian Institute's 2013 announcement about the olinguito, a newly identified carnivore species that mainly eats fruits and lives by itself in the treetops of rainforests, as an example of the type of new concept that people learn. 'Millions of people read the information about the olinguito and in doing so permanently changed their own brains,' said Just, the D.O. Hebb University Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. 'Our research happened to be examining this process precisely at that time in a laboratory setting. When people learned that the olinguito eats mainly fruit instead of meat, a region of their left inferior frontal gyrus—as well as several other areas—stored the new information according to its own code.' Just added, 'The new knowledge gained from the Smithsonian's announcement became encoded in the same brain areas in every person that learned the new information, because all brains appear to use the same filing system.' For the study, Andrew Bauer, a Ph.D. student in psychology, and Just taught 16 study participants diet and dwelling information about extinct animals to monitor the growth of the neural representations of eight new animal concepts in the participants' brains. Drawing on previous findings, the research team knew 'where' to expect the new knowledge to emerge in the brains of their participants. Information about dwellings and information about eating have each been shown to reside in their own set of brain regions, regions that are common across people. Over the course of an hour, the study participants were given a zoology mini-tutorial on the diets and habitats of the animals, while the scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor the emergence of the concepts in the participants' brains. As the new properties were taught, the activation levels in the eating regions and the dwelling regions changed. One important result was that after the zoology tutorial, each one of the eight animal concepts developed its own unique activation signature. This made it possible for a computer program to determine which of the eight animals a participant was thinking about at a given time. In effect, the program was reading their minds as they contemplated a brand-new thought. But even though the animals had unique activation signatures, the animals that shared similar properties (such as a similar habitat) had similar activation signatures. That is, a resemblance between the properties of two animals resulted in a resemblance between their activation signatures. This finding shows that the activation signatures are not just arbitrary patterns, but are meaningful and interpretable. 'The activation signature of a concept is a composite of the different types of knowledge of the concept that a person has stored, and each type of knowledge is stored in its own characteristic set of regions,' Just said. Another important result was that once a property of an animal was learned, it remained intact in the brain, even after other properties of the animal had been learned. This finding indicates the relative neural durability of what we learn. 'Each time we learn something, we permanently change our brains in a systematic way,' said Bauer, the study's lead author. 'It was exciting to see our study successfully implant the information about extinct animals into the expected locations in the brain's filing system.' Just believes that the study provides a foundation for brain researchers to trace how a new concept makes its way into the brain from the words and graphics used to teach it, foreshadowing a capability to assess the progress in learning a complicated concept like those in a high-school physics lesson. fMRI pattern analyses could diagnose which aspects of a concept students misunderstand (or lack), in a way that could guide the next iteration of instruction. The results from this study also indicate that it may be possible to use a similar approach to understand the 'loss' of knowledge in various brain disorders, such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease, or due to brain injuries. The loss of a concept in the brain may be the reverse of the process that the study observed. Explore further: Teaching science to the brain: How the brain learns the way things work |||||

– Scientists using cutting-edge brain imaging technology finally know how that new idea pops into your head and may even be able to read the thought by looking at your brain. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University observed 16 participants' brains as they learned about the habitat and eating habits of eight extinct animals, Wired reports. As participants underwent a one-hour, mini-tutorial on the animals, functional magnetic resonance imaging showed changes in specific parts of the brain, along with a "unique activation signature" for each animal. Incredibly, a computer program was then able to determine which animal a participant was thinking about just from observing their brain. In other words, scientists could read the participants' minds. "Each time we learn something, we permanently change our brains in a systematic way," says the lead author, whose research is published in Human Brain Mapping. For example, anyone who read about the discovery of the olinguito "permanently changed their own brains," a researcher explains in a press release. "When people learned that the olinguito eats mainly fruit instead of meat, a region of their left inferior frontal gyrus—as well as several other areas—stored the new information according to its own code." Animals with similar diets or habitats elicited similar activation signatures, and a property of an animal stayed in the brain once it was learned, even after several new animals were introduced, suggesting a neural durability of the subjects we learn. Researchers say the study could help develop new teaching methods and give insights into how knowledge is supposedly erased due to conditions like dementia. (Check out the gruesome way a tribe became immune to brain disease.)

Reaction to Harriet Tubman, a Civil War-era abolitionist, replacing Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 was widely positive. Tubman replacing Jackson on the $20, Hamilton spared Treasury Secretary Jack Lew reverses a plan to bump Hamilton after receiving fierce blowback. Harriet Tubman will bump Andrew Jackson from the front of the $20 bill while Alexander Hamilton will stay put on the $10 — a historic move that gives a woman prime placement on U.S. currency and quells a controversy kicked up by Hamilton super-fans. “Today, I’m excited to announce that for the first time in more than a century, the front of our currency will feature the portrait of a woman, Harriet Tubman, on the $20 note,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told reporters during a conference call Wednesday afternoon. “Her incredible story of courage and commitment to equality embody the ideals of democracy that our nation celebrates, and we’ll continue to value her legacy by honoring her on our currency.” Story Continued Below Lew rolled out sweeping changes that will put a new cast of historic figures onto various bills that have remained largely static for decades. Leaders of the women’s suffrage movement will make their way onto the back of the $10 bill, while civil rights era leaders and other important moments in American history will be incorporated into the $5 bill. Jackson will be kicked to the back of the $20 bill. The plan is a major reversal for Lew, who appeared taken aback by the swift rebukes Treasury received last summer when he announced that he was considering replacing Hamilton on the $10 bill with a woman. While he explained that Hamilton was on the chopping block as a matter of practicality – the $10 bill was the next one up for a redesign – Lew still got an earful from fans of Hamilton, who helped create the Treasury Department and the modern American financial system. Critics immediately called for Lew to take Jackson off the $20 bill instead, given the former president's role in moving Native Americans off their land. Lew told POLITICO last July that Treasury was exploring ways to respond to critics. “There are a number of options of how we can resolve this,” Lew said. “We’re not taking Alexander Hamilton off our currency.” But supporters of putting a woman on the $10 bill have complained that it will take too long for the $20 bill to come up for a redesign. Lew has predicted that the new bills will be unveiled in 2020 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. On the call on Wednesday, Lew said he would try and make the changes quickly. “The two things most important are the security of our money and getting this process to move as quickly as possible,” he said. “Due to security needs, the redesigned $10 note is scheduled to go into circulation next,” Lew said. “I’ve directed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to work closely with the Federal Reserve to accelerate work on the new $20 and $5 notes. Our goal is to have all three new notes go into circulation as quickly as possible, while ensuring that we protect against counterfeiting through effective and sophisticated production.” The movement to keep Hamilton on the $10 bill was fueled by academics but gathered strength after the Broadway musical named after the former Treasury secretary and founding father became a smash hit. “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda even directly lobbied Lew last month on Hamilton’s behalf, after which Miranda said Lew told him “you’re going to be very happy” with the redesign plan. Reaction to Tubman, a Civil War-era abolitionist, replacing Jackson on the front of the $20 was widely positive, with Democratic presidential candidates quickly hailing Treasury’s decision. “A woman, a leader, and a freedom fighter,” Hillary Clinton tweeted. “I can’t think of a better choice for the $20 bill than Harriet Tubman.” Bernie Sanders concurred, tweeting roughly 30 minutes later that he “cannot think of an American hero more deserving of this honor than Harriet Tubman.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) tweeted that it was “great news!” “Tubman on $20 is the right call,” she added. “The redesign needs to happen as soon as possible. Women have waited long enough.” Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), who introduced the “Put a Woman on the Twenty Act in Congress” last year in the House (Shaheen introduced a similar bill in the Senate), also commended the decision Wednesday. “There has been a lot of talk about putting a woman’s portrait on our money, but finally it sounds like Secretary Lew is putting our money where his mouth is,” Gutiérrez said in a prepared statement. “It is crazy that women have been mostly absent from our money up until now, with only a few exceptions.” Conservatives also supported the selection of Tubman for the $20 bill. National Review writer Charles C.W. Cooke tweeted: “Given the sheer number of blows that Tubman struck for liberty, she belongs on the currency more than most. Good choice.” Former Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, however, expressed his love for Tubman and what she accomplished but suggested that placing her on the $2 bill would be a more appropriate honor. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction with the decision to move Jackson, arguing that history shouldn't pit the former president against the anti-slavery activist. “United States history is not Andrew Jackson versus Harriet Tubman,” he said in a statement. “It is Andrew Jackson and Harriet Tubman, both heroes of a nation’s work in progress toward great goals. It is unnecessary to diminish Jackson in order to honor Tubman.” Historians and policy wonks weighed in as well, sharing praise for the compromise. “[Hamilton] is fully appropriate to be on American currency, whereas Jackson was a scoundrel, a slave holder and a white supremacist who was involved in the removal of Indians and was completely opposed to paper money and was horrible to women,” said Kari Winter, director of the gender institute at the University at Buffalo. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a fellow at the Brookings Institute, last year railed against the initial plan, saying he was “appalled” Hamilton would be yanked. On Wednesday, he called the new plan “a good one,” noting that it fell in line with what he recommended. “Tubman is an excellent and deserving choice, and no one has a better claim to be represented on the currency than Hamilton, who did so much to help establish the American economic system we know today,” he wrote in a blog post. Bernanke also advised that Treasury, similar to the U.S. Postal Service, should redesign bills more frequently. “Occasional changes to bill design would give us more space and flexibility to honor the past; and, if done at reasonable intervals, could coincide with necessary security improvements as well,” he said. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen also commended the move. "Throughout American history, women have made important contributions to the free and democratic society we enjoy today," Yellen said in a statement. "I welcome the decision by the Treasury Department to honor these achievements. The Federal Reserve will work with Treasury on a design that also incorporates strong security features to protect worldwide users of U.S. currency." White House deputy press secretary Jennifer Friedman said President Barack Obama was both pleased with Americans' enthusiasm around the whole process and the end result. "The President welcomes Secretary Lew's important announcement that our next currency will honor the contributions that women and civil rights leaders have made to our country, celebrate our democracy and reflect the rich history of the United States and the struggles for freedom and equal rights," Friedman said. And it’s not just the faces that are changing on the bills. U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios told reporters on the call that the new currency will include additional security features. “For the first time in our history, our currency will also include a new tech-help feature intended to aid the blind and the visually impaired,” Rios said. “This is a new, complex and critical, important element in the production of modern U.S. currency.” ||||| Just One More Thing... We have sent you a verification email. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your profile. If you do not receive the verification message within a few minutes of signing up, please check your Spam or Junk folder. Close |||||

– Earlier rumors had it that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew was soon to announce a major change to the new $10 bill—specifically, that a woman would replace Alexander Hamilton as the main mug. Instead, sources tell Politico, Lew is expected to announce Wednesday that abolitionist Harriet Tubman is going on the $20 bill, kicking President Andrew Jackson to the back of the bill. Hamilton is staying put, and that leaders of the women's suffrage movement will be put on the back of the sawbuck. Prominent figures from the civil rights movement will also get a spot on the $5 bill. Initial discussion to kick Hamilton to the currency curb was met with resistance, including from ex-Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, who said he was "appalled" at dishonoring the "best and most foresighted economic policymaker in US history." And a women's advocacy group pointed out last year that a) people are more likely to have a $20 bill in their wallet than a $10 bill, and b) Jackson had a terrible rep for his brutal role in removing Native Americans from their land. If confirmed, Tubman would be the first African-American and the second woman to appear on US paper currency, per the Palm Beach Post. That other woman? Martha Washington, who appeared on a $1 silver note in the 1880s and '90s, per the Atlantic. (Maybe Hamilton's Pulitzer held some sway?)

Phillip Savopoulos (Photo: Facebook) LATEST UPDATE: Suspect identified in NW DC quadruple homicide WASHINGTON (WUSA9) -- Law enforcement sources tell WUSA9 that an assistant dropped a package filled with $40,000 in cash before four people were killed inside a D.C. mansion that was then set on fire. A source also says detectives believe the killers tortured Phillip Savopoulos, 10, as they tried to force his father to come up with the cash. On May 14, Phillip Savopoulos was found dead, along with his parents, 46-year-old Savvas and 47-year-old Amy Savopoulos, and housekeeper Veralicia Figuaroa, 57, at a mansion on Woodland Drive near the National Cathedral. Savvas and Amy Savopoulos (Photo: Anonymous) Detectives believe the killers held the four victims captive for about 10 hours, and that they successfully forced the Savopoulos family to get them the money. NEW: Killers in DC mansion murders took $40,000 cash. @wusa9 — Bruce Leshan (@BruceLeshan) May 20, 2015 Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier has confirmed that three of the four victims were beaten or stabbed before the killers set fire to the almost $5 million mansion. At one point, the killers may have ordered pizza. Two clerks at a Domino's Pizza tell WUSA9 that a delivery person came to the house. Figuaroa's husband, Bernado Alfaro, reportedly went to the mansion on Thursday morning to look for his wife. He said he thought someone was home, but no one answered the door. A short time later, Savvas Savopoulos contacted Alfaro saying he needed Figuaroa to stay at the house because Amy Savopoulos was sick and might need to go to the hospital. Alfaro told CBS News that that made little sense to him because his wife cannot drive nor speak English well. Hours later, Alfaro heard that the family had been murdered, WUSA9's Bruce Leshan reported. There were a lot of video cameras around the house, but the only video police have been able to release is a shadowy tape of a figure running, apparently near the scene where a suspect torched the Savopoulos' Porsche on Annapolis Road in Prince George's County. Funeral services for the Savopoulos family are scheduled for May 25 at noon at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The viewing will be the night before. The Savopoulos' also have two daughters, but both were away at boarding school during the murders. WANTED: Police released surveillance video of a person of interest PREVIOUS: DC police continue investigation into quadruple murder Read or Share this story: http://on.wusa9.com/1Sd4rCN ||||| D.C. police have an arrest warrant for a 34-year-old man, Daron Dylon Wint from Maryland. Law enforcement sources said DNA evidence linked him to the killing of Savvas Savopoulos, his wife, young son and housekeeper. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post) D.C. police have an arrest warrant for a 34-year-old man, Daron Dylon Wint from Maryland. Law enforcement sources said DNA evidence linked him to the killing of Savvas Savopoulos, his wife, young son and housekeeper. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post) [ Update: Suspect worked for victims’ family business, police say ] D.C. police said late Wednesday that they have identified a suspect in the killings of Savvas Savopoulos, his wife, young son and housekeeper, who authorities believe were held captive in the family’s Northwest Washington home. Police said they had obtained a warrant for the arrest of Daron Dylon Wint, who they said is 34 and is from Maryland. They said they do not know his whereabouts. The stunning break in the case came after police matched Wint to DNA found on the crust of a Domino’s pizza that had been ordered to the house the night of May 13, as the victims were being held, according to three law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation The next morning, Savvas Savopoulos’s personal assistant dropped off a package containing $40,000 in cash at the home, according to the officials and police documents. 1 of 19 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Searching for clues in quadruple homicide View Photos $40,000 in cash was taken to the D.C. home as the four victims were being held captive, according to law enforcement officials. Caption Police apprehended a man they say killed a Northwest Washington businessman, found dead with his wife, son and housekeeper. Daron Dylon Wint, in a 2007 photo. Wint has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Savvas Savopoulos, a District businessman. Additional charges are likely, officials said. Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. Hours later, the multimillion-dollar house was on fire, and the four occupants were dead. When firefighters arrived that afternoon, the cash was gone, as was a blue Porsche owned by the family. The vehicle was found later that day, torched in a church parking lot in Prince George’s County. Information about the money drop adds a perplexing new dimension to a case that has riveted Upper Northwest Washington as well as the District’s business and society circles with which the couple had been intimately involved. Savvas Savopoulos, 46; Amy Savopoulos, 47; their 10-year-old son, Philip; and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57, all were killed. Law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said detectives think that the family and housekeeper had been held overnight in the home near the vice president’s mansion and that at one point they may have been bound. Authorities said they are investigating whether there are any links to Savvas Savopoulos’s business or personal life. Savopoulos owned or was involved in several businesses. Police documents, obtained by The Washington Post, show that the assistant had been helping Savopoulos, who was rushing to complete a martial arts studio in Chantilly, Va. It was unclear whether the assistant made contact with anyone inside the house when he delivered the money. Police documents show that he was at a hardware store near the Chantilly studio in western Fairfax County from 11:30 a.m. to noon May 14 and was still in Virginia when 911 calls came later that afternoon about the fire 30 miles away in the District. D.C. police have not disclosed whether they know of a motive for the killings. But a timeline of Savvas Savopoulos’s movements is beginning to emerge from the police documents. The documents show a flurry of phone calls among Savvas Savopoulos, a bank, an accountant, the personal assistant, a construction company executive and Savopoulos’s American Iron Works company in the hours before the fire. The calls started shortly after 7 a.m. May 14 and ended just before noon. The fire was reported at 1:15 p.m. D.C. police released this photo of Daron Dylon Wint, who is suspected in the killings of Savvas Savopoulos, his wife, young son and housekeeper. (Courtesy of Metropolitan Police Department) The assistant, who did not return messages left on his cellphone Wednesday, tried to call Savvas Savopoulos about 1:40 p.m. but got no answer, the police documents show. Savvas Savopoulos had called the assistant at 11:54 a.m. — the last incoming or outgoing call he made or answered before the fire. The four victims were found on the second floor of the Savopoulos home in the 3200 block of Woodland Drive NW. Police have said little about how they were killed, other than that three had wounds consistent with blunt force or a sharp object. Authorities also have said the fire was set. Savvas Savopoulos was the president and chief executive of American Iron Works, which supplies metal to large building projects across the region. He and his wife were active in Washington social circles and with charitable and political fundraising. Their two teenage daughters were away in boarding school at the time of the killings. The funeral for the three Savopoulos family members is June 1 at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Northwest Washington. Figueroa’s body will be flown to her native El Salvador for burial. [Slain housekeeper planned to join kids in El Salvador] Authorities have been trying to determine when the family and housekeeper were last safe and when they encountered the killer or killers. One longtime American Iron Works employee told police that he last saw Savvas Savopoulos at the Chantilly studio about 6 p.m. May 13, according to police documents. That employee told investigators that workers had been rushing to complete the martial arts studio, which had a grand opening planned for May 15. Savopoulos appeared on several Internet boards as a martial arts hobbyist and was involved in some exclusive clubs for the sport. A second housekeeper, Nelitza Gutierrez, has reported a strange series of voice mails and text messages from Savvas and Amy Savopoulos beginning the night of May 13. Gutierrez, who had worked for the family for 20 years, said in an interview that the messages left her with the impression that something was amiss with her employers. She said that on May 13, Savvas Savopoulos had asked her not to come to the D.C. home the next day — the day of the killings — even though she normally worked there on Thursdays. Instead, he told Gutierrez that he preferred her help the following day with the grand opening in Chantilly. Gutierrez said Savvas Savopoulos left her a voice mail on May 13, saying that Figueroa, the housekeeper who was killed, planned to stay overnight at the family’s home, which she described as unusual. He said in the message that Amy Savopoulos was ill, that Philip was recovering from a concussion and that the family needed Figueroa’s help. Savvas Savopoulos asked Gutierrez to let Figueroa’s family know not to expect her. Gutierrez said she didn’t hear the voice mail until the morning of May 14. She called Amy Savopoulos and got no answer. Just before 10 a.m., Gutierrez said, she got a text message from Amy Savopoulos: “I am making sure you do not come today.” Gutierrez said that she knew nothing about the money that was dropped off May 14 and that she had never seen the assistant or anyone else drop off cash to the Savopoulos home in the 20 years she had worked there. On May 15, the day after the killings, the personal assistant called the veteran American Iron Works employee’s cellphone “and was crying,” according to the police documents. The assistant “stated that he had dropped off a package” at the Savopoulos house on May 14, on his way to Chantilly, the documents say. Little could be learned about Wint late Wednesday, and it was unclear whether he had any previous connection to the Savopoulos family. Authorities offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction, and asked that anyone with information about the case call police at 202-727-9099. Alice Crites, Sari Horwitz, Antonio Olivo and Cheryl W. Thompson contributed to this report. |||||

– Whoever killed four people in a DC mansion appears to have gotten away with at least $40,000 in cash. The Washington Post reports that an assistant to businessman Savvas Savopoulos dropped off a package with that amount at his home last Thursday while the family and a housekeeper were being held captive. It's not clear whether the assistant knew the package contained money, why he dropped it off, or whether he had any inkling that anything was amiss. Hours later, the mansion was in flames, and firefighters found the bodies of Savopoulos, wife Amy, their 10-year-old son Philip, and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa. Investigators think the four had been held for about 10 hours. In fact, WUSA9 reports that two Domino's clerks say a delivery person brought a pizza to the house at some point during that stretch. The station is floating the theory, based on an anonymous source, that the killers coerced Savopoulos into coming up with money. Authorities haven't said much about how the victims died, only that three had wounds. DC police chief Cathy Lanier says detectives are "passionate" about the case, particularly because Philip was only 10. One of the few public clues is an image of a hooded figure running.

'American Idol' Alum Ayla Brown Benefits From Father's Senate Win The season five semi-finalist is back in the spotlight after father Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts. Ayla Brown didn't win "American Idol" back in season five, but she could have another shot at stardom following her father's victory Tuesday night. Scott Brown became senator-elect of Massachusetts in a special election to fill the late Senator Ted Kennedy's seat for the remainder of his term. In a shocking upset, the Republican candidate defeated Democrat Martha Coakley in the staunchly blue state of Massachusetts. Ayla, 21, campaigned at her father's side for the duration of the election season, and some speculated that having her familiar face in public appearances and TV commercials was the state senator's equivalent of a celebrity endorsement. But judging by the number of people searching for on Ayla's name Wednesday morning (January 20), the aspiring musician is now benefitting from her dad's big win. Brown made her way up to the top 16 in the 2006 season of "Idol" (which was eventually won by Taylor Hicks). After she failed to make it to the top 12, Ayla spoke to MTV News about how the "All-American" label she was saddled with hurt her in the end. "I didn't think people got the chance to see who I was and my personality," she said. "It was hard to overcome that, but I gave it my all and I'm just disappointed America didn't vote for me." Months later, she spoke to MTV again, giving advice to future auditioners. "My advice to people who are trying out for 'American Idol' is to know who you are as a person and it will get you further than you ever think it will," Brown told us in 2006. "If you go in there thinking you are someone else or trying to be another person, you won't get to the place where you really want to be." According to her Web site, on her final "Idol" appearance she delivered a cover of Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten," but she continues to release music. With one album under her belt, the singer plans on releasing her follow-up titled Circles (her site does not list a release date). Ayla declared that she would donate portions of her election-night album sales to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Will Ayla Brown now join the ranks of other "Idol" alums who went on to see illustrious careers? After all, season five spawned the career of Chris Daughtry — so it's certainly possible. We've certainly seen less conventional methods of obtaining a record contract. Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions. ||||| Republican Scott Brown just won Massachusetts' Senate Deathrace™. Brown ran a killer campaign and has promised to kill Democrats' health care bill. And it's lucky his daughters didn't die of embarrassment, given what he said in his victory speech tonight. Click to view Here is what the newly elected Senator from Massachusetts said as his daughters looked on in horror: And as always, I rely on Gail's love and support and that of our two lovely daughters. So i want to thank Ayla and Arianna for their help as well. And just in case anyone who's watching throughout the country they're both available. No, no no. No. Only kidding, only kidding. Only kidding, only kidding. Arianna's definitely not available. But Ayla is. The campaign for Ted Kennedy's senate seat may have ended in disaster, but the race for Ayla Brown's heart has just begun. (I, for one, am officially declaring my candidacy. -ED) But let's not allow Brown's ridiculous speech distract us from the real story here: Brown's nekkid Cosmo spread. Oh, also: There's going to be a whole lot of Senate Democrats crying in their beer tonight about their lost supermajority. Some instant takeaways from Brown's victory over Attorney General Martha Coakley: Upset: Huge. Huge. Turnout: High. High. Democrats: Stunned, scrambling. Stunned, scrambling. Teabaggers: More powerful than they seem? More powerful than they seem? Obama: "Not pleased" -Robert Gibbs. "Not pleased" -Robert Gibbs. Health Care Bill: Possibly screwed. Possibly screwed. Ayla Brown: Single and ready to mingle. Single and ready to mingle. Rachel Maddow: Sad. Maddow's face upon hearing the news = Brown's daughters' faces upon hearing his acceptance speech. [NYT] |||||

– That daughter Senator-elect Scott Brown embarrassed the heck out of last night was more famous than her dad until recently. Ayla Brown is also a former American Idol contestant, as well as a Boston College basketball standout. Watch clips of her time on the show, ("Up until I was 10 years old, I was truly convinced that my dad was the Elvis Presley") as well as her performance—and her dad’s now-notorious pimping—at last night’s victory party, in the gallery. And, notes MTV, dad's victory and her constant presence on his campaign isn't hurting Ayla's career, either. Her name was lighting up the search engines this morning, leading Gawker to declare, "The campaign for Ted Kennedy's senate seat may have ended in disaster, but the race for Ayla Brown's heart has just begun."

These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. |||||

– Cue the Kleenex boxes, folks: Jennifer Westfeldt and Jon Hamm are pulling the cord following months of breakup rumors, People reports. The 44-year-old Mad Men star and 45-year-old actress, last seen canoodling at a New York party on July 22, have issued a statement: "With great sadness, we have decided to separate, after 18 years of love and shared history," the couple says. "We will continue to be supportive of each other in every way possible moving forward." That fits, since Hamm credits his now-ex for helping him through alcohol-abuse treatment earlier this year. This adds to a slew of celebrity breakups this summer, including Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, and Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, the Daily News reports.

A Palm Coast man rigged the front door of his home with wiring attached to a car battery charger in an attempt to electrocute his pregnant wife, Flagler County Sheriff's investigators said. Michael Wilson, 32, is accused of trying to kill his wife after he attached electrical devices to the inside of the deadbolt lock and the door handle of their Palm Coast home, according to a charging affidavit. The ploy, which could have easily led to her death, was to have her insert the house key and then grab the handle, completing the circuit and sending a jolt of electricity through her arm, chest and heart. Fortunately for Wilson's wife, who was in Knoxville, Tennessee with family at the time, she never took a hold of that door knob. Her stepfather, Jon Flositz, became suspicious after she told him Wilson had warned her not to let a child touch it. Flositz went to examine the house with his wife, Alissa, and they found the word "Hi" and a drawing of two eyes in what appeared to be lipstick on the back sliding door, according to the deputy's report. He contacted authorities, and when they responded to 110 White Hall Drive on Tuesday, they found the front door was barricaded and locked. Burn marks were seen near the door's handle. A kick to the door sent off a large spark. On the other side was an elaborate rigging consisting of two chairs, a child's high chair, blue tape, a shower-type rod, electrical cords, wiring — some of which was cut from a bedroom salt rock lamp — and a car battery charger with clamps. Steven Bray, a journeyman lineman from from Florida Power & Light, was shown several photographs of what deputies described as the "booby trap" and he said that a person who touched the door lock and handle at the same time would receive a jolt of some 120 volts and 1 amp, enough power that the person had an 80 to 100 percent chance of "suffering death or great bodily harm," according to the affidavit. Wilson is charged with two counts of attempted aggravated battery on a pregnant person and one count of grand theft of a firearm. "This is one of the most bizarre domestic violence cases I have seen in my career,” Sheriff Rick Staley said in a statement. "Not only did this man try to electrocute his wife, but he could have injured a deputy or any person attempting to enter this residence. Thankfully this man was found and taken into custody before he could cause the harm he intended." In addition to the electric rigging, deputies found a series of strange items within the house: pictures of a sonogram on the kitchen table, sticky-note love letters in the bedroom with a photo album showing Wilson and his wife together, and the wife's recently-installed smart cameras dumped in the toilet. An interview with Wilson's wife, whose name is redacted throughout the report, shed light on the scene. She said that a few months ago her husband fell but he refused to seek medical treatment. "Up until that point, (Wilson) seemed to be a normal person," she told the detective. He was later hospitalized under Florida's Baker Act — which allows for someone to be involuntarily taken into custody for mental evaluation — in late November. While he was absent she obtained a revolver from her stepfather, which she hid in a kitchen cabinet, and installed two smart cameras that sent video feeds to her phone. Wilson eventually apologized for his behavior and she asked him to join her in Knoxville where she was spending the holiday with her family and her children. He arrived there on Dec. 21. The next evening, however, he suddenly got up while they were watching television around midnight and left. In the morning she began to receive text messages from Wilson, who insisted that she was cheating on him. She said Wilson didn't return until about 4:30 p.m. Dec. 24, some 40 hours later. In that time, she received an alert on her phone that the smart cameras in the Palm Coast home were disconnected. Wilson also made comments that made her believe that he had visited the home during his absence, including inquiring about the location of the firearm and cameras. He also advised her "to use the front door of the home because the garage door isn't going to open." She told her stepfather about the comments and he checked the home before she returned to Florida. Wilson was arrested on a warrant at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in Knoxville. He was being held Friday on $150,000 bail and will be extradited to the Flagler County Detention Facility. A Facebook page belonging to Wilson shows him gripping two handguns, and he boasts that he "is the guy that your father warned you about." It also lists him as "widowed." ||||| (Reuters) - In the Christmas week, there were reports of a man accused of murdering his girlfriend with a samurai sword in Texas, an Ohio woman indicted for killing her husband and hiding his body parts in their house, and a Florida man arrested for trying to electrocute his wife by rigging a booby trap to a door. Kenneth Wayne Lockings, charged with murder, appears in this photo obtained by Reuters December 29, 2017, after he turned himself in to officers at the Houston, Texas, U.S. police on December 28, 2017. City of Houston/Handout via REUTERS The sword that Kenneth Lockings Jr. used to kill his girlfriend was a gift received at Thanksgiving, the Houston Chronicle reported. Lockings, 35, faces a murder charge and was jailed without bond on Friday, public records showed. He nearly decapitated his girlfriend with a samurai-style sword, the Chronicle reported. State prosecutors could not immediately be reached and court records did not indicate whether he had an attorney. In Florida, a husband’s warning to his pregnant wife not to let their daughter near the front door to their home in Palm Coast may have saved mom and daughter from harm, authorities said. Michael Scott Wilson is seen in this booking photo from the Knox County, Tennessee, U.S., December 29, 2017. Knox County Sheriff's Office/Handout via REUTERS Michael Wilson, 32, had disappeared for a few days during Christmas while on a family trip in Tennessee, raising his wife’s suspicions, according to an arrest warrant filed in Florida. A law enforcement officer found the door had been rigged with an electrical booby-trap, causing a large spark when he kicked it in. An electrician told investigators with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office the electrical circuit would have likely killed anyone touching the door knob and lock. Marcia Eubank is seen in this booking photo obtained by Reuters December 29, 2017, following her arrest in Summit County, Ohio, U.S. on December 10, 2017. Summit County Sheriff's Office/Handout via REUTERS Wilson was arrested in Tennessee and remained at a local detention center on Friday. He faces charges in both states including attempted aggravated battery on a pregnant person. There was no record of attorney representation for Wilson on arrest documents in Florida or jail records in Tennessee. A grand jury in Ohio, meanwhile, met the week after Christmas to indict a woman accused of killing her husband and cutting him up with hand tools. Marcia Eubank, 49, was indicted on charges including murder and corpse abuse in the June killing of her husband of 25 years. One of the couple’s sons discovered a container holding his body in his parents’ home, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. Her attorney, Brian Pierce, said she had been abused by her husband and would plead not guilty. She was jailed on Friday with bond set at $1 million. ||||| FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. - A Flagler County man is behind bars after he was accused of having rigged the door to his home in Palm Coast with electrical devices in an attempt to electrocute his pregnant estranged wife. Deputies were called to the home on White Hall Drive on Dec. 26 to do a security check of the home after the father-in-law of the homeowner called to report suspicious statements from 32-year-old Michael Scott Wilson. Deputies observed that the front door to the home was barricaded, with burn marks near the handle. When a deputy attempted to kick the door, they witnessed a "booby trap," which possibly caused a large spark to appear, according to the report. According to deputies, the door was rigged with electrical devices on the top door lock and lower door handle. If anyone was to attempt to unlock the door, officials said the devices could cause severe injury or even death. Wilson is accused of rigging the door to kill his pregnant estranged wife and stealing a firearm from his father-in-law's home. Wilson was found in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Thursday and was arrested. He is charged with two counts of attempted aggravated battery on a pregnant person and one count of grand theft of a firearm. “This is one of the most bizarre domestic violence cases I have seen in my career,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “Not only did this man plan to electrocute his wife, but he could have injured a deputy, or any person attempting to enter this residence. Thankfully, this man was found and taken into custody before he could cause the harm he intended.” Wilson is being held on $150,000 bail and will be extradited back to Florida. Copyright 2017 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved. |||||

– A Florida sheriff calls it "one of the most bizarre domestic violence cases I have seen in my career." The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports a Florida man allegedly rigged a "booby trap" capable of electrocuting his pregnant wife if she unlocked the front door of their home over the Christmas holiday. Authorities say 32-year-old Michael Wilson aroused the suspicions of his unnamed wife's stepfather when he told her to make sure she used the front door and to not let a child touch the doorknob. (Reuters reports Wilson and his wife have a young daughter together.) During this time, Wilson had disappeared from his in-law's home in Tennessee without explanation and accused his wife of cheating on him via text. Authorities went to Wilson's home in Florida on Tuesday and found burn marks on the front door, which let off a large spark when kicked open. Inside they found the doorknob and deadbolt attached to a car battery charger. An electrician who looked at a picture of the booby trap determined there was an 80% to 100% chance of "suffering death or great bodily harm." They also found Wilson's wife's new smart cameras in the toilet and other odd items. Wilson was arrested Thursday in Tennessee and charged with attempted aggravated battery on a pregnant person. He's also been charged with stealing a firearm from his father-in-law's home, WKMG reports. Wilson's wife says he "seemed to be a normal person" until falling a few months ago and refusing to get medical treatment. Wilson's Facebook page lists him as "widowed."

SHARE COPY LINK Historian and author Col. French MacLean talks about Wichitan Master Sgt. John Woods, who was the soldier responsible for hanging the top Nazi war criminals after the Nuremberg Trials. (Video by Fernando Salazar/The Wichita Eagle) McClatchy [email protected] Historian and author Col. French MacLean talks about Wichitan Master Sgt. John Woods, who was the soldier responsible for hanging the top Nazi war criminals after the Nuremberg Trials. (Video by Fernando Salazar/The Wichita Eagle) McClatchy [email protected] ||||| Andrew Nagorski’s The Nazi Hunters comes at a significant point, at the juncture between living memory and the historical record. Death, rather than the courts, now claims the last Nazi criminals — as well as those who labored for decades to bring them to justice. Nagorski has had long experience as a Newsweek reporter and bureau chief in Bonn, Berlin, Warsaw and Moscow, and he covered many of the prosecutions he details in this book. He interviewed dozens of key figures, and dozens more who were close to figures now dead. What Nagorski gives here is a full history of the postwar hunt and prosecution of Nazi criminals, now completing its seventh decade. Nagorski writes in the best Newsweek style: literate, factual, highly readable. His account is highly objective and balanced, qualities especially important in a story where you would think the lines would be clearly drawn but very often prove not to be. It’s a narrative that will hold you, even if you’ve followed this story over the decades. It began for the author, then 13, in 1960 with the news that a Mossad team had kidnapped Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and flown him to Israel for trial. Eichmann, Hannah Arendt, Simon Wiesenthal, Klaus Barbie, John Demjanjuk — their names and roles may be unfamiliar to readers today, still puzzling out what the Cold War was all about, and why it was so easy for Germany’s postwar allies to forget its Nazi crimes. “Nothing belongs to the past,” Nagorski quotes German prosecutor and judge Fritz Bauer, explaining why he continued to pursue Nazi criminals into the 1960s, against rising criticism in Germany. “Everything is still part of the present and could become part of the future again.” Variations of George Santayana’s “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” reverberate through this book, and it’s significant to note that this is a book about prosecutions, not about assassinations. From the first the Nazi hunters focused on “legal proceedings against their prey—demonstrating that even the most obviously guilty should have their day in court.” Nagorski begins his story with the hanging of 10 top Nazis on Oct. 16, 1946, in the Nuremberg prison gym, “where American security guards had played a basketball game only three days earlier.” (Hermann Goering committed suicide in his cell the night before his execution.) He focuses on the hangman, Sgt. John C. Woods, a colorful and controversial figure who prolonged, possibly deliberately, two of the hangings. Woods’ assistant, Herman Obermayer, describes Woods as slovenly, unshaven, with crooked yellow teeth and dirty, unpressed pants and an insubordinate attitude. Nagorski doesn’t press the point, but the reader can’t overlook the irony and poetic justice of such a figure confronting the Nazi elite in their final moments, most of them already indignant over being denied a soldier’s death by firing squad. This is a history with many anomalies, questions that you wouldn’t think needed answers, and controversies you couldn’t imagine would arise. The hunters often were “at odds with each other, prone to recriminations, jealousies and outright rivalries, even as they pursued roughly the same goal.” These controversies occupy a significant role in Nagorski’s story, yet already seem distant and immaterial. As his book shows, the scale of Nazi atrocities and the complexities of postwar politics put to the test the meaning of words like revenge, retribution and justice. Historical forgetting — the desire to forget — is the true antagonist in this story, and those who dedicated themselves to the hunt for Nazi criminals labored not for revenge or even justice, but for a future where such crimes would never occur again. David Walton writes and teaches in Pittsburgh. The Nazi Hunters Andrew Nagorski (Simon and Schuster, $30) Available May 10 |||||

– The name John C. Woods may not be familiar to most Americans, but it turns out the Wichita native played a unique role in history in the aftermath of World War II. As the Wichita Eagle explains, Woods was a US Army executioner who hanged 10 prominent Nazi war criminals after the Nuremberg trials. His story, one that includes allegations that he deliberately prolonged those hangings and ends with his own suspicious death in 1950, may become better known with the release of the book American Hangman later this year. The Eagle talks to the author, retired US Army Col. French MacLean, for the broad strokes. One of the first disturbing bits is that Woods was dishonorably discharged from the Navy prior to joining the Army and diagnosed with "psychopathic inferiority without psychosis," a term associated with violent criminals. He managed to join the Army anyway amid WWII and eventually volunteered for his executioner duties. Woods executed an estimated 90 men, says MacLean, but he became internationally known for his killing of the Nazis. "I'm proud of it," he would say. Eyewitnesses say some of the hangings appear to have been botched, either out of incompetence or malice. One man reportedly took 28 minutes to die. An earlier book, The Nazi Hunters, also chronicled Woods' role, and the Dallas Morning News points out that the "Nazi elite" dispatched by Woods probably were affronted by an executioner who was "slovenly, unshaven, with crooked yellow teeth and dirty, unpressed pants and an insubordinate attitude." Woods was fatally electrocuted in 1950 while standing in a pool of water and changing light bulbs, but MacLean asserts that the Army investigation into his death was wrong, suggesting foul play.

Puerto Rico Dam Fails As Hurricane Maria Continues To Plague Residents Updated 10:10 p.m. ET Fri Though the brunt of Hurricane Maria has left Puerto Rico, the island's water worries continue. On Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service reported that the Guajataca Dam in the northwest is "failing," causing flash flooding. Buses were trying to evacuate people from the area "as quickly as they can," the service said. Officials say between 50,000 and 70,000 residents may have to be evacuated, according to the Associated Press, which also notes that authorities sent "frantic warnings on Twitter that went unseen by many in the blacked-out coastal area." The dam failure is causing flooding downstream on the Guajataca River. A flash flood watch is also in effect for much of the island through Friday evening with continued rainfall. At least seven rivers in Puerto Rico are still running above "flood stage" (the point at which overflow begins to cause damage from flooding): As Hurricane Maria passed, the entire main island saw persistent and intense rain that accumulated quickly. Caguas, about an hour inland from San Juan, saw 37.9 inches of rainfall, and most of the island got around 20 inches. Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske described the rain in San Juan as "white sheets of rain almost like a snowstorm. It's that intense and can get sort of whiteout effects." Occasionally heavy rain is expected to continue until Tuesday, according to the NWS. Over the past 100-plus years, Puerto Rico has averaged 10 inches of rain for all of September. ||||| Officials are rushing to evacuate tens of thousands of people from their homes in western Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria inflicted structural damage on a dam and unleashed “extremely dangerous” flash floods. Some 70,000 residents in the municipalities of Isabela and Quebradillas were being evacuated by bus after a crack appeared in the nearly 90-year old Guajataca dam. “It’s a structural failure. I don’t have any more details,” Governor Ricardo Rossello said from the capital, San Juan. “We’re trying to evacuate as many people as possible.” “This is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION. Buses are currently evacuating people from the area as quickly as they can,” the US National Weather Service tweeted on Friday . NWS San Juan (@NWSSanJuan) 215PM FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY for A Dam Failure in Isabela Municipality y Quebradillas Municipality in Puerto Rico... #prwx pic.twitter.com/L3utOjxspR In a later message, the NWS tweeted: “All Areas surrounding the Guajataca River should evacuate NOW. Their lives are in DANGER! Please SHARE!” NWS San Juan (@NWSSanJuan) Todas las areas alrededor del Rio Guajataca deben desalojar AHORA. Sus vidas corren PELIGRO. Favor de COMPARTIR. #prwx More than 15in (nearly 40cm) of rain has fallen on the mountains surrounding the Guajataca dam, swelling the reservoir behind the nearly 90-year-old dam, which holds back a manmade lake covering about two square miles (five square kilometres). An engineer inspecting the dam reported a “contained breach” that officials quickly realized was a crack and could be the first sign of total failure of the dam, said Anthony Reynes, a meteorologist with the US National Weather Service. “There’s no clue as to how long or how this can evolve. That is why the authorities are moving so fast, because they also have the challenges of all the debris. It is a really, really dire situation,” Reynes said. “They are trying to mobilize all the resources they can, but it’s not easy. We really don’t know how long it would take for this failure to become a full break of the dam.” The scale of the damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria is only just beginning to emerge, partly because communications to outlying areas of the island were severely hampered by the storm. A government spokesman, Carlos Bermudez, said officials had no communication with 40 of the 78 municipalities on the island more than two days after the category 5 storm crossed the island, toppling power lines and cell phone towers and sending floodwaters cascading through city streets. Maj Gen Derek P Rydholm, deputy to the chief of the air force reserve, said at the Pentagon that it was impossible to say when communication and power would be restored. He said mobile communications systems were being flown in but acknowledged “it’s going to take a while” before people in Puerto Rico will be able to communicate with their families outside the island. Until Friday, he said, “there was no real understanding at all of the gravity of the situation”. Maria was the second major hurricane to hit the Caribbean this month and the strongest storm to hit the US territory in nearly 90 years. It completely knocked out the island’s power, and several rivers hit record flood levels. Officials on the island said on Friday that six people had been confirmed killed by the storm: three died in landslides in Utuadno, in the island’s mountainous center; two drowned in flooding in Toa Baja, west of San Juan; and one died in Bayamón, also near San Juan, after being struck by a panel. Earlier news media reports had the death toll on the island as high as 15. “At the moment, these are fatalities we know of. We know of other potential fatalities through unofficial channels that we haven’t been able to confirm,” said Héctor Pesquera, the government’s secretary of public safety. |||||

– Tens of thousands of people are being evacuated in Puerto Rico after reports of a dam failing Friday, CBS News reports. According to NPR, the National Weather Service announced the Guajataca Dam was failing, causing flash flooding on the Guajataca River. Buses are trying to evacuate the cities of Isabela and Quebradillas—home to about 70,000 people. But details on the damage to the dam and evacuation were sparse as communication is still difficult following Hurricane Maria's battering of the island. “It’s a structural failure. I don’t have any more details,” the Guardian quotes Gov. Ricardo Rossello as saying. “We’re trying to evacuate as many people as possible.” The Guajataca Dam was built decades ago and holds back a man-made lake of about 2 square miles. The National Weather Service is warning of a "life-threatening" situation and advising people to "move to higher ground now." At least seven rivers in Puerto Rico are currently above "flood stage" and much of the island is under a flash-flood warning through Friday. Puerto Rico averages about 10 inches of rain for the entire month of September; some areas of the island have received nearly 40 in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Up to 6 inches of rain is expected through Saturday, and heavy rain is expected on and off until Tuesday.

James T. Hodgkinson was going to change taxes, wife of shooter says Suzanne Hodgkinson came out of her home near Belleville, IL, to talk to the media about her husband, James "Tom" Hodgkinson. She had no clue he wanted to shoot members of Congress. She also thought he was coming home after running out of money. ||||| Washington (CNN) As his colleagues played baseball in his honor Thursday evening, MedStar Washington Hospital Center medical gave an update on Rep. Steve Scalise, who remains in critical condition but has improved. Scalise, the third ranking member of House Republican leadership, was among six people who were injured after a gunman opened fire Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia, during a Republicans' early-morning practice ahead of a charity baseball game. The gunman, identified by officials as James Hodgkinson, died after the shootout. "Earlier today, Congressman Steve Scalise underwent a second surgery related to his internal injuries and a broken bone in his leg," MedStar said in a statement Thursday. "He remains in critical condition, but has improved in the last 24 hours. The congressman will require additional operations, and will be in the hospital for some time." The Congressional Baseball Game , an annual tradition, went on as planned Thursday. Though the game pegs Republicans against Democrats, attendees and participating lawmakers showed unity in wake of the shooting. More than $1 million has been raised for Congressional Sports for Charity so far, the game's organizers announced. Instead of wearing hats representing their home teams, as is the normal tradition, this year players on both teams wore Louisiana State University hats in honor of Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, for part of the game. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told CNN's Jake Tapper on "Erin Burnett OutFront" that despite party affiliation they were both on "Team Scalise" on Thursday. President Donald Trump, who visited Scalise in the hospital on Wednesday, sent a video message that played at the start of the game. "By playing tonight, you are showing the world that we will not be intimidated by threats, acts of violence, or assaults on our democracy," Trump said. "The game will go on." ||||| The wife of James Hodgkinson, who authorities say shot a congressman and injured others at a ballfield in Virginia, had no idea her husband would do it, and was sorry it happened. Suzanne Hodgkinson told reporters gathered outside her Belleville home Thursday afternoon that she "couldn't believe it" when she heard about the shooting. "I'm sorry that he did this, but there's nothing I can do about it," she said, according to interviews posted on St. Louis television stations' websites. Four people — including Rep. Steve Scalise, the House majority whip from Louisiana, who was shot in the hip — were wounded in the shooting. A Capitol Police officer was also injured in the incident. James Hodgkinson, who was 66, died of gunshot wounds suffered in a shootout with police. Suzanne Hodgkinson said she thought her husband had traveled to Washington to focus on tax issues but had not known much of what he was doing. She works for a tax firm, she said, and was busy in recent months. The couple had been married for 30 years, she said, and he'd sold almost everything from his business before moving out to D.C. in March. She said she thought he was going to return to Illinois because he'd run out of money. Suzanne Hodgkinson asked reporters to leave the area, saying that she and her family had been through enough. Richard Wagner, chief deputy of the St. Clair County sheriff's office, said afterward that Hodgkinson was told about the shooting by a journalist and has been with the FBI since the shooting. "She had no idea he would do this. She had no idea he felt as strong as he did," Wagner said. "She's just devastated." In Belleville, residents continued to grapple with the news that one of their own, a man many knew could be quick to anger, but who many said didn't show outward signs of violence, could have committed the mass shooting. Tom Reis has owned the popular T.R.'s Place about a mile from Hodgkinson's home since 1997. On Wednesday, June 14, 2017, James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill. opened fire on Republican congressmen practicing baseball in suburban D.C. "It makes you feel real bad that something like this is connected to here," Reis said. "We had policemen and even the FBI in here asking questions, but we just don't know him." A half-dozen patrons gathered at the tavern Thursday afternoon for the $1 taco special and to shoot pool said Hodgkinson didn't hang out there and wasn't known to them. "What makes a guy do something like that? I think it's terrible," Reis said. "It doesn't matter whether you're Republican, Democrat, black or white, Muslim or whatever. You just don't go out and shoot someone." Jack McClenahan, a retired Belleville business owner, said he had several unpleasant run-ins with Hodgkinson over the years while Hodgkinson protested a favored Democratic political cause outside the local post office. "He would get politically aggressive. I go down to the post office quite often, and he would be there collecting signatures on things he was for, and if you weren't of his opinion, he'd be very agitated," McClenahan said. "It was super shocking for our town because you don't want bad press, and this is about as bad as press you can get," he said. [email protected] Chicago Tribune Graphics Chicago Tribune Graphics Twitter @ChristyGutowsk1 |||||

– The wife of Alexandria shooter James Hodgkinson says he told her he was going to Washington to work on "changing the tax brackets" and she had no idea he was going to hurt anybody. The Belleville News-Democrat reports that Suzanne Hodgkinson trembled and held a deputy's arm as she spoke to reporters in the southern Illinois town. She said they had been married 30 years, but hadn't been on the best of terms before he sold most of his possessions and departed early this year. "I had no idea this was going to happen, and I don't know what to say about it. I can’t wrap my head around it," she said. "I'm sorry that he did this but there’s nothing I can do about it." Belleville residents say the outspoken liberal could be "politically aggressive." He would collect signatures for causes, and "if you weren't of his opinion, he'd be very agitated," business owner Jack McClenahan tells the Chicago Tribune. Rep. Steve Scalise was one of six people injured when Hodgkinson opened fire on a congressional baseball practice before being fatally injured by police. CNN reports that the hospital where Scalise is being treated says he is still in critical condition after a second operation. The hospital says he has improved in the last 24 hours, but will remain hospitalized "for some time." (Democrats gave the trophy to Scalise's office after winning the congressional baseball game.)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — First yet again this season, the Florida Gators want more. Much more. Florida guard Scottie Wilbekin (5) celebrates after the second half in a regional final game against Dayton at the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Memphis, Tenn. Florida... (Associated Press) Florida guard Scottie Wilbekin, right, kisses the NCAA trophy standing with team mates after the second half in a regional final game against Dayton at the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday,... (Associated Press) Dayton forward Kendall Pollard (22) shoots against Florida center Patric Young (4) during the second half in a regional final game at the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 29, 2014,... (Associated Press) Florida's Lexx Edwards (11) holds Michael Frazier II (20) after the second half in a regional final game against Dayton at the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Memphis,... (Associated Press) Florida center Patric Young (4) celebrates after the second half in a regional final game against Dayton at the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Memphis, Tenn. Florida... (Associated Press) Dayton's Jalen Robinson, foreground and Vee Sanford sit in the locker room after the second half in a regional final game against Florida at the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 29,... (Associated Press) Florida forward Will Yeguete (15) embraces a person after the second half in a regional final game against Dayton at the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Memphis, Tenn.... (Associated Press) Florida head coach Billy Donovan holds the net after the second half in a regional final game against Dayton at the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Memphis, Tenn. Florida... (Associated Press) Try a national championship. Scottie Wilbekin scored 23 points and Florida became the first team to advance to the Final Four with a 62-52 win Saturday night over the 11th-seeded Dayton Flyers in the South Region final. The Gators reached their fifth Final Four after losing at this point in each of the past three NCAA tournaments. This time, they came in as the country's top-ranked team and the overall No. 1 seed. Florida won its 30th straight game and improved to 36-2, topping the 35 wins by the 2007 national championship squad. "I couldn't be prouder and happier," Florida coach Billy Donovan said after being drenched with water in the Gators' locker room. "In a lot of ways, outside the Michigan game, we were close to being in three out of four Final Fours right now, and that says a lot about these guys. But I think those experiences maybe helped us be a better team this year than maybe we would have if we'd have gotten to a couple of ones earlier." Patric Young scored 12 points, and Michael Frazier II added 10 for Florida. The Gators will play either UConn or Michigan State in Arlington, Texas, in the national semifinal. The celebration was a bit muted because a regional title isn't the Gators' end goal. "There's more hunger within us, within this whole team to keep going," Young said. Dyshawn Pierre led the Flyers with 18 points, including the final 11 for Dayton (26-11). Devin Oliver added 12 points. Dayton came in trying to become only the fourth 11 seed to advance to the Final Four. The Flyers had upset Ohio State and Syracuse in reaching their first regional final since 1984. They missed their second Final Four and first since 1967 as Florida held them to their lowest scoring game this season. Coach Archie Miller complimented the Gators, saying that just being on the floor with Florida gave Dayton a "big-time feeling." "It's always hard to lose the last game of the season, but in the back of my mind, I'm not sure a team in the nation captured more people's hearts than these guys did, and they did it the right way," Miller said. The Flyers hit one more field goal than Florida (19-18), but the Gators outrebounded them 37-26. They also had a massive edge at the free throw line (21 of 28) to (6 of 8). Florida finished the first half on a 15-1 run to take the lead for good, going up 38-24. The Flyers opened the second half with two quick 3s to pull within eight, only to watch the Gators push their lead to 17 with 11:35 left on a layup by Young. The Flyers kept coming but couldn't get closer than eight in the second half, the last at 58-50. The Gators went cold down the stretch, once missing five shots on one possession with five offensive rebounds. Dayton missed chances to cut the lead as Oliver missed a 3-pointer with 2:07 left, then Scoochie Smith threw it away trying to pass out to Matt Kavanaugh. Miller said Pierre was completely exhausted late. "You can't go to a guy eight times in a row and expect him to score every time, but he gave us a fighting chance," Miller said. Then Wilbekin ended the Gators' scoring drought at 4:39 with a pair of free throws, and he hit four of six at the line to finish the game. Dayton took over the FedExForum so thoroughly that the Gators were booed when they came out for warm-ups and pre-game introductions. Miller tried to use his deep bench, using 11 Flyers at least 5 minutes trying to wear out the Gators with sheer numbers. Donovan nearly matched Dayton by going 10 deep himself. The Gators went cold for nearly 6 minutes between a dunk by Casey Prather with 11:55 left in the half and a baseline drive by Frazier with 6:00 to go. The Flyers scored eight straight when Smith's 3 gave them their first lead of the game at 21-19 with 6:58 remaining. Kendall Pollard's layup tied up Florida for the last time at 23, then Dorian Finney-Smith hit a free throw with 4:22 left putting the Gators ahead to stay. As Florida went on its run, Dayton missed its final five shots. Finney-Smith grabbed a rebound of a missed 3 by Frazier and threw the ball back out for the final shot of the half. Wilbekin then beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer that helped quiet the Flyers' faithful for the first time all day. ||||| Wisconsin players react as time runs out in overtime in a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Anaheim, Calif. Wisconsin won 64-63 in overtime. (AP Photo/Jae... (Associated Press) Wisconsin 's Frank Kaminsky (44) grabs a rebound in front of Arizona center Kaleb Tarczewski, right, during the first half in a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game, Saturday, March... (Associated Press) Wisconsin 's Frank Kaminsky cuts down the net after a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game against Arizona, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Anaheim, Calif. Wisconsin won 64-63 in overtime.... (Associated Press) Arizona's Nick Johnson watches as Wisconsin celebrates after overtime in a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Anaheim, Calif. Wisconsin won 64-63 in overtime.... (Associated Press) Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan celebrates after cutting down the net after a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game against Arizona, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Anaheim, Calif. Wisconsin... (Associated Press) Arizona's Kaleb Tarczewski shoots over Wisconsin 's Frank Kaminsky (44) during the first half in a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Anaheim, Calif.... (Associated Press) Arizona head coach Sean Miller yells during the first half in a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game against Wisconsin, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C.... (Associated Press) Wisconsin 's Traevon Jackson celebrates in front of Arizona's Nick Johnson (13) as time runs out in overtime of a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Anaheim,... (Associated Press) Wisconsin forward Frank Kaminsky shoots past Arizona's Kaleb Tarczewski (35) during the first half in a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Anaheim, Calif.... (Associated Press) Wisconsin 's Josh Gasser shoots past Arizona's Gabe York (1) during the first half in a regional final NCAA college basketball tournament game, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae... (Associated Press) The 7-footer carried Wisconsin to the Final Four with 28 points, including six in overtime, as the Badgers defeated Arizona 64-63 in a physical West Region final Saturday night. Kaminsky had 11 rebounds and scored from inside and outside, including three 3-pointers, for the No. 2 seed Badgers (30-7). It's Wisconsin's first Final Four appearance since 2000, and first for 69-year-old coach Bo Ryan, who earned his 704th career victory. "We want a national championship now," Kaminsky said. "We have made it to the opportunity to get there, so why not go get it?" Ryan had a long tradition of attending the Final Four as a spectator with his father, who died in August. "Today would have been my dad's 90th birthday," he said. "I just thought I'd throw that in." Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers joined the locker room celebration, telling the Badgers he'd been following them all season. Kaminsky proved the only reliable scorer on a night when the rest of the Badgers disappeared offensively. Sam Dekker was 2 for 5, Ben Brust went 2 for 7, Traevon Jackson was 4 of 14 and Nigel Hayes was 2 of 8. "Their big guy really had a great game," Arizona's Nick Johnson said. "He raised his level." Johnson had the ball with a chance to win, but he missed a shot that launched just after the buzzer for Arizona (33-5), the top-seeded team that has yet to win a West Region final in Anaheim in four tries. Johnson led the Wildcats with 16 points, and Aaron Gordon had 18 rebounds in the relentlessly physical game. It was the record-tying seventh OT game of this year's tournament. Johnson stood with his hands on his hips, staring straight ahead, while Kaminsky and the rest of the Badgers rushed to celebrate. "I wish I would have taken one less dribble, get the shot off, give us a little chance," Johnson said. Jackson added 10 points for the Badgers, and Kaminsky was chosen as most outstanding player of the West Region, part of a breakout season for the junior with the deadpan sense of humor. "They tell me he's funnier that he used to be, and his eyes are more wide open now," Ryan said. "If you see him sitting sometimes you think, 'Oh, look, Frank's asleep.' He's not asleep. But he's got that sleepy look." Kaleb Tarczewski scored 12 points and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson had 10 points for the Wildcats, who were trying to get coach Sean Miller to the Final Four for his first time. Instead, Miller was sent to the sidelines on the same day his younger brother Archie's Dayton Flyers lost to Florida in the South Region final. "When you lose, it's like a car crashes," Miller said. "It's just — you're done." The first 40 minutes were a back-and-forth struggle between the only 1-2 seeds remaining in the regionals, with neither team leading by more than three points over the final 12:09 of regulation. Overtime was even more dramatic, with Arizona having an answer for just about everything Wisconsin did. Brust hit a 3-pointer to put the Badgers up at the start of the extra session; Gordon answered with a 3 to tie it up again at 57. Kaminsky scored inside and Gordon dunked at the other end for another tie. Kaminsky's jumper and a free throw by Josh Gasser gave Wisconsin a 62-59 lead. Tarczewski's two free throws and Jordin Mayes' tip-in drew the Wildcats to 64-63 with 58 seconds left. T. J. McConnell's jumper missed, but Arizona got the offensive rebound and found Johnson, who missed and got called for the push-off on Gasser with 3 seconds left. "I thought it was a really, really tough call," Miller said. "I'm going to stop there. I've already been fined." Wisconsin inbounded on the baseline, and a scramble ensued in front of Arizona's bench with 2 seconds left. The initial call gave the ball to the Badgers. The referees viewed replays for several minutes before deciding Wisconsin touched the ball last. "It was the longest minutes of my life," Hayes said. Ryan said, "Mainly we spent most of it knowing that it wasn't going to be our ball." That call set up the final play, with Pac-12 player of the year Johnson unable to bail out the Wildcats. "I knew he wasn't going to pass it with only two seconds on the clock," Gasser said. "It was a good battle out there, and fortunately, he didn't make a play there." ||||| The seed for this crawl was a list of every host in the Wayback Machine This crawl was run at a level 1 (URLs including their embeds, plus the URLs of all outbound links including their embeds) The WARC files associated with this crawl are not currently available to the general public. |||||

– Wisconsin handed the University of Arizona a narrow overtime loss last night, and the student body cheering on the latter didn't exactly take it well, clogging a main thoroughfare in Tucson and chucking beer bottles and firecrackers at pepper spray-wielding police officers. Police eventually managed to clear the streets, but arrested 15 people along the way; of those, 14 were released, reports the AP. A police spokesman says that crowds emptied out of bars and restaurants along University Boulevard after the game, and refused to leave in spite of warnings via a PA system and social media. A witness says everything was going swimmingly until "people got in cops' faces" and cans started flying. Deadspin notes that things quickly deteriorated to the point that students were shot with bean bags; the Daily Wildcat chronicled events via its Twitter feed. Meanwhile, the Florida Gators became the first team to advance to the Final Four last night.

One lucky Redditor received a travel book, a stuffed cow, and a donation in her name to a charity, though the Microsoft chairman decided against the iPad on her wishlist. Microsoft Chairman and Secret Santa Bill Gates. (Credit: CBS) Bill Gates as Santa Claus? That's the role he played to one girl on Reddit. Excited and shocked when she learned the source behind her generous gift giving, Redditor Rachel detailed the exchange in a Redditgifts post Wednesday night. Served up by the folks at Reddit, Redditgifts is an online gift exchange where people become Secret Santas by exchanging presents with friends and strangers around the world. Rachel unwrapped the gifts from her Secret Santa to discover a stuffed animal that she added to her teddy bear collection and a National Geographic coffee table book entitled "Journeys of a Lifetime." Also in the package was a donation to Heifer International made on Rachel's behalf, a gift that she said nailed it since the organization tries to offer an education and other benefits to people in need. The true identity of Rachel's Secret Santa was finally revealed when she found a photo of Gates holding the stuffed animal and the signed donation sent to Heifer International. An inscription in the book with a "really nice message" and note from Gates wishing Rachel a Merry Christmas and a Happy Birthday was the topper. "My God. Never in my entire life did I imagine, ever, ever, ever that Bill would get me," Rachel wrote in her post. "I am SO SO thankful for the time, thought ,and energy he put into my gift, and especially thankful for him over-nighting it :)" One item on Rachel's wishlist wasn't part of the package -- an Apple iPad. But who needs an iPad when you manage to get Bill Gates as your Secret Santa? ||||| He may not have gifted her the iPad she wanted, but Bill Gates proved a very generous Secret Santa to a Reddit user. NY1227 wrote a post last night to reveal that the RedditGifts' elf-matching service had paired her with the Microsoft founder. Not that she worked it out immediately—well, would you, if your package was addressed to you like this? It wasn't until the recipient discovered a photo in the package of the software creator turned philanthropist cuddling a cow that she realized who it was from. As well as gifting a cuddly cow and a travel book, Gates donated a cow, via Heifer International, to a family in the developing world, in her name. The post is a joy to read. For example: "My santa had not messaged me, but I knew I was super thorough and have a pretty good posting history so I wasn't too worried that my santa would stiff me. Finally, I received a shipped notification to my email on Monday- I was SO SO SO excited but even more excited when I realized A) my gift was being OVERNIGHTED and B) it was 7 pounds- OMG!" Let us reiterate, it is a joy. "Thank you so much Bill for a fantastic and thoughtful gift. I'd really love to send a thank you card to you, but if not, I hope this post and message suffices. Thank you so much!!!!!! I will think of you every time I read my book, which will find a nice home on my coffee table once I'm done reading it. 10/10, I would receive a gift from Bill Gates again. " And finally, she added a postscript: "Sorry for the apple ipad on my wishlist, that was really awkward." ||||| 1. redditgifts is a new way to spread holiday cheer worldwide. redditgifts is a giant online gift exchange that started connecting internet stranger-friends around the world with one another in 2009. Last year 89,421 people worldwide participated in Secret Santa 2013. Think about that for a second: 89,421 internet strangers from 160 different countries put their faith in one another and sent gifts around the world. Pretty awesome, right? Participating is easy. It only takes a few minutes to sign up and create a profile. Once you do, you wait until matching day, when we run a big program that matches each person to someone else in a giant daisy chain. You’ll be given a person’s username, and you can stalk that person (in a friendly way) to find the perfect gift for them and mail it off. Someone else will be doing the same for you, and when you get it, you can post photos of your awesome gift online so we can all celebrate together. ||||| I want to start by giving a HUGE THANK YOU to Mr. Bill Gates for an amazing gift and secret santa experience. Bill- you ROCK (can I call you Bill?! I feel like we're friends now!). I am so very, very grateful for the amazing and thoughtful gift you have picked for me! Not only is the gift PERFECT from anyone, but I am sincerely very appreciative that you took the time to find something so fitting for me. I asked for a return address to send a thank you card to whomever my "Santa" was. I see that you did not provide one so I hope this serves as a proper thank you. Regardless, I'd still love to send a personal thank you if you want to give me your mailing address!! I did not realize my santa was Mr. Bill Gates himself until very far into this. Here's my "journey" of discovery, sorry for the length but I thought many might be interested. My information got pulled about 3 days after elf matching was done. My santa had not messaged me, but I knew I was super thorough and have a pretty good posting history so I wasn't too worried that my santa would stiff me. Finally, I received a shipped notification to my email on Monday- I was SO SO SO excited but even more excited when I realized A) my gift was being OVERNIGHTED and B) it was 7 pounds- OMG! Of course life is life and I wasn't able to get to the gift until this evening (Wednesday night). I decided to document my journey, starting with the box. The first thing I noticed was a stuffed animal. I didn't know I gave off the stuffed animal vibe, but I excitedly added him to my collection of teddy bears and other delightful friendly creatures. Next, I found the card. Next, I found the card. To me, from Bill. This still had not clicked, by the way, that it was Bill Gates. I thought Bill sounded like a friendly fellow. In fact, I had this whole image of this poor guy named Bill trying to navigate my wishlist full of makeup, nailpolish, glittery things to buy me. Quite frankly I felt bad for this "Bill" since I'm a self identified pain in the ass to shop for. I finally opened the card and realized that "Bill" (I use quotes, because like I said, I still didn't realize that this was THE Bill) had donated to a charity on my behalf. The charity was/is Heifner International. I took a break from my present to research the charity a bit, and now the stuffed animal cow made sense. I was so excited, the cause seemed really worthy and amazing, and it is the season of giving. By the way, the charity "gives families in need the right tools- such as animals, seeds, clean water, safe stoves or a chance for girls to go to school." The last part was/is my favorite, since my master's degree is in education and I am SO into educational benefits for all. It makes me so happy that he was able to donate to a charity on my behalf that helped people with both needs and educational benefits. Nailed it, Bill! By the way, in case anyone was being nosy it does not say how much he donated to my behalf, but I can only imagine it was QUITE a bit. But I digress, back to the gift. Still not realizing who was gifting me, I quickly opened the bulk and weight of the gift, which was an amazing and beautiful travel book, "Journeys of a lifetime." I went on and on in my likes and dislikes for my love of travel and seeing the world, and I cannot WAIT to read this. Not only that, but I love pictures and reading up on new places. This gift was perfect! I quickly flipped through it, missing the inscription, message and signature from Bill on the first page, and headed to the final part of my gift. Once again, To me, From Bill. I opened this and it's a man holding a sign. Oh.... wait. holy shit. time out. and then it finally hit me. All the presents I just tore open, the charity, then everything-- was from Bill GATES. I quickly went back to the book to see a really nice message and note from Bill wishing me a Merry Christmas and a Happy Birthday (not pictured, because I really want to keep one part of this gift to myself) my jaw hit the EVER LOVING FLOOR. I went back to all the other gifts completely shocked. Then I paused for a minute and thought, what if this is someone screwing with me. Well of course Mr. Bill Gates already thought of this and took a picture of himself with my stuffed animal and a sign and then sent me the stuffed animal and sign. My god. Never in my entire life did I imagine, ever, ever, ever that Bill would get me. I am SO SO thankful for the time, thought and energy he put into my gift, and especially thankful for him over nighting it :) I feel SO shocked and excited that not only did I receive a gift from Bill, but it was perfectly and EXACTLY tuned into my interests. My gosh, what a rush!! I cannot express how much I really loved reading about a new charity. By the way everyone, you should go donate too! http://www.heifer.org/ Thank you so much Bill for a fantastic and thoughtful gift. I'd really love to send a thank you card to you, but if not, I hope this post and message suffices. Thank you so much!!!!!! I will think of you every time I read my book, which will find a nice home on my coffee table once I'm done reading it. 10/10 would receive gift from Bill Gates again ps: Sorry for the apple ipad on my wishlist, that was really awkward. EDIT: I just got home to see this exploded on the news. To everyone requesting interviews with me, I appreciate the thought but I'm not really looking to exploit this into publicity. I've described my gift, my reactions, and my feelings as best as I can through my post and comments. There is really nothing left for me to say, except privately to Bill (I really hope I can call him that), which I have attempted to do. Merry Christmas! |||||

– You might end up with a great Secret Santa this year, but Reddit user Rachel will probably have you beat. Hers ended up being none other than Bill Gates in Reddit's online gift exchange program, reports Fast Company. She posted the news yesterday under her NY1227 handle, thanking Gates for the "amazing and thoughtful gift." He donated a cow on her behalf to a needy family via the Heifer International program, gave her a stuffed-animal cow as a symbol of that, and added a travel book. In her post, Rachel writes how she didn't realize it was Bill Gates himself until she found a photo inside her package of him holding the stuffed animal, notes CNET. "My God. Never in my entire life did I imagine, ever, ever, ever that Bill would get me," Rachel wrote. "I am SO SO thankful for the time, thought ,and energy he put into my gift, and especially thankful for him over-nighting it :)" She also apologized for putting an Apple iPad on her wish list.

A police officer checks his phone inside the forensic department at Kuala Lumpur Hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Friday, Feb. 24, 2017. The banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent was used in the murder... (Associated Press) A police officer checks his phone inside the forensic department at Kuala Lumpur Hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Friday, Feb. 24, 2017. The banned chemical weapon VX nerve agent was used in the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean ruler's outcast half brother who was poisoned last week at the... (Associated Press) The banned chemical weapon VX is considered by some experts to be the nastiest of the nasty nerve agents known to exist. With a consistency similar to motor oil, it lingers for long periods in the environment and even a tiny amount causes victims' bodies to flood with fluids, producing a feeling of drowning before death. So when Malaysian authorities announced Friday that VX was to blame for the Feb. 13 death of the North Korean leader's exiled half brother inside a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, it raised nearly as many questions as answers. First, with a substance so potent, how is it possible that the two women who allegedly attacked Kim Jong Nam with it could have survived? Second, given that particles can remain in the environment for possibly weeks after being released, why didn't the airport undertake specialized decontamination measures to ensure the public's safety? "The other chemical agents like sarin, tabun, those kinds of things, they're way below this. They're toxic, yes, but this is the king," said John Trestrail, a U.S. forensic toxicologist who has examined more than 1,000 poisoning crimes. He said an amount of VX weighing two pennies could kill 500 people through skin exposure. It's also hard to acquire and would likely have come from a chemical weapons laboratory, making it more likely that the attack was executed by a government. Police are seeking the second secretary of North Korea's embassy in Malaysia, but embassy officials have vehemently denied any involvement. He and other experts stressed the importance of having the results confirmed by an independent reference laboratory, especially given the nerve agent's rarity. VX is an amber-colored, tasteless, odorless chemical weapon first produced in the 1950s. When inhaled or absorbed through the skin, it disrupts the nervous system and causes constriction and increased secretions in the throat, leading to difficulty breathing. Fluids pour from the body, including sweat, spontaneous urination and defecation, often followed by convulsions, paralysis and death. Kim Jong Nam sought help at the airport clinic and died en route to a hospital within two hours of being attacked, police said. An antidote, atropine, can be injected after exposure and is carried by medics in war zones where weapons of mass destruction are suspected. But Bruce Goldberger, a leading toxicologist who heads the forensic medicine division at the University of Florida, questions how no one else fell violently ill in the attack on Kim Jong Nam, who had been living abroad for years after falling out of favor with his family, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The two women — one Vietnamese, one Indonesian — recorded on surveillance cameras thrusting a substance into Kim Jong Nam's face as he was about to check in for a flight home to Macau, apparently did not suffer serious health problems. Malaysian police have said they were not wearing gloves or protective gear and that they washed their hands afterward as they were trained to do. However, authorities said Friday that one of them vomited afterward. Both have been arrested along with another man. Authorities are also seeking several others, including an employee of North Korea's state-owned airline, Air Koryo. "If they used their bare hands, there's just no possible way that they would have exposed him to VX unless they took some sort of precaution," Goldberger said. "The only precaution I know of would be administration of the antidote before this went down." No passengers, airport workers or medical personnel who tended to Kim Jong Nam at the clinic or hospital have been identified as having been sickened. Tens of thousands of passengers have passed through the terminal at Kuala Lumpur's airport, used by budget carriers such as AirAsia, since the apparent assassination was carried out a week and a half ago. No areas were cordoned off and protective measures were not taken. When asked about it a day after the attack, airport spokesman Shah Rahim said there was no risk to travelers and the airport was regularly and properly cleaned. But officials announced Friday that the facility would be decontaminated. "It's as persistent as motor oil. It's going to stay there for a long time. A long time, which means anyone coming in contact with this could be intoxicated from it," Trestrail said. "If this truly is VX, they ought to be calling in a hazmat team and looking at any place these women or the victim traveled after the exposure." VX, which is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, has been used before. The Japanese religious cult Aum Shinrikyo used the nerve agent in the 1990s, killing one victim they believed was a police informant. ___ Follow Margie Mason on Twitter: @margiemasonap ||||| KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The poison used to kill Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was VX nerve agent, which is listed as a chemical weapon, the Malaysian police announced Friday. In a brief statement, Khalid Abu Bakar, the national police chief, said the substance was listed as a chemical weapon under the Chemical Weapons Conventions of 1997 and 2005, to which North Korea is not a party. South Korea has suggested that the killing was the work of the North Korean government. The revelation that a banned weapon was used in such a high-profile killing raises the stakes over how Malaysia and the international community will respond. VX nerve agent can be delivered in two compounds that are mixed at the last moment to create a lethal dose. The police say that two women approached Mr. Kim at the airport with the poison on their hands and rubbed it on his face one after the other. |||||

– The banned chemical weapon VX is considered by some experts to be the nastiest of the nasty nerve agents known to exist. With a consistency similar to motor oil, it lingers for long periods in the environment and even a tiny amount causes victims' bodies to flood with fluids, producing a feeling of drowning before death, reports the AP. So when Malaysian authorities announced Friday that VX was to blame for the Feb. 13 death of the North Korean leader's exiled half-brother inside a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, it raised nearly as many questions as answers, including how the two women who allegedly attacked Kim Jong Nam with it could have survived. A toxicologist says the woman shouldn't have escaped unscathed—one reportedly vomited—as police have said they did not wear gloves or protective gear and only washed their hands after the attack. One theory is that they took an antidote in advance. And the New York Times points out VX becomes lethal when two chemicals are mixed, something that can be done "at the last moment." Police have said the two suspects rubbed something on Kim's face in quick succession. Another toxicologist notes that VX—a small amount of which could kill 500 people through skin exposure—would likely have come from a chemical weapons laboratory, making it more likely that the attack was executed by a government. But he wants an independent lab to verify that VX was used, given that no one else at the airport was sickened. On Friday officials announced the facility would be decontaminated.

Just One More Thing... We have sent you a verification email. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your profile. If you do not receive the verification message within a few minutes of signing up, please check your Spam or Junk folder. Close ||||| Another wintry storm barreled across the southern United States on Wednesday, causing North Carolina drivers caught in monumental traffic jams to abandon their cars as highways became iced while hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses lost electricity. While Atlanta's highways were clear, apparently because people learned their lesson two weeks ago during a storm that paralyzed area traffic, thousands of cars lined the slippery, snow-covered interstates around Raleigh, N.C., and short commutes turned into hours-long journeys. As the storm glazed the South with snow and freezing rain, it also pushed northward along the Interstate 95 corridor, threatening to bring more than a foot of snow Thursday to the already sick-of-winter mid-Atlantic and Northeast. At least nine traffic deaths across the region were blamed on the treacherous weather, and more than 3,600 flights were cancelled across the nation, FlightAware.com reported. The situation in North Carolina was eerily similar to what happened in Atlanta: As snow started to fall around midday, everyone left work at the same time, despite warnings from officials to stay home because the storm would move in quickly. Soo Keith of Raleigh left work about a little after noon, thinking she would have plenty of time to get home before the worst of the snow hit. Instead, Keith, who is three months pregnant, drove a few miles in about two hours and decided to park and start walking, wearing dress shoes and a coat that wouldn't zip over her belly. With a blanket draped over her shoulders, she made it home more than four hours later, comparing her journey to the blizzard scene from the movie "Dr. Zhivago." "My face is all frozen, my glasses are all frozen, my hair is all frozen," the mother of two and Chicago native said as she walked the final mile to her house. "I know how to drive in the snow. But this storm came on suddenly and everyone was leaving work at the same time. I don't think anybody did anything wrong; the weather just hit quickly." Caitlin Palmieri drove two blocks from her job at a bread store in downtown Raleigh before getting stuck. She left her car behind and walked back to work. "It seemed like every other car was getting stuck, fishtailing, trying to move forward," she said. Forecasters warned of a potentially "catastrophic" storm across the South with more than an inch of ice possible in places. Snow was forecast overnight, with up to 3 inches possible in Atlanta and much higher amounts in the Carolinas. As the day wore on, power outages climbed and the dreary weather came in waves. Ice combined with wind gusts up to 30 mph snapped tree limbs and power lines. More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost electricity in Georgia, South Carolina had about 245,000 outages, and 100,000 people in North were without power. Some people could be in the dark for days. As he did for parts of Georgia, President Barack Obama declared a disaster in South Carolina, opening the way for federal aid. In Myrtle Beach, S.C., palm trees were covered with a thick crust of ice. In Atlanta, which was caught unprepared by the last storm, streets and highways were largely deserted this time. Before the first drop of sleet even fell, area schools announced they would be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Many businesses in the corporate capital of the South shut down, too. More than 1,000 National Guard troops have mobilized around the state, and Gov. Nathan Deal said 11 State Parks have opened as emergency shelters, MyFoxAtlanta.com reported. The scene was markedly different from the one Jan. 28, when thousands of children were stranded all night in schools by less than 3 inches of snow and countless drivers abandoned their cars after getting stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours and hours. Matt Altmix walked his Great Dane, Stella, in Atlanta because "even in the snow, you still have to do your business." "I think some folks would even say they were a little trigger-happy to go ahead and cancel schools yesterday, as well as do all the preparation they did," Altmix said. "But it's justified." Deal, who was widely criticized over his handling of the last storm, sounded an upbeat note this time. "Thanks to the people of Georgia. You have shown your character," he said. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory urged people to charge their cellphones and find batteries for radios and flashlights because the storm could bring nearly a foot of snow in places such as Charlotte. "Stay smart. Don't put your stupid hat on at this point in time. Protect yourself. Protect your family. Protect your neighbors," McCrory said. Kathy Davies Muzzey of Wilmington, N.C., said she hid the car keys from her husband, John, on Tuesday night because he was thinking about driving to Chapel Hill for the Duke-UNC basketball game. He has missed only two games between the rivals since he left school in the late 1960s. "He's a fanatic — an absolute fanatic," she said. For the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, the heavy weather was the latest in an unending drumbeat of storms that have depleted cities' salt supplies and caused school systems to run out of snow days. The nation's capital could get up to 8 inches of snow. New York City could see 6 inches. Other sections of eastern New York were expecting 10 to 14 inches. In normally busy downtown areas of Atlanta, almost every business was closed except for a pharmacy. Snow blanketed the ground around the tombstones at a historic cemetery in Decatur, including the graves of a Confederate private and a delegate to the Secession Convention. Amy Cuzzort, who spent six hours in her car during the traffic standstill of January's storm, said she would spend this one at home, "doing chores, watching movies — creepy movies, 'The Shining'" — about a writer who goes mad while trapped in a hotel during a snowstorm. In an warning issued early Wednesday, National Weather Service called the storm "catastrophic ... crippling ... paralyzing ... choose your adjective." Meteorologist Eli Jacks noted that three-quarters of an inch of ice would be catastrophic anywhere. However, the South is particularly vulnerable: Many trees are allowed to hang over power lines for the simple reason that people don't normally have to worry about ice and snow snapping off limbs. Three people were killed when an ambulance careened off an icy West Texas road and caught fire. A chain-reaction crash shut down the four-lane Mississippi River bridge on Interstate 20 at Vicksburg, Miss., and a tanker leaked a corrosive liquid into the river. No one was injured. On Tuesday, four people died in weather-related traffic accidents in North Texas, including a Dallas firefighter who was knocked from an I-20 ramp and fell 50 feet. In Mississippi, two traffic deaths were reported. ||||| Story highlights More than 729,000 without power in Southeast, utilities say More than 4,100 flights are canceled for Thursday All federal offices in Washington are shuttered, officials say Casualty toll from storm climbs to at least 10 Get off the roads, and stay off. That was the message in Georgia and the Carolinas as a snow and ice storm swept through Wednesday, bringing some of the Southeast's most populous cities to a standstill. The warnings came as freezing rain brought heavy ice accumulations from Atlanta to Charlotte. Across a large swath of the South, hundreds of thousands of people were without power and thousands of flights were canceled. Calling ice the biggest enemy, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency. School districts canceled classes and government offices were shuttered in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the traffic paralysis caused by a storm last month. Up to three-quarters of an inch of ice was expected to accumulate in Atlanta and up to 10 inches of snow and sleet were expected in Raleigh and Charlotte, making travel treacherous. Also in the storm's path were Virginia and Washington, with much of the Northeast to follow. All federal offices in the nation's capital were ordered closed, and thousands of employees were being told to stay home, according to the Office of Personnel Management. 'Stay home, if you can' 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Vehicles are piled up in an wreck Friday, February 14, in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. Traffic accidents involving multiple tractor-trailers and dozens of cars completely blocked one side of the Pennsylvania Turnpike outside Philadelphia. Hide Caption 1 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A pedestrian walks through a cloud of steam on a snowy street in New York on February 14. Commuters faced slick roads after a winter storm brought snow and ice to the East Coast. Hide Caption 2 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A traveler walks through Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on February 14. Numerous flights were canceled and delayed this week as a result of the snowstorm that pounded a huge section of the country. Hide Caption 3 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – People dig out vehicles buried in snow in Albany, New York, on February 14. Hide Caption 4 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Chris Starace works to clear snow from his roof in Ossining, New York, on Thursday, February 13. Hide Caption 5 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Snow and ice cover an Atlanta neighborhood on February 13. Hide Caption 6 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – People walk through the snow on February 13 in Brooklyn, New York. Hide Caption 7 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – The lower Manhattan skyline is seen behind a pile of snow in Brooklyn on February 13. Hide Caption 8 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – After spending the night at Reagan National Airport, Ernie Harmon of Long Island, New York, watches a movie while waiting for his flight February 13. Hide Caption 9 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Snow covers cars in Brooklyn on February 13. Hide Caption 10 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Claire Lamborne removes snow from her car in Warrenton, Virginia, on February 13. Hide Caption 11 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A snowman is seen in front of a hardware store in Washington on February 13. Hide Caption 12 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Don Hammond of Newtown, Connecticut, shovels his driveway as snow continues to fall February 13. Hide Caption 13 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A long line of travelers winds around the atrium of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on February 13 as people attempt to catch flights previously canceled because of the massive winter storm. Hide Caption 14 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Rescue workers in Oxon Hill, Maryland, attempt to upright an overturned tractor-trailer on Interstate 495 on February 13. Hide Caption 15 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Snow collects at the base of escalators at the Dupont Circle Metro Station in Washington on February 13. Hide Caption 16 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A postal worker makes his delivery rounds through blizzard conditions in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on February 13. Hide Caption 17 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Motorists push a vehicle on Highway 70 in Raleigh, North Carolina, on February 13, a day after the worst of the storm struck the town. Hide Caption 18 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A man helps push a car in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on February 13. Hide Caption 19 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Snow blankets a street in Ossining, New York, on February 13. Hide Caption 20 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A traveler kills time as work crews continue to clear snow from the runways at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on February 13. Hide Caption 21 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A man in Bethlehem helps push a stranded motorist February 13. Hide Caption 22 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Lyall MacFee shovels snow in front of Sciortino's Pizzeria in Albany, New York, on February 13. Hide Caption 23 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A man digs out a small snowplow that got stuck while clearing snow from a sidewalk in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on February 13. Hide Caption 24 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A man braces his umbrella while walking through the wind and snow in New York City on February 13. Hide Caption 25 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Police work to tow a bus that slid off the road in Philadelphia on February 13. Hide Caption 26 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A man walks along the snow-covered Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington on February 13. Hide Caption 27 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A woman covers her face while walking in New York City on February 13. Hide Caption 28 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A worker clears a snowy sidewalk in Washington on February 13. Hide Caption 29 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Cars sit covered in snow on a street in Manassas, Virginia, on February 13. Hide Caption 30 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A man in Philadelphia shields his face from the elements February 13. Hide Caption 31 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A snowplow removes snow from the sidewalk in Washington's Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, on February 13. Hide Caption 32 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – People walk through snow February 13 in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York City. Hide Caption 33 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – People help push a car stuck in the snow February 13 in Alexandria, Virginia. Hide Caption 34 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Kevin Miller looks out the passenger window of his friend's car as they sit stuck in traffic during a winter storm in Raleigh on Wednesday, February 12. Hide Caption 35 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Traffic moves slowly along Wade Avenue in Raleigh on February 12. Motorists were encouraged to stay off roads. Hide Caption 36 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Katharine Newton, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, calls her parents February 12 while walking more than two miles from campus to her parents' home. Hide Caption 37 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Snowplows clear Interstate 75/85 in downtown Atlanta on February 12. Hide Caption 38 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A downed power line is draped across several vehicles in Atlanta on February 12. Hide Caption 39 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A police officer redirects traffic in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 12. Hide Caption 40 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Ice coats trees hanging over a sign for the Broadway at the Beach tourist attraction in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on February 12. Hide Caption 41 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A sign warns drivers of winter weather as they travel on a bleak section of Highway 141 in Norcross, Georgia, on February 12. Hide Caption 42 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A truck in Bossier City, Louisiana, blocks access to Interstate 220, which was closed because of icy conditions on February 12. Hide Caption 43 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – City workers spread a mixture of sand and salt on an intersection in Avondale Estates, Georgia, on February 12. Hide Caption 44 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Ice and snow cover Interstate 26 in Columbia, South Carolina, on February 12. Hide Caption 45 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Shmetrice Moore, a nurse at an Emory University hospital in Johns Creek, Georgia, scrapes snow and ice off her windshield as she and others are released early from their shift on February 12. Hide Caption 46 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Hossam Shalaby waits for his rescheduled flight under a departure board at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Tuesday, February 11. Hide Caption 47 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A vehicle travels in Greenville, South Carolina, on February 11. Hide Caption 48 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – People shop for what is left at a Publix grocery store in Decatur, Georgia, on February 11. Hide Caption 49 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Vehicles slowly make their way over a snow-covered Route 35 in Fort Payne, Alabama, on February 11. Hide Caption 50 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – Weather data is projected onto the face of Clint Perkins, director of state operations for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, as he works in Atlanta on February 11. Hide Caption 51 of 52 52 photos: Southeast storm moves north Southeast storm moves north – A vehicle drives through falling snow on the U.S. 421 bypass in Sanford, North Carolina, on February 11. Hide Caption 52 of 52 JUST WATCHED Massive traffic jam in North Carolina Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Massive traffic jam in North Carolina 01:28 JUST WATCHED Atlantans stocks up for winter storm Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Atlantans stocks up for winter storm 01:16 JUST WATCHED Georgia governor: It's not end of the world Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Georgia governor: It's not end of the world 01:19 While most of the major thoroughfares in and out of the city of Atlanta were reportedly devoid of traffic, a different scene was playing out to the northeast where the storm appeared to take people by surprise despite days of warnings. "Stay home, if you can," North Carolina's Department of Public Safety said in posts on Twitter. "Quickly deteriorating road conditions, numerous car accidents in Durham/Franklin/Johnston/Wake counties." Collaborate and listen: A catchy school closure Gridlock gripped portions of the state, including Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte, as cars and trucks got stuck on snow- and ice-covered roads. "We saw so many people ... cars piled up and left on the side of the road, and wrecks," said Christina Martinson, who was stuck in the snow-bound traffic with her husband and son for hours in Durham. "It's really, really bad, and it got so bad so quickly that people just weren't ready. Even though we were warned, it just happened more quickly than you would think possible." For some, there just wasn't enough time. Michael Crosswhite, 44, planned on leaving work in Raleigh, in Wake County, by midafternoon, well ahead of when forecasters initially predicted a snow and ice storm to hit the area. But by noon, the snow and icy rain was coming down. 'Nothing you can do but hope you don't get stuck' "We just passed an 18-wheeler that spun out into a ditch," he said by telephone more than two hours into his journey home to Durham, a trip that typically takes less than 30 minutes. School's out: That's a rap Moments later, a car ahead of him spun out in front of him. "It's kind of slushy, and there are just icy spots that there is nothing you can do but hope you don't get stuck," Crosswhite said. The images out of Raleigh and Charlotte recalled a similar scenario in Atlanta, a city shut down by 2.6 inches of snow two weeks ago when thousands of commuters were stuck on highways. Some drivers spent up to 20 hours in their cars. "Right now we've got people traveling up and down the highways in special four-wheel vehicles to make any rescues that we need to make, and more than anything else we're just encouraging people to be smart, and don't put their stupid hat on during the next 48 hours," North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said. The North Carolina Department of Transportation is urging people not to abandon their vehicles. "There are some people abandoning their vehicles. We are urging them not to. It is very dangerous for them to be on foot with cars sliding near them and it blocks access for our sand trucks and plows and causes gridlock," said Communications Supervisor Steve Abbott. Track the storm JUST WATCHED Deal: Ice is our biggest enemy Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Deal: Ice is our biggest enemy 02:35 JUST WATCHED Teen builds huge snowman Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Teen builds huge snowman 01:26 7 photos: Will Atlanta be ready this time? 7 photos: Will Atlanta be ready this time? Will Atlanta be ready this time? – Charles Davidson spent nearly seven hours in his car before running five miles home after Atlanta's last snow. This time, he plans to stay in his house from the start. He and others stranded last time say they will be prepared. Hide Caption 1 of 7 7 photos: Will Atlanta be ready this time? Will Atlanta be ready this time? – Jagannathan Santhanam also plans to stay home after spending hours in his car the last time the roads got icy. He'll work remotely and keep his kids home, too. Hide Caption 2 of 7 7 photos: Will Atlanta be ready this time? Will Atlanta be ready this time? – Recruiter Keisha Owen , who spent two nights away from home during the last snow, will stay in her house and conduct interviews via Skype. This photo was taken during a night she spent stranded at a local hotel. Hide Caption 3 of 7 7 photos: Will Atlanta be ready this time? Will Atlanta be ready this time? – Faith Evangelista will be prepared if she has to spend another 11 hours in her car. She's packed an emergency kit and made sure she has plenty of gas. Hide Caption 4 of 7 7 photos: Will Atlanta be ready this time? Will Atlanta be ready this time? – Greg Ranallo walked more than 10 miles to a friend's house after his car was stranded during the last storm. It was a chilly experience. This time, he's packed extra warm clothes in his car, just in case. Hide Caption 5 of 7 7 photos: Will Atlanta be ready this time? Will Atlanta be ready this time? – During the last snow, Martin Cousin spent 23 hours in his car. He hopes that, this time, Atlanta has asked experienced northern cities and states for their advice in dealing with snow and ice. Hide Caption 6 of 7 7 photos: Will Atlanta be ready this time? Will Atlanta be ready this time? – And Joe Schenck 's lesson? Bring pants. Always bring pants. Last time, he trekked along the highway in his gym shorts until he was rescued by a bus full of middle schoolers. Hide Caption 7 of 7 It appeared people in Atlanta had learned their lesson. Deal applauded Atlantans who kept the roads clear, saying during a midday news conference, "That's a good starting point." Even so, there were thousands without power across the state after ice caused tree limbs to snap, knocking out power lines. With temperatures below freezing, the National Guard opened up 35 armories across the state to be used as shelters and warming centers, CNN affiliate WSB-TV reported. In Durham, the Streets at Southpoint Mall opened up as a shelter. "We are here for people that need to get off the road," general manager Todd Anderson said. "We had a few people here earlier, now there is just a handful of people left but we will be available through evening." "We are just trying to do the right and get people out of the cold," he added. The Red Cross, meanwhile, reported hundreds sought shelter overnight at its facilities stretching from Louisiana to North Carolina. In North Carolina, Kim Martin Rehberg's typical 25-minute commute was turning into an hours-long ordeal Wednesday as she tried to make it from her office in Durham to her home in Raleigh. Three hours later, she still had miles to go. So, too, did the rest of her family who were stuck in traffic across the region. "My daughter was stranded trying to get from her gymnastics class in Apex. My ex-husband is trying to get her and he got trapped," she said by telephone, referring to a Raleigh suburb. "My husband is in Charlotte and says things are bad. All the gas stations are shutting down, and I had trouble trying to gas up." 'Our own trucks are stuck' There are snowplows on the roads but "unfortunately some of our own trucks are stuck in the same traffic jams that a lot of other people are and they're having a hard time getting to the roads that need to be cleared," said Dan Howe, Raleigh's assistant city manager. The low-pressure weather system bringing the snow and ice to the Southeast is expected to move up the East Coast, dropping snow on the Northeast. Six to 8 inches are predicted for Washington, with especially heavy snowfall Thursday morning, and 6 to 10 inches on New York from midnight Wednesday into Thursday, with a combination of snow, sleet and rain continuing until Friday morning. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo told state agencies to prepare "for an impending nor'easter" and asked residents to avoid unnecessary travel. Power outages More than 729,000 customers were without power in the Southeast, power companies told CNN. More than 210,000 were Georgia Power customers, the utility said. South Carolina was the hardest hit, with about 220,000 customers without electricity, while Wilmington, North Carolina, accounted for more than 58,000 outages. The utilities said Wednesday morning they expect those numbers to rise over the next 24 hours. Georgia Power, the state's largest utility, warned that hundreds of thousands could be without electricity for days. "This has the opportunity to be a huge event when you're talking about the amount of ice you're looking at," Aaron Strickland, Georgia Power's emergency operations chief, told reporters. The utility staged fleets of trucks across the area. Teams from Florida, Texas and Ohio bolstered local line crews. Transportation woes The storm system also was taking its toll on travel. Amtrak suspended some rail service in the Northeast, South and Mid-Atlantic regions for Wednesday. Nationwide, more than 3,400 flights were canceled Wednesday and even more than 4,100 were scrubbed for Thursday, according to FlightAware.com. Among the canceled flights were more than 1,600 in and out of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Internationanl Airport. Charlotte Douglas International and Raleigh-Durham International airports accounted for the majority of other flights canceled. Deadly toll At least 10 deaths have been blamed on the weather, including a 55-year-old man who was killed in a head-on collision in Virginia, authorities said. Two people were killed in Georgia, and two died in North Carolina, they said. In Texas, three people died when an ambulance driver lost control on an icy patch of road outside of Carlsbad, the state Department of Public Safety said. A patient, a paramedic and another passenger were pronounced dead at the scene. In Mississippi, authorities blamed the storm for two traffic deaths. Stir-crazy? How to stay sane It's not the snow, it's the ice Travelers get another winter wallop |||||

– The warnings haven't minced words, and the potentially "catastrophic" weather set to hit the South has begun, with Atlanta already feeling the effects: Some 39,000 and counting have lost power there, with that number climbing by the thousands within spans as short as 10 minutes. In terms of thousands, 2,200 flights have been axed out of the city's airport, the world's busiest, with just 300 expected to depart today. Ice began to descend on major roads around 4am, and "all of the interstates, all of the secondary routes, all of the surface streets, are all iced over," said a local radio host, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Where you are right now is where you’re going to be tomorrow morning, there's no doubt about it." Of particular concern are the many tree limbs over power lines; weighed-down icy limbs can snap, causing extensive outages, Fox News notes. Experts are warning that power could be out for a week in some areas, CNN reports. Indeed, ice is "our biggest enemy," says Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal. But much of the South is bracing for snow and ice: Three to five inches of snow could hit Atlanta; southwestern Virginia could see 14 inches, while Charlotte, NC, could get a foot. South Carolina hasn't logged a significant ice storm in a decade, but it could see as much as three-quarters of an inch of ice ... plus up to 8 inches of snow.

Photo OAKLAND, Calif. — For supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement, whose diffuse anger has been a defining and sometimes distracting characteristic, the wounding of an Iraq war veteran here has provided a powerful central rallying point. The veteran, Scott Olsen, 24, was critically injured on Tuesday night when he was hit in the head with a projectile thrown or shot by law enforcement officers combating protesters trying to re-enter a downtown plaza that had been cleared of an encampment earlier in the day. Mr. Olsen, who served two tours of duty in Iraq as a Marine, suffered a fractured skull. And while Mr. Olsen’s condition has since improved, his injury — and the oddity of a Marine who faced enemy fire only to be attacked at home — has prompted an outpouring of sympathy, as well as calls for solidarity among the scores of Occupy encampments around the nation. On Thursday night, camps in several major cities — including New York, Chicago and Philadelphia — were expected to participate in a vigil for Mr. Olsen, according to Iraq Veterans Against the War, of which he is a member. “I think people would have been outraged even had this been a civilian,” said Jose Vasquez, the group’s executive director, “but the fact that he survived two tours of duty and then to have this happen to him, people are really upset about that.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Friends of Mr. Olsen — who worked in computer systems at a Bay Area technology company — said that he had eagerly joined the Occupy movement, heading to the San Francisco camp after work and sleeping on the streets in solidarity with the campers there. He was in Oakland on Tuesday to take part in the demonstration there. ||||| A soldier kneels with an American flag in front of a candle-lit memorial in support of Scott Olsen at City Hall in Oakland October 27, 2011. Candles surround a picture of Scott Olsen at a vigil in his honor at City Hall in Oakland, October 27, 2011. A man writes by candle light at a vigil in support of Scott Olsen at City Hall in Oakland, October 27, 2011. Candles sit in front of photos of Scott Olsen at a vigil in his honor at City Hall in Oakland, California, October 27, 2011. Hundreds of people hold a vigil in support of Scott Olsen at City Hall in Oakland, October 27, 2011. Occupy Oakland protester Scott Olsen, a former U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran, lies on the street after being injured during a demonstration in Oakland, California October 25, 2011. Occupy Oakland protester Scott Olsen, a former U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran, lies on the street after being injured during a demonstration in Oakland, California October 25, 2011. Occupy Oakland protester Scott Olsen, a former U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran, is carried away after being injured during a demonstration in Oakland, California October 25, 2011. People light candles at a vigil in support of Scott Olsen at City Hall in Oakland, California, October 27, 2011. O People hold candles and a picture of Scott Olsen during a vigil at City Hall in Oakland October 27, 2011. OAKLAND, Calif An Iraq war veteran badly wounded in clashes between protesters and police on the streets of Oakland was awake and lucid, hospital officials and family members said on Thursday. Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old former U.S. Marine struck in the head during Wall Street protests on Tuesday night, had been upgraded from critical to fair condition overnight. Olsen's injury has become a rallying cry for the Occupy Wall Street movement nationwide, and Oakland organizers said they would stage a general strike over what a spokeswoman called the "brutal and vicious" treatment of protesters, including the young Iraq war veteran. At the downtown plaza where he was hurt, several hundred supporters turned out Thursday night for a candlelight vigil in which fellow activists from a group called Iraq War Veterans for Peace addressed the crowd. One drew loud cheers when he said the police chief or mayor should resign. Olsen "responded with a very large smile" to a visit from his parents, Highland General Hospital spokesman Warren Lyons said at a late-afternoon press conference on Thursday. "He's able to understand what's going on. He's able to write and hear, but has a little difficulty with his speech," Lyons said. He said doctors had not operated on Olsen yet and were waiting to see if swelling in his brain eased. Olsen's aunt, Kathy Pacconi, told Reuters in an email that her nephew was showing signs of improvement. "I believe he knew his mom and dad were there, and tomorrow he'll be really happy to see his sister, Melissa, because they are really close. Hopefully, he'll start to improve with her visit," Pacconi said. Occupy Oakland organizers said their strike, scheduled for next Wednesday, was intended to shut down the city. 'SHUT THE CITY DOWN' "We mean nobody goes to work, nobody goes to school, we shut the city down," organizer Cat Brooks said. "The only thing they seem to care about is money and they don't understand that it's our money they need. We don't need them, they need us." Spokeswomen for the city of Oakland and Mayor Jean Quan could not be reached for comment. Brooks said a general strike was a "natural progression" following a crackdown by the city of Oakland early on Tuesday morning in which protesters were evicted from a plaza near city hall and 85 people were arrested. Protesters sought to retake that plaza on Tuesday night and were repeatedly driven back by police using stun grenades and tear gas. It was during one of those clashes that protesters say Olsen was struck in the head by a tear gas canister fired by police. The hospital has confirmed Olsen was hurt during the protest, but could not say how he was wounded. Acting Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan had told a news conference his department was investigating the incident. He said police had fired tear gas and bean-bag projectiles when protesters defied orders to disperse. He also said that some demonstrators had pelted police with rocks and bottles. Olsen is believed to be the most seriously wounded person yet in confrontations between police and activists since Occupy Wall Street protests began last month in New York. News of his injury ignited a furor among supporters of the protests. Activists in Oakland and elsewhere took to Twitter and other social media urging demonstrators back into the streets en masse. More than 1,000 protesters moved onto the streets of Oakland again on Wednesday night as police largely kept their distance. At Thursday's vigil, Emily Yates, an Army veteran of two tours in Iraq, urged restraint by police and protesters. "The police claim they were just doing their job. It's all of our job to think before we throw anything at each other," she said. Steve Morse, 65, a Vietnam War veteran, drew a hearty cheer when he called for the resignation of either Police Chief Jordan or Mayor Quan, both widely criticized as having bungled the city's response to the Occupy Oakland movement. The crowd roared back with gusto when a woman from the crowd later yelled out, "Where's our mayor?" Organizers said Quan had been invited in an open letter to address the vigil, but she was not present. Friends say Olsen had been active in several anti-war veterans groups and had joined Oakland protesters in a gesture of solidarity after learning of the police crackdown there. Keith Shannon, 24, who said he served with Olsen in Iraq, told Reuters his friend suffered a two-inch skull fracture. Olsen served two tours in Iraq from 2006 to 2010 with the 3rd battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, Shannon said, adding that he and Olsen deployed together and were assigned to a tactical communications unit. (Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb, Mary Slosson and Emmett Berg; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Jerry Norton) ||||| OAKLAND -- Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, stood calmly in front of a police line as tear gas canisters that officers shot into the Occupy Oakland protest Tuesday night whizzed past his head. "He was standing perfectly still, provoking no one," said Raleigh Latham, an Oakland filmmaker shooting footage of the confrontation between police and hundreds of protesters at 14th Street and Broadway. "If something didn't hit him directly in the face, then it went off close to his head and knocked him down." The something was a projectile that apparently came from police lines, fractured Olsen's skull and put him in Highland General Hospital. Doctors upgraded his condition Thursday from critical to fair, and said they expect him to make a full recovery. His parents flew in from Wisconsin and spent Thursday at his bedside. When they arrived, Olsen "just blossomed," said Highland's chief of surgery, Dr. Alden Harken. Olsen's injury added to the national attention focused on Occupy Oakland in the aftermath of the repeated police tear-gassing of protesters Tuesday. In Las Vegas, protesters projected a photo of the Marine in uniform onto the corrugated-metal side of a building at their camp, the Associated Press reported. Vigils for Olsen were planned at Occupy sites in other cities. Mayor's visit Mayor Jean Quan visited Olsen in the hospital, told him she was sorry for what happened and promised an investigation, said Highland spokesman Vintage Foster. Olsen, a Daly City resident and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, fell to the ground after police lobbed or fired an object - possibly a tear gas canister - at a group of protesters. While Olsen lay wounded in the street, other protesters rushed to his aid. Video footage appears to show an officer tossing another canister toward the group helping him. One protester can be heard screaming "What the f-" at police as the device emits a loud bang, while a demonstrator angrily pounds his sign on the street. The group eventually carried Olsen away. Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan called the incident "unfortunate." "I wish that it didn't happen," Jordan said. "Our goal, obviously, is not to cause injury to anyone. ... We regret that this injury happened." Officers from 18 law enforcement agencies were on the streets of Oakland Tuesday night, and authorities said they are trying to determine which officers were involved in Olsen's injury. Quan said officers from outside agencies had been told they had to abide by Oakland police procedures. Olsen joined the Marines in 2006, served two tours in Iraq and was discharged in 2010, according to Iraq Veterans Against the War. Now a systems administrator at San Francisco software firm OPSWAT Inc., he had spent most nights during the last few weeks at the Occupy SF camp, said his roommate, Keith Shannon. "He'd leave work, head there, sleep there and go to work the next day," Shannon said. "We were really against the fact that the banks and corporations were not held accountable for what they did." BART to Oakland When Olsen heard that protesters at Occupy Oakland were asking for support, he took BART to Oakland and joined in the protest, Shannon said. Olsen knew he might be arrested, but didn't have any idea the demonstration would get as violent as it did, Shannon said. Harken said Olsen had suffered a 2- to 3-inch fracture on the left side of his skull. He is able to write and move, but is having trouble speaking, Harken said. Olsen has a bruise on his brain that is causing swelling, but he should recover fully without needing surgery, Harken said. Olsen was dropped off at the hospital by people in a private car and was unconscious for 12 hours, Harken said. He is unaware of the global interest in his condition. "He wouldn't be able to comprehend it," the doctor said. This article appeared on page A - 15 of the San Francisco Chronicle |||||

– Scott Olsen, the 24-year-old Iraq war veteran who suffered a fractured skull when police raided the Occupy Oakland camp on Tuesday, is awake and lucid, and doctors have upgraded his condition from critical to fair, Reuters reports. “He’s able to understand what’s going on,” a hospital spokesman said. “He’s able to write and hear, but has a little difficulty with his speech.” Olsen’s parents flew in from Wisconsin yesterday to see him, and he “responded with a very large smile” when he saw them. Olsen has a large bruise on his brain, but chief of surgery Alden Harken tells the San Francisco Chronicle that he should recover without surgery. As "We are all Scott Olsen" becomes a rallying cry, candlelight vigils were held for him in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and, of course, Oakland last night, the New York Times reports. Oakland’s mayor has also visited him, promising an investigation. But Olsen is unaware of his newfound fame. “He wouldn’t be able to comprehend it,” Harken says.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will propose a jobs guarantee program for every American worker “who wants or needs one.” (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will announce a plan for the federal government to guarantee a job paying $15 an hour and health-care benefits to every American worker “who wants or needs one,” embracing the kind of large-scale government works project that Democrats have shied away from in recent decades. Sanders's jobs guarantee would fund hundreds of projects throughout the United States aimed at addressing priorities such as infrastructure, care giving, the environment, education and other goals. Under the job guarantee, every American would be entitled to a job under one of these projects or receive job training to be able to do so, according to an early draft of the proposal. A representative from Sanders's office said they had not yet done a cost estimate for the plan or decided how it would be funded, saying they were still crafting the proposal. Sanders joins two other rumored 2020 Democratic presidential contenders who have expressed support for the idea of a jobs guarantee. The push reflects a leftward move in the party's economic policy, away from President Barack Obama's use of public-private partnerships or government incentives to reshape private markets and toward an unambiguous embrace of direct government intervention. Job guarantee advocates say their plan would drive up wages by significantly increasing competition for workers, ensuring that corporations have to offer more generous salaries and benefits if they want to keep their employees from working for the government. Supporters say it also would reduce racial inequality, because black workers face unemployment at about twice the rates of white workers, as well as gender inequality, because many iterations of the plan call for the expansion of federal child-care work. “The goal is to eliminate working poverty and involuntary unemployment altogether,” said Darrick Hamilton, an economist at the New School who has advocated for a jobs guarantee program along with Stony Brook University's Stephanie Kelton and a group of left-leaning economists at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. “This is an opportunity for something transformative, beyond the tinkering we've been doing for the last 40 years, where all the productivity gains have gone to the elite of society.” Others, including some Democrats, are not convinced. The idea is also dead on arrival with Republicans in control of Congress, and conservatives have trashed the idea of a jobs guarantee as impractical, impossibly expensive and dangerous to the private sector. “It completely undercuts a lot of industries and companies,” said Brian Riedl, of the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, a think tank. “There will be pressure to introduce a higher wage or certain benefits that the private sector doesn't offer.” Ernie Tedeschi, an economist who served in Obama's Treasury Department, said there would be large logistical and practical challenges in ensuring millions of new federal jobs serve productive ends. “It would be extremely expensive, and I wonder if this is the best, most targeted use of the amount of money it would cost,” he said. Critics point to potential unintended consequences in the plan. Although it would probably boost wages for workers, those higher wages could bump up costs for private businesses, leading some to hire fewer workers or take other steps — such as reducing benefits or looking to replace workers with machines. These effects would be more pronounced if the plan were to pull away workers who hold private-sector jobs, rather than pulling in workers without jobs who wanted them. The unemployment rate currently sits at 4.1 percent, a historically low figure. But that figure does not include people who've given up looking for work, and the labor force participation rate — a broader measure of those not working — suggests there may be people not counted among the unemployed who would join the labor force. The new government spending could also lead to inflation, decreasing the real value of workers' wages. Obama's economic initiatives, generally, focused on using the government to influence private markets and industries in pursuit of policy goals. His economic stimulus plan — in which he and Democrats tried to pull the United States out of a deep recession — channeled money through private enterprises to boost hiring and investment, and offered tax cuts and rebates in the hope of getting people to spend more. But in a new political climate, ideas such as a jobs guarantee plan is gaining traction among prominent Democrats. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) backed the idea on Twitter earlier this month. As first reported by Vox, Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) last week also announced his intention to introduce a separate bill that would create a pilot program for a job guarantee in 15 rural and urban areas. Under the early draft of Sanders's job guarantee, local, state and American Indian tribe governments in every section of the country would send proposals for public works projects for their areas to 12 regional offices that encompass the country. These 12 regional offices would act as a clearinghouse for these projects, tasked with sending recommended projects to a new national office within the Labor Department office for final approval. Once approved, the projects would hire workers at a minimum salary of $15 an hour with paid family and medical leave, and offer the same retirement, health, and sick and annual leave benefits as other federal employees. About 2,500 job training center and employment offices already exist around the country, and the plan imagines tasking them with connecting workers to these local projects. When the programs are up and running, anyone can wander into a job center and — at least, in theory — find either job training or a job on one of these projects. The plan's authors envision millions of Americans being hired under the proposal, with the number going up during economic recessions in the private sector and down during economic booms. They also say it would significantly increase the government's involvement in the American economy to a level not seen since World War II, if ever in the country's history. Beyond how to pay for the plan, many other aspects of the jobs guarantee have not been specified. It's not clear what would happen to a worker who violated the terms of employment. The plan suggests creating a Division of Progress Investigation to “take disciplinary action if needed,” leaving authority to the head of the Labor Department. Aides to Sanders stress that the policy details remain in their initial stages. Proponents trace the idea to the New Deal era, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt pitched a “Second Bill of Rights” to Congress in 1944. First on the list: the “right to a useful and remunerative job.” “This is not a radical idea,” Hamilton said. “It was well-couched in the Democratic platform that existed during its heyday. I'm glad Democrats are trending back to their roots.” ||||| Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has a big idea: give 15 local areas federal money so they can guarantee all their residents a job. The Federal Jobs Guarantee Development Act, announced by Booker on Friday, would establish a three-year pilot program in which the Department of Labor would select up to 15 local areas (defined in the bill as any political subdivision of a state, like a city or a county, or a group of cities and counties) and offer that area funding so that every adult living there is guaranteed a job paying at least $15 an hour (or the prevailing wage for the job in question, whichever’s higher) and offering paid family/sick leave and health benefits. The idea of a government job guarantee ensuring all adults who want employment get it has a long history in American politics, but it has gained popularity as the Democratic Party has sought to embrace bigger and more ambitious economic policies in the wake of the 2016 election. Booker’s plan is essentially a pilot version of a proposal from Duke’s Mark Paul and William Darity, Jr. and the New School’s Darrick Hamilton, economists who have, together and individually, advocated a job guarantee for years, well before the current surge in enthusiasm. Most recently, Paul, Darity, and Hamilton wrote up their proposal for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a highly influential left-of-center think tank, in a clear sign the idea was gaining traction. Booker’s bill is an even bigger step forward. “The federal jobs guarantee is an idea that demands to be taken seriously,” Booker said in a statement. “Creating an employment guarantee would give all Americans a shot at a day’s work and, by introducing competition into the labor market, raise wages and improve benefits for all workers.” The policy case for a job guarantee The idea of a job guarantee serves both a policy and a political purpose. On the policy side, a job guarantee would, in theory, effectively end recessions in America. Right now, the US government’s strategy when the economy stops growing is to use a combination of monetary stimulus (in which the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates or buys up billions of dollars of long-term bonds) and fiscal stimulus (as in the 2009 stimulus package, which blended a boost in spending with temporary tax cuts). For a variety of political and institutional factors, the Fed and Congress weren’t able to do enough in 2008 to 2010 to prevent unemployment from breaking 10 percent, and they certainly weren’t able to effect a full recovery within a couple years. Returning to normal unemployment rates took nearly a decade, resulting in years of human misery and lost wage gains that a healthier and faster recovery could’ve delivered. Job guarantee advocates argue that their plan effectively creates a permanent form of fiscal stimulus that politicians wouldn’t need to scramble to pass whenever disaster hits. Instead, if the economy took a turn for the worse and companies started shedding jobs, the government would automatically soak up anyone who’s laid off and give them work. That, in turn, would put more money in consumers’ pockets, boosting demand and improving business’ prospects. Before you know it, the economy’s back to normal. Advocates argue the policy could prove beneficial during economic booms as well. The fruits of economic recoveries and booms aren’t evenly shared, demographically. As of March 2018, 60.7 percent of white people in America were employed, but only 58.4 percent of black people were. Once black men’s disproportionate representation in prisons and jails is accounted for, the gap grows still larger. In 2016, the most recent year for which we have data, a mere 27.7 percent of people with disabilities age 16 to 64 were employed, compared to 72.8 percent of nondisabled people. Nor do booms affect all geographic areas equally. There are still 337 counties or county-equivalents with a combined labor force of over 6.7 million people that have unemployment rates of 7 percent or higher as of February 2018. Seventy-eight counties, like Yuma, Arizona, still have unemployment rates in excess of 10 percent. A job guarantee would, in principle, lessen those inequalities. People in struggling regions would be guaranteed work without having to move. Black Americans and disabled Americans wouldn’t be expected to wait until employers have run out of white and nondisabled people to hire until they get their chance. Finally, advocates argue that the policy would lead to an increase in wages for everyone. That’s a big benefit at a time when unemployment is low but wage growth is still sluggish. Think of it this way: Walmart pays its employees a minimum of $10 per hour; part-time employees aren’t guaranteed benefits like health insurance or a 401(k) match. If you’re a part-time employee at Walmart, and all of a sudden you can get $15 an hour, work full time, and earn full benefits by working for the federal government — wouldn’t you? And, knowing that, wouldn’t Walmart try to increase wages to keep you? Advocates say Walmart would. And they have some empirical evidence on their side from India, where a type of job guarantee known as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme functions largely as an insurance system, offering a source of income for rural farmers during the dry season. A group of economists — UC San Diego’s Karthik Muralidharan and Paul Niehaus and the University of Virginia’s Sandip Sukhtankar — found that the job guarantee, they estimate, increased earnings for low-income households by 13.3 percent. Ninety percent of that increase is due to higher wages and increased work in the private sector, not the job guarantee program itself. Just as job guarantee advocates would predict, the program bid up wages everywhere. Perhaps the most surprising result was that the program not only increased wages, but increased employment in the private sector. The political case for a job guarantee — and the challenges it faces The fact that Cory Booker, a rising star in the Democratic Party and a likely 2020 contender who faces considerable skepticism from the left due to his stances on education and Wall Street, has endorsed experimenting with a job guarantee is a clear indication that some in the party think it could be a political winner as well as a policy advance. In the wake of the 2016 election, liberal commentators have latched onto the job guarantee as a way to forge a cross-racial working-class coalition. They need a plan that appeals to both to the white Wisconsin and Michigan voters who switched from Obama to Trump and to black and Latino workers left behind by deindustrialization. The ideal plan would both improve conditions for lower-income Americans while supporting Americans’ strong intuition that people should work to earn their crust. “A federal job guarantee is both universal—it benefits all Americans—and specifically ameliorative to entrenched racial inequality,” Slate’s Jamelle Bouie noted. “The job guarantee asserts that, if individuals bear a moral duty to work, then society and employers bear a reciprocal moral duty to provide good, dignified work for all,” Jeff Spross added in the influential center-left journal Democracy. “If Democrats want to win elections, they should imbue Trump’s empty rhetoric with a real promise: a good job for every American who wants one,” wrote Bryce Covert in the New Republic. “It’s time to make a federal jobs guarantee the central tenet of the party’s platform.” As with any sufficiently big idea, however, a job guarantee comes with risks. It would be expensive, for one thing. Paul, Darity, and Hamilton’s plan, as outlined for the CBPP, would cost $543 billion per year, they estimate. For context, that rivals the size of Medicare, which will cost $707 billion this year, and the size of the defense budget, which totals $622 billion. The Center for American Progress has proposed a more modest $158 billion per year government jobs plan, but it wouldn’t actually guarantee a job to all who sought one, as Paul, Darity, and Hamilton have proposed. Booker’s bill doesn’t have an estimated cost yet. Second, it’s not clear what exactly participants in a job guarantee scheme would do. Most proposals are somewhat vague on this point, mentioning everything from child care to infrastructure. The Booker bill leaves most of this up to localities to figure out. Cities, counties, and other areas would get a chance to apply for the program, and the Department of Labor would be required to pick a mix of urban and rural areas to try the idea out in. Once the program was up and running, the vast majority of jobs offered would be in the public sector, and participants who need more skills development would be offered up to eight weeks of training. Positions meeting “a list of national job priorities … that shall include child care, care for seniors and individuals with disabilities, [and] infrastructure activities” would be encouraged, and private sector employers would benefit from the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, a benefit which currently gives employers a few thousand dollars toward wages when they hire veterans, welfare or food stamp recipients, ex-felons, and other people with barriers to employment. But beyond that, the bill doesn’t give many specifics. A job guarantee would ideally provide for jobs that are nice to have but could be nixed when the economy improves and the program shrinks in size. Those are pretty hard to identify. If a job guarantee were enacted in a recession, and many of the enrollees became child care providers, what happens when the economy improves and workers find jobs in the private sector? It wouldn’t be tenable to eliminate a universal child care program because the economy improved. Nor, if the program employed bus drivers, would it make much sense to cut bus routes. The Booker bill requires that the program be subject to an ongoing rigorous evaluation, which would help determine how well-equipped local governments are to make those kinds of distinctions. That would be a welcome addition to the research literature, as there’s some past evidence suggesting programs like this struggle to succeed. Berkeley economist David Card recently conducted a meta-analysis of more than 200 evaluations of programs meant to boost labor markets, along with fellow economists Jochen Kluve and Andrea Weber. While they found a variety of impacts of different programs, one constant was that public employment programs that simply hired people directly performed worst. “Public sector employment subsidies tend to have negligible or even negative impacts at all horizons,” the study concludes. “This pattern suggests that private employers place little value on the experiences gained in a public sector program.” One reason, they suggested, was that the programs did nothing to help build skills that would make participants more employable. A job guarantee, though, would be on an entirely different scale, and the Booker bill would enable an evaluation that could determine if its effects are more like the successful Indian program or the failed efforts that Card, Kluve, and Weber studied. With Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in charge of both houses of Congress, it’s doubtful Booker’s bill will become law anytime soon. But that’s not really the point. Until his proposal, the closest thing there was to a job guarantee bill in Congress was Rep. John Conyers’s (D-MI) Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act, named after a largely failed 1970s bill pushed by civil rights activists and unions to enact a job guarantee. But the bill fell short of establishing a formal guarantee, and Conyers has since resigned from Congress in a sexual harassment scandal. Booker has put the idea back on the Democratic agenda, and in a form that could be readily passed at relatively minimal cost (given the pilot program nature) when Democrats are next in power. That’s an important step, and one that significantly improves the odds that the idea will be part of the next Democratic president’s to-do list. ||||| WASHINGTON ― It might be the next big idea among liberal policy experts, but Senate Democratic leaders are not yet ready to embrace a government jobs guarantee. Several members of the Senate Democratic caucus, including Cory Booker (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have endorsed the goal of eliminating unemployment and poverty through direct government hiring. HuffPost asked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) if he could support legislation Sanders is drafting that would guarantee a job paying at least $15 an hour to everyone in the United States who wants one. “I’d like to look at his proposal,” Schumer said. “I think we should do everything we can to get people jobs and I’d look at his proposal. I haven’t studied it yet.” Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.), who are members of Schumer’s leadership team, also said they hadn’t seen the legislation. Sanders is looking forward “to starting a conversation with the American people” about the benefits of a jobs guarantee, spokesman Josh Miller-Lewis said in an email. “A federal jobs guarantee is an already popular idea that has the potential to be the next transformative progressive policy,” he said. Sanders’ proposal, which hasn’t been formally introduced yet, would likely involve substantial government spending and radically reshape the U.S. labor market. It’s the kind of idea Democrats might have scoffed at in the past; President Barack Obama, for instance, tended to agree with Republicans that it was important to reduce budget deficits. “A federal jobs guarantee is an already popular idea that has the potential to be the next transformative progressive policy." Sen. Bernie Sanders spokesman Josh Miller-Lewis But Republicans abandoned the pretense of fiscal responsibility when they passed a tax reform bill last year that will add more than $1 trillion to the national debt. “If Republicans could give $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest among us,” Gillibrand said in a tweet earlier this month, “why can’t we invest a similar amount in a guaranteed jobs plan for regular Americans who are unemployed and willing to work to better their local community?” Booker last week announced a separate proposal that would test the jobs guarantee idea in 15 local areas, saying the idea ought to be taken seriously. “Creating an employment guarantee would give all Americans a shot at a day’s work and, by introducing competition into the labor market, raise wages and improve benefits for all worker,” Booker said in a press release. For years, Democrats in the House of Representatives, led by former Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), have introduced “full employment” bills that had similar policy goals, but with little hope of success and almost no news coverage. The Donald Trump era has seemingly created space for ideas that may have once seemed politically impossible. A Sanders proposal to give more Americans government health insurance, for instance, garnered far more support among Democratic senators than similar proposals have in previous years. An effective full employment program would cost more than half a trillion dollars annually, making it almost as large as Medicaid, according to a lengthy paper published in March by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an influential liberal think tank. (Theoretically, the cost of direct spending on jobs could be largely offset by reduced spending on Medicaid and other safety net programs, since people would have too much income to qualify). The jobs guarantee proposals offers a stark contrast to Republican “workforce development” proposals, which are designed to make workers more willing to take low-paying jobs by reducing access to benefits such as food stamps. Both the Democratic jobs guarantee and a Republican food stamps plan under consideration in the House would ramp up existing government workforce offices situated around the country. Democrats in the House have said the GOP plan to shift some food stamp spending from benefits to training programs would create too much of an administrative headache. |||||

– Bernie Sanders is working on a plan that would allow the federal government to guarantee a $15-per-hour job, plus healthcare benefits, to every worker in the US "who wants or needs one," per an early draft of the proposal obtained by the Washington Post. The jobs guarantee would encompass projects involving infrastructure, education, the environment, and care giving. It's not clear when Sanders will formally present the plan; a representative says Sanders' office has not done a cost estimate for the plan or determined where its funding would come from. Sanders' announcement comes after two other Democrats, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Sen. Cory Booker, recently backed the idea of a jobs guarantee plan. Booker is aiming to create a three-year pilot program to test such a guarantee in 15 areas, Vox reports. Supporters of such a plan say it would increase competition for workers, thus forcing corporations to increase their wages and benefits in order to compete with government jobs. But Republicans, who currently control Congress, say the idea is impractical, and even some Democrats agree with that. "It would be extremely expensive, and I wonder if this is the best, most targeted use of the amount of money it would cost," says one economist who served in Obama's Treasury Department, noting that it would be tricky to make sure millions of new jobs—the authors of the Sanders plan do envision it would hire millions of Americans—are all actually productive. The Huffington Post spoke to Democratic Senate leaders and reports that they don't seem quite ready to "embrace" the idea; all Chuck Schumer would say is that he wants to look at Sanders' proposal.

Obamacare How did Obamacare site go so wrong? 5 questions Sebelius must answer Oct. 30, 2013 at 3:33 AM ET Evan Vucci / AP Two down and one to go. House Republicans have battered the Obama administration with a series of hearings digging into how the health-insurance website, an online marketplace where people were supposed to be able to shop, got off to such a bad start. The balkiness of the site, its inability to handle the crush of users and its breakdowns at key points, all have critics asking whether it plays straight into Republican accusations that the government cannot be trusted to handle health care. Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, apologized outright on Tuesday at a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee. Last week, officers of four of the main government contractors that built and are running different parts of the site, said the final testing had been too rushed — and a CMS spokesperson agreed. Now, it’s time for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to take her turn at hearing today. These questions remain unanswered: How could the administration not have tested the site until the last two weeks? Officials have said repeatedly that they didn’t have time, and that the final tests didn’t indicate any particular trouble. “We had tested the website and we were comfortable with it,” Tavenner said in testimony Tuesday. “We were working in a compressed time frame, for sure.” Republicans aren’t buying it. “I want to know why sufficient systems integrated testing was not conducted, and you made the decision to move forward with the website,” said Tennessee Republican Diane Black who, like Tavenner, started her career as a registered nurse. Sebelius will certainly be asked that question again and again — and in many different ways. Why wasn’t the launch delayed when the problems became clear? The site slowed to a standstill almost as soon as it opened just after midnight on Oct. 1. The White House and HHS have said there was a mass onslaught of people signing on — five times as many as anticipated. Millions evidently did try to get on that first day, not just people trying to sign up for insurance, but those who were merely curious as well. Tavenner has admitted that CMS wasn’t aware of the depth of the problems in the first day or two. But Sebelius will have to answer for why not. Will people still have time to sign up? The White House and HHS have both pledged that the site will be working smoothly for “the vast majority” of users by the end of November. Jeff Zients, a management expert who’s been appointed to fix the website while he’s waiting to take over as the chief White House economic adviser next year, says little fixes are being made day by day. "We are bringing in people from both inside and outside government to scrub in with the team and help improve HealthCare.gov," Sebelius says in her prepared testimony. But Republicans and Democrats alike say they’re skeptical. “You have to acknowledge this initial experience has done some damage to Americans’ confidence,” said Pennsylvanian Democrat Allyson Schwartz, a Ways and Means committee member who’s a solid supporter of the Affordable Care Act. HHS keeps repeating that there’s a six-month open enrollment period with plenty of time to get people signed up even if the site is glitchy. But if CMS and HHS missed all the problems that have marred the site so far, Sebelius will be hard-pressed to persuade her critics that the new team of experts brought in to fix the problem will do a better job. How can we trust that other aspects of the site are working, like the subsidy calculator? The health-insurance marketplace website is extremely complicated — one of the most complex projects ever undertaken, according to Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president at CGI Federal Inc., a chief contractor. Users have to create an account and provide large amounts of personal information, including date of birth and social security number, so that the program can check this against databases at the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration and other government departments and agencies. Given the complexity, supporters and critics alike are worried that people may not know a mistake has been made in calculating a government subsidy, for instance, or even whether all family members are covered by an insurance policy, until it’s too late. Why haven’t you been more open about the problems? HHS has refused from the beginning to publicly name all the contractors involved on the site, and will not name the “A-team” of experts brought in to fix the problem. Members of Congress have been so frustrated by this that they’ve subpoenaed tech companies and even sent letters randomly to large companies, such as Microsoft, asking if they were involved. Microsoft answered one such letter last week. “To the best of our knowledge, no Microsoft employee has provided technical services or technical advice to the federal government or federal contractors concerning the challenges associated with the launch of the Healthcare.gov website,” one company lawyer, Robert Kelner of Covington and Burling, LLP, wrote the Ways and Means Committee last week. Only after three weeks of criticism and an editorial in the New York Times by former White House health adviser Ezekiel Emanuel did CMS start daily briefings on the problems and what is being done to fix them. “Given the disappointing rollout of the Web site, Americans are justifiably suspicious,” Emanuel wrote. “Starting now, the administration needs to initiate a concerted effort to win back the public’s trust. CMS officials have said they don’t want contractors distracted from their job. But Congress will certainly want Sebelius to explain why this doesn’t look like a cover-up. Follow Maggie Fox on Facebook and on Twitter Related: ||||| 4 years ago Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is expected to be grilled Wednesday when she becomes the highest-ranking official to testify about the problems plaguing the HealthCare.gov website as well as questions surrounding the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Here are four of the questions she is likely to have to answer. 1. When did she find out about the problems with the website? Last Friday in Austin, Texas, Sebelius was asked at what point did she realize the system wasn’t going to operate the way it was envisioned. “Well actually I didn’t realize it wouldn’t be operating optimally before the launch. I think we knew that if we had had another six months we would probably test further, but I don’t think that anyone fully realized that both volume caused problems, but volume also exposed some problems.” Andrew Slavitt from the contractor QSSI testified last week before a congressional committee the company noted software problems before the launch. Cheryl Campbell, an executive of a different contractor CGI, told the same hearing top officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the part of the Department of Health and Human Services responsible for setting up the site and implementing the law, were continually briefed. CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner told the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday “We had tested the website, and we were comfortable with its performance.” So what did HHS officials know about any problems and were White House officials notified of any problems? In an interview with CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta last week, Sebelius was asked when President Obama first knew of the problems. “I think it became clear fairly early on, the first couple of days...” Gupta then asked: not before that? She answered “no sir.” 2. Why wasn’t more testing done? Contractors working on the website say they warned CMS officials about some of the problems they were seeing and that only two weeks was allotted for full testing before the Oct. 1 launch. QSSI's Slavitt said during his testimony last week the company had informed CMS more testing was necessary and added "months would have been nice." However, none of these red flags were raised by contractors or the government in a congressional hearing in September. Some of the most comprehensive system testing came just weeks before the Oct. 1 launch, and the Washington Post has reported at that time problems were detected. Officials from several contractors said it was CMS’ decision to go ahead and go live with the site. Sebelius and other administration officials have blamed the initial volume as a major reason for the inability of people to set up accounts and use the site, although other problems have been reported as ongoing, such as bad enrollment information being sent to insurance companies. “We tested to a level that was five times the level that Medicare.gov, a well-known operating website, had ever had. We thought if you increase that volume five times that’s probably the maximum hit you would get at one time particularly with a brand new site,” Sebelius said last week. “We were just wildly incorrect. Numbers so far exceeded that now there are very specific diagnostics in place.” She told CNN’s Gupta that if “we had an ideal situation and could have built the product in, you know, a five-year period of time, we probably would have taken five years. But we didn't have five years. And certainly Americans who rely on health coverage didn't have five years for us to wait. We wanted to make sure we made good on this final implementation of the law.” Rep. Fred Upton, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is holding Wednesday's hearing, said "The testing was so poor ... in essence, it's like contractors building a house, but the guy building the first level, the first story didn't know that the basement is on the next lot. I mean, there was just no connectivity. We heard those complaints from a number of different private sides. But at the end of the day, this was not ready. It's been a disaster in the making," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on the Situation Room. 3. How much will the fixes cost? HHS officials have not said how much the fixes to HealthCare.gov may cost. When CMS announced on Friday QSSI was being brought on as the general contractor overseeing the changes, officials said the company's original contract was being expanded but would not say how much more it may be paid. Also CMS officials have repeatedly refused to divulge information about who is doing the "tech surge" which is bolstering the existing staff working on the site to improve the technical capabilities and operations. "We are bringing in people from both inside and outside the government to scrub in with the team and help improve HealthCare.gov," Sebelius says in her prepared testimony. Upton said she will also be pressed on how much this will cost. "We know it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars what they've spent so far. We don't know if there are penalties that are going to be imposed because they didn't get this thing done right. We have no clue what the additional cost will be to try and get it right as the secretary said by the end of next month. We'll try to get an answer to that," he told CNN. 4. What will she say to those whose policies are being cancelled? Upton claims millions of people are receiving notices their current insurance policies are being cancelled because they don't comply with minimum standards set by the Affordable Care Act. These are people who have individual policies - not ones under their employer which is the vast majority of Americans or have Medicaid or Medicare. The Obama Administration estimates about 5% of the nation have individual policies which often have less generous coverage, such as not including hospital or mental coverage, as well as higher deductibles making them much cheaper. The White House was criticized Tuesday by Republicans because President Obama had often said that people who like their insurance policies and want to keep them will be able to. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney fought back against that criticism saying if people had their plans before the Affordable Care Act was passed they are "grandfathered in" - meaning by law they can keep them. For others who have obtained this insurance after Obamacare became law, those are the plans that are subject to possible cancellation. Sebelius is likely to get a question similar to one posed by Upton on CNN on Tuesday saying those facing cancellation should be given more time to enroll in an alternative plan. "Why not allow them to have that choice for the next year knowing that this roll out has been so poorly designed?" Her response could mirror what Carney said on Tuesday: these people deserve better coverage as soon as possible. "Those are the Americans who have been most subject to the wild vagaries of the system as it existed before the Affordable Care Act, who at the drop of a hat could have lost coverage or been told that their premiums were doubling, or that they would have no longer been able to get coverage for a specific condition because it was preexisting. All that changes come January 1st. " CNN's Adam Aigner-Treworgy contributed to this story ||||| HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will read almost exactly the same testimony to Congress Wednesday about the fumbled HealthCare.gov launch as another top Obama administration official offered Tuesday. Sebelius’s eight pages of prepared testimony for the House Energy and Commerce Committee matches nearly word-for-word testimony delivered by CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner to Ways and Means on Tuesday. Text Size - + reset Sebelius defends herself against calls for resignation Tavenner apologizes for glitches In both written statements, the officials acknowledge that the website hasn’t met expectations but say the administration is taking major steps to improve it. Neither testimony includes an apology for the bungled launch—but Tavenner verbally apologized at the hearing Tuesday morning. “I want to apologize to you that the website is not working as well as it should,” she said, offering the most direct apology yet from such a high level administration official. “I want to assure you that HealthCare.gov can be fixed, and we are working around the clock to give you the experience that you deserve.” Neither offers new insight into way the website’s glitches have blocked millions of Americans from being able to enroll in insurance plans on the new exchanges. “Today, more individuals are successfully creating accounts, logging in and moving on to apply for coverage and shop for plans,” both statements say. “We are pleased with these quick improvements, but we know there is still significant, additional work to be done. We continue to conduct regular maintenance nearly every night to improve the consumer experience.” More than half of both testimonies praise other components of the Affordable Care Act like insurance benefits and premium subsidies. “While we are working around the clock to address problems with HealthCare.gov, it is important to remember that the Affordable Care Act is much more than purchasing insurance through HealthCare.gov,” the statements say. ||||| Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius speaks at a news conference in Chicago (Photo: AP/Al Podgorski, Chicago Sun Times) Story Highlights Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will appear before House panel on Wednesday Despite four tough weeks since ACA roll out, Sebelius maintains Obama's "full confidence" Sebelius' allies say she is steeled for tough fight with GOP WASHINGTON — Kathleen Sebelius is on the hot seat as the Obama administration battles to rebound from a problem-plagued rollout of the Affordable Care Act, but friends of the embattled Health and Human Services secretary say it's a mistake to count her out. In recent days, Sebelius has been lampooned by Saturday Night Live and is facing calls from several Republicans to step down because of the bungled roll out of the online exchange. Sebelius is no stranger to difficult fights. During her time as governor in the deep red state of Kansas, she had high-profile battles with state GOP lawmakers over her controversial decision to prevent the expansion of a coal plant and her halting of the merger of two of the region's largest health care providers. Despite battles with Republicans on environmental issues, education and health policy during her two terms as governor and as Kansas insurance commissioner, she left office with an approval rating that hovered near 60%. "She has been successful because she is level-headed," said Raj Goyle, a former Democratic lawmaker in the Kansas Legislature who worked closely with Sebelius when she was governor. "She's unflappable." But as Sebelius prepares to appear before a House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday to discuss problems with the exchange, she faces the most difficult battle of her career. Republicans have only stepped up their criticism of her in recent days, seizing on some of her missteps. Last week, at an event to tout the Affordable Care Act in Phoenix, she set off a fresh round of GOP criticism after she said those calling for her resignation were "people who I don't work for and who do not want this program to work in the first place." Earlier this month, she struggled in an interview on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to explain the problems with the balky website, which the White House says will be running at full speed by the end of November. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., this week called Sebelius "the laughingstock of America." Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican from her home state of Kansas who stood by her side more than four years ago at a White House ceremony when President Obama announced her nomination, was the first lawmaker to call for her resignation. Todd Tiahrt, a former GOP congressman from Kansas, said that the call for Sebelius' ouster is merited. "Look at a parallel situation in the private sector of a CEO being hired by a board of directors to implement something that they have heavily invested in," Tiahrt said. "If it comes to a disaster, I would venture to guess that the CEO would immediately be withdrawn and fired. " Obama, who will head to Boston on Wednesday to discuss the problems with health care implementation while she is being grilled, has stood by Sebelius. The two have long had a warm relationship dating back to his first presidential campaign, where she was an early backer of his run for the White House. Sebelius was also under consideration to be his running mate. White House spokesman Jay Carney has said that Sebelius maintains the president's "full confidence." It's not the first time that Obama has stood by Sebelius at a tough moment. Earlier this year, the president appeared to publicly signal support for Sebelius after she drew Republican fire for asking health industry officials to make donations to help with the effort to implement the ACA. Soon after reports of the solicitation became public, the president invited Sebelius to join him for one of his regular weekend golf outings — an invitation he has only extended to a handful of women during his presidency. Lawmakers outside of Washington have also come to Sebelius' defense. Gov. Steve Beshear, the Democratic governor of Kentucky, has become one of her most impassioned defenders. "It is so typical of Washington, D.C., that when something goes wrong the first thing that the critics do is yell for somebody's firing or yell for somebody's scalp," Beshear said. Forgotten in all the criticism, Beshear said, is that there were also problems with the rollout of Medicare in 1960s and more recently with implementation of the prescription drug benefit known as Medicare Part D. In time, kinks were worked out and the programs remain popular. During her time in Kansas, Sebelius earned a reputation nationally of being a consensus-builder, but she had her tough battles with Republicans, said Bob Beatty, a political scientist at the Washburn University in Kansas. "In Kansas, for a Democrat to win, you have to have charisma," Beatty said. "But her charisma was not loud in the (New Jersey Gov.) Chris Christie sense. Sebelius' charisma came from the ability to ensure voters that she was competent. Perhaps that quieter charisma doesn't play as well in the face of a national problem like this one." In 2007, while serving as governor of Kansas, she made the unprecedented decision to deny a permit for the expansion of a coal power plant based in part on concerns about climate change, kicking off a multiyear battle with the GOP-controlled legislature. That same year she ruffled Republicans' feathers when she plainly stated after a devastating tornado all but destroyed the small town of Greensburg, Kan., that the recovery response was slow because vital National Guard equipment was tied up by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps the moment in her political career most analogous to the battle she now faces was one that dates back to her time as Kansas' insurance commissioner. As the state's top insurance regulator in 2002, she blocked a controversial merger between two health-insurance providers. The for-profit company, Anthem, wanted to take over Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state's non-profit entity that covered roughly 45% of Kansans. For Anthem, the private company based in Indiana, the merger would have allowed them to spread its risk over a much broader pool of patients. For Blue Cross, the takeover would mean that it wouldn't have to insure everybody, including risky people with bad health, and could be more competitive. Goyle said conventional wisdom at the time dictated that she approve the merger. But Sebelius, he said, ultimately looked past the political noise and led a deliberative process in which she followed the facts to the ultimate conclusion that the merger would be bad for Kansans. The episode, Goyle said, underscores why he believes she will ultimately emerge from the controversy over the problems with the online exchange. "The Blue Cross-Anthem situation is really Exhibit A of her ability to stay focused on the facts and the end goal," Goyle said. "I do not believe for one second that she's worried about the politics or that she thinks about her own standing." |||||

– Kathleen Sebelius is testifying before Congress this morning in eagerly anticipated remarks about problem-plagued HealthCare.gov, but you may not hear anything new. Politico reports that her eight pages of prepared testimony are, almost verbatim, the same as the testimony offered to Congress yesterday by head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Marilyn Tavenner. Of course, that's not stopping anyone from hoping Sebelius will address some questions that remain unanswered. NBC and CNN round up a few: Why wasn't the site tested earlier? Officials have said they were running out of time and tests indicated everything was fine. But Republicans want a much better explanation, and contractors have said they warned CMS that more testing was needed. Why wasn't the launch delayed? Tavenner said yesterday that CMS wasn't aware how bad the problems were at first. The questions for Sebelius: Why not? And when, exactly, did she learn of the problems and how bad they were? Why so secretive? Specifically, why hasn't HHS named the contractors or experts involved with the site? How do we know everything on the site will work correctly? For example, how do we know the subsidy calculator (which uses a complex formula) will accurately calculate an individual's government subsidy? How much is this going to cost to fix? So far, HHS hasn't offered an estimate. Can she explain the millions of people whose current policies will be canceled? Those people will need to switch to a plan that complies with ObamaCare's minimum standards. It's probably not going to be a fun day for Sebelius, but in a profile this week, USA Today points out that she's used to this type of political fight. "She has been successful because she is level-headed," says a colleague from Sebelius' days as governor of Kansas. "She's unflappable."

ADVERTISEMENT It's been said that you're less likely to win the lottery than you are to be struck by lightning. If that's the case, the odds are even slimmer for Peter McCathie. The owner of the Amherst Shore Country Store in Amherst Shore, N.S. was once hit by a bolt from the sky. And now he's sharing a $1 million prize with co-worker Diana Miller. Congrats to Peter McCathie & Diana Miller! The 2 co-workers from Cumberland Co. #NS won $1M on #lotto649! pic.twitter.com/zjLJKjMVCV — Atlantic Lottery (@AL_Lottery) July 20, 2015 The pair had been buying tickets for approximately one year, and had bought the latest one from the very store that McCathie owns. They purchased it through what's known as a "Retailer Play" button, which allows store owners or employees to buy tickets and avoid disputes later, The Amherst Daily News reported. "I honestly expected to get hit by lightning again first," McCathie told CTV News. The Nova Scotia man was struck by a bolt while on a boating trip when he was 14, the network said. "I was trying to lock the boat up, it was a very sunny day, there was one big, white cloud in the sky and the lightning bolt came through the trees and hit me," McCathie said. He now plans to spend the winnings paying off debt and taking a second honeymoon with his wife. Miller, meanwhile, wants to take a trip to Cancun. University of Moncton mathematician Sophie Leger calculated the odds of winning the lottery AND being struck by lightning at about 1 in 2.6 trillion, CTV News reported. In other words, if McCathie were a U.S. resident, he'd have had a better chance of being a movie star (1 in 1,505,000) or being attacked by a shark (1 in 11.5 million), according to NBC News. Thank goodness the odds have finally turned in his favour. Like Us On Facebook Follow Us On Twitter ||||| CTVNews.ca Staff The odds of getting struck by lightning in Canada are less than one in a million. The odds of winning the Atlantic Lotto 6/49 are even worse -- one in 13,983,816. And the odds that both of these extraordinary events should happen to the same person in Nova Scotia are nearly impossible. But lightning strike survivor Peter McCathie beat all those odds when he and his co-worker, Diana Miller, collected their million-dollar prize at the Atlantic Lottery offices in Moncton on Monday. McCathie’s brush with death occurred during a boat trip when he was 14. The lottery winner said he was wading through shallow waters near the shore of a lake when he was struck by lightning. "I was trying to lock the boat up, it was a very sunny day, there was one big, white cloud in the sky and the lightning bolt came through the trees and hit me," McCathie told CTV Atlantic. Incredibly, McCathie's daughter was also struck by lightning a few years ago in an eerily similar scenario while working as wilderness guide in Manitoba. "They had pulled off the lake due to storms, so she was locking all the canoes, making sure they weren't going to get blown away, and she got hit by lightning," said McCathie. McCathie and Miller have been buying tickets together for about a year, but they never expected to beat the odds. "I honestly expected to get hit by lightning again first," said McCathie. So how unusual is his story? A mathematics professor at the University of Moncton believes the odds may be in the trillions. "By assuming that these events happened independently … so probability of lotto … times another probability of lightning – since there are two people that got hit by lightning – we get approximately 1 in 2.6 trillion," said Sophie Leger. Diana Miller is planning a trip to Cancun, Mexico with her share of the winnings, while McCathie says that after 30 years of marriage, it's time for him and his wife to take a second honeymoon. McCathie also owns the store where he bought the ticket so gets an addition $10,000 from the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. With a report from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis ||||| MONCTON – Cumberland County is home to the second million-dollar lottery winners in a month. Diana Miller and Peter McCathie are Cumberland County’s latest million-dollar lottery winners. Their number was drawn during the guaranteed $1 million Lotto 6/49 draw on July 15. Submitted HL: Peter McCathie of Amherst Shore and Diana Miller of Amherst are co-workers who purchased a Lott 6/49 Combo 4 lottery ticket together every week. They recently found they had won a guaranteed $1 million prize from the July 15 draw. McCathie owns the store where he purchased the ticket and where he and Miller both work, Miller as a baker. When asked how she reacted when McCathie told her they had won big, Miller said, “Maybe I won’t ask him for a raise this year.” McCathie said he’ll use his winnings to pay off some debt, and maybe take a few days off now and then, which will let him pursue his passions of cooking and fishing. Next year, he and his wife will celebrate their 30th anniversary, so they may go on a second honeymoon, possibly to Ecuador. Miller’s plans are not set, though she has decided on one thing. “As soon as I get cold, I’m going to Cancun for a holiday,” she said. She’ll continue to work though, as she loves her job, and spend time on her farm. They purchased their ticket at the store where they work using the retailer play button. That indicates the ticket purchase has been made by a lottery retailer or a retail employee. “When purchasing draw-based tickets, our lottery retailers and retail employees are encouraged to stamp their tickets using the Retailer Play button on the lottery terminal,” said Jay Merritt, manager of risk management and investigations at Atlantic Lottery. The stamp helps protect players and retailers from any disputes regarding ownership. “We are pleased that these winners used the button; in the absence of using the retailer play stamp, any related party wins are subject to a minimum 30 day review,” he said. The winning ticket was sold at the Amherst Shore Country Store in Amherst Shore. The retailer will receive a one per cent seller’s prize. Their win is the second recent millionaire win in Cumberland County. Helen Fortune of Oxford Junction won $1 million on the June 17 Lotto 6/49 draw, exactly four weeks earlier. |||||

– Peter McCathie's first grand stroke of good luck happened when he got hit by lightning at age 14 and lived to tell the tale. His second came this month when he won a $1 million lottery in Canada with a co-worker, reports Huffington Post Canada. If you're scratching your head wondering, "What are the odds," CTV has your answer, courtesy of a math professor at the University of Moncton: one in 2.6 trillion. Those are the odds of one lotto win and two lightning strikes, the professor explains. It turns out McCathie's daughter has also been struck by lightning. "I honestly expected to get hit by lightning again first," says McCathie of winning the lottery; he plans to use the money to pay off debt and take a second honeymoon with his wife of 30 years. He still recalls the lightning strike, which happened as he was wading in a lake's shallow waters. "I was trying to lock the boat up, it was a very sunny day, there was one big, white cloud in the sky and the lightning bolt came through the trees and hit me." McCathie actually owns the store in Amherst Shore, Nova Scotia, where he and employee Diana Miller bought the winning ticket, and if that sounds fishy, cumberlandnewsnow.com can dispel any suspicions. They used something called a "retailer play button" designed to ensure any such purchases are legit. As for Miller, a baker at the store: "Maybe I won't ask him for a raise this year." (This man just survived a lightning strike to the head.)

Usher Justin Bieber Made Bad Choices ... But He's No Racist is finally speaking out about the videos that surfaced this month showing his protegeusing the n-word ... and even though he wasn't happy, Usher says J.B. is no bigot.Usher took to Instagram Saturday posting a pic of he and Biebs with a long caption describing how he feels ... he explains, "As I have watched Justin Bieber navigate difficult waters as a young man, I can tell you that he hasn't always chosen the path of his greatest potential, but he is unequivocally not a racist."He adds, "What he was 5 years ago was a naive child who did not understand the negative power and degradation that comes from playing with racial slurs. What he is now is a young man faced with an opportunity to become his best self, an example to the millions of kids that follow him to not make the same mistakes."For those of you keeping track ... Usher,, Young Money,andhave all voiced support for Justin, who has already apologized. ||||| Justin Bieber Baptized in NYC Bathtub Justin Bieber -- Baptized in NYC Bathtub EXCLUSIVE turned to the Lord while being shaken down over his racist videos -- and TMZ has learned he washed away his sins with a baptism performed in a bathroom.-- who works with Bieber in NYC -- tells us he spent a week doing intense Bible study with Justin last month ... in the wake of being extorted over the videos.As we previously reported -- JB's team was contacted 2 months ago by a man in possession of the videos and wanted a million dollar payday or else he'd go public.We're told Bieber's religious resurgence focused on studying Bible passages and attending services ... culminating in an actual baptism performed in the bathtub of one of the singer's friends.Why a bathtub, you ask? We're told JB previously checked out a bunch of churches for the dip -- but his cover was blown every time and he wanted to keep the whole thing private.Justin's now got a clean slate with God -- but the public is a harder nut to crack.Amen. ||||| WHAT A WEEK! Friday, September 19th: FNL is at Dave & Buster's (234 W. 42nd St, 3rd fl) from 9pm-12am. It's a great time to get together with your church family and have some FUN! Friday Young & Free is happening! For location & time, email [email protected] Saturday we have Street Teams on the ground out in the Rockaways. We're there weekly and after we just collected school supplies, it's sure to be a great time. If you want to get involved, email [email protected]. Sunday we're at the Grand Ballroom for service at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm, 8:30pm as well as Montclair, New Jersey at The Wellmont Theatre for a single service at 10am. Next Week: Tuesday we have Exchange Bible Study in NYC at 155 E 22nd St starting at 7:30 as well as in New Jersey at The Loft starting at 7:30pm. Wednesday we have a Welcome to Church Night! It's a great way to meet some of our team and find out exactly how to get involved. Starting at 7:30pm in NYC: The Jazz Room (199 Bowery) and in NJ: The Clubhouse (131 Glenridge Ave Montclair, NJ). Don't miss it if you're new to our church! Thursday is Creative Team Night in NYC at 155 E 22nd St. and in New Jersey @ The Loft starting at 7:30pm. If you were ever thinking about a time to get involved, it's now! |||||

– Looks like Justin Bieber finally got that baptism he so desperately wanted. Biebs had been trying to find a church in New York City with a pool in which to get baptized since February, after a string of unfortunate choices got him quite a bit of bad press. Well, last week, he settled for a bathtub baptism, TMZ reports. Pastor Carl Lentz of Justin's fave Hillsong Church NYC performed the ritual in the home of one of Bieber's friends, sources say. Before the baptism, Lentz says he and Bieber did a week of "intense Bible study" involving reading and studying Bible passages and attending church services. The religious rebirth comes after Bieber's latest controversy—two videos of him using the n-word when he was younger were just recently released, two months after an alleged extortion attempt. A man demanded $1 million from Bieber or else he would release the videos, TMZ notes. If you were wondering how Bieber mentor Usher might react to that whole brouhaha, TMZ reported over the weekend that Usher insists Bieber "hasn't always chosen the path of his greatest potential, but he is unequivocally not a racist."

In a burst of holiday spirit, the Senate moved up its vote on final passage of the healthcare bill by 11 hours to allow lawmakers and staff a chance to enjoy Christmas. The Senate scheduled the vote for about 8 a.m. EST Thursday. Originally the vote had been expected to occur at about 7 p.m. Christmas Eve. Speaking on the Senate floor this afternoon, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada announced the agreement with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to move up the vote. RELATED: With healthcare battle about over, Senate Republicans consider holiday exit Obama pushes back vacation to help Senate on healthcare -- Michael Muskal Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal ||||| From Capitol Hill to the White House, Democrats on Tuesday began celebrating the imminent approval by the Senate of an overhaul of the nation's health insurance system. The measure cleared a second procedural hurdle and Republicans agreed to cut short the debate, setting the stage for a final vote Thursday morning. "The finish line is in sight," the bill's chief architect, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), declared shortly after the Senate voted 60 to 39, along caucus lines, to advance the $871 billion health package. "We're not the first to attempt such reforms. We will be the first to succeed." Hours later, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs confidently announced: "Health-care reform is not a matter of if. Health-care reform now is a matter of when." Even Senate Republicans appeared ready to admit defeat, as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) cut a deal with Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) to hold a final vote on the Senate bill at 8 a.m. Thursday, allowing senators to head home hours earlier than expected. Under Senate rules, Republicans could have forced senators to stay at their desks until nearly 10 p.m. during what will be the Senate's first Christmas Eve session since 1963. Unable to block the bill, Republicans argued that they had done all they could to shine a light of harsh scrutiny on the package and the many side deals Reid cut to win over wavering Democrats. Polls show that a majority of Americans are highly skeptical that they will benefit from the president's top domestic initiative, and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said the most effective strategy is to let senators face the wrath of their constituents back home. "The very best thing that can happen to this bill is for us to go home and let the people of this country tell the congressmen and the senators what they think about the taxes, the Medicare cuts and the sweetheart deals," Alexander said, "so when we come back in January, we can stop this train and take a different course. We still have time to go down a different road, rather than pursue a political kamikaze mission toward a historic mistake." If the Senate approves the health package, attention will return to the House, which last month passed a much more generous plan to expand coverage to the uninsured, in part by creating a government-run insurance plan. During several painful weeks of negotiations, Reid demonstrated that the "public option" could not pass the Senate, and House liberals signaled Tuesday that they may be willing to settle for other concessions, such as launching the bulk of the reforms in 2013, a year earlier than the Senate bill now prescribes. "It would sweeten it somewhat if they speed up the coverage mechanism," Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said in an interview with the blog the Plum Line. The reconciliation of the two bills is expected to take place in January, with the aim of sending a bill to the White House for President Obama's signature before he delivers his first State of the Union address. Instead of negotiating in a formal conference committee, senior Democratic aides in both chambers said they expect to hash out a bill in informal negotiations, push it through the House and send it back to the Senate for final approval, a strategy that would give them broad flexibility to rewrite policy provisions in search of a compromise. With the threat of snow and ice storms in the Midwest adding a sense of urgency among senators hoping to get home for Christmas, Reid and McConnell also agreed to vote Thursday on a plan to increase the government's legal debt limit to $12.4 trillion. The temporary increase is projected to get the Treasury through another two months. In exchange, Republicans won the right to stage a full debate on the debt limit in late January, when lawmakers will have to approve an even larger increase to accommodate record deficits. Republicans view the soaring national debt as a potent political issue heading into the 2010 congressional elections and want to use a lengthy Senate debate to focus attention on the issue just as Obama is preparing to address Congress and unveil his second budget request. |||||

– It looks like senators and their staffs will be home for Christmas Eve after all. The final vote on health care legislation has been moved up to 8am Thursday, reports the LA Times. Harry Reid and GOP leader Mitch McConnell announced the move today after a set of procedural votes cleared the Senate with the necessary 60 votes. Republicans could have delayed Thursday's action until 9pm, but McConnell chose not to do so, notes the Post.

Mr. Parvaiz, according to prosecutors, initially described a trio of attackers: one white, one black and one whose race he said he could not determine. He later changed his story, describing all three as black, before finally admitting to setting up the shooting, according to his arrest affidavit. Photo Investigators soon concluded that there was no trio. And on Friday, several people who attended Ms. Noorani’s funeral at the Jam-e-Masjid Islamic Center in Boonton said the news that Mr. Parvaiz had been charged was less surprising than his cover story, since there has been little racial or ethnic tension in Boonton. “We were talking to each other and we were like, ‘Who else?’ ” Moheet Durrani, 62, a family friend, said. The Morris County prosecutor, Robert Bianchi, said that “for a significant period of time,” Mr. Parvaiz had plotted the killing with a Boston woman whom Mr. Bianchi identified as Antoinette Stephen, 26. Both were charged with first-degree murder; the arrest affidavits did not specify who was alleged to have shot Ms. Noorani. Bail for Ms. Stephen was set at $5 million. She was being held in Boston, awaiting extradition to New Jersey. Mr. Parvaiz’s father said Friday outside his home in the Midwood section of Brooklyn , “I have no idea what’s going on.” Photo Mr. Bianchi, at his news conference, said that “there is obviously a relationship” between Ms. Stephen and Mr. Parvaiz. “I am not saying it is a physical relationship,” he said. “I am not saying it is a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship.” He said investigators were working to pin down the details. According to the arrest affidavit, Mr. Parvaiz had told investigators “that there were issues in his marriage and that he was angry at his wife, the victim, for allegedly speaking negatively about his family.” He also seemed to regret her killing, saying “that he did not want to be the person to look at his children and tell them that he took their mother away,” the affidavit said. According to the affidavit, Mr. Parvaiz told Ms. Stephen about the turbulence in his six-year marriage and Ms. Stephen promised to “think of something.” The document detailed text messages between them. In one on Aug. 12, four days before the killing, she was said to have written: “You hang in there. Freedom is just around ur corner.” On Aug. 14, Mr. Parvaiz is alleged to have sent her a text message: “Well I need to speak to you and explain to you how to approach the situation. I’ll be depositing money tomorrow morning and I’ll see you tomorrow evening night.” Photo Later Ms. Stephen told him she was going on radio silence: “Call me when u can. delete all messages from phone. I wont message from here on.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story The plan, according to the affidavit, was that Mr. Parvaiz “would go out for a walk with the victim” and that Ms. Stephen “would kill the victim and wound the suspect.” The walk took Mr. Parvaiz and Ms. Noorani from her sister’s house — where Ms. Noorani had broken her daytime Ramadan fast — toward her father’s house a short distance away, where Mr. Parvaiz had parked his car. They left their 5-year-old son with Ms. Noorani’s sister Lubna Choudhry. They took their 3-year-old son with them in a stroller. Photo Ms. Choudhry said she heard noises in the street a few minutes later, noises she assumed were fireworks. But when she went outside, her sister was dead and Mr. Parvaiz was across the street, wounded and bleeding. The child was unhurt. By Thursday, conflicting stories had emerged about Mr. Parvaiz, who grew up in Brooklyn, where his father, Shafiq Hassan, owns several properties and a grocery store on Coney Island Avenue. Mr. Parvaiz ran a small contracting business in Brooklyn but told relatives that he had moved to Boston for a doctoral program at Harvard University . Harvard said it had no record that he had been a student. The Boston police said he had been arrested in February on charges of assaulting a 20-year-old woman after an argument at his apartment. He was described in the police report as her boyfriend, and it said the dispute had to do with “the fact that she has been unfaithful to him.” The woman, who is from Brooklyn, told the police that Mr. Parvaiz had slapped her in the face and pushed her. But when she declined to cooperate with prosecutors, they dropped the charges. The police were called back to the apartment four days later. They found Mr. Parvaiz outside, saying that he had been taking out the trash when three men accosted him and one hit him in the head with a hammer. The police said they searched the neighborhood but found no suspects. The affidavit did not spell out the connection between Mr. Parvaiz and Ms. Stephen. But Ms. Stephen’s name appears below Mr. Parvaiz’s on a printed label on the mailbox of his apartment in Boston. Ms. Noorani’s name is also on the mailbox. ||||| A Pakistani-American man whose Pakistan-born wife was gunned down while they and their son walked along a quiet suburban street plotted the killing with another woman and told police his family had been attacked by a group of men who called them terrorists, authorities said Friday. In this photo released by the Morris County Prosecutor's office, Kashif Parvaiz is seen in this police booking photo Friday, Aug. 19, 2011. Parvaiz and Antoinette Stephen are charged with connection of... (Associated Press) Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi holds the police booking photos of Kashif Parvaiz, left, and Antoinette Stephen, who were charged in the murder of 27-year-old Nazish Noorani, during a news conference,... (Associated Press) In this photo released by the Morris County Prosecutor's office, Antoinette Stephen is seen in this police booking photo, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011. Stephen, 26, and Kashif Parvaiz are charged with connection... (Associated Press) Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi announces the arrest of Kashif Parvaiz and Antoinette Stephen, charged in the murder of 27-year-old Nazish Noorani, during a news conference, Friday, Aug. 19,... (Associated Press) Kashif Parvaiz, 26, suffered non-life-threatening wounds in the shooting that killed his 27-year-old wife, Nazish Noorani. They were walking with their 3-year-old son, who was in a stroller, to a relative's house in Boonton when shots rang out Tuesday night. The boy was unharmed. The couple's 5-year-old son was with Noorani's family inside the house. Parvaiz and 26-year-old Antionette Stephen of Massachusetts both face charges of murder, conspiracy and weapons offenses. He also faces child-endangerment charges. Stephen and Parvaiz exchanged text messages in the days leading up to the shooting, according to an arrest affidavit released by the Morris County Prosecutor's Office. "You hang in there. Freedom is just around ur corner," read one text sent from a phone listed to Stephen's father to Parvaiz, according to the affidavit. Subsequent texts from Stephen's number describe driving around the neighborhood to see how far away the nearest police station was, according to the affidavit. The exchange of texts continued up until 2 p.m. on the day of the shooting, authorities said. Parvaiz, who has been in the hospital, was arrested several days ago, authorities said. He was being held on $1 million bail. Authorities said they did not know whether he had a lawyer. Stephen was arrested Thursday night in Massachusetts. She was arraigned Friday on a fugitive-from-justice charge and was being held without bail at a women's prison in Massachusetts. It's not clear when she might be returned to New Jersey. Meghan Spring, the attorney who represented her at her arraignment, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Parvaiz, his wife and their son were walking from Noorani's sister's house to her father's house a few blocks away when the shooting occurred. According to Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi, Parvaiz's accounts of the attack were inconsistent and immediately raised suspicions. Parvaiz told investigators the couple was attacked by a combination of black and white males who shouted ethnic slurs, authorities said. In his initial story, the group shouted something about the family being "terrorists," authorities said. Bianchi said investigators were deeply concerned when Parvaiz suggested it was a bias crime, but within hours "it was obvious to investigators that this was sadly the alleged handy work of the victim's husband who allegedly did the unthinkable and plotted to murder his wife." Bianchi didn't say whether Stephen and Parvaiz were romantically involved, but investigators wrote in the arrest affidavit that Parvaiz and Noorani had a turbulent relationship. Authorities said Parvaiz met Stephen in Brooklyn, New York City, and the two discussed murdering Noorani. Bianchi wouldn't say who pulled the trigger or whether the same person shot both Parvaiz and Noorani. Noorani was buried Friday after services at an Islamic center in Boonton, a small town west of New York with a solid Pakistani population. Friends and family had set up a website, www.nazishmemorialfund.org, to help the couple's two children. The affidavit quotes a text message from Noorani to her brother in which she wrote: "Someday u will find me dead but its cuz of kashi ... He wants to kill me." Noorani was a native of Karachi, Pakistan, while Parvaiz was originally from Brooklyn, relatives have said. The couple was wed six years ago after meeting at a music festival in Brooklyn, family members said. They were in Boonton to visit relatives. Parvaiz told family he was attending graduate school at Harvard, but the school has no record of him studying there. He told investigators that he had had extramarital affairs, according to the affidavit. Stephen, a native of India, was arrested Thursday at her home in Massachusetts, where she lives with her parents and a sister. Neighbors said the family moved into the neighborhood about five years ago, renovating an abandoned Colonial house on a quiet residential street. Debbie Stillings said the family was Americanized and did not speak with much of an accent. She said Stephen was sometimes visited by a male friend on a motorcycle. "They were very friendly and quiet," Stillings said. "My husband teased (Antionette) about the guy on the motorcycle, saying, `Is that your boyfriend?' and she said, `No, he's just a friend.'" ___ Contributing to this report were AP reporters Russell Contreras in Massachusetts, Denise Lavoie in Boston and AP News Researcher Barbara Sambriski in New York. |||||

– A Pakistani-American admitted to police that he set up his wife's murder and made up a cover story about getting jumped by three black men shouting "terrorists!" Kashif Parvaiz of New Jersey and a woman the New York Post describes as his lover, Antoinette Stephen, are under arrest for plotting the shooting of Nazish Noorani. It took place as she walked down a neighborhood street accompanied by her 3-year-old son, who was unharmed, and by Parvaiz, who was wounded in the attack as planned, but not seriously. Afterward, he couldn't keep his story straight, and both police and Noorani's family got suspicious, notes the New York Times. "Someday U will find me dead, but it’s cuz of Kashi ... he wants to kill me," she recently texted her brother. Police say they also have text records from the suspects laying out intricate details of the plot. "You hang in there," Stephen texted him before the shooting, according to AP. "Freedom is just around ur corner."

Heidi Klum and Seal's Split Shocks Friends PeopleTV Archive: Heidi & Seal Take You Underneath the Sheets Since tying the knot in 2005, Heidi Klum and Seal have never been shy about putting their love on display , whether hamming for the cameras in Aspen or renewing their vows every year at lavish theme parties So when the singer, 48, and the fashion icon, 38, broke the news with PEOPLE on Sunday that they're separating, friends were caught off guard."All this is just shocking to me," says Niche Media founder Jason Binn, a friend of Klum's for more than 20 years. "I've only seen them as the most loving couple.""The Heidi and Seal I knew was the couple everyone loves," says a fashion industry source who's worked with Klum, "super passionate and in love."Sources who've witnessed Seal and Klum's typically overt shows of affection – "They were always all over each other, practically groping," says another fashion source, "totally in love" – are now left wondering what could have gone wrong for the pair, whose children are Leni, 7½, Henry, 6, Johan, 5, and Lou, 2."It has to be something major," says a Klum friend. "They have four kids together, and they've always been very committed to making it work." ||||| Talk about savage irony: on the heels of his separation from wife Heidi Klum, Seal released his new album, "Soul 2," in the U.S. on Tuesday -- one that he says has a particularly romantic feel. And so when the Grammy Award winner appeared at several studios on Monday to promote his latest album, the question of his split from his supermodel wife of seven years naturally came up. Here's what Seal said: On how he's dealing with post-split life, at the "Tavis Smiley" show on PBS, airing Friday: We have a tremendous amount of love and respect for each other. Of course our children are our first priority. We've pretty much said everything we needed to say about it in the release. How does one stay focused? Just because you decide to separate, I don't think you all of a sudden stop loving each other. I don't think you all of a sudden stop becoming friends, especially when there are other things to take into consideration like family. To be honest, it's not really that difficult. It's not really that much of an issue. What one has to do in this situation is to remain civil and to retain one's dignity and to be professional and to understand we are not the only people on this planet that go through this. It is just, unfortunately, a chapter of life. On being "shocked" and still wearing his wedding ring, at "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," airing Tuesday: You just grow apart after a while, and you try, and you work through it, and the thing you quickly realize when you're married and when you become a parent is that you do the best you can. It makes you actually appreciate your parents a lot more. The thing that I'm most proud about this great woman who I married -- and I really do mean that from the bottom of my heart -- is that together she has given me four incredible gifts, four beautiful children. She is still, in my opinion, the most wonderful woman in the world. It's just pretty much a token of how I feel about this woman... Right now it feels really comfortable on my hand so I have no intentions of taking it off anytime soon. Seal and Klum started dating in 2003; the couple have four children, Leni, Henry, Johan and Lou. Check out photos of the couple from happier times below: |||||

– Despite his very recent, very public split with wife Heidi Klum, Seal visited Ellen DeGeneres' show yesterday and had only nice things to say about his soon-to-be-ex. He's still wearing his ring because it's "a token of how I feel about this woman," he says in a clip obtained by the Huffington Post. "We have eight years, eight wonderful years together. And just because we have decided to separate doesn't necessarily mean that you take off your ring and you're no longer connected to that person. We will be connected in many ways for the rest of our lives." He has "no intention of taking it off any time soon," he adds. If you were shocked by news of the split, you're not alone: Even their friends were surprised, People reports. The couple renewed their wedding vows every year, and multiple sources recall their infamous PDAs: Says one fashion source, "They were always all over each other, practically groping." Another friend says that "something major" must have caused the split. Whatever it was, it caused Seal to start looking for a new place to live weeks ago, sources tell the New York Post. Click to watch more from Seal's Ellen appearance, which airs today.

Image copyright Reuters Donald Trump's state visit to the UK is in fresh doubt after there was no mention of it in the Queen's Speech. The US president accepted the Queen's invitation for him to travel to Britain when Prime Minister Theresa May visited Washington in January. There have been reports that Mr Trump has changed his mind and does not want to visit while there is potential for protests against him. But a Trump official told the BBC: "The two governments are discussing dates." Number 10 said the Queen had not mentioned the visit because no date had been set. Wednesday's Queen's Speech at the State Opening of Parliament saw the monarch announce the government's legislative programme for the next two years. The Queen also uses the speech to set out her official plans for the year. She said she looked forward to welcoming King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain for their state visit in July, and hosting the Commonwealth summit in April next year. But there was no word about Mr Trump's state visit. October had been suggested as a possible date. Brexit bills at heart of Queen's Speech Bill-by-bill guide: Queen's Speech Queen's Speech reflects weaker May A Downing Street spokesman said: "An invitation has been extended and accepted. "The visit wasn't mentioned in the Queen's Speech because a date hasn't been fixed yet." In his last statement on the issue, White House spokesman Sean Spicer had said: "Her Majesty extended an invitation to the president. He's accepted that invitation. And we look forward to scheduling that trip. "There is nothing that was scheduled and we look forward to working out a mutually acceptable date with the United Kingdom, and look forward to sharing that date." Analysis Image copyright PA By James Landale, diplomatic correspondent There is a very good reason for that date not being set. That is because there are concerns within the White House that if Donald Trump came to the UK, there would be some substantial protests. There is also a concern within the British government that it would not help US-UK relations if the US president was embarrassed. It is very unlikely he will be coming this year. This government has only so much bandwidth, that trying to work out precisely when they are going to have a visit from the US president, particularly if he is having cold feet, is something I imagine they will say to put on the back burner for a bit. When the invitation was first made by Theresa May on behalf of the Queen, there was a lot of concern that she had jumped the gun and gone too fast on this - to give a new US president the offer of a full state visit was a little premature. Normally that kind of offer does not come until well into the presidency. It quite often happens in a president's second term - if re-elected - and not all US presidents get full state visits. So the fact that it is going to be delayed will not come as a huge disappointment to many people who thought it was a little bit too much, too early. ||||| London (CNN) What -- or in this case, who -- was conspicuously absent from the Queen's Speech to Parliament? US President Donald Trump. Trump's planned state visit to the UK -- announced by British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this year -- was not mentioned by Queen Elizabeth II in her speech at the opening of Parliament on Wednesday, prompting further speculation over whether the trip will happen at all. May offered up the state visit during a bilateral meeting with the US President shortly after his inauguration. State visits are typically characterized by pomp and ceremony, and generally include a banquet with the Queen. The invitation has proved to be incredibly controversial in Britain, where over 1.8 million people signed a petition seeking to block Trump's trip over fears that it would "cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen." Earlier this month, UK media reports suggested the US President had told Prime Minister May that he would not visit due to a lack of public support in Britain. Those reports were later denied by the White House British newspaper the Guardian reported that Trump had revealed his unease about the visit during a conversation with May, citing a Downing Street adviser who was in the room. A senior Trump administration source denied that the subject came up when Trump and May spoke in the aftermath of the British general election. Following the omission on Wednesday, a senior Trump administration official told CNN: "She didn't mention (the visit) because the date is not yet set." A Downing Street spokesperson told CNN there was "no change" in their position on the state visit. "The invitation for the state visit has been extended and it wasn't mentioned in the speech as no date has been decided upon yet," the Number 10 spokesperson said. The Queen did mention one forthcoming state visit -- that of King Felipe of Spain in July. While Wednesday's speech is being used by some as an indication that a Trump state visit is off the cards, recent history could indicate otherwise. ||||| U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed visit to the U.K. later this year was conspicuous by its absence from Queen Elizabeth II’s speech setting out the program for Prime Minister Theresa May’s government. Despite Trump accepting an invitation for a state visit during the premier’s visit to Washington in January, the queen only said she and her husband Prince Philip “look forward to welcoming” the king and queen of Spain in July. State visits have traditionally been announced by the monarch in her speeches to Parliament. Get the latest on global politics in your inbox, every day. Get our newsletter daily. There were protests after Trump was invited so soon after his inauguration, and May said on June 6 that the president was “wrong” to criticize London Mayor Sadiq Khan over his response to the London Bridge terrorist attack that killed eight people. Trump used Twitter to accuse Khan of being “pathetic,” in contrast to May saying that the mayor, a member of the opposition Labour Party, was “doing a good job.” Britain is trying to persuade Trump to sign a post-Brexit trade deal. While his predecessor Barack Obama said Britain would be “at the back of the queue” if it voted to leave the European Union, Trump initially promised a quick deal with the U.K. before appearing to prioritize an agreement with the bloc it is leaving. Police Planning Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said in February that the visit would take place in June and the force was preparing for “lots of protests.” That was before May called the June 8 election that cost her Conservative Party its parliamentary majority and a fire in a London apartment block that killed dozens and led to anti-government protests on the streets. The prospect of Trump being greeted with demonstrations was only one aspect of planning for the proposed visit by the head of state of a crucial ally to Britain. The speaker of the House of Commons also made it clear that he would not be allowed to address Parliament. “I feel very strongly our opposition to racism and to sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons,” John Bercow said when explaining his decision in February. Asked about the state visit earlier this month, the London mayor said: “I don’t think we should be rolling out the red carpet to the president of the USA in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for.” Khan said Britain’s relationship with the U.S. should be like a close friendship: “You stand with them in times of adversity and call them out when they’re wrong and there are many things about which Donald Trump is wrong.” The absence of Trump’s visit from the speech is a far cry from the way the invitation was announced in the early days of his presidency. “I have today been able to convey Her Majesty the Queen’s hope that President Trump and the First Lady would pay a state visit to the United Kingdom later this year and I’m delighted that the president has accepted that invitation,” May said in a press conference in the White House in January. James Slack, May’s spokesman, told reporters after the speech on Wednesday that the lack of a reference to Trump’s visit doesn’t mean it won’t go ahead. “The reason it’s not included today is because a firm date hasn’t been fixed,” he said. “But the invitation has been extended and accepted.” ||||| LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May promised on Wednesday to listen more closely to business concerns about Britain leaving the European Union as she set out a Brexit-focused government program, pared back to reflect her weakened authority. Chastened by an election which left her Conservative Party short of a majority in parliament and reopened debate on the nature of Britain’s EU exit, May also sidelined reform on social care, education and corporate governance. May’s two-year program, known as the Queen’s Speech and prepared by ministers, was read out by Queen Elizabeth at parliament’s opening ceremony. She has yet to secure a deal with Northern Ireland’s DUP party to prop up her government. The queen told lawmakers from both the upper and lower houses of parliament that the government is committed to building “the widest possible consensus” on Brexit, working with parliament, devolved administrations, business and others. “My government’s priority is to secure the best possible deal as the country leaves the European Union,” the queen said. The traditionally ceremonial address, usually dominated by pageantry, was a crucial testing ground for May’s ability to run the country during its most challenging period for generations. Her authority has been badly damaged just as Britain begins Brexit negotiations. Four militant attacks have raised questions about her grip on national security, and the death of at least 79 people in a tower block fire has become a flashpoint for public anger at her party’s record in government. “The election result was not the one I hoped for, but this government will respond with humility and resolve to the message the electorate sent,” May said in remarks introducing the policy plan. “First, we need to get Brexit right. That means getting a deal which delivers the result of last year’s referendum and does so in a way that commands maximum public support.” The shift to a more consultative tack drew a cautious welcome from business groups, which worry that May’s plan focuses more on controlling immigration than protecting the economy. Her new approach will be tested almost immediately, when she travels to Brussels on Thursday for a summit of EU leaders. Lawmakers will have to approve the speech in a vote, expected on June 29, that will be a de facto vote of confidence. Minority governments are a rare occurrence in British parliamentary politics where the electoral system usually produces a governing majority. May is under increasing pressure to do a deal with the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) to support her government after nearly two weeks of talks. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, whose surprisingly strong election performance damaged May, called the speech “thin gruel”. He said the government was ignoring the need for important domestic reforms to promote social justice. “A threadbare legislative program from a government that has lost its majority and apparently run out of ideas altogether,” he told parliament. The Queen delivered the speech in a toned-down ceremony that dispensed with a horse-drawn procession to parliament, and she swapped her crown for a blue hat. The changes to the ceremony were planned and due to a lack of rehearsal time. She was accompanied by Prince Charles after her 96-year-old husband, Philip, was taken to hospital with an infection. BREXIT FOCUS As London sweltered in unseasonably hot weather, about 250 protesters gathered outside parliament after the speech, blaming the deadly fire in west London on years of Conservative cuts and demanding the fall of May’s government. May apologized for the government’s inadequate response to that fire and acknowledged the country faced “difficult times”. Britain's Queen Elizabeth sits next to Prince Charles during the State Opening of Parliament in central London, Britain June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Rousseau/Pool “Not every problem can be solved by an act of parliament,” she said. “Our response to disaster and acts of terror which take the lives of innocent people must be this: compassion, unity, resolve.” The legislative program spelt out a Brexit-dominated set of policies and indicated May was keen to secure broad support for leaving the EU - a change in tone from the strident approach she set out before the June 8 election. “While this will be a government that consults and listens, we are clear that we are going to see Brexit through, working with parliament, business, the devolved administrations and others to ensure a smooth and orderly withdrawal,” she said. A briefing document issued alongside the speech said the government would consult more closely with businesses and other interested parties to “test and validate positions and to continue to build support from the business community as we move forward”. “This welcome change in tone needs to be backed by clarity and action now,” the Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry lobby group, Carolyn Fairbairn, said. “Firms will expect all politicians to put pragmatism before politics, starting with Brexit,” she said. Manufacturers’ group EEF said industry needed more information on how the benefits of the EU’s single market and customs union would be maintained throughout Britain’s exit. “There must be a much closer partnership with industry if we’re to avoid economic chaos when we leave the EU,” EEF Chief Executive Terry Scuoler said. May’s program for government was largely restricted to the technical work of making sure Brexit can happen: a bill that sets out how the government will transpose huge swathes of EU law into British law and separate bills on related topics such as immigration, customs and fisheries. Beyond Brexit, the plan included a promise to pay more attention to public concerns about austerity, but did not alter the government’s commitment to bring down the budget deficit. It also outlined plans to allow sectors such as electric vehicles and satellite technology to maintain a competitive edge, as well as promising to deliver an industrial strategy that spread prosperity across the country. Slideshow (14 Images) May’s plans will need the support of Northern Ireland’s DUP, which is expected to use its 10 votes to back her in exchange for more funding to the province, policies geared toward boosting its economy and assurances that Brexit will not cut it off from the neighboring Irish Republic. But that deal has yet to be announced, and on Tuesday the DUP said the talks were not going as was expected. The party should not be taken for granted, it said. ||||| HM Government recognises the strong views expressed by the many signatories of this petition, but does not support this petition. During her visit to the United States on 27 January 2017, the Prime Minister, on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, invited President Trump for a State Visit to the UK later this year. The invitation was accepted. This invitation reflects the importance of the relationship between the United States of America and the United Kingdom. At this stage, final dates have not yet been agreed for the State Visit. Foreign and Commonwealth Office ||||| Address covering state visits for next two years refers to welcoming Spanish king and queen in July, but not US president The Queen’s speech has given a further indication that Donald Trump’s planned state visit to the UK has been put on hold, after the monarch did not mention it in her address. The speech usually mentions any state visits planned for the duration of the parliament. Speaking on Wednesday, the Queen said she and Prince Philip “look forward to welcoming their majesties King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain on a state visit in July”. However, it did not mention the visit of Trump, initially planned for this summer after Theresa May invited him on behalf of the Queen when she visited the US president in Washington DC in January, shortly after he took office. This Queen’s speech is intended to herald a parliament lasting two years, rather than the usual one, indicating that no date for Trump’s visit has been scheduled for the near future. The visit would be controversial, given Trump’s policies and provocative use of social media, such as when he misquoted and berated the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, after the London Bridge attack. A number of groups have promised to protest if the visit goes ahead. The Guardian reported earlier this month that Trump had told May he did not want to go ahead with the state visit until the British public supported it. The comments, made in a phone call, would seem to put the visit on hold indefinitely. At the time, the White House said the subject “never came up on the call”. Downing Street has refused to comment, saying only that the invitation remained unchanged. And Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary, denied that the Queen’s speech indicated that the state visit had been cancelled. “That is not what she said. She only talked about visits with confirmed dates and we do not yet have a confirmed date,” Sanders said. After the London Bridge attack, Trump tweeted: “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack, and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’” He was referring to Khan saying there was no reason to be alarmed by an increased police presence in the city the following day. A spokesman for Khan said the mayor had “more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks”. ||||| Theresa May had her first Queen's Speech today, but she was somewhat upstaged by the monarch and her colourful - and curious - hat. Some claimed the speech was flimsy and light on policy, with many of the Conservative manifesto pledges scrapped after Mrs May lost her majority in the general election. And with Brexit looming big on the horizon - and featuring at the heart of the Prime Minister's proposals for government - some thought the Queen herself was making a bold statement in Parliament by wearing a cheerful yellow and blue hat. Eagle-eyed social media users quickly spotted that her hat bore a striking resemblance to the EU flag: ||||| In a pared-down ceremony – though her crown got its own car – the Queen seemed to wave goodbye to the EU via her outfit Is today the Queen’s Damascene moment? We only ask because today, as she opened parliament and laid out the government’s intention to deliver the eight bills necessary for Brexit, the Queen – long thought to be a Brexiteer – wore a hat that bore a strong resemblance to the European Union flag. The hat itself was glorious. A shade of papal purple, with yellow flowers, she wore it with a matching day-coat and dress in a print not a world away from Balenciaga’s spring/summer 2017 inkjet floral print dress. Jolly, informal, was it a deeply coded outfit, or simply Instagram-friendly? Was she throwing shade at the Brexit negotiations or referencing Van Gogh’s Starry Night? Is this royal purple or Lanvin lilac? And so on. Given the Queen’s compulsory nonpartisan role in the Brexit negotiations, the hat remains riddled with ambiguity. Elsewhere, in what was described as a pared-down ceremony (the first state opening with “reduced ceremonial elements” since 1974), the Queen may have signalled other visual protests: arriving in a car rather than a carriage; omitting the royal procession into the House of Lords chamber and, most notably, wearing a “day dress” rather than robes. The official reason was that the snap election meant there was a clash with other royal pageants, meaning there was not time for rehearsal. Last week, the Queen’s decision to wave aside concerns about security to meet locals after the Grenfell Tower fire – when Theresa May failed to do the same – made the PM look cowardly. Given May’s failure to secure a majority and the shambles of the past few weeks, this outfit could be interpreted as some serious shade. The pomp and protocol surrounding the state opening of parliament is always ludicrous, but this year feels more at odds with what is happening in the real world than ever. As the government grips tightly to austerity, the Queen’s crown gripped tightly to a cushion as it was driven, as if sentient, to parliament in its own car. It is the Queen’s job to remain politically impartial, to rise above the fray – she cannot vote. The Telegraph claims that the Queen was pro-Brexit, based on a rumour that she said Britain should “just get on with” leaving the EU at a private lunch before the referendum. But this is hearsay. The difficulty arises when it’s someone’s job to remain silent yet that person represents so much (tradition, continuity, power) that any little semaphore will be jumped on, regardless of its veracity. We should remain measured on the topic. Today is arguably the biggest day in the Queen’s sartorial calendar – she will later go to Ascot, and wear something equally Snapchattable. As to whether today will be known as the day she sidestepped impartiality to make a silent protest with her hat, we’ll probably never know. But we can have fun with some memes. This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. The links are powered by Skimlinks. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that Skimlinks cookies will be set. More information. ||||| US president told Theresa May he did not want trip to go ahead if there were large-scale public protests • Support our journalism by becoming a Guardian supporter or making a contribution Donald Trump has told Theresa May in a phone call he does not want to go ahead with a state visit to Britain until the British public supports him coming. The US president said he did not want to come if there were large-scale protests and his remarks in effect put the visit on hold for some time. The Guardian view on Trump’s state visit to the UK: his invitation should be rescinded | Editorial Read more The call was made in recent weeks, according to a Downing Street adviser who was in the room. The statement surprised May, according to those present. The conversation in part explains why there has been little public discussion about a visit. May invited Trump to Britain seven days after his inauguration when she became the first foreign leader to visit him in the White House. She told a joint press conference she had extended an invitation from the Queen to Trump and his wife Melania to make a state visit later in the year and was “delighted that the president has accepted that invitation”. Many senior diplomats, including Lord Ricketts, the former national security adviser, said the invitation was premature, but impossible to rescind once made. Trump has named Woody Johnson, a Republican donor and owner of the New York Jets, as the new ambassador to the UK but has yet to nominate him formally. A large number of US ambassadorial positions remain unfilled worldwide largely due to the Trump team failing to make any formal nominations. The acting US ambassador to the UK, Lewis Lukens, a career diplomat, clashed with Trump last week by praising Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, for his strong leadership over the London Bridge and Borough Market terror attack. So Trump’s too scared to come to the UK. Who says protest doesn’t work? | Hugh Muir Read more His remarks came just days after Trump criticised Khan for his response to the attack, misquoting the mayor’s message to Londoners not to be alarmed by the increased presence of armed police. Khan’s office pointed out Trump’s error later but the president responded by accusing London’s mayor of making a “pathetic excuse”. Khan then called on the UK government to cancel Trump’s invitation. No date had been fixed for the visit. The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Twitter that Trump’s decision was “welcome, especially after his attack on London’s mayor & withdrawal from #ParisClimateDeal.” A Downing Street spokeswoman said it would not comment. “We aren’t going to comment on speculation about the contents of private phone conversations. The Queen extended an invitation to President Trump to visit the UK and there is no change to those plans.” The White House said in statement: “The President has tremendous respect for Prime Minister May. That subject never came up on the call.” Jenna Johnson, a Washington Post reporter tweeted to say that the White House press secretary had told her the Guardian’s report was “false” but added that the White House “won’t say when Trump plans to go to the UK”. Later, The New York Times, citing two unnamed administration officials, reported that Trump was considering scrapping or postponing the trip. The officials stressed that he might yet “warm to the idea” but that keeping it off the schedule was the best approach. Contact the Guardian securely Read more The UK’s traditional effort to act as a bridge between the US and Europe has become more complex since the vote last year to leave the European Union and Trump’s support for policies that have angered European allies. The Foreign Office was disappointed when against its pleading Trump went ahead earlier this month with his plan to pull the US out of the Paris climate accord. The UK had lobbied hard for Trump not to take the decision, which has led to a wider break between the EU and the US. Trump had been an advocate of Brexit, and at one point seemed to want the EU to break up, but confidence has since returned to the bloc with pro-European Emmanuel Macron’s victory over far-right Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election. Additional reporting by Ben Jacobs. |||||

– While Prince Philip was in the hospital Wednesday, his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, delivered the Queen's Speech at the opening of parliament in the UK. The speech, which outlines the government's agenda and is actually written by ministers, centered on Brexit, reports Reuters. But what's drawing the most attention is what was apparently left out: any mention of Donald Trump's state visit to the country, previously announced by Prime Minister Theresa May. Details: The Guardian reports the Queen usually mentions state visits "planned for the duration of the parliament," which in this case is two years. Trump's visit was rumored to be planned for October, per the BBC. While she mentioned an upcoming visit from King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain, the Queen might've simply wanted to avoid a hullabaloo. After all, May's invitation to Trump resulted in protests and more than 1.8 million people signing a petition seeking to prevent the trip, per Bloomberg. But a Trump administration official offers a simple explanation to CNN: "She didn't mention [the visit] because the date is not yet set." A Downing Street rep affirmed that account. The BBC's James Landale isn't convinced. Citing fears within the British government that the public response would embarrass Trump, he concludes the visit has been put off and is "very unlikely" to occur this year. The Guardian previously reported Trump had decided to put off the visit until he could gain public support in the UK. The White House denied the report. Meanwhile, the Guardian and the Telegraph are now wondering whether the queen was sending a pro-EU message with her hat during the speech.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The co-founders of Ben & Jerry's have been arrested at the U.S. Capitol as part of ongoing protests in Washington about the role of money in politics. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were among approximately 300 people who were arrested Monday as part of protests by a group called Democracy Awakening. The Vermont-based ice cream company's website says the purpose of the protests is to make sure everyone's voice is heard "and that power in this country is returned to the people." U.S. Capitol Police say those arrested were charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding, which is unlawful demonstration activity. They were processed on the scene and released. Police say they've arrested more than 1,200 people since the protests began April 11. ||||| (CNN) The co-founders of Ben & Jerry's ice cream were arrested at the U.S. Capitol on Monday. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were among approximately 300 people arrested as part of the "Democracy Awakening" protests that converged on the nation's capital this weekend. They are protesting for action on climate change, racial justice, workers' rights and fair pay, safe food and water, health care, peace, immigration reform and improvements in education, according to the website. They believe that voters aren't included in the political process and that Congress has failed to act. Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen was among approximately 300 people arrested as part of the Democracy Awakening protests that converged on the nation's capital Monday, April 18, 2016. Neither "Democracy Spring" nor "Democracy Awakening" is affiliated with a particular party or candidate. A statement from the U.S. Capitol Police said the protestors were arrested for unlawful demonstration activities. They were processed on the scene and released, the statement said. CNN has reached out to Ben & Jerry's for comment, but it has been tweeting photos about the arrest and created a page that explains its side why the co-founders were arrested. Both Ben & Jerry's co-founders have been active about political issues -- particularly Cohen, who has been vocal about his support for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election. Their ice cream company is based in Vermont, and Cohen personally endorsed Sanders and participated in the launch of his presidential bid in Burlington. Cohen also created 40 pints of the ice cream in his own kitchen in honor of Sanders. JUST WATCHED Would you eat this Bernie Sanders ice cream flavor? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Would you eat this Bernie Sanders ice cream flavor? 00:52 He told CNN's Carol Costello last October that Sanders' ice cream would be mint flavored and topped with a giant chocolate chip that "represents all the wealth that's gone to the top 1% of the population over the past 10 years." "And the way you eat it is that you whack it with your spoon, then you mix it around. That's the 'Bernie's Yearning,'" Cohen said. ||||| Web collection contains captured content concerning, communications. Includes the following : Country/Region/Area Websites (Country communication pages): Area-specific content for LDS Area Presidencies to minister, communicate, teach, and strengthen site visitors including members, local leaders and those not of the LDS faith. Concerns countries and areas throughout the world where the LDS (Mormon) Church functions. Mormon Newsroom: Features stories from its international Newsroom websites to share what leaders and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world are doing to better the communities in which they live. This collection contains Newsroom website captures starting 20 Nov 2015-current. Currently, captures for Oct 2013-19 Nov 2015 can be found at https://www.archive-it.org/collections/3943 Public Affairs Department Website and international Public Affairs Offices: Building good will and creating lasting friendships is important to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). The Church has public affairs directors throughout the world. From working with government leaders for approvals on a new building, to fostering respectful interfaith dialog and answering questions from the media, public affairs forms a vital bridge between the LDS Church congregations and the communities they call home. Social Media: Includes Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Instagram sites for countries and international newsrooms. Also includes translation of LDS.org, LDS (Mormon) Church official website, translated into area-specific as well as language-specific sites. See the following live web: Purpose of Country Communication Pages- https://www.lds.org/help/acp?lang=eng ; Who Maintains the Country Communication Pages - https://www.lds.org/help/acp/publishing-content/about-country-communication-pages?lang=eng ; Area Specific - https://www.lds.org/church/news/country-communication-pages-offer-area-specific-content-to-members?lang=eng ; https://tech.lds.org/blog/711-the-beauty-of-the-gospel-shines-in-country-communication-pages ||||| Actress Rosario Dawson takes part in a "Democracy Spring" demonstration on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, April 15, 2016. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP) Police have calmly arrested hundreds of people in Washington, D,.C. protesting the influence of money in politics during the last week, in what several participants described as a striking display of restrained law enforcement. More arrests are expected Monday, the final day of protests when the focus of the non-violent protests turn to voting rights and timely consideration of the Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court. U.S. Capitol Police have arrested more than 900 protesters through Saturday. Mass demonstrations by a group called "Democracy Spring" began last Monday. A related group, "Democracy Awakening," joined the efforts on Saturday and are holding often integrated sit ins and other demonstrations to protest laws it considers discriminatory, such as Voter ID laws. "Here what you have is a very professional, carefully calibrated and wonderfully orchestrated means of dealing with law enforcement in Washington," said Cornell Brooks, national president and CEO of NAACP. Cornell Brooks, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), speaks during an annual African American History Month Observance Program February 23, 2016 at the Justice Department in Washington, DC. (Photo: Alex Wong, Getty Images) More often, "it's very different the way young activists who are black and brown are described" and treated, said Brooks, who led the Democracy Awakenings march on Sunday. "Sometimes they are roughed up and assumptions are made that can be very dangerous." Those arrested were charged with violating a D.C. statute prohibiting "crowding, obstructing, or incommoding," which are misdemeanors, said police spokeswoman Eva Malecki. All of those arrested were Democracy Spring-related participants. Most were processed and then released on the scene. On Sunday, Malecki said demonstrators remained "orderly and respectful," just as they had through the previous week. . Democracy Awakening urged their protesters to wear their "Sunday best" and to bring $50 in cash in anticipation of the planned arrests Monday. Actress Rosario Dawson said in a video posted on YouTube Friday that the organizers hope to surpass all previous Capitol protest records for number arrested, topping 1,000 by the time the week-long demonstration wraps up. The Democracy Spring effort started in Philadelphia, where thousands began a 140-mile walk to the U.S. Capitol to "demand Congress take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections in which every American has an equal voice." "This week, we're taking back our democracy," Dawson said. Money in politics has "distorted our politics and our issues." Police arrested the actress Friday on Capitol Hill for crowding and obstruction. She was briefly detained and will be required to pay a $50 fine like the others arrested, Malecki said. Harvard Law School professor and former Democratic presidential candidate Larry Lessig was arrested Friday — for the first time ever. "I'm a law professor," he said Saturday. "I don't get arrested." But he made an exception for the issue that he based his short-lived campaign on: Campaign finance reform. Harvard Law School professor and former 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Lawrence Lessig discusses campaign finance reform at the American Enterprise Institute November 13, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images) "I’m so incredibly excited with the kind of passion and the mix of people that were there," said Lessig, noting it's spread beyond the usual "law geeks and intellectuals" who rally around campaign finance reform. There was even some bi-partisan support for the demonstrations outside a Capitol building that doesn't see much of it inside lately. John Pudner, executive director of the group Take Back Our Republic, says many conservatives and small business owners also don't feel represented by the big money influencing politics. He joined one day of the 140-mile walk from Philadelphia and another colleague of the group participated in the demonstrations. Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Photos: Democracy Awakening draws crowd of 5,000 Fullscreen Post to Facebook Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries: Replay Autoplay Show Thumbnails Show Captions Last SlideNext Slide "We want to see small donors become the focus," said Pudner, who spent 20 years running campaigns, including the one that unseated former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., in 2014. Many protesters held up signs protesting the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case. The case opened the door for the rise of newer super PACs — political action committees that can raise unlimited amounts from virtually any source — and contributed to corporate influence in campaigns, critics say. Supporters of the activist group 'Democracy Spring,' which have been staging protests for a week at the U.S. Capitol to 'end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections,' gather for a rally on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC, USA, 15 April 2016. (Photo: JIM LO SCALZO, EPA) Still, it's unlikely Democracy Spring can achieve the kind of attention it desires — it aims to change the course of the 2016 presidential election. But some say the campaign season itself is giving much-needed attention to money in politics. "We're seeing it with the surprising support for Senator Sanders, who has made it a central part of his campaign, and when Trump says he can't be bought. That resonates with people who realize the system is rigged against them." said Wendell Potter, co-author of the new book Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It. Democracy Spring's protests in Washington could obscure the fact that people across the country are starting to fight the effects of corporate interests in local elections, Potter said. His cites changes made in Tallahassee, Fla., Seattle and in South Carolina, where lobbyists are now banned from making campaign donations. Democracy Spring protesters tend to be left-learning, but Potter said groups including Take Back Our Republic, share the "common concern about what's happened to our democracy." Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1SiF5TB |||||

– The Ben and Jerry of Ben & Jerry's were among hundreds of people arrested Monday in a protest at the US Capitol over what they perceive to be a corrupt political system. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were taking part in a demonstration by a group called Democracy Awakening, and they were two of about 300 arrested on Monday, reports CNN. Like most of the others, the ice cream moguls were processed at the scene and released by Capitol Police on misdemeanor charges of "crowding, obstructing or incommoding," reports the AP. The Democracy Awakening movement is related to the larger Democracy Spring movement that has been staging protests in DC over issues such as voter ID laws, campaign financing, and the lack of progress on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, reports USA Today. Ben & Jerry's is trumpeting the arrests, with the company website saying that the purpose of the protests is "to ensure that every citizen's voice is heard and that power in this country is returned to the people." In all, police have arrested about 1,200 since the demonstrations began on April 11. As for Cohen and Greenfield, they'll be distributing free ice cream at a Bernie Sanders rally in Delaware on Tuesday.

Chauncey Daniels is suspected in a shooting that left one man dead and three other people shot on a MARTA train on April 13, 2017. (SOURCE: Police) A man was killed and four additional people were injured after a shooting at a MARTA station in Atlanta Thursday. The shooting occurred at the West Lake MARTA station around 4:30 p.m. MARTA Police Chief Wanda Dunham says "in what we believe was a targeted, isolated incident, Zachariah Hunnicutt was shot fatally." MORE: MARTA to increase patrols in wake of deadly shooting Dunham says the suspect, identified as Chauncey Lee Daniels, was captured at the train station and the weapon was recovered. Daniels waived an early court appearance on Friday. He was charged with murder; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and three counts of aggravated assault. Three additional people were shot and another person sustained an injury in a panic. They were all taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. WATCH: MARTA police update on shooting Click here to watch a press conference after the shooting. Copyright 2017 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved. ||||| In this image made from a video provided by WSB-TV authorities respond after reports of a shooting at the West Lake station Thursday, April 13, 2017, in Atlanta. Authorities say several people were shot... (Associated Press) In this image made from a video provided by WSB-TV authorities respond after reports of a shooting at the West Lake station Thursday, April 13, 2017, in Atlanta. Authorities say several people were shot at the Atlanta public transit station. (WSB-TV via AP) (Associated Press) In this image made from a video provided by WSB-TV authorities respond after reports of a shooting at the West Lake station Thursday, April 13, 2017, in Atlanta. Authorities say several people were shot at the Atlanta public transit station. (WSB-TV via AP) (Associated Press) In this image made from a video provided by WSB-TV authorities respond after reports of a shooting at the West Lake station Thursday, April 13, 2017, in Atlanta. Authorities say several people were shot... (Associated Press) ATLANTA (AP) — The shooting that killed a man and wounded three other riders Thursday on an Atlanta public transit train appears to be a "targeted, isolated incident," officials said. Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority police Chief Wanda Dunham said in a statement late Thursday that officers arrested a suspect in the death of Zachariah Hunnicutt at the West Lake station. She did not release the suspect's name or details about what led to the shooting. The shooting happened about 4:30 p.m. Thursday near the station, which was closed for several hours afterward. Cedric Peterson told WGCL-TV (http://bit.ly/2pf1Tea) that he regularly rides the train after work and the ride started off normally. "Everybody's sitting down. It's quiet," he recalled. "After we pulled off, we heard a sound like a crash, like we ran into maybe a tree limb that was on the track. Then like three seconds later, I'm hearing pop, pop, pop. I look back and see a guy's back and see his outstretched arm. I'm like 'Yo, man, this is a shooter.' Then I'm running for the door." Peterson said a woman and her child were in front of him when they got to the door connecting cars and ran through, but the next door was jammed. "When we finally get it open, there's a whole crowd of people who came up behind us and we fall. We're laying there trapped, but I don't hear anymore shooting, so I'm feeling a little better," he said. He said people started moving as the train pulled into the station. The shooter got on the train just like anyone else, he said: "He was wearing headphones and just bobbing his head. There was no argument or anything. Then I heard the first pop." MARTA spokesman Burton said one man died at the scene. Two men and a woman who were wounded by gunfire were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Grady spokeswoman Denise Simpson said the victims there were in stable condition with wounds that were not life threatening. In addition to the three shot, one person injured in the panic was brought to the hospital, she said. Beginning Friday, MARTA will increase the number of officers throughout the system, Dunham said. "We want to reassure all of our riders that the security of our passengers remains our number one priority," MARTA CEO Keith Parker said in a statement. |||||

– A shooting that killed a man and wounded three other riders Thursday on an Atlanta public transit train appears to be a "targeted, isolated incident," officials say. Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Police Chief Wanda Dunham said in a statement late Thursday that officers arrested a suspect in the death of Zachariah Hunnicutt at the West Lake station, the AP reports. Dunham didn't release the suspect's name or details about what led to the shooting at around 4:30pm. A MARTA spokesman says one man died at the scene. Two men and a woman who were wounded by gunfire were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Cedric Peterson tells WGCL he regularly rides the train after work and that the ride started off normally. "Everybody's sitting down. It's quiet," he says. "After we pulled off, we heard a sound like a crash, like we ran into maybe a tree limb that was on the track. Then like three seconds later, I'm hearing pop, pop, pop. I look back and see a guy's back and see his outstretched arm. I'm like, 'Yo, man, this is a shooter.' Then I'm running for the door." The shooter got on the train just like anyone else, Peterson says: "He was wearing headphones and just bobbing his head. There was no argument or anything. Then I heard the first pop."

Elon Musk has plans — or maybe it's just an idea — for a brand new form of transportation. He calls it the "Hyperloop," and it's a way to travel long distances quickly. At the D11 conference Musk danced around the topic a bit. He didn't want to talk about the Hyperloop because he wanted the focus of his interview to be Tesla. The most he would say is that the Hyperloop is a "cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table." In the past, Musk has been slightly more forthcoming with Hyperloop details. "This system I have in mind, how would you like something that can never crash, is immune to weather, it goes 3 or 4 times faster than the bullet train," said Musk last July. "It goes an average speed of twice what an aircraft would do. You would go from downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes. It would cost you much less than an air ticket than any other mode of transport. I think we could actually make it self-powering if you put solar panels on it, you generate more power than you would consume in the system. There's a way to store the power so it would run 24/7 without using batteries. Yes, this is possible, absolutely." It sounds like a magical, impossible mode of transportation. But, Musk seems to be fairly serious about it. He's interested in a Hyperloop because he thinks the high-speed train in California is going to be a waste. He says it will be the slowest bullet train in the world, and one of the most expensive. Instead of going the bullet train route, California should test his Hyperloop, which he says he's planning to talk about in more detail at the end of June. This isn't the only far-out idea from Musk. He thinks we need to leave Earth, or else we'll go extinct, and said that he did not join Tesla Motors to get a return on his investment. Wednesday night, he announced plans for the dramatic growth of the Tesla's network of Superchargers, where owners can charge their car batteries halfway in 30 minutes. By the end of this year, Musk said, it will be possible to drive from New York to Los Angeles by refueling a car only at the stations. Update: We think we figured out how it can work. ||||| What the Hell’s a Hyperloop? Short answer: An entirely new mode of transportation. Long answer, according to Elon Musk: a “cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table” and “a really fun ride.” In the video below, the Tesla founder talks about his vision for a really rapid transit system connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles. Full D11 Conference Coverage |||||

– Elon Musk is up to something that he thinks could revolutionize transportation. At this week's D11 conference, the Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder was asked about something called "hyperloop," but said he couldn't talk much about it because "if I do, that will be the news tomorrow" and he needed to talk Tesla. But he did say that it was an alternative to California's proposed high-speed rail project, and he dropped this tantalizing description: "It's a cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table." But Musk has said more in the past. Last year, Business Insider recalls, Musk said the system was a bit like a Jetsons tube. It "can never crash, is immune to weather" and could move twice as fast as a plane while costing less and being potentially completely solar powered. "This is possible, absolutely," he said. At the time, Musk's plans seemed vague—he said he was "considering just open-sourcing" the idea. But now he says he might be ready to talk about it at the end of June.

Trolley Man: Michael Rogers has been the silent hero since the Melbourne attack. The homeless man who decided to arm himself with a trolley and stand with police against a terrorist (7News) Trolly man : Michael Rogers has been the silent hero since the Melbourne attack (7News) 2:04 A bystander dubbed “the trolley man” for taking on an armed terrorist with a shopping cart during the deadly terror attack in Melbourne says he is “no hero” as his story comes to light. Michael Rogers, 46, attempted to help police officers stop Hassan Khalif Shire Ali during Friday’s Bourke Street terror attack. One person had already been stabbed to death and another two were injured. Mr Rogers, who is homeless with few possessions, began ramming a shopping trolley into the terrorist in a bid to help. “I threw the trolley straight at him, and I got him. I didn’t quite get him down, though. I’m no hero,” Mr Rogers told Seven News’ Robert Ovadia from the scene of the attack. Mr Ovadia later told the program, “people think he deserves some sort of award for being a hero. He doesn’t see himself necessarily as a hero but believes he did help save lives and defend his city as well.” Subscribe to news.com.au’s From The Newsroom podcast A GoFundMe has since been set up for Mr Rogers, raising $105,130 at time of publication. The fundraiser was created by Melbourne Homeless Collective, a registered charity that supports people experiencing homelessness. “All funds donated to this campaign will go directly to Mr Rogers to help get him back on his feet,” the page reads. “He’s a hero in our eyes and he can do what he feels best with any funds he receives. He risked his own life that day for nothing in return and you can’t put a price on that.” The charity had originally set a goal of $5000 but has since said it will no longer set a target due to the overwhelming amount of support. “We’re absolutely blown away by everyone’s generosity and spirit in helping our hero ‘Trolleyman’ get back on his feet,” the charity said. “We don’t actually have a set target to reach but due to the incredible generosity we’ve seen so far we’ll keep increasing the total accordingly. “We’ve far surpassed our original goal. Let’s aim for the sky. Our hero absolutely deserves it.” The Sunday Herald Sun tracked down Mr Rogers on a park bench, amid a nationwide bid to find the humble hero, just 24 hours after he risked his life to save others. The newspaper reported that Mr Rogers is homeless, but wasn’t concerned when his phone was smashed during the fight, despite not having the means to replace it. Mr Rogers was one of two bystanders who stepped in as the killer tried to claim more victims in the city. Witness footage of the incident uploaded to social media showed Mr Rogers running to one side of the street to get the trolley before pushing it towards Ali who was wielding a knife and lunging at police. A man with a shopping trolley twice tried to ram the man to stop him. Another was wielding a chair. Incredible bravery @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/w473DKA4wr — Josh Fagan (@faganjosh) November 9, 2018 The trolley appeared to startle Ali before the man who pushed it tripped and fell to the ground. The terrorist then ran across the road, followed by police, as Mr Rogers got up and gave chase, pushing his cart towards the attacker a second time. His actions gained him widespread praise on social media by users who dubbed him “trolley man” and called for him to receive a medal or be made Prime Minister of Australia. Mr Rogers was reportedly unaware of the attention being heaped on him for his actions. One witness said she spoke to Mr Rogers at the scene and he told her his actions were “just instinctive to help the police protect the safety of others”, the Herald Sun reports. Mr Rogers told 7 News that he believes he did help save lives. “I’ve seen the trolley to the side so I’ve picked it up and I ran, threw the trolley straight at him, got him, but didn’t get him down,” he said. “I did that motion quite a number of times but it just wasn’t getting him down.” ⚡️ Melbourne: “I threw the trolley straight at him, and I got him. I didn't quite get him down, though. I’m no hero” - Michael Rogers. 7 News has spoken exclusively to “trolley man”, a bystander being hailed a hero following Friday’s terror attack. #TrolleyMan #7News pic.twitter.com/K0v3OXAwe0 — 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) November 10, 2018 Moments later, Ali was shot in the chest by police, before he died in hospital last night. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Somali-born attacker, from Melbourne’s northwestern suburbs, had violated the nation’s trust. “The greatest threat of religious extremism in this country is the radical and dangerous ideology of extremist Islam,” he said. Mr Morrison said Ali was one of about 400 people on a national ASIO terror watch list. “Here in Australia we would be kidding ourselves if we did not call out the fact that the greatest threat of religious extremism in this country is the radical and dangerous ideology of extremist Islam,” Mr Morrison said. “There is a special responsibility on religious leaders to protect their religious communities and to ensure dangerous teachings and ideologies do not take root here.” In a press conference on Saturday, Victoria Police confirmed Ali had been known to intelligence agencies for years, but he was not being actively monitored prior to the attack. They said his passport was cancelled in 2015 after ASIO determined he was planning to travel to Syria. ||||| Uodate 17/11/2018 We’ve reached our goal! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated and supported the fundraiser. Michael is extremely grateful for your support and would like to extend his thanks and gratitude to everyone. We’ll be continuing to support Michael through National Homeless Collective for as long as he needs us. We’ll be closing the campaign shortly as we have reached the target and we intended to have it running for a week which is now up. What an incredible effort. This will be life changing for Michael. Thank you all once again. Update 13/11/18. We met with Michael yesterday. And can we tell you, he’s just the lovelies person. So humble and doesn’t believe the Hero status we know he truly deserves. We bought him a new phone to replace the one that was smashed in the incident. He is so grapple the support he has received and is quite overwhelmed by it all. As promised, 100% of the funds raised for Michael will go to him. They will be held in a trust account with our accountants at One Ledger who have very generously offered to oversee the handling of the funds and make sure Michael is well taken care of and guided financially as he moves forward. We will keep this campaign open until Sunday 18 November to give everyone who would like a chance to donate. Thanks again eveyone. Please see our Facebook page ‘National Homeless Collective for future updates. “UPDATE: We’ve found him! What an absolutely incredible human. We had a long chat on the phone today and we’re even more proud of him. Our hero is humble as can be and had no idea about this fundraiser. We’ll be catching up tomorrow to hand over his donations. He is amazing” On November 9 2018 an incredible man named Michael Rogers from Melbourne, now known as ‘Trolleyman’, put his own life at risk to stop a terrorist who was on a rampage. Mr Rogers bravely shoved a shopping trolley at the terrorist in an attempt to assist police in his capture. We’ve since learned that our hero ‘Trolleyman’ homeless and that his phone was destroyed in the incident. We believe his efforts deserve a reward that can really help him out. We’re a registered charity, (National Homeless Collective) supporting people experiencing homelessness, and all funds donated to this campaign will go directly to Mr Rogers to help get him back on his feet. He’s a hero in our eyes and he can do what he feels best with any funds he receives. He risked his own life that day for nothing in return and you can’t put a price on that. *Update: we apologise that we’re updating by editing but unfortunately due to some glitch I can’t get the actual update button to work. We’re absolutely blown away by everyone’s generosity and spirit in helping our hero ‘Trolleyman’, get back on his feet. We don’t actually have a set target to reach but due to the incredible generosity we’ve seen so far we’ll keep increasing the total accordingly. We’ve far surpassed our original goal. Let’s aim for the sky. Our hero absolutely deserves it. Thank hou you so much everyone! #Trolleyman Share Tweet 18k shares on Facebook shares on Facebook |||||

– Michael Rogers, a hero? It's hard for him to believe. But many Australians are celebrating the man who helped police fight a knife-wielding terrorist in Melbourne, Australia's News Network reports. In fact, a crowdfunding campaign has raised nearly $110,000 as of this writing for the so-called "Trolleyman." On Friday, Rogers grabbed a shopping cart (or "trolley" in British English) when terrorist Hassan Khalif Shire Ali was facing cops on a busy commercial street. Ali had just fatally stabbed two people and wounded two others. "I threw the trolley straight at him, and I got him," says Rogers. "I didn’t quite get him down, though. I'm no hero." Yet after falling, Rogers chased Ali across the street and pushed the cart at him again. Police eventually shot and killed the attacker. (See a video here, but be warned it's violent.) Now the media is lionizing Rogers and strangers are approaching him for selfies, the Age reports. But Rogers still seems himself, talking about his early years with a drug-addicted mom and his history of drug use and jail time. Raised partly by his grandma, the "dearest lady," he often disappointed her and was behind bars for aggravated burglary when she died in 2013. "She would have been exceptionally proud" of his actions, he says. "God bless her, she lived to 92." So how will he spend his newfound riches? Rogers, who has public housing but chooses to live on the streets, says he has no idea. "I'm 46, mate. I've got to get my act together." But he admits Friday was special: "I just wanted to help and do something right for the first time in me life." (In California, a sergeant at a mass shooting "died a hero.")

The study makes for a grim chronicle. On October 23, 2004, Jude and a black male friend arrived at a private party in a white middle-class neighborhood as guests of two white women college students. Shortly after arriving, the four headed to their vehicle, but it was soon surrounded by at least 10 men. The men accused Jude and his friend of stealing Andrew Spengler’s police badge, and all four were pulled from their truck. Jude’s male friend had “his face slit with a knife” and escaped, according to the authors. Jude suffered blows to his face and torso; his arms were pinned behind his back; he was kicked in the head; an officer stomped on his face “until he heard bones breaking;” he was picked up and kicked in the groin so hard “his feet left the ground;” he had a pen inserted deep into his ear canals; his fingers were “bent back” until “they snapped;” before finally being left naked from the waist down on the sidewalk in a pool of his own blood. Jude’s story would not become public until months later when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a report on the incident on February 6, 2005, and recounted the police cover-up that had followed. Black residents protested almost immediately, demanding action from the district attorney. A month later, nine officers were dismissed. Spengler and two others were tried and acquitted by an all-white jury. Protests ensued again. A federal investigation led to the conviction of seven of the officers involved. “Once the story of Frank Jude’s beating appeared in the press, Milwaukee residents, especially people in black neighborhoods, were less likely to call the police, including to report violent crime,” David Kirk, one of the authors of the report, said in a statement. “This means that publicized cases of police violence can have a communitywide impact on crime reporting that transcends individual encounters.” A total of 22,200 fewer calls were made to 911 during the year following Jude’s beating, according to the researchers, with over half of that loss (56 percent) happening in black neighborhoods. The authors of the study see the significant decline as worrisome given how heavily police work depends on resident-initiated interactions, such as calling the emergency line. “Police work of every kind relies on citizen participation, especially reports of law breaking … If police misconduct lowers crime reporting throughout black communities, it directly threatens public safety within those communities, many of which already have high levels of crime,” the authors concluded in the article. To test their theory that police brutality makes black Americans less likely to contact police, the authors also analyzed the impact of other highly publicized incidents of violence against black men by law enforcement, including two that happened outside of Milwaukee. They looked at the killing of Sean Bell in Queens, New York in 2006, the assault of Danyall Simpson in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2007, and the killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California in 2009. Of these three, only the latter did not trigger a drop in calls to 911. The data again led to the conclusion that “other local and national cases of police violence against unarmed black men also had an impact on crime reporting in Milwaukee.” ||||| Skip Ad Ad Loading... x Embed x Share Residents in predominantly black neighborhoods in Milwaukee were far less likely to call 911 for months after the Frank Jude Jr. beating, a new study has found. Harvard study finds 911 calls dropped by 20% after beating, much of it in black neighborhoods Frank Jude Jr. is shown in the hospital after he was beaten by off-duty Milwaukee police officers in October 2004. After the story of this beating and this photo became public, there was a sharp drop in 911 calls placed from predominantly black neighborhoods, a new study found. (Photo: Family photo) Story Highlights Frank Jude Jr. was beaten by off-duty Milwaukee police officers; three received long prison terms. A new study finds calls to 911 from black neighborhoods dropped sharply after the beating became public. Homicides jumped up during the time 911 calls were done and study suggests a connection. 911 calls dropped again after a different police beating two years after the Jude incident. The beating of Frank Jude Jr. 12 years ago by off-duty Milwaukee police officers rocked the city, leading to the largest number of firings in department history, federal convictions of seven officers and a series of reforms. A new study reveals another unseen but far-reaching impact: Residents in predominantly black neighborhoods in Milwaukee were far less likely to call 911 for months after the beating. That dropoff in 911 calls suggests the incident eroded trust and sharply damaged the relationship between the police and neighborhoods that often count on them the most, according to the study. Controlling for crime and other factors, researchers found that 911 calls dropped by approximately 22,000 citywide over the following year, with the effect much higher in black neighborhoods, according to a first-of-its-kind study done by faculty from Harvard, Yale and Oxford universities. It was published Thursday in the American Sociological Review. As 911 calls dropped, the city experienced a surge in homicides later in 2005, leading the authors to suggest the lack of reporting of crimes by citizens may have contributed to the spike in killings. The researchers found another drop in 911 calls in predominantly black neighborhoods after the beating of Danyall Simpson by a Milwaukee police officer. And they also found evidence that an incident of police violence in another city might have contributed to a drop in 911 calls in Milwaukee. The findings come at a time when high-profile cases of police-involved shootings contribute to unrest across the nation. Meanwhile, homicide figures have spiked in some cities, including Milwaukee. The Jude beating was first reported in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation that described the extent of Jude's injuries and spotlighted the failure by police and state prosecutors to thoroughly investigate what would later be described as the torture of Jude by the officers outside an off-duty police party in Bay View in October 2004. ORIGINAL COVERAGE: Police suspected in Frank Jude's beating | Prosecutors haven’t queried key witness in Frank Jude case | 100 protest progress of police beating case | Wall of silence not breaking in Jude case The study's lead author, Matthew Desmond, associate social sciences professor at Harvard University, said the research shows that 911 calls started dropping right after the Journal Sentinel investigation was published and stayed down over the following year. "Something like the Frank Jude case tears the fabric apart so deeply and de-legitimizes the criminal justice system in the eyes of the African-American community that they stop relying on it in significant numbers," Desmond told the Journal Sentinel in an interview. Desmond, who recently published a book that examined the unseen effects of evictions on families and communities, did the study with Andrew Papachristos, associate professor of sociology at Yale University whose research focuses on gun violence, street gangs, social networks and neighborhoods; and David Kirk, associate sociology professor at the University of Oxford in England. The study examined more than 1 million 911 calls in Milwaukee between 2004 and 2010. To do the statistical analysis, the authors controlled for crime rates in different neighborhoods, weather and other factors. They also removed calls unrelated to crime including traffic, fires and medical emergencies. The study found 911 calls fell by 20% in the city over that year and the drop was markedly larger in black neighborhoods. Over half of the drop in calls — 56% — happened in predominantly black neighborhoods, which account for 31% of all neighborhoods. Desmond said he was shocked when he first saw the size of the drop. "That is a huge effect and it symbolizes that these are not isolated incidents because they don’t have isolated effects, they have community-wide effects and those effects can actually make the city less safe by driving down crime reporting and thwarting public safety efforts," he said. Skip Ad Ad Loading... x Embed x Share Columnist Dan Bice and Opinion Columnist James Causey discuss a new study about a decrease in 911 calls after the beating of Frank Jude Jr. 12 years ago. The new findings run counter to a theory that has been advanced to explain the recent spike in homicides in some cities — that the increase is fueled by police becoming timid which emboldens criminals. Coined the "Ferguson Effect" in reference to unrest after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., the theory holds officers have become passive out of fear they will be investigated for uses of force. In the Jude study, researchers found data suggesting people withdraw from the system after an incident of police violence. Papachristos said the study shows that police violence and other misconduct hurts officers' ability to work with communities and may result in a deepening of so-called "legal cynicism" — the idea that police are either unable or unwilling to help — within communities. That dynamic can perpetuate crime and distrust. "Our contribution is putting this into cause and effect. Here's what happened and there's a very clear change in behavior. That's what we showed," Papachristos told the Journal Sentinel. "I really think the big takeaway is the effect that cynicism has on black communities. "Not only does it impede sort of their view of the law, it actually further impedes their own safety." 'Blue wall of silence' In October 2004, Jude, another black man and two women went to a late-night off-duty police party in Bay View. They stayed a short time, felt unwelcome and left. But before the four could leave, off-duty officers surrounded their truck and pulled the men out, accusing them of stealing officer Andrew Spengler's badge. The other man, Lovell Harris, broke free and ran. Jude was surrounded by off-duty officers and beaten savagely as he was down and handcuffed on the street. The officers kicked Jude in the head and body, cut off his pants, yanked back his fingers, jammed pens deep into both of his ears and put a gun to his head as they yelled racial slurs, according to court testimony. An on-duty officer arrived but rather than stop it, he joined in the beating. Jude was arrested, put in a police wagon and taken to the hospital where he remained for several days. No badge was found; no charges were filed. After the beating, none of the off-duty police officers at the scene would talk to internal department investigators, forming what officials would later call a "blue wall of silence." Three months after the beating, in February 2005, the Journal Sentinel investigation publicly showed Jude's battered face and reported that no officers had been arrested or charged in the incident. Three officers were later charged in state court but were acquitted. A subsequent FBI investigation resulted in charges against those three plus five other officers. Seven were convicted and one acquitted. The three main culprits received prison terms between 15 and 17 years. Jude sued the city, eventually settling for $2 million. Jude, 38, of Wauwatosa, has been arrested and charged several times since the beating and is currently in jail, awaiting trial on charges of obstruction of a police officer in Milwaukee County. Police calls fall Immediately after the Journal Sentinel investigation into the Jude beating, there were calls for accountability by the public and elected officials, and protest marches. In the days after the story, state prosecutors said they were noticing the Jude beating being mentioned during questioning in jury selection, especially by black jurors who expressed distrust in the system. The prosecutors called it "the Jude effect." There was another effect unfolding at the same time, the study found. Calls to police were falling in black neighborhoods. There was no drop off in 911 calls right after Jude was beaten, in October 2004, but that changed when Jude's picture was published in the Journal Sentinel in February 2005. To test if all calls went down for an unforeseen reason, the authors examined traffic-related 911 calls under the theory that they would not be affected by the Jude beating because people report crashes for practical reasons like insurance coverage. The authors found the traffic calls did not drop. In the six months after 911 calls began to drop, there was an increase in homicides, the study noted. The researchers looked at homicides because unlike other crimes, the numbers would not be affected by the lack of crime reporting. There were 87 homicides in the six months after Jude's beating became public, which was the highest in the seven-year period studied, from 2004 to 2010. The authors did not list the increase in homicides under the study's findings, but they examined it as a possible effect of the drop in 911 calls. Desmond said they could not, in this study, definitely say the drop in calls is the reason homicides spiked, but added, "I think the pattern of homicide data does suggest the drop in crime reporting in the immediate aftermath of Frank Jude might have contributed to that spike in a major way." The study found that the calls to 911 from black neighborhoods did not rebound when officers were charged or fired. Rather, the calls simply came back slowly on their own, Desmond said. The authors think that's because residents realized they had no alternative but to use the system. Second case, similar pattern Researchers found another drop in 911 calls, this time after publication of a separate Journal Sentinel investigation that examined injuries suffered by 19-year-old Simpson in May 2006. Milwaukee police officer James Langer hit Simpson in the face with a flashlight, breaking Simpson’s eye socket and cheekbone while responding to a complaint of public urination. Soon after the department began an internal investigation, Langer quit. Prosecutors declined to prosecute him. The Journal Sentinel found Langer used force far more often than fellow officers and hit people with a flashlight at least three times during his three years on the job. The Journal Sentinel investigation first reported on Simpson's injuries and published a picture of his bloodied face in February 2007. Shortly after that story was published, 911 calls again began to drop in black Milwaukee neighborhoods, the study found. The authors did not examine effects on the homicide numbers after Simpson's injuries became public. Figures show that homicides in 2007 were down compared with the months after the Jude beating. The researchers also tested to see if police violence in other cities had an effect on 911 calls in Milwaukee. The results were mixed. In the case of Sean Bell who was fatally shot in late 2006 in New York, they found calls here dropped. However, 911 calls in Milwaukee did not appear to be affected by the fatal police shooting of Oscar Grant in the subway in Oakland in early 2009. There have been many more incidents of high-profile in-custody deaths in recent years. In the light of the new study, there are natural questions: Are 911 calls dropping in black neighborhoods in Tulsa or will they in San Diego? Is this a possible explanation for why Milwaukee, St. Louis and Baltimore saw large spikes in homicides last year? Based on what they found in Milwaukee, Desmond and his fellow researchers say those are areas ripe for more study. Read or Share this story: http://on.jsonl.in/2dET8HL ||||| The first study of its kind found 911 calls in black Milwaukee neighborhoods dropped significantly following the beating of Frank Jude, an unarmed black man. And then crime rates rose. A man raises his fist during a protest Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016, in El Cajon, Calif. A new study offers numerical evidence high-profile police violence leads black communities to call 911 to report crimes less. In 2004, Frank Jude Jr., an unarmed black man, was viciously beaten by at least 10 white, off-duty police officers outside a housewarming party in Milwaukee because they said he stole one of their badges. When the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the news more than three months later, not one of the police officers had been charged or arrested, even though the city knew who they were. In the six months that followed, 911 calls from black neighborhoods to report crimes plummeted as the city’s murder rate jumped. The decline in 911 calls is symptomatic of a loss of confidence in law enforcement, according to the study and criminal justice experts. And that trust deficit then leads to rising violent crime rates. “An important implication of this finding is that publicized cases of police violence not only threaten the legitimacy and reputation of law enforcement; they also – by driving down 911 calls – thwart the suppression of law breaking, obstruct the application of justice, and ultimately make cities as a whole, and the black community in particular less safe,” reads the study, “Police Violence and Citizen Crime Reporting in the Black Community,” that will appear in the October edition of the American Sociological Review. These are the results of a study of the effect high-profile excessive force by police against unarmed black men have on an entire community, which Matthew Desmond, the lead author and a sociologist at Harvard University, said is the first empirical study of its kind. The mistrust and, perhaps, discontent the study shows in Milwaukee has been mirrored in similar cases across the country in the decade since, with flashpoints in Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore, Chicago, and now Charlotte, N.C. At the same time, the number of people murdered in the country in 2015 experienced the first substantial increase in a quarter-century, leading many to ask why. Some observers have argued that police, in the face of public scrutiny, have pulled back from their duties, the so-called “Ferguson Effect.” But the soon-to-be published study offers empirical evidence to the contrary. Police have not stopped doing their job. Nor has gang violence turned city blocks into war zones. Rather, the deaths of young black men at the hands of law enforcement can lead whole communities, distrustful of police, to withdraw from the country’s criminal justice system. “What this paper does is add something very important to the understanding of what those mechanisms are,” says David Kennedy, director of the National Network for Safe Communities, a project at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. "Breaches in the confidence that communities have in the police, themselves, lead to disengagement in the criminal justice system, which leads to increased violence and crime." “It makes absolutely perfect sense that when communities have experience in what they regard as an egregious instance of police behavior, they are less interested and less willing to cooperate with the police,” continues Mr. Kennedy, who was not involved in the study. “Now the study says that. It’s not just conjecture. It’s as close as we get in social science to fact. And that’s connected to very substantial increases in violence.” The study was conducted by Dr. Desmond and two other sociologists, Andrew Papachristos at Yale University, and David Kirk at the University of Oxford. They looked at every crime-related 911 call in Milwaukee from March 2004 to December 2010. They calculated that in the six months after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the news that Mr. Jude was left bloody and half-naked in the street, the number of crime-related 911 calls in the city decreased by about 22,000, to about 110,000. Fifty-six percent of this decline occurred in predominantly black neighborhoods. The number of crime-related 911 calls would return to normal after about a year, the authors found. However, the six-month decrease from March through August 2005 led to the most violent stretch in the seven years the authors looked at. During those six months, there were 87 murders in Milwaukee, a 32-percent increase compared to the same six-month periods in 2004 and 2006. The number of 911 calls in all Milwaukee neighborhoods also declined significantly following the high-profile killing of Sean Bell by police in Queens, N.Y. in 2006, suggesting the fallout of police violence is not an “isolated incident,” as the authors write “police departments and city politicians often frame [it].” African Americans’ lack of confidence in police has been well documented through surveys and testimonies. Just this week, 9-year-old Zianna Oliphant was filmed telling the Charlotte City Council about being black. “I don’t like being treated differently,” she said through tears at the City Council’s first meeting since Keith Lamont Scott was killed in an officer-involved shooting six days earlier. The Pew Research Center has consistently found African Americans don’t trust police will treat them equally to whites. Following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, 46 percent of black respondents told Pew they had “very little” confidence in police to treat them equally. But observers have debated over whether a lack of confidence in police has led African Americans to not report crime. It doesn’t, according to a 2006 study by Lawrence Bobo and Victor Thompson. A vast of majority of both whites and black respondents said they would call 911 if their house was burglarized, even if an overwhelmingly majority of blacks didn’t expect to be taken seriously when police arrived. This changes in the wake of high-profile police violence in the news, according to the soon-to-be published study. It is perceived by some as a “severe breach in the social contract that exists between citizens and the criminal justice system.” “That breach is so sudden and violent when unarmed black men are beaten or killed that virtually no institutional response, from public apologies to sanctioning offending officers, can swiftly repair it,” the study says. In an interview with the Monitor, Tony Brown, a sociologist at Rice University who studies how racism works, was skeptical of the implications of the study. He praised its analysis, but said the personal motivations that led whole neighborhoods to call 911 less frequently must be studied further. He also stressed the conclusions should be considered within a larger context, namely how the country and its race relations have changed since 2005, and speculated about the so-called “Ferguson Effect,” which FBI Director James Comey referred to in May, but many criminologists and President Obama have rejected. Whatever those motivations, Dr. Kirk at Oxford said in a statement that police should take seriously the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, in particular its recommendations for procedural justice, transparency, and accountability. Mr. Kennedy at John Jay says many departments are. “For the longest time, police never criticized police. That’s a real problem for communities that already don’t think highly of you,” he says. “Across the country, we’re just beginning to see police are willing to say to their community, ‘I think that’s wrong too.’ That’s an important development.” ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. |||||

– The so-called "Ferguson Effect" says homicides go up after high-profile police-on-citizen violence because police become too worried about being investigated for use of force. But the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports a new study published Thursday has another explanation. Researchers found that 911 calls related to crime dropped 20% in Milwaukee following the horrific beating of unarmed black man Frank Jude by off-duty cops in 2004. The effect lasted for more than a year, totaling more than 22,000 fewer crime-related 911 calls, according to the Atlantic. And 56% of the decrease occurred in black neighborhoods, despite black neighborhoods making up only 31% of Milwaukee. Researchers are calling it the "Jude effect." Researchers found similar declines after police killed Sean Bell in 2006 in New York City and assaulted Danyall Simpson in 2007 in Milwaukee. Police violence "de-legitimizes the criminal justice system in the eyes of the African-American community," researcher Matthew Desmond tells the Journal Sentinel. The study concludes that incidents of police violence "make the city as a whole...less safe," the Christian Science Monitor reports. Jude's beating was followed by a 32% increase in murders in Milwaukee. The spike in homicides can potentially be attributed to the drop in 911 calls, which are used by police for all sorts of crime fighting. "No act of police violence is an isolated incident, in both cause and consequence." the Atlantic quotes researcher Andrew Papachristos as saying. (Man dies three days after calling police for help.)

The house used in Mean Girls is on the market and it's only a few million shy of costing as much as the movie itself! "Wow! Your house is really nice," Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) tells Regina George (Rachel McAdams) as they pull up to her mammoth home in the 1994 teen comedy. "I know, right!" she answers. PHOTOS: Favorite TV and Movie Cast Reunions The owners are asking for $14.8 million for the 20,000 square foot Toronto mansion, which served as the set for Regina George's home. The budget for Mean Girls: $17 million. While the house doesn't come equipped with a "cool mom" such as Amy Poehler, it does feature the master bedroom that Regina commandeered as her own as well as 10 other bedrooms and 12 baths. If that wasn't enough, the house features neoclassic designs, Italian marble and grand entrances big enough for Regina’s hair. WATCH: Lindsay Lohan's Idea For A Grown-Up Mean Girls Sequel If you're looking for a Beverly Hills movie home and have $135 million to spare, the mansion used in Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner's 1992 romance film The Bodyguard is also up for sale. On top of that, the woodsy South Lake Tahoe, Calif. vacation house used in the movie is on the market for $8 million. Which movie home suits you best? ||||| The California ranch once known as Neverland and owned by late pop star Michael Jackson is going on the market for $100 million. The Los Olivos property, about 40 miles from Santa Barbara, is now called “Sycamore Valley Ranch,” said Suzanne Perkins of Sotheby’s International Realty, who shares the listing with Harry Kolb of Sotheby’s and Jeffrey Hyland of Hilton & Hyland. The amusement park rides are gone, the agents said, as are the orangutans and elephant, though there is currently a llama on the property. The iconic... |||||

– A 2,700-acre piece of pop-culture history is now up for sale. The Wall Street Journal reports that Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch near Santa Barbara is on the market for $100 million. Except it's now called Sycamore Valley Ranch, and while it no longer has amusement park rides or an elephant, it still has the train station and tracks Jackson had installed. Curbed LA, which notes that Beyonce and Jay Z were once rumored to be interested, links to this video tour. And sorry Jackson fans, the listing agents are going to thoroughly vet any prospective buyers—"we're not going to be giving tours," one tells the Journal. (Also for sale: the Mean Girls mansion.)

Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, John Kasich and Ted Cruz feuded over rhetoric, elections and immigration at the March 3 debate in Detroit. Here are the key moments. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) The four remaining Republican presidential candidates gathered in Detroit on Thursday night for the 11th debate of the GOP nomination fight. I tweeted it. The Fix team annotated it. And, below, I picked some of the best — and worst — of the night that was. Winners * Ted Cruz: The senator from Texas picked a nice moment to have his best debate of the primary season. He flashed his prosecutorial chops when making the case that Donald Trump was neither a real conservative nor someone who could win the White House for Republicans this fall. His persistent calls for Trump to release the audiotape of an off-the-record interview with the New York Times were effective and put the real estate mogul off his game a bit. Cruz also benefited from the fact that Trump and Marco Rubio went after each other hammer and tongs for the first hour of the debate, a brawl that allowed him to look like he was above the fray and magnanimous. * John Kasich: The narrowing of the presidential field quite clearly helped the Ohio governor on Thursday night. Sure, it often felt as if he was participating in an entirely different debate than the other three candidates. But, when he got a chance to talk, Kasich’s uplifting and positive message made for a welcome relief from the name-calling, interrupting and general rudeness that dominated most of the conversation on stage in Detroit. Kasich effectively made the case for why being an insider was a good thing — a very hard one to make in an election like this one — and probably won himself some votes from voters fed up with all the fighting. Did he do enough to boost him into the top tier? No. But that simply isn’t possible for Kasich, given the delegate math. Still, he deserves credit for putting his best foot forward. * Fox News moderators: Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace are a really good trio. They asked well-thought-out questions that anticipated — and avoided — the talking points of the candidates. I l-o-v-e-d when Wallace called up a series of fact checks aimed at rebutting Trump's talking points on how he would handle the debt and deficit issues. Ditto the video triptych that Kelly introduced showing Trump contradicting himself over and over. That's what moderators should do; force candidates off their regular shtick, make them think on their feet a bit and, in the process, show viewers who they really are. * Teenagers: A penis size reference within the first 10 minutes of the debate? The 12-year-old version of me would have laughed like crazy at Trump's "guarantee" about the size of his genitals. (Okay, fine. The 40-year-old version of me laughed, too.) Losers * Donald Trump: Trump totally dominated the debate in terms of speaking time and the broader conversation. There were times where it felt more like an interview with Trump than a debate with three candidates not named Trump on stage. As is usually the case with Trump in a debate setting, the more he talks, the less positive the outcome is for him. He repeatedly came across as juvenile — calling Rubio "Little Marco" and Cruz "Lyin' Ted." Hell, within the first 10 minutes of the debate Trump was insisting that questions about his endowment — not the financial kind — were way off. From a more substantive perspective, Trump took real body blows — especially from Cruz — regarding Trump University and the comments he made in an off-the-record session with the New York Times. Trump, as he has in nearly every debate, showed a wafer-thin understanding of policy and, when pressed about that lack of knowledge, reverted to name-calling. Does any of the above matter? It hasn't yet. * Marco Rubio: The senator from Florida seemed to have resigned himself to a kamikaze mission against Trump during this debate. He jabbed at and with Trump over and over again in the debate's first 60 minutes, turning every question — and answer — into an attack on Trump. It hurt Trump but hurt Rubio, too, as he struggled to get back to his more positive “new American century” message. Rubio improved in the second half of the debate, but Cruz was better throughout. It’s hard to see how this debate changes the dynamic set in place on Tuesday night: Trump as the favorite, Cruz with the next-best chance of being the nominee, Rubio as Trump spoiler. *Debate audience: From the mugging for the cameras — act like you’ve been there! — to the constant cheering and jeering for every word the candidates uttered, the audience was annoying at best and distracting at worst. I am not a big fan of debates held without a live audience, but this is getting bad. * The Republican Party: The first hour of the debate was an absolute disaster for Republicans hoping to rebrand their party heading into the 2016 general election. It looked more like a high school cafeteria food fight than an even semi-serious conversation about issues. My party is committing suicide on national television. #GOPDebate — Jamie Johnson (@JamieJohnsonUSA) March 4, 2016 Assuming Trump is the nominee — and he has the most obvious path — then this debate will provide Democrats with roughly 100 minutes’ worth of raw footage of Rubio and Cruz savaging the real estate mogul that they can use in negative ads this fall. A lose-lose for the GOP. * The thing on Ted Cruz’s lip: Was it the piece of a mint? Spittle? A piece of tooth? I don’t know. But what I do know is that it will haunt my dreams. ||||| (CNN) Republicans began their debate Thursday night with insults and ended with three candidates pledging to back Donald Trump should he win the nomination. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took more shots at Trump in Fox News' debate -- and through it all, the billionaire businessman seemed to relish standing center stage, defending himself against foes and moderators while showing his mettle to supporters. All three were happy to deflect efforts to drag them into sustained policy discussions and kept things personal. Ohio Gov. John Kasich was content to stand to the side and watch it all. Here are seven takeaways from Thursday's Republican debate: Penises, dogcatchers and yoga Minutes into the debate, Trump was boasting about the size of his penis. Clearly annoyed that Rubio had joked days ago about the size of Trump's hands -- suggesting, as Trump put it, that "if they're small, something else might be small" -- the Republican front-runner made a claim seldom heard during a presidential debate. "I guarantee you, there's no problem. I guarantee you," he said. It was a PG-13 start to a two-hour food fight that parents wouldn't have wanted their kids to watch. Early on, as Rubio pressed Trump for more policy details, the two gave each other nicknames. "Don't worry about it, Little Marco," Trump said, to which Rubio responded, "Let's hear it, Big Donald." Trump said Florida wouldn't elect Rubio dogcatcher after all of his missed Senate votes. Cruz gave Trump instructions on letting go of his anger: "Donald, learn not to interrupt, it's not complicated. Count to 10, Donald. Count to 10. Count to 10." Later, when Cruz told Trump to "breathe," Rubio jumped in and joked that the two were doing yoga. "I really hope that we don't see yoga on this stage," Cruz answered. And then Rubio pointed to Trump, who'd just admitted his flexibility on policies, and said: "Well he's very flexible, so you never know." The Republican candidates put on a show -- but not the type they'd like to play for a general election audience. CNN analyst Amanda Carpenter called it "embarrassing." And pollster Frank Luntz tweeted that 22 of 25 participants in the focus group he led Thursday night predicted the debate would hurt the GOP's chances in November. "This has to stop. Seriously," he tweeted. Trump under attack It seemed as if Fox News had grown tired of Trump's opponents' inability to knock him down -- so the moderators decided to do it themselves. Chris Wallace had a real-time fact check queued up when Trump asserted he'd cut $500 billion in spending -- pointing out that his strategies, eliminating the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency (which Trump called the Department of Environmental Protection), would save just a fraction of that amount. When Trump tried to claim he'd close the gap by negotiating better drug prices through Medicare, a constant talking point of his, Wallace had a second graphic already prepped pointing out that, too, wouldn't get Trump even close to eliminating the deficit. CNN's Reality Check team agrees on that point. JUST WATCHED Megyn Kelly questions Trump over Trump University Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Megyn Kelly questions Trump over Trump University 01:33 JUST WATCHED Fox anchor challenges Trump on deficit plans Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Fox anchor challenges Trump on deficit plans 01:37 It forced an awkward and unspecific claim about "other things" out of Trump. "I'm not only talking about drugs, I'm talking about other things," he said. "We'll save more than $300 billion a year if we negotiate. We don't negotiate." Megyn Kelly took her shot later on, setting up three clips of Trump taking one policy position and then, days later, taking the opposite position. Trump was unmoored, insisting he had logical explanations about his reversals on Syrian refugees, the war in Afghanistan and more -- and that by the way, it doesn't matter much anyway. "You have to have a certain degree of flexibility," he said. Ted Cruz takes a page from Chris Christie Ted Cruz needs Trump's momentum to ebb as much as anyone, but he didn't spend much of the night on the attack. For the most part, Cruz stood aside and watched Rubio and Trump rip each other to shreds, and then turned to the audience and threw up his hands. "Megyn, let me just ask the voters at home: Is this the debate you want playing out in the general election?" he said. JUST WATCHED Ted Cruz: Donald Trump funded Hillary Clinton in 2008 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Ted Cruz: Donald Trump funded Hillary Clinton in 2008 01:05 Cruz took his shots at Trump, too, but he let Rubio do the dirty work -- betting that he, rather than the Florida senator, will reap the benefits. Rubio, for instance, built on the attack line Mitt Romney started earlier in the day regarding Trump University, pressing Trump over and over to admit he was ripping off the people who paid $36,000 for his courses at a school that's now the subject of a class-action lawsuit. Cruz is trying to co-opt the angry electorate that Trump has tapped into, and his pitch is simple: Trump is the villain you've been mad at. "For 40 years, Donald has been part of the corruption in Washington that you're angry about," he said. It's entirely possible that the debate did nothing to change Cruz's fortunes. But he does have a big opportunity on the horizon. Of the four states to only allow Republicans to vote in GOP nominating contests, Cruz has won three, thanks to his strength among conservatives and the rules limiting Trump's ability to expand the electorate. And all four states set to vote Saturday -- Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine -- have closed contests. Kasich's Jekyll and Rubio's Hyde Kasich will not, under any circumstances, engage directly with his foes on the debate stage. "As the Democrats tell me all the time, I can get the crossover votes," he boasted early in the debate, adding that he's often told at town halls that he seems to be "the adult on stage." "I've talked about issues. I have never tried to go and get into these kinda scrums that we're seeing here," he said. JUST WATCHED Gov. John Kasich: 'I will win Ohio' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Gov. John Kasich: 'I will win Ohio' 01:16 He demonstrated his experience on economic and budgetary challenges and foreign policy, and showed no signs of backing out of the race anytime soon -- especially not before Ohio's March 15 primary. For Rubio, that's all a big problem. The man who won the hearts of the Republican establishment by confronting Trump head-on in the last debate was ready to hit the billionaire again and again -- but a 1-for-11 Super Tuesday intervened, and some of the shine wore off. He confronted Trump once again, baiting the business mogul by calling him names, attacking his business ventures and accusing him of knowing nothing about policy -- even though he struggled with a raspy voice. Trump's dance on immigration On the campaign trail, Trump has proposed changing U.S. libel laws so that politicians can more easily sue journalists. JUST WATCHED Donald Trump refuses to release New York Times tape Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Donald Trump refuses to release New York Times tape 02:07 But on Thursday night, Trump said the bond between reporters and politicians who agree to go off-the-record is too strong to break. That, he said, is why he won't ask The New York Times to release a transcript or recording of an off-the-record conversation he had with the newspaper's editorial board about immigration. "I think being off the record is very important. I will honor it," he said. Then, Trump allowed -- as his foes claimed -- that he might have softened his hard-line stance he has taken on the campaign trail that he will build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. "I will say that in immigration as well as with anything else, there has to be tug and pull. You have to be able to have some flexibility," he said. "I may have said something like that with The New York Times. But I am not going to release something off the record." Trump's opponents pounced on his remark, but they could be misreading his support. Many Trump backers say they know he can't achieve everything he proposes, but believe he'll fight for it more effectively than anyone else. JUST WATCHED Donald Trump's entire Michigan debate interview Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Donald Trump's entire Michigan debate interview 05:27 In an interview with CNN's Dana Bash afterward, he defended that flexibility, saying: "I'm flexible with everything. You can't just say, 'this is it and I'm never going to talk,'" he said. "With that being said, you have to make great deals." Sticking to the pledge Coming less than 12 hours after Mitt Romney launched a scathing broadside against Trump, the candidates' answer to the last question of the debate was particularly striking. Fox News moderators asked Rubio, Cruz and Kasich whether they'd back Trump if he wins the nomination. All three said yes. JUST WATCHED Would the GOP candidates support Trump as nominee? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Would the GOP candidates support Trump as nominee? 01:14 The moment won't help Rubio -- who had joined the #NeverTrump movement of Republicans vowing not to support Trump on Twitter last week -- with that crowd. More important, though, is what they didn't say. The premise of the question was that Trump had already won the nomination. But there are scenarios in which Republicans could have more chances to stop that from happening, even after all 50 states vote. Romney is angling for a floor fight at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July. And none of the candidates said they wouldn't fight it out at a contested convention. A better question: Would the Republican field support the candidate who wins the most delegates? So what does this change? Trump struggled with policy details, butted in when other candidates were speaking and sparred with the moderators. So what else is new? His sharp, and sharply personal, exchanges with his rivals might have been amped up Thursday night, but still sounded much like Trump's first 10 debates. The front-runner doesn't get rattled or lose his wit, even when he is under attack from everyone else on stage. He often seems to relish it -- as if his foes' criticism gives him an excuse to stop holding back. None of the debates so far have changed the trajectory of the race -- in part because Trump is the master of the debate post-game, finding ways to deflect weak points and suck up media oxygen while branding his foes with nicknames like "Little Marco" and "Lyin' Ted" and claiming victory -- no matter what happened. ||||| The 2016 cycle's 11th Republican presidential debate became an all-too-literal dick-measuring contest within minutes, and proceeded to force viewers to question what counts as debate, or as political discourse, or as communication between human beings, for a full two hours. Marco Rubio referred to Donald Trump as "Big Don," out loud, in a room with people and microphones in it. Ted Cruz at one point declared, "I really hope we don't see yoga on this stage." Even the ostensibly "moderate" John Kasich went out of his way to praise deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi for some reason. We won't know who "really" won until poll results trickle in and the primary voters cast their ballots. But in the meantime, here are the candidates who ended the night better off than they started it — and the ones who slipped. Winner: John Kasich At this point, the three non-Trumps are basically kamikaze pilots. Realistically, the GOP nomination will either go to Donald Trump outright, or be decided in a brokered convention. For the latter to happen, each of the remaining candidates has to keep campaigning and win a few more states — knowing that there's zero chance any of them becomes the nominee. A brokered convention can pick a non-candidate as a nominee, a Mitt Romney or a Mike Pence. It can't pick a candidate who lost the primaries. It's folly to wonder if Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz or John Kasich can win the nomination outright. They can't. Instead their debate performances have to be judged on how they affected the candidates' odds of successfully performing their role in the grand Trump sabotage plan. Kasich's role in that plan is winning Ohio, one of the biggest remaining states and, crucially, one that's winner-take-all. If Trump wins there and Florida, the race is over. It's not clear that Kasich can pull this off, despite being hugely popular in his home state and having recently won a landslide reelection. There's only been one poll of the state since the primaries started, and it found Kasich behind Trump by five points. So what Kasich needs to do is close that gap, and Thursday night he gave a performance that could do just that. While Cruz, Rubio, and Trump talked over each other and argued about their dick sizes and yoga and other such mishegas, Kasich stayed above the fray. He had a consistent message: I balanced the federal budget in the 1990s. I've led a successful conservative government in the swingiest of swing states. It hasn't been a winning message nationally, but in Ohio it serves to remind voters of things they already love about Kasich. He was the adult on the stage. And while data is still sparse at the moment, Frank Luntz's focus group loved him: The longer this goes, the higher Kasich climbs and the lower Rubio sinks with my focus group. #GOPDebate — Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) March 4, 2016 He gained more Twitter followers than his better known non-Trump rivals: Who’s gained most Twitter followers since #GOPDebate started: Kasich: +3,953 Cruz: +1,772 Rubio: +1,585 Trump: +7,191 — Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 4, 2016 Kasich still engaged in a bit of self-deception. He talked about being the nominee eventually. He declined to go full #NeverTrump and tell Floridians to vote for Marco Rubio. He committed to supporting Trump as the nominee, when pointedly refusing to do so could've made him a stronger stop-Trump contender. And there was that weird Gaddafi moment. But he did better than Rubio or Cruz, and gave exactly the performance he needed to have a shot at a favorite son upset in Ohio. Winner: The moderators Reportedly, Fox News has given up on Marco Rubio. "We're finished with Rubio," the network's head, Roger Ailes, recently told a host, per a report by New York Magazine's Gabriel Sherman. "We can't do the Rubio thing anymore." But even if the Rubio lovefest is over, the network's grudge against Donald Trump definitely isn't. They gave him by far the most airtime of any candidate tonight, but also used it to bludgeon him repeatedly. Chris Wallace directly challenged Trump on his claim that letting Medicare negotiate drug prices would save more money every year than Medicare spends on the drugs in total. Trump's response was pathetically weak: "I'm saying saving through negotiation throughout the economy, you will save $300 billion a year." (What exactly "negotiation throughout the economy" means? Not specified.) Megyn Kelly called up not one, not two, but three examples of Trump making contradictory statements on a key policy issue. When Trump tried to interrupt, she forced him to listen to all three. When he finally got to respond, he began with, "Well, on Afghanistan, I did mean Iraq," which is probably a bad mix-up for a would-be president of the United States to make. When Rubio and Trump started screaming at each other about Trump University, it took a while for the moderators to get the discussion under control, but once they did Kelly didn't let Trump's claims stand, rebutting his claim that the school had an A from the Better Business Bureau (it's actually a D-). When he claimed that almost every student was happy with the education they received, she forced him to address the former students suing him claiming they demanded refunds. Was the moderating in the debate disinterested arbitration from actors not invested in a particular outcome? Of course not. They had knives out for Trump from the beginning. But in this case, the particular political interests of Fox News and those of the viewing public converged. Trump is probably going to be the Republican nominee. He deserves more scrutiny than the rest of the field. And the Fox team subjected him to as much scrutiny as he's faced in any debate to date. Winner: Hillary Clinton The worst case scenario for Hillary Clinton (or Bernie Sanders, if he were to make an improbable comeback and seize the nomination) in the general election is facing Marco Rubio. He has problems within his party, but at the end of the day he's a young, charismatic, reasonable-seeming candidate with broad party support who adds to the sense that Clinton has too much historical baggage and could potentially reduce Democratic dominance with Latino voters. The best-case scenario is either facing a bona fide extremist who the Republican party is inclined to abandon and support half-heartedly if at all in the general election — like Trump or Cruz — or facing a Republican party in total disarray without a clear nominee until the convention in July. It now seems like the latter is all but inevitable. The way things stand, odds still are that Trump wins outright. But tonight emphasized that if he were to lose, it would happen in the most chaotic and disruptive way possible. The window where Rubio could've won outright has closed. It's over. It's either Trump or a brokered convention. And the forces pushing for the latter appeared divided and impotent. Kasich put up a good showing, for sure, but Rubio definitely did not, and Ted Cruz refused to even hint at support for a united anti-Trump front. The anti-Trumps are not in total disarray, but they're not exactly in lockstep either. And while they committed to supporting Trump if he's the nominee, the sheer venom of their attacks, and the broader context in which they took place, confirmed that if Trump wins he won't be taking his party with him. I genuinely don't know what's better for Clinton: facing Trump in a 1964/1972-style race where the party establishment doesn't have his back, or enjoying a summer of Republican chaos until a compromise candidate is chosen at the RNC and the Trump voters become demoralized and stay home in the general. All of her options are good now, and the longer this mess continues the better they get. Loser: Marco Rubio The first nine Republican debates (save the one Trump skipped) were defined by a weird repartee between Jeb Bush and Donald Trump in which the former fecklessly tried to attack the latter only for Trump to respond with brutal insults that utterly deflated Bush. Not only that, but Trump issued his insults with relish, like the only reason he even entered the race was as part of a far-too-convoluted revenge plot against Jeb. With Jeb out of the race, many of us feared this dynamic would vanish. We shouldn't have worried. Marco Rubio is apparently all too willing to step into the old Jeb role of Trump punching bag, and Trump is all too willing to use him as such. This did not result in Rubio landing some real hits against Trump. It resulted in Rubio trying to attack Trump again, and again only for the debate to devolve into pointless cross talk. Worse, Rubio's points were sometimes actively contradictory. The same guy who said this: This is a time for seriousness on these issues. You have yet to answer a single serious question about any of this. [To Trump] Will you give us a detailed answer about foreign policy any time you're asked on it? Also engaged in this exchange: Cruz: You can do it. You can breathe. I know it's hard. I know it's hard. But just… Rubio: When they're done with the yoga, can I answer a question? Cruz: You cannot. (LAUGHTER) Rubio: Unbelievable. Cruz: I really hope that we don't — we don't see yoga on this stage. Rubio: Well, he's very flexible, so you never know. Seriousness is a very important quality in a candidate, you see. Worst of all, Rubio never got the chance to make an affirmative argument for his candidacy. Or, more accurately, he never took the chance to do so. Ted Cruz criticized Trump plenty but he also made an active argument for why he's the most compelling Trump alternative. That's bad for the #NeverTrump effort but it's a bonus for Cruz personally. Kasich, for his part, rarely did anything other than reiterate the basic rationale for his candidacy. Rubio, by contrast, became like a weak, gutted, bizarro Trump, with all the weird venom and none of the confidence or successful self-promotion. Rubio was dead before tonight, and the debate mostly served to remind the public why. Loser (for the night): Donald Trump Things are looking good for Trump at the moment. He currently leads in the winner-take-all states of Ohio and Florida, the latter by a wide margin. Victories there wouldn't just make it hard for John Kasich and Marco Rubio to continue their campaigns; they'd give Trump a huge delegate lead, so big that he'd probably only have to win half of the delegates in the ensuing contests to secure an absolute delegate majority. Unless something changes in the next two weeks, the nomination is his for the taking. There are two locations, realistically, where something could change: in the next few weeks' primaries, or in a debate. The former avenue is tricky for anti-Trump forces. If, say, Ted Cruz were to win Louisiana and Kentucky, that could halt Trump's momentum. But it's hard for Cruz to win Louisiana and Kentucky having lost Super Tuesday to Trump. It's a sort of catch-22: Cruz needs to win additional states to get momentum. But he needs more momentum than he's got to win additional states. That leaves debates as a more plausible inflection point. We've already seen their potential to blunt momentum from past primary performance. Rubio was riding high on his third place (???) showing in Iowa … until he choked in a debate right before New Hampshire, pushing him all the way down to fifth there. It's at least possible that the same kind of thing could stop Trump in his tracks. Sure enough, tonight's Fox News debate had Trump on the defense for most of the running time. The moderators explicitly debunked his claims on prescription drugs, and he didn't have a good defense. Megyn Kelly brought up the debacle that was Trump University, presenting some pretty damning material, and Trump scrambled to respond. Then again, Trump spent the better part of one debate repeating left-wing talking points about George W. Bush's failure to prevent 9/11 and lies about Iraqi WMDs, and that seemingly didn't hurt him. He had a rough night tonight. It feels strange to dub him a winner. If it moved the dial anywhere, it probably hurt him. But in all honesty, Trump has gotten away with enough so far that the odds this debate deprives him the nomination are probably low. Watch Ted Cruz call for Republicans to rally against Trump ||||| Get live updates about the Florida primary. _______ Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, fighting for their political lives, relentlessly demeaned and baited Donald J. Trump at Thursday’s debate, all but pleading with Republicans to abandon a candidate with a long history of business failures, deep ties to the Democratic Party and a taste for personal insults. Warning that Mr. Trump would lead the party to a historic defeat in November, Mr. Rubio and Mr. Cruz delivered their attacks with urgency, as if trying to awaken voters who had fallen under Mr. Trump’s spell. Mr. Rubio derided Mr. Trump as untrustworthy and uncivil, while Mr. Cruz bashed him for donating money to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and to other Democrats. Mr. Trump looked on with disgust, but as in their 10 previous debates, he seemed impervious and perhaps unstoppable. At times, the face-off in Detroit also deteriorated into the kind of junior high school taunts that have startled many Republican elders but have done little to dent Mr. Trump’s broad appeal. As Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio traded insults over their manhood, Mr. Trump recalled Mr. Rubio’s innuendo that Mr. Trump’s “small hands” correlated with another part of his anatomy. Mr. Trump, who has boasted about his sexual exploits, insisted that nothing was small about him. “I guarantee you,” he continued with little subtlety, “there’s no problem. I guarantee you.” The two senators repeatedly urged Republicans to align against Mr. Trump in nominating contests over the next two weeks, saying that Mr. Trump could sew up the nomination even though a majority of voters so far have cast ballots for other candidates. “Two-thirds of the people who cast a vote in a Republican primary or caucus have voted against you,” Mr. Rubio told Mr. Trump. “The reason why is because we are not going to turn over the conservative movement or the party of Lincoln or Reagan, for example, to someone whose positions are not conservative.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story The pleas reflected not only Mr. Trump’s advantage in the race, but also the party’s growing disquiet about the implications of nominating him. The specter of Mr. Trump as the Republican standard-bearer has long troubled both establishment-aligned and conservative leaders. But his initial hesitation to condemn the Ku Klux Klan in an interview on Sunday, and his success in seven states on Super Tuesday, have set off a new wave of anxiety that Mr. Trump could tarnish the party this year and perhaps beyond. Still, in a striking moment, all of Mr. Trump’s rivals on stage indicated that they would support him if he became the Republican nominee. The consensus was especially unusual in the case of Mr. Rubio, who has been caustically attacking Mr. Trump as a “con man.” While Mr. Rubio savaged Mr. Trump repeatedly on Thursday, Mr. Cruz combined his jabs with high-minded appeals to conservatives. He emphasized his support for a “simple flat tax” and a strong national defense, trying to position himself ahead of Mr. Rubio as the more competitive candidate against Mr. Trump. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Cruz also appealed directly to Mr. Trump’s supporters by saying that their desire for a political outsider to lead the country was misplaced. “For 40 years, Donald has been part of the corruption in Washington that you’re angry about,” Mr. Cruz said. “And you’re not going to stop the corruption in Washington by supporting someone who has supported liberal Democrats for four decades, from Jimmy Carter to John Kerry to Hillary Clinton.” “Donald Trump in 2008 wrote four checks to elect Hillary Clinton as president,” Mr. Cruz added, turning to Mr. Trump to demand why he had done so. “Actually, it was for business,” Mr. Trump said, before noting that he had also given to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Mr. Trump found himself on the defensive throughout the night, challenged by his rivals and the Fox News moderators to explain his inconsistent stands in the past. He also had to defend himself against a movement begun earlier Thursday by Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, who shredded Mr. Trump as a “phony” and a “fraud” who must be blocked from the nomination. Mr. Trump, offered the chance to respond to Mr. Romney with harshness or with substance, chose the former. “He was a failed candidate,” Mr. Trump said. “He should have beaten President Obama very easy.” Mr. Cruz and Mr. Rubio, who have been grappling for ways to halt Mr. Trump’s political momentum, seemed intent on trying to bait him into losing his cool. At one point, as Mr. Cruz tarred Mr. Trump for donating to Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign, Mr. Trump tried repeatedly to interrupt. “Count to 10, Donald — count to 10,” Mr. Cruz said. Later, in an exchange over Supreme Court nominations, Mr. Cruz taunted, “Breathe, breathe, breathe — you can do it.” That prompted Mr. Rubio to joke that his two rivals were primed for yoga, especially Mr. Trump. “He’s very flexible,” Mr. Rubio said, a quip referring to Mr. Trump’s changes in political positions. Mr. Rubio tried to get under Mr. Trump’s skin by boring in on Trump University, the defunct education and training venture over which Mr. Trump is facing civil litigation alleging that he defrauded students. Recalling that he had spoken to “one of the victims,” Mr. Rubio said that what students had gotten in the courses was “stuff you could pull off of Zillow.” “Why won’t you give them their money back?” Mr. Rubio asked. Mr. Trump, who described the litigation as “a minor civil case,” claimed that almost all students who had signed up for the courses “said it was terrific,” but he quickly lost patience with Mr. Rubio. Calling him “little Marco” — a phrase he used several times — Mr. Trump noted that the senator was losing to him in Florida polls before the state’s March 15 primary. Continue reading the main story Video “The people in Florida wouldn’t elect him dogcatcher,” Mr. Trump said. Mr. Rubio, his voice ragged, appeared frustrated at times as he repeatedly sought to sow doubts about Mr. Trump. He has been trying for months to catch fire against Mr. Trump, whom he holds in low regard on policy matters, and now the Florida primary looms as make-or-break for Mr. Rubio’s candidacy. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Advertisement Continue reading the main story “You have yet to answer a single serious question about any of this,” Mr. Rubio said, referring to Mr. Trump’s generalities on foreign affairs. As Mr. Trump responded by reiterating praise he had received from President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Mr. Rubio threw his arms up and turned away in exasperation. If Mr. Trump struggled to deflect the attacks on his character, business sense and political viability against Mrs. Clinton in the fall, he seized opportunities to reassure conservatives that he would be a forceful commander in chief. Questioned by the moderators about his past advocacy for torture and for killing the families of terrorists, Mr. Trump stood firm and argued that “we should go tougher than waterboarding.” Pressed about whether military officers would carry out such orders — killing terrorists’ family members would violate the Geneva Conventions — Mr. Trump offered a boast. “If I say ‘do it,’ they’re going to do it,” he said. At another point, in a rare concession from Mr. Trump, he acknowledged that he was “changing” one of his positions in the highly charged immigration debate and was now open to offering visas for highly skilled foreign workers. He also lamented that foreign citizens “go to the best colleges” in America and “as soon as they are finished, they get shoved out,” and said he was “softening the position because we have to have talented people in this country.” While his shift could appeal to some business leaders and moderate voters he would need in a general election, his campaign also issued a statement after the debate saying he would “institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exception.” Mr. Trump’s shifting positions have been a target for months, but during this debate, his rivals received help from the Fox News debate moderators. They played a compilation of video clips in which he was depicted changing his mind on issues like the war in Iraq. Mr. Trump was then asked directly if he had “a core.” “I have a very strong core, but I have never seen a successful person who wasn’t flexible,” Mr. Trump said. One of the most anticipated face-offs of the night was between Mr. Trump and the moderator Megyn Kelly, who infuriated the candidate with her aggressive questions at the first Republican debate in August. Ms. Kelly and Mr. Trump breezily engaged each other on Thursday night, but Ms. Kelly was pointed if polite in her questioning. Both Mr. Rubio and Mr. Cruz repeatedly challenged Mr. Trump to release the full transcript of his meeting with The New York Times’s editorial board earlier in the year. BuzzFeed reported this week that Mr. Trump, in off-the-record comments, had told the newspaper that he was willing to soften his hard-line immigration views. But Mr. Trump stood his ground, saying he would “never release off-the-record conversations.” Pressed by Mr. Cruz, he shot back: “I’ve given my answer, lying Ted. I’ve given my answer.” The fourth candidate, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who has positioned himself as the positive-sounding and seasoned executive in the race, largely stuck to that strategy. But Mr. Kasich, who is lagging far behind Mr. Trump and the other candidates, struggled to leave a mark in the debate. ||||| It was only minutes into Thursday night’s Republican debate when the front-runner hit a new low. "Look at these hands. Are these small hands?” Donald Trump said, referring to an attack leveled by Marco Rubio. “He said if they're small, something else must be small, and I guarantee you there’s no problem.” In an often bewildering campaign, the front-runner discussing the size of his penis was still shocking. If many viewers chose to tune out after that incident, they would have been forgiven. Those who stuck around were treated to a seesaw debate, which featured some of the most probing questions asked of the candidates so far but also included heated exchanges of childish insults and incoherent shouting. Trump’s flexibility with the truth is well known. More interesting is Trump’s flexibility with policy, for which the evening proved a key test. Will voters care about the specific stances that Trump takes and his fidelity to them, or do they care more about his attitude? Trump came in with a target on his back. After a strong performance on Super Tuesday, the latest conventional wisdom is that the last chance for the Republican establishment and other candidates to stop Trump is on March 15. But it was the moderators—Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, and Trump’s old nemesis Megyn Kelly—who really made Trump squirm the most. He was pounded by Kelly and Ted Cruz over what he said to The New York Times editorial board about immigration in an off-the-record conversation. (He refused to ask the newspaper to release tapes or transcripts.) Chris Wallace demanded to know how he’d close the federal budget and noted places where Trump’s math—on federal departments he’d close, or on savings from Medicare rate changes—doesn’t add up. Kelly pressed him on Trump University, the glorified real-estate seminar over which he’s being sued. Trump claimed the Better Business Bureau’s grade for Trump U. had been raised from a D- to an A, which Kelly pointed out was bogus. Trump got repeatedly rattled. If voters care about Trump’s ideological consistency, he’s in trouble. Over and over again, Trump said he’d changed his mind on things: He no longer supports the assault-weapons ban. He’s had a change of heart about H1-B visas and now thinks they’re a good thing: “I’m changing.” When Kelly showed a series of clips in which Trump had flip-flopped—on whether to keep U.S. forces in Afghanistan, on whether to accept any Middle Eastern refugees, and on whether George W. Bush lied in the lead-up to the war in Iraq—Trump essentially pleaded no contest. He even described himself as “meek” on the Iraq question, hardly a word you’d associate with his campaign so far. Instead, Trump built a case for compromise. “You have to show a degree of flexibility,” he said. Trump’s theory of the Republican campaign has been that voters want someone who’s saying what he feels and that they don’t really care much about fidelity to ideology. So far, the evidence has borne him out, but the contradictions and flip-flops highlighted on Thursday do threaten his authenticity. Much of the debate, however, was less substantive and revealing. There were repeated stretches of shouting. Candidates called each other liars. They interrupted each other. Trump kept calling Rubio “this little guy” and “Little Marco.” (Weirdly, Rubio played along, calling Trump “Big Donald.”) The candidates tussled at length over what the polls show—who is winning the primary and about who could win the general election. Rubio, Cruz, and Kasich all understandably deplore Trump’s obsession with polls, but they are unable to change the terms of the debate. In the midst of this horror show, Ted Cruz (of all people) emerged briefly as the voice of reason: “Is this the debate you want playing out in the general election?" Almost certainly not—either for Republicans or for unaffiliated voters. The funny thing about Trump’s rough performance was that no one else did especially well, either. Kasich disappeared for long stretches, popping up only to give capsule history lessons on national politics in the 1980s and 1990s and Ohio politics in more recent years—he was involved, in case you hadn’t heard. Cruz delivering a middling performance, with much of his emphasis on the fact that he’d beaten Trump in a few states. That was an easy jab for Trump to parry: After all, Trump had won more. Rubio was hoarse and seemed shrunken, chastened, and at sea. He tried to interrupt Trump to mix things up, but was shouted down by Trump—and several times cut off by the moderators, who insisted he let Trump answer his questions. “Is this the debate you want playing out in the general election?” Trump was incoherent on trade: “I say, ‘Free trade, great,’ but not when they’re beating us so badly.” He reprised his call for the United States to employ torture in the war on terror. Wallace pushed Cruz hard on his plan to “abolish” the IRS—who would collect even the flat tax he supports? Cruz was forced to make some concessions. Rubio struggled to explain why he would send a large ground force to fight ISIS in Syria but not Libya. John Kasich appeared to back an Iraq-scale occupation of Libya. Although the debate was held in Detroit, it took 80 minutes before any questions were posed about the lead-poisoning crisis in Flint. Rubio somehow managed to praise Governor Rick Snyder’s response, making him perhaps the only person in America willing to do so. Cruz attempted to lay Detroit’s struggles squarely at the feet of local Democratic politicians, sidestepping the national and global contexts of deindustrialization. Kasich was lucky enough to sidestep any questions about lead poisoning in his own state of Ohio. The Republican Party appears on the edge of collapse, and the raucous debate in Detroit did nothing to erase that impression. But did it do anything to stop Trump, the agent of much of the internecine chaos? The forum occurred as some of the smartest GOP strategists argue that the party must try to wrest the nomination from Trump, even if it results in the party’s demise. Donors are spending millions in an effort to derail the front-runner, uniting under the banner “#NeverTrump.” Yet in the closing question of the night, the moderators asked Cruz, Kasich, and Rubio whether they would support Trump if he were the nominee. They have called him a con man, a liar, and unqualified for the presidency. Yet when the question came, each said they would. If they can’t do better to stop Trump than they did Thursday, that question will cease to be a hypothetical. |||||

– The newly narrowed GOP field of Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich went at it again Thursday night. Here's a sampling of some of the post-debate analysis: Cruz had "his best debate of the primary season," writes Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, showing "prosecutorial chops when making the case that Donald Trump was neither a real conservative nor someone who could win the White House." Kasich also did well, but Cillizza places Trump ("took real body blows" and showed "wafer-thin understanding of policy") and Rubio (on a "kamikaze mission against Trump") in the "losers" category. "Cruz the winner. Rubio solid & feisty at times, but role seemed reversed w/ Cruz from last debate," tweets Guy Benson of Town Hall. "Kasich hit his marks. Trump was Trump." Kasich won by staying above the fray and improving his position "in the grand Trump sabotage plan," which might involve a brokered convention, writes Dylan Matthews at Vox. Rubio, meanwhile, flailed at Trump so much he failed to make "an affirmative argument for his candidacy." He "was dead before tonight, and the debate mostly served to remind the public why." At the Atlantic, David A. Graham isn't very charitable to any of the candidates. "The funny thing about Trump's rough performance was that no one else did especially well, either," he writes. Cruz gave "a middling performance, with much of his emphasis on the fact that he'd beaten Trump in a few states," while Rubio "was hoarse and seemed shrunken, chastened, and at sea" as he tried to out-shout Trump. When Kasich surfaced, it was to spout "capsule history lessons." But this surely qualifies as good news for Trump: "In a striking moment, all of Mr. Trump's rivals on stage indicated that they would support him if he became the Republican nominee," notes the New York Times. "The consensus was especially unusual in the case of Mr. Rubio, who has been caustically attacking Mr. Trump as a 'con man.'" As does this from Eric Bradner at CNN: Yes, Trump struggled on substantive issues and came under heavy attack, but "what else is new?" he asks. "None of the debates so far have changed the trajectory of the race."

MINNEAPOLIS (CBSNewYork) — NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl LII briefly went dark Sunday night. Just after LeGarrette Blount’s 21-yard touchdown run gave the Philadelphia Eagles a 15-3 lead with 8:48 to play in the second quarter, NBC pitched to commercial, but viewers were instead greeted by more than 30 seconds of a black screen. PHOTOS: Super Bowl LII The signal finally returned with coverage of the game resuming. A NBC spokesperson later said: “We had a brief equipment failure that we quickly resolved. No game action or commercial time were missed.” NBC’s statement suggests it did not lose out on any ad revenue — a 30-second Super Bowl spot cost about $5 million. Of course, the incident was a hot topic on social media, with many users poking fun at it. Some said the moment reminded them of Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans when the game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers had to halted for several minutes because of a power outage inside the Superdome. Wait, did the Super Bowl just end like “The Sopranos?” #SBLII — Chris Carlin (@ChrisCarlin) February 5, 2018 Most #SuperBowl commercials are funny but this one was just dark pic.twitter.com/yRwUHwRrAB — Adam LeBow (@LeBowAdam) February 5, 2018 I'm in editorial and not sales, but even I know you don't make money by running a dark screen during #SuperBowl breaks. — Val Dennis Craven (@valpass) February 5, 2018 Dark screen Super Bowl commercials didn’t happen when Obama was president. #thanksTrump — Justin Sparago (@Justin_Sparago_) February 5, 2018 Welp someone just got fired. 20 second ad was dark as their future at NBC. #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/EyLewFqm2y — easilyigNORAble (@easilyigNORAble) February 5, 2018 Dark season 2 looked good. #SuperBowl — Doug Schoemer (@dbschoemer) February 5, 2018 Was there a Vegas prop on the Super Bowl going dark with dead air for a few seconds? — Coley Harvey (@ColeyHarvey) February 5, 2018 The Eagles beat the Patriots 41-33 to win their first Super Bowl in franchise history. ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| CLOSE SportsPulse: The all-time great tight end breaks down why Brady will never be the GOAT and also has a surprise hot take. USA TODAY Sports An overhead view of Super Bowl LII. (Photo: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports) Super Bowl viewers were greeted by a blank screen for approximately 15 to 30 seconds during NBC's Super Bowl broadcast on Sunday night. The awkward lull came during a commercial break in the middle of the second quarter and caused a stir on social media, with some on Twitter jokingly referring to it as the best commercial of the broadcast. In a tweet, an NBC Sports spokesperson blamed the incident on a "brief equipment failure that we quickly resolved. No game action or commercial time were missed." From NBC Sports spokesperson: "We had a brief equipment failure that we quickly resolved. No game action or commercial time were missed." — NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) February 5, 2018 NBC told USA TODAY Sports on Friday that the network had sold out its advertising slots during the Super Bowl. A single 30-second advertisement costs more than $5 million, on average. MORE: Tom Brady says he'll be back to play in 2018 season MORE: Eagles QB Nick Foles makes Super Bowl history with TD catch Contributing: A.J. Perez Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @Tom_Schad. PHOTOS: Celebrities at Super Bowl LII |||||

– One of the commercial breaks generating a lot of buzz during the Super Bowl wasn't actually a commercial at all. TV screens went black for about 30 seconds after NBC cut to a commercial in the second quarter following a Philadelphia touchdown, reports CBS. While some may have suspected some bizarro ad message, NBC later tweeted an explanation: "We had a brief equipment failure that we quickly resolved. No game action or commercial time were missed." As USA Today notes, a 30-second ad during the game costs about $5 million. Twitter had all kinds of fun, with lots of comments like this: "Best Super Bowl commercial so far has been 'empty black screen.'"

In the first confirmation that Department of Veterans Affairs administrators manipulated medical waiting lists at one and possibly more hospitals, the department’s inspector general reported on Wednesday that 1,700 patients at the veterans medical center in Phoenix were not placed on the official waiting list for doctors’ appointments and may never have received care. The scathing report by Richard J. Griffin, the acting inspector general, validates allegations raised by whistle-blowers and others that Veterans Affairs officials in Phoenix employed artifices to cloak long waiting times for veterans seeking medical care. Mr. Griffin said the average waiting time in Phoenix for initial primary care appointments, 115 days, was nearly five times as long as what the hospital’s administrators had reported. He suggested that the falsified data may have led to more favorable performance reviews for hospital personnel, and he indicated that some instances of potentially manipulated data had been turned over to the Justice Department. Mr. Griffin said that similar kinds of manipulation to hide long and possibly growing waiting times were “systemic throughout” the sprawling Veterans Affairs health care system, with its 150 medical centers serving eight million veterans each year. The inspector general’s office is reviewing practices at 42 Veterans Affairs medical facilities. Mr. Griffin’s report brought immediate political consequences. For the first time since the controversy erupted last month, several Senate Democrats, including Mark Udall of Colorado and John Walsh of Montana, demanded that the secretary of veterans affairs, Eric Shinseki, step down, joining Republican lawmakers who have been making that demand for weeks. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, a former naval aviator who was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War and is now an influential voice on veterans issues, also called on Wednesday for Mr. Shinseki to resign. Along with several other leading Republican lawmakers who had been withholding judgment, Mr. McCain asked the F.B.I. to investigate the Phoenix hospital. Mr. Griffin previously said that he was working with the Justice Department to examine whether criminal violations had occurred there. Mr. Shinseki, in a statement, called the findings “reprehensible to me” and ordered the department to “immediately triage each of the 1,700 veterans” and give them timely care. The department suspended two senior officials at the Phoenix medical center shortly after the allegations of falsified waiting lists became public this month. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said President Obama found the report “extremely troubling,” but he did not indicate whether Mr. Shinseki had lost the confidence of the White House. Mr. Griffin’s interim report — the final version is expected by August — did not address the most explosive allegations made about the Phoenix facility: that as many as 40 veterans who were never put on the official list for doctors’ appointments might have died while awaiting care. He said determinations could be made only after examining autopsy reports and other documents that were still being reviewed. He had previously said that after reviewing 17 of those cases, he had found no indication that any of those deaths were tied to delays. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Advertisement Continue reading the main story But the rest of his report was sweeping in its indictment of the Phoenix hospital, and contained sharp criticism of much of the rest of the veterans health care bureaucracy. “While our work is not complete, we have substantiated that significant delays in access to care negatively impacted the quality of care at this medical facility,” Mr. Griffin said. Irregularities in how the 1,700 veterans were handled, he added, mean that “these veterans may never obtain a requested or required clinical appointment.” Investigators from the inspector general’s office reviewed a sample of 226 patients and found that they waited an average of 115 days for their first primary care appointment at the Phoenix medical center, but their average waiting time was reported to the national Veterans Affairs office as being only 24 days. The interim report did not dwell on the motivations for falsely reporting waiting times, nor did it single out any employees or hospital administrators by name. But it stated that a “direct consequence” of the inappropriate waiting lists was that the medical center’s leadership “significantly understated the time new patients waited for their primary care appointment” in its performance appraisal accomplishments for the 2013 fiscal year, which was a factor considered for bonuses and salary increases. Mr. Griffin also suggested that his team may have already found some indication of criminal wrongdoing. “When sufficient credible evidence is identified supporting a potential violation of criminal and/or civil law, we have contacted and are coordinating our efforts with the Department of Justice,” he wrote. He said in his report that his investigators had identified several types of improper scheduling practices in Phoenix. They found multiple waiting lists aside from the official electronic waiting list, and said that “these additional lists may be the basis for allegations of creating ‘secret’ wait lists” that have been cited by whistle-blowers. The allegations identified by investigators were not limited to waiting lists. Mr. Griffin said his office had received “numerous allegations daily of mismanagement, inappropriate hiring decisions, sexual harassment, and bullying behavior by mid- and senior-level managers at this facility.” Mr. Shinseki, a soft-spoken former four-star Army general and chief of staff, has had support on Capitol Hill from some lawmakers partly because of his long military career. But the release of the inspector general’s report increased the pressure on him to step down, especially after some Senate Democrats broke with others in the party late in the day to demand his removal. Mr. Walsh, the Montana senator, said that the report “confirms the worst of the allegations against the V.A.,” and that “it’s time to put the partisanship aside and focus on what’s right for our veterans.” Representative Jeff Miller, the Florida Republican who is the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said the report “confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt what was becoming more obvious by the day: wait time schemes and data manipulation are systemic throughout V.A. and are putting veterans at risk in Phoenix and across the country.” Mr. Miller had previously held off on calling for Mr. Shinseki’s resignation, but he did so on Wednesday, saying that the former general “appears completely oblivious to the severity of the health care challenges facing the department.” Mr. McCain said on CNN that he had intended to wait to comment on Mr. Shinseki’s future until further hearings were held on the issue. But after hearing about the report, he decided to speak out. “I think it’s reached that point,” he said. “This keeps piling up.” ||||| Story highlights A veterans group demands a criminal investigation of medical center practices 1,700 veterans will be contacted by the end of business Friday, a VA official says VA Secretary Eric Shinseki is on ''thin ice'' with Obama, a White House official says The scope widens, with 42 medical centers now under investigation At least 1,700 military veterans waiting to see a doctor were never scheduled for an appointment and were never placed on a wait list at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Phoenix, raising the question of just how many may have been "forgotten or lost" in the system, according to a preliminary report made public Wednesday. Describing a "systemic" practice of manipulating appointments and wait lists at the Phoenix Health Care System, the VA's Office of Inspector General called for a nationwide review to determine whether veterans at other locations were falling through the cracks. It also appears to indicate the scope of the inquiry is rapidly widening, with 42 VA medical centers across the country now under investigation for possible abuse of scheduling practices, according to the report. JUST WATCHED Scathing report released on VA scandal Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Scathing report released on VA scandal 02:57 Among the findings at the Phoenix VA, investigators determined one consequence of manipulating appointments for the veterans was understating patient wait times -- a factor considered for VA employee bonuses and raises, the report said. The preliminary report sparked outrage from all corners, with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki calling the findings "reprehensible" and ordering the 1,700 veterans be immediately "triaged" for care, while some lawmakers called for the agency's chief to resign. Shinseki has been on "probation" since President Barack Obama vowed last week to hold accountable those responsible for the delays, and he remains on "thin ice" with the President pending the outcome of the internal investigations, a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNN. The VA is under fire over allegations of alarming shortcomings at its medical facilities. The controversy, as CNN first reported, involves delayed care with potentially fatal consequences in possibly dozens of cases. CNN has reported that in Phoenix, the VA used fraudulent record-keeping -- including an alleged secret list -- that covered up excessive waiting periods for veterans, some of whom died in the process. JUST WATCHED McCain: Time for Shinseki to move on Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH McCain: Time for Shinseki to move on 04:32 JUST WATCHED Report: 1,700 vets left off VA wait list Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Report: 1,700 vets left off VA wait list 02:56 JUST WATCHED VA Whistleblower tells his story Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH VA Whistleblower tells his story 11:07 JUST WATCHED Jay Carney on CNN and VA scandal Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Jay Carney on CNN and VA scandal 00:49 'Numerous allegations' The big questions remain under investigation, according to the report: Did the facility's electronic wait list omit the names of veterans waiting for care and, if so, at who's direction? And were the deaths of any of these veterans related to delays in care? "To date our work has substantiated serious conditions at the Phoenix facility," said the report, which also found another 1,400 veterans were on the Phoenix VA's formal electronic wait list but did not have a doctor's appointment. The report also found "numerous allegations" of "daily of mismanagement, inappropriate hiring decisions, sexual harassment, and bullying behavior by mid- and senior-level managers." Calling the report's initial findings "damning," House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Florida, said "you can only imagine" what might come out once a fuller investigation is completed. The investigation is expected to be completed later this summer, with a final report issued by the VA inspector general in August. The report's findings prompted the American Legion to call for a criminal investigation. "We want every VA employee who participated in these cover-ups to be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law ..." the veterans group said in a written statement. The U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing the interim report, Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman, said. "We will continue to consult with the inspector general's office regarding their ongoing review," he said. Calls for Shinseki's resignation Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, told CNN it was "about time" the Justice Department launched its own investigation. "I haven't said this before, but I think it's time for Gen. Shinseki to move on," McCain said. There have been calls from other members of Congress for him to step down over the scandal, but McCain's voice on military matters carries enormous weight considering his experience as a combat veteran, a Vietnam prisoner of war, and his work in the Senate on related issues. A number of Senate Democrats, all up for re-election this year, also called for Shinseki to leave his post. Among them was Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado who took to Twitter with his message: "In light of IG report & systemic issues at @DeptVetAffairs, Sec. Shinseki must step down." Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota said a change in leadership is needed. "I believe it would be in the best interest of veterans for Secretary Shinseki to step down," he said. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said "fundamental problems plague the agency." "It's time for a forceful new leader to address the outrageous problems at the VA," she said. Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken told CNN that President Barack Obama has been briefed on the report, and found it "deeply troubling." When pressed on whether Obama still supports Shinseki, Blinken said: "We're focused on making sure these veterans who've delivered for this country get the care they need." IG: 'Take immediate action' The VA has acknowledged 23 deaths nationwide due to delayed care. The VA's inspector general, Richard Griffin, told a Senate committee in recent weeks that his investigation so far had found a possible 17 deaths of veterans waiting for care in Phoenix, but he added that there was no evidence that excessive waiting was the reason. Griffin recommended that Shinseki "take immediate action" to "review and provide appropriate health care" to the 1,700 veterans identified in Phoenix as not being on a wait list. It also recommended that he initiate a nationwide review of waiting lists "to ensure that veterans are seen in an appropriate time, given their clinical condition." The report came just hours before the start of a combative House committee hearing on the Phoenix VA issues, where Republican and Democratic leaders said they were dissatisfied with the VA's response to their panel's subpoena for documents on shortcomings related at the agency's Phoenix medical center. "Veterans died. Give us the answers, please," Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican, told one of three senior VA officials called to testify. The committee's senior Democrat, Michael Michaud of Maine, was equally sharp with the witnesses, who initially sparred with lawmakers over the agency's response for documents before answering questions about Phoenix. "Let me be clear, I'm not happy. We do expect answers. We'll get to the bottom of this," Michaud said. Dr. Thomas Lynch, the VA's assistant deputy under secretary for clinical operations, told the committee there are plans in place to contact the 1,700 veterans in Phoenix by the close of business on Friday to assess their needs and get them care. Lynch, who said he agreed with the interim report's findings, believes that overarching agency goals for reducing wait times for care are flawed. "What's happened is unacceptable," he said. |||||

– At least 1,700 veterans awaiting treatment from the Department of Veteran Affairs' now-infamous Phoenix medical center were kept off of any official waiting list, putting them "at risk of being forgotten or lost," according to a damning initial report from the department's inspector general. What's more, the patients the IG surveyed waited an average 115 days for a first primary care appointment—a far cry from the 24 days the center reported to the VA, the New York Times reports. The investigation also found "numerous allegations" of "mismanagement, inappropriate hiring decisions, sexual harassment, and bullying behavior by mid- and senior-level managers." The report doesn't touch on allegations that as many as 40 deaths were tied to waiting list shenanigans. On CNN, John McCain responded to the report by calling on the Justice Department to launch its own probe. "I haven't said this before, but I think it's time for General Shinseki to move on," he added. (The Army fired the head of the Womack medical facility after the deaths of two patients in their 20s.)

Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| ATTENTION You do not seem to have the correct version of the Flash Player to play 1066. Please click below to download and install the latest version. ||||| The seed for this crawl was a list of every host in the Wayback Machine This crawl was run at a level 1 (URLs including their embeds, plus the URLs of all outbound links including their embeds) The WARC files associated with this crawl are not currently available to the general public. ||||| Server Default Page This page has been generated automatically. If you are the server administrator and you feel that you have reached this page in error, then try completing the following steps. Please consult the (mt) KnowledgeBase articles below for more information. ||||| We value your privacy Atlas Obscura and our trusted partners use technology such as cookies on our website to personalise ads, support social media features, and analyse our traffic. Please click below to consent to the use of this technology while browsing our site. To learn more or withdraw consent, please visit our privacy policy. |||||

– If updates from the South by Southwest music/film/Internet/etc. extravaganza aren’t your thing, perhaps you’ll find some amusement among its top-Web-site honorees. A sampling: Waterlife: Activism winner keeps tabs on pollution in the Great Lakes. odosketch: Create animated sketches with drawing app. The Vile Plutocrat: “Keep track of those individuals whose implacable greed poisons the societies that made them wealthy,” with this blog. 1066: Educational site lets you pick sides in Middle Ages conflict among English, Normans and Vikings. Atlas Obscura: Let the “world’s wonders, curiosities and esoterica” amuse you. Smokescreen: Online life is the thrust of this gaming site. Cornify: Wins the People’s Choice Award as the “#1 unicorns and rainbow service worldwide, providing sparkles and happiness for all.” For more, click either link at right.

Public Health HIV Infections Rise Among Young Black Men In U.S. i itoggle caption CDC CDC The latest data on HIV rates in American teenagers and young adults offer a sobering message. While the number of new infections in the U.S. is relatively stable — at about 50,000 people each year — HIV is on the rise in young people under 25. Youths age 13 to 24 made up about a quarter of all new HIV infections in the U.S. during 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday. And more than half of the youths living with HIV don't even realize they're infected The bottom line: 1,000 American teenagers and young adults become infected each month with HIV. "Given everything we know about HIV and how to prevent it after more than 30 years of fighting the disease, it's just unacceptable that young people are becoming infected at such high rates," CDC chief Dr. Thomas Frieden said Tuesday. The upswing is driven largely by infections among young black men, who accounted for about 45 percent of new diagnoses in this age group. Most infections occurred in men who have sex with men, the study finds. And, gay and bisexual high school kids were most likely to take part in risky behavior, such as having multiple sexual partners and injecting illegal drugs. What's does the CDC say is needed to reverse the trend? More testing for starters. Right now, only 13 percent of high school students get screened for HIV each year, despite the fact that both the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend routine testing for adolescents. Frieden says it's also important that HIV-positive adolescents get antiretroviral drug treatment, which can lower their risk of spreading the virus to others. Finally, the CDC plans to beef up education for kids about ways to protect themselves and avoid risky behavior. "The AIDS epidemic seems very remote to young people," Dr. Kenneth Mayer, the Director of HIV Prevention at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, told USA Today. "There is no equivalent of a young Magic Johnson. If you are young, this seems like a disease of old people." ||||| The finding adds to the evidence that doctors need to routinely screen all patients for HIV. A health educator conducts an HIV test. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images) Story Highlights About 50,000 Americans are newly infected with HIV each year. Many medical groups now recommend routine HIV testing for everyone ages 15 to 65 One-third of people with HIV are tested late and develop full-blown AIDS within a year of diagnosis More than 30 years after the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, young people are again taking dangerous risks with their lives, according to a new report from the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention. About 1,000 young people ages 13 to 24 are newly infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, each month, according to new data released for the first time. About 60% of HIV-positive young people have no idea that they're infected, according to the report released Tuesday. Young people ages 13 to 24 account for more than a quarter of the 50,000 new HIV infections each year, the CDC says. About 1.2 million Americans have HIV or AIDS. "This is our future generation," says CDC director Thomas Frieden. "That so many young people become infected with HIV each year is a preventable tragedy." Both the financial and human costs of these new infections are staggering, Frieden says. The lifetime cost of treating someone with HIV is about $400,000. That means these new infections add $4 million in new healthcare costs each month. And while new HIV infections have leveled off among most groups, they are rising among young people, says Kevin Fenton, who leads the CDC's office on AIDS. Most of that increase is being driven by new HIV infections in young black men who have sex with men, he says. The finding adds to the evidence that doctors need to routinely screen all patients for HIV, says Kenneth Mayer, medical research director of Boston's Fenway Health, a community health organization that provides AIDS services. Last week, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force endorsed routine HIV testing for everyone ages 15 to 65. The CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics also call for routine screening, beginning in the teen years. Yet only 13% of high school students have been tested for HIV, the report says. Frieden says doctors need to get the message that screening is essential. While the number of people who refuse an HIV test is very small, he says the number of doctors who fail to offer the test is great. "They key here is to make it routine screening, just like we have cholesterol screening," Frieden says. "If someone refuses, that is their right, but we should say this is what we do." Getting tested is the first step to treatment, which can dramatically improve patients' health and also prevent them from spreading the infection, Mayer says. People who know they're HIV-positive are less likely to engage in risky behaviors, such as sharing needles or having unprotected sex, studies show. And people whose virus is under control, reduced to undetectable levels, are virtually incapable of spreading the infection to others, a finding that has led doctors to talk of "treatment as prevention." Only 30% of those with HIV have their virus under control, however, due to a "cascade" of obstacles to care, including lack of insurance, poverty and other issues, Frieden says. By getting more patients on treatment, Frieden says, the nation can reduce the total amount of AIDS virus in circulation, which would dramatically reduce the number of new infections, even if people didn't change their behavior. He adds that the country needs to do a better job of educating young people about AIDS and the need to change their behavior. "It is astonishing the level of ignorance of basic physiology that many high school and middle school students have," Frieden says. "There is not going to be an easy, quick, simple solution." Overall, 20% of all patients with HIV are unaware of their status, according to the CDC, and about one-third are diagnosed late in their infection, after having had HIV for perhaps a decade. A number of socioeconomic factors keep people from getting tested, including the stigma of AIDS, poverty and lack of access to care. Young gay and bisexual men, along with African Americans, are disproportionately affected. About 72% of new HIV infections in this age group occur in men who have sex with men, and 57% occur among African Americans, the CDC says. Mayer notes that there are really two AIDS epidemics in the USA. The first wave of HIV patients is aging and in care, and many have their disease under control. A second wave of newly infected young people — who weren't even born when AIDS burst into the national consciousness three decades ago — now often acts as if they're unaware of the tremendous risks they're taking, Mayer says. According to the new CDC report, which interviewed high school students, young men who have sex with men are more likely than others to have had four or more sex partners and to have injected drugs. Among sexually active students, young gay or bisexual men were more likely to have used alcohol or drugs before their last sexual experience and were less likely to have used a condom. Young gay and bisexual men were less likely, however, to report being taught about AIDS or HIV in school, according to the CDC. "The AIDS epidemic seems very remote to young people," Mayer says. "There is no equivalent of a young Magic Johnson. If you are young, this seems like a disease of old people." Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/UZyjRW |||||

– The number of new HIV cases in the US has leveled off at about 50,000 a year, but one important group is defying the trend: those ages 13 to 24. The CDC says about 1,000 new infections a month occur in the age group, and most of those infected (60%) have no idea, reports USA Today. Young black men are driving the increase, accounting for 45% of the new cases, reports NPR. Most infections occur in men having sex with other men. "This is our future generation," says CDC chief Thomas Frieden. "That so many young people become infected with HIV each year is a preventable tragedy." A government task force suggested last week that everybody be screened for HIV as part of routine physicals, and the new stats could bolster the argument.

Le snub! Moment Sarkozy dodges Cameron's handshake with a swift body swerve after PM says Non to treaty changes This is the moment that Nicolas Sarkozy demonstrates exactly what he really thinks of David Cameron's veto of the EU Treaty change. After a gruelling all-night sitting in Brussels, Mr Cameron approaches the French president with his hand outstretched, as if ready to shake and show there are no hard feelings. But not only does Mr Sarkozy refuse to acknowledge the PM, he actually does a swift swerve aside, waving pointedly to someone - anyone - on his right. Mr Cameron, roundly snubbed, uses the rejected hand to give Mr Sarkozy a seemingly affectionate - if awkward - pat on the shoulder, and moves on, head held high, with a pained smile fixed to his face. ||||| At a second gathering of European Union leaders today, Nicolas Sarkozy can be seen walking towards David Cameron with his hand out. The Prime Minister raises his hand as if in greeting but as the French President walks on by, pats him on the shoulder. |||||

– Britain's Daily Mail is calling it "Le Snub!": Reading much (maybe too much?) into the body language of Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron, it says the French president dissed the UK prime minister by blowing off Cameron's handshake at today's high-stakes European Union summit. (Britain isn't going along with the French-backed pact.) The Telegraph isn't so sure about it being a snub, noting that the men had shaken hands a bit earlier—but it's still happy to play up the video posing the question. See for yourself.

Forecasters Predict Warmer-Than-Average Winter In Majority Of U.S. This winter is going to be a warm one for the majority of the United States, according to forecasters at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. They say that the La Niña weather pattern is likely to develop. That means "greater-than-average snowfall around the Great Lakes and in the northern Rockies, with less-than-average snowfall throughout the Mid-Atlantic region," Mike Halpert of the Climate Prediction Center said in a forecast Thursday. Hawaii, western and northern Alaska and the lower two-thirds of the contiguous U.S. are likely to see warmer-than-average temperatures, Halpert says. A small portion of the Northwest U.S. and parts of Alaska are expected to see cooler-than-usual temperatures. Check expected conditions in your part of the country on this map: Forecasters are predicting less rainfall than usual across the Southern U.S., Halpert adds, while "wetter-than-average conditions are favored across Hawaii, northern and western Alaska and much of the northern part of the lower 48." This will be the third year in a row that the country will largely face a warmer winter. As The Washington Post notes, last year "ranked as the sixth-warmest winter on record." In fact, trees in most of the Southeast U.S. responded to the warm temperatures and came into bloom early, signaling an early spring. toggle caption NOAA Rising carbon dioxide levels due to climate change are a driving force here, Halpert told reporters, according to the Post. "It does, undoubtedly, play a role. ... The increase in CO 2 factors into our model forecast." He added that he does not expect it to be quite as warm as last year. Halpert stressed that these outlooks could change: "For every point on our outlook maps, there exists the possibility that there will be a below-, near-, or above-average outcome." ||||| Places where the forecast odds favor a much colder than usual winter (blue colors) or much warmer than usual winter (red), or where the probability of a cold winter, a warm winter, or a near-normal winter are all equal (white). The darker the color, the stronger the chance of that outcome (not the bigger the departure from average). Click image for version that includes Alaska and Hawaii. NOAA Climate.gov map, based on data from NOAA CPC. ||||| (CNN) La Niña is expected to be back and it may wreck your winter. But that depends on where you live and if you do or don't like the cold. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center has released its winter outlook. This forecast is not a guide for deciding your detailed ski vacation or New Year's Eve plans, but it may give you an idea of which winter coat you should buy for the season and if you need to stock up on whiskey and coffee. "It would be quite surprising to see a third very warm winter in a row," said Mike Halpert, the deputy director of NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. He said the forecast shows conditions will be warmer, but he doesn't think we will see a top 10 record warm winter like we have the past two years. Temperature forecast You can probably leave the long underwear in storage if you live in the South. NOAA says two-thirds of the continental US will likely experience warmer-than-normal conditions. The East Coast has anywhere from a 33%-40% chance of having an above-average winter. This doesn't mean a cold snap or two won't happen, it's just less likely. The Northern Plains and Northwest are the only locations the CPC thinks the winter season will be below average. The rest of the continental US has equal chances of experiencing a normal winter -- meaning residents there will have equal chances of having above, near or below-normal temperatures. Precipitation forecast You may want to get a waterproof jacket this season if you live in the northern Rockies or Midwest. The CPC is forecasting above-average precipitation in these areas, while a stretch from Southern California to the Carolinas is expected to be drier. Northern Florida and south Georgia -- regions that have had drought conditions within the past year, but not now -- have the greatest probability of drier conditions. Drought could develop in some areas of the South due to the drier conditions -- especially in areas that missed the rainfall associated with the active 2017 hurricane season. The winter pattern that is setting up looks to favor storm tracks across the northern tier of the country. This pattern makes it less likely to have Mid-Atlantic and New England coastal storms that develop in the Gulf of Mexico and track up the East Coast. La Niña is to blame We are currently in a La Niña watch, according to the CPC's October discussion. Forecasters give about a 55%-65% chance during the fall and winter that La Niña will fully form. The effects of El Niño and La Niña are much more noticeable during the winter months across the US. If La Niña forms, this will have a direct impact on the weather this winter. JUST WATCHED The effects of La Nina Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH The effects of La Nina 01:00 "If La Nina conditions develop, we predict it will be weak and potentially short-lived, but it could still shape the character of the upcoming winter," said Halpert. During a typical La Niña winter, the Northwest and Midwest are typically colder and wetter, while the Southwest to Southeast remains drier than average. This all happens because the Pacific jet stream meanders higher into Alaska and Canada, helping to keep some of the dips in the jet stream farther north across the Eastern US. It doesn't mean that the Southeast will escape winter weather altogether -- the chances are just lower, and the average temperature is likely to be above average. If La Niña does not form as expected, the updated winter outlook issued in mid-November will look different. Just how accurate is this forecast? If we look at last year's winter outlook, most of the US would likely give forecasters a B+ rating on their 2016-2017 temperature outlook. A year ago, they predicted an outlook very similar to this year's forecast: warm across the South and cooler across the Northern Plains. They were right about above-average temperatures across the South. However, the jet stream set up a little bit differently than expected and the below-average temperatures expected in the Northern Plains occurred farther west into the Northwestern US. So, in the big picture, they were close, but if you live in Seattle, you might have had a few choice words to say about last year's snowy winter and the big fluffy jacket you didn't buy. Then there was the precipitation outlook last year. If we stay with the grade-school analogy, forecasters still passed, but their predictions were just slightly better than flipping a coin. We again turn our attention to the West, where the overall winter forecast was for drier weather, especially in the Southwest. But multiple atmospheric river events in December, January and February of last year wrecked that prediction. Again, overall a passing grade. Winter is coming So, look at the big picture: Winter is coming, and we have a bit of an idea as to where. But there are a lot of dynamics at play here -- thermodynamics in fact -- and this is not a pinpoint forecast showing you where it will or won't snow this season. Instead, this is a way to help you mentally prepare yourself for what lies ahead this winter. Now you know that you might want to buy a raincoat for every day of the week in the Northwest, while in the South you will likely get away with a lighter coat or vest most of the winter. The coffee and/or whiskey are just a given no matter where you are this winter. |||||

– People in small parts of the Northwest, northern Plains, and parts of Alaska are going to have a colder winter than usual this year, while most other Americans can expect a milder-than-average winter, according to the NOAA's latest forecast. Mike Halpert of the Climate Prediction Center says there will likely be a La Nina weather pattern that will bring more snow than usual to the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes area, while there will be less shoveling than usual to do in the mid-Atlantic region, NPR reports. There probably will be less rainfall than usual in the South, Halpert says, but more than average in much of the northern part of the lower 48. The center says there's a 55% to 65% chance of La Nina developing. Halpert tells the Washington Post that climate change caused by carbon emissions is certainly among the reasons why most of the US will have a warmer-than-average winter, though he says that unlike the previous two winters, this one is unlikely to break records. Despite a higher-than-average precipitation forecast, drought could develop in parts of the South, the NOAA says. But is the forecast accurate? CNN looks at the accuracy of the NOAA's forecast for last year and gives it a passing grade, noting that it was right about above-average temperatures across the South, though people in the Northwest had a far colder winter than the NOAA predicted.

Murder, rape and robbery are declining in spite of police layoffs in Flint, Mich. — according to the most recent official report released by the State Police. Those and other reported “index” crimes were down 11.5 percent overall during the first six months of this year, compared with the same six-month period last year. We’ve continued to dig into the statistics for crime-ridden Flint because we caught Vice President Joe Biden misrepresenting them repeatedly as he argued for passage of the administration’s jobs legislation. Republicans accused the vice president of fear-mongering, as he toured the country warning that there would be more rapes, murders, robberies and other crimes without fresh federal funds to help localities like Flint avoid further layoffs of police. Speaking in Flint on Oct. 12, Biden said murder and rape statistics skyrocketed in that city from 2008 to 2010 (even though, as we reported, FBI data show rapes in Flint declined during that period). Biden then added: “God only knows what the numbers will be this year in Flint.” Actually the Michigan State Police know, for at least the first six months of the year, because the city is required to report instances of crime. And rather than supporting Biden’s argument, the evidence we found undercuts it. All four categories of violent crime are down this year in Flint, according to the State Police. Reported murders are down 30 percent; reported rapes are down 18 percent. Robberies dropped 17 percent, and aggravated assaults declined 20 percent. These are figures tabulated by Michigan State Police from reports that local officials are required to make under state law. They are “preliminary” and subject to possible revisions, but they reflect reports received as of Sept. 6. A similar pattern emerges for major crimes against property. Of the four categories given by State Police, three went down, and the only increase was in theft of motor vehicles. Motor vehicle theft was up 40 percent (after a 26 percent decline between 2008 and 2010). But larceny dropped 18 percent; burglary declined 8 percent; and arson plunged 42 percent (after a huge 138 percent rise the previous two years). Flint officials have told us that they gave the vice president the crime statistics he cited in his Oct. 12 speech in the city. They also say there were actually more murders in Flint in 2010 than the city reported to the FBI, due to an “internal clerical error.” But Biden later embellished and exaggerated the Flint numbers egregiously. And he ignored the recent decline in crime reports we mention here. Biden focused on the change between 2008 and 2010. We find that Flint officials have yet to correct whatever errors may have been made in reporting their 2010 murder figure, either in tabulations by the FBI or the Michigan State Police. Had the city corrected the 2010 figure, the decline for the first six months of 2011 would probably be much larger, unless another error has resulted in under-reporting murders for the current year. But even disregarding the disputed murder figures, Biden’s claims about what happened between 2008 and 2010 are contradicted both by the FBI and Michigan State Police numbers. In Flint, Biden said that the number of murders from 2008 to 2010 in that city climbed from 35 to 65 and rapes jumped from 91 to 229. He embellished upon those figures during a visit to the University of Pennsylvania six days later, claiming that Flint’s murder rate had nearly tripled and “the number of rapes have quadrupled.” But the figures tabulated by Michigan State Police tell a different story. Murder was up 66 percent, according to State Police figures, and 106 percent according to what Flint officials now say. Biden was clearly incorrect in saying that murders were “close to triple.” There was, however, a sharp increase in murder, so that bit of evidence would support Biden’s main point that reducing police staffing leads to increased crime. But leaving that aside, the official statistics show rape was in fact down, no matter how it’s measured. Michigan State Police figures show a 9.8 percent reduction. FBI data show an 11 percent decline. (There is a slight difference in the definitions of rape. Both agencies consider rape for reporting purposes as forced sexual penetration between a male and female, but the FBI does not include male victims and the state does.) Biden claimed rapes in Flint were up from 91 in 2008 to 229 in 2010, an increase of 152 percent, during his visit to the city. How could he have been so wrong? City spokeswoman Dawn Jones told us the city had supplied Biden with 2010 figures for “rape” that actually reflected all crimes involving “criminal sexual conduct.” We surmise that Biden was comparing 2008 figures for “rape” with 2010 figures for the much broader category of “criminal sexual conduct,” which includes forcible rape plus forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, and forcible “fondling.” But when a proper apples-to-apples comparison is made, the broader category of “criminal sexual conduct” (CSC) is also down. State Police figures show a 10 percent reduction in total CSC reports between 2008 (242) and 2010 (217). The city issued a statement Oct. 20 that said it “stands behind the crime statistics provided to the Office of The Vice President.” However, Jones told us she could not say if the 2008 and 2010 rape numbers the city supplied Biden were comparable because there had been a change of administrations during that time. She promised to provide more information, but said “it is going to take further work on our end to determine how another administration categorized and recorded crime data.” We, however, found the information readily available on state websites. As for property crimes, the statistics from 2008 to 2010 are mixed. Some State Police figures on property crimes support Biden’s thesis: Burglary was up 9 percent, and arson more than doubled. It was up 138 percent. On the other hand, State Police figures show that both larceny and motor vehicle theft plunged 27 percent during the period, despite the police layoffs. So, even if Biden had consistently recited the figures Flint officials say they gave to him, he was cherry-picking and — regarding rape — comparing apples to fruit salad. As we wrote earlier, we are not minimizing the crime problem in Flint. It is real. And we are not taking sides in the long-running discussion among criminologists about what effect police staffing levels have on crime. But the vice president misrepresented the extent of the city’s crime problem — flagrantly so, in the case of rapes. He also ignored the fact that crime this year is down, based on the city’s own crime figures, despite cuts in the police force and in direct contradiction with his larger point that Flint’s staffing cuts resulted in rising crime. — Eugene Kiely and Brooks Jackson ||||| Joe Biden Joseph (Joe) Robinette BidenShould Mike Pompeo be confirmed? FBI raid on Trump’s attorney is so political, it would have made J. Edgar Hoover blush Why Smokin' Joe leads the pack of 2020 Democratic hopefuls MORE’s office has complained to the Senate press gallery about a confrontation the vice president had with a conservative journalist last week on Capitol Hill. Biden aides asked whether Senate rules were broken in the wake of the contentious exchange between the vice president and the reporter. ADVERTISEMENT Jason Mattera, who works for Human Events, a conservative magazine, used a pretext to catch Biden off guard in a Senate hallway and grill him on claims the vice president has made about jobs legislation. Biden’s office has also contacted the standing committee of correspondents, which oversees the gallery, regarding whether Mattera broke the rules by ambushing him. Heather Rothman, the chairwoman of the gallery’s standing committee, said the matter is under review. “We’re aware of the concerns,” said Rothman, a reporter for BNA. “It’s being discussed. “We’re aware this occurred and the vice president’s office [has made] contact,” she added, noting the standing committee itself hasn’t met to deliberate the issue. The video of Wednesday’s exchange went viral, as news outlets and the Drudge Report highlighted Biden’s comment to Mattera: “Don’t screw around with me.” CNN aired a segment — including footage of the incident — the same afternoon, and a YouTube clip of the interview has already attracted more than 380,000 views. Biden had just left a rousing rally where Democratic leaders said Republican opposition to federal funding for police and firefighters threatened public safety. But the cable news coverage focused on the dust-up between Biden and Mattera. More from The Hill ♦ Obama tells Hollywood: 2012 campaign won’t be as ‘sexy’ as 2008 ♦ Obama takes fight with Republicans to mortgage battleground ♦ Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonNew Jersey governor declares 'Bon Jovi Day' Clinton to fundraise alongside possible 2020 contenders Comey’s last stand for the deep state MORE in spotlight's glare ♦ Obama campaign brings on ex-lobbyist as senior adviser ♦ GOP mocks Obama's new 'can't wait' slogan, tells Senate to act ♦ Biden 'not closing any door' on 2016 run Biden’s visible irritation might be explained by how he was lured into the short interview. As the vice president left the Russell caucus room, Mattera weaved his way through the entourage, shook Biden’s hand and asked him to pose for a photo. While shaking Biden’s hand, Mattera asked him if he felt “regret using a rape reference to describe Republican opposition to the president’s bill.” ADVERTISEMENT Biden looked momentarily frozen as what he thought was a friendly gesture turned into a pointed line of tough questions from a conservative interlocutor. Biden had just signed an autograph for an admirer and still had the pen in his hand, according to a source familiar with the incident. “I didn’t use — no, no, no,” Biden said, furrowing his brow and shaking his finger at the reporter. “What I said — let’s get it straight, guy, don’t screw around with me. Let’s get it straight. “I said rape was up three times in Flint, [Mich.]. There are the numbers. Go look at the numbers. Murder’s up, rape is up and burglary’s up. That’s exactly what I said,” Biden added. After initially balking at the questions, Biden stood by his argument that if Republicans continue to block the Democratic jobs bill, “murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise, all crimes will continue to rise.” The Washington Post’s fact-checker ripped Biden’s claims over the weekend, giving the vice president “four Pinocchios” and writing that he “should know better than to spout off half-baked facts in service of a dubious argument.” The Senate periodical press gallery and a spokeswoman for Biden declined to comment for this article. Mattera admits to using a pretext to momentarily disarm Biden, but argues his methods were justified. “ABC and CBS have done undercover sting operations and have done them for decades. The fact that a conservative publication goes after a public official who was misrepresenting himself and a Senate bill to the public and tries to get an answer from him, that’s great,” he said in an interview Monday. “The media should take notice that this is how you ask a question. If I had said, ‘Hey, Mr. Vice President, a question regarding your rape comments,’ he would shrug it off. “He’s not going to take questions hostile to his agenda. I want to get him in that honest moment when he doesn’t have his talking points and isn’t prepared to spin,” Mattera added. Mattera said his technique is “premised on looking to get the most honest reaction from politicians used to conning the media daily — and even their constituents.” “You shouldn’t play patty-cake with politicians to gain access,” he said. He said his request for a photo wasn’t a fabrication because someone had volunteered to snap his picture with the vice president, and noted in a follow-up email that he was wearing his press credentials. This is not the first time Mattera has confronted a high-profile politician. Mattera approached Sen. Al Franken Alan (Al) Stuart FrankenWhy Smokin' Joe leads the pack of 2020 Democratic hopefuls Pawlenty to announce bid for Minnesota governor Al Franken: Sessions firing McCabe ‘is hypocrisy at its worst’ MORE (D-Minn.) in the Dirksen Senate Office Building last year after an event and told him, “I appreciate your remarks in there. You were awesome.” Then he started peppering Franken over $7 billion in the 2010 healthcare reform bill for creating healthier school environments and repeatedly cut off his replies with follow-up questions, even referring to him as “Senator Smalley,” a reference to a character Franken once played on “Saturday Night Live.” Franken snapped: “You have to shut up right now and listen to me instead of interrupting me every time I say something.” Jill Geisler, an expert in journalistic ethics at the Poynter Institute, said pretexts can be used to report stories, but only as a last resort. “Critics and ethicists who have criticized ambush interviews have said it should be a last resort done not for drama but because other means for obtaining information have been unsuccessful,” Geisler said. “The whole question of honesty is something journalists should take quite seriously, including how they represent themselves.” Geisler said a clear-cut case where using a pretext would be appropriate would be if a journalist had solid reason to believe patients at a mental hospital were being abused but had no way to gain access to the scene without dissembling. ||||| Vice President Joe Biden now says he didn’t make a reference to rape, and got testy with HUMAN EVENTS when we asked if he would like to retract his comments that the number of sexual assaults would increase if Republicans don’t sign on to Barack Obama’s latest “jobs” proposal. “I didn’t use, no no no…Let’s get it straight, guy. Don’t screw around with me,” Biden lashed out at HUMAN EVENTS. Then Biden confirmed that he indeed did talk about rape in terms of the President’s spending measure. “Murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise, all crimes will continue to rise,” if the Democrats agenda isn’t passed, he added. It was on Tuesday during a speech at the University of Pennsylvania where Biden argued that another round of government spending was needed to prevent sexual assaults. “It’s not temporary [administration’s proposed stimulus] when that 911 call comes in and a woman’s being raped, if a cop shows up in time to prevent the rape. It’s not temporary to that woman.” Then in the same speech he wished Republicans were themselves rape victims. “I wish they had some notion of what it was like to be on the other side of a gun, or [to have] a 200-pound man standing over you, telling you to submit.” Biden’s demagogic language aside, police budgets are the responsibility of each individual state, not federal bureaucrats. And as Ed Morrissey at HotAir notes, the President’s “jobs” bill doesn’t go directly to hire police officers anyway. Instead, “it allows states to paper-over budget gaps for another year rather than address their systemic budgetary issues, and protect unionized bureaucrats whose jobs should be on the chopping block.” The exchange between the vice president and HUMAN EVENTS was taken on Wednesday after Biden gave a speech calling for yet another government stimulus program. This one is union-backed, and aimed at getting teachers and public-sector employees back to work. |||||

– Joe Biden is not happy about the ambush interview that landed him on cable TV—and he’s letting the press gallery’s standing committee of correspondents know about it. Jason Mattera of the conservative blog Human Events caught Biden off guard last week by asking to take a photo with him while Biden was signing autographs. Then Mattera hit him with questions about factually dubious statements he’d made recently connecting rape in Flint, Michigan, to rising unemployment. “Let’s get this straight guy, don’t screw around with me,” Biden told Mattera. “I said rape was up three times in Flint,” and if the jobs bill isn’t passed “all crimes will continue to rise.” (Of course, FactCheck.org found that crime rates are actually down in Flint.) Now, Biden’s asking the correspondents committee if Mattera broke any rules by springing the questions on him, the Hill reports. Mattera, however, is unapologetic. “You shouldn’t play patty-cake with politicians to gain access,” he says.

A rare white giraffe with a genetic condition which means many of her body surface cells are incapable of making pigment has been photographed at a national park in Tanzania. Ecologist Dr Derek Lee, founder of the Wild Nature Institute (WNI) , which conducts scientific research on at-risk wildlife species, took the amazing photographs in Tarangire National Park. “Omo is leucistic, meaning many of the skin cells are incapable of making a pigment. Some are, so she is pale but not pure white, with red or blue eyes, as a true albino would be,” he explained. “Omo is the only pale giraffe we are currently aware of, but we have also observed leucistic waterbuck, Cape buffalo and ostrich in Tarangire. “Omo appears to get along with the other giraffes, she has always been seen with a large group of normally coloured giraffe, they don't seem to mind her different colouring.” Photo: DEREK LEE/ CATERS NEWS However he warned that her unique colour could make her a target for poachers in the African park. He added: “Omo is now 15 months old. She survived her first year as a small calf, which is the most dangerous time for a young giraffe due to lion, leopard and hyena preying on them. “Her chances of surviving to adulthood are good but adult giraffes are regularly poached for bush meat, and her colouration might make her a target. “We and our partners are working on giraffe conservation and anti-poaching to help give Omo and her relatives a better chance of survival. “We hope that she lives a long life and that someday she has calves of her own.” The WNI blog adds: “We were lucky enough to see her again this January, almost exactly one year [after the first sighting]. “We are thrilled that she is still alive and well. A local lodge guide christened her Omo, after a popular brand of detergent here.” ||||| Researchers recently caught a glimpse of a white giraffe named Omo in the Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park. (Photo: Screenshot) Researchers recently caught a glimpse of a white giraffe named Omo in the Tanzania's Tarangire National Park. Wild Nature Institute researchers first spotted the unusual giraffe when she was a calf during a population survey in 2015, according to a statement from the organization. “A local lodge guide christened her Omo, after a popular brand of detergent here,” the organization, which conducts scientific research, said in a blog post. While Omo may appear to be an albino, she is actually leucistic, according to the organization. “One way to tell the difference between albino and leucistic animals is that albino individuals lack melanin everywhere, including in the eyes, so the resulting eye color is red from the underlying blood vessels,” the organization said. Facebook | @I-Love-Africa I-Love-Africa - Omo who is leucistic, is the only white... | Facebook While researchers were pleased to see that Omo survived her first year, she has a long road ahead, according to ecologist and Wild Nature Institute founder Derek Lee, the Telegraph reported. “She survived her first year as a small calf, which is the most dangerous time for a young giraffe due to lion, leopard and hyena preying on them,” Lee told the Telegraph. Facebook | @I-Love-Africa I-Love-Africa - Omo who is leucistic, is the only white... | Facebook Lee said Omo's chances for reaching adulthood are good, but she may be at heightened risk of poaching because of her unique coloring, the Telegraph reported. Follow @MaryBowerman on Twitter. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1Vntxym ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. |||||

– A rare 15-month-old white giraffe has made another appearance in Tanzania, leaving conservationists to hope poachers don't decide to go all Ahab on it, the Telegraph reports. According to USA Today, the unique giraffe was spotted as a calf last year in Tarangire National Park. It was seen again this month, almost exactly a year later, the Wild Nature Institute writes in a blog post. "We are thrilled that she is still alive and well," the nonprofit states. A tour guide named the pale animal Omo after a local laundry detergent, but the institute is open to other suggestions. Omo is leucistic, meaning most of her surface cells produce no pigment, explains the Wild Nature Institute. But unlike an albino, some of her cells—such as those in her eyes—can still manufacture color. The institute's founder, Dr. Derek Lee, tells the Telegraph that Omo is the only such giraffe they are aware of. “Omo appears to get along with the other giraffes; she has always been seen with a large group of normally colored giraffe," he says. "They don't seem to mind her different coloring.” But her uniqueness could make her a target for poachers, Lee says. The institute is currently working on anti-poaching efforts for all giraffes. “We hope that she lives a long life and that someday she has calves of her own,” says Lee.

If you're an art lover, owning an original Pablo Picasso must rank right up there with owning a Bugatti Veyron if you're a gearhead or obtaining a piece of toast Niall Horan didn't finish if you're a One Direction fan. So imagine being an art lover of the most supreme order and hearing that one of your fellow art buyers plans to turn an original Picasso into a 150,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. You'd probably lose consciousness. That's just one possible outcome for Picasso's "Tete de Faune" (translation: Head of a Faun). Cards Against Humanity, the game company based out of Chicago, purchased an original of the 1962 Picasso linocut for an undisclosed amount and will let supporters of its most recent holiday promotion decide whether the artwork goes to a museum or faces the business end of a laser-cutting machine. Contacted by CNET, Max Temkin, co-creator of Cards Against Humanity, declined to comment on the Picasso print. Enlarge Image Photo by Danny Gallagher/CNET Cards Against Humanity, if you've never played the party game, has participants answer questions written on black cards with the funniest and often most offensive answers they can think of from a stash of white cards. Subscribers to the company's recent Eight Sensible Gifts for Hanukkah promotion recently received an envelope in their mailboxes. The envelope contained a handwritten letter from "David M.'s dad" on the importance of culture, a second "Jew Pack" of special Cards Against Humanity cards, and a smooth card bearing Picasso's artwork. The back of the card says in bold letters, "Today, you are all going to be part of a social experiment." Insert the "Saw" theme music here. The card goes on to say that the company used the money it raised from the 150,000 subscribers to the Hanukkah promotion to purchase Picasso's "Tete de Faune" for the express purpose of either donating it to the Art Institute of Chicago or cutting it up into 150,000 squares and sending a piece (clearly a teeny tiny one) to each subscriber. Those participating in the holiday promotion will be able to vote on the fate of the artwork by going to a website sometime between Saturday, December 28 and Thursday, December 31, and casting their votes using a code printed on the card. If enough fans vote "thumbs down," the linocut goes against a laser cutter. This easily surpasses the cool big gift subscribers received from last year's holiday promotion. CAH purchased an island located on St. George Lake in Liberty, Maine, that it dubbed "Hawaii 2," and it sent ownership paperwork for one square foot of land to each subscriber. I have to admit I'm really torn about this one. As a culture appreciator, I don't want to see a work of art by one of the world's greatest artists sliced up like a deep-dish pizza. However, as someone who paid for eight Hanukkah gifts from Cards Against Humanity, I also want to receive all eight gifts. And don't give me that crud about how knowing that you saved a priceless work of art is its own reward. You can't bring "peace of mind" to Best Buy for a refund, even if you still have the receipt. ||||| The makers of Cards Against Humanity, the mildly risque party game, have another publicity stunt up their sleeves: They're threatening to cut up an original Pablo Picasso artwork. "Tete de Faune," a 1962 linocut of a faun's head by Picasso, was purchased by the pranksters using cash from 150,000 customers who each gave $15 toward Cards Against Humanity's "Eight Sensible Gifts for Hanukkah" promotion. It says the 150,000 subscribers will be able to vote whether the artwork will be donated to the Art Institute of Chicago or cut up with a laser into 150,000 1.5-mm squares and shared among them. Asked Tuesday whether he had the guts to follow through on the gimmick, one of the company's founders, Max Temkin, declined to comment. Cards Against Humanity has not disclosed how much it paid for the artwork, which is one of an edition of 50. But in 2008, an identical linocut sold at auction for $22,000. The Art Institute did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Cards Against Humanity previously used part of the money it raised through the Hanukkah promotion to buy the Chinese factory workers who make its game a week off work. It declined to say whether it would repeat the gesture, or whether the paid vacation was simply a one-off. The company's philanthropy efforts have also included buying an island in Maine that it dubbed "Hawaii 2" and vowed to preserve as wilderness, and a $500,000 donation toward scholarships for women studying in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. Founded with a small Kickstarter campaign in 2010, Cards Against Humanity is an adult fill-in-the-blanks game that has proved a big hit with consumers and critics. While the Picasso stunt is certain to infuriate some, it pales when compared to the art prank created by members of British 1990s pop group KLF, who burned a million pounds in cash — nearly their entire career earnings — in 1994. [email protected] Twitter @kimjnews ||||| How would you like to own one-fifteen thousandth of a Picasso? That's what Cards Against Humanity (CAH) is asking the 150,000 customers who subscribed to its Eight Sensible Gifts For Hanukkah. Sort of. Each year, the irreverent, Kickstarter-funded card game offers a holiday special card pack of sorts. This year, it was the Hanukkah themed Eight Sensible Gifts consisting of eight individual presents mailed out over the course of the eight-night Jewish holiday. Last year the CAH team gave away one square foot of a private island in Maine to the 250,000 participants in the Ten Days or Whatever of Kwanzaa. Like we said, they're irreverent. For Hanukkah, CAH's first three "gifts" were all pairs of socks. Then came a membership to WBEZ, Chicago's NPR station, and a one-week paid vacation for workers at CAH's Chinese printing partner. But the seventh gift is when things get interesting. Donate it to a museum or cut it into 150,000 tiny squares The Cards Against Humanity crew used some of the $2.25 million in revenue it made from the Hanukkah product to buy Tête de Faune (Head of a Faun), an original 1962 Picasso. CAH is offering its customers a chance to vote on what should happen to the painting: donate it to the Art Institute of Chicago, or "laser-cut it into 150,000 tiny squares and send everyone their own scrap of a real Picasso." A little sleuthing shows that the Picasso in question may be this signed print, purchased for 14,000 Swiss francs (about $14,100) from Swiss auction house Koller this past June. The CAH website includes this video of what appears to be the Picasso print being laser scanned. Voting begins on the day after Christmas and runs through the end of the year, and you must have purchased the Eight Sensible Gifts to participate. Cards Against Humanity founder Max Temkin refused to share any additional information about the Picasso until "after the votes are in." We would say "we know you'll do the right thing, internet," but knowing the Cards Against Humanity target audience, we're not sure what to expect. |||||

– Should Pablo Picasso's "Tete de Faune" be donated to a museum or cut up into tiny pieces? The decision rests with fans of Cards Against Humanity—the game that's managed to get people to spend their hard-earned cash on poop and, well, nothing at all. With some of the $2.25 million received from 150,000 subscribers who signed up for the company's "Eight Sensible Gifts for Hanukkah" promotion—which included the gift of a one-week paid vacation for workers at the Chinese factory where Cards Against Humanity is made—the company purchased the 1962 Picasso linocut known in English as "Head of a Faun" and decided to host a "social experiment," report CNET and the Verge. It asked the subscribers to vote on whether the work should be donated to the Art Institute of Chicago or cut into 150,000 pieces so each subscriber can have their "own scrap of a real Picasso." Should fans choose the latter option, each scrap of the linocut—one of an edition of 50, likely worth about $22,000, per the Chicago Tribune—will measure 1.5mm, the company says. Subscribers will vote from Dec. 26 until New Year's Eve. So far Cards Against Humanity founder Max Temkin has kept his lips sealed about whether he'll actually follow through with the stunt. But the company did something awfully similar last year, giving a square foot of an island to each of 250,000 fans who signed up for its "Ten Days or Whatever of Kwanzaa" campaign. While subscribers weigh their decisions, Temkin and partners are busy working on another game, Secret Hitler, which just wrapped up a $1.2 million Kickstarter campaign, per the Tribune. Players are assigned political identities and attempt to enact supporting policies while keeping their identities secret. It's expected to ship to 30,000 backers in April. (There's also this sex game.)

China's once-a-decade political transition coming this fall seems devoid of drama on the surface: It's clear who will take over, and the fight for other top spots is invisible to the public. But beneath the veneer of calm, the Communist Party is struggling to contain troubling events and mask divisions. In this photo taken May 4, 2012, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping speaks at a conference to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of Chinese Communist Youth League at the Great Hall of the People... (Associated Press) In this photo taken May 4, 2012, Chinese President Hu Jintao, right, Premier Wen Jiabao, left, and Vice President Xi Jinping clap as they arrive for a conference to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the... (Associated Press) In this photo taken Monday, March 5, 2012, then Chongqing Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai scratches his chin during the opening session of the National People's Congress in Beijing. As the U.S. presidential... (Associated Press) In this photo taken May 4, 2012, Zhou Yongkang, left, Chinese Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee member in charge of security, and Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang attend a conference to celebrate... (Associated Press) In this photo taken Saturday, March 3, 2012, a military band conductor rehearses before the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing's Great Hall of... (Associated Press) The world's second-largest economy is experiencing an unexpectedly sharp slowdown. Violent demonstrations percolate as people tire of corruption, land grabs and policies seen as unfair. Tensions simmer with neighboring countries and the U.S. over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Then there's the unresolved scandal involving Bo Xilai, who was a well-connected contender for high office before he was ousted for still unexplained transgressions. The communist grip on power isn't threatened and the lack of open elections means they require no voter approval. But the party risks eroded legitimacy and a reduced ability to impose its will, further alienating younger Chinese and encouraging critical opposition voices arguing for a democratic alternative. As the party's unstated contract with the people exchanging one-party rule for economic growth frays, pressure for reform is likely to intensify. "The economic downturn, human rights demands and political reform are major issues for the party," said Wu Si, editor-in-chief of the Beijing-based pro-reform journal Yanhuang Chunqiu. "None of the leaders know what to do about it." Five years after he was picked as successor, Vice President Xi Jinping remains on track to take over from President Hu Jintao in the party's fall congress, where its leading members will install a new generation of leaders. China is run by a collective leadership, and many of the other seats in the Politburo Standing Committee, decision-making's inner sanctum, are undecided, analysts and party insiders say. Final decisions on the leadership lineup and key issues to be addressed at the congress should be hammered out in various sessions this summer, including informal meetings east of Beijing at the seaside Beidaihe resort. None of the leading contenders _ mostly proteges of Hu or other rival party elders _ is trying to grab headlines. Open politicking is strongly frowned upon, and while competition for posts and influence is intense, it takes place far from the public as the party seeks to display a united front, said Jiannan Zhu, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno. "The priority for the Chinese government ahead of the party congress is to make sure no major instability occurs," Zhu said. The flamboyant Bo is one of the few Chinese politicians who did overtly campaign for a higher-level job, and that is believed to be one of the sins that led to his downfall. His removal as party boss of the mega-city of Chongqing and suspension from the Politburo exposed divisions within the leadership. It also further convinced an already skeptical public about the greed and bare-knuckled machinations of their secretive leaders. Bo's ouster this spring was accompanied by the announcement that his wife and a family aide were under investigation for the murder of a British businessman. Reports have said that Bo tried to quash the probe. Trial for Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, and for his ex-police chief, Wang Lijun _ who exposed the murder when he fled briefly to a U.S. consulate _ could begin this month, according to diplomats in Beijing who spoke on condition of anonymity. As for Bo himself, politically connected Chinese have previously said that party leaders would have address his fate before the congress to heal divisions, but the government and its media have said nothing about the case in recent weeks. Dealing with Bo is believed to have distracted the leadership, delaying its response to the deepening slowdown that has dragged growth to a three-year low of 7.6 percent in the three months ending in June. Interest rates have been cut twice in the past month and a half in a bid to kick-start growth, but Beijing is powerless to stem the malaise in Europe and the U.S. that has slashed demand for Chinese exports. The downturn could worsen unrest. China already sees 180,000 strikes, protests and other mass demonstrations each year, according to government data compiled by Tsinghua University sociologist Sun Liping. In recent protests in the southwestern city of Shifang, high school students joined ordinary Chinese in demonstrating against a copper smelter. Images of police beating protesters bloody and firing tear gas sparked nationwide outrage after they circulated online. Trying to put a lid on disturbances ahead of the congress, authorities are tightening already stringent controls on political critics and activists of all stripes. Wu Lihong, who once received a government award for his environmental campaigning, said he has been told not to travel or accept speaking engagements in coming months. "They're using the congress as a pretext for every kind of restriction they can think of," Wu said by phone from his home near heavily polluted Lake Tai. The need to quash unrest was underscored in a speech this week by the party's law and order chief, Zhou Yongkang, in which he ordered cadres to nip problems in the bud _ whatever the cost. "All levels of the party and government must make maintaining stability their first responsibility," Zhou told security officials at a national teleconference Tuesday. Authorities also are trying to keep Chinese media in line. They dismissed two editors at Shanghai's Oriental Morning Post after publication of a story calling for private industry to enjoy the same rights as state companies. Southern Weekly, one of the country's most widely respected newspaper groups, has seen editors replaced by propaganda officials. Editors and reporters at the paper said the new leaders spiked an interview with Shifang's party boss, who was replaced soon after the riots. The party leader defended his actions and complained about the lack of outside support, the editors said. "Everybody feels like things are getting more oppressive. It's been happening for a long time, but the party congress is making it worse," said one former Southern Weekly editor who now works for online media. He asked not to be named to avoid repercussions against his new employer. To some Chinese, government repression is raising doubts about whether a new slate of leaders will overcome entrenched interests. Zhang Jian of Peking University's School of Government said that even if Xi were inclined to make bold social or economic changes, he would need support from other leaders, and the government's recent heavy-handed tactics make clear there is no consensus that reforms are needed. "I see no hope at all that Xi will be able to put in place any serious, meaningful political reform," Zhang said. Meanwhile, economic pressure is likely to grow. China's rapidly aging society will severely restrict the labor pool, undermining China's low-cost advantage and increasing the social security burden for workers and the state. "The world is changing rapidly around the party. Muddling through will not be feasible during Xi's rule," said Harvard China expert Tony Saich. A major crisis in coming years will either demand major reforms or severely challenge the communists' grip on power, Saich said. ||||| Beidaihe is a Chinese combination of the Jersey Shore and Martha’s Vineyard, with a pinch of red fervor: the hilly streets and public beaches are packed with shirtless Russians and Chinese families, while the party elites remain hidden in their villas and on their private patches of sand. A clock tower near Kiessling chimes “The East is Red,” a classic Mao anthem. Photo The security presence has surged in recent weeks. Police officers in light blue uniforms patrol on Suzuki motorcycles and stand on street corners watching for jaywalkers. They have set up a checkpoint on the main road leading into town. The informal talks are expected to start late this month and run into August, continuing a tradition that went into partial eclipse after China’s top leader, President Hu Jintao, took over from Jiang Zemin in 2002, and ordered party and government offices to stop more formal operations from the seaside during the summer palaver. But Mr. Jiang reportedly chafed at that and continued hobnobbing here with his allies. There was a notable conclave here in 2007 that Mr. Hu attended, to pave the way for the 17th Party Congress, according to scholars and a State Department cable disclosed by WikiLeaks. In any case, politicking is inevitable when party elders show up to escape the stifling heat and pollution of Beijing. Westerners began building up Beidaihe as a summer retreat in the late 19th century, as the Qing dynasty waned. When the People’s Liberation Army entered in 1948, the resort had 719 villas, according to China Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper. Communist leaders began vacationing here. Mao was an avid swimmer and dove eagerly into the waters of the Bohai Sea. He convened formal conclaves here. His successor, Deng Xiaoping, made the meetings into annual events (he also took swims, supposedly to counter rumors of his ailing health). The most infamous event at Beidaihe involved Lin Biao, a Communist marshal whom Mao accused of plotting a coup. On Sept. 13, 1971, after the coup attempt was supposedly discovered, Mr. Lin fled his villa here with his wife and a son and boarded a plane at the local airport. Their destination was the Soviet Union, but the plane crashed in Mongolia, killing everyone on board. Photo There are plots and counterplots this year, too. Negotiations here will be complicated by the continuing scandal over Bo Xilai, the deposed Politburo member who was most recently party chief of Chongqing. Some political observers had expected that by now the party would have concluded the investigation into Mr. Bo and his wife, who is suspected of killing a British businessman. Several people with high-level party ties say that Mr. Bo, who is being held in secret and without charges, is fighting back against interrogators, and that party leaders are having a difficult time deciding how to resolve his case. Advertisement Continue reading the main story During the negotiations, each current Standing Committee member should, at least in theory, have considerable say in determining the successor to his particular post. But party elders behind the scenes sometimes wield more authority. Mr. Jiang, though retired and ailing last year, may carry the greatest weight next to that of Mr. Hu. The heir apparent, Vice President Xi Jinping, also plays a role. “Consensus among these three — the former, current and incoming leaders — is extremely important,” said Zhang Xiaojin, a political scientist at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. A flurry of activity in recent months has laid the groundwork. In May, more than 300 senior cadres were asked at a meeting to list the officials they thought should make the Politburo Standing Committee, where all the seats are in play except for the top two. Those are expected to go to Mr. Xi and Li Keqiang, who is slated to take over as prime minister. Polling of senior party members was also done before the 2007 congress. Such surveys are intended as reference points only, though they have become increasingly important. Talk is swirling in Beijing over the results of the May polling. One member of the party elite said several people associated with Mr. Hu’s political base did not do well. Two insiders said one person who ranked high was Wang Qishan, a vice prime minister who oversees the financial sector. Party leaders are considering reducing the number of Standing Committee seats to seven from nine, as was the case as recently as 2002, many insiders say. Mr. Hu is believed to support the change, which is in part aimed at curbing the entrenchment of interest groups at the top. That could mean taking two portfolios — probably propaganda and one dubbed “politics and law” that encompasses domestic security — and either adding them to the duties of other leaders or downgrading them to the Politburo level. Photo “With fewer people, they can concentrate power and increase their efficiency,” said one official at a state news media organization. But there are other possible motives. The rapid expansion of security powers under Zhou Yongkang, the current Standing Committee member who heads the politics and law committee and supported Mr. Bo, has alarmed some party leaders, political analysts say. Since assuming the post in 2007, Mr. Zhou has capitalized on Mr. Hu’s focus on stability to build up the security apparatus, whose budget this year is officially $111 billion, $5 billion more than the military budget. “The politics and law apparatus has grown too powerful,” an intelligence official said. “A lot of us feel this way.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story A contraction of the Standing Committee could also hurt those vying for seats who are not among the very top candidates, most notably Wang Yang, the party chief of Guangdong Province, who cultivates a progressive image. The size and structure of the leadership have been a matter of continuing discussion. One analyst with ties to officials involved in party planning said that at the May meeting, cadres were also asked to submit their views on changing the composition of the party’s upper echelons, in a glimpse of what may be called intraparty democracy. Though few changes were expected anytime soon, “a lot of people had very different ideas,” he said. Those debates are remote from the lives of most people in Beidaihe. Yet talk of politics flows loosely here. At a beach reserved for local officials, next to an almost-deserted patch of sand blocked off for party leaders, a retired official in swim trunks pointed to the villas across the road. He said the children of party leaders had made off with too much money through corrupt practices in state industries. Emblematic of the distance between officials and those they rule, he said, is the fact that the party leaders vacationing here nowadays refuse to go into the sea, which is brown from runoff. Ordinary people swim in those waters, but the leaders take dips in swimming pools, including one built recently that is filled with filtered seawater. “What are they good for?” the retired official asked. “What did they inherit from their fathers? They should have inherited the solidarity of the revolution.” |||||

– With China's once-a-decade leadership transition coming this fall, the country's powerbrokers are now in the thick of furious and extremely hush-hush negotiations over who will guide the world's most populous country for the next decade. And in the brutal heat and pollution of the Beijing summer, China's most important politicians head to the beach—specifically, the resort town of Beidaihe, "a Chinese combination of the Jersey Shore and Martha’s Vineyard" that lies 180 miles east of the capital, reports the New York Times. President Hu Jintao tried cracking down on the Beidaihe gatherings when he took power in 2002, but many in the party bucked hard and today the resort town is as important as ever. And in the face of a worsening economic slowdown and the fallout of the Bo Xilai scandal, the struggle for power is growing fiercer, notes the AP. But with expensive private villas and swimming spots for rich party leaders dominating this beach town, many party elders are unhappy with the rising generation of leaders. "What are they good for?" asked one retired official. "What did they inherit from their fathers? They should have inherited the solidarity of the revolution."

Image copyright AP Image caption Public protests have continued since the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi in December 2012 A teenage girl in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand has been raped in apparent revenge for an alleged assault on another woman, police say. Three people were arrested, including a village head who is accused of approving the alleged crime. The 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped this week after her brother was accused of assaulting a woman. Violence against women remains deeply entrenched while calls to address the problem have grown in recent years. Scrutiny of sexual violence in India has grown since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus. The government tightened laws on sexual violence last year after widespread protests following that attack. 'Retaliation' In the latest incident, the village head was arrested along with the alleged rapist himself and the brother of the girl. "This rape happened out of retaliation," Jharkhand police chief Rajiv Kumar told the BBC. "The day before, on 6 July, the wife of the accused was the victim of misbehaviour on the part of the girl's brother. The head of the village was instrumental in provoking this rape on the victim." The girl was taken to hospital after the attack and has given a statement to the police. Mr Kumar said he had never heard of any case like it on his watch, but this is the the latest in a string of gruesome incidents involving the rape of young girls in India. In May two teenage girls found hanging from a tree in a village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh had been allegedly gang-raped. Earlier this year, a 20-year-old tribal woman was gang-raped in eastern West Bengal state - allegedly on the orders of village elders who had objected to her relationship with a man. ||||| NEW DELHI (AP) — A 14-year-old girl was dragged into a forest and raped on the orders of a village council in remote eastern India in retaliation for a sex assault blamed on her brother, her family and police said Friday. Jitendra Singh, a top local police official, said two men have been arrested in the rape case. They include the village headman and the main suspect, identified as the husband of the woman who was allegedly molested by the victim's brother. The victim's brother has also been arrested on charges of molestation. The girl's mother told CNN-IBN news channel that she pleaded with the council and other villagers when they ordered the rape but no one listened. "We kept begging them. We begged with folded hands but they would not listen. They dragged her away to the forest," she said. The attack took place after midnight on Sunday in a small village in Jharkhand state's Bokaro district. "They attacked her in retaliation and we are taking this case very seriously," Singh said, adding that police expect to complete the investigation and file charges in the next few days. Across much of rural India, deeply conservative local councils wield great power. They can pass decrees on any subject they choose — from how women should dress to whether young lovers deserve to live or die. They usually enforce strict social norms about marriage and gender roles. In January, a council of elders in West Bengal state had ordered the gang rape of a 20-year-old woman as punishment for falling in love with the man from a different community. The village councils are often the only practical means of delivering justice in areas where local governments are either too far away or too ineffective to settle disputes. Their power is often derived from the fact that they can order that villagers be ostracized for ignoring their decrees. In some of the most extreme cases, the councils have sanctioned so-called honor killings, usually against men and women suspected of out-of-wedlock sex or marrying outside the community. |||||

– A girl has been raped in northern India after a village council ordered the crime as payback for her brother's actions, according to police and her family. The Wall Street Journal reports the teen's brother stands accused of trying to sexually assault the wife of Birju Pasi, with the Jharkhand police chief telling the BBC the wife was "the victim of misbehavior on the part of the girl's brother." He says the girl, 14, was raped Monday by Pasi "out of retaliation" and that "the head of the village was instrumental in provoking this rape on the victim." Both men have been arrested, as has the girl's brother. The girl's mother tells the AP, "We begged with folded hands but [the village council] would not listen. They dragged her away to the forest." A police rep says that her father later took her to a police station, her clothes "smeared with blood." The Journal notes that unelected village councils, like the one in question, are common in India, though they are illegal. The case is just the latest in a string of disturbing rapes in India. Police announced this week they will exhume the bodies of two teenage girls who were gang-raped and hanged in May in order to perform autopsies.

Sky Arts will screen the one-off comedy, co-starring Stockard Channing as Elizabeth Taylor and Brian Cox as Marlon Brando, about the trio’s supposed road trip west from New York after the 9/11 terror attacks September 2001 was allegedly witness to one of the strangest road trips in history: Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando driving from New York to Ohio in an attempt to get home following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The saga is now being dramatised in a one-off comedy special for Sky Arts, called Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon, starring Joseph Fiennes as Jackson, Stockard Channing as Taylor and Brian Cox as Brando. Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson shows race problems before Oscars row Read more Details of the improbable trip emerged in 2011 when it was reported in Vanity Fair. The story goes that Jackson invited the pair to his concert at Madison Square Garden. Following the 9/11 attacks, when air travel to and from New York was cancelled, the trio rented a car and began their quest back to California. “They actually got as far as Ohio – all three of them, in a car they drove themselves,” claimed a former employee of Jackson. Brando apparently insisted on stopping off at various fast food restaurants en route. However, it may be a shaggy-dog story. One of Taylor’s assistants told Vanity Fair that the actor stayed behind in New York, visiting Ground Zero and praying in a church. Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando 'fled 9/11 in hire car' Read more After being originally announced in December, Fiennes has now described the script as “a challenge”, adding: “It’s a fun, lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek road trip of what celebrity of that kind is like. But also it’s rather beautiful and poignant about their relationships.” The half-hour comedy will be written by Neil Forsyth, who wrote – as alter ego Bob Servant – Delete This at Your Peril, a collection of humorous email conversations with would-be con artists and spammers. It is also the first fruit of a new production company set up by The Royle Family and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps actor Ralf Little. ||||| Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images If we’re to believe Elizabeth Taylor’s former assistant Sam Kashner, in the days immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks, Taylor, Michael Jackson, and Marlon Brando took a road trip together in an attempt to flee New York City. The story is of dubious nature even when you consider the bizarre tics and lifestyles of the three major players involved, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining to imagine, as Zadie Smith did in a humorous short fiction story for the New Yorker last year. And so it’s only natural that someone would want to recreate this urban legend for the screen. Aisha Harris Aisha Harris is a Slate culture writer and host of the Slate podcast Represent. Enter Scottish journalist Neil Forsyth, who has written the untitled half-hour TV special adaptation, and which has now announced its main stars: Stockard Channing as Taylor, Brian Cox as Brando, and … Joseph Fiennes as the King of Pop???* Advertisement Ah, yes—Fiennes, a white English actor probably best known for playing Shakespeare, in love, is portraying the most iconic black American musician in the world. The announcement is certainly deserving of a double take, but if you think about it, this issue was bound to come up sooner or later: In any serious film involving a depiction of Jackson spanning several decades (or just covering his late-’80s period from Bad on), the question of whether you cast a black or white actor (or both) to play the part seems like a legitimate thing to ponder. After all, Jackson himself embraced his ever-morphing physical appearance both in life and in his music videos, and so taking creative liberties for a movie about him shouldn’t seem totally out of line, right? The answer to that question, dear casting director, should be obvious: Nope, you don’t cast a white actor to play Michael Jackson—you get a black guy to play him, because MJ was black even when he was “white.” Just because our relationship and understanding of him evolved as his persona became more feminine and his skin tone more pale, that doesn’t mean he was a fundamentally different person—he was still the same guy who donned a wildly amazing ’fro on the cover of Off the Wall, the same dynamic superstar who had to fight to get his music videos played on MTV in the early ’80s because they were reluctant to play black artists at the time. Even long after he had made his physical transformation and black people accused him of racial self-hatred, he was still a guy who spoke unabashedly about how poorly the music industry has treated black artists in comparison to white ones. And even more obviously, you don’t cast a white actor to play Michael Jackson, because you’ve learned from the years of Hollywood whitewashing leading all the way up to last year, when Emma Stone was cast as an Asian character in Aloha. YouTube Nope, it’s still a terrible idea. Find the right black actor who can perfectly capture all of Jackson’s complexities—his femininity, his weirdness, his naiveté, and yes, his black cultural upbringing—and invest in better makeup and prosthetics than whoever was in charge of that terrible Man in the Mirror movie. Or cast a light-skinned black actor in the role. But casting a white actor in the role is uninspired, an easy way to ignore just how complicated he really was. And if there’s anything Jackson taught us, it’s that nothing is so simple as black or white. ||||| The casting of white British actor Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson in an upcoming U.K. film has left fans of the late King of Pop in a state of bewilderment and shock, with many airing their grievances on social media. Fiennes will co-star as Jackson in a movie titled Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon set to premiere later this year. The film is a comedic retelling of a fabled story involving the King of Pop, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando on a road trip from New York City to Los Angeles on Sept. 11, 2001. Acclaimed actors Stockard Channing and Brian Cox as Taylor and Brando, respectively, are so pitch-perfectly cast that neither requires much if any further explanation. But Fiennes as Jackson is a whole different story altogether. Fiennes spoke about the bizarre project and acknowledged that playing the megastar Jackson would be “a challenge.” The Shakespeare In Love actor also discussed the tone of this bizarre comedy based on a disputed Vanity Fair story about the trio of legends who, unable to secure a flight out of New York on the day of the 9/11 attacks, took their show on the road. “I got the script the other day,” Fiennes explained to WENN. “It’s a challenge. It’s a comedy. It doesn’t poke mean fun but it’s a story, possibly urban legend, whereby Michael, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor were all together the day before 9/11 doing a concert. Airspace was shut down and they couldn’t get out and Michael had the bright idea to go to hire a car and drive. “So the three of them got in a car and drove 500 miles to Los Angeles. It took them a while because they had to stop at a lot of Burger Kings for Marlon, but they got out!” Fiennes didn’t say much, however, to address the 500-pound elephant (no, not Brando) in the room: Why was a white actor cast to play an African American entertainer? Even with Jackson’s specific physical attributes at that point in his life—he suffered from vitiligo, which causes the skin to lose its pigment—it’s not beyond reason to consider that there are qualified black actors out there that could convincingly portray Michael Jackson. One has to wonder if there is all that much consideration given to getting this “right” at all, especially when considering these industries’ inherent preference for white faces to sell. Of course, this latest bit of questionable casting comes in the midst of a highly visible dialogue on race in mainstream cinema. The lack of diversity among this year’s Academy Award nominees has led to a revamp of the voting system and of the Academy itself, as well as a much larger conversation on opportunities in front of and behind the camera throughout the many tiers of Hollywood. While Brits Charlotte Rampling and Michael Caine shrugged off the #OscarsSoWhite campaign (Rampling even said it was “racist against whites”), U.K. star Idris Elba recently spoke to the Houses of Parliament regarding the lack of varied opportunities for non-white actors in British entertainment and how it affected him both as a black fan and as a black actor. “Because I never saw myself on TV, I stopped watching TV,” he said. “Instead I decided to just go out and become TV. “There wasn’t enough imagination in the industry for me to be seen as a lead,” Elba said. “When you don’t reflect the real world, too much talent gets trashed. Thrown on the scrapheap. Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t. And talent can’t reach opportunity.” Elba also shared his belief that Hollywood was far ahead of the U.K. regarding opportunities for people of color. “I went to America because I was running out of parts,” he said. “The USA has the most famous diversity policy of all: the American Dream. I want that British dream.” If Hollywood is the standard-bearer for opportunity, then we should all be deeply concerned about the state of diversity in the film industry. That isn’t intended to be glib, but to convey the gravity of the problem; how deeply we must go to uproot and rectify it. There is both a casual ambivalence and quiet hostility towards broadening the range of opportunities for non-white stars to truly thrive in the mainstream, and things like casting a white man to play Michael Jackson only serve as further proof that there are filmmakers who are deeply determined to tune out the cultural conversation. Get The Beast In Your Inbox! Daily Digest Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast. Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't). By clicking “Subscribe,” you agree to have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Subscribe Thank You! You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason. British actor and Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam was announced as the lead in the upcoming American Drug Lord, the story of Mexican-American Edgar Valdez Villarreal, who went from Texas high school football star to brutal cartel leader known as “La Barbie.” Villareal’s nickname was attributed to the fact that he had blue eyes and a fair complexion, “like a Ken doll.” “It seems not well thought-through to be upset over casting an excellent actor to act as a character with whom he seems to share many physical resemblances,” argued producer Vincent Newman. “I suppose those offended by this would have disqualified Al Pacino from acting as Tony Montana or James Caan as Sonny Corleone. It’s acting after all, and the merit of the choice will be assessed as it is with all casting choices, on the quality and believability of his performance.” Pacino’s famously over-the-top faux Cubano Scarface shtick isn’t exactly the best performance to cite as far as white actors tackling “ethnic” characters, but when there is already evidence of clear racial bias in which actors are even considered for roles in the first place, it should be clear why casting Fiennes as the famously pale Jackson or Hunnam as La Barbie raises questions. How many actually black or Latino actors had the opportunity to land these roles? How many producers already know from the first reading of the script that they would prefer to cast white guys who look like non-white guys as opposed to proper black/Latino leads? These are questions that recognize how racial biases in casting, green-lighting, and marketing films are as detrimental as flagrant racist contempt. And long after awards season has passed, we’ll be left to answer these questions if we are committed to addressing the disparities that lead to white guys deciding who and what goes on screen. Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson is a symptom of a deeper sickness that moviemakers are only now beginning to treat. This movie won’t be the final say on this subject, but as it happens, it adds fuel to a very necessary conversation. Here’s hoping major film studios in both America and Britain pay closer attention to that conversation and do more than pay lip service to those initiating it. And here’s hoping we don’t get a Ralph Fiennes cameo as Jermaine. ||||| Twitter Joseph Fiennes; Michael Jackson This news is not coming from The Onion. I repeat: This is really happening. A white man has been cast to play Michael Jackson in Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon, a British TV movie about three celebrities escaping from New York City during 9/11. The urban legend concerning Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando during 9/11 goes a little something this: Jackson was in town for his huge Madison Square Garden concert, but once chaos broke out, and since air travel was shut down after the twin towers collapsed, Brando, Jackson and Taylor got a rental car and drove west, but only got as far as Ohio. The story has been disputed by Taylor’s former assistant, but I guess it’ll make for an interesting story to tell. But who cares about the story, right? Why in the world is a white man playing Michael Jackson? Did they also cast a black man as Marlon Brando? Or an Asian woman as Elizabeth Taylor? Of course not. Brian Cox will play Brando and Stockard Channing will play Taylor, according to The Guardian. Fiennes said the script was “a challenge,” adding: “It’s a fun, lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek road trip of what celebrity of that kind is like. But also it’s rather beautiful and poignant about their relationships.” A challenge, you say? Yeah, I can see how difficult it would be as a white man to play the black King of Pop. And yes, let’s not be like fourth-graders and bring up Jackson’s skin color. If Joseph Fiennes is going to play Michael Jackson, it's only fair that Gwyneth Paltrow should play Macaulay Culkin — Richard Lawson (@rilaws) January 27, 2016 Twitter: "Joseph Fiennes to play Michael Jackson" Me: pic.twitter.com/o20MuCzvYX — Eric Haywood (@EricHaywood) January 27, 2016 wait is Joseph Fiennes really playing Michael Jackson or do I need to dial way back on the DayQuil — Pixie Casey (@pixie_casey) January 26, 2016 Like... this is so ridiculous that it's ALMOST funny. White people are now trolling us. Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson, dude. — Awesomely Luvvie (@Luvvie) January 26, 2016 ||||| Joseph Fiennes has confirmed he’s the unlikely choice to play Michael Jackson in a new road trip comedy. The Shakespeare in Love star will tackle the King of Pop in a new movie, about an imagined cross-country trip he took with Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor from New York to Los Angeles following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Big Apple. Myth has it that Jackson was so determined to get home following a tribute concert in New York, he hired a car to take him and his superstar friends back to California after all flights in and out of New York were grounded following the atrocities. Fiennes tells WENN he has landed the Jackson role, opposite fellow Brit Brian Cox as Brando and Grease star Stockard Channing as Liz Taylor. “I got the script the other day,” he explains. “It’s a challenge. It’s a comedy. It doesn’t poke mean fun but it’s a story, possibly urban legend, whereby Michael, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor were all together the day before 9/11 doing a concert. Airspace was shut down and they couldn’t get out and Michael had the bright idea to go to hire a car and drive. “So the three of them got in a car and drove 500 miles to Los Angeles. It took them a while because they had to stop at a lot of Burger Kings for Marlon; but they got out! “It’s a lovely thing about Michael’s relationship with Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando. It’s a fun, light-hearted tongue in cheek road trip of what celebrity of that kind is like. But also it’s rather beautiful and poignant about their relationships as well.” |||||

– In a new movie about Michael Jackson, the King of Pop will be played by ... a white British guy. Joseph Fiennes is set to play Jackson in Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon, a film that follows Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor (played by Stockard Channing), and Marlon Brando (played by Brian Cox) as they attempt a road trip from New York to California. The trip supposedly really happened, after Jackson invited Taylor and Brando to his concert at Madison Square Garden and then the 9/11 attacks kept them from being able to fly back home. Legend has it they made it to Ohio, although some insist the story isn't true, the Guardian reports. But, true or not, it will be immortalized on film with Fiennes playing a black man, a fact that has many shaking their heads: The Daily Beast calls the casting "a symptom of Hollywood's deep-seated race problem." Writes Stereo Williams, "Even ... with Jackson's specific physical attributes at that point in his life—he suffered from vitiligo, which causes the skin to lose its pigment—it's not beyond reason to consider that there are qualified black actors out there that could convincingly portray Michael Jackson." At Slate, Aisha Harris agrees—despite his shifting looks and persona, Jackson was still a black man. "Find the right black actor who can perfectly capture all of Jackson's complexities—his femininity, his weirdness, his naivete, and yes, his black cultural upbringing—and invest in better makeup and prosthetics than whoever was in charge of that terrible Man in the Mirror movie. Or cast a light-skinned black actor in the role." Fiennes recently called the script "a challenge," and at The Root, Yesha Callahan writes, "Yeah, I can see how difficult it would be as a white man to play the black King of Pop." BuzzFeed has rounded up a range of Twitter reactions to the news.

Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email A man claims he was assaulted after a chef at an Indian restaurant threw chilli powder in his face during a family meal. David Evans was at the Prince of Bengal restaurant on Saturday night when the incident took place. The 46-year-old was out for dinner with his wife Michelle when they were asked by a waiter if they were enjoying their curry. The couple said they told the waiter their meal was “tough and rubbery” and he passed the complaint onto the head chef. Michelle said chilli powder was then thrown into her husband’s eyes and he was taken to hospital. But chef Kamrul Islam said he threw chilli into the customer’s face at the restaurant in in Tonypandy, Rhondda, because he feared he was going to be punched. Michelle, from Tonypandy, said: “We had our starter which wasn’t very good but we ate it and didn’t tell the waiter. “When our mains came and the meat was like what I can only describe as rubber we told the young waiter when he came and asked us ‘how is your food?’ that the meat was very tough and rubber.” She added: “The chef came to the door with a large bowl of chilli powder which he threw at David’s face. “He instantly thought he had been blinded and didn’t know what he’d thrown at him, he was shaking in shock, hanging on to the counter being sick thinking he was going to go blind. “It was horrific. He said he’s never had so much pain in his life and was extremely distressed.” Michelle said: “We were in the toilet splashing water on his eyes until the police and ambulance came he was treated straight away in A&E. “ She said her husband was taken to hospital for treatment. “David had numerous eye washes through a drip into his eyes in A&E as his eyes were extremely red and sore and the ph level was way off what it should have been and the doctor said if he wasn’t treated it was very dangerous for him,” Michelle added. “The chilli had even burnt the skin on David’s hands and chest where the chilli had fallen down his shirt.” Michelle said David is now having specialist check ups and is taking steroid eye drops. But Kamrul, who has been arrested on suspicion of assault, said it was an act of self-defence. He said: “I ran into the kitchen to get away from him (David Evans) but he followed me. He was being very aggressive and pushed past another member of staff. “I was frightened and grabbed a handful of chilli just in case I needed to defend myself. “I was frightened and threw it at him. Chilli will burn but it is not life threatening. “I’ve been running this restaurant here for 18 years and I’ve never had to do anything like this. I’m very upset by it all.” Kamrul - known as Kam to his regular customers - said one of his staff had told him the customer had complained about the food. He said: “They were shouting and swearing at me - I admit I swore back. But I said I would reduce the bill which came to £82. “But then the woman grabbed my arm and was hanging onto me as she was shouting. “I shouted back and I just wanted to get away. I went back into the kitchen where the husband followed me and began shouting and pointing at me. “It was self-defence and that is why I did what I did. “I’ve never had trouble like this. All the people around here are very nice and I get on with people. I feel I am respected here and have a lot of good customers and friends. “It was all seen on our CCTV and I’m happy for the police to see it. I was defending myself against aggression.” Kamrul said he was arrested at his restaurant but did not need to go to the police station. He said: “I’m happy to talk to the police about it. I believe in the justice system. I spoken to my barrister and given him all the information - he told me that I was acting in self-defence.” South Wales Police said it is investigating allegations of a substance being thrown into a man’s face. A spokeswoman added: “South Wales Police is investigating an incident which took place at the Prince of Bengal restaurant, Tonypandy, on the evening of Saturday, January 21. “A man has been arrested on suspicion of common assault and has been bailed until January 31, pending further inquiries. “Any witnesses who have not yet given their details to police are urged to do so via 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting reference 1700026399.” ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| It is the question that annoyed Marco Pierre White so much he banned it from his restaurants – a hovering waiter asking, "are enjoying your meal, sir?" And, after what happened at south Wales curry house, it is easy to see why. When David Evans, from south Wales, and his wife Michelle gave an honest opinion to that polite enquiry they had no idea what was to come next. "Tough and rubbery," they said. The next thing Mr Evans knew was a raging head chef had stormed out of his kitchen and thrown chilli powder in his eyes, leaving the 46-year-old pipe-fitter sick in pain. Mr Evans had to be rushed to hospital and have drips flush wash through his eyes. |||||

– A diner who complained about his "tough and rubbery" food at a curry house in Wales ended up being hospitalized to have chili powder washed out of his eye. Michelle Evans says she was dining with husband David on Saturday night when their complaint about the food brought an angry head chef out of the kitchen, the Telegraph reports. The chef "was extremely rude and aggressive and accused us of not wanting to pay for our food," she says. Michelle says after the chef swore at her, David followed him back to the kitchen demanding an apology, and the chef "came to the door with a large bowl of chili powder which he threw at David's face." David "instantly thought he had been blinded" and was "extremely distressed," Michelle says. She says the 46-year-old was rushed to the hospital, where he received eye washes through a drip. She says he still has to take steroid eye drops. Wales Online reports that chef Kamrul Islam has a different take on the incident, which was captured on CCTV. He says the couple were shouting and swearing at him and David Evans chased him into the kitchen. "He was being very aggressive and pushed past another member of staff," the chef says. "I was frightened and grabbed a handful of chili just in case I needed to defend myself." Police say the chef was released on bail after being arrested for common assault.

The White House and congressional Democrats, with the backing of the AARP, will soon put forth a plan to automatically enroll new private-sector employees in investment retirement accounts (IRAs). The measure will apply to new workers at firms that don’t currently offer 401(k) retirement plans, according to AARP, the lobby group for seniors. Workers would have the choice of opting out of the accounts. ADVERTISEMENT The Obama administration sees the auto-enrollment system as a way to increase savings. “There’s this inertia that keeps people from taking advantage of saving opportunities,” said Cristina Martin Firvida, the director of economic security in AARP’s government relations department. “It’s all sort of foundationally related to that, how people choose to save.” Top officials in the administration, including White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, Treasury Department senior adviser Mark Iwry and Cass Sunstein, the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, have long championed the opt-out provision. They point to studies that show the arrangement leads to big increases in savings by workers. Like other employer-based retirement accounts, the opt-out accounts proposed by Democrats would have tax benefits. It’s unclear whether they will be traditional tax-deferred accounts or Roth-style vehicles, in which account holders don’t pay taxes on withdrawals. Iwry, a retirement savings expert, has preferred Roth accounts in the past. Obama himself has publicly called for people to do more saving for retirement. “The fact is, even before this recession hit, the savings rate was essentially zero, while borrowing had risen and credit card debt had increased,” Obama said last September. “Half of America’s workforce doesn’t have access to a retirement plan at work. And fewer than 10 percent of those without workplace retirement plans have one of their own.” Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) have introduced similar IRA proposals in the past. The auto-enrollment provision will get pushback from small-business groups. “It’s another burden placed on business that’s coming from Washington, keeping business owners from hiring and investing,” said Bill Rys, the tax counsel for the National Federation of Independent Business. “They’re being told, ‘Here’s how you run your business.’ ” ||||| Automatic IRAs would help retirement security, says Treasury's Iwry Says default provisions, simplified options make payroll-based plans viable for small employers The guru of federal retirement policy has high hopes for one of his yet-to-be-approved retirement creations: the automatic IRA. J. Mark Iwry, deputy assistant Treasury secretary for retirement and health policy, thinks that “millions” of Americans would take advantage of an automatic individual retirement account, which would work through payroll deductions. Speaking to a group of journalists in Washington last week, he said that auto IRAs would go a long way to help the approximately half of U.S. workers who don't have access to a workplace 401(k) plan. Congress is working on a draft of auto-IRA legislation, which was introduced in President Barack Obama's fiscal-2010 budget. Washington insiders don't expect it to be approved until next year at the earliest. Under the proposal, employers with at least 10 employees would be required to offer workers a retirement saving option through payroll deductions, and those who didn't sign up would be enrolled automatically. “The idea is to expand coverage and saving by building on the basic elements of our current system that work particularly well — payroll-based saving at the workplace, plus automatic enrollment, which has been very successful in raising takeup rates and encouraging saving,” Mr. Iwry told reporters at a National Press Foundation seminar on retirement. The auto-IRA proposal has strong support on Capitol Hill and from advocacy groups such as AARP, but some groups oppose it as being too burdensome for small employers. This year, The Spark Institute Inc., a group that represents retirement plan service providers, released an alternative proposal for a new Universal Small Employer Retirement Savings Program that would “simplify” investment option selection and fiduciary-liability concerns, as well as plan administration and documentation, according to the group. These are the types of issues being discussed and worked out in Washington, said Mr. Iwry, who was a fellow at The Brookings Institution. Some decisions have already been reached, he said. For example, automatic-IRA plans would likely include default provisions for participants who hesitated to choose, such as a default option for Roth IRAs and a “diversified life-cycle-type option” like a target date fund. Small employers also would be free to select a financial services firm to run the plan, or to use one offered as a default provider. “There are several ideas for how to set that up which are under discussion,” said Mr. Iwry, who developed the auto-IRA concept while at Brookings, a liberal think tank, with David C. John, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy research group. “The market would work; this would be a market-based approach,” Mr. Iwry said. “If the employer has a relationship with a financial institution that provides IRAs, why not build on that if they wish? But if they wanted to go elsewhere, they could,” Mr. Iwry said. When it comes to choosing default investments, the administration would “borrow a leaf from the book” of qualified default investment alternatives, he said. “We would build on what those regulations have done with respect to default investments for 401(k)s but keeping it simple, low-cost, and limiting the number of options, including a diversified life-cycle-type option and a safe principal-preservation-type option,” Mr. Iwry said. Some have said that the auto-IRA plan amounts to a lot of work for very little return, but even a small improvement in the savings rate is better than none at all, said Dallas L. Salisbury, president and chief executive of the Employee Benefit Research Institute. “The nature of the American system has always been incremental change,” he said. “Even an added 10 million who are building savings in a changed IRA system helps build economic security. Congress will evaluate whether that is enough positive change to justify enactment into law,” Mr. Salisbury said. E-mail Hilary Johnson at [email protected]. |||||

– Democrats plan to introduce legislation that would automatically enroll private-sector workers in retirement savings accounts, the Hill reports. The measure, being heavily pushed by the AARP, would apply to those whose employers don't offer 401k accounts. Workers would be able to opt out of the plan, whose backers don't expect it to be approved until next year at the earliest, notes Investment News. “There’s this inertia that keeps people from taking advantage of saving opportunities,” said an AARP official. “It’s all sort of foundationally related to that, how people choose to save.”?? The measure would require employers who have at least 10 employees to offer the savings option through payroll deductions, a provision likely to draw flak from small-business owners as another bureaucratic hassle, notes the Hill.

The Yumbo, which debuted in 1968 and was officially retired in 1974, will cost $3.69, the Miami-based company said today in a statement. It also will be part of Burger King’s two-for-$5 menu. The Yumbo, which debuted in 1968 and was officially retired in 1974, will cost $3.69,... Read More The Yumbo, which debuted in 1968 and was officially retired in 1974, will cost $3.69, the Miami-based company said today in a statement. It also will be part of Burger King’s two-for-$5 menu. Close Burger King Worldwide Inc. (BKW) is putting its Yumbo ham-and-cheese sandwich back on the menu after a 40-year hiatus, aiming to entice customers with a taste from its past. The Yumbo, which debuted in 1968 and was officially retired in 1974, will cost $3.69 and be available for a limited time, the Miami-based company said today in a statement. It also will be part of Burger King’s two-for-$5 menu. Burger King has had success with the reintroduction of chicken fries earlier this year and is trying to boost sales by adding simpler menu items that are easy for workers to prepare. Customers have been asking about the Yumbo for years, and Burger King decided it was time to bring the sandwich back, said Eric Hirschhorn, chief marketing officer for North America. “It got to the point where it’s one of those things we can no longer ignore,” he said. Burger King didn’t specify how long the Yumbo will be on the menu at its approximately 7,360 North American restaurants. The burger chain reported stronger-than-projected same-store sales last month, posting a third-quarter gain of 3.6 percent for the U.S. and Canada. Analysts had estimated a 2.5 percent increase. Burger King also is planning to acquire Canada’s Tim Hortons Inc. in a bid to become the world’s third-largest fast-food company. To contact the reporter on this story: Craig Giammona in New York at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at [email protected] Kevin Orland ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — Burger King said bringing back its "Chicken Fries" helped sales jump in the U.S. and Canada by the biggest amount in two years. FILE - This Wednesday, June 20, 2012 photo shows a burger and fries at a Burger King in Richardson, Texas. Burger King reports quarterly financial results Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File) (Associated Press) The Miami-based chain said Tuesday that global sales rose 2.4 percent at established locations during the third quarter, including a 3.6 percent increase in the U.S. and Canada. McDonald's previously reported a 3.3 percent decline in the U.S. for the same time, citing heightened competition. Alex Macedo, Burger King's president of North American operation, said in a phone interview that the chain's strategy of focusing on fewer, "more impactful" new menu items is paying off. Burger King had announced in August it was bringing back Chicken Fries for a limited time in response to "ongoing guest outcries reached a point where they could no longer be ignored." The offering — which are deep-fried pieces of chicken in the shape of french fries — had been introduced in 2005 and taken off the menu in 2012. The return of the Chicken Fries is among the many marketing pushes Burger King has made since investment firm 3G Capital took the chain public again in 2012. Some efforts have flopped; the chain recently said this summer that most its franchisees would take its lower-calories "Satisfries" off the menu after less than a year. To boost its profits, Burger King has also refranchised company-owned restaurants in the U.S. and has been striking deals with local operators to open more stores around the world. It currently has nearly 14,000 locations globally. After factoring one-time charges primarily related to its purchase of Tim Hortons, Burger King Worldwide Inc. lost $23.5 million, or 7 cents per share. Adjusted earnings were 27 cents per share, in line with Wall Street expectations. Burger King said this summer it would buy the Canadian chain for about $11 billion, creating the world's third-largest fast-food company. Total revenue rose to $278.9 million, short of the $281.8 million Wall Street expected. Shares of Burger King fell 4 percent to $31. |||||

– The people asked; Burger King listened. After becoming what BK marketing chief Eric Hirschhorn calls "one of those things we [could] no longer ignore," the Yumbo ham-and-cheese sandwich once more graces the eatery's menu, Bloomberg reports. You probably won't remember this fast-food delicacy if you're under the age of 45—it was only in circulation from 1968 to 1974—but apparently those who tasted its steaming goodness couldn't get it out of their minds. Customers kept asking about its return, notes Hirschhorn, and since the restaurant enjoyed success with this year's return of chicken fries and was seeking more easy-to-make items, it resurrected the Yumbo. The sandwich will only be available for a limited time for $3.69. (Wonder if it'll bring in more sales than the Black Burger?)

Image caption The meteorite left a crater inside the campus of Bharathidasan Engineering College in Vellore Indian scientists have been asked to verify claims that a man died after being hit by a meteorite in southern Vellore city. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram said on Sunday that Kamraj, a bus driver, died after a meteorite fell on a college campus. Scientists said tests were needed to confirm that the rock was a meteorite. If confirmed, experts said this would be the first such death in nearly 200 years. According to a list prepared by the International Comet Quarterly, a man was killed in a "meteorite fall" in India in 1825. PK Senthilkumari, chief of Vellore police, told The Hindu that a "small stone weighing about 10g was recovered from the spot" at Bharathidasan Engineering College. Image copyright Tamil Nadu Police Image caption Further tests were needed to confirm that the darkish rock was actually a meteorite "We have requested scientists to come and examine the object." Kamraj was working in the campus when the object fell and caused a loud explosion. It left a crater in the ground and blew out glass windows in the adjoining buildings. The victim "sustained serious injuries and died while on the way to the hospital," Ms Jayaram said. The government has announced a financial aid of 100,000 (£1,000;$1,441) for Kamraj's family. Meteors are chunks of rock and debris that burn up as they plummet through Earth's atmosphere. Meteorites are larger, more durable objects that survive heating in the atmosphere and land on Earth. ||||| A meteorite crashed into an engineering college in Vellore district on Saturday, causing an explosion that killed one man and injured three others, the Tamil Nadu government said on Sunday.Scientists, however, said it wasn't clear how the government concluded that a meteorite strike caused the blast. There has been no established death due to a meteorite hit in recorded history, they said.If a meteorite indeed caused the death, bus driver Kamaraj will be the first person ever to have died in a meteorite strike. Saturday's blast also injured two gardeners and a student.“You have a better chance of getting hit by a tornado and a bolt of lightning and a hurricane all at the same time,“ is how astronomer and author of the book, Falling Stars: A Guide to Meteors & Meteorites Michael Reynolds describes the likelihood of such an event in a National Geographic report.Regardless of the scepticism of experts, chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday said the government would pay compensation of Rs 1 lakh to Kamaraj's family .The three people injured in the explosion will receive Rs 25,000 each, she said.Witnesses said the blast left a crater 5ft deep and 2ft wide. Policemen recovered a black, pockmarked stone weighing 11g from the blast site.A police officer said the department would consult experts from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru and ask them for a detailed analysis of the stone to ascertain whether it is debris from a meteorite. A team of experts from the institute will visit the site on February 8.A bomb squad from Chennai took debris samples on Sunday for analysis at Regional Forensic Science Laboratory in Mylapore. Police said preliminary investigation by police forensics experts ruled out the possibility that explosives caused the blast.“We did not find any trace of explosive substances, so we ruled out the possibility that explosives caused the blast,“ an investigating officer said. “We will wait for a final autopsy report on the body of driver Kamaraj and the report from the forensic lab to confirm what triggered the explosion.“The blast, which took place during class hours on Saturday when students, teachers and other staff were within the college's main building, shattered several windowpanes and damaged the windscreens of buses parked nearby . Police said Kamaraj went to wash his face at a tap near a water tank in the parking lot of the college when the explosion occurred around noon on Saturday . Thick smoke engulfed the area, witnesses said. A student, Santhosh, and two gardeners, Sasi and Murali, were injured. The blast deafened Santhosh, although doctors could not immediately say if the condition would be permanent.The first person in history that a meteorite is confirmed to have hit was American Ann Hodges, 'National Geographic' reported. A softball-size hunk of black rock broke through the ceiling of her house in Sylacauga, Alabama, in November 1954 and hit her in the thigh, leaving a pineapple-shaped bruise. Scientists closely watch space bodies that come to earth and predict in advance when a meteor large enough to stay intact after burning up in the atmosphere is going to hit the planet.“Organizations like International Meteor Organization have already put out the calendar for 2016 -for the days we can expect meteor showers and if there are any chances of them hitting earth. These occurrences are catalogued for the benefit of stargazers,“ said Isro Mars Orbiter Mission project director V Adimurthy.“They even predict the time of the meteor showers and are almost never wrong,“ he said. “The last meteor shower was on January 3 and the next one is between April 22 and 23. There is nothing for February." |||||

– Whatever it was that killed a bus driver in India on Saturday probably didn't travel through untold millions of miles of space to get there, according to NASA scientists. The 11-gram rock recovered from a college campus in Tamil Nadu is still being analyzed, but NASA scientists say that from photos alone, the incident that killed one person and injured three others appears to have been "a land-based explosion" instead of the first recorded death from a meteorite strike in history, the New York Times reports. The BBC reports that police asked scientists to examine the small stone found in a crater at Bharathidasan Engineering College after Saturday's explosion. The dean of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics tells the Times that institute experts are looking at samples of the rock. "Considering that there was no prediction of a meteorite shower and there was no meteorite shower observed, this certainly is a rare phenomena if it is a meteorite," he says. It's not clear what else could have caused the explosion. A police spokesman tells the Times of India that they "did not find any trace of explosive substances" and are now awaiting the results of forensic tests and an autopsy of the bus driver.

David Friedman (File Photo) ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, Tuesday June 4, 2013 – The Grenada government says it is saddened at the death of David Friedman, the owner and founder of the Grenada Chocolate Factory who was electrocuted over the weekend. Friedman, who is also known as “Mott Green” was reportedly repairing equipment at his storehouse at the Belmont Estate when the incident occurred. Originally from the United States, he established the company in 1999. Tourism Minister Alexandra Otway-Noel described Friedman “as a friend of Grenada and entrepreneur who worked tirelessly to promote our cocoa and by extension our country,” adding “we feel a strong sense of sorrow for this loss to Grenada. Mott’s passing is also a blow to cocoa exports, in light of the campaign he has been leading”. The minister said that Friedman “passionately led the creation of a company that manufactures and exports this country’s cocoa and while increasing Grenada’s profile internationally. He also provided employment for our people. “We feel that as part of our tribute to our friend Mott and to his legacy that we all work together to ensure his company continues to grow from strength to strength. “We are confident that Mott’s chocolate factory has a vibrant role to play in a refreshing new economy that is unfolding in this new administration and we are certain he would have been happy to be a part of it,” she added. (CMC) Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample) ||||| Mott Green, who emerged from a hermitlike existence in a bamboo hut in the jungle of Grenada to produce a coveted Caribbean delicacy — rich, dark chocolate bars that he exported around the world with the help of sailboats, bicycles and solar-powered refrigeration — died on June 1 in Grenada. He was 47. He was electrocuted while working on solar-powered machinery for cooling chocolate during overseas transport, said his mother, Dr. Judith Friedman. Mr. Green was born David Friedman, and grew up on Staten Island. He became Mott over the course of many years of visiting and eventually living in Grenada, where residents had a distinctive way of pronouncing his nickname, Moth. He later took Green as his surname to reflect his environmental interests. Mr. Green tended to flit about as a child, but with focus: he built go-karts using lawn mower engines; he ran the New York City Marathon when he was 16; he dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania just months before graduation — accepting a degree, he felt, would be capitulating to a corrupt social structure — and he spent much of his 20s squatting with a community of anarchists in abandoned homes in west Philadelphia, where he “rescued” food that restaurants had planned to throw away and distributed it to homeless people. Photo He was eventually drawn permanently to Grenada. When Mr. Green was a boy, his father, Dr. Sandor Friedman, the director of medical services at Coney Island Hospital, taught there each winter, often bringing his family along. Mr. Green founded the Grenada Chocolate Company in 1999. Its slogan was “tree to bar,” but that did not capture the breadth of the endeavor. Working with small cocoa farmers in Grenada and as many as 50 factory employees during peak operations, all of whom earned the same salary — and probably more than he did — Mr. Green dried cocoa beans in the sun; built, maintained and powered the machinery to make chocolate; packaged the finished product; and cobbled together an international network of distributors, including volunteer cargo cyclists in the Netherlands. In 2011, the company received recognition from the State Department for its “contribution to the sustainable growth of rural economies by establishing Grenadian products in international markets; pioneering agrotourism; outstanding environmental conservation efforts; and promotion of organic farming.” In 2008, 2011 and 2013, the Academy of Chocolate in London awarded silver medals to Grenada’s dark chocolate bars. A documentary film about the company, “Nothing Like Chocolate,” directed by Kum-Kum Bhavnani, was released last year and has been shown at film festivals. Human rights advocates have long criticized the treatment of small cocoa farmers, and, particularly in Africa, the exploitation of child workers by buyers and exporters who sell cocoa to big chocolate companies. Despite international protections put in place in 2001, a 2009 survey by Tulane University found that nearly a fourth of all children ages 5 and 17 in cocoa-growing regions of Ivory Coast had worked on a cocoa farm in the previous year. Mr. Green set out to address such issues by dealing directly with small growers and by keeping the processing and packaging of chocolate within Grenada. In the process, he appears to have created the only chocolate-making company in a cocoa-producing country. “My progression,” he told D magazine in Dallas for a 2012 blog post, “was activist, love Grenada, love cocoa, love machines and tinkering, making chocolate, and doing it all without hurting the land.” David Lawrence Friedman was born on April 15, 1966, in Washington. His family moved to Staten Island shortly before he turned 2. He was the valedictorian of his class at Curtis High School. He was accepted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but chose Pennsylvania instead. He dropped out in the spring of 1988, his senior year. “He was repulsed by the prison of privilege,” Tim Dunn, a friend, said in an interview. “He was looking for real life. And he found it.” Mr. Green spent several years after college as a kind of master tinkerer, forager and activist among homeless anarchists in Philadelphia. He helped route electricity into abandoned houses for squatters, and he converted a Volkswagen bus to run on electricity. He helped develop a free lunch program that is still in place. He later moved to the East Village in Manhattan and made solar-powered hot-water showers for a group of squatters there. By the mid-1990s he had moved to Grenada, where he initially lived in a remote hut he had built himself. It, too, relied on solar energy, in part to power Mr. Green’s passion for music. “You’d hear Ella Fitzgerald coming out of this bamboo house in the rain forest,” his mother recalled. Mr. Green developed a taste for cocoa tea, a local favorite, and that helped draw him out of the jungle and into the concerns of cocoa farmers and workers. Joining with a friend from Eugene, Ore., Doug Brown, he studied chocolate production in San Francisco. Working in Eugene, the men restored old machines from Europe and built new ones themselves. By the late ’90s they had shipped everything to Grenada. Mr. Brown died of cancer several years ago. The company struggled for many years even as it won recognition. Mr. Green lived at the factory the whole time, sleeping in a workroom. It moved into profitability just a few months ago, thanks in part to its recent opening of a shop in Grenada that sells treats made from its chocolate. Grenada’s chocolate bars are also sold online and at stores in various countries. In the United States, they are sold at Whole Foods stores in Manhattan and other retailers scattered across several states. Last year the company delivered tens of thousands of chocolate bars to Europe on a sail-powered Dutch ship, the Brigantine Tres Hombres, operated by a company called Fairtransport. A team of volunteer cyclists in Amsterdam helped handle distribution on the ground. Mr. Green called it “the first carbon-neutral trans-Atlantic mass chocolate delivery.” In addition to his mother, a clinical psychologist in New York, Mr. Green is survived by a brother, Peter. Sandor Friedman died in 2004. Dr. Friedman said she and several other people involved with the company were meeting this month in Grenada to develop a plan for keeping it operating. “A lot of people now talk about paying for the actual cost of food or fair food and stuff like that,” said Alexis Buss, a friend from Mr. Green’s days as a squatter. “He wasn’t doing it to be trendy. He’s always been that way. He was just doing it because it made sense.” |||||

– He was kind of like Willy Wonka, if Wonka had combined his passion for chocolate with social justice. Or as the headline in Haaretz puts it: "Mott Green, Jewish anarchist chocolatier, dies aged 47." Green was born David Friedman and grew up in Staten Island, but he gave up the idea of a middle-class lifestyle in the US to live in the jungle of Grenada—and then went on to create a sustainable chocolate company with the unprecedented mission of benefiting the locals. Green died after being electrocuted repairing his (solar-powered) cooling equipment, reports Caribbean 360. Green attended the Ivy League's Penn but dropped out a few months before graduation because he thought a degree would prove corrupting. He "spent several years after college as a kind of master tinkerer, forager and activist among homeless anarchists in Philadelphia," writes William Yardley in the New York Times. He eventually made his way to the Caribbean and settled into a hermit's life in Grenada in a bamboo hut. But then he developed a taste for the local cocoa tea, which led to his exploration of chocolate ... and ultimately to the creation of the Grenada Chocolate Company in 1999. Along the way, "he rewrote the rules of the global chocolate industry by adding all the value at the source and bringing maximum benefit to the local economy, in this case to the people of Grenada whom he loved," writes Aviel Luz in Haaretz. If it sounds like the stuff of movies, it is, in a way. A well-received documentary about his company called Nothing Like Chocolate came out last year.

The St. Louis area's most powerful tornado in 44 years rips into an airport and through a densely populated suburban area, destroying up to 100 homes, shattering hundreds of panes of glass at the main terminal and blowing a shuttle bus on top of a roof. Yet no one is killed, or even seriously hurt, and the airport reopens less than 24 hours later. How? Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon speaks during a news conference inside Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Saturday, April 23, 2011, in St. Louis. The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado that... (Associated Press) From left to right, Shaun Jones and Jacob Caldwell of BAM Contracting in St. Louis, work to repair damage to windows in the main terminal of St. Louis' Lambert International Airport, Saturday, April 23,... (Associated Press) Workers replace remove broken windows inside the main terminal at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Saturday, April 23, 2011, in St. Louis. The National Weather Service confirms that it was a tornado... (Associated Press) In this aerial photograph, debris is strewn about a neighborhood Saturday, April 23, 2011, in Bridgeton, Mo., following a Friday-evening tornado in the area. A severe storm that struck the St. Louis area... (Associated Press) Early warnings, good timing and common sense all helped prevent a tragedy Friday night. But on Easter Sunday, many of those cleaning up the mess also thanked a higher power. "I don't know why God decided to spare our lives but I'm thankful for it," Joni Bellinger, children's minister at hard-hit Ferguson Christian Church, said Sunday. Lambert Airport reopened for arriving flights Saturday night, and departing flights began Sunday morning. Still, dozens of flights have been canceled, the airport's Concourse C is still closed and complete repairs could take up to two months. The tornado peaked at an EF-4 level, second-highest on the Enhanced Fujita scale, packing winds of up to 200 mph, National Weather Service meteorologist Wes Browning said. It was the most powerful twister in metropolitan St. Louis since 1967 _ and eerily, it followed a path similar to that of the earlier tornado. Entire subdivisions were destroyed. Cars were tossed about like toys, roofs tossed hundreds of yards and 100-year-old trees sucked out by the roots. County officials said during a news conference Sunday that 2,700 buildings were damaged. Gov. Jay Nixon said Saturday that up to 100 were uninhabitable. The damage clearly will cost millions of dollars to repair, but a more precise estimate was unavailable Sunday. The twister destroyed two of the homes John Stein owns on a street in the city of Berkeley, and damaged five others. "Everything you'd find in a war zone except the bodies," Stein said. Residents in nine communities and unincorporated parts of St. Louis County were still sorting through the rubble Sunday. Ameren Corp. had about 2,000 workers seeking to restore outages that affected 47,000 homes and businesses immediately after the storm. The utility said 18,300 were still without electricity on Sunday, and it could be several days before all power is restored. Yet the common refrain was: It could have been worse. Stuff was destroyed, not lives. The normally busy airport took a direct hit, with hundreds of panes of glass shattering from the force of the wind. The shuttle bus on the roof was among dozens of vehicles that were damaged. But the airport had been quiet Friday night. Few planes on the ground were filled with passengers, and those shook but didn't topple. Just a couple of hundred passengers and workers were in Concourse C, which took the brunt of the damage, airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said. Five people suffered minor injuries. Residents praised the weather service for warning them about the tornado more than a half-hour before it hit. Warning sirens blared at the airport, where security officers and other workers herded people to stairwells and bathrooms. Residents also paid attention to the sirens, and local TV stations switched from network programming to radar of the pending disaster and stern warnings from meteorologists to seek refuge in basements. "The bottom line is the 34-minute warning and the heeding of that warning by the citizens has saved countless lives," Nixon said. Browning agreed. "The public did what we told them to do," the meteorologist said. "Many came out of the basement without a scratch, and there was nothing left" of their homes. Bridgeton Mayor Conrad Bowers believes divine intervention also was at work. His own home had moderate damage, but several houses in his neighborhood were obliterated. In many of them, mercifully, no one was home when the twister hit. One family was out for dinner. Another was away playing cards. Another was visiting relatives in Dallas. "The grace of God," Bowers said. "What else can I say?" At Ferguson Christian Church, nearly three dozen people were gathered on Good Friday to watch the movie "Passion of the Christ" when the sirens began to blare. Pastor Stacy Garner paused the movie and hurried everyone to the basement. They were out of harm's way as the tornado imploded the sanctuary above them. Like hundreds of residents in surrounding communities, church members have been back trying to salvage what they could. Their Easter Sunday services were at a college campus. They've had a lot of help from neighbors and friends. "It's not just our church, but people from all over the neighborhood have come to help and clean up the mess and pick up the pieces, and try to figure out what we're going to do from now on," said Bellinger, the children's minister. ___ Ed Donahue of the Associated Press in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| First the good news: A miracle zero deaths have been reporting following the tornado that tore through Bridgeton, a densely populated suburb of St. Louis, on Friday night, passing directly through the airport. Sadly, though, 750 homes were damaged, with 100 of those destroyed entirely. But still! No casualties, and only "minor injuries" to five people. Locals are praising the local weather service, which blared sirens 34 minutes before the tornado hit, as well as "the grace of God," as the mayor put it. And what does it look like when a tornado crashes through your airport concourse? The security footage above captured the entire, terrifying affair. [AP, KMOX] |||||

– Miraculously, no one was killed by the Friday night tornado that ripped through the St. Louis airport. But that doesn't make the experience, captured by security cameras and reported by KMOX, any less terrifying. (Hat tip to Gawker for the find.) How is it that—even though 2,700 buildings were damaged and 100 homes destroyed—only minor injuries were reported in the St. Louis area, and only to five people? Locals credit early warnings from the weather service. The tornado, which packed winds of up to 200mph, was the most powerful in the St. Louis area in 44 years and peaked at the second-highest level on the Enhanced Fujita scale. But thanks to the weather service and local TV stations, residents were made aware of the impending disaster 34 minutes before it hit. Warning sirens at the airport allowed security officers to get people into stairwells and bathrooms for safety. The mayor has another theory. He tells the AP he credits "the grace of God."

FOR THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS, SEE: Calgary family, police 'devastated' as charges laid in deaths of Taliyah Marsman, mother The father of Taliyah Leigh Marsman has issued a statement to the media through a friend, pleading for anyone with information to come forward after the five-year-old disappeared and her mother was found dead in the Calgary home she shared with the child. An Alberta-wide Amber Alert has been in effect for Taliyah since early Tuesday, hours after she was discovered missing and Sara Baillie was found slain in their rented basement suite in Panorama Hills. Sara Baillie was found dead in the home she was renting in Panorama Hills in Calgary late Monday. (Facebook) Investigators are treating Baillie's killing as a homicide, but they have not revealed the cause of death. "With all my heart, I love her sooo much; she is my light! Please allow her to come home to her family," said Taliyah's father, Colin Marsman — who was Baillie's estranged common-law spouse — in the statement sent out by his friend Gabriel Goree. "Those who know me best, know the person and kind of father I am, and know more than anything, I just want my baby girl back," said Marsman, 36. A day earlier, Insp. Don Coleman of the Calgary Police Service major crimes section said there is a "limited" history of domestic violence between Baillie and Marsman, "both reported and unreported." He said Marsman has been co-operating. Goree told CBC News he and Marsman have been friends for more than 25 years and were very close growing up together in Halifax. Marsman is a hardworking construction worker who has another child — a teenaged boy — and is distraught and in shock about the disappearance of his little girl, said Goree. Race against the clock Mount Royal University criminologist Scharie Tavcer says that in the search for missing children, the clock can be a big obstacle. "This is not a science, right, we can't pinpoint anything. But police will tell you the same thing. The more time that passes, the chances are slimmer that we find her," she said. "And so it's a race against the clock and I know police, our police service is phenomenal and they're doing everything they can." Anyone with information is urged to contact the police or Crime Stoppers. The head of the Missing Children Society of Canada, which is helping with the search for Taliyah, says investigators are using all the resources they have to find the little girl. "These types of cases are infrequent in Canada," said Amanda Pick, chief executive officer of the Calgary-based organization. "When police have a missing child, they are immediately investigating every single opportunity, possible, lead, tip, so that they can bring that child home right away." Pick said tips from the public can be crucial, and that people should pay attention to what's happening around them and report any information, no matter how inconsequential it may seem. ||||| ADVERTISEMENT CALGARY — The father of a missing Calgary girl is begging anyone who might have information to "do the right thing.'' Colin Marsman said in a statement Wednesday that five-year-old Taliyah Leigh Marsman is his "light'' and loves her with all his heart. "I want to make a plea to anyone out there who knows anything about where my baby is,'' Marsman said in the statement released to the media through friend Gabriel Goree. "Please, it's never too late to do the right thing! If you even think you might have seen something that could be a clue, let your local law enforcement know immediately.'' Five-year-old Taliyah Marsman was last seen Sunday morning. (Photos: Calgary Police Service) Police issued an Amber Alert for the child early Tuesday after her mother, Sara Baillie, was found dead in a basement suite where the two lived. Officers say family members last saw the girl on Sunday morning and became concerned when Baillie failed to show up for her job at an airport restaurant. Police have said they're investigating the death as a homicide. "I just want my baby girl back." Marsman offered his condolences to Baillie's family. There have been reports that he was charged last year with unlawful confinement and intimidation by threats against Baillie. The charges were later withdrawn and a peace bond was issued. "Those who know me best, know the person and kind of father I am and know more than anything I just want my baby girl back,'' Marsman said. "Once again, I plead for anyone knowing anything about where Taliyah is to please come forward with anything that will help get her home and back to her family.'' Police have said Marsman is co-operating with their investigation. Goree described Marsman as a "great dad,'' who also has a son, and works in construction. Colin Marsman is pleading for the safe return of his five-year-old daughter Taliyah. (Photo: Facebook) Marsman's girlfriend, Jessica Mardinger, added on Facebook: "Colin is a great father. He is in so much pain right now. We need Taliyah back.'' Baillie's family appeared at a police news conference Tuesday, tearfully pleading in front of news cameras to whomever took Taliyah to drop her off at a police station, grocery store or gas station, no questions asked. They said Baillie was pretty much raising Taliyah on her own and the pair were inseparable. Police said they aren't ruling anything out in their search for the little girl, and have faith she will be found safe. Taliyah is described as a mixed-race child with a slim build, brown curly hair and blue eyes. Also on HuffPost: ||||| Family members of missing girl Taliyah Leigh Marsman made a tearful plea for her return Tuesday, urging whoever has the five-year-old to return her. Taliyah is the subject of an Amber Alert after her mom, Sara Baillie, was found dead in a northwest Calgary home on Monday evening. Two of Baillie’s family members — uncle Scott Hamilton and aunt Marilynne Hamilton — described Taliyah as a “vivacious, wonderful child.” “Taliyah, honey, if you’re watching this, we love you,” Marilynne Hamilton said. “Stay strong.” Scott Hamilton said the five-year-old was “Sara’s world.” He said the victim was a hard-working single mother, and that she and her daughter were “inseparable.” “We love her and we miss her,” he said. Taliyah has many interests, he added, including riding her bicycle, a skill her aunt recently taught her. “The bicycle sits in our garage waiting for her to come back,” he said tearfully, backed by a large group of family and friends. Around 8:30 p.m. on Monday, family members called police after they were unable to reach Baillie, who was in her 30s. They found her dead inside her home, in the 1000 block of Panamount Boulevard N.W. Around 1:40 a.m. on Tuesday, an Amber Alert was issued for Taliyah. She’s described as mixed race with a slim build, curly hair and blue eyes. Her whereabouts remain unknown. Baillie’s landlord, Olumuyiwa Dada, said the woman and her daughter moved in to a basement suite in the Panorama Hills house on May 1. He described them as very good tenants. He added the news came as a shock. “I’m really feeling down,” he said. “I only see things like this on the TV.” Keisha Meas and Shayla Do, two babysitters of the little girl, were in the neighbourhood Tuesday morning putting up posters with her photo. Do, who last saw Taliyah a couple of months ago, said she is a fun and caring person. “She laughs a lot and gives lots of hugs,” she said. “She’s like a little sister to me.” Meas has been babysitting the girl since she was two years old. She described Taliyah as “a happy kid.” “She’s always dancing and loving and caring,” she said. “She likes to love people, and she’s really good at making friends.” She said the girl’s mother, too, was “a loving person.” “She would always make me smile and happy,” Meas said. “If something’s wrong with somebody, she would be there and she would care for you and tell you everything’s OK.” Insp. Don Coleman with the Calgary police major crimes section said at this point, investigators are not ruling out anyone as a suspect. He said police have received tips from the public and offers of help from other police agencies. CPS are treating this as a homicide investigation, but the medical examiner’s office has not made that determination yet, said Coleman. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. “Somebody out there knows where Taliyah is, and that person or those people need to do the right thing,” he said. “Step up and make that happen.” The girl’s father, Colin Marsman — who also goes by Colin Paris — is believed to be estranged. Coleman said police have spoken to him and he is co-operating with the investigation. “Colin loves Taliyah,” said the man’s girlfriend, Jessica Mardinger, in a message. “He is in so much pain.” While neither of the parents is known to police, Coleman said there is a limited history of domestic violence, both reported and unreported. According to court documents, Marsman was charged with unlawful confinement and intimidation for preventing Baillie from using her cellphone to call police in connection with a Feb. 1, 2015, incident. Those charges were later withdrawn and he agreed to enter into a peace bond last March with conditions for a year, including having no contact with Baillie except by text to access his child through a third party. Under the peace bond, he was also ordered to participate in and complete counselling, treatment or programming for substance abuse, domestic violence, and anger management, and was banned from buying, possessing, using or consuming intoxicating substances, including alcohol and non-prescription drugs. He was also prohibited from entering any business whose main business was the sale of alcohol, and prohibited from owning, possessing or carrying weapons — including knives — except for preparing and eating food and for work. Coleman said the woman didn’t show up to work Monday, so family members contacted police and the victim was found in the home. The Amber Alert extends provincewide, but police say there is nothing to suggest that the five-year-old is outside Calgary. “We’re not ruling out any possibilities, including that she may be in the care of somebody right now and been dropped off and that person or those people may not know what’s transpired,” said Coleman. Baillie worked at the Chili’s Texas Grill at the Calgary International Airport, according to colleagues, who did not want to be named. They said support was being offered to grieving staff. Related Police say they’re speaking with witnesses and persons of interest in relation to the incident. The investigation is ongoing. “Our primary focus is the safe return of Taliyah,” said Coleman. Anyone with information is asked to call 403-532-6237. With files from Kevin Martin |||||

– Police are searching for a missing 5-year-old girl after her mother was found dead in their apartment Monday in Canada, the Calgary Herald reports. Investigators believe Sara Baillie was killed, though a cause of death hasn't been given, and an Amber Alert for her daughter Taliyah Marsman was issued early Tuesday. According to the Canadian Press, Taliyah was last seen by family on Sunday morning. The girl's aunt and uncle describe her as a "vivacious, wonderful child." “She’s always dancing and loving and caring,” a babysitter tells the Herald. “She likes to love people, and she’s really good at making friends.” Taliyah's father and Baillie's estranged common-law husband, Colin Marsman, asked for anyone with information regarding his daughter's whereabouts to come forward. "With all my heart, I love her sooo much; she is my light! Please allow her to come home to her family," CBC quotes a statement issued by Marsman Wednesday. "Those who know me best, know the person and kind of father I am, and know more than anything, I just want my baby girl back.” Authorities say there is some history of domestic violence between Marsman and Baillie. Marsman is cooperating with police, but they aren't ruling out anyone as a suspect.

Story highlights Smith was outed on Wednesday night's episode Varner tweeted an apology This story contains spoilers for Wednesday's episode of "Survivor: Game Changers." (CNN) The outing of a "Survivor" cast member on television has sparked outrage. Zeke Smith, who appeared on back-to-back seasons of the reality series, was revealed to be a transgender man by fellow contestant Jeff Varner in an episode that aired Wednesday night. Varner, who is gay, shared the information during an emotional Tribal Council on "Survivor: Game Changers." "Why haven't you told anyone you're transgender?" Varner asked Smith. Other contestants reacted negatively, telling Varner that was personal and he shouldn't have said it. Varner insisted he did it to show that Smith was deceptive during the game. ||||| Each week host Jeff Probst will answer a few questions about the most recent episode of Survivor: Game Changers. This week, he gives his on-the-scene and behind-the-scenes insight and reaction to Jeff Varner outing Zeke Smith as transgender. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Okay, so clearly a lot to unpack here with Jeff Varner outing Zeke as trans on national television. Let’s start with your initial reaction when Jeff said that at Tribal Council. JEFF PROBST: I’m pretty sure my reaction was the same as viewers watching at home. I saw Jeff Varner turn to Zeke and make what was essentially a statement — vaguely disguised as a question: “Why haven’t you told anyone here you’re transgender?” On one hand, it was such a tiny moment… so simple and quiet… that I wasn’t certain I heard what I heard. My brain had to rewind and play it back. And if you watch the reaction at Tribal, Zeke’s tribemates seemed to go thru the same moment. They heard it… but had to process it… and then once it landed they responded quite vocally. And while they were sharing their feelings with Varner, I was still running it in my head. This… just… happened. It seems everyone on the tribe — Tai, Andrea, Ozzy, Debbie, Sarah — had their moment of telling Jeff in very strong language that what he did was completely unacceptable. What did you make of what I would describe as their unified disgust at what had happened? In 34 seasons of Survivor, I have rarely, if ever, personally commented on what is said or done in the game. But this is a unique situation that falls outside the normal boundaries. I cannot imagine anyone thinking what was done to Zeke was okay on any level, under any circumstances, and certainly not simply because there was a million dollars on the line. I think the response from the tribe, as it so often does, mirrors what the vast majority of society will feel. You just don’t do that to someone. Witnessing that moment was so powerful because from my seat at Tribal, I could see it all. Varner was in the middle being attacked by angry tribemates while Zeke sat in the corner, outside of the action in what appeared to be a mild state of shock. It was one of the most surreal moments I’ve ever encountered on the show. From the outside, it looked and sounded like a regular Tribal Council but in reality, it was one of the most raw and painful studies of human behavior that has ever happened on Survivor. Zeke was so composed in his response to what Jeff Varner did. How impressed were you with his reaction? We knew Zeke was a tremendous storyteller with an amazing ability to take a specific moment from the game or life and give it a universal perspective. That’s why we asked him back to play a second time. And yet I was still blown away by how he handled the entire situation. It was as if he had been preparing for this absolutely unpredictable, completely public, and incredibly vulnerable moment for his entire life. His composure was astounding. And when he connected the entire event to the word metamorphosis, I distinctly remember thinking — how in the world did you just do that? I was also very impressed with the compassion Zeke showed Varner. I wonder if some people will say he shouldn’t have hugged him or shouldn’t have forgiven him. But as a viewer to that moment, I found his ability to still find some level of humanity for someone who had just injured him so severely, maybe his crowning moment. And there is another moment that I hope was as inspiring for others as it was for me, and that was when Sarah told Zeke she was glad she got to know Zeke for who Zeke is and would never see him any other way. That moment — when a police officer from a conservative Midwest background without much exposure to the “gay and lesbian and transgender world” realized her own growth, her own metamorphosis, it completed the circle. This is how change and acceptance happens. Watch PEN Fan Forum: Survivor, on the new PEOPLE/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN) here, or download the free app on your Smart TV, mobile and web devices. And check out an exclusive deleted scene at the top of this post. When you spoke with Zeke before his first season during the interview process, did the subject ever come up in terms of whether he planned to tell players he was trans and how he would handle it if someone brought it up? My story with Zeke goes like this. I met Zeke in casting and loved him. I still have my original notes from that meeting. He was very engaging, gifted in his ability to manipulate with his words, and he wore this crazy Hawaiian shirt and had poofy hair. We knew we were doing Millennials vs. Gen X as a theme and we wanted him on the Millennials tribe immediately. It wasn’t until after he left that I was told he was transgender. From that point forward we agreed that if his story was to be told, he would be the one to decide when, where, and how. As for someone else bringing it up, Zeke was fully aware someone might suspect it or bring it up and he said, “I will deal with it as it arises.” And I have to add it was never a question of Zeke being worried his story would come out. ,Zeke is a massive Survivor fan and his point with us was very clear — he wanted to be seen as a Survivor player. Not the first transgender Survivor player. I really respected that distinction and I understood it. The tribe was clearly all shaken by this incident. How were you after Tribal Council finished? I don’t really remember a lot about my own feelings in the moments after Tribal. I remember feeling that Zeke seemed very centered when he left Tribal, despite what he had gone through and I believed his tribemates would help him work through things back at camp. But we were in touch with the producer on the beach that night to just ensure everything was going okay. And then the other concern was Jeff Varner. Although I do not condone on any level what Varner did, I was still aware that he was without any of his support group of family and friends. He would be returning to Ponderosa, where voted out contestants go, after making one of the worst decisions of his life. Fortunately, we have a full-time psychologist on staff who knows all of the contestants and is there to help them through any of the many things that come up on Survivor. I think those sessions in the days after the event helped Varner as he tried to make sense of everything. Have you spoken to Jeff Varner at all since this incident and do you think he is genuinely mortified by what he did? I spoke with Varner the day after it happened and I think he was still in a bit of shock. It was clear he was upset and the realization of it all was still washing over him. I do believe he wishes he could take the entire event back. I hope Varner is able to take this moment and turn it into something positive. People make mistakes. Granted this happens to be a pretty severe one, but as you saw even with Zeke — there is hope that something good can come from this. That would be my wish… that Varner will seize this as an opportunity to be a catalyst for positive change by owning his mistake and moving forward in a new direction. Finally, we always take a sneak peek at what’s coming up. I know we have a merge on the horizon. And I have to imagine the Nuku tribe will still be decompressing from what just happened. I’m going to break tradition tonight and let the events of this very special episode breathe for a moment. But Survivor will be back next week… and someone will be voted out. The game continues. ||||| In the seventh episode of CBS' Survivor: Game Changers, castaway Zeke Smith — returning for his second appearance in two seasons — was outed by a fellow contestant as transgender. In the following exclusive column for The Hollywood Reporter, Zeke — one of very few players in show history to compete on back-to-back seasons — shares his side of the journey, his experience as a trans man, the reasons why he pursued Survivor, the thrill of that adventure, and what it was like on the night he was outed on national television — and how he powered through it. I'm not wild about you knowing that I'm trans. An odd sentiment, I realize, for someone who signed up for two seasons of the CBS reality giant, Survivor. See, when I got on a plane to Fiji last March, I expected to get voted out third. I'd return home, laugh at my misadventure, and go about my life, casually trans in the same way that Zac Efron is casually Jewish. But that's not what happened. I ended up being pretty good at Survivor. I was invited back immediately for an all-star season, during the course of which I was maliciously outed by a former local network news anchor. What a summer! After 34 seasons, Survivor is far from the cute little social experiment it began as in the summer of 2000. Yes, castaways still sleep in the dirt and eat only what can be scrounged around the island, primarily coconut. Coconut, by the way, is a natural laxative. Deep into the 39-day adventure, players reach a crossroads where they must decide between starving or eating a handful of coconut and enduring severe gastrointestinal distress. There's no bathroom. There's no toilet paper. If anything needs cleaning, it gets cleaned with sand and saltwater. But, the harsh elements merely play backdrop to a complex game of social politics dominated by secret alliances, hidden advantages and each cutthroat player's ability to befriend and betray any who stand in their way. The world possesses no greater test of wit and grit than Survivor … at least that's what I believe, but I'm a pretty ridiculous individual, which is why, when seeking to radically change my life and test the depths of my manhood, I picked a reality show instead of something actually noble, like joining the Peace Corps. And it is in that same spirit of ridiculousness that I honestly tell you I would not change a single element of the story I'm about to relay, for I loved my adventure and cannot wait to embark upon the next. Growing up, I set big lofty goals — Broadway, a high school debate championships, Harvard — and pursued them doggedly. While my peers in Oklahoma were content to follow the path set for them, I forged my own, leaping from boulder to boulder with no regard for what was expected of me. I leapt fueled solely by my belief in myself, because, well, nobody liked me very much. I leapt fearlessly, until ... I crashed. The double whammy of major depression and transitioning blasted away my confidence. The failure I experienced made me doubt everything I once believed to be true about myself. I stopped dreaming. I stopped leaping. I found it difficult enough to simply put one foot in front of the other. This happened to be the moment in my life when I began watching Survivor. So significant was the experience that I remember where I watched episode one of Survivor: Cook Islands; I remember the date, May 2, 2010; I remember distinctly Jeff Probst's opening line, "You are watching 20 Americans begin an adventure that will forever change their lives." I was hooked. Transitioning created the opportunity to remake myself — to really consider and construct the man I wanted to be. Whether I was conscious of it or not, "Survivor player" became part of the remodel blue prints. Suddenly, I found myself drawn to engage in challenging social situations, run obstacle races and backpack the Grand Canyon. None of which were ventures I'd have chosen earlier in my life. But there was this pesky little voice in the back of my mind persistently whispering, "Survivor," so I created these challenges — quizzes, I suppose, to acquire the fortitude necessary to play the game. I lost many from my life when I transitioned. Most were supportive in theory, but distanced themselves, unsure and a little weirded out by the process. On the whole, the world doesn't treat trans people with much kindness. Even those who aren't outwardly hateful crinkle their noses at you. When enough people crinkle their noses at you, you begin to think you stink. I began connecting with others in a meaningful way around the same time that my being trans stopped being a readily known fact about me. After graduating and moving to New York, no one knew me or saw me as anything other than Zeke, which was tremendously liberating — my whole life, I desired my manhood to be known without question or qualification. Many gay people consider coming out a moment of liberation, because sharing their sexual orientation with the world causes them to be seen more authentically. Often, the opposite is true for trans people. When we share our gender history, many see us less authentically — doubting, probing or denying our identities. As someone who is not readily perceived to be trans, I possess a great deal of privilege, both because I can control — well, used to control — who knows my gender history, and also because I don't experience the same type of discrimination, or even violence, that more visible trans people face — especially trans women of color. A person's gender history is private information and it is up to them, and only them, when, how and to whom they choose to disclose that information. Keeping your gender history private is not the same as a gay person being "in the closet." The only people who need to know are medical professionals and naked fun time friends. There's no playbook for being trans. You make it up as you go along, and I struggled with finding the right time to disclose my gender history to those close to me. What was appropriate? A week? A month? My gut would tell me to fill someone in, but then panic would wash over me. What if that person told other people? My biggest concern was that if people knew, their opinion of me would change. I feared if I let anyone too close, they'd smell my stench and not want to be my friend anymore. Better to have acquaintances than no one at all. So I held them at arm's length. Honestly, I held the world at arm's length. I came to fear discomfort and risk taking on the off chance that I might fail again. I never resumed leaping. I followed the path of least resistance, telling myself I would amount to something someday, just not today. Until one day I realized that if the somedays didn't start becoming todays, I'd run out of days. If the first chapter of the Zeke book of my life is about rebuilding from failure, I was well rebuilt. However, the structure's sturdiness needed to be tested, because until it was, I would never definitively know if I was the man I believed myself to be. On a hot night in the summer of 2015, I pondered what this test might be. The answer appeared instantly, for it had been the constant in this chapter: Survivor. I applied. I didn't discuss my trans status in my initial video because I wanted the show to desire me as a game player and an eccentric storyteller, not as "The First Trans Survivor Player." They did. Casting called back two hours later, and I began to panic. I'd chosen to test myself in a tremendously public way. The results of the test wouldn't be discreetly mailed back to me; they'd be broadcast to the entire world. I threw myself into preparation. There was no room for failure. I lifted weights in the morning, swam at night, and in between acclimated to the heat in the sauna while reading books on mental toughness techniques utilized by endurance athletes. I ordered a bundle of bamboo poles and practiced making fire on the roof of my apartment building. I gave up caffeine and booze. I solved puzzles and tied and untied knots. I listened to Hamilton. A lot. I was not throwing away my shot. The reality of playing Survivor terrified me, but I resolved that nothing would stand between me and the island. So I woke up every morning and told myself I would win. I faked confidence, hoping that when the day finally came to be dropped on a beach and meet the dashingly dimpled host and executive producer, Jeff Probst, I'd finally believe it. The moment I put that buff, the official Survivor player uniform, on my head, my confidence became real. I knew I'd conquer whatever the game might throw at me. I was free. Now I could just play. My rookie season, Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X, instantly proved challenging. No one on my tribe of freewheeling Millennials had any idea how — or willingness to — build a shelter. The first night we huddled together in the mud as the Fijian skies dumped buckets of rain upon us. But I went to be challenged. I loved it. Not even Beyonce herself could've tempted me out of the rain and mud and back into my soft Brooklyn bed. All my preparation paid off: I made fire with bamboo — I made a fire by rubbing two damn sticks together. I excelled in challenges, proving myself adept in the water and a master at puzzles. Strategically, I initially found myself the low man on the totem pole. I very easily could've been voted out third, but I managed to form strong relationships, maneuver other players to my will and climb my way to the top of the pack. I impressed the hell out of myself. I couldn't believe how well I was doing. Put under Survivor's high stakes, I got out of my own way and allowed myself to be the man I always hoped I would be. Playing Survivor well means knowing when to play fast and when to play slow, but deep into the game I was having so much fun playing fast that I laid on the gas. My prowess became undeniable and, as is the fate of most who are considered the leading threat to win, I was voted out. Jeff Probst looked me square in the eyes and snuffed my torch, extinguishing my life in the game. Twenty minutes later, before I could scarf a cheeseburger or peel off my rotting boxers, Probst asked if I was up for doing it all over again ... in two weeks … alongside some of the game's best players. "I'm your guy," I told Probst. I was initially drawn to play in order to prove myself a cunning strategist worthy of a rare and highly coveted chance to one day return to the game. I'd made such a believer out of Probst that my second shot came immediately, which meant that I was every bit the player I'd dreamed I'd be. I cannot think of a time in my life when I was happier, more fulfilled and more at peace with myself. I was living, finally. Why stop now? Playing with rookies was one thing, but playing alongside my Survivor heroes in a season called Survivor: Game Changers was quite another. It was like waking up in Westeros, Lord Zeke of the Mustache Lands, fighting to claim the Iron Throne. But instead of flying dragons with Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, I trailed Ozzy, Master of Spear Fishing, out to the reef, dove down and watched him catch fish. Tai, the Chicken Whisperer, and I killed three chickens together. Debbie, the Woman with an Infinite Number of Jobs, told me about all of her jobs. I'd been charmed by my castmates' quirks and touched by their stories. There's no one whose journey resonated with me more than former local network news anchor Jeff Varner. Walking into the season, his story was that he'd played twice and never made the jury, the Survivor equivalent of making the playoffs. This was Varner's third shot and likely his last. If he didn't make the jury, he'd forever be remembered as the only three-time player to never do so. To his credit, Varner received some bad breaks during his first two seasons, and in Game Changers, bad luck befell him once again. The numbers were not in his favor, but they were in mine, and I was excited to be on a tribe with him. I wanted the jury for him. I wanted to be the guy who made it happen. Varner and I connected quickly. Events in his life back home drew him to seek an understanding of gay people's place in Christianity. I studied religion in college, focusing specifically on LGBTQ people and the Bible. Though I'm not particularly religious, I feel passionately that people of faith should not be denied religious ritual or spiritual community because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and shared what I'd learned with Varner over long conversations on the beach. I saw a pain, a brokenness in his eyes that felt all too familiar — a longing for the spotlight, but a desire to remain unseen. Though Varner has been openly gay for many years, he chose not to discuss his sexual orientation during his first two stints on the show. Beyond his charm and charisma, I thought I recognized a deep-seated insecurity and self-loathing, a glimpse at who I could become were I not careful. All Varner had to do was make it until tomorrow and he'd get his jury seat. But he wasn't going to. Our tribe proved unable to unscramble a word, metamorphosis, losing the Immunity Challenge and sending us to Tribal Council. Everyone's best move was unquestionably to get rid of Varner. My heart broke for him. I mulled over all the scenarios to save him, but each required me to significantly jeopardize my position. As much as I felt for the man, I wasn't giving up my dream for his. You never want a player to know they're going home, because they might get desperate and go nuclear, douse the fire or pour out the rice. But my heart overrode my head when I sat down with him that afternoon. I told him he was going home. I thought he deserved to know it would be his last day on the beach. Tribal Council throws the question of life and death into stark relief. One member of the tribe must be sacrificed each visit. Players ask each other: Which one of us do we kill tonight? Fire, the flame of your torch, represents your life. When Probst snuffs that flame, your life is over. You exit to the left, into the darkness, what I called The Abyss. The rest of the tribe exits to the right, back to camp with a renewed lease on life. Clearly, the stakes are not actually life and death. We're a group of adults playing a very expensive game of make believe. But, despite all its deprivations, your Survivor life can be superior to your regular life. I remember walking into Tribal Council that night. I remember the smell of the kerosene in our torches. I remember the smug smirk on his face and the gleam in his eye when he turned to me and snarled, "Why haven't you told anyone that you’re transgender?" The lights magnified in brightness. The cameras, though 30 feet away, suddenly felt inches from my face. All sound faded. Something primal deep inside me screamed: run. I lost control of my body, my legs bounced up and down uncontrollably, willing me to flee, but the rest of me sat dead as stone. To my left was The Abyss. I could've made a clean break for it, but I knew there was no running from what had happened. Cameras would follow me, if not that night, then eventually. Running was not an option. So I sat blank, almost in a trance, unaware of what happened around me, trying to form a plan. Survivor had spun out of control. That's the risk you take when you dance in the ethical borderlands, where you'll betray a friend, swear on your mother and lie to a priest, all before you eat whatever meager crumbs count as breakfast. In Survivor, much is permissible which is typically objectionable, but there are limits, as there should be on a family-friendly reality show on network television. It's one thing to lie about someone sneaking off at night to search for hidden advantages. It is quite another to incense bigotry toward a marginalized minority. Responsibility fell upon my shoulders to right the ship that had blown perilously far off course. I could let this be one of the worst moments of my life or one of the greatest. If I set the tone, everyone would follow. The power was in my hands. I told myself, "Dude, you resolved to never stop playing. Buck up and make this OK." I am forever grateful that Probst gave me time to collect myself. Were I in the hands of a lesser leader, I'm sure questions would've been peppered my way before I was ready to receive them. I could not have responded in the manner in which I did had he not held the wheel while I got my bearings. I tuned back in to the conversation and found chaos — tears, yelling, anger, but mostly confusion. I needed to calm everyone down. My chance to re-enter appeared — an opportunity to provide clarification. I spoke as calmly as I possibly could. Each word came slowly. Typically, my brain races far ahead of my ability to form words, but then it trudged, carefully selecting its path. My right leg settled down, but my left still jittered. I took solace in my tribemates. They defended me passionately. Even Probst, the most neutral of arbiters, had my back. My left leg settled and with it the group. Tears dried, voices lowered and the attention turned to me to make sense of what happened. I didn't know what to say. Months before, I plotted how I'd respond in case of such a disaster scenario, but those words were written a lifetime ago and nowhere in mind. I groped for direction, talking to kill time. Then, a single word appeared, the word I couldn't find earlier in the day, the word that encapsulated my 50-plus days on the island: metamorphosis. Everything clicked. I sat up straight. My mind revved back up to full speed. As I spoke, l locked eyes with Probst, and he nodded along with me, as if to say, "Yes, yes, you've got it." The ship was out of rough waters and back into placid seas. I knew that Varner's actions, though targeted at me, had nothing to do with me and everything to do with him. His terrible utterances were not an effect of my actions, but a reflection of his own personal maladies. But in calling me deceptive, Varner invoked one of the most odious stereotypes of transgender people, a stereotype that is often used as an excuse for violence and even murder. In proclaiming "Zeke is not the guy you think he is" and that "there is deception on levels y'all don't understand," Varner is saying that I'm not really a man and that simply living as my authentic self is a nefarious trick. In reality, by being Zeke the dude, I am being my most honest self — as is every other transgender person going about their daily lives. I don't believe Varner hates trans people, just as I don't believe conservative politicians who attack trans people actually care where we use the bathroom. For both, trans people make easy targets for those looking to invoke prejudice in order to win votes. Thankfully, my tribemates rebuffed his hateful tactics. After 18 days starving and competing with me, they knew exactly the man I am, and after that Tribal Council, we all knew exactly the man Varner is. I looked to Varner, now the one hunched and quivering, and contemplated the backlash he would face. When he said what he said, he changed both of our lives forever. When he pulled me in for a hug, I felt compelled to reciprocate, both as a sign that I was willing to forgive him and that the shots he had fired missed. But, if we're being perfectly honest with one another, I've struggled with that forgiveness in the months following. I can't foresee us sipping martinis together in Fire Island. While I can reconcile the personal slight of him outing me, I continue to be troubled by his willingness to deploy such a dangerous stereotype on a global platform. But forgiveness does not require friendship. Forgiveness does not require forgetting or excusing his actions. Forgiveness requires hope. Hope that he understands the injury he caused and does not inflict it upon others. Hope that whatever torments his soul will plague him no more. I have hope for Jeff Varner. I just choose to hope from afar, thank you very much. To adventure is to invite hazard into your life. The thrill of adventure comes from accepting this risk, and the reward from confronting whatever might be thrown at you. But you cannot control the hazards you face, be they repeated misfortune or the harmful actions of others. You can only control how you respond. It's up to you to decide whether the hazard will define you or you will define the hazard. At the conclusion of Tribal, Jeff Varner's torch was snuffed. He walked into the darkness, and the rest of us headed back to camp. There's no special dispensation for a traumatic Tribal. No chocolate chip cookies. No phone call home. Just the dirt and the hunger and the honor of another day playing the world's greatest game. Follow THR.com/Survivor for more coverage from the season, and let us know what you think of Zeke's story in the comments below. ||||| After Wednesday’s shocking and emotional episode of Survivor, fans of the hit show took social media by storm to react to Zeke Smith being outed as transgender by fellow contestant Jeff Varner. Fans were outraged by Varner’s decision, but praised Smith for the way he handled the situation, calling him a “shining star of a human being.” “Zeke is the strongest Survivor I’ve ever seen,” wrote one fan. “That tribal was horrifying & moving & beautiful all in one.” Another fan said the episode was “painful yet beautiful” and left them “speechless.” “Love is so important! Acceptance of everyone is important.” Zeke is the strongest Survivor I've ever seen. That tribal was horrifying & moving & beautiful all in one #SurvivorGameChangers — c b (@bobiakattack) April 13, 2017 Complete and utter shock. @zekerchief you responded so well. I don't know if I could have been that strong. #SurvivorGameChangers — Ashe King (@gamingurl42) April 13, 2017 #SurvivorGameChangers I'm speechless 😶 This episode was painful yet beautiful! Love is so important! Acceptance of everyone is important💖🌈 — 👯Danceypants⚡️ (@Pinkdiscoball77) April 13, 2017 The ugliest part of humanity followed by the most beautiful part. Well done Zeke #SurvivorGameChangers — Allison Thompson (@WayToGoMom) April 13, 2017 Of course, a large majority of tweets were aimed at Varner. Pepsi: Uh-oh. United: We're the worst. Sean Spicer: I got this. Jeff Varner: The week isn't over, y'all.#SurvivorGameChangers — K.A. Coleman (@KA_Coleman) April 13, 2017 Umm, the outing of Zeke on Survivor was rough to watch. That wasn't strategic, that was mean. #SurvivorGameChangers — Garrett (@GarrettzGotIt) April 13, 2017 That was the lowest thing I have seen on #survivor. Speechless. I knew this was coming but my heart still sunk. #SurvivorGameChangers — Nissy Dos (@Nisa911) April 13, 2017 RELATED VIDEO: PEN’s Survivor Fan Forum Reacts to Zeke Smith Being Outed as Transgender On Wednesday’s episode, Varner, 50, outed Smith, 29, during a tribal council in an attempt to paint the Brooklyn-based asset manager as “deceitful” and therefore worthy of being voted out. The move backfired entirely: Varner’s tribemates quickly admonished him for his actions, and he was ousted by the tribe. Smith told PEOPLE he was “shell-shocked” by Varner’s decision and struggles with forgiving him. Robert Voets/CBS via Getty; Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty “I think he hoped others would believe that trans people are dangerous and fraudulent,” he said. “That reasoning is infinitely worse than him outing me because it’s the same one used to discriminate against, attack and murder trans people. What’s great is that nobody bought it.” “It’s important people see he lost that fight,” he added. “The message should be clear that hate will always lose.” Varner took to Twitter on Wednesday evening to issue a lengthy apology. “I offer my deepest, most heart-felt apologies to Zeke Smith, his friends and life allies, his family and to all those who my mistake hurt and offended,” he wrote. “I recklessly revealed something I mistakenly believed everyone already knew. I was wrong and make no excuses for it. I own responsibility in what is the worst decision of my life.” Survivor airs Wednesdays (8 p.m. ET) on CBS. ||||| "Survivor" contestant Zeke Smith was outed as transgender by fellow competitor Jeff Varner on Wednesday night's episode of the CBS reality competition. The move has prompted online criticism and condemnation by a major LGBT rights group. Varner made accusations of "a deception" before revealing that Smith is transgender on the episode . Varner was immediately criticized by other players. He repeatedly apologized, but was voted out of the competition. Smith explained that he didn't mention that he was transgendered because he didn't want to be known as "the trans 'Survivor' player." He writes in The Hollywood Reporter that by calling him deceptive, Varner invoked "one of the most odious stereotypes of transgender people." GLAAD also criticized the outing of Smith. It says it worked with CBS and Smith on how to properly respond. Varner calls his actions a "mistake" on Twitter and says he's "deeply saddened." |||||

– "I was maliciously outed by a former local network news anchor. What a summer!" That's how Zeke Smith sums up his adventure on Survivor: Game Changers, which turned out to be a bit more eventful than Smith's first appearance on the reality show last season. As Wednesday's episode revealed, fellow contestant Jeff Varner accused Smith of "a deception" before outing Smith as transgender, per the AP—a move that has drawn condemnation from an LGBT rights group, host Jeff Probst, and the public at large, per People. Though Varner apologized before he was voted off the show, Smith says he's struggled with forgiving him in the eight months since filming wrapped, in a piece for the Hollywood Reporter. "In calling me deceptive, Varner invoked one of the most odious stereotypes of transgender people," Smith writes. Varner, who is gay, implied "that I'm not really a man and that simply living as my authentic self is a nefarious trick." GLAAD has criticized Varner's move, while Probst tells Entertainment Weekly that the reaction of his teammates, who swiftly defended Smith, "mirrors what the vast majority of society will feel. You just don’t do that to someone." After Wednesday's episode aired, Varner offered his "deepest, most heartfelt apologies" in a statement on Twitter, per CNN. "I recklessly revealed something I mistakenly believed everyone already knew. I was wrong and make no excuses for it," he said.

Flames consume a Kentucky Fried Chicken as the Camp Fire tears through Paradise, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) (Associated Press) Flames consume a Kentucky Fried Chicken as the Camp Fire tears through Paradise, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Both nature and humans share blame for California's devastating wildfires, but forest management did not play a major role, despite President Donald Trump's claims, fire scientists say. Nature provides the dangerous winds that have whipped the fires, and human-caused climate change over the long haul is killing and drying the shrubs and trees that provide the fuel, experts say. "Natural factors and human-caused global warming effects fatally collude" in these fires, said wildfire expert Kristen Thornicke of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Multiple reasons explain the fires' severity, but "forest management wasn't one of them," University of Utah fire scientist Philip Dennison said. Trump tweeted on Saturday: "There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests." The death toll from the wildfire that incinerated the town of Northern California town of Paradise and surrounding areas climbed to 29, matching the mark for the deadliest single blaze in California history. Statewide, the number of fire dead stood at 31, including two victims in Southern California. One reason that scientists know that management isn't to blame is that some areas now burning had fires in 2005 and 2008, so they aren't "fuel-choked closed-canopy forests," Dennison said. In those earlier fires, Paradise was threatened but escaped major damage, he said. In the current blazes, it was virtually destroyed. The other major fire, in Southern California, burned through shrub land, not forest, Dennison said. "It's not about forest management. These aren't forests," he said. The dean of the University of Michigan's environmental school, Jonathan Overpeck, said Western fires are getting bigger and more severe. He said it "is much less due to bad management and is instead the result of our baking of our forests, woodlands and grasslands with ever-worsening climate change." Wildfires have become more devastating because of the extreme weather swings from global warming, fire scientists said. The average number of U.S. acres burned by wildfires has doubled over the level from 30 years ago. As of Monday, more than 13,200 square miles (34,200 square kilometers) have burned. That's more than a third higher than the 10-year average. From 1983 to 1999, the United States didn't reach 10,000 square miles burned annually. Since then, 11 of 19 years have had more than 10,000 square miles burned, including this year. In 2006, 2015 and 2017, more than 15,000 square miles burned. The two fires now burning "aren't that far out of line with the fires we've seen in these areas in recent decades," Dennison said. "The biggest factor was wind," Dennison said in an email. "With wind speeds as high as they were, there was nothing firefighters could do to stop the advance of the fires." These winds, called Santa Ana winds, and the unique geography of high mountains and deep valleys act like chimneys, fortifying the fires, Thornicke said. The wind is so strong that fire breaks — areas where trees and brush have been cleared or intentionally burned to deprive the advancing flames of fuel — won't work. One of the fires jumped over eight lanes of freeway, about 140 feet (43 meters), Dennison said. Southern California had fires similar to the Woolsey fire in 1982, when winds were 60 mph, but "the difference between 1982 and today is a much higher population in these areas. Many more people were threatened and had to evacuated," Dennison said. California also has been in drought for all but a few years of the 21st century and is now experiencing its longest drought, which began on Dec. 27, 2011, and has lasted 358 weeks, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor . Nearly two-thirds of the state is abnormally dry. The first nine months of the year have been fourth-warmest on record for California, and this past summer was the second-hottest on record in the state. Because of that, there are 129 million dead trees, which provide fuel for fires, Thornicke said. And it's more than trees. Dead shrubs around the bottom of trees provide what is called "ladder fuel," offering a path for fire to climb from the ground to the treetops and intensifying the conflagration by a factor of 10 to 100, said Kevin Ryan, a fire consultant and former fire scientist at the U.S. Forest Service. While many conservatives advocate cutting down more trees to prevent fires, no one makes money by cutting dead shrubs, and that's a problem, he said. Local and state officials have cleared some Southern California shrub, enough for normal weather and winds. But that's not enough for this type of extreme drought, said Ryan, also a former firefighter. University of Alberta fire scientist Mike Flanigan earlier this year told The Associated Press that the hotter and drier the weather, the easier it is for fires to start, spread and burn more intensely. It's simple, he said: "The warmer it is, the more fire we see." For every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit that the air warms, it needs 15 percent more rain to make up for the drying of the fuel, Flannigan said. Federal fire and weather data show the years with the most acres burned were generally a degree warmer than average. "Everyone who has gardened knows that you must water more on hotter days," Overpeck said. "But, thanks in part to climate change, California isn't getting enough snow and rain to compensate for the unrelenting warming caused by climate change. The result is a worsening wildfire problem. ___ Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: @borenbears . ___ The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| “It really is time for a reckoning with this unfit leader,” Neil Young wrote of Donald Trump Sunday. This time, Young’s wrath wasn’t just brought on by the president’s continued unauthorized use of “Rockin’ in the Free World,” which the musician had railed against less than a week ago. Young has lost the Malibu home he shared with his wife, Daryl Hannah, in the devastating fires. Seeing Trump blame the deadly calamity on the state of California itself set him toward writing a response, not in the form of a tweet but rather a 300-word essay that he published on his website, Neil Young Archives. “California is vulnerable — not because of poor forest management, as DT (our so-called president) would have us think,” the longtime environmental activist wrote on his website, Neil Young Archives. “As a matter of fact this is not a forest fire that rages on as I write this. We are vulnerable because of Climate Change; the extreme weather events and our extended drought is part of it… Our temperatures are higher than ever here in our hottest summer on record. That has not helped. DT seems to be the Denier. (I’m holding back and not using the word liar just because it rhymes with denier.) It really is time for a reckoning with this unfit leader. Maybe our new Congress can help. I sure hope so.” Young ended the essay by writing, “Imagine a leader who defies science, saying these solutions shouldn’t be part of his decision-making on our behalf. Imagine a leader who cares more for his own, convenient option than he does for the people he leads. Imagine an unfit leader. Now imagine a fit one.” Young was hardly the only celebrity responding to Trump’s tweeted assertions that the fires could be attributed to California’s bad management, although he might have been the first so directly affected by the firestorm. “This is an absolutely heartless response,” Katy Perry tweeted back to Trump. “There aren’t even politics involved. Just good American families losing their homes as you tweet, evacuating into shelters.” Rod Stewart posted, “Mr. President, while people’s homes are burning, while lives are being lost & while firefighters are risking their lives, California needs words of support & encouragement, not threats or finger pointing & accusations. Where is Winston Churchill when you need him?” Just days earlier, immediately prior to the midterm elections, Young had used his first (and, to date, still only) Instagram post to let the free world know just how he felt about Trump using one of his signature songs as a staple at campaign events, despite his beseeching the president to stop. “DT does not have my permission to use the song ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ at his appearances,” Young posted. “Legally, he has the right to, however it goes against my wishes. I made this perfectly clear, after he played it in a media moment to announce his candidacy. I asked him then, in a widely shared, public letter to cease and desist. However, he chose not to listen to my request, just as he chooses not to listen to the many American voices who ask him to stop his constant lies, to stop his petty, nasty name calling and bullying, to stop pushing his dangerous, vilifying and hateful rhetoric. This man does not represent the character of the people in the USA that I have come to know and love. I’m Canadian so I can’t vote in the States, but if you can,take this great opportunity to make your voice heard,and vote!” The loss shared by Young and Hannah, his wife of a few months, is not the first time the musician has been hit by a Malibu fire. In October 1978, Meeker Mansion, the home where he’d lived while recording albums like “Zuma” in the mid-‘70s, burned to the ground in an arson fire. A Malibu recording studio where Young had worked, Indigo Ranch, was destroyed in a 2007 fire. Young’s website, Neil Young Archives, currently offers all of his decades of music for free, although it will move to a subscription model later in the year. The song title listed as the No. 1 streamed song by fans over the weekend seemed to suggest their reaction to all the tragedy hanging in the air: “Helpless.” Young’s statement Sunday appeared in a newspaper-like section of his website that he calls the NYA Times-Contrarian (under the headlines “BIG WINDS BLOW. Extreme, Unseen & Dire. That’s What Climate Change Looks Like” and “ZUMA hit by Giant Fire & Wind as all living things seek shelter”). His statement in full: “Life everywhere is affected by these fires. Residents of Malibu have brought their animals to the beaches for safety, shelter and companionship. “California is vulnerable – not because of poor forest management as DT (our so-called president) would have us think. As a matter of fact this is not a forest fire that rages on as I write this. We are vulnerable because of Climate Change; the extreme weather events and our extended drought is part of it. “Our temperatures are higher than ever here in our hottest summer on record. That has not helped. DT seems to be the Denier. (I’m holding back and not using the word liar just because it rhymes with denier.) It really is time for a reckoning with this unfit leader. Maybe our new Congress can help. I sure hope so. “California is a paradise for us all. A gift, we are sad to not be able to defend it against Mother Nature’s wrath. We love California. We are not ill-prepared. We are up against something bigger than we have ever seen. It’s too big for some to see at all. Firefighters have never seen anything like this before in their lives. I have heard that said countless times in the past two days, and I have lost my home before to a California fire, now another. “Hopefully we can come together as a people to take Climate Change on. We have the tools and could do it if we tried. There is no downside. “Imagine a leader who defies science, saying these solutions shouldn’t be part of his decision-making on our behalf. Imagine a leader who cares more for his own, convenient option than he does for the people he leads. Imagine an unfit leader. Now imagine a fit one. “Look around. NY” |||||

– President Trump on Saturday expressed his belief that the wildfires ravaging California can be blamed on "gross mismanagement of the forests." Neil Young, for one, isn't having it. Variety reports the musician lost his Malibu home in the fires, and on Sunday he offered a retort to Trump on his website in the form of a 300-word post (you'll need to register to read it in full). It reads in part: "California is vulnerable – not because of poor forest management as DT (our so-called president) would have us think. We are vulnerable because of climate change; the extreme weather events and our extended drought is part of it. ... We love California. We are not ill-prepared. We are up against something bigger than we have ever seen. It’s too big for some to see at all. Firefighters have never seen anything like this before in their lives." The AP backs up Young's assertion by way of an interview with University of Utah fire scientist Philip Dennison. He says there are a number of contributing factors, but "forest management wasn't one of them." He elaborates on why: Some of the areas that have been hit saw fires in 2005 and 2008, so they aren't "fuel-choked closed-canopy forests." And in the case of Southern California, what has burned isn't forest but shrub land. So of the other contributing factors, which was the big one? The Santa Ana winds, says Dennison. "With wind speeds as high as they were, there was nothing firefighters could do to stop the advance." Even fire breaks—areas where vegetation has been cleared or intentionally so as not to offer the oncoming flames fuel—has been no match. One of the fires straddled eight lanes of freeway, a distance of roughly 140 feet, he says.

ATLANTA, Feb. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Arby's, the national sandwich brand devoted to Meatcraft™, has unveiled plans to extend an olive branch to vegetarians on Leap Day. On Feb. 29 only, Arby's will take a leap by offering the company's first ever vegetarian menu, highlighted by Arby's® signature sandwich lineup, minus the delicious meats that make them sandwiches. Carnivores need not worry – Arby's regular protein-packed menu is available as usual, including the permanent return of the Loaded Italian Sandwich piled high with thinly-sliced ham, salami and pepperoni. "At Arby's, we're proud of our meats, but we also understand that meat isn't for everyone," said Rob Lynch, Chief Marketing Officer and Brand President of Arby's Restaurant Group, Inc. "So we've decided to give vegetarians a reason to visit Arby's on Leap Day by offering a one-day menu designed specifically for them. If it goes well, we'll likely bring back the vegetarian menu on Feb. 29 each year." The Arby's Leap Day vegetarian menu includes: Loaded Italian Sandwich: Melted cheese, banana peppers, shredded lettuce, tomato and red onion, with red wine vinaigrette and garlic aioli on a toasted Italian style roll minus the thinly-sliced ham, succulent salami and delicious pepperoni that made this one of the most popular sandwich launches in Arby's history. Melted cheese, banana peppers, shredded lettuce, tomato and red onion, with red wine vinaigrette and garlic aioli on a toasted Italian style roll minus the thinly-sliced ham, succulent salami and delicious pepperoni that made this one of the most popular sandwich launches in Arby's history. Reuben Sandwich: Marbled rye bread filled with melty Swiss cheese, tangy sauerkraut and creamy Thousand Island dressing. Remove the freshly sliced, perfectly brined, cooked and tender enough to flake with a fork corned beef. Marbled rye bread filled with melty Swiss cheese, tangy sauerkraut and creamy Thousand Island dressing. Remove the freshly sliced, perfectly brined, cooked and tender enough to flake with a fork corned beef. Smokehouse Brisket Sandwich: Smoked Gouda cheese, crispy onions, mayonnaise and BBQ sauce on a star top bun minus the mouthwatering, tender brisket hickory-smoked at a family-owned smokehouse in Texas . Smoked Gouda cheese, crispy onions, mayonnaise and BBQ sauce on a star top bun minus the mouthwatering, tender brisket hickory-smoked at a family-owned smokehouse in . Roast Beef Sandwich: A toasted sesame seed bun minus Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. Available in Classic, Mid or Max sizes. A toasted sesame seed bun minus Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. Available in Classic, Mid or Max sizes. Crispy Fish Sandwich: Tartar sauce and shredded lettuce on a toasted sesame seed bun minus Arby's wild-caught Alaskan Pollock crispy-fried to golden-brown perfection. Tartar sauce and shredded lettuce on a toasted sesame seed bun minus Arby's wild-caught Alaskan Pollock crispy-fried to golden-brown perfection. King's Hawaiian Fish Deluxe Sandwich: Sweet, fluffy buns from Hawaii topped with Cheddar cheese, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and tartar sauce minus Arby's crispy, sustainably-sourced and wild-caught Alaskan Pollock. Sweet, fluffy buns from topped with Cheddar cheese, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and tartar sauce minus Arby's crispy, sustainably-sourced and wild-caught Alaskan Pollock. Crispy Fish Flatbread: Shredded lettuce and tartar sauce wrapped in a fluffy flatbread without Arby's wild-caught Alaskan Pollock, crispy-fried to golden-brown perfection. Shredded lettuce and tartar sauce wrapped in a fluffy flatbread without Arby's wild-caught Alaskan Pollock, crispy-fried to golden-brown perfection. French Dip & Swiss Sandwich: Swiss cheese. Italian roll. French au jus. It's half the countries in the world on one sandwich, minus Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. Swiss cheese. Italian roll. French au jus. It's half the countries in the world on one sandwich, minus Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. Beef 'n Cheddar Classic Sandwich: A toasted onion roll topped with Cheddar cheese sauce and zesty Red Ranch minus Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. A toasted onion roll topped with Cheddar cheese sauce and zesty minus Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. Angus Philly Sandwich: Fire-roasted onions and peppers, melted Swiss cheese and mayo on a toasted Philly roll minus the mouthwatering USDA Choice top round Angus steak Arby's is known for. Fire-roasted onions and peppers, melted Swiss cheese and mayo on a toasted Philly roll minus the mouthwatering USDA Choice top round Angus steak Arby's is known for. Angus Three Cheese & Bacon Sandwich: Swiss cheese, shredded Cheddar cheese and parmesan peppercorn ranch sauce without the succulent sliced Angus steak and thick cut pepper bacon. Swiss cheese, shredded Cheddar cheese and parmesan peppercorn ranch sauce without the succulent sliced Angus steak and thick cut pepper bacon. Grand Turkey Club Sandwich: Melted Swiss cheese, crisp green lettuce, fresh red tomato and creamy mayo without Arby's marinated and roasted until it's tender and juicy turkey breast. Melted Swiss cheese, crisp green lettuce, fresh red tomato and creamy mayo without Arby's marinated and roasted until it's tender and juicy turkey breast. Roast Turkey Ranch & Bacon Sandwich: Peppercorn ranch sauce and Cheddar cheese sandwiched between two slices of honey wheat bread with tomato, onion and leaf lettuce minus Arby's marinated and roasted until it's tender and juicy turkey breast and thick-cut pepper bacon. Peppercorn ranch sauce and Cheddar cheese sandwiched between two slices of honey wheat bread with tomato, onion and leaf lettuce minus Arby's marinated and roasted until it's tender and juicy turkey breast and thick-cut pepper bacon. Roast Turkey Ranch & Bacon Wrap : Peppercorn ranch sauce and Cheddar cheese wrapped in a soft hearty grain wrap served without Arby's marinated and roasted until it's tender and juicy turkey breast and thick-cut pepper bacon. : Peppercorn ranch sauce and Cheddar cheese wrapped in a soft hearty grain wrap served without Arby's marinated and roasted until it's tender and juicy turkey breast and thick-cut pepper bacon. Roast Turkey & Swiss Sandwich: Ripe tomatoes, lettuce, thinly sliced red onions, Swiss cheese, mayonnaise and spicy brown honey mustard minus Arby's marinated and roasted until it's tender and juicy turkey breast. Ripe tomatoes, lettuce, thinly sliced red onions, Swiss cheese, mayonnaise and spicy brown honey mustard minus Arby's marinated and roasted until it's tender and juicy turkey breast. Roast Turkey & Swiss Wrap: Ripe tomatoes, lettuce, thinly sliced red onions, Swiss cheese, mayonnaise and spicy brown honey mustard on a grain wrap without Arby's marinated and roasted until it's tender and juicy turkey breast. Ripe tomatoes, lettuce, thinly sliced red onions, Swiss cheese, mayonnaise and spicy brown honey mustard on a grain wrap without Arby's marinated and roasted until it's tender and juicy turkey breast. Crispy Chicken Sandwich: Lettuce, mayonnaise and tomato served on a star top bun without Arby's crispy, all-white-meat Prime-Cut™ chicken breast. Lettuce, mayonnaise and tomato served on a star top bun without Arby's crispy, all-white-meat Prime-Cut™ chicken breast. Chicken Bacon Swiss Sandwich: Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and honey mustard. Served on a toasted star top bun without Arby's fried to perfection chicken breast topped with thick cut pepper bacon. Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and honey mustard. Served on a toasted star top bun without Arby's fried to perfection chicken breast topped with thick cut pepper bacon. Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwich: Swiss cheese and mayo on a star top bun minus Arby's crispy, tender, Prime-Cut delicious chicken cut from whole chicken breast, breaded, seasoned and fried daily and Arby's tasty and tender ham. Swiss cheese and mayo on a star top bun minus Arby's crispy, tender, Prime-Cut delicious chicken cut from whole chicken breast, breaded, seasoned and fried daily and Arby's tasty and tender ham. Corned Beef 'n Cheese Slider: Melted cheese on a soft, slider roll to enjoy as a side or on its own without the freshly sliced, perfectly brined, cooked and tender enough to flake with a fork corned beef. Melted cheese on a soft, slider roll to enjoy as a side or on its own without the freshly sliced, perfectly brined, cooked and tender enough to flake with a fork corned beef. Jalapeno Roast Beef Slider: Little sandwich, big kick. Diced fire-roasted jalapeños, topped with melted cheese on a slider-sized bun without Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. Little sandwich, big kick. Diced fire-roasted jalapeños, topped with melted cheese on a slider-sized bun without Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. Roast Beef 'n Cheese Slider: Melted cheese you love on a slider-sized bun, for when you want a mini-me of the classic without Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. Melted cheese you love on a slider-sized bun, for when you want a mini-me of the classic without Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. Chicken 'n Cheese Slider: Melted cheese on a bite-sized soft bun without Arby's fried to perfection chicken breast. Melted cheese on a bite-sized soft bun without Arby's fried to perfection chicken breast. Ham 'n Cheese Slider: Melted cheese on a soft slider roll without Arby's tasty and tender smokehouse cooked ham. Melted cheese on a soft slider roll without Arby's tasty and tender smokehouse cooked ham. Jr. Bacon Cheddar Melt: The Jr. Bacon Cheddar Melt has Arby's warm cheddar cheese sauce, on a slightly smaller sesame seed bun so as not to overwhelm you, all without Arby's signature roast beef topped with thick-cut pepper bacon. The Jr. Bacon Cheddar Melt has Arby's warm cheddar cheese sauce, on a slightly smaller sesame seed bun so as not to overwhelm you, all without Arby's signature roast beef topped with thick-cut pepper bacon. Jr. Roast Beef Sandwich: A soft bun that's just a little bit smaller than the Roast Beef Classic served without the classic roast beef. A soft bun that's just a little bit smaller than the Roast Beef Classic served without the classic roast beef. Jr. Ham & Cheddar Sandwich: Arby's sesame seed bun topped with warm cheddar cheese sauce minus Arby's tasty and tender oven-roasted ham piled on top. Arby's sesame seed bun topped with warm cheddar cheese sauce minus Arby's tasty and tender oven-roasted ham piled on top. Crispy Chicken Farmhouse Salad: The usual salad stuff like chopped fresh lettuce, diced tomatoes and shredded cheddar cheese without the piled high crispy, tender, delicious, chicken and layer of mouth-watering diced pepper bacon. The usual salad stuff like chopped fresh lettuce, diced tomatoes and shredded cheddar cheese without the piled high crispy, tender, delicious, chicken and layer of mouth-watering diced pepper bacon. Roast Turkey Farmhouse Salad: The usual salad stuff like chopped fresh lettuce, diced tomatoes and shredded cheddar cheese without the juicy roast turkey and mouth-watering diced pepper bacon. The usual salad stuff like chopped fresh lettuce, diced tomatoes and shredded cheddar cheese without the juicy roast turkey and mouth-watering diced pepper bacon. Chopped Side Salad: Lettuce showered with diced tomatoes and cheddar cheese. Lettuce showered with diced tomatoes and cheddar cheese. Loaded Curly Fries: Potatoes - the meats of the field. Sliced up curly and fried to perfection topped with cheddar sauce, shredded cheddar cheese, and ranch and served without the bacon. Potatoes - the meats of the field. Sliced up curly and fried to perfection topped with cheddar sauce, shredded cheddar cheese, and ranch and served without the bacon. Curly Fries: Potatoes. The meats of the field. Sliced up curly and fried to perfection. Potatoes. The meats of the field. Sliced up curly and fried to perfection. Mozzarella Sticks: Stretchy, cheesy, melty mozzarella that's battered and fried. Served with a marinara sauce for dipping. Stretchy, cheesy, melty mozzarella that's battered and fried. Served with a marinara sauce for dipping. Jalapeno Bites®: Spicy jalapeno halves filled with melted cream cheese with a side of Bronco Berry Sauce®. Spicy jalapeno halves filled with melted cream cheese with a side of Bronco Berry Sauce®. Steakhouse Onion Rings: Arby's Steakhouse Onion Rings are thick-cut, battered and fried until crispy. Arby's Steakhouse Onion Rings are thick-cut, battered and fried until crispy. Potato Cakes: Shredded potato fried to a crispy golden brown. It's a cake of potato. Shredded potato fried to a crispy golden brown. It's a cake of potato. Apple Turnover: A freshly baked pastry stuffed with apple filling. A freshly baked pastry stuffed with apple filling. Cherry Turnover: A freshly baked pastry stuffed with sweet cherry filling. A freshly baked pastry stuffed with sweet cherry filling. Chocolate Turnover: A freshly baked pastry filled with sweet, sweet chocolate. A freshly baked pastry filled with sweet, sweet chocolate. Chocolate Shake: A creamy and indulgent chocolate-y treat. A creamy and indulgent chocolate-y treat. Jamocha Shake: Arby's famous chocolate-y, coffee-y treat. Arby's famous chocolate-y, coffee-y treat. Vanilla Shake: A simple and satisfying vanilla treat. A simple and satisfying vanilla treat. Mint Chocolate Swirl Shake: A chocolate swirl shake with Andes® mint chocolate pieces. About Arby's Arby's, founded in 1964, is the first nationally franchised sandwich restaurant brand, with more than 3,300 restaurants worldwide. The Arby's brand purpose is "Inspiring Smiles Through Delicious Experiences™." Arby's® restaurants feature Fast Crafted™ service, a unique blend of quick-serve speed and value combined with the quality and made-for-you care of fast casual. Arby's Restaurant Group, Inc. is the parent company of the franchisor of the Arby's brand and is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. Visit Arbys.com for more information. With the current growth and momentum of the Brand, Arby's is actively seeking new franchisees. To learn more about available markets and requirements, visit DiscoverArbys.com. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/337127 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/337476 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150521/217860LOGO SOURCE Arby’s ||||| Hold onto your roast beef —vegetarians get their due on Feb. 29 when Arby's introduces a one-day-only vegetarian menu to each of its 3,400 outlets nationwide. This comes from the restaurant behind the term "Meatcraft." Crispy onions, cheese and nary a slice of beef in sight. Image: arby's The menu, which is in honor of leap year, is comprised of items on the fast-food chain's standard menu, sans meat. The prices for the sandwiches will not change. And don't worry: Meat-filled sandwiches remain on the bill of fare. "We’re proud of our meats and haven’t been shy about promoting them, so we wanted to show vegetarians that with a little creativity, Arby’s can fit into their diet as well," Arby's told Mashable. Diners will be able to choose from options like the Reuben Sandwich, the Smokehouse Brisket Sandwich and the Beef 'n' Cheddar classic sandwich that are all lacking their eponymous ingredient. Vegetables, condiments and cheese reign supreme as the featured sandwich-stuffers. The (vegetarian) Loaded Italian Sandwich Image: Arby's In a press release, Chief Marketing Officer and Brand President Rob Lynch said, “If it goes well, we’ll likely bring back the vegetarian menu on Feb. 29 each year.” We know you're thinking: Wait, I can get those sandwiches sans meat any time of year just by ordering them that way. You can also drink eggnog any time of year. You can whip up a batch of matzo brei in the middle of the winter. You certainly don't have to wait for Oct. 31 to gorge yourself on your kids' candy stash while they sleep — you are an adult now, you can buy your own candy, remember? But you probably don't do those things. You savor those foods on their specific holidays because the hubbub and excitement surrounding the day and food is part of the joy. That's exactly why ordering a vegetarian sandwich from a roast beef emporium on a day that only comes around once every four years makes so much sense. That and the fact that you can finally take your carnivorous spouse on a lunch date that won't involve crying about how tofu is the devil. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. ||||| Arby’s and Leap Day go together like … roast beef and melted cheese? Not this year! The fast food chain, which is known for its meat-heavy menu, is going to “take a leap” and offer a vegetarian menu for the first time on Monday. Arby’s isn’t offering a different menu, like a cheddar cheese-soaked tofurky sandwich, rather its selling regular sandwiches without any meat. So, what’s on it? Ordering a “Beef ‘n Cheddar Classic Sandwich” will get you just cheese sauce on a presumably soggy roll and the “Crispy Fish Flatbread” is cringe-inducing flatbread slopped with shredded lettuce and tartar sauce. Advertisement It’s not totally a gimmick. Arby’s is, after all, selling fulfilling items like its “Loaded Italian Sandwich,” which includes cheese, banana peppers, lettuce, tomato and onion, just without the meats. There’s also a crispy chicken salad without the crispy chicken. Curly fries, jalapeño poppers and milkshakes also remain a year-round vegetarian option, too. Prices remain the same, despite the less-meaty ingredients. “At Arby’s, we’re proud of our meats, but we also understand that meat isn’t for everyone,” Arby’s said in a release. “So we’ve decided to give vegetarians a reason to visit Arby’s on Leap Day by offering a one-day menu designed specifically for them.” Arby’s also joked that it would bring the menu back every year on Feb. 29. |||||

– It's difficult for a vegetarian to eat at Arby's—there's a lot of meat on the menu. So, in order "to give vegetarians a reason to visit Arby’s on Leap Day," an exec says in a press release, the fast food chain will offer a vegetarian menu on Feb. 29 this year. The Consumerist, Digiday, and Mashable insist the stunt is not a joke, though it is pretty hilarious that one of the items on Arby's official promotional photo is ... just a bun. Indeed, the descriptions of the items available on Leap Day are all pretty funny: "Roast Beef Sandwich: A toasted sesame seed bun minus Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day. Available in Classic, Mid or Max sizes." "Crispy Fish Sandwich: Tartar sauce and shredded lettuce on a toasted sesame seed bun minus Arby's wild-caught Alaskan Pollock crispy-fried to golden-brown perfection." "Beef 'n Cheddar Classic Sandwich: A toasted onion roll topped with Cheddar cheese sauce and zesty Red Ranch minus Arby's famous thinly sliced roast beef, marinated and roasted in Arby's restaurants every single day." Meat-lovers, rest assured you can also still order the normal menu. As Mashable points out, of course, vegetarians could also order the vegetarian menu any time, simply by asking Arby's to hold the meat ... but "you can also drink eggnog any time of year ... but you probably don't." And Digiday points out that some of the items still sound pretty "fulfilling," like the Loaded Italian Sandwich with cheese, banana peppers, lettuce, tomato, onion, red wine vinaigrette, and garlic aioli on a toasted bun. Prices for vegetarian items are not discounted.