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"He has done this to three girls I've dated, two of my very best friends, and a family member... twice. Yes, he came up to her twice with the same stupid line, not realizing she was the same person," Gunn wrote. "This is in addition to many other women I've talked to at parties or dinners about their interactions with Toback." ||||| 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 ||||| James Toback is the creepy 65 year-old film director who recently approached a 24 year-old lady and promised to "make her a star", twice. Apparently, his cruising is not limited to the over-18 set. Here are a couple stories! Toback (Two Girls and a Guy, Harvard Man) appears to be as well known for his artistic achievements in picking up women as those in film. All the way back in the late 80s, Spy magazine exposed Toback as a pick-up artist. (He disputed the article.) In 2000, The Times wrote "He has been known to stop women in the street and offer them parts in his films, flashing his Directors Guild of America card to prove he is in a position to do so." And in 2008 we wrote about another instance of Toback hitting on the same woman with the same, lame "make you a star" line. At the time, our tipster, who was accosted in Brooklyn, asked: "Could he have finally exhausted the inventory of gullible women in Manhattan necessitating a foray across the river to Brooklyn?" Apparently not. (The most recent documented attempted star-making was in Manhattan.) But he has been doing his best—sometimes with people are not exactly legal. One reliable source tells us: About 10 years... when I was about 14. This man approached me on the street around 72nd street and broadway. He told me his name was James Toback and that I had "the look" and that he could make me a star. He told me he was working on some movie called "Harvard Man" and name dropped Sarah Michelle Gellar. He gave me his phone number and told me he was giving a lecture at like Hunter college (I think) the next day and that I should come to the lecture. I went home and told my parents about this. They said I could call him, but they would need to speak to him if this was to proceed any further. She called. I got his machine and told him that I couldn't come to his lecture, but if he was serious about me being a star he should give my mom a call... I gave him her number and everything. Needless to say he DIDN'T call my mom because I don't think that was the point. And commenter ulamarche writes: Toback did this to my friend when she was seventeen years old, picking her up at a deli near our NYC high school. He took her to a taping of Charlie Rose and asked her how often she masturbated. She wisely declined an invitation to audition for him in a hotel room. (The age of consent in New York is 17.) And here's another one just for fun, at least 4 years old, from commenter GlasgowRose Toback hit on my 20-something, blonde sis on the UES with virtually the same pick-up story, except he wanted her to join him immediately for a drink at Elaine's. Also on her way home from the gym (he does have a thing for post-workout, flushed blondes!), she similarly declined, Googled him & promptly Facebooked all her friends to avoid him. I also believe he's still married, with kids, but I could be wrong on that point. Stay away from Jame Toback, kids! ||||| Not all of the incidents in the women's accounts occurred in private. Terri Conn was 23 and acting on the soap opera "As the World Turns" when, she says, Toback approached her on the street. She was intrigued by his credentials and dreamed of being in an edgy independent film. Toback asked her to meet him in Central Park to discuss his process. He took her to a somewhat secluded area — there were people yards away — and told her the best way to get to know someone is to see their soul. And the way you can see someone's soul is to look into their eyes when they're experiencing orgasm. And he knelt before her and began humping her leg, telling Conn to look into his eyes.

– If you were shocked when 38 women came forward to accuse director James Toback of sexual harassment, prepare to be truly taken aback: That number is now closer to 238. After the Los Angeles Times published its original exposé, more than 200 additional women got in touch with the paper to report their own stories of alleged harassment at Toback's hands, the Times reports in a follow-up article. That number includes Today anchor Natalie Morales. Most of their stories involve Toback approaching them to offer to make them a star, and then, at what was supposed to be an interview or audition, asking sexually inappropriate questions before, in many cases, dry-humping the women or masturbating in front of them. The Times hasn't verified the new accounts. Many people have also called the LAPD to report disturbing encounters with Toback, the department confirms; it's looking into the calls to determine whether an investigation is warranted. In New York, where Toback lives and where many of the encounters allegedly took place, those who say they're victims are being told to get in touch with the Manhattan DA's office, and several of the women accusing Toback say they've done so. Toback's longtime agent has dropped him as a client, and others in the showbiz industry have come out against him, with some saying they've disliked the 72-year-old director for years. In 2010, Gawker also spoke to two sources who say Toback tried to pick up underage girls as well. (Spy magazine tried to expose Toback in 1989.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he will be "reviewing" the case of a former U.S. Army commando being charged with murder, raising questions about the possibility he could jeopardize the ongoing military legal proceedings. Trump tweeted that "at the request of many" he will examine allegations that Mathew Golsteyn hunted down and killed a suspected bomb-maker in Afghanistan. The president tweeted that Golsteyn is a "U.S. Military hero" who could face the death penalty "from our own government." Any review or intervention by Trump could constitute unlawful command influence and could threaten the case against the former Green Beret. In a statement Sunday, Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said that "the allegations against Major Matt Golsteyn are a law enforcement matter. The Department of Defense will respect the integrity of this process and provide updates when appropriate." Trump and other senior military and administration leaders have issued statements about military criminal cases in the past, triggering legal appeals and other complications as the courts work to insure impartial proceedings. The president, however, does have broad authority to pardon criminal defendants. An Army statement on Friday said Golsteyn was charged with killing the Afghan during Golsteyn's 2010 deployment to Afghanistan. Golsteyn was leading a team of Army Special Forces troops at the time, and believed that the bomb-maker was responsible for an explosion that killed two U.S. Marines. The Golsteyn case has bounced around since 2011 when he told the CIA in a job interview that he'd shot and killed the man. ||||| 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

– President Donald Trump said Sunday he will be "reviewing" the case of a former US Army commando being charged with murder, raising questions about the possibility he could jeopardize the ongoing military legal proceedings. Trump tweeted that "at the request of many" he will examine allegations that Mathew Golsteyn hunted down and killed a suspected bomb-maker in Afghanistan, per the AP. The president tweeted that Golsteyn is a "US Military hero" who could face the death penalty "from our own government." Any review or intervention by Trump could constitute unlawful command influence and could threaten the case against the former Green Beret. In a statement Sunday, Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said that "the allegations against Major Matt Golsteyn are a law enforcement matter." "The Department of Defense will respect the integrity of this process and provide updates when appropriate," he added. Trump and other senior military and administration leaders have issued statements about military criminal cases in the past, triggering legal appeals and other complications as the courts work to insure impartial proceedings. The president, however, does have broad authority to pardon criminal defendants. An Army statement on Friday said Golsteyn was charged with killing the Afghan during Golsteyn's 2010 deployment to Afghanistan. Golsteyn was leading a team of Army Special Forces troops at the time, and believed that the bomb-maker was responsible for an explosion that killed two US Marines. The Golsteyn case has bounced around since 2011 when he told the CIA in a job interview that he'd shot and killed the man. (Troubling details emerged in a hearing against a Navy SEAL.)

Anchorwoman Christine Chubbuck of WXLT in Sarasota, Fla., as photographed by a co-worker in 1974, less than two weeks before she killed herself on television. (Photo: John Cloud, AP) It's one of the most shocking moments in TV history that virtually no one has ever seen. In the midst of an afternoon broadcast on July 15, 1974, reporter Christine Chubbuck informed viewers that "in keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in 'blood and guts' ... you are going to see another first: Attempted suicide." The Sarasota, Fla., newswoman pulled a gun from under the WXLT anchor desk and shot herself in the head, dying hours later at age 29. Since then, the footage has been seemingly impossible to find. It doesn't exist online, and the only known tape has been in the possession of the former TV station owner's widow, Mollie Nelson, who told Vulture she gave it to a law firm for safekeeping after her late husband refused to release it. The irony that Chubbuck wanted her death to be seen, yet it's now lost, is part of what intrigued Robert Greene, writer/director of Kate Plays Christine (now playing in Columbus, Ohio, and Lake Worth, Fla.; expands to 10 additional cities throughout fall).The quasi-documentary follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil as she goes through the exercise of preparing to play the late journalist, conducting interviews and doing research around Sarasota. "A lot of people have that vague sense of 'I thought I knew about it,' since it reverberated through pop culture," says Greene, noting how Chubbuck supposedly inspired the 1976 black comedy Network, in which a character vows to kill himself on air. Instead, her suicide has become something of an Internet urban legend, inspiring clickbait lists of "most shocking deaths" and conspiracy theories that she may have never died at all. That the footage has been kept under wraps for so long is not something "that'd exist today," Greene says. "It comes from another era where, for good or bad, it was more swept away. People didn't necessarily think they should see that type of thing. We live in an era today where we think we have a right to see everything." In 'Christine,' Rebecca Hall plays the real-life Christine Chubbuck, a reporter for a small Sarasota, Fla., TV station who committed suicide on-air. (Photo: The Orchard) But for actress Rebecca Hall, Chubbuck's life is just as fascinating as her death. Hall plays the troubled reporter in a new drama, Christine (in theaters Friday in New York, Oct. 21 in Los Angeles; expands nationwide throughout fall), which explores how her severe depression and frustrations at work may have contributed to her demise. Chubbuck repeatedly clashed with her dismissive boss (Tracy Letts) over his desire to sensationalize the news to goose ratings. "Her story is a harbinger of a lot of things we have trouble talking about," Hall says. "We're still having discussions about how we judge a woman in the workplace, the likability factor and different standards" that men are held to. Chubbuck struggled with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts long before they entered the national conversation, which is part of what makes her story relatable for many. "We all know what it's like to feel stymied at work, to get depressed and feel unloved," Hall says. "The film asks you to notice that (with the culmination of) those things — plus arbitrary circumstances of time and place, gender and brain chemistry — we might all go over the edge. ... I related to knowing what it feels like to feel thwarted by life and that you're not going to get over it, but I do, because I have the tools and she didn't." Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2e0Xa9s ||||| The late Christine Chubbuck. A few months back, we published an article that centered around a curious and tragic figure in the history of American broadcasting: Christine Chubbuck, an on-air correspondent for a news station in Sarasota, Florida, who in 1974 shot herself on live television. In an odd coincidence, there were two movies about Chubbuck at Sundance this year, and we explored the ongoing search for footage of her death. It had long been unclear if such a tape exists, despite years of searching by the so-called “death hags” on Findadeath.com. Yesterday, we got a call that confirms the tape’s existence. While reporting the original story we had reached out to Mollie Nelson, the widow of the owner of Chubbuck’s news station, but never heard back from her. She called us back Tuesday to explain that she had the video for years — her late husband Robert Nelson had kept a copy of the tape, though Mollie says he never told her why. When he died, it stayed in her possession. But after the Sundance debut of the quasi-documentary Kate Plays Christine, in which a former news station employee suggests that Nelson might have the tape, people started contacting her asking to see it. The attempts made her uncomfortable, so she gave it to an unnamed “very large law firm” for safekeeping. She says she has no plans to ever make it available and only held on to the tape to honor her husband’s wishes. It seems, then, that the wait to see a tape nobody really needs to see continues.

– It was one of the most shocking moments on TV, but because it happened before everyone had DVRs (or even VCRs), barely anyone has seen it. Now, USA Today reports, two movies are hitting theaters based around the incident: the suicide of Florida journalist Christine Chubbuck, who killed herself on the air during a June 15, 1974, broadcast for Sarasota station WXLT. "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in 'blood and guts' ... you are going to see another first: attempted suicide," Chubbuck, 29, said to viewers before shooting herself in the head with a gun she'd hidden under her desk. She died shortly after. USA Today notes the irony of how a death she'd wanted to be seen by so many ended up being relegated to virtual secrecy. The lone tape of the broadcast was thought to be lost, but in June, Mollie Nelson, the station owner's widow, told Vulture her husband had the tape, and when he died, she gave it to a "very large law firm" to guard. Fascination about the case and Chubbuck's life, which included bouts with depression and struggles as a woman in the workplace, has spurred Christine—a drama debuting Oct. 21 in select theaters and elsewhere in the fall—and Kate Meets Christine, soon to be playing in a dozen theaters. USA Today calls the latter film a "quasi-documentary" that follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil around Sarasota as she preps for the part of Chubbuck. Its director, Robert Greene, notes how we wouldn't see something like this today kept hidden. "It comes from another era where, for good or bad, it was more swept away," he says. "We live in an era today where we think we have a right to see everything." As for the original tape now being harbored by some unnamed law firm? Nelson told Vulture she has no intention of ever showing it to anyone. (A bullfighter was gored to death on live TV in July.)

CLOSE One witness says water was coming in through the walls. Witnesses are describing the chaos in Ellicott City, Maryland, where torrential floods left downtown buildings heavily damaged and filled with mud on Sunday. (May 28) AP Rescue personnel examine damage on Main Street after a flash flood rushed through the historic town of Ellicott City, Md., on May 27, 2018. (Photo: JIM LO SCALZO, EPA-EFE) ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — Jason Barnes watched helplessly as a torrential downpour fueled a fierce river winding through Ellicott City, waters pounding his toy shop and other businesses that had just started to rebound after an eerily similar flood in 2016. He watched as those trapped inside shops moved to the second floor as the waters rose, some shouting for help. And he watched as a street where he had parked washed out before his eyes, pieces of asphalt falling like breadcrumbs as the rapids grew stronger. Now, Barnes and other weary shop owners are grappling with a cruel reality: How could the unthinkable happen again Sunday night — a catastrophic flood — in just a short two years? And should they stay, rebuild and once again be "Ellicott City strong"? “I honestly don’t know if we’re going to reopen. This is going to be a tough uphill battle not just for me, but for everyone because there are no more reserves, no more backup or savings,” Barnes said, noting he’d poured more than $100,000 into repairs after 2016. “Next year this might be a ghost town.” Tuesday, Barnes and other business owners and residents were getting their first glance at the devastation as crews took residents through the flood zone to grab belongings, cash registers and any other property they might need as workers try to render the area safe. Also Tuesday, the search for the body of Eddison Alexander Hermond, a resident of nearby Severn and an active duty member of the Army National Guard, came to a heartbreaking conclusion when searchers found his body in the Patapsco River. Hermond, 39, disappeared while helping a woman in the raging waters. More: Stunning videos, photos reveal enormity of Ellicott City flood devastation More: 'No words to describe the devastation' after Ellicott City flooding in Maryland More: Why a 1-in-1,000-year rain event devastated Ellicott City, Maryland — again Many in the city 13 miles west of Baltimore along the Patapsco River say the area was reborn after the floods two years ago that gutted more than 50 businesses, leaving about $22 million in damage. But after Sunday’s storm, it has become apparent the so-called “thousand-year” storm might not be such a rare phenomenon, leaving the future of this quaint downtown up in the air and some shop owners questioning its safety. Barnes said as much as he loves the charming atmosphere of Ellicott, he doesn’t know whether the shops should be reopened to the public. Toy shop owner Jason Barnes doesn't know whether he will rebuild again after a second flood in two years in Ellicott City, Md. (Photo: Christal Hayes, USA TODAY) “We can’t keep losing people to this madness,” he said. “These floods go from inches to feet in the blink of an eye. No amount of detection or warnings are going to help. This area isn’t worth saving if it’s going to cost people’s lives.” He said the whole debacle was déjà vu. Barnes got stuck in the 2016 floods after water crashed through a door at his shop, All Time Toys. He ended up creating a human chain to save a woman stuck in a vehicle that was being carried away by water. Despite the devastation, Barnes and 96% of other businesses decided to stay and reopen. “Everyone knew they wanted to come back, but not just come back. They wanted to create a bigger and better Ellicott City,” he said. “And we did. We got there. It was coming back. It was strong, vibrant. We still needed more time, but it was there. There was new life sprouting up from that destruction.” The 2016 flood reshaped the community, and it’s a familiar talking point among residents. The marquee at the historic Ellicott Theater still reads “EC Strong” — the motto that bonded the community after the last disaster. After the floods ravaged his family-run store, Antique Depot, two years ago, David Robeson and his family started shopping at many of the stores along Main Street they’d never been in before. It became more about supporting a network of family members rather than competing businesses. “We were all close before the floods, but man, after them we became like family,” he said. “I think that’s what makes this even worse because you’re not just sad and in shock for your own situation, you’re seeing what happened to everyone else, too.” The family spent more than a month shoveling out about a foot of dirt, debris and grime that flooded the basement of their store. They never thought they’d have to do it again. Since their business is reliant on sellers renting out space in their four-story building near the bottom of Main Street, it’s unclear whether they’ll stay open. “We’ll stay if we can,” he said. “But we just really don’t know what the future holds anymore.” Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2LGCmWz ||||| Residents, merchants and officials in Ellicott City on Monday began to examine the devastation wrought by the floods that coursed through the historic mill town the night before, for the second time in less than two years. Old Ellicott City’s Main Street remained blocked off Monday as crews inspected buildings. Police were searching for a Maryland National Guardsman who was reported missing during the flooding Sunday. Cars lay on their sides or upside down in streams and along the road. A crane tow truck was brought in to lift them out. Utility workers began to restore power, fix a broken water line and bypass a broken sewer pipe. Amid the immediate recovery efforts on Monday, the question was inescapable: Should Ellicott City, founded in 1772, devastated by floods in 2016 and now again in 2018, try to rebuild again? Restaurateur Michel Tersiguel said he knew immediately that he would reopen Tersiguel's French Country Restaurant, a longtime destination restaurant for special occasions and French class field trips. He was on the phone with a contractor Sunday night. “Time to rebuild, that’s it,” Tersiguel said. “It’s no question for us. We rebuilt the building last time, so that helped. … Our plan is to get at it as soon as the county lets us in.” Nathan Sowers, owner of River House Pizza Co., said he wasn’t sure whether he will reopen. “It’s an eight-month season,” he said, and the peak tourist time is just beginning. “The sun shines, you make hay. Now is when you need to be doing it. “We just have to see if the numbers work.” CAPTION A flood prevention plan would tear down 19 buildings in historic downtown Ellicott City. (Kim Hairston, Baltimore Sun video) A flood prevention plan would tear down 19 buildings in historic downtown Ellicott City. (Kim Hairston, Baltimore Sun video) CAPTION An ambitious Ellicott City flood prevention plan will tear down 10 Main Street buildings. (Ulysses Muñoz / Baltimore Sun video) An ambitious Ellicott City flood prevention plan will tear down 10 Main Street buildings. (Ulysses Muñoz / Baltimore Sun video) Sowers said the calculation for business owners will come down to how quickly the county can fix infrastructure and reopen access to the historic district. “You can get up and get going,” he said, “but you need people to be able to get in.” After the flood of July 2016, Main Street was closed to traffic for about two and a half months. Howard County Police Chief Gary Gardner said Monday that Main Street would remain closed until officials could set up a credentialing program to allow residents and merchants into buildings once it’s deemed safe to do so. Howard County Executive Allan H. Kittleman signed an executive order Monday restricting access to some areas affected by the flooding. Under the order, buildings on Main Street are closed to everyone except emergency workers or others authorized by the county. Officials said the Circuit Court for Howard County would be closed Tuesday. A Howard school spokesman said Monday that employees were inspecting buildings. The district expected all schools to open on time Tuesday. Sunday night’s storms dumped several inches of rain, sending the Hudson and Tiber tributaries over their banks as the water rushed toward the Patapsco River. Emergency crews responded to 1,100 calls to 911 in the county and about 300 water rescues. Gov. Larry Hogan issued a state of emergency. Residents, workers and visitors scrambled to safety during the flood. Rescue crews continued to look for 39-year-old Eddison Hermond of Severn, who went under the water and never resurfaced. Hermond, a sergeant in the Maryland National Guard and a server, bartender and manager at Victoria Gastro Pub in Columbia, was last seen at 5:20 p.m. Sunday near La Palapa restaurant on Main Street, police said. They were using dogs to help look in buildings and cars. Many recalled the flood of July 30, 2016, that scarred the historic district and left two people dead. Kittleman said the damage appears to be worse this time. “It’s devastating for all of us,” he said. Kittleman, a Republican, said residents and business owners now have tough decisions to make. He said the county would support businesses, whether they decide to rebuild or to move on. Jeff Braswell, owner of several properties on Main Street, including the retail businesses Primitive Beginnings and Jaxon Edwin and the e-commerce company Clockwork Synergy, said Monday he wanted to rebuild. But he hadn’t seen the damage yet. He said not everyone will return, which will hurt those who do. “It’s not just about us. It’s about the whole town, because we need each other,” Braswell said. “If you don’t have your coffee shops and restaurants, why are you going to come down to shop?” Rick Winter is a partner in Ellicott Mills Brewing Co. “Here we are. We have every intention of fixing it again, just like we did last time,” he said. “But it’s a question of the town itself. … Until they get the infrastructure in the town reopened, it doesn’t make much sense reopening.” Winter went to his restaurant Monday morning hoping to pump out the basement, but officials weren’t letting anyone inside. The longer it takes before he can start cleanup, he said, the more problems he’ll have. In 2016, he had to hire a special crew to remove rancid food. “Last time it was a week before we could pump the water out, and that was not good,” Winter said. “It completely changed the complexion of the cleanup.” Winter said Monday was “a day of frustration.” “To come back from a flood is an accomplishment,” he said. “To come back from two? A lot harder.” Winter’s plumber, John Hommerbocker, repaired the 1905 building two years ago. Two months ago, he said, they refilled a gap around the foundation that had washed out in 2016. The gap was near a culvert that cuts under the building. Hommerbocker said the county fortified the culvert after the 2016 flood. He wondered how much of that work survived this time. The original planners of Old Ellicott City get maligned today, Hommerbocker said, but they did a great job planning the culvert system that carries streams through the town. “What they didn’t figure on was all the concrete and impervious surfaces from all the new developments uphill,” he said. Hommerbocker blames “40 years of poor planning” for the impact of the two floods. “No matter what, that stream is only so big,” he said. “It worked perfectly for 100 years, before all the impervious surfaces were added uphill.” Developers submitted more than 100 proposals to build homes, shopping centers and other buildings in less than 3 square miles around Ellicott City between 2001 and 2016, and most were approved. Twenty-eight percent of the watershed of the Tiber and Hudson tributaries is covered by hard surfaces such as roads, driveways and rooftops. Kittleman declined to answer questions Monday about whether the county has permitted too much development in the land that surrounds Main Street. “We have plenty of time to address those issues,” Kittleman said. “Right now, we’re talking about people’s lives. … We can talk about that later.” ||||| (CNN) As flash floods ripped through Ellicott City, Angelina Brannigan was trapped inside her clothing boutique screaming for help. Across the street, another woman heard her and called 911. "She's right now standing on top of her counter screaming," the woman told a dispatcher. "She's screaming at the top of her lungs." A series of 911 calls released by the Howard County Police on Tuesday detailed the chaos and fear after a massive storm triggered flash floods in Ellicott City on Sunday, killing an Army National Guardsman. As water quickly flooded buildings and upended cars, police say, 911 dispatchers received more than 1,100 calls and emergency responders conducted 300 rescues. Brannigan was rescued after she broke her storefront window, letting some water flow out of the building, she wrote on Facebook. Read More

– "It looks like a Stephen King movie." That was one Ellicott City local's take Tuesday after a "once in 1,000 years" flash flood devastated the Maryland city again Sunday. The Baltimore Sun reports residents, business owners, and officials have started assessing the wreckage as utility workers try to restore power and fix broken water and sewer lines, and at the top of everyone's minds is one question, per USA Today: "Do you rebuild once more?" Ellicott City suffered what the paper calls an "eerily similar flood" in 2016, with significant damage said to cost about $22 million and dozens of businesses impacted. "I honestly don't know if we're going to reopen," the owner of a local toy store says. "This is going to be a tough uphill battle, not just for me but for everyone because there are no more reserves, no more backup or savings. Next year, this might be a ghost town." More on the plight of Ellicott City: "Are we gonna die, ma'am?" That's just one of the terrified voices heard talking to a dispatcher in a set of 911 calls released Tuesday by the Howard County Police, per CNN. Another caller described a horrifying scene across the street, per WTOP: "She's right now standing on top of her counter screaming … she's screaming at the top of her lungs … the water is getting higher and higher … God, this is worse than the last one."

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, second right, waves at his supporters, who with his sons Alaa, right, and Gamal. left attend a hearing in their retrial on appeal in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, April... (Associated Press) The Cairo appellate court on Wednesday set May 11 for the resumption of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's retrial in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that deposed him. More than two years after Mubarak was forced from office, his fate remains a highly contentious issue. An order to transfer the 84-year-old ex-president back to a prison hospital from a military facility set off a noisy demonstration Wednesday. Mubarak supporters blocked the road in front of the military hospital and forced a delay in his transfer, according to a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Mubarak remains in custody on new corruption charges, though a court ordered him released earlier this week before his retrial over the deaths of protesters. The decision to transfer him back to Tora prison, where his two sons are being held before facing a corruption trial, came after the prosecutor ordered the formation of a medical committee to look into Mubarak's health. Mubarak appeared in court Saturday for the first time since his conviction in June 2012. After he was wheeled into the courtroom on a hospital gurney, he sat upright, grinned and waved to supporters from inside the metal defendant's cage. In January, an appeals court overturned a life sentence against Mubarak for failing to prevent the killing of nearly 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising in 2011. He was the first Arab leader to appear in a defendant's cage and stand trial by his own people. The new date for the retrial was set after the judge in the case recused himself last weekend. The judge had ordered acquittals in October for 25 Mubarak loyalists accused of organizing a deadly attack in which assailants on horses and camels stormed downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square during the uprising. President Mohammed Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, criticized the judiciary for several recent acquittals. "The acquittals of corrupt and criminal Mubarak-era figures confirms that the revolution is not complete," party spokesman Murad Ali said in a statement. He said the acquittals highlight "dysfunction in the judiciary system." Morsi and his government have had several run-ins with the judiciary over powers and edicts. In an effort to boost the nation's battered economy, some Brotherhood members have supported holding reconciliation talks with former officials toward return of stolen funds. The largely liberal and secular opposition has criticized such moves, saying Morsi has not taken needed steps to begin reforming the judiciary. Activists and lawyers connected to Mubarak's retrial say there is no guarantee that new evidence will be submitted in the case. They complain about a lack of a comprehensive transitional justice program to hold Mubarak and former regime officials accountable for crimes committed during his rule, as well as the killing of protesters. Late Wednesday, Egypt's prosecutor general ordered the arrest of 22 people suspected of forming and funding the so-called Black Bloc, masked young men who fought security forces during anti-Muslim Brotherhood protests over the past months. The prosecution said in a statement that the suspects were accused of "forming a group with intention to commit terrorist crimes, violence, theft, murder" and a long list of other charges. No names were released. The Muslim Brotherhood group has blamed Egypt's liberal opposition of fomenting street violence, saying they want to destabilize the country and show that Islamist rule is weak. The opposition denies this. Maintaining that violence is a normal and expected result of political chaos. Also Wednesday, a lower court in Cairo ordered the country's prime minister to serve one year in prison and be removed from office for failing to implement a ruling on the privatization of a flax company. The court ruled that Prime Minister Hesham Kandil had not carried out a September 2011 court ruling invalidating the sale of Tanta Flax & Oil company to Saudi businessman Abdullah al-Kaaki. The ruling can be appealed. A separate case on the sale of the company, based in the city of Tanta north of Cairo, is to be reviewed by the country's Supreme Administrative Court in May. A spokesman for the Cabinet could not be immediately reached for comment. The sale was completed under the Mubarak regime in 2005, well before Kandil became prime minister. Previously, company workers filed complaints to prosecutors against one of Kandil's predecessors for not enforcing the court's decision. Workers have been protesting against privatization of the company, complaining that the government's policies had not changed despite the uprising. They also alleged that before the uprising, company administrators tried to bribe farmers not to grow flax in order to slow production, making the sale of the company cheaper for investors and easier for the government. ||||| (Reuters) - Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak was taken back to prison from an army hospital on Thursday after appearing fitter at his aborted retrial on charges of complicity in the killings of protesters in 2011. Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak sits inside a dock at the police academy on the outskirts of Cairo April 15, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer Hundreds of his supporters blocked the road in front of the hospital late on Wednesday, delaying the transfer, the MENA state news agency said. “We love you Mubarak” and “Down, down with the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood,” chanted the protesters, referring to new President Mohamed Mursi’s group. The retrial of Mubarak will start again on May 11, a Cairo appeals court said on Wednesday. A first attempt collapsed on Saturday when the presiding judge withdrew from the case and referred it to another court. Judge Mustafa Hassan Abdullah had been widely criticized for acquitting security men accused of attacking protesters in an incident in which crowds were charged at by men riding camels during the 2011 uprising which overthrew Mubarak. The new presiding judge will be Mahmoud Kamel El-Rashidi, a low-profile jurist. Many Egyptians were angered when the 84-year-old Mubarak, who was seriously ill last year, appeared in good health, smiling and waving to the public in court on Saturday, and there were calls for him to be sent back to jail. The prison hospital is fully able to deal with Mubarak’s health, the interior minister said in a statement carried by MENA later on Thursday. Mohamed Ibrahim said that in the event of an “urgent health crises”, the former president would be transferred immediately to a hospital outside the prison in accordance with prison regulations. The prosecutor general’s office said it had decided Mubarak would be returned to Torah prison on the outskirts of Cairo. Mubarak was taken by car from the Maadi Military Hospital to the prison in a heavily guarded police convoy early on Thursday, MENA reported.

– Hundreds of Hosni Mubarak fans last night crowded into the road in front of the military hospital where he had been staying, attempting to block or at least delay his transfer back to prison, Egyptian state news reported today. Chants of "We love you Mubarak!" and "Down, down, with the rule of Muslim Brotherhood!" rang out from the crowd. The former Egyptian ruler is now back behind bars at Tora prison once more, Reuters reports. The move came following outcry over Mubarak's apparent display of health at a hearing on Saturday. Prosecutors ordered a medical committee to look into his health, then made the decision to send him back to Tora. Mubarak faces a retrial on charges that he failed to prevent the deaths of almost 900 protesters during his ouster. The trial will begin May 11, a court decided yesterday, according to the AP.

Mice and rats are an important part of research labs. But when it comes to studying the reproductive health of roughly half of the world’s population, those little rodents fall short because they don’t actually menstruate like humans do. That is, almost all of them don’t. Researchers at Monash University in Australia have discovered that the spiny mouse seems to have a human-like menstruation cycle. In a paper posted ahead of publication to bioRxiv, the researchers tracked 14 female spiny mice. In a ratio similar to humans, the mice had a 9-day menstrual cycle, spending three of those days shedding uterine lining. In addition to observing the animals, the researchers also dissected uteri from different stages in the cycle. They are currently doing more research to better understand the mechanisms behind how the uterine lining sheds and regrows. And while this is just the early stages of research, the spiny mouse could prove to be a model for human menstruation, opening up a new, cheaper way to study disorders like endometriosis and pre-menstrual syndrome. ||||| fotandy/Getty Mice are a mainstay of biomedical research laboratories. But the rodents are poor models for studying women’s reproductive health, because they don’t menstruate. Now researchers at Monash University in Clayton, Australia, say that they have found a rodent that defies this conventional wisdom: the spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus). If the finding holds up, the animal could one day be used to research women's menstruation-related health conditions. “When you do science you’re not surprised at anything — but wow, this was a really interesting finding,” says Francesco DeMayo, a reproductive biologist at the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, who was not involved in the work. The study, which was posted to bioRxiv preprint server on 3 June1, involved 14 female spiny mice. The researchers found that the animals averaged a 9-day menstrual cycle and spent 3 days — or 20–40% of their cycle — bleeding. This ratio is similar to that in women, who typically bleed for 15–35% of their 28-day cycle. To track the mice's periods, the team flushed the animals’ vaginas with saline solution daily for 18 days. To ensure that the procedure itself did not cause the bleeding, the team treated five common lab mice in the same way. The scientists also dissected uteri taken from four spiny mice, each at a different stage of the menstrual cycle. The team is continuing research into exactly how and when the mouse uterine lining breaks down and regrows. Jared Mamrot, a reproductive physiologist at Monash and a co-author of the study, has just sequenced the spiny mouse transcriptome — all of the RNA expressed by the animal's genes at a given time. This could provide information on how genes regulate different stages of the spiny mouse's menstrual cycle. Similar or different? Warren Nothnick, a researcher at the University of Kansas in Kansas City who studies the uterine-lining disorder endometriosis, says that it will take a lot of work to prove that the spiny mouse is a good model for human menstruation. But he is intrigued. “There’s some really simple studies that they could do to see if these animals would develop endometriosis spontaneously,” he says. A finding that the animals do develop the disease naturally would be a major breakthrough, Nothnick adds. The current animal model for endometriosis is the baboon, and primate research is expensive and time-consuming. Laboratory mice can be induced to menstruate, but only if their ovaries are removed and they are given abnormally large doses of hormones. Only 1.5% of mammals menstruate naturally, and most of them are primates. The spiny mouse could also help to shed light on healthy menstrual function, DeMayo says. Scientists don’t know the source of the cells that repopulate the uterine lining after each menstrual cycle, he notes. But DeMayo cautions that there is more to learn about how similar menstruation is in spiny mice and women, including the patterns of gene expression involved and how the hormones oestrogen and progesterone regulate the process in the mouse. Study co-author Hayley Dickinson., a reproductive physiologist at Monash University, says that the mouse discovery was hiding in plain sight. Monash established a breeding colony of spiny mice in 2003, and later transferred the animals to the nearby Hudson Institute for Medical Research. When Dickinson's lab announced the menstruation discovery, several past students asked her how they could have missed it. “The answer, as with many discoveries in science, is that no one really looked,” Dickinson says. “Everyone knew that rodents didn't menstruate.” ||||| 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.

– Just 1.5% of mammals menstruate and 99.9% of those are primates. That's why scientists are amazed by the spiny mouse—the first rodent shown to menstruate with a cycle remarkably similar to humans, according to a study that still needs to be peer-reviewed. Researchers at Monash University in Australia who were studying a lab colony of 14 female spiny mice found they bled for three days out of an average menstrual cycle of nine days. That means they shed the uterine lining for 20% to 40% of their cycle, similar to the 15% to 35% of time women bleed during a typical 28-day cycle, per Nature. "When you do science you're not surprised at anything—but wow, this was a really interesting finding," says a reproductive biologist not involved in the study. Scientists hope the mice can now be used to study conditions related to menstruation. The current animal model for menstruation-related conditions is the baboon, which menstruates, but research on primates is expensive. The study suggests spiny mice could eventually replace the baboon, "opening up a new, cheaper way to study disorders like endometriosis and pre-menstrual syndrome," reports Popular Science. Researchers—who flushed the mice with a saline solution for 18 days, and dissected the uteri of four mice at various stages of the menstrual cycle—are still looking at genes to discover the source of cells that regrow the uterine lining after it is shed. As for why it took them so long to realize a rodent was menstruating, "the answer, as with many discoveries in science, is that no one really looked," says a study author. "Everyone knew that rodents didn't menstruate." (This company has a period policy.)

The father of a student killed during February's school shooting in Parkland, Fla., put a bulletproof vest on the “Fearless Girl” statue in New York on Friday to protest mass shootings in America. Manuel Oliver, whose son, Joaquin “Guac” Oliver, was one of 17 people killed inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day, placed the vest on the statue to create “#FearfulGirl,” according to a statement. The vest stayed on the statue for one hour before it was peacefully removed. ADVERTISEMENT “The Fearless Girl is undeniably brave, but bravery isn’t bulletproof,” Oliver's group, Change the Ref, said in a Friday statement. The sculpture by Kristen Visbal was placed in front of the “Charging Bull” last year before International Women’s Day 2017, and has since become a popular tourist attraction. Officials said earlier this year that it will be moved to a safer location for spectators, away from its crowded original location on Broadway Avenue. Manuel Oliver has made several art installations in the wake of the Parkland shooting to protest gun violence, including depicting President Trump Donald John TrumpTrump pauses Missouri campaign rally after woman collapses Fox News hosts join Trump on stage at Missouri campaign rally Nate Silver in final midterm projections: 'Democrats need a couple of things to go wrong' to lose the House MORE as a ringleader of a circus outside the annual National Rifle Association convention in May. He unveiled a life-size, 3D-printed sculpture of his son in Times Square last week to protest the legality of 3D-printed guns. The figure is dressed how Joaquin Oliver was dressed on the day he died and was personalized with accessories to depict his character. “You won’t see me in line in Washington, D.C. waiting to talk to a legislator to try to tell him what’s going on with my family,” he said. “I’d rather do this,” he said of his art. ||||| In New York’s Times Square today, artist Manuel Oliver unveiled what he calls the world’s first "3D-printed activist," a life-size rendition of his son, Joaquin. Oliver said the piece is a statement to combat the use of 3D printers to make firearms. Joaquin was one of the victims in the Valentine's Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen students and faculty were killed that day when a former student allegedly opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle. ABC News After his death, Joaquin’s parents, Manuel and Patricia, founded the nonprofit “Change the Ref” to empower young people to get involved in issues impacting the country. In an interview with ABC News, Manuel said the nonprofit’s name came from a conversation he had with Joaquin a few months before he was shot. Instagram Joaquin had been frustrated with a series of bad calls a referee made during a basketball game. This inspired Joaquin and his father to call the recreational league to ask to have the referee switched for someone who would judge the game more fairly. Since his son's death, Manuel and Patricia have extended that ideology beyond the basketball court. ABC News "This is the first time since February that I can see an image of my son standing next to me. Not a good feeling, but the idea here is to make it a powerful moment for the rest of you," Manuel said at the event today. ABC News Manuel went on to say that even though he and his wife can't do anything to bring their son back, their work is "for the rest of the families who can still do something about it." ABC News This installation was a statement against gun violence and to encourage voter turnout for the November midterm elections. ||||| New York City’s “Fearless Girl” statue was transformed into a “Fearful Girl” on Friday morning in a powerful protest against gun violence. The bronze statue in Manhattan’s financial district sported a new addition Friday morning: a bulletproof vest that read “#FEARFULGIRL.” The demonstration was created by Change the Ref, a gun control advocacy group founded by Manuel and Patricia Oliver, whose son Joaquin died in February in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. “She can’t be fearless if she’s afraid to go to school,” CTR tweeted Friday morning with a photo of the statue wearing the bulletproof vest. Manuel Oliver told HuffPost that he and his wife put the vest on Kristen Visbal’s iconic statue early Friday and stood next to her as people commuted to work and tourists swarmed the area. “They saw the girl with the bulletproof vest and they also saw us,” Oliver said. “So, some of them will be realizing that there is a chance that it could happen to them. I really hope that society understands that they don’t need to go through what we’re going through.”

– A New York City statue went from "fearless" to "fearful" Friday—at least for an hour. Manuel Oliver, the father of Parkland shooting victim Joaquin "Guac" Oliver, 17, placed a bulletproof vest on the renowned "Fearless Girl" statue near Wall Street to protest America's mass shootings, the Hill reports. The vest, removed an hour later, read simply, "#FearfulGirl." "She can't be fearless if she's afraid to go to school," tweeted Change the Ref, a gun-control group started by Manuel and his wife Patricia Oliver, per Huffington Post. In October, Oliver unveiled a 3D-printed statue of his son holding a flower to protest 3D-printed firearms, ABC News reported. (The statue is slated to be moved later this year.)

Amal Alamuddin and George Clooney arrive at Venice’s city hall for their civil marriage ceremony in September. (Luca Bruno/AP) Barbara Walters’s annual “10 Most Fascinating People” special kicked off with Walters proudly explaining that the 2014 list was very female-centric, presumably because of all the amazing accomplishments by women this year. Great! And in the closing moments, Walters announced her choice for Most Fascinating Person was Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin) — purely because of the man she married. “This is Amal Alamuddin, George Clooney’s beautiful bride. You could say hers was the wedding of the year,” Walters said, before uttering the sentence that could really make heads explode: “But let’s put it into perspective: It was really one of the greatest achievements in human history.” It was said in perfect deadpan, proving that Walters either has an advanced and sophisticated sense of comic timing, or that she is just trolling us all. She seemed pretty serious, pondering of Amal, “What does it take to fascinate one of the most fascinating men in the world?” No offense to Amal Clooney, because she’s obviously quite impressive — probably too good for Clooney — and a top human rights lawyer. But take into account some of the other “Most Fascinating” winners over the years on Walters’ list since 1993: Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Michelle Obama, David Petraeus, Steve Jobs. And more to the point, here was Walters’s ultimate reason for choosing Amal as the top of the list. “Amazingly, Amal has been the subject of very little snark or envy. Maybe because we, like George Clooney, find it impossible to resist perfection,” Walters said, as the photos of the pair’s elaborate Italian wedding this past fall flashed across the screen. “Or maybe because it is heartening to think that no matter how long it may take, the perfect someone is out there for everyone. And that, for us, makes her the most fascinating person of 2014.” The special also showed clips of Walters’s famous 1995 interview with a 34-year-old Clooney maintaining he would never wed again. “I know I’m never going to get married again because I wasn’t very good at it,” Clooney said of his brief marriage to Talia Balsam in his 20s. Yes, in Walters’s world, marrying Hollywood’s most notorious bachelor puts you on par with Mother Teresa. We don’t even want to think about the implications of that and will chalk it up to ABC needing to make a splash with some ratings: After all, they pulled Walters out of “retirement” for this, even taking the unusual step of expanding it to a two-hour broadcast on Sunday night. Besides Amal, others whom Walters deems fascinating (and who have projects to promote and/or ABC connections): actress Scarlett Johansson, actor Neil Patrick Harris, billionaire David Koch; Oprah Winfrey; comedian Chelsea Handler; talk show host Michael Strahan; Tesla chief executive Elon Musk; “Game of Thrones” author George R. R. Martin and pop star Taylor Swift. And then, Amal. “Amal Alamuddin — known now as Amal Clooney — is suddenly in that stratosphere that we reserve for the Jackie O’s or the Princess Di’s or Kate Middleton,” Walters gushed about her top pick. “That is, everything she does, says or wears is officially fascinating.” Earlier: Barbara Walters and her never-fail ‘most fascinating’ formula ||||| Better luck next year, Taylor Swift . The "Blank Space" singer, 25, was deemed the second most fascinating person of 2014. Instead of giving the singer-songwriter top honors, Barbara Walters gave Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin) the No. 1 spot. "How do I introduce her?" the host asked. "I guess the question is, 'What does it take to fascinate one of the most fascinating men in the world?' She is known primarily through her spouse, and while we know little about her, we know a great deal about him. And he has fascinated many women—especially me." Barbara noted that Amal, 36, is now "in that stratosphere that we reserve for the Jackie Os, Princess Dis and Kate Middletons," meaning that "everything she does, says or wears is officially fascinating." The journalist said the Clooneys had "the wedding of the year" and joked that Amal was responsible for one of the "greatest achievements in human history"—locking down Hollywood's most legendary bachelor. "Everyone said that no one would get George Clooney to the altar. In fact, George Clooney—who had been married briefly in his 20s—said it himself, to me, in 1995," Barbara said before showing archival footage. When she interviewed the actor again in 2006, the two laughed over the interview's resonance. ||||| 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.

– Amal Clooney, the human rights lawyer who managed to snag George Clooney as a husband this year, also managed to snag the top spot on Barbara Walters' annual list of the most fascinating people last night. Interestingly, it was Walters to whom Mr. Clooney said, back in 1995, "I'm never going to get married again," ABC News reports. In 2006, he told Walters that his 1995 statement was circulated around so much he didn't even have to tell new love interests about his feelings on marriage because they already knew. "You did my work for me," he said. Of course, after meeting the former Amal Alamuddin at a charity event last year, he had to eat his words. Walters last night referred to Amal marrying the actor as "one of the greatest achievements in human history." Really. As AOL reports, there was some controversy over Walters' selection of Amal (who was not interviewed for last night's TV special). Some angry commenters called the choice sexist, while at the Washington Post, Emily Yahr points out some of the past titleholders (including Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, and Mother Teresa) and writes, "Yes, in Walters' world, marrying Hollywood's most notorious bachelor puts you on par with Mother Teresa." The nine other "most fascinating" people, per E!: Scarlett Johansson, Neil Patrick Harris, David Koch, Oprah Winfrey, Chelsea Handler, Michael Strahan, Elon Musk, George RR Martin, and Taylor Swift, who took No. 2. (Next for the Clooneys: a baby?)

Image copyright Andrey Atuchin Image caption The new predator was on the same evolutionary line as T. rex A new super-predator dinosaur that roamed the Earth 80 million years ago has been discovered in southern Utah. It was closely related to its slightly larger relative, Tyrannosaurus rex, but lived earlier, making it the largest living land predator of its time. Growing to about 30ft (9m) long, the predator has been named Lythronax argestes which means "king of gore". The research, published in the journal Plos One, highlights once more that the age of discovery is far from over. The team also hopes this new find will help uncover what the climate was like towards the end of the age of dinosaurs. "It's always exciting to find new species but what's really significant is what these species tell us about their ancient world," said Randall Irmis, co-author of the study at the Natural History Museum of Utah, US. "This was a very different place 80 million years ago. It was a very lush, wet, tropical environment and there were no polar ice caps at the time." Tyrannosaurid dinosaurs Image copyright Lukas Panzarin Image caption The new predator was on the same evolutionary line as T-Rex Lythronax belongs to a group of carnivorous dinosaurs called Tyrannosaurids, the same group as the T. rex belongs to a group of carnivorous dinosaurs called Tyrannosaurids, the same group as the They are the greatest carnivores - though not the largest - to have walked the Earth Lived in the Late Cretaceous Period, between 95-70 million years ago The new find lived on a strip of land called Laramidia in western North America This same area was home to a range of species such as the the horned and duck billed dinosaurs Recently an unusual new species of horned dinosaur with a big nose was also discovered in the area BBC Nature - Dinosaurs videos, news and facts Short snout First discovered in 2009, the partial skeleton included a number of bones from the skull and some from the rest of the body. The fossils were then excavated and studied in the lab. The new discovery was closely related to T. rex and shows that similar features evolved 10 million years earlier than previously thought. Lythronax had a short and narrow snout and forward slanting eyes. Like its evolutionary relative, it had a head full of sharp teeth and was a ferocious predator, the largest of its ecosystem. The team also uncovered the most complete fossils of another named species of Tyrannosaur - Teratophoneus curriei. It was previously only known from a few skull bones but the team now have more than 70% of its skeleton. "There's a whole diversity of different branches of the Tyrannosaur family tree that are waiting to be found out there," Dr Irmis told BBC News. It was previously unclear why there were so many different Tyrannosaurid species present in a similar area, as the animals were able to move around freely. The palaeontologists believe this was due to a changing of sea level. "We think that when the sea level was high it was isolating areas in western North America that caused different species to evolve in isolation and that's why we're finding so many different species," added Dr Irmis. He explained that the creature had been named the "King of Gore" because of its super-predator status. The second part of its name "argestes" comes from Greek poet Homer's naming of a south-westerly wind. Image copyright Mark Loewen Image caption Lythronax had binocular vision which made it a ferocious hunter "Tyrannosaurids were the really large predators in their ecosystem. It's fairly certain based on what we can see on their skull, teeth and body size they probably ate whatever they could fit in their mouths," added Dr Irmis. Apex predator Another research member of the team, Joseph Sertich of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, US, explained that the back of its skull was very wide which gave it good hunting eyes. "One of the things that makes T. rex different from other dinosaurs is that it is able to look forward, it has binocular vision. Lythronax had that feature as well, its field of view could overlap which probably made it a better hunter," Dr Sertich told BBC News. "It was the apex predator of its time. It was the oldest advanced Tyrannosaur of its group, which is quite surprising. "This is the tip of the iceberg. It's amazing what we're finding in southern Utah right now. You can walk over some of the hills and find fossils littering the sides of the slopes," he added. Mike Benton at the University of Bristol, UK, who was not involved with the study, said the new find was important for understanding patterns of evolution of the Tyrannosaurids. "Previously, Tyrannosauri origins were uncertain, whether in Asia or North America, and the new find tends to suggest a mainly North American evolution for the group." ||||| Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new dinosaur, the closest known relative of T. rex, in a find that divulges new information about the evolution of the greatest tyrant lizard king of them all. The "king of gore" joins a family tree that already includes “frightful,” “fierce” and “alarming” kings, as well as a “monstrous murderer.” This new dinosaur’s name, if subservient to the true “tyrant king,” is formidable in its own right: “the king of gore.” Paleontologists have announced the find of a new royal in T. rex’s dynastic lineage, a family tree that already includes “frightful,” “fierce” and “alarming” kings, as well as a “monstrous murderer.” The new dinosaur, called Lythronax argestes, or “the king of gore from the southwest,” ruled its ecosystem some 11 million years before T. rex’s reign. The uncovered dinosaur, described in PLOS ONE, is at some 80 million years old the most ancient of T. rex’s closest relatives. But, in a perhaps counterintuitive point, Lythronax also appears to be T. rex’s closest known common ancestor, more related to the tyrant than is any other member of the group of T. rex relatives, called tyrannosaurids. The find suggests that the features that would go on to appear in the greatest tyrant of them all evolved much earlier than paleontologists had thought. “We rewrote the family tree of T. rex,” says Mark Loewen, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Utah and the lead author on the paper. “We’ve provided new evidence about where T. rex comes from.” Lythronax, unearthed in 2009 in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, in Utah, lived in what is known as Laramidia, the island that existed from about 95 to 70 million years ago, when elevated sea levels cut what is now North America into separate islands. The long slice of land, ranging from Alaska to Mexico, was a booming kingdom of dinosaurs – a kingdom in which Lythronax, for at least a couple million years, was the king of its own realm in the territory’s southern coastal region. And its reign was far from benevolent. “Lythronax, like all tyrannosaurids, was the apex predator in its world,” says Joe Sertich, a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and a co-author on the paper, “hunting anything it wanted including duckbilled dinosaurs and horned dinosaurs like Diabloceratops.” Like most T. rex relatives, Lythronax was big, weighing 2.5 tons and at 24 feet long, with a mouth full of treacherous teeth. But Lythronax also had some unexpected features: a short, narrow snout but a wide skull, with forward-oriented eyes. These features gave it what the authors call “binocular vision,” a trait that this king shares with just two other dinosaurs in the T. rex's lineage of close relatives. Those are Tarbosaurus bataar, a 70-million-year-old T. rex cousin, and the 69-million-year-old T. rex itself. Researchers had thought that such a face appeared in the T. rex lineage not before 70 million years ago, when Tarbosaurus, the “alarming” king, took control over its little swath of Asia. Lythronax, though, now pushes the evolution of those features back some 10 million years. This means that the tyrannosaurids had diversified into separate tyrannosaurid species as of 80 million years ago. The researchers propose that high sea levels between about 85 and 72 million years ago might be responsible for this early diversification, splicing Laramidia into separate sectors where dinosaur species evolved in isolation from each other. “Fluctuating sea levels during the Late Cretaceous period likely played a major role in the distribution and evolution of the group,” says Dr. Sertich, "eventually culminating in the appearance of the true tyrant king, T. rex at the end of the age of dinosaurs." The early diversification of the tyrannosaurid group suggests that there are likely to be as of yet undiscovered other members of T. rex’s lineages, each of which once reigned over their small section of land in Laramidia, cruel fiefdoms of the prehistoric world, says Randall Irmi, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Utah and a co-author on the paper. “There's a slew of new tyrannosaurs waiting to be discovered out there,” he says. “We are just beginning to understand this 80-million-year-old ecosystem.” ||||| Paleontologists on Wednesday unveiled a new dinosaur discovered four years ago in southern Utah that proves giant tyrant dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex were around 10 million years earlier than previously believed. Realistic model derived from actual skull bones of a new species of tyrannosaur unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah is revealed at the Utah Museum of Natural History... (Associated Press) A new species of tyrannosaur unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah is revealed at the Utah Museum of Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City by Dr. Mark Loewen and... (Associated Press) A new species of tyrannosaur unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah is revealed at the Utah Museum of Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013.... (Associated Press) A new species of tyrannosaur unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah is revealed at the Utah Museum of Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City by Dr. Mark Loewen, Wednesday,... (Associated Press) This photo released by the Natural History Museum of Utah, shows a front view of the skull of the fossilized skeleton of a newly-discovered dinosaur, Lythronax argestes, which was found in southern Utah,... (Associated Press) Skull with original bones of a new species of tyrannosaur unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah is revealed at the Utah Museum of Natural History Museum in Salt Lake... (Associated Press) CORRECTS TO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF UTAH, NOT NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF UTAH - This photo released by the Natural History Museum of Utah, shows the cliff in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument... (Associated Press) This photo released by the Natural History Museum of Utah shows the fossilized skeleton of a newly-discovered dinosaur, Lythronax argestes, which was found in southern Utah, on the display at the museum... (Associated Press) CORRECTS TO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF UTAH, NOT NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF UTAH - This photo released by the Natural History Museum of Utah shows paleontologist Mark Loewen with the fossilized skeleton... (Associated Press) This image released by the Natural History Museum of Utah shows a model of a newly-discovered dinosaur, Lythronax argestes, whose fossils have been found in southern Utah. Paleontologists say the bone-crushing... (Associated Press) This artist's rendering released by the Natural History Museum of Utah, shows a newly-discovered dinosaur, Lythronax argestes, whose fossils have been found in southern Utah. Paleontologists say this... (Associated Press) A full skeletal replica of the carnivore _ the equivalent of the great uncle of the T. rex _ was on display at the Natural History Museum of Utah alongside a 3-D model of the head and a large painted mural of the dinosaur roaming a shoreline. It was the public's first glimpse at the new species, which researchers named Lythronax argestes (LY'-throw-nax ar-GES'-tees). The first part of the name means "king of gore," and the second part is derived from poet Homer's southwest wind. The fossils were found in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in November 2009, and a team of paleontologists spent the past four years digging them up and traveling the world to confirm they were a new species. Paleontologists believe the dinosaur lived 80 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period on a landmass in the flooded central region of North America. The discovery offers valuable new insight into the evolution of the ferocious tyrannosaurs that have been made famous in movies and captured the awe of school children and adults alike, said Thomas Holtz Jr., a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland department of geology. "This shows that these big, banana-tooth bruisers go back to the very first days of the giant tyrant dinosaurs," said Holtz, who reviewed the findings. "This one is the first example of these kind of dinosaurs being the ruler of the land." The new dinosaur likely was a bit smaller than the Tyrannosaurus rex but was otherwise similar, said Mark Loewen, a University of Utah paleontologist who co-authored a journal article about the discovery with fellow University of Utah paleontologist Randall Irmis. It was 24 feet long and 8 feet tall at the hip, and was covered in scales and feathers, Loewen said. Asked what the carnivorous dinosaur ate, Loewen responded: "Whatever it wants." "That skull is designed for grabbing something, shaking it to death and tearing it apart," he said. The fossils were found by a seasonal paleontologist technician for the Bureau of Land Management who climbed up two cliffs and stopped at the base of a third in the national monument. "I realized I was standing with bone all around me," said Scott Richardson, who called his boss, Alan Titus, to let him know about the fossils. Loewen and others spent three years traveling the world to compare the fossils to other dinosaurs to be absolutely sure it was a new species. The findings are being published in the journal PLOS One. The fossils were found in a southern Utah rock formation that also has produced the oldest-known triceratops, named "Diabloceratops," and other dome-headed and armored dinosaurs. There are about 1 million acres of cretaceous rocks that could be holding other new species of dinosaurs, said Titus, the BLM paleontologist who oversees the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Only about 10 percent of the rock formation has been scoured, he said. Twelve other new dinosaurs found there are waiting to be named. "We are just getting started," Titus said. "We have a really big sandbox to play in." Holtz said the finding is a testament to the bounty of fossils lying in the earth in North America. He predicts more discoveries in Utah. "It shows we don't have to go to Egypt or Mongolia or China to find new dinosaurs," Holtz said. "It's just a matter of getting the field teams out." ___ Follow Brady McCombs at https://twitter.com/BradyMcCombs

– Tyrannosaurus rex may have ruled the land in its day, but a newly discovered species, its closest known relative, was the top dog some 10 million years earlier. Lythronax argestes—which translates to "the king of gore from the southwest"—lived 80 million years ago in the central region of North America, and with a skull "designed for grabbing something, shaking it to death, and tearing it apart," the feathery, scaly beast ate whatever it fancied, researchers tell the AP. Fossils of the new species were found in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah in 2009 but it took paleontologists four years to dig them up and confirm they belonged to an undiscovered dinosaur. "This shows that these big, banana-tooth bruisers go back to the very first days of the giant tyrant dinosaurs," says one paleontologist. "This one is the first example of these kind of dinosaurs being the ruler of the land." With a short, narrow snout and eyes that slanted forward for an overlapping field of vision, it had the view of a hunter, the BBC reports, though at 24 feet long and 8 feet tall at the hip, it would have been smaller than T. rex. But the Lythronax probably won't be the last T. rex ancestor to be found. "There's a slew of new tyrannosaurs waiting to be discovered out there," a paleontologist tells the Christian Science Monitor. "We are just beginning to understand this 80-million-year-old ecosystem." Click for another fascinating fossil find: a "platypus-zilla."

Protect Your Bubble is saying farewell to the U.S. Effective August 1, 2016, we will no longer offer new protection plans to U.S. residents. However, we will continue to provide convenient claims and support services for customers with active plans. Please see our FAQs for additional information. For customers interested in purchasing new protection plans, please see the information below: Travel Insurance Customers (Travel, Flight & Rental Car) – for future travel needs, you can seek new coverage from Roam Right, a division of the Arch Insurance Company, a global travel insurance provider. Give them a call at 1-800-699-3845, or visit their website. (Travel, Flight & Rental Car) – for future travel needs, you can seek new coverage from Roam Right, a division of the Arch Insurance Company, a global travel insurance provider. Give them a call at 1-800-699-3845, or visit their website. Product Protection Plans – Protect Your Bubble customers seeking coverage for your phone, tablet or other electronic devices can seek coverage from other protection plan providers such as the manufacturer, retailer or carrier from which you purchased the device. If you have any questions about the status of your plan, log into MyBubble, or contact us: Travel, Flight & Rental Car Send a message or call: 1-855-792-8747 Product Protection Plans Send a message or call: 1-855-792-2355 Thank you for being a loyal customer. ||||| Protect Your Bubble iLOST MINE The most bizarre insurance claims for lost and damaged iPhones emerged yesterday (Tues) as 'I dropped it from a hot air balloon' and 'my dog chewed it'. Other unusual claims include 'I lost it while skydiving', 'I dropped it in a blender' and 'It fell into the kettle'. The weird and wonderful claims came to light in a study by gadget insurers www.protectyourbubble.com. It also emerged one in five iPhone users have made an insurance claim during the past 12 months. Most common claims were for cracked screens, lost or stolen iPhones and iPhones dropped in toilets or baths. The Apple smart phone - which launched in 2007 - sold more than 42 million units - and the iPhone 4 shifted a massive 1.7 million phones in the first three days on sale. A spokesman for www.protectyourbubble.com said: ''With so many people carrying an iPhone with them wherever they go, it's no surprise that they are being lost or damaged in a host of unusual ways. ''Most of us know someone who has managed to drop their iPhone in a pint of beer or down the toilet - but these bizarre claims we have uncovered must be one-offs. ''The amazing ways people manage to be separated from their iPhone goes to show that you never know what's around the corner - and it pays to get your iPhone insured.'' The study also found 45 per cent of claims for iPhones have been for accidental damage. One unlucky customer lost his iPhone after leaning over the side of a boat in Cyprus, to see it fall out of the rucksack and plop into the sea. Another claimed a clumsy pal spilled beer over his phone down their local. Another claimed he'd lost his phone when it flew out of the window from the dashboard of his car as he drove round a corner. Other insurance claims made by iPhone users include 'lost it under the wheels of a bus'. A coffee shop assistant was busy making an espresso for a customer, only to turn around and find he had walked off with his phone which was sitting on the side. Other more usual claims include losing internet connection, screen freeze, pets knocking the phone off a work surface and the fact the phone doesn't charge. TOP 10 MOST BIZARRE IPHONE CLAIMS 1. I dropped it from a hot air balloon 2. I lost it while sky diving 3. It broke when my son used it as a table tennis racket 4. I lost it while building a sand castle for the kids 5. I accidentally buried it in the garden 6. It fell into the kettle 7. I dropped it in a food blender 8. My dog mistook it for his favourite toy and chewed it to pieces 9. Juice from a defrosting piece of meat leaked into it 10. It flew out of the car window TOP 10 MOST COMMON IPHONE CLAIMS 1. Cracked screen 2. Stolen while texting 3. Couldn't hear the other person when making a call 4. Leaving phone on the car roof so it falls off when driving 5. Pet knocked the phone off the surface 6. Stolen from handbag 7. Internet connection completely broken 8. iPhone doesn't charge 9. Dropped in the bath / toilet 10. Screen freezes

– Most iPhone owners are so addicted, they take the gadgets everywhere—which may explain how so many get dropped into toilets or, you know, blenders. Yes, that’s how one guy claims his broke, but it’s not the most bizarre story insurance firms have ever heard. Online insurance company Protect Your Bubble, with OnePoll, compiled a list of the 10 strangest iPhone claims it’s received: Dropped from a hot air balloon. Lost while skydiving. Broke while being used as a table tennis racket. Accidentally buried in the garden. Ruined by leaked juice from defrosting meat. For the complete list, click here. Of course, some phones are simply stolen—to read about one unfortunate would-be thief, click here.

Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Aug. 5, 2017, 7:10 PM GMT / Updated Aug. 5, 2017, 8:57 PM GMT By Elizabeth Chuck An explosion from a bomb rattled a suburban Minneapolis mosque early Saturday morning, authorities said. There were no injuries, but a room in the building was damaged and worshipers were shaken. The blast at Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington happened just after 5 a.m. local time as the mosque was preparing for Fajr, or the early-morning prayer, the Muslim American Society of Minnesota said. "Someone threw an explosive device and started a fire in the office of the Imam and President of the mosque," the society said. "The attendees put out the fire." The FBI has taken over the investigation and Minneapolis special agent in charge Rick Thornton told reporters that the blast was from an improvised explosive device. Mohamed Omar, executive director of the Islamic center, told reporters that a witness saw a pickup truck drive away after the device was tossed into the mosque. A motive in the bombing, and whether it was a hate crime, has not been determined, Thornton said. "The good thing in this event here is that there was no injuries," Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts said at a news conference. He said the police and fire departments responded to the call of an explosion at around 5:05 a.m. (6:05 a.m. ET). The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also on scene and involved in the investigation. Potts said it when first responders arrived there was smoke coming from the building and a limited amount of damage to the community center. Local leaders and faith groups denounced the violent act. Law enforcement officials investigate an explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Aug. 5, 2017. Authorities say the explosion damaged one room but it didn't hurt anyone. David Joles / Star Tribune via AP "We love our Muslim neighbors," Simon Trautmann, a city counselor, said at a news conference. "This is an attack on our community." "An attack on any of a place of worship is an attack on all places of worship," Arthur Murray, the pastor of a Bloomington church, added. The Muslim American Society of Minnesota is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of those responsible, reported NBC affiliate KARE. The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations also said it was offering a $10,000 reward. People make phone calls as law enforcement investigate an explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Aug. 5, 2017. David Joles / Star Tribune via AP The center has received threatening phone calls and emails in the past, Omar told the Star Tribune. It's usually "people talking about us, telling us, accusing us that we shouldn't be here, that we are like a burden to the community or we are like harming it," he said. Trevin Miller, who lives across the street from the mosque, said the explosion woke him up. "I felt it on my insides," he told the paper. "I have a daughter that usually lives with me, and to wake up to all this, it's like, what the hell, this shouldn't be happening right at our doorstep." The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it was in contact with local and federal authorities as well as community leaders. "The Department of Homeland Security fully supports the rights of all to freely and safely worship the faith of their choosing and we vigorously condemn such attacks on any religious institution," the department said. "We are thankful that there were no injuries, but that does not diminish the serious nature of this act." Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton thanked the officials who were investigating the attack. "Every place of worship, for all Minnesotans of every faith and culture, must be sacred and safe. My prayers are with the children, families, and faith leaders of the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center today," he said in a statement. Lt. Gov. Tina Smith added that "though we do not know what happened this morning, or who was responsible, we all stand together for love and acceptance, and against hate and intolerance." Bloomington is a city of around 82,000 south of Minneapolis. ||||| A blast caused by what the FBI called “an improvised explosive device” rocked a Bloomington Islamic center before dawn Saturday, just as a small group of Muslim worshipers had gathered for the day’s first round of prayers. No one was hurt in the explosion, which heavily damaged an imam’s office at the Dar Al Farooq Center and sent smoke wafting through the large building. Windows in the office were shattered, either by the blast or by an object thrown through them. The blast was reported at 5:05 a.m. as about a dozen people gathered in a room nearby for morning prayers and jolted awake many residents of the neighborhood. Congregants and neighbors expressed relief that there were no injuries, but also reacted with shock and dismay. When police arrived, they found smoke and fire damage to the building, said Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts. Agents from the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives soon joined the investigation. A large area outside the center was taped off as investigators, including members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, combed through the grass. At an early evening news conference, Special Agent in Charge Richard Thornton said an “improvised explosive device” caused the blast, but that investigators still must determine “who and why.” “The post-blast environment is very detailed,” he said. “You search the wide area in an attempt to find as many components as you can of the device to help us understand how the device was made. That process is substantially complete. … It was an improvised explosive device that was set off early this morning.” Gallery: Photos: Blast at Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington Gallery: Photos: Blast at Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington Witnesses have been interviewed, evidence has been sent to various labs, and video and cellphone data are being analyzed, he said. He asked that anyone with information contact 1-800-CALL-FBI. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a news release saying that acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke was aware of the explosion and was “in close contact with federal, state and local authorities and local community leaders as the investigation into this matter continues.” “The Department of Homeland Security fully supports the rights of all to freely and safely worship the faith of their choosing and we vigorously condemn such attacks on any religious institution,” DHS said. “We are thankful that there were no injuries, but that does not diminish the serious nature of this act.” Even before the FBI update, congregants said the blast appeared to be a hate crime. Mohamed Omar, the center’s executive director, who was in the building when the explosion erupted, said one worshiper saw a pickup truck speed out of the parking lot after the blast. At a noon news conference that included clergy from several faiths, Asad Zaman, director of the local Muslim American Society, described the attack as a firebombing. “Something blew up, we don’t know what, but there was a lot of smoke, and the fire suppression system kicked in and stopped the fire,” he said. Neighbors reported waking up to a loud bang or pop, some even feeling the concussion reverberate through windows. Trevin Miller, who lives across the street, said he has heard occasional fireworks in the neighborhood, but nothing like Saturday’s explosion. “It woke us up instead of my alarm,” he said. “It was loud; it was kind of like a firework-car crash-gunshot. It kind of shook me — like, you could feel it. I thought maybe somebody drove through our house or something. … I felt it on my insides.” Miller added, “I have a daughter that usually lives with me, and to wake up to all this, it’s like, what the hell, this shouldn’t be happening right at our doorstep.” Yasir Abdalrahman, who has been worshiping at the mosque for two years, said it serves Muslims from around the metro area, and that children often attend weekend “dugsi” services to learn to memorize and recite the Qur’an, he said. Fajr, the first prayer of the day, usually involves older worshipers who live near the center, he said. “We came to this country for the same reason everyone else came here — freedom to worship,” Abdalrahman said. “And that freedom is under threat. Every other American should be insulted by this.” Omar said the center occasionally receives threatening or hateful calls and e-mails. Usually, he said, callers say “that we shouldn’t be here, that we are a burden to the community or we are harming it.” The building was once the site of Northgate Elementary School and Concordia High School. It also served as a worship space for Maranatha Community Church. The Dar Al Farooq Center bought it in 2011 to use as a place of worship, community center and day care site. Some area residents opposed its establishment, and there have been occasional complaints about noise, traffic and parking problems. But Saturday’s attack was the first such incident at the center. Minnesota law enforcement reported 14 anti-Muslim bias incidents last year, according to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a record high even as other categories have been on the decline. A group of boys stopped Saturday to survey the damage at the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington caused by an early morning bombing. At the interfaith news conference, faith leaders spoke out against any attack on Minnesota Muslims. “An attack on a mosque is an attack on a synagogue is an attack on a church is an attack on all faith communities,” said the Rev. Curtiss DeYoung, CEO of the Minnesota Council of Churches. “So we stand with you.” Nausheena Hussain, executive director of Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment, called for more interfaith dialogues. “Have more hard conversations around what is happening around us today,” she said. “We need your help now more than ever to continue to make Minnesota a welcoming and inclusive community.” Melvin Carter, who is running for mayor of St. Paul, said that as a black Christian, he found the image of a place of worship bombed during a time of prayer “one that I know, that we all should know, we cannot take lightly. … This has no place in Minnesota; this has no place in America; this has no place in our community.” Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, issued a statement reaffirming JCRC’s “solidarity with the local Muslim community.” And Gov. Mark Dayton decried the incident and vowed to stay in close touch with law enforcement about the investigation. “Every place of worship, for all Minnesotans of every faith and culture, must be sacred and safe,” he said. The Muslim American Society and the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations each offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. A group of women took part in Saturday afternoon prayers led by Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center Executive Director Mohamed Omar hours after an explosion at the center in Bloomington. Staff writers Miguel Otárola and Jennifer Brooks contributed to this report. ||||| - The Minneapolis chapter of the FBI is investigating the early morning explosion at Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. According to the FBI, a preliminary investigation indicates that the explosion was caused by an Improvised Explosive Device. Community leaders say the explosion occurred in the Imam's office around 5:05 a.m. Saturday, five minutes after the first morning prayer had begun. "I was sad, and I was surprised," said Mohamed Omar, executive director of Dar Al-Farooq. "I was shocked. It was first prayer, it was 5 a.m. and the whole neighborhood was calm, people were supposed to be sleeping. That's how peaceful it should be." Omar said that five minutes into first prayer, the congregation saw smoke billowing out of a broken window leading to the center Imam's office. When they saw the broken window, they called police. There were said to be dozens of people inside during the incident, though no one was injured. Those present describe the office that contained the explosion as having broken and burned furniture. Asad Zaman, executive director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota spoke at the press conference as well, condemning the act of violence. "Hate is not okay," said Zaman. "We need a better America, we need an America where people are safe with their neighbors. Targeting people because of their race, their ethnicity or their religion is absolutely and completely un-American." In the past, Dar Al-Farooq has been subject to Islamophobic threats and messages. During the press conference, Omar described hateful messages, calls and emails the center has received lately, but said he has faith the police will find out more with their investigation. During another press conference, spiritual, religious and government leaders from around the state gathered to show their support for Dar Al-Farooq. Leaders of all faiths spoke, spreading messages of love, acceptance, support and encouragement. Many asked more people to speak up concerning religious intolerance, and encourage more interfaith dialogue. Among the speakers was Father Dennis Zehren, Pastor at the Nativity of Mary church in Bloomington who was authorized to speak on behalf of the Archbishop of St. Paul. Curtiss DeYoung, the CEO of the Minnesota Council of Churches also spoke. "It is a tragedy that we have to gather here today," said DeYoung. "An attack on a mosque is an attack on a synagogue, an attack on a church, it's an attack on all faith communities, so we stand with you, a million protestants in Minnesota." "Together we can, together we will," said community member Mahamud Kanyre, leading a chant. "This is Minnesota, this is what we are about." Gail Anderson, with Empathy Works, spoke out about interfaith education, and repercussions of actions like those taken on Saturday morning. "If you're out there and feeling uneasy about Muslims, take advantage of all the opportunities around you to get to know your Muslim neighbors," said Anderson. "Anyone who thinks that throwing a bomb into someplace called a youth and family center is going to solve any problems, is the problem." The Muslim American Society of Minnesota is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to the conviction and incarceration of the person responsible. Additionally, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is offering a $10,000 reward for information. “We hope a reward will help law enforcement authorities quickly apprehend the perpetrator of this act of violence targeting an American house of worship,” said a statement from CAIR-MN Civil Rights Director Amir Malik. “If a bias motive is proven, this attack would represent another in a long list of hate incidents targeting Islamic institutions nationwide in recent months.” Bloomington police have not called this a hate crime, though Zaman said all indications lead toward it being one. One worshipper said they saw a pickup truck speed out of the parking lot just after the incident, as well as a man standing near the broken window. Zaman said the likelihood of anyone from the congregation leaving during that time was highly unlikely. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI, option #1 or call Bloomington police at (952) 563-4900. The Dar Al-Farooq community started a GoFundMe page, which you can find here. Statement from Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar "This is a time for Minnesotans to stand together in opposition to hate. It saddens beyond words to know that someone in our state would set an explosion in a place where children gather every day to learn and play. This building is more than a religious symbol, it’s a place where Minnesotans are gathering to create community, to talk to their neighbors, to learn about our world and each other, and to help care for children. My thoughts, prayers, and love are with the families and neighbors in this community who feel a bond with each other shaken today. "We cannot tolerate this sort of act in our state. I’m reminded that today is the fifth anniversary of a shooting massacre at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and I feel the need to remind my community that attacks on places of worship – no matter who commits them, no matter what religion is targeted, no matter the city or state or immigrant community – these attacks are attacks on our founding principles as Americans. I’m thankful no one was harmed in this explosion, unlike the shooting in Wisconsin, but targeting faith communities shakes all of our American pursuits of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We must all unite to stand against them as Americans who cherish the ability to worship freely, and who cherish the ability of our neighbors to do the same." Statement from Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton “Every place of worship, for all Minnesotans of every faith and culture, must be sacred and safe. My prayers are with the children, families, and faith leaders of the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center today. “I thank the Bloomington Police and Fire Departments, all other first responders, the FBI, and the ATF for their swift responses to this incident. Their investigations will be crucial in determining what happened this morning. I will remain in close contact with Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner Mona Dohman throughout the weekend and until this investigation is complete.” Statement from Lt. Governor Tina Smith “Governor Dayton and I offer our unwavering support to the faith leaders of the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center, and the families and children who call the Center their place of worship and learning. “Every Minnesotan has the right to worship in peace and safety. Though we do not know what happened this morning, or who was responsible, we all stand together for love and acceptance, and against hate and intolerance. “We are grateful for the first responders, law enforcement, and the Bloomington Police and Fire Departments, who have been working all day at the Islamic Center to investigate this incident and protect the safety of our community.” Statement from Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo “The Minneapolis Police Department continues to monitor the incident and information released by investigative authorities related to the explosion that occurred at the Dar Al Farooq Mosque in Bloomington, MN earlier today. At this time there are no known threats to any Minneapolis Mosques or Islamic organizations. The MPD will work with our local Muslim community members and continue to provide public safety in the neighborhoods where their places of faith and organizations are located."

– The FBI and ATF are investigating after a "destructive device" blew out windows and damaged an imam's office early Saturday at a mosque outside Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. According to Fox 9, a device was thrown into the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington shortly after 5am—about five minutes into the early morning prayer—and exploded, setting fire to an office. Asad Zaman, director of the local Muslim American Society, says there were about a dozen people inside the mosque at the time. No one was injured, NBC News reports. Mohamed Omar, executive director of the Islamic center, says witnesses saw a pickup truck drive away after the device was thrown. Omar says the mosque has gotten threatening emails and phone calls recently. "Hate is not OK," Zaman says."Targeting people because of their race, ethnicity, or religion is absolutely un-American." The Muslim American Society and Council on American-Islamic Relations are each offering $10,000 rewards for information leading to an arrest. A Bloomington city counselor calls the incident an "attack on our community." And a local church pastor adds: "An attack on any of a place of worship is an attack on all places of worship." Police have not yet called the attack a hate crime.

Behind every great man stands a team of PR professionals to make sure he stays great. There’s a certain tone to Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook (unblockable!) posts, a kind of “aw shucks” white-bread earnestness — not unpleasant, not offensive, just friendly and happy to be here. Look, Zuck runs the world’s largest social network, so he can’t just issue a boilerplate PR press release for the hoi polloi, like the CEO of an oil company or auto manufacturer, and be done with it — he has to connect, to show the power of Facebook’s platform to allow people to share moments from their lives. That means charming anecdotes about his dog alongside announcements about new charity initiatives. The means s 360° video of his child’s first steps. The means bland platitudes about personal plans to read more books or run a mile a day. That means warm, inviting photography. And it means a team of at least a dozen people helping run his Facebook page. As Bloomberg reports, Zuck doesn’t do this on his own. He has a whole team of at least 12 people who help write his posts for him, shoot those beautiful candid photographs he posts — including Washington Post stringer Charles Ommanney — and moderate his comments to keep the incredibly racist and vile stuff off Zuck’s page. None of this should be any surprise. Most major social-media presences are managed by a team of people, and why should Zuck be any different? And Zuck seems to realize he still has some serious image rehab to do after years of being painted as a cold, socially awkward boy genius. As court documents show, Zuck unfiltered was an odd and aggressive creature (though, granted, he was much, much younger when typing those IMs than he is today — and God forbid we all be judged on what we type into ostensibly secret chat windows). And Jesse Eisenberg’s alternatively insecure and ruthless portrayal of Zuckerberg in 2010’s The Social Network probably did him no favors ether. So one of his Zuck’s strategic goals, both for himself and for Facebook, has to been to turn “Mark Zuckerberg, billionaire tech weirdo” into “Mark Zuckerberg, goofy nerd who cares about the world’s problem’s, especially yours.” This is especially true because, with Steve Jobs gone, there simply is no other tech company than Facebook that is so thoroughly seen through the lens of its CEO. A strange and creepy Zuck translates into a strange and creepy social network. A happy-go-lucky Zuck that goes on safaris, builds his own personal home-AI, and loves to play with his dog translates into a social network meant for moments from your personal life, both big and small. The latest manifestation of this? A series of posts from Texas, which Zuckerberg is posting as if it’s part of his 2017 promise to visit all 50 states of the United States this year. There’s Zuck in Dallas “for work” (i.e., testifying in a massive lawsuit case against Facebook subsidiary Oculus Rift), planting a community garden tree: There’s Zuck sitting down with normal, everyday folks. There’s Zuck taking part in a cultural tradition outside his own Northeastern upbringing: And there’s Zuck doing the classic factory tour, in case a data center for Facebook: Plenty of people have pointed out these posts — and Zuck’s overall plan to visit all 50 states in 2017 — feel an awful lot like what someone would do if they were getting ready to run for political office. And it was recently revealed Zuckerberg asked for — and got — permission to serve for two years in government without relinquishing control of Facebook. But maybe you don’t need to see political machinations at play here. Two years isn’t a long time to serve in government. At most Zuckerberg could serve one term in the House of Representatives if elected (or serve in an another position if appointed by a president, which seems unlikely under Trump). Maybe all these rodeos and community gardens and local diner sit-downs are just Zuckerberg and his team’s awkward attempt to make him seem like exactly what he is not — just another average Facebook user. ||||| "Fortune favors the bold." - Virgil, Aeneid X.284 "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up." - Pablo Picasso "Make things as simple as possible but no simpler." - Albert Einstein ||||| SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post Email Source: Facebook Source: Facebook When Facebook went public five years ago, the world had a pretty vivid picture of who Mark Zuckerberg was. As much as anything, that image was of Jesse Eisenberg’s fictionalized performance as Zuckerberg in The Social Network: an intense, socially inept kid billionaire who always wore a hoodie, whether he was meeting with financiers or trying to screw a co-founder in court. Over the past couple of years, Zuckerberg has made a concerted effort to steer his image in a different direction. Near the end of 2014, he began holding Q&A sessions with groups of people wherever he was traveling around the world, fielding softballs ranging from lessons on startup-building to his favorite pizza toppings. Those town halls have evolved into near-daily posts on Zuckerberg’s own Facebook page, mixing news of company milestones with personal epiphanies, soft-focus photos from his life as a new dad, and responses to user comments. “What he’s learned over the last two years is that his image in the digital domain needs to be controlled,” says David Charron, who teaches entrepreneurship at the University of California at Berkeley. “And he’s simply growing up.” Meeting developers in Lagos. Source: Facebook Zuckerberg has help, lots of it. Typically, a handful of Facebook employees manage communications just for him, helping write his posts and speeches, while an additional dozen or so delete harassing comments and spam on his page, say two people familiar with the matter. Facebook also has professional photographers snap Zuckerberg, say, taking a run in Beijing or reading to his daughter. Among them is Charles Ommanney, known most recently for his work covering the refugee crisis for the Washington Post. Company spokeswoman Vanessa Chan says Facebook is an easy way for executives to connect with various audiences. While plenty of chief executive officers have image managers, the scale of this team is something different. So is its conflation of Zuckerberg’s personal image with that of his company, the diaper-changing photos next to the user growth stats. “I don’t know that there are a lot of other business leaders that would find the same level of comfort sharing their personal and business stuff in the way that he does,” says Fred Cook, director of the University of Southern California Center for Public Relations, who has worked with Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs. Looking for game at Lake Naivasha in Kenya. Souce: Facebook Facebook’s a little different in that respect. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has used her page to discuss workplace inequality and her husband’s sudden death. And within Facebook, it’s an article of faith that Zuckerberg’s image is pretty much synonymous with the company’s, employees say. If people think Zuckerberg is innovative and charming, so is Facebook. That may help explain the PR team’s more ambitious recent efforts to compare the CEO to Iron Man. Beijing Source: Facebook In December, Zuckerberg, his wife, his baby daughter, his parents, and his dog all appeared in a series of videos dramatizing his yearlong effort to create a smart-home device akin to Amazon.com’s Echo. Zuckerberg dubbed the project Jarvis, as in the AI butler that Robert Downey Jr. uses in the Marvel movies. The Facebook team shot one video from Zuckerberg’s POV, one from that of his wife, Priscilla Chan, and one from that of Jarvis, voiced by Morgan Freeman. There are some cringeworthy moments, including the one after Zuckerberg asks Jarvis to play a good Nickelback song, and Freeman’s voice says there aren’t any. Groans notwithstanding, the PR blitz seems to be working. Zuckerberg’s posts typically get at least a couple hundred thousand shares; the Jarvis video clocked more than a million. USC’s Cook says his 18-year-old son follows Zuckerberg and reported that “he seems like a regular guy.” “If an 18-year-old thinks he’s coming across in an authentic way, that’s really something,” says Cook. Leaving the Vatican. Source: Facebook Jarvis was Zuckerberg’s personal challenge for 2016. His stated goal this year is to travel to all 50 U.S. states and improve his understanding of their communities. (By contrast, in 2011 his goal was to eat meat only if he’d killed it himself.) The CEO is also spending more time meeting with diplomats and beginning to figure out how to invest 99 percent of his personal fortune—about $2 billion in cash and other assets, plus $52 billion in Facebook stock—in philanthropic causes. With all that in mind, it’s fair to wonder whether Zuckerberg wants to run for public office. He isn’t saying, but his online mix of serious business and dad jokes can’t help but feel a little political. For a point of comparison, check out Barack Obama’s social media accounts sometime. The bottom line: There are more than a dozen Facebook employees writing Mark Zuckerberg’s posts or scouring the comments for spammers and trolls.

– The Facebook page of CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't just happen. It's a polished, carefully crafted, highly controlled work, attended to by more than a dozen Facebook employees who include professional photographers and editors who help write posts and remove harassing comments and spam. Of course, image managers are a dime a dozen among chief executive officers, but Zuckerberg is in a unique spot as CEO of a social media company, notes New York. "He has to connect, to show the power of Facebook's platform to allow people to share moments from their lives." As a result, observes Bloomberg, "the scale of this team is something different." That dozen, by the way, doesn't even count another handful of employees who manage his communications, including emails, posts, and speeches. "What he's learned over the last two years is that his image in the digital domain needs to be controlled," says a Berkeley prof. In fact it's a complete retooling of the image created in the film the Social Network, where he was depicted by Jesse Eisenberg as socially awkward, intense young man trying to fill his new billionaire shoes. Today, though, daily posts serve as the town hall meetings he launched in 2014; professional photos show a well-dressed man leaving the Vatican or a father reading to his baby girl; and full-blown documentaries detail his latest entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors. Bloomberg wonders if this is a man who hopes to some day run for public office, noting that his goal in 2017 is to travel to all 50 US states. And Quartz points out that a recent theme is how he "gets" middle America. (Check out why Zuckerberg is suing families in Hawaii.)

FILE - In this April 28, 2016 file photo, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. McCain says President Barack Obama is “directly responsible” for the mass shooting in Orlando,... (Associated Press) FILE - In this April 28, 2016 file photo, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. McCain says President Barack Obama is “directly responsible” for the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla.AP, in which a gunman killed 49 people because he allowed the growth of the Islamic State on his... (Associated Press) FILE - In this April 28, 2016 file photo, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. McCain says President Barack Obama is “directly responsible” for the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla.AP, in which a gunman killed 49 people because he allowed the growth of the Islamic State on his... (Associated Press) FILE - In this April 28, 2016 file photo, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. McCain says President Barack Obama is “directly responsible” for the mass shooting in Orlando,... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. John McCain said Thursday that President Barack Obama is "directly responsible" for the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, because of the rise of the Islamic State group on the president's watch. McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, made the comment Thursday while Obama was in Orlando visiting with the families of those killed in Sunday's attack and some of the survivors. "Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaida went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures, utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq," a visibly angry McCain told reporters in the Capitol as the Senate debated a spending bill. "So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies," McCain said. The gunman, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and injured more than 50 in the attack at a gay nightclub. The 29-year-old Muslim born in New York made calls during the attack saying he was a supporter of the Islamic State. But he also spoke about an affiliate of al-Qaida and Hezbollah, both of which are IS enemies. In the aftermath of the shooting, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused Obama of putting U.S. enemies ahead of Americans. Trump also has suggested that Obama himself might sympathize with radical elements. Democrats criticized Trump and some Republicans tried to distance themselves from his remarks. McCain is seeking a sixth Senate term from Arizona and is locked in a tight race. Questioned on his startling assertion, McCain repeated it: "Directly responsible. Because he pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked and there would be attacks on the United States of America. It's a matter of record, so he is directly responsible." However, McCain later sought to clarify his comments, saying over Twitter: "To clarify, I was referring to Pres Obama's national security decisions that have led to rise of #ISIL, not to the President himself." Democrats quickly pounced on McCain's criticism. Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said McCain's "unhinged comments are just the latest proof that Senate Republicans are puppets of Donald Trump." ||||| Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) released the following statement today clarifying his earlier remarks regarding President Obama and the Orlando attack: “I misspoke. I did not mean to imply that the President was personally responsible. I was referring to President Obama’s national security decisions, not the President himself. As I have said, President Obama’s decision to completely withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 led to the rise of ISIL. I and others have long warned that the failure of the President’s policy to deny ISIL safe haven would allow the terrorist organization to inspire, plan, direct or conduct attacks on the United States and Europe as they have done in Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino and now Orlando.” ###

– John McCain said Thursday that President Barack Obama is "directly responsible" for the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, because of the rise of the Islamic State group on the president's watch, the AP reports. The Republican senator made the comment Thursday while Obama was in Orlando visiting with the families of those killed in Sunday's attack and some of the survivors. "Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures, utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq," a visibly angry McCain told reporters in the Capitol as the Senate debated a spending bill. "So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies," McCain said. The gunman, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and injured more than 50 in the attack at a gay nightclub. The 29-year-old Muslim born in New York made calls during the attack saying he was a supporter of the Islamic State. But he also spoke about an affiliate of al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, both of which are IS enemies. Questioned on his startling assertion, McCain repeated it: "Directly responsible. Because he pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked and there would be attacks on the United States of America. It's a matter of record, so he is directly responsible." However, McCain later sought to clarify his comments, saying over Twitter: "To clarify, I was referring to Pres Obama's national security decisions that have led to rise of #ISIL, not to the President himself." He later tweeted that he "misspoke," and released a clarifying statement.

"The president is thinking about pardoning nobody," Anthony Scaramucci said. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo Scaramucci: 'The president is thinking about pardoning nobody' New White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci insisted that President Donald Trump isn't considering any pardons for family members or staffers targeted by special counsel Robert Mueller, and also dismissed Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a lawyer linked to Russian intelligence as a "non-event." "The president is thinking about pardoning nobody," Scaramucci said in a combative interview Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." Story Continued Below After host Jake Tapper pressed him on why Trump would tweet about his pardon powers, Scaramucci responded: "It has been coming up a lot, because there's an undercurrent of nonsensical stuff." Morning Score newsletter Your guide to the permanent campaign — weekday mornings, 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. Tapper interjected: "Because he has asked advisers about it." "Oh, come on, Jake," responded Scaramucci, founder of the investment firm SkyBridge Capital. "This is the problem with the whole system. He's the president of the United States. If I turn to one of my staff members at SkyBridge and ask them a question and they run out to the news media and tell everyone what I'm thinking about, is that fair to the president?" "The truth of the matter is that the president isn't going to have to pardon anybody, because the Russia thing is a nonsensical thing," Scaramucci continued. Scaramucci, who said the White House needed to be better about its messaging, also alleged the investigations into a meeting among Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner and a lawyer with ties to Russian intelligence agencies were much ado about nothing. "Once they realized there was no legitimacy to it, people were walking out or they were on their iPhones," he said. "It was a non-event, and if we want to turn it into a two-week, four-week news cycle, that's fine. But it was a non-event." During the interview, Scaramucci also cited an anonymous expert as suggesting that if the Russian hackers were messing with the 2016 election, Americans would never have found out about it because they were so good at it. When pressed by Tapper as to who the expert was, Scaramucci said it was Trump: "How about it was — how about it was the president, Jake?" After Tapper reiterated that "the consensus of the intelligence community" was that the Russians had intervened, Scaramucci clarified the president's views. "I talked to him yesterday. He called me from Air Force One," he added. "And he basically said to me, hey, you know, this is — maybe they did it. Maybe they didn't do it." ||||| President Trump’s attorney on Sunday emphasized that he and the president have not discussed the subject of pardons. “We have not and I continue to not have conversations with the president of the United States about pardons,” Jay Sekulow told ABC’s “This Week.” Sekulow’s comments come one day after Trump mentioned the presidential power to pardon on Twitter. ADVERTISEMENT “While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us.FAKE NEWS,” Trump said Saturday. The president has previously dismissed the investigation into Russia’s election meddling and any potential ties between Trump campaign staff members and Russia associated as a “witch hunt.” “Pardons have not been discussed. Pardons are not on the table,” Sekulow stressed during his television appearance on Sunday. But Sekulow said a court would have to decide if the president could grant himself a pardon, noting the issue has never been adjudicated. “We’re not researching the issue because the issue of pardons is not on the table. There’s nothing to pardon from,” Sekulow said. ||||| 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 ||||| They have so much in common beyond an addiction to hair product. Both enjoy stirring the pot and shifting political loyalties. (Both had high praise for Hillary.) They savor counterpunching, especially in donnybrooks with CNN. Trump was taken with Scaramucci’s win in getting CNN to retract a story linking him to a Russian investment fund supposedly under Senate investigation, a debacle that ended in three reporters losing their jobs. The Mogul and the Mooch have the same fluid relationship with the truth and the same definition of loyalty. Donald Trump made it clear in an interview with Michael Schmidt, Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker in The Times on Wednesday that he was hurt that Jeff Sessions essentially put the Constitution over him, calling his attorney general’s decision to recuse himself on the Russia investigation “very unfair to the president.” And Politico reported about Scaramucci: “A few years ago, while interviewing PR firms, he was blunt about what he was looking for, according to one person present for the meeting. During the 90-minute meeting, Scaramucci told this person: ‘I need someone who’s prepared to go to the mat and lie for me.’” Sean Spicer had the impossible task of defending a president who didn’t believe in telling the truth to a press fixated on the president’s lying. He was impersonated by a woman on “Saturday Night Live” and put up with Steve Bannon calling him fat. He made up a bunch of nonsense about crowd sizes to please a boss who tallies his own personal value by crowd sizes. ||||| Newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci acknowledged Saturday that he was deleting old tweets criticizing President Trump. "Full transparency: I'm deleting old tweets. Past views evolved & shouldn't be a distraction. I serve @POTUS agenda & that's all that matters," he wrote on Twitter. Full transparency: I'm deleting old tweets. Past views evolved & shouldn't be a distraction. I serve @POTUS agenda & that's all that matters — Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 22, 2017 ADVERTISEMENT Reports of Scaramucci deleting years-old tweets surfaced Friday, including two tweets from 2012 in which he called Trump "so smart with no judgment" and called Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWoman behind pro-Trump Facebook page denies being influenced by Russians Trump: CNN, MSNBC 'got scammed' into covering Russian-organized rally Pennsylvania Democrats set to win big with new district map MORE "incredibly competent." Scaramucci's comments in 2015 referring to Trump as a "hack" politician also garnered attention after he was appointed to a senior post in the Trump White House. He said during a White House press briefing Friday that Trump "brings it up every 15 seconds." "One of the biggest mistakes I made, because I was an inexperienced person in the world of politics. I was supporting another candidate. I should have never said that about him," he said. "So Mr. President, if you’re listening, I personally apologize for the 50th time for saying that." The new communications director's appointment came as Sean Spicer resigned as White House press secretary on the day after Trump's six-month mark in office. ||||| Washington (CNN) US President Donald Trump remains unconvinced that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 election, his new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said on Sunday. "He basically said to me, 'Hey you know, this is, maybe they did it, maybe they didn't do it,'" Scaramucci said of a recent conversation he'd had with the President about alleged Russian interference. Prior to Trump's inauguration, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an unclassified report showing the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency all concluded the Russian government attempted to influence the election to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Trump. Scaramucci, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," suggested Trump does not yet accept the conclusion of the intelligence community and questioned the media's pursuit of the story, saying it tarnished Trump's victory in November. "The mainstream media position on this, that they interfered in the election," Scaramucci said. "It actually in his mind, what are you guys suggesting? You're going to delegitimize his victory?" Scaramucci said he intended to review the intelligence community's evidence once he had his security clearance and pledged to give Trump his personal thoughts on the conclusions. He said Trump would make up his own mind in time and that if Trump believed Russia was responsible for the 2016 efforts and a threat to future elections, he would act. "A person that's going to be super, super tough on Russia is President Donald J. Trump," Scaramucci said. Trump has offered varied responses on Russian efforts to influence the election over the past few months. Speaking ahead of his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in early July, Trump said, "It was Russia, and I think it was probably others also." He also cast doubt on the strength of the intelligence community's conclusions, citing the erroneous assessment that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. On Sunday, Trump posted a tweet that called the Russia probe a "witch hunt," saying Democrats were using the Russian hacking allegations as an "excuse for a lost election." "As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues, two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold, Democrats and Russians!" he wrote. In a separate interview earlier on CNN's "State of the Union," Democratic Sen. Al Franken appeared at a loss, responding, "What can you say? It's just bizarre." 'Mr. President, I apologize' Prior to becoming a Trump supporter, Scaramucci had backed Scott Walker and criticized Trump on several occasions. He wrote a scathing piece last year arguing against what he called "unbridled demagoguery" taking over the GOP. Asked about his shift of position, Scaramucci said both he and Trump didn't care, and addressed the President directly. "If I said some things about him when I was working from another candidate, Mr. Trump, Mr. President, I apologize for that," Scaramucci said. He dismissed the scrutiny around his past comments as part of an unfair political purity test, and said it was totally untrue that he was suppressing his own beliefs to get closer to the power and prestige of the White House. And now that he is in his new job, Scaramucci said it was time for things to change in the White House communications shop. "There's obviously a communications problem," Scaramucci said. For one thing, he said in his own opinion -- which he said was not the final decision -- the White House should agree to put press briefings on camera again. For another, he said he would address leaks to the press from within the White House on Monday. He said he would tell the staff, "If we don't stop the leaks, I'm going to stop you." Executive power Fresh on the job, Scaramucci found himself talking about one of the President's tweets. Following a story in The Washington Post that stated Trump and his legal team were exploring the mechanics of the President's pardoning authority, including whether he could pardon himself, Trump tweeted, "While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us. FAKE NEWS." While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us.FAKE NEWS — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017 Scaramucci said that despite the report and the tweets, Trump was not actually considering pardoning anyone, including himself. "The President is thinking about pardoning nobody," Scaramucci said. "The President is not going to have to pardon anybody because the Russian thing is a nonsensical thing." Russia sanctions As for a bill that would increase sanctions on Russia and give Congress a check on the administration's authority to offer Russia sanctions relief, Scaramucci said it was still up in the air whether Trump would sign it, should it pass. "You've got to ask President Trump that," Scaramucci said.

– New White House communications chief Anthony Scaramucci captured most of the headlines from the Sunday talk shows. Among other things, he rejected the idea that President Trump is considering pardons and defended his own move to delete old tweets in which he was critical of Trump. Details: Pardons: "The president is thinking about pardoning nobody," he said on CNN, adding that Trump "is not going to have to pardon anybody because the Russian thing is a nonsensical thing." (Trump tweeted about the power of presidential pardons on Saturday.) Pardons, take II: Trump attorney Jay Sekulow also dismissed the idea of pardon discussions, per the Hill. “We have not and I continue to not have conversations with the president of the United States about pardons,” he said on ABC's This Week. Not convinced: Scaramucci said Trump is still not convinced Russia interfered in the election. "He basically said to me, 'Hey you know, this is, maybe they did it, maybe they didn't do it.'" He also said he was speaking with somebody recently who asserted that if the Russians did indeed meddle, they would leave behind no evidence of it. Upon questioning, he told Jake Tapper the person who said that was, in fact, Trump, per Politico. Deleting tweets: Earlier over the weekend, Scaramucci deleted old tweets critical of Trump, explaining that "past views evolved & shouldn't be a distraction." The Hill notes that Scaramucci also publicly apologized to Trump on Friday. Moving on: "If I said some things about [Trump] when I was working for another candidate, Mr. Trump, Mr. President, I apologize for that. Can we move on off of that?" he said Sunday. Old column: One piece of criticism gaining attention is a 2016 column Scaramucci wrote for Fox Business in which he warned about "unbridled demagoguery" taking over the GOP. He did not, however, mention Trump by name in the column. Maureen Dowd: In her New York Times column, Dowd describes Scaramucci as a "wealthy mini-me Manhattan bro" who has much in common with Trump, including a big ego. But she says the hire won't solve the president's big problem, that being the "existential threat" posed by special investigator Robert Mueller. Trump, she writes, doesn't get that Mueller is not some "contractor" he can bully and intimidate.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday cleared the way for a 17-year-old immigrant held in custody in Texas to obtain an abortion. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 6-3 that new dates should be set for the teen to obtain the procedure. The decision overruled a ruling by a three-judge panel of the court that at least temporarily blocked her from getting an abortion. Tuesday's decision could still be appealed to the Supreme Court. The teen, whose name and country of origin have been withheld because she's a minor, is about 15 weeks pregnant. She entered the U.S. in September and learned she was pregnant while in federal custody in Texas. She obtained a state court order Sept. 25 permitting her to have an abortion. But federal officials have refused to transport her or temporarily release her so that others may take her to have an abortion. Lawyers for the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for sheltering children who illegally enter the country unaccompanied by a parent, have said the department has a policy of "refusing to facilitate" abortions and that releasing the teenager would require arranging a transfer of custody and follow-up care. The teenager's lawyers have said all the government needed to do was "get out of the way." An attorney appointed to represent the teen's interests has said she could transport her to and from appointments necessary for the procedure, and the federal government would not have to pay for it. A federal judge sided with the teen and set dates for the procedure last week, but the government appealed. The three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled 2-1 on Friday that the government should have until Oct. 31 to release the teen, so she could obtain the abortion outside government custody. ___ Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko ||||| A sharply divided federal appeals court, acting with uncommon speed, cleared the way Tuesday for a teenage immigrant to have an abortion while in federal custody in Texas. The 6-3 decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, made without hearing oral arguments and only two days after an appeal by lawyers for the 17-year-old immigrant, reversed a ruling from Friday that would have delayed an abortion until at least next week. The decision returned the case to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who issued an order directing federal officials to “promptly and without delay” allow the teenager to have the abortion she has been seeking for about a month. Abortion opponents quickly pressed the Trump administration to appeal the ruling in hopes of protecting a policy that denies access to abortion for minors in federal custody after illegally crossing the southern border without a parent. Lawyers for the Central American teen, identified only as Jane Doe or JD, praised the ruling but criticized the need to rely on the courts to protect her right to an abortion. “Every step of the way, the Trump administration has shown their true colors in this case,” said Doe’s lead lawyer, Brigitte Amiri with the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s clear that their anti-woman, anti-abortion, anti-immigration agenda is unchecked by basic decency or even the bounds of the law.” Tuesday’s decision by the full appeals court overturned Friday’s ruling by a three-judge panel of the court. That ruling had given Trump administration officials until Oct. 31 to find an adult sponsor to take custody of the teen, a move that presumably would have allowed her to have an abortion without violating a Trump administration rule requiring childbirth to be promoted over abortion for minors in federal custody. Doe’s lawyers had argued that the delay unnecessarily put her physical and mental health at risk for no viable reason because it was highly unlikely that an appropriate sponsor could be identified, investigated and approved before the Oct. 31 deadline. Tuesday’s ruling was split along partisan lines. All six of the judges who favored Doe had been appointed by Democratic presidents, while the three dissenting judges were named by Republicans. All three judges on the original panel issued statements accompanying the ruling. Writing in dissent, Justice Karen LeCraft Henderson said the court majority “plows new and potentially dangerous ground” by mistakenly concluding that Doe, as a minor in the country illegally, had a constitutional right to an abortion. “Under my colleagues’ decision, it is difficult to imagine an alien minor anywhere in the world who will not have a constitutional right to an abortion in this country,” Henderson wrote. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a dissent joined by Henderson and Thomas Griffith, said the majority erroneously found “a new right for unlawful immigrant minors in U.S. government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand.” “The majority’s decision represents a radical extension of the Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence,” Kavanaugh wrote, arguing that the delay to find a sponsor to take custody of Doe represented the best way to resolve the controversy. Justice Patricia Millett, who had opposed the delay to find a sponsor scoffed at the arguments. “It is unclear why undocumented status should change everything,” she wrote. “Surely the mere act of entry into the United States without documentation does not mean that an immigrant’s body is no longer her or his own. Nor can the sanction for unlawful entry be forcing a child to have a baby.” Doe’s case was closely watched for its potential effect on two contentious issues — access to abortion and immigration policy — and much of the legal fight focused on who is to blame for the situation. Lawyers for Doe blamed Trump administration officials for keeping her in a state of forced pregnancy by refusing to let her travel to clinic appointments — in essence, holding the 17-year-old hostage to their belief that abortion is wrong. By advancing a policy that forbids any action that helps in-custody minors get an abortion, administration officials are placing an improper obstacle to a constitutionally protected procedure, the ACLU lawyers argued. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say Doe is to blame for any obstacles in her path. The teen, they argued, is in federal custody because she entered the United States illegally — a situation that she is free to end by voluntarily returning to her home country, ending her custody and any restrictions or obstacles it brings. By choosing to remain in custody, Doe also remains subject to Trump administration policies that promote childbirth over abortion, the lawyers said. “Any alleged ‘obstacle’ to Ms. Doe’s ability to obtain an abortion is by her own choice,” government lawyers told the appeals court. ||||| Activists with Planned Parenthood demonstrate in support of a pregnant 17-year-old being held in a Texas facility for unaccompanied immigrant children to obtain an abortion. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Federal appeals court clears way for undocumented teen to get abortion It’s not clear how soon the girl could have an abortion. A federal appeals court has ruled that an undocumented pregnant minor being held in a federally-funded shelter in Texas can receive an abortion. The full bench of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an earlier ruling last Friday from a three-judge panel of that court that gave the Trump administration until Oct. 31 to try to defuse the controversy by finding an adult sponsor who could take in the 17-year old pregnant girl. Story Continued Below On Sunday the girl’s lawyers had asked the full court to set aside the decision, saying that they’ve exhausted their options to find a sponsor. They said the delay brings the girl, now close to 16 weeks pregnant, dangerously close to the states’ 20-week limit on abortion. The court’s full bench split along party lines with six Democrat appointed judges ruling in favor, three Republican appointees bitterly denouncing the decision and one Democratic appointee recusing herself. A Justice Department spokesman said the administration is reviewing the order. He had no immediate comment on whether federal officials will try to seek relief from the Supreme 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. It’s not clear how soon the girl could have an abortion. The girl’s lawyers have asked a district court judge to amend a previous order to allow the girl to have an abortion within days. The girl, who is being held in the Rio Grande Valley in a facility funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, already had a counseling appointment that Texas requires 24 hours before an abortion could be performed. However, her lawyers said she would have to repeat that appointment because the doctor who performed the previous exam last week won’t be available in the next few days. If the case is further delayed, the girl will have to travel about 200 miles to obtain the procedure in an ambulatory surgical center or hospital, which Texas law requires for abortions at least 16 weeks into a pregnancy. For the last seven months, HHS has intervened to prevent abortions sought by girls at federally funded shelters. The Jane Doe case has opened a new legal front over abortion rights and has raised thorny issues about immigration and the rights of foreigners on U.S. soil. Anti-abortion groups such as Americans United for Life and Susan B. Anthony List condemned Tuesday’s ruling. The decision will turn the country into “a sanctuary nation for abortion,” wrote SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement. “This shameful ruling must not stand.” The attorneys general of 14 states filed a brief arguing the administration’s policy of blocking abortions for undocumented minors undermines the rights of states to establish consent requirements. Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, along with eight other state attorneys general, have meanwhile argued undocumented immigrants “do not have a right to abortion on demand.” In Tuesday’s decision, Judge Patricia Millett wrote the girl is constitutionally entitled to an abortion even though she is undocumented, and that the administration should release her from the shelter for the procedure. She pointed out that the girl, known as Jane Doe in court filings, has obtained private funding for the procedure and the proper approval needed under Texas law to have the procedure without parental sign-off. Millett agreed with new information from the girl’s lawyers the search for a sponsor would slow down the process. “The court today correctly recognizes that J.D.’s unchallenged right under the Due Process Clause affords this 17-year-old a modicum of the dignity, sense of self-worth, and control over her own destiny that life seems to have so far denied her,” wrote Millett, an Obama appointee. In previous hearings, Trump administration lawyers wouldn’t address whether undocumented minors have constitutional rights such as abortion. Instead, they asserted that federal authorities were under no obligation to facilitate abortions for minors in their care. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a George W. Bush appointee who had apparently devised the previous compromise of allowing the administration extra time to help the girl find a sponsor, dissented with the court’s Tuesday decision. He said that the federal government’s stated desire to encourage child-rearing is valid and is entitled to be recognized in the process. “The Government has permissible interests in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor, and refraining from facilitating abortion,” he wrote. Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, in a separate dissenting opinion argued that the undocumented teen lacks constitutional rights, including the right to an abortion. And she criticized the Trump administration for refusing to address that issue. “The government has inexplicably and wrongheadedly failed to take a position on that antecedent question. I say wrongheadedly because at least to me the answer is plainly— and easily—no,” she said. “To conclude otherwise rewards lawlessness and erases the fundamental difference between citizenship and illegal presence in our country.” If the teen had been in the United States for a long time or had come in legally, her right to an abortion would be harder to dispute, lawyers said. But she crossed the border from Mexico early last month and was immediately apprehended. “That’s what [Henderson’s] beef is. This person was caught at the border and never formally made an entry,” said Cornell law professor Stephen Yale-Loehr. “People who just made it into the country and don’t have any ties here, do they have any constitutional rights? Do they have the full panoply? This is really the gray area. Nobody has a clear answer.” The case appears to have strained relations on the court. Kavanaugh, joined by his Republican-appointed colleagues, expressed regret over ”many aspects” of how the court’s full bench handled what he called “a novel and highly fraught case.” The D.C. Circuit rarely grants full court, or en banc, review of cases, and it even more rarely takes en banc action on a preliminary matter. “The Court never should have reheard this case en banc in the first place," Kavanaugh wrote. "The panel was faced with an emergency motion involving an under-developed factual record that is still unclear and hotly contested." This article tagged under: Immigration Abortion Texas

– In a new twist in the ongoing saga of a 17-year-old's attempts to get an abortion while being held in a federal immigration shelter, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday the Trump administration must stop blocking her from the procedure, Politico reports. A three-judge panel of the court on Friday gave the government until Oct. 31 to find a sponsor to take custody of the undocumented teen, known only as Jane Doe. Lawyers for the teen, who is being represented by the ACLU, said they'd tried everything to find her a sponsor to no avail. On Sunday, they asked the full court to reverse the panel's decision. Lawyers argued the delay to Oct. 31 is putting the teen dangerously close to the abortion cutoff for Texas, which bans the procedure after 20 weeks. Tuesday's 6-3 ruling was split between Democrat- and Republican-appointed judges. It sends the case back to a lower court, where a judge ordered the Trump administration to allow Jane Doe to have an abortion, the Austin-American Statesman reports. According to the AP, the teen came to the US in September from an unnamed Central American country and found out she was pregnant while in federal custody. The Department of Health and Human Services says it has a police of "refusing to facilitate" abortions and had refused to transport or temporarily release the teen to have the procedure. “It’s clear that their anti-woman, anti-abortion, anti-immigration agenda is unchecked by basic decency or even the bounds of the law,” an ACLU lawyer says. The Trump administration could appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

Golden Gate: Electronic tolls for San Francisco bridge Collector Marilyn Alvardo receives the last toll from Jim Eddie in his vintage 1937 Packard Continue reading the main story Related Stories Human toll collectors at one of the world's most iconic bridges have been replaced with an electronic system that photographs licence plates. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has closed its traditional toll booths to try to speed up traffic and save money. Finishing their last shift, some of the toll-takers hugged and cried as they left their booths. "Our DNA is embedded in this bridge... we are part of it," said Jacquie Dean. The new system is costing $3.4m (£2.2m) to implement and is expected to save about $17m over the next eight years. The Golden Gate suspension bridge - which spans the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean - is one of America's best known landmarks. For more than 75 years, the toll-takers have been the human face of the bridge. About 70% of motorists already use an electronic pass system to pay the $5 toll. Now all drivers are being told not to stop and to pay later. Regular bridge users can sign up to the existing FasTrak system which provides motorists with a tag fitted to the windscreen which is read electronically. They can also set up licence plate accounts or receive bills in the post. Nine full-time workers and 29 part-time staff are losing their jobs on the bridge, reports say. Some are being placed in other district positions or are retiring. But Ms Dean lamented the change, saying: "Some customers still want to pay cash. They don't want to be tracked and photographed.'' "Golden Gate's toll-takers deal with people of all walks of life, new drivers and older motorists, wealthy and broke, friendly and cranky, and rushed and leisurely," said the local news website Marin Independent Journal in an editorial. "For years, they've been the everyday ambassadors for the bridge, fitting in a smile and a greeting into the required precision of their jobs, collecting tolls from 110,000 passing motorists daily." ||||| Shortly after midnight Wednesday, the last Golden Gate Bridge toll collector left her booth for the final time, signaling the end of an era. Drivers crossing the historic bridge are no longer able to pay their tolls with cash or be greeted by a human being. With the flip of a switch, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District implemented a $3.2 million all-electronic collection system. Marilyn Alvarado was the last toll collector on the bridge early Wednesday morning. After more than 29 years of service, she plans to retire. She said her last day of work was an amazing one filled with mixed feelings of sadness and happiness. “I want to thank the public for all their kind words and generosity,” Alvarado said. “We’ve had so much generous support.” Alvarado took her last toll from Jim Eddie, bridge district president from Mendocino County, and his passenger Brian Sobel, district board member from Sonoma County. Eddie drove a maroon 1937 Packard through Alvarado’s lane, an act he said is historically significant. “It actually was the first car to cross the bridge when they opened it in 1937,” Eddie said. The second-to-last last car through the toll booth was driven by San Francisco resident Peter Lavezzoli, who said he loves the toll-takers and will miss interacting with them. “I think it means that we’re more interested in conveniences as opposed to human interaction,” Lavezzoli said. “It’s another step toward the de-humanization of our society.” Before Alvarado left her lane No. 1 booth, workers were busy unveiling new signs that said “Do Not Stop” and painting the toll booth windows in the international orange used to paint the bridge. Signs raising the speed limit from 5 mph to 25 mph were also unveiled, along with signs making lane No. 2 at the Toll Plaza as a $3 toll carpool lane. Three people in a vehicle qualify as a carpool. Toll collector Dawnette Reed waited near the Toll Plaza late Tuesday night with flowers for her sister Tracy Sorrell, who was the second-to-last toll-taker on the bridge. Reed, who had worked earlier in the day, said it was a difficult day filled with tears. She said her faithful customers showed an outpouring of support. “I had a lot of customers who wanted to hug me. I got four bouquets of flowers, coffee, multiple cards, gift cards and baked goods,” Reed said. She said it’s difficult to leave a job she’s grown up with. She’s worked as a toll-taker for 18 years after starting her work with the district as a gift shop employee at the age of 16. In all her time on the bridge, she said she’s seen everything from people walking away from their cars to driving through the toll booths naked. “I really loved my job,” Reed said, adding that she’s now seeking work with the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. Reed was one of the full-time toll-takers and 29 temporary, part-time hires affected by the switch. Toll takers like were eliminated in an attempt to save the bridge district money, as it’s facing a $66 million budget shortfall over the next five years. Bridge district managers anticipate saving about $16 million over eight years in salaries and benefits. The base annual salary for a toll-taker ranged from $48,672 to $54,080. Eddie said the change is difficult as most bridge employees have great longevity with the district, typically retiring from their jobs instead of being forced out. “It’s a real change, but technology has got its place and it’s here to stay,” Eddie said. Under the new system, drivers will pay their tolls using digital transponders that deduct money from a prepaid account or credit card, or through license plate scans that automatically send bills to drivers. Those who want to pre-pay a toll with cash can pay at “Touch-N-Buy” kiosks around Marin, often found in convenience stores. Cash will no longer be accepted at the Toll Plaza. The district has established a website — www.goldengate.org/tolls — to provide information to drivers about their payment choices. Drivers who fail to pay the toll via one of the electronic options will receive warning letters and could eventually have a hold placed on their vehicle registration at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. As a man’s voice shouted over a loudspeaker early Wednesday at confused drivers, telling them not to stop at the unmanned booths, toll-worker Cheryl Butler-Adams reflected on her short five months working at the bridge. “It was a job, but it was enjoyable. You weren’t just taking cash, you were always assisting people,” Butler-Adams said. Contact Megan Hansen via email at [email protected] or via Twitter at http://twitter.com/hansenmegan

– Starting today, it's a little more efficient and a little less ... human ... to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. The last toll-taker wrapped up her shift at midnight, paving the way for a fully automated system designed to save millions in the coming years, reports the BBC. Drivers no longer have to stop at the booths, which isn't sitting well with everyone. "I think it means that we're more interested in conveniences as opposed to human interaction," the second-to-last driver to pay in person tells the San Jose Mercury News.

(CNN) One crew member wrote her mother an email saying the crew was heading directly into Hurricane Joaquin. "Winds are super bad," she said. "Love to everyone." Another is about to become a new father and was supposed to return home soon to learn the gender of his expected twins. Stories about some of the 33 crew members on board are starting to emerge. The cargo ship, headed from Florida to Puerto Rico, disappeared last week near the Bahamas. The U.S. Coast Guard has concluded the boat sank as Hurricane Joaquin churned across the Atlantic. The search for crew members ended Wednesday. The crew members' families oscillate between talking about them in the present and past tenses -- highlighting the uncertainty about what has happened to their loved ones. Brookie Davis Brookie Davis, also known as Larry, has been a seaman for over 30 years, his brother-in-law Danny Howard told CNN. Davis is a father of two and married to Howard's sister. The last time the men spoke was over a month ago. "He's a very unique man," said Howard. "He loves to fish, loves his family." They've known each other since the third grade and played football together in grade school. The family is very tight, Howard said, and have always lived in Jacksonville, Florida. The Davises live about a mile and a half from Howard. Much of Davis' family is at the union hall in Jacksonville, hoping to hear good news. Keith Griffin Keith Griffin Keith Griffin, a seafarer on El Faro, was supposed to be home soon. He and his wife, Katie, had plans to go to the doctor to learn the gender of the twins she's carrying. Griffin graduated from Massachusetts Maritime Academy, his wife said. "He's a strong-willed guy," Katie Griffin said. "He'd give you the shirt off his back. He was so excited to become a father." The last time Katie Griffin heard from her husband was after he had dinner September 30. He said he was up late because the weather was getting bad. "He told me he loved me," she said. "And that's the last time I heard from him." Frank Hamm Destiny Sparrow is livid. She said there's absolutely no reason why El Faro should have sailed near the hurricane with her father, Frank Hamm, on board. "If they knew that the hurricane was coming, they should have kept them there and waited," Sparrow told WJXT. "That makes no sense at all." The owners of El Faro said the captain had a "sound plan" to avoid Hurricane Joaquin , but that the ship's main propulsion failed, stranding the crew in the path of the storm. Lonnie Jordan In his 13 years as a seaman, 33-year-old Lonnie Jordan was happy to cook and do "whatever else was needed on the ship," his grandmother Faye Cummings told CNN. Aside from the sea, she said, Jordan's loves include his family and his church. He gradated from school in Baltimore with top honors, Cummings said. Among his favorite pastimes: taking his little sisters out shopping. Jeffrey Mathias Jeffrey Mathias is the father of three children. Like Griffin, he also attended the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The Mathias family issued a statement thanking supporters. "Jeffrey is our beloved son, brother, loving husband and father. He is the center of our world," the family said. "All of his friends, family, nieces, nephews, as well as his three children ages 3, 5, and 7, his wife, brother, and parents ask for your continued prayers as well as continued respect for our privacy during this difficult time." Dylan Meklin The exhausted, dry eyes of Andrew Dehlinger tell the story as he waits for news about his daughter's boyfriend, crew member Dylan Meklin. "I've cried so much that I can't ... I have no more tears," he told CNN affiliate WMTW "So he's got to come -- they all have to come back," Dehlinger said of Meklin, who he said is like a son to him. Meklin's father, Karl, confirmed to the Portland Press Herald that his son was on El Faro. Meklin family friend Keenan Flanagan told WMTW that Dylan, 23, was excited to go out on his first mission as a merchant mariner. "Dylan was what I would consider an All-American boy. He was a great athlete, great football player, great baseball player, great basketball player," Flanagan said. Theodore "Earl" Quammie He was just a few weeks away from his 67th birthday, his family said in a statement given to CNN. "Earl was a kind, sweet, and private person. He was loved by all, and he had a big heart," the family said. Quammie loved the sea, they said. The public nature of his fate was "crushing and extremely heartbreaking." Danielle Randolph Laurie Bobillot saved the email she got from her daughter, a second mate on El Faro, as the ship was about to face Hurricane Joaquin. "We are heading straight into it, Category 3, last we checked," Danielle Randolph wrote, according to CNN affiliate WFOX. "Winds are super bad. Love to everyone." Bobillot gave only one statement to the media as she waited for word on her 34-year-old daughter: "All I ask is for you to pray for the crew members." Steven Schultz Steven Schultz is a model family man, always putting his wife and children first, his brother said. He also had "lots of friends. His friends all loved him. He would do anything for anybody," his brother, Richard, told CNN affiliate WBBH "The last thing he did was working for his family. And unfortunately, maybe some bad decisions were made." His wife told CNN affiliate WINK that he was a great man who was very proud of his children. "I just want him back, even if it's just his body," she said. Mariette Wright Mariette Wright's love for the water made her career choice a natural fit. "She loves the sea. She couldn't live without being on the sea somehow or somewhere," her mother Mary Shevory told CNN affiliate WJXT "That is her life. And now I'm so afraid she's lost it to the sea." Others on the ship -- Louis Champa -- Roosevelt Clark -- Sylvester Crawford Jr. -- Michael Davidson -- Joe Hargrove -- Carey Hatch -- Michael Holland -- Jack Jackson -- Jackie Jones Jr. -- Piotr Krause -- Mitchell Kuflik -- Roan Lightfoot -- Marcin Nita -- Jan Podgorski -- James Porter -- Richard Pusatere -- Jeremie Riehm -- Lashawn Rivera -- Howard Schoenly -- German Solar-Cortes -- Anthony Thomas -- Andrzej Truszkowski -- Rafal Zdobych Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Jordan Dehlinger as an El Faro crew member. In fact, her boyfriend, Dylan Meklin, was aboard the ship, according to CNN affiliate WMTW and the Portland Press Herald. Andrew Dehlinger is Jordan's father. ||||| The wife of a Massachusetts crew member on a missing cargo ship spoke through tears today after the Coast Guard said they believe the ship has sunk. “I'm pregnant with twins – I'm devastated,” said Katie Griffin, 33, wife of the El Faro's first engineer, Keith Griffin. Now, Griffin said, she's hoping for a miracle but isn't optimistic. “My babies are all I have left of him now,” she said. The U.S. Coast Guard said today El Faro is believed to have sunk in the choppy seas of Hurricane Joaquin. ||||| Devastated Wife of Engineer on Missing El Faro Is Pregnant with Twins: 'He's Never Coming Home' Katie Griffin Their Love Story Just one week ago Katie Griffin spent her day emailing with her husband Keith, the first engineer aboard the El Faro cargo ship "We talked about our day and at 6 p.m. he said he had just finished dinner and was going to bed," says Katie. "He said it was rough and stormy and that he loved me. He didn't plan on getting much sleep. "It was the last time she heard from him.On Tuesday, she drove to the doctor and learned that she was pregnant with twin girls. She was also informed that the Coast Guard had confirmed that her husband's ship sank after it was caught in Hurricane Joaquin last week."It was so awful," Katie, 33, says of learning the genders of her twins. "I broke down. I should be happy, but that fact that I'm not going to be able to share my two little girls with him is heartbreaking."The pregnant mom from Fort Myers, Florida, tells PEOPLE that she wakes up wide awake in the middle of the night thinking of how she will live her life without him."He's never coming home," she says. "I wish they would search for him forever."Keith Griffin was among the 28 Americans and five Polish nationals who were on board the ship.On Wednesday, the Coast Guard announced that they ended the search for the missing ship and its crew "I know the Coast Guard's worked tirelessly but it upsets me a lot. I don't want them to give up," she says.Katie says she had been counting down the days until her husband returned from sea – just 13 from the last time they talked on Sept. 30.Katie was a waitress at a popular bar in Tampa when she met Keith, a sailor who traveled around the world including Egypt and South Korea."I knew right after I met him that he was special," she says. "We went on one date and that was it."He caught her attention with his humor and even when she was mad at him, she couldn't help but laugh.After getting married they knew they wanted to have children and on July 9, they found out she was pregnant. Then, on September 24, which happened to be Katie's birthday, she received more news – they were going to have twins."He was out on sea but I called him on Facebook Messenger because I wanted to see his face," she says. "He was so happy and was in tears."At first, the couple agreed that they wanted the gender to be a surprise, but after the revelation that they were having two, they decided to find out."He always wanted to know," says Katie, while crying on the phone. "But I didn't." A GoFundMe page has been created to help raise money for Katie and her twins.

– In July, Katie and Keith Griffin found out they were expecting. On Sept. 24, they found out they were expecting twins. "He was out on sea but I called him on Facebook Messenger because I wanted to see his face," Katie tells People. "He was so happy and was in tears." Her husband wasn't out to sea on just any ship—he was the first engineer on board the doomed El Faro cargo ship. On Sept. 30, the couple emailed back and forth. "He said it was rough and stormy and that he loved me. He didn't plan on getting much sleep." The next day, the El Faro went out of contact, and Katie never heard from her husband again. On Tuesday, the same day she found out their twins are both girls, the Coast Guard confirmed the ship sank after getting caught in Hurricane Joaquin. The couple originally planned to keep the gender of their baby a surprise, until they learned they were having two and changed their minds. "He always wanted to know, but I didn't," says a crying Katie. "It was so awful," the Florida 33-year-old says of the moment she learned her babies' genders. "I broke down. I should be happy, but that fact that I'm not going to be able to share my two little girls with him is heartbreaking." On Wednesday, the Coast Guard ended the search for the El Faro and its 33-person crew. "He's never coming home," Katie says. "I wish they would search for him forever." She told the Boston Herald earlier this week, "My babies are all I have left of him now." CNN has profiles of the crew members.

There was no immediate comment from Mr. Trump or his transition team. Mr. Trump recently angered Chinese officials by holding a phone conversation with Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, an island that Beijing deems a breakaway province of China. It had been nearly four decades since a United States president or president-elect had such direct contact with a Taiwanese leader. In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Mr. Trump also criticized China over its trade imbalance with America, its military activities in the South China Sea and its ties to North Korea. China was “building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea, which they shouldn’t be doing,” he said in the interview on Fox News. During his campaign, Mr. Trump dwelled on accusations that China had systematically sapped American industrial might, and he has indicated that trade issues will be a priority in dealings with Beijing. But the latest disclosures suggest how seemingly remote islands in the South China Sea could become a source of serious tensions, even military strife. The Spratlys, which China calls the Nansha Islands, are the subject of an especially volatile mix of competing claims. Parts of the archipelago are also claimed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan. And the possibility of undersea oil and gas deposits has exacerbated the rivalries. Advertisement Continue reading the main story President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has moved in recent months to ease tensions with China, and to distance his country from Washington. Even so, the Philippines keeps defense treaties with the United States. But China, with the world’s second-biggest economy and a swelling military budget, has established an intimidating dominance across much of the South China Sea. And the latest satellite images appeared to confirm its deepening military grip on the Spratlys. The steps “show that Beijing is serious about defense of its artificial islands in case of an armed contingency in the South China Sea,” the Asia Maritime Defense Initiative said in its report about the images. “Among other things, they would be the last line of defense against cruise missiles launched by the United States or others” against air bases that may soon go into operation on the islands, it said. The images showed that the facilities were in place before Mr. Trump’s comments. The Obama administration sought to play down both the images and the Chinese Defense Ministry’s response. “We watch Chinese naval developments very carefully, and we urge all parties in the South China Sea to avoid actions that raise tensions,” said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. The images elicited a far more contentious response from hawkish Republicans, who do not necessarily share Mr. Trump’s views on China trade policy but see Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea as an aggressive challenge to the United States. ||||| Washington-based thinktank says Beijing has installed anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems and guns on artificial reefs China appears to have positioned “significant” weapons systems, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, on all seven of the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea, despite vowing it had no intention of militarising the archipelago, a US thinktank has claimed. During a state visit to the US last year President Xi Jinping publicly stated that China did “not intend to pursue militarisation” of the strategic and resource-rich trade route through which about $4.5tn (£3.4tn) in trade passes each year. However, satellite images released on Wednesday by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies appeared to show Beijing was doing just that. China should plan to take Taiwan by force after Trump call, state media says Read more The Washington-based group said the images, which were taken last month, showed what appeared to be anti-aircraft guns and close-in weapons systems (CIWS) installed on man-made islands in the South China Sea’s disputed Spratly archipelago, where Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all have territorial claims. In a report, China’s new Spratly island defences, the AMTI said its analysts had identified what appeared to be defence “fortifications” on Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs. Anti-aircraft guns and what were likely to be CIWS to fend off cruise missile strikes appeared to have been built on two other reefs, Hughes and Gaven. “These gun and probable CIWS emplacements show that Beijing is serious about defence of its artificial islands in case of an armed contingency in the South China Sea,” the AMTI said. “Among other things, they would be the last line of defence against cruise missiles launched by the United States or others against these soon-to-be-operational air bases.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Apparent weapons systems on Johnson reef in the South China Sea. Photograph: Digitalglobe/Reuters Regional experts told the Guardian the images gave the lie to China’s claims that it was not militarising the region. “Beijing is militarising the Spratly islands despite the fact that it has said it would not,” said Ashley Townshend, a fellow at the University of Sydney’s United States studies centre. “Beijing did say earlier in the year that it reserves the right to defend its artificial islands if necessary, and it has tried to portray these sorts of defences… as a tit-for-tat response to American naval presence in the region. I’m sure we will see this in the coming days. But, however you want to look at it, this is an act of militarisation.” Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said: “The new satellite images clearly show that despite President Xi’s pledge that China would not militarise the South China Sea, that process of militarisation continues apace. “Although China claims that the main purpose of its artificial islands is for civilian purposes, regional observers simply don’t buy it,” Storey added. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Suspected weapons installations on Gaven reefs. Photograph: Digitalglobe/Reuters “It’s been glaringly obvious from the outset of China’s reclamation projects that the primary purpose of these artificial islands is strategic: to enable China to project military power into the very heart of south-east Asia’s maritime domain so as to enforce its territorial and jurisdictional claims in the South China Sea. “The installation of these air defence systems indicates that the facilities are nearing completion and ready to host air and naval assets on a permanent basis.” Greg Poling, AMTI’s director, told Reuters the images suggested China was “prepping for a future conflict”. “They keep saying they are not militarising, but they could deploy fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles tomorrow if they wanted to … Now they have all the infrastructure in place for these interlocking rings of defence and power projection,” Poling added. Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, accused Beijing of “creating an environment of tension and mistrust” in the South China Sea. Without specifically naming China, Bishop warned that the construction of artificial islands and “possible militarisation” of the region would “lead to reputation and other costs for claimants engaging in such behaviour”. Speaking in Beijing on Thursday afternoon, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang rejected the suggestion that the installations represented a “military deployment”. Geng said it was “completely normal” and China’s “inherent sovereign right” to carry out construction work and install defence facilities on what it considers its territory. Obama’s failed ‘Asian pivot’ leaves China ascendant | Simon Tisdall Read more The photographs were released just days after the US president-elect angered Beijing by hinting he may be preparing to take a harder line over issues such as Taiwan and its activities in the South China Sea. In an interview with Fox News last Sunday, Trump accused Beijing of “building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea, which they shouldn’t be doing”. In a recent article for Foreign Policy, one Trump adviser complained that Obama’s “meekness” had encouraged “Chinese aggression” in the region. “Beijing has created some 3,000 acres of artificial islands in the South China Sea with very limited American response,” wrote Peter Navarro, the author of a book called The Coming China Wars, urging Trump to impose a “peace through strength” policy on the the region. Townshend said many of those around Trump believed Beijing’s increasingly assertive behaviour in the South China Sea was evidence it no longer respected the Obama administration or the US. “It is safe to assume that he will want to correct this image … We can expect him to continue the existing programme of freedom of navigation operations, and probably to step them up in some way. Maybe this will be increasing the frequency of patrols, or going to places that the Obama administration has been hesitant to go – such as actually undertaking a non-innocent passage military patrols within 12 miles of an artificial island. We haven’t seen this yet. “This would be in line with what appears to be Trump’s more hawkish approach to China policy.” Storey said that in the wake of the latest images: “The Obama administration will undoubtedly reiterate its call for all parties to halt the militarisation of the South China Sea, but it is unlikely to take any concrete action. “Indeed, in the face of these revelations it has very few options. Until [Trump’s policies for Asia become clear] we wait.” Townshend said that having been concerned that a Trump White House might pull back from the region, the US’s regional friends were now worried he might come down too hard on China. “Initially we had fears that Trump was going to be a bit of an isolationist … Now the big question for allies and partners is this: not will Donald Trump’s China policy be too weak, but will it be too strong?” ||||| This file aerial view taken on July 27, 2012, shows part of the city of Sansha on the island of Yongxing, also known as Woody island in the disputed Paracel chain, which China now considers part of Hainan province. (AFP/Getty) A Chinese naval ship seized an underwater naval drone that was being used by the U.S. Navy to test water conditions in the South China Sea, the Pentagon said Friday. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the incident occurred on Dec. 15 about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay, in international waters in the South China Sea. The USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey vessel with a mostly civilian crew, was in the process of recovering two unmanned ocean gliders, which are used to collect information about water conditions that can help U.S. vessels operate. A Chinese ship, a Dalang-III class submarine rescue vessel, approached the area, coming within about 500 yards of the Bowditch before dropping a small boat in the water. It seized one of the gliders and brought it aboard, Davis said. The Bowditch contacted the Chinese ship and asked for the glider to be returned. Officials aboard the Chinese ship acknowledged the radio communication, Davis said, but said they were returning to normal operations. The ship then left the area. “We would like it back and we would like this not to happen again,” Davis said, referring to the underwater drone. The incident occurred around 1:45 p.m. local time, the Navy said. A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record, said the United States has made an official diplomatic communication to the Chinese government, “demanding the return of our stuff.” There was no immediate response from Beijing, the official said. The incident comes amid mounting tensions over Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which have alarmed U.S. allies in the region and prompted the U.S. military to conduct “freedom of navigation” operations intended as a show of force. This week, a U.S. think tank reported that China has placed antiaircraft weapons on artificial islands, threatening to intensify the debate over disputed areas. Davis said ships such as the Bowditch routinely conduct operations in the South China Sea. The Navy said the drones are operated by the Naval Oceanographic Office, which states in its promotional materials that it maintains the largest glider fleet in the world, with more than 130 “littoral battlespace sensing” crafts. The gliders are piloted by civilian employees of the oceanographic office from Stennis Space Center in Mississippi through the use of encrypted satellite communications. They typically travel just a few miles per hour and are tracked by oceanographic vessels such as the USNS Bowditch. The data the drones collect is unclassified. Wu Shicun, president of China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said the unmanned vehicle posed “a threat to China’s national security” because it could be used to “spy” on China’s land reclamation efforts or collect information about Chinese submarine routes. “Why are [the underwater vehicles] there? I think the U.S. knows it very well,” he said. Sen. John McCain, (R.-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Friday afternoon that the seizure is a “flagrant violation” of the laws of the seas. “China had no right to seize this vehicle,” McCain said. “And the United States must not stand for such outrageous conduct.” McCain said the incident fits a pattern of increasingly destabilizing Chinese behavior. “This behavior will continue until it is met with a strong and determined U.S. response, which until now the Obama administration has failed to provide,” McCain said. “Freedom of the seas and the principles of the rules-based order are not self-enforcing. American leadership is required in their defense.” Chinese analysts, however, downplayed the incident. “It won’t have too much impact on the Sino-U.S. relationship,” said Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Relations at Nanjing University. “China and the U.S. have been through conflicts far more severe.” It’s not clear how President-elect Donald Trump, who has been the subject of Chinese government ire since his recent outreach to leadership of Taiwan, will approach those maritime disputes. But he has criticized Beijing for “building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea,” in addition to his complaints about Chinese monetary and trade policies. Patrick Cronin, an expert on Asia-Pacific security at the Center for a New American Security, called the seizure “a brazen, calculated act of coercive diplomacy” and said it was intended to send a message to Trump ahead of his inauguration. “Rather than wait several weeks, Beijing is advancing a provocative action offshore from a U.S. ally that had recently kowtowed to China,” Cronin said, referring to the incident’s location near the Philippines. The signal China wishes to send is unambiguous, he said: “‘If you challenge our sovereignty we will challenge yours.’ The U.S. response needs to be equally clear: if anyone messes with with our Navy the response will not be limited to words.” Both sides are merely signalling, said Qiao Liang, a military commentator and major general in the Chinese air force. “You called Tsai Ing-wen, sending a signal; we capture the UUV in South China Sea, our own exclusive economic zone,” he said. “It’s certainly a signal to the U.S.” But, he added, “there will not be any escalation before Trump takes office.” Luna Lin contributed from Beijing. China has laid claim to a number of islands in the South China Sea, building airbases on tiny spits of land while installing powerful radar and missile launchers. Here's why. (Jason Aldag,Julie Vitkovskaya/The Washington Post / Satellite photos courtesy of CSIS) Read more: China puts new weapons on South China Sea islands, report says Photos: China’s rapid island-building strategy continues China testing Obama as it expands its influence in Southeast Asia ||||| BEIJING/WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - China will return an underwater U.S. drone seized by a naval vessel this week in the South China Sea, both countries said on Saturday, but Beijing complained that Washington had been “hyping up” the incident. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to take an aggressive approach in dealing with China over its economic and military policies, jumped on the unusual drone seizure with a pair of provocative tweets, accusing Beijing of stealing the equipment. The drone, known as an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), was taken on Thursday, the first seizure of its kind in recent memory. The Pentagon went public with its complaint after the action and said on Saturday it had secured a deal to get the drone back. “Through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will return the UUV to the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement. The drone, which the Pentagon said was operating lawfully was collecting data about the salinity, temperature and clarity of the water about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay, off the Philippines. It was seized just as the USNS Bowditch was about to retrieve it, U.S. officials said. China’s Defense Ministry said a Chinese naval vessel discovered a piece of “unidentified equipment” and checked it to prevent any navigational safety issues before discovering it was a U.S. drone. “China decided to return it to the U.S. side in an appropriate manner, and China and the U.S. have all along been in communication about it,” the ministry said on its website. “During this process, the U.S. side’s unilateral and open hyping up is inappropriate, and is not beneficial to the smooth resolution of this issue. We express regret at this,” it added. ‘KEEP IT!’ Trump, a Republican who takes office on Jan. 20, waded into the dispute on Twitter early on Saturday from his seaside resort club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, where he plans to spend the holidays. “China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters - rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act,” he said. After China said it would return the drone, Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump, tweeted a link to a news story, saying: “@realdonaldtrump gets it done.” There was, however, no evidence that Trump had played any role. U.S. officials said the negotiations took place in Beijing during the overnight hours in the United States. Miller did not respond to requests for comment. Hours later, while riding in a motorcade back to his resort, Trump tweeted his second jab. “We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back - let them keep it!” he said. Trump has previously threatened to declare China a currency manipulator and force changes in U.S.-Chinese trade policy, which he says has led to the greatest theft of American jobs in history. Trump has also raised questions about the most sensitive part of the U.S.-China relationship: whether Washington would stick to its nearly four-decades-old policy of recognizing that Taiwan is part of “one China.” After his Nov. 8 election victory, Trump accepted a congratulatory phone call from President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, prompting China to lodge a diplomatic protest. President Barack Obama said on Friday it was fine for Trump to review Washington’s policy toward Taiwan, but he cautioned that a shift could lead to significant consequences in the U.S. relationship with Beijing. “There’s probably no bilateral relationship that carries more significance and where there’s also the potential, if that relationship breaks down or goes into a full-conflict mode, that everybody is worse off,” Obama told reporters. HEIGHTENED TENSIONS The drone incident has raised fresh concerns about China’s increased military presence and aggressive posture in the energy-rich South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in trade is shipped every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to the waterway. New satellite imagery shows China has installed weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, on all seven artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea, a U.S. research group said this week. Without directly saying whether the U.S. drone was operating in waters Beijing considers its own, China’s Defense Ministry said U.S. ships and aircraft have for a long period been carrying out surveillance and surveys in “the presence” of Chinese waters. The USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey ship, is seen in this undated U.S. Navy handout photo. U.S. Navy via REUTERS “China is resolutely opposed to this, and demands the U.S. stops this kind of activity,” it said. China will remain on alert for these sorts of activities and take necessary steps to deal with them, the ministry said without elaborating. The Global Times, published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, earlier cited an unidentified Chinese source as saying they believed the issue would be resolved smoothly.

– More tensions with China: The Pentagon says a Chinese naval ship on Thursday seized a US underwater drone in the South China Sea, reports Reuters. US officials have lodged a formal request to get the unmanned, underwater vehicle, or UUV, back. "The UUV was lawfully conducting a military survey in the waters of the South China Sea," one American official tells the news agency. The Washington Post describes it as an "ocean glider" that was testing water conditions in international waters. The US says the oceanographic survey ship USNS Bowditch was just about to retrieve the UUV when a Chinese ship arrived, scooped it up, and sailed away without responding to messages from the Bowditch. “The United States has through their proper diplomatic channels demarched the Chinese, demanding return of our stuff,” says a US official. The move comes after reports surfaced earlier this week that China had placed weapons on its controversial man-made islands in the South China Sea. They include "significant" anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, reports the Guardian. China, which has said it is "seriously concerned" about comments being directed its way by President-elect Trump, seemed to acknowledge the move as a self-defense measure in a post on the Defense Ministry website. "If someone was at the door of your home, cocky and swaggering, how could it be that you wouldn’t prepare a slingshot?” it reads, without mentioning names, per the New York Times.

Furniture giant welcomes rapper’s interior design goals by saying ‘we’d love to see what you’d create’ – but not everyone is convinced Ikea has responded to Kanye West’s request to “allow Kanye to create”, proposing the Yeezy: a bed big enough for West and all his celebrity friends. West revealed his ambition to work with the Swedish flat-pack furniture powerhouse in an interview on BBC Radio 1 on Monday. Kanye West's Ikea line should beat Justin Timberlake's homeware Read more “I. Have. To. Work. With. Ikea,” he told presenter Annie Mac by phone from Los Angeles. “With furniture, with interior design, for architecture.” Specifically, he had interest in turning his hand to “a minimalist apartment inside of a college dorm, with a TV built inside of the wall”. He was drawn to Ikea because of his goal of making his products more accessible, describing his “mission in life” as to do “high-end and all this stuff, and bring it to the people”. He concluded by calling on Ikea to “allow Kanye to create”: “Allow him to make this thing because you know what, I want a bed that he makes, I want a chair that he makes – I want more products from Ye.” Ikea Australia responded on Facebook late on Tuesday night with the “Yeezy”: “Hej Kanye, we’d love to see what you’d create... we could make you Famous!” The design – three beds, screwed together – was a reference to West’s controversial Famous video, which showed West, his wife Kim Kardashian, and other celebrities naked and asleep in a giant bed together. But the fans of Ikea Australia who responded to the post were by and large not in favour of the collaboration, with one proposing an alternative: the Kånye toilet. “Don’t do it. Ever,” commented one Ikea fan. “It’s probably the only thing that would make me stay away from Ikea.” Another commented of the collaboration: “Would it have a screw loose?” West has previously collaborated with the British fashion designer, Katie Eary, who has created textiles and tableware for Ikea in the past. He told Annie Mac his goal was to make “content” across all disciplines, and was dismissive of those who felt he should limit himself to music. “It’s like telling Michaelangelo, ‘I know you did this dope angel, that was really good, but Michealangelo, I don’t think you could paint a cow’.”

– On Monday, Kanye West revealed one of his weirder ambitions: "I have to work with IKEA," the rapper told BBC Radio 1, begging the furniture chain to "allow Kanye to create." He explained that the chain's minimalist designs appeal to him, and that he wants to make "high-end" products that are accessible to the everyday person, "and bring it to the people." One of his specific ideas: He could design "a minimalist apartment inside of a college dorm, with a TV built inside of the wall." IKEA responded the same day, sort of, but the store had a slightly different idea of what Kanye could do for it. "Hej Kanye, we’d love to see what you’d create…we could make you Famous!" IKEA Australia posted on Facebook, along with a picture of a giant bed apparently created by attaching three beds together. As the Guardian notes, IKEA Australia was referring to West's video for "Famous," in which he's joined in bed by not only his wife but a number of other celebrities. Quartz adds that West actually visited IKEA's headquarters back in March, tweeting afterward that he was "super inspired ... my mind is racing with the possibilities." But an IKEA rep tells Quartz that while the company is "flattered" by his interest, no collaboration with Kanye is currently planned.

FILE - In this June 27, 2010 photo, host Regis Philbin arrives at the 37th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, in Las Vegas. Veteran broadcaster Philbin says he's retiring from his weekday talk show. Philbin... (Associated Press) FILE - In this June 27, 2010 photo, host Regis Philbin arrives at the 37th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, in Las Vegas. Veteran broadcaster Philbin says he's retiring from his weekday talk show. Philbin... (Associated Press) Veteran broadcaster Regis Philbin is retiring from his weekday talk show. Philbin made the announcement at the start of Tuesday morning's "Live With Regis and Kelly," which he has hosted for more than a quarter-century, most recently sharing hosting duties with Kelly Ripa. Philbin said he would be stepping down from the show around the end of the summer, but he didn't specify a departure date. "I don't want to alarm anybody," he began, then declared, "This will be my last year on the show. "It's been a long time. It's been 28 years," he continued, "and it was the biggest thrill of my life to come back to New York, where I grew up as a kid watching TV in the early days, you know, never even dreaming that I would one day have the ability, or whatever it takes, to get in front of the camera and talk to it. ... "There is a time that everything must come to an end for certain people on camera _ especially certain old people!" cracked Philbin, who is 79. "I think I can only speak for America and all of us here," responded Ripa, "when I say it has been a pleasure and a privilege and a dream come true. And I wish I could do something to make you change your mind." "Now wait a minute," Philbin said slyly. Nothing was said about the future of the show after Philbin's exit, or what the future holds for Ripa, who is currently marking a decade as Philbin's co-host. ___ Disney-ABC Domestic Television distributes "Live! With Regis and Kelly." ___ Online: http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/regisandkelly/index.html ||||| Veteran broadcaster Regis Philbin announced today that he will be retiring from the weekday talk show "Live With Regis and Kelly" after nearly 28 years. Philbin broke the news this morning at the top of his show. "This will be my last year on this show," Philbin said. "It was the biggest thrill of my life ... There is a time that everything must come to an end for certain people on camera, especially certain old people." Philbin said he would be stepping down from the show "at the end of the summer into the fall, whatever it is," but didn't specify a departure date. Though he's departing, the "Live" franchise will continue: The Disney-ABC Television Group plans to name a new personality to join Kelly Ripa, who has co-hosted the show for nearly ten years. Philbin, 79, has been a television personality since the 1950s. After beginning his TV career in Los Angeles, Philbin moved to New York City and WABC-TV in 1983. Kathie Lee Gifford joined him there in June 1985 and in September 1988, their AM entertainment hour debuted in national syndication. Its title was changed from "The Morning Show" to "Live with Regis & Kathie Lee." Often called the "hardest working man in show business," Philbin set a Guinness World Record for most hours on camera with his Aug. 20, 2004 "Live" show, which gave him a total of 15,188 hours on television. In 2006, his record was updated to 15,662 hours. In addition to "Live," Philbin is famous for formerly hosting the ABC game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," the CBS game show "Million Dollar Password," and the NBC competition show "America's Got Talent." A three-time Emmy Award winner, Philbin was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 2008. Last year, Philbin took time off from his hosting duties to have a blood clot removed from his leg. He also had hip replacement surgery in December 2010 and triple heart bypass surgery in 2007. Philbin has been married to his second wife, interior decorator Joy Philbin, since 1970. He has four children, two with Joy Philbin and two with his first wife, Kay Faylan. Stars React to Philbin's Retirement Following today's "Live," Philbin's day time colleagues and long time friends reacted to his retirement announcement. "I'm thrilled for Regis," said Gifford, former "Live" co-host and current "Today" show personality. "Although he'll never retire, I think his most enjoyable days are ahead of him and I hope I'm a part of them." Gifford told "Access Hollywood" that even in retirement, she expects Philbin to be as busy as ever. "There's a million things Reg can do, there are going to be tons and tons of offers for him," she added. "He's still hot as pistol! How many people – except for Betty White – can say that in their '80s?!" Jerry Seinfeld also released a statement of support for Philbin. "Regis is one of the greatest hosts in television history, but what's most wonderful about him is that he is simply good company," Seinfeld said. "Every place he goes is much better for having him, and everyone he's with is much happier when he's around." On ABC's "The View," Barbara Walters called Philbin "a wonderful friend to the show" and added, "whatever he wants to do is okay with us." "View" co-host Joy Behar referenced Philbin's much-imitated "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" catch phrase with her well wishes: "Maybe this is not his final answer."

– After 28 years as host, Regis Philbin is signing off. The talk-show veteran announced his retirement from Live With Regis and Kelly at the beginning of today’s show, the AP reports. "It's been a long time,” he said, “and it was the biggest thrill of my life to come back to New York, where I grew up as a kid watching TV in the early days.” But alas, “there is a time that everything must come to an end for certain people on camera—especially certain old people,” joked the 79-year-old. "I think I can only speak for America and all of us here," responded co-host Kelly Ripa, "when I say it has been a pleasure and a privilege and a dream come true. And I wish I could do something to make you change your mind." Philbin didn’t give a specific departure date, but said he would leave toward the end of the summer. He holds the Guinness World Record for most hours on camera: 15,662 hours, as of 2006. ABC News reports that Live will continue with Kelly Ripa and a new co-host.

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. ||||| Clooney Joins Forces with Civil Rights Group: "No Two Sides to Bigotry and Hate" The actor's eponymous Foundation for Justice is partnering with the nonprofit as he and his wife have given the organization a $1 million grant. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is partnering with the Clooney Foundation for Justice to combat hate in the wake of the deadly violence at a white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia. "Amal and I wanted to add our voice (and financial assistance) to the ongoing fight for equality," George Clooney said. "There are no two sides to bigotry and hate.” George and Amal Clooney on Tuesday gave the SPLC a $1 million grant from the Clooney Foundation for Justice. One person was killed and many others injured while protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12. Shortly thereafter, President Trump said there were many sides to what happened at the event and that there were good people on both sides. His comments were almost universally condemned. The Clooney Foundation for Justice, co-founded by George and Amal, was established in 2016 to advance justice in communities around the world. "We are proud to support the Southern Poverty Law Center in its efforts to prevent violent extremism in the United States," the husband and wife said in a statement. "What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate." The SPLC nonprofit organization monitors the activities of domestic hate groups and other extremists. “Like George and Amal Clooney, we were shocked by the size, ugliness, and ferocity of the white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville,” said SPLC President Richard Cohen in a statement. “It was a reflection of just how much Trump’s incendiary campaign and presidency have energized the radical right. We are deeply grateful to the Clooney Foundation for standing with us at this critical moment in our country’s fight against hate.”

– George and Amal Clooney's Clooney Foundation for Justice has given a $1 million grant to the Southern Poverty Law Center to combat hate groups in the US, the Los Angeles Times reports. "What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate," the Clooneys said in a statement. The couple also included a subtle dig at President Trump. "There are no two sides to bigotry and hate," the Hollywood Reporter quotes George Clooney as saying. The SPLC is a nonprofit that tracks domestic hate groups and extremists.

Members of the Mashco Piro tribe observe a group of travelers from across the Alto Madre de Dios river in the Manu National Park in the Amazon basin of southeastern Peru, as photographed through a bird scope in this file picture from Oct. 21, 2011. (REUTERS/Jean-Paul Van Belle) For the first time, anthropologists working for the Peruvian government will attempt to make contact with members of a remote tribe living in the Amazon jungle. The move follows growing concerns about the behavior of the Mascho Piro people, which has included attacks and raids on neighboring communities. South America, and in particular the vast Amazon region, is home to some of the world's last remaining "uncontacted" tribes -- indigenous communities that, for whatever reason, have managed to exist almost entirely outside the purview of the nation-states in which they technically live. Experts fear a whole slew of risks that may follow should these tribes come into full contact with the outside world, from exploitation by rapacious mining and logging companies to the devastating transfer of pathogens to which they have no immunity. In recent decades, some governments have taken a protective stance, working to shield these communities from outside contact mostly because of the health risks involved. After all, some estimates suggest contact with outside diseases killed up to 100 million indigenous people following the European arrival in the Americas. Peru bars contact with about a dozen "uncontacted" Amazonian tribes living within its borders, a positive departure from an earlier time when the government would not even recognize their existence. Brazil has its own federal agency responsible for indigenous peoples. In 2011, it allowed cameras to document unprecedented aerial footage of its observations over the jungle. Rights groups and activists have long campaigned in the defense and protection of indigenous lands in the Amazon, fighting against the predatory interests of oil companies as well as a tragic history of violence that saw tribal peoples victim to generations of settlers, loggers, and traffickers. Survival International, which campaigns for the rights of tribal and indigenous communities worldwide, says that Peru and Brazil are not doing enough to safeguard these "uncontacted" tribes. Last year, the organization warned against tourists carrying out "human safaris" near Mascho Piro land. Jeffrey Kluger, Time magazine's science editor, recently recounted a study in Science magazine that detailed the challenges and ethics of how to treat "uncontacted" tribes. This included this chilling anecdote of how vulnerable some of these tribes are to outside contact: Goods that go from body to body should be entirely off-limits. [Journalist Andrew] Lawler spoke to Peruvian villager Marcel Pinedo Cecilio, 69, who was born in the forest but later emerged. Cecilio recalls his first contact with an outsider—thought to have been an ethnographer and photographer—who left the villagers with a gift of a fishbone necklace. Shortly thereafter, much of the tribe came down with a sore throat and fever and 200 of them died. In the 1980s, up to 400 Peruvian villagers died from passing contact with crews of Shell oil company workers. As a result, the current investigation into the Mashco Piro tribe in Peru has earned its concerned critics. "Authorities should restrict boat transit and keep people from approaching," Klaus Quicque, president of FENAMAD, a regional indigenous federation in Peru, told Reuters. The urgency of the contact was spurred by an incident in May, when some members of the tribe attacked another local community, killing a young man with an arrow. The officials enlisted to make contact will engage the tribe through interpreters who speak the Yine language, which they believe shares similarities to the tongue spoken by the Mashco Piro people. In 2013, the Mashco Piro earned global attention when dozens of members of the tribe appeared on the banks of Amazonian tributary near a small Yine town, and demanded rope, machetes and bananas. FENAMAD rangers stationed there dissuaded them from crossing the river, but the standoff was tense, with some of the men from the tribe carrying bows and long wooden lances. Nearby villagers, Christian missionaries and the occasional tourist have all reported meeting Mashco Piro people. "We can no longer pretend they aren't trying to make some sort of contact," Luis Felipe Torres, a Peruvian official working on state tribal affairs, told Reuters. "They have a right to that, too." Experts say the phrase "uncontacted" is something of a misnomer, given that all communities on the planet are aware of their neighbors and have some sense of the wider world outside their homes. "People have this romanticized view that isolated tribes have chosen to keep away from the modern, evil world," said Kim Hill, an anthropologist at Arizona State University, in an interview with the BBC last year. But that's rarely the case. "There is no such thing as a group that remains in isolation because they think it’s cool to not have contact with anyone else on the planet," said Hill. Writing in Science magazine last month, Hill and colleague Robert Walker reiterated this point, suggesting that many of South America's "uncontacted" communities had "chosen isolation out of fear of being killed or enslaved" and that, like most human beings living in constrained circumstances, "they also wanted outside goods and innovations and positive social interactions with neighbors." The academics suggested the best path forward is a policy of "controlled contact" with these communities, carefully managed to avoid the spread of disease, but also enable the building of trust and providing aid and medical help if needed. The current Peruvian mission may serve a test case for this sort of endeavor. ||||| The Peruvian government plans to make its first contact with the Mashco Piro, an isolated tribe that live in the Amazon rainforest. Reaching out to "uncontacted" tribes is controversial, particularly because isolated tribes lack immunity to common diseases, which can quickly turn deadly. But officials say they need to contact the Mashco Piro because the group has recently been emerging from the forest, and have had contact with villagers, tourists and missionaries. In September 2014, for example, the advocacy group Survival International reported that Adventist missionaries had left food and clothes for the tribe near the border of Manu National Park. Gestures like this have spread diseases to uncontacted people in the past, causing epidemics. Tour companies also advertise "human safaris," promising glimpses of Mashco Piro tribespeople along riverbanks. [See Photos of the Uncontacted Amazon Tribes] As a result of these largely unplanned, uncontrolled contacts, some anthropologists argue for deliberate contact with isolated peoples. (Most uncontacted tribes do have limited interactions with their neighbors and are aware of the outside world, but choose to maintain an isolated and nomadic lifestyle in the forest.) "Unless protection efforts against external threats and accidental encounters are drastically increased, the chances that these tribes will survive are slim," anthropologists Robert Walker of the University of Missouri and Kim Hill of Arizona State University wrote in an editorial in the journal Science in June. Controlled contact — with medical treatment available for inevitable disease transmission — is safer, Hill and Walker argued. "A well-designed contact can be quite safe, compared to the disastrous outcomes from accidental contacts," they wrote. "But safe contact requires a qualified team of cultural translators and health care professionals that is committed to staying on site for more than a year." Organizations such as Survival International strongly oppose contact, arguing instead for strict protections of native land. Given activities such as illegal logging and drug trafficking, however, those protections can be hard to enforce. The Mashco Piro have been making their own forms of contact, according to Reuters. Members of the tribe attacked a settlement of the Machiguenga tribe in May 2015, killing one man. Another clash in 2011 between locals and the tribe reportedly left one dead and a park ranger injured. Two groups of uncontacted Peruvians approached Brazilian authorities in July and August 2014, saying they had been attacked by non-Indians, possibly drug runners or illegal loggers. Peruvian policy usually calls for leaving isolated tribes alone, but these incidents have led to an exception. The goal of the planned contact is to find out why the Mashco Piro have been emerging from the forest more frequently, in hopes of preventing more clashes. "In 2014, there were 70 sightings of Mashco Piro on the beaches of the river," Patricia Balbuena, the deputy minister of multiculturalism in Peru, told the newspaper El Comercio. In 2015, she said, there have already been five raids on local communities by the group. Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| Science Vol. 348 no. 6239 p. 1061 DOI: 10.1126/science.aac6540 EDITORIAL: Protecting isolated tribes PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI PHOTO: ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY There are about 50 isolated indigenous societies across lowland South America, with limited to no contact with the outside world. Despite displacements, epidemics, and hostile interactions with outsiders, such tribes still manage to survive. How can we ensure the well-being of humanity's last known isolated peoples under such enormous and mounting pressure from external threats? Generally, the current policy of governments, primarily those of Brazil and Peru, and supported by the United Nations, is a “leave them alone” strategy. There are two implicit assumptions in a no-contact approach, however: that isolated populations are viable in the long term, and that they would choose isolation if they had full information (i.e., if they were aware that contact would not lead to massacre and enslavement). The first assumption is unlikely. Ethnohistorical accounts reveal the real risk of severe depopulation or extinction during intermittent hostile and sporadic interaction with the outside world. Miners, loggers, and hunters penetrate into the homelands of isolated tribes despite government “protection.” Unless protection efforts against external threats and accidental encounters are drastically increased, the chances that these tribes will survive are slim. Disease epidemics, compounded by demographic variability and inbreeding effects, makes the disappearance of small, isolated groups very probable in the near future. The second assumption is also unlikely. Interviews indicate that contacted groups had mainly chosen isolation out of fear of being killed or enslaved, but they also wanted outside goods and innovations and positive social interactions with neighbors. “Controlled contact with isolated peoples is a better option than a no-contact policy.” PHOTO: © SPLASH NEWS/CORBIS Controlled contact with isolated peoples is a better option than a no-contact policy. This means that governments should initiate contact only after conceiving a well-organized plan. In the past, there have been many poorly planned contacts with isolated Amazonian tribes by both missionaries and government agencies. The absence of health care professionals and health monitoring led to many deaths of these vulnerable peoples. One of us (K.R.H.) was on site within weeks of the first peaceful contacts with Aché, Yora, Mascho-Piro, and Matsiguenga communities in Paraguay and Peru when they were extremely isolated and suffering from new contact-related epidemics (from the late 1970s to mid-1980s), even though intermittent contact (mostly accidental) had occurred for 25 years. The most important lesson learned from these experiences is that mortality can be reduced to near zero if the contact team is prepared to provide sustained, around-the-clock medical treatment, as well as food. A well-designed contact can be quite safe, compared to the disastrous outcomes from accidental contacts. But safe contact requires a qualified team of cultural translators and health care professionals that is committed to staying on site for more than a year. For example, foreign missionaries provided great care for the Yora for up to 6 months, but when they decided to take a furlough, dozens of Yora died within a few weeks. Similarly, in 1975, missionaries provided care to an Aché community for a year, but when they took a vacation, many Aché died. Fortunately, there have been some success stories such as a 1978 contact with a band of Northern Aché. Missionaries and anthropologists treated them with antibiotics when primary respiratory infections progressed to pneumonia. They also provided food to the sick. Given that isolated populations are not viable in the long term, well-organized contacts are today both humane and ethical. We know that soon after peaceful contact with the outside world, surviving indigenous populations rebound quickly from population crashes, ,with growth rates over 3% per year. Once a sustained peaceful contact occurs, it becomes much easier to protect native rights than it otherwise would be for isolated populations. Leaving groups isolated, yet still exposed to dangerous and uncontrolled interactions with the outside world, is a violation of governmental responsibility. By refusing authorized, well-planned contacts, governments are simply guaranteeing that accidental and disastrous contacts will take place instead. ||||| LIMA (Reuters) - Peru will try to make contact for the first time with an Amazonian tribe that largely lives isolated in the jungle, part of a bid to ease tensions with nearby villages after a bow-and-arrow attack in May, authorities said on Tuesday. Members of the Mashco-Piro tribe observe a group of travelers from across the Alto Madre de Dios river in the Manu National Park in the Amazon basin of southeastern Peru, as photographed through a bird scope October 21, 2011. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Van Belle Government anthropologists will try to talk with a clan of Mashco Piro Indians to understand why they have been emerging from the forest, said deputy culture minister Patricia Balbuena. In recent years the Mashco Piro have increasingly been spotted seeking machetes and food outside their jungle enclaves in the Manu National Park in southeastern Peru. Villagers, Christian proselytizers and tourists have all interacted with the tribe, often giving them clothes and food. “The only ones who haven’t been in contact with them are representatives of the state!” said Balbuena. Peru prohibits contact with the Mashco Piro and another dozen “uncontacted” tribes, mainly because their immune systems carry little resistance to common illnesses. Authorities have said they cannot keep people from defying the contact ban because no penalty is attached. Indigenous group FENAMAD warned that the decision to contact the Mashco Piro could legitimize the kind of unwanted interactions that have decimated isolated tribes in the past. “Authorities should restrict boat transit and keep people from approaching,” said FENAMAD president Klaus Quicque. Luis Felipe Torres, the head of the state isolated tribes team, said the government will not forcibly contact the Mashco Piro or try to change their nomadic lifestyle. “But we can no longer pretend they aren’t trying to make some sort of contact,” Torres said. “They have a right to that, too.” The Mashco Piro have historically rejected outsiders, surviving enslavement during Peru’s bloody rubber boom in the late 1800s and later rebuffing missionaries. But in the past year, the Mashco Piro have appeared in populated areas more than 100 times, especially along the banks of a river where they gesture to passersby, said Balbuena. Not all interactions with outsiders have been peaceful. In May, a group of Mashco Piro attacked the native Machiguenga community of Shipetiari, killing a young man with an arrow. In 2011 the Mashco Piro killed another local man and wounded a park ranger with arrows. Using interpreters of Yine, a native language similar to the Mashco Piro tongue, the government hopes to prevent future clashes, Balbuena said. A team of doctors six hours upriver would treat the tribe if disease breaks out, Balbuena said.

– A tribe that lives deep in the Amazon rainforest is about to get a visit from the government: Peru says it will take the controversial step of making contact with the Mashco Piro, reports Live Science. The government has a hands-off policy when it comes to such tribes because their members are so vulnerable to disease when they meet the modern world. But in this case, the Mashco Piro has been venturing out of the rainforest in encounters with neighboring villagers, missionaries, and even tourists. Reuters reports at least 100 such instances over the past year. "The only ones who haven't been in contact with them are representatives of the state!" says a government official. Anthropologists also say it makes sense to establish official contact, especially now that tribe members are emerging on their own and putting themselves at risk. "Well-organized contacts are today both humane and ethical," write two researchers in Science. In refusing them, "governments are simply guaranteeing that accidental and disastrous contacts will take place instead." The government says a team of doctors upriver will be prepared to treat tribe members if illness occurs. The Washington Post reports that another factor also is driving the "urgency" of the contact: In May, tribe members killed a young man from another village with an arrow, and other violent encounters have been recorded. The government hopes to play peacekeeper before things get out of control. (Besides, one school of thought is that it's impossible for "lost tribes" to remain lost these days.)

New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key on Monday announced a program to make the Pacific Ocean nation "predator free" by 2050, ridding its islands entirely of invasive species that are a threat to endemic birds and other native species. The project would be the first of its kind in the world. A press release from the ruling National Party, which Key leads, says the government will put almost $20 million a year of new money — on top of more than $40 million that already goes into pest control annually — into various projects targeted at wiping out three species: rats, stoats and possums. According to the Guardian , pest-control methods currently employed include trapping, ground baiting and hunting. Controversially, New Zealand also drops from the air the poison sodium fluoroacetate, also known as 1080, although conservationists hope that the new initiative will involve trying out alternative approaches. We've launched Predator Free NZ, a world-first project to eliminate rats, possums and stoats in NZ by 2050.https://t.co/zYMutlkX4L - John Key (@RtHon_JohnKey) July 25, 2016 The prime minister says the three species — which are only found in New Zealand through human agency, some having arrived on trading ships, for instance — kill 25 million native birds a year and also prey on ground species such as lizards. “Our ambition is that by 2050 every single part of New Zealand will be completely free of rats, stoats and possums," says Key in the statement. “This is the most ambitious conservation project attempted anywhere in the world, but we believe if we all work together as a country we can achieve it.” ||||| The government has announced its intention to make New Zealand predator-free by 2050. Prime Minister John Key said rats, possums and stoats kill 25 million native birds a year. He said the introduced pests also threatened the country's economy and primary sector with a total cost of $3.3 billion a year. More than 7000 hectares of the New Zealand mainland as well as more than 150 offshore islands were now completely free of predators, Mr Key said. In addition a further 1 million hectares of conservation land were under sustained predator control. The government will invest $28 million in a new joint venture company called Predator Free New Zealand Ltd. Photo: RNZ / Demelza Leslie The company will be responsible for identifying large, high-value predator control projects and attracting co-investors. It will be set up by the beginning of next year. The government will look to provide funding on a two-for-one basis, so for every $2 that local councils and the private sector put in the government will contribute another $1. "This is the most ambitious conservation project attempted anywhere in the world, but we believe if we all work together as a country we can achieve it," Mr Key said. The prime minister said the project was "hugely ambitious" and would be broken down into stages. The first stage would increase the amount of the country covered by predator control; establish regional partnerships and support community initiatives; establish more areas of complete elimination as a base to build from and invest in new science. By 2025 the project aims to have all introduced predators eradicated from all offshore island nature reserves and have 1 million more hectares of mainland New Zealand where predators are suppressed. Mr Key said by 2025 this would show that complete predator eradication could be achieved in areas of at least 20,000 hectares on the New Zealand mainland and it is hoped a breakthrough scientific solution would by then be available capable of removing at least one small mammal predator from the mainland entirely. These were steps, he said, to achieve the ultimate goal of making New Zealand predator-free by 2050. Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said fencing off parts of the country was one solution, but would be the wrong way to achieve the goal nationally. "To achieve this Apollo walk of ours, we need to make all of New Zealand predator free and we need to do some of it without fences, using technology that doesn't even exist at the moment. "The predator-proof fences is certainly where it started, but it isn't where it will end." Ms Barry said the poison 1080 would still have to be used to get to hard to reach places. "It is always going to be the weapon of choice to get rid of these vermin in the very steep country. "These are very steep rugged terrains that 1080 is used in, where traditional trapping methods are unacceptable and don't work, this will not just be about 1080 though." Mr Key said family cats like his pet Moonbeam, would be safe, but feral cats' days were numbered. "Feral cats on the DOC estate will be targeted as part of Predator Free New Zealand, but in terms of the domestic moggy, they have plenty of years in front of the fire at home." The project will combine the resources of the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for Primary Industries to work with local communities. Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy said the goal of a predator free New Zealand would have positive impacts for farmers and the wider primary sector. "Possums and ferrets are the main carriers of bovine TB, which is a very destructive disease for cattle and deer. In this year's Budget the government committed $100 million towards combined eradication efforts with industry starting with cattle and deer by 2026," Mr Guy said. Predator Free New Zealand Ltd will have a board of directors made up of government, private sector and scientific representatives. ||||| Possums, stoats and other introduced pests to be killed in ‘world-first’ extermination programme unveiled by PM No more rats: New Zealand to exterminate all introduced predators The New Zealand government has announced a “world-first” project to make the nation predator free by 2050. The prime minister, John Key, said on Monday it would undertake a radical pest extermination programme – which if successful would be a global first – aiming to wipe out the introduced species of rats, stoats and possums nation-wide in a mere 34 years. Jaffas and daredevils: life on the world's steepest street Read more According to the government, introduced species kill 25m native New Zealand birds a year including the iconic ground-dwelling, flightless Kiwi, which die at a rate of 20 a week, and now number fewer than 70,000. The government estimates the cost of introduced species to the New Zealand economy and primary sector to be NZ$3.3bn (£1.76bn) a year. “Our ambition is that by 2050 every single part of New Zealand will be completely free of rats, stoats and possums,” said Key in a statement. “This is the most ambitious conservation project attempted anywhere in the world, but we believe if we all work together as a country we can achieve it.” Existing pest control methods in New Zealand include the controversial and widespread use of 1080 aerial poison drops, trapping and ground baiting, and possum hunting by ground hunters (possum fur has become a vibrant industry in New Zealand, and is used for winter clothing). Emeritus Professor of Conservation Mick Clout from the University of Auckland said he was “excited” by the “ambitious plan” which if achieved would be a “remarkable world first”. “Even the intention of making New Zealand predator free is hugely significant and now it has money and the government behind it I believe it is possible, I am actually very excited,” said Clout. “The biggest challenge will be the rats and mice in urban areas. For this project to work it will need the urban communities to get on board. Possum extermination will be the easiest because they only breed once a year and there are already effective control methods in place.” Economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan, of the Morgan Foundation, said he was “ecstatic” about the government’s announcement. “This is the first time the government has really swung in behind investing in New Zealand’s environmental capital,” he said. “This is a big, ambitious project but with the government making it a priority you will see increased interest in the sector, and further exploration of innovative trapping and extermination techniques beyond toxic chemicals like 1080.” The Royal Society of New Zealand Forest and Bird was optimistic about the country’s chances of success. Advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said: “I think 2050 is a conservative goal, we could be on track to doing it by 2040. The government has just come on board but many groups around New Zealand have been working towards being predator-free for years.” “New Zealand is a world-leader in eradicating rats from the landscape. New Zealand can’t go predator free without targeting the cities so we will have to look to places like Alberta, Canada, on how to tackle rat infestation in an urban environment. But it is doable, and not that hard. “A predator-free New Zealand has been National party policy for the last three elections, but now it has gone from being the governing party policy to becoming government policy. But National has already invested a lot of money and resources into research on this. “The biggest hurdle in the end will be public support for the project. That will be the most important facet of this.”

– New Zealand could soon be the envy of New York. The country has announced a "world-first" project to exterminate all non-native pests, including possums, stoats, feral cats, and rats by 2050, reports the Guardian. Why? Well, the pests, which the government says cost $2.3 billion per year, also kill about 25 million native birds each year, including 20 Kiwis per week. Only 70,000 Kiwis are now known to exist. The Royal Society of New Zealand Forest and Bird says it's excited about the plan, though other groups have been working to eradicate the pests for years. "I think 2050 is a conservative goal, we could be on track to doing it by 2040," a rep says. Some 7,000 hectares of New Zealand are pest-free thanks to poison and strategic fencing, but "our ambition is that by 2050 every single part of New Zealand will be completely free of rats, stoats, and possums," Prime Minister John Key says, calling this the "most ambitious conservation project attempted anywhere in the world." Predator Free New Zealand—with a budget of $19.5 million per year, reports Time—will now boost pest control across the country. The hope is that technological advances will allow for at least one pest to be eradicated by 2025, reports Radio NZ. Critics fear the entire project could cost $6.2 billion, per the New Zealand Herald.

DHAKA Bangladesh's customs officers caught a North Korean diplomat trying to smuggle an estimated $1.4 million worth of gold into the country, a senior official said on Friday. "We recovered the gold both in the form of bar and ornaments from Son Young Nam, the First Secretary of the North Korean Embassy in Dhaka," said Moinul Khan, the Director General of the Custom Intelligence department, adding the gold weighed about 27 kilograms in total. The diplomat was released but Bangladesh is seeking to press charges. Moinul told Reuters that the diplomat was passing through the green channel from Dhaka's international airport - Hazrat Shahjalal International airport - on a late arriving Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore. The customs officials at the airport wanted to scan his hand luggage. "He told our officials that there was nothing to scan," said Najibur Rahman, chairman of the National Board of Revenue. "Later we informed our foreign ministry and he was released on Friday under the Vienna Convention," Najibur told Reuters. A case has been filed against him with the customs department, Moinul said. "We have also initiated the process to file a criminal case against him." The official said that in recent months the smuggling of gold increased mainly from Dubai, but this was the first instance of a diplomat carrying gold. The North Korean government will be informed soon and further action will be taken through government channels, Moinul said. (Reporting By Serajul Quadir; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) ||||| Bangladeshi authorities said they intercepted a North Korean envoy who arrived at Dhaka’s international airport with 27 kilograms of gold—worth an estimated $1.4 million—in his carry-on bag. Customs officials said they seized the gold and detained the diplomat, who they identified as Son Young Nam, a first secretary at the North Korean embassy in the Bangladeshi capital, on Thursday. Mr. Son was released Friday, they said. Sales...

– You and I can't get away with a 5-ounce bottle of shampoo at the airport, but a North Korean diplomat apparently thought the 27 kilograms of gold in his carry-on—worth about $1.4 million—was no big deal. Bangladesh would beg to differ, reports the Wall Street Journal. "We recovered the gold both in the form of bar and ornaments from Son Young Nam, the First Secretary of the North Korean Embassy in Dhaka," said a top official, per Reuters. Son was detained and released, but Bangladesh seized his treasure and is looking to press criminal charges in addition to the customs complaint already filed. Both Reuters and the Journal note that Bangladesh has lately become a hub for illegal gold smuggling; the Journal adds that Pyongyang has long leaned heavily on the sales of gold to support the posh lifestyle of its leadership.

Is Justin Bieber still holding a candle for Selena Gomez? The Biebs apparently issued a very subtle message to his famous ex in his new music video for "What Do You Mean?" And leave it to those Beliebers to spot the blink-and-you'll-miss-it-moment. In the skate park scene at the end of the video, the name Selena can almost be seen spray painted among graffiti on the wall (while the words "Hope" and "Love" are featured prominently). See for yourself around 04:00, on the far right side of the frame. Can you spot "Selena"? ETonline has reached out to Bieber's camp for comment. This isn't the first time he's publicly called out his ex. At one point in the music video for "Where Are U Now," the phrase "Where R Now Selena" flashed across the screen. Odds are high that "What Do You Mean?" was inspired by JB's relationship with Gomez. In an interview with On Air With Ryan Seacrest earlier this year, Bieber confessed, "I think a lot of my inspiration comes from [Selena]... It was a long relationship that created heartbreak and created happiness and a lot of different emotions that I wanted to write about. There's a lot of that on this album." ||||| 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. ||||| Published on Sep 2, 2015 Justin Bieber talks to Jimmy about the emotions that led to his tearful 2015 MTV Video Music Awards performance. Subscribe NOW to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: http://bit.ly/1nwT1aN Watch The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Weeknights 11:35/10:35c Get more Jimmy Fallon: Follow Jimmy: http://Twitter.com/JimmyFallon Like Jimmy: https://Facebook.com/JimmyFallon Get more The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Follow The Tonight Show: http://Twitter.com/FallonTonight Like The Tonight Show: https://Facebook.com/FallonTonight The Tonight Show Tumblr: http://fallontonight.tumblr.com/ Get more NBC: NBC YouTube: http://bit.ly/1dM1qBH Like NBC: http://Facebook.com/NBC Follow NBC: http://Twitter.com/NBC NBC Tumblr: http://nbctv.tumblr.com/ NBC Google+: https://plus.google.com/+NBC/posts The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon features hilarious highlights from the show including: comedy sketches, music parodies, celebrity interviews, ridiculous games, and, of course, Jimmy's Thank You Notes and hashtags! You'll also find behind the scenes videos and other great web exclusives. Justin Bieber Explains Why He Got Emotional During the VMAs http://www.youtube.com/fallontonight

– Justin Bieber appeared on the Tonight Show last night to talk about his first album in three years and ended up explaining the tearful end to his VMAs performance on Sunday. "It was just so overwhelming for me, everything, just the performance—I missed some cues so I was a little disappointed at that—and just everyone, just the support," the 21-year-old said, per People. "Honestly, I just wasn't expecting them to support me in the way they did," he added. "Last time I was at an award show I was booed." Bieber also touched on his past troubles. "I had a bunch of knuckleheads around me, that was pretty much it," he said. "You have to test the waters. I just happened to be in the spotlight, in front of cameras all the time, and they caught all those moments." Bieber then pointed at the crowd, asking, "You didn't have those moments?" Jimmy Fallon's response: "Not as much as you did." The Biebs' new album drops Nov. 13. His first single, "What Do You Mean," has already hit the top of the charts in 89 countries, Fallon said. (And there might be a secret message for Selena Gomez in the video.)

U.S. stocks closed lower Friday with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average turning red for the year as doubts about whether equities can count on support from corporate earnings emerged in the wake of disappointing results from a handful of megacap companies. How did major benchmarks fare? After falling more than 500 points earlier, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.68% trimmed losses to drop 296.24 points, or 1.2%, to 24,688.31. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.63% fell 46.88 points, or 1.7%, to 2,658.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index NQZ8, +0.29% retreated 151.12 points, or 2.1%, to 7,167.21. For the week, the Dow is off 3%, the S&P 500 3.9% and the Nasdaq is down 3.8% while for the month of October so far, the S&P has lost 8.8%, the Dow is down 6.7%, and the Nasdaq has shed 11%. Friday’s downdraft also pulled the S&P 500 and the blue-chip index into the red for 2018. The Nasdaq is still up 3.8% year-to-date although the tech-heavy benchmark entered correction territory on Wednesday, when it closed more than 10% below its recent highs. Read: The global selloff has erased $5 trillion from stock and bond markets in October What drove the market? Investors were wary ahead of the weekend amid persistent worries about slowing global growth, rising interest rates and concerns that companies have seen peak earnings growth. Not helping the mood was disappointing results from big corporations. Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.92% posted a record profit but sales disappointed, and more important, its forecast for fourth-quarter sales — the all-important holiday shopping period — was below analysts’ expectations. Trade worries were also simmering after U.S. officials reportedly said talks with China won’t resume until Beijing comes up with solid proposals over forced technology transfers and other economic issues. Which data were in focus? The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy grew 3.5% in the third quarter, beating forecaster estimates of 3.4%. Second-quarter growth held at 4.2%. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index came in at 98.6, below the consensus estimate of 99. What were analysts saying? Alec Young, managing director of global markets research at FTSE Russell, said that the declines were sparked by disappointing quarterly reports from Amazon and Alphabet Inc., but the bigger concern is where the global economy is headed in 2019. “All the macro issues, from higher interest rates to slowing growth in China are giving us a half-glass-empty situation regarding 2019 earnings,” he told MarketWatch. The speed and magnitude of the declines, he argued, is also a concern. “This is a dangerous time, a fluid time, and the market looks like a falling knife, and so were looking at a buyer’s strike,” he said, in which investors retreat for the sidelines and wait for the market to bottom out. “The market’s mood swings have been unsettling, but the underlying conditions that triggered the rout are unlikely to shatter the economic or earnings cycles. We think this will all sort out, but it will take some time,” said Kelly Bogdanova, vice president of portfolio advisory group at RBC Wealth Management, in a note. See: Here’s a reminder that stock-market corrections don’t always become bear markets Which stocks are in focus? Amazon.com AMZN, +0.92% shares are down 7.8% after the retailer lowered its guidance for holiday sales figures. Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +1.31% shares slid 1.8% after the search-engine giant beat on earnings but fell short on revenue target. Intel Corp. INTC, -0.88% shares rose 3.1% after the company’s quarterly results and outlook beat analyst estimates. Share of Expedia Group Inc. EXPE, -1.47% gained 2.5% following the release of quarterly results that surpassed Wall Street expectations. Charter Communications Inc. CHTR, -0.83% shed 6.3% following the release of revenue numbers the fell short of analysts’ estimates. How were other markets trading? Asian stocks fell, led by a 1% drop for the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index HSI, +0.04% and a 0.8% fall for the Nikkei 225 index NIK, +1.23% European markets struggled as well. The yen USDJPY, +0.02% and gold prices GCZ8, +0.14% were higher, indicative of investors seeking out perceived safer havens and oil prices CLZ8, -0.48% were stronger. —Barbara Kollmeyer contributed to this report Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here. ||||| A tumultuous week for markets around the world ended with a rocky Friday session, putting the S&P 500 on the cusp of correction territory as investors continued an October retreat from risky assets. As stocks tumbled in early trading, the benchmark stock index fell nearly 3% to breach the level that would place it 10% below last month’s record. But as was the case for much of a whirlwind week marked by intraday dips and sharp rebounds, stocks stabilized—before slipping again in the final hour of trading. ...

– The stock market's rebound on Thursday was short-lived. The Dow plunged more than 500 points at one point Friday morning thanks to a slew of concerns, including disappointing earnings reports from Amazon and Alphabet, the parent of Google. Worries about tariffs and economic slowdowns in China and Europe added to the selloff atmosphere, reports the Wall Street Journal. “All the macro issues, from higher interest rates to slowing growth in China are giving us a half glass empty situation regarding 2019 earnings,” Alec Young of FTSE Russell tells MarketWatch. Around 11am, the Dow was down 465 points, or 1.8%, while the S&P 500 was down 2.4% and the Nasdaq 3.1%.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Egyptian state television is saying the unrest is "terrorism" The head of Egypt's armed forces has said that his message to the supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi is that "there is room for everyone". Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi urged them to help "rebuild the democratic path" and "integrate in the political process". But he also warned the military would not be silent in the face of violence. Later, at least 36 detained members of the Muslim Brotherhood were killed when they tried to escape during their transfer to a prison outside Cairo. Initially, the interior ministry said they died in an exchange of fire after some of them took a military officer hostage and the convoy of prison vehicles, transporting a total of 612 detainees to Abu Zaabal prison in Qalyubia province, was attacked by unidentified gunmen. But later the ministry said the prisoners died from the effects of inhaling tear gas, which was fired when the escaping detainees took a police officer hostage. He was freed, but was badly injured, it added. A legal source told the Reuters news agency that the Brotherhood members had suffocated in the back of a crammed police van. The interior ministry separately said so-called "people's committees", which have been set up by residents of some areas to provide security, would be banned because some had been used for vigilante activities. Crisis timeline 3 Jul: President Mohammed Morsi deposed by military after mass protests President Mohammed Morsi deposed by military after mass protests 4 Jul: Pro-Morsi protesters gather at the Rabaa al-Adawiya (above) and Nahda sites in Cairo Pro-Morsi protesters gather at the Rabaa al-Adawiya (above) and Nahda sites in Cairo 27 Jul: More than 70 people killed in clashes with security forces at Rabaa al-Adawiya More than 70 people killed in clashes with security forces at Rabaa al-Adawiya 14 Aug: Security forces break up both camps, leaving at least 638 people dead Security forces break up both camps, leaving at least 638 people dead 16 Aug: Muslim Brotherhood holds "day of anger" protest in Ramses Square, Cairo. Clashes leave at least 173 dead Muslim Brotherhood holds "day of anger" protest in Ramses Square, Cairo. Clashes leave at least 173 dead 17 Aug: Siege at al-Fath mosque in Cairo; 79 killed in political violence nationwide Siege at al-Fath mosque in Cairo; 79 killed in political violence nationwide 18 Aug: 36 detained Brotherhood members are killed while attempting to escape prison vehicles Timeline: Pro-Morsi protests Who is who in Muslim Brotherhood In pictures: Cairo mosque siege Meanwhile, Mena reported that 79 people were killed and 549 wounded in violence across the country on Saturday. That raised the nationwide death toll since Wednesday, when security forces forcibly cleared two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo, to more than 830, including 70 police and soldiers. 'Torching the nation' Gen Sisi deposed Mr Morsi on 3 July, saying the military could not ignore the millions of people who had been demanding the resignation of Egypt's first democratically elected president. Before security forces launched the operation to disperse the Cairo sit-ins, the armed forces chief asked millions of people to take to the streets to give him a "mandate" to fight "violence and terrorism", an apparent reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement to which Mr Morsi belongs. In a speech to army and police officers on Sunday, Gen Sisi warned that the military would not allow further violence after the latest unrest. "We will not stand by silently watching the destruction of the country and the people or the torching the nation and terrorising the citizens," he quoted as saying on the military's Facebook page. But the general also appeared to strike a conciliatory tone towards his opponents, urging them to join in the political process. "There is room for everyone in Egypt, and we are cautious about every drop of Egyptian blood." The Brotherhood has called for daily demonstrations since security forces cleared its protest camps in Cairo on Wednesday and declared a state of emergency. More than 600 people were killed during the operations, including dozens of security forces personnel, and at least another 173 died on Friday during a "day of rage" called by the Brotherhood . Brotherhood members detained Also on Sunday, the interim government met to discuss the unrest. Afterwards, Information Minister Dorreya Sharaf al-Din said the cabinet wished to express its regret the loss of life, but would continue to confront "terrorism" firmly. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Bethany Bell asks Cairo residents for their views on the political conflict engulfing Egypt She added that the cabinet would name several streets and squares after soldiers killed in the recent unrest, and review the legal status of al-Jazeera TV, which she accused of threatening security and stability. The cabinet is also believed to have discussed Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi's proposal for the legal dissolution of the Brotherhood. The 85-year-old Islamist movement was banned by Egypt's military rulers in 1954, but registered itself as a non-governmental organisation in March in response to a court case bought by opponents who contested its legal status. The Brotherhood also has a legally registered political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, which was set up in June 2011 as a "non-theocratic" group after the uprising that forced President Hosni Mubarak from power. At a news conference on Sunday, the interim Foreign Minister, Nabil Fahmy, showed video clips apparently showing armed protesters firing on security forces in Cairo. He said the government was faced with an attempt to "shake the foundation of the state". More than 1,000 Brotherhood members have been detained in raids since Wednesday, with officials saying bombs, weapons and ammunition have been seized. Some 300 were held in several cities on Sunday, including Cairo, Alexandria, Assiut and Suez, security sources said. EU concerns Earlier, the European Union said it would be reviewing its relationship with Egypt's interim authorities at an emergency meeting next week. Image caption Footage from Ismailiya shows a Morsi supporter confronting tanks on Friday. The unverified video shows the man then being shot and falling The presidents of the European Commission and European Council said in a joint statement calls for democracy and fundamental rights "cannot be disregarded, much less washed away in blood". It added that the violence and killings "cannot be justified nor condoned". The EU has pledged several billion dollars in loans and grants to Egypt. Mr Fahmy sought to pre-empt any attempt by the West to compel the interim authorities to back down by announcing that he would be reviewing all foreign assistance. "I want to determine what is useful and what is not and what aid is being used to pressure Egypt and whether this aid has good intentions and credibility. We will proceed based on our findings," he told reporters. Correction 19 August 2013: An earlier version of this story which said Muslim Brotherhood members and their supporters had attacked churches, police stations and the homes and businesses of Christians should have attributed this as a claim made by the authorities. ||||| Kuwait to deport nine Egyptians over protest against Cairo crackdown - security source KUWAIT - Kuwait plans to deport nine Egyptians who demonstrated against the Egyptian army crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood that has killed hundreds of people, a security source said on Monday. Kuwait, a major oil exporter allied to the United States, gave Egypt $4 billion in aid last month. It was part of a $12 billion package offered by Gulf Arab states to shore up Egypt's economy after the army ousted the country's first freely elected president, the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, following protests against his rule. Dozens of Egyptians joined Kuwaiti activists who had organised demonstrations at the Egyptian Consulate and the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait last week to protest against the deaths caused by the forcible breaking up of pro-Mursi protest camps in Cairo. The security source, who declined to be identified, said the nine slated for deportation were "prominent participants suspected of incitement and chanting hostile slogans". He did not rule out further expulsions, saying the investigation was still going on. Gulf Arab states often show little tolerance towards expatriates taking part in unlicensed protests. "For us, gatherings are banned, regardless of the reasons or the motives behind them," the security source told Reuters. (Reporting by Ahmed Hagagy; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Pravin Char) ||||| Egypt's military leader vowed Sunday that the army will not tolerate further political violence after nationwide clashes that left hundreds dead, as security forces detained Muslim Brotherhood members in raids aimed at disrupting planned rallies. A friend shouts "Allah is the greatest" during a burial service for Ammar Badie in Cairo on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2013. Badie, the son of Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, was killed by... (Associated Press) A friend of Ammar Badie, 38, killed Friday by Egyptian security forces during clashes in Ramses Square, and also son of Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, comforts a relative while... (Associated Press) Friends and relatives of Ammar Badie, 38, killed Friday by Egyptian security forces during clashes in Ramses Square, and also son of Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, carry his coffin... (Associated Press) Friends and relatives of Ammar Badie, 38, killed Friday by Egyptian security forces during clashes in Ramses Square, and also son of Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, carry his coffin... (Associated Press) Friends of Ammar Badie, 38, killed Friday by Egyptian security forces during clashes in Ramses Square, and also son of Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, pray while attending his burial... (Associated Press) A friend of Ammar Badie, 38, killed by Egyptian security forces Friday during clashes in Ramses Square, and also son of Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, comforts a relative while... (Associated Press) An Egyptian woman, a relative of Ammar Badie, 38, killed Friday by Egyptian security forces during clashes in Ramses Square, and also son of Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, mourns... (Associated Press) Friends of Ammar Badie, 38, killed Friday by Egyptian security forces during clashes in Ramses Square, and also son of Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, comfort each other while attending... (Associated Press) Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, who led the July 3 coup that toppled President Mohammed Morsi, again said the army has no intention of seizing power in the Arab world's most populous country. El-Sissi removed Morsi after four days of mass rallies by millions of Egyptians who demanded the president step down. "We will not stand by silently watching the destruction of the country and the people or the torching the nation and terrorizing the citizens," he said in a speech aired on state television. The general said that the military didn't seek power but instead "have the honor to protect the people's will _ which is much dearer (than) ruling Egypt." El-Sissi also said Islamists must be included in the country's politics moving forward. A military timetable calls for the nation's constitution to be amended and for presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in 2014. "We have given many chances ... to end the crisis peacefully and call for the followers of the former regime to participate in rebuilding the democratic track and integrate in the political process and the future map instead of confrontations and destroying the Egyptian state," he told a gathering of top military commanders and police chiefs. El-Sissi's remarks come ahead of an anticipated harsher stance by the military-backed government toward the Brotherhood. The Cabinet held an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss potentially banning the group, a long-outlawed organization that swept to power in the country's first democratic elections a year ago. A possible ban _ which authorities say would be implemented over the group's use of violence _ would be a repeat of the decades-long struggle between the state and the Brotherhood. It also would drain the group's financial resources and allow for mass arrests of its members. That likely would diminish the chances of a negotiated solution to the crisis and push it again underground. The Brotherhood, however, has shown no signs of backing down. Under the banner of an anti-coup alliance, the group said it will hold a demonstration in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court in southern Cairo later Sunday. Authorities already stationed armored vehicles and troops at the building, which could turn into another focal point of street violence. More than 800 people have been killed nationwide since Wednesday's dismantling of two encampments of Morsi supporters in Cairo _ an act that sparked fierce clashes. Some 70 police officers were killed in clashes with protesters or retaliatory attacks during the same period, according to the Interior Ministry. In an attempt to cripple the Brotherhood's protest plans, authorities carried out raids early Sunday morning, detaining at least 300 mid-level officials and field operatives in several cities, according to security officials and group statements. In Egypt's second-largest city Alexandria, the Brotherhood said on its official website that security forces stormed houses of 34 officials and former lawmakers, but only arrested seven people. Among those targeted was Medhat el-Haddad, the brother of top Morsi's aide Essam el-Haddad. In Assiut, 320 kilometers (200 miles) south of Cairo, 163 of the group's officials and operatives were rounded up in different towns in the province, security officials said. They said those arrested face charges of instigating violence and orchestrating attacks on police stations and churches. In the city of Suez, nine people were arrested after being caught on film attacking army vehicles, burning churches and assaulting Christian-owned stores, officials said. In ancient southern city of Luxor, more than 20 Brotherhood senior officials were detained, officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly to journalists. The Brotherhood faces increasing public criticism and blame over the ongoing violence in Egypt. Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, the powerful head of Al-Azhar mosque, Sunni Islam's main seat of learning, issued an audio statement asking Brotherhood members to stop the violence. "The scenes of violence will not grant you any rights and the bloodshed nor chaos spreading across the country will give you no legitimacy," el-Tayeb said. El-Tayeb supported the military coup that ousted Morsi. The violence in Egypt also has sparked deep concerns worldwide. In a joint statement Sunday, the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council said it was the responsibility of the army and the interim government to end the violence, warning against the use of force. They said EU will "urgently review in the coming days its relations with Egypt." "We regret deeply that international efforts and proposals for building bridges and establishing an inclusive political process ... were set aside and a course of confrontation was instead pursued," the statement by Jose Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy read. They warned: "This path will not succeed." Nearly two weeks of international diplomacy by the EU, U.S. and Arab nations failed to broker a peaceful end to the standoff. Egypt also lost one of the few doves in the country's military-backed administration as Mohamed ElBaradei, who resigned as vice president in protest of the use of force against Morsi's supporters, left Cairo for Vienna on Sunday. ElBaradei declined to speak to journalists as he left Egypt, where pro-military news outlets have become increasingly hostile toward him.

– The Muslim Brotherhood today canceled a massive protest against Egypt's military, saying the move was prompted by "the presence of army snipers" positioned along the planned route in the streets of Cairo. Another protest march to the Supreme Constitutional Court was to go forward, reports al-Jazeera, and security there was already heightened. It's another tumultuous day in Egypt; a look around at the latest: Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi spoke publicly for the first time since Wednesday's crackdown, saying, "We will not stand by silently watching the destruction of the country and the people or the torching the nation and terrorizing the citizens." He denied the military sought power, notes the AP, but said it has "the honor to protect the people's will—which is much dearer (than) ruling Egypt." The official death toll has hit 830, Reuters reports, citing state media. That number includes 79 people yesterday. Egypt's interim Cabinet is meeting, reports the BBC, and a decision on whether to ban the Brotherhood is expected. Meanwhile, security forces are targeting members of the Brotherhood in an attempt to de-claw protests, and carried out raids this morning that detained some 300 officials. Mohamed ElBaradei, who last week resigned as vice president in protest of the crackdown, left the country today. He headed for Vienna.

[This is a developing story. See the end of the article for ongoing updates.] Heathcliff Berru, the music publicist who has been the subject of multiple accusations of sexual harassment over the past two days, has released his first statement regarding the allegations. In the written statement, which you can read in its entirety below, Berru apologizes to "those who I have offended by my actions" and says he will be checking himself into a drug and alcohol rehab facility. Berru was first accused of misconduct by musician Amber Coffman, best-known as a vocalist and guitarist for the band Dirty Projectors. In a series of tweets posted late yesterday afternoon and evening, Coffman described how "a very popular music publicist RUBBED my ass and BIT my hair at a bar a couple years ago," then went on to call out Berru by name. A few minutes later, another music publicist, Beth Martinez, tweeted that she had a "similar experience" with Berru. Several other women soon spoke up to either confirm Coffman and Martinez's stories or offer their own, including Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino, who tweeted, "I was too freaked out to ever say anything. Seriously he's not a good person on any level." Earlier today, Life or Death PR & Management, the company Berru founded in 2008, released a statement saying Berru had resigned from his position as CEO. "Life or Death has a zero tolerance policy for the type of conduct alleged in today’s on-line postings," the statement read in part. "We take these allegations very seriously." Life or Death's PR clients include D'Angelo, GZA, Cherry Glazerr, Wavves, Health and Odd Future. Wavves appeared to fire Life or Death via Twitter, and Massachusetts indie rock group Speedy Ortiz and D.C.-based soul singer-songwriter Kelela have also confirmed via Twitter that they are no longer with Life or Death. As of this writing, Life or Death's website, wegetpress.com, is down with a "This website is under maintenance" message. [Update: On Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 20, publicist Nick Dierl announced that the remainder of Life or Death's five-person staff would be leaving to start a "new venture ... that bears no ties to Heathcliff Berru or the Life or Death name."] In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I have personally known and worked with Berru for many years, both in my role as music editor at L.A. Weekly and in a previous role at Metromix.com. Here is Berru's full statement (third paragraph added after this article was originally published, at his request): "There have been several reports about my alleged inappropriate behavior which deserve a response. I am deeply sorry for those who I have offended by my actions and how I have made certain women feel. If I crossed the line of decency or respectfulness in situations when I was drunk and under the influence, there is no excuse of course. To be clear, while my conduct may have been inappropriate, I have never drugged anyone or engaged in that type of behavior. Nevertheless, I do not want to be the type of person who would let drugs or alcohol take command of his life and compromise how he treats people. Yet I have been this person and it’s time to put a stop to all of this. Create a world with one less inappropriate man. "I have been fighting a losing battle against drugs and alcohol for many years and will be checking into a rehabilitation facility in the hope that I can improve my chances of winning that fight. A year ago, I was confronted by a peer and began to try to clean up and make things right with therapy and with an eye towards quitting the addiction. The shame and sadness feels as strong now as it did then and I am making an immediate change. "I have already lost my wife, abandoned my family, and destroyed those I love as a result of my shameful, embarrassing, unacceptable behavior. I deeply apologize to them as well. By no means do they deserve to feel the pain of my actions. Please give them the space they deserve. They were the light at the end of a dark tunnel. I was married during some of these years and hid my problems from everyone well. Especially her and her family. Totally inexcusable. "In no way do these allegations reflect on Life or Death PR, its staff, or anyone associated with the company. These are my issues, not theirs. I could not be more proud of the company and what it stands for. That being said I have stepped down as the CEO and [am] relinquishing all responsibility to the current president, Nick Dierl. The company shouldn't have to deal with this distraction and I want Nick and the rest of the team to continue to do their good work while I take care of myself." We will have more on this story as it develops. [Update at 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, Jan. 15: Several of Berru's accusers responded to his statement last night via Twitter. Best Coast's Cosentino tweeted, "drugs and alcohol are no excuse but lemme bring them up as many times as I can," while publicist Judy Miller Silverman, who says she knew of Berru's behavior for years and tried to warn others, but was never personally harassed, wrote, "How about the sex addiction? The propensity to touch women against their will addiction?" Amber Coffman wrote, "Love that Heathcliff's initial statement uses 'alleged.' He knows damned well what he did. That's what I call a half assed apology." Roxy Lange, a former musician who says she was sexually assaulted by Berru when she was 21, simply wrote, "I want to throw up."] [Update at 2:15 p.m.: Music publicist Beth Martinez, owner of music PR company Danger Village, has shared a response to Berru's statement with L.A. Weekly. Earlier, Martinez detailed her own experience dealing with Berru's unwanted sexual advances to New York magazine. The full text of her response is below.] "I have the utmost sympathy for drug and alcohol addicts. I have been through addiction counseling and attended AA. I know and am friends with many addicts. Addiction does not turn you into a rapist. This is not an excuse for ten years of unwanted aggressive sexual advances towards women. "The behavior that Heathcliff apologized for is not "offensive." Trying to place your penis in a woman's mouth or vagina while she says "no" repeatedly is rape. The stories I heard yesterday from women who are afraid to come forward describe these exact actions, and the stories range from happening ten years ago to just last month. "I understand that it is hard for many people who have known Heathcliff Berru to rectify the cool guy they knew with the allegations that are being made against him. It boggles the mind to think that someone you like could also be a sociopath or a sexual predator. Often times people who knew serial killers are amazed because they seemed like such nice people. "But these stories are true. And this is emblematic of a larger problem within our society of the degradation of women through sexual assault. Women are consistently shamed and bullied into keeping silent. Only now with the rise of social media are we able to share our stories safely. Change is happening. You will be hearing more stories like this." [Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Run the Jewels as a client of Life or Death PR. We regret the error.] The 20 Worst Hipster Bands Do CDs Sound Better Than Vinyl? Why I've Fallen Out of Love With Shopping for Vinyl ||||| The music publicist Heathcliff Berru has given his first statement since resigning from his company, Life or Death PR, in the wake of widespread allegations of sexual harassment leveled against him. Berru, whose firm represented many artists The Times has covered, resigned as chief executive of the company he founded in 2008 and which handled publicity for numerous high-profile acts including D'Angelo, Odd Future and Kelela. On Tuesday, Amber Coffman, of the band Dirty Projectors, asserted that Berru had made unwanted and aggressive sexual advances toward her at a bar several years ago. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Other female artists, including Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino and Tearist's Yasmine Kittles, along with several women working in L.A. music industry PR (Beth Martinez and Judy Silverman among them), shared similar claims and offered support for their peers on social media. Life or Death PR issued a statement on Berru's departure Tuesday, saying, "Life or Death has a zero tolerance policy for the type of conduct alleged in today’s on-line postings ... The men and women who make up this company do not, and will not, condone or tolerate any conduct described in the on-line postings." In a new statement published by LA Weekly, Berru apologized for his behavior and said that he would seek treatment for substance abuse issues. "I am deeply sorry for those who I have offended by my actions and how I have made certain women feel," he wrote. "I have already lost my wife, abandoned my family, and destroyed those I love as a result of my shameful, embarrassing, unacceptable behavior." Many of Life or Death's clients have announced they will stop working with the firm, including Kelela, DIIV, Wavves and others. The company's president, Nick Dierl, has announced that Life or Death will be dissolving, and plans "a new venture imminently that bears no ties to Heathcliff Berru or the Life or Death name" with the remaining staff. Follow @AugustBrown for breaking music news. ALSO Women claim Yoga guru Bikram Choudhury sexually assaulted them; he denies Adele, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd to perform at the Grammys Coachella won't be the first place to see the Guns N' Roses reunion ||||| Photo: Noel Vasquez In December 2009, on the anniversary of the death of one of her close friends, Beth Martinez met up with Heathcliff Berru at a Chicago bar. Like Martinez, Berru owned his own music PR firm, representing artists like Killer Mike, Of Montreal, and Odd Future. After a couple of drinks he offered to give her a ride home. “It was a bad neighborhood and he kept putting his hand down my shirt and I kept telling him to stop,” Martinez told me. “I was married at the time and I didn’t tell my husband because I was ashamed. I thought my husband would blame me for drinking or taking the ride.” Martinez says that Berru texted her the next day apologizing, and begging her not to tell their mutual friend about the incident. She kept quiet about it for years, telling only a handful of people close to her. That is, until last night, when a friend sent her some tweets from Amber Coffman, the lead singer of the indie band the Dirty Projectors. In the tweets, Coffman said Berru once rubbed her ass and bit her hair. In a phone interview, Coffman gave a full account of the incident: I was introduced to Heathcliff in L.A. at an Unknown Mortal Orchestra show through a friend and he got us into the show. He was very friendly and he introduced me to his fiancée so I sort of thought, Okay, well this guy is not threatening. And then a week later I went to the same show back in New York and I ran into him backstage after the show and he said, ‘Hey, let me get your number.’ It seemed harmless to me so I gave him my number. Then we go to the after-party and it’s like me and it’s a lot of my friends there just hanging out at this cocktail bar. We’ve probably been there for about an hour and I was with my friend and we had just ordered drinks and we were leaning on the bar, and across on the other side of the room I saw Heathcliff make eye contact with me. He walked over and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s coming to say hi,’ and as soon as I thought that he comes up to me and his hand goes straight to my ass. He was rubbing up and down and I totally froze up. I told my friend ‘I’ll be right back’ and ran over and grabbed three of my other guy friends and I said, ‘Hey, will you guys come back over with me, I ditched my friend and my drink’s over there but this guy just grabbed my ass.’ So I walked back up with three guys and Heathcliff was still standing there and he says to me, ‘Can I just tell you that you’re incredibly cute?’ And then he grabs my hair and starts biting it in front of all these guys. We just left immediately. One of my friends almost punched him in the face. I told Domino Records and I told my friends and people who I knew but I guess I didn’t really think to take it public. And it wasn’t until now that I realized that I was actually kind of scared to in a way. Coffman said that she was sitting around with some friends Monday night talking about their experiences with sexual misconduct when she decided to tweet about it. She originally didn’t tweet Berru’s name, until a friend texted her that she knew tons of other women who had similar experiences with him. That’s when she decided to go public. “I said, ‘Why does nobody say anything?’” said Coffman. “And my friend just said people were scared and I was like, ‘Well, I’m not scared.’ So I just said his name. And I was not expecting to get this response.” @Amber_Coffman good for you for doing this. I was too freaked out to ever say anything. Seriously he's not a good person on any level. — Best Coast (@BestCoast) January 19, 2016 Thank you @Amber_Coffman in 2009 he grabbed my ass and then held me down onto my couch as he unzipped his pants &forced my hand on his dick. — TEARIST (@_TEARIST_) January 19, 2016 .@Amber_Coffman I told our "manager" at the time who said "we are going to have to get over that arent we" if I cared about my band. — TEARIST (@_TEARIST_) January 19, 2016 dude this is real...had to tell him to fuck off and leave me alone at bonnaroo a couple years ago @Amber_Coffman https://t.co/6h2wTlLxB4 — Martika Finch (@mAAAtika) January 19, 2016 @dangervillage @Amber_Coffman Had an experience or two where he was uncomfortably aggressive in ways I thankfully don't usually experience — Shirley Braha (@shirleybraha) January 19, 2016 @Amber_Coffman - sadly had a similar hb experience years ago in brooklyn. sexual harassment is a serious issue, thank you for speaking up. — christy merriner (@merriner) January 19, 2016 I don't have a lot to say on @Amber_Coffman's story right now except that her story is my story and I am sorry I didn't speak up sooner. — Theodora Karatzas (@theokaratzas) January 19, 2016 One “homie” of the Life or Death crew even claims Berru once roofied two girls. @Amber_Coffman this same night he roofied at least 2 other girls. he never touched me but i heard it all verbally. his crew is this best tho — faithy wap (@faithsilva) January 19, 2016 Many who have worked in the industry for years say Berru’s predatory behavior has always been a poorly kept secret, his apparent abuse explained away as a personality quirk or the cost of doing business. “I have known about Heathcliff’s systematic abuse of women for years and that included Amber [Coffman] and Beth Martinez, the first two to come forward,” Judy Miller, the founder of well-known music PR company Motormouth Media, told me. “I have told people privately and was never really taken seriously. There are many others that have not stepped forward, many women I know personally.” As news of Berru’s alleged misdeeds spreads, bands who currently work or have worked with him have begun voicing their support for Coffman and the other accusers. Sadie Dupuis, the guitarist of Speedy Ortiz, a band represented by Life or Death, tweeted that the band is “waiting to have a longer convo with them. but we fully support @Amber_Coffman @dangervillage @maaatika for bringing this info public and want to make it clear that we have no interest in directly or indirectly supporting an abuser, now or ever.” Wavves, a noise rock band on Life or Death’s roster, appears to have publicly fired the firm. Less than 24 hours after Coffman hit send on her tweets, Berru stepped down from his role as CEO of Life or Death PR. The company provided the following statement: Life or Death has a zero tolerance policy for the type of conduct alleged in today’s on-line postings. We take these allegations very seriously. The men and women who make up this company do not, and will not, condone or tolerate any conduct described in the on-line postings. Life Or Death is 3 men and 3 women who are committed to promoting art and serving the clients that we’re so privileged to represent. We are taking measures to ensure that the alleged behavior did not, and will not, make its way into company operations or impact our commitment to promoting art and assisting our clients. We are grateful to Heathcliff Berru for all the work he’s done to date and his creative vision at the company. We appreciate and support his decision to step down as CEO of Life Or Death. Coffman says she feels relieved that the truth about Berru is finally being acknowledged. “I feel relieved more for other women than I do for myself,” she said. “Especially just seeing how many people have stories about him, it does feel kind of good that he doesn’t get a pass anymore.” Update: Heathcliff Berru has broken his silence and provided a statement to Billboard. In the statement, he acknowledges that some of his behavior may have been inappropriate, but says he has long been addicted to drugs and alcohol. He also denies ever having drugged anyone:

– The CEO of a PR firm representing many popular musicians—including Of Montreal, Killer Mike, GZA, and D'Angelo—has stepped down amid allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault from numerous women. New York Magazine reports the allegations against Heathcliff Berru of Life and Death PR started earlier this week, when Amber Coffman of the band Dirty Projectors tweeted that Berru groped her butt and bit her hair at a bar a number of years ago. "Dudes overlook it and keep hiring him," Coffman tweeted. Her tweets were followed by similar accusations from nine other women, including musicians Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast and Yasmine Kittles of Tearist. Kittles claims after Berru held her down on a couch and forced her to touch his penis, her band's manager told her to "get over" it. Less than a day after Coffman's tweets, Berru resigned as CEO, New York Magazine reports. "Life or Death has a zero tolerance policy for the type of conduct alleged in today’s online postings," a company statement reads. But, according to the Los Angeles Times, the damage may already be done, as multiple artists have severed ties with Life or Death following the accusations. Berru responded to the claims on Tuesday with a statement blaming drug and alcohol addiction, LA Weekly reports. "I am deeply sorry for those who I have offended by my actions and how I have made certain women feel," the statement reads. Berru says he'll be checking into rehab. Coffman calls his statement a "half-assed apology."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed the long-stalled nomination of Eric Fanning to be Army secretary, making him the first openly gay leader of a U.S. military service. The voice vote approval on Tuesday came after Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., dropped his opposition to Fanning after a senior Pentagon official told him that no detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be sent to the Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, or other facilities in the United States. Roberts said he met May 10 with Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, who assured Roberts "that, 'I am the person who would have to execute it (the moving of detainees to the mainland), and the clock has run out.'" Congress has included prohibitions on moving Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. in annual defense policy bills, thwarting President Barack Obama's campaign promise to close the prison. Roberts said he knows Obama will continue to try and close prison at Guantanamo before he leaves office in January, but said he takes Work at his word. "He understands the significant and costly changes that would need to be made at Ft. Leavenworth to change the post's mission," Roberts said. "Most importantly, he understands the legal restrictions on funding to move the detainees to Ft. Leavenworth by January 20, 2017." Fanning served as the Army secretary's principal adviser on management and operation of the service, with a focus on the budget. He was undersecretary of the Air Force from April 2013 to February 2015, and for half a year was the acting secretary of the Air Force. He also worked on Defense Secretary Ash Carter's transition. ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate unanimously backed President Barack Obama’s nomination of Eric Fanning as secretary of the Army on Tuesday, making him the first openly gay leader of a U.S. military service branch. Eric Fanning testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be Secretary of the Army on Capitol Hill in Washington January 21, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Fanning was previously undersecretary of the Air Force and chief of staff to Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Fanning was confirmed by unanimous voice vote, eight months following his nomination, after Senator Pat Roberts said Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told him that it was now too late for the administration to transfer prisoners from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Roberts’ home state, Kansas. Work did not confirm Roberts’ account of that conversation, saying that no option was off the table. “I explained to Senator Roberts that we are trying to achieve the goal of closure with the support of Congress and we recognize that there is limited time left to achieve that support, both in terms of lifting Congressional restrictions and winning approval of funds to execute closure,” Work said in a statement. Roberts had held up Fanning’s nomination for months to underscore his opposition to any possible transfer of detainees. His opposition had frustrated fellow Republican John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a strong supporter of Fanning’s nomination. On Tuesday, McCain and Roberts appeared in the Senate together as Roberts announced that he had released his “hold” on Fanning and spoken to Fanning. McCain noted that this year’s National Defense Authorization Act ensures that the Obama administration does not have the authority to release or transfer Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. mainland. Roberts said Work told him during a meeting last week that he would be unable to fulfill an order to move Guantanamo detainees to the United States before Obama leaves office in January 2017. “The clock has run out for the president,” Roberts said. ||||| WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Eric Fanning as the new secretary of the Army -- quietly making history by putting the first openly gay person in the post. Fanning was confirmed unanimously on a voice vote. He previously filled a number of senior positions in the Department of Defense, including acting undersecretary of the Army, special assistant to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and undersecretary of the Air Force. President Barack Obama nominated Fanning in September, but his confirmation was delayed because of politics. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) put a hold on his nomination in November over his opposition to Obama’s push to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer prisoners to facilities in the United States. In the meantime, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who chairs the Armed Services Committee, refused to give Fanning a hearing because he was irked that Fanning was serving as acting Army secretary while his confirmation was pending. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Halimah Abdullah and Courtney Kube In another historic moment for the Obama administration, the Senate on Tuesday evening confirmed the long-stalled nomination of Eric Fanning to be Army secretary. Fanning becomes the first openly gay leader of any U.S. military service — a milestone not lost on gay rights groups, coming five years after the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," which had prohibited gay and lesbian service members from being open about their sexuality. Eric Fanning at the 30th Space Symposium Corporate Partnership dinner in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in May 2014. Duncan Wood / U.S. Air Force via AP — file "Eric Fanning's historic confirmation today as Secretary of the U.S. Army is a demonstration of the continued progress towards fairness and equality in our nation's armed forces," Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement. Related: Obama to Nominate Eric Fanning for Army, Would Be 1st Openly Gay Service Chief Fanning previously served as the Army secretary's principal adviser on management and operation. He was undersecretary of the Air Force from April 2013 to February 2015, and for half a year he was the acting secretary of the Air Force. "I'm honored by today's Senate confirmation and thrilled to return to lead the total Army team," Fanning said in a statement Tuesday night. The voice vote to confirm, Fanning, 47, came after Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, dropped his opposition in a dispute over Obama administration efforts to close the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer detainees to the United States. Roberts said he received reassurances from the administration in private discussions that the clock has run out on moving detainees to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, was among the first politicians to congratulate Fanning publicly Tuesday, tweeting that he is "capable, experienced & will lead with honor!" A slate of senators from both parties joined in the praise for Fanning. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, tweeted that Fanning's selection is "an historic moment for #LGBT servicemembers," while Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, tweeted that he "appreciated (Fanning's) recognition of Alaska's strategic importance & need for larger @USArmy." Related: First Openly Gay Army Secretary Nominee Stalled by Single Senator Fanning's path to the post began roughly eight months ago, but it was stymied when Roberts held up confirmation. "Let me be very clear on this — as a veteran, a Marine — I support Mr. Eric Fanning for this post," Roberts said on the Senate floor late last month. "If the White House calls and assures me that terrorists held at Guantanamo will not come to Fort Leavenworth, I will release the hold — immediately." White House officials suggested that Roberts was grandstanding, and fellow senators pleaded with him to lift his hold. Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee — who calls Roberts a "good friend" — took the floor last month and urged him to move the process along. Watch: Sen. Pat Roberts Discuss Eric Fanning's Nomination The pushback centered on the president's announcement of a long-anticipated pitch to Congress in February to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. The Obama administration is considering 13 locations across the country, including seven existing prison facilities in Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas and six additional sites on current military bases. Officials have said the plan doesn't highlight a preferred site. Related: Guantanamo Bay: Obama Announces Plan to Close Controversial Detention Facility A number of lawmakers — particularly Republicans — balked at the president's proposals. But Roberts was especially entrenched in his opposition. In March, he introduced a Senate resolution to reject any efforts to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to U.S. facilities. After changing his mind to allow Fanning's confirmation to move forward, Roberts reiterated his belief on the Senate floor Tuesday that he always considered Fanning the right person to lead the military's largest branch, which has about 470,000 active troops. "He will be a tremendous leader as Army secretary and will do great by our soldiers at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley," Roberts said before the vote.

– The Senate confirmed the long-stalled nomination of Eric Fanning to be Army secretary, making him the first openly gay leader of a US military service, the AP reports. The unanimous voice vote approval on Tuesday came after Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., dropped his opposition to Fanning after a senior Pentagon official told him that no detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be sent to the Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, or other facilities in the US. Roberts said he met May 10 with Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, who assured Roberts "the clock has run out" on moving Guantanamo detainees to the US mainland. Fanning was up for the post about 8 months ago when Roberts opposed President Obama's pick as a way to block the relocation of detainees, NBC News reports. "Let me be very clear on this—as a veteran, a Marine—I support Mr. Eric Fanning for this post," said Roberts in April on the Senate floor. "If the White House calls and assures me that terrorists held at Guantanamo will not come to Ft. Leavenworth, I will release the hold—immediately." The White House called it grandstanding, and Sen. John McCain, who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, begged him to allow Fanning's approval. As for Fanning, he was undersecretary of the Air Force and Defense Secretary Ash Carter's chief of staff, Reuters reports. "This milestone ... will help to continue to set a tone of understanding and respect for the LGBT community throughout the armed services," LGBT activist Matt Thorn tells the Huffington Post.

She detailed her pregnancy, with her husband a world away. She described the knot she got in her stomach from missing him. She wrote of her disappointment after he was passed over for a promotion. But mostly, Karilyn Bales — the wife of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers last week — relayed the simple anguish of life as a military spouse, tending to a home with two young children, with a husband summoned for repeated deployments. “Bob left for Iraq this morning,” she wrote in her family blog on Aug. 9, 2009. “Quincy slept in our bed last night.” Though much of the family’s online presence appears to have been removed in recent days, the fragments that remain capture the daily travails typical of any family with a loved one stationed abroad. A little less than a year ago, in March 2011, Ms. Bales wrote on her blog that her husband had not received a promotion to E-7, sergeant first class. The family was disappointed, she said, “after all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends.” But Ms. Bales was also relieved, she wrote, because she hoped that the Army might allow the family some autonomy in choosing its next location, after Sergeant Bales had spent years at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. She listed her top choices: Germany (“best adventure opportunity!”); Italy (“2nd best adventure opp”); Hawaii (“nuff said”); Kentucky (“we would at least be near Bob’s family”); and Georgia (“to be a sniper teacher, not because it is a fun place to live”). In some of these locations, Sergeant Bales’s chances of being deployed to a war zone would probably have been lower. Wherever they went, Ms. Bales said, she hoped to rent out their house in Lake Tapps, Wash., she wrote, “so that we would have it to come back to when our adventure is over.” More often, Ms. Bales focused on ordinary struggles. She described surprise phone calls and solo doctor’s appointments, attempts to clean the house while Sergeant Bales was gone and the “bad dreams” she woke from after a nap on the day he left in 2009. She recalled discussions of baby names with him while he was away, and celebrating Easter one Sunday early, so that Sergeant Bales could decorate eggs with their daughter, Quincy, before leaving home again. In 2006, while she was pregnant with Quincy, Ms. Bales wrote that though she was careful not to wish the days away, “I only want the days to go by fast when it comes to Bob coming back home.” A few days later, Ms. Bales wrote about a common tic she shared with her unborn child: “I get the hiccups all the time these days, I always think that Bob is thinking about me.” One morning, she continued, she could feel the baby hiccupping in her belly. “I guess Bob was thinking about her too,” Ms. Bales wrote. When Quincy was born in December 2006, Ms. Bales wrote, she received a call at the hospital. “It was Bob calling from the airport in Kuwait!!” she wrote. “It was so good to hear his voice. I told him how the birth went and he got to hear Quincy squeaking in the background.” In August 2007, she described some of the child’s first words. “Much to Daddy’s happiness,” she wrote, “she now says ‘D’ as in Dadadadadada.” Ms. Bales’s post from March 2011, about the Army promotion, appears to have been the blog’s latest entry. In it, she seemed to hint at why she maintained the site in the first place. The collection of posts was a “time capsule,” she wrote, and she hoped that her children would one day “enjoy reading about the decisions that Mom and Dad went through during their lives.” With a relocation expected, she said, the family’s coming months would be full of change. “I am hoping to blog about it and look back in a year,” she wrote, “to see how far we have come from right now.” ||||| But Ms. Bales was also relieved, she wrote, because she hoped that the Army might allow the family some autonomy in choosing its next location, after Sergeant Bales had spent years at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. She listed her top choices: Germany (“best adventure opportunity!”); Italy (“2nd best adventure opp”); Hawaii (“nuff said”); Kentucky (“we would at least be near Bob’s family”); and Georgia (“to be a sniper teacher, not because it is a fun place to live”). In some of these locations, Sergeant Bales’s chances of being deployed to a war zone would probably have been lower. Wherever they went, Ms. Bales said, she hoped to rent out their house in Lake Tapps, Wash., she wrote, “so that we would have it to come back to when our adventure is over.” Photo More often, Ms. Bales focused on ordinary struggles. She described surprise phone calls and solo doctor’s appointments, attempts to clean the house while Sergeant Bales was gone and the “bad dreams” she woke from after a nap on the day he left in 2009. She recalled discussions of baby names with him while he was away, and celebrating Easter one Sunday early, so that Sergeant Bales could decorate eggs with their daughter, Quincy, before leaving home again. In 2006, while she was pregnant with Quincy, Ms. Bales wrote that though she was careful not to wish the days away, “I only want the days to go by fast when it comes to Bob coming back home.” 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 will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. 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 few days later, Ms. Bales wrote about a common tic she shared with her unborn child: “I get the hiccups all the time these days, I always think that Bob is thinking about me.” One morning, she continued, she could feel the baby hiccupping in her belly. “I guess Bob was thinking about her too,” Ms. Bales wrote. Advertisement Continue reading the main story When Quincy was born in December 2006, Ms. Bales wrote, she received a call at the hospital. “It was Bob calling from the airport in Kuwait!!” she wrote. “It was so good to hear his voice. I told him how the birth went and he got to hear Quincy squeaking in the background.” In August 2007, she described some of the child’s first words. “Much to Daddy’s happiness,” she wrote, “she now says ‘D’ as in Dadadadadada.” Ms. Bales’s post from March 2011, about the Army promotion, appears to have been the blog’s latest entry. In it, she seemed to hint at why she maintained the site in the first place. The collection of posts was a “time capsule,” she wrote, and she hoped that her children would one day “enjoy reading about the decisions that Mom and Dad went through during their lives.” With a relocation expected, she said, the family’s coming months would be full of change. “I am hoping to blog about it and look back in a year,” she wrote, “to see how far we have come from right now.”

– Before she was the wife of the soldier accused of gunning down 16 Afghan civilians, Karilyn Bales was just another Army wife, stoically raising two small children through her husband's four deployments and blogging about the joyousness of homecomings and the ache of long absences. Bales' blog appears to have largely been taken down in recent days, but the New York Times runs through some of the highlights: While pregnant with daughter Quincy: “I only want the days to go by fast when it comes to Bob coming back home.” On hiccups: “I get the hiccups all the time these days, I always think that Bob is thinking about me,” writes Bales. And one day, she feels unborn Quincy hiccuping in her belly. “I guess Bob was thinking about her too." On a phone call she got after Quincy's birth: “It was Bob calling from the airport in Kuwait!! It was so good to hear his voice. I told him how the birth went and he got to hear Quincy squeaking in the background.” On Bales getting passed over for promotion: The family was disappointed “after all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends.” On where she hoped to be sent after Washington state: Germany ("best adventure opportunity!); Italy (“2nd best adventure opp”); Hawaii (“nuff said”); Kentucky (“we would at least be near Bob’s family”); and Georgia (“to be a sniper teacher, not because it is a fun place to live”). On why she blogged: So that her kids could one day “enjoy reading about the decisions that Mom and Dad went through during their lives.” Click for more from Karilyn Bales' blog.

A missing Kootenai County teen was found safe this weekend, and many are calling a man and his stepson heroes for helping find her. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office asked for the public to help find the missing 19-year-old on Friday. They said Kathryn "Katie" Ogle of Hayden was last seen walking towards the heavily wooded area near the 6900 block of E. Ohio Match Road near N. Rimrock Road. "Kathryn is known to have multiple medical alerts and the cognitive ability of an approximate 10-12 year old," the Sheriff's Office said in a release. "She was last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt and black pants. Kathryn is described as 5’4” and 100 lbs, with green eyes and blonde hair." Deputies and search and rescue experts scoured the area for hours looking for Katie. Chris Trumbich and his stepson Ryle were returning from a hunting trip. They have a family cabin in that gernal area. They knew deputies were looking for the missing girl. "Right place right time, I guess," Chris said. The men were driving on an old dirt road when they noticed the word "HELP" written in the ground and sticks nearby. "In the picture you can see, I started to drive over it," Chris said. But his fatherly instincts kicked in quick. He and Ryle then drove to find search and rescue personnel. They say she was found nearby after the heard what he can only describe as a whimper. "She was about 30 yards away or so," he said. Chris later learned Katie had been in their cabin and used some materials inside to stay alive. He says he wants Katie to know he's so grateful their property and belongings could help in her time of need. "I'm just glad we were right there," he said. It's unknown why Katie wandered away from home. She was taken to the hospital to be checked out. ||||| HAYDEN, ID – A teenage boy and his stepdad were taking one of their frequent hiking trips when they found 19-year-old Kathryn “Katie” Ogle. Ogle, who is from Hayden, was reported missing on November 1. More than 60 search and rescue crews from Kootenai, Bonner, Spokane and Shoshone counties were involved in the search. Ogle is known to have the cognitive ability of a 10 to 12-year-old, authorities said. STORY: Missing teen found alive in Kootenai County Fifteen-year-old Ryle Gordon and his stepdad Chris Trumbich went to their family cabin for a hunting trip near Ohio Match Road in Hayden. They were heading to their last trail for the day at around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday when they found a word etched in the ground. “You could see that somebody wrote ‘Help’ in the road with a stick and mud,” Gordon said. “Me and my (step)dad kind of panicked.” Rescue crews had been searching the area since Thursday and had a command post set up about four miles from where Gordon found the ‘Help’ drawing. He and his stepdad walked a bit further up the trail, and that’s when they found her. He said they immediately drove down to the command center to alert the rescue team. “The ambulance followed us up there,” Gordon said. “They heard somebody saying something, so we all got really quiet, and then one of them yelled, ‘Hello.’ She said, ‘Help.’ She was right there by a small fire and leaning up against a tree.” Ogle was not far from Gordon and Trumbich’s cabin. Gordon said when they went to visit the cabin, they found an open can of nuts, some used matches and that one of their sleeping bags was missing. It was the one Ogle was lying in beside the tree. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said Ogle is in the hospital receiving medical treatment but she seems to be in fair condition. Crews used ground teams, K-9 units and aircraft throughout their search. © 2018 KREM ||||| Ryle Gordon and Chris Trumbich recount how they found Kathryn 'Katie' Ogle, an Idaho teenager who was reported missing by the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office last Friday. Right place, right time: it's a phrase both 15-year-old Ryle Gordon and his stepfather, Chris Trumbich, repeat when they recall finding Kathryn "Katie" Ogle. "We left the house thinking, 'Hey, we're going to hopefully see some deer," Gordon said. The two were on a hunting trip, as we first told you when we initially talked to the pair on Sunday. Today, Gordon and Trumbich showed us their family cabin, where Ogle wrote "HELP," and walked us through what happened: It was just another hunting trip for 15-year-old Ryles Gordon and his stepdad Chris Trumbich at their family cabin in Hayden. They started getting closer and saw the search party for Kathryn 'Katie' Ogle. "We found out before we left that there was a missing girl up there," Trumbich said. "I told Chris, we'd probably be their best help because we know this place like the back of our hand," Gordon said. They drove four miles up a dirt road to their family cabin, which is so narrow that only one car can travel on it at a time. That's when they saw a message written on the ground, etched in dirt, that said "HELP." Trumbich initially thought it could've been another hunter, leaving a message for another fellow hunter to help carry dear carcasses. But Gordon almost immediately thought of Gordon, told Trumbich that something "felt creepy" and took a picture of it just in case it turned out to be something. That picture ended up being the thing that Gordon showed to rescue workers miles away. Gordon said the group was starting to pack up for the night, but saw the picture and immediately sprang back into action. Several rescue workers followed Gordon and Trumbich up to where they found the message. Trumbich said there were several cars there, making it hard to hear quiet noises. After they turned off all machinery, Trumbich said the group heard Ogle. "He (rescue worker) turns around and yells, 'Hello?' Then, we heard a 'Hello' over the ridge," Trumbich said. They followed the faint voice through some high grass and down a steep hill, where they found Ogle next to a sleeping bag. They asked her what her name was, she replied "Katie" and the search was over. However, there is one thing both Trumbich and Gordon wanted to tell Ogle. "She looked very scared when she came out, like she was scared she was going to get in trouble like we were going to yell at her for being in the cabin. Katie, if you're watching this, we're just happy you're alive," Gordon said.

– "If we didn't come up here she could have been dead." Such is the realization of a 15-year-old boy who helped rescue a lost teen in Idaho over the weekend. Ryle Gordon and stepdad Chris Trumbich had traveled to Hayden for a hunting trip. Driving toward their last trail around 4:30pm Saturday, the hunters noticed something: the world "HELP" scrawled in the dirt, per KREM. Trumbich wondered if the message could've been left by another hunter, but Ryle recalled passing a command post set up for a missing teen some four miles away, reports KHQ. Per KREM, more than 60 search and rescue crews had been on the lookout for 19-year-old Katie Ogle, who authorities say has the cognitive ability of a 10- to 12-year-old. She had been reported missing Nov. 1. The hunters turned around to notify the crews, who returned to the area with them. Some 30 yards past the scrawled message, Ogle was spotted alongside a small fire and a sleeping bag that had been taken from the hunters' cabin. She looked "scared she was going to get in trouble … for being in the cabin," but "we're just happy [she's] alive," Ryle says. "Right place right time," Trumbich adds, per KHQ, noting he nearly drove over the teen's plea. Ogle was taken to a hospital for treatment but is said to be in fair condition. (A woman's phone call saved a hiker near death.)

Thai King's Health 'Not Stable,' Palace Says, Reigniting Succession Fears Enlarge this image toggle caption Dario Pignatelli/Getty Images Dario Pignatelli/Getty Images Thailand's king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, is "not stable" after a medical procedure over the weekend, according to a statement from the Thai palace on Sunday. Bhumibol, who is 88, has reigned over Thailand for 70 years. He's a beloved figure and a stabilizing force. He's been in poor health for years now — he's been hospitalized for "much of the last decade," The Associated Press reports. On Sunday, he was treated with hemodialysis, a blood purifying treatment, and doctors changed a tube draining excess cerebrospinal fluid, the AP reports. The process took two hours. The statement released afterwards said doctors are "watching his symptoms and giving treatments carefully" because his symptoms were "still not stable." That's unusual phrasing for a release from the palace, Reuters reports. The wire service says statements are usually released once Bhumibol is recovering, and indicate that he's showing improvement. The BBC reports that Bhumibol's doctors have asked permission for the king to stop working for the sake of his health. Concerns about Bhumibol's health are closely tied to concerns over the future of Thailand; his son, 64-year-old crown prince Vajiralongkorn, is not as respected as his father, the AP reports. NPR's Greg Myre explained the situation in 2014, as he wrote about why Thailand is so prone to military coups: "No matter how much Thai politicians quarrel among themselves, or with the military, no one criticizes King Bhumibol Adulyadej. His elevated status has allowed him to largely stand above the fray and encourage rival factions to work out their differences. "But the king is now 86 and frail. His son, the crown prince, is much less popular, raising questions about what role the monarchy will play this time and in the future." That's all still true today — except the king is, of course, 88. Earlier this year, The Economist described Vajiralongkorn as "spoilt and demanding, and—to put it mildly—widely loathed." The magazine notes that his sister, Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, is "more admired." For a while there was gossip that palace elites would try to position the princess to take the throne, but The Economist says those rumors have died down. It's difficult to precisely gauge Thai sentiments about the king's eventual succession. Strict laws ban any insults to the royal family and violations carry harsh punishment. Because of those laws, "taking the temperature on attitudes about the monarchy in Thailand is nearly impossible," as NPR's Scott Neuman put it in 2014. ||||| FILE - In this Nov. 25, 1996, file photo, U.S. President Bill Clinton, left, meets with Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej at Chitrlada Palace in Bangkok. Thailand's Royal Palace said on Thursday, Oct.... (Associated Press) BANGKOK (AP) — King Bhumibol Adulyadej, revered in Thailand as a demigod, a humble father figure and an anchor of stability through decades of upheaval at home and abroad, died Thursday. He was 88 and had been the world's longest reigning monarch. The Royal Palace said Bhumibol died "in a peaceful state" at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, where he had been treated for various health problems for most of the past decade. During a reign that spanned 70 years, the U.S.-born Bhumibol became much more than Thailand's constitutional monarch. He was the nation's one constant as myriad governments rose and fell, a gentle leader who used the influence of the throne to unify the nation and rally troops through the Cold War as Thailand's neighbors fell under communist control. In his heyday, the frail-looking, soft-spoken man in spectacles wielded so much power and respect, he was able to squelch coups and rebellions with a gesture or a few well-chosen words. Bhumibol was viewed by many in the majority Buddhist nation as a bodhisattva, or holy being who delays entering nirvana to aid the human race. But while junta leaders, prime ministers and courtiers approached him only on their knees, Bhumibol was remarkably down-to-earth. He rolled up his sleeves and hiked into impoverished villages and remote rice paddies to assess the state of his country and help resolve everything from water and food shortages to family squabbles. He played half a dozen musical instruments and jammed with American jazz greats including Benny Goodman. By the twilight of his rule, Bhumibol had become the world's richest monarch and one of the planet's wealthiest people: Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at more than $30 billion in 2011. Although not known for having extravagant tastes, he nevertheless lived the elite life of a modern-day king, racing yachts and appearing at official functions clothed in ornate golden robes. Over the last decade, the once vigorous Bhumibol had withdrawn from public life due to a series of illnesses. His wife, Queen Sirikit, has also long been ailing and has been even more rarely seen. The king was often ensconced at a Bangkok hospital, emerging from time to time to gaze across the Chao Phraya River from a special pavilion. He had been notably silent about the political upheaval and protests that have shaken the country in recent years. Since army-staged coups in 2006 and 2014, political rivals had increasingly invoked the need to protect the palace as a pretext to gain or hold power, and some politicians have been sidelined by opponents who accused them of disrespecting the king, a grave crime in this Southeast Asian country. Although Bhumibol once said he is not above criticism, Thailand's lese majeste law — the world's harshest — has been routinely employed in recent years, with anyone charged with defaming the palace facing 15 years in jail. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn will become the new monarch after the death of his father, in accordance with the constitution. He said the government will notify the National Legislative Assembly, or parliament, of the king's successor, and it will act accordingly with the laws of succession in the constitution. Prayuth added that the government will observe a one-year mourning period and flags will fly at half-staff for 30 days. No government events will be held for 30 days, he said. With the king's passing, the world's longest reigning monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended to the British throne in 1952. Bhumibol Adulyadej (poo-me-pon ah-dun-yaa-det) was born Dec. 5, 1927, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while his father, Prince Mahidol of Songkhla, was studying medicine at Harvard University. Bhumibol ascended to the throne in 1946, when his brother, 20-year-old King Ananda Mahidol, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in a palace bedroom under circumstances that remain mysterious. Bhumibol, then an 18-year-old prince, was named king 12 hours later following an extraordinary legislative session. After the shooting, Bhumibol returned to Switzerland, where he was studying law and political science. In 1948, he was seriously injured in a driving accident that deprived him of sight in his right eye; Sirikit Kitiyakara, the daughter of a Thai aristocrat and diplomat, helped nurse him back to health. Bhumibol and Sirikit wed in 1950, a week before the king's coronation ceremony. Together they helped bridge East and West, visiting nearly 30 countries early in their reign. Bhumibol addressed the U.S. Congress when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, dined with French leader Charles de Gaulle and met Elvis Presley on a visit with his queen to a Paramount Studios movie set in 1960. Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1932, with the prime minister and Parliament holding political power, and the king serving as head of state and placed in "a position of revered worship." Although disillusioned in recent years with mounting societal greed, environmental destruction and the sidelining of traditions, the king said he tried to move with the times. "A constitutional monarch must change with the country but at the same time he must keep the spirit of the country," he declared. People may be different, he said, "but the common character of the people must be embodied by the king." For much of his reign, as Thailand hurtled from a traditional agrarian society of 18 million people to a modern, industrializing nation of 70 million, Bhumibol spearheaded thousands of projects aimed at improving life for his people, traveling to the farthest reaches of his nation to join village elders on a patch of grass to discuss the recent harvest or plot an irrigation ditch. The weight of royalty and Bhumibol's work on behalf of Thailand's have-nots won him a following backed up by nightly TV programs that tracked his every move. He remained active until his final years and dispensed funds and advice on everything from deforestation to Bangkok's traffic. "They say that a kingdom is like a pyramid: the king on top and the people below," he once told an Associated Press reporter. "But in this country it's upside down. That's why I sometimes have a pain around here." He pointed to his neck and shoulders. The name Bhumibol means "Strength of the Land," and the bounty of Thailand's soil and waters was the king's passion. In 1952 he set out to breed a better freshwater fish, a staple of the Thai peasantry, in the ponds of his Chitralada Palace in Bangkok. It was the first of more than 4,300 palace-sponsored development projects now blanketing the country. He pioneered work to help eradicate the opium grown by northern hill tribes. "It has become an instrument of destruction ... The drugs subjugate the body, the money subjugates the soul," he said, dipping into his own pocket to start a project to convince the tribes to abandon opium crops for others like tea and coffee. While normally in the background of government theater, the king stepped to the forefront at crucial moments of Thai history. During a pro-democracy uprising in 1973, he ordered the gates of the Grand Palace to be opened to students fleeing the gunfire of troops loyal to a dictatorial triumvirate. The message was clear, and the trio went into exile. In 1992, during another bloody confrontation between the military and pro-democracy protesters, the king called in the two key protagonists, who prostrated themselves before him on nationwide TV and promised peace. The crisis ended immediately. After mass protests against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra began in 2006, Bhumibol urged the country's top courts to resolve the political crisis. A bloodless military coup followed, and part of the army rationale for intervening was Thaksin's alleged disrespect for the king. Even with Thaksin dispatched, the crisis simmered, with his opponents — the so-called "Yellow Shirts" — claiming the mantle of defending the monarchy. With the country polarized, Queen Sirikit showed her sympathies by attending the funeral of a Yellow Shirt follower killed in protest clashes, undermining the axiom that the throne was above politics. By 2011, the king's health had worsened and Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra had become prime minister through elections. Mass protests helped fuel an unstable climate that triggered another army coup in 2014. Through it all, Bhumibol himself remained adored and revered. His occasional public outings drew tens of thousands of people into the streets trying to catch a glimpse, with most dressed in the royal color yellow. Many have wept at the sight of his passing motorcade. Much of the admiration is genuine: framed posters, paintings and photographs of the king are ubiquitous in Thai homes and shops, depicting not only an exalted figure in glimmering robes, but also an ordinary-looking man with a camera strapped around his chest. Taxicab windows proclaim "Long Live the King." But some of the adulation is obligatory. Bhumibol's birthday is a national holiday. Pedestrians must stop while the royal anthem is played at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily in parks and the mass transit system. In cinemas, a brief film play depicting the impact of Bhumibol's life runs before every movie, and the audience must stand as it is shown. Vajiralongkorn, the next king, does not hold his father's place in Thai hearts. There had been speculation that the crown might go to his more popular sister, Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, but Prayuth put that to rest Thursday. Bhumibol and Sirikit also have two other daughters, Chulabhorn and Ubol Ratana. "The next king will not be as influential as King Bhumibol, and I would bet that there will be a lot of competition to gain power over him or her by the military and political factions who want to use the king for their own ends," said Paul Handley, American author of "The King Never Smiles," a biography of the king scorned by monarchists for its frank criticism. It's indicative of the king's untouchability that the book was banned in Thailand, and a Thai-American man was arrested for allegedly posting translations of parts of the book on the internet. Some have speculated that it was not just poor health that led Bhumibol to increasingly retreat behind palace walls, but his own worries about the future. Some of his private conversations toward the end of his reign reflected a deep concern that Thailand had lost much of the core culture he had sought to embody all his life.

– King Bhumibol Adulyadej, revered in Thailand as a demigod, a humble father figure, and an anchor of stability through decades of upheaval at home and abroad, died Thursday. He was 88 and had been the world's longest reigning monarch, reports the AP. The Royal Palace said Bhumibol died "in a peaceful state" at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, where he underwent an operation over the weekend and had been treated over the past decade. During a reign that spanned 70 years, the US-born Bhumibol was the nation's one constant as myriad governments rose and fell, a gentle leader who used the throne's influence to unify the nation and rally troops through the Cold War as Thailand's neighbors fell under communist control. In his heyday, the frail, soft-spoken man in spectacles wielded so much power and respect, he could squelch coups and rebellions with a gesture or a few well-chosen words. Bhumibol was the world's richest monarch and one of the planet's wealthiest people: Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at more than $30 billion in 2011. Although not known for having extravagant tastes, he nevertheless lived the elite life of a modern-day king, racing yachts and appearing at official functions clothed in ornate golden robes. Over the last decade, the once vigorous Bhumibol had withdrawn from public life due to a series of illnesses. His wife, Queen Sirikit, has also long been ailing and has been even more rarely seen. Strong anti-defamation laws in Thailand make it a severe crime to speak ill of the king or the royal family, making it sometimes difficult for outsiders to gauge public opinion. However, NPR reports that the king's successor, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, is clearly less well-liked than his father. Thailand's PM says the government will observe a one-year mourning period and flags will fly at half-staff for 30 days. No government events will be held for 30 days, he added. The world's longest reigning monarch is now Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended to the British throne in 1952.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - WATCH LIVE: News conference on Allentown car explosion investigation A source tells 69 News that on Wednesday, the Allentown Police Department and family members of Jacob Schmoyer received letters from him dated September 29, the same day of the explosion that killed Schmoyer, his two-year-old son J.J., and friend David Hallman. An ATF spokesperson said Thursday morning authorities will discuss the letters and their content at a news conference at 11:30 a.m. Watch it live on 69 News, here at WFMZ.com, on our app or Facebook page. Schmoyer's grandmother, Kathleen Pond, told 69 News she received a letter. She did not detail its contents, but said, "I really did believe he would never do this, maybe in my heart I knew he would do it to himself, but never to JJ," A spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed Wednesday that it had recreated the blast scene to pinpoint where the explosive was in the vehicle when it detonated and which direction it propelled. The agency is expected to reveal those findings at Thursday's press conference. The cause and circumstances surrounding the explosion have been under review by dozens of investigators from several agencies. In addition to killing three people, the blast also destroyed property and broke windows in the 700 block of Turner Street. The blast zone has remained closed since Saturday for the investigation and to be cleaned. Allentown police said the road reopened to all traffic and residents Thursday morning. At prior news briefings, federal investigators did not say whether the incident was intentional or accidental, but officials have assured it was "isolated." The Lehigh County coroner said all three people died of traumatic injuries. A manner of death (whether homicide, accident, natural, etc.) was not ruled on pending the results of further investigation. In an interview with 69 News on Monday, Schmoyer's grandmother, Kathleen Pond, said the incident must have been accidental. "I don't believe he would harm anybody," she said. Pond said her grandson was fascinated by how fireworks and rockets worked, but would never intentionally harm anyone, especially his own son. At a news conference the day after the explosion, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin called it a "criminal incident" and said he was confident the person responsible was probably killed in the incident. It's not clear why Hallman and Schmoyer were meeting. However, according to investigators, 66-year-old Hallman and 26-year-old Schmoyer were friends. Family told 69 News they may have met through work. According to the ATF, the car blew up seconds after Hallman got in. Video of the aftermath has circulated social media, and even made national headlines. Hallman lived near the blast site. His Jack Russell Terrier, Skippy, was with him during the time of the blast. Hallman's family tells 69 News the dog survived and is now with family after getting treatment at a local animal hospital. On Tuesday, a memorial of stuffed animals was placed at the steps where neighbors say Schmoyer, J.J., J.J.'s mother, and Schmoyer's father lived. That home in the 300 block of Lumber Street is a few blocks from the blast site. Federal agents were seen going in and out of the home during the course of the investigation. ||||| The four letters he mailed set out facts both chilling and pathetic. Jacob Schmoyer was miserable. Ashamed. Angry. Haunted by past deeds and seething with hate. He wanted out of the world, but he didn’t intend to go alone. So he built a bomb, put his toddler son in the back seat of his car, lured an acquaintance into the front seat and set off the explosion that shattered an Allentown city block and sent families and friends reeling in shock. That, broadly, is the story sketched out Thursday by federal agents who spent nearly six days piecing together — literally and figuratively — the events that led to Saturday night’s car blast on Turner Street in Center City. Schmoyer, 26, is accused of killing himself, 2-year-old Jonathan Schmoyer — known as JJ — and 66-year-old David Hallman, a man whose relationship with Schmoyer remains murky. The means was a homemade bomb made of two legally obtainable chemicals. The motive, so far as it can be known, was laid out in letters mailed by Schmoyer on the day of the explosion, which reached their recipients — family members and the Allentown Police Department — on Tuesday and Wednesday. “The crux of the letters, he was very unhappy with his life, described himself in some negative terms, admitted to a number of other criminal acts, from petty thefts to burglaries,” said Special Agent Don Robinson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “He indicated a desire not to stick around and unfortunately … his intent to take Mr. Hallman and his son with him. “He was miserable. … There was a lot of hatred there, some directed at Mr. Hallman and some at his son,” Robinson said. Because of the letters, interviews with family, friends and witnesses, and a massive forensic reconstruction of the incident, Robinson said, “It is the collective assessment and opinion of the entire investigative team that this was an intentional act … by Jacob Schmoyer.” The explosion scattered body parts and car parts over most of a city block. It displaced residents of Turner Street between Seventh and Eighth streets and damaged several buildings to the point where they are uninhabitable. Rick Kintzel / The Morning Call An image taken from a monitor during Thursday's news conference shows Jacob Schmoyer's reconstructed car post-explosion. An image taken from a monitor during Thursday's news conference shows Jacob Schmoyer's reconstructed car post-explosion. (Rick Kintzel / The Morning Call) Rick Kintzel / The Morning Call An interior view of Jacob Schmoyer's reconstructed car. An interior view of Jacob Schmoyer's reconstructed car. (Rick Kintzel / The Morning Call) Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gallagher called the crime scene a “nightmare” where emergency staff worked around the clock for five days. “We asked our police officers to make sense of what was really a war zone,” he said. No one was walking past the car when it exploded, though the Center City street is only two blocks from a downtown typically crowded with diners, drinkers and eventgoers on a Saturday night. “It’s a miracle no other bystanders were seriously injured or wounded in this,” Gallagher said. Some members of Schmoyer’s family who spoke to The Morning Call in the days after the explosion said he was kind, fun-loving and would never do anything to hurt his son. In a Facebook message sent after the news conference, Schmoyer’s younger sister, Tina Schmoyer, wrote: “A wonderful Father, Brother, Son, Boyfriend, Cousin, Nephew, Grandson, Great Grandson, and soon would be Uncle as well. Someone who’s heart was always for others and would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need.” Schmoyer’s grandmother, Kathleen Pond of Washington Township, Lehigh County, received one of the letters Tuesday. On her Facebook page, she recounted the tumult of the past few days. “Sunday morning my life changed for the worst, Tuesday evening upon returning home it changed once again,” she wrote. “Now, the news conference, will change it once more. It is like riding a roller coaster and we will stay on together until that ride is over ... Jacob I am still here with you!” The deaths of Schmoyer’s son and Hallman were Allentown’s ninth and 10th homicides of 2018. Some of Schmoyer’s family members said they did not think he knew anything about explosives. But in a 2010 Facebook post, Schmoyer referenced thermite, a compound often found in online bomb instructions. “omg got a pound of thermite and enough magnesium to roast an entire cow,” reads the post from Sept. 2, 2010. Robinson would not elaborate on why Schmoyer decided to kill his son or why he targeted Hallman. He said Schmoyer “lured” Hallman to the car. Parents who kill their children are rare, according to academic research. A 2005 study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law said that 40 to 60 percent of fathers who kill their offspring also commit suicide. The study examined 30 documented cases of what is known as “filicide-suicide,” and none involved the use of explosives, with three-quarters relying upon guns. Shannon Rehrig — the sister of JJ’s mother, Jasmine Kerecz — said the letters Kerecz read offered one hint about Schmoyer’s intentions regarding his son. “There are letters stating he had something against autism, which he suspected JJ had,” Rehrig said. “He murdered an innocent child. That is evil.” Kerecz wanted to believe Schmoyer wasn’t capable of harming his son but reading the letter changed her mind. “She always announced herself as Jake’s wife and today she said she is not his wife,” Rehrig said. She added that her family can’t understand why Schmoyer didn’t reach out for help “if he had a problem and something was going on mentally and he had a breakdown.” On Thursday, Rehrig and her family were not only processing news of what happened, but also planning JJ’s funeral. Riley Yates / The Morning Call A memorial at the North Lumber Street, Allentown, home where 2-year-old Jonathan Schmoyer lived with his father, Jacob G. Schmoyer, and mother. A memorial at the North Lumber Street, Allentown, home where 2-year-old Jonathan Schmoyer lived with his father, Jacob G. Schmoyer, and mother. (Riley Yates / The Morning Call) Christine Erdman, Hallman’s niece, said she is bewildered by the idea that Schmoyer targeted him. While some of Schmoyer’s relatives insisted the men didn’t know each other, Erdman said they were friends. “I didn’t know Jacob but as far as I know they worked together, [Hallman] has been there for him, given him things,” she said. “And obviously that’s what he was meeting him for, thinking he was going to help him again.” Surveillance video viewed by The Morning Call on Wednesday showed Hallman, who lived just doors from the scene, getting into Schmoyer’s car. About two seconds after he shuts the door, the Nissan explodes into a fireball. The investigation showed the device, composed of two explosives Robinson would not identify, was either in the center console of the vehicle or near the passenger seat. Schmoyer was in the driver’s seat, Hallman in the front passenger seat and JJ strapped in a baby carrier in the rear seat, according to the ATF reconstruction. Asked about Schmoyer’s familiarity with bombs, Robinson said how-to information on making the devices is widely available. PHOTO GALLERY: A car explosion in Allentown on Turner Street killed three people Saturday night, Sept. 29, 2018. Scenes from the blast aftermath and the ongoing investigation. “There's a lot of freedom of information. A lot of information out there. Now with the click of a mouse, you can get it,” he said. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Oct. 4, 2018, 4:22 PM GMT / Updated Oct. 4, 2018, 9:46 PM GMT By Doha Madani The deadly car explosion in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Saturday that killed three people, including a toddler, was a targeted murder-suicide by a depressed father, authorities said early Thursday. Jacob Schmoyer killed his 2-year-old son, Jonathan, and friend David Halman, 66, when he used a homemade explosive device inside his car on Saturday. A spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in a press conference that Schmoyer sent letters to the Allentown Police Department outlining his plans to kill both Halman and his son. "He was miserable. Basically, the four letters describe a miserable life, he was unhappy himself," Don Robinson, the special agent in charge at the ATF Philadelphia field division told reporters Thursday. "I don't know if shame is too strong of a word because of what he did later, but he admitted to a lot of criminal acts, he didn't think it was going to get any better. There was a lot of hatred there, and obviously, some directed at Mr. Halman and his son." Jacob Schmoyer and his son, Jonathan. via Facebook The Allentown Police Department first received a letter from Schmoyer, 26, on Tuesday, after the explosion and then received another three the following day. Robinson told reporters Thursday Schmoyer's letters outlined the materials and construction of the device he intended to use as well as his decision to kill Halman and his son. Schmoyer's letters were dated on September 29, the day of the explosion and detailed other crimes he committed in the past, such as petty theft and burglaries. Authorities are still working to confirm the authenticity of the letters but are confident they are all from Schmoyer. Robinson did not describe the relationship between Schmoyer and Halman, but did say the pair knew each other and were in contact in the hour leading up to the explosion. Family members told NBC News they informed federal officials that Schmoyer had a history of schizophrenia and had previously received treatment. Robinson initially said at the press conference Thursday he was unaware of a history of any mental illness, but later told NBC News that the ATF had only been told Schmoyer had a history with depression. Schmoyer's father, Glenn, said in a statement to NBC News earlier this week that he was "traumatized" by what happened and that he was extremely close to Jacob. "He always played with his son and I just have so many good memories of them two together," Glenn Schmoyer's statement said. "My son was a very good man and he would give the shirt off his back to help someone in need. He was never selfish. Things meant nothing to him, people did." Authorities determined all three victims were inside the car at the time of the explosion. Halman was seated in the passenger seat and Schmoyer's toddler son was in a car seat behind him on the driver's side of the vehicle. "We're pretty confident that the device was placed either on the center console or near the center console front passenger seat," Robinson told reporters Thursday. Authorities did not say where Schmoyer constructed the device but were certain there are no more devices based on the description in the letter, the crime scene, and in searches since the explosion. ||||| Questions raised when a car exploded Saturday night on an Allentown street were answered this week when family and police received letters from Jacob Schmoyer detailing his planned murder-suicide via a homemade explosive device. Four letters were sent by Schmoyer, and they indicated he planned to kill himself, his two-year-old son Jonathan and a friend, David Hallman, authorities said at a Thursday news conference. Three letters were sent to family members of Schmoyer and the mother of his son, and one to Allentown police. Authorities have not identified the child's mother, and did not identify the family members that received the letters. The first letter was received on Tuesday, one was received Wednesday during the day, and two were collected Wednesday night. Officials said they were not going to detail what was written in the letters. Officials: Dad killed his 2-year-old son and friend in murder-suicide The letter to Allentown police department did include details on the components and materials used to make the homemade explosive device, and its construction, Robinson said. "All the letters indicated that Mr. Schmoyer was to blame, he took blame for (the explosion)," said Donald Robinson, the ATF special agent in charge. In the first two letters, Schmoyer wrote that he targeted Hallman. In one of the other letters, he wrote "he intended to take his son." "There was a lot of anger, a lot of vitriol in the letters. He was meticulous about wanting to make sure we knew how he put this thing together," Robinson said. "It's a sad day, a sad day for the family," Robinson said. "There's really no way to describe what runs through somebody's mind when they're doing this. But we are confident we've determined who is involved, who is responsible, and that is Jacob Schmoyer." Asked about what the letters specifically looked liked, Robinson said they were confident the letters were written by Schmoyer. "He was very unhappy with his life. He described himself in some negative terms," Robinson said. The letters included confessions to crimes, ranging from petty theft to burglaries to "other criminal acts." "He indicated a desire not to stick around and, unfortunately, in these letters, his intent to take Mr. Hallman and (Schmoyer's) son with him," Robinson said. A warzone Authorities said the blast was an isolated incident, and Schmoyer was not working with another group when he committed the crime. It was an usual and difficult crime scene that John Gallagher, chief of the Allentown branch of the U.S. Attorney's office, likened to a war zone with flames and shrapnel. The ATF, FBI, investigators, first responders, and law enforcement worked around the clock over the last five days. "What happened here in Allentown on Saturday night was nothing short of a nightmare," Gallagher said. "This was an individual who intentionally set out to commit suicide, and do it in the most violent and destructive way that he could conjure up." Gallagher said Schmoyer knew he was putting more people at risk, with busy Hamilton Street only two blocks away and people going to a hockey game at the nearby PPL Center. "It's a miracle no other bystanders were injured or killed," Gallagher said. Videos showed people near the vehicle just prior to the blast, but they were not close when the device exploded, Robinson said. The affected vehicles were removed from Turner Street, and investigators pieced together what they could of Schmoyer's car. Authorities released two photos of the wreckage. A homemade explosive Bomb technicians and explosive specialists are confident the homemade explosive was placed on or near the center console of the car. Video showed Hallman getting into the car, and then second later the car exploding. Schmoyer was sitting in the driver's seat, Hallman in the front passenger seat and the toddler was in a car seat behind the driver's seat. The ATF believes it has accounted for the amount of explosives used, based on Schmoyer's description of the device he made. The 700 block of Turner Street reopened Thursday, which led to residents cleaning up and construction crews working on damaged buildings. A number of buildings near the intersection of Turner and Hall streets, where the blast occurred, had boarded up windows and notices from the city of being unsafe structures. A mangle iron fence, charred tree and what looked like evidence markings on the sidewalk were the only signs left of the blast. Authorities said if anyone finds items that might be related to the blast, to not touch the item and immediately call Allentown police at 610-437-7751. Even with a confession and motive, the ATF is still investigating. Final lab results are still outstanding on the explosives Schmoyer used, but authorities said preliminary results included a couple different compounds. Robinson noted components of homemade explosives are not illegal products. Robinson said there's "a lot of information out there" that people can access on how to make an explosive device. Sarah Cassi may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.

– It was the 26-year-old father who set off the "crazy" explosion that killed his 2-year-old son and a 66-year-old friend in Allentown, Pa., Saturday night, police say. Jacob Schmoyer allegedly used a homemade explosive device inside his car; the ensuing blast killed Schmoyer, his son, Jonathan, and his friend, David Hallman. Since the explosion, the Allentown Police Department has received four letters from Schmoyer detailing his plans to kill Hallman and his son as well as how the bomb would be made. Why? "He was miserable. Basically, the four letters describe a miserable life, he was unhappy himself," an ATF special agent told reporters Thursday, per NBC News. "He admitted to a lot of criminal acts, he didn't think it was going to get any better. There was a lot of hatred there, and obviously, some directed at Mr. Hallman and his son." Authorities say the letters indicate Schmoyer was targeting Hallman, but also planned to take his own life and "take his son along with him," per the Allentown Morning Call. They say he "lured" Hallman out on the night of his death; surveillance video shows Hallman, who lived doors down from the location of the explosion, entering Schmoyer's car. When the explosive went off just two seconds later, Schmoyer was in the driver's seat, Hallman was in the front passenger seat, and the toddler was in a car seat in the back seat, per Lehigh Valley Live. The sister of the little boy's mom says Schmoyer also sent letters to his family before the explosion, and that they "[stated] he had something against autism, which he suspected JJ [Jonathan Schmoyer] had." Even so, Schmoyer's grandmother tells WFMZ, "I really did believe he would never do this, maybe in my heart I knew he would do it to himself, but never to JJ."

Video (02:37) : Frigid weather is headed our way. Paul Douglas lets us know how long it will stay. The forecast high of zero degrees for the Vikings-Seahawks game on Sunday at TCF Bank Stadium would make it the coldest home playoff game in team history and among the frostiest in NFL history. There have been only nine games in league history where the high temperature during the game never got above zero. The Vikings’ coldest playoff game at Met Stadium was 9 degrees in 1970 against San Francisco. Their coldest game, -2 against Chicago, was the sixth most frigid in NFL history. The coldest NFL game was the “Ice Bowl,” the league’s title game between Green Bay and Dallas at Lambeau Field on New Year’s Eve in 1967. The temperature was -13 and wind chills hit -48. NBC broadcaster Cris Collinsworth, who will be calling Sunday’s game, likes to refer to the coldest game by windchill in league history. Collinsworth played for the Bengals when they beat San Diego on Jan. 10, 1982 at Riverfront Stadium for the AFC title when the temp was -9 and wind chills hit -59. COLDEST VIKINGS HOME GAMES -2 vs. Chicago, Dec. 3, 1972 (wind north 11 mph) 0 vs. Green Bay, Dec. 10, 1972 (wind SW 9 mph) 5 vs. Los Angeles, Nov. 29, 1964 (wind NW 12 mph) 9 vs. Chicago, Dec. 5, 1970 (wind north 25 mph) 9 vs. San Francisco*, Dec. 27, 1970 (wind north 10 mph) 11 vs. Cleveland*, Jan. 4, 1970 (wind NW 8 mph) 12 vs. Carolina, Nov. 30, 2014 (wind NW, 17 mph) 12 vs. Los Angeles*, Dec. 26, 1976 (wind NW 13 mph) 13 vs. N.Y. Giants, Dec. 27, 2015 (wind NW 8 mph) 15 vs. San Francisco, Dec. 4, 1977 (wind East 15 mph) *playoff game ||||| EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The Minnesota Vikings' first outdoor home playoff game in more than 39 years could be the coldest in their history, with temperatures projected to hit a high of 1 degree Sunday. Editor's Picks PFF: Four matchups to watch in wild-card round Will the Steelers exploit Bengals CB Dre Kirkpatrick? Can the Vikings' OTs hold up against the Seahawks' pass rush? Steve Palazzolo examines the key matchups that could sway each wild-card game. Before the Vikings face the Seattle Seahawks in what is forecast to be one of the coldest games in NFL history, they are taking steps to help fans brave frigid weather during a playoff game for the first time in two generations. The Vikings announced Thursday that they will provide hand warmers at entry gates Sunday, and Caribou Coffee will provide free coffee in the Vikings' fan zone southwest of TCF Bank Stadium. The University of Minnesota will also open Mariucci Arena -- where the Gophers' men's hockey team plays -- as a warming house for fans beginning three hours before kickoff. The team said it will allow non-battery-operated blankets in the stadium and encouraged fans to bring Styrofoam, cardboard or newspapers to place under their feet. TCF Bank Stadium, which was built in 2009, has bleacher seating in the corners and end zones. "We know Minnesotans are resilient when it comes to cold weather and unified when it comes to the Vikings, so we view this Sunday's game as a rallying moment," Vikings president Mark Wilf said in a statement. "At the same time, we want our fans to be smart and safe when they are supporting the team, and we are taking a few extra steps to assist in that effort this Sunday." According to Accuweather.com, the "RealFeel" for Sunday's game will be minus-23 degrees. The coldest game Minnesota has played at TCF Bank Stadium was during Week 13 of the 2014 season when it was 12 degrees at kickoff. AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt The coldest home game in Vikings history was Dec. 3, 1972, with a temperature of minus-2 at kickoff. The field at Metropolitan Stadium that day was "like painted concrete," Vikings Hall of Fame defensive end Carl Eller said Thursday morning. If the temperature is below zero at kickoff Sunday, it will be one of the six coldest playoff games in NFL history. The last playoff game with a subzero temperature at kickoff was the 2007 NFC Championship Game between the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants, when it was minus-1 at Lambeau Field. The Vikings' frigid day at their temporary home on the University of Minnesota campus could also be their last; they will move back indoors next year, when U.S. Bank Stadium is scheduled to open in downtown Minneapolis.

– For those cynical fans who believe hell will freeze over before the Minnesota Vikings win a championship, your time might have finally arrived. The forecast is calling for some incredibly cold temperatures when the Vikings take on the Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the NFL playoffs on Sunday. The Minnesota Star-Tribune reports the temperature at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium at game time is supposed to be right around zero degrees—at the warmest. If that holds true, it would be one of the 10 coldest games in NFL history. ESPN is a little more optimistic, calling for a whopping high of 1 degree. Though the network also points out it will feel like -23 degrees with the wind chill. The Vikings, who are waiting for their new stadium to be built, are playing an outdoor home playoff game for the first time in nearly 40 years, ESPN reports. The stadium will be providing free hand warmers and coffee, and fans are encouraged to bring blankets and cardboard or newspaper to put under their feet. According to the Star-Tribune, the coldest game in NFL history is known as the "Ice Bowl." Green Bay and Dallas played for the 1967 championship with the temperature hovering around -13 degrees (with a wind chill of -50 degrees). And while it won't get that cold Sunday, the inevitable Seahawks victory might make it feel that way for Vikings fans.

“This is a Standard Modernus Bowl, [and] I think a Standard Ejecto Tank,” says a youthful, disembodied voice. “Original handle. It looks like it might have been repaired, though. I had to push it pretty hard to flush it. Here we go. That’s a very good flush.” This commentary comes from the most popular YouTube video of toiletfan1, who has a channel solely dedicated to toilets. Describing it as one of his favorites, this specimen is located in the women’s room of the Brick Dwelling at the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It is but one of many latrines lovingly cataloged by toiletfan1 and his parents, who have been documenting toilets and urinals across the U.S. for the past three and a half years. To date, they have amassed a total of 4,514 YouTube clips. Uploaded By: toiletfan1 And they’re not alone. While toiletfan1’s channel is among the most visited, he’s just one of a group of toilet enthusiasts who spend their spare time sharing videos and pictures of bowls, cisterns and urinals. A few of the major players include ILoveVintageToilets, who as the name suggests, specializes in older models; the prolific Liam Brom; and Toilet Explorer, a flush-obsessed veteran of the scene. Between them, they have spent years studying toilets and are responsible for tens of thousands of videos and pictures floating around online. And though, to the outside observer, this borderline-obsessive attention might seem like a fetish, they claim it isn’t. At least, not in the regular sense. “The fetishist is very self-centered, very narrow and fairly shallow. They just want to get off by looking at this,” says Bob Cromwell, moderator of website Toilet Guru. “For the enthusiast, it’s a mental thing not a sexual thing. I’m interested in this as it relates to history, as a part of culture, as a part of technology.” Cromwell documents a toilet Lady Gaga allegedly used in her early days, at Johnson's Bar in New York. Bob Cromwell Described as the Indiana Jones and Ansel Adams of toilets, Cromwell has been taking photos of commodes in far-flung places since the ’90s. His site started out as a resource for travel tips, but included a few images of odd plumbing from around the world—which he’d initially posted as a joke. He noticed that visitors to his page were clicking on these photographs, and it soon became apparent he should switch focus. “Looking back, it makes sense, because if you want to look at a picture of London there are a million places to find them. This is something that’s just, you know, strange,” he says. “There’s nothing too weird that you can’t find it somewhere on the net—some obsessive dedication to it or obsessive cataloguing.” Dwight Eisenhower’s plush, presidential potty. Bob Cromwell He now spends much of his free time taking photos of toilets, usually when he is abroad for his work as a systems analyst. During these scouting missions, he is on the lookout for something unusual or culturally specific. More often than not, he finds something illuminating—a habit or practice distinct from his own experience, such as squat toilets. “You say, ‘Oh, they’re a bunch of savages. Their plumbing is completely different to ours.’ Well, maybe they are, but maybe we’re the savages,” he says. “A lot of people look at toilet paper as a filthy approximation that doesn’t get you clean. Actually sitting on the seat that everybody else sits on? A lot of countries think, for very good reason, that that’s a horrible idea.” "If you are interested in the fetish aspect or urination, there are much better places to go. This is strictly porcelain, as it were." Other times he focuses on a toilet’s historical relevance, like the time he photographed a lavatory on a tour through Dwight Eisenhower’s house. Though it started out as a joke, Cromwell now sees such toilets as a portal to other worlds and times, and considers them the ultimate common denominator. “It’s like the children’s book, Everyone Poops. There’s nobody who doesn’t need some form of this,” he says. “Everybody does, multiple times a day. But most of us try very hard to pretend that’s not the case. You don’t talk about it. You’re not supposed to talk about it. …It’s kind of this taboo thing.” The urinals at Malaysia's Toy Museum don't disappoint. Urinal.net It’s a philosophy familiar to Joe U. Rinator, co-moderator of Urinal.net, the world’s premier urinal-specific site. He and his business partner (who shares the same tongue-in-cheek pseudonym) started it in 2000, following a road trip through Europe, where they came across unfamiliar pissoirs. Like Cromwell, they started posting photos for a laugh, but it soon took on a more serious tone. They are also eager to separate themselves from fetishists. “Frankly, I don’t really have any interest in looking at pictures of people using urinals,” he says. “It is intended to be a depiction of clean urinals, not in use. We’re not attempting to touch that part of the world. Certainly, there’s nothing preventing people from looking at them for that reason and I’m sure that happens plenty, but if you are interested in the fetish aspect or urination, there are much better places to go. This is strictly porcelain, as it were.” Joe U. Rinator is partial to a urinal with a view, like this submission sent in from Chongqing, China. Urinal.net U. Rinator’s site relies largely on images sent in by urinal watchers from around the globe. They have, on average, 500 visitors every day and receive anywhere between 12 and 20 submissions each month. There are so many that they built a geo-tagged map so fans can more easily navigate the 3,721 individual locations, covering everywhere from Kazakhstan to Namibia. When asked why he does it, U. Rinator also expresses an interest in the cultural differences that can be gleaned from our toilet habits. However, he has a clear bias that sets him apart from many other toilet enthusiasts—namely that he keeps it strictly urinal. “Once you’re focusing on something as prevalent as a toilet, I mean, everybody’s got one,” he says. “It’s just such a different world, and frankly something that I haven’t had any interest in.” ||||| 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. 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. Who is the Toilet Guru? Who is this so-called guru? I am Bob Cromwell, my main site is here. This part of my site spun off into its own domain in 2010. My original site can now be just on travel, Linux and other technology, and other non-plumbing topics I find interesting. What makes me a guru? It's purely a self-appointed title. There is no sanctioning body. Am I obsessed with toilets? No! I'm just willing to admit that I find the topic somewhat interesting. I've taken lots of other travel pictures. When you travel off the beaten path, it doesn't take long until the question comes up. "Well, you know, how did you, well, when you had to, well, uh, what was it like?" So here are pictures I have taken of toilets I have encountered. And hey, I'm not the person reading this page, probably after doing some sort of web search for toilets! Why are you reading this? A web server logs the referer, the page on which the user clicked a link to come to the requested page. For search engines, the URL of the search result page includes the search that was performed. Once in a while I pull out the queries and process that list to find the current interests. There is always curiousity about whether toilet paper will be available or just water, and then where to put the used toilet paper when you're done. And curiousity about other people's toilet habits or rules, be they Islamic, Chinese, French or whatever. Some nervous travelers are researching the availability of toilets on buses and trains. Plus more general or basic questions, such as what is a bidet, or why there are no toilet seats in many European countries, or how to sit on an English commode. The last of those seems rather obvious but it is a continuing theme. I regularly get messages from people saying "I have spent the last four hour reading about toilets on your web site, and I would like to know why you are so obsessed." Excuse me? You just spent how long reading about toilets? And you think I am fixated on the topic? What is it like to be a toilet guru? In 2014 I did some Linux consulting for Merrill Lynch at their large facility outside Trenton, New Jersey. I had most of one afternoon free, and in the year leading up to that I had received messages from several people telling me that I should track down Adolf Hitler's toilet which was in an auto repair shop in a nearby small town. The German state yacht was scrapped in New Jersey after World War II. It was partially disassembled and various portholes, teak decking, and internal fixtures including at least one toilet and sink were sold to area residents. The toilet and sink were installed in a local garage. It was interesting to see, not that it was very unusual on its own but it certainly was an unexpected place to find such a connection to history. But the most interesting thing was talking to the guy who came to own Hitler's toilet by accident. He simply purchased a garage when its owner was retiring, the relic came with the building. He likes working on cars, that's what he does and he's good at it. People from all around the world come to his garage to see the toilet, and that mostly just amuses him. There are surplus parts from Hitler's yacht all around the small town, why do people come from Japan, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere to see the toilet? A U.K. television show flew him and the toilet and sink to London. Free airfare, free shipping for the fixtures, and a week in a hotel in London. It wasn't until then that he realized that it had never been properly bolted down, it was simply cemented to the floor. The television show hosts obsessed about this, asking why he hadn't properly bolted it down. It was that way when he bought the garage, and it worked, so there was no reason to pay any further attention to it. Then they demanded an explanation for why, if it was working, had he removed it and ultimated needed to replace it with a modern fixture. This question was from the very people who had invited him on the free week in London if he unfastened it and brought it along. This was all very familiar to me. I have a silly web site on which I make a little ad revenue. Someone else comes along and spends hours looking at the pictures and reading the text. Maybe they're a reporter for the BBC or a major newspaper in the U.S. or U.K., and they decide this is an appropriate topic for a detailed article. They then immediately demand that I explain why I am obsessed with the topics. I have been described by Yahoo as: ||||| Are you wondering how to use a bidet , or even what a bidet is? Curious about what the toilets are like in other countries? Toilets from ancient history ? Do you wonder who invented the flush toilet ? (It wasn't Thomas Crapper !) You've come to the right place! About 95 pounds of gold and 6,600 pounds of silver pass through Switzerland's wastewater stream every year. Swiss refineries handle 70% of the world's gold production, A fraction of that makes its way into the sewers. The gold and silver certainly get our attention as they are classic precious metals. The amounts in national sewage add up to values of about 1.5 million Swiss Francs worth of each (or about 2 million US$ each). Several valuable rare earth metals and other trace elements appear in significant amounts, by-products Privacy and Power The Throne Behind the Power Attitudes about privacy have changed through the centuries, with much of that change coming very recently when most of the western world has become prosperous enough to afford it. National rulers and others wielding great power play by a different set of rules. This includes not caring about privacy while using the toilet. This goes back to the Bronze Age and continued through medieval times, but recent leaders such as U.S. President Lyndon Johnson have practiced Bronze-Age-style toilet habits. The one theme constant from Old Testament times to today is that one of the privileges of great power or high social station is the lack of concern for privacy. It wasn't so much about privacy as it was about power and privilege. Actions or situations that might be distasteful or embarrassing for commoners were not to those in power. Royalty and nobility could behave however they pleased. This same "open toilet policy" for aides and emissaries continued at least as late as the 1963-1969 administration of the U.S. president Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read more about power and privacy »

– There are hobbies like collecting baseball cards and knitting, and then there's toiletfan1, who spends his spare time, with his parents, taking videos of America's toilets and urinals. And plenty of them: some 4,514 to date, posted to YouTube. And while toiletfan1 may have been remarkably prolific over the past 3.5 years, he's not the only one on a toilet-minded quest. Vocativ takes a look at the world of "toilet enthusiasts," who geek out over their shared photos and videos of America's latrines. Among them: the Toilet Explorer and Urinal.net moderator Joe U. Rinator, whose site features images of urinals in 3,721 locations. Those in the scene would rather you brand them as archaeologists than fetishists. As Bob Cromwell, moderator of website Toilet Guru explains, the latter "just want to get off by looking at this. For the enthusiast, it’s a mental thing not a sexual thing. I'm interested in this as it relates to history, as a part of culture, as a part of technology." (Cromwell has a history of his own: He's taken photos of toilets around the globe since the '90s and writes on his site that he was once described by Yahoo as "the Indiana Jones (and Ansel Adams) of latrines.") And as for the fetish aspect, U. Rinator agrees. "Frankly, I don't really have any interest in looking at pictures of people using urinals. If you are interested in the fetish aspect or urination, there are much better places to go. This is strictly porcelain, as it were." (Click to read about a Texas town that plans to recycle toilet water ... for drinking.)

Good news, Millennials: Diet Coke is introducing four new flavors that are sure to tickle your taste buds. At least that's what Coca-Cola (KO) is hoping. Starting in two weeks, you can buy Diet Coke in Ginger Lime, Feisty Cherry, Zesty Blood Orange and Twisted Mango. They will come in a skinnier silver can, reminiscent of Red Bull's. And the company may have had another drink in mind when it mixed up the flavors -- LaCroix seltzer, which has attracted exactly the audience Coke is after. Coke wasn't shy about which customers it's targeting. "Millennials are now thirstier than ever for adventures and new experiences, and we want to be right by their side," said Rafael Acevedo, the group director for Diet Coke in North America. "We're making the brand more relatable and more authentic." Another Diet Coke executive said the company cast a "broad flavor net" after examining what Millennials are eating and drinking, and tested everything from spicy notes to exotic fruits. Related: Coca-Cola is replacing Coke Zero with a new drink The company even released a video of Millennials trying the flavors. (Their most common reaction: "Whoa.") Coca-Cola spent two years on the relaunch and says it asked more than 10,000 people for their thoughts. The company is not changing the classic Diet Coke formula, which will still be available in the traditional, squatter 12-ounce cans. Coke has been paying special attention to its low- and zero-calorie drinks. Over the summer, the company replaced Coke Zero with a drink called Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. It paid off: Last quarter, the company reported earnings and sales that topped forecasts, thanks in part to growth from the new product. But in general, consumer appetite for soda, both regular and diet, is shrinking. People are turning away from the artificial sweeteners used to flavor diet sodas -- including the new Diet Coke flavors. In a note published on Tuesday, the research group Cowen reported that diet soda sales fell 2% in the last three months of 2017. In that period, Diet Coke sales fell by 4% and Diet Pepsi (PEP) by 8%. Related: Coca-Cola needs more products not named Coke Other sodas have tried this strategy: Pepsi sought to appeal to younger drinkers last year with a disastrous ad featuring Kendall Jenner offering a soda to a police officer on a protest line. After a backlash, the company apologized and pulled the ad. Companies like Coke might want to focus on sparkling water instead of new diet drinks. Cowen noted that over that same period in 2017, National Beverage Corp., which makes LaCroix, reported that sales improved 43% in the sparkling and still flavored water category. ||||| What Is It: Diet Coke’s new Twisted Mango, Ginger Lime, Feisty Cherry and Blood Orange flavors Who Tried It: Mark Marino, PEOPLE contributing writer Level of Difficulty: 2 (I know this should be a 1, but drinking four cans of soda can make one’s tummy bloated) It’s been a rough week. The free soda machine at our office has been broken since Monday, so I’ve had to survive mostly on water. And for someone who lives on an all-carb diet (carbohydrates and carbonated beverages), that ain’t easy. So you can imagine why I almost did a backflip when a package arrived today containing all of Diet Coke’s new flavors: Feisty Cherry, Twisted Mango, Ginger Lime and Blood Orange. I was excited by the news that they were hitting the market this month, and I couldn’t wait to find out which flavors popped and which ones fizzled (get it?). First up: Feisty Cherry. It tasted slightly syrupy and more cherry-y than Coke-y, which I kind of liked. I didn’t quite get what was feisty about it — although I suppose I’d be pretty feisty too if I was trapped inside a can all day. After a few more sips, I thought I detected a bit of a spicy sensation in the back of my throat. Was my Diet Coke getting feisty with me or was I imagining it? I’m still not sure. Either way, I would definitely drink this flavor again, despite its sassy attitude. Next I tried Twisted Mango. The only twisted thing about this beverage is the person who came up with the concept. There are some things that just don’t mix well: mango and Diet Coke, oil and water, Peggy and the rest of the Real Housewives of Orange County… you get the idea. It has a nice scent, though, and if you place a few sticks in the opening of the can, I bet it would make a nifty room diffuser. WATCH: How to Use Your Flat Soda to Make BBQ Sauce I had high hopes for the Blood Orange flavor, since I fell in love with the fruit when I traveled to Ortigia, Sicily, a few years ago. When I took a sip, I hoped it would bring back memories of myself happily wandering through the town’s old, narrow streets, the locals placing curses upon me as I passed. Instead, I was getting the “Want a Fanta?” theme song by that legendary girl group the Fantanas. This tastes like Diet Coke mixed with regular orange soda. Or was that Anbesol? For some reason my tongue was feeling a bit numb. Either way, I think if you want orange in your soda, just buy orange soda. Want the ultimate dish on the latest celebrity food news, plus exclusive recipes, videos and more? Click here to subscribe to the People Food newsletter. Last up: Ginger Lime. Maybe it was because the Feisty Cherry singed my throat and the Blood Orange killed my taste buds, but I could not detect any ginger whatsoever in this drink. It does have a pleasant lime flavor, though, which seems a bit more subtle than regular Diet Coke with Lime. I’d definitely drink this again — and I wouldn’t rule out using it to marinate chicken. The Verdict: Uh… the cans are nice? Honestly, the Feisty Cherry and Ginger Lime flavors are pretty good, but the Twisted Mango and Blood Orange are disappointing. And all of the new flavors just seem completely unnecessary. If you’ve got a successful formula, don’t mess with it, because introducing something new can really throw things off. Have we learned nothing from RHOC‘s Peggy?

– It appears soda-makers are getting increasingly desperate to hook young people on their product. On Wednesday, Coca-Cola announced four new flavors of Diet Coke—Twisted Mango, Feisty Cherry, Ginger Lime, and Zesty Blood Orange—expressly targeting Millennials, CNN reports. "Millennials are now thirstier than ever for adventures and new experiences, and we want to be right by their side," one Diet Coke executive says, adding the new flavors are "more relatable" for young people. The new flavors will be packaged in skinny cans reminiscent of Red Bulls. Mark Marino, a contributing writer at People, tried all four flavors, which Coca-Cola says it spent two years working on and had over 10,000 people taste. While Marino's conclusions weren't entirely positive—"I wouldn’t rule out using it to marinate chicken" and "I bet it would make a nifty room diffuser," for example—he wouldn't rule out drinking two of them in the future. And, hey, even Millennials need a good room diffuser.

Senator Bernie Sanders vowed on Sunday to fight on after losing the Nevada caucuses, predicting that he would pull off a historic political upset by this summer’s party convention. But the often overlooked delegate count in the Democratic primary shows Mr. Sanders slipping significantly behind Hillary Clinton in the race for the nomination, and the odds of his overtaking her growing increasingly remote. Mrs. Clinton has 502 delegates to Mr. Sanders’s 70; 2,383 are needed to win the nomination. These numbers include delegates won in state contests and superdelegates, who can support any candidate. She is likely to win a delegate jackpot from the overwhelmingly black and Hispanic areas in the Southern-dominated Super Tuesday primaries on March 1, when 11 states will vote and about 880 delegates will be awarded. Since delegates are awarded proportionally based on vote tallies in congressional districts and some other areas, only blowout victories yield large numbers of delegates. And Mrs. Clinton is better positioned than Mr. Sanders to win big in more delegate-rich districts, like those carved out to ensure minority Democrats in Congress, where she remains popular. ||||| Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks on the day of the Nevada Democratic caucus, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Henderson, Nev. Hillary Clinton captured Nevada's Democratic... (Associated Press) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks on the day of the Nevada Democratic caucus, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Henderson, Nev. Hillary Clinton captured Nevada's Democratic caucuses Saturday, overcoming an unexpectedly strong surge by Sanders. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) (Associated Press) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks on the day of the Nevada Democratic caucus, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Henderson, Nev. Hillary Clinton captured Nevada's Democratic caucuses Saturday, overcoming an unexpectedly strong surge by Sanders. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) (Associated Press) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks on the day of the Nevada Democratic caucus, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Henderson, Nev. Hillary Clinton captured Nevada's Democratic... (Associated Press) COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The election calendar may have Democrats voting next in South Carolina, but Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are eyeing bigger prizes in March, a month that will determine whether the Vermont senator can keep pace in the White House race. Clinton shook off some of the anxieties shadowing her campaign with a solid victory in Saturday's Nevada caucuses. The results offered a glimpse of her strength with black voters. They are a crucial group in South Carolina, which holds its primary this coming Saturday, and in other Southern states with contests on March 1, Super Tuesday. Sanders has yet to prove he can consistently expand his base of support beyond white liberals and young voters. His campaign cited progress with Latinos in Nevada, but his advisers are clear-eyed about the challenges on Super Tuesday. They are mapping out plans to stay close to Clinton in the delegate count until the race turns to friendlier territory later in March. "Because we can do the long game, once we get past March 1, the calendar changes dramatically," said Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager. "It's frontloaded for her, but we have the ability to stay in the long game." More than half the 2,383 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination will be determined in the 28 states that hold primaries and caucuses in March. Clinton and Sanders should have enough money to stay in the race for weeks afterward, but the delegate tally at the end of the month could make the results inevitable. For Sanders, strong showings in March are more important because of Clinton's lead with superdelegates — the party leaders who can support any candidates regardless of how their states vote. Clinton has captured the support of 451 superdelegates compared with Sanders' 19. Underpinning Clinton's strategy are the painful lessons of her 2008 primary loss to Barack Obama. Clinton's campaign failed to account for the Democratic Party's system of allocating delegates proportionally in voting contests, and then watched superdelegates, who can shift their allegiances, move toward Obama as the campaign stretched late into the spring. Under the proportional system, avoiding overwhelming losses that can dramatically shift the delegate totals is almost as important as outright victories. "Other than Vermont, I don't see a single state where Hillary Clinton is going to lose in a blowout. I see a lot of states where Hillary Clinton will probably win by a lot and that equals real delegate yield," said David Plouffe, the architect of Obama's 2008 campaign and a Clinton supporter. "I know that's not sexy, but I think that's how the Clinton campaign has structured their campaign this time after some of the lessons from eight years ago." Few observers had foreseen Sanders as a serious threat to Clinton. But he has energized young people, working-class voters and liberals with his impassioned calls for breaking up big Wall Street banks and making tuition at public colleges and universities free. "I think the more people know our record, the better we do," Sanders said Sunday on CBS' "Face The Nation." Sanders' prolific online fundraising has given him staying power and he has pledged to take his campaign into the Democratic convention in July. While Sanders outraised Clinton in January, a new fundraising report showed he went on a spending spree at the start of the year and ended last month with about $15 million in available cash — less than half of Clinton's cash on hand. That's enough to stay competitive, and Sanders' team is eyeing delegates in March 1 states such as Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma and his home state. He also hopes to flex his muscles in two other states with contests that day, Colorado and Virginia, and that could help him make the case that he is more electable than Clinton. Sanders' campaign has cited entrance polls of Nevada caucus-goers showing him doing better than Clinton among Latino voters. But the high margin of error in the polls makes it impossible to say with confidence whether either candidate held a lead among the group. While Sanders was campaigning in South Carolina on Sunday, he planned to be in Massachusetts for a college rally and campaign in Norfolk, Virginia, on Tuesday. Clinton also was spending time in Super Tuesday states. She flew from Nevada on Saturday to Texas, a huge delegate prize, for a late-night rally in Houston. She planned to raise money in California and then campaign in South Carolina. Beyond Super Tuesday, Clinton and Sanders are looking ahead to the March 15 contests in Florida, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio. Big wins in those states for either candidate would put the nomination within sight. Clinton's support among black voters could pay dividends because of the way Democrats award high-performing congressional districts with a greater share of delegates. Many of the most delegate-rich states have large minority populations, including Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Illinois and Florida, giving Clinton an inside track to accumulate delegates in March. ___ Pace reported from Washington. ___ Follow Ken Thomas and Julie Pace on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/KThomasDC and http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

– Bernie Sanders assured voters on Sunday that he'd pull off an upset to become the Democratic nominee. The delegate count in the Democratic primary, however, shows that's not very likely. A total of 2,383 delegates are needed to win the nomination, and Clinton now has 502 compared to Sanders' 70. That includes 451 superdelegates (party insiders who can flip their support later) for Clinton and just 19 for Sanders, though both candidates are tied in the pledged delegate count at 51, reports the New York Times. Another 880 delegates will be awarded when 11 mostly-Southern states vote on Super Tuesday on March 1, and Clinton is expected to win a "jackpot from the overwhelmingly black and Hispanic areas," per the Times. Clinton "could effectively end the race in less than two weeks' time," one analyst says. Sanders' campaign manager admits Super Tuesday could be a struggle, but "because we can do the long game, once we get past March 1, the calendar changes dramatically," he tells the AP. Sanders is focusing on winning Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Oklahoma, and keeping close primary races in other states to avoid handing Clinton the delegates that come with huge victories. Still, President Obama's 2008 campaign manager, who supports Clinton, says Sanders would need "surprising landslides in surprising places" and "other than Vermont, I don't see a single state where Hillary Clinton is going to lose in a blowout."

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The South Carolina man accused of killing his five children and dumping their bodies in Alabama was an ex-convict who went on a crime spree more than a decade ago in Illinois, prison documents and a family member confirmed Thursday. Timothy Jones Sr., center, at microphone, stands next to his son, Travis Jones, right, as he reads a statement to the media in front of his home on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014 in Amory, Tenn. The men are... (Associated Press) Timothy Jones Sr., center, at microphone, stands next to his son, Travis Jones, right, as he reads a statement to the media in front of his home on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014 in Amory, Tenn. The men are... (Associated Press) A view of the home of Timothy Ray Jones is shown, in Redbank, S.C. Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. Authorities expect to charge Jones in connection with the deaths of his five children after he led officers... (Associated Press) A view of the home of Timothy Ray Jones is shown, in Redbank, S.C. Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. Authorities expect to charge Jones in connection with the deaths of his five children after he led officers... (Associated Press) A view of the home of Timothy Ray Jones is shown, in Redbank, S.C. Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. Authorities expect to charge Jones in connection with the deaths of his five children after he led officers... (Associated Press) In this image taken from video on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, Smith County Sheriff's Deputies escort Timothy Ray Jones Jr., from jail in Raleigh, Miss. Jones, of Lexington County, S.C., is expected to be... (Associated Press) Sheriff McCarty addresses the media during a news conference at the Lexington County Sheriff's Dept Training Center in Lexington, S.C., Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. Timothy Ray Jones Jr., 32, will be charged... (Associated Press) Photos of Timothy Ray Jones Jr. children are on display during a news conference at the Lexington County Sheriff's Dept Training Center in Lexington, S.C., Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. Jones Jr., 32, will... (Associated Press) A dirt filled area near the crime scene found on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, in Camden, Ala. Authorities expect to charge a South Carolina man, 32-year-old Timothy Ray Jones Jr., in connection with the... (Associated Press) A group of investigators gather under a light near the crime scene on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Camden, Ala. Wilcox County, Alabama, District Attorney Michael Jackson told The Associated Press that Timothy... (Associated Press) An investigator leads a truck near the crime scene on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Camden, Ala. Wilcox County, Alabama, District Attorney Michael Jackson told The Associated Press that Timothy Ray Jones... (Associated Press) A state trooper helicopter lands near the area where authorities are gathering on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Camden, Ala. A district attorney says the bodies of five children missing from South Carolina... (Associated Press) Sheriff McCarty, flanked by FBI agent Dave Thomas, addresses the media, as photos of Timothy Ray Jones Jr. children are on display, during a news conference at the Lexington County Sheriff's Dept Training... (Associated Press) Investigators put up lights around the crime scene Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Camden, Ala. Wilcox County, Alabama, District Attorney Michael Jackson told The Associated Press that Timothy Ray Jones Jr.... (Associated Press) Sergeant Steve Jarrett of the Alabama Department of Public Safety pauses during a press conference on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, near Camden, Ala. A district attorney says the bodies of five children missing... (Associated Press) This Sunday, Sept. 6, 2014 photo made available by the Smith County Sheriff's Office shows Timothy Ray Jones Jr. On Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, authorities said the father of five children whose bodies were... (Associated Press) A view of the home of Timothy Ray Jones is shown, in Redbank, S.C. Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. Authorities expect to charge Jones in connection with the deaths of his five children after he led officers... (Associated Press) Timothy Ray Jones Jr., is escorted by lawmen out of the Smith County Jail to a vehicle for transport to Lexington County, S.C. on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014 in Raleigh, Miss. Jones is expected to be charged... (Associated Press) Authorities gather in a fielded area surrounded by trees Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Camden, Ala. A district attorney says the bodies of five children missing from South Carolina have been found in Camden.... (Associated Press) Lawmen from the Lexington County Sheriff's Department in South Carolina leave the Smith County Jail in Raleigh, Miss., Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014 following a short visit with Smith County Sheriff Charlie... (Associated Press) Timothy Jones, 32, was arrested on a cocaine possession charge March 30, 2001, in Carpentersville, Illinois. Six months later, he was arrested for a crime spree that included stealing a car, burglary and passing forged checks, according to Michael Combs, chief of the criminal division of the McHenry County, Illinois, State's Attorney's Office. He was 19 years old at the time. Jones' father, Tim Jones Sr., confirmed to The Associated Press that his son grew up in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago and had a criminal record in Illinois. "Typical teenager doing stupid stuff, that's about it," Tim Jones Sr. said by phone from his home in Amory, Mississippi. His father said he was an exemplary student up to that point and decided to go into the Navy. "After that he started hanging in the wrong crowd and got himself in trouble," his dad said. Jones Sr. said his son was discharged early from the Navy. Jones was arrested Sept. 15, 2001, by Crystal Lake police on suspicion of stealing a car. Court records showed Jones had stolen a minivan about a week earlier and later broke into another vehicle. During this spree, he also passed checks on his father's account, ranging in amounts from $4 to about $62. For the crime spree and cocaine possession, he received concurrent six-year terms, and had a year tacked on for another stolen vehicle charge. Jones was imprisoned at Big Muddy Correctional Center on April 18, 2002, and was released on Jan. 15, 2003, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records. Jones and his five children, ages 8, 7, 6, 2 and 1, disappeared two weeks ago, and he was arrested in Mississippi on Saturday when he was stopped at a DUI checkpoint. Authorities say he was alone, with blood and children's clothes in his SUV and the stench of death in the air. Jones would lead investigators to his children's bodies, wrapped in five trash bags on an isolated Alabama hilltop, but it's still not clear why he killed his children, authorities said. On Thursday morning, Jones was being extradited to South Carolina to face five murder charges. ||||| RICHARD SHIRO/AP The five children that were allegedly killed by South Carolina father Timothy Ray Jones Jr. Inset, Lexington County Sheriff Lewis McCarty, left, answers questions during a press conference about Timothy Ray Jones, who is accused of killing his five children in Lexington County and dumping the bodies in Alabama. The sick South Carolina man charged with murdering his five children was a smart, capable father, according to newly released records. Timothy Ray Jones Jr. will be charged with five counts of murder when he is extradited from Mississippi — where he was nabbed on a drunken driving charge — to South Carolina, said acting Sheriff Lewis McCarty of Lexington County. Officials believe he acted alone in carrying out the cruel crime. Prosecutors said Jones was "high as a kite" on synthetic marijuana when he was pulled over on Tuesday, before officers spotted blood, bleach and rags in his SUV. Jones confessed to dumping the corpses of his five kids off a rural highway, officials said. Autopsies of the kids' bodies, which were found individually wrapped in garbage bags, are set to begin Thursday, said McCarty. Officials won't comment on the cause of death until the results come back. “I made a promise to the mother that I would bring these children home, and I was not going to go back on that promise," McCarty said during a news conference Wednesday. Smith County Sheriff's Office Tim Jones, Jr. is expected to be charged with murder for the deaths of his five kids. He was taken into custody in Smith County, Mississippi, and that arrest is connected to the disappearance of his five children. The bodies of the five children were found in Alabama. Jones, a 32-year-old Intel engineer who graduated from the University of Mississippi, was described as a highly intelligent, responsible father, according to records. He was even given primary custody of his kids - ages 8, 7, 6, 2 and 1 - after a messy divorce. According to the divorce records, Jones pulled in more than $70,000 a year from his computer tech job, while his wife did not work. He divorced her in October after catching whiff of an affair she was having with a neighbor. Jones has also been charged with child neglect and other offenses, according to officials. He was charged with killing the kids in South Carolina before bringing their bodies to Alabama, according to the Wilcox County District Attorney. He led authorities to the children's bodies after his arrest in Mississippi. Relatives of Jones expressed shock and sadness at losing the children. “They were wonderful. They were happy,” said Julie Jones, Jones’ stepmother, of Armory, Miss. “They were wonderful, beautiful.” Jones’ father, Timothy Jones Sr., said he was bewildered about what possessed his son to commit such a heinous act. He said his son is not an "animal." “I’m sure everybody wants to know the answers,” he said. “It’s just a terrible tragedy.” Brynn Anderson/AP Authorities gather in a fielded area surrounded by trees Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014,in Camden, Ala. Wilcox County, Alabama. Timothy Ray Jones Jr. will be charged with murder for the deaths of his five children. Jones was taken into custody shortly after a search of his license plate by a Smith County deputy linked him to his children, who were reported missing on Sept. 3. A deputy detected "an odor of chemicals" coming from his vehicle in Mississippi Saturday, authorities said. Neighbors recalled Jones as a volatile father who often dressed his children in dirty clothes and constantly threatened to call the police over an argument. Johnny Hyder, who lived next to Jones and his wife in Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina, said Jones once approached him with a gun. When Hyder threatened to call police, he said Jones told him it was only a BB gun. "It wasn't a BB gun," Hyder said. "It was a real gun. I know what one looks like, but I didn't want to cause any more trouble." Brynn Anderson/AP A dirt filled area near the crime scene found on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, in Camden, Ala. Authorities expect to charge a South Carolina man, 32-year-old Timothy Ray Jones Jr., in connection with the deaths of his five children. Hyder's wife, Marlene Hyder, said Jones warned he would kill one of their dogs when it crossed his property. "He was a nut," she said. With News Wire Services On a mobile device? Click here to watch video. ||||| Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed Tim Jones Jr. 'Is Not the Animal' He's Being Portrayed As 1:56 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Weeks before a South Carolina father allegedly murdered his five kids, drove them across three states and dumped them in the woods, authorities investigated a child-abuse complaint against him but decided they were not in danger. "At that time there was nothing to alarm them immediately, Department of Social Services director Jackie Swindler said of the caseworker and deputies who looked into the Aug. 7 allegation against Timothy Ray Jones Jr. Jones, 32, is now being brought from Mississippi, where he was arrested over the weekend in a blood-spattered Cadillac Escalade, to South Carolina to face five counts of murder. The remains of his children, who ranged in age from 1 to 8, have been driven back from Alabama, where they were found in the woods in garbage bags on Tuesday evening. "In all my years in law enforcement, I have never seen a case like this," said Lewis McCarty, sheriff of Lexington County, South Carolina. Police say they believe Jones, who worked for Intel, killed the children in South Carolina sometime before Sept. 3, when they were reported missing by their mother and their school. He allegedly drove their remains across three states and left them off a highway in Camden, Alabama, before heading to Mississippi, where his parents live. He was detained there on Sept. 6 when a sheriff's deputy who "had been around long enough to know the smell of death" looked in the back of the vehicle during a traffic stop, according to a prosecutor. Police found blood, bleach and rags in the Escalade. Jones — who was "high as a kite" on synthetic marijuana, according to Mississippi district attorney Daniel Jones — eventually confessed to killing the children and led authorities to their makeshift graves, officials said. "He has not indicated why he did this," said Lewis McCarty, the sheriff of Lexington County, South Carolina. The DA told NBC News that Jones "probably just went mad." Police released this image at a news conference Sept. 10 of the five children whose bodies were found dead in Alabama. Their father led authorities to the decomposed remains in the woods. After Jones and his wife Amber separated, he won custody of the children. Court papers detail a troubled marriage and a battle over where the kids would live. A family therapist wrote in a 2012 affidavit that Jones was "a highly intelligent, responsible father who is capable of caring for his children as the sole custodial parent." "He is no stranger to responsibility as he worked his way through a very demanding and challenging undergraduate engineering program while being a father, husband and employee of often more than one job," she wrote. "His thoughts are very detailed, action oriented and focused on his children," she continued. "When Mr. Jones sees an obstacle, he sets his sights on the solution and is willing to go through the often-difficult process of achieving his goal of resolution." The therapist did not return a call for comment, and Jones' custody lawyer was out of the country. Because the father had legal custody, police said, they decided not to issue an Amber Alert for the children when their mother reported that she had not been able to contact her ex-husband. McCarty said all the evidence in the case points to the children being killed "very early on." A trace of Jones' credit card showed he only bought food for one while he was on the road, and there was no sign of the children when he stopped at an ATM in Mississippi, DA Jones said. The victims' mother, who had been divorced from Jones for about a year, has not spoken publicly about the murders. "I don’t think that there’s a person in this room that can speak to the mother of these children and not become emotional," McCarty said after meeting with her. "She’s a very nice person, a very sweet lady. She is in shock and is extremely distraught." Jones' family has been in contact with a public defender in South Carolina, Boyd Young, but he said he had no comment on the allegations because he had not yet met with him. Jones' father, Timothy Ray Jones Sr., said his son was "not an animal." "Our son was a very loving father," he said at a press conference outside his Amory, Mississippi, home. "We do not have all the answers and we may never have all the answers." He said a memorial for the children — who were identified in Family Court documents as Merah, 8, Elias, 7, Nahtahn, 6, Gabriel, 2 and Abigail, 1 — would be held Friday. Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed S.C. Sheriff: 'He Killed The Five Children at The Same Time' 2:28 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog IN-DEPTH — Tracy Connor and Vivian Glover

– Questions remain as to how a man once described by a therapist as "a highly intelligent, responsible father" could be accused of killing his five children. But as the New York Times reports, Timothy Ray Jones "was leading a fractured life fraught with feelings of betrayal, anxiety, and mistrust" before police say he murdered his kids in South Carolina and dumped their bodies in Alabama. After eight years of marriage, Jones and wife Amber divorced in 2013 when Jones found she "was putting the children to bed and then going next door" to meet a 19-year-old neighbor with whom she was having an affair, according to a divorce filing. Jones got custody of the couple's kids, but he was questioned by police last month about possible abuse. A report claimed Jones, an engineer at Intel, abused at least one child, though officers saw no signs of wrongdoing on their visit to the family's trailer home. Less than a month later, on Sept. 3, the children were reported missing by their mother; on Sept. 6, police pulled over Jones in Mississippi and found him "high as a kite" with blood, bleach, and rags in his vehicle, prosecutors say. Police tell NBC News they believe Jones killed the children sometime before their mother reported them missing, then "traveled three states with these children in garbage bags for some period of time," the sheriff tells WLTX. The New York Daily News reports Jones will be charged with five counts of murder when he is extradited to South Carolina. Autopsies of the bodies begin today. The AP, citing prison documents and a family member, reports that a 19-year-old Jones went on a crime spree in Illinois in 2001 that included car theft, burglary, drug charges, and more.

Australian fashion model Andreja Pejic has never shied away from bending gender about as far as it can go. Previously mum about the extent of her gender variance, the model has now come out as a trans woman. Although this is probably not altogether too surprising for those watching her career with interest. Pejic offered a tripartite exclusive coverage of her story to Entertainment Tonight, People.com and Style.com. Pejic is an extremely well known model and has modeled men's and women's collections both in fashion shows and on the covers of such magazines as Elle and New York since she started her career in 2007. She even worked David Bowie on his music video, "The Stars are Out Tonight," alongside Tilda Swinton. Moving forward with the support of her agency and her family, she will only be modeling women's fashion from this point on. Pejic joins a growing number of trans models who are coming out publicly. A year after Pejic start modeling, Isis King made headlines as the first trans woman to compete on America's Next Top Model. Two years later, model Lea T came out to the world as transgender in French Vogue. Former RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Carmen Carrera is well on her way to being a supermodel. Pejic and her team are working with gay rights organisation GLAAD as she makes the public, professional, and social transitions which accompany such an announcement. In a press release from GLAAD, she issued this statement: To all trans youth out there, I would like to say respect yourself and be proud of who you are. All human beings deserve equal treatment no matter their gender identity or sexuality. To be perceived as what you say you are is a basic human right. Advertisement She also posted a selfie on Facebook with a message to her fans: As a transgender woman I hope to show that after transition (a life-saving process) one can be happy and successful in their new chapter. Advertisement Damn skippy, Andreja. Welcome to visibility. Image via Getty. ||||| You won’t be seeing any more of Andrej Pejic, the androgynous male model who rose to fame in 2010 after Carine Roitfeld had him photographed in womenswear for Paris Vogue. An onslaught of editorials followed (including a shirtless Dossier Journal cover that was essentially banned by Barnes & Noble for fear their customers would think he was a naked woman), and he even walked as the beautiful bride in Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring ’11 Couture show (below). But Andrej’s days on the runway are over. However, Andreja’s career is just getting started. Earlier this year, Andreja underwent sex reassignment surgery (SRS). She always knew she was a woman, but her body, or at least parts of it, didn’t match up. Yesterday, the model trekked from her current Williamsburg digs to LGBT advocacy group GLAAD’s Chelsea headquarters to speak, for the first time, about her transition. Donning a white crop top and embellished Ports 1961 skirt, Pejic, who was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina but was raised in Melbourne (hence her charming Aussie accent), looked as angelic as ever. “I feel good,” she told me before sitting down. It showed. You can bet you’ll be seeing quite a bit of Andreja Pejic—she has a role in Sofia Coppola’s forthcoming rendition of The Little Mermaid, and plans for fashion week are already in the works. Here, the six-foot-one stunner (who, it should be noted, has cheekbones that could cut glass) opens up to Style.com about her SRS, the challenges of being a transgender model, and why, at long last, she’s “ready to face the world.” How do you identify? I identify as a female. How did you identify before the sex reassignment surgery? I figured out who I was very early on—actually, at the age of 13, with the help of the Internet—so I knew that a transition, becoming a woman, was always something I needed to do. But it wasn’t possible at the time, and I put it off, and androgyny became a way of expressing my femininity without having to explain myself to people too much. Especially to my peers [who] couldn’t understand things like “trans” and gender identity. And then obviously the modeling thing came up, and I became this androgynous male model, and that was a big part of my growing up and my self-discovery. But I always kept in mind that, ultimately, my biggest dream was to be a girl. I wasn’t ready to talk about it before in a public way because I was scared that I would not be understood. I didn’t know if people would like me. But now I’m taking that step because I’m a little older—I’m 22—and I think my story can help people. My goal is to give a human face to this struggle, and I feel like I have a responsibility. You seem to have had a firm understanding of your identity at an early age. Was growing up as a boy difficult? Gender dysphoria is never an easy thing to live with, mainly because people don’t understand it. For most of my childhood, I knew that I preferred all things feminine, but I didn’t know why. I didn’t know that there was an explanation. I didn’t know about the possibilities. And then I went on sort of a boyhood campaign from age 9 to about 13. I tried to be a “normal” boy because I felt like my options were either to be a gay boy or a straight boy. I didn’t feel that I was gay, so I didn’t know that there were any other options until the age of 13, when I went online and discovered that there’s a whole community of trans people out there. There are doctors, there’s medical care, there’s research, and that was an eye-opener for me. From that day on, I knew what I had to do. Some people write off SRS as a purely cosmetic surgery. Can you speak a little bit about that, and why it’s not the case? Yeah, a lot of people view it as a plastic procedure, like you go to a surgeon and say, “Oh, I want to be a woman.” It’s so much more complicated than that. You have to get a psychiatric evaluation, which I started at the age of 13. I started seeing psychiatrists, and then I stopped when I started modeling, and I started again about a year and a half ago. But medical attention is crucial for any trans person because it helps you figure out who you are. You go through some really strict testing before you’re even allowed to have the surgery. Are there any other myths you’d like to debunk? Or is there anything else you want the general public to understand about SRS and transgender people? I would like them to understand that we are people. We’re human beings, and this is a human life. This is reality for us, and all we ask for is acceptance and validation for what we say that we are. It’s a basic human right. You’ve legally changed your name from Andrej to Andreja. Why was that important to you? I added an “a” because it’s not a full transformation —it’s just an evolution. I thought about whether I should change it or not for a while. In the West, Andrej isn’t really a masculine name. But I think [the name change] is something that my mom really wanted because, traditionally, Andrej is a Christian Orthodox name, and in that religion, it’s definitely a male name. So I kept the “j” and added an “a,” which actually becomes a name that I don’t think exists. But I wanted to keep the “j” because that’s me. That’s my name. How did your modeling agents react when you told them you were having SRS? It’s been an interesting experience. I had the surgery early this year, and I told my men’s agent at DNA about two weeks before the operation. I just said, “This is what’s happening,” because I didn’t want anything to stop me. I had decided. And then recently, I had a meeting with the women’s [team], and they’ve been very positive about moving from the men’s board to the women’s board, which is amazing. It’s something I guess no one’s ever done. Weren’t you on both the men’s and women’s boards before the surgery? Actually, all over the world I was, but not in New York. I guess the American market isn’t as progressive. How do you feel your transition from an androgynous male model to a female model will impact your career? I hope everything goes well. [SRS] was a personal decision. I took this step, and I said to myself, My career is just going to have to fall into place around it. So I hope that I can continue my success. I think I’ve shown that I have skills as a model, and those skills don’t just go away. I’ve had experience. I’ve been around the block. Androgyny and the transgender community seem to be at the center of the cultural and, more specifically, the fashion conversation at the moment. Hood by Air by Shayne Oliver, who enlisted voguers to model at the Fall ’14 show, is a prime example. Where do you think this focus on the transgender community is coming from? The trend of androgyny and the exploration of trans beauty started around 2010, and that’s when Lea T and I both started [modeling]. Everyone was kind of saying, “Oh, it’s just a trend, it’s going to go away,” and it hasn’t. I think that’s because it represents a social layer of people who feel that they don’t want to conform to traditional forms of gender—who feel traditional forms of gender are outdated. That social base feeds the trend, and it feeds the exploration in fashion. Do you feel the fashion industry has been welcoming and supportive throughout your career? I got my success very quickly, and the media attention has been pretty positive. People like Jean Paul Gaultier, Carine Roitfeld, and Juergen Teller have been extremely supportive. But my biggest challenge was to not always be pigeonholed, and also to make [androgyny] commercially successful, because when I started, it was such a new thing. Still, there are a lot of roadblocks, particularly when working with cosmetic brands or perfumes or those sort of commercial, corporate things. It’s been more difficult to break into that world than “fashion” because it hasn’t been done before. They don’t have any market research, and people in that world aren’t risk takers. You have to prove to them over and over that you are liked by people, you have a skill, and you can sell a product. Is landing a beauty campaign something you aspire to do? It’s a goal for any model! It would be cray cray. But we’ll see. I’m happy to keep doing what I love, and for me it’s like I’m already living the dream. Have you had any experiences in castings, etc., that have been particularly frustrating? Oh, yeah, especially in the beginning, when I first moved to London. It was like, I’d walk into the boys’ casting, and they were like, “No…you don’t belong here.” And then at the girls’ casting, they were like, “Why are they sending us boys?” So it took time for everyone to get on board. It wasn’t all sweet sailing. What do you think the fashion industry can do to further embrace the transgender community? It would be lovely to live in a world where trans-female models were treated as female models, and trans-male models were treated the same as male models, rather than being a niche commodity. I think that that is the biggest struggle in all this. It’s almost like African-American models back in the nineties. It was like, “Oh, you can do this, but you can’t do that. You can do runway, but no print.” So I think that’s what needs to change. When I first met you last year, you already seemed like a pretty confident individual. Do you feel more comfortable—or more you— since having the SRS? I think from my teenage years, when I decided I needed to express my femininity, I was happy with the way I looked. But SRS is kind of the last part—it’s sort of the icing on the cake. It makes me feel freer than ever. Now I can stand naked in front of a mirror and really enjoy my reflection. And those personal moments are important. But you’ve always been gorgeous. Did you not enjoy your reflection before? Not fully naked. I know you’re close with your mom. Has she been supportive throughout this transition? I came out to my mom at the age of 14. She didn’t understand it at first, but she’s been very supportive since. Has going through this transition as a public figure been very difficult? There’s a difference between coming out to your family and close friends, and coming out to the whole world and opening yourself up to judgment. When I was younger, I just wasn’t ready for that. Even now, it’s hard to navigate. I try to concentrate on myself and what I really need, but there are so many other factors that go into it. You have to figure out timing, you have to figure out agencies. Public perception influences that. It’s a lot of pressure, and modeling is a lot of pressure anyway. I think most models have to live up to something, and they struggle with that. So to have that on top of this, there have definitely been difficult moments. If I may ask, how do you think the SRS will impact your personal and romantic life? Is that something you’re excited about exploring? Yeah, I’m very happy with this new situation, and I’m happy to keep exploring. Are you dating anyone? No, I’m single. I’m open to love, so I’m taking some time off for myself now. I think that’s necessary. We’ll see. But you know, I feel more comfortable than ever, more confident than ever, and I’m ready to face the world. Photos: Giampaolo Sgura for Ailvian Heach; Yannis Vlamos/GoRunway.com; Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott for Vogue Paris; Dusan Reljin; Tony Duran ||||| Andrej Pejic Now Andreja After Sex Reassignment Surgery The Early Years The Discovery A Designer Detour Pascal Le Segretain / Getty A New Beginning In 2011, Andrej Pejic was the breakout star in the fashion world , turning heads as a male model who walked the womenswear runway shows for powerhouse designers such as Marc Jacobs and Jean Paul Gaultier.But on a recent July afternoon in New York City, a gold nameplate necklace in script letter falls at just the right spot on the model's chest so that any onlooker could clearly read "Andreja" and subtly understand the message Pejic is now revealing to the world: The renowned androgynous model underwent sex reassignment surgery earlier this year."I want to share my story with the world because I think I have a social responsibility," Pejic, 22, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "I hope that by being open about this, it becomes less of an issue.""I always dreamt of being a girl," explains the Serbian-born model. "One of my earliest memories is spinning around in my mom's skirt trying to look like a ballerina."But things changed when her family moved to Australia. By age 9, Pejic came to receive what she describes as "a social message, from my brother and friends at school," that it was time to put away the dolls and skirts that she favored."I wanted to be a good kid and I wanted to please my parents," she says. With little success, Pejic went about trying to hang out with the boys and participate in team sports. "I kept my dreams and my imagination to myself and became pretty good at acting as a boy. But I was hiding who I was."At the age of 13, in Broadmeadows, a suburb of Melbourne, Pejic's course turned digital. "I went into the library and typed 'sex change' into Google and my life changed," she recalls. The search results for the now-antiquated term yielded a flood of information and relief. "The Internet gave me the sense that there were words to describe my feelings and medical terms," says Pejic, who left realizing "this is what I need to do."Going through government regulated channels for a minor to transition required lengthy court processes and she had neither the cash to cover legal fees nor the time, as she knew male hormones were taking effect on her body. "I knew puberty would turn me into something like my brother and father," notes Pejic, who began taking puberty blockers.Raised primarily by her mother, she always had her family to lean on throughout her journey. "When I told my mother, grandma and my brother, they were all very supportive," Pejic, who eventually reintroduced the feminine flair into the everyday style she had shunned and developed a plan for her future, says. "I was going to finish high school as Andrej, transition, and forget about my male past."Pejic's plans were put on hold when she was discovered at age 17 by a modeling agent. "It was an opportunity to see the world and gain some financial stability," she explains.While her name was listed among the male models at top agencies around the world, she found herself in the enviable position of modeling both men's and women's fashions. She cites one 2011 runway moment as her finest modeling memory. "Being a bride for Gaultier was a very special moment for me,” says Pejic of walking the designer's spring haute couture show.But "about a year and a half ago, I reevaluated things," says Pejic. "I was proud of my gender nonconforming career. But my biggest dream was to be comfortable in my own body. I have to be true to myself and the career is just going to have to fit around that."Pejic began meeting with doctors in the U.S. to continue her transition with sex reassignment surgery.Pejic recalls the day she'd been dreaming of for so many years."I was happy the moment had come – as happy as you can be before a surgery," she tells PEOPLE. Her physical recovery from the process has been steady. "It was about three months before I felt like myself again," she admits.When asked about the extent of her surgery, "I completely agree with Laverne Cox and [former PEOPLE.com staff editor] Janet Mock ," explains Pejic of notable transgender women who choose not to publicly discuss their genitalia and instead prefer to focus on advocating and activism within the trans community. Plus, "what's in between anyone's legs is not who they are."Although Pejic has had several serious boyfriends in the past few years, she's currently single but adds, "I'm open to love."But more important, she's loving this new chapter in her life. "Every day is like a new revelation," she says. "I'm more comfortable than ever. I feel at a 100 percent."

– The fomer Andrej Pejic—the gender-bending model who took the fashion world by storm in 2011—is now Andreja Pejic. Pejic came out as a transgender woman via stories on People, Entertainment Tonight, and Style, as noticed by Jezebel. The 22-year-old had sex reassignment surgery this year, and "I want to share my story with the world because I think I have a social responsibility," she says. "I hope that by being open about this, it becomes less of an issue." The Serbian-born model says she "dreamt of being a girl" from childhood, but when she moved with her family to Australia, she started to get "a social message" that she should act more like a boy. She did, but nonetheless started researching what were then called "sex changes" at age 13. "The Internet gave me the sense that there were words to describe my feelings and medical terms," she says. She started by taking puberty blockers, and was discovered by an agent at 17. She used to model both men's and women's fashions, but now, she says, "I have to be true to myself."

The Bakersfield legless lizard (Anniella grinnelli), which today ranges from downtown Bakersfield in the southern San Joaquin Valley to the Carrizo Plain National Monument 30 miles to the west. Four previously unknown species of snakelike creatures have been found in California — but don't call them snakes; they're legless lizards. Prior to the discovery of the new species, there was only one known legless lizard species in the state: the California legless lizard. Surprisingly, the newfound legless lizards were discovered at a series of sites that weren't exactly pristine: They include a dune bordering a runway at Los Angeles International Airport; an empty lot in downtown Bakersfield, Calif.; a field littered with oil derricks; and the margins of the Mojave Desert. "This shows that there is a lot of undocumented biodiversity within California," Theodore Papenfuss, a herpetologist at the University of California Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, said in a statement from the school. The lizards live their entire lives underground or near the surface, and often don't leave an area the size of a small table, the statement noted. When they are found at the surface, it's usually in moist areas under dead wood or logs — or cardboard. A map showing where the new legless lizard species are found. Credit: Courtesy of Breviora To find the lizards, Papenfuss and James Parham, a researcher at California State University, Fullerton, placed thousands of slips of cardboard at various sites around central and Southern California. They then checked and rechecked the sites before finally finding the four new species. Three of the animals were found in the southern San Joaquin Valley. "These are animals that have existed in the San Joaquin Valley, separate from any other species, for millions of years, completely unknown," Parham said in the statement. The species found near the oil fields has a silver belly and is named Anniella alexanderae. The yellow-bellied Anniella campi lives in three isolated dry canyons on the edge of the Mojave Desert, east of Walker Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The purple-bellied Anniella grinnelli was found in three vacant lots in Bakersfield, though only one of these lots remains. The fourth species, found outside the valley near the airport, is named Anniella stebbinsi. Legless lizards live in loose soil on five continents, eating insects and larvae, and this limbless trait has independently evolved several times, the statement noted. It is difficult for the untrained eye to distinguish these creatures from snakes. However, unlike snakes, many legless lizards have external ear openings and movable eyelids. They also typically spend their entire lives underground, unlike snakes. The species were named after four UC Berkeley scientists: Museum of Vertebrate Zoology founder Joseph Grinnell, paleontologist Charles Camp, philanthropist and amateur scientist Annie Alexander and herpetologist Robert Stebbins. There are several species of legless lizards in the U.S. Southeast as well, known as glass lizards. The animals are described in a study published Sept. 17 in the journal Breviora. Editor's note: This story has been corrected to note that there are other species of legless lizards in the U.S. Southeast known as glass lizards, which are in a different taxonomic family. Email Douglas Main or follow him on Twitter or Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook or Google+. Article originally on LiveScience. ||||| Scientists have discovered four new species of legless lizards in California, including one species that lives beneath the sand dunes near LAX. But before we go on, let's get one thing straight: Yes, a snake is a legless lizard, but not all legless lizards are snakes. Throughout the history of lizard evolution, several lizard lineages have lost their legs, explains James Parham of Cal State Fullerton. Snakes are the best-known and most diverse of these lineages, but more than 200 other types of limbless lizards exist throughout the world. Also Here in California, a total of five legless lizard species have been identified, all of them part of a group called Anniella. Four of these legless lizards are new to science, and were recently described in the journal Breviora, a publication of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. And how do they differ from snakes? "Anniella can blink at you, but snakes can't because they don't have eyelids," said Parham, one of the authors of the paper. They also don't shed their skin in one piece like snakes do, and they move differently. "Snakes can coil up a lot more, and they are more slithery," Parham said. "Anniella tend to be more rigid." Parham also thinks they are cuter than snakes, but you can judge that for yourself in the photos above. Anniella are pretty small animals, about as thick as a pencil and rarely more than 8 inches long. They spend their lives wiggling beneath loose, sandy soil, snacking on bugs and larvae. They don't move fast or far, and the researchers say they may spend their whole lives in an area about the size of your dining room table. Aside from that, scientists still don't know much about them. "They are one of the most poorly studied reptiles in California," Parham said. "Because they live under the sand, you can't see what they are doing, and you can't even do a mark-and-recapture because you can't reliably capture these things." Parham and his coauthor Theodore Papenfuss, a herpetologist with the UC Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, have been scouring the state for legless lizards for 15 years. When they began their research, only one type of legless lizard was known to live in California. One of the four newly identified species of Anniella, the Southern California legless lizard, was found under some dead leaves in dunes at the west end of Los Angeles International Airport. The Bakersfield legless lizard was found in three vacant lots in downtown Bakersfield. The southern Sierra legless lizard was spotted in three dry canyons on the edge of the Mojave Desert, and the Temblor legless lizard was found in the oil fields around the city of Taft, on the southwestern edge of the San Joaquin Valley. To find these lizards, the scientists scattered 2,000 pieces of cardboard and plywood throughout the state to create moist, cool areas, which appeal to the lizards. Then they returned months later to see if any of the lizards had shown up. Parham says he and Papenfuss still have 1,000 boards around the state that they plan to check come spring, when the legless lizards are most likely to surface. And who knows -- they may uncover even more species. "This is very much an evolving study," he said. Are you intrigued by legless lizards and other weird animals? So am I! Follow me on Twitter to find more cool science stories. ALSO: Gloppy blobfish wins ugliest endangered animal The Olinguito: Cute, furry, newly discovered [Photos] Translucent snail discovered deep in a Croatian cave [Photos] la-sci-sn-legless-lizard-lax-20130918

– You may think the pictures look like snakes or worms, but they're not: Those are legless lizards, four new species of which were discovered in California recently. Unlike snakes, the lizards spend most of their lives underground, in an area about the size of a small table, LiveScience reports—so to find the new species, researchers had to put thousands of pieces of cardboard at various sites in the hopes some of the lizards would make a rare aboveground appearance, surfacing beneath the cardboard. (They are sometimes spotted underneath dead wood or logs, where the ground is still cool and moist, and the cardboard created these areas.) The four species are silver-bellied Anniella alexanderae, yellow-bellied Anniella campi, purple-bellied Anniella grinnelli, and Anniella stebbinsi, all named after UC Berkeley scientists, as one of the researchers is from the university. As the Los Angeles Times explains, snakes are legless lizards, but these four species are not snakes. How are they different? They have movable eyelids, so they can blink; they don't shed their skin in a single piece; some have external ear openings; and they don't "coil" or "slither" as much, tending to be "more rigid" than snakes, says one of the researchers. These four types are small, usually not longer than 8 inches and about as thick around as a pencil.

Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Ku Klux Klan fliers were left at Selma homes on the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday." Robert Jones, the grand dragon of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK spoke with AL.com Sunday afternoon and said about 4,000 KKK fliers have been distributed throughout Selma and Montgomery in the last two weeks. "We pretty much put out fliers, some against King and some against immigration," Jones said. "It's time for the American people to wake up to these falsehoods that they preach about MLK." Jones said bags containing a flier and a rock were thrown onto the doorsteps of people's homes as KKK members drove by. He said the rock acted as a paperweight, and the homes that received fliers were random. Jones said the KKK is not upset about the gathering in Selma over the weekend, saying "Everybody has a right to gather in this country, freedom of speech." However, he expressed frustration about the support for Martin Luther King, Jr. and said people are "supporting a man they don't know about." [KKK fliers show "how vile Klan is"] According to Jones, the fliers were also a way to try to attract new members and to remind the community the KKK still exists. "The Klan is still out there and we are watching," Jones said. According to Ashley Thompson, reporter for CBS 8 Montgomery, residents on Selma Avenue alerted the news station about the fliers and said they called police. Sunday thousands gathered in Selma to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge as the city commemorated the 50th anniversary of the clash between police and civil rights marchers that led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act signed by President Lyndon Johnson. KKK trying to reach new ppl during the 50th celebrations. Residents tell me this was on their door step this morning pic.twitter.com/ZmwfwkqZ0K -- ashley thompson (@ashleythompTV) March 8, 2015 Updated 1:50 p.m. with information from Jones about the KKK fliers.

– Civil rights supporters aren't the only ones making waves in Alabama—the Ku Klux Klan showed up, too, distributing fliers around Selma and Montgomery over the past two weeks, AL.com reports. The Loyal White Knights of the KKK's grand dragon, Robert Jones, says roughly 4,000 fliers were tossed on people's doorsteps in bags weighted by rocks. Some fliers opposed Martin Luther King Jr., while others were "against immigration," he says. Jones claims to support people's right to gather at Edmund Pettus Bridge, but he says they're wrong to back King, "a man they don't know about." He says the fliers are designed to attract KKK members and keep the group in the public eye. "The Klan is still out there and we are watching," he adds. Here's one tweet and another showing images of the fliers. (Meanwhile, a petition says Edmund Pettus Bridge shouldn't honor the KKK leader.)

Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Kailani Koenig Michael who? Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that he had limited personal interaction with former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, when asked by NBC's Megyn Kelly in an exclusive interview about the nature of their relationship — and a widely circulated December, 2015 photo that shows the two sitting next to each other at dinner during an event to celebrate Russian TV network RT (Russia Today). “You and I, you and I personally, have a much closer relationship than I had with Mr. Flynn,” Putin told Kelly in Russian, translated to English. “You and I met yesterday evening. You and I have been working together all day today. And now we're meeting again. “When I came to the event for our company, Russia Today, and sat down at the table, next to me there was a gentleman sitting on one side,” Putin continued. “I made my speech. Then we talked about some other stuff. And I got up and left. And then afterwards I was told, ‘You know there was an American gentleman. He was involved in some things. He used to be in the security services' ... that's it. I didn't even really talk to him... That's the extent of my acquaintance with Mr. Flynn." Vladimir Putin sits down with NBC News' Megyn Kelly NBC News Putin made the comments during an exclusive interview that will air on June 4th at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT during the premiere of "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly" on NBC. Retired Lt. Gen. Flynn served as an adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, and then served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser in the White House for less than a month before he was fired for what the administration said was lying about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence. Flynn was paid $45,000 to speak at the gala, and was placed in the "seat of honor" next to the Russian president. "It is not coincidence that Flynn was placed next to President Putin," Michael McFaul, U.S. ambassador in Moscow from 2012 to 2014 and now an NBC News analyst said in April. "Flynn was considered a close Trump adviser. Why else would they want him there?" The head table of a gala celebrating the tenth anniversary of Russia Today in December of 2015 included Russian President Vladimir Putin and American retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, file Flynn told the Washington Post in August, 2016 that he did not ask to sit next to Putin or worry about the optics. “I was one of the guests there,” he told the newspaper. “Some interesting characters. I found it a great learning opportunity. One of the things I learned was that Putin has no respect for the United States leadership. Not for the United States, but the leadership.” The FBI is now conducting an investigation, led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller, into Russian attempts to interfere in the last U.S. presidential election, including whether there could have been any connection to associates of the Trump campaign. NBC News has reported that Flynn is considered a formal “subject” of the Russia probe, which includes a deep look at his business interests, though no evidence has surfaced into the current public sphere that links him to the election meddling effort and his lawyers say he did nothing wrong. Senior U.S. intelligence officials have also told NBC News that they believe Putin was personally involved in the Russian effort to interfere with the U.S. election and that the Russian president personally directed how hacked material was used to try to damage Democrats. Elsewhere in his interview with Kelly, Putin claimed that "a child" could have hacked the U.S. election — and also alleged Russia may have been framed. ||||| Russian President Vladimir Putin says in a new interview that he had only limited interaction with former national security adviser Michael Flynn during a Moscow gala in December 2015, adding that he didn't "really talk to him." “I made my speech. Then we talked about some other stuff. And I got up and left,” Putin told Megyn Kelly in the interview, which will air during the premiere of “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly.” “And then afterwards I was told, ‘You know there was an American gentleman, he was involved in some things. He used to be in the security services.’ That's it. I didn't even really talk to him. That's the extent of my acquaintance with Mr. Flynn,” the Kremlin leader said through a translator. ADVERTISEMENT A widely circulated photo of the dinner shows Flynn and Putin seated next to one other at an event celebrating Russia Today (RT), a Russian television network. Putin told the NBC host that, after one day, he has a closer relationship to her than he did with Flynn. "You and I, you and I personally, have a much closer relationship than I had with Mr. Flynn. You and I met yesterday evening. You and I have been working together all day today. And now we're meeting again," he said. Flynn was paid $45,000 by RT to speak at the event, and he was considered to be in the "seat of honor" next to the Russian president. Flynn resigned in February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PenceFlynn's son calls latest twist in Russia probe a 'nothingburger' Trump’s portrait still missing from many federal offices We're all for supporting states' rights, except when it comes to the poor MORE about conversations he had with a top Russian diplomat during the presidential campaign. The retired U.S. Army officer reportedly told the FBI last week he would testify about President Trump's campaign's possible ties to Russia in exchange for immunity.

– Megyn Kelly's new show debuts Sunday on NBC, and she scored quite the coup for her very first interview: none other than Vladimir Putin. In an excerpt she previewed on Meet the Press, Kelly showed an exchange that might be good news for Michael Flynn on the investigative front and bad news on the personal magnetism front. In the exchange, Kelly asks Putin about a now-famous dinner in Russia in 2015 in which he was pictured sitting next to Flynn, reports NBC News. Putin's response? He says he barely remembers Flynn. “You and I, you and I personally, have a much closer relationship than I had with Mr. Flynn," says Putin, recounting how he and Kelly had met a few times over the previous days. As for the event with Flynn, it was a dinner for Russian TV network RT. "Next to me there was a gentleman sitting on one side," recalls Putin. "I made my speech. Then we talked about some other stuff and I got up and left. And then afterwards I was told, ‘You know there was an American gentleman, he was involved in some things. He used to be in the security services.’ That’s it. I didn’t even really talk to him. That’s the extent of my acquaintance with Mr. Flynn.” For his part, Flynn was paid $45,000 by RT to speak at the dinner, notes the Hill. The ousted national security adviser's Russian ties are now under formal scrutiny.

A day after police said two pipe bombs detonated in an unpopulated part of a mall in Lake Wales, Florida, the FBI now believes the incident was caused by a pair of marine flares. "There is no indication of any explosion at the mall and no pipe bombs were found," according to a statement released Monday by the FBI's Tampa field office. "It appears two items, believed to be marine flares, were ignited in a mall hallway, creating a large amount of smoke, and a backpack was located at the scene." Bomb technicians "examined the contents of the backpack and determined it did not contain any incendiary or explosive devices," the statement said. Any fears of terrorism have so far been ruled out. "There is no current indication of any terrorist connection to this incident," the statement added. A statement published on the Eagle Ridge Mall's website echoed the FBI, saying that "two signal flares triggered a fire alarm" and that it was open for business. It was a different story Sunday night, however. The reports coming from local authorities suggested the mall had sustained some kind of nefarious attack. Authorities said Sunday evening that two improvised explosive devices had detonated in the corridor of the mall. After Lake Wales police arrived, the mall was quickly evacuated and a perimeter established. No injuries were reported. Emergency personnel from surrounding counties responded to the mall around 5:30 p.m. Lake Wales Police Department Deputy Chief Troy Schulze said initially there was a "smoke alarm" inside a remote, unpopulated service corridor. When authorities arrived, "they determined that an IED, or a pipe bomb explosive, had detonated in the corridor," Schulze said. Cops soon made the determination that it was not just one pipe bomb that went off, but two. Then, Schulze said, authorities found a "backpack or book bag that contained five or six other IEDs that were not detonated," adding that those devices were "safely removed." "We had guys go in and do a cursory search to make sure there wasn't anything else suspicious or out of place," he said. Schulze said multiple witnesses told police about a middle-aged man -- with a "heavy/stocky build, wearing a gray shirt and gray hat" -- seen running from the area. "If anybody knows or hears anything we hope they would contact us," he said on Sunday. It's unclear if police or the FBI are still in pursuit of this person-of-interest given the new information. ABC News' Darren Reynolds contributed to this report. ||||| Sign in using you account with: {* loginWidget *} Sign in using your wftv profile Welcome back. Please sign in Why are we asking this? By submitting your registration information, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . Already have an account? We have sent a confirmation email to {* data_emailAddress *}. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. Thank you for registering! Thank you for registering! We look forward to seeing you on [website] frequently. Visit us and sign in to update your profile, receive the latest news and keep up to date with mobile alerts. Click here to return to the page you were visiting.

– Police are hunting what they call a "person of interest" after two improvised explosive devices went off at a mall in central Florida Sunday evening, causing damage and a small fire but no injuries. Police in Lake Wales say the pipe bombs went off in a service corridor near the entrance of the Eagle Ridge Mall's JC Penney store, WFTV reports. The mall was quickly evacuated after the IEDs went off around 5:20pm, reports ABC News. Authorities say the devices caused damage to a drop ceiling and to the wall of a docking area where trucks load and unload cargo. A backpack was found at the scene. Police say the person they're seeking is a middle-aged white male with a heavy/stocky build who was seen wearing a gray shirt and gray hat. The Polk County Sheriff's Office, the State Fire Marshal, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad have joined the investigation, the Ledger reports. Lake Wales Police Department Deputy Chief Troy Schulze says the bombing could have been a lot more dangerous if it had hit an area where there were shoppers.

Continue reading the main story Related Stories UK scientists have detected a huge dome of fresh water that is developing in the western Arctic Ocean. The bulge is some 8,000 cubic km in size and has risen by about 15cm since 2002. The team thinks it may be the result of strong winds whipping up a great clockwise current in the northern polar region called the Beaufort Gyre. This would force the water together, raising sea surface height, the group tells the journal Nature Geoscience. "In the western Arctic, the Beaufort Gyre is driven by a permanent anti-cyclonic wind circulation. It drives the water, forcing it to pile up in the centre of the gyre, and this domes the sea surface," explained lead author Dr Katharine Giles from the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) at University College London. Arctic summers have seen a decline in both ice extent and thickness "In our data, we see the trend being biggest in the centre of the gyre and less around the edges," she told BBC News. Dr Giles and colleagues made their discovery using radar satellites belonging to the European Space Agency (Esa). These spacecraft can measure sea-surface height even when there is widespread ice cover because they are adept at picking out the cracks, or leads, that frequently appear in the frozen floes. The data (1995-2010) indicates a significant swelling of water in the Beaufort Gyre, particularly since the early part of the 2000s. The rising trend has been running at 2cm per year. Model prediction A lot of research from buoys and other in-situ sampling had already indicated that water in this region of the Arctic had been freshening. This fresh water is coming in large part from the rivers running off the Eurasian (Russian) side of the Arctic basin. Winds and currents have transported this fresh water around the ocean until it has been pulled into the gyre. The volume currently held in the circulation probably represents about 10% of all the fresh water in the Arctic. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Of interest to future observations is what might happen if the anticyclonic winds, which have been whipping up the bulge, change behaviour. "What we have seen occurring is precisely what the climate models had predicted," said Dr Giles. "When you have clockwise rotation - the fresh water is stored. If the wind goes the other way - and that has happened in the past - then the fresh water can be pushed to the margins of the Arctic Ocean. "If the spin-up starts to spin down, the fresh water could be released. It could go to the rest of the Arctic Ocean or even leave the Arctic Ocean." If the fresh water were to enter the North Atlantic in large volumes, the concern would be that it might disturb the currents that have such a great influence on European weather patterns. These currents draw warm waters up from the tropics, maintaining milder temperatures in winter than would ordinarily be expected at northern European latitudes. Cracks, or leads, in the ice provide vertical surfaces against which the wind can push The creation of the Beaufort Gyre bulge is not a continuous development throughout the 15-year data-set, and only becomes a dominant feature in the latter half of the study period. This may indicate a change in the relationship between the wind and the ocean in the Arctic brought about by the recent rapid decline in sea-ice cover, the CPOM team argues in its Nature Geoscience paper. It is possible that the wind is now imparting momentum to the water in ways that were not possible when the sea-ice was thicker and more extensive. "The ice is now much freer to move around," said Dr Giles. Cryosat-2: Esa's newest radar satellite is dedicated to studying the polar regions "So, as the wind acts on the ice, it's able to pull the water around with it. Depending on how ridged the surface of ice is or how smooth the bottom of the ice is - this will all affect the drag on the water. If you have more leads, this also might provide more vertical ice surfaces for the wind to blow against." One consequence of less sea-ice in the region is the possibility that winds could now initiate greater mixing of the different layers in the Arctic Ocean. Scientists are aware that there is a lot of warm water at depth. At present, this deep water's energy is unable to influence the sea-ice because of a buffer of colder, less dense water lying between it and the floes above. But if this warm water were made to well up because of wind-driven changes at the surface, it could further accelerate the loss of seasonal ice cover. The CPOM team is now investigating the likelihood of this happening with Cryosat-2, Esa's first radar satellite dedicated to the study of the polar regions. "We now have the means to measure not only the ice thickness but also to monitor how the ocean under the ice is changing," says Dr Seymour Laxon, director of CPOM and co-author of the study, "and with CryoSat-2, we can now do so over the entire Arctic Ocean." [email protected] and follow me on Twitter ||||| SHARE: Adjust text size: Sea surface in a particular area of the Arctic Ocean has increased by as much as 15 centimeters (6 inches) over the past 15 years, leading to the formation of a large bulge of freshwater. It is estimated that this region of the ocean contains as much as 8,000 cubic kilometers (1,919 cubic miles) of water. According to the results of a new study, which appears in the latest online issue of the top journal Nature Geoscience, it would appear that the bulge is being caused by an acceleration of the Beaufort Gyre, an oceanic circulation pattern driven by Arctic winds. What this implies is that a change in this wind could allow this dome to fall apart, and all the freshwater it contains to spill in the northern sectors of the Atlantic Ocean. This is where the North Atlantic Drift – one of the five major oceanic currents – releases heat from the water That heat is then moved eastwards by prevailing winds, heating up the majority of the European continent. Last time the current was blocked – back when the sea that contained all the Great Lakes poured into the Arctic Ocean – glaciers moved as far south as the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Using data from the Since 2002, researchers explain, the amount of water in the bulge has grown to accumulate as much as 10 percent of all freshwater in the Arctic. This amount is sufficient to affect north Atlantic currents, as well as the Gulf Stream circulation. “When we looked at our data on a year-to-year basis, we noticed that the changes in the sea surface height did not always follow what the wind was doing, so we thought about reasons why this might happen,” CPOM research fellow Katharine Giles explains. “One idea is that sea ice forms a barrier between the atmosphere and the ocean. So as the sea ice cover changes, the effect of the wind on the ocean might also change,” adds the scientist, who was also the lead author of the study As the situation in the Arctic Ocean develops, ESA will continue to use its spacecraft to keep an eye on sea levels. In the near future, this responsibility will be passed on to the Sentinel constellation of satellites. ESA is developing this project as part of its Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program. Add me on Google+ According to the results of a new study, which appears in the latest online issue of the top journal Nature Geoscience, it would appear that the bulge is being caused by an acceleration of the Beaufort Gyre, an oceanic circulation pattern driven by Arctic winds.What this implies is that a change in this wind could allow this dome to fall apart, and all the freshwater it contains to spill in the northern sectors of the Atlantic Ocean. This is where the North Atlantic Drift – one of the five major oceanic currents – releases heat from the waterThat heat is then moved eastwards by prevailing winds, heating up the majority of the European continent. Last time the current was blocked – back when the sea that contained all the Great Lakes poured into the Arctic Ocean – glaciers moved as far south as the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.Using data from the European Space Agency 's (ESA) ERS-2 and Envisat satellites, experts at the University College London (UCL) Center for Polar Observation and Modeling (CPOM) and colleagues at the National Oceanography Center, both in the UK, managed to discover the bulge in new studies.Since 2002, researchers explain, the amount of water in the bulge has grown to accumulate as much as 10 percent of all freshwater in the Arctic. This amount is sufficient to affect north Atlantic currents, as well as the Gulf Stream circulation.“When we looked at our data on a year-to-year basis, we noticed that the changes in the sea surface height did not always follow what the wind was doing, so we thought about reasons why this might happen,” CPOM research fellow Katharine Giles explains.“One idea is that sea ice forms a barrier between the atmosphere and the ocean. So as the sea ice cover changes, the effect of the wind on the ocean might also change,” adds the scientist, who was also the lead author of the studyAs the situation in the Arctic Ocean develops, ESA will continue to use its spacecraft to keep an eye on sea levels. In the near future, this responsibility will be passed on to the Sentinel constellation of satellites. ESA is developing this project as part of its Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program. FILED UNDER: TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: Share your thoughts on this story... Submit comment* 640 hits · Link to this article · Print article · Send to friend · Subscribe to news MUST-READ RELATED ARTICLES: October Sees Rapid Ice Formation in the Arctic Assessing Permafrost Microbes' Response to Global Warming NSF Funds Studies on the Effects of Climate Variability Polar Sea Ice Thickness Is No Mystery for SMOS Arctic Freshwater Mixing Could Influence the 'Conveyor Belt' READER COMMENTS: No user comments yet. Be the first to express your opinion! No user comments yet.Be the first to express your opinion! Copyright © 2001-2012 Softpedia. Contact/Tip us at

– Scientists have detected an enormous freshwater "bulge" in the Arctic Ocean. The bulge measures nearly 2,000 cubic miles and has risen some six inches in the last nine years. Researchers speculate that the bulge is the result of strong winds whipping up a clockwise current, raising the water height in a section of the Arctic known as the Beaufort Gyre. The growing "dome" was spotted using radar satellites belonging to the European Space Agency. The water is fresh because it's coming largely from rivers running off the Russian side of the Arctic basin. The water being whipped into the gyre likely represents about 10% of all freshwater in the Arctic, reports the BBC. A change in the wind could topple the dome, spilling cold freshwater as far as the northern sectors of the Atlantic Ocean. "Our findings suggest that a reversal of the wind could result in the release of this freshwater to the rest of the Arctic Ocean and even beyond," says the lead author of the new study of the dome, published in Nature Geoscience. The concern is that the water might disturb currents that have a key influence on weather patterns. The currents draw warm waters up from the tropics, maintaining milder temperatures in winter than would ordinarily be expected at northern European latitudes, and a change in the current could significantly affect temperatures. Researchers also speculate that the gyre may be sucking warmer water up from the depths of the Arctic and speed the melting of ice. The dome may be one more unforeseen effect of global warning, scientists speculate.

New York Police Department officers mark off the area surrounding the scene of a multiple shooting crime scene on Maujer Street in Brooklyn. UPDATED | A 29-year-old musician who had a dispute with members of an American-based Iranian rock group shot and killed two band members and a singer associated with the group before killing himself, officials said. Ali Akbar Mohammadi Rafie, 29 years old, used a .308 caliber rifle on his victims, who were all shot inside a three-story building in the East Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York Police Department Spokesman John McCarthy said. Shortly after, Mr. Rafie shot himself on the rooftop, police said. The rifle—which was likely transported to the home in a guitar case—was on top of his body and two shell casings were nearby, police said. ||||| The bass player who gunned down three other musicians in their Brooklyn crash pad and then killed himself carried the murder weapon in a guitar case. The .308-caliber assault rifle was found on a rooftop and next to the body of Raefe Akhbar, 29, who capped off his deadly rampage with a blast to the chin, police said. Members of the band The Yellow Dogs left Iran where they attracted too much heat from Islamist hardliners and decamped for Brooklyn. (Danny Krug) Two of the murdered musicians were brothers who belonged to The Yellow Dogs, an indie band that fled repressive Iran in pursuit of a rock ’n’ roll dream — only to land in a bloody Brooklyn nightmare. Reported gunman Raefe Akhbar played the bass but was not a member of the band. (Danny Krug ) Band manager Ali Salehezadeh had to call Tehran and explain to the family of Soroush (Looloosh) Farazmand, 27, and Arash (Sina) Farazmand, 28, what happened to their sons. Vocalist Ali Eskandarian was the first victim; he was shot in the head through a window. (Miikka Skaffari) They arrived in the U.S. in 2010 and just recently were granted political asylum, sources said. Drummer Arash Farazmand was the second to die. Akhbar shot him when he climed into the apartment through a window. (AP Photo/Danny Krug) “People don’t own guns in Iran,” the manager said. “We don’t have this problem there.” Guitarist Soroush Farazmand, Arash's brother, was shot in chest as he lay in bed. (AP Photo/Danny Krug) Also killed was Ali Eskandarian, a 35-year-old musician who played with another band, police said. The Yellow Dogs formed in Tehran and claimed The Kinks and Joy Division as influences. (Facebook) A fourth man, 22-year-old Sasan Sadeghpourosko, was shot twice in his right arm and survived the massacre. An artist who is friends with the band members, said Sadeghpourosko was listed in stable condition at Elmhurst Hospital. An unidentified woman mourns near the East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, scene where purported gunman Raefe Akhbar, who had close ties to Iranian-American indie rock band The Yellow Dogs, killed three people before going to the roof and shooting himself. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News) Salehezadeh denied reports that the rampage erupted because Akhbar was furious at being kicked out of the band after he was caught selling off their equipment. A pool of blood is left on the roof Monday after gunman killed himself at Maujer St. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News) Akhbar played bass guitar for another rock band from Iran called the Free Keys, the manager said. He said the victims had not spoken to him for several months because of a “very petty conflict.” A rifle similar to this Century Arms .308 caliber rifle, also called Century Arms Sporter, was used in the slaying of three Iranian rock musicians in Brooklyn early Monday. Police said Akhbar had been kicked out of Free Keys last year for stealing band earnings. He did not have a local arrest record. An example of an elliptical ogive (.44 caliber pistol bullet on left) versus a tangential ogive (.308 caliber rifle bullet on right). Bullets are made of copper alloys. (2013/Daily News, L.P. (New York)) “He’d been trying to get back into the band,” a police source said. “He’d been showing up at shows to try to convince them to let him back in.” Police investigate the scene after a bloody shooting spree just after midnight. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News) Akhbar, who lived in Ridgewood, Queens, with a roommate, arrived in the U.S. two years ago on a temporary work visa. His weapon was purchased before 2006 from a now defunct gun dealer in New City, Rockland County, sources said. Friend of the band Ali Eskandarian performs in 2008 at Joe's Pub's 10th Anniversary Gala and tribute to Judy Collins at the Public Theater in New York. (Henny Ray Abrams/AP) “We believe it was manufactured outside the U.S.,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Police say the gunman shot the men and then headed to the roof where he turned the .308-caliber rifle on himself. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News) Bushwick music maven Danny Krug said Akhbar was nothing like the members of The Yellow Dogs, who often hung out with members of Free Keys. Brothers Soroush (l.) and Arash Farazmand (r.) of the band The Yellow Dogs were found dead Monday morning. (Facebook) “I never thought he was violent, but he was weird,” Krug said. Police converged on the East Williamsburg building after receiving reports of a man with a firearm. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News) The Yellow Dogs’ lead singer, Siavash (Obash) Karampour, 24, was tending bar at the Ding Dong Lounge on the Upper West Side while his bandmates were being killed, sources said. Cops said a gunman shot and killed band members, seen in an undated photo, in an East Williamsburg. (Danny Krug) The fourth member of the band is 26-year-old bass guitarist Koory Mirzeai, who was with a girlfriend at the time of the massacre. Police investigate a shooting involving members of an Iranian indie rock band, The Yellow Dogs, in East Williamsburg on Monday. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News) The slaughter started shortly after midnight at 318 Maujer St. Akhbar reached the building by hopping from roof to roof and then scaling down the side to a third-floor terrace where he claimed his first victim, Eskandarian, by shooting him in the head through a window, police said. Then the gunman climbed inside through the window and shot Arash Farazmand dead before descending to the second floor and shooting his brother in the chest. Soroush Farazmand was lying in bed, but engrossed in his laptop, which may explain why he didn’t hear the initial shots, officials said. Akhbar crossed over to another room and wounded Sadeghpourosko, whose brother made the first call to 911 at 12:04 a.m. Then Akhbar marched back upstairs, where a man and woman — both members of the U.S. Coast Guard from Puerto Rico who were in town for Veterans Day events — had been renting a room, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner John McCarthy. When the man heard Akhbar heading back up to the third floor, he hopped into the shower with his girlfriend and both cowered in a bathtub, McCarthy said. Meanwhile, Akhbar confronted a former Free Keys bandmate named Pooya Hosseini who had been hiding in a closet and tried to “convince him not to shoot,” said McCarthy. Hosseini started off by “begging for his life,” a source said. But when Akhbar fired, he grabbed the gun, and as they struggled it discharged several more times, McCarthy said. When the clip suddenly fell off, Akhbar fled to the roof with the gun and shot himself. By the time cops arrived, the building had been transformed into a shooting gallery with blood and shell casings from around 16 shots scattered across two floors. The Yellow Dogs were formed in Tehran, influenced by bands ranging from The Kinks to Joy Division. The quartet was featured in a documentary about the Tehran scene called “No One Knows About Persian Cats” that went on to win a prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. But that made Iran too hot for The Yellow Dogs, who fled to Brooklyn. “You can’t be a rock star in Iran,” Salehezadeh said. The band thrived, landing gigs at hipster havens like The Knitting Factory in Williamsburg and the Bushwick venue Shea Stadium. "You don't feel like a foreigner in New York City at all," lead singer Obash said in April 2012 interivew. Martin Greenman, 63, who works around the corner at 406 Maujer St., said he'd seen the band members as recently as Friday. "I see them almost every day," Greenman said. "It's just unbelievable. To see somebody on Friday and on Monday you're telling me there dead." "They seem like really nice guys," he added. "They didn't seem to be in anyway to be violent guys. They weren't rabble rousers or anything like that." With Ryan Sit, Philip Caulfied, Joe Kemp and Chelsea Rose Marcius [email protected] On a mobile device? Click here to watch the video. Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! ||||| Raw content UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ISTANBUL 000461 SENSITIVE SIPDIS LONDON FOR MURRAY; BERLIN FOR ROSENSTOCK-STILLER; BAKU FOR MCCRENSKY; BAGHDAD FOR POPAL AND HUBAH; ASHGABAT FOR TANGBORN; DUBAI FOR IRPO E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV, PINS, SOCI, TU, IR SUBJECT: IRAN/CULTURE: SO YOU WANT TO BE A ROCK AND ROLL STAR 1. (SBU) Summary: An Iranian rock band described to us on December 8-9 Tehran's "small but crazy" underground club scene, where drugs are cheap and easy to find, creative expression is at its most free, and participants are among Iran's most tech-savvy citizens. They said the regime's fierce post-election political clamp-down has not impacted the underground music scene, as the regime remains too preoccupied with political protests to go after cultural targets like rock music. The band members, though not active with the Green Movement, dismiss the regime as out of touch and certain to fall, though they also told us that a majority of Iranians remain "stuck" in a conservative, traditional, inward-looking worldview. As a result they assess that political change will only come slowly. Comment: These musicians -- astute, well-informed, and resourceful 20-somethings -- offered up an insightful glimpse into a vibrant but mostly hidden sub-culture in Iran. Their views reinforced the impression that Iranian society spans a far broader and more complex spectrum than many outside observers realize, and underscored the possibility that the regime -- though radicalizing -- remains calculating and sensible enough not to pick unnecessary fights on social issues, at least while it is engaged so desperately in trying to counter more immediate political threats. End comment. The Ayatollahs of Rock and Rolla ----------------------------- 2. SBU) ConGen Istanbul's NEA Iran Watcher and other colleagues met December 8-9, 2009 in Istanbul with an Iranian "underground" alternative rock band (please protect) called the "Yellow Dogs," after they applied to the Consulate for visas to perform a concert tour in the United States. The four band members, who enjoy a growing local and internet following, shared their perspective about life as rock musicians in an Iran beset by growing pressure on political oppositionists and widening fractures within Iranian society. What can a poor boy do but sing for a rock and roll band? --------------------------------------------- ------- 3. (SBU) The four musicians, in their early twenties, were first inspired by rock music that they heard as pre-teens during the more socially tolerant Khatami presidency. They said that rock music, despite its English-language lyrics, spoke to them more viscerally about conditions they faced in Iran than traditional Persian music did. With the support of their (well-educated, professional) parents, they decided to forego more traditional Iranian academic pursuits like engineering to pursue music full-time. The self-taught musicians began performing in high-school, quickly discovering Tehran's "small but crazy" underground music scene, a scene that one band member insisted grew significantly in size and creativity after Ahmadinejad's 2005 election. They estimated that several thousand Tehran youths are die-hard alternative- and hard-rock fans who regularly risk fines and detention to attend underground concerts and clubs, and that there are similar followings in Esfahan, Shiraz, and Tabriz. Comfortably numb ------------ 4. (SBU) The band members acknowledged that many participants in the underground scene regularly use illegal drugs (but denied any use themselves). They said drugs such as heroin and opium are easy to find and inexpensive, but are being eclipsed in popularity by amphetamines typically produced in local home-labs. They acknowledged that despite the regime's increasing radicalization in most other aspects of politics and social policy, the GoI continues to follow a progressive approach to treating drug use and abuse, for example by referring users to treatment clinics and medication rather than jail sentences. Almost cut my hair ---------------- 5. (SBU) Though their music is not overtly political or oppositionist the Yellow Dogs described the risks of playing any kind of rock and roll in Iran, recounting several occasions in 2007-8 when police raided closed-door concerts they were holding (typically in sound-proofed basements or warehouses in isolated neighborhoods). One raid led to the detention of one band member under official charges of "Satan worship". A combination of bribes and parental pleading got him released after two weeks in detention. All the band members recounted run-ins with police and Basijis over "style and clothing immoralities" including one band member's afro-style hair, which the police forced him to cut off by ISTANBUL 00000461 002 OF 004 seizing his driver's license until he did so. (He did, but grew it back again.) 6. (SBU) One band-member described the underground scene as a community that offers "the most free expression" in Iran, where all political, cultural, and religious views are tolerated, and where there is a lively exchange not only of music, but art, books, photos, and other forms of artistic expression. "Even Ahmadinajed's people can come listen to our music," one told us, though he admitted few do. He added that most of his peers spend their days (when not working or playing music) just like western youth do, playing video games on Macintosh computers and Xbox game platforms, buying clothes from the Gap or Benetton, watching online TV ("Lost" and Oprah are current favorites with Iran's youth), and blogging. They told us with bemusement that they regularly play "Guitar Hero" online and beat players from the US or Europe. When they tell their online competitors that they are from Iran, the other players express shock that Iranians are allowed to use the internet -- and that they are so good at video games. 7. (SBU) The band members told us the social crackdowns on that community ebb and flow depending on whether the regime is feeling self-confident or vulnerable, as well as the degree to which the regime thinks the targeted community will comply or resist. One band member described the police as being more selective now about who they detain. Currently, he said, the regime is totally focused on trying to squash election-related protests. As one musician speculated, either the regime does not have the time to go after non-protesting young Iranians for crimes as mundane as clothing violations or loud music, or it has made a conscious decision not to do so, in order not to make more enemies than necessary among Iran's youth. Nowhere Man ----------- 8. (SBU) The musicians described Iranian society as two main communities that are worlds apart in values and orientation. One side is made up of urban dwellers who tend to be well-educated, well-versed not only in Persian poetry and classics but literary and artistic works from other cultures, have some informed knowledge of the outside world through television and personal travel, and want Iran to be more integrated into that world. On the other side is perhaps a majority of Iranians who are deeply religious and conservative, predominantly rural, not educated beyond high-school, tend to have read little beyond the Koran and local newspapers, and are unaware of global developments or modern technologies. "Many of them have never left Iran or even their own province; they never used a computer, never watched a foreign film, and never heard of the Beatles." 9. (SBU) This traditional community, because its worldview is so limited, is an easy target for the regime's anti-western, adversarial, black-and-white rhetoric. The band members acknowledged that most of these voters probably voted for Ahmadinejad, and agreed that even though Mousavi probably won the elections Ahmadinejad retains great popularity with this group. Moreover, they cautioned, if any foreign country ever attacks Iran the entire conservative community will rally behind the regime, and would probably be joined by a significant part of the more urban, westernized Iranian community too. There's Something Happening Here ------------------------------ 10. (SBU) Three of the four band members said they have not participated in the post-election protests though they sympathize with the protesters, goals. The lead singer has marched several times, explaining he could not stay home while his parents marched. The band agrees that the size and energy of the November 4 and December 7 protests confirm that the Green Movement -- though not cohesive and lacking in strong leadership -- has become a self-sustaining national movement. "The government needs to find a way to deal with these people in a peaceful way." They predicted that in coming years a new generation of leaders would emerge, university students and 20-somethings who are already campus and neighborhood leaders below the radar of national attention or security force scrutiny. Same as the Old Boss ------------------- 11. (SBU) The band members described former PM Mousavi as "really no different" than Ahmadinejad. They argued if ISTANBUL 00000461 003 OF 004 Mousavi had been elected and allowed to take office it would have been the worst outcome for the Green Movement. They explained that Mousavi would have most likely been a team player, falling in line to support Khamenei's authority and "same old" politics, leaving the young activists of the Green Movement feeling as disappointed under a Mousavi Presidency as they had been under Khatami. 12. (SBU) Instead, the election fraud and Khamenei's backing of Ahmadinejad have given the Green Movement a reason to exist. "Mousavi isn't the leader anymore and it's not about elections now. They stopped asking for their votes to be counted. Now they're asking for bigger things like real freedom." Khamenei's intervention to quash election challenges also spelled the end of what had previously been a genuine acceptance by the Iranian population of the Supreme Leader's neutrality and authority. "Now most Iranians just see him as a selfish politician who only cares about staying in power." On the Road Again --------------- 13. (SBU) Following the group's U.S. concert tour next spring they plan to go to Europe to promote a film in which they played an Iranian rock band: "No One Knows about Persian Cats" by Iranian film-maker Bahman Ghobadi, with a screen-play co-written by American-Iranian journalist Roxane Saberi (which she finished just before she was arrested by Iranian security services in January 2009). 14. (SBU) We asked if the band's popularity -- helped by a CNN interview in April 2009 and the Ghobadi film winning a Cannes Festival award in May 2009, and likely to get a boost from their forthcoming US concert tour -- might put them at greater risk when they return to Iran. They assessed not, as long as they keep their music focused on social issues rather than using it to attack the regime. They said that as long as they sing in English the regime will believe they are only singing to attract foreign audiences, and not singing to Iran's youth. How Do You Keep the Music Playing -------------------------- 15. (SBU) The band members said they never buy music or movies anymore, given the ease of free downloads. Keeping internet connectivity is a constant challenge, however, and requires the use of proxy servers, virtual private networks, and filter-breaking software like "Freegate" -- which many Iranians visiting Turkey make a point of downloading while here rather than try to download such sensitive software from inside Iran. "We are always trying to stay connected and almost always we can." Wary of the regime's efforts to use technology to track its perceived enemies, however, the band members no longer use Facebook or other social networking sites, but still rely on Skype and carefully-worded text messages. 16. (SBU) The band members said they and everyone they know get news from two sources: BBC's and VOA's Persian broadcasts. But the regime is stepping up efforts to block satellite signals, they claimed, by installing massive microwave towers in several areas of Tehran and using microwave bursts to disrupt the signals. Local authorities claim the towers are for cell-phone transmission, but the musicians told us anytime they go near the towers they feel "sudden shocks", nausea and dizziness, and said most Iranians (especially pregnant women and the elderly) have learned to stay away from the towers. Comment: These Songs of Freedom -------------------- 17. (SBU) These astute, well-informed, and resourceful 20-something musicians offered up an insightful glimpse -- which we find credible -- into a vibrant but mostly hidden sub-culture in Iran, reinforcing the impression that Iranian society spans a far broader and more complex spectrum than many outside observers realize. We also find credible their description of the regime's treatment of their lifestyle and activities and their general conclusion that the regime is currently too overloaded trying to squash overt political protests and opposition to care about less-political, counter-culture "threats" like rock music. Despite its radicalization, the regime appears still calculating and sensible enough not to pick domestic, social fights it doesn't have to, at least while it is engaged so desperately in fighting more immediate political threats. In such an environment, the band is optimistic that the underground rock ISTANBUL 00000461 004 OF 004 scene in Iran -- and the niche arena of free, creative expression it provides -- will keep growing. End comment. WIENER ||||| Supported by their well-educated, professional-class parents, the young men pursued popular music despite official prohibitions. They told American officials that they were drawn to American music because it “spoke to them more viscerally about conditions they faced in Iran than traditional Persian music did.” They began performing publicly in high school, and there were several occasions, they told the Americans, when the police raided their closed concerts, which were held in soundproof basements or warehouses. The Free Keys were part of the same scene: Both bands played “strictly forbidden underground gigs” together in a Tehran parking lot where young men and women moshed together, according to several websites. American consular officials who interviewed the Yellow Dogs in Istanbul, where they applied for short-term visas to travel to the United States with the goal of emigrating permanently, said the men, who sing in English, were “astute, well-informed and resourceful 20-somethings” conversant in American popular culture and skillful at video games. By 2009, they had been interviewed on CNN; not long after, they appeared in “No One Knows About Persian Cats,” a film about Iran’s underground music scene. A State Department official who helped the musicians leave Iran said they had originally applied for a short-term visa to play at South by Southwest, the music festival in Austin, Tex. Arriving in the United States in January 2010, they moved to Brooklyn and applied for political asylum, citing their lack of freedom for political expression. They were granted asylum last year. In Iran, they felt “a lot of pressure, a lot of heat,” said the official, who, not being authorized to speak publicly, spoke anonymously. Image Credit The New York Times The Free Keys, which Mr. Rafie had joined as a bassist, left Iran to join their friends in the Yellow Dogs in 2011. At 318 Maujer Street, the Yellow Dogs occupied the lower apartment, and a rotating group of Iranian friends and acquaintances, including Mr. Eskandarian, lived in the upstairs apartment. The residents saw themselves as an artists’ collective, holding house parties with of-the-moment music and cheap beer for musician friends and hosting exhibitions of friends’ artwork. Mr. Sadeghpourosko’s artwork covered the walls of the living room, which the Yellow Dogs used as a practice space. They were a familiar sight on their quiet street, where small apartment buildings abut warehouses, often skateboarding or biking around with a dog. Neighbors noted their long hair and tight jeans, the young people of mixed ethnicities streaming into the building for parties, and the music that poured out.

– The bloodshed in Brooklyn early yesterday brought a horrific end to the career of a band that was huge in Tehran's thriving underground rock scene—and a rising star in the US. Yellow Dogs members Arash and Soroush Farazmand were shot dead along with occasional vocalist Ali Eskandarian by a gunman later identified as Raefe Akhbar, who killed himself after the rampage, the Wall Street Journal reports. Contrary to earlier reports, police say Akhbar had not been thrown out of the Yellow Dogs, but was a former member of the Free Keys, another Iranian rock band that was closely associated with the Yellow Dogs. He tried to shoot a Free Keys member during the attack but the singer survived after a struggle in which the magazine of Akhbar's gun fell out. The Yellow Dogs—described as astute, well-informed, and resourceful 20-somethings in a State Department cable released by WikiLeaks—arrived in the US in 2010 and had recently been granted political asylum, the New York Times reports. The Free Keys arrived a year later and stayed for a time at the house shared by the other band, which had become a hub for fellow musicians, several of whom were present when Akhbar began his rampage, climbing down from a neighboring roof carrying a rifle in a guitar case. Two Yellow Dogs members were away and survived the attack, which the band's rep says was sparked by a "very petty conflict," the New York Daily News reports. Police say Akhbar was kicked out of the Free Keys last year for allegedly stealing earnings and had been turning up at shows, pestering former bandmates to let him back in.

A Florida judge ruled Tuesday that George Zimmerman’s defense team cannot mention Trayvon Martin’s suspension from school, prior marijuana use, text messages or past fighting during opening statements at next month’s trial. Judge Debra Nelson said that during the trial she will consider motions to admit details as evidence on a case-by-case basis, outside the presence of jurors who will decide if Zimmerman is guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Martin. Capping a slew of rulings on pre-trial motions, Nelson rejected a defense request for a trial delay and ruled that jury selection will begin June 10. "This case has dragged on long enough," prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda said in arguing for the trial to start as scheduled. Over the course of two hours, Nelson granted numerous motions by prosecutors, who argued that details of the slain teen’s past are not be relevant to the Feb. 26, 2012, confrontation between Zimmerman and Martin and should not be discussed before the jury. Defense lawyer Mark O’Mara asked the judge not to pre-emptively exclude the information, saying that it bolstered their theory of the shooting – that the 17-year-old was the aggressor and Zimmerman shot him in self-defense. “There is certainly enough evidence…that’s going to suggest Trayvon Martin involved himself ongoingly with fighting with other people,” O’Mara said. He said the defense had obtained video of three fights – two in which Martin acted as a referee and a third in which two friends “were beating up a homeless guy.” The defense also wanted the right to present text messages, like one from November 2011 in which Martin seemed to refer to an organized fight: "He got mo hits cause in da 1st round. He had me on da ground nd I couldn’t do ntn." Prosecutors argued that since Zimmerman and Martin didn’t know each other before the shooting, whether the teen had been involved in fights had no bearing on how the defendant reacted that night. The judge ruled that the evidence about past fights could not be mentioned in opening statements but said it could be admitted during trial if the defense can authenticate it and overcome rules against hearsay evidence. She said she may let the jury hear that Martin had a marijuana ingredient in his blood the night of the shooting after she hears from experts about the toxicology tests that were performed. The defense and prosecution disagree about whether the results show the teen had smoked pot before he and Zimmerman crossed paths. Outside the Seminole County courthouse, Martin family lawyer Benjamin Crump praised the judge for limiting what the jury hears about guns, drugs or fighting in Martin’s past. “Trayvon Martin did not have a gun. Trayvon Martin did not get out of the car to chase anybody. Trayvon Martin did not shoot and kill anybody. Trayvon Martin is not on trial,” Crump said. The two parties will be back in court before the trial starts for more hearings, including one that will examine whether prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense. Zimmerman’s team put an outside lawyer on the stand, Wesley White, who testified that photos from Martin’s cellphone were never shared with them. White, who resigned as a state prosecutor in December and is now in private practice, represents the state attorney’s office’s information-technology director, Ben Kruidbos, who will be called to testify June 6 about the allegedly withheld images. White told NBC News that Kruidbos was placed on administrative leave Tuesday and considers himself a “whistleblower” under Florida law. Kruidbos was grilled by staff in the state attorney’s office twice, either to learn what he planned to testify about or possibly to “bully him,” White told NBC. The state attorney's office has not responded to a request for comment from NBC News. In other rulings, Nelson decided the jury will not be sequestered as the defense wanted but will be referred to by number, not name, during the selection process. She also decided against bringing jurors to the place where Martin was killed, calling it a “logistical nightmare” and noting that it seemed to fly in the face of the defense request that the panel be kept under wraps. Zimmerman – who was not in court Tuesday -- has pleaded not guilty. He told police he resorted to self-defense after Martin punched him and beat his head to the ground after the two encountered each other in a gated community. Robert Zimmerman Jr. read a statement to the media after the hearing in which he described his younger brother as a civic-minded crime fighter who became his “staunchest advocate” after he came out as gay more than a decade ago. The brother blasted the state special prosecutor for bringing a murder case against Zimmerman after he was not charged by Sanford police. “The politics of race trumped the rule of law and a political calculation was made,” Robert Zimmerman said. “It was the wrong decision.” Editor’s note: George Zimmerman has sued NBCUniversal for defamation in civil court, and the company has strongly denied his allegations. This story includes a statement from Lawyer Mark O’Mara which he now says was not accurate. For his apology, see here. This story was originally published on ||||| SANFORD – At the start of George Zimmerman's murder trial, which begins in two weeks, expect Trayvon Martin to be portrayed as an innocent teenager, an unarmed 17-year-old who was killed while walking home in the rain. By the time it concludes, however, jurors may have a more menacing view of him. In rat-a-tat fashion, Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson buzzed through a series of pretrial motions on Tuesday, laying the groundwork for what jurors will hear during the second-degree murder trial, expected to be one of the most watched this year. One of the judge's clearest rulings: Defense attorneys will not get more time to prepare. Jury selection will begin June 10, when 500 potential jurors are scheduled walk through the courthouse doors. And, in general, she banned defense attorneys from introducing reputation-damaging evidence about Trayvon — but she left lots of wiggle room. If defense attorneys can convince her during the course of the trial that it's relevant, she may allow them to put on evidence showing that at the time of his death, Trayvon had marijuana in his system; that he had discipline problems at school; and that he had a history of fighting. After Tuesday's two-hour hearing, defense attorney Mark O'Mara predicted he would be able to show their relevance. "I'm hopeful I'll be able to lay a foundation to get it in," he said. Specifically, he was referring to text messages found on Trayvon's cell phone, which indicate, among other things, that the Miami Gardens teenager was involved in competitive fighting. "I'm happy with the judge's rulings, "O'Mara said. The issue of Trayvon-as-fighter is key because Zimmerman, a 29-year-old former Neighborhood Watch volunteer, says he shot Trayvon in self-defense after the teenager attacked him on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford. Also happy with the judge's rulings was Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Trayvon's family, who interpreted them as outright bans. The judge did issue some of those: Jurors will not hear about Trayvon's prior marijuana use nor will they see a photo of him wearing a set of gold teeth. Those rulings came because last week, defense attorneys released a glut of evidence, including photos from Trayvon's cell phone that showed potted marijuana plants, a semiautomatic handgun and text messages revealing discipline problems at school and that his mother had asked him to move out. Crump on Tuesday described that as defense attorneys "polluting the jury pool." "Trayvon Martin did not have a gun," Crump said. "Trayvon Martin did not get out of his car and chase anyone. Trayvon Martin did not shoot and kill anyone." In court Tuesday, O'Mara mentioned for the first time new pieces of evidence damaging to Trayvon's reputation: that the teenager had shot video of his buddies beating up a homeless man; that Trayvon had served as referee in another fight; and that he had won one fight after punching his opponent in the nose. Trayvon's mother, Sybrina Fulton, was at Tuesday's hearing, but her attorneys would not let her answer questions. Asked about Trayvon shooting video of his friends beating a homeless man, family attorney Darryl Parks said that was irrelevant. George Zimmerman did not attend Tuesday's hearing, but his brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr. did and afterward called on prosecutors to drop the charge.

– George Zimmerman's defense team was dealt a blow today: The judge ruled that it can't bring up certain unflattering details about Trayvon Martin at trial, unless it "clear[s] several legal hurdles" to get permission at another ruling, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Among the things the defense can't mention: Trayvon's marijuana use, suspensions from school, and alleged fighting, all of which were revealed in text messages released by the defense, plus the fact that THC was found in Martin's system at his autopsy. NBC News explains that the judge will consider admitting each piece of evidence on a case by case basis during the trial, but that the defense cannot discuss any of the above during opening statements.

A former NFL cheerleader’s split from her state attorney husband is described as the “Trump Divorce,” according to an unusual press release from the woman’s PR firm. The release notes that Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County in Florida, is a Democrat, and describes his wife, Lynn Aronberg, a fomer Miami Dolphins cheerleader, as “a staunch Republican and supporter of President Donald Trump” who “said she felt increasingly isolated in the marriage.” The statement, released Thursday, describes the split as the “Trump Divorce” and also cites personal and financial details of the divorce settlement. The statement notes that, “according to a source familiar with the negotiations, the former Lynn Lewis, who spun her old Dolphins gig into a successful PR firm, is receiving about $100,000 worth of benefits in exchange for her signature on the dotted line. The deal calls for Aronberg, 46, to pay for half of Lynn’s rent in a luxury condo in tony Boca Raton until next summer. She’s also reportedly getting a brand new BMW and $40,000 cash.” Lynn Aronberg said she does not know how the press release came to include the settlement’s financial details, which she described as confidential, even though she works for the public relations firm, TransMedia Group, that issued the press statement on her behalf. “Whatever’s been put out there, I haven’t gotten to the bottom of it,” Lynn Aronberg told The Palm Beach Post on Thursday. Adrienne Mazzone, president of TransMedia, said her client announced the divorce settlement to satisfy a curious public. The photo of Lynn Aronberg included on the TransMedia press release announcing details of her divorce settlement with Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg. (supplied by Jake Mazzone Photography) (Palm Beach Post Staff Writer) “Lynn is certainly a media maven,” Mazzone said. “The public has been asking a lot of questions, and we’re simply accommodating that.” Aronberg not only is a client, but an executive vice president of TransMedia, whose website says she has recently returned to the firm where she worked “before launching her own PR firm, Lynn Aronberg Public Relations, which she will maintain to serve a select group of private clients.” Lynn Aronberg said she and her ex-husband agreed to release a single joint paragraph, which reads: “After much consideration over the past few months, we’ve decided to respectfully and amicably part ways and end our marriage. We are, however, dedicated to remaining close friends. We kindly ask for your supporting in preserving our privacy as we start to navigate this new chapter in our lives.” Beyond that paragraph, however, the release includes eight other paragraphs with personal information not typically made public and sent to the press. Dave Aronberg proposed at the Eiffel Tower, according to the statement. In addition to their different political views, children were also an issue in the marriage, according to the statement. “They have no children, which was a problem for Lynn,” the statement reads. “She said she wanted children, but Aronberg was in no hurry.” Efforts to reach Dave Aronberg Thursday were unsuccessful. Lynn Aronberg said the information about her disagreement with Dave Aronberg on the subject of children was not a secret. “I told people a long time ago that I wanted a baby and that he wasn’t moving quickly enough,” she said. The statement notes that Dave Aronberg is considering a run for the U.S. House of Representatives. At one point, Lynn Aronberg was about to dip into the GOP legal ranks for help with the divorce, according to the statement. “When the divorce seemed to be stalling last month, Lynn started interviewing nationally famous divorce lawyers and one, Larry Klayman, the right wing founder of Freedom Watch and Judicial Watch, was ready to pounce until the former lovebirds settled,” the statement reads. Lynn Aronberg said she does not believe the release of personal and financial information from the divorce will have any political impact on her ex-husband. “Do you?” she asked. “I think he looks great. He makes for a great ex-husband. I don’t wish him anything but goodwill. I want the best for him.” ||||| Dave and Lynn Aronberg were married on St. Pete Beach in May 2015. In announcing that her divorce was settled this week, Lynn Aronberg said the reason for the split in part was because she supports President Donald Trump and her Democratic husband does not. In a press release Thursday, Lynn Aronberg said she is a "staunch Republican and supporter of President Trump," while her husband, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, is not. She said that fact led her to feel "increasingly isolated in the marriage." The 37-year-old former Miami Dolphins cheerleader and public relations consultant said she is getting a $100,000 settlement, including a new BMW and $40,000 in cash. Jose Lambiet’s Gossip Extra website says the couple signed the divorce settlement this week over drinks at The Breakers in Palm Beach. Dave Aronberg is a former state senator who was elected to his current office in 2012. Before that, he worked for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. A spokesman for the 46-year-old prosecutor said Aronberg had no comment. The couple got engaged in December 2014 in Paris, and they were married in May 2015 on St. Pete Beach. Lynn Aronberg first filed for divorce in March.

– Interesting: sending out a press release about your divorce. More interesting: deeming it a "Trump divorce." The Palm Beach Post reports on the demise of the marriage of ex-Miami Dolphins cheerleader Lynn Aronberg and Florida state attorney Dave Aronberg, with the two announcing their split via a statement from the TransMedia Group PR firm. And the stated reason for their divorce lends new meaning to the phrase "politics is local": Lynn Aronberg, in her mid-30s, is a "staunch Republican and supporter of President Donald Trump" who says she felt "increasingly isolated in the marriage," which lasted just over two years, per the Tampa Bay Times; her 46-year-old ex is a Democrat. The statement also outlines the $100,000 or so settlement Lynn Aronberg is getting, including a new BMW, $40,000 in cash, and half her rent paid at her Boca Raton condo through next year. Oddly, however, in addition to owning her own media firm, Lynn Aronberg is also an executive VP for TransMedia—but she says she has no idea how all of the financial concessions snuck into the press release, nor other intimate info, such as Dave Aronberg allegedly not wanting to have kids with the same eagerness as she did. She says she and her ex agreed to put out a three-sentence paragraph together that mainly just said they were "respectfully and amicably" parting ways as "close friends," followed by a request for privacy. "Whatever's been put out there, I haven't gotten to the bottom of it," were her words to the Palm Beach Post on Thursday. No comment from Dave Aronberg, about whom his ex-wife says: "He makes for a great ex-husband. I don't wish him anything but goodwill."

Image caption The US TV series has won several Emmy awards A US toy store chain has pulled four action figures based on characters from the popular TV drama Breaking Bad, following a petition for their removal. The award-winning TV series is about a secondary school chemistry teacher who becomes a drug dealer. Toys R Us has removed the dolls, which have accessories including bags of cash and drugs, from its shelves and online store. It came after thousands signed an online petition for their removal. The petition said that Toys R Us's sale of the toys was "a dangerous deviation from their family friendly values". "While the show may be compelling viewing for adults, its violent content and celebration of the drug trade make this collection unsuitable to be sold alongside Barbie dolls and Disney characters," it said. More than 9,000 people signed the petition, while a rival petition supporting the sale of the dolls drew more than 3,000 signatures. 'I'm so mad' Toys R Us had previously defended its sale of the collectible dolls. On Monday, it said the action figures were "carried in very limited quantities in the adult action figure area" of its stores, and that the packaging "clearly notes that the items are intended for ages 15 and up". However, on Tuesday, the store withdrew the toys. "Let's just say, the action figures have taken an indefinite sabbatical," Toys R Us said in a statement. Bryan Cranston, the actor who plays the lead character in Breaking Bad, previously joked that he was "mad" at the petition. He tweeted on Monday: "'Florida mom petitions against Toys 'R Us over Breaking Bad action figures.' I'm so mad, I'm burning my Florida Mom action figure in protest". ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — Toys R Us is pulling its four collectible dolls based on the characters of AMC's hit series "Breaking Bad" after taking heat from a Florida mom who launched a petition campaign last week. The dolls are based on the series about a high school chemistry teacher named Walter White who turns into a crystal meth dealer and his sidekick Jesse Pinkman The toys have a detachable bag of cash and a bag of methamphetamines. Toys R Us told The Associated Press late Tuesday that the dolls are being removed immediately from its website and shelves. "Let's just say, the action figures have taken an indefinite sabbatical," said Toys R Us in a statement. The retailer had maintained that the figures are sold in limited quantities in the adult action figure area of its stores. The Fort Myers, Florida mom, who was identified by news media as Susan Schrivjer, launched a petition on change.org last week, demanding that Toys R Us immediately stop selling the dolls. The mom, who wrote the petition under the name Susan Myers, said that the dolls are a "dangerous deviation from their family friendly values." "While the show may be compelling viewing for adults, its violent content and celebration of the drug trade make this collection unsuitable to be sold alongside Barbie dolls and Disney characters," she wrote. As of Tuesday, the petition had 8,000 signatures. On Monday, Bryan Cranston, the actor who plays White, responded to the controversy, tweeting, "I'm so mad. I am burning my Florida mom action figure in protest." __________ Follow Anne D'Innocenzio at http://www.Twitter.com/adinnocenzio

– Bad news for Breaking Bad fans: Toys R Us has decided to pull a range of dolls based on the series—which came complete with bags of meth and cash—after a petition started by a Florida mom gained more than 9,000 signatures. The retailer tells the AP that the action figures, which were sold in the adult action-figure area of its stores, "have taken an indefinite sabbatical." The petition started by Fort Myers resident Susan Schrivjer called the dolls a "dangerous deviation from their family friendly values." "While the show may be compelling viewing for adults, its violent content and celebration of the drug trade make this collection unsuitable to be sold alongside Barbie dolls and Disney characters," the petition said. A rival petition urging the retailer to keep selling the dolls gained more than 3,000 signatures, reports the BBC. Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston, whose Walter White character was one of the action figures, tweeted: "'Florida mom petitions against Toys R Us over Breaking Bad action figures.' I'm so mad, I'm burning my Florida Mom action figure in protest."

"There is no excuse," she wrote on Twitter. "I understand fully the magnitude of this post that I have hurt a lot of people, women. Body shaming is not okay ... and not something to joke about." ||||| Los Angeles police have located the woman whom Playboy model Dani Mathers photographed naked in a gym locker room this summer, the city attorney’s office confirmed. “We did receive the case from the LAPD. It’s currently under review from our office. We will be making a final decision soon, but there’s no timetable at this point,” Office of Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer told ABC News today. ABC News has reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department for comment, but it did not immediately respond. Mathers, 29, took the photo of a nude woman at an LA Fitness in Los Angeles and posted it to Snapchat in July with the caption, “If I can’t unsee this then you can’t either.” The 2015 Playboy playmate of the year has faced widespread criticism for sharing the picture and body-shaming the woman. The woman has not been publicly identified, and it is not clear if she knew she was being photographed by Mathers at the time. Mathers later apologized for posting the picture and said it was inadvertent. “I just wanted to acknowledge a photo I accidentally posted here on Snapchat earlier today and let you know guys know that was absolutely wrong and not what I meant to do,” she said in a video posted to Snapchat. “I know that body-shaming is wrong. That is not the type of person I am.” Mathers also apologized on Twitter. “I’m sorry for what I did,” she wrote in a tweet on July 14. “I need to take some time to myself now to reflect on why I did this horrible thing. Goodnight.” Mathers deleted the controversial image from Snapchat and has since set some of her social media accounts to private. The LAPD opened an investigation into the incident after receiving a report of “illegal distribution,” Capt. Andrew Neiman told The Los Angeles Times on July 17. LA Fitness reported the Snapchat post to police, and authorities have been investigating the incident, which took place at the health club chain’s branch in the Playa Vista neighborhood. Mather’s membership has been revoked, Jill Greuling, LA Fitness’ executive vice president of operations, told ABC News in an email. The company posted a statement on Twitter when the incident made headlines this summer, calling Mathers’ behavior “appalling.” Her behavior is appalling & puts members @ risk. We ended membership & she can't use any club. It’s not just our rule, it's common decency. — LA Fitness (@LAFitness) July 15, 2016 ABC News’ Bonnie Mclean contributed to this report. ||||| 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

– A woman who was body-shamed by Playboy model Dani Mathers at an LA Fitness gym has been found—and Mathers may be facing jail time for her actions, TMZ reports. The celebrity site says the LAPD located the woman, said to be in her 70s, and she's willing to help prosecutors go after Mathers. The celeb is accused of taking a photo of the naked woman as she changed in the gym's locker room and posting the pic to Snapchat with the snarky message: "If I can't unsee this then you can't either." The city attorney's office confirms that the older woman has been located, reports ABC News. The case could bring a misdemeanor charge for "dissemination of private images"—a charge that could land Mathers in jail for up to six months, though "there's no timetable at this point" on whether that will happen, says Office of Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer. Mathers' attorney tells the New York Daily News he hopes this new speculation about legal trouble for Mathers—she's already been banned from LA Fitness for life—isn't true. "Dani Mathers never tried to hurt anyone at any time, and certainly never tried to break any law," he says. The model's last tweet was on July 14, in which she announced: "I'm sorry for what I did … I need to take some time to myself now to reflect on why I did this horrible thing." (This student found and shared a private photo his female teacher had taken for her husband.)

Gloucester Police Chief Leonard Campanello (center) talked with Adelard Charron, a former addict now in recovery, in June. Gloucester police, taking an unconventional approach to fighting the state’s opioid epidemic, are imploring people to contact chief executives at five pharmaceutical companies and ask what they’re doing to curb the drug scourge. In a Facebook post this week that was shared more than 500 times, Police Chief Leonard Campanello listed names and contact information for the leaders at Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Co., and Merck & Co. The feisty post exhorted the department’s nearly 10,000 followers to reach out directly to the corporate chiefs to start a conversation about drug abuse prevention. Advertisement “Now . . . don’t get mad,” Campanello wrote. “Just politely ask them what they are doing to address the opioid epidemic in the United States, and if they realize that the latest data shows almost 80 percent of addicted persons start with a legally prescribed drug that they make.” Get Metro Headlines in your inbox: The 10 top local news stories from metro Boston and around New England delivered daily. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Campanello said he believes that the executives could play a key role in finding a solution to the epidemic, but they “might need a little push” in the form of phone calls and e-mails. “Gotta go make some calls,” the chief wrote. Several of the companies spotlighted by Campanello responded that they had already taken steps to help prevent prescription drug abuse. A spokeswoman from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, a trade group representing US pharmaceutical companies, said the industry is “dedicated to supporting a range of policy approaches . . . and expanding and improving awareness, education, and training related to prescription drug abuse.” Advertisement Priscilla VanderVeer acknowledged that the improper use of prescription drugs is a public health crisis. “Helping to ensure the appropriate use of these medicines while also making sure patients with legitimate medical needs have access to their medicines is a key priority for the innovative biopharmaceu industry,” she said in a statement. While the phone numbers listed for the offices of the chief executives worked, messages to some of the e-mails shared on the Facebook post bounced back when a Globe reporter wrote to them. One of the companies, Abbot Laboratories, said in a statement that the company “doesn’t sell pharmaceuticals in the United States.” A spokesman for a second company, Pfizer, directed an inquiry about the chief’s post to PhRMA. Amy Jo Meyer, a spokeswoman from Johnson & Johnson, did not directly address Campanello’s post, but said the company also supports the need to eliminate the abuse of potent painkillers. Advertisement “The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson have developed educational programs aimed at increasing awareness in patients and health care professionals alike,” she said in a statement. The remaining companies did not return requests for comment. Campanello would not speak further about the department’s Facebook post. John Guilfoil, a spokesman for Gloucester police, said the department is letting the information shared online “speak for itself.” “[The chief] wasn’t making an accusation or encouraging people to get angry. He is taking aim at the industry as a whole, and encouraging people to wonder what this industry is going to do about this epidemic,” Guilfoil said. “He is speaking collectively about the industry. He is casting a wide net.” This isn’t the first time Gloucester police have used innovative methods in their fight against addiction. In June, the department launched the Angel initiative to help addicts find adequate treatment. The program allows addicts to come to the police station, hand over their drugs, and then ask for placement in a detox facility — without being put behind bars for drug possession. Like the department’s latest push, that plan started with a simple — but sharply focused — Facebook message. As of August, Gloucester police say they have helped more than 100 people struggling with addiction through the program. Arlington, Methuen, and Andover police have launched similar programs since. Wednesday’s Facebook message about the pharmaceutical industry drew high praise from some commenters, who pledged to reach out to the companies. “I seriously love this police chief. He is saving lives everyday,” one person wrote. Gotta go make some calls.....Top 5 Pharmaceutical CEO Salaries:5. Eli Lilly - John Lechleiter $14.48... Posted by Gloucester Police Department (Official) on�Wednesday, September 16, 2015 Steve Annear can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter @steveannear ||||| Newburyport, MA (01950) Today Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 23F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 23F. Winds light and variable. ||||| GLOUCESTER, Mass. — Once he settled on the unprecedented approach to tackling his community’s drug crisis – a decision spurred by four overdose deaths in the first three months of 2015 and a public forum during which his community screamed out for something different – Police Chief Leonard Campanello gathered his officers to explain the new mandate. Addicts will no longer be treated as criminals, he told them. They will avoid drug possession charges in exchange for enrollment in treatment. They will be given a chance. It was a radical shift in policing, but Campanello said his staff fell in line immediately. “I think if you talk to a police officer for three or four minutes, he’ll tell you what you’re taught, that possession of illegal drugs is a crime and we need to act as law enforcement officers,” the chief said recently. “But if you talk to them for more than five minutes, … then they absolutely know that a different approach – where they can stick to their oath of serving and protecting and also do what most of them came to the job to do, which is help people who are in real need – is warranted.” In the first three months since Campanello instituted the “Angel” program, 145 people have come into his police department. Every one has been placed in treatment, a broad category that can encompass everything from detox followed by methadone, to more intensive residential therapy. Although its long-term efficacy is unknown, the Gloucester program has sparked a national conversation about how communities should handle the increasing problem of drug addiction. It’s a radical departure from the traditional approach to the war on drugs that has dominated U.S. policy for decades – but that has done little to reduce drug-related crime or addiction. Overdose deaths in the U.S. jumped from 3,036 in 2010 to 8,257 in 2013, and the numbers for 2014, when finalized, are likely to be even higher. Also, overdoses have moved out of urban streets and into suburbs and rural areas, making the problem more acute. Campanello’s approach arrives at a time when law enforcement and government officials across the country are desperately seeking solutions to the growing scourge of drugs, in particular the skyrocketing use of heroin. The program may soon find its way to communities in Maine, where drug overdose deaths have reached all-time highs, where heroin deaths alone jumped from seven in 2011 to 57 in 2014, where Portland saw 14 overdoses – two of them fatal – within a single 24-hour period in August, and where political and community leaders have come together in recent weeks to declare a crisis and to discuss solutions. “I really think it’s innovative,” Augusta Police Chief Robert Gregoire said of the Gloucester program. Gregoire is one of just two Maine police chiefs who are discussing bringing the program here (Jeffrey Lange, interim chief of the Paris Police Department in Oxford County, is the other), but more may become interested. Just last week, a new collaboration of treatment providers in Waldo County invited Campanello to speak at an event on Sept. 19 in Belfast. The demand for heroin treatment has never been greater in Maine: The number of patients has spiked from 1,115 in 2010 to 3,510 people last year. In the last decade, the number seeking treatment for addiction to all opiates, including OxyContin and oxycodone, has more than doubled. Yet cuts to MaineCare and other programs have made affordable treatment options hard to find. Two treatment centers have closed since spring. By contrast, Massachusetts is adding capacity. Gov. Paul LePage has downplayed the need for more treatment and funding, and adopted a more tough-on-drugs philosophy that emphasizes enforcement over treatment. That is part of what makes Campanello’s approach stand out: It is starkly different from the approach taken by LePage, who has even called in the National Guard to help enforce drug laws. Campanello, when told of LePage’s plan, had a blunt response. “Tell him good luck with that,” he said. “And tell him to come talk to me in two years when he hasn’t made a dent in the problem.” ANGEL PROGRAM IS A ‘GAME CHANGER’ The city of Gloucester, about 100 miles south of Portland on Massachusetts’ North Shore, is home to just under 30,000 people. It’s a community rooted in fishing – trawlers still fill the harbor, fishermen still unload their catch on docks – but also has been trying to brand itself a tourist destination, albeit a gritty one. Its economy is struggling, which has contributed to the growing drug problem. Like many cities throughout New England, Gloucester has seen the gradual transition from synthetic opiates to heroin. Campanello, a barrel-chested man with a deep, authoritative voice, has been Gloucester’s police chief for three years but spent several years as a narcotics officer in Saugus, a nearby community in Essex County. He has long watched the growing drug problem and its evolution. The numbers in Gloucester have not been staggering compared to some cities – one overdose death in 2012, five in 2013 and four in 2014 – but Campanello reached his breaking point this spring. After he received a call at home one night in early March about another heroin overdose death – the fourth, already matching last year’s total – the chief posted a message to the department’s Facebook page. He said he was committed to “continue to look for new ways to rid our streets of this poison,” and pleaded with addicts: “Let us help you.” Campanello didn’t have an answer when he wrote the post, but his comment sparked discussion among treatment providers and others in the community. Overwhelmingly, the call was to encourage addicts to seek treatment, to stop treating them like criminals and to acknowledge that addiction is a disease. Campanello’s next Facebook post in May laid out a plan in the same direct manner in which he handles other duties. “Any addict who walks into the police station with the remainder of their drug equipment or drugs and asks for help will NOT be charged,” he wrote. “Instead, we will walk them through the system toward detox and recovery.” Almost immediately, the idea caught fire. The Facebook post was viewed millions of times, bringing national attention to the Massachusetts coast. John Rosenthal, who helped set up a nonprofit called the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative to aid with funding and to replicate the program in other communities, called the Angel program a “game changer.” “A lot of people talk about doing something different. This chief drew a line in the sand and did it,” Rosenthal said. Already, Rosenthal said, a dozen other police departments across the country have replicated Gloucester’s model. “In a year, it will be a hundred or more,” he predicted. AMNESTY FOR TREATMENT Campanello’s approach is provocative because it effectively offers amnesty to drug users – only users, those whose only crime is addiction. He said he’s playing the long game. “If we can reduce the amount of people who are on the street suffering from this illness, … then we can improve the quality of life for everyone in the city,” the chief said. The program launched on June 1 with no clear idea of what would happen next. “We worried about zero people showing up. We worried about seeing a line of 25 people. We didn’t know what to expect,” said Lt. David Quinn, who oversees the program daily. In the first three months, Gloucester has seen a steady stream of people asking for help and a treatment community that has wholly embraced its new law enforcement partner. Marty Ginivan, who runs the Grace Center, a day program for low-income and homeless adults in Gloucester, is one of the 40 or so Angel volunteers. At first, Ginivan said, clients were apprehensive about the police department spearheading an effort to help them. But he said Campanello lent legitimacy and urgency to the need for treatment. Ginivan said he’s seen success in small moments. Last month, he met a young man who came to the police station seeking treatment. Ginivan asked if he wanted to call anyone before he was taken to a detox facility. At first, the man said no, but after a few hours, he asked to call his dad. “So he calls and he puts the phone on speaker,” Ginivan said. “And he says, ‘Dad, I’m at the police station.’ And you can hear the silence on the other end, and you know the father has gotten that call before. But then the kid says, ‘I’m not in trouble. I’m going into treatment.’ “The dad told him he was proud of him. And just before he hung up the phone, the dad says to me, ‘Thanks for caring about my son.’ “That’s why we do it.” Quinn said although each case is different, certain similarities have emerged. Most of the people coming in are men in their 20s or early 30s. And most don’t match the stereotypical description of a heroin junkie. Instead, they look like Sandy, a 33-year-old man from Gloucester who asked that his last name not be used to spare his family embarrassment. Sandy said the Angel program gave him a “kick in the (pants).” He was addicted to prescription opiates – Percocet – but likely was headed toward using heroin, which is cheaper than many prescription drugs. “The day-to-day struggle of depending on something foreign to get through the day, I was thinking about it nonstop, it was my number one priority,” Sandy said. “I wanted to stop, but I couldn’t do it on my own.” From the Gloucester police station, Sandy went immediately to detox. He didn’t sleep that first night in mid-August. After six days, during which he began to wean off opiates with the help of methadone, he transitioned to a halfway house in southern Massachusetts where he still receives treatment. He’s still working on his long-term plan. “It’s a little strange having all this time to reflect, to get back to thinking about what you want to do with your life and what goals you want to accomplish,” he said. “Before, I would spend hours, literally hours, waiting around until I could get that next pill.” ACCESS TO TREATMENT LIMITED IN MAINE Campanello stresses that his department does not provide treatment itself and said he hopes policymakers commit the appropriate resources. The only money he commits is from his drug forfeiture fund and that’s to help patients with no insurance. So far, volunteers and treatment providers have done the rest. Quinn said Gloucester’s program has attracted clients from other states, including some from the Portland area. He said while his department won’t turn anyone away, the goal is for other departments to launch their own programs. That’s why the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative was established. So far, the interest in Maine is still in the initial stage, but the program was lauded at a forum last month in Brewer organized by U.S. Sen. Angus King that featured U.S. drug czar Michael Botticelli. Joel Merry, Sagadahoc County sheriff and president of the Maine Sheriffs Association, was among those who said the idea is worth pursuing. U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty said such programs work only if police departments have enough partnerships with clinics to steer people toward treatment. Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck hasn’t ruled out such a program, but spoke cautiously. “You need to look at what can work for your community and we’re looking at everything. We’re not sitting around waiting,” he said. “The problem of substance abuse tends to run in phases, but there is an urgency right how and it’s good to see the community interested – and I hope invested.” In Augusta, Gregoire said his department is recruiting angels, or recovery coaches, to help steer addicts to treatment. He said the key will be how much the community will support the effort. “I think this has worked in Gloucester because an entire community has bought in,” Gregoire said. Neill Miner, project director for the Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention, a coalition of treatment and recovery organizations in Kennebec County, is working with Gregoire on the Augusta program. “The emerging partnership between law enforcement and the recovery community is something we haven’t seen, at least at this level,” Miner said. “But in Maine, certainly compared to Massachusetts, access to treatment is far more limited and getting even more so. That is a concern.” Chuck Faris, CEO of Worcester, Massachusetts-based Spectrum Health Systems Inc., one of several agencies working with Gloucester, said the Massachusetts government’s support of treatment is stronger than Maine’s. “We’ve opened three new outpatient facilities in Massachusetts this year and are on schedule to open another,” Faris said. “We’ve done so because we’ve been encouraged by the commonwealth to respond.” Faris said Spectrum never had that level of support in Maine. Last month, the company closed its first and only methadone clinic in Maine after only 18 months, blaming lack of support and cuts to MaineCare. The Massachusetts version of Medicaid, called MassHealth, offers much more comprehensive drug addiction treatment services than MaineCare. Beyond that, Faris said he also can’t help but notice how differently Campanello and LePage have approached their states’ drug problem. “I think sometimes it’s hard for people to get past their own biases and prejudices about addiction,” Faris said. Campanello said he’s well past the point of judging addicts, and others say his commitment has drawn supporters. “People are proud of the city and proud of the department. The chief can’t go anywhere without hearing about it,” Quinn said. Campanello, however, downplays his role in shifting the debate. “People have called this everything: brave, gutsy, revolutionary, groundbreaking,” he said. “Since when did extending a hand and helping someone in need, especially for police, become anything more than a responsibility?” Share ||||| GLOUCESTER (CBS) – The Gloucester Police Department is taking another unique step as it attempts to combat the opiate addiction epidemic. This week the department posted to its Facebook page a list of the country’s top five pharmaceutical CEO’s in terms of salary. Included in the post was the email address and phone number for each CEO. The department’s message to the public was to “make some calls” and find out what the companies are doing to address the country’s opioid epidemic. Gloucester Police cited data they say shows that nearly 80-percent of addiction begins with legally prescribed drugs. Police told residents “don’t get mad” when they call the CEOs, instead they urged them to “politely ask” what the companies plan to do to address the issue. “They can definitely be part of the solution here and I believe they will be….might need a little push,” the Gloucester Police Department posted. Earlier this year Gloucester Police garnered national attention with their program designed to get drug addicts off the streets and into rehab instead of arresting them. ||||| See more of Gloucester Police Department (Official) on Facebook

– The police chief in Gloucester, Massachusetts, has employed what the Boston Globe accurately describes as an "unconventional" tactic in his fight to reduce the number of drug addicts. Chief Leonard Campanello's department put up a Facebook post with the phone numbers and email addresses of the CEOs at five big pharmaceutical companies—Eli Lilly, Abbott Labs, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer, reports CBS Boston. "Now...don't get mad," advises the post. "Just politely ask them what they are doing to address the opioid epidemic in the United States." Campanello argues that most addicts start out by getting hooked on prescription drugs. "They can definitely be part of the solution here and I believe they will be....might need a little push." Campanello is familiar with unconventional methods. Earlier this year, after a rash of overdose deaths in his city, he shifted his department's approach to reflect the idea that "addicts will no longer be treated as criminals," sums up the Portland Press Herald. The philosophy emphasizes treatment over prosecution, and while it's a little early to gauge results, the newspaper says the "radical shift" has at least sparked a national conversation about the proper approach to addicts. As for the CEO stunt, the Daily News of Newburyport actually tried all five numbers and ran into a brick wall. The closest thing to a response was someone in the Pfizer office referring the call to an industry rep, who said the real problem was with generic drugs, not the one produced by these five companies. (A young widow posted a jarring photo of her late husband to make a point of her own about addiction.)

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook is rolling out a radical new redesign of News Feed, the biggest since it launched the feature in 2006. The giant social network plans to unveil the redesign at a press conference Thursday at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters. The redesign will reportedly give users new ways to catch up with what friends are doing, such as sorting through photos they share or music they are listening to. Right now users can only sort the News Feed by "Top Stories" or "Most Recent." The changes address a frequent complaint from users that they have too little control over what appears in their News Feed. Photos: The evolution of the Facebook News Feed The News Feed will also feature splashier photos and videos. This is a high-stakes move. News Feed is indisputably the most valuable real estate on Facebook. It's the place that people get updates from their friends. And it's the place that Facebook is betting advertisers have the best shot at connecting with its 1 billion-plus users. "News Feed is why we go to Facebook. Anything that makes users more likely to visit is important," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said. "Allowing feed customization provides Facebook with more information about what users find relevant, allowing better targeting for advertisers. Better targeting means higher revenue per impression or click-through, and translates to overall higher revenue and profits for Facebook." In a interview at a recent investor conference, Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman underscored that surfacing the most interesting information for users "will be core to our ability to continue to have engaged users even as they contemplate other services." But it's not just about capturing and keeping users' attention. It's a major effort to ring up more dollars from advertisers. "Advertisers want really rich things like big pictures or videos, and we haven't provided those things historically. But one of the things that we’ve done in the last year, as you've seen, the organic News Feed product that consumers use are moving toward bigger pictures, richer media, and I think you will continue to see it go in that direction," Facebook cofounder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said during a conference call with analysts in January. News Feed, which is now the company's most successful feature, didn't start out that way. Facebook debuted News Feed in September 2006, and suddenly everyone could see everything their friends were posting on Facebook. Some 700,000 users out of 9 million joined protests that the new feature that alerted friends to every piece of information they shared on Facebook was too intrusive. They threatened boycotts and clamored for an off switch. Zuckerberg apologized for the way Facebook introduced the feature and gave users more control over privacy settings but didn’t waver. He promoted the News Feed as a cool way to “know what’s going on in your friends' lives.” Now the News Feed is far more crowded as friends, businesses and celebrities you "like" all compete for your attention. Facebook uses a secret algorithm to only show you the updates it thinks will interest you. No one knows why Facebook's algorithm selects the updates it does any more than they know why certain results rank high in Google. But some people aren't happy about it. Billionaire Mark Cuban and "Star Trek" actor George Takei are among those who have complained that their posts that used to reach millions of fans are now getting drowned out. They have accused Facebook of profiteering. A tweak in the News Feed algorithm coincided with a push from Facebook to get marketers to buy ads in the News Feed. Facebook denies it suppresses updates to get people to buy ads. "Our goal with News Feed is always to show each individual the most relevant blend of stories that maximizes engagement and interest. There have been recent claims suggesting that our News Feed algorithm suppresses organic distribution of posts in favor of paid posts in order to increase our revenue. This is not true," the company said in a blog post. The redesign of News Feed comes on the heels of another major Facebook product rollout: Graph Search. Facebook made another move on Wednesday, expanding its board of directors. It announced that Susan Desmond-Hellmann, chancellor of the University of California at San Francisco, was elected to the board. Desmond-Hellmann is the former president of product development at biotechnology company Genentech and has experience operating a public company and shaping public policy. She will begin serving on the board right away but will have to be elected by shareholders at the company's annual meeting in June. Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, joined the board in June 2012, a month after the company went public. ALSO: Facebook introduces new search tool Facebook's Chris Cox: A very likable pitchman Is Facebook worth it? Film execs may cut movie ads ||||| For example, last year, just before it filed for its public offering, it began to show advertisements in the News Feed, largely in the form of the controversial Sponsored Stories, where one user’s “like” for a brand was deployed to market that brand to a user’s Facebook “friends.” Last fall, again in an effort to drum up new revenue, Facebook offered brands and individual users a way to pay Facebook to promote a particular post on the News Feed. Those who did not pay could expect an average post to reach about a third of their Facebook friends, according to the company’s own analysis. That immediately drew criticism, including from Mark Cuban, a technology investor and owner of the Mavericks basketball team, who wrote in an angry post on his blog (http://blogmaverick.com/) last fall that Facebook had made it too expensive for a brand like the Mavericks to reach its fans. This week, responding to fresh criticism, Facebook said it did not “artificially suppress” content to feature paid posts. The social networking giant has tweaked its News Feed over the years. Since 2009, Facebook has filtered what every user sees on the News Feed, based on the wisdom of its proprietary algorithm, called Edge Rank, which determines which posts a particular user is likely to find most interesting. In 2010, it allowed users to chronologically filter the contents of the scrolling feed. The next year, it introduced a separate right-hand-side ticker — Twitter-esque, some said — of everything that every “friend” and brand page had posted.

– Logging on to Facebook soon won't be the same old-same old: The site will today announce a major revamp of its News Feed, a redesign that the Los Angeles Times describes as the biggest in the feature's nearly seven-year history. The company has stayed fairly mum on what's coming, but Mark Zuckerberg may have hinted at what to expect in a January earnings call, reports the New York Times: "Advertisers want really rich things like big pictures or videos, and we haven’t provided those things historically," he said. The LAT reports that rumor has it the "high-stakes" redesign will give users alternate ways to view their friends' activities, like specifically viewing photos that were recently shared. Currently, the News Feed only allows two views: Top Stories and Most Recent. The LAT echoes the NYT's expectations, reporting that "splashier" photos and video will be introduced. The goal seems to be two-fold: Keep users hooked, and boost ad revenue. Says an analyst: "Allowing feed customization provides Facebook with more information about what users find relevant, allowing better targeting for advertisers, [which] translates to overall higher revenue and profits for Facebook."

A woman in Rockland, Maine, is refusing to take down her pro-Donald Trump signs and says she would rather go to jail. A Rockland, Maine, woman says she would rather go to jail than take down her pro-Donald Trump signs. Susan Reitman has hung two banners on her front gate: One that says "I love Trump" and another that says "He Won, Get over it." She received a notice from the city’s code enforcement office a few days ago, asking her to take them down. "I was shocked," she said. "This is my freedom of speech. People have a right to voice their opinion." FBI Director Wray Says He’s ‘Angry’ About Shutdown FBI Director Christopher Wray shared his thoughts on the ongoing government shutdown with a publicly released video. (Published Friday, Jan. 25, 2019) Assistant Code Officer Bill Butler said another Rockland resident complained about the signs' size. The city ordinance states residential signs can be no larger than 2 square feet. Reitman’s signs are a little larger than 3 feet by 2 feet. "They’re well over the limit," Butler said. He said residents need to apply for permits to display signs like that. They are able to follow an appeals process if their permits are denied. Reitman said she wasn’t aware of the ordinance and feels it should be changed to allow for this kind of political speech. She has until Friday to remove the banners, or else face a fine between $100-$1,000 a day. Trump Confidant Roger Stone Arrested in Russia Probe Another confidant of President Donald Trump was arrested during the course of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Roger Stone was charged with witness tampering, obstruction and lying to authorities. (Published Friday, Jan. 25, 2019) Reitman has no plans to pay fines or remove signs. "If I have to sit in jail for the rest of eternity, that’s my choice," she said. "I guess I’m being stubborn ... but I’m not going to back down from what I believe." ||||| ROCKLAND — A 75-year-old Rockland woman says she would rather go to jail than follow a city directive to remove signs supporting President Trump. Susan Reitman has been directed to remove the pro-Trump signs because they exceed the size of signs allowed on residential properties, Rockland Assistant Code Enforcement Officer William Butler said. He said the directive has nothing to do with the signs’ content. “I admire your passion for our president. Truly, I do,” Butler said in a Monday email to Reitman. “However, we have received a complaint and I have to do my due diligence and I have determined your signs are not in compliance with the Rockland Code. “It is your business what you put on the signs. It is the city’s business regarding the size and number of signs.” There was no threat of jail mentioned in the email and the city would first need to file a land-use complaint in court. Jail would be a risk only if a judge ordered the removal of the signs and Reitman refused to follow the court order. The city’s sign ordinance limits residences to one sign, either one that is attached to a structure and is no more than 2 square feet or a free-standing sign of no more than 4 square feet. The gate to Reitman’s driveway has two signs that exceed the size limits, and she also has one on her ranch-style house on Seavey Lane, a dead-end road off South Main Street that has 10 homes. She said the assistant code officer had been on her property earlier this month about a request she had to add a fence and she was not told the signs were in violation at that time. Butler said he received an email complaint from a resident and that he was obligated to respond. He declined to release the name of the complainant, but said the identity would be released if a formal Freedom of Access Act request was made. The Courier-Gazette filed such a request Monday. Reitman said she would not remove the signs, despite the warning from the city. “They can put me in jail. I won’t take them down,” she said. The city ordinance carries a potential penalty of between $100 and $1,000 per day for violations. Reitman said she also will refuse to pay any fine and that the city can place liens on her property if it wants to. She said she is living on a fixed income. “I have the right to support our president. This is about freedom of speech,” she said. Rockland, which had a population of 7,179 in 2016 according to the U.S. Census, has 1,798 registered Democrats and 1,223 registered Republicans. Hillary Clinton won the city’s presidential vote in November, 58 percent to 35 percent for Donald Trump. Both of the state legislators representing the city, one in the House and one in the Senate, are Democrats. Reitman, who is retired and a widow, has lived in the home since 2006. Trained as a nurse, she last worked for Coastal Opportunities in Camden. Maine law allows campaign signs to be on the state road right-of-way six weeks before an election and one week after the vote. State law allows campaign signs on private property if they are not within a road right-of-way. State law, however, says that municipalities can impose stricter regulations. Reitman said that if the signs are within the road right-of-way she would move them to her house. However, Butler said that the law on campaign signs has no bearing on the situation and that he issued the directive because the signs violate the ordinance governing the size and number of signs on a residential property. Share filed under: Want the news vital to Maine? Our daily headlines email is delivered each morning. Email * Newsletter Choices * Daily Headlines and Evening Express Breaking News Business Headlines Maine Cannabis Report High School Sports Real Estate * I understand the Terms of Service. Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. 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– A Maine woman says she'd rather go to jail than take down her pro-Donald Trump signs. Susan Reitman's signs say "I Love Trump" and "He Won, Get Over It." But the code enforcement officer in Rockland has notified her that the signs violate a local ordinance, because they are bigger than the town allows. She could be fined $100 or more per day. "I admire your passion for our president. Truly, I do," Rockland Assistant Code Enforcement Officer William Butler wrote to Reitman this week, per the Portland Press Herald. "However, we have received a complaint and I have to do my due diligence and I have determined your signs are not in compliance with the Rockland Code." "It is your business what you put on the signs," Butler wrote. "It is the city’s business regarding the size and number of signs." Town officials say there's a process to apply for permits to display larger signs. But Reitman tells New England Cable News that her free speech rights are more important than the ordinance. The 75-year-old widow says she has no intention of removing her signs—or paying any fines. She tells NECN: "If I have to sit in jail for the rest of eternity, that's my choice."

Are you there? Share photos and video if you can do so safely. Boulder, Colorado (CNN) -- Clear skies allowed for more evacuations and rescues in flood-devastated Colorado on Friday, but the forecast through Sunday called for more heavy rain. Even after the last of the storms, authorities can't say how long it will take to reach residents who will remain isolated by devastated roads. The confirmed death toll reached four when Boulder County officials recovered the body of a woman who had been swept away after getting out of her vehicle Thursday, Sheriff Joe Pelle said. Authorities already had recovered the body of a man who left the same car and tried to save the woman. One other death had been reported in Boulder County and one occurred in El Paso County. President Barack Obama declared an emergency for Boulder, Larimer and El Paso counties, FEMA announced Friday. The declaration allowed FEMA to bring in four rescue teams, the largest ever deployment in Colorado, officials said. More heavy rain is forecast through Sunday for the region, on top of the 15 inches some parts of the state have already received. "This isn't over," CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said. On Friday, National Guard troops using "high-profile" trucks to wade through water were evacuating the entire Boulder County town of Lyons, which had been cut off since the flooding began Wednesday night. "It just really felt like God came down and saved us. It felt great," Melinda Villa said of the National Guard's arrival at the Lyons apartment where she was stranded with her 1-month-old infant. She said, "I just felt like I was trapped. No phone, no water, barely any formula for my baby, barely any food for us." Jonathan Linenberger described a Noah's Ark-style evacuation as he, his fiancee and four dogs and three cats greeted the National Guard truck. "We had to go (through) knee-deep water, at least. We had to wade our animals across into the truck to get them there," said Linenberger. "That was the first thing you can grab, your loved ones -- and that's what we have." The National Guard also was evacuating the entire population -- 285 people -- from the town of Jamestown by helicopter, CNN affiliate KCNC-TV reported. Four helicopters were being used for rescues in Boulder County Friday, Pelle said. The sheriff said helicopters also may have to be used indefinitely to deliver food and water to residents along damaged rural roads. "Please know we're working hard," Pelle told residents who might see his televised news conference. "We're concerned about you. But you're going to have to be patient. Please know this is an unprecented event." About 80 people in Boulder County have been reported missing or "unaccounted for" by relatives, Sheriff's Cmdr. Heidi Prentup said. The University of Colorado canceled Saturday's scheduled football game against Fresno State. In Larimer County to the north, Sheriff Justin Smith surveyed the heavily damaged Big Thompson Canyon by air Friday. Some people remain stranded in homes there, he said, adding, "How we're going to get them out -- it's going to take a damn long time." However, he said the break in the rain Friday allowed school buses to begin evacuating students who had been stranded at a school. Smith described widespread damage to roads. He estimated 17 miles of Highway 34, a major artery, will need to be rebuilt. Lyons rescue The National Guard effort to get residents out of Lyons began shortly after daybreak. About 100 troops in 21 heavy vehicles able to ford high waters streamed into the city to begin moving residents out, Gov. John Hickenlooper said. Residents had been entirely cut off, without water or sewer service, in many cases without electricity, facing what Fire Chief J.J. Hoffman said in a Facebook posting was a "very large disaster." It was unclear when the evacuation would be complete. "I encourage all of you -- stay strong!" Hoffman wrote on the fire department's Facebook page. "We will make it through this, we are here for you and doing the absolute best we can with the resources we have to get to each and every one of you!" As Lyons evacuees arrived at a shelter set up in a church in nearby Longmont, they told stories of houses ripped off their foundations as the St. Vrain Creek turned into a violent river, CNN affiliate KMGH reported. KMGH reporter Theresa Marchetta said evacuees also described homes dangling off cliffs. Some people in Lyons still were awaiting rescue, evacuees said, and some residents had chosen to stay. Marchetta said evacuees told her there had been a town meeting and residents were checking on each other to ensure no one was missing. Danger elsewhere State transportation officials issued an emergency alert to residents in some of the hardest-hit counties, warning them to stay off roads because many are unstable and could give way without notice. They also closed Interstate 25 from the Wyoming line south to Denver. Part of Interstate 70 also was shut down. In Fort Collins, some residents had been urged to leave their homes. And in Denver, police responded when a man was swept into a drainage pipe with his dog. Both were saved after traveling two blocks in the water, police said on Twitter. The rains sent virtually every waterway in Boulder County coursing out of its banks, and massive water flows washed away roads and bridges, flooded homes and stressed numerous other bridges. In the early hours Friday, flood sirens sounded in Boulder County as emergency officials feared that debris-caked canyons might give way and send another wall of water crashing through the city of Boulder and neighboring communities. "All residents are warned to go to higher ground immediately due to the potential for flash flooding along the creek," Boulder's Office of Emergency Management said. Emergency management warned that "there are mudslides at the mouth of Boulder Canyon 400 feet long and four feet deep as the sides of the canyon give way due to the saturation from the days-long rain." Authorities continued to warn of the danger of mudslides Friday night. HLNTV.com: 8 stunning Colorado flooding Twitter photos Hickenlooper warned an extensive recovery is ahead. "This is not going to get fixed in a week," he said. "We have lost a great deal of infrastructure." David Simpson and Michael Pearson reported and wrote from Atlanta; George Howell reported from Boulder, Colorado; Ana Cabrera reported from Lyons, Colorado; CNN's Ed Payne, Matt Smith, Sara Weisfeldt, Tina Burnside, Shawn Nottingham and Sherri Pugh contributed to this report. ||||| Drop by drop by drop, historic rainfall across a 150-mile expanse of Colorado's Front Range turned neighborhood streams into rampaging torrents that claimed at least three lives and continued to flood homes and destroy roads into the night. Heavy rain returned to the region Thursday evening, threatening an equally disastrous Friday. By the end of Thursday, thousands had been evacuated from their homes in places as far apart as Loveland, Erie and Aurora as rain-swollen creeks and rivers threatened their homes. Nearly every road heading into the foothills of Boulder, Larimer and northern Jefferson counties was blocked by floodwaters or debris. Loveland and Longmont were essentially shorn in two by road closures near the Big Thompson and St. Vrain rivers that kept residents on one side unable to cross to the other. Sonia Chacon clears debris from around her family's home in north Boulder. Floodwaters damaged roads and homes, and left three people dead. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post) At least three Colorado towns — Lyons, Estes Park and Jamestown — were entirely isolated by water. Xcel Energy cut off power to most of Lyons. In Estes Park, a community of about 6,000 people, both telephone lines and cellphone towers were down. As darkness fell, the only communication into or out of the town was by ham radio. "God, it just needs to stop," said Bob Stahl, who lives within a block of the St. Vrain River in Longmont. "I just hope it quits." So fierce and sustained was the deluge that officials said they don't know how bad the damage is or how long it will take to fix. Roads crews couldn't reach flooded areas. More heavy rain was expected overnight and Friday morning — both prolonging the rivers' menace and delaying the recovery from their wrath. All together, the floods were expected to be some of the worst in state history. "It's going to take us a while to rebuild from this, no question," Gov. John Hickenlooper said Thursday afternoon. "A storm of this size is going to cause severe consequences." Even without more rain, flooding was expected to ripple for days. Flooding is predicted on Friday along the South Platte River east of Greeley, said U.S. Geological Survey spokesman Robert Kimbrough. On Saturday, minor flooding is expected along the same river near Sterling. "We can anticipate we will see rivers going above flood stages as that flood crest makes its way downstream," Kimbrough said. Hickenlooper said he had summoned help from the National Guard. The White House announced Thursday night that President Barack Obama had declared an emergency in Boulder, El Paso and Larimer counties, so that money and resources can come to the state more quickly. Purely by the numbers, the storm's might was staggering. Dozens of communities from Fremont County to Larimer County reported flooding, a swath of rain roughly equivalent to the distance between Baltimore and New York. For Boulder, which saw some of the worst flooding, Kimbrough said there was only a 1-in-100 chance that a storm of this magnitude would happen in a year — meaning the storm is a proverbial 100-year flood. Cenobio Chacon tries to get his son's car out of the path of the flood outside his home in north Boulder, September 12, 2013. The car is stuck in the middle of Topaz Dr. that is overrun with water. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post) Boulder Creek's flow rate, measured at one point at 4,500 cubic feet per second, was more than twice as large as the previous peak flow recorded during the river gauge's quarter-century history. Typically the river runs at between 100 and 300 cfs. With at least 10 inches of rain having fallen across the city since the storm began, Boulder's 25 square miles were inundated with roughly 4.5 billion gallons of water. On the University of Colorado at Boulder campus, one quarter of all buildings had suffered some type of water damage, although much of it was minor, a school spokesman said. Panorama of Coal Creek stream flooding near Vista Ridge Parkway, west of County Line Road in Erie on Thursday, September, 12, 2013. The stream ordinarily runs at about 6-inches deep and about 6-feet wide. (Doug Conarroe, North Forty News) Flash-flood warnings lit up Adams, Denver, Larimer, Boulder, Jefferson, Arapahoe, Douglas, El Paso, Lincoln, Cheyenne and Kit Carson counties on Thursday night. The National Weather Service warned that any given storm cell was capable of dropping multi-inch amounts in only a few hours. "(A) major flooding/flash-flooding event (is) underway at this time with biblical rainfall amounts reported in many areas," the National Weather Service announced Thursday morning. State climatologist Nolan Doesken said the floods are not the worst Colorado has ever seen but they are unusual for being so widespread. A stubborn low-pressure system from the north and a persistent suction of moisture from the south have collided over the state, he said. The result is a perpetual loop of rain. Flood waters engulf the front of a pair of cars on a property along Weld County Road 2 in Northglenn, Colorado on September 12, 2013. (Seth McConnell, The Denver Post) Doesken said the storm is similar to one that occurred in September 1938, when flooding rampaged through Morrison, Eldorado Springs and parts of El Paso County — a storm The Denver Post at the time called "A moment's madness of the skies." "This is not unprecedented," Doesken said. "It is simply not common." The floods' impact, though still unclear, was devastating. One man, who neighbors identified as Joey Howlett, 72, was reported killed after a building collapsed in Jamestown, in the mountains above Boulder. Later, the body of a man family identified as Wesley Quinlan was found in north Boulder in the 200 block of Linden Drive. Officials said that man had been with a woman in a car that became stranded in the area. The woman is still missing. In Colorado Springs, emergency crews checking flooding conditions early Thursday discovered the body of a man in Fountain Creek, near Nevada Avenue and Las Vegas Street. The man was identified Thursday afternoon as Danny Davis, 54. "The event is far from over," Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said at a morning news conference. "We know we've lost lives. As the day goes on, we may find we've lost others." Only quick evacuations and moments of heroics prevented other deaths. Officials in Erie, Longmont and Loveland moved rapidly to evacuate residents in flood-prone areas. Emergency crews in Aurora, Commerce City, Denver and Jefferson County scrambled to rescue drivers stranded in floodwaters. Firefighters in Broomfield pulled two people out of cars that splashed into floodwaters when the section of Dillon Road that they were driving on crumbled beneath them. A third motorist was able to free himself from his vehicle. "I have people banging on the doors," one of the first police officers on scene shouted into his police radio. "There's one overturned. I'm hearing people banging. I can't get down there right now." North Metro Fire & Rescue firefighters used a raft to rescue the two, who suffered only minor injuries. Throughout the day, residents in the flood's path looked on with disbelief as their neighborhoods turned suddenly threatening. Three Loveland police officers knocked on Julie Demaree's door at 3 p.m. Thursday to deliver a fairly short, blunt order: "You have 30 minutes, ... so get out." Demaree and her boyfriend collected their things and their dog and headed toward a hotel near Interstate 25 and U.S. 34. As they left, they looked back on the sliver of the Big Thompson River that runs by Demaree's condo. "I liked to walk on the little walking trail there, but now it's completely flooded," she said. "By the time we left, the water there had gone up 3 feet." Conditions worsened throughout the day in Longmont, and, by late afternoon, the evacuation center at Silver Creek High School had registered 150 people. "We are having a hard time getting supplies," said Steve Aubrey, a Boulder County Sheriff's deputy. "We are checking with the National Guard to see if we can get cots for everyone tonight." Many tried to stay upbeat. On Twitter, a man posted a picture of himself holding a fish he said he caught. The fish was swimming around the basketball hoop in his driveway. For Grant Hetherington and Jyssica Lasco, the flood washed away their plans to be married Friday at the Stone Mountain Lodge in Lyons. They had spent a year-and-a-half planning the event. A half-day's work on Thursday quickly switched the wedding to a venue in Loveland. "I cried a little, but I'm still marrying my best friend and the love of my life," said Lasco, 24, "and we're sending our thoughts out to those affected by the flooding." As rain continued to fall into the night, officials said that was about all that could be done. Earlier in the day, Hickenlooper was asked whether the state had the resources to deal with the flooding. The governor insisted it did. It was just that, on Thursday, the rains reigned. "It's not that we haven't had the equipment or the manpower," Hickenlooper said. "It's that the conditions haven't permitted it." Staff writers Suzanne Brown, Joey Bunch, Tom McGhee, Jeremy P. Meyer, Kirk Mitchell and Kieran Nicholson contributed to this report.

– A third person has died as floods continue to ravage northern Colorado, driving some 4,000 people out of Boulder late yesterday. Rainfall in the city has obliterated a 73-year record, with 12.3 inches falling since Sept. 1—compared to 5.5 in September 1940. Floodwater is pouring from neighboring Boulder Canyon, Reuters reports. "There's so much water coming out of the canyon, it has to go somewhere, and unfortunately it's coming into the city," says an official. The Denver Post shares these jarring numbers: Boulder Creek typically flows at between 100 and 300 cubic feet per second; it hit 4,500 cfs this week. Further, a rep for the US Geological Survey says there was just a 1% chance Boulder would see a storm like this in a year, "meaning the storm is a proverbial 100-year flood," writes the Post. Nearby Longmont has seen 7,000 evacuated, while the National Guard brought supplies to the town of Lyons, which has been cut off from neighboring areas. Landlines and cellphones aren't working in Estes Park, where the only functioning way to communicate with the outside world is via ham radio. With rain likely to continue today, President Obama declared a state of emergency for the state last night, CNN reports.

Carla del Ponte, member of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria arrives for the report to the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva March 11, 2013. The Syrian government is reportedly using local militias known as Popular Committees to commit mass killings which... Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria Paulo Pinheiro pauses before delivering his report to the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva March 11, 2013. The Syrian government is reportedly using local militias known as Popular Committees to commit mass... Carla del Ponte, member of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria pauses before the report to the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva March 11, 2013. Syrian ambassador to the United Nations Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui greets an unidentified delegate before the report of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva March 11, 2013. Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria Paulo Pinheiro (2L) arrives with members Carla del Ponte (R) Karen Koning Abuzayd (2R) and Vitit Muntarbhorn (L) before their report to the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva March 11, 2013. Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria Paulo Pinheiro (L) talks with U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay before the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva March 11, 2013. Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria Paulo Pinheiro (L) delivers his report next to U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva March 11, 2013. GENEVA (Reuters) - The Syrian government has stepped up indiscriminate, heavy bombardments of cities while rebels are executing prisoners condemned in their own makeshift courts without due process, U.N. investigators said on Monday. The independent investigators said they were looking into 20 massacres committed by one or the other side and hundreds of "unlawful killings", cases of torture and arbitrary arrests since September in the two-year-old conflict. "Indiscriminate and widespread shelling, the regular bombardment of cities, mass killing and the deliberate firing on civilian targets have come to characterize the daily lives of civilians in Syria," Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the commission of inquiry on Syria, told the U.N. Human Rights Council. The uprising in Syria erupted in March 2011 with largely peaceful protests but escalated into a civil war pitting mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, whose minority Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. "In a disturbing and dangerous trend, mass killings allegedly perpetrated by Popular Committees have at times taken on sectarian overtones," the 10-page U.N. report said. "Some appear to have been trained and armed by the government." Pro-Assad Popular Committee militiamen have been documented as operating across Syria, "where at times they are alleged to be participating in house-to-house searches, identity checks, mass arrests, looting and acting as informants", it said. Karen Koning AbuZayd, an American commissioner, said the committees were formed initially to defend their neighborhoods. "In a way, this is a move by the government to supplement its own manpower as it begins to lose some of the (regular military) manpower that it used to have," she told a news conference. Syrian Ambassador Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui dismissed the report as based on "partial information from untrustworthy sources" and accused Qatar and Turkey of "supporting terrorism" in Syria. Related Coverage › Lebanon says world must shoulder Syrian refugee burden "There is a conspiracy against Syria. Qatar has financed and armed tens of thousands of mercenaries from 30 countries. Turkey has provided the military bases and sent them into Syria on their jihad," he told the Geneva forum. "SECTARIAN ELEMENTS" "We are not saying that it is a sectarian war but we call attention to sectarian elements in the present conflict," Pinheiro said. Foreign fighters from more than a dozen countries are estimated to comprise less than 10 percent of the opposition forces fighting the Assad government, he said. "We don't want to contribute to a paranoia that Syria is being invaded by foreign fighters. But they have a lot of skills and have been very successful in spreading acts of terror inside Syria," said Pinheiro. More than 1 million Syrian refugees have fled abroad and 2.5 million are uprooted within the country, while more than 70,000 people have been killed in the war, the United Nations says. The war is mired in a "destructive stalemate, amid heavy shelling and air raids by government forces, the report said. Both sides have committed violations against civilians, the U.N. investigators said. They are investigating about 20 cases of massacre, including three in Homs at the start of the year, despite their lack of access to the country. They said rebel forces often execute captured Syrian soldiers and militiamen and have established detention centers in Homs and Aleppo. Rebels had also taken up positions in or near densely-populated areas, in violation of international law. "There is an intensification of violations because the war is worsening. You have to look at the totality of the panorama - the murders, the arbitrary arrests and all of it," said Vitit Muntarbhorn, a commission member from Thailand. "Some groups are exercising or trying to exercise civilian authority without due process of law. So we have allegations for example of sentences being imposed on various people, arrested and captured soldiers and so on, without due process and then being executed, as well as some families," Muntarbhorn said, noting that these were war crimes under the Geneva Convention. The European Union and United States denounced continuing crimes and said that those responsible must be held accountable. The U.N. investigators said that they would give a secret third list of suspects in a sealed envelope to High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay with a view to future prosecutions. Carla del Ponte, a former U.N. war crimes prosecutor who tried ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, is on the panel. Speaking in Italian to reporters, she said: "Sooner or later the International Criminal Court must be seized of the matter. "I don't think that high-ranking political and military officials can be judged in their own country. We have seen, we have experience, we know that with a president of a nation, it is difficult for countries to put him on trial." (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Mark Heinrich) ||||| Few civilian areas in Syria remain untouched by the country’s two-year civil war and more than 2.5 million people have been displaced internally, according to the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria. “Over the past two months, there has been a dramatic erosion of areas inside Syria where civilians are able to live unaffected by the violence and destruction caused by the conflict,” the panel told the Human Rights Council in Geneva today, according to an advance copy of its presentation. In its latest report, which covers Jan. 15 to March 3, the commission said the collapse of Syria’s economy has crippled citizens’ access to basic economic and social rights. The conflict between troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and anti-government rebels has led to shortages of fuel, electricity, water and medicine that have been compounded by international sanctions, according to the commission. The panel is charged with investigating alleged violations of international law and all massacres in Syria. More than 70,000 people have been killed since the conflict broke out in March 2011 and UN High Commissioner for RefugeesAntonio Guterres said on March 6 that 1 million Syrians had fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and other countries. “The scope of the humanitarian crisis in Syria remains of grave concern,” the commission said. “The education system in many areas is in tatters. Prices for basic necessities have increased exponentially. There has been significant damage to the country’s infrastructure.” Hospitals Targeted Medical personnel and hospitals have been “deliberately targeted” and are treated by both sides in the conflict as military objectives, the commission said. “Medical access has been denied on real or perceived political and sectarian grounds,” it said. “The urgent need for a political solution cannot be overstated,” the commission said. “A failure to resolve this increasingly violent conflict will condemn Syria, the region and the millions of civilians caught in the crossfire to an unimaginably bleak future.” The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that at least four million people are in need of assistance. To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer M. Freedman in Geneva at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at [email protected]

– The latest travesty the Syrian government has been accused of: using local militias to carry out mass killings. UN human rights investigators say these "Popular Committees" commit killings that sometimes have "sectarian overtones," Reuters reports. (The rebels in Syria are mainly Sunni Muslims, while President Bashar al-Assad has ties to Shi'ite Islam.) In its new report, the UN commission of inquiry on Syria calls the trend "disturbing and dangerous," noting that some of the militias "appear to have been trained and armed by the government." The report accuses the Popular Committees of engaging in "house-to-house searches, identity checks, mass arrests, looting, and acting as informants," as well as harassing or arresting people from regions seen as supporting the opposition. It comes amid more violence in Syria: Government warplanes today bombed Homs, after rebels pushed into the Baba Amr district, Reuters reports. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced due to the civil war, according to Bloomberg, and the UN report finds that there are few areas inside Syria unaffected by the conflict.

Abstract The origins of flora and fauna that are only found in Ireland and Iberia, but which are absent from intervening countries, is one of the enduring questions of biogeography. As Southern French, Iberian and Irish populations of the land snail Cepaea nemoralis sometimes have a similar shell character, we used mitochondrial phylogenies to begin to understand if there is a shared “Lusitanian” history. Although much of Europe contains snails with A and D lineages, by far the majority of Irish individuals have a lineage, C, that in mainland Europe was only found in a restricted region of the Eastern Pyrenees. A past extinction of lineage C in the rest of Europe cannot be ruled out, but as there is a more than 8000 year continuous record of Cepaea fossils in Ireland, the species has long been a food source in the Pyrenees, and the Garonne river that flanks the Pyrenees is an ancient human route to the Atlantic, then we suggest that the unusual distribution of the C lineage is most easily explained by the movements of Mesolithic humans. If other Irish species have a similarly cryptic Lusitanian element, then this raises the possibility of a more widespread and significant pattern. Citation: Grindon AJ, Davison A (2013) Irish Cepaea nemoralis Land Snails Have a Cryptic Franco-Iberian Origin That Is Most Easily Explained by the Movements of Mesolithic Humans. PLoS ONE 8(6): e65792. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065792 Editor: Carles Lalueza-Fox, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva - Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain Received: March 5, 2013; Accepted: May 2, 2013; Published: June 19, 2013 Copyright: © 2013 Grindon, Davison. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The work was supported by the University of Nottingham, Genetics Society, the Carr Scholarship the Malacological Society of London, and the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction The geographic origins of the flora and fauna of Ireland are mysterious because a number of species, including the strawberry tree, the Kerry slug, and the Pyrenean glass snail, are exclusive to Ireland and Iberia. In 1846 Forbes described this general pattern as ‘Lusitanian’, which subsequently was called, perhaps with some irony, ‘the Irish question’ [1]. To date, the origins of the Ireland-Iberia connection remain unclear, with no single theory able to explain every pattern. More recently, genetic studies have made great progress, because it has been possible to finely dissect past events on a case-by-case basis [2], [3]. Moreover, a few more detailed studies have begun to show that patterns of variation are not always concordant between different genetic markers, because of different histories and selection [4], [5], [6]. Of particular note, new inferences from small mammal phylogeography have led to the proposal that the characteristic signature seen in some Irish species and the “Celtic fringe” in general is as a result of insular isolation – a first wave of colonisation across Britain and Ireland was later followed by second wave that only reached mainland Britain, but not the western fringes and certainly not Ireland [4]. With a view to further understanding the intriguing affinities of the Irish fauna, we chose to study the widespread and common European land snail species, Cepaea nemoralis. Fossil material indicates that this species has been continuously present in Ireland for at least 8000 years (Newlands Cross, Co. Dublin: 7600+/−500 BP Cartronmacmanus, Co. Mayo: 8207+/−165) [7], [8]. On the West coast, the normally rare white-lipped shell form is common and populations are also much larger than average. As one of the few other regions known to contain populations with both white-lipped and large shelled individuals is in the Pyrenees and Cantabria, Cook & Peake [9] speculated that the some Irish C. nemoralis might originate from this region. Moore [1] went so far as to suggest that Irish snails might have been brought across the sea by Mesolithic humans. However, convergent evolution through natural selection might also explain the similarity, especially since some areas of Western Ireland and Northern Spain have a similar underlying geology. As a preliminary mitochondrial DNA study showed that two populations in Ireland were genetically distinct from those in Britain [10], we thought it conceivable that Irish C. nemoralis might originate, at least in part, from a Southern French or Iberian source. We therefore set out to establish the post-glacial geographic origin of Irish C. nemoralis, by sampling widely across the whole of Europe, with a particular concentration of sites in Ireland, Britain, and across Northern Spain and Southern France, including the Pyrenees. In order to achieve this, a fragment of the mitochondrial genes cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and 16S rRNA were used to construct phylogenies. The results may have implications for our understanding of the human colonisation of Ireland. Materials and Methods Ethics statement All animal work was conducted according to relevant national and international guidelines. No specific permissions are required to work with invertebrates in the UK. Similarly, no specific permissions were required for the collection of snails from sample sites, because they were not collected from protected areas of land. The land snail, C. nemoralis, is not an endangered or protected species. Samples Cepaea nemoralis is widespread across Western Europe, reaching its northern limit at roughly 60°N and stretching as far south as approximately 39°N [11]. In Iberia, it is only found along the Northern coast and on adjacent coastal mountain ranges, with some doubt as to whether Portuguese populations are a recent introduction. It is not found in the interior of Spain, nor the Mediterranean coast to the East of the Pyrenees. The shell is generally globular in appearance and slightly depressed, ranging in size from 12 by 18 mm to 26 by 28 mm, with the largest shelled individuals being found in the Pyrenees, Italy, and on the West coast of Ireland. In a few European locations, including sites in Cantabria in Spain, the Pyrenees, Denmark, Yorkshire and Cornwall in England, North Wales, Western Scotland; and the West coast of Ireland, the normally dark lip colour is instead polymorphic, being white/brown/black . Samples were obtained between 2005 and 2007 by volunteer-led collection and by field trips to the more remote or important locations in France, Spain and the Pyrenees. Populations were located by thorough inspection of suitable habitats, with care taken so as not to sample close to sites where recent introductions are likely, such as agricultural areas, parks, or private gardens. Where possible, between 10 and 30 individuals were collected at each site, from an area no larger than 10×10 metres. We were also able to make use of the British samples (36 sites, 423 individuals) and sequences reported in Davison [10]. DNA extraction, amplification, and sequencing Thin slices of foot muscle were removed using a scalpel and DNA was extracted using the protocol of Doyle and Doyle [12]. A ~600 base pair (b.p.) fragment of the mitochondrial gene COI was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), using either the Folmer et al. [13] primers, those of Gittenberger et al. [14], or a combination of the two. PCR conditions for Folmer primers were as described, using an annealing temperature of 55°C, but for the Gittenberger primers, or a combination of both sets, the PCR conditions used an annealing temperature of 45°C. Additionally, a 420 bp fragment of the mitochondrial gene 16S rRNA was amplified using the primers 16sar (5′-CGCCTGTTTATCAAAAACAT-3′) and 16sbr (5′-CCGGTCTGAACTCTGATCAT-3′). A nuclear gene ITS was also amplified using the primers LSU-1 (5′-CTAGCTGCGAGAATTAATGTGA-3′) and LSU-3 (5′-ACTTTCCCTCACGGTACTTG-3′), but almost lacked variation and so was not used further. Subsequently, the PCR product was sequenced with forward primers (and reverse, if necessary) using BigDye™ Terminator version 3.0 Cycle Sequencing Kit Analyses Sequences were aligned by eye in Bioedit version 7.0.9 [15], and subsequently collapsed manually into individual haplotypes. To visually check for substitution saturation, the number of transitions and transversions was plotted against genetic distance (total sequence divergence for all pairwise comparisons of the data). In addition, an entropy-based statistical test was used which takes into account tree topology, sequence length, and the number of taxa [16]. In this test, if Iss (i.e. index of substitution saturation) is smaller than Iss.c (i.e. critical Iss), then it is concluded that the sequences have not experienced substitution saturation. Both tests were implemented in DAMBE version 5.0.19 [17]. Sequences were also tested for evidence of recombination, using Recco [18]. To infer the model of nucleotide substitution that best fits the dataset, the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and Bayesian methods (i.e. BIC) were used because they simultaneously compare multiple nested or non-nested models, assess the uncertainty of a model, as well as estimating phylogenies and model parameters using all the known models [19]. The model of DNA evolution was established using ModelTest version 3.7 [20], jModelTest 0.1.1 [21], and Kakusan3 [22], taking into consideration the AIC or BIC test results. Phylogenies with the appropriate model of evolution were then constructed using the following methods: neighbour-joining (NJ – PAUP* 4b10) [23], maximum likelihood (ML – Phyml v2.4.4) [24], approximate Likelihood Ratio Tests (aLRTs – Phylml v2.4.4) [25], and Bayesian analysis MrBayes v3.1 [26]. Note that as the rate of mitochondrial evolution is completely uncertain for Cepaea mtDNA, we did not attempt to use a molecular clock - inappropriate calibration may have misled substantial numbers of phylogeographic studies [27]. The criteria used for NJ trees were: rate matrix, base frequency, shape parameter of the gamma distribution (based on 16 rate categories), and proportion of invariant sites all estimated using maximum likelihood inferred from an initial NJ phylogeny. The parameters calculated from the initial tree were then used to construct a new NJ tree with the parameters being estimated again. This procedure was repeated until the likelihood value was stable. In addition, bootstrap values were calculated using 1000 replicates to determine the support for branches within the NJ tree. ML trees were constructed using PhyML, both the gamma shape parameter and proportion of invariant sites were estimated from the data. ML bootstrap values were also calculated using 1000 replicates. Finally, Bayesian inference was performed using MrBayes, by means of a 4 chain Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm for an initial 500000 generations, sampling every 100 generations, with a subsequent 500000 generations until the diagnostic value was <0.01, indicating that convergence had occurred. The heating parameter was set to 0.2 and a ‘burnin’ value of 1250, with the estimated variables being calculated using three distance states. The relationship between haplotypes of the same lineage was visualised using median-joining (MJ) networks, drawn in Network version 4.5.0.7 [28]. To ensure an accurate representation of the relationship between haplotypes, the MJ networks were calculated and cleaned up using the Maximum-Parsimony (MP) option, which removes any unnecessary median-vectors and links. The genetic structure between populations was estimated by calculating population pairwise estimates of F ST in Arlequin version 3.0 [29]. The haplotypes are permuted between populations in order to calculate the null distribution of pairwise F ST values under the hypothesis of no differentiation between populations. The P value is the proportion of permutations that lead to a F ST value which is larger or equal to the observed one. Regression plots of F ST values against ln [distance] were constructed to test for an association of geographical distance with genetic distance, and the significance determined by a Mantel test in Arlequin [29]. Also implemented in Arlequin, the nucleotide and haplotype diversities were calculated for populations with five or more individuals. Discussion The majority of C. nemoralis individuals from Ireland have a mitochondrial lineage, C, that is in common with Central (Andorran) and Eastern Pyrenean populations. This lineage was found nowhere else in mainland Europe, except one site near Toulouse (St. Sulpice) (Figure 2) and the Isle of Man, as well as previously being found in a single snail from Wales [10]. For a genetic marker that is highly variable, especially within snails [30], it is noteworthy that three shared Irish/Pyrenean haplotypes were found, with no evidence of genetic differentiation between several different sites in Ireland and the Pyrenees (Table 1). Except for the Threecastles location, all of these sites were on the West coast of Ireland, where the white lipped shell morph is most common. In accordance with the pygmy shrew and some other animals [5], the evidence indicates that some Irish C. nemoralis have a ‘Lusitanian’ element, previously speculated but never tested [9]. If other Irish species have a similarly cryptic Lusitanian element, then this raises the possibility of a more widespread and significant pattern. There is an ongoing debate as to the biogeographic history of Ireland, including a recent body of evidence that highlights the importance of Britain in the origin of Irish fauna [6], [31], [32], [33]. In the case of C. nemoralis snails, particular caution is required in the interpretation in relation to Britain, because the inferences only reveal the history of the mitochondrial DNA contained within the snails, a single genetic locus, and give no indication for the geographic origin of the rest of the genome [4], [6]. The diverse lineages found within Ireland certainly indicate that the colonisation history is complicated, such that the other lineages may have reached Ireland from similar or different sources, including Britain, at the same or different times (e.g. haplotype D11 is shared between Ireland and Southern France; Ireland A haplotypes are largely distinct from British A haplotypes, though there is some overlap; Supplementary Table S1; Supplementary Figure S1). Here we focus our discussion on the lineage with the clearest pattern, C. for which the simplest explanation for the disjunct distribution is a single historic long distance dispersal event between the Pyrenees and Ireland. ‘Gradualist’ explanations for the distribution of lineage C, involving a stepping stone colonisation from the Pyrenees, through France and into Britain, are not satisfactory, because it is difficult to reconcile how a much slower migration did not result in significant genetic structure, as observed in most other pairwise F ST comparisons (Figure 3). Moreover, the Pyrenean haplotypes dominate in most populations across Ireland (with the exception of the South-West corner), including near the sites where shells have been radiocarbon dated (Preece et al., 1986; Speller, 2007), indicating that they might be more common because they arrived first. One significant possibility is that lineage C might exist in other countries, but was not sampled, or else it has since gone extinct [34], perhaps due to climate induced replacement [4]. Even so, the lack of structure between Ireland and the Pyrenees is difficult to explain by anything but long distance migration, and, whichever the precise explanation, the differentiation between Ireland and Britain is consistent with the model put forward [4], [6] in which Ireland may retain a signal of founding colonization for longer than Britain, simply because subsequent waves of colonisation did not take place. In Ireland, anthropogenic disturbance implies that people colonised Ireland at least 9000 years B.P., more or less coincident with the earliest post-glacial C. nemoralis fossils (8207+/−165, Co. Mayo). Molecular genetic evidence indicates this resettlement of much of western and central Europe originated from the Franco-Cantabrian or Iberian region [35], [36]. Subsequently, trading links were established between Iberia and Ireland in the Mesolithic, providing ample opportunities for land snails to be transported in the cargo [37], [38]. Intriguingly, Pyrenean and Cantabrian humans have consumed C. nemoralis since at least the end of the Pleistocene (e.g. shells radiocarbon dated from 10,932±196 cal BP) [39] and they are commonly found as an item of food refuse in Mediterranean archaeological sites just prior to the onset of agricultural economies (though not in Ireland – Eva Laurie, pers. comm.). Specifically, deep middens of burnt shells have been found during Pyrenean cave excavations, indicating that humans have either been collecting or possibly “farming” land snails for thousands of years, with the majority of these shells being C. nemoralis [37], [40]. Archaeological evidence from a Bronze Age ship wreck in Turkey also indicates that people have transported land snails, either intentionally or accidentally, across oceans for at least 3000 years [41]. Another possibility is that individual snails could have also reached Ireland via other means, most likely rafting on floating debris in the ocean or accidental transport by birds. However, rafting seems unlikely, given that the C lineage is found in the Central Pyrenees and, so far, not on the Atlantic coast of Spain or France. Transport by birds is possible, but we are not aware of any large bird species that migrate between Ireland and the Pyrenees [42] and also, Cepaea does not have particularly ‘sticky’ mucus [43], although ingestion remains a possibility [44]. Finally, natural colonization after the last glacial maximum over land now covered by sea cannot be ruled out [3], but this pattern of colonization would in theory leave a stepping stone signature of population structure (unless very rapid) [45], at the same time as leaving remnant haplotypes of the same mitochondrial lineage in places such as the West coast of France – these may exist but we did not discover them. It has been carefully argued by Cunliffe [38] that the maritime communities of the Atlantic, and the rivers that drain into it, were well connected along the coast, but less so inland. Taking the evidence together, we therefore believe that while it is not possible to rule out other explanations, the most likely justification for the specific connection between Irish and Pyrenean C. nemoralis is human assisted movement of snails, a mode of transport that has been inferred for some other species [5], [46]. While the DNA evidence from these snails may therefore reveal an insight into the journeys taken by early humans, an intriguing question is why the Irish C lineage haplotype appears to have originated from an area that is approximately 100 km inland? In the present day, C. nemoralis is not found much further East than our sample sites, and certainly not on the coast near Perpignan and Girona. One explanation is that the Garonne river, into which the Ariège on the northern flanks of the Pyrenees drains, has long been a principal route between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic [38], perhaps implying that the present day presence of these snails in Ireland might be a long lasting consequence of this ancient transport route. Although beyond the scope of this study, further study would benefit from corroborating these results using recently developed nuclear markers [47], as well as detailed sampling along the course of the Garonne. Whether the same ‘Garonne trade’ explanation may apply to explain the distribution of other species may only be determined by further genetic work. Acknowledgments We are grateful to numerous persons with their help in collecting snails, including T. Backeljau, E. Bailes, B. Bourke, T. Burke, S. Cianfanelli, H. Collins, M. Cooper, V. Fiorentino, I. Fontanilla, U. Gärdenfors, F. Giusti, J. Grindon, Jirka, E. Kletecki, P. Lavgesen, F. Lorenz, G. & L. Manganelli, T. Martins, M. Ozgo, C. & E. Schwabe, J. Spelda, V. Stamol, F. Tognazzi, T. Tregenza, C. Yates, M.L. Zettler and F. Zoltán. Thanks to Allan McDevitt, Nicky Milner, Igor Gutiérrez and one anonymous referee for comments and advice on the manuscript. ||||| Image caption A common garden snail gives insight into human migration to Ireland A genetic similarity between snail fossils found in Ireland and the Eastern Pyrenees suggests humans migrated from southern Europe to Ireland 8,000 years ago. The slimy creatures in Ireland today are almost identical to snails in Southern France and Northern Spain. Whether an accidental visitor on a ship or brought along as a snack, the boat they were carried on did not appear to stop in Britain. The findings are published in PLOS One. As Britain emerged from the end of the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago, sea levels rose and landslides are thought to have triggered a great tsunami. Britain was transformed into an island, separated from mainland Europe and Ireland. The intriguing implication is that the genetics of snails might shed light on a very old human migration event Dr Angus Davison, University of Nottingham Land-dwelling animals were therefore no longer able to migrate from Europe over the seas without a little help. It has long perplexed scientists that Ireland has plants and animals that are genetically different, and in some cases are even unique, to ones found in Britain. Now scientists have found that a common garden snail, Cepaea nemoralis, is almost genetically identical to one found in the Eastern Pyrenees, but seems to have missed Britain on its journey over. River highways Fossil analysis revealed a continuous record for these snails in Ireland for the past 8,000 years and well preserved shell remnants from France showed the creature was a snack thousands of years ago. The researchers said it was difficult to explain this "clear pattern" except by involving humans. "There are records of Mesolithic or Stone Age humans eating snails in the Pyrenees, and perhaps even farming them," said co-author of the study Angus Davison from the University of Nottingham. What our ancestors ate Evidence showed that snails were eaten in France 8,000 years ago but Dr Davison said there was no evidence they were eaten in Ireland The people who came to Britain and Ireland after the Ice Age were hunters and gatherers and it is thought they were constantly on the move in order to survive They had to search for wild foods such as nuts and berries and were known to eat red deer and fish They also tracked wild animals for meat and skins, such as the arctic hare and ptarmigan It is believed that since they were so mobile, they lived in temporary structures that were light, easily dismantled and portable Ice age survivors: Ptarmigan and arctic hares Explore Britain's Mesolithic past "If the snails naturally colonised Ireland, you would expect to find some of the same genetic type in other areas of Europe, especially Britain. We just don't find them. "The highways of the past were rivers and the ocean - as the river that flanks the Pyrenees was an ancient trade route to the Atlantic. What we're actually seeing might be the long lasting legacy of snails that hitched a ride as humans travelled from the South of France to Ireland 8,000 years ago. "The intriguing implication is that the genetics of snails might shed light on a very old human migration event," Dr Davison added. Human genetic link Population geneticist Dan Bradley from Trinity College Dublin said the study showed a recurring theme that some species in Ireland had similar genetic types to southern Europe, but not to those found in Britain. "It's consistent with the idea that almost everything we have in Ireland, that can't swim or fly, was brought here on a boat." Previous genetic studies on humans have also shown clear links between the population of Ireland and those in Southern Europe. "The genetic patterns in humans are there, but are much weaker. You see it in blood groups, in Y chromosomes and some diseases. "In order to really understand migration patterns we need more ancient DNA from different species such as small mammals," Prof Bradley told BBC News. Scientists, including Prof Bradley are now working on further studies on human remains, which over the next few years will "tell us exciting things about human migration". ||||| Listen close to the tale of the snail – it may tell us about the mysterious history of ancient Ireland. New research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE found that the snails in Ireland and the Pyrenees share genes not found in British snails. Since it’s improbable that the Irish snails made a slow, slimy crawl thousands of miles long from France and Spain, scientists suggest that the simplest explanation is that snails arrived with snail-eating migrants from southern Europe some 8,000 years ago. That Ireland is genetically different from Britain and has genetic similarities to Iberia – with numerous species that are unique to it and Iberia, including the strawberry tree, the Kerry slug, and the Pyrenean glass snail – has long puzzled scientists. In tracing the snail’s genetic origins, this latest research joins a growing body of evidence that the first people of Ireland arrived from Iberia. “The results tie in with what we know from human genetics about the human colonisation of Ireland — the people may have come from somewhere in southern Europe,” said Angus Davison, of the University of Nottingham and the co-author of the study, in a statement. “What we’re actually seeing might be the long lasting legacy of snails that hitched a ride, accidentally or perhaps as food, as humans travelled from the South of France to Ireland 8,000 years ago.” Davison and Adele Grindon, also of the University of Nottingham, analyzed mitochondrial DNA found in muscle samples sliced from the feet of some 880 snails, from the species Cepaea nemoralis. Researchers and volunteers had spent two years collecting the little animals across Europe. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy The researchers found that snails in Ireland share a mitochondrial lineage with the Central and Eastern Pyrenean snail populations, but not with snails collected elsewhere in Europe. Researchers are unsure whether or not the snails travelled as stowaways or as snacks for the long-journeying migrants. Mesolithic or Stone Age humans in the Pyrenees are recorded to have eaten snails, or perhaps farmed them.

– The first migrants to Ireland some 8,000 years ago may have been Southern Europeans with a taste for escargot, according to new research published in PLoS One. It turns out that a lowly garden snail (Cepaea nemoralis) found in Ireland is genetically different from British ones—but incredibly similar to one species found in Southern France and Northern Spain today. But scientists don't believe snails made the long crawl from the Pyrenees some 8,000 years ago. Instead, "what we're actually seeing might be the long lasting legacy of snails that hitched a ride, accidentally or perhaps as food, as humans traveled from the South of France to Ireland," the study's co-author said. The Christian Science Monitor spells it out for us: "This latest research joins a growing body of evidence that the first people of Ireland arrived from Iberia." To get to their conclusion, researchers started with a snail hunt, spending two years amassing samples from across Europe with the help of volunteers. They then looked at the mitochondrial DNA via muscle samples taken from 880 of the creatures' feet, the Christian Science Monitor reports. It adds that the snail is among a number of Irish species (it names the strawberry tree and the Kerry slug) that are specific to it and Iberia, and the BBC speaks with a population geneticist who says hints of this similarity have been found in humans from the respective regions: "The genetic patterns are there, but are much weaker. You see it in blood groups, in Y chromosomes and some diseases."

Calgary-based airlines Canadian North and WestJet are breaking their own rules to help local pets escape the wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Generally, the airlines charge fees and have strict rules about allowing pets on board. However, many Fort McMurray residents were not able to grab crates from their homes — or much of anything else — before being evacuated. SEE ALSO: Bride who lost dress in Fort McMurray wildfire gets dream wedding So Canadian North and West Jet are letting their pets fly right alongside them. "Due to the unusual circumstances we were able to bend the rules to accommodate these animals," a spokesperson from Canadian North told the Huffington Post. Now, flight attendants and thankful passengers are tweeting photos of their traveling pets — many of which look pretty excited about their very first flight. Thx for all the kudos everyone. Happy to help move 2 & 4 legged pax from #ymm. Our FA Heidi shared this pic on FB :) pic.twitter.com/IBChAWzMba — Canadian North ✈ (@CanadianNorth) May 6, 2016 Canadian North Air and West Jet letting pets onboard for those fleeing Fort Mac. #united #fortmac #Canada pic.twitter.com/EBnXAqXtgY — Melissa Przedborski (@mprzedborski) May 7, 2016 Canadian North staff are even doing some cat-sitting of their own. Meow Meow, whose owner went into labor shortly after her evacuation, is serving as a temporary flight attendant. 1 of our evacuee passengers from #YMM has gone into labour so our #yeg flight ops team is looking after "Meow Meow"! pic.twitter.com/G89Mnuurel — Canadian North ✈ (@CanadianNorth) May 5, 2016 More than 80,000 people had to evacuate because of the enormous wildfire that has burned an area larger than the entire city of Chicago. Airlines have scheduled hundreds of extra flights to accommodate evacuees. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. ||||| Pilot Keith Mann didn’t think twice to break the rules and load his plane with more than 40 furry friends, after they spent a few days north of the fire-ravaged Fort McMurray. More than 80,000 Fort McMurray residents were ordered to flee last Tuesday, leaving many without their pets as they were barred from re-entering the city due to the advancing wildfire. Since then, owners and their fur babies have begun to reunite through ongoing animal rescue efforts after the flames subsided. Mann, Suncor Energy’s manager of flight operations, said it just made sense to fly his load of critters down south after they sought refuge north of Fort McMurray. “We’re all animal lovers here,” Mann said. “We knew it was important for owners to re-connect with them.” For the past few days, Mann has flown about 6,000 people from camps up north to Calgary and Edmonton. But one flight was a bit peculiar — it was like 101 Dalmations on a plane, except it involved “cats, dogs, rabbits and chinchillas … you name it,” Mann said. Normally, Suncor planes only allow a few animals on a plane per trip, and they must be secured in a kennel, Mann said. But that policy just didn’t make sense given the circumstances, so he made the executive decision to load them all up. “I just said, ‘No, let’s do this,’” Mann said. “Everyone wanted to get out, so it didn’t matter.” Once every critter and human was secured, the aircraft took off in what Mann described as a relatively peaceful flight. “It was pretty quiet when we were up in the air,” he said. “You could just tell everyone was so happy to be out of camp and on their way.” Two dogs had to be stored in the bathroom for the safety of the rabbits and chinchillas, Mann said, adding there was a pooch family of five that were huddled together. “We just wanted to make sure some animals didn’t get chewed up,” he said. “I think they all got along pretty well.” The airplane then landed in Edmonton to much jubilation, Mann said. “I didn’t witness any reunifications, but it was just elation,” he said. “You could tell everyone was happy to be out of there.” Though he didn’t personally witness any reunions, many have already occurred. Last week, Allison Wiseman saw her dog Cuddles after she was left behind amid the blaze. “She’s mine now,” Wiseman said last week. “I’m never putting her in this kind of danger again or letting someone else.” Mann’s piloted a lot of flights in his career, though he said he never thought he’d fly an airplane-load of animals. ||||| Hundreds of pets that Fort McMurray evacuees were forced to leave behind are finally being rescued from the fire-ravaged community. Peace officers from the Alberta SPCA and the Calgary Humane Society have been working tirelessly in Fort McMurray over the last two days to help Wood Buffalo Animal Control Services to remove all of the animals abandoned in the city-wide exodus. The critters are being transported down Highway 63, and will be cared for at an emergency holding facility in Edmonton until they are healthy enough to return to their owners. A look inside Fort McMurray pet evac hotel2:25 The first truckload of more than 200 dogs and cats arrived in Edmonton early Monday morning. More exotic pets like snakes, gerbils and guinea pigs will soon follow in the next round of caravans. "It was wonderful to see the truck pull up, and they started to pull the animals off," said Roland Lines Communications Manager with the Alberta SPCA. "They were noisy but it was really good to see that happen." Firefighters and first responders had been providing food and water to any pets left behind, and Lines says that added assistance has kept most of the animals in good health. "People were very happy as they were unloading the truck. The animals certainly look healthy, and on first view there was nothing serious, but they will need to go through the proper triage before we know for sure," However, Lines says hundreds of animals were left behind when the community was evacuated last week, and it will take days before every last one is moved out of the city. "We can't do this in one day. We expect this to be a long process." The location of the emergency holding facility is being kept confidential for now as processing gets underway, but Lines says pets will be reunited with their owners "as soon as possible." Anyone who was forced to abandon their pet during the evacuation of the Fort McMurray area should ensure they have filled out the Emergency Pet Rescue Request form. ||||| Like most airlines, Canadian North has stringent guidelines when it comes to travelling with pets, but in light of the recent Fort McMurray wildfire, they've made some exceptions. The massive blaze has forced 80,000 residents to evacuate the city. Sadly in some cases, their pets have been left behind. But Canadian North is transporting four-legged evacuees to safety right alongside their two-legged owners. So many pictures of @CanadianNorth helping evacuate people and their pets 💚😭 pic.twitter.com/4OOLy6yDAk -- Ali Blair (@AliBlair112) May 6, 2016 The small northern airline is one of several servicing Fort McMurray to evacuate residents, and they've made accommodations to have several cats and dogs travel in the main cabins, with no need for a carrier or kennel. Starting Tuesday evening, Canadian North began running evacuation flights -- 71 on Wednesday alone -- and many evacuees turned up with their beloved pets. "It's definitely unusual to carry pets in the cabin, but due to the unusual circumstances we were able to bend the rules to accommodate these animals," a Canadian North spokesperson told The Huffington Post Canada in an email. The deed has not gone unnoticed, and it looks like the pets enjoyed flying like humans. Guess we can't really complain about the lack of leg room. Canadian North Air and West Jet letting pets onboard for those fleeing Fort Mac. #united#fortmac#Canadapic.twitter.com/EBnXAqXtgY -- Melissa Przedborski (@mprzedborski) May 7, 2016 Excuse me, I think you might be sitting in my seat. We smell peanuts. Thank you @CanadianNorth for flying evacuees & pets out of #ymm, & to your lovely flight attendants for sharing pics pic.twitter.com/cRru8wU8Cw -- michelledhatt (@michelledhatt) May 6, 2016 How could you travel any other way? Thx for all the kudos everyone. Happy to help move 2 & 4 legged pax from #ymm. Our FA Heidi shared this pic on FB :) pic.twitter.com/IBChAWzMba -- Canadian North ✈ (@CanadianNorth) May 6, 2016 Canadian North staff also stepped up to pet sit Meow Meow the cat for a week, after her pregnant owner went into labour. 1 of our evacuee passengers from #YMM has gone into labour so our #yeg flight ops team is looking after "Meow Meow"! pic.twitter.com/G89Mnuurel -- Canadian North ✈ (@CanadianNorth) May 5, 2016 She fit in with the team just fine. Our #YEG Ops people love Meow Meow @Deputy6720. She makes great coffee. We'll definitely be sad to say goodbye :) pic.twitter.com/DDKzFPn9eb -- Canadian North ✈ (@CanadianNorth) May 6, 2016 The airline flies charter trips to the Fort Mac region nearly every day of the year, and told HuffPost Canada they have a "deep connection" with those affected by the massive fire, and understand how devastating leaving their pets behind would be. The consideration was much appreciated: After having the dogs on my lap w/ amazing @CanadianNorth I'm not sure how them, or me, will go back to kennels under the seat#ymmfire -- ka-pow (@January82) May 6, 2016 @CanadianNorth thank you so much for caring and bringing pets out of the fire area #yourock! #FortMacFire -- Nora Smith (@sminor00) May 6, 2016 Also on HuffPost:

– Out of the wildfire devastating Canada's Fort McMurray, a heartwarming story: Keith Mann, a pilot with Suncor Energy, bent the rules in order to help out some of the town's animal residents. Mann has used his plane to help about 6,000 people get from camps north of Fort McMurray down to larger cities in the south. But on one recent flight, he evacuated not just people but more than 40 animals—even though Suncor typically only allows a few animals per trip and requires them to be in a kennel. "Cats, dogs, rabbits, and chinchillas ... you name it," Mann tells Metro News. He says the flight was relatively peaceful—"I think [the animals] all got along pretty well. ... You could just tell everyone was so happy to be out of camp and on their way." Another airline, Canadian North, has also bent its rules to help evacuate animals on its flights, the Huffington Post reports. Mashable has a roundup of photos that have been tweeted showing the animals enjoying their flights on both airlines. Some Fort McMurray pet owners have been separated from their animals after they evacuated and weren't allowed to return to their homes for safety reasons, but the CBC reports that the SPCA and the Humane Society have been rescuing hundreds of animals from the city. They will be taken care of in a holding facility; some have already been reunited with their owners.

Supporters react to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton as the candidate speaks to Arizona voters at a Get Out the Vote rally at Carl T. Hayden Community High School gymnasium in Phoenix. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post) Representatives of Hillary Clinton’s campaign phoned state Democratic leaders in Arizona and Georgia this week to alert them of plans to begin transferring funds to hire more field organizers in those states, according to several Democratic officials familiar with the calls. Polls in both states — which Republican nominee Mitt Romney carried in 2012 — show a tightening race between Clinton and Donald Trump. The move by the Clinton campaign suggests a bid to expand the number of battleground states in play in November. A Democrat familiar with the campaign’s plans said the outlays in Arizona and Georgia would be “in the six figures” for now, with plans to use the money to hire staff. No television ads are in the works, the Democrats said. The money, which sits in a joint fund controlled by Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, will flow to coordinated campaigns with the state parties in Arizona and Georgia. If nothing else, an additional investment in the two states could force Trump to spend more money and time in places he needs to win to achieve a path to victory. Trump, who has been slow to take to the airwaves across the country, is not on television in either of the two states that Clinton is now targeting. The list of Republicans who reject their presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and support his Democratic opponent keeps growing. (The Washington Post) The new Democratic outlay could also help promote congressional and down-ballot candidates in Arizona and Georgia, earning Clinton goodwill with party officials there. [Republican officials say Trump could lose to Clinton in key battleground states] In Arizona, a RealClearPolitics average of recent polls gives Trump a lead of less than one percentage point over Clinton. In Georgia, Clinton has an average lead of nearly two percentage points, according to the publication. Neither state was among an initial batch of states the Clinton campaign has targeted with television advertising and money for larger field staffs. Rebecca DeHart, executive director of the Georgia Democratic Party, confirmed that she heard from Clinton campaign officials Monday night. “We look forward to working with the Clinton campaign over the coming months here in Georgia, and are excited about their interest in the state,” she said in a statement. “Secretary Clinton overwhelmingly carried this state in the Primary election and we stand ready to deliver GA to her in November.” Stacey Abrams, the Georgia House minority leader and co-founder of the New Georgia Project — a nonpartisan group focused on registering black, Latino and Asian American voters — said the Clinton campaign’s decision “validates the work we’ve been pushing for” in recent years. Abrams declined to share specifics of the Clinton team’s plans, saying that the campaign has been on the ground for weeks already. For nearly two decades, Asian Americans have been the fastest-growing minority in the United States. While their political participation has historically been low, communities such as the Vietnamese Americans in Orange County, Calif., have become notable for their developing civic and political infrastructure. (Alice Li/The Washington Post) “Over the next few weeks, there will be conversations about where and how that increased investment will be deployed. More than anything, it signals the recognition of the changing tide in the South and in Georgia,” she said. The New Georgia Project announced Monday that it has registered 70,000 new minority voters this year, predominantly African Americans but also Latinos and Asians. That’s on top of work the group has been doing since the 2012 cycle, where increased registration has helped Georgia Democrats make gains in state government. Democrats now have 61 seats in the Georgia House, far behind Republicans, who control 116 seats. [As Clinton launches registration effort, community groups focus on Asian Americans] Attempts to register Asian American voters in Georgia are on the rise, led by groups such as the nonpartisan Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Gwinnett County, outside Atlanta, is home to one of the three highest populations of Asian Americans — mainly South Asians, Koreans, Chinese and Vietnamese. The county’s percentage of the Asian population has grown faster than in states such as California, Virginia and New York. To ensure a Clinton victory in Arizona and Georgia, “You’re going to need $2 million to $3 million in each of those states to run a real field operation to include a strong vote-by-mail and phone program. Tight races such as these are always won during early vote,” said Albert Morales, a former Democratic National Committee official who has focused on minority voter outreach. Ana Ma, a Democratic operative who has worked on statewide campaigns in Arizona, including Bill Clinton’s 1996 victory there, agreed that “a couple of million dollars” would be needed to secure a victory. Most of all, she said, “the principals” — Clinton, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), President Obama and their spouses — will need to show up in person. This year, she predicted that the Clinton campaign “is going to give some love to test it out, and in September you’ll see whether the principals are planning on coming or are there already. Even if they’re mostly there to fundraise, it’s okay, because they could add a few spare hours for an event.” In Georgia, the new influx of money is likely to be used to drive up black and Hispanic turnout in the metro Atlanta area, especially in DeKalb County. In Arizona, the money would be targeted at fast-growing Maricopa County, home of the populous Phoenix metropolitan area. There, a predominant Hispanic population could be mobilized to register and turn out to vote, potentially imperiling Trump’s chances as well as the reelections of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Arpaio, the county sheriff known for his hard-line stance against undocumented immigrants. In recent weeks, the Clinton campaign has taken several steps aimed at expanding its reach beyond traditional Democratic voters. The campaign, for example, has coordinated endorsements of Clinton by several former Republican administration officials. On Tuesday, that included two former administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. And on Tuesday and Wednesday, Kaine is scheduled to campaign in Texas, a Republican stronghold in presidential races. In 2012, Republican nominee Romney defeated President Obama in Arizona, 53 percent to 44 percent. Romney won by a similar margin in Georgia, 53 percent to 45 percent. In Texas, Romney defeated Obama, 57 percent to 41 percent. O’Keefe reported from Washington. ||||| Such hand-wringing is common as trepidations about Mr. Trump grow. On substance and style, he evokes an antipathy among many Mormons that is rooted in culture, religion and history. For a religious group that was driven to Utah during the 19th century in the face of persecution, Mr. Trump’s calls for religious tests and a ban on Muslim migration echo a painful past, leaving some wondering if they will be next. “The issue of religious liberty is an important one in the state, and the notion of a religious test for immigration raises deep concerns,” said Chris Karpowitz, a director of Brigham Young University’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. “Mormons are sensitive to issues like this because of their own history.” Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in upstate New York in 1830. Converts, however, were often targeted as heretics for practicing polygamy, believing in scriptures exclusive to Mormonism and saying that their faith was the true restoration of Christianity. Most Mormons were Democrats in the 19th century, Professor Karpowitz notes, because of Republican opposition to polygamy, but they started to move to the right in the 20th century. By the time the 2012 presidential election came around, with Mr. Romney as the candidate, 90 percent of Utah’s Mormons voted Republican. Photo That number is expected to drop significantly this year with Mr. Trump atop the ticket. His shifting positions on social issues, his hard-line views on immigration and his flashy lifestyle clash with Mormon sensibilities that prize humility and charity. Advertisement Continue reading the main story And there is his stance against taking in refugees from abroad. “His rhetoric and the church’s rhetoric on refugees could not be more different,” said J. Quin Monson, an author of “Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics.” Mr. Trump’s ascendance has also divided Utah’s lawmakers, with some reluctantly saying they will support the nominee and others showing resistance. Among the holdouts is Senator Mike Lee, a Mormon whose opposition to Mr. Trump stalled in a floor fight at the Republican convention last month. He articulated in a June interview why the candidate was unpopular, pointing to statements that he said reflected religious intolerance. “My state consists of members who were a religious minority church — a people who were ordered exterminated by the governor of Missouri in 1839, and statements like that make them nervous,” Mr. Lee said. Facing a tough re-election fight against a Democrat, Representative Mia Love, a rising Republican star, skipped the party’s convention in Cleveland and gave up her role as a delegate. She has not said if she will vote for Mr. Trump. There have even been some defections. Mark Madsen, a Republican state senator who did attend the convention as a delegate, abandoned the party in frustration in late July and became a Libertarian. Mr. Madsen, who is Mormon, said he thought he was being strong-armed into supporting Mr. Trump. “It’s hard to figure out where he is on issues because he’s all over the place,” Mr. Madsen said. “I think he’s frankly boorish and banal.” Sensing opportunity in the air, Mr. Trump’s opponents are watching Utah closely. The state has a strong libertarian streak, and Mr. Johnson, whose campaign headquarters is in Salt Lake City, has been returning regularly in hopes that he can capitalize on dissatisfaction with Mr. Trump. That he was governor in nearby New Mexico could help his cause, although if he siphons votes away from Mr. Trump, it could benefit Mrs. Clinton. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Democrats are also taking Utah seriously. While they realize that their improved chances in the state are not because their nominee has suddenly surged in popularity, the party would be happy to break its losing streak. “This is the first time since the mid-1960s that a Democratic presidential candidate could win in Utah,” said Peter Corroon, the party’s chairman in the state. “Unfortunately, it’s not because of the Democrat, it’s because of the Republican.” Sign Up for the First Draft Newsletter Subscribe for updates on the 2016 presidential race, the White House and Congress, delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing to Sign Up for the First Draft Newsletter . An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Nonetheless, the Clinton campaign has staff on the ground in Utah, and it is dispatching former President Bill Clinton to the state for a fund-raising event this week. The campaign would not say if Mrs. Clinton would make a trip of her own, but the possibility remains. “There is no doubt that Donald Trump’s offensive rhetoric has made Utah more competitive than before, and we will continue to assess our options in the state,” said Marlon Marshall, the Clinton campaign’s director of state campaigns and political engagement. Young Republican Mormons such as Mary Weidman give Democrats hope. Sitting outside a soda shop in Provo, Ms. Weidman explained that after supporting Mr. Romney four years ago, she would vote for Mrs. Clinton in November. Photo “I think it’s the lesser of two evils,” Ms. Weidman, 27, said, expressing dismay over how Mr. Trump talks about women. “When you think of a leader, he lacks every trait.” Despite such sentiments, it is risky to count Republicans out. While the Trump campaign had no comment about its strategy, the state Republican Party said that Mr. Trump’s team was up and running in Utah. Longtime conservatives who say they are thinking about voting for Mrs. Clinton could have second thoughts on Election Day. “Republicans at this point are a little unhappy with Trump, but they’re going to vote for him,” said James Evans, the chairman of the state party. That appeared to be the case for Nathan Alder, a 21-year-old Republican Mormon who goes to Utah Valley University in Orem. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I don’t like Trump, but I probably will vote for him,” Mr. Alder said, explaining that his worries about what he considers Mrs. Clinton’s liberal views narrowly outweighed his fears about Mr. Trump’s temperament. “I am pretty torn. I’m not going to lie.” ||||| Play Facebook Twitter Embed Clinton Hopes Convention Message Resonates in Battleground Ohio 2:21 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Increasingly confident about the candidate's standing in some more traditional battleground states, Hillary Clinton’s campaign is preparing to expand operations in Georgia and Arizona, two states that have not voted for a Democratic president in two decades or more. Clinton aides called Democratic Party officials in both states Monday night to say the campaign will begin transferring additional funds for the hiring of organizers on the ground there, according to Democrat familiar with the calls, as previewed by NBC News' Chuck Todd on Sunday's "Meet the Press." While it is not immediately clear how big of a commitment in staff or TV ads Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters is making in the two red states, the move comes as polls show Clinton ahead or tied with Donald Trump in both. Related: Poll: Clinton Opens Up Double-Digit Lead Over Trump Georgia has not gone blue in a presidential race since 1992, but the state has seen a major influx of people of color since 2000 and Democrats have been consistently reducing their losing margins in recent election cycles. “She absolutely can win here,” said state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams. “Georgia is the perfect crucible to prove that Democrats can win in the South.” Play Facebook Twitter Embed NBC News Poll: Clinton, Trump Tied in Midwest Battleground State 1:53 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Obama lost Georgia by 8 percentage points in 2012 and 5 points in 2008. But Clinton was ahead in the last three polls of the Peach State, including one released Monday that showed her with a whopping 7-point lead. Trump has been a “unique and wonderful addition” to Democratic mobilization efforts because he’s alienated the exact groups Democrats need in Georgia, said Abrams. Nearly a third of the state is African-American, while Latinos and Asian-Americans make up another 10% to 15% of the population combined. Add them to women, who break heavily for Clinton, and “that is a path to victory,” Abrams added. It’s a similar story in Arizona, where Democrats haven’t won a presidential race 1996. Obama lost the state by 10 percentage points in 2012, but limited polling shows Clinton in a dead heat with Trump. Related: Clinton Campaign Now Outspending Trump on Ads -- $52 Million to 0 The playbook for Democrats in Arizona has been the same for decades, said Phoenix-based Democratic strategist Andy Barr: Boost turnout among Latinos and compete for a swing vote that is largely comprised of moderate white women. Trump has been proven uniquely toxic for both groups. “I think there are a lot of people who have worked on a lot of tough and heartbreaking races in the state who finally see a chance for us to breakthrough,” Barr said. He noted that Clinton will be aided by a reinvigorated state party infrastructure and a high-profile Senate race between Sen. John McCain and Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, which means more money will be spent on the state. Democrats were also heartened this weekend when hundreds turned up to Clinton campaign office openings in Phoenix and Tucson. It would still be major lift for Democrats to win either state, both of which “lean Republican,” according to NBC News' measures. And the Clinton campaign’s move could be a head fake to project confidence without a major transfer of resources away from more traditional swing states. Meanwhile, Democrats themselves believe the polls will tighten, so Clinton’s strength in recent Georgia and Arizona polls could prove anomalous. But with down-ballot races on the line in both states, national Democrats are eager to explore all possibilities.

– Hillary Clinton's campaign has stepped up its efforts to win two states that haven't voted Democratic in a presidential election since another Clinton was on the ballot: Arizona and Georgia. Perhaps more surprising, they have hopes in Utah, too. Democratic sources tell the Washington Post that Clinton's campaign has started sending funds to hire more organizers in Arizona and Georgia, where the latest polls show Donald Trump either losing or only narrowly ahead. Democrats in the two states tell NBC that they are hoping for a breakthrough this year because Trump has alienated so many key groups of voters that he has been a "unique and wonderful" addition to voter mobilization efforts. In Utah, meanwhile, Democrats now believe they have a chance of breaking a losing streak that goes back to 1968, the New York Times reports. Some 72.6% of the state's voters chose Mitt Romney in 2012, the highest proportion in the nation, but Mormons are deeply uneasy with Trump, not least because his rhetoric on Muslims reminds them of when their own religion was persecuted. Libertarian Gary Johnson and new entrant Evan McMullin, a Mormon, could draw more votes away from Trump. "This is the first time since the mid-1960s that a Democratic presidential candidate could win in Utah," says state Democratic Party chairman Peter Corroon. "Unfortunately, it's not because of the Democrat, it’s because of the Republican."

Yet, here we are at the start of another primary season, with Romney once again awaiting the verdict from New Hampshire that could sink or propel the presidential ambitions he’s harbored at least since his father’s were dashed in 1968. And here we are, once again, watching the media and blogosphere — even the sober Wall Street Journal — fixate on Romney’s treatment of his dog nearly three decades ago. I’m wading in again because I’ve come to believe that the endurance of the Seamus story sheds fascinating light on our media and political cultures. Just as interesting is the light it sheds on Romney himself. To recap: Sometime during a 12-hour drive from Boston to Canada in 1983, Mitt’s oldest son, Tagg, noticed a brown liquid running down the rear window of the family station wagon. Realizing the liquid was being discharged by their dog, Mitt pulled off the highway and into a gas station, borrowed a hose to wash down Seamus and the car, and then returned the dog to his rooftop carrier for the duration of the trip. Most media reports have accurately relayed those basics. However, exaggerations and faulty assumptions have been advanced, most notably by New York Times columnist Gail Collins, who has trotted out the ghost of poor Seamus in more than 30 of her pieces since 2007. ||||| Newt Gingrich is on the attack against Mitt Romney, over his work at Bain Capital, over his record as Massachusetts and now over how he treats his pets. A web ad released today by the Gingrich campaign revives the story of a Romney family road trip 25 years ago during which Romney strapped a dog carrier, with the family's Irish setter Seamus inside, to the roof of his station wagon for the 12-hour drive from Boston to Ontario, Canada. Word of Romney's dog-on-the-roof, road-trip seating chart infuriated animal activists and pet owners during his 2008 White House bid after a Boston Globe story detailed the incident. At a campaign event in South Carolina last week, a protester with a sign that read " Dogs Against Romney" greeted Romney supporters while standing next to a car with a stuffed animal dog strapped to the roof. "This is a completely air-tight kennel, mounted on the top of our car," Romney says in the ad, defending his dog placement in a Fox News clip. "He was in a kennel at home a great deal of time as well. It was where he was comfortable." The video then shows white words flashing across a black screen: "Imagine what Obama would do with a candidate like that." The ad, titled "For the Dogs," includes six other clips of Romney's most often-cited verbal gaffes including his "corporations are people too" argument at the Iowa state fair, his "I like to fire people" statement earlier this week nd his "$10,000 bet" from a GOP debate last month. As of now, the ad will not air on television, Gingrich spokesman RC Hammond said. Gingrich and Romney are squaring off for an ad battle royale in South Carolina. Super PACs supporting the two candidates have announced ad buys that total a combined $5 million in the Palmetto State .

– A long-dead Irish setter and a revived issue has provided Newt Gingrich with more ammunition to use against Mitt Romney. In 1983, Romney and his family drove from Boston to Canada with Seamus, the family dog, in a carrier strapped to the roof of the car. At some point during the 12-hour drive, Seamus suffered a bout of diarrhea and Romney hosed down the dog and the car before returning him to the carrier. A new Gingrich ad uses a clip from an old interview in which Romney defends his treatment of the dog, ABC reports. "This is a completely air-tight kennel, mounted on the top of our car,” Romney says in the ad. “He was in a kennel at home a great deal of time as well. It was where he was comfortable." The Seamus story first surfaced during Romney's previous White House bid, and Neil Swidey, the Boston Globe reporter who unearthed it, says he finds its endurance fascinating. The story "struck me as a valuable window into how Romney operates," he writes. "In everything the guy does, he functions on logic, not emotion."

Staff Writer Sunday 30 April 2017 Dubai has become the first city in the world to create and be named after a Microsoft font as part of plans to become a regional and global leader in innovation. Dubai Font was designed by by Dr Nadine Chahine in collaboration with a team from a global agency Monotype. It is described as featuring unique characteristics to encourage self expression and reading and is available in 21 languages to the more than 100 million users of Office 365. “The openness and harmony of the people in the UAE, the essence of Dubai and its vision to become the quintessential modern Arab city were our source of inspiration to design the Dubai Font”, said Dr Nadine Chahine, type director and legibility expert at Monotype. “The challenge wasn’t to create a quality font but to create a new and a special medium of expression to unleash ambitions and transcend borders.” Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who helped oversee the project, urged government departments to use the font in their correspondence. Comments comments ||||| DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Apparently not content with having the world's tallest building, an indoor ski slope and countless other baubles, Dubai now boasts one more: its own typographic font. The forward-looking Mideast business hub unveiled the new font designed with Microsoft's help on Sunday. The government communication office says the Dubai Font integrates Arabic and Latin alphabets and is available for use in 23 languages. Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ordered government bodies to begin using the new font in their official correspondence. The United Arab Emirates' largest city has championed technology and innovation as it looks to diversify its economy beyond a traditional focus on energy, trade, transportation and tourism. It will host the World Expo in 2020.

– Apparently not content with having the world's tallest building, an indoor ski slope, and countless other baubles, Dubai now boasts one more, reports the AP: its own typographic font. The forward-looking Mideast business hub unveiled the new font designed with Microsoft's help on Sunday. The government communication office says the Dubai Font integrates Arabic and Latin alphabets and is available for use in 23 languages. And it's not exactly humble-bragging about its new toy, notes Gulf Business News: "The openness and harmony of the people in the UAE, the essence of Dubai and its vision to become the quintessential modern Arab city were our source of inspiration to design the Dubai Font," said Dr Nadine Chahine, type director and legibility expert at Monotype. She continues: "The challenge wasn’t to create a quality font but to create a new and a special medium of expression to unleash ambitions and transcend borders." Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum ordered government bodies to begin using the new font in their official correspondence. The United Arab Emirates' largest city has championed technology and innovation as it looks to diversify its economy beyond a traditional focus on energy, trade, transportation, and tourism. It will host the World Expo in 2020.

GOP poll analysis: The race is on This latest edition of the POLITICO - George Washington University Battleground Poll, once again reinforces our long held belief that the 2012 Presidential Election will likely be a very close election right until the end. From a head-to-head ballot in which the candidates are in a dead heat, to numerous other indicators, it seems clear that the days leading up to Election Day will be drama-filled, and as likely to be decided by the ground war as the battle waged over the airwaves. Setting the closeness of the election aside for a second, this data does indicate that Mitt Romney has transitioned well from the Republican primary, moving into the general election campaign in a much stronger position than many pundits would have assumed a few short months ago. Most important, Mitt Romney now seems well positioned to make a compelling case to the broader electorate. At the outset, it should be noted that this should have been a time when President Obama was at his strongest. A time period when the President has been able to take his case to voters, while Mitt Romney was wrapped up in a competitive primary fending off attacks from his rivals for the Republican nomination. That is not the case, however. Mitt Romney not only leads President Obama by one-point (48% to 47%), but holds a six-point lead (51% to 45%) with those voters that are “extremely likely” to vote. Story Continued Below One reason for the tightness of the race is Republicans have already united behind Romney. In fact, two factors come into play here, both of which are currently benefiting Mitt Romney – the vote intensity gap and party loyalty. With the vote intensity gap, Republicans (78% stating they are extremely likely to vote) have a nine-point vote intensity advantage over both Democratic voters (at 69%) and Independents (at 69%). On the actual ballot, Romney is also benefitting from a five-point advantage in “party loyalty,” winning with Republicans by an eighty-eight percent margin at the same time that President Obama is winning with Democratic voters by an eighty-three percent margin. The vote intensity gap is not a surprise (although higher than in recent months), but the party loyalty shown by Republicans at this point in the campaign certainly is a surprise. The bottom line, illustrated in this data, is the primary is over, and Republicans are clearly ready to support their nominee in making Obama a one term President. The second reason for the closeness of the Presidential election at this point in time is that Mitt Romney has built up a ten-point lead with Independent voters – Romney 48% and Obama 38%. As is often the case in close Presidential elections, Independents may very well be the deciding factor in the 2012 election. What is not often discussed is that about two-thirds of the Independent voters who will cast their vote this November vote in every Presidential election (and often split their vote fairly evenly between the two parties), but that last third of the Independent voters are a wild card and float in and out of the Presidential elections. We believe these less active Independent voters are driven by “angry” Independents from year to year. The one thing you can safely say is that the angry Independents of the 2012 election will not be the same angry Independents of the 2008 election. ||||| A new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll finds a dead heat in the presidential race six months before the election. Mitt Romney edged out President Barack Obama 48 percent to 47 percent among likely voters, a number well within the margin of error, as Republicans rapidly consolidate behind the likely GOP nominee. Text Size - + reset Pollsters break down results Inside the data The former Massachusetts governor has opened up a 10-point lead, 48 percent to 38 percent, among independents in a poll conducted Sunday, April 29 through Thursday, May 3 and a 6-point lead among those who describe themselves as “extremely likely” to vote in November. Obama led Romney by 9 points overall in POLITICO’s February’s poll. But there are suggestions that these numbers are extremely fluid: Obama holds double-digit leads over the presumptive Republican nominee on issues such as who will better handle foreign policy and who will stand up for the middle class and on “sharing your values.” But enduring concern about the economy — by far the most important issue to voters — keeps the president in a tenuous position despite employment numbers that show slight but steady improvement. (See full poll results here.) While approval of Congress remains in the basement at 13 percent, the poll shows that voters aren’t inclined to throw all the bums out in another major push for change. The GOP has taken a narrow 45 percent to 43 percent lead on the generic congressional ballot, according to the poll, and 65 percent believe Republicans will continue to control the House majority after the election. Forty-one percent believe Democrats will keep the Senate majority. Despite the buzz about who will be Romney’s vice presidential pick, nearly two-thirds of respondents said the vice presidential nominee will not affect their vote. Of the 35 percent who said it will have an impact, just 7 percent described the veep choice as extremely important to their decision. The president’s job approval rating stands at 48 percent, down 5 points from February and a number now equal to the percentage of voters who disapprove of Obama’s performance. The results signal that as the general election phase of the campaign gets under way, who will win the presidency is a jump ball. A full 91 percent of Republicans support Romney, slightly exceeding the percentage of Democrats who support Obama. Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who helped conduct the bipartisan poll, called it “a predictable tightening of the race.” “You have both sides very consolidated,” she said. “There are no signs of fissures on either side, but you have the Democrats less enthusiastic than the Republicans.” Americans are split evenly about Obama’s economic policies: Forty percent said he’s made the economy better; 39 percent said he’s made it worse; and 19 percent said he’s had no impact on it. Republican pollster Ed Goeas of The Tarrance Group said the 19 percent who don’t think Obama has affected the economy — which split 46 percent for Romney and 44 percent for Obama — will decide the election. “Do they break to believing the economy is better? Do they break to believing the economy is not better?” he said Sunday. “Watch that. It’s key.”

– Americans really like Barack Obama—they're just not sure they'll vote for him. In a new Politico/George Washington University poll, a whopping 70% say they approve of Obama personally, and 56% approve strongly. That's compared to only 29% who strongly approve of Romney. But when it came to who they'd vote for, Romney edged out Obama 48% to 47%, opened a 10-point lead among independents, and had a 6-point lead among "extremely likely" voters—all at a time, GOP analysts note, when the Republican should be weakened from the primary. There are signs that both candidates have been successful in getting their messages across. Some 58% said that Obama would be better at standing up for the middle class, compared to 35% for Romney. But Republicans have successfully painted Obama as a free-spender. Asked how new tax revenues should be spent, huge majorities said the government should pay down the deficit, rather than increase spending. But asked what they thought Obama would do, those same majorities said he'd increase spending. Click for more from the poll.

Brussels was on lockdown following the deadly Paris terrorist attacks as an intense manhunt was underway in the city to capture suspected terrorists thought to be involved in the attack. A group of police officers and soldiers may have blown of steam in a rather unconventional manner. Police chiefs in Belgium are now investigating allegations that two policewomen and eight soldiers had a sex party. The orgy is thought to have occurred in a police station in the Brussels neighborhood of Ganshoren. The soldiers posted at that police station slept there for two weeks, when many raids were carried out by officers in hopes of finding terrorists and accomplices associated with the Paris attacks. Police spokesman Johan Berckmans confirmed to local media that 15 to 20 soldiers had been sleeping at the police station for a two-week period. He told De Morgen that an internal investigation had been launched. Things aren’t looking great for the Belgian army. This is the second investigation to be launched this month against Belgium soldiers; last week, a soldier was caught with a shopping bag while on anti-terrorist patrol. ||||| Two other suspects, Ibrahim Abdeslam and his brother Salah, were interrogated and released by the Belgian authorities after trying to travel to Syria earlier in the year. A fourth man suspected of involvement in the attacks, Bilal Hadfi, lived in Brussels, but reports earlier this year of his radicalization at school and rumors of his departure to Syria were not passed on to the police, according to school officials. After the attacks, near misses by the Belgian authorities and their French counterparts continued. Salah Abdeslam was involved in a routine traffic stop by the French police the day after the attacks but was allowed to continue on because he had not yet been linked to them. Adding to the string of missteps, he may have managed to evade a huge manhunt because of a Belgian law banning police raids on private homes during certain hours. On Wednesday, police officials confirmed that an investigation into the reports of an orgy among police officers had begun. “I cannot give more information on the internal investigation, because it is ongoing and because investigations into the Brussels police force are highly complicated,” the Brussels-West police spokeswoman said in a phone interview. “Right now, we don’t know the extent of the investigation yet. Maybe officers from other zones are implicated, and I don’t want to set off an internal fight by commenting on police officers from other zones. Internal investigations into the Brussels police are, as a rule, highly complicated and very sensitive.” The fractured nature of policing in Brussels has been a target of criticism since the Paris attacks. Brussels, while officially bilingual, is largely French-speaking. However, it is in the country’s Dutch-speaking region, which has gained wealth and clout in recent decades relative to Wallonia, the French-speaking region to the south. (There is also a tiny German-speaking minority in the southeast.) Power in Belgium is delicately distributed along regional and linguistic lines, making political oversight difficult, not to mention basic intelligence-sharing. In addition to the six local police agencies, Brussels has a federal police service, two intelligence services — one military, one civilian — and a terrorism threat assessment unit whose chief, exhausted and demoralized, resigned over the summer but remains on the job. ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption Soldiers in Brussels in November, when the city was on the highest state of alert Police chiefs in Belgium have reportedly launched an internal investigation into claims soldiers and police officers held an orgy while colleagues hunted for terror suspects. Two policewomen and eight soldiers are said to have engaged in a sex party at a police station in the Brussels neighbourhood of Ganshoren. The city was in lockdown over fears of a Paris-style attack at the time. Soldiers slept at the police station for two weeks during the operation. "When they left, they organised a small party to thank the police in the area," police spokesman, Johan Berckmans, told Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure (in French). "We have launched an investigation to find out what exactly happened." Speaking to De Standaard (in Dutch), the spokesman said 15 to 20 soldiers had been sleeping at the Ganshoren police station during two weeks in November so they did not have to travel so far at the end of their shift. The police station was near Molenbeek, where anti-terror raids had been taking place. Mr Berckmans said an internal investigation was launched after allegations of an orgy were reported by La Derniere Heure on Tuesday. The Belgian capital was on the highest level of alert last month after the Paris attacks that left 130 people dead. Schools, shops and the Metro stayed closed for days, and troops were deployed as anti-terror officers searched for suspects connected to the mass killings.

– Soldiers and police officers in Belgium may have held an orgy in the midst of the hunt for terror suspects in the weeks following the Paris attacks, the BBC reports. According to the New York Times, the orgy was allegedly held sometime between Nov. 21 and Nov. 26—when the country was on its highest alert level—at a Brussels police station near the neighborhood where a number of the Paris attackers lived. At the time, the city was locked down, with schools, businesses, public transportation, and more closed, the BBC reports. A Belgian newspaper reported the allegations Tuesday, and police have launched an internal investigation. Soldiers were sleeping at the Brussels police station in question for two weeks while helping patrol the city, the BBC reports. At some point after the station closed for the night, two female police officers allegedly went upstairs to where the soldiers were sleeping and had sex with eight of them, according to the Times. Alcohol was reportedly involved. “All these people have been working closely together for weeks now, often doing long hours,” a Brussels police commissioner says, though she wouldn't comment on the orgy accusations specifically. “We have developed a very good working relationship with the army.” Brussels police were already being criticized for their handling of the hunt for the Paris attack suspects even before news of a sex party started circulating. Quartz reports a Belgian soldier was caught with a shopping bag last week while he was supposed to be on duty looking for terrorists.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Jean Prince was 50 when she started working for a U.K. tech company near Cambridge as a technical author, writing software documentation. “I felt extremely lucky,” she said. But she wasn’t happy. “The workplace has become more impersonal and tougher,” she said. “Everyone is performance-managed to death.” She felt underappreciated and unloved. Older workers tend to be more unhappy in their jobs than their younger colleagues, according to a survey of more than 2,000 U.K. employees by human resource firm Robert Half U.K. One in six British workers over age 35 said they were unhappy—more than double the number for those under 35. Nearly a third of people over 55 said they didn’t feel appreciated, while 16 percent said they didn’t have friends at work. There’s the stress of being in a high-ranking position—or the disappointment of not making it far enough up the career ladder. True, salaries are higher, but life starts to get more expensive. “Work-life balance” starts to mean taking care of children, rather than just personal stress management. “There comes a time when either you haven’t achieved success, work has burned you out, or lived experience tells you family is more important,” said Cary Cooper, a workplace researcher at Manchester Business School. “You ask yourself: ‘What am I doing this for?’” Survey by Happiness Works/Robert Half UK Johanna Bodnyk worked as a culture and communications coordinator at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University for six years. At a certain point, her friends were nearly all married and starting families, and she realized her current relationship wasn’t going to last. That prompted her to reevaluate a lot of things in life—including her job. Two years ago, at age 34, she switched careers and learned how to code. “Your 30s are both personally and professionally a time when people take stock and make a change,” she said. A fifth of older British workers believe their employers don’t value staff of all ages equally, according to a poll by the City & Guilds Group, a skill development organization. And a third of workers over 55 feel sidelined for younger staff, according to Capita Resourcing. It’s also possible younger people have lower expectations, higher hopes, and they’re not yet burned out. Bodnyk was thrilled just to have a job when she first started her career. “Once you get a little more stable and settled in, you then look around and ask whether you actually enjoy it,” she said. We know more older people are working. The U.S. government estimates that one in four people in the labor market in 2024 will be 55 or older. There’s a way to combat the ennui, Cooper said, but it takes effort. Making work buddies can improve the situation, even if it can be hard to find time for happy-hour drinks. Refocus on a personal project at work and make that your passion, he said. ||||| Over 35 and hate your job? Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. One in six British workers over the age of 35 are unhappy at work, according to a survey of more than 2,000 U.K. employees by Happiness Works on behalf of human resource firm Robert Half. That’s more than double the number of respondents under 35 who felt similarly. There are a number of possible reasons for workers’ increasing unhappiness over time. As they age, they either face the growing stress of more senior positions or the disappointment and pressure of not having achieved as much as they had hoped. While salaries tend to increase, so do responsibilities such as childcare, which eats up money and time. Subscribe to The World’s Most Powerful Women, Fortune’s daily must-read for global businesswomen. The survey found that nearly one-third of respondents over 55 do not feel appreciated at work, and 16% don’t have workplace friends. One-third of the survey-takers over 35 found their jobs stressful, whereas only a quarter of those in the 18-35 age bracket felt the same. With fewer years in the workforce, it is possible that young people are still optimistic about their career and job prospects and are not yet burned out. But it’s not all bad news for the over-35 set. Separate research conducted earlier by Robert Half found that workers in laters stages of their careers feel they possess skills that are aligned with their jobs, exercise greater influence and more freedom at work, and are tapping their strengths—which can contribute to happiness. ||||| It's often the youngest workers who seem to have the most trouble finding their niche in the workplace, but a new study from human resource firm Robert Half finds that true professional discontent kicks in after age 35 for most employees. According to the more than 2,000 U.K. employees surveyed, one in six British workers over the age of 35 said they are unhappy at work — double the number of those under 35 who felt the same. The report, which examines the influences of workplace happiness, found that older workers tend to experience more stress on the job than their younger colleagues. Results indicate that 34 percent of professionals over 35 found their jobs to be stressful, compared to 25 percent of employees ages 18-35.

– The older we get, the more of us there are who don't like our jobs—at least according to a recent survey of more than 2,000 employees in the UK. Age 35 seems to be a tipping point: The number of those who are unhappy at work more than doubles from before age 35 to after, hitting one in six after age 35, reports Bloomberg. Things get worse for respondents over age 55, with a third saying they feel unappreciated at work and a sixth saying they don't have friends at work. "There comes a time when either you haven’t achieved success, work has burned you out, or lived experience tells you family is more important," one workplace researcher says. "You ask yourself: 'What am I doing this for?'" But this one survey doesn't mean it's all bad. Fortune reports on separate research finding that workers in the later stages of their career say their skills are aligned with their work and they have more influence and freedom on the job. Many companies are getting creative with the benefits they offer, focusing on both happiness at work and stress management. CNBC reports that aviation marketing firm SimpliFlying actually requires its staff to take a week of vacation every eight weeks to "attract the top talent." For those unhappy on the job, one expert recommends making an effort to befriend coworkers and refocus on a work project that can become a passion. (One UK company has implemented a menstrual policy.)

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. ||||| Following a National Anthem protest on Saturday by several members of the East Carolina University marching band, an ESPN Radio affiliate is refusing to carry the school’s football game this week against South Florida. ESPN Radio 100.1 WFAY Fayetteville is dropping Saturday’s game in what the parent company’s CEO calls a “protest to the protest.” In a statement shared below by WTVD sports anchor Mark Armstrong, Colonial Media CEO Jeff Andrulonis called the protests “shameful,” and said “a message needs to be sent.” This is something else – ESPN Fayetteville radio won't carry ECU-USF because of the band protest pic.twitter.com/2UwHgkfZBZ — Mark Armstrong (@ArmstrongABC11) October 4, 2016 “(R)oughly a dozen band members disgraced themselves on the football field this past weekend,” Andrulonis said. “I’m proud of our country and I’m proud of our soldiers.” Andrulonis claims to have unanimous support from station sponsors on the move, though he hasn’t spoken to all of them yet. “They’re college students and it’s about time they get an education on the concept that their actions have consequences,” Andrulonis said. “And the consequence in this case is that the ECU Pirates will not be heard on ESPN Fayetteville this weekend.” The “protest to the protest” is only scheduled to last for one week. The station currently plans to carry next week’s East Carolina game. [h/t Deadspin] [image via screengrab] – Follow Joe DePaolo (@joe_depaolo) on Twitter Have a tip we should know? [email protected] ||||| Colonial Media and Entertainment, the company that runs 101.1 FM ESPN Fayetteville, announced that it would not air this weekend’s East Carolina University football game against USF because several members of the ECU band recently took a knee during the playing of the national anthem. Here is the statement provided by Colonial Media: This is something else – ESPN Fayetteville radio won't carry ECU-USF because of the band protest pic.twitter.com/2UwHgkfZBZ — Mark Armstrong (@ArmstrongABC11) October 4, 2016 Company Chairman and CEO Jeff Andrulonis took exception to the protests, which began earlier this year when 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick used the anthem as a way of protesting police killings of African Americans. Andrulonis apparently believed the protest was against the United States military, saying “I’m proud of our country and I’m proud of our soldiers … especially our soldiers from Fort Bragg… fighting for our country so I’ve decided that ESPN Fayetteville will ‘protest the protest.'” Later, Andrulonis says “The band members could have quietly protested in the early morning hours before the game. But that would have required them to wake up early.” A few things. One, punishing the band members by not airing the game on radio is a pretty weird punishment because, you know, they’re at the game. They don’t need the radio. Second, taking a knee to protest police killings has nothing to do with soldiers, at Fort Bragg or otherwise. No one is protesting them. Third, “quietly” protesting “in the early morning hours” wouldn’t be much of a protest, would it? The point of a protest is to force people to confront an idea that they don’t want to confront, as its clear Andrulonis really, really doesn’t want to confront this idea that police kill African Americans at a disproportionately high rate in this country. This has nothing to do with band members waking up early (which also, what?), this has to do with a scared dude making a grand, ultimately impotent gesture rather than confront something that makes him uncomfortable. Sorry, football-loving radio listeners of Fayetteville. You are the ones paying the cost this week.

– In what its parent company's CEO is calling a "protest to a protest," ESPN affiliate radio station 101.1 FM (WFAY) is turning its back on broadcasting East Carolina University's football game Saturday against South Florida after members of the ECU marching band took a knee during the national anthem last weekend to protest oppression of black people, Mediaite reports. "Roughly a dozen band members disgraced themselves on the football field this past weekend," Jeff Andrulonis, head of parent company Colonial Media, said in a statement shared by a local sports anchor. "They're college students and it's about time they get an education on the concept that their actions have consequences." Andrulonis claims that every ECU football sponsor he's spoken to so far thinks the band's protest that continued what Colin Kaepernick began was "shameful" and that "a message needs to be sent." He also says he supports the band members' constitutional right to free speech and that they could've protested before the game, "but that would have required them to wake up early." ESPN has responded to the incident in a statement sent to Sports Illustrated, noting, "100.1 FM is an affiliate that carries some ESPN Radio national programming. Local programming decisions, however, are strictly in their purview." (For the Win calls the refusal "ridiculous.")

A movie star is always a movie star -- even when she's at Yankee Stadium, cheering on her boyfriend at the World Series. In the wake of Monday's announcement that Kate Hudson and Alex Rodriguez have ended their six-month relationship, a Rodriguez source tells Us that the actress' less-than-subtle presence at Yankee games was "a turnoff" to Rodriguez. Remember these high-profile breakups? "[Hudson] wanted more camera time each and every game," the pal tells Usmagazine.com. "She would always want to be styled before games and she'd insist on front-row seats." Her motivation, the friend says, was more of a PR move than genuine devotion. "It was a turnoff to have a girlfriend who always wanted to be on camera," the source quips. "Alex wanted someone who was more interested in building a long-term relationship than just building their profile." Look back on how A-Rod's marriage ended -- thanks to an affair with Madonna For those confused by the timeline of the couple's split and who initiated what, the A-Rod friend insists that "he broke up with her over a week ago," but they continued to spend time together publicly after the fact. "Alex wanted to end this relationship well over a month ago," the source says, but the baseball star, 34, didn't want to disrupt Hudson's premieres and promotional events for her new film Nine. "He felt that would be counterproductive and unfair to her." And while many reports claim that a jealous Rodriguez "smothered" Hudson, 30, the friend suggests the opposite was the case, observing, "She seemed compelled to track and follow his every move" during his busy pre- and post-season schedule. Will these star-and-athlete couples fare any better? Ultimately, the pal says that Hudson tried to give Rodriguez "an ultimatum" and to "fast track" the relationship. "He's just coming off of a 13-year relationship with his ex-wife and a recent divorce," the friend points out. "He has two lovely children with his ex-wife, and that requires a certain amount of responsibility. She gave him ultimatums that a newly divorced father can't meet." Check out amazing body transformations from Kate Hudson and other Nine stars The friend says that things ended amicably -- and maturely. "They're two mature adults. She did take the relationship seriously, and he has a lot of respect for her. They had some really wonderful times together." ||||| A-Rod Broke Up With Kate Hudson Because She Was Too Pretty That's what Us Weekly says, basically. Hudson "would always want to be styled before games," a source, who insists that "he broke up with her over a week ago," tells the magazine, because she wanted to look good in the pictures that were inevitably taken of her. So. She was obsessed with looking hot, and that bothered him ... because why? "It was a turnoff to have a girlfriend who always wanted to be on camera." Oh. No wait, HA. That is a lie. Not just because, lest we forget, A-Rod dated Madonna, or because it just sounds like a lie, along the lines of, "She broke up with him because his penis was too big for her." But because Kate Hudson almost unfailingly looked like crap at every Yankees game. In fact, we hate to say this, but now that we think about it, that was one of the very reasons that we hated this relationship. Because between all of the reportedly Animal Planet sex and the drinking she was doing at Yankees games, Kate had forgotten she was supposed to be a movie star, and was almost looking kind of dumpy. Here she is in September: And again: Yeah, that's a high-maintenance look right there. We understand a lady needs some time off and we applaud her decision, but we're glad that she obviously decided enough was enough and is going back to business. If this relationship had gone on any longer, she might have gone from resembling Goldie Hawn to looking like Kurt Russell. A-Rod Pal on Split: Kate "Always Wanted to Be on Camera" [Us]

– The real reason Kate Hudson and Alex Rodriguez broke up: She was just too interested in looking pretty and being photographed at Yankees games. “She would always want to be styled before games and she’d insist on front-row seats,” a source—who adds that Hudson’s primping was a “turnoff”—tells Us. But wait, that doesn’t make any sense, writes Jessica Pressler for New York, “because Kate Hudson almost unfailingly looked like crap at every Yankees game.” In fact, “Kate had forgotten she was supposed to be a movie star, and was almost looking kind of dumpy,” Pressler continues. “If this relationship had gone on any longer, she might have gone from resembling Goldie Hawn to looking like Kurt Russell.” Judge for yourself with the slideshow.

The exterior of Apple headquarters is seen before an event to announce new products at the company's headquarters Monday, March 21, 2016, in Cupertino, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) (Associated Press) The Latest from Apple's product announcement in California (all times local): 10:40 a.m. Apple is cutting the price of its smartwatch and introducing an array of new bands in an attempt to spur more sales of a gadget that hasn't won a big following yet. Prices for the Apple Watch will start at $299, down from $349. Apple is also releasing a new type of wristband made of woven nylon, along with more colors for existing types of bands. The expanded variety is designed to appeal to the roughly one-third of Apple watch owners who like to switch bands. The highly anticipated Apple Watch was released a year ago, but sales haven't met some of analysts' more bullish predictions. While Apple hasn't released figures, IDC's analysts estimate the tech giant shipped 11.6 million watches last year. — Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer, San Francisco ___ 10:20 a.m. Apple CEO Tim Cook is reiterating his pledge to resist the U.S. government's demands for the company's help to unlock an encrypted iPhone used by one of the killers in the San Bernardino mass shootings. Cook opened a product event in California on Monday by saying that Apple owes it to its customers to protect their privacy and the personal information they store on iPhones. He says he is "humbled and deeply gratified" by the outpouring of support he has received. He has vowed to fight a federal magistrate's order requiring Apple to create special software that would override the iPhone's security features and allow the FBI to hack into the device used by the San Bernardino killer in a suspected case of terrorism. Apple says that doing so could leave all iPhones vulnerable to future hacking attempts, although federal prosecutors contend they're only asking Apple to write code that would work with one phone to protect national security. Federal magistrate Sheri Pym, who issued the order, will hear arguments from both sides in a Riverside, California, courtroom on Tuesday. — Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer, San Francisco ___ 9:30 a.m. Apple product events typically spark anticipation among tech bloggers and the company's hard-core fans. Monday's event, though, is drawing less excitement than some previous product launches. Apple is expected to announce a smaller, 4-inch iPhone and a smaller version of the iPad Pro tablet. But there's been no hint of any blockbuster developments, such as last year's highly anticipated Apple Watch debut. Despite speculation that Apple is working on a self-driving car or some new virtual-reality device, those are likely years away. The event starts at 10 a.m. PDT at Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters. Gartner tech analyst Brian Blau says it's not unusual for Apple to save major announcements until the fall. He says the company's spring events are often focused on products that Apple considers important, but which may not be its biggest sellers. — Brandon Bailey, AP Technology Writer, Cupertino, California. ||||| It’s no secret that iPad sales have been trending downward for years now, but Apple today unveiled a new 9.7-inch version of the iPad Pro that it hopes will reverse that trend. Positioned as the second member of Apple’s iPad Pro family, the new smaller screened tablet weighs just about one pound, slightly heavier than the iPad Air 2. But not to worry, the iPad Pro really packs a whole host of compelling improvements over the iPad Air 2. FROM EARLIER: Apple unveils the iPhone SE, the latest 4-inch iPhone On the display front, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro screen is 40% less reflective than the iPad Air 2 while also delivering 25% more brightness. Phil Schiller also touted a new technology Apple calls True Tone display which can adjust the color temperature of the display to match the light in the room. “It’s really natural to use,” Schiller added. “Once you use this display, you’ll never want to go back. It is quite a breakthrough.” Underneath the hood, the new iPad Pro comes with an A9x processor along with an integrated M9 motion coprocessor for ‘Hey Siri’ support. The new iPad Pro also packs the most advanced camera system Apple has ever packed into a tablet. Specifically, the new iPad Pro comes with a 12 megapixel iSight camera with focus pixels, true tone flash, and support for Live Photos. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro also comes with a more advanced speaker system, Smart Keyboard support, support for Apple’s widely revered Apple Pencil, and will be available in four finishes, including a Rose Gold model. Price wise, a 32GB model will be available for $599, with 128GB and 256GB models available for $749 and $899 respectively. Notably, this marks the first time Apple has developed a 256GB tablet. Pre-orders for the latest addition to the iPad Pro family will begin on March 24. It will be available in stores on March 31. Developing… ||||| The 9.7-inch iPad, the Apple tablet snuggled between the smaller mini and the big boy Pro, hasn’t been updated since 2014 with the iPad Air 2. So as some kind of mea culpa, Apple just blew up the Air line altogether with a “new” and “improved” 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Except it’s really not very new or improved. Prior to Phil Schiller’s breakdown at today’s Apple event, there wasn’t much left to the imagination thanks to months worth of leaks and rumors. When compared to the larger iPad Pro that debuted last year, the new iPad Pro is basically different only in size. Schiller spent time highlighting some of the new Pro’s differences anyway. For one, it has what Apple calls a “True Tone” display that can become warmer and cooler in different kinds of light thanks to ambient sensors. Neat, I guess. But clearly geared toward artists. Advertisement Other than its smaller dimensions, there is one noticeable hardware improvement on the new iPad. It will have a better shooter: a 12-megapixel rear camera that can also capture in 4k along with Live Photos. So basically the camera on the iPhone 6s. It makes sense if you view the Pro as a creation machine, but most people will probably never even use it. Just Schiller doing Schiller. But the new iPad Pro has Apple’s same powerful processor, the A9x (and M9x co-processor), and the same four speaker design that last year’s model had. There’s Pencil support and Smart Keyboard support, too. It’s all just packed in a smaller body. That’s good news for some people who found the iPad Pro hand-achingly huge and wanted something a little more traditional. Apple says the small iPad Pro comes with silver, gold, space gray, and yes, rose gold, too. The new Pro will launch starting at $600 for 32GB and $750 for 128GB and a whopping 256GB for $900 (if that’s something you need/want), making it the most expensive 9.7-inch iPad starting price. Additionally, the 12.9-inch Pro will get the 256GB option. Like the new iPhone SE, the new Pro will be available for pre-order on March 24 and will start shipping a week later. Now only the big question remains. Will people finally ditch their old tablets to go Pro? iPad Pro Specs ||||| The technology company introduced a smaller iPhone, a smaller iPad Pro and new bands for the Apple Watch. The event came a day before the company will face off against the United States government over whether or not to unlock a killer’s iPhone. New York Times writers Brian X. Chen, Farhad Manjoo and Vindu Goel provided reaction and analysis from the event. We will also answer your questions about the company’s new product offerings. ||||| Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage at Apple's Cupertino campus to introduce a smaller, four-inch version of the iPhone, called the iPhone SE. The key marketing words for Apple products have usually been thinner, faster, bigger. IPhones have grown up over the past nine years, going from the original 3.5-inch display to the iPhone 6S Plus' 5.5-inch screen. Apple went in the opposite direction and announced a new iPhone that's actually smaller. Cook also introduced a new iPad Pro, new Watch bands and some software updates. And he kicked off the event by previewing Apple's court battle with the FBI on Tuesday over iPhone encryption.. The 4-inch iPhone SE The big announcement of the day was the smaller iPhone SE -- a 4-inch iPhone with updated internals. It looks like the iPhone 5S, Apple's last 4-inch phone released in 2014, but has the same processor and graphics performance as the iPhone 6S. Inside is Apple's A9 chip, which doubles the speed of the iPhone 5S. It can use Hey Siri, the hands-free voice assistant, has a 12MP camera, and shoots 4K video. There is an NFC chip inside so the phone can work with Apple Pay. The smaller iPhone is an attempt to appeal to fans of more pocketable devices. Last year, Apple sold 30 million phones that were 4-inches and smaller. A chunk of Apple customers have resisted upgrading to the recent 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch smartphones. According to Mixpanel, a third of iPhone owners are still using a device with a 4-inch screen or smaller. The 16 GB iPhone SE starts at $399 but will be free with a two-year contract or $17 a month on an installment plan. The company will start taking orders for the phone on March 24, and it will be available on March 31. New 9.7-inch iPad Pro Apple's other big hardware news is that it took the iPad Pro and make it smaller. Also called the iPad Pro, the new 9.7-inch version includes many of the same powerful features as the larger 12.9-inch Pro model. Inside is the same A9x chip. The screen is less reflective but brighter and has more color saturation, for all those pros using it as a primary work device. It has a true tone display that measures the color temperature of ambient light with new light sensors and adjusts the screen accordingly. The smaller iPad Pro works with the Apple Pencil stylus and new line of snap on keyboards the company introduced in with the original iPad Pro. People really like using the cameras on their tablets, for some reason, so the new iPad Pro has a 12-megapixel camera and a LED back-facing flash. The tablet starts at $599 for the 32 GB Wi-Fi version and $749 for the 129 GB model. In a first, Apple is offering a new larger 256 GB option that starts at $899. It comes in silver, gold, space gray and rose gold. Apple Watch gets cheaper, more colorful Apple (AAPL) really wants people to try out the Apple Watch. Tim Cook announced a new line of straps for the wearable, including all new woven nylon bands, a space black Milanese Loop, and additional sport and leather bands in a variety of colors. Pretty watch straps on their own might not be enough to lure in new customers, so Apple dropped the price of the watch. It now starts at $299. Why go small? Apple says it sold 30 million four-inch iPhones in 2015, so there's clearly demand for a smaller, cheaper iPhone. Software Updates The latest version of Apple mobile operating system, iOS 9.3, is available starting today. Key new features including Night Shift, which adjusts the screen for late night reading for better sleep, and finger print lock for top secret documents in the Notes app. There is a small update for the Apple TV OS that adds folders for apps and Siri voice dictation. It also announced a new health-related jSDK called CareKit. It's built for personal care apps. For example, a hospital might make an app to help patients taking the proper steps after a major surgery. The first application is a partnership with major universities and medical centers for monitoring Parkinson's. Encryption Before the iPhone SE and Watch announcement, Cook opened with what he admitted is "on everybody's mind": encryption. "We built the iPhone for you our customers and we know that it is a deeply personal device," said Cook. "For many of us the iPhone is an extension of ourselves." "We need to decide as a nation how much power the government should have over our data and over our privacy," said Cook. "We will not shrink from this responsibility." On Tuesday, Apple will face off against the FBI in a California court. Related: Apple could reveal mini iPhone 5SE on March 21 Apple likes the environment Apple brought out Lisa Jackson, its vice president of environment, to talk about a new, special Apple employee, Liam. Liam is a custom robot that takes old iPhones apart to recycle them. While it disassembles them, it detects what components can be reused and recycled. It identifies materials in a device like gold, silver and tungsten. In the future, you might see a Liam robot doing its thing inside an Apple store. Apple uses 100% renewable power in 25 countries including the US and China. In China, Apple even built a solar farm to accommodate adorable grazing yaks. ||||| What was revealed at today's Apple announcement at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif: • The iPhone SE, a return to the 4-inch model, but one that is as powerful as the iPhone 6S • A new, 9.7-inch iPad Pro — a smaller version of the initial 12.9-inch iPad Pro • The cheapest Apple Watch is now cheaper at $299 and there are new bands to go with it • iOS9.3 is available as new update today • Apple's high-profile fight with the FBI over the iPhone's encryption was addressed immediately and forcefully by CEO Tim Cook

– Apple confirmed a badly kept secret of the tech world on Monday: It's rolling out a 4-inch phone called the iPhone SE. The Wall Street Journal reports that the $399 price for the 16GB version is the company's lowest ever for a new phone. The 64GB version will cost another $100. Orders start Thursday, and it will ship next week. "It looks like the iPhone 5S, Apple's last 4-inch phone released in 2014, but has the same processor and graphics performance as the iPhone 6S," notes CNN. Other highlights of Apple's rollout: Smaller iPad Pro: Apple unveiled a 9.7-inch version of the iPad Pro, with pre-orders starting on March 24, reports BGR. A 32GB model will be $599, with 128GB and 256GB models available for $749 and $899. The new Pro is a smaller version of the 12.9-inch Pro, notes the LA Times, though Gizmodo doesn't think the model is "very new or improved." Cheaper watch: The price of the Apple Watch is dropping from $349 to $299; the company is introducing a new nylon wristband and more color choices for the bands, reports AP. Quick assessment: "The iPhone reboot makes more immediate sense: Apple is just expanding the lineup of an already popular device," writes Farhad Manjoo at the New York Times. "The iPad is a trickier thing. With the new Pro devices, Apple is essentially trying to figure out what the iPad is for. It’s an open question whether it succeeds."

Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed Taser Use Was Within Dept. Policy, Police Say 1:09 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog The FBI is investigating a Missouri police officer's use of a stun gun on a teenager who ended up in critical condition during a traffic stop, officials said Monday. Independence Police Officer Tim Reynolds has been placed on administrative leave while investigators try to piece together what happened during Sunday's confrontation with Bryce Masters, 17, who is the son of a Kansas City cop. "It appears the use of the Taser was in policy," Independence Police Maj. Paul Thurman said at a news conference, adding that the department was "fully cooperating" with the FBI probe, which was requested by the family. Masters was in a car that was stopped by Reynolds because the license plate was linked to a warrant for a female. Thurman said that the teen "physically resisted" and the officer used the stun gun on him. He said Masters got out of the vehicle on his own, contradicting some reports that he was pulled out, and "fell at some point during the vehicle stop." An ambulance was summoned and the paramedics determined the teen "was having a medical emergency" and took him to the hospital, where he was in critical condition 24 hours later. Police said they had no details about his medical condition beyond that. Masters' family has retained an attorney and said it asked the FBI to investigate because of "significant inconsistencies between public statements made by the Independence Police Department and information made available to the family in the form of statements of eyewitnesses and video and audio footage of the occurrence." 17-year-old Bryce Masters stands with his mother in an undated family photo. Courtesy Masters family — Tracy Connor ||||| A teen who was hit near the heart by the probes of an Independence police officer's stun gun is improving after being placed in a medically induced coma, his family said Tuesday. A teen who was hit near the heart by the probes of an Independence police officer's stun gun is improving after being placed in a medically induced coma, his family said Tuesday. The FBI announced Monday afternoon that it has launched an investigation of the Independence Police Department after a teen was left in a coma following an arrest. The FBI made the announcement as the Independence Police Department promised its full cooperation while conducting its own separate, internal investigation. "The FBI Kansas City division has initiated an investigation into the allegations of excessive force by a member of the Independence, MO Police Department in reference to an altercation that occurred Sunday," according to the two-paragraph news release. Family and friends are questioning the use of force by Independence police after a struggle with an officer sent a 17-year-old to the hospital. The officer used a stun gun on the teenager who is now in critical condition. Witnesses have said the officer stepped on the teen and dropped him on the ground after he was handcuffed, causing his head to hit the pavement. Friends say Bryce Masters is in a medically induced coma because of injuries to his brain. They are hoping the teenager pulls through. "Our department's thoughts and prayers are with Bryce and his family and for his complete recovery," Independence police Maj. Paul Thurman said. An officer had pulled over Masters because there was an outstanding Kansas City Police Department warrant associated with the vehicle. This occurred just after 3 p.m. Sunday in the area of East Southside Boulevard and Main Street. The warrant was for a woman. Police say Masters refused to roll down the vehicle's window, but friends say it was due to a malfunctioning switch. Thurman said the windows were quite dark and officers couldn't see inside the vehicle. "It appears that the use of the Taser was in policy and calling the ambulance was in policy at this particular time," Thurman said. The major said Masters exited the vehicle on his own and was not pulled out from the vehicle by the officer. Independence police have firmly defended the actions of Officer Tim Runnels, saying he used a stun gun on the 17-year-old in accordance with department policy. Runnels has been placed on paid administrative leave, which is routine in cases like this. Runnels has been with the department for nearly three years. "During the course of the stop the driver became uncooperative, physically resistitive to exiting the car, and an altercation ensued leading the officer to deploying his Taser," Thurman said. However, Thurman admitted that as of 4:30 p.m. Monday that investigators have not interviewed Runnels. He said that Runnel's Fraternal Order of Police attorney is coordinating the interview. Masters, a senior at Truman High School, is the son of Matt Masters, a veteran Kansas City Police Department officer who oversees the department's off-duty officer program. In 2007, a Kansas City principal sued the city of Independence and JC Penney's after the six-month pregnant woman was forced to lay on her stomach alongside busy Interstate 70 after she was falsely accused from shoplifting from Penney's at Independence Center Mall. A judge dismissed the city, saying officers had sovereign immunity. After a jury was chosen and the trial was going to trial in 2010, JC Penney's paid an undisclosed amount to settle the lawsuit by Hayes. An attorney for Masters' family released the following statement on their behalf Monday afternoon: "The family of Bryce Masters would like to thank everyone for their outpouring of concern and support. "Because of significant inconsistencies between public statements made by the Independence Police Department and information made available to the family in the form of statements of eyewitnesses and video and audio footage of the occurrence, the family has asked the United States Department of Justice to conduct its own investigation into these tragic events. "Because Bryce is still in critical condition, the Masters family asks that their privacy be respected in allowing them to focus on Bryce's needs and his recovery." The Independence Police Department issued the following statement: "On September 14, 2014, at approximately 3:07 p.m., an Independence police officer conducted a vehicle stop in the area of E. Southside Blvd. and Main St. in Independence. The stop was based on a Kansas City PD warrant associate to the plate. "During the course of the stop the driver became uncooperative, physically resistive to exiting the car, and an altercation ensued leading the officer to deploying his Taser. An ambulance was summoned, per Department Taser policy. Once additional officers and medical personnel arrived it was determined the driver was having a medical emergency and he was transported to an area hospital. "The officer who conducted the car stop has been placed administrative leave and the Department is conducting a full investigation to determine what factors contributed to the medical emergency, including the actions of that officer. Once the investigation is completed the Department will disclose the findings. "The FBI is also investigating this incident and our Department will corporate fully with their investigation. "The driver has been identified as 17 year-old Bryce Masters of Independence. Bryce remains in critical condition in the ICU unit. Our Department's thoughts and prayers are with Bryce and his family and for his complete recovery." Copyright 2014 KCTV (Meredith Corp.) All rights reserved.

– The 17-year-old son of a veteran police officer was rushed to the hospital Sunday after a cop used a stun gun while arresting him during a traffic stop in Independence, Mo. Both the FBI and Independence Police Department have launched investigations while Bryce Masters' family holds vigil at an intensive care unit, where he's being kept in a medically induced coma following apparent brain trauma. Witnesses say the officer dragged the teen from the car, which belongs to a woman with an outstanding warrant, used a stun gun, and stepped on him, and that the teen's head hit the pavement when he was in handcuffs, reports KCTV. Police counter that Bryce "physically resisted," exiting the car on his own, and "fell at some point," says a spokesman, per NBC News. "It appears that the use of the Taser was in policy," he says. The arresting officer is a three-year veteran of the force and has been placed on paid administrative leave. Bryce's family said in a statement that they requested the FBI investigation because of "significant inconsistencies between public statements made by the Independence Police Department and information made available to the family in the form of statements of eyewitnesses and video and audio footage of the occurrence." Bryce's father, Matt Masters, is a veteran Kansas City Police Department officer. (Cops in another Missouri town took a lot of heat for stun-gunning a father trying to save his son from a house fire.)

Please enable Javascript to watch this video MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Cardi B's Bodak Yellow has been at the top of the charts for weeks, and now, a Raleigh Egypt High teacher is using it to motivate students to succeed. Candous Brown said she wants her students to succeed, so it hurt her when some students misbehaved during a field trip a couple weeks ago. "A couple of them had displayed some behavior that was not befitting of seniors," said Brown. Her former students challenged her to make a change through music. "I was in my car, and I was like I'm still kind of heated about their behavior," she said. So Brown took a hit song her students love and scribbled down her own lyrics encouraging seniors to be a better role model. "That's how you're supposed to run the school came about. You are the leaders. You're the ones that supposed to set the bar," said Brown. She recorded herself singing the song and posted it to Facbeook. It spread fast. "I saw it on Facebook, and I was like this is my teachers singing in this video?" said senior Kayln Grandberry. The video is now viewed more than 20,000 times. Students quickly memorized the lyrics. "And now when they see each other, they tell each other you're supposed to run the school. You're supposed to be the leaders, so they can keep each other in check with it," said Brown. They even performed Brown's song at a recent pep rally. "I've seen a change from the week I was upset with them until now. Now, they know," said Brown. She plans on making more songs. Students said they can't wait. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An English teacher at Raleigh-Egypt High School in Memphis didn't let a few snow days keep her from helping students with their class assignment. Candous Brown took to Facebook Wednesday morning for a live teaching session with about 40 of her students. It was Brown's first shot at Facebook live and she says after the initial jitters it was like a walk in the park. "This is my first time going live. I've never done this before. Hopefully y'all can hear me," Brown said on Facebook Live. Wednesday Brown kicked off her Facebook English class from her Millington home. Brown's students have been on "snow break" since Tuesday and needed some help with a class assignment. "A couple of kids had sent a message saying they were trying to do their work while the break was still on. and that they were confused about some of the questions. and they requested a lesson live over Facebook," Brown said. Pretty soon there were 40 students taking part in the Facebook class. Brown made it clear up front they shouldn't be fooled by her kitty-kat pajamas and that she was still very much in charge. "I'm not about to play this game about not having a pencil and you better have your book," Brown said. Brown says her students are reading "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond and had what are called "text-dependent questions." "The text-dependent actually help them progress through the test to make sure they understand any probing questions they may have about the text I can go ahead and clarify them," Brown said. Brown believes the Facebook live class was a huge success but gives her students all the credit. "For them to actually have the drive and determination the will to actually want to do this outside of school? I'm proud of them I'll say that I'm very proud of them," This isn't Brown's first dip in the Facebook pool. In October she turned a popular rap song into a motivational tool after some her students misbehaved while on a field trip.

– To teach or not to teach—that is the question. And Candous Brown chose "to teach" on Wednesday morning, even though her school in Memphis, Tenn., was closed for a snow day. WREG notes that the English instructor at Raleigh-Egypt High School was still in her "kitty-kat pajamas" and ready for a second day off from school due to the inclement weather when she got a message from a couple of her students who were trying to do their classwork from home on a text they were reading. "They were confused about some of the questions and they requested a lesson live over Facebook," Brown says, noting she'd never used the Facebook Live video feature before. But she logged on and gave it a whirl, and before long, those initial couple of students were joined by about 40 others who wanted in on the live classroom discussion. It's not the first time Brown has made headlines. In October, she caught the media's eye after she made a rap song imploring senior students to act appropriately in school; some had recently misbehaved on a field trip and upset her, per WREG. "Now when they see each other, they tell each other 'you're supposed to … be the leaders,'" she said after her rap went viral. This time, though, she says all kudos should go to the kids for their motivation to learn over going outside for a snowball fight. "For them to actually have the drive and determination, the will to actually want to do this outside of school?" she says. "I'm very proud of them." (These teachers motivated by promising to eat worms and frog legs.)

House Republicans narrowly approved a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s food stamp program Thursday that would slash about $39 billion in funding over the next decade, cut aid to about 4 million Americans in the next few years and shift the burden of providing aid to some of the nation’s poor to state governments. The GOP-backed plan differs sharply from a bipartisan Senate proposal passed in June, and its passage will further strain relations between the two chambers as they spend the next several weeks toiling over a short-term budget deal and negotiating over raising the federal debt limit. As those battles begin, Thursday’s vote is a victory for House Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.), who orchestrated a strategy this summer to split apart the farm bill to consider funding for food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, separately from legislation authorizing crop subsidies and an overhaul of many agricultural and conservation programs. Cantor said the deep cuts enacted Thursday were necessary because while most SNAP recipients need the assistance, there are too many people “that choose to abuse the system.” “Frankly it’s wrong for hard-working middle-class Americans to pay for that,” Cantor said. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), a strong supporter of the bill, said that stiffer work requirements for certain adults applying for SNAP funds mean “you can no longer sit on your couch…and expect the federal taxpayer to feed you.” The House voted 217 to 210, with all members of the Democratic caucus present voting against the plan. The House can now begin long-delayed negotiations with the Senate over a final version of the farm bill, which would once again merge food aid with other agricultural policy. But in a rambling speech on the Senate floor Thursday morning, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) slammed the GOP strategy, saying that Republicans have “turned their backs” on low-income families in hopes of making budget cuts. Citing his frequent trips to the grocery store with his wife, Landra, Reid said that proposed cuts in SNAP funding would make it difficult for some recipients to buy hamburger meat and milk in the same shopping trip. In the House, Democrats used the hours before the vote to criticize Republicans for stripping SNAP recipients of their aid. They repeatedly cited an op-ed by former Senate majority leaders Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Robert Dole (R-Kan.) published Monday in the Los Angeles Times who argued that “this is no time to play politics with hunger.” Brandishing a cooked steak, bottle of vodka and can of caviar on the House floor, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) suggested that money spent by lawmakers on official overseas travel could easily help pay for food stamps for the hungry. One lawmaker received more than $3,500 to spend on food and lodging during a six-day trip to Russia — roughly equal to a year’s worth of SNAP funding for some recipients, she said. The House bill would cut overall SNAP spending by slightly more than five percent over the next decade, largely through two provisions that would significantly affect states. The first reinstates restrictions on many able-bodied, childless adults aged 18 to 50 who receive SNAP benefits. It accounts for roughly half the cuts. Under those limits, 1.7 million people would lose benefits next year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported on Monday. Under federal law, those able-bodied adults may collect only limited benefits — up to three months over a three-year period — unless they work more than 20 hours per week or are in a job-training program. RELATED GRAPHIC: ||||| The House approved legislation Thursday that would cut $39 billion in funds over the next decade for food stamp programs. Members approved H.R. 3102, the Nutrition Reform and Work Opportunity Act, in a close 217-210 vote. No Democrats voted for the bill, and 15 Republicans voted against GOP leaders. ADVERTISEMENT The bill would authorize food stamp programs for three years. The legislation, part of which was developed by Majority Leader Eric Cantor Eric Ivan Cantor2018 will test the power of political nobodies Ryan signals support for McCarthy as next GOP leader Hoyer’s spot as Pelosi heir challenged by younger reps MORE (R-Va.), passed in the face of fierce opposition from House Democrats, a White House veto threat and warnings that it is already dead on arrival in the Democratic Senate. Several Democrats warned today that cutting $39 billion from the program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is a cruel step that would only hurt people in need. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that up to 3.8 million people would lose food stamp benefits next year. The vote was expected to be close, as a few Republicans had said they were undecided on how to vote. Just a day earlier, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said he was “looking at it,” and two others said they were similarly undecided. Rogers waited until the nearly last minute before voting for the measure. Most of the Republican defections came from the Northeast, including most of the New York GOP delegation. "I have a lot of families that are struggling. This is a tough economy, and I didn't think it was the right time to be going that deep," said Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.) of his no vote. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) cited victims of Hurricane Sandy in his district who needed food stamps. "I just felt the cuts were a little too steep, especially because right now, I have a lot of Sandy victims who have never been on assistance ever in their life," Grimm said. "And a lot of these hard-working families have lost everything, and for the first time, they're needing food stamps. So I didn’t want to affect those Sandy victims." Other Republicans voting against the bill were Reps. Shelly Moore Capito (W.Va.), Mike Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Jeff Fortenberry Jeffrey (Jeff) Lane FortenberryKeep wildlife off Endangered List with proactive conservation funding GOP lawmakers help people injured in train crash We vowed to help persecuted religious minorities — it’s time to act MORE (Neb.), Chris Gibson (N.Y.), Richard Hanna (N.Y.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Pete King (N.Y.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), Gary Miller (Calif.), Chris Smith (N.J.), David Valadao (Calif.), Frank Wolf Frank Rudolph WolfBolton could be the first national security chief to prioritize religious freedom House votes to mandate sexual harassment training for members and staff Trump, global religious freedom needs US ambassador to lead MORE (Va.) and Don Young Donald (Don) Edwin YoungPension committee must deliver on retirement promise Our leaders must end the hate before they burn America down Alaska rep denies suggesting armed Jews could have prevented Holocaust MORE (Alaska). Rep. Justin Amash Justin AmashHouse Freedom Caucus flexes muscle in Speaker's race Paul Ryan’s successor must embrace the House Freedom Caucus 25 House Republicans defy leadership in key spending bill vote MORE (R-Mich.), who frequently opposes leadership, waited until near the end before voting yes. "That was a tough vote, yes," Amash said. "It's got some reforms that are important. I think these issues should be handled by the states, not by the federal government. But it's good to have a method for phasing these in while we transition over to the states." Republicans stressed that the bill is needed to stop runaway spending in the food stamp program, which has roughly doubled under the Obama administration. They also said the bill is focused on reducing payments to able-bodied adults and focusing payments on more needy populations. “There's no denying that SNAP provides important support for many Americans who are struggling,” said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.). “It serves a noble purpose to help you when you hit bottom. But it's not meant to keep you at the bottom.” Democrats criticized the measure. “Cutting the investment is a full assault on the health and economic security of millions of families,” said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “I know one thing for sure: Every person who votes for this Republican measure is voting to hurt his or her own constituents.” The legislation contains many of the reforms Republicans pushed for earlier this year as part of a larger farm bill, such as limiting automatic eligibility for food stamps. But it also includes language developed by Cantor that would eliminate the option states have of seeking a waiver from rules that require able-bodied adults to work or participate in a job training program in order to receive extended SNAP benefits. Democratic opponents of the bill have said Republican and Democratic governors have been asking for these waivers, making them something both parties have supported. Opponents also say killing the waiver would leave people with no options for food aid in states where jobs or job training programs don't exist. But Cantor rejected those criticisms today. “There's been a lot of demagoguery around this bill, and unfortunately a lot of misinformation,” he said on the floor. “Because the truth is, anyone subjected to the work requirements under this bill who are … able-bodied, under 50, will not be denied benefits if only they are willing to sign up for the opportunity for work,” he said. “There is no requirement that jobs exist, there are workfare programs; there are options under the bill for community service.” Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerHouse Freedom Caucus flexes muscle in Speaker's race Ryan backs McCarthy for Speaker: He's 'the right person' Fearing war by tweet, Dems press for limits on Trump's powers MORE (R-Ohio) said he hoped passage of the bill would allow the House and Senate to convene a conference committee to finish up a unified farm bill. Earlier this year, GOP leaders proposed a broader farm bill that included $20 billion in cuts to the food stamp program. But many Republicans demanded deeper cuts in an effort to further trim the rapidly growing program, and the GOP was forced to pass a farm bill without language on food stamps. But even if a conference committee were assembled, the big differences between the House and Senate bills could pose problems for bicameral effort. One question is how to find agreement between the two chambers on a total level of food stamp spending — the Senate-passed farm bill only makes a $4 billion cut to SNAP. Another question is whether to synchronize the authorization for commodity and food stamp programs. For years, both have been authorized together under a single five-year farm bill. The House has tried to separate the two items. Over the summer, it passed a five-year bill dealing with farm commodity programs, but the food stamp bill passed today authorizes SNAP for just three years. House Republicans pushed for the split in order to more cleanly attack the rising costs of the food stamp program. Senate Democrats are expected to push to unify the two elements in conference, while many House Republicans are expected to keep up pressure to put the two issues on different timelines. “Food stamps and farm policy should be considered individually and on their own merits,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) said on the floor today. Stutzman lost his post as an assistant GOP whip after bucking other leaders in his push to split the bill, even though the House now appears to be following his proposal. “It's just common sense, and it's exactly why we are here,” he said. — Russell Berman contributed — This story was last updated at 7:24 p.m.

– House Republicans have laid down their marker in the fight over the nation's food-stamp program: They passed a bill tonight that would slash nearly $40 billion over 10 years, arguing that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is bloated and too-easily abused, reports the Hill. The vote was close, 217-210, without a single Democrat voting in favor. The CBO estimates that about 4 million Americans would lose benefits under the House's tougher restrictions, but the rules are still a long way from being put into place. Now comes the wrangling with the Senate, and Democrats there say they won't agree to the big House cuts. Some of the dueling quotes: Pro: Too many people "choose to abuse the system," says Eric Cantor, who has spearheaded the House plan, including the July split of the food-stamp program from the farm bill. “Frankly it’s wrong for hard-working middle-class Americans to pay for that." Adds Republican Tim Huelskamp of Kansas: The tougher rules mean “you can no longer sit on your couch … and expect the federal taxpayer to feed you.” Con: “It’s a sad day in the people’s House when the leadership brings to the floor one of the most heartless bills I have ever seen,” said Democrat James McGovern of Massachusetts. “It's terrible policy trapped in a terrible process.” Democrat Jackie Speier of California used props including a cooked steak and a can of caviar to argue that lawmakers should instead cut their own travel perks, reports the Washington Post.

It's rare to hear about life doing well in the oceans these days. But cephalopods – a group of marine animals that includes squids, octopuses, and cuttlefish – are thriving. And cephalopods aren't merely getting by. They've been on the rise for the past six decades, according to a study published Monday in the journal Current Biology. "It is certainly nice to see something going up," study lead author Zoë Doubleday, a marine biologist at the University of Adelaide, tells The Christian Science Monitor. But there could be a downside to such an abundance. "From a squid's perspective, it is good news," says Michael Vecchione, director of the NOAA Fisheries National Systematics Laboratory and an invertebrate zoologist at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History who was not part of the new study. But "maybe not from a fish's perspective." Cephalopods "are really voracious predators," Dr. Vecchione explains to the Monitor. "They have a high metabolic rate, high growth rate and as a result they have a high requirement for food. So they eat a lot of stuff. If there are a lot of squids out there eating juvenile fishes, it could make it more difficult for the fish populations to recover." But cephalopods aren't just big eaters. They're also food sources for many larger marine animals, birds, and humans, Dr. Doubleday says. And, she says, balance might return to the food chain over time. "Nature has a way of self-regulating," Doubleday says. Perhaps this growing population will hit a point when there isn't enough food to support such an abundance. And, "they're highly cannibalistic," she says, "so they might self-regulate by eating each other. That often happens when food is limited." "They might crash just as much as they've increased," Doubleday says. Why so many cephalopods? Cephalopods are often called "weeds of the sea," Doubleday says. "Like the weeds in your garden, they're the first things that respond to change or disturbance." These animals grow quickly, have short lifespans, and can adapt quickly to new environmental conditions, she explains. And those attributes likely come together to make it easier for cephalopods to thrive in the changing oceans. But what exactly those changing conditions are is still a question. Perhaps overfishing, changing water temperatures, or other effects of climate change are opening doors for cephalopod population growth. "There's probably multiple causes that are interrelated," Vecchione says. Doubleday says her team is currently looking into what those causes might be. To assess the state of cephalopods, Doubleday and her colleagues pored over data from fisheries and other oceanic surveys. "They've provided some pretty convincing evidence that cephalopod populations have increased," Vecchione says. But he warns that these methods overlook those species that humans don't regularly come into contact with, like the animals living deep in the sea instead of along coasts or in shallower waters. "There's still a lot of unanswered questions," he says. Cephalopods or canaries? The rise in cephalopods may not just be bad news for the fish they eat. Because cephalopods are particularly sensitive to changes in the ocean, they could be like the proverbial canary in a coal mine, Doubleday says. "If we're seeing these changes in the cephalopods, it means something might be changing in the ocean." Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy "We're seeing a new world here, one we haven't seen before. Any time you push an ecosystem into a different state, there's greater uncertainty in how it will behave, and how it will respond to future changes. Frankly, I think that should make people really worried," Ben Halpern, a biology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and director of the school's Center for Marine Assessment and Planning tells the Monitor in an email. "More squid and octopus to eat may seem like a good thing, and in the short run maybe it is. But I'm more worried about the long run," says Dr. Halpern, who was not part of the study. ||||| Wherever humans have changed the environment—and you’d be hard-pressed to find a place we haven’t—there are winners and losers. Cities around the world shelter pigeons, naturally adapted to life on rock ledges. Farms allow weedy plants to thrive between their fields. Oceans—plagued by rising temperatures, depleted fish populations, and acidifying waters brought on by human activity—are no exception. New research shows that these changes to marine environments are leading to a surge of cephalopods, the invertebrate group that includes octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish. Scientists have noticed a growth in cephalopod catches around the world since the late 1990s. But drawing conclusions from national fisheries data can be tricky. Not only can catch numbers be misreported, but changes in catch amounts can also be influenced by factors that change the amount of time people spend fishing—like the price of fish and the cost of fuel—or by technological advances that allow fishers to catch more. So an increase in cephalopod catch doesn’t necessarily mean there are more cephalopods in the ocean. To solve this problem, researchers looked for data that would allow them to calculate how much fishers catch over a given time period—a more reliable metric of actual cephalopod population numbers. But finding the data wasn’t easy. Zoe Doubleday, a marine biologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia and lead author of the study, spent months with her team poring over the available literature, persuading international colleagues to track down hard-to-get national fisheries records, and then getting those records translated into English. Combined with 32 scientific surveys, the records gave the researchers 60 years of reliable data. The conclusion was clear: Cephalopod populations—from New England to Japan—have boomed since the 1950s. And the numbers aren’t limited to species that live in the open ocean, like the Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas). Species that live closer to shore, like the elegant cuttlefish (Sepia elegans), have also seen a steady rise in numbers, the researchers report today in Current Biology. Crucially, the increase was seen in both scientific survey data and fisheries records—so it wasn’t just an artifact of technological advances or a growing global hunger for calamari and sushi. So why are cephalopods, of all things, thriving? Like rodents, cephalopods are highly adaptable to changes in their environment, researchers say—in large part because most species live just 1 or 2 years, dying as soon as they give birth. That allows them to respond rapidly to disturbance. “We refer to them as the weeds of the sea,” jokes Gretta Pecl, a marine biologist at the University of Tasmania in Australia who wasn’t involved with the study. Pegging the increase in cephalopod numbers to any one factor is tough, although the 60-year timescale points to human influence: Natural ocean cycles are shorter, and so can’t be responsible. But there are many avenues by which humans could tip the balance. Fishing is one potential culprit: By catching fish that eat cephalopods or compete with them for food, humans create gaps in the food chain for these adaptable creatures to fill. Climate change is another: Rising temperatures can speed up cephalopods’ already rapid growth rates, making them have babies more quickly, which in turn speeds up the growth of populations. But until more research is done, Doubleday says, “it’s all speculation, what’s causing them to increase.” No matter what the cause, the change could have far-reaching effects on the ocean. Faster growth rates also mean that cephalopods will eat more—and they’re already voracious eaters, with some species eating 30% of their body weight each day as adults, according to Pecl. “This is not a sensational ‘cephalopods are taking over the world’s oceans’ story,” says Paul Rodhouse, a biological oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, U.K. Further climate change could have unpredictable effects, squeezing generation times to less than a year and throwing off some species’ annual mating gatherings in the process. And along with the threat of continued fishing by humans, Doubleday notes that many cephalopods are cannibals. “There’s always competition stabilizing things,” she says. “I don’t know whether we’ll eat them first or they’ll start eating each other.” ||||| Squid, cuttlefish and their relatives appear to benefit from ‘live fast, die young’ mentality as study shows cephalopods have thrived over past 60 years Squids and octopuses thrive as 'weeds of the sea' warm to hotter oceans Octopuses, cuttlefish and squid have thrived in the world’s oceans over the last 60 years despite – or because of – human activity that has warmed oceans and reduced fish populations. Giant squid that swam into Japanese bay guided back out to sea by diver Read more An international team compiled a database of cephalopod catch rates, and found that even though the creatures reproduce in diverse ways – some hatch and live near the sea floor, others are born and die moving up and down the water column – around the world, nearly all are steadily increasing. “Cephalopods have this ‘live fast, die young’ life history strategy – the rock stars of the sea, if you like to call them that,” Bronwyn Gillanders, the project leader and a marine biologist at the University of Adelaide, told the Guardian. Her colleague and the lead author of a study released on Monday, Zoe Doubleday, had a different analogy. “Cephalopods are often called ‘weeds of the sea’,” she said, because their “rapid growth, short lifespans and flexible development” let them adapt to environmental changes more quickly than other marine animals. This rapid life cycle, Gillanders said, means cephalopods can “proliferate quickly, perhaps with advantages over longer-lived organisms”. Gillanders and her colleagues published their findings on Monday in the journal Current Biology. The research began when the Adelaide team began investigating the decline of the giant Australian cuttlefish, a species that can grow to 20in and 23lb and whose males use color mimicry and deceit to sneak past competitors for a mate. “Surprisingly, analyses revealed that cephalopods as a whole are in fact increasing,” Doubleday said, “and since this study, cuttlefish numbers from this iconic population near Whyalla are luckily bouncing back.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Humboldt squid at night, in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: Brian J Skerry/Getty Images/National Geographic Fish populations and coral reefs are declining rapidly due to overfishing and climate change. Recent studies have found that global fish catches are falling three times faster than official United Nations figures suggest, predicted that global warming will shrink fish populations by a quarter, and said bleaching by warm oceans has affected 93% of the Great Barrier Reef. Yet overfishing and warming oceans may benefit octopuses, squid and cuttlefish. Cephalopods are voracious predators, for which overfishing depletes competition and removes predators. Warmer waters are believed to accelerate cephalopod life cycles, so long as food remains available and the temperatures do not rise too far. Gillanders noted that after the El Niño and La Niña phenomena of 1997-98, for instance, warm Pacific waters apparently affected whole populations of Humboldt squid (also known as jumbo flying squid): unusually large Humboldts were found in large numbers swimming off Mexico, Peru and Chile. The squid, which live longer than most other squid (two years, rather than one), can grow to nearly 5ft: after El Niño, they were found weighing between 25lb and 88lb. More than a decade later, the long-lived squid were found to have adapted to the 2009-10 El Niño by moving 100 miles north of their usual territory. Others moved into the open ocean and began breeding much earlier than normal. “These traits allow them to adapt readily to changing environmental conditions,” Gillander said. “They may therefore have a competitive advantage over longer-lived, slower-growing species.” The researchers warned, however, that the “population dynamics are notoriously difficult to predict”, and “human activities may have a deleterious effect on cephalopod populations”. The acidification of oceans, for example, has proven damaging for most marine life save jellyfish, which may also be reaping rewards from what humans have sown. Jellyfish can survive in waters polluted by runoff and oil spills, adapt well to new environments, and have bloomed in such vast numbers in recent years that they have stopped ships and shut down nuclear plants. ||||| Unlike the declining populations of many fish species, the number of cephalopods (octopus, cuttlefish and squid) has increased in the world's oceans over the past 60 years, a University of Adelaide study has found. The international team, led by researchers from the University's Environment Institute, compiled a global database of cephalopod catch rates to investigate long-term trends in abundance, published in Cell Press journal Current Biology. "Our analyses showed that cephalopod abundance has increased since the 1950s, a result that was remarkably consistent across three distinct groups," says lead author Dr Zoë Doubleday, Research Fellow in the Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences. "Cephalopods are often called 'weeds of the sea' as they have a unique set of biological traits, including rapid growth, short lifespans and flexible development. These allow them to adapt to changing environmental conditions (such as temperature) more quickly than many other marine species, which suggests that they may be benefiting from a changing ocean environment." Dr Doubleday says the research stemmed from an investigation of declining numbers of the iconic Giant Australian cuttlefish. "There has been a lot of concern over declining numbers of the iconic Giant Australian cuttlefish at the world-renowned breeding ground in South Australia's Spencer Gulf," Dr Doubleday says. "To determine if similar patterns were occurring elsewhere, we compiled this global-scale database. Surprisingly, analyses revealed that cephalopods, as a whole, are in fact increasing; and since this study, cuttlefish numbers from this iconic population near Whyalla are luckily bouncing back." Project leader Professor Bronwyn Gillanders says large-scale changes to the marine environment, brought about by human activities, may be driving the global increase in cephalopods. "Cephalopods are an ecologically and commercially important group of invertebrates that are highly sensitive to changes in the environment," Professor Gillanders says. "We're currently investigating what may be causing them to proliferate - global warming and overfishing of fish species are two theories. It is a difficult, but important question to answer, as it may tell us an even bigger story about how human activities are changing the ocean." Cephalopods are found in all marine habitats and, as well as being voracious predators, they are also an important source of food for many marine species, as well as humans. "As such, the increase in abundance has significant and complex implications for both the marine food web and us," says Dr Doubleday. ### Media Contact: Dr Zoë Doubleday, Research Fellow. Mobile: +61 (0) 400 147 175, [email protected] Professor Bronwyn Gillanders, Project leader. Phone: +61 8 8313 6235 Mobile: +61 (0) 417 036 235, [email protected] Robyn Mills, Media Officer. Phone: +61 8 8313 6341 Mobile: +61 (0)410 689 084, [email protected]

– You don't have to look far to find bad news about the world's oceans—overfishing, unhealthy coral reefs, you name it—but one group of sea creatures seems to be doing quite well in this changing world: cephalopods. A study in Cell Biology finds that octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish aren't just surviving but are actually thriving, reports the Christian Science Monitor. The Australian researchers looked at 60 years of data from around the world and found "remarkably consistent" increases in all three groups, they say in a press release. They don't pinpoint a cause but suggest that it might have something to do with their lifespans of just a year or two, reports Science. "Cephalopods are often called 'weeds of the sea' as they have a unique set of biological traits, including rapid growth, short lifespans, and flexible development," says one of the researchers. A colleague uses the more colorful analogy of "rock stars of the sea" with the Guardian, but the idea's the same: The creatures' "live fast, die young" lifestyle gives them a chance to adapt more quickly than other species. A host of factors may be at play, including overfishing that wipes out competitors or predators, but there's a potential downside: At some point, cephalopods may run out of food and turn to cannibalism. However, it turns out, the results have "significant and complex implications for both the marine food web and us," says the lead author. (This striking new octopus species was just found.)

Beijing has revved up its 2009 GDP volume at more than US$5.29 trillion, exceeding Japan's US$5.08 trillion. China's National Bureau of Statistics revised up the country's GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate for 2009 from 8.7 percent to 9.1 percent. After a detailed check-up, the bureau modified the volume of GDP, a major gauge of a country or a region's economic production, to 34.0507 trillion yuan (US$5.296 trillion) last year, according to a Xinhua report. With the upward revisions, China has surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest economy. Japan posted nominal GDP of US$ 5.085 trillion last year. Most economists forecast China's economy will grow more than 10 percent in 2010, powered by strong domestic consumption and government-inspired investments in high-speed trains and new energies. By People's Daily Online ||||| With China’s government publishing revised figures on the nation’s economic output, it’s time once again to check in on a closely-watched statistical horse-race with Japan. Fast-growing China is expected to soon surpass Japan as the world’s second-largest national economy after the U.S. -- in terms of annual output measured in U.S. dollars at market exchange rates. (There are other ways of ranking economies that would produce different results: in terms of purchasing power parity, China has been the world’s second-largest economy for a long time. And if you count the European Union as a single economy, it is the world’s largest, pushing the U.S. to second place.) ||||| China on Friday revised up 2009 gross domestic product growth to 9.1% from 8.7% on the back of higher output from industry and services. The revision means China was even closer at the end of 2009 to overtaking Japan as the world's second-largest economy -- a status it is virtually certain to secure this year on current growth trends. China's output last year totalled 34.05 trillion yuan (USD 5.02 trillion), up from an initial estimate of 33.54 trillion yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics said on its website, www.stats.gov.cn. At last December's exchange rate that was about USD 4.98 trillion, compared with USD 5.1 trillion for Japan, according to the International Monetary Fund. The NBS revised growth in China's industrial sector to 9.9% from 9.5%. Services expanded by 9.3%, revised from 8.9%. The growth rate of the agricultural sector was unchanged at 4.2%. After the revisions, industry made up 46.3% of total GDP (48.6% in 2008), services 43.4 percent (40.1% in 2008) and agriculture 10.3% (11.3% in 2008). On World Bank figures, Japan's GDP was 11.9 percent bigger than China's at the end of 2008. Using the so-called Atlas method that the bank prefers to measure the relative sizes of economies, Japan was 20 percent bigger than China in 2008. (Reporting by Zhou Xin and Langi Chiang; Editing by Alan Wheatley and Chris Lewis) (For more business news on Reuters India click http://in.reuters.com) ||||| China came closer to surpassing Japan as the world’s second biggest economy Friday as the National Board of Statistics revised its 2009 GDP figure up from 8.7 per cent to 9.1. The move helped to reverse earlier losses on the mainland’s main Shanghai index after Goldman Sachs revised its full-year 2010 GDP growth forecast from 11.4 per cent to 10.1.Goldman’s bearish tone triggered a 2.3 per cent fall on the Shanghai Composite, to hit a 15-month intraday low. The NBS revision did little to appease investors in Hong Kong where Hang Seng fell 1.1 per cent to a three week low of 19,905, as anticipation for AgBank’s listing mops up liquidity in the market. Asian markets were mixed, reflecting a lack of clarity on the direction of regional economic growth.China’s renminbi made its biggest gain against the dollar since its revaluation, after the central bank set its yuan reference rate against the dollar at 6.7720 – the highest level since 2005. It reached a pitch of 6.7700 against the dollar in day trading. The Hong Kong Hang Seng dropped 1.1 per cent where China-based Foxconn International, the world’s top contract manufacturer of mobile phones, sank 4.5 per cent to HK$4.88. Chinese state-controlled oil company Cnooc fell 3.3 per cent to HK$12.94. In Shanghai, the Composite was up 0.4 per cent to 2,382.901, as investors questioned whether the market was seriously oversold. China’s biggest producer of copper, Jiangxi Copper fell 1.4 per cent to 23.02 yuan, while Aluminum Copper fell 1.7 per cent to 8.76 yuan. Yanzhou mining dropped 1.7 per cent to 15.53 yuan. The Shenzhen composite was down 0.6 per cent to 925.678. Taiwan was the regional bright spot, where the main index rose 1.1 per cent after President Ma Ying-jeou said Taiwan’s trade accord with China this week would “accelerate economic integration in the region.” The index closed at 7,330.74. Singapore’s Straits Times index up 0.9 per cent to 2,844.19. In Indonesia the IDX composite was down 0.1 per cent at 2,871.554. Shares on the main index in Manila were down 0.7 per cent at3,290.98. Thailand’s SET index was up 0.7 per cent at 802.57. Vietnam’s main index was down 0.1 per cent at 503.65. India’s Sensex index was down 0.3 per cent to 17,460.95.

– The US is the world's No. 1 economy, but who's No. 2? It depends who you ask. In the English-language version of the People's Daily Online, China declares that its newly revised GDP puts it in second place over Japan. But a slew of other observers, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and MoneyControl say Beijing remains in third (barely) based on IMF exchange rates. Though even if they're right, it's just a matter of time. "Close, but no cigar," writes Andrew Batson at the Journal. "China is still likely to have to wait until the end of 2010 to pass this symbolic milestone."

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald said Thursday he believes he is the first sitting, major elected official to propose using victories on the playing field as a condition of providing public support for professional sports. As expected, FitzGerald rolled out a proposal to award 20 percent of the sin tax – estimated at $2.6 million a year -- for upkeep at Cleveland's pro sports stadiums based at least in part on how well the teams who use them play. He calls his idea the "win tax." Voters approved a 20-year extension of the sin tax – a countywide tax on alcohol and cigarettes – to pay for upkeep to FirstEnergy Stadium, Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena – last May. His presentation to reporters included displaying a spreadsheet showing that of cities with three major professional sports teams, Cleveland's 50-year championship drought is the nation's longest. He argued that if they're going support the Browns, Cavs and Indians games with their tax money, beleaguered Cleveland sports fans deserve a return on their investment. He also said that there is a correlation between winning sports teams and economic development, citing decreased tax collections following LeBron James's departure from the Cavs in 2011. "This is at least a small step, and I think it's a real step, to say ... we love these teams, we're loyal to these teams and we're committed to maintaining these facilities. But we can also try to demand to get something a little bit better than we've gotten over the past 50 years," FitzGerald said. Many details of FitzGerald's plan have not been hashed out. FitzGerald, a Democrat who is running for governor, has proposed forming a "fan advisory council" to develop the criteria used to judge success. He suggested the 20 percent of the sin tax would not be awarded on a "winner takes all basis," and also suggested that criteria besides winning might play a factor in how the money is awarded. If county council approves the plan, FitzGerald said, those interested in applying to be on the fan advisory council can apply on Cuyahoga County's website. FitzGerald said he has spoken with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland Council President Kevin Kelley, and some representatives with the Browns, Cavs and Indians, about his plan. Asked about the feedback he received, FitzGerald said his proposal is just a starting point for discussion. "I can't say I've talked to all public officials on this. I think some will be supportive and others will not be. I think there will be differing opinions on this," he said. FitzGerald also made a political gaffe when he jokingly referred to the idea that sin tax collections be split evenly between Cleveland's three stadiums as "Distribution for Dummies." This is an approach favored by Cleveland's mayor, a fellow Democrat, among others. Though he endorsed the tax, FitzGerald kept a low profile during the campaign. He said nothing about the issue other than to offer a heavily qualified statement of support during a public meeting in which county council voted to send the issue to the May ballot. Asked why he is proposing a funding distribution formula now, and not while voters still had a choice on the issue, FitzGerald raised a point that sin tax opponents raised during the campaign. "It was a legitimate argument for people to say they wanted more details on [how the sin tax would be allocated]. They got the [limited] details they got on it, and they still decided to vote for it. Now it's our job to decide how the money's going to be spent," he said. Nate Kelly, FitzGerald's special assistant for economic development, said FitzGerald's proposal is no different than requiring companies that accept tax incentives to deliver on a certain number of jobs, as the county currently does. "The executive has been consistent on this issue. The 'win tax' is no different," Kelley said. Asked about FitzGerald's proposal, Peter Pattakos, a leader of the campaign that unsuccessfully attempted to defeat the sin tax last May, said in an email: "The only responsible use of the Sin Tax proceeds is to pay down the hundreds of millions in debt still outstanding on the sports facilities. If Mr. Fitzgerald wants to stand up for County taxpayers, he will focus on that objective." ||||| CLEVELAND (AP) — To downtrodden fans accustomed to heartbreak, it might seem an exercise in futility: A top county official and gubernatorial candidate has suggested divvying up maintenance money for Cleveland's three professional sports venues based on the teams' performance. A workman leaves the job site at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland where renovation of the 15-year-old home of the Cleveland Browns continues Thursday, June 5, 2014. Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald... (Associated Press) Workmen guide a bucket of concrete at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland where renovation of the 15-year-old home of the Cleveland Browns continues Thursday, June 5, 2014. Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald... (Associated Press) Ed FitzGerald said Thursday that the idea hasn't been tried elsewhere. But how do you decide who performs best when these teams typically wallow in mediocrity — or worse? Cuyahoga County voters in May approved a 20-year extension of a sin tax on alcohol and cigarettes that's projected to raise $26 million annually. FitzGerald wants the three teams to compete for 20 percent of that money based on how well they play. He would create a fan advisory committee to establish the criteria for judging performance and which team gets the biggest share of the cash, which like all sin tax money can only be spent on maintenance for the venues. FitzGerald on Thursday called it a "win" tax. He noted that a Cleveland team hasn't won a world championship in 50 years, something fans don't needed to be reminded about. Form a panel of dyed-in-the-wool Cleveland sports fans fed up with their teams' losing ways and management's questionable decisions, and they might be tempted to tell FitzGerald to keep the money. Bob Paponetti, a 56-year-old lifelong fan of Cleveland sports teams who bought some Indians gear for a friend Thursday, said he didn't like the idea of teams having to compete against each other for money. "They should all be supportive of each other," he said. City of Cleveland spokeswoman Maureen Harper said the city thinks the money should be split evenly. Cleveland owns FirstEnergy Stadium, where the Browns try to play football. Progressive Field, where the Indians play, and Quicken Loans Arena, home of the Cavaliers, are owned by the quasi-governmental Gateway Corp. A Republican candidate for county executive and a county councilman panned the idea. The Ohio Republican Party called it a publicity stunt. Representatives from the three teams issued terse "no comments." Clevelanders haven't had much to cheer about the last 50 years. No major Cleveland franchise has won a world championship since Blanton Collier's Browns beat the Baltimore Colts, 27-0, in 1964. The Indians made it to the World Series twice in the 1990s and were one out away from winning the title in 1997. Jose Mesa, the Indians' closer who blew the most crucial of saves, remains both an expletive and Cleveland's version of Bill Buckner. Hope sprung eternal when the Cavaliers drafted local hero and current basketball legend LeBron James in 2003. But the Cavaliers' single appearance in the NBA finals with James resulted in a merciless sweep by the San Antonio Spurs. He then took his considerable talent to Miami in 2010, and the Cavaliers have not made the playoffs since. James, meanwhile, has a chance to soon win his third NBA title. The Browns? It's arguable, perhaps likely, that the Browns are the most loved and most reviled of all the professional franchises in Cleveland. Love and hate. Hope and despair. If the Browns ever wanted to put something on the bare sides of their orange helmets, the Chinese symbol for yin and yang might get a few votes. A Sunday in Cleveland during the NFL season is a time to pray and wonder why God hates the Browns and its fans. Yet Sunday after Sunday, diehards sit in front of their televisions or squeeze into expensive seats at FirstEnergy Stadium and typically suffer the consequences. Edward Bass-Bey, a 65-year-old sports fan, remembers his father taking him to a 1964 game in which Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown slowly rose after being tackled only to bolt through another hole in the line on the next play. "We're pitting one against the other," Bass-Bey said of Fitzgerald's plan. "Cleveland sports fans should be Cleveland sports fans." ||||| 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

– Local governments are constantly doling out cash to professional sports teams, and now one Cleveland politician thinks the public deserves to see some wins for its money. Cuyahoga County voters last month extended a "sin tax" on alcohol and cigarettes to pay for stadium upkeep for Cleveland's three major sports teams. Yesterday County Executive and would-be governor Ed FitzGerald proposed distributing some of that money based on the relative success of those teams, an idea he calls the "win tax," the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. The Browns, Cavs, and Indians haven't managed a world championship between them in 50 years. "We love these teams," FitzGerald says. "But we can also try to demand to get something a little bit better than we've gotten." His proposal would set up a "fan advisory council" to determine the criteria for distributing the money. The idea met with what the AP describes as "terse 'no comments'" from the teams. Republicans panned the idea (FitzGerald is a Democrat), with party chairman Rob Frost objecting that it would send the message that Cleveland only supported winners. "That's not how we do things in Cleveland," he reportedly said.

Rapper Kanye West got boos and jeers from the audience at “Saturday Night Live” after he went on a pro-President Trump rant during the closing credits of the season premiere. West, wearing a red “Make American Great Again” hat and with the show’s cast standing behind him, launched into the screed off camera, but it was caught on video by comedian Chris Rock. “I wanna cry right now, black man in America, supposed to keep what you’re feeling inside right now,” he sang as he paced the stage. He continued: “The blacks want always Democrats you know it’s like the plan they did, to take the fathers out the home and put them on welfare. Does anybody know about that? That’s a Democratic plan.” Then he turned to his support of Trump. “There’s so many times I talk to like a white person about this and they say, ‘How could you like Trump? He’s racist.’ Well, if I was concerned about racism I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago.” A smattering of applause was quickly drowned out by boos in the audience. Rock could be heard on the video saying, “Oh, my God.” West appeared on the show’s 44th season opener as a last-minute replacement for Ariana Grande, who canceled. ||||| Since the news has been happening at such a lightning-fast clip, Saturday Night Live was presented with the daunting task of playing summer catch-up. Host Adam Driver gamely committed to the sketches, but more focus was drawn by Pete Davidson’s tabloid romance with Ariana Grande and Kanye West, well, being Kanye West. Cold open In what was the highlight of the evening, Matt Damon made a special appearance as Brett Kavanaugh, “the proudest, drunkest virgin you’ve ever seen!” Damon perfectly mastered Kavanaugh’s blustery shouting, which included the poorly thought-out declaration: “I don’t know the meaning of the word stop.” The show failed to maintain the energy of that cold open, which also included a surprise cameo by SNL alum Rachel Dratch (and a cardboard cutout of Alyssa Milano). Monologue “Adam designated Driver,” star of Girls and the Star Wars films, was hosting SNL for the second time. Without a project to promote, the opening monologue was a little unfocused — Driver pretended to tease new Star Wars spoilers before he was interrupted by SNL cast members talking about how they spent their summers. Spoiler alert: they all involved work and travel. That is, of course, with the exception of Pete Davidson. “Actually, you’re the only one whose summer I want to hear about!” Driver said to Davidson, who simply winked at the camera. Worst sketch Driver played a divorced dad trying to get into popular online game Fortnite in order to relate to his son more. Although seeing his incompetence play out with live actors was amusing, the joke (“adults are bad at technology!”) was more than a little one-note. Weekend Update Though there was plenty to talk about, hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost focused the majority of their “Weekend Update” jokes on Thursday’s Brett Kavanaugh Senate hearing. “You’re not really helping yourself in a drunken assault case when you yell about how much you love drinking and how strong you were at the time,” Jost cracked in reference to how Kavanaugh kept repeating how much he liked beer, and how his calendar detailed how often he worked out. Jost had a follow-up joke about how weird it was that the judge still had his high school calendar: “You know when most people throw out their calendar from 1982? 1983.” Meanwhile, Che reminded viewers that the hearing was essentially a job interview for Kavanaugh. “Typically, when you’re asked about your sexual assault and your drinking at a job interview, you don’t get the damn job. You can’t just pick another dude from your Illuminati lizard meetings,” he said. “Are Republicans so pro-life that you don’t even have a Plan B for this?” The segment was rounded out with an always welcome appearance from Kate McKinnon’s Ruth Bader Ginsberg, with her signature Gins-burns and dance moves. RBG couldn’t resist pulling out her own 1982 calendar, which had entries like “turn 100,” break glass ceiling,” and “do laps in a bird bath.” Her current calendar features one simple daily reminder: “Don’t die.” Pete Davidson also dropped by the Update desk to offer an update on his whirlwind romance with singer Ariana Grande, revealing no one can believe the two are an item. “Remember when that whole city pretended this kid was Batman because he was sick? That’s what this feels like,” he laughed. When Jost asked what their prenup situation was, Davison replied, “Obviously, I wanted one. God forbid we split up and she takes half my sneakers. Look, I’m totally comfortable being with a successful woman. I think it’s dope. I live at her place. She pays like 60 grand for rent and all I have to do is like stock the fridge… yeah.” A joke about switching Grande’s birth control with Tic Tacs to make sure she’d stick around fell flat, but Davidson pulled the crowd back in with a bit on how he doesn’t make royalties on her music, including the song named after him. “If we break up — we won’t, we will — but in like 10 years, if god forbid that ever happens, there will be a song called ‘Pete Davidson’ playing in speakers at K-Mart, and I’ll be working there.” Best short Jealous of the attention Pete has been getting over his pop-star paramour, Kyle Mooney decides to steal Pete’s look — from his bleach blond hair to his colorful wardrobe. Kyle also enlists talk show host Wendy Williams as his own hot celebrity girlfriend. Eventually, Pete engages Kyle in a fight “SNL-style,” which turns out to be a renaissance/gladiator battle on stage. While it felt worthwhile to acknowledge Pete’s omnipresent fame that emerged during the SNL hiatus, a winking reference in the monologue, a “Weekend Update” appearance, and a short felt like overkill. Most committed host moment Props to Adam Driver for donning old-age makeup in a “Career Day” sketch to become Abraham A. Parnassus, the elderly parent of one of the students and attempts to bestow his wisdom of being a ruthless oil baron upon the class: “Crush your enemies! Grind their bones into dirt!” Weirdest moment Kanye West dressed as a bottle of Perrier to perform “I Love It” with Lil Pump, who was dressed as a bottle of Fiji water. I don’t even know what to say about that. Up next Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean’s 8 star Awkwafina will host next weekend’s episode, with Travis Scott as musical guest.

– Saturday Night Live opened its 44th season with no shortage of material by the way of Brett Kavanaugh's hearings Thursday, Kanye West and his name change, and Pete Davidson's engagement over the summer to Ariana Grande. A lengthy cold open reimagined the Kavanaugh hearings, with Matt Damon as the blustery Supreme Court nominee and a guest appearance by Rachel Dratch. But EW notes that the rest of the Adam Driver-hosted season premiere failed to maintain that energy, calling it "lackluster." Kavanaugh was also a hot topic on Weekend Update, with Kate McKinnon appearing as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Michael Che suggesting that the Senate GOP "just pick another dude from your Illuminati lizard meetings." West, er, Ye, meanwhile, drew jeers when he went on a pro-President Trump rant, reports the New York Post.

FACT CHECK: Democratic Response To State Of The Union PBS NewsHour via YouTube Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., delivered the rebuttal to President Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday night. Democratic leaders called Kennedy a "relentless fighter for working Americans" in their announcement of his selection. At 37, Kennedy has served in Congress since 2013. "It would be easy to dismiss the past year as chaos. Partisanship. Politics," he said. "But it's far bigger than that. This administration isn't just targeting the laws that protect us — they are targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection." Editor's note: The transcript will be updated throughout the speech. While we are working to correct errors, it may contain discrepancies and typographical errors. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Benjy Sarlin WASHINGTON — Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., accused President Donald Trump of dividing the country in the official Democratic response to the State of the Union address on Tuesday night. "Folks, it would be easy to dismiss the past year as chaos, as partisanship, as politics, but it's far bigger than that," said Kennedy, the 37-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy. "This administration isn't just targeting the laws that protect us. They're targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection." For the Trump administration, "dignity isn’t something you're born with, but something you measure by your net worth, your celebrity, your headlines, your crowd size," Kennedy added, "not to mention, the gender of your spouse, the country of your birth, the color of your skin, the god of your prayers." He accused Trump of presenting Americans "one false choice after another" based on the premise that "in order for one to win, another must lose." He said the administration had asked them to pick between "coal miners or single moms, rural communities or inner cities, the coast or the heartland." "We fight for both," Kennedy said. "Because the strongest, richest, greatest nation in the world should not have to leave any one behind." Speaking from an autoshop schoolroom in Fall River, Massachusetts, Kennedy highlighted Democratic demands for a higher minimum wage, paid leave and expanded health care, while declaring that "top CEOs making 300 times the average worker is not right" while the stock market soars. But it was the lines targeting Trump's demeanor and his alienation of Americans who feel "fractured fault lines across our country" that were the most pointed. Live blog: Trump's State of the Union "Bullies may land a punch," Kennedy said. "They might leave a mark. But they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future." While the president gets the grand stage for the State of the Union, the event is often a showcase for rising stars from the opposition party as well. In Kennedy, Democrats went with a younger member who also points to the glory days of their past. The Massachusetts Democrat attended Stanford University and Harvard Law School and worked with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic before becoming a prosecutor. Following in his family's footsteps, he went into politics early and won a House seat that opened up by Rep. Barney Frank’s retirement in 2012. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., speaks to supporters of House Democrats taking part in a sit-in on the House Chamber outside the U.S. Capitol on June 23, 2016, in Washington. Pete Marovich / Getty Images file Kennedy is less well-known than various Democrats tagged as potential 2020 presidential contenders, and the televised response is by far his biggest moment on the national stage. But he has drawn some attention this year for speeches and statements in hearings decrying poverty, his grandfather's signature issue, and attacking proposed cuts to health care programs and social spending in stark moral language. In one viral moment from a hearing in March, he took issue with Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who had described efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act an "act of mercy." Kennedy said the speaker "must have read different Scripture." "There is no mercy in a system that makes health care a luxury," Kennedy said at the time. "There is no mercy in a country that turns their back on those most in need of protection: the elderly, the poor, the sick and the suffering. There is no mercy in a cold shoulder to the mentally ill." Kennedy joked on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Wednesday about his own viral moment during his response, where the glossy corners of his mouth led some watching to think the Congressman was drooling. "If only the lip gloss was as successful," he quipped when praised by the host for not getting dry-mouth like Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., did during his 2013 State of the Union response. While Kennedy was not at the State of the Union, he invited a transgender soldier who has served in Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Patricia King, to attend as a guest. Kennedy has worked on related issues in Congress and King's appearance highlights his opposition to Trump's decision to not allow transgender individuals to serve in the military, a ban that has since been stalled in the courts. In a separate Spanish language response to Trump, Virginia state legislator Elizabeth Guzman said the president "has pushed a dark and extremist agenda that damages our national values and endangers national security," according to a translation of her prepared remarks. Among other criticisms, Guzman ripped Trump's decision to end the DACA program for young unauthorized immigrants. Kennedy also brought up "Dreamers," immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, in his remarks and at one point addressed them directly in Spanish as well. "You are a part of our story," he said. "We will fight for you. We will not walk away." ||||| Get immediate alerts on all breaking news, delivered via Facebook Messenger. Sign up here. WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats, admonished by their leaders to avoid overt displays of disapproval during President Trump’s State of the Union speech Tuesday, mostly limited their acts of protest in the House chamber to symbolic clothing, pins, and special guests. But Representative Joe Kennedy III, a Massachusetts Democrat and rising star in the party, channeled some of the collective disdain his colleagues were asked to stifle. Kennedy delivered the party’s stinging rebuttal to Trump from Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Fall River, where students and staff spent the week busily scouring the automotive shop and baking treats in anticipation of his visit. Advertisement With a muscle car in the background and cheering students in front of him, Kennedy painted a bleak picture of a country riven by mass shootings, white supremacist marches, a “war” on environmental protections, and a Russia “knee deep” in American democracy. Get Today in Politics in your inbox: A digest of the top political stories from the Globe, sent to your inbox Monday-Friday. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here “Many have spent the past year anxious, angry, afraid,’’ Kennedy said. “We all feel the fault lines of a fractured country.’’ He dismissed soaring stocks under Trump as good for investors’ portfolios but bad for workers who aren’t getting “their fair share of the reward.” Without mentioning Trump by name, Kennedy described an amoral, bullying president obsessed with celebrity and crowd size. “For them,’’ Kennedy said of Trump and his administration, “dignity isn’t something you’re born with, but something you measure — by your net worth, your celebrity, your headlines, your crowd size, not to mention, the gender of your spouse, the country of your birth, the color of your skin, the God of your prayers.” Advertisement Kennedy, a millionaire scion of the famed political family, pushed the official Democratic message of a “better deal,” with paid family leave, higher wages, and affordable child care and education. He argued that Trump is turning American life “into a zero-sum game” where one group can win only if another loses. “We are bombarded with one false choice after another: coal miners or single moms, rural communities or inner cities, the coast or the heartland,” Kennedy said. “So here is the answer Democrats offer tonight: We choose both. We fight for both.” He ended the speech with a parting shot at Trump, before asking the American people to “have faith.” “Bullies may land a punch,” Kennedy said. “They might leave a mark. But they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future.” Kennedy’s speech was in sharp contrast to Trump’s, who painted an upbeat picture of a “safe, strong, and proud America.” Advertisement “There has never been a better time to start living the American dream,” the president proclaimed to cheering Republicans and stone-faced Democrats. Earlier Tuesday, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California warned Democratic lawmakers not to walk out of Trump’s speech or draw attention to themselves with any disruptive protest, insisting they leave the focus on the president. Democrats said ahead of the speech they did not plan to “pull a Wilson” — a reference to the South Carolina Republican congressman, Joe Wilson, who interrupted President Obama during a joint session of Congress speech in 2009 with an infamous outburst: “You lie!” “I’m not going to turn into Wilson and yell ‘liar’ or anything,” said Representative Raul Grijalva of Arizona, a liberal firebrand. “I do have some level of class. I understand decorum!” Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts said he did not expect any disruptions. “I think we were all embarrassed as members of the institution about the outburst on the other side,” Neal said. But many Democrats showed their disapproval in silent ways. Pelosi and dozens of other Democratic lawmakers dressed in all black to signal their solidarity with the #MeToo movement against sexual assault. Some added on a red button with the word “Recy” written on it — referring to Recy Taylor, a black woman in Alabama who fought to bring six white men who raped her to justice in the 1940s, helping spark the civil rights movement. The all-black clothing matched the funereal mood on the Democratic side. Democrats received Trump’s speech coldly, staying silently seated as he touted economic gains and the tax cuts Republicans passed last year. They stood and clapped rarely, such as when the president praised veterans and a small-business owner. When Trump mentioned appointing a record number of judges, a few Democrats hissed and booed. Some laughed when he told them to “watch” and see how drug prices would come down under his leadership. More than 40 Democrats brought “Dreamers” as their official guests to the event, and many wore colorful butterfly pins to show their support for them. The young immigrants who lack permanent legal status have become bargaining chips in increasingly toxic appropriations negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. Trump has said he would support the group’s permanent legalization if lawmakers agree to hand over billions for his wall on the Southern border and dramatically cut legal immigration levels. Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio, announced he’d leave his guest’s seat vacant to protest a constituent who was recently deported and all people “wrongfully targeted for deportation.” Other Democrats wore purple ribbons to support funding to fight the opioid crisis and rebuke what they call the president’s inaction on the issue. Before Trump even opened his mouth on Tuesday, Democrats vigorously sought to offer a “pre-buttal” of his speech, pooh-poohing any claims of economic or legislative success. “President Trump was handed an already healthy economy by his predecessor,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on the Senate floor. “Like many things in his life, he inherited the healthy economy.” Liz Goodwin can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @lizcgoodwin

– The Democratic response to this year's State of the Union address was delivered by a Kennedy for the first time since Ted Kennedy joined a group of senators responding to Ronald Reagan in 1982. Speaking at a vocational high school in Fall River, Mass., Rep. Joe Kennedy III accused President Trump of dividing the country, NBC News reports. "Many have spent the last year anxious, angry, afraid. We all feel the fractured fault lines across our country," he said. He said the last year has been far bigger than politics or partisanship. "This administration isn't just targeting the laws that protect us," said Kennedy, the 37-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy. "They're targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection." Kennedy didn't mention Trump by name, though he attacked his administration for believing that dignity can be measured by your "net worth, your celebrity, your headlines, your crowd size," as well as "the gender of your spouse, the country of your birth, the color of your skin, the God of your prayers," the Boston Globe reports. "We are bombarded with one false choice after another: coal miners or single moms, rural communities or inner cities, the coast or the heartland," Kennedy said. "So here is the answer Democrats offer tonight: We choose both. We fight for both." He said that while bullies "may land a punch," they have never, in the history of the US, "managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future." Click for the full text of his speech.

YUCAIPA (CBSLA.com) — An Inland Empire man Sunday chased down a purse thief who stabbed a mother in a parking lot, only to be stabbed himself. Troy Cansler, of Yucaipa, died from his injuries. The Good Samaritan’s wife is still trying to make sense of it. “He didn’t think about what might happen. He always thought he was invincible,” Cansler’s wife, Autum, said. “I always thought he was pretty invincible, too…but he wasn’t. But that was pretty heroic what he did.” The attack happened Sunday night in a parking lot on the 33000 block of Yucaipa Boulevard. Police say the female victim was with her 2-year-old child. She put her purse on the roof of her car when the thief snatched it. She confronted him and he stabbed her with a knife. Cansler saw what was happening and chased down the suspect, who fatally stabbed Cansler. “He died a hero, knowing that he did something good, and that he saved two people, not only one, by taking his own life. And that’s the ultimate thing you can do,” Cansler’s daughter Jordyn Glazier said. The mother Cansler helped save is home from the hospital and recovering. Police were able to track down the suspect, who was hiding at a nearby bar after the attacks. “I just want to know why. Why would they want to rob a woman with a baby? What did they think they were going to get from her?” Autum Cansler said. Glazier says she’s trying to stay strong: “I just ask for everyone that knows me and that sees me on here that they just give me hope when I go back to school.” ||||| A 26-year-old Yucaipa man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and attempted murder charges in connection with an alleged purse-snatching that turned deadly, prosecutors said. Deputies were called to the Stater Bros parking lot on Yucaipa Boulevard around 9:37 p.m. on Sunday after a report of an armed robbery and assault, according to a news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. When they arrived, deputies found Krystina Hanrahan suffering from apparent stab wounds, the release stated. The 26-year-old woman told deputies that a man, later identified as Vincent DeLeon, stabbed her and stole her purse. Hanrahan who was with her toddler when she was assaulted said that a stranger came to her aid and ran after her attacker. That stranger was Troy Cansler. Investigators said Cansler caught up with DeLeon in the area of 4th Street near Yucaipa Boulevard. The two struggled and 47-year-old Cansler was fatally stabbed, the release stated. DeLeon was arrested a short time later. Hanrahan was stabbed five times; twice in the arm and three times in the chest. On Tuesday, she described Cansler as an angel. “I spoke to his mother today and I said thank you for raising someone who would put their life on the line,” Hanrahan said. Cansler’s daughter said her dad was just being himself; helping out someone in need. “I’m very proud,” said 12-year-old Jordyn Glazier. “He was everything I could ask for in a dad… everything and more,” she said. A Facebook memorial page was set up Monday for Cansler.

– A 47-year-old dad is dead after police say he chased down an assailant who robbed and stabbed a woman near Los Angeles. Authorities say the assailant stole a 26-year-old woman's purse in a grocery store parking lot and stabbed her five times in front of her toddler Sunday night. At that point, a stranger named Troy Cansler came to her aid, chased the attacker, and then got fatally stabbed in the ensuing struggle, reports CBS LA. The woman did not suffer life-threatening injuries, and for that she thanks her savior. "I spoke to his mother today, and I said thank you for raising someone who would put their life on the line,” Krystina Hanrahan tells KTLA-TV. Police arrested Vincent DeLeon, 26, and charged him with murder and attempted murder. Says Cansler's 12-year-old daughter: "I'm very proud. He was everything I could ask for in a dad."

The Senate has rejected a GOP plan to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline after President Obama made personal calls to Democrats urging them to oppose it. ADVERTISEMENT The 56-42 vote staves off an election-year rebuke of Obama, but will give political ammunition to backers of TransCanada Corp.’s plan to build a pipeline connecting Alberta’s massive tar sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries. Despite Obama's efforts, 11 Democrats brushed off Obama on the vote and sided with Republicans. The 11 Democratic defections were Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Bob Casey (Pa.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Jim Webb (Va.). More Keystone pipeline news: Boehner: Obama 'lobbying against American jobs' Pelosi says Keystone might be 'worthy' but won't cut gas prices Energy chief: We want lower gas prices No Republicans voted against the measure, and 60 votes were needed to move forward. With gas prices rising, the issue has become an election-year political weapon for Republicans, who say Obama is passing up a chance to boost U.S. energy security and create jobs. Several of the Democrats who voted in favor of Keystone face reelection contests this year, including Casey, Manchin, McCaskill and Tester. Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), the measure's chief sponsor, told reporters after the vote that he'll continue seeking ways to advance Keystone. "All along we've said the highway bill was just one option. This is a project that got majority support in the Senate. We are making progress," Hoeven said. "We will see what else comes up, and I'm not even sure that we're done with the highway bill. Remember we have got to work with the House too," said Hoeven, who highlighted the Democratic votes for the amendment. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and other Democrats opposed to the project argued oil would end up going to Asia, and that the pipeline could even raise costs in the U.S. Obama rejected a cross-border permit for the Keystone pipeline in January. He said the decision was not based on the merits of the project, but instead in response to a 60-day permit decision deadline that Republicans demanded in a December payroll tax cut bill. Obama said the deadline would short-circuit review. The administration has invited TransCanada to reapply for a cross-border permit, which the company plans to do, and is also blessing TransCanada’s plan to proceed with a portion of the project to bring U.S oil from Oklahoma to Gulf Coast refineries. Obama personally urged senators to reject the amendment, and White House spokesman Clark Stevens, ahead of the vote, bashed the proposal sponsored by Hoeven and backed by GOP leadership. “Once again Republicans are trying to play politics with a pipeline project whose route has yet to be proposed, and despite the claims that this would somehow solve the pain families are feeling at the pump today, according to the company it would take years before it transported a drop of oil,” Stevens said in a statement. The amendment, unlike previous GOP efforts to simply create a deadline for an administration permit decision, would have bypassed the administration and approved construction, although the legislation would still require Obama’s signature. Obama in recent days and weeks has aggressively touted his own energy policies with a trio of speeches in battleground states. Powerful industry groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute, along with some unions, have lobbied strongly for the pipeline and argue that the State Department has already conducted a robust review of the project. TransCanada initially applied for a permit in 2008. Environmentalists and a number of Democrats strongly oppose the project over greenhouse gas emissions from extracting and burning oil sands, forest damage from the massive projects and fear of spill along the route. Just before the vote on the GOP amendment, the Senate also turned back an amendment from Wyden. The 34-64 vote might have given some Democrats political cover to vote against the GOP-led Keystone amendment from Sens. Hoeven, Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and David Vitter (R-La.). Wyden’s plan required “expeditious” review of the Keystone permit application, but also barred U.S. export of oil from the pipeline or refined products created from it. Hoeven said Wyden's bill would stop the Keystone project. “This amendment is designed to block the project, make no mistake … it requests that TransCanada start over after 3.5 years … and adds additional impediments to the project,” he said prior to the vote. “With gas prices going up every day … we need more supply, and not from the Middle East.” But Wyden said his amendment would ensure Keystone was built the right way. “This amendment ensures the Keystone pipeline is built by American workers using American steel and that our priority is reasonably priced energy for American families and business rather than their Chinese competitors,” he said. “When you build a pipeline that is 2,000 miles across the nation, our challenge is to do it right. There are two alternatives. This one gives us a chance to do it right.” More news from The Hill: Tea Party senators unveil five-year plan to balance the budget Push for 'pedal to the metal' sanctions against Iran Study: Votes in favor of healthcare reform cost Dems 5.8 points in 2010 vote This story was updated at 5:13 p.m. ||||| In the wake of lobbying by President Obama and Senate Democratic leaders, the Senate Thursday defeated legislation to speed up construction of a U-S.-Canadian oil pipeline. The White House victory came after the president started personally calling Democratic senators Wednesday night. The vote underscored the extent to which rising gas prices and energy supply have become a central political issue. Republicans--along with the oil industry, which is running a nationwide advertising campaign about energy supplies -- have been attacking Obama on the campaign trail for failing to fully exploit traditional oil and gas resources while Americans are financially stretched. Democrats and their environmental supporters counter that the president must weigh the benefits of fossil fuels against their environmental impact and the importance of promoting renewable energy. The dispute came to a head Thursday afternoon on Capitol Hill, as the Senate considered two competing amendments to a federal transportation bill addressing the Keystone XL pipeline extension, which would carry heavy crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to gulf coast refineries. The project requires pipeline’s builder, TransCanada, to get a federal permit from the State Department because it crosses an international border; Obama rejected the permit in January when faced with a congressionally-mandated deadline of Feb. 21. GOP Sens. John Hoeven (N.D.), Richard G. Lugar (Ind.) and David Vitter (La.) offered an amendment Thursday that would have eliminated TransCanada’s need for a federal permit to cross the U.S.-Canadian border, while allowing Nebraska unlimited time to develop an alternative route through its territory. At the time Obama rejected the permit, he said he could not approve the pipeline until the firm hoping to build it developed a route circumventing the environmentally sensitive Sandhills area in Nebraska. Lugar said in a floor speech that building the “pipeline would create thousands of private sector jobs, and it would help protect United States national security interests. It comes at no taxpayer expense, and it will strengthen vital ties with our ally Canada.” Proponents needed 60 votes for a filibuster-proof majority; the final tally on the amendment was 56-42. Seconds after the vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) issued a statement blaming Obama for killing the amendment. “Democrat opposition to this legislation shows how deeply out of touch they are with the concerns of middle-class Americans,” McConnell said. “President Obama’s personal pleas to wavering senators may have tipped the balance against this legislation. When it comes to delays over Keystone, anyone looking for a culprit should now look no further than the Oval Office.” Opponents of the pipeline argue that extracting energy-intense crude from the oil sands will accelerate climate change and that oil could spill on the ecologically fragile habitat along its route. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters that Democrats would not yield to pressure to speed up construction of the pipeline when TransCanada has not outlined its full route. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his deputies worked behind the scenes to mobilize opposition to the amendment. Late last month TransCanada said it will push ahead with plans to build the segment running from Cushing, Okla., to Port Arthur, Tex., and will apply later on for a federal permit for the cross-border section of the pipeline. That move would alleviate the glut of oil at Cushing, a major terminal, and address one of the main reasons for building the pipeline extension. “We have to see a plan for the Keystone pipeline, and the idea of saying vote for it before you see a plan, particularly when the first plan was so bad, is a bad idea,” Schumer said. “So I’m waiting to see what the company’s plan is, and I don’t think any of us, or most of us at least on our side, are going to be rushed into something until we see what the plan is.” There are 47 Senate Republicans, so Hoeven would have had to bring over 13 Democrats to ensure a 60-vote victory. When it became clear Wednesday that the measure had some Democratic support and could possibly reach 60 votes, Obama called senators to urge them to reject the Hoeven amendment. Before the vote, White House spokesman Jay Carney did not identify which senators the president had spoken with, but said that the administration hopes Congress would “act in the appropriate fashion and not waste time on an ineffectual, sham legislation that has no impact on the price of gas and is irresponsible, because, as we said before, it tries to legislate the approval of a pipeline for which there is not even a route. We’ll keep making that point in telephone calls, from the podium, maybe fly a Cessna overhead with a banner.” Sen. Kay Hagen (D-N.C.) would neither confirm nor deny Thursday that she had talked with Obama about the pipeline. She told reporters she had not spoken to Obama “today” but decided to support speeding up the permit “ because I think it’s going to happen, and I think that it’s just something that we need to go ahead and be more energy independent from foreign oil. Obviously it has to be done in an environmentally safe way.” Several key Senate Democrats said they had not heard from the president on the issue. Sen. Bob Casey (R-Pa.), who faces a tough reelection bid in a swing state in November, said he was still deciding how to vote even as he entered the Senate chamber for a long series of votes in the afternoon, said he had not heard from Obama. So did Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who said he’s been a longtime supporter of the pipeline. “I think he knew where I was,” Pryor said. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said he would vote against the amendment but indicated that he had not spoken with Obama about it. “I don’t think Washington ought to be engaged in this. So far, all Washington’s engagement has done is delay the whole process,” he said. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he supports building the pipeline but thinks the issue should have been linked with a package to extend tax credits for alternative energy producers and a bipartisan measure to support energy conservation. “I have a feeling we’re going to see this issue again. I hope next time we can do it in a way that actually takes a meaningful step toward a rational energy policy,” he said. But Warner would not say whether Obama had reached out to him. “I’m not going to talk about who called me and didn’t call me,” he said. Environmentalists hailed the amendment’s defeat: Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, issued a statement applauding “those Senators who today stood up to the corporate special interests and helped reject Big Oil’s agenda.” The Senate also rejected a competing measure by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that would have required the pipeline permit application to be approved or denied within 90 days of the completion of all analyses required by current law and executive orders. That measure — which lost 34 to 64 -- would have given the White House considerably more latitude, though it would have imposed additional requirements on the project. Wyden’s amendment would have banned the export of Canadian crude oil transported on the pipeline without a presidential waiver and would have required the pipeline to be built with American products whenever possible. The pipe for the project has already been manufactured: According to TransCanada, 65 percent of it was produced in Little Rock, Ark., while the rest was made in Canada, Italy and India. Even as senators feuded over whether to bring additional Canadian heavy crude into the United States, they voted 76 to 22 to steer 80 percent of any fines and penalties BP ends up paying the federal government for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to that region for environmental and financial restoration. Rosalind S. Heldeman contributed to this report. ||||| Thursday’s squeaker of a Senate vote on the Keystone XL pipeline serves both as a warning to President Barack Obama that a majority of both houses of Congress supports the pipeline and as encouragement to Republicans to keep pushing the issue. Obama had personally lobbied Senate Democrats with phone calls urging them to oppose an amendment to the highway bill that would fast-track the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline. And as it turned out, he needed every bit of their help. Text Size - + reset In all, 11 Democrats joined 45 Republicans to support the pipeline. Only the fact that 60 votes were needed for passage saved the White House from an embarrassing defeat. (Also on POLITICO: Oil industry jumps gun on Keystone vote) Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) wryly congratulated Obama on his lobbying efforts. “That was very strong work by President Obama himself, making personal calls to Democrats,” Lugar said. “He understood that a majority of the American public and a majority at least of the Senate are strongly in favor of this project. “So I suppose you give credit to the president for once again blocking something, but I don't think the president really wants to do that indefinitely,” he added. “We got a majority in the Senate,” said amendment sponsor Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who noted that two senators — Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) — were absent. “So we would have had 58 votes had all Republicans been able to be here.” Republicans promised that the issue, which has been a staple of the campaign trail since Obama first attempted in November to punt the decision until 2013, will not go away. “We’re very close to the 60,” Hoeven said. “It’s hard to say exactly which members maybe would have supported without White House intervention, but I think the important thing is that the support is there, and the support is there because the public wants this to happen. “The pressure is just going to increase on the administration to get this project done,” Hoeven added. The 11 Democrats who crossed party lines to support the amendment were Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jon Tester of Montana and Jim Webb of Virginia. Landrieu said she was not among those getting a call from Obama. And she was not surprised to see 10 Democrats join with her to cross party lines.

– Looks like a good-news, bad-news result for President Obama today on the Keystone oil pipeline. The good news for him is that a Republican measure to fast-track the controversial pipeline fell short in the Senate, reports the Hill. Obama had personally lobbied against the measure, and passage would have been an embarrassment for him. In that sense, the vote is a "White House victory," in the words of the Washington Post. The bad news for Obama is that Republicans fell only four votes short of the necessary "filibuster-proof" total of 60. In fact, 11 Democrats crossed the aisle, a sign of how politically volatile the issue of energy policy (and rising gas prices) has become, adds the Post. The result, writes Politico, "serves both as a warning to President Barack Obama that a majority of both houses of Congress supports the pipeline and as encouragement to Republicans to keep pushing the issue."

Duke is in an uproar about a highly detailed "fuck list" that a recent female graduate made — in PowerPoint, complete with penis-size evaluations and dirty talk transcripts. We've got that document, and spoke exclusively to the now-contrite author. The full document begins at the bottom of the page. Upon graduating, the author decided to pass on the wisdom she had learned, in thesis format. The subject: "An education beyond the classroom: excelling in the realm of horizontal academics." The thirteen subjects are each preceded by a tableau of photos of the men, most of which seem to be pulled from Facebook and athletic action shots. (There are lots of athletes on the list, including many players from Duke's lacrosse team, whose behavior has come under scrutiny in the past, though they were cleared of wrongdoing.) Advertisement Each man is graded using the following criteria: The author told us this morning that she never intended for the presentation to go beyond the three friends she sent it to in May, but that recently one friend (who has since admitted to it) forwarded it to another, and it went viral. It has since been sent to multiple listservs, including fraternity listservs. Advertisement She pointed out, as did our original tipster, that frats make lists like this all the time. Still, she said repeatedly, "I regret it with all my heart. I would never intentionally hurt the people that are mentioned on that." She has since deleted or blocked all her social media profiles — the latter-day equivalent of going into hiding. Duke's Dean of Students called her recently, the author told us, to check in. We contacted the Dean of Students, who declined to comment. The subjects' social prominence as students has helped make this an even bigger deal. "The people that are named in it are the kinds of people that everyone wants to be or be with," the author said. "The top dogs, or whatever." Advertisement We're not condoning putting any of these sorts of things in writing or within range of the Internet, especially when using the real names of your partners. But you know what? Here's another reminder that women can be as flip, aggressive, or acquisitive about sex as men can. And there's nothing wrong with that, as long as all parties are consenting. (Of course, these guys didn't consent to have their performances publicly evaluated, but there you go. Again, people, do not put it in writing.) So what does she say? Well, there were significant ups and downs in the author's experience, but she remained upbeat throughout. A low point: Advertisement And when it was good, it was really, really good. Some of it is downright hilarious: It was on the cab ride back that I discovered he was rude, Canadian, and spoke mostly in French. Needless to say, the warning flags were waving furiously, yet, in the interest of my research and out of a perverse curiosity, I decided to continue towards his apartments [sic]. Advertisement And some of it is rather self-aware: Not only was he incredibly attractive, but at that point in my academic career I was quite insecure, and while I never reached the point of engaging in physical activity with people I found unattractive, I still was more susceptible to compliments than I currently am. Alcohol is usually involved ("My second hookup with Subject 7 was an entirely new experience for me: a 100% sober booty call"). With one subject, the author blacked out and doesn't remember having sex, but doesn't seem troubled, by her own account. There is some porn-watching, one incident of fucking in a library, and sexting is also a major feature: Advertisement Overall, very little regret and lots of good humor. Now that she's apologized, we suggest that she keeps on owning it and then move on, because the fickle Internet surely will. And to anyone else tempted to chronicle their sexual exploits in an easily-reproducible format just... don't do it. The document in full: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement UPDATES: ||||| Sponsored Links (Oct. 7) -- It's Internet 101: Don't e-mail while drunk, sex-texting is never private and everything on the Internet never really dies. Before you hit that send button, remember you can't take it back.But it appears people still don't get it. Latest case in point: a 2010 Duke University graduate who wrote a 42-page fake thesis, complete with PowerPoint, bar graphs and photographs, detailing her sexual adventures with 13 male athletes, whom she names. She called it "excelling in the art of horizontal academics" and sent it to three friends. One posted it on the Internet.Now it's gone viral, embroiling the prestigious North Carolina college in another sex scandal involving members of the lacrosse team.So why, despite seemingly nonstop headlines about Internet behavior gone wrong and college seminars on the importance of thinking before sending, does such behavior persist? Especially when it can have grave circumstances, such as the recent case of a Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman who jumped to his death after his roommate and a friend streamed video of him having a homosexual encounter."I talk with students all over the country, and I feel like I'm a broken record," Justin Patchin, a criminal justice professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center , told AOL News. "They think of it as some high-profile media thing that couldn't happen to them. Most of us would say, 'Come on, you should have known that this would blow up.' They just don't get it."Part of the reason they don't get it is because they're young, immature and feel invincible, experts say. Another factor is the immediate gratification of sending something online, and the mistaken belief that no one outside of the recipient will ever see it."People are not using the part of the brain that requires judgment," Seattle-area psychologist Linda Young told AOL News. "They're using the part of the brain that accesses immediate gratification ... things that provide 15 minutes of fame, or a sense of power or says 'go ahead and put it out there.' Then, with a click of the send button, it's out there, never to be retrieved."Duke graduate Karen Owen compiled a list of 13 young men she slept with -- most from the lacrosse team, which is still tainted by a 2006 scandal that saw a stripper falsely accuse team members of raping her -- and created a bar graph ranking their sexual prowess (or lack thereof). She detailed sex in the university library during finals week, sex in cars and sex while drunk."In my blackout state, still managed to crawl into bed with a Duke athlete," she wrote of one encounter.After her "thesis" went viral, appearing on scores of websites, she told Jezebel.com she was horrified. "I regret it with all my heart," she said. "I would never intentionally hurt the people that are mentioned on that."The sports site Deadspin said last week that it had redacted the athletes' names after receiving e-mails from those on the list. The site also posted an e-mail it said was authored by Owen, who wrote: "Your inclusion of the real names are causing this awful situation to escalate even further and is actually starting to affect peoples' lives in ways that go far beyond mere embarrassment. Remove the names immediately, or I will be adding your blog post to the list of things I discuss with my attorney when we meet."Too late, Owen tried to restrict access to social-networking site LinkedIn, according to Forbes.com , but a cached version is still available."There is so much regret involved," Young said. She hears it all the time when dealing with young people. "At that moment, the student isn't thinking about the consequences or what will happen down the road." Even though students see news reports about cyberbullying and suicides, including Clementi's."They will think about it for a short time with the horrible atrocity of the [Rutgers] student who jumped off the bridge, then in the privacy of their dorm room, they'll go ahead and hit the send button," Young said.So what's to be done?Education, education and more education, experts say. Even if it's repetitive. The phenomenon of instant access, paired with the age-old battle to think before one speaks, makes for a huge social problem."They don't have the same sense of privacy as we did growing up," Patchin said. "They think they can put a finger in the dike by deleting it or taking it offline. They don't realize it's there forever."Still, he notes, a recent study he did with Sameer Hinduja of Florida Atlantic University shows that "most kids are getting it."In 2006, only 39 percent of young people surveyed said they restricted access to their MySpace profiles. Three years later, Patchin said, that figure was 85 percent."So they're learning," he said. "It's just taking a while." ||||| Duke is in an uproar about a highly detailed "fuck list" that a recent female graduate made — in PowerPoint, complete with penis-size evaluations and dirty talk transcripts. We've got that document, and spoke exclusively to the now-contrite author. The full document begins at the bottom of the page. Upon graduating, the author decided to pass on the wisdom she had learned, in thesis format. The subject: "An education beyond the classroom: excelling in the realm of horizontal academics." The thirteen subjects are each preceded by a tableau of photos of the men, most of which seem to be pulled from Facebook and athletic action shots. (There are lots of athletes on the list, including many players from Duke's lacrosse team, whose behavior has come under scrutiny in the past, though they were cleared of wrongdoing.) Each man is graded using the following criteria: The author told us this morning that she never intended for the presentation to go beyond the three friends she sent it to in May, but that recently one friend (who has since admitted to it) forwarded it to another, and it went viral. It has since been sent to multiple listservs, including fraternity listservs. She pointed out, as did our original tipster, that frats make lists like this all the time. Still, she said repeatedly, "I regret it with all my heart. I would never intentionally hurt the people that are mentioned on that." She has since deleted or blocked all her social media profiles — the latter-day equivalent of going into hiding. Duke's Dean of Students called her recently, the author told us, to check in. We contacted the Dean of Students, who declined to comment. The subjects' social prominence as students has helped make this an even bigger deal. "The people that are named in it are the kinds of people that everyone wants to be or be with," the author said. "The top dogs, or whatever." We're not condoning putting any of these sorts of things in writing or within range of the Internet, especially when using the real names of your partners. But you know what? Here's another reminder that women can be as flip, aggressive, or acquisitive about sex as men can. And there's nothing wrong with that, as long as all parties are consenting. (Of course, these guys didn't consent to have their performances publicly evaluated, but there you go. Again, people, do not put it in writing.) So what does she say? Well, there were significant ups and downs in the author's experience, but she remained upbeat throughout. A low point: And when it was good, it was really, really good. Some of it is downright hilarious: It was on the cab ride back that I discovered he was rude, Canadian, and spoke mostly in French. Needless to say, the warning flags were waving furiously, yet, in the interest of my research and out of a perverse curiosity, I decided to continue towards his apartments [sic]. And some of it is rather self-aware: Not only was he incredibly attractive, but at that point in my academic career I was quite insecure, and while I never reached the point of engaging in physical activity with people I found unattractive, I still was more susceptible to compliments than I currently am. Alcohol is usually involved ("My second hookup with Subject 7 was an entirely new experience for me: a 100% sober booty call"). With one subject, the author blacked out and doesn't remember having sex, but doesn't seem troubled, by her own account. There is some porn-watching, one incident of fucking in a library, and sexting is also a major feature: Overall, very little regret and lots of good humor. Now that she's apologized, we suggest that she keeps on owning it and then move on, because the fickle Internet surely will. And to anyone else tempted to chronicle their sexual exploits in an easily-reproducible format just... don't do it. The document in full: UPDATES:

– College kids, take note: In today's world, nothing is private. Especially not former Duke student Karen Owen's mock senior thesis about her sexual exploits while on campus. The 22-year-old, who graduated this year, prepared a 42-page PowerPoint presentation that analyzed and rated her sexual liaisons with 13 student-athletes to share with friends. You know where this is going ... viral. Owen's "thesis" in "horizontal academics"—complete with photos of the men, graphs, and lengthy paragraphs on the pros and cons of each hook-up—was shared furiously, with Jezebel publishing it in its entirety. A sampling: "It was on the cab ride back that I discovered he was rude, Canadian, and spoke mostly in French. Needless to say, the warning flags were waving furiously, yet, in the interest of my research and out of a perverse curiosity, I decided to continue towards his apartments [sic]." Owen told Jezebel, "I regret it with all my heart. I would never intentionally hurt the people that are mentioned on that." Go to Jezebel for the full document, or click here for more.

Bottles of Suntory's Hibiki and Yamazaki brand whiskies. Associated Press Not content with having the best whisky in the world, Suntory Holdings Ltd. plans to take its whisky out of this world and into space. The Japanese brewing and distilling company said this week it would send a total of six samples of its whiskies and other alcoholic beverages to the International Space Station, where they will be kept for at least a year to study the effect zero gravity has on aging. According to a spokesman at the company, the samples, which will be carried in glass flasks, will include both a 21-year-old single malt and a beverage that has just been distilled. Research has shown that whisky aged in an environment with little temperature change, convection of fluids and shaking tends to be become “mellower,” he said. The company hopes to learn how the ultimate zero gravity environment affects the taste of their products, he added. There are no plans to make the space-aged whisky available for purchase. The samples will be studied in labs once they return to Earth and whisky blenders will taste them to compare them with those aged on the ground. The samples will be carried to the space station on Aug. 16 on Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s transfer vehicle Kounotori. The first samples will return to Earth in about a year, while the rest will remain in space for at least two years. ||||| Seiichi Koshimizu (L), chief blender of Japanese drinks giant Suntory, tastes a 50-year-old single malt whisky as then vice president Shingo Torii (R) displays its bottle at a Tokyo hotel on May 11, 2005. AFP/File Tokyo (AFP) - Japanese whisky will be sent into space next month to test how time in a zero-gravity environment affects its flavour, one of the country's biggest drinks makers said Friday. Samples of whisky produced by Suntory will be stored in the Japanese laboratory facility of the International Space Station for at least a year, with some flasks staying longer. Researchers for the company believe that storing the beverage in an environment with only slight temperature changes and limited liquid movement could lead to a mellower flavour. Suntory will send whisky aged for 10, 18 and 21 years as well as a number of other alcoholic substances. Once they are returned to Earth, blenders will assess their flavours while researchers subject the liquids to scientific analysis, the company said. "For the moment, we're not thinking about applying the study results to commercial products," a Suntory spokeswoman told AFP. Whisky demand rocketed in Japan last year after national broadcaster NHK aired a period drama called "Massan," the true story of a Japanese entrepreneur and his Scottish wife who are credited with establishing Japan's first whisky distillery. Sales also soared when Suntory's Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 was named the best in the world by the prestigious Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2015.

– Just imagine what Don Draper could do in the ad pitch: Renowned Japanese whisky maker Suntory is sending up booze to age for at least a year on the International Space Station, reports the Wall Street Journal. The idea is to see what effect zero gravity has on the process, with the best guess being that it will result in a mellower drink. Suntory will send up six samples next month in glass flasks, including whisky aged for 10, 18, and 21 years, reports AFP. Alas, it's for science only, at least for now: Suntory has no immediate plans to start selling spaced-aged whisky.

Police: Driver who caused fatal wreck was slumped over wheel moments earlier BY STEVE METSCH [email protected] The Oak Lawn Police Department on Monday released a still photo taken from a camera at the intersection of Cicero and 95th of the Ford F-150 moments before the impact that killed three people, including the driver and two nuns who were in the car in the lane in front of the pickup truck. | Gary Middendorf/For Sun-Times Media storyidforme: 72894893 tmspicid: 25555762 fileheaderid: 13019553 Updated: In a speeding Ford F-150 pickup truck westbound on busy 95th Street in Oak Lawn on Sunday, 81-year-old Edward L. Carthans went through a red light at Cicero Avenue, slammed into cars stopped in the oncoming lanes, killed two nuns and himself, injured about two dozen other people, and left 11 cars in various states of wreckage, officials say. On Monday, police still were trying to determine what led to the scene that “looked like a bomb had gone off,” Oak Lawn Police Division Chief Randy Palmer said. Carthans had hit three other vehicles moments earlier near Keeler Avenue, police said, and they were investigating a report he had been found slumped over the wheel of his pickup earlier at 95th and Western Avenue in Evergreen Park. They also were checking with family to see if Carthans had any medical conditions. It was too early to know whether alcohol was a factor in the incident, police said. An employee at Skyway Lanes in Chicago told the SouthtownStar that Carthans had been in a Sunday noon league there for years, and that he was there bowling Sunday. But she didn’t know what time he left because she was gone by then. Carthans’ driving record was clean, according to the Secretary of State’s office. And neighbors said Monday he was a safe driver and a man who “wouldn’t hurt a fly.” The two nuns killed were Sister Jean Stickney, 86, and Sister Kab Kyoung Kim, 48, both of the Little Company of Mary Sisters. They were in a car driven by Sister Sharon Ann Walsh, who earlier this month became the Provincial Leader for the American Province of the Little Company of Mary Sisters. Walsh survived and was in stable condition Monday at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to a press release from Little Company of Mary Hospital. In all, 23 people were treated at the scene, including 11 who then were taken to Christ Medical Center, Little Company of Mary Hospital and Palos Community Hospital, officials said. Two were in critical condition, and most remained hospitalized as of Monday morning, officials said. Eleven cars were involved in the crash, which occurred about 4:27 p.m. Neighbors said Carthans was a retired contractor who specialized in home remodeling. Paul Ward, a neighbor for more than 30 years, also said Carthans usually bowled on Sundays and that he might have been on the way home. “He was a nice guy,” Ward said, adding, “It’s not like him to speed.” Mydia Barker said she had known Carthans since she moved into the neighborhood in 1969. She said she is the godmother of Carthans’ son, Eric. “Never in my life have I seen him speed,” Barker said. Barker said while people may have a negative perception of Carthans because of the accident, “Somebody needs to know what type of guy he was. He was a businessman. Most of the homes around here, he remodeled the basements. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. I’ve never seen him get mad at anyone.” Barker said Carthans was the father of seven children. Skyway Lanes employee Ann Servant said Carthans used to be in a bowling league there called Sunday Morning Mass and he had probably been bowling for 40 years. She said she learned of his death when someone called the bowling alley, at 9915 S. Torrence Ave., after hearing it on the news. She said he bowled Sunday. “He’s been bowling here a long time. He was an average bowler,” she said. “He always kept me laughing. He was a humorous kind of guy. “I was surprised (at news of his death). You do not think about people leaving you when they are not sick.” She didn’t know of any health issues Carthans might have had. “It’s very sad,” she said. Because of privacy laws, the secretary of state’s office could not reveal whether Carthans’ license included any medical restrictions. But his driving record was clean, and his license, issued March 23, 2011, was not due for renewal until March 23, 2015. The motorist who saw a man slumped at the wheel in a pickup truck in Evergreen Park less than 10 minutes before the crash had offered to park the vehicle for him if he was in distress, police said. The motorist told police that the man said he was OK and then drove away. “He didn’t know if (Carthans) had a medical emergency or had just fallen asleep,” Palmer said. Palmer said there was “no indication” that anyone smelled alcohol. “We probably will be waiting on a toxicology report from the ME (medical examiner) to find out if that was a factor,” he said. Evergreen Park Police were alerted about the driver at 4:19 p.m., Lt. Peter Donovan said Monday. “Our guys were there in about a minute of being dispatched. They checked southbound from 95th to 99th along Western and didn’t find it (the pickup truck). Then they checked 95th Street from Western to Homan and didn’t find it,” Donovan said. “I’m assuming it’s the same vehicle, but I don’t know for sure. There’s no plate information.” The subsequent crash, Oak Lawn Fire Chief George Sheets said, was “the most violent and most bizarre accident” he’s seen in his career. Injured victims were found “in cars, outside of cars, under cars, inside of businesses and other places,” he said. Sheets said he was impressed by the actions of bystanders who tried to help those injured. “It was such a violent crash. We all go through that intersection once, twice, three times a day, and it can happen to any of us,” he said, adding the aftermath reminded him “of a staged movie scene. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family members of the deceased,” Sheets said. Accident reconstruction teams have mapped out where each car was located, Police Sgt. Bob Brewer said. Next is determining how fast the truck was going and what happened after the initial impact. None of the drivers in the vehicles hit near Keeler Avenue was seriously injured, Palmer said. Contributing: Susan DeMar Lafferty, Evan F. Moore ||||| For years, Sister Jean Stickney wrote the obituaries for the other Little Company of Mary nuns, taking the time to detail lives spent in selfless dedication to both God and the sick. On Monday, her order assumed that responsibility as the nuns grieved Stickney and Sister Kab Kyoung Kim, killed Sunday in a bizarre head-on crash in Oak Lawn. The two women served at Little Company of Mary Hospital, the Evergreen Park medical center that the order founded nearly 85 years ago. Stickney, 86, served on the board of directors there, while Kim, 48, worked with grieving children. Sisters killed in Oak Lawn Crash Little Company of Mary Sister Anna Kim and Sister Jean Stickney, both killed in an Oak Lawn car crash. (Little Company of Mary) Sister Anna Kim and Sister Jean Stickney, both killed in an Oak Lawn car crash. (Little Company of Mary) (Little Company of Mary) "There is no doubt that our hospital suffered a tremendous loss (Sunday) night," said Dennis Reilly, president and CEO for Little Company of Mary Hospital. "They were compassionate women who devoted their lives to caring for others. We continue to pray for all who were involved in (the) accident." The nuns died in an 11-vehicle pileup that killed three people and injured nearly two dozen others after an elderly driver barreled down 95th Street in a surreal, cinematic manner. Police say the incident began when someone spotted Edward Carthans, 81, slumped over the wheel of his F-150 pickup truck around 4:30 p.m. Unsure if Carthans was asleep or ill, the man asked if there was a problem and offered to park the truck. Authorities said Carthans insisted he was OK and then sped off westbound down 95th Street, leaving a trail of destruction. At Keeler Avenue, his truck struck three cars but kept going, police said. At Cicero Avenue, the light was red and Carthans' truck swerved from the westbound lanes into the eastbound lanes and hit several vehicles, triggering an 11-vehicle pileup, becoming airborne and landing on the hood of Kimothy Randall's black Volkswagen. "Like it dropped out of the sky," said Randall, 55. "Just the sound of it scared me." Randall — who was a few cars behind the nuns at the stoplight — said he and his wife escaped with minor injuries. The couple had made a brief stop at the library before heading to Sam's Club on Sunday afternoon and said they wondered what would have happened if they had not. "We were pulling up and all of a sudden boom, boom, boom," he said. "The cars started pushing back toward us as if by a tornado." Carthans died at the scene. Eleven other people were taken to hospitals, including Sister Sharon Ann Walsh, who was in the car with Stickney and Kim. Walsh, the chairwoman of Little Company of Mary Hospital, was reported in stable condition Monday evening. "It was a horrific scene," said Oak Lawn police Division Chief Randy Palmer. "It reminded me as if a bomb had went off somewhere." Fire Chief George Sheets said emergency crews found victims "in and around and under cars" like a "stage of a movie set because it was such a violent crash." In addition to those sent to local hospitals, paramedics treated about a dozen people at the scene. "A lot of us here are seasoned veterans," Sheets said. "This is the most violent and bizarre incident we have seen in our 30-plus-year careers." Authorities were retracing Carthans' movements before the accident and trying to determine whether he had any medical conditions. The person who had offered to help Carthans did not detect any signs of alcohol, Palmer said. Carthans had a clean driving record, according to the secretary of state's office. He last renewed his license in 2011 and was due to renew it in 2015. He had lived for about 50 years in a well-kept Morgan Park bungalow on the city's Southwest Side. Public records show he had worked as a home-repair contractor for many years. His family did not respond to requests for comment. Stickney, who became a nun in 1951, served as the order's formation director and was on the hospital's board of directors. A native of New Hampshire, she had served in California, Massachusetts and Argentina. A prolific writer and storyteller, Stickney was a familiar face at the hospital's daily Mass, said Kelly Cusack, spokeswoman for Little Company of Mary Hospital. "Staff and patients alike were touched by her warmth and engaging smile," the hospital said in a statement. Kim was from Korea and had been living in the United States for the past two years to continue her education and observe ministries here. Known as Sister Anna, she was involved in a hospital program called "The Heart Connection," which helps children deal with the loss of a loved one. The two nuns lived together at a private home in Evergreen Park, along with several other sisters from their order. They were on their way home from a shopping trip when the crash occurred, Cusack said. "They were just great neighbors," said Gavin Yeamen, who lives next door to the nuns. "It's terrible." Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair contributed. [email protected] [email protected] Twitter @_TonyBriscoe Twitter @chachkevitch ||||| Updated 10/06/14 – 3:46 p.m. OAK LAWN, Ill. (CBS) — Two nuns and an elderly man were killed Sunday, when the man ran a red light, and plowed into cars stopped in the oncoming lanes in Oak Lawn. Eleven other people were injured in the wreck, two of them critically. CBS 2’s Susanna Song reports the pickup truck driver was speeding before he smashed into ten vehicles stopped at a red light at 95th Street and Cicero Avenue in Oak Lawn around 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Oak Lawn police Division Chief Randy Palmer said the man “was driving at a high rate of speed, traveling westbound on 95th street. As the vehicle approached the traffic light at 95th Street and Cicero Avenue, the light was red for westbound traffic. The speeding vehicle then crossed over into the eastbound lanes, went through the intersection, striking several cars.” WBBM 780’s Bernie Tafoya WBBM 780/105.9FM playpause Two nuns from Little Company of Mary Hospital were in the first car struck in the crash. Sister Jean Stickney, 86, and Sister Kab Kyoung Kim, 48, were killed on impact. Little Company confirms a third nun in the car was injured in the crash and is hospitalized in stable condition. The driver has been identified as 81-year-old Edward Carthans. He also died at the scene. Paramedics treated 23 people at the scene. Eleven were sent to the hospital, including two who were listed in critical condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Most of the other injuries were minor. Oak Lawn Fire Chief George Sheets called the crash “the most violent and most bizarre” he’s ever seen. “To put this into perspective, as Chief Palmer said, that he thought it looked like tornado came through. In speaking with some of my firefighters, it was more … like a staged movie set; in that it was such a violent crash, and it was just unbelievable to see so many cars, so many people that were needing aid,” Sheets said. Witnesses said the truck went airborne, spun around, and ended up facing east. At least one person posted video of the aftermath of the crash on YouTube, as stunned drivers and passengers were getting out of their cars to wait for police and paramedics. “I saw it flip, and the smoke went everywhere. He took out all these cars,” one person could be heard saying on the YouTube video. Police said they were working on a timeline, tracking Carthans’ actions before the crash, to find out why he was speeding. The incident started three miles away, at 95th and Western Avenue. A witness told police, while stopped at the light at 95th and Western, he saw Carthans slumped over, approached him, and offered to help, but Carthans sped away. “He was stopped at the light, and this person saw him slumped at wheel. They didn’t know if he was having a medical emergency, or if he had fell asleep,” Palmer said. “This individual approaches, and has a conversation with him, I believe. We don’t know how long that conversation was, but he states at that point that he’s okay, because that person did volunteer to park the vehicle for him if was in distress.” A short time later, Carthans apparently struck three cars at 95th and Keeler Avenue. No one was hurt in that crash. Police said it’s too early to know if alcohol was a factor in the crash. Investigators were interviewing Carthans’ family to find out his medical history. It also will take time to determine his truck’s speed at the time of the crash. Dennis Reilly, President and C.E.O. for Little Company of Mary Hospital, said in a statement, ““On behalf of the Board of Directors, Physicians, Administration and employees, we send our deepest sympathies and condolences to Sr. Jean and Sr. Anna’s families. They were compassionate women who devoted their lives to caring for others. We continue to pray for all who were involved in yesterday’s accident.”

– Two Chicago-area nuns were killed in a "violent and bizarre" 11-vehicle pileup a local fire chief compared to a scene from a movie, the Chicago Tribune reports. On Sunday in Oak Lawn, Sister Sharon Ann Walsh was driving fellow nuns Jean Stickney, 86, and Kab Kyoung Kim, 48, back from a shopping trip when Edward Carthans, 81, drove through an intersection and struck their vehicle head-on. Stickney and Kim were killed on impact, CBS reports. Just before the accident, a witness found Carthans slumped over the wheel of his truck; he then reportedly sped off, hit three vehicles, then smashed into more cars stopped at a red light, causing the pileup. In the accident's wake, victims were found "in and around and under cars," the fire chief says, comparing the scene to the "stage of a movie set." Carthans was also killed; 23 others were injured. Stickney and Kim lived in a private home with other nuns in the Little Company of Mary order and served at the order's hospital; the Tribune reports Stickney served on the board of directors there and Kim counseled grieving children. "They were compassionate women who devoted their lives to caring for others," says the hospital's CEO. As for Carthans, the father of seven had a clean driving record, and friends and neighbors tell the Southtown Star he was a safe driver who "wouldn't hurt a fly." Authorities are now investigating whether Carthans had a medical condition or if alcohol was involved, though the witness claims not to have detected any when he stopped to try and help Carthans, adds the Tribune. (In another horrific accident recently, a man survived a crash only to be hit and killed when his wife came to help.)

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 ||||| Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams, State Attorney Melissa Nelson, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Charles Spencer and others made a major announcement today in finding Kamiyah Mobley alive and well in South Carolina after being kidnapped from a Jacksonville hospital as a newborn 18 years ago. Kamiyah was kidnapped in 1998 when a woman posing as a nurse snatched the 8-hour-old baby from her mother’s hospital room, brushing past the child’s grandmother and disappearing. It was just about 3 p.m. A woman had been roaming for 14 hours in University Medical Center, now known as UF Health Jacksonville, asking about mother Shanara Mobley’s baby. The woman spent five hours with the mother and child before saying Kamiyah had a fever and needed to be checked. Wearing a blue floral smock and green scrub pants, the woman took the 8-pound child in a white blanket and left with a pocketbook slung over her shoulder. Recent tips led authorities to Walterboro, S.C., where DNA matched the woman suspected to be Kamiyah. Due to the stress and situation, her new identity is not being released. Williams said she appears to be a normal healthy 18-year-old woman. Authorities then arrested the woman she was living with, 51-year-old Gloria Williams. She is charged with kidnapping and interference with custody, the sheriff said. He said the Mobley family, who were not present at the news briefing, is elated. He couldn’t say if there will be a reunion, which will be up to the 18-year-old. But he said to try to imagine the gravity of what she’s dealing with right now. Williams wouldn’t say how, but she had become aware that she may be linked to this case. More: Infant born at Jacksonville’s University Medical Center taken from family One year later: Each day without Kamiyah is difficult for her parents 10 years later: Where is Kamiyah Mobley? On the 10th anniversary of the kidnapping, Shanara Mobley, then 26, told the Times-Union that it is “stressful to wake up every day knowing that your child is out there and you have no way to reach her or talk to her.” “The main thing that beats you up the most is … you don’t know nothing,” she said. Velma Aiken, the baby’s paternal grandmother, said at that time that she constantly thinks about how much she would have enjoyed watching Kamiyah grow and what she’s like now. “I just pray to God that one day I will see her before I die,” said Aiken, then 57. Police and family say Mobley thought all along that the mystery woman was a nurse and that nurses thought she was family. Aiken clearly remembers passing the woman and child while walking into Mobley’s room. She immediately grew suspicious that the woman carried a pocketbook. But by the time staff was called, the woman and child were gone. A swarm of officers searched each floor and room, as well as cars. Authorities notified the bus and train stations and the airport. The FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement were called in. Composite sketches were published, fliers were posted and the kidnapper was profiled. Hospital surveillance film was grainy. A camera in the nursery area was broken. There was no picture of Kamiyah, so best guesses were used for a composite of the child. A team of detectives led by Sgt. Don Schoenfeld took on the case as more than two dozen other Sheriff’s Office investigators joined in. “We pulled in everybody we could,” Schoenfeld said in n a 2008 interview. “There weren’t enough hours in the day to shag all the leads.” During the first year, police chased down more than 2,000 leads from as far away as Nova Scotia, though most were local. They hoped a $250,000 reward would offer some incentive. The case was featured on CNN and America’s Most Wanted. As the case progressed, women matching the composite sketch of the abductor were stopped and questioned in local grocery stores and car shops. Babies’ footprints were compared to those taken from Kamiyah. The Times-Union and Jacksonville.com will have more on the news conference as it becomes available. Dan Scanlan: (904) 359-4549 ||||| JACKSONVILLE, Fla.- An 18 year old girl in Walterboro, South Carolina, has been identified as a child who was kidnapped from a Jacksonville hospital hours after she was born in 1998. The kidnapper, visible only on grainy hospital video, was never found. No photos of the child were ever taken. Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams announced Friday that Gloria Williams, 51, has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and interfering with custody. Williams will be brought back to Jacksonville to face charges. She has a first appearance schedule in Walterboro between 4 and 6 p.m. The Colleton County Sheriffs Office in South Carolina released a new mugshot of Gloria Williams, the woman accused of kidnapping Kamiyah Mobley hours after her birth in 1998. (Photo: Colleton County Sheriff's Office). More than 2500 tips came in on the case, Williams said. "It is as complicated an investigation as you can imagine.", Sheriff Williams said Friday. The Sheriff said no other people are currently suspects in the case. Late last year, JSO received a tips that brought them to Walteroboro, SC. Found 18 year girl with different name but details. A DNA sample confirmed that the girl is Kamiyah Mobley. At this point, Sheriff Williams says it will be up to Kamiyah to decide whether and when to be reunited with her birth family in Jacksonville. Sign up for the GMJ On the Go Thanks for signing up! Something went wrong. This email will be delivered to your inbox once a day in the morning. Please check your email to confirm your subscription. Please try again later. Submit Kamiyah's birth father, Craig Aiken, told First Coast News Ken Amaro that he cannot wait to meet his daughter. Craig Aiken father of missing Mobley says he can't wait to meet his daughter @FCN2go #onyourside pic.twitter.com/9wOpnjmw2b — Ken Amaro (@kangel6) January 13, 2017 State Attorney Melissa Nelson said authorities have met with her biological parents and are working with them as the case progresses. The case had remained a cold case for years, one of just a handful of hospital kidnappings to remain unsolved. On July 10, 1998, just eight hours after Kamiyah was born, a woman posing as a nurse entered Shanara Mobley's hospital room at University Medical Center, now UF Health-Jacksonville. She told Mobley that Kamiyah had a fever and it needed to be checked. The woman then left the room and exited the hospital with the child and they both disappeared. Our news partner, the Florida-Times Union reported that nurses thought the woman was a Mobley family member. They said they saw her interact with Mobley just hours before the abduction. Shanara Mobley sued the hospital, receiving a $1.5 million settlement. Police searched every floor and room of the hospital. The FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were also called to assist. Surveillance video proved too grainy to identify the kidnapper and the camera in the nursery was broken, so law enforcement circulated a sketch of the suspect. There were also no photos of baby Kamiyah, so investigators told the public to look for a baby with an umbilical hernia, like a raised belly button, and bruising on her buttocks. One year after Kamiyah went missing, authorities had more than 2,000 leads. They offered a $250,000 reward. The case was also featured on America's Most Wanted. But all leads ran dry. ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

– An incredible story out of Florida—and, now, South Carolina. Kamiyah Mobley, taken from her mother's Jacksonville hospital room when she was just 8 hours old in 1998, has been found alive and healthy in Walterboro, SC. The Times-Union reports her current identity is being withheld, but it's been revealed she was living with Gloria Williams, 51, who has been charged with kidnapping and interference with custody. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office tweets that a recent tip from @MissingKids got the ball rolling again. They found a woman with the same birth date in Walterboro, and DNA tests clinched it. "We believe the victim may have known she was a kidnapping victim," the JSO tweeted, though News4Jax reports Kamiyah grew up believing Williams to be her birth mother. The case garnered 2,500 tips over the years, was featured on America's Most Wanted, and had a $250,000 reward attached to it. But there were challenges from the start: No picture had yet been taken of the newborn, so the best police had to go on was a composite sketch. On July 10, 1998, a woman believed by the family to be a nurse told Shanara Mobley that her newborn needed to be checked for a fever and removed the child from the room. Surveillance video proved to be too grainy to lead to a clear identification of the suspect. Times-Union reporter Tessa Duvall tweets that Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams says he does not believe Williams was on the initial suspects list. First Coast News reports Shanara Mobley sued what was then University Medical Center and got a $1.5 million settlement.

Published on Mar 31, 2015 Have you ever wondered what would happen if something that sounded too good to be true actually turned out to be real - especially on April 1? For one New Zealander, daring to dream big on April Fool’s Day paid off handsomely this morning. #nofool #nzbmw ||||| Have you ever wondered what would happen if something that sounded too good to be true actually turned out to be real – especially on April 1? For one New Zealander, daring to dream big on April Fool’s Day paid off handsomely this morning, when Tianna Marsh swapped her 15-year old Nissan Avenir for a brand new BMW 1 Series worth almost $50,000. “BMW is world-renowned as being the maker of the Ultimate Driving Machine, but also as the creator of many memorable April Fool’s Day pranks,” said the Managing Director of BMW Group New Zealand, Nina Englert. if (pl_is_mobile()) { ? } ? “Here in New Zealand we created a real stir last year when we released details of the BMW ZZZ Series Cot, a fictitious baby sleeping capsule which simulated the noises and g-forces of a road journey, to help lull a baby to sleep. This year’s effort, our most audacious and elaborate yet, is one we’re particularly proud of as we believe this reverse April 1 joke to be a world first, especially giving away a brand new car.” if (pl_is_mobile()) { ? } ? More than 145,000 copies of the NZ Herald rolled off the press early this morning with what appeared to be a bogus ad printed on the front page, inviting people to bring their car to the Newmarket dealership and swap it for a brand new BMW 1 Series. The first person to do so, having fulfilled terms and conditions, would be rewarded with the new car.

– We've become an increasingly savvy society, not as prone to fall for the hoaxes and phony ads that proliferate on April 1. Not Tianna Marsh, whose apparent naivete won her a $37,000 BMW 1 Series ride after she saw an ad in the New Zealand Herald. The front-page "April Fools' Day special" guaranteed a new Beemer to the first lucky taker who brought the ad and their own car as a trade-in to the Newmarket dealership today and asked for "Tom," per the video BMW NZ posted on YouTube. So Marsh showed up with her 15-year-old Nissan Avenir at 5:30 this morning, ready to claim her prize—which the dealership gladly handed over in a reverse-psychology move that may go down as the greatest April Fools' Day prank ever. "The ad was intentionally vague and definitely appeared too good to be true, but in this case we wanted to turn the tables and reward the first person who was willing to take the chance," a BMW spokesman tells the Herald. The dealership had even hired extra security in case people flooded the place, but when Tianna walked in, the streets and dealership appeared virtually empty. Confetti flew as the manager handed her the keys to the black car with the license plate "NOF00L" (pics are shown on the BMW Blog). As for Marsh's former clunker, the dealership says money raised by auctioning it off would go to a charity that provides souped-up ride-on cars for disabled kids to help them move about. (Google's April Fools' Day fun was no prank, either.)

This is a rush transcript from "Fox News Sunday," May 28, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I’m Chris Wallace. Keeping America safe after the terror attack in England. What steps is the government taking this Memorial Day weekend? (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN KELLY, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It's a constant threat and we always have to be vigilant. WALLACE: We’ll discuss the investigation into the bombing and the response here in the U.S. with the secretary of homeland security, General John Kelly, live, only on "Fox News Sunday." Then, new reports the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner discussed setting up a secret communications channel between the Trump transitions in the Kremlin. We’ll ask our Sunday panel where this takes the expanding probe into Russian interference. Plus, President Trump returns from his first trip overseas to a domestic agenda in trouble, from ObamaCare repeal and replace to the budget, some on Capitol Hill wonder whether Congress will pass anything. SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-SOUTH CAROLINA: Yes, definitely dead on arrival. SEN. DICK DURBIN, D-ILLINOIS: This is step backwards. You’re not going to make America great again with this budget. WALLACE: We’ll break down the president's priorities and prospects with a number two Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, and Republican senator, Dr. Bill Cassidy. And our power player of the week flying high for the Blue Angels. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boy, is it sweet when we put all that together and get that synergy and you feel that fuzz. WALLACE: All, right now, on "Fox News Sunday." (END VIDEOTAPE) WALLACE: And hello again on this Memorial Day weekend from Fox News in Washington. President Trump is back at the White House arriving late last night after a largely successful nine-day trip to the Middle East and Europe. But he returns to a spreading scandal about links between the Kremlin and some of his current and former advisors, and to a domestic agenda that stalled in Congress. We’ll get to all of that this hour, but we begin with terror, that suicide bombing at a concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22, just the first of four savage attacks this week around the world. Joining us now, the man in charge of keeping America safe, the secretary of homeland security, General John Kelly. Mr. Secretary, welcome to "Fox News Sunday." Before we get to terror, let me ask you about the hot story in Washington now. These revelations about Jared Kushner trying to set up a back channel to the Kremlin, through the Soviet and -- the Russian ambassador. Your reaction to that? Is there anything improper with that? KELLY: Well, I don't know if it's true or not. I know it’s being -- it's being reported in the press. WALLACE: It has been confirmed to me the conversation took place. KELLY: OK. Then I would just tell you, Chris, that I think any channel of communications back or otherwise with a country like Russia is a good thing. I mean, multiple ways to communicate back and forth is a good thing with a country I think, and particularly a country that’s like Russia. So, it doesn’t -- it doesn't bother me. I mean, you just have to assume, obviously, that what you’re getting is -- may or may not be true, they may be working you. But that's the whole point. I mean, that communication goes into the White House as a data point in terms of discussion. So, I don't see the big deal. WALLACE: Let me -- you say you don't see a big deal? KELLY: No, I think any time you have channels of communication with a country, particularly one like Russia, I wouldn’t criticize it. WALLACE: But you talked about a data point into the White House. This is during the transition. KELLY: Right. WALLACE: These were private officials. KELLY: Right. WALLACE: We have one president at a time. Does that make a difference? KELLY: You know, I mean, obviously, during the transition period, the people in transition, the incoming Trump administration is not in a position to do anything to inhibit with the Obama administration literally days before they transitioned out. So, again, as they begin to build relationships, there's nothing wrong with that. As they begin to build their own situational awareness with Russia in this case, I don't see an issue here. WALLACE: OK. Let's turn to your day job. What's the latest on the Manchester bombing? Have they rolled up the network that was supporting the bombers, and what have you learned from this plot that will help you better protect the U.S. homeland? KELLY: I mean, I don't know what the -- actually the better way to put it, I can't comment on whether they finish their investigations, or roll -- you know, completed rolling up on the network that we’re dealing with. But I would just say that this is -- yes, I’ve said it many times, it really is a generational struggle. This is one tragedy in line with dozens of other tragedies in the world. I mean, last week, you had Manchester, you had Egypt, you had Indonesia, you had the Philippines, all ISIS-inspired or ISIS-controlled terrorist attack. WALLACE: Was there something different about this network and the way this was pulled off that says to you, gee, we've got to up our game? KELLY: Well, it’s this kind of -- in my view, there's kind of three types of terrorist attacks. The most sophisticated that we look at, that is against aviation, that's the hardest to do but it's the biggest payoff for these people. Then you have kind of the middle of the road one, which I think this one was. It’s a network. It's hard to do. You have to construct a bomb and all, and then you have kind of the low-end where -- I mean, just as tragic but you have people running people over in trucks, that kind of thing. But this is just the way terrorism is today and I think it will be around for many, many years to come. You know, the good news is those officials in the United Kingdom, Europe, around the world are relentless. They are just as relentless in terms of trying to prevent these things as the terrorists aren't trying to create them. The good news is, for our country, we have not had an outside the United States terrorist attacks since 9/11. And that goes to the issue of those that fight our away game, that’s DOD, NSA, CIA, and those that fight the home game. That’s DHS, FBI, local law enforcement. WALLACE: Let me pick up on this, because part of the story this week was the leak of information about the bomber and the bombing that made its way into the U.S. media, and that set off this exchange. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I made clear to President Trump that the intelligence that is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure. REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: We take full responsibility for that. And we, obviously, regret that that happened. (END VIDEO CLIP) WALLACE: How was this kind of sensitive information leaked to "The New York Times"? And, General, why is it that whether it's politics or terror, our intelligence agencies, our law enforcement agencies, can't keep a secret? KELLY: It's outrageous. When I call -- immediately after the attack, I called my counterpart in U.K., offered my condolences. By the way, the third time I’ve offered her, Amber Rudd, my condolences in 120 days. That's how frequent this kind of -- these terrorist attacks are happening. Anyways, she rightfully and very graciously accepted the condolences and leaned into me on this leak. It's outrageous. I don't know why people do it. It jeopardizes not only investigations, it puts people's lives in jeopardy. I don't why people do it, but they do. And that's the world we live in. WALLACE: Let's get to what you're going to try to do to protect the homeland. There are a lot of crowded events in the summer, concerts, sporting events. How do you harden these soft targets like this concert? And do you have new thoughts because this person didn't get into the event, he was outside the event, what do you do about parameters? KELLY: We -- one of the great things about America, there's many great things but we are a free and open society. And in many -- and I wouldn't change that at all. But that's also one of our vulnerabilities. People can live their lives day in and day out, privacy issues, all of that, it's a good thing. It’s what America is all about. But as I say, that is a vulnerability. The good news is to all Americans, I mean, the good news is that local state law enforcement today -- not to even go down the issue of the FBI, DHS -- it's in their DNA now to harden. We are just about as hard as we can be. I don't know if there's a way to prevent these kinds of things in the kind of society we live in. WALLACE: Let me pick up on that, because I want to play a clip of your testimony before Congress this week. Here it is. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KELLY: It's everywhere, and that’s -- you know, that's the nature of this threat that we are dealing with. As horrible as Manchester was, my expectation is we’re going to see a lot more of that kind of attack. (END VIDEO CLIP) WALLACE: A lot more of that kind of attack, here in the U.S.? KELLY: I think we’re relatively -- we have no specific -- we have threats all the time, but no, right now, specific threat. But that goes to the fact that we are over here and not over there. The fact is that it's the caliphate is being destroyed, that is Syria and Iraq, there are large numbers of returning fighters, Western Europe, and, you know, in many cases like this guy that did this thing in Manchester, he’s a citizen of the U.K. In this case, he’s a passport holder. I don't if the U.K. had any idea that he was outside -- that he was in Libya, but I think he’s also traveled to other points. The point is, they have a real threat and it's growing, it’s metastasized, as fighters come back from the caliphate to be I believe to be more of this kind of thing. The good news is, all decent people, all decent governments, and it doesn't matter whether we are politically close to them or not, all governments for the most part are sharing tremendous amounts of information, passport-type information, aviation, travel information. But, you know, people like this are below the radar. WALLACE: I want to pick up on aviation because you are in the process of making some big decisions on aviation. And I want to do a lightning round, quick questions, quick answers. Are you going to ban laptops from the cabin on all international flights both into and out of the U.S.? KELLY: I might. That's a quick answer. WALLACE: Yes, well, expand a little bit. KELLY: Well, there’s a real threat. Numerous threats against aviation, that's really the thing that they are obsessed with, the terrorists, the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight, particularly if it’s a U.S. carrier, particularly if it's full of mostly U.S. folks, people. It's real. You know that I implemented I think on the 21st of March a restriction on large electronic devices in the cabins from ten points of origin. WALLACE: Right. But there was talk, as you say, about all international flights both into and out of the U.S. When you say you might, when are you going to make that decision and what’s going to determine it? KELLY: (INAUDIBLE) follow the intelligence. The very, very good news is that we are working incredibly close with friends and partners around the world. We're going to, and in the process of defining this, but we are going to raise the bar for generally speaking aviation security much higher than it is now. So -- and there’s new technologies down the road, not too far down the road that we will rely on. But it is a real sophisticated threat and I will reserve that decision until we see where it's going. WALLACE: Another lightning round question, I do need a quick answer here because we’re running of time. The TSA is testing tighter screening of carry-ons, and the idea that people who bring their carry-ons are going to have to unpack them and put food in one bin, and electronics in the another bin, and paper in another bin. Are you going to spread that nationwide and what’s that going to do to the screening lines? KELLY: Yes, I mean, the reason we’ve done, TSA, of course, works for me. The reason we've done that is because of -- people trying to avoid the $25 or $50 or whatever it is to check a bag are now stuffing your carry-on bags to the point of, you know -- well, they can't get any more in there. So, the more you stuff in there, the less the TSA professionals that are looking at what's in those bags through the monitors, they can't tell what's in the bags anymore. So, if you put -- WALLACE: So, are you going to do that nationwide? KELLY: We might, and likely will. WALLACE: Soon? KELLY: Well, what we’re doing now is working out the tactics, techniques and procedures, if you will, in a few airports to find out exactly how to do that with the least amount of inconvenience to the traveler. WALLACE: A couple final questions I want to ask about the travel ban. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling this week continuing the stay on President Trump's revised travel ban -- and I want to put up -- the chief judge called it, the revised travel ban: an executive order that in text speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination. Mr. Secretary, judge after judge has said that this is a Muslim man that violates the Constitution. KELLY: They are dead wrong. WALLACE: Well, I mean, you say that, but they are the ones who were -- KELLY: They are wrong. Remember the seven, now six countries? These were the same countries identified by the Obama administration that we should be extra cautious about and backed up, you know, by the United States Congress. That's where those seven countries came from. The fact is that in those countries, we have very little ability to actually verify, vet the people that are coming out of those countries. So, what the president and it's not a travel ban, remember. It’s the travel pause. What the president said, for 90 days, we were going to pause in terms of people from those countries coming to the United States that would give me time to look at additional vetting to see -- WALLACE: OK. I want to pick up on that and why you’re even talking about the travel ban, because I want to put some numbers on. Take a look at this. The first executive order that was issued on January 27th banned citizens from seven nations from entering the U.S. for 90 days, suspended the refugee program for 120 days, as you say, a pause, while you set up an extreme vetting program. It's now been 121 days since that first order. So, why don't you have the program in place? KELLY: We are actually implementing it. The irony here is, had it stood, we would have had the 90 days to study. We’re not even studying what would be procedures, because we are enjoined and can't do that. In the meantime -- WALLACE: You can't study extreme vetting? KELLY: No. We’re -- the irony again is we can't study it, but I’m just guessing, and implementing. But we are going to find implement ways to determine who this -- an individual is, and remember, most of these countries have no passports. They have no police. They have no intelligence. Many of the countries in question don't even have a U.S. embassy there to help us vet. The U.N. will tell you it's almost impossible to vet these people from these countries because there are no passports and all the rest of it. We have to figure out a way to determine who they are and why they come into the United States. Otherwise, we’re guessing. And this president and John Kelly doesn't want to guess when it comes to national security and protection of the U.S. population. WALLACE: Secretary Kelly, thank you. Thanks for sharing part of your holiday weekend with us. KELLY: Absolutely. Thanks. WALLACE: Up next, new reports that Jared Kushner attempted to set up a back channel between Russia and the Trump transition. We’ll bring in our Sunday group to discuss the expanding Russia probe. Plus, what would you like to ask the panel about the continuous leaks in Washington? Just go to Facebook or Twitter @FoxNewsSunday, and we may use your question on the air. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY CLINTON, D-FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We were furious about the past presidential election of a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice. (END VIDEO CLIP) WALLACE: Hillary Clinton talking about Richard Nixon in her commencement speech at Wellesley College, but clearly taking a shot at President Trump. By the way, Nixon resigned before he was actually impeached. And it's time now for our Sunday group: the head of Heritage Action for America, Michael Needham, Charles Lane of The Washington Post, Gerald Seib from The Wall Street Journal, and National Security Council staffer, Gillian Turner. And just to catch you up, President Trump returns home to reports that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, in December, and that they discussed setting up a secret secure channel between the Trump transition and the Kremlin. That communications link reportedly to be based in a Russian diplomatic facility in Russia. A source close to the Trump administration tells me the conversation did take place but he says it was the ambassador who proposed the back channel, not Kushner, so the Russian military could talk with Trump advisors about the situation in Syria and the source points out that the secure link was never set up. So, with that as a preface, Gerry, your reaction to the Kushner story, and how does this complicate the already complicated investigation of links between the Kremlin and the Trump transition? GERALD F. SEIB, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, look, I mean, back channels are not unusual, they are not unprecedented. This one might have seemed perfectly innocent. Two problems though with it. One is, this happened during the transition, it seems to violate as you suggested earlier in the show the only one president at a time rule. And the second one is it’s Russia, after a campaign in which the Russian connection to the campaign, the Russian interference in the campaign was a big issue. And I think the fact that it was at a time when people were looking for whether there were going to be signs of special favors for Russia as a result of help they might have given President Trump, then-President-elect Trump during the campaign, that's what makes this a big story, is the context of the conversation as much as the actual content. WALLACE: Michael, I want to ask you, one, whether it's a big story, and, secondly, about the talk we are hearing, that is just rampant in Washington today about major changes in the White House that they’re going to set up a rapid response operation to deal with all the incoming leaks, that the president has hired at least one criminal defense lawyer and may be process of hiring a team and the staff is urging the president to let the lawyers vet his tweets. I mean, it really does sound like they’re going on a war footing on this. MICHAEL NEEDHAM, CEO, HERITAGE ACTION FOR AMERICA: Yes, I don't know if it's a major story, there are several investigations going on. They probably should be allowed to work their course. It's kind of exhausting reading some of these new stories and trying to figure out what did you read three weeks ago that’s just being recycled, versus what new? I think it's smart for the administration to try to put this stuff to the side, have, you know, a team that looks at these issues, and another team that looks at a lot of real policy issues, which are closer to the American people. You have the most conservative, exciting budget that's come out in a decade. WALLACE: We’re going to get to the agenda in the next segment. (CROSSTALK) WALLACE: I mean, at the very least, it seems dumb. NEEDHAM: Clearly, the optics of these are awful, and I think that especially when you have people who are new to the political system coming in and getting advice from a guy in Mike Flynn who probably didn't show the best judgment through a lot of this, you know, dumb might be a good word for it. I don’t know. You know, I think Kushner said a couple of weeks ago that he was happy to participate with the Senate investigation. He said he’s happy to participate with this investigation. You are at a disadvantage when you are the focus of an investigation and your lawyers are saying, don't participate, don't comment, and everyone else in the country seems more than eager to talk about it. So, I think a little prudence in keeping our mouth shut while we let the investigations play out is probably fair and we’ll see what comes up in them. WALLACE: You talk about the fact that they're all the stories and sometimes it's hard to remember what you've heard this week and what you heard last week. And this gets to the question of leaks. I asked our staff to put together, let's put it up on the screen, a list of the headlines from just the last two weeks. This is just Sunday two weeks ago until today. And as you can see, there's been a torrent of disclosures from intelligence and law enforcement officials. Gillian, as somebody who worked in the government, have you ever seen anything like this? And, you know, the conservatives talk about a deep state, that there are people embedded in law enforcement and embedded in the intelligence community that are trying to bring this president down. It sure seems like it's true. GILLIAN TURNER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: So, to me on the question of leaks, it seems that without a doubt leaks of information today are the number one threat to U.S. national security interest across the globe. And I think for evidence of that, we need look no further than the very public reprimand, we the United States had to endure from Britain earlier this week, in the wake of the Manchester attacks. A reminder that the British-U.S. intelligence cooperation, relationship, is one of the closest that has ever existed. And in my lifetime, in government and policy, I have not seen something so public, so public a risk (ph) (CROSSTALK) WALLACE: Most of these leaks aren’t about national security. They are about Trump's political security. TURNER: Yes. And so, this gets to the question of the deep state. So, I’m somebody who likes to push back against the narrative having been a civil servant in the government. Again, in the national security community is different than the political community, the rest of the policy community. But I will say that from I have seen and experienced, it does not exist. There is not this liberal -- WALLACE: How do you define this? TURNER: There isn’t a liberal core of people -- put it this way, Chris, for a hard fact, more than 50 percent of the federal workforce today is made up of people that joined the government prior to President Bush's tenure in office. So, the idea that these are Obama holdovers is simply not true, it's not the case. I think that when we talk about why individuals leak information, the explanations are as varied as human beings’ psychology. So, for example, a lot of things we are seeing leaked about the president are probably being leaked by his senior staff to hurt one another. That's not unique to the Trump administration. WALLACE: We ask you for questions for the panel and we got some different reactions in this question of leaks. Adri Ane sent us on Facebook: Do whistleblowers hold a vital role in the health of a democracy holding those in power to accountability? But chuck Coo had a different take: Simple question. If our intelligence agencies are as good as advertised, why can't they find the leakers? Chuck, how do you answer both of them about leaks? CHARLES LANE, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, as a member of the press, and is a believer in the role of the media and holding government accountable, I’m not going to come out against leaks, because, you know, for all the leaks that may cause this or that official trouble, there's going to be another one that does play an important role in accountability. But going back to what Gillian said, I think part of the reason that these leaks are flowing so uncontrollably to the viewer’s question is the factional struggle within this administration. You know, we have this famous dispute between Bannon and Kushner that supposedly was papered over. But I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, those were present two currents, to put it politely, within the White House that are trying to get bad stories out about one another. And this goes to your point about the staff shakeup and so on and so forth. You can shake up the staff all you want, but if man at the top is not laying out a clear and consistent line, is not himself modeling behavior, for example, by not blowing an Israeli source in a meeting with a foreign government, that sets the tone that this stuff is not really on, then it will continue. NEEDHAM: I take your point about the responsibility of the press and how leaks play into as it requires a responsible press also. That when James Fallows of The Atlantic today put side-by-side The Washington Post in The New York Times and how they treat, I think it was three unnamed sources in the White House talking about Jared Kushner and his desire to be here and stay here, this is not an urgent story. This is not something that’s getting out there. I don't think you see in the press, The Times and The Washington Post, the way they are playing this kind of using leakers to try to unearth the truth and taking two months like -- (CROSSTALK) WALLACE: We need to -- NEEDHAM: It’s kind of getting ridiculous. WALLACE: We need to -- because we’re going to run out of time. Let me simply say, we're just receiving information. It’s people who had sworn, oftentimes taken legal oaths not to divulge the information, they are the ones putting it out. We’re just the recipients. All right. We have to take a break here. We’ll see you a little later. When we come back, Senators Dick Durbin and Bill Cassidy. Is the president's agenda, both his new budget and the new effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare in trouble? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) WALLACE: Coming up, President Trump releases his budget. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My administration is laying a foundation to build a future of economic prosperity and achieve American greatness. (END VIDEO CLIP) WALLACE: But does it have any chance of getting through Congress? Two key senators join us next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) WALLACE: A look outside the beltway of the Indianapolis Motor speedway, home to this weekend's Indianapolis 500. Back from his first foreign trip, President Trump's focus will now shift to his domestic agenda, his new budget and a bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Joining us to discuss the president's priorities from Springfield, Illinois, the Senate’s number two Democrat, Dick Durbin. And here in Washington, Louisiana senator and doctor, Bill Cassidy, who’s on both the Senate Finance and Health Committees. Well, senators, before we get to the Trump agenda, I’ve got to ask you about the big story in Washington. This weekend, the Jared Kushner story, discussions about setting up a possible back channel with Russia. Senator Durbin, what's wrong with that? SEN. DICK DURBIN, D-ILLINOIS: The bottom line, of course, is we now have a special counsel in Bob Mueller. I have the highest level of confidence in him. And I hope that he will follow all the evidence, all the leads, and all the suggestions. And I’m sure he will. WALLACE: Do you have any specific comment about the Kushner conversation and whether or je should keep his security clearance? DURBIN: Well, of course not. I mean this is a rumor at this point and whether it is something that should be followed up on, I’ll trust Bob Mueller's judgment. WALLACE: Senator Cassidy, are you troubled by this? SEN. BILL CASSIDY, R-LOUISIANA: I agree with Dick’s assessment. And I’ll say, when you speak to folks back home, voters across the nation, they’re more concerned about their climbing health care premiums and the need to have jobs with better wages and better benefits. This will play out. We will know eventually. Right now Americans need help with their premiums. WALLACE: Well, you know what then gentlemen, let's switch to health care. And the Congressional Budget Office, non-partisan, released its score of the House bill this week. And let's put the numbers up on the screen. It would reduce the deficit $119 billion over ten years, but 23 million more people would be uninsured by 2026. The cost of insurance, according to the CBO, for a 64-year-old earning $27,000 a year would increase from $1,700 a year under ObamaCare to more than $13,000 under the GOP bill. Here's what Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said this week. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-NY, MINORITY LEADER: Unless you’re a healthy millionaire, Trumpcare is a nightmare. This report ought to be the final nail in the coffin of the Republican effort to sabotage our health care system. (END VIDEO CLIP) WALLACE: Senator Cassidy, is Schumer right? CASSIDY: So the Senate will write its own bill. And it shouldn't be the final coffin because right now there's families sitting around their kitchen table, they’re play $20,000, $30,000 and $40,000 a year for premiums and there's about to be a 40 percent increase in many states in these premiums. Cassidy-Collins, a bill I’ve introduced with Susan Collins, we have four co-sponsors. WALLACE: Yes, we’re going to get into that in a -- CASSIDY: But that said, actually would -- would -- would meet that family’s needs and I think it should be a place we go and those families are asking us to address those issues. WALLACE: So -- so what would you say to Americans? How should they regard the House bill? CASSIDY: The House product, the Senate will have its own product. We will go to conference. But I think the Senate product, I'm hopeful, will be more likely to address their needs. WALLACE: Senator Durbin, I know what you’re going to say, and the CBO certainly indicates there are problem with repeal and replace, but ObamaCare has its own problems. You heard Senator Cassidy mentioned some of them. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City just announced this week that it has lost $100 million through 2016 and that it is going to pull out of exchanges. That means that in 25 counties in western Missouri they may have no insurer at all. Doesn’t something have to be done dramatically? DURBIN: Well, it should be. But first we ought to have an administration that supports our health care system. What the Trump administration has done since day one is to find ways to cut off support for our current health care system, lack of advertising, for example, to bring new people on board so we have larger insurance pools and lower premiums. We have to have an effort made to sustain the current system while we repair it. We shouldn’t be sabotaging it. WALLACE: Wait, wait, wait, wait, senator -- DURBIN: But let’s look at the bottom line here. What the Republicans -- WALLACE: Senator Durbin, let me just point out, when Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City says they’ve lost $100 million in 2016, you can't blame that on Trump. He wasn't president. DURBIN: No, of course it is not a situation where the system we have is perfect, and it isn't. I voted for it. And it needs to be repaired. And I think Bill Cassidy and Susan Collins are at least willing to sit down in a constructive fashion and deal with that. Bill and I have had conversations about that. I'm sorry that the two of them are not in the room with the 13 apostles that Senator McConnell’s chosen to come up with the Republicans plan. I wish Bill and Susan were in there. WALLACE: All right, let -- let -- let me bring Senator Cassidy back, because let's talk about the Collins, Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, and Cassidy plan. And here are some of the highlights of that plan. Keep most ObamaCare taxes to pay for a replacement instead of an individual mandate. That would end. Auto enroll people in insurance so they have to opt out, not opt in. And let states keep most of ObamaCare if they want. Senator, it's a very interesting plan, but I don't have to tell you there are some of your more conservative colleagues in the Senate who are never going to go for this because they’re -- CASSIDY: That’s -- WALLACE: I mean they’re already upset that they say the House plane leaves too much of ObamaCare in place. You're leaving more of it in place. CASSIDY: A couple things. It is the conservative solution. The conservative thinks the power should return to individuals and to states. We do that. The power that ObamaCare gave, took from states, we give back. And you can't say you’re a conservative and we believe in states’ rights, and then tell states what they can't do. If a blue state wishes to do a blue thing, God bless them. And as regard to taxes, it isn't so much that we have to keep these taxes. As a fiscal conservative, I do think we need to pay for things. We have to balance our budget. We just say those taxes should be addressed in comprehensive tax reform, not piecemealed beforehand. I will repeat, the Cassidy-Collins plan is the conservative solution. WALLACE: But have you gotten any buy-in, and let me just take a few names, from Ted Cruz, from Rand Paul, from Mike Lee? And what are the chances, honestly, that the Senate won't pass anything, that this health care reform is going to die? CASSIDY: I can't speak for those senators you listed. I will say that between -- aside from Susan and I, there’s four other Republicans who support it. Now what would really be -- WALLACE: That’s six. You need 44 more. CASSIDY: But of all the plants out there, we’re the one that have the most support. And there are others who are very much interested. But I’ll also say to my friend Dick Durbin, if we had Democrats involved, because we do allow a blue state to do a blue thing. That’s states’ rights. That if they can’t -- if we had 25 Democrats and 40 Republicans, it wouldn't be a Republican plan, it wouldn't be a Democratic plan, it would be an American plan. WALLACE: OK, let me quickly -- because I want to get to the budget briefly. But -- but, real quickly, Senator Durbin, any Democratic buy-in? DURBIN: As long as we take repeal off the table, there are a lot of Democrats who want to bring a chair to the table. I'm one of them. Let’s sit down together with Bill Cassidy and Susan Collins. I don't agree with their -- many aspects of their start-up plan, but it's a good faith effort to do two things, reduce the cost of health insurance and expand the reach of health insurance. That should be our national goal. WALLACE: All right, now there's the Trump budget that was released this week, and let's go through some of the highlights of that. Here are some of the key increases in spending. For the military, increase by 10.1 percent, border security by 6.8 percent, but EPA is cut 31.4 percent, the State Department by 29.1 percent, and NIH, the National Institutes of Health, by 18.2 percent. Here's how Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney explained it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICK MULVANEY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: Compassion needs to be on both sides of that equation. Yes, you have to have compassion for folks who are receiving the federal funds, but also you have to have compassion for the folks who are paying it. (END VIDEO CLIP) WALLACE: Senator Durbin, I know you’re going to bash the Trump budget, but -- but don't we have to cut spending at some point? Are we just going to keep piling up the national debt? DURBIN: Well, that's a very -- very important question that you asked, Chris, but the question is, where you cut it and how you cut. I do not believe you make America great again by cutting medical research to the lowest level in 12 years. I don't think you make America great again by saying to working families, it's now more expensive for your kids to borrow money for student loans. You certainly don't make us a great nation by cutting back in infrastructure. All those three things are in the Trump budget. So if we’re going to have priorities, let's look at the things that are important for building jobs and opportunity in the future. WALLACE: Senator Cassidy, how dead -- I know it's dead -- but how dead is the Trump budget? CASSIDY: So class -- typically, in fact, always, the Senate and the House write their own budget, but it does reflect the president's goals. I actually agree with those goals, but would take a different approach. Let’s speak of Medicaid, which under their budget is cut. Medicaid is unsustainable, both for states and for the federal government. It has to be reformed. But as a physician who worked with Medicaid patients, I know that benefit has to also be preserved. I've actually worked on legislation that would bend the cost curve, at the same time reform it so that states would not go bankrupt trying to continue their Medicaid program. WALLACE: But -- CASSIDY: We have elements of that in the Cassidy-Collins plan. We share the goal, we just have a different way to get there. WALLACE: But just real quickly, though. I know you’re concerned about the Gulf Coast and Louisiana. Are you OK with cutting EPA? You’re a doctor. Are you OK with these kinds of big cuts in NIH? CASSIDY: Again, I think the best way to control future health care spending is to find that cure for Alzheimer's. I agree with the goal. I have a different approach. If we find a cure for Alzheimer’s, which postpones or heals, then those folks are not taking a trillion dollars out of our economy with their illness. Rather they are contributing, that capital is used for something else. We can actually get at this in a different light. WALLACE: Senator Cassidy, Senator Durbin, I want to thank you both for coming in and thank you for your time, especially in this holiday weekend. CASSIDY: Thank you. WALLACE: Up next, President Trump wraps up his first foreign trip, but his troubles here at home haven't gone away. Our panel comes back to discuss both. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: We made extraordinary gains on this historic trip to advance the security and prosperity of the United States, our friends and our allies. (END VIDEO CLIP) WALLACE: President Trump at the end of his first foreign trip giving himself good reviews, which is what presidents always do. And we’re back now with the panel. Gillian, how do you think the president did on this trip and why do you think he seemed to get along so much better with the leaders in the Middle East than he did with our allies in Europe? TURNER: So I really divide the trip into two parts conceptually. It’s helpful. So the first is really going around and touching on major worlds -- the world’s major three religions, excuse me, Chris, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. And I think that that part of the trip went relatively well. We had some pushback from the media about certain protocol optics, like, you know, like what was donning the heads of Melania and Ivanka Trump. That's fine. I think the second part of the trip was really NATO-focused. And there the president’s speech actually got a lot of criticism. But I think for the first time the administration cabinet-wide is actually striking the right tone on NATO, by which I mean they’re focusing on recommitting themselves to the importance of the alliance and they backtracked, or progressed, however you want to phrase it, on the -- the idea that it's become obsolete, which is a good thing for everyone. At the same time, they’re encouraging the member nations to contribute 2 percent GDP, which at this time -- remember, this was part of the president’s campaign platform. So I think he's got a mandate from the American people to push for that and it's something he's doing. I think it's a nice balance. WALLACE: We should point out that the first part of the trip, especially the Saudi part of the trip, was largely organized by Jared Kushner, and people who support him say he was talking to all of those Saudi leaders and helping -- and Sunni Muslim leaders during the transition, and that's one of the reasons it was such a success. Chuck, what struck you about these nine days? LANE: I have to say, the chilly atmospherics of the Europe portion of the trip, in contrast to the warmth, the abundant good feeling that was on display in Saudi Arabia between the president and the royal family of Saudi Arabia, that -- that contrast I think spoke volumes. It's true that he's -- the president got a lot of criticism for not uttering the words I personally support Article Five, the mutual defense guarantee in NATO -- WALLACE: Attack on one is an attack on all. LANE: Correct. But the reason for -- another president with another history, who had run a different campaign, that wouldn't be an issue. The Europeans feel very embattled and nervous with respect to the Trump administration. He supported Brexit. He openly spoke warmly about Marine Le Pen. He’s called NATO obsolete. And they were looking for some -- the kind of reassurance that he gave the Saudis, and they didn't get it. And I think that will have repercussions going forward. WALLACE: Let's talk about the domestic side, because the president returns to a Congress that is addley (ph) divided about repeal and replace and has already, both Republicans and Democrats, rejected his budget that we were just talking about with the two senators. Michael, some Senate Republicans are talking about just giving up on health care and moving straight tax reform. NEEDHAM: It would be a mistake. I mean the American health care system is collapsing under ObamaCare. But part of the reason that this agenda is so complicated and that we need a real sense of urgency on both the White House and the Congress about health care, tax reform, the budget, the debt limit, all this stuff that’s coming up and how it fits together is that for seven years the Republican Party has told itself a lie, that we are all united on wanting the same ends, that we all want to repeal ObamaCare, it’s about what the replace is. And what you actually have is you have very legitimate and heartfelt disagreement within the party about what the best path forward is. Some conservatives who want to focus on Title One regulations. Bill Cassidy, who has his plan, the Tuesday Group in the House, which is more of a force -- WALLACE: More moderate. NEEDHAM: The moderate group. Kind of a force for the status quo. I think the healthiest thing that’s happened in the last couple of months is that in the House, for the first time, leadership and the members themselves acknowledge that there are real differences of policy in this party. This isn't good guys and bad guys. It isn’t disagreements about tactics. They sat down for a couple of weeks. They understood where they were coming from. And they came up with a coalition form of government that said, you know what, let's let the state decides. If they want to wave out of ObamaCare, that's fine for some of them and others don’t. WALLACE: But -- but -- NEEDHAM: That's the model that needs -- that needs to happen going forward to bring them together. WALLACE: But -- but the problem, of course, with that, as you just heard from Bill Cassidy is, he’s saying they’re basically going to put that over the side, maybe they’ll take a little bit out of it, but they’re going to write their own bill. Gerry, is it possible that we could get to the end of 2017, this year, and that a Republican-controlled Congress, Republican control of the House and the Senate, will not have passed a single major Trump legislative initiative? And if so, what does that mean for prospects for Republicans in the 2018 midterms? SEIB: Well, it is -- first of all, it is possible because we’re staring down the path here of no easy wins. You know, no big, easy wins. By the way, there's one other that you shouldn't forget, which is by the fall, this Congress has to raise the debt ceiling, which everybody hates to do and -- and -- WALLACE: You’ve also got to fund the government. SEIB: You have to fund the government, have to raise the debt ceiling. They’re going to have to get Republican votes. Conservatives hate raising the debt ceiling. Everybody hates raising the debt ceiling. That has to happen as well. So you have a whole series of tough or unpleasant choices before the Congress. My guess is that, in the end, I think a Republican Congress will figure out a way to get together and get some of these things done, even in a truncated form because it’s too heavy a lift to go through an entire year in full control of the government and not have anything to show for it. WALLACE: You think they pass tax -- health care reform or do you think they’re going to end up eventually realizing -- you had Mitch McConnell say, I don't see how we get to 50. SEIB: Yes. WALLACE: Which is not the kind of thing he openly says. Do you think that they could just punt on that and go to tax reform? SEIB: I think they could easily walk past health and go to tax reform. I -- Mitch McConnell’s a smart guy. He’s not going to move down a path unless he knows there’s success at the end of that path. And if he doesn't, you know, that's because there is no way to get 50 votes plus one. I do think tax reform is something that Republicans really want to do. They’ve come to Washington to cut taxes. They’re not going to walk out of this town I think in December without having given that at least a really good try. WALLACE: Michael? NEEDHAM: Yes. No, I think, you know, they need to do both and all of these things are intertwined. At some point they have to sit down and look at these various points, the debt limit, spending, tax reform, health care, and define which wings of the party, which different factions within the parties will get what wins where. And once they do that, they’ll get some. The other thing that has to be considered this week is, is the Paris Accords, Paris Climate treaty, and what makes that so complicated, I think, for the president is it’s non-binding. I think he’s actually going to come out this week and pull out the Paris Accords. He made an explicit promise on the campaign trail. He’s somebody who likes to keep his promises. And, second, the United States shouldn't stay in a treaty just because it's non-binding. If we don’t intend on participating, we should pull out. I think the president will do that. WALLACE: All right, we have to leave here. Thank you, panel. See you next Sunday. Up next, our "Power Player of the Week," the Blue Angels, flying high and inspiring pride. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) WALLACE: Soldiers placing flags by the 230,000 grave markers at Arlington National Cemetery. Pride, professionalism, precision, those are the watchwords of this military unit. And on this special weekend, that unit is our "Power Player of the Week." (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RYAN BERNACCHI, BLUE ANGELS COMMANDING OFFICER: We’re focused on that very precise control of the airplane and flying it to the very best of your ability and you’re thinking out ahead, OK, what's next, and what's next, and what’s next. WALLACE (voice-over): Ryan Bernacchi is commander of the Blue Angels, the Navy's precision flight squadron. He's in the number one jet, leading his team through intricate maneuvers at up to 700 miles per hour, with the planes sometimes just 18 inches apart. The Blue Angels were in the area to perform at the U.S. Naval Academy, and we got to go inside their operation. WALLACE (on camera): Is there a lot of talking going on while you’re up in the air? BERNACCHI: There is a lot of talking. As the leader, I’m calling acadence (ph) for every -- every turn, every pull, every power change. And we’re just going to turn left, it's as simple as, coming left. And on that go, all six sticks will move in unison. Coming further left, a little, pull. (INAUDIBLE). And when all that gets going, we call it -- we call it fuzz -- it gets fuzzy because it will -- it will just take on this rhythm. You’re feeling the fuzz, Chris. Yes. WALLACE: I'm feeling the fuzz! BERNACCHI: Yes. It’s something -- it’s -- it’s -- it's crisp, but it's -- it’s electric. WALLACE (voice-over): Admiral Chester Nimitz started the Blue Angels in 1946 with F-6 Hellcat prop planes to keep up interest in naval aviation after World War II. Now they fly F-18 Hornets, in dozens of shows each year for more than 11 million spectators, from a cloudy naval academy, to a crystal clear San Francisco Bay. BERNACCHI: I always was going to be a pilot. WALLACE (on camera): Why? BERNACCHI: The Blue Angels. WALLACE (voice-over): Bernacchi used to go with his dad to shows in the bay area every summer. BERNACCHI: I was that kid and I wanted to fly. WALLACE: Now he has a nickname. BERNACCHI: They call the flight leader "boss." Wingmen will talk to me and, hey, boss, you know, and that’s the way it -- it works. And then we -- we do it on the ground as well. WALLACE: At the end of the show, the Blue Angels do a maneuver called a loop, break, cross. All six planes headed straight up, then, in six different directions, and then back to the center point. BERNACCHI: At about 800 knots of closure. So just under 1,000 miles an hour. And, boy, is it -- is it sweet when we put all that together. That -- that synergy and you feel that fuzz and you get it -- you get it going and -- and that's really, really -- it's -- it’s sweet, but it's very, very intense. WALLACE: Bernacchi, who’s flown combat over Iraq and Afghanistan, compares it to operating off an aircraft carrier and he says that's the mission of the Blue Angels, to represent their fellow service members who are on the front lines. BERNACCHI: It's about the Navy Marine Corps, they’re forward deployed, they’re -- they’re providing us with our freedom. And that’s the real work. We makes people feel something, and -- and it's that pride. It's the pride this country has in our sailors and Marines and we just bring it and display it in a way that people can connect with and they can -- they can see and feel and touch. And that, I think, is the value of the Blue Angels. (END VIDEOTAPE) WALLACE: Blue Angels will be traveling the country this summer. If you get a chance to see them in action, it's something you will never forget. And that's it for today. We hope you’ll take a moment this weekend to remember all the men and women who have given their lives defending our freedom. And we’ll see you next "Fox News Sunday." (COMMERCIAL BREAK) Content and Programming Copyright 2017 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2017 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. ||||| FILE - In this Thursday, May 25, 2017, file photo, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, while testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on FY'18 budget.... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Thursday, May 25, 2017, file photo, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, while testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on FY'18 budget. Kelly said he's considering banning laptops from the passenger cabins of all international flights... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Thursday, May 25, 2017, file photo, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, while testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on FY'18 budget. Kelly said he's considering banning laptops from the passenger cabins of all international flights... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Thursday, May 25, 2017, file photo, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, while testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on FY'18 budget.... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Sunday he's considering banning laptops from the passenger cabins of all international flights to and from the United States. That would dramatically expand a ban announced in March that affects about 50 flights per day from 10 cities, mostly in the Middle East. The current ban was put in place because of concerns about terrorist attacks. The ban prevents travelers from bringing laptops, tablets and certain other devices on board with them in their carry-on bags. All electronics bigger than a smartphone must be checked in. Kelly was asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether he would expand the ban to cover laptops on all international flights into and out of the U.S. His answer: "I might." The current U.S. ban applies to nonstop U.S.-bound flights from 10 international airports in Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Cairo; Istanbul; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. About 50 flights a day, all on foreign airlines, are affected. Earlier this month, there were reports that the Trump administration would broaden the ban to include planes from the European Union, affecting trans-Atlantic routes that carry as many as 65 million people a year. U.S. officials have said that initial ban was not based on any specific threat but on longstanding concerns about extremists targeting jetliners. "There's a real threat," Kelly said, adding that terrorists are "obsessed" with the idea of downing a plane in flight, "particularly if it's a U.S. carrier, particularly if it's full of mostly U.S. folks. It's real." Kelly said that the U.S. is going "to raise the bar for, generally speaking, aviation security much higher than it is now, and there's new technologies down the road, not too far down the road, that we'll rely on. But it is a real sophisticated threat, and I'll reserve making that decision until we see where it's going." While Kelly referred to "a real sophisticated threat," the Trump administration's spending plan for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 would make significant cuts to airport security programs. ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States might ban laptops from aircraft cabins on all flights into and out of the country as part of a ramped-up effort to protect against potential security threats, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on Sunday. FILE PHOTO - A TSA worker loads suitcases at the checked luggage security screening station at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on September 7, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn/File Photo In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Kelly said the United States planned to “raise the bar” on airline security, including tightening screening of carry-on items. “That’s the thing that they are obsessed with, the terrorists, the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight, particularly if it’s a U.S. carrier, particularly if it’s full of U.S. people.” In March, the government imposed restrictions on large electronic devices in aircraft cabins on flights from 10 airports, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey. Kelly said the move would be part of a broader airline security effort to combat what he called “a real sophisticated threat.” He said no decision had been made as to the timing of any ban. “We are still following the intelligence,” he said, “and are in the process of defining this, but we’re going to raise the bar generally speaking for aviation much higher than it is now.” Airlines are concerned that a broad ban on laptops may erode customer demand. But none wants an incident aboard one of its airplanes. “Whatever comes out, we’ll have to comply with,” Oscar Munoz, chief executive officer of United Airlines UAL.N, told the company’s annual meeting last week. Airlines were blindsided in January when President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning entry for 90 days to citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, sending airlines scrambling to determine who could board and who could not. The order was later blocked in the courts. In the case of laptops, the administration is keeping the industry in the loop. Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) said in a statement it “continues to be in close contact with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” while Munoz applauded the administration for giving the company a “heads up.” “We’ve had constant updates on the subject,” he said. “We know more than most. And again, if there’s a credible threat out there, we need to make sure we take the appropriate measures.” MORE SCRUTINY OF CARRY-ONS Among the enhanced security measures will likely be tighter screening of carry-on items to allow Transport Security Administration agents to discern problematic items in tightly stuffed bags. Kelly said that in order to avoid paying fees for checking bags, people were stuffing them to the point where it was difficult to see through the clutter. “The more stuff is in there, the less the TSA professionals that are looking at what’s in those bags through the monitors can tell what’s in them.” The TSA has begun testing certain new procedures at a limited number of airports, requiring people to remove additional items from carry-on bags for separate screenings. Asked whether the government would expand such measures nationwide, Kelly said: “We might, and likely will.” ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption John Kelly tells Fox News he will "reserve the decision" on whether to extend the laptop ban worldwide. The authorities in the US are still considering banning laptops from cabin baggage on all international flights, the head of Homeland Security says. John Kelly said there was a real threat and terrorists were "obsessed" with the idea of knocking down a US plane. The US already has a ban on laptops on flights to and from eight mostly-Muslim countries. Two weeks ago, officials decided not to extend that ban to flights between the US and EU countries. But Mr Kelly's comments cast doubt over that decision. The measure was introduced over fears a bomb could be concealed in a device. Mr Kelly was speaking on the breakfast programme Fox News Sunday about efforts to combat terrorism after Monday's bomb attack in the UK . When the host asked him if he would ban laptops from all international flights, he answered: "I might." "We're still following intelligence," he continued. "It is a real sophisticated threat and I reserve that decision until we see where it's going." The US restrictions, introduced in March, apply to devices "larger than a smartphone". They are not allowed in the cabins of flights from Turkey, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The UK issued similar rules for flights from six countries. But air travel safety experts warn there is a greater risk of lithium battery fires going unchecked if large electronic items are left in the hold.

– Bad news for frequent fliers, good news for airport bookstores: Homeland Security chief John Kelly says officials are seriously considering banning laptops, tablets, and other large electronic devices from cabin baggage on all international flights to or from the US, reports the BBC. When asked on Fox News Sunday whether he would expand the ban, which currently applies to flights from 10 cities in Muslim-majority countries, Kelly said he might, adding that a "real threat" exists. Terrorists, he said, are "obsessed" with "the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight, particularly if it's a US carrier, particularly if it's full of mostly US folks." Kelly said the US plans to "raise the bar for, generally speaking, aviation security much higher than it is now." The ban now in place affects around 50 flights a day, none of them on US carriers, but there were reports earlier this month that the Trump administration was considering expanding it to flights to and from the European Union, which would affect around 65 million travelers a year, the AP reports. The airline industry is worried that an expanded ban on electronic devices could lead to a drop in demand, Reuters reports, though execs including United's Oscar Munoz say they are in close contact with Homeland Security on the issue and have thanked the administration for giving them a "heads up." (Officials say intelligence on al-Qaeda led to the original ban.)

Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking “I agree” below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. ||||| It was a Mitt Romney rout. The front-runner crushed Rick Santorum in Illinois, a win that might swing the narrative toward Romney after a topsy-turvy primary fight. Text Size - + reset Romney celebrates Illinois win Santorum speaks after loss Below, POLITICO’s five takeaways from a state primary that was essentially a two-man race: 1) Mitt Romney is looking toward the fall The former Massachusetts governor had a big, double-digit win in a big Midwestern state. He’ll pick up the bulk of delegates, and not just because Rick Santorum forfeited a chunk of them. Little changed for Romney in terms of the ultimate delegate math — he won roughly what he was expected to, and his path forward remains about the same as where it was. He needs to win just south of 50 percent of the remaining delegates to get the GOP nomination. His win was not a knockout, and Santorum — as well as Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul — will keep going. Even so, this was an important pivot point for Romney, who seemed noticeably more at ease in an election night speech that made no mention of his rivals and that sounded much more like a general-election message than the ones he’s delivered on past primary nights. He did not suggest, as his wife did earlier this week, that it’s time for the party to “coalesce.” And his team seems to have learned from past errors about setting expectations. Instead, Romney trained his sights on President Barack Obama, saying — albeit with a brief teleprompter hiccup — that it’s time for the country to say, “Enough!” Talking openly about the inevitability of his delegate math has not been not a winner for Romney. But conveying an aura of inevitability by projecting the confidence and message of a presumptive nominee could prove to be, especially with some rough states ahead in May. Few Republicans want to call the race over, especially with the base of the party continuing to vote against the front-runner. The media also seem unlikely to bite on the notion that it’s over. But a number of Republicans are privately saying they see it that way, and if that impacts Santorum’s ability to deliver his message, it could matter. Winning nearly 50 percent of the vote in a four-way race (even with two people who were barely factors) is a big deal for a candidate who has struggled. And to the extent that the campaign has been far more about perception than reality, having a clean win in a state where Santorum needed to prove himself could do a lot for Romney as he moves forward. 2) Santorum fights on His path has narrowed, and there is a sense that last night might have been the beginning of the end in terms of a route that keeps Romney from getting to 1,144 delegates by the end of June and halts the perception that the primary is being wrapped up. The former Pennsylvania senator hurt himself with an ill-advised stop in Puerto Rico and a gaffe about the unemployment rate that forced him into a defensive crouch once again. ||||| Mitt Romney won a solid victory last night in the Land of Lincoln. Let’s take a close look at how he pulled it off. Throughout this primary battle, we have seen political divisions along some pretty straightforward demographic and ideological lines. Mitt Romney has typically done well with urban and suburban voters, as well as socioeconomically upscale voters (i.e. those who have college degrees and make more than $50,000 a year). On the other hand, Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum have typically had an advantage among rural voters, socioeconomically downscale voters, and very conservative voters. Layered atop this, Romney has done better in primaries than in caucuses, and in the North than the South. So, in many respects, Illinois was thus “bound�? to favor him. It is a Northern primary state with a favorable demographic mix for the former Massachusetts governor. To appreciate the latter point, consider this comparison between Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio along key demographic lines. This clearly suggests that the Illinois primary sampled more heavily from core Romney groups. This is a consequence of the metro Chicago vote. Romney won the Cook County suburbs as well as the collar counties by 20 points, where these sorts of voters are numerous. He also won the smaller cities in the state – Champaign, Peoria, and Springfield. When we break it down, we see Romney actually did about as well with his core voters in Illinois as he did in Michigan and Ohio. In other words, the magnitude of his victory was not because of any major shift in his direction, but because his voters were simply more numerous.

– Mitt Romney's decisive win in Illinois extends his delegate lead, but it's not enough to change the dynamics of the race, let alone knock out Rick Santorum, pundits say. Romney has scored another big win in a Midwestern state, but even his "staunchest allies don’t expect him to pick up enough momentum" to win Louisiana on Saturday, "meaning the 'Romney can’t win the South' and 'Romney can’t win conservatives over' storylines" will linger into April, writes Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post. Neither Romney nor Santorum managed to expand their voter base in Illinois, and the low turnout will add fuel to arguments that Romney can't excite voters, notes Maggie Haberman at Politico. Santorum's speech "was a strong reminder of why he resonates with a base that has shown it wants the race to keep going," she writes. "In fact, more than two-thirds of voters in the Illinois exits said they want the primary to plow forward." Romney did well with his core voters but he didn't flip many of Santorum's supporters, and the results show he still faces "sustained opposition from a sizeable bloc of Republicans: the rural vote, the socio-economically downscale, and the very conservative," writes Jay Cost at the Weekly Standard. The demographics mean that Pennsylvania's April 24 primary is a good opportunity for Mitt to finish off Santorum with a win in his home state, Cost writes, but if Romney can't pull that off, expect the race to drag on into June.

TheWashingtonPost Limbaugh on Cain story: ‘Hit job’ journalism that was racially-motivated Rush Limbaugh weighed in Monday on the allegations that Herman Cain sexually harassed two former female employees, calling the piece by Politico a “hit job” based on racially-motivated stereotypes. “This is not a news story, this is gutter partisan politics, and it’s the politics of minority conservative personal destruction is what you’ve got here,” the conservative radio host said, also mentioning The Post’s story on Florida senator Marco Rubio (R). “We cannot have a black Republican running for the office of President. We can’t have one elected.” Limbaugh also said that Bill Clinton must be somewhere “laughing himself sick over this hit job from Politico...If this story were about Bill Clinton, the left would be circling the wagons.” Limbaugh said that Cain was targeted because of his conservative views and skin color. “Anything good that happens to any black or Hispanic in American politics can only happen via the Democrat Party. If it happens elsewhere, we’re going to destroy those people a la Clarence Thomas.” “It really is about blacks and Hispanics getting too uppity. That’s what this is,” he said. “You don’t achieve in American politics as a Republican.....you try it and we’re going to destroy you.” Thomas, who faced allegations of sexual harassment during his Senate confirmation hearing for the U.S. Supreme Court two decades ago, also used the same argument, saying that hearings amount to a “high tech lynching” of blacks who think for themselves. During her show, Laura Ingraham suggested occupying Politico’s Arlington offices, after a caller drew parallels between Cain and Thomas and said that “we need to stand up for this citizen candidate.” The occupy reference was to the Occupy Wall Street protests that have been rocking the political world lately. “You’re saying Occupy Politico in other words,” Ingraham said. “They’re occupying Wall Street, we need...OccupyPolitico.com....stop destroying a good man’s reputation....we have seen this movie before and we know how it ends.” Cain has repeatedly denied that anything inappropriate took place while he led the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. He has also said he had no knowledge of any financial settlement, reportedly to be in the five-figure range, according to Politico. Cain calls harassment accusations a ‘witch hunt’ Cain addresses his racial appeal Cain sings at press club The Fix: Who gains if Cain loses? ||||| By Jeff Poor, The Daily Caller Politico dropped a bombshell story Sunday evening, charging that GOP presidential front-runner Herman Cain was accused of sexual harassment by two unnamed females in the late 1990s when he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association. During an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Geraldo at Large” just an hour later, Ann Coulter likened the allegations to those Clarence Thomas faced in the early 1990s during his Supreme Court confirmation process. “Liberals are terrified of Herman Cain,” she said. “He is a strong, conservative black man … They are terrified of strong, conservative black men. “It’s outrageous the way liberals treat a black conservative,” she told Geraldo. “This is another high-tech lynching. … Nothing liberals fear more than a black conservative. Ask Allen West. Ask Michael Steele. Ask Clarence Thomas. And even what the allegations are here, I mean, just shows you how the civil-rights juggernaut has gone off the rails. The idea of civil rights laws to begin with ironically was to protect blacks from Democrats from the South who won’t protect them. Now it’s you know, white women from Scarsdale who say, ‘Oh, I don’t like that he called me honey.’”

– Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter is calling revelations of sex harassment accusations against Herman Cain "another high-tech lynching"—echoing the wording used by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during the Anita Hill scandal. Coulter slammed the allegations as a plant from "terrified" liberals, calling Cain a "strong, conservative black man" on Fox News. "They are terrified of strong, conservative black men. This is an outrageous attack on a black conservative who is doing extremely well and I think will be our vice president." Rush Limbaugh also jumped to Cain's defense, yesterday calling the Politico piece a "racist hit job." “What's next, folks? A cartoon on MSNBC showing Cain eating a watermelon?" he asked. "Anything good that happens to any black or Hispanic in American politics can only happen via the Democrat Party. If it happens elsewhere, we’re going to destroy those people à la Clarence Thomas.” Radio host Laura Ingraham also took aim at the story yesterday, reports the Washington Post, calling for "Occupy Politico" in order to "stop destroying a good man's reputation." Cain, who has denied any harassment, has said the accusations were likely triggered when he compared a female worker's height to the height of his wife.

See more of Dorian J. Murray Foundation #Dstrong on Facebook ||||| The seed for Wide00014 was: - Slash pages from every domain on the web: -- a ranking of all URLs that have more than one incoming inter-domain link (rank was determined by number of incoming links using Wide00012 inter domain links) -- up to a maximum of 100 most highly ranked URLs per domain - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph ||||| WESTERLY, R.I. (WPRI) – A Westerly boy whose courageous battle with cancer took the world by storm has died. The family of 8-year-old Dorian Murray confirmed he passed away late Tuesday night in a post on their Facebook page, Praying for Dorian. Dorian’s long battle with cancer included years of treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of pediatric cancer he was diagnosed with when he was 4 years old. In December, after a checkup indicated cancer cells were in Dorian’s spinal fluid, his family decided to end his treatment. Days later, Dorian told his dad he had a goal. According to his mom, Dorian said he wanted to be famous on “the bridge in China.” “He meant the Great Wall of China,” Melissa Murray said. “But we knew that would be hard with the long travel and everything.” So, Dorian made some adjustments to his goal. “I’m just thinking before I go to heaven to try to be as famous, like, as much as I can,” he told Eyewitness News’ Walt Buteau. With the help of social media, his wish quickly came true. #DStrong took off online and a tidal wave of support for Dorian started flooding in from every corner of the world. Well-wishers sent heartfelt messages to Dorian and his family, praising him as an “inspiration.” National and international media outlets – including CNN, CBS News, BBC News and even outlets in China – picked up his story. Celebrities, politicians, first responders and countless other people posed for pictures with handmade #DStrong signs in several countries, including China, France, and Italy. In November, former New England Patriot Patrick Pass surprised Dorian with a visit. Then in January, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski showed up, too. Both players hung out with Dorian and his family, signed autographs and urged him to stay strong. Later, Dorian and his family received luxury box seats to a Patriots game and Dorian was escorted around Gillette Stadium, where he was able to meet with team owner Robert Kraft. From there, the DStrong movement showed no signs of slowing down – a fact that was evident when thousands gathered on a beach in Westerly to support Dorian. The crowd formed #DStrong on the sand and was photographed from above by a drone. In recent months, Dorian received countless blessings, opportunities, and honors from people near and far, including a State House proclamation of DStrong Day, the key to the city of Cranston, a special DStrong license plate, and many, many others. People battling cancer hailed Dorian a hero, saying he was a beacon of courage for those fighting similar battles. Dorian told Eyewitness News all of the support he received was encouraging during his tremendously difficult battle. “They’re just saying to keep fighting,” he said. “They believe in me. And it’s just really nice to know that so many people have my back for me.” Dorian leaves behind an incredible legacy – and his mom said she hopes his story will inspire others to take on the fight against childhood cancer. “Pediatric cancer is one of the top killers of children and yet it is so severely underfunded,” she said. “And there’s no reason for that. We need to change that.” The family has requested privacy during this difficult time. ||||| Dorian Murray, the 8-year-old Rhode Island boy who captured the hearts of New Englanders, celebrities, and folks around the world as he battled stage-four cancer, has died. Dorian’s cancer fight has been documented on the Facebook page Praying for Dorian and on social media with the hashtag “#dstrong.” His death was announced on the Praying for Dorian Facebook page. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below “Dorian J. Murray (#dstrong) has gained his beautiful angel wings tonight and is now pain free. He was surrounded by people who love him and his transition to heaven was very peaceful. He was embraced by both mom and dad.” Dorian was diagnosed with a rare cancer when he was 4 years old. His parents announced on New Year’s Day that the cancer had spread to his spine and brain. That’s when his family chose to stop treatment and “enjoy the time left.” Shortly after, the Rhode Island Assembly announced that January 20 would be “DStrong Day.” Dorian was a guest in both the House and Senate chambers for the reading of the proclamation. Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski visited Dorian in January and signed a football for him. In January, more than 2,500 people gathered on Misquamicut Beach to spell out “#D-Strong” in the sand. Similiar tributes were seen around the world. The Facebook post announcing his death also asks for privacy, saying, “The family has been through so much heart ache and a devastating loss. Please please respect our privacy at this time.” ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.

– The 8-year-old Rhode Island boy whose dying wish was to become famous in China has died—with that wish granted. Dorian Murray, who was diagnosed with an untreatable form of cancer at age 4, told his father his unusual last wish and his father asked people to spread it on social media with the hashtag #DStrong, the AP reports. As a result, Dorian became famous not just in China, but around the world; people sent pictures and good wishes from all over, and even celebrities got in on the movement. "Dorian J. Murray (#dstrong) has gained his beautiful angel wings tonight and is now pain free," a family friend posted on his official Facebook page Tuesday. "He was surrounded by people who love him and his transition to heaven was very peaceful. He was embraced by both mom and dad." Boston.com notes that Dorian was famous not just abroad but on his home turf as well: The Rhode Island Assembly has named January 20 "DStrong Day," and Dorian was present in the House and Senate chambers when the proclamation was read. He also received visits from multiple New England Patriots, WPRI reports, and thousands of people gathered on a Rhode Island beach to form "#D-STRONG" in the sand. A prior post on his Facebook page notes that the family will "[keep] his name and the #dstrong movement alive forever" through the Dorian J. Murray Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to bring awareness of pediatric cancer to a level "that is impossible to ignore." It will also raise funds for pediatric cancer research and offer support to families of children battling cancer.

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. ||||| Caretaker leadership likely to lead N. Korea before son fully takes over: NIS SEOUL, Dec. 21 (Yonhap) -- A caretaker leadership led by a Workers' Party commission under the control of the chosen son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is expected to handle pressing issues in the communist nation until the successor takes full control, South Korea's main spy agency has forecast.The National Intelligence Service made the forecast in a report to parliament Tuesday, saying Pyongyang is expected to focus on a smooth power transition to Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, according to participants.The late Kim had been grooming his third son as his successor before his abrupt death on Saturday. Pyongyang unveiled the son to the outside world last year by promoting him to the rank of a four-star general and placing him in key posts.One of the younger Kim's titles is vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party, a powerful organ that oversees North Korea's massive armed forces and military policies.After Kim's death, the North's military immediately vowed allegiance to the son.Should Kim Jong-un take leadership of the North, it would mark the communist country's second hereditary transfer of power, as the recently deceased Kim also took the leadership role after his father and national founder Kim Il-sung died in 1994.(END) ||||| 1 of 2. North Korean soldiers parade in front a portrait of former North Korean President Kim Il-sung during a military parade in Pyongyang's central square in this photo taken by Kyodo on September 9, 2011 marking the 63rd anniversary of the state's founding. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il flanked by his son reviewed a military parade of goose-stepping North Korean soldiers in Pyongyang's central square on Friday, underlining a planned third generation of dynastic rule is on track. Mandatory Credit BEIJING | BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea will shift to collective rule from a strongman dictatorship after last week's death of Kim Jong-il, although his untested young son will be at the head of the ruling coterie, a source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said. The source added that the military, which is trying to develop a nuclear arsenal, has pledged allegiance to the untested Kim Jong-un, who takes over the family dynasty that has ruled North Korea since it was founded after World War Two. The source declined to be identified but has correctly predicted events in the past, telling Reuters about the North's first nuclear test in 2006 before it took place. The comments are the first signal that North Korea is following a course that many analysts have anticipated -- it will be governed by a group of people for the first time since it was founded in 1948. Both Kim Jong-il and his father Kim Il-sung were all-powerful, authoritarian rulers of the isolated state. The situation in North Korea appeared stable after the military gave its backing to Kim Jong-un, the source said. "It's very unlikely," the source said when asked about the possibility of a military coup. "The military has pledged allegiance to Kim Jong-un." North Korea's collective leadership will include Kim Jong-un, his uncle and the military, the source said. Jang Song-thaek, 65, brother-in-law of Kim Jong-il and the younger Kim's uncle, is seen as the power behind the throne along with his wife Kim Kyong-hui, Kim Jong-il's sister. So too is Ri Yong-ho, the rising star of the North's military and currently its most senior general. The younger Kim, who is in his late 20s, has his own supporters but is not strong enough to consolidate power, analysts said. "I know that he's been able to build a group of supporters around himself who are of his generation," said Koh Yu-hwan, president of the Korean Association of North Korean Studies in Seoul. "So it is not entirely elders in their 70s, plus some like Jang in their 60s, who are backing him. These young backers will be emerging fairly soon." Koh said the coterie was put in place by Kim Jong-il before he died. "The relative calm seen these few days shows it's been effective. If things were not running smoothly, then we'd have seen a longer period of 'rule by mummy', with Kim Jong-il being faked as still being alive." He said the younger Kim would accept the set-up, for now. "Considering the tradition of strongarm rule by his father and grandfather, things can't be easy for him," he said. "REGIME SURVIVAL" Ralph Cossa, an authority on North Korea and president of the U.S. think tank Pacific Forum CSIS, said it made sense that the ruling group would stick together. "All have a vested interest in regime survival," he said. "Their own personal safety and survival is inextricably tied to regime survival and Kim Jong-un is the manifestation of this. I think the regime will remain stable, at least in the near-term." He added in a commentary that the new group may be inclined to reform, but stressed this was far from confirmed. "Over the long term, there appears to be some hope, primarily emanating from Beijing, that Kim Jong-un will take North Korea down the path of Chinese-style reform, apparently based on the belief that Jang is or will be a 'reformer'." "Who knows, this may be true. While this could relieve the suffering of the North Korean people over time, it will do little to promote the cause of denuclearization, however." The high-level source also said North Korea test-fired a missile on Monday to warn the United States not to make any moves against it. Pyongyang however had no immediate plans for further tests, barring an escalation of tensions. "With the missile test, (North) Korea wanted to deliver the message that they have the ability to protect themselves," the source said. "But (North) Korea is unlikely to conduct a nuclear test in the near future unless provoked" by the United States and South Korea, the source said. The unpredictable North's nuclear program has been a nagging source of tension for the international community. Pyongyang carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, and has quit six-party talks with South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia on abandoning its nuclear program and returning to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The high-level source also said Beijing was only notified of Kim's death earlier on Monday, the same day North Korean state television broadcast the news. Kim died on Saturday. A leading South Korean newspaper reported on Wednesday China learned of Kim's death soon after it occurred. China has given no official comment or even hints suggesting it was told of Kim's death before the public announcement. Beijing, the North's closest ally and biggest provider of aid, has pulled out the stops to support the younger Kim. The government has invited him to visit and, in an unusual gesture, President Hu Jintao and Vice-President Xi Jinping also visited the hermit state's embassy in Beijing to express their condolences. Roads leading to the embassy were blocked. Mainly, the prospect of instability on its northeastern border worries China and it sees the younger Kim and his coterie as the best prospect for keeping North Korea on an even keel. North Korea has been pressed by China to denuclearize and is willing to do so on condition that North and South Korea, the United States and China sign an armistice replacing a 1953 ceasefire agreement, the source said. The two Koreas have been divided for decades and remain technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice but no peace agreement. The United States backed the South, while China supported the North in that conflict. Pyongyang is also convinced there are U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea and demands Washington pull them out, the source said. (Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jonathan Thatcher)

– After six-plus decades of the Kim family's ironclad dictatorship, North Korea's opaque leadership structure could be changing: Kim Jong Un is so young and untested that he will be forced to govern as part of a collective group, to include his uncle Jang Song-thaek and the military, reports Reuters. Granted, no one knows what's really going on in North Korea, and Reuters' information comes from an anonymous source, but one who been right about big North Korea moves in the past, including the 2006 nuclear test. South Korea's intelligence service, on the other hand, thinks that leadership collective might just be transitional, and it will be led by the Workers' Party, reports Yonhap News. North Korea's military is controlled by the Workers' Party's Central Military Commission, of which Kim Jong Un is vice chairman. Kim may be poised to continue the family's legacy, "but that doesn’t mean that the current system will continue indefinitely," reports leading expert Andrei Lankov in Foreign Affairs. While Lankov doubts any serious challengers to Kim will emerge, even from the military, "the longer North Korea's rulers holds on to power, the greater the gap between Pyongyang and its neighbors will be—creating greater potential for future turmoil."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says that it's not yet clear what this will mean for German law on marriage Germany has become Europe's first country to allow babies with characteristics of both sexes to be registered as neither male nor female. Parents are now allowed to leave the gender blank on birth certificates, in effect creating a new category of "indeterminate sex". The move is aimed at removing pressure on parents to make quick decisions on sex assignment surgery for newborns. However, some campaigners say the new law does not go far enough. As many as one in 2,000 people have characteristics of both sexes. 'Bruised and scarred' Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sarah Graham, intersex woman and counsellor: "This pink and blue thing is a nonsense" They are known as "intersex" people because they have a mixture of male and female chromosomes or even genitalia which have characteristics of both genders. The intense difficulty for parents is often that a gender has to be chosen very quickly so that the new child can be registered with the authorities, the BBC's Steve Evans in Berlin reports. Sometimes surgery is done on the baby to turn its physical characteristics as far as possible in one direction or the other, our correspondent says. The law in Germany has been changed following a review of cases which revealed great unhappiness. In one case, a person with no clear gender-defining genitalia was subjected to surgery. The person said many years later: "I am neither a man nor a woman. I will remain the patchwork created by doctors, bruised and scarred." German passports, which currently list the holder's sex as M for male or F for female, will have a third designation, X, for intersex holders, according to the interior ministry. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Silvan Agius, ILGA-Europe: "It does not address the surgeries... and that's not good" It remains unclear what impact the change will have on marriage and partnership laws in Germany. Current laws define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and civil partnerships are reserved for same-sex couples. Silvan Agius of IGLA-Europe, which campaigns for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex people, said the law needed to go further. "While on the one hand it has provided a lot of visibility about intersex issues... it does not address the surgeries and the medicalisation of intersex people and that's not good - that has to change," he told the BBC. While Germany is the first country in Europe to legally recognise a third gender, several other nations have already taken similar steps. Third gender recognition Australia - passport applications since 2011 Bangladesh - passport applications since 2011 Germany - on birth certificates from 2013 India - electoral roll since 2009 Nepal - census since 2007 New Zealand - passport applications since 2012 Australians have had the option of selecting "x" as their gender - meaning indeterminate, unspecified or intersex - on passport applications since 2011. A similar option was introduced for New Zealanders in 2012. In South Asia, Bangladesh has offered an "other" gender category on passport applications since 2011. Nepal began recognising a third gender on its census forms in 2007 while Pakistan made it an option on national identity cards in 2011. India added a third gender category to voter lists in 2009. While transgender or intersex people have long been accepted in Thailand and are officially recognised by the country's military, they do not have any separate legal status. ||||| Gender X: Germany to allow third indeterminate gender option at birth By Agence France-Presse Wednesday, October 30, 2013 10:46 EST Germany on Friday will become the first European country to allow babies born with characteristics of both sexes to be registered as neither male nor female. Parents will be allowed to leave the field for gender blank on birth certificates, effectively creating a category for indeterminate sex in the public register. “This will be the first time that the law acknowledges that there are human beings who are neither male nor female, or are both — people who do not fit into the traditional legal categories,” University of Bremen law professor Konstanze Plett told AFP. The change is intended to remove pressure on parents to quickly make a decision about controversial sex assignment surgeries for newborns. But even as the law takes effect November 1, there are questions about what it will mean to live with no legal gender. German passports, which currently bear an “M” for male or “F” for female, will soon be allowed to have an “X” in the gender field, according to a spokesman for the interior ministry. According to Plett, a specialist in human rights for intersex people, regulations for other personal documents will need to follow suit. “We will have fellow human beings with no sex registered,” Plett said. “They can’t be forced into either one of the traditional sexes in these other contexts.” Lawmakers have yet to make clear how the change will impact marriage and partnership laws. In Germany, marriage is reserved for a man and a woman, and civil partnerships are reserved for two people of the same sex. The law’s narrow focus is targeted at parents of newborns and “is not adequate to fully resolve the complex problems of intersex people”, including marriage and civil partnerships, according to the interior ministry spokesman. A more immediate concern for intersex advocates is how children “outed” at birth will fare in a world that operates largely on a gender binary. “Schools have toilets for boys and toilets for girls. Where will the intermediate child go?” said Silvan Agius, policy director at ILGA Europe, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights group. “There are separate sports activities for boys and for girls, and so many other things like this,” Agius said. “The law doesn’t change that. It does not immediately create a space for intersex people to be themselves.” Europe lags behind on gender identity rights, Agius said. Earlier this year Australia began allowing individuals to identify as intersex on personal documents, and added gender identity as a protected category under federal anti-discrimination laws. The German law follows a 2012 report by the Ethics Council, an independent body of experts, concluding that people with ‘Differences of Sex Development’ suffer in the face of “widespread societal ignorance” and “a lack of respect on the part of the medical profession.” Personal testimony from the report quoted a subject born in 1965 with no clear gender-defining genitalia who was castrated as an infant without parental consent. “I am neither a man nor a woman,” the person said. “I will remain the patchwork created by doctors, bruised and scarred.” Experts estimate the population of intersex people at one in 1,500 to 2,000 births. But advocates say the number is much larger partly due to difficulties in defining intersexuality physically or hormonally. The new law has already raised the profile of this small population, which could prompt increased awareness, but, some fear, could also trigger discrimination. “It is an absolute must that parents, teachers and doctors be educated about the lives of intersex people,” said Lucie Veith, head of an intersex support group in Germany. “The government must take measures to ensure that no children are discriminated against because of this new law.” ||||| Germany on Friday will become only the second country, after Australia, to allow parents to leave the gender blank on a child's birth certificate, as people born without a clear sex gain more rights and recognition, especially in Europe. The European Union cited so-called intersex people in June for the first time in its antidiscrimination guidelines. A month later, Australia adopted guidelines saying people filling out any official forms should be able to choose male, female or "X." Growing Recognition Rights being granted or raised: SCOTLAND: Outlaws violence due to bias against identity "not standard male or female. (June 2009) SWITZERLAND: Bioethics commission says gender equality "also applies to people whose sex cannot be unequivocally determined." (Nov. 2012) UNITED NATIONS: Special Rapporteur on Torture calls on nations to reject "forced genital-normalizing surgery." (Feb. 2013) FINLAND: National Ombudsman for Equality declares "not everyone can be unambiguously defined as a woman or a man." (June 2013) EUROPEAN UNION: Intersex people included in antidiscrimination guidelines. (June 2013) AUSTRALIA: People can choose male, female or X on official forms. (July 2013) GERMANY: Allows parents to leave sex blank on a newborn's birth certificate. (November 2013) Switzerland's bioethics commission last year said gender equality "also applies to people whose sex cannot be unequivocally determined." While the U.S. hasn't granted formal recognition, American surgeons, like their European counterparts, are increasingly holding off on some operations designed to immediately assign a gender to babies born with what doctors call ambiguous genitalia, opting to wait until the child can make a choice. That is the biggest demand of intersex activists, who scored what they considered a victory in February when the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture called on countries to reject "forced genital-normalizing surgery." Activists are less enthusiastic about the new German law, which they worry might backfire. An Interior Ministry spokesman in Berlin said the goal of the legislation, which passed the Bundestag unanimously in February, is "to take the pressure off parents to commit themselves to a gender immediately after birth," so that they don't feel compelled to seek surgery right away. But activists say the law appears to actually require parents to leave the gender blank if it is ambiguous. The law states that if a child "cannot be assigned to the female nor the male gender," the status "shall be entered without such information in the register of births." Activists say parents in that situation, fearing stigma, may actually pursue surgery more avidly. "Our main criticism is that this will increase the pressure on parents," said Markus Bauer, an activist based in Switzerland. The ministry spokesman didn't respond to a question about the criticism. The condition is fairly rare: Heino Meyer-Bahlburg, professor of clinical psychiatry and psychology at Columbia University, estimated that one person in 2,000 to 4,000 is born with ambiguous genitalia. About half of the cases result from an identifiable abnormality in the genetic makeup. Others have a murkier genetic foundation, or stem from another factor like drugs taken by the mother during pregnancy. The German government expects only a small number of people will be affected, so other statistics or calculations are unlikely to be affected, the ministry spokesman said. Almost everyone born with the condition is assigned a gender for official purposes at birth, based on the parents' and doctors' best calculation. While "surgeons have become more reluctant" to operate on mild cases, "in more severe cases, at a minimum because it looks very unusual, people are less likely to hold off," Dr. Meyer-Bahlburg said. Most people end up keeping the assigned gender, though some switch and a small number decline to identify with either gender at all. Laurence Baskin, chief of pediatric urology at Benioff Children's Hospital in San Francisco, said incidents in which surgeons guess wrong on a person's ultimate sexual identity are rare, but they are not unheard-of. "Physicians are human and not godly," Dr. Baskin said. "They do the best they can." Some people view the trend toward greater recognition of intersex status with alarm. "I think providing any option other than male or female is dehumanizing and medically inaccurate," said Rob Schwarzwalder, senior vice president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. Activists like Del LaGrace Volcano of Sweden, who lived as a female for 37 years but "came out" as intersex in 1995, reject such attitudes. "If you're not male or female, what are you? You're an 'it.' You remain a monstrosity," the activist said. "I overcame that." But for most of society, "there's a huge way to go." Write to Naftali Bendavid at [email protected]

– Baby boy or baby girl? As of today, parents in Germany have the option of choosing neither, leaving the gender spot on their newborn's birth certificate blank if the baby's sex can't be determined. As many as one in 2,000 people are born with ambiguous genitalia, and the new law basically creates a third gender category for "indeterminate" or "intersex" people, the BBC reports. Currently, passport holders in the country are listed as either M (male) or F (female); with this change, a third option will be added: X (intersex). Individuals whose gender is left blank at birth can choose later to become male or female, or can remain intersex, Der Spiegel reports. Germany, the first European country to make such an allowance, reviewed cases of intersex babies and found that many who were subjected to sex assignment surgery at a young age ended up unhappy. The law is an attempt to relax the pressure on parents, who may feel forced to make a quick decision about gender and surgery. But the Wall Street Journal explains the law's wording could actually have the unplanned effect of pushing parents toward surgery. It reads that if a male or female gender can't be assigned, the child "shall be entered without such information in the register of births." Some fear that might lead stigma-wary parents to request surgery that would allow for a definitive determination of sex. Another fear: that intersex people won't have "a space ... to be themselves," as one LGBT activist points out to AFP, noting that schools separate things like bathrooms and sports activities by gender.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA's Maven spacecraft entered orbit around Mars for an unprecedented study of the red planet's atmosphere following a 442 million-mile journey that began nearly a year ago. The robotic explorer successfully slipped into orbit around the red planet late Sunday night. "I think my heart's about ready to start again," Maven's chief investigator, Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado, said early Monday. "All I can say at this point is, 'We're in orbit at Mars, guys!'" Now the real work begins for the $671 million mission, the first dedicated to studying the Martian upper atmosphere and the latest step in NASA's bid to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. Flight controllers in Colorado will spend the next six weeks adjusting Maven's altitude and checking its science instruments, and observing a comet streaking by at relatively close range. Then in early November, Maven will start probing the upper atmosphere of Mars. The spacecraft will conduct its observations from orbit; it's not meant to land. Scientists believe the Martian atmosphere holds clues as to how Earth's neighbor went from being warm and wet billions of years ago to cold and dry. That early wet world may have harbored microbial life, a tantalizing question yet to be answered. NASA launched Maven last November from Cape Canaveral, the 10th U.S. mission sent to orbit the red planet. Three earlier ones failed, and until the official word came of success late Sunday night, the entire team was on edge. "I don't have any fingernails any more, but we've made it," said Colleen Hartman, deputy director for science at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It's incredible." The spacecraft was clocking more than 10,000 mph when it hit the brakes for the so-called orbital insertion, a half-hour process. The world had to wait 12 minutes to learn the outcome, once it occurred, because of the lag in spacecraft signals given the 138 million miles between the two planets Sunday. "Wow, what a night. You get one shot with Mars orbit insertion, and Maven nailed it tonight," said NASA project manager David Mitchell. Maven joins three spacecraft already circling Mars, two American and one European. And the traffic jam isn't over: India's first interplanetary probe, Mangalyaan, will reach Mars in two days and also aim for orbit. Jakosky wished the team well. Jakosky, who's with the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, hopes to learn where all the water on Mars went, along with the carbon dioxide that once comprised an atmosphere thick enough to hold moist clouds. The gases may have been stripped away by the sun early in Mars' existence, escaping into the upper atmosphere and out into space. Maven's observations should be able to extrapolate back in time, Jakosky said. Maven — short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission — will spend at least a year collecting data. That's a full Earth year, half a Martian one. Its orbit will dip as low as 78 miles above the Martian surface as its eight instruments make measurements. The craft is as long as a school bus, from solar wingtip to tip, and as hefty as an SUV. Maven will have a rare brush with a comet next month. The nucleus of newly discovered Comet Siding Spring will pass 82,000 miles from Mars on Oct. 19. The risk of comet dust damaging Maven is low, officials said, and the spacecraft should be able to observe Siding Spring as a science bonus. Lockheed Martin Corp., Maven's maker, is operating the mission from its control center at Littleton, Colorado. This is NASA's 21st shot at Mars and the first since the Curiosity rover landed on the red planet in 2012. Just this month, Curiosity arrived at its prime science target, a mountain named Sharp, ripe for drilling. The Opportunity rover is also still active a decade after landing. More landers will be on the way in 2016 and 2018 from NASA and the European and Russian space agencies. The next U.S. rover is scheduled for launch in 2020; more capable than Curiosity, it will collect samples for possible return to Earth, and attempt to produce oxygen from atmospheric carbon dioxide. That latter experiment, if successful, would allow future human explorers to live off the land, according to NASA's John Grunsfeld, head of science missions and a former astronaut. "This really is a quest of humanity," he said. ___ Online: NASA: http://mars.nasa.gov/maven/ University of Colorado: http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/ ||||| Mars has welcomed a new robotic visitor from Earth. After a 10-month journey through deep space, NASA's MAVEN probe arrived in Mars orbit late Sunday (Sept. 21), on a mission to help scientists figure out why the Red Planet changed from a relatively warm and wet place in the ancient past to the cold, arid world it is today. MAVEN, whose name is short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, fired its engines in a crucial 30-minute braking burn Sunday night, slowing down enough to be captured by the planet's gravity around 10:24 p.m. EDT (0224 GMT Monday, Sept. 22). [See images from the MAVEN mission] "Congratulations! MAVEN is now in Mars orbit," MAVEN navigation team member Dave Folta, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, announced to a round of cheers from mission control. MAVEN joins three other operational probes in Mars orbit — NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and the European Space Agency's Mars Express. NASA also has two rovers actively exploring the planet's surface: the golf-cart-size Opportunity and its younger, bigger cousin, Curiosity. And Mars orbit should get even more crowded just a few days from now. India's first-ever Red Planet effort, the $74 million Mars Orbiter Mission, is due to arrive Tuesday night (Sept. 23). Maven will orbit Mars, looking for clues about what happened to the planet's once-thick atmosphere. Credit: by Karl Tate, Infographics Artist The $671 million MAVEN mission blasted off as planned on Nov. 18, 2013, though not without a bit of prelaunch drama. Liftoff preparations were frozen when the government shutdown went into effect on Oct. 1, 2013, sending ripples of anxiety through the MAVEN team and the global planetary science community. But NASA granted MAVEN an emergency exception a few days later, getting things back on track. (The shutdown ended on Oct. 17, 2013.) MAVEN is the first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying the upper atmosphere of Mars, NASA officials said. The mission will use MAVEN's three suites of scientific instruments to measure and characterize gas escape from the Martian atmosphere, which was once relatively thick but is now just 1 percent as dense as that of Earth at sea level. MAVEN's observations should help scientists get a better handle on what happened to the water that flowed and sloshed across Mars billions of years ago — whether it escaped into space or sank into the planet's crust, said mission principal investigator Bruce Jakosky, of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. [7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars] "What we're going to be doing is studying the top of the atmosphere as a way of understanding the extent to which stripping of gas out of the atmosphere to space may have been the driving mechanism behind climate change," Jakosky said at a news conference Wednesday (Sept. 17). "We should be able to get enough measurements to tell us what happened to the water, what happened to the carbon dioxide." The mission should shed light on the history of Mars' ability to support life, he added. "We're trying to understand the context in which life might have existed," Jakosky said. "Any life on Mars interacts with its planetary environment; we need to know what that environment is, and how it's evolved over time." MAVEN's prime science mission is slated to last one year, but the probe has enough fuel to keep making observations for a while if its mission gets extended, team members said. MAVEN will also serve as a vital communications link between ground controllers and NASA's Mars rovers. In fact, that's the main reason NASA deemed the mission worthy of an emergency exception during the government shutdown. Opportunity and Curiosity are currently supported by Mars Odyssey and MRO, which launched in 2001 and 2005, respectively, and NASA has no Red Planet relay orbiters on the books beyond MAVEN. "MAVEN is critically important for us for many reasons, not the least of which is it will serve as backup communications for the rovers on the surface," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told Space.com. MAVEN is one of several missions that should help NASA prepare for an eventual manned mission to Mars, which the agency hopes to mount by the mid-2030s, Bolden added. That mission list includes the active rovers and orbiters now studying Mars, MAVEN and the agency's Mars Insight mission, set to launch in 2016, and the Mars Rover 2020 mission. No planet is more steeped in myth and misconception than Mars. This quiz will reveal how much you really know about some of the goofiest claims about the red planet. Start the Quiz 0 of 10 questions complete Mars Myths & Misconceptions: Quiz No planet is more steeped in myth and misconception than Mars. This quiz will reveal how much you really know about some of the goofiest claims about the red planet. 0 of questions complete MAVEN's science mission will not start right away. The probe's handlers will spend the next six weeks checking out MAVEN's instruments and maneuvering the probe from its long, looping initial orbit down to a 4.5-hour final orbit, which will bring MAVEN as close as 93 miles (150 kilometers) to Mars and take it as far away as 3,850 miles (6,200 km) from the Red Planet. But MAVEN will make some observations during this checkout period: The probe will look on as Comet Siding Spring buzzes Mars on Oct. 19, coming within just 82,000 miles (132,000 km) of the planet. (For reference, Earth's moon orbits at an average distance of 238,900 miles, or 384,400 km). "I'm told that the odds of having an approach that close to Mars are about one in a million years," Jakosky said. "So it's really luck that we get the opportunity here." MAVEN will study the comet and Mars' upper atmosphere for five days around the flyby, he added. "We should learn a lot about the upper atmosphere from this natural experiment, watching the perturbation from the impact of [cometary] gas and dust," Jakosky said. "And we're hoping to learn about the comet as well." Any material potentially shed by Siding Spring poses minimal risk to MAVEN and other probes circling the Red Planet, NASA officials have said. There are no worries at all for Opportunity and Curiosity, who enjoy the protection of Mars' atmosphere. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

– After 442 million miles and a year on the space road, Maven has finally reached its destination. The NASA spacecraft successfully completed a harrowing 30-minute "orbital insertion" into Mars' orbit last night, the AP reports. "I don't have any fingernails any more, but we've made it," says the deputy director for science at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Scientists have big plans for the explorer: It's going to be the first mission to study the Martian upper atmosphere from orbit—it's not meant to land on the surface—in advance of NASA's ambitious plans to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. Maven isn't the only new addition to the Martian skies: As Space.com notes, India's Mars Orbiter Mission is set to arrive on the scene tomorrow night. Researchers believe Mars used to be a "warm and wet" planet billions of years ago and that it may have even sustained microbial life, but they're not sure what sucked all of the water off the planet's surface and eliminated carbon dioxide from its atmosphere (one theory is the sun stripped the planet clean). The school-bus-sized Maven—short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission—will spend at least a year hovering as low as 78 miles over the planet's surface, using eight high-tech instruments to gather info and even observe the Siding Spring comet that's set to zip by on Oct. 19. Meanwhile, Curiosity and another rover set to launch in 2020 are designed to bring Mars samples back to Earth and try to make oxygen out of carbon dioxide—a process that would help human explorers survive on Mars, the AP notes. "This really is a quest of humanity," NASA's head of science missions says.

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 ||||| 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 ||||| For a moment, he holds back the tears, coughing and blinking hard, trying to maintain his professional composure. Then it is all too much for Chris Gunness, a United Nations spokesman, who broke down in a television interview with al-Jazeera as he described the devastating human impact of fighting in Gaza . The clip offers a painful insight into the emotional toll among aid workers - and in particular that of a UN agency trying to protect Palestinians in schools, designated as shelters, which are still being hit by missiles. Mr Gunness, a former BBC reporter now working for the UN's Relief and Works Agency, had spent the day examining evidence and describing yet another attack on one of its sites. Israeli tank shells had slammed into a school sheltering some 3,300 homeless Gazans, killing 16 refugees and staff, provoking world wide horror. Mr Gunness condemned the attack, ending: "The rights of Palestinians - even their children - are wholesale denied. And it's appalling." For a moment, he keeps his cool. He blinks hard and looks relieved the interview has ended. He squeezes out a brief thank you to his interviewer, saying "My pleasure" in a shaky voice. Then it is all too much. He presses his hand to his eyes and breaks into sobs. A colleague rushes to comfort him as the camera is pushed away, while the sound of wailing anguish grows. Even for a veteran of Gaza's troubles it is all too much. Video courtesy al-Jazeera ||||| 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

– After analyzing evidence of missile attacks on Palestinian shelters in the Gaza Strip, United Nations spokesman Chris Gunness appeared in a live television interview with al-Jazeera to discuss the "appalling" impact the Israel-Gaza conflict is having on human lives. "The rights of Palestinians—even their children—are wholesale denied," he said, in reference to some 20 people killed by an Israeli attack on a UN-run school, the Washington Post reports. As the interview neared a close, however, the toll of the conflict became too much for the former BBC reporter, who, after getting out a quick "my pleasure" to his interviewer, broke into sobs, the Telegraph reports. The Post notes that the attack on the school marks the sixth time a UN Relief and Works Agency site has been hit during this campaign. Afterward, Gunness himself tweeted the interview, noting, "There r times when tears speak more eloquently than words. Mine pale into insignificance compared with #Gaza's." He continued, tweeting "My heart is broken for those fragile lives" and "The humanity of the children of #Gaza should humble & shame us all." In the latest from the conflict, Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas' tunnels "with or without a ceasefire."

Instead of being supportive, she said she was shocked to find that the employees directed her to a public toilet. The social worker, who has just had her first baby, went to reception during a break to ask hotel workers if there was somewhere she could go to pump for her newborn. Lynda Mazzalai Nguyen was taking part in a work seminar at the Embassy Suites at San Francisco airport when the incident occurred last Friday. A disgruntled mum decided to make a stand and pump breast milk in a busy hotel lobby after being refused a private space by hotel employees. Nguyen refused the offer on the grounds that she didn’t want to contaminate the milk (and that an adult wouldn’t be expected to eat their own lunch in the bathroom). When she enquired about using a spare hotel room for a brief period, she claims she was told that she was not a paying customer, despite having paid to attend the conference, and that there were no rooms available anyway. Nguyen said: “So you’re telling me in the whole entire building there isn’t a single space for me to plug in for 15 mins to pump for my baby? Office? Conference room? Anything?” She was then offered the wine cellar. Instead of conceding defeat, Nguyen decided to make a stand and sat in the hotel lobby right next to reception and pumped away. Despite admitting she never thought she’d be brave enough to do it in public, Nguyen felt so strongly that she had to act: “Do not piss off a mama who knows her rights and is a social worker to boot!” The post has been shared over 13,000 times and received lots of support from fellow mothers and breastfeeding who have also faced discrimination when they wanted to express in public. The general manager for the hotel has since apologised to Nguyen over the incident and explained there are policies in place to give mothers a space to breastfeed but training of the staff had been inadequate. ||||| dml5050/ Thinkstock Injustice is a source of great suffering, but when the victim gets the last laugh, it can also be a source of pleasure. Such is the case with Lynda Mazzalai Nguyen, who recently decided to pump in the lobby of a hotel after being denied reasonable accommodations from the management and then documented her act of protest on Facebook for the world to see. It’s a gutsy move made even bolder by the fact that she accompanies her post with an image of herself wearing a hands-free pumping bra as milk pools into the plastic bottles attached to her nipples. In the photo, her hands can be seen resting next to her legs on the neutrally upholstered hotel lobby armchair, free to receive the millions of high fives and I many and others would love to give her. As Nguyen explains on her Facebook post about the incident, which was published on August 13 and has now been shared more than 15,000 times, she recently attended a seminar at a hotel in San Francisco and requested a private and clean place to pump. Hotel management told her that the bathroom was the only option. Nguyen’s response: “FUCK YOU! NO! I told them they don’t eat lunch in the bathroom, so it’s gross to expect me to contaminate baby’s milk in there.” She was given a litany of bogus-seeming excuses as to why she couldn’t use a hotel room and was also told there was no office area where she could pump. After more back and forth, a hotel staffer told her that she could pump in the wine cellar, and Nguyen said she would do just that when it came time to pump. She didn’t. Advertisement “Based on principle, I decided to pump in the lobby next to reception. Fuck you, @embassysuites. I'm livid,” she writes. “I spoke to the GM and expressed their need to train their staff, and reiterated how appalling it was to be quickly dismissed without any attempts to accommodate my need and offered a bathroom because sir, you don’t eat where you shit, so why should my baby! He apologized profusely.” In an addendum to the post, Nguyen added that the general manager told her that they do have a policy: a hotel room if one’s available, an office if one’s not. Based on this and positive experiences at Embassy Suites others have shared with her, she believes her treatment was a “matter of inconsistency with their staff training.” While most states protect a woman’s right to breastfeed in public, there are few laws guaranteeing women the right to reasonable accommodations to pump when away from their homes and when not at work. (The Affordable Care Act increased protection of a pumping accommodations at work, though it is still not guaranteed for all women. According to one study, only 40 percent of women who should have been covered by the ACA were given access to both break time and a non-bathroom private space to pump at work.) “Accommodation of pumping by businesses and public spaces isn’t an area where states have done much legislating yet,” Emily Martin, general counsel and vice president for workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center, told me. There are a handful of piecemeal protections: California and Illinois require airports to provide space to pump. Puerto Rico requires shopping malls, airports, and government buildings to have a non-bathroom breastfeeding space, which Martin presumes could be used for pumping as well. Louisiana and Virginia require schools to provide students with space to pump, a policy that is not, unfortunately, the norm for students everywhere. And Mississippi requires licensed child care centers to provide clients space to pump. It’s progress, sure, but a long way away from comprehensive protections for pumping women. I suspect that the fact that the right to breastfeed in public was guaranteed before the right to reasonable accommodations for women to pump probably has something to do with our abiding discomfort with working moms. Breastfeeding is “natural,” and done when mother and child are together. Pumping is mechanical, and most often done when mother and child are apart, or so they can be apart at a later time. Also, the absence of legislation surrounding pumping likely has something to do with pumping being relatively new. The first non-hospital breast pump came on the market only 25 years ago, and the market for pumps was fairly limited before 2013. During that year, the Affordable Care Act mandated that insurance providers cover the cost of electric breast pumps, after which the demand for these devices increased by 50 percent. ||||| Notice You must log in to continue.

– When Lynda Nguyen asked employees at Embassy Suites in San Francisco for a place to pump breast milk while attending a work conference, she says she was offered a public bathroom. "I told them they don't eat lunch in the bathroom, so it's gross to expect me to contaminate baby's milk in there," the new mom wrote on Facebook, per the Huffington Post. After much back and forth—she says she was denied access to a hotel room because she hadn't paid for one, and told none were available though Expedia said otherwise—she was told to use the wine cellar. Instead, to showcase the challenges nursing moms face, a "livid" Nguyen sat down next to the reception desk, began pumping with a hands-free pumping bra, then posted defiantly about her experience online, reports Slate. "Do NOT piss off a mama who knows her rights and is a social worker to boot!" she wrote in the post, which is laced with more than one f-bomb and has been shared 19,000 times. It has some calling her a "hero," with many moms describing similar experiences. Others mention hotels "that provided accommodations without batting an eye," Nguyen says, so "there's hope that more places will eventually follow suit and get it right." Nguyen adds she eventually spoke with a general manager, who assured her that nursing moms are to be given access to a room or an office if needed, "so I believe it's a matter of inconsistency with their staff training." However, Slate points out that only a few states have laws on the issue. A rep for the National Women's Law Center notes "this sort of online activism can help a lot." (Embassy Suites could learn from Delta.)

On Sept. 18, gold futures surged nearly $20 in the 30 seconds after the US Federal Reserve released the news that it would not “taper” the monetary stimulus it’s feeding the economy. Someone made a lot of money off of that—potentially by dubious means. According to research from Nanex LLC, a Chicago-based research firm that monitors trading activity, a mountain of orders placed at exactly 2:00:00 PM ET—and the activity following those orders—indicate that someone almost definitely had bets in early. Eric Hunsader, Nanex’s founder, calls the evidence “overwhelming.” News from the Federal Reserve is released from a lock-up room in Washington, DC, so that reporters can write stories ahead of the actual release. In other lock-ups, special “black boxes” prevent reporters from transmitting the news until the exact millisecond the data are officially public. The Federal Reserve does this somewhat differently, but says it has a system in place to ensure that the data are released at exactly 2:00 PM ET. After that, information takes 2 milliseconds to travel from DC to New York City (really, computers in New Jersey), where stocks trade, and 7 milliseconds to travel to Chicago, where futures trade. But Nanex finds that a large pile of trades—both in a gold ETF (GLD) traded in New York and in gold futures traded in Chicago—happened exactly at 2:00 PM ET, but not a thousandth of a second later. The news simply wouldn’t have had the chance to travel this distance in that time. Could it just have been dumb luck? Probably not. Based on the data, Hunsader believes that the bet came from a single actor who would have had to “commit well over a billion dollars,” meaning it was too large a gamble to take lightly or blindly. Hunsader believes someone had the information early. Could a reporter have leaked it? As we’ve previously written, the lock-ups haven’t always been as secure as they should be. But given recent publicity about leaks, Hunsader thinks that’s unlikely. Could a news organization have sent the data in advance to its own servers in both New York and Chicago and programmed them to release it at the exact same moment? They are allowed to do that with certain kinds of data, Hunsader writes, but in the case of last week’s Fed announcement that shouldn’t have been possible. And even if they had, such releases typically happen up to 15 milliseconds too early or too late because the servers’ clocks aren’t precisely set. In this case the spike in trades began on the very millisecond of 2pm. “This is not a bad technology case. This is a somebody’s-hand-is-in-the-cookie-jar case,” Hunsader told Quartz. “The Fed news was leaked to, or known by, a large Wall Street Firm who made the decision to pre-program their trading machines in both New York and Chicago and wait until precisely 2 PM when they would buy everything available,” he writes. “It is somewhat fascinating that they tried to be ‘honest’ by waiting until 2pm, but not a thousandth of a second longer.” It’s not clear how the US government would attempt to track down the source of the leak. But it could certainly investigate the trades that took place. At the very least, the laws of physics combined with the laws of the land seem to make it impossible for a firm to have had information that it appears to have traded on at the time that it appears to have traded on it. Clarification: An earlier version of this post implied that the Federal Reserve uses black boxes to disseminate data, like the Labor and Commerce Departments. The Fed does this differently, but wouldn’t provide Quartz with any details on the exact process. Read this next: The economist who predicted the financial crisis just sounded another alarm—it would be wise to listen this time ||||| But what about frozen orange juice futures? (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Reporting from CNBC and Quartz points to strong circumstantial evidence that one or more traders received an early leak of the Federal Reserve's surprise decision last week not to slow down its bond purchases. Markets swung rapidly on the 2 p.m. announcement last Wednesday, with stocks, bonds, and the price of gold all skyrocketing. Somebody placed massive orders for gold futures contracts betting on exactly that outcome within a millisecond or two of 2 p.m. that day -- before the seven milliseconds had passed that would allow the transmission of the information from the Fed's "lock-up" of media organizations who get an early look at the data and the arrival of that information at Chicago's futures markets (that's the time it takes the data to travel at the speed of light. A millisecond is a thousandth of a second). CNBC's Eamon Javers, citing market analysis firm Nanex, estimates that $600 million in assets could have changed hands in that fleeting moment. There would seem to be three possibilities: 1) Some trader was extraordinarily lucky, placing a massive bet just before a major announcement that would make that bet highly profitable. 2) There was a leak, either by a media organization with early access to the data or even someone at the Fed. Or 3) The laws of physics have been violated as the information traveled from Washington to Chicago faster than the speed of light. You can see why Option 2 looks the most plausible. Presumably there will be a hard look into what exactly happened, and in particular whether some technical glitch allowed some high frequency trading firm to get the data a few milliseconds early, or some unethical behavior. But in the meantime, there's another useful lesson out of the whole episode. It is the reality of how much trading activity, particularly of the ultra-high-frequency variety is really a dead weight loss for society. Capital markets exist to serve the real economy: Stock and bond markets exist to allow companies to raise the funds they need and savers to invest for the future. Futures and options markets exist to let companies and individuals hedge against potential losses, smoothing out the risks of fluctuations in currencies, commodity prices, or whatever. There is a role in these markets for traders whose work is more speculative. Having opportunistic traders in the markets always watching for mispricings can be beneficial to the real companies and individuals looking to save or invest because it means they are more likely to be able to get a fair price and carry out the transaction whenever they want. (The traders ensure, to use the formal terms, liquidity and efficient price discovery). But when taken to its logical extremes, such as computers exploiting five millisecond advantages in the transfer of market-moving information, it's much less clear that society gains anything. Five milliseconds, Wikipedia tells me, is about the time it takes a honeybee to flap its wings. Once. In the high-frequency trading business, billions of dollars are spent on high-speed lines, programming talent, and advanced computers by funds looking to capitalize on the smallest and most fleeting of mispricings. Those are computing resources and insanely intelligent people who could instead be put to work making the Internet run faster for everyone, or figuring out how to distribute electricity more efficiently, or really anything other than trying to figure out how to trade gold futures on the latest Fed announcement faster than the speed of light. ||||| CNBC has contacted one other organization that operates a low-latency service and attended the lockup, Market News International, which is owned by the Deutsche Borse Group. A spokesperson for that organization said it would provide a detailed response as soon as Wednesday. Despite the Fed's lack of clarity about the specific rules, its staffers took a number of precautions inside the lock up room last week designed to prevent the data from leaving the building early. In advance of the release of the market moving decision, Federal Reserve officials followed a standard procedure to choreograph a tightly planned embargo operation that gave reporters advance copies of the Fed's decision. Inside a room on the top floor of the William McChesney Martin, Jr. building, Fed officials instructed reporters not to send information about that decision to the outside world before precisely 2 p.m. as measured by the national atomic clock in Colorado. The doors were locked at 1:45 p.m., and Fed staffers handed out copies of the statement at 1:50 p.m., allowing reporters a few minutes to digest the complicated document before reporting on its contents. At 1:58 p.m. television reporters were escorted out of the room to a balcony where cameras had been prepositioned. The Fed's security rules dictated that television reporters were not allowed to speak before precisely 2 p.m. Print reporters were told they were allowed to open a phone line to their editors at headquarters offices a few moments in advance of the hour, but not allowed to interact with people on the other end of the line until exactly two p.m. On top of those precautions, every media person entering the lockup – including two employees of CNBC -- was required to sign an agreement that read: "I understand that I may make no public use of the documents distributed by Federal Reserve Board (FRB) staff or the information contained therein, including broadcasting, posting on the Internet or other dissemination, until the time the FRB has set for their public release." All of the security precautions were taken to prevent the details of the Fed's decision from leaving the building before the precise deadline – to make sure that editors, technicians, producers and even computer techs in media offices all over the country could not learn of the decision ahead of time. Financial markets reacted to the Fed's announcement last week that it would continue to stimulate the US economy at the speed of light, pushing stocks dramatically higher in just moments. But it looks like the speed of light just wasn't fast enough for somebody: Some traders in Chicago appear to have had access to the Fed's decision before anyone else in the Windy City. According to trading data reviewed by CNBC, they began buying in Chicago-traded assets just before others in that city could have learned of the decision if the information traveled from the Federal Reserve building in Washington. By one estimate, as much as $600 million dollars in assets changed hands in the milliseconds before most other traders in Chicago could learn of the Fed's September surprise – a sharp contrast to the very low volume of trading ahead of the Fed's decision. Eric Hunsader, founder of the market analysis firm Nanex, first spotted the unusual trading pattern and alerted CNBC to it. (Read more: Consumer confidence releases: A journalism hat tip) It's not exactly clear how the information got to Chicago markets so quickly. But the Federal Reserve is concerned enough about the unusual event that it has begun discussions with news organizations. In response to specific questions about the unusual trading activity, the Fed released a statement to CNBC saying, "We will be conducting follow-up conversations with news organizations to ensure our procedures are completely understood." And, the Fed said, "As is generally the case with other releases of market-sensitive information by government agencies, news organizations receiving embargoed information from the Federal Reserve agree in writing to make no public use of the information until the time set for its release." A Federal Reserve spokesman declined to name the organizations it is in discussions with. The spokesman did not respond on the record when asked whether any of the organizations broke the Fed's rules. —By CNBC's Eamon Javers. Follow him on Twitter: @eamonjavers

– When the Fed made the surprising announcement last week that it would not ease up on its bond purchases, it looks like some traders may have gotten an early leak of the news—and such a leak may have helped them make quite a bit of money. The Washington Post and Mother Jones break it down: The Fed announcement was made at exactly 2pm according to Washington's national atomic clock. It should have taken the information 7 milliseconds to reach Chicago. Instead, a few "massive" orders—betting correctly on the Fed decision—were placed in Chicago exchanges just 1 to 3 milliseconds later. (The orders were for gold futures contracts; the price of gold jumped after the announcement.) According to market analysis firm Nanex, $600 million in assets could have changed hands in those few extra milliseconds before other Chicago traders had the information. The news was first reported by CNBC and Quartz. So what happened? It's still not clear. The media got an early look at the data, but reporters were in a secure room and not allowed to communicate with anyone outside until exactly 2pm. Even so, the Post speculates it could have been a leak from either the media or the Fed itself, or perhaps a technical glitch. The Fed says it's contacting media organizations to make sure the lock-up rules are understood. Nanex's founder believes a single actor is responsible for the early orders. "This is not a bad technology case. This is a somebody’s-hand-is-in-the-cookie-jar case," he says. "The Fed news was leaked to, or known by, a large Wall Street firm who made the decision to pre-program their trading machines in both New York and Chicago and wait until precisely 2pm when they would buy everything available."

Attorneys for a former Westminster police detective will try to persuade a jury that he was under the influence of the antidepressant Zoloft and not responsible for the kidnapping and rape of a woman in 2010. Det. Anthony Nicholas Orban was so overwhelmed by the prescription drug that he was mentally "unconscious" and "totally unaware of his actions," attorney James Blatt said outside a Rancho Cucamonga courtroom where his client's trial began Monday. "But for the use of Zoloft, Mr. Orban would not have committed these acts," Blatt said. "Here you have a police officer and former Marine who for the last 10 years has been dedicated to protecting his country and protecting his community … this was totally out of character." Orban's push for acquittal will have to overcome juror skepticism that has accompanied such defenses, as well as gripping testimony by the victim during her four hours on the stand Monday. The detective is accused of abducting the then-25-year-old waitress, identified only as Jane Doe, on a Saturday evening as she walked to her car after leaving work at Ontario Mills mall. San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty. Debbie Ploghaus told the jury that Orban, with his police service weapon drawn, forced the victim to drive her car up Interstate 15 to a self-storage facility in Fontana. "I said, "Can I go now?,' " the victim said, recounting what happened when she parked. "He said there is something you need to do first. I think you know what it is." For the next hour, she said, Orban sexually brutalized her in her SUV. At one point, the victim said, Orban snapped pictures with his iPhone, telling her to "smile for the camera," then sending the photos to a friend. He put a round in the chamber of his gun, then dragged the barrel down her cheek before sticking it in her mouth, punching her in the face and pulling her hair, she said. All the while, cars and pedestrians passed within feet of them, a security video from the storage lot showed. ||||| This post has been corrected. See note at the bottom for details. A former Westminster police detective accused of kidnapping a woman at gunpoint and raping her in 2010 will be allowed to present a defense that he was mentally “unconscious” during the attack because he was under the influence of the antidepressant Zoloft. A San Bernardino County judge ruled Thursday that Anthony Nicholas Orban can present evidence that he was so overwhelmed by the prescription drug that he was not responsible for the attack, according to Orban’s lawyer, James Blatt. The detective is accused of abducting a then-25-year-old waitress on a Saturday evening as she walked to her car after leaving work at Ontario Mills mall. Orban is accused of making her drive to a storage facility in Fontana, then attacking her. San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty. Debbie Ploghaus on Thursday rested her case against Orban, who faces life in prison if convicted of the rape and kidnapping charges. Orban's attorney is scheduled to begin presenting his defense on Monday. [For the Record, 7:50 p.m. May 17: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said a San Bernardino County judge ruled Friday in the Anthony Nicholas Orban case. The judge made the ruling Thursday.] ALSO: Nick Stahl: LAPD search fails to find missing actor 92-year-old alleged in book to be Zodiac Killer died in February Scientists puzzled by rocks that ignited in O.C. woman's pocket -- Phil Willon Photo: Defense attorney James Blatt, left, and Anthony Nicholas Orban, a former Westminster police detective, listen to testimony Monday in San Bernardino County Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

– A former southern California police detective charged with kidnapping and raping a 25-year-old waitress at gunpoint will be allowed to use a "Zoloft defense," a judge has ruled. Lawyers for Anthony Nicholas Orban aim to prove he's not guilty because he was mentally "unconscious" and "totally unaware of his actions" during the attack due to the influence of the antidepressant, reports the Los Angeles Times. "But for the use of Zoloft, Mr. Orban would not have committed these acts," said his attorney. "Here you have a police officer and former Marine who for the last 10 years has been dedicated to protecting his country and protecting his community. This was totally out of character." The victim has testified that Orban punched her in the face, stuck the barrel of his gun in her mouth, and snapped photos of her with his iPhone, telling her to "smile for the camera." If his "not guilty by reason of unconsciousness" defense fails, Orban could be sentenced to life behind bars.

FILE - In this April 24, 2018, file photo, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaks during a TV news interview on Capitol Hill in Washington. Paul says he and... (Associated Press) LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul says he and his family were targeted by someone threatening to attack them with an ax. Paul told reporters Monday in his home state of Kentucky that Capitol Police issued an arrest warrant for a suspect. Then in a tweet, Paul thanked Capitol Police for arresting the suspect. During a stop in Leitchfield in western Kentucky, Paul said a man threatened to kill him and "chop up" his family with an ax. The Republican lawmaker says it's "just horrendous" that political leaders have to "deal with things like this." A Paul spokesman declined to give additional details. In a separate case, prosecutors are appealing the 30-day sentence given to the man who tackled and injured Paul while the lawmaker was doing yard work at his home. ||||| Days after Sen. Rand Paul filed a civil lawsuit against the neighbor convicted of assaulting him, the senator is now facing a counter lawsuit. Dr. Rene Boucher was sentenced to 30 days in prison earlier this month for tackling Sen. Paul and fracturing multiple of Paul's ribs in November 2017. Sen. Paul filed a civil lawsuit against Boucher on Monday for damages from pain and suffering. On Wednesday, Boucher's attorney filed not only a motion to dismiss part of Paul's lawsuit, but also a counter suit that claims Sen. Paul should owe compensation to Dr. Boucher. According to the complaint, Boucher is seeking "all compensatory and punitive damages permitted by law," citing the "intentional" actions of the Paul Family. The counter lawsuit also names Sen. Paul's wife, Kelly, and the Rivergreen Homeowners Association. The complaint states that the Pauls were in violation of the Homeowners Association's by-laws while repeatedly piling up "unsightly" debris, tree limbs, mounds of trash and other waste near Boucher's property. Photos presented in the complaint allegedly show the piles of brush after the November 2017 assault. See below: The complaint also states at least two members of the Homeowners Association knew of the Pauls' violations, but failed to to act on them. According to the deed restrictions and/or Rivergreen Homeowners Association by-laws, on page 22, section 19, "Each owner shall refrain from any act or use of his Lot which could reasonably cause embarrassment, discomfort, annoyance or nuisance to the neighborhood." According to those same by-laws, in the event any owner should fail to follow them, the HOA can enter the Lot, make the necessary changes and then bill the Lot owner. Boucher's defense team also filed a motion Wednesday for the dismissal of Sen. Paul's request for an injunction to keep Boucher away from his family. "Such an order is already in place in federal court, so asking Judge Wilson for the same of similar order doesn't really seem appropriate," said Boucher's attorney Matt Baker. Baker claims in the counter lawsuit that his client is entitled to injunctive relief as it relates to the Pauls' violation of the HOA by-laws. 13 News reached out to Sen. Paul and his attorneys Tuesday and Wednesday, but neither Paul nor his legal counsel were available for comment. Boucher is set to appear in court to present this motion on July 2 at 9 a.m.

– US Sen. Rand Paul says he and his family were targeted by someone threatening to attack them with an ax. Per the AP, Paul told reporters Monday in his home state of Kentucky that Capitol Police issued an arrest warrant for a suspect. Then in a tweet, Paul thanked Capitol Police for arresting the suspect. During a stop in Leitchfield in western Kentucky, Paul said a man threatened to kill him and "chop up" his family with an ax. The Republican lawmaker says it's "just horrendous" that political leaders have to "deal with things like this." A Paul spokesman declined to give additional details. In a separate case, prosecutors are appealing the 30-day sentence given to the neighbor who tackled and injured Paul while the lawmaker was doing yard work at his home. Prosecutors had originally sought a 21-month sentence for the neighbor, Rene Boucher. Meanwhile, last month, Paul filed a civil suit against Boucher. In a bizarre twist, Boucher then responded by filing a counter-suit against Paul, WBKO reports. Paul's lawsuit claims he was "deprived of his enjoyment of life" and is at increased risk of injury or disease; it seeks compensatory and punitive damages for "physical pain and mental suffering." (He suffered six broken ribs when Boucher tackled him from behind due to an apparent beef over Paul stacking brush in a pile near Boucher's property.) Boucher's counter-suit seeks to have Paul's suit dismissed and names Paul's wife and their community's homeowners association. The suit is asking for "all compensatory and punitive damages permitted by law." Boucher says the Pauls violated the association's by-laws by repeatedly piling "unsightly" debris near his property

Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON Mr. Speaker, indeed it is always good to stand in this place, particularly after the bit of confusion that we just went through in the voting. I can say that with Bill C-29, the budget implementation act, there is no confusion; it is actually a train wreck. It should not be called an implementation bill. It maybe should be referred to as a renovation bill, because when something is as disastrously wrong in the economy of this country as it is now, it takes not only severe renovations but also a change of culture within a government. The riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex is in southwestern Ontario, and is very much a rural riding made up of small and medium-sized businesses. Quite honestly, in the riding I do not have a large business. We are made up of hard-working, middle-income folks and families who get up every day and go to work. They are strong entrepreneurs who generate wealth and employment, something that is hard to find in this budget. These folks in my riding actually stimulate jobs. That is because they have endured some hard times but have been able to buckle down and survive, up until some of these proposals in this budget. Something that rang strong in a riding like mine and those across this country was the talk in the campaign by the Liberals about what they were going to do. Actually, the Liberals did not talk about what they were going to do, but actually made promises. We were in the riding last week during Legion Week as we celebrated and thanked our veterans across this great country of Canada. We thanked the veterans who are alive, but we also recognized with our hearts the work and the commitment of those who gave their lives so we could be in a place like this and be able to have free discussion about topics that are important to Canadians. We celebrated Legion Week and thanked those who gave their lives for us in this great country and the veterans who were there. We always comment on and commend those who are in uniform, who stand up for us not only in our great nation of Canada but also abroad in many countries. However, when the government breaks that promise, as the current government has done in so many ways, it takes a bit of the heart out of people. The broken promises did not happen three or four years after the election; they happened within days and weeks of the government being sworn in. It takes away the credibility not only of the government but, quite honestly, of all of us who are elected people, because people say they just do not trust any elected people. That is very unfortunate. Let me just say a bit about what happened with the breaking of promises and why that was so detrimental to people in my riding and, I am sure, across the country. In the election campaign, the current Prime Minister talked about a teeny-weeny modest deficit that the Liberal government was going to hand to Canadians. They said it would be a $10 billion deficit. We have heard that time and again. Not within a year but within weeks, the $10 billion escalated to $30 billion. That is 300% or three times what the projection was. When we talk about billions of dollars, ordinary Canadians really do not wrap their heads around what a billion dollars is, but they can wrap their head around what it actually means. Let me give a little example of what it means, because this is what happens when the Liberals do not do what they say they will do and expect ordinary Canadians to believe them and then understand that when they break the promise, it does not mean much. That is really what the Liberals want us to think. A small business guy goes into the bank with a proposal and a business plan that goes with it. He tells the bank or the lending institution that this is his business plan, that he needs a million dollars, that this is how he will bring it forward and this is how he will pay it back. His business plan talks about the growth. He thought about it. In six weeks he went back to the bank and tells the banker that he still has the same business plan and the sort deficit projection that I just mentioned, so that he needs not $1 million, but $3 million now. I do not know if anyone on that side has ever had a business. Maybe no one on that side has had to put together a business plan and then take it to a financial institution. However, if an individual from a small business did what I just described, and it could have been any business in my riding, the banker would show them the door. The difference is that the banker cannot show the government the door today, because the taxpayers are the lenders. Maybe in four years they will be able to show them the door. The Liberals promised they would cut taxes for small business. No, they never want to lose a revenue source from a tax. The other promise was to make the tax plan revenue neutral, with the Liberals taking from the top earning rich and giving it to the poor, the lower income group. That was supposed to be revenue neutral. It took about three weeks to discover it was not revenue neutral. It was actually about a $2 billion hit to the taxpayers of Canada. My point is that the government right now has absolutely no credibility. It now has a debt that is escalating. The Liberals have no plan for how they will pay it back. When the Prime Minister was asked when he would balance the budget, as was the Minister of Finance in question period today, they actually did not know. The Prime Minister indicated earlier that he did not know what the deficit would be. I say to Canadians and to small business people and their families that we have a serious concern. We have a growing deficit and a debt that has escalated to what some say will cost us another $5 billion a year in interest payments. Where I come from, when we are in a hole, it is best to quit digging However, I get the sense that is not the culture of the Liberal Party. They are on a glorious trip of big deficits, thinking they will just spend their way out of debt. I do not know where that has worked. From a business perspective, it just does not work. I see that I am at the end of my time and I will be more than glad to take questions, but I am just concerned that with this budget the Liberals have betrayed Canadians and have broken their promises to them. This budget implementation act, unfortunately, will not be supported by me or my party. ||||| 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 ||||| ADVERTISEMENT Calgary-Nose Hill MP Michelle Rempel delivered a powerful speech in the House of Commons Tuesday, urging Albertans to participate in the Conservatives' Alberta jobs task force. But something she said didn't sit right with Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. Rempel was talking about tax increases and rising unemployment in her home province. She charged that an increase to Canada Pension Plan premiums amounted to a payroll tax on employers. Tory Michelle Rempel, left, and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. (Photo: Screenshot/Parlvu) She likened the federal government's treatment of Alberta to "a fart in the room that nobody wants to talk about or acknowledge." Rempel pointed out that Liberal MPs laughing while she was speaking were essentially laughing at her constituents. But May didn't find Rempel's speech very funny. 'I do not withdraw it' "I hate to interrupt my friend in her speech, but I heard her say a word that I know is distinctly unparliamentary, and I think she may want to withdraw it," May said a little later. "The word was f-a-r-t." Rempel was incredulous. "Is my colleague actually serious? I just gave an impassioned speech about supporting Alberta jobs, and that is what the leader of a political party stands and says? No, I do not withdraw it." May said that "context, decorum and respect" are important in the House of Commons. Debate continued after Tory MP Ron Liepert then told her to "sit down." Like Us On Facebook Also on HuffPost ||||| Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak in favour of Bill C-29, a second act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 22, 2016 and other measures. I will begin my remarks by speaking about my riding of Surrey—Newton, which is a community that will benefit directly from the measures outlined in the government's budget. Much like the rest of Surrey, my riding of Surrey—Newton is experiencing the pressure of growth caused by the migration of 1,200 people moving into Surrey every month. Surrey—Newton has a strong middle class, a range of different compositions of families with children and seniors. Because of the great interest from the residents regarding many of the budgetary issues and measures introduced last spring, I want to highlight a few of the items that will benefit my constituents the most. The new Canada child benefit is a significant step forward in recognizing the financial pressures of the middle-class families with children. The new consolidated benefit is easier to account for, indexed according to income levels, and overall more generous than the previous system. Today, families can receive up to $6,400 per year for each of their children under the age of six. For each child aged six to 17 years, families can receive up to $5,400 per year. This is significant because statistics show that nine out of 10 families have seen their benefits increase under the new plan that was rolled out as of July 1, 2016, with an average bump totalling approximately $2,300. From the personal impacts I am hearing regarding such an increase, this is a windfall that is really extending the household budgets in Surrey—Newton. Similarly, seniors are overwhelmingly appreciative of the changes to the Old Age Security Act, which returns the age of eligibility to 65, while at the same time increasing the amount of guaranteed income supplement up to $947. Vulnerable seniors on fixed incomes are a group that every member of the House is encountering, given their respective constituencies. This budget would fulfill a promise to address those who are most at risk of financial uncertainty, both in terms of seniors as well as young families trying to get a foothold. In fact, it is what classify as a people's first budget, meaning that this government is committed to improving the situations of middle-class families and seniors with tangible and targeted actions. This does not mean, however, that it fails to recognize the broader picture when it comes to measures that will continue to build the nation's economic climate. I want to touch on two specific areas of focus. First is the number of changes that will allow for greater control over taxation. The budget does this by closing many of the loopholes and policies that allow for billions of dollars of unpaid tax dollars to escape scrutiny. This government believes that multinational corporations should never be able to accrue tax benefits that put them on a different level of consideration than the average, hard-working Canadian taxpayer. By working with the G20 and the OECD, and ensuring that the provisions attached to both that addresses tax evasion are utilized, it disallows these mega business entities from operating in isolation within Canada. There must be consequences for avoiding paying their fair share while operating in our country because the lost revenues that this government is currently encountering are dollars that can be invested in Canadian citizens. Speaking of investment, this government is also looking at the infrastructure needs of the country and investing to build for our future. For example, in the city of Surrey, residents and businesses alike are struggling with a public transit system that cannot keep up with the demand. As I mentioned earlier, 1,200 people are moving into Surrey every month. To deal with this demand, the Surrey LRT line is one of the most important and pressing projects in metro Vancouver at the moment. It is absolutely essential to keep up with the growth the city of Surrey is experiencing. The fact is that with Canada having the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio of any G7 country, now is the time for Canada to build and invest for the future. These are not simply the opinions of the government, but one that is voiced by economists from across the country. In fact, recently the Bank of Canada governor, Stephen Poloz, urged this government to spend more on infrastructure to boost sluggish and long-term growth. Let me provide a direct quote from Mr. Poloz. He said: In the case of a targeted investment by government, which is identified in such a way that it will be growth enabling, is very likely to pay off very well, That is, it creates more economic growth for all those who use that infrastructure, and that of course creates tax revenues and the system keeps turning. To address the fearmongering from the other side of the House, this is what Mr. Poloz said about the deficit. He said, “Canada is in a very good fiscal situation so we shouldn't be worrying about that at this time”. This government is going to transform the empty announcements of the previous administration that often did not deliver on the funds. Instead it will make concrete investments that will energize our economy now and for decades to come by investing in Canadians who need consideration the most and for those whose spending serves as a spark for economic growth. By investing in infrastructure for our cities across the country, this government understands that a budget that does not deliver for people is a budget not worth delivering. We recognize that impacting an individual or a family's daily life takes strong measures that clearly lay out a plan that is actionable and not just used for political purposes. I am very proud to support this second budgetary implementation bill. I can see the difference being made in the lives of my constituents in Surrey—Newton and all Canadians. That is one of the most satisfying things I take away from being a member of Parliament and something I never take for granted. ||||| Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON Mr. Speaker, indeed it is always good to stand in this place, particularly after the bit of confusion that we just went through in the voting. I can say that with Bill C-29, the budget implementation act, there is no confusion; it is actually a train wreck. It should not be called an implementation bill. It maybe should be referred to as a renovation bill, because when something is as disastrously wrong in the economy of this country as it is now, it takes not only severe renovations but also a change of culture within a government. The riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex is in southwestern Ontario, and is very much a rural riding made up of small and medium-sized businesses. Quite honestly, in the riding I do not have a large business. We are made up of hard-working, middle-income folks and families who get up every day and go to work. They are strong entrepreneurs who generate wealth and employment, something that is hard to find in this budget. These folks in my riding actually stimulate jobs. That is because they have endured some hard times but have been able to buckle down and survive, up until some of these proposals in this budget. Something that rang strong in a riding like mine and those across this country was the talk in the campaign by the Liberals about what they were going to do. Actually, the Liberals did not talk about what they were going to do, but actually made promises. We were in the riding last week during Legion Week as we celebrated and thanked our veterans across this great country of Canada. We thanked the veterans who are alive, but we also recognized with our hearts the work and the commitment of those who gave their lives so we could be in a place like this and be able to have free discussion about topics that are important to Canadians. We celebrated Legion Week and thanked those who gave their lives for us in this great country and the veterans who were there. We always comment on and commend those who are in uniform, who stand up for us not only in our great nation of Canada but also abroad in many countries. However, when the government breaks that promise, as the current government has done in so many ways, it takes a bit of the heart out of people. The broken promises did not happen three or four years after the election; they happened within days and weeks of the government being sworn in. It takes away the credibility not only of the government but, quite honestly, of all of us who are elected people, because people say they just do not trust any elected people. That is very unfortunate. Let me just say a bit about what happened with the breaking of promises and why that was so detrimental to people in my riding and, I am sure, across the country. In the election campaign, the current Prime Minister talked about a teeny-weeny modest deficit that the Liberal government was going to hand to Canadians. They said it would be a $10 billion deficit. We have heard that time and again. Not within a year but within weeks, the $10 billion escalated to $30 billion. That is 300% or three times what the projection was. When we talk about billions of dollars, ordinary Canadians really do not wrap their heads around what a billion dollars is, but they can wrap their head around what it actually means. Let me give a little example of what it means, because this is what happens when the Liberals do not do what they say they will do and expect ordinary Canadians to believe them and then understand that when they break the promise, it does not mean much. That is really what the Liberals want us to think. A small business guy goes into the bank with a proposal and a business plan that goes with it. He tells the bank or the lending institution that this is his business plan, that he needs a million dollars, that this is how he will bring it forward and this is how he will pay it back. His business plan talks about the growth. He thought about it. In six weeks he went back to the bank and tells the banker that he still has the same business plan and the sort deficit projection that I just mentioned, so that he needs not $1 million, but $3 million now. I do not know if anyone on that side has ever had a business. Maybe no one on that side has had to put together a business plan and then take it to a financial institution. However, if an individual from a small business did what I just described, and it could have been any business in my riding, the banker would show them the door. The difference is that the banker cannot show the government the door today, because the taxpayers are the lenders. Maybe in four years they will be able to show them the door. The Liberals promised they would cut taxes for small business. No, they never want to lose a revenue source from a tax. The other promise was to make the tax plan revenue neutral, with the Liberals taking from the top earning rich and giving it to the poor, the lower income group. That was supposed to be revenue neutral. It took about three weeks to discover it was not revenue neutral. It was actually about a $2 billion hit to the taxpayers of Canada. My point is that the government right now has absolutely no credibility. It now has a debt that is escalating. The Liberals have no plan for how they will pay it back. When the Prime Minister was asked when he would balance the budget, as was the Minister of Finance in question period today, they actually did not know. The Prime Minister indicated earlier that he did not know what the deficit would be. I say to Canadians and to small business people and their families that we have a serious concern. We have a growing deficit and a debt that has escalated to what some say will cost us another $5 billion a year in interest payments. Where I come from, when we are in a hole, it is best to quit digging However, I get the sense that is not the culture of the Liberal Party. They are on a glorious trip of big deficits, thinking they will just spend their way out of debt. I do not know where that has worked. From a business perspective, it just does not work. I see that I am at the end of my time and I will be more than glad to take questions, but I am just concerned that with this budget the Liberals have betrayed Canadians and have broken their promises to them. This budget implementation act, unfortunately, will not be supported by me or my party. ||||| We've detected that JavaScript is disabled in your browser. Would you like to proceed to legacy Twitter? Yes ||||| LONDON — Donald Trump just won a controversial election in the United States. Marine Le Pen is gaining traction in France. Women in Saudi Arabia are participating in elections for the first time ever. The world is ablaze with historic political events. Meanwhile, in Canada, the word fart is on the parliamentary agenda. The fart talk arose from a debate surrounding the implementation of a carbon tax in the House of Commons. In the midst of an impassioned speech about the tax's impact on her constituents, conservative MP Michelle Rempel posed the question, "Why does the government treat Alberta like a fart in the room that nobody wants to talk about or acknowledge?" Green MP Elizabeth May replied, "I hate to interrupt my friend in her speech, but I heard her say a word that I know is distinctly unparliamentary, and I think she may want to withdraw it. "The word was f-a-r-t." From there, the debate broke out into a discussion on dealing with "unparliamentary language" to which Assistant Deputy Speaker Anthony Rota of the liberal party helpfully provided some mediation: "There are times in the chamber when passion takes over, things get heated, and sometimes we say things that are out of order or that may not be parliamentary. "The honorary member said a couple of things that were borderline, but it is up to her to decide whether they were unparliamentary. Someone took offense. I will take it under advisement and bring it back to the table, and we will go from there." You can read the full, glorious transcript of the discussion here. I believe the House of Commons is currently debating whether the word "fart" is unparliamentary. — Aaron Wherry (@AaronWherry) November 15, 2016 Soon after, the internet caught "wind" of the debate. Cue the poo puns: @AaronWherry We've smelled worse on Parliament Hill — tom mills (@humourmetom) November 15, 2016 @AaronWherry I don't understand why @ElizabethMay raised such a stink. — PM Turdeau (@turdeau) November 16, 2016 Meanwhile in Canada, fracas over the use of "unparliamentary language" in House of Commons. The fart heard around the world. https://t.co/mbbxMXa3fy — Roland Paris (@rolandparis) November 16, 2016 TBH, we're gonna have to suggest everyone add this to the "pro" column in the ongoing "move/don't move to Canada" debate. ||||| Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak in favour of Bill C-29, a second act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 22, 2016 and other measures. I will begin my remarks by speaking about my riding of Surrey—Newton, which is a community that will benefit directly from the measures outlined in the government's budget. Much like the rest of Surrey, my riding of Surrey—Newton is experiencing the pressure of growth caused by the migration of 1,200 people moving into Surrey every month. Surrey—Newton has a strong middle class, a range of different compositions of families with children and seniors. Because of the great interest from the residents regarding many of the budgetary issues and measures introduced last spring, I want to highlight a few of the items that will benefit my constituents the most. The new Canada child benefit is a significant step forward in recognizing the financial pressures of the middle-class families with children. The new consolidated benefit is easier to account for, indexed according to income levels, and overall more generous than the previous system. Today, families can receive up to $6,400 per year for each of their children under the age of six. For each child aged six to 17 years, families can receive up to $5,400 per year. This is significant because statistics show that nine out of 10 families have seen their benefits increase under the new plan that was rolled out as of July 1, 2016, with an average bump totalling approximately $2,300. From the personal impacts I am hearing regarding such an increase, this is a windfall that is really extending the household budgets in Surrey—Newton. Similarly, seniors are overwhelmingly appreciative of the changes to the Old Age Security Act, which returns the age of eligibility to 65, while at the same time increasing the amount of guaranteed income supplement up to $947. Vulnerable seniors on fixed incomes are a group that every member of the House is encountering, given their respective constituencies. This budget would fulfill a promise to address those who are most at risk of financial uncertainty, both in terms of seniors as well as young families trying to get a foothold. In fact, it is what classify as a people's first budget, meaning that this government is committed to improving the situations of middle-class families and seniors with tangible and targeted actions. This does not mean, however, that it fails to recognize the broader picture when it comes to measures that will continue to build the nation's economic climate. I want to touch on two specific areas of focus. First is the number of changes that will allow for greater control over taxation. The budget does this by closing many of the loopholes and policies that allow for billions of dollars of unpaid tax dollars to escape scrutiny. This government believes that multinational corporations should never be able to accrue tax benefits that put them on a different level of consideration than the average, hard-working Canadian taxpayer. By working with the G20 and the OECD, and ensuring that the provisions attached to both that addresses tax evasion are utilized, it disallows these mega business entities from operating in isolation within Canada. There must be consequences for avoiding paying their fair share while operating in our country because the lost revenues that this government is currently encountering are dollars that can be invested in Canadian citizens. Speaking of investment, this government is also looking at the infrastructure needs of the country and investing to build for our future. For example, in the city of Surrey, residents and businesses alike are struggling with a public transit system that cannot keep up with the demand. As I mentioned earlier, 1,200 people are moving into Surrey every month. To deal with this demand, the Surrey LRT line is one of the most important and pressing projects in metro Vancouver at the moment. It is absolutely essential to keep up with the growth the city of Surrey is experiencing. The fact is that with Canada having the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio of any G7 country, now is the time for Canada to build and invest for the future. These are not simply the opinions of the government, but one that is voiced by economists from across the country. In fact, recently the Bank of Canada governor, Stephen Poloz, urged this government to spend more on infrastructure to boost sluggish and long-term growth. Let me provide a direct quote from Mr. Poloz. He said: In the case of a targeted investment by government, which is identified in such a way that it will be growth enabling, is very likely to pay off very well, That is, it creates more economic growth for all those who use that infrastructure, and that of course creates tax revenues and the system keeps turning. To address the fearmongering from the other side of the House, this is what Mr. Poloz said about the deficit. He said, “Canada is in a very good fiscal situation so we shouldn't be worrying about that at this time”. This government is going to transform the empty announcements of the previous administration that often did not deliver on the funds. Instead it will make concrete investments that will energize our economy now and for decades to come by investing in Canadians who need consideration the most and for those whose spending serves as a spark for economic growth. By investing in infrastructure for our cities across the country, this government understands that a budget that does not deliver for people is a budget not worth delivering. We recognize that impacting an individual or a family's daily life takes strong measures that clearly lay out a plan that is actionable and not just used for political purposes. I am very proud to support this second budgetary implementation bill. I can see the difference being made in the lives of my constituents in Surrey—Newton and all Canadians. That is one of the most satisfying things I take away from being a member of Parliament and something I never take for granted. ||||| Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON Mr. Speaker, indeed it is always good to stand in this place, particularly after the bit of confusion that we just went through in the voting. I can say that with Bill C-29, the budget implementation act, there is no confusion; it is actually a train wreck. It should not be called an implementation bill. It maybe should be referred to as a renovation bill, because when something is as disastrously wrong in the economy of this country as it is now, it takes not only severe renovations but also a change of culture within a government. The riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex is in southwestern Ontario, and is very much a rural riding made up of small and medium-sized businesses. Quite honestly, in the riding I do not have a large business. We are made up of hard-working, middle-income folks and families who get up every day and go to work. They are strong entrepreneurs who generate wealth and employment, something that is hard to find in this budget. These folks in my riding actually stimulate jobs. That is because they have endured some hard times but have been able to buckle down and survive, up until some of these proposals in this budget. Something that rang strong in a riding like mine and those across this country was the talk in the campaign by the Liberals about what they were going to do. Actually, the Liberals did not talk about what they were going to do, but actually made promises. We were in the riding last week during Legion Week as we celebrated and thanked our veterans across this great country of Canada. We thanked the veterans who are alive, but we also recognized with our hearts the work and the commitment of those who gave their lives so we could be in a place like this and be able to have free discussion about topics that are important to Canadians. We celebrated Legion Week and thanked those who gave their lives for us in this great country and the veterans who were there. We always comment on and commend those who are in uniform, who stand up for us not only in our great nation of Canada but also abroad in many countries. However, when the government breaks that promise, as the current government has done in so many ways, it takes a bit of the heart out of people. The broken promises did not happen three or four years after the election; they happened within days and weeks of the government being sworn in. It takes away the credibility not only of the government but, quite honestly, of all of us who are elected people, because people say they just do not trust any elected people. That is very unfortunate. Let me just say a bit about what happened with the breaking of promises and why that was so detrimental to people in my riding and, I am sure, across the country. In the election campaign, the current Prime Minister talked about a teeny-weeny modest deficit that the Liberal government was going to hand to Canadians. They said it would be a $10 billion deficit. We have heard that time and again. Not within a year but within weeks, the $10 billion escalated to $30 billion. That is 300% or three times what the projection was. When we talk about billions of dollars, ordinary Canadians really do not wrap their heads around what a billion dollars is, but they can wrap their head around what it actually means. Let me give a little example of what it means, because this is what happens when the Liberals do not do what they say they will do and expect ordinary Canadians to believe them and then understand that when they break the promise, it does not mean much. That is really what the Liberals want us to think. A small business guy goes into the bank with a proposal and a business plan that goes with it. He tells the bank or the lending institution that this is his business plan, that he needs a million dollars, that this is how he will bring it forward and this is how he will pay it back. His business plan talks about the growth. He thought about it. In six weeks he went back to the bank and tells the banker that he still has the same business plan and the sort deficit projection that I just mentioned, so that he needs not $1 million, but $3 million now. I do not know if anyone on that side has ever had a business. Maybe no one on that side has had to put together a business plan and then take it to a financial institution. However, if an individual from a small business did what I just described, and it could have been any business in my riding, the banker would show them the door. The difference is that the banker cannot show the government the door today, because the taxpayers are the lenders. Maybe in four years they will be able to show them the door. The Liberals promised they would cut taxes for small business. No, they never want to lose a revenue source from a tax. The other promise was to make the tax plan revenue neutral, with the Liberals taking from the top earning rich and giving it to the poor, the lower income group. That was supposed to be revenue neutral. It took about three weeks to discover it was not revenue neutral. It was actually about a $2 billion hit to the taxpayers of Canada. My point is that the government right now has absolutely no credibility. It now has a debt that is escalating. The Liberals have no plan for how they will pay it back. When the Prime Minister was asked when he would balance the budget, as was the Minister of Finance in question period today, they actually did not know. The Prime Minister indicated earlier that he did not know what the deficit would be. I say to Canadians and to small business people and their families that we have a serious concern. We have a growing deficit and a debt that has escalated to what some say will cost us another $5 billion a year in interest payments. Where I come from, when we are in a hole, it is best to quit digging However, I get the sense that is not the culture of the Liberal Party. They are on a glorious trip of big deficits, thinking they will just spend their way out of debt. I do not know where that has worked. From a business perspective, it just does not work. I see that I am at the end of my time and I will be more than glad to take questions, but I am just concerned that with this budget the Liberals have betrayed Canadians and have broken their promises to them. This budget implementation act, unfortunately, will not be supported by me or my party.

– While several world leaders were preoccupied with climate change, Canada was debating a far more important issue: whether "fart" is an appropriate word to use in parliament. While giving what she called "an impassioned speech" about unemployment and tax increases in Alberta in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel said the government treated the province "like a fart in the room that nobody wants to talk about or acknowledge," per Mashable. At that point, all discussion of Alberta ended. Cut in Green Party leader Elizabeth May, "I hate to interrupt my friend in her speech, but I heard her say a word that I know is distinctly unparliamentary, and I think she may want to withdraw it." May then chose to spell out the word rather than repeat it. Rempel, in apparent bemusement, refused to withdraw "fart" from the record and instead asked if May was "actually serious." After a few other MPs cut in—others had laughed at Rempel's speech, per the Huffington Post—May complained she was being "heckled" and said she would "not forgive" use of a word like "fart." After about five minutes, the assistant deputy speaker calmed everyone down, promising to revisit the "borderline" language, and talk returned to Alberta. Twitter users, however, remained consumed by the "fart." "We've smelled worse on Parliament Hill," one user quipped. "I don't understand why @ElizabethMay raised such a stink," said another. (A Canadian MP once discussed his underwear.)

Image via AP Chelsea Manning, whose prison sentence will conclude this May after President Obama commuted her sentence in one of his final monumental acts in office, has published a heartfelt, hopeful open letter in The Guardian, crediting her fellow prisoners for helping her through her time served. It’s a testament to how brave she’s been throughout her ordeal—which for six years has been largely inhumane, much of it spent in solitary confinement—and a direct counter to any pervasive outside perception that imprisoned people lose their humanity just because they’re imprisoned. In her piece, Manning describes the intimacy that she apparently had with unnamed persons, and that they “kept me alive” (Manning was put on suicide watch at least twice during her incarceration). She writes: We were friends in a way few will ever understand. There was no room to be superficial. Instead, we bared it all. We could hide from our families and from the world outside, but we could never hide from each other. We argued, we bickered and we fought with each other. Sometimes, over absolutely nothing. But, we were always a family. We were always united. When the prison tried to break one of us, we all stood up. We looked out for each other. When they tried to divide us, and systematically discriminated against us, we embraced our diversity and pushed back. But, I also learned from all of you when to pick my battles. I grew up and grew connected because of the community you provided. It’s one of the clearest looks we’ve gotten at Manning’s life inside the prison at Fort Leavenworth, and despite the unsettling picture we’ve gotten so far, it depicts a deep emotional tenderness. “Not only did you teach me these important lessons, but you made sure I felt cared for. You were the people who helped me to deal with the trauma of my regular haircuts,” she writes. “You were the people who checked on me after I tried to end my life. You were the people that played fun games with me. Who wished me a Happy Birthday. We shared the holidays together. You were and will always be family.” Manning will be released on May 17, 2017. Read the entire letter here. ||||| To those who have kept me alive for the past six years: minutes after President Obama announced the commutation of my sentence, the prison quickly moved me out of general population and into the restrictive housing unit where I am now held. I know that we are now physically separated, but we will never be apart and we are not alone. Recently, one of you asked me “Will you remember me?” I will remember you. How could I possibly forget? You taught me lessons I would have never learned otherwise. When I was afraid, you taught me how to keep going. When I was lost, you showed me the way. When I was numb, you taught me how to feel. When I was angry, you taught me how to chill out. When I was hateful, you taught me how to be compassionate. When I was distant, you taught me how to be close. When I was selfish, you taught me how to share. Sometimes, it took me a while to learn many things. Other times, I would forget, and you would remind me. We were friends in a way few will ever understand. There was no room to be superficial. Instead, we bared it all. We could hide from our families and from the world outside, but we could never hide from each other. Chelsea Manning did the right thing. Finally, Barack Obama has too | Trevor Timm Read more We argued, we bickered and we fought with each other. Sometimes, over absolutely nothing. But, we were always a family. We were always united. When the prison tried to break one of us, we all stood up. We looked out for each other. When they tried to divide us, and systematically discriminated against us, we embraced our diversity and pushed back. But, I also learned from all of you when to pick my battles. I grew up and grew connected because of the community you provided. Those outside of prison may not believe that we act like human beings under these conditions. But of course we do. And we build our own networks of survival. I never would have made it without you. Not only did you teach me these important lessons, but you made sure I felt cared for. You were the people who helped me to deal with the trauma of my regular haircuts. You were the people who checked on me after I tried to end my life. You were the people that played fun games with me. Who wished me a Happy Birthday. We shared the holidays together. You were and will always be family. For many of you, you are already free and living outside of the prison walls. Many of you will come home soon. Some of you still have many years to go. The most important thing that you taught me was how to write and how to speak in my own voice. I used to only know how to write memos. Now, I write like a human being, with dreams, desires and connections. I could not have done it without you. From where I am now, I still think of all of you. When I leave this place in May, I will still think of all of you. And to anyone who finds themselves feeling alone behind bars, know that there is a network of us who are thinking of you. You will never be forgotten.

– In what Jezebel calls "one of the clearest looks we’ve gotten at [Chelsea] Manning’s life inside ... prison," Manning has penned an open letter, published in the Guardian, to the fellow prisoners "who have kept me alive for the past six years." Manning, whose sentence was commuted by Barack Obama before he left office, says that she will never forget her fellow prisoners, who taught her "how to keep going," "how to feel," "how to chill out," and "how to be compassionate," among other things. She says that "when the prison tried to break one of us, we all stood up." "We were friends in a way few will ever understand. There was no room to be superficial. Instead, we bared it all. We could hide from our families and from the world outside, but we could never hide from each other," she writes. "We argued, we bickered and we fought with each other. Sometimes, over absolutely nothing. But, we were always a family. We were always united." She says that the most important thing her fellow prisoners taught her was "how to write and how to speak in my own voice," when she used to know how to write only in memos. Click for the full letter.

If Texas’s legislature won’t fund rape kit testing, then Texans will, a local lawmaker hopes. Texas Rep. Victoria Neave, a Dallas Democrat, has introduced new legislation aimed at testing the thousands of rape kits stored in Texas laboratories. After a slowdown in funding, the state fell far behind in its efforts to run lab tests on every kit. The backlog in kit testing means a backlog in justice for sexual assault victims, many of whom agree to the invasive tests in the hope that their assailants will be identified. With little new funding on the horizon, Neave’s bill would look to Texas for crowdfunding. “It’s really horrifying that we find ourselves in a situation where evidence testing for survivors is reliant on charitable donations by the public,” Kristen Lenau, response coordinator for SAFE, an Austin-based support group told The Daily Beast. “We believe the onus to test this evidence is on the state and local governments. But also as advocates for survivors, we’re in support of anything that’s going to get them a little close to the justice and the resolution they deserve.” The bill would prompt Texas drivers to donate a dollar or more to the state’s rape kit funds when they applied for or renewed their license. The state already has a similar program in place for veterans’ funds, which generates approximately $1 million each year. Neave and the bill’s backers hope their own program could scrounge up another million for rape victims. Ideally, the state would not need to crowdfund its justice efforts at all. In 2011, Texas launched an effort to crack down on the major backlog, which saw some 20,000 untested rape kits stored in Texas crime labs. The state passed a law requiring investigators to conduct forensic tests on all evidence from sexual assaults within 30 days, and awarded the Texas Department of Public Safety an $11 million grant to test all rape kits collected from 1996 to 2011. But the grant wasn’t enough. Decades of backlog overwhelmed crime laboratories. “What that tells us is that for many years, sexual assault evidence and sexual assault survivors were not taken as seriously as we would like them to be,” Lenau said. “There is a story of neglect here around sexual assault survivors.” As of January 31, 2017, over 3,600 of the pre-2011 kits remained untested, state records show. Meanwhile, the backlog of new rape test kits is growing again. “That did put a dent in the backlog looking backward,” Chris Kaiser, Director of Public Policy for the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault told The Daily Beast of the 2011 grant. “But we’re at a point now where we need to continue our commitment so we don’t recreate a backlog of untested kits.” The state lacks hard numbers on how many total rape kits remain untested, although Kaiser estimates the state is looking at a crisis on par with 2011. 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. “It’s not unlikely that if we were to do an audit now, it would show more” untested kits than in 2011, Kaiser said. “At least in the 20,000 range, quite possibly more.” But funding 20,000 rape kit tests will require more than a few dollars from generous Texas drivers. A kit costs between $500 to $2,500 to test, depending on how much DNA evidence it contains, a Neave spokesperson told The Daily Beast. A conservative estimate would put 20,000 tests at $10 million, although costs could easily balloon to $50 million. A preliminary 2018 state budget suggested allocated $4.2 million for rape kit tests, Neave’s office told The Daily Beast. Texas has also relied on out-of-state grants, like a $2 million grant from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to the city of Austin for rape kit testing in 2015. The piecemeal funding has real consequences for sexual assault survivors. “It’s not great news, to be frank,” Kaiser, whose organization does advocacy for survivors. “Our programs that advocate for people through the criminal justice system have to be really honest with people when they go through that process. We have to tell them we don’t often know how long it will take.” Kaiser warns victims testing could take “quite a long time.” “Here in Austin, the experience very often is that in the course of a year and a half of prosecution, by the time it’s set for trial, the forensics still aren’t back. That affects the prosecutor’s ability to go to trial,” said Kaiser. “If you don’t have the forensics on time, your options are limited.” An extra million in donations from Texas drivers could fund “a significant number of cases,” Lenau said. But she and her colleague Victoria Berryhill questioned why the state would not afford sexual assault survivors the same resources as the victims of other crimes. “While we support any legislation that is going to help us seek justice for survivors,” Berryhill said, “what other violent crime relies on charitable donations from state citizens?” ||||| Donations From Drivers Might Help End Rape Kit Backlog In Texas Enlarge this image toggle caption Pat Sullivan/AP Pat Sullivan/AP Across the country, there's a backlog of kits containing potential evidence of sexual assaults. Victim advocates say the situation threatens public safety. Lawmakers in dozens of states are pushing for funding, and in Texas, one state representative has offered an innovative solution. Thousands of rape kits sit sealed and untested in forensics labs and law enforcement offices in Texas. What's missing is state and local funding to pay to analyze the evidence in many of those kits. If state Rep. Victoria Neave has her way, residents could help chip in. When Texans go to the Department of Public Safety office to apply for a driver's license, they'd be asked if they'd like to help the state pay to test DNA evidence from sexual assault cases — in the same way they're asked if they want to donate to support veterans or organ donation. The bill, introduced by Neave, a Democrat from Dallas, has passed the House, and the state's Senate is expected to vote on it soon. "Our bill is expected to generate $1 million per year and would help address and end the backlog of untested rape kits," Neave says. When rape victims go to the hospital, they can get forensic evidence taken to help identify and prosecute their assailant. Each kit can cost between $500 and $2,000 to test, so many don't get tested. The scale of the backlog in Texas is unclear. Neave says there are about 4,000 in Dallas County, another 3,000 or so in and around Austin, and 3,600 more in a lab in Houston. "That's just in a few counties," she says. "We anticipate there are thousands more that are across the whole state that are untested." Utah Lawmaker To Introduce Bill To Test All Rape Kits Utah Lawmaker To Introduce Bill To Test All Rape Kits 1:47 A growing problem The Lone Star State is not alone in amassing a backlog of untested rape kits. Lawmakers in 27 states filed legislation this year to help deal with the situation. And Texas has tried to deal with this before. Lawmakers allocated $11 million to clear a backlog of nearly 20,000 rape kits discovered in 2011. The state is still working through kits dating far back to the mid-'90s, but that money was restricted, so it only pays to test old kits. Lawmakers are planning to budget more money for testing this year, but advocates say that still won't stop kits collected in the future from being backlogged because, again, it would only address old kits. Victims' advocates say each kit represents a person who says she or he was raped. "Sexual assault is unique because the victim's body is the crime scene," says Alisha Byerly from the Women's Center of Tarrant County in Fort Worth, who supervises a team of advocates who help victims when they go to the hospital. Collecting a rape kit often takes hours, and Byerly says it's a difficult process. The victim has to re-tell all the details of the rape, and then a nurse examines, swabs and photographs her most private places, gathering samples of hair, semen, fabric fibers and skin cells. It's evidence of a crime that's just happened. In most cases, DNA evidence needs to be collected within 72 hours of the assault. "In the process of already being very mentally traumatizing, and having all that control taken away from their body, and them trying to regain this control, they're extremely uncomfortable and it's extremely invasive," Byerly says. After all of that, Byerly says, to put that evidence on a shelf and ignore it is deeply discouraging for victims. Ilse Knecht says it's a symptom of a larger social and political problem. "The rape kit backlog is actually a systemic failure of the criminal justice system to take sexual assault cases seriously," she says. Knecht leads a national campaign called End the Backlog, which is funded by the Joyful Heart Foundation, and aims to help end the backlog of rape kits across the country. It's impossible to know just how big the backlog is nationwide because a lot of states, like Texas, don't keep track. But Knecht says it's been a problem in states and cities across the country. And that, she says, threatens public safety. "Rapists are very often serial offenders," she says. "They commit all kinds of crime. They commit crimes against people they know and people they don't know and they just don't stop." When Detroit started testing 10,000 untested kits that it had warehoused for years, it identified more than 780 suspected serial rapists. It led to dozens of convictions, and connected crimes in 40 states. In Cleveland, evidence from old rape kits connected a man to 15 sexual assaults. No nationwide standard Around the Nation Untested Rape Kit Backlog Represents A 'Public Safety Issue' In U.S. Untested Rape Kit Backlog Represents A 'Public Safety Issue' In U.S. Listen · 4:30 4:30 Even if there were adequate funding, not all kits should be tested, Knecht says, because victims have the right to have a rape kit collected without reporting the crime to the police. In Texas, the Department of Public Safety holds onto the kits for two years, giving survivors time to decide to file charges later. Other states save kits for different amounts of time. Still, Knecht stresses that the backlog is primarily made up of kits that should be tested, because they are evidence of a crime that has been reported to law enforcement. Knecht says states vary widely when it comes to standards for testing and tracking rape kits. Eventually, she hopes that every state develops laws to mandate testing of all rape kits connected to reported assaults quickly, and set up a system for survivors to track their own kit anonymously. In Texas, bills have also been introduced to require law enforcement to track rape kits after they're collected. "We are seeing legislators across the country finding the dollars in their budgets because they prioritized it, and saying this is something we need to invest in, it's a public safety issue," Knecht says. Neave says she still thinks it's better for state and local governments to budget the money to pay for testing. At least through public donations, she says, there will be some money to help end the backlog. "It shouldn't get to the point of us having to ask individuals to contribute," says Neave, "but I believe in the hearts and compassion of our fellow Texans that a dollar here, a dollar there, and all of us working together can generate funds to help these women and victims of sexual assault get justice." Christopher Connelly is a reporter for NPR member station KERA and covers Fort Worth, Texas. You can follow him on Twitter @hithisischris.

– With thousands of rape kits languishing untested in Texas, one state lawmaker devised a clever solution: crowdfunding. Rep. Victoria Neave came up with the idea after learning that many rape investigations were going nowhere because there was no money to analyze evidence collected from victims, NPR reports. The Dallas Democrat filed a bill that would ask Texans to pony up $1 or more when they stop into the DMV to renew or apply for drivers licenses. The donations would mirror those collected for veterans and other organizations, except they would be used to test DNA evidence collected in reported rapes, such as semen, hair, and fibers. If the measure passes—it's cleared the House and is set for a Senate vote—Neave says it could generate $1 million a year "and end the backlog of untested rape kits." The price tag for testing a rape kit can hit $2,000, per NPR, leaving many police departments in Texas and other states balking at the expense. Neave told the New York Times in March that it's tough enough for women to muster the "courage" to report rape. When they do, she adds, "we owe it to them" to ensure the physical evidence is properly tested. It's unclear how many untested kits are in Texas, though estimates sit at about 20,000, the Daily Beast reported last month. Not everyone is impressed with the idea. "It's really horrifying that ... evidence testing for survivors is reliant on charitable donations by the public," says Kristen Lenau, a victims' advocate. "We believe the onus to test this evidence is on the state and local governments." (For one rape victim, even finding a rape kit was an ordeal.)

The green glass paten, measuring 22 centimetres in diameter, is the earliest depiction of Jesus found in Spain. Photo: FORVM MMX One of the world's earliest representations of Christ has been unearthed in southern Spain by a team of archaeologists, a glass plate which shines new light on the arrival of Christianity in Spain. The green glass paten, the plate which holds the Holy Eucharist in churches, is the earliest depiction of Jesus found in Spain and is in excellent condition compared to similar pieces discovered around Europe. “We know it dates back to the 4th century, in part because popes in the following centuries ordered all patens to be made out of silver,” Marcelo Castro, head of the Forum MMX excavation project, told The Local. The team of archaeologists have so far managed to find 81 percent of the paten at the site of a religious building in Cástulo, an ancient Iberian town in the province of Jaén, Andalusia. Measuring 22 centimetres in diameter, it shows three beardless men with short hair and halos over their heads. According to Castro, the figures are Jesus and the apostles Paul and Peter as depicted in Christ in Majesty, an early Christian art form which copied Roman and Byzantine styles. The Forum MMX team have been able to establish the paten was made in the 300s thanks to coins and ceramic objects found at the same site. “We were wary about presenting the paten as a 4th century piece in case it clashed with previous studies into the chronology of Christianity in Spain,” Castro explained. But their estimates coincide with the rule of Constantine, the first Roman emperor to claim conversion to Christianity, who also ensured the religion's clandestine followers were no longer persecuted. The paten was put on display on Wedneday at the Archaeological Museum of Linares (Jaén), alongside other ancient pieces such as a mosaic of Cupid (Mosaico de los Amores), unearthed in 2012 and named as one of the discoveries of the year by National Geographic. ||||| 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. ||||| Image copyright FORVM MMX Archaeologists in Spain say they have found one of the world's earliest known images of Jesus. It is engraved on a glass plate dating back to the 4th Century AD, reports from Spain say. The plate is believed to have been used to hold Eucharistic bread as it was consecrated in early Christian rituals. It measures 22cm in diameter and fragments of it were unearthed outside the southern Spanish city of Linares, ABC newspaper reports. Scientists working for the FORVM MMX project found it inside a building used for religious worship in what remains of the ancient town of Castulo. The find made scientists "review the chronology of early Christianity in Spain", FORVM MMX project director Marcelo Castro told El Mundo newspaper. The pieces were in an excellent state of preservation - 81% of its original area has now been pieced together by scientists. Image copyright FORVM MMX In the image, Jesus Christ is flanked by two apostles, believed to be Peter and Paul. "The scene takes place in the celestial orb, framed between two palm trees, which in Christian iconography represent immortality, the afterlife and heaven, among other things," ABC writes. El Mundo notes that Christ looks very different from later depictions: he has no beard, his hair is not too long and he is wearing a philosopher's toga. Image copyright FORVM MMX Image caption A reconstruction of images on the plate Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.

– Jesus shaved. Archaeologists in Spain have unearthed what they say is one of the earliest images of him, but you wouldn't know it from a quick glance. The engraving on a glass plate from the 4th century depicts a short-haired Jesus without a beard; he's joined by two men believed to be the apostles Peter and Paul, reports the BBC. The Local reports that the plate is in fragments, and 81% of it has been recovered by the archaeologists. The BBC picked up the report from two Spanish-language sites, including ABC.es, which writes of the plate: "The scene takes place in the celestial orb, framed between two palm trees, which in Christian iconography represent immortality, the afterlife and heaven, among other things." The 9-inch plate, found at a dig site in what was once the ancient town of Castulo, was likely used in religious services to hold Eucharistic bread. The BBC has images. (A scientist, meanwhile, is hoping to resurrect King David's wine.)

And as technology increasingly allows doctors to diagnose problems in a developing fetus, the study underscores remaining risks and hurdles, including developing less-invasive techniques to avoid creating other problems for babies or mothers. The spina bifida procedure was considered beneficial enough that an independent safety monitoring board stopped the study early so babies scheduled to receive surgery after birth could have access to prenatal surgery. But there were medical downsides for the women and infants: greater likelihood of being born several weeks earlier than the postnatal group, related breathing problems, and thinning or tearing at women’s surgical incisions, requiring Caesarean sections for later births. Photo “While this is a very promising and quite exciting result,” said a study author, Dr. Diana Farmer, surgeon in chief at the Benioff Children’s Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco, “not all the patients were helped here, and there are significant risks. This procedure is not for everyone.” Conducting the study was itself challenging. Prenatal spina bifida surgery gained attention in the late 1990s when some medical centers, like Vanderbilt University, began performing it. A photograph in which a fetus’s hand appeared to be gripping the finger of a surgeon who had lifted the hand out of the womb was circulated by opponents of abortion rights, further raising the profile. Leading experts suggested a clinical trial to determine if prenatal surgery was better than postnatal. They insisted on an unusual agreement: that all but three hospitals, in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Nashville, stop doing the procedure. “There were lots of places that wanted to do it” amid pressure from eager patients, said Dr. Michael Harrison, who pioneered fetal surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, and was a principal investigator for the spina bifida trial before retiring. “But we wanted to make sure it wouldn’t become a freak show. And if you offer treatment outside the trial, you’ll never have a trial because no mother would agree to flip a coin.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ultimately the other hospitals acceded. One reason spina bifida researchers wanted a trial was the experience with prenatal surgery for a condition in which the diaphragm has life-threatening abnormalities. After early efforts to repair the condition prenatally, “we thought we were heroes,” Dr. Harrison said, but realized it worked only for milder cases. Another prenatal approach, forcing the lungs to grow, worked, but caused significantly premature births, making it no better than postnatal treatment, he said. He added that prenatal techniques had improved, becoming less harmful. 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 will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. The spina bifida study involved the most severe form, myelomeningocele (MY-ell-oh-men-NING-guh-seal), in which the spine does not close properly and the spinal cord protrudes. Children may experience lower-body paralysis, fluid on the brain, bladder problems and learning disabilities. About one in 3,000 children have that form, said Dr. Alan Guttmacher, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which financed and helped conduct the study. Many babies now receive surgery to close the spinal opening after birth, but nerve damage from the spinal cord exposure to amniotic fluid remains. Also, the brainstem may be pulled into the spinal column. Excess fluid in the brain may require draining with implanted shunts, which can lead to infection or need repeated surgical replacement. In the study, about 80 babies were randomly selected for surgery after birth; another 80 had the spinal opening surgically closed in utero, between 19 and 26 weeks of pregnancy. Two in each group died. Photo Before surgery, babies in the prenatal group had more severe spinal lesions than the postnatal group, but more in the prenatal group had better results, said a co-author, Dr. Scott Adzick, chief of pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Those who received prenatal surgery were half as likely to have a shunt, and eight times as likely to have a normally positioned brainstem. There was “much better motor function of the legs,” Dr. Adzick said, and at 30 months old, nearly twice as many walked without crutches or orthotics. Although they were born at 34 weeks of pregnancy on average, compared with 37 weeks for the postnatal group, there was no difference in cognitive development, said Dr. Catherine Spong, chief of pregnancy and perinatology at the child health institute. Dr. Adzick said prenatal surgery may “stop exposure of the developing spinal cord and perhaps avert further neurological damage” or stop the leak of spinal fluid that causes brainstem problems. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Results were dramatic for Tyson Thomas, of Stansbury Park, Utah, now 22 months old. His mother, Jessica Thomas, a study participant, said doctors had described his brain malformation as “the worst they had ever seen” and said “it would be likely that he wouldn’t be able to breathe on his own.” Since birth at 35 weeks gestation, she said, Tyson breathes independently, shows no brainstem malformation and is starting to talk. Bladder nerve damage will require him to urinate through catheters all his life. He now uses a walker and a foot brace, but is “getting really close to walking” on his own, said Ms. Thomas, a nurse. Researchers will follow the children from ages 6 to 9 to see if benefits continue. Several experts said they would now mention prenatal surgery as one option for some women. But since many women were excluded from the study, including those who were severely obese or whose babies’ conditions did not fit certain specifications, many may be ineligible. The study should not propel surgeons to “run around and start doing this” for other conditions, said Dr. Terry Buchmiller, a fetal medicine expert at Children’s Hospital Boston who was not involved in the research. “I can go in utero right now and fix a cleft lip, but I don’t think anybody is saying we ought to do that, because of the risk.” But she called the study “a wonderful, almost several-decade journey of trying to improve the outcomes of a debilitating condition,” adding, “This looks to be potentially life-changing.” ||||| A Birth-Defect Breakthrough: Prenatal Spinal Surgery It's a landmark in the controversial, 30-year-old field of fetal surgery: Surgeons are reporting success in treating a common, serious birth defect called spina bifida — before birth. Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Tara and Jake Hallman Courtesy of Tara and Jake Hallman Spina bifida is a hole in the spine that sometimes allows a loop of the naked spinal cord to protrude outside the body. Such neural-tube defects are down 30 percent because more expectant mothers are taking folic acid pills and dietary supplements. But about 1,500 babies are born with spina bifida every year, and many are destined to have severe lifelong disabilities. A new study, published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that repairing the most severe form of spina bifida during pregnancy can reduce the paralysis and brain damage that often result when the defect isn't corrected until after birth. The surgery is delicate and risky for both mother and fetus. Doctors must make a three-inch incision in the mother's uterus to expose the fetus, which is typically about four inches long at this stage. They then put the exposed piece of spinal cord — between the size of a raisin and an almond — back where it belongs, and suture layers of tissue to keep it in place and prevent cerebrospinal fluid from leaking out. The study of 183 pregnancies shows that children who had the spinal operation in utero were twice as likely to walk unaided later. At age 3, 42 percent of those who had the prenatal operation were walking by themselves versus 21 percent of those who had the surgery after birth. This is the first time that fetal surgery has ever been attempted and validated for what we think of as a non-fatal birth defect. Brett Hallman is in the lucky group. When he was a 25-week fetus, he was the 55th patient who had fetal surgery for severe spina bifida at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Brett's mother, Tara Hallman, says she and her husband Jake knew the operation was a success months later, when Brett smiled, sat up and crawled on schedule. "When he walked at 17 months without any braces — without anything — it just took my breath away," Brett's mom says. A Landmark Study But doctors who treat spina bifida say there's something even more important: Fetal surgery reduces a child's need for a lifelong shunt — a tube to carry cerebrospinal fluid from the brain to the abdomen. Without the shunt, fluid can build up, causing devastating brain damage or death. More than 80 percent of the children who had the surgery after birth needed shunts, compared to 40 percent among those operated on prenatally. Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Tara and Jake Hallman Courtesy of Tara and Jake Hallman "From a medical point of view — even though walking is quite nice — for the long-term overall outlook for these children, being free of a shunt is probably the single most important aspect," says Diana Farmer, a study coauthor and chief of pediatric surgery at the University of California at San Francisco. Farmer says the new study is a landmark for the field. "This is the first time that fetal surgery has ever been attempted and validated for what we think of as a non-fatal birth defect," Farmer says. Since surgeons at UCSF first did fetal surgery three decades ago, the field has been controversial. "People thought it was quite a heretical thing to do, and quite risky for women," farmer says. "Prior to this, we only considered fetal surgery in a circumstance where either the fetus would not survive pregnancy or the baby would be likely to die soon after birth." But she thinks the tide is beginning to turn — partly because other procedures, such as donation of part of a liver from a living relative, "have demonstrated that it is ethically reasonable in certain circumstances for someone to undergo a medical procedure for altruism, essentially — to help someone else." 'Not A Cure' But Scott Adzick of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, lead author of the new study, stresses that fetal surgery for spina bifida "is not a cure. We think that we can help kids." There were some downsides: Nearly four out of five babies in the fetal surgery group were delivered prematurely, compared to 15 percent among those who got the operation after birth. So the fetal surgery group had more respiratory distress and other complications of prematurity. But there were no more deaths in one group versus the other. One of the biggest risks is to the moms. Surgery weakens the uterus, which could cause a disastrous uterine rupture if the woman goes into labor, though this didn't happen during the study. The uterine incision also means that all subsequent babies will have to be born by caesarean section. And as Tara Hallman testifies, even the most successful outcomes of fetal surgery aren't perfect. Although Brett is now an active 7-year-old who swims and plays other sports, he has to work to keep up physically. And he has some bladder and bowel problems — but nothing, his mother says, that can't be managed. For instance, Brett can't urinate normally, so he's learned to insert a catheter every few hours. Tara Hallman says he hasn't let his condition get him down. "Everybody has their challenges in life, and everybody has their battle scars, as we call them," she says. "This is his. And it's something that he's actually very proud of. He loves to show people his scar. It's actually part of his identity."

– Surgery on babies still in the womb has long largely been restricted to those who would die otherwise, but a landmark study is likely to lead to a surge of research into fetal surgery to treat birth defects. Surgeons found that repairing spina bifida—a debilitating spinal condition that 1,500 babies are born with annually—in the womb helps avoid the brain damage and paralysis that often result when the condition isn't treated until after birth, NPR reports. During the surgery, doctors operate on a four-inch long fetus, putting a protruding, roughly raisin-size piece of spinal cord back inside the fetus's body. The study reviewed 183 pregnancies, and found that children who had the surgery before birth were twice as likely to walk unaided later: At age 3, 42% could walk, versus 21% who did not have the prenatal operation. "This is the first time that fetal surgery has ever been attempted and validated for what we think of as a non-fatal birth defect," says one of the study's authors. There were medical downsides for both mothers and infants (for instance, 80% of the babies who had the surgery were delivered prematurely, compared to 15% of those who did not), but experts describe the study as a huge step in the right direction, the New York Times notes.

Related Coverage Law enforcement agencies show support for fallen Danville officer DANVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) — A Danville police officer was shot and killed overnight in Knox County. According to the Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer, Officer Thomas Cottrell was killed in the line of duty late Sunday night. Sheriff Shaffer said around 11:20 p.m. Sunday, the Knox County dispatch center received a call stating that police officers in Danville were in danger. The woman told dispatchers that her ex-boyfriend, Herschel Ray Jones had left with weapons and was looking to kill an officer. Dispatchers then tried to contact the Danville officer on duty, but were unsuccessful. Deputies from the Sheriff’s Office then searched the village. Shortly before midnight, deputies found the body of Officer Thomas Cottrell on the ground behind the municipal building. His gun had been taken and his cruiser was missing. Investigators say Jones was seen running from a residence on East Washington Street around 1:36 a.m. Monday. After a foot chase, Jones was taken into custody. The suspect’s brother, John Jones, told NBC4 he spoke to Herschel Jones minutes before he was taken into custody. He said Herschel had taken a quantity of an anti-anxiety drug called Klonopin. “He was out of his mind on drugs,” Jones said. “He already had done what he done. He still didn’t admit it to me though – that’s how far out of his mind he was. He completely went over the edge.” John Jones says family members called Herschel’s parole officer last week to report that he had guns and drugs and was at risk of doing something bad. John Jones says nothing was done. Jones says his brother had asked judges on several occasions to send him to a mental institution rather than to prison. He says those requests were denied. A woman who was outside of the residence was also taken into custody and later released. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident with the help of the Ohio Bureau of Investigation. Danville is a village in Knox County with a population of just over 1,000 people. The police department employs six people and Chief Daniel J. Weckesser was appointed to the job on January 4. A GoFundMe page has been set up for Cottrell’s family. Keep checking NBC4i.com for real-time updates on this story. To get alerts for breaking news, grab the free NBC4 News App for iPhone or Android. You can also sign up for email alerts. ||||| DANVILLE, Ohio - Officials say they were warned a gunman was hunting cops in Ohio this weekend, and by Sunday evening they realized the terrible truth behind the warning when they found a bloody hat but no patrol car and no officer. Police say a woman in Danville called dispatch Sunday evening around 11:20 p.m. to warn them her ex-boyfriend, identified as 34-year-old Hershel Ray Jones III, was armed and "looking to kill an officer," reports CBS affiliate WBNS-TV in Columbus. The woman said officers in the area of Danville, near Columbus, were in danger. Dispatchers frantically put out a call and failed to make contact with Danville Officer Thomas Cottrell. Deputies from the Knox County Sheriff's officer were dispatched, but all they turned up initially was a Cottrell's hat with blood on it, and nothing more. Their worst fears were later realized 20 minutes later when they Cottrell's body behind the Danville Municipal Building, clearly dead from gunshot wounds. His gun and patrol car had been stolen. He was the first officer killed in the state of Ohio in 2016, reports WBNS. Jones was tracked down a short while later, and spotted at 1:30 a.m. running out of a house. Police gave chase, and caught him near Danville Park. He has been named as the prime suspect in the murder. No charges have been announced yet. ||||| A Danville police officer is dead after authorities say a gunman was on the hunt to kill a member of law enforcement. Police say dispatchers received a call from a woman in Danville around 11:20 p.m. on Sunday, saying police were in danger because her ex-boyfriend, 32-year-old Herschel Jones, was armed and “looking to kill an officer.” Danville is a small village about 60 miles northeast of Columbus. In response, dispatchers tried to make contact with Danville Officer Thomas Cottrell who was on patrol, but were unsuccessful. A statewide alert was issued, and deputies from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office also searched the village, but couldn’t locate the officer. Only Cottrell's hat, which had been covered in blood, was located during the search. Around 20 minutes later, Cottrell’s body was found shot to death behind the Danville Municipal Building. His service weapon and cruiser had been stolen. Just after 1:30 a.m., the alleged killer was spotted running from a home on East Washington Street. After a foot chase with police, Jones was taken into custody near Danville Park. As of Monday afternoon, he faces a charge of tampering with evidence. Court records show Jones has a lengthy criminal record, and in one case tried to claim he was legally insane. Officers from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and B.C.I. are investigating the deadly shooting. Cottrell’s death marks the first for an officer in the line of duty in Ohio in 2016. ||||| Chief of Police Daniel J. Weckesser Letter From the Chief The Danville Police Department experienced many changes during 2016. Upon the retirement of Chief Monte Vance, I was appointed Chief of Police January 04th, 2016. Then on January 17th, 2016 our Department was dramatically affected by the tragic shooting death of Officer Thomas Cottrell Jr. Our small Department could have easily dissolved but through the support and prayers of everyone we continue to slowly recover. The Department has a strengthened commitment to provide the best police protection to our community. We are a dedicated force to all we serve and will continue to do our best to earn your respect and honor. This yearly report is to inform you of statistics and enlighten you as to notable changes in 2016. In 2016, K-9 Officer Lasko was officially retired after 10 plus years of service. K-9 Officer TC joined the Department with the certification of K-9 handler Sgt. Lishness. K-9 Officer Diesel was sworn to serve with myself as his handler. Officers Mark Perkins and Joshua Abshire joined the Department and with the certification of Officer Perkins, K-9 Officer Rezza joined as his partner. With the assistance of the Columbus Police Dept. Mounted Unit and the Ohio State University Mounted Unit, Corporal Lisa Lyons helped to form our first Mounted Police Unit which consists of Corporal Lyons, Officer Kevin Henthorn and the two horses “Casino” and “Levi”. The Mounted Patrol will be used for parades, special events, and community outreach. Additionally we intend to initiate a Mounted Search and Rescue Team. We purchased a new police cruiser equipped with fresh graphics that are now displayed on all three cruisers. Our Department replaced the outdated computers and the phone system in our office. The new phone system allows the public to make direct contact with an officer or leave a message to any officer as needed. In addition, we managed to update and replace our uniforms. All units received additional training and/or “specialized” training which enhances the officer(s) with additional skills and knowledge in the performance of their duties. Looking forward to 2017 and beyond, I would like to assure the Community that the Danville Police Department will continue to provide the best service possible. We work for you, the people. We will strive to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, the laws of the State of Ohio and the Village of Danville. We will not be influenced by anything, anyone, any agencies or organizations who attempt to hinder the performance of our duties as your Police Department. We plan to continue educating and equipping the department in order to provide the best possible service to our community. Continued dialogue with our citizens will help to educate and inform each one of you to the many dangers and types of crime that could possibly affect our community. It is our goal to establish a program that will allow officers more one- on- one time with our youth in the schools and in our churches. This program will be created in the memory of our fallen brother, Officer Cottrell. Danville is not immune to the impact of illegal drug use. Many people in our community have been affected in some way by the increased drug abuse issues. In 2017, a top priority of our Police Department will be combating the illegal drugs infiltrating our community. Many additional crimes can be alleviated with the eradication of the illegal drugs. We will continue to build community relations by educating the public on protecting themselves and their property from criminal acts. Our police department’s office is extremely small, which creates many issues. We are investigating different options for expanding our departmental offices. The goal is to remodel or possibly build a new structure in the future. Danville Police Department Front L-R Cpl. Kevin Henthorn - Sgt. Lisa Lyons - Ofc. Josh Abshire Rear L-R Lt. Mark Perkins - Chief Daniel Weckesser - Sgt. Chad Lishness (no longer w/dept) K-9 Teams Chief of Police Daniel Weckesser & Diesel Lieutenant Mark Perkins & Rezza Officer John Cox & TC Officer John Cox and T.C. were certified in narcotic detection and patrol on 11/2/2017. A special thanks to Mansfield Police Department Police Chief Kenneth Coontz and Sergeant Sarah Mosier for training and certifying John and TC. TC is a great dog and I’m am very happy that TC is back on the street serving our great citizens. Chief Daniel J. Weckesser Unit-371 Horse Patrol Team Corporal Kevin Henthorn & Levi - Sergeant Lisa Lyons & Casino In Memory of Officer Thomas Cottrell Officer Cottrell was shot and killed while on duty late Sunday evening January 17, 2016. We salute our fallen brother. On behalf of myself and the Danville Police Department, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude and heartfelt thanks to everyone for their support during this tragic time. Over the past few weeks, the display of support from not only local communities but nationwide has been overwhelming. Words cannot express how much it has meant to me and my fellow officers who serve this department. We have seen and felt the brotherhood of respect, caring and concern from all law enforcement agencies and first responders. Many sincere condolences have poured in from beyond our small village and your kind words and generosity are very much appreciated.The continued outreach of concern and support for Officer Cottrell’s family through personal giving, volunteering, and honoring him through social media and prayers, have left us without words to truly express our deepest gratitude.Thank you to all agencies involved that coordinated a truly impressive memorial service for Officer Cottrell. We are so grateful for all your assistance. Please continue to remember Officer Cottrell’s family in your hearts and prayers as the void now left in their lives is unimaginable. May God bless and comfort them in their loss. Many thanks to all. Police Chief Daniel Weckesser Sergeant Chad Lishness Corporal Lisa Lyons Officer Kevin Henthorn Officer Rusty Dreher Chief Monte Vance (retired) October 12, 2017 at the Ohio Attorney General's Law Enforcement Conference Sgt. Lisa Lyons and Cpl. Kevin Henthorne accepted on the behalf of the Danville Police Department a Memorial Plaque from Ohio's Attorney General Mike DeWine which was given on the behalf of the State of Ohio and Ohio's Law Enforcement honoring the memory of our fallen comrade Thomas W. Cottrell Jr. Unit-373 ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Chief Dan Weckesser and Patrolman Matt Jones (MVPD) at Washington DC Memorial Week May 15, 2017 honoring our fallen brothers and sisters in blue. Chief Dan representing Danville PD in honor of Officer Tom Cottrell. EOW: January 17, 2016 ________________________________________________________________________________________ Ohio Fallen Officers' Memorial Wall at the Ohio Police Officers' Training Academy London, Ohio - May 04, 2017 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Tuesday February 21, 2017 a plaque honoring Officer's Thomas Cottrell's service to the Danville Community was mounted on the outside wall of the Police Station near where the End of Watch came for our brother. A blue light illuminates the plaque. On Monday, Jan. 23, 2017 Central Ohio Technical College ‘COTC’ dedicated a permanent memorial on the Newark campus to honor alumni and current students of the Institute for Public Services and Safety who are killed in the line of duty. Danville Police Department’s Officer Thomas W. Cottrell Jr. is the first name permanently added to that memorial. Officer Cottrell was a graduate of COTC. Thank you to the Eastern Knox County Joint Fire District for presenting to our Department this stone in memory of our fallen brother, Thomas Cottrell. Memorial sign erected at entrance on Route 62 at both ends of the Village __________________________________________________________________________________________ Pictured L-R Officer Mark Perkins, Tanya Rayburn, Officer Josh Abshire & Sgt. Chad Lishness LONDON — Thursday’s ceremony to honor Ohio peace officers who died in the line of duty in 2015 held a close focus on three officers, but the village of Danville and the family of Thomas Cottrell were woven into the fabric of the ceremony. The ceremony opened as family members walked through the memorial, past the eternal flame. This included Tanya Rayburn, Cottrell’s life partner, and his daughters, Courtney, Brooklyn and Alycia. His mother, Melissa Osborn, was also in attendance. Cottrell will be recognized in the 2017 ceremony when his name will be revealed on the memorial wall. The Danville Police Department, represented by Sgt. Chad Lishness and officers Josh Abshire and Mark Perkins, participated in a motorcade that traveled from the Fraternal Order of Police offices in downtown Columbus to the training academy in London prior to the ceremony. Read more: Ceremony impact felt locally — Mount Vernon News – Mount Vernon, Ohio http://mountvernonnews.com/story/2016/05/06/ceremony-impact-felt-locally/#ixzz47ujKbLBA Danville Police Department was honored to attend the 2016 Law Enforcement Memorial service held May 18, 2016 in Millersburg, Ohio. Officer Tom Cottrell was among the local area fallen officers and K9 Officers that were remembered and honored. Many thanks to Holmes County Sheriff's Office and the Millersburg Police Department for all your support. We appreciate all our fellow police officers, EMS, and firefighters past, present and future. On August 27th and September 24th 2016, volleyball teams of Centerburg hosted tri-matches involving Varsity, Jr. Varsity and Middle School volleyball teams from Newark, Granville, Big Walnut and Danville Schools. The Centerburg teams hosted this event for the purpose of raising money thuough sales of 'Back the Blue' t-shirts and the money earned from the t-shirt sales will be donated to the Centerburg Deputies and the Danville Police Department. Representing the Danville Police Department and holding a photo of fallen officer Thomas Cottrell is Officer Kevin Henthorne and Cpl. Lisa Lyons. On May, 10, 2016, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office recognized four officers for their actions that resulted in the capture of Herschel Jones III on January 18, 2016. Officers were investigating the shooting death of Danville Police Officer Thomas Cottrell. Jones fled a residence on East Washington Street in Danville and after a foot chase, was arrested a short distance away near the football field. Sheriff David Shaffer presented the Office Citation award to Deputies Kevin Durbin, Lee Eppich, Brandon Minot, and Danville Chief Dan Weckesser (left). The award is for outstanding performance of a difficult task, involving personal risk to the officer’s safety and because of their actions the perpetrator was apprehended. The Danville Youth Baseball Association celebrated opening day Saturday April 30th 2016 with a trubute to our fallen brother. Thank you to all who came out and endured the rain and cold. It was a very nice tribute to Officer Thomas Cottrell. We are blessed with the community support everyone shows for DPD. Officer Mark Perkins and Tanya caught the opening pitch. Chief Weckesser showed his batting form along with Officer Lyons. [Left to Right] Juskie DeVore, Brittany Coon, Kristin Miller, Steve Oster, Chief of Police Daniel Weckesser, Sargent Chad Lishness, K9 Officer T.C., Corporal Lisa Lyons, David Stumbo. Knox County Board of Developmental Disabilities presented a $5,100 check to the Danville Police Department in support of the K9 division. The donation is a result of the "Imagine the Possibilities 5K/1 Mile fundraising walk/run hosted this past August 2016. K-9 'Diesel' was officially sworn in as DPD's newest officer on Aug. 01st. 2016. Diesel is a 2 1/2 yr old Belgian Malanois and is certified in narcotic detection, tracking persons and criminal apprehension. Diesel's handler is Chief of Police Daniel J. Weckesser. Both are State of Ohio K-9 certified. Chief Weckesser and his staff want to thank all the businesses and individuals of Danville, Knox County and outside Knox County who gave contributions in making it possible to purchase Diesel and pay for the required training to be State of Ohio certified. 2016 Memorial Day Parade Cpl. Lisa Lyons holding check received from Troop 2760 to help purchase new K-9. A big thank you to Troop 2760 for your donation of $1,500! Mayor Robert L. Dile administers Oath of Office to two of DPD newest officers on Feb 12, 2016. Left to right: Officer Josh Abshire, Officer Mark Perkins, Mayor Dile. October 2016 DPD reveals its new cruiser graphics. Mayor Robert L. Dile appointed Daniel J. Weckesser as the Department's new Chief of Police January 04, 2016 “I’m excited. Hopefully, I will do what needs to be done,” Chief Weckesser said. “I will do the best I can for the community and try to make the place safer for everybody who lives here.”Daniel J. Weckesser was born in Orrville, Ohio then lived in Minnesota for 10 years before his family moved to the Danville area. The 1983 graduate of Danville High School started his career in law enforcement as an auxiliary officer for the Danville Police Department in 2003. In 2006, he was hired as a part-time officer. Chief Weckesser became a fulltime officer in 2009, getting promoted to sergeant in 2011 and to lieutenant in 2014. Chief Weckesser is the Department's K9 officer, working with Lasko for the last six years. He is also an ALICE instructor and certified as a Crisis Intervention Technician. Retired Officers Chief of Police Monte L. Vance Retired 10/31/2015 Chief Vance started his career in law enforcement as a Knox County Special Deputy in 1982 for the Knox County Sheriff's Department and was hired as patrol officer for Danville Police September 1984. Chief Vance rose to the rank of Police Sergeant and then Police Captain and was appointed Chief of Police in July 1999. Chief Vance will continue to be a commissioned officer with the department in our auxiliary division. Our Prayer When we start our tour of service, God wherever crime may be, as we patrol these streets alone; may we be close to thee. Please give us understanding with both young and old, let us listen with attention; until their story is told. Let us never make a judgment in an inconsiderate or callous way, please help us hold our patience; let each one have their say. Lord, if some dark and dreary night one of us must give our life, Lord, with Your everlasting love; protect the loved ones in our life. Amen. DEPARTMENT MISSION STATEMENT The Mission of the Danville Police Department is to protect lives and property, safeguard our citizens rights and liberties, deter and reduce crime and increase safety by providing quality public service and professional and responsibly aggressive law enforcement services in partnership with our community. Danville Police Department is going to be a highly aggressive pro-active police department. Chief Daniel John Weckesser Unit-371 The department's dispatch number is 740-397-3333. The department's office number is 740-599-6888. In case of EMERGENCY call 911. Do you have information to pass on that may lead to solving a local crime or information on crimes being commited in your neighborhood that needs to come to the attention of the police department or have information of drug activity or any other type of illegal activity in your neighborhood, You can either call or email Police Chief Daniel J. Weckesser (email) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. All tips and or information will be considered as confidential. • Danville Neighborhood Watch Like us on Facebook: • Facebook ||||| Play Facebook Twitter Embed Ohio Police Officer Found Dead With Gun and Cruiser Missing 0:50 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog A police officer was found dead in Ohio with his gun and cruiser missing, authorities said early Monday. The Ohio State Highway Patrol had deployed extra units and aviation resources after the Danville officer was reported missing and possibly wounded late Sunday. Related: Gunned Down in America: When Cops Are the Victims Officer Thomas Cottrell was found dead without his service weapon or cruiser just before midnight, according to the Knox County Sheriff's department. It said dispatchers had received a tip-off from a female caller that Danville cops "were in danger" because her ex-boyfriend Herschel Jones had "left with weapons and was looking to kill an officer." Dispatchers tried to reach the officer but were unsuccessful, the sheriff's office added. Sheriff's deputies searched the village of Danville and found Cottrell's body behind a municipal building 27 minutes after the initial call. The officer had been shot dead, according to NBC station WCMH. Jones was taken into custody following a "foot chase" at around 1:36 a.m. after he was seen "running from a residence," the sheriff's office said. Herschel Jones III. Knox County Sheriff's Office It was not immediately clear if Jones had been charged with any crime or if Cottrell's weapon and cruiser had been recovered. Jones has a lengthy criminal record and has tried to claim he was legally insane in one case. According to Knox County court records, he was charged in several cases with breaking and entering, burglary, receiving stolen property and carrying a concealed weapon. He pleaded not guilty to a 2011 case by reason of insanity, but later changed his plea to guilty. Jones served nearly four years in prison according to Ohio prison records, after he was convicted in 2011 for receiving stolen property and illegal possession of chemicals. He was released in April 2015. Cottrell was one of six officers in the Danville Police Department, according to the force's website. Prayers for Ohio's first fallen officer for 2016 a Danville PD Officer was shot/killed this evening in Knox County. pic.twitter.com/s0gW5nKYqS -Chief Jim Gilbert (@CHIEFGILBERT1) January 18, 2016 Jay McDonald, President of Ohio's Fraternal Order of Police said in a statement Monday morning that the organization was "devastated" by Cottrell's death. "His assassination is the latest reminder of how dangerous police work is and how the police are targeted for violence. The 25,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio will never forget that Officer Cottrell gave his life in the service of others," McDonald said. ||||| Notice You must log in to continue. ||||| A man with a long criminal record who'd reportedly planned to target cops was arrested Monday in the shooting death of an Ohio police officer. Danville Officer Thomas Cottrell was gunned down shortly before midnight behind the Danville Municipal Building, Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer said. His service weapon and cruiser were missing. Cottrell's cruiser was later found approximately half a mile from his body. The suspected gunman, Herschel Ray Jones III, was taken into custody around 1:30 a.m. after he briefly ran from officers. Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville says he expects Jones to face a murder charge, but it's not clear how soon it would be filed. Court records show Jones, 32, has multiple convictions dating back to 2001 for breaking and entering, burglary, receiving stolen property and carrying a concealed weapon. In a 2011 case, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity before changing his plea to guilty. Ohio prison records show he served nearly four years for the 2011 convictions of receiving stolen property and possession of chemicals for manufacture of drugs. He was released last April. Shaffer said authorities received a call at approximately 11:20 p.m. from a woman saying police officers in Danville were in danger, and her ex-boyfriend, Jones, had weapons and was looking to kill an officer. Shaffer said dispatchers tried to make contact with Cottrell, but were unable to do so. That prompted the Knox County Sheriff's Office to search the village. Franklin County Sheriff Chief Deputy Jim Gilbert confirmed the officer's death on social media. Prayers for Ohio's first fallen officer for 2016 a Danville PD Officer was shot/killed this evening in Knox County. pic.twitter.com/s0gW5nKYqS — Chief Jim Gilbert (@CHIEFGILBERT1) January 18, 2016 The president of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police called Cottrell's killing an assassination. "We ask all Ohioans to pray for peace and healing for Officer Cottrell's family, friends and co-workers," Jay McDonald said in a written statement. "His assassination is the latest reminder of how dangerous police work is and how the police are targeted for violence," McDonald said. The village of Danville, which has a population of around 1,000 people, is located 60 miles northeast of Columbus. Calls to numbers listed to Jones or family members in Knox County rang answered or were not in service Monday. An autopsy on Cottrell was expected for Tuesday. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

– An Ohio man with a long rap sheet was taken into custody early Monday after a Danville cop was found shot dead and his police cruiser and gun missing, NBC News reports. Officer Thomas Cottrell was on duty late Sunday when a disturbing call came into the Knox County dispatch center around 11:20pm, per WCMH: A woman told dispatchers her ex had left with weapons and was looking to kill a police officer. After trying to contact Cottrell by radio, sheriff's officers went out in search of him, first finding Cottrell's bloody hat, per WBNS—and then his body, just before midnight behind a municipal building. Cottrell, one of six officers in the tiny Danville PD, had been shot to death, and his body was found without his gun or cruiser. The cruiser was later found a half-mile away, reports Fox News. Herschel Jones was seen sprinting from a residence about an hour and a half later and was briefly pursued by cops on foot and taken into custody. Per CBS News, Jones has been named the prime suspect in the killing, but it's unclear whether Jones—charged previously for breaking and entering, burglary, and carrying a concealed weapon, among other infractions—has been charged, NBC notes. He was jailed for four years after a 2011 conviction for receiving stolen property and illegal possession of chemicals. Meanwhile, Danville mourns one of its men in blue. "[Our] members … are heartbroken this morning as we learn about the tragic murder of Officer Thomas Cottrell," reads a Monday morning post on the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio's Facebook page. "His assassination is the latest reminder of how dangerous police work is and how the police are targeted for violence." (This case sounds nothing like a recent police shooting in Illinois.)

A woman in China has been slammed online after she prevented firefighters from breaking the window of her luxury car in order to rescue her trapped three-year-old son. China's state broadcaster CCTV reported that the incident, which occurred in the city of Yiwu in Zhejiang province last Saturday (July 11), triggered an outpouring of anger on social media. Large crowds had gathered after hearing the boy's cries of help coming from within the BMW, but were surprised to find his unperturbed mother standing outside the car. With the boy growing visibly weaker as he clawed in vain against the car window, firefighters attempted to break the window but were stopped by the mother. An eyewitness said the mother insisted that they wait for a locksmith to unlock the car door as she did not want to damage the car. But the firefighters ignored her and ended up smashing the window to rescue her son. "It is very dangerous to leave kids inside the car, especially in such heat," one firefighter was quoted as saying. "The temperature inside the car can soar in a very short time and threaten the child's life." Netizens expressed shock and disgust at the woman's actions. One wrote sarcastically: "Looks like the car window is her real son." ||||| BMW logos are displayed on a production line in Berlin. Reuters This post has been updated since it was first published. See note below. China’s Internet has lit up with debate this week after reports of a mother who left her young son alone in her BMW – then refused to smash the luxury car’s windows in order to rescue him from the heat. The mother, who has not been named in Chinese news reports, has since denied that she opposed smashing the window and says that she tried to break it herself, to no avail. Advertisement The incident took place last Saturday night, when firefighters in the city of Yiwu in coastal Zhejiang province received a call alerting them that a child was locked inside a BMW, according to the Zhejiang Online provincial news site. When the firefighters arrived, they found a young boy sitting in the driver’s seat of the car, crying and prying at the glass, the report said, citing one of the rescuers. The child had already been trapped in the car for about an hour, it said, and two locksmiths were already at work trying to open the door, while a large crowd was gathered around watching. According to Zhejiang Online, the firefighters began to negotiate with the child’s mother, who urged them to wait for the locksmiths to open the door. After several minutes they were still unsuccessful, and the crowd began to condemn the mother. Finally, the report said, the firefighters insisted on smashing the glass, saving the frightened child. Days after the initial report, the mother told the Qianjiang Evening News that the incident had been misunderstood. In an interview published Wednesday, she said that she had tried to break the window using a stone and hammer, and then called the police after her efforts failed. She maintained that she had hoped the locksmiths could open the door as the breaking glass could frighten or injure her 17-month-old son trapped inside. The Hangzhou-based newspaper also quoted a firefighter who defended the mother and said the confusion could have arisen because she “didn’t say anything” when he initially asked for permission to break the window. Photos posted online by the website showed large crowds of onlookers blocking a main street as they gathered around a fire engine and the black luxury car. On China’s Weibo microblogs – where reports of the incident had received more than 7.6 million views as of Thursday afternoon – users responded with fury to the initial report, with many arguing that the mother’s behavior was an example of values gone awry in modern China. “It’s clear that for this mother, a car is more important than her child,” one Weibo user wrote. “Leaving a child trapped in a car on such a hot summer day, and then refusing to smash the window? Do you really want your child to suffocate?” wrote another. Remarked another: “If you encounter this kind of situation, the answer is simple: First smash up the parents, then smash the glass.” After the mother’s defense, however, some users directed their rage at the media, arguing that the tale was only the latest case of a news story being blown out of proportion. “Some journalists know that ‘Dog Bites Man’ isn’t really news, so they try to rewrite it as ‘Man Bites Dog,’” one Weibo user wrote Thursday morning. “In the end they just cause a big stir.” China has experienced dazzling economic growth in recent years, and with it has come soul-searching over whether public values have now shifted toward the pursuit of material wealth at any cost. Owners of glitzy cars have become a particular scourge, with 80% of respondents in a Hurun Research Institute survey last year saying that they had heard negative news reports involving drivers of luxury vehicles. 70% of the bad publicity was related to BMW owners, the survey said. –Felicia Sonmez. Follow her on Twitter @feliciasonmez. (Note: This post has been updated to include comments from the mother and local rescuers in news reports published Wednesday, and subsequent reactions among social media users.) Sign up for CRT’s daily newsletter to get the latest headlines by email. For the latest news and analysis, follow @ChinaRealTime ||||| Chinese drivers of BMW cars are seen as newly rich, materialistic showoffs by drivers of other luxury brands. Yet such owners consider themselves relatively discreet entrepreneurs with a positive outlook on life. That’s just one of the findings of a survey of luxury car owners in China published Wednesday. The survey, conducted by wealth research firm Hurun Research Institute, compared the images of eight foreign luxury brands vying for a spot in the country’s luxury car market, which is widely expected to overtake the U.S. to become the world’s biggest in the next few years. But an anticorruption drive by the Chinese government is changing how those living the high life are perceived by a Chinese public that increasingly frowns on ostentatious displays of wealth. According to the report, 80% of all respondents had heard negative news about luxury car owners, which in years past have included a famous 2011 incident in which one BMW owner, son of a famous military singer, attacked a couple during a road rage episode. Of the bad publicity, 70% was related to BMW owners. The survey didn’t list similar statistics for other brands. BMW didn’t respond to requests for comment Wednesday. One hundred car owners for each of the eight brands were surveyed in selected cities across China between February and October. Respondents, of which three-quarters were male, had an average age of 33.5 years and average family income of just over 1 million yuan, or around $175,000. The survey found that Audi has the most clearly defined image of all brands, with owners seen as mature, experienced government officials. For some prospective luxury car buyers this can translate into, well, kind of boring. Audi says the days of its brand being closely associated with Chinese bureaucrats have passed and that its image has undergone a transformation toward more vitality. Of the leading three German brands that dominate China’s market, the self-image of those who drive Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz aligns very closely with how drivers of other luxury cars perceive them—namely, as successful, cultured entrepreneurs. For what it’s worth, Mercedes drivers also had the highest income among participants. The image of more recent entrants into China’s luxury car market is also becoming more defined. Jaguar Land Rover’s sport-utility drivers are seen as young showoffs with new money, the survey found. Land Rover owners had the lowest level of education among survey participants. JLR said Land Rover caters to a broad range of customers in China with diverse backgrounds. General Motor’s Cadillac drivers were seen as mature and successful (so much for that young, trendy image GM has been spending heavily to cultivate for the brand—from hiring actor Brad Pitt for advertising campaigns to hosting glamorous launch parties on Shanghai’s iconic Bund and sponsoring funky art installations.) Infiniti drivers were seen as glitzy, glamorous movie-star types whom China Real Time reckons probably need to wait tables by day–Infiniti owners had the lowest income among those surveyed. Infiniti said it targets young-minded premium customers. As for Volvo? Drivers of the Chinese-owned Swedish brand are seen as—yawn–highly educated, valuable members of society who are family-oriented and morally upright. –Rose Yu and Colum Murphy Note: This item has been updated to reflect comment from Jaguar Land Rover. _____________________________________ Also popular on China Real Time now: China’s Over-Reliance on Guaranteed Loans, in 3 Charts As China Cracks Down on Illegal Videos, Lovers of Foreign TV Mourn

– A mother in China is getting a social-media lashing after her young son became trapped in her BMW and she reportedly wouldn't let rescuers smash the car's windows to save him, the Wall Street Journal reports. Per local media, firefighters responding to a call of a child locked in a car Saturday in the city of Yiwu found the boy—IDed as 17 months old, though the Straits Times says he's 3—"sitting in the driver's seat of the car, crying and prying at the glass," the Journal notes. Locksmiths were already trying to open the door to save the boy, who had reportedly been trapped by that point for about an hour. But as the boy's condition appeared to worsen, firefighters mentioned breaking the windows, and a witness tells the Straits Times the boy's mom balked at that idea, pleading with firefighters to let the locksmiths keep trying instead. The firefighters, however, opted to smash the window and retrieve the child. Comments on China's Weibo site were not kind. "Looks like the car window is her real son," one user posted, per the Straits Times, while the Journal cites another commenter saying, "The answer is simple: First smash up the parents, then smash the glass." The outrage may also be tied to deep-seated biases against drivers of luxury cars in China: According to a survey last year, "Chinese drivers of BMW cars are seen as newly rich, materialistic showoffs by drivers of other luxury brands," the Journal notes. The mom has since told local media that she tried to break the window herself and that she simply didn't want the breaking glass to scare or hurt her child. And not everyone's blaming her. "Some journalists know that 'Dog Bites Man' isn't really news, so they try to rewrite it as 'Man Bites Dog,'" one Weibo user wrote this morning. (A mom reportedly left her kids in a hot car while in court for the same crime.)

When Salman bin Abdulaziz became Saudi Arabia’s king two years ago, the country’s leadership appeared little different from how it had been for decades. The ruler and his designated successor were two of the country founder’s dozens of sons, a fractious fraternity that passed along power in an unbroken chain of conservative rule. No longer. Modernity has walloped Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most ossified societies, and today it is struggling to maintain the economic and political power it built on giant crude-oil reserves. ... ||||| As the new heir apparent to the throne of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed bin Salman will play an even more influential role in world oil markets at a time when big crude-producing nations are struggling to prop up prices. Prince Mohammed, who was named crown prince on Wednesday, has upended the traditional Saudi energy model in the nearly two and a half years since his father ascended the throne. Whereas the royal family had previously been content to leave the running of the oil industry to seasoned technocrats, the prince has sought to exert influence over the country’s huge energy resources. With the kingdom’s economy suffering from weakened oil markets, Saudi Arabia, with the prince’s backing, has been a leading force behind the effort by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to bolster prices by limiting production. It is a complicated task with prices continuing to fall, as American shale oil producers and Libya add to the glut of supplies. Domestically, Prince Mohammed has sought to consolidate control over the energy sector. He has brought in Wall Street bankers to organize an initial public offering of the national oil company, Saudi Aramco, which is likely to value the enterprise at hundreds of billions of dollars. And he has replaced the country’s longtime oil minister, replacing him with a more pliant hand who has become crucial to fulfilling the prince’s plans. ||||| King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud's decision to remove Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and promote his favorite son, Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman, has been long anticipated. It raises profound questions about the future stability of America's oldest ally in the Middle East. The king has now twice removed the sitting crown prince, a heretofore unprecedented move in the kingdom. Two years ago, Salman deposed his half-brother Prince Muqrin with no explanation and promoted Mohammed bin Nayef. The latest move puts Mohammed bin Salman, 31, next in line for the throne. For over half a century, the line of succession in the kingdom moved laterally among the sons of the founder of the modern kingdom, King Abdul-Aziz. This process produced stable, legitimate and predictable outcomes, but its end was inevitable. By removing Muqrin, King Salman accelerated the moment of truth. Now he has skipped a generation in the succession process and gone to the grandsons of Ibn Saud. The royal court has announced that a majority (31 of 34) of the living descendants of Ibn Saud (the members of the Allegiance Council) approved the change. Mohammed bin Nayef has been the powerful interior minister for a decade, overseeing a million-man bureaucracy that ruthlessly fought both terrorism and dissent. The "deep state" was his power base but Mohammed bin Nayef has seen his role steadily diminished by the king. Salman revoked the ministry's power to prosecute just days ago. Mohammed bin Nayef's health has also been a question since he survived an assassination attempt by al-Qaeda in 2009. He was so depressed that he spent over a month sulking in Algeria a year ago, neglecting his duties. The king's health is also in question. At 81, he has kept a busy schedule so far this year, traveling for a month in Asia, attending the Arab summit in Amman and hosting the US president and 50 Muslim leaders for a summit in Riyadh. He suffers from pre-dementia, however, and often takes lengthy vacations. Mohammed bin Salman is Saudi-educated, ambitious and popular with young Saudis. He enjoys public attention and cultivates his image in the Western media. He has positioned himself as a reformer who wants to reduce the kingdom's dependence on oil income. He is the author of Saudi Vision 2030, which promises economic reforms like opening the national oil company Aramco to limited outside investment. He has also promoted popular cultural changes like allowing concerts and other entertainment events, arousing muted criticism from the powerful religious establishment. Mohammed bin Salman's signature policy initiative is the 2½-year-old war in Yemen, as its architect. The war is a disaster for the kingdom, the region and especially the Yemeni people. Instead of a quick and decisive victory, the Saudis have only achieved stalemate and quagmire. The Saudi military has proven incapable of defeating a much less equipped Yemeni enemy. The Houthi rebels and their ally former President Ali Abdullah Saleh are still in control of the capital and most of northern Yemen. They have destroyed many Saudi villages along the border and fired missiles at Saudi cities. Their ally Iran enjoys watching the Saudis spend billions in a war against the poorest country in the Arab world. The war has undercut the kingdom's traditional alliances. Pakistan refused repeated requests to send troops to fight the Houthis. Oman opted to stay out of it. Egypt provides only token assistance. For Yemenis, the war has brought mass starvation. Cholera has broken out. A child dies every 10 minutes as a consequence of the war, and 7 million people are at acute risk. The United Nations has called the crisis the worst humanitarian disaster since 1945. Saudi diplomacy also created a crisis in the Gulf Cooperation Council by trying to isolate Qatar after the Riyadh summit. The move has ruptured the traditional Saudi alliance structure. Turkey has come to Qatar's support and Iran is posturing as Qatar's ally, while Pakistan and Oman are again neutral. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy and theocracy. The king has complete authority and control. His choice of his favorite son is likely to provoke quiet muttering and complaining in the family and the clerical establishment, but not a challenge. The longer-term costs of upsetting the legitimacy of the line of succession in the midst of low oil prices and regional tensions are much more worrisome. The young prince is poised to inherit a kingdom under stress at home and abroad. ||||| FILE- In this Nov. 11, 2015 file photo, Saudi Arabian Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a summit of Arab and Latin American leaders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia's King Salman has... (Associated Press) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — He is known as MBS and his rise through Saudi Arabia's corridors of power has been shockingly swift. At age 31, Mohammed bin Salman already controlled the kingdom's defense policy and was overseeing a massive internal economic overhaul with the backing of his father, King Salman. His sudden appointment Wednesday to the position of crown prince places him as first in line to the throne, cementing his position as the driving force behind Saudi Arabia's major moves and seemingly charting Saudi policy for the coming decades. He is regarded as a bold and ambitious risk taker. Even before the royal decree was issued by the king, MBS's plans have resulted in a dramatic shake up of a once predictable and slow-moving country that for decades lagged behind its Gulf Arab neighbors, like Dubai with its glistening skyscrapers and tourist attractions. In the two-and-a-half years since his father was crowned king, MBS has managed to sweep aside any competition from princes who are older and more experienced than him, most notably his cousin Prince Mohammed bin Nayef who had been in line to inherit the throne. Khaled Batarfi, a Saudi columnist and professor at King Faisal University, is among those who support MBS' ascension. "The current situation requires a lot of effort and quick decision-making and courage," he said. "The past generation may not be as quick rhythmically or have the speed that's needed to carry out a transformation." "The country needs new blood and a new generation because the changes needed are big," Batarfi said. A snapshot of the crown prince's many titles reveals just how vast his portfolio is. He is also defense minister; deputy prime minister; chair of the Supreme Economic Council; head of a council overseeing the state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco; head of the Public Investment Fund; and a top member of the Council of Political and Security Affairs. A little more than two years ago, MBS was a little-known figure in Saudi Arabia. He served as the head of his father's royal court when Salman was still crown prince. Unlike his many siblings, he never studied abroad or pursued a master's degree, choosing instead to remain close to his father and study law at the King Saud University in Riyadh. Within hours of Salman's ascension to the throne, the monarch named his favorite son, MBS, defense minister. Two months later, they led Saudi forces into war in Yemen, becoming the face of a conflict framed in Saudi media as a battle against Shiite-led Iran's ambitions for regional dominance. The war whipped up nationalist fervor around the new king and his son. He would also be in charge of inking multi-billion dollar arms deals with Washington. Domestically, MBS expanded his reach by turning to outside consulting firms to launch a plan to overhaul the kingdom's economy. His goal is to drastically reduce the country's dependence on oil exports after a plunge in prices nearly crippled Saudi Arabia's ability to spend on national projects and foreign efforts. MBS vowed to end Saudi Arabia's "addiction" to oil, and pushed through politically-sensitive austerity measures that curbed spending on subsidies and the public sector — where the majority of Saudis are employed. His Vision 2030 plan and its accompanying National Transformation Plan grabbed international headlines when he announced the country would publicly list a percentage of Saudi Aramco. Social reforms, he's argued, are also needed in order to bring the deeply conservative nation into the 21st Century. MBS has promised amusement parks and more fun for his generation of millennials. For the first time in decades, Saudis can attend musical concerts in the kingdom and the powers of country's feared religious police have been curbed. More than half of the population of Saudi Arabia is under 25-years-old and 70 percent are under 35, representing a large potential consumer market, but also a massive challenge for the government to keep up with job creation and affordable housing. The Vision 2030 plan outlines specific goals, such as reducing the unemployment rate from around 12 percent to 7 percent. And unlike previous Saudi royals in top positions of power, MBS has granted several interviews to Western media outlets. In his most recent television interview, aired in May on Saudi TV, MBS delivered a strong warning to Iran and ruled out any dialogue with officials there. Framing the tensions with Iran in sectarian terms, he said it is Iran's goal "to control the Islamic world" and to spread its Shiite doctrine "We know we are a main target of Iran," Prince Mohammed said, warning that he "will work so that it becomes a battle for them in Iran and not in Saudi Arabia." Madawi Al-Rasheed, an outspoken Saudi critic of the royal family and a professor at the London School of Economics, said MBS' stature as crown prince will mean "continuing repression of the domestic population and being erratic regionally." She said it also further aligns Riyadh with Washington. King Salman dispatched MBS to Washington in March to meet President Donald Trump, a visit that helped lay the groundwork for Trump's historic first overseas visit to Saudi Arabia last month. Al-Rasheed said MBS has effectively ingratiated himself with the new U.S. administration by presenting himself as "a younger version of Trump" by blurring the lines between statesman and businessman. Iran's state TV described the appointment of MBS as a "soft coup in Saudi Arabia". The bitter rivals also back opposite sides of the war in Syria and opposing groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain. Though few of Saud Arabia's allies have publicly critiqued MBS, a German intelligence analysis released by the BND spy agency has cited concern over the kingdom's future, noting that the cautious diplomatic stance of older leaders within the royal family has been replaced by "a new impulsive policy of intervention." ___ Aya Batrawy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ayaelb ||||| Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images King Salman, the current ruler of Saudi Arabia, will be the last son of the country’s founder to hold that position. In a surprise late night message on Saudi state television, it was announced that Salman had replaced his half-brother Muqrin with his nephew, Interior Minister Moahammed Bin Nayef, as crown prince. Salman’s son, Defense Minister Moahammed bin Salman, is now deputy crown prince and second in line for the throne. Joshua Keating Joshua Keating is a staff writer at Slate focusing on international affairs and author of the forthcoming book, Invisible Countries. Saudi Arabia’s succession process doesn’t work quite like any other monarchy’s. The country’s succession law mandates only that the king be a male direct descendent of the first king, Abdulaziz, and gives the king the right to choose his own successor. All six kings since Abdulaziz died in 1953 have been his sons (he had at least 45 of them) in roughly descending age order. This has meant that the last few kings have all been pretty elderly by the time they came into office. With this in mind, Abdullah, the previous king who died in January, created the new position of deputy crown prince last year, naming the youngest brother Muqrin (a sprightly 69) to the position. Advertisement But now, Muqrin is not getting bumped up. By naming Bin Nayef, 55, crown prince, Salman is keeping the crown in his branch of the family—Bin Nayef is the son of one of the king’s full brothers, a powerful group known, after their mother, as the Sudairi seven—and his elevation seems well-timed given recent events. Despite earlier indications of a ceasefire, Saudi Arabia has continued its airstrikes in Yemen this week, targeting the Houthi movement, which the kingdom views as an Iranian proxy. The government also announced this week that it had arrested 93 people with ties to ISIS and had foiled multiple terrorist plots, including a bombing of the U.S. embassy. Bin Nayef is a logical choice for a kingdom on a war footing. As interior minister, he led the country’s crackdown on terrorism. He’s also survived multiple assassination attempts, most notably one in 2009 in which a member of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula who claimed to be trying to defect detonated a bomb hidden in his rectum just feet away from Bin Nayef. (He suffered only minor injuries.) Mohammad bin Salman, the new second-in-line, just 30 years old, is less well known. He was named defense minister only four months ago, but since then has appeared frequently in the Saudi media to discuss the war effort in Yemen. The moves overall indicate a doubling-down on Salman’s hawkish foreign policy, which in addition to the controversial bombing campaign in Yemen has included support for the rebels fighting Assad’s government in Syria. We probably shouldn’t expect any major domestic reforms or a loosening of the country’s harsh religious laws and stifling restrictions on women’s rights, particularly with the country on a war footing for the foreseeable future. There’s little to indicate any of these men are interested in speeding up the glacial pace of reform instituted by Abdullah. ||||| The rise of Mohammed bin Salman continues. The 31-year-old son of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman was designated Wednesday as crown prince, making him next in line to the throne, in a shake-up that was surprising at least in terms of its timing. He replaces Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was stripped of all posts, including interior minister. Prince Mohammed’s rise has captivated investors and oil traders. He has moved to consolidate power rapidly since King Salman took the throne in 2015. Here’s what investors need to know about him. Rapid rise The prince has accumulated substantial influence in a short period. In 2015, he was effectively put in charge of the kingdom’s economy and defense policy. Moreover, he could become one of the youngest kings in recent Saudi history. Read: Meet the prince leading the chart to wean Saudis off oil Incentive for higher oil prices Oil futures UK:LCOQ7 US:CLQ7 showed little outright reaction to the announcement. That’s largely because Prince Mohammed had already consolidated his influence over the country’s oil policy. He is seen as spearheading the planned 2018 initial public offering of the world’s largest oil-and-gas company. The prince has sent shock waves through the market before. In April 2016, he abruptly pulled out of an accord to cut oil output, angering allies and foes alike, noted Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. Saudi Arabia eventually did agree to a deal that saw the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and several major non-OPEC producers agree to production curbs, which were recently extended. Meanwhile, the impending Aramco IPO in 2018 is seen as providing incentive to Saudi Arabia to take whatever action is necessary to support higher oil prices Regional tensions The prince’s promotion won’t do much to soothe tensions in the Middle East. Already serving as defense minister, Salman has spearheaded the country’s military campaign in Yemen, which is aimed at fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels and restoring the country’s deposed president. “Salman is also expected to keep a hard line foreign policy, with military intervention in Yemen, tough policy against Qatar, and a confrontational policy towards Iran,” wrote Robert Yawger, energy futures strategist at Mizuho Americas, in a note. Domestic policy The prince’s biggest ambitions lay on the home front, where he has previously laid out a program known as Vision 2030 that aims to wean the country’s economy off its dependence on oil revenues. The Saudi Aramco IPO is a crucial part of the effort, with proceeds expected to be used to invest in other industries. Such efforts are crucial in light of a young and rapidly growing population that requires a quick pickup in private-sector job creation, economists say. Reforms aimed at improving the regulatory environment are important, but even more crucial “will be realigning the expectations of new generations of Saudi workers to wages more competitive against expatriate labor at home, as well as workers in Asian and European emerging markets also keen to move up the global value chain,” said Tom Rogers, economist at Oxford Economics, in a note. His designation as crown prince could help ensure that his efforts aren’t watered down. So far, investors seem to approve, with Saudi stocks rising 3% in the wake of the announcement. ||||| RBC Capital Markets: Don't bet against the new Saudi Crown Prince 7:17 AM ET Wed, 21 June 2017 | 01:15 Oil market participants were assessing on Wednesday the potential impact upon the world's most traded commodity of the momentous overnight leadership change announced within Saudi Arabia's ruling family. Early Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's King Salman unveiled his decision to relieve 57-year-old Interior Minister Muhammad bin Nayef of his position as crown prince in favor of his 31-year-old son, Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammad bin Salman. Although bin Salman has a reputation for interacting in an impulsive and often abrasive manner, particularly with regard to international relations, Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects, does not anticipate the newly appointed heir to the Saudi throne rushing to reconfigure the country's current strategy for oil. "Even if foreign policy were to remain aggressive, we don't see any change in oil policy yet. If anything, with the initial public offering (IPO) the center stage, the Kingdom needs higher prices," she told CNBC via email on Wednesday, referring to the public listing of Aramco, Saudi's national oil and gas company, planned for 2018. ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s new crown prince and likely next king shares U.S. President Donald Trump’s hawkish view of Iran, but a more confrontational approach toward Tehran carries a risk of escalation in an unstable region, current and former U.S. officials said. FILE PHOTO - Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reacts upon his arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 24, 2015. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo Iran will almost certainly respond to a more aggressive posture by the United States and its chief Sunni Arab ally in battlefields where Riyadh and Tehran are engaged in a regional tussle for influence. Saudi King Salman made his son Mohammed bin Salman next in line to the throne on Wednesday, handing the 31-year-old sweeping powers, in a succession shake-up. Prince Mohammed, widely referred to as “MbS,” has ruled out any dialogue with arch rival Iran and pledged to protect his conservative kingdom from what he called Tehran’s efforts to dominate the Muslim world. In the first meeting between Trump and MbS at the White House in March, the two leaders noted the importance of “confronting Iran’s destabilizing regional activities.” But that could have unintended consequences, said some current and former U.S. administration officials. The greatest danger for the Trump administration, a longtime U.S. government expert on Middle East affairs said, was for the United States to be dragged deeper into the Sunni-Shi’ite conflict playing out across the Middle East, a danger that could be compounded by Trump’s delegation of responsibility for military decisions to the Pentagon. If the administration gives U.S. commanders greater authority to respond to Iranian air and naval provocations in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, things could easily spiral out of control, the official said. U.S.-backed forces fighting in Syria are also in close proximity with Iranian-backed forces supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. U.S. military jets twice this month shot down Iranian-made drones threatening U.S. and coalition forces in southeastern Syria. The United States also supports the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen through refueling, logistics and limited intelligence assistance. “If we were to witness an incident at sea between an Iranian and a U.S. vessel in the Gulf, at a time of immense distrust and zero communication, how likely is it that the confrontation would be defused rather than exacerbated?” said Rob Malley, vice president for policy at the International Crisis Group. “If there’s a more bellicose attitude towards Iran, Iran is likely to respond,” said Malley, a former senior adviser on Middle East affairs under President Barack Obama. Eric Pelofsky, who dealt with Middle East issues at the White House under Obama, said the administration had “labored pretty hard to avoid a direct clash between Saudi Arabia and Iran on the high seas,” in part because it would expand the Yemen conflict and there were questions “about what the outcome of such an encounter might be.” But Luke Coffey, director of the Foreign Policy Center at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, doubted Iran would retaliate in a major way. “Iran has very limited ability or options to retaliate against U.S. forces in the region without suffering an overwhelming U.S. response,” Coffey said. “I think Tehran knows this so they will stick to low-level tactics like harassing U.S. ships in the Gulf. This will be just enough to be annoying but not enough to be considered ‘retaliating,’” he said. CLOSE RELATIONSHIP MbS was the driving force behind the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen against Iran-allied Houthi rebels, launched in March 2015. He also appears to have orchestrated this month’s breach with neighbor Qatar, which was accused by Riyadh and three other Arab states of cozying up to Iran, funding terrorism or fomenting regional instability. Qatar denies the allegations. “There’s a danger that his foreign policy instincts, that do tend to be aggressive, especially toward Iran, but also toward Sunni extremism, might end up distracting from what he wants to get done economically,” said a former Obama administration official, referring to “Vision 2030,” MbS’s signature economic and social reform agenda. Malley, who has met MbS, said his attitude toward Iran “stems from his strongly felt conviction that for too long the kingdom has been a punching bag, a passive witness to Iranian action, true or assumed, in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia’s own eastern province.” “His view is that Saudi Arabia absorbed those blows and now there’s no reason to absorb them anymore,” Malley said. That dovetails neatly with Trump who has said Iran promotes evil and is a key source of funding and support for militant groups. MbS has also developed a close relationship with Trump’s influential son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who at 36 is close in age to him. MbS’s “desire to confront or even defeat Iran has appeal in the White House, where the crown prince has done an admirable job forging a relationship with the Kushners, who are of his generation,” said the U.S. official. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, had dinner with MbS when the U.S. president visited Riyadh last month, the first stop on Trump’s maiden international visit. Another senior administration official told Reuters that while Washington did not have advance warning of MbS’s promotion, it could see it coming. “This is why the president has tried to foster good relations with him,” the official said. ||||| Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today's WorldView newsletter. In the early hours of Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's King Salman elevated his 31-year-old son to be the kingdom's crown prince, replacing the king's 57-year-old nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef. The formal ascension of Mohammed bin Salman establishes the young royal as the most important political figure in the country, given the widespread suggestions that his father is ailing and infirm. Mohammed bin Salman's admirers style him a necessary and energetic promoter of change in a kingdom that needs it. His detractors, though, see him as reckless and impulsive ruler, and they fear his rise will lead only to escalating tensions in the Middle East. The announcement “marks the first time since Saudi Arabia's first ruler, King Abdulaziz ibn Saud, that a Saudi monarch has designated his son rather than a brother as his heir apparent,” my colleagues wrote. “And it's only the second time since the kingdom was founded in 1932 that a grandson of Ibn Saud has been named crown prince, and its potential future king.” Time to update the Saudi royal family tree again: https://t.co/snLmBZuWUd pic.twitter.com/r6qBntEUrz — Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) June 21, 2017 But it shouldn't come as a surprise. Experts and journalists expected King Salman to eventually shove aside Mohammed bin Nayef, a political heavyweight with deep ties to the country's security apparatus, in favor of his son — it was just a question of when. In April, the king reshuffled key government posts and issued decrees seen as part of a bid to strengthen the hand of then-Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman while weakening that of his rival. On Wednesday, more posts were granted to a younger generation of princelings who are thought to be loyal to the new crown prince. “We've seen the shift of power coming for some time, and the steady centralization of power under King Salman and the purview of his son,” Kristin Smith Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf State Institute in Washington, said to my colleagues. Saudi Arabia's King Salman elevated his son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to become crown prince and ousted his nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef, from the royal succession line. Here's what you need to know. (The Washington Post) Despite its various palace rivalries and family grievances, Riyadh is making the transition look smooth and seamless. Footage showed the king's son kissing his cousin's hand in a choreographed ceremony. The new crown prince received oaths of loyalty from his family and members of the public in Mecca on Wednesday night. World leaders congratulated Mohammed bin Salman, including President Trump, who had already met the prince at the White House. The pair spoke during a Wednesday phone call and “discussed the priority of cutting off all support for terrorists.” Trump has been a Saudi cheerleader since entering office, which is welcome news in Riyadh after the latter years of the Obama administration. Relations reached a low ebb then as Washington pursued diplomacy with Iran and seemed to cool on the long-standing Saudi alliance. “MbS's appointment as crown prince should confirm the improved working relationship with Washington after the strains experienced during the Obama administration, chiefly over Iran and the nuclear deal,” wrote Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. But, he warns, “future ties will not necessarily be harmonious.” The new crown prince sits during an allegiance-pledging ceremony on Mecca, June 21. (Bandar Algaloud/Saudi Royal Court via Reuters) Since Mohammed bin Salman assumed greater powers under his father, the Saudis have taken a more aggressive role in the region. The prince is seen as a hard-liner on Iran, the architect of a deadly and controversial Saudi-led intervention in Yemen and one of the main proponents of the Saudi- and Emirati-led effort to isolate Qatar, which has spiraled into a larger regional conflagration. The time may soon come when American and Saudi interests diverge. Recent moves by Riyadh have “ruptured the traditional Saudi alliance structure,” wrote Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution, suggesting that the Saudis' aspirational role at the vanguard of the Sunni Muslim states is under threat. “Turkey has come to Qatar's support and Iran is posturing as Qatar's ally, while Pakistan and Oman are again neutral.” “When father and son came to power after the death of King Abdullah, there was a hope that they could unite Sunnis and provide leadership when it was sorely needed,” wrote David Hearst of the Middle East Eye. “Instead, they may have fragmented and polarized it beyond repair.” The Post's David Ignatius explains why Saudi Arabia is at a historic tipping point --- and why that matters for America. (Adriana Usero/The Washington Post) At home, Mohammed bin Salman has championed the need for change to shake up the country's oil-dependent economy — as well as a broader liberalization of what remains one of the world's most rigidly conservative societies. “I'm young. Seventy percent of our citizens are young,” Mohammed bin Salman said in an interview with The Washington Post's David Ignatius this year, during which he seemed to lament the excesses of the regime's religious police and the advent of extreme religious conservatism in recent decades. “We don’t want to waste our lives in this whirlpool that we were in the past 30 years,” he said. “We want to end this epoch now. We want, as the Saudi people, to enjoy the coming days and concentrate on developing our society and developing ourselves as individuals and families, while retaining our religion and customs.” But critics say the prince's talk has yet to be met by his proverbial walk. Riedel of Brookings offers a gloomy final analysis: “The king has complete authority and control. His choice of his favorite son is likely to provoke quiet muttering and complaining in the family and the clerical establishment, but not a challenge. The longer-term costs of upsetting the legitimacy of the line of succession in the midst of low oil prices and regional tensions are much more worrisome. The young prince is poised to inherit a kingdom under stress at home and abroad.” Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today's WorldView newsletter.

– Quick, name a candidate favored by President Trump who scored a victory this week. Sure, Karen Handel in Georgia and Ralph Norman in South Carolina come to mind, but the New York Times points out another: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. It wasn't an election, of course, but he was named the new successor to the throne in his country, and the Times explains how Mohammed has emerged as an important ally of the Trump administration. One sign: The 31-year-old dined at the home of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump on a visit to DC, then returned the favor by hosting them on their visit to Saudi Arabia. Among other things, he favors a hard line against Iran and is leading the Saudi move to punish Qatar for its purported support of terrorism. Other coverage of the prince: Fast rise: Mohammed effectively assumed control of the nation's economic and defense policies in 2015, the same year his father took the throne, reports MarketWatch. Given that his father is 81, his ascension to crown prince raises the prospect that Saudi Arabia might have a king in the not-too-distant future who would rule for decades. Nickname: He goes by MBS (or MbS), notes the AP in a profile of the "bold and ambitious risk taker." The Washington Post has different adjectives used by detractors: "reckless and impulsive." Changing country: The Wall Street Journal assesses, noting the shakeup comes at a crucial point in modern Saudi history. "Low oil prices and mounting demographic pressures are tearing at the kingdom’s fragile social contract, making change even more urgent and political unity at the top a greater priority." The king's decision to replace his 57-year-old nephew with his son as successor was seen by close observers as inevitable. Risk for US: That he shares Trump's hawkish views on Iran might carry a risk for the US, analysts tell Reuters. Expect the Iran-Saudi Arabia hostility to intensify, which could make it more likely for the US to be "dragged deeper into the Sunni-Shi’ite conflict playing out across the Middle East." Worried: There may be some "quiet muttering" in Saudi Arabia about the the move, but don't expect a challenge because the king's decision is absolute, writes the Brookings Institution's Bruce Riedel at Al-Monitor's Gulf Pulse. "The longer-term costs of upsetting the legitimacy of the line of succession in the midst of low oil prices and regional tensions are much more worrisome," he adds. "The young prince is poised to inherit a kingdom under stress at home and abroad." Oil markets: Traders are taking a leery, wait-and-see approach in regard to the world's biggest oil-producing nation, reports CNBC. Older generations of rulers have let "seasoned technocrats" run the nation's oil industry, notes the New York Times, but Mohammed is expected to exert more control. Unique system: Need a primer on Saudi Arabia's monarchial system? Slate provided one in 2015 when current King Salman took over. Any king must be a male descendant of the first king, Abdulaziz, who died in 1953. That has made for a line of relatively old successors up until now.